Sunday, May 30, 2010

Some News To Share . . .

I am thrilled to announce that I have been asked to join the design team over at Shes A Sassy Lady.  Shelia has a great group of gals on her DT and I am excited to  be a part of that team.  My reveal won't be until sometime in June, but I am looking forward to sharing with you my tips and techniques and invite you into my world of scrapbook layouts.  Please stop by Shes A Sassy Lady and become a follower.
I hope that you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  The sun has finally come out in my neck of the woods, and I am looking forward to spending the afternoon with my family to celebrate my sister's birthday.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Oh The Places You'll Go

I can't believe it is finally Friday.  I took the day off and am thrilled that I have a four day weekend.  My weekend is jammed packed and I hope I will have sometime to get a few layouts done.  I started this layout last weekend and finished it up last night.  Haven't had much spare time this week to scrap.  I have had these pictures of my kids sitting on my desk for weeks.  I love the expressions on their faces.  These pictures were taken back in 1992 on the boardwalk at Sea Isle City, NJ.  I miss those days when they were young.  I had seen a sketch over at Liz Qualman's blog, My Little Sketch Blook and knew as soon as I saw it that it would be perfect for these pictures.

Here is Liz's sketch:
I found this cute artsy paper at Michaels.  It is by Recollections and is called Around the World.  It was on sale for 4 a $1.00 so I bought several pieces.  I cut out a lot of the elements from different papers and added some pop up dots for dimension. The paper reminded me of art work one of my kids might have done when they were younger.  I guess it brought out the inner child in me when working on this layout.  I had a lot of fun adding some stickles and dimensional paint.  All in all, only spent $2.00 on this page. 
I ussed my Cricut cartridge Going Places to cut out the globe, and added some arrows that I stitched with some DMC floss.
I added some dimensioal paint to the airplane and did some faux stitching on all of the clouds.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I Have Some Exciting News To Share!!!

Hey my scrappin friends, have you heard the news?  There's a new scrapbook sketch Challenge Blog, Sketches In Thyme.  Sweet wonderful Kim from Memories in Thyme is the creator behind this new blog. The first sketch challenge will be up on June 3rd, and then every other week there will be a new sketch.  Go check out the blog now, as she will be introducing the Design Team Members daily.  Now I guess you are wondering how I know all of this.  I'm excited to announce that I have been asked to be a member of the Design Team, or I should say a Sketchy Maven.  A maven is a trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass on their knowledge.  I'm so excited to begin this new adventure along with the rest of the talented ladies of Sketches In Thyme. Please take the time to stop by and pick up our challenge badge and add it to your blog.  Spread the good news!  We would love for you to become a follower and join us in our sketch challenges.  I can't wait to share my first layout with you and see what beautiful creations you can make!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

I Made It To The Top 5 For The June Guest Dt At Sketchy Thursdays!

I'm so excited!!! I just checked out the Sketchy Thursdays blog  and my layout Sew Many Memories 
made it to the top five for guest designer for the month of June. I feel so honored to be picked, as there were a total of 75 entries!
Now it is time for the voting to begin.  You have until May 25th to place your vote for your favorite layout. Please stop by their site and vote for me!!   Click here for the top five entries.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sew Many Memories

I was over at my mom's house Tuesday evening looking through some old pictures with her and came across this one of her.  It isn't the greatest of quality, but it made me think back when I was young and what a seamstress my mom was.  Now mind you, when I was a little girl, little girls wore dresses almost all the time.   Boy how times have changed!  My mom would make my sister and I beautiful dresses.  Always full of lace, or smocking, or embroidery or appliqueing.  I can remember one of my favorite dresses had flowers embroidered all along the bottom. Now I know this page has a hodge podge of embellishments on it, but they all symbolize my mom and her sewing.
 I made this layout and entered it  over at Sketchy Thursdays.  The winner will get a spot as the guest designer for the month of June.  Here is their sketch:
I am also entering this over at Practical Scrappers where their current challenge is patterned paper.
I think just about all of the paper I used is October Afternoon, plus a little of Cosmo Cricket.  The beautiful crochet flowers I bought from AnnieDesigns. You should check out her etsy shop, she has some beautiful flowers. The cute little thread, sewing machine, safety pin, scissors  and mannequin are by Maya Road. The chipboard letters SEW are by Pink Paislee.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Happy Campers and a sweet treat!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!  The weather here in Maryland has been beautiful!  Lots of sunshine and a little bit of a breeze!  I have spent the good part of my weekend working outside in my flower beds.  Just can't keep up with those darn weeds!  I have been working on this layout a little bit at a time and just finished it up this morning.  I was looking through some old pictures of my kids and came across these of my son back from 2001 when he was in the scouts.  They had gone on a camping/white water rafting trip.  Gosh they sure do grow up too fast.  I look at these photos and am amazed that he is now 22, turning 23 next month.

