My Wish 4 U

So, was inspired a bit this evening to get this photo that was hanging out on my scrap desk onto a page. Check out the Once Upon A Sketch blog for their July Challenge.

Check out the lyrics that I included. Yes, I am pretty sure I am violating some kind of copyright thing, but they played this song at her 4th Grade Graduation and I almost cried. Check them out here, for some reason I can't cut and paste them.

This page is one side of a double page spread. I have a few other cute photos I need to use. I am going to use the piece of paper I had left over on the flip side. That page will have to be FLAT since this one has so much dimension. I want to flush out my journalling there and talk about how well she's done this year with a new school and her new friends. I have a really cool friend photo to use! And of course one with her and her teacher, and also Grandparents.

So, I made this paper myself. It is some from my stash. Plain white Doodle Bug Designs paper with the embossing turned into this really awesome piece with some Sweet Clover Glimmermist and then some black ink rubbed over the top of it. It was either that or wait since I don't have any lime green paper I wanted to use in my stash. At my previous house, this would require a trip to the store and some happy browsing, but an invention seems to have worked in this case!

I made the flowers myself too. Remember that post where I was talking about all those silk flowers I came home with? Yes, black glimmermist and some sparkles really turned them around! And my button butterfly is one off a pair of jeans that recently gave up their life due to multiple rips! They were Lexi and I had to pry them off her since she loved them so much. Thought the least I could do was save a butterfly.

Stay tuned, I might be posting that next page tomorrow...it's laid out in my head and started on my desk....

Father's Day with an Evil Twist

Updated 06/29/2011: I had so much fun putting this page together.

I spotted this flower tree and layout over on PageMaps and was inspired! I started off by really liking their layout and then got into the flower tree on the page that was their example. If you want to check them out, go here. It's the forth layout down. I didn't use their size on my photos, I went a bit bigger. I also got blogging around and realized it was the challenge sketch for The Paper Variety which is one of my favorite blogs to stalk. Check them out here. I see one of their designers said the same thing about the sketch, that she was inspired to pull out her cutter to make the tree!

The tree, sun, grass, and fence was cut out using my Silhouette. It's funny as sometimes I never use that thing. Other pages, I cut out two or three pages of things to use. Same goes for my Sizzix. I dug around for an embossing folder for my clouds and gave them a little dimension with a dot folder.

As far as products I used, I believe the turquoise sheet of paper is an old piece I had left over from a CTMH Halloween kit. Most everything else was plain white cardstock that I sprayed with glimmermist. Well, there is a vintage button and a cutie pie puffy sticker I am using for wind next to my clouds. I'm actually pretty please with that too. This page will go right next to my Fishing with Hot Dogs Page and I used the other half of the sticker on that page. They were both the same day so now blend into each other a bit. Similar colors too.

This was a fun day! I am so glad I have a page of it to keep those memories fresh!

So, no scrapbook pages to upload. Yesterday was a blur of things, cake for breakfast, nice lunch on the grill, trip to Sterling Pond to visit a friend's camp...AND, the icing the cake? What the KIDS really wanted to do for Father's Day? Water balloons. It was my sarcastic suggestion on Friday night when they were quizzing their Dad on what we would do for Father's Day. I said, I should go buy water balloons, they could fill them, we could sit on the deck with a nice cold frosty drink (you know the kind with the straw and umbrella? think tropical islands here) AND we could throw ballons at them. And no, they couldn't throw them back. They JUMPED on the idea. Sunday found them filling balloons for two hours straight. Seriously? And, they had the best time. Luke eventually got smart and got a water gun. We didn't say no water gun. I caught this shot by accident as I was taking a photo of my flowers and caught him running full bore. Yes, I got wet. And their Dad? The MAN had a great time and enjoyed his Margarita!

Fishing with Hotdogs

Just a fun little quick page for me tonight. I was playing along with the June Trifecta at the Doll House. Check it out here. I totally love those colors and had this page in mind for the past couple of days. The sketch they provided was totally easy to use.

Anyhow, I got a good laugh over the kids. They were determined to catch one of the little tame sunfish that hang around the dock. I will say, the fish had hot dog for dinner and managed to allude their fish wranglers!

Our Special Place

UPDATE: 06/26/2011
Added my dragon flies! LOVE them, I really do! Shirley let me borrow one of her sizzlitz! Love it! Two layers of sparkly purple paper, a layer of black sticky backed paper, some green shimmer glitter, two little wires and a couple of little green seed bead eyeballs. I made two for Shirley too. They are a bit addicting!

