Home at last! A recap.

If you ever have a chance to go to CHA, DO IT. Oh my, I had so much fun. The best part for me is meeting up with friends from all over the world in one place. Hands down, that's the best part.


Looking at new product is fun too though, lol.


And going out to eat. That's fun. I enjoy that. Who doesn't enjoy that?


I headed to Anaheim bright and very early Friday morning. In fact it was so early it wasn't bright yet, lol. The show started on Sunday so I was there in time to help set up the Studio Calico booth and mess around a little bit before things got serious.

The show ended at 2pm on Wednesday but I headed home that morning. To be honest, I could have stayed longer, I was having so much fun, but Tuesday afternoon my kids finally missed me, so it worked out well. Steve had to lure Payton into her carseat during a meltdown at preschool by playing a Backyardigans cartoon from youtube on his phone. I hope that one doesn't become permanent solution, lol. She missed her mama.


I took a few photos the first day but there are so many people who took so many more photos than I did that I might as well direct you their way. The two that stand out the most are Julie and Shimelle's blogs. They really did well with their photos. Because of this show I've decided I really need to get a small camera for my purse. I packed my Canon and my 50mm because I didn't want to take up a lot of room, but the 50 does not get the closeups you need when you are trying to take detailed shots of product, so I just didn't use it that much.


Studio Calico took a few videos from the trip with the Flip and you can check them out here. We even did the chicken dance. Not willingly, but we did it. The Fosters' talked about it for two days and by the end we just wanted to get it overwith, hence my enthusiasm (although I did get carried away mixing the Macarena in too.. April wanted to do that one as well. Maybe next time.... ).

My favorite piece of paper from the show was a quilty pattern on one of the pieces of the Fly a Kite line from October Afternoon. I got lucky and came home with a piece of it. I loved it so much I immediately put it to use, which is unlike me. My dirty undies are still in my suitcase, for goodness sakes!

This is what I made and I just love it:

The thickers are new from American Crafts. They are called Tenant Phrases and the orange is Flat. LOVE them. The butterflies are flocked boutanique from the Fieldhouse line. I'm not sure if they are brand new or not but they were new to me and looked great with the papers so I gobbled them up.

I got PSE 8.0 for Christmas and for some reason, my layouts are starting to look a bit too sharp. I need to figure it out a bit more. My photos don't look like this live. hmmm.

I mentioned food, and eating out is another fun thing about the show. On my last night we went to Red Robin and met up with friends and other Studio Calico members. You may see this shot in more than one place, because at photo time at least 5 cameras made their way into Greg and Stephen's hands for the photo taking. That's what you get when you surround yourself with scrapbookers!

This last photo was taken at our Design Team dinner at Tortilla Joe's. I love this group so much and it was great to meet a couple of them, live. Tina and I have been working together at Studio Calico since 2007 so it was wonderful she was able to make her way down the slopes of Alaska to play with us. Waleska is new to the team but has been around for a long time too. Cute as a button and her accent is adorable!

From left to right: Celine, Nicole Harper, Tina, Lorie (Studio Calico's do-it-all girl), Joy, myself, Emily, Kristen (one of our graphic designers and Teresa Collins' long lost twin), April, and Waleska.

I wish the rest of the girls had been there!

That's it for me. I came home to a house that needs me and a pile of assignments I pushed aside to make room for California. Time to get back to the scissors and my sewing machine.

Have a great weekend! It's almost February!

Studio Calico Bakers Dozen

The February kit from Studio Calico is up for sale and a lot of it is sold out. Wow! Once members love something and start to talk about it, the love goes viral! However, if you subscribe you will always be guaranteed a kit, so if you were interested, I hope you got on the list.







I added just one add-on to my cart this month. Scones.







Do I regret not picking up Petit Fours and those American Crafts frames and the crochet doilies? YES, YES I do, lol.

A low cost solution is to pick up the more patterned paper add-on, which I did do as well. It's a great way to get a special piece from one of the add-ons without picking up the whole thing. I really wanted more than one piece of the Making Memories varnished floral findings, so it worked out well.

Even though I didn't get most of the add-ons, like I usually do, I enjoyed what I had to work with, and as I was pressed for time this month anyway, it all worked out.

For this first layout, of course I had to scrap that 6 year old photo I took of Miss Morgan Paige.

As I mentioned, I was really inspired by the roses in the Crate paper, so I created my own flowers to add. I really wanted a soft and pretty feel to this layout.

