Play Date! And a sketch DT call!!!

Charlotte has been making some new friends at school this year, and we have had our first couple of playdates!

I love the colors in the Basic Grey RSVP collection that I got from My Scraps & More.  Even though it is birthday themed, it was perfect for this fun "playtime" page!

I used the latest sketch from the My Scraps & More sketch blog, HERE!

And here is the sketch:

I kept the page pretty simple.  I used some stickers for a small banner in the top corner.  I splattered some mists and some star stickers on the page to add movement.

The I popped some letter stickers up near my journaling with the girls' initials.  And I created a visual triangle with three large circle stickers, too.

Do you like using collections for themes other than what they were intended?  Then maybe you would like Tammi's Day 6 challenge on the 12 Days of Christmas going on at the Forums!  You have until January 5th to enter your projects!


Also, the My Scraps Sketch Blog is having a DT call.  Requirement are 2 sketches a month.  Check out all the details HERE.

Paper Issues *Pretty Little Studio* Blog Hop...

Welcome to the Paper Issues Blog Hop!  This weeks issue is sponsored by Pretty Little Studio and the theme is "Nature Walk".  PLS has a recent release called Nature Walk which features adorable elements like woodland animals, mushrooms, feathers, and elements like banner pieces and labels.

I used a sketch from Skissedilla and the June color combo from ScrapFriends for my page and also some goodies from PLS of course!

I immediately knew what papers I wanted to use for this color combo from ScrapFriends:  The colors in the "Acorn Ave" collection from Crate Paper were perfect!

I started by painting my background with a stencil and some mint/greenish-blue colored paint.  I had some white on my paint tray (aka....a piece of plastic wrapping) and as I mixed it, I was loving the ombre effect, so I went darker on the bottom and lighter towards the top.  Once dry, I went over some areas with the stencil and a thin black pen.

I fussy cut out a bunch of flowers and started laying them out on my page with a tag (which already had the "A" on it), a journal spot, and a few other bits.

I used the banner pieces from Pretty Little Studio at the top of the page with two different colors of twine.  I wanted a bit more green, so I covered one of the pennants with some green washi.  I also have a few of the feathers from the Nature Walk line tucked in here and there.

I even raided my stash and found some OLD flair from American Crafts. Some splatters, a few tiny chipboard circles here and there, and that's it!

Here is the order of the hop!  Be sure to hop along to each person's blog and then stop by the PLS blog and leave some love to all!

Ashley: http://www.ashleyhortondesigns.com/

Audrey: http://audreysreflection.blogspot.com/  <----YOU ARE HERE

Becki: http://beckiadams.blogspot.com/

Bente: http://paperandglueheaven.blogspot.com/

Carol: http://carolmonson.blogspot.com/

Caz: http://www.cazhancock.com/

Pretty Little Studio Blog: http://prettylittlestudio.com/blog/

Also make sure you:

1.      Like Pretty Little Studio on Facebook {tell them we sent you}

2.      Like Paper Issues on Facebook

3.      Leave a comment

TThanks for hopping with us today!  Stay Scrappy my Friends!

Catching some Waves! Fancy Pants

For the Glitz Designs Blog Hop, please see the previous post HERE.

We just got back from a trip to Florida where we spent some time at the beach!  I have been really itching to start scrapping warmer weather photos, and these Fancy Pants "Down by the Shore" papers were just perfect for my photos!  Charlotte just loves the water, and she was a bit scared of the waves at first, but quickly got over it.

My layout today is based on a sketch I created for the My Scraps & More Sketch-A-Thon.  I rotated the sketch to make the banner pieces look more like flags.

I really layered on the banner pieces, and turned them sideways.  I thought they looked like flags this way.  Each little piece was distressed a bit to add some more texture.

On the background, I wanted to give an feeling of water being splashed, so I used some white modeling paste and some glitter paint with a stencil. Then I splattered with navy and aqua mists.

Only 2 more days for the Sketch-A-Thon!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!  Stay scrappy my friends!

My Birthday Boy! (a bit late...)

He was ONE on July 19th, and yet I am just getting around to posting a layout about his day!  We have had such a crazy summer, and it just snuck up on me!  We had been traveling just the day before, and on his birthday he was not himself (later we found out he had an ear infection, poor guy).

I was able to get him during a few happy moments during the day, complete with his drool covered shirt and all!

I wove together some of the patterned papers to make a focal point for my photo.

I cut the large #1 from some patterned paper and then stitched a circle on the background to frame it.

