Bella Challenge Catch Up

Just posting these real quick since I am so tired! I felt like coloring tonight so I popped on the Bella Forum, got out my little index card, and wrote down the sketches and color challenges I've missed this past month. My color challenge will be up Monday night sometime ^_~



This last week's color and sketch challenge on the Bella Forum. #32

#31 for the Bella color and sketch challenges.
#30

And #29. Most of these used spot on backgrounds and I just whipped through the card parts real quick since what I wanted to do most was color ^_~. Have a great Monday!

Happy Father's Day

I hope everyone is having a great day with their dads and hubbys today ^_~. Here's what we made for Poppa for Father's Day.

I got one of those 12x12 frames with my 40% off coupon at Roberts on Friday. I think I must have been lucky since it was the last one they had. I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to special occassions like this. We had taken the pictures for this Friday morning, I went and got them developed at the one-hour photo and shopped for the stuff to make this that afternoon. Which actually worked out really well since I had the girls still in their outfits to compare to paper. Uses Crate Paper and Bazzil cardstock. I completely lifted this layout from the Reflections book, but made it for a Grandpa instead of a Grandma. I like mine better ^_~. The frame color was choosen because Paul's dad loves blue. The girls actually did quite a bit of the painting. Then I sand distressed the edges and made the page to put inside.

Paul got a few things he's been wanting and I ended up not making a card for him. He says he likes it that way since he already gets so much from me but I have a hard time not making one still. I told him he'd get one out of the blue later ^_~ He's favorite thing was the new pictures of Cait and Audrey for his wallet. Anyway, have a fun Happy Father's Day everyone!!

Playing with Caprice

I have been loving these Thickers alpha stickers. They are so fast and easy to use! Plus they are fun and dimensional ^_~. I usually hate stickers because with most of them once you put them on something they are pretty stuck there, but these aren't like that. They are pretty repositionable for the first little while which is great for people like me who have bad spacial judgement.

This layout was done using a pagemaps layout that's been flipped to the side and another photo added where the title was supposed to be. The journaling is hidden in the little file slip to the right of the photos since I didn't have room for it on the layout. Papers from Caprice by CTMH. I love these pictures of Caitlyn, it was after school early this year and she was just chillin' with her horses.

Some cards I made using the funny sized scraps I had. Yogabella on the first card. I'm not sure the image on the second but she's adorable. Kelly had sent her to me for our image secret sister thing for our SBS group and I finally got to play with one of the super cute images she sent me. I wanted to color these images like Deb does, but she uses watercolors. I'm in awe! And since I don't have any watercolors I just used my markers and tried to shade a little. Someday I will try watercolors. They are so beautiful! The monkey image was also a RAK from Kelly. I've been wanting this stamp set and it's fun to have the images to play with before I get it ^_~ I kept getting simpler and simpler as I went with these cards, lol. Anyway, it's been a crazy day! I've been trying to post this all day now and keep getting interrupted with other stuff. I hope everyone had a happy Wednesday!

Color Challenge #22

This weeks colors are for Father's Day! Based off some of my hubby's favorite colors.


Outdoor Denim
Cranberry
Twilight
New England Ivy


Sue's All Grown Up Layout
Alison's Simple Stamped Cards
Sparkle's Here's the Scoop Card
Stacy's Star Father's Day Card
Jenn's Simple Happy Father's Day Card


My Samples:



This card is for my FIL for Father's Day. Just something simple since he's a simple guy and plenty of blue since I think that's his favorite color. I don't know for sure, lol, but Paul always says to use lots of blue because dad likes blue. Poppa stamped with the Building Blocks alpha set on textured CS and then just a strip of outdoor denim ribbon rounds ribbon and some buttons to embellish.


I made this card last night because I didn't necessarily want to make a masculine card with these colors for the challenge. I actually didn't like the card at all after I finished making it, but looking at it now I think it's alright. I think the reason I'm not loving this card is the colors, I've been in such a mood for bright fun summer colors and these seem like anything but, lol. Uses the With Love, Say it in Style, and Cottage floral stamp sets.


I wish clothes shopping for me was as easy and price savvy as shopping for my girls. We went to Gymboree and got 5 super cute tops, a pair of embellished capris, and 2 adorable summer dresses that all match for just $75. I'm lucky if I can get one top and one bottom for that much! And a wardrobe that all mixes and matches, that's worth the money in just saving me morning stress, lol. Caitie was already wearing one of the dresses when I took this pic and all but one of the shirts were bought for Caitlyn. Audrey fits into many of Cait's clothes already and with so many hand-me-downs we only buy her clothes when she finds something she really likes. Yes, my girls usually pick out their own clothes. They are little fashionitas already, lol. I wish I had my camera with me at the store, Caitie was just picking out entire outfits with the purse and shoes, everything! I had to stop her because I wasn't about to buy her yet ANOTHER purse and MORE shoes. I need money for clothes too, lol.

