The Perks of Almost Summer

So sometimes there are perks to the 16 year old being out of school early. I got to send her to go and pick up Mr. Kindey-gartener from school so I could keep tinkering around with my blog. Don't tell her that though. She thinks I'm laboriously working on very important stuff.

Wait.

This is.

I mean, I need to get these things blogged for sketch challenges before their deadlines are passed. Right?

Plus, she got to weasel out of her dishes duties as a result of being my boy fetcher.

Hmmm. Somehow I think I got the short end of the stick. Lazy girl.

So over the weekend I got all sorts of crafty. It felt really good to do some more pages in my memory book about dad, and even a few pages just because I could. If I keep up this drive for crafting, it's going to be a busy summer! :D

So the first layout that I came up with was for the ScrapbookSteals.com Peridot 4, Mid Week Mojo sketch.

I modified the sketch a little bit to work with some of the photos that I took from Maddi's seminary graduation on the 19th.

I can't believe how proud I am of our oldest. Her love and desire to always be at Seminary really make a momma proud. I don't remember having such a strong desire to attend Seminary and do all of the required assignments. (Maybe there were just no cute boys). In fact over the 4 years that Maddi was in the Seminary program, she received all A's, except for one semester in 9th grade when she didn't read her scriptures every day. EVERY DAY. did you read that? She truly is my inspiration.

Next I made a fun and light hearted layout for the Sketch #4 challenge over at the Paper Bakery Kit Club blog. 

I had so much fun doing this layout because there is NO patterned paper on it. Only paper that I used my masks and mists on. I adore how it turned out and I love that I snapped some of these silly photos at the hospital, so that I can always remember it wasn't all gloomy during those weeks, but that we did our best to have fun and be cheerful also. (Hmmm. Wonder if those eyeballs are still there!)

I have to be honest that I've reeeeeally enjoyed using sketches to create pages with. It seriously takes so much of the brain pain out of creating and allows for a quick and simple page. I now get why people looked forward to Mid Week Mojo at ScrapbookSteals.com so much when I was the sketch maker for 4 years. I think I look forward to a new sketch just as much as the next girl!

It's always fun to throw your hat into the ring for a bit of scrappy swag when creating a sketch challenge so I turned to scrapchallenge.com to find some more sketches that might actually have a little swag attached to them. I mean at this rate, I might actually blow through my stash and neeeed some new supplies! ;)

The next sketch I happened across came from the Sketch Savvy blog. I loved this Sketch #102 sketch and thought it would work perfectly for this page I did about my current addiction of gardening. 

Next I stumbled across a few sketches on the Sketch ~ N ~ Scrap blog.  I printed off a few sketches but only had time (so far) to complete the May 15th Sketch.  It may be my favorite of the bunch as it is of me and my sweet momma. Geesh I love her. I'm such a lucky daughter to have such an amazing mom, who has stood firm as a rock during the course of the past few months. I only pray that if I outlive Tracey that somehow I will manage to be as strong as her. 

The final sketch I completed was the May : Week 3 Sketch challenge on the Let's Get Sketchy blog. Another page down in the book about dad. The only thing that truly breaks my heart about this day, is it was the last time we were all together—mom and dad with their 4 kids. I genuinely wish I'd have thought to get a photo of all of us. :( 

Well I guess it's time to get a little work done around the house now. Well, I do actually need to get working on my class for CHA. Hmmm.  Maybe I'll do that instead. :D