C'est Magnifique March Sketch~!

Hi everyone!  It's time for us to post the sketch we will be using for our March challenge at C'est Magnifique. Thanks once again to Michele Singh for creating this beautiful sketch for us.  She's awesome!

Here is the sketch we will be using in March, and also a look at how I used the sketch, along with our March Kit, which has already sold out.

 "Boys"

This past summer my oldest, along with a friend and his cousin, spent much of the afternoon out in the woods searching for mushrooms. Boy, did they get dirty- but they had a blast doing it and so it was worth it .

When working with these kits, I always like to try and find a different way of using things. On this particular project, I took apart the Snowbell flower from Manor House Creations, and used the stamen to accent my Maya Road flower and I also used some of the petals underneath it. Just one way to change up the look of something!

 

 The gorgeous "Fancy Bird Cage" is from Blue Fern Studios :)

From the Flower Add-On:
Prima: Cabaletta: B
Maya Road: Vintage Edge Mum: Antique Mocha
Maya Road: Vintage Lace Daisies: Milk

From the Embellishment Add-On:
Basic Grey: Serenade: Stickers
Basic Grey: Serenade: Designer Chipboard Stickers
Prima: Fabric Butterfly Embellishments: Vintage
Maya Road: White Polka Dot Kraft Note Envelopes

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Now it's your turn to give it a try.  The sketch challenge is open to everyone - you don't have to be a member of our kit club.  You can interpret the sketch any way you want, but we do want to look at your layout and be able to tell you used the sketch.  But feel free to flip it on its side, or turn it upside down if that's what works best for you.

We will be offering two prizes, awarded randomly to participants in our Sketch Challenge.  The first prize is this beautiful assortment of paper, embellishments, and chipboard!  The winner of this prize package will also be able to shop in the C'est Magnifique Store, and have their purchases sent with the prize package, so that means you won't have to pay for shipping charges!

Our second prize, a $10 gift certificate to the C'est Magnifique Store,  will be awarded randomly to one of our participants who obviously uses one of our kits to create their Sketch Challenge layout. 

We will also chose 5 (or maybe more) layouts to feature on our blog!  

And you have the entire month of March to submit your layout.

What do you have to do to enter our sketch challenge?

1.  You must be a follower of our blog.  It's easy to become follower -see the left sidebar.

2.  Create a layout using the sketch, and add it to our blog using the Inlinkz tool at the bottom of the post.  Please link to the blog post where you have uploaded your layout  (not your general blog address). If you do not have a blog, you may link to an online gallery.

 Deadline for entering the sketch challenge is midnight, March 31 (US time).

We look forward to seeing your layouts!

 

See you VERY SOON with the WINNERS of my February Giveaway~!!

A Bittersweet Post {Manor House Creations}

**For my February Giveaway, please go HERE**

Hi everyone :). I'm here today to share with you my final two projects for Manor House Creations. I've made the decision to step down from my design team spot there~ it's been a wonderful experience and it's truly been a delight to work with their beautiful flowers. Nerrida and Karen really are some of the nicest, most easy-going team leaders out there and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to design for them :).

But let's not make this a sad post- I have two layouts to share that are both dedicated to my sweet boys~!

"Adore Them"

This photo was taken last summer on one of our many, MANY days spent at the lake. It's a special thing to be a mother to boys. I hope to teach them love and respect and have them grow to be as wonderful of a man as their daddy :).

The multiple photos in book-like fashion was not a result of my intentionally printing several photos in order to create in this way. The bottom two were accidentally printed on the backside of my photo paper- I'd put it in the tray wrong. So after making the mistake once, I couldn't remember which way I'd put it in- and did it wrong again, lol! So typical! But rather than just throwing them or stuffing them into my growing pile of unused photos, I just put them to work here :).

 There were so many beautiful flowers to choose from out of the Spring Collection~! The focal flower used here is the white Lotus flower, which comes in many other varieties as well. Just gorgeous :)...

Products Used:

Lotus- white, Capri- aqua, Powder Puff- melon.

Other Products Used:

Vintage Locks

"Watch"

My boys LOVE to fight...but they also love to play and I just love it when they play NICE. Here we were out exploring one of our favorite destinations and Wyatt had brought some little action figure guys with. Gunner watched patiently as Wyatt played with them in the dirt. Such a precious thing to watch the younger learn from the older...as long as what they're learning is a GOOD thing, haha!!

Such a gorgeous variety of blues and greens. I've used both old and new flowers here to create the perfect mix~!

Products Used:

Ruffles- brights, Mia- green, Powder Puff- blueberry, Springtime- blue, Meadows, Belief, Dahlia- white.

Other Products Used:

Ornate Medallions

Thanks so much for having a look today. Take care of yourself, your families, and I'll be seeing you again soon :),

Manor House Creations: Prepping for Valentine's Day~!

**For my February Giveaway, please go HERE**

Hi :)! February is the month of love and in just a couple of weeks, Valentine's Day will be here. I don't know if you get big into this holiday- for my husband Josh and myself, it's usually pretty low-key as having three little kids kinda keeps us grounded ;)~ BUT I do like to give a V-Day card at least and today I have two to share with you, both inspired by Manor House Creations flowers!

"Kiss"

To create the scalloped edge around my card, I made use of my butterfly punch:

 After punching out several butterflies, I glued them along the backside of my card.

When finished, I covered up the back of the card by cutting a circle from embossed cardstock that was the same size as my card. Easy!

Products Used:

 Lotus, white

 Powder Puff, Watermelon

Capri- Aqua

Other Products Used:

*New* Composition & Color Paper Collection (shipping this month!!)

