Hello Hello! I have with my last project on the  Paper Issues blog today, and it's for the Treasure Map challenge. I always like challenges where I get to choose my design but have to use specific items!  This was definitely a challenge but so much fun. 

Today I used, White, gold, polka dots, frames, flair, ephemera and washi. Let me tell you, the two what were the hardest for me to stick to was the ephemera OR stickers and black or white. Want a tip on that one? Use a collection that has no black in it! This time of year it's a little easier. Summer collections such as the Echo Park Pool Party use navy instead of black. Ok, that problem solved. 

I started with the Sunbeam Stitching FREE cut file. I wanted to do something different with the sun part of it. That was the perfect place to create a little embellishment cluster using a frame and flair. I added some extra details with an Elle's Studio stamp and some gold sequins. It was really hard to use only ephemera, but that was the choice I made because I wanted to use the frames. I added some washi as one of the layers under the photo as the last treasure item on my map. Phew, I got them all on there!. Where is my treasure?

Slice

Hey there! I'm up on The Cut Shoppe blog today sharing this page I made using The X File. This is file that has been around for a while. I've never used it, but always wanted to. So here it is. 

I love circles don't you? They are so easy to use on layouts. They make everything happy! This cut file has the added bonus of the X in the middle. I was thinking 'X marks the spot' kind of goes with my son's first time hitting golf balls with his Grandfather.  

Today I cut the file out of patterned paper from the Echo Park Good Day Sunshine collection. I decided to back only some of the circles. I didn't want it to look too busy. I like some of the open white space! I used a few embellishments to finish it off, including A Flair for Buttons flair. I love how this cut file is both background and embellishment too!

Thanks so much for stopping by my creative view today. I have more to share so stop by again soon!

Candidly Speaking

Hey there! I have a layout in today's article on the Get It Scrapped blog. We are talking about unique ways to scrapbook pages about Parties.  Not only the photos, but the stories and the products used to enhance the stories. I had fun with this one. 

Whenever we have a family party, my Dad and sister manage to capture the best candid photos. Each of our expresssions are unique to our personality and are eveident in each photo.

I used Echo Park Good Day Sunshine for it's bright summery colors, with icons that indicate summer as well as photos such as the camera, the banner and sunglasses. These all indicate the season, as well as the candid nature of the photos.

I scraplifted with Paper Issues which really worked in my favor for this project. It's a simple design so I could get all the photos on the page with out them getting lost or overwhelmed by product. 

My son graduated High School last week. We celebrated with a very casual brunch party. This is a big life changing event for him as well as us and it is an event to always remember.

Thanks for stoping by my creative view today. Come back again soon, I have more to share.

Supplies: cardstock & alpha-American Crafts, Patterned paper, stickers, die cuts and chipboard-Echo Park, Flair-A Flair for Buttons, pen-Tombow

Imagine

Good morning! Today's article at Get It Scrapped talks about piecework in designing scrapbook pages, similar to piecing together a quilt.  

I really struggled with this design option. I started with 3 Columns/whitepace, but wound up feeling more comforatbale with the Vertical Axis piecework design. I only had 2 photos and this option enabled me to use embellishments in the opposite corners to balance the photos. I use similar designs often, but when I began thinking about it here, it became a roadblock. I overthought and I shouldn't have. When I've used this design before, I've used a large matte under the photos. Not using this one element really left me stumped!

All of my son's Lego kit creations broke when we moved. He tried to put them back together, but gave up and went back to his imagination creating new ones from the bucket of pieces.  

I couldn't think of a better choice than Echo Park's Imagine That. It's filled with all kinds of playful motifs you may find in a boy's imagination. You can find it at Paper Issues. Be sure you use DEVRA at checkout for 20 % off your purchase. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my creative view today. Come back again soon. I have more to share. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper-BoBunny, echo Park, Fancy Pants, die cuts, stickers, brads, chipboard-Echo Park, Nuvo Drops, pen and Adhesice-EK Success

Judges Say...

Yes! Im back again with another Paper Issues challenge, Pawsitively Pets. This month is all about our pets' adventures. Vacations, trips to the park, visits to the vet, just about anything.

The only way to do this page was with bright summer colors. Lucky for me, I have some! Pebbles Sunshiny Days and Echo Park Summer Dreams look great together. I mixed the big and small prints pretty randomly. Since the colors are so bold, I limited the embellishments. I played around with the title, using the WRMK Thickers alignment guide to curve it.  

I love my dog. He loves the water. Only we didn't know it until our first visit to my Dad's house. There was no coaxing him into the water. He got right in. All it took was throwing a ball and he was jumping halfway across the pool. Over and over he jumped in.

