Island Life and a new Scrapbook Process Video

I absolutely love living on a tropical island.  I'm originally from the Philadelphia area and my husband is from the mountains in North Carolina.  He and i moved to the Florida Keys about 6 years ago and knew it was our forever home.  We are lucky enough to wake up every morning and see water surrounding our tiny island.  We truly appreciate our surroundings.  This got me thinking........what does Cole think?

He was born here and this is all he knows.  This is his normal everyday life.  I wonder if he will appreciate it when he's older.   

I made this page for my new Youtube Series: STUDIO CALICO DAY.  Every week I will use my current Studio Calico Kits and take inspiration from the Studio Calico Blog.

This week, I used a Sunday Sketch, a Weekly Challenge, and a Tutorial.

Here's the Sketch:

The Weekly Challenge was to use a bold, floating title.   I was very inspired by a Tutorial by Marcy Penner.  She made a Confetti pocket along the bottom of her scrapbook page.  She is awesome.  

I made a video that you can check out here:

New Scrapbook Process Video: "Gettin' Sketchy Wit It" (new YouTube series)

I'm having some fun with my YouTube Channel.  Of course I'm completely obsessing about it too, wanting to do a new video every day of the week.  But it's so cool!  I have so much to learn and I'm challenged in the technical department, but so far its a fun ride.  

" Gettin' Sketchy Wit It" is a series with a new episode every Tuesday (hopefully).  Each week I will pick a different sketch to use as inspiration.  I'll share my creative thought process on creating a layout and manipulating the sketch without losing my personal scrappy style.  Or whatever that means.  

Here's the layout:

That's not a beer gut, I was pregnant.  But, honestly, I look thinner then than I do now.  However, I'm not at all willing to stop eating ice cream.  And I accept it.  Moving on.........

I joined in on Hip Kit Club's Facebook Forum Challenge that ended June 11.

Here's Episode 1 of "Gettin' Sketchy Wit It" (cue Will Smith):

If you have a sketch that you'd like me to feature on a future episode, let me know.  Leave a comment  on this YouTube Video or send me a message.  I'd love to hear from you.  Thanks for visiting today!  Subscribe to my YouTube Channel and never miss an episode!

My First Scrapbook Process Video

I did it!  I finally went through with it.  I've been dreaming about this day for almost a year.  It went much differently than I imagined, but it's uploaded.  The depute of my first ever Scrapbook Process Video: "Faith".

Yes, I know.  It's pretty rough.  I'm challenged when it comes to computers and uploading and everything in between.  It can only get better from here, RIGHT?

I was inspired by Lasting Memories Challenge #244 and a Shimelle Sketch.  

SBC Scrapbook Challenges Design Team = Awesome

Is it true?  Did Scrapbook Challenges (aka-SBC) really pick me to be on their Design Team?  Heck yes they did and I'm so excited to be a part of their awesomeness.  They have weekly challenges to inspire your creativity.  

This week's sketch is #424: 

Isn't that an awesome sketch?  Their is so much you can do with it. Here's what I did:

I altered the sketch quite a bit.  I kept the basic design of the sketch, but moved stuff around.  For instance:  I used one photo instead of two, tightened up the layers, moved the embellishment clusters, and made it my own. 

To me, a sketch is a basic idea for me to make my own.  Sometimes my creations look exactly like the sketch, and sometimes totally different, but I always get some sort of inspiration in the process.

Do you use sketches?  If so, does your finished project resemble the sketch?

Boy Layout with Pink Flowers

If you've been following my blog for a bit, you probably know I have one child, a handsome 4 yr. old named Cole.  He is as tough and rugged as a boy comes.  However, I don't let that stop me from using the beautiful and delicate embellishments that call my name:

I used Maggie Holmes chipboard pieces from her open book collection.  

 How do I justify using pink flowers on my son's page you ask?  It's my hobby and I get enjoyment out of all different types of embellishments, including flowers.  Also, my son likes the color pink and also picks flowers for me when he sees them, so flowers belong on his page, right?

Well maybe I was stretching it on that last one, but you get the idea.  

I used a sketch from Scrap Africa.  I really like their sketches and find it easy to make it my own.  

Do you stick to a masculine theme on your boy pages?

