My Creative Sketches November Challenge

  I have the week off, so that means it's scrapbooking time at my house!! My only goal for the week is to clean the tops of my cabinets and shampoo the livingroom carpet, which I'm predicting will happen next Sunday afternoon before work resumes on Monday.

  The sketch challenge for November at My Creative Sketches was mighty cute, so I broke out my Graphic 45 ABC Primer goodies and a photo of my daughters dressed up as storybook characters for their 3rd grade character banquet and set to work.
  

  Here's the sketch:

  

And here's my take on it:

  I used a bunch of fussy cut bits from the paper collection (my favorite thing about Graphic 45!), a Recollections flower, and a Tim Holtz bingo chip for embellishments. I also created a tag with more journaling that slips behind the picture.

  I predict lots of blog posts this week (hooray!), so I'll see you soon, my friends!

November Sketchbook 365

  Hello, friends! This wintery weather is cramping my photography (the well-lit porch is covered in snow and slush), but I'm sure having fun with some of my favorite sketch sites right now. The Thanksgiving holiday makes me a little sappy and reminiscent, and I love looking at photos with all the family around. 

  I thought Sketchbook 365's November challenge looked perfect for a series of pictures I just had printed detailing my daughter's hatred of shrimp. She's the world's pickiest eater, but on this night we convinced her to try just one. Let's just say the reviews weren't favorable.

  Here's the sketch by Tiff Firth:

And here's my take:

I used Basic Grey Clippings for my background and some Teresa Collins newsprint as my foreground and vintage goodies from the element sheet for accents. I didn't want to add lots of girly flowers or feminine details since I wanted the page to have the feeling of an old newspaper clipping. (Plus Sophia just isn't a huge fan of all that, as hard as it is for me to resist.) I know this page is one we can have a good giggle over for years to come. 

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with the warmth of the Thanksgiving holiday if you're here in the States, and that those of you who don't get to eat turkey this week still have time to appreciate the wonderful little moments that make life so special! (Maybe you'll get to enjoy some shrimp!)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Once Upon a Sketch November Challenge

  I have to say that I lost my mojo a little after our trip to my Grandad's funeral earlier in October. I think grief does something funny to the creative part of the brain, even when the most immediate stress is over. I'm slowly feeling that tickle to get my paper cutter back out, so I hope I'll be back to my obsessive crafting soon. 

  I've been meaning to scrap this old photo of my daughter for a long time, but could never find the right feel for it. (You know how that goes, I'm sure!) I pulled out an old kit from the My Creative Scrapbook kit club that I hadn't used with some lovely Carta Bella papers, and the pinks really worked with the picture. A page was born!

  Here's this month's sketch:

And here's my take on it:

  I love the honeycomb pattern in the sketch but didn't have anything to create that shape. I die cut a SU doily instead and used Blushing Bride and Melon Mambo ink for some spritzing. I crackled the little birdie, and glazed the letter stickers and sprinkled them with glitter to make them a little more princessy. I just love Sophia's gap-toothed grin!

  Thanks for stopping by today, my friends! I'm off to enjoy the foot of snow that winter storm Brutus left for us to play in this weekend!

Use What You Have #6

  In today's post, I'm putting my own spin on an adorable card from page 36 of the November/December issue of PaperCrafts magazine. (Sorry about not posting a photo of the inspiration card, but I'm worried about violating copyright.) This card by Simone Naoum uses a stairstep fold to create a 3-D effect with trees in the foreground. 

  For my card, I used the same fold to create a wintery scene with Stampin' Up's Christmas Lodge, Open Sleigh, and Lovely as a Tree stamp sets.

To try this fun card yourself, follow these steps. If I need to clarify anything, let me know!

Step 1: Cut a piece of Soft Suede Card Stock to 5 1/2 x 11. Cut a piece of Very Vanilla to 5 1/4 x 6 5/8.

Step 2: Stamp lodge in Soft Suede ink on the Very Vanilla card front and mask with a sticky note. 

