Here is your October Cocoa Daisy kit sneak peek. Just a glimpse of “Happy Day”.
And a little peek at just a few of the fun items we have in our October add-ons this month:
I can’t post a peek of one of our add-ons because it would totally give it away! I will give you a hint though and tell you it’s a VERY FUN TOOL!
Make sure to join us back here on September 28th for the full reveal! Have a great weekend everyone!
Anna Bjorklund has been creating with Cocoa Daisy’s since 2008. She is full of personality and just radiates warmth. Let’s get to know her a bit more.
5 Adjectives to describe your Scrappy Style: clean, simple, experimental, minimalistic, sincere
3 Things in your handbag/purse: phone, pen, handkerchiefs
Your Scrappy Confession: I have way too much stuff. Wow, what a confession, right? 
Starbucks/Coffee/Tea Order: coffee, black
Favorite Inspiration Store/Catalog : a small store here in my little town. They sell clothes and their arrangements are so beautiful and a perfect source of inspiration since I’m very much into using fabric right now.
Favorite Scrappy Accessory: my sewing machine
A blog I could read for hours is: http://djpettitt.typepad.com/djpettitt/
My other Passions include: right now it’s sewing, painting and crocheting. It used to be books but I tend to hoard them instead of reading them these days…
If you really knew me then you would know that I love going to concerts… music makes me happy…!
My Retreat: my scrap room
I could spend hours in front of the computer when I should really be doing something else…
Check out Anna’s gallery to see more of her creations. Stop by her blog AnnaBlog to get to know her more.
Do you ever open a kit and just feel stuck on what to do or how to start creating? I do. Some days I just don’t feel creative or I feel intimidated and overwhelmed by actually starting a project. When this happens I find that doing some crafty busy work helps me relax and eventually inspires me to make something.
This month in the kit is an awesome cloud/journaling stamp by Ronda. So I stamped 4 or five images on cardstock and cut them out to have ready and on hand in case I found myself ready to create.
another bit of busy work that I like to do is punch out shapes to keep on hand or trace shapes and cut out for future use. Another thing that might get some creative juices flowing is painting or glittering chipboard. It’s awesome to have pieces already prepared when you are in the mood to make something.
I also like to cover playing cards with patterned paper for making Artist Trading Cards. I use a glue stick and just slap that baby on a piece of paper and cut around it. A little sanding along the edges gives it a great finished look.
So as I was just sitting at my desk doing my little bits of craft busy work I realized after awhile I had the makings of some sweet ATC’s. I threw these two together and then decided to make them into cards.
Breaking into my new kit-done!
I’ve been promising quite a few people for a couple weeks now that I’d get photos of the new house up. The thought of putting pictures of rooms filled with half empty boxes did not appeal to me in the least so I needed to wait until there was at least a semblance of order in the house. I’m happy to say that we’ve reached that point!
This is a view of the kitchen island. I need to find a spot on the counter somewhere for fruit. The island is so large it definitely needs something decorative in the middle to break it up. The ferns will work for the time being.
Here’s a bit more of the kitchen. I am so happy with the way it turned out!
I got the Union Station Clock from Pottery Barn. It was the perfect fit for the archway leading into the dining room.
The family room is an extension of the kitchen & breakfast nook.
(I think Daisy wanted to get in on the photo action…)
I’ve ordered woven wooden blinds for the windows along the back side of the house with white linen panels to frame the windows. After refusing to spend what it would cost to buy the drapery hardware I wanted from Restoration Hardware, I found hardware that was almost identical at JCPenny’s for a fraction of the cost (thanks to Decor Pad Look for Less one of my new interior decorating obsessions!). I’m still looking for the right rug for the room, I need lamps for the library table behind the sofa and I also need to figure out something for over the mantel.
And then there is the issue of the wall… I need to figure out what I’m going to do with this awkward empty wall. I’ve got many more priorities before that however.
Here’s the living room. The dining room is still a hopeless mess. I had gotten rid of our dining room chairs a few years ago (back when the dining room transitioned into a play room). The table we have isn’t going to work with the space and neither will the china cabinet. This room may be sitting empty for a while. I did order a rug for it that matches this braided jute we got for the living room. I guess it’s a start!
The living room is fairly close to done. I ordered the woven wooden blinds for the window — can’t wait to have those up! I need some more art work in the room and the Real Deals oil painting that I got as a filler when I had a party a couple years ago (a large oil painting for just $100!) needs to be replaced one of these days but otherwise, it will probably stay as is for a while.
Above is part of the entry way. That too is a work in progress…
I am so thrilled to have a big laundry room! Our last house it was literally the passageway to the garage and there was no room to even put down a laundry basket. I don’t even know what to do with all this room. The only thing I don’t like is that I can’t figure out why the builder didn’t think the cabinets over the sink needed doors? I’m planning on getting glass fronted ones put in.
And I adore the little cubbies!
I just wish they had finished the 3rd one so each child could have a cubbie of their own.
That covers the downstairs (except the office which is just a mish-mash of stuff at this point). The upstairs is still looking very basic so I’ll come back to that later. We are so happy with our new house, our new neighborhood and our new surrounds. We miss everyone we left behind in Oregon but are thankful for a new adventure is what was named the 6th best community to live in!
I used the beautiful September kit to alter a notebook . I carry it in my bag almost every day, making sure that I have somewhere to put down the ideas I get during my long train rides to and from work. I wanted to make the book pretty, but still keep the design simple.
Step by step instructions:
1. Cut the paper with the letters to a size that fits your book.
2. Cut two pieces of the shaped paper from the patterned paper add on, to fit in the corners of the book. Glue them down.
3. If you like, use your sewing machine and stitch around the papers. You could also hand stitch or draw stitches or dots with a pen. I also inked the edges with fluid chalk.
4. Choose a word to describe your book, I went for “bok” which simply means “book” in Swedish, and cut out the letters you need from the remaining piece of paper with letters.
5. Glue the letters down, to form your word.
6. Add 3D-glaze on top of your word. Let dry. I think it is important to glue down the letters before adding the 3D-glaze, to prevent the paper from curling.
7. If you like, you can paint the edges of your notebook. Since I cut my papers to be slightly smaller than the front of my book, I used some gesso, glimmer mist and distress ink, to make the background go better together with the papers I used for decorating my book.
8. Glue the papers to the cover of your book.
Finished!
