Catching up!

Last week was a whirlwind with the boys starting school and all the activities in full swing. Saturday we had Mom's camp with the football team and that night was the Silent Auction fundraiser for the team which turned out awesome. All that added up to CRAZY for me and a lot of catching up for this week.

Saturday a new drill went up on the S.W.A.T blog. The new challenge is a sketchy challenge with a twist. The twist? Pull out those stickers and use them up! Now we aren't talking Thickers here. That doesn't count.

Here is my layout. I doubled up on this one and used the sketch for the second half of my layout. I used an older Bo Bunny line that I bought long ago knowing that I had and would have more than enough zoo pages coming up since we love going to the zoo.

I used stickers to help make the border on the right side of the page and backed and popped up a few more stickers from the line to add some fun and dimension to the page.  Here is the sketch you will be working with if you come over and join in the challenge. There is a gift certificate to 3 Scrappy Boys up for grabs!

My second layout of the day is an older layout of Nathan and his fifth grade pictures for the Back to School post on Practical Scrappers. I look at this picture and then look at my 6 foot son who towers over me and has muscles and can't believe it's the same kid. (And yes, I am about that far behind in school pictures!) If only they would stay so young!  I also used an older Bo Bunny line for this layout. Bo Bunny seems to be the theme of the day.

Off to catch up on cleaning, bills, errands etc. Have a great week!

Lisa

Sunbursts with Practical Scrappers

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow.... ok. Done with that. But tomorrow is the first day of school and after a crazy summer with teenage boys I can't say I'm too heartbroken. Maybe a tiny bit, but the whole schedule thing and a little bit of structure is really needed here. And with school starting it means football games start soon and this football mama is looking forward to that!

Today I have a layout created for the On Trend post at Practical Scrappers. We are focusing on sunbursts today. I love the look of sunbursts and have created several layouts and cards using the fun rays. For today's project I decided to take a little different turn and created a cover for the notebook that I keep to house all of my crafty ideas, deadlines, random thoughts, title ideas, sketches...etc. Up to this point it has just been a boring red composition notebook, not much to spark creativity. Now I'm loving the look of it!

Love these papers from the Echo Park Here and Now collection. I decided to go bright and a little bit girly since I don't have that chance too often. I live in a boy world so I try to add some cheer and girl wherever I can! I love the sunbursts and the fun Epiphany Craft hearts. The only do over I really would love to have done is the background. My original idea didn't work so I had to cover it up a bit and make the best of it. I'm getting so much better at embracing my mistakes and moving forward but it sure wasn't easy to not just trash it and start a new one. Only the fact that my notebook is already half filled with ideas and begging for me to continue kept me going :)

Happy Monday and here's to a great rest of the week!
Lisa

On Trend: Negative Space Layouts

It's Monday and a very busy one at that! Making a quick stop in between haircuts and shopping for school supplies, groceries and orthodontist appts. to drop off a page made for the On Trend team at Practical Scrappers. This weeks trend involves using negative space in a layout or card. Negative space is the space left when something has been cut out or removed. It is definitely something we are seeing more and more of in the scrapping world.

First my layout:

Does that girl look happy or what?? This is my niece Mikayla on her twelfth birthday. If there was ever a little girl more obsessed with horses and dreaming of owning her own one day I'm not sure where to find her! This girl lived and breathed horses. She was more than surprised to find out that her present that year was her very own horse, and we were lucky enough to be in town on the day they took her to surprise her. It was such a fun thing to be involved in.

In the close up below you can see that I fussy cut a few arrows from my patterned paper and added some embellishments in the open space. I also used a chipboard title and backed it with cardstock and patterned paper to make a title piece. I don't have a close up here but the little heart is also backed in the pink chevron paper bringing a little fun to the middle of the heart.

I love the look of using negative pieces and though I didn't use it here one of the ways I've started to do this is by using my Cricut. There is so much that can be done with a die cut machine like the Cricut or the Silhouette. Are any of you jumping on the negative trend? I'd love to see some of your pages. Feel free to link them up here or on the Practical Scrappers blog.

Lisa

Trendy Triangles

August is here and I'm having a hard time believing it! I'm also having a super hard time believing that this is the last week of summer vacation for the boys. There is a piece of me ready for the scheduled part that comes with school and the other big piece of me that is wanting to slow this week down and pretend that it's not over yet. 

Today is the first Saturday of the month and that means it's new drill day on the S.W.A.T. blog. This time it is all about the triangles. Triangles are popping up all over the place so we want to see how you use them. I ended up using tiny triangles to make a small banner accent for a card. I used different shapes and sizes instead of going with uniform pieces. I like to think of them as small but mighty as I love the way they added such a cute look to the frame and filled up the open space so perfectly.

Now it's your turn. Head over to S.W.A.T. and check out the designs from the other team members. Big, small, background pieces, embellishments...there are tons of ways to use triangles. We'd love to see your ideas too. A $20 certificate to 3 Scrappy Boys is definitely a prize worth playing for!

Lisa