DON'TCHA JUST LOVE...

secrets!

Not February QuicKutz secrets.

Or sparkly Glimmer Mist secrets.

Or Distress Inks shipment secrets.

But just general-run-of-the-mill-I'm-a-goofy-blogger-fun-to-have-under-your-hat secrets.

Well I love 'em...and I get to share it with you in just a couple of days. On Super Bowl Sunday. On birthday Sunday. In four more days!

{you're going to love it - just trust me on this one - and relax it doesn't involve shopping!}

Hey - it's Wednesday. "Hump-Day" if you will. WOOT WOOT...how about a little more inspiration today?

A little die-cutting, inky-stamping, lovey-dovey inspiration!

Lolly is already in the Valentine spirit, and is cranking out some beautimous cards...

Lolly just received this QuicKutz Butterfly die and is IN LOVE with it. {Rumor has it she has covered an entire bedroom wall, filled three nightstand drawers and decoupaged her refrigerator!} She decided to make up a few Valentine cards that weren't necessarily heart-filled or predominantly red...and I LOVE THEM! She used the butterfly, the smallest Nesting Label from the Santa's Workshop Gift Set and the Oatmeal font.

Here is the same card "layout", but she changed up the colors, the patterns and the supplies. She used the same QK Butterfly and the Nesting Label...but she cut the label out of thin cotton batting. CUTENESS! What a fun little backdrop for her turquoise-blingy flutterby! Fun, fun, FUN!

EmmBee is also working on Valentine cards, but with her little girlies. This idea she came up with is perfect for young ones. They can do the assembling all by themselves! She used the Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Heart die {the third largest heart cut twice, the smallest heart cut three times}. A couple of circle punches, for the eyeballs and they were all set. Teach your kiddos how to set-up an assembly line...and you photograph the fun! {The font she used is a Sizzlits Strip called Honky Dory}

Here is one more kiddo-approved card. Cut your card bases from the Spellbinders Labels Eight - folding your cardstock in half first, and keeping the fold inside the left hand cut line. VIOLA - a shaped card. Then use your Spellbinders Classic Hearts again, the QK Lemonade font for size-appropriate letters and any 2x2 QK Heart and let your young spellers go to town. LOVE 'EM...just love 'em!

Lara wanted to throw out one more idea using the January QuicKutz release. She made up a bunch of invitations and decided on a mass-production style. This means, she printed her information onto cardstock from the computer and simply added a die-cut as a finishing touch. She used the NEW Alarm Clock {I think it's one of her faves!}.

And when I say she mass produced them, I mean mass produced...

She said it was great using up a bunch of scraps for this project, and no two are the same. Each person got a unique invite...and she was done with the project before she knew it! BRILLIANT!

I've been chatting with several of you about my excitement with the new stamp lines Dani is bringing to Scrapy Land. But have no fear ladies...I love die-cutting as much as I love stamping. I'm not giving up one for the other. The thing I love about the lines he ordered is I think they mix so well with shapes in the QuicKutz line and Nestabilities in the Spellbinders line. They work wonderfully hand-in-hand.

I used "Mer Ian" from The Greeting Farm {the cutest little merman I've ever seen!}, colored him with bunches of Copics {I will get better about photographing the stack of colors I use, I promise!}, cut him out with my Deckled Rectangle Nestabilities, tossed on a starfish and seashell from the Relax NSD Gift Set and added my sentiment with Oatmeal and Moxie.

This translates to "see you later". Had to get "sea" in there, and used a little teen-talk for my daughter. This got tucked in her suitcase this morning as she heads out of town for 3 days.

Scrapy Land LIVE! DEMO tonight:

• no password needed
• 6pm MST {AZ time...that's 5pm in CA, 7pm in TX and 8pm in FL}
• no supplies, it's just a demo tonight
• we'll be talking ALL THINGS EPIC, Epic cutting, Epic embossing, Epic Flex Mats, Epic platforms, etc.
• bring your questions, or email me ahead of time
• if you want to chat live, or ask questions on the fly, you'll need to be logged in
• spread the word, the more the merrier!

Any questions - you know what to do. And GOBS of comments yesterday, YAY! Lots of entries for the "birthday celebration week" prizes. LOVE IT! Same goes for today...leave 'em here to be entered!

