Lasting Memories Challenge #49--Christmas in July

Merry Christmas in July!!!!  I LOOOOOVE Christmas!!!!  I think it's probably my favorite holiday of the entire year!  I love the sounds and smells, the decorations, the Christmas trees, the songs, the food . . . I could go on and on!  This week at Lasting Memories, we want to see your Christmas layouts.  Here's my layout for this week:

I wanted to capture my youngest son, Joseph's, complete emotion at seeing Santa for the first time.  He was eleven months old at this visit to Santa, but we couldn't get him to look at the camera!  Wait--let me rephrase that--he would look at the camera until the picture was ready to be taken, and then he'd turn and look at Santa.  It was so cute, that we decided to go ahead and take the picture anyway!

I believe the patterned papers came from my DCWV Christmas stack, and all of the embellishments and stickers were ones I found in my stash.  What puts YOU in the mood for Christmas, or what do you love about Christmas?  WE WANT TO SEE THOSE CHRISTMAS LAYOUTS!!!

Your challenge at Lasting Memories this week is Christmas in July--create a Christmas layout.  You've got until next Saturday, August 6, to get your layout linked up.  It's almost time for a new Design Team Call at Lasting Memories, too, so be sure to check back here next week for more information!  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

24 Hour Challenge

Many of you may remember that I am a moderator in the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin'.  Once a month, we have a 24-Hour Challenge; we choose three collections that we own which we'd like to work with, and April, our host, posts three different sketches.  Someone else in the group chooses our sketch and collection; once they are posted, we have twenty-four hours in which to get our layout completed and posted to the group.

This month, the collection chosen for me was Bo Bunny's It's My Party, and this is the sketch I had to work with:

 I initially thought this was going to be a difficult sketch to work with, but once I sat down with my collection, everything really came together.  Here's my completed layout:

Everything on my layout is from Bo Bunny's It's My Party line except for the banner, which was cut from a piece of Creative Imaginations Clouds & Banners patterned paper.  The pictures are from my 40th birthday this past March.  My husband found a candle that had "40" in big numbers, then underneath those it said "40 is the new 30!" so I've adopted that as my motto! LOL!

I hope everyone is planning a great weekend!  We've got a couple of family things planned, and then I'll be doing more scrapping.  I'll be finishing up my last two cards from the Christmas in July Christmas card challenge in Scrappin' 'n' Chattin', and I've also got to get my layouts done for Scrappin' 'n' Chattin's monthly challenge (This layout also qualifies for the balloon theme this month!).  Be sure to check back here on Sunday for the newest Lasting Memories challenge!  Happy scrapping!

Christmas in July! (Part 3)

As many of you may remember, I've been participating in a Christmas in July challenge in the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin'.  I can't believe we've almost made it to the end!  Here's my card for Day 25:

I found the sketch here at Skipping Stones Design, and I'm entering this card in their SSD#85 challenge as well.  I cut my cardstock to fit a business-size envelope, because my gingerbread & candy cane stickers were too big to fit on my regular card base.  I picked up these cute puffy stickers at Hobby Lobby when I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, initially to go along with some gingerbread man ribbon I found in my stash.  When I ran across the sketch at Skipping Stones Design today, however, I knew EXACTLY what I was going to use!  The ribbon ultimately didn't fit with what I wanted to do, so I'll use it with something else later. 

The border punch along the bottom is one I received in a border punch swap in Scrappin' 'n' Chattin', and the wording is a strip I cut off a piece of patterned paper from American Traditional Designs' Holiday Cheer line that I found in my stash.  I cut pieces of white cardstock to back the stickers, covered them with my glue pen, then added Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter in Angel Dust to add a little shimmer.  To finish everything off, I added rhinestones from Queen & Co.'s Holiday set and bordered the bottom of the patterned paper with green Studio G Glitter Glue that I picked up at Michael's a while back.

If you have checked out the stamp sets over at Skipping Stones Designs, you really should!  I discovered them today after noticing they're having a Design Team call, and I think I'm going to have to make it a point to place an order VERY soon!  They've got some CUTE stuff!!! 

I hope everyone is having a great summer!  Thanks for looking, and happy scrapping!

Lasting Memories Challenge #48--It's all about the title!

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's time again for a new Lasting Memories challenge!  This one slipped up on me, as it was a crazy week at our house, so I snagged a layout from an album I'm working on, as this layout fit the title challenge perfectly.

This was one of my favorite pictures from my husband's deployment to Iraq in 2008-09.  He's standing in the middle of a sandstorm!  I was simply amazed at the color that came out.  I expected everything to be brown and swirly, not orange and beautiful. 

