Let's Get Sketchy Birthday Blog Hop Bash!

Welcome! Are you ready to PARTY?

Let’s Get Sketchy is turning ONE and to celebrate we are having a Birthday Bash Blog hop.  As you make your way along our hop to visit each of our DT blogs you will find lots of birthday inspired projects.   If you have arrived here from Lynn's blog welcome to the LGS blog hop!! If you have stumbled across this by chance and want to play along then you can head back to the Let's Get Sketchy site to start at the beginning and to start collecting your Birthday challenge words. These words should be in bold on each DT member’s pages.

It is Birthday Season in our house right now. Marley was 9 on Tuesday and she starts the birthday parade that culminates in my husband Greg's birthday on May 10th. Four birthdays in ten weeks can be exhausting! Especially when at least 3 of them require parties with all the trimmings!
My project was inspired by my daughter Marley's love of owls. She has been obsessed with owls for several years now and since we live close to O.W.L. (Orphaned WildLife Rehabilitation Society) she regularly raises money for them. Her birthday party is on Saturday and once again she has asked for donations to O.W.L. She also wanted a swimming party with an owl theme. Ummmm ... not sure owls can swim but, okay! We sent out invitations with both a life preserver ring AND an owl on them and I have been tearing my hair out trying to create these ...



I was inspired by several variations I saw on Pinterest - you can see my board here for all my inspiration pieces.

In typical ME fashion, I bit off a bit more than I could chew for this one. Marley's party is 48 hours away and I have exactly ONE of these bags finished. YIKES!!!! I apologize that I do not have more things to share with you today but ... well, life happened!

UPDATED 03/02: They're finished!! Check out my little brood!

Aren't they the cutest?! Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled programming ...

WAY back in November I took advantage of a Black Friday sale to pick up a Silhouette Cameo. Then my laptop died and my new Cameo languished, waiting for me to sort out my laptop so I could load the software and start playing. That finally happened this week ( along with a couple days of bad nausea - life, right?) and I started cutting out feathers. And more feathers. And then I realized I needed even MORE feathers! NOW do you see why I only have one finished? It's a great way to use up a ton of card stock though!!

I need to get this post scheduled as I have to work tonight but if you check back later over the weekend, I promise to update this post with pictures of all the bags and the other owl themed things I've got up my sleeves for this party. Until then, I'd love for YOU (hint, hint, hint!!) to tell me what your best birthday memory is. How old were you? What did you do that made the day so special? Did your parents ever throw you a big themed party? If so, what was the theme? I will pick a winner from my comments to win a little pack of goodies. I think I remember a stamp set and ribbon & brad set that could make some sweet celebratory cards! I'll get a picture uploaded tomorrow for you!

Also, Let's Get Sketchy is having a Birthday Bash Challenge. Create any birthday inspired project from examples you see on any of the DT pages on this hop and upload it to the LGS blog.  If the project you pick is a layout then do a lift of that page, If it’s a different project - like my goody bags - then do that project.  You can pick from ANY DT member’s blog project for the hop. 

Don't forget to collect your clue words as YOU (hint, hint, hint!) hop along. Once you have gathered all the words they will form a quote related to our Birthday. Tell us that quote by emailing us and get your name in the pot for an extra drawing. The winner of the hop will be randomly selected and will win a nice bag of scrap goodies from Lets Get Sketchy.  As always there are rules for playing!

Here are the rules for playing and winning:

1. You MUST be a follower of each LGS team members blog and leave a comment on each blog and;

2. You MUST also be a follower of the LGS blog.

Please make sure you visit the entire team today as some members are hosting additional blog challenges during the hop and offering their own extra goodies for you so the more you play the more chances you win!

All blog hop entries are due by midnight, March 8th, 2013. CST.   

Now hop on over to (Melinda's) blog to see what she has in store for you!

Here is the lineup in case you get lost!

