one line, two ways - part two

Hello again!

Today I have more layouts from my June kit from Scrappy Chic -- and once again, I made two rather different layouts with just one line of paper. This time around, it's KaiserCraft's Check In, which is ostensibly a travel line, though calling these "travel" pages would be a stretch, for sure!

First up, a page about one of my husband's choirs - 

How considerate of them to match my papers so well with their red and black performance outfits. ;) This color scheme pretty much wrote itself, and I used one of my favorite go-to layouts: trim the patterned paper to size, cut it into two pieces, and flip one of them. Done. The embellishments keep it looking fresh -- here I used some of the perforated elements from the line, plus a border punch, some ribbon, and black alphas that almost match the patterned paper.

I also turned to Jenni Bowlin (queen of red and black) and grabbed some gems and butterfly stickers from my J.B. stash, along with a new stamp set from Maya Rd to house a bit more patterned paper. Andrew actually liked this one so much he took it into school to show the kids in the choir -- isn't that sweet?

For my second page, I went in a different direction, color-wise:

This actually looks busier in the photo than it does in real life, I swear -- but here, I scrapped Andrew's childhood love for an antique traffic signal. Yep. The big, awesome historical museum near us recently redid their whole transportation exhibit (and in Detroit, transportation exhibits are kind of a big deal), and Andrew was worried that his traffic light wouldn't be part of the refurbish...but it was. Happy boy. So this time around, I used the road and ticket images from the line to fit the nature of the museum's exhibit rather than a real road trip.

Those tickets come from the line, and I added some more Jenni Bowlin stickers (since they were on my desk), plus some punched circles from one of my favorite Hambly transparencies (RIP :( - I'll miss them).

Well, that's enough words from me for one day, don't you think? You can see these projects and get your hands on the products I used at Scrappy Chic -- as always!

{Ok, one more thing: I'm fortunate enough to be headed off to CHA for a second time! We'll be heading out early for some pre-show events, and then I'll be right in the thick of things once again -- I can't wait! So, I'll likely be posting some quick and photo-heavy posts while I'm there...if there are any lines, projects, or people you'd like to see more or less up-close, be sure to let me know! In the meantime, you can access a great list of all the sneak peeks here -- they're starting to come in pretty heavily this week!}

Have a great Monday!

simon, in case you missed him.

In the past few months I've spent away from blogging, I've spent plenty of quality time with the cats ;)
In those same few months, Simon the kitten became Simon the Giant! He's just over a year old now, yet he's longer, taller, and heavier than Dex (who is 10 and a bit of a chunk). He's also, fortunately, very, very photogenic. Let's take a look, shall we?

Here I scrapped my handsome boy with some October Afternoon, mostly to prove to myself that their Sasparilla (sic) line needn't be a little-boys-only kind of line. The map and woodgrain prints are both fairly low-key, perfect for highlighting one of my all-time favorite Simon pictures. I kept the whole thing pretty simple to keep the focus on the photo.

Oh, this layout made me happy -- and not just for the crazy-hilarious-slightly-lewd (and absolutely NOT elegant) photo of Simon napping (more on that in a moment). I'd been sketching layout ideas (I use this little sketchbook, by the way - the daily spots are the perfect size for layouts), and I had this idea that a bunch of tags and elements would make for a fun, graphic, linear kind of layout. I think it worked :). Here, I used Crate Paper's Story Teller collection, which has tag and accent cut-apart sheets that were perfect for this job, along with that wonderful cork-printed paper in the background. Love. This. Layout. It's also really quite simple, even with all the various pieces -- again, the photo tells a story, so I didn't want much in the way of embellishments.

You can find both of these layouts, as well as all the goodies I used to make them, at Scrappy Chic.

Now, about that photo:

This was a 90-plus degree day in May, and Simon conked out in exactly this pose for around half an hour without moving! I thought it was hilarious and absolutely adorable... not that I'm biased at all!  Oh, I'm such a cat lady, aren't I? To prove it, this fact: cats grow until they're about two years old. Any bets on how big Simon will be by then?!