I added some Basic Grey brads from the shop to the centers of some of my flowers, to give some added dimension and detail.

I also added some really pretty pink jute from May Arts. I bought a ton of it in many colors, because I love the look of wrapping it multiple times. It looks like they need to restock, but you can still pick up black and olive from the shop. I picked up a ton of that too, for future kits.

The jute for this layout was almost a mistake. I meant to wrap it around the patterned paper, but stitched it down before I had done so. I wrapped the picture alone instead, and I actually think I like it better this way, so it ended up being a happy accident, lol.

This layout kills me. Morgan doesn't understand makeup application, so when she applies eye shadow, it goes all the way up to the eyebrows. Payton was her victim this day. Steve laughs and refers to them as "ladies of the night" after they are finished, they are so overdone. They really enjoy doing it so it's fun. Sometimes.

I added a Basic Grey bloomer to this one too. I loved the shop items they had this month.

I didn't stitch at all on this layout, instead using the Hambly rubons that came in the kit. That was fun and they were easy to manipulate in a slight curve at the top there to mimic the patterned paper.

I also changed the colors to my micro mini alphas from yellow to lipstick red, appropriately. I simply removed the alphas I wanted to use and placed them on the packaging, swiped them all with the ink, let it sit for a bit to dry, and then applied them to my layout. I love the yellow, but for some reason, this layout called for a bit more punch with a darker color. I love how easy it was to change the look.

I did a 12x12, an 8.5 x 11, so I wanted to round out my layouts with my usual two pager. And the easiest choice for photos is my new sweet neice Lilly Park Cooper and photos of my girls holding her for the first time at our Christmas gathering. She is SOSOSOSO cute. She was super sweet too. I can't wait to see her again. It's only been almost 2 months and she already looks so different. Ah, the baby stage.

I really wanted to do some hand stitching and the obvious choice was circles and to mimic that Basic Grey paper. I just lightly traced it out with a pencil, punched holes, erased the pencil marks, and stitched away. I think I mentioned that I used DMC 977 thread here.

I broke out my Slice and my Noteworthy cartridge for the butterflies I used here as well. I am loving the Slice.

They came out with a new tool for it too. There's a magnetic mat so that you don't have to hold it down, and the reverse side of the mat is soft for using the letterpress tool, one that I MUST HAVE. EDITED: I meant emboss. Not letterpress. Sorry Glue! EMBOSS. heeeee.

So I will have to get that. Loved the magnetic mat.

And that's it! I have a couple more projects for this kit to share, but I'm going to save them for my blog week at Studio Calico. I have some Valentine decor and kid projects to share. fun fun.

I will be back asap with a CHA recap and some other things.

Have a great day! Davinie

Whilst I'm away... Studio Calico sneaks

While you are checking out the following sneaks, I will be white knuckled on a wee plane to California. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of flying. By myself. If I was with my family, I'd be fine, because we'd be together, but by myself, I let my fear of the tin can in the sky take hold a little bit. I also get bored. And tired of sitting in that chair. And the flights are not long enough for an inflight movie to distract me.

I'm also flying standby. This means that I probably won't get a window, and sometimes I need the window. ack. Can't think about it.


I will think about books instead. I asked for recommendations, and made several requests at the library, but I should have started the process earlier, as I am on the waiting list for most of the bestsellers. However, I did end up with the following:

Pretty in Plaid (Jen Lancaster) - ooh, this one might be a keeper, Lisa!

Such a Pretty Fat (Jen Lancaster)

The Choice (Nicholas Sparks)

The Wedding (Nicholas Sparks)

Certain Girls (Jennifer Weiner)

All of these will be quick reads so I think I got pretty lucky. It'll be hard to choose just one to bring along, but I'm leaning towards Jennifer Weiner, although I had several recommendations for Jen Lancaster books, although I have never read her work.

So think about me, and that, while you browse the sneaks. heeeee.


I was totally swamped this month so didn't manage to fill my gallery to overflowing, but I actually truly adore what I have made and can't wait to share everything. For now, here's a couple more sneaks:





I can't stop laughing at the main photo in this layout. Truly a treasure. LOVE the SC paper in the kit this month, and the delicious Hambly rubon stitches on this layout. I didn't break out my machine for this one.

I was completely inspired by that peek of a rose on the Crate paper in the sneak for this layout. I can't wait to share all of it with you.