Oh goodness, I haven't scraplifted anyone in ages! I used to POUR over scrappages in magazines and try to copy ones I really really liked. So, I scraplifted this awesome page from Helen. Yes, it sounds like I know her. Nope, but I admire her work a whole lot. Check her blog out here and leave her some love. I heard she was having a bad week.

This page I made was a booger! It fought me every step of the way. First I started with this really cool back ground paper that I made on my printer. I know! Isn't it cool? We have a beautiful Adirondack stream behind our house. I liked my house the first time I saw it but we bought it based on the trails and stream. The background paper was a pic taken from a cell phone of the water! Part of my scraplifting was to make my own paper....I actually resisted the lour of glimmermist and opted to use this photo. Helen misted her page with a couple of different mists. Then, the middle part was easy, I knew which photos I wanted to use BUT do you think I could find that ribbon she used? Of course not, it was local and she lives really far away from Potsdam NY! So, I had to recreate it. Good thing I had some dotty paper. I cut it into strips, folded it to match hers, and used some masking tape to keep it all together. Then I sewed it so it wouldn't move. And glued the light blue paper behind it for a scallopy touch. FUSSY! But I survived. Getting some photos around was easy. We spent some time out there last weekend crayfish hunting with the dog. I say DOG because one was very easy going and opted to ride along in the Razor (think big golf cart here crossed with a 4-wheeler). The OTHER dog who really really wanted to go was too chicken (we call her Patti, as in CHICKEN PATTY). She had to be carried down to us on the tractor (fought the hubby) and then carried over to the stream, at which point she was super happy. The one above is Forrest cooling his belly.

Anyhow, I digress. I then put everything together and inspired by Helen's idea of using up scraps and flowers, I dove into the box that has flowers and pieces parts. Found a bunch of fresh and new Purple Pumpkin stuff. The doily is theirs, as are the flat backed spotty buttons (including the bug) and lacy button flower. The little turquoise glimmery stickers are from Walmart. I wanted some of the gem stickers like Heather used, but alas, I am out and there is no where local to get those. Anyhow, I am happy with what I used. A few flowers from way back are Close to My Heart. The only thing I might add is a dragon fly. I could make one, but I am out of steam tonight...I have a big inbox to attend to since I spent the day out and about. 4th grader graduated today. I might blog about that later. Got to get the photos off the camera. I needed to unwind a bit, hence the page!

Oh, and one last thing...by scraplifting Helen, I also used the sketch from Sketchabilities. Check it out here on their blog. I intend to use it again, but twist the photos. I like the flow. Maybe I will find gem stickers by then!

Graduation! Yippee!

Boy these photos seem from so long ago and it was JUST Thursday morning! Yes, my baby girl graduated from 4th grade. I know, that seems strange, but at this school, she now moves into middle school. TAKING DEEP BREATH. I am hoping by the time the summer is over, it will have sank in and the thought won't cause panic every time I think of it.



Here is her cutie pie dress. Favorite color? LIME GREEN of course!

Fancy Smancy Headband that I found on the floor in her room after graduation (sigh) but at least I got cool photos!

Shimmery sparkle nails, toes and FLIP FLOPS! Yes, I know, some of you guys reading this are enjoying winter. I am really sorry, I really am.

I think I have one more post left in me for tonight....I got some cool goodies while out in and about scrounging in some one's barn sale..

Zippy Zoo layout

So, I had posted this Friday afternoon on our mad dash to my parents house. We were invited to a Wedding Reception on the Pratt side of things so were traveling the 3 hours during the day to get there by six for the dinner.

Blogging in the truck was not working for me! So, I wanted to write a few more things about my page. Luke had been talking about this zoo program for weeks as he was not happy about having to perform a song called Mama Llama. In fact, the day of he was still complaining! But at least by then I was invited. Previously I think he didn't want any witnesses, but decided the offer of ice cream after might be a better deal. I spent the entire program laughing as Luke kept looking at me. I was making faces at him the whole time. He did a great job, even with the hand gestures. But, I guess I do have to agree with him. Dignified 8year olds should not have to sing Mama Llama!

Spotted some blogs lately where they have been posting material lists. Since I am so far from any stores here, I will try to do that but you might just be surprised!

Craft Background Paper (Close to My Heart)
Orange Dotty Paper (Stampin' Up)
Yellow paper which appears to be systematically holey? Something I found at a handmade store in Potsdam, likely from India
Yellow Ruler (from broken tool)
Green Baker's Twine (straight from Purple Pumpkin which is out of Australia)
foamie animals (a kids craft kit that my friend was selling and I took apart)
the little dog house (made out of craft sticks my daughter brought home from school)
Black marker (sharpie, sorry might not be acid free, have no idea but I can't write with anything else)
Green border sticker (not entirely sure, was just in my stash)

And, there you have it!

