Tuesday

Continuing the theme of yesterday's post, here are sketch and challenge sites that regularly update on Tuesdays. Please refer to the individual site's policy on copying images and/or using their sketches--particularly before uploading them to a public gallery. Thank you!

• Stuck?! There are fabulous new sketches every week, along with a talented design team to show how it's used.
• Arty Girlz This site provides various challenges for all sorts of crafters--whether you're a scrapbooker, cardmaker, or otherwise, you'll find something here to spark your creativity.
• Sketches! {by Tamara} You may recognize this site from yesterday's post, but on Tuesdays Tamara offers a recipe challenge. She lists 3 items that must be used on a card or layout. You may use more, but you must use what is listed. Looks like fun!
• Scrapiopath Another fun sketch site. Sometimes she posts on other days besides Tuesday, so check it out every so often.

I'll be back tomorrow with more resources! Thanks for looking!

Monday

Recently, I have been working on a project that will benefit not only myself but hopefully all of my readers! If you have ever experienced "scrapper's block," then you will most certainly want to stay tuned this week!
In order to make my blog not only a gallery of my own work but also a helpful resource for you, I have compiled a list of several blogs and websites that issue challenges on a specific day of the week. Today I will list the sites I've found that upload challenges/sketches/new techniques on Mondays--tomorrow I'll list the sites for Tuesdays, and so on.
***Many of these sites have copyrights, so if you are inspired by any sketches or challenges (and I hope you are) and if you share your work on your blog or other public gallery, please give credit to the site which inspired you.***
So, without further ado, here are helpful Monday sites:

• How Much is Too Much? Challenges are issued every other Monday, and everyone is welcomed to join. This blog is designed to help you create wonderful layouts and use up your stash while doing it.
• Color Combos Galore Every Monday a new challenge is issued to use a certain color combination on a layout. If your entries are uploaded to their gallery before the following Sunday at 11:59 p.m., you will be entered for a monthly drawing.
• 2 Sketches 4 You Each Monday a sketch is offered to help you create beautiful cards.
• Mojo Monday Lost your mojo? A card sketch is issued every Monday. Get out your stamps for this one! There is a monthly contest as well.
• Papertake Weekly A new sketch each week. Use it to make cards, LO's, ATC's, or...anything!
• Make A Card Monday Kristina Werner, over at K Werner Designs, makes a cute and simple card every Monday. She not only has the picture of it, but she also does a video so you can watch step-by-step how it's made. You will see more of her throughout the week.
• Mothers and Daughters Creations A scrapbook-related challenge is issued every Monday. Sometimes it's a sketch, sometimes it's a theme. There are prizes up for grabs if you play along!
  
• Sketch and Stash Challenge This is a brand new challenge site! Every 2 weeks, they will issue a new sketch, and you are challenged to use your newest 'stash' to complete it.
• Sketches! {by Tamara} Every Monday Tamara releases a new sketch for a layout. She has various challenges and sketches throughout the week, so we'll be seeing her again!

Please leave a comment if you have a favorite site for sketches and/or challenges, or if you have any trouble with the links.
Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful Monday, and I hope you find some of these sites helpful for inspiration. I'll see you back tomorrow with more resources! :)

August 10

I was looking through stacks of old pictures the other day and realized I had several pictures people had given to us from our wedding. So, I set them aside and planned to do a few pages. Here is the first (and only one so far).
My goal is to keep these pages simple and clean looking, using certain elements throughout to keep with a unified theme. On this page, I included our invitation, as well as a wedding program. I left the program so that it could be opened up on the page to remind us of our ceremony.
I used the Martha Stewart border punch "Scallop Holes" along the right side of the program (thank you, Susy), along with my new Calligraphy cartridge I got for Christmas (thank you, Mom and Dad)!
"August 10" is cut from the Calligraphy cartridge using the Inspiration feature. I love this cartridge because it's like getting 5 calligraphy fonts in one cartridge--each feature is a different font, and each on is beautiful! The heart with the swirls is also on the Calligraphy cartridge.

Close-ups:

with the program open:Thanks for looking!

Photography

My dear sweet husband surprised me with a Canon Rebel XS for Christmas! I'm looking forward to taking more professional-looking pictures and having better looking scrapbook pages! YAY! Since Christmas, we've been traveling near and far with our new toy, trying to figure out the various settings.

Please...if you know of any good photography websites, would you share them with me? Comments are welcome!

Here are a few samples so far...Enjoy!

