4 day retreat

I am home from a relaxing 4 day retreat weekend. The retreat was fun. Low key, relaxing (I had several naps), and productive. I finished all of my August card swaps, 2 mini-albums, a gift for Grandma, and a few layouts.
For the LMNOP card swaps I participated in 3 categories. This card is for the Circle Element Swap. We had to incorporate a circle into our card. I figured the best way to do that was just to make the card a circle. I discovered I am not a very good circle cutter so these cards took awhile. Also- thanks to Nicole I discovered I could have been getting more circles out of each piece of paper....oh well. Live and Learn. LOL.

The next card is for the Paper Technique Swap. For this card I used embossing, sanding and tearing. LOVE coordinations paper and so glad I found it in my bag and had the idea to use it for these cards. The inside stamp says thru happy times and sad.

For the last card I made you were supposed to use this picture as inspiration.

I looked at this picture and thought what in the heck am I gonna do with this. WAY outside of my box. But this is what I came up with and while I would never have put this together on my own- I actually like how they turned out.

I have a 12 hour crop coming up on Saturday so I need to unpack and repack my bag for next weekend! We just got a new puppy today so there should be no shortage on pictures to scrap!

Sketch Stress

Let me start off by saying I really don't like sketches. Some people look to sketches to get ideas....but they seriously stress me out. I stare at them forever, feeling my creativity being restricted with each glance at the sketch, then I stress over whether I followed the sketch properly and most times I don't. I prefer to just "wing" it. That is why this card took me FOREVER. And honestly- I didn't even follow the sketch properly. I kept checking to see if I had the right amount of layers ( I don't) and I just could not figure out how to make it work.

WHY did I make a card following a sketch?!? Because I signed up for a swap where we had to follow a sketch. It's cute too....and I bet people are going to come up with some super cute cards.....but I will probably be asked not to join any sketch swaps after this since I don't do them properly. LOL.

Here is the sketch that we were asked to follow-

and here is what I finally came up with-

I am going to apologize now to my fellow swappers for my inability to follow directions. Love you guys....sorry I was taken over by sketch stress. :-) Now I have to go make 5 more of these cards.....sigh.....

$75.00 Gift Card Giveaway!!!!

I would like to introduce all of you to Jamie Koppi. Jamie is an amazing photographer in the Spring, TX area. She does school portraits, weddings, kids, family, boudoir....pretty much anything you can think of. She has a great personality and makes you feel very comfortable when she is taking pictures.

For all my scrapbooking friends out there- what better way to get some new pictures to scrapbook?! Take the kids or the family or the family pet (LOL) and use this $75 gift card towards some new photos! The gift card expires August 31st so make sure you book your session with Jamie as soon as you win! You have to have the pictures taken at her studio in Spring, TX but she does have an outdoor area if you are wanting outside shots.

How do I win you ask??! Just post a comment about how cool I am or how cool Jamie is and you are automatically entered. I will choose a winner via Random.org on Saturday so hurry up and comment!!!