Taking a Moment for Cosmo Love

For no reason whatsoever, whatsoever, no reason at all, I thought I would share some projects made with some of my favorite product in the entire scrappy planet. I needed to share this with you today. Oh no, I cannot wait until tomorrow to share the love and adoration for this product. I had to do it today. I just can't wait another moment.

I've had a long standing love affair with Cosmo Cricket. You might know this about me. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love Cosmo Cricket. I have since the beginning, and like all true love affairs, my love has grown with each season, or shall I say, each release. It's like they continually knock on my door and ask me what I need, and then just go out and make it for me. I just love that about them.

I wanted to share a few projects I have made recently with my favorite new lines.

This first one is Early Bird. Oh my heavens how the Early Bird speaks to me. How many 12x12 sheets will I need to wallpaper 2200 square feet? There is a chance I will find out and let you know. I really dig this line.

The chipboard shapes work perfectly with the patterned paper, and of course, my cute kiddo is quite complimentary as well, don't you think?



This next one caters to the outdoor girl in me. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I first saw Mr Campy. After all, I can often be referred to as.... Mrs Campy, lol. We certainly love to take the trailer out and enjoy the outdoors in these parts (and I am fine as long as there is a nearby shower and I can wash my hands, lol).
Snorkel caters to the Day Use Area girl in me. Taking the kids to the lake, to swimming lessons, to the beach, even through the hose in the backyard. All manners of outdoor water play, or even INDOOR bathtub play, can be represented with this line, Snorkel.



The funky chipboard shapes with this line are perfect for layers and dimension.




This last layout is for my Girl Friday, I mean, Morgan. I am SO excited to get this line in fabric. And I see there are two colorways to choose from. This is perfect! I have rather expensive shades in my girls' room that are a blue color that doesn't always go with the girly pink we'd like to use, but this line is able to put it all together in a way that just makes my heart darn happy. Look for coordinating bedspreads this winter after the fabric becomes available. Oh yes.

I made a really quick and easy gift for my hubby on Father's Day using the tags from the Early Bird line. He ate the whole jar of cookies inside a couple of days and I guess we are lucky he didn't eat the tags too! He LOVED this gift becuase of the thought behind it. It doesn't take a lot to make people happy sometimes. Speaking of which, I guess the girls and I had better get to work refilling that jar.

I recently did a tutorial on Tussie Mussie's using the Early Bird line and posted photos here, and here.

My hubby helped me do a tutorial on Magnetic Canvases and I found a fun way to use Cosmo Cricket blackboard and the Jack's World shapes by making them into magnets. Check out that project here.

I also made this cute treasure of a mini album about Morgan with the Dutch Girl line and posted that with Cosmo love here last year. I just loved that line.

Will my love for Cosmo ever end? I think not.

Have a great week, my friends. And hold on to your hats. July, is TOMORROW. And that means the weekend and fireworks will be here before you know it.

Davinie

Studio Calico - JULY!!!

The July kit is up at Studio Calico! Did you get what you were after? Again, I got the whole kit and caboodle. I saw a balloon stamp and an add-on was catered to a zoo trip, and with both on my calendar, I couldn't hardly say NO?!

I wanted to share what I did this month. This first layout is by far my favorite. I dig, dig, DIG this color palette.


I did a layout last year with similar clouds, so I wanted to make sure these were different. I had to have clouds though, because if this awesome photo, and the balloon stamp, so to change them a little, I inked the edges but more importantly, I machine stitched a grid pattern. I really love the texture and dimension it gave.
The Sassafras flower made the perfect sun. I love the yellow chipboard. And of course, I had to add a balloon. I'm also very obsessed with the scallop sentiment punch from Fiskars, which I have mentioned before, so of course I had to use that too.




I liked the "today" sentiment in the Little Yellow Bicycle sentiment stickers, so I wanted to use that as one of my titles. I loved this Lily Bee paper as the base, and those flowers from the MM Great Escape paper were perfect together. I then used some circle punches from Fiskars for my flowers, and added some MM flowers and my trusty Heidi Swapp edge distressing tool for some texture.