Jonah holding his brand new cousin Andrew on Christmas Day!

Close-up of pretty Christmas ornament

Noah in the bathtub. I apologize, Noah, but it is a cute picture and it really shows off those smiley eyes of yours!

The Griffith Observatory at night, with a planet (not sure which one) to the right of the dome.

Jonah playing in a little patch of grass across from LAX

Hello From the North Pole

Here's the last Christmas card. The snowman is from Christmas Cheer and the blue background paper is from the DCWV Christmas 2007 stack. I also layered the bottom part with vellum that I hand-embossed with snowflakes. The design came from the Sketch Saturday blog.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas is on it's Way!

Not really, but that's what the card says. The soldier is from Joys of the Season. The background paper is from DCWV Christmas 2007 stack.

Thanks for looking!

Naughty or Nice?

Santa Claus is making his list and checking it twice for this card! This whimsical St. Nick is from Christmas Cheer. His suit is embossed with the Cuttlebug (Divine Swirl) and then stickled over the swirls. The paper is from the DCWV Christmas 2007 stack.

Thanks for looking!

Brrr...

My break without internet access lasted much longer than expected, but I'm back online and happy to be sharing projects with you once again.
So, though the Christmas season is over, I hope you'll be patient with me as I post some of the things I wanted to post in December but couldn't.
This card was inspired by Sketch Saturday. The title and the snowflakes are from Graphically Speaking and the little penguins are from Zooballoo. The background paper is from the DCWV Christmas 2007 stack.
Thanks for looking!

On Hold...

I haven't forgotten about the blog, but I haven't had access to the computer much this week. On the positive side, it has left me more time to work on creating cards and getting ready for Christmas.
Until next time...

Georgia

It's Georgia's turn to be featured in my 50 states album! The state is cut at 4", the flag at 3", the bird and flower at 2 1/2" and the word 'Georgia' is at 1". To see the rest of the album posted so far, click here.

Florida

It's been awhile since I posted a page in my 50 states album. Here's Florida! To see the others that have been posted so far, click here.

I'm really excited about...

This!!
I ran the numbers for Scott, and it was a really great deal for me to upgrade to the Expression (a larger model of the Original Cricut). Not only does it cut bigger, but it also cuts smaller (down to 1/4") and has more features and options available. It came with 2 cartridges (one that is a new release and only available when purchased with the Expression). And, when purchased between Oct. 15 and Dec. 15, www.cricut.com is offering a rebate for 2 free cartridges. So, that is a new machine and 4 cartridges for a great sale price. :)
My mom was able to come with me and brave the Black Friday crowds, and we had a great time. We even had time to spare between buying the Expression and waiting for Michael's to open.
It does mean that I will have to sell my other Cricut, so if you know of anyone that might be interested, let me know!
I hope to experiment with the Expression today. I have a few Christmas projects in mind...

Thanksgiving-pt. 4

Here's the last layout of my Thanksgiving series. I hope it has been helpful to see an example several pages using a theme...it's an easy way to speed up scrapping when you have several similar pages to complete (i.e. holiday, vacation, wedding, baby, etc.).
This page is dedicated to feeding one of my nieces on her first Thanksgiving. After sorting through the pictures, we noticed that we had 7 pictures of different people feeding her!

Here are the close-ups:

Thanks for looking!

Thanksgiving, pt. 3

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. The anticipation of getting together with family has been fulfilled and the beautiful golden brown turkey has been replaced with re-heated leftovers. A Christmas tree adorned in lights and decorated (very heavily on 2 branches, due to our little munchkins) with delicate ornaments now stands in my parents' living room.
While all the lights, songs, and decorations are already announcing the arrival of the Christmas season, I am not quite ready to let go of Thanksgiving just yet. I'll be spending a few more days on Thanksgiving before I move on, so I hope you'll indulge me.
This is the third post in a series of Thanksgiving layouts I worked on a few years ago. On this page, I continued the theme of colors, verses, twine, and lettering. Without further ado, here are the close-ups:
And here are the verses that I used on these pages:
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 100:4,5and "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 107:1

Thanks for looking!

Thanksgiving pt. 2

Here are the next pages in my Thanksgiving series. On this layout, I introduced the theme of Thanksgiving-related Bible verses, and I also used embellishments that match my lettering along the right hand column.

The verse is Psalm 107:8,9 which says, "Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness."

Here's a closer look:

Thankful...

