About a Boy

I'm thrilled and honored to announce that I am now serving on the Design Team for a brand new challenge blog called About a Boy. All the packing I've been doing has me a bit loopy so I've been remiss in posting this exciting news. In fact, yesterday was my day to be featured on the blog...whoops! Looks like I'll be needing to update my bio too as it says that I live in Southern California...and that will only be true for a few more weeks.

Anyhow, if you have a BOY in your life...sons, nephews, grandsons, brothers, husbands...well you get the picture, then this challenge blog is for you! Challenges will be posted every 1st and 15th of the month, and both submissions will be due by the 28th. You can find further information about the rules, how to upload and prizes here.

Our first challenge will be February 1st. I hope all of you with a boy in your life will come check it out and be inspired to take part.

Let's Get Sketchy! January Week 4 Challenge

It's that time of the week again...time for a sketch reveal at Let's Get Sketchy! This will actually be my last post for Let's Get Sketchy! until March because...Noé got a job! However, it's in Dallas, and we're moving in just over two weeks! Needless to say, I have a plethora of packing to get done and soon all my scrappy supplies will be packed up anyway, so there will be more crafty time until the end of February. Speaking of packing...I need to get at it while Santiago is at preschool and Paolina is napping. So here's my take on this week's sketch:

A photo of Santiago from his newborn photo shoot...thanks for looking!

Think in Color Thursday

Well I missed making a project last week...glad it's just been a personal commitment to myself so I only had "me" to let down. Last week was just so busy. Santiago started public preschool the week before Christmas, and we have been surprised to discover that he has homework 4 nights a week...I never would have thought preschool would be so intense! Even at the Montessori preschool he had previously attended, he did not once have a homework assignment. Anyhow, I've been spending evenings doing that with him between dinner & bedtime. We also had a lot of playdates and appointments last week. And then all of a sudden it was Thursday morning and I realized I hadn't even chosen a color palette for the week, let alone made anything. I was almost as bad this week...I made the below card yesterday afternoon. This time I put together a "thank you" for a dear friend who is just one of those women who has a very empathetic nature. She's always a good listener, an encourager and just an overall reliable friend. We recently had a very transparent conversation about a mutual struggle and consequently made the decision to read through a book together and hold each other accountable for completing each chapter's discussion questions. We have also committed to pray for each other and this specific struggle. I just wanted to give her a little something to show her that I appreciate her friendship...she is such a blessing to me!

So using this color scheme form my Pinterest board...

I made this card...

Thanks so much for looking! Hope the color palette was an inspiration for you.

Let's Get Sketchy! January Week 3 Challenge

It's Monday so you know what that means...time for another Let's Get Sketchy! reveal. This week is not my team's week, but I found the time to make a layout with the sketch so here it is:

I wish I could have taken better photos of Paolina's first time in a swing, but I had forgotten to take my camera to the park that day and had to use my phone. Thanks for looking...hope you decide to join in!

Coming Soon...

I'm so excited to announce that I will be serving on the Design Team for a brand new challenge blog called S.W.A.T. which stands for "Scrap Warriors Advanced Training".

Twice a month there will be two challenges called "Drills", which will be posted on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month. A winner will be chosen from both Drills at the end of the month, and if you participate in both challenges you will double your chances of winning.

On the 2nd Saturday of each month our Lieutenant will take you through Basic Training. This training is to build up your skills and to teach you some new tips & tricks. With each training session you will be challenged to use your new skills for the chance to be a Featured S.W.A.T. Girl.

On the 4th Saturday of the month our Captain will push your skills to new limits with Special Ops Training. Be prepared to go "off the page" with altered items, 3-D projects and step-by-step tutorials.

Starting tomorrow,  January 21st, a different Design Team member will be introduced to you each day until we officially begin on February 2nd..

Sketchy Friends January Challenge

I have so much fun with the monthly Scrappy Friends challenge. I love how it stretches me to combine all the different requirements onto one layout!  Anyhow, here is this month's...at GrandDiva's Creative Corner, Brenda required us to choose a sketch ourselves from any site, as long as it had been newly revealed in December 2012 or January 2013. I immediately knew which sketch I wanted to use...one I had seen over at PageMaps last month.

Along with the sketch, there are three other challenges. Rochelle's requirement was to create a layout using the the title or lyrics of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Bing Crosby. I used the song title as my page title.

At the Scrappin' 'n Happy blog, Kerys required us to complete a layout with a winter theme, so I scrapped photos of Paolina in her winter hat and mittens back in December of 2010. The snowflake embellies are a bit of an exaggeration...after all we do live in Southern California so we don't see a flake of snow unless we go up into the mountains. But we did have to walk Santiago to preschool at 7am, and there are many mornings that it gets down to 40 degrees here in the winter, which definitely calls for proper winter attire.

Kristi B required the use of the following: washi tape, glitter and chevrons. Last month I was unable to complete Rochelle's list of requirements because I didn't have eyelets in my stash, and now this month I have failed Kristi's challenge. I used washi tape in the banner and next to the title, I have glitter stamped onto the background paper & used Stickles here and there, but then I just couldn't figure out how to integrate chevrons into the page. I let this layout sit in my scrap room for almost a week, but just couldn't find a way to do it without compromising the existing design, so in the end I decided to leave it as is and only enter it into the other challenges.

