It's challenge day

at challenge masters! My challenge for this month is scrap outdoor pictures. Yep, it's June and everyone is busy outdoors so I made the challenge easy peasy for you. Just scrap your outdoor pics, that's it! And to celebrate Challenge Masters' new home (we just moved from the NING site) Terri the owner is doing a random draw for a $30.00 gift card to an online scrap store of your choice! All you have to do to enter is complete one of June's challenges and upload it to the challenge masters gallery.

And now for my example layout. Here are my outdoor pics. These were taken at the park by our house one Saturday. The title and journaling is from the Jack Johnson song "My Little Girl". The journaling says "Hey little girl look what you've done. You've gone and stole my heart and made it your own. My little girl. You've gone and stole my heart and made it your own."

Hope you had a great weekend!

More practice with Photoshop

If there is one thing I wish I could take a class on it would be photography! My pictures are not the greatest so I have been trying to learn as much as I can about fixing them up in photoshop. The Jessica Sprague website is the best. I have been trying out so many techniques. Here is my latest attempt ;)

I used the "create a dreamy handpainted look on a photo" tutorial. Here is my original that I cropped and added a frame to:

And here is the photo I tinted and added a black border to:

Don't you just love that frame?? I can't stop using it! Thanks for stopping by!

A sneak peak...

Last month I was asked to be a guest designer for Scrapstreet.com magazine by Pamela Young!

It is so exciting because I have never been "asked" to do anything scrappy before. Usually I am doing the asking - lol! After stressing about my layout I finally got it done right before the deadline. I was nervous for two reasons- #1. What if she doesn't like it? and #2. It had to be a page about me and well, I am just no good at talking about myself.

The layout will be coming out in the July issue so I can't show you just yet, but here is a little sneak peek!

If you haven't seen Scrapstreet magazine you should check it out. It has a lot of great pages and best of all, it is free for a subscription!

My Little Shoebox Project

I hope everyone is having a great June!! It is soooo nice here today. Not too hot, not too cold, perfect for sitting out in the backyard.

I have one project to share today. I almost forgot about this one! This is a wall hanging that I made for the My Little Shoebox DT call. I am not getting my hopes up on this one, but I love the product so I thought why not?

I did a lot paper cutting for this one. I cut out the clouds, house, tree, and that cute little bird house in the tree. I got out my tiny scissors for that one! Then I folded and sanded a strip of the green paper to make the grass. To finish it off I punched butterflies with my Martha Stewart punch and added the Kaiser pearls to the tree.

Have a great day!

June Make N' Take

Hello June!!! Father's day is almost here. Do you have a card yet? If not you can make one of these nifty gift card holders! I saw a gift card holder like this on one of the manufacturer's blogs. I just can't remember which one it was. I simplified it a little and made a few changes here and there to make it a little easier, but it is not my idea alone. I am just passing on the inspiration.

All the directions can be found HERE on the Simply Obsessed Blog.

Outside of gift card holder:

Inside of gift card holder:

These would be perfect for birthdays, showers, thank you's, etc. Happy June and Happy Father's Day! And I think there are still a few June SO kits left!

Hello Summer!

Aghhhhh! It feels like forever since I have been on this computer! The last two weeks of school are always so stressful. But it is now officially summer vacation!

The good things about summer vacation:

• I can sleep late
• No school
• Lots of things to do with Frances
• Warm weather

The bad things about summer vacation:

• There's actually only this one- I made a super long to do list of all the things I have been putting off. I am going to start on it first thing tomorrow morning. It's boring stuff like clean out the garage, blah, blah, blah.

And speaking of summer! There is a new sketch at Scrapbook Challenges today that just screams summer. When I saw it I thought of this picture of Frances I have been putting off scrapping. Whenever I see it I can't believe how tiny she was! There actually was a time when she couldn't run away from me!! And after today I kind of miss those days- lol! I think I said "Frances NOOOOO" about 1000 times today.

Well onto to this sketch! Here it is:

And here is my take:

You can see what the rest of the DT did HERE.

And if you live in the US Happy Memorial Day. God Bless everyone who is serving or has currently served in our military. Right now I have two cousins overseas, one in Afghanistan and one in Egypt and we couldn't be prouder.

Here it is...

Monday's sketch that is! Check out the new sketch from Scrapbook Challenges.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take:

You can see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch HERE.

Join us

for the May Simply Obsessed crop!

Simply Obsessed throws the best crops! Hope you will stop by!

