August #SMBiGbloghop.

If you're following along on this months Social [Media] Butterflies blog hop, you should have arrived here from Sabrina's blog, which just so happens to be who I chose to be inspired by as well :] I absolutely adore Sabrina's style, how she mixes layering with washi & bright colors. This quote she used for a project in her Studio Calico gallery totally captured my attention, and was SO relevant to how I'm feeling right now! I knew I had to do something crafty with it :] Add in our color challenge, and here's what I came up with:

 

[[yes IG followers, I found my missing E LOL]]

 

I love the pom pon look on these new papers, but thought making my own would work better for the look of my layout! It was a great way to use up the scraps I had from another project with these papers :]

I used products from the Studio Calico Yearbook collection, which will be available sometime in September, and I LOVE it. Definitely my favorite school themed collection ever, and I cannot wait to get my hands on all the great embellishments with this line! I've already made a mini album that I'll be teaching at The Paper Cottage, and then I just had to use it for this layout :] Hopefully you're as inspired by these papers as I am!

Next on the hop is KRISTIN, who has some exciting new to share as well-- she's opening her online shop on Septeber 1st:] Introducing: Rukristin Papercrafts: The Shop! Offering trendy & quirky handmade memory-keeping supplies. Find her shop here: rukristin.bigcartel.com Before it opens, we are giving away Two Brand New Sets of Journaling Cards: 'Days of the Week' and 'Boy + Girl'. All you have to do is comment, follow or tweet using the hashtag #SMBiGbloghop, letting us know which of those you do-- the more of the hop you complete, the more chances you have :] Chances will end Saturday, September 1st at noon, and will be released later that day! Good luck!

 

 

[ sorry ladies for the delay in posting today, NO idea why one post scheduled went thru & not the other!! Hope it was inspiring enough to still be loved! LOL ]

Hello Again!

Welcome back! We are so happy to have you back for the August edition of our Social [Media] Butterflies blog hop! This month we thought we would change it up and have a two part challenge for our members. Not only will we be taking inspiration from one of our members, but we will be using this color palette:

Now go see some incredible inspiration, here's this month's blog hop order:

Melissa P http://www.melissapriest.com/

Ellie http://scrapbookmamaof4kidz.blogspot.com/

Jenny http://mycreativelife29.blogspot.com/

 

Angel http://kindlelover.blogspot.com

Suz http://livealifeextraordinary.blogspot.com/

Patricia http://harmonyhealthandfaith.blogspot.com/

Erika http://erikabardo.wordpress.com/

Trisha http://www.trisha-grace.blogspot.com

Amanda http://somethingsorta.blogspot.com/

 

Sabrina http://vixendeity.com/

Shay http://sbookinshay29.blogspot.com/

 

Kristin http://rukristin.blogspot.com/

 

We hope you enjoy our projects this month, and have a giveaway for a lucky blog hopper-- one of our own Social Butterflies is opening a SHOP! We are so excited for Kristin && would LOVE to show you some of the goodies you'll soon be able to purchase [store opens September 1st]

 

 

Introducing: Rukristin Papercrafts: The Shop! Offering trendy & quirky handmade memory-keeping supplies. Find her shop here: rukristin.bigcartel.com Before it opens, we are giving away Two Brand New Sets of Journaling Cards: 'Days of the Week' and 'Boy + Girl'. All you have to do is comment, follow or tweet using the hashtag #SMBiGbloghop, letting us know which of those you do-- the more of the hop you complete, the more chances you have :] Chances will end Saturday, September 1st at noon EST, and winners will be announced later that day! Good luck!

join me.

Yayyyy my classes went live for sign ups yesterday, and will now be updated on our facebook page! Join us, and see what other classes and events we have available at The Paper Cottage or call to sign up at 937.912.5324.

 

&& my Trendy Tuesdays here on my blog will start Tuesday, September 11th as well, which will be the same theme as each class, but with an additional tutorial! SO, if you're an out of towner, you can still join in & take the class with me! I will have class kits, with full instructions & some of the materials we played with in class for sale as well :]

 

Incredibly excited to be teaching again, hope to see some of you in class! xoxo

Fall Open House.

Lately all my free time has been cutting, stamping && prepping for upcoming events, holiday shows & orders from customers. I love being busy, so it's been great, exciting to have so much going on! The first event I had coming up is my Fall Open House, which is this Saturday, August 25th at Marion's Town & Country. I am hosting the event with my friend Brittany, who is a ThirtyOne rep and I couldn't be more pumped for it to get here!

I hope to see lots of you locals there, I am doing a fall leaf make n take && additionally you will be able to place orders from the 12-13 catalog and the Holiday Mini. Any holiday items ordered will be 15% off, and if you order before the 31st, you get an extra 10% off of your ENTIRE purchase :] I will have cash & carry items, and we are also raffling off goodies from both companies-- earn tickets by bringing a friend, hosting a party, making a purchase-- plenty of ways to get more goodies!