{Sorry for the length of this post - but I'm now officially caught up with everything the "Fab Four" sent me while I was at CHA! THANKS for reading along to the end!}

I'm here for your habit...

ONE MORE POST ON RESOLUTIONS...

since that is the theme for the January release from QuicKutz.

Resolutions - a perfect theme for January. But not just resolutions are addressed. There are a few dies that could fall into categories like goals, to-dos, should-dos, and dreams.

The Scrapy Land "Fab Four" and I have been working with these dies for several days now. And you've probably guessed that we love them all. But everyone picked a couple of their favorites to start with - so let's dive right in:

EmmBee was most excited when she saw the newest QK Cookie Cutter Shape...

the Rooster! It's not because she lives near a farm, it's because she and her friends and family are ALL addicted to Farmville on Facebook. What a riot! But since it's part of her life right now, she saw this die and decided a page was in order! She also used - the retired QK Star Classic and Mini fonts, and 2x2s Present, Cat, Seed Packet, Sheep, Tulip, Funky Chicken, Strawberry, Cow, Tomato and Penguin. The "fence pieces" that come with this die could easily be formed to also make a T, a L, an E, a M, an N, an H, an I, or a K. What a cute idea!

Lolly was most excited about the newest QK Revolution Tags.

I looked at them and saw "more tags". Lolly looked at them and saw NEW TAGS! Here she wanted to just show you the size - as all four tags are on one die. But she also sent some closer peeks at her bitty tags of fun...

Using patterned paper, vellum, decorative scissors and stamped sentiments - she made up stacks of cute tags to include on goodie bags, in cards, oh backpacks or on edible treats! Don't these look just like cuppy-cakes?

And look at the lime green hearts {she catches on quick, doesn't she?}. How much fun can one person have with one little tag...

LOTS! See how she snipped the green tag to reveal little wedges of the brown cardstock underneath. CUTENESS! All kinds of cute ideas...just from tags.

When Lara saw this next die she said she knew exactly what to do with it...

She is helping to organize a "Spa Day" for her MOPs Group at church this Friday. Her contribution to the decorations...table cards! She used the NEW Revolution Bathtub, Wintergreen Scalloped Page Inserts, Santa's Workshop font along with her C3 and C5 Copics for the tub feet and shower head. E47 also colored her die-cut letters. The moms are going to love these!

I wanted to make sure that the Revolution Paper Doll fit inside the NEW Revolution Bathtub die. It does! I also used the NEW Revolution Spa Paper Doll and the NEW 2x2 Water Bottle. The letters are cut from the NEW 4x8 Garden Mini font.

EmmBee also chose to play with this DoubleKutz die...

the NEW Revolution Tea Set. {Wow this is a cute die, with lots of possibilities. I think they'd make the cutest invitations for a bridal shower.} EmmBee cut her tea bag from QK Adhesive Backed Vellum, and colored the "tea" with her E47 Copic. Gives the vellum a great, sheer look! She embossed her tea set with the Perfectly Paisley Embossing folder. Love how this looks! The font here is QK Sticky Note.

I told you Lolly loved the NEW Revolution Tags...

here she used the triangle tag from the set, added the NEW Garden font, and had an adorable little "love banner" for her husband. I've now got Valentine's Day ideas tumbling through my head. Thanks Lolly!

One of my resolutions this year is to better drinking water. My goal is 6 refills a day of this sized bottle. The NEW Cookie Cutter Door Hanger is perfectly sized to be a bottle neck tag...

I cut my letters and numbers from the NEW Garden font. All I have to do now is keep track each day of my "refills". This one tag lasted me all last week...and I was relatively successful in my water consumption goal! {LOL}

Lara also got to play with these dies...

the NEW Revolution Scale and the Revolution Weights. She cut her scale from QK Adhesive Backed Metal and embossed it with this folder. Love the look it gives! The fonts she used are QK Sticky Note and QK Chemistry.

Do you remember the pop-up card we did last November? Well EmmBee turned that simple pattern into a cute birthday card...

She printed her sentiments from the computer and used the NEW Revolution Cruise Ship & Waves. She added a teeny-tiny "HB" for her happy birthday ship with Studio SkinniMini - but the ship could be personalized with anything appropriate. CUTE CUTE CUTE!

