First DT layout --- Scrapping 4 Fun Challenges

I am so excited to say that I am on my first Design Team for a new scrapbook challenge site.

 http://www.scrapping4funchallenges.blogspot.com

The site went live today with our first challenge.      The first challenge was a color challenge with a recipe challenge included in it.  I used all the colors in my layout and the recipe was to use:
Flowers,   mist or ink, title, journaling and dry embossing.
This was probably the very first layout I've ever made using only cardstock.   Didn't plan to do it that way, but just started by pulling out cardstock in all the colors in the combo so I could just find a starting point for maybe the background of the layout, but the I started working with it and like the look of only the card stock.   With the exception of the center strip,  the white is a wide ribbon and the light green is a strip of paper ribbon on top of it.     I had tried to mist on the light blue and just wasn't showing up so I just pulled out a blue ink pad and added some ink.   The dark blue triangle I used a Fiskars texture plate and hand rubbed the texture on it.     Then just added my flowers and did faux stitching around everything and my first Design Team project was complete.     So much fun.   Hope to see a lot of you joining this fun and new challenge site.

My First Day of School

I got these great pictures off of FB to do this back to school layout of my step grandkids.

I used the Aug. 16th sketch at www.shopscrapmuch.blogspot.com

I love the expression of Gibson looking up at his big brother Bryce ready to go to his first day of preschool.    And Bryce is such a great big brother helping him out.

Swim

I love it when a layout idea goes together well.   I searched and searched for this water paper knowing that I had a single piece left and FINALLY I found it.    I think it pops behind the picture and just the right touch to the layout.   I used Week 4 at LET'S GET SKETCHY.    I actually got all 4 weeks of completed this month.   I try every month but usually miss one.   Plus since I was the August Spotlight this month I wanted to make sure and make them all.   I do admit this sketch by Bev threw me a bit, bit I ended up making it work,  I just used two pictures instead of one that the sketch showed.

I didn't feel like getting my cricut going, well actually didn't want to clean the desk where it is, so looked in my Misc. embellie stash for a banner I could trace and just cut out.   So I found some chipboard ones and was going to trace and cut in different papers and them remembered that FROSTED DESIGNS, has a challenge going this week to use Chipboard,  so I looked and I had 5 pieces of chipboard banner and used 4 of them for background of my tittle.   Then I used some glittery Thicker Chipboard letters on the title and then kept looking in my stash and from another package found this chipboard journal box and it was the right colors and used it for my journaling.

Love it when everything comes together and I mixed and matched so many different collections and such.

Another PL page

I finished another PL page.   This one is just from last week.     My pages are sporadic to say the least.
But I wanted to make a page for the latest challenge at   http://week--2--week.blogspot.com
The challenge was to have food pictures on your PL page.   Last week was perfect for this as I had taken pictures while out to lunch on Tuesday and then Saturday when we grilled outside.
This is my favorite sandwich, a breaded tenderloin.   It doesn't look as big here as in person.   I had already cut the sandwich in half and was about to fold it over to fit on the bun.     I need to remember to always go on Tuesdays because that is when its their special and only $5.99 and comes with a side too.
YUMMY

Lovin the Sunshine

I've been waiting to use this paper that I won in a challenge and this picture of David and Nikki and the kids at the pool in Vegas was perfect.    I used the sketch at www.mycreativesketches.blogspot.com
It was such a fun sketch to work with.

It's Sushi Time

I made this layout using Sketch #119 from http://wwwsketchesinthyme.blogspot.
I really liked the sketch and using a longer title than I usually do.    The papers I used were just 3 different patterned papers I picked a single sheet up one time while shopping at Michaels.   I used a very thin double mat under the pictures, purple and then white and also a thin white mat under the main patterned paper and the circle.    Not my usual go to colors but I must have liked them at the store and then I thought they would go good with the colors in this picture.
Kai and Mylan love Sushi and I thought this picture was so cute of them waiting to eat a restaurant.

Bryce and Addisyn

I got this picture on FB awhile back.   I think this was taken on Addisyn's first birthday.
I tried a new paper pack I got last Christmas from my SIL and I really hadn't tried much of it before.
But I pulled out 3 different sheets  and started putting this together following the latest sketch at
http://www.shopscrapmuch.blogspot       I just mixed the papers and patterns and actually liked how it turned out.   The flower embellishments I used, I actually just got last week as a hostess gift for a swap I had.

Happy Birthday Kai - page 2

This is my 2nd page from pictures at Kai's birthday party.   His party was at a game center and bowling alley and it looks like they had a lot of fun.     I used Sketch #120 at Sketches in Thyme for this layout and again more papers form K&Co = Confetti collection.

