Son

I knew as soon as I saw this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch what photo I wanted to use!  This is my favorite photo that I have of my son.  His eyes just look so cool!


The Layout


































The Sketch

Stick Pin Tutorial

Beaded stick pins are quite popular these days in scrapbooking.  They can also be kind of expensive.  If you have a few pretty beads and a handful of head pins, you can make your own for a lot less!  A lot of bead stores will sell beads singly too.  Here are just a few easy steps to making your own pins.

Please forgive some of my out of focus photos.  It is really dark here today and I am trying to do this on my own and the camera was giving me fits on focusing.

First collect your supplies.  I used some crystals, some pretty pearls and flat head pins.  You could use fancy head pins for an added cool look.  I used Glue Dots to hold the beads on the pin where I wanted them, but you can also use Superglue.  I just didn't want to wait for it to dry.

Arrange your beads how you like them on the pin

I used a piece of a glue dot to hold the beads in place on the bottom bead.  I just stuck it on and formed it around the pin.  You could use Superglue here too.  Just remember to hold it upside down until it has dried enough to hold.  Then follow the package directions on how long it should sit until used.

Oi la, here you are; pretty pins to stick into an embellishment, under ribbon or however else you come up with for them!

Happy stick pinning!

In A Flash

The Challenge:
Use a blurred photo to tell your story

I knew just what photo I wanted to use!  I took this photo at a marching band competition where at the end of the competing, all the bands line up on the track.  Each lane of kids is facing the opposite lanes next to them, so when they start marching, they are all intermixed and facing other kids coming at them.  It is the coolest thing to see!  There are hundreds of kids in all different colors in a swirl of motion.  Since it happens in the dark and it would be almost impossible to get a good photo that was still, I decided to set my settings so that the photo would be a blur of color and design.  It's a cool photo, I think.  It also tells the story of how fast my 8 years as a band parent went.  It sounds like a lot, but it really did go fast.  It was something I loved doing with my kids and I made so many good friends with parents and other band kids.  So, hold on to those things and even jobs you have as part of being a parent, because they really are gone in a flash!


The layout (only one page!)

The sketch

Beautiful Bride

In my opinion, and there is no bias here, Kayla was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen!  She radiated beauty on her wedding day; inside and out.  There was an amazing inner glow about her that was stunningly beautiful.  She cleaned up quite nicely on the outside too.  We had some great friends and family helping us get ready for the wedding and they did a great job helping to make her look and feel gorgeous!  She really did look and act like a princess on this day.

I chose to use the Frosted Designs sketch because it frames the main photo and adds a bit of feminine to it with the ribbon.  The ribbon is from presents she received from Bed, Bath and Beyond and really has a very nice feel to it.  And I was thrilled that my bow turned out so well.  I usually stink at bows, lol.

The layout

And this topic really needed more than one page!

The sketch

I Spy

Welcome to the Leafing Memories Blog Hop!

You should have come here from Kathy's blog.  If not, hop on over to Amanda's blog to begin at the beginning.

To be honest, I had the hardest time coming up with what I was going to do for this hop.  We were supposed to do a layout with photos that had leaves in them.  I thought, "Great!  The Fall leaves are so pretty here."  THE LEAVES HAVEN'T CHANGED!  At all!  Ok...plan B...what is plan B...I have no clue!  Then I remembered this little guy I photographed while visiting my mom this summer.  I have never seen one of these before.  We almost walked right by him, but he was on a branch that overhung the trail and my step dad spotted him.  Super cool!

I also used three of the very same photo.  I've always admired this technique, but when you have so many photos, you just don't have a use for using one photo three times.  I also got to use these really cute leaves that I won as a prize from Sketchy Thursdays.  I ran them through my embossing machine to give them a cute textured look.  I also love that my rub-on letters had that pieced/ransom sort of look.

And now you have your chance to win!!  Take the inspiration we've provided you and create your own project that is leaf inspired.  Post it to your blog, gallery or Flickr and share the link with the Mr Linky widget on Amanda's blog  You have until the end of day Sunday, Oct 23 to post! 

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out Melissa's blog

Grad

The Challenge:
Use a sketch in the October Creating Keepsakes Magazine

Not only did I find a sketch I liked and thought would work well for the photos of Bryon's graduation that my dad finally found, but I pretty much lifted the layout that went with it.  I added another page, of course, but I really liked how the original artist used the sketch.  That big banner just screams celebration and it was a moment of celebration and family fun!

The Layout

Teacher

The Challenge:
Use apples in your layout

Well, this seemed like the perfect challenge for scrapping Kayla receiving her teaching license in the mail!  I am so proud of this girl.  She has wanted to be a teacher since she was 2.  And kids just love her!  They are always drawn to her.

I fussy cut the different embellishments from patterned paper and used Stickles and Crystal Effects to help them stand out.

I also used the Sketchy Thursdays sketch as it was a great one for my two little photos and had a large space to journal in.  I like how they made it easy to incorporate the title into the journaling.

The layout(only one page this week):

The sketch:

Frosted Design Top 3!!!

Today my It's About the Journey layout was chosen as one of the top 3 at Frosted Designs!  I am super excited.  Be sure to visit their site and check out all the fun sketches, tutorials and challenges they post all week long.