Stick-It-Down

I did this two page layout earlier this month and forgot to blog about it. This was the last of my procrastinated layouts. So now I am free to just scrap whatever... like I don't just do that anyway.. lol. But it really did feel good to get it done. Anyway I was blessed enough to have another layout of mine featured at Stick-It Down, when I saw it I realized I had never posted this one.....
  I was lucky enough to get these photos from Trips first birthday party. Tim's brother is a professional photographer and he took these wonderful shots. I used the 2 page sketch from March at Stick-It- Down. 
Here is the sketch

 And here is my take....

The paper is from the Carta Bella Ahoy There collection.
The party was Peter Pan themed and I had cut silhouettes for the wall behind the food table. So I cut a smaller version for this layout. I cut the silhouettes, the title and the ships wheels with MTC.
  Thank you so very much for stopping by and spending your time with me.
Hope your day is filled with many beautiful memories.
Brenda

.......Stick It Down

  I also managed to do the one page layout too. Yep I had a bit of a me day yesterday! But I needed a kick in the pants to get back in the craft cave. A friend in my yahoo group posted a link about a week end crop on Shimelles blog. I have seen her work before but did not follow her blog. Oh my my so happy to change that. So I joined the facebook group and got 3 of the 5 challenges done yesterday. Yep, planned on getting them all blogged and shared yesterday but ran out of steam but 3 LAYOUTS it has been a long time!!! Ok no more gloating.......
 The sketch from Stick it Down

And my take.......

This layout is soooo far out of my comfort zone, but I really like it! I am in a yahoo group and there is a challenge to use all green papers for a layout. So I hit my scrap bag and got these together. Then hit my cardstock stash for a background piece to pull it all together. The floral and polka dot are a 2 sided classic Martha paper!!  Found some green sparkly thickers and then hit the button jar! Can not remember the last time I used buttons on a layout. When I decided to journal in brown I went back and added a bit of brown to the embellies... yep love my wire thread and had just the right colors for this layout! So glad I attempted this. Was a sketch that scared me and a color scheme I could not wrap my head around and the outcome a layout I like!!!  One of the challenges at Shimelles crop is monocromatic...got that one covered!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have a moment to scrap your blessings today!
Brenda

Scrapping the hard things....

 On Dr Suess day my niece posted this picture of my brother with the quote "Sometimes you never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory" I had never seen this picture.... so it was a little hard to swallow. I still can not believe he has been gone 16 years. So I decided to grab this photo off facebook and  keep it where I can love it. Robbie loved his girls more than anything and this picture truly captures that for me.
I used sketch number #187 from Sketches in Thyme

 I really love this sketch. I had a bit of a hard time with the layering and felt that my end product was a bit one dimensional. I love the look and think I will really do some digging and see if I can't improve on the next one.
Here is my layout.

Everything except for the brown wire and the little embellie that says "with great love" came from the Jack and Jill collection by Echo Park. So it went together quickly.
  I really appreciate you taking a moment to share in my messy life. I hope today brings you many reasons to smile.
Brenda

Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

 I am excited to get to participate in this months blog hop at Scrapping Our Stash. I hope you got here from Alisons blog. If not you need to go back and check ut her amazing creation.
This is my year of joy. One of the things that I have "uncovered" that steals my joy is procrastination. So I am trudging through the things  I have put off for so many different reasons...... This layout is one that I started in June.... yep it has been on a desk in my craft cave since then. This is Olivia's first recital and the picture is so gorgeous. I convinced myself that the layout also had to be perfect. Well no matter how I tried it was not even close. I worked with it  and worked with it but was never happy enough to apply any adhesive. So recently I decided that I was going to finish it and I am so happy I did. This is certainly not what I was envisioning, but I have joy that it is done and the desk is ready for me to create another layout for the first time in months!
  I used a prompt at Whimsical Musings "Inspired by doilies" as my starting point. I had bought some new flowers to use on it but they did not make the cut at all lol so everything is from deep in the recesses of my stash.

The background paper is a piece of old recollections scallops on gray that was given me, I soften it with a piece of blue vellum. I watercolored the piece with the title on it. This was the beginning of the falling apart of my vision. I love the look of watercoloring but just can not seem to master it at all.I will keep trying...... The pattern papers are all MME Ooh LaLa This was one of the first collections that I bought!! The blue doilie was colored with Tim Holtz distress ink in Tumbled glass. The flowers are all Prima from my stash. I added small pink roses that were gifted me several years ago. The lace trim and the bling were just miscellaneous pieces from who knows where.