Well this post marks a milestone for my blog...it's my 100th post!!! Thanks for reading, looking at my creative attempts, and leaving comments. I have enjoyed hosting this blog and sharing my ideas with you.
This being the week of Thanksgiving, I find myself reflecting on the many blessings that I have in my life. How I wish I were more diligent to carry this attitude throughout the year...counting my blessings is the greatest anecdote to a complaining and/or discontented heart!

We Give Thanks: 2000
Today I will begin posting a series of Thanksgiving scrapbook pages I made to chronicle the holiday 8 years ago. Because I had several pictures to scrapbook that would span a handful of pages, I decided I wanted to work around a theme to make it cohesive and to save time and materials, too.
I chose a few themes to carry throughout this series to tie it all together: colors, font, twine, and Bible verses regarding thankfulness. I wanted to convey a sense of warmth while reflecting on the meaning of Thanksgiving and the harvest time of year.
For the title pages, I introduced the colors, font (idea from Creative Keepsakes), and twine.
Here are some closer looks:
Thanks for looking! Check back tomorrow for more holiday pages.

The Bad Foot

It's been awhile since I posted a scrapbook page for my family album. These pictures are almost a decade old, but they all depict a silly family tradition: doing the "bad foot" as a goodbye greeting. Thanks, Dad, for getting this started ::eyes roll::.
The journaling is done on the individual circles on the right side of the page. Yes, this took some planning to get exactly the right number of circles and the right number of words to fill the entire space. It's not something I'll do on every future scrapbook page. ;) The circles had to be smaller than 1" (the smallest setting on the Cricut), so I had to find a way to work around that. See my previous post for how I did it, using Walk In My Garden.
The circle outlines (around my Dad's foot on the picture and as one journaling circle) are from Graphically Speaking, as were the layers for the flower on the lefthand page. The title is cut from Mickey Font at 1 1/2". The feet are from New Arrival at 2".
Here's a closer look at the first page:
and the second:
and a detailed look at the flower, which I put dimensionals between the larger and smaller layers. For the very top layer, I shadowed the center and some areas of each petal to make it more realistic. I also scored each petal and folded it up a bit to give it some shape like a real flower. The ribbon is from American Crafts.
Here's a look at the journaling. There are a few flowers thrown in there to mimic the patterned paper in the center.
Thanks for looking!

*Edited to add journaling:
"It started when Chuck's kids were small. Hannah & Adam were leaving one day and Dad started hopping on one foot saying he had a 'Bad Foot,' trying to make them laugh. From that time forward, whenever a visit came to an end, the family had to gather outside to do the 'Bad Foot.' Neighbors gave us strange looks, but family traditions are quick to be born, and Hannah & Adam insisted on our hopping. Soon, our neighbors even joined in on this silly Staley family tradition."

Tips and Tricks-Circles of various sizes

I finished a layout this week and needed to cut several circles to add to it. The circles had to be slightly smaller than 1", but the smallest setting on my Cricut is 1". No problem! I got about 55 circles cut with my Cricut that were just the right size. I thought I'd share with my friendly blog readers how I did it.
I used Walk In My Garden (other cartridges will work, too, but you just have to look thoroughly in the handbooks to see what is available). With the 'real dial size' button OFF, I cut out the center of some of the flowers. I had to experiment with different sizes but I think I finally settled on a dial size of 3 or 3 1/2 inches to make the circle the appropriate size.
By cutting the circles this way instead of choosing a standard circle from a cartridge like George, you are not limited to the sizes listed on your dial. Just thought I'd share in case it helps someone else...
Thanks for looking today!

Confession

Someone mentioned in her comment that my 50 states album is a great learning tool for 'older kids.' It's time for a confession. I think I am that 'older kid'!
Geography has never been a strong subject for me; in fact, I had little to no interest in it growing up. Leave it to crafting to pique my interest in learning about this subject! I have really enjoyed this project and I'm looking forward to doing all the journaling for each state and learning more about my country.
Of course the album IS for my kiddos so they can learn about the USA as they grow. Yup...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Delaware

Here's the next in the series of my 50 states' album. The state is cut at 4", the flag at 3", the flower and the bird at 2 1/2" and the word 'Delaware' at 1". The envelope holding the quarter is cut at 2" and it is from Fabulous Finds.

Thanks for looking!

