#1 Priority

This digi was inspired by a couple of different challenges. The day five challenge at Jessica Sprague's week long birthday bash was to use a screen shot in your layout so I decided to do a layout about my homepage. Thanks to Jessica's tutorial I learned how to take a screen shot from my computer and use it in layout. The design of the layout was inspired by the Saturday Scraplift Challenge - June 27 on the YMBD blog. The papers and buttons I used in the layout are by Krista Ringham. I created all the other elements from the papers.

I Can Hear the Ocean

This digital layout was inspired by the Birthday Bash Day 2 challenge in Jessica Sprague's week long birthday bash, which you can read all about here. The challenge was to use a provided template to create a layout. The template was included in the day 2 freebie - ez-pz Template 01 kit by LivE. I used the paper, overlay, and photo frame from the kit. The shells I used are part of Maddy Fernandez Of Sand and Sea kit. I received the shell as a freebie a couple of years ago.

Week 3 of the 92 Days of Scrapping contest at YMBD

This is my creation for week 3 of the 92 Days of Summer Contest at Your Memories by Design - another digital layout. Once again I loved the sketch, by Heather, which was part of the Week #3 Inspiration post. All digi elements are by April Staker.

You can check out other layouts inspired by this contest here.

Summer Chillin'

Digital layout inspired in part by YMBD's Marti's June Challenge - Summer Heat - to use the colors red, yellow, and orange. Also inspired by SOS's June 15th Monday challenge to cut at least two shapes from patterned paper or cardstock. As my layout is a digi I had to do digi cutting. I "cut" all the different shapes and letters from the digi papers I used in the layout. Based on a sketch by Jill Sarginson in the June Sketch contest at JustCre8. Papers and ribbons are by Rina Kroes and I recieved them for doing challenges at 3Scrapateers a couple of years ago. I did recolor the papers and one of the ribbons to better match the pictures.

Week 2 of the 92 Days of Scrapping contest at YMBD

I really struggled with what paper and elements to use with this layout. I redid it about half a dozen times - seriously - but I'm finally happy with the end results. This is my creation for week 2 of the 92 Days of Summer Contest at Your Memories by Design - another digital layout. Once again I loved the sketch, by Heather, which was part of the Week #2 Inspiration post. The sketch was actually for a two pager but I decided to stick with one pagers so I just adjusted the sketch to make it a one pager. I also decided to stick with using all digital elements by Sophia Davies. I received them as prizes for doing challenges at DigitalScrapbookingPages a couple of years ago. You can check out other layouts inspired by this contest here.

The Smile that says....

Digital layout inspired by Susan's June Challenge - Power of a Smile - at YMBD. Based on Allison Cope's sketch featured in the June 13th Sketchy Saturday post on Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. Papers, flowers, and brads by April Staker of DigiApe Designs, some of her first creations. Doodles by BannerWoman.

Sarah's New Toy

This digital layout was inspired by YMBD's Saturday Scraplift Challenge - June 12. All digital elements are from Design's by Krista's Gypsy Treasures kit

Digi Masking :)

This digi was inspired by the SOS June 1st Monday Challenge - to do a layout about 5 favorite things, with some type of masking, and use the color yellow somewhere. I had to get creative about the masking - I did a type of digital masking. I made the title using the text tool and then made a layer over it and used the airbrush and then highlighted the text on that layer and deleted it - sort of like use letters as mask for paint and then removing the letters. Based on the June sketch by Heather at YMBD. Most digital elements from Kimberly Stewart's Spring Is Coming kit

Week 1 of 92 Days of Summer Contest at YMBD

I went digital this week, probably will most weeks as my scrappy stuff is all over the place and I'm out of a lot, including adhesive, which appears to be rather essential to paper scrapping :) This is my creation for week 1 of the 92 Days of Summer Contest at Your Memories by Design. I loved the sketch, by Heather, which was part of the Week #1 Inspiration post. I can definitely see me using this sketch again - I love it! All the digital elements I used are by Sophia Davies. I received them as prizes for doing challenges at DigitalScrapbookingPages a couple of years ago. You can check out other layouts inspired by this contest here.

