The one where I enable

I know I'm about to make some sew-y, crafty gals realllllly happy with post!! BasicGrey's amazing line, Sultry (one of my favorites EVER!) is now in fabric form at Moda! You can see more details here. (You may have to click on the link twice to refresh it.) Isn't it incredible? Boy is that jelly roll calling my name....if only I sewed. But those of you that do, these beautiful fabrics are availble directly at Moda NOW and should be coming to stores near you in February. Go get you some!


Oh and since I'm enabling....I just saw this over on my friend, Mel's blog. "HOLY WOW" is what I said to her! I'm sure you'll agree. 165 pages of sale items??! Go forth and shop I say to you. And enjoy!

And one more thing. BasicGrey is in the process of revamping their website and we'd love to see your magazine covers that feature our products predominantly. If you have done a magazine cover (or know of one) using mostly BasicGrey products, will you drop me an email at kelly@basicgrey.com? I'd love to see it!

Happy Wednesday, all!

Happy Holidays!

Look what I found in my inbox yesterday! This is the December, 2008 issue of Scrapbook Trends and just check out those sweet boys on the cover! I can't believe how tiny they seem, especially Mr. Carson. (And don't we have an amazing Santa??!)

While I am thinking of it (and before this holiday hits me at warp speed and I am completely consumed), I want to wish you all the happiest of holidays and may Santa grant each of you your fondest wish.

XO,

k.

It doesn't get much better than this...

...a beautiful, crisp fall afternoon and a huge pile of leaves. Happiness in leaf form! :)

Quick Share.

Hi all!

I just want to take a quick minute to share with you some layouts I did for BasicGrey's November newsletter. I know I haven't talked about it much, but doing the newsletter is something I look forward every month. It's so fun working with other designers and together creating a great resources of new ideas. Not to mention it always includes a fabulous sketch by Becky Fleck and tons of user inspirations. If you haven't yet seen our newsletter and are interested in subscribing, we'd love to sign you up. All you need to do is fill in your email on BasicGrey's home page by clicking here.

This first layout features Granola - our featured paper collection this month. This is Carson being his usual exuberant self!
Supplies: BasicGrey Granola: papers (Seed, Trailmix, Wholesome, Vanilla Bean, Honey, Flax), Chip Sticker Shapes, Element Stickers, and rub-ons.


This next layout is based on Becky's Sketch (found below) and features Offbeat - one of myfavorite lines from our most recent release. I love how versatile this line can be. Simply by omitting the red and orange papers in this collection, I was able to achieve an entirely different look for it.

It is mostly about a conversation between Carson (my 5-year-old) and his Daddy. I thought it was too cute not to document. I found some older photos that I thought would work beautifully with them the end result is one of my personal favorite layouts in a while. I love it when I'm able to get down a special story that I know would so easily be forgotten in a few years. It's the most passionate part of scrapbooking to me. :)
Supplies: BasicGrey Offbeat: papers (Casual, Unordinary, Carefree, Unexpected, Lighthearted), and Element Stickers

And just one more thing I wanted to put out there for you. BasicGrey is always looking for Eye Spy projects/layouts to be featured in our newsletter. The #1 place we find those is our gallery. So please - submit your gorgeous, unique projects so that we can see your work! The next Eye Spy just might be you!!

Vote.

Please!

I'm not overly political and I won't share my views here, but I do subscribe to the philosophy that you can't complain if you don't vote. It's the single most powerful thing you can do as a citizen of this country. Please don't take the right lightly.

Vote! Be a part of history.

You'll be glad you did! :)

(And a Happy Birthday/Election Day to my Sis-in-law, Traci - I hope it's a wonderful day for you!)

Celebrate Good Times

Come on! (Admit it - you're singing now, too, aren't you? ;)

Thank you so much for all the awesome birthday wishes. I really had a wonderful day! My boys made me breakfast and homemade cards, I heard from alot of my friends and family, and my husband surprised me with a dozen roses and an evening out with my girlfriends (which was MUCH needed and MUCH fun! Thanks, girls!)

