Getting cozy with Cocoa Daisy's Sweater Weather

I kind of took last week off from most computer stuff. I had the huge task in front of me of putting the finishing touches on the basement bathroom we were building. Kelly had done all of the dirty work, the parts you don't see like using the concrete saw to move the shower drain plumbing. You know, the fun stuff. I'll give a full report with pictures soon.

Not doing computer stuff meant I didn't get my Cocoa Daisy work blogged about. But I am rectifying that today! I LOVED Sweater Weather. I think it may be my favorite kit to date! The perfect combination of color/texture/products made every design I worked on fun.

First was Personalities: Matched

Like I said in my sneaks, this was my old style–the Simple Scrapbooking days–married to my new cluster style. Quite blocky, but with little groupings and lots of overlapping. I journaled on the tag and stapled it to the top of the page, it's tucked behind a popped photo of Ethan, I love how it worked out. I wrapped some twine to look like a lasso and then softened it up with the resin flower from Fancy Pants. The patterned paper is a new thing from Cocoa Daisy. Stephanie Wheeler is now designing paper for us! I love how this paper turned out! I thought the "What's Happening" sticker from My Mind's Eye was pretty funny for my horse. Here's what the journaling says:

When we rode the ponies up to the zip lines, they said our pony would match our personality. Annie's was fast and focused. Mine was bringing up the rear. Kelly and Ethan's ponies varied greatly. So while not spot on, they did get a couple of us matched perfectly. Mexico, June 2013.

Next we have Best Day Ever.

I loved the Fancy Pants wood veneer, it's HUGE. I had to be a title, but finding a photo where the sentiment was appropriate was a bit harder. I mean how many days are the best ones ever? I had to go back a year on my phone, but think I nailed it with this one. Much to our kids' disgust, they haven't had the latest and greatest in technologies, and yes, Annie probably missed out most because she was a senior when we finally got her a phone, and Ethan will have one the entire 4 years of high school, I'm sure she'll be OK in the end. This is about the day I ordered their phones. I had to use the Twin Set add on for this and love how I managed to use most of that in such tiny proportions. Again, I'm hearkening back to my more Simple Scrapbooking days.

And finally, the hardest one to design because the photo had a big street light shadow in it, but I'm ever so grateful to Hayley for taking this photo because we didn't get one of Annie when we were dropping her off at school (she's doing quite well by the way).

I love how this ended up, it's not a color scheme I normally use, but it works! I used some Maya Mist and water to create an ombre effect on the letterpress card. Man, do I love that Cocoa Daisy includes letterpress in every kit, it's such a unique element for the kit! I used the left over diamonds from the die cut background to add some more dimension. I'll be doing that more :) Loving the Fancy Pants resin flowers too. And perhaps you can tell I loved the mini tags in the Twin Set add on? I used them on every page. It's the perfect touch.

So there you have my October layouts for Cocoa Daisy!

And as soon as I can take pictures, I'll post about the work I did in the bathroom! It looks so lovely now. We are housing the missionaries until the end of the year, they moved in on Saturday night so we barely got done! But it's done! :)

taking a stroll down 5th & Main by Cocoa Daisy

Here are my full Cocoa Daisy's 5th & Main layouts. I really thought I'd posted them along with the sneaks because I'd written my last post and forgot to hit publish until the next day, but apparently that didn't really happen.... So here you are!

This first one is about how Annie became Annie, no longer simply "the baby." I'm a little nostaligic you know, so you get some momma sap this month. I've included the journaling below, don't mind the randomness of the capitalization. I've been trying to be better about capitalizing, for my dear father, the English teacher's sake, but I wrote the journaling in a font that didn't have capitals, then copied and pasted, so you get what you get. The navy and white striped heart card is exclusive from Simple Stories and may be my favorite ever. I also loved the gold embossed triangles stamp way more than I thought I would. :)