Time for a new...

sketch! Here is Pamela's new sketch at Scrapbook Challenges.

And here is the two-pager-

You can see what the DT did with the sketch HERE.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there. Seriously one day is not enough!!! This should be a repeating holiday throughout the year. My husband made me breakfast, gave me some flowers and candy and then watched Frances while I finished up a layout for the July issue of Scrapstreet.com magazine. I am so excited I was asked to be a guest designer for the month of July. I just finished my layout and sent it off. It will be published in the July issue.

I told my husband for Mother's Day I would like the new version of photoshop elements. I don't think that's what I am getting, but I can hope! I have been playing around with it lately (with help from the Jessica Sprage website) and there is so much you can do to your pics. Last night I practiced on this photo. Here is my orginal:

Here is the one I edited in photoshop:

I changed the color to a soft hue and blurred it a little, then added the frame mask. I read that the effect is a lot better with the newer version of photoshop, but I think this looks pretty good. I have a few pictures I took of Frances playing in the backyart I want to fix up next.

Here are two of Frances on our patio. Not sure why blogger uploaded the right on sideways??? Blogger is so weird sometimes! You can see her cute litte pink converse I just bought her. She looks soooo cute in them!

And this one is of her running away from me. I want to crop it, angle it, lighten the color and then put a mask frame around it.

Well thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!

And the winners are...

The winners have been announced at Scrapbook Challenges for the Scrapbook Challenges blog hop and the NSD crop. You can check all winners HERE.

I did a random draw of all the comments on the blog hop post and of all my followers.  And the winners for the packages of Sassafras goodies are...

#1 for leaving a comment is.............

lespeterson74 said...
I love how you added the paper behind the sketch. i am a use the full page gal... no open space for me.... Its kind of like that ackward silence.... it makes me uncomfortable! Cute little one too!

AND

#2 for being a follower is..................

Christy Strickler

Send your addresses to me at scrapcetera@aol.com and I will get your package of goodies out to you.

And thanks again to everyone who left such sweet comments.

Monday's Sketch

Hello everyone and thank you for the wonderful comments left on my blog this weekend. They mean more to me than you know! I appreciate everyone's kind words so much. I will be doing the two random draws for the packages of Sassafras goodies as soon as Pamela announces the winners over at the Scrapbook Challenges forum. Please check back to see if you won!!

Until then here is Pamela's new sketch for the week. Have fun with it!

And a two pager if you'd like:

I didn't participate this week, but you can see what the rest of the fabulous DT did with the sketch HERE.

Another challenge

*****There's still time to participate in the Scrapbook Challenges blog hop! All comments and entries are due tonight May 2nd at midnight MT time. See my post below for all the details!!*****

Lots of new challenges this weekend for National Scrapbook Day!! Here is one more. On the first of the month I post my challenge at Challenge Masters. This month my challenge is to scrapbook a memory that you don't want to forget. I came up with this challenge when I was looking through my photos from last summer. I saw the photo of my cute little Frances on the swings at the park. I remembered how scared she was when I first put her on the swings! Doesn't that face say it all! She is growing so fast and these are the things I don't want to forget.

If you want to play along all you need to do is go on over to the Challenge Masters forum and become a member of the "The Daily Grind" group. I am offering a RAK and there is a random draw for participating in any challenges posted during the month of May. Up for grabs this month are kits (yes KITS, with an S) from our May sponser Queen Scraps. There are a ton of challenges to choose from and every challenge completed earns you a draw for the kits.

Challenge Masters Crop

If you are here for the blog hop it's the next post down! Thanks to everyone who left comments. Your comments are always so sweet and I can never get enough of hearing how cute baby Frances is!

So now on to the Challenge Masters Crop! Challenges Masters is having a crop for NSD. It is filled with fun challenges, RAKs and a chance to become a guest designer. There is still time to play along with us. Check out the forum for all the details. I am hosting a card challenge and here is the card I created for my example:

I hope you'll come by and check out the crop! Happy National Scrapbook Day!!

The Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop!!

Welcome to Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop!!!

If you just found us you can start the blog hop at Pamela's blog.

Let me introduce myself in case you are new here. I am Sarah, a returning DT member to scrapbook challengs. I loved my time on the DT so much I was thrilled to be asked back for another term. I live in Chicago with my husband Ron and 1 year old daugher Frances. Frances is the subject of most of my projects.

For the blog hop Pamela created this special sketch for the new DT, returning DT, retiring DT and YOU!!! Yes you! You can join our blog hop by creating a layout based on this sketch and posting it to the hop on section in the Scrapbook Challenges forum. And your name will be entered into a random draw for a pretty fantastic RAK (see below for details!).

