Who's getting London?

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Timestamp: 2008-11-01 04:20:03 UTC


That would be Sue!


Sue Bone said...
I love what you've done with the veneer - very clever. Sue
2:34 AM

Congratulations Sue! Send your info to me at cooperdees at yahoo dot com and I'll send you to London! :)


Oh how I wish I could go to London. 10 weeks. 1999. That was the first and last time I was there. I really, REALLY want to go back.

Thank you so much for playing along, and all your sweet comments! I really appreciate it.

Studio Calico is making some changes!

Hooray! The Studio Calico November kit has finally been revealed, the DT gallery is full and inspiring, and I can finally share my work with the www. I still have a ton of product left, and I can't wait to play with it some more.

I am a huge fan of the OA cloud paper and didn't want to cut it up yet, so the first thing I made was this layout. I decided to recreate the pattern of the cloud paper using some of the other papers in the kit.


I used the shape of the clouds in the OA paper as inspiration for the shapes I hand cut.


I took some photos of Payton on a tractor while at the pumpkin patch last weekend, and just had to use them with this kit. I have received several Bazzill stitching templates in my goodies boxes from Scrapbook Trends, and am now ADDICTED to this stitch. I don't normally use any sort of template with my hand stitching, but this one just speaks to me.

Farmer was stamped with a new set of stamps that are available in the new store at Studio Calico, which officially launches today.

I used the cloud stamp in the main kit as photo corners for this layout of my girls. I also used the Heidi Swapp alpha stamps for the title. I just love all of the K&Co. die cuts on this one.

I decided to use my precious OA paper on this layout about Payton and the trouble we are having with the "terrible two's". Wowee this girl is having a lot more trouble with this age than her big sister is. The interesting thing, though, is that I think she's a better communicator. I thought the terribles were basically about frustration from being unable to convey emotions and meaning, etc. PJ has no trouble letting us know what she's thinking and feeling, lol. So I am a bit baffled by it all.

That little chipboard strip at the bottom is part of the negative on the Maya Road chipboard strips.

This wall hanging is made out of veneer! Brilliant! It is roughly 4x12, and I just laid it on the table with a bit of an overhang, bent it and splintered it right off. I like the rough edge. This hangs by my front door and I love it much more than I thought I would. Who knew veneer would find it's place into my heart when I am busy renovating and getting rid of all sorts of similar older building materials, lol.

Rip strips are a new thing for this kit, too. They were made exclusively for Studio Calico by Tinkering Ink. It's basically sticky back canvas, and was actually quite fun to play with. I used it to make a flower on the card below, but also just used it as a strip of texture and color on the Faerm Girl layout above.

This OA house paper is another great item in the kit this month. It was hard for me to cut this up too! The backside of that paper is this great green gingham.

As I said above, Studio Calico is officially launching a Supply store store today. In honor of that, each of the Design Team members are giving away an add-on from a previous kit. My add-on is the London add-on from the July 2008 kit. I didn't purchase this add-on but wish I would have! That's why I chose this particular goodie to give away.

Here's a fun mini album that was made with this kit. Look at that super cool binding!

To be entered to win this add-on, just make a post to this thread. I'll leave this open until Thursday night at midnight, and draw a name on Halloween. Be sure to check out each of the other girls' blogs for their add-on too. I have links to all the blogs on my sidebar. Good luck!
Have a great Tuesday! Davinie

Good Morning Sunshine!

Well, I went and blew it, lol.

I posted about the surprise party not knowing Sabrina was giving Alyca access to the internet, so of course she saw what the plan was, lol. To her credit she faked surprise and didn't tell me she knew until late Saturday evening. whatever. lol.

I let me kids pick out the pinata, secretly hoping they'd choose this really cool angular number with lots of streamers. But what did they choose? The rainbow donkey. Only they insist that it's a unicorn. And a pegasus, depending on what kid you ask...




Does that look like a horse to you? lol

The kids still had a wonderful time decorating the house, making cupcakes, and they loved whacking the pinata. Usually we get the kind where you pull the string, so this one was a treat. Believe it or not, even with my 2 1/2 year old muscle man nephew wielding the whacking broom, it was Morgan that first removed it's leg and later completely removed it's entire torso. That girl's got muscle!

Before I go I wanted to share a couple of things. First is my card from this week's challenge at the Cardalicious blog. The challenge this week was to create a card that wasn't a square or rectangle. I ran into a sheet of die cut journaling stickers from Sassafras, and immediately decided to create a card shape. Maybe it's a cloud of cotton candy. I paired it with the new Sweet Cakes line from Pink Paislee. These two lines go together very well. I basically trimmed a rectangular card base, affixed the sticker, and then trimmed around it to create my shape, being sure to leave a seam at the top. I then hand stithed and added the flower and sentiment. That sentiment is part of one of the new stamps in the set from the Sweet Cakes line. I just inked the center of the stamp.

