sketch support blog hop | let’s party

*If you are just starting at my blog, make sure you begin at the Sketch Support blog to begin the hop!

Welcome to the blog hop to get to know the design team for Sketch Support! My name is Christine Chain. I am a preschool-based speech-language pathologist, wife, and mother of three--Brandon (7), Olivia (6 in a week!), and Abbie (3 1/2).

The hop is running today, April 14. If you leave a comment on each blog, you get a chance at some individual prizes on each blog, as well as a chance at another prize from Sketch Support!
In addition to many chances at prizes, I hope you enjoy going from blog to blog, seeing the wonderful takes on this sketch:

*If you want a downloadable version of the sketch, please get it at Sketch Support.

Here’s my take on the sketch:

Supplies – patterned paper: Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants; letter stickers: Thickers by American Crafts, My Little Shoebox; tags & buttons: American Crafts; ink: Tim Holtz’ Distress Ink by Ranger

I really liked this sketch & was glad that I got to scrap some pics from my son’s birthday party in February. I kept the photos & paper pieces the same sizes as in the sketch, but I did make a few variations.

1) I decided to use journaling strips. Mostly because I had adhered the paper & photos & then realized I still needed to write something! I could’ve just hand written it, but I didn’t want that look on this layout.

I also changed the arrow to another strip of paper & a button. I didn’t have any arrows and didn’t like the ones I tried to make. So I grabbed a pack of fun buttons that went with the paper I was already using.

2) Again, I didn’t use arrows. This time I thought I needed something bigger, so I used two tags; one on top vertically, and one underneath horizontally.

3) I forgot the title was supposed to go across the photo until after I printed it. I totally could’ve cropped it differently, but thankfully I could still fit what I wanted to say above the photo. I still have two lines & I love how it turned out!

And because this is a “get to know you” blog hop…let’s get to know me!

How long have you been scrapbooking? I’ve been “scrapbooking” (as we all know it) since sometime in late 1999. However, I’ve been cropping photos, trying to organize them in albums (yes, the old “magnetic” ones!), labeling them, and adding stickers & other tid-bits since probably 7th grade…back in 1989. Wow!

Why did you start scrapbooking? I didn’t like how when you opened my parents’ albums, you didn’t know what you were looking at (besides lots of pictures). They took tons of photos, and had tons of albums, but the only information was the year on the spine of the album. So when I started putting together my own photo albums in 7th grade, I cropped my photos down and used a sharpie on the page so anyone would know what they were seeing. I even added my own little cute titles on each page! As time went on, my pages (and style) evolved into what it is today.

What is your favorite time of day to scrapbook? If I could choose? In the afternoon when my kids are playing in the next room. But I usually don’t get to choose & scrap late at night.

How often do you scrapbook? Only a couple of times a week now. Boo! I just went back to work 4 days a week this last August, so between that & three kids…well, I scrap when I can!

Where do you scrapbook/what does your space look like? I have an office, and I have a desk. But that desk has been hidden under a bunch of supplies for a while. I really need to clean it up & reorganize…but I’d rather scrap (or shop!).

When I'm not scrapbooking you can find me...at one of my girls’ dance classes, at my son’s baseball games, or running errands at Target. And generally behind a camera at the same time.

What is your favorite thing about using sketches? I don’t have to think! Ha! My brain is on overload all day long, so when I want to unwind by scrapbooking, I just want to play with my photos & some paper, and know that they will look great when I put them together because I started with a great sketch!

What is your favorite sketch from Sketch Support? Hard to choose! I love them all, but as I went back thru a bunch of my older layouts, this one caught my eye:

Based on this sketch:

I like that there is a lot patterned paper, a few accents, and a large block of photos that can be resized as needed.

Thank you for visiting my blog! Feel free to scroll around, and please sign up to follow if you want to keep track of my posts. And be sure to leave a comment to get a chance to win one of two “Sketches for Scrapbooking” books! I am giving away Allison Davis’ most recent editions: One-Pages Sketches volume 2 and Travel Sketches.

The contest closes Monday 4/16 at 6pm, PDT.

Now head on over to Lynette’s blog to continue playing.

sketch support | awesome

It’s one-page week at Sketch Support again. Head on over there to get a free copy of this week’s sketch & check out what the rest of the creative team came up with.

I decided to use a picture taken of my son on his 7th birthday and incorporate an interview with him for my journaling. I used the same questions for him on his 6th birthday (and on Olivia’s 5th last year too). The questions came from Cathy Zielske’s Story Guide Layered Template #1 available here.