Thanks so much for being here again at my creative view. It's a busy month around here so come back again soon! Theres new stuff in the shop this week. Get some for 20% off using DEVRA at checkout.

Supplies: CS, alphas-American Crafts, PP-Pebbles. Echo Park, Stickers-Echo Park, flair-A flair for Buttons, Enamel dots-Freckled Fawn, MME, cork-One Canoe Two, mist-delusions

Bucket of Fun

Oh good morning! I love Sundays! Especially in summer. Well, also because it Scraplift Sunday at Paper Issues.  Today we lifted a lovely layout by Amanda. Here is what I did with it.

Yep. It's pretty much the same. I took some liberty with the title placement, but I liked it the way it was.   I had to laugh a little as I was using Summer Dreams by Echo Park. It's really a very girly leaning collection. Why? Who knows, but summer colors are summer colors, and summer icons are summer icons. They all made it onto this page! Stickers, die cuts, enamel pieces and chipboard all add to the delightfully summeriness on this page.

For several years, we would make the long drive to my Dad's house. The backyard and pool are so inviting. My son loves being out there with everyone. Sometimes he likes the pool, sometimes not. This was definitely a day where he liked the pool. Especially the bucket with the holes in the bottom from Grammy. What's more fun that filling a bucket and watching al the water spill out so you can so it again?

Thanks so much for stopping by my creative view today. Hey over to the shop, get some Summer Dreams or other new goodies for yourself. Use code DEVRA for 20% off your purchase! Join our Facebook group for fun ideas and lots of challenges!

Supplies: PP, stickers, die cuts, chipboard, enamel pieces-Echo Park, mist-Tattered Angels, Heidi Swapp

Catchin' Rays

Hey there! I'm still plugging along and here to share our last challenge for May at Paper Issues,  a Product Spotlight on the new Echo Park collections. 

Oh, I am so ready for summer.  I am not a cold weather person and it's been a really long winter.  I'm just ready for warm weather.  I want to feel the sun and it's warmth everyday.  Summer Dreams  feels like everything I want from summer! The colors, are awesome and I love the new layered stickers This paper is my favorite in the whole collection. Once again, we have a free cut file that coordinates. I used the sun with some of the cardstock stickers. I layered up a few papers and called it a day. Now I'm really ready for summer! 

So if you haven't already, you better get some of this. It's hot. Pun intended. The colors are amazing and its flying out of the shop. Use my code DEVRA at checkout, for 20% off your order  

Supplies:m PP, Stickers, die cuts,  Echo Park, enamel dots-MME, alphas-American Crafts

Future Chef?

Hey there and Happy May Day! New month means a new sketch challenge at Stuck?! Sketches.  Here is our fantastic new sketch

Here is how I used it. I used the sketch pretty much as shown but I made the corner pieces much smaller. My photos aren't great and I thought the larger bottom piece might overwhelm them.  As smaller pieces, they give my page a nice diagonal flow, keeping the focus on the photos. 

So, I'm not really sure how this went down. I need to call my sister to find out is she remembers. It's either that we were baking cookies when my younger son tried to join us, so we gave him some flour to play with, or we gave him the flour to play with to see what he would do and not bother us while we were baking. Either way, he really liked playing with it. And the cookies were good too. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. Come back again soon, I have more to share.

Supplies: CS-American Crafts, PP-Echo Park, doily-BoBunny, Embellishments-Fancy Pants, Lilly Bee, Freckled Fawn, Pink Paislee, mist-Studio Calico.

Me. Myself and I

Hey there! I almost forgot to post this! I,'m on a good roll with challenges and blogging this month. Mostly due to Calvinball. Now If I can only keep it up. Next up for me is a cheeky little number I created for the Paper Issues Spring Crop using the Sketch + 3 from Scrap Our Stash this month. 

I adjusted the sizes and number of the photos, also adjusting some into 3x4 cards instead. The rest is pretty much the same. From the 3 columns I used Graphic paper, (black & white) hot pink & hearts, and ink (splatters). Since I do so many boy pages, I always love a chance to use a doily. 

The Paper Issues challenge was to use a selfie. I'll say I did. I'll take a few Calvinball points for that too. You know me, I like to add humor to my pages. There is not better way to do that than to make fun of yourself. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. Come back again soon, there is alway something going on around here.

Supplies: PP-Basic Grey, Echo Park, MME, stickers-Echo Park, chipboard-Simple Stories, Bella Blvd, brads-MME, washi-Hobby Lobby, twine-The Twinery, doily-BoBunny, ink-Tattered Angels, Dylusions

Always Aunt Helen

Hey there and good morning! We made it past PI day to the middle of the month. That means it's time for a new sketch challenge at Stuck?! Sketches. 

