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I love scrapbook challenges & am always looking for ones. I recently stumbled on a site called Burlap & Buttercups. It is a kit club & they post challenges several times a month on their blog. You can check it out here http://burlapandbuttercups.blogspot.com/.  Though I have never used one of their kits, they look divine. This month's is filled with My Mind's Eye, Authentique & Pink Paislee!
One of the challenges this month was to use the yellow & gray color scheme. Fortunately, I had some great papers that I was able to work with. Here is what I came up with. This is another photo from the pumpkin patch two years ago!

Everything on this page is from Crate Paper with the exception of the wood alphas, which are from Pink Paislee, & the paper that I punched the butterflies from. That is Basic Grey.

Another challenge at B&B was to scraplift a source of inspiration. I chose this layout from DT member Angie Gutshall:
   
And here is my scraplift:

I loved how Angie used the circles on the bottom of her page. I punched 1-inch circles from a piece of Pebbles paper & popped some of the circles for dimension. These photos are from Leah's 7th birthday party (& yes, she'll be 9 next week)!!

Thanks B&B for all of the fun & inspiration!! 

Blessings

Happy Tuesday!
I wanted to share a layout that I completed for a challenge at the Scrapbook Circle blog. The challenge this month was to scrap what you are grateful for. I am, of course, so very grateful for my 2 children! These photos are from Thanksgiving of 2009. I used bits & scraps from my stash along with papers from the SC October kit. I love how this page came together & think it really reflects a feeling of gratitude.

The "note" pennant is from Elle's Studio & the "note to self" sticker is from Jillibean Soup. Both were included in the SC kit in October. (Not only am I behind in scrapping photos, I am behind in using kits!!)
Thanks for stopping by! I hope to be back soon with more scrappy shares!
XO
~Stephanie

10 on a Page!

Hey bloggers! I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We did! It was the perfect day-starting with a walk/run through our neighborhood in the morning with friends, followed by a delicious dinner with our family. It is definitely hard to believe that Thanksgiving is behind us & Christmas is upon us!! Where has the year gone?!
Speaking of Christmas, I started my December Daily album a few days ago. I am hoping to get all the pages completed prior to December 1st (which means I have 2 days left!), so that I can enjoy filling up the album as the days pass & not feel rushed. I have pictures only of the album cover now so I will do another post hopefully soon showing all of my progress.
For now I wanted to post my latest layout. It is for a challenge up at 2Peas called "4x6 Photo Love". Each month the challenge is to create a layout using that many 4x6 photos on a page (e.g. Jan=1, Feb=2,....). This month's challenge is actually from October so the page has 10 4x6 pictures! I have had so much fun playing along with these challlenges. Shimelle Laine is so creative in getting all the photos to work on a page. You can check out the challenge for yourself here:   http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/classes_and_events/classes/22-4x6-photo-love-with-shimelle-laine/.
Here is my layout (photos are from the pumpkin patch 2 years ago):

the front

& the back.
I am excited to see what next month's challenge will hold!

Have a good night!
      

Off to a Great Start

The blog challenge is up for the month over at the My Mind's Eye blog. In additon to using the sketch, the challenge was to include brown on your layout. Here is the sketch: 

And here is my layout:

Most of the products used are from My Mind's Eye. The star above is from Sassafrass. This photo was taken on New Years Eve 2008! Yes, I am that far behind in scrapping our pictures!!
Good night all! 
-Stephanie

A Sketchy

This layout was done for the sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays. Here is the sketch:


And here is my layout:

When my mom turned 65, my sister, sister-in-law & I took all of our mom's 8 grandkids to a local paint-your-own pottery store & made a platter for her w/ the kids' handprints. It turned out great & she loved it!
This layout is about her birthday when we gave her the platter. I used Lily Bee Memorandum paper (the newsprint); the pink trim is Crate Paper & so are the "flowers for mama" strip, "unique" sticker, "pretty little things" sticker, & chipboard flower. I also used a paper strip from American Craft's Amy Tan line &  the black & white tape is K&Co.
Have a good night! I, for one, am ready to fall asleep!!

Lately...

