Rumble Sketch Challenge

There is a great sketch challenge going on in the Cottage Studio! Wendi designed a fantastic sketch for us to try. I used it to make a scrapbook page for Etha:


That wild-haired baby is her adorable granddaughter (the apple of Daddy's eye). I left the journaling card blank so Etha could fill it in when I send it to her.

Why not try out the challenge yourself. Details and the sketch can be found here. The prize is a set of papers called A Time in the Country.

Happy Saturday everyone! I'm planting my vegetable garden today!

A Bird on a Branch

Here's my card for Pricilla's Midnight Madness sketch challenge #3:



I was actually able to get a good angle on the photo so you could see the shine on the cardstock. I used metallic cardstock and painted it with Shimmerz paints. The bird and branch are mini masks from Heidi Swapp.

And, just in case you were wondering if I was the only scrapbooker in my house, the answer is definitely no. Here is Audrey's latest page:




Have a good Thursday! I will spend the entire evening tonight at a dress rehearsal for my girls' dance recital tomorrow night.

Butterfly Dreams

I used this weeks Splitcoast sketch to make this card, which had so many layers on it that it had me pretty worried. But it ended up coming together very well. The papers are from SEI and the stamps are from Flight of my Dreams by Clear Artistic Stamps.

I got more bedding plants today for my flower beds. It's plantin' time!

Sharing a Bed With Your Sister

Like I say on the page "It isn't always easy....".

I had to get photos of them in the sofa bed that they shared on our vacation last December, because it did cause a little conflict. Erin likes to cuddle when she sleeps, and I had Audrey waking me up in the middle of the night saying, "Mom, get her off of me!" And then there's Audrey--not just eating popcorn in the bed, but using the chopsticks that she got at the Japanese restaurant. (The Japanese restaurant is a whole other story that I will save for another time and scrap page!)

I used Splitcoast sketch SBSC191 for this page, and made a last minute decision to journal in word balloons (first time doing that).

Have a good Tuesday evening everyone!

Basket of Chips

This quilt block from Quilterscache is called Basket of Chips, but I think I will call it Basket of Scraps since I used a bunch of little scraps to fill this basket. Wow, lots of cutting here!

We're having a quiet day here today. We took the kids to see Night at the Museum 2, and we will grill burgers later.

Have a good Memorial Day everyone.

Summer and Gardening

I made this card for Priscilla's Midnight Madness sketch challenge #2. I finished on time for this one! Yay me!



I used the stamp set from Clear Artistic Stamps called Echos of Summer. The details are on the Cottage Studio blog, where I posted today.

Here is a photo of the garden that my husband and I are putting in this year. We took out the sod last week, and here is the horse manure being dumped:


My husband tilled today, so in about a week I will plant. This week I will work on getting a fence around it so the deer will stay out. For more pics, you can see my facebook page.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Dare to be Remarkable

Oh, go ahead--I dare you!

I made this card with the sketch from Midnight Madness sketch challenge #1. I'm way past the deadline but I wanted to try the sketch anyway. Maybe I will be on time for challenge #2!

The card is much more shimmery in real life. The background paper is shimmer paper from Clear Artistic Stamps. And I painted with gold glimmer Blingz and celery Shimmerz paints around the hummingbird. (A little trick that I'm using once again--paint around the image, not inside it, to lift it off of the page.)

Belinda's fantastic hummingbird stamp is from Flight of my Dreams. The swirl and sentiment are rub-ons from Pink Paislee.

Have a good Wednesday everyone. I have a lunch date with my husband today!

More Vacation Scrapping

OK, I'm getting a little worried here. We have a trip planned for June, less than a month away, and I'm still scrapping photos from last December's trip to Florida. Things are piling up! Should I just blow off the housework and yardwork and scrap to my hearts content? Tempting, but not practical at all. I'll just keep plugging away.

It helps when I find page sketches that are double pages--that way I can get at least 3 pics on my layout. The layout above was done with Splitcoast sketch challenge SBSC190. I used an entire sheet of chipboard stickers from Basic Grey because they were just so pretty. I hope it doesn't look like a sticker sneeze.

Now off to once again conquer laundry mountain, and also plant some petunias! Yay! I'm glad I didn't plant them yet because we had a frost warning last night. Hopefully it's the last of that funny business.

Take My Picture

This is a double page scrapbook layout from Splitcoast challenge SBSC189. I had several pictures of us in various locations at Downtown Disney, so I put them all together here.

I had fun with the yellow and pink flowers in the corners. They are die cuts that I received in a kit. I painted them with acrylic paint, then put on a coat of 3D crystal lacquer and sprinkled with either glitter or diamond dust. I got lacquer everywhere, as usual!

