It's Friday

It's Friday.  Woot!  As soon as Steve gets home from work Sunday morning, we are taking the trailer up to the lake for a few days.  It's only about an hour+ from home, so I'm taking my Dingo with the boat up, staying a couple of nights, and then coming home to work.  Steve and the kids are going to stay up all four days he has off and coming home Wednesday.

The bright yellow orb in the sky is finally sending down some heat, so it should be sunny and warm and tons of fun.  I can't wait.

In the meantime....  it's Friday.  And that means that I need to have already picked a winner for the Studio Calico 6x6 Memoir pad from the blog hop.  That winner is......

Lane said...



I love the way the white zing woodgrain pattern compliments the blonde wood penants! I also really love the way you've been using the anywhere punches lately! :D






8:49 PM

Congratulations Lane!  Send me an email to cooperdees (at) yahoo (dot) com with your info and I'll get you set up with this 6x6 pad.  I have to say, I have been using mine quite a bit lately, for cards and for regular layouts.  I'm definitely going to need more than one.  :)

Speaking of Studio Calico and the blog hop which makes me think of the projects I shared, check this out:

http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/layouts/ss/Best-Scrapbook-Page-Ideas-Of-Cha-Summer-2011.htm

I didn't know anything about this until it was pointed out to me earlier this week.  How cool is this?  Who hasn't come across an idea at about.com when trying to google something?  I think it's pretty neat.

On another note, the girls just buttoned up their second session of swimming lessons this summer, and both passed.  I'm so happy for them!  We are going to take a little break but then they are signed up yet again before school starts.  They are both enjoying it so much!  We have considered keeping them at the pool throughout the school year.  When asked if they want to do soccer or softball or basketball or, or, the one thing that gets an enthusiastic YES is swimming.  So I guess we will (oh my, being indoors will certainly be fabulous on nasty weather days rather than being outside at the soccer field!  woot!).

So that's that.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  Davinie

on the BOARDWALK - Studio Calico's August kit

It's project time for Studio Calico's August kit.  I have to admit, I bought it all and should have added time to my cart as well, because I needed more of it. 

My favorite part of the kit was the exclusives this month, especially the color palette of the Crate Paper designed for the main kit.  My #1 recommendation would be the More SC paper add-on this month.  I just adored this color palette so much.

Here's what I came up with:

This layout was inspired by this shirt I saw while shopping online at Old Navy:

I liked how the ruffles went at odd angles, so decided to try that and utilize the monochromatic prints in the main kit. 

This is the month to try mist because the Pink Paislee Mistable trims in the main kit are just begging for it.  I used bluegrass which matched pefectly for this layout. 

As I mentioned in my sneak post, the main kit comes with AC chalk journaling stickers, and one of them has this big cloud on it, that inspired my hand cut embellies this month.  It was appropriate to make dark blue/green clouds for this layout as it was a bit overcast when we were camping at Mt St Helens, which is where these photos were taken. 

Payton was so cute with her cousin Lilly while we were camping.  Lilly kept following her around and trying to hold her hand, but that was because she wanted to place her at various places around camp and keep her there.  it was super cute. 

I like sewing in those crazy circles, so it was fun to trim a big circle and do it a different way. 

This particular cloud was made with that Claudine Hellmuth sticky backed canvas.  I LOOOVE the texture it offered. 

Did you notice how this layout was a bit of a scraplift of the previous one, down to the base paper?  That's how crazy this month has been, and that's house much I loved the More SC paper add-on, lol.

After three layouts, I came up with a couple of cards this month: 

LOVED the Simple Stories paper from add-on 4, Sandcastle. 

The chipboard alphas from the main kit are just a different color from new chipboard alphas that were released at CHA summer. 

This main kit is so fabulous!

I had fun with stamps on this last card.  That Basic Grey paper was begging for the cute apple stamps from Sandcastle, as well as the sentiment stamp on the label sticker. 

