A little sketchy fun!

Scrap 365 has a wonderful sketch up on their site for May.  I love the simplicity of it and have JUST the right photo I want to use.

I rotated the sketch and found a photo of Isabel and her snowman for this year.  Her favorite movie right now happens to be Frozen, so the direction I wanted to take was obvious.  My favorite bit is the cloud raining down dots and hearts.

Introducing May's Counterfeit Kit!

We are jumping into May with a wonderful kit by Paper Camellia.  Since there is a Main Kit, Add on and a Pocket Page kit for May, I decided to go a little bold and make a 12x12 kit based on the Pocket Page Kit.

HERE is the kit that inspired me this month:

I also decided to do something a bit different (for me) and take a quick inventory of the kit and then not look at it again while I make my own kit.  I made a list of the things that struck me in the kit, so I could free style it a bit.  Crazy?  I hope so!

My notes:

Colors:  Blue, Orange, Pink, Green, Yellow, Black

Embellishments:  Cork, wood, metal

Shapes:  Stars, Globes, Cameras, Words

Theme:  Travel/Adventure

 Now comes the brave part.  I got out the box.  Don't YOU have a box?  A box of special papers that you are hoarding and don't want to ever use?  Yes.  I got out that box.  My special box is full of October Afternoon.  You know that October Afternoon is hard to come by around here.  My friend Pam has sent me some and I was able to snag one of their boxes this past Thanksgiving.  I tried pulling other papers for my kit, but knew that the perfect papers were in that box.

See that Map paper right there on top?  Sigh.  I love that paper.  Most of what I picked is October Afternoon with a bit of Crate Paper thrown in to round it out.  I LOVE the colors and it came together pretty quickly with no patterns to try to match up.  

So here is my complete kit I like to call Oh, the Places I'll Go.

Next on our hop is our Guest Designer, Laura.  You are in for a treat so head over there next!

If you get a bit lost on our hop, here is the list to keep you going:

Bethany:  http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com

Guest Designer: Laura  http://beadsbuttonsandbirds.blogspot.co.uk

Angela http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Julene  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au/

Lesley G.  http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa H. http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Leslie  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Millisa http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Stephanie http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca/

Don't forget to check back in at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for a special two day Event for National Scrapbook Day!

Make sure you stop back by The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog to see how you can participate this month in our challenges and end of the month blog hop!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge #3 for April: BIG TITLES

My printer is out of ink, so I had to dig through some of my older photos to see what I could use for a layout for this challenge.  The color combination of my kit is also limiting me a bit, but I finally found a photo with a great story that I want to document.

I found some great inspiration over on the blog, Happiness is Scrappy.  I fell in love with her layout:

Head over to her blog to see more about it HERE.

The placement of the photo is different and interesting and I love how prominent the title is.  I decided to give a bit of scrap lifting a go.

I have to say that my Silhouette is one of the best gifts my hubby has gotten for me.  I enjoyed my cricut, but finding the right cut was tedious and time consuming.  (I actually still have a Cricut and an Imagine, but they are resting in my closet.)  The Silhouette is so much faster!  I have a subscription (gotten at a great discount) to the online store and can quickly locate what I want and cut it out within minutes.  For this layout I browsed the store for the perfect font and really liked.  Then I decided to just do it.  Not cut out a font FOR the layout, but cut it out ON the layout.

And just like that, I did my first cuts on an actual layout.  Now I feel silly for worrying about it.  LOL

Now to figure out what to put behind the paper.  I tried a lot of different patterns and textures.  My daughter reminded me of the backside of a cute fairy tale paper I had in my stash...PERFECT!  Since the "Frozen Yogurt" was supposed to be blueberry, I figured blue dot paper would work for the rest of the title.

TADA!

Journaling:

Billy has the worst time expressing exactly why he dislikes a certain food or meal.  When I ask him, he says it "Tastes Like Dirt".  It is a good thing I love him.  After one "It Tastes Like Dirt" comment, I decided to get him back.  I went to my friend's frozen yogurt store (The Pink Walrus) for some help.   Billy asked me to bring him back a container of their blueberry frozen yogurt.  Instead, Kylee and I filled  a container with dirt.  Yep.  It flew all over when he pulled off the lid.

