Easter is almost here

  My son is counting down the days. He is pretty spoiled. Last year we took him to the Easter Fair at the resort my husband works at. We might go again this year, since we all had a blast. They had a ton of crafts, games and of course, the usual fair foods like slushies and cotton candy.

Floral paper- cosmo cricket, polka dot paper- sassafrass, grid paper- october afternoon. Ribbon- MM, paperclip-MM, journal spot-Jillibean soup, flowers- sassafrass, waterfall stickles, glimmer mist in electric blue and viva pink, boy epoxy button- pink paislee, sweet acrylix button- KI memories, 7 gypsies red mini paperclip, October afternoon stickers, Martha Stweart background stamp with clear embossing powder, Webster's pages alphas with glossy accents, DMC floss
Inspired by Peppermint Granberg's "First Day"

I guess I need to get into the spirit of things. Easter sort of crept up on me this year. I don't even have our decorations up yet. I guess I better do that today. Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover, I wish you a wonderful holiday!

Swim America

This month's Red, White and Blue challenge was the perfect motivation for me to scrap the photos of my son learning to swim. He participated in the Swim America program and finished up with it a little over a year ago. I've had the photos sitting, printed and grouped by theme begging for me to get them onto pages, but I was never sure of what paper to use. I had even bought swim team themed stickers quite some time ago when I knew he was going into the program. I realized that the small star print paper and borders in my little 6x6 kit of Pink Paislee's home town summer line would go swimmingly with the photos.

  I set to work, happily splattering sapphire glimmer mist onto the card stock.After fidgeting with the photos, I settled on a design. However, I was not happy at all with the team photo. My son seemed lost in the large group of children. I wanted some way to highlight him while still having him a part of the group. I chose to use a scrap piece of vellum. I used an craft knife to cut out a little window. It was a wonderful solution to my dilemma.

Please pardon the blurry photo and the covered faces, this was done for privacy
Pink Paislee border and Paper
Sapphire glimmer mist
 7 Gypsies number tags
Jolee's by you stickers-goggles
Making memories snaps
SEI Ink blue ink
Me and mY bug Ideas Stickers

I was very pleased to use up some older Making Memories silver snaps. I used my son's first ribbon as a part of the page while adding some of the sticker's I had been holding onto for so many years. In these photos, my son could not yet swim well, but they allowed him to participate with a coach as a spotter. he raced in the seahorse race(pool noodle) and a paddle board race.

  My second page started off with the best of intentions. When I was almost done, I realized I had a big problem. My photos were off-centre.

 I chose to draw attention away from that using markers and hand stitching. The off kilter squares sort of hide the off kilter photos and border. It may not be as noticeable here due to the lovely straightening feature of my photo editing software. ;)

  We'd love it if you shared some patriotic themed pages and projects with us here at Scrap Our Stash. With all of the wonderful events this month, I am sure you will have plenty of photo ops!

A Journey into the Past

  If you are Looking for the Sketches For All blog hop, hop to this link...or scroll down, if you are feeling in the mood to read along.

  Almost 20 years ago, a tornado destroyed my Great grandmother's home. She survived and came to live with us. She brought with her a few things she had managed to salvage including some very beaten up photos. As you may have guessed, this was one of them. The photo matte was beaten and bruised with part of the photo missing. I had no idea how, or even if, I should scrap these until a recent NSD challenge at Let's Scrap inspired me to do just that. The challenge asked for us to scrap photos cut on the diagonal. Mother nature had already done the job of cutting the photo. So I scanned it, then set about to scrap the original. I matched the papers to the original scroll work on the matte. It's a wonderful black embossed leaf print over the chipboard style base.

Let's Scrap Sketch NSD#1 from 4-30-10
papers-Jenni Bowlin, Creative Memories, Basic Grey
Acrylic paint-buttermilk
walnut stain, alos used as a spritz
prima flower
making memories tag witj Jillibean Soup twine
DMC floss
7 Gypsies brads
Lace- unkown
Crate Paper banner
Basic Grey Stamp in paint-leaves
submitted to Let's Scrap, Punky Sprouts, and Sketches for All

The wonderful thing about my paper selection today is that each one was a paper I was not sure when I would ever use. The base is a piece called feed store by Jenni Bowlin which I received with a scrap kit. I liked the vintage look and so I chose to use acrylic paint to cover the feed store name, date and location. The red paper has been in my stash for at least 3-4 years. It's by Creative Memories. I liked the way it and the brown tones of the Basic grey paper made the photo pop out.  I am very happy to have made another page for my son to see in our family heritage album. I hope someday, he is able to share it with his kids. I invite you to scrap your old photos, no matter what their shape.
 Now, on a less serious note, I am off to submit this to a banner challenge over at Sketches for All and to Punky Scraps. I absolutely LOVE their cat button!