Anyway, that'll do for now -- I'll be back soon with some neon goodness (and I'll show some Dexter photos soon, don't worry).

Until then, enjoy yourselves!

Authentique x2

Me again, looking up briefly from my (larger-than-usual) mountain of essays to grade. Luckily, I made these layouts before the landslide :)

These two also feature the latest goodies from Scrappy Chic, namely the Celebrate collection from Authentique. Here, I'm celebrating a new Design Team year -- check it:

Aw, ain't we cute? I wanted to use a PageMaps sketch that's kinda been stuck in my head (it's one from January if you'd like to go hunting), and I also wanted to break out a bit of stash in addition to my new goodies. In this case, I went with some tiny clothespins from Canvas Corp. that had been sitting in a jar since I won them a year ago or more -- oops!

(other supplies: May Arts twine, AC Thickers, tiny attacher)

I think this picture is hilarious. From what I can tell from my first time meeting these ladies, this is a pretty good representation of their personalities :) Looking forward to checking out their creations all year long.

Since I had a good mess going already, I thought I'd whip up a second quick layout:

Different, no? Very manly. Aside from the background, I used mostly scraps to document my husband's favorite watch. An odd subject, maybe, but he really loves this watch, and I really love this picture. (I also love the potty people paper, by the way -- reminds me of a certain stamping pal of mine). Also, if I may get design-y for a minute, I like the way the strong diagonal line in the photo leads the eye to both the journaling in the top corner and the buttons in the bottom. Meant to do that. Yep.

(other supplies: AC Thickers)

I even used my twine scraps to thread those buttons. Not easy -- that May Arts twine is thick! Pretty, though.

Anyway, that's it for my DT creations this month -- next month we'll pick up speed, since CHA goodies are pouring into the store now. (Don't forget: you can keep tabs on what's coming in on the store blog here.) I grabbed some fun Dear Lizzy papers and stamps the other day, and I can't wait to break 'em out.

After the dang essays. Blergh.

Have a lovely evening!

Challenges all around

Howdy there -- hope you're having a lovely Sunday, wherever you may be.

February marks the start of a new year for the design team over at Scrappy Chic (you can see us all here...or in an upcoming blog post right here, if you're patient). One of the lines in my kit this month was Tiny Woods from KaiserCraft (yes, that's really the name. yes, I think it's funny. sometimes I have a seventh-grade sense of humor.)

This line has really lovely colors, but they're challenging -- fall-ish (makes more sense in their home country of Australia than here, I suppose), and it's borderline theme-y, design-wise. So, I challenged myself to make at least two layouts using it, and I turned to a couple of online challenges to get it all done. Whoa. Challenging, indeed.

Here's the first take:

Analog memories, indeed. Andrew has a lot of fond memories of this old tape recorder -- high technology back in the day! I thought the vaguely 70s colors of the paper were perfect for this particular topic.

I used Studio Calico's Sunday sketch from last week to help me out:

By making the shift from 12x12 to 8.5x11, I had to squish some elements, bumping the journalling below the title instead of next to it. Otherwise, I was (surprisingly) faithful to the original.

other supplies: ranger tag, pebbles alphas, cosmo cricket tiny type word, twine, bazzill cs, amy tangerine washi tape

The tag with my title on it is misted very lightly with Mister Huey's Clover, and I typed up my journalling on the B-side leftovers of my main paper. The buttons are chipboard from Bazzil, and I misted the heck out of those with the same Clover color. Did you know that Scrappy Chic will be carrying Mister Huey's any day now? That makes me very happy.

