Punch Drunk Love

The JBS February kits are officially up for grabs, and the design team gallery is filled with pretties (and will be filled with even more on the tenth).  This month's kits bring together my many loves, including grid paper, unique accents, lots of green, Ormolu, and even some October Afternoon papers and accents.  Score! 

This month, the team is also taking on the challenge of using punches with the main kit: 

I used the JBS Jester Border Punch and the JBS Blue Ribbon Punch for the border under the photos (and as for the extra circles created by the blue ribbon punch, I put them to use at the top of the layout).

I used the JBS Tab Punch as well.  It's my favorite. :)

I will share more as the tenth rolls around. In the meantime, you simply must check out the JBS site!  Doris Sander put together an incredible project kit, featuring a 7Gypsies tray.

I'm still in the it's-too-pretty-to-touch phase, but hopefully I will get over that before the mid-month gallery reveal! This kit calls to me daily, and this weekend, I will answer.

JBS Goes Digi?!

Yep, that's right -- many JBS favorites are now available in digi form, via the Jenni Bowlin Studio Digital Shoppe at JessicaSprague.com.  Although my layouts are primarily paper-based, I am definitely a fan of hybrid layouts and mixing it up from time to time.  Now, no longer do I have to worry about hoarding bingo cards...

or rub-ons...

or the last of my Red & Black Extension papers...

because now it's impossible to run out of these items!  Hooray!

October Afternoon CHA Projects

Today's post on the October Afternoon blog is chock full of lovely cards, tags, and layouts using the new collections.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to work with the Cakewalk collection...

and the 9 to 5 collection:

 

There are even more projects by the design team on the OA blog, so be sure check out those lovelies!

In the meantime, if you're free today at 2 p.m. CST, I'd love it if you would join me for the CHA Online Social at Two Peas in a Bucket!

Putting the Oooohhhh... in OA.

Introducing Woodland Park from October Afternoon:

Let's just say that there was a fair amount of happy dancing when the design team saw this collection for the first time.

Be sure to visit the October Afternoon blog as CHA rolls around, for even more peeks at the three new collections.

By the way, this weekend I'll be hosting one of the CHA Online Social chats at Two Peas in a Bucket, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CST.   I hope to see you there!

What's New at JBS?

Isn't this JBS stamp a beauty?  It will be mine. Oh, yes. 

There are even more CHA peeks like this one on the JBS Mercantile blog.  

That's not all that's new at JBS...

Be sure to stop by to check it out!

Blog Hop WINNER...S!

Thanks, all, for visiting my blog yesterday, and for leaving comments.  Pea name backstories are always amusing to read.

As for the fate of that Two Peas in a Bucket gift certificate...?

Congratulations to...

Breeze!  You are the lucky winner of a Two Peas in a Bucket gift certificate.  You've got peamail. :)

In fact, so thankful am I for the show of support yesterday, that I decided to pull a SECOND name for a SECOND gift certificate giveaway.

Congratulations are also in order for...

Hooray, Monica! Thanks for the incredibly sweet compliment, by the way.  My head is still spinning. :)

Now it's back to the CHA grindstone for me.  I'm working with the new OA lines right now, and I am loving every moment of it.  Time's a-ticking, though, so I'd better get to it!

Next month the Garden Girls will sponsor another blog hop, and there will be another chance for a giveaway, so stay tuned!  In the meantime, don't be a stranger...

Gardeners' Digest: January Blog Hop!

****NOTE: If you were directed here during the February blog hop, you're in the wrong place.  Click on the blog title above or click here. **********

Welcome to the first installment of the Gardeners' Digest, a monthly update from the Garden Girls, the design team at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Today's blog hop invites you to visit each of our blogs and see what's been growing on -- har har -- in the Garden.

My most recent Garden project was something of a happy accident:

One of my goals this year is to complete a self-portrait layout at least once a month. When I sat down to create this layout, I knew that I wanted to place my journaling in these Maya Road kraft envelopes, but I struggled to figure out exactly where to place the envelopes.   Finally, after walking away from the layout several times and returning to it, shuffling items around, I had what I thought was the perfect spaced-out grid approach.  I turned to reach for something, and the page shifted -- uh oh! -- and the envelopes crowded together.  It was hardly tragic, though.  Who knew that they would look so much better that way?  I ended up pushing everything else together, layering edge over edge.  Gotta love those happy accidents!  

