Being Real (and a bit transparent)

Wow...I disappeared on you all, huh.
Sorry about that.

The Excuses
Well first off...my kids got out of school.  And I love that.  We've been busy, it's just how summer goes.  But it does make it tougher to find time for all the other stuff I want to do.
And then I had a sick little one too, and then (of course) I got sick myself.  I am starting to feel better, but I still don't feel back to normal.

The Truth
While those are absolutely true, I also realize that there is a bigger reason for why I haven't been posting on the blog or doing projects.  And I am just going to be open about it.  So for the past year, well...a little longer than a year...our family has been dealing with something really tough.  And while I am not going to go into details about that, I will say that it has it's effects.  I have been struggling with the big D word...sometimes it feels a bit more controlled and sometimes I just really feel depressed and like I can't climb out of this pit.  During those times especially, I don't get much scrapbooking done...I just never FEEL like doing anything.  The funny thing is--when I HAVE to get something done and force myself to sit and work...I enjoy it!  I'm always glad I did it.  But if you have ever struggled with depression at all, then you probably know how short lived that enjoyment is.  Anyways...I am not trying to be a downer.  I figured I could put it out there and you would know...and perhaps somebody else will read my words and feel better about being "real" themselves.  We do this thing in life where we all pretend we have the perfect lives and are totally happy, but I have learned that in most cases--that's not real.


But I do have several projects to share with you.  I will spread them out over the next few posts.  First up--my projects for The ScrapCake.

Last month we had Women's Week on the TSC blog...we did projects honoring a woman in our lives, and we were supposed to make it really feminine.  Here's the layout I did:

I used a combination of papers from both the My Private Happiness and the One Moment in Time collections.  

My grandma is in kind of a sad place in her life too.  My grandpa passed away several years ago, and she just lives alone.  She doesn't leave the house much at all, and her laughter (which used to be abundant) has been replaced with complaints.  But I want to make sure that I don't remember her this way.  I want to remember her as the goofball she has been most my life.  She's funny, she loves to laugh, and sometimes she just does/says the silliest things.   I miss her smiles and her laughs.  

Here are some close up's of the layout:

The chipboard "remember" comes from Imaginarium Designs, the flowers from Prima, and the beautiful cameo embellishment and the lace from Webster's Pages.  

What do you think--does it look feminine?  

And then here are two cards I made using the My Private Happiness collection:

Ok...well I will be back soon!

I hope you have a FANTASTIC day!!!

From Card to Layout

Awhile ago I posted this card sketch that I created:

Which in turn created this card:

Ever since I made this card I just knew that I wanted to translate the same idea into a layout.  And I finally did.  :)

Here's my layout:

I really LOVE how it turned out.  :)  It uses the FABULOUS My Private Happiness collection from The ScrapCake.  That butterfly comes from Imaginarium Designs.

Here are the close up's:

I just thought that instead of just posting the layout, I would also share where my inspiration came from.    Even though, it was in fact from myself.  :)  Don't you love that, when you can find inspiration from your own work?  I think we all can.

Well thanks so much for stopping by today!!
Have a wonderful day!

Hello Spring

Hi everyone!  Hope your Monday was awesome.  We may be starting to get better here....cross your fingers for us.  I can't wait for us all to be feeling back to normal.  While I am dreaming of summer and all the fun things we can do, I hope to start enjoying Spring more.  The kids have played outside, but for the most part we are cooped up inside and I am just ready to be outside planting things and playing with the kids.  Mother's Day can't come fast enough...that's when most of the planting can start around here...however, I must admit, we always jump the gun and do ok.  :)  Mother's Day is just too far away.    Unfortunately, we'll probably still get snow here in Colorado.  :(

So I am sharing a Spring card today done for sketch 124 over at Skipping Stones Design.  It uses their Heartsong stamp set (the "Hello" is actually from Heartsong 2 though). 

Here's the card:

This card also uses papers and die cuts from The ScrapCake, from their My Private Happiness collection.  The chipboard butterflies come from Imaginarium Designs and the gems are from Prima.  

And here's the sketch:

The sketch was created by the fabulous Dina Kowal.  I hope you take the challenge and play along with us!  *You do NOT have to have Skipping Stones Design stamps to play along!*  Play along here. 

And you don't want to miss out on what the rest of the team did with this sketch, check those out here:

* Jennifer Ingle

* JoAnn Valderama

* Karen Baker

* Katie Gehring

* Lindsay Amrhein

* Stephanie Mino

* Wendy Jordan

* Wendy Price

And our guests for the month, along with Dina:

* Annette Allen

* Veronica Zallis

So, like I said, I hope you play along with us!  :)

And on a side note....anybody out there watch Eureka?  I just love this show.  The series premiere was on last night, and I was just left going "what!?!"  They've always got to ruin everything, huh?  

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY EVERYONE!!!! 

Have a fantastic day!!!

Happy Easter!!!!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to pop in real quickly and share a fun card with you that I made for Easter.  It uses the awesome My Private Happiness collection from The ScrapCake, chipboard frames from Imaginarium Designs and stamps from Skipping Stone Design (the Gray Hares set).  

Thanks for stopping in!

And I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!!!!!

Hopping with OUAS!!

Welcome to Once Upon A..Sketch' s first birthday blog hop!  It is so exciting to have you here and we hope you are inspired along the way to join in the fun and get creative!!  You should have arrived here from Lene's blog, but if you haven't you need to go back to the beginning of the list below so you don't miss out.

