Puzzle Me This

I am so very excited to have been selected to join the Stick it Down Design Team. My thanks to the team for giving me a challenging and fun opportunity.

My first reveal for Stick it Down is today's "5th Tuesday Challenge"! This is where you get to go through the Stick it Down archives and use any sketch that you loved but missed playing along with, or use your favourite sketch again!

I decided to continue on with my summer vacation pages. As crazy as it sounds, I was fascinated by doing puzzles during my vacation. I'm an early riser so puzzles became my entertainment while I waited for the others to rise or return from fishing. Somebody had to come home, or get up, to cook me breakfast. :)

As I could choose from any past 2014 sketch, I opted for this great sketch by Brenshevia first posted by Stick it Down on July 15th. The great layering made it possible for me to incorporate a puzzle page and lots of puzzle like embellishments.

 

 

Layers and embellishments are so much fun to play with.

 

Christmas in the Kitchen

Since as early as I can remember, our family Christmas doesn't begin until pancake breakfast is made and eaten. It's always the men that make the meal. The women take the position that they're cooking the turkey dinner so 'boys don your aprons, grab your spatulas and man your frying pans'. It wouldn't be Christmas morning without pancakes and sausage...oh and bacon and maybe a wee drop of Bailey's too.

This layout is in response to two challenges; Danie's GDT Anniversary Challenge - Party9 at sketches4all and  the Sketch~n~Scrap challenge, #70, of December 1st 2014, designed by Lisa Hidy.

For Danie's GDT sketches4all Anniversary Challenge "Christmas Countdown" I needed to use:
5 wooden veneers - I have 10 wooden buttons coloured using red and blue ink
4 cardstock stickers - I have 5; 4 hearts and 1 star
3 different fonts - I have 4; Christmas, in the, Kitchen and 2006
2 photos - Dad with pancakes and the boys in their aprons
1 stitching real or faux - I machine stitched the Christmas Tree in green and the tree base in brown

Lots of embellishments were needed to satisfy Danie's challenge. That made this challenge right up my alley because I think embellishments are so much fun. I admit I went a little bit crazy with them on this layout.

Ice Fishing - Published in Get Inspired Magazine

WOW!  

 

 I'm thrilled to have been published again in

Let's Get Sketchy
 

"Get Inspired" Magazine,  Special Christmas Edition

 

 

Being published for the second time is as awesome as the first!

I'm on page 72.

Check out my layout "Ice Fishing"

 

  

I created the layout without use of a sketch. Something I don't normally do as I find sketches really inspire me. There's lots of great sketches over at Let's Get Sketchy to inspire you. 

You definitely should check it out.

 

I can't wait to try again. You should too. Being published in Get Inspired Magazine is addictive!

Calabogie Lake

I'm just about done the pages of our summer vacation. Just 3 more to go. It's been great doing these layouts. On a cold dreary winter day it's nice to be reminded of July sunshine and a family holiday.

The sketch for this layout is the December 12th one from Scrapmuch?, designed by Laura Whitaker. There's still time to create your layout and enter it into the random draw for a prize.

To create continuity I used a few papers from the Bo Bunny Lemonade Stand line, which I've done on most of the vacation pages.

I wanted to use a great button that came in the Bo Bunny Ephemera Pack but wanted a flower to match the other side of the page too, so took apart a flower, put the button on top of the floral part and then the remaining top of the flower on the button. It made a unique embellishment.

Remember

Now that my basement storage space has been cleaned up I can get to my old photo albums. I'm really enjoying bringing some of those early photos to life by creating layouts using my favourites.

This was my daughter's first Christmas. She wasn't quite sure what was going on but loved the attention and toys. Being the older, my son did the hanging of the stockings and introduced her to the art of unwrapping gifts.

The sketch is a great one from Stuck?! designed by Laura Whitaker. This one was published December 1st so there's lots of time to get your entry posted for the draw for a prize.

This layout was done with various Christmas paper lines; Bo Bunny Christmas Collage, Simple Stories Cozy Christmas and Carta Bella so this is Christmas. Because all these lines used the same tones I had lots of variety to work with.

Embellishments are so much fun to create. The star on the tree provided the perfect place to journal the date.

 

 

Photo Booth Fun

Did you ever notice how silly people can get when given carte blanche in a photo booth? This booth, built of birch poles, was a popular spot  for fun during the reception at my Son and Daughter-in-law's wedding.

