"early bird" gets the worm

Most people who know me know that I love scrappy paper. Love, love, love it! There's a few companies that I seem to gravitate towards and Cosmo Cricket has quickly become one of my faves. Especially their Early Bird line. Oh how cute are those birdies??! So I was really excited to get my hands on some. No chipboard though :( Man, I can't seem to get my hands on that anywhere! And with no local store to buy this stuff at I either have to get it when I go to my once or twice a year trip to Archivers or online (which it's sold out everywhere, I've checked). But I also managed to get some of the Girl Friday chipboard which still matches some of the Early Bird paper.

Anyway, Cosmo Cricket is having another design team search. Now, I don't believe that I have even a million to one chance of getting one of those coveted spots but hey, you can't win if you don't try, right? And one of the biggest reasons I like to do these challenges other than the super great chance to win is that it gets me moving on some projects. Give me a challenge and I'll crank something out!

So here goes...I'll start with the altered stuff. Here's something I did for around the house (as always, click on the image to make it larger)

Last year I saw Virginia decorate a silver plate like this. So several months back I found a couple at the local Goodwill (yes, I shop there for good deals) and I found this one for a buck! So I brushed some paint on it and decorated it with some Early Bird goodies :)

The hearts were punched with a Stampin' Up! punch

My daughter has been wanting an altered notebook every since I made some back in May for end of year teacher gifts. So I decided to make a cute little matching clipboard and pencil holder to go along with it. She was thrilled to say the least :)

I brushed some green paint around the outside of the can. The rope on the pencil holder is from Stampin' Up!

Added a little Stickles to the cherries to make them shine

Stamped Olivia's name on one of the EB stickers with brown StazOn.

And look, she's already getting some use out of the clipboard and notebook by planning a party. Apparently it's on July 3rd at Burger King. And don't worry Abby, the only reason your name's not on there is because I snatched it out of her hand to take this picture. You're next on the list :)

And then there's this mini-album I made for vacation bible school pics. This is one of those Kodak mini-albums you can have made at Target & Walmart. It's pretty plain on the outside so I of course had to decorate it!

The letters are the Impact font cut with my Silhouette and adhered with my Xyron sticker maker.

Check out the before & after:

And a few cards...cause I love making cards :)

Background for the flower was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder

And some layouts. Love this one of my son and his best bud Owen. Those 2 boys are so cute together!

This is actually a layout I did last year. The Hello Sunshine line is perfect for spring/summer layouts

I didn't use Cosmo Cricket papers in this next layout, they're actually Making Memories. But I did embellish with some of the CC chipboard.

Just a simple layout of my daughter when she was just 2 days old. I miss those days...

It's hard to tell but there's pink tulle behind the flower

And a few more non-CC layouts but I thought I'd share since they're cute :)

This one is from the June Jenni Bowlin kit.

Oh, and one more thing....

Yes, some shameless begging. I'm not above it! I hope you like what you see Cosmo Cricket team. I sure do love your stuff!!!!