When I first made this layout I was worried it was a bit too plain. I did work it out with my favorite punch to get the edges to the blue Scenic Route paper, though, and snipped some of the KI border stickers in half to use at the top. But the thing I love about this layout are the photos. Oh my word, I have a beautiful family. And Morgan looks like such a diva all wrapped up in that pink scarf with her 3D shades.

The fun part about this layout is how I did the title. If you've seen the movie, bottle caps and safety pins were some great symbolism, so while watching the movie even, I KNEW I was going to make one and use it for the title. And it just so happens I had this unopened package of charms from Making Memories that's about 6 years old that had a little safety pin. Perfect!

It would have been obvious to use the balloon stamp on this layout as well, but because I went 8.5x11 and used a 4x6 photo, combined with the title piece, it just didn't fit anywhere that made sense to me.

Speaking of the movie UP, if you did see it and are looking for some fun activities for your kids this summer, I found this site with some fun projects for kids:

UP Printables


You might recall that I went to the zoo, Payton's very first trip, and accidentally left my camera battery charging at my mama's house. So I bought a disposable camera and hoped for the best. The quality wasn't good, but I did get a few photos that told the story of our adventures that day, and I guess you can't ask for anything more than that. I got photo booth strip photos too, but didn't have enough time to do a layout with those yet. I love these train photos with Payton. She LOVED this part of the day so I'm glad these photos turned out.





This is the layout I was working on when I did my stitching tutorial. We were at the Balloon Festival in Bend and my kids just *had* to have a balloon pet. Silly Lilly was wonderful with them, very entertaining, and I'm glad I got her photo for this layout. I hear she does kid parties so I may have to look her up someday....

And that's it! No cards or project this month. I really wanted to do one of the minis but just plain ran out of time.

Have a great day! Davinie

Hand Stitching Tutorial

Okay, world.
I did it. I made a video.
Have you ever wanted to hand stitch on a project but didn't know where to begin?
Or do you already hand stitch but want to see how someone else does it?
I am Davinie, and I'm a left handed paper crafter, lol.
Watch me stitch:

Hand Stitching Tutorial from greg foster on Vimeo.

lol.
I posted this today on the Studio Calico blog as well. I thought it would be much easier to make a video than to try and have someone take photos of me in "action".

Enjoy! Don't make fun of me! And, my burning question....

Have you been saying my name correctly? :)

Davinie

Scrapbook and Cards and Studio Calico sneaks.

Is the summer over yet? 'Cause the kids are already driving me up the wall and it's not even July. Methinks too much fun and sun equals too much cranky at this house.

Next week begins the first of two sessions of swimming lessons, which means I'll be driving to the pool every day except the weekends for a month. I'm not really looking forward to it but I hope the kids enjoy themselves. Then we'll be home for the afternoon cranky. yay!

Scrappily, I hope you have already made your way over to the Scrapbook and Cards Today site and downloaded the summer issue, which went live today. I haven't received my complimentary copy in the mail yet and wish I lived close enough to pick up a free issue. As I've said a bazillion times, I canNOT believe this magazine is free. It is such a great resource for products and inspiration.
.... and you might see on page 6 that I had a cover option! So fun! I've never had a cover option with a stock photo before, and it was a BOY. I was really excited to have the opportunity to come up with something. The cover they chose was the perfect choice, though. Kim rocked those clouds and that sunshine. Such a cute idea.

Before I go I did want to share a few more sneaks of the July kit from Studio Calico. I wish I had more time to play more, because I actually have several more ideas right now, but I have to move down the to do list. It's quite long right now, and with summertime, the time is slipping away.

Be sure to check back here and the Studio Calico blog tomorrow though. I'm going to be posting a fun tutorial which will offer another sneak to the kit as well. It's a VIDEO. ACK!