you didn’t have a name until about two weeks before you were born. we didn’t know if you’d be a girl or a boy. If you were a boy, we were going to call you ethan kelly, but we just couldn’t decide on a girl’s name. we liked a few names, but nothing felt right. dad liked the name addison, but I thought it was a boy’s name. i was talking to my dad on the phone and told him we were thinking annie might be in the running. he said he liked it too.
suddenly it was right. we decided we’d name you annie with the middle name of addison. i knew annie would sound good with pitts because of the actress annie potts who’d been in one of
my favorite movies, “pretty in pink.” and the annie you were named after, your great great grandmother was a woman you could look up to and emulate. after her husband Neil died, she supported and single-handedly raised six girls to be strong and independent women. When we told your great grandpa, allen williams, we were naming you after his mother-in-law, he cried. he admired and loved annie. it was said that the boys dated the
gardner girls so they could be around their mom, she was that amazing of a lady. it’s turned out to be the exact right name for you. we love you annie addison!

Speaking of capitalization, not really, but I'm happy to report I know the difference between capitol and capital. :) As seen below. This is another of the Simple Stories exclusives, the B side this time. It was perfect for the photos. I'd found them while cleaning my scraproom over the last few weeks. I print off photos and never use them, please tell me I'm not the only one. I thought they worked well with the kit though.

And this layout happened because Annie was packing her hair accessories and for some reason, these were left behind. Make me a little sad, but thought they might be happy here on a scrapbook page. More of the embossed triangles here, so much fun!

And I Skyped with Annie today. She sent me her first day of school picture, I was so impressed! She's doing great, we are really proud of all she's done on her own since we dropped her off a week ago. I just miss her something fierce. I guess that's a good thing to enjoy your kids that much, right?

Nearly Perfect Is Now Minus One

So this weekend was a big one for our family.

My sweet Annie, our precious daughter and Ethan's treasured sister, graduated high school this past May. This means she is now a college student. Meaning for us, we had to drop her off, say goodbye, and drive away, with her seat in the car empty yesterday.

It's been pretty emotional.

We packed up the car and drove to Provo, it's closer than I thought when we go I70 :) 500 miles door to door :) We took her to The Creamery where she'll be buying most of her groceries and went through what to look for, aisle by aisle. We went and picked up her books from the bookstore, my how buying books has changed! We also went to a local grocery store that had more selection, just to give her an idea of what to do when she had access to a vehicle. We went to dinner at the Olive Garden where I started into labor with her almost 19 years ago. Then we checked her into her apartment and got her mostly moved in. We still had an hour drive to get to my parents house so we left her kitchen supplies for her to unpack and headed to Grandpa and Grandma's for the rest of the weekend.

It was a special time for our family. Full of good times and more than afew tears. We drove away Monday morning, leaving her with my parents, she wanted to spend a few days with them, and they'll drop her off for new student orientation. We had to get Ethan back to school... And now we are adjusting to missing her. What a huge hole such a little girl can leave. Thanksgiving can't come soon enough.

I'm so blessed to have been her momma for the 18+ years (yes, I know I'm still her momma, it's just a bit different without her here). It's been nearly perfect, we have a really good family life, something I was promised a long time ago. I was talking to Kelly about how we got married because we really liked each other, then we got two awesome kids as a bonus, and now Annie will be spreading her wings, closely followed by Ethan, which means it will be just Kelly and me again. It's a good thing we still really like each other. The thing I didn't realize when I became a mother was just how much of a bonus my kids would be for our family unit. Makes it hard when they start to leave, but how great it's been! 

So here we are, checking our phones for texts far too often than I care to admit. And enjoying every single minute of the next three years we have with Ethan. It goes way too fast.

She promised to send me pictures of her first day. 

I had to finish up my Cocoa Daisy work before we left, I was a little melancholy, so two of the three designs are based on Annie. They make me smile. I ended up really liking the kit, it was hard to get into, but once I got going it really worked well for me. :)

Reveal of 5th & Main is tomorrow at 9 EST. Christine has a special offer for her 3rd anniversary, it's really a good time to be at Cocoa Daisy. Join us!

circumnavigating for 80 days with cocoa daisy

I'm really more into bright colors, but the August Cocoa Daisy scrapbooking kit, 80 Days was the perfect kit for me this month. It was a fine balance of color and neutral, and really nice to have a more gentle kit after July's awesome bright Cabana kit.

I only got two layouts done because I had to leave for a week to attend CHA, but I have plans to do more.

