Monday, Monday . . .

Happy Monday, everyone!  After one of my busiest months ever, I'm finally coming up for air.    Phew!!

I scrapped most of the weekend, but I took a little break yesterday to help my girls with a lemonade and cookie stand to raise money for their school.  Their school is in dire financial straights and at risk of having many crucial programs cut and the class sizes increased next year (thanks to the huge budget deficit in our state and legislators who don't realize the importance of public education . . . but I digress).  

Business was pretty slow under my supervision.  During the first 45 minutes we only had two customers, and one of those was my mom who made a special trip to our house to support the girls' charitable and entrepreneurial endeavor (thanks Mom!). 

The girls started to get bored and discouraged, and soon they began eating and drinking the profits (and I admit that I had a cookie or two). It was not going as planned.  But then my husband came outside and, being the business "go-getter" he is, he shook things up a bit.  Before I knew it, the signs were off the table and the girls were up on their feet, waving their signs and shouting "Lemonade and cookies! Support our school!"  

That did the trick!  People were smiling, honking, waving and . . . finally . . . stopping to buy lemonade and cookies. We had a constant flow of business for the next hour, and the girls raised $60 for their school!  It's only a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed, but every little bit counts, right?  Most importantly, the girls felt good about raising the money and they had a ball doing it.   They're already planning their next sale!  

Since Easter was yesterday, I thought I would share a page I created for Creating Keepsakes.   My stepmother celebrates Easter, so every year the girls get to have an Easter egg hunt at her house.  The journaling says: Every year you girls look forward to going Easter egg hunting at Grandpa and Mumsie's house.  We've learned from past experience to count the eggs before we hide them so that we know when all the eggs have been found.  A couple of times we've stumbled upon a treat-filled egg that we hid the previous year.  Yuck! April 2010.

As seen in the March/April 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  Copyright Creative Crafts Group.  Published with prior permission from the publisher. 

Have a great week!

Miss Art's Papercrafting School giveaway and another sneak peak

The winner of last week's Miss Art's Papercrafting School month's subscription is:  Lynette!  Lynette, please email me with your full name, email and preferred username for the log in.

Don't forget to leave a comment here and post the Miss Art's countdown blinkie on your blog for another chance to win a free month's subscription to Miss Art's Papercrafting School. You can get the countdown code HERE. It will appear at the very top of your screen. Copy the entire code and paste it into the "Add HTML" section under "Design" in Blogger.

As I mentioned, I will be teaching Miss Art's 201 Level class for the month of May.  It's called "The Secret Garden Layout Class," and I'll be leading you through three different layouts.   The class will consist of 12 different videos full of techniques -- including crocheting on paper!!  You get access to ALL of  these videos for only $5 (such a deal!!).  It's self-paced so you can watch the videos whenever you want and as often as you want during the term.  Here's the description of my class:

There once was a girl who found her escape in a secret garden. While she worked to bring the flowers to bloom and the garden to life her soul was refreshed, and her creativity was sparked. In “The Secret Garden” Layout Class, teacher Stacy Cohen brings you layouts and techniques inspired by both flower gardens and by the “Madeline’s Song” Miss Art’s Papercrafting School kit.

Join Stacy in this 201 class to learn techniques for creating a shadowbox effect on your layouts, adding dimension through layering, and creating beautiful floral clusters. You will also have the chance to see a step-by-step demonstration on how Stacy creates her crocheted pages. Join Stacy in “The Secret Garden” on May 1, 2011.

Here's a sneak peak of one of the layouts I'll be teaching you in my class:

It's based on the amazing monthly kit for May entitled "Madeline's Song" which will be for sale on the Miss Art's website starting May 1st for only $28.50 (a $34.76 retail value, not including some extra goodies).

It's chock full of beautiful Prima papers, flowers, chipboard, crystals, and more.  And the kit also includes some special surprise additions from my own special stash of trims.

Miss Art's will also be offering several great "101 Level Classes" next month (including a great class on customizing chipboard taught by Alyssa McGrew), so be sure and check those out too! 

Creative Therapy Guest Artist

I'm thrilled to be the Guest Artist at Creative Therapy this week! The catalyst is:

Tell us about a favorite or special piece of clothing.