Supplies – patterned paper: October Afternoon, Echo Park, Sweet Caroline by My Mind’s Eye, Cosmo Cricket; epoxy paper clip: Sweet Caroline by My Mind’s Eye; letters: Thickers by American Crafts, Authentique; chipboard accents: Bella Blvd; label sticker: Cosmo Cricket; interview questions: from Cathy Zielske’s Story Guide Layered Template #1; ink: Tsukineko; other: embroidery floss

Since you can’t read what he said too well, I thought I’d include his “awesome” answers:

My favorite food is: sushi
My favorite sport to play is: soccer.
The best show on television is: Beyblade Metal Masters.
The coolest person on Earth is: Jack.
My best subject in school is: playing tetherball.
The thing I do the most awesomely is: Bakugan battles.
If I could change my name, it would be: Monsoono.
If I could go anywhere in the world, I’d go to: China.
My favorite color is: green.
When I grow up, I’m going to become a: I don’t know.
The thing my parents are too strict about is: cleaning up my room & not letting me watch shows on TV that I want to watch.
My current favorite band is: LMFAO (I’m Sexy & I Know It).
The last book I read was: Bakugan Ultimate Handbook.
Three words that describe me are: good friend, funny, smart.
When I was little, I used to: ride my bike around the block with my dad.
My favorite season of the year is: summer.
The snack I could live on is: Gushers.
The food that makes me want to puke is: yogurt.
My best friend is: Jack Hutchison.
If I had one wish it would be: to have a whole bunch of toys.
My best memory is: riding CA “SCREAMIN’” with my mom.

Variation #1 – I didn’t use anywhere near as many embellishments! I wanted this layout to be a bit more “clean & simple” since it’s about my son…not that a layout about a boy can’t have embellishments, but I really liked how it looked without much extra.

Variation #2 – I used a few label & word stickers, plus a “7” (since this is when Brandon turned seven) in place of the flower/button embellishments.

simple stories product challenge| now we are six

Simple Stories was kind enough to give all of us on the Creative Team at Sketch Support some fun products to use as part of the Sketch Support product challenge. We were asked to create a layout based on the following sketch using the supplies we were given.

I’ve been waiting to come across the right design for my “Now We are Six” idea. This sketch fit my idea perfectly!

Supplies – patterned paper & stickers: Simple Stories; cardstock: Bazzill Basics; corrugated letters: Jillibean Soup; number stickers: October Afternoon; other: pop dots

1) I eliminated the photo block of six photos on the right page, & just used a single 4'”x6”.

2) I added the strip of number stickers across the top because I wanted to bring some more color behind the title.

3) I didn’t do any extra embellishments on the rectangle on the left. The Simple Stories papers were already decorated, so I worked with what was there. I did add the “good times” sticker (on top of a label printed on the paper). I used the “happy BIRTHDAY” sticker along the bottom to tie the block to the photos (and I popped it up as well).

4) I punched the “happy day!” label out of sticker that was a different shape.

we lost our first tooth…

on Tuesday during Breakaway Games…

and Brandon’s Lego “coaches” were kind enough to put it in a baggy for us. Which my mom took a picture of. And then Brandon lost. Oh well…he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy & she brought him some money anyways!

(P.S.: You still have time to comment on this post for a chance to win Sketches for Scrapbooking volume 8).

invited you are, to a star wars birthday party

 

Brandon had a Star Wars birthday party for his 6th birthday this year. I think it was our best themed party ever! I’m not a Star Wars fanatic by any means, but I had so much fun planning the party (and even more fun scrapping about it, lol!).

Supplies: Bazzill  Basics cardstock; Basic Grey & American crafts letter stickers; My Mind’s Eye and Basic Grey patterned paper; American Crafts buttons

I started out by selecting a layout from my Sketches for Scrapbooking  volume 7*. (There were a few layouts I liked, so I kept going thru my photos to see which layout would work best with the photos I wanted to showcase.)  Then I went back thru my photos from Brandon’s party & resized them in Photoshop Elements so they would work on this layout.

*Rumor has it that another one will be coming out soon…And I get to have a giveaway for one since I’m one of the newest members of the Sketch Support design team!

I’ve been waiting to use my March GT kit for this layout, because I think the colors are nice and boyish. But it still took me FOREVER to figure out which papers I was going to actually use on this page when I sat down to scrap!

I did know that I wanted to use the blue letters from Basic Grey for my title. The funky font has always looked Star Wars-like to me (and yes, I know it isn’t!).

The original sketch calls for stars for embellishments. Usually I just use whatever I want for accents, but since this is a STAR Wars page, I thought it would be appropriate to use actual stars! I finally broke down & picked up two star punches, both Marvy Uchida Clever Levers (the “regular” orange one & “extra jumbo” yellow one). I started playing around & came up with my own embellishments by layering the stars and a 1 3/8” circle punch. I inked up the edges, added a button, and was pretty happy with myself :)

let’s go brandon

First of all, it’s Memorial Day. Thank you to all the men & women who have graciously served our country.

And to honor them, what is more American than baseball?

I take a ton of pictures at each of Brandon’s baseball games, thanks to the burst mode on my camera. It’s so easy to snap ten in a row & hope that one is him hitting the ball. When I looked at the photos from Brandon’s last game, I thought, “hey wouldn’t it be fun to have a story-board style layout of these photos?”

I found this sketch in one of my Allison Davis sketch books. (love them!)

Then I pulled out my March GTKC & found some papers that would work nicely, as well as some brads to embellish it. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, so the focus is on Brandon swinging the bat.

an interview with brandon

 

Originally I thought I was going to create an “everyday you” layout for my kids every six months. I thought it would be fun to chronicle their changes & likes & everyday-ness. Then I saw this cool interview format on Cathy Zielske’s blog & thought, I think I’m going to do that too!

