Happy New Year!

Wishing you and yours a safe and blessed New Year.  I know I have a lot of changes coming to my life next year, and I'm really looking forward to it.  Change is good!  It replenishes the soul.

Back tomorrow with some fun things to share!

Davinie


Party Hat Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Studio Calico Reveal - County Fair

ack.
Every time I write it I type fairy.  Someone has an excess of estrogen in their household.  heee.

It's December 27.  9pm my time.  That means it's reveal night at Studio Calico and time to share what I managed to put together between wrapping gifts and making cake pops.

The kit:

Say hello to County Fair:

My add-ons of choice were Ring Toss, Kissing Booth and Photo Booth.  Shooting Gallery is equally as lovely, but I was trying to hold myself back. 

If I had to choose just one add-on this month, it'd definitely be Photo Booth I think.

I adore the corrugated alphas, and I think I used the buttons on every layout.  I also love the stamp and the Kesiart paper.....  the list goes on and one.  Unfortunately for the DT, the product is new enough we didn't have a chance to play with either alpha in this add-on in time for reveal, but if we had, you would have seen more projects from me.  I loved this one.

Another great add-on is the Kissing Booth add-on.  I used bits here and there.  It's the most affordable add-on this month too, at under $20.  So that's great!  I have plans for those envelopes, just ran out of days (I am one of those girls still in denial that we've already passed Halloween, let alone all the special holidays at the end of the year).

Anyway....

The projects:

This first layout was made with the main kit only:

Payton is in Kindergarten this year, and the class pet is this stuffed dog named Daisy.  Payton was the lucky girl who got to take her home for her first week-long play date.  Daisy came in a carrier, and had a toothbrush, a book, and a notebook to jot down your adventures.  Oh my, we had fun with her while she was here.

Such a great idea for a class pet for a Kindergarten class!

I loved the BG chipboard ribbons, and had to use the #1 friend circle for a layout about this pup.  I also ADORE this woodgrain paper.  I'm so glad I got the more paper add-on because I definitely needed another piece, and it's OA which means I definitely needed to get the add-on in order to get it in my hands.  The B side of that paper is the blue polkadot that I trimmed with a scallop punch.  Loved both sides.   I also loved the PP wood alphas!

This next layout put my sewing machine to work:

My sister zipped by and snapped some photos of our family to use for our Christmas cards, and this general pose won by a landslide so I had to use it on a layout.  I wanted to keep it simple yet interesting, and knew exactly how that was going to work out when I saw this quilt:

(West Elm)

This is a chevron/herringbone.  It's actually chevron but they are calling it a herringbone.  It's a chevron print because the vertical line meets up, and a herringbone print wouldn't.  But there you go.

Anyway, I adore this quilt.  I want the blue one very very much.  I was just about to hit buy on a nice one for my own bed when I saw the color is called Wedgewood, which gave me pause.  In the photo it has a teal/gray color to it.  But Wedgewood is definitely a blue that I'm not interested in.  What do you think?  Does it look teal/gray to you?  Because if so I want it very very bad.

As for the layout, I trimmed out other pieces and stitched them before adhering just to add some additional texture to the layout.  I really love the look of it all.

As it was a busy month, I only have three projects to share, and the last one kept my sewing machine working and is a bit on the festive side.  On this one I made a wee booboo, but I hope you will forgive me:

When I got my kit the OA miscellany pack was in my box.  I was thinking it was an additional shop item for this month that I had purchased, so I used it on my layout.  But I'm a scatterbrain.  It was a shop item LAST month.  So....  it isn't in the shop anymore.  The good thing about this is that if you are a shopper at SC, you may have purchased it, which means that you have it on hand right now and may need ideas on how to use it. So here you go!

I was inspired by the red SC paper and the greens in the main kit for a Christmas layout.  And I made this layout while listening to holiday music, so it worked out really well and I had fun with it.  I wanted to use circles because of that KesiArt paper, so trimmed them out and then adhered them with plenty of stitching in a pattern for fun.  I then bent the edges up a bit to help them pop off the page.

This chipboard piece (from that darn OA pack) is nekkid except for some Calico Shine.  LoVE.  Who can't use a little sparkle in their life?

I hope you've found some inspiration here and that if you are an SC subscriber or shopper, you get what you wanted this month!

Davinie

Products that made it happen:

InLinkz.com

it's almost Christmas - and Studio Calico sneaks!

Oh my.
T-minus the big guy is already on the road!
Don't forget to track his progress:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/

Back in the PST, it's time for some Studio Calico sneaks.  May you receive a gift certificate, money tree, Christmas bonus, and a discount so that you can purchase crafty products to your hearts content.

Sneaks:

The kit is County Fair.  Here are a couple of sneaks:

This first is my main kit only sneak.  I loved the BG brads and this OA woodgrain is just divine.  The circles were punched but I used an even larger circle on this layout, and that was made tracing a Fiestaware plate.  Fiestaware is not required in order to replicate that circle, but neither is a die cut machine.  I did purchase a Silhouette recently but it's been too busy to set it up.  That said, there are a lot of handy bits around the house that make for great embellishments on a layout, right?

