please visit me at Catshy Crafts

Hello!
I still get a few visitors to this blog and I wanted to make sure you knew I'm now blogging at Catshy Crafts.

Please stop by and say hi!

Catshy Crafts Giveaway!

In case anyone still checks this blog :) I am sponsoring a giveaway at my friend Crystal's site, Live Your Stories! Hope you can check it out! You could win this:

I'm giving this away at the Live Your Stories blog! Enter by March 11, 11:59 PM EST.
Good luck!

happy holidays!

Hello! Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a wonderful holiday!

My Christmas cards finally went out earlier this week. I made my own again this year. This time I used as many photos as I could to document a year's worth of memories. I went through all my photos of the past year and picked my faves. As you can see most of them are of the girls. But we did include our annual family portrait in front of our maple tree as the main photo.

In a departure from previous cards, I also included my version of the Christmas letter. A top 10 list of our favorite memories. This might be my favorite card yet.

The journaling card and banner are by Paislee Press. Fonts used: Ranger, Kingthings Typewriter, and Pacifico.

 What have been up to besides making and sending out Christmas cards? Well, I've been busy with my shop and everything that goes along with that: making new items, writing tutorials, creating a newsletter, and blogging on my catshy crafts blog. Definitely a labor of love. I love what I do! So I'm sorry I haven't updated my papercat blog in a while. But if you would like to peek at my other blog, here's a peek at what you will find: 4 brand-new tutorials, updates on my new Catshy Crafts items and new features like: Etsy Love Mondays, Thankful Tuesday ands Thrifty Thursdays!

I hope you will check it out!  Here are quick links to keep in touch.

Blog

Shop

Pinterest

Twitter

Facebook Fan Page for Catshy Crafts

One of my new tutorials at Catshy Crafts blog.

thankful

Some of my fave fall photos from 2011.

As you may know, I have a little maple tree.
I am thankful for this maple tree.
It brings us shade on the hot summer months.
It brings us color in the fall.
It bring the whole family together for our annual fall portrait.
It gives us lots of opportunities to enjoy each other's company: playing in the leaves, raking the leaves, climbing its limbs, photos and more photos.
It even displays my Christmas lights come holiday season.

Thank you, maple tree for all you do!

p.s. I was inspired to write this post by this post.

I'm on Papernstitch!

I am excited to share with you some news.
I was selected to be on Papernstitch - an exhibition site for indie crafts and handmade goods! And today I am a "Daily Favorite"!

You can read more about how I got picked here. Or if you want to check out my gallery at papernstitch go here. If you're in the mood for a little Christmas shopping, I would definitely check it out and the other artists as well.

And if you have your own craft business, I would definitely check out the Papernstitch blog. Lots of great advice.

Happy Shopping!

sweets, grow and let's celebrate!

I have some exciting news! I have 11 new items in the shop. I thought it would be fun to group them in collections and use my Photoshop skills for these little "ads" of my items. So without further adieu here are the Sweets, Let's Celebrate and Grow collections.

baby cake | pink scoop | vanilla cream | eat

pink/grey bunting | celebrate

grow (no. 1) | grow (no. 2)

It's been so fun experimenting with how to photograph my items. I bought a Lightbox to take photos during those dreary, rainy days that we enjoy here in the Pacific Northwest, but today it was a sunny day so I took some natural light photos as well. While I was snapping away, Zara and Jamie came back from dropping Sofia at school and I had a Eureka moment. Why not get one of my darling daughters to "model" them? So I took these shots today.

Digital frame by Paislee Press.

So do you have preference for the photos? I think I like the Zara photos to draw you in and give a sense of scale, but the staged shots give more detail....

Thanks for stopping by!

i heart faces

I have seen the I Heart Faces logo around the blogosphere, but never really knew what it was all about. But I happened to stumble upon a blog that spelled it out for me...

So, here I am submitting a photo for this week's contest: Autumn Splendor. This is perfect because fall is my favorite season to take photos and I've been shooting like a madwoman. Even getting friends and neighbors in the act!

I have a gorgeous red maple tree in my front yard which attacts a lot of attention and is the perfect symbol of fall.  It was hard to choose just one photo of it (because trust me I have hundreds!) But this one has the tree in the background, the pile of leaves and the happy kids (and was taken just a few days ago.)

Do you want to play along? Click on the I Heart Faces logo to enter!

tale of two blogs + 10% off

When I launched my hand-made/crafty business and Etsy shop, CatShy Crafts this summer, I created a blog to share all things Catshy. My papercat blog (the one you're reading now) was originally intended to share my scrapbooking pages, both digital and paper and personal photos of my family. But as I dedicate more time to Catshy and less to scrapbooking,* I am posting more on Catshy. And rather than to double-post, I would love to invite you to read my other blog.

And as a little thank you for following me over to the Catshy blog, I'm having a little sale!

All you have to do is one of the following things:

• subscribe to receive an e-mail whenever I post (there's a little box on the right column of my blog "Follow by E-mail")
• become a "Follower" (again look on the right column)
• or "Like" my Catshy Crafts Fan page on Facebook.