I hope you'll play along in the challenge!

Lastly I wanted to make sure you had the right date for reveal night at Studio Calico. It's tonight! Check out the November kit! As you know, I had a lot of fun with this one. I hope you'll join us tonight! We are having a avatar costume party, complete with prizes.

And here's one last little sneak from one of my projects with this kit:

That's it from me today! Have a great Monday.

Davinie

A Quick Sneak....

Happy Saturday! Steve left bright and early this morning for Elk camp, so I am gearing up for a week or so with just the girls.
Just for fun and to break up the monotony, today my girls and I are throwing a surprise party for my sister, who flew into town last night. Right now she's staying with my other sister, but they are coming over this afternoon. My girls are obsessed with pinatas, and since her birthday was last week, I thought it would be fun to get a pinata and decorate some cupcakes just because. Her name is Alyca. Uh. Lease. Uh. Another doozie from my parent's, lol. I am Davie and Bonnie mixed together, and she is their best friends, Alan and Joyce, yes, mixed together again. My youngest sister's name is Sabrina. I think my parent's got tired of all the work with the mixed names, and just named her after their favorite babysitter. She's the lucky one, lol. I also have a brother, and his name is Joe Brian, but since he was born, we have always called him Jobie. I'm the eldest, of course.
Anywhoo....
Alyca doesn't have kids yet, so we are sugaring them up for her visit. It should be fun! My sister is going to bring her over here and make her stay outside for a few while her kids come inside, grab a party hat, and "hide". And then we'll surprise her! Sabrina told her she picked up a slinkie and some lip gloss for a birthday gift. I think I'll let my kids shop at the dollar store and make her a card as well.

My weekend is jam packed but I wanted to share a couple more sneaks from the November kit at Studio Calico. As I mentioned, it's one of my favorites! Again, I bought all three add-ons this month.

Before I go I wanted to share the recipe for German Pancakes that I made a couple of weeks ago on baking Saturday. My kids thought it was a lot of fun, and it was a nice change from traditional pancakes.

German Pancakes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Melt 1/3 cup butter in oblong glass baking dish (9x13 or larger)

Blend in blender:

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

4 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Bake for 25-30 minuts. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Serves 4

P.S. I wasn't going to say anything, but I am so darn excited I can't help it. I FINALLY broke the CK barrier this week! Morgan is going to be in the Reader's Gallery in the March 2009 issue! If that wasn't excitement enough, I just got an email on Friday for a layout for the Easier than Ever 2 Idea Book. 2 CK's in one week! Good grief! I am so darn excited and honored.

Anyway......

Happy Saturday!

Cardalicious~2 on a Monday morning

Good Morning! It's Monday again but I hope you had a great weekend. We had a blast at the pumpkin patch yesterday. We were there for almost 5 hours! Afterwards we headed to a pizza joint with one of those indoor play areas but it was completely packed, so we headed down the street to a place called Outside In Cafe which had play stuff for kids inside as well as healthy food choices. Morgan had cheese trees which was basically a grilled cheese sandwich cut into strips with steamed broccoli. It was a great plan to end our day because the only crying we had from kids was when we had to go home. Believe me, that's refreshing!

I don't have a lot to share with you but I did want to post my card for the second challenge at the href="http://cardalicious.blogspot.com/">Cardalicious blog. The challenge this week was to use at least two tags/journaling spots, etc., and to make a birthday card. This challenge was really easy for me, because I dashed straight to my Studio Calico kit stash and went for my Looking-Glass kit and the Alice add-on.... and that bag-o-tags from Fancy Pants. After that the card came together rather quickly. I hope you will check out the blog and play along!

Steve leaves early Saturday morning for elk camp so it's going to be a busy week soaking him up and preparing for his absense. I have several fun things planned, but there are peeps who read this blog that are part of the fun things planned that are not to be mentioned so I cannot mention the things that might be planned, for fear that they will be read and then known. Got that? lol It's really not that big of a deal but my kids are very excited. I'll share when one of the fun things planned has come to fruition. lol

Have any of you seen "Nights in Rodanthe" with Diane Lane and Richard Gere? Some girlfriends want to go so they made me read the book, but it was my least favorite Nicholas Sparks book... I can see how a movie was made, though, because the book seemed more of an outline and left a lot of room for character development, etc. I'm just wondering if the movie was any good?

