And the winner is...

Finally picked the winner for the contest! Michaela did this page based on Sketch #3. I love how she used the snowboards in place of the brackets and the colors on this are just awesome! Make sure you email me your address at jroriente@gmail.com so I can get your goodies out soon!

And now on to this week's sketch...

I had originally intended this sketch to be for pictures from around the campfire from our camping trip this weekend to Westport, however, we we

re

rarely all around the fire at the same time, so I didn't get them. I even had the idea of having Chlow draw some fire on some white cardstock so I could use it for this page because she draws amazing flames!

Since I didn't get to take the desired photos, I started looking around in my already printed stack so I could use the sketch anyways. I like it that much. What it ended up looking like is a far cry from the actual sketch... mostly because I was trying some new techniques (like making vines out of tissue paper) but also because I was

using up some old embellishments as part of a challenge at the House of Paper. It still somewhat resembles the sketch, I think, but I guess that's why they call it "Inspiration" ;)

The materials I used for this one are:

The journal spot is from a pack of "frames" I got years ago from colorbok
The "Cherish" is from one of those DIY kits from a while ago that I bought for the album
the butterflies are appliques that I bought and forgot about as are the metal charms & hat pin. Everything else is new! pp: DCWAV
Flowers & Page Pebble: Prima

To make the tissue paper vines, I cut some green tissue paper into a strip twice as long as the area I wanted it for, then crumpled it, uncrumpled it and twisted it, then I inked it wit

h a black ink pad very lightly. I cut the leaves by crumpling and uncrumpling more tissue paper and folding it in half and cur a few half-leave shapes. After I unfolded each leaf, I gently touched them to the ink pad so it would pick up some of the texture and then I used Helmar Acid

Free Glue to attach them all to my page.

Last day of the contest!

Today is the official last day of the contest that you can view HERE ... make sure you get your entries posted by 9PM my time (Pacific).

And now, th

e weekly

sketch... :) I was going to post some of the layouts I did for the DT call, but I really liked

this one I did last nig

ht and thought I would share this one instead.

For the layout I did to accompany it, I used some papers from Me & My Big Ideas (Totally loving the flocked sha

ped paper from them), Rita Marie & Co. (The striped stuff) and Die Cuts With a View's newest Stack (I think it's #6). I fussy cut out the boy and dog from some Sassafras and the pawprint hearts are also from the Stack. The round number sticker is

also Sassafras and the "Big Dog" sticker is from

K&Co. And fi

nally, all the yummy chipboard :D. The Black piece is from Scenic Route, the G

reen piece is from Colorbok and the title is from Heidi Swapp. I have no idea where the ribbon is from, but I picked up the burlap ribbon a couple years ago on clearance after Christmas at JoAnn's.

Enabler Alert!!!!

As you know, I try to be as thrifty as I can... I usually buy things on sale/ clearance or try to win them somehow. And you also know how much I LOVE my Sassafras... well, dear readers, Michael's has a rocking clearance sale going on and yours truely picked up a pad of both the Sassafras Hog Heaven line and Whale of a Tale line (complete with patterned papers, monograms & cardstock stickers) for $9.99 a piece. I was tempted to get more, but House of Paper just got the Yummy new line "Me Likey" in stock and I just had to snag that up just for my summer pics! And before anyone else got to it.

Speaking of House of Paper, Chiara also has some other great sales going on, so stop buy and do some shopping!

Some Summer Fun!

I have some great sketches and layouts to share, but I am waiting until I decide on which ones I will be using for my DT entry, so as I eliminate pages from the running, I will share them here. This week's sketch is a pretty simple one, I think, but I have a fascination with big circles (can you tell?) and this one definitely has it! The papers I used on the layout are Sassafras from the Happy Place & Hog Heaven Collections (I believe) and Crate Orbit. The title is chipboard I cut from some thin chipboard that was used to stabilize a paper order and I used chipboard frame and elements from AC Thickers. The border down the left is actually the negative space from some LilyBee French Couture die cuts, but the shape and the colors fit so perfectly, I couldn't resist!