She Cracks Me Up

Agent Seven Two Zero, that is:

 

She's been hilarious across the last couple of weeks.

First, she came home from a trip to Barnes & Noble with her brother and her dad and screamed, "I bought a spy kit AND IT COMES WITH A FAKE MOUSTACHE!" A few minutes later she sidled up to me and said, "You have to call me Agent Seven Two Zero, because that's my spy name." Thus far, spying has consisted of dressing up. No actual spying has occurred. 

Second, there's a new verb conjugation in our house. Sadie is constantly "make suring" the lights are turned out, or that she's gotten the right answer, or that the door is closed.

Third, I've been contemplating reorganizing the playroom now that the kids are getting older. I started to share my plan with the kids, which began with, "Remember those Expedit bookcases at IKEA that had all the cubes?" About two paragraphs later, Sadie interrupted me and said, "I'm sorry, mom, I haven't been listening. After you said IKEA I started thinking about IKEA and then I started thinking about Swedish meatballs...mmm...Swedish meatballs..." Clearly, IKEA means different things to different people. I drool over the Expedit and its cheap price tag and potential for organization and Sadie drools over meatballs. For added context, when I asked the kids last week where they wanted to go out to dinner, they yelled, "IKEA!" It took a while for me to convince them that IKEA's main identity, is not, in fact, a restaurant, and most certainly is not a destination restaurant, at least not in my world!

I can't wait to see what she comes up with this week! :)

 

Vivian, the Seamstress

Most of you don't know this, but I used to sew. In fact, I used to sew a lot. I did most of my sewing in elementary and middle school. Yes, that was back in the late 70s and early 80s, and yes, it's been nearly 30 years, but I still remember some things I learned in Brownies (sewing badge) and in 7th grade home ec (remember home ec, anyone?). A couple of years ago I started sewing on my layouts, but didn't jump back into sewing with fabric.

Enter October Afternoon fabric. Yes, fabric.

Last week I received a package full of fat quarters from the Farm Fresh line (seen in the photo above) and whipped up this cute headband for this cute girl:

Here's a detail shot:

I made the flower using an online tutorial I found, and it only took me ten minutes. Can I tell you how much I love projects that are easy and quick? I attached the flower to a cheap drugstore headband I covered with a tube of fabric (disclaimer: turning a 3/4" tube of fabric right side out is not a ten minute project, not at all, especially when you accidentally rip the tube and have to start all over). 

If you haven't already seen October Afternoon's blog post from yesterday, head on over there to see the projects made by some of the other design team members. While there, be sure to leave a comment before Monday, October 3, to be entered to win Farm Fresh fat quarters! (Comments left on my blog will not enter you into the drawing - you need to leave a comment on the October Afternoon blog.)

While I love Farm Fresh, I really, really, really love Fly a Kite, which is the next October Afternoon line that will be coming out in fabric. If you don't remember Fly a Kite, go here.

I think there will be more sewing in my future...

Some Fun Cards

I've been in a bit of a creative funk the last two weeks and have been making cards to try to jump-start my creativity. Here are a couple of recent cards I've made:

 Bazzill Basics Orange Peel Cardstock

Bella Blvd Patterned Paper and Stickers

Bazzill Basics Cardstock

October Afternoon Patterned Papers, Die Cut, Sticker

What do you do to jump-start your creativity?

 

I've Been Keeping a Secret

Yup, I've been keeping a secret for about a week and now is the time to let the cat out of the bag. I am a...

I am thrilled and honored to have been chosen to participate on the team as a layout designer! I'm looking forward to working with Bella Blvd's fun and colorful designs and with Stephanie, Laura, and the rest of the talented group of Bella Artistas!

I created four new layouts for the design team call, and will share one of those with you here today:

One of the things I love about Bella Blvd's products is how well they work with one another. For this layout, I combined products from Bella Blvd's four most recent lines. The orange scalloped sticker and the aqua quote sticker are from the Finally Fall line; the black scalloped sticker, the black and orange heart sticker, and the yellow and black chipboard heart are from the Too Cute to Spook line; the "someday you'll ask for my autograph" paper strip and the "you got this" sticker are from the Making the Team line; and the pink chipboard star is from the Christmas Wishes line. The Sophisticates chipboard alphas coordinate with all of the different lines and can be easily combined, as I did with the title on this layout.