This was by far one of the easiest layouts I’ve completed! I downloaded the template at Designer Digitals (where it looks like there are having a sale still…not sure how much longer though). I asked Brandon all the questions (& Olivia too, but I haven’t done her layout yet), then typed them into the psd document. I did have to head over to the Font Squirrel to download the fonts (since I didn’t have them, but they were free).

I printed the photos on photo paper and the rest on white cardstock, then I put them together & adhered them to a sheet of black cardstock. Done. And a lot of fun to look back on.

now we are six

When I was one,
I had just begun.

When I was two,
I was nearly new.

When I was three,
I was hardly me.

When I was four,
I was not much more.

When I was five,
I was just alive.

But now I am six,
I'm as clever as clever.

So I think I'll be six
now and forever.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

my future scientist

on his first day of kindergarten!

I used all Jillibean Soup products on this layout, except the thickers from my stash. I love the Atomic Soup line & when I saw it I knew it’d be perfect for a back-to-school layout. I especially love that the colors aren’t “fall” since we go back to school in August, & it barely looks like “fall” here until November!

kindergarten celebration

Last week Brandon’s kindergarten class had their Thanksgiving feast. It was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians (when I told him Native Americans I was corrected).

This is the layout I created for that day. I used a sketch from Allison Davis’ blog (SG Publishing/Allison Davis Creative Team call). You can see the sketch here.

I still had a bunch of paper & journaling sprouts from Jillibean Soup’s Pasta Fagioli line sitting around, and they are the perfect colors for fall. I love how the accents pick up the colors of the tree and the vests & headbands on the kids.

I cut the camera out of a sheet of patterned paper, and used a few journaling sprouts here in place of the hearts in the sketch.

The photo op tag is another sprout; I love using sprouts as little tags peeking out from behind the photo. The border was all handstitched with three strands of DMC embroidery floss.

just kick it

I had so much fun with this layout! I’ve been snapping pictures at most of Brandon’s soccer games, so I had a TON to choose from. I was able to narrow it down some, then picked a sketch from Alison Davis’ sketchbook #6. Then I narrowed down my photos a bit more until I was happy with my layout (I do a lot in Photoshop Elements before I print anything).

The sketch I used had a lot of stars in it, which worked perfectly with this American Crafts paper I still had (& wanted to use). I drew some stars in Photoshop & printed them on the backs of the patterned paper I wanted to use. Then I inked the edges & adhered them to the page. I popped up some, and used the cool “buttons” in place of others.

I had already used some of this collection on another layout, but I had saved the soccer ball, knowing Brandon was going to play soccer.

flashback friday...ugg

If I've shared this layout before, forgive me! Brandon used to love playing with David's nasty Uggs. As you can see, he'd put his arms IN them...I'm amazed he still has arms! Heck, I won't even touch the outsides :)

from fall 2006

everyday you

A few weeks ago I was inspired by Cathy Zielske's blog. Well, let me rephrase that because I'm inspired by her blog daily. I was inspired to create this layout

because of this.

She offers a great digital kit, and the weekend that she posted about it, it was on sale. But I scrap 12x12 & really didn't feel like doing an 8 1/2 x 11 page. So I made up my own. Please forgive the crookedness, but I could not get it to lay flat enough nor lean over enough to get a great picture. Life goes on :)

Anyhow, the point of the layout is to document something that is very "everyday." Like something your kids do every single day.

The patterned paper I used is from Jillibean Soup's Atomic Soup Collection. I won one of each of their new sheets on facebook recently, so I was pretty excited to finally get to use some of it.

The atom sticker & periodic table border are from the cardstock stickers that accompany that line. I didn't win those, so I picked them up at Green Tangerines (now that it's open again...yay!).

Here I used one of the journaling sprouts tucked under my photo strip as a tab. I saw this on one of the layouts on their blog a while back & thought it was such a fun idea.



let's go rivercats

Brandon's baseball team went to a Rivercats game in May. I was inspired by a layout I saw on the Jillibean Soup blog, though I can't find the exact layout now, of course! 100% of this layout was from my stash...such a great feeling to not buy one thing for a layout, you know? I came close...

I love these flocked thickers from American Crafts. So sporty! I used some old Making Memories rub-on letters for "rivercats".

I journaled in one of the Jillibean Sprouts I had sitting around. I got a bunch in a kit a while back, & love how they look though I hardly ever use them. The baseball is part of the American Crafts Junior Varsity line (as is the patterened paper). I bought a few things from that line when it came out, then stocked up later on. I love the colors & know I'll use it on a few sports layouts.

This was my trouble spot. The layout I scraplifted had two large brown "cool beans" buttons in brown, and one in green. I was using different colors on my layout, so no biggie, I decided to use red. Except I only had one red cool bean. Okay. And I knew I wanted to use one of the "buttons" from the JV line. Now what? Use another button? Nope, want some for an upcoming soccer layout. Buy more buttons? Nope, not finding what I want. Use an old red button from Making Memories that I've had for a LONG time? Yup! And it totally matches...yippee!