Packers vs Bengals.

Last Sunday we were able to travel to Green Bay to see the Bengals/Packers game at Lambeau. This is my third trip to Lambeau and Austin's second trip to Lambeau. The Bengals are my team, but the Packers are a very close second and I root for them any time they're NOT playing the Bengals.

I always says you can't NOT be a Packers fan. The culture behind the team, the community surrounding them, the fans, that stadium, their success, Jordy... *sigh* No, but really.

We left early Sunday morning. I drove six hours there because he had just gotten off work at 6AM so he tried to sleep some. We had a quick bite to eat and a beer and headed to the stadium. The game was great, even though the Bengals lost in OT. We made it to our hotel and passed out, then got up Monday and drove six hours home.

Quick trip but I am so glad we are able to do this kind of thing and to be able to do it together!

Linking up with Annie's week 240 smiles because I normally work Fridays and can't link up.

Paper Wings Productions: Grateful to You.

Here is an easy way to make a big impact with a small stamp. I love the Fall Mix it Up stamp set. The font is so cute and the little images are precious.

To make great use of the little leaf stamp, I stamped it multiple times on my background and heat embossed it with white fine detail embossing powder. Then I water colored over the heat embossed images and they resist the watercolors. You could do this with any image or sentiment.

My sentiment for this card came from this same stamp set. I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I added some twine and a wood veneer to complete the fall look. What do you think?

supplies 
stamp: Paper Wings Productions (Fall Mix It Up)
ink: Tim Holtz distress ink (Scattered Straw; Spiced Marmalade); Versafine (Onyx Black)
embossing powder: Simon Says Stamp (white fine detail)
wood: Studio Calico
twine: Maya Road
die: Sugar Pea Designs (Stitched Flags)

I'm so honored that Use Your Stuff chose my layout to highlight this week!

Give me all the Treats.

My brother's yellow Lab, Vanilla, had to have surgery this summer. He was high risk because of his age, and since they had him under, they took some growths off his eyelids as well. Poor little guy was tired and sore afterwards.

I thought this collection from Elle's Studio was perfect to document Vanilla feeling under the weather.

This is for the pet challenge at Use Your Stuff this week + I used challenge #1 at Sketch N Scrap's Back to School crop.

Thanks for looking!

supplies
patterned paper: Shimelle (Starshine)
journal cards, puffy stickers, die cuts: Elle's Studio
cardstock sticker: Bella Blvd

enjoying every moment of this day.

Using inspiration from the Scrappy Friends sketch challenge this month, I continue to play with my new Family Fun collection from Elle's Studio.

This time I made a baseball page. Last month we went to the Cubs/Reds game in Cincinnati. We had fantastic seats right behind the Cubs dug out along the third baseline. Kris Bryant didn't play, but the Cubs won.

I didn't have enough acrylic pieces from the Family Fun collection to work for this sketch, but luckily I have a few other sets of acrylic pieces from Elle's Studio. I pulled out my patriotic mix and used some of those pieces to finish off my page.

Thanks for looking!

happy healing.

Using inspiration from City Crafter challenge blog and The Paper Players color challenge, I made a card this morning.

City Crafter's challenge was about summer and I do love ice cream :)

The Paper Players color challenge was pear, pink, and silver/white.

I chose this 'happy healing' sentiment from Altenew because doesn't ice cream make everyone feel better?

I popped up a couple of the ice creams with pop dots for a little dimension. Thanks for looking :)

supplies
stamp: Altenew (Doctors Rule)
die: Simon Says Stamp! (Ice Cream Cone Parade)
embossing powder: Ranger (super fine detail silver)

My Labradore card was chosen as spotlight artist at City Crafter challenge blog!

weekends are meant for adventures.

This page was inspired from the sketch at Scrap the Girls this month. I tried to dig into my stash on this one and use some older stuff. I grabbed an Elle's Studio kit from last autumn, some old cork and wood veneer pieces from Studio Calico and a few die cuts from Jillibean Soup.

Thanks for looking!

supplies
journal cards: Elle's Studio (Oct 2016 monthly kit)
puffy stickers, journal tag: Elle's Studio
cork, wood veneer, mist: Studio Calico
washi: Freckled Fawn
arrow, feather die cuts:Jillibean Soup (Healthy Hello Soup)

around town.

Playing with my Family Fun collection from Elle's Studio again! Today's page was inspired by the September sketch at Challenge YOUrself.

Thanks for looking!

hanging out.

