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I know....... You haven't heard much from us the past couple of weeks. We apologize for that and one of our New Years resolutions is to do better a job.
Here's to each of you, our friends for 2011:
May you have the happiness that you deserve
May you know that you are important
May each of you reach for and get those things that you really want
May 2011 be the best year ever
Take care, be safe, and have a very happy and prosperous New Year
Your Friends at Cosmo Cricket!
HoHoHo...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Even though it's Christmas day we didn't want to skip a Saturday blogpost especially not since we have such fun projects to show you. Amy came up with a special Christmas challenge! My challenge is your Holiday Traditions. Taken anyway you want. Whether it is something that you learned from someone, a tradition you want to start with your family, or even one you wanted to stop-anything goes. :D
Let's start with Amy's layout! Her layout is about this recipe for Christmas bread that she makes in her family every single Christmas. It has only been in her family for 3 generations so far, but they love it so much that not a Christmas goes by that they don't make about a dozen loafs! She is the first one in the third generation to have a child, so she is making sure that her daughter, the fourth generation, experience this tradition every holiday so that she will want to keep it alive for her own children!
This next layout is by Debbie....yeah it really is! This challenge was definitely a challenge for her, being a card maker rather than a scrapbooker! When she looked for photographs of some of her families Christmas traditions she discovered that some of their most important traditions are not documented in her photograph files. She will be working on getting better pictures this Christmas. The tradition that she finally chose was making wooden ornaments for their tree. She loves the sweet vintage colors of Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather!
Natasja loves baking, since this hobby doesn't have a very good outcome on her diet she gives a lot away to her neighbors and friends. This Christmas she made cheesecake cookies together with her daughter, especially to give away. To make it a bit more fun she bought this nice jars and decorated it with Mitten Weather. As far as Natasja, and her neighbors are concerned, a new tradition is born :)
Wendy created this next layout using Early Bird and a bit of Jolly by Golly. Wendy has several fun family holiday traditions, but one of her favorites is their "eggless eggnog". She distinctly remembers the first time her Grandma made eggnog for her when she was a little girl. She remembers loving the flavor, bot NOT the texture that was added by the egg. They made their own version of that yummy drink simply by adding vanilla, sugar, and a bit of nutmeg to a blender full of milk and whip it up until it's nice and frothy. Her kids love it too - it's something they all look forward to doing together on Christmas Eve - right after they open their Christmas PJ's, but before they put out Santa's fudge. :o)
Laura made a special Christmas wish box for this challenge. She wants to start a tradition of every family member writing down a wish for the year to come. It can be simple, or extravagant. It will be fun to look at this year after year to see what everyone wrote and if their wish came true! Laura used Jolly by Golly and Mitten Weather on this project
Since this will be Laura Cox her last project as our Guest Designer for the month of December we would like to thank her for playing along with us and to share all these great projects. Thanks again Laura and we sure hope you enjoyed it!
If you have some spare time between Christmas and New Years please play along with us on this challenge. Post a link to your project in the comments section below and who knows, you could win a Circa 1934 craftskit!
And now for last weeks winner....Izzy Bean you won!! Please email cathie at cosmocricket dot com to collect your prize :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all you blogreaders and thanks for your sweets comments!
First I am a huge slacker.
Yesterday I promised the blog winners from last week and I went out of town on business. I apologize. Okay the winners are....drum roll..... Denise and Dawn from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hey ladies email Cathie at cosmocricket dot com your home addresses and she will play Santa and get your prizes to you.
Those of you who have been with us through good blogs and bad, probably remember that we have a tradition each year of doing a Christmas poem.
The poem usually gives the reader an update of the status of Cosmo Cricket for the past year.
So without further adieu, here we go:
"2010 we had a marvelous time
we released lot's of fun products
Please try to bare with me
as I......... try to rhyme
It seems like forever ago
that we released the Material Girl collection
I believe it was the same time as Garden Variety and Joy Ride
to my best recollection
Hmmmm, let's see what else happened
this crazy ole year
Delovely was lovely
Kristen had her baby
and is no longer here :(
Jade took her place
and then with her spouse
moved up to Michigan
in a two story house
Jack started Kindergarten
And I met my dad
Eric and Julie arranged it
for that I am glad :)
Cathie and Devin
Laura and Carrie
Work very hard
and are cheerful and merry!
