CHA Reveal Night Giveaway Winners

Here are your random numbers:

175
193
174
69
183

Timestamp: 2009-01-30 19:27:17 UTC

That makes the following people the winners:

• julie.schellin said...

the cool interactive Heidi Swapp stuff, Karen Russell Narratives in Sepia, and ANYTHING from the hands of the amazing folks at Cosmo Cricket.

Wait there's more...no , I should probably stop now. :)

• S Hurst said...

Can't wait to get Heidi Swapp's invisibles. They look great.

• Beth S said...

I would love to get my hands on the new Slice image cards. Especially the big kids, teen, words. Oh, and the embossing tip. It's a very exciting release. I am also in love with Basic Grey's Lime Ricky and Merekek.

• Jacquie said...

Here's the thing. You guys always do such a fabulous job of picking out the most perfect things for the kit every month....so, I'll leave it up to you experts! :)

January 27, 2009 10:53 PM

• Blogger erika said...

the new Patchwork and Rainboots Thickers in every color.

total must haves.

Please email info@studiocalico.com and we'll get your goodies out right away!

I Wish I'd Thought of That!

I was hoping that I could sneak in and post before Lorie--so that the amazing CHA post would be first...but I didn't make it. You'll be sure and read down past this post, right?

Every month when I look at the reveal gallery I see these amazing ideas that make me think "I wish I'd thought of that!!" I thought it would be fun to share those thoughts with you and then let me tell yours, too. Kind of a share/share deal...get it? :)

Let's start with the way Tina took apart the mini and made these little Valentines. Genius! They are...wow...sliced bread.


Steph rocked the color combos of the Wisdom add on...but the way she used the sticker circles over the ribbon just screamed "Yes, exactly!!!".


Scarlet...what can I say? I drool over gallery every single month. She has this innate attention to detail that comes out in every layout. When I saw how she'd layered the Maya Mist over the chipboard and then the stamp, stickers/etc...well, I wish I'd thought of that!!


Nik--what can I say, aside from the fact her mini made me a little misty, the girl is a paint wizard! Painting in the indentions of the cover never would have even occured to me, until I saw what she did.


Let's now talk about the double weapons of Nic & Kirsty...BOWS!! Nic with a little paper bow and Kirsty with a giant paper bow. Both incredibly smart and eye catching. I am now wondering the best way to acheive that without destroying the paper with my clumsy fingers...





Speaking of attention to detail...When I saw how Kelly outlined the chipboard I just kept nodding my head, "yes, that's it...perfection!". I love the way it not only finishes off the layout, but mimics the other "outlines" going on.



Joy--just has this intrinsic whimsicality about her. Then you see her layouts and realize how much of an extension of her they really are. When I saw the squirrel and the heart pins I wanted to smile and say "awwwww" at the same time, someone is going to be very lucky and get that card.


Is Joleen a fabulous guest designer or what? Her whole gallery was gorgeous, but she had the little touches that tickled my envy bone! The connector stitches on this page in particular really caught my eye and made me think that I need to keep that trick in the back of my mind!


Emily.Wow. The color fade with the Maya Mist? Dang!! Again just nodding my head thinking "genius, just genius!".

Dav--her gallery absolutely knocked my socks off (like always)...I wondered where she found the time to come up with this level of amazing. She makes me want to scallop edge ruffle layer everything. How about you?


Caroline...what are we going to do without her in our gallery every month? :( It's things like this little beauty that has me wondering what exactly makes her look at a circle in a paper and transform it into a complete embellishment.


April. Whenever I think about April I see a slideshow of incredibly creative layouts looping round. She makes it look easy in ways that just boggle my mind. The layered stickers under the cutout under the journal strips? Again, I could now have this on every page.


Whew!! My head is spinning and all I want to do right now is scrap!! I just don't even know where to start because the ideas are almost overwhelming! I think I need YOU to weigh in and tell me something you saw in the gallery this month that tickled your creative urge!

P.S. How are you doing with your challenges? I've not heard from anyone yet, my deadline is Friday 1/30 and g's deadline is today!!

P.P.S. Make sure you read on down to see some CHA goodness. :)

CHA - Day #4

Today was a big day, not only was it our last full day at CHA, it was reveal night. We had a full agenda and had to make the most of every hour of the day. We started out at the convention center early this morning. We had another full day of walking around, looking at anything and everything that we might have missed! We also took a few minutes to complete a few make and takes! I actually got April to pause and make one today, this is a major feat since she is usually going 90mph the whole day!

