Bright Beginnings!

Charlotte had her preschool graduation a few weeks ago.  Where does the time go?  She LOVED her school and her teachers.  Part of the logo for their school is a sunburst, so when I saw the 6/8 sketch a Studio Calico, I was inspired to create a sunburst on my page.

And then I also saw the colors of the recent mood board at Scrap Around the World.  I thought the yellow and black would be perfect for this page!  The diagonal lines in the straws inspired me to use the yellow lined paper from the Crate Paper Boys Rule collection for my "sunburst".

I started by cutting random "rays" for the sunburst and then stitching them down on the page.  The I dug out a lot of black accents, including wood veneer stars that I inked black, and some die cuts and chipboard from Crate Paper Styleboard and more Boys rule.

Of course I had to add some black splatters and for a little bit of subtle color, I added a few light mint colored vellum stars from Boys Rule.

I am SOO happy I am coming out of my scrappy rut!  More to come this week!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Color challenges.....

I've been in a bit of a scrappy rut lately, but I'm beginning to pull myself out thanks to a few color challenges I've been scoping out.

I always checking out kreative koncepts for their color and sketch challenges.  When I saw the colors this month, I started pulling out some papers from the new Studio Calico South of Market and Crate Paper Open Road collections.

Charlotte love love LOVES her Boppy. She calls him her "favorite friend". The other day she told me  she loves him more than me, but just a teeny, tiny bit!

I actually had to measure the triangles to cut them so they'd fit right (I usually just eyeball my cuts and cut with scissors).  Then I splattered some ink on the background.  I added a piece of vellum behind the photo and some journaling cards from Open Road.  Some chipboard bits and a few fussy cut flowers and that's it!

Finally getting out of a rut and it feels great!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree.....

...how lovely are thy branches.....

We seriously got the fattest Christmas tree EVER!  It took three men to pull it through the baling machine!  This is the first time we've put a tree in front of our bay windows, and it looks so beautiful!

 I really wanted the photo to stand out on this page, so I used minimal patterned paper and a white background.  But I wanted to add some interest to the background, so I created a cut file using SCAL2 and a font called Sego Script.  I welded the letter together and cut it out on my Cricut.

I added a few splatters of paint under the large title on the white cardstock to make it stand out just a bit more. I didn't do any journaling on this page because the title pretty much says it all!  :)



The design of this page is based on a sketch at Stuck?! sketches, which you can see HERE, and a color combo challenge at My Scraps & More.  I used die cuts from Simple Stories, papers from Webster's and Basic Grey, and gold stars from Studio Calico.

I also used a few vellum pieces and tags from Pink Paislee, and a wood veneer circle that i misted green to balance the page a bit.

Stay scrappy my friends!

Too Rainy Today....GDT for ScrapFriends Yummy Scrap color challenge

I used to hate color combos, but now they are my favorite  type of challenge!  And I was so thrilled to stumble upon Scrap Friends a few months ago where they do a monthly color challenge and have awesome sketch challenges, too!  Plus the DT inspiration there is so incredible...the really artsy/mixed media kind of designs that I love to look at!

I was chosen as a Top 5 two months ago and therefore was asked to be a guest for this combo.

 When I saw the colors, the navy and grey remind me of a dreary day, so I used some rainy day photos.  These were taken at the beginning of the summer, when the kids were so ancy about going outside, but of course, there were a few rainy days when we couldn't go out to play.

As I was creating this page, I was thinking of rain and thunderstorms, so I tried to use things that remind me of that. I used a grey patterned paper for the background and a circle stencil with some gesso.

And the cloud paper from Lily Bee with the navy and grey clouds was perfect!  I used a strip of that with some additional clouds fussy cut out and pop dotted around the page.  I accidentally placed some grey washi on the page and saw that it looked pretty cool going along with the diagonals of the page, so there are some pieces of washi placed around and then I machine stitched over them.

So I needed to find a way to incorporate the orange into my page.  And again, by accident, a scrap of orange paper fell onto my page as I was cutting some other shapes that I was intially going to use.  I loved the way the little triangles looked, so I just cut a few and placed them around.  They remind me of lightning bolts!  :)

The word "today" is a rub on from American Crafts Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection, and I put it on a transparency from Maya Road.  I love that these transparencies look like the window the kids are looking through. I did my journaling underneath it.