Happy Birthday Kai

Kai's birthday was last month and this bad Grandma is just getting around to scrapping some of the pictures I got.    I loved sketch #43 at My Scraps and More blog and new it would be perfect for these 2 pictures of Kai out with his Dad picking out his new bike for his present.    When I first picked the papers to use I thought I would cut down the background paper I used from the K&Co Confetti pad and put it on a solid cardstock.   But I really liked what looked like yellow inking around the edges so I just pulled some dark green cardstock from my scrap stash and cut thin pieces and made a frame inside the background paper.   Then used the same cardstock to mat the pictures.   I used some scraps I had from another piece of the Confetti collection to fill my opposite two squares.    For my title I had a 6x6 piece of paper that was covered in Happy Birthday in different fonts and just picked this one and cut it out and then matted on the same card stock and used popdots on it to give it a little dimension.

Before & After

I'm going to enter this layout in two challenges.    I had no idea Mylan's hair had gotten this long till Susan sent me this picture the other day when she got it cut.   I thought it was so great to have the before and after picture and printed it immediately so I could scrap it.

I found the perfect sketch to use with the Let's Get Sketchy - Week 3 sketch.   It just happens to be my favorite weekly go to place for sketches.     And I happen to be the Spotlighted there for August.    Yeah me.    :)       You can find the latest sketch at Let's Get Sketchy  here.

  http://letsgetsketchy.blogspot.com/2013/08/augustweek-3-sketch-challenge-at-lgs.html

Next the latest challenge at Whimsical Twist where the challenge is to share your favorite layout about a favorite thing or person.
This became my favorite for many reasons.   Because of the picture like I said above and of course my favorite Granddaughter and then because, I was brave enough to mix so many colors and patterns.   Then mostly because I used all scraps but my background paper.  
I've been trying to pull out paper collections at random and just using them, no questions asked.   This was an old collection.  Basic Grey - Lauderdale and I really didn't have that much left of it, but a lot of scraps of various sizes.  Even the matting behind the picture was cardstock scraps.  So I made it work and was very happy with the result.   Here is the link for Whimsical Twist.

http://whimsicaltwist.com/blog/uncategorized/favorites/#comments

About a Girl - White Space Challenge

A very simple layout featuring 3 favorite "girls" in my life.   My daughter, Leslie who is holding her niece, my grand-daughter Mylan and Mylans' Mom, Susan.    This was taken at Mylan's first Christmas in 2009.

Bridesmaid and Ring Bearer

I made this layout for the Aug 1st challenge at It's About the Girls to just use one color and that color had to come from the main color in the picture used.    This is a picture of my daughter and my grandson at my son's wedding.  I used black as my primary color pulling from her dress and his suit.

Yummy Ice Cream

I love this picture of Gibson while eating ice cream, his Mom posted it on FB and said, "this is why we eat ice cream outside."     I used sketch #97 at Sketchabilities so I'll be entering it there and I'm also going to enter it at the About a Boy August challenge for anything goes.   I like how al the different browns went with the green background that I picked out to go with the shirt Gibson has on.

Homecoming 1968

I found these old High School pictures and just had to make a layout.   My Mom made my dress and I loved it.   My date was John Sunderland and I have a feeling his Mom also made his jacket so it would match my dress,  John's Mom was my Mom's hairdresser so we knew her well.   I'm sure at the time we looked great, but looking at John's jacket now I have to laugh.   I think the beige paisley paper I used pretty much matches the jacket.      I used Sketch #42 at My Scraps and More sketch blog challenge.
I used a blue/grey cardstock to go with wall color in the pictures and all the other brown papers were from my stash of scraps.

Birthday Card

Sshhh, don't look Mylan, this will probably be the birthday card I sent to you this year.
I combined challenges for this card.   Over at Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits blog the challenge they just posted is called Over the Edge and you have to have some of your elements had to be hanging over the edge of your page.   I just got these pop-up balloons as a hostess gift in a swap and decided they would be perfect to use having the balloons "fly" off the card.   I'm also entering this card in my yahoo group Scrappin N Chattin for our 52 week card challenge which is "torn"   I used dark blue cardstock as my card base and then tore all the way around some balloon paper I had.    The Happy sentiment is an ATC I got in a swap.   It was an ATC for the letter H, but I thought it would work great as a birthday card sentiment.   Who can't be happy on your b'day and with balloon all over the place.