But the highlight of the day was another Championship Football Season for Ethan! Their AFB Colts went undefeated all year long (unbelieveable!) and then won their championship game yesterday, 34-0! It was a spectacular afternoon, an amazing game, and a great way to celebrate my birthday! I couldn't resist a repeat of this picture from last year! ;) So so SO proud!

Trick-or-Treat

I love. love. love. love. loveeeeee Fall and everything associated with it, but especially Halloween! Perhaps it's because it's so close to my birthday which always made for one long party growing up which has carried over because I haven't grown up, I dunno. I only know I love it - the candy, the costumes, the childish wonder, all of it! Good times!

And let it be known that I love themes for costumes. Yep, I said it. It's the scrapbooker in me, but I just can't help myself. The boys have always been pretty cooperative about it, but it sure helps when we come up with themes they can get into!

So, the inital thought was to do the Star Wars them the boys suggested, but after checking out the horrid (read "costly" and/or "cheap-y looking") selection at both Target and Wal-Mart, we decided somewhere along the way that we (and by "we" I mean "me!") were going to assemble the costumes our(my)selves. We hunted all over the house and managed to pull every costume we had from under the boys' beds, closets and toy chests. Sadly, there wasn't much there to choose from either that hadn't been ripped, destroyed or grown out of. But under it all, there was a fairly newly aquired Batman costume that just might work. So my brilliant husband came up with the idea to do Batman...with Robin and the Joker.

Ethan was all over the Joker idea (he wanted to do the darker Heath Ledger-ish version) and while Carson had to be coaxed a little into Robin, when he finally saw his costume finished, he was so excited he shouted, "YEAH, ROBIN! That's what I'm talkin' about!" lol Crazy kid. Anyhow, a bunch of felt, some curse words under my breath, and alot of handsewing and we ended up with a pretty awesome looking crew if I do say so myself! OH! And also let it be known that these costumes were finished sometime close to 3:00 - when TOTing was at 5:30! Oh yeah, baby! That's what I'm talkin' about! ;)

For the main event we always head over to Amy's house, one of my friends from High School. (These are her two - almost grown! - cuties with their baby cousin.) Every year she has an awesome Halloween get-together that we've gone to since the boys were small. We trick-or-treat our hearts out in their awesome neighborhood, and then Amy completely outdoes herself with a huge chili and hotdog feast to combat the sugar-rush afterwards!

We always we seem to have quite the group of kids gathered to head out together. The adults do their best to keep up with them as they run screaming from one door to the next.

Somewhere along the way I became the designated photographer, though I tell them the get what they pay for when it comes to shot quality! ;) I was fortunate this year with spectacular weather and lighting so I ended up with a lot faves than I usually get.

I love watching the kids fly down the street and catching them in mid-run! It always was a race to see who could get to the door first. Love that some things never change!

Here are my three - sometimes they traveled together, but mostly not (yeah, I get the irony of my theme not working so much when they don't stick together ;)).
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this shot of Turner under this gorgeous tree. The red was soooo spectacular and I think it looks like he's just some mystic creature wandering through the woods.
Bless him - Carson was always running his heart out to keep up with the bigger kids, but not before checking out his candy and making sure it was all there!
And the Joker - my big guy. he absolutely got into character and was a riot all night. He loved it and I ccouldn't get over that green hair!
















These three belong to Amy's sister, Jen - Her son Nathan and Turner are the same age and have grown up together. I don't know about you, but I could eat that Mickey up! (His ears squeeked and he couldn't stop laughing at them all night!)

And a few more random ones from the night - I took close to 300 pictures and have had a hard time narrowing it down! The adorable Egyptian is my friend Laura's daughter...her brother is the wizard you'll see in one of the trick-or-treating photos. Then a random group shot of some of the kids and finally my Batman and Robin off to fight some dastardly deed!

