Calvinball and Cocoa Daisy Cuteness

Calvinball update!  I'm finally in the red with 21 scrappy points and am 1/4 of the way to my goal with 50 points overall.  I'm not a front runner at the moment, but I'm closing in on the top ten.  Slow and steady.  There's plenty of time to join in the fun!  We're having a blast and there's an online crop this Saturday . . . 

And I just had to share the adorableness that is the new Cocoa Daisy Planner mascot.  You're going to want to get a Cocoa Daisy Subscription ASAP.  Just sayin' . . .

Cocoa Daisy March Reveal: Hello Again! (Calvinball!)

good morning, friends!  the cocoa daisy march gallery, "hello again," is live!  i hope you'll find time to visit this morning and see all the great inspiration with these spring fresh kits.

photos - taken with my dslr on our rv camping trip to north carolina with my sister's family.

story - every morning i woke up to the stunning view in the mountains and the sweet view of my smiling baby niece.

product - cocoa daisy march main kit only!

design - i split the photos into two design areas, but maintained continuity by have the title appear partially on both and also having the stitching visually connect them.

technique - it's all in the details with this one.  i darkened the wood veneer title just a bit with brown ink, backed the woodgrain camera flash with patterned paper and pop dotted the whole thing except for the "hello there" lens, and added some cross stitches to the tiny piece of bar code strip paper that i salvaged.

and now, if you're a crafter you simply must head over to get it scrapped! and join the great race, aka calvinball.  the "rules" have been posted and the message board is hopping with inspiration and chatter.  join us!  the time to get your craft on is NOW!

calvinball 2015: the time is now

it's that time again.  CALVINBALL TIME!  (aka celeste stress season).  if you're a scrapbooker, you'll want to be HERE.  the game starts March 1st.  prepping starts now.  celeste and i have even made a calvinball appearance on the digital scrapbooking hq podcast.  give it a listen.  and then come play with us.  you won't remember when you've ever had so much fun.  (cuz "the rules" will blow your mind ;).

calvinball: the final countdown

calvinball ends tonight at midnight!  i've finished five pages in the last 24 hours!  woot!  it's not enough to even come close to the front runner, but it's enough to make me happy.  this is the final layout of 2013!  what?!!!  yes!  i've completely documented an entire year!  i know, i can hardly believe it myself.

this was made with leftover bits from the march jbs mercantile kits.  i have to say, i am reaching for the antiquarian more and more these days.  the vintage just really fits my style.  love it so.

well, i'm off to tally my points and put the finishing touches on the jbs mercantile april gallery.  if you love color, you're going to want to be sure to take a peek in the morning (gallery goes live at midnight CST on the last day of the month).  catchya on the flip side!  :)

calvinball: the race to the finish line

we're entering the final week of calvinball.  i'm not even solidly in metal contention at the moment.  spring break derailed me a bit.  but i'm back and ready to craft my little heart out.  i'm already a winner though!  these are my last project life pages for last year!  what?!  for a girl who never cared about being "caught up" and who was dragged into project life kicking and screaming, this is quite an accomplishment.  indeed, i only have ONE LAYOUT LEFT (which is even currently on my desk in its beginning stages) and i will be COMPLETELY DONE WITH THE YEAR 2013.  like, woah.  (so if you really want to see how i measure up, you can see my current stats HERE) many many thanks to all my 2014 calvinball peeps for motivating me to scrap and showing me a good time in the process.

this spread was created with my march jbs mercantile kits with the addition of this month's sale item, the printed pockets, and a jbs birthday mini bingo card (i need more of these!  mine are all gone now and they are just so useful for birthday pages and birthday cards).

this side is gabriel's birthday sleepover.  we went simple this year and just invited three friends and had a few party favors in a reindeer/dinosaur combo theme.  hey!  it worked for us, lol.

here you can see the flip side of the insert.  i was so honored to attend one of my former student's weddings.  love that girl (and was completely in awe of the ceremony!).

on the right is a tiny bit of snowbird action and more school happenings.  one thing i appreciate about project life is the merging of my interests and activities with those of my son.  my scrapbooking tended to be mainly focused on him, but with project life there is more of me.  i like that.