Grandparents

My daughter-in-law, Susan spent 2 weeks out in California visiting her family and she posted some awesome pictures of the kids on FB.    One of the pictures was this great one of her parents and 5 of their grandkids, including the 2 we share which is Kai and Mylan.    I just loved the picture so wanted to be sure and scrap it and include it in the kids album.      The week 2 skecth at Let's Get Sketchy bloodspot worked perfect for it.

Christmas 1964

I have had these pictures sitting on my desk for over a month now just waiting for the perfect sketch.
I found it !!!   sketchnscrap blogspot  Sketch #39 for August 15th was it.
I used Echo Park Happy Holidays collection.   Not the usual colors I go to in a Christmas layout, I'm more the pure reds and green person.   But since I was using black and white photos decided to change it up a bit.   But what I'm really happy about is finally getting these pictures scrapped.   I have 3 more from 1964 to work with so can't wait to get those done too.

Here is the link to where the challenge is         http://sketchnscrap.blogspot.co.nz

Scrapping 4 Fun Challenges - DT call

There is a new challenge blog starting out and looking for their first design team.
I'm going to try out.   Are you?


http://scrapping4funchallenges.blogspot.com/2013/07/design-team-call.html

Lasting Memories Scavenger Hunt Birthday Blog Hop

How FUN was this.   www.kcclayoutchallenges.blogspot.com had a blog hop with 10 people and at each stop you wrote down their featured "element" they were using in their layout and then when you were finished with your list of 10 elements you make an anything goes layout using 5 of the 10 elements.    So here is my layout.   Once again pics of the grandkids while on vacation in California the last 2 weeks.
I used these 5 elements     Twine,  Washi Tape, Diecut, Stamping and Chipboard.

My twine is 2 pieces down the left edge of layout
Washi Tape - 3 strips of gold w/ stars washi tape horizontally across center of layout under the pictures.
Die-Cut - the sand buck, the sand castle  and the seashell on the title.
Stamping -  I stamped 2 seashells on the file folder at bottom right, which I used for the date of pics.
Chipboard - the 2 pc bathing suit at the right side of the title.

So much fun doing the blog hop and making the layout plus so many of the 10 also had great blog candy they were offering.

Relax

I could have used this picture of Mylan in either direction, but since she was reclined in a recliner I decided to go with the horizontal look.    I love her smile in this picture and also how her hair is all spread out around her.        I had so much fun using a lot of my MME Sunny Side collection for this
and the great sketch in the sketch-y friday challenge over at www.shopscrapmuch.blogspot.
This is a new challenge blog for me but looking forward to following them and doing more challenges there.    Check them out.

Ocean View - ScrapStuffz "inspired by" Challenge

I love this picture of Mylan standing on the beach and the ocean in the background.   Even though she isn't looking at the ocean scenery you can tell that it is such a beautiful and tranquil spot.
I didn't have any ocean time this summer but so glad I got to see it through all the pictures of my grandkids while they were in California for 2 weeks visiting the other grandparents.    Plus it gave me so many new pictures to scrap.  Love it.  
I'm entering this layout at the ScrapStuffz "Inspired by" Challenges.     Their picture inspiration was of beach chairs sitting in the sand and facing the ocean.    So I thought this picture went with it perfectly.

Cheesetique & Yummy

This was a fun layout to make I really liked how it turned out.  These are pictures from our first dinner out at Cheesetique in Shirlington Village, when I went to visit Leslie and Jason in July to go wedding dress shopping.    The weather was perfect and we ate outside and I had the most awesome adult grilled cheese sandwich and homemade potatoe salad.   It's a favorite spot for the kids to go to and will be a favorite of mine to on my next visit.   I could have eaten there every day.    I used sketch #41 at
My Scraps and More sketch blog and it also works for the challenge at Colorful Creations - E challenge
for using layers and buttons as their embellishment challenge this month.
Then I'm also using it as my layout for this week for the 52 week challenge at my yahoo group.  ScrappinNChattin.

This Week's PL page

The weeks not over but since I've just been making single pages this covers the majority of my week of anything than the everyday scrapbooking watching TV week.
I'm entering this at www.week--2--week.blogspot.com   for their PL challenge to make your own journaling card, which I have made two on the page.    My MESSY week consisted of moving everything around on my scrapping desk so Arthur could rearrange my printers and give me more work space.  For about an hour I had a very very clean work space but then I started scrapping again.   But I do have to admit the new deeper space on the desk with no printer there makes a huge difference.
Then we also decided to have an attic fan installed this week and that made a mess all over the place, but now everything is back to normal.     I just wish it would cool off and humidity would drop so I could try it out and sleep with the windows open and get more a breeze coming thru.