I chose to do a layout about my favorite pair of Dearfoams slippers.

 

I used all Prima goodies on this page.  The papers are from the beautiful Melody collection.

The journaling says: Nothing signifies comfort to me more than my soft and cozy Dearfoams slippers. I wear them at all times when I’m at home. The first thing I do when I walk in the house is take off my shoes and put on my slippers. They are the last thing I take off when I go to bed at night and the first thing I put on when I wake up in the morning. I’ve been wearing this same style and color of Dearfoams slippers for almost a decade, and I’ve worn out quite a few pairs over the years. I usually buy two pairs at a time so that I’ll always have an extra pair should one pair wear out. Combined with a thick pair of white socks, my feet are very happy inside these cushiony slippers, even in the hot summer months. They are on me all the time — while preparing meals for my family, while talking to clients on the phone, while cleaning the house, and of course while I’m scrapbooking. I never thought about it until now, but they are like a trusty old friend, always providing me comfort. I’d wear them everywhere if I could, even out to public places (and I’ve actually done that a couple times by accident). If you’re listening, Dearfoams Corporation, thank you for making such comfortable slippers. Please don’t ever stop making style number DF672, color black. They are my hands down favorite thing to wear.

Of course I'm wearing my beloved slippers right now as I type this blog post.  Ahhhhhhh, pure comfort.  I hope you're feeling comfortable and cozy today too!!

A little more about Miss Art's Papercrafting School . . .

I wanted to share a little bit more about Miss Art's Papercrafting School and the online class series I will be teaching in May (see my post below). The online classes are a total bargain! Here's the price breakdown:

$5 - 201 Subscription: Miss Art's 201 classes are composed of 10-12 videos, and are perfect for the crafter seeking to learn new moderate to advanced skills and detailed techniques. In these monthly classes, our industry-leading teachers bring you 8-12 videos taking you through a detailed project, and teaching you every technique they use along the way. As a 201 student, you will have the unique opportunity to participate in a live online chat and receive personal email responses from the teacher.

$10 - 101 Subscription: Miss Art's 101 classes are posted every 10 days, and are designed for the crafter who loves having a constant flow of new ideas, fun tips, and techniques. These classes are video based, and range in length from 2-6 videos. As a 101 student, you will have access to live online chats with some of your favorite designers and teachers, as well as personal email responses every time you have a question.

$15 - Extra Credit Subscription Miss Art's Extra Credit subscription includes access to all of our classes, at the 101 and 201 levels, providing you with a total of 4 new classes every month. As an Extra Credit student, you will also receive a Library Pass, which will enable you to see classes that have been posted for 90 days and archived in the library.

I will be teaching the 201 classes in May, during which time we will put together three . . . count 'em THREE . . . layouts filled with texture, flowers, bling and a touch of shabby chic, and I'll share lots of tips and techniques along the way. I will even be doing a video lesson teaching you how to crochet on your pages!

Here's a sneak peak of one of the layouts I created for the class:

Sign-ups will begin on May 1st on the Miss Art's Papercrafting School website.  But in the meantime be sure to check out Miss Art's Facebook page for a chance to win some prizes!

And don't forget about all the blog giveaways this month (see my Miss Art's post below).  I'll be giving away one free monthly all access Extra Credit subscription every Thursday to a lucky winner who leaves a comment on my Miss Art's blog post AND posts the count down blinkie in their sidebar!  So leave a comment here before next Thursday.  You can get the countdown code HERE. It will appear at the very top of your screen. Copy the entire code, and paste it into the "Add HTML" section under "Design" in Blogger.

Miss Art's Papercrafting School winner

Thank you for all the encouraging comments on my last post about Miss Art's Papercrafting School.  The winner of the all access Extra Credit subscription for a month is Creatingme!   I will contact you to get your info.  Congrats!!

I've been busy working on lots of projects I can't share just yet, so in the meantime here's one of my recent Prima projects.  It's based on the March BAP and features papers from the Sweet Fairy collection.

Check back here this Thursday for some sneak peaks of my Miss Art's class projects and another chance to win a month's subscription!

Come join me at Miss Art's Papercrafting School!! And did I mention a giveaway or two?

I have something very fun and exciting to share with you all today . . .

