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!

Summertime Fun and Two Favorite Girls

Unfortunately, my blogging has gone the way of my scrapping lately - MIA! The kiddos and I have been so, so busy with a mountain of summertime activities, that by the time they are nestled into bed and I have a moment to scrap, I'm typically off to dreamland as well!  I wouldn't say we are having too many 'lazy summer days' just yet, but we sure are having a lot of fun and building lots of memories!  Just in the few short weeks that we've been on summer break we've: been to Kings Island (twice), gone strawberry picking, cheered on the Reds at Great American ballpark, visited the animals at the Columbus Zoo, sampled several new ice cream shops, swam at the Y pool, had a swim date with cousins at their local community pool, rode bikes, had a sleepover, enjoyed camp days at the Little Gym, had lots of backyard water fun, and have been reading nonstop to earn rewards through the libraries summer reading program.  Whew!!!!  I'm thinking I might relax again when school starts! LOL!

Even though, I haven't had much time for crafting, I have a few pages to share, over the next several days, that I worked on prior to my scrapping hiatus.  I recently had this page featured over on the Basic Grey blog and am anxiously awaiting my prize package in the mail!  :)  I snapped these photos on Easter of my mom and baby girl -- they are some of my favorites!  As you'll see, I succumbed to the chevron craze and created my own chevron background with the 'B sides' of several papers from Basic Grey's Picadilly collection.


To create this pretty accent, I traced a chipboard butterfly shape onto white cardstock, stamped it in versamark with a dotted background stamp and heat embossed it with white embossing powder for a subtle, but pretty tone on tone effect.

I couldn't call the page complete without some (okay, A LOT!) of machine stitching - and chose to accent all of the chevrons with a bit.  I also had fun testing out a new Stampin Up floral die that I had recently purchased - to sprinkle embellishments throughout the page.

So, just a quick share today.  Hoping to be back soon with more!  Thanks, as always for stopping by!

Celebrating 50 years

There are not many couples who can claim the title of being married for 50 years.  However, my in-laws are now official members of that 'club'!  We helped them celebrate this momentous occasion back in September 2011 by gathering close family and friends for dinner, reminiscing and celebrating.  The beautiful florals and patterns in the My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 'Fiddlesticks' collection, were the perfect compliment to photos from the day.

Supplies used: Paper: My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 'Fiddlesticks' collection: "Lucky" Tapestry (1), "Story" Plaid (1), "Home" Dotted (1), "Love" Journal (1); Cardstock: Bazzill; Embellishments: My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 'Fiddlesticks' collection: "Lucky" twine, and "Love" pins and buttons, Hero Arts earth mixed pearls and gem; Other: computer font, machine stitching, embroidery floss, ribbon, scallop border punch, chipboard letters (title), vellum, photo corners 

I really loved all of the miscellaneous buttons and stick pins that came with this collection and used nearly all of them up to decorate these pages.  It seems I am rediscovering vellum again, in my scrapbooking, and used it to cut pretty butterflies for both pages.

Here's a closer look at the page title.  I used American Crafts raw chipboard letters to spell out the word celebrate and embossed them with gold embossing powder to compliment the theme of the page.  I love the vintage feel it gives to the letters.

The close up of this page, shows the AMAZING cake that my friend Beth made for the occasion.  Doesn't she do wonderful work?  If you are local and need a cake, you should definitely check out her facebook page - Busy B's cakery.  

Do you spy another vellum butterfly here?  I told you I'm hooked on vellum again!  I topped off this butterfly with a cute button, twine and another of the darling stick pins, from this collection.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!  I'll be back soon with more to share.

Mother's Day mini and some fun news

Now that the holiday is officially past and gifts have been given, I wanted to share the cute little mini books I put together for both my mom and mother in law for mother's day this year.  The album measures a little more than 4" x 4", so it's the perfect size for these Grandma's to pop in their purses and always have on hand, to share photos of their darling grandchildren!  For the contents of the album I selected some favorite photos of my kiddos and paired it with text, that answers a couple of 'interview' questions that I asked them about their Grandma and Nana.  Here's the look at the cover:




And a side view of the album, shows how it is kept closed with a length of twill tape.  I love from this view, how you can see all of the bits and pieces of each page peeking out - and hint at what's to come inside!

As you will see, I laid out the album to include a picture of each child on the left page, and their response on the right.  In the middle of each page, I sewed a small envelope into the book binding, which when opened, reveals a sweet little drawing from them.  I started the book with a picture of my oldest.

Here is a look at the page once the pocket page is turned.

Again the next set of pages is set up with the same 'formula' - picture, pocket, then text.

A close up reveals how the envelope opens, and shows a peek at the paper, containing Justin's sweet little artwork, inside.

The backside of the envelope and his response to my questions are shown here.  I love the he said he loves his Nana because, "she teaches me tricks." Ha, ha - funny boy!

Next, is baby girl's page.  Obviously, she is not quite at the age to create artwork yet so, I chose to use a decorative envelope here.  I punched some 'confetti' from paper scraps (as is all the rage in scrapbooking right now!), tucked it inside a vellum envelope and sewed it shut.  I think it adds a fun little decorative element!

I gave baby girl a little help with her 'interview', as well! (wink!)

For the final pages, I mixed up the 'formula' a little bit.  I include some decorative elements on the left, sewed a vellum envelope into the binding and finished it off with a group photo of all three kids.

This picture reveals the contents of the vellum envelope -- sweet little mini instax photos of each child!  Love this!  I was thrilled when I figured out that the envelope was the perfect size to contain these!

Here's a look at the final page:

To finish off the back side of the album I stamped a sweet little phrase, from an older Hero Arts Stamp set and added a remaining sticker.  

As you can imagine, these little albums were quite a hit with the Grandma's! My only regret is not making a copy to tote along in my own purse!

Oh, and before I sign off -- just wanted to share my fun news.  I found out yesterday that a recent page, shown in this post, won the latest sketch challenge over at the Jillibean Soup blog.  Yay, me!  If that wasn't enough -- my prize was to select $50 worth of items of my own choosing from the online Jillibean store.  How fun is that????  I had so much fun shopping with my Jillibean dollars.  Maybe when I get my package in the mail, I'll snap a pic and share my goodies!

As always, thanks for stopping by!