Sketches 4 All Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Sketches4All blog hop! Before you read on too far, make sure that you have started  the hop at Melissa Pablo's Awesome blog! And you should have arrived here at my blog after being inspired by Jackie's blog.

I am so glad to be a part of Sketches 4 All. It's a great community of people with a lot of challenges and inspiration. There truly is something for everyone there from cards to layouts to altered creations. If you are not already a part of the family there, we sure hope you will join us.

As you can guess from the name...we love sketches! Sketches can be such a fun starting point for your page. I find it so interesting to see how everyone can take 1 sketch and vary it so many creative ways. For the blog hop sketch, I chose to rotate the design.

It fit perfectly with the memorabilia I wanted to keep about my DH's recent business conference. I used a little of the Basic Grey Wander line on the sides. The yellow in the stripes coordinated well with the yellow in my husband's badge. The main photos are actually cut from the tote bag my husband used while at the conference. It's kind of like an iron on transfer. I made sure it would stay put with a little hand stitching.

 I stamped part of the title and made it pop with glossy accents. This also helped it match the key card that became part of the title. A shoe lace and some staples helped to add some dimension. Kaiser craft arrow rub on's continued the arrow design from the key card throughout the layout.

Now it's your turn! We have a little contest for you.If you want to win this contest (and you know you do), then you have 2 things you need to do.

1) Just follow along the hop to the next person and find the hidden letter on each person's blog to solve the mystery word. My hidden letter is Y. Make sure you leave a comment an each blog as you hop along to get credit for your visit.

2) Then use the sketch posted above and make your own project and post it on Sketches4All. Don't forget to put in the hidden word you found from our blogs when you post your project

3.) Join Sketches4All.
4) Make a post in the forum for this contest!!
 It can't get any easier than that!

I'd also like to offer you a little RAK. How does a $10 e-gift certificate to A Cherry on Top sound?
To be eligible for the rak on my blog there are a few things you can do, each one will get you another entry into my rak. I will pick a random name from the entries to win!!
 1. leave a comment below

2. If you want another chance of winning, blog about the bloghop (please link back your blog link  so I can check out your blog. I'll bet it's cool!).

3. You can also earn an extra entry by signing up for my challenges at Skeches4All. Not to mention that completing one or more of my challenges also gets you a chance/chances to earn a RAK in my monthly drawing.
4. Become a blog follower.Don't forget to leave me a comment here to tell you you did so.
There are lots of chances to win on this blog hop! And Sketches for all is just filled with chances to win RAK's from the monthly challenges posted by myself and fellow DT members. So it you like great people, great challenges, awesome inspiration and fun...then hop through our blogs and try out Sketches 4 All! The next stop is Khristen!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog. :) You have until Dec. 6th to finish the hop. Happy Hopping!

Another November Challenge from SOS

Recently, I bought a texture boutique. I have been wanting to have the ability to emboss. I love that I can use almost any brand name embossing folder in it. One of the things I stumbled across in my quest for embossing folders was a cricut kit to make your own embossing folder. Essentially, what you do is to cut a design on the provided sheets and then adhere the design to the plastic folder. This produces a custom design of your own.

What you will need: a cricut machine, the cricut embossing kit, 1 pack of extra sheets to cut( optional, but I highly recommend it if it's your first time. I messed up a few times and ended up using 3 sheets), a design to cut

I HIGHLY recommend thinking out the design you want to use very carefully. Choose something you just can't find in an already made folder. I bought my embossing kit at Joann's for $10 and then another $10 for the spare sheets. So this can be an expensive folder to make. The design needs to be unique for it to be worth the cost. Also, I won't lie...this was a lot of work. At least for me on my first folder. I think my mistake was in choosing such a small design. I had these chipboard people and I had decided to make an embossing plate to match them. I found a dingbat font of a man, woman and boy holding hands...which matched my chipboard people perfectly. It was a small design though! So it took me 3 hours to make the folder!( now that I know what I am doing, it will be a lot less next time- I hope!)


Step 1: choose your design and set your cricut to do a double cut. I used SCAL and a dingbat font. I do not have a deep housing blade. One is not necessary if you use the double cut. I didn't use the double cut the first time...so I had to use another sheet. thank goodness I had some!
Step 2: carefully remove the design from the cutting mat. the negative space will be on one side, so you will remove the backing and adhere, then run it through your embossing machine to make sure it sticks.
Step 3: take the parts that were cut out, remove the backing and stick them to the opposite side of the folder. this is where I had some trouble. Take the image that was cut out and put it back inside the negative space, then remove the backing on the image. Run it through the embossing machine and it will stick...in the right place to the opposite side of the folder.

