Sandcastles on the Beach

This month over at Scrapbook Challenges, they're featuring each of us new Sketch Crew members with a Liftapalooza Challenge! It's super fun to get inspiration from the styles of my fellow Crew members. Today's Challenge was to lift a sweet little layout done by Ali Gage!

I super loved the paper curls she had going on, so I had to mimic them.

I still like her's better!

Here's a couple of detail shots:

That sweet baby had so much fun castle-smashing! Definitely ready to go back to the beach soon - he asks me all the time when we will go back.

Products:
Patterned Paper - American Crafts, Bookshelf, Kipling
Striped Paper - Echo Park Paper Company, The Story of Fall, Dots
Heart Paper - Amy Tangerine, American Crafts
Sandcastle Die - Cricut, Create a Critter
Chipboard Stickers - Me and My Big Ideas

I hope you will play along with us as Scrapbook Challenges this month - it's tons of great scrapbook inspiration! Thanks for looking!

Bienvenue a Paris - a Counterfeit Kit Club page

Well I was going to save my Counterfeit Kit for April for this upcoming Saturday when I'm attending an all day crop, but I just couldn't wait! Once I decided how to use my kit, the ideas started flowing. Who am I to stop creativity?

So I created the entrance to Paris page for my scrapbook with my Counterfeit Kit, Les Voyageurs.

I mean, who could not love a city who welcomes you with a sunset like this?! Paris was always my dream vacation, and it came true in 2011 when my husband and I traveled to France, among Ireland and Spain. It was everything I had imagined (except maybe a bit more walking...), and we both LOVED the city. I definitely want to return and take my kids someday (Disneyland Paris, anyone?).

Here are a few details:

I used my Cricut to write the type on the cardstock. I then just clustered a few groupings of embellishments and cut a decorative border from my Cricut as background to the photo.

Supplies:
Grey cardstock - Craftsmith by Michaels
Patterned Cardstock & stamp by DCWV
Wood veneer by Heidi Swapp
Stamp by 7 Gypsys

Thanks for looking! Merci!

Hear the giggles - a SBC sketch

Today I'm posting a page I did for Scrapbook Challenges sketch 477 for today. I used my March Studio Calico kit called Homespun. It's fun getting kits, because for me, they contain pieces I would never buy for myself, but I enjoy incorporating them into my pages to reflect my style anyway.

These photos are more from the farm we visited in the fall with some friends & I just love the sunflower background so much! And these photos of my son - I feel like you can hear the giggles from the look on his face! #swoon

Here are some details:

I seriously LOVE those alphas. I need them in every. single. color!

All supplies from Studio Calico Homespun kit.

Go play along at the sketch challenge today & check back soon - there are really great challenges this month!!
Thanks for looking!

Les Voyageurs - My April Counterfeit Kit

Je m'appelle Natalie. That and a very few other phrases are all I took out of my 1 semester of French before I decided becoming a Spanish major would be more useful (it wasn't). However, my lack of knowledge of the language never diminished my love for the country or desire to travel it!

So this month's prompt over at The Counterfeit Kit Club blog was a kit called C'est Magnifique. At first, I thought, "Hmmm, this isn't my style." Then as I was writing my list of things I thought I had to include in the kit, I thought, "Hmmm, I could use photos of our trip to Paris!" and the deal was sealed. This kit took on a mind of its own & grew & I'm so excited to use it!

Here is the original kit inspiration:

I tried to pull out light papers with florals & vintage patterns. Obviously a little lace & the contrasting black embellishments. I had some perfect washi tape, and some clear stamps with just the right frills. I had these sweet little clear embellies that were architectural and perfect, and I got new crate paper ephemera that fit great with pinks and blacks. Obviously some flowers were in order, and I just received a great package from Rochelle Spears from the February Challenge and the prima flowers in it were spot on. I had some fun chipboard alphas with gold that fit and a whole page from a DCWV stack that included stamps and even an Eiffel Tower tag. Doilies and pearl stickers and Gold alphas, oh my!

Some details.

Ya'll, I even added in a chipboard banner to create! I've been meaning to make a banner to hang from a shelf in my half-bath, which is decorated with Paris items - hopefully this kit will get me into finally doing it!

I'm excited to step away from my family album a couple times this month and scrap a trip that will always be so special to me and my husband. Stay tuned for how I use my kit!

Thanks for looking & go play along!

Lucky Number 7

Today's page I completed with my March Counterfeit Kit from The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. I also did a challenge from Lasting Memories Layout Challenge. The challenge was to use a Movie Quote in your layout.

