And Some Final Layouts for August...

Happy Saturday! Just wanted to post some pages for a variety of August challenges. And since this is the last day of the month I had better get them linked up huh?

My first page is for a challenge at Paper Secrets which was to use a sketch with the added twist of at least 5 buttons.

I've been trying to finish up an album of photos taken on the trip we took back in the summer of 2009. It was basically a family reunion of sorts. My grandma flew Noé, Santiago and me (Paolina wasn't even a thought yet lol) out to Des Moines where she and all of my cousins on my mom's side live with their families. We then drove down to St. Louis (where I grew up and my Grandma had lived for over 50 years). One of our days in St. Louis we went to a place that sells frozen custard...a place that as little kids our grandparents had always taken us to if we visited them in the summer. This page has photos of two of my cousins with their spouses/children.

My next page is for a sketch challenge at Creative Scrappers.

It's important to me to scrap, not just photos, but cards and other memorabilia...so that they can be remembered and not just forgotten in a box. But I do struggle with getting them on pages...maybe because they're just not as visually "fun" as a photo. So I always consider it a huge accomplishment when I get cards scrapped! This is a card Noé gave me for (obviously) my 30th birthday.

My final layout is for a challenge blog that I only recently discovered because one of my fellow LGS design team members also designs for it. In fact, this sketch is her design. The name of the site is ScrapMuch? and I really encourage you to check it out as it has great sketches to work with! And they post new sketches every Friday. The following page is based on their August Week 1 sketch.

This is my last page in Paolina's first album of her first year of life (both kids get four albums for that first year) I LOVE seeing my dad holding her for the first time. Can you tell he's not super comfortable holding babies lol? I've been dying to use that postage stamp paper from Authentique...but never could find the right time to use it. And here it is!

Whew! I wasn't joking when I said I have been amazingly productive with Santiago at school all day. I got a total of SEVEN layouts done this past week...I wonder if I can beat that next week when Paolina starts Preschool?

Exciting News at Let's Get Sketchy

Happy Friday everyone! Just wanted to share some super cool news at Let's Get Sketchy...please head over to the blog for all the details.

My Scrappy Stash

I love getting new scrappy goodies...but seriously who doesn't? However, I do have trouble justifying new purchases when I look around at my enormous stash. Of course the majority is leftover inventory from my scrapbooking store...but a lot is stuff that I purchased personally. You know...stuff I just had to have lol. Recently I came across two different challenges that had tags shown in the sketches. I was excited because wow! do I have a lot of tags! Quite often I substitute elements to suit me, but in both of these case I decided to follow the sketch and use up some of my tag stash!

This first page is the Scrappy Friends August challenge. And I managed to complete all three challenges. Brenda's challenge was to use the below sketch. Rochelle's challenge was to create a travel themed layout. And Kristi B's challenge was to use the following: Wood, Stripes and a Mixed Alpha.

And here's my take on the challenge...

I used a photo of my Grandma's Aunt's house that we stopped to take a picture of when we were on a road trip from St. Louis to Des Moines in the summer of 2009.

My second page is for one of the August challenges at Scrap Our Stash, which was to use the below sketch as well as one "game card" or "game piece".

And here's my layout...

This page has a photo of me holding Santiago when he was a newborn...not quite a month old.

I'm also linking this layout up to About A Boy, for the "August Anything Goes" challenge.

Thanks for looking, and like I said yesterday, stay tuned for more pages soon as I have been busy, busy at my craft table this week!

Sketchabilities

Well, so far the first week of Santiago being in Kindergarten has been everything I have hoped for. I've been able to spend girlie time with Paolina, I've gotten sooo many chores done, and wait for it...I've had scrappy time! Whoo hoo! In three days I've done FOUR layouts. Unbelievable. It boggles my mind to think what I will accomplish when Paolina starts preschool next week lol.

I normally don't post non-scrappy photos but I can't resist sharing the picture I took of Santiago on his first day. Thank you Pinterest for the amazing inspiration for the chalkboard!

Anyhow, I was excited to play with a sketch from Sketchabilities, seriously one of my favorite sketch blogs. Here's my inspiration...

And here's my take on the sketch...

I used a photo of me holding Santiago a few hours after he was born. Is that little tiny baby really in Kindergarten this year?? For materials I used some seriously old stash. So old I'm not even positive about manufacturers...Making Memories? Scenic Route? Fancy Pants? My Mind's Eye? LOL. I also tossed in a tiny bit (and I do mean tiny ) of new...that little phrase strip is from Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm.

Thanks for looking...and stay tuned as there are more pages coming soon!

