Dazed and confused

Okay, so I pretty much live in a perpetual state of "dazed and confused" (and not in the illegal hallucinogenic way), but I'm kind of shocked that it's already mid-afternoon on MONDAY?! Where did my three-day weekend go?

Once again, I planned to accomplish way more than I could realistically fit into three days. But on a happy note, I did get a ton of stuff done. Let's see...

1. I put together 50 kits for the classes I'm teaching next weekend at the Great American Scrapbook Convention. There's a whole lot of trimming, punching, bagging and stuffing in this box.


2. I finished creating the project for my first class at Scrapville. Ready for a couple of peeks?




Just a little tease...more photos to come after Kerry, Melinda and Cara have seen it. Basically, it's a fun little mini book that'll be perfect for your favorite summer photos, and we'll be playing with heat embossing and stamping along the way. The class will be Saturday, June 25, from 11:30 to 1:30, and you can sign up at Scrapville starting this week.

3. I created this layout for the Little Yellow Bicycle Challenge at 2Peas.


I accidentally stumbled on the entire Twig collection last week -- I seriously thought this was sold out pretty much everywhere -- so I bought a few pieces. And now I can see why it's sold out (almost) everywhere...it's awesome!



4. I trekked all the way to the Girl Scout Store to buy Avery's Brownie vest for her bridging ceremony tomorrow night. Next order of business is ironing on all the patches. Ugh.

There's a whole list of other stuff I got done this weekend, but let's get to the reason you're really here, shall we? The little matter of the giveaway??

Without further ado, the winner of the Lucky Me kit is:
Congrats Amy!!! Send me an email and I'll get your kit to you ASAP!

And now I'm off to wrap Adam's anniversary present. Tomorrow is our 9-year wedding anniversary, but we're celebrating tonight. (Because the Girl Scout Potluck and Bridging Ceremony just wasn't the way I wanted to ring in our 10th year together.)

Enjoy what's left of your Memorial Day weekend!

Let's get campy!

As I mentioned on Monday, there's a big party happening on the Imaginisce blog this week for the release of the new Happy Camper collection.

When I heard that Imaginisce was doing a camping collection, my first thought was: uh-oh. You see, I've pretty much sworn off camping unless it involves a luxury trailer (like the kind the celebrities travel around in) or a well-built cabin with indoor plumbing. Suffice it to say, my photos of camping are pretty limited because, well, I just don't go there.

But I got lucky. Cecily's preschool goes on a camping trip every year and Adam, being the good sport he is, agreed to take her. And it just so happens, one of her classmates has a mom who is a truly amazing photographer and was kind enough to post photos of the camping trip for all the parents to download. Pretty cool, huh?


I had to supplement with one iPhone photo -- bet you can tell immediately which one is not the professional-grade photo.

Since that layout pretty much exhausted my camping-related photos, it was time to think outside the box. Looking at the colors in this collection, the oranges, reds, browns and dark greens reminded me of the change of seasons. Even though it's not even summer yet, I started thinking FALL!


I used the Cloud Snag'Em Stamp (directly on the layout, as well as stamped on a separate piece of cardstock and cut out) along with the clouds from the Camp Critter Die-Cuts to create the scene.



The trees are handcut (but I used an October Afternoon die-cut as my template/inspiration for their shape) -- except for the pine trees, which are also from the Die-Cuts pack. I used pop-dots to give the 3D look of a grove of fall trees.


The other thing I love about this collection is the little red birdie. He just makes me happy, so I wanted to give him the spotlight.


And there you have it. The closest I will get to camping for a long time. Hopefully!

Be sure to check out all the other DT members projects on the Imaginisce blog today, and enter the giveaway there to win the Happy Camper collection.

And speaking of giveaways, the one I posted yesterday is open until Saturday, so if you haven't already "liked" Scrapville on Facebook and posted a comment on my blog post from yesterday...well, what are you waiting for? My Mind's Eye yummies are up for grabs!!

