Thursday Trade

Hello Blue House Fans! This week is moving right along. But, is it Friday yet???? seriously......is it? no? ugh!

So, if you follow the blog, you know Cat and I email each other daily. A lot. Generally, our emails aren't small talk or one / two liners.....we go in depth in our email with full conversation.  So much so, that instead of having a huge reply chain build on top of each other, we color code our responses. By the end of the day, we generally manage to capture all colors in the rainbow and even doing our own custom colors. Funny, I know. or is it sad? lol. That brings me to this....

In one our email exchanges some weeks ago, we talked about different things we could feature and do on the blog. Cat had this great idea that was almost challenge based but with a twist. What if we picked out the papers and embellies for each other to make a layout. Wait, what? You mean, Cat is going to choose MY papers.........Cat, who 99.9% of the time scraps her NIECES is going to choose papers for ME, the one that scraps Carter 99.9% of the time from HER stash??? I'm scared, but let's do it!!!!! We give you THURSDAY TRADE......

The rules were simple....we each had to choose for each other from our personal stash:
2 cardstocks
3 patterned papers
5 extras (embellishment such as trim, journal cards, stick pins, washi tape, etc)

Here is Cat's layout she made with the products I chose from her. I tried to pick from collections I knew she didn't have.......which, really wasn't all that hard because I buy mostly boy collections. I pulled from  Basic Grey's "Bow Ties", Studio Calico "Print Shop" and Crate Paper "Boys Rule". For my 5 embellishments, I chose a black/white Stylish Stix from Queen & Co, some teal trim/ribbon from my stash, a couple of ephemera pieces from Teresa Collins "Daily Stories" and a flair from Fancy Pants Designs "Memories Captured" collection. See, I do have a few girly things in my stash, but I loved how the girly elements blended so well with the boy-y papers.  Cat added a blue base page to what I gave her and made a double page layout.

Here is my layout made with the products Cat chose for me.  She pulled papers from Echo Park "Sweet Girl" and "Happy Camper" and Fancy Pants Designs Beach Bum. She also included some yellow patterned washi tape from We R, gems journal card from Studio Calico, American Craft twine and a canvas shape from Basic Grey.  For my layout, I chose to cut apart the circles on the "Sweet Girl" paper that featured the pinks and teals. I figured Cat would assume I would pick the reverse side of the paper, which was a yellow tonal....but I wanted to surprise her AND me that I could create with a girly color palette. I love how this layout turned out. Thanks, Cat for putting together such a fun kit!

I hope you enjoyed our Thursday Trade. This would make a great crop or retreat challenge. Rally up your girlfriends and everyone swap simple kits like this.

Join us tomorrow to get FLASHED. That's right, fans........It's another FLASH FRIDAY. And this time, Miss Tracy joined us. We just love our Flash challenges.

Also, we are one week away from loading up and heading south to Houston for the CK Convention. We are so excited. Did you read about our BIG surprise last week? If not, check it out here. We have been working feverishly with Miss Tracy to bring something NEW to Houston. What in the world could it be???? We can't WAIT to tell you! Until then........do you have any idea what it could be??? Comment below and tell us your ideas for our BIG surprise.

Stay True Blue,
Nat