And that's it! It was just the main kit and scones for me (and I love scones. I had a pumpkin scone from Starbucks for breakfast yesterday morning on my way to work, along with a vanilla latte, of course. And in case you are wondering, I work in the office one day a week for about 4 hours. The rest of the time I'm at home).

Lastly I just wanted to mention that this blog is about to have a major overhaul. I have had the hardest time finding someone reliable to do it for me.... It was supposed to have been done before the new year but it just didn't work out and I had to canel my order if you will. Anyway... be advised. The blog will be updated and mighty fresh after I get home. I know how old that banner is, lol. I'm excited about a change, but I'm not moving. I'm perfectly happy with blogger.

Project 12 winner and I'm losing my mind

So..... I didn't get my gathering done. Oh how I wanted to wear my little "project" to CHA, but I just couldn't do it. Part of it wasn't looking right and as I'd be at a place where design and construction matter, there's just no way I could wear it to California. As soon as I get home I'm going to get that gathering thing sorted out, and I will wear it and post a photo soon. Really. In the meantime, I chose this fabric for my project:


Isn't it just gorgeous? My heart skipped a beat when I first saw it. This is a bit of Heather Bailey's new line called Nicey Jane. Darn it, I really wanted to wear some of it to CHA. I'm a bit bummed I didn't come up with some mad sewing skillz there at the end. ha!

Oh well.


I'm probably going to be up late tonight in a near panic that I don't forget anything and that my kids are okay (but who am I kidding. I hope they miss me madly, lol). Then it will be a 3:30am alarm as I zip to the airport and hope to land my flight. Thanks to a super sweet sister-in-law, I had a couple of vouchers to use, but that means I'm flying standby. Right now my flights look fine though, so hopefully it isn't an issue.

Steve and I should have thought about craft shows before planning the birth of our first child, I'll tell you that right now. It's been a stressful couple of weeks, trying to do it all. Take down the Christmas tree, craft, raise small children, craft, work at my other job, craft, have a birthday party, craft, eat more cake, craft. You get the idea.... at least I heard that next year's show is pushed back a week. That will help. It's also going to be at the LA Convention center, rather than Anaheim. Interesting.


Before I go I did want to get my winner picked for my January Project 12 challenge. I was very excited to see new participants! I haven't had a chance to leave comments on all the projects, but I thank you so much for participating! I will check them all out when I get home next week. And it sounds like I need to get a sign-on at Splitcoast Stampers because there were a few entrants from there, including the winner:



Mary A said...
And here is my title page for your challenge... This is FUN!! :)

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1594771

10:49 PM

Mary, I could see your title page but couldn't comment. I love the digital version, and hope you are still happy, because you won a Basic Grey Origins paper pack, my favorite BG line right now (but who knows what they will come up with next, lol).

Thank you again for playing along! Email me at cooperdees (at) yahoo dot com and I'll get you fixed up.

Have a great day! I will be back early early en la manana with my Studio Calico sneaks. Nope, I haven't forgotten about them!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl.....

:: sigh ::




Today my little Morgan Paige turns 6. Six years ago today I became a mama, and at once it feels like yesterday and lightyears ago.

Six years ago my purpose in life became absolutely clear the moment I held her in my arms.

6 years ago this beautiful man became a daddy, and I'm sorry, but HE is the best one on the planet. We are all lucky to have him as part of our lives. Especially her.

Six years ago we became a family of three.

She gives me strength, she wears me out, gives me gray hairs and a smile in my heart, all at the same time. My life is blessed because she's in it, and I can't imagine my life without her.

Happy Birthday, my sweet girl. I love you to the moon and back and to the moon again. Maybe even Jupiter, or Saturn, your favorite planet. My love never wavers, it only grows stronger with each passing day, even if you think it doesn't. I hope you will always know how much I love you and trust that no matter what, I am here for you.

Have a beautiful birthday.

Now let there be cake!

Trojans and Crate Paper's newest release

I am coming out of the fog that has been the nightmare of the weekend. My computer was infected by an army of trojans Saturday morning, masquerading as some sort of antivirus software, which looked suspicious, but must have invaded my computer despite my efforts to prevent anything.

That happened, and then we celebrated Morgan's 6th birthday! We went to see the Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakuel (and while I would MUCH rather have seen Avatar, this film could have been worse) and then went and had the best gourmet pizzas I've ever had at the Flatbread Community Oven. If you have one of those, I highly recommend it. Steve and I split the Bianco Magnifico pizza and an italian salad. The kids all got to make their own pizzas, which was really fun.