Then, let me know at cayla73@yahoo.com and I'll send you a coupon code to save 10% at my Etsy shop! Thanks for your support!







* Before I go, I wanted to share my latest digital page. It's been a long time since I sat down to scrap! But I really love this one. I used One Little Bird's Sweater Weather kit. I took these photos at a local blueberry farm that happened to be selling pumpkins as well. It was the closest thing to a pumpkin patch that we went to this year.

halloween revisited

How was your Halloween? I'm glad the weather held out and it was dry and not too cold on Halloween weekend. On Sunday, we went to a Halloween neighborhood party. Both girls dressed as butterflies. Well, Zara was really a cat fairy. She was set to be a cat, but added the wings to be like her sister.

 and Halloween night, we met up with some of our neighbors to take photos and then trick-or-treat. I posted on my other blog all the Halloween decorations I made.

fall photo season is here!

Fall is definitely my favorite time to take photos. The weather is brisk. Cool enough for sweaters but not a heavy coat. The leaves are changing. Twilight happens in late afternoon (after Zara's nap is over and after Sofi gets home from school). Not to mention the photo ops. Pumpkin patch. Halloween. Our maple tree. Or anywhere there is beautiful foliage. Yup. Fall photo season is in full swing in our house!

The family knows the drill by now. Wear something pretty. Brush your hair. Load up the car and find a scenic spot with lovely leaves. And be prepared to take LOTS of photos.

On this sunny Sunday afternoon, we decided to go to Kelsey Creek Farm. The farm animals were already put away so it was pretty empty. Even the playground had only one other family there. Which is great for photos.

At first the sun was still a little harsh. But I found a nice, mossy boulder to sit on.

Happy smiling faces, but the light is harsh.

By the time I hopped on the rock for this self-portrait, Sofia was unhappy. The rock was a little uncomfortable, even with the baby blanket I brought.

When there is harsh light, I try shooting with the sun behind them.

Ring around the rosy. love the highlights in their hair.

The little playhouse at Kelsey Creek.

After playing on the playground for a bit, we climbed the hill to reach the farm proper. Isn't that a gorgeous barn? Love the graceful lines of the roof.

On top of the hill, I spied a pretty spot for more photos. The light was hitting the leaves just right.

Favorite shot of the bunch: I used my new trick: "Attack Daddy" to get this shot

Awww. Sofia loves her Daddy.

Jumping into the shot.

I used my tripod and self-timer for this one.

Another favorite pose: lying on the grass while I shoot from above.

And we're back at the playground.

happy sisters on a fall day.

shipping's on me!

It's a dreary, rainy Saturday here in Western Washington, so I'm sure it will be one of those stay-in and do something crafty days (and maybe a girls night out later). In the meantime, I just want to check in and let you know about a special offer I'm having.


In honor of listing my  new items at my etsy shop, catshy crafts, I'm shipping for FREE! Please check my other blog for the coupon code. Or head on over to take a peek at my new items. Thanks for looking!

new items at catshy crafts (my etsy shop)

I updated my shop with some new items! And a new banner....

hand-stitched felt heart embroidery hoop art

paper flower mini garland

I'm a newbie at Etsy, but trying to learn as I go. Do you have an Etsy shop? Link me up! I'd love to see.


fall day

It's not every day that it is sunny and bright on an October morning in Bellevue. It is not every day that my husband is working at home. It is not everyday that I get the overwhelming need to go on a long walk. It is not everyday that Zara is willing to sit in the stroller. But today (10.13.2011) was the day when all these were true. Zara, Jamie and I took a long, round-about, meandering walk to the library. We avoided the direct route because a) it was such a gorgeous day b) for the better part the direct route there is no sidewalk just a wide shoulder on a busy street. c) Zara sometimes insists on walking and it is nervewracking to walk on this street without her sitting in the stroller.

my first sale : wallflowers

Like your first love, you always remember your first sale, right? Well, these little flowers were my first sale for Catshy Crafts. A friend who attended my artist's reception chose these little beauties to come home with her. Well, she actually had to wait a month until the show came down.

The flowers are hand-made by me using scrapbook paper, buttons and embroidery thread. They got a lot of compliments at the shop (or so I'm told by my friend Hannah who works there). Plus, it is the first (yay!)  (and only) thing that got purchased.  Well, that's not exactly true. A week later, I was commissioned to create an entirely NEW set of wallflowers using different papers for another person who attended the show. So I guess these are my lucky wallflowers. I'll be putting more in the shop. Definitely.

I delivered these particular blooms today with a card I made (with a freshly made flower on the front). She loved it! (too bad I forgot to snap a photo of it.) I can't wait to see how she displays them in her home. She might put a few in a frame and the rest in her daughter's room (who happens to be my daughter's BFF).

All the flowers piled in one of my garage sale finds (a crystal encrusted wire basket) which you might remember from this post.

The buttons are from my ever-growing stash of buttons: from clothes, vintage finds from thrift stores/g-sales and scrapbooking supplies.

This is how they looked at the craft show at Cupcake Royale.