I combined the Colorful Creations word challenge (I used "fun") with the manufacturer challenge at A Cherry on Top. The manufacturer I chose was Elle's Studio, so I could use my new Family Fun line :)

I only had this one small photo to use for my layout, so I chose this patterned paper with the idea to use a circle punch on my photo. I added some other punched circles from a few of the patterned papers in the 6x6 pad + the journal cards. To complete the page, I added a few puffy stickers.

Thanks for looking!

fun.

Today I put together this page inspired from the Sept 1 sketch at Let's Get Sketchy. I used the new Elle's Studio Family Fun collection + a few little pieces from Live Laugh Love and my monthly kits.

Thanks for looking!

club 14.

Tonight I was in the mood for pocket pages. I don't do a project life album, but I do pocket style pages sometimes, and I just mix those pages in with my regular albums. I have one album per year that's 12x12 size and the pages are 12 x 12, 8.5x11, and pocket style pages. So tonight I had a few photos left I wanted to scrapbook + tell the story of from February from my brother's birthday party.

The photos I had were small and not the best quality - they were taken at a bar and a lot of them are from Snap Chat. I totally hacked up one of my 12x12 pocket page protectors to make it work for what I wanted. The cards I had were all vertical and I didn't have enough photos or story to make a full 12x12 spread work. This originally is a Design F from Becky Higgins and I just cut off the top row.

Thanks for looking!

supplies
Elle's Studio monthly kits (May, July, & August 2017) + puffy stickers

prison sunset.

This month's single page sketch at Stick It Down was calling to me. I combined it with the September challenge at Creative Embellishments to make this page.

This background page is an ombre navy paper from Pink Paislee's Sweet Freedom collection. I used multiple stamps sets to stamp random words and images in a huge circle on the background. I even heat embossed some of them, all in a huge circle. The circle idea came from the SID sketch.

Creative Embellishment's challenge inspired me to use the different stamp sets, different ink colors, and even to heat emboss some of the stamped images.

Then I used my tiny attacher to adhere this cloud clear cut from Bella Blvd over the top of my background I created.

I added a little nautical star from Creative Embellishments that's been in my stash for a while. I heat embossed it with cerulean embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

In the photos, it's really hard to see the design, but this turned out very cool. Not my typical style and that's one of the things I like about it.

For those of you who don't know me, I used to work at a prison. Obviously you can't take your cellphone inside the fence, so I rarely got photos of the sky, but the prison is in the middle of the country and all you can see is sky for miles. In the early mornings and evenings, we got to see some of the most amazing sunrises and sunsets that you can see in a landlocked state. This photo was taken after work from the parking lot one night. There were many negatives about working in that environment, but I believe you can find positive in almost any situation and even behind razor wire, you cannot take away the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset.

Thanks for looking!

supplies
patterned paper: Pink Paislee (Sweet Freedom)
stamps: Elle's Studio; Studio Calico; Unity Stamp Co (SMAK 2014)
ink: Studio Calico; Hero Arts; Tim Holtz distress ink
embossing powder: Sparkle N Sprinkle (Super Thick Black EP461; cerulean EP421)

book review: The Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up.

Thank you, Blogging for Books.

I did not read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, but I heard from several people that it motivated them to get tidy.

I consider myself a tidy person. I routinely sort through my home and donate items and we have a garage sale annually.

This book was a quick story about a girl who hires a tidying fairy to help her clean up her apartment. I literally read it in less than an hour before bed one night.

The gist is that you touch your items and if they do not bring you joy, you discard them. The idea is to focus on what you're keeping, because of the joy it brings you, not what you are discarding.

The author guides you through a process of sorting and storing your clothing, books, paper items, hobbies, and sentimental items.

I'll be honest. There wasn't a lot of takeaway for me. I'm not going to fold my clothes; they're hanging in my closet. I'm not going to get rid of my filing drawer of papers. They're all sorted/filed so that I can find them if I need them and contrary to what the author suggests, there have been times I have needed them.

So I guess if you're really lost and overwhelmed with the amount of stuff you have and you have no idea where to start, this book is a good read for you.

sweet love.

I found this month's pet challenge at A Cherry on Top to be super easy because I often scrapbook about my dogs. The challenge is to NOT use pet products on a layout about your pet. I combined this challenge with Stuck?! Sketches Sept 1 layout challenge.

I dug through my stash and decided to use up some more of the Simple Stories Love & Adore collection. I only have a few full size papers left, but a lot of the embellishments. I was able to use up quite a bit of scraps and embellishments on this page. Thanks for looking!