Artbooking Made Easy: Friendship Layouts

Clearly The Best: Subway Speak

Simple Scallops

Artbooking Made Easy: Wintertime Layouts

Clearly The Best: Swirlin' Shapes

Artbooking Made Easy: Elegant Mini Albums

Clearly the Best: Create the Date

Clearly the Best: Party Favor Flavor

Washi Wonderland

OCD Much?

My family thinks I have fallen off my rocker. They really do!  For years I have wanted to re-do my pantry but have never gotten around to it.  I still want to paint and put up Elfa shelving sometime soon but I was able to finish one project that has been bugging me.

Pantry Can Organization!

The can food!  It has been driving me nuts.  So here is what I did and yes I did find this company from Pinterest.

This is just one side of my pantry, the other side is baking and all of the “other” stuff I need to clean out.  I did check all of my spices today and boy can you tell I have not cooked in a LOOONG time.

Monday I will be going to the grocery store to replenish the spices and buy the supplies for Christmas Dinner.

Here is where I was able to find the organizers:

 http://canorganizer.com/can-organizers/cupboard-organizer-4-pack/ 

Yes they are cardboard but $7.00 for a 4-pack vs. $12.00 for one on other websites I will take cardboard any day and take care of them.

I know that it is silly but this makes me all happy inside.

This and the cookbooks I have purchased and I am holding up my end of the bargain and cooking most nights now. 

Now I have this conflict of …

Scraproom or Kitchen?

Scraproom always wins!

Convention Layouts

Well when I went to put the first of the 9th grade layouts into Kaela’s album I found some layouts already in there from convention. 

We always make a few layouts during convention to showcase new products and I guess I did not want to loose these so I placed them in the empty album that I have pre -  labeled as Kaela’s 9th grade year.

I LOVE this layout and I forgot that I even did it!  Can you imagine? How in the world did I forget about this beauty?

The next two layouts from from Studio J.  As a general rule I do not use Studio J mainly because I love the smell of paper.  I know that I am a weirdo but that is just me.  Studio J is fantastic just not what I reach for first.

I added some 3-D bling to the pages and was very happy with the way they turned out.  A plus to Studio J is that the pages are very light without the adhesive or layers of paper on each 12 x 12 page so the whole album will be lighter if you do a full Studio J theme.  It is also much cheaper than regular traditional scrapbooking because you do not have to print your photos before you scrap them.  They get printed with the layout and shipped  to you!  How cool is that!

But I am still old school and love the smell and feel of paper in my hands. But if we ever RV full time Studio J will be going with me!

Freshman Album

I want to shout from the roof tops that I have started Kaela’s high school album.  Who cares that she is a junior – I have started working on the album before she graduated.  

Here are the first couple of pages.

There is some glare that I have to work on a way of removing but you understand the general layout.  This is one of the art pieces that Kaela worked on this year and it is also one of my favorites so it gets to be the first page of the album.  I work in chronological order and this layout represents her whole year.  It was ART or Choir all year long.

She looks very pleased that MOM is taking another photo of her at school – get over it kid.  You will love these one day.  Trust me!

Allen High School as a beautiful Performing Arts Center and this year is the first year it has been open.  What an awesome place to sing.

I have a feeling that this album is going to take me a little while to finish.  I love to sew on my pages and well that does slow me down just a touch but also because of the ice storm…. I still do not have the photos that I ordered from Walgreens from December 4th!  They are supposed to be delivered today but since there is a line going outside of the door at the post office I think it will be later than today.

  When they come in I will just enjoy the process and get this little book done when it gets done.

I love my life.

What A Mess

First off let me just state that I am glad that I did not have a “real” job the last couple of weeks.

I am so happy that I have CTMH to be my full time gig now. 

First we had the great ICE storm of 2013:

I am a Florida girl which means I never learned to drive in the stuff very well so I was ever so happy to stay home in my jammies and not put anyone in danger.  Yes I am “that” driver in ICE!

But that did not mean that we did not have a teaching moment on our house.  Dad thought this would be a great time to teach the teen all about ice.  She was not pleased!

This is Kaela trying to get her car door open so that she could get her JACKET out before dealing with the windshield.

I was upstairs looking out the window because I did not even go outside to take photos.  Nope, I sent Mike! 

While we were shut – in’s because of the storm we watched movies and ate all of the food in the house.  Once the ice melted enough that I could go out it was time to finish that Christmas shopping. 

WRAP CENTRAL

The family knows that this time of year they stay out of my scraproom because that room turns into wrap central!  If they peek – it does not make me a happy girl.

