Stuck!? Mid-March sketch Challenge

Stuck Sketch blog has released the Mid-March Sketch.

I used a cut file from The Cut Shoppe called It Adds Up. I used the 8.5x11 option as is. I cut it twice, once in black and again in white without the plus signs. I was unsure if I would be using washi tape or patterned paper for the pops of color and wanted to have an solid backer for the washi tape just in case. I ended up using paper and popping up the whole cut file.

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I used a picture and text from my Facebook post from the other day. 

Backstory: My youngest is hearing impaired (born without eardrums nor full ear canals, she has underwent many surgeries in her short 7 yr life to correct it but will always benefit from using the hearing aids) We are just so very thankful for the team of people that has been Syd's advocates. The list grows each and every year. We call them Team Super Syd.

I will be forever grateful for the team of people that took my surly mute 2.5 yr and made her this spunky, funny, sweet 7 yr old wonder of joy. When I catch her doing awesome normal things like reading a book nonstop just because she wants to, I like to stop and thank those teachers, paras, doctors, speech and hearing specialist for every effort they put towards our daughter. She was not the easiest to work with especially in  the early years.  Each and every one of them added their expertise to change her life for the better.

The cut file of connect circles with plus signs fits this perfectly.

Thanks for looking.

SBC Sketch #473

I was finally able to shake the sinus headache and do something besides take meds and sleep. Yay! I decided as a celebration I would go down to the scrapbook room and throw together a LO that I had been planned a week or so ago. 

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #473.

                                          

                                

Here is what I created with it.

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I used a Just Nic cut file, Little Black Dots and a shopping bag from my local quilt store for some of the layers. All the paper is from the Lemon Lush Studio Calico paper pad.

Thanks for taking a look.

Paige Evan's scraplift

I cannot locate the original link to Paige Evan's page as it was on Two Peas. But I will link to her blog for inspiration

Here is the her LO. I watch Tina Gale's scraplift of this page on You tube and just had to do one too.

I used a different quote, much longer,  my ruffles are all white and vellum instead of colored. I also go a but heavy handed on the splatter.

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 I used washi to back my letters and surprisingly I had spray mist in all the colors to splatter about.  I added vellum over the picture as I  wanted the picture to not be as crispy and clear. I made the picture a flap and added my journaling there.

The journaling is a bit hard to read from the blog picture.

"No this does not mean that I want to live with this out of shape body either. I am 43 and realize that it took 6 pregnancies, a handful of stressful situations, a roller coaster of emotions and quite a few bad decisions to get here. It will take many things to change it, some I am not willing to do right now. I know that sounds ridiculous. If I don’t love my body why would I not do what it takes to make it the way I want it. Well, as I said, I am 43 and I know me. I hate counting calories, I feel like I am depriving myself of foods and that is all I can think about. Then I start cheating and then I feel bad, it is a vicious cycle that repeats over and over until I give up, (done this way to many times.) Everything in moderation seems to be what keeps my emotions on an even keel. When my emotions are on an even keel I make better choices….

I have decided that instead squeezing into the slightly wrong size clothing because that is the size I used to be/want to be is not good for my mental wellbeing. So I buy the right size clothing despite the size number and they are comfortable and I smile more. Amazing right? Smiling more is the goal.  I don’t care what the scale says anymore. I stopped letting that number decide whether I feel pretty today. When I feel pretty I make better choices and making better choices it the goal every day.

I have a very loving husband and 4 beautiful children that love me. I will never look like a Victoria’s Secret model but then, they don’t really look like that either… I will never be a size 6 and may never have an awesome toned bum. But I can be happy in my own skin and that is the best thing possible."

Thanks got looking

Paper Issues March Sketchy Saturday & Cut Mania

I woke up this morning and was not planning on scrapping. But I was checking out Facebook and came upon the Paper Issues challenge for today.  

I also had the cut file I love you 8 days a week Cut mania already cut. I had it pair with a different picture though. At first I was not thinking I would use this cut file and this sketch together but it came out pretty good. 

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I dug around until I found this picture of my hubby. This year he started running everyday, at least a mile a day. He has been running for many years already, runs marathons a couple times a year but the running everyday is new this year. He is loving it and feels the benefits in his marathon training already. 