WOW

July 4th might be over but I still got to scrap new fireworks pictures.     The challenge this week at
Lasting Memories    www.kcclayoutchallenges.blogspot.com    happens to be use starts and stripes.
Susan took the kids out to California for 2 weeks to visit all her family and they went to the Orange
County Fair and these are pics of the fireworks from that night they got to see.    I have lots of pictures
left to scrap from all the fun they seemed to be having at the fair.
I'm not sure who this paper is by but it was a single sheet of black with silver stars, so I just kept it simple and I had a piece of glossy silver cardstock and used that to cue 4 strips and made my layout.

TREATS

After our trip to Texas to visit the kids.   Dad sent each of them $10.  to buy treats at the
local splash pool.   So I scrapped these 2 pictures.   One of the kids holding up their money
to say thank you to Papa B and then the other picture of them at the pool having treats.

I used the latest sketch at Sketchabilities blogspot sketch #96.     I loved the clean lines of
it.  I used a very pale blue cardstock for the base paper and red cardstock to mat the pictures from my scrap stash.  Then I used one page of Pink Paislee  paper, from the Declaration collection, got to cut it and use both sides of it.   Love it when that works out and then used red ink to ink the edges.  
Then added to purple flowers and red pearls in the center.

Let's Get Sketchy - August Week 1

Since I'm in the spotlight this month at Let's Get Sketchy I didn't want to waste anytime making my layout from the week one sketch.

I love working with Black and White but usually add Red as my splash of color

when using B&W, but since there was a little bit of yellow in the pictures that

I used I decided for this layout to mat all my B&W strips in yellow.

I'm really happy I did it this way because I really think it is so cheery looking.

Whimsical Twist Challenge

My friend Sandi from my yahoo group scrappin-n-chattin is on the Design Team for this new challenge blog.   Whimsical Twist.      http://whimsicaltwist.com/blog/
Their first challenge was inspired by summer pictures.     Perfect timing for me because I just got these pics of my grandkids on FB having fun at the beach while they are on vacation in California.

Cousin Time

I made this layout of Kai and Mylan with their cousins they were visiting on a trip to California.
I used Sketch #35 at Artful Delight.   When I first saw the sketch I wasn't sure about how I would like it.   But I just opened up my scrap paper drawer and pulled out a bunch of different pagers and started cutting different sizes of circles.  In the end I really like how it turned out.   Totally different than anything else I've made.    So check out the sketch at Artful Delight and see what you can do.

Wedding preparations have started

I went to DC for 4 days towards the end of July and got to go wedding dress shopping with Leslie.
I didn't cry, but did get misty eyed when she walked out wearing the first dress.    I have to say I have a beautiful daughter.    We went to three different bridal salons and she found the perfect dress at the first stop.   Alfred Angelo, it was probably the 7th dress she tried on and kept going back to that one at each shop.     Since the wedding isn't until May 4, 2014 I still had to come home and start making layouts.
So this layout is pictures I took of her with the dress she bought.    She loved it as is, but then they added the jeweled sash and it was even better and then topped it off with the veil, and viola we have a beautiful bride.      I used week 3 sketch at Let's Get Sketchy, but unfortunately I was a day late in getting it finished and didn't get it entered in time.   But still loved the sketch.

Then just this last weekend I had to keep making more "pre-wedding" layouts.    The top one shows the dress we got in the big picture and then every small picture are dresses she tried on and didn't like for one reason or another.       I can honestly say Leslie looked  great in every dress so made it hard for me to pick a favorite, but I could tell her favorite just by the smile and look in her eyes and I agreed with her 100%
These last two layout I made for challenges in the yahoo group I belong to   Scrappin-n-chattin.
The top one was a sketch and paper collection picked for me by my partner for a 24 hour challenge.
The collection is MME Indie Chic.      The the double page layout is for one of the August challenges to  mat the pictures in the layout 4 times.

SMILES

LOVE these two totally different smiles on Addisyn.  Sweet and innocent and fun and happy.
I used the sketch #38 by Lisa Hidy at www.sketchnscrap.blogspot.com.   I used a combo of products.
The photo mat paper and the heart paper at top and bottom were the front and back designs from the Bo Bunny Love Letters collection and the the pink background paper was from Jillibean Soup, Blossom Soup collection.   I thought they went together real well.    Then some black card stock strips from my leftover stash   Wood veeners, both hearts and arrows.  and then I had trouble finding all the letters I needed from my title from one set of Thickers so used The cap S from one set and the rest from another.