This is a photo of my husband and I celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary at the Melting Pot. And I look like that because I'm 8 months pregnant and miserable! (So glad that's over!) It was a fun dinner.

The quote is from Pride & Prejudice. It's one of my favorite, most romantic literary moments, and I love how it was captured in the movie, as well. I'm a big Colin Firth fan ;)

This orange paper was one of my favorites, so I kept my layout simple to show it off. I had made a Cricut cut and wanted it cut from a page out of my dictionary. However, the page did NOT cut well and stuck terribly to my Cricut mat, soooo . . . why not incorporate some hand lettering??

Supplies:

Orange Paper - Basic Grey for K&Company
Green Paper - DCWV
Flowers - Michael's Recollections
Wood Veneer - Heidi Swapp
Cork 7 sticker and kraft label sticker - Studio Calico

Thanks for looking!

Remembering our Nana

My grandmother passed away the other day. I made this page to document the last, very important words she said to me.

She passed on St. Patrick's Day. I had taken a good shot of my boys earlier that morning before school, and it works perfectly for the page in memory of her.

I journaled the details around the photo.

I really wanted the quote to be remembered, so I decided to diecut it to fit the entire page.

Supplies:
Green Bazzil Cardstock
Pattern Papers and glitter clovers from The Paper Studio
Words cut with Cricut
Green Enamel by Studio Calico
Chipboard sticker by Me and My Big Ideas

Thanks for looking!

All Smiles & Ears - A Flashback Friday SBC

Today's layout is a fun, Flashback Friday sketch from Scrapbook Challenges.

I took a bunch of photos of my little dude to get the perfect headshot for a Buzz Lightyear 3rd birthday party a while back, and these outtakes were just too cute to not document! This sketch was just perfect for them! I used a couple of Studio Calico kits with bright colors that really worked. I especially LOVE the transparencies that came in the March kit!

Supplies:

Green Star Paper - Studio Calico Lollipop Guild
White with black stripes - Studio Calico Homespun
Black chalk cardstock - DCWV Rock Star
White with silver stars - Me and My Big Ideas pocket card
Pink Cardstock - DCWV Rock Star
Striped Transparencies - Studio Calico Homespun
Pink Star and Title paper dies - Studio Calico, Arendal
Star enamel stickers - Studio Calico and Heidi Swapp

Head on over to Scrapbook Challenges and get more inspiration for today's sketch!
Thanks for looking!

Blog Hop - The Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

I'm participating in the member blog hop today for The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog. I'm pretty excited about it! You may have arrived here from Sally's Challenge Chatter. After Dillightfully Crafty, you can hop right on over to Snaps and Snippets.

So today I've prepared some photos to document my process of creating a scrapbook page with my March kit, which I named Snappy Pack.

Here's the page I've created for the Challenge "May you Live in Pinteresting Times." The challenge was to find a pin to inspire your project, but it could not be another craft project or scrapbook page.

Here is the pin which I used as inspiration:

The image came from Sarah Hearts.

Now to get a little bit into my process... So I grabbed my Snappy Pack CFC kit and picked out the papers I loved that I wanted to use for this photo. I knew I had to use the chevron with the fall colors, as that is what I had in mind when I printed the photo, so I was working around that piece.

First I grabbed my favorite orange paper:

But it was a bit darker than I wanted, so I decided to save it for a future project.

I liked this neutral (with a little glitter), but it needed something more.

So I added the orange flower paper, which sort of mirrored the flowers in the photo - and I thought, "perfect!"

I had this sweet pocket card that I thought would work well for the kids' photo, but I had to figure out where to place it. The top of the photo did not work...

Boom! Moved to the bottom left corner & it just fit perfectly. I think the black in the top most square is different in this type of palette, so I decided to accent it and add a bit of the black camera paper from the CFC kit.

An extra layer is always a good idea. This orange paper softens the black & worked perfectly.

Then I spotted my new Studio Calico punch that I found on clearance recently, so I figured it needed to be used. This is literally the "process" of my creation - it's always in the process of evolving as I work!

After I punched some chevrons, I inked all my papers. I ink papers a good portion of the time. I just feel like it gives a good dimension, as well as it tends to hide imperfections, so if you have some tattered edges (unintended) or maybe a not-so-straight edge, it's much less noticeable when inked!

Now it's my favorite time! Embellishment time!