Have you ever wished there was a school which only taught your favorite classes, that had the best teachers and where tuition was so affordable it left you plenty to buy the most stylish school supplies?

Miss Art's Papercrafting School is a virtual academy for every student who wants to learn the latest techniques from the paper crafting industry's leading experts and it is opening its doors for the first time in 23 days.  In the meantime, you can check out the current classes on stash-to-treasure.net where Bethany Kartchner is currently teaching an "All About Me" album.

Subscriptions to the monthly classes start at only $5.00 (such a bargain!) and include live online chats and personal email responses from your favorite designers. Consisting of 2 - 12 videos with unlimited monthly access, each class is the perfect blend of individualized crafting and supportive learning.  You may purchase Miss Art's reasonable kits to compliment your course or pull items from your own stash using the detailed supply lists.

To countdown to the grand opening, select teachers and staff will be participating in a month long blog celebration. Be sure to check back each Thursday as I will be sharing information about Miss Art’s with you. 

And I'm very excited to announce that I will be Miss Art's first teacher when it opens in May!!  My class will be entitled "The Secret Garden," and I will be showing you how to create three different layouts that I created just for this class and available only to subscribers.  Through a series of 12 video lessons, you'll see how to put together the three layouts from start to finish and you'll learn a variety of techniques, including how to crochet on your pages!!

The first Miss Art's exclusive kit is a BEAUTY!    "Madeline's Song" (available May 1st) is loaded with gorgeous Prima papers, flowers and embellishments, as well as some vintage goodies and trims.  Here's a peak at the gorgeous kit (there are a few other items that aren't shown):

Nervous about trying something new? Most new students have a few first day jitters, so we want to give you the chance to get to know us better. Each business day (Monday-Friday) in the month of April we will be giving away one free monthly all access Extra Credit subscription to a lucky winner who leaves a comment on the staff member of the day’s post and posts our count down blinkie in their sidebar!  Just leave a comment here and post the blinkie on your blog before Saturday night at Midnight, PST and I'll draw one lucky winner.  You can get the countdown code HERE. It will appear at the very top of your screen. Copy the entire code, and paste it into the "Add HTML" section under "Design" in Blogger.

Miss Art’s Papercrafting School Blog Celebration Schedule for the month of April:

Monday: Bethany Kartchner
Tuesday: Heidi Kelley
Wednesday: CarrieAnne Deloach

Thursday: Me!!  Be sure and check back every week!
Friday: Alyssa McGrew

Please come join us on Facebook for a chance to win this great prize package:

Thanks for celebrating with Miss Art’s as we count down to the best first day of school ever! Don't forget to leave a comment here and post the count down blinkie on your blog for a chance to win a free monthly subscription to Miss Art's.

A few more Fancy Pants projects to share

I have a few more projects to share that I made as the Guest Designer this month for Fancy Pants.  I had a BALL playing with all these beautiful products!  Here's a layout featuring pictures of Rebecca in Hawaii a few years ago.

I used papers, ribbon, die-cuts and chipboard from the Beach Babe collection, and I added a glitter cut flower from the It's the Little Things line for good measure.  I made the little droplets using Shimmerz' new Pink Stiletto Coloringz. 

One of my favorite new Fancy Pants products are the new Filter Papers.  I used them to make the large blue flower and the small rolled rosettes (I colored them with Shimmerz).

I made the paper roses using a petal punch made by Punch Bunch.

I also made a couple pairs of shoes using my Shoe Template.  The papers are from the elegant It's the Little Things line.

 

I made the big flowers here using the Filter Papers.  I colored them with Shimmerz and added some glitter to the alternating layers.

One more pair . . .

Thank you Jodi and Fancy Pants for having me as your Guest Designer this month!  It's been a true honor and pleasure!

Fancy Pants Guest Designer!

I'm thrilled and honored to be the Guest Designer for Fancy Pants this month!  I fell in love with the new collections when I saw them at CHA, especially the It's the Little Things and Beach Babe lines.   Here are a couple of the projects I created . . .

The new Beach Babe line is so fun and colorful!  It's perfect for these Hawaii pictures that I never got around to scrapping.