Be sure to check out the Scrap Friends blog!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Happy Today...ScrapFriends GDT...color challenge #15.

I was super excited to have been chosen as a winner for the Yummy Scrap challenge #13 at ScrapFriends.  As a winner, you are offered a spot as a guest for the next color challenge.  So here are this month's colors!

When I saw the blue colors, it was the perfect match for the sash color of the flower girl dress that Charlotte recently wore.  Here she is, killing time during all the photos at the church.  Good thing the bride planned to have bubbles blown as they walked out of the church!  Charlotte was content for a good 15 minutes!  :)

I started by raiding my stash for colors to use to match the palette and then started adding some bits and layers here and there. A lot of the things came from some recent Scrapbook Circle Kits.  On the background, I laid down the patterned papers and then went over them with a mix of gesso and Art Anthology Sorbet in frost through a stencil.   I love the shimmer and the clear glaze the Art Anthology paints give to the gesso.  

Yes, I fussy cut the doily from from Maggie Holmes papers and the flowers from Basic Grey Mint Julep.  You can see a shipboard frame that I machine stitched with blue thread, too....And a little girliness with the pink bow from Maggie Holmes, too.

 A few more layers of frames, chipboard, stickers, and washi tape, plus this pre-cut title from American Crafts (Amy Tan Yes, Please).

I think I may be in the smaller percentage when I say that I LOVE color challenges!  So happy to have found a great blog that provides them every month.  The sad part is now I have to wait another month for a palette!  :)

Stay Scrappy My Friends!

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!

37...how did I get here already????

Wow...I can't believe I am this old already.  I feel like I just had my 21st birthday yesterday!  :)

I played with some new MME that I got a few weeks ago, and when I saw the color palette at ScrapFriends this month, I thought of this collection immediately!   I also used this weeks sketch from Skissedilla.  I started this page right after I had done a page in my art journal, so I was feeling kind "artsy".

Since the color palette had a "raspberry" color in it, but the papers didn't, I mixed up some mist colors to get the shade I wanted and then dripped them on the page.   Then I wanted to add a bit of a peachy pink, so I mixed some pink and yellow paint and mists and use a stencil on the background.

For my journaling, I decided to do a little pull out card to write some things on so that it wouldn't take up any space on the page.

I had laid everything out and felt like something was missing, so I went back and stitched the black circle on background.  I wanted a bit of girliness, so I used the chipboard floral bunch and a few other floral pieces here and there.  Some stamping, enamel dots, and flags, and I'm done!  :)

sketch at Skissedilla

color palette at ScrapFriends:

Stay Scrappy my Friends!

Playing along with a few challenges....a girl in goggles...

 That Charlotte....she's a hoot.  Out of no where she comes around the corner with these goggles on, all ready to go outside at the cottage and play (as if the goggles were required to play outside).  She is quite the character....

I started by painting some streaks of white paint along a straight line.  Then I added bits of washi tapes along the line, too, and some pennants cut out from a piece of paper from the Soleil collection.

I used a wacky circle stencil from TCW and did some mustard colored circles.  I wanted to matte my photo, but have something subtle, so I used a piece of vellum that I stitched and distressed around the edges.  I also punched some hearts right in my photo.

A few stickers, and some fussy cut papers from BG Paper Cottage, and she's just about done.  I added some stickles here and there, too.

Well, I went on a streak without using sketches for a while.  Not intentionally....it just kinda happened.  But I have done a few here and there in the past few weeks, and I remembered HOW MUCH I can get done if I have some sketches in front of me!  So now I have about 15 printed out to work on!  :)

I LOVE the sketches over at Skissedilla.  The page above is based on this sketch:

While browsing for challenges, I also came across the colors challenge at Freckled Fawn.  The colors were PERFECT for the Soleil collection from Basic Grey that I just got from winning on the BG blog a few weeks ago.  So I ALSO entered this into the BG "arrows" challenge.

I was supposed to go to a crop this Sat., but it got cancelled.  I convinced hubby to let me have a few hours to scrap, anyways, so hopefully I can work on some things that I WANT to!!!  Hope you have a great weekend!!

