Studio Calico May

Did you get your hands on the kit? The May kit from Studio Calico went up for sale on Monday night! I hope you were able to pick it up.

Here's what I came up with this month. I have to say, time and creativity were hard to find, but I did manage 4 layouts along with a partially finished fabric album.


This layout was a lift of bbrod's Play 24/7. I flipped it upside down for this layout.




I couldn't tell you where the design idea for this layout came from. What I can say is that I loved the paper with my photos, but the Heidi Swapp sticker alphas weren't going to stand out on the blue background so I decided to split the paper. I like how you turned out!

I'm also noticing that I used a lot of rounded corners this month. I guess you can say they were inspired by the exclusive SC papers this month. I had a lot of fun trimming out the half scallops on that paper, and found the rounded edges of those scallops inspiring in my designs.





This layout just makes me happy. I loved the Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper with the scallops that I trimmed out, yet again, and I had fun with that bright yellow stitching. The scallop punch I used is the scallop sentiment from Fiskars. I thought Apron Lace was my favorite punch, but I use this quite a bit. It's much easier to use a border punch than deco scissors!



This layout was inspired by the little acrylic girl. I don't document words of wisdom for my kids enough, so I wanted to make sure I got a few things noted on a layout, in my handwriting.

I used to write in a journal all the time. I have been doing so since I was 8, and I still have that journal. But ever since Payton was born and scrapbooking has taken over my life, I've stopped writing in a special notebook like I used to. And I often feel like I'm not putting my thoughts and feelings into my work enough to make up for that. So I decided to write some things down, but I've also decided it's time to get back to the journal. I really enjoy looking back at journals from several years ago to see what I thought about things. The most interesting is when I look back at high school journals. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to those days, and when I read those journals, there are often times when I wish that my 33 year old self, yes, 33, was there with that 16 year old girl, so that I could remind her that she is stronger and bigger than that, and that once she is out of high school and living her life, she'll never even see that boy, etc., again. I needed her, lol.

Anyway, I didn't treat the girl with anything. I was going to leave her plain but decided she needed to stand out a bit, so I sponged some Colorbox ink over the top and then sealed her with Super Seal. That's some amazing stuff!

Lastly is a little piece of my heart. I'm not near finished, my album is going to be 20 pages and I received it only a few days before the reveal of the May kit, but I did manage to put a few pages together.

I have always wanted to do an album about my babies, comparing them month to month during their first year. I thought this moment and this album was a perfect opportunity to do that. We are on picture overload with this post, so I'll share the inside pages and some details later this week. However, I did write up a tutorial for Studio Calico, and you can check that out here.


The title for this album used to don the titles of layouts long ago and there was a time it was so overused that it went out of "style", but I thought it was the perfect phrase to use for the subject of my album. I can't imagine my life without my girls and I do think they are heaven sent.... except when they acting like little devils anyway.

:)

Have a great day!

P.S. Don't forget the NSD challenges at Studio Calico! And remember: you have to link your layouts on my blog on my May 2nd post.

I'll also be posting my April Project 12 challenge May 1st. Be sure to check back for that!

Davinie :)

Studio Calico reveal tonight!

Happy Monday!

Tonight's the night if you are interested in purchasing the May kit or add-ons from Studio Calico.



As always, there's a great reveal night giveaway on the SC blog too. It's photoshop actions from our own Maggie Holmes! Check out that post here.

Don't forget the NSD challenges either. You can see the blog post here with updated designer links. Speaking of NSD challenges, I love seeing that you are participating in my challenge, and I know it's confusing, but please remember to link your layouts on my May 2 post. May 2nd is National Scrapbooking Day, and that's the day we will be officially hosting our challenges. I LOVE what I've seen so far, so feel free to share it with me now, but make sure to link your work a second time on that May 2 post.

Speaking of which, you do NOT have to be a Studio Calico subscriber to play along. You can work with any product your heart desires. These prizes are available to anyone who loves to craft! I hope you will all play along.

I wanted to leave you with another glimpse at the cover to my fabric album. It has been a LOT of work, but I am really, REALLY loving it. I'm so happy to have it to share with my family.


Have a great Monday! Davinie

In honor of NSD May 2, a challenge!

Happy Saturday morning to you!

As you may know, May 2 is NSD, National Scrapbooking Day! In honor of that special crafting day, we at Studio Calico are offering challenges and chances to win all sorts of prizes, including add-ons, gift certificates, and even a 6 month subscription to Studio Calico!