One last thing to mention is how fabulous twine is from My Minds Eye.  It's thicker than other twines I have tried in the past.  And the package includes a lot of twine, so it's a good deal too.  Loved this addition to the kit this month. 

And that's it for me, except to mention that I ran out of adhesive this month after my this and that threw a spring, and i had to try and use the refill without it, so when I saw that we were adding these to the shop I jumped on the chance to try it out.  40 feet should last until next month, right? 

Have a great night!  Davinie

In a word: SNEAKS

Hello July, as fast as a lightning bolt. 
It's already reveal and I haven't shared sneaks yet!  For pete's sake!  And I bought everything because I couldn't decide!
I wish July hadn't moved so swiftly.  Maybe it was that combined with family campouts combined with CHA madness, but I have a lot of product left to play with. 

Here's what I came up with:

I was a wee bit obsessed with clouds.  There are chalk label stickers in the main kit from AC, and one of them has a cloud shape that really inspired me this month.

Pink Paislee Mistable trims in the main are DEEEEElish.  And you can see, Bluegrass is the PERFECT mist for this kit.  This sneak uses a lot of the main kit.  The blue/green patterns are the Crate exclusives and I'd definitely recommend more SC paper this month.  This color palette is my favorite. 

This next layout is certain proof as to my obsession with Crate Paper, and how busy I was in July.

When I was working on this layout I didn't like my original design so I pushed things around and cut things up until I was happy.  And then when I put my layouts away, I realized I had SCRAPLIFTED MYSELF.  This layout shares some similarities to my first layout, including the cloud AND the base paper it's mounted on (which is more Crate exclusive paper).  See how much I was inspired by the Crate AND the clouds?  As seen, I could use it on every layout, lol.  That cloud was made with Claudine Hellmuth canvas for fun texture which worked great with the trims, and misted with more Bluegrass.  Again.  haaaa. 

I really liked the patterned papers from Simple Stories that's in add-on 4.  Pretty and a lovely color palette too.  Those chipboard alphas from the main are the same style as new CHA product, just a different color.  LOVE. 

One more share with stamps from add-on 4.  Such cute apples! 

So that's that.

Recommendations are:

bluegrass mist
white zing (did you see it on the second sneak with the blue zig zag?  Because the zig zag stamp works with that Crate paper, so it was fun to zing).
claudine hellmuth sticky backed canvas
MORE SC PAPER
and some adhesive.  Because I ran out. 

And that's that.  Have a great day!  Hopefully I'll be able to pop into chat Wednesday night.

Davinie

Studio Calico Summer Release share! And a giveaway!

Good Morning!  I'm happy to be here to share my projects for the summer show at CHA for Studio Calico.
My layout assignment was to use the Calico Collection, the veneer flags, and the chipboard alphas.  With those requirements in mind, this is what I came up with:

I love the veneer but it was a challenge for me personally to use the pendants.  I guess I don't use pendants as much as oggle them online!  ha!  I wanted to keep the woodgrain look but wanted to alter them, so tried something different and I LOVE the result.  Say hello to the woodgrain stamp from the new Home Sweet Home set being produced by Hero Arts, and some white zing:

I love how they turned out and will definitely be zinging some veneer with a woodgrain stamp again quite soon.

I grounded the pendants on my layout with a touch of color, specifically, Scraps from the Memoir line.  I just love this shade of blue.

I snuck in a bit more color with some blues from Memoir as well as some delicious chipboard clouds, and got lucky with plum colored cardstock from my stash. 

I also made some cards primary with the Calico line, but I was only able to find images of one of them....

You can still pick up the Addy alpha stickers, so I used them in green on this card.

Here's that card I made for the SC/Hero blog hope using Memoir.  Might as well share that again:

That also uses that Home Sweet Home stamp set. 

Inspired by cardmaking and the Memoir line and small scale prints and multiple pieces of paper, I wanted to give away the Memoir 6x6 pad:

Pure deliciousness, friends.  Pure.  This is definitely my favorite line from the CHA Summer release for Studio Calico. 