Anyway.... have a great Monday!

Davinie

A Hodge Podge of Scrappiness....

Oh, the things kids say. Yesterday morning Morgan came up to me and said:

Mom,

Cutie Patootie

means Cute......

in Spanish.


lol

I think she has been watching Dora the Explorer a bit much, lol. Wouldn't you agree?

I've had a busy week this week.... lots of scrappy assignments, and work and life stuff mixed in. Steve was deer hunting the last two weekends, and leaves for Elk season on the 24th. He will miss out on Halloween, because he won't be home until November 4. Why do I put up with that amount of time, you ask? Because I know how much he loves it up there in the woods. The more miserable the weather, the happier that guy is. And when he's happy, I'm happy, so happiness abounds, lol.



He was gone last weekend when my camera died, so I waited until he got home to relay the bad news and talk about what to do. It was extremely stressful to purchase a new one because I wasn't anticipating the purchase, so hadn't done a lot of research, and they are all so darn expensive, so I was stressed about that too. I was also in a rush because I needed to take photos! In the end I got this:

It's a step up from an Xti but not quite as expensive as the Xsi. It has an auto self-cleaning function that is pretty cool too. It cleans itself every time you turn it off. I'm excited to learn more about what this bad boy can do, lol. Today we are headed to the pumpkin patch with friends so I'm sure it'll get quite the workout. There are going to be pony rides, so Payton is going to be in heaven. That girl has found something to be passionate about. In fact, it has already got me thinking ahead to Christmas. I think we are going to get her one of these:

http://www.boscovs.com/StoreFrontWeb/Product.bos?quantity=1&itemNumber=4567&type=Product

If you have one of these beauties or know anything about them, let me know. It's a lot of money to fork out if it's going to malfunction and not work on the first day, know what I mean?

My busy week included the November kit from Studio Calico. This kit is another one of my favorites, I think. I just love the new October Afternoon and this kit is packed with it. YUM. Here's a couple of peeks:

I'll have more peeks up before reveal night which is..... a week from now. The 27th. Good grief, the end of the month is coming up quick. It's almost Halloween!

Before I go I wanted to share a Pink Paislee layout that uses both the Vintage Moon and Pop Fashion lines. I also mixed in some Autumn Leaves/Heather Bailey and some Anna Griffin flowers from one of the add-ons from the Confections kit at Studio Calico, I believe. I trimmed off one side of the topsider sticker so that it would fit my 8 1/2 x 11 layout. That's Morgan and her cousin, Raegan. They are both taking tap dancing together this year. It's good for them to get more time together, and I'm hoping it will inspire Morgan to actually perform at the Spring recital. $60 is due by November 1 for costumes so that's a lot of money if she isn't going to do it! Crossing my fingers already.... Is it a bad sign that we can't even get her to practice some of the moves she does in class when she's at home? She doesn't have a problem "performing" during class time, but she is not interested in practicing during the week, especially if it's something that dad might see. This is NOT a good sign, lol.

Have a great Sunday! Tomorrow I'll be able to share my card from the second challenge at the Cardalicious blog. It was a really fun challenge! I used leftover kit contents from the current Studio Calico kit, Looking Glass, for this card. I just had to! You'll know what I mean when the second challenge is revealed.

:)

And the winner is....

corriebear said...
Your cards rock! We are taking our two year old for her first trick or treating experience this year. We're hoping she'll put the costume on this year....
6:04 PM

Thanks for playing along ladies!

Corriebear, email me at cooperdees at yahoo dot com and I'll get these Halloween goodies to you asap!

:)

A new challenge blog! And a rak

Hi there! Good grief, long time no update, lol! I've been busy.

Last weekend my camera met it's demise, I think. I was deleting some photos and all of the sudden lost all power. I took it to a camera shop and they had no idea how to fix it. That's not a good sign! Steve is out of town hunting so I haven't had a chance to pow wow with him about my options, but I think it's time for a new camera, I guess. I currently use a Rebel XT and I am leaning towards a Rebel XS I think. It's not much more than an Xti and has the auto cleaning function. I was not prepared to be camera shopping right now, good grief, but if I have to get a new one I might as well go bigger and better, right?

Speaking of cameras, Jenn pointed us towards this great site for photography tips. Check it out here. They are offering 100 tips in 100 days. Very cool!