Have a great day! Davinie

Weekend Recap

On Tuesday, we decided to dust off the trailer and take it camping for the weekend. From Wednesday-Friday before we left, Steve and the girls practically moved in. The three of them were happy as clams, content to simply sit inside and wait for the week to go by.

On Friday I slapped on my "I LOVE CAMPING" face, out of love for the three, and away we went. We didn't have reservations, but decided to try out Wickiup Reservoir, hoping to find a good place for the girls to catch a fish.

Payton kept wanting a photo taken of her and Cooper.

Cooper was depressed because he was on a leash, but still happy to be along for the ride.


Both nights we made smores. Me, I'm not a fan, but Steve and the kids sure loved putting together the ingredients. Payton's preferred smore was a chocolate on a graham cracker, unmelted. Um. Okay.

The highlight of our whole weekend, however, was this:

(Please oh, Please don't judge Steve too harshly on his outfit. The fact that he's wearing crew socks instead of knee socks is a huge improvement. Really.)

Steve thought this trip would be a great opportunity to get Morgan going on her bike. He thought it would be easier to start on Payton's, so he took off her training wheels and Morgan took it to the edge of camp.

This is where the magic happened. See him holding her hood? That's all he did. She did three passes through camp with him holding on to her hood, and then suddenly, click, the switch flipped and she totally rode that bike all on her own. You could have heard my squeal across the lake, I swear. I did not in a million years think she was going to catch on so quickly! We live on a dirt road so we were feeling a little bit guilty about our girls and their bike riding abilities. Not anymore! Bike rider, in da house!

She was sosososo proud of herself. The most adorable thing is that after a while, she spent more time making sure I was watching than actually paying attention to what she was doing. I couldn't have been more excited for her.

Saturday we went for a little jaunt down to the water.


The kids fished for a millisecond and then spent the rest of the morning digging in the sand. Morgan even wrote her name, which was super cute.





After lunch we drove down the road to an old gravel pit that has become a small lake. We did that because on the drive up we were stopped at some road construction and ended up behind a Forest Service rig that was headed to this area to stock the pond. Since we knew for sure there would be a couple of fish to catch, we thought we'd give it a try.

And it worked! Morgan caught one and Payton caught two. All of them swallowed the hook and couldn't be saved, so we brought them home for Steve to take to work and eat. Rainbow trout, they are. The kids had a blast!



Sunday morning it got cold and started to rain, so we buttoned up and came home. But everyone had a great time. Even me, lol.

With that, I'll leave you with a picture of the girls in front of the trailer this weekend:



(it's a little green because it's reflecting our outdoor carpet).

And check out this photo in the same spot in April of 2008:


I guess they have changed!

Have a great night! Davinie

Project 12 challenge winner - May

Starr said...

Enjoying this challengen & using my JB calendar cards. Always forget to link my LO before the deadline but remembered this time so here's my May LO:
http://www.studiocalico.com/forums/galleries/show/11749

2:25 AM

Congratulations m'dear! Thanks for playing along! I'm sending you an email for your digits.

Father's Day in a pinch, and with a tablespoon

Just a quick post today. I'm gearing up to head out of town for the weekend on a little camping trip. It was spur of the moment idea and now we are rearing to go.

I needed to bring Steve's Father's Day present with us so I was up late last night finishing things up.

Ever since we read the book "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar" and we find out it was daddy, my kids always tease Steve and he goes out of his way to leave 1 cookie at the bottom of the jar, no matter what. I thought it would be fun to give him his own cookie jar for Father's Day.

I've had these big tags from 7Gypsies since 2004 at least and also took an opportunity to add some Cosmo Early Bird to my kitchen decor. More of that to come!