I had this cute little veneer circle that I felt needed a little something. (Confession: This stamp was not included in my CFC kit, as it just arrived in the mail the day I made the layout! But it was just too perfect with the Snappy Pack photo/camera/click inspired kit, that I just had to use it!)

These flowers were screaming to be included on my sunflower page!

I stuck everything down once I had visualized where everything was to be placed, then done!

Here are some detail shots:

You can see that I added a couple more punches once I had the paper placed exactly and felt there was still too much blank orange space.

Look at those sweet baby smiles! I love seeing my baby have fun with his friends!

Thanks for looking!

Don't forget your next hop at Snaps and Snippets with Susanne!

Hi, North Shore: Sketch & Pattern Challenges

I'm competing in a fun, new-to-me challenge this month from Challenge YOUrself where you're supposed to include in your scrapbook page a photo of yourself! This month's pattern they wish you to use is Chevrons, so I've incoporated that into a page for (at least) the second time this month.

I'm also using a sketch from My Creative Sketches. I rotated their lovely March sketch for my landscape photo.

This is a photo of me, pregnant with my firstborn, at the North Shore on Oaha, Hawaii, where my husband was born & lived as a baby. It was unreal how beautiful this place was!

This is my adaptation of the sketch from My Creative Sketches:

Some details:

Apparently the Easter Bunny needs to replenish my alpha sticker selection! I wanted to say "hi north shore" (hi, a play on the acronym for Hawaii). I had to make the i from a j ... the n from an m, second o from a q and second r from a p! Gotta be resourceful with pretty glitter letters!

I actually used a ton of glitter on this page, which is appropriate since it's supposed to be about me over at the Challenge YOUrself blog. I love all things sparkly. I had recently been reviewing an old cruise album where I'd used all these bright DCWV papers & I have some left, so they needed to be brought up again!

Supplies:
Orange glitter cardstock - DCWV Coral Couture
Patterned papers - DCWV Citrus Stack
White chevrons leftover from my chevron challenge earlier in the month at Scrapbook Challenges
Chipboard Flowers from Me and My Big Ideas
White glitter stickers - American Crafts Thickers
Aqua glitter stickers - Heidi Swapp

Thanks for looking!

Toes in the water, Toes in the sand - a SBC sketch

Today we have another great sketch to start your week over at Scrapbook Challenges!

I love a good 4x6 photo layout, so this was right up my alley. I used my cricut to cut the title. I have had the plastic storage circles for forever & was excited to finally use one to hold some seashells we found on our trip. The little flower came from a cute scrapbook store in Maui (back when we did cool things like that before children...), and I used my trusty old dictionary to stamp the boat at the bottom.

Thanks for looking & go try out the sketch!

Every Day Counts!

So when you are awoken an hour before your alarm on a Sunday morning, obviously you accept it, and go put a page together!

Today I used a sketch from Scrap Much?, and I really love how it turned out!

I never use stitching on my pages, but I really enjoyed it here, and it didn't take as long as I thought it would! This is my sweet, great-grandmother & my newborn on Thanksgiving. She is his great, great-grandmother!

Details:

Supplies:

Background Paper - Creative Imaginations by Marah Johnson
Maroon Cardstock - The Paper Studio
Brown dot paper - unidentified, stash bought at garage sale
Paper ephemera - Pink Paislee, Cedar Lane
Large Maroon flowers - Jo Ann's Craft Essentials
Small Maroon flowers and brown leaf - Recollections by Michaels

My grandmother passed away the other day, and today is her funeral. That's this sweet lady's little girl, so she could use some extra prayers today, please!

Thank you for looking!

Out of my zone - A double page spread - SBC sketch!

So today I completed a DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD layout for a Scrapbook Challenges sketch & it was intimidating at first, but has turned out to be one of my favorites!

I used to do double page spreads all the time about 7 years ago, but have gotten away from them. However, this Flashback Friday sketch was calling my name (and a few special Halloween party photos), so I gave it a try!

Seriously, how cute is that minion and that Snow White!? I just love those babies!

I used my FAVORITE Halloween paper from Carta Bella. The background paper was in a box of paper from a garage sale, but the other pages coordinated so well with it! The sweet black vellum letter stickers are from Studio Calico.

I had picked up this gorgeous orange glitter tape a while ago at Michael's, and the swirly background paper just coordinated perfectly with it! I layered a few black puffies on top & perfect - the sketch's "stand out" photo was done!

Thank you for looking! Go participate over at Scrapbook Challenges - even if it's outside your comfort zone - you may be surprised at yourself!