Nuts About Sketches #263

Yesterday a new sketch was revealed at Nuts About Sketches.  This time it was this fabulous multi photo one pager:

I just love how many spots for photos Shawn puts in her sketches!  And, as further proof of how well these sketches work for me, it took about an hour to put together this layout!  (That's really fast for me, in case you were wondering.)  I flipped the sketch because of the direction people were facing in the the photos- I didn't want anyone staring off the page!  I fussy cut the stockings and lights from patterned paper as borders.  To soften the red patterned paper, I sprayed and splattered it with white and grey mists.  

 This was a fun, quick, and easy page to put together!  Thanks for stopping by!

Materials:
Patterned Paper- Recollections
Stickers- Echo Park
Chipboard- Making Memories
Ink- October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Clear Snap
Pen- Sharpie
Dew Drops- Robin's Nest
Tape- My Mind's Eye
Ribbon- Galena

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 4-28-13

 I know, it's Monday again, but it was a busy weekend and it was beautiful out yesterday so I didn't want to spend time at the computer writing a blog post!

Walking
This is what happens when you go walking down our street with a kite...

Favorite Toy

This guy has started to grab onto things that you place in his hand and bring them to his mouth.  This makes for a pretty humorous shot when the object you place in his hand is the handle of a kite...

Yummy to My Tummy

This guy likes to make a mess of pretty much anything he eats.  Here is is eating a cinnamon roll by wiping all of the frosting off with his fingers.

What I Did This Week
Yes, we had snow AGAIN this week.  Luckily it was really pretty and it melted quickly.  Here is Addy enjoying the one morning that there was enough to sled on.  By afternoon, most of the grass was showing.

Anything

One last snow shot... I HOPE.  As I said, the snow that fell last Sunday into Monday was so wet and sticky and stuck to everything so it made for a beautiful winter wonderland.  Ellie even said the trees looked magical.  :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday and I made this card for her with the 4/21/13 card challenge at My Scraps and More as inspiration.

The challenge was to create a card with several layers and use a brad. Bev, who posed the challenge, made a gate fold card, and so I decided to make one too. I used the same papers (leftover from my May calendar page) and made a card for the "I Feel the Love" project. This month we are making cards for a mother and her four children who lost their husband/father to cancer. This card is for the mother, Debbie. As a mother of four children, I cannot imagine losing my husband and having to raise them on my own.

I used the 4/18/13 Play challenge at MS&M as inspiration for this card. The challenge was to use a doily and pearls on a card. I sprayed my heart doily with October Afternoon Paper Bag mist so that it would match the kraft based patterned paper. I then splattered it with some pink and green mists. Finally, I used some tiny pearls to accent the designs on the doily.

Nuts About Sketches #262- May Calendar page

Happy Monday morning all!  Today there is a new sketch up at Nuts About Sketches and it is a fabulous 2 pager that I used for this month's calendar page.  

I stuck pretty close to the sketch except that I added an extra photo in the place of some of the journaling.

I cut out the little doilies from one of the sheets of patterned paper. I inked their edges and attached them with both regular adhesive as well and foam adhesive for some dimension.  I made leaves out of ribbon by simply cutting small pieces and cutting the end at an angle.

The 4/9 Scrap{Stash} challenge at My Scraps and More is to use stamps, so I stamped the title using some foam stamps.  I then fussy cut it and attached it with foam adhesive.  I made the bodies of the butterflies and the trail for this main one with Liquid Pearls.

Make sure you check out the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog today!  It's my turn to do some praising!  :)
Materials-
Cardstock- American Crafts, Bazzill
Patterned Paper- Pebbles
Ribbon- Stampin Up
Spray Ink- October Afternoon
Mask- Crafter's Workshop
Rubons- Fancy Pants Designs, American Crafts
Button- Jesse James Co.
Gems- Sandylion, EK Success
Canvas- Prima
Ink- American Crafts, Tsukineko
Liquid Pearls- Ranger
Stamps- Making Memories
Pen- Sakura

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 4-21-13

We had a pretty busy week!  We had baptism on Sunday and a couple of outings to the aquarium and the zoo during the week.  Lots of opportunities for photos...