While I was at it, I tackled the challenge from The Creative Type to scrap your celebrity crush. How fun is that? The samples on their blog are great, too. I had no trouble at all choosing my crush -- the hardest part was choosing a photo from the interwebs. Here's what I came up with:

other supplies: authentique alphas, studio calico stickers, signo pen, kaisercraft really tiny alphas, doodlebug flock (under the stickles, dang it)

Oh, Paul Rudd, how is it that such a funny dude can smolder at the camera that way? Sigh. Anyway, you can see I used the same paper as above, plus a subtle woodgrain pattern. I'm less than pleased with my splatters -- the blue were supposed to be flocked, but the flock didn't stick well enough, so I had to do a second coat with Stickles. And then, when I was setting the thing up for photographing (almost 24 hours later, by the way), I smeared the white splatters (dang you, OA Sprinklers!). So, whatever. I still like the end result, warts and all. I'll just skip the close-up, ok?

In the end, my challenge-based layouts made the challenging paper line less of a challenge. Dig? Dig.

Feel free to go watch a Paul Rudd movie now. Enjoy!

My top 10 of 2011 -- sort of.

Hello again, all!
Now that the new year is in full swing (or as full swing as it can be on day two!), I figured it was time to take a stroll through last year's projects and pick my favorites.

My original goal was to pick 10 cards and 10 layouts...but as I was scrolling through a year's worth of blog posts, I realized I made a boo boo -- I think I might have deleted a couple of older Picasa web albums...not a big deal, except a few month's worth of blog photos were in them. Oops!

So, I'll just go with ten total projects instead, with a big date gap in the middle. Without further ado, here we go!

From February:

A layout featuring my pal's sweet dog. Read more here.

Jump to June:

Baby predictions, the old-fashioned way. See original here.

 The first card I had published. Never gets old. Read more.

In July:

Simon is about 12x this size now. Still cute. See details here. 

From my Growing in Unity week. Original is here. 

in August:

More kitten, with banners this time. Close-ups here. 

My sweet man's birthday. One-layer happiness here.  

October:

Still love this mini. All the pages are here. 

Stepped into a new style and surprised myself. Spongeworthiness here. 

November:

Got a little lost in an 8-layout post, but man, I love this one. And yes, more kitten. See them all here. 

So, what can we conclude? I definitely like to scrap animal photos, especially of Simon. (Dex got attention too...I swear!) Also, scrappy projects just barely outnumber card projects, which I'm pretty sure reflects my creative output last year. I like patterns a lot, but no one color dominates. Nor does a single style, which either makes me versatile or mildly schizophrenic. I'd prefer versatile, though ;) And I definitely shouldn't delete web albums willy-nilly! 

I can also say with some confidence that my December album (aka the Big Fun Christmas Project) will be one of my favorites as well -- but as I finished it yesterday, it's technically a 2012 project. You'll see it soon...and again in the 2012 year in review!

Hope you're having a great day!

Hip Holiday layouts

Ok, maybe these layouts aren't hip, but they do feature Hipstamatic photos...have I mentioned lately how much I love taking photos with that delightful little iphone app? It makes everything look festive/artsy/skillful without trying too hard at all. 

I wanted to scrap two very blurry photos of one of Andrew's choirs singing at last year's holiday concert. Here's an explanation of the event:

And here's the whole layout, using Prima's awesome and quirky holiday collection, North Country. It's very un-Prima, which is good for me -- as you know, floral girly stuff and I are not the best of friends (Look! Did you notice I used a flower right smack on this layout? I impressed myself with that one!). I ganked the layout design from a layout in this post, which was based on a layout from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party class (whew!). Yes, "gank" is a word, though CASE would probably be a better option.

It's a little hard to see in the photos, but I layered some red tulle trim under the photo edges as well as under a Hambly transparency strip -- since tulle is so lightweight, it didn't add much bulk, even though it's all pleated and stuff. Ooh, and speaking of ganking, I totally ganked the title from the musical Mame:

Yet another song to get lodged in your brain. Enjoy. :)

One more layout today, this one featuring some Webster's Pages paper from the Botanical Christmas collection:

Kept it simple, since the Webster's paper is so pretty all on its own. I like that I unintentionally ended up with a visual triangle of trees, though :). My favorite part is the bow, which I made with some ribbon from my stash that I'd had forever:

The bow-y part is made the same way as the one on this card, only with a loop of ribbon instead, and then I just added the short tails behind and the long bit behind the pictures -- 4 separate pieces of ribbon come together so neatly, eh?

