LCTS sketch #157 :Halloween Haunt

It's time for a another sketch reveal over at Let's Capture These Sketches.  Here's the sketch by Jocelynn Roy:

And a look at my interpretation:


Supplies used: Pebbles Trick and Treats collection: American Crafts chipboard Thickers, Doodlebug Boutique button, Martha Stewart glitter; Stampin' Up scallop border punch, Versamark Ink, EK Success black embossing powder; Other: foam adhesive, computer font, machine stitching


I dug into my Halloween photos from last year, grabbed Pebbles Trick and Treats collection, and went to town cutting loads of banners and strips to fill up the right side of the page!  I love that this page gave me the opportunity to use so many cute patterns from this collection - both the full 12x12 sheets mixed with patterns from the 6x6 paper pad.  There were lots of opportunities to layer and embellish with the coordinating sticker sheets, as well.

But that's not all, there is a little hidden surprise to the page.  Since the sketch only allowed for one photo, but the event I wanted to document had many more, I had to find an alternative.  Four more full size 4x6 photos and journaling are hidden under the main picture, in a little bitty booklet of sorts.  Take a look...

 

I'm having a little bit of a love affair with the button topped paper bows lately.  If you haven't noticed, I snuck a few on a project here or there and I'm sure there will be more to come.  I just couldn't resist making one out of this spider web paper and topping it with a button and that mini pumpkin sticker.  Cute, huh?

 

The title was done with one of my very favorite sets of American Crafts Thickers.  They come in raw chipboard making them ultra easy to modify and customize to fit the look and colors of your page.  I chose to emboss them with a shiny black powder, which makes quite a statement on the page.  A little bit of glitter on the jack-o-lantern sticker can't hurt either, can it?

 

That's it for today!  I've been busy crafting up a couple simple things for a very special party this weekend.  Shhh, my baby girl is turning one!  I'm hoping if I don't say it loud enough it won't really happen (*wink!).  Where did that year go? 

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back with more crafty shares soon!

LCTS #151 Reveal

Another fun, new sketch is up at the Let's Capture These Sketches blog today.  Here's what it looks like...



I pulled out a couple of favorite photos that I've been waiting to scrap and lots and lots of Bella Blvd for my version of the sketch.



Supplies used: Patterned Papers - Bella Blvd Baby Boy (gray chevron), Making the Team (yellow stars and multicolored stripe), Mr. Boy (blue text), and My Mind's Eye (graph), Embellishments - Bella Blvd Mr. Boy Chipboard Icons, Belvedere Chipboard Alphabet: All-Inclusive, Boy Flags, Merlot buttons and Jailbird Designer tape, Doodlebug Design - gray Doodletwine, Stickers - Black-White High Five Alphabets, Other - machine stitching, foam adhesive, computer font, cardstock.

Putting together the title is often the starting point for my page and often where I really love to embellish.  I used an older chipboard font from Bella (Belvedere Chipboard Alpha), because I liked the bold statement that the font would make.  The colors of the letters were nowhere need what I needed for my page, so I simply covered them with black cardstock - a quick fix!  I added some of Bella's Designer Tape to one of the letters for a little added interest, along with a bit of twine and a cute little Bella flag.

A couple more hearts in the bottom left corner of the page and another little flag, tie all of the page elements together.

 

I'm so glad you stopped by today!  Pop on over to the LCTS blog, to see the other wonderful creations the ladies have made based on this sketch!

 

LCTS sketch #149

Happy Monday, everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  We had the most beautiful weather here in Ohio, so I spent most of the weekend soaking up the sunny days with the fam and away from my craft desk.  I did however, squeak out a page for the latest Let's Capture These Sketches, sketch #149, that was revealed on Friday.  Here's the sketch...

 

I bet you'd never guess that that amount of white space, in the sketch, scared me a bit (wink!).  It's so very different from my own personal scrapping style -  I like to fill up my page with pictures, product and journaling!  But that is definitely part of the fun of working with sketches since it presents a bit of a challenge and jump start to your creativity!  So, to make the sketch work for me, I flipped it on it's side to accommodate my vertical photo and made a LARGE matting for said picture.

Supplies used: Echo Park Be Mine collection patterned papers, letter and phrase stickers, Tattered Angels - glimmer mist, Technique Tuesday stamps by Ali Edwards, Doodlebug doodletwine and brads, Making Memories flowers, Stampin Up - decorative label punch, Fiskars - circle punch, MAMBI - heart shaped gem, Other: machine stitching, computer font (2peas Chestnuts), buttons, embroidery floss, ribbon.


My journaling was printed out on a plain white tag.  I dressed it up with an Ali Edwards phrase, some twine and tucked it under the photo and large folded flower embellishment.

