Dream In Color

I'm More Than Just An Option, Refuse To Be Forgotten...

winning the prize for world's worst blogger (nominated and awarded by myself) got me thinking of all the things i've NOT blogged about in the past couple months...and one of them was my guest stints at some really completely fabulous art companies. SO i decided for the next couple days to really focus on that before allowing myself to get back to my regular blogging regiment. and today's share comes to you straight from the very fabulous A Million Memories kit club/inspiration site/online store. i was so super excited when they asked me to be their guest designer (in june...so so sad that i let it go this long!) and i was beyond inspired by the kit they sent. here's some stuff i did with it (please don't mind the horrible photos...i took them before i sent my camera away to get fixed.):

and i also got the chance to play with some of theirone-of-a-kind vintage findings...which i'm SUCH a fan of! if you have a second, go check out all they have to offer...i promise you'll find at least one thing that you just NEED! i made all mine into jewelry, but the possibilities are endless...

such a fun guest stint to do. can i just say how much i love being a guest designer? it's so cool to step into someone else's creative world just for a month. :) and luckily for me, i've been blessed in that department this year...

i'll be back soon to share more soon!

xoxo,

cheryl

EyeCandy Overlays...

i am so super excited to share that i'm on the new Vol25, EyeCandy Overlay team! jess is so super talented and sweet and i've been a big fan of her overlays since amy first gave me the loveydovey set for my birthday in january so i'm very honored to be part of her very talented team. (and that was one very long excited run-on sentence! :D) she's also become a good friend and someone that i can bounce business ideas off of and say a quick hi to during a busy work day, which makes it doubly exciting to be a part of her own creative dream.

if you've never used the overlays before, they are SO easy to load and use in photoshop...and jess has easy to follow instructions on how to load them and tutorials and tips and tricks on how to use them on the site. you can also read about what they actually are here and see all the available sets here.

and here's a few samples of things i've done with them:

the ahoy set is the latest release and the first one we used as a design team...here's a peek at the entire set:

my first layout using this set:

ABOUT THE LAYOUT:
Because I recently jumped in head-first into a creative venture that I've been dreaming about for a long long time I've had a flood of emotions throughout the last few months and I really wanted to capture how I felt while I was still right in the middle of it. When I saw the new wave overlays I instantly knew that I wanted to do something with them representing my journey right now. The wave represents the overwhelming feeling of beginning a new business and never getting sleep, but I wanted to represent how exciting and inspiring it has all been at the same time so I went with bright colors and a happy photo.

SUPPLY LIST: Colored Masking Tape: Kamoi Paper Cloud Tape Sticker: Colorbok Butterfly Stickers: Hambly Letter Stickers & Metal Flowers: Making Memories, Ahoy overlay set

and finally, here are a few random things i've done with the overlays...some for cartwheels, some just for myself. 

so yeah, i'm sort of obsessed with them. :D and i'm pretty sure you will be too once you use them just once. trust me, they are worth every cent! :)

AND, here's a cool little bonus deal that you get if you buy the overlay set when it first comes out:

a message from jess copied from the Vol25 blog: With the release of every new set of overlays, I plan to mark them down for the first 2 weeks, after that they will default back to they're regular price. So you can get these today for 19.50. That includes the distressing brush even... :)

xoxo, cheryl

p.s. i have been searching for the perfect grunge brush for awhile now, so i was super excited to see that jess uploaded this one for FREE when she posted the new overlay kit! you can find it here.