A little Stickles on the top of the tree, some alphas from Basic Grey and Studio Calico, and I called it a day! These layouts are out for the viewing at Scrappy Chic, if you're curious to see them in person. They have some great Black Friday (and Small Business Saturday) sales planned, so shop well!

Speaking of "calling it a day," today our second bathroom got torn apart (thanks Dad!) -- it's reno time. On top of that, I made mac and cheese for Thanksgiving, along with a batch of ice cream from this fabulous book -- seriously, this chick has her ice cream science down!! Oh, you know, plus I worked and stuff. Busy day!

Hope yours has been lovely! I'll be back (maybe) Wednesday with my family tags for Thanksgiving. Hooray!

Cats and Dogs in October.

Hi there, and happy Wednesday! I have a three-layout post for you today, all featuring pets. What could be better? Oh, I know -- how about three great lines of paper from my October kit from Scrappy Chic?

On with the show:

You know, sometimes it's worth scrapping somewhat crappy pictures of yourself...as long as they feature a cute and distracting kitten! These are all self-portraits I took when Simon was just a baby. He was so much snugglier then...now his snuggle attention span is pretty dang short. Oh well. I've used a great line from Glitz Design -- definitely shabbier than I usually go, but I think the colors are just gorgeous. I inked my title alphas purple to match and threw in some Distress ink splats for good measure.

So, in case you were wondering, yes, we DO have two cats :). I already showed y'all this picture on an earlier post, but I just had to scrap it, too -- this still wins the prize for the most non-growl-inducing physical contact Dex and Simon have had. Plus, ain't it cute? Here I used Studio Calico's awesome Autumn Press collection (including those kraft butterfly stickers -- yummy), along with a bit of Amy Tangerine, some Maya Rd. tickets, plus doilies and burlap from my stash.

Look out below! It's not one, but TWO DOGS on a layout. You see, Andrew and I are definitely cat people (he'd like a dog someday...I think that particular someday is quite a way from now!), but my parents are definitely dog people. I grew up with dogs, I like dogs, and I know what a pain in the behind dogs can be (hence: cats).

Anyway, this cute photo of my mom and her dogs (Zeus and Roxy) just makes me smile. They're very good at waiting their turn for scraps. The paper line is Summer's End by Fancy Pants -- suitable, since the photo is from the end of August. The frames are pre-printed on the page, making embellishing quick work. Did some layering under the photo, gave some veneer butterflies a dose of ink (thanks for the tip, Liz), threw in a fussy-cut leaf from another sheet, and used the negative from the butterfly stickers on the previous layout along with some watercolors as an accent up at the top.

I have more from October's kit...plus what I've done so far with November's kit...plus some progress on my Big Fun Christmas Project, plus some holiday cards...So, yeah -- you'll be hearing from me again soon! In the meantime, local folks can check out these layouts and a bunch more over at Scrappy Chic. (Happy Shopping!)

Have a lovely day!

SiSiS: Stuff I Scrapped in September, part three.

Howdy and Happy end-of-Monday!

Today I collected 3/4 of a mountain of essays to grade (the rest will come tomorrow), so I thought I'd sneak in a post before it all gets too busy around here. How about a couple layouts featuring that cute boy I'm married to? Ok then:

I always try to snap a photo of the boy on his first day of school -- sometimes he obliges (grudgingly), and sometimes I have to sneak one (last year's features Andrew brushing his teeth!). This year he obliged, probably so I wouldn't scrap a toothpasty version of him :) I used the same Fancy Pants goodies that I used in this post, along with a few bits and bobs from my stash, plus a fun "keep calm and..." stamp from Maya Rd.

