last july at the zoo

 

I just realized I’d never taken a picture (or shared) this layout of our trip to the zoo last summer.

Supplies: patterned paper: Echo Park; journaling spot: Jillibean Soup; brads: Basic Grey; letter stickers: American Crafts

And as usual, I’m using a sketch from Allison Davis (Sketches for Scrapbooking v. 6).

I didn’t really switch up much from the original sketch this time. I did use a journaling sprout in the text area (instead of strips). And I tucked part of it behind the photo because it had a word on it that didn’t fit in with the layout.

I also used brads instead of buttons. Minor swap, I know. And it felt so good to use up some Lime Rickey brads I’d had sitting around for a couple of years!

when life gives you limes…

make margaritas!

Can you tell I absolutely loved this sketch from Sketch Support?

Supplies Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, Pink Paislee, My Mind’s Eye, & October Afternoon; Stamps: A Muse Artstamps; Pens: Certainly Celery & Old Olive by Stampin’ Up!; Ink: Staz On; Glossy Accents & Stickles: Ranger; brads & punch: STampin’ Up! (All paper supplies from my Green Tangerine’s May Kit)

My apologies for crooked pictures…it was quite windy when I went outside & most of my shots are of cards falling down!

*Remember, you only have until Sunday to comment here for a chance to win Scrapbook Generation’s newest sketch book*

abbie two, err, three?

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Abbie!

Around here, Abbie has affectionately become known as “Abbie too!” Since she was a baby, whenever we would ask who wanted to do something, Brandon & Olivia have always answered “me! and Abbie too!”. So the name stuck.

For the last year, we’ve joked that her name is “Abbie two”. And if asked, that’s probably the name she’ll tell you. (Not Abbie or Abigail, but “Abbietwo.” One word. Very cute!)

Now that she’s three, the big question is, is she still Abbie two, or is she now Abbie three?

And whatever you call her, she’s still the cutest little three year old in town…So Happy Birthday my dear sweet Abigail, our little Abbiechab, Abbie too, & curly Q.

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).

two page sketch # 17: just another fun day at the zoo

It’s two page week again on the Sketch Support blog! This week Allison is featuring a sketch from her new book Sketches for Scrapbooks vol. 8. You can purchase a copy for yourself here, but you can snag the sketch for FREE here.

And here is my version:

supplies (all from my Green Tangerines June kit)  letter stickers: Lush by My Mind’s Eye, October Afternoon, & Echo Park;  chipboard buttons: Graphic 45; Word Stickers: Echo Park; Patterned Paper: Crate Paper; Journaling block & ribbon: unknown; Punch: EK Success; Decorative Brads: Stella Rose by My Mind’s Eye

My original plan was to stick with the sketch & do something for the Fourth of July. And then I went thru my photos & realized I hadn’t scrapped our zoo pictures from April!

The first change I made was to add more photos. The sketch calls for three 4x4 photos stacked on the right page. First of all, I had two photos that just didn’t work as squares. And second of all, I wanted to use a few more pictures. So I opened up a 6x12 block in Photoshop Elements and made a grid of eight 3x3 photos. Then I started playing around & came up with the above photo block.

*Tip: You should be able to see the white lines in between each photo. Instead of trying to line all of them up with a perfect margin & still make it fit, I simply selected each photo layer (before flattening) and went to “edit>stroke (outline) selection”. I outlined each photo with a 10px line that was centered.*

1) As you can see, I didn’t use stars! I had this cute journaling block in my GTKC kit that I was planning on mounting on something. But no matter what I put under it, I liked it by itself more. Plus the block itself kind of stands in for the large star.

2) I substituted these cute buttons for the star border. originally they were just place holder so I could see if I liked the swoosh of stars going over my photo on the right, and then I realized I really liked the buttons. And they have a few clock ones to go with the clock on the journaling block…yay!

After getting the buttons stitched on & my pages almost done, I decided they needed a little extra something. So snipped the legs off of a few brads & glued them down. I love the extra bit of color & bling.

3) Instead of a scalloped border next to striped paper, I used “torn paper” ( have no idea what to call this) punch and some ribbon from my kit. The scalloped edge didn’t fit the look I was going for, and with all the circles I thought the scallops would be too round.

And for those of you who’ve made it this far….

…it’s a giveaway of Sketch Support’s latest sketch book, volume 8.

You can leave me a sweet comment to be entered in a drawing for a free copy of "Sketches for Scrapbooking" volume 8.  I will draw a winner (late) Sunday, July 17th and post the winner. And for extra chances, head over to the rest of the Sketch Support Creative Team blogs...we're all giving a copy away this week!

more: card sketch #9

 

I had a lot of fun with card sketch # 9 this month! I think I’ve said before, when I sit down to make cards, I usually make a few. That way I’ve always got a stash to grab one from when I’m running out the door to a birthday party :)

Again, this is the sketch:

And this is what I did:

Supplies for both cards came from my February Green Tangerine’s kit:

Patterned paper: Pebbles, Sassafras, My Mind’s Eye, October Afternoon, & Cosmo Cricket; letter stickers: American Crafts; Clock buttons: Jenni Bowlin; flower buttons: Lily Bee designs; sticker, October Afternoon.

(The “k” card will probably go to my sister, Kathy, but it could be for anyone with the initial “k”. I like adding something personal to my cards like that.)

sketch support: card sketch #9

I’m so excited to have my first project go “live” on the Sketch Support website! I found out at the end of May that I was going to be one of the newest members of the Creative Team, and I’ve waited until now (when I had something to share) to announce it.

Supplies:

Letter stickers: American Crafts; Key hole: Tim Holtz; Flower punch: Stampin’ Up!; Black pearls: Prima; Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket, My Mind’s Eye, October Afternoon, Graphic 45, Sassafras, Pebbles (all from my Green Tangerines Kit Club, February)

For this sketch I stuck to the overall design, but altered the dimensions & eliminated the stitching; I love mixing up lots of patterned paper & I thought adding stitching was just a bit too much this time around.

First of all, I increased the size of the upper strip of paper to 1 ½” so that my letter stickers would fit better. To balance that out, I increased the bottom strip to 1”. The red strip and stripes are the original sizes, but the number paper is a bit wider because I wanted the numbers to show correctly.

I love the stars in the original sketch, but I *love* my flower punch! I added a black pearl to the center of each flower to tie the color in better. After adding my word “love” to the top, I decided the card needed something on the bottom to balance it out, so I pulled the cool metal key hole out of my stash & glued it down.

The card is based on card sketch #9 from Sketch Support:

Click here to see what other Creative Team members came up with this week.