i spy

i actually used it!

this paper is one of my all time favorites. this tres jolie line from my minds eye made me so happy that i have done very little with it. too pretty to cut up. do you have paper like that? i am pretty good at using the pretty stuff, but every now and again i get all handtied (or whatever the appropriate scrapbooking equivalent of tongue tied should be) and just can't bring myself to use it. in trying to overcome, i cut a little snippet and added it to this paper. this is a second version for lavender's book. the first version is with simple awaiting online publication. until it comes out, i shan't spill the original beans, so today you get to see a teensy bit variation on the theme.

thanks for stopping by today. it is always so fun to have you! before you go, a curiosity - if you have the same photo with the same journaling for two kids' books, do you scrap them the same, or do you vary a bit, or do you start each from scratch? inquiring minds want to know....

have a loverly day!
(and yes, i know there is really not an r in lovely... it is my british accent coming through. or shall i say, my fake british internal speak accent--cuckoo bird that i am!!!)
toodloo!

princess paper...

first, i must admit that i am a sucker for a well named product. it can make you see things in a whole new light. or the same light, but much more vibrant. absolutely must profess my love for this well named line: fairest of them all.

i used it for poppy's birthday decor (if i was on the ball i would have a photo handy to post, but well...) and i have a mini album in mind for all those princess pictures that i love and take all the time. but for now, it has made a terrific backdrop for this fun page. poppy loves to wash the floor. she has even been known to cry when i don't let her. (go figure... please know i try to never deny such behavior, but my evil stepmother side must be tamed so she is not scrubbing at 10 pm!) if you look closely you can see the ? after the cinderella in the title. it is a white sticker. mostly because sei doesn't put question marks on their alphabet sheets. but i am so not complaining as said sheets sell for under $2 which is magnificent. magnificent enough to forego the punctuation frustration!

thanks for stopping by! i may not be here tomorrow - ballet and such. have a great couple of days! i hope your weather is happier that the cold wet drizzle here! not complaining, just hoping your weather is brighter!

mr kotter returns...

i am so sorry. i have no idea where the last month went. vanished. thin air. my heavens. i did a bit of scrapbooking. a bit of housecleaning. a bit of cooking/cleaning/responsible stuff. a bit of photo taking. and apparently a whole lot of not blogging. i am happy to be here today and to have some things to share! hooray!

today is american crafts day. who doesn't love american crafts?? i remember when they first splashed big on the scene. they had this remarkable paper that i loved. it was soft and graphic at the same time. simply mahvelous! now they are my goto place for stickers, thickers, rubons and fun paper. and their staff is friendly, funny, and delightful. they have a great blog with all sorts of great ideas. don't forget to scroll down and see Mandy's new baby. He is a lucky little guy to have her as a mommy!

so here are two new layouts that couldn't/wouldn't be much without those ultimate letter st/thickers. love 'em. i tell ya. can't get enough... :o)

hope you are all well. thank you for still checking in. hopefully we are back for a good wet spell! (is that the opposite of a dry spell? it sounds a bit racy...oh, but now, is that how you spell racy? or is it racey? hmm. i have played hours and hours of boggle this past week. you would think i would know this one...)

toodloo!

thanks again, so much for visiting! i appreciate you!

making memories

i have been a big fan of making memories for a very long time. when they first started making metal accents i thought i had died and gone to heaven. i loved and bought many many things. brads, frames, words, you name it, i bought it. then they made their defined stickers and i lost many more dollars. more again on all those heidi swapp rubons and alphabets. so much money, so much love.

if ever you want some fun, you need to go to cha or memory trends and just take in the fun and beauty of their booth. scrumptious. delightful. playful. beautiful. it makes you remember why you scrapbook and how much you love to buy and use their products. for theirs truly are products not just to collect but to use. love that about them. love them love them.

here is my sweet poppy. flowers and brad, ribbon, and journaling sheet are all making memories.
(journaling card is my minds eye, sticker is from pebbles.)
thanks for stopping! - now go buy some making memories!

basic grey

who doesn't love basic grey? a few years ago, simple ran the coolest album ever contest. I had my album all sketched out in my mind and just needed to figure out the paper i was going to use. i lived in wisconsin and we had a pretty good store there. (perhaps it was an awesome store, but i had come from utah and was missing my selection...!!) i went in and stacked (still in plastic) by the register was this new paper that was magnificent! the lady was soooo nice. she entered it all into the computer, so i could buy what i needed. it was basic grey's first line, the pink, orange, yellow, and purple stuff. well, that was the beginning of the end for me.

what i love about basic grey is how they put color together. i like how they make paper like this and also like this, too. i really love how their solid colors are so full of depth. yummy.

what do you love about basic grey? do tell. i'd love the hear!

here is a bit of bg for your day. one for each girls' book. tried to find the colors in the paper to emphasize their presence in the photo.  easy squeezey layouts with bg stickers, paper, and an american crafts pen!

happy day! thanks for stopping!

my minds eye

today's manufacturer might be in the race for marnie's most favorite ever. a walk down memory lane...

suffice it to say that i have loved their products for a very long time. i think it curious how successfully they have evolved the look of their product, though the basic idea is the same: titles and trinkets, and now paper. yummy yummy paper. the kaleidoscope line is my favorite with its bright colors and vegetable-dye-looking reverse sides. there was a time last year that i nearly every layout i created had something on it from mme. yes, i was the one standing at the door buying every paper, title, and tag when my scrapbook store put out the first round of wild asparagus and kaleidoscope. my total was nearly $100 and i was never happier to have spent that much money. couldn't resist. simply couldn't resist...

so today go find some my minds eye and play. it is fun and easy. and in case you need a bit more to inspire you...

imagine this...

