S.W.A.T. 5th Saturday Challenge

Since March has five Saturdays, S.W.A.T. is running a bonus challenge this month. And boy was it a challenge for me! We are to create a circus-themed card. I don't know why it was so difficult for me...I love making cards, but I was absolutely stumped on the "circus" theme. I browsed Pinterest and etsy for some inspiration, but still found myself stumped. In the end, I went through my stash, found a cute MME lion diecut and it seemed to flow from there. While I can truly say that this was a challenge, in the end it was fun and now I have an adorable card to send to Santiago's friend back in California who just celebrated his 4th birthday.

Thanks so much for looking. I hope you will head over to the S.W.A.T. blog to see what the rest of our Design Team created and maybe you will be inspired (and challenged) to create a card too!

Scrap Our Stash Challenge

I love getting to do "just for fun" scrapbooking! And I love it even more when I have brand new product to play with! This layout has some older stuff...the background paper is Basic Grey Perhaps...but the diecut stickers came from my new CP Maggie Holmes collection kit (see yesterday's post), and the papers are from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection (which was a gift from a generous scrappy friend of mine!) This layout is also unique to me because the photos are actually from this year...2013! I am so so far behind in my scrapping that I find it difficult to justify getting recent photos developed when I have a plethora of them from years ago sitting around waiting to be used. But when I needed to get some photos developed for Santiago's Science Fair project last week, I just couldn't resist having a few recent ones printed out as well. Note to self though, I will not get them developed at our local Wal-Mart again...the color quality is way off the actual. But it was still fun to actually scrap photos from just two months ago!

This layout is for the current challenge at Scrap Our Stash. We were to use the provided sketch and dig into our stash to create a mixed alpha title (or journaling). I feel slightly guilty for using  new product on the layout (afer all the, blog is about scrapping our stash right?), but since the background paper is pretty old, the banner was made from scraps and the title was from my stash, I do feel like I "scrapped my stash" at least a little bit lol.

Paper Secrets Challenge

Now that I'm getting caught up on my various Design Team projects and duties, I've finally found the time to do some "just for fun" scrapping. So of course I headed straight over to all of my favorite blogs and challenge sites to see what was currently running. I ran across a fun sketch over at Paper Secrets and thought I would adapt it into a  two-pager since I had several photos of Paolina that I was itching to scrap. And why is that do you ask? Because I finally had a little extra money and was able to actually break my two-year spending freeze on scrappy supplies to buy a few goodies. Among my new purchases was Crate Paper's Maggie Holmes paper collection. So adorable...and the colors coordinated absolutely PERFECTLY with Paolina's pajamas in these photos. I also had the opportunity to play with a fun mask (see the dark pink polka dots in the top left & bottom right corners of the layout) as well as a pendant punch that I just bought. The weather has been a bit funky around here lately so I had to take a photo of this layout indoors, so unfortunately (even with editing in Picasa) the lighting does not do justice to the beautiful colors in this collection.

Thanks for looking!

Let's Get Sketchy! March Week 4 Challenge

It's Monday which means it's time for a new sketch challenge at Let's Get Sketchy!  Here is the sketch for Week 4 of March...

And this week there's a twist...a color palette

I adapted the sketch into a two-pager...

I used photos from Christmas 2009, because quite honestly I'm probably the most behind on scrapping Christmases above all else, so any excuse to get those pictures done is good for me! But just because the color combo is red and green, it doesn't mean you have to scrap Christmas photos. Make sure you check out the blog for non-holiday inspiration from the rest of our talented design team.

About a Boy March 15th Challenge

Back to scrapping and my first three projects are all going live within two days...no wading into the water for me!  Sorry I'm a few days late in posting this About a Boy layout, but unfortunately we are still unpacking a few boxes and the weekends are the only time for my honey to work on my "honey do list"...and a lot of my requests require helping hands (i.e. hanging shelves).

The March 15th challenge is to use scraps. Not a problem for me...I have a plethora of them and I'm always looking for a way to use them before they build up even more. And here's what I created:

I used photos of Santiago with his first teddy bear given to him by my grandma. An interesting tidbit about this layout...I did not use a sketch which is absolutely unheard of for me! I just started laying down my scraps and photos, shuffling them around and voila! Maybe I should use scraps more often lol.