I love how versatile Bella Blvd's products are and am looking forward to creating lots more with their products!

We Love Homework

Sadie loves first grade, and feels so grown up to have a weekly homework folder and multiple assignments. Here is my favorite from the batch of math work she did last night:

Here's another favorite, the best part of which didn't make it onto the paper. As Sadie was drawing the jellybean second from left she announced loudly that that one was red velvet. Nothing like attention to detail! :)

Can't wait to see what she learns next!

 

Goings On

I had a blog post all set to go this Monday and, well, life happened. I will preface this by saying that everyone is okay. Having said that, this week, which started out normally on Monday morning, has included an overnight ER stay and some kids' school-related crises - large and small - that demanded much of my attention. Okay, all of my attention. There are weeks like that and this has been one of them. Thank you to all of the friends and family who pitched in this week, either helping with the kids or lending me an ear or a shoulder to cry on from near or far.

Now that I have caught up on all of my sleep, dealt with all follow-up and fall-out, I am going to try this blog post thing again.

August was a very busy month for me scrapbook-wise so I'm going to recap here. Please be forewarned - this is a lengthy post with lots of layouts/cards and links. Lots. It's good stuff, though, I promise! :)

First up, I guest taught at:

 
Debbie Hodge has put together an amazing site with terrific teaching and inspiration. August was a "Smorgasboard" issue and I participated, along with Celeste Smith and Erin Clayton, in the "Clean and Simple Pages" feature. It was terrific fun to do, and my favorite part was chatting with everyone during the webinar. The issue is available in the archives for those of you who missed it. I was lucky enough to be asked back to participate in September's "Design Play" issue, which debuts tomorrow. The best part? I got to participate along with two of my fellow amazing Denver-area paper scrappers (there are a lot of us here!): Emily Pitts and Lisa Dickinson. The three of us were joined by digital designers Kayleigh Wiles and Amy Mallory.

On August 1, the Write.Click.Scrapbook. August gallery launched with a "No Photos Required" theme. I created a layout about my childhood penpals. 

There are lots of other great "no photos required" inspiration layouts in the gallery - I highly recommend checking it out here.

I contributed to the October Afternoon and May Arts product swap blog post on August 3 with this layout (and yes, I misted, and I've been misting a lot since then):

On August 5, I did a "Summer Reading" post at Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog. The timing of the post coincided with the arrival of the new October Afternoon Sidewalks collection and enabled me to make a very cool layout and an equally cool project (if I do say so myself!). I'll post the layout here, but you'll have to go to the blog post at Write.Click.Scrapbook. to see my project. :)

On August 15, I posted a (video, filmed by my 9-year-old) tutorial on the October Afternoon blog, featuring a quick and easy invitation/card design:

On August 20, I was back with an "In the Back Yard" post at the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog. The post has three layouts, but I'll share my favorite here, which features the Hometown Summer collection from Collage Press Studio/Pink Paislee. (You know the drill...go to the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog post I linked at the top of this paragraph to see the other two layouts. :))

On August 29, I participated in Amy Heller's challenge on the October Afternoon blog, with a layout on everyday travel:

I was back on the October Afternoon blog on August 31, with a layout for the feature showcasing the new Little Flyers stickers (which I love). This may be my new favorite layout:

Last but not least, the Write.Click.Scrapbook. September gallery, "Books & Reading," launched today with this contribution from me (along with lots of fabulous layouts from members of the collective):

I'm now playing around with some new goodies that arrived this week during what I will refer to as the "late August 2011 crisis" (still working on theme music a la CNN). I've been coveting summer product releases from several companies, and now have new Bella Blvd and Jillibean Soup in hand. They are almost too fun/pretty to cut up. Almost...

So, if you've made it all the way to the end of this very long post, thank you, and please keep your fingers crossed for me that September will be a more normal month!