Show and Tell Saturday - CUC Turns Four

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share with you an AWESOME SITE!  I know that I have posted about this site before but this month is particularly special.  Cookin' Up Creations is turning FOUR!!!

All month long we are planning and sharing amazing challenges, games, inspiration, way cool prizes, and much more - friendship!  I have been a member of this site for a few years now and love the relationships formed here.  Come join us for sketch challenges, birthday celebration challenges, unique gift ideas, birthday games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and more.  We would love to have you!  Don't forget to browse the gallery!

Re-using Sketches????

There are so many amazing sketches out there to inspire and challenge us on a daily basis but I began thinking . . . (yep dangerous) . . . and sometimes I come across a sketch that I want to use more than once.  My worry is that my pages may start to look the same so I try to mix it up a bit and use older picts on one and newer on the re-used sketch layout so they won't be so close together in my albums.

That definitely works but this time around I wanted to use the same sketch in the same album (livin' on the edge!)  So I thought that I might try to angle the sketch so it won't be so obvious!

I re-used this sketch from Sketches with a Twist - and changed up the angle and embellishments.

 Here is the first layout:

and the second angled layout!

So that's it!  Re-using favorite sketches with a slight twist!  Try it out!

Sketch Mania! Show 'n Tell Saturday!

Now you all know that I love sketches!  Every layout that I create (ok maybe not EVERY layout but most) starts with a sketch of some sort.  Here are a few of my favorites lately!

This first sketch comes from Ideas for Scrapbookers and I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist try it out since it was so unique!

And here is a layout of my son and some friends on Superhero Day.  Please excuse the dorky costumes!!!

And this sketch come from Nuts about Sketches.  I chose to only do the left side but I loved the way it turned out!

This next sketch also comes from the same site!

 

And finally, one last sketch from Sketchabilities.

A few Sketches from Nuts About Sketches!

I love the uniqueness of Shawn's sketches at Nuts About Sketches.  Here are a few recent sketches and layouts!

And here is my layout:

 

And another recent sketch:

And my layout:

(Funny story and side note about this layout - The boy on the left with my husband . . . not a member of my family.  My husband saw him and just invited him into the picture!  And he did!!!  His family just laughed and said that they could see their family doing the same thing!  Phew!  At least they didn't see my husband as a creeper!)

Nuts About Sketches 250 & 251

Around Christmas my brother found a cute little gift (gross but cute) called BEAN-boozled.  It was a crazy game where you spin a spinner that shows you a jelly belly.  Now you choose a jelly belly of that color and the trick is one flavor is yummy and the other gross.    So you choose Peach or Vomit, Strawberry or Centipede, Licorice or Skunk-spray, well . . . you get the idea.  So on Christmas Day I had to take pictures of the "fun."  The circles in Nuts about Sketches sketch 250 reminded me of the spinner and I had to scrap.

And here is my family playing:

Next, as Spring Break draws nearer, I began to think about Disney (and all the photos that I have yet to scrap!)  So when I saw the Nuts About Sketches 251 sketch and the large photo, I decided to change it up a bit and scrap a few 5 x 7's that I had lying around.  Secret:  I also wanted to try "paper piecing" with clip art on my new Silohuette Cameo.  Here is the sketch:

And I rotated the sketch to create this layout:

 

Hope you are inspired!  Thanks for looking!

A Halloweenie Good Time!

I just wanted to share a few Halloween themed layouts that I created lately.  The first is one of my son listening to his least favorite song.  Around Halloween every year, the radio station plays the Dogman Song. It is about a dog that walks upright and terrorizes and kills people in the Upper and Northern Lower Peninsula. The song has ALWAYS terrified children in our area (to the point that the kids would sleep with a baseball bat next to their bed around Halloween time.) When the song comes on, to this day, my son freaks out. We had to document it!  This layout was based on a sketch from NAS!

 The second is my daughter dressing up for likely her last Halloween.  She found these glasses last year and just knew she wanted to be a Hippie for Halloween!

Summer Sketches Part Two

One of the things that I shared with you this year was a group of amazing summer sketches for a Show and Tell Saturday.  I said that I would like to try each of them this summer and share the results with you.  I managed to get three done this week and thought that I would post so you could check them out!

The first sketch:

And my take (which I couldn't resist adding the pinata banner to!):

The second sketch:

And my take - I made my own stencil for this and I will show you how later this week!:

And the third and last sketch for today from Nuts About Sketches:

And my last layout to share today (I added an extra photo here - couldn't resist):

I hope you like the first reveal of my Summer Sketch collection!

Altered Canvas + a few extra layouts!

I just wanted to share my first Altered Canvas.  It was really easy to do, I included a photo of my kids of course, and it is really shimmery thanks to Tattered Angels!

I also wanted to share a few layouts that I recently created inspired by the folks over at Cookin' Up Creations and Nuts About Sketches.

Summer Sketch Inspiration - Show and Tell Saturday

I always "love"  (secretly despise) it when someone mentions that teachers are so lucky because they have summers off.  For me, summer is almost here.  I have one week left of school and meetings (although my summer plans include at least two hours of school work a day to get ready for next year.)  It has been a trying year and I have had very little time for scrapping.  That is all about to change this summer!  I have found some amazing sketches this week and thought that I would share some Summer Inspiration.  I cannot wait for my school year to be finished and then I can start trying out these sketches.  I will link back to this post as I use each of these!!!  Check these out! 

                                          from:  www.pencillines.com

                                           from:    NAS

Three Dimensional Embellishments

Hello all!  I wanted to share my most recent layout with you along with the 3-D embellishments that really  make the layout pop!  For Spring Break this year, we traveled to Islands of Adventure in Florida and visited Marvel Island.  I knew that I wanted this layout to jump out at you and have a comic book feel.  So I based the layout on the sketch from NAS and did some misting on the cardstock for my background.  As I started building the layout, I thought that it would be neat to pop some of the stars.  So I used my Cricut George cartridge and cut three stars.  Each star would be slightly smaller than the previous.  Then I began chalking.  The bottom layer had the most chalking with each following layer to be chalked a bit less giving the dimension I was looking for.  Then I layered them adding pop dots and VOILA.  They jumped right out at ya!  I thought that this would be great to try on banners, butterflies, etc. 

Here is the sketch!

Here is my layout!

 Here is a close up of those 3-D embellishments.

These really do add dimension to a layout!  Try them out!

NAS Sketch 212 - Love this layout!

I loved the way that this layout turned out.  It was based on NAS Sketch 212.  I tried to bring out the background surroundings which reminded me of Little Italy.  I pasted over a stencil and let dry and then highlighted the design with some inks. I also stamped some images onto transparencies and embellished with a few older rub-on butterflies and birds, buttons, and flowers.  I hope you like it!

Nuts About Sketches - 2 More Reveals

I just wanted to share with you my most recent layouts and reveals for Nuts about Sketches.  Here is the first sketch - Sketch 207:

And my layout - left side only:

And finally Week 208 sketch:

And my take on this sketch:

I hope you like them!