To play along, visit each of the Studio Calico designer's blogs. I have them all listed on my sidebar here. Simply play along with the challenge they are hosting, post your layout in the Studio Calico gallery, and link it to their challenge thread which will be posted on May 2.

Are you ready for my challenge? My challenge is this: Simply hand stitch. Hand stitch somewhere on your layout. You can make a card, make an altered project, or a layout. It doesn't matter. But it must have hand stitching somewhere.

On May 2 I'll make a post here where you can link your layouts. But don't forget to link them from the SC gallery! They need to be posted there for your chance to win. And don't worry about having to use a Studio Calico kit. That's not necessary. You just need to create something new, post it in the gallery, and link it to this blog.

Want to see what you are playing for on this blog? How about some Chiffon!



If you didn't get a chance to pick up this add-on with your Garment District kit in March, this is your opportunity! This was one of my favorite kits ever, so I am very excited to have a chance to share some of it with you.

Get to work! And don't forget to link your layout on May 2. You have a week!

Have a great day! Davinie

Studio Calico sneaks and the Donna Downey Fabric album by Prima

Happy Friday! So glad it's Friday.

I have a couple of sneaks for ya today. And then I need to get back to it. I am knee, knee deep in the Fabric Album that's part of a project kit from Studio Calico for May.

In case you missed it, Payton helped me break the album down on a blog post for Studio Calico this week. You can check out that post here. Isn't Payton a ham? I just thought you should see a little of what I was going through, trying to get those photos, lol. This is why I often can't craft until late, late at night.

Here's a sneak again of what I've been doing to the cover of my album:

I am having SO much fun with this album and can't wait to share it with you.

I also have a few sneaks of my layouts this month. I've definitely been thinking about the album the most, but I did manage to squeak out layouts too. I'll have more coming later in the month when I get more time.



I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Last week was hot but it's cooling down now... looks like it'll be a good weekend to stay around the house and craft. A lot!

P.S. Thank you so much for your sweet comments about my baby post. That photo is very precious to me and I wasn't sure if it would be appreciated by people other than that girl's mama. And to answer the question, no, it hasn't been scrapped yet. I'm not sure what to do with it! It's too amazing to just have a place in a photo album, and yet I don't feel worthy enough to cut paper into bits and sew all around it. I haven't decided what to do yet...

Anyway, have a great weekend!

Davinie

P.S.S. Keep your eyes here this weekend! A little birdie told me there's going to be a nice giveaway. Tomorrow, I think!

Scrap in time and that baby photo

It all started with the March kit from Studio Calico. I was scrolling through dates looking for some photos to play with and found these early smiles of Payton. And she was wearing this striped shirt that matched the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday line perfectly. So I couldn't help myself, I scrapped my little heart out:


Because Payton was early I swear she slept the first month solid, so even though she was about 4 months old here, these are still early smiles, and I wasn't tired of tickling and cooing to get them from her either.

It's also my week to post at the Studio Calico blog. Jenn and I decided to do a theme on stitching and fabric to go with the May kit. She did a post about machine stitching, so I created a layout using fabric and did some hand stitching on it as well.



I was excited to finally have the time and motivation to get this layout done. I have saved fabric with the intention of doing a scrapbook layout with it since before my kids were born. You can read more about this layout and my post for the day at the SC blog here.

Yesterday my brother called me. He and his sweetie are expecting and they just found out they are having a little girl. They think they are going to call her Lily. It makes my eyes tear up just thinking about it. His excitement was so heartwarming. Babies are so wonderful. And there's just something about little girls. I am so excited for him!

Before I go I wanted to share that photo. I'm not sure if I'll leave it on here. I don't know why. It's just very personal to me. This is Payton being born. This is the last second she was part of me. This is Steve taking a photo and watching at the same time! This is where Steve was able to tell me who it was! It's a precious moment to be sure:


Oh my goodness, it really brings back memories. I'll never forget the sound of his voice when he said "It's a girl, it's Payton!" It was amazing.

Good grief. I have a serious case of baby fever, huh? Does this happen to every mama when she's made the decision to not having any more children? Because I am pretty sure we are done!

Have a great Thursday! Davinie

Cardalicious 20 and the March Project 12 winner

Happy Wednesday!

I am up to my armpits in my fabric album from the project kit this month at Studio Calic0, but wanted to pop in really quick.

