Practical Scrappers - Summer Layouts and Cards

I have so much fun with PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS- especially when the challenge is to design a layout and card about one of my favorite seasons - summer! I created this using a recent CREATIVE SCRAPPERS sketch from its Sunshine Crop along with a favorite pic of one of my daughters and her guy taken last year when they were at the beach surfing

The sketch really caught my eye because of all the layering, and I am very happy with the end result!

I think muted papers are just about perfect for beach layouts.  And I really, really like the messy ink-splattered effect on these lovely patterned papers by We R Memory Keepers.  As far as I am concerned, a little messiness is always a good thing!

I thought the "name" of this paper - Down by the Sea - was perfect for my title.  So I cut it out and added it to my layout, on my picture.  See?  Some may call it laziness; I prefer to call it ingenuity.

I love summer SO MUCH that I also created a summer-themed card for Practical Scrappers two days ago.  Of course, it was a piece of cake.  I simply used the bright papers and the adorable stickers from my Echo Park Hello Summer Collection.  I added a few buttons and a little bit of baker's twine and I was done.  Quick and cute!

And that's it for the day!  Hope you are having a lovely start to YOUR summer!

Playing Along with October Afternoon

I spent the better part of my day creating layouts for calendar pages for one of my daughters, so after I had that all wrapped up, I was more than ready to try something fun for myself.  A quick perusal of the World Wide Web took me to October Afternoon's BLOG which is full of fun challenges, including a 9 to 5 Sketch Challenge (using a sketch made by Jill Sprott).

I didn't have any pictures of my family members that I wanted to use for this challenge, and my kids flat out refused weren't available for me to take some quick photos, so I decided to create a layout about something I enjoy doing in my spare time (when I am not scrapbooking).  What is that, you ask?  I'll tell you.  It's reading on my Kindle, in my favorite comfy chair, with a hot cup of coffee by my side.  It's one of my favorite ways to relax in the evening.

I followed the sketch pretty closely, but I decided to layer my photos and random embellishments on top of the grid pattern - something that seems to be pretty popular right now.  I placed pop dots under all three of my photos and a few of my embellies to add dimension.

Journaling was kept simple.  A little handwriting that incorporated my title into what I had to say.

And that's it.  I am really liking all these "office collections" that are coming out lately.  I think for a "real challenge" I may bring a few items back from my office and try to incorporate those into my next layout!  How do you feel about these collections?  Love them, hate them, or indifferent?