Creative Scrappers #186 - Man & Wife

Sketch 186 over at Creative Scrappers was another great one that caught my eye. I always love their sketches, and then get stuck about where to use them (or procrastinate and then only have time to use one or two before the end of the month).

Here is the sketch:

I did complete this sketch just before Christmas, but with crazyness (and last minute hosting of Christmas eve dinner) I didn't get to post til now. As of today, haven't started the other 3 sketches for them this month... but I am off work til January... so who knows!!

This layout is the first time I have used the Cosmo Cricket Everafter collection papers on true white rather than off-whites browns, and blacks. I'm still not sure its something I love... It really adds a different feel from being all blendy matchy to now making the paper pop more. The background paper is the new Enchanted collection from Bo Bunny... lovin' it!  I'm looking forward to working more with the white in the Enchanted collection and the Everafter collection together. The key factor really was using my Black Soot Distress Inks to touch up the edges, it did pull it back together more.

Thought I'd give you a close-up of my clusters. I used the fabric flowers and the large paper flowers from Recollections. The plastic flowers and little gem things are Making Memories, and the bride and groom also Recollections. The buttons and gold flowers are stash items :)

As usual, I really used a lot of items to mimic the clusters in the images, and actually used a butterfly! I know, I was amazed too.... I really don't know what my problem with butterflies is, but I think of them only for little girls (kinda like my banner issue). Maybe I need a scrapbooking shrink??

OK.. well enough of me being crazy today (I clearly haven't blogged enough lately)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season whatever you celebrate or if you celebrate at all... And I hope you got a white Christmas if you wanted one! We did... towards the end of the day :)

Creative Scrappers 182 - We Did It

I was pretty excited when I saw the Creative Scrappers sketch #182 this month.

I was drawn to it right away with the circle and the flowers and of course, the bling. It looked so fun!

Unfortunately, I didn't have much in the way of things to execute the sketch with... but I gave it a try nonetheless....

The photo is from the Weekend to End Women's Cancers in Toronto Ontario that was held in September. My sister and I participated in a one-day 32 km walk. We only made it 20 km, but that was still a great accomplishment. I knew I wanted to use this photo for the sketch right away. The blue jerseys we are wearing are our completion jerseys. 

Here is a close-up of the journalling. It also shows the subtle glitteryness of the background paper which is from the Creative Memories Wish collection.

Here is a close-up of the edging on the circle. I don't have many punches at all, and I had nothing to make the intricate edge shown (I don't even have a digital cutter). So I decided to use a Tim Holtz stamp and some Fired Brick distress ink and give the edges some "texture" that way. I really like how it turned out.

Hope you enjoy... please comment and follow :) 

Creative Scrappers #181 - Boys

Creative Scrappers was back again this month with another 4 great sketches. The first one I tackled was #181.

I was excited to do the chevrons... found it a bit difficult, wished I had looked at a tutorial like the one on October Afternoon's blog.

The photos are of the boys walking the important guests down the aisle at the wedding. Dylan walked my mom, Cameron walked his mom, and Brandon got to walk the grandparents.

The paper is Cosmo Cricket Everafter - I used both sides of the paper. Flowers are Recollections, Alphas K&Co. Ribbon is random as usual!

Hope you enjoy!

Creative Scrappers Challenge Sketch 178

Creative Scrappers provided 4 sketches this month, with the challenge being to make a LO for at least one of the sketches. Here is sketch 178 and my take on it:

This layout is honoring my Grandfather who passed away in 1997. My sister and I miss him very much - we lived with him for several years with our mother. I had, in the programs for the wedding, a memorial to my grandfather and a few other family members who had passed more recently (I was married in 2009). My mom, when she did her speech, chose to read the memorial I had written out loud to everyone. A good portion of my guests were crying but my sister and I were the worst. I really love these photos because they show exactly how we were feeling.

This sketch was really perfect for these photos as it brightened up the page a bit. I will do a matching page with the program, a photo of my grandfather and the photo of my mom reading it at some point.

One thing I do still want is a stamp or rub-on of a white-tailed deer buck. When we were younger and missing Papa at Christmas, we saw a bunch of deer in the field. Mom said it was Papa come to wish us a Merry Christmas. Since then we always see deer on important days, on Christmas and some Thanksgivings, and when we need some guidance and inspiration.(Crying as I write this) The stamp will go next to his name.

If anyone knows of a good manufacturer to get this from, please let me know. So far I don't recall seeing any. I will stamp it in my white chalk ink to make it a little fadey and ethereal feeling.

Thanks so much for looking and commenting.