Happiness

I took Will on our "date" for the month.  (My husband and I take turns going out on dates with each of the 3 older children so that they get some one-on-one time with one of us each month.)  We went to the aquarium.  You can walk through a large part of the aquarium in tunnels that run through the water.  Here he is in one of the tunnels looking at fish or sharks swimming overhead.

Spring in Black and White

How about just white?  Yep, another week, another snowstorm.  The good news is that a good part of the ~8 inches we received on Thursday into Friday has already melted.  Now we just hope it stays gone!

Faith or Family

How about both?  I did a little happy dance when I saw this prompt last week because I knew this one would be a piece of cake.  I didn't take this photo (obviously since I am in it), but it fits the bill.

Fuzzy

My parents puppy Pixie.  Today was the first time my kids have met her.  Both of the girls are pretty afraid of dogs, but Will was at least willing to give her a treat from his hand (with some assistance from Grandpa).

Gathering or Provide

I went with gathering for this one.  As in a gathering of fish.  This one is from the aquarium as well.  I thought these fish were kind of eerie, just floating in a big group like this.

SEM April Sketch Challenge- New and Improved!

Yesterday at Scrapping Everyday Miracles a new sketch challenge was posted.  This month we added a card sketch as well as a layout sketch!  Both sketches are from PageMaps, which are fabulous sketches to work with!

I decided to use the card sketch to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law whose birthday was yesterday.  You can check out the sketches here. 

I started with the floral patterned paper as my base and pulled colors from that paper for my other layers.  I didn't have the right color of blue ink to match the background paper, so I stamped the pattern on the green cardstock with Versamark and then rubbed chalk over it.

Our scrap twist this month is to use washi tape on your project.  I have been inspired by the projects I have been seeing lately with woven paper strips and ribbon.  I decided to try the technique with washi tape.  It worked great!  Washi tape isn't super sticky, so you can pull it up when you need to go under it and then stick it back down when you need to go over it.  I wove the tape pieces on green cardstock and then trimmed off the ends.  Finally, I used a border punch along the bottom of the piece for a pretty decorative edge.  

Head over to Scrapping Everyday Miracles and check out what the rest of the team did and try your hand at the sketch as well, there is a great prize up for grabs!

Materials-
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- Chatterbox, Provo Craft
Flowers- Petaloo
Stamp- Stampin Up, Stampendous
Ink- Tsukineko, Ranger
Chalk- Oriental Trading Co.
Tape- Targer- My Mind's Eye
Twine- Pink Paislee
Gems- Recollections
Other- vellum, brad

NAS #261- One is Fun!

It's Monday which means there is a new sketch at Nuts About Sketches.  This week it is this really fun one- pager:

I decided to use some photos from a friend's little girl's first birthday. I flipped the sketch horizontally because of the direction my friend and her daughter's gaze in the photo in the upper left (I didn't want them looking off the page).  I also only used one photo in that area instead of two as well.

I pulled out some washi tape and used that in a few areas on this layout.  I love that is is such a quick and easy way to add a strip of color to a layout.  After I had most of my stuff attached to the layout, I decided I needed something for texture between the two photo areas.  I was going to try mist, but the only black mist I have has purple shimmer in it so it wouldn't really work with this color scheme.  Then I remembered the glitter splatters!  I took liquid glue and made spots randomly between the photos and sprinkled the glue with black glitter.  

I also used my Cricut for some of the embellishments.  I cut the dog using the "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge and the bone is from the "Paper Doll Dress Up" cartridge.  A few chipboard pieces and gems scattered around the page finished up the embellishing.

Materials:

Cardstock- Bazzill, American Crafts

Patterned Paper- Lily Bee

Journaling Spot- Little Yellow Bicycle

Punch- Marvy

Stickers- American Crafts, October Afternoon, Creative Imaginations

Chipboard- Fiskars, American Crafts

Brad- Basic Grey

Glitter- American Crafts

Gems- Michaels

Tape- My Mind's Eye, K and Company

Rubons- October Afternoon

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridges- Boys Will Be Boys, Paper Doll Dress Up

Ink- Color Box

Pen- Sharpie

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 4-14-13

Happy Sunday everyone!  I actually am getting this done early because today is going to be busy- our baby is getting baptized!  I pulled a photo from a few weeks ago for one of this week's prompts, but it's probably not the one you would guess by just glancing at the photos.

