A Fine Spring Day

  Hey there, friends! Today I'd like to share a springy layout I made this weekend. I'm so ready for warm sunshine and flower planting, and this cheerful Country Garden paper from Bo Bunny just makes me so happy! I took these photos last year when we were decorating eggs for our family egg hunt. The girls were totally into making characters for some reason, so they made a variety of animals, along with Indiana Jones, and then Sophie dropped an egg on the table and cracked it and a whole herd of zombies were born. My girls are so goofy!

I distressed the edges of my background paper with a spray bottle and backed my main paper with some little pops of color. I layered my photos over journaling tags and created my title with stickers and rubons. (I see now that I don't have my stickers quite straight. Argh!) I painted a chippie from Leaky Shed bright green, and added some butterflies I fussy cut from the paper collection. I originally hand wrote my journaling right under my title, but I totally messed it up and had to add the horizontal green and orange strip to cover it up. This layout had a few walk-away-and-take-a-deep-breaths, that's for sure!

My journaling now lives on a little yellow tag that pulls out from behind the top photo with room for a wallet size pic of the girls' zombie creations. (*Sigh and grin*) My sweet little girls.

I haven't done a single chore all weekend, so I better get at it before the day is done! Have a lovely week, my friends!

Once Upon a Sketch February Challenge

  "Do All Things With Love" is the theme at Once Upon a Sketch this month, and I decided I wanted to change things up a bit. I almost always scrap about my kids (my most loved people), but this time I decided to do a page about me and my special relationship with the instrument that's become my hobby then my career, my therapy, and really my whole life. 

  I started playing the piano when I was eight, and I knew right away that it would be a lifelong project. I went on to study piano at university and have been teaching privately for almost 15 years. I spend at least two hours with this view almost every day, and it's a huge part of who I am. 

  This page is specifically about my love for my "signature" piece, and what it has come to mean to me. I used papers from Crate Paper, some ruffled up Tim Holtz tissue tape, Prima and homemade flowers, and vintage piano music. My sewing machine is still broken, so all the stitching was done by hand. (I miss you so much, sewing machine!)

I wanted this page to have sort of a shabby chic, French country color scheme, and I used Gabrielle Pollaco's tutorial on paper ruffles to create my blue border.

My journaling is hidden in a pocket at the top of the page.

Here's the lovely sketch for this month created by Nadia Cannizzo:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, my friends!

My Creative Sketches January Challenge

  Hi, my friends! I'm home from a very successful piano recital, and I wanted to engage in a little craft therapy today! The sketch this month at My Creative Sketches is really unique, so I pulled out my Prima Zephyr goodies and a nice summery photo and got to work.

  Here's this month's sketch by Kim Keane:

And here's my take on it:

Summer here in the great white north still feels ages away, and the vibrancy of these colors made me so happy today! I used white acrylic paint around the blue border paper and around the photo to mimic the feel of water splashing and foaming. 

I used some of the chippie goodies and flowers from the collection to decorate my page.

I used my needle tool and Basic Black marker to add some faux stitching around my paper layers.

I scattered a few embossed butterflies around the page for some extra summery love. How many months until the pool opens?

Thanks a million for stopping by today. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Mojo Monday 278

  Wow, the entries at Mojo Monday this week are AMAZING! Do you ever look at the level of some of these projects and wonder if you could ever create anything as incredible? I sure do!

  It's round or square week, and I chose square. I had some Carta Bella scraps left over that I wanted to use up and I thought the pink and red might be perfect for some Valentines Day cards. I don't send too many, but I like to make a few for special people in my life.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

  I used a Glitz design stamp gifted by a wonderful friend for the old telephone and hand cut some wonky hearts for the edge. I stamped the swirl and used pink liquid pearls for texture. I really wanted to machine stitch my row of hearts, but alas, the sewing machine hasn't magically fixed itself. (Darn it!) The inside reads, "Just calling to say I Love You."

  Since I had all my stuff out, I made a second card with the same sketch and an old acrylic stamp I've had for ages and never used once. Today was the day! I colored the couple with Copics and layered them over a fun doily I got from Ellen Hutson LLC. The baker's twine is Stampin' Up's Cherry Cobbler.

  Well, I'm off to do the best kind of work: Deciding what I really need to put on my Stampin' Up order this month! Have a wonderful Sunday, my friends!

Deconstructed Sketch #85

  This week I really found a card sketch challenge I can get on board with and use regularly. With my schedule, posting entries in weekly challenges can be really difficult, but the longer ones are perfect! I love the sketch at Deconstructed Sketch this time around, so I decided to join the fun.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take:

  I used an Early Espresso card base and layered some Colorbok glitter paper and Victorian Parlour printed paper for the base. I stamped a couple of clock faces and embellished with some Prima roses, a stick pin, and some seam binding ribbon I dyed with Pool Party Stampin' Up ink. (My favorite color!) 

  I liked the feel of this card so much I decided to make a matching gift bag using the same paper line:

And, since I already had my supplies out, why not try a version in pink as well? What the heck!

A big thank you to Jen at the Deconstructed Sketch for her fabulous challenge! Thanks for stopping by today, friends!