XOXO

 This is my latest project for Sketches in Thyme using the following design.  I have been obsessed with HGTV show "Fixer Upper" here lately.  I love the vintage look Joanna Gaines creates in the houses she refurbishes on the show.  When I saw the Authentique "Fabulous" collection, it reminded me of items Joanna would use to decorate a little girl's room.  And I knew the little girl who would be the perfect subject matter for this paper; my oldest daughter.  When she was younger, she was the epitome of girly girl.  She loved dresses, dolls, singing..I snapped this picture of her when she was five talking on the phone cuddling with my brother's dog.  I have taken thousands of photos of her over the years, but this one has always been one of my favorites.  It's as if I took a picture of her ten years in the future.  Overall, I loved how the soft, dainty prints in this paper line pulled this project together.

THIS IS YOUR YEAR TO SPARKLE

This is my latest project for The Memory Nest using the following sketch.  A couple week's ago, I came across the Simple Stories "Happy New Year" collection.  I loved all the bright colors set against black and white backgrounds.  But I didn't think of New Year's Eve when I saw the line; I thought of my daughter.  Her birthday is the first week of February.  She is such an enthusiastic, happy child.  The vibrant, energetic colors of the papers made me think "birthday" instead of "New Year's," so I decided to feature some of my favorite pictures from her birthday last year using this line as the backdrop.  The different size blocks featured in the sketch were ideal to highlight the journaling cards that fit perfect for a birthday theme.  In addition, I used my square punch to cut out different patterned papers from the line to accent the pictures from her party. 

GO WHERE THE WIND TAKES YOU

This is my latest project for Let's Scrap using the following sketch.  My children love going to aquariums.  Since my girls were toddlers, they have been mesmerized by fish and sea creatures.  We weren't able to go on a vacation last summer, but my husband and I took them on a few adventures around the area. When I asked my girls where they wanted to go one afternoon, it was a no brainer..."The aquarium Mom!"  For this project, I used some of my favorite pictures from our trip to the Newport Aquarium in Covington, Kentucky.  I have been itching to use Echo Park's Pirate's Life Collection, and I thought aquarium pictures would be the perfect subject matter for this project.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Happy New Year!  This is my latest design for Let's Scrap using the following sketch.  The holidays may be over, but my very astute husband caught my hint on Cyber Monday and bought me this beautiful Christmas kit called "Holiday Cheer" from Photo Play that I was dying to use.  A few days before Christmas, my husband, daughters, mother-in-law, & I went to dinner at The Golden Lamb, the oldest hotel in Ohio.  The decorations throughout the building were breathtaking, so my girls and I were having lots of fun exploring and snapping pics. I thought the vintage designs on the paper fit perfectly with the photos I took. To finish this page, I threaded twine through eyelets on the right side and embellished with ornament stickers.

WINTER

This is my first project for the New Year and my latest project for The Memory Nest using the following sketch.  It's January in Ohio which means one day the temperature can reach 60 degrees while the next day temperature is below zero.  One thing lacking here this winter has been snow.  There is truly nothing more beautiful than watching giant snowflakes fall from the sky.  However, there is truly nothing more awful than driving on icy, slick roads.  Yet as a teacher, there is truly not a more glorious sound than the phone ringing early in the morning announcing, "Snow day!"  In other words, I have a love/hate relationship with the white stuff.  But it's January, and I'm a seasonal scrapper which means snow was on my mind. I was inspired by the chevrons on the sketch, but decided to approach them in a different way.  At first, I tried to create triangles similar to the sketch, but the busy nature of my paper overtook my pictures.  So I "scrapped" (no pun intended) that idea and decided to make my chevrons a different way.  I pulled out my square punch, used small doses of my Doodlebug "Polar Pals" paper, and then positioned my pictures as the sketch indicated.  A piece of accent paper on each picture and a few snowflake stickers placed randomly around my layout, and this first page of the New Year was born.