April's Counterfeit Kit

  I know...I am a bit tardy to the party this month. However, I have a good excuse! AND...I have photos to prove it. Though you may not see the photos until a bit later. We have been traveling. I am glad to say we are safely home. As with any adventure, there is bound to be uncomfortable situations. There was no lack of those due to what a person must endure when one flies nowadays. Where were we flying to and from? Aspen, Colorado. My wonderful husband took us along on his recent business trip. My son and I enjoyed the snow and the mountains. My husband did manage to slip away now and then for some family time. Getting there and back was not fun, but that's another story for the scrapbook.
 Anyway, the only thing bad about traveling is that you can not take your scrapbook supplies with you. AT least not easily. So I missed making up my kit this month. I finally got the chance in the past day or so and now I get to share it. This month's Counterfeit kit challenge threw me for a loop. The vintage colors and some of the designs were hard for me to replicate from my stash...especially given the photos I am hoping to scrap this month. I tried my best to keep with the bird theme. There are some birds in there, but some other forest creatures came along too. It seems now may be a good time to get out some older camping trip photos as well as some of the recent ones that go with these papers. Maybe some fall photos will get scrapped as well.

October Afternoon Campfire 6x6 pad with matching chipboard,embellishments and stickers
Cosmo Cricket's Earth love in relive and repeat
Scrap Within reach carnival ride
Basic Grey Basics( for that ledger paper look)
K and Co. Diecuts with flowers, birds and various insects
Making Memories Passport alphas( canvas stickers)
Basic grey Life of the party micro mono alpha stickers
K and CO. Actopus to zed wood alphas
American Crafts rub on alphas-brown purkey
Maya Road felt badges- birds of a feather
Maya Road Crochet lace- cream
Fancy pants ribbons and ric rac trim
Maya road chipboard birds and alphas
Artsylicious splendid treasures in chocolate( felt leaves, flowers and buttons)
Bazzil chip- garden flowers
Maya Road Postage stamps-sheer
7 Gypsies postcard and insect cards
Making Memories tag

It's sort of an eclectic kit, but I still hope to put it to good use this month. Now I am off to print some recent photos and find my camping pics. Stay tuned for some new layouts....

March's Counterfeit kit- Into the Woods

  I will be the first to admit that I went WAY overboard with this kit. I am finding that while shopping my stash, the same "must have" impulsiveness that sometimes hits me while shopping in real life scenarios is very evident here. It's a good thing it IS my stash...or hubby would be broke! Looking at what I chose this month, I know there is NO way I will use it all...but it's going to be fun trying to!
  This month's Counterfeit kit challenge  was inspired by Studio Calico's Into the Woods Kit. For my main kit, I chose to mimic the colour and nature theme as closely as possible. I have a lot of Sassafrass, so this was a wonderful opportunity to use some of that paper up.many of the papers I chose were double sided so I can get more bang for my buck, so to speak.

Papers: Cosmo Cricket- earth Love/Recycle,Artsylicious fine illustrated paper in chocolate
sassafrass-apple jack/translate, life is Beautiful/intertwined, Serendipty/chirp, chirp, brown paper
and cherry delicious
alphas: K and co. actopus to zed( loved the wood grain) and pink paislee in chocolate
tags from scrapbook ID in tangerine
Frames from k and co.
K and co. transparency
K and co. journal spots
My Mind's eye chipboard journal stickers
K and co. green stack chipboard ( for the owls, mushrooms, birds and wood grain pieces)

Since money is no object, I chose to have ALL of the add on kits. Why not?!?! Right? For the Babbling Brook add on, I thought some of my Basic Grey papers would closely match the pattern and colour. I chose Crate Paper's showers since this matched the water theme of the kit. Since I had a lot of the matching embellies, those popped into the kit as well.

Basic Grey papers: offbeat's nonchalant and casual
Crate paper: Season collection winter and showers, die cut paper- cloudy
Making Memories Passport alphas ( as a substitute for the handwritten paper)
Kaiser craft mini alphas in chocolate and white
American crafts mini marks rub on alphas in purkey
ribbon-unkown
K and co. brads
Artsylicious fabulous brads in chocolate
7 Gypsies foldover sticker book in Bureau ( as a substitute for the office pockets)
Marcella K adhesive chipboard in Sabrina
Crate Paper Season title stickers and borders

  I don't have anything quite like the circle stamp in the kit.I think I might be able to use my cricut to cut a mask or perhaps some recycled bottle lids to make my own stamp. I shall have to experiment with it.

   Now, for the Mossy Knoll kit... sounds a bit ominous. Or maybe mysterious. If I were buying this kit in real life, this would have been the point at which my budget would have been lost amongst the proverbial tall grasses. I actually made this add on kit before I made the others. I was searching to find a page with the blue stripes similar to the actual Studio calico kit. This is when  had my Eureka moment. The crate paper season kit was a perfect set to incorporate with  the sassafrass papers and nature theme.It had the right colours and a fun whimsical tone which went well with the Sassafrass papers.

