Cut 'n Paste

Shabby Chic and What's wrong with the doggie?

Where oh where have I been?

February has been a busy month for hubby and I! I’m pleased to share that my man has been given a temporary assignment that he is really excited about at work. For those of you unaware, Rick is a police officer. Given the nature of the assignment, I’m not going to go into details, but he is excited and I’m bursting my buttons proud of him!

I will be seeing a drastic increase in my traveling this year and my adventures began this month. Mid-February I flew to Orange County, CA to teach at the Scrapbook Expo.  Our company was debuting a new slate of consumer classes designed by several of our design team members that were all well received.  While in town, Melissa, Rachel and I made a point to visit the Shabby Chic store one evening and I bought some fabulous bedding that was on sale. I must say; I love, love, love the Shabby Chic line, but unfortunately at regular price it is totally out of my budget. So this sale, where some bedding was 50-75% off, was very appreciated by me! I bought the duvet and pillow shams pictured in the image above. (Image from the Shabby Chic site, not my home!) I also bought some sheets to make pillowcases.  Sad to hear upon my return home that Shabby Chic has applied for Chapter 11 protection  L Even though it is out of my price range, I love that line, and find so much inspiration from it. I’m sad that the economy has knocked one of my favorites down. Hopefully they will be able to restructure and emerge strong once again.

Last Friday saw me taking a ferry over to Vancouver Island in the early hours of the morning to teach at Camp Crop-A-Lot hosted by a local scrapbook store called Treasured Memories.  The lovely storeowner, Sharon graciously worked with my wishes to be able to return home Saturday night, how I appreciated that! The ladies at the crop were very sweet and kind and it was great to teach at a somewhat local event.

My final piece of news comes with a question. I have been having problems with one of my dogs over the past 2 weeks, so took her to the vet yesterday for a check-up and blood work, and our fears were realized when I got the results today. Our Dixie has diabetes. So we’re now at a cross roads and need to figure out how we want to proceed. Just wondering if anyone has gone through this before, and if so if you can give me an idea of cost of care. We love our dogs, and with no children we interact with them a whole lot. Our house would seem very empty without her. But I also do not want to shell out a ton of money to get everything figured out. ‘Cause as much as I love her, at the end of the day, she’s a dog….So any help from someone who has been through this would be appreciated.

Be kind

(Supplies: All items Stampin' Up! with the exception of the sewing machine and thread. Patterened Paper: Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper. Stamps: Botanical Blooms set. Cardstock: Whisper White and Certainly Celery. Ribbon: Very Vanilla Grosgrain. Ink: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Basic Black. Other: Mini Library clips, Scalloped punch, sewing machine, cream thread.)

I arrived home from CHA to a box of yummy Stampin' Up! supplies waiting for me to 'play' with. I always love opening the box(s) to see in real life products I've only seen online or in the catalog. Among other things, my box included The Botanical Blooms set and Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper from the Sale-a-bration promotional event which Stampin' Up! hosts each year. If you're unfamiliar with sale-a-bration, here are the details in a nutshell: For every $60 you spend on Stampin' Up! product, you can select one item from the sale-a-bration catalog free of charge. Pretty cool, eh? The promotion runs Feb.1-March 31. Check out the details and preview all the items available from the sale-a-bration catalog here.

Have a great day everyone!

Post CHA recap

  
If you came by the Melissa Frances booth at CHA, you may remember this layout from the booth. This layout is of my nephew Jason and features our 'Attic Treasures' line.

Supply list: Cardstock: brown, yellow and green: WorldWin Papers, blue (Baja Breeze) and red (riding hood red): Stampin' Up!, Patterned Papers - Thomas (PA090), Matilda (PA196), Clara (PA193), Alma (PA197): Melissa Frances, Stamps: Brocade: Baroque Stamp by Melissa Frances, Fancy Flourishes set (LL016): Hero Arts. Scalloped border punch: Stampin'Up!, Seasons Sticker: Date Prompt Cardstock sticker (PP07): Melissa Frances, 'Engine' Boy Flashcards (GN259): Melissa Frances  Other: Vintage buttons, kitchen string, versamark stamp pad (Tsukineko) , Baja Breeze stamp pad (stampin' Up!), clear embossing powder.    

I must admit that the Attic Treasures line is my favorite of the Melissa Frances CHA releases. I just love the concept behind it (aged neutrals) and the graphics - the chipboard embellishments and cardstock stickers are a combination of retro and Victorian images. Here's a little peek of a portion of the line:

 

However, my favorite new 'Attic Treasure' introductions are some of the more crafty embellishments. I am madly in love with our reproduction crepe paper. Seriously my friends, if you enjoy making vintage crafts/banners and you often use party streamers to create crepe paper florettes, you will be SO excited to see this product. This is a total reproduction of the vintage papers which can be difficult and/or expensive to find. It comes in a package of 4 colors; off white, pink, green and blue, and each piece is approximately 10x50 inches. It has the substantial feel that vintage crepe paper is known for. I can't wait to get this product at home here to play with. Patience Carolyn -haha!

I also love, love, love our new mica. It will be available in both a traditional off white and in soft pink and blue. I don't know about you, but I've never, ever seen colored mica. I even asked around at the show and to the best of my knowledge Melissa Frances is the first to offer it. Way to go Melissa! The collection rounds out with reproduction bottle brush trees in vintage white and pink (perfect for spring projects!), and aged tinsel. I don't have any samples of those products to show you :( I forgot to take photos of them while I was in the booth. I'm sure that somewhere images of these items have found their way online. If you have seen them, please leave a comment and let me know the link so that I can make it available here. And if you love these products as much as I do, please be sure to ask your local scrapbook/craft store to bring them in!!

Just because I work for Melissa Frances, doesn't mean that I don't use and/or find other companies products inspiring <smile>. We were blessed to have steady traffic at the show, so I only left the booth once, on the last day, in order to visit a few manufacturers whom we have working relationships with. However, I made a non-business related exception to stop at the booth of my friend Jenni Bowlin. Jenni's product line always speaks to me and it's a bonus that it complements the products we design at Melissa Frances so beautifully. Jenni once again had a fabulous release this show. I wanted to share one of her new products that really excited me. She introduced reproduction buttons with rhinestone centers. They were awesome, and with the exception of our product releases, which I happen to think are FABULOUS <smile>, Jenni's new buttons, were my (non-MF) pick of the show. So way to go sweet friend!
Here they are!
 

Hope you each have had a nice Monday. I'm looking forward to watching (my guilty pleasure) the Bachelor tonight!

ps- just saw the following post from Jenny Doh, the amazing editor over at Stampington publications.  Yes, it made my heart happy to get to use my French training as we had several French customers stop by during the show! Thanks for sharing Jenny :)