I mentioned on the blog last night that we were planning to go to Red Robin tonight and eat dinner and we had an open invitation to all subscribers and admirers to come and join us. I was so very happy that several of you took us up on the offer! We had about 25 folks total...including the Design Team. Here are a few pictures of our evening!

In this pic you can see April talking with Reyanna (Reyasunshine), Emille, Heidi and our own Emily Pitts. Check out that stack of onion rings there in the center....they were very yummy!

I think that Nik was having trouble making up her mind in this one!

Here is April and Joanna (spagirl).

What group of pictures would be complete without a shot of our Nicoles?

After dinner, we all piled into the parlor (they made fun of me for calling it a parlor) of our hotel room and settled in for reveal. Scarlet and April were working away as we all talked and laughed and tried to get in on the live chat. It was a little frustrating since we had a total of four computers on the same wi-fi connection. It slowed us all down a little, but in the end we made it!!! I hope that you are all as happy about this kit and I am....it is so cool! I can't wait to get back home and tear into it! Here are a few pics of all us counting down to reveal....

Scarlet working dilligently to get everything uploaded and ready to go for reveal.

Kirsty working dilligently to make us all laugh!

Nic, Stephanie and Nik laughing and cutting up while reading the message boards!


April, Kirsty and Scarlet checking out the gallery and message boards after the big reveal!

At the beginning of the week, April gave each member of the DT an assignment. She told them to look at everything and then narrow it down to 3 favorites. Keep checking the blog because each of them will be sharing their favorite items with you over the next couple of weeks. I also joined in this assignment and spent a good portion of the day going back and looking at all of the yummy goodies out there for my post. Like I said, stay tuned because there is much more to come.We have a team outing planned for tomorrow and I'll make sure to post some pictures of our fun for you all on Thursday when we get back home. We'll be traveling tomorrow evening so there won't be a blog post tomorrow night. OK gals, it has been a long week and my brain is rapidly shutting down! It's time to say goodnight and go to bed but before I go, here's a video teaser I'll leave with you. The source of the laughter will follow soon. Nite!

Reveal Night Giveaway!!!

Just leave a comment here letting us know what new CHA release you can't wait to get your hands on. Remember, it's to your benefit to be as specific as possible ;)

Also, if you're at CHA, join us at the Red Robin on Harbour at 6:00 for dinner and some good conversation. (I'm not promising that conversation will come from me, because I'm brain-dead at this point from lack of sleep)

By the way, check out more CHA video over at my blog Enjoy!

CHA - Day #3 - Picture Heavy

Hello again from sunny California. I can actually say that today, we got to see some real sun for the first time since we got here! It was still a little chilly, but hey, I'll take it over several inches of snow anyday.

I thought that I would start off the picture extravaganza by showing you Stephen's mad photography skills! This shot is amazing!


OK, that's enough of the outside of the building, let's get to the good stuff on the inside! First, here is Tim Holtz working his magic with Distress Inks and masks. I literally stood transfixed for almost an hour while he turned tag after tag into incredible works of art. I've never used masks before, to be honest, I was a little bit intimidated by them. Not anymore!! Tim is really great about answering questions and sharing tips while he is working. I asked several questions and he patiently explained his techniques and gave me some really quick and easy advice to get me started. I can't wait to get back home and give them a try!

As I was walking around today, I saw this cute little fellow peeking out of a crop cart. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that his mom, Erica (hockeygirl), is a subscriber and was as happy to see us as we were to see them! He's a handsome little fellow and he was absolutely adorable riding around in this cart. As they strolled away, he looked at me so sweetly and waved bye-bye.

Here we have our buddy Allison (scrapally) with several of the DT. I took this one on Sunday and notice that Nik, Nic and Davinie were all in pink.....they were working at the Pink Paislee booth that afternoon. We hung around and bothered them for a little while and then finally let them get back to work. It was a lot of fun to meet Allison.....she is a hoot!! She is a tiny little thing so we had to put her on a stool to make this photo work. Don't they all look so happy to be at CHA?!?!

After we left the convention center this afternoon, we headed over to Downtown Disney for our DT dinner. Now April is a Mexican Food junkie, so we had dinner at Tortilla Joe's. They seated us in this little loft area overlooking the resturant. It was great to be able to have a room all to ourselves so that we could chat, take pictures, laugh and cut up without disturbing any of the other guests. We had great food, good friends and a lot of fun!! Check out some of the pictures....


