Sunday Sketch April 15th

Let's work on some layering this week.  I like the idea of a hint of a frame tucked behind a busy patterned paper behind a simple patterned paper with designs in the corner like the Simple Stories papers below.  I also like to include 6 x 6 papers with a smaller pattern.  It's officially Spring, so the sketch includes butterflies and flowers.

This page of my husband and daughter was created with the Simple Stories Fabulous collection.  However, for a more defined title, I used the Documented collection's cardstock sticker alphabets.  There are tiny white polka dots on the letters, but the letters still stand out against the ledger style paper.  The hint of the bright floral paper in the background as the frame is meant to pull the simple design together.

I love how pop dots work with the cardstock stickers.  This arrow was such a cute little sentiment included in the Fabulous collection.  I also added a tiny bit of journaling in my own handwriting directly on the paper.

Have a great week!

Sunday Sketch April 1st

Another Sunday, another sketch! Let's try three different sized photos this week and put them at interesting angles.  Find some fun tags and stickers for a little added detail, but mostly keep is simple.

I am totally smitten with 7 Gypsies Postale Collection.  There is something about that red, white, and blue with a little bit of grunge that really makes a travel page.  This is my sister and brother-in-law traveling through Italy a few years ago.  They had such a great time and saw so many cool sites and of course got to ride in Gondolas in Venice.

I had some of these Jillibean Soup baggage tags hanging around in my stash and thought it was a nice addition to the Postale Collection.  Can't go wrong with cardstock stickers and pop dots in my book.

I like the 7 Gypsies super blocky and small alphabet stickers that come with this Postale collection.  They were a great size for the title and really stand out on the page.

 

These little sticker phrases are a fun journal addition.  I figure I can send this page to my sister and she can add more personalized journaling when she is ready.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Sunday Sketch March 25th

Due to the return of Mad Men and an otherwise full weekend of teaching Driver's Education and taking care of family duties, I was not able to create an example page to go with my Sunday Sketch...  However, I will look forward to what many of you create with this one.  Please leave me a link.

Go forth and have a wonderfully creative week!

Sunday Sketch March 18th

It's another Sunday!  And that means it's time to play with another sketch.  I think I may be a little stuck on pennants, but it seems like maybe I can keep moving them around until I exhaust the idea - LOL.  Hope you can humor me for another week or so, until my brain moves on.  However, still trying to get more photos scrapped, so I thought this was a fun take with three photos.

This is a page of my daughter with our dog.  The dog is now 12 years old and still doing so well and really attached to the kids.  I know wood grain paper, twine and accordion flowers seem to be all the rage, so I tried to include all of them together on this page created with Echo Park's This and That - Graceful Collection.  OMGoodness, the colors are so fun! And, I love the way the bright pinks and teals look against the natural wood.

I added some of Little Yellow Bicycle's Paradise Paper Flower Kit because it was a perfect match and added some nice dimension to the page.  I layered the flowers from the kit and added the twine.  Totally love how these pop off a page.  I highly recommend Tombow Mono Aqua Glue for the twine.  It sticks immediately and dries totally clear.

This title is from the This and That matching Chipboard Pieces.  I added some of Nikki Sivils' Burlap Buttons for some added texture, plus I cannot get enough of those buttons.  Going to need to figure out what I am going to do when they are all gone.

Had to get the old typewriter out again this week for some journaling.  It seems as if every manufacturer has 3 x 4 journal cards, which are really easy to type on.  I like the way the old school typewriter font looks with all of the colors and textures on this page.

I hope you find some inspiration from the sketch and please leave me a link if you use it so I can stop by and admire your interpretation.

Have a creative week!

Sunday Sketch March 11th

It's another Sunday and time for another new sketch!  I am really loving the idea of large pennants and overlapping elements.  This is a fairly simple design, but you can see by my layout that it has a lot of potential for color blocking and adding bits and pieces in many places on the page.  Hope you find some inspiration from this one.

Can I just say how much I LOVE Teresa Collins' Everyday Moments collection!  I am such a fan of patterned papers with text and navy blue, yellow and white are such a great color palette.  I simply added a spot of green for one more element of color.  I found these photos of my son in my stash and although I think I have scrapped one of these photos before, I have not put them in a combination.  I really love to pair  4 x 6 photos with wallet-sized photos.  Please check out Teresa's design team blog for more ideas!

Okay...you are probably going to have to bear with me, while I explore all of the options a good old-fashioned typewriter brings to scrapbooking.  For those of you who have been doing this for years, just roll your eyes and scroll down to the other close ups.  For those of you who are thinking about finding one.  Here is a little tip.  For really small punch outs, you can roll the whole punch out sheet into the typewriter and then type what you want before punching it out.

Here the punch out is large enough to roll into the typewriter on its own.  I love how the font from the typewriter looks with the beautiful font and sentiment on the Everyday Moments journal card.

I wanted to use this clock cardstock sticker, but it was getting lost against the light patterned paper.  So I took one of my Imaginisce i-top punches and made the funky background "flower."  Then I added another round sentiment from the Everyday Moments punch outs.

I can't seem to do anything without twine these days.  This one from The Twinery makes a great border to add a little pop of green to the color palette.

I have to admit that I need to use up a bunch of stuff in my stash...or give it away.  Sometimes it is hard to let go - LOL.  I added this older Thickers Alphabet and the canvas sticker word from Making Memories (now you know how old it really is - ha).  Together, they made a nice title sentiment.

