Oh What Fun Layout

Finally I am posting a new layout. I created this for the Lasting Memories challenge this week to use hidden journaling. I used Echo Park Summer Days papers which I have had for quite a while but just hadn't used yet. I found a lo online that I lifted except I changed the papers used and a few other things. I also used all EP Summer Days embelishments. Some are the chipboard pieces and others are from the sticker sheets with the paper pack. I really love all of the EP paper kits and I am planning to get a few new ones. My journaling is on a tag cut out from the sheet of tags that come with the kit and then tucked behind the green paper. These photos are from when I took Will to the IL state fair and he got to ride the rides all day with a one price wristband. Thanks for looking!

Pumpkin Carving Layout

Another digital layout for the Lasting Memories Challenge! The challenge this week was to show dimension on your layout. I show dimension with the pumpkin seeds scattered across the page, the buttons at the top and the pumpkin seed border. I used a digital kit from My Memories called Carving Pumpkins to create it. I love this kit because I really love to carve pumpkins every year. I usually do 3 or 4 of them every year to put out on the front porch for Halloween. These are the ones I carved last year. My favorite is the one with the Chicago Blackhawks Indian head logo on it. It was also the hardest one I have ever done but it was so worth it! Thanks for looking.

Kick It Layout

The Lasting Memories challenge this week is to use a tag on your layout. I used the Soccer Star kit from My Memories to create this layout. I saw this kit and really loved the colors and extras that were included with it. I knew I had a lot of photos from Will playing soccer the last couple of spring and fall sessions with the YMCA. The kit did not include a tag though so I used one from the Applelicious kit. Thanks for looking at my layout

Silly Dog layout

I created this lo for the 52 Weeks layout challenge I am in. I used Max & Whiskers papers, stickers and chipboard. I used some pictues of my Mom and Dad's dog Charlie that I took this summer. I used a sketch from Scrap a Little to create the lo. Thanks for looking.

Dancing in the Dark layout

The Lasting Memories challenge this week is a recipe with a twist. The recipe is: 1 Photo, 2 Embellishments & 3 colors. The twist is to use song lyrics for your title. I decided to use a photo from the Bruce Springsteen concert I went to in October of 2009. My BFF Mary bought me tickets for my birthday and I was thrilled. I had wanted to see a Springsteen concert for a long time but had just never gotten the chance. Mary didn't want to go with me so I took Terry who didn't really want to go either but he did. LOL I loved every minute of the show and danced and sang the whole time. We had tickets for the floor so that was really cool too. I used 1 photo from the concert, 2 embelishments from the Music to My Ears pack from My Memories and my 3 colors are blue, black and red. I had fun with this challenge and decided that I had to use Dancing in the Dark for my title since thats what I was doing! All embelishments, journaling tag and papers are from the Music to my Ears collection. Thanks for looking.

Apple Picking Layout

The Lasting Memories challenge this week is to use frames and flowers. I thought I would use this new kit called Applelicious to create this layout. It is a great kit with lots of great papers both patterned and solids. It also has a ton of great embellishments including flowers, stitching, brads, buttons, ribbons and two alphas. I bought it knowing that we were going apple picking this weekend but I will be able to use a lot of the embellishments on other layouts. The only thing I used from a different kit is the title which came from a fall kit called Feelin' Fallish which has a lot of goodies too. I am totally loving the digital lo's. It takes me as much time to create a digital lo as a paper lo but no mess to clean up and resizing photos as needed is great too. I just created photo boxes to fit into the frames that I had resized and ta-da I had exactly the size photos I needed. I had a fun time creating this layout and we had a great time at the orchard too. Thanks for looking.

