froth from the daisy patch

Feature Friday: Playing with some Cocoa Daisy Stamps.

kissy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:59:54 +0000

Valentine’s Day is coming up and I wanted to make a couple Valentine Cards. I also look for any excuse to play with Valentine themed products! I laid out my “….count the ways add-on” and looked through my CD stamps for some inspiration. I ended up using the Mason Jar stamp from the October 2011 kit and this month’s birds on a wire stamp. I have been on an embossing kick this month and used black embossing powder on both. I added a little grey colored pencil to the mason jar lid and “filled” it with a heart. I stamped and embossed the little birds on a wire then used a Stampin’ Up punch to create the label. I kept the cards from looking too feminine by using the kraft cardstock as my base. If you are nervous about how to add a stamped image to your layouts play with them on some cards first, it’s a great way to experiment! I know that I want to use each of these ideas on a layout now

Have a wonderful weekend!

Christine

February Gallery Spotting

Denise M — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:43:20 +0000

So much yummy goodness in the gallery again for February. It was so hard to decide which ones to post. These are just a few of my favorites.

Loved this one by Asil (Lisa) It’s funky and I love the grungy feel along side the pretty flowers. Very cool.

Then there is this beauty by Marja. I love the hearts and dimension. It’s very well done.

I thought this one was so cute and funny. Read the title.

Hee hee. so adorable.

What about this one from Laura. Look at little Kate’s cheeky grin. She is up to no good that cutie pie!

I know, I know stop right? But there is too much good stuff. Here’s one from Amber. Look at those sequins. this is just gorgeous.

Inspiration Tuesday

AnnaB — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:27:11 +0000

Pinterest is a fabulous way to find inspiration. Look at these amazing posters I found this morning, made by Amy Rodchester. You can find her work here.

February’s Kit “by the numbers”

kissy — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:56:00 +0000

We’re excited to bring you By the Numbers, our whimsical and playful February kit, packed so full of numbers, we don’t want to try to figure out exactly how many are in there. What we do know is that we’ve mixed papers from My Mind’s Eye, Sassafras Lass (get it before it’s gone!), and Crate Paper. Combine those with embellishments from American Crafts, Elle’s Studio, our exclusive Cocoa Daisy stamp, as well as some Tim Holtz, Seven Gypsies, topped off with a bit more Sassafras for good measure, and this kit adds up to one fun collection you can count on for instant inspiration.

And some of the add-ons:

Dewey Decimal

A nice neutral support kit featuring a whole package of just numbers from American Crafts, fun wooden buttons from Prima, die cut paper from Studio Calico, and some eclectic postcards and journaling spots make, finished off with a pop of teal Hambly rub ons.

Barcode

Pearls from KaiserCraft, a card wrapped with ribbon and twine from Crate Paper, and a bit more My Mind’s Eye make Barcode a cheerful addition to the main kit this month.

…Count the Ways

Our nod to Valentine’s Day, this add on has all you’ll need to make that special someone feel loved. A whole pack of heart pins from Maya Road, papers and embellishments from Basic Grey, Pebbles, and Crate, we can’t wait to see what you do with this add on!

and finally our new

Embellishment Pack!

What fun embellishments we have for you this month: a Jenni Bowlin Vintage Number Card set, some alterable numbers, 2 yards of garland and more than enough Happy Days borders from My Mind’s Eye. It’s what you’ve been asking for, a kit of just embellishments!

Feature Friday – Scraps Happen

AnnaB — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:44 +0000

Hi everyone! Today I’m here to show you something you can do to use up those small bits of paper leftovers. I love circles and when I recently got a new die for my Cuttlebug I realized the first time I tried it that I didn’t only love the lattice frame, but I also adored all the little circles that came out of my machine too!

Lattice Circle Frame, Cherry Lynn Designs

Since I was after the circles when making this layout I could use really small pieces of patterned paper, not covering the entire die, and still get lots of circles out of them.

I splattered some white paint on my background and then I spread the circles out and glued them down. I used the frame stamp on another small piece of patterned paper, added the photo, some thread and my journaling.

Have a wonderful Friday and a lovely weekend!

Anna

Saying goodbye to Ronda

kissy — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:34:10 +0000

Saying goodbye is never easy but it’s near impossible to do when it’s someone who you hold so close to your heart.

In Greece Ronda and I became very close, how could I not love this vibrant, energetic, sarcastic and witty little italian! And I’m blessed to say that over the last couple years that friendship has only grown stronger. She has been mine and Cocoa Daisy’s biggest cheerleader, giving so much of herself, her talent and her vitality. She has contributed in so many ways to Cocoa Daisy – in more ways than I count! She has always been ready to do more and help whenever and wherever she could. And that is why I know this decision was so hard for her to make.