Line up:

LGS

Brenshevia

Debbie

Stacia

Laurie

Carla

Michelle

Lynn

Alison --- YOU ARE HERE ---

Melinda

Tracy

Sherri

Marit

Lanette

Bev

Stephanie

Stacey

LGS

LGS Fall into Fall Blog Hop

Welcome to the very 1st Let’s Get Sketchy blog hop!! We at LGS are so very excited about our first blog hop!  If you have arrived here from Carla's blog welcome to the LGS blog hop!! If you have stumbled across this by chance and want to play along then you can head back to Stephanie's site to start at the beginning. Hidden on each Design Team member's site is a word that, when put all together, will give you a quote about Fall. I highly recommend heading back to Stephanie's site to collect your Fall challenge words in order! These words should be in bold on each Design Team member’s pages. Once you have gathered all the words and have figured out the quote, email it to letsgetsketchy@gmail.com for an extra RAK of scrap goodies! My clue word is FRUIT.

Blog Hop Challenge-Fall into Fall

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year, it's when the leaves start changing colours and everything around us is beautiful.  It is also the season of Thanksgiving, which reminds us to take a moment to reflect on all the things we are most thankful for. (Side note for my Canadian participants - yes, we've already celebrated Thanksgiving but I like the idea of taking the month in between Hallowe'en craziness and Christmas craziness to slow down and be appreciative of life, don't you?)

So in celebration of the fall we are hosting a Fall Color Combo challenge.  You are to use the colors below and create ANY project related to the Fall.  It can be a layout, card, mixed media project or altered item.  The sky is the limit!  Once your project is completed, please return to LGS and upload your project using Mr. Linky.

Please use the colour combo below:

You MUST use all of the colours in the picture (light blue, autumn red, yellow, brown, green). Each DT member will have a project of her own featuring these colours to give you some inspiration. Here is mine.

As soon as I saw the colour combo I thought of this paper that I had actually put into my "to be sold" pile in the summer. Go figure! It's got all the colours in it so I knew it would be perfect. And then the other day the girls had a couple friends over and they wanted to rake up the leaves to jump in them. Talk about serendipity!!

Here are some close ups for you.

I tucked this journalling card from Ali Edwards behind the photo strip. It's not glued down at all so you can pull it out and read the journalling that's on both sides.

Here's a view of it pulled out from behind the photos. The journaling reads: "We had one of those rare, sunny days today. We also had the Cowley girls for a bit so when you all wanted to jump in the leaves that Peter (our neighbour) had blown onto our lawn, I got out my camera! But this is not about leaf piles and jumping ... this is about YOU and how much I love you all. Each of you is so unique and I am learning to love you for all your unique attributes. Marley approaches life by running full speed ahead. Paige makes sure it's safe before diving in with a silly face. Christine just does it all! Whatever her big sisters do but with her own flair! Love you all so much!"

The title.

I used a couple of my Studio AE stamps from Technique Tuesday on my layout too. She has such fantastic sentiment stamps for layouts and I always seem to forget to use them! But this tag and the one up by the journalling were perfect for some stamping.

Hope that was inspiring, I can't wait to see what you come up with. The winner of the hop will be randomly selected and will win the beautiful Prima collection below.  

As always there are rules for playing!

Here are the rules for playing and winning: 1. You MUST be a follower of each LGS team members blog and leave a comment on each blog and; 2. You MUST also be a follower of the LGS blog.

Please make sure you visit the entire team today as some members are hosting additional blog challenges during the hop and offering their own extra goodies for you so the more you play the more chances you win!

All blog hop entries are due by midnight, November 15, 2012.   

Now hop on over to Laurie's blog to see what she has in store for you! 

Line up

Stephanie <<<<<< START HERE>>>>>>>

Stacey

Kerys

Melinda

Lynn

Debbie

Lanette

Carla

Alison <<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

Laurie <<<<<<<< GO HERE NEXT>>>>>>>>

Eileen

Kathleen 

Bev

Michelle

Sherri

Brenshevia

LGS

Bad Blogger Catch up!

First and foremost, my most humble apologies for neglecting this blog for so long. No excuses, just crazy busy.

Second ... NITASHA, if you're reading this, you won the Blog Candy and need to contact me asap. I will redraw for a winner if I don't hear from you by next Sunday (Oct 30th). Email me at alisonday@eastlink.ca so I can send out your goodies!!

Thirdly, I am having an Open House next Saturday to showcase the Holiday Mini Catalogue from Stampin' Up! See my website for event details and to RSVP. There are going to be door prizes and incentives for booking workshops and placing orders. Come and see some of the samples I and my other demonstrators have cooked up and be the first to sign up for my Christmas Card making class.