This layout means that I've now done 2 of the 20 I've planned for the Wedding Album. The math doesn't lie...I've a way to go.

 

The perfect sketch presented itself on the Stick it Down website this week. The sketch is by Smellykat and guided me to a theme of camera and film . You can post your layout on the website during the balance of the week. Posting for this sketch closes December 7th. Just follow the InLinkz instructions.

 

You should hop on over to Stick it Down and play.  Stick it Down publishes sketches for cards, single page layouts and double page layouts. There's something to suit everyone's scrapbooking taste.

 

I enjoyed putting this layout together. The embellishments are 99.9% silhouette cut files.

The film was created using a cut file and some pearl/silver paper behind it.

The film reels were done with different colours of grey.

 

 

The title was designed to pick up the colour of the Bridesmaid's gown.

The background paper just proves you can find anything in a well populated stash. I hadn't remembered that I had birch tree paper until I came across it in the box. What could have been better for pictures featuring a birch pole photo booth?

Stick it Down - I'm a Design Team Member - Wow!

 

I am so pleased to have been chosen as a member of the Design Team for Stick It Down! This is a whole new adventure for me and I can't wait for it to begin. My time with the Stick it Down Design Team will begin on January 1st.

Come the new year Stick it Down will be revealing a card, single page layout and double page layout on the 1st of the month. Yes all three at once! That gives you lots of time to work with all the sketches. The challenge will close on the last day of the month so there's more than enough time to post your layouts and be in line to win.

You'll see inspiration and Design Team projects all month long. Your submissions could become  favourites and be shared as well.

Winners will be posted on the third day of the following month and if chosen you will be asked to be a guest designer the month after that.

There are so many ways to enjoy Stick it Down. Please drop by and see what's happening.

Gone BATTY

Here are two more of my Halloween sweets.

 

This is Joaquin as Luigi, one of the Mario Brothers and Ashlynn as a pink butterfly.

 



This layout was created by using the November 1st sketch, #68,  from Sketch N Scrap designed by Lisa Hidy. I altered the placement of the journaling and used 2 bigger pictures instead of 3 smaller ones but other than that I stayed pretty true to the sketch. It's a great layout.

 

The title "Gone Batty" came from a card that Joaquin and his Mommy made me for Halloween. I love my special cards. Before I began scrapping I would stick special ones in my photo album. Now, and I think it's a better way, I incorporate them into my layout by creating a place for them on the back of my page.

 

For the title I used another font from dafont.com. This one is called Sary and can be downloaded for free from dafont.com.

Supplies:

Bazzill cardstock
Echo Park (the Apothecary Emporium and Chillingsworth Manor collections), Carta Bella (All Hallows Eve collection), and graphics 45 (An Eerie Tale Collection) patterned papers
Recollections brads, dots and embellishments
Silhouette cut files for the bat for journaling and the title "Gone Batty"
Memento Dew Drops Ink
Canon Printer for the journaling

I've probably already mentioned it, but I'll say it again, " I love Halloween!"

Halloween Sweet Treats

You can't get anything sweeter on Halloween than pictures of this little gang of trick or treaters.

Left - Right;  there's Alyvia the bumble bee, Freya the moo cow, Liam the astronaut and Sam the Paper Bag Princess dragon.

I used the Scrapmuch? two-page sketch, released October 31st, designed by Laura Whitaker. I found it the perfect sketch for this Halloween layout. The large blocks of colour highlighted the photos whereas a lot of different papers might have taken the eye away from my trick or treating sweeties.

You can still join in the challenge. There's lots of time left to enter your layout in the November draw.

I love that the Silhouette Cameo will work with any font I install on the computer. This one is called SCARY HALLOWEEN and can be downloaded for free from dafont.com. It made for a great title.

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock
Echo Park (Vanished and Chillingsworth Manor collections) and pinkpaislee (Phantom collection) patterned papers
Recollections brads, buttons, dots and embellishments
Silhouette cut files for the spider web, title, year and tag
Memento Dew Drops Ink
Black and pale purple DMC embroidery floss (bow cut after tying to create a 'spider' look)  and Berick Offray black satin Ribbon

I love Halloween!

Sketch~n~Scrap Featured Scrapper

Oh my goodness I'm so excited!