I used the sewing machine a bit on the first layout, but that started a frenzy for the rest of my work this month:

I'm excited to share my inspiration piece for this second layout.

I was feeling festive for this last one!  

I don't need to share how busy I've been.  We are all busy this time of year.  I will say I adore the kit and have plans for it next week when things slow down, but for now, this is it.  I hope you are inspired!

Enjoy the holidays!  We are going to do something different this year...  brunch with Grandma and Grandpa and then we are going to the movies.  I think the consensus is "We bought a Zoo" because we are not cartooning with the chipettes with the whole family, and we want everyone to have fun.  Then it'll be home for an early night as it'll take a bit to wrangle kids into bed in anticipation of Christmas Day excitement.  I'm looking forward to it, even though I'm still in denial that Halloween has already happened.  Oh my, the end of the year came up quick.

Side note:  TOTALLY behind on my December Daily album, BUT I have been taking notes and taking photos and WILL finish it.  I started it which is a good thing!  I have been working on it but have decided the pressure of getting it done daily was not worth it, and enjoyed the time instead.

Enjoy your weekend!  Davinie

crafTuesday - baking Neopolitan cookies

My sister and her hubby came down from Seattle last weekend for my grandmother's surprise 80th birthday party, and while she was here, I took advantage of the extra baking bod and put her to work in the kitchen with my kiddos, baking Christmas vittles.

I let the girls go through the cook books and cookie magazines, and Payton's choice were these Neopolitan cookies.  They wouldn't normally have been something I would have gravitated towards, but since I happened to have the ingredients on hand we went for it, and it turned out to be a great cookie and a lot of fun to make.

The recipe:

Neopolitan cookies (from a Taste of Home cookie book)

1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 drops red food coloring
1/2 cup flaked coconut
4-1/2 teaspoons chocolate syrup
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/2 teaspoon shortening

The process:

1.  Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with waxed paper; set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

2.  Divide dough into thirds.  Add almond extract and red food coloring to one portion; spread evenly into prepared pan.  Add coconut to second portion; spread evenly over first layer.  Add chocolate syrup to third portion; spread over second layer.  Cover with foil;  freeze for 4 hours or overnight.

3.  Unwrap loaf and cut in half lengthwise.  cut each portion widthwise into 1/4inch slices.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Remove to wire racks to cool.

4.  In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth.  Dip one end of each cookie into chocolate; allow exce4ss to drip off.  Place on waxed paper; let stand until set.

Yield:  5-1/2 dozen



I loved that this was a two day process.  We did steps one and two with the kids before bed on Friday, and Saturday morning after breakfast finished things up.  They turned out delightful, much better than expected.  I highly recommend this one as a great cookie to bake with kids.  Payton in particular really had a lot of fun with it, as did Alyca.

Have a great day!  Davinie

Scrapbook and Cards Today - Winter issue

Did you see it?  The winter issue of SCT is LIVE!  Check out the gorgeous cover:

I just love the tree Summer made with those brads.  So cute!  (Download it here, subscribe to get a copy in your hands here, or ask your LSS to carry this publication.  It's fabulous!).  

edited to add:  ALSO, leave a comment on the SCT blog here and you could win a copy of this issue plus a fun holiday prize pack from Bazzill.  Check out that link and you can also get info on the giveaways at SCT coming later in the month.  

There's a lot of fun projects in this winter issue.  Vicki Boutin is all over it with Christmas gift and tag ideas.  I really like what Emily did with her Eye Spy layout this month too.  I must get that background paper and use some inks and mists.

This is what I came up with for this issue:

The three designer challenge had fun products from Pink Paislee, Jillibean Soup, and Maya Road, to name a few.

I also created this card based on a cardmap sketch from Becky Fleck:

This card was made with Studio Calico products, Autumn Press in particular.  I intentionally snipped some of the weaving out of my heart to add more texture and allow more of the background paper to be seen.  I had fun with this sketch!

Have a great day!  Davinie

P.S.  Check out the December Countdown of inspiring holiday projects and ideas after you check out the winter issue.  Today is Day 3 but you can view all of the projects here.

Project 12 November in December

Woah.
Shocking that today is December 1.  I just had to put it out there.  We started all of our advent calendars today and it's a bit surreal, lol.

Welcome to another edition of Project 12!  

I somehow found the time to work on the October sketch and I loved the results.  As a reminder, this is what the October sketch looked like:

And this is what I came up with this month:

I used my Brooklyn Flea kit from Studio Calico, with the exception of a couple of leaves.  I really like how this one turned out!  I love the photos especially.  

December is such a crazy month, but this is the sketch we have for November photos:

In a word, terrifying.  But I'm going to step back and look at the sketch, and it'll inspire the design, I'm sure.  Those photo spots might not all be photos (for real.  I'm not sure I took this many photos in November, lol).  

So my challenge to you is to find the TIME to participate, and carry on.  This challenge is a good one.  You know your albums will be glad you did it!

Until next month, Davinie.

(Questions about P12, see the Project 12 page above).