Well as you see it was quite the hodge podge of a layout. But I can happily say it is done! It has been a reminder that way too often I am my own worst enemy and do not follow through because the evil perfectionism has taken over, and  quickly perfectionism becomes procrastination. I am going to hang this in my craft room as a reminder that I need to just stick with a layout and have the memories preserved, eight months is just too long to wait.
 Thank you so much for stopping by and listening to my saga. Please hop on over to Juliana's She always has the most beautiful layouts. She is truly talented and I know you don't want to miss it.
   Thank you so much for your time and today just may be the day to attack that "no more procrastination" list!
Brenda

Guest designer at Stick It Down

  I am so excited to have my layout featured today at Stick it Down. Please hop on over there and check out the awesome sketches and the projects by the very talented design team.
I know I have disappeared again..... but what a wacky end to 2015 beginning to 2016. My mom fell and broke her hip and wrist so I went and stayed with her for 3 weeks of her rehab. I have been totally out of the loop. We just finally got to celebrate Christmas this past Saturday. I am really feeling like I totally missed January.
  Since I had no Christmas pictures to use for this wonderful sketch, I decided to take some photos of my Christmas decor. It is very hard to "plan" a family gathering for Christmas with my family( too many other families to work around.) This year I told the girls to figure out what would work best for them.They picked Christmas Day!!!! I was  so excited to get my entire family for Christmas Day that I ramped up the decorating this year and added several new projects..... then it all fell apart lol...But I have the projects complete for next year, and I enjoyed them this year! And Christmas in January was awesome. I truly love any day that I can have all my chicks and their chicks under my roof.
Here is the January sketch from Stick it Down

. Here is my take on the sketch....

Sorry for some of the poor photography. My sweet husband was trying to help me out so that I could get the layout done in time. You only thought I was the lousy photographer in my family .

The old window came from the "junk man" from downtown. He owned a block of the downtown area and it was a piled high junkyard. He died this year so this window has special meaning to me. I used MTC and vinyl for the nativity scene.

The vinyl tree is a favorite of the toddlers. They played a game with grandpa with pushing the dots and the lights would "go on and off"..... they would laugh and laugh. So much fun! The border is a Martha Stewart punch.

This was the prettiest tree we have gotten in years. I really enjoyed decorating it. Unfortunately by January 16th it was a mess. But we enjoyed it anyway.

I wanted to hang all the stockings this year. I had Jeff hang a curtain rod for me and used shower curtain hooks to hang them. I was so happy with it. Can you imagine we will have two more next year! I also truly love the tomato cage trees we built for the sides of the front door. They are just sooo cute!!

This tree is from a cut file from Miss Kate's Cuttables.

This is the tag that I made for all the presents this year. It was much simpler than past ones but ended up being a good thing with our wacky year. I numbered each picture and explained on this tag.
Well that is a few highlights from my home this year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a smooth start to 2016!


Thank you so very much for sticking with this LONG post. I am honored to have you visit.
Brenda

One more Halloween

  I finally finished this layout. Adrienne and Ben did not get any really good pictures this year so had to make do with what I could get. Our family has had the crud big time the last 2 weeks. Poor Zade ended up at the hospital a couple of times, Dear hubby actually missed work and that NEVER happens so this has been on my desk for awhile waiting for a break to get back to the craft cave. Right now it looks like the worst is behind us.....Happy Dance!!
  So here is the sketch #172 at Sketches in Thyme.

And here is my take......

The papers are all from Carta Bella Spooky and so are the workdstickers.
I drew the rocket on using MTC. and the buttons of course were from the stash.... the stars actually came from the dollar tree!  I have not put buttons on a layout in so long it was fun!

Thank you for spending your time with me. I hope today finds you healthy and gives you many reasons to smile.
Brenda

Back again

  I have become the world worst crafter/blogger. I have really been going through a rough patch and am not sure how long this return will last. I am truly hoping that we have discovered the issues and I can get back on track. So thank you for sticking with me and really hope to be sharing consistently again soon.
   This is a double layout which I do not use often so they fight with me, but I am happy that I stuck with it and defeated this sketch ! This is the November double sketch at Stick it Down.

As soon as I saw this I knew these pictures were perfect for the sketch. Adrienne was having a tough time getting into Halloween this year which is not typical at all. She usually is the pumpkin carving queen but this year just barely got it done. The big boys were very into it and actively worked on theirs. Zade didn't like the feel of the guts at all which led to some adorable pictures. I am thankful that Ben captured the day so that I could do this sketch!!

The papers are a combination of Graphic 45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland and Carta Bella Spooky. Both are dug out of the stash. I am not a big fan of Halloween so it takes me awhile to use my collections up. The title is Neals way of saying carving pumpkins... just had to document that, he says the funniest things. It was cut with MTC.
The embellies were all dug out of the stash.
I used my favorite stampin up gorgeous Grunge set and Lawn Fawn fake tan to create the background paper.
 Thank you all for stopping by. I truly appreciate each one of you that takes the time to visit my little blog.
May today bring you many reasons to be thankful.
Brenda