I Miss You

I completed this layout for the latest Chirper Challenge. We were to use mainly black and white with only splashes of color, and also use brads. I decided to make a page dedicated to my first dog, Ash-Lee. She was a special dog and always lots of fun. She had to be put down about 3 years ago. Whenever I see a Cocker Spaniel, I remember fondly the dog that was treated more like another child than a canine. I am really thankful for the years I had with her.
The bone is cut from Mickey Font and the sentiment is from Alphalicious. The hearts are from Fabulous Finds.
Thanks for looking!

Connecticut

Here's Connecticut and I realized when I uploaded the picture that I took the picture before I finished the flower. Yipes! I will have to edit this post after I take a new picture.
Click here to see the album to-date.
Thanks for looking!

Hurry for a Free Photo Book from Snapfish!

I saw on the Cricut Message Boards that Oprah is offering a free 20 page Photo Book from Snapfish. It's a $29.99 value. The offer does not include extra pages or shipping and handling (a $6.99 fee, I believe). Click here to find out more! The coupon (applied to your account on check-out) is valid until Friday November 14 and the book must be compiled and ordered before Sunday November 16.**

**edit: the deadline for ordering your book has been extended until Saturday, November 22.

Colorado

I'm still plugging away at the 50 states album. Here's Colorado: the state is cut at 4" with the capitol feature selected. The flag is 3"; the bird and flower are 2 1/2" and the word 'Colorado' is 1".
Thanks for looking!

California

Well, here's the next state in my 50 states album: California! My home state. I love it! Within 45 minutes, I can be in the mountains, the desert, or the beach. I can drive to solitude where the only sounds are the birds chirping and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, or I can drive downtown and be in the midst of the hustle and bustle of ten thousands of other people around me. We have museums, theaters, amusement parks, sporting venues and more to entertain. But the awe-inspiring views, the roaring of the ocean and the crashing waves, and the sunsets that put God's majesty on display are the real beauty of California. Come and see for yourself!
The state was cut at 5", the flag at 3", the flower and bird at 2 1/2", and the word 'California' at 1". The envelope for the quarter is cut from Fabulous Finds at 2".

A word about the flag: this was the first flag that was really a challenge to cut. 'California Republic' is really tiny! But, as I came to find out, it was not the last state flag that would have me wondering why I ever started this project. More to come later.

Thanks for looking!

Arkansas

Here is the next page in the 50 states' album--Arkansas! The state is cut at 4" with the capitol feature chosen. The flag is cut at 3", the flower and bird at 2 1/2" and the word 'Arkansas' at 1". The envelope that houses the quarter is cut from Fabulous Finds at 2".

To see the rest of the album (I'm working on posting them alphabetically), click here.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

Arizona

Here's the next in the series of state page posts. I found Arizona's quarter after I already took a picture of this page, so the quarter will go in the lower left corner of the page. I will edit this post when I get another picture taken of it with the quarter on it. The state is cut at 4", the flag at 3", the bird and flower at 2 1/2" and the word 'Arizona' at 1".

Thanks for looking!

With Sympathy (to kids)

During our recent trip to visit Scott's family, their 8 1/2 month old puppy, Moose, died. When we got back home, I made a sympathy card for the family and specifically for Chris and Beverly, Scott's young brother and sister. They really loved that puppy. I hope this card helps to cheer them up a bit.
The puppy on the front of the card is a cut at 4" from the Cricut Sampler cartridge (it is on the Paper Pups cartridge). I colored the image with my BIC markers and then covered the butterfly with Studio G glitter glue. The paper is from DCWV and the brown ribbon is from Big Lots.
The inside of the card says 'with Sympathy' and is cut at 1 1/4" from Zooballoo. I enjoy using that font for kids. The butterfly is from the Cricut Sampler cartridge at 1 1/2".
Thanks for looking.

Happy Election Day!

Well since today is election day, I thought it would be appropriate to post a layout depicting another election day. Yes, you really can scrap anything, can't you?!
This was the historic election of 2000...not only because it was the first one I was eligible to vote in, but more remarkably because it was the highly contested and fought over election that could not declare a winner until lengthy court battles were finally settled in December. (Remember all those hanging chads?)
The letters for the title are my own design. The stars and hearts are punches. I also used patriotic star and heart stamps under the '2000.' The flag is my own design, and I journaled on the white lines.
A closer view:

Thanks for looking! Don't forget to vote today!

Jonah

Here's a very simple page I did about 2 years ago. It is the first page in my son Jonah's baby scrapbook. The picture was taken when he was just a few days old. Awww, they grow so fast! The journaling is done in my handwriting and with stamps from Memory Makers. The vellum tags have embellishments on them but I don't remember the company they are from. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey.