And the winner is...

I used random.org to choose the winner for the One Page Sketch Book giveaway and the winner is....



Jessica!


Thanks to everyone to entered!
Jessica, I will be sending you an email to get your mailing address.

Another giveaway...

I apologize for being absent from my blog...my mom had a mini stroke and has been in the hospital. She is home now and I will be returning to a more normal blogging schedule soon. But for now, I wanted to do another giveaway...

The giveaway is for this book that was just released by Allison Davis for One Page Sketches. Let me tell you, her sketches are SO much fun to use and this book is a good one! You can find more information on how to order these books here: Scrapbook Generation. And Allison has some awesome sketches over at Sketch Support also!

To be entered in the giveaway, you must be a follower of this blog, and leave a comment on this post by Monday, August 8th no later than 9am CST. I will be drawing a random name from everyone who is a registered follower of my blog and will post that name that morning.

Sketch Support Giveaway winner

Wendy K is the random winner for my giveaway....congrats to you Wendy! An email is coming your way...

Layout Share and Sketch Support Giveaway

 Today I have a layout to share along with a giveaway for one of the newest Sketch Support books...

be sure to read all the way to the end and enter to win!

“Sporting Heavy Metal”

 2 Page Sketch #17 by Allison Davis

Variation #1:

What I fell in love with on this sketch was the sewn on star accents. I had just taken photos of my son when he got his braces on this week, and the stitched row of stars reminded me of braces, so I went with that theme instead of the stars. I created my own “brackets” with the larger square brads, then I glued a small green square of cardstock to the top of the silver square (to mimic his green rubber bands he chose), and glued the smaller square brads to the top to complete the bracket. For the smaller brads, I just cut off the prongs on the back with my wire cutters first, then tapped the square brad head flat with my hammer. The finished brackets were then glued down to strips of paper and I added a silver wire underneath to complete the look of my custom braces. Hot glue was the best adhesive to use for these since it was quick and holds great. Other than trading the stars for brackets, the only other variation to this part of the sketch was that I added the paper strips and kept the row straight instead of adding them in a curve.

Here's a quick photo tutorial of how I created the brackets for this page:

I started with the small square brads and I used my wire cutters to snip the tabs off the back of the brads.

Then I flattened each small square brad with my craft hammer.

I took the larger square eyelets and set them with my Crop-a-dile tool.

Then I used some matte accents (liquid glue) to attach a small square of green cardstock to the top of each larger square. This will give my brackets the look of having the rubber band around them once I am finished.

To finish off each bracket, I glued four small square brads on top of the green cardstock. I used a hot glue gun for this step. The brackets were glued down on top of some craft wire on my layout.

 Variation #2:

I used 7- 4x6 photos instead of the 6 photos detailed in the sketch. The only photo I cropped down was the close-up photo of my son’s braces and I only trimmed about ¾” off the left side.

Variation #3:

Because I added larger photos and a second row on the second page, I didn’t have as much room for the star shape, so I substituted the journaling notebook page in place of the larger star shape.

Variation #4:

For my title, I stamped the word “heavy” on some coordinating cardstock and colored in the letters with a red marker. Then I spelled out the words “sporting” and “metal” with various metal alphabets.

Supplies - Patterned Paper: Scrap Within Reach ‘The District 406’; Cardstock: Bazzill; Alphabets: Autumn Leaves Stamps ‘Snap Frame’, Making Memories, K& Company; Adhesive: Hot Glue Gun and Glue Dots; Brads: Making Memories, WeR Memory Keepers; Inkpad: Marvy Uchida (Black); Stickers: 7 Gypsies ‘Mini Labels’; Journaling Block: Making Memories; Pens: Zig Writer ‘Black’, Close To My Heart Marker ‘Cranberry’; Other: Fibre Craft ‘Silver Wire’, Bind it All ‘Wire Cutters’, WeR Memory Keepers  'Crop-a-Dile Tool'; Making Memories ‘Craft Hammer’; Sketch: Allison Davis (2 pg sketch #17).

Now on to the giveaway! :) The sketch came from one of the newest books just released by Scrapbook Generations, called Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 8. This book is filled with 30 different sketches all in two-page layouts. You can use one side of the sketch to create a single page layout, or use the sketch as drawn to create a double page layout.

For more ideas on how to use sketches creatively, be sure to check out the Sketch Support website.

To be entered in the drawing to win a copy of this newly released sketch book, please be sure to leave a comment on this blog.  Contest will close on Friday, July 15, 2011 at midnight CST. The winner will be randomly chosen from all comments posted before the deadline, and winner must be able to email their shipping address to me.