And now for the reason my family comes to check out my blog ... family news and pictures!
We have to go back, way back ... about 4 weeks to be exact.

Soccer season is upon us once more and I went out to the field to watch the girls games. Both Marley and Paige are playing this year with Greg as their coach. They play quasi back to back (Marley usually plays at 12 and Paige at 1:30) so there have been a few Sundays where we all head out to the soccer field together. LC likes to get dirty in the softball pitching mounds and any puddles that may be too tempting for her to avoid. (Greg had to take them all one day and LC covered herself in mud from head to toe! Live and learn! Since then rubber boots and changes of clothes have been de rigueur.)

Marley has been struggling with her soccer passion this year. She fights us when we ask her to get ready for practices or games but once on the field with her team mates she perks up and has fun. Anyone know what's going on with her? All advice is appreciated because currently I'm looking for foster families as Greg and I are reaching the end of our rope with her!

Paige and LC have fun with some of the other siblings. This day it was serious gave of Tow Me on the Ball Bag!

It actually started raining while Marley was playing and LC was so cold and tired I took her and Marley home during Paige's game. By the time we returned the light rain had become a downpour. I think that may be why Paige is sticking out her tongue in the picture above but I'm not really sure.

She was a trooper though and played well despite being soaking wet!

New weekend, same game plan, different weather patterns!

After the Walk for the Cure, I joined the family at the soccer field. LC was digging in the dirt with her little buddy Devon (of the Tow Me on the Ball Bag pic). Incidentally, HE was filling up his boots with dirt. Ah boys!

LC had some great plumbers butt going on!!

Marley's team (the Neon Aliens) were down a couple players so Paige was drafted (again!) but from this picture I'm thinking she didn't mind so much. 

Here they are playing together again.

And then Paige's team doing some warm up drills. Oh, they are called the Cherry Bombs. Cute names, eh?

Marley may be giving us trouble with soccer but her new passion, basketball, is another story altogether!

This was her first day EVER ... they literally gave her a jersey and a ball, took her picture and sent them out into the gym to learn some skills. She was late (LOOOOONG story) and a bit out of her comfort zone but had fun and is showing talent already.

Slow and steady wins the race?

Practicing passes with one of the coaches.

She shoots, she scores!

Okay, so what else has been going on around here? Well, some time ago I had a little thing called a Birthday.Ya, I know, it was only my 38th so no big deal. Right? Right. But hey, I got presents and went on a date with Greg so it was a good day!

Marley spent the entire time filming with "her" camera. The video is actually pretty hilarious!

Me and my girls! 

Well everyone. I've got a raging headache and still have a couple weeks worth of events to catch you up on so ... I'm going to post this, doctor my head and go to bed (hmmm ... too much Dr Suess with the girls tonight I think!) The rest of it will have to wait until tomorrow. Let's see, that's Thanksgiving, rainbows in the backyard, rediscovering pre-preschool activities with LC and my very first vendor table ... phew!

See you tomorrow!

Blog Candy winner ... finally!!

Sorry about the delay in picking a winner. I have been feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities lately and this little task fell through the cracks. Until now ...

I put everyone's name into a hat (okay, bag) and pulled out the lucky winner.

That person is ...

... DRUM ROLL PLEASE ....


...NITASHA!

Congratulations! Nitasha, please email me with your address and I'll get your goodies off to you. alisonday@eastlink.ca


Have a great Wednesday everyone and thanks for playing along. It's great to see a few new followers, both here and over at http://adaydesigns.blogspot.com/. Hopefully I can keep the content interesting for you all! :)

Gotta get the girls from school and take them costume shopping. Marley has started the daily pestering so this year I'm going to nip it in the bud early by shopping early! Wish us luck!

Birthday BLOG CANDY!!

This post will remain at the top of the page until next Saturday so please scroll down for recent posts. Thanks! And good luck!

Okay, now that I have your attention, let me extol the virtues of  ....

Ha, ha, ha! Just Kidding!! Do you want to win this?

Well, stay tuned ...

Hee, hee, hee! I can be so mean sometimes!

