UYS/DOUBLE TROUBLE COLLABORATION: THINK GREEN

This is my latest project for Use Your Stuff that is collaborating with Double Trouble this month where we were asked to create a project using tartan plaid.  I love all things plaid, so I was THRILLED when I saw this challenge!  And as fate would have it, my daughter and her BFF's got matching green tartan plaid pajama bottoms for Christmas that they decided to wear for a photo shoot.  I thought they would be the perfect subject matter for a tartan plaid project.  Even though this picture was taken a few days before Christmas, I thought the Photo Play "Lucky Charm" collection with all its assortment of green plaid papers would be perfect to showcase a picture of my daughter who is beyond lucky to have such a great group of friends.

LET'S GET SKETCHY: BLESSED ARE THE CURIOUS...

 

This is my latest creation for Let's Get Sketchy using the following sketch.  When I saw that the layout called for 3 pictures, I wanted to make sure I had a grouping that told a story.  And this is one of my favorite stories.  When my daughter and I took a girl's trip to Costa Rica, around 4:00 PM each day, a group of capuchin monkeys would come literally hang out on our porch.  We had a mango tree right outside our room, so we would cut up little pieces of mango and feed our little friends.  It was one of the greatest, coolest moments of my life feeding these little cuties.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Kaisercraft's "Havana Nights" collection along with tropical flowers from Prima.

COOKING UP CREATIONS: SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU?

 And finally...these are my projects for Cooking Up Creations for the month of February.  This month's challenge was to create projects using a "Scooby Doo Where are you?" theme.  I immediately thought of travel and these were my creations.

PROJECT 1:  This project features my younger daughter playing in her first soccer tournament of 2021 post broken leg in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Rather than use traditional soccer paper to create this project, I used a variety of papers from Echo Park's "Little Lumberjack" collection because I loved the mountain vibe.  (As you can see in the picture, my daughter's team played on a field high up in the Smoky Mountains for one of their games).  But I did make sure to use soccer ball cut outs to pull the theme of the project together.  As an added twist, I also asked participants using my design as inspiration to feature a group picture somewhere on their project like I did of the team picture at the bottom of the layout.

PROJECT 2:  For my second project, I was asked to feature a sketch layout along with the travel theme.  Being in the height of an Ohio winter, I decided to dip into my archives of pictures of my daughter soaking up all the beauty of Costa Rica.  In both of these pics, she had no clue I was taking her picture.  After a very stressful high school experience, it was so wonderful to watch her relax and enjoy all the new experiences around her in Costa Rica.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Pink Paislee's "5th & Monaco" collection along with the below sketch.

SKETCHES IN THYME: JUST KEEP SWIMMING

This is my latest project for Sketches in Thyme using the following sketch.  My daughter rebroke her leg in September.  After a traumatic injury and long healing process that occurred in 2019, the same leg in the same spot broke again in 2020.  This time around, she had surgery where a titanium rod was inserted into her tibia to facilitate the healing.  Literally, within three weeks, she was running.  She is now back on the soccer field as fierce as ever.  It was the most amazing recovery I have ever seen.  This girl has more grit and strength than any person I know.  She has had to push herself through so much physical and mental anguish.  And she did.  She "just kept swimming" like Dory sang on "Finding Nemo."  As a result, I thought documenting her healing process would be the perfect subject matter for this project.  To pull this layout together, I used a variety of blue and water themed papers from Bella Blvd. and a "Finding Nemo" sticker of Dory I've been saving for years for the perfect project.

 

LET'S GET SKETCHY: SNOW MUCH FUN

This project is for the newest design team I joined in January called "Let's Get Sketchy."  This DT is a sketch team where we create a project based on a monthly sketch.  (Sketch found below for February). There is nothing I like more than a good sketch to create from, and this is what I came up with for my February project.  My daughter and her BFF went to a ski resort in Indiana for the day.  They had so much fun tubing.  And of course my daredevil daughter came home saying, "I want to ski next time I'm there..."  😳  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Echo Park's "Winter Magic" collection.  I thought the blues in the paper were the perfect accent for the blue sky behind the girls.

USE YOUR STUFF FEB 2021: HEARTS

Team A's challenge at Use Your Stuff for the Month of January was to create a project using hearts.  I knew EXACTLY what photo I wanted to use to make this happen.  My German Shepherd is the most patient, loving little brother my girls could ask for.  He is a willing model for any of their photo ideas.  And this photo shoot involved him posing with heart shaped sunglasses on in my daughter's bedroom.  I thought he would be the perfect subject matter for a heart themed project.  To pull this project together, I used a variety of papers from Authentique's "Best of Beloved" collection.

CUC PROJECTS FOR JANUARY 2021: OUT WITH THE OLD

I've been MIA for a while...Life is getting very busy, but wanted to take a minute to update my blog with some of my latest projects.  The theme for January at my design team "Cooking Up Creations" was "Out with the Old."  In other words, we were asked to dip into our stash and create projects using up what we already had.  These were my takes:

TAKE 1:  This project was created from Bella Blvd's "CHRISTmas" collection.  I've been looking for the perfect photo to showcase with this paper line, and I got my picture the day after Christmas this past year!  My German Shepherd was chilling under the Christmas tree chowing on his bone he got for Christmas with his squeaky toys in a row behind him.  He was in his element.  I thought the colors of the paper would perfect accent this picture of my happy boy.

TAKE 2:  For this project, I used my all time favorite winter paper kit, "Snow & Cocoa" by Crate Paper.  I love all the non-traditional colors this line uses for winter.  And when you are the Mom of girls who wore a lot of pinks and purples when they played in the snow, the line is perfect to use to highlight pictures!

NO BRUISES NO GLORY

This is my latest project for Sketches in Thyme using the following sketch.  For this project that featured circles, I decided to use action shots of my daughter playing soccer this past fall.  In addition, I felt the background paper that featured paint splatters and a soccer ball were perfect to highlight these particular pictures.  A few word stickers and strategically placed circle cut outs enabled this project to come together in no time flat.

VERY MERRY

Hello blog followers!  This is my latest project for Use Your Stuff created using the theme "Newly Acquired" as a guide.  In other words, we were asked to create a project using something new we either recently purchased or received for the holidays. A few weeks back, I purchased Crate Paper's, "Hey Santa" line specifically for my 2020 Christmas pics which I used for this project.  Sadly, I realized at the tail end of making my project that the stickers that matched my paper were misprinted...Where the stickers were cut didn't match up with the picture.  So I had to get very creative and use a few embellishments from another Crate Paper Christmas line to complete the project. To pull this layout together, I was inspired by a sketch from my former design team 2 Broke Girls when designing this project.