Ronda has decided to step down completely from the Cocoa Daisy Design Team in order to further pursue her own path.
It is hard for me to say goodbye and I know it will be very hard for the rest of the Design Team as well as our fellow Daisy’s to say goodbye. She has been such a vital part of Cocoa Daisy for so long. We will miss her amazing inspiration and her presence on the message boards.
I know that it’s not a complete goodbye, just a goodbye from the Cocoa Daisy Design Team. She promises to stick around on the message boards and we have something special planned with her for later this year. We wish Ronda all the best and can’t wait to see where her path leads her.

You are going to do amazing things sweetie and I love you.

Christine

Tips and Tricks Wednesday: Julie Balzer Tutorial

kissy — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:19:21 +0000

Happy Wednesday everyone!

The “if you believe” mask/stencil that we featured for January was a little different than the other masks we have had in that it was wording and not a traditional “background” mask. The mask was designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for The Crafter’s Workshop so who better to give you some great ideas on how to use it than Julie herself!

Here is a great tutorial by Julie:

Hope you were as inspired as I was!

Christine

Inspiration Tuesday

stephanieeloise — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:38 +0000

I have been really inspired lately—by food, movies, design…it’s hard to corral it into one place that makes sense. Since this is my first post, I’ll show you a little inspiration of one of my most favorite things: design. Design inspires me via colors, patterns and typography, and thanks to the internet, there is no shortage of great design to check out.

I’m totally in love with the letterpressed background and type in this business card! I love the teal + orange combo and all of the white space the design allows.

Logo design is one area that I’ve had the least practice in, but seeing this panel of prospective logos makes me happy! It’s funny how many designs you can make out of just a few words.

I love the rainbow effect of this print, not to mention the wisdom its words hold. I also love that the designer chose to use colors other than your run-of-the-mill ROYGBIV combo.

Everything about this invite makes me swoon. Yellow! Grey! Banners! Scripts! It’s simply gorgeous.

And last but not least, a few throwback product labels. The oranges, reds and teals compliment each other nicely, and I love the typography and distressed look.

Hope some of these have inspired you!

xoxo,
Stephanie

Dissecting Design Monday: painted circles

kissy — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:50:52 +0000

When I started my Sunshine Layout (using January’s Tea & Cupcakes kit) I really wanted to play with some paint and some tone and tone texture, it’s not my normal style but I was in the mood to play and I think it’s always important to try new things and learn about ourselves through creative play.

I started out by misting the white cardstock then painting over parts of it with some white acryclic paint. Then I layered on some white paint circles. I used the plastic ring from an empty tape dispenser dipped in white paint to create the double ring circles.

Once the circles are dry I layered on some hole reinforcers.

Another layer of white paint over top some of the reinforcers and paint circles and my base was done. From there I continued to layer on more painted circles – some in white some in orange, a bit of orange mist and a little bit of hand stitching. I also removed some of the reinforcers that I had painted over to show some of the paint dimension.

And the final result is a subtle tone on tone textured background with a few splashes of color.

Hope you all have a great week and remember to break out of your comfort zone once in awhile and do a little creative playing!

Christine

Tales from the Bunker January edition.

kissy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:48:51 +0000

I took a little break from our “Tales” in December because, well, December was just plain crazy! I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season and things are going well as this new year begins.

We have had our stamp subscription up and going for a couple months now and it has been a big hit! With all things new you find you have to do a little tweaking, so after tossing ideas around in my head I have come up with a little bit of a change in how the stamp subscriptions and our stamps in general will be put together. What we have done in the past is have 3 stamps – 1 of which is part of the main kit and then 2 others that are available either ala carte or you get all 3 in a stamp subscription. The only problem with this is that if you subscribe to both the main kit and the stamps you end up with one duplicate each month. So we are switching things up a bit and beginning in March we will have FOUR stamps each month! The main kit will have an exclusive stamp that will only be available in the main kit. Then we will have three stamps that will be included in the stamp subscription and also be available for individual sale. And speaking of stamps did you see our sneak peek of the February stamps!! I think this month’s is my favorite set so far:

Have you ever wondered how we come up with the ideas for our stamps?

The Design Team is always giving me great ideas for stamps and we will sometimes pull from their list. Sometimes I will have an idea for a kit and will send an email out to Ronda and Kim and see what comes to their minds.

Or it will go something like this:

Ronda, I like this mug, can you draw something up for January?

Ronda will make comment about the size of my head compared to the tea mug and send me a rough draft. We will back and forth a bit to tweak it and then she will send it off to Kim who smooths the lines out and gets it ready for the printer. Then we get them here, Mom packs them all in the little envelopes and then they make their way into your kits.

We have a new addition to our little stamp creating family and that is Stephanie. I mentioned previously that the Design Team is always posting great ideas for stamps, well Stephanie drew some up and posted them and we all loved them so much that she is now designing some of our stamps for us too! Not surprising since she is a Graphic Designer by day

I love that we have such a great pool of creative women on our design team to pull ideas from! So a big thank you to all of them for their ideas! Also a big thank you to Ronda, Kim and Stephanie who help get these stamps ready so you all can play with them.

Have a wonderful rest of January!! And watch out, February is going to be a great month!

Best wishes,

Christine