Spring Break + October Afternoon Catch-up

Spring break is here! And what did we get to usher in spring break? A snowstorm over the weekend. Oh well. Eli took advantage of the storm by skiing on Saturday and Sadie went sledding with a friend. Me? I stayed inside and provided hot chocolate for people at the appropriate moments. :) After a fun Saturday we spent all day Sunday cleaning. Spring cleaning. As in digging out to the bottom of closets and filling bags and bags with things to donate (plus a big box to ship off to the cousins). We're still not done but are aiming to finish it in bits and pieces over the week. We're sticking around, as while the kids and I share the same spring break, Seth's break was last week. Instead of traveling somewhere we have family coming to visit us for part of the week.

With no work on the horizon this week, I am aiming for lots of time playing with paper and embellishments and lots of time catching up on blogging and submissions.

Without further ado, here's the layout I did for last week's sketch feature on the October Afternoon blog (check out the link for the sketch, more info on my layout, and an awesome project from fellow design team member Michelle Wooderson):

And, speaking of October Afternoon, last week they began reveals of their new Daily Flash system:

The system includes binders and sleeves and several mini-collections. The first mini-collection revealed was Snapshots. I absolutely adore this mini-collection! Check out the individual Snapshots product images here:
 

 
6 x 8 Paper Pack:

Snap Caps:

Flash Blurbs:

 
 Click! (A Side):

Click! (B Side):

Focus (A Side):

Focus (B Side): 

Compose (A Side):

Compose (B Side):

Memory Cards:

If you like what you see here, stay tuned to the October Afternoon blog for reveals of additional Daily Flash mini-collections!

Monochromatic Cards

This week's theme on the Pebbles blog is Quick and Easy. Perfect for my style! I created a set of two monochromatic thank you cards:

 
 For more info, check out the Pebbles blog.

 

Pebbles Mid-Release

It is hard to believe it, but it's already mid-season release time in the papercrafting world. I love this newer trend, as sometimes you want something new in between the major winter and summer product release times. Pebbles' new line is called Lakeside:

 

I love the mix of florals, basic patterns, and outdoorsy-themed patterns. I see a lot of potential here, from layouts about summer camp to Mother's Day projects and I can see some Christmas possibilities as well. Here are some of my favorite embellishments from this line:

Chalkboard Stickers:

 

Die-Cut Wood Pieces (especially love the chalkboard frames!):

 

Gift Tags:

Phrase Stickers (especially the camera icons and the woodgrain arrows and the watercolor-y background word strips at the bottom):

 

 

Can't wait to create with this line!

 

 

Pebbles Party

Today I have a layout up on the Pebbles blog as part of the Party with Amy Locurto feature:

This is a fun line, with four mini-themes, including a superhero theme. Be sure to check out the Pebbles blog all week this week for more projects featuring this line.

 

The Great Amazon Order Debacle of 2013

Or, how I was able to reroute 18 bottles of butterbeer, 16 Harry Potter glasses, and Mad-Eye Moody's eye, but not the Bertie Bott's beans or the case of owls.

Intrigued yet? :)

A couple of days ago, in a rare moment of planning ahead, I ordered a bunch of stuff for Sadie's upcoming Harry Potter birthday party. At the same time, I decided to add a bunch of cool kids' reference books to my cart. Happy with my purchase, I clicked on "order" and sat back, waiting for my packages to arrive from Amazon and four other vendors I purchased from via Amazon. 

Fast-forward to today, when I received the shipping notice for the Bertie Bott's beans and noticed that the package was heading for...wait for it...the little rent-controlled cottage on the beach in Santa Monica where I lived from October 1997-December 1998. (Where, mind you, I lived next door to Donald Sutherland. I never officially met him, but he used to greet me in the mornings with a gruff "Good morning," while he was walking his yippy little dogs as I set out for my teaching job in South Central LA - we were usually the only people on the beach at that ungodly morning hour.) I gasped, realizing the larger implications, and immediately started chatting online with a nice fellow named Justin at Amazon, who informed me that this book on the rainforest:

which I ordered from Amazon as part of my campaign to convert Sadie to nonfiction reading (cute animals!), had shipped to Santa Monica. However, Mad-Eye Moody's eye, the Harry Potter glasses, and the six other books had not yet shipped and could indeed be rerouted to my current address. (Huge bullet dodged there, as one of the six books is going to Eli as part of my campaign to not have to answer daily questions about puberty. Phew!)

Justin couldn't help me with the orders from the four other vendors, so I found this little "contact the seller" button on Amazon and did a copy and paste of a desperate message to see whether I could reroute shipped packages or pre-emptively change the shipping address for as-yet-unshipped packages. I got a "no problem!" from the butterbeer folks, an "I feel your pain but there's not much we can do" message from a nice lady named Jennie at the Bertie Bott's company, and no sympathy from the owl people or the people from whom I ordered this book on the economy:

 

(Said book being part of my "congratulations to you!" gift for Eli for getting into the international studies magnet middle school.)

So...now I have to wait, track the packages online, and see if whoever lives in the multi-million dollar mansion that sits on the site of my old dinky beach cottage accepts these packages. If they do, I am out of luck (and I will hope they eat the rotten egg- and earwax-flavored jelly beans). If they refuse them I get to go another round with Jennie and the other folks and see if they can reroute the boxes to me. 

Nothing like a little panic and problem-solving on a Monday!

 

Spring Colors Challenge

Today I have a layout up on the October Afternoon blog as part of a spring colors challenge post. The inspiration image comes from one of my favorite websites for color combos: Photo Card Boutique.

I made good use of my Silhouette in creating my layout for his challenge, using it to cut multiple different sizes of flowers - which I layered on my layout - and to cut my title and journaling from black cardstock:

Be sure to check out the October Afternoon blog for more details and for a layout by my fellow October Afternoon design team member, Nicole Harper.

 

Cover Girl

I am thrilled to share that my layout was chosen as the cover layout for the new Create: Sketches idea book! 

I am also thrilled to share that I have three other layouts in this idea book as well! I've combed through the digital version of the issue (available here) and I have to say I think it's one of the best idea books I've seen in a long time. The simplicity of the sketches in this book grabbed me, which is why I submitted artwork for it in the first place. While the sketches are simple, they can be easily dressed up or down, and with a mix of 8.5" X 11" and 12" X 12" sketches, and sketches for a variety of number of photos, there's something for everyone. The artwork in the book showcases a great mix of styles, with lots of inspiration to be found. Amidst the artwork, there's a useful article by Wendy Sue Anderson that unpacks the use and organization of sketches for scrapbooking, with a nod to cardmaking as well.

I can't wait to dig in more and start using some of these sketches for inspiration for new layouts!