I hand painted the black to title in the cut file with black color shine I created the large layers with Express tissue paper from a shirt we bought and polka dot vellum. I did not want to add any other colors and I wanted to keep the large coral strip from being visual broken up  with other layers. The vellum and tissue added layered texture and kept with my plan. The flair came with the Echo Park Creative Agenda collection.

Thanks for taking a look.

Cut Mania Cut files

I used 2 more cut files from my new favorite cut file Etsy store Cut Mania  

I used the Be...daring, curious, Heather used Green, black and Grey wood grain in her LO (which can be seen in the listing link above). I love it so much I scrap lifted it.  I stuck with pink, grey and black with hits of gold for mine. Colors were taken from the picture of my youngest daughter, She is usually wearing pink so seem to have a lot of pink papers to pull from.

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 I absolutely love this cut file, I knew what picture and what story I wanted to tell  as soon as I seen it.

I tucked my journaling behind the photo cluster and added pink, gold, black layers. I sprinkled HS black and gold color shine in the background. 

For the 2nd LO today I used the Star Trail cut file. I used the negative for this LO. I saved the pieces and glued them to white page using the cutout as a stencil to place them perfectly before assembling this LO. So two LOs from one cut file not a bad deal at all.  I just need to create that LO.

                      

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I used a red white and blue theme as it fit my topic. I wanted to celebrate my oldest daughter and her decision to be an election official on our super Tuesday here in Michigan. I used TH distress inks for the red and blue but for the white parts I glued crinkled tissue paper to the backside.

Megan was so proud that she saved the election results for the precinct  she worked at. She told the other helpers that her mom scrapbooks and will love to have it.  I had to laugh because when she told me this, my mind was already figuring out how I would use it on this LO. It was so long that I had to tuck it away. I made a flap under the picture and used her badge at the bottom of the flap

I used my typewriter and cut into strips in the top left corner.

I mind is working trying to figure out how I am going to use the second LO background I made with this cut file.

Thanks for looking.

Let's get sketchy Week One Sketch challenge

Here is the sketch from Let's get Sketchy. 

The sketch has large triangles in the center but I went with an all over triangle background. More is better, right? I used a Silhouette cut file called Triangle background 

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I used American Crafts DIY paper from a paper pad for the background and Basic Grey Hillside 6x6 paper pad for the triangles. The Thicker are Kitten in pink and MME tile letters

I tucked the journaling behind the photo cluster,
Thanks for looking.

I was featured! Woohoo

Heather from Cut Mania featured my 2 LO. The ones I made using her cut files!! WOW, what a surprise.
Here are the two LOs

Thanks so much Heather.

Cut Mania Cut Files & Paper Issue's (P)inspire Me Challenge

I stumbled upon Heather's blog because of a LO she posted at the Stuck?! sketch challenge. I was very excited when I realized she had an Etsy store and was selling her cut files!! I bought 5 I think, and could not wait to play with them. 

I used 2 on the 2 LOs I made today and I don't think I did them justice. I struggled with my dull blade and unsticky mat for way to long. I order a new blade and mat so I will play with them again when they arrive.

I did both LO with the Paper Issue Mood board in mind.

I love things in rainbow order, so how could I not be inspired by this mood board.

I used Cut Mania's Heartbeat cut file on LO 1. I backed it with washi tape in a rainbow order. I skipped embellishments and let the heartbeats shine. 

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I made the mistake of putting ATG adhesive on the whole back, thinking I could readjust as needed but I think I used to much and the sections stuck very quickly and were not easy to move without damaging the thin backing paper. So it has a few wrinkles but over all this is a favorite of mine.

I journaled above a few of the heartbeats. I tried to match the colors of Thickers and letter stickers to the heartbeats to further the rainbow effect.

For LO 2 I used Heart Rainbow cut file. I love to use cut files, they can be alter slightly to better meet your needs pretty easily. I wanted the rainbow to be more like a target shape so I cut 2, one flipped. With all the issues I had with my blade and mat, I cut this one 3 times. The last time I took 2 of the rings out, it helped my dull blade to limp through and not rip the smaller spaces. 

