It's that time again!!! Summer 2009 CHA previews

It's that time of year again when I actually make a blog post then mention something to the effect that I hope to post more frequently...yet here I am almost 6 months to the date of my last post with a few previews of my scrapbooking collections with Creative Imaginations.

This year, I am continuing with my baking line and expanding it to include the Holidays with my new Christmas in the Kitchen line. It's an ecclectic mix of photography and textual elements, with a lot of fun solids to carry the line through. I have several gift tags for home baked goodies if you have the tradition of giving neighbors baked gifts at Christmas...you're going to love this line!!!

NEW line for Halloween!

Don't you just love Halloween and the chance to act like a kid again...the costumes, the candy, the silly pranks...ya...good times! In celebration of these good times...I have created a line of Halloween goodies. It includes 4 double sided cardstocks, chipboard, stickers and epoxies. There is a lot of variety in this set...you are sure to find the right look for your Halloween scrapbook pages.

More Soldier Boy Collection...

Here's another little sneak peek of "soldier boy" from Creative Imaginations.

Soldier Boy Collection

I have a rambunctious 6 year old boy with a WILD imagination. He can play by himself for hours (not exaggerating), and pretend that there are several people involved in his make-believe play. Since he could walk, one of his favorite things to play is "armies." Often my living room is transformed into a battlefield, where the space between the couch and the ottoman become the trenches, and cushions are used to make bases. The sounds, the actions, and the stories that he plays are very lively to say the least. After watching my son play these games, I realized that I needed a line of product to truly encapsulate his make believe play. And so..."Soldier Boy" was born. This line is a direct inspiration from my son who loves play "army," and my husband who served in the army. It is my hope that this line will be used to showcase your rambunctious boys, or as a backdrop for your military themed pages. Enjoy!

The awesome army man box project was created by the ever talented Cheryl Mezzetti.

Banana Nog

I love to play and experiment in the kitchen...and I hate wasting food. That sometimes makes a great environment for discovering new things to eat--sometimes good, and sometimes not so good. Well, today, after whipping some evaporated milk into mock whipped cream for jell-o (ya, you can do that if your evaporated milk is SUPER cold and your mixing bowl is too) I had some left over whipped evaporated milk and decided that I might try to marry it with my overipe bananas in the fridge. So I took the three bananas in the fridge and blended them up with the whipped evaporated milk and added some nutmeg and ice...and you know what...it was out of this world AMAZING! My 6 year old son who is an avid egg-nog lover said this was the best mock-nog, he's ever tasted. And so...Banana Nog was born.

Banana Nog
1/2 can evaported milk whipped
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 overipe bananas
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ice cubes

Whip evaporated milk with powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy, add bananas, nutmeg and ice. Blend till smooth and no ice-chunks remain.

Sorry...no pictures...we drank it way too fast!

Chat Tonight!

I've been working like one of Santa's Elves for two weeks straight--pulling late nights and early mornings to meet my deadlines...and I can finally say...I DID IT! To celebrate completing everything on time...I am going to reward myself with a chat tonight (9:00 est) at amillionmemories.com. I am excited to do this chat, as I will be able to truly relax and enjoy myself without the weight of looming deadlines. It may get kind of crazy, due to lack of sleep on my part...you never know what I might say. I hope you can come and join us!

So what have I been working on? The question should actually be posed...what haven't I been working on. My goodness...I've been working on finalizing two new lines for CHA winter 2009...working out a few details on CHA summer releases, and working on fun projects with my lines from CHA winter 2008. It's interesting to work 3 seasons simultaneously in different stages. Since I can't show you what I've been working on for CHA winter 09...and it's just slightly too early for showing you peeks on CHA summer 08....I want to share with you a few projects that I've been working on with my CHA winter 08 releases.

This is a sneak peek of recipe box that I created with Sam's Kitchen line from Creative Imaginations. I will be teaching at Scrapfest in September...you will have to come take the class to see all the recipe indexes. The best part of this class...is that you will be able to customize your recipe box with your recipes when you get home.

I also wanted to share one of the make and takes I will be doing for CHA summer with my Seashore and Holey Cardstock collection. I got a little crazy when creating this make and take...we will only be creating one postcard for the make and take...but I wanted you to see how much fun a collection of postcards could be and how cute they would look gathered together in a mailbox. I haven't finished them yet...I want to add a photo to the front and journaling (in letter style) on the back like I did for my postcards to Sydney album that is archived on the CK website. (can't find the link.) Anyway...I thought these would be cute for people to decorate themselves to start an album...or they could use them as greeting cards...or even string several together to make a decorative 4th of July banner.

If you are going to CHA... I hope you get a chance to stop by the CI booth to come do a make and take with me. If not...encourage your scrapbook store to buy my Seashore line, so you can create this little postcard album at home. (Not so subtle plug...wink wink.)

The story of a seed...

layout created by Cheryl Mezzetti

I consider ideas as little seeds. They start out as little thoughts that can expand into something so fabulous if you nurture them and allow them to grow! My next release, although it took root a long time ago, has taken a few extra seasons (shows) to raise it's head out of the soil. You have no idea how close this idea was to making it into Creative Imaginations summer 2007 catalog, but some manufacturing decisions had to be resolved before it could be made official. (We had colors picked out and everything!) Let's just hope there is truth in the mantra: "Good things come to those who wait."

My idea...was to cut a pattern out of cardstock to use as an overlay on top of another cardstock. You could then overlay the cut cardstock onto any base cardstock and come up with an unlimited number of color combinations! I had been seeing a lot of little die-cut things creeping into the forefront of scrapbooking trends and thought that it would be amazing if we could do this on a grander scale.

It was one of those "out-there" ideas that you thought was pretty cool, but I wanted to run it by some friends just to see if you were crazy or not. I was rooming with Laura Achillies, Christine Brown and Tania Willis at CHA Summer 2006 in Chicago (we formed some magical bonds that summer), and I remember that I just had to tell someone my idea to get some feedback. I cornered Christine and Tania in the little hall that separated our room at the embassy suites. I asked them what they would think of a cardstock that had a pattern of holes punched in it, and you could lay it over another cardstock and the color would show through...I don't know if I truly communicated the complete idea to them...but they seemed to think it was a good idea.

It was difficult to try and explain my idea to Jack (Creative Imaginations President) and Shelley (my art director) prior to the show because it was a hard idea to convey without actual mock ups. So I created some patterns in Adobe illustrator, and had some samples cut from Bazzill cardstock by a local laser company here in American Fork, Utah. I created a board with my samples on it, and Creative Imaginations saw my vision for this line. It was fun to see their excitement about it. I hoped for a CHA winter 07 release, but the timing just didn't work out...there was still a lot to figure out in how to manufacture such a product to keep costs down. By summer show, C.I. had done a lot of homework, but the decision was made to hold off a little longer. With each postponement, I was getting more and more anxious. Okay, maybe impatient (forgive me Rick.)

So here we are at CHA winter 2008, and my little seed is about to come to it's fruition. The seed has only grown stronger over time, and I feel it was truly grown by a community of gardeners. I could not have grown such a seed without the hard work, research, and creative direction from Creative Imaginations. I feel so blessed and lucky to be a part of their family.

So please stay tuned as I gather together some sneak peeks of my new Holey Cardstock for you! (or you can check it out on the C.I. blog.)