sneaking cocoa daisy

here's my cocoa daisy sneak for you! being that february is the month of love, i did layouts about my sweetie :) what a fun kit and add ons this was to work with, i loved all the my mind's eye papers, the kraft is so much heavier than what i'm used to i love it!  i think you will be very happy with them too! :)

you can see one of the exclusive stamps, really fun things going on at cocoa daisy! kit goes on sale feb 28th to subscribers and on feb 1st for everyone else. there are still some kits from january for sale, but they won't last long...

i got the main kit, dewey decimal, barcode, and the embellishment kit add ons by the way...

sharing simple stories

i've got clearance to share my simple stories layouts now! here's 1/3 of what i've been working on this month, the other 2/3 is maya road (which i need to share, but am not sure what i can and can't post yet, will check on that and post again) and cocoa daisy (which i can share sneaks of and will do later today, just need to take photos). it's been a busy scrappy month, but i am so happy with how every layout turned out, it's OK. my mojo is back and it's a happy thing for me!

these two layouts are from the FABULOUS line:

inspired by this

inspired by this

these two are from the AWESOME line:

inspired by this

inspired by this

i used my inspo board on pinterest a LOT and went back to my graphic inspired roots. it was fun. i was smiling a lot these last few weeks :)

simple stories also has a new way to document, MIX AND MATCH, THIS AND THAT, and ODDS AND ENDS smaller albums with smaller page protectors and sheets of paper to match. i haven't seen it yet, but it looks like such a fun idea! to see more, check out this link.

the simple stories booth at CHA is 2783, if you're going to be in CA!

also!!!!! in case you missed it last week during the blog hop, there's a design team call for simple stories, they are an awesome company to work for, so generous and grateful for all we do. check it out here:

watch for more CHA from Maya Road coming soon!

hopping with simple stories

welcome to my stop on the simple stories blog hop! we've teamed up the design team with some lucky facebook fans to inspire you with our creations using simple stories. if you've been following along the hop, you're here from cindy's blog. if you're starting here, make sure you hit all the other blogs before mine, especially the simple stories blog (wink, wink. some exciting announcements about CHA releases and well, some other cool news...).

make sure you leave a comment on ALL the blogs of our guest blog hoppers, the one with the most comments will win a collection pack of her choice! AND one commenter from that blog will also win a collection pack as well! don't worry, there's one more chance to win if you comment on the simple stories blog as well! here's the complete schedule:

1. Simple Stories 
2. Martha Saenz
3. Simple Stories design team member,  Kim Holmes 
4. Amanda Albright
5. Cindy Pittman 
6. Simple Stories design team member,  Emily Pitts  (you are here) 
7. Sara O’Shea 
8. Simple Stories design team member,  Allison Landy 
9. Kate Blue 
10. Simple Stories design team member, Wendy Morris 
11. Naomi Armenta
12. Michelle Brekke
13. Simple Stories design team member, Liz Qualman

i made two tags for my stop, same quote, same design, different looks. i used the Year.o.graphy line, i love how flexible this line has been, you don't necessarily have to do month/year based projects with it. i hope you enjoy the rest of the hop, i know i'm excited to see what everyone else has done.

 

have a great weekend!

sneaking some tea & cupcakes

happy holidays! i've had the most lovely few weeks, christmas was perfect, we attended church in the morning, i played a few piano pieces and an organ accompaniment for the congregation, then we came home and did our gift exchanging. it was a sweet, simple day. i didn't take a single picture, i just enjoyed the day. i might regret it years from now, but i really loved being a part of the family, not the one behind the camera. we did take a family photo for our christmas letter, so i have something from this christmas :) i'll post it later this week. we've not done a whole lot this vacation, but on a whim, we went to see the nutcracker a few nights before christmas and that was a treat. we had fabulous seats, purely on accident. i'm on the colorado ballet's mailing list and got an email about $11 tickets today only, at the box office. so we cancelled plans and drove downtown. to get four seats together put us in the mezzanine box, so we got to see the orchestra and be very close to the stage. we'd gone a couple of years before and i wasn't itching to go back, but the kids kept saying how they'd like to go again. i have to admit, this time was a lot more fun, we think it's because of the seats. now i'm just enjoying having the family home and schedule free (mostly).  

tomorrow is cocoa daisy's january reveal and i've got some sneaks to share.

the january kit, tea & cupcakes is soooooo very nice to scrap with. the colors are really happy, almost springy, but a little deeper and warmer, perfect for the grey january chill. there's lots of sassafras and basic grey in this kit, and that's all i need to be a happy scrapper. christine also put together an "embellishments only" kit which allowed me to add maya road and crate to the mix. i love embellishment only kits, i worked with one when i guest designed for kenner road and found myself going back it to so many times. i'm excited that christine is bringing them to cocoa daisy! i hope they do well so i can keep getting them :) selfish, i know.

well, there you are, and i'm off to bed!

