Sunburst Sketch

With Susan Stringfellow's sketch in mind, and Scraptastic's May kit, Destinations Unknown in hand, I knew just what I wanted to do for this Easter Sunday photo of my dad. And it was going to be colorful! But before chopping up those papers willy-nilly, I planned out the sunburst design by drawing a template on printer paper and assigning colors to the various pieces. Assembling was then quite easy.

Did you catch the shine? Although we had quite a laid back Easter Sunday, I wanted this page to be special. After piecing the sunburst pattern, I used gold mist to add a bit of sparkle.

The 2 circular Road Trip icons from Chic Tags fit perfectly into those over-sized bottle caps from my stash. I used the striped vellum to fashion an envelope for my tag and decorated it with all sorts of fun tidbits, including a Studio Calico speech bubble, Ormolu flair, and October Afternoon "doo-dads", all from the kit and add-on.

The little birdies (originally included in one of the October kits), were a playful addition. Tweet, tweet!

You can check out the sketch and all the rest of the sketch-inspired layouts on the Scraptastic blog. TFL!

Happy, Happy Birthday

When I was first married all of our family birthdays were in the fall, tucked between the end of August and first week of November. My dad, father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband, myself and our first two children were all in those months. And then came my boys. I don't know what happened, but we now have a birthday in each of the first three months of the year. And I always try to take a photo of them with their cake. Here's the March installment:

Supplies are from the Scraptastic May kit, Destination Unknown, and my stash.

This cake has become a family favorite. (OK...well, not for Kevin. But everyone else LOVES it!) Three layers of moist deliciousness and a cool, light frosting are what make Mandarin Orange Cake special. It's not particularly difficult, but still...I won't make it for just anybody. ;)

Back in January, we celebrated Kevin's 13th birthday with another homemade cake whose chocolate frosting was covered with sprinkles. The letter stickers look like they are sprinkled in color themselves!

Supplies are from the Scraptastic's March and May kits, and my stash.

Unfortunately, I don't have a birthday page for my February child. He was away at college on his special day, wishing for a slice of that Mandarin Orange Cake!

Mandarin Orange Cake

1 package yellow cake mix, without pudding

3 eggs

3/4 c. oil or 1 stick butter, softened (we use margarine)

1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, undrained (reserve three segments for garnishing top)

1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, undrained

8-oz. or 12-oz. carton Cool Whip, thawed (we use no sugar added)

1 package (large) vanilla instant pudding mix (we use sugar free)

Grease, line with waxed paper, grease again and flour three 9" cake pans.

Combine cake mix, eggs, and oil and beat 2 1/2 minutes.

Briefly beat in one can mandarin oranges, juice and all.

Pour into cake pans and bake 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool, remove layers and frost.

Frosting 

Combine undrained pineapple, Cool whip, and pudding mix.

Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.

Let stand for 5 minutes until it reaches a good spreading consistency.

Spread between layers and on top of cake.

Decorate top with reserved orange segments and chill 2 or more hours.

Store in refrigerator.

(If you desire frosting on all sides of the cake, double frosting recipe.)

Delectable Die-cuts

It's hump day! Do you have any middle of the week scrapping plans? Hopefully I can inspire you to pull out some papers (and die-cuts) and create.

The die-cut words and phrases included in my recent scrapbooking kits are fun and easy to use. Tucked in here or there, embellished or not, they add great sentiments to cards and layouts. Today I'm sharing a page created with the May kit, Destinations Unknown, and featuring two Scraptastic die-cuts. "Noted..." from the current kit is tucked in among the flags below the picture. At the bottom of the page is the phrase "Love This Life", a die-cut from a previous month's kit, paired with a playful heart-embellished word bubble.

A paper chain of people, cut with my die-cutting machine (but easily doable by hand; google it!), is layered over a chevron "wave". The chevron stamp was a part of last month's Awake My Soul stamp set.

My love for bountiful banners continues, and I had way too much fun making this one. Most of the patterns from which the various flags were cut from only 2 sheets of paper, all chopped up of course! 

I really enjoy all the die-cut pieces (words, phrases and icons) included in Scraptastic kits. They are some of the most versatile embellishments around!

2500 Likes!

Scraptastic Scrapbook Club is having a Facebook Challenge!

Their goal-2500 fans!
Your incentive-Prizes!

1st Prize-a 3-month kit subscription of your choice (Yes, it can include the new A Day in the Life (PL) kits.)
2nd Prize-the June A Day in the Life (PL) kit.
3rd-10th Prizes-a goodie bag filled with Scraptastic's brand new A Day in the Life (PL) cards.

 "Like" them to be entered to win one of these fabulous prize packs.

 Here's a peek at their new exclusive A Day in the Life (Project-Life style) kit for June:

 

Ooooo...LOVE those colorful sequins! 

Enter to win, and spread the word to all your scrappy friends. And if your friend posts on the Facebook page saying that you sent them, you will get another entry! Good luck!

