A Scrappin' Fool!

The boys have been gone to prep up the deer hunting area all weekend and Angel has been gone with friends and working so it's just been me and my loyal pooch, Winchester! I've been busy doing challenges and online crops, fitting a layout to work with this one or that one and I got quite a few done.


The first one I'll share with you was called a Recipe Challenge. Liz shared it at Birds Of A Feather Kit Co. It required that I use bright colors, a banner, a home made tag and 2 photo's. In doing it I discovered that I have a hard time working with the color purple. It's of my 3 kids way back in August of 2001 and journaling reads: I say 2 & ½ , because you will notice that at the kid’s tea party all 3 kids have a cup of juice in front of them, but when it came to the dessert that Angel and & Rick are enjoying (oh so daintily!) our little man Brandon
has pulled way back!

Lisa asked us to distress a layout! This was a toughie for me but I took the striped background paper, misted it and then rolled the edges. I am very partial to pictures but well, I sanded and inked the edges of them! TOUGHIE! Every spring Allan has the kids clean and spiffy up the boat. Because heaven forbid! We can't put a dirty boat in the water, even tho it has been covered up all winter!

Heather wanted us to dirty up a layout. So I did a layout of two dirty boys! Jay and Rick = Handsome Dirt. The circle in the bottom of the paper was part of the paper, I cut it out, backed the larger sheet with cs and popdotted the circle to the paper to make it stand out.

Liz had a sketch challenge, and as soon as I saw it I thought....maybe I could make that background paper with a picture. So I changed one of the pictures of Rick and Steph to B&W and printed an 8 x 10 of it on a transparency. Used it as a matting paper and then finished the layout like usual. I kinda' like how it turned out!

Krissy's challenge was to scrap an inanimate object and while sometimes I feel like I would qualify for that sitting here in front of this screen so long, I chose to scrap the pictures I had taken of my flowers a few weeks ago. My husband had gotten me a new Canon D60 Camera last Christmas and I haven't tired of playing with it yet. Those flowers were great subjects! I kept the layout "simple" to better showcase the flowers.

I did a few others last week, but of the ones that I've shown you today, which one do you pick as your favorite?

Is it hot out or what?

My word, it's hot and from what I understand this is only the first day of what appears to be a whole week of them! I don't think I'll venture out much this week other than to walk as early as I can haul myself out of bed and to the grocery store.

Every Sunday Sketch Inspiration offers up a new sketch. I had been getting the new sketch in my e-mail for about a year but never really took much notice. I was missing out! This week's sketch will be the fourth in a row that I've completed from there and I welcome you to check them out! Great sketch and a new and great prize every week! I already had this photo printed out, and I had had the idea in my mind for quite a while so when I saw the sketch it fit what I had in mind so didn't take me long to finish it. You gotta love the papers and embellishments from Scraptastic, don't you? The Fancy Pants line is fun!

It had been my responsibility (!) all school year to feed Ed and Ted (my names for the fish, even tho Rick told me their names were Rick and Steph!) and so when he was gone for the five days for the Electric Rodeo it was just assumed that I would feed them. Which was fine with me. Except that Rick was NOT returning my calls or my texts and Allan and I really wanted to know what was going on with our boy and hear some of his adventures!
So…..I texted him, “Call home or the fish die…..” His dad’s phone rang about a minute later….


DT Kate had Inspired To Scrap shared with a technique that called for cutting your paper into strips, distressing it, wetting it and then wadding it into your fists, and then quickly (let me stress the word quickly!) adhering it to your layout using hot melt glue. So of course I had to try it!

I used pictures of Angel and her Senior Year friend Isabella, that I snagged off from Face Book. I didn't tell her about it, just posted it back onto facebook and she loved it! What 'cha think, is this a technique that you might want to try?

Brandon was sitting out on the dock last week reading. (The boy loves to read and can whip thru a "real" book in a day!) I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him. Oh alright, I did snap quite a few! I didn't see the reflection of him in the pond until I looked at them on the computer. This layout took me all of about 20 minutes to do because the latest papers just fit it so well! (along with the embellishments!) Everything was from the kit except for the Thickers, and those were orginally white, and I just inked them with my trusty cats eye ink pad. (Trish, from WIP, I must say you put together a wonderful kit and you are a super fast shipper!)

More Layouts!

When we took a recent short trip to the U.P. (the night that we drove for FIVE hours before we found a vacancy and then it was "The Bates Motel", finding it at 4 a.m.!), the idea for this layout came to mind. Cookin' Up Creations just happen to have a challenge that required a funny picture! How convenient, eh? Sketch Inspiration also posted their weekly sketch challenge and I grabbed it, and paired it with the funny picture and this oh so witty (whatever!) journaling:
What! How could this have happened
to ME! We were sitting in a restaurant
in the U.P. of Michigan, casually
looking the breakfast menu over and I
spotted the age for the SENIOR
DISCOUNT! No! This can’t be right,
funny or not so funny I actually
qualifed for it with my birthday last
year! I’m a Senior Citizen! I do have
to say that other than being stiff after
sitting for awhile I feel better than I
Did years ago! I’m so much more
active and alive! I do have to wear
glasses now for reading, and if I
hadn’t had the darn things on that
morning, I could have stayed NON
Senior for a bit more time! (in case you
are wondering I’m 56!)
to come up with this layout using the June WIP kit.

Small Package Big Fun just makes my heart sing! Look at that smile on Ruth's face. This picture was totally and accident! I would have said she was too close and then there was that huge window there. Ruth was running round saying, "Monster, Monster" (cause her Uncle Rick was the monster!)and I happened to snap this picture! Perfect for a layout that needed a close up and lettering finished with a crimper. (Thanks Char for letting me borrow yours to try one out!)

Who doesn't love a good sketch? The Big Chill (and jumping into Crystal Lake In Northern MI during late October IS a Big Chill!) was based on a sketch by Sandy on Cookin' Up Creations. I thought the snow paper was a pretty good background for this. You ask why are they jumping in the lake if it's so cold? Hmmmm...because it's tradition for the x team after the Benzie Race? I dunno....not for me to do I can tell you that!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This past week I've done some scrapping! Really liking all the challenges that different blogs/forums put out there. Scraptastic Club has a different one every week, Cookin' Up Creations has a different every day except for Monday which can be used as a catch up day. Inspired To Scrap has six to chose from, do one or do them all. Sketch Inspiration has a new sketch up on Sundays. Which I incidentally won last week which give me a nice selection of chipboard!

I was pretty happy yesterday morning when BarbP pointed out to me that my "Dad" layout from last week was one chosen to be shown on Sketch Inspiration's blog. Made me smile.

This first layout I'll show you is of Angel on her 18th birthday. I used papers and embellies from Scapbook Sussies that I ordered last summer. Angel is scratching off 18 lottery tickets. Kinda' of a tradition here to show the kids, just cause they are old enough to buy the lottery tickets, don't plan on getting rich off from them.

Rick graduated from Alpena Community College in May and we were so proud to attend the honor's breakfast. The products in the WIP kit seemed perfect for what I had in mind. For the Record he did a great job!

Who doesn't love a mother daughter picture? When I first laid eyes on this one, I thought it was the sweetest picture. Renee and Sophie right after Renee's wedding. I love this picture of the two of them! I dove into my stash to come up with some "wedding" type of papers.

The last one I want to share with you (for right now! LOL!) is of Brandon and his fantastic trip to Nashville last year with his fellow youth from Manton United Methodist Church. I grabbed the June Scraptastic kit (Surf's Up) to scrap these wonderful pictures taken by Jessica L.