Schoolgirl (Sketchy Fun)

Once again, i had so much fun the past 2 days playing with fabulous sketches, one from Creative Scrappers and the other from PageMaps.  Since i love double-page layouts, i often like to take 2 albeit different sketches and make them fit together on a same-theme layout.

This time around, i chose the Sunday Market collection from My Little Shoebox with all its bright colors, cute flowers and cool die-cut shapes.  The pictures are from last year during Ella's first day at kindergarten. Unfortunately, I wasn't around to share in on the excitement (i so wish i lived closer!), but i heard that she was just ecstatic about finally going to school and making new friends. *sigh* They grow up sooo fast! :)

Schoolgirl

Page 1 was inspired on Sketch #157 from Creative Scrappers.

 

And Page 2 is based on the My Little Shoebox Contest's sketch @ PageMaps.

 

What a cute 2-pager this turned out to be with loads of handmade stitching, cute green twine, multi-colored brads and handcut flowers! 

I'm leaving you with a few close-up shots and wishing you a very happy week!

Life Is... (The Scrappiest Sketches)

I am in love with the new Simple Stories collections, especially Life Documented. I can't wait to use up all my scraps to make cards and perhaps a mini album, and then i'll just have to buy myself some more - hehehe  Today, i'm sharing with you a double-page layout i've made using that line, and based on two separate sketches from The Scrappiest.  My layout was also inspired by a beautiful poem by Mother Teresa entitled "Life Is". 

Life Is...

The left page is based on Sketch#119.
(Yes, i know, the photos are very blurry. I can't wait to see Mr. Sun stick around here for more than a couple hours at a time!)

 

The page on the right is based on Sketch#120.

Now for a closer look at the poem - These are truly words to live by.

 
The title was done with the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge.

Flowers are from Prima. The fancy chipboard leaves are from The Dusty Attic and the simpler ones have been cut by hand out of cardstock.

 

Some of my favorite elements of the Life Documented collection are the color combinations, all the different journaling tags and boxes, and of course the banners! LOVE the banners!

Now thanks for looking! Be sure to check out the Simple Stories blog for a look at their other beautiful collections AND visit The Scrappiest for lots of sketchy inspiration! :)

Farm Life (SCT April Sketch)

Psst: This is my second post today so make sure to also check out "U R Such a Q T" below!

YAY! I got to play with a double-page sketch (you all know how i feel about double-pages)! :) Look at this beautiful sketch provided to us at the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. 

At first the amount of pictures it asked for got me worried, but i went browsing through my old stock and found these pictures of a visit at the historical Acadian Village back in 2006 - it was Yves and i's second official weekend of dating!  I always knew that i would one day find the perfect way to use these... 

Farm Life

The paper used is from different collections of My Mind's Eye and all chipboard pieces (except the title) are from The Dusty Attic. I coloured them with various Colorbox chalks. 

 

I love the country look & feel that the twine gives. Along with stitching, i've been using quite a lot of it lately!

I have a huge collection of eyelets so lacing on my layouts gives me a chance to use some of them. The best tool i have found so far for affixing them on to the edge of a page is the Crop-A-Dile.  It works like a charm! :)

Now i'm already thinking up ideas to work on SCT's May Sketch!

U R such a Q T

I haven't blogged for a while, but, no worries, i have still been very creative. As you know, one of my favorite sketch site is Creative Scrappers and i have been having fun with their sketches lately, preparing to apply for a spot on their Creative Team.  For this layout, I chose to use Sketch #147 (seen below) because i just LOVE bracket shapes

U R Such a Q T
This is an older picture of my niece Ella and one of my favorite pictures of her. Isn't she a cutie?! Hence, the title "QT" - hehe 

The paper collection used is Imaginisce's Garden Party which, as you can see, is a beautiful mixture of shiny blue, pink and light orange blooms, perfect for the pretty smile on Ella's face!
Now i couldn't do a layout without any stitching, could i?  It seems like handmade stitching is my new signature now. It's a lot of work, but i don't mind it, especially since i love the way it adds dimension and colour to a layout. Although i know it will happen eventually, it's hard to imagine i will ever do another layout without a stitch. Maybe once i run out of thread - hehehe  
Don't you love this ribbon? Reminds me of those silly pom-pom socks we used to wear in the 80's! :)

 

I painted the edges of my background paper with blue craft paint.  Also, to make the contour of the bracket shape, i punched about 4 12" strips of cardstock with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edge punch, cut the strips into short pieces and then glued each piece behind the bracket shape. A secret of the trade: Good ol' scotchtape always helps to keep everything in place just as long as it doesn't show. If you could only see the back of my layouts; they're usually covered with it - hehe

Check back soon for other projects using Creative Scrappers sketches! :)

Finalist for Sketchy Thursdays GDT spot

I was super excited to find out this morning that i made the cut for June's GDT on the Sketchy Thursdays blog. In total, 5 finalists were selected, and let me just say that my 4 competitors are extremely talented! Go check it out HERE... and vote which layout you like best!  You have until 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday to cast your vote. Thank you! :)

I'll have a couple new layouts to share with you all shortly so visit back soon!

May's Prima Product Pick and Palette

It is so beautiful, i cannot even begin to describe it with words... So see for yourself!

