Baby Luke: Luke James

Okay y'all, I'm going to start sharing Luke's baby book layouts on Saturdays I think.  So here's the first full layout:

Baby Luke was named after a friend and mentor of my brother's, who gave his life in service to our country on his first deployment, leaving behind his own infant son.  Ryan's middle name is Luke partially because of that too--when Ryan was born we didn't know if my brother and SIL were going to have any other kids (Luke has a big sister), or if they'd have a boy, so we chose that for my son's middle name to honor my brother's friend even though we never met him.  (And also Ryan's grandfathers are Rich and Larry, so he shares an initial with each of them.)  Anyway, bestowing this name on his son was very important to my brother, so I wanted to have a layout in the baby book where he could write about why they chose this name and maybe have a picture of the first Luke there.

I kept the colors muted, mostly greens and brown as a nod to Army uniforms.

Supplies:
Stamps:  For Your Country, The Free & The Brave, Land That I Love
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Dapper Denim, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, Manchester DSP
Accessories:  Sizzix letters

Veterans' Day

(Mom, you're really going to like today's post.)

Today is Veterans' Day.  Today is the day to find someone who has served in the Armed Forces and say...

...thank you.  And if you want to hug a veteran, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

Today's sketch is a somewhat modified version of the one from Global Design Project:

And let me be really punny and say this counts for the Cupcake Inspirations challenge too.

Because DOG TAGS.  They count as tags, right?

*game show host voice* But wait, there's MORE!  I made a scrapbook layout and I just can't wait till next Monday to share.

These pics are from when my little brother pinned on the rank of Major this past February.  I kinda want to put captions on the three photos along the left:  national anthem, administering the oath, and fabulous prizes.  But I don't want to cover up any of the pictures either.

I thought this quote was appropriate for this page.  That patterned paper is an old Karen Foster design that I have like twenty sheets of and I love it.  It's perfect for Air Force pages.

And I finally broke out the Larger than Life alphabet!

And the color palette:  Tip Top Taupe, Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Sky, and Whisper White.  With a slight sprinkling of stars.

So thank you to all the veterans out there.  We appreciate your service.

Supplies, card:
Stamps:  For Your Country, World Map
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Basic Gray
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Squares Framelits, 2 1/2" circle punch, medium star punch, Dimensionals

Supplies, scrapbook layout:
Stamps:  For Your Country, Larger than Life Alphabet
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy
Paper:  Tip Top Taupe, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Karen Foster patterned paper
Accessories:  retired star punches

Friday Flashback: Service & Sacrifice

Happy Friday, peeps!  Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback.  Our stamp set today is Service & Sacrifice, which is pretty appropriate given that Memorial Day is right around the corner.  Honestly, I'm a little surprised at how short the flashback is today, so let's get to it.

Also features For Your Country, World Map, Bright & Beautiful

I shared this one just a few months ago.  Most of the stamps in Service & Sacrifice are sentiment stamps, and apparently I really like that promotion one...

Also features Bright & Beautiful

Because here it is again, another card that you saw here in the past few months.  I could have sworn I had used Service & Sacrifice on other projects, but if I did, the Archive Gremlin has hidden them (or eaten them).  So here's today's new project:

Again with the promotion stamp, but this time I added the stars :)  The boots are, once again, from For Your Country and I think it's the only stamp I've used from that set.  What, sometimes I have just one favorite from a set.

I used this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:

Only when I copied it down, somehow I had all the elements centered on the card front instead of being a bit lower down.  Well, I tried.

My color combination is courtesy of a new-to-me challenge, The Male Room:

Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, and Lost Lagoon.  Their challenge is all about making projects for the dudes:  MAN cards, MANLY scrapbook pages, etc.  Yeah, those are hard, so a challenge all about guys is probably a good idea.  So for my manly man card today, I kept it very simple with just plain cardstock.  No patterned paper, no ribbon, no froufrou embellishments, just manly cardstock and stamps.  :)

That's it for me this week, peeps.  I'm leaving in a few hours to do a photography workshop in Georgia.  Cheers!

Supplies, last card only:
Stamps:  Service & Sacrifice, For Your Country
Ink:  Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Circles & Starburst Framelits

Combat Boots

A friend of ours was recently promoted in the military, and I've been meaning to make a card for her.  Well, today is that day!

Not a very girly-lookin' card, but it is military!  And this is the maiden voyage for the new stamp set For Your Country (at least in my craft room).  I was a little stuck as to what to put on the bottom where the map is now; I don't have any current DSP that I thought would work but then I thought the map would be a good idea since my friend currently lives overseas.  And how do you like my color combo?  It's Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, and Soft Suede.  Some Real Red would have looked good in there too.

Anyway, I used the latest Freshly Made Sketch:

I really like that one, I could use it several times over and make completely different cards every time.

Anyway, I hope your week is off to a great start.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  For Your Country (boots), Bright & Beautiful (star), World Map (duh), Service & Sacrifice (sentiment, because it was perfect)
Ink:  Versamark, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Night of Navy, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Star Framelits, Dimensionals, Early Espresso & Pewter EP