Winner and a layout! {Echo Park: Walk in the Park}

Are you on Pinterest yet? If not, let me know, I'm all for bringing people over to the dark side! See...I saw a pin by Kayla. It was a layout of Jan's. This one: 

Isn't it great?! Clouds, kites, banner...ahhh!

Instead of printing it out, saving it to a folder on my desktop or bookmarking it, I "pinned" it. Then as I was working on a layout for a challenge at Birds of a Feather...I needed some inspiration. I was stuck. Off to my "Scrapping Board" at Pinterest I went. And when I saw Jan's layout, I knew it was the one I would lift! And this is what I came up with:

 Obsessed with banners much? Guilty!

The only thing not from Echo Park is the "sweet cutie pie" element there on the left. Well...the twine, too ;) Our challenge at BOAF was to scrap the title or lyrics from a group of Birthday theme songs. I have saved this picture knowing what that the title would be "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" so this seemed like the perfect time to scrap it! I think this is my current favorite layout of mine. :)

Speaking of birthdays, I have a blog hop winner to announce! I can't figure out how to actually post the image from random.org here on my blog, but with 19 comments, it told me that #2 was the winner which is JennyBean! Congrats, Jen!!! I'll be messaging you here very soon with your gift card info to Scrapbook.com. Thanks to everyone for commenting!

Fun with Sand {Cosmo Cricket: Salt Air}

I created today's layout using this week's sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. I also created it based on some requirements for a challenge at last weekend's crop at BOAF. Everyone's requirements were different based on what year you were born and mine were: 3 photos, 5 different pattern papers, a 3 word title and 10 of my favorite embellishment (butterflies). This is what I came up with:

I had to throw in a little stitching to make it feel right and I even tried TWO mists this time...I'm really getting brave! lol

I got lucky and this week's challenge at The Paper Variety is to create a project with a ocean theme so I'm linking up there as well...a three-fer! :)

Thanks for looking!

Look Whoooooo's Cute

I've been busy scrapping all weekend so I will have lots of layouts to share this week! First up, I made this page for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety to use a forest critter. I have tons of owl paper and embellies...this paper just happens to be my most recent find. 

If you click on the image it should be easier to see...with the bad weather yesterday I didn't take the time to get closeups! The owl in the grid is fussy cut and popped up for dimension, same with the owl on the banner. I used my sew easy to make the banner and so this layout also fit for a banner challenge at this weekend's crop at Birds of a Feather. Speaking of the crop, you still have a couple of days to enter for my giveaway (and I think one or two others on the hop as well!). If you are interested, see this post. Thanks for stopping by!

Birds of a Feather Birthday Blog Hop {Basic Grey: Out of Print; Pink Paislee: Soiree}

 Birds of a Feather Kit Co is having a birthday party! 

Amy started her company one year ago this month and she is also celebrating her very own birthday today ;-) What better way than to celebrate with a crop, right? To start the crop off, the design team and a few of the guest design team alumni have put together a blog hop for you! If you arrived here from Linda's blog, you are headed in the right direction. If you came to my blog first, be sure to head back to the BOAF blog to get started so that you don't miss out on any eye candy!

I have two birthday theme layouts to share with you - both using the August kit (there are still 3 kits left in stock!).

The first layout is using the sketch from October's sketch challenge which is posted in the forum here. Did you know that completing all 5 monthly challenges puts you in the running to be a guest designer? If you want to try one of Amy's kits, this is a great way to do it! 

The pictures are from mine and my sister's joint birthday celebration from last year. We celebrate our birthdays just 3 days apart so we took ourselves to lunch and then for cupcakes after. We even repeated the tradition just a few months ago but without my daughters in tow ;-)

I created the banner by fussy cutting from one of the Pink Paislee papers in the extra patterned paper kit. The twine, tiny type alphas and paper clips are from my stash... but everything else is from the August kit.

I also fussy cut these flowers, outlined them with my white signo pen, layered with embellishments from the kit and then added bits of bling. The bling is in the kit as one piece, but I cut it into pieces and still have some left for future projects.

This next layout is based on a Pagemaps Sketch. I loved the cake piece that I fussy cut from the same Pink Paislee paper and thought it would be perfect for this picture of my daughter's princess cake from her 4th birthday.

I used mixed pieces for the banner, added the same twine from my stash and added a couple of pins as well.

I contracted a case of Stickles sneeze on this layout! Amy included a bottle with the August kit and then I also added a couple of other colors from my stash. I outlined many of the flowers on the busy background piece, but I also added Stickles to most of the other embellishments as well.

Hard to see all of the stickles in these photos but ALL of those green dots were accented!

One of the many reasons I love the August kit is the Core'dinations cardstock. The first layout was with the white back so when I filed the edges, a white frame develops. But this second layout, I used the pink back so all of my distressed edges are pink. Love that!

What is a birthday celebration without presents, right? I've got a present for one lucky person who comments on this post...a $10 gift card to scrapbook.com! We are cropping all weekend long and the entries are due by the 12th, so I will post my blog candy winner on the 13th. You do not have to be a follower of my blog, but if you like what you see, I'd love for you to stick around! 

All of the crop challenges and games can be found in the forum here. The grand prize is going to be a kit of your choice! Oh, and the boutique will be having a BIG sale this weekend! 

If you've made your way through the blog hop, you'll want to keep going so that you can be entered to win a prize package of Bella Blvd products valued at $50! You'll need this word to add to your collection for the mystery phrase: 

and then you'll want to hop on over to Kayla's blog here to continue with the celebrating. I hope to see you in the forums cropping with us this weekend! 

Birds of a Feather Blog Hop & Crop {Crate Paper: Farmhouse Collection}

Just a quick post to let you know that this weekend, Birds of a Feather is having a birthday crop AND blog hop! I was honored to be asked to participate in the blog hop so check back on Friday to participate. I'm offering up a $10 gift card to scrapbook.com and I know there will be other prizes as well - including a $50 prize package of Bella Blvd products!

To participate in the crop, you'll want to register in the forum (totally free). Don't miss the bingo game on Saturday. Wanna know what the prize is? THIS:

I already won one so you don't have to worry about beating me ;-)

The blog hop will start at the BOAF blog and you can find that right here...or you can stop by here and I'll direct you back to the beginning so you don't miss out on the fun!

Here's another card that I made using the October Kit:


I'm busy working on a couple of layouts to share with you on Friday...I hope you join me this weekend for some fun!