Christmas Copy Cat...

Recently Paper Smooches had a blog hop showcasing their latest new releases.  When I got to Teri Anderson's blog, I noticed that she was doing a "25 in 25" challenge.  (Making 25 cards in 25 days.)  What better place to find inspiration for cards than a blog showcasing exactly what I'm working on?!

This is a card that Teri made:

And here is my version:

I think this card turned out beautifully.  I love finding inspiration on blogs and Pinterest because there are people out there who are way more talented than myself and they deserve a bit of copy cat flattery.  :)

That's all for today!  Until next time...

It's scraplifting time!

I've mentioned it before, it if it weren't for scraplifting, all of my pages would look like a 4 year-old did them. Scraplifting taps into the creativity I didn't know I possessed. I cringe when I think about how boring my first scrapbook looks.

Anyway, I saw this picture in a recent Scrapbooks, etc. add and knew I wanted to do something with it. It's fun, I loved the basic layout concept and I thought the sun was super cute!



Here is my take on it:



The picture didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped because it's slightly overcast today, but I think you get the general idea. I think it turned out really well. It was a little outside my comfort zone to put the journaling on the left side of the picture, but I think it looks good that way. I put the picture on the right-hand side of the page because I thought it would look better if the sun was looking down directly over the pictures of the girls in the water. Speaking of the sun, isn't it cute? :)

I wish I had the creative knack for scrapbooking all on my own, but until that develops in my brain I'm glad I have scraplifting!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...almost!

And by the most wonderful time, I don't mean Christmastime (although I do love that time of year as well). I am talking about FALL! After the disgustingly hot summer we've had this year, I am REALLY looking forward to Fall. Luckily, there are tiny hints all over the place that it's just around the corner. The pear tree in our back yard is starting to shed it's leaves (something it does at the end of summer). My oldest daughter found a yellow leaf in our driveway this morning. It's been in the 80s (!!) for two days in a row!! Yes, my friends, Fall is upon us. And not a minute too soon!

Halloween is just 2 short months away and I've already got ideas as to what my girls will dress up as. Sounds like the perfect time to crop LAST YEAR'S Halloween pictures, right? I'm pretty excited about this layout. I had an idea in my head as to what I wanted the layout to look like, then I found a perfect layout to scraplift!

Here is the original (it's small):



And here is my layout:



Here are a couple close-ups of some embellishments and distressing:




I found Coredinations cardstock at my local scrap store that is black with orange underneath and I distressed around the edges with sand paper. I also distressed around the cardstock with ink. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! I'm always shy when it comes to embellishments, but I think the brads and stickers I used fit in really well. Now that I have this page done, I'm looking forward to Halloween this year!

Speaking of scraplifting...

I just came across a layout that I scraplifted from one of MY OWN layouts! I posted the original layout and my version in the previous layout. Here is my 2nd take on a sweet idea:



I just recently made a scrapbook for a dear friend of mine who just had her first baby. This is one of the pages from that album. As hard as it was to create an album for someone else (12 pages - WITH PICTURES!), the reactions from my friend and her husband made the lack of sleep from the 12 days of creating the album completely worth it. Plus, their sweet girl was a joy to crop!

Scraplifters Anonymous, anyone?

I have to admit, the ONLY way I am able to do about 95% of my layouts is to scraplift. Some days I really want to scrap, but have no brain power to muster the creativity to think of a layout on my own. I've come across great examples and have used them to my advantage. I'd like to show you some of my best scraplifts. I'll show you the example first, then my depiction. Here we go!

Example:



My version:



Example:



My version:



To take credit for these by myself would doing an injustice to the people who created the originals! I WISH I was that creative!