Today is the first day of  February.  I am still unpacking from CHA and smiling because  I had a chance to hug and kiss many of my friends.  The floor was full of beauty, colors, smiles, fun and creativity… I loved every minute of it!

I had the honor to present Kiki Art in the Canadian workshop organized by the brand new Canadian Section of the CHA and had a wonderful time meeting people from all over the world!! Here is my good friend Bettina from My Stamp Box and Kelly Panacci (she and her husband are so incredible nice!!!) on our first day at CHA….

Why is always everybody taller than me? and… do you like my new glasses? I can believe I am already home. I better get to bed now.  See you very soon!

A little bit more than a year ago I begun this great journey with many dreams and ideas… I got carried away with all of them wanting to achieve every single goal at the very same time, because after all I AM A WOMAN and I can multitask!!!   Right?

Well… not exactly accurate. I am a woman, and we are great!! that is true, but sometimes we have to much and we don’t realize we are exhausted until  late.  This past summer a few different things got somehow complicated at home, adding to the usual already happily complicated life that I have (story for another day) but the point is that I found myself a little bit overwhelmed with chores, deadlines, work, kids, home, studies, new puppy, blah blah blah etc… and then I had to think and, of course, eat some chocolate to keep the thoughts flowing and be able to make decisions  in order to improve the situation.

First decision… begin to run (to burn all the chocolate ingested to fight the mild depression)

Second decision… simplify things in my work and life

Third decision… make time to stop and breath, enjoy my family, my friends (many are in my design team – I love you girls-), remember to pray and be grateful for what I have.

So… why am I sharing this with you? well… following the line of thinking ruled by the second decision mentioned above, I decided to unify the three Kiki Art blogs  English, French and Spanish with three different teams in to only ONE with only ONE team.

Why did I have three teams in the first place? I believed before and I still do that having a blog exclusively in Spanish to express the unique cultures of Latinamerican artists through scrapbooking is a great idea to allow readers to appreciate everything a lot more.  (and the same with English and French) but I just didn’t/ couldn’t have the time and energy to follow through with all three blogs the way they and their artist/designers and readers deserve it .

The new “merged” KIKI ART Blog will be launched on the 1st of February 2011. (around the same time as CHA winter 2011).  It is next year and seems far away but  it is almost very soon already!!! look, the counter I have added at the right side of the blog, showing the time left for the new BLOG to be seen.  Don’t you think those seconds are moving a wee bit too fast?

In the meantime all Kiki Art blogs (English, French and Spanish) will be working but at a slower pace because a lot of things are happening behind the scenes and in my life too.

I have made some other decision and I am sure you are going to love  them all… but that is topic for another post.

BESOS,

Kiki

HELLO!! See anything different around here?  Yes, I am changing the look a little, taking things out and adding new features to the blog. It will take me the whole month of October to play with this and I think is a great excuse for us to have fun with challenges and for you to get your hands on some new Kiki Art product.

Today is a call to all photographers out there… Show us your favorite PUMPKIN picture! You can share the link by leaving a comment to this message or send it by e-mail to fun@kiki-art.com.  The winner will get the complete digital elements of the “5 little pumpkins collection” (papers and embellishments in fabulous oranges, yellows and greens that you will get to see and even buy from here next week). You have until the 24th of October to send your photo!

Here is the song that inspired the collection (my son came from the Daycare singing it and now I can not take it out of my head!!):

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, “oh my it’s getting late.”

The second one said, “there are witches in the air.”

The third one said, “but we don’t care!”

The fourth one said, “let’s run and run and run.”

The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!”

OOOhh OOOhh went the wind

And out went the lights

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

On Sunday more action will take place!!!  See you soon!!

Besos,

Kiki

Hello!!  Many of you know that today is WORLD CARD making day…  Cards are great because they allow you to share  feelings and have your love reflected on a piece of paper  for years and years to come. They don’t cost a lot to make but they are priceless if we want to assign a value to how they make you feel when you get one.

Today is the perfect occasion to ask you to share with us your cards made with KIKI ART products.  Send us a picture of your card and who you have made if for (if you want, please, share the story related to the card) and at the end of the month we will pick  two winners that will get the very new, exclusive and not seen before sets of KIKI ART rubber cling stamps.

Just in case you need some inspiration to get you started,  here is a sketch I created for this special ocassion!

Have a HAPPY WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!!!! Next Wednesday I will show you my take on this sketch.

This week I took my 14 month old son Riley to get his first haircut. **sigh** A big deal I know.  I cannot believe how quickly the time really does pass once you have a child.  You see everything with new eyes and wonderment, anxious for the next thing that they discover.  And at the same time, you yearn for earlier days when they were so tiny and fit so snugly against your chest, as you lay there listening to them sleep.  I have over the last few months been working on a scrapbook of Riley’s first year.  When I found these two separate pictures of Riley with me and his dad, I knew I wanted to put them on the same page and remember for just a few minutes, those first few days.  I hope that you like it.

Materials Used:

#040115 – JARDIN Primavera D

# 040104 – JARDIN Mariposas GW

#040102 – JARDIN Primavera BO

# 050201 FAMILIA Funtape

#010304 – AMOR Chipboard Corazón

Assorted Bling from my stash

Cricut Cartridges for the Butterflies

Tag from my stash

Computer Font for title

Bazzill Cardstock

The layout was created using a sketch but you’ll have to forgive me as I don’t remember who the owner of the sketch is..if anyone knows please let me know so I can give proper credit!