I have had the honour of being selected by the Design Team of Sketch~n~Scrap as its October Featured Scrapper. My layout "Hello World" is the layout that earned me the honour.

I'm very proud to have the "Featured at Sketch N Scrap" button on the sidebar of my blog.

Happy Wedding Party

The wedding of our son and daughter-in-law was so beautiful. It was, however, 2 years ago. The photographer took 1,653 photos and I've been using my inability to choose amongst them as an excuse for not getting wedding pictures into the scrapbook.

That's all behind me now because I've now scrapped the first one. It should get easier from here on out. With so many to choose from I've decided to do 20 layouts. 1 down...19 to go.

 

 

I based the layout on the November 1st sketch from Stuck?! designed by Laura Whitaker. I also used the layout to participate in the colour challenge over at Scrapmuch?

 

The Scrapmuch? challenge colours were perfect for the kid's wedding. Purple and green were their colours. I think that if it weren't for this colour challenge I'd still be looking at the box of wedding photos a year from now. I have four of the six colours in my layout; green, purple, black and cream.

 

The more scrapbooking I do the more interesting I find my interpretation of the sketches are.

 

Initially if the sketch had a circle I did a circle. If it had two patterned papers I used that same number. Now I'm interpreting and it's opened up a whole new layer of scrapbooking.  

 

In this case:

I used a curved feather instead of something circular but still accomplished the arch effect.

Instead of two paper ribbons, I used real ribbons and layered them.

Instead of 3 square pictures I used one rectangular one.

My corner embellishment started at the corner but went on to form part of the right side of the page.

I didn't use a top contrast paper as the treetops created that effect for me.

I didn't use a title and didn't feel guilty for it. Whew! It's part of a wedding album so it didn't really need one.

 

I think I'm actually having a scrapbooking growth spurt.

Circa 1970

Goodness where have the years gone?

As I was scrapbooking this photo I thought of the changes in scrapbooking between then and now.

An obvious few:
- No digital cameras. If you didn't have film in your camera you got no photo.
- When you did take a photo it was a week before you could pick it back up from your neighbourhood Drugstore. Remember how you had to print even the bad ones?
- No way to crop a picture without scissors. Now it's a matter of a button within a computer program.
- Likely I would have been gluing the picture to a page in a newsprint pad.
- I wouldn't have a Silhouette Cameo to cut my black polaroid frame. If you wanted a polaroid frame back then you took a picture with your Polaroid One Step camera.
- Embellishments would have been homemade...and on and on it goes.

Nice though that this craft continues still, even though it's a bit more hi-tech than when this picture was taken.

I created this layout to participate in the "Use ONE Photo" Challenge  #215 by Lasting Memories. I'm just beginning to realize how many challenge sites there are 'out there'. This one is well worth visiting.

I Won...Twice...Really!

I am very excited today.

One of my layouts was selected by random draw by Let's Get Sketchy for it's monthly challenge. I'm not sure which layout was the lucky one. I'd participated in all four October challenges. Each sketch you participate with gives you a chance of being selected.

As if that wasn't luck enough, I took my daily look at the Scrapmuch? site and found my layout "Flutter-by" was the one drawn as the Scrapmuch? October Colour Challenge Winner.

Can you say excited? Wow am I ever!

You fellow scrappers really need to participate in these challenges. They are great inspiration and fun to play along with. Add to that the possibility of winning a prize and you've got a great reason for messing about with paper and scissors.

Summer 2014

Here we are at the start of our summer vacation at Calabogie Lake. After this picture was taken everyone scattered to the wind.

 

We'd meet up later in the day for dinner and an evening of games but during the daytime there was a lot to do and only seven days to do it in. We made every second count.

 

The sketch I used was the October 27th one from Let's Get Sketchy. This is the first month I've played along with all four of the challenges. I usually run out of time.
 

For this layout I turned the sketch a turn to the right so that it would accommodate my larger photograph nicely. I often start a layout by turning a sketch from side-to-side and top-to-bottom. The look can vary dramatically with each turn.

 

Original Positioning

Rotated position  to accommodate 5x7 photo

Well it's Halloween tonight so off I go.

There's pictures to be taken for scrapbooking.

I'm anticipating ghosts and goblins in my future. 

Sweet Dreams

Continuing with scrapping my summer vacation photos, today I present to you "Sweet Dreams".