Be sure to check out the other blogs for chances to win more Studio Calico goodness!  I'll be drawing a name later this week.

Have a great day!  Davinie

Giveaway winner. :)

Thank you for your fun comments on my giveaway post!
The winner of the Brag Book and the summer issue of SCT is:

Rebecca said...



Have fun at the balloon festival! What a fun giveaway! Thank you so much for the chance! We had a big family gathering last night with my dad's extended family. And oddly enough, tonight we have a big one with my mom's side of the family! We very rarely have these family gatherings, so two in one weekend is crazy! But fun! I am also looking forward to starting Ali's Week in the Life next week!!


8:20 AM


Congratulations Rebecca!  Shoot me an email at cooperdees (at) yahoo (dot) com and I'll get that prize to ya.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow...  I will be participating with this and have a layout to share, and new product from Studio Calico to give away.  Fun times! 

(P.S.  the balloon festival was fun.  Night Glow was AWESOME).

Davinie

A little weekend Giveaway - Scrapbook and Cards with a side of Fancy Pants

For the summer issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine, I was assigned the Fancy Pants Brag book and decided to make an album about the summer of 2010 and all the fun adventures we had.

This has turned into one of my favorite keepsakes.  I really like everything together in one place, in a compact little album that also has photo pages to add more photos, you know, those silly photos that don't make it on to the scrapbook layouts but still tell stories of amazing adventures, and lines for lots of journaling about it all.  It's a fun alternative to the traditional way I scrapbook.

As I was contemplating buzz about albums for a week in the life that Ali is doing, or Smash books, or mini albums in general, I came back to this Brag book and how fun it would be to fill one up again.

Contemplating that made me think of the WWW and a recent thread at Studio Calico about the once elusive Brag Book (but you can now find it here, for one).

I happen to have one right here, and was thinking it would be fun to share the love by giving it away this weekend.  And to give you ideas on what to do with it, I thought I'd add a summer issue of SCT so you can see a bit of the innards to the book I made.  Yes, Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine, IN. The. Flesh.  You did know you could subscribe if you can't find this at your LSS or prefer fondling a hard copy over the online version, didn't you?  You can. 

So there you have it.  I am in the giving mood and wanted to spread the wealth on documenting your life in different ways (you could also try Project 12, hint, hint). 

Simply leave a comment on this post about what you are up to these days.  Easy as that.  I'll leave the comments open and choose a winner first thing Monday morning.

Sound good? 

Have a great weekend!  I'm taking my girls to a Balloon Festival.  I am so excited!  Hopefully we'll get to see them launch this year......     Davinie

Words on Wednesday - Travel

Pinned from PinkPatentMaryJanes

Last weekend we took the trailer @5 hours North and camped near Mt St Helens, a place I have never visited.  I was a little girl living in Alaska when it blew in 1980, but Steve remembers fishing on a local lake with his family and hearing what they thought sounded like a sonic boom, only to later learn on the news that the volcano erupted (you know, because it was the stone age, long before Iphones and the Internet, lol).

Morgan could barely sleep the night before we left, just like her dad when he was a kid, becuase she was so excited and could hear Mom and Dad getting the trailer loaded with food and supplies.  Even though this means a kiddo was rustling around after bedtime, that makes my heart happy, because I know that it wouldn't matter where we were headed.  Our kids LOVE camping and I think it's becuase it's 1000% family time without the distractions.  Sure, we only had 1 bar of service on my cell phone and I would have loved to utilize my Pinterest App or receive an email once in a while, but in general, it was so great to get away with our family.  We met up with other family from my side, and even though it rained the whole time, we ended up having a great time!

On Monday before we came home we drove up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, and if you ever get a chance to travel to Washington and want to check out the only volcano eruption in the lower 48 in our lifetime of this magnitude, I'd definitely recommend this observatory in particular.  It's practically in the mouth of the volcano and very awe inspiring.  When we were there we had a bank of cloud cover cutting off the middle section, but even with that it was quite breathtaking.  There's an @15 minute movie you can watch in their auditorium that was entertaining and quite educational about the actual event too. 