First I wanted to share my card from Cardalicious 20. The challenge was to make a birthday card using blue, green, and circles.

If you play along this week, there's a prize! Check out the post here for details.

I know I'm a day late, but I also wanted to shout out to this month's winner for my Project 12 challenge:

drum roll please.....

Maria said...

Here's mine! Finally got it photographed. I did two 8x8 pages again.

http://write-now-remember-later.blogspot.com/2009/04/project-12-march-layout.html

I finally cut into some MME papers I had been hoarding for this layout.

6:31 AM

Oh Maria! You are the winner! Email me at cooperdees at yahoo dot com and I'll get that Bittersweet Paper pack and the coordinating stamp set to you! It's all ready to go!

Thank you again to all who play along every month. I'll be posting the challenge again on May first. I do think I'm going to start extending the deadline a little bit... maybe to the 25th.

Have a great Wednesday! Davinie

Project 12 March and my dirty birds

Good grief, what a poor example I am. I can't believe how late in the month it is!

Below is my layout for the Project 12 challenge. I used my Jenni Bowlin calendar card and the rest is contents from the April kit at Studio Calico.

In March we went to a Sportsman show and the girls had a blast painting duck decoys. They run around the house with them all the time and have even bathed with them once or twice. That was a lot of fun.

On St Patrick's Day we didn't have any plans, but I had fun with food coloring and we dyed macaroni and cheese, lemonade, and their bath water. We also did an art project and made little rainbows with clouds and dangling shamrocks, and Morgan learned the traditional order of colors of of the rainbow. This is hanging in her room and she's raced in there and referenced it many times when working on other drawings for the fridge.

We also got those silly chicks in March. Oh my goodness, you should see them now:

This pretty one is Henny Penny. She's the one I picked out. I love her coloring. She's the least friendly.


This sweet little lady is Payton's chick, Flowerbelle. She has these fun feathers and even has very featherly legs. A couple of weeks ago when my dad was visiting he walked in on Kael, my almost three year old nephew, holding Flowerbelle and told him he probably shouldn't be holding her. After hearing that, Kael hurled her back in to the tub and there was a moment there when we thought we had lost our girl. That millisecond almost made me want to forego pets forever. I'm not kidding. I thought she wasn't going to make it and the idea of having to share that with my kids ripped my guts out. I don't know what we are going to do when Cooper leaves us. We've only had the chicks for a couple of weeks! Flowerbelle bounced back, though. Phew!


This little bugger is our Princess, lol. An uglier chicken I don't think I've ever seen. But what she lacks in looks she makes up for in her personality and protective nature. I kid you not; when I felt like Flowerbelle was going to be well enough to return her to the other chicks and they bedded down, Princess lifted her wing and scooted right up next to Flowerbelle and covered her with it. Oh, I know it could have been just an accident, and she was just stretching and couldn't quite fold it back under, but it was so sososo sweet to see.

But while they are mighty cute and cuddly at first, after a few weeks, they get all chicken looking and start turning into a trio of dirty birds. Steve is in the process of building their coop right now, but you can't put them outside until they lose all of their downy feathers. I think we have a little more than a week to go. Right now they are in a big Rubbermaid tub in our mud room downstairs under a lightbulb.

Anyway... chickens. They are not for everyone, lol!

Don't forget about the prize this month for participating in the challenge, Basic Grey's Bittersweet and a coordinating stamp set. Be sure to link your layouts to this thread. Everyone is welcome! You have until the 20th! That's Monday! I'll draw a winner on the 21st.




Have a great weekend! Davinie

Reminiscing about babies and a sneak.

I just had to share this... I was looking through some miscellaneous folders in my photo folder and came across this baby announcement that my sister made when Payton was born.



Couldn't you just eat her up? Looking at this makes me want another one. And a nap, lol.

I was so confused when she was born, because she was so big for a baby born 4 weeks early. I was 35 weeks and 6 days and in COMPLETE denial that I was in labor. She was supposed to be a repeat Cesarean more than 2 weeks later! But no, I wasn't just wetting my pants. I was having contractions and my water was breaking. It's so funny looking back at it now. I lost my plug that morning and googled it to see what that meant, lol, and found out that you can do that a few weeks before having the baby. But then I kept having a pain and leaking a bit. I had no idea what was going on, but I called my doctor and they suggested I come in just to make sure it wasn't amniotic fluid, lol. I had nothing in my house at the time, so I broke out a panty liner, LOL, had my sister come watch Morgan, and away I went to the doctor's office. I walked in, said hello to the receptionist, and the rest of my water bursted and gushed all over the place. LOL.

