Once Upon a Sketch and a few more....

Well I actually have been very busy lately.  I have a lot of pages that are "in progress" but just need some finishing touches.  Here are a few that I have done recently.

First of all, Your Srcrapbook Stash is the sponsor this month at Once Upon a Sketch.  We got to provide some sample layouts for the May 15th sketch.  I really love this sketch blog....the focus is on journaling, which to me is so important.  Not to mention the sketches are fabulous!  :)

Here is the May 15th sketch.  The journaling criteria is to type your journaling.

I was inspired by the circles floating to the top, so I decided to use some Bubble Bath photos!

I used some old Crate Paper papers, plus a few bits from some newer lines and was inspired by their latest color combo on their blog: Navy, light blue and lavendar.  Such pretty and different colors together.

For the circles, I hand stitched some, added glossy accents to some, and stickles to others.  I also used a border punch that had some circles and backed the punched area with some white cardstock.

Go visit the OUAS blog and be sure to check out the YSS store!

OK, next I did a page based on this sketch at Practical Scrappers:

I used a lot of elements from the sketch, but in a different way.  The photo arrangement is mostly the same, except slightly tilted.  I used the three strips that are on the left of the sketch but moved them to the right on my page, and used some white cardstock flourishes under and around my photos.  Lastly, I used an element along the top edge as shown in the sketch by the laced eyelets.

I used some wood grain pattern paper and turned it sideways and it reminded me of waves, which was perfect for these photos.  On some of the lines, I used some glossy accents to give a water feel...

I splattered some teal mist and used  up a lot of elements that I have from my stash of My Mind's Eye products, like the premade title, brads, and flocked journaling spots.

Lastly is a page I did based on a sketch at Memorable Seasons.  (I have been using a lot of sketches lately!)

I LOVE the Lily Bee Happily Lost line (which I got from YSS in my kit this month!).

I used some raw chipboard pieces from Maya Road and altered them in different ways like dry embossing, wrapping with string, and stamping.  I also used some kraft paper punches into different strips on my page as well.

LOVE the pom pom trim by Fancy Pants, but it was a little tricky to stitch to my page!

I will definetly be using more raw chipboard on my projects....I have a TON of it!

Thanks for stopping by today!!  I have a new Sketchy Thursday reveal tomorrow and then my new scrap space on Saturday!!

A Mini Album and Sketchy Thursdays

Well I have been waiting a couple days to see if my post from Thursday would pop back up when blogger went down, and it didn't.  I had posted about all the wonderfulness of this weeks Sketchy Thursdays reveal!  So instead of typing everything all over again, here is the sketch and here are my pages.  I opted to do two single pages instead of one double page.

All products were in my kit this month from Your Scrapbook Stash and feature Fancy Pants Beach Babe line.

The left side:

The right side:

OK, now a rarity from me:  I made a mini album!!!

I wanted to make this because I had tons of scraps left over from my class at my LSS when we used the Fancy Pants "It's the Little Things" line.  So I wanted to make a mini.  In fact, I had so much left over, that I made 5 kits of this exact mini that will be available in the store for purchase, complete with all materials and instructions!!!

I have been doing a ton of pages of when my mom and dad came to visist, and still lots of photos left over, so I put them all in this album.  I think there are 20 pics in here.

The covers are just chipboard that I covered with misted muslin and then stitches around the edges.  Each cover is layered with a transparency.

Each inside page is just a 6x6 piece of patterned paper decorated with pockets and littke doors and stickers and chipboard and such.  I wanted it to be somewhat interactive.

I really love mini's when they are finished, but I ahte doing them for some reason.  But I really like this one...:)

I have been having so much fun this weekend at the Cocoa Daisy online crop...TONS of challenges and such fun fun things going on.....layouts aren't due until Sun. the 22nd, so go check it out!!

Lucky, to be 35, and Potty Training....

Kind of a hodge podge of layouts today!

I'll start with a contest going on at Page Maps.  I love her sketches so much, but don't use them enough!  I was really drawn to this sketch.

I used some papers from Niki Silvils and My Little Shoebox that was given to me by the Clip It Up girls....THANKS!

 My birthday was fun this year!  We went to Tarpin Springs (Fla.) which is a Sponging area.  There are boats you can go out on and watch them dive for sponges, plus there are all kinds of sponges to buy.  It is also a greek town, and there are TONS of great restaurants, and that's really why I wanted to go there!  :)  We had an awesome lunch, although it would have been better without the sun drenched, tired kiddos!  :)

These colors aren't ones I would normally choose, but I really like the way they work together with my photo in this case.  I wanted to highlight the title, so I stitched a few circles around it.

The cut outs for this party line are so adorable.  I added some baker's twine to this present and tied a little bow.

Next up I did this page for Color Combos Galore. 

 This was the THIRD try on this page!  I got these new Ranger paint daubers that I wanted to use.  I bought white, yellow, and green, but the yellow and green just weren't matching my papers, so I just used the white to paint my title and the butterfly and journaling area.

I did a TON of stamping on the background with Versamark and then some light black.  The "bee" stamp I actually stamped with the paint dauber and it turned out pretty well.