Barn Owl LO

This lo was made to follow this sketch:

I followed it pretty closely and didn't really make any changes to it. Its a great sketch so I had no problems with following it. I used a digital paper collection called Hints of Autumn which I bought at Scrapbook Bytes. The set is on sale for $1 each. I bought the papers and the elements. They look great and for $1 it was a great bargain. The only thing not from that pack is the stitching which came with the program. I used photos from this weekend when we went to Scheel's and saw the Raptor Project It was really cool to see all the different birds they had. They showed us a vulture, some falcons, different types of owls and a golden eagle and a bald eagle. Will got picked to go up and feed the bald eagle which was really neat. I will be doing a lo with those pictures sometime soon. Afterwards for a donation you could get your photo holding one of the birds and Will chose the Barn Owl. It had a sweet face and looked soft and fluffy so thats why he picked it. I'm really happy with how my digital lo's are turning out and how easy it is to use the pictures I just took and whichever size I need them to be. I don't usually print my photos so being able to resize as needed is a definite bonus for me. Thanks for looking!

Spread Your Wings

I created this lo for the Lasting Memories challenge this week. I used the My Memories Suite software again and created a digital lo. I used Echo Park For the Record digital collection for the background paper. I used some flourishes and the journal tag that came with the program and some digital butterfly files I bought. The challenge was to use all black and white papers, photos and embellishments. I used some photos from a butterfly release we went to at our museum. They gave each family a little folded paper with a butterfly inside. You could hear the butterfly scratching inside the paper and when they told us to we unfolded the paper and there they were. We had just had a really big storm come through so all of the butterflys were kind of hovering in one space not wanting to fly away. It was fun to watch them. Thanks for looking at my lo.

Feeling Froggy LO

I worked on another digital lo tonight. I am starting to get the hang of it and learning some tricks. I still want to do my regular scrapping but I really like the ability to create without the mess. I used a kit I bought online at Designer Digitals called The Frog Prince to create this lo and used the My Memories Suite software to put it together. I really like this software it is really user friendly. Thanks for looking!

Ferris Wheel Digital lo

I created this page for the Lasting Memories challenge this week which is "Simply Me". This lo is simply me in 2 ways. It is my simple style of scrapbooking which is pretty basic but what I usually like. It also uses photos of Will and I from earlier this summer going on the Ferris Wheel at the new Scheel's store here in town. It is my first digital lo and I think it turned out pretty good. I bought the Echo Park Summertime digital papers and embellishments this week because they were on sale for $1 each. I think it turned out pretty good considering it's my first digital lo. I would really like to start creating both regular and digital lo's. I think I could do some different things with the same set of photos. Thanks for looking.

Lets go Fly a Kite LO

I created this lo for a couple of challenges. First I will use it for Scrapaholics Anonymous contest this month to create a vacation lo. Secondly I will use it at Lasting Memories secret challenge this week. The secret is my journaling which is hidden on a tag behind my photo. I used a picture from our recent trip to Indian Rocks Beach, FL in July. After dinner one night we went down to the beach and took a kite so Will could fly it. He had a lot of fun with it and I got some great photos. I used my cricut a lot on this lo. I cut the kite and sandbucket from Boys Will be Boys cartridge. The sun was from Graphically Speaking. Clouds were cut from Mickey and Friends and the sandcastle was from Lifes a beach. I just used cardstock for the background and photo frame and a piece of "sand" paper from Hobby Lobby for the bottom and the tag. Thanks for looking!

Double Rainbow Layout

Last Saturday we had a huge storm come through quickly but then the sun came back out and it was nice again. Will and I went to run some errands and when we were leaving CVS he said "Look a rainbow!" and then a few seconds later he said it was a double rainbow. I looked and it was so I pulled over to take a few pictures. I had never seen a double rainbow before so it was really cool. The second rainbow was very faint and doesn't show great in the photo but if you look close its there. I used SEI Corrine Over the Rainbow for the rainbows. I just cut it out from the 12x12 paper so I had two rainbows. I used the cordinating puffy stickers for the clouds. Title is made with Thickers letters. My journaling is on a sticker from Echo Park dots and stripes collection. Thanks for looking.

