Joy - Two layouts for Two different challenges

I love challenge blogs. There. I said it. I follow them. I check them. Once in a while I even create layouts to go with the challenges. I'm often inspired by sketches and product challenges. But many times the inspiration has to ferment. I tuck ideas away for the right day, the right photo, the right layout.

The August 5th challenge at Stuck?! was not like that. I liked the sketch and thought I could work with it, but it was the extra challenge of a quote by Abraham Lincoln that sucked me in. "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." I read the quote and knew that I was going to create a layout for this challenge.

I have already created a layout about the day on the bounce pillow. I've told that story. Still, this photo drew me in. I can see the life in my daughter's face. It seemed perfect with Lincoln's quote.

As I created the layout, the word that was constantly on my mind was joy. Joy is what I can see in her eyes. So I decided to add another quote (this one by Wagner) and use the word "joy" as my title. 

 

I included the Lincoln quote on a journaling tag to cover some distracting images in thebackground of the photo. I used the "m" monogram for my daughter's name.

And last but not least, some joyful embellishments for the page. (These pinwheels are fun and easy!)

The first joy layout, the first challenge.

It was such fun creating a layout about my daughter's joy, when I found this joy-filled photo of my son from the same summer, I was inspired to do a layout with a similar theme.

This one is based on  the August 1 sketch at Let's Get Sketchy:

The background strips caught my attention immediately. (Especially since I had been cleaning off my desk and discovered many long and narrow scraps of paper.) I used blue and green paper to bring out the colors in the photo rather than compete with it since I was using lots of different pattern papers.

I chose the same title, but for this one I paraphrased the Wagner quote as my journaling to include some of the things that my son finds joyful.

I decided to include a monogram as I had on the first layout (even from the same set of Thickers) and stamped onto chipboard stars for a bit more whimsy.

Creating two layouts that were thematically connected was a new challenge for me. I'm glad I've captured the joy of both of my kiddos in the summer of 2011. Thanks for the challenges, Stuck?! and Let's Get Sketchy! These two layouts were a joy to create!