Here's a front-on look so you can see how cute this ship is. Love the double-cut waves she added. Just love it!

This piece is from Lolly. And we've just changed her name to "flower-die-cutting-crazy-woman". Holy SCRAP! She cut 1.4 million Sizzix Flowers!

She made the base of her "calendar" out of a magnetic vent cover...{sound familiar??}. She made herself a window frame from chipboard, made a sleeve that can house whatever patterned paper is seasonally appropriate {teal wood grain paper is seasonally appropriate right now!} and then used all of the flowers to decorate the edges of the frame. But her centerpiece is the NEW Cookie Cutter Border Months of the Year. Hers is die-cut, and then she just free-cut a border around the shape. She put magnets on the back of her border die-cut...and then cut out all of the dates from the NEW Garden font. {she also possibly used this flower, and these flowers...LOL!}

All of those calendar dates are housed in this tiny little matchbox...

The dates again were die-cut and she hand-cut their border. More magnets and any kiddo you know can officially be the "family date changer" at breakfast each morning. What a fun idea!

And just to give you a better feel for the size of this border, Lolly sent this picture...

It's huge, and I am sure you'll find 1001 uses for it. A monthly collage of random photos, a fave photo of the month, a reminder of a "family night" once a month...all kinds of great stuff. If you've got on, feel free to share it!

Lara made one final card today, getting a start on her Valentine's cards...

she used the NEW Revolution Credit Cards, QK Banana Split, the 2x2 Hearts Mini and her Scalloped Border. Couldn't these be personalized a bunch of ways? How about using them for "coupons" for your kids or your husband. Great idea Lara, thanks!

I loved the NEW Revolution Apples as soon as I saw them...

This card went together in about 10 minutes. I used the NEW Apples, the Spellbinders Label Three and the Garden font.

And to show you a close-up of this NEW font, that it seems we all love...

it is a unicase font, but it has numbers and punctuation. Love that...thanks QK!

One more project tonight - and I'll save the final few for later tomorrow. I just have to show you how I've been using the NEW Days of the Week border.

My kids share a bathroom - but each have their own sink. They are forever standing at their sinks in the morning arguing over the "car schedule". Who is going where, what time is pickup, who gets dropped off where, etc. I hit on this idea when I opened this die.

I cut the Days of the Week border from Navy Blue Silhouette Vinyl, and stuck it to the mirror inbetween their sinks. With a write-on-wipe-off marker {that now resides in their toothbrush cup} they can easily see who is doing what today. Love this idea, and the best part is...so did my kids! Seriously, try it. Writing on the bathroom mirror - it's a good thing!

WHEW and double WHEW! Does that give you some ideas to go on? I sure hope so. We've had a bunch of fun with these dies, and the fun has only begun. Look for further inspiration, suggestions and tips in the weeks to come.

Leave your comment-questions, your comment-ideas or your wonderful comment-love here on this post. If an answer is due, we'll get on it as soon as we can, tomorrow.

I'm off to fire-up the studio...because we're doing Scrapy Land "Release Reveal" tonight. What fun we have here at Scrapy Land. And to think - this is just the January release.

You know what next week is - right?! {snicker, snicker LOL!}

OUR RESOLUTION WRAP-UP...

is today.

And YES, I know today is the 18th of January.

But I believe we're allowed to tweak, perfect, elaborate and revise our goals for the new year all January long. It makes sense, don't you think? Thirty-one days to plan out the next 334. {LOL!}

So Lolly took her "2010 Resolution" assignment, and decided to turn it into more of a monthly journey. A journey to fun, crafty adventures. To do this she took a chipboard album and covered the front and back...plus one interior page.

For now, check out some pictures, and I'll walk you through what she did:

First of all, she embellished the H-E-double-hockey-sticks out of her front cover. She covered the chipboard with quilt batting and then went to town with anything she could find in teal and lime green. Chipboard swirls, patterned papers and supplies to make up some cuter-than-cute individual flowers. COOL STUFF!

For her "2010" title she used the Label from the Santa's Workshop and embellished the title with a Sizzix Butterfly. To make the butterfly "pop" she simply die-cut two of them, stapled them to each other along their spine and covered the staples with some adhesive backed pearls. FUN IDEA!