When I saw these awesome glitter puzzle pieces by Kiki Art I knew I wanted to make a game with them so I started brain storming.  I also love to recycle and people always give me old containers because they know I will reuse them and when I got this big container from a friend I knew exactly what I could do.

I decorated the container with the coordinating paper from the Familia Collection.  Then I added a simple title with 3 of the glitter chipboard pieces.

For the game I used the rest of the puzzle pieces covered the backside with paper and added numbers from 1 – 12 on them to create a simple math game.

To play the game you pick two pieces from the container and for my youngest he adds or subtracts them and my oldest has to multiply them.  Sometimes we do a race to see who can answer it first.  I find my kids always learn better when they think it’s a game.

Thanks for stopping by today – have a great day!

I LOVE Halloween! Ever since I was little I’ve loved Halloween. The best thing about Labor day? That the very next dayI can drag out the boxes and boxes of Halloween decorations and get to work. Since I live with just my dog, there is no one to say “But it’s only September!” or “All ready!?!” Pepper just follows me from room to room checking out what I’m doing. This year I even decorated my guest bathroom.

One thing I do every year is send Halloween cards. Since i’m on quite a tight budget this year, I’m trying to make my craft supplies go further and further. Even though I don’t currently have any of the Kiki Art Halloween papers (man oh man I can’t wait to get my hands on those!) I knew that I would be able to make some great Halloween cards using some of the Kiki Art papers I had on hand. I used some of the Water Rain Collection, some of the the Jardin collection, and some pre-made cards that I all ready had on hand. It’s so fun to be frugal AND creative

xoxo, Meg

I think not!!  Use Kiki Art – Hot Air Balloon & get creative.

I  decided to make a little post it note holder for my purse, love to carry a little pencil & paper and it DOES have to be cute… i love creating something different, come visit me for more project ideas using this paper.

Dialogue among some members of the Kiki ART DT with KIKI – any similarities of this imaginary conversation with real life is only a coincidence -

Kiki: “Butterflies, like all plants and animals, are placed in a hierarchical classification that expresses their relationships in increasing levels of resolution. They belong to a group of animals called arthropods. Within the arthropods, butterflies belong to a subgroup, the insects (Class Insecta). Within the insects, butterflies”… (if you like this type of reading you can go HERE to continue)

Virginia:  “WAIT Kiki, WAIT! STOP!!!  Oh my GOD! Please STOP!!! Wrong site for this!!!!”

Katrina: “You silly girl!! We are in the KIKI ART BLOG here now!!!”

DotSecret: “Yeah! And people are waiting for an announcement!!! Have you forgotten?”

Kiki: “Uuuupsss!!!  No… I didn’t forget. I just wanted to explain to our followers about the butterflies and what they mean to me, about what we  have been working on and how our team is going to be organized from now on and the activities we have in store for them… and….”

Fleur: “no, no, no, no. … Today just say who has been selected to be added to the team, that is all people want to hear right now!

Sarah: you are such a dork sometimes!

Keely: “I agree with Fleur Kiki… with all my love to you, please… stop your usual rambling my dear”

Kiki: “Fine, I will keep that information for another post. I will just grab one of those days that have not been assigned  yet and then I will post whatever I want. ”

LindaS: yes, that would be better Kiki. Thanks. now could you please do the announcement of who has been added to the team?.

KIKI: “Ok. Within the same Kiki Art Design Team we have three groups now… THE MONARCHS  and MALACHITAS (that I will tell you more about  later  in the week and who these designers are)  and the SCARLETS which is the new group I am announcing today.

Papilio Rumanzovia Butterfly on Flower Philippines (aka "SCARLETS")

Dear Kiki Art SCARLETS… this is who you are (in no particular order):

• DANA TATAR
• TAJANEE WHITE
• ERIKA TAYLOR
• WENDI ROBINSON
• MARCI KNECHT
• ANNELIE MADDOCK
• PEARL LIU

Welcome to the team! and the creative insanity that surround us!

IMPORTANT: For those of you who are not among these names, don’t get angry just yet. You might be getting an e-mail within a day or two asking to join our DT guest spots (MALACHITA Butterflies). If you don’t get that e-mail, please know that it has been a really hard decision.  So much talent and great individuals we have discovered!! I am still astonished of all the e-mails, blogs and information I have seen in the time of getting to know each participant better!!  I am humbled by the e-mails we have received and I hope you will continue supporting our team and our young growing company. Please keep on participating in our challenges, games and crazy ideas.  I know this team is going to make you fly and swirl in the air with inspiration!!

Muchos besos!!!

KIKI

by Virginia

My kids through their inquisitive minds challenge me every single day to view life from a different vantage point. I love that! I apply this   principle to my everyday life… be it resolving kid related issues,  cooking  without all the ingredients in my pantry or scrapbooking!  Yes you heard it  right, scrapbooking! How do I do that you might ask??? Well, instead of  using the papers in a collection, I look to see how I can mix and match between collections. It really is that simple … to look at life from a different vantage point.  Here is my layout…

Here are a couple of close-ups of the items on my layout.

Thanks for letting me share!

Virginia