For the Love of CHA- Post # 2

Good Morning! Today I ordered about 75 prints from Wal-Mart and picked them up as I flew through town on the way to the boys swimming lessons. The pictures I printed are from October of last year and include our trip to a corn maze, pumpkin carving, and costume photos. I don't scrap chronologically so it really doesn't bother me that I am just now putting together my Halloween mini in July. If anything it makes me dream of cooler temperatures, which is a very good thing in the middle of July in the South! :)

Of all the pictures I had printed this one is my absolute favorite.

I am not sure how I will top this year's costumes.The boys loved them, they were relatively easy to make, and looked so good on them. I rarely sew, except at Halloween. There is just something special to me about hand making the boys costumes each year. 

Besides a Halloween mini for each year (the past few years I have bought a Halloween mini kit from Cocoa Daisy, here is last years that I am working on now), I also keep a Halloween through the years mini that has an individual picture of each boy in costume and then one of them together. I then make additional, very simple, mini's for both sets of grandparents. 

Besides Halloween, the only other holiday I buy scrapbook products specifically for is Christmas. I would love to say I have accomplished a December Daily in prior years, but it has yet to happen. I do manage to hand make Christmas cards each year and I have a huge stash of Christmas supplies waiting to be used. 

So today because I am feeling the holiday spirit, I thought I would share the products I have spotted in this years CHA debuts. I do tend to be a traditionalist when it comes to the holiday lines I pick up. I like the reds and greens of Christmas and the greens, oranges, and blacks of Halloween. So that is what you will see here as well. 

Let's get started!

Let's talk Halloween first. There are two companies that I think do an amazing job with traditional Halloween lines each year. First is My Mind's Eye. This year's line is a continuation of their Lost and Found line. There is nothing about this collection that I do not like. I think I will end up with lots of these pieces. Here is a picture of the entire line.

The other company is Echo Park. Their Halloween line is called Chillingsworth Manor. 

This is the Collection Pack. All the papers are wonderful, both the a & b sides have very nice designs.

The following two papers really caught my eye. 

I can see myself using these two pages in a variety of different ways. I like the versatility they offer to projects, cards, even some home decor banners. I will have to own them both!

Ok, let's move right onto Christmas. 

The first line that really caught my eye was Simple Stories. Since I have already bought a few of their Mix and Match 6x8 Albums, I was interested to see what their Christmas line would look like this year, in hopes of putting together a December Daily. I do like Handmade Holiday line a lot. Lots of things I can definitely use to document the upcoming holiday season and possibly help me catch up on years past. 

The Collection Kit has a number of great papers in it along with sticker sheets. I tend to buy Simple Stories lines as kits because I end up loving everything in the whole kit. 

These are the pages for the 6x8 Album. These would make great foundations for a December Daily

Love these pockets. These would be great on layouts, cards, Project Life, or in a December Daily.

I also spotted these 4x6 cards. These would be great journaling spots for layouts, PL, or DD, as well as recipe cards for a Christmas recipe album.

Another Christmas line I spotted was from Fancy Pants. It is called Home for Christmas.  Here again it is a nice traditional red and green with some kraft thrown in to give it a vintage-y feel. 

Here are the paper/sticker elements available in the line. I need to look more closely at the papers to determine which ones I really want to purchase. The tape stickers look interesting to me as well. 

These are more embellishments that go along with the line. I particularly like the Mixed Buttons and Mingled Brads. 

The final collection is not as traditional as I like (too much blue in my opinion), but because of the "b" sides of the paper I was pretty excited about the whole line. This line is Lily Bee's Christmas Cheer. I kept looking through the papers trying to determine which one's I could live without, especially because of the blue, but the "b" sides kept jumping out at me. 

I see lots of blue here, but I am telling you the "b" sides on each paper are nice and traditional. I especially love the numbered patterned paper, the dots, and the chevrons. 

These index cards are nice as well. I see lots of different uses for these.

These are some of my absolute favorite alpha stickers ever. I own almost every set since they began making these and I reach for them often. 

I am a stamp junkie, but a very picky stamp junkie. These show a lot of possibilities even after the holidays are over. I really like the vertical list of numbers and the vertical row of dots. 

So it is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit today, which is not completely unbearable, but I think I will wait just a bit longer before tackling some of the outdoor chores around here. I think I will spend the heat of the day working downstairs on some wonderful holiday scrappiness until it cools off outside

Hope you find time to scrap as well! :)

Olivia 

For the love of CHA- Post #1

This is the time of year that all scrapbookers look forward to. The time of year when visions of adding new products to their every growing stash of scrappy-ness is overwhelming...the companies, the products, the loads and loads of new inspiration and ideas that the designers share. It is a budget conscience husbands nightmare. :) It is in fact time for the CHA Summer 2012. A time when companies debut their upcoming scrapbook lines for fall and winter.

I always love to look at all the wonderful things that scrapbook companies are putting out. It not only gives me great ideas for my own layouts and projects, but it also shows what up and coming trends are. I don't buy heavily into trends, but it always interesting to see what is coming and many times you see the trends in scrapbooking also reflected in home decor and fashion.