Be sure to check out the Prima blog for a closer look at all these gorgeous products and how you could be eligible to win them, and also at the beautiful projects their amazing DT created based on this May palette.

Once Upon a Time - CS Sketch #155

One of my favorite sketch blog is Creative Scrappers! Every week, they give their readers a new sketch as well as inspiration from their very talented Creative Team.  I recently got to play with Sketch #155 (beautiful!) in order to be in the running to win a prize from their monthly sponsor, Scrapbook Sussies.

Here is Sketch #155

I love the tile pattern on the left and the different borders (which allowed me to go punch-crazy!), especially the one in the upper right-hand corner, where the title is. All those details, plus the cluster of flowers made this sketch PERFECT inspiration for this layout!

Once Upon a Time

As you will perhaps notice, i have used the leftovers from the last layout i posted (Me & My Cousins) because i planned for the two pages to go together in an album (yes, i am biased when it comes to double-pages!).  The paper collection is Webster's Pages' Magical Wishes. All chipboard pieces are from The Dusty Attic. I put brown Stickles on the butterflies to make them sparkly :)

The colours on this layout might differ a bit from the colours on the previous layout even though in reality they are a perfect match. Blame it on Mother Nature! Where i'm from, it seems like we haven't seen the sun in YEARS! ;-P

Creating from the Heart Blog Giveaway

I am happy to say that i am a new follower to Melissa's blog Creating from the Heart.  Check it out... she makes some of the best cards out there!  Also, check out the awesome GIVEAWAY she has going on until May 30th.  You could be the winner of a brand new All Around the Page Punch by Martha Stewart and a $100 Michael's giftcard! We all should be SO lucky!

Me & My Cousins (Sketchy Thursdays GDT Challenge)

Look at this beautiful combination of sketch and picture i found on the Sketchy Thursdays blog for their Guest Design Team Challenge. Isn't it fabulous?
 
It sure got my creative juices flowing! I love all the layering in the sketch and the colors and flower print of the cups. Here is the layout i created with all of those elements in mind: 

Me & My Cousins

The Magical Wishes paper collection by Webster's Pages seemed just perfect to go along with the theme and colors of both the inspirational picture and this old photo of me & my cousins when we were little. It was taken at a uncle's wedding. I'm the little girl in the pink :)  The picture was of very poor quality, but i played around with it a little on Picnik and, using the 'cross process' function, gave it more of a vintage feel. I love the way it turned out.

The flowers are mostly Prima, the bling is from ZVA Creative and the chipboard accents are from The Dusty Attic.

I used pink chalk on the bird bath followed by Moonlight Smooch Ink.

All the sketches i have seen so far on Sketchy Thursdays are excellent, their DT extremely talented, their sponsors amazing... so, needless to say, i would be extremely happy to be part of their team, if only for just one month :)

Bear-y Delightful

Can you believe i've been stitching again?! Yes, with already crippled fingers! Hey, if it makes for fabulous layouts, i'm willing to stand the pain :)

The layout i am sharing with you today was inspired by 2 blog challenges:

1. My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge 23 for which i had to use 80% of My Mind's Eye products (which is not difficult for me since i'm addicted to MME!) and base my design on this sketch. Fabulous MME collections are to be won which would make me a very happy scrapper! :)

2. Get Picky's April Inspirational Challenge #7 which provided me with a beautiful photo and color combo for inspiration. The winner will be invited to guest design for their next inspiration challenge in May. I would be totally honored!

Needless to say, i was extremely inspired by both MME and Get Picky, so i got right down to scrappin' this double-page layout.

Bear-y Delightful
Isn't this picture of my niece beautiful? I only had that one picture and since Get Picky was asking for a multi-photo layout, i decided to alter it a little using Photoshop and print it in blue and yellow as in the color combo. I think they turned out great :)
  
The collection i used is My Mind's Eye's Stella and Rose which blew my mind the very first time i laid eyes on it! Every single design is exquisite, the quality of the paper is the best, and the embellishments are beautiful.  The 'Hattie' line went perfectly well with the Get Picky's Color Combo! Check out the different brads...

To represent the circles on the MME's sketch, i made accordion fan circles which i learned how to do in a class at my LSS. 

So do you think the crippled fingers are worth it? (Psst... i have a couple more layouts coming up soon with even MORE stitching! hehe)

Who Needs a Carnival?

I have been pretty busy yesterday...  STITCHING! Yes, i stitched until the wee hours of the night, and stitched some more early this morning (my fingers are all in knots!!!) in order to finish this layout: 

Carnival

I'm not sure if you can see all the stitches but let me just say there's a LOT! hehe  But it was well worth all the work!  I love the dimension that it adds to this layout, and the way it brings out the colors of the paper and pictures.  The collection used is mostly Summer Days from Echo Park which i got in the fabulous Artful Delight May Kit.

Each page of this layout is based on a sketch at Artful Delight. I decided to merge 2 single sketches to make a double-page, therefore i get to enter 1 layout twice for this month's Delightful challenges (hopefully that's allowed!) 

The left page is based on sketch #4

 

... and the right page is based on sketch #3

 

Thank you for looking! Hope it brightened up your day a little with a rainbow of colors! :)