To add even more fun, I called his mama and got the recipe for one of his favorite cookies as a kid. They are called Flying Saucers. I wasn't sure what I was going to think after reading the ingredients, but the girls and I *may* have licked a couple of spoons and had a cookie or so after they were baked, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

Here's the recipe:

Flying Saucers

Makes 32 3-4 inch cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 cups quick rolled oats
2 cups wheaties
1 cup coconuts or nuts
m&m's (just add until it looks colorful)

Cream shortening, add sugars and gradually beat in eggs. Stir flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together and stir into creamed mixture, and then add vanilla, cereals, coconut or nuts, and m&m's.

Drop dough by spoonfulls (large ice cream scoops) onto greased cookie sheet. Mash flat so that dough is about 3/8 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.


Have a great day! And now we're off! Wish us luck! Morgan REALLY needs to catch a fish, lol

Davinie

Late Night Studio Calico sneaks....

I'm up late and I've got a coupla Studio Calico sneaks. I'm headed out of town tomorrow to go camping with the fam so I'm in a rush.

I'm also finishing up Steve's Father's Day gift so we can bring it with us and surprise him Sunday morning. I'll have another post tomorrow to share that project. Right now.... it's not finished yet!

Speaking of Steve, he got yet another wild hair and registered for another half marathon. This one is next weekend in Sunriver. It's on paved bike paths this time, so it'll be fun to take the kids and cheer him on yet again. I can't wait to see if he beats his first time or not. My guess is that he totally will! When he was a student working on his fire and paramedic degrees, he was a student of and lived at the Sunriver Fire Department, and Sunriver is also where he was first hired once he got his degree. He's actually really excited to run around his old stomping grounds.

Payton told me to get in my car and drive away today. And then she said she wasn't friends with anyone, and named everyone she knew, declaring their lack in friendship with each name she uttered. She was mad at me because I wouldn't give her a lollipop. I guess this is just the beginning so I am taking it in stride.

Morgan is crying a lot. I'm guessing it's those 5 year old hormones. But dang she is testing her limits. It's interesting how the brain develops. This does stop at some point, doesn't it?

I guess that's it. I have got to finish that project so I'll leave you with some sneakage.

Have a great day! Or night, as the case may be! :)

Project 12 May and my Running Man

Well, school is out and I'm already pulling my hair out, lol. I actually heard Bend, Oregon mentioned on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, so now my neck of the woods is famous, lol. It was a piece on extreme weather. We've been having some amazing hail/thunderstorms here, and it's rained almost every day for the last few weeks. I am DONE with rain. The girls are ready to play in the pool!

I have to share a couple of photos I took of Steve on Sunday. Time got away from me and the girls and I were so late! I was so worried we were going to miss him at the finish but we were there 10-15 minutes before he crossed the finish line. I couldn't have been more proud of him! The atmosphere there was awesome, and there were so many different shapes and sizes of people running that race. It was actually quite inspiring.

He ran the race in 1:49:56 which is an awesome time. If he had known the course prior to the race I'm sure he could have gone even faster. He said he learned a lot at this race and hopes to run another one soon, maybe as soon as two weeks away. And except for bleeding nipples (now he knows what breastfeeding a newborn baby can be like, lol) he is feeling great.

They ran the race in three heats and because this was his first race, he was in the third heat. His advice to anyone wanting to do something like this is to get as close to the front as you can get. He was "clogged" a few times in the race, stuck behind someone on narrow paths, and it was literally like cars and passing lanes to get around a slower runner. But now he knows!



I'm so darn proud of him! They gave them Jamba juice as a post race drink. And for some crazy reason, people who run for 13.1 miles straight are also able to drink beer, because there was a beer garden too. I just have a hard time comprehending that one. I think I'd barf!

At dinner tonight he started talking about these plans he has for us on the second week of September. At first I thought he came up with some sort of 9th anniversary getaway, but oh no. Apparently there's some half-marathon he wants to run.... with ME. Help me. I don't think I can go that far. And I don't think I have the time to train for it either. And, and... (yes, I need more excuses). He's so much faster than me! I don't think he'd enjoy running at my pace, lol.

