babbling about why i love these Jillibean Soup layouts

I've been on the Jillibean Soup team for a year now, but have been really bad about sharing my work here. I'm going to try harder to do that in the future.

I will be honest. I love scrapping for a kit club because I usually struggle with manufacturer lines that all match. Kit club designing means I can play with a wide variety of products from lots of different manufacturers. It's easy for me. Designing for manufacturers has been a different story. I have been on manufacturer DTs and enjoyed them a lot, but it's not been the easiest thing for me to design for my assignments because, well, the lines match. But I have loved Jillibean Soup! Jill likes the same bright colors I do and she makes lots of great embellishments. When I guest designed for them a year ago, it was so easy! I can say that same thing happens every month (almost).

Here are some of my favorite projects I've done for Jillibean Soup in the last year:

This one because it just fell together and that Sherry Vinegar green chevron paper is a favorite paper. I love the big yellow bow very much.

This one because my little flag with the twine fringe is very clever and I love the glitter confetti.

This one because I thought the title was clever. I love the mix and match of products and how I tied it all up together with a good length of twine, then tucked a journaling tag behind it all.

This one because of the gold embossing and the die cut pine needles. Also love that I was able to use a Bite Size Bit on a page, that's something I struggle with, but it worked here.

This one because it was a challenge to use as many different Jillibean products as we could. I think I got 54 things on one page. I was rather impressed with myself. Notice the word happy is spray painted gold? I think I love gold.

This one because she's so cute and I love the leaves and how the purple in her shirt is balanced by the pink striped paper behind the photo and the navy/purple die cut. And the title, I love that font and thought the "as played by Pitts" was funny. The flashcard worked so very well with the topic too.

This one because I'd cut the die cut out for a different layout and it just didn't work, but then it totally did with this design. I made this in under an hour. It just worked.

I just made this card for my October assignments. I love it because I finally figured out how to make the leaves look 3D :) And I adore that blue paper.

And this, another of my October assignments, I love because of the die cut diamonds that are really scraps from cutting the circles on the side. Don't you love great afterthoughts? And I love the "Loving this!" die cut because it adds the same movement to the design as my kids strutting side to side. I'd printed these photos years ago for another layout but it never happened.

For some reason, that happens a lot, I can pull out old photos and make them into happy layouts with Jillibean Soup. I think it's the colors, they make everything happy.

So there you have it. I'll try to blog more about things other than Cocoa Daisy. :) But no more Jillibean until next month because my other October projects won't show up until the end of the month. One is a Halloween card, hee hee. Try that with non Halloween lines. Yay me!

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! :)

Cocoa Daisy's October kit, Sweater Weather goes live tonight at 9 EST. Be sure to join us for chatting that starts at 7 PM.

My friend Stephanie designed two exclusive papers for the kit and I was so impressed at how they worked in my scrapping. I didn't think I'd use the wood stump one, but why yes, you dosee it in the first sneak! It's got a great texture, looks like kraft behind the stumps. Love. And the other paper is on the third sneak, but you can't see it. I LOVE how it looks cut up. It's a swirly yarn pattern, blue on blue. It makes me happy. I'm so excited for Steph and her designs for CD, I've seen November and wooo boy! Even better than this month!

Also loved this month: 

• Lawn Fawn's Into the Woods papers and embellishments
• Fancy Pants resin flowers, wood veneer, paper frames, and paper tags--all from the Happy Go Lucky line. Oh my goodness. This line is so me :)
• The stitches stamps, one of them can be seen in the second sneak. I know I'll be using all the stamps because I just ran out of time to use the herringbone stamp and that's like my favorite thing ever. Have you seen all the sneaks on Instagram from the team and our guest designer Suz Mannecke? So many cool ways to use the stamps this month. They are awesome.
• Wood grain alphabet. I'm big into mixing upper and lowercase in my own handwriting, its fun to have a font that supports that. :)

I went kind of minimalist this month, using more embellishments than papers on a couple of my layouts, but I love every single thing I made. Sweater Weather made Top 3 Favorites, I'm going to even say it might be #1...  

Totally stole the circle background idea from Alissa's gallery last month. I will be using this idea many many more times in the future. I LOVE how it looks. 

This is my old Simple Scrapbooks style meets modern day Emily style. Kind of blocky, with a cluster. It was fun to make it work.

I made this layout at our CocoaDays2013 retreat in Michigan last weekend using the Twinset add on exclusively. I was struggling with what photo would work with the wood veneer (I knew I had to use it as my title. Absolutely HAD to), once I found this poorly lit photo, I knew it would be perfect. :)

I need to remember to tilt right up to left more next time when I take sneak photos...

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! 

No Blinking for 80 Days Sneaks!

I had a fun time with Cocoa Daisy's August kit 80 Days. Christine and I tossed around names for the add ons that would go with the kit's name. I love that we finally settled on some of the stops in the original book by Jules Verne. They just sound exotic! I got the main and Calcutta (loved those burlap letters, I inked and misted them to get some great variations).

This is a layout about my kids and their love of Dr. Who.

Loved how this layout turned out, it's about my funny sweet husband. I added a lot of mustard yellow to this one via Maya Mist and floss.

I've got one more in the works, but not enough time. I leave for CHA in the morning.

blog hopping with jillibean soup's happy camper stew

Happy Camper Stew–you know it's a good line when you can use a outdoorsy, camping line for a Mexican vacation snorkaling page!