We moved in our building
With offices and space
to warehouse our products
We all agree it's
a really nice place
Mitten Weather, Togetherness
Circa and Pixielicious
We also released
and are all quite delicious
we attended many events
and met some of you
that has been fun
And we gained more
Facebook fans too
From all of us
Yes- the Cosmo Cricket team
You blog comments and Stories
make each of us beam
Merry Christmas dear friends
and with the year turning new
We hope for great things
May all your wishes come true!"
Happy Holidays!
Can you believe it?! Only 9 days left till Christmas! Are you ready for it? Done with decorating, finished all you Christmas shopping, posted all your Christmas wishes? If you still need some inspiration for some of this you are at the right place today! We have some fun projects to share with you! But first things first :)
Maybe you already heard about Teresa's 25 Favorite Things Giveaway which is going on the Teresa Collins blog?! Well today is day 18 and that's Cosmo Cricket day!
Make sure to hop on over to the Teresa Collins blog to read all the details. Why?! Because you can win this!
Leave a comment on this post letting us know if and what kind of project you made for Christmas! Teresa Collins will draw a winner and so will we! So twice the to win this great prize :D
Now on to the fun stuff we have been making to show you in this post.
We kick of with our December Guest Designer Laura. She made this fun holiday gift set. A cocoa gift folder with a card to match using Jolly by Golly.
Natasja made this cute little box to wrap a small present. She used on old tin box as a base and covered it with Mitten Weather. The tree on top is made out of a bunch punched circles layered on top of each other. She finished the tree by wrapping it with red thread and glitter. On the front of the box is a cut out label and a cluster of ribbon and lace.
There has been a lot of cooking going at Debbie her house lately and since she loves to give food gifts she made this lovely jar together with the cookies. She used the Mitten Weather line for this.
And this fun card is also from Debbie.
Wendy wanted to make some little boxes to hold gift cards and treats for teacher gifts. She used her silhouette to cut the boxes out of a couple of different sheets of Mitten Weather paper then embellished them with borders, stickers, chipboard and buttons. The boxes were fun to make, She was able to make them in various sizes, and they look so cute sitting together - coordinating, but not exactly the same!
This next cute gift bag with matching card is made by Gudrun. Such a fun detail to have those Mitten Weather ornaments "hanging" on that gift bag.
This fun wreath with flowers is made by Yukari to decorate her front door for the Holiday season.
We would like to wish you all lots of fun doing your last preparations for Christmas and hope we inspired you a bit. Don't forget to hop on over to Teresa Collins her blog and to leave a comment on this post!
Bye all, have a great weekend!
Some of you might know that Julie and I call each other when we finish writing the blog each day. I was suppose to blog yesterday and around 1:00PM yesterday I get a call from Julie telling me the blog was up.
I think she was tired of waiting around for me and she also knew I was having a bad day. Shocker huh? Lindsay having a bad day. Honestly they are few and far between. :) It started with shoveling snow for 2 1/2 hours at 6:00AM.
I'm running late again today and will feel guilty if I get a call today from her. I'm afraid because I KNOW that she will call and say,....... " the blog is up.......SLACKER!
So here I am. Are you guys wondering about the projects above? These come from Aurelie Laverdine who I think resides in France. Her projects are really cute and I love what she created with Togetherness.
I didn't email Aurelie and let her know that we were featuring her projects today. I hope she's not mad.
Next, we have people from all over this world who use our products. Leave a comment today and let me know where you are commenting from, city and state, or city and country, or city and.....well I think you get the picture.
Also, because it's the holidays and we haven't had a drawing for awhile, when you tell us where your from, give us a friends name and we will draw on Monday for a Circa 1934 paper Crafting Kit for you and one for your friend.
If you win, you will most certainly gain favor with your friend. As a bonus, we will throw in one Black and one Red Tiny Type Sticker that coordinates with Circa. Let the games begin!
Have a great day!
I love crochet, but I am horrible at it! About 8 years ago, I heard that homeless and women's shelters in my area needed baby booties. Well, I thought, "I'm sure I could crochet some for them." My mother had taught me how to make granny squares as a girl afterall. So I got online, found a simple pattern, bought some yarn and hooks and went to business.
"Hmmm," I thought as my bootie was taking shape, "This seems to be a bit smaller than it should be." Oh, well, I just told myself that I was making the stitches too tightly and that this pair would be for a premie. When I got a bit further along, I realized by baby booty was barely big enough to fit my thumb!
Oh no!! I called my neighbor and asked, "do you know how to crochet?" She did and she came right over. We still laugh about my bootie (I'm laughing again just reading that sentence!).... I had made the entire thing with slip stitches instead of crochet stitches. It was a bootie for Thumbelina. The smallest bootie I have ever owned!!! LOL!!!