Anyhow, thanks for looking, and please go to the About a Boy blog to see what the other girls created with their scraps.

S.W.A.T. Drill #4

I just can't begin to tell you how amazing it felt to unpack my new craft area and to start creating again in my beautifully organized space. I guess that's one positive note to moving! I have had a lot of catching up to do with all the design teams I serve on, but it was one of the most cathartic things I could have done.

As of yesterday I have been officially back to the scrappy world and just in time for the S.W.A.T. Drill #4 which was to use the following color palette:

And here's my layout:

I used some fun photos from when Santiago was 3, and not much older than Paolina is right now, performing in his preschool "end of the year" production. I really wanted to include the program on the layout because in my opinion scrapbooking shouldn't just be cute photos, but memorabilia as well, but its obnoxious color has been preventing me from ever getting to it. I finally realized I would probably never be perfectly happy with anything I did with it anyway, so when I saw this pretty color palette I hoped that it would blend nicely with it and keep it from overwhelming the photos.

Thanks so much for looking! I encourage you to head over to the S.W.A.T. bog and check out what the rest of team did with these cheery colors.

Sketches With Color March 15th Challenge

Welcome to the second challenge of March over at Sketches With Color! I technically won't be completely taking over administrative duties until April ist, but since our founder is out of town I'm getting a trial run under my belt. Going forward I will be using color palettes from a very cool website called {design seeds}, and at least to start out with, all the sketches will be of my own design. Here's what you all have to work with...

And here's what I did with the sketch and color palette...

Since life always seems to get away from me so quickly, I figured I would attempt to stay ahead of the game and make a Mother's Day card for my mother-in-law.

Please swing by the SWC blog and take a look at what the rest of the talented design team has come up with.  And don't forget to link up your own project to be eligible for the randomly drawn monthly prize.

Let's Get Sketchy! March Week 2

After being away for over a month I'm finally back to scrapping and blogging! Yay!!! Due to circumstances completely out of my control, our house is still not entirely unpacked (long story completely unrelated to scrappy news)...but I sure as heck have a craft area that is 95% unpacked and organized. Yeah baby!

So without further ado...my design team work for the second week of March over at Let's Get Sketchy! 

Since I'm feeling a bit homesick, I pulled out these photos of Paolina and myself from her one-year photo shoot at Crystal Cove Beach, California. I would love to be at the beach right now that's for sure!

You should really go check out the sketch for yourself (I rotated it 90 degrees) and play along. The more challenges you enter per month, the better chance you have at winning the monthly prize.

Changes

Wow I can't beieve it's been over a month since I have been able to post! The first three months of this year have just flown by. If you have been following, then you know that after 3 months of being unemployed my husband accepted a position in Dallas, TX. I have had mixed emotions over all of it. Happy for him to be working again, relieved to not be struggling to live off unemployment, food stamps & WIC, excited to be near both of our parents...but I have been more than sad to leave Southern California for many many reasons. We have left our dear friends and church family, an amazing climate, and a culture that I feel fits me  like a glove. For years I have felt as though I were a native Californian and had hoped to raise my children there, retire there and to even die there. Alas, God had other plans for me and my family...so here we are in Texas. I have yet to form a good opinion of my current situation, as I am still consumed with unpacking boxes and completing all the tedious and time-consuming tasks associated with a move to a new state (finding a new church, getting Santiago enrolled in school, getting a new driver's license, applying for a new business license, finding ALL new doctors...and the list goes on!)

But on a good creative note, I was able to get my new crafting area pretty much unpacked and organized, and I have already completed two layouts for upcoming design team work. Looks like March 15th will be my official day back from my "leave of absence" from the scrappy world!

I also have some very exciting news! The founder of Sketches With Color has decided to step down from the position of administrator. We are of course very sad to see her go...although we know we will still see her working hard at her various other endeavors. And you can read her message of farewwll here. But this does not mean the blog will be closing...quite to the contrary! On April 1st I will officially become the new admistrator of SWC! Please read my announcement and introduction here.

And if that's not enough change for you...we are also running a Design Team call on the blog. All the information can be found here.

Whew! Lots to get you all caught up on since I have been away for a month! I look forward to posting my projects again later this month...