A Sporty April Sketchy Challenge

I am going to blame Spring Break and Easter for slowing me down this month.  But I shouldn't complain....we have had some wonderful family time with the kids.  

In search of a tan....in Phoenix.

I feel like I have been neglecting BoyGenius in my layouts, so this month he gets two pages in his album...kind of a birthday present from his mother because he turned 17 on Easter weekend.  Poor guy, his special day usually gets squished by Easter festivities.  So maybe a little motherly guilt inspired his layouts too :)

BG's first birthday!

Our baby boy turns 17!

 Without further delay, here is the April Sketchy Challenge designed by Jill Sarginson for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine....

I rotated this sketch 1/4 turn clockwise.

 And here is my layout of BoyGenius, the "Basketball Star." [We are cheering for #9 wearing the dark blue uniform.  I am very lucky a friend took this photo and emailed it to me.  Her son is #10 in white]

 All papers are from the FancyPants "Forever Fall" collection, except the dark brown paper used for the basketball, which is Lucky 7 Factory, a Canadian company.

These Harmonie Mosaic Tiles are bordering the title.

I cut the stars with a Sizzix die and my Big Shot.

I printed the journaling with the computer onto a piece of FancyPants paper from the collection.

Yes, BG is quite the basketball player.  He gave up hockey to play on the school volleyball and basketball teams in Junior High, and then this year quit volleyball so he could focus only on basketball.  Since his dad and I both played on our high school basketball teams, it is a sport near and dear to our hearts, so I think we were pretty excited when our son started to play a few years ago.

I wish I could post a photo of myself playing basketball in high school, with an afro "perm" and wearing shorts that looked like granny panties.  That perm made me a few inches taller than I actually was, which was why I might have made the team.  Let's just say I'm a crafty girl with a good shot, not a super athlete, and I quickly discovered that there were VERY aggressive teenage girls on the court that I wanted to avoid!  I also wanted to avoid running down the court so my thighs wouldn't jiggle.  Obviously, my head wasn't "in the game."  I played Defense for my high school soccer team too.  I know I made THAT team because my older brother was an excellent soccer player and athlete, so the coach was hopeful about me.  Once the coach put me on as a Forward.  That lasted 5 minutes, and he yelled at me, "Get back on D!  You can't RUN!"  I have what my husband refers to as an "eggbeater" style of running.  Not pretty.  Especially on a basketball court wearing emerald green granny panties. So naturally, I ended up on the Cheerleading team....

That's me in the middle with the A on my chest. We had no budget.  My mom and I sewed these uniforms.  Okay....my mom sewed them.  I cut and glued the felt A's together. I might be crafty, but I'm not a seamstress.

I was going to post a tutorial here about how I paper pieced that basketball in the background, and then thought maybe it was too simple.  Instead, I just took a couple of photos to show what I used to trace my basketball.

I first Googled basketball images and found a nice one to print out.  It was a good size, almost 8 1/2" in diameter, perfect for my design.

Then I cut two 8 1/2" circles from a dark brown piece of paper and an orange piece of paper.  

Next I placed my basketball printed image over the orange circle and cut out only the orange sections, not the black dividing lines.

I inked the edges of these orange sections to give them more dimension and then adhered them to my brown circle.  

It's that simple...and easy! 

And how did I choose this FancyPants "Forever Fall" paper collection for a basketball layout?  Well, I was looking for orange and dark brown, so I pulled out all my fall paper packs.  I always admire how other scrapbookers design with a seasonal collection for other themes, so I decided to think outside the box....umm, outside the circle!


I just might be paper piecing a volleyball next....because when DramaQueen (the volleyball player) sees this layout, well, you know what will happen :)


Actually, soccer season starts this month for both my daughters....I'd better get busy!!