I'll share photos soon. Her birthday is actually on the 20th, so I will celebrating her on Wednesday.

When I haven't been partying or fighting armies of malware, I've been busy crafting away. I leave bright and early Friday morning for CHA, and need to have these projects finished.

I was really excited to be asked to create some projects for the Crate paper booth, and wanted to share them with you. I think these three lines are their best yet and couldn't believe the number of fun products they created to go with them.

The first one is my favorite. Brook. Sweet brook. Boys? Girls? They will all love and adore Brook.

I thought Payton and Rosebud, aka Puppy, aka Pinkie Pie, aka the puppy called a paint, would look great with this paper. And I was right!

You can see a closeup of some of the border stickers, chipboard shapes, and the sticker sentiment of sorts, which is mounted on pop dots (thanks for that idea, Glue). And how about that jute?

The next line I wanted to share is the Pink Plum line. Girlie and flowery, yes it is. FUN to work with.

One thing I liked about this line is that while there was no purple, there was a hint of a lavender hue, so I was able to include a photo of Morgan in her Fancy Nancy dress, and used lavender thread for my stitching. I have noticed that there is a lot of purple in the CHAW release for many manufacturers.

I'm a huge fan of those chipboard butterflies! The black one on top is dimensional in the packaging with the jewel on top. Love it.

The last line to share is the Paper Doll line. There were a lot of cute elements in this line that will work great with girls doing what girls do, but if you don't have girls or you are beyond that stage, the color palette is divine and the B sides are lovely to use as well.

I broke out a very old photo of this one, which made my ovaries ache for another baby for a *split* second, and I like how this layout turned out:

Isn't that little chippy girl the sweetest? I thought she looked a bit like my PJ. I used the Noteworthy cartridge on my Slice for the title, and then mounted the alphas on pop dots again.

Edited to add: I almost forgot to tell you! Crate Paper has a brand new blog and right now is hosting a challenge for a chance to win all three of their new lines! Check it out here, and good luck! There is so much product with this release, you won't be disappointed.

Before I go I wanted to remind you of my Project 12 challenge for January. I am so excited by the number of participants already! It will not be hard to participate this month, so I hope you will join me! As a reminder, I am hosting the challenge in two places, so there is really only 1 challenge, just two chances to win! Remember that for future months. For January only, the challenge is on this blog. See the Project 12 button on my sidebar for all the details. The deadline is the 20th to participate for your chance to win that Collection pack from Basic Grey!

Lastly, be sure to check out the Studio Calico blog for the rest of the Anthology release. April is sharing all the stickers, fabrips and RUBONS. Leave a comment with your favorite for a chance to win them all! Check them out here.

Studio Calico sneaks and craftiness abounds.

What do you do if you are two little girls, love your snow boots, have no snow, but have sleds in your backyard?

You improvise:




Honestly, they got the giggles so bad they only managed to go down a few times each, lol. And they didn't break anything, so that's another bonus. At least they were getting along. It was a blissful moment or two.

What's with those two and putting things on the slide? They were just using the slip-n-slide on it a couple of months ago, lol.

At least they are entertaining themselves for a short while. I'm busy.

I said I was busy crafting and I'm not kidding. And today I got even busier, because Pink Plum, Brook, and Paper Doll just showed up and I am in. Heaven. Can't wait to share everything. And there was so much the pretty was overwhelming. Get a paper pack and you will not be disappointed! I hear they start shipping shortly after CHAW so that's wonderful. I'm so excited and honored to be creating a few layouts for the booth!

I promised a sneak from Studio Calico's February kit and wanted to leave you with a sneak. Because I was so busy this month, I decided to make good with my overwhelming stash and just get one add-on this month. It was torture for me but I did it. I got Scones, the third add-on.


In case you are interested, that's DMC floss #977.

I'll be back to share more soon!

Have a great day! Davinie

P.S. THANK YOU for your gathering advice on this post. I hope to be able to share something I am proud of soon, lol. Next week, I hope. I have to! I want to take it with me to California! But if I bomb, I still promise to share the pattern and the gorgeous fabric I bought, so we can mourn together. heeee. Because it will be a shame if I ruin it.