Before I tell you how to win this, why don't I tell you why I'm giving this away today. 

Ages and ages ago I was lucky enough to win all that is pictured above from Scrapbook & Cards Today during their birthday celebrations. I had most of in my stash already and really wanted to share the wealth with my loyal reader(s?) I was just looking for the perfect time to do this. My birthday seems like a good time! One week today is my birthday! 38th to be precise. Eep. 

So ... want some more pictures of the goodies?

Your wish is my command!

18 sheets of double-sided 12"x12" American Crafts patterned paper. These are all from their Confetti Line. They are so yummy!! Cupcakes, textured gingham, glitter stripes, balloons, streamers, you name it! It's a party in a bag!!

Plus ...

Not one, not two, but three sets of coordinating Thickers alphabet stickers and one sheet of Thickers puffy sticker accents.

Plus ...

A packet of Remarks Journaling stickers, Details cupcake embellishments, Delights paper flowers, and  Musical Chairs and Pin the Tail Remarks dimensional stickers.

Plus ...

Confetti Adhesive Ribbon, Elements Patterned Buttons and Bits Decorative Tags.

Now, I'm not one of those people that likes blog candy giveaways that force you to jump through a million hoops to win. BUT ... I need your help and I hope you can see you way to doing that.

As I hope you know, I recently started with Stampin' Up! as an Independent Demonstrator. I have been immersed in the learning process and for the most part feeling very much over my head. Greg is less than supportive too which has been tough. But I think I'm starting to get a handle on things. Greg will hopefully come around if I can start to bring in some real money.

And perhaps you can help me show him the money! Here's how to do that and how to win all those American Crafts goodies.

• I will put one entry into the hat if you are already a follower and leave a comment on this post. 
• If you become a follower and leave a comment I'll put in an entry. 
• If you pop over to my new blog (that I started to showcase exclusively Stampin' Up! projects and ideas) and become a follower and/or leave a comment on any post (being sure to reference this blog candy post) then I'll add another entry to the hat. 
• AND if you head on over to my Stampin' Up! website and make a purchase from my online store by 9:00PM PST September 30th, I will add 5 entries to the hat! Sound fair? I'm really close to making my minimum this month so your orders would be appreciated to help me reach my goals.
• This last one is not a requirement but if you could spread the word about my blog candy that would rock my world! Thanks in advance!

Ready? Set?

GO!


Oh, and before I forget, I'll draw for the candy on October 1st ... after I recover from my birthday dinner out with Greg! :)

Blog Candy over at Lovin Life & Scrappin It

Vanessa is celebrating 20,000 hits with a huge candy giveaway! Check out all these goodies!!

Head over to Lovin life & scrappin it to get all the details.

Giveaway over at All Scrapbook Steals

Check out THIS awesome giveaway! It's at All Scrapbook Steals and closes July 10th. Good luck!

Spring Cleaning Extravaganza!!

No, I am not the one doing the spring cleaning (although that really needs to happen around here soon!!), one of the blogs I follow is having a huge giveaway. Samantha over at Scrapmaster's Paradise has been working hard to clean out her scrap room and is giving away a TON of scrappy goodness. Check it out here.

Spread the word too!

More Blog Candy at Stamper on the Shore!

My friend Sandra is offering more Blog Candy and it looks AWESOME! Check it out here. If all goes well there will also be a link in my side bar.
Thanks!

A Mysterious Blog Hop and Candy Giveaway

I came across this post while on Leah the Orange's site and it seriously piqued my interest. Since getting into this whole scrapbooking thing I've had lots of fun and quite a bit of success participating in Blog Hops, Blog Candy giveaways and other contests. So I'm psyched for this one! Have NO IDEA what it's all about but I'm just glad I found it in time!!

I'll let you know or you can check it out for yourselves ...

On a quick personal note ... I finally finished a LO for the Design Dollies! Yay! I THINK I may even make one of the deadlines this time! It was a challenge but I'll talk about that when I post it. Since it's already past 11PM I'm going to wait to post pics til tomorrow.

Blog Candy at Stamper on the Shore!

