Happy 2nd Birthday, Studio Calico!

*****CONTEST IS NOW OVER. THANK YOU FOR ENTERING. WINNER ANNOUNCED SOON.*****




I just have to take a minute to wish my friends April and Scarlet a very, very happy two years with their amazing kit club, Studio Calico! Those two ladies have worked so hard into making their vision a success and I'm just so proud of them for all they have accomplished in just 2 short years.

I'll never forget the day that April, Shannon and I were having a little girl's nite at California Pizza Kitchen. After some general catching up, April turned to the two of us and said, "Let me tell you about what we're wanting to do." And right before us, she outlined an idea for a kit club that was all about service and style. Genius! My jaw hung open hearing all she had planned. I am honored to have been a part of it from the beginning and even more thrilled to see how it has grow even beyond their wildest imaginations.

In celebration of their anniversary, April and Scarlet were kind enough to send me their amazing July Main Kit, DOCUMENTARY, to play with. Even though the colors were much more muted than what I normally use, I shouldn't have even batted an eye because April and Scarlet are so skilled in putting products together that these layouts literally fell together.

This first one is of our summer "stay-cation." I have so many photos from the summer so far and can't possibly do a layout with all of them, so I picked a few of my favorites and put them all on this one layout. To give it a little more of a vacation feel, I added the raffia to the tropical flowers and created a fun fringe that frames the photos!


Supplies: Studio Calico (destination circles), Jenni Bowlin(yellow) and Scenic Route (green) pp, Bazzill Cardstock, Making Memories flowers, Studio Calico stamps and fab-rips, K&Co. alpha stickers

Here are a few detail shots so you can see the fringe and flowers a bit better.



And this one is of Carson and Shannon's son, Eli - we never can get over how much alike they look, right down to the same size, too! I took this photo when we had lunch earlier this month.

Supplies: Scenic Route PP, SEI tickets, Bazzill CS, buttons

And again here are a few close-ups so you can see the details a bit better:




So here's the most exciting part for all of you. April and Scarlet have very generously given me one of their Director's Cut add-ons (shown below) to give away to one of my lucky blog readers! Whooohooo! So here's what you have to do. Just leave me a comment about your favorite part of summer or your best vacation ever on this post between now and Wednesday, July 1st at 11:59 pm Eastern time and you'll be entered to win!!



Good Luck and have a wonderful Monday!
xoxo,
k.

Our Summer in Pictures (and Week I's winner!)

Hello, all!!

Before I forget to do this, let me give a shout out to all the awesome people playing along with Jennifer McGuire and her "Thinking Inking" class over at Two Peas! I have seen some seriously amazing projects! Fifteen of you left your links here to be entered to win week I's give away and the lucky lady was Carolyn. Carolyn's was the 14th name I wrote down and the one the random number generator picked!

So Carolyn - please email me with your address at kelly.goree@gmail.com and I'll get your prize out to you! Thank you all so much for playing and please, keep creating! I'll be putting up another announcement for this week's giveaway hopefully tomorrow when Jen does Part II of Week II!

Since I don't have much time for posting this week - CHA prep is in full swing here (just you wait!) - I wanted to at least leave you with a few pictures. Summer has been in session for over two weeks and here is what we've been doing to keep us busy...

Let's see...first we went to the library and got official library cards, then promptly brought home as many books as the library would allow. ;)


We started spending many evenings at our local park which is completely amazing...


Then our dryer decided to break down so we spent many evenings at our local laudromat which is not nearly as amazing...but we made do. ;)


We had lunch with my dear friend, Shannon and her cutie look-alike son to my son, Eli, at one of our fave restaurants...and even managed a Football Hall of Fame QB sighting in Phil Simms. Shan and I had salads, but Phil opted for grilled chicken and broccoli. (Not that we noticed or anything...my dad would have been so proud!) Btw, I love this photo of the two of them - darn if they aren't photogenic! (Lucky for us, I'd say!)