These little sticker stackers make great journal spots for smaller spaces.  This one has a lot of wonderful sentiment that relates to this day.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Sunday Sketch March 4th

 

I was thinking a very simple sketch this week would be a fun way to get some photos scrapped.  However, there is no doubt in my mind that many of you will take this simple sketch and make it into something over-the-top fabulous.  Obviously you can change up the single 5 x 7 photo into more smaller sized photos.

I find with baby photos, the pages are best kept simple, so all of the attention is focused on the munchkin in the photo.  These are some baby papers that the fabulous Adornit Crew sent me for a guest design spot.  I didn't want to cover up all of the fun artwork in the paper, so I just added the two simple patterned paper shapes that were cut with my Grand Calibur and are meant to "shadow" each other. 

Adornit makes some really fun foam embellishments that match many of their collections.  I combined this foam title with one of the journal sentiments to create the title.  If you vary the heights of the letters in your titles, especially if the words are big and short, it give is a fresh look.

These stars are cardstock stickers that have been layered and pop-dotted for added dimension.  I also inked the edges to make some subtle shadow.

Hope you start your week off right!  Thank you for stopping by!

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop & SB&B Giveaway

I was very flattered when Christine Meyer from Practical Scrappers asked if her design team could use one of my Little Yellow Bicycle projects for inspiration in their Linking with Love Blog Hop.  Each of the design team members used an element or elements from the page to create their own design.  Many of you know how much I like to share, so I was only too happy to play along.  Please visit the Practical Scrappers blog to see which of my pages was the catalyst for this inspiration filled hop.

I promised Christine that I would wrap up the blog hop with a Brand NEW sketch to keep the inspiration flowing.  I like clean lines and bright colors, but I am sure many of you can figure out how to take this sketch and make it fit your style.  The most unique element on the sketch is the anchored twine with the button, but I will look forward to seeing how people change that up a bit.

This page was created for the Spring Issue of Scrapbooking and Beyond Magazine with Doodlebug's Colorwheel Collection.  There is a wonderful giveaway on the Scrapbooking and Beyond website with an enormous, almost disgusting amount of Doodlebug products.  Please visit the link HERE to enter this free contest.

Please hop back to the Practical Scrappers Blog to begin the hop if you are just starting out.

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

Sunday Sketch February 26th

It's Sunday and time for another Sketch!  I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying sharing my sketches again.  I feel like 2011 just kind of got away from me and am very glad to be back to the "business" of sketching.  I really enjoy seeing what many of you do with my sketches, so you know the drill, leave me a link and I'll drop by to see what you have been up to.

I have had Crate Paper's Random collection "hidden" in my scrap stash for a few months now.  I think I often hide my supplies just so that when I find them again, it is like opening a Christmas present.  Obviously today was full of fun surprises, because I also found these photos of my kids.  Based on my own experience, I recommend cleaning out the stash more often than not - LOL.

I love this denim paper and how it looks with the bright pinks, teals and mustards in the collection and especially how it looks with the pink baker's twine from The Twinery.  There is something about denim and twine...

So I have to admit that I broke down and found a typewriter.  Who knew it would be so much fun and that you can actually load die cuts of just about any shape.  This scalloped one rolled right into the typewriter and was actually easy to space the words.  Normally I write on my pages, but lately, I have been thinking it would be a nice change to use printed type, but I also know that I am not clever enough to figure out how to run these through my printer, so there you go.

I used a clear glue from Tombow to get the twine to stick to my pages in this winding pattern.


Thank you so much for stopping by!

 

Sunday Sketch February 19th

Let's have some fun with bits of paper this week. Challenge yourself to try to use some color blocking with different patterns and elements and layer them underneath your photos.  You could even make them into banners if you like, but I think the rectangles are kind of fun too.  Add some pop dots to make them stand out.  Change stars to flowers or something else for a more feminine page.  Have fun!

This page was created with the Simple Stories Awesome Collection with just a bit of Year.o.graphy Basics.  I used the 3 x 4 journal cards to layer underneath my photos and then added the license plate border from the Awesome 12 x 12 Fundamental Cardstock stickers.  Added some pop dots to make it come off the page a bit. 

How fun are these striped sticker letters from the Simple Stories Awesome 12 x 12 Expressions Cardstock Stickers???  I like the effect from the lighter colored stripes.  Added a few of the journal strips from the same sticker sheet with pop dots. 

Just a bit of bling to polish the stars and provide a little dimension.  The ledger paper is from the Year.o.graphy collection, but everything else if from Awesome.

Thank you for stopping by today and drop me a link if you use the sketch so I can stop by and leave your some love.

Sunday Sketch February 12th

Let's use up some photos this week!  I love to mix wallet-sized photos with 4 x 6 photos.  Thought this would be a fun way to stack them and help the eyes move around the page.  I'm still wishing for warmer weather, so butterflies and flowers again this week.  Drop me a link if you use this sketch so I can admire your work.

This is another page from the Simple Stories Fabulous collection.  The bright summer colors against the cream ledger paper is a great contrast.  I'll admit that this is not the best photo of my project since I had to pack this up and send it off to CHA the morning after I created it, so I took the photo at night - sorry bout that.

It's really fun to mix the 12 x 12 Expression Cardstock Sticker journal sentiments with the stickers from the Year.o.graphy collection.  This was supposed to be the month of May, but I like the way it started off my journal sentiment - stretch your collection into clever titles.

There are some really fun 3 x 4 and 4 x 6 journaling elements in this collection that can easily be cut up and layered to make unique design ideas on a page. I made the large banner out of patterned paper and then layered it with the 3 x 4 card and the cut the smaller flags from a 4 x 6 journal card.

Thank you so much for stopping by!