Glow
Well, this is anti climactic... this is the photo from a few weeks ago.  It was our friend Luke's 30th (Golden) birthday.

Old
What?! A baby for old?!  Well, he is 3 months old... ;)  This was from a photo session I did with him earlier this week.

Shadow
It's been pretty cloudy all week, so it isn't exactly easy to get a shadow shot.  Here is one in our dining room.

Spring
Yep, this is what spring looks like here this year.  *Sigh*  We had a Winter Storm Warning in effect over 3 days this past week.

Smile

Another shot from our photo session.  His smile just melts my heart!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 4-7-13

 Hello!  It is finally starting to look a little like spring around here.  We made a trip to the zoo this week, which is where I took most of my photos for the hunt.

Outside
We actually ended up spending most of our time at the zoo indoors, because even though it was a little warmer out, the wind was still pretty cold and the kids were tired so I didn't want to go too far and have to walk all the way back with grumpy kids.  We did go on the Minnesota Trail which is semi-outdoors.  Here is one of the pumas in its exhibit.

Chatterbox

This little guy is starting to become quite the chatterbox.  He is always so happy when he is talking.  Here is a shot I caught of him last weekend on my phone.

 Comfort
Another shot of the little guy, this time at the zoo, all cozy in his car seat.

In the Kitchen

Here is my oldest, helping dad make cole slaw last night for dinner.

Trees

One more from the zoo, this time it is the pileated woodpecker sitting in one of the trees in its exhibit.  I had to take this shot through a chain link fence, hence the "spots". 

Winner, Winner!

The winner  of my Scrapping Everyday Miracles Blog Hop prize is:

Carla!!

Watch your inbox for an email from me!  Congrats!!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left a comment, I really enjoyed reading what everyone had to say!    Make sure you check out the current challenge and play along, we'd love to see what you do!!

Sympathy Card- Cardabilities #72

Earlier this week my husband and I attended the funeral of the mother of one of our friends.  I made a card for our friend to let her know we are thinking about her.  I used the current sketch at Cardabilities as inspiration.  

The flower was cut from watercolor paper using the Cricut and the "Botanicals" cartridge.  I then colored it with watercolor pencils and went over it with a water pen to blend the colors.  I dry embossed the kraft cardstock background and then inked it with a metallic gold and then Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

NAS #259- Open Wide

A new sketch was revealed yesterday at Nuts About Sketches, and it its a great one! I used some photos from Will's first meal of solid food. I used a Studio Calico mask on the background, along with some slate Glimmer Mist. I matted everything with navy to make it stand out against the background.

As I was working on this layout, looking at the Echo Park ”Little Boy” line, I realized an airplane theme would work great for this subject matter! I cut this large airplane from one of the border strips and used foam adhesive to attach it to the page. The trail behind it is embroidery floss that I attached using liquid glue. I cut the word ”wide” using my Cricut, but found it got a little lost on the navy matting so I went over it with an orange Souffle pen.

For this embellishment cluster, I cut the cloud from a Hambly transparency and attached one with velum adhesive and the other with foam adhesive. The stitched star was super easy to make; I pierced 5 holes and stitched between them. The corrugated pieces were smeared with orange fabric paint to accent the ridges. I got the idea for the glitter splatters from a recent post on Pamela Young's blog. They were super easy to make and I love the look, I will definitely be doing them more!

