Goin' back to Cali...Cali...Cali...

Very excited to be leaving today for California and the CHA Winter Show! Okay, technically I'm stopping in Denver first for a work detour, but that's a small sacrifice for a weekend in sunny L.A. with girls I adore and a convention center packed wall-to-wall with crafty yumminess!

If any of you are at the show, I hope you'll stop by and see me at the Imaginisce make-and-take table on Saturday or Sunday. We're doing a really fun little project using ALL the Imaginisce tools (even the brand-spankin' new ones), so you don't want to miss out on that!

Speaking of Imaginisce, here are a couple of layouts I created with the new Animal Crackers collection, just released last week.


I don't do that many two-pagers, but I had so many photos from our ferris wheel ride and this collection was perfect!

Love these ticket die-cuts...perfect for journaling OR titling!

I added a little baker's twine and some i-rock bling to the balloon bunch.

But these papers work for a lot more than just fair or circus photos...like this photo of my daughter sporting my "way-too-big" sunglasses.


The banner is an adhesive border sticker that I trimmed down just a bit. I hand-cut the wave using my Bo Bunny flexible ruler.

So that's it for my projects until after CHA. But I'll also be posting on the Imaginisce blog over the weekend with some of my show photos, so pop over there for some behind-the-scenes peeks.

AND...just for fun: if anyone gets the "Goin' back to Cali" reference in the title, leave me a comment telling me where it's from and I'll pick a random winner who'll win one of the Imaginisce make-and-take's from the CHA floor (along with some other goodies from my stash). Good luck!

Fun with Cosmo

I admit it. I've gotten a little behind on posting projects this month. The good news is that I've done a LOT of stuff. The bad news is that I haven't really blogged most of it. Oops.

So let's fix that, shall we? Here are some projects I created with the (now-sold-out) Amish Quilt collection from Coordinates Collections. It was full of yummy Cosmo Cricket papers and Lush by My Mind's Eye.


I created this mini book using the Cosmo Cricket blackboard album and the Prima stamp to create a background. It was a fun and easy way to capture all my favorite photos from 2010.




And be sure to check out the Coordinates Collections blog today because I posted a fun Valentine's idea using the new Imaginisce Animal Crackers collection.

I've got a few more things up my sleeve tomorrow before I leave for CHA, so stay tuned!

My Imaginisce Top Ten

Happy Saturday! Hope you have something fun and/or relaxing planned for the weekend. I have a little bit of both: a date with my husband (fun!) and brunch with my BFF (relaxing! and fun!), combined with catching up on some scrappy projects (also relaxing! and fun!).

In honor of my "10 Things You Don't Know About Robyn" post on the Imaginisce blog today, I decided to do another kind of "Top Ten" and feature some of my favorite Imaginisce projects I've created over the past year.

Lucy Bird collection

Scooter's Vacation collection

To Love and Cherish collection

Splash Dance collection

Birthday Bash collection

To Love and Cherish (with a little Lucy Bird), Roly Rosies, Pop-Up Posies and i-Rock

Apple Cider collection

Wine tags made with Cottage Christmas collection

Enchanted collection

Garden Party collection

I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful company, and I'm looking forward to creating many more projects and making lots of new friends throughout 2011. I hope you will follow along the journey.

If you haven't been to the Imaginisce blog today, be sure to pop over there and leave a comment on my "10 Things" post for your chance to win some Imaginisce goodies!

Now go relax and have some fun!

Buttons, banners and...hankies?

Have you been following the Imaginisce blog this week? If so, you've seen some great ideas for using the i-Top during the "I-Top Intensive" we're hosting! It's now Day 3, and I'm up with a layout idea.

My mother-in-law found these beautiful vintage handkerchiefs and offered them to me and, of course, I snatched them up for my crafty stash. I knew they would make beautiful i-Top buttons (isn't that sad...that's where my mind goes these days), so it was just a matter of time before I found a perfect match between papers and hankies.

Enter the Enchanted collection from Imaginisce. The pinks and blues were identical to one of the hankies. Normally when I'm doing a layout, I go for i-Top brads. But I decided to try something a little different and go with i-Top buttons for this one. I'm using the medium button daddies for this project.