She's A Monster, Beautiful Monster...But I Don't Mind...

ok, so i've been a horrible no good very bad blogger lately. and i know it. but my life sort of went from 0 to 90 in about 2.2 seconds. i came up with the idea for the cartwheels site and there was no turning back. i've been going on 3 hours of sleep a night for about 3 months straight now, working all day while nate watches the kids and then taking a few hours off when he goes to work and then getting back to it the second they go to sleep. it's been exhausting, but so so rewarding. i have never been so inspired in my life, and i have one of the best teams i could possibly imagine to help me make my dream a reality. so yeah, aside from the 3 hour sleep schedule (which will hopefully change very soon) life is just pretty good. 

and to add to our very crazy life, we've had ohio visitors for the past 5 weeks in a row...it's has been such a fun roller coaster summer full of touristy outings and cousin bonding time.

speaking of the good life...londerpants and gracie are growing up so so fast. most days you can find LB sitting up to my desk with me coloring or just generally getting in my way, and gracie-belle just thinks the entire world is there for her entertainment. i've literally never seen a child smile and giggle so much. i'm thinking she just might get it from her mother. :) 

and my favorite thing? they are absolutely each other's best friend. if they are in the same room you can bet they are side by side. there are very few things that make my heart happier than watching them adore each other.

i've got lots of other fun stuff that i need to share, but for now i need to get some work done. i'm going to work really hard at updating with little blurbs as often as i can though. writing is so therapeutic for me, and i don't want to give it up. 

in fact, i'll be back later today to share some new design team news. so super excited! :)

xoxo, cheryl

Everybody Knows I've Got The Magic In Me...

and the very lucky winner of the jenni bowlin dime store giveaway is:

I used to ride my bike with the banana seat and tassel handle bars to the corner store and buy candy cigarettes that I would pretend to smoke on the way back home. I also like Laffy Taffy which used to come as squaures back in the day!!

Posted by: Heather Tarrant | June 09, 2010 at 08:53 PM

Heather, just send me your address and we'll make sure that it gets to you asap! :)

and can i just say that i have LOVED reading through all your responses to my favorite dime store candy inquiry. such happy happy memories! :)

so, since i have been slacking over here so much lately, i thought i'd come share some art that i never got posted. i have been having so much fun CREATING the art that it seems like it's taking longer and longer to share. but next week we start our regularly scheduled articles over at Cartwheels In My Mind so that will be such a huge load off my back since cindy and i were writing most of the articles and making the art. i've been going on 3 hours of sleep a night for a couple months now, and i'm just ready to take a deep breath and relax.  but be sure to check back the site this week...we will start using our fabulous design team so much more now, and there will be 3 posts at the same times everyday (8am, 12noon, and 4pm) with extras thrown in randomly!

anyways, some june jenni bowlin kit layouts to share:

ok, so i have a few more things to share but i'll wait for another post. it's the soccer championships in South Africa today so i'm taking advantage of the fact that nate doesn't want to leave the house. there's a whole lot of art and screaming going on...but i'm not going to say which is coming from who. ;)

be sure to check out the Cartwheels site for my fun weekend challenge! i may or may not be giving away a cool package to one of the contributors that uploads to our gallery. :)

xoxo, C

Hello...Hello, Good Mornin'...

i don't think it's any secret that i love my job as a design team member for Jenni Bowlin Studios and her Merchantile Kit Club...which is why i am so excited that there are some exciting new things happening over in Jenni Bowlin's magic vintage world...some of which we are waiting just as anxiously to hear as everyone else. i'm kind of obsessively stalking jenni's blog until she reveals all the news she has been hinting at...but in the meantime i wanted to share this little announcement that they sent out to us:

We are introducing a new quarterly kit we are fondly calling the Mercantile "Dime Store" Kit (http://www.jbsmercantile.com/eco/store.asp?SID=1&Item=789). Each quarter this kit will be packed with classic JBS products at a special price - 25% off of the total retail value! And. . .best of all, it comes with a project idea and basic instructions to get you started. Find this kit in the Limited Edition Kits (http://www.jbsmercantile.com/eco/store.asp?Category=16) section at the site.

and the best part? in honor of this new Dime Store kit, we are each giving one away on our blog!

here's some photos:

and here's the deal:

share with me your favorite kind of dime store candy in the comments in order to be placed in the random drawing for the prize! mine were always the bubble gum cigerettes that we got at a store in our town called Ben Franklin's. we thought we were super cool smoking delicious bubblegum flavored smokes. :)