Have a good Sunday everybody! I think it finally stopped raining here. Yippee!

Erin's Birthday

I can't believe Erin turned 10 this week! Here is the card that I made for her:



I used the card sketch that Belinda has posted for the month of May. You can find it here. I also used Bel's Hearts and Lace stamp set, and Sassafras Lass papers. Don't you think it turned out fun and girlie?

And here is the birthday girl with her gift from Nana:


The doll is "Julie" from American Girl. She is the historical doll from 1974. Yikes! I was 9 years old in 1974, so now I have a historical doll that represents me. I'm historical! Oh man, I can hear my bones creaking right now.

Acrylic Album

Wow, I haven't posted on my blog in 5 days! I was very busy over the Mother's Day weekend, which was great. And I got to work on an album that I wanted to finish right away, so I concentrated on that. Here it is:


This album is for my niece who is studying in Italy this semester. They have emailed me lots of fantastic photos, so I got an 8-inch clear acrylic album to put them in. I bought a Cosmo Cricket paper collection that had lots of beautiful colors that coordinated so well with the photos.

Here is a photo of one of the pages. The entire album is 10 pages.


My niece returns to the US in a few weeks, so this will be waiting for her to fill in with her memories.

Well, I have lots of yard work to do today, so I will get to it. Have a good Tuesday everyone!

Don't Forget to Rumble With Me!

That's right! Belinda has lots of great prizes planned to celebrate Customer Appreciation Month. The grand prize at the end of the month--you could win all 6 stamp sets in the Capacious Collection. That's huge! There are also smaller prizes given away all throughout the month. And how do you enter? Simply place an order during the month of May. That's all. Any order, large or small, stamps or other products, and your name will go into the drawing.

Click HERE for more details.

And while I have you here.....

You haven't forgotten how to rumble, have you?

I'm the hostess for the Cottage Rumble #6 at the In The Cottage Studio blog. Use any type of paint in a project, and leave a comment on the blog with a link. Your name might be chosen for the prize:

3 Shimmerz and 1 Blingz paints
You choose the colors!

And after you win those paints, you could use them to make a card like this:



I used the rose stamp from the Whispers in the Woods stamp set (Capacious Collection) and stamped with Shimmerz paint instead of ink. How? I used a foam brush and dabbed a thin layer of Coffee Shimmerz paint onto the stamp. I stamped once onto scrap paper to remove excess paint, and then stamped the image onto my cardstock. After it dried completely, I used Pixie Dust and Pink Poinsettia to fill in with color.

I made this card with Splitcoast sketch challenge SC227. My name there is Lisa L. if you want to check out my gallery.

Have a good Thursday everyone!

The Perfect Day

Now here is a bright and sunny page! The papers from Cosmo Cricket make you happy just to look at them. And my girls have big smiles on their faces to match the mood.

I used the card sketch from Mojo Monday Week 85 to make this scrap page, but I tweaked it enough that you might not consider it to be truly following the sketch.

I haven't been at my craft table much lately, but now that "laundry mountain" has been conquered, maybe I will have more time.

Have a good Wednesday!

Disney's Christmas Lights

More work on my DisneyWorld album! I used Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge SBSC188 to make this page about the Christmas light display that we saw at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I guess the lights are originally from the home display of the Osborne family, whose neighbors were annoyed by the huge display. So Disney now puts all of their lights on the buildings in Hollywood Studios, and has even added to it.

It was amazing--over 4 million lights. And then artificial snow started falling, which delighted the girls. What a beautiful sight.

Just Be Yourself!

Isn't that great advice? But pretty hard to follow for most of us, huh?

I made this card for the Our Daily Bread Designs sketch challenge, which you can find here. I love their rubber stamps, and the bird stamp above is no exception. It is in the set Sing to the Lord. I had fun distressing the background kraft cardstock--I actually crumpled it over and over, and then sponged it with a couple different inks. I accidently tore it, but just worked that into the design.

We were busy at church all morning, and I ate too much (as usual) at our carry-in dinner this afternoon. So I am having a very lazy Sunday evening!

Have a good one everbody.

Orlando's Flowers

Here in Ohio, our few months of summer are the only time that I see beautiful blooms on the flowers in my yard. So when I travel to a tropical location and see flowers in the middle of winter, it always blows my mind.

Last December we went to Orlando where I got some good pics of some tropical flowers at Disneyworld and at our hotel. I decided to add them to my scrapbook using the Splitcoast sketch SBSC187. I love the little journaling card and stickers from SEI. They are shimmery, but you can't see it in the photo.

Our Saturday has been way too busy, but now I am settling down for the evening. Have a good night everyone!