10 on the 10th

Another month gone by already? That means it's time for Shimelle's 10 on the 10th again!

This month, I bring you another 10 crafty projects. Mostly layouts, with a card and a tag thrown in! Most of these were completed at a recent crop at my local scrapbook store, The Papercraft Clubhouse. Love that place, so had to give them a shout out!

Click on any of the images to see them full screen.

From my summer road trip with my niece and mom. Jillibean Soup paper,  Sketch Support sketch   

Another road trip layout! Basic Grey paper, Sketch Support sketch.

This was the page kit we received at the crop. Perfect for a picture of my sweet girl, Melody!

A Christmas layout, completed shortly after Christmas! Woo hoo! Crate Paper papers,  Sketch Support sketch  .

Summer scrapbook retreat! Basic Grey papers,  Sketch Support sketch  .

My niece, loving my dogs! Basic Grey papers.

Sarah "meets" Stephen Colbert! Authentique papers.

Fancy Pants papers. Scraplift of this layout by Sue Althouse of Life and Memories.

Simple Birthday Card...will be going in the mail today!

This was the make and take from the crop. Lots of Tim Holtz goodness here!

Love these girls!

Now that I am up and running with my new computer, I've been going through my PSE files and realizing how many layouts I've created that I haven't yet shared here! I made these two while at a scrapbooking retreat with some on-line friends this summer. They feature two of my favorite scrapbooking subjects, my nieces! The photos were all taken last Christmas while we were visiting them in California.

The problem with waiting so long to post them is that I don't remember what sketches I used as inspiration! I think these were both based on Pagemaps sketches...my apologies if I am wrong!

Thanks for looking!

Thank you, Santa

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently took Allison Davis' Sketch Support Class over at My Creative Classroom.  I've enjoyed Allison's sketches for a while, but I definitely picked up some tips on how to tweak and modify a sketch to your own tastes. This layout was based on the sketch from week 4.  I didn't deviate too much from the basic design of the sketch.

The papers were some old Fancy Pants that I've had in  my stash for a while.

For the embellishments, I used Tim Holtz' rosette die, cutouts from the patterned paper, and buttons.

I also broke out some coordinating rub-ons I've had as long as the paper!

Thanks for stopping by!  I think I've found my blogging groove again...hope to be back soon with some more layouts!

Hello, August! (July Recap, Part 1)

Wow, what a blur July was! I didn't manage a single blog post.  Didn't get to read many of my usual blogs either.  Didn't participate in my regular online challenges or scrapbooking classes.  All because I was having lots of fun "in real life"!

July started off quietly enough with a 4th of July celebration at home with our neighbors. I baked my usual Martha Stewart blueberry pie, and my husband smoked chicken and ribs.

Mmm, pie!

A few days later, I headed to a scrapbooking retreat in Kentucky where I met up with some fabuous women I have "known" for several years, but had never met in real life. What a fun weekend! Good company, good food, beautiful setting, and of course, lots of crafty time.  I managed to finish my December Daily (finally!), create a mini-album of my May trip to Tennessee, and make eight 2-page LOs and four 1-pagers. Phew! Eventually I will scan and post some of my favorites!

Hard at work!

The group shot, not sure which camera to look at!

The day after I got home, my family descended upon us! My brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces were visiting from California, so they came to Connecticut with my parents for a quick overnight visit.  We enjoyed a boat ride along the CT shoreline and a yummy seafood dinner.

My niece Elena and me

They headed back to CA a few days later, but my oldest niece stayed behind for an extra three weeks so she could enjoy some quality time with grandma & grandpa (and me!). After a few days at my parents, she came back to Connecticut with me. We went to see the midnight screening of Harry Potter on opening day (even though I had only just read the first book and had no clue what was going on! Am I a good aunt or what?!!). Also managed to squeeze in a nice afternoon at the town beach and a sushi dinner. Heck, we even managed to have fun at the dollar store!

A few days later, my mom returned, and the three of us embarked on a week-long road trip to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC, but I will save the details of that trip for an upcoming post! Until then, I'm looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs!