Oh the memories.

Anyway... feeling a bit sentimental about my babies gone by.

She was 4 weeks early, coming via an emergent Cesarean rather than a planned one, and then I swear she slept the first month. Really. She barely woke up at all that first month. She'd just open one eye, check us out, and then doze off again. She really was a preemie. I wonder how big she would have been if she'd made it another couple of weeks! Good grief!

I actually have the most amazing photo of the doctor pulling her out. The light in the OR hit my belly just right. I'd love to share it here but it's probably too graphic. It's an amazing photo though. My hubby captured the last millisecond that she was part of me. How he did that, and in focus no less, when he was a nervous wreck, is beyond me. The fact that I even remembered a camera during this whole fiasco is a testament to my desires in preserving family history, I'll tell you that!

Anyway.... mooning over. I just had to share. But I have something else to share that all my SC peeps will be happy to see! Check it out:


It might not be abundantly clear what I'm sharing in this image. I realize it isn't the best photo. But at the sneak chat last night I said I thought there were 5. And then I thought about it for a second and thought that there might actually be 6. But I just did a recount, and there are actually 7 stamps in the second add-on, and I have one on display above. Woot! I can't tell you how excited I am about these puppies! I'm going to turn into a stamper yet!

Happy Tuesday! My lilac trees are just starting to bloom and I just peeked out the window and saw snow falling. And it's cold outside. GGrrrrr... This won't be the first year to miss out on those fragrant purple flowers, so I"m crossing my fingers that the weather today barely phased them. I just heard on the radio that it could be mid-70's by Sunday! The weather is crazy around here, I tell ya!

Happy Easter!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter! We are about 4 hours out from hosting an Easter egg hunt and potluck, and the skies look a little gloomy to me. Let's hope it doesn't rain for too long!

The girls have already had a significant dose of sugar courtesy of the Easter Bunny, so I'm sure good times will be had by all! lol


Enjoy your day! Davinie

ETA: Miss Jenn is having a little giveaway on her blog today. You might want to race over there if you want a little Easter Bunny gift of your own.

After that, if you are still on a sugar high and need to work with some creative energy, be sure to check out my Project 12 challenge. I swear I'm going to have my March layout example asap. Remember.... Basic Grey Bittersweet up for grabs!

:)

A little Egg Decorating....

Happy Friday!

Last year I remember reading a post on Nicole's blog about this quilt she picked up at a yard sale. It was covered in pastels as it had been used on the table for egg decorating for many years and now she's using it on her own table. I loved this story and loved the history that could be made by using the same covering over and over. With that in mind, I brought out a sheet and used it on the table as the first year in our own decorating memories. I do think that I'm going to set this sheet aside and make a quilt out of it for the table for next year, just to have something even more special to pass along. How fun it would be to have grandkids over at the house, decorating eggs on the same quilt that their mom used when she was young. How great is that. And except for the fact that Morgan keeps telling me she isn't going to get married and have kids, she's just going to be a doctor, it's a sweet dream to have. lol.

I don't know about you, but we are gearing up for a fun filled Easter weekend in these parts. So last night we took some time with Paas. I didn't take a lot of photos, I was too busy having fun, but i did get a couple of fun shots:




I was playing around a bit with depth of field on these. I was also using my 50mm fixed lens, and I have a small kitchen, so I can only back up so far, lol.

A fun night was had and only mild staining on the kiddos, except for Payton anyway. She couldn't help herself and used her shirt and pants for a napkin. She was a bit tie-dye when she was finished. Good thing I was thinking about that in advance and put them in old clothes!

Before I go I wanted to pass on a link for a giveaway! Scrapbook and Cards Today, a free Canadian scrapbooking magazine that comes out quarterly, and is FABULOUS by the way, is having a giveaway. They do this weekly. I just noticed that today's giveaway is the April Kit from Studio Calico! If you are interested in trying out a Studio Calico kit, you should get on over there and make a comment. You can find the giveaway here.

I also saw that Miss Stephanie is having a giant giveaway on her blog. If you are one of the two people who doesn't read it already and hasn't already posted a comment, you can do that here. But do it quick because I think she's drawing names today.