Hi everyone! Christmas is all about candy right? My friend Sandra over at Stamper on the Shore has some Christmas Blog Candy so hop on over and check it out. She's got amazing projects on her site too so be sure to explore her blog while you're there. One of her wishes is to get as many of her followers to post a link in their side bar ... I'm not totally sure how to do this but if I figure it out I guess it'll be obvious!! (Still learning how to manage and customize this here blog.)

Good luck to all!

BIG Blog Candy at Scrapmaster's Paradise!

Hey everyone, check out this BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY - it's HUGE because Scrapmaster Samantha is celebrating 90,000 blog hits. Wow!! Way to go Sami!!

Blog Candy

More yummy candy up for grabs over at Three Trees {paper} Creations. Check it out here.

UPDATE: I must be having beginners luck or something because I was one of 3 winners!! I get the "surprise candy" so I'm all a quiver to see what will arrive in my mailbox!! stay tuned ...

Biggest Blog Candy yet!

http://thechroniclesoforange.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-candy-scroll-down-for-new-humble.html
Leah the Orange from Design Dollies is offering up the biggest Blog Candy I've seen yet! Check it out and her fabulous blog at the above link. To check out the Design Dollies site by clicking on their blinkie in my side bar.

Marley's Baby Scrapbook

I've just started scrapping an album for Marley and given that it can take me a week to do one page, it could take me a heck of a long time to document her 5 (almost 6) years of life!! Here's hoping I get it done to my satisfaction in a timely manner. We need our dining room table occasionally!!

This first page was started as a challenge entry but life got in the way of the challenge deadline so .... the important thing is that the page got finished. One down ....

The challenge was the Striped Challenge at Design Dollies. Marley picked out the main striped paper and once she did, the idea of entering the challenge and then the rest of the striped paper and other stripey elements just sort of fell into place. The layout actually came together quite quickly but ... well, life is crazy and sometimes deadlines become a little "soft". :)

Here are a couple of close ups of the details.

 

The next two pages took me some time to finish. Here they are:

Sorry about all the carpet in the shots. I had it all cropped in Picasa but for some reason the crop didn't translate when I imported it into my Blog. Hmmm ... blogging stuff to learn I guess.

So I had the base laid out and knew which pictures I wanted to include (I'd worked it out during one of the more boring sections of my construction detailing class at BCIT!!!) but while the layout of some of them came easy, the littler ones had me stumped for awhile. My printer screwed up so not all of them had a white border that I could easily use to mount them. I could have reprinted them but I'd already fought several times with my printer so ... I finally got the idea of mounting some onto a bit of brown cardstock which had the added bonus of tying the two pages together more. Then the journalling and the embellishments had me stratching my head again. I'm still getting the hang of journalling. I could say so much! How to condense it onto little bits of paper is my problem!! Also, what do I really want to be recorded for all eternity?! Hopefully when Marley looks at this 20+ years from now my scribbles make sense!!

Here are some close ups of the journalling and embellishments:

I have to give a big shout out to my friend Sandra (Stamper on the 'Shore) for the butterflies. I won those in her Blog Candy contest a little while ago and they are awesome! Thanks Sandra!! Marley also loved picking out which ones went onto this layout. (BTW Sandra's having another Blog Candy giveaway which you should check out here.)

Well, that's all I have done so far. As I get more pages completed I'll post them. Shall we start a pool on when the whole album will be finished? 2015?! LOL!

ARTiQL8 Blog Candy

Check out this paper artisan's site for some inspiring projects and a chance to win some Blog Candy.
http://notbusyenuf.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-candy.html

Blog Candy over at Design Dollies

I know I've said before that I've recently become Scrap-obsessed but it's reaching obscene proportions lately. I've started to spend hours surfing Scrapbooking Blog sites getting inspiration. Now I've just got to find an equal amount of time to extract the inspiration from my head and put it onto paper! Oh right, I've got 3 kids to take care of first. Hmmm ... well, sho needs to sleep anyway?!



One of my latest favourite Blogs is called Design Dollies. Check them out for yourselves by clicking on their Blinkie on the left side bar. (I think that's what it's called - I'm still new to this whole Blog thing!!) They are offering up a fantastic Launch Blog Candy pack but they're making us work for it a bit. Sounds like fun and I'm game!

Wish me luck!