It's not too late to join the contest. Apparently the prizes are great, though that wasn't what drew me in. I love the challenge of taking at least one picture a day and incorporating at least one picture per day into a layout per week. It will be such a great keep sake of the summer of 2009! Each week there is an inspiration post with photo ideas, tips and techniques you can use in your layout, and a sketch you can use if you like. I also like the fact that you have until September 30 to submit everything, so lots of time to get it done. There are some incentives to staying on top of things, however, because there will be some early bird prizes along the way too. Another thing that I like about this contest is that all prizes will be by random ballet drawing so you don't have to worry about your work not measuring up or changing your usual style in the hopes that it might help you win. You don't want to miss out on the fun so be sure to check it out.

YMBD Saturday Scraplift Challenge

On the Your Memories by Design blog they have a regular Saturday Scraplift challenge. I really liked the layout chosen for Saturday Scraplift Challenge May 30 so I had to give it a try. I decided to go digi again. All elements are by DeaSpina. The pictures are some of different poses little one struck for me while declaring that she was the Fire Princess.

SOS Challenge and SoSketchy Sketch

This digi was inspired by the May 25th Sisterhood of Scrap Monday Challenge - to create a non-people layout. I also used So Sketchy May #19 sketch as inspiration - love the sketch! All papers are from Kimberly Stewarts "Spring Is Coming" kit.

Photo a Day Challenge and 92 Days of Summer Contest

I started a photo a day challenge the end of April. It was inspired by the 365 day challenges that I'd been reading about since the beginning of the new year but I was late jumping on the band wagon so mine is just a photo a day challenge instead of a 365 day challenge. :) I have been having so much fun doing this challenge! Rather than go for an artist theme and attempting to get really good artist type photos I have been aiming for a day in the life type theme with pictures that share something about our days. It's become sort of my photo journal and I'm loving it!

Tonight I discovered the 92 Days of Summer Contest at the YMBD forum and I'm even more excited about it. Part of the challenge for this contest is to take a photo a day, which I'm already doing, and then to do a layout a week using 7 pictures from the seven days of that week. I love the idea!

I'm so glad I found out about this contest. I've been in a big scrapping slump and I'm thinking that this is going to be just the thing to get me out of it.

Sisterhood of Scrap Forum!

Sisterhood of Scrap now has it's own online forum - check it out!

Online crop starting this coming weekend

I joined another Canadian forum. I read about an upcoming online crop on Susan's blog and decided to check it out. The crop starts on my birthday and I'm hoping maybe it might get me out of my scrappin' funk.

From Scrap My Memories Design Team:

Scrap My Memories Design Team would like to invite you to join us for our online crop

Mother Goose visits Scrap My Memories

Friday, March 13th 6 at 6:00 pm EST - Sunday, March 15th at 9:00pm EST.

We will give you until Monday, March 16th, 11:59pm EST to upload your completed layouts.

The Design Team is busy at work with Mother Goose, The three little pigs and Goldilocks to bring you a fabulous weekend of scrapbooking fun, games, lots of chatter and ofcourse lots of prizes too

So, don't forget to mark your calendars.

Haven't been postin'...

...but I have been scrappin', problem is most of it is stuff that I can't post yet! I did a couple of layouts for layout tag games that are ongoing and I can't post them until the games are done. I really like how they turned out and I'm anxious to post them, but I have to wait.

I just realized that I do have a few creations that I haven't posted here. They were all inspired by challenges in the Apprentice Game at Love Bug.

This one was inspired by an ad challenge. We also had to use at least 5 pictures and no patterned paper. Here's what I came up with:



This one was also inspired by an ad inspiration challenge:



This one was inspired by a progressive challenge. I've done a few of these porgressive challenges before but this was the first time where we had to post pictures of our progress as we went along, and I really liked that. Our first step was to gather the supplies, then we had to cut them according to instructions. Then we had to adhere some according to instructions. Finally we had to put it all together in a layout. It was really fun to do.




This challenge was to use the posted sketch by Traci Boutilier. For this layout I used pictures that Little One took of me a while ago.



This was a challenge to scraplift a layout by a fellow Newfoundlander, Joe. Once again I used a picture that Little One had taken, this time of her big sister.



One more layout and news bulletin before I sign off for the day. :) The layout below is featured on the Sisterhood of Scrap blog today. It was completed especially for them as a sample of the Becky Fleck sketch they are featuring today.

