Keep Calm & Ski On

Yesterday a new MWM sketch was debuted over at ScrapbookSteals.  Well, actually there were two since Guest Sketcher Michelle King decided to wow us with an extra one.  I decided to work with 5a to begin with, and quickly realized I wanted to use the Crate Paper Lillian papers I had out for another project I had just finished up.  They were perfect for the S.W.A.T. color challenge, so I got to work planning the layout.  The only problem - I didn't have any 12x12 pieces left!  So, I did something I had considered for a long time.  I took the MWM sketch and made it part of another sketch!  This week's Unscripted Sketches was perfect to pair with the MWM layout.  I made the MWM part an 8.5x8.5 square (as that was about as large as I could with what I had), and then used other scraps to finish the layout off.

 I am really loving rosettes these days, and this one worked perfectly to hide a little punching mishap.

The title is inspired by Brenda's March challenge - using the works Keep Calm &... on your layout.  

Here are the two sketches and the color scheme:

4 generations

When I saw this month's first Paper Secrets challenge, I knew I wanted to scrap this pair of photos.  It is of my oldest with one parent, grandma, and one of grandma's parents - making for 4 generations.  With the photos in hand, I new I wanted to use some blue, so I went through my blue paper drawers and stumbled on the MLS paper with the flowers.  It wasn't what I had originally thought of in my head, but it worked perfectly!  Then i pulled out some more blue papers (MME and Lily Bee) along with the orangy pink paper from Crate Paper.  For embellishments, I used a white doily, a Paper Play Studio flair, some MME washi, three Stampin Up brads,  EP and NS stickers, and some twine (Twinery).  The alphas are WP and Thickers.

 And here is the sketch:

learning - A LGS Reveal

 This week's amazing sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy is by the amazing Bev Code.  I love that it has a mix of hexagons, banners, and arrows!

I recently sorted my papers by color, and decided I had a TON of blue papers.  So, I started this layout looking through my drawer with turquoise paper.  I was immediately drawn to the gingham paper with the pink, blue, and green on it (the back side is a blue and white polka dot).  Then I remembered Rochelle's color challenge for this month, and thought I could really make this work!  I pulled out some of my MLS papers to go with the MME Hip Hooray paper and the dug out a piece of light pink NS paper to use for my hexagons.  For the banner, I just used scraps of the hexagons - each triangle is about 1/6th of a hexagon - and stitched them together with twine.

For the arrows, I decided to try stamping them.  I made an arrow template out of scrap cardstock, and then I used my MME border stamp and the three colors of ink to make the arrows.  I topped them off with a piece of the gingham paper and some twine to bring it all together.   The journalling is about what I have learned from my kids - how they have made me grow in the last 5+ years.   The first ever S.W.A.T challenge made me dig deep and really think about myself.

For the embellishment cluster, I used some Crate Paper pieces mostly as well as a few other random pieces I could find.  The title I cut using my Silhouette and the French script font.

Christmas Chaos - MWM Jade 8

Time for another fun layout based on a ScrapbookSteals MWM sketch (Jade 8).

Here is the sketch by the wonderful Kerys!

I pulled out my 12 Days of Christmas 6x6 pad that I recently "stole" and started with the mat for the photos. I loved that I could pull in so many colors using the woven mat, many of which are in the kids' matching pajamas.  But, once I had the mat done, I had to figure out how to finish off the layout.  I wanted to pull in some darker blue from the jammies, so I added a faux pleated strip using Indie Chic 6x6 papers.  Then I went to embellish it using some Nikki Sivilis and Crate Paper pieces as well as some stitching and of course some Thickers.

 If you have never done a Mid-Week Mojo over at ScrapbookSteals, you really should!  The sketches are always so fun, and they draw one random winner each week.  Plus they have a bigger random drawing prize for those that complete all ten sketches in a jewel series.  More information on MWM can be found here.

A Winner and Some Layouts!

First up, I want to announce the winner for the RAK from my blog for the LGS blog hop.  And the winner is commenter #26:

WendyNovember 10, 2012 4:24 PM
Very pretty wreath! You chose some great papers to work with!

Wendy, please email me at stephaniesumpleby AT gmail DOT com with your address so I can get your prize mailed out to you.  If I don't hear from you by Tuesday, November 27, I will draw another name.

And now on to some layouts!

These are both for challenges by four amazing girls that have teamed together to give monthly challenges: Kerys, Rochelle, Brenda, and Kristi.

This first one is using the sketch by Rochelle for Brenda's challenges.

I pulled out my Crate Paper Christmas papers and got to work scrapping this family picture from 2010.  I mainly did this layout for my challenge over at Scrap-Friendzy (scrapping a family photo).  I have fun layering the die cut pieces for this one! 

 And a close up of the stitching - just plain blue sewing thread.

This second one is for Kerys's color challenge.  My red is a little more pink, but otherwise I stayed true to her colors (and it looks a little darker and redder in person).  The pictures are of my oldest when she was sick in June 2011.  I used the sketch over at Paper Secrets for this (although I didn't get it done in time to link up :( ), and again I had fun with some Crate Paper papers.

 I thought this little bird die cut was so cute!  And it worked perfectly in the frame die cut I had as well.

And here is a close up of the journalling.  An unknown mono-like bug that knocked her down completely for about a week!  And then it took another week for her to gain her strength back.  I hope we never have that bug again!