Here is the new sketch

You have to know me well enough to know that, a) I use a lot of 4x6 photos, so b) I flip and adjust sketches to work of the photos I have. That is the beauty of Laura's sketches. They are so easily adaptable. They work for any style page with any size photos.  So yes, I flipped it on it's side once clockwise, but left the design alone. 

Just to show you how versatile this sketch is, I also stretched it out into a 2 page layout. I did the dame thing by flipping it on it's side, then connected the two sides by using the same paper in the middle. I still used only 3 embellishment areas.  This sketch could also easily become a 2 page layout just by duplicating it as it is. 

I know I promised no more baseball pages from this album, but I lied. However, these are the last two pages. That I can promise you. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. I've got lots going on this week, so come back again soon.

1 pg LO supplies -CS-AC, Bazzil, PP-Echo Park, doilies & enamel pieces-Doodlebug Design, tags, Freckled Fawn, Jellybean Soupacrylic pieces-Freckled Fawn, Color Cast Designs, stickers-Lily Bee, Fancy Pants, washy-queen & Co, twine-Recollections, flag-Pebbles, alphas-Lily Bee, October Afternoon, punch-EK Success, stickles

2 pg LO supplies-CS-AC, PP, stickers, doilies, enamel pieces-Doodlebug Design, Dimensional stickers-Paper House, twine-Recollections, alphas-Thickers

More from Momo's Birthday

Hey there! I got to play! Well, actually, I have to thank Get It Scrapped for giving me a push to start working on the project that I'd set aside for several years. Combine that with a few challenges and I'm finding myself almost finished! Here are two more completed pages using sketches and challenges from Scrap Our Stash and ScrapMuch?

Fort up is the Sketch + 3 from Scrap Our Stash . 

I knew I could use the sketch in my album. I used 2 larger photos, instead of the smaller ones and moved some embellishments around. Not every page in the album has a title, such as this one. I used American Crafts-White Cardstock, Blue, and Red. Considering I'm using the same product throughout the album, this was pretty easy to do ;-). 

Next is the sketch from ScrapMuch?  One look and I knew it would also work in the album. 

I did two things right away; flip it on its side and use larger photos. I printed all the photos for this book in 4x6 and I was not re-printing any of them!  This sketch adjustment worked great for me. I kept it simple and it came together quickly. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. I'm almost done sharing baseball photos. Well, maybe...Come back again soon. I've been busy and have much to share.

"Slugger" Supplies: CS-American Crafts,  Bazzill, PP, stickers, Doodlebug Design, Tag-Queen & Co, Flair-UmmWow Studio, twine-Recollections, enamel dots-MME, mist-Tattered Angels, thread DMC, Silhouette

"Star" Supplies: PP-Echo Park, Stickers-PaperHouse, Echo Park, Wood pieces-Lawn Fawn, Studio Calico, doily & Washi-Doodlebug Design, Punch-EK Success, mist-Tattered Angels

What's Owl The Buzz About

my, oh my, Happy September to you. It is a very happy day around here. For me anyway. It's the first day of school! I'll take those early mornings in exchange or a bit of routine for all of us. Oh, a new month also means a new challenge at Picture This.  This challenge is :

2 photos + green + white + black

I think I'll do a Halloween page. I LOVE Halloween. Really. And I love scrapping the photos even more. Bright colors, creepy critters, silly critters, but always smiling faces.  All of those can be mixed together as I've done here. Spider webs? Creepy. Monsters with mustaches? Silly. Photos? Definitely happy. Bright colors mixed into the green, black and white? Easily done. 

My parents came for a visit and got to experience Halloween in all the ways, school parties and parades as well as Trick or Treating. I'm not sure who enjoyed this more, my son or my parents. Regardless, these are the first of several pages of this particular Halloween. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. I'm starting this month off with a bang. There will be much more coming along this month. one back again soon

Supplies-PP-SEI, Echo Park, Bo Bunny, Stickers-Echo Park, Chipboard-BoBunny, enamel pieces-Bella Blvd, sequins-Studio Calico, Doodlebug Design, Michaels, alphas-Eco Park, American Crafts, mist-Dylusions, twine-DoodlebugDesign

Silly Boys

Good morning! It is Pinspire Me Monday at Paper Issues. Shannon created the board filled with inspiration. There is truly something there for everyone. 