This was just a fun kit to document some fun photos; lots of playful elements from Basic Grey, October Afternoon, and Evalicious that really made the kit easy to work with. There were also some cool vintage German flashcards that couldn't have been better for my layouts, it was serendipity. I also used the Calcutta add on, I had to have those awesome burlap Thickers. I ended up misting them on both my layouts, it turned out really well.

This first layout is about my kids and the statues outside our vacation rental. They are huge Dr. Who fans and Weeping Angels is an oft discussed topic in our home. The German flashcard was so so perfect here.

My husband is always making me laugh. I love that he knows how to make me happy, even at the beach. I loved all the little bits and pieces in the kit, they made this page really easy to create. I wrapped the Maya Road wire camera with twine and I love how it turned out, the perfect pop of yellow!

You'll have to pick up your own 80 Days and add ons; together they make for delightful creating, and they are packed full of awesome product. It may seem travel themed, but so many of the CD team made layouts not at all travel based, you'll have to check out the DT gallery. Mou Saha was our guest designer this month and she did a lovely job! 

blogging monthly

I guess it has come to that.

I did have another post in the works, but it obviously didn't happen :)

Since it's the first of the month, I'll share my Cocoa Daisy pages with you. I'm so happy with how these turned out. I saw the storyboard for this kit and just really didn't like it. It seemed really pastel and I didn't care for a few of the papers. I whined a lot.

Then I got the kit and this happened and I completely changed my mind. I got the patterned paper add on, Line Drawing, and that really helped me, I used the pinky red Glitz paper on every layout, it was just the bright I needed!

Christine increased the quantities of the kit and add ons this month, so there should be a few left when the kit goes on sale tomorrow, so yay! :)

Here is my interpretation of Sketchbook, Cocoa Daisy's March kit, starting with a recent observation by Ethan. He had hopes of living on the moon. I used a cut file we're testing out at Cocoa Daisy for the background, totally cool how it turned out. AND now I have a bunch of confetti stars for another layout! Hee hee!

I sprayed the alphabet with gold spray paint. I think I'm developing a problem :)

This is for my sweetheart. He really is my perfect match and he is so patient with me. I am blessed. I used the City Streets Map stamp as a block of pattern, it works really well with the Jenni Bowlin dye inks. I'll be using that stamp a lot! It's much larger than what you see here, I just needed a small block. :)

And finally, Annie found out last week that she was accepted to BYU. To say that we are thrilled would be an understatement. I wanted to be a Cougar from the time I was a little girl. Even though both her parents were Cougars, she wasn't sure that's where she wanted to go. She loves being home with the family and I think going a state away, 8 whole hours by car, was a bit too much for her. But as her friends started going away to college and she saw that they were OK, she eventually decided it might be alright to apply there. That and EFY helped a lot. So now comes the fun part of getting ready! I'm not even going to think about the fact that she's going to be a whole state away 8 hours by car. I can't handle that part yet.

Behind that vellum below, that's the Wood Handle Stamp Collage and it's super graphic and funky and cool. My friend, Stephanie Wheeler, is our graphic designer at Cocoa Daisy and she does the most lovely work ever. I'm always excited to see what she's got up her sleeve and I loved this month especially much!

There you have it, three layouts that just fell together, layouts that I love, out of a kit that I thought I'd hate. Kind of funny how that happens.

Happy weekend!

and it's LIVE

It's Friday, the 7th of December. This means that Scrapbook and Cards Today's Winter 2012 issue is live. The team was asked to share their favorite layout/project with you, and ask you to play I SPY. :)

So can you find this? Go download your copy and start looking for my favorite project. I love the mix of alphabets in this project, it's just fun to look at! And since it's framed behind glass, it's reusable every year hereafter! I just realized this. Sheepish grin. I really think I need to make one now.

The rest of the team is sharing their favorites as well, check out the SCT Facebook page or their blogs if you want to play along.

Scrapbook and Cards Today Winter 2012 issue, Christmas Checklist by Marla Kress

you had me at HELLO, part 2

That post title was too good to use just once. :)

So to introduce my full gallery from Cocoa Daisy, I double dipped on the title. I'm sure you don't mind.

