A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Sorry I didn't get my sketch posted on Wednesday. I use Paint Shop Pro for everything and we updated our desktop to Windows 7... I haven't yet re-installed it & have no idea if it will even work with it. Luckily, I have it on my laptop, which also has SCAL & Design Studio on it, so I can use it. Unfortunately, until there is either something good on TV or Netflix sends out the disk so we can stream movies with our Wii, my laptop is at the mercy of being used for movies, since it is the only thing really portable enough to go into th living room. Anyhow, here is the sketch that I would have posted on Wednesday. The layout is also the one that I submitted to the House of Serendipity Event for the second week challenge.

For this layout, I used paper, photo corners & a journal spot from Sassafras (Sweet Marmalade collection), and a ric-rac die cut from Lily Bee and the little felt pieces are stickers from American Greetings that I picked up around Halloween. 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to announce that I will be a Guest Designer at Scrap Your Crap in April... stay tuned for my layout I did for it :) I'll be doing some more scrapping today, so there could be some surprise layout and/or sketch shares... if I feel like it.

The Good, The Bad & The Sketchy

What a difference a week can make! To start off, the good news is always the best! Our family is all a little tired today and it is due to the fact that we were all at the hospital last night where my Sister in Law gave birth to my nephew! His name is Tristan Kale. He was born a little after 11:20pm and weighed 7 lbs. 11oz.

Isn't he a cutie! I can't wait to watch him grow! Charlie is really happy to have a boy cousin now... especially after 13 years of being the only boy.

Now the bad news. We got notified today that Brianna, who runs the Spunky Scrappers site is hanging up her boots. She said she will leave the site up as inspiration, but will no longer be running any challenges. I'm bummed because I have been just loving some of the different challenges! The topics were great, not to mention the fact that it is the first DT I have ever been on & I was just starting to have a blast! I guess I will be searching out some new DT opportunities this new year.

And, finally, the Sketchy :)

I have two for you today!

For this first layout, I used papers from K & Co. and a strip of Sassafras. The journal spot is Little Yellow Bicycle and the title and butterfly were cut with my Cricut using Die Cuts With a View glitter cardstock. The flowers are Prima. To get the bunchy effect on the pink & yellow flowers, I put a dot of Helmar Craft Glue in the center of one paper flower, then held it together until it set and stayed there, then I used a dot of Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to adhere it to the center of the second flower.

This next one is my favorite :)

This one us almost all Sassafras :) The film strip is from Creative Imaginations, the felt is from Blu Eye Dezines and the little metal clips are from Heidi Swapp.

What's inspiring you today?

The Guys & no dryer...

I did this layout for the first sketch challenge at Spunky Scrappers :) BTW, my sketch is the next one! Let me know how you like it :)

For this layout, I used Orbit papers from Crate. I layered on top of a journaling tag from Little Yellow Bicycle using a Paper Whimsy from Sassafras and used a BoBunny Rub-on for the actual area that I journaled in. I used Rub-ons from My Mind's Eye Magnolia collection (the brackets) and October Afternoon (the letters).

I intended to spend my day doing laundry and scrapping, but I arrived home from work last night to find that our dryer is down. Lovely. This necessitated an afternoon of trying to research what was wrong with it (I think it's a thermal fuse) and how to possibly fix it. Joe will be dealing with that this weekend. Anyhow, since we needed clothes for the week, Charlie and I hauled our laundry to the laundromat for  couple hours spent watching laundry spin and eating vending machine snacks. I really hope that our dryer is able to get fixed soon. I don't know if I can handle another exciting afternoon at the laundromat.

So Pretty!

I found a blog with this awesome tutorial on how to make roses from maple leaves & in my scrap-addled mind thought, "Wow, I could totally do that with patterned paper!" Here's the link for the blog http://haha.nu/creative/how-to-make-roses-from-maple-leaves/ and their finished product:

I'll post my version after I've had some time to play, but isn't that just the coolest idea?

I actually found that site through my latest addiction of using "StumbleUpon." If you've never used it before, you basically sign up (you don't have to, but if you do, you can bookmark the sites that you find & like), tell it what topics you are interested in, and then hit the "Stumble" button. It will bring you to random websites that fit within the topics you set. You can either thumbs-up a site (which saves it for you), or thumbs-down it (which makes sure you never go there again). I could stumble all day if you let me. And if I actually had the time.

I'll be posting today's sketch later on today. I got a call earlier that my niece was requesting to "visit Aunt Jill", so we are off to the mall and to redeem my Lasting Memories Gift Certificates. I don't know what I want to get yet, but I hope they have some fun stuff! (Like they wouldn't... who am I kidding!)

Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice the new addition to the top right-hand side of my blog bar, I am now on the Design Team for Spunky Scrappers, both as a designer & a sketch artist :) My first sketch for them, with their interpretations, will be posted mid-December. But, I have tons & tons of ideas in my head, so I will still be posting my weekly sketch here as well. Feel free to play along & post your interpretations of my sketches to the comments so I can see too!

Design Team Call

I really enjoy being able to share my skteches and layouts on here, but I would love to see what other people do as well, so I would like to assemble a design team. Unfortunately, I don't have a budget to offer any supplies, just the opportunity to have your work seen and be on a design team.

The responsibilities will be:

Need to do a minimum of 2 layouts per month using the weekly sketches that will be emailed to you and you will have 1 week to get your layout emailed back to me so I can post it on the site. You will also have the opportunity to do your own sketches to have the design team to work on as well. That's it :) Easy enough, don't you think?

To try out:

Email me 2 layouts done from sketches that are currently on my blog (doesn't have to be new), the address of your own blog or an online gallery where I can see your work and a resume of other scrapbook related things you have done (ie- so & so's design team August 2008-December 2008, etc.)

Tryouts will run through September 15th and I will announce the design team by the 20th.

Have fun & I hope to have lots of entries to pick from!