Plugged In

This pic of my kiddos just cracks me up.  I went to check on them because they were being awfully quiet for the three of them to be playing together and I see them all snuggled up focused in on their own tablets.  Their answer: "what, we're getting along? "

The paper line I used was By Scrap Within Reach and is called Paper Boy.  The embellisments are all from K&Co and it's called Video Game Medley.

I followed the sketch posted a few weeks ago at Stuck?! .  I am such a sketch-a-holic that I've really made it a point to share the sketch I follow each layout because 99% of the time, there is one.  :)  Please click over to their blog to play along and to pin from there if you want to save it to use later.  :)

Thanks for visiting!

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Lawn Boy

Today's layout comes inspired by the sketch posted last week at Stick It Down.  It was perfect for the Simple Stories Line, Aweso{ME} line I'd been saving to use with this pic.  I'm still trying to weed through my old stash of lines not even broken into before I order any of the new fun stuff.  You can click over to the link above to pin the original sketch, or if you're quick, play along.  :)

Thanks for visiting!

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Goodbye Cast, Hello Braces

So many of you know that the last year for me has not been so groovy.  Yes I started the long road of getting to the bottom of a health issue that just wasn't easy myself, and my youngest baby girl had an accident at school that snowballed into a huge medical undertaking, but also my middle kiddo managed to break herself (literally!) two separate times!!  She spent a few months in an arm cast after breaking her wrist in two places playing a game of tag and 9 months to the date of getting out of that cast, she broke her foot running across the playground at recess.  One might say they came by their klutziness honestly?!?!  Just sayin'!  Well the day she finally got out of that hot pink arm cast, she got her braces put on that same afternoon.  She kept joking that she got out of one prison just in time to be locked down in the next.  She's super attached to her popcorn and bubblegum!

Here is the layout I created to document that day.  I don't just scrap the happy stuff.  Everything is worth scrapping in my opinion.  The layout was created for the new challenge posted over at Child's Play Challenges all about GLITTER!!!  As you can probably see, I glittered those plain chipboard letters within an inch of their life!  :)

Thanks for visiting!

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Today is a Gift

I absolutely LOOOOVE the new sketch posted over at Sketchabilities.  You all know how I feel about a good sketch, and this one is awesome.  Click on over to play along, and to pin the sketch if you wanna save it for later.

The paper is mostly MME Cut & Paste with a few misc MME scraps added to stretch what supplies I had.  The letters Thickers and the little letter stickers are Studio 112.  The arrow subtitles are MME Collectible line.  The flowers and rhinestones are all Recollections.  I think my very favorite part is the background paper which has this really cool ombre effect.

Thanks for visiting!

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Paper Issues is LISTening

The current issue over at Paper Issues is all about lists in case the title's pun was lost on anyone. HAHA!  It just so happens that 2 of my favorite layouts ever about 2 of my favorite people were in a list format.  I really love a good list because it just makes sense of otherwise jumbled thoughts and journalings that I start to put down to paper.

In honor of this current issue, I wanted to share the two layouts again.  I hope it inspires you to give it a try.  You can find the original posts here: My Wish & 10 Things I Love About You.

Thanks for visiting!

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Tea Party

I'm back with a new layout and this one is for January's Scrap Friend's challenge.  For those of you that have never seen it, they are four blogging buddies who host a monthly challenge.  Each poses their own separate challenge and you can make one layout, one for each, or if you are feeling super froggy you can make one layout that combines them all.  I decided to be super ambitious and jump right in and try THAT.  Details of the challenge, how I followed them and links to each is just below.

First up is the sketch Brenda shared.  As you can see I went my own way with it, but I did stick pretty close I think.  The biggest change was I went with only one photo and used the other spots for journaling and bigger embellishments.

Rochelle's challenge was one of my favorites.  A tic tac toe board!  I went up and down on the far left.  My title is made from corrugated cardboard that was painted white.  My arrows are along the top strip, far bottom strip and just to the right of the photo...all made from patterned paper.  The mist is harder to see, but if you click to enlarge my layout you should be able to see it.  I used green Glimmer Mist across the entire layout before adding my photo.  While it's hard to see in the pic (except maybe on the white piece just left of the photo), in person it adds an awesome shimmer.

Kelly's addition was a color challenge.  That was a little tougher, but I found one of my Echo Park lines a pretty close match.

Last up was the title challenge posed by Kristi.  She posted a word cloud with lots of New Years and Wintery words and asked that you use at least ONE in your title.  My title is "Tea Party Fun" so the word I picked is "FUN".  

Thanks for visiting!