Must See T. V.

As soon as I saw the colorful retro TV paper from Jillibean Soup, I knew that I wanted to devote a scrapbook page to my current favorite television shows. If the TV is on in the evening (and it's usually on all day every day, droning in the background) these are the ones that will grab my attention. Tommy and I both like the crime and detective shows, but Kevin is my buddy every Monday night for the futuristic drama, Revolution.

Lacking a photo, I created a large oversized title element as the center-piece for my page:
 

I don't often created photo-less scrapbook layouts, but this one was a lot of fun. Do you ever scrap memories without an accompanying photo?

My Happy Place

What do you do with all those pretty tear strips at the ends of many paper collections today? I have a small stack of them on my desk! After falling in love with a couple of the very pretty strips on the Destination Unknown (Scraptastic May kit) patterned papers, I decided to put them to good use. By weaving a dozen such strips, I had a pretty accent for my page.

A majority of the strips in my weaving accent were either tear strips from the kit or similar sized strips cut from some of the kit's patterned papers. Supplemented with a few more strips from the pile on my desk, I had a colorful dozen which I wove together.

 The dark blue strip turned out to be a great place to tuck in one of those exclusive Scraptastic die-cuts!

A rectangular frame, filled with sewn on sequins, holds the letters spelling "pool", referring to my son's happy place, where I spent most of Mother's Day this year. Yes, I didn't realize it was Mother's Day when the meet schedule came out, and I failed to scratch him from the events that day. 

Oh well...when I was a child, the pool was my happy place too. :)

Just Add Water

Today I have not one but two swim team pages to share. This sport has become my son's obsession...in a good way. He's always loved the water, so last year when I asked him about swimming on the summer league team, he decided to give it a try. Here he is in cap and goggles, ready to race.

For this page, I used papers by Doodlebug Designs and October Afternoon, a Simple Stories bingo card, Making Memories and Pink Paislee alphas, a sticker by Jillibean Soup, a file folder, tag, and twine. No journaling needed, as I think the title sums it all up for my son. And what a surprise it was when he was awarded the "Most Improved" trophy at the end of the summer:

I couldn't help but take the same set of supplies to create this other page...especially since my son's team colors are blue and orange. What could be more perfect?!

Mickey & Mary

No, I'm not sharing a Disney page today, but I am sharing a page about a Mickey Mouse namesake...my mother! Yes, she was the "little boy" in the photo on the layout below. When she was a wee tot, my grandmother's best friend thought she resembled in a small way (maybe it was the ears?) the mouse from the Walt Disney cartoons. And that's how her Mickey nickname came to be.

I love this sweet photo of my mother and her sister. And yes, when I first saw the picture many years ago, I thought the "boy" in the photograph was my uncle. But then I was enlightened.

On this layout, the sepia photo was highlighted with lots of yellow and gold accents.

There is smattering of gold mist, gold fiber on the tag, gold antennae on the butterfly and a gold charm...all adding a nice amount of sparkle to the page.

 

There are numerous yellow accents as well. The wood veneer butterfly and bird were pressed into an inkpad, one of my favorite ways of adding color to them. And I love the unsuspected bits of turquoise, especially the flowers.

I'm glad I have this photo of my mom and her older sister, and happy to have this page added to my albums for future generations to treasure as well.

Isn't Every Day NSD?

I'm quite sure that is what my family would say if I told them that I was to spend an inordinate amount of time scrapping on one particular day of the year! Because yes, most days ARE scrapping days. If I'm not moving papers around on my desk, then I'm perusing an online gallery or Pinterest. So this weekend was looking like it would be no different. In fact, when a cold front moved in and Kevin decided not to attend swim practice, I was not disappointed at all. There would be even MORE time to scrapbook on Saturday!

But that's not how it went. Kevin woke up, ate one bite of breakfast, and promptly got sick. He was feeling pretty miserable...really drained! I ended up sitting on the sofa with him and we watched a couple of episodes of Dr. Who. At 13, he didn't really need me to sit with him, but he was just starting the Dr. Who series and I told him when he did that I would watch it all with him again. Promises, promises. So that's what we did. Eventually he fell asleep and I would get some scrapping time in, but it sure wasn't the day I had planned! :)

Sunday was more of the same, with me focused on keeping the boy hydrated. (He was scared to eat or drink!)

And here we are on Monday. Today was the first day that he has missed school all year. Bye-bye perfect attendance. :( The good news, however, was right there on the digital thermometer...98.6. Finally! We'll probably watch another episode or two of Dr. Who, but only after catching up on the classwork he is missing today. Oh joy...

Here's Kevin at a happier time:

Supplies:

Patterned paper, stickers-Echo Park

Banner, date tab-October Afternoon

Alphabet stickers-American Crafts, Making Memories, and Basic Grey

Other-felt flowers, buttons, washi tape.