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Again I used little embellishments, I wanted the contrast from the colors to pop. The original paper I cut was black with white text. I sadly only had 1 of those sheets of paper and it did not cut all the way through. I luckily had 2 of the the white with black text sheets. I think the cut outs will be great to use on another LO. Text printed hearts... swoon! 

I look forward to new upcoming releases from Cut Mania.

Stuck?! March sketch challenge

The Stuck?! March Sketch was a bit of a challenge for me, but I guess that is why they call it a challenge, right?

Here is the sketch. I think it is the flowers that made it difficult for me but I think I figured it out.

I used a cut file from The cut Shoppe for the center circle element, it also took care of my title.  I used the Echo Park Creative Agenda line, it was on my desk still from the last LO and I felt it fit my subject.

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I took the sticky note she was writing on in the pictures and included it in pocket I created in the top left corner by the journaling. I used a clear Zig Wink of Stella marker on the title, it  is hard to see in the pictures but it adds a touch of glitter.

 I love the results and so glad I stuck it out to finished this LO.

Thank you for taking a look.

Let's get Sketchy 5th week Challenge

Let's get Sketchy 5th week Challenge is a sketch and a mood board challenge.

This is the mood board I loved the yummy colors and polka dots. It reminded me of Echo Parks Creative Agenda Line

Here is the sketch.

And my take on it:

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 I left the sketch main parts where they were but did rotate the picture. I added a tag for my Hubby to journal his feelings about his last trip to Hershey, PA. I did leave off the pink to go with a more manly page.

I added a subtitle on the bottom and stitch it down.

Thank you for taking a look.

The Studio Challenges February Sketch

Today I had the urge to play in my scraproom. I used a sketch from the Studio Challenge blog.

Here is the sketch:

Here is my take:

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I used the February Jo-Ann coupon calendar for the background. I thought it would make a great background from the first glance at it in December  when I purchased the calendar.  

Here are the close ups.

Thanks for taking a look.

LOAD216 The wrap up

58 LOs in 29 days!! I filled 2 temporary albums.

Here are the LO in numbers:

4 about Jake

4 about Meg

7 about Chloe

5 about Syd

9 about siblings

7 about Darby (our dog)

1 about Hubby

5 about me

3 about our love story

3 about people we love (non immediate family)

5 about places we go local and far

4 about holidays

1 about things we do

I loosely use Stacy Julian's Library of Memories method of scrapbook albums 

Please ignore the pile under the shelf, this angle is not one I see everyday. 

From Left to right:

Aqua Project life albums from Jan-Oct 2015 the current PL album sits on my table as I fill it each week.

Brown My latest LO album - it is currently empty as I put away all the LO from 2016 into their albums.

Gold striped album is for Our Fur Babies-  was just created today as too many were in the people we love album

1st red is all about me- It needs to be 2 albums and will soon be.

2nd red is all about Hubby- It needs to be 2 albums and will soon be.

3rd red is Our Love Story- Just created today as it was love and parent/child relationships, the parent/child relationship got moved into mine and Hubby's albums 

Brown album is Holidays & Everyday family life - not many are everyday life as PL takes care of those stories.

Light blue is Place & People we love - It will soon need to be separated and it is full.

Aqua album is the new Siblings album (all about the kids relationship with each other.)

1st green  the younger girl's relationship with each other. 

The next 8 are  2 albums for each child they need to be organized a bit but are working.

As you can see I have filled the lowest shelf to capacity with these albums. The self above is only slightly shorter in depth and the albums would hang off about a 1/2 inch. That would not bother me but the printers would also have to be shifted up which might be more problematic. 

I have briefly considered going to 8.5x11 for the smaller album sizes, it is not what I want to do but I will revisit that again. It would create much more scraps and I would have to be careful of the real estate on each page I would lose.

I could store some of them in the basement scraproom, I have the shelf space there but this would take them out of sight out of mind. The kids love to go through them often. 

So there it is as I scrapbook more I run into a space problem that many face. One day I will hand these over to my kids to deal with but until then I will need to find a solution. When I do I will share but for now I am taking it LO by LO.

Paper Issues Featured LO

I had a LO featured on Paper Issues. It was based on the February sketch.

Here is a look at is again. 

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I am always excited to see my LO on others blogs of Pinterest board. Thanks Paper Issues.