Anyway....  travel.  Even if it's just camping in the backyard, or taking the kiddos down the road for a picnic, I think all families should unplug and get away from the routine once in a while for family bonding.  It makes me smile, thinking of the memories we are creating for our kids, and hoping that when they are grown up, these trips and fun adventures we went on when they were young are something they'll always remember.

Have a great Wednesday!  Davinie

Layout Share - My Butterfly

I was really excited when I got an email from Miss Kim Watson (a rockstar and the next Guest Designer at Studio Calico, I can't wait to see what she comes up with!).  She asked if I'd contribute a layout to an article she was writing about handmade flowers for a special issue of CK.

Of course I said YES!

My layout was on page 47, a simple handmade flower, called 'Sweetly Snipped Blooms'.  It was in a special Tips and Tricks issue for Fabulous Flowers, and you can still pick it up HERE. 

Anyway, on to my layout:

I used a lot of fun products here.  Lots of strips, which was fun. 
There's Vanilla cardstock trimmed with a scallop, alongside Claudine Hellmuth sticky-backed canvas in NATURAL (woot!) for added texture.  I hand cut the scallop on the canvas after tracing a scallop ruler I bought at the Dollar Tree eons ago. 
There's tons of Crate paper, Snow Day and Restoration for color.
American Crafts mixtape (LOVE) and foam alphas,
my Martha butterfly punch.
And buttons.  Lots of buttons.  With stitching too.
Here's a closeup of the snipped flowers I made for this assignment:

Obviously I'm obsessed with the scallop, and Morgan is obsessed with butterfly face paint.  I swear every time face paint becomes an option, she metamorph's into one.  (Is metamorph a word?  I'll have to check with Words With Friends, lol).  Anyway.... 



Guess what? There's a pre-CHA sale at Two Peas in a Bucket for 15%-75% off Select Products. The sale runs July 14-22, so go check it out!

Crate Paper is part of that sale, so you could recreate the above layout at a discount.  woot! 
I also saw lots and lots of Thickers.  Bestill my heart. 

Have a great day!  Davinie

Words on Wednesday - it's been that kind of week...

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I hope you have a great Wednesday!  Davinie

It's a Studio Calico and Hero Arts STAMP blog hop!

Good Monday Morning!  The CHA madness has commenced, and today is the start of a three day blitz with Studio Calico and Hero Arts to share some of the new stamps in this new collaboration.  Hero Arts makes such high quality stamps and Studio Calico designs such high quality images that it's a perfect match, yes?

I used a house and sentiment from the Home Sweet Home set, and created a card with brand new papers from the upcoming release of the Memoir line, with a little nibble of the Calico Collection. (I just love them both!).  The chipboard clouds are in the upcoming release as well:

I used brown stazon ink and it picked up the details really well.  I used this same sentiment on a card for the booth at CHA and embossed with white zing that time.  I'm really impressed with these stamps!

If you are following the path of the hop, then you probably showed up here from Jennifer McGuire's blog.  If not and you want to start at the beginning, head to the Studio Calico blog for the details. You don't want to miss out on the fun...  Hero Arts is giving away stamp sets every day during the event, AND Studio Calico will be giving away paper Collections!  You are going to want some of this!

Next on the blog list for today is Shari Carroll.

Have a great Monday!  Davinie

Scrapbook love - Guest Star at JBS

Happy Friday to you!

I pin, I craft with kids, but I still scrapbook, lol.  A lot.  I just can't always share everything.  I DO have something to share today though!

The wonderful and talented Doris sent me some new JBS goodies to play with, and I really enjoyed playing with Haven.  Check it out:

The Collection is a bit monochromatic so I decided to go with a black and white photo from Mother's Day and used a fairly neutral background.

I also chose this photo because I loved the house print and the girl silhouette's.