Must Love Dogs: June Counterfeit Kit

I finally broke into my June Counterfeit Kit this Tuesday.  I was going to a friend's house to scrap, and I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to complete many pages.  So I just grabbed my tools, my counterfeit kit, and a few pictures and I was good to go.  I didn't plan out any pages in advance, but I did try and select photos that would go with the feel and colors of the kit.  In the end, I didn't get a lot done (our 2 hour lunch break cut into actual scrapping time!) but I'm happy with the results.

Here's one of the layouts I completed:

The pictures are of my niece Elena with her two dogs.  I based this layout on one by Sheri Reguly in the spring issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today. I like how it focuses on the pictures and patterned paper and uses minimal embellishments.

I cut the butterflies from the patterned paper, adhered them with pop dots, added a bit of liquid pearls, and called it done!

Click here to see my complete kit.
Click here to visit the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Thanks for visiting! Come back later this week to see some of the other pages I made with the kit.

Blog Neglect!

It certainly has been challenging to find time to scrapbook and keep this blog updated now that school is in full swing! During the week, it's nearly impossible for me to complete any layouts, since I leave for work at 6 am and don't return home til 6:30 pm.  The downside of a 77 mile commute!!  Thank goodness I only have to do this 8 months out of the year! I have been managing to get one or two layouts done each weekend, but haven't been posting them here. Without further adieu, here are some of my recent creations, inpsired by May Flaum's Use Your Stash Class at Big Picture Classes as well as challenges over at Scrapbook Central on iVillage.

Star Wars Fever: This LO feautres my niece Elena enjoying some new and old Star Wars toys on Christmas Day. I used some newer Echo Park paper and stickers, along with some older buttons & journaling spot.

Emily: For this next one, I pulled out by 2001 storage binder and came across these pictures of my best friend's daughter's birth. Dug deep into my stash of patterned paper here, using some old EK Success papers. Also broke out some Quickutz dies and a border bunch.

Visiting Jimi: I am really happy with how this one turned out! I layered some older coordinating My Mind's Eye paper, Thickers, and grungeboard flourishes that I inked up with distress ink.

Greetings from Camp: Finally, this 2-page spread features my nieces on a camping trip last year. Used some Cosmo Cricket paper that I won at a crop a while back.

Thanks for looking!

Library of Memories Community: Weekly Challenge #1

The new Library of Memories Community on Big Picture Scrapbooking kicked off last week.  Stacy Julian started us off with this challenge, in honor of the 4th of July: "Create a Storage Binder layout with red, white and You. Yes, this means there needs to be a photo of you on the page. You can add some blue too -- or any other color you like!"

I flipped through my storage binder of childhood photos and was reminded of an idea I have had for a while to make a layout about my neices and myself all playing on the same rocking horse (at different times of course!).  I've always held off on this  layout because one of the photos I have of my neice, although digital, was sent in a really small format and gets fuzzy when enlarged.  I finally decided just to keep it small, and use an 8 1/2 x 11 sketch from Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class at BPS. Here is the result:

Thanks for looking!

Results of Saturday's Crop

Here are a few of the LOs I created while cropping at the Scrapbook Clubhouse on Saturday. 

These first two are for my Newcomers Club.
Bunco:

Holiday Party:

This one is from last summer's vacation to upstate New York:

And here are a few from Christmas, featuring my lovely nieces:

I am happy to report that everything I used was from my stash, except for the cool patterned paper on Loose Tooth.  It's by Fancy Pants, and I couldn't resist it since it went perfectly with my nieces fleece jacket!

I still need to put the finishing touches on a few other LOs I started while at the crop, so more to come!

Blog post, Take 1

Hello out there! I am attempting my first blog post.  I still haven't decided what I plan on using this blog for, other than sharing my latest scrapbook pages with anyone who is interested! So here are the first two layouts I have created in 2010.  The first features my cutie pie niece Elena showcasing her funky fashion sense:

And here she is again, demonstrating her love of snow!

I am lucky to have such a photogenic subject! Thanks for looking!