Have a great weekend! I have plans to do some serious scrapping tonight so should have some projects to share with you tomorrow, including my March layout for my Project 12 challenge. I'm giving away some Basic Grey to someone who participates, so if you haven't already, I hope you'll check out the challenge!

For now I'll leave you with my card for the Cardalicious blog this week. The challenge was to use polka dots, stripes, and pink. It was also supposed to be a Thank You card but I missed that part. That said, the little butterfly looks happy and thankful, doesn't he? This card was so fun because I made it using scraps that I was cleaning off my scrap table after cutting into the March kit from Studio Calico. I have since purchased extra sheets of the papers in that kit and have still been using it. I think it's one of my very favorite kits so far.

Supplies:
Bazzill Kraft cardstock
Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday patterned paper, chipboard butterfly
Sassafras patterned paper
Fiskars Upper Crest punch

Blog hop winners and some Pink Paislee

Good morning! The blog hop winners have finally been announced. We wanted to wait until all 15 had been chosen before making an announcement, and the post has been made. You can check it out here. Thank you so much to all who played along, especially Valechula, the winner on this blog! It was great to read all of those comments. Just so you know, I decided to leave the frame as is. Sometimes you just have to go with your first impression, you know? Should I make another, I probably would go with a kraft background to make my bunnies stand out more though.

As it's a Pink Paislee post, I thought I'd share my projects for this month.

First, for my blog post I had Saturday which is the Saturday sketch. You can check out that post here. I chose a sketch from the March sketches at Pagemaps, and this is what I came up with:





Supplies:
Pink Paislee Vintage Moon Full Moon for the background
Pink Paislee Tinsel Town 34th Street (stripe)
Pink Paislee Enchanting Pleasant (pink) and Delightful (butterflies)
Pink Paislee Enchanting sticker book
Pink Paislee Enchanting fabric flower
Fiskars Apron Lace and Scalloped Sentiment punch
Century Gothic font

I used the Enchanting line from the Winsome Collection, and I was also able to mix in some Tinsel Town and some Vintage Moon for my background. As I said in that blog post, I think I've changed my mind about my favorite product. The sticker books are definitely a must have, but I think the one thing I go to allll the time would have to be the Full Moon paper from the Vintage Moon Collection. I could use that on every layout.

For the next layout, I went back through and dug out some more Disneyland photos.
On our first day at Disney, I scheduled a dinner at Ariel's Grotto so my kids could meet the princesses. I figured they would LOVE that. However, I was a bit wrong. As soon as the princesses came out, both kids went under the table, lol.
Now, truth be told, it had already been a long day, with a 6am flight, a long bus ride, some rainy weather... so the kids were a bit overwhelmed. But characters were something that was difficult for them to appreciate.
That said, surprisingly because this is the movie they are least familiar with, when Belle came out in these beautiful and quite voluminous yellow skirts, Payton stood up and wanted to say hello. I often wonder if kids relate best to the princess that looks most like them. Payton was very interested in saying hello to Belle, whereas Morgans was all over getting a Sleeping Beauty dress at the gift shop.



Since I first got my hands on one, I have been very obsessed with my Fiskars border punches. This one uses the Scalloped sentiment punch. LOVE it. I have also become obsessed with the strip of paper left behind when you trim a border with your punches, so I used them on this layout as well.

Supplies:
Pink Paislee Fascinating Bewitching paper (background)
Pink Paislee Captivating Lovely paper (blue floral)
Pink Paislee Captivating Tender paper (blue)
Pink Paislee Captivating sticker book
Pink Paislee Captivating chipboard (brown)
Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Offray ribbon
Century Gothic font

Have a great day! I'll be back later this week with my layout for the March Project 12 challenge. You still have a lot of time to play along.

Davinie

Homemade Handmade

I wanted to share a little bit of handmade love this weekend.

First, when I want to alter something, the first thing I do is head to my local Goodwill and rummage through the back aisles, to see if someone has turned in something fun that I can work with. As you may have noticed, lately I have been attracted to the wide and narrow frames. Normally they have cheap watercolor images in them... maybe a birdhouse or a row of flowers or something. I just open up the back and tear that out, but use the framed size as a template for my project. I did that with this house frame, and for my blog hop project. I've decided to keep doing them, because I think it's fun to have a seasonal framed piece hanging somewhere in my home. I can just switch them out as the seasons change, and they aren't taking up space on a mantle or anything.