Oh and I do apologize for the lousy photo of my layout. I just can't seem to take good shots of my double-pagers to save my life. I know that other people stitch theirs, but I honestly don't know how to do that...maybe I could get some tips from my bloggy friends?

Paper Secrets January 15th Challenge

It was so much fun and such an honor to be asked to be a Guest Designer over at Paper Secrets this month. I had yet another awesome sketch to work with for their January 15th Challenge...

A lot of times I will deviate from a sketch significantly, but I really loved the design and stuck to it almost exactly...

Loved getting to work with more of the All Is Bright line from My Mind's Eye. It's a really great collection! And I had fun with these pictures...Paolina was totally in the "everything goes into the mouth" stage for her first Christmas. I would say that nearly every photo we took of her on Christmas involved wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows, ribbons, and gifts all going straight there lol. Poor little Rudolph just didn't stand a chance...

Please check out what the Paper Secrets Design Team did with the sketch. Hopefully it will inspire you to join in! Don't forget that your entry will make you eligible to win a random drawing for a gift certificate to the Paper Secrets online shop.

Sketches With Color January Challenge #2

Time for another challenge at Sketches With Color . For those of you in the midst of a dreary winter, this vibrant color palette shall surely cheer you up!

And here is the sketch...

and last but not least a twist of "butterflies".

Here's my card, which I just sent to my Grandma for her birthday. She loves bright colors and butterflies, so I knew as soon as I made it that it would be perfect for her!

Check out what the rest of our talented ladies did here.

Let's Get Sketchy! January Week 2

Another Monday and another sketch at Let's Get Sketchy! As usual, all of our girls did amazing work with the sketch, and I encourage you to go check out what they did. Hopefully you will be inspired to play along...

This week's sketch:

My take on it:

As usual it's fun for me to scrap older photos...this one is Santiago at age two with Paolina at her newborn photo shoot (I believe she was about 5 weeks old).

Think in Color Thursday

So here's my 2nd installment of using color combos I have pinned on one of my Pinterest boards

I also have a Pinterest board full of card inspiration so I decided to lift one of those. This particular card was made by a favorite artist of mine, Melissa Phillips. You can also find it on her blog LilyBean's Paperie

And here's my card:

I'm not exactly sure who is this for...but I like to always have cards on hand, so I'm sure it will find a recipient soon.  Thanks for looking!

Let's Get Sketchy! January Week 1

Not only is it a Monday, which means it's time for another Let's Get Sketchy! challenge, but it's also the first Monday of 2013. So please go check out the blog and the first sketch of the new year!

I flipped the sketch and used some photos that Santiago took of Noé and me on our anniversary in 2011. He was only 3-1/2 years old at the time...not too bad of a photography job huh?

Think In Color Thursday

I'm super excited to present my very first project using a color palette that I've pinned on Pinterest. I decided to make a card for my mom whose birthday is this month, and her favorite color is green, so I chose this color combo mainly because it has several shades of green in it. I was also totally drawn to the zebra...I'm a real sucker for animal print!

 

Not only have I made the commitment to use the color palettes I have on my Pinterest board, but I also have made a New Year's resolution to use as many scraps as possible. My scrapbooking budget is already a big fat zero, so I obviously have no choice to use product I already have, but the real problem is that my boxes of scraps have gotten completely out of hand! I totally need to get those diminished significantly before cutting into perfectly good sheets of paper lol.  So the card I have made is 100% scraps.

I have absolutely no idea where the embossed green paper came from...I think someone gave it to me? I inked it with Distress Ink in Black Soot and then misted it with Glimmer Mist in Pearl. The strips of gray Bazzill was also inked and misted and then I used an embossed edge punch on them. The doilie is from a package I bought out of the Target $1 bin last year, and I splattered it with Slate Glimmer Mist. I fussy cut the circle from some older Webster's Pages paper (Life's Portrait?), the green tag is from the Basic Grey Perhaps collection, and the bird is from My Mind's Eye Meadowlark collection. Even the Prima bling is "scraps"...a leftover bit I cut from a larger piece. I think the lime green paper is My Mind's Eye, and your guess is as good as mine as to the origin of the black grid paper. All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the result and exceptionally proud of my resourcefulness (and restraint) in using all scraps.

Don't forget to please comment with a link to your own project...I would love to see if anyone else was inspired by the color combo. 

Sketches With Color - January 1st Challenge

It's time for the first challenge of January at Sketches With Color. Here is the color palette:

And here is the sketch:

The additional requirement is to use a banner, which should be super easy to accomplish with there being a banner in the sketch!

As I always do, I modified the sketch to create a card:

Paper Secrets Guest Designer

Happy New Year!! Mine is totally off to a great start as I have the honor of being featured as a Guest Designer this month at Paper Secrets. You should really check out their site. There are super fun sketches and challenges throughout the month, and you can even shop for the latest products in their store.

Their first challenge of the year is to use the below sketch...and for a twist, the layout must have washi tape.

And here's my take on it:

As usual, I'm way behind on the photos I'm scrapping. These Christmas pictures of Paolina are from 2010, her first Christmas. It's fun to see how differently a 6 month old child opens gifts (eating all the wrapping paper & ribbons and playing with the empty boxes) from a 2-1/2 year old!

For this layout I used My Mind's Eye new Christmas collection All Is Bright, Maya Road trims, American Crafts Thickers, and Paper Secrets flowers. Most of the supplies used on this project can be found in the Paper Secrets store.