To say I loved the December kit would be an understatement. While at Studio Calico, I had my top favorite kit way back in 2008 I think, it was Garment District. There have been others at both kit clubs that I've loved, but that stayed in first place. Until now. And I'm hyping it up and it's all sold out, so I'll stop because that's not nice.

But you can still get the Embellishment Pack and the paper add ons, so not all is lost.

Here are my layouts and card that I made for December. I had so much fun. I even used washi tape, I know as a scrapbooker, this might sound like blasphemy, but I have not understood the draw until I got a roll of yellow stripe and yellow woodgrain in the past few Cocoa Daisy kits. Now I get it. Can you guess what my favorite color was this month? I've been using it in combination with green a lot lately. Funny how that happens...

This is a quote my daughter had pinned on Pinterest. It cracked me up and made a really fun title for a layout. I don't think it needs journaling, I have another page planned about her friendship with Hayley. I love that they are friends, they are the perfect foil to each other. :) My particular package of alphabet stickers had zero stick. I got the brilliant idea of using washi tape to position my title. Then I really liked how it looked so I kept it there. I probably should glue the letters down anyway, now that I think about it...

I dreamt this card into existence. Do you ever do that? My dream was a little different, but I love how this turned out. I used the exclusive KP stamps (OH MY GOODNESS. I love!) and my pumice distress ink with some chalk turquoise that I found in my cleaning and purging spree last month. 

I did this one in conjunction with a really fun challenge we had over at Cocoa Daisy. Lisa Saunders my awesome co-DT coordinator and our awesome Community Director organized two teams and we all scraplifted the person above us. I was on the Green team and we were behind until the very end. Then we won! Turns out, the original layout was this one I'd done for last month's gallery. 

I think it's funny how my version, which came at the end of the game, is so very different from my original layout that Lisa used as the inspiration. It had changed so much, I didn't even recognize it when it came my turn! She'd asked if she could use it as one of the lifts, I thought it was for the other team. Turns out, she lifted it and my team started with her lift! Love how that happens! I love this layout because it's my sweet nephews and sister in law. I'm really blessed to have them a part of our family.

And finally, I double dipped again for the Favorite Photo assignment for the write.click.scrapbook. December gallery. I love this photo of Kelly and me. I took it with my camera phone, on election day. We just look like we should be together. We look happy. I'm glad we look exactly like we are. PS This layout doesn't have my current favorite color on it, just in case you thought it was green, which I do love very much. And it makes a nice combination when used with that favorite color...

Any who. There you have them, my Cocoa Daisy December layouts! I've been ordering Christmas gifts while writing this blog post, I need to focus and finish. So until next time, my dear friends :)

basking in cocoa daisy's hello sunshine

cocoa daisy has been knocking it out of the ballpark for me lately, and the june kit, hello sunshine, was no exception. i LOVE bright, happy, cheerful colors and this kit is FULL of them. my favorite parts of this kit? the jillibean soup woodgrain alphabet, it was a really good woodgrain. the jillibean soup wooden "hello" flags, i could have used one on every page! the ormulu flappers, fold-over bits that i ended using on two of my three layouts, such a cute little addition to a photo :)

i got the wide brim add on, unfortunately for you, fortunately for cocoa daisy, this add on sold out pretty fast, and i know why. the american craft tabs got used on two of my pages, had to resist using one on the last page i did. their chipbard frames were awesome too. the chap release wasn't my favorite, but i did end up loving both of these embellishment packs. i think my favorite thing from this add on though was the jillibean alphabet. there had been one in the may kit and i knew i'd have to have this other color. it's yellow! these are awesome alphas, i hope to keep seeing them in the kits, kind of a replacement from my favorite sassafras alphas...

finally, i ordered the happy embellishment pack. i'm so happy cocoa daisy started offering embellishment packs. i am more an embellishment user than a patterned paper user. funny how you change... i decided to get this add on for the basic grey yellow flowers and the brads, you can always find a place to add an extra brad or two. i ended up using the brads often, the flowers not yet, and the surprise winner in this add on? the BG little tags w/ the pins set. i loved how the safety pins are so flat and unobtrusive, and the little saying on the tags fit my kids so well! and for all you washi tape lovers out there, well, it's smash washi tape! i still haven't figured out how to use washi tape, so i'm not going to extol. :)

here are the layouts i made, i love every single one of them. this one because of the stamp and the BG tags. the stamp can be purchased separately or in the stamp subscription. i embossed it and think it just turned out cool with the wood background and yellow letters. this is about how much my son has grown musically, and i think it's funny our last name sounds so similar to the musical technique of playing pizzicato. the little simple stories bingo card? i am really digging putting words off my photo lately and to cut up a sheet of bingo cards makes it so easy!