this spread is from thanksgiving week.  gabriel spent the holiday with his papi, tia, and primas in arkansas.  i thought it was neat that it worked out that his week was on the left and my week was on the right, with us reunited there in the bottom corner.  homecomings are so sweet.

i'm still loving my freckled fawn embellishment kit subscription.  it has really gotten me using my project life kits.  hooray!  (those things were piling up and starting to scare me!).

these little embellishments are from the march kit.  so fun.  i am a sucker for a good ampersand.

ok!  off to scrap some more and then blog again!  i am a busy bee now that i'm back in my hive!  :)

calvinball: weekly update (for 5 points)

well, hello!  calvinball update time!  (cuz you know after i blog, tweet, instagram, facebook, and pin my calvinball standing, i'll be able to add 5 more points to my total).  my current pointage is 71.  not too shabby.  only 23 of those points are actual real scrappy points though.  need to get on that.  debbie hodge is actually giving me a run for second place!  she's at 62 points with her last update!  woah!  she's right on my tail!  and, of course, there's celeste with a strong lead of 186.  i still think i can take her, though. heh.

i piled on the points with this one sunday.  i got one point for the page, itself.  but then i worked the bonus point angle with a new product (jillibean soup kraft tags), new medium (tim holtz distress paint), new technique (paint dabber scalloped border with penciled edging), old product (fabric brad and vintage - as in for real old - milk cap, scrap paper, old tool (pinking shears), msd seminar (blocks and grids), mostly monochromatic (cathy zielske orange), and same day photo (i'm so glad i took this.  i wouldn't have even thought to if i wasn't playing calvinball.  i think it's my fave pic ever of the two of them.  so sweet.  and look at that lighting!).

the flowers are vintage.  they were white, but i misted them with heidi swapp colorshine.  love that stuff.

and i came up with the idea to tidy my barcode strips.  i tend to save them, mostly for the fun words you can find on them.  i like adding little words here and there in my art.  i took the whole wad out of storage, but off the good parts and fit them into an old maya road tin.

how cute is this?  i can't wait to use them now!

calvinball: fun times and productivity

 

fun times and productivity is surely a winning combination, yes?  come join us for a rousing game of calvinball!  you'll laugh, roll your eyes, and get a lot done!  in the last four days i've finished a layout, 9 project life pages, and 10 mini-album pages!  hurrah!

here is one of the pages.  i'm close to finishing 2013.  so very close.

i'm especially partial to those german foil fish.  i think i have seven left.  they are awesome.

and here is a representative of one fo the december daily pages.  those all followed the same format with the 4x6 pockets and one photo/1 journaling card per event.  i did it this way so it would be easy.  easy isn't good for me because i found it boring.  but at least there was calvinball, so i finally cranked them out.  all five that were left.  i just did pretty much the same thing on all of them.  a 4x6 piece of christmas paper with a project life journaling card, a few embellishments and washi, and a little journaling.  done and i used some more of that seemingly endless supply of project life cards i have.    hooray! 

now i am at 39 points.  i really need to find one more point somewhere, so i can get into the next decade.  celeste has 71 points.  slow and steady . . .

it's time for CALVINBALL!

are you ready for some CALVINBALL?  what?  never heard of it?  if you're into scrapbooking, socializing, smack talking, and a general, raucous, happy good time, then come on over and JOIN US!

p.s. if you join and mention that i told you, i get a bonus point for a new recruit!  and new recruits get a bonus point as first time players!  see!  fun game!

calvinball update . . .

totally gratuitous blogging ahead.  i'm going to go ahead and admit here that the ocd has kicked in a bit with the ole blog.  i was gung ho and blogged 31 times in january.  in february, even with the flu, i somehow unintentionally blogged 28 times.  now if you know you're monthly math and anything about ocd tendencies then you probably realize that i've got 6 blog posts to go (counting this one) and 3 days to get them done in (counting today that's dwindling fast).  so here's a calvinball update!  and a reminder that if you haven't entered the ribbon giveaway, there's still time!  calvinball doesn't end till midnight on the 31st!  and i declare a calvinball bonus for dying easter eggs!  :)

quickie calvinball update:

calvinscraps - 31
calvinblogs - 25
calvinbonus - 19

total - 75

how to cheat at calvinball

dig out all the ufo's collecting dust in the baskets under your scrap table . . .