A few buttons, brads and a little bit of bling finished off the page.

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my interpretation of the sketch.  I hope you'll pop on over the the LCTS blog to check out the work from the rest of the girls!

 

More LCTS fun with Jillibean

Good morning!  Just wanted to pop on here and share the latest sketch reveal over at Let's Capture These Sketches, that will go live today.  Here's a peek at sketch #147 designed by Natalie Roy:

If you've visited my blog at all in the past, you know that I'm a fan of clean lines, multiple photos and often a bold title.  So, as you can assume, I had no trouble at all pulling together a page based on this sketch.  I pulled out my stash of Jillibean's Game Day Chili collection, some older photos of TJ's first tball season and went to work.



Supplies used: Patterned paper - Jillibean Soup, Game Day Chili collection (Bite Size Bits, Italian Sausage, Sweet Onions, Kidney Beans) and Crate Paper Toy Box collection paper (Play Date - text background), Stickers - Jillibean Soup Game Day Chili cardstock stickers and Soup Labels, Embellishments - A Muse Creative Candy Twinkle star stickers, Doodlebug Doodletwine, Other - machine stitching, foam adhesive, black ink, computer font, toothpicks.



The 'Bite Size Bits' provided the perfect space necessary to sneak in my journaling on the page.  I accented that area with a couple of three dimensional pennant flags that I cut from the border paper and adhered to an ordinary old toothpick to mimic a stick!

It can't hurt to add some foam dots and starry bling to emphasize the theme of 'all star', can it? ;)

That's not all I've got for today's post.  I realized while pulling my images and creating my supply list for this page, that I somehow missed posting sketch #143 to the blog.  Better late than never, huh?  This one was by JJ.  Again, another fun linear design with the option for quite a few photos.

I pulled from my Jillibean stash again for this page.  I had been hanging onto this darling strawberry paper from the Coconut Lime Soup collection, and after our summer adventures going berry picking, I knew I had the perfect match!



Supplies used: Cardstock - Bazzill, Patterned Paper - Jillibean Soup Coconut Lime Soup collection (Kaffir Lime Leaves - both sides, Chile Paste and Bite Size Bits), Stickers - Jillibean Soup, Soup Labels and Lily Bee letter stickers (small black type), Martha Stewart office labels, Embellishments - Making Memories flowers, Jillibean Soup corrugated kraft letters, My Mind's Eye baker's twine, Little Yellow Bicycle rick rack, Other - stamping ink, mini copper brads, toothpicks, foam adhesive, machine stitching, computer font



The title features Jillibean's kraft corrugated alphabets, which I distressed with brown and white pigment ink pads.  I couldn't resist the addition of a couple more 'toothpick' banners on this page as well.  Are you noticing a theme?  When I like something, I LIKE something!



I used a label from Martha Stewart's office supply line, that I found at Staples, to add some additional text/journaling, and softened it up with a sweet little flower.

I hope after you are done here, you stop over at the LCTS blog, check out the other designers amazing work on the current sketch and play along!

LCTS sketch #145 reveal



It's reveal day over at the Let's Capture These Sketches blog,  Here's a look at the sketch #145 by Natalie Roy:

I will fully admit that the free form design and overlapping pictures, had me a bit stumped at first.  However, once I settled on using just one photo, and substituting banner/tag elements in place of the others, the rest of the page fell together pretty easily.  It goes without saying that my layout is much more linear than the sketch, but what can I say - I like my straight lines! ;)



Supplies used - Patterned Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle Saturdays Collection, Meet Me in the Meadow (floral) and Blue Reverie (blue/white medallions and grid); Diecuts/Tags: Little Yellow Bicycle Saturdays Collection tear-out ticket and journaling card book; Embellishements: Jolee's Boutique (small grey flowers), American Crafts thickers (title) and brad (Amy Tangerine), Bella Blvd (yellow/white chevron tape), Colorbok (stick pin), My Mind's Eye Lost and Found (label stickers); Stamps: Jillibean Soup ('anniversary' and numbers); Other: October Afternoon sprinklers, machine stitching, button, Autumn Leaves ink



I love that the title stickers provide a tone on tone feel to the layout, but also have their own presence and pattern to make them stand out against the background paper.  I have seen these particular Thickers used all over the scrapbooking world as of late, and finally scored some of my own!

From the next two close up shots, you'll see that I spent lots of time dressing up the beautiful tags/tickets/banners that coordinated with this particular Little Yellow Bicycle paper collection. I love the collage-y feel of all of these elements and layers.

I hope you stop by the Let's Capture These Sketches blog, to check out the other amazing designer's pages and play along with this month's sketch!  Leave me a note and let me know if you do!