C'mon down to Scrapville! (with a great GIVEAWAY!)

At last, I've found a new, local scrappy hangout! Over the weekend, I visited Scrapville and my first thought was "Why in the world didn't I come here sooner?!" It's a wonderful store located in Greenville, Texas (that's northeast of Dallas for my non-Texan friends), and they have an amazing selection. They carry almost every Bo Bunny line that's out right now, plus every color of Bo Bunny double dot, journal, flourish and stripe. I may never buy plain cardstock ever again.

Kerry, Melinda and Cara at Scrapville

I also spotted October Afternoon (5 and Dime...bestill my heart!), Kaisercraft (paper collections and beyond-the-page alterables), American Crafts, Crate Paper, Cosmo Cricket, Canvas Corp., Tim Holtz inks, paints and even the new Kraft resist paper -- so many of my faves that I have been ordering online. What was I thinking? I plead ignorance.

But what I'm most excited about is that the owners, Kerry, Cara and Melinda, have asked me to teach some classes at Scrapville! As of now, I'm planning one for Saturday, June 25, and another in early August. Stay tuned for more details (and sneak peeks)!

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my new-found scrappy bliss, the ladies at Scrapville gave me a fabulous My Mind's Eye "Lucky Me" paper pack to give away. It's full of papers and accessories -- over 130 pieces! -- from the Abbey Road collection:


To enter the giveaway, head on over and "Like" the Scrapville Facebook page. Then leave a comment below telling me you did it. I'll draw a winner on Saturday, May 28, to receive this wonderful prize pack!

Camping, anyone?

I always love a good Release Party (especially when it involves a giveaway!). Today kicks off the "Happy Camper" release on the Imaginisce blog. Here's a peek:

Now those of you that know me know that I'm not much of a camper. The camping experiences I've had in my life...well, let's just say they weren't good ones. So what did I do with this collection? Well, you'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out!

Ok, how about just one. This is one that I created for Winter CHA and it was featured in the Imaginisce catalog this time. (My first catalog feature!)


I'll post more on Wednesday, but in the meantime, check out all the fabulous Design Team members' projects that are posted today on the Imaginisce blog. And while you're there, leave a comment to enter the giveaway for a Happy Camper sample pack. You can even increase your chances of winning by grabbing one of the Happy Camper avatars at the Imaginisce Facebook page. Personally, I love this one:


But there are several to choose from, so pick the one you love the most!

And be sure to stop back by my blog tomorrow because I'm going to share some fun news and give away some yummy My Mind's Eye goodies! You don't want to miss it!

Rollin' along

Hope you had a wonderful National Scrapbook Day and a fabulous Mother's Day! I spent the weekend hanging out with my family and my sweet aunt who was in town for the weekend, but I did manage to squeeze in a little crafty time.

And thank goodness I did because today kicks off another fabulous Release Party on the Imaginisce blog! This week, Imaginisce is releasing new versions of the Roly Rosies, including new colors and...wait for it...FABRIC rosies! They're beautiful, and they add such fun dimension to your projects.

Here's a card I created using the denim Roly Rosies, along with some paper from the Little Cutie collection and some ribbon and ric-rac from my stash.

This one's probably going to need its own box because those flowers will never squash into an envelope, but it would be perfect to hold a gift card that you're mailing to someone special.

I wanted to mix the Fabric Roly Rosies with some of the new Neutrals (they're paper), and I realized that the Neutrals really are "neutral" -- they go with everything! Here's the layout I created using the Garden Party collection with lots of new Roly Rosies:

I used the i-Rock Flourish stencil to create the bling swirls. I love that you can mix colors of the rocks to match your layout.


The flower with the black polka dots is my favorite favorite! I need a whole package just of those. (Are you listening Imaginisce?) Oh, and I added diamond Stickles around the edges of the flowers to give them a little extra oomph.


Be sure to visit the Imaginisce blog today through Wednesday for more examples from the Design Team. We have some amazing projects in store for you!