It's getting late here and I have to crash as it's a big day tomorrow with Ethan's Championship football game and my birthday (secondary, of course!), but I had to wish my sweet baby girl - my niece, Lydian Jane - a VERY VERY Happy 1st Birthday! Your Auntie loves you and wishes she could be there!

Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh...

Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh...

BATMAN!!!

(and Robin!)

That was the song I heard all day long today as Carson anticipated wearing his costume. He totally had to add in the "and Robin!" part so it was about him, too.

This is just a little preview from tonight as we went T-o-Ting at a friend's office party. From what I understand, The Joker was at football practice but is scheduled to make an appearance tomorrow!

I can't wait!

Happy Halloween and Stay Safe!

Lucky 1!

WOW! What a response to yesterday's card and giveaway! Thanks so much for participating!

The Random Number Generator picked our lucky winner from over 200 posts and can you believe it picked the number "1?"!

So that means...

P said...
My favorite fall activity is taking pictures of the girls with the gorgeous autumn colors :)
10/27/2008 10:57 AM
is the proud owner of some 6x6 pads and new stamps! Please email me, P, at kelly@basicgrey.com with your address so we can get your prizes out to you!

It's Mini Monday!

*********GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - THANK YOU!************

Good morning, all!

I had the pleasure once again to be asked by Jennifer McGuire at Hero Arts to do a little feature over on Hero's blog for their "Mini" Week! Today is Mini Monday and the feature is Mini Cards. For my part, I did a little 5" x 4" card using BasicGrey's awesome 6x6 pad in Ambrosia along with a few Halloween themed stamps from Hero! It was so much fun! And for those of you that haven't tried them yet, let me just enable you with these fun 6x6 pads - they are absolutely perfect for card makers! Not only are they already pre-cut to 6", but they are the full sized designs just shrunk to miniature! Awesome!

Here's how it came together:

First I used pigment ink to stamp onto the orange (Citrus) paper with the spider web stamp from Hero's Owl-oween set. I then embossed with black embossing powder and once it was dry, colored the webs in with my white opaque pen. Next, I punched out the webs with a circle punch and mounted them onto a circle piece of chipboard the same size for a little added dimension. To get the "Happy Halloween" only from this Hero stamp, I created a little mask the covered the spider, then turned the stamp sideways. I only had to do it twice to completely span the length of the 5" width of the card. I finished up by cutting along the curve then adding an orange scalloped border with my deco scissors.
Supplies:
BasicGrey Ambrosia 6x6 pad (Pome, Fresh Squeezed, Citrus, Ebony, Rind)
Hero Arts Owl-oween Clear Design Stamps
Hero Arts Dots and Lines Clear Design Stamps
Hero Arts Spider Border
Other: Ranger Embossing Powder, Ranger's Inksentials (Big & Bossy) Pad, Rubber Stampede ink, Clearsnap (Colorbox) chalk ink, Uni-ball Signo pen, ribbon, Marvy Uchida circle punch

And just to enable you further, Hero is giving away some awesome stamps and goodies including an Ambrosia 6x6 pad on their blog, so click HERE to be entered to win that. AND...it gets better! I'm also giving away the awesome Owl-Oween stamps I used to make the above card along with a Sugared and Archaic 6x6 pad to get you started on your own cards! Simply leave me a comment telling me about your favorite fall activity and you'll be entered to win! I'll leave the comments open until Tuesday, October 28th at 11:59 p.m.

Happy Stamping!
k.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL??!!

The absentee blogger strikes again! Good grief. I swear I have good reason. Well, reason anyway. We've been crazy busy here between the pumpkin patching, field tripping, boy scouting, school activity-ing and then some. Seriously, how do most parents get everything done? I even work from home and I feel like I'm chasing the rabbit most days. Anyone? Anyone?!