Fall is in the air....Crate color challenge and CS sketch.

I have't had a "fall" in 5 years since we were in Texas.  Last year we went to the Smoky Mountains, which was the closet we've been to a fall in a while. 

One of the places we visited was Cades Cove.  There was a beautiful park with lots of oak and maple leaves, and they made natural piles around the grounds.  Charlotte enjoyed crunching them under her feet, and throwing them in the air.

I used sketch #225 from Creative Scrappers for this page.

I found some free leave cutting files on svgcuts.com.  (It was a tropical leaf cut, but it worked just fine for fall!)  My color combo was based on the Sept. color challenge on the Crate Paper blog.  I layered some reddish prints with some woodgrain and kraft.  I have been hoarding these wood frames for a while, and I think they are perfect for this sketch!

After I cut the leaves, I couldn't bring myself to throw away the negatives from the leaf cuts, so I used those on my page, too!

I think this is day 5 in a row with a blog post (and I have a few more scheduled over the next couple of days)!  I've been busy this month, but NEXT MONTH I can't wait to share all the things I have going on, including a guest design spot, and a TON of Halloween inspiration for My Scraps & More and Glitz Designs, too!

As always, THANK YOU for stopping by!

Eeeewwweeee.....worms.....

Yes.  I pick worms.  I have since I was at least 3 years old.  My mother used to take me outside with an old coffee can and a flashlight and we would fill that can!  Then we would use them for fishing.

Well I tried to teach my daughter all about it this summer.  These photos were from back in June, and she pretty much liked the idea, but didn't want to actually touch the worms.  Fast forward to the end of the summer where she is putting worms on a hook all by herself and taking the fish off the line, too.  She even thinks the worms are "so cute".

So I used this months' kit from Scrapbook Circle, which features a lot of the speech bubbles, and am entering this for their speech bubbles challenge, too! I went with a black, brown, and cream color combo because, well, those colors remind me of worms!

I fussy cut the Glitz black hexagon papers and then added strips of the gold airmail washi tape and some strips of the Lily Bee Persnickity papers.  On my title letters, I misted them brown, and noticed the mist wasn't soaking in well.  When I stood the letters up, the mist started to run down and pool at the bottom of the letters.  LOVE the way this turned out...very worm like....

For a pop of color, I used the reddish orange stickers, papers, and die cuts.   I'm having so much fun playing with this kit!  :)

Some Red White and Blue GLORY

The July kit at Birds of a Feather features the beautiful Glory collection from Authentique as well as some papers and embellies from Jillibean.

This kit is perfect for me right now because I have photos of my brother's HS graduation (and his mascot was the Patriots and colors were RW&B...how fitting), plus my grandfather was selected to be part of a WWII Honor flight, which needs some patriotic papers, AND I still have photos from last Independence Day to scrap, too!

So let me start with a page that I did about my little bro's graduation.  He graduated from the same school I did, but 18 years later!  :)  He was so excited to have Charlotte there and we were so glad we could make it.  Kyler was taking his nap and never would have made it through the ceremony!

When I started this page, I was thinking about the square mortar board graduation caps and how the kids throw them in the air.  I wanted to mimic the caps and the movement.

I started by using a ringlet stencil and some molding paste on the background and then splattered with some red ink.  I used a wavy line stitch on my machine to stitch with some red thread to represent the movement.

On the navy squares cut from the patterned paper I added a "tassel" and some small navy seed beads to the string.  These are supposed to be the graduation caps!  :) My brother's class had some clever t shirts made up with their class year and all the students names.  It said BHS 2012...You Wish You Were 1(one) 2(two).  I used that as part of the title!  :)

I also had to make some cards from my brother and a few of his friends since they had a joint graduation party.  I wanted to include stars on each and some paint and ink splatters, too!

I can't believe that my little brother graduated high school.  He is off to Syracuse University next year (also my alma mater for grad school) and I couldn't be more proud!!!!

Stay tuned in a few weeks for my July 4th LO and a mini album for my grandpa about his WWII Veterans Honor Flight. In the meantime, check out BOAF...there is a DT call going on!