First, you need to check out this blog: Simply Handmade
Paper Trends, a Northridge Media publication, changed it's name to Simply Handmade. You must know I "Simply" adore this publication. I was first picked up in this publication under it's new name for this project:



I had originally seen this quote on the spine of a Domino magazine and immediately knew I wanted to create something for my home using it.

I had also recently inherited a huge bag full of trims from my husband's grandmother; 50 year old packages of doilies, sequins, glass buttons, buckles, ribbon trims, etc.

I decided to combine many of these elements in a wall hanging. I purchased some different fabrics in colors that i loved, and made little houses. I even used a Pink Paislee tree stamp on fabric for this project. Then I hand stitched the quote.

Soon thereafter I saw that Handmade was doing a call for windows or frames or something, so I sent in an image. When I received the request, I was a little worried. It IS a window. A bathroom window, I think. But I sent it in and when I got my issue, I couldn't believe what they had done! There were about 4 pages on my window, and they had gone out and purchased a window, fabric and trims, and gave detailed instructions on recreating that project. It was fabulous!

There were so many wonderful, inventive, and inspiring creations in that issue. And I think they have continued to improve each month. I am very inspired by it all. I have a little project in the current issue as well. I made a little purse for my daughter and her Polly Pockets out of an International Foods coffee can. It was so easy to cover the outside with patterned paper and punch two holes in the lid and thread some ribbon for a handle. And Polly fits perfectly.

Simply Handmade also has a blog, and each post is filled with a lot of artistic inspiration. And if you check out this post... they are doing a little die cut machine giveaway! I have always been curious about the Quickutz Silhouette. I'd love to win that one.

This morning the girls and I rushed out to a bare root tree sale for a couple of fruit trees. I have a lot of pine and deciduous trees on our property, and have been wanting something pretty, so I picked up a flowering crabapple, which I'm excited to plant. I also picked up two apple trees. They've been grafted to produce two kinds of apples. If anyone knows anything about growing this type of tree, let me know. At first I was told it could be planted in the grown just like your average apple tree, but as I was walking away another salesman said I should plant it near a trellis. My SIL had an apple tree with several different types growing on it, and she did have hers against a fence on a trellis. I didn't want to grow mine that way. I was hoping to be able to simply dig a hole and toss it in. Let me know if you think it will grow! It's currently in a bucket of water, waiting for Steve to come home and help me plant it. I still have a day or three to decide what to do with it.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Before I go I wanted to direct you towards some Easter fun. Jello has a new spring mold out and I picked it up free with purchase at my local grocery store. We have already been testing it out and my kids are having a lot of fun with the molds. You can check it out here. I have the egg shaped jiggler mold also, and that one is also a lot of fun and offers some fun Easter table decorating ideas.

Oh, and for those who asked about my bunny project, I got the idea from a Spring fabric idea book. It had a lot of cute projects that I was inspired by to use with paper. You can check it out here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Davinie

P.S. Remember to post here for the Blog Hop!

Pink Paislee blog hop!

Hooray! It's the beginning of a weekend of blog hopping. All of the DT have done projects and ideas for decorations and cards to send for Easter. We had a lot of fun with our last blog hop, so we are ready to do it again with the new team.

First I wanted to share my contribution to my Easter decor this year. I found this idea in a fabric craft book:




Three little bunnies, hanging on the line.
I like it but there's something not quite right.... should I have done the background in kraft? Pink? I'm going to have to stare at it for a while and decide. :) I actually think I need to change the frame color. I bought it at Goodwill and it was an almost navy blue. I then painted it green, but the green looked too dark, so then I washed it Manilla, but now I'm thinking the frame needs to be pink.

Yes, this is how I roll, lol. Sometimes I need to mess with things, take a step back, and set a project aside before I finally finish something.

Along with our Easter projects, all of us are answering a questionnaire so you can get to know us better too. Check out my fascinating answers, lol.


1.) Where did you grow up? Do you still live there?

I was born in Homer, Alaska. I have lived in Hawaii, and now live in Oregon where my Mom grew up. I have lived in Central Oregon for 15 years, and have bought an ugly home to renovate, so we don't have any plans to leave any time soon. :)

2.) What is a typical day like for you?

I work part-time from home in the health insurance industry, so much of my day is spent trying to get work done while chasing my 3 and 5 year old around the house. All I need to work is my computer and the internet, so I am in front of this screen all the time. Morgan goes to school Wed-Friday mornings, so Payton and I are busy bussing her back and forth. My husband is a fireman and works 24/48 shifts, so he is gone every 3rd day for 24 hours, which means I am home scrapping and chasing off the boogeyman by myself.