At first, I had a little trouble because the silk was so thin and fine that it barely held the backing in place. So to add a little thickness, I cut a circle of clear acetate from some sticker packaging (recycling!) and layered it on top of the silk. It worked in making the backing secure, plus I think it might protect the delicate silk from breaking down over time. It also added a little extra shine!

Once I had the buttons made, I strung them onto a strand of baker's twine and created a little swag border to go across the bottom of my layout. It's a fun variation on the wildly popular banners you're seeing everywhere, but with a bit of a twist!


And here's the finished layout...

If you hopped over from Penny Smith's blog, the next stop for you is:

Cari Locken's blog

And if you're not participating in the hop, now's a perfect time to start! You could win an i-Top of your very own, along with all the accessories!

Here's how to win: visit the blogs of all three of the designers who are participating in the i-Top Intensive today, leave a comment and then hop back to the Imaginisce blog and leave a final comment letting us know what you discovered about the projects and the i-top. All of your comments make you eligible to win an awesome i-top and accessories of your own. The designers you need to visit today are:

Penny Smith

Robyn Schaub (you are here)

Cari Locken

One more thing - You will also want to visit the Imaginisce blog all week for more ideas on how to use the super creative and incredibly fun i-top with chances to win your very own i-top each day and a SECRET grand prize opportunity on Friday.

Happy hoppin'!

Life is good

As I prepare to go back to work tomorrow (after being off for over two weeks), I'm rested, relaxed and almost caught up on my crafty projects. Of course, my house is a complete wreck from the two kids who have been out of school and cooped up inside for way too long. But it's all good, right?

This happy, laid-back attitude is probably very short-lived once I walk back into my workplace tomorrow, so I'll keep on keepin' on with some bright, happy projects featuring the Life Is Good collection from Echo Park. I got it from Crop Chocolate, which seems to have these packages pretty often. It's fun to get the whole collection because I usually like pretty much everything Echo Park makes.


Perfect colors for these photos of Avery's first non-training-wheeled bike ride. I hand-cut around the honeycomb shapes for the border.

And I couldn't help but make a fun little card with the scraps I had left over. I love this rainbow paper (although Avery would point out that the colors are not technically in "rainbow order").


Thanks for stopping by!

Me and my big ideas

Happy new year! I hope 2011 is off to a great start and that you've been successful over the past few hours at keeping any resolutions you've set. The only resolution I've made this year is to learn how to use my DSLR camera (and the auto setting I've been using for the past year doesn't count). So wish me luck with that!

If you've come over from the Imaginisce blog for the January altered challenge, you're in the right place. And if you've come on your own, hop back to the Imaginisce blog for details on how you can enter this month's challenge and win a prize package worth over $75!

So I guess you're wondering what I altered?

The print services manager at my company knows I love to scrapbook, so one day she dropped a box of old paper sample books by my office thinking I might find a use for them. They're great little books -- spiral-bound with all kinds of tabs, windows and different sizes of paper inside.


They've been sitting in my closet for many months now, but when I read about this challenge, I had an idea. Actually, the idea was the idea. I'm not very organized when it comes to collecting sketches or bits of inspiration when they come to me. So I created an idea/inspiration notebook.


The cover had these great circles, which reminded me of the Imaginisce Dino Roar papers I had leftover. I covered some of the circles, but I cut out the bottom one with a craft knife so the paper would show through. I added some striped ribbon around the binding for a finishing touch.

On the inside, I interspersed some quotes I found about creativity and ideas on pages where I needed to cover up the old text.



And I customized the tabs using Tiny Type stickers from Cosmo Cricket. There's a section for Notes, one for Sketches, and one for Inspiration. Behind the Inspiration tab, I adhered the top and bottom edges of the pages together to create pockets where I can stash clippings, memorabilia or other loose papers.


Leave a comment on this post for another chance to win this month's blog hop prize (worth over $50) and check out the Imaginisce blog for links to the other design team members who are participating this month. For each comment you leave on a design team member's blog or on the Imaginisce blog is another entry into the drawing.

Good luck!