A Very Special Day...

We celebrated my husband's birthday this week which is a very special day in my opinion.  I mean, I couldn't imagine my life without him and without him we wouldn't have these beautiful, wild (sometimes nerve-wracking) kids to light up our lives (and scrapbook about).  He truly is the love of my life, a wonderful man, husband and dad.  So we celebrated him...

Supplies used:  Cardstock - Bazzill; Ink - ColorBox Chalk and Pigment Inks and VersaMagic; Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye; Punch - Fiskars; Sewing machine - Singer; Stamps - Basic Grey, Studio AE, Studio G & Technique Tuesday

I got the idea for this card from a Finally Friday video over at Two Peas in a Bucket.   I love the subway art concept and it was lots of fun putting this one together - although, it is very time consuming.  I smudged the ink in a couple places too and tried my best to cover it up but a little imperfection is just like life, right? 

On The Hunt...

Here's a layout I've been working on for the past couple of days.  It's based on the most recent sketch posted by Liz Chidester over at The Scrappiest.  I used the new My Mind's Eye On The Bright Side collection for pretty much everything except the die cut tag and I used a sheet of the MME Darling Dear for the yellow part.



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Supplies used: Baker's twine - Martha Stewart; Buttons - GCD Studios (turquoise) & craft supplies (yellow & green); Cardstock - Bazzill; Die cuts - Kerri Bradford (tag) & Silhouette (title); Embroidery floss - DMC; Font - Cafe Rojo (title) & My Own Topher (journaling); Ink - Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap) & Versafine (Black Onyx); Metal embellishment - craft supplies; Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye; Stamp - Studio AE; Stickers - Crate Paper & My Mind's Eye

I love how My Mind's Eye has taken bright, bold colors and muted them ever so slightly in this collection.  Beautiful!  Speaking of beautiful, it's almost 70 degrees here today so I'm heading out into the sunshine.  Be blessed!

Supplies used: Baker's twine - Martha Stewart; Buttons - GCD Studios (turquoise) & craft supplies (yellow & green); Cardstock - Bazzill; Die cuts - Kerri Bradford (tag) & Silhouette (title); Embroidery floss - DMC; Font - Cafe Rojo (title) & My Own Topher (journaling); Ink - Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap) & Versafine (Black Onyx); Metal embellishment - craft supplies; Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye; Stamp - Studio AE; Stickers - Crate Paper & My Mind's Eye

I love how My Mind's Eye has taken bright, bold colors and muted them ever so slightly in this collection.  Beautiful!  Speaking of beautiful, it's almost 70 degrees here today so I'm heading out into the sunshine.  Be blessed!



Dreading It!

I worked on this week's sketch from Sketch Inspiration you should come over and join us.  I've been waiting to get my hands on the Simple Stories Aweso{ME} collection and finally did yesterday so, of course, I had to use it.  I love that it's a very age neutral boy kit.  Seeing as my boys are quite spread out in age, I appreciate that there are pieces of this collection that will work for layouts about all of them.  This particular layout features our teenager just after we finished putting dreadlocks in his hair over the summer.

Supplies used: Buttons - craft supplies; Cardstock - Echo Park Paper Co.; Ink - Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap); Journaling Card - Simple Stories; Patterned Paper - Echo Park Paper Co. (blue), Simple Stories (stripe & chevron) & We R Memory Keepers (distressed green background); Pen - Bic Mark It (Stone Gray); Stickers - American Traditional Designs (hearts) & Simple Stories (all others); Tiny Attacher - Tim Holtz; Twine - Divine Twine

As we get closer and closer to our son's graduation, I'm realizing how few photos we have of him from the past year...now that he's driving and working and dating, he isn't around a whole lot and when he heads off to college he'll be around even less.  I'm trying to pull all the pictures I do have of him and get them onto layouts as quickly as possible.  Feeling a bit nostalgic I guess...

Two For One...

I was inspired this week to participate in the Sketch Inspiration challenge.  Liz Chidester was the sketch artist and I love her sketches - they really allow me to be creative while still having some good "bones" to base my layout on.  Here's the sketch she created for the challenge...

And here's my layout.