Here's the whole gang in our brand spanking new Studio Calico shirts. I'm so thankful that April and Scarlet thought to get us long sleeved shirts, it has been downright cold here at night!

I thought that this was a really good picture of Greg and April. They are just so cute together!

This is my favorite picture of CHA so far. What can I say, I just LOVE the sandwich! Nik, Dav and Nic are just the cutest things that have ever walked the face of the earth! It makes me happy when they are all together!

We had a great day and night! For all of you that are here at CHA we are going to try to all meet for dinner tomorrow night at the Red Robin on Harbor Street. We are going to try to get there around 6:00. We won't all be able to sit together, but it will be fun to have everyone in one place so that we can all get up and mingle a little. If you are here, we'd love for you to come out and join us for some food and fun! We won't be able to stay out too late though, the boss ladies will have us all together in one room for reveal night. This will be a first in Studio Calico history, so I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures and Greg will likely have the Flip out filming our every move!

Have a great day everyone.....goodnight!

Lorie

Are You Feeling Challenged Yet?

I just love that there's so much going on at the message board right now. It sure makes the time not being at CHA so much easier! As promised, I have a challenge of my own for you!!

THE CHALLENGE:
I know you're all wondering exactly where you're going to put all the new CHA loot when it comes in...right? I think the key here is to get rid of all the scraps you have lying around! (If I could do that, I'd clear out at least three drawers...) My challenge to you is to use up a TON of scraps! The more the better!! I'm going to give a little sumpin' sumpin' to whomever can use the most scraps in a fabulous, creative and cohesive way. Scraps, slivers, pieces and bits. It ALL counts...as long as you can count. :) Make and upload your layout by Friday, January 30th at 9pm PST. Email me (JennO) a link and a count of the number of scraps you used and I'll announce the winner next week!

This is my layout using scraps...not a ton of scraps, but scraps nonetheless. Every piece here came out of my scrap drawer. This also happens to be my lift of Waleska's wonderful layout found here!

Paris in the house!!

We had an exciting day today....Paris Hilton was here to debut her new line of crafting kits for teens. Greg decided that he MUST have an autograph to send to Stephanie Howell's husband Jimmy over in Afghanistan.

Now keep in mind that there were about 300 women and a few men that had been standing in line for several hours just to get a glimpse of Paris. To avoid having to wait with the masses standing around waiting for her, Greg decided to scope out the place and figure out where she would be coming in then intercept her before she ever got the the Convention Center floor. So Greg being the sly and talented schmoozer that he is, found a security guard that was willing to talk. I'm sure that they were quite a site....Greg the loyal and adoring fan and Stephen and Amber were the paparazzi. Check out the pics below....



I'm still amazed that they were able to pull it off, but we have the autograph to prove it! Greg walked right up to her and asked her to sign an autograph for a soldier in Afghanistan and she took time to sign. All in all, it was a good day for G-Man! Here's how it went down in real time...



April and Amber also had a brush with fame today. They were out and about and bumped into Vanna White. She was also very nice and happily posed for a picture with our favorite twins!



I tell you girls, it was a full day and I am beat!! We saw a bunch of our Studio Calico friends and took a lot of pictures. My post tomorrow night will be dedicated to showing you everyone that we have met. We will also have pictures of all of the DT members that are here with us.

Thanks ladies and goodnight!
Lorie

CHA CHA CHALLENGE Explosion!!

Wow! The message board (and gallery!!!!) is hopping with fabulous challenges! Thanks to g & waleska, there's been plenty to do while everyone else is CHA'ing! I'm going to link them all here for you...just in case it gets a little hard to search them out before the 28th!

The challenges:
Challenge #1 (g's grey challenge)
Challenge #2 (g's 3 kit challenge)
Challenge #3 (g's lift the person above you challenge)
Challenge #4 (waleska's packaging challenge)

The linking spots:
Grey challenge
Mix it up
Lift the person above you

Ok! I hope that helps you keep it all straight...I know that *I* need all the help I can get most times!

Now...how about a little "the bosses are away so the team will play" upping of the ante? I know that g has talked about prizes that she's going to give with her challenges...but I think we can even help spread the love a little bit. ;) Tell you what... if you complete ALL four challenges PLUS the challenge I'm going to post here tomorrow and email me (JennO) your links by Friday night 1/30/09 at 9pm PST I'll have a little random prize of my own to mail out....

