Oct LOAD #20 & 21

and layouts #13 & 14 for SC challenge! Two layouts I did - one today and one yesterday, both using the Oct Studio Calico kit - I have one more to do to reach my goal before I get my new kit!

The top layout is a picture of Michael and I that I've used before - but it's one of my favs! I actually used my cuttlebug to cut out the hearts - I haven't used it in ages! The bottom layout I used some old - 1992 - pics of Samantha and Jonathan (the blondies) and Kasey (my niece) when she was visiting one Christmas. I love the pic of Jonathan feeding that baby - he looked so serious and caring! I misted the circles at the top and took the little circles off of the envies to string the baker's twine through. The alpha is an older set of Basic Grey - love that I'm using some of my older stuff up!! TFL!

Oct LOAD #19 and my telephone scraplift

It's also #12 from Oct Studio Calico. It's just a sneak s0 can't show it yet until the telephone scraplift reveal! TFL!

Oct LOAD #17 & 18

and #10 and #11 with my Oct Studio Calico kit. I think I'm starting to get in the mood to scrap again! I finished one layout last night and one this morning......and feel like doing another in a little bit!! The first layout is of Danielle and I a couple of years ago around Christmas time. Everyone says we look alike :)! The bottom layout is also of Danielle on her trip to Space Camp - her first time away from me. It was very scary for me - but not to her! She had a great time and I just love the Studio Calico map pp! It's really cool - and not colors I would usually use! TFL!

LOAD #16 and #9 with my Oct Studio Calico Kit!

I don't think I'll make the LOAD challenge but we were issued a challenge on Studio Calico to predict how many layouts we would make with our October kit before we got the new Nov kits and I STUPIDLY predicted that I would make 15. I had made that many with the previous month's kit so I wanted to push myself to use up as much as I could of this kit. The thing is - even though I made 15 layouts with last month's kit - I still have lots of it left!! They are definitely a good deal and are jam-packed full of stuff! I am up to 9 layouts so far with about 2 weeks until I get the new kit in my hot little hands so I think I can do it!

I'm excited because I get a $25 gift card to SC for using one of their kits exclusively on a layout that got published in Scrapbook Trends!! That means I may get all 3 of the add-on kits as we also get a $10 friends and family discount on anything (except for the sub kits) they sell on the site!! If anyone is interested in using the $10 discount I can give you the code. It's good for the month of November (starting on Oct 28).

This layout is of my friends, Michael and me at a school dance. It was Michael's and my first official date together. We are the ones at the bottom right! The journaling is on the envie pocket under the pic! BTW...this pic is from 1981!!!! AY yi yi.....I am old!!! TFL!!

Martha!!

The title letters on my "the Boys" layout is Jillibean soup corrugated letters! They come plain, just like cardboard, and when I've use them I've painted them and/or inked them! They are really cool and chunky.

LOAD #15

I'll use the title of LOAD, but since I haven't been doing a load it's kind of silly....but I finally got something scrapped! I have several pics of Jonathan from his senior prom and have been wanting to scrap some, but I have a harder time scrapping males than females. I really like the masculine feel to the pp and thought it would look good with this pic. I think that's the problem - I have girlie looking scrap stuff! These guys really weren't his good friends in school, they were the dates of his girlfriend's friends and they all went in together and got a limo for prom! Jonathan is the curly haired boy! This pic was taken in our front yard. I used my Studio Calico October kit for this. TFL!

Scrapper's block

I just don't know what to do about this scrapper's block!! I think this happened to me the last time I did the LOAD challenge in January! I'm just burnt out! Don't think I'll be able to catch up for the challenge this month......everyone else is just doing a great job with theirs though!! Keep up the great work!!! :)

Here's the newest offering from Prima. I Love these colors - They are great for fall!

Oct LOAD #14

This is a layout of Samantha. I took this picture last time she was here visiting and she was being silly! Used my Oct Studio Calico kit - I have challenged myself on their blog to make 15 layouts with this kit (I made 16 with last month's) and this is #7. I don't know why, but I have been typing my journaling on my layouts lately - I really like the way it looks - nice and clean! TFL!

Oct LOAD #11, 12 & 13

Yay!! I got ahead a little bit for my LOAD challenge. I used my Oct Studio Calico kit for all of these layouts. On my Prefer to Be layout I misted the title and colored the edges of the MR envie with an American Crafts metallic marker that I got in a Scrapgoods kit. The middle layout is just a simple layout with some older pics of my sis Becky, my mom and dad, and me on our cross country move to New Mexico. I loved it while we lived there - but it was only very briefly! The last layout is some random pics at the football games with Danielle. We just love football, but the best part for us is the band! We all are just a bunch of band geeks! Michael and I met each other in band (him - trombone; me - sax), Samantha played sax, Jonathan played trombone, and now Danielle plays the sax. I just want to say that we did not make the kids play the instruments that we played in band - they chose them themselves. But I was glad they followed the tradition :)!

