I really had fun creating this double page spread. I used to make double page layouts all the time, but not so often anymore. It was for Christy's Beautiful Life's 30 Days of Sketches. I used watercolor papers for the background, painting the sky-blue background. I did make a stencil from the die I used to make the trees and distress ink in peeled paint for all the background trees. I did not want all of the trees the same color, so I used a few different colors of cardstock. The photos were taken at Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri, and the rocks are HUGE there! Lots of fun climbing and exploring - and my grandsons were great at stopping to get their photos taken, they knew I would really enjoy scrapping them. For the rocks I used Craft Consortium's Metal Textures paper pad, and the sheet I used seemed like it was made for these photos. The rocks in the park are Precambrian granite, which was mined for many years in the early 20th century: thank goodness a geologist saved this area here and donated it to the state for a park. I cannot close without mentioning that my sign was created with an Elizabeth Crafts die, and I used some Basic Gray stickers for the words - which all of arrow signs say the same thing, "Rocks", pointing in all directions, so many huge rocks, and a fun and interesting place to visit. Ancient History, right there, for anyone to go visit and explore, and think - about how long those rocks have been there, and that there was at one time a volcano that had erupted, and magma created the granite rocks that we see today. If you would like to see the process video on YouTube it is at: (415) 30 Days of Sketches/Scrapbook Process/Remember - These are the Days - YouTube

 This layout was created for Mixed Media Frenzy, with a theme of 'Cheers to the New Year', although this is not a New Year's photo, it spoke to me of fun times and the lit up cell phones in the background instantly made me think of the crowd cheering, and raising their cups for a toast. I used a black background from American Crafts with swirls embossed in it. Some gold rub on, which highlighted the swirls in the cardstock. Plus, kraft paper embossed with gold. The sequins were the finishing touch for creating a feeling of New Year cheer.

I had such fun creating this layout. My great nephew Parker is in an astronaut suit, his face looks so tiny in there (sorry for the glare). But, instead of using a realistic embellishment with his picture, I decided to use BB-8. I used punch art to create him. for the bottom part of his body I used a Creative Memories circle cutter (I did not have a punch big enough). The head is a 1 1/2" punch. I cut thin strips for the accents. the larger lens is a 3/4" punch, and the circle on the bottom right is 1/2", 1/4", and a 1/8" layered punches. The circles below I did the same way, only I also did some double punching. The process video for this layout is on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJpPoQdRaDk&t=12s

I totally love how this layout turned out, but then I love the collection I used to create it, so it could not help but turn out great. I used Shimelle's 'Christmas Magic' for this Summer Scrappy Challenge, which was "Christmas in July", you could create a Christmas layout, or an everyday one with Christmas paper (red and green). I started to make it with the whole sheet of that fun patterned paper, but it was just a little too busy for that. So I just used a chunk of it, and then a couple of the other papers to create the borders on each side with a scalloped border punch. I had a little trouble with the rub-ons, they were very sticky, the first one 'merry and bright', stayed where it landed, because I coul not move it. The one on the tag, 'santa, please stop here', well, more ended up stuck to my fingers than end up on the tag. I filled in with my own handwriting. The candy cane, I am not sure where it came from, but I knew I wanted to use it on this page. Those tiny little pieces of candy - well my friend Monika made them, she has a You Tube channel, springchick 28, I love, love, love them! Emily looks adorable as Rudolph, or maybe Rudolpha?

Make it flat! That was the challenge, and boy was it hard. Another Summer Scrappy Challenge. I so wanted to put some dimension on this page. When I made the 'firework' embellishments I wanted to add foam tape, and even rhinestones, but I resisted, and they are flat. This Patriotic layout was created with a kit I got from Peachy Cheap. I fussy cut out the July 4th from one of the cut-aparts. I did use Daily Flash alpha stickers for the title, 'Oh my stars, just too cute'. Isabella is such a cutie.

So this challenge comes from Becki Adams through the Summer Scrappy Challenge with Scrap and Plan. It is using some of her favorite things - The color green, patterned paper and journaling. Well, green is also my favorite color, so that part was easy, and I have loads of green scrappy goodness. For this layout I used Pink Paislee's Outfitters. I even pulled out my very old, and much loved, camera die from Sizzix. Since my journaling is about how great the boys were on vacation about me taking pictures of them, I wanted to use a bigger camera on the layout. These boys do have my heart. Even though they were tired of getting their pictures taken, neither said out loud, 'Not another picture....'

I love challenges - and there were so many on the Summer Scrappy Challenges with Scrap and Plan - I just had to do some of them. This challenge was called 'Punch it Up'. The challenge was to use a punch a little more creatively, and in multiples. I used one of my heart punches and blue glitter paper. When I printed out these pictures, I was using an app that I was not familiar with and the close up picture was actually the same as the one to the left, only it turned out crazy. But I liked it, and wanted to use it. It changed the title I had originally planned to 'Do You Wanna Dance' because it looked like Chloe was peeking around a corner and being mischievous. I did not have any pink glitter Thickers for the word 'dance' so I used some really old ones that were white glitter - you know, the ones that were not sticky at all, and lay in the bottom of the package. Well, I colored them with a pink Sharpie, and they turned out great (tip: never throw a good font away).The sequins are from Kat Scrappiness, I love how this layout turned out, I hope my Sister-in-Law does too, this is for her album.