Scraptivations Challenge 3...all about me

So this Scraptrivations challenge is perfect for me at this time as I declared this year all about me. I want to put me into the books a little more and I want to take care of myself a lot more. I figure if I am taking care of myself I will feel better and be able to better care for my loved ones. 

 
So yay I made it into the album a few times this year so far and I have been taking better care of myself too. Both of these things are easier said than done but I am a work in progress. Here is the adorable sketch I had to work with. I LOVE sketches they make it so easy to get started on a page. 

I didn't stray to far from the sketch. I often stay pretty close to the general layout. I extended the photo's a little and moved the title and journaling around.. I also love to rotate sketches. I might give this sketch another go at a later date and turn it on it's side. I have done that in the past and ended up making a whole vacation album that way. It was so fun and easy to do.

I have been wanting to scrap these photo's of me at the beach for a while but was not sure where I wanted to go with them as I didn't like the way they turned out but since I love the ocean so much I didn't want to not use them. I was so excited when the title just came to me along with the little journaling box that starts off "i love..." I decided to journal about how the ocean gets deep in my soul and make any and all worried away and even though I live thousands of miles from it when I get near it just makes me feel like I am home.

I don't know if you noticed but I also have little black flowers behind my main flowers. I have had these for a long time and have almost tossed them a few times because I said to myself...black flowers when will I ever use those? Ha see it is not always so bad to hoard your scrapbook supplies! LOL This is also something I am working on. Using what I have, I guess I can check that box off too. I am really on a roll with my goals for the year.

One last look.

Around the Blog .... I mean Block!

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month's SOTM is called Around the Block and it's a fun set of 26. This house stamp will bring the home of your dreams to life. We have over 60 fabulous CTMH Consultants sharing their artwork for this stamp set this month so I hope you'll check them all out! You can view the complete lists HERE.

If you came here from Melissa’s blog then you are at the right place. When you're done here, hop on over to Lori's blog to see her adorable projects

Here is a little card that I did letting our friends and family that “We’ve Moved”

We are so happy in our new home and it seems like I always have these grand plans to make cards but this time since we purchased our home and we are staying I finally did it. When I saw that stamp of the month I knew that it was something I had to really follow through on this time. I love how they turned out. I used some more of my Animal Cookies paper and I think I really am pretty much of out it. Alright alright we all know I have a little bit left so I will see if I can do something more with that soon. Now back to my house! At first I was a little worried that all the piecing together would take a long time but it didn’t take long at all. It also made me have a smile on my face the entire time I was making these cards. I love how all the parts of the house have patterns. In my case and in the card’s case home really is where the heart is. I even made my flowers multi colored by stamping on the polka dot page. I just used brown to color in the window sill. I also pub stickles all over the window and the window in the door because every one loves a little sparkle.

I added some ribbon and a few brads and wala…adorable fun card.

All Products CTMH unless otherwise stated: Animal Cookies Level 2 paper pack, Black Ink, White brads, White silk ribbon (in my stash), Top Notch die (SU)







My next card is all about the mojo. All week ok all month I have been looking for it. While we were in the hotel all I wanted to do was to have my space back and now that I have it back I have been working furiously to get it cleaned up so I can have a little fun. I have made a ton of progress and have gotten quite a few cards done this week. No scrapbooking yet but soon, I can just feel it! Anyway I was looking for some challenges and came across this Monday Mojo sketch and knew that I could come up with a fun card. I decided to show off the bendable capabilities that our stamps have.

I just think this house is so fun and so I decided to make it a round house. It turned out a little silly but so fun and cute. I also got to watercolor on this card. One of my favorite techniques and I love to color! I just used a watercolor pen and the top of the inks. I hope you enjoy it I imagine that little forest animals live in the house. ;)

Products Used (all CTMH): Twitterpatted Level 2 paper pack, Dimensional Elements in Color, Chocolate Ribbon Rounds, Waxy Flax, Mavy scallop punch, Garden Green marker, Sorbet marker, Crystal Blue ink pad, Buttercup ink pad.

Don't forget to hop along to Lori’s and all the rest of this month's participants to see all of their fabulous creations!

Sketch Talk

So here is an oldie but goodie. I did this page about 6 years ago when I first changed from CM style. Now it seems to me that CM styles have changed too but I am not so sure and I have moved on from them. I mention that because I was so trilled at this time to be using color for my base pages! This was also a new time in the world of "sketching" I love sketches and simply cannot get enough of them. I have always been artistic but I never felt I could get things to come together. With a sketch I have somewhere to start and sometimes it ends at the same place with my things and sometimes it takes me in a totally different direction. Another thing I love about it is once I do a few pages with some sketches then I branch out on my own as the creative juices just take me away.