I doubt that "accidental" layouts are the norm.  I have trouble believing that the lovely layouts that I have been adding lately to my Two Peas bookmarks have anything accidental about them.  Take this layout by Garden Girl Wilna Furstenburg, for instance: 

Every little bit comes together so perfectly.  How does she do it?  

This month Two Peas welcomes Wilna, Amy Heller, and Amy Tan to the Garden Girl team, and I couldn't be happier.   All three of them are incredibly talented.  

I'm not sure if you've visited the message board lately, but it's abuzz with talk of CHA.  The sneaks are popping up everywhere, and I know that in no time at all, I'll be filling up my cart at Two Peas with all of the new pretties.  In the meantime, though, there are a bunch of new products in the store that have already made their way into my cart, out of the Two Peas warehouse, across the Pacific Ocean, and into my happy hands.  Among the goodies are these lovelies: 

Jenni Bowlin Tab Large Squeeze Punch 

Maya Road Vintage Paper Roses

Fancy Pants Love Story Collection

BasicGrey Kissing 101 Kissing Booth Patterned Paper

Ormolu Negative Day Package Tags

The next stop on the blog hop is Garden Girl Julie Campbell.  

To thank you for visiting today, I'd love to offer you a chance to win a Two Peas in a Bucket gift certificate.  Just leave a comment sharing your Two Peas in a Bucket pea name with me, and why you chose that name (mine is Fevvers, after the main character in Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus).  I'll announce the winner on Monday.   [ETA: The winner has been chosen already.]

Thanks for stopping by!  

More OA Sneaks!

Here's a sneak peek at yet another new October Afternoon line!  

And keep in mind it's just a peek.  

Wait until you see the rest of what OA has in store with the new lines...  :) 

It's Enough to Drive You Crazy If You Let It

October Afternoon sneaks have begun on the OA blog!  

The new "9 to 5" line promises to be an office-supply-lover's dream come true, so I, for one, am ECSTATIC!  Lest you think this line is only for work-related layouts, however, think again.  A moment ago I visited the blog of fellow OA DT member Vivian Masket, and she has some brilliant ideas for how to put this line to work for you.  

Stay tuned for even more sneaks ahead! 

Can't Get Enough

I know I overuse the word "love," but if there's going to be a word worth overusing, it's that one.

In its most powerful sense, there's drive-me-crazy, toe-curling, butterfly-inducing, all-in, let's-do-this-for-life kind of love, like the kind I have for this guy:

More details can be found on the Monday challenge post on the October Afternoon blog. 

Clearly I am also loving my Cameo.  Actually, I may love it a little too much, methinks, since I am cutting everything and anything with it.  It reminds me of that Malcolm in the Middle episode when the family rented a wood chipper. 

I haven't reached my confetti stage yet. 

The word "love" also came to mind the moment I saw even more of the new JBS releases:

More sneaks can be found on the JBS Mercantile blog. 

I am also loving three-day weekends, but they just don't seem to last long enough.  I hope you had a great one! 

Jenni, Jenni, Jenni...

She's done it again.

Jenni Bowlin gets it DONE, am I right?  Sneaks of the new Jenni Bowlin Studio products started on the JBS Mercantile blog this past week, and there are even more ahead.  I, for one, am loving what I see!  

12.

So.

I thought I was ready for this year's 12 on the 12th challenge -- that is, taking 12 photos on the 12th of each month, and putting them together in a layout.

I had a reminder on my calendar and in my planner.  I packed my point-and-shoot camera in my bag last night, making sure that I'd have it on hand.  I ran through a list of possible moments I might capture through the course of the day.  I was ready.  I was.

You see where this is going.

At 3:45 this afternoon, sitting in traffic, finally able to sit still and think for the first time all day, it hit me: TODAY is the twelfth.  Wuh oh.

So.

I did snap twelve pics, but they only capture a small part of my day.   Hopefully next month I'll do better.   And to think I spent most of my day teaching my seniors about the concept of carpe diem.   So much for that!