Friday, January 30, 2015

February Workshop: Brushed


February 19, 2015
7pm to 9pm
1504 High Country Lane
Allen, Texas 75002
RSVP:  Email: jperry@myscraproom.net


Products To Pre-Order:
Workshops on the Go: Brushed Scrapbooking Kit
G1087  $29.95

Brushed Compliments
X7190C $4.95

Other supplies that are needed:
Basic Kit (your personal supplies)
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Adhesive 
3-D foam tape
My Acrylix Blocks (if you have them)
Piercing Tool


As we start to pray for Spring - I thought we would make pretty pages that are ready for Easter or garden layouts.

The Great Crop Prep

Over the next two weekends I have CTMH events I am attending that require just a bit of prep work before hand.  Tomorrow we have our big team meeting so I have a bag of supplies packed and ready to go there. 

Next weekend was the challenge:

The team that I am a part of is having an all day crop and I really, really want to go.  But unlike when I have crop here monthly - I can not just run into my room if I forget something.  It is rare that I leave my house for crop so I had to put some thinking into this process.  During last year's Team Crop I took card kits that were no brainers for me to put together.

Pages?  I had to think on it.

So I went to bed and thought and woke up in the middle of the night with a plan of action.  I will make page kits like I make card kits.

  Ok - what is the big brain idea you say...... 

Well I love to sew on my pages and I was having trouble decided how to handle this.  So I am taking all of it with me.  My templates do not take up much space and I will just take all of the DMC thread pouches that I make. The templates and pouches should fit into one 12 x 12 baggie with no problem.  The other problem was embellishments... So I will take an assortment of basic embellies with me and one basic stamp pad and sponge dauber for distressing.  

Page kits:

I already have my photos and journalling done so all I have to do is match paper to photos. Since I do not want to take all of my how to books with me - I am making copies of the patterns I want to use and popping it in the baggie with the photos, paper, stickease ect.  Since this is for personal use only I can make copies of my books.  The copies will also be great for making design notes as I go for blogging.  



The below photo is almost a year (2010) of family layouts ready to play with. I also have my cork that I use for stitching and my CTMH versa pad tucked in there.   I am out of page protectors or I would be taking an album with me to place the pages in as i finish.  I do have page protectors on my next couple of orders so that I can stock up again.  I had so many that I have not placed an order for them in 2 years! 


I was hopping up and down last night so much to get paper packs or put them back where they belong so much that my little pug fussed at me so I just placed all of my paper packs in a container while I am making page kits.


I have this sitting next to my desk and now it is very easy to find what I need during this marathon design session.  I will them back in the racks when finished.  
Getting ready for this all day crop is certainly a great way to use up those paper packs that we have been saving because they are just too pretty to cut.   

I only have 4 sets of photo to go and I will be done making all of the page kits for 2010.  Now do I think that I will get all of these finished in one day?  Of course not but it will be nice to have crop material done in advance of my personal crop nights too.

(see now I am using my noodle)


Happy Scrappin'

CTMH Convention 2015


Can I get anymore excited?

I just registered for the annual Close To My Heart Convention for Consultants.  This is our time of the year to all get together for 3 days that are packed with Business classes, Creative classes, New Product Demos and training, and a chance to see friend that I have made from all over the country.  

July 9-11 Disneyland, CA 

This will be my 5th convention in my 9 years as a consultant.

I missed convention last year because I was in the Grand Canyon and while I loved being in the Canyon with my family I really really wanted to be at convention.   I could not find a way to be in two places at once.

This year I am going without my family.  
Kaela will be getting ready for college and Mike has other speaking engagements on the books that will take extra time from his calendar year at work.  If it is an outside of work speaking engagement he has to use his vacation time to be there.  So the family will be holding down the fort while I play.  I may have to have my Mom come stay with them so the house will not burn down.   We shall see. 

I am so freaking excited!!

Room booked 
Flight booked
Transportation booked
Convention Registration done

Ready or not Disneyland - Here I come!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Procraftinating


I should be grocery shopping before the family disowns me.....

The Cutest Card

I am working on building some stock for a couple of craft fairs next month and wanted to work on Valentines cards.  But I have a wee problem..... I do not have many Valentines stamps.

What to do?

Pinterest for ideas?  Yes that sounds wonderful!  

I found this cute little "Glasses card" and thought hummmmm what do I have that will work with this idea? 

 The original artist is:  Karen Dunbrook

I have glasses as stamp but did not have a cute little sentiment BUT I also have a fun pun stamp set that had these cute lamp stamps that were screaming to be used.


I love how it turned out!  

Sometimes just a spark can get the creative juices going and the end result is better than you thought you could do.  Dig out your stamps and cardstock - play and see what comes out of your head.

