Brothers

   I have had a most chaotic couple of weeks. Adrienne was on bed rest trying to keep from going into labor so  had the boys a good bit for several weeks. Zade arrived on Sunday February 23rd he has had a short stay in the NICU so I still had the boys. After a long visit at Grandmas they are finally all together as a family. Our God is awesome. That being said I am chomping at the bit to scrap some baby pics. This is the first one.
  I used a sketch number 70 at My Scraps and More Sketches but unfortunately things went a bit haywire and I did not get it linked in before the deadline. The good news I got a layout done!
Here is the sketch.I simply love it.

 And here is my take.

 I am going to be able to submit it to a few challenges. First the Southern Girls Challenge to use a banner.
And also A Song in Your He(ART) Challenge to be inspired by the Johnny Reid song Time Flies. My journaling is directly from the lyrics.
    The papers are MME Ohh La La.
    The  embellishments are a combination of EKsuccess  classic Winnie the  Pooh and MME cut and paste
    The title was cut using  MTC
     The dots are  melted pony beads.
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing in my great joy for a moment.
Brenda

Still not sure

  I am trying a totally different approach for this post and I am still very uncomfortable with it.I almost put the layout away and did not share at all but for some reason I changed my mind.  I loved the sketch #262 at Creative Scrappers.  I have had a really hectic week so have had this one in my head for days. I really liked that the "down" of the sketch lent itself to rare sledding photos in Atlanta.  BUT I am not at all happy with how the vision played out. So here goes the different approach.... I am going to ignore everything I do not like about it and tell you what I do like. I figure you can find what you do not like all by yourself lol. So here goes...the sketch....

and my take......

 What I like
 I like the cut out chevrons because of the dimension that it adds
  I love the sled that is a file from Miss Kates Cuttables. the snowflakes are also from the same 50 cent file!
  Of course I love the pictures of my precious fun loving Skyler. They are actually stills I stole from a video
 Ben took.
 And I like the way the title turned out.
  So hoping that I do not regret this post.....
Have a wonderful day!
Brenda

Exploding life

  This has for sure been "one of those days" My daughter got put on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy so I have the 4 and 6 year old until after she recovers from her c section. I am exhausted already. Internet problems and electric problems........ Calgon take me away!
    But I did manage to squeak out a layout this morning. It follows  sketch#261 at Creative Scrappers. This is Saturday at Skylers birthday. For some reason he asked for a bag of bricks for his birthday....I am not sure what he thought he was going to do with them but he was happy with his presents even thought he did not get what he asked for lol.
  the sketch

My take

  Thanks for taking the time to stop by....Have a wonderful day!
Brenda

Totally challenged

  I am involved with a yahoo group. Scrap with Friends we do a monthly 24 hour challenge. Someone else picks your paper and a sketch for you. Well I knew that I was going to a sonogram on Thursday so I choose all 3 possible collections with those pics in mind. I must admit that I was not happy with the sketch that was chosen for me. But I am somewhat pleased with the layout. How can something so wonderful make for a bad layout!
  The weather this week was horrible and the power lines are down across my driveway (yep Jeff got us out) So I was off and on as to whether or not I was going to get to go. At lthe last minute things fell in place and I got to see the baby doing its afternoon exercise routine. It was hilarious to get ot watch it playing, flipping and stretching.I am truly blessed.
 

 I included their facebook announcement with the pictures.(the next pictures I will be able to use pink or blue!!)
 Since this is a post about challenges, I will say I am truly challenged but trying to learn. I love the look of stictching on a page but just can not seem to figure it out. I have a sew easy...but in my opinion that is not  a true statement. So I made a template in MTC and then used the needle and floss that came with the sew easy. I do like the results better but it is still not what I want...... I will keep trying. Also had a really rough time figuring out the journaling but am happy with the way that worked out. So the one part I am totally displeased with is the alphas and I realize I totally need to update!
   The paper line is by Iron Orchid called Loolah, have no clue where it came from. Fun papers.
  Thank you for taking a moment to visit me. 
Brenda
 

Bracing for the storm.....

   I am currently in a 52 week layout challenge in a yahoo group, I rushed around trying to get one done last night so that I could get it posted before we lose electricity. They are calling for an inch of ice and some significant winds today so I am thinking it is not will it go out but for how long. So keep us down here in Georgia in your thoughts and prayers please.
   This layout is quite the hodge podge.... surprise surprise..... I used a sketch #67 from My Scraps and More Sketches.I am also going to enter this at Scraptastic Club Challenge Thursday. The challenge is to have the title be a quote from someone in the layout.... Well that is super easy when you have a Neal in your life. He constantly cracks me up. The title "tention me" is what he says when he is commanding that the entire room have all eyes on him. It is so hard to believe that this is the same child that moved here with his mom and was so terribly introverted. He is now the most personable out going child I have ever seen. Yes it is amazing!

and here is my take......

The details. The yellow background paper is EK a Perfect Summer by Lori Whitlock
                   The other patterned papers are MME Boy Crazy
                   I used water colors to create the fade on the other paper for a challenge in the yahoo group.
                   I create the border with MTC.

Hope everyone is safe.
Brenda

A new gatefold card for Valentines

  I needed to do a card for a color challenge today. It was to be a Valentines card and could only use pink, red and white. Had a harder time than I thought I would lol. Kept wanting to add a bit of green or blue to it.

It is a very simple gatefold with  a cut out heart. I had a lot of fun designing the file in MTC. I wish I knew how to share my files as it is really a fun easy card. If you would like me to share with you personally you can leave me a comment and I will get it to you through email. I can share the file in MTC or svg.
I hope you have a wonderful day and Happy Valentines Day!
Brenda

Digging through "the stash"

There is a new challenge blog. Craft Hoarders Anonymous. Does this have my name all over it???? The blog is hosted by the very talented Gloria Stengel. There is an extremely talented design teams so there's lots of inspiration.  The first challenge is to do a project that showcases your style. Hmmmmmm... I tend to be all over the place so that was a tough question for me. I looked at past things I have done and then tried to pick out what were the similarities of the ones I like best. So I discovered that I really like texture on a layout. I love flowers! And the other constant is ribbon...... So now I started hitting the stash....
   I found this picture from January 2007.  Step one. This is my mom, Great Grandma Frances meeting Emme for the first time. Olivia is busy being the proud big sister. I had a bit of difficulty finding paper as everything made Moms jacket pop...lol. I settled on this Authentique lively. I was working on it when I remembered back when I first started crafting and had no idea what supplies I wanted and needed, I bought the brown, pink and green brads as one of my very first purchases.So I really could not have dug much further back. While I was looking through the container with the brads I found the charm.... I have quite a few that have been given me and this is the first time I have ever used one!! So happy. And the tulle was actually the newest addition to my stash as I bought it to make decorations for a baby shower a few weeks ago!

I used this sketch from Tammi Bennett

 

I

And this is my take 

Thank you for taking time to visit with me. I hope you will dig through your stash and get inspired to join this challenge!

Hope your day is full of wonderful surprises! 

Brenda