TODAY

Ah, the smell of fresh paper and the sound of glimmermist hitting the page...oh bliss!

Alright, enough of being poetical. Threw this page together for the fun of it. Not really much to say, other than it just being an ordinary day. I loved the photo I took of Lexi and Luke, so it had to make it's way on a page. Randomly I opted to go with monochromatic in purple...yeah, cute Purple Pumpkin button was a must on this page....and I really love my button "o" but I guess if I didn't love it, why did I do it?

The photos I doctored up using LoFi, Love LOVE Love that program. What else is $30 and can make you so happy. The sketch I spotted on Design Dollies and I had to play along. I am a sucker for "Today" pages. Capturing the little moments. Want to check them out? Click here!

And on a side note, I have a wedding reception to attend on Friday night. Involves wearing nice clothes and not a pony tail. GASP. Yes, it's true, I occasionally spend the day in pajama pants...and always a t shirt. It's not my fault, I work at home and no one besides the dogs see me. So, I had to get myself down to The Body Shop for some work. I have never gotten a pedicure. OH MY. What was I thinking? I am 37 years old. Yeah, it rocked. Got green toe nails now. I like to think of them as dragon claws.

Anyhow it is past my bedtime. Have a good one!

My Lil Corner of the World

So. Late last night I was looking at the growing mound of scraps I had and thinking I should either pick them up or do something with them. Usually I cut them down into manageable pieces and then store them by color in a little divider thing I have. And, then normally they don't see the light of day unless I am really searching for something to punch or paper pierce. I also had this beautiful earth my son had made with crayon and wax paper that I begged to keep for myself! So, I decided to do what we call at work a "progress print" of the little garden we put in here at the new house using all my scraps up!

Lots of pretty flowers are blooming and the veggies are coming along. Of course, with it being all earthly I had to hand make a lot of the items on it! I love how it turned out! It's very busy with the plant tags I had saved, but I love it! I also used numbers so I could play along with the challenge over at Scrapfit. They are revamping their process so the challenges go right on their blog. That is great, because I always forget to check Facebook! Check them out here. Sounds like they are having a DT call too, maybe I'll submit my stuff!

Spotted this sketch about eighteen different times on various blogs and wanted to have a try at it myself. Check it out on Sketchy Thursday's Blog here! I found this photo from my first party here at the house with a bunch of girls from my exercise class and others...and wanted to use it. Believe me, making those desserts pretty on the plate stand was A LOT of fun! Of course, I also got my package of Purple Pumpkin goodies in the mail as well and had to add some of their cool spotted buttons (sprayed with a 'lil glimmermist) a doily, and also a cool flower of theirs I got for playing along with their Design Team call. If you want to check out their blog, click here. There is also another challenge out there about using various kinds of fonts on your page...using news print might have been cheating a bit, but I added quite a few Webster's Pages letters...That challenge is at The Paper Variety.

My handmade flowers are made from some mulberry paper and cut out using the Tim Holtz Tattered flower die cut. I spritzed them with glimmermist and then scrunched them up to give them dimension. The paper was some I have had FOREVER and was originally white with pretty embossed texture. More glimmermist and black ink fixed that! Just a fun page in all.

Hoover Dam Pages for Marilyn

Saw Marilyn this past Sunday. The visit was a blur! Time flies when you are having fun with super cool people. I showed her glimmermist and how to spray chipboards, in fact she sprayed the little cog pieces we used on her page. They are Dusty Attic, straight from Australia.

Anyhow, she gave me a huge bunch of photos from The Hoover Dam for our exchange. The Theme this month is travel...have still yet to go deep diving in some photos from highschool. I thought it was pretty cool, since I've scrapped the Hoover Dam before and in fact, pulled out my page to show her. I decided to get funny and use the same paper. It's terribly old Close to My Heart and you get points if you can name which one! I did use up my stash finally. I included a photo of a card I made with some scraps and how little I have left. Not much of anything! Anyhow, my original Hoover Dam page is MUCH flatter than the two I just made. Those Australia girls have driven me to using depth and mists! Marilyn did also say with a smirk as she gave me the photos that I would have to lay off the butterflies and flowers! But, I did manage to sneak a very little bloom in there, in the midst of the coggs. If I recall from our trip to the Dam, there was desert all around but these little itty bitty sweet desert blooms would pop up unexpectedly!