 

There are those of us that consider napping to one of the best activities, or lack thereof, on a summer vacation. Our Kelly is an Olympian when it comes to napping. Her motto is,

"Wherever and whenever; I'm out."

 

 

For this layout I used another October Scrapmuch? sketch designed by Laura Whitaker. I ran out of time to enter into the October challenge (I loose track of days when I play with paper), so entered it in The Paper Girls Challenge #66 "Anything Goes". It was my first time seeing the site and there's some fun looking challenges. They announce new challenges on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month. I'm looking forward to playing next month.

 

As mentioned in previous vacation posts, I'm using lots of the Bo Bunny Lemonade Stand papers that came in my July Scrapmuch? Kit Club kit. The papers are so summery. I just love the combination of bright pastels.

 

Some embellishment using items from the kit and a Bo Bunny Ephemera pack, and the deed was done.

 

 

fireWORKS

Whose idea was it to give this man fireworks? Oh right...mine.

Well it seemed like a good idea until I saw the personality transformation once he got the box in his hot little hands. Then I saw the lighter come out. Yikes!

Once it got dark we really did have a nice show of fireworks. We did learn though that you do have to plant fireworks "firmly" in the ground or you get the odd runaway
rocket. :)

For this layout I used another sketch from Let's Get Sketchy. This one by Bev Code. The stars on the sketch drew me to my vacation fireworks photo.

I used a silhouette 'die cut' file for the fireworks. This was new for me.

First I cut the black. It had all the fireworks cut out.

Next came the pink which had only some fireworks cut out so it was what put pink behind some of the black cut outs. It also cut out some identical pieces to the black.

Those identical pieces are what showed green when I placed the third layer of paper, the lime green, on the back.

The embellishments and title were fun to do. I printed the tag with the sounds we heard that night using the 'Julyfireworks' font, and placed the red stars from my July 2014 Premium Scrapmuch? Kit into some of the cut out stars as well as topping off the tag with the kit's green flower button. I cut out a few yellow stars to add to the pink and green ones and then I was done.

Orange you glad we're family?

I'm finally getting started on the photos from our summer vacation. Now I just have to keep at it until all those July memories are scrapbooked.

For continuity I plan on using some of Bo Bunny's Lemonade Stand collection in each of the layouts. I love all the bright summer colours. It's wet, windy and a very gray out today so a hot cup of tea and bits of brightly coloured papers are just what was needed to turn today around for the better.

One nice thing about vacationing in the Ottawa Valley is the proximity to family we don't often get to see. Visiting Ken and Diane was one of the highlights of our 2014 summer vacation.

For this layout I used the October 13, 2014 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy, designed by Laura Whitaker. It worked perfectly for my 'citrus' theme.

A few lemons and a butterfly and my layout was about as 'summer' as I could make it.

Harvest Memories

Our Thanksgiving dinner this year was a lesson in mathematics. It turns out that a 30 lb. turkey does not fit in a pan designed for a 20 lb. bird. It also became apparent that 30 lbs. of turkey is way too much for six people. From what I understand turkey soup and turkey pot pies are still under construction at Erica's.

Jorge, (our family names its turkey before roasting), was delicious and a great centerpiece for our harvest memory. I'm told we name our poultry because calling him "the bird", or "dinner", seems so impersonal. What a weird family I have.

For this layout I used the Fall Harvest Memories Kit by Scrapmuch?

 

 

I added a few vines, one on each page, and Polaroid frames to highlight the main content of my Instax instant photos. Instax is a great to go from photo to craft room in 5 minutes. The rest of the layout was as provided.
 

Unfortunately the kit is no longer available. You've got to get to them quickly. Scrapmuch? kits are so popular.

 

 

SPIDER-SAM

The Amazing SPIDER-SAM!
 Doesn't he look so cute chilling out in his Spidey pool?

 

For this layout I used the October 15th sketch from Stuck?! designed by Laura Whitaker.

 

With the cartoon printed background paper there wasn't a lot I could add. My favourite embellishment was the black on yellow web with dangling spider.
 

The title, of course, had to be in the Spider-Man font. I love how Silhouette will use any font you download onto your computer.

 

Spider-Sam, Spider-Sam,

Does whatever a spider can

Spins a web, any size,

Catches thieves just like flies

Look Out!

Here comes Spider-Sam.