This line comes with lots of adorable chipboard and die-cut pieces.  I had a ball dressing them up with rhinestones and Shimmerz paint.  I also added some real sand to the paper.

 Another close-up:

This page was made with the beautiful new It's the Little Things line.  I just love the color combo and patterns!

I used lots of different Fancy Pants goodies on this page -- paper, chipboard pieces, die-cuts, a rub-on (the journaling circle), a metal piece, flowers (yep! these are Fancy Pants too), and the great new chipboard alphas (I love these!).   Here's a close-up of the crocheted, curled and machine-stitched curvy border:

I was giddy with delight when I first opened my box of Fancy Pants products.  My sweet kitty, Smokey, was too:

(Luckily I had already removed all the goodies before he decided that the box would be a fun play toy for him.)

I'll be back in the next couple of days to post my other Fancy Pants projects!!

P.S. Did you notice the new blinkie on the left sidebar?  Stay tuned for the deets!   

Where does the time go?

Lily Bee has a great new line called Stationery.  The subtle patterns and colors are perfect for mixing and matching with the bolder patterns of the other Lily Bee collections, and they also look great on their own.  Here's a page I created using a couple of the Stationery papers and the adorable banner stickers from the Happily Lost line.  The cute little 3-year-old girl of mine in these photos just turned 9 years old a couple weeks ago!  Where does the time go???

I recently purged a bunch of my old scrapbook supplies and I came across several packs of Chatterbox wood frames that I bought about 5 years ago in my early days of scrapping.  I challenged myself to use an entire pack of them on this page.

I added droplets of Sea Foam Spritz to the paper and then typed my journaling on a transparency.   The beauty of printing the journaling on a transparency is that the words blend in nicely with the background and don't completely cover up the beautiful paper.

A fond farewell . . . my design team term with Lily Bee is coming to an end this month, and after much vacillation I've decided not to continue on for another term.  I want to slow down a bit over the coming months and not scrap quite as much as I have been over the past year (which has pretty much been ALL the time).  It's been a wonderful experience being on the Lily Bee design team, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity (thank you, Kristen!).  I can't wait to see who makes the new Lily Design Team!

10 Year Anniversary

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 10-year anniversary.   He proposed to me in a very special way.  The background story is that we used to go out for Chinese food every Sunday night when we were dating, and we topped off every meal with fortune cookies.  One Sunday night our waitress placed the usual plate of fortune cookies on our table.  I reached for one, unwrapped the plastic wrapper, and broke open the cookie to get my fortune.  I discovered that it was no ordinary fortune cookie.  Inside was a handmade fortune written by hubby (then boyfriend-soon-to-be-fiance).  In tiny letters he had written some beautiful sentiments, followed by the words, "will you marry me?"  Of course I said yes!!

I later found out that my husband had gone to the restaurant a few days before to get one of our regular fortune cookies.  He carefully cut open the plastic, then he used hot steam from boiling water to open the fortune cookie without breaking it.  After replacing the fortune with his own message, he steamed the cookie shut, then placed it back in the plastic wrapper and glued the wrapper closed with a dab of crazy glue.  He snuck it in his jacket pocket that Sunday night and secretly slipped it to our waitress. Thank goodness she didn't accidentally deliver it to the wrong table! 

The table favors at our wedding were beautifully embellished cellophane bags containing white and dark chocolate-dipped fortune cookies to commemorate the sweet proposal.  One of the messages tucked inside some of the  fortune cookies was this lovely quote:  "Grow old with me, the best is yet to be."   I used the quote as the title for this page:

I made this page with Prima products, including one of the new canvas sheets that I used as the base for the page.  The canvas comes painted with these colorful butterflies.  I added clusters of colorful embellishments to match the colors on the canvas underneath.

To highlight the photos and give the rest of the page some subtle sparkle, I coated the area outside of my stitched circle with Mod Podge, then I sprinkled glitter over it while it was still wet.

Thanks for stopping by!!

New Shimmerz Products!