Welcome to CHA 2009!

Well ladies, I've been counting down the days for weeks and FINALLY it's here, CHA Winter 2009! This morning April, Scarlet, Amber, Steven and I headed out for the airport to begin our journey. We met Kirsty in LA and we all traveled to Anaheim together in our spiffy mini-van. It was really cool to finally meet Kirsty in person, I could listen to her talk in that neat British accent all day long!

We arrived here in Anaheim this afternoon and headed over to the Convention Center for all of the pre-show receptions. We started at the Making Memories reception at about 4:00. We were joined by Nicole Samuels, Stephanie Howard, Nicole Harper and Emily Pitts. It was awesome to see Nic, Nik, and Emily again and to meet Stephanie for the first time! After much hugging and introducing, we settled in to see the new products that MM has to offer. I can't give you too much information here, I mean I am following the letter of the law here that I was given by the boss ladies so don't be too upset that I can't spell everything out for you. Hint...Hint!

After Making Memories, we headed over to the Creative Imaginations reception. The have a themed party at each CHA, I don't know if you remember or not, but at the Chicago show is was a Lego theme. Tonight was Star Wars themed....complete with jazzy Star Wars music, Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, a very serious looking Luke Skywalker and a very short Chewbacca. We took some pictures that I'll make sure that we get posted tomorrow! Anyway, the reception was a lot of fun and we had a nice time chatting and catching up while we munched away at their buffet. They always have the best food!

Finally, we headed over to the SEI reception. They always have a big slide show production where they show all of the new product. This one is my personal favorite because it is an ice cream reception. We enjoyed ice cream sundaes while we watched the show. They also have this guy that gets up and makes a big deal about calling out numbers on tickets for prizes...you know the kind of guy that I am talking about. He gets up and drags it out as much as possible, calling out the numbers one by one, then asking everyone that is still in the drawing to raise their hands and such. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Stephanie Howell ended up winning one of the new lines.

We've had a big day and it's time to pack it in for the night....the time difference is catching up to all of us! Make sure to check back tomorrow night for another blog entry. We will have lots of pictures and more stories to tell I'm sure.

Good Night!

Everyday Photos

One of my resolutions this year is to take more everyday type photos and to capture more of the details of our happy little life here. There are so many funny things the kids do right now...little idiosyncrasies that would probably be forgotten without a photo.

Like this funny one of my Brady dancing in the car...he's constantly making that hilarious face when he "dances" and cracks us up everytime.

Or this one of my boys pulling and pushing the wagon back and forth while we were playing outside...a very common game they play together.

Jackson playing with one of his favorite toys....

Brady enjoying his breakfast of choice... :) These are the kinds of things I want to remember. I hope you'll join me in taking more everyday photos this year. I'd love to see some that you've taken recently too, so link me up if you have any. And have a great weekend! :)

February Sneaks

Have you scoped out all the sneaks yet?
The details are amazing. I'm really looking forward to the reveal which is coming up soon!


More of Dav's sneaks can be found here. Stitched heart....perfection.

Here's more of Nicole's sneaks. This little grouping makes my heart flutter.

I always look forward to reading Stephanie's journaling. More sneaks here.

I love the color contrast in April's sneak. See more of her sneaks here.

Here's one from me. That's all you get for now! :)
Be sure to check the mb's for more sneaks! I know everyone is working hard to bring you endless inspiration for February's kit.

Happy Thursday,
Tina

More Valentine fun...

I don't know about you, but I think Valentine's Day is really fun...I love all the pink and red and the polka dots and hearts. I'm a total sucker for the holiday aisle at Target...everything is just so cute! I've stumbled up on some super cute Valentine crafts that I wanted to share.

These adorable heart bookmarks would be a great addition to kids' valentines:

These fortune cookies look like a cinch to make and how CUTE!
I'm thinking about making these crayon hearts with the boys sometime next week...

And I've been searching for some cute make-your-own Valentine ideas and came across a few worth sharing...

You make my heart glow!

You rule!

Plane Awesome!

Hope you enjoy these ideas and please share any fun things that you've found...I'd love to see! :)

hearts continued.