Weekend Scrappy Creations

The layout above was inspired by a few different challenges that I came across this weekend. At Scrapbooking Fanatics Friday Night Crop, the first challenge was a sketch challenge to use the Becky Fleck sketch posted. I loved the sketch and found the perfect pictures for it. At CompuPro Scrapbooking they had an "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" crop happening and one of the challenges was to use something real and something fake on your layout. I used a real piece of chipboard that I inked yellow, but I also traced the chipboard onto patterned paper and cut it out and used that underneath the chipboard. Also, I used a real leaf embellishment, but I also traced around the leaf onto two different patterned papers and cut those out and used those too. Sisterhood of Scrap had a Blog Crop happening and one of the challenges was to use an embellishment cluster. That inspired me to put all the embellishments together in the layout.

The pretty bow below was inspired by a couple of challenges too. ScrapShotz has a monthly Scrappy Hour and in this month's scrappy hour on Friday night Virginia shared instructions on how to make a paper bow. A Make 'n' Take challenge in the crop at CompuPro this weekend included much the same instructions so this morning I finally found the time to follow the instructions and make the bow. I made it pink for my Little One, whose third birthday is today. This is a real easy project and I will be making more. I'm hoping to find the time to try making a smaller version.



The rest of my creations from this weekend are all meant to be Christmas tree ornaments but truthfully I will not be using them on my Christmas tree. Maybe it's because DH is fire chief but I'm leery of putting paper ornaments on a tree along with Christmas lights. It may be a perfectly safe thing to do, but I'm not willing to take the chance. I may try to incorporate them into decorations elsewhere in the house, such as hanging from swags in doorways, where they will not have any chance of being near any source of heat. We'll see.

The circle globe below was also inspired by a couple of challenges. A while back Lil' Scrappers had a 5th Anniversary Celebration Crop. I didn't get a chance to do any of the challenges at that time but I did record them to hopefully come back to later. This weekend one of the challenges in the CompuPro Crop was to make a Christmas Ornament using 10 circles. This reminded me of Carla's Make n Take challenge in the Lil' Scrappers crop, except you had to use 20 circles. I followed the instructions in the Lil' Scrappers crop and made the creation below. I my try my hand at the other instructions later. Someone in the CompuPro Forum mentioned that they've seen these made with photos and I'm thinking I'd like to give that a try, if I find the time.



Friday someone in one of the forums I frequent, I can't remember which one, pointed out this Christmas Photo Ornament blog post. I had to give it a try and my creation is below. I'm not thrilled with it, but I may try it again. This one was a bit of a rush job just to try it out. It's real easy to do and she gives the instructions in her post.



Later in the weekend a bonus challenge in the CompuPro crop was very much like the photo ornament, except it's just made with patterned paper and the instructions are a little different. The creation below was made for that challenge. It would look much nicer with double sided paper.



And it looks pretty good when it's spinning. :)

Final Challenge for Cre8ive Idol

The 5th, and final, challenge was to use something old, something, new, something borrowed and something blue on a layout, but it was not to be a wedding theme at all. I almost didn't bother doing something for this challenge because I didn't have a clue what to do. After some cheering on from Jackie and Jean, however, I finally came up with an idea, the morning it was due, and set to work. I'm so glad I did because I absolutely love the result. To see all the beautiful creations inspired by this challenge you can check here. Here's what I created:



The something old was the chipboard and patterned paper I used for the letters and journaling pieces. They were actually a part of a RAK that Jackie sent me a long time ago. The new was the rest of the paper and materials and the picture which was taken just a couple of days ago. The borrowed was Carla's sizzix that I used to make the letters. Sorry for still having it Carla. I promise I will bring it back. :) The blue is the bit in the picture and the bling I glued in the letters.

Featured on ScrapShotz blog!

Wow! I was rather shocked just now to discover that the Christmas Tree Ornament set I made recently is featured on Scrap Shotz's blog today! Thanks Amber!

I seem to have lost my mojo

Just can't seem to get motivated at all the last couple of days. The last challenge for the Cre8ive Idol contset is due tomorrow but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it at all. I hate the thought of not doing the last challenge but I have absolutely zero ideas! Oh well. Must go spend some time with my girls.

The Apprentice at LoveBug

Last week I signed up to play the Apprentice Game happening at LoveBug Scrapbooking. What great fun! The game will be going on for quite a while yet - right into the new year, apparently. I don't plan on doing everything but I will be doing what I can and having fun. Here's a couple of things I made inspired by the game this week.

I love this mini albums. I'm made them before and I will make them again.


This is a neat little gift bag that I will definitely be making again too. So easy and so nice!