Step 3: Cut a hill shaped mask out of a piece of scrap paper and sponge in the hills of snow with Pool Party ink. Place the hill mask over the top hill and stamp the image from Lovely as a Tree to create the forest in the background. Remove lodge and hill masks.

Step 4: On a scrap piece of Very Vanilla, stamp the evergreen tree from Lovely as a Tree twice in Lucky Limeade. (I used a marker to color the tree trunks before stamping.) Fussy cut.

Step 5: Adhere the card front to the card base and score at 3 7/8,  7 5/8, and 9 1/4. Reinforce folds with bone folder.

Step 6:  Stamp sentiment and flourish from the Open Sleigh stamp set in Real Red ink on the front flap. Adhere the evergreen trees.

Step 7: Glitter the heck out of everything with dazzling diamonds and a two-way glue pen to create snow!

Thanks for stopping by my winter wonderland today, my friends!

Candlelight Christmas Mini Album

  Last weekend was amazing, and as a follow-up to all the pictures of my peeps, I want to share the project we worked on (and mostly finished). It was a huge undertaking to make an entire mini album in a day and half, but we accomplished a lot and had a lot of fun doing it! Directions for the mini album are available to anyone who would like them. (I tried to be specific, but cutting and scoring directions aren't always the easiest to write without photos.) Just shoot an email to pianohearder@gmail.com, and I'll send them out to you.

  Almost the whole album was made with Stampin' Up products and stamps. (There were a few Tim Holtz goodies thrown in for good measure.) This Candlelight Christmas Designer Series Paper is just so incredibly gorgeous, and it provided the perfect backdrop for this album!

The album cover featuring SU's tulle ribbon. So yummy.

Page one holds a 4x6 photo wallet ...

Ornament Keepsake stamp set. Need I say more?

This tag pocket holds lots of goodies!

A mixture of some of my favorite Stampin' Up sets: Christmas Lodge, Christmas Deer, Christmas Collage, Open Sleigh, Winter Post, and Lovely as a Tree.

Don't you just want to move into this house RIGHT NOW?

The flocked window sheets in this paper collection are just so gorgeous!

This page features a fun mini paper bag book that clips right to the page.

Coffee sleeve flip book ...

Toilet paper rolls find a new calling as tag holders. I'm not totally finished with these, I don't think. They just need something!

This is my favorite page in the book! This is the perfect place to store those adorable letters to Santa, and the envelope can turn into an heirloom if the kids address it themselves!

The post card inside the envelope has a photo mat on the back side. I'm still giddy about it.

This page has a horizontal flip book that folds out to hold 4- 4x6 photos.

I had a BLAST making and teaching this album, and like I said before, I wish I could share all the fun variations the ladies created to personalize it. I hope a few of them will share pics online so I can link them. Thanks again for an amazing weekend!

Awesome Mini Album Weekend!

  Our weekend mini album retreat was such a great success thanks to the AMAZING women who came and shared their passion for creativity, humor, grace, and incredible talent! I wanted to share some photos of my amazing friends and of the finished product. Each and every album was a little bit different and equally amazing, and I wish I could share every page of every single one of them here. You girls ROCK!

The absolutely gorgeous and HILARIOUS Connie! Thanks for being with us, sister!

My crafting mentor and absolutely stunning friend, Erika. (Erika, do you realize how gorgeous you are?)

The incredible Jae, a beautiful and sweet woman who has become such a great friend!

My sweet little sister, Gia, who is one of my best friends in the whole world. I love you, sis!

And our precious new friend, Jeanne. I was blown away by Jeanne's ability to jump right in and create an absolutely stunning project. Her kind spirit is such an amazing blessing!

We got a lot of crafting done in 16 hours!

And of course we all had to have a snuggle with the world's sweetest baby! (Even Matt came out of confinement for that!)

  I'll post pictures of the finished project in a new post, but these were honestly the more important pictures. This hobby has enriched my life in so many ways! The heart of paper crafting is the people we meet, friendships we build, and memories we make. I love you, ladies!