As you can imagine...with such small images, this took me quite some time. It was especially hard to get all the little heads poked out and then adhered to the folder. I do think it was worth my efforts though! I used one of the November sketches to make a title page for an album.

I embossed 3 sheets of carstock and inked the edges on colorbox black ink. I used naked chipboard from K and company and Maya Road. Basic Grey June bug embellishments were added for a hint of color. Hand stitching softened the hard colors of the red cardstock and making memories 5th avenue ribbons.In place of the photo, I used a sheet of vellum with the title for the album. The word family was a die cut given to me by a friend. To create a visual triangle, I used a silver hat pin slipped inside the stitching. It helped balance the silver on the chipboard people and the silver S( for our last name) on the tag. The silver S was a find at a thrift store. It was inside a tin marked We R memory keepers for $1. A great find as I have a lot of metal letters now. You can see that I shifted some of the sketch elements around to make it work for my page.

As far as the cricut embossing folder kit...I do plan to try it again. Now that I know what I am doing, I think it will take me less time and effort. I am very happy with the results of the folder I made. It's unique to me and to my page. That's what made it all worth it!

If you have a page to share, post it at Scrap Our Stash Show and tell Sunday!

Authentic Cattitude

Yes...she has it! Not usually. Just in this photo I took of her. You see, DS likes to leave boxes in different spots around the house. No one was sure if the cats would fit...but we wondered if they would try. Sure enough...Sweetpea hopped in and fell asleep. I tried my best not to wake her as I took her photo. As you can see by the groggy look of disgust, I failed. LOL

This is a page maps sketch completed for Skethes 4 All's sketch crazy contest. I recently took the "6 layouts,1 kit" class from stash to treasure and so I decided to employ a new technique here. I stamped on the back of the cardstock with some Sassfrass flower stamps. I wish I had a background stamp...it would have turned out better, I think. I then sprayed glimmer mist in silver sugar over it. While it was wet, I tore a circle in the center and rolled the paper.

You can see some of the flowers on the rolls, just a little. All of the papers, borders, and flowers used are from Sassafrass.The blue lace is prima. I hand cut the leaves from scraps. The blue leather frame and blue brads are MM Chloe's closet. I cut the title on my cricut using Ck beantree font and SCAL. the rub on is BG two scoops.I used a Jenni Bowlin pin and some metal pins from the fabric store. ( I heart metal pins now!BTW...they are just such an easy way to add a little something more to a page!)

Overall, I loved the class at Stash to treasure and hope to take more there. I am so glad that I was able to try it out. Sometimes taking classes helps me to push my limits. In this case, I always liked the torn frame...just not usually when I did it on a page. I think I most often don't like a technique when i am just not used to using it. I am going to push myself a little more out of my comfort zone and see what i can come up with...

Climb: an exploration of inspiration

   Paint can be a tricky medium. It looks awesome on a page but yet, it is such a permanent thing to commit to. It takes a little getting used to when you are trying it out on a page. I find that the more I use it, the more comfortable I am becoming with it.

For " Climb" I felt that paint was just the thing to use on the page. It's a page I completed for a combination of challenges at Sketches 4 All. One challenge being a scraplift and another being an ad inspiration challenge. I also added the challenge to use circles on the page and my own posted challenge...to make a hand made embellishment. Here are the 2 inspirational pieces from which I created my own page:

by Stacy R.

ad inspiration challenge photo

The basic design of Climb is a very close scraplift of Stacy 's page. I have been wanting to go back to basics...back to when I frequently used pens or markers on a page as part of the design. I did that a lot when I first started scrapbooking and somewhere along the way, I forgot that pens were for more than journaling. I used my new Bic Marc it's to draw a border around the white paint on the kraft paper. Overall, I placed many of my page's elelments the same way she did.