(please note that due to time differences there could be some broken links..please check back later as the blogs will be updated asap) 

Once Upon A..Sketch blog 

Nadia Cannizzo 

Patti Hamil 

Irini Liolia 

Gerry Van Gent 

Mahlin Wiggur

Vicky Varvadouka 

Sandi Taloumis

Jeni O' Connor

Lene Neby 

Pamela Young

Larissa Albernaz

LG Belarmino 

Bente Fagerberg 

Natalie Elphinstone

Georgia Heald 

Jasmine Shea

Mai Kosugi 

Natalie May 

Heather Jacob 

and then back to Once Upon A...Sketch blog to leave your name on the list. 

Our new MONTHLY challenge has just been released! Each Design Team member has created their own  layout based on this sketch and journaling criteria and you need to follow the above list to see what they came up with. 

We would love to see what you create, so please link your project to back at the Once Upon A...Sketch blog. You DO NOT have to participate in the blog hop to enter this challenge. 

Here is this month's challenge....

April Challenge

 The theme of this challenge is HOME.  We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "HOME" however you like based on the following sketch. You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must incorporate this theme  and this sketch. 

And here is my example...

I used some fabulous papers from Webster's Pages that I had on hand...not any of the newer stuff, but I am so eagerly awaiting all of it that I felt inspired to pull out what I had.  :)  And then the chipboard fence comes from Magistical Memories and the chipboard corner pieces come from Imaginarium Designs.  

Here are some close up's of my layout:

PRIZES

Our main sponsor of this blog hop is ....

 

Imaginarium Designs chipboard is donating this prize to one lucky winner of the blog hop.

This prize pack includes AUS$70.00 worth of chipboard PLUS inks PLUS Spray Mists PLUS free postage to anyone in the world. 

DETAILS

 ***In order to be entered for the main prize,you must be or become a follower AND comment on ALL blogs along the way and finally back at the Once Upon A...Sketch blog to tell us that you have left a comment for everyone.

***There will also be some other prizes along the way which our Design Team have kindly donated. To win these, you need only comment on and follow the blog which is giving the prize. The randomly chosen winners for these prizes will be announced at that Design Team member's blog.

This is the prize I am giving away....

That is one huge pile of 12 x 12 papers from BasicGrey, and then also some 6x6 pads and embellishments, also from BasicGrey.  

This is open to ANYONE that becomes or already IS a follower of my blog and leaves me a comment on this post.  (This is the standard set by the hop)

 The blog hop starts today, April 1st and finishes midnight (Australian Eastern Standard Time) April 5th with the MAIN PRIZE winner to be announced soon after the blog hop ends at the Once Upon A....Sketch blog and the other winners announced at the Design Team member blogs soon after the blog hop ends also. 

Thank you for visiting and taking part in our blog hop!

We hope you found some inspiration along the way.

Your next stop is the very talented Larissa!!!!  

Thanks for stopping by today!

Have a wonderful day!

Cards and a DT CALL :)

Hi everyone!  Thanks for stopping in today!  This week over at The ScrapCake's blog, we are featuring cards.  I have three to share with you today.  :)  All of them use papers from The ScrapCake, and then I combined them with stamps from Skipping Stones Design and chipboard from Imaginarium Designs.

And this last one is my favorite....

And then I just had to pass along some fun information for you.  You know I design for The ScrapCake and I LOVE it!  Their papers are amazing, the people are wonderful and the assignments are fun!  If you like their papers...I got some fun news you may want to hear...

Yep, that's right!  The ScrapCake has a design team call out right now!  You can check out all the details here.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!!!!

Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Happy New Year's Eve to you all!  I hope you have a happy and safe day today whatever you do!  I wish you all the best for 2012!!!  

Well, with the new year, comes a new challenge over at Once Upon A Sketch! I do hope you play along with us! :)

The challenge:

Journaling Criteria: Our theme this time is New year's Eve. Journal about your feelings around this time of year, or tell us about your most memorable New Year's Eve. What do you typically do or what did you specifically do this year? Who do you celebrate with? Was there one that was particularly memorable? 

You MUST combine the journaling criteria with this sketch:

My Layout:

At first I was a bit intimidated by this challenge...not exactly sure why, maybe it was because I didn't have any specific New Years Eve photos, but I made a page about how I generally spend it.  Here's my layout:

I used by Cameo for this page!!!  I loved playing with it and can't wait to play more.  See that cute house with the words cut out of it, that is what I cut with my Cameo.  Isn't it cute?  :)  The chipboard I used comes from Imaginarium Designs.  They are an awesome company that is a consistent sponsor over at Once Upon A Sketch.  They even sponsor the design team, so I was lucky enough to get to play with them.  My papers are all from My Mind's Eye.  

Here are some close up's of my layout:

The prizes:

You won't want to miss the prizes you can win...lots of good stuff!

1. The winner of this challenge, as chosen by the Design Team, will win a spot on our Design Team for the month of February. As well as that, the winner will also receive a nice prize from The Craft's Meow:

An in-stock stamp set from The Crafts Meow of the winners choice..

*example of stamp set the winner could choose. 

2. One RANDOM lucky person will receive this prize from Feature Art:

3. One RANDOM lucky person will receive this prize from Vicky Alberto Etsy Shop:

See!!! Lots to win! :)

I really hope you play along with us this!!!! You have until Jan. 14th to upload your entry here. Can't wait to see what YOU do! :)

Have a FANTASTIC day!!!!