Welcome to my stop on the Jillibean Soup blog hop. You should have come to my blog via Danni Reid's. 

When I first saw this line, I was struck by the awesome colors, you don't see bright teal and pinks in a camping line usually. I knew I end up loving these papers because of the colors (and those dang cute little critters!), not because of the theme. My family, well we're not really campers, but I've been able to make quite a few pages and cards already with this line, none of them camping themed. That's the sign of a versatile line!

I started with pictures of my family getting ready to head into the water. There was a lot going on in the photos, so I pulled colors from the B sides and added some Soup Staples II and the Circles Placemat in white, they look like bubbles. How perfect is that!?!?

Supplies
Jillibean Soup

Patterned Paper: Happy Camper Stew/2 Parts Adventure, 3 Parts Critters, 4 Parts Great Outdoors, Scores of S'mores. Soup Staples/Green Salt, Red Salt.
Placemats: Circles Placemat--White
Pea Pods: Happy Camper Stew
Alphabeans: Apple Green

Other: Vellum by World Win, journaling font is Bebas Neue, title script is Bira (personal use)–both free on internet, adhesive by Therm O Web

Check out the rest of the team's work with this fun and happy outdoorsy line. You'll be so inspired! And when you are all done, make sure you leave a comment on the Jillibean Soup blog, they are giving away the entire collection and will be choosing a winner on Monday.

Cindy Lee 

Danni Reid

YOU ARE HERE: Emily Pitts 

YOU SHOULD NOW GO HERE>>>>>>>>Kim Holmes

Laurel Seabrook

Leanne Allinson

Melanie Blackburn
Melinda Spinks

Nancy Damiano

Nicole Nowosad

Pam Brown

Patty Folchert

Paula Gilarde

Sheri Feypel

Summer Fullerton

Valerie Mangan

hanging out in cocoa daisy's cabana

Here they are, the full layouts I made from the Cabana kit and add ons Striped Awning and Hammock. I thought these kits were perfect for bright and warm summery layouts, if you are on vacation or not. We happened to have the perfect vacations photos, I have a bunch more and will share eventually :)

I don't have a favorite this month, I love how they all turned out, for different reasons.

 This one because it's my sweetie and me. The trip was really good for us, we had lots of time to talk and connect again after being apart for a month with his travel and then with mine. I love how the Jillibean Soup frames worked as a background mat for the photo. Just fun :)

Uses Cabana (the letter A) and Striped Awning (everything else).

This one because it kind of tells the story of why we were in Mexico. I also love it because she looks so happy. She loves the water. She loves heat. She loves the beach.  

Uses Cabana, Hammock, and Striped Awning

And this one because it was a sketch from the PageMaps July sketches. We had Becky Fleck as our guest designer and to trade off, she asked 10 of our DT to guest design for PageMaps. It was really fun, I got a grid design and ended up really enjoying it. I used to do more straight line/grid sort of designs, but have strayed from that type of layout. I think it really made these photos shine and I enjoyed the process. I will do more I think :)

Uses Cabana, Hammock, and Striped Awning 

My favorite parts of the July kit? The glass head pins in the main were a surprise love. The Jillibean Soup corrugated words were awesome, especially on the 2 Things layout above, I covered it in turquoise Maya Mist, glue, and then dipped it in the bag of glitter. It turned out perfectly!

I also loved the yellow chipboard and turquoise foam alphabets. I will sometimes get a kit just for the alphabet. The yellow one reminds me of the Brady Bunch font a little. It's funky!

There are still a few kits left, and Christine's got a special going if you spend $75 domestic or $125 international, you can get free shipping on the 4th of July. Pretty good deal! So hurry over and get your own Cabana!

sneaking into the cabana, cocoa daisy style

Hello there! Some sneaks for you using the Cocoa Daisy July kit, Cabana. Such a fun kit. 

This kit is pretty bright, the colors are intense. DO NOT LET THAT SCARE YOU! Once I remembered that oh yah, I really do LOVE color, I had a blast creating with Cabana. Absolutely loved everything I did. There's just enough kraft and wood to tone down the intense colors, you'll be more than fine! Did I mention I LOVED this kit?

Reveal is tonight starting at 8 PM EDT, with chatting on the message boards, and then the add ons go on sale to subscribers at 9 PM. Stephanie is hosting it and it promises to be a really fun evening, I hope you'll join us!

This kit had a little bag of glitter. So much fun to play with on the Jillibean Soup corrugated words!

It had the SC cork arrows, which I wish I didn't love as much as I do.

It had a delightfully glittery alphabet in the Striped Awning add on. It's foam. And glittery, did I mention that? The main has a fun and retro funky glitter font too, reminds me of the Brady Bunch font. Love it. It's chipboard, and glittery. There's also a perfect little cardstock alphabet from Basic Grey in the main. Nice balance of alphabets.

The Striped Awning add on has some fun pinwheels from the Pier line by Crate. I didn't know if I use them, but you'll find them on two layouts, so yes, I used them.

The green paper? That's from the patterned paper add on, Hammock. It's a surfer line from Bo Bunny. I'm not a surfer, but found the tone on tone to be really easy to use and if you don't read it closely, it really doesn't matter :)

I think the surprise favorite of the kit were the elegant skinny glass head pins in the main, see the above square. So pretty, not a embellishment that shouts at you, but a unique touch none the less.

And there you are, my sneaks. It could be that this kit was designed for our Mexican vacation, Christine is so thoughtful! Only she had no idea we were going :) Serendipity.