2.) What is your favorite fashion accessory? Why?

Okay, I am so low maintenance the fashion police would probably cart me off if they ever found me, so this is a tough question for me, lol. I do have two holes pierced in each year and wear diamond studs and hoops most of the time. Does that count? Is that fashionable? Good grief. Oh, and in an effort to better take care of myself, I have been getting routine cut and color. And this is a big deal. So I'm going to consider my partial weave as an accessory.... and a great way to cover up the grey starting to come in. lol
Oh, one thing I do like is my Vera Bradley purse. I'm a fan of her designs and the homespun look. I also like that I can wash it, lol. I'm too hard on my purses to be a leather/coach/dooney girl.

3.) What is playing on your ipod right now?

I don't have one! Aren't I horrible and very very far behind the times!? I never leave my house. What do I need an Ipod for? And I got a new phone with a lot of room for music, so I don't think I'll be getting one any time soon. I've been listening to Tayler Swift and Maroon 5 a lot, though.

4.) Name one television show that you MUST TIVO each week?

I routinely watch the Amazing Race, Survivor, and Grey's Anatomy. There are a couple of other shows out there that I like to tune in to, but these three are programs I don't want to miss.

5.) What is your favorite movie of all time?

Oh dear.... this is a tough one. If we go by the movies I have memorized and can tell you line by line by heart, it would have to be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from my childhood, and Dirty Dancing from my teen years. As an adult I guess it would be Pride and Prejudice? The modern version. I have yet to see the A&E version although I have heard many times that it's better. I'm just not sure that Colin Firth as Mr Darcy will do for me what that guy on the Keira Knightly version does. Those eyes get me every time.

6.) What is your favorite Pink Paislee product?

I am currently having a love affair with the sticker books. There is so much to work with in these books, and so many ways to use it.

7.) If you could only keep 1 scrapbooking tool what would it be?

A tool? I guess I can't do without thread. Because if I have thread, than I either have a needle, or a sewing machine, and either is a MUST in every project that I do.

8.) If you didn't scrapbook what other activity would you spend time on?

I have already combined two loves, so I'd say if I couldn't scrapbook, my kids would only wear clothes with "made with love by mama" tags in the back, because I'd probably sew. a lot.

9.) What advice would you give to someone who wants to start scrapbooking?

Don't worry a lick about design. Just choose photos that you love, and product that you love, and put the two together. If the end result is something you adore and are proud to show your family, there is nothing else that matters.

10.) What would you say your scrapbook style is today?

Hmm. I guess my style is clean and a bit homespun. As I said, I love to sew on everything, because of the texture it gives to my projects. That said, I also like to try different things, so I don't know that I could be pegged to a particular style.

And now the fun part!

To play along with the hop, simply leave a comment on my blog! You will be entered to win this:


You will have a chance to win this 15 times. Simply leave a comment at each of the DT blogs under their blog hop post. You can find links to the girls on my sidebar.

Good luck! Please post by Monday morning on this blog. We'll be drawing names and you should hear by Monday night if you are a winner. Be sure to check back, as I'll have more Easter projects and ideas over the weekend.

Have a great day! Davinie

Project 12 challenge - March

Happy April 2nd!

Don't think I haven't forgotten about this monthly challenge. I have already printed photos and will have a layout example this weekend with what we did in March.

There were two birthday's, St Patricks day, a day full of green, temper tantrums (although I *might* not torture the kids with those photos, lol). And the first day of Spring!

Participate in this month's challenge and be sure to link your layouts to this thread. I am going to try and stick to the 20th as a deadline again this month.

This month if you play along, I'll enter you to win some of this:




That's a Basic Grey Bittersweet Collection pack and the coordinating Bitsy Bliss stamp set, also from Basic Grey.

Who doesn't need more Basic Grey and stamps?

I hope you'll play along! And remember, you don't just have to document March. Any month will do.

ETA: The rules are this: Scrap about your month. Whether you took one photo, 100 photos, or no photos, what did you do? Check out previous posts by clicking on the Project 12 label at the bottom of this post to see what I've been doing, and check out the comments on those posts for links to what others have been doing. :)

Have a great day!

P.S. Be sure to check back tomorrow. We are having a blog hop for Pink Paislee, and there are a TON of prizes up for grabs. The design team will be sharing a lot of fun Easter ideas.

Davinie