I just had to partake in Kelly's hearts challenge posted below. I'm in the process (a very slow process) of scrapping memories from this past Christmas. I also want to use this post to call out those of you who get their Studio Calico kits and leave them in their boxes or put them away for a rainy day.
I can relate to one who often "collects" scrap supplies but what fun is it to keep them tucked away only to be admired? Papers want to be cut up or punched out. Letters scream to become a title. Stickers so desperately want to be stuck on a well crafted layout.
Here's an easy way to get yourself well acquainted with the kits April & Scarlet work so hard to put together for you to enjoy and use! Grab a punch and go to town. Punch a shape or 2 from each patterned paper. If I know I'm going to use a certain paper for a 12x12 layout, I'll set that one aside. Take all your punched out pieces and start moving them around on a piece of card stock. Have a photo ready and add it to the mix. This should jump-start some ideas....even if you don't end up using those punched pieces. I find that this is a great way to come up with other ideas for layouts. So you've got a pleasing composition...it's time to commit! At this point, it's up to you to add some other elements. Grab a pin, stick it somewhere. Don't like it? Remove it and go onto the next element. Add your signature touch...you know, that thing you do to every layout that makes you think..."now it's finished." For me, it's always staples. I think it's the shiny metal that I like the most. Kind of like how I can't leave the house with my diamond stud earrings. :)
Have fun with Kelly's hearts challenge! Let's see those kits ladies....past and present!

Hearts Challenge

So, I thought it would be fun to kick the week off with a fun challenge. With Valentine's Day coming up, I've been so inspired by all the heart shaped goodies I've been seeing in stores and online recently. So, my challenge to you is to create a layout or project using hearts. Be creative and have fun with it!

For my layout, I used 2 different heart punches to create a fun border along the left edge of the page. Post here with a link to your layout...I can't wait to see what you all do!

I Dare You

I was thinking about Valentine's Day all this week with these blog postings...and ways Valentine's Day and scrapbooking intersect. And mostly I was thinking in terms of USING scrapbooking supplies in creating Valentines or decor or whatever. But then I realized....

I have a lot of LOVE for my scrappy supplies too.

And, yes.. I say that sort of tongue in cheek. But if you are even reading this blog... then I have a hunch you feel the same way! So here's my dare for you...

Create a Valentine for your one true scrapbooking love. :) The supply you can't live without, the tool that is your right hand.. er... tool, the manufacturer you want to marry, or the kit club you adore (had to throw that one in!). Let's do tags to make it easy. And somehow incorporate your scrappy love on the tag along with a sentiment or whatever. Mine would be ode to buttons or patterned paper. Can't quite decide yet. Whatever you do, make sure you post it in the gallery... PLEASE! I have a feeling these could get pretty funny and I don't want to miss any of them! So, humor me and play along... please?

Here's one more project for you. I found this little valentine heart tote in Family Fun magazine. (which is a great little mag for those of you with young children...lots of fun ideas in there) Anyways, I thought this was cute as could be AND a great little craft to do with your child. They have full directions here ... even have you make a child safe needle out of twist ties! There'd be all sorts of ways to dress this up even more with your scrappy stuff and I think you could use cardstock instead of felt if you needed to.

Have a great weekend... and don't forget those tags! ;) Can't wait to see your creations!

Did You Know...?

To go along with our Valentine inspired theme here on the blog this week, I looked up some fun trivia about the holiday. All of these were taken from http://www.stvalentinesday.org/

• About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in US each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
  
• Women purchase 85% of all valentines.
  
• In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
  
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.


• Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.
  California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America. Approximately 110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.
  73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
  
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
  
• The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.


• Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentines Day candy box in the late 1800s.


• In Medieval times, girls ate unusual foods on St Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future husband.


• Superstitions:
  If you see a squirrel on Valentine's Day, you will marry a cheapskate who will hoard all your money.
  If you see a goldfinch on Valentine's Day, you will marry a millionaire.
  If you see a robin on Valentine's Day, you will marry a crime fighter - maybe they mean Batman!
  If you see a flock of doves on Valentine's Day, you will have a happy, peaceful marriage.
  If you find a glove on the road on Valentine's Day, your future beloved will have the other missing glove.
  

I thought these were amusing... single gals be on the lookout for random gloves in the street! :)

And here's a photo of one more Valentine project for you (I made this back in 07). I altered a Heidi Swapp box of chipboard letters with some patterned paper. I cut squares of chipboard that would fit inside and then altered those too. I wrote the things I love about my husband on each card. :) Have a great day!