 Believe it not not, I am able to enter this in 5 challenges. 
1.  Stuck On You Sketches - Button Challenge
2.  Sketchy Thursday - Sketch Challenge
 3.  The Color Room - Color Palette #6
4.  Butterfly Crafts - May Written Challenge:  red, buttons, brown, banner, ink
5.  Crafty Calendar Challenge - The Great Outdoors
I used Cricut cartridges Straight From The Nest for the banner and Going Places for the compass.
The paper is Bella Blvd. Camped Out, Die Cuts With A View Eco pack, and I don't know who makes the corrugated piece, as I have had it in my stash forever!  I cut out the title on the banner using Quickutz Studio mini alphabet, and campers is Corrugated Kraft Alphas by Jillibean soup, which I inked with some red ink.All of the cute critters I cut from a chipboard border by Colorbok that I had purchased at Michaels a while back.
The cloud is actually made out of wood that I found at Michaels the other day.  I added some machine stitching and some distressing and dark brown ink along the yellow-gold paper.

I also want to take the time to thank Kim over at  Memories In Thyme, and Aaron at Scrappinlilscreativside for passing this blog award to me.
I am to post where I want to be in ten years.  I would like to be right where I am now, hopefully still in good health surrounded by my family and friends.  I can see where is award has definitely made it's rounds in the blog world so instead of passing it on to ten others, I leave it here for anyone that wants to grab it. 
 

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Cherish Memories

I hope that all you moms out there had a great Mothers Day.  I sure did!  I spent the day with my kids, mom and sister.  Family time is so important and I cherish the moments we can all be together.  I really did not have much free time this weekend to work on anything.  I had started this layout Friday evening and finished it last night.  I am so enjoying the pictures my Mom gave me from her childhood. This one in particular I love!  My mom and her two brothers back in 1940, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, Canada.  Again, I love that the photo captures my grandmother's hand writing. Don't you just love the snowman in the picture!
 I so adore the beautiful paper by Webster's Pages!  I based my layout on the current sketch over at
Stuck On U Sketches.  Here is their current sketch by the ever so talented Liz Qualman.
My layout also qualifies for a few more challenges.  The next one is over at the Color Room. Here is their current color palette #5:
Over at Wee Memories #5 their challenge is to use sewing on your project, and over at Practical Scrappers their challenge is to use punches.
I used my Cricut cartridge Home Decor to cut out the title. I punched some circles out and turned them into a border.  The beautiful crochet lace at the bottom I purchased at the Chip Chop Shop
 
I wanted to play on the fur on my mom's jacket and came across a santa suit I had in my stash by Jolees.  I cut off the fur collar and added it to the layout.
I did some stitching with my sewing machine, used my Tim Holtz paper distresses and inked the edges with some chestnut roan ink.
I added some beautiful flowers by Prima which I sprayed with some Glimmer Mist Dazzling Diamonds and inked the white one with some mauve ink.
When all was said and done both of my kids questioned why I was doing layouts with those "old" photos.  I told them that they captured cherished  memories of their Grandmother and her family when she was growing up.  A life quite different and unique from their own life. 

Monday, May 3, 2010

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Now how appropriate is this title for today?  It is Monday and at least here where I live it is raining.  I did this layout for the current Color palette and sketch over at the Color Room, and also for the current challenge over at Scrap A Little where you have to use at least 90% Basc Grey on your layout.

My dog, Zoey loves to be outside.  She hates rainy days and more than that hates Mondays because we all are at work and she is stuck inside.  I used the new Basic Grey line Max and Whiskers for this layout.  I love the colors and think the little critters are so cute.  I cut the tree out using Cricut cartridge Serenade and the grass from a quickutz die.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I Scrap To Capture The Moment . . . Cherish the Memories.

Happy NSD and Saturday to everyone!  I decided to participate in the NSD activities over at Scrapbook.com. They have lots going on and tons of prizes.  Their All Day Challenge is Why I Scrap.  I had these pictures and papers together for a layout and decided to design my layout to coincide with their challenge.  I can't believe how long ago these pictures were taken, 20 years ago.  Jeffrey was such a loving "big" brother to his new little sister Sara.  I based this layout on the current sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays.


I love the rounded scalloped frame which I cut from the Cricut cartridge Straight From The Nest.  I also used Street Sign for part of the title.   I got adventureous with my sewing machine and stitched a grid on the white cardstock.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to mix patterned paper.  I used paper from Sassfrass Lass and Crate Paper.  I had recently purchased some of the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl collection, and when I was looking at the chipboard, I knew I had to incorporate sewing into my layout. I also used some material, which I gathered and then added to the bottom of the layout.
I used my Quickutz Stiletto Skinni Mini alphabet for the wording at the bottom of my layout.  I had also recently purchased some large felt flowers and leaves by Jillibean Soup.  The heart buttons I purchased at Jo-Ann and the others I found in my stash.  Perfect for the button challenge over at Practical Scrappers.
 I have spent almost my whole entire day online.  I've participated in four blog hops and have had a great time. Found a bunch on new inspiring blogs and lots of tutorials!