But the biggest sucker-of-timer we've got going on right now is FOOTBALL!! I have to admit I love it. It's so fun to go to these games and practices and see these kids play their heart out and absolutely love it. Ethan has a real passion for the game and lives for his time out on the field. And surprisingly (given he has the parents he does!) he's really, really good at it.

Sunday was our last game of the season and we were all pumped up for it. At the start of the game, Ethan's team was 5-0 - the only undefeated team in the league - so the other team (the Cardinals) were gunning for us.

We decided to get the family hyped up for this big matchup, so with the help of some $1 Halloween hair paint from the Wal-marts ;) we showed our team colors. And please note when I say "We" I use that term realllly loosely. I totally mean them! We had skunk stripes, half and half hair - the works. It was a hoot. Sadly the littles managed to get most of it out before the game actually started, but it was cute anyway.

The game was amazing. Both teams were playing so hard. Ethan played both offense and defense during this game and had some incredible blocks and a quarterback sack. In the end, our Colts prevailed and ended up with an undefeated season. Playoffs will start this weekend so hopefully we won't see the end of football for a bit longer!

And I know I've said it before when it comes to baseball, but I wanted to say it again here. My absolute favorite part of the game is when the kids line up to say "good game" at the end of each meeting. It's such a great show of sportsmanship and it makes me smile everytime. But in football, it's even better. After a game is over, both teams are huddled up together in a unit - as one - and the coaches from both teams tell them how proud they are and what they did well in the game. Then one of the players (this age group is 8-10) leads both teams in a prayer. It does my heart good and I'd be lying if i said it didn't choke me up. This picture of my son (E is #14) and his 3rd grade classmates, Jason, is just one of the reasons why.

I was so inspired, I came home and scrapped this photo from LAST season that I've had sitting on my desk for a year! Hey, at least it's done now! ;) Have a great week!

Supplies: Bazzill Cardstock, KI Memories (Love, Elsie) pp, Heidi Swapp Chipboard Stars, Uniball Pen, Clearsnap (Colorbox) chalk ink

Overheard...

My boys and husband were having a conversation the other night - something along the lines of inviting a few friends over to have a little cookout before it gets too cold or whatever. I'm in the other room, working and listening (read: um 'eavesdropping' *ahem*) when I hear Hoyte asking who they might like to invite, and I await the usual list of neighborhood kids.

Then comes the voice of my youngest, age 5, piping up.

"Daddy?" he asks. "Can I invite my girlfriend??"

Uh, what??! I immediately peer into the room to see what's going on...

"Um, sure, buddy. Do you have a girlfriend?" my husband asks as he's taken a little off-guard.

Admist fits of giggles with his hand over his mouth, Carson replies...

"Yesssssss, but it's a see-kit!"

*******************

I'm so not ready for this. Apparently her name is Maddie! ;)

Hero WINNER!

I want to say thank you again SO much to Jennifer & Hero Arts for featuring BasicGrey in their "All Star Paper Week" and a huge thanks to all of you for your awesome participation! What a fun day! I loved reading about your favorites BG and HA products and how different they were. And my husband wanted me to thank you, too, as I have now have a list of "must haves" from Hero that you all pointed me to! Hee!

And now for the winner of those adorable Hero stamps:

Congratulations to Andi (RrlScrapGal)!
Please drop me an email at kelly@basicgrey.com with your addy, Andi, and I'll get your stamps out to you!

By the way - the giveaway for the Urban Prairie prize pack is still going on over on the Hero Arts blog until midnight PST TONIGHT so get over there and leave a comment if you haven't already!

BasicGrey & Hero Arts!

*****************CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED - THANK YOU!!*********************

Hey, all!

Today I get to share something really exciting with you! Not too long ago, the amazing Jennifer McGuire at Hero Arts asked if BasicGrey and I would participate in their upcoming "All-Star Paper Week." And of course, we both jumped at the chance and said "yes!" And now that time is here!!


