Scrap Friendzy Sketch-a-Thon

Scrap Friendzy is getting ready for their annual sketch-a-thon.  Visit them here to find out how to be a part of the fun.

Let's Scrap Wednesday Sketch

Its Wednesday again.  Time for another sketch at Let's Scrap. Here is the layout I did for this week's sketch.  I LOOOVE this one!  The photos here are ones that my friend and daycare provider Donna Flach took last June of the kids at her pool, along with a few I took.  I have all the kids names journaled along the top of the large photo on the light blue strip.  I love the way I was able to include this info without compromising the design. Almost all product: Bo Bunny Sun Kissed line, one of my all time favs! Thanks for stopping by.

I'm a Winner!

My layout won this week's contest at Sketch Inspiration!  Ths prize is their very first book of sketches.  I have only done 2 layouts from the sketches and uploaded to the gallery.  But I really like both of them.  It will be fun to have a book of all the sketches from 2010 in one place.  See the previous post for a picture of the layout.

At the Park

Here is the layout I did for Sketch Inspiration's sketch this week, #155.  They had such an awesome prize package, that I made time to do it this during a busy week.  I liked the sketch, and it went together easily once I pulled a few papers from my stash of Christmas papers.  Patterned papers are My Mind's Eye-I Believe line; Bo Bunny-Tis the Season-Snowflakes; border sticker: Basic Grey-Eskimo Kisses; chipboard:My Mind's Eye-I Believe; snowflakes cut with: When its Cold Outside cricut cartridge; Stickles-Diamond; journaling font: LDJ Christmas Troll.

My blog is Decorated!

Merry Christmas to me!! The wonderfully talented Kristine Davidson of Creative Scrappers decorated my blog!  I couldn't be happier with the results.  Because I am not a digi scrapper, I had a hard time selecting a digi kit, and had something totally different pictured in my head.  But I love what she came up with.  I think she did a better job of finding what was "me" than I could have.  Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think of it.  Happy Holidays.

Let's Scrap Wednesday Sketch

My layout is about going to see WMU at Notre Dame this fall.  My dd is in Western's marching band and they went along to perform at half-time.  We had a great time.

Wicked

My parents took my sisters and I along with our spouses to see Wicked when it was here in Kalamazoo earlier this month.  I created this layout about the event.  I started out with the left side using the 10-13-10 sketch from Let's Scrap.  I was trying to finish it for the challenge (#80) to use stamping on your layout, so I did the bright green stamping/embossing in the lower left corner.  I decided that I wanted to include the local paper's review, so copied it on to cardstock and added some pics I downloaded from a Wicked fan site to create the right page. (We couldn't take pictures during the performance, so the only pic I had was the one of all of us in front of the show poster that was taken by a passerby we recruited).  I decided to print the photo in black and white because my dad was wearing a bright red coat, and it really stood out in the picture, then just for fun I also did one with a green tint, this is the one I ended up using. I think it is a fun touch.  Used black lace and rhinestones along the top and various green papers.

Let's Scrap Sketch

A new sketch has been posted at Let's Scrap. I did another camping layout. Lake Michigan was so warm this year that I took LOTS of swimming pics. I am usually sitting on the beach because the water is just too cold to swim. Not this year. We all had a wonderful week swimming every day.
I used more Bo Bunny Sun Kissed, one of my favorite lines. Both of the "titles" were things I had in my box of summer/beach themed products. The journaling tag is the first thing I printed after getting my computer worked on. I formatted the journaling and printed it on a plain piece of paper and then I stuck the tag on the paper with temporary adhesive and ran it through the printer again. Voila! It came out perfectly!

Blog Hop

Head on over to Frosted Designs for a fun blog hop.  There are lots of great prizes, and many ways to win.

Let's Scrap Sketch

A new sketch has been posted at Let's Scrap:

And here is my take on this week's sketch:

I loved this sketch, I got a bit further from the original sketch than I anticipated. I am sure I will use it again. I'm still working on scrapping the pics from our August camping trip. This layout features one of my favorite color combos, blue and orange. I used patterned papers from BoBunny, Best Creations, and a little bit of Kaisercraft. I used both the Life's a Beach and the Accent Essentials cricut cartridges. The green strip was punched with an EK Success edge punch. I added rhinestones for"bubbles", as well as the lizard's eyes. I added a variety of yellow buttons to the center of the sun.



The "Cabin"

Here is another layout I created for the Got Sketch? 106 class with Valerie Salmon.  I used pics from our work weekend at our "vacation" home in East Jordan last summer.  I used patterned paper from Three Bugs in a Rug.  Border punch is EK Success, this one is fast becoming a favorite.  Flowers and brads are all Sassafras.

Blog Candy!

