NYC - Designed for Show Us Your Stuff April Button Challenge

So the second April challenge at Show Us Your Stuff is Buttons ... I frequently use buttons, but I've never used this many!  I'm totally thrilled with result!! 

The journaling reads:  "I may live other places.  I may be happy in other places.  But I will never feel about anywhere else the way I feel about NYC."

Casapueblo - Designed for Get Picky: April #7

Just found this amazing site and was really drawn to this sketch ... right up my alley!

Get Picky sketch:

I really had a good time with this design, it's one of those that just came to me very easily ... sometimes I sit and stare ... struggling to figure it out ... but not this time!  I took the liberty of flipping it sideways to accommodate my photos ...

As always, I love to hear your honest opinions!  TFL ...

Your Love - Designed for The Color Room #55 & Pencil Lines #235

Again, I wanted to pair a color combo with a sketch ... and chose these 2 amazing inspirations!

The Color Room's palette was actually tougher to use than I'd expected it to be ... and I found the Pencil Lines sketch very easy to use! 

The Color Room:

Pencil Lines:

Here's my take on the challenges ... I'm not totally thrilled w/ my efforts ... but I don't hate the end result either ... I struggle w/ LO's of Kev, trying not to make them too girlie/frilly ...the doodling around the edges is actually stencil paint ... it has a pointy tip and actually dried with some dimension, kinda like puffy paint ... I just really wish that it wouldn't have run together, because the effect is pretty cool. 

As always, honest comments and opinions are always appreciated!

Simple Pleasures - Designed for "Show Us Your Stuff" 1st April Challenge

Doing some blog surfing this morning, looking for my next inspiration ... happened upon Show Us Your Stuff and really liked both of the April Challenges ... so I decided to start at the beginning!

The challenge was using pink, blue and yellow and following this sketch: 

I had a really good time designing my layout ... as always, honest comments are appreciated!   thanks for looking!

I'm really not sure why the pic shows the sky as being so blotchy ... it's not like that in real life :)

5 Magic Fingers - Designed for Ch{all}enge Master (April Krafty Color) - Bird is the Word (Magic Challenge) & The Paper Variety (It's all in the numbers)

3 birds with one stone ... and NO sketch used!  I can hardly believe it ... surfing through the challenge blogs, the Ch{all}enge Masters challenge colors really intrigued me ... and I found it really easy to fit the Bird is the Word and Paper Variety challenges right into my layout ...

Here's the inspiration over at  Ch{all}enge Masters:

And here's my effort ... as always, comments and criticism are greatly appreciated!  Thanks for looking ...

Grapes: Designed for Once Upon A Sketch April 15th Challenge

I really liked this sketch and figured I could handle 2 pictures on a page without too many issues ... I'm a chicken when it comes to filling a page with photos!  I'd prefer one 5x7 over a bunch of small pics any day!!

I would have liked to pair this sketch with a color combo challenge, but the only 2 that I'm aware of are Color Combos Galore and The Color Room.  I just completed the CCG palette and the one over at TCR wouldn't work with these photos (Kev isn't a huge fan of him on a pink page!)  Does anyone know of any other challenge blogs that are centered around a color palette?  If so, send me a message, please!!!!

Ok ... back to the inspiration sketch:

Here's my take on it ... I'm pretty happy with the result ... although I don't have nearly as much negative space as the inspiration sketch does .... I'm obsessed with getting the 'layering' thing down, and I think I'm making progress ... as always, comments and honest opinions are welcomed!!

Photo - Designed for Color Combos Galore # 188 and Creative Scrappers #152

After a wonderful weekend in California visiting friends it was difficult to come back to Michigan and see snow on the ground!  I left the beautiful, sunny weather ... only to freeze to death back at home ... sigh ...

Anyway, back to scrapbooking!   I was really into the colors over at Color Combos Galore this week ... and wanted to pair it with an awesome sketch ... so after searching some of my favorite sketch sites, I settled on this one over at Creative Scrappers ....

I found the color combo harder than it looked because the tan and taupe aren't colors I typically use, therefore aren't really part of my stash!   Here's my LO ... thanks for looking and as always, comments (good or bad) are always welcomed!

When It Rains ... Designed for Color Combos Galore #187 & Get Your Sketch On #15

So, I'm gonna kill 2 birds with one LO!  I figured I'd tackle both a sketch and color challenge at the same time ... I was instantly drawn to the Color Combos Galore palette, it's definitely right up my alley ... then I went searching for an awesome sketch to pair it with ...

Here's the CCG Palette:

and here is the Get Your Sketch On sketch:

Here's my LO ... I'm very happy with it ... I've struggled with the 'layering' thing in the past, but I think I'm finally making progress!  As always, comments/critiques are much appreciated!  Thanks for looking :)

Dream - Designed for Creative Scrappers #150

Love, love, love this sketch ... I'm guessing that I'll use it more than once ... right up my alley from a layout perspective ... I'm definitely a ONE picture girl ... using many more than that makes me feel claustrophobic!!

Here's the inspiration:

and here's my take on it ... comments/opinions always welcomed ... thanks for lookin'!

Celebrate - Designed for Once Upon A Sketch: April 1st Challenge

I really love this sketch ... but the designers challenge scared me to death!  Handwritten journaling ... at least 25 words!  YIKES!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I do ALL of my journaling on the computer ... ALL of it ... it's a very rare LO that has anything handwritten on it ... even a date is rare in my world ...

Since I'm trying to 'scrap outside the box' I decided to push myself to tackle this challenge ... I LOVE my page, but I'm not totally sold on the journaling piece ... I'm gonna leave it and see if it grows on me though ...

without further adieu, here's the inspiration sketch:

Here is what I came up with ... comments are always welcomed ... TFL!