Twisted Blueprints #1 Challenge

It has been exciting to get back into a groove and work on some layouts for my design team work over at Let's Get Sketchy! And now I've even found time to participate in some challenges over at my favorite challenge site Colorful Creations. For the below layout we were to use the sketch provided, and to also use the following: a triangle, a star, and some numbers. You can find this challenge here. Oh and I must toot my horn a bit because it was consequently chosen as "Pick of the Week". Such an honor!!

I used a sweet photo of Santiago's tiny fingers when we was about a week old. He's four years old now so it's crazy to think that he was that tiny such a short time ago.

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #17

I'm really enjoying getting back to scrapping!  Of course it's still a little busy around here, as I still have a little unpacking left to do and it seems like all the activities that seem to fill our summer schedules has also commenced. This weekend we had THREE birthdays to celebrate as well as doing a much over-due photo session for Santiago's 4th birthday (which was at the end of April). So here's a bit of a late post for this week's challenge over at Let's Get Sketchy!

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #16

After months of searching for a new home, packing and then unpacking, we have finally become mostly settled into our new house, which we are extremely happy with and will be renting for at least two years until we are allowed to purchase again. I thought I was going to be terribly emotional about leaving our house. It was the first house that my husband and I purchased, we had done extensive upgrades including a  complete kitchen remodel, and this was the house our kids have known since birth. Surprisingly enough, I was more than relieved when we handed over the keys. And I am pleased to say that even though we are only renting our new house, I actually love almost everything about it more than the house we just sold.  This of course does no include the kitchen, because frankly I was spoiled by having a brand new custom kitchen and will probably never be satisfied until I have an equal or better one. But the kitchen aside, we adore this house and the best part for me is having my very own scrap room.  In the previous house I had a small "room" that was part of our master suite...but this is an entire bedroom.  I'm in heaven.  Unfortunately is has been the last room to really be unpacked, because although I consider my scrapbooking to be a high priority, for some strange reason the rest of my family seems to put a higher value on food, clothing & toys.  It's still a bit of a work in progress, but in enough order that I was able to scrap my first layout in almost 3 months.  So after a bit of a break from my design team duties over at Let's Get Sketchy! I'm super excited to be able to post a layout for this week's sketch. I hope you will take the time to check out the rest of our design team's work by heading over to the blog. And without further ado...my take on the Challenge #16:

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #8

I fear that for the next couple months my posts will be quite brief. We finally went into escrow last week, which means we now have 45 days from that date to finsh packing and get moved out of our house. I often become fearful that I will never get everything into boxes when I'm only able to get a few packed each day. And even more frightening is the fact that we still haven't found a place to live. It's the moments in our lives such as this that make me grateful that I have a sovereign Lord to trust in. His timing is always perfect and as it is written in Scripture, "^''For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" I keep that passage from Jeremiah very close to my heart each time I become anxious about our housing situation.

But enough about my crazy & chaotic life! It's Monday which means it's time for another challenge at Let's Get Sketchy! Here's my take on this week's sketch:

Please swing by Let's Get Sketchy! and take a look at the sketch on which I based my layout as well as the samples done by our talented design team!

Let's Get Sketchy! Challenge #7

I did a lot of moving around after graduating high school...I lived somewhere new every year of college, I lived three different places before getting married, and my husband and I lived in two different apartments before we bought the house we now live in. I think I've packed my belongings about ten times in the last fifteen years?  And I've never really minded...it was a good opportunity to purge my belongings and it was fun to unpack and find new places to put them. This was of course before children. We are currently in the process of selling our house and packing to move, and I'm realizing that doing that with two small children is just not fun.  And we all keep getting sick too. First some bad colds and then a really nasty flu. We're finally all healthy again, but still surrounded by moving boxes, some already filled with non-essential items and others empty, waiting until the last possible moment to be filled with everything else. Of course I would normally consider my scrappy supplies to be on the "essential, need to use now" list, but I have had absolutely zero time to scrap for the last month. So sadly I think I must make the painful decision to leave out my most basic tools and just enough paper & embellishments to complete my required design team work and simply pack away all the rest.  Maybe it will be a good time to purge...and I can focus on how fun & exciting it will be to unpack it all again!

Enough about that! Here is my take on this week's sketch at Let's Get Sketchy!

Here I scrapped photos from my husband's annual company dinner party in 2009. Santiago was almost a year old and it was our first over-night date. I remember how simply divine it was to just sleep in until we woke up the following morning!  There is no title or journaling because this layout is actually a companion page to a layout I had already completed some time ago, but using another photos from the same night...so I thought I would also post that layout.

For the sketch on which I based the first layout, please head over to the Let's Get Sketchy! blog.