My dear friend and fellow scrapbook enthusiast Betty Anne is having a giveaway on her blog.  Check it out here.  Like Betty Anne, I have made many online friends since discovering sites like Let's Scrap.  My scrapbooking has also improved and I get a lot more layouts done.  There is always someone out there to encourage me in my art, and endless ideas and challenges to provide motivation/inspiration.  Hope you will check out both sites.  Happy Scrapping, Beth

Let's Scrap Wednesday Sketch

Here is this week's sketch on Let's Scrap: 

And here is the layout I created based on the sketch:

I made this layout while I was at Stamp-n-Scrap Camp 2 weekends ago.  I borrowed the heart/paw print paper from a friend, and the rest of the layout was created using paper scraps provided by our CTMH consultant.  I made the dogs using the Create a Critter cricut cartridge.  I don't have this one yet, but I think I NEED it now.  It is full of cute animal images that are so much fun to create!  The layout featues photos of my kids walking their daycare provider and my friend Donna's dogs while we were all camping last summer. At least 3 of the families she sits for go camping with usevery summer.  She can't get away from them! 

Wintertime Giveaway

Would you like a chance to win the super cute Wintertime Collection from Echo Park?  Scrapville is having a giveaway. Just click here and check out the details.

October Inner Circle

Here is the latest layout I made for my Inner Circle Album:

It is a kit from The Whole Kit n Kaboodle.  They have offered a double 8x8" layout every month this year.  I have just two more to complete my album.  They offer a discounted price to customers who complete their layouts and upload them to their message board.  They have some of the most detailed, beautiful page kits I have seen.  They are currently having a special for new members.  Check it out, be sure to tell them Beth sent you.

Scrap-n-Stamp Camp

Well, I finally have my computer back, and running better than it has in a long time.  I had to re-install photoshop before I could post the pictures of the layouts I did at last weekends retreat.  I have 3 more double layouts, that are DT work for Let's Scrap, so I will wait to share them until the sketches are posted.

 
This first one is a kit I got at the Scrapbook Mega Meet at Novi last May.  My friend and daycare provider Donna, felt it was just so perfect for my son Zachary.  The layout reads "It is this Smile that keeps you out of trouble when being naughty looks so innocent".  I didn't have the right number/size of photos, so changed it up a bit.  Love it.

"Beauty and the Beach"

This layout is from Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch? 106 sketch 2.  The sketch was for a single page, I had so many beautiful pictures of my ds Sonya that I wanted to use, that I decided to make it a double.  The right page I created to go with the original (left page) sketch. I cut the triangles freehand (used a ruler). Papers are all CTMH.  The colors on this one are very similar to what Valerie used in her sample layout.  I just loved it and knew it would work beautifully with these pics of Sonya.

"Introducing : Baby"

This one is a scrap lift from a layout I saw on scrapbook.com.  This is a picture of my ds Zachary who is now 5 years old.  Papers, stickers, felt stars, and rub-ons all Pebbles, Inc.; border punches: EK Success

"Buddies"

This layout is another scraplift.  The original layout was by Ginger Williams for Queen and Company.  I saw it at the Queen and Company booth at the Mega Meet in Novi and bought the felt borders, ribbon and brads to make my own version.  the pictures are of my ds Zack, and his best buddy, Bubba.  Believe it or not, they are only about two weeks apart in age, but Bubba is at least a head taller than Zack (and Zack is the older one)!  Just love these pics taken at Binder Park Zoo by my friend and daycare provider, Donna Flach.

"Stamp-n-Scrap Camp"

This one is another of Valerie's sketches from Got Sketch? 106.  This one also features CTMH papers and stamps.  Pretty good to have the event scrapped while we were still there!  In the lower right corner is my friend Jodie.  She ended up spending the weekend in the hospital suffering with vertigo.  We are all thankful there was nothing more seriously wrong.  Don't have a scrapping friend take you to the ER without expecting to have your picture taken while you are there!  Ha! (Jodie is Bubba's mom)

Cricut Storage Giveaway!

I've been trying to catch up on some of my favorite blogs today.  Have you seen the new Scrap-N-Tote Cricut cartridge storage system?  I ran across a great giveaway here.  I NEED one of these.  After a weekend away at a scrap camp, I am interested in anything that helps me to organize ny supplies while also making it easy to grab them and go!

New Sketch at Let's Scrap

It' Wednesday and that means itis time for a new sketch at Let's Scrap:

Here is the layout I did from the left side of the sketch which was posted several weeks ago for DT team application.  A new DT starts this week, and will continue through January.  I am going to continue as a contributing DT member.

I used the tissue paper technique that was featured by Leah Fung in the December 2010 issue of Scrapbooks, etc. I cut 1/2" strips of tissue paper to the length of the area I wanted to embellish.  I layered them 3-4 thick and stitched down the middle directly to my layout.  I clipped the paper every 1/8" or so along each long edge.  I then used my fingers to "fluff" them up.  Came out pretty cute I think. The flowers are ones that my friend Dawn (cantstopscrappin) on scrapbook.com, taught me to make.  Flowers were punched and then embellished with white uniball pen and buttons.  Title cut with cricut cartridge Alphalicious; Martha Stewart border punch. All papers were from my stash. 