Did you know that Bazzil came out with patterned papers??  These are a few of them.  They also have these pleated cardstock strips which are very cool to work with. My LSS carries them because Karries' brother is the owner of Bazzil!  :)  I think we are going to do this page in my class next month at Scrappn' Savvy.

Lastly, my LSS got in the Simple Stories Destination line and these papers are SO awesome!  There are cards and blocks of all sizes so you can put them into page protectors of different sizes!  I would love to make an entire travel album with these papers....now I just need to plan a trip!  :)

There was one sheet that just fit this sketch from Sketchabilities so well.

 I decided to use photos of Charlotte reading on the potty.  Traveling themed papers....potty training...it works, right?  :)  

I have no idea where she got the idea to read on the potty.

We are gonna do this page in my class, so people can use whatever photos they want, obviously.

I made some simple layered circles and also stitched some circles with black thread on the paper.  I also used my cricut (gasp!) to make the black flourish at the bottom of the photos. 

Thanks for looking today!  Tomorrow is Sketchy Thursdays reveal!  YAY!!!!

What does the cow say? and relaxin' on a hammock...more from NSD...

I just got the October Afternoon 5&Dime papers from Your Scrapbook Stash and when I saw the piece with the farm animals on it, a story came to mind which I journaled about on this page!  :)

I used this sketch from "The Scrappiest" and turned it to fit my photo.  I just got a new camera lens and was playing around with it the other day and snapped this photo of Charlotte to use on my page for this story.

My hubby is such a jokester....   anyways, I stitch around the main photo and journaling block and painted a chipboard frame with red paint and stitched that with the machine, too.  I love machine stitching on chipboard!  I need to do it more often....

Then I did this page using my April Cocoa Daisy kit, which I am still so in love with!!!!!http://www.cocoadaisy.com/forum/

Isn't it funny how you start a page with an idea in mind and it ends up nothing like you were thinking?  That's what happened with this page.  Even though it was based on a sketch, the colors and embellies I was thinking in my head just wasn't what the finished prodcut looked like.  That being said, I really love the way this came out, still!

sketch by Kristin at Memorable Seasons....

I used the packaging from the Jillibean Soup butterfly pins behind some embellies to make them stand out more.

Love the layered pop pieces from Basi Grey and the small doilies from Cosmo!

I have a mini album to share soon and as promised, some pics of my new scrap space!

Some NSD and other challenge, plus my layouts for my May class at SS....

I have done SOOO many pages over the last few days!!!  Hubby worked all week, and I got to go to a crop last night AND today!   I have been so inspired by all the NSD challenges, and I wanted to share a few of the pages that I have done.

This first up is for Scrapbook Circles Sketch challenge for their Anniversary Blog Hop.  It is a Sketchy Thursdays sketch, and I ALWAYS love those!

Whem my mom and dad visited a few weeks ago, they took Charlotte for a day, and they had to stop by the grocery store.  From the parking lot, they thought they saw some "coin" opperated rides, and were discussing with each other about how expensive they must be now-a-days. Well when they got up to the store front, they realized it was just a shopping cart designed like a car and it was FREE!  My mom took these photos and I asked them both to journal about it.  The journaling will be printed out and attached to the pull out cards on the top.

I got some of these Studio Calico papers a while back, and haven't used them yet.  They fit a color combo challenge at The (paper) Trail Makers blog, so I decided to use them up! 

I also used some raw chipboard pieces, which was inspired by a challenge at the Club CK site (but I missed the challenge deadline!  :(  )!  I just used some Versamark embossing ink and some clear embossing powder.  I love how it came out.

I misted the outside scalloped edge of the background paper with yellow and then stitched around the inner edge in black thread.  The journaling cards pull out from behind the photos and I am going to print out and add my mom and dad's journaling.

These next two pages I designed for my next class at Scrappn' Savvy on May 17th.  My last class we used some girly papers, and did a lot of "flowers" so I tried to stay away from that this time around.  I wanted to use the Toy Box papers from Crate Paper, and found a "non-girly" photo of Charlotte to use...

I wanted to layer the papers so that they were not in straight lines, and then I cut them into a bracket shape and cut the bracket in half and placed part on the top and part on the bottom.

I misted some yellow stars on the background and then flicked some black glimmer mist on it.  Then I used some stars cut from wood grain.

She doesn't really "pick" her nose....she just kinda sticks her finger up there and thinks it's funny.....

And finally I got to use some of these BEAUTIFUL Girl's Paperie papers that are available at my LSS.  Again, I tried to stay away from things that were too girly, and I think the red, yellow, blue color combo is just perfect!

My original plan was to use three small photos on the bottom left and then create some stiching to make it look like little "bouncing" lines.  But I decided to do one large stitched circle on the page instead to go with the theme.  Also, I don't usually ink the edges of my papers, but I have been trying to do it a lot more and really love how it make the papers stand out.

I added a dab of navy blue from Crate Paper neighborhood, and some old alphas that I had in my stash, plus another star (staying away from flowers!!).

Thanks for looking today!  I have a TON more to share this week and can't WAIT!  :)