{I'm going to try and talk Lolly into showing us how to make these flowers. Don't you think that'd be a fun idea? Ohhhhh Lolly.....}

Okay, but moving to the inside of her mini-album...

She covered the insides of her chipboard covers with paper, fabric and other cute accents. She used the Spellbinders Label Three set quite a bit...she said it's one of her fave dies. She used some Thickers from her stash to personalize her book, but this font is just exactly like QK Studio. Such a great classic font!

On the first page in her album, she made space for a "monthly mini album". This will be added to, the first day of each month. She's already half way into her January album-lette, and is in love with the process. Here she used her Sugarplum Mini Album Bundle. And you'll never guess what she cut most of her pages from...brown paper lunch sacks! I love it! Perfect for sketching, punching, tearing, altering and doing samples on. How fun!

You can see here that she filled her January album to capacity, using only the squared pages. Decorated and embellished and ready to go - this is soon to be full of "Lolly craft-isms". She explained to me that she plans to create a new "page" the first of each month so she has a place to document fun stuff for the month ahead. That's her actual resolution. Being organized, being prepared and documenting so nothing is forgotten. I love the concept!

{Edited To Add - I forgot to point out that she used her Spellbinders Labels Three to cut a felt spine for her mini album...so fun! She cut the felt piece first, then laid it inside the Sugarplum album die to get the holes and the perforated lines. She made her own spine! She said she "felt" so clever!}

Here she is showing off just a couple of her first pages for the month. New die purchases, new punch shapes, color combos, sketch ideas...it will ALL go in this little January album. She thinks it is going to be fun to go back and look through the whole year, as she documents her favorite techniques, papers and die-cuts.

See how she put some vellum pages in over some of the kraft pages...love the look it gives. Soft and subtle...but still totally usable!

For the back cover Lolly used her Santa's Workshop Label again, along with the Santa's Workshop font.

An awesome project - that starts off with just one page. But as the year moves on this teal-beauty will get fuller and fatter, thicker and more inspiring. I envision it, a year from now, full of snippets and scraps, hunks hanging out and tid-bits tucked in. {Lolly - you'll show us some pictures come July...won't you?}

In fact - I think we'll have to have a "June Resolution Check-In" and see how the "Fab Four" is doing on their goals, their progress and the personal challenges. GOOD STUFF!

If you have a question for Lolly, leave it here. Well, write out some comment-love first, then tack on your question at the end. She'll get back to you with a comment-answer toot-suite!

Tomorrow, January 19th is release day for QuicKutz. January's release is amazing, and I can't wait to show you some of the ideas we've come up with

But you'll have to check back tonight.

Official QK release time is midnight EST. Which is 9pm in California, 10pm in Arizona and 11pm in Texas. So be here at the appropriate time, and prepare to be inspired.

I'm here for your habit...

MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

to the second introduction of the week.

The next featured member of the Scrapy Land "Fab Four" Design Team is Lolly:

Miss Lolly is grinning from ear-to-ear here, not only because she was asked to join the Scrapy Land Design Team, but also because she's modeling her spiffy new bracelet from her favorite sister! {did I say that right Lolly? LOL!}

I emailed Lolly the same questions that I asked Veronica yesterday. Here are the answers that will give you a little peek into that crafty head of hers!

NAME: Lolly

NICKNAMES: LollyChops

HOME TOWN: Bedford, TX

FAMILY: One husband (Ron) and three dogs (Dog, Harriet and Charlotte - all girls). The chicks have him outnumbered! Muhahahahaha!

STARTED SCRAPPIN': 1.5 years ago. But in my defense, I was doing things with scrap supplies long before then...I just did not turn to the scrappy light until recently!

EARLY BIRD OR NIGHT OWL: Earliest bird there is. I get up when other people are going to bed. (Okay maybe not THAT early, but that's what my husband claims!) I start turning orange if I stay up after midnight. Staying up past 1 am has me sprouting leaves and anything after 3 am is a full blown "Lolly's a pumpkin patch" extravaganza.

FAVORITE SCRAPBOOK SUPPLY RIGHT NOW: Signo Broad White Gel Pen (greatest pen on the planet!)

ITALY OR THE CARIBBEAN: Italy (it's the Italian and Catholic in me!)