Finally a new LO! Happy Easter

I saw a lo similiar to this and I knew I wanted to use this photo with it. I had these pictures taken at JC Penneys when Will was 1.5 years old. They had real bunnies there to take the photos with and they all turned out great. I need to use a few others on some lo's soon. I miss this little baby! I used the Cricut Easter Cartridge for the grass, eggs and bunnies journal circle and Happy Easter. I added some blue glittered brads to the bunnies for eyes. I cut out the fancy background piece from Elegant Edges using cardstock and piece from a DCWV stack. Thanks for looking!

Spring Dance 1955

This lo is using some photos I found of my grandmother from 1955. They were taken at Mitchel AFB in Long Island, NY before a dance they were going to. My mom remembered that the dress was charcoal and white colored so I used those colors in my lo and thought that the pink complimented those colors well. I just used Bazzill cardstock from Michaels for my papers. I used my Cricut cartridge Nifty Fifties for the cuts of the drink and dress form. I used some Me & My Big Ideas glittered letters for the title and 1955 and used some Spellbinders oval dies to cut and emboss the journaling tag. I'm really happy with how this lo turned out. I am going to try and find some pictures of my grandfather at this time also and scrap those soon. Thanks for looking.

Windy City Layout

Another really simple layout. I used my Destinations cartridge with this one. I cut out the title at 4" and the Chicago tag at 3.5". I cut the Chicago city outline tag at 4.5". I used two pictures from our trip to Chicago this past January. One is Will with the city outline behind him and the other is Will at the Bean in Millenium Park. I just used regular cardstock scraps for my tags. Thanks for looking!

Face Off LO

I created this lo last night. I had seen something similiar with a football player on the Cricut site and thought I could make this with a hockey player. I used three colors for the is lo, Black, purple and white which are the colors of Will's hockey team. I cut the pennant and hockey player from the Sports Mania cartridge. Pennant is at 3" and hockey player at 2.5". I cut the circle from Plantin Schoolbook with a shadow at 4". I used cardstock from my stash for everything. Thanks for looking.

Barking Cat!

This is just too funny!

Koala layout

I created this lo about the Koala we saw at the Lowery Park zoo in Tampa. I was really excited about seeing a koala since I had never seen one before. I thought I was going to see him look like the left photo but instead he was sound asleep and hard to see as you can see from the photo on the right. It turns out they sleep about 20 hours a day because all they eat are eucalyptus leaves which provide no nutrition so they have no energy.


I used 2 Cricut carts on it. Zoobaloo for the title and Create a Critter for the koala at the bottom. I got the black swirls at Hobby Lobby and its from Prima. All papers are from my Bazzill paper pack. I used some little pearls on the O and L in the title and used my Zig glue pen to add glue to the other letters and then used glitter on them. I was going to enter this in the Lasting Memories Bling challenge but then realized they also had a sketch which I didn't use so it's just a LO for me. Thanks for looking!

The Best Nest

The challenge at Lasting Memories this week is paper piecing. I love using my Cricut so I had to participate. I came up with this lo as a homage to one of my favorite childrens books. It was also callled The Best Nest and was by P.D. Eastman. I used pictures from last spring when the Robins built their first nest outside my bathroom window. It was so cute to watch the babies wait for mom and dad to come back with food. I used plain cardstock for the whole lo. I cut the title from Plantin Schoolbook,the nest from Picturesque, the robin from Nates Abc's and the tree branch from Serenade. I really like the way the lo turned out. Thanks for looking.
P.S. you can go here to see a video of this mama bird feeding the babies.

Floral layout

Todays lo is for the Lasting Memories challenge and the the challenge this week is floral. I had taken some pictures of the pretty Iris last week that I thought I would use but then realized I hadn't printed them out yet. So I had to come up with something last night. I finally put this together. It's not that exciting but I love the tree I made and the pictures of the Dogwood tree are really pretty. I love this little tree and is so pretty in the spring when it flowers. I have pictures of the tree during all the seasons and hope to put together a lo or two with all the different seasons.