We enjoyed alot of "just being outside" and walking around before it got too blazing hot and after our van decided to blow up it's engine. (Oh yes, indeed...but it's all in the perspective, folks, it's all in the perspective.)


And once it got so blazing hot, we enjoyed many afternoons and evenings our our pool - which amazingly enough is in the same amazing park I mentioned before. Gotta love that.



Turner's really learning how to swim and showing so much grace at it - so much so that when he decided to go get all big and turn seven on me the other day, his grandmother bought him swim lessons as a present! I can't wait to see how he does!



And speaking of turning seven, we celebrated in style with cupcakes, presents and balloons galore...


Then that Daddy of ours had to go and have a special day all to himself so we were forced (ever so willingly ;)) to celebrate it with him. And that we did.

So that's been it in a nutshell. Whoever said summer break was relaxing??! So tell me - what have YOU been up to this summer??

Hope you're having a wonderful time at it, whatever you're doing.

xoxo,
k.

Happy Father's Day & a REMINDER!

I hope all you awesome dads out there are having a fantastic day! We're enjoying the afternoon at the pool with ours :)


I just wanted to give a little reminder - you have until 11:59 pm eastern TONIGHT to leave me a link (anywhere you might have it) to your Thinking Inking projects (the class taught by Jen McGuire at Two Peas in a Bucket - see posts below) to be entered to win this week's stamps and inks! Hurry, Hurry! I think you'll be glad you did!

*Turning 7* - a celebration in pictures!

Yesterday was such a fantastic day for my boy. Birthdays are great, anyhow, but when you're the middlest, you seem to have an extra desire to have a day where all the attention is on you. And so it was. And he milked it. Completely. But we loved every second of it!

The day started with the singing of "Happy Birthday" (add the cha-cha-cha if you please)- his request - followed by "Daddy made" pancakes complete with a candle for him to blow out (the boy got 3 birthday wishes in all!). Unfortunately the morning was verrrrrrrry rainy so it canceled out our plans for a day at the pool, but video and board games and a little drawing time took care of that.

He picked his lunch (a ham sandwich and doritos...um, yeah, that wouldn't have been my choice either!) and after a quick "quiet time"/nap, he got up to a plate full of cuppy cakes, another wish and a couple of presents from his brothers. Let me tell you anyone with seven-year-old boys need to know that Bakugans are HUGE hits. Seriously. He just loved them. (Thanks, Glue!)


Dinner was at Red Robin (yummmmmmmmmmmm) where the actual Red Robin came out with the waitstaff to sing to Turner. He absolutely loved it. I think the kid was floating the rest of the night! Yet MORE candles and another cake here at RR....many more birthday presents....and we were spent! What a fantastic day for my boy. (And I know it was because he told me so ;))



I'm so glad you had a wonderful birthday, Turner. I hope this year is your best one yet!

And for me, today starts the beginning of my work for CHA. I see quite a few hours holed up in my teeny craft closet coming up, so I wanted to put this up. Again, I'm doing my best to follow along with the amazing Jen McGuire and her "Thinking Inking" class over at Two Peas! Jen is amazing and this class is NINE weeks long! So much wonderful information and fantastic techniques!

As a reminder, I will be giving away some stamps/ink each week that she's doing the class, starting with THIS WEEK! If you will link me up here by SUNDAY at 11:59 p.m. eastern, you will be entered in my drawing! It doesn't take long - it's just a "little" messy ;) - and I hope to see your creations! In the spirit of it all, here was mine from week 1, part II. Part III goes up today and can be found here!



Happy Friday, all!
xoxo,
k.

Happy Birthday, Middlest!

Good morning, all!



I just wanted to put up a quick post to wish my middlest a very, very happy 7th birthday.

Seriously? Seven?
Wow. Just wow.

As I was telling my husband last night as we lay in bed:

"I can't believe it's been seven years. Tonight, seven years ago, I was crying my eyes out wondering if I could love another child as much as I loved my E."