Share & Tell Inspired

Has anyone else seen the share and tell system by Pebbles or the Lickity Slip? It's basically the same idea and I've seen plenty of companies using this idea over the years. It's a sheet protector with slots for the photos, even CTMH has them. Pebbles has a big thing for it now, they even make title and journaling cards for their kits and give you a coupon for a free title/journal set each month. They are wonderfully easy, quick, and pretty cute. But I've always been one of those girls that thinks she could never just settle for slipping in simple 4x6s in the sheet protector slots. And even though I still haven't given into getting the sheet protectors, I do like to lift the basic idea ^_~.

Pebbles has 3 classes for their share and tell program. No Time, where you just slip in photos; Some Time, where you slip in photos and use the title/journaling slip in sheets; and Creative Time, where one side you slip in photos with a journaling sheet and the other side is a classic scrap page. I took inspiration from the Creative Time example. This was the first two page layout I did. I completed both pages in less than an hour, which is record time for me ^_~ I usually take about 2.5 hours per page on average. Now all I've ever seen is the horizontal photo protector sheets, but I took the basic idea and turned it into a scrap page using my vertical pics.

I used new papers that I got from Pebbles on Monday. I adore the way these came out and they took no time at all! This was my second set done in less than an hour as well. I had seen a single Share & Tell layout page that used the title and journaling on the same page and thought that would work perfect with this two page set since I didn't have 5 pictures to go on the other side. Here's a list of supplies for all 4 pages.

• 2 sheets double sided summer print paper (it's the same page for both stripe and flower)
• 4 sheets Bazzil cardstock (2 blue, 1 orange, 1 red)
• 3 sheets white CTMH cardstock (one for a base for each photo intense page and then one for matting)
• 2 packs Thickers letters (blue foam and white cardstock)
• 1 cut by the yard orange ribbon
• 4 doodle bug white buttons
• 8 CTMH white bigger brads
• 9 white brads
• Prima and Petaloo orange flowers
• Star Struck stamp set by CTMH for arrow and list journaling bullets

The journaling for the layouts and subtitle for the second layout were printed out from my computer using the Tweed font. I really like the outcome of these. I keep seeing other ladies that wow me with their layouts, like Jena ^_~, who have used this simple system and thought, "Hey, if they will do it, I should give it a try!" I'll tell you what, I think I really enjoy this new method since I take LOADS of pictures. You might be seeing me scrap this way a lot more often. I can really go for simple right now since I'm still way behind and I keep scrapping 2008 pictures, lol.

Color Challenge #21

"Going to school?" - Cait has been asking this on and off since summer vacation started for her. I'm sure she misses her friends and interaction with her teachers at school. Library time isn't the same, it's much more erratic and crowded, plus there's no one-on-one time and I'm fairly certain one of the big perks to going to school was getting away from her little sis, who is definitely doing the terrible twos right now, lol. So this weeks color combo is inspired by school. I always think of bright primary colors when imagining Kindergarten and First Grade. To play use at least 3 of the 4 colors. Leave me a comment with a link to your artwork so I can add it here and have fun!


Star Spangled Blue
Cranberry
Topiary
Sunflower


Sue's Hello Card : A card for a little girl who is going through chemotherapy for leukemia. Help Mackenzie by simply sending her a card. Mackenzie is only 3 years old and her prognosis at this point is not looking too good. Her family and friends would like her to receive a shower of cards next week. They are asking for her cards to be sent out by the 6th. You can leave a comment on Sue's blog or email her for the address to send the card to, as they don't want to post the address online. Thanks! ^_~

Sparkle's Cute Teachabella Thank You Card
Marcia's Adorable Surfer Boy Card
Jena's Super Fun Kindergarten Layout
Jenn's Ultra Cute Toucan Cards


My Sample :






Uses my fav floral set right now, Cottage Floral. Also uses Friendship Wordpuzzle, Serendipity, and Say it in Style stamp sets. Just plain ol' cardstock for the paper and some cranberry grosgrain for a little texture. I pop dotted the flowers and then added a topiary swirl to the main flower. A simple card, but I think it came out cheery ^_~.

So things have finally been getting back to normal around here. The last of the stuff with the accident I think is now taken care of, I hope!! We went out and saw the new Indiana Jones Saturday, which was a lot of fun and then played video games over the weekend with a friend. Well, one video game - Dynasty Warriors 6, which is tons of fun! For those that don't know, I love video games. My hubby and I used to play World of Warcraft when I was pregnant with Audrey and even a little while after. Before we had kids it was Everquest. Both Paul and I like to play and it's even better to play together as a team. But it's hard to play online when you have kids unless it's after they go to bed so we quit the MMOs and would just play on the XBOX or PS2. Usually RPGs for me. Every now and again we might LAN but that's usually for Diablo 2 (an old fav of both of ours) and Warcraft 3. I also have a penchant for Zoo Tycoon, lol. I don't know what it is about it, but I just love building those zoos! My hubby thinks it's incredibly boring, lol. Anyway, just thought I'd let you all know we're doing good. My artwork will still be sporatic though, at least I think it will be. There's just so much to do during the summer it's been hard to fit my creating time in!