Good luck!! :)

And I'm back... :)

It's been way to long since I've posted here, but it's been a crazy few months for sure. :)

I did want to share this exciting announcement though....

I was asked to be on the Design Team for Sketch Support and will be working with Allison Davis' awesome sketches each month!  Here's a link with all the details.

I will be posting some layouts on my blog again starting on Monday, so be sure to check back in then!

I am a little sad to be giving my last weekly challenge as a Design Team member over at Memorable Seasons. I have really enjoyed working with Jill and the other team members. I've enjoyed seeing the amazing layouts and inspiration that has been posted by all our board members on a regular basis. But don't worry...I'm not going anywhere...I'm just taking a break. :) So without further ado, here's my challenge...

For this week's Design Team challenge, I want you to shape up! :) LOL

No, really, the challenge is to hand-cut or die-cut a shape from paper and include that on your layout.
 

In my example, I used a piece of a die cut circle paper that I had sitting on my desk and it reminded me of a cloud. So then I drew some smaller cloud shapes on pattern paper and cut them out with scissors and attached them to my layout with foam squares.

I stamped the title, the stars, the border on either side of the photos and several words on the layout. My journaling is written on the back of the layout with all the details. The title was stamped on plain vellum with dark brown ink and I embossed it with some iridescent embossing powder...love the look this gave to the title.

You have until the end of May to complete this challenge to be entered into the random drawing over at Memorable Seasons.

I can't wait to see what you come up with for your layouts!

National Scrapbook Day Crop Challenge... "Mama Says"

Over at Memorable Seasons, we are holding an online crop from Thursday-Tuesday to celebrate National Scrapbook Day. Since it's also Mother's Day weekend, we are focusing our challenges on the theme of moms. 

Here's my challenge I posted for the crop:

I know for those of us who are moms, there are so many things we set aside to focus more on our kids. We write down funny things they do and say and scrapbook those, but often neglect to scrapbook things we say to our kids or things our mothers said to us. I want both of my kids to remember important things I tell them and have some insight into my reasoning behind those phrases. So my challenge is to create a layout that records some of those things you've said to your kids or your mom said to you. If you don't have a saying, then you can use a quote about moms.

Here's my sample layout for this challenge:

My inspiration for this page was this paper by Glitz (from Love Games Collection):

The image at the bottom that said "Play fair or lose" reminded me about the saying I always tell my kids: "Fair isn't always equal". When I was going through some of my recent purchases from Memorable Seasons, I saw this multi colored paper by Prima and LOVED how it brought all the colors together from the photos, so I had to combine the two papers on this layout. So I decided to tear away the bottom corner of the striped paper and let the saying peek through that torn area.

I also used a small piece from the top of the Love Games paper on the top edge of my layout, and I inked around the torn edges. It said "score card". My kids are always keeping "score"...who got more than the other, etc. Drives me bonkers. :) Guess it's a kid thing??

My title was created with a mixture of several alphabet stickers:

 I stamped several areas on this layout too b/c it just wouldn't be a layout of mine without a little stamping. :)

I stamped the areas under the title and the journaling (ledger stamp), the circles that have the card suites are also completely stamped (text and suites), and I stamped the date label. The circles and date stamp are popped up on my layout with foam squares.

I can't wait to see how you create your layout focusing on the theme of "Mama says"! :)

To be entered in the challenge, your layout must be completed, posted to the gallery and then linked to this board thread over at Memorable Seasons by Tuesday night 5/9 by midnight CST.

Supplies Used:

Glitz Designs Love Games Collection Paper: Score Card

Prima Madeline Collection Paper: Parsley Place

Brown Cardstock, Tan Cardstock

Glitz Designs: Woodgrain Teeny Alphabet Stickers

Making Memories: Red Puffy Alphabet Stickers

American Crafts Thickers/Dear Lizzy: Fancy Glitter Foam Alphabet Stickers

My Minds Eye: Date stamp

Fancy Pants: Heart Stamp

Studio G: Card Suites stamps

Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz: Curiosities Stamp Set (ledger)

Glitz Designs: Laced with Grace Stamp Set (text)

Stampin Up: Bermuda Bay Ink Pad

Ranger Distress Ink Pads: Walnut Stain, Fired Brick

EK Success: 1.5 inch Circle Punch

We R Memory Keepers: Corner Chomper

Foam Squares

*All products were purchased personally by me.