It's because of weekend races and tap recitals and my father-in-laws surprise birthday party and the end of school and, and, and, that I am WAY behind, yet again (I know I sound like a broken record), but I did manage to finish my May layout for my Project 12 challenge and have that to share.

I had some fun with this one and made a cute flower to go with that cute Penny Lane paper from My Mind's Eye.


Let's see.... in May we had mud, we got cats, Morgan went to a ranch and saw donkeys and rode a pony, we met my mom's new dog, and my dad was visiting. Do you see that Studio Calico box in the second small photo? My dad was visiting from Washington, and Morgan got a wild hair and made him at LEAST 15 birthday drawings. And then she had to roll each of them individually. And then she put them in the box. And then she wrapped the box. And then he had to open the box and then open each individual drawing/message. This process began at around 7:30 and it was at least 9:00 before his "gift" was received and opened. I needed to include it because it was totally her idea, and she did such a great job on each of her "cards". See?! Studio Calico boxes are multi-purpose, lol. My cats have a temporary bed in one of them right now. In fact, it might even be the one in that photo, lol.

Have a great day! I have a lot of projects on my list this week, and we've decided to take out the trailer for the first time this summer, so I have even less time to do them than I thought.

Father's Day project - gotta get on it!

I'm also starting a new weekly post on Friday's that involves your kids. Be sure to check back for that! :)

And don't forget! You have through the 20th to get your layouts linked to this thread for the May Project 12 challenge. I'm going to give you until 8pm PST on the 21st as an extension, as I won't be here! You've got the weekend!

Davinie

weekend babble

It's a big weekend at my house!

This afternoon we are off to watch my neice perform "Good Ship Lollipop" in her tap recital. Excited and bummed at the same time, because I really wanted Morgan to do it but she was very anxious about performing in front of an audience so I withdrew her from tap back in April.

She'll do soccer in the fall instead, lol.

I still had to buy the costume. Anyone need a $60 costume? ack.

Tomorrow is an even bigger day. Steve is running his very first half-marathon. It's called the dirty half. He'll be running in terrain with hills and valleys. I am SO proud of him. He's been training a lot and has been totally fine, but he came home from work today with a belly full of butterflies. He's a bit nervous because he doesn't know what to expect. Completely understandable! So think of him tomorrow morning. His goal is to finish, not to win. A good goal for your first try. His race starts at 8:20am. They limited it to 800 entrants so they are encouraging carpooling as there isn't a lot of parking, so the girls and I will show up a little before 10 and hope to find a place to park and a spot to stand so we can cheer for him at the finish line.

After the race is done, we are hosting a surprise party for my father-in-law. He turns 70 next week but will be out of town. We're breaking out the beer cooler, so anticipate a fun afternoon, as long as it isn't RAINING. Good grief. I live in the high desert and we have been having intense thunderstorms and torrential downpours just about every day for the last week and a half. This is very abnormal for our area and I would like for it to just STOP already. So wish us luck. We don't really have seating for 30-40 people, and kids, should they all show up.

I did want to share my layout for the latest edition of True North Parenting magazine today, though. My article was focused on scrapbooking those 4th of July pics. If you are like me, you take a couple hundred, as it's a long day, and at least at my house, full of activiity. I did a two page layout highlighting the big events of the day. 7 photos! We usually do the pet parade in the morning, then head to Sunriver for the Fireman's picnic. Air Life lands in the middle of the festivities, which is very cool. They also have kid games, and then we head somewhere for a barbecue and fireworks. It's a long and fun day!

You can read that article here.



As you can see, I replicated an American flag in the design of this layout. I also did this on a layout in the July issue of Creating Keepsakes. I can't share it yet, but it was more shabby and very Betsy Ross, with hand stitching and ribbon for stripes.

True North did have a fun article on crafty projects for your kids. Check those out here. The underwater scene project reminds me of Eric Carle and the book Mister Seahorse. I'm a huge Eric Carle fan but somehow missed this book until we checked it out recently at our local library. My kids loved it so much we'll have to go out and buy that one. It would be fun to do the craft project and read the book too.