The focus for your layout this week is the TITLE!  Let's see them, folks!  BIG AND BEAUTIFUL!!!  Remember, you have until Saturday evening, July 30, to get your layouts linked up at the Lasting Memories Layout Challenges blog.  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge 25

One of my friends in the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin' turned me on to the current challenge at the My Mind's Eye blog.  After looking at the sketch and scrounging through my stash, I found one collection of My Mind's Eye products.  Here's the sketch they're asking us to work with:

Here's the layout I came up with:

All of the papers are from the My Mind's Eye State of the Heart collection:  Valentine Stripes, Love You Lots, and Love Meter.  The heart border, journaling tag, and heart with "Always Loved" tag are from the same collection.  The grungeboard letters are from Tim Holtz, and I used Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in Fired Brick to set them off.

The theme of the layout was supposed to be "Celebration," and my husband coming home from a five-month deployment to Iraq was DEFINITELY a celebration!  He missed our son's birth by two weeks and one day, but he was able to come home safely to us.  What a great day that was!

Blog Candy Giveaway!

Hi, all!  My friend Abby is having a GREAT blog candy giveaway!  Here's what she's giving away:

You can find it at My Scrap Stuff.  All you have to do is leave a comment, and you're entered to win!  If you hop over there, be sure to tell her Ashley sent you!  Enjoy!

Lasting Memories Challenge #47--Distressing AND NEW BLOG CANDY WINNERS!

Before I proceed to this week's Lasting Memories challenge, I need to choose NEW WINNERS for my blog candy giveaway from Lasting Memories Challenge #45.  I was never contacted by the winners I posted last week, so here are my NEW WINNERS!!!  The winner of the Home Sweet Home album is

Theresa said... what a flippin' cute album Ashley

The winner of the I <3 to Travel album is

Sue said... Such a great summery idea Ashley. I love it. you did a great job. I hope you will share once you add the photos

Congratulations, ladies!  Please be sure to send me an e-mail at proudusmcwife (at) gmail (dot) com by Friday, July 22, so I can verify your address.

This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is to add distressing on your layout!  Unfortunately, I don't have a layout to show you today. :-(  My family and I were on vacation in sunny Las Vegas all week, so I didn't get my layout done yet.  I PROMISE that I'll put something together just as soon as I can and post it, so please check back in a day or two!

We'd LOVE to see what kind of distressing you can add to your layout!  Be sure you get your layout linked up to the Lasting Memories Layout Challenges blog by Saturday, July 22.  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

Lasting Memories Challenge #46--Mosaic!

It's time for a new challenge at Lasting Memories, but it's ALSO time for me to announce the winner's of my blog candy from last week!!  There were quite a few who left comments on my album but only a few who included in their comment a response to my request to include in your comment what your favorite thing to do in the summertime is.  The winner of the Home Sweet Home mini-album is

Scraprageous said...

What a cute little album! My favorite summer activity - camping!

The winner of the I <3 to Travel album is

Haley D. said...

Your album is absolutely darling! I want to make one now. The ideas are endless! My favorite summer activity would have to be hanging out at the lake: in the boat, on a float, swimming, etc.

Congrats to both of you!  Please e-mail me at proudusmcwife (at) gmail (dot) com by Friday, July 15, with your address.  If I do not hear from you by Friday, I will choose another name.  And now, ON TO THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE!


This week's challenge at Lasting Memories is all about mosaics.  If you've never done it before on your layout, there's a GREAT tutorial link on the challenge site.  I came up with this layout a few years ago when I was making an 8x8 album:

This layout was part of an 8x8 album called "The Book of Me" that I completed when we lived in Beaufort, South Carolina.  I'd never worked with this size before, but I found it really easy once I adjusted the layout sketches for 8x8 instead of 12x12.  For this particular album, I chose a word for each letter of the alphabet that I felt either described something about me or something important to me.  I'm really happy with the way the book turned out, because now it's something I can show others or pass along to my children so they can learn things about me they may not know.

Now, it's your turn!  Mosaics aren't as hard as they look on some layouts, and we'd LOVE to see what you have!  Get those layouts done and linked up at the Lasting Memories site before Saturday!  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

Christmas mini-album

I LOVE Christmas in July!!!  I think I would be perfectly happy if Christmas was coming next week instead of a few months from now.  I threw this Christmas mini-album together last night:

It was a kit from Me and My Big Ideas and came with three different sized pieces of chipboard, all the papers, and all the embellishments.  Once I decided exactly what I was going to do with it, it came together VERY quickly!  I'm entering this at The Paper Variety, where their challenge is Christmas in July (and they're allowing unlimited entries!).  I hope you'll check them both out!