And today seven years ago, I knew. The minute I saw his sweet little monkey face, I knew. And everyone else did, too. There's just something about Turner.

I mean, really. Who couldn't adore a kid who, after having Happy Birthday sung to him this morning by his whole family, said to me: "Mama? I'm saving the biggest piece of my cake for you."

Happy Birthday, T. I love you to the moon and back!

So here's what I think I'll do...

Hi, all!!

I have to tell you am super-excited to be learning all about stamping with Jennifer McGuire and her "Thinking Inking" class over at Two Peas for the next several weeks (Um, NINE!)...so excited that I really wanted to keep my energy up for playing along and yours as well. So here is what I decided I wanted to do.

Each week, if you show me that you've played along by linking me to your post at Two Peas or on your blog or somewhere (anywhere, really!), I will enter you in a drawing for some stamping supplies. This week I think it'll be a pad of some of the awesome Ranger Distress Ink we're learning about (I have some "Pine Needles" ready for a good home) as well as some fun limited edition BasicGrey doodle stamps! Each week I'll do the same thing until we have some kind of fun grand giveaway at the end of the class! So how about it? Start linking me up! To get you started, here are a few I did after watching Jen's video....

Here is the finished project:

Supply List: Hero Arts stamps, Ranger Distress Ink, BasicGrey PP and Bling It, Bazzill CS, Uniball Signo Pen, Heidi Swapp Mask and more....

Here are the tags in process as I was working on them:

This first tag is the water wicking technique (gone a little wrong down the middle - ha!), then water stamping and finally the masking! I had such fun doing these and I never would have tried these techniques on my own.

Here's more as I was developing them into cards:


And finally a bit of detail....
So go on! I want to see what you've done! Link me up so I can enter you to win some goodies! :)

Oh!!! And before I forget....Studio Calico's Sneak Peek of their July Kit is now up on their site and let me tell you, it's amazing!! Here's a little sample of a project I've done with this new kit. I can't wait to have some time to work with it a little more!


Happy Tuesday & Happy Scrapping! I've got a little boy who's birthday is coming up on Thursday and as he says "I'm so 'cited!" :)

xoxo,
k.

Thinking Inking!

Hello, all!

I apologize for the long absence and neglect of my dear old blog, but to say last week was a horrendous one would be an understatement. I might get more into that later, but I will definitely share some images from our summer so far (focusing on the positive as it's all about perspective...the Lord has most assuredly taught me that lesson this week).

Anyhow, I wanted to pop on this morning to give a little shout out to my amazing friend, Jennifer McGuire. Jen is doing a brand new class over at Two Peas in a Bucket called "Thinking Inking" that starts TODAY! I for one am beyond excited. As much as I love scrapbooking and paper crafting, stamping and inking is an area where I have soooooo very much to learn. And I'm super excited to travel along with Jen for this class and learn all I can.

Here's a little taste of what is to come from Jen on Day 1!

(p.s. I borrowed this photo from Jen's post at 2Peas - all copyrights belong to her and TwoPeasinabucket.com)

I hope to see many of you over there this week...and at the end of the class, we'll see about doing a special giveaway of some BasicGrey stamps for all your hard work!

Have a fabulous Monday!

xoxo,
k.

BasicGrey June Newsletter

...is now available for your viewing pleasure! Just click here: BasicGrey Newsletter

This issue not only shows some of the new product we've released (from Take Notes, Woolies, Pops and more) but it also announces a brand new contest - an ANNIVERSARY contest! Can you believe it? Basic Grey is almost FIVE YEARS OLD! Seriously! So here are the details:

We’re looking for two winners in our 5th Anniversary Contest (one layout winner, one card winner). Our layout category winner will receive a collection pack and the card category winner will receive a 6x6 paper pad, of either Lemonade or June Bug. The contest starts June 5th and ends June 17th. Join the celebration and upload your entry in our gallery at www.basicgrey.com using the title “Anniversary Card” or “Anniversary Layout.” The two lucky winners will appear in our July issue!

