Colorful Creations July Challenges

There were lots of fun challenges over at Colorful Creations the last two months. I just wish I could have found the time to participate in all of them. But our summer has been incredibly busy with kid's birthday parties, baby showers, BBQs and beach days filling up every weekend and many weekdays. Not that I'm complaining...it's fun to spend time with each other & our friends and to celebrate all these special occasions, but it certainly does cut into my scrappy time! But I did manage to squeeze in time to complete the following challenges

This first layout was for the "Plus Challenge" For July it was a "plus two" challenge which meant white plus two other colors...red and blue in honor of Independence Day. Not only were we required to use only those three colors, but we were also given a sketch (which I  modified to accommodate a two-page spread) and we needed to use stars & stripes on our layouts.

I really enjoy the "Twisted Blueprint" challenges so I was glad to have found time to also complete a layout for Twisted Blueprints #3.

And the last challenge I was able to complete in the last 6 weeks was for the "Inspired Challenge" for July. What I love about these challenges is that you can use whatever elements in the picture happen to inspire you. For me it was the colors red, pink & white and the polka dots (which I translated into circles).

Let's Get Sketchy! Bonus Challenge

I love it when there's a fifth Monday in the month because that means Let's Get Sketchy! runs a bonus challenge. For this challenge there is no provided sketch and the requirements are quite simple: Use white plus only one other color...a bright color. And use flowers. That's it!  Here's my layout:

I used photos of Paolina when she was 8 months old. So funny to see her with so little hair!  But she still has that wonderful smile. I was going to title this layout "Little Miss Sunshine", but the word "Adore", which is part of the background paper, seemed sufficient...

New Sketch Blog and Giveaway

I just wanted to take a moment to share with you a brand new sketch blog that has been created by the makers of Let's Get Sketchy! It's called Sketchers and it's simply a place to go to find sketches. So far three have been posted. And now there's a blog candy giveaway. Please stop by the blog to get further details.

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #21

I really seem to be on a roll with scrapping the photos from our family photo shoot last August out at Crystal Cove Beach. Maybe it's because it's summer again or maybe it's because we've been spending a lot of time at the beach lately. But whatever the reason, I decided to pull out another of those photos for this week's sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy! As always, it's fun to see how all the girls on our design team can interpret the same sketch so differently, and I look forward to seeing all the different takes our participants submit.

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #20

I was sick over the weekend (is there really anything worse than a summer cold?!) and then spent all morning at the beach (is there a better cure for a summer cold?!) so I'm a bit late posting. But here's my take on this week's challenge at Let's Get Sketchy! Please head on over to the blog to see the sketch and all the samples from our talented design team.

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #19

Another busy week of summer activities has passed, but now that the unpacking is finally complete I actually get to spend my spare moments in my scrapbooking room. After spending the day at the beach earlier in the week I was inspired to pull out some photos from our family photo shoot at Crystal Cove Beach last August and use them for this week's sketch at Let's Get Sketchy! Please visit the blog to check out the sketch (which happens to be mine this week) that I based my layout on.

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #18

So here we are in the first week of July and it's time for another challenge at Let's Get Sketchy!  Below is my take on the sketch, which I encourage you to check out over at their blog.

In honor of celebrating Independence Day later this week, I couldn't resist pulling out photos from the 4th of July last year to use for the sketch. When Paolina was a baby she had the worst problem with clogged tear ducts, which ultimately lead to numerous eye infections. She had, what we thought at the time, the worst one yet on the 4th of July. Instead of spending the day at a BBQ or going to see the fireworks that night, we spent most of the day at Urgent Care and then onto the pharmacy for meds. The poor little thing went to bed early and we did sparklers with Santiago out in our driveway while she was fast asleep. What I remember most clearly is that when her "infection" was still there over a week later, we took her to her own pede as well as a pediatric eye specialist, and we discovered that she was in fact allergic to the eye drops she had been prescribed at Urgent Care. The reason her eye still looked all puffy and red was not because of the infection, which was long gone, but in reaction to the meds. Talk about feeling horrible for holding your one-year old down screaming three times a day to apply drops!  She has since grown out of her chronic eye watering & infections, but I will certainly never forget that 4th of July...hopefully this year's will be memorable in much more pleasant ways!