My Story

No, no, no....don't worry.  This is not a blog post about my life story.  I'll save that for a rainy day.  "My Story" is actually the title to today's scrapbook page:

Maybe I will indulge you in a little chapter of my Life Story.  Did I ever mention that I was in the United States Air Force?  Did I mention that I was a firefighter?  Yup. Yup.  I can't lie, I am a little proud to say that.  I joined the military in 2007 because I always sorta felt compelled to do it.  My recruiter gave me a booklet of jobs to bring home and carefully choose a career that I think would suit me.  All the jobs sounded kind of boring to me, until I saw FIREFIGHTER.  So I checked the box.  Simple as that.  No tear jerking, inspirational reasoning behind my decision.  I was warned over and over that the training was brutal.  I was told several times that females rarely make it through the Physical Training, because women's bodies usually can't lift a human being off the ground, throw them over their shoulders, and carry them out of a burning building if necessary.  But hey, I like a challenge.  Long story short, I did very well in Fire Training and even did better than half my class which was all men.  Maybe I'm just built more like a man than a woman.  I don't know.  But it was the 4th greatest accomplishments of my life.  

The photo was actually taken in Disney World.  I was acting like a complete doofus and pretending to open to the hydrant.  

I followed along with My Creative Sketches' December Sketch:

Check out the challenge, you still have until Jan. 14th to enter.

Check out Paper Issue's Link Party

What is your 4th greatest accomplishment?  I'd love to know.

Two More Holiday Layouts

Howdy Folks.

How is everyone out their in Blogland?

I'm doing just fine.  I lost the bedtime war with my son this evening.  

I waved my white flag and surrendered.

He was way too smart and powerful for me tonight.

Looking back, I never had a chance.

Complete Defeat.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

On to other news, I made a couple more Holiday layouts over the weekend.  The first layout I made is of a sweet little family we met shortly after we moved to the Florida Keys.  They are so awesome and I'm grateful to have them in our lives:

I used a sketch from a blog I found while browsing called Let's Scrap.  They have lots of inspiration and post new sketches all the time.  I used Sketch Challenge # 12-31-14:

It's the first double page sketch that I've ever worked with, but it was so much fun to change it to suit my style.

   The second layout is of my son and I hanging ornaments on our tree this Christmas.  The holidays were so fun now that he understands Santa Claus and was filled with holiday spirit:

I used Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch:

Thank you for visiting me today.  Happy Scrapping Homies!

A Jellyfish and a Challenge

Have you ever made a piñata before?  They are relatively easy to make and SUPER in-expensive.  I actually buy all my supplies at the Dollar Tree for about $10.  So far, I've made two piñatas in my life and they turned out AMAZING!  (sorry for bragging) I followed THIS TUTORIAL BY HONESTLYYUM.  

Last year, my good friend, Bonnie,  asked me to make a jellyfish piñata for her daughter's "under the sea" birthday party.  Of course I said yeas, I'm always up for a challenge.  And a challenge it was.......planning this ridiculous jellyfish was no easy task.  So I asked for help from the most crafty girl I know, my neighbor Jessica.  She had so many awesome ideas for getting this thing to resemble a piñata.  Take a look:

Didn't the tentacles turn out cool?  They were Jessica's idea.  They are actually made out of strips of plastic table clothes from the Dollar Tree.  

I made this layout as a Guest Designer for CSI.  This month they are having an amazing challenge with awesome prizes.  The challenge closes on Jan 31st, so you still have tons of time to join in the fun.  Here is what Major Case File No. 151 looks like:

Scrapping these photos has me itching to make a piñata again.  Have you ever made a piñata?  

P.S.- I miss you Jessica!

I love sketches!

I love a good sketch.  I found one at Scrap Our Stash Challenge Blog.


December Sketch & Stash Challenge #21: Use the sketch as inspiration for your layout AND use as much product from your stash.

Here is my take on the challenge:

#1: I love this sketch so much that I hardly changed it.  My son's 2011 Christmas Morning photos fit perfect with the design.

#2: All my product for this layout came from my stash.  Most of it is Crate Paper's DIY Shop Line.  I love how it gave a vintage feel to my photos.

Do you use product from your older stash frequently? Or do you stick with the new stuff?

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?

Working with a Sketch

Every Sunday,  Studio Calico has a Sketch Challenge.

Every Sunday I participate in the Sketch Challenge.