New ECLP Cover


I blame Sarah then I blame AMY!  

They started this whole Erin Condren Life Planner madness and now I have gone off and ordered another cover for my planner.
 
In all fairness to Sarah and Amy - when I ordered my planner I did not know that I could add my business info to the front.  Then Erin Condren or EC for short came out with the Valentines cover that totally goes with the CTMH theme.  I had to order it!  

Get it:  Close to My Heart = Let your heart be light = in pink and everything.... with hearts too...

Ok maybe I am the only one that sees the connection.  But it looks great as a business cover for my planner so I am keeping it. (there!)

Now I am just trying to remember how I was able to stay organized without this planner?  

Lot's of sticky notes.... in the bottom of my purse....

Have a great day!

Meet Up


I found a new way to find information about my crops and workshops! 

As you know a number of my crop and workshop friends moved rather suddenly out of town and out of state late 2014. Since that time I have been trying to build up to full crops and full workshops again.

Mike has been using http://www.meetup.com/ for a while to find his geek user group meetings or to hold meeting with his friends.  He sent me a link to a papercrafting meet up in my area that he thought I would be interested in.  

Well.... after checking out the http://www.meetup.com/ site I decided to join as a coordinator and have some "meet up's" of my own.

Crops:

(http://www.meetup.com/Allen-Crop-Night/)

Workshops:

(http://www.meetup.com/Allen-Close-To-My-Heart-Scrapbook-Workshop/)

The blog will always be your first link to any information but if you would like to go to meetup and RSVP that would be great too.  If you start a profile with them - meet up will tell you about other meetings in your area too.

I hope that by posting my workshops and crops on Meetup it will mean new friends for all of us to play with.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Prep Work

So as I said in my last blog post, I have book a couple of Craft Fairs for the upcoming Spring Season - and with craft fairs comes the prep work.

Yesterday and today I spent time in my scraproom happily working on Valentines cards with the help from Pinterest. 

This first card is from Pinterest but I forgot to Pin it and write down who the original artist is, I was just excited to get working.  So this card is not my original work and if I ever find the original pin again I will post the artist.

There is Silver Gllitz on the hearts just to add a bit of shine and sparkle.  I know from this angle it looks like sand but from another angle you can not see the stamped image.

The second card I worked on today was inspired by the following pin.


I spotted this and my mind did a little jig because you know I love to sew on paper!  I did not do my hearts as free and but used a stitching template that I own.  


My hearts are not quite so defined as the ones shown in the pin so I added a couple of heart buttons.  The stamp is from a long retired stamp and it just fit on this card perfectly.  I was going to add some sparkles to the stamp then decided to keep it simple.  

I am happy with a good couple of days work.



Monday, January 19, 2015

Future Craft Fairs


My personal business goals this year is to grow my crops and workshops along with working one craft fair each quarter of the year.  I love teaching and working with other scrapbookers and card makers during crops and workshops but I also love working craft fairs and selling handmade cards to people that love giving handmade cards to loved ones but just do not have time to make them on their own. 

Here are my next two craft fairs:
*****************************************************************
Valentines Day!
XO - Hugs & Kisses Event
First United Methodist Church - Allen
Saturday 2-14-2015  9am to 5pm
601 South Greenville 
Allen, Texas 75002

*****************************************************************
Spring Craft Bazaar
Holy Covenant Methodist Church
Saturday 4-18-2015  9am to 4pm (rain or shine)

1901 E. Peters Colony Road
Carrollton, Texas 75007

*****************************************************************

I will have all of my hand made cards on display for sale and a few CTMH Catalogs that will be free.  Come join me at one or both of these events. Craft Fairs are wonderful places to pick up hand crafted gifts for any occasion. 

See you soon.





Friday, January 16, 2015

Seasonal Expressions -Time Is Running Out



It is hard to believe that we only have until March 31st to order items from the SE 1 mini catalog.  
If you still have items on your wish list form this mini catalog I would not wait to order. These products are "while supplies last only" so once they are gone, they are gone. 

Find your lists ladies and do not miss out on these beautiful seasonal supplies.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

CTMH Memories

Well I thought I was having a brain fart but I guess I was not.  

See - I have been working on Studio - J layouts and had it in my head that I could only blog the layouts once I purchased them so that I would have the jpegs for the blog.  But then I had the bright idea to "screen shot" some of the layouts so that I could blog the progress and you guys would not think I forgot about you.

Well the idea and the implementation of the idea are two different things when it comes to me.  For the life of me I could not figure out how to screen shot even with Kaela's help.  I am still not sure how I did it - but when I logged into my computer today the screen shot was on the desk top.  (go figure)

So during the last Crop Night it was just Amy and I so we decided to work in my studio instead of the crop room.  That way I could have access to my big screen computer and be able to work on my Studio J layouts - Amy wanted to work on Studio J also so she only brought her laptop.  

