Summer projects!

I promise I really do craft!  I just haven't been posting much, but here are some projects from the summer.

Inspired by SAF 2016: Starry Night with Amy Sheffer - Faith Makes All Things Possible Card by Amy Sheffer (July 2016) I LOVE how those trees turned out!

Inspired by softsideofsandi.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Sublime

This layout was inspired by the folks over at Color Stories Inspiration even though I didn't manage to get it done in time to enter the challenge.  Their challenges are great for getting the creative juices flowing, so if I'm not going to enter the layout in the challenge, I reap the benefit of some creativity.  Plus...not entering it allows for a little more creative freedom!  :)

OUAS August Sketch Challenge

This month's theme at Once Upon A...Sketch was "I'll Never Forget."  Uhh.  What a great theme right?  We scrappers scrap everything we don't want to forget, but this theme really hit home this time.  I knew the picture I would use right away.  October will be the first anniversary of my Grandad's death.  I won't go into all that he meant to me and my family, but I'm guessing that all of you who have THE most special grandparents in the world will understand.  Because he really was.  My journalling is on the tag under the picture.  It talks about how at my wedding, he didn't say much.  He never did, but he also didn't have to.  Doesn't his smile say it all?

Happy

This year I am super determined that the stress of back to school will not rob me of all my crafting time!!!  I'm off to a good start so far:  I spent last Friday night with my crafty girls and made a super cute sampler that I will post soon!  Then on Saturday, my sister let me invade her house for a few good crafting hours, and here's the layout I did.

This is a photo of me and my hubby celebrating our anniversary a few years ago.  So fun!

12 x 12 Double Layout

I had these two pictures from a long-ago camping trip with my nieces where we "swam" (or maybe more waded) in the Gallatin River.  I loved how the pictures went so well together, so I tried my hand at a 12 x 12 double!  These will go side by side into my scrapbook for ultimate girl cuteness factor.  :)  Amazingly, finishing these also was the end of my full papers from this kit, so I'm already on scraps and can make some summery cards!  That's a miracle!

Inspire

I have been wanting to try out some of Gabrielle Polacco's texture paste for a while now on my new masks, so here was my chance!  I tried it out on a layout after this one and it worked much better.  The first time, I didn't quite have it thick enough, so here's take two with a lot more talcum powder in it.  Maybe I had to make the high altitude recipe??  I have no idea.  But it was really cool how it turned out.  Plus I finally got this picture of me and my mom from my graduation done.  Yay!

Swim Chick

Well, for not being originally very inspired by these papers, I sure have been on a roll with them...in fact enough of a roll that I already have NO full-size papers left, just scraps!  (That's because I have more LO's that are already done that I will post another day!)  This one is another picture of the sun-bathing niece.  I love it!  I caught her just as she was coming up out of the water.  All of the materials on this page came from Simple Stories (oh plus a little bit of Stickles.)  :)

I'm also entering this page in the Challenge Me Happy final challenge ever, which is crazy because I JUST found their challenge site.  Like three days ago.  :(  Hopefully I'll be able to look in the archives for some good inspiration!

Keep Calm and Soak Up the Sun

I just got my latest kit from My Creative Scrapbook, and I could not believe all the stuff in it!  Lots and lots of embellies from Simple Stories and a fun beachy theme.  Unfortunately, I live in a completely land-locked state that is well known for it's skiing, hiking, and fly fishing...but not so much the beach.  HOWEVER, we do have a few local man-made beaches around some little lakes that are nice on a hot day as you can see from my niece sunbathing.  This whole kit does make me want to plan a trip to the beach despite my white  Norwegian roots and even whiter legs.  Ha!

The Last of the Kit!

Yep, that's right, I finally used up an entire kit with the exception of a few stickers which I can now throw in with all my card-making extras!  Perfect!  

This is a picture of my nieces from a few years ago at the fair after watching the pig races.  I know, right?  But it actually was fun to watch... :)

Here are all the projects I made with this kit!  It was my favorite one ever!  It included papers from American Crafts' Dear Lizzy collection and also a mask and some wooden embellishments.   Oh.  Just realized I have those left too.  Well, I was close anyway!!

Live...and remember this...

Just sharing a little layout today using up some more of my favorite kit!  I LOVE self portraits like this; I have so many I should just do a whole page about them.  This one was taken a while back of me and a friend.