I was inspired by the dark backgrounds in a few of the images. I had this series of photos of my son and his BFF being silly after spending a long day at our neighborhood Memorial Day picnic. They were so goofy! The looks on their faces, their interactions with each other were hilarious. I couldn't choose one or two photos. I needed to use them all. 

I used a sketch from ScrapMuch?!  I didn't change it very much at all. It was perfect for what I wanted to do. I loved the stickers and die cuts from the Echo Park Jack & Jill Collection and thought it would be fun to use an abundance of them in one place. 

You can find Echo Park and much more in the Paper Issues shop. Please use my code BEACHGAL for 20% off your order.

Thanks for stopping by my creative view this morning. It's going to be a busy week, so come back again

Supplies: PP-Echo Park, Simple Stories, Die Cuts, Stickers-Echo Park, brads-Simple Stories, Twine-The Twinery, Enamel Dots-Teresa Collins, MME, 

Super Star Smile

Good morning and Happy Passover and Easter. I'm up for my first challenge on the Red Carpet Studios blog. For inspiration, I chose a movie that is dear to my Baseball loving heart:

The challenge is to create your own "field". In other words, create your own background for your project. I had a lot of fun with this one. 

I recently discovered how fun the Silhouette sketch pens are to use. I used them to sketch this incredible cut file created by Jennifer Chapin for Paper Issues. I sprayed mist over the sketched stars, then added some gold star what tape to give the appearance of defined lines between the colors. This really created the burst effect I was looking for. I stuck with the patriotic colors for the papers, adding in a multi color stripe for interest, and vellum to keep it light. A few labels anchor the embellishments, and done. 

While visiting family last summer, we found my younger son loved to sit on the raft while we pushed him around the pool. We also discovered that he liked yanking the flags out of the flower pot and swinging them around. I think he just liked that he could hold his pile of toys, and be with all of us at the same time. 

Thanks for looking at my creative view today. Stop by again as I always have more to share

Supplies: CS-Bazzill, Silhouette, cut file Jennifer Chapin for Paper Issues, PP-Echo Park, Studio Calico, mist-Tattered Angels, labels-October Afternoon, Freckled Fawn,  resin, wood & washy-freckled Fawn, sequins-Studio Calico, Michaels, brads & bling-Echo Park, MME, alphas-Freckled Fawn, American Crafts

Brain Games

Hey there! It's bonus Monday at Let's Get Sketchy. Yup. 5 Mondays in March mean an extra challenge. Here is the sketch

I created this layout using 4x6 photos instead of 2 smaller photos. However, because I stacked 2 horizontal photos, I changed the design to an all vertical format. 

My Mom loves to do puzzles. All kinds, crosswords especially. But recently she's jumped on the Sudoku bandwagon. While we were visiting, I caught her trying to teach both my son and my Grandfather how to do it too. My Grandfather didn't take to it, but my son sure did. He now has several Sudoku books of his own.

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. It's going to be a busy week. So, come back again.

Supplies: PP, stickers, alphas-Echo Park, wood, clip and resin-Freckled Fawn, Stencil-TCW, Mist-Tattered Angels

By My Side

Good morning! It's another busy Sunday around here. First up is a new challenge at Red Carpet Studios. This week's movie choice is The Lucky One. Your challenge is to use gold and the word "lucky" somewhere on your project.

I know my first inclination should have been to be more supportive of the St. Patricks Day theme, but that's not really my style. I came across this photo of my son and I. It made me think of the day, and what we were doing. We were on a boat on our way to San Juan Island. It was a miserable, cold, rainy, summer day. It was not a good day to be out on deck. So, we sat inside at the table the whole trip.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized, yes, he pretty much was always by my side. Truthfully, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had a bright and colorful paper collection, unopened and waiting to be cut up. I loved the circle paper. All tucked in and nestled against each other, much like my son and I. All of the sentiment stickers I chose tell my feelings about him, in general. Some are definitely a bit on the sarcastic side. There are some tags outlined in gold tucked around the page as well as gold paint splatter. Layered over the tag on the left side on the photo is a sentence made up of stickers "lucky 2 B, you & me"

This is also inspired by the STENCIL challenge at Scrap Our Stash.  I used stickers, twine, Echo Park, number, chipboard, inked edges, labels

Thanks for stopping by my creative view today. I've got another post up today for Picture This

and you can find it HERE

Supplies: PP-Echo Park, chipboard-Echo Park and unknown, alpha, flair and gold tags-Freckled Fawn, stickers-Echo Park, Simple Stories, twine-The Twinery. mist-Heidi Swapp

Wrestlemania

Hey hey hey, It's Monday and time for a new sketch challenge at Let'sGet Sketchy.  I love this sketch. This is a design I use quite often. It works all over the page and with one or more photos. 

