Cocoa Daisy March

Are you totally impressed that I've blogged several days in a row? I am surprised. Anyway...

Cocoa Daisy. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I LOVE THIS KIT! Opening that box, finding those beautiful papers and embellies was such a happy thing. The colors are fab! You can get your own here.
(click on the layouts to get a bigger view.)

A layout about my middle child. The poor kid. He's often lost between the drama of the biggest and the littlest. But I know how he feels. I am a middle child. He's in my mind and heart always.

I've loved those Pink Paislee hexagon chipboards the very first time I saw them last summer CHA. So glad they were in the kit! I'm doing a blog post about this layout for Cocoa Daisy in March.

The arrow is a stamp from their awesome stamp add-on. The fab folks at Clearsnap sent me some ink pads, and I have been in love with the two colors I used here: Berry and Wheatgrass (Colorbox). From what I understand, these are limited edition. Those two colors are perfect with this kit.

 That ribbon is so pretty! It's wired, and it's a really thick linen.

It was hard to read the title, so I outlined it with a marker. I know other people do this all the time, but this was my first time! I was nervous. Really nervous! That distressed circle is a stamp from the stamp add-on.

 The rhinestones came with the kit, and I used them! So proud of myself!

As soon as I saw the chipboard shapes (from Studio Calico), I knew I wanted to use them for photos. They are teeny, but I love how neatly they fit with this patterned paper (Dear Lizzy by American Crafts). I wanted to keep the pattern mostly undisturbed, and just add little details here and there.

 A hand stitched "b". A few buttons.

A bit of journaling. The photo tags were also handstitched on. I love that photo of Luke trying out eyeglasses at a Walgreens.

And a card! That arrow stamp came with the main kit. I've used it so many times already! The background lattice is from the add-on stamps.

I had forgotten how much I love using a kit to create. Thanks Cocoa Daisy!

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Pies!

If I had to choose between cake or pie, I'd pick pie. Every single time. It's the crust! I love pie crust. So when I saw the new Lawn Fawn paper with the hand drawn circles, the first thing that popped into my head was PIE!

Yes, I threw in a pizza pie. Because, well, I love that too.

Some journaling in a circle, some sewing, some letter stickers...

A few colorful pops of the other patterned papers. A stamped cutie pie. And it's done. My husband kept walking in while I was scrapping this, and saying "you can't make a layout about pie and not make pie!" Ha! Maybe this weekend.

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Kites

I love everything about kites. The way they look, the shapes, colors, I even love flying them. My dad taught me how to make kites when I was seven, and I've been hooked ever since. Which is why I love that my kids love kites too. So whenever the weather is good, and we have some free time, we head out to Venice beach, and fly kites.

I created this layout for Lily Bee, and it uses the new collections Buttercup and Double Dutch. I cut out the kites with an x-acto knife and layered the papers underneath.

While cutting, I was wishing for a Silhouette... Sigh. But anyway, they were pretty simple, and didn't take a lot of time. The shadows created by the cutouts is so different from layering the patterned paper on top. Love that.

I finished the layout with a few handstitched tails, a handstitched title, and printed journaling using one of the Index Journaling Cards. Pretty simple. I like simple!

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Cocoa Daisy Sneak Peek!

I'm a lucky girl! I was asked to guest design for Cocoa Daisy using the March kit. That kit is so pretty, I had a hard time cutting into the paper. And the stamps! I love stamps. The stamp with the main kit, as well as the add-on stamp set are amazing! You can take a peek of the kit here. (I got the add #1 too!) Oh, did I mention hexagons? Love!

The reveal is on February 28th! So excited!

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A Place Called Home

My friend Courtney Walsh has written a novel, A Sweethaven Summer, and she's been doing a series of blog posts about the book, the various themes in it, and also giveaways. She asked me to do a layout about a place that is meaningful to me. (BTW, the book is a really good read. There's an awesome character named Luke Barber. Pretty awesome name, if I may say so myself...)

Initially I thought about all the places I've lived at, and I've lived in a lot of different places. But then it occurred to me that what I needed to scrap about was the place in which I'm currently living: Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is a hard place to love if you live here. And I mean here-here. In the middle of the city. The traffic is atrocious at all times. It's noisy, dirty, polluted. There are some crazy drivers here, but the pedestrians are nuts too! When I first moved here, I really wanted to like it. But I could not. I missed my house in Philly. I missed my friends. I missed the four seasons weather. I missed the kids' schools, the real cheesesteak, the crazy groundhogs walking around, the hiking trails.

After a few months of pouting, faking being happy, some more pouting, I realized that it wasn't the city that was making me sad. It was me! I was in my own way. So I resolve to be happier. I resolve to explore more, and see what this place offers. I've made friends, I've become more involved in the kids' school. I might even talk to a neighbor or two.

Because really, how can I be angry with a place that is almost always sunny, warm, and has palm trees? Right?

The chevron stamp is from Lawn Fawn's Chevron Backdrops, which will be available on March 1st. Other supplies: Ink / Clearsnap's Colorbox; thread / DMC; cardstosck: Neenah; font / p22 Typewriter. (Sorry for the slightly pink photos!)

Thanks for dropping by!

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Moving Right Along...

I'm just going to jump right back in here, and ignore the fact that I haven't posted in over 5 months...

A few things going on right now.

1. Lawn Fawn! Love them. Love Kelly and Mike (the owners), love their stamps (super high quality polymer), love their designs (cute cute cute!). So when Kelly asked me to join the team, I only had one answer in mind, "Heck yeah!" I got the new stamps the other day, and spent most of the day smelling them. Is that weird? New stamps smell so good. And now Lawn Fawn has patterned paper! Amazing! I created these layouts using Lawn Fawn stamps a while back. (You can click on the projects to get a bigger view.)

This one uses the super popular Say Cheese set. I stamped those polaroid frames, cut them out, and then I cut the windows out. The photos are behind the frame, and the frames are popped up.
As seen in the October 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher.

This was a year in review mini-album. The months and the teeny camera are from the Say Cheese, Too set. As seen in the Seasons special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright creative crafts group. posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

I made little flaps for the journaling: just a simple caption for each photo.

2. I'm going to Barcelona later this week with my hubby. He's going for work, and I'm tagging along. We won't be there for long, but I haven't been to Spain in over a decade. Cannot wait to get back, and embarrass myself by speaking Spanish like I actually know how.

3. Lily Bee has a sketch challenge right now. Katja did the sketch, and it's super cute. Plus, as with all Lily Bee challenges, there's a prize involved in the form of NEW Lily Bee products. So worth the effort!

4. Speaking of Lily Bee, I worked the booth at CHA ( a few weeks ago) and met so many nice people. It was also so much fun to see some of my friends who I only see at these events. Email, Facebook, Twitter and all that social network stuff is nice. But nothing is as good as face to face time. Alas, I had to be sent away on day three because I was so sick! Here are some of my projects I did for Lily Bee. (I'll post the Jillibean and Lawn Fawn stuff as soon as they show up on the companies' blogs.)

Featuring Buttercup. Love those colors!

Featuring Victoria Park, perfect for boy pages too! 

Yes, I did cut those little windows out with a X-acto knife. I'm sucker for stuff that takes hours and hours to do. Ha!

By the way, if you've been to Barcelona, and have any suggestions for what I should do, where I should eat, please fill me in! I realize I should have been doing some research for this, but uh, I haven't.

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