Not only are we going to be sharing projects and showing awesome ideas for using our products in conjunction, but we each will have awesome giveaways to share on our respective blogs! Be sure to keep reading to find out more!

First, is the project I created using BasicGrey and some awesome acrylic stamps from Hero Arts. As alot of you know, I "faux-stitch" on my layouts all the time (no sewing machine and too lazy to hand stitch anymore!) and when I saw these border stamps, I was immediately in love! How easy-peasy do they make it??! I especially love that they can be curved to create a wavy pattern like I did here with hardly any effort at all! And these owls? Who could resist those? Definately not me! They made the perfect compliment to the quirky, fun vibe of our Offbeat line!

Supplies:

* Offbeat Casual PP
* Offbeat Nonchalant PP
* Offbeat Novel PP
* Offbeat Chip Sticker ABC
* Hero Arts Clear Design Owl-oween
* Hero Arts Clear Design Dots & Lines
* Other: Bazzill & WorldWin CS, Delta Rubber Stampede Ink, Pop Dots, Berol Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Now, here are some projects from the uber talented Hero artists. Tami Hartley created this with BasicGrey and Hero Arts. Tami said: "I fell in love with
this large scale pod-branch patterned paper from Basic Grey's Offbeat
line when I first laid my eyes on it. I wasn't sure how I was going
to use it on a card, but once I got it home I decided it might be fun
to use for a holiday themed card. (I think the colors from Shari
Carroll's fabulous shabby chic creations were still fresh in my mind!)
To achieve the look I added a strip of stamped snowflakes, a seasonal
framed sentiment, a few pearls --- and voila -- a quick holiday card
with lots of impact!"

Supplies:

* Hero Arts Clear Design Frames and Messages
* Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Holiday Messages
* Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Warm Wishes (snowflake)
* Hero Arts Chocolates & Blueberries Queue
* Hero Arts Neutral Card Buttons
* Hero Arts Accent Pearls Combo
* Basic Grey Offbeat Unexpected PP
* Basic Grey Offbeat Eccentric PP
* Other: ribbon, metallic silver thread, machine stitching, pop dots


Jennifer McGuire created this card with BasicGrey and Hero Arts.
Jennifer said: "BasicGrey continually amazes me with delicious papers
that I just have to have. And many of their paper lines work well
with Hero Arts. When I saw their new line, Urban Prairie, I couldn't
wait to use it. And the Hero Arts background stamp is perfect with it!"

Supplies:

* Hero Arts DesignBlock Stencil
* Urban Prairie Olio Rub-ons
* Urban Prairie 6x6 Paper
* Hero Arts Clear Gemstones
* White Memories Ink
* Hero Arts Strawberry Notecards
* Other: punches, ribbon

And now I have a fab giveaway from Hero Arts! Jennifer was kind
enough to send duplicates of some of the stamps I requested just for my readers! Simply leave a comment here by Tuesday, October 14th at 11:59pmPST
telling us what Hero stamps and BG line you love most and you'll be entered to win these:
Want another chance to win? Hero Arts will have a great giveaway of an Urban Prairie prize pack today on their blog. So be sure to visit HERE and drop them a line!

Thanks so much to Jen and Hero Arts for having us be a part of such a fun celebration!

He did it!

Ok! I had no idea it had been so long since I posted and I'm afraid this one, for now, is just going to be a quick drive-by.

But I had to share this...check the little man out! He came home from Preschool today determined he was going to learn to ride his two-wheeler all by himself and by gosh, within 30 minutes he did!! Such determination! I love that about him almost as much as I love this huge smile! I'm so proud! He earned a huge vanilla ice cream cone for his efforts, too - which I'm sure is going to have him hunting for other things he can "learn!"

Anyhow, there's so many new pics I want to share, and I'm going to do my best to get them up, but in the meantime I want to give a quick heads up - tomorrow's going to be a special post that will include a dual giveaway, so be sure to check back!