The title is layered over some tape, and I made a little rosette with a glue dot and some embroidery floss.

This next layout needs a little explaining -- you see, we play pub trivia every Tuesday, generally with a friend or two. For awhile, we had a dream team of four -- Andrew and I, plus our friends Rob and Jon. Between us, we had a wide range of generally useless information to draw upon. ;) One night, the stars aligned and...

We got a perfect score! Here's the rest of the team as we were celebrating with root beer floats :).  I included our score sheet from the game and some crossword-patterned paper from Grant Studios. See the chipboard buttons? Well, you might think they're just a design detail, but the uppermost button stack is strategic -- it's covering a woman in the background who looks like she's about to pick her nose. Ha! I don't know who she is, but I'm guessing she wouldn't appreciate being featured on the page. So, hello, button!

Anyway, since this game our buddy Rob moved out of state for a job, so now we mostly play as a team of three. We do ok, but we haven't since had a perfect game. Maybe tomorrow?

Anyway, that's all of my September projects for Scrappy Chic. I have more from a scrap session at the store, plus a bunch I've done since...whoa. Lots more posting to do!

Until then -- have a lovely evening! Wish me some grading luck, will ya? Thanks.

SiSiS: Stuff I Scrapped in September, part two

Hiya and happy Friday!

Today I have three holiday layouts for you -- two Christmas, one Halloween. And since I don't have a ton of recent holiday photos (especially Halloween), I decided to make some more mini-me layouts with the three holiday lines that were part of my September kit from Scrappy Chic, which is where you can find all of my supplies. Check it:

as always, click a photo to see it bigger.

Halloween's up first. I know I have a shortage of Halloween photos for scrapping purposes, but I still went through five years' worth in one layout! These are my first five Halloween costumes -- all homemade, all well-loved (even the crazy-looking clown makeup!). My grandma can sew like crazy; she made all the clothes for her kids for years (that's five kids, people), and when I was little she made most of my special-occasion outfits, too -- Halloween, yes, but also Easter and Christmas dresses, first-day-of-school ensembles, etc. She can still sew, but these days readymade clothes cost quite a bit less than homemade for the most part -- plus she's moved on to (many) other hobbies. But I digress. The page uses Echo Park's Halloween line plus some ribbons from my stash. Aside from photo editing and printing, the whole thing took about 20 minutes. Works for me! Oh, and that princess costume in '81? cut down from a bridesmaid's dress from (I think) my aunt's wedding. And I thought modern bridesmaid's dresses could be crazy looking! Big floral flouncy border, anyone? Oy. Next:

A jolly old elf, indeed. What else could I use with that adorable elfin print (plus plaid, plus snowflakes) from American Crafts? The Thickers are a reflective shiny silver, which is why they look a little odd in the photo -- they sure gleam in person, though! In the 1981 Santa photo (on the left), you will see one of my favorite childhood fabrics: velour. Spiffy! On the right (1982), I'm wearing one of my home-sewn ensembles -- I loved that jumper. Another super-quick page, too. One more? Ok!:

I admit, this one's my favorite. The little photos are from '81, and the papers and die-cuts are all from the Teresa Collins Christmas line (except the big kraft snowflakes -- those are Maya Rd). The paper started out with a white background. Really white. Too white. Mists to the rescue! Some olive, some krafty tan, and I get shimmer, color, and less white. Since you can't see the photos, really, here's a closeup:

The same sewing grandma made me the stocking that year -- it would have lasted nearly forever, except one of my parents' dogs chewed it up pretty well when I was in college :(. On the right, you can see our family's extensive collection of macrame plant hangers in the front window, plus the toboggan that got a lot of use in Hines Park for years (Dead Man's Hill, anyone else?). Let's check out the cluster at the bottom:

More die-cuts (the cream phrase stickers are Cosmo Cricket's new Tiny Type words). That cluster is not hiding a mistake -- I hid my journaling behind it :).

