It's been a long time...

...Since I did a full layout. I guess I've been in card mode a lot lately. Plus I really haven't much creative mojo or energy lately. It seems like all I do is go to work and sleep. But this weekend, although it went way too fast, I had just had a great time and felt more like myself. We went to an afternoon hockey game yesterday with my parents and had a great time. Today we went to my niece's 11th birthday party. Then a little grocery shopping, some laundry, a little yard work, a new recipe for dinner (Cheesy Potato Soup - so easy and quite delicious) and I even found some time to play in my craft room tonight where I was inspired to do a layout of this great picture of my parents after a long exhausting day at SeaWorld in 2009. I used a PageMaps layout (aren't they fabulous?) for inspiration. I used a piece of Colorbok paper from a pad I found at TJ Maxx (love the great deal on paper there) and a lot of designs from the Silhouette design studio (the banners are new ones this week).

Seeing Shamu and Matt's new project

When I saw Sketch 115 at Got Sketch?, I immediately started thinking about an orca tail to replace the three vertical strips of paper. I old wish the papers had better contrast in this picture (or maybe that I had better photography skills). I used paper from Stack 5 by DCWV on plain cardstock from Sierra Pacific Crafts. For the bracket, I found a pattern at Doodlelicious Designs and added my own text and Stickles. The orca brad was from Creative Imaginations. I honestly don't recall who makes the flower. It was part of a pack I picked up at the Creative Keepsakes Convention earlier this year. I had the half flower left over from an earlier project and when I saw it in my flower bucket, I knew it was perfect.

Meanwhile, Matt's been working on a project of his own - re-vamping our old barbecue. It was originally a housewarming gift from my Mom's boss Vicki when I bought my 1st house nearly a decade ago. It's served us well, but it was time for a new burner and racks. Matt cleaned it up, installed the new burner and got it going again for a new summer of grilling. But then today he headed into the garage with the old rack. I couldn't help but find out why. Turns out he chopped it into pieces to fit the bottom of the grill so he can spread out the ceramic briquettes better for a more even temperature for cooking. Pretty smart guy. Personally I just enjoyed watching the sparks fly (and being grateful that he thought to wear eye protection).

Silly Seals layout and Smoke behaves

Shockingly, Smoke was the good one today. But maybe that was because he got the top spot on the kitty tower. But I couldn't resist snapping this picture of him with his pretty pink boa. Although he didn't seem to happy about it.

Meanwhile I finished my third layout of the day. Third! And the laundry's almost done too. It's been a productive day despite Chewie's demands for attention.

So this double page layout was inspired by a sketch in the February 2011 Pagemaps. I used cardstock from the DCWV Pastel stack and patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Delightful pad. The seals and scattered words and bubbles were from Creative Imaginations. The seal brads are from Eyelet Outlet.

Another SeaWorld layout and Chewie finally naps

They posted the new Sketchy Thursdays layout. I wasn't really sure what to do with it until I looked at some the Design Team layouts and flipped through my trip photos. It was the round elements matching up with the roundness of an orca jumping that finally bridged the gap between sketch and layout for me.

I wanted to add the orcas jumping around the picture so I found some clip art. I used the same bowl to draw my circle and used my Stampin' Up! paper piercing template to make the holes for the stitching like I did on the SeaWorld Love layout earlier. The cardstock is DCWV from the Pastel and the Christmas stack from several years ago. I used another Creative Imaginations SeaWorld rub-on for the title. Chewie finally napped so I had time to stitch the circle.

But the peace and quiet didn't last long. She's back to wandering in and out of my craft room demanding attention every minute or so. I guess I don't need to have kids to know what it's like not to have a moment to myself. All I need is one small furry (spoiled rotten) princess.

Making a Splash

I'm still recovering from my computer issue. I didn't even realize I had forgotten to re-install Office until I tried to open Word to do my journalling for this page. Wait a second... no Word. So out came the CD and soon I was on my way. This layout was much faster to put together, if you don't count the time installing Word, watching Black Swan and Bell, Book and Candle and trying to figure out just what Chewie wants. She's driving me crazy today meowing every few minutes.

I scraplifted the layout from Sketch Inspiration (it's sketch #209). The background paper is from My Mind's Eye Simply Delightful pad as is the circle and the flower and flourish I cut out from another page. The vanilla paper is from DCWV Pastel stack run through a Fiskars paper crimper and the scallop is cut out of DCWV Shimmer stack using a Martha Stewart edge punch. The title is from a Creative Imaginations Sea World rub-on packet.