I used my cricut and 3 different cartridges for this lo. I think that might be a record for me. The tree was cut at 5" from the Cindy Lou cart and then I embellished it with Making Memories fuzzy felt flower brads and some leftover chipboard flowers from my Peeps lo. I also used some felt BG pieces I got in my March Artful Delights kit. I cut the word Spring from the Straight from the Nest cart but I can't remember what size it is. I cut the decorative piece with the photos from Elegant Edges at fit to page and I think it said it was 11". I used Bazzill cardstock for all the cuts. Thanks for looking.

Sock Monkey LO

This lo is for the Lasting Memories sketch challenge this week. I used some pictures of Will from last year when he got a sock monkey for his birthday. He has always wanted one but I never could fine one for him but his Aunt Mary ordered one online for him and a tshirt from Build a Bear that says Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Champions. He really liked it and was totally surprised. He has quite a collection already of stuffed monkeys so this was added to them. I used sock monkey paper and 3-d stickers I found at Hobby Lobby, Bazzill cardstock and two sock monkey brads I got at our LSS a few weeks ago. Thanks for looking.

Hello Spring LO

I created this lo for the Lasting Memories challenge this week. The challenge was to use this photo as inspiration for your lo this week.

I love the colors in this photo and tried to use them in my lo. I used papers from Sassafrass Lass for the background paper and the rainbow border and the flower paper. I used Basic Grey papers for the green and the yellow and pink at the top for journaling. I used Jillibean cardboard letters for the title. The flowers near the photo came from my Artful Delights kit and I used the buttons from there too. I used BG chip board for the other flowers and bee and butterfly. Thanks for looking.

Sad news

After I posted the photo of the Robins nest I noticed that she wasn't in it that much so I checked a couple of days later and saw that there was only one egg instead of two. I was dissapointed but figured one was better than none. Then a couple of days later I noticed she hadn't been there all day so I went and checked again and NO eggs were left. I never saw any other birds messing with the nest so I'm not sure what took them but they were gone. I did notice yesterday and today though that she is back out on the nest after not being there for a while so I wonder if she will lay more eggs. I'll keep an eye out and my fingers crossed because those babies are so cute.

40 at almost 40 layout

I created this lo for the Lasting Memories challenge this week. The challenge is to create a lo about yourself. I thought I would do one about 40 things I love at almost 40 years old. I used Echo Park papers for the paper squares, Bazill cardstock for the background and some Michaels Recollections pieces for the butterfly and and butterfly border. The flowers are K&Co brads. Thanks for looking.

Robins are back

I was so excited two weeks ago when Terry noticed that the Robins had built a nest by our back door again. It was so fun to watch the babies last year. Then I noticed that the sparrows seemed to be trying to take over the nest and the robins had disappeared so I was bummed. I was going to take the nest down this weekend but Terry said on Wednesday that he saw a robin out there again. I looked yesterday and saw the mama in the nest and then this morning I saw her fly off for food so I grabbed my camera and held it up high to try and get a picture and see if there were any eggs. I was so excited when I saw these two! I can't wait to see the babies again.

Zoo Day lo

I created this lo for the Lasting Memories challenge this week This weeks challenge is a sketch challenge which I always like. I like to see everyones take on the sketch and then see what I come up with. I really liked this sketch because it was so simple and easy to use what you wanted with it. I used some of my Pink Paisley Hometown Summer papers that I won at Lasting Memories a few weeks ago in the kit from Artful Delights which is wonderful. If you haven't ever gotten one of the AD kits you should check them out. This is my second one and I love the selection of papers and embellishments Leeanne puts together and they are a good value too. I also used some of the CS from that kit and some Bazill Cardstock I already had. The flowers are some new felt flowers I found at Michaels this week. I used a picture of Will and I from the zoo last year. Will and I always sit on this turtle for a picture and Terry and Will sit on the hippo statue. I have a lot of pictures of the two of us at this turtle. LOL. Thanks for looking. I just checked and I guess entries closed at noon so I missed out on this weeks challenge :-( bummer.