Oct LOAD #10

This is of me in the 8th grade. I just love that shirt - it's kind of low cut and sexy looking...what was my mom thinking?? I used my Oct Studio Calico kit. For some reason this kit has inspired me to scrap some vintage pictures. I think it's the colors. I painted the alpha and I guess I don't really like the envelopes, I only seem to like using the flaps of them...LOL. Used some baker's twine in between. TFL!

Oct LOAD #9

This is layout of my dad and me right before my first Brownie meeting. My Dad looks like the cheerleader's father from Heroes in this picture!! I used my October Studio Calico kit for this - love the vintage looking October Afternoon pp that's in the middle - and Cosmo Cricket for the stripes. TFL!

Oct LOAD #8

This is a layout I did with some pics I had of my 8th birthday. My mom always made every birthday special. This was a flower power birthday, but there were lots of different fun themes - a beach barbeque, scavenger hunts through the neighborhood (different times back then!), a fireworks shoot off and display. We weren't rich by any means - my mom usually made the decorations herself, but there were always fun games and it was always special! I used my new Oct Studio Calico kit (after 16 layouts I was getting sick of last month's kit ;) ). This is a fun kit to use with lots of different embellishments. The butterflies are thick acrylic and I used alcohol inks for a tie dye effect. Those corrugated letters are the coolest thing - they come raw so I painted them with different colors of Claudine Hellmuth paints. TFL!!

Oct LOADS #6 & 7

Yay! I'm caught up with my LOAD! For now anyway....LOL. This is a layout of my Mom when we were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I truly admire and love my Mom so very much and there are so many cool things about her, so i just had some random things to journal about her! I used my Jun Studio Calico kit for this. I was going to first glue the tags individually on the layout but I didn't like the way that looked, so I decided to hang them on some floss off of one of the MR envelopes that we got in the group buy. I misted it first, then I just cut the flap off and used that part of it!



For this layout I used just about all Sassafras Lass stuff (the only thing that's not SL is the circle borders - that's a chipboard Making Memories border, cut in half). The pics were taken at a photobooth this summer when my nieces were visiting and we were in the mall. They choose the Wanted border!! It was very hilarious with them trying to squeeze into the booth in the middle of the mall! I wish I would have had my camera for that picture!! TFL!!

Oct LOAD #5

This was another layout that came together quickly as I used the graduation invitation that I got from my niece as the outer mat. This is the only pic that anyone took of my niece at her graduation (you can tell I wasn't there...LOL!). It's of Kasey and my mom and it's not a very good pic. I had to crop several people out of it! I used some Making Memories Vintage findings foil patterned paper and Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas to complete the layout! I plan on giving this to my mom who raised my niece. I know she'll really like it's simplicity! Hopefully I will get another layout done today so I can get caught up!

Oct LOAD #4

This was a quick layout to throw together as the pp is Prima and already has the stitching and lace and sequins attached on the bottom. The flowers are also Prima as well as the bling and the alpha and the ribbon is Maya Road from the OSU group buy. The buttons are from my stash. This is Samantha on her wedding day. I'm only one layout behind for my LOAD challenge - hopefully I can get caught up tomorrow! TFL!!

Oct LOAD #3

I did this layout for a Studio Calico challenge in which you had to use a piece of the packaging that you get in the kits (the square under the flowers), some floss (the yellow flossy flower), and a SC exclusive stamp (the butterflies). This is of Danielle when she was about 18 months old at my Mom's condo in Florida. We were there for Easter that year. She used to love to climb into laundry baskets with her blankie, her Pooh and a book. I used my Sept SC kit and I misted the cs using the negative of an alpha. TFL!

Oct LOAD #2

Woohoo! I hope I can keep this up and stay caught up all month for the LOAD challenge! This is of Samantha and Jonathan when they were 3 & 4. We were stationed in England and had taken a day trip to London with my Mom who was visiting us. This is one of the few times that Samantha actually shared something with Jonathan - and she didn't want to, but she wasn't going to get any unless she did! I love this picture of both of them! The picture is actually a much farther shot with lots of people around them, but I scanned it cropped it down for a close-up and got most of the background out. You can still see some arms and legs in back of them though...LOL! This is made from my Sept Studio Calico kit - I used HS chipboard letters and misted over them on the page, then traced around the letters with a black pen. I used one of the Jenni Bowlin journal pages that came in the kit, but I modified it by cutting it down, painting over it, then punching a border across the top. TFL!

October LOAD Challenge #1

Here's my first LOAD for October. It's of Danielle in one of her many hats that she likes to wear! Samantha gave this one to her for her birthday and she (Danielle) likes it because it looks like a hat that Joe Jonas would wear! Danielle looks so good in hats and I love that she is not shy to wear them in public! I love hats but I feel somewhat self conscious unless I'm wearing them to keep the sun off me! I used my Sept Studio Calico kit for this plus some stars from an earlier SC kit. I had to be creative with the letters for the title as I was all out of "s" so I cut up the &s and then I misted the letters with yellow Maya mist because the white letters just didn't show up well on the layout! I used some Karen Foster yellow floss around the stars after inking them with some blue stazon. TFL!