uses hello sunshine, wide brim, and the embellishment pack

it was time to scrap this memory. didn't have a picture of ethan saying "lellow" but did have a picture of him in a lellow shirt, almost as good. it's a pre-digital photo so i couldn't alter the underexposure issue, but i think that's ok. i got the memory recorded, that's what's important. i'm also loving an open frame look on my layouts lately. this was the perfect place to add my journaling.

uses hello sunshine, wide brim, and the embellishment pack

and finally, lots of circles because a sock bun is very circular. annie is big into styling her own hair using things she discovers on pinterest. i embossed on the photo. it could have easily been a disaster, melting the photo and such, but i think it worked because of the stamp, thin lines means the heat gun doesn't have to be focused on the photo for a long period of time. if you'd like to see how i did this, head over to the cocoa daisy blog, i posted about it last week.

uses hello sunshine, wide brim, and the embellishment pack

and that, my friends, is all she wrote.

moving on, it's a good thing.

first off, i don't know that there is ONE good way of handling changes. we all have our own ways of dealing. so for those of you who saw this first layout in the SC reveal and were shocked, i'm sorry it came as a surprise. i was under the impression that my leaving SC would have already been announced when i made this layout. it was intended to be a happy celebratory page, a way for me to look back and see all the many many many good things that have happened in the last four years. i have had a delightful time being a part of the SC community, first as a subscriber and then for the last nearly 3 years as a member of the wonderful design team. it was a dream come true for me, i adore the girls i got to work with so closely. i'm so grateful for the lasting friendships that i have because of SC. it has been a good four years. my reasons for leaving are varied, mainly, i needed a change and this was a good time to do it. God has a way of making things work for our good--it's our job to align what we think is good to what He knows is that. He's been giving me ample opportunity this summer to listen and grow close to Him. my leaving is all a part of the process. so if you're sad and shocked that i'm not going to be around SC as much, please don't be. know that it is a good thing and i'm happy. :) i'm not disappearing, not at all. i'm simply moving on to new things. exciting things. more on that later. 

featuring the glee club, pep squad, debate team, and home ec. see my last post for the inspiration piece.

this layout prominently features a photo from the lauterbrünnen valley in the swiss alps. it's the place where tolkien had to have pulled inspiration from for his lord of the rings books. it's that magical.

features pep squad, debate team

and this is what we ate nearly every day. bread and nutella. i hand cut the large title then exacto knifed the smaller subtitle. holy hard. but it looks kind of cool. 

featuring glee club 

thank you everyone who's ever been a part of SC, you've made a huge impact on me and i hope my leaving will not mean we will become strangers.

now, on to my news:

PART 1:
i'm moving to cocoa daisy! i'm thrilled to be working with christine and ronda. why from one kit club to another, you ask? well, the two are very different in my point of view, each offers a slightly different take on the concept. i'm excited to see what a new take on it will do to my creativity. and ronda and i live 5 minutes from each other, so it's rather convenient when we want to play with paper together, don't you think? i'm kind of giddy about that fact. i asked for a break and was graciously given a month off from designing, i'll start that up again come the november kit, but as of now, i'm sporting the fancy title of social media director. since i'm online a lot, i figured it would be a good fit.

PART 2:
i'm freelancing for scrapbooks, ETC! i am writing a new column that will be out in the feb '12 issue. this new opportunity means i'm using my degree in english! and yes, i do know how to capitalize when necessary. i've loved working with michelle rubin, the editor. she's a bit like me, and i find that funny. we've had fun working through concepts and ideas, and the column continues to morph. i like that she's a go-with-the-flow kind of girl.

i'll explain more later. i promise.

yah.

P.S. i'm still writing the trends column for scrapbook and cards today. luckily both magazines were good with it. :)