Have a great night!

Monster Love

and a Target Dollar Spot alert. Seriously, what could be better?

But before I get started on my ode to Monster Love, I have to say this: It's all HER fault. I blame her completely for her reckless enabling. So there.

Anyhow, back to my sweet stuffies. Who could blame me when these two jumped into my cart on my latest trip to Target? I couldn't toss them out. I mean, really - just look at that one little tooth sticking out and the wide open hugs they are ready to give. I just had to adopt them. Never mind that my boys thought I was ridiculous as I tried to make THEM want them! HA! Now they're mine all mine and they make me happy. (And as an aside, THESE little monsters sat still for their photo shoot. Just sayin'.)

And in other news, CONGRATULATIONS to CASSIE for winning the PaperCrafts and Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazines from yesterday's World Card Making Day contest! Email me at kelly.goree@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Happy World Card Making Day!!

Let's get ready to celebrate with a couple of awesome magazines as we kick off the holiday card-making season the world over TODAY, Saturday, Oct. 4!

Now in its third year, World Card Making Day is a day to connect with fellow card makers around the globe and to celebrate the creativity and joy of this craft! Hobbyists, beginning card makers, manufacturers of card-making products, retailers, and educators, are all making plans to share the excitement of World Card Making Day with workshops, online galleries, parties, contests, sales, and other special events.

To celebrate with Paper Crafts magazine, you can visit www.worldcardmakingday.com for ideas and unique ways to celebrate this holiday, including:

o Creating your own handmade cards from the dozens of sponsored ideas in the Inspiration Avenue section
o Sharing your unique designs with the world in the Creation Corner Gallery
o Finding and visiting an Official World Card Making Day Retailer for classes and activities that will help you connect with other fellow card makers
o Planning your own fun activities with friends and family with ideas from the Celebrate section

Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine is also hosting a fun day of cardmaking celebration over on their blog where they are featuring cards and how-tos by a variety of artists! There are ideas galore to get you started handcrafting your cards. And the best part? All the cards created for their event will be donated to their “bring a smile to a child” campaign (for more information on this campaign, please visit their website at www.scrapbookandcards.com).

SO of course I have an awesome giveaway planned for today! If you create a card today (by midnight eastern time!), post it in any online gallery and link me up here, you'll be entered to win the latest issue from each of these magazines - the fall issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today and the special issue Cards, Gifts, & More from PaperCrafts. Talk about some serious inspiration!

And to get you started, I'll volunteer off my own card that I created for Scrapbook & Cards Today's campaign - an Urban Prairie Birthday Card! HAPPY CREATING!

I've gone International!

One of the most amazing things to me about scrapbooking is how universal it is. It's truly a global hobby (or obsession as the case may be). That point was completely proven to me when I got an email last month from Yuko Abe. She and her friend Yuko Motoyama (a designer for the awesome Pencil Lines sketch site) decided that their country of Japan was in need of a sketch challenge blog like those that are so popular here in the US and in other countries. They wanted to know if I'd be interested in being their very first sketch designer! How amazing is that? So I jumped at the chance to be a part of it!

The sketch went live on their site Scrap in Japan on October 1st (Sept. 30th here in the US) and will be up until mid-month when, from what I understand, the awesome Pam Callaghan will have her sketch go up (and trust me, you don't want to miss that one either!). I'd personally love to have everyone of you participate and I know Yuko and Yuko would appreciate a good push to launch their site, so I hope you'll go play and link up your layouts for them. I get to pick a "winner" of those that play and that winner will get some prizes of some sort.

Here is the sketch I did for them and the layout based on it. Please play along! I'm excited to see what you come up with!


Supply List:
Bazzill CS, Prima PP and chipboard buttons, Uniball Signo Pen, Pentel Pen, Colorbox (Clearsnap) chalk ink, Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas, Scrapworks waxy flax, Making Memories brads