Polka Net Blue Trim

Valentine's Word Set

 

And here is Card #2:

 

"Valentine"

 I was inspired by the little purple and gold flowers- I thought they were so beautiful together. And if you follow my blog, you know that C'est Magnifique's February kit offers plenty of purple, so I used some of the gorgeous Maja Design papers for this card.

Products Used:

Glitter Mini Roses- Caramel

Capri- Orchid

Other Products Used:

Natural Netting

Valentine's Word Set

What are you doing to get ready for the day of romance??

Enjoy the rest of your weekend~ take care!

Two More for C'est Magnifique

Good morning (I think?) to you all :). It's Monday morning here. Did NOT sleep well last night and up early this morning...and just super tired. Really don't like starting out my Monday like this as this is historically the most difficult day of the week for me (and the kids)- it's like we have a weekend hangover together- and Dad isn't around to help us out, lol...

But I need to show you a couple more projects using the February Kit "Royal Tea Party" from C'est Magnifique! So let's go~!

"After Party"

My daughter's first birthday was quite busy, filled with family, and it caused her to be a bit overwhelmed. Though I took nearly 400 pictures during the day, I don't think I got even a single one of her smiling . However, AFTER the party (and a nap!) she was much happier. I spent some time with her outside, just her and I, and got a bunch of really great shots. She was so adorable in her little birthday outfit- and when I first started to work with this kit, I just knew that it would coordinate perfectly with it! I pulled apart one of the wire hearts and used a couple of the sprays in my cluster. Then I took the remaining piece and bent them into "leaves", also sticking them in with my cluster. It's so much fun to find different ways to use a product!

 From the Flower Add-On:
Prima: Amore Violet
Prima: Coventry: Serene
Prima: Botanical: Marri
Prima: Larkspur: Sherwood Rose
Manor House: Lotus: Imperial

From the Embellishment Add-On:
Leaky Shed: Keyholes
American Crafts: Thickers: Rainboots
Pink Paislee: Artisan Wings

Next, I have for you probably the most "clean and simple" layout I've ever made. But this photo that my sister Kelly took of her daughter was so incredibly gorgeous, I just didn't want to take away from it- and so I turned it into a "quote piece" instead...

"Autumnal Face"

I love it when I am insired by color. This photo is of my niece on an autumn day and the colors are amazing, as well as the subject herself! But I was at first uncertain of how I would match the kit to the photo. However, once I got started, I found that every color in the amazing picture is available in the kit- one way or another. I was excited to discover that the beautiful Blue Fern Studios packaging was perfect for the fussy cut bit to the left of my photos, and it really helped draw out some of the rich fall colors. I actually had a hard time ADDING more flowers, which is pretty much unheard of for me! But it actually looked better left a little more simple, and the beautiful quote just tied the whole thing together :).

From the Flower Add-On:
Prima: Coventry: Serene
Prima: Botanical: Marri
Prima: Larkspur: Sherwood Rose

This gorgeous kit has just sold out- but there are still some of the paper packs available, a flower add-on, and some individual items available in the store HERE! These kits generally tend to sell out QUICK, so if you'd like to make sure you  never miss out on another one again, become a subscriber! You can learn how HERE :).

I hope your Monday treats you well~ have a great week and we'll see you again here soon :).

Selected Scrapper @ Skissedilla: Week 4~!

Good morning, my friends~! Sunday is again upon us (well, "us" to whom it applies- I know you ahead-of-it-all-other-side-of-the-worlders have already {or soon will} said good-night to Sunday)~ and what that means is it's reveal day at Skissedilla~! Today's sketch is my last for the month as the Selected Scrapper there, and I just wanted to thank them so much for having me :). It's been a pleasure creating with their wonderful sketches~!

I have a super sweet story behind the layout I created for this challenge. I tell a lot of stories about my kids, and some day I hope to print a book of my blog (I've heard you can do this- should probably check into the validity of it)- and then I will have one place in which all of these stories are documented. But I also like to share them because I think we all find some enjoyment in learning about eachother's lives. I do, anyway. It makes us all seem a bit more "real", if you know what I mean. And being a parent, I understand that most parents never tire of talking about their kids- or at least their kids' stories :)...

"Don't Cry, Mom"

My little Gunner. If you've followed my blog, you know about my little Gunner. He's just as sweet as they come- a wild child too- but inside, he's just a sweetie. I've seen more of this from him as time goes on, and this particular layout was inspired by something I discovered a few weeks back.

But first, here's the sketch, #195:

Of course we need some closeups...and the story :)...

 So one night I'm sitting on the couch and I just wanted Gunner to come and sit with me. When he decides he'd rather continue playing instead, I pretend to start crying- you know, burying your face in your hands and doing your best (obnoxious) crying sounds, body shaking and all...

 (yeah, I was that desperate)...Little Gunners drops his toy, comes on over, pulls my hands from my face and with the most concerned, big brown eyes he says, "Don't cry, Mom."

 My heart seriously melted. And then he took it a step further, climbed into my lap, and wrapped his arms around my neck before burying his face against me. And then he stayed like that for about five minutes. I seriously held him for every moment of that five minutes!

Since then, any time I have any look of concern on my face he will come right up to me, look me directly in the eyes as if trying to read my emotions, and ask, "What's wrong, Mom?" Or- if I'm pretending to be sad again- he tells me not to cry, and won't leave my side until he knows I'm okay. It's incredible. And I hope he never changes :).

Thanks for letting me share my little story with you :). 

I'd love to hear yours! So won't you play along with this week's sketch? When the challenge closes in a week, I'll be reviewing every entry from this month and choosing one lucky duck to win this from me:

Sure hope to see you there :). Enjoy the rest of your weekend~ take care!!