I got this collection from the My Scraps & More store...FATASTIC prices and sales and THE BEST shipping around!

Inspiration Elevator

Welcome to Inspiration Elevator!

IE is a group of like minded scrappy friends who want to raise the bar in their own creative process through unique challenges that we issue to each other once a month. These won't be run of the mill challenges and we hope you will join us each month and be inspired by the innovative designs we create.

This is not a blog hop, and there are no prizes, but we would love it if you would take a few minutes to see what the rest of the Inspiration Elevator team created. We are sure you will feel inspired to get creative:

Ann 

Lisa

Audrey

Cathy

Laurel

Christa

Carolyn

Joanne

Laura

Sue

Lisa M

  

The first challenge, issued by Christa, is two-fold: to create a new design that reflects your style, and to use a new product or technique that you find inspiring right now.

So to attack this challenge, I had to think about what is quintessentially me and my style?  My pages usually include:

• patterned paper background
• bright, fun colors
• 2-3 photos of my kids and our daily activities
• machine stitching 
• misting and/or paint splattering
• something on the "edge" of the page
• a strong visual triangle
• using the latest and greatest products

So here is what I came up with using the new Indie Chic line from MME.

At the scrapbooking store where I work, Scrapp'n Savvy" there is an "adopted" orange kitty that is named "Savvy".  Charlotte calls her "Sabby".  It is her favorite thing about going to the store and every orange cat she sees is "Sabby".

These new lines from MME have some AWESOME washi tape which I used here and journaling lines.  I just cut the tape in half length wise to make thinner line.  You can also see my machine stitching and a few pink paint splatters.  Also, I used some GOLD mist from Studio Calico (which is AWESOME) in the background behind the center cluster.

These little banners also come as part of the line, and you can see that I cut a few extra leaves and popped them off the page to give some dimension,  one of the other things that I like to do on my pages!

Well I hope that you stop by every month and get some inspiration and  ideas from all the wonderfully creative people on the Inspiration Elevator team!  

Playing with Glitz New Releases!

Hello everyone! I'm here to share some of my first pages with the new releases!

When I saw the peak of the Happy Travels collection, it was a few weeks after I had just gotten home from a trip that I will never forget...because it was a nightmare!!  My 2 1/2 year old was living up to all the sterotypes of a "terrible two" and it was just an awful awful time traveling.  So I had to journal about it (although I'd much rather forget it!).  Hopefully I can look back at this one day and laugh!  :)

(My alternative title for this layout was "The Trip From Hell:)

This was the only photo that I got while traveling and it was in the Detroit airport.  The hustle and bustle and the colors and the blur of the photo just emulate the hectic time that we were having.

I hand cut some planes from the Planes paper and strung them like a banner.  I first stitched lines underneath them.  I was thinking about how when you see a flight path on a map, you see those dotted lines from point A to point B, so that's what inspired me to stitch under the plane banner.  I also punched some cloud shapes from vellum and the patterned paper and layered them on.  I wanted some to pop off the page, so I had to get creative with that because a pop dot would show through the vellum.  So I just lightly glued one of the vellum clouds to the back of an airplane.

This next page I create based on the April blog challenge.

We had just taken a trip to the park where we saw a butterfly and Charlotte chased it around the field.  It was perfect for this challenge!

I loved the pink and blues and flowers and butterflies, so I incorporated those all into my page.
The layered banner sticker originally had a bird on it, but I took it off and replaced it with a small blue butterfly.

It is a bit hard to tell in the photos, but I took some acetate and cut out some small circles and inked the edges with brown StazOn.   I glued these circles over where the butterfly is in the photos to make them stand out a bit more.  One of the spiral roses is from a Spellbinders Die and the others I cut and rolled myself.

Hope you are inspired by this beautiful spring challenge!!

Happy Are They Who Travel Without Kids

Happy Travels Planes
Happy Travels Polka
Happy Travels Bicycle
Happy Travels Stripe
Happy Travels Epoxy Stickers
Happy Travels Title Stickers
Vintage Blue Stripes
Vintage Blue Epoxy Stickers
Vintage Blue teeny Alphas
Dance In the Sunshine Whatnots

Butterfly Chase


French Kiss Fleur
Pretty In Pink Pink Roses
Pretty In Pink Music
Pretty In Pink Peek A Boos
Pretty In Pink Journaling Stickers
Pretty In Pink Layered Stickers
Happy Travels Stripe
Happy Travels Floral
Happy Travels Bicycle
Other: American Crafts alpha stickers