PAPER OR PLASTIC: Patterned, double-sided, textured paper...in teal. Of course!

COKE OR PEPSI: I don't actually drink soda, but I do drink cranberry juice mixed with water, by the gallon.

FAVORITE COLOR: TEAL!!!!!!!

SCRAP-LIFTER: I am a total sketch lifter. I see a layout I like and sketch the ideas from it in my little sketch book (like the Blox that Susan does)...inspiration from others is some of the best stuff out there!

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU FOUND $100, OTHER THAN BUY SCRAP-SUPPLIES: What else is there to do with an extra $100 if not buy more scrap supplies? heh...kidding! Sorta! I would buy stuff to organize my scrap room. Since that's not technically scrap supplies I am thinking I can get away with this as my final answer. Right? Hello? Anyone there? {LOL}

FAVORITE SCRAP SUBJECT: my doggies and my family

3 MONTHS ON A DESERT ISLAND...WHAT 3 SUPPLIES: You mean product LINE, right? Not just a single product?!?!?!? GULP! My die cutter and ALL of my dies (that's one), 987 12"x 12" pieces of chipboard (that's two) and a giant box FULL of Signo Broad White Gel Pens (that's three)! I figure I can cut chipboard shapes and doodle all over them with my KILLER white pen. Now if I could bring one more thing it would be every color of Stickles ever made (again, that's just one). That way I could fill in all the doodles with some blingy-glittery-goodness!

PAPER HO OR DIE HO: Oh dear! You are asking the tough questions here...can I be a "paper-cutting-die-ho"?

SALTY OR SWEET: Sweet all the way! Dark chocolate is my crutch. And here is a tip: eat all sweet things in twos. Two kisses, two mini candy bars, two bags of M&Ms, etc...This keeps things balanced in the hinterlands region (a.k.a. HIPS).

STRAIGHT LINES OR RANDOMLY ASKEW: Mostly straight but I am trying to learn to skew as much as possible (but it's an organized skew really). I basically have to close my eyes and just go for it (no repositionable adhesives allowed in my craft room). Until I order the mega roll from Dani.

IF YOU COULD BE ONE PUBLIC FIGURE FOR ONE DAY, WITH NO LASTING RAMIFICATIONS...WHO: Harrison Ford. (So I could check myself out in a pair of hot guy jeans!)

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO LEARN/SHARE/ACCOMPLISH OVER THE NEXT 6 MONTHS: Learn: to relax and go with the flow. Share: new ideas for ways to use our beloved scrappy products! Accomplish: tons and tons and tons of beautifully finished projects!

Okay, did you giggle at least once?

Here are some of the projects Lolly sent in with her Design Team application:

This was the first picture that I opened in her email and it totally took my breath away. Gorgeous, fun, whimsical, colorful and practical! That's right up my alley! Lolly used a Sizzix die that is exclusive to another company, but seriously any single-shape-butterfly would work. Like this one, or this one or these.

Here is a cute home decor project - a die-cut embellished topiary. Totally doable with felt and your Sizzix flower dies. We are going to get Lolly in front of a camera pretty soon and maybe we'll convince her to do a Scrapy Land LIVE! video on this technique.

This little card just made me smile. Lots of layers of paper and fabric. Die-cuts and brads all joined together into cuteness. Spellbinders Nestabilities would be perfect here. Lots of sizes and lots of layering possibilities.

And finally, a page Lolly sent me last week for the Starting Blox Christmas Bonus Challenge. Cute, cute, cute! The little lime-green "nap time" title is the Santa's Workshop Gift Set font.

As you can see, Miss Lolly is going to add some awesome "non-scrapbook-page" interest to the blog. And for that...I am ecstatic.

So that puts us half way through Scrapy Land's "Fab Four". I have a hunch you'll be getting lots of unique inspiration from this one. In fact, if you want to check out her own blog you can do that by clicking here. But be warned - you're liable to lose an hour of your afternoon!

Everyone made Veronica feel very welcomed yesterday - let's do the same for Lolly. Be a dolly and leave a comment. By golly. It'll make her jolly. {Sorry, I just couldn't resist...I tried, but I couldn't!}

Tomorrow you'll meet a familiar Starting Blox participant...Lara.

I'm here for your habit...