Little Shop of Sketches Wednesday!

Once again, it's time for a Little Shop of Sketches sketch ...

This week is very exciting because one of my favorite designers, Laura Vegas, is our guest designer!!! Be sure to check out the post at Little Shop of Sketches for her layout and check back in two weeks to see a sketch that she has done for us!!! Oh, and be sure to check out her blog for some amazing inspiration!!! I do ... often!

Here is Sketch #36:

Here is my take on it:

I used Danielle Young's new Alley-oop kit - available at Oscraps.

Be sure to check out Little Shop of Sketches for the other inspiring layouts from our fabulous designers!!!

As always, if you create a layout based on this sketch within the next two weeks, upload it to the gallery to be entered for a prize!!!

I hope you like it!

*~*~*

Samantha - Be Yourself!

When Amanda Taylor was in the spotlight at Oscraps, one of her challenges was to use her freebie wordart and do a lot of journaling using the prompt ... here's the first one I did.

The journaling reads:
Samantha, you are so independent! You are very, very unique. You do try hard to make other people happy and be pleasing, but you are still your own person. You play with your brother, you love his toys, but you love your own stuff as well. You love your dolls and ponies and playing house. You love dressing up and taking care of your pretend babies as well as your real life ones. You love your friends - your aunts and Danielle. You like to look pretty and dress up so that you look beautiful. But, you still like to play in the dirt and pick up rocks and get into everything no matter what the consequences. You are so curious! You want to know how everything works. You love being with people, but you can play by yourself just as easily. You are energetic and bubbly. You are so full of life! You are athletic and daring. You love games. You love fun. You love cuddling. But, above all else, you are full of love - God's love just shines through you. You are so loving and caring to everyone and it just warms my heart to see you interact with other people. You are such a dear and I LOVE YOU!

I wanted to go back and edit it a bit, but my computer froze and corrupted the file ... so it is what it is unless I create it from scratch.

Everything is from either the Mere Modesty or spotlight kits by Taylor Made Designs at Oscraps.

I hope you like it!!!

*~*~*

Sleeping Baby Layouts

Well, mostly ... I actually don't have a sleeping photo of Samantha past the first few weeks!

So, I set out trying to make similar layouts for all the kids using pictures from around the six month time period.


The pictures above are of Justin in 2004.
Brush Strokes used as mask is from Fei Fei's Stuff @ Oscraps.
Paper, swirl brush and peaceful word art are from TaylorMadeDesigns @ Oscraps.

This is my baby girl Samantha in 2006:

Brush Strokes used as mask is from Fei Fei's Stuff @ Oscraps.
Paper, frame and beautiful word art are from TaylorMadeDesigns @ Oscraps.


And last, but not least, is Andrew in 2008:
Brush Strokes used as mask is from Fei Fei's Stuff @ Oscraps.
Paper, stitches, sweet graphic, butterfly and peaceful word art are from TaylorMadeDesigns @ Oscraps.

I think there are very few things as wonderful as a sleeping baby. I absolutely love the watch them. I love to lay next to them. I especially love to hold them while they sleep. Watching their little chests go up and down and hearing their breathy sighs ... ah! Heaven. I will definitely miss it ... bring on the neices and nephews!!!

I hope you like them!!!

*~*~*

Three Kids Family Layout

I try to take a picture of the three kids together every month. Sometimes it works better than others ...
This is March:


The best shot of Justin (who insists on making ridiculous faces for the camera) was the one where he's distracted and not looking. Even though every month turns out a decent photo or two, I purposefully haven't scrapped them all. This is only the second. I kind of want to do a comparison layout after a year ...

All the elements for this layout are from Taylor Made Designs Mere Modesty kit and add-on (from her spotlight at Oscraps).

I originally tried the 12x12 size, but couldn't do all the whitespace ... I could probably get used to it from a design standpoint, but it's so funny to show things to people and have them say, "There's so much unused space," "You could put more pictures here," or "It looks empty." Believe me, I've heard it.

I hope you enjoy!

*~*~*

Danielle Young Recipe Challenge

As you may have read, Danielle Young was in the spotlight last week at Oscraps.
She gave away a freebie mini-kit to compliment her Spring Breeze kit. Both are now available in her store.
Her spotlight challenge involved a recipe challenge. You were to use:

• 'Spring' photo
• 1 solid paper
• 2 patterned papers
• 3 buttons
• 5 flowers
• Journaling strips
• Bracket shape
  

This is what I came up with:


It's Samantha helping me prepare the gardens for planting about a month ago.

Papers, flowers, buttons, journaling strips, alphas, stitching, frame, glitter spiral and butterfly are from Danielle Young's Spring Breeze kit and Free! add-on.
Stitching and staples from Danielle Young's Zachary kit.
Square stitching from Taylor Made Designs Mere Modesty kit.
All available at Oscraps.com.

I hope you like it!

*~*~*

Little Shop of Sketches Wednesday! (and award)

Hello all! It's time for another layout based on Tanya's sketch from Little Shop of Sketches!

Here is sketch #35:

And here is my take on it:




All papers and elements are from the Photogenic collab kit from Paislee Press and Audrey Neal at Oscraps.
I've actually taken about four good shots of myself with the camera in a mirror ... but this was the most recent. The journaling is reflective on my love of photography - even though I'm not that good at it. I guess you could call it a love of photographs - or capturing memories.

If you create a layout (paper or digi) based on the sketch, upload it to the gallery at Little Shop of Sketches within the next two weeks and you'll be entered for a great prize!

And be sure to check out the layouts by the other wonderful designers here!

I hope you like it!