There is a 12x12 pattern with the house photo on it, but I had a hard time figuring out how to use it so I was happy to see the 4x4 size mixed in with other prints, and trimmed a 4x8 piece to use here.  That 4x4 print size is great for cardmaking!  

 I stamped with watermark ink and used white Zing on an older JbS print to bring in a bit more red and add this flower to my design.  It worked really well!  JBS makes great stamps.

I stamped again with black Stazon and the really cool torn notebook paper stamp above.  I really liked that stamp.

Everything on the layout is JBS, I think.  Thank you to the JBS team for having me as a Guest Star!  I enjoyed playing with these delicious goodies.  

Have a great Friday!  Davinie  

Words on Wednesday - love your life

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Pinned from MaryRuffle.tumblr

Have a great Wednesday!  Davinie

StoryArt on crafTuesday - Elmer the patchwork elephant

Earlier this spring I participated in a fun ATC swap for kids and my girls just loved it.

While blog hopping for this event I stumbled upon this great treasure of a book, which I immediately snagged at Amazon.com and have decided to turn into a summer series to share on my blog (and to play with my kiddos).

I'm passionate about a few things:  Art.  Art with kids.  And teaching.  So the idea of doing art AND educating the kiddos, making those little brains grow, just makes me happy.

Enter Story Art.

On crafTuesday for the next few months, I'm going to be doing craft projects with my girls (and any friends I can wrangle) based on illustrations in a children's book.  We are going to mimic the process used to create famous illustrations, and get some summer reading time in while we are at it.  S

For this first "Art class", we decided to go with a classic in our household, Elmer.




We love these books.  They are well written, entertaining, and Elmer has many storybook adventures, so it gives something for the girls to look forward to when we head to the library for a new story to bring home.

In Elmer's world, except for relatives, all the elephants are the typical gray except for him, so one day he covers himself in berries to match everyone else, which makes him blend in with everyone else.  His sparkling personality is hidden amongst the crowd and everyone misses him.  When his identity is revealed it becomes a big joke, and the elephants  decide to have a special parade each year where he "dresses up" like typical elephants, and they dress up like Elmer.

That's the premise for this art project.

I printed out elephants for the girls to trim out, and then we grabbed poster paint (I learned from my lesson with our last project..... one of my fingernails was red from that acrylic paint for a week!), and some household items to create fun effects while we painted our elephants in different patterns and colors for our own parade (on butcher paper).

Supplies consisted of:
poster paint
plastic fork
unsharpened pencils
dish sponges
foam brush
pastry blender
toilet paper rolls
decorative roller
etc.

I just wanted to use household type products that might create a fun effect with paint.

Then it was just a matter of decorating the elephants.

To make it easier I put one color per object, fearing that all Elmers would be brown if they got to take their supply to a different color.  This worked out well.

(I got those nifty Aprons at the Dollar Tree).

Payton really liked the project and her favorite supplies were the fork, the pencil, and the dish sponge.

Morgan liked doing her own thing with the foam brush, but also liked the toilet paper roll (I liked the toilet paper roll too).

We had our furboy Cooper watching the action so had to get a photo of him too.  :)

Then it was a matter of lining the Elmers in a row for a parade on paper.

For some reason, at one point in her presentation of the parade Payton broke out into chicken dance.  I don't know why.  But it's my job to document it all.  ;)

I was going to use google eyes but couldn't find the huge bag I got at Michael's, so used two circle punches with white and black cardstock.  That worked well.

We read the book first, and then focused on the artwork before starting our project.  That night, I read another book or two about Elmer, so that we could continue thinking about him and look at the art in a different story.  

My girls just loved it so I will be doing this again!  I'm already excited about the possibilities of this type of project in a future classroom someday.  I'd love to see a whole classroom wall lined with Elmer's in a parade.

I'll be back with another StoryArt project next week.  Have a great Tuesday!  Davinie

P.S.  Download a .pdf to make your own Elmer here.