make sketches for all those unfinished project life pages . . .

kits!  kits!  kits! even if you have to make your own . . . 

plan on making cards with all those scraps . . .

throw a mini-album or two into the mix . . .

print out lots and lots of pictures in advance . . .

schedule a plethora of playdates for yourself and children . . .

and declare bonus points for calvinball blogging!!!

join us!  :)

calvinball! are you in?

one more day!  are you in?

the rules:
1. the rules are subject to change at any time by anyone.
2. layouts = 1 point
3. the layout is the gold standard. all other projects are measured against the almighty layout.  
4. smack talking is expected.
5. cheering on your teammates is also expected.
6. the reward is the huge feeling of accomplishment at the end of the month!

calvinball mind games

the great race is heating up.  it's taking a lot of my brainwaves to keep up with all the shenanigans.  i had to start a fresh post just to keep up with all the rapid fire rules today.  all in good fun.

here is a peek at pierre.  i'll be sharing him in all his yo-yo beret glory at gallery updates on saturday.  he was hatched last night from the march antiquarian add-on.  i think there's only one of those left.

tonight i decided the mini-album was the way to go so i dug out my october daily and added 5 more days.  five days.  five points.  i'll try to share some internal pages tomorrow.  but tomorrow is kit packing night.  that's going to cut into my calvinball time.  but it's fun too, so it's all good.

calvinball points: 6
calvinblog points: 8
bonus points: 2.5 (today's bonus point awarded by sharyn for cub scout den mother duties involving crafts)
handicap points: 0 (it has been decided by paula that paper pushers get a point a week for cleaning up their mess.  i'm still making my mess, so i haven't cleaned it up yet).

calvinball: on the board

i'm finally on the board with my first legitimate calvinball point!  i finished another march jbs mercantile layout.  here's a little sneak.  it's for the main kit + buttons challenge.  i'm really delighted with how it turned out, but i have to wait till gallery updates on the 10th to show you.  i'm such a tease. 

i think i'm going to dig out the october daily mini-album and tackle that next.  paula says minis are the way to go for fast points.  cha-ching!  paula's laying on the smack on her blog today if you're interested in a little more calvinball hilarity.  i'm about to add the cute calvinball badge she made to my sidebar.  game on!

calvinball points: 1
calvinblog points: 7
bonus points: 1.5 (today's bonus point awarded by marianne for completing a project connected to an online challenge)

let's play CALVIINBALL!!!!!!!

we're playing HERE.  join us!!!  i'm still in the zero zone unless you count my calvinblog points.  you can read all about those on bueller's blog.  she's also playing the calvinbowling version whence your first time around your score is your baseline.  then next game you get a handy handicap.  what's a handicap you say?  why fake points.  if you're late to the party you could do that too!  everything goes in calvinball.  we make up the rules as we go, true to the original spirit of the game.  read the unofficial rules HERE.  oh, and don't forget the smack!  play ball!!!!!!!

calvinball points: 0
calvinblog points: 5
handicap: 0 (i am the master)
bonus points: 1/2 awarded by bueller for "cultivating anticipation in onlookers"

baa baa black sheep . . .

despite sharyn's insidious remarks to the contrary, i am completely innocent.

i should be in bed right now, but i am contemplating blogging daily in march.

if i miss today i'm doomed.

i have ocd tendencies that are at times quite difficult to suppress.

wait.  did i blog yesterday?

life is such a blur.

i was going to make a march daily, but i haven't finished my october daily yet.

i have, however, signed up for a round of calvinball.

care to play?

celeste? paula? bueller?

i've also joined a new mixed media challenge from the brilliant mind of megan.

she's great.

we had so much fun at the chat with karen.

can you tell?

i love spending time with good friends.

george.