Let's Get Sketchy August Week 4

It's Monday and today I'm doing a hap.hap.happy dance! This morning I sent Santiago off to his first day of Kindergarten. It's been a fun & busy summer but I am so ready to be back to a nice structured routine. And I'm definitely ready to be able to enjoy some quiet downtime. This week I'll probably take advantage of the last week of our water park pass and take Paolina in the mornings and then do some scrapbooking while she naps in the afternoon. Next week the sky's the limit as Paolina starts her first day of Preschool. Then I will really be doing a hap.hap.happy dance!!

I digress from the real reason for my post...today is a reveal over at Let's Get Sketchy. Here's the sketch we had to work with...

And her's my take on it...

I used a photo from my birthday date with Noé this year. For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant that we found here in Dallas. It was quite yummy and we definitely plan to go back again soon!

Please head over to the Let's Get Sketchy blog and see what the rest of our girls came up with this week, and I am certain you will find lots of inspiration to join in as well.

Paper Secrets Card

Summer vacation is almost over. As much as I have missed my afternoon quiet time, I've enjoyed spending many days with Santiago and Paolina at the pool. And they've both gotten so good at waking up in the morning, getting themselves Cheerios and watching cartoons until I wake up on my own. I've been spoiled by sleeping in until 7 or 7:30am most mornings! Santiago starts kindergarten this coming Monday and will be going all day. We decided to enroll Paolina in preschool part time and she will be going three days a week, almost all day as well. Part of me is super excited to have so much freedom but I am going to miss spending time with my little people...and I'm definitely going to miss the sleep. I'll need to start getting up at 5:30am to have everyone ready for school each day. Always some bad with the good huh?

Anyhow, in the last week, as has been true for most of this summer, I only had time in my scrappy space for one project. Not even an entire scrapbooking layout...just a greeting card. I used the sketch from the current card challenge over at Paper Secrets. Since I have been limited on craft time for months now, I have been horrible about putting away scraps from projects and have been tossing everything into a basket. This worked to my advantage as I did not want to agonize over what colors and/or papers to use for this card. I just started pulling out scraps and voila!

Sketchabilities

Today I took Paolina to a (belated) three-year photo shoot. So it seems appropriate that I am posting the following page which features a photo of her from her one-year photo shoot. I used the current sketch from Sketchabilities, one of my favorite sketch challenge sites!

I kept very true to the design as I really adored everything about it! In fact, since I love that I used up 5 tags from my stash I am very likely to use this sketch again. And here's what I came up with...

Don't you love the animal print combined with the floral! You see this combo not just in scrapbooking collections but in the fashion industry as well. So much fun!

Thanks for looking.

Let's Get Sketchy August Week 2

Another Monday and another challenge is up at Let's Get Sketchy! This week I had the pleasure to work with with one of my very own sketches...

And here's what I came up with...

I adore this photo of Paolina. She still has wonderful round cheeks...but this pouty face with those fabulous cheeks is just plain awesomeness!

As usual I was amazed with all the layouts done by our design team. We have such talented ladies...I will never stop being flattered by seeing what they do with my sketches! Hope you decide to link yours up as well...I love to see what our participants do too!

A Few Pages

It took me over a week, but I have been able to squeeze a bit of scrappy time in here & there and actually came up with three layouts!

The first is for The Paper Bakery using the provided sketch

I flipped it and came up with this...

I used photos taken the day we took Paolina home from the hospital. She is sooo tiny and my hair is sooo short! I finally used some hoarded Green at Heart paper & cardstock stickers, which were perfect for the colors in all our clothes.

I also did two layouts for challenges at Colorful Creations...

I used some more photos of Paolina as a newborn. It's amazing to look back at how tiny babies are when they are first born, especially after you get used to them being preschoolers (and older)! The challenge for this layout is to use Circles, Flowers and Butterflies.

For both Paolina and Santiago I have four whole albums for each of their first years of life...I find there are just so many "firsts" that first year that it's impossible to get them all into one album. This double page will be the second to last to complete Album #1 of Paolina's first year. The photos are of my mom holding Paolina the day she was born. My parents didn't get to meet Santiago for the first time until he was 5 weeks old, so I know this was an especially meaningful moment for "grandma". The challenge for this layout is to use layering and buttons. I am also submitting it into a challenge at the Use Your Words Challenge Blog. I'm a hot mess when it comes to journaling & titles so it helps to find challenges that give me prompts in that area. Their August 1st challenge is to use the word "moment".

Thanks for looking...hope to squeeze more time in this summer and maybe get some pages done for Santiago's albums...