I've been busy the last few days planning for my daughter's 9th birthday party yesterday. We had planned to have the celebration at a local miniature golf place, but when I found out last week that heavy rains were predicted for the day, I had to scramble and plan a party indoors at our house. So we had ten very energetic and sometimes bickering 8 and 9 year old girls here yesterday for 4 hours straight. Music blasting, girls jumping on the furniture and running throughout the house . . . EEEsh!  Our poor cat didn't know what to make of all the ruckus and decided to seek refuge in a quiet place under my desk.   What is it about this age? They seem to have a lot of disagreements with each other. The tears! The drama! The conflict! And that was just me!!!  But seriously, they all seemed to have a good time for the most part.  And I don't have to think about planning another birthday party for a while, so all is well.

I want to tell you a little bit more about two great new product lines that Shimmerz has added to it's line-up of gorgeous sprays . . .

Coloringz were created with bright, vibrant crayons in mind. They are super opaque, highly saturated colors without shimmer.  I love them because they are great for saturating lace and other items with rich, solid color. Yet they are still water-based and clean up with soap and water like the other Shimmerz products. My favorites are Mama Sings the Blues and Pink Stiletto.

Shimmeringz are non-pigmented, highly iridescent sprays that can be used on their own or layered with any of the other Shimmerz products. We're talking serious "bling" here!

And the good news is that Scrapbook.com  now sells Shimmerz products.  My new favorite color is Mama Sings the Blues.  So when you're doing your scrappy shopping there, you can throw some new Coloringz and Shimmeringz into your cart!

Happy Birthday my Sweet Rebecca

My not-so-little girl is turning 9 today!  Happy Birthday, sweet Rebecca!  Here's a Prima layout I made with pictures of her from a couple years ago.  She's still my little fairy princess!

Every year I make handmade cards for my girls on their birthdays. Inside the cards I write a long letter to them sharing my warm feelings about them, about who they are, who they have become, and I tell them how wonderful I think they are at their new age.   After they look at the birthday card and I read the note to them, I tuck it safely away in a box to be saved for them when they are older.   Someday -- maybe when they are 18 and going off to college -- I will hand them the box full of these cards that I've made for them every year since they were babies.  Here's the card I made for Rebecca this year:

*SIGH*  I just wish she would slow down with this whole growing up thing! 

Headbands

My daughters love to wear headbands.  Danielle, especially, is enamored with them.   There was a period of time when she would not leave the house without a headband on her head.  So before she outgrows the headband phase (which hopefully won't happen for a few more years), I've been having fun making some flowery headbands.

Here's Danielle modeling them for me. I made these first three headbands with Prima's gorgeous flowers and trim.  Prima now makes plain headbands that you can embellish yourself.

 

Here's a headband I made using paper's from Lily Bee's Lovely line. 

I made the flowers using various punches, then I coated them with Mod Podge to protect the paper.

The only problem now is that my girls fight over who gets to wear which headband.  *sigh*  Next time I'll make duplicates.

By the way, I widened my blog columns to (hopefully) make my blog look less cluttered and easier to read.  It looks fine on my screen, but please let me know if it looks wonky on any of your screens!  And pursuant to a request, I  added FeedBurner "subscribe by email" to the sidebar.

Have a great day!

Prima happenings

Have you seen all the beautiful new Prima products trickling into stores?  There's so much great stuff!  I have lots of Prima projects I haven't posted yet. Here are a couple:

Here's a layout using some of the brand new goodies. The new flowers and rub-ons are heavenly!

Here's a calendar I made using two acrylic sheets and some of the products from Prima's beautiful Sparkling Spring Collection:

Want to win some goodies?  Prima has a fabulous giveaway on their Facebook Page right now.  Be sure and "like" them and follow the instructions for a chance to win a great prize!  

Creating Keepsakes February cover layout plus a downloadable dog template . . .

I was honored to be asked to create the cover layout for the February 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes:

Here's a close-up of the layout:

As seen on the cover of the February 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  Copyright Creative Crafts Group.  Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

Some people have asked me about the boy on the cover.  No, that's not my son (nor my puppy).  But they sure are cute, aren't they?!  I've also been asked about the paper pieced dog peaking over the title strip.  I made it myself by simply sketching the shapes on cardstock and cutting them out.  Then I added ink, chalk and pen for the highlights and markings. And since some people have expressed an interest, I created a template that you can download and print.  You can find my downloadable pattern on the Club CK blog: Doggie Die-Cut Template.

Tootles!!