Worlds Collide

I'm so very excited about the Studio Calico reveal tonight for the January kit and add-ons, because some of my most favorite Cosmo Cricket papers and embellishments will be available! If you have a little boy, a brother, you can not miss this kit. Believe me, I search high and low for boy stuff with style, and this mixture of Cosmo with the Studio Calico signature touches can not be matched.

Still on vacation, hope to be back posting a new layout Monday morning. But if you don't want to wait, you can check it out on the Studio Calico blog 12/26 post. Hope you all are having a great time this holiday!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to everyone who stops by. I'll be back to blogging soon. :)

Friday, Obama-nomics, surgery update (oh yeah, it's random)

I'm in a hurry today, rushing around trying to get a project ready to send to Scrapbook Trends. I need stamps from the post office too for the Christmas cards and birthday thank you notes.

I think Woody is airing out rather well. I knew there was some advantage to keeping this place as dry as the Sahara desert.  

My sister has a date to meet with the surgeon at Duke 1/16. I think I can safely say that my going to CHA is out. First, flights out of where I live are ridiculous thanks to Obama's inauguration, which is that week (like $1000s for a round trip ticket). My friend Nicole S. wanted me to drive to where she lives and take a more reasonably priced plane out of there to CHA. However, I've had my reservations about that plan because of the winter weather. But I was willing to look into it. But last, the final coup de grace was my sister will be having surgery sometime after 1/16, which means that I lose my child care. My mom will be taking care of my sister recovering from surgery. So, no one thing killed it. But lots of things piled up and suffocated my CHA plans I think. I was really looking forward to meeting so many online friends.  I'm sad, but I know that making layouts for CHA for the manufacturers I work for will take my mind off it. And I'll be more free to focus on that without having to stress about my travel plans. There is always summer.  

Here is a card:

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Reindeer Games, Wrapping paper (front and back); plus Black and white cardstock; Kate Pertiet stitches stamps; Making Memories transparent alphas.

Instructions: You can either: 1. Get the making memories transparent alphas, adhere to patterned paper and cut out with a craft knife or 2. you can run your patterned paper through your printer, printing an outline font with a thick black edge in your typing program and cut around the black edge with a craft knife. Stamp stitches with black ink. Mount on white and black cardstock as shown.

Happy Friday everyone, it's the weekend! Not long now, let's wrap some presents! And buy a new computer. :(

A Christmas Miracle!

Well, after 3 weeks I had pretty much given up on Woody ever showing up. With only 7 more days to go I had planned on filing a claim with Amazon for my lost Woody doll. Yesterday, he shows up! In a Totino's pizza box (that should have been a clue). And let me tell you, he smells like he has been smoking Marbarlos in a musty old basement. All I keep thinking is this, my parents didn't have to deal with any of this when I was a kid. It really makes me wish for a simpler time. Maybe I can Febreez Woody? 

Enough of that, show the page woman! 

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper Strip Tease; plus Kraft Bazzil Cardstock, Basic Grey Chocolate alphas, Jenni Bowlin Calendar, American Crafts thicker, and die cut leaf-unknown.

Instructions: Print out journaling. Adhere patterned paper and photo. Add embellishments. 

I love the strip tease paper with all the Cosmo packs, something about it just makes me think of endless possibilities. I loved the colors on this, and the multi colored snowflakes (that isn't available on any other paper in the pack other than strip tease). Unless, someday Cosmo makes an Oh joy 8 x 8 paper pad. All kinds of never before seen papers hide in those wonders, I love them! 

A very random Thursday post, almost to the weekend everyone!

Hi there!

This is a drive by posting, I'm having quite the morning with J. He is having a tough time today, I don't think he slept enough. And he won't eat breakfast. He doesn't appear ill, just full of stubborn I think.

Here is a layout using the Studio Calico Dec kit, such a beautiful kit!



Happy Wednesday. Only 8 more days till Christmas, anyone want a bag to hyperventilate into?

Holiday Cards

Honestly, with the birth of my son I decided not to send handmade cards anymore for Christmas. I only send them to a few crafty friends of mine (so that I look cool). But otherwise for holiday cards, I'm digital. I focus on taking the very best picture I can, and I take that picture to Target and have the cards printed (44 cents per card).

But since I do need a few, here are some that are so simple you can forget the computer for a change. All you need is a Cosmo Oh Joy paper crafting kit and some alphas and snowflake embellishments. Use what you have, I did. I even made the background the white card to make life a little easier. Some of the cards are clearly Christmas-y and some are non-traditional. I like to have a mix just in case.

Noel Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Yuletide and Merry & Bright; plus Basic grey alphas.

Instructions: Cut Yuletide patterned paper into a square; cut Merry & Bright paper into a strip. Adhere alphas.

Snow Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Frosty (front and back) and Reindeer Games; plus Basic Grey alphas and K&Co snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut strips of patterned paper, arrange as shown. Adhere alphas and snowflake.

Deck the Halls Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper: Wrapping paper and Oh Joy Strip Tease; plus K&Co snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut a rectangle of wrapping paper patterned paper. Leave a white boarder. Cut phrase out of strip tease patterned paper, all the way to the edge. Adhere paper and snowflake.

Happy Holidays Card

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Oh Joy Patterned paper Strip Tease; plus Basic Grey alphas and Me&My big ideas snowflake embellishment.

Instructions: Cut strip tease patterned paper into small rectangle. Adhere alphas and snowflake.

I don't think I told you the story of my mailing lumpy cards. You'll like this one. Before I had kids, I signed up to make my sister's bridal shower invitations. They were so pretty, I think even Martha Stewart would have been proud. But man were the flowers lumpy. Anyway, I finished them (30 plus), addressed them and mailed them. A week later my mom calls me to tell me that my sister is miffed with me, why haven't I finished the invitations. I scratched my head and told my mom I had. Another week goes by and at the end of that week my mother gets a phone call from the Rocky Mount Postal Service, stating that they have all these damaged cards with her return address on them and that they clogged up and broke the sorting machine.

In the end, they did mail the cards to my mom. She had to call everyone with the details of the bridal shower and gave them the invitation there. I think the moral of the story is that if you break the postal service machine, you should definitely put someone else's return address on the envelope. I did actually do handmade cards (very, very flat ones) for a year or two after that. But I'm always afraid now. Which is a big part of the reason I go digi for mass mailings.

Happy Tuesday!

Self Medicating

December is shaping up to be a very stressful time. I'm going through the motions, but my heart just isn't in it. My parents were here this weekend and even though we all had a good time, everyone is on edge waiting for Duke to call for my sister's surgery. She has a number and is waiting for it to be called to go.

Want to know what I'm getting for Christmas? Besides the lumps of coal I deserve for the choice curse words I let fly when I realized my laptop was dead. Yep, the graphic/video card is dead. It is a $1000 repair, so most people opt for a new computer/laptop. For the handful of people who follow this blog, that makes the ratio of computers that are actually working my household 1/3. I'd like to thank the Apple support lady who was there for moral support as I fell apart.

Here's the thing, the 2 computers that died are what I call utility and they were over 4 years old. They don't have important files or pictures. But I was freaking out just thinking that could happen to the one that does. I have an external hard drive and online back up, but last night I started spinning everything to a separate disk, everything. I ran out of disks, so we are going to get some more today so that I can back up the rest of 2007 and all of 2008. Because you know what this experience has taught me? It's not a matter of if your computer will die/crash, it is simply a matter of when.

Still, my nerves are shot. Nurse, bring me a guacamole IV drip stat. Paging Santa, I need time capsule and a new laptop asap.



Happy Monday.