Vacation Hangover and LCTS sketch #141

What is it about travelling with kids that makes you feel like you need a vacation after your vacation?  Oh, yeah, it must be the nonstop adventures, early wake ups, late bedtimes, constant counting of heads, pushing of strollers, carrying of kid gear and let's not forget the endless questions.  If things are a little quiet around here, it's because we are in vacation recovery mode at the Rench household. 

My husband, kiddos and I just returned from a fun family trip to the Smokey Mountains -- our first 'official' vacation as a family of five.  The trip was wonderful and full of lots of great memories, but I am wiped from the packing, preparations, nonstop fun and car travel.  Hopefully, I'll soon get around to posting a little recap and some photos from our trip.  But since that may be awhile, I'll share one of my favorite shots from the trip.



My three sweeties posing 1/2 mile from the tallest point in the Smokey Mountains.


While we were off vacationing, the latest sketch was revealed over at LCTS, sketch #141 by Cindy Stevens.  Here's a peek at the sketch:

And a 'looksie' at my interpretation:



Supplies used: Patterned Paper - Basic Grey Little Black Dress 'best dressed' (background) and kissing booth 6x6 pad (flowers); Cardstock - Coredinations whitewash collection; Brads - Basic Grey kissing booth mixed brads; buttons, bakers twine, sticker labels, butterfly charm - My Mind's eye (various collections); Pearls - Mark Richards; Clear stamps - Ditto Hampton and Teresa Collins; Other: tulle, embroidery floss, computer font (veteran typewriter), Cricut (Kate's ABC cartridge), foam adhesive


The photos don't quite capture all the dimension and texture going on on this page, however, this shot shows a glimpse of the tulle accents I added throughout the page.  I couldn't resist 'froofing' it all up a bit with tulle, to mimic baby girls sweet little tutu!

A peek at the journaling (of course!):

As you can tell, I had a bit of fun (and wasted lots of time) cutting out a variety of florals, on my cricut, from the sweet Basic Grey kissing booth 6x6 paper prints.  I played with layering and placing the flowers for quite some time, to get it all 'just so'. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll stop by the LCTS blog and play along with the sketch!  Oh, and a huge thanks for all of the sweet comments on my last post!  I am still floating on a cloud from my latest news and can't wait to start sharing some crafty Pebbles creations here!

The secret's out!

If you've seen or talked to me lately, you may be wondering why I sound so ridiculously giddy and might just have a goofy ole' smile plastered on my face.  Well, the reason for that is ... I've been keeping a few little secrets! No, no the secret is not that I'm preggers again (although, if I could guarantee that the next little one would be sweet like this, that would be a fun little secret to have!).

My secrets are of the crafty kind and I am now finally able to share! Yay!  Here's a little hint to the first (take a close look - hint, hint: fourth name down!):

Domestic

Christa Paustenbaugh from Manassas, VA
Donna Jannuzzi from San Diego, CA
Emily Spahn from Oak Lawn, IL
Jaclyn Rench from Maineville, OH
Kathy Martin from Raleigh, NC
Kim Kesti from Phoneix, AZ
Lynn Ghahary (DT Coordinator) from Randolph, NJ
Mandie Pierce from Vacaville, CA
Patricia Kumfer from Orlando, FL
Renee Zwirek from Aurora, IL
Shawna Webster from Ewa Beach, HI
Tiffany Hood from Syracuse, UT
Vivian Masket from Denver, CO
Wendy Sue Anderson from Heber City, UT

 International
Amelie Mordret from France
Eva Pizarro from Italy
Kim Jeffress from Australia
Laura Craigie from Canada
Laurel Seabrook from Canada
Nicole Nowosad from Canada

Pretty cool, huh?!?  I am still in disbelief to see my name included on that list of talent.  Seriously, what an amazing honor. I can't wait to get started on my assignments and get to know all of those wonderfully talented ladies!

BTW, speaking of Pebbles have you seen the new lines they will be debuting next week at CHA?  Wowza!  They are so beautiful and inspiring.  Here's a peek at the 'Seen and Noted' and 'Walnut Grove' lines:

You can check out Pebbles blog here, for a look at each line in it's entirety.

In other crafty news, you may have noticed a new little badge that is linked on my sidebar, on the right.  If you click on it, it will take you to an awesome sketch site, 'Let's Capture These Sketches', that I'm now designing pages for, as well!  I participated in my first reveal over there last week, and haven't yet shared my page on the blog, so here it is (based on sketch #139):

I have been holding onto Doodlebug's "Boys Only" line for just the right picture of my little guys, and this was definitely it!

Some close ups of the title and details:

It was such a fun sketch to work with.  If you interested in playing along, join me on the LCTS blog and link up your project to share!  I'd love to see what you create!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will surely be spending mine with a little extra hop in my step! (*wink)  I'll be back soon with some more crafty shares!