Stuck?! Sketches

It's time for the reveal of the sketch for Stuck?! Sketches and as always it is a great one! Believe it or not, I'm not sick of Christmas photos and supplies so I decided to scrap these adorable photos of my kids when they were babies. I dug into my stash and used October Afternoon Christmas lines for this page. I have hoarded products from this company for a very long time, and I have decided that it is time to use them rather than hoard them.

The sketch calls for two photos but it could easily be tweaked for one or three small photos. I had these printed at 4x6 and cut them down so that they would fit across the page and leave me a little bit of room to embellish.

Normally I can choose my favorite cluster on the layout, but it is really hard to on this page. I love all the  die cuts in the collection and thought they just worked well with these photos. This little elf poking his head out is so stinking cute!

My son was a handful up until age 5 or 6. Oh my goodness he is lucky that he has a sister because there were days that we contemplated having only one child. A sweet elderly lady told me early on though that boys either give you trouble when they are little or when they are teenagers, and thank goodness she was right in this case! I tell you this so that the title makes a bit more sense :) This boy was always into something!!

I used my favorite mini market stickers to add the date to the label. These are my favorite letter stickers and I'm so sad that Ocotber Afternoon is out of business :(

We'd love for you to play along with us this month, and if you decide to do so don't forget to upload your layout on the blog for a chance to win a prize from our sponsors.

I have included a link to the process video if you would like to take a peek. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a great day!

Cocoa Daisy

Today I have my first layout using the Cocoa Daisy January kit Buttercup. It is absolutely stunning and primarily comprised of Pink Paislee's Moonstruck collection along with some exclusive CD products. The theme is a romantic one and I knew right away that I had the perfect photo to scrap with this kit.

My husband and I went on a date to a historic hotel and they had this beautiful bench surrounded by flowers. While the photo may not be the best quality, it is still one that I wanted to document since it was our first Christmas visit. We hope to make this a new tradition for us every Christmas.

The gold butterfly is gorgeous and unfortunately the photo just does not do it justice. I wish that the die cut package had more than one because it is that pretty!

The pink vellum tag is an exclusive to the kit this month. I tucked it behind the photo and the frame and love the subtle visual interest it gives to that cluster. Leaving a tag plain without ribbon or twine just seems wrong to me. It is such an easy way to add another texture to the page without bulking up the layout. Gold twine seemed to be the perfect choice and this was from my stash.

 The kit came with several alphas that are beautiful, but I really wanted the title to be a bit more subtle. I used the alphas that came in January's kit since they worked well with the hints of gold throughout the page. I also stamped the two small hearts in the bottom cluster with gold ink. Again, I love it when I can add small details to my page.

I have a process video if you'd like to take a peek. Thanks so much and I hope that you have a great day!

A New Year and a New Sketch!

Happy New Year! Today I have the first sketch from Stuck?! Sketches for 2017 and it is a fun one!! This sketch is a perfect one if you have scraps, border strips, or washi tape that you want to use. Charms Creations was kind enough to send us some beautiful embellishments to use on our page so I chose the papers based on the embellishments. 

This photo is one that I took while getting our Christmas card pictures. It's not the photo that we chose to use on our cards, but I really love it and wanted to get it on a page. 

I really liked the circles behind the photos, and decided that wonky gold stitched circles would be a perfect addition to the page. I knew that I would need a template to follow since I have trouble stitching a straight line...so I used a circle die to trace a circle on the background. Since the circle would never come out perfect, I stitched many circles that increased in size.  If you look closely, you can see that a few of the circles are covered by the doily. These were the first few circles that I stitched, and I like the effect of them peeking out behind the doily.

Originally I added stars on the page randomly and in the embellishment clusters. As I was moving them around, a few of them ended up on the circles. They looked so good that I decided to add the stars all around the circle and it's one of my favorite things on this page.

 The title Merry and all of the papers are from an old Hip Kit club kit. The washi is from my stash, the tag is Basic Grey, sequins are Felicity Jane, and die cuts and word phrases are Pinkfresh studio.

I have a process video for this layout as well if you'd like to take a peek.

Be sure and check out the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created. We'd love for you to use the sketch as inspiration, and if you upload it to the blog you have a chance of winning a prize from one of these sponsors. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a wonderful new year filled with lots of scrappy time :)