Sorry about the title, Marilyn. I can still hear our tour guide saying, Welcome to the Dam Tour. It cracks me up to this day. Obviously, I need to get out more. There is also a new little triangle punch from Stampin' Up that I just got! I had to put it to immediate use. I don't think it's released as of yet to the general public, but I can assure you, it rocks. I still have a heap of photos. If I get inspired between now and next week, maybe I'll scrap up another page...we will see!

Aaron's Walk

LOVED making this page last night. Check out my background paper! They let off a ton of balloons and I took a quick photo! Only had time for one or two photos since they drifted away. I used a sketch from Sketch Support for my layout. It's one they are currently promoting, so click here to check out their post. I used my last Purple Pumpkin flower up. It's the red and blue flower with a button in the middle. Good thing I ordered more! I used Tim Holtz tape for the center section. Since I was covering over some super red sparkly paper, I wanted to have maximum stickage! If you get a chance, wander over to Sketch Support and see what they have to offer. It's freebies and really fun if you have a big layout you want to get done.

SCRAP ADDICT: So Stoked! Confession Time & Any Questions?!

SCRAP ADDICT: So Stoked! Confession Time & Any Questions?!

I was reading your post on an ipad and had to come upstairs to write back on a real computer. (YOU GOT ME OFF THE COUCH as it's bedtime here in NY and my time for pjs and checking out other people's pages so that is how important I felt it was to write back) I am at that point you were discussing so I guess I am at Stage 1, not on any DT's and questioning why. Am I not good enough, not got the right name, etc. it's nice to know I am not the only person who has ever felt that way! One tries not to worry about all that, but then, why spend the time on LO's for challenges and the actual time for the post. I see now how it could just keep building...And perhaps the blessing of your post is to remind me that I really do it because I love it. And, I suppose because other people (not even just "followers") say reading my blog each day makes them happy. So, I say to you AND Nadia (whose blog I also stalk regularly) that yes less is more, but regardless of what super important cool magazine that features your work..there are girls checking out your work and enjoying it..it brightens their world a bit. And although we don't even "know" you we are a bit sad when you are sad and hope that things get better soon.

And Nadia, who cares if your style fits any magaine's style, I try to copy you all the time. It's awesome just the way it is.

Happy Anniversary!

Just a quick blog update tonight. We had a lovely day with our friends Joe and Marilyn. Got to share some scrapping techniques and some yummy banana cake! I made this card and another tonight, had to get a bit of glimmermist on my hands! It's an anniversary card & basket for my Mom and Dad. It's a bit past, but I intend to hand deliver it next week. Let me know if you love the rose on this card. It's from a little shop downtown Potsdam and handmade. I am not what country it's from. Anyhow, I enjoyed adding it to my card!

Thankful for Paige

Oh goodness, so many bloggers to thank today and sadly a bit of a sober note.

So, spotted this super amazing blog lady a couple of days ago offering some of her paper if you followed new bloggers. NOW that is my idea of cool. She is one of the Design Dollies and if you want to check out their blog and cool color challenge, click here. So, after spotting her cool post and following her, I decided that I wanted to also play around with their color challenge.

If you want to check out Karen's post click here.

She runs a really cool blog called Vanilla Scraps and I admire her for her paying it forward post. AND, her pages are super cool. The one she has up today talks about her son having to play tennis all bundled up. I am am getting a kick out of other people having winter while we are suffering through the heat wave! (and I totally would have watched from my warm car!)

Ok back to business. So, they had these totally cool summery colors to use. I love those colors. I had just bought a page of very stiff turquoise glittery paper with no clear purpose. That I used for my background circle. I also spent some time making some cool flowers (check out Vicky's post here for the Lilly Flowers). I blogged about her other flowers on my last post which I also made more of. I do love that punch. It isn't too great with thicker paper, but thin mulberry type paper is awesome.

I also had in mind to play along with Once Upon A Sketch (check out their challenge here) but sadly didn't realize I needed to use their sketch. However, I made a page honoring a woman or girl in my life. I'm going to link it up, but only to say thanks for offering a super cool blog with awesome ideas. I can't say I normally would have made this page about Paige (pun intended). She is the sweetest of little girls, but just has slipped so normally into our lives....I kind of just take her for granted. Lexi (my daughter) is starting up with hormones and really starting to grow more. Anybody that can help ease that transition for her is a star in my book! Plus, little Paige calls me Mrs. Pratt. Boy do I feel OLD!

A bit about my background...yes, I used up a old sheet of rub-on letters I had! Yes, I know that lime green was NOT part of the challenge color for the Dollies...but they were green GLITTER letters...can you see my point here??

