School Days

Are you ready for another reveal from the Sketches in Thyme Design Team?  Here's the sketch we were given to work with:

And here's my take:

Hmmm, seems I changed it up a bit, but I quite like how it turned out.  I used lots of Echo Park Note to Self papers here, as well as some MME and Amy Tangerine scraps, like on this die cut apple:

 Here's a close-up of my journaling:

I really wanted to express just how beautiful I think these photos are!  I know from vast experience how hard it is to take a decent head shot of my kids, especially Brenna, my little one (she's such a turkey!) and these photo surpassed my wildest dreams!!!  

I hope you'll join us at Sketches in Thyme for Sketch #114, or any of the sketches this month - I'd love to see what you create!

S & D

Here's a super bright layout of my parents I finished a couple of days ago:

Aren't they sweet?  I love this picture, I think it's so cute!  I didn't know what to put for a title, so I ended up   just putting a tag sticker and their monograms:

I messed up the inking on the 'D', but it turned out okay because it gave me the opportunity to make this little flower and button cluster to cover it up.  Here's the sketch I followed from Let's Get Sketchy:

And if you guessed that I missed the deadline, you would be correct!  Argh, one day I'll get my stuff together in time to enter a challenge - it just might not be anytime soon.  Happy Monday to you, and I hope you (and I!) get some crafty time this week - thanks for looking! 

So Crazy About You

Note to self (and anyone else who cares to heed this advice):  if you need to get a mole frozen off your face, especially a prominent part of your face i.e. your nose, do NOT get the procedure done on a Monday when you still have to go to work all week!  Can we say, "Embarrassing!"  Tuesday I tried covering up the damage with makeup, Wednesday I just slapped a big ol' band aid on the thing, Thursday I tried the makeup thing again and ended up buying some tiny, discreet band aids, and kept the mess covered until today, now that it's pretty much healed.  Whew!  And after all that, only two people asked what had happened, but I know everyone was staring at me funny all week, I could feel it!

Anyway, I did manage to finish this Hunter layout, so the week wasn't a complete loss!  What do you think? I think I'm loving it!!!  The pleated burlap is something new, and it wasn't sticking exactly, so that's why I added some brads as a design element (see, there IS a method to my madness!).  Here's a close-up of that, and the journaling:

 And another of his puppy face:

Of course I used a sketch, but alas I missed the deadline!  Is this the trend for the summer?  I sure hope not! Anyway, this sketch is from Let's Get Sketchy:

I think all the papers and stickers I used are from Echo Park's "Note to Self" collection.  (See how I tied that in to my intro?  You'd almost think it was deliberate!)  The burlap and brads are from Close to My Heart.  And that's about all I can say about that!

My First Sketches In Thyme Reveal!

This was such a fun layout to make!  Check out this cool double-page sketch from Sketches in Thyme:

I decided to scrap with these photos from last summer that I had printed a while ago, and stuck with the sketch pretty closely:

I used some great new papers from Simple Stories, 24/7 - love these, they're so bright and cheery!  I cut up one of the strips to use as the title, and I cut out a journaling card to use in the bigger photo spot.  The polaroid frames were cut using my Cameo on plain cream cardstock, then I inked them red to make them pop!

A bit of mist in the corners (Dylusions Postbox Red) and some stickers, ribbon, and washi tape finish off the design!

Funny how I can make it sound like I just whipped this layout up in 10 minutes, but honestly, it was sitting out on my kitchen bar for about two weeks!  Well, I do hope you'll join in with this sketch challenge, but there are some other great sketches at Sketches in Thyme this month, too - linking up for any of them will get you in our draw.  Good luck!

Happy Anniversary to Me (and Jason, too)!

Whew, I've been pretty busy these days, what with the move and coaching soccer (yeah, somehow ended up as a volunteer coach for Ailis's team, even though I still don't know anything about the sport and probably didn't need more on my plate.  What we do for our kids!) then wound up with a wicked head cold on my anniversary.  Even now, almost a week later, I'm still sniffling and coughing, it's just not going away! 

I almost didn't post this card because it is such a blatant steal from Tara, but since I'm giving her credit and I'm directing you to her tutorial at Ranger, I figure it's okay.  Hey, you know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!  Also, I really wanted to show you what my wonderful husband got me for an anniversary gift:

If you can't tell, it's an Ott light!!!  After 14 years, the man knows me well!  So excited to be able to see properly while I'm crafting!

And, I wanted to show off my new house.  I'll probably post more pictures in the future (it's pretty messy right now!) but here's some of it, starting with my little office/scrap space under the stairs:

Check out the log staircase!  And that thing to the left that looks like a tree trunk?  It's a real tree!  (Or it was a real tree, seeing as it's not actually alive, but it goes all the way up to the ceiling where the branches come out the top.)

Here's Ailis and Brenna playing by the kitchen bar.  What do you think of these bar stools?

I love 'em!!!  They are tractor seats mounted on logs with horse shoes for foot rests!  The middle one is pretty comfy, it has an extra big bum cup, just perfect for me!  I think I'll be doing most of my scrapping there because I like the length of the bar.

Well, that's it for me!  I'm going to make me some Neo-Citron - gottta love that stuff, I think I might be addicted!  Thanks for looking!

Last Stamp of the Month for Creative Accents!

Well, I don't know if you're going to believe this, but our Seriously Creative Design Team is all a-flutter right now over the long distance romance going on between our fearless leader, Tara, and her now-fiance!  It is soooooo romantic, a real life fairy tale!  Anyway, long story short, Tara is getting married this summer and moving to the U.S. of A. and thus, Creative Accents will be closing (or selling, fingers crossed!)  Which brings me to the title of this post - no more SOTM club, sniff!  Tara has been running the SOTM club for a long while (over 10 years, I believe!) and I am honoured to be working with this last stamp, a beautiful poppy image from Magenta, a leading Canadian stamp manufacturer.  Here's what I came up with:  

First up, a card using a sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch!  I used a pencil eraser and 5 different colours of ink to make the background.  The other main piece was cut with my Cameo, and brayered with 3 different colours.  I thought it needed a black outline to make it pop, and although I probably could have used an ink pad, I decided to go with a Faber Castell gelato.  The "MANY THANKS" banner was also cut on the Cameo.  The sketch:

Here's my other card, featuring some beautiful new Glitz Designs paper:

At first I thought this one looked too busy, but now, seeing it on my screen, it's kind of growing on me!  Here's the sketch I used from Retro Sketches:

Hope all you moms had a lovely Mother's Day.  Mine was...interesting, let's say!  But hey, at least I got some crafty time in!  TTFN, and thanks for looking, Roxy.

Something Exciting!

I'm just taking a short break from packing to let you in on some big news!  Remember when I posted this page in response to a DT call for Sketches in Thyme?

Well, you are looking at  (virtually, of course!) one of the newest Sketches in Thyme Mavens!!!  I am through the roof thrilled to be joining this great team of ladies, and I hope that EVERYONE gets a chance to join in on one of May's upcoming sketches!  If you haven't ever seen the SiT orange and yellow sketches, why don't you pop on over there now?

I am off to pack up my scrapping supplies (booooo!) and trying to figure out what I need to keep super handy so I don't miss too much crafty time.  Hopefully I will be able to post something within the next week or so, along with some pictures of our NEW HOUSE!!!  (Here's where you have to picture me jumping up and down and "shaking my booty", as Brenna calls it!)