1 Layout - 2 Challenges

This is the first time I've ever done this.  I combined two separate challenges and made one layout.

The first challenge was from The Studio Challenges Blog.  The Challenge is "Childhood Memories" which meant to find an old childhood photo with a story behind it.

The second challenge I participated in was for Stuck Sketches Blog.    I am participating in the December 15th sketch:

This sketch is totally "me".  It has a lot of white space, tight layers, and tons of room for embellishing.

He is my take on the fabulous sketch:

As you can see, I stuck pretty closely with the sketch.  I added a few additional layers to create more dimension and crammed in a bunch of embellishments including: rub-ons, emphera, wood veneer, stamping, doilies, puffy stickers, resin stars, and gray ink splatters.  

Lets go over the photos, shall we?  The challenge was for "Childhood Memories" photos with a story behind it.  The photos were taken by my mom on Christmas Morning 1989.  The photos actually show two very important Christmas Memories:  

#1: The pajamas:  My mom always picked out the most festive Christmas PJ's which we opened Christmas Eve Night.  It was always something I looked forward to as a child, and she actually did this up until I moved out of the house in my 20's.  I try and pass on this tradition to my son every year. 

#2 The stocking: "Santa" was the King when it came to my family's stocking stuffers. We always had candy and little gifts wrapped up individually like: lotions, toothbrushes, toothpaste, nail files, make-up, little toys, PEZ dispensers, and basically anything that would fit in the stocking.  I also try to pass this tradition on to my son and his christmas stocking.

Want are some of your childhood memories that you pass on in your life today?