Studio Calico Anthology

Have you seen Anthology? This is the CHAW line from Studio Calico that will be shown in Anaheim in just over a week. I am so excited to be able to attend and even do make-n-takes at the booth! I'm going to post all the papers here, but if you want a closer look at the B sides and some thoughts behind their design, check out April's blog post at Studio Calico here.



What do you think? I'm a big fan of the floral and the herringbone and the woodgrain. Love the soft blue too. I'm a fan of it all! Here's a layout I created last night using this new line:



You can see one of the alphas with this line as well, in the title.

It blends nicely with Basic Grey's Origin line, doesn't it? I just love that line. I also used some Maya Road chipboard and some extras from the expression alphas from Pink Paislee.

Of course, I added a great big bow too! Love that bow. Love that photo too. Morgan took it. Love that the most.

Speaking of Studio Calico, you do know tonight is sneak night, right? Be sure to check out the Studio Calico blog soon.... I'm sure April will be posting the sneak night giveaway shortly.

I'll have Studio Calico sneaks to share with you tomorrow! Have a great day!

Davinie

I've lost my dadgum mind

I'm sewing. I'm sewing like a madwoman. I am seriously sewing part of an outfit that I'm hoping to take to California with me in a couple of weeks. And it has gathers in it. And I've never "gathered" before. The fabric is so pretty though. Maybe people will be so attracted to the pattern of the fabric that they won't notice if I'm not a very good "gather. er". ack! I don't know what I was thinking, but it's a pattern I've had forever, and I just had to try it out.

Wish me luck! And give me advice if you know how to gather!

I'm busy as a bee, crafting away with assignments and projects too. I'm preparing my first projects as a design team member for Scrapbook and Cards when it occurred to me I haven't shared some of my previous work with that magazine here on my blog.

I thought I'd share the layouts I created for my fall article on border punches.

This first one shows little paper frills using my favorite border punch from Fiskars, the Scallop Sentiment. I used Jenni Bowlin's lightweight papers for this one, because they allow more dimension when they are layered.



For this next one, I dressed up my tag at the top with my scallop punch, and then I used my effervescent border punch to make a faux ribbon trim, of sorts at the bottom of the layout.

Pink Paislee's Amber Road line

For this last one, there is that scallop sentiment punch again, but this time I used my apron lace punch on the edge of a piece of paper and then turned it into a floral embellishment.


I also had a layout in the Reader's Gallery of this issue. I updated a layout I previously created for Pink Paislee and utilized some flowers that Morgan drew. I thought they were the perfect compliment for a layout about her and orange and school days.



She's such a great artist. In fact, she used to tell me all the time she wants to be a doctor when she grows up (Payton wants to be a swimming teacher), but after she heard mention of art as a profession, she keeps telling me she wants to be an artist. I wouldn't be surprised! That girl is craft. eeee. So very cool. I did tell you she got an Easy Bake Oven and a weaving loom and art supplies, etc., etc. She loves it all.

Before I go I wanted to leave you with my latest layout with Studio Calico's Homefront line. I had made these yellow flowers with a previous layout but it was picked up by Scrapbook Trends for the May 2010 issue, so I wanted to do it again. This layout is going to be at the Studio Calico booth #3725 at CHA in a couple of weeks.





Yes, my little baby Oliver from my January kit layout is not much of a baby anymore, is he? Actually... he is. I have to remind myself that the kitties aren't even a year old yet, with some of their antics. But they both really are a blessing to have around. They do so well with the kids. No scratching at all, really. And at night if I'm looking for them so that I can put them to bed in the mud room, I know I'll find at least one of them nestled up with a small kiddo. That's really sweet.

That reminds me. One of my Australian friends was confused by the term "mud room". Is that a West Coast thing? It's basically an entry room in your home that is usually not the main entry. It's the place entry you have your kids come through if they've been playing in the mud, because you have tile floors and a sink nearby, etc. Mine has the washer and dryer in it. It's actually quite large because it used to be a single car garage. And I'm almost ready to share it with you. I just got notice that my entry bench is on it's way, and my stepmom recently brought me a big bag of drills that I'm going to turn into coat racks, a la Junk Beautiful. I can't wait to share some of our space as we get it fixed up!

That's all for me for crafty sharing today. I'll leave you with two things to contemplate.... what to do in the evenings, when your not quite 4 year old will NOT go to bed, and Skype. Do you skype? Tell me about your skyping. Can you skype with more than one person at a time? I need answers to both questions.

But don't forget about that gathering advice either, should you sew.

XOXO

Davinie