hopping with the crafter's workshop

welcome! you've probably arrived here from leslie's blog, and are familiar with the hop, but let me tell you a bit about how i became aware of these fun stencils.

i'm so excited to share this layout today. at CHA this past july, i had the chance to play with julie balzer's new stencils created for the crafter's workshop. julie's fun and funky and her style shines through in these stencils. from geometric to faces to script, there's quite the range to inspire you. the booth had a huge table were we got to get messy, and we had fun! my tag won for one of the days, so i got to pick a few stencils. i've had a great time learning how to incorporate them into my scrapping style. as much as i'd like to be a messy artsy scrapper, it's just not me, but i can incorporate the techniques that i love. today's project was a big stretch for me, but i enjoyed the process and am very happy with how it turned out.

julie emailed me a few months ago, asking if i'd be interested in playing along on her series of stencil hops. i said of course, honored to be thought of as one who could use the stencils in a respectable way. the delightful jamie, from crafter's workshop, sent me the circles in squares stencil and the results of my playing with it are what i'm sharing with you today!

i embossed some kraft cardstock with ranger's seafoam white embossing powder, then i misted with maya mist's silver plated mist, some places got over misted... then i got crazy and tried a technique i'd learned from a tim holtz class, trying to remove the embossing by using a newspaper and iron. didn't really work. probably because i didn't use the clear embossing powder. and the newspaper stuck to parts of the image because i wasn't as deft in getting it heated and removed at the same time. i was ready to scrap it and start over. HOWEVER, in starting over, i kept looking at the rejected background and it started to appeal to me more and more. so i grabbed it, paired it with some jillibean soup paper and journaling spot, then i cut out some of the kraft so the red peeked through. i love how it turned out! the title is girls' paperie (miss that company) chipboard, and the journaling strips are a scrap i had in my recycling bin. 

the picture is my stunning daughter who is growing up too quickly for my liking, but i'm going to have to deal with it eventually. we've been encouraging her to go to college at BYU, about 8 hours away. both my husband and i are alumni of BYU and would love to see our kids be graduates as well. annie's not so sure she wants to leave home just yet. i wanted to assure her we aren't too keen on her going either, but we know it's going to be a good thing for her future.

thanks for stopping by my blog, i'll send you on to lisa's blog!

•   Leslie Ashe

•   Emily Pitts
•   Lisa Pace
•   Tammy Tutterow
•   Nathalie Kalbach
•   Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

sneaking amber snowflake

had a great thanksgiving with my parents and sister here from utah. now i am going to curl up in my bed and take a nap :)

but i'll share my cocoa daisy sneaks for december's lovely amber snowflake kit. i got one add on, cocoa & marshmallows. love the exclusive stamp in the main this month, it's the gorgeous embossed snowflake in the lower left pic.

i am almost done with the christmas shopping for the kids and kelly. just have to get the extended family presents done and mailed. hoping to enjoy the holidays a bit more this year, i don't like the rush.

how do you approach this time of year? give me some ideas on how to simplify.

e

with some inspiration

i got this facebook message from my friend kimberly neddo saying she'd found this fun inspiration piece on pinterest and thought it would be fun to see how a few different very talented scrappers interpreted it. sadly, the original source is nowhere to be found, so if you know, we'd all appreciate knowing so we can give credit!

kimberly, diane payne, mandie pierce, and sasha farina all played along, please check out their blogs to see what they took from the piece.

here's my version, i'd been working on a challenge post for scrapbook and cards today's blog about journaling the right now things and realized the layout i'd shared was from almost exactly a year ago, so i thought this design would work great for doing a year later version. I used only scraps on my desk, those destined for the recycling bin for most of this, added some ribbons and such for texture and journaled between the strips. i love how it turned out!

blogging at simple stories today

mini, originally uploaded by mlepitts.

check out this mini album my friend allison and i made for our girls' volleyball coach: http://bit.ly/nmhkbP

2 x 2

2 x 2, originally uploaded by macleodfamily.

i got to skype with them last friday :) it made me very happy.

getting ready!

so when i joined the dt at cocoa daisy in september, there was talk of this fabulous online crop that they put on twice a year. being a newbie, i hoped i'd figure it all out before the actual thing happened. the other girls promised me i would. they also promised i'd have a delightful time. 

well the crop is this coming weekend and i THINK i've got it figured out, i'm happy to report. we've got challenges, games, chats, and prizes all weekend. you don't have to be a subscriber and you don't have to have a cocoa daisy kit to play along. anything goes! BUT you do have register on the message boards so you can play the games and post your layouts to the gallery to be eligible for the prizes. but that's easy, just click here, look on the right side, where it says "login" and you can see a place to register. 

i'm doing a knit and crochet inspired challenge on friday evening, i'll post sneaks of it later this week!

so be sure to cancel all other plans and spend the weekend with me at the crop. it's this weekend, november 11-13 and all the times listed are eastern, so adjust accordingly :) i hope to see you there!