So, I was a little hesitant to try the darling crochet patterns that are free on Little Birdie Secrets. But, I got over it and take a look.
I have also done some of her other flowers, butterflies and hearts. They are super cute on paper projects and they are easy enough for the crocheted challenged like myself. You can whip them up in a few minutes.... if you can find any!
Have fun everyone!!
I don't know how I missed these awesome projects when they were posted to our fanpage.
By Angela Fehr
By Jennifer Beason
And by Kayla Dupont
Maybe I was at Kate's ballet recital. Can I tell you she danced amazingly! She has come such a long way in the last 6 months and it was all I could do to not jump up and yell, "that is my daughter.... do you see her..... THAT IS MY DAUGHTER!!!!"
Maybe I was at Abby's basketball game. The are 1-4 this season. Last Saturday was their first win and Abby actually touched the ball 4 times...... major improvement! GOOOOooooo ABBY!
I know I wasn't at the piano recital, because that is later this week..... Along with a couple Christmas parties, physical therapy sessions, ortho appointments, birthdays and other stuff. I think I have mastered the art of cooking dinner with my right hand, helping the kids with homework with my left hand while wrapping presents with my toes. If I survive the holidays, I promise to have a fantastic and spectacular CHA release for you all in January!
Why do you scrapbook?
Is it an art you enjoy and you want to create something beautiful?
Is it a way to keep your photos and memories organized?
Is it your family history that you hope to pass down to generations?
Sometimes I hear women talk about how, "you don't have to cram every photo you've ever taken onto a layout" or how "that layout isn't even real life.... she probably dresses her kids to match that paper."
Well, both statements could be true, but in my opinion, they both miss the point.
Is there a wrong reason to scrapbook?
I don't think so. I think every reason has it purpose and in fact, I am motivated by them all.
My family photo albums are made effeciently. There are 6 photos to every page mounted to a single background with no embellishments of any kind. I have four kids, there is no way on earth I would even get all those photos scrapbooked..... it would become drudgery long before it happened in any case.
Sometimes I'll have a beautiful photo or an idea for a beautiful layout. Then I will take the artistic approach. Do I feel bad that I sacrifice parts of the memory for the esthetic of the layout? No way! When I'm in this mode, I see myself as an artist. I am making art. I love the creative outlet and it serves an equally important need in my life!
Over the weekend, I made this layout.
My focus here was the memories. My grandma turns 90 on Thursday. All the family was given the assignment of making a scrapbook page with their favorite memory. Well, I chose ten of my favorites.
Although I was concerned with how the layout was looking, I was more concerned with getting the memories down. I realize the peas don't match and the element card from Everafter is a bit bright. I also used my own everyday handwriting because I thought my grandma would appreciate the personal touch. If I were in my artistic mode, I would have lettered it nicely in pencil first, making it look perfect, then going back with pen. I have to tell you though..... even though I thought I was making artistic sacrifices, there is something beatiful to me about the realness of it all.
So, I think I may have found my point. Sincerity. I think that's what I really hope will come through in all my layouts whether crammed with photos or beautifully designed.
With every line that is released you can find the sheets with fun and great to use cardstock stickers.
Since they are so much fun to work with we thought it was about time to spent a blogpost on them!
Let's start with the projects our guest designer Laura made using Circa 1934 with the cardstock stickers. A jar like this is great to fill with chocolate kisses or some other candy. Whant to gove is as a gift?!
She made this next great card to go with it.
Wendy Sue used two cardstock stickers for the Mitten Weather line on her gift project. The first is a border sticker she wrapped around the box, just below the snowman border strip. She wanted to add some red to the box wrap, and loved the little touch of color the sticker added. She also used a cardstock sticker tag. She actually cut off part of the tag - the purple and blue just weren't working with the color scheme - and mounted the sticker on red paper. She added a button and some ribbon to finish it all off!
This layout by Natasja shows the use of an oldy, Snorkel. As you can see on the detail pictures she used the cardstock sticker as fun elements on her page.
here Natasja used some 3d tape under the cardstock stickers to let it pop
Hope we inspired you a bit more in using these cardstock stickers:)
Now of course for last weeks winners! Lzzyb and Jess you are the lucky ones!! Please email your address info to cathie at cosmocricket dot com and then keep an eye out for your local UPS delivery guy :)
Have a great weekend everyone!