Actually this is one thing that I love about CTMH they have great books that have sketches the new Wishes card confidence program, Originals card confidence program, Reflections scrapbook program, Cherish scrapbook layouts, and Imagine scrapbook layouts. These books let me enjoy my hobby...my passion without getting caught up in the design aspect. They let me focus on the photos, the papers, the embelishments, and yes even the journaling. I also love to hop on-line and go to fun sketch sites or over to a friends blogs for sketch challenges. Another place I get ideas from is well idea books! The CTMH catalog, Scrapbooks etc., Creating Keepsakes the list just goes on and on. How about this though...a Pottery Barn Catalog or a Better Holmes and Garden magazine? These are also great places to get ideas! As you are flipping through if something catches your eye mark the page or tear it out. Perhapse it is a color combination or a design layout. Inspiration is everywhere...art is everywhere.

In the next few weeks I will do a card or a page based on a non traditional idea source and post it here. I would love to see what you came up with too!

Be Yourself...

So here is a sneaky peek at next month’s Stamp of the Month. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it! did I tell you how much I love it?

A few ladies on the CTMH boards put this set together with Tickled Pink and I thought it was brilliant. I tried it myself and just loved it.

I used a sketch from the SC211 challenge. I was trying to get some pattered paper where the white is but it was stealing her thunder so I opted for a Hollyhock, Black, and White. I added some white brads in the corner along with some paper piercing for some tiny details. I really wanted some ribbon on this card so I put it around the be yourself flag and popped it up to give it some more dimension.

On the inside of the card I did the dancing girl again but I stamped off three times. Then I added the other words...Confident...Beautiful...Perfect...One of a kind.

I think I want to give this to my daughter or all of her friends or every teenager that I know...or maybe every woman that I know.

I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so that I could stay up all night and use the other ladies in this set but I am off on Friday...

My cute little girl...

I have not bought wood mounted stamps in forever. I love to be able to see where I am putting my image. When I saw this sweet little girl and her kitty in the new SU catalog I put a tab on her page and tried to talk myself out of it. I asked all of my friends if they were going to buy her.

Nope...not even one was interested.

I knew I had to haver her she reminded me of my youth. Look at how sweet she is with her basket of flowers and the little kitty by her side.

I was also excited because I knew I wanted to use my Copics, my long lost Copics. I love them and yet I have been ignoring them for so long. Partly because I really need more. I don't have a lot of colors even though I have over 20 markers.

That is why you see the other markers sitting here too. I can't wait to color the girl on the swing but I want to get some of that cute flower stuff that you stick to the card with glue and it looks like real flowers. I also really need to get some skin colors and some browns.

I will just add them to my list of things I need...can we say nestabilities? I really need those! Seriously...

Here is the full card. I used mostly SU supplies. I had some Rose Red patterned paper. So I mounted that on Rose Red to off set it. Then took Always Artichoke and put Mello Moss on top of that.

Double mounted my little friend in greens and the sayings in the Rose.

The cute little flower is from Close to my Heart and the leaves are made from green twill. I also added a sparkly brad to the inside of the flower.

You can see that here with the detail.

I love the way the leaves turned out.

I thought myself so cleaver. Haha...I don't know why I had never thought of that before.

Here is the inside of the card. Enjoy. This is for the Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge 199.

Fun little Valentines

Here is what I worked on over the weekend. I had grand plans to get tons of scrapbooking and cardmaking done but life got in the way.


I enjoyed lots of baby time on Saturday and then watch a few movies and then Sunday we all went to church and when I came home I got busy on cute little Sofia. Sofia was a RAK from my friend Theresa who has a gathering at her house for me last week. She had mentioned how she just got some new goodies and was showing me these and I ohhed and ahhed and wala. Now I have a few Sofia's from Paper Pretties. I was originally working on a nother card but I just couldn't get it to come together. I decided to move on. I found the best little card sketch blog over the weekend called 2 sketches 4 you. I was hoping to have this card in time to enter the contest but I didn't make it since it closed on Saturday and I worked on this on Sunday...so close. The paper is from the February 2008 PersonalScrapper Kit featuring Scenic Route's Loveland paper. I loved this paper and was so glad to have had a little left to make up a few cards.


I colored the card with markers from CTMH and SU and then used pop dots to bump up one of the hearts. I added some Liquid Glass and some glitter via the Spica Glitter Pen by Copic. I also added a little hand detail around the little girl mimicing the black and white stripes from Scenic Route. I love how it turned out.

Here is another view of Sofia close up. I am sorry she looks a little blury.