I put all of the wrapping supplies in the Crop Area and all of the gifts in the scraproom because it has a door.  Once the house was empty I turned into a wrapping machine.  Put a book on the IPod and get some coffee and get it done, (yes it is now done).

Now I can get back to what I love to do…

SCRAPBOOKING AND CARD MAKING!

My room is back to normal.

A Little Elegance

Over a year ago I made a set of thank you notes from Grandma for her birthday.  I loved the way those turned out so well that I wanted to make another set. 

This time I used Grey Wool (retired) and Ruby for my colors.

The original artist for this card is:  www.ejoym.blogspot.com 

Once again her elegant design shines for the world to see.

If you would like to purchase my version this card, I have 4 listed on Etsy. 

Have a wonderful day and stay warm.

Get Crafty!

Brick Wall Birthday Cards

Yesterday while I was waiting on the upload of all those photos I decided that I needed to spend some time on Pinterest.  I know, I know…. Pinterest always makes me want to make cards and yesterday was no exception.

While I was playing I found an interesting design that I wanted to try. 

The original Artist is Narelle Fasulo from Australia

It is very masculine but with a simple elegant feel to it.  I did not want to scrap lift art for art so I changed it just a tiny bit.

The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug but all other supplies are CTMH. 

Then I went on and changed the colors …

Does this scream “yellow brick road” or what! 

Both of my cards are already uploaded and ready for sale on my Etsy shop.  There are only 4 cards per design so if you like what you see buy them before they are gone.

Retired List 2013

 

I was double checking my emails tonight after camping over Thanksgiving and found that CTMH as posted the “Retired List 2013” on our websites.

The FULL retired list is on my  CTMH website on the bottom left hand side.

I just placed my personal monthly order yesterday but after looking at the list I had to place another order for $75 in products that I just can not live with out.

TEXTURE TOOLS

OPAQUES MOCHA ADHESIVE GEMS

OPAQUES LICORICE ADHESIVE GEMS

OPAQUES PEARL ADHESIVE GEMS

PRISMA GLITTER

BTTY OPAQUES PEARL ADHESIVE GEMS 

COLONIAL WHITE ROSETTE RIBBON

SLATE SATIN POLKA-DOT RIBBON

VERSAMARK® REFILL

If you have been on the fence thinking about getting any of the items on the full retired list do not wait.  Every item is WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Extra Long Upload

I had the best day planned.  I was going to start working on Kaela’s high school album.  I started by pulling out her 9th grade drawer and starting looking at the photos.

Then I realized that I only had the first semester of photos. 

No problem…

I just started looking at the second half of the year and picked out 197 photos to print.  Normally I can upload to Walgreens and print with about 2 hours.  So I planned to go out at lunch and pick up the photos with a Sonic drink.

This was at 9:00 this morning.

The upload finally finished at 3:00 pm!

It took so long that I decided to organize the photos that I do have.  When Kaela was in 6th grade I started gathering “Allen High Colors” so far I have a box with all kinds of paper, ribbons and such to choose from when creating this album.

Here are the photos that I do have as of right now.

I was about to start journaling these photos but then I looked over at my little pug …

Radar is just about 14 years old and this little guy just needed a nap. Since this upload was taking forty forever's I just took my little pug for a nap.  When we woke up around 3 pm it was still working.  So much for picking them up around lunch and working all afternoon.

Finally finished and I just decided to have them shipped to the house.  We are expecting winter weather soon and my little butt is not going to leave the house.

I guess this is good thing in the long run because since I am no longer working at the hospital I do need to start cooking at home.  If I get knee deep into a project so late in the day I am not going to want to stop to cook dinner for my family.   When I worked I rarely cooked and that was OK but I really need to step up here and get this going.

I bought myself a new cookbook to get back into the feed my family mood.

The cookbook has mixed reviews on Amazon.com but I love Rachael Ray and I love this idea so why not. 

I plan on making 3 meals because we LOVE leftovers!

Pray… Tonight is the first night I plan on cooking

Teacher Gifts

In Texas it is customary to give small gifts to your child's teacher at Christmas and Teacher Appreciation Week.  So if you have a child in school in Texas chances are you are always looking for small meaningful gifts to give your child’s teacher.  Most items stick to movie gift cards to office supplies to help supplement the classroom budget.

I have a friend of mine that is looking for some unique teacher gifts this year.  The district is Lovejoy ISD and their mascot is the Lovejoy Leopards.  She thought of monogram cards for each of her daughters teachers.

My first thought to be honest was that I have been a scrapbooker since 2001 and NEVER thought to make any of Kaela’s teachers handmade cards! 

I am such a bad Mom!   