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Fun With Echo Park and CS259

Bare with me on my layouts in the short term.  I'm trying to clear out what's left of lines I'd already used once or twice to make room for all the new CHA stuff and so a lot of my layouts are mish-mash.  Most of this layout is Echo Park Sisters, but I did dig through my scrap bin and pull out a few other EP lines and even some MME that happened to be the same color family.

This layout was inspired by Kristine Davidson's AHHHH-mazing sketch posted over at Creative Scrappers this week.  Click on over to play along.  I was so intimidated by the sketch at first because I really struggle with grid style layouts, but I challenged myself to just jump in and really pour over all the DT inspiration every time I got stuck.  In the end, I'm pretty in love with how this layout of my son and his grandma turned out.  ♥

Thanks for visiting!

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Easter Egg Hunt

Hey all, back again with another layout.  Look at me keeping up with my goals and stuff!  This layout is mostly Doodlebug papers, but the background was a spare piece of Reminisce that I had leftover from a kit.  I was able to dig through my super fun stash of buttons that had been a little neglected lately and found all these fun spring colors in a wide variety.  The big letters are Thickers and the gems are Recollections..as well as the flowers.  The sketch I followed is below and links back to the now dormant Sketches in Thyme blog.  It's years old, but was hiding a few dozen scrolls down my sketches pinterest board so luckily I'm still able to give credit to the original sketcher and share with all my fellow sketch lovers.  :)

Thanks for visiting!

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A Day for Play

This layout uses a lot of misc pieces from several My Mind's Eye lines that I thought I'd all but used up.  Luckily in the land of my scrappy hoardes...nothing ever sees a trash can so I was able to pull them together and whip up this layout below.  As you can see, all but my daughter's face has been pixelated out.  I didn't want to assume that the rest of my Girl Scout's parents wanted their kids faces splashed all over blogdom.  :)

The sketch I followed is an oldie but goodie that I've used before and will surely use again.  Thanks to pinterest, I can share the original sketch since I was easily able to find the original source to give due credit.  :)  Just click the sketch to be magically transported over to Scrap Paper Scissors etc.

Thanks for visiting!

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School Memories

I told you I was determined to get back into my studio space in the next week and the baby steps didn't lead me astray!  It helps that our temps are forecast to start around -12 (actual temp...windchill is closer to -30...YIKES!) for the next few days and no one wants to get out in that nonsense.  So I told hubby I was locking myself up in this room until I had completed something.  And a little over 2 hours later...voila.

I'm still weeding through the pinterest boards of sketches that I've been curating inspite of my lack creating time the past 7 months and found this one from the New Year's release on Page Drafts blog.  Click on over to be transported to the rest of their awesome sketches.  Below is the one that inspired this layout.

Thanks for visiting!

♥

A look back... A surge forward.

Well lookie who is trying to crawl back out from the mayhem, stress, and utter exhaustion that has been my life for the better part of the last year.  As most of you read a few posts back, my youngest daughter fell from a piece of playground equipment at preschool last May and suffered neurological problems that have required ongoing treatment.  Followed by discovering an undiagnosed congenital malformation of the pituitary gland in the brain that requires frequent medical tests, appointments, treatments, and shots (super fun trying to make a 3yr old understand daily shots..lemme tell you). Add to that 6+ hours twice a week spent at our local children's hospital an hour from home for said appointments including lots of physical therapy and I'm spent.  Did I mention I also have a 4th grader and a 7th grader who need just as much attention as before???  Well once I put it all in print, it's a little easier to understand why I went AWOL from every social media that couldn't be managed easily from a waiting room on my phone.

Things still aren't calming down much even though baby girl and I are getting our routine and tolerance of her medical helmet down pat, but something over winter break snapped in me.  No, not splashed all over the 10pm news kinda snapped, just a revelation of sorts.  There are LOTS of moms and dads with special needs children who still manage to have an identity outside of that.  My goal for this new year is to figure out just how to do that.  No better place to start than jumping right in....right?  So I printed off a goal planner and set baby steps.  Things may not be able to get back to the business of challenges, design teams, and my etsy ventures, but I can and WILL find time to document the memories my family is making inspite of the mayhem.

To kick off my mojo, I would like to jump on the bandwagon of sharing my 13 favorite projects from 2013.  Not a hard task since I stopped cold turkey even going INTO my scrappy space last spring, but I did find 13 things I loved from last year that I'd like to share.  Did you share your favorite(s) from last year on your blog?  If so leave a link in my comments because I'd love to come see them if I haven't found them already!  :) :)  

thirteen

twelve

eleven

ten

nine

eight

seven

six

five

four

three

two

one

Thanks for visiting!

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