Whoa -- that's a lot of photos! I do have a few more goodies to share with you (the boy pages). Last post, I'd mentioned that I hadn't scrapped much in October. In the past few days, I've made a half dozen layouts plus a couple cards! Whoa! The reason? Partly because I have a new kit to use, but mostly because of an online class I decided to sign up for from Shimelle Laine's website -- it's called Pretty Paper Party (how could I resist?), and it's really inspired me to break into my stash of new and old papers and create away! Thanks to Sue for recommending it -- it is pretty awesome.

All right then, have a lovely Friday!

SiSiS: Stuff I Scrapped in September, part one.

Hey folks -- I'm back!

So far in October, I've done very little scrapping -- and I have a bunch of it to do before month's end, so I guess I'd better get on that. However, September was pretty productive for me, so I thought I'd share a few batches of those layouts with you.

You can see some of my scrap-related projects from September in this post, and in this one. Here are some layouts you haven't seen yet:

First up, a bright and cheery layout about the little sort-of surprise party we had for my aunt's 59-and-a-half-th birthday (like that? Thought so.) I used some Basic Grey goodies here -- the fun Indie Bloom line, specifically. I fussy-cut (yes! me!) a big ol' flower and some leaves to frame my cluster of little photos, and used another subtler pattern to anchor the cluster and my title. Six photos is a lot for an 8.5x11 scrapper, but I was up for the challenge. Also, we did not make her wear that silly hat and vest all day -- just long enough to get some photos! Next:

These photos are from the exact same party, just later in the day. My uncles decided to fire off this tiny antique cannon that had been used primarily as a yard ornament -- and it worked. And it was LOUD! Who knew? It's a little hard to see in the photo, but the whole thing is not even two feet long! The title is true -- my uncles are seriously easygoing guys and mild-mannered in the extreme. I guess gunpowder just riles them up, eh? Ah, men. Anyway, I used Crate Paper's Farmhouse line here -- the ruler print is two sheets from the 6x6 pad lined up together, while the quilty squares are un-fussily-cut from a 12x12 sheet. The letters started white, but I inked 'em. Fabric-covered letters are handy for that! Oh, and those asterisks are from Studio Calico -- they started as plain wood veneer, but I hit them with some Distress Stain (thanks for the tip, Liz).

Pretty much everything here is available at Scrappy Chic, so shop (locally) away!

I'll be back soon with either a couple of pages featuring the hubster, or a few featuring little me. Which would you like to see next?

Have a blustery grey wet lovely day!

I swear these pages are cute!

So, a few weeks ago I met up with some folks at Scrappy Chic to do a little cropping. I made a whole mini-book (more on that later), and then whipped up a couple of quick layouts near the end of the day. Since I used my design team goodies for those layouts, it seemed silly to take them home, photograph them, and then bring them all the way back to the store for display. I just snapped some photos right there on the table and then left the layouts behind. Turns out, that might not be the best idea -- fluorescent lighting plus iphone does not exactly equal stellar photography. Try to see beyond it, ok?

It might help that the photos feature the cutest kids I know, though!

click to enlarge...if you think it'll help!

Here's our godson, in the middle of asking one of about a million and a half questions, mostly about the bowling tournament that was on TV. After awhile, we (who know little about bowling to begin with) started giving silly and nonsensical answers, but he didn't mind :)

paper from imaginisce and my mind's eye; other goodies from ac, basic grey, and my stash.

The clickety-clack of a manual typewriter at a crop is always sure to spark everyone's "remember when" stories. Fun times.

The second one features photos from the same day, same kid, plus his little brother and some very messy ice cream!

ruby rock-it paper, fabulous stamp from suzanne carillo/art gone wild

I made a little journaling flag with a toothpick. I have a feeling I'll try that one again soon. Also, isn't that hanging-clouds stamp amazing? I love it. These days, a wood-mount stamp has to be pretty awesome for me to buy it (storage space issues and such), and this one definitely qualifies! (Got mine at Scrappy Chic, of course, but you can see it here if you scroll down a bit.)