My Creative Sketches June Sketch Challenge

What a fun sketch last month from My Creative Sketches.  This is an old picture I've been wanting to scrap for a long time.  I know it's old because now she has freckles on her nose.  Aww.  The camera was seriously about 5 inches from her face, and she never even woke up until I poked her.  Why is it that sleeping animals and babies are so so so cute, but sleeping adults are so so so NOT.  Ugh.  Although you might get tired of me scrapping my pets, at least you get to see my kitty sleeping and not my husband sleeping...or me for that matter.  All I can say is a chin strap would be a good invention.  Whoa.  ;)

Once Upon a...Sketch June Challenge

This month's challenge at Once Upon a...Sketch is to showcase your guilty pleasure.  Don't you just love that?  I loved looking through all the design team's guilty pleasures.  I actually felt a bit guilty doing it...like I was snooping or something!!!  

One of my many guilty pleasures is owning way too many crafting goodies.  I LOVE getting new stuff for crafting.  This picture is from Christmas this year, when I of course, got more!  This one is actually my Stampin' Up paper piercer, which I love!

Finally!

I absolutely love this collection from American Crafts.  All kinds of minty and pinky goodness!  This is a layout I FINALLY got put together after a couple weeks of working on it bit by bit.  It's been a busy few weeks, but now summer break is officially here, so lots more scrapping to come!!!

Smile

I don't have kids, but I'm so glad that I have two wonderful nieces who live just minutes from my house.  They make me smile every time I see them.  This picture is probably almost 6 years old already, but we always keep having fun together.  :)  

I used this sketch from My Creative Sketches for inspiration.

My Creative Sketches April Challenge

I had fun with this month's sketch at My Creative Sketches using last month's kit from My Creative Scrapbook .  This kit has grown and grown on me the more I've played with it.  Here is the sketch:

Here's my take on it:

I have been wanting to use this picture on a layout for AGES but the colors just weren't working for me with any papers I had until this kit!  Perfect!

This picture was taken when my twin nieces were 4 year old quesadilla addicts!  I think every time they came over, they helped me put the cheese on the tortillas.  Then one of them would open up hers and eat all the cheese off first!  Kids are so funny.  I love this memory!

March MCS Sketch

I was on a mission last weekend to try to use up as much as I could of a couple of my scrapbook kits, so I pulled out the paper I had left from them for this layout.  I actually never would have put them together except that I wanted to use them up, but I really like how it turned out!

Here is the sketch from My Creative Sketches:

Isn't that just the cutest little kitten?  It is so fun when there are kittens on the farm!  And yes, these babies were born in the fall.  So sweet!

Once Upon a Sketch March Challenge

This month's sketch at OUAS is once again fabulous, and the theme was, "What does your weekend look like?"  Here is the sketch:

Here's my very unexpected take on it.  I really pictured this layout being less cutesy and more frilly like the sketch showed, but as it took shape, I just couldn't help it!  This is what came out.  Do you love the flower or do you love the flower?  My sister made it; isn't it gorgeous!

I did some stamping around my tag this time with the journaling on it.  My weekend definitely doesn't always resemble this, but this was a weekend to remember for sure!

Scrap Your Story

Scrap Your Story Challenges is a new challenge blog that just started, and I just now got the time to play along!  I love the name "Scrap Your Story" since that's exactly what all of us scrapbookers really do!  This week's challenge is the sketch pictured below.  I am working hard to try to get some of my kits used up...or actually used at all...  There is just so much paper to use in each kit that I can make lots of layouts!  (And that is not a complaint!)

This layout is a picture of my hubby and I hiking at Glacier National Park a few summers ago.  Good good memories.  Thanks for stopping by!

Love #2

After my first layout yesterday with a LOVE title, I scrapped a picture of myself with my nieces to go with the first layout.  This layout is based on the sketch from Scrap365's sketch blog.  There are super fun layers with all the tags on this sketch.

Here is how the pages will look side by side in my album.  These girls sure are loved!!  (Looking at these two pages also made me realize once again how much I am looking more and more like my mom the older I get!  Weird!  Not that I mind; my mom is lovely!)

Love #1

My sister, nieces, and I got together yesterday for some super fun craft time, and miracle of miracles, my sister and I both managed to finish a layout.  (Sometimes there is just too much talking to really get anything done, so that's an accomplishment!)  Mine is a picture of my mom and my nieces (her grandkids, obviously) made with my February kit from My Creative Scrapbook.  Gorgeous!

Here's the sketch from the My Creative Sketches blog: