HOCKING HILLS

This is my latest project for Sketches in Thyme using the following sketch.  A month ago, my work friends and I took a girl's trip to the Hocking Hills region of Ohio.  This part of Ohio is filled with incredible landscape and beautiful hiking paths.  We trekked through an area called "Old Man's Cave" and without a doubt, it was some of the prettiest landscape I've ever seen.  With the sketch asking for six smaller pictures, I thought my snapshots of our hike would be perfect for this project.  Not to mention, when you crop down pictures, you can really focus in on the item you were hoping to capture when you were taking the picture.  I found this "shiplap" paper with botanical prints at Michael's and thought it was the perfect background for nature photos.  I strung twine from two eyelets and attached leaf embellishments along it.  And finally, I used a variety of cardstock stickers from Echo Park's "The Wild Life" collection to pull this project together.

FUN IN THE SUN

This is my latest project for Use Your Stuff.  This week, we were asked to use the mood board found below for inspiration.  I decided to hone in on the yellows and pinks of the mood board for this project.  At the start of summer this past year, my daughter and her friends went to a local artsy town to take pictures of themselves.  They posed in all sorts of beautiful locations, but this one made me happy.  My daughter is with one of her best friends, and they are having such fun being sassy for this picture.  To pull this project together, I dipped into my stash of papers and used a variety of Bo Bunny summer themed papers.  

HOME OF THE BRAVE

This is my latest project for Let's Scrap using the following sketch.  For this project, I featured pictures of my family and I on a recent trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Being a history teacher, every bit of soil in this town, to me, is hallowed ground.  I tell my students had the Battle of Gettysburg turned out differently, our nation may not look or be like it is today.  So I decided to go with a patriotic vibe for this project not only because of the significance of the battle, but also because we visited right before the 4th of July.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Pebbles's "Land that I Love" collection.

CLOSE TO NATURE

This is my final design team project for Creative Inspirations using the following sketch.  A month ago, my family and I took a trip to Washington DC.  My girls and I flew to DC to meet my husband who was taking a class in the area and then drove home.  On our way back to Ohio, my husband wanted to take us to Shanksville, PA were Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001.  I've been to a few 9/11 Memorials, but none hit me with such emotion like this one did.  In the field pictured on the left, a plane intended for DC crashed upside down at approximately 500 mph.  The passengers heroically stormed the cabin of the airplane and fought for control of the aircraft until the plane crashed into the field.  On September 11, 2001, this field was the site of a strip mine.  The earth had been carved and depleted of all trees and natural beauty.  Without warning, the land became the site of unimaginable sorrow.  Today, it's been restored to it's natural state as a memorial to those who perished.  As my girls, husband, and I were looking at this field of wild flowers remembering the tragic events of that horrible day, we spotted a mama dear and her twin fawns.  It was so peaceful.  So beautiful.  New life where there was once a tremendous amount of death.  It really was a moving experience to see.  I was looking for the perfect sketch and paper to highlight these pictures, and I felt that the Creative Inspirations August 12 sketch captured exactly what I wanted to convey.  I kept thinking about the circle of life with the circles on the sketch.  During an impromptu trip to my local scrapbook store, I found Authentique's "Meadow" collection that I thought did a perfect job spotlighting not only the nature aspect of the photos, but also the innocence of the deer family grazing in such a hallowed site.

FOOTBALL

This is my latest project for Use Your Stuff.  For this week's challenge, we were to use triangles on our projects.  I must admit that this challenge pushed my creativity a bit.  When I use shapes on my layouts, I don't typically lean towards triangles.  So as I walked my dog thinking on what I wanted to create (I tend to get my best ideas walking my dog), I decided to use pennants.  My original thought was using pics of my daughter at an Ohio State Football game.  When I came home and started rummaging through my stash, I came across this paper kit from Photo Play called "End Zone" that reminded me of a vintage football team.  Suddenly this page came together in my mind.  I decided to use pictures of my Grandpa when he was in high school and a star football player.  He held the kick off return yardage and touchdown records for my high school for almost seventy years.  Cool thing was it was my brother who broke the kick off return record.  I typically don't do heritage pages, but the older I get, the more I realize it's important to document these stories as well.  I wish I knew more about my great grandparents and their lives.  Hopefully my daughters and their children will appreciate this little nugget about their Great Grandpa.

TODAY WILL BE A MOST AMAZING DAY

This month, I'm a guest designer for the Creative Inspirations design team.  For this project, we were to use the following sketch.  The vintage looking mannequin reminded me something you would find in a high end boutique.  So I decided to feature a picture of my daughter in her most elegant of attire; her prom dress.  I pulled this project together using a variety of papers from Photo Play's "Vintage Girl" line along with Carta Bella's "French Flea Market" collection.

PLANES TRAINS AUTOMOBILES

This week, I am a featured guest designer for Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog.   Thursday's at this blog are called, "Thursday Stash" day where a designer picks an item from their stash, typically an item they haven't used in a while, to inspire others.  For this challenge, I picked photo corners.  A while back, I came into possession of more photo corners than a scrapbooker can imagine.  And for a long time, they remained dormant in a glass jar on shelf in my scrapbook room.  Recently, I've been breaking them out and using them on projects.  I really like how they make pictures visually pop off a page.  So for this project, I decided to feature recent pictures of a trip my girls and I took to Washington DC.  We flew into the city, and my oldest daughter was able to capture a picture of the National Mall from the air.  It reminded me of a post card, and I definitely wanted to highlight this incredible shot on this page.  To pull this project together, I used a sketch created by Bev Code, Creative Inspirations's founder.  

REPUTATION

This is my latest project for Let's Scrap using the following sketch.  For this layout, I was inspired by the film clip art and decided to feature pictures of my daughter at her first Taylor Swift concert.  She had a blast!  If you are an Ohioan, it is etiquette that if someone says to you, "O-H" that you respond, "I-O."  This unspoken rule was not forgotten by Taylor Swift who did this at the concert and was my daughter's favorite part of the night.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Hobby Lobby's "Paper Studio" line that I thought looked like the colors and feel of the Taylor Swift concert. The font used on Taylor Swift's concert poster is called, "Engravers Old," but I used a similar one called "Canterbury" to make the title for this page.

HAPPY LITTLE MOMENTS

This is my latest project for Sketchy Board Challenge using the following sketch.  For this layout, we were asked to use pink.  I decided to use a picture of my oldest daughter sitting next to our gorgeous, pink hydrangea when she was a tiny girl.  I forgot about how much of a contradiction she was at age five.  With curls in her hair and while wearing a dress, she's playing with a toy snake.  She was the perfect mix of tom boy meets girly girl.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Carta Bella's "Spring Market" line.