:: news, other funness and a layout ::

As promised I'm back with some news...and other funness.  I know, funness isn't a word.  It autocorrects every time I type it. Annoying.  :-) On with it...

First, the news:  I am going to be a grandmother again! My oldest daughter, H., is going to have a baby in early October! I have known pretty much since she has (Feb. 1st -- which is  really long time (for me) to keep a secret)! She has now had an ultrasound, and all is well, so I've been informed that it is now "Facebook Official", which means, I can also announce it here!  I am so excited for our whole family. Baby's are good, and we needs some good!

Other funness #1: I finally took the plunge and joined the Scrap Happy community! It has 'the happiest scrapbookers on the web' (so I've heard)! I've participated in a few events that Lain Ehmann has hosted/organized/etc. and that is what lead me to Scrap Happy.  If you haven't heard about it, you should check it out here. I've only just begun to participate, but so far it's rather enjoyable.  :-)

Goal update: (I would also say this is more funness, but then autocorrect steps in...) I talked about my goals a bunch here and here.  March is nearly finished and I haven't updated my February goals! The Pinterest challenge for February was met by making some really awful cookies!  LOL  I made some good ones, too, but the worst where these three ingredient peanut butter cookies (they were still eaten, so...). Major FAIL. Oh well, I won't make them again, instead I will make these (more than three ingredients, but all the fat, sugar, and yumminess required for good cookies). I also met my photoshop/photography goal...more on that in another post!

A layout: I find that since I have been purchasing kits, I usually work out of a kit for the most part...leaving all the lovelies that I have in my stash behind. This is especially true when it comes to patterned papers! I've been stalking CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration for probably over a year, but until this year I've never actually submitted anything! I know, right? I really have no idea why. In fact, when I submitted a layout for the first time, I was shocked that I didn't have anything in my gallery there (because I hadn't submitted anything, and I didn't even realize it)! I think I've always had so many other things going on, that even when I see an awesome case, by the time I get to it, I know I won't get done in time to submit, so I don't do it. Silly. I love recipe-type challenges! Why haven't I done them more? Ok, ok...getting to my point. The point is, I've submitted a few now, (this week's is on my desk waiting to be finished), and I find that I have to venture out of the kits, and into my stash more often, which is nice. I will be doing this much more often.  Here is challenge for last week (it came with a sketch):

As soon as I saw the sketch I knew that I wanted to use these photos that my One True Love took at B.'s first park visit of 2013.

I apologize, the red looks orange in this photo, but really, I did match the colors!  ;-) I painted, I embossed on vellum, I gesso-ed,  I used a mask with alcohol inks, I used washi over patterned paper before cutting circles, whew...there is a lot going on here.  Truth be told, this isn't one of my favorites. I almost didn't share it. But it isn't horrible, just missing something, or something. It's done, it's recorded and I've moved on.  ;-) AND I used up some stuff from my stash!

Tomorrow is Friday...you know what that means...another reveal at Scrap Your Story!  Here's my sneaky sneak...

See you back here tomorrow for the reveal!

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Scrap Your Story Challenge :: my lucky charms

YAY!  It's Friday!  That means a new challenge goes live on the Scrap Your Challenge Blog.  Each month we follow this challenge schedule:

Week 1: Use it (you will be given an item you must incorporate).

Week 2: Theme (your layout and/or photos needs to show this theme).

Week 3: Sketch (flip it, rotate it, tweak it...as long as we can see the basics there).

Week 4: Technique (we will describe/show a technique you must include somewhere). 

This is challenge number three of the month so it involves a sketch! 

Here's Christy's sketch:

And here is my take on the sketch :

I don't do very many themed LOs, I'm more of a every day sorta memory keeper, but this photo from a couple of years ago needed to be showcased!

I found this four leaf clover overlay by Skyber Lowen while browsing the Silhouette online store and was inspired to use it as a mask. Then I decided that I wanted to create something that incorporated the Irish flag. 

First, I copied (and pasted) the 6x6 overlay and stuck them together to make a 6x12 cut. It took some time to get all the settings right but finally I got this:

Beautiful, right?  See why I had to use it??!!!!! Then I got out my mists and a piece of white card stock.  I used a couple different greens and tried to ombre it a bit, then I did the same on the other side with orange. OK, it's true, you caught me. Really, I just wanted to make a flag so I could get some orange in there...but it works for me. ;-) I ended up covering it up with the photograph, but there is a little overspray (very little) in the middle, so you can actually see the mask on the white part, but it still looks white! This is good to know in case I decide to do something like this in the future!  Next, I took out some Heidi Swap color shine (in two colors) for the splotches of paint in the lower left and upper right  corners. I like the shine, but I didn't want it on the whole page, plus this helped the dots of color stand out a bit more, I was thinking.  Then I let it dry for a couple of days. (mostly I needed thinking time)!

I decided that I wanted to try to bring out the gold in B's hat,  and I've been hoarding this Crate Paper Vellum with gold dots since December, so I decided it was time to use it! Next I found some awesome glittery gold card stock and I used that behind the photo. LOVE.  I was really digging all the gold so I found gold glitter and gold washi from my stash.  (The washi was in my stash, but can you believe I didn't have any gold glitter??? What is wrong with me!??!! Thank goodness I am only a few blocks from Target)!

I found some DIYthickers and added the gold glitter for a perfect touch!

I used some foam dots to pop the word "lucky" and added some lilybee design abcs for "my" and "charms". I love how the title turned out!

Speaking of love...I got this awesome flair in a happy mail package from Aimee Maddern! Wanna know a secret? I also got the green arrow washi. It wasn't part of the giveaway, but she used it in the packaging and I reused it! I know, right? ;-) I added some other washi, some enamel dots, and a fabric tag that I misted to complete the cluster.

for some reason some of these photos look like the orange could be red...there is no red...it's all orange

I hope you consider playing along with us at Scrap Your Story! This sketch was fun to use.

Coming soon : some news :-), a PL update, and some other funness. 

Later taters!