Today I flipped the sketch and used it horizontally. I moved some things around, but the general design is clearly evident. I made the paper strips larger and reduced the amount and size of the circular elements. Those became the Superhero speech bubbles. 

My younger son loved physical play. He loved to roughhouse and wrestle. Once you get him started he doesn't stop. He also doesn't know his own strength.  I chose primary colors in basic patterns to give the page energy. I immediately thought of the superhero speech bubbles as a way to help show more energy on my page. Especially after the wood pieces arrived in the mail.  It's a pure bonus that I also have the washi tape too.  

I'm glad you stopped by my creative view to look at his page. It was a fun page to put together. Come back again, I have lots to share.

Supplies: CS-Bazzill, PP-Echo Park, Fancy Pants, Making Memories, Bo Bunny, Stickers-Echo Park, washi-Queen & Co, wood pieces-Freckled Fawn, enamel dots-MME, mist-Studio Calico, Alphas-American Crafts

When I Grow Up

Good morning and Happy March. 20 days until spring. Yippee! This is the beginning of an absolutely insane crafty month for me. It just so happens that lots of extra crafty surprises all came uo in the same month. So let's just begin shall we?

A new challenge is up today at Red Carpet Studio challenges. This week, our challenge is inspired by the movie Public Enemies. The theme is the Good Old days and we are asking that you use a distress technique on your project.

Distress huh? ok, I accept. Long ago, I learned to sad the edges of my paper, then use brown ink over it to give it a distressed look. So that's what I did here. It is really subtle, but I promise you it is there. I used an older sketch by Sketch n Scrap from one of my Pinterest boards. I thought this would be a good one for distressing because it has several layers.  I chose papers in primary colors and embellishments that all lend a hand to growing up, school and celebrating.

These photos were on an old disposable camera that I found and had developed. They are from 2005! This was Pre-school graduation day for my son. They were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up and to "decorate" their traced selves in that way. This is the only time that I can remember, that my son has ever answered this question. It is not likely I will ever forget it. 

Thanks for stopping by my creative view on what will surely be a wild and crafty month. Come back again to see what else I have to share

Supplies- PP, stickers, alphas & washi-Echo Park, tags-MME, Jillibean Soup, Brads-MME, chipboard-Crate paper, clip-Queen & Co, wood and arrows, Studio Calico & Basic Grey, ink-Colorbox.

Jack x4

Well, February is already over,  and it appears March is upon us.  That means new challenges begin to day. The first one I am sharing today is for Picture This. Our first challenge this month is:

 One photo + circles + tilt

My favorite thing about this challenge blog are there are endless ways to interpret the ingredients. I chose circular elements as well as polka dot paper. Tilt can be subtle as I've chosen here. 

I was happy to be able to use a sketch from Stuck?! Sketches. The fun layering enabled me to use lots of pattern and color, as well as an excuse to use my colored doilies! I love Halloween and Halloween colors. This was a fun page to put together.

I have so much going on this month. I will have a post almost every day. I hope you will share in my creative view. It's going to be a crazy one!

Supplies: PP-Lily Bee, Echo Park, Fancy Pants, brads, button &photo corners-Queeen & Co, Washi-Bella Blvd, chipboad and Alpha-American Crafts, Mist-Heidi Swapp, Tattered Angels, Enamel Dots-MME, Twine and doilies-Doodlebug Desings, stickers-Simple Stories, Freckled Fawn, resin-Freckled Fawn

SnowScape

Please go HERE for today's Paper Issues Swag Bag Post

Please go HERE for today's Picture This post  

Hey there, I'm here today for several Sunday reveals. This first one is this week's challenge at Red Carpet Studios. This week's movie inspiration is Winter's Tale with the challenge to use paint or gesso and a winter theme.

I used to take a lot of photos of my backyard after a snow storm. I wasn't are I would ever do anything with them though. Now that I no longer live there, I have a different perspective.  These are photos from 2010, the last winter in this home, the last photos I have of our snowy backyard. 

I needed a simple design, so I scoured one of my Pinterest boards and found this sketch from Sketch-N-Scrap. I had a few winter themed papers with embellishments making this easy to put together. The doilies liken themselves to snowflakes, working well on the page. I used a small amount of paint, the splatters in the background. I like the contrast of the red to brighten the page. 

I'm glad you came by today to look at my creative view. It's a busy week, come back gain soon

Supplies: PP, Echo Park, Carta Bella, Stickers-Carta Bella, Bling-unknown, mist-Studio Calico, Doilies-BoBunny