I always struggle with shaped papers but love them which is why I have a cropper hopper full of them! But this sketch allowed me to matte one on a 12x12 paper and suddenly it made my design aesthetic happy!And that's a real giraffe sticking his head right in our van at the wild animal safari. It was the total highlight of that trip!
and Kristin's sketch 
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Ok so I am slowly catching up! Here is my take on Sketch #7 for Septembers Class.
And here is the sketch I started with-As you can see I stuck pretty closely to the sketch and it was perfect for a little timeline layout of a mini trip we took to Chittenden Locks in Seattle.
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Moving right along with this months AMAZING SKETCH CLASS...(and really this class is every bit as good as some of the classes I have PAID to take.)Here is sketch #6
And this layout came out really really well for me. I knew immediately what I wanted to do and for once it actually came out exactly the way i saw it in my head. Im super proud of the way this turned out!
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As part of trying to catch up with the Sept Sketch class series I am only going to blog the ones I did layouts for. For all of the amazing sketches please check out our free class section!Here is sketch 4
And my take on it.
i had a lot of fun changing this one up a bit and using the actual layout of the photos to help tell the story. (And a shout out to Theresa for her suggestion I do the Underground Tour. It was absolutely amazing).
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ok so K has been doing this amazing class all month on the creative soup and I did a ton of layouts for it. I LOVE using sketches to jump start a layout. I am usually so pressed for time when I scrapbook in the evenings after work that I find these to be a HUGE help to get me started. K has done an amazing job with this class with full color downloads so I hope some of you pop over and take a look.
Unfortunately life has gotten in the way of me posting them here to my blog. So in the better late than never category Here is Sketch 1!
And here is my take on it. I stayed pretty close to the sketch (which i usually do. But i did use two photos with the same lighting and tone to give the illusion of a larger photo in the same spot.
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Todays Get Meaningful focuses on our school memories. As kids head back to school (or are already in school for those of us in the south!) I wanted to take this opportunity to go back to your school days and reminisce about a favorite subject or teacher. Something that you really really loved about school (and no recess! lol)
i took this opportunity to celebrate a wonderful substitute teacher I had throughout my junior and senior years in high school. Cammie Malloy was truly an inspiration and really taught me so much about life and myself. I wish I could find her and tell her thank you. I often thing about her and wonder if she knew as a substitute teacher just how much she could touch a students life.
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Here is this weeks Mojo Monday at Creative Soup!I am loving that there are so many bright colors that are in right now. I love the look of pairing bright colors with neutrals to get a fun spring look. This month your Get Crafty challenge is to use yellow, turquoise and gray on your project. These colors are all over and really in for spring. I can't wait to see what you do with this color palette!I did this for our grand reopening gala and I absolutely LOVE this color combo!
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I love my mom so much. Our relationship has totally grown and evolved over the years and I just wanted to celebrate where we are now!
Happy Mother's Day mom. I love you with all my heart!
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Welcome to the Creative Soup’s Spring Forward Blog Hop!
To kick off our new enhanced site we thought it would be fun to have all of our creative team members complete one of the fun Mojo Monday challenges from the first quarter. Here is my take on the layout as well as a showcase of a Creative Team member’s original project!Ok to be honest I cheated a little! I couldn't decide between Mojo Monday challenges as there were so many awesome ideas to chose from so I combined two! I used this sketch from Nuts about Sketches. They were our featured partner for the 2.14 Mojo Monday Get Sketchy. I so seldom do 2 page layouts that this was a real challenge to me! And I of course needed a topic and looked no further than the very next weeks Mojo Monday Get Inspired - Television!
So here is the original sketch:
And My take on the challenge: 
It was so great to be able to get such inspiration from the Creative Team
members!
Check out Laura's take on the same sketch! I love how she turned it into a one page layout and I love the twine stitching!
To participate in the blog hop leave a comment for me and follow the link to Kristin's amazing blog to see what she came up with! Go through and leave comments on all 9 blogs and be entered into a drawing for an amazing prize pack. (If you found my blog in the middle and want to make sure you get them all please head on over to The Creative Soup Blog and start there!
The blog hop runs from tonight Friday April 8th at 8pm EST through Monday April 11th at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be drawn on Tuesday! Don’t forget to register at http://www.thecreativesoup.com/ to join in all the fun!