Here's a few sneaks of the items I'll have out on display that are also for purchase>>>

If you can't come, don't worry, the special is open to you out of towners as well! Just shoot me an email at sbookinshay29@aol.com and I can add on your items & get them sent out to you!

back to PL [&school]

With school starting back up this past week, I thought now would be the perfect time to get back into PL, I fell a little behind once summer started, mainly because I got to travel a lot and had fun making mini books instead :] But for the school year, I think this project is incredible, especially because Caleb gets to get involved too-- he loves picking out which of his artwork goes in & bringing me home random bits from his school day!

To make it more fun for myself, once a month I am going to do a linky party with a theme, to inspire myself & my scrappy sidekick, Ellie, and maybe get some of you to join along with the fun :] Look for our challenges to start soon, I adore her and have really enjoyed all of our emails, tweets & messages. PLUS we're planning a visit, so this Ohioian can go visit her in New York!

I started back up with the week of August 6th-12th [I go Monday to Sunday] which was the LAST week of summer vacation for munchkin, and I really wanted to emphasize how FAST it flew by! I feel like we didn't really do anything we normally do during the summer-- no drive in, I am NOT tan, and with school starting over two weeks earlier, it just seems like it went by in a flash! I decided I reallllly wanted my photos to stand out, so I took some inspiration from Vee & Jamacia, and decided mostly white with pops of primary colors to represent getting ready for back to school would be super fun.
Here's my a few peeks at what I've done so far:

[for this journaling, I cut a slit in the pocket I was using, so the journaling could be hidden behind the journaling, but still pull out of the Bside of the page. It is all about how excited & anxious Caleb is for school to start]

I'm excited to start catching back up, and to have extra inspiration to keep me going, I'm having lots of fun getting it all together again! How is Project Life going for the rest of you crafters out there??



Project life is a memory keeping system designed by Becky Higgins. The simple "back to the basics" approach to scrapbooking simplifies the process using journaling cards & page protectors to enhance your everyday moments.

CRAZY.

Life is just a tad bit overwhelming at times! I just wanted to pop in and say hello to my favorite blog readers, and promise you that I haven't forgotten crafting, far from it in fact! I have been SO incredibly busy with projects for the store, revamping the blog & getting ready for some REALLY exciting features coming to you in September, and the worst part has been not having Internet right now :[ I am currently blogging from my iphone, and I am just NOT a fan of blogging in that fashion, I love having my laptop with a bigger screen, posts full of pics kind of girl!
So here's my promise to be back with a really inspirational post later this week, just for the readers because I really hate that I've been slacking! Happy crafting & hope you are all having an AMAZING day!

WiNNeRs!

As promised, today we announce our winners from the July CHA edition of our Social [Media] Butterflies blog hop group! So drumroll please...........

Congrats ladies! If both of you could please send me an email at sbookinshay29@aol.com & give me your addy, I will get these sent out to you shortly! Thank you to everyone who joined along with us, commented & followed- I hope you saw some incredible inspiration, and that you'll join us again next month!

the paper cottage.

Hellllllllo paper-crafting 24/7.

You're about to find out about the new LSS in town, The Paper Cottage! Some of you may know Brenda, we used to work together back in the day at Simply, and I adore her, her creations are INCREDIBLE, and she's always dreamed of having a store, so voila! I have reaaaalllly missed working at a scrapbook store, and I am so excited to get to work with Brenda [I'm the IT department right now LOL] teach a few classes, and see her store grow :]

Coming home from CHA, I had the Social [Media] Butterflies blog hop, and I am still SO incredibly INSPIRED by both the events, and the scrappy friends I have met IRL and online. Some of them are my lifesavers when I have emergency #scrapgirlproblems, others let me shout ideas at them, and they design things for me on a whim-- I LOVE them. [XOXO, you know who you are ladies!]
When The Paper Cottage opened on the 24th, I was beyond thrilled to talk to Brenda about teaching some classes, and LOVE what we've talked about! You'll find out more soon promise ;] The ideas have been pouring onto paper [get it?! haha] and I am in LOVE with all the projects I have lined up, and cannot wait to share with you all over the next few months! I have been a busy bee getting ready for the Open House this Saturday from 10am-6pm, planning a 'Trendy Tuesday" series and working on this cute little project---



[aren't these ladies beautiful?? So lucky to get to use pics of them taken by Lindsey Battag]




Check out The Paper Cottage in Beavercreek, Ohio on Facebook, and let me know if you'd like to receive info & emails about my classes-- even for you out of state ladies, I can get you a kit WITH instructions :]

Don't forget, today's the last day for our Social [Media] Butterflies blog hop's CHA giveaway! Go HERE to enter for your chances to find out more :]