Journaling reads: "For Sonya's birthday, Megan gave her a necklace that says "Little sister".  Megan has a matching one that says "Big Sister".  As a special treat, they watched a movie together and slept in the hide-a-bed in the apartment that night."

Horseback Riding at the Rainbow Ranch

     Here is my latest layout.  I am taking a class at My Creative Classroom: Cricut Design Studio 1.  I have had the software for more than a year, and hadn't even opened the box.  I love the idea of being able to manipulate images to cut with my cricut, but was overwhelmed by the thought of trying to learn the program.  I put my new skills to use with this layout. 

     A group of friends go camping together every August.  this year we decided to go horseback riding.  Anyway, I was asked to create a layout for the event.  Because I will need to make "kits" for each of the others (6-7) I needed to use products that I could get enough of.  So, I kept the embellishments to things I could cut with my cricut in multiples.  I used my new welding and kerning skills to create the barbed wire borders on the layout.  I was able to also use skills learned in the Design Studio class to make my title fit the allotted space.  The round horse embellie is simply cut from patterned paper and matted with 2 cardstock circles.  Everyone loved it, so now I just have to put all the kits together. Patterned papers: Adornit (Carolee's Creations) Old West Stars; Creative Imaginations: Brown Paisley, Ride On.  Old West Cricut Cartridge,

     I am looking forward to the next lesson which will be posted in the classroom tomorrow! More Cut the Crazy out of Christmas later today!
     The sketch used for this layout is from Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch Doubles class. If you've never taken one of her classes, I highly recommend them.  I will be taking Got Sketch? 106 starting Nov. 1.

Lesson One:Cut the Crazy out of Christmas

     As a part of this class, we create a binder to use for planning/organizing for the holiday season. The first week, the assignment was to create a cover and the section dividers for our planner. The sections include: preparations, gift lists, recipes, ideas/hints, card list/addresses, journal, stories and poems, and etc. I finished my cover. It was to have the class title on it, and at least one photo. I chose a photo that was our Christmas card in 2005. I like it because it has all my kids, and because we are wearing festive Santa hats.

Stay tuned for more.

Cut the Crazy out of Christmas

I have signed up for a new class over at Big Picture Classes: "Cut the Crazy out of Christmas".  The class is focused on helping you plan ahead for the holiday season in order to enjoy it rather than feeling stressed out by it.  In preparation for the class, we had "pre-class" assignments.  The first was to make a "to do" list of all the things big and small that we need/want to do during the holidays. The second was to create a "Joy" layout about what we love about Christmas. Here is my Joy layout:

Big Giveaway

Samantha at Me and the Little Rascals is giving away an awesome pack of goodies.  Check it out and be sure to tell her Beth sent you.

Paper Tower Giveaway

Enter to win a Paper Tower.  The original scrapbox is giving one away.  To find out how to enter, and to enter a preliminary contest, visit Rachelle's Writing Spot.  I know I am going to play along!

Just catching up

I completed two layouts last week, but never found the time to post them.  The first one is from the Let's Scrap September Challenge sketch by Julie Bonner.  I used papers from Bo Bunny's Roughin It collection. It was a lot of fun to do.  I cut the fire, trees and little marshmallow shapes with the camp out cricut solutions cartridge.  The title is foam Thickers that I inked with brown ink to look like "toasted" marshmallow.  Used a white uniball pen to add the stitching.
The second layout is the 9-29-10 sketch at Let's Scrap.  I used a variety of mostly green patterned papers from my stash.  I made the circles using a circle template and an ink dauber, easy and fun and I love the effect.  Photos are of my family exporing the land we recently purchased adjoining the land our vacation home is on in East Jordan Michigan. Since we now own more than 160 acres, I like to tease my husband that I am married to a land baron, hense the title.

Wonderful Wednesday

I haven't posted for awhile.  so busy!  It is Wednesday which means a new sketch is posted at Let's Scrap

Here is my take on it:

These pics were taken on my daughter's 7th birthday.  I had lots of really cute "bubble" pics so thought this sketch was a good choice.  I printed out my pics 3 times before I was pleased with the size. Used really old papers and stickers from my stash.  The border punch is one of Martha Stewart's edge punches. 

New Sketch Reveal at Let's Scrap

Here is the new sketch at Let's Scrap posted today.

And here is my take on the sketch: "First Day of Kindergarten". 