I always end up with an incredible list of "wants/needs", but I always seem to be able to cut it down significantly before I place orders at Two Peas that would make my dear hubby's head spin. I am also quite lucky that many of the things I like end up as part of the monthly kits that I receive from Cocoa Daisy. Christine does an amazing job of putting together beautiful kits.

I tend to gravitate towards particular companies, rather than lines of scrapbook products. For me it seems that the companies I like put out good products each and every year and that excites me. My post today focuses one company that I have really come to like Studio Calico.  They too have a monthly kit, but since I am already part of a kit company I love and can't afford the time or money to join another, I stick pretty much to their retail lines. Their lines for fall/winter 2012 did not disappoint. Here are the things I am loving:

Yearbook Paper Collection

Classic Calico Vol. 3 Collection

I doubt that I would buy both Collection packs, but I do love the colors and designs of both these lines. I need more time to pick through these papers and decide which ones I need.



I am also digging these embellishments/products from the SC Yearbook Collection.

These pockets could be easily used on a layout, card or within Project Life. I can also see it as a separate piece added to a mini album that has different size pages and pockets.

Love the idea of layering these frames over pictures or as parts of a mini album or layout.

The first washi tape really lends itself to journaling & titles. I will definitely have to have this.

These paper clips would be really cute used on a birthday layouts or with a mini album that is made up of  a list (ie. Top five summer favorites).

These fabric mistables would be a really great way to add more texture to a project without adding tons of buckle. The fact that I can mist/paint/ink them my needs is a huge plus. I will have to have some of these to!

I like the looks of these stickers, but I am not completely sold because it is a whole lot of the same size/same shape stickers. How many projects would I really use these on? This is one of those cases that if I bought them I would end up cutting them apart and sharing with a favorite scrappy friend, so that they would not sit in my stash go to waste. I already have enough products doing that right now!

I also liked these pieces from the Wonderland collection.

I love a good mask. This one is small enough to cover the front of a card or used in sections along a layout or mini album page. It doesn't just scream Christmas either, it looks to have many versatile uses, especially for a mama of little boys who are super stars in her eyes. ;) 

I like the idea of these frames for Instagram pictures as part of December Daily, Project Life, or just layouts.

These journaling cards would be great for Project Life, December Daily, or as part of layouts. I'm always looking for an interesting journaling spot!

Love these wood veneers. Here again, like the fabric mistables, I can add whatever color paint/ink/mist to them and they won't add tons of buckle to my project.

 Finally,

Out of the all the Studio Calico Summer 2012 products this rolling stamp is my absolute favorite piece they have come out with. There are so many possibilities for this stamp. It is going to definitely be part of my stamp collection! I always make sure to add a date to all my layouts and this will be a well used tool.

I was also very intrigued by the Handbook that Studio Calico is putting out, but I just picked up quite a few pieces from the Simple Stories Mix and Match Album System which is very similar in my opinion. I really don't need another mini album to put together considering that I have two bins full of them downstairs waiting to be used. I may pick up a few pieces here and there to add to the Simple Stories albums I am using, but I need to think on it a bit more. I will say that Lisa Truesdell puts together an amazing summer album using the SC Handbook.

I will be back tomorrow with a few more pictures of products that I am excited about from this Summer 2012 CHA debuts. I am also still working on a post about how I store my Cocoa Daisy stamps. I have decided to include how I store all my stamps so I am now in the process of taking more pictures and running my blog post through my head to get it all the lined out.

Later! Happy Scrapping!!

Olivia

An Update & More ATCs with the boys

How about a quick update:

Our summer has been such a whirlwind! Between pitching machine all star baseball, vacation, VBS, summer camps, and swimming lessons we have barely had time to rest at all. I'm not complaining by any means, but for us summer is typically a slow down season, since we run so heavily during the school year.

This summer has been the exception and we have finally reached a point where we can slow down and I (and the small child I am carrying) are very excited about it. I spent the first trimester of this pregnancy feeling queasy after every meal and loving a nap whenever and where ever I could get one. At four and 1/2 months I am feeling much better and I am making lists and plans to get this house in top shape and uncluttered before "Three" graces us with his or her presence a week or so before Christmas. I know, I know great timing for a basketball coach's family, but we are excited none the less. We will find out what we are having Wednesday, August 1st and we are very anxious and excited..

Now onto a little crafty-ness :)

Because of our crazy summer the boys and I have done very few ATC craft projects. This one was my idea, since I was in a heat embossing kind of mood today. The boys always want to paint, so we compromised on a heat embossing/ Twinkling H20 watercolor project.

Here the boys did their own heat embossing, with supervision of course. :)

Here they are using Twinkling H2O's to paint their ATC cards.

Here are our final pieces.

We started with a lattice stamp from the March Cocoa Daisy kit- Pier 39. I believe the kit and the stamp are both sold out, sorry :(. The boys chose to use a gold glitter embossing powder from Stampendous and I used American Crafts Zing powder in white. The watercolor paints we used were Twinkling H2Os, which are available through Creative Imaginations. My heat gun is from Ranger and I think I picked it up years ago at Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby.

