First Day

I was lucky this year to be in the Chicago area for my grandsons Jacob and Cole's first day of school.  I started first with scrapping Jacob's first day of 4th grade and soon will do a page on Cole and a page with both of them.  Jake was starting at a brand new school and was a bit nervous so I added some heartfelt journaling on the page for him.  He has since told me his new school is "good".

I used this great sketch from Frosted Designs:

I used Basic Grey's Oxford collection which I just love for older children's school pages and am entering it into their current weekly blog challenge which you can see HERE.

I  found a great new-to-me site.....Blog Quick Quotes and am entering it into their Friday Challenge #5 -- single photo challenge.

I am also entering it into Scrapbook Circle's "Get Wordy" challenge.  I made a new year's scrappy resolution last January to do more journaling on my layouts.  At first it was hard but it is coming much easier now and I think it makes the pages more meaningful.

Fall -- Artful Delight Sketch Challenge

I never much cared for fall when I lived in the midwest.  It was too short and was (in my mind) just a reminder of the brutal winter that was just around the corner, lurking and waiting to grab me and hold me in it's cold, icy clutches.  (Well maybe that was a bit over-dramatic but you get the drift!) I did appreciate things however that now living in Florida we do not have....the brilliant fall foliage, crisp temps ("sweater weather"), pumpkin patches and apple orchards. This year I have really been getting into scrapping fall pictures of my family in the midwest and using beautiful fall colors on my pages.  Here is another example:

I used the above sketch from Artful Delight and papers/embelishment from Jillibean Soup to create this pretty fall page. My grandchildren (3 of them anyway) spent last weekend together and one of the fun things they did was go to an apple orchard and pick apples.  The sepia tone of the photograph gave a certain dream-like quality to the page.

You can check out the sketch challenge at Artful Delight HERE.  Leanne has some of the largest and best kits for sale out there (which is why I have been trying for months to win one...LOL) I love them!

It is going to be a rainy weekend here in Florida and I have a number of paper crafting projects planned so I am sure I will be back tomorrow to show you my next creation.

Tag re-run

I am not much of a tag maker.....in fact I probably have only made 2-3 in the 4 years that I have been papercrafting.  The above tag is the first one I ever took a picture of and I made it just a month ago.  But I found a cool blog called Flashback Friday where they challenge you to re-post an early creation of yours.  Cool, huh? There is an awesome prize up for grabs right now too.  I don't mind posting this one but eventually if I follow the blog long enough I may get challenged to post one of my very first pages....now THAT would be challenge!!  LOL

The Paper Variety Challenge #54

We have a really fun challenge over at The Paper Variety this week:

Oh, the possibilities with this challenge!  I decided to make my first altered canvas.

This project started out as an 8x8 bright green canvas with large fuschia colored lady bugs--EEEK!  I picked it up for only $1 at my local thrift store, gave the canvas several coats of white paint and adhered the burlap with spray adhesive.  The owls were gifted to me by our my dear friend Abby and the sentiment is from Little Yellow Bicycle's new collection "Hello Fall".  The wooden button is also a thrift store find -- out of a mason jar of antique buttons and the stick pins came from a recent kit from Freehand Scraps.  The corrugated leaves are from Jillibean Soup. 

What will you make?  Enter our challenge this week and you could win this awesome prize from:

Scrap Friendzy -- the Seaside Cottage Kit!!!!

Congratulations!

My husband has an aunt and uncle whom I adore.  They are really fun, down to earth folks and will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  I wanted to deviate a bit from the normal formal and traditional 50th wedding anniversary card and make something as fun and happy as they are. I used this sketch from Sassy Lil Sketches:

I will also be entering this card in:

Cas-ual Friday's Feeling Loopy Challenge

Lily Pad Bling Challenge

Wee Memories -- My Favorite Technique Challenge (heat embossing)

Oh My, Check this Out!!!!

Bella Blvd is one of my favorite scrapbook paper and embellishment manufacturers.  Their collections are bright, trendy and whimsical.  They are introducing some awesome

limited edition mini-collections and one of them....Winter Wonder really caught my eye.  Here's a peek at some of the fun:

For more information and a chance to win, check it out HERE.

A couple of cards

I made a couple of cards tonight for challenges.  I used this sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches for the first one:

And this is the card I created for a lady who was my mother's best friend for probably 30 years.  My mom has passed away but I want to remember my "Aunt" JoAnn's birthday this year.  I reconnected with her recently on Facebook.  She is one of the most loving, loyal people I know and was a wonderful friend to my mother.

I am also entering it into these challenges:

Birthday Sundaes Ribbon Challenge

Wee Memories My Favorite Technique (heat embossing)

The next card I did tonight is one I am sending to my friend Marti who has just been accepted in a clinical trial for a liver cancer treatment in Bethesda, MD.  I want her to know I love her and am thinking of her. 

I used one of my large stash of SRM stickers on it (love those), along with a corrugated heart from Jillibean Soup.  The papers are from My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose. The buttons and twine are from my stash.