*~*~*

I've been given a prize! Helen, my new friend from South Africa, awarded me this:


It's because my blog makes her smile :) Thank you Helen!!!

I'm supposed to pass it on to five other people. Narrowing it down was hard, but I chose:
Laura
Lisa
Monique
Stefanie
Vicki
Thank you for making me smile :)

*~*~*

Accordian Album - Mother's Gift

I thought I had showed you the other one of these accordian albums ... but I can't find a post about it, so I must not have. Oh, joy! Now I can treat you with a double post :)

I created two of these albums. One for my mom and one for my mother-in-law. I gave one to Kevin's mom last Mother's Day. I wanted to give my mom hers at the same time but I had to rely on some things for other people and ... well, they delayed me. So, a month of so after Mother's Day, things for the wedding got in to full swing and I put off the project until now - my mom's birthday!

I got everybody involved to finish their part and we gave it to her with a slightly off-tune version of the Happy Birthday song.










This was CTMH workshop project that my friend, Moniqua, did. I made two. Amazingly enough, I finished everything for my mom's (the one you see above) that night. I had to - Moniqua had the stamps!

It uses CTMH paper, brads, ink, stamps and ribbon. The base is a 12x12 Tru-fit Folio - basically, a 12x12 file folder. It's folded in half to be 6" x 24" and then scored and folded. Glue it closed so that it has pockets and you have this awesome little display!
I obviously put a picture of all of my mom's children and her grandchildren (Andrew hadn't been born at the time) and each one was supposed to write a heartfelt message on their tag ... well, I did mine and had the kids scribble on theirs. One of my sisters finished theirs right away and then I mailed the paper to my brother in Texas and he mailed it back ... so we were just waiting for two others ... and we waited ... and we waited ... and that's primarily the reason why we're giving it to her for her birthday in April 2009 instead of for Mother's Day 2008.

*~*~*

This next one was for my mother-in-law. I used pictures of my kids.


It was harder to put together in terms of inspiration, but once I found a few stickers with great children quotes ... it went a lot faster.









So, that's it. I really liked the way this project turned out! Both mothers really enjoyed it!

If you have any questions, please let me know. I can give you a supply list and instructions if you want ...

I hope you like it!

*~*~*

Little Shop of Sketches Wednesday!

Another lovely sketch from Little Shop of Sketches:
Here's my take on it:
Be sure to head on over to Little Shop of Sketches to check out the other girls fabulous takes on Sketch #34!!!

And remember that if you create a layout based on this sketch (traditional paper or digital) and upload it to the gallery, that you'll be entered to win a fabulous prize!

I hope you like it!

*~*~*

Danielle Young is in the Spotlight!

As some of you know, I'm on the Creative Team for Danielle Young.

This week, she is in the Spotlight over at Oscraps. All week long she's having a sale in her store and a fabulous challenge and an awesome scavenger hunt for freebies! Be sure to head on over and check it out!

Black & White Wedding Mini-Album

Here it is as promised ... my fabulous creation!
I made it as a gift for my sister Beth's 6 month wedding anniversary. I think she should have a nice simple album and it should be fabulous!!!

I should probably premise everything by saying that I also made it to submit for a magazine call. You had to follow specific instructions and showcase a sketch by Becky Fleck. Click here for details. I didn't have much hope of winning, but I gave it my best shot. I obviously didn't win, but I knew I was making this for Beth first and foremost, so it had to be something she would like as well. Following a sketch both creates and alleviates problems. It's nice because some of the design process is done for you ... but difficult because you have all of these criteria you're trying to fulfill and you want to win!
This is the sketch:

You can see how it's sort of carried out throughout the album but I tried to make it my own ...

Notice the charm on the rings ... I love it :) It gives in that special touch ...

I used a Basic Grey Dark Chocolate stepped bracket chipboard album in BLACK. I'd already decided on going with the black and white theme and I debated with different shaped black albums ... but this one just appealed to me the most.


Then I pulled a bunch of stuff from my stash that would match the theme (but everything had to be currently available products).

I used a black and white paper pad from K&Co - the Marcella Black and White - thick cardstock with metallic accents.
The journaling spots are from the Making Memories 5th Avenue journaling notebook.
Lace and trim from my local fabric store.
Making Memories Tiny Alphas in black, white, and pink.
Best Occasions rhinestone circles and flourishes (about half the price of Prima - available at Walmart).
Making Memories Blossoms felt and sheer
CTMH buttons in black and Colonial White.
CTMH White Daisy paper flowers.
Bazzill Basics Paper Flowers (black)
Heidi Swapp black fabric flowers. I don't know if I really like this with the finished product, but I tried...
Rhinestone flowers - could be from Kaiser Craft, Prima, Petaloo, etc.
CTMH brads
AC Thickers
CTMH liquid glass
Misc. hatpin ...
That's enough about the products ... but you want to know what you're looking at :)

I ran in to challenges right away by estimating my measurements wrong. I created these collages of photos and had them printed out in 4x6 ... and then they were too big for the page (which is 6" tall). So, I adjusted, cropped and worked with what I had.

The goal of this album was to quickly and succinctly capture the essence of the day and tell the story of their wedding day. So we start with being walked down the aisle and the ceremony ending on this page with walking out as man and wife.
Family matters a lot to us, so I did a page of the wedding party and the respective families ... very simple. I used lace and rhinestone flourishes as accents. The only rhinestone circle is to draw attention to the happy couple in the big photo.

This is layout that I created just for the contest - with the extra oomph. I really like the way it turned out!






I wish I could take better photos, but I really like the way this turned out!

I hope you like it!

*~*~*