..we have been having lots of quality family time (carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, family dinners out, shopping, movie-watching, etc.) & I love it!
..Leah has been doing a lot of dancing. She went to her first formal dance with Drew Saturday night for Girl Scouts & LOVED it! (Ty asked if they were going to dance "the disco". She replied "no"!)

She has been caught dancing around the house & outside with her friends!

 ..I have been doing much reading. Just finished "The Well & the Mine" by Gin Phillips & am now reading "The Weird Sisters" by Eleanor Brown.

..Ty has been so excited for the impending arrival of his 5th birthday (in January)! Now that Halloween is over, he has to have something to look forward to!

..I haven't had much time to scrap & am missing it! I did manage to start my December Daily album. I will post more about that another time.

..I can feel a cold coming on & am trying to knock it out before it is full-blown. Drinking lots of hot tea & eating lots of soup!

..the house is filthy because the weather here has been so nice. I love days in the 70's, but it does nothing for getting my house clean!  

..these two are giving us a run for our $!! Chewing on HVAC wires, digging holes big enough to plant trees in, devouring trash bags when we turn our backs. It's a good thing they're so cute!  

   

And here are the latest layouts I have completed. Some of them were finished weeks ago, I just haven't had the time to post them!

This was Ty at 2 1/2. (Makes me miss those days!) The patterned paper is from Lily Bee's Memorandum line-love it!

This is a picture from Mother's Day of 2009. Paper is from My Mind's Eye & the "family" chipboard is from 7Gypsies.

This layout also uses the Memorandum line from Lily Bee, and a mix of other embellishments. Luke & Ty were such good buddies. We all still miss that dog!!

So that's what's been going on in our corner of the world latley. Hope all is well in yours!
 

Catching Up

Wow- it is so hard to believe that Halloween was almost a week ago! And I have been meaning to update my blog & show pics of our Halloween decs & costumes. Life just gets in the way sometimes & I have to roll with it. When I started this blog, I vowed I would not let it interfere with such. So I guess I shouldn't complain that this post is about a week late, right?! Atleast it's getting done!

This year the kids were super excited about Halloween! Ty started counting down the days even before school started in September! And he knew all along that he wanted to be Darth Vader. Leah was a witch (hand-me-down costume from her cousin-SCORE)!
 
We have more outdoor decorations for Halloween than we do Christmas! (I'm hoping that will soon change!) Here are some pictures of our spooky home this season.  

And here are the kids in costume:

We also have a growing collection of decorations for the inside of the house. I have to admit, Halloween decorations are cute, but I never thought they would adorn our home. My kids love all of them though!  

We have always had the family, as well as our neighbors, over on Halloween for pizza dinner & to take pictures before we all head out trick-or-treating together. Last year I made a centipede out of cupcakes & wanted to try something new this year. I saw these owl cupcakes on the Betty Crocker website. They were very easy & a big hit!   

One last decoration I wanted to share before I am done with the Halloween recap! My sister gave us this house last year after Halloween. I dug it out this year & decided to add to it a bit. I went through my scrap stash & this is what it looks like now. 

Now that I have inundated you all with way too many pictures, I am signing off. Time to get the kids to bed & prepare for the start of a new week! (We're one more closer to Christmas!!)

Night all!

Sharing

I have been meaning to post about our Halloween for several days now! And for some reason (or two), I can not find the time to sit down & do it!! I hope to tonight. Although, Leah is going to a father/daughter dance for Girl Scouts & Ty & I have a date night! We'll see if I can get to the blog updates later....
But for now, I wanted to share a great giveaway that is happening at Elizabeth Kartchner's blog. It's a chance to win the Ali Edward's/Studio Calico December Daily kit! WOW! I love the kit & am really hoping to create an album this year (& have it complted by Dec. 1). Again, we'll have to see! But, you should check out the giveaway here:
  http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/2011/11/december-daily-sc-kit-giveaway.html
Have a great Saturday!

My Scrapbook Nook Blog Hop!

I wanted to share the news! MSN is having a blog hop!! You could win a 3 month subscription, as well as other prizes! You can start here if you'd like to join in on the fun: http://paperedcottage.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-nook-blog-hop.html.

And I hope to be back later tonight with an update on our Halloween (if I can stay awake afer the kids are in bed)!!