These ATCs took us about 45 minutes to complete because of the small spaces that the boys were painting. I always love listening to the boys talk back and forth as they paint and they always end up asking an art related question or giving an art related comment. Today we talked about primary and secondary colors. The boys had learned about both in their school art classes during the year and it was nice to see and hear them tie the learning in with what they were working on today.

I hope to post again this week with some pictures of layouts from the June Cocoa Daisy Kit- Hello Sunshine. My kit is now in bits and pieces which I love because I am really wanting to tear into July's kit- Note to Self and its addons. I also want to post some current pictures of parts of my scrap space and how I store my Cocoa Daisy stamps. While we are on the subject of Cocoa Daisy here is their current sneak peek for August's kit- Santa Fe Sunrise.

Thanks for stopping by!

Olivia

A Couple of Mini's

Good Morning! I want to express how overwhelmed and thankful I am over the response to the last post. Crafting with my boys is a precious gift to me. They spend so much of their time playing sports and being rough and rowdy boys, that it is nice to have them slow down and use the other side of their brain. I hope that I can continue to add things to their lives that will develop them into well-rounded young men.

I wanted to quickly share a couple of mini album covers and a few interior pictures with you. The first is a 6x6 mini album that unfolds to form a display. I am taking this album to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. My boys, nieces, and nephew are going to make turkeys to finish the album. I am looking forward to crafting with them and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I got the idea after seeing this card from Ronda at Cocoa Daisy.

Here is the cover:

The interior fold out:

and my finished turkey that I will use to help show the kiddos what we are doing:

I can not wait to finish this mini and give it to my parents. It will make a cute addition to their Thanksgiving decorations and be a sweet keepsake.

The other mini I created was for the boys Christmas Journal. I plan for this to be similar to a December Daily (which I am doing) except that all the pictures, ATC art projects, and journaling will be done by the boys. I know that they will not be able to work on it everyday, but I have created enough pages for them to complete a page for each day of December.

Here is the cover:

and here is a picture of one of the interior pages.

Sorry the photos are a little grainy. It has been raining here in Central Arkansas for two or three days, making it impossible to shoot pictures in a good light.

I have not included tons of details in this post, but I will be back this weekend or the first part of next week to give more details about how I put the mini's together and also post some pictures of my December Daily.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Olivia

ATC Mini Art Projects

Tuesday, I posted that I was planning on continuing the mini art projects with the boys. This is something that I started doing with them this summer as a way to tear them away from technology. I was skeptical that they would enjoy doing them, but once we started they were hooked. We started out doing one every day, but then it kind of dwindled to every other day or whenever we got a chance with our busy summer schedule.

Below are three of the projects that we created this summer. The first is Carter's favorite-we painted the background with watercolors, then used a foam stamp and acrylic paint to stamp our first intial. The second is Ethan's favorite- we used the exclusivecoffee/tea ring stamp from the March Cocoa Daisy kit and stamped it in black ink, then used watercolors and Twinkling H2O watercolors to paint the whole thing. The final one is my favorite- We used Modge Podge and tissue paper to create pictures. I finished mine with a white pen and a rub-on word.

Here is a look at how I have been storing the mini art projects. We each have our own baseball card page and when we complete a project it is dry, we just slip it in. I am currently using an American Crafts D-ring album and these baseball card pages fit perfect.

Once we start to work on a project it was amazing how quietly and intently we all work. Many times the boys will work really hard for over thirty minutes on their little mini masterpieces. Thirty minutes of sustained work and attention span is HUGE for little boys.

I am also amazed at how much I enjoyed working on these little projects too. For me it is a chance to work in different mediums and to just play and create without worrying that I was going to mess up my end result.

All the art projects start with an ATC (2.5x3.5 in) sized piece of white textured cardstock. I usually have in mind what medium I want to use with the boys before we start, but sometimes I just let them choose what they want to work with. Most of the time we work together on projects that are all similar, but sometimes the boys will show up while I am scrapbooking and want to work on a project by themselves, so I keep extra ATC cards on hand for these type instances.

Here are some pictures of the boys working on our latest project and then a picture of the finished pieces.

Inking and using the Big Shot

Splatter painting and misting

Final result

Besides spending quality time with the boys creative playing and talking, which is the biggest benefit of the mini art projects, I also love that they are learning about different art mediums and learning that art is not perfect. Plus I am using up bits and pieces of my scrapbooking materials….Gotta love that!

I plan to continue these mini art pieces more consistently through the month of December; so that the boys can add them to their December journal (I will share this with you in a later post).

I am also thinking that we will continue these in 2012 as part of my Project Life album.

I hope you find the time to make mini masterpieces with your kids or even your husband. It is an amazing way to creatively play, talk, and share. There is nothing better than quality time spent together making memories.
Here’s to creative play and wonderful messy memories! Hugs!!
Olivia