Beauty and the Beast

Here's another layout I did for the Paper Secrets website. It was for the February Sketch Challenge. I got a little carried away with the black paint. I was going for a creepy vine effect, but I'm not sure it worked. Oh well. I love experimenting with paint, even when it doesn't quite work.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO:

Dinner at the Mandarin

We took Dad to the Mandarin when he visited in 2010. When he returned in 2011, he insisted on going again. For this layout, I tried out my new border punch. I might've gotten a little carried away with it. I also included some Chinese coins that my kids collected from the Mandarin years ago for Chinese New Year, and our fortunes.

Scrap Your Ass Off - Week 3

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout. I used ribbon, buttons, bling (black rhinestones that didn't show up very well in the picture), photo corners, and stitching.

Wedding Day

I scrapped my parents' wedding day for the Paper Secrets vintage challenge. I know they aren't together anymore, and hope they don't mind. But I still enjoy looking back on these pictures. For the vintage requirements, I used lace, pearls, flowers, butterflies, buttons, and a timepiece.

Be Happy

Here's another beautiful picture of my niece. She's so photogenic! This is my first use of Webster's pages, I think. I love the paper, but I'm never sure what to do with it.

Cute Little Girl

I did a color challenge over at Paper Secrets that said to use black, white, red, and pink in a layout. Here's my adorable niece, Isabella. I was debating whether to make it a "pretty" layout, but in the end decided to have some fun with it.

Scrap Your Ass Off - Week 2

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout. I scrapped this beautiful picture of my grandparents.

Scrap Your Ass Off - Week 1

I've joined the Scrap Your Ass Off challenge over at Paper Secrets. The way it works is that you complete a challenge each week to move on to the next round, and whoever is left at the end wins.

The first challenge is based on the following sketch, but I also had to use 4 of 8 products listed (I chose brads, flowers, buttons, and ribbon), and one of three techniques (I chose stamping). Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it. I scrapped our family trip to the EX a couple years ago.

Love

These beautiful people are my in-laws, and they will have been together 50 years at the end of the year. I can only hope to be married to their amazing son for that long.

Happy

These special people make me so happy every day that they are in my life. Here's a candid moment (okay, maybe not so candid) taken on a family hike during a camping trip.

Special Moments

Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around my Dad and I doing volksmarches in Germany. This picture was taken during one of those walks. It brings back so many memories!

Grad

Here are the official Grade 8 graduation pictures of my babies. I can't believe we're halfway through grade 9 already. They'll be driving before I know it. Yikes!