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill
Patterned Paper- Echo Park
Stickers- American Crafts
Brads- Basic Grey
Glitter- American Crafts
Corrugated Accents- Jillibean Soup
Pens- Creative Memories, Sakura
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Cartridges- Doodlecharms, Tear Drop
Transparency- Hambly
Punch- EK Success
Paint- Duncan
Ink- Tattered Angels, Tsukineko
Mask- Studio Calico

SEM April Challenge- All God's Creatures

It is the first Monday of the month, so there was a new challenge issued at Scrapping Everyday Miracles.  This month's challenge was issued by Nicole and here is what she had to say: 

As I write this challenge post I am sitting on the couch surrounded by two cats and a dog.  They continually bless my life with friendship, laughter, and love.  I am thinking about a song we use to sing at summer camp each summer that goes:

"All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
And some just clap their hands, or paws
Or anything they got now."

It is so true the animals are such a beautiful and amazing part of God's creation!

For this month's main challenge we would like you to create a project inspired by your pets.  Even if you aren't an animal person or don't have any pets, you can still be inspired by this challenge.  You can create a project inspired by any animal in God's creation. Your projects can even be about an animal-related experience like a day at the zoo or a farm. What is important is that we see that God is blessing us with everyday miracles using both the animals within our families and those outside our homes.  

SCRAP TWIST: USE AN ANIMAL RELATED QUOTE/SAYING OR EVEN A BIBLE VERSE ON YOUR PROJECT.   You can use it for your title, journaling or just an addition to your project! Just to help you get started here is a link to a bunch of animal quotes: http://www.petsinpastel.com/quotes.htm

Here is my layout:

My husband and I are not pet people, but we did get our oldest daughter a fish this year for her birthday because she kept not-so-subtly hinting that she wanted one.  ("Too bad I can't get a fish for my birthday...")  We wanted her to pick out what kind of fish she wanted, so we just got the tank and set it up ahead of time.  I created a tag that we put in the card for her to "redeem" for her new pet, which I included on this layout. 

For the title, I used a couple of different letter stickers. The word "fish" I placed on a piece of vellum and popped up with some foam adhesive.  I used some glitter epoxy stickers and some drops of Glossy Accents to look like water droplets or bubbles.

I played with some decorative tape to make this accent.

I chose to include the first part of Genesis 1:20.  Part of the reason I chose this verse was because as I was looking ahead to Easter this week, I thought about the Easter Vigil Mass.  One of my favorite parts of that Mass growing up was the reading of the creation story.  In the church I grew up in, they would project landscape and nature photos on the wall behind the lector as he or she read the story.  I chose to print my verse on some vellum which turned out to be the most frustrating part of making this page.  My printer just did not want to cooperate!  I eventually ended up attaching the vellum to regular paper over where it had printed and running it through the printer again.  I let it dry for a while so I wouldn't smudge the ink when I rubbed the adhesive off the back (that's what happened the first time I tried that technique).

Make sure you stop by the SEM blog and check out what the rest of the design team did and play along, there is a great prize up for grabs from Finding Nana.

Materials-

Cardstock- American Crafts, Core dinations

Patterned Paper- Creative Imaginations, Die Cuts With a View

Stickers- Creative Imaginations, Basic Grey, EK Success

Vellum- Stampin Up

Journaling Card- Echo Park

Ribbon- American Crafts, other

Tape- Target

Pen- Zig

Liguid Pearls, Glossy Accents- Ranger

Transparency- Fancy Pants Designs

Font- Chronicles of a Hero

Die Cutter- Provo Craft

Cartridges- Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2; Zooballoo

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 3-31-13

What?!  It's MONDAY night you say?  Yeah, I know, I'm still trying to catch up, I had a lot to get done at the end of last week!  On top of several layouts and projects that were due, I hosted Easter yesterday.  Here are my photos for this week:

 Water
As in watercolor.  The kids made crayon resist Easter eggs that I strung together and hung over our dining room window.

Empty

The eggs in this little guy's basket were empty this year, he doesn't need any candy!  :)

Fresh

Freshly made cupcake.  I made these for Easter dinner.  The handle is fondant, the "grass" is coconut that I colored with gel icing color and the eggs are Robin's Eggs candy.

Weathered

The speckles on these eggs make them look weathered.  At least I think so...

Ordinary Easter

We had the option of replacing one of the prompts with an Easter photo, which is what I chose to do here.  This is a shot of my kiddos.  The best one.  Three out of four looking at the camera and smiling isn't bad, right?  :)