Okay, on to cards and the main reason for this post. I was recently invited to be part of a team at a new card challenge site. I really liked the idea behind the challenges, so I am very excited about it. The name rocks too! It's called Cardalicious, and the first challenge went live today. It was all about incorporating traditional imagery into Halloween cards. I decided to go with a bat. I hand cut my bat from felt and covered it with black glitter from Pink Paislee (YUMMMMM). Check it out:

To create my bat I adhered felt to cardstock using a spray adhesive. I then trimmed out the pattern that I had sketched on the cardstock. It made it much easier than to try and trim the felt on it's own. I then covered it with a ton of great glitter from Pink Paislee.

This card was made with product from both Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket. Speaking of which, I just got a Fed Ex shipment of the new Sweet Cakes and Tinsel Town lines, and oh my heavens, I am in LOVE. But I digress....

It's been a while since I've had a giveaway, so in honor of the month of October and the upcoming Halloween holiday, I thought I'd give away some fun Halloween product that I used to create this card. I have a set of Halloween stamps from Pink Paislee, and a tube of licorice Pixee Stix.


The Pixee Stix? That tube is 7 inches long! There is a lot of more glitter in there than you'd think.

In honor of Halloween, leave a comment and let me know if you have any plans for the 31st. Doing any trick-or-treating with kids? Handing out candy? Sitting in the dark with the lights off and the TV on low? Out of town? I was able to get costumes for my kids, and Morgan is going to be a witch, and Payton will be a black kitty. I can't wait to dress them up and take them out!

I'll leave the comments open through Tuesday and will pick a winner Wednesday morning.

Have a great day! Davinie

World Cardmaking Day!

Happy Saturday! Do you have plans today? Today is World Cardmaking Day! I know I'm going to try and get busy making some cards today... it would be great to get a head start on those Christmas cards, you know? Steve is off deer hunting for the weekend so it's just me and the girls, so I guess we'll see what ends up happening. This is also baking day, so I've got a busy schedule. I'm not a huge fan of gourmet cooking and baking, but I wanted my kids to get into it and have fond memories of the kitchen, so I've started a tradition of Saturday baking. Last week we made banana crunch muffins. YUM. Today we are making brownies. We are also making German pancakes for breakfast, so it's a double baking day!

Speaking of WCMD, have you checked out the Pink Paislee blog today? If you check it out today, you'll see sneaks leading to all sorts of cards and instructions to help get you in a crafty mood. I hear that Rebecca is also planning a little WCMD giveaway, so be sure to check it out!

I used the Vintage Moon line for my card. I wanted to show that you could do other seasons besides fall with this line. I just love it! The chipboard butterfly is from Maya Road and came from my September kit from Studio Calico.

With this card I decided to carry on my obession lately, ruffles.

It is really easy to do the ruffled look with patterned paper. Rather than rouching the paper and folding it the same way, I like the look of going back and forth.

Step 1.

Step 2.
Step 3.
You carry on with this until you have reached the length you want. Want to ruffle across a 12 by 12? Trim two lengths of the same paper and when you reach the end, tuck the beginning of your new strip under one of the ruffles. It hides the end and allows you to ruffle away!

I then stitched over the top of my ruffle, added a ribbon, and adhered it to the front of my card. The ruffle adds a lot of dimension so I used pop dots on the top of my butterfly to really help it stand out.

And because I was on a roll I decided to make a card with the Pop Fashion line to share with you today as well.

I was immediately inspired by the 8x8 paper pack packaging and the strips of the different patterns:

I trimmed strips with my scalloped deco scissors, stitched the edges, tied a bow, and slipped in a topsider with my sentiment. This card came together really quickly!

I hope you have a great WCMD and a great weekend! Don't forget to visit the blogs of all the other Pink Paislee team for more PP inspiration!

Davinie

Fall and Halloween. Hello October!

Hurray, it's October! I just love October. In just a few short weeks I get to go to the pumpkin patch with my kiddos... TWICE! Once with preschool for a field trip, and once with family and friends. You can check out our patch here:

http://www.pumpkinco.org/

Isn't it great!

October also means the next issue of True North. I was really excited about this issue. I created a home decor project for fall as well as some Halloween gift and treat ideas.

I used some fun older supplies for my banner and vase. Vintage buttons too. I had a lot of fun with that project!

I also used some yummy Scenic Route for my Haloween treat bags and my gift frame. My inlaws live out of town a bit so they don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters. BOY do they treat the ones that show up, though! A project like this would be great for the out of towners, lol.

That's all I have for today! Right now I'm working on a little something for World Cardmaking Day, which is on Saturday. Are you doing anything? It would be a great day to get started on those homemade Christmas cards you intend to do every year but never get around to. kwim?

Have a great Wednesday! Davinie