My first layouts of 2011!

It's been months since I've made scrapbook layouts. I was inspired by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to finally make a page. Guess what? I made 2! I will share one here today which uses mostly Jillibean Soup and Pebbles, Inc. products. I also used a PageMaps sketch that was shared in the Scrapbook Daisies forum. The other page (made with my Counterfeit Kit) will be shared here on Monday as part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog's monthly blog hop.

Just a quick share today. Many of you know that this has been a very traumatic and hectic week for my family, as my older sister passed away Sunday from complications of pneumonia and leukemia. Trying to keep things as normal as possible, but it's tough. There have been some really rough moments over the past week. Thanks to all of you for sharing loving thoughts and hugs over the past few days. Hugs to you all. xoxo

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Cards

I've been MIA for a couple of weeks here in blogland, but I do have a couple of shares today using my January Counterfeit Kit. If you're new to the Counterfeit Kit challenge, you can check it out HERE. It's a great idea-you "copy" the items from monthly kits using items from your own scrapbooking stash! There are also some amazing tutorials for making your own embellishments. THIS post has links to some amazing faux Prima flowers. I can't wait to try them!First of all, this is what my January kit had in it, using only items from my stash and elements that I was able to download for free online. (This is also perfect for me, as I am still on my spending freeze until I get my 365 projects done!)

I have only made two cards so far using my kit. I've been so busy with DT work and magazine submissions that I haven't had a chance to play with it much! I loved the way these two projects came out, however. I don't think that I would have ever thought to pair up some of these embellishments without having them right in this kit. Because I still have tons of supplies left in my kit, I am not going to "dismantle" it yet. I have everything (except my stamps and ink) in a separate paper holder so that I can just grab my kit and get to work.

This first card was for the Card-Bling-Fashion mini challenge on the Counterfeit Kit Blog. I found a picture of a retro red-and-white polka dot sundress online and used it as my inspiration. While making this card, I decided to add a package of white chipboard letters to my kit. I realized that the alpha stickers that I had included were not enough and that I wanted to be able to mix and match alphas on my projects. I also used a chipboard tag that was not in my original kit. I am trying to use up some big packages of chipboard shapes from my stash. These packages are really large and will literally not fit in my kit, so I keep them near my scrap table. Hopefully I can start to make a dent in my chipboard stash!

The second card that I made was for the Sketch Mini Challenge. I took the layout sketch and changed it up a bit to work for a card. Everything on the card was from my kit, and I used the added chipboard letters for this card-but with a twist. The white letters didn't show up on the white journaling block. I knew that I would need to alter them somehow. I looked through my supplies and saw that I had some dark brown flocking from Studio G. I played around for a bit and found that if I flipped over the HI, it looked the same. So, I kept it flipped over and covered the sticky side of the letters with the flocking. Voila-perfectly flocked letters without having to mess with adhesive! Obviously this wouldn't work for all letters, but it will work for some and also most shapes.

I'm excited to start building my kit for February. I'm a bit behind, but hopefully will get to it this morning. This one's going to be a real challenge for me because the elements in the kit are totally not my style so who knows what I will end up with, lol! Maybe I will find things in my stash I didn't even know I had! :)

Get Sketchy #48

How about a sweet and simple card to end the week? This week's sketch over at Get Sketchy is super simple but packs a lot of punch. And versatile, too! You should see all of the beautiful cards that the Design Team came up with this week. You can see them all HERE.

Our sponsor this week is The Cutting Cafe, which has some adorable digital stamp images. I printed my flower bunch on white cardstock, then printed the vase on kraft cardstock and paper pieced my image. I paired this with some super-cute patterned paper from Pebbles, Inc. and some ribbon scraps. For my sentiment, I used a little "thinking of you" rub-on from Rusty Pickle.

Will you join us for our challenge this week? It's really simple to do: just check out this week's sketch and make a card based on the sketch. Then post your link at Get Sketchy. Super easy, right? Hope you can all join us!

It's Twins!

Not for me (thank goodness!) but for friends of ours. I made this card for them as a congratulations card. The babies are expected any day now-Mom's been to the hospital several times but they keep sending her home. :)

I used this week's sketch from the Unity Hippity Hop challenge, which also fit in perfectly with the Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #11. The challenge was to create a non-standard sized card. Basically, anything except A2 size. My finished card is 4"x8".

I used Unity's Little Me stamp set which I got a steal on a couple of weeks ago. $4! The set is adorable, and contains 8 stamps. I changed it up a bit by stamping the Mom/baby image twice, then using just the baby from the second image. Because our friend is expecting twins, I needed that second baby! So I put him in Dad's arms. This set was also perfect because it included the little boy and our friends also have a little boy, Oliver.

Other supplies on this card: "congrats" rub-on (congratulations, trimmed) by Pebbles, Inc., patterned paper by Creative Imaginations and Around the Block, ribbon (recycled from pj packaging from Target!), aqua button by DeNami Design. It's hard to tell from the photo, but I also added white flocking (Studio G) to the baby blankets.

Thanks so much for stopping by today (again!) I've been super-busy today creating cards for DTs, challenges and personal use. Now to put everything away, LOL!

Just My Type by Lawn Fawn

I just got these adorable new stamps from Lawn Fawn and I couldn't wait to use them! This set is called Just My Type and has the cutest little retro typewriter stamp. For this card, I paper-pieced the image using papers from Pebbles, Inc. The punched border reminded me of a notepad, so I added a little punched scrap to continue with the office-supply theme.

This card is my entry for several online challenges happening right now: Paper Crafts' Inspired By Challenge, Lucy's Card Challenge to use buttons, Practical Scrappers' Use Your Stash Challenge, and finally Let's Capture Our Memories' Use Your Stash Challenge. Even though the stamps are brand new, I won the paper several months ago and the ribbon has been sitting on my shelf for years (seriously!)

New from Pebbles Inc.

Pebbles, Inc. has been one of my favorite companies for many years. We carry several of their lines at A Time to Remember. This is a layout that I made using one of Pebbles Inc.'s brand new lines, Lil' Miss. I was fortunate enough to receive this entire line as a gift from Pebbles after winning it on their blog.

These pictures are of Jordan on our trip to Walt Disney World. I just loved these ones of her getting stage makeup at MGM Studios. She chose a butterfly design-so pretty. It was amazing to watch these makeup artists from start to finish-so talented.

This layout was made using a sketch from http://www.mysketchworld.blogspot.com/. I rotated the sketch to better suit my photos, and I substituted three photos for the two shown in the original sketch.

Thanks for checking it out! I'll be back later with a sneak peek of my next card class at A Time to Remember, called "Cricut Die-Cut Cards." We will be making six shaped cards, which are some of my favorite kinds of cards-so personalized. Off now to enjoy the weather-NO RAIN! :)