So get to posting those layouts and cards, everyone! We look forward to seeing your best stuff!

I also wanted to send out a huge thank you to Moon Ko, Janet Ohlson and Christi Spadoni for participating in this month's sketch column. You ladies did an incredible job on Becky's fab sketch and we really appreciate your hard work!

Here is my contribution to this month's sketch. This was me and my Carson at his pre-school Mother's Day Breakfast. It really hit me then that we only had a little more time when it would just be "us" at home. He'll be a big kindergartener this fall!

Supplies: BasicGrey Lemonade patterned paper, Lemonade Pops, Lemonade rub-ons, Lollipop Shoppe alpha stickers other: Pentel pen, Colorbox (Clearsnap) chalk ink

Have a Happy Saturday and I look forward to seeing your contest entries!
xoxo,
k.

BasicGrey Featured Designers!

I think this is a super fun idea that BasicGrey is doing at a couple of great websites. We have introduced a brand new feature we're launching both at Scrapbook.com and Two Peas in a Bucket. At each of those respective sites each month, we will select a different talented designer whose work with BasicGrey papers and products really catches our eye. We think great work deserves great recognition and we want that person to be you! To become one of our featured designers, here's all you need to do:

* Become a "friend" of BasicGrey if possible or if you haven't already.
* Post your projects or layouts to your gallery on their website.
* Relate the BasicGrey products you use to your project post.
* That's IT!!

It's truly that easy! We'll do a search by a random product line or product and find all the wonderful talent out there using it. And if your design catches our eye, YOU could be next! How fun is that?!

We found some amazingly talented designers during our first search and I hope you'll join me in congratulating the first round of Featured Designers.

From SCRAPBOOK.COM, we are pleased to announce SIMONA MONTANARI, Satriales Girl for her gorgeous use of Lime Rickey!

We absolutely loved her use of so many different patterns of Lime Rickey (there are five – count them, FIVE!) into one cohesive design. The beautiful thing that ties all of them together is the large scalloped yellow square that gives the eye a place to rest visually yet still imparts wonderful color and style! To find out more about Simona or how to be a featured designer for BasicGrey at scrapbook.com, please visit our Scrapbook.com blog.


Thank you so much, Simona, for sharing your talent with us!

And from Two Peas in a Bucket, we are excited to showcase this amazing designer, ALLISON (Ally) COPE, thecircleguru, for her amazing use of the WISTERIA line!

We absolutely love Ally's use of WISTERIA in this amazing circle format. Those rolled the paper strips really allowed her to create wonderful dimension to her design that gave not only great texture but the ability to use so many patterns without overwhelming her photo or project. Incredible! And check out the detail - even her owl is made up of the Wisteria paper!


Thank you to you, too, Ally, for sharing your incredible talent with us. To find out more about Ally or how to be a featured designer for BasicGrey at Two Peas, please visit our Two Peas blog!

Remember, the next featured designer could be YOU, so get to linking up those projects!

TGIF!
xoxo,
k.

Wrapping it up!

There are so many things I'm trying to wrap up lately....work projects, Cub Scouts, school...and the winner of the awesome Studio Calico June kit! I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting so long!





The Random Number Generator (or RNG for short ;)) gave me #19 as my lucky lady - so that means LESLIE MURPHY, it's YOU! Congratulations and enjoy it! Please email april@studiocalico.com to claim your prize! (And be sure to mention you're my winner!)


And since we're also wrapping up Cub Scouts - here are my two handsome boys at our final meeting tonight. We had a really special one as we had a scout cross over the bridge to leave Cub Scouts and become a Boy Scout. What a great moment. Have a great night! Tomorrow is the last day of school and the 1st Grade party - should be a fun one!

xoxo,
k.