Here is the layout sketch from last Sunday:

When I first started scrapping, I rarely used sketches.  I thought of it as cheating, like it meant that I wasn't being creative enough or something.  Truth be told, maybe I am being less creative when I use a sketch, but I don't really care.  If I am being too critical of myself and my creativity, I suck all the joy out of my favorite hobby.  What I like to do is keep it simple.  When I sit down to create and I don't have a clear vision of what I want to do, I reach for my folder of sketches.  I refuse to sit there and rack my brain for an original idea for hours.  I simply flip through my folder of sketches a pick one.  That's it.  Simple.

Here is my take on the sketch:

For this layout, I stuck to the ordinal sketch pretty closely because I loved it.  Sometimes when I use a sketch, it looks nothing like it.  I normally use sketches for inspiration instead of a blueprint.  But because I liked last week's sketch so much, I used it more like a blueprint for my design.  

Do you like to use sketches? Or do you think of sketches as cheating?  

Take the Challenge! CSI Case File #149

Do you participate in any scrapbook challenges?  My favorite challenge site, CSI, has a fun Case File going on right now.

Case File #149:

The reason I love CSI challenges so much is because they really push my creativity.  They make me think outside of my personal style and always end up create something I love.  

Here is the layout I created as a December Guest Designer:

Winter Fun -By: Andrea

Before jumping into the challenge, check out how the challenge works.  It's so much fun and I highly recommend playing along.  

Stuck?! Scrapbook Sketch and a GDT Call

Have you ever checked out Stuck?! Challenge Blog?

I've used their sketches in the past, but never actually participated in their challenges.

Until now.........

Here is the sketch:

Isn't that an amazing sketch?  

I love how they colored each element to make it pop off the page.

It gave me so much inspiration to work with.

Here is my creation:

I kept with the main layout of the sketch and added my own twist.  For instance, I used 2 photos instead of 4 and added more embellishment clusters than the original sketch has.  

The photos are from my third birthday party.  Though I don't remember this particular party, I do remember that my mother always made every party feel so special to me.  She always ordered a large sheet cake, tons of balloons, pretty party hats, and decorations to match.  She sent out invitations and had little goodie bags ready for all the guests.  Her party planning skills are something I try to mimic for my son's parties.  She really could have ran a successful party planning business.  

This sketch challenge was also a GDT Call.  Check out all the details in THIS POST.

Do you remember any of your childhood birthday parties?  What made them feel special?

Studio Calico Blog: a Sketch and a Challenge

I played along with two Studio Calico Blog challenges this week.  First up is the Sunday Sketch  challenge:

I choose the scrapbook sketch to inspire me this week:

Now, this sketch is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I went for it anyway:

Though not my normal style of scrapping, I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I like how nothing really makes sense with my layout, but for some reason, comes together perfectly.  Funny how that works out.

Studio Calico's Weekly Challenge is to use tons of layers.  I am the Queen of Layering, well, self-appointed Queen.  

Here is my take on the Weekly Challenge:

I went crazy with my layering.  Behind my photo, I used: copy paper, patterned paper, project life cards, doilies, and die cuts.  I don't follow any design principles when I scrap.  I just stick stuff in places where I think it looks good.  To finish off my layout, I added wood veneer, enamel dots, white mist splatters, and a few other embellishments.  

For both of the challenges I used Studio Calico's Park Ave. Kits.  This has been my favorite kit since Camelot. I love how every piece works together.  

What challenges have you been taking part in?  I would love to here all about it.

A Little Boy's First Christmas

Cole was 9 months old when he celebrated his first Christmas Holiday.  So, of course he had no idea what was going on, but that didn't stop me from decorating every square inch of our home, putting cookies out for santa, and singing Christmas carols through the entire month of December.  It is, by far, my absolute favorite holiday.  I want Cole to experience Christmas the way I did when I was young; the magic of walking down the stairs Christmas morning and seeing the stockings full of goodies and the tree surrounded with a pile of beautifully wrapped packages.  Yes, I am well aware that this is not the meaning of the holiday, but they are my childhood memories.

Cole's first Christmas morning experience was in 2011.  My husband, Kendall carried him down the stairs, where i was waiting impatiently with my camera ready.  He saw me and gave me a smile, not even noticing the huge baby pool next to me, surrounded by presents.  We sat down with him and showed him how to tear the paper off to get to the toy inside. He figured it out pretty quickly and had more fun ripping the paper than anything else.  I look forward to many more holiday years to come with this adorable little boy.

For this layout, I used Studio Calico's Walden Kit and the  Walden Project Life Kit.  The November kits were full of soft colors and gorgeous embellishments, perfect for a winter layout.  I used Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch to create this page.