Supplies used:  Alphas - American Crafts and K & Co. (Basic Grey); Cardstock - The Paper Co.; Die cuts - Silhouette; Font - Andalus; Ink - Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap) and StazOn (Timber Brown); Patterned Paper - Die Cuts With a View (dark brown) and October Afternoon (all others); Stamp - Studio AE by Technique Tuesday; Stickers & Tags - October Afternoon

I've had the October Afternoon Campfire sticker and label sheets for a while and have used the non-camping related ones on several projects but I came across the patterned paper on my most recent visit to Archiver's and had to have a few sheets.  It totally inspired me and I came home and got right to work on this layout.  The "Guys" alpha stickers are ancient.  I ran across them in my supplies and had to laugh because they are K & Co. Basic Grey product.  These must have been some of the first alpha stickers I bought.  Was Basic Grey once a K & Co. line???  Tells you how old they are I guess.

And while I was scrapping those camping pictures, I came across some others from one of last year's camping trips and wanted to put them to pretty paper as well.  So here they are.  I based the design on the He's My Brother Sketch by Aly Dosdall on Page 29 of the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  I used the left side of her two page sketch and replaced the pocket with my title and embellishments.

Supplies used: Brads - Basic Grey; Cardstock - Bazzill and The Paper Co.; Die Cuts - Kerri Bradford (tags) and Silhouette (title); Ink - ColorBox Fluid Chalk ink (Chestnut Roan), ColorBox Pigment ink (Lime & Green), Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap), Jenni Bowlin (Spice Tin) and StazOn (Timber Brown); Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket (rust wood grain & teal check), Echo Park Paper Co. (tan), Jillibean Soup (green), My Mind's Eye (brown polka dot), October Afternoon (plaid) and We R Memory Keepers (trees); stamps - Studio AE by Technique Tuesday; Stickers - October Afternoon; and Twine - craft supplies

So there you have it - a very crafty week for me and two layouts in one post for you.  Be blessed!

Lovin' Cards

For those of you who have followed me for a while now, you know I like to make little lunchbox love notes for my hubby.  I like to be able to bring a little bit of sunshine into his day.  We all need a little sunshine folks!

Here are a couple of my most recent cards for him (these are full-size cards...I usually do little 3x3 cards).

Supplies used: Cardstock - Neenah Solar White; Ink - Versafine; Patterned paper - Basic Grey; Stamps - Basic Grey & Lawn Fawn; Diamond Stickles

I've wanted to get my hands on this Lawn Fawn stamp set ever since it came out but I had to wait until my little old budget had the room for it.  I'm so glad it was in stock...I had so much fun coloring this one in and those Lawn Fawn stamps - woohee, they stamp with the cleanest, most wonderful images every single time!  Love them!!!

Supplies used: Cardstock - Neenah Solar White; Patterned paper - Basic Grey; Ink - Copic markers & Memento; Stamps - Lawn Fawn;

Smile...It's Going to Be a Good Day!

This layout is such a mix of different things from different manufacturers and different time periods but I love how it all pulled together.  The kids are off from school today (a teacher in-service day) and I had big plans to go to the library with them and work on their projects that they have due next week.  Unfortunately, our youngest came home from school yesterday with a fever...again!  Poor guy can't seem to kick the yuckies this go around.  So, we're stuck at home so we don't share the germs with anyone else.  I'm thinking we'll rent a Redbox movie and make a day of it.

Here's my project from this morning...

Supplies used:  Border punch - EK Success; Cardstock - American Crafts; Die cuts - Kerri Bradford Designs; Font - My Own Topher; Ink - ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Charcoal, Warm Red & Yellow Citrus), PrintWorks (York Town Blue) & VersaFine (Onyx Black); Journaling Card - Fancy Pants; Patterned Paper - Echo Park Paper Co. (blue background), My Minds Eye (multi-colored X pattern & red and yellow polka-dot) & October Afternoon (red stripe and yellow & gray pattern); Rub-ons - Fancy Pants; Stamps - Studio AE by Technique Tuesday; Stickers - Echo Park Paper Co. (bird & "smile"), Glitz Designs (title sticker) & October Afternoon (yellow scalloped label)



 The journaling on this layout is quite personal so I chose to tuck it on a large journaling card and slid it behind the photo mat.  Just the top edge of it is peeking out so you know it's there but it isn't "out there" for the whole world to read.