While I was in Boise over the summer at a Close To My Heart weekend event, my upline was talking about making a scrapbook of our CTMH memories as a consultant.  To be honest my first thought was that there was no way I was going back almost 10 years and scrapping those events..... then last weekend I had a light bulb moment.... STUDIO J could do it very quickly.  So before Amy came over I brought up my Google Picasa account and started looking for all of the events I had or have attended over the last 9 years and uploaded them to Studio J. 
I was able to get the entire album done during one crop night.


I have not ordered the album yet because I want to double check it for spelling errors and such before printing but I am so happy that I have this done.  I was also shocked at how many events I have hosted or attended - I thought I was a consultant hermit of sorts :-) 

I am having a meeting tomorrow with my group of consultant friends and we are going to trade even more Studio J  tips and tricks.  I have a feeling I am going to be using Studio J to get caught up on albums that I have needed to do but felt uninspired to scrap.

I never thought I would be a digi girl but I kinda like it! 

Reminder: National Papercrafting Month


Friday, January 2, 2015

Love Your Layout: March 2013

Studio J®: Perfect Placement

Studio J®: Photo Editing Tool

Studio J®: Focus on the Photos

Studio J®: Personalize Your Layouts

Studio J®: Step-by-Step Basics

Studio J® Custom Photo Wells

Studio J Express Collections

Book List 2015 - A Classic Romance

There seems to be a fire under my butt - that or Audible is helping me with my reading list.  I finished the "A Memoir" and my only double dip "A book with a number in the title" 41: A Portrait Of My Father" in record time.  Well come to think of it the whole book unabridged is under 8 hours in the audible format.

Next book is under "A classic romance" 


When I was a teen - this book was turned into a TV show that I loved but I never read the book.  To tell you the truth I never considered it a "romance" in the traditional sense of the word but while doing research on Good Reads looking for the classic romance it came up in the list. 

I found it in Audible and it is 19 hours long which is perfect for me.  I love the long books because I can get lost in the story for a while while playing with my papers.  I also cook better if I am listening to a book. 

 I know that is strange but it works. 

I have to re-stock my card inventory so lets see how many I can get done while listening to Christy.

Here goes

Thursday, January 1, 2015

A Book by An Author With Your Initals

Book Club List: Sunday at Tiffany's


While Kaela was at her NYE 2015 party last night - the parents (us) made a fire in the hearth and sat down for a couple of good reads.  Mike was reviewing a "math paper" for his upcoming "nerd meeting" and I curled up with a very fast yet totally the book that pulls you in kind of read. 


I was having trouble coming up with a book whose author had my initials until one of the ladies in the group mentioned James Patterson.  I looked over on my end table and there was a James Patterson book just sitting there begging to be read.  My mother borrowed it from my mother in law so I thought "what the heck" and sat down.  I started the book at about 9:30pm and was finished by the stroke of midnight, just in time for my NYE kiss with the hubby. 

I am having the best time with this book challenge. 

Now I am off to fix dinner while listening to Christy on my iPod. 


Have a great night and stay safe. 

Happy New Year

I am starting off my new year the way 
that I want everyday of my new year to be.  

Peaceful, with a cup of coffee, and scrapbooking!  


We had a little family get together last night with food, games and plenty of laughter. There was wintery weather with the potential for an ice storm so the Grandparents left a little early so they had a chance to get back up north before the ice hit up there.  Then Kaela and her boyfriend (Jedi) remembered a party they wanted to go to.  Off they went with promises that if the weather turned ugly Dad would go and pick them up - it was not far from our house.  

Everyone was back home by 1:30 am with Jedi making it back to his house safely and we all went to bed.  I woke up at 11:00 am this morning feeling like I could rule the world - so I place my monthly CTMH order.  :-)

Remember a couple of weeks ago I reported that I finished the Grand Canyon vacation scrapbook in Studio J?  This morning I sent those layouts to be printed.  When they come in I have a couple of pages to do just to add in the maps, tickets and such but for all intensive purposes I am done.   

Ta Da  
Here is the ENTIRE 
 Grand Canyon Vacation Scrapbook 
By: Studio J

























For some reason I did not get any photos of the trip back to Texas or if I did I have not been able to find them yet.  When and if I do  then I can add those pages later.   If my math is correct this is 38 two-page layouts or 76 single page layouts. I finished this entire album in about a week.  I have not used Studio  J very often in the past but I think that is about to change.  This year will be the year I get all of my vacation albums from past years done!  

So I guess I just listed my New Years Resolutions.

1. Get back into Curves and workout at least 3x a week
2. Get past vacation albums scrapped and done using Studio J.

May your year be blessed and happy.