Snow Much Fun LO

I created this lo for the 52 week challenge. I have wanted to do this one since we went sledding on Christmas eve last year. I still have some other photos from then but these were the first set. I used the Winter Frolic Cart and Bazill cardstock to create this lo. I cut out the trees and sledder and title at 3" and the the hills at 2". I used photos that had a white border already and matted them on light blue paper. I journaled that we went sledding on Christmas eve and had the place practically to ourselves since everyone else was doing holiday stuff. Thanks for looking.

Top 3 at Lasting Memories

I was thrilled this morning when my friend Sue posted that I should look at the Lasting Memories site and when I did I found out I was one of the top 3 this week for my Peeps lo. Thanks for picking me!

Easter Peeps Layout

I created this lo for the Lasting Memories challenge this week and also for my SnC 52 week lo. The challenge at Lasting Memories was to create a lo about what means Easter to you. My lo is all about the marshmallow peeps that come out for Easter. I absolutely love these things! I don't care if they are bunny shaped or chick shape either way they are yummy! I saw that this year they have chocolate dipped chicks and chocolate mousse bunnies. I can't find either of these but have consoled myself with the regular ones. I found these cute Peeps chipboard shapes at Jeffrey Alans the other day, they are made by Creative Imaginations. Apparently they also make papers but I didn't see any of those. I just used Bazill cardstock for the papers and cut the shape with Cricut Elegant Edges and the word Peeps with Birthday Bash. I really like the font on that cartridge but I haven't cut any of the cute shapes yet. Thanks for looking.

Camping Layout

I got a new lo done last night to enter into the SnC 52 week layout contest and it will also qualify for the monthly challenge to use a photo of myself with someone else. These photos are from last year at Crazy Horse Campground in Ashland. Will and Terry got up early and went out in the canoe and then Will and I went out later in the day. I will do a lo later to go with this one of the frog, snake and turtle that we saw on our outing. I used my new Campin' Critters Cricut Cartridge for this layout and I love it. It was so easy to piece the cuts together and they are so cute. I included two pictures of the layout because from the different angles you can see a little bit of the dimension to the cuts. I just used cardstock for all the papers. Thanks for looking.

Spring Flowers lo

I created this lo to use for my SnC 52 week lo. I can also use it for the new April 7th sketch at Sassy Lil Sketches and at The Paper Variety for the Spring Flowers challenge. I will also use it for the monthly SnC challenge to create your own flowers. I made the flowers from some stamps I got at Prairie Art Stamps, the stamp store that is down the street from my house that I love. I colored them in with Copic markers which I also love. I used some paper from an old summer stack by DCWV and my journaling box is from the Echo Park Summer collection from last year. I used pictures of my tulips from last year that came up so pretty. Thanks for looking.

Awesome Artful Delights blog candy

It's Leeanne's 1 year blog anniversary and she is giving away a 3 month subscription to Artful Delights monthly kits. I bought the March kit and I love it. It has so much great paper and embelishments in it. I would love to win 3 more months worth. If you want to enter also click here and read the instructions to enter. I'm crossing my fingers.

Blog Candy from Abby

My friend Abby is having an awesome giveaway on her blog. You can click here to find out more about it. If you leave a comment and post it on your blog you get two chances at winning this awesome Echo Park Paper pack. Echo Park has become my favorite new paper. I have loved thier new lines especially Little Boy and Playground so I would love to win this. Good Luck!

Billy Goat Tavern LO

I created this lo to use for the food challenge at SnC. I used some Bazill cardstock for matting the pictures and the checkered paper is from the DCWV stack Farmers Market. I used Nate's ABC's for the Billy Goat at the top but I cut off the sign and grass. I used Nifty Fifties for the burger and Locker Talk for the soda. The title is made with Thickers but I'm not sure which ones.

We were supposed to create a lo with at least one picture of just food which I met with using the double cheezeborger picture.

Last December Will and I went to Chicago to see a Hawks game and the next day before we came back we went and had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern and went up in the Sears Tower. I had been wanting to take Will to the BG for a while and it just worked out because it was across from our hotel. He loved listening to the counter guy yell out at the customers: cheezeborger, cheezeborger, cheezeborger, no fries, cheeps, no pepsi, coke.