Now if you are still reading, here is my sad news. We moved up here around a year ago. Found out just recently that some classmates of mine from highschool were also here. So, although its been quite a few years (almost 20), I hooked up with a couple of them and made a scrap page. I was looking forward to making more pages and showing them both some more techniques. I just found out today that one of the ladies unexpectedly passed away. Although I don't know her well, I am glad that I was able to share some of my joy of scrapbooking with her. So, I guess I am saying share your art with everyone and hug you family close. Sorry for the sober end. And thanks for reading!

You ever have a moment where you sit back and think about how thankful you are? This will be one of those posts! I seriously am thankful for all the people that spend their time posting cool ideas and layouts. Seriously! So, I threw this page tonight with a lack of planning. Meaning that it was around 8:30 and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to get my hands on some paper and glue...So, I started poking around the blogs. I knew I had read recently that the Kraft It Up Blog challenge was to create a time line with a minimum of three photos. I was pretty sure I didn't have anything recent that worked for that although it sounded super cool. I started looking through photos and DID have three that would work. You know, I never would have used all three on one page...so I am super thankful for a challenge that pushes me to try something new. I had also spotted this cute layout challenge at Sketchy Thursday and wanted to play along. Amazingly, their layout needed THREE photos...see how well this is all working?
With a minimum of effort I got a good ground work. Basically I pulled out a really old stash of red, white, and blue paper (this was an event supporting Wounded Warrior and I had to use our colors!) from Close to My Heart. It did my heart good to use some stuff up. Then I stared at my page for a bit. I had just purchased these really cool banner stamps from Close to My Heart and hadn't used them yet. So, I MADE myself stamp a banner...and use these itty bitty seed beads that happened to still be sitting on my crating table. I haven't seen anyone use them on a banner yet...hope someone scraplifts that from me, 'cause that was lots of fun! Next, the flower. I had a great base in the blue pom pom flower from Webster's Pages, but I needed something else special. I had spotted this great flower tutorial a bit back and I have been DYING to try it. Needless to say I had not been successful finding this punch that Vicky recommends. Her flowers looked so cool though so I hadn't give it up. Well, found it this weekend by fluke at Michals so I was determined to give it a try. Hers are much different than mine...since I used newspaper print. Check out her tutorial, it's super easy to follow by clicking here.

So, viola! So, to three different blogs and countless girls I don't know who spend their free time helping others with their passion, I say thanks!

So, it's one of the hottest days of the year here (more to come I am sure) and I am crawling into our storage space with a flashlight in hunt of photos from a trip to Paris I took when I was in highschool. Laying on my belly and pulling albums out of totes, I was trying to decide if I was crazy. I need the photos for the next page swap I'm doing with Marilyn! And while I'm looking, I am trying to figure out if my family could have actually taken less photos of just scenery and one of me! I suppose it would be pointless to yell at them after 20ty years! I did decide then and there that I was totally addicted to this hobby. Not to mention that I will be sending these photos to my Aunt in hopes SHE remembers where some of them were taken although I did make notes in the album but it wasn't enough for me to really get the gist of what/where/when we were doing. WHICH of course brings me around to why we scrapbook. To remember all those times. Sorry for the brief rant, maybe it's the heat! Also totally sorry for you folks now experiencing winter. We just got rid of ours. I will totally stop complaining about the heat!

Easter Lisa's Way

Had a HUGE amount of photos from my friend Lisa's Easter party I wanted to make into a page. I think I have a future project coming for her with the rest of the photos! There are so many adorable ones of kids! I focused on MY kids of course with the exception of that little munchkin down in the corner in yellow who is sneaking up on a group of adults with Silly String. And of course the cool photo I used on my last layout with my daughter, son, and their friend and Pip-Squeek! It was such a fun party and she had all the right elements for kids.

The layout design is from http://www.sketchsupport.com/. I have had my eye ball on this sketch for a while and wanted to do a two pager with it. Allison's sketches are pretty awesome. I wasn't sure last night when I got it all laid out if I liked it. It seemed too simple, not detailed enough. I like busy layouts! Anyhow, a little (Ok a lot) of glimmermist gave me just enough of a painterly feel paired with some pop dots for dimension. I also sewed around the edges of the tree I cut out with my silhouette and that made me a lot happier! Love the stickers and rabbits, they are from Lisa. She knew I'd make a page!

And yes, the pic that looks like a toad peeping out of a hole in a container? Yes is just that. The kids captured a few toads for the day but were released for Easter when the candy was handed out.