Crate paper:  restoration ruffles( as a substitute for the calendar die cut)
Crate Paper die cut- restoration-Cents
Crate paper: seasons- Fall and Love papers
Sassafrass; Life is Beautiful-golden love and apple Jack
Crate Paper Season chipboard accents, plus restoration bicycle
Crate Paper Seasons art brads
Making Memories Chloe's Closet green leather frame
Making Memories Chloe's Closet clips-2
Prima lace
Webster's pages lace
ribbon unknown
Crate Paper Prudence Glitter borders
Crate paper prudence Alpha twist
K and co. Borders
Making Memories Paperie Greenhouse felt clips

I added some of the crate paper restoration papers to add the vintage feel of the original kit. I don't have any circus theme pages planned. If I change my mind, I might go out on the world wide web to find some vintage images to print off. One of my favourite sites for free vintage printables is found here.

  The sunny Clearing... The name connotes warmth. So I set out to duplicate the warm feeling of the original kit as best as I could. I noticed that Studio Calico used some Cosmo cricket paper. I don't have the fish tales paper, but I  do have Snorkel. I chose a sun and a bicycle from that collection. There is less paper here, b/c the gingham papers I have do not coordinate well with the other papers I have chosen. So I compensated with extra embellies.

Crate Paper: Season- friendly paper
Crate paper; restoration- fringe( has a wonderful orange pattern on the back)
Sassafrass: Life is Beautiful- rose thicket( a wonderful warm rose pattern on the back)
Pink Paislee Old school glitter alpha
Crate Paper restoration border stickers
Cosmo Cricket: snorkel collection- bicycle/lazy days and sunshine
Crate Paper chipboard flower border
Artsylicious deluxe brads
red crochet flower- from Ikea, it's a curtain decoration
Fancy Pants write now rub on's
Making Memories Chloe's closet square gem stickers
Fancy pants ric racs-red, yellow and cream
homemade red flower
crochet lace- unkown
Sassafrass in stitch blossoms-orange
Jillibean Soup clear stamps- top ten
Making Memories Chloe's Closet tags- 3
Making Memories Chloe's closet paper clips and clips

And now for the final kit.... wild flower. Since I have a boy, the original was too floral for me. I toned it down a bit with the more masculine colours and whimsical flowers of the crate paper Season collection.

Sassafrass paper- yellow hearts
Crate paper : Seasons- Spring and Summer
Crate paper; prudence-discretion paper
Crate paper Season journal stickers
Crate Paper Seasons rub ons
Maya Road Fresh chipboard-motifs
Artsylicious Splendid treasures in chocolate
Making Memories ribbons and trims
Cosmo Cricket lil. man ribbon

I had more trim than I originally intended. I just could not decide which one to pick...so I picked them all!
Now it's time to see what I can create with this kit. I already have a few pages in mind and with my husband having a three day weekend, I have plenty of time.

The Pink Pancake Party

  Pink is not a color most boys would love. I admit, it is not always one I favor. However, pink is the main color for Valentines day. So when I saw pink pancake mix, I thought it would be a sweet way to treat my little sweethearts. I also picked up some vanilla pancake mix with red, white and pink sprinkles, however, it was truly the pink pancakes with chocolate chips that garnered all of the attention. After all, how often do you see a pink pancake?!?!



Sketchy Thursday's Feb. GDT challenge sketch

   I wanted a Valentine's feel for the page, but I also wanted a homey, cozy feel. Basic Grey's Bittersweet collection was the perfect choice. I loved the pinks, reds and whites while the brown prints reminded me of the chocolate chips. Add in some Pink Paislee Bayberry cottage brads, Prima lace and some hand stitching and I had the cozy feel I was going for.After dotting the "i" in pink with a heart, I accented the title with glossy accents and marker to make it pop out a bit more.

Since I was on a roll, I continued onward with page two, this time adding a 7gypsies journaling tag and a bread tag. I recycled that bread tag from my cupboard and added some stickers with glossy accents. I love the way it looks hanging off the thread.

I do apologize that my son never smiled nicely in the photos. It was, evidently, due to the large quantity of pink present at the time the photos were taken. He did, however, eat his pink pancakes down to the last crumb.

The Process of Creation

It is something we all experience, especially as scrapbookers. We each have our own unique way of capturing what we want in our work. I was lucky enough to capture my son's creative process. Every year, we try to make a new decoration. This year, we made ceramic ornaments. As my son has gotten older, his process has evolved and become more precise.

Scraphappy.org January Sketch
7 Gypsies journal stamp, Crate Paper North pole collection papers
glimmer mist splatter background: electric blue and meadow
Pink Paislee Old school Glitter Alphas

His hands were literally a blur of motion. I realized I had captured this in several photos. So I used one to zoom in on his blurry hand. The rest of him is however, quite still and serious. he takes each step with complete, yet haphazard precision. It resulted in a gorgeous poinsettia ornament that I am proud to showcase.

1-11 Sketch Challenge from Frosted designs
Crate paper North Pole collection chipboard and papers
twinery cappuccino twine
buttons-unknown
Pink Paislee Old school glitter alphas
Glimmer mist in meadow and electric blue
Holly stickles

I enjoy capturing these moments with him. I know his creative process will continue to evolve. However, as he gets older, I wonder how often I will be privy to it. Either way, I will always enjoy the results of his labors.