I had a little bit of trouble fitting everything in since both my alphabet strip and my little squares along the bottom were bigger than the original sketch allowed for.  I am thinking about adding some Prisma glitter to the dots around the border because the frames around the little boxes at the bottom are glittery.  I used some Cosmo Cricket (the alphabet paper), and We R Memory Keepers ( the squares), along with various other papers from my stash. 

Got Sketch Ultimate School Album: Lesson #1

I signed up for the latest online class offered by Valerie Salmon and the Got Sketch? team.  It is a school album class.  I made a title page for each of my kids.  I had a hard time digging out all of Luke's pictures, but I managed it!  I did Megan's page pretty close to the example layout, then I chose various other apple print papers for the other three.  Sonya and Zack chose the ones they wanted for theirs.

Scrap It with a Song Blog Hop

I made this layout for 2 challenges.  First it was for the blog hop over at Scrap it with a Song.  You had to visit each blog and leave a comment, as well as creating a layout whose title was taken from the chosen song.  Too bad I didn't realize the deadline was at 8pm, I thought it was midnight, and didn't sit down to upload my pics until 9:30!!!!  I also made it work for the Math class assignment at Scrap-Friendzy's Scrap U.  We were to create a layout using the rule of thirds. The layout features a picture of my son Zachary and I.  He is a real Mama's boy!  I really shouldn't try to participate in these contests, it adds stress to my life, and I am usually less than thrilled with layouts that I hurry up and do mainly for a contest

Let's Scrap Wonderful Wednesday

I know that it is Thursday, but I am just getting around to posting the new sketch on Let's Scrap for 9-1-10.  And here is my layout based on this week's sketch.  If you haven't been to this wonderful sketch site, check it out.  My layout is made with mostly BoBunny papers with a little Best Creations, the surfboard paper, added.  The layout features pics of my son Zachary playing on a "surfboard" in our friend's pool.  Thanks for taking a look.

The Paper Variety

Come and check out this new blog The Paper Variety.  They are giving away the super cute Life is Cute collection from Echo Park.

Giveaway at My Scrap Stuff!

Abby at My Scrap Stuff  has posted a fun giveaway.  Check it out for a chance to win some free Crate Paper goodies.

Its Wonderful Wednesday

Its Wednesday, so that means a new sketch is up at Let's Scrap.  Here is my take on it:

Check it out at http://www.letsscrap.ning.com/.  For some reason I can't seem to get a decent photo of it.  It really does look much better IRL.  The photos on this layout were taken by my friend and daycare provider, Donna Flach.  She "shared" more than 200 pics with me!  I managed to include quite a few on this (30).  I used an older paper pack from CTMH.  The animals across the left page are simply cut from patterned paper.  I chose to hide the journaling behind the photos as it basically just lists all the kids names, and didn't fit very well into my design. (the original sketch has 16 pics in the center with room for journaling along the side.  I chose to use 20 pics instead.

I'm Back

Well. I've been back from my vacation for more than a week, and am finally getting around to posting something.  We had a marvelous time camping at Ludington (MI) State Park.  The weather was ideal, and I can't remeber Lake Michigan ever being nicer.  The water temp was 74 degrees!  I am not usually one to swim in the big lake, but I swam quite a bit this year!  I took over 400 pictures during the 10 days we were gone, many layouts to come.

Let's Scrap weekly Sketch

Here is my take on this week's sketch on Let's Scrap:

I used BoBunny Flower Child, the thermometer is We are Memory Keepers, 72 and Sunny line.  This layout is done with pictures of my kids playing in their little wading pool in the backyard.  I bought the little slide at a garage sale, mostly to use as steps for the trampoline, but it works pretty good for a pool slide too!  After these pics were taken, they moved the pool over to the swingset and put it at the end of the bigger slide.  The problem being that the pool is so little, that they crash into the far side as they slide down.  Fun for all except for the inevitable bumps and bruises!

Summer Home

I have been so busy with "life" that I haven't had much scrapping time.  In fact, it took me all week to upload the pics I took last weekend.  Mark and i both took Friday off so we could have a 3 day weekend to go up north to our home in East Jordan.  We haven't had much time there lately, and needed to do some stuff.

 

Here is the list of what we got done:

1. Installed replacement screen door

2. Painted double entry doors (green).

3. Power washed/cleaned small deck

4. Stained small deck.

5. Trimmed all the bushes.

6. Put new mulch in all the beds

7. Mowed "lawn" and drive

8. Trimmed back all trees around perimeter

Not bad for 2 days work.  We even managed to take the kids for a swim in Lake Charlevoix, to the local playground, and out for ice cream.  It sure helps to have a list, and just keep plugging away.  The hardest, and funniest, thing we did was getting the shredded bark mulch.  It was a self-serve yard, and here at home that means they have a loader available to use.  Not in Ellsworth!  Mark and I loaded the 600 lbs. of bark into the pick-up with our hands and 2 small buckets!  When he went back for more, at least he took a pitch fork, which made the job a lot easier.