A Sweet Summertime Treat of a Challenge

I finally entered my first scrapbooking challenge.  I always look at them online and think about doing it, but I decided to jump in this time.  I have to say it was a lot of fun.  It's a nice break from scrapbooking my day to day stuff.  It gets your creative juices flowing! The challenge was on Jinger Adam's, from Provo Crafts, Facebook page.  The challenge was to make a layout about enjoying summertime ice cream.  The most creative layout will win 10 of the newest Cricut cartridges!!!  How awesome of a giveaway is that?  So, here is what I created.

I used ALOT of cartridges for this layout!  The sun, the turtle, the frog, the grass, the tulips and the dragonflys are from Create a Critter.  I glittered the sun's background in yellow (surprise, surprise).  The dragonflys are hard to make out from a picture but close up they are really cute, I used vellum for their wings.  The clouds are from The Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge and I used my zig pen to outline the edges of the clouds and sprinkled them with silver glitter.  Because--every cloud has a silver lining right?  The kite is from Paper Dolls.  I cut it out in white paper and colored it with Smooches.  I had this idea to begin with of a little boy with a wagon full of ice cream.  It totally sounds like something one of my boys would do!  They love wagons, trailers, and anything that can be pulled with stuff in it.  They are always hauling stuff around!  I cut the kids, the wagon and the sign from Paper Dolls.  Also, I used my Peachy Keen stamps for the kids faces.  Love those stamps!  Here is a closeup of the sign by the little boy...

The sign says "Sweet treats to beat the heat 50 cents."  The mint chip cones and the vanilla cone with glitter is from Indie Art, the chocolate glitter cone and the white cone with sprinkles is from Paper Dolls, and the chocolate cone with a cherry is from Doodlecharms.  The little girl is also flying a kite...

I embossed her dress with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and of course I glittered her cone! :)  I used my Gypsy to weld a border from Just Because Cards and a square from Plantin Schoolbook.  The tree is from Just Because Cards.  I love that tree and I have to say it is the main reason I bought that cartridge.  There's nothing like a nice big tree to swing in !   This layout was super fun  to make and I have to say that I really liked entering the challenge.  It was really nice to take a breather from my pics.  Now I'm feeling inspired from all of the other entries I saw and I'm ready to get scrappin!

Pink Valentine's Day Layout

I don't get to do pink layouts too often b/c I have two boys.  I think that's why I've started making cards, so I can do the glittery, flowery, cutesy stuff!  It is alot of fun.  I also think that's why I enjoy doing Valentine's Day layouts and Easter layouts.  I always have to bling them up somewhere on the page!  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE glitter?  I do, I do!  Anyways, here is the Valentine's Day layout I made for my son's preschool Valentine's Day party.  I just learned how to scan my pages and stitch them together using Photoshop--super, super easy!  So this is my first scanned page-yay!

I cut the heart out from the Doodlecharms cricut cartridge.  Doesn't it match the monsters heart perfectly!  Then I glittered the chipboard letters in red and pink.  I embossed the photo mats with the Cuttlebug folders "Conversations" and "Heart Blocks" and then I inked them.  I used a Martha Stewart edge punch on the pink strip in the middle  and used Versamark to stamp the fluttering heart image on it.  The background paper is from the Doodlin Around DCWV paper pack.  I think the little monster with a Valentine is very appropriate for a little boys Valentine page!  Have a great Sunday afternoon, I have been scrapbooking the day away!

Keep it Simple...

Easier said than done!  With so many scrapbooking tools, glitters (my personal favorite), stamps, inks, stickers, brads, eyelets, flowers (with two boys I don't get to use those that often), punches, embossing folders, cricut cartridges, I could go on and on!  Sometimes it's really hard to keep it simple!  Although, as my pile of pictures that need to be scrapped gets larger and larger I'm telling myself that over and over again.  Keep it simple, keep it simple, keep it simple!  I'm getting so behind on my scrapbooking, I really need to get moving. And remember that resolution? Yeah...that's not going so good!  At this point in time I would like to officially change that to 1 page a week! :-)

So...while on the topic of keeping it simple I have a pretty simple page I did that describes my youngest to the T!  He's always getting into something he shouldn't and making messes.  Well on this particular day that I took this picture he was getting into a package of oreos while I was trying to finishing sewing up my curtains.  I didn't really care!  I was getting my sewing done, so I just went right ahead and let him make his mess! But what a cute mess he was...

Here is the title for the layout.  I can't remember what cartridge I used, sorry.

Using a needle and red embroidery floss I stitched the torn title to the layout.  Staying with the sewing theme, I thought this would be a great opportunity to use a cuttlebug folder from the 'Just My Type' border set.  So for my journaling I wanted to describe what a little messmaker he is...

Then for the border on the edge, I used a zig zagged ruler as a template and pierced the paper so I would have a guide for my stitching.  I then used a needle and red embroidery floss and stitched the zig zag border along the edge.  Here's how that turned out

Here is the finished layout.

It's a pretty simple page with nothing fancy.  I really like to do sewing, it gives it a little extra handmade touch!  I would really like to add a good mini sewing machine to my scrapbooking tools.  Anyone know of a good one?  Now, it's 11:30 and everyone is in bed.  I think I'm gonna watch some One Life to Live and do some scrapping.  And I'm gonna remind myself to keep it simple so I can make that pile of "pics to scrap" shorter!  Have a good night!