Thanks for looking.

Bird in Hand lo

I created this lo for SnC's sketch challenge this month. I used Echo Park's For the Record collection. The only thing not from there is my bg paper. I used pictures from our trip to the Lowery Park zoo in Tampa this year. We got to feed the lorakeets which was a lot of fun. I realized after I got done that this will also be able to qualify for Lasting Memories green challenge also. Thanks for looking.

Two More LO's for February

I got two more lo's done for the SNC challenges.

One was to use a TV show as a title so I used Wild Kingdom as my title and used a picture from me at Busch Gardens in Tampa in the early 80's. I was holding two parrots in the picture but it is hard to see. I used a DCWV paper stack with Safari themed papers. I have had it for a while but haven't used it much. I'm not thrilled with how it turned out but it looks ok.

The second one was to use 3 hearts on your lo. I could not come up with anything since I am not a big hearts person. I had a sketch though and when I looked at my Cosmo Cricket Togetherness chipboard pieces I saw that one had 3 hearts on it so I went with it. I used all CC Togetherness papers and chipboard for the lo and a picture of us at a Destin mini golf course in 2009 for the picture.

Thanks for looking.

National Zoo lo

I am using this lo for 5 different challenges. I think that is a record for me. I am using it for 2 at SNC, the 52 week challenge and the February challenge of using 2 punches. I used two border punches and 2 Martha Stewart butterfly punches also. The pictures are from the spring we went out to Washington D.C. for a friend of Terry's wedding. We got a chance to go to the National Zoo one day and had a lot of fun. Will is about 1.5 years old in these pictures. I used Basic Grey's Orgins collections for all patterned papers and basic cardstock for the rest. All the papers except for the background piece were all scraps which is for challenge 3 which is at Lasting Memories the challenge is to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The next challenge is a sketch challenge at Get Your Sketch On and the last one if for The Paper Variety and was a sewing challenge. I met that by using my Bazill stitching guide and sewing the wavy line down the side of the paper. This is my first time doing that and I have some more that are boy shapes that I want to try and use next. This is my first time submitting anything for The Paper Variety which is run by two of my friends from SNC. Thanks Abby & Suzanne for giving me a chance to enter.

San Francisco LO

I created this lo for the 52 week challenge at SNC. I need a quick lo and this paper worked great for it. I had a stack I got cheap at Michaels for Paperhouse travel papers. I came across this photos recently and knew they would work perfect with this paper. I took a trip to California with my grandmother when I was 14. We went to San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tijuana, Mexico and Yosemite National Park. I want to scrap some more pictures from this trip but will have to find the right lo's for them. Thanks for looking.

Oh Boy! LO

I created this lo using the sketch at http://sassylilsketches.blogspot.com/ I really liked the sketch and found the perfect pictures to use for it. I used Fancy Pants Rough and Tough collection for the papers and rub ons. I have had this collection for a while and not used much of it but I think it worked well for this lo. Thanks for looking.

Click here for the album

I am including a link with this post to our photos from our trip to Florida. There are a lot of pics but I don't feel like weeding through them right now so just look at what you feel like. :-)

Kayaking in Dunedin, Florida

Here are a few videos from when Will and I went kayaking in Dunedin, FL.  We had a lot of fun doing it and Will had 2 dolphins swim right in front of his kayak.  I can't wait to try it again. 

At The Farm layout

I created this layout for the Lasting Memories (http://www.kcclayoutchallenges.blogspot.com/ ) sketch challenge this week. I am also using it for my 52 weeks layout and the Superbowl challenge at Scrappin-n-Chattin. For the superbowl challenge we were to use either Packers or Steelers colors only on the lo. I thought the Packers colors would work since they are the same as John Deere. Last Labor Day my parents took Will and I to the farm in Stonington. Will and I got to ride in the combine and see how everything works. Afterwards we had lunch with everyone before heading home. We had a lot of fun.

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