Another project in that kid craft article was the fireworks painting, which would be a great piece of artwork to decorate for the 4th. I did a similar project with my kids last year, you can see it here, and you can also see my project in the July issue of BHG.

It was a great month for me and my favorite magazines! BHG also has a very very very special layout to me that a certain step parent knows nothing about, and I am SO excited to send it to her as a surprise. It has my favorite photo of the two of them on their wedding day, and it got a big 'ole page of the magazine all to itself. SO excited about that.

Have a great Saturday! In the next edition of "Days of our Chickens" (omg, Lisa, I laugh every day because of that), I'll tell you about our coop..... and... Prince Lafawnda. I didn't realize how much of a resource I would be for raising chickens, so I'll do my best to do my duty and keep you edumacated. :)

A great perk for those interested in Studio Calico kits and add-ons!

Studio Calico subscribers will now get an advanced opportunity to purchase new add-on kits each month. Beginning with July's kit, subscribers will be able to purchase their add-ons and shop items 12 hours in advance of reveal (12:00 noon on the 27th). Some add-ons will also be held in reserve and posted for sale at 12:00am for the traditional reveal.

Not a subscriber? Email waitinglist@studiocalico.com now to preorder your subscription!

My little red hen(ry)

You might remember a couple months back when we went to the feed store and picked up a couple of baby chicks.

Payton picked a little fluffy white chick and immediately named her Flowerbelle. Morgan picked this little black chick and insisted she was Princess. And I went for the chicken looking chick, a little red and gold thing and called her Henny Penny.



Watching them grow has been interesting. They were so cute in the beginning, and then they turned into this:



Oh yes, that would be Princess. Not so princessy, is she? Not that I want to judge, lol.

That photo was taken April 13. It's now more than a month later, so I wanted to share their current faces.

First is that little ball of puff that is Flowerbelle. She's the smallest of the three, and the only one that will really let the kids hold her. She's also the most submissive.



Then there's Henny Penny, the only traditional chicken looking chick of the three. Huge feet. Pretty coloring.


Gah. Do you see that ugly little devil in the background? That's Princess! You can't quite see it in this pic, but princess has this strange looking comb growing up top that has a hole in it. It's like a caribiner, just waiting for a leash or something.


The only redeeming quality about Princess is that when the sun shines on her black feathers, you can see some irridescent blues and purples which is fun. Otherwise... egads!

The cute little chicken coop is still getting some last minute touches, so I'm not ready to share it yet. But what's great about these three is that I go out every morning and open the door, and they just roam the yard, eating bugs. They always stay together, which is another plus, and it's fun to peek out in the yard and see them toodling around together. The only downside is that last week we had a harsh thunderstorm, and Steve ran outside to get them out of the weather. Lightning was flashing and hail was pelting down, so they literally jumped into his arms when he ran out there, and he just tossed them into his shop really quick and shut the door.

Now that he's done that they seem to think they own the place, so it's not uncommon to see Cooper, our yellow lab, sitting outside the door because they've booted him out of his napping spot. Me no likey chicken poop in the shop so we need to find a way to keep them out of there, lol.

I was all satisfied with our motley crew, until the other day, when I heard a suspicious noise, and walked outside to find this:




It turns out my sweet Henny Penny is actually HENRY Penny. dang.

Now we aren't sure what to do. We've heard you shouldn't eat fertilized eggs. We aren't worried about babies because once they start laying we'll be collecting every day, and if we are out of town or something and don't get the egg right away, we won't eat it, so I'm not worried about making scrambled eggs and hatching little chicks. And right now Henry isn't aggressive, so I'm not worried about that either.

Still trying to decide what to do. That said, Steve is still convinced that Princess is actually... Prince, so we are waiting to see if s/he starts crowing soon too. The only downside to that one being it's Morgan's chicken. But seriously. Look at that chicken, lol.


::sigh::