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Today's Mojo Monday at Creative Soup features Architecture!
Architecture is all around us. For March's Get Inspired challenge, I'd like us to take a deeper look at the ways in which we can incorporate architectural ideas into our projects.
- Look at photos of great architecture. Use similar design elements in your project.
- There are lots of architecturally inspired products out there, chipboard windows, house mini albums, blueprint paper
- Scrap about your dream design house
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the mid century modern look. If I had $$$$ (even $) I would live on craigs list and thrift stores hunting done mod goodness for the house. I love the clean lines, the color, palette, the extensive use of wood. I just love all of it (even shag carpet)
So here is my layout based on my layout showcasing my love:
The chimney is made by tearing washi tape into little pieces and layering them. Since the tape is semi-transparent you can achieve the look of mortar just by overlapping pieces.
Im really in love with the way this turned out. Just artsy enough, I created a new technique, and got to scrap about one of my favorite topics. Perfect synergy.
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I have spent most of the week working on new projects and finishing up a ton of old layouts that needed that last little bit of work.
It felt so so good! Ive been feeling really down and haven't had much time for me and the down-ness has robbed me of my mojo too. Its been taking me forever to get a layout done. Usually I just sit and push paper around not getting anything done.
wow. what a difference this weekend. The more I worked on my projects the easier it got. Then I kicked it into hyper gear. My total as of last night 15 layouts!!!!! It felt so good to get a ton of projects completed. I had a bunch of layouts from crops that needed extra embellishments or paint or journaling so I dug them all out and finished almost the whole stack. I also have a bunch of new projects I needed to get done of Project Memorabilia and my Creative Soup design team projects. Im feeling super positive about the work Ive done too. I usually am my worst critic but I really tried to relax and just enjoy the process. And I think it made my work better.
Oh and to top it off Jess came over on Saturday and we spent the prettiest day we have had scrapping in my basement. lol. It was nice to spend time together. I haven't seen her in a while and to cap the evening off we wen out to dinner with Jess' friend from work to a "upscale" Cuban place in midtown. The foor was just average but the mojitos and company were excellent! I really liked Ellen and now that Jess has told me shes going to teach me how to knit I hope to see more of her (She and Jess go to a knitting group right by my house)
Anyways it was a super creative, restful, soul recharging sort of weekend. Just what the Dr ordered!
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friends,
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Whats in a number? A measure of success. A milestone. The end of a journey and the beginning of a new one. A testament to good friends. 3.1 miles. A huge accomplishment. A number witnessed and cheered on by one very sleepy but supportive DH. Winning. Pride.
All of that in those 4 digits.
If you had told me a year ago I would be racing (wogging) in a 5K I would have thought you were crazy. But with the support of friends in person and online and the unending encouragement of Tess, she and I crossed the finished line together this past Sunday (and we did it at a run!)
It took a fair amount of hard work on my part and I was waylaid by a host of problems (medical, emotional and other) so I wasn't sure I would even be able to do it. I had set a goal in my head of finishing in under 45 minutes. Even 2 weeks ago it seemed impossible as I was only on week 5 of my couch to 5K program I started in November (yes I realize that puts me 2+ months behind schedule).
Even during the race I had problems. I had been sick with a sinus infection most of the week before the race and couldn't train and then fighting to climb up this giant hill something happened to my lungs. They just stopped allowing me to get a breath in past the top of my chest. And so I had to slow way down. and T right at my side allowed me to set the pace and even take a hit or 2 of her inhaler (which was a huge help!)
But I did it.
We did it.
T and I.
It wasn't pretty on my end but I finished. And beat my goal time.
Now I am looking forward to continuing my training and finding another race to run maybe in May. T has grander ambitions of running the Peachtree (a 10K) and I will be there at the end of it to cheer her on.
And next year Im doing this one again in a kilt (and I will remember to put on sunscreen!)
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Running
This week's MM is a fabulous sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. If you are a fan of sketches or looking for new inspiration please be sure to give them a visit, leave a comment, and let them know you heard about it from Creative Soup! (link is above)
The sketch:
and my take on it
Thats me and my adorable nephew Noah! He is such a total sweetheart!
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