Christmas in July! continued

As you may have read a few days ago, the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin' (where I'm a moderator) is having a Christmas in July card challenge.  I've been posting a few of my cards, but here's one I'm entering over at The Paper Variety:

 I wanted to something a little different, besides just the normal red-and-green Christmas card with this one.  The blue cardstock was in my stash, and the patterned paper came from DCWV's The Christmas Stack.  The sentiment is a rub-on I found in my stash.  I embossed a piece of the blue cardstock with my Cuttlebug using my Swiss dots folder before adhering it across the card front.  The star in the corner is a 3D embellishment from Best Occasions (for Wal-Mart), and the snowflake is chipboard from Hero Arts.  I coated the snowflake with my ZIG Memory System 2-way glue pen before covering it with Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter in Angel Dust.

TPV is allowing unlimited entries this week, and I'm hoping to get one more project done tomorrow afternoon/evening.  You should check them out!  Abby and Suzanne are AWESOME!!!!

Lasting Memories Challenge #45

It's that time, again!  Time for another challenge at Lasting Memories!  In honor of summer and the Fourth of July, this week's challenge is to create a mini-album with a summer theme.  Here's the album I came up with:

I couldn't just take a picture of the front of the album, because you wouldn't really be able to tell anything about it that way, so I took four separate pictures and made a collage using Picasa.  Here are the individual pictures, so you can see things a little better:

I started this album a year or so ago during a workshop my friend Heather Plotzke held.  Heather is a CTMH consultant who comes up with some AMAZING projects!  You can reach her CTMH blog by clicking here.

The base for the album was a kids' size flip-flop.  We started by tracing the outline of the flip-flop onto a piece of heavier paper (almost like chipboard), so we could have a pattern.  Using that pattern, we then traced the shape onto patterned paper, which we in turn adhered to the accordion-fold sections (which we had already cut out).  The butterflies were from a CTMH stamp set Heather provided us with, as were the letters (Sorry, but I don't remember which sets!).  As you can see, I have YET to add the pictures to my album, but I'm sure I will by the end of this summer!

We would LOVE to see what kind of mini-album you can create!  Be sure to link it up to the Lasting Memories blog by Saturday, then check back on Sunday to see if you made the Top 3.

BUT WAIT!  THERE'S MORE!!!!!!!  We've got BLOG CANDY to give away this week!!!!  Here's what you have to do to be eligible for the grand prize blog candy:

1. As you're visiting all the blogs (you have GOT to check out these albums!!), be sure to check WHO has candy (some do, some don't!) and be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for their candy!
2. GRAND PRIZE candy - comment on as many of our blogs as you can AND you HAVE to play along this week in order to be eligible for the grand prize. 

Be sure you go back and leave us a comment on the main blog letting us know you've visited the blogs AND played along, just in case something happens with Inlinkz. 

You're in luck!  I'm one of the DT members who's offering up some blog candy!  I picked up some homemade mini-albums a while back at the customer garage sale that's held by my LSS, and I decided I'm not going to be using all of the ones I picked up, so I'll be giving away these two:

These extras come with the "Home Sweet Home" album:

In order to win my blog candy, all you need to do is this:  leave me a comment about your favorite summer activity or vacation spot.  That's it!  I'll use random.org to choose two winners and will post next Sunday, July 10, with the next Lasting Memories challenge.  Enjoy, and good luck!

Christmas in July!

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of their holiday weekend!  As some of you know, I am a moderator on the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin', and we just started a new challenge yesterday called Christmas in July.  The goal is to make a Christmas card every day for the entire month so that by the end of the month, we have most of our Christmas cards finished!  At the end of the month, a winner will be chosen at random and will receive a prize from something on her scrappy Wish List.  There may be extra challenges within the month, where we'll be able to gain an extra entry.

Here's my card for Day 1:

I used an ivory card base from Recollections to start.  The maroon background paper was in my stash, as was the ribbon (which I cut and tied into a bow).  The vintage sentiment is from Graphic 45's Christmas Past collection, and I placed a rhinestones from Queen & Co. on the ribbon, the end of Santa's cap, and the top of the house.

For Day 2, we could gain an extra entry by scraplifting someone's card from Day 1.  I chose to scraplift my friend Dawn's card.  Here is her original card from Day 1:

Here's my creation from Day 2:

For this card, I started with a white card base from Recollections and cut a piece of patterned paper to 5" x 4 1/2" (card dimensions).  I punched the corners with my Martha Stewart Loops Punch Around the Page corner punch then adhered a piece of green satin ribbon across the top.  The sentiment is one I received in a group tag swap from Carol, another friend in my Yahoo group, and the rhinestones on the sentiment are from Queen & Co.  The red rhinestones on the green ribbon across the top are adhesive rhinestones from Recollections, and I accented the "string" leading to the sentiment with Star Dust Stickles.

I'll try to post my cards throughout the month, although I probably won't post them every day.  Keep checking back to see my creations, and I hope I provide you with some Christmas inspiration!