By the way, if you happen to be local, Treat Dreams in Ferndale has amazing and well-made ice cream for the whole family! Blue whatever-that-is makes kids happy, but the salty caramel ice cream made me very happy. There's also a cute train table for kids to play at, which distracted these kiddos soon after the photos were snapped ;)

Two layouts, plus...

...it's blog birthday giveaway time! But more on that later. First, I have a couple layouts for you today -- made them both last weekend at Scrapbook League at Scrappy Chic.

Numero uno:

Oh my, look at little us. This photo is from 1998, when we spent a semester in London. I dearly miss that semester. If you are ever in the position of doing a semester overseas yourself, or advising a young person faced with such an opportunity, TELL THEM TO GO!! Trust me.

But perhaps more to the point: I used some of my new Echo Park here. Just love For the Record -- it is delightful! I paired it with some old, old Making Memories puffy letters and a little bit of stamping that just looks like smudges in the photo...much cuter in person, I promise. This layout has a partner with a similar design, using the same papers -- it's a photo of me and two of my gal pals in the same pub from the same night. That's about as close as a two-page layout as I get these days :)

Further back in time:

...further back by, oh, 20 years or so! Yep, a different sort of little me, snoozin' in the swing. Sassafras Mix & Mend here, with some old (again) letters from...K&Co, I think, and some new flowers from Prima -- two resin, and one big orange dude that arrives in ribbon form. Can you picture a whole yard of flowery goodness? I can. 'Cause I have one ;)

So, in that photo there, I'm just about a year old...(see the segue in action)...and so is this here blog! Yep, a whole year ago, I decided to take the plunge and share my designs with the world. Well, with the half-dozen or so members of the world who stop in and look, anyway!

In honor of my blog birthday, I have TWO WHOLE PRIZES to give to two lucky commenters today. Wanna see?  Ok:

Oh me oh my, brandy-new goodies from two of everyone's favorite companies! I just got home from picking these up for y'all at Scrappy Chic...look, I'm so tacky I even forgot to take the price tags off! Oops!

First, a 6x6 pad from Crate Paper -- Emma's Shoppe is girly and vintage and fabulous, while Toy Box is part boy, part young at heart, and all awesome. Plus, look: the folks at Crate finally got the memo and reduced their full-size patterns for the small pads instead of hacking 12x12 sheets in quarters! I about flipped when I saw that. (Oh, and these aren't even on the shelves yet at the store -- I was totally rooting around in the piles waiting to go out! They'll probably be out by the end of the day, though, local folks.)

Next, a pack of petals from Basic Grey -- the colors in Hello, Luscious coordinate perfectly with Emma's Shoppe, and the Life of the Party line looks great with Toy Box. Plus, hello? They're CANVAS. So yummy. And there's a lot in each pack.

So whether you're a scrapper or a card maker, there's plenty to love here. Would you likey? Here's the details:

1. If you aren't already, please consider becoming a follower of this blog -- you can do so over in the sidebar, and it only takes a second.

2. Leave a comment on this post that either:

     a. is a question for me. You can ask me anything, make a request, whatever. I like curious people, and I'll try to answer the questions in a future post. (PS: please don't ask for videos. You won't get them, because I'm shy that way ;) OR:

     b. tells me why you stop in and read awhile here at the blog. I'm trying to figure out why I like reading some blogs and quit reading others...maybe your comments can help!

3. Do #s 1 and 2 by SATURDAY, MARCH 12TH, at MIDNIGHT EST. I'll use a random-number generator to pick my winners and post them sometime on Sunday, so be sure to check back.

This is open to anyone, anywhere -- I'll ship internationally to my awesome readers. If you're local, I can bring your winnings to Scrappy Chic. You know you have some shopping to do there, anyway, right?

It's grey and very, very rainy outside, but here in blog land, it's always warm and fuzzy. Have a delightful day!