And since I am digging around in my supplies today, I decided to make my girl a card kit.

She is now happily making some cards for some birthdays coming up.  

Counterfeit Kit Challenge #2: Pocket Page Inspiration

Since I have been hoping that Pocket Pages are the answer for my limited time scrapbooking, I have collected quite a few cards.  I fear this may have turned into a new obsession.  LOL  Hence the idea for Challenge #2 this month on The Counterfeit Kit Challenge:  Use a Pocket Page type card on your project.

Yes, that is TWO Iris cases full of cards.  **See how neatly they are organized?  Happy Sigh**  And a kit that will not fit in the cases.  You will note however, that ALL of my cards have either been purchases on really good sale, given to me or have been purchases as partial kits from a Facebook Group online.  Did you notice the red sticker on the Dear Lizzy kit in the box?  Yes, it really does say $8!  Thank goodness for whomever took the shrink wrap off of the outside and returned it to Michaels (the inside was still shrink wrapped!).  So at least my collection is not costing me much.

The card I picked is from the Dear Lizzy collection and is a great match for one of the papers from my Counterfeit Kit for this month (see my post April Counterfeiting Fun to see my kit).  I also pulled some great Studio Calico feathers that I have been hoarding because I was not quite sure what to do with them.  LOL

This card is much softer than I usually make.  I love the color pallet though.  I should use it more often.

A Fun Little Sketch Challenge

Have you seen the New Sketch Challenge over at the Hero Arts Blog?  They have put up three sketches and you can enter from now until May 25th (you need to use any stamp of theirs).  You can take a good look at it HERE for all of the details.

The three sketches look fairly versatile, so I pulled out some of my Hero Arts stamps to give one a go.

I really like the white space on #3, so that will be my first place to start.

Supplies:
white card base
scrap white paper/brown paper
Echo Park 6x6 This and That Paper Pad
Hero Arts Friendly Flags
Hero Arts Everyday Sayings
Close to My Heart Ink : Chocolate, Blush, Sweet Leaf
sequins

I really like the Just Saying Hello stamp, but it did take up too much space to place it lower, like I wanted.  I think filling in with sequins was just the right touch.

I hope you consider playing along with this sketch challenge.  If you do, be sure to link me up in my comments so I can see what you made!

A little non scrappy fun!

Most of you may not know this but one of my other loves is Needlework.  My Grandma taught me when I was 4 do some some simple cross stitch and I have been hooked ever since!  Grandma has even written (and had published) a needlepoint book!  How cool is that?  She teaches classes on it and does all sorts of fun things.

I am a multi-tasker, even in this hobby.  LOL  I like to bounce around with my projects when I get a bit bored or cross eyed.

Here is a project I have been working on for *uhem* years.  LOL  I still love it, but kids sort of changed my priorities and it has traveled, uncompleted, from house to house for awhile.  I try not to stress about it...this is supposed to be fun, right?

Recently I found out about a wonderful store, The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I feel in LOVE with the their sampler of the month and jumped right back into it!  The concept is that you purchase the sampler pattern and each month they e-mail you the next block for you to stitch.  This year the theme is Fairy Tales and my daughter BEGGED for me to make it for her.  Of course, I am happy to sacrifice.  (AND, I might add, I am RIGHT ON SCHEDULE WITH IT!  So HA!)  How cute is that frog tin in the photo?  I bought those chocolates on Valentines Day JUST for the tin.  It is storing my needles, scissors and some other bits I need to stitch.

I fell SO much in love with this store and their patterns that I am also making their sampler from last year....for ME!

I am finding that I can easily finish up both in time for the next month's block.  In fact, I might throw in some ornaments this summer, too.

Do you love to do any needlework?  What project have you been working on?

A Scrapbook Video like no other...

If you are looking for some great scrappy talk to listen to while you create, then you really should check out Paperclipping.  You can get a subscription to watch some really worthwhile videos, but they also have their podcasts (with various scrapbooking superstars...including our own former DT member Melissa Stinson) for free.  They are really fun and extremely educational to listen to.

Here is a video they posted recently that they dubbed, "The Most Useful Scrapbook Video of All Time".  I totally agree and wanted to share it with you!

Enjoy!