From the ad, I took the color. I love the bright splash of green and orange on the white. Those colors instantly drew me to the trees in the Jillibean Soup papers. However, the black base was too much, too strong. So I chose a more organic approach with the kraft paper and the browns. It also better matched the outdoor photos. I loved the repetitive circles of the trees. So I fussy cut some more Jillibean paper and made the circle into scallops. I used papertrunks circle pattern from the Batik collection to stamp some white circles onto kraft. Layering this trim over the scallop provided a more finished look to the page. I fingerpainted a circle onto a piece of scrap kraft. Some handstitching and painted rays made a sun. However, the sun was still flat. Stitched swirls similar to the splashes of paint in the ad provided a more complete and interesting  sun. A Handstitched title and date ad to the homespun/natural tone. The bird( from K and company) completes the nature imagery.

I am definately more comfortable with the paint than the times I have used it before. It's easy to combine challenges and inspiration into one page. It can leave you with a wonderful page that you love and enjoy sharing.

Scrap Our Stash November Sketch Challenge

One of my biggest challenges is finishing off albums. It's not always the lack of scrap time. Sometimes, it is getting inspired by newer photos and moving on to new albums before one is finished. The sketches for the November challenge gave me the inspiration to complete some layouts in some albums that have awaited completion for months.
The first sketch sprung to life in my mind as the title page for a spring album.

I used the making Memories Panorama collection and some vellum. Since I live in a tropical locale, this collection of papers was perfect!

I love the palm trees on the paper, but really hated the idea of covering them up. The stitched vellum panels still allows the design to show through while providing an anchor for the title block and embellishments. Since I used a collection of papers and embellishments, this page was made in a snap!


I love using memorabilia on a page and I felt this 2nd sketch was perfect for some that I had from a recent trip to Planet Hollywood. I sort of adapted the sketch and my page is a very loose interpretation of it. I believe strongly that you make a sketch work for you...you don't work for the sketch.

The place mat was used as the base piece for the layout. I again used vellum to allow the design show through. In this case, the vellum also helps tone down the loud design and colors of the place mat while giving me a place to fit in my journaling. The large vellum block and smaller vellum pieces are my interpretation of the hearts from the sketch.

Don't forget to use an archival mist on keepsakes like this place mat. I fit in 2 photos I had taken...one of us and one of the restaurant. I moved them down a little to cover the stock photos on the place mat. I also used a found VIP coupon as the title block.I will say that I love the quick versatility of embellishing with a hat pin. The silver pin through the prima flower gave it a little extra something I felt the title block was missing. I handstitched around the drink glass my son got as a souvenir(since I did not have good photos of it) and then added some glossy accents to make it pop more.


Using a collection of items and sketches provide a fast easy way to get pages done. If you don't buy kits or items from a collection, you may want to try sitting down and making up little kits with items from your stash. You may find that you create some pages you love in a short amount of time.

a Bright and Happy Sketches 4 All DT sketch reveal

WOW...it's been a few weeks since I have posted. I must admit that family illness and travel have left little time for blogging and sadly, scrapbooking. I did manage to find a little time to complete the DT sketch for Sketches 4 All. I am honored and excited to continue to be a part of their Design team. I was also happy that this sketch helped me to complete a page that was several months overdue!

My son has a fascination with most things SCI FI. He gets it from his parents. What can I say...except that it's very awesome to share something in common with him that both my husband and I love. In the past few years, my son has developed an obsession with aliens. When he found out that we had seen an alien statue at Planet Hollywood in Orlando, he requested we take him there for a birthday lunch. We happily complied...however, it's been so long since my DH and I have been there that many things have changed. Including the props showcased there. The alien is no longer on display. We did enjoy a nice lunch and DS got to see many sci fi related props. It was still a great trip. I love that they take your photo as you go in the door. I have a wonderful photo of my DS.

I sprayed some of the napkins with archival mist and found they worked great with the page. Kraft paper toned down the rich purple photo frame. I pulled the red and yellow from the napkins. I used borders punched from a swap I was in and added a purple recollections Halloween border. The I-rock allowed me to easily add some bling to the prima flowers and border. The tickets were from a Rak I had just received. I am a sucker for these little tickets and was so glad to use them here...along with the silver hat pins I have had in my stash for months. Now I am hat pin crazy! LOL You may be seeing them on other pages. Stay tuned for page 2 of this layout....

P.S>since I love the bright colors of this page and since it just makes me happy, I am submitting it over at Scrap Whispers!
P.P.S.Don't be surprised if you see this at frosted designs 11-5-10 challenge. ;)