new yummy paper from imaginisce! they are responsible for this yummy dotty paper which i paired with my all time favorite paper, the vintage ki floral. not vintage as in vintage looking, but as in this paper is too pretty to throw away even the tiniest scrap so i still have some teeny remnants here and there...

thanks for checking in. sorry to be brief. we are off to the doctor. Lavender is on day three of a fever and is completely miserable...poor munchkin....

oh, and the new sizing is compliments of tina cockburn, one of my simple sisters. hoping it looks better than ever!!

thanks so much. we'll chat soon, i promise...
m.

fontwerks

fontwerks is one of those little engine that could stories. they started a few years back and have great stamps, papers, and designers. Kah-Mei lives in Canada so she of course gets a big shout out! when i saw their booth in chicago i just stood and looked at their beautiful displays. incredible. lots of 12x12 with the small single photo. you remember, that thing i tried a bit ago? love the small photo and they are so good at it. like  this and this and this. have a great fontwerks day!

dude!

When i first heard of Dude!designs, i have to say, i envisioned lots of beer paper, hunting, rifles, skateboards, shaggy hair, you get the picture. i should actually say two pictures as the two "dudes" in my head had little in common but their gender. i digress...
when i went to chicago cha i had the pleasure of stopping by the booth and visiting with the owners/designers. what great women! Kendra and Missy are two friends who used to own a store and then started a line of products. you know, that thing that many of us think would be so cool, but fail to put into reality? well, they did it. here are some of my favorites about their lines.

first, the patterns on the paper are small enough for us 8.5 scrapbookers. not everything needs to be on a small scale, but with some papers offering it, i am far more apt to buy it!! hahaha. and it really is all about pleasing ME! okay, i am just kidding about that... really... [some things really need visual and audible cues for the truly funny effect!]

second, they have lots of fantastic journaling cards. i have said it before, i am allllll about the journaling. anything that helps us tell our stories is a thumbs up from me.

third, for those who have taught classes, their products are really well thought out. i had a short stint as a teacher and learned that some projects can be incredibly costly. missy and kendra totally thought about this in making coordinating items. very helpful for the small store owner.

alright, enough rambling. suffice it to say that, dude, dude rocks! (said with my best ashton kutcher voice!)

Around the Block

No, this isn't a discussion about how many gentlemen friends i kissed in college (my mom might be mortified!!), but rather about a not so wee company called around the block . One of my favorite things about them is the color of the paper. It is bright in a muted way. Hard to describe until you see it then you just get it. They make these fun papers  that are great for titles and journaling. They also have fantastic backsides (on their paper that is!) Love when you can get twice the bang for the buck. Stroll thru their product pages  and see what you fall in love with!

you can see two more here  and here .  Have a happy day!

heidi grace

the first time i remember anything heidi grace  was these little acrylic letters. it was maybe 2002 or 2003 and available in what i remember to be seemingly high priced monograms. (and now we pay much more for chipboard letters. how funny! probably not so expensive after all...)
now heidi grace is the place to go for sweet designs. i like that her patterns are small'ish which lends well to 8.5x11 pages. (i will save you my diatribe on scale, for now!!  hahahaha!) i like that each line has papers, rubons, stickers, alphabets, all sorts of yummy little trinkets. when i see whole lines of goodies, my mind quickly wanders past the page layout and into home decor projects. sets satisfy my need for coordination! as is evident from the set of new halloween decor that has come from this past few days.

let's see. first i began with a quick tag which also includes one of my all time favorite papers (bo bunny). who wouldn't love this scrumptious orange plaid. [as an aside, this container was supposed to have been filled with candycorns, though this week i am embracing my lack of willpower and thus filled the jar with yellow flowers instead! sigh...]

next up was this vase made into a hurricane lamp. martha stewart suggested stamping a glass vase, i thought, why not use those cute little bat rubons? (should cute and bats be part of the same phrase??!!) i filled the bottom with rice, poppy added the candles and here we are! it really looks better in the dark...

i next made some decorative squares. black spray paint, and then a bit of mod podge over paper squares.

The calendar was next, and props should be given to amy williams  for this is my fourth rendition of her original design.

Lastly, some BOO letters covered, sanded, stickered, rubbed on, and a bit of mod podge then ribbon and voila! a set of coordinating decor thanks to heidi grace and her delightful designs. (the photo is a bit wonky --sorry about that!)

so with a bit of fun stuff and a few (quite a few!) hours, you can have a happy heidi-ween!
enjoy!

SEI

Today is about SEI. They might very well have been the first manufacturer to lure me into buying 12x12. When I lived in Salt Lake, I most often shopped at a fun little (then) shop called Paper Creations. I would drive to the store with a photo in hand and then leave with one page of cardstock and one patterned paper. I had moved to Wisconsin when that first really cool SEI paper launched. I was not (am not) a big online buyer, so I had to wait for one of my orthodontist trips to UT to buy some from my favorite Paper Creations. I remember I paid 74 cents apiece for paper much too large for my albums. It was a noteworthy moment.

Since then, SEI has continued to impress me with their graphic papers and more importantly their fun fun color. They helped me through the time of vintage-collage-tan-ivory-and-brown and have often suckered me into buying whole collections, not just a paper here and there. This fall, they have four new lines, with the fifth scheduled for Christmas. Kitties, Dogs, fall colors(madera) and bright fun colors(ally's wonderland) are totally awesome. All of them. I love that the pet lines are completely versatile and don't force you into having pets. (Oh, I only wish I could promise you that I won't ever buy a dog just to be able to use a cute paper....teehee!)
So, bring on the SEI layouts. I can't wait to hear why you love them. is it the ribbon? the color? the lines as a whole? Do you share my love of their textured paper and coordinating letter stickers? Thank you SEI for bringing shiny happy color to my life!