Here is my layout based on the sketch. This is my sweet Frances when she was only 2 weeks old. My how she has grown!!

And now for the fun part- the RAKS involved in the blog hop!!

1. I am doing a random draw for two packages of Sassafras goodies! To be entered for the first package just leave a comment on this post. I will do a random draw of all my followers for the second package. So if you leave a comment and become a follower of this blog you will double your changes of winning! I will announce the winners here and on scrapbook challenges at the end of the blog hop.

2. Everyone who leaves a comment on ALL blogs, gets entered into a drawing for the April Scarlet Lime kit shown below! 

3. Everyone who does a layout based on the sketch this weekend and posts it in the Hop On section on Scrapbook challenges will get entered into a drawing for the "My Family" line from Fancy Pants Designs. :)

4. There will be a Prima RAK for joining Scrapbook Challengs

5. And another Prima RAK for inviting someone to join Scrapbook Challenges using the invite link on the site.

Good Luck Everyone and I can't wait to see all your layouts!!!

The next blog to hop to is............................ Rene' (http://www.stampinginsunnysa.blogspot.com/)

Some new challenges

Hello there everyone. Here are some new challenges for you.

First up is Monday's sketch from Scrapbook challenges:

And here is my take on the sketch using some fabulous My Little Shoebox papers and embellies. I love, love, love the MLS papers, but unfortunately they can not be found here. Luckily I found some on Scrapbook.com and had it delivered. They were out of some of the designs I wanted, but I found lots of goodies. I flipped this sketch to make it fit my photos a little better. You can see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch HERE.

And it is also my week to host a challenge at Scrapbook Challenges. My challenge this month is "Spring All Over". For this challenge you have to use a variety of spring related embellishements on your layout. All the details can be found HERE. This is my example layout also using my new My Little Shoebox papers.

The Scrapbook Challenges sponsor for April is Paper Crafts and they have generously donated a prize pack for one lucky winner. For every challenge you enter your name will be submitted for the random draw. Good luck to all who enter!

Hello again

It's seems like forever since I have posted! Boy oh boy has it been busy around here! The end of the school year is always the busiest and I haven't had a moment to relax lately. Only five weeks until summer break though and then I will be staying home with my sweet Frances. I can not wait!

Now onto the May kit from Simply Obsessed- Crate Paper Pink Plum! I loved this kit. The colors and embellishments were just perfect. I finished two layouts of our Easter pictures.

My last project is an 8 x 8 wall hanging I made from the page of an old chipboard album. I used a picture of Frances and I from Mother's Day last year and used repositionable tape so I can change the photo this Mother's Day.

And I saved some exciting news for last! Scrapbook challenges is having a blog hop this weekend! I hope you will be able to make it. There will be lots of RAK's to give away and the new DT members will be announced.

And if that's not enough the blog hop will also coincide with our National Scrapbook Day crop.

New Sketch

A little late, but here is the sketch this week for scrapbook challenges. The talented Pamela Young has done it again!

The one page version:

And the two page version:

You can see what the DT did with the sketch HERE and play along with us!

A little under the weather

The flu hit our house this week. Bad. First Frances was sick, then my husband was sick, then I was sick and now grandma is sick. I think part of the problem is that Frances just learned to kiss and is trying to give everything and everyone kisses! Not good for keeping the flu away :(

So no scrapbooking for me the last week, but there is a new sketch posted at Scrapbook challenges.

Also my April "Daily Grind" challenged is posted at Challenge Masters. It is to scrapbook some of your daily errands. All the details can be found here. If you enter you will entered into a random drawing for a RAK from me and in a drawing to win a prize from the current sponsor Cutter Creek store! It is a really cute package of scrapping goodies.

April Obsession- OA Thrift Shop

The April Kit from Simply Obsessed has arrived! I loved working with it and there a still a few more left in the store!

I made these two layouts and a card and I have a few more layouts in the works.

And- I just received an email that the layouts I submitted for the Memory Makers Big Book of Ideas were accepted! This will be my first time published in print. The book doesn't come out until May 2011 though so you will have to wait a while to see them ;)

I was also asked to be apart of a new design team- Challenge Masters. This is a really fun challenge site with lots of diferent challenges. I am going to be heading "The Daily Grind" group. My first challenge will be posted on Sunday.

Have a happy and blessed Easter. - Sarah