Michelle is not a scrapbooker so she asked me to help her in this department and make the cards. COOL BEANS!  Off to Pinterest I go (hee hee).

I found this original design from Pinterest (http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/)

It is stunning and would be easy to mass produce.

  Did I mention that I am making 6 sets of 5 cards each.  Each set will have the teachers initial stamped on the card.  I also have never made a card using black cardstock so this would make it interesting for me also. 

Here is the sample that I came up with using the original as my inspiration.

Of course the leopard print animal paper and the embossing folder are not CTMH products but the cardstock, stamps, and red shimmer trip are all CTMH.

Because the card base is black I am also making a card liner that is made from Bamboo cardstock.  I need to keep the cards as flat as possible because postage is getting expensive.  To finish off each set I am going to make cute little boxes to put each set in.

I am having a ton of fun making these cards.

Here is the supply list for all of the CTMH Items used:

$14.50 1386 (Single color, 24 sheets per package.)

$14.50 1272 (Single color, 24 sheets per package.)

 

$14.50 1301 (Single color, 24 sheets per package.)

$4.95 Z1848 (5 yards)

The monogram stamp is a retired set Baroque Alphabet set E1006

Here is to hoping that the teacher love them.

Etsy Shop Is Open

If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or here on the blog  then you know that I am going to retire from the hospital at the end of December.  Mike and I have worked very hard together to get to the point where I can stay home and the family is very excited! 

I have had many people ask... What are you going to do with your time now?  Well...  I am going to turn my scrapbooking and card making into a full time business. I have been a CTMH consultant part time for the last 8 years so I am going to be ramping up the fun with CTMH but  today the first step is Etsy.

Yesterday I opened my Etsy shop (link to the right).  There are a couple of ways to connect to the shop.  Via my link that is in all of my email signatures or here on my blog.  There is a Etsy badge right under the CTMH shopping cart.

If you want to buy CTMH scrapbooking supplies hit the CTMH shopping cart.  Need a ready made card then hit the Etsy badge and you are all set. 

The Etsy shop has about 15 cards listed as of right now but that is only about a 1\3 of the stock so far.  I will be posting more today.  I am trying to keep the cards at around $3.00 each.

  If you are local to the City of Allen then I will be able to hand deliver your cards to you and refund your shipping amount.  There was no way to not charge shipping for my local customers.  

So get  a cup of coffee and then head on over to my Etsy shop and browse / shop  around.

I am excited to see what you think.

Join The Party… Even Easier!

I have exciting news!  CTMH has made it even easier to join an active online party.  Now when there is one online gathering on my website CTMH will link your online order with the active online party automatically. 

In the past the customer has had to remember to add themselves to the party or the hostess would miss out on that sale. 

If I have multiple open and active parties listed on the website – that will be the only time you as the customer will need to choose which party you want to join.

What does this mean for you and why is it so exciting? 

Customer:  You no longer have to manually choose a party as long as I only have one active online party at that time.  If there is are multiple online parties pick the one you want to join. 

HOSTESS: This means more sales for you!  For every online party I have had there has always been at least one order that the customer forgot to add themselves to the party and I have no way of adding a customer once the order has been placed.  This is lost sales for you.  Now you have a chance for even larger Hostess Rewards totals!

For November I have made myself the hostess so that I can be the test dummy before it effects your online parties.   I hate having problems with customer orders and would rather learn a new system with my orders than have a disappointed customer. 

Do not forget to place your orders out of the new Holidays From the Heart Christmas mini catalog.  It is only active for Winter 2013. 

So far my favorite is the Washi Tape! 

Clearly the Best: Wacky Washi

Blast from the Past

Artbooking Made Easy: Festive Mini Albums (S01E09)

Artbooking Made Easy: Fall into Artbooking (S01E07)

Beautiful Weather & Cards

It has been such a lovely 4 days off from work.

Day one: Sleep…. nothing but sleep!

Day two: The weather has been just right to have all of the windows open to let the fresh air in.  I have been listening to a book on audio and making cards till my heart was content. 

Day three:  Was not so fun.  I woke up with my seasonal allergies letting me know that a day with the windows open was a bad idea.    No worries a little allergy medicine and a box of tissues and I was back to card making.

Day 4:  Went to lunch to see my kiddo at her first job.  She has been begging for us to go up to the restaurant but I needed to give her some time to get the hang of things before her parents came in.   She loved having us there and her trainer told us she is doing a great job.   Then it was back home for some more crafting time.  

I think I have to be finished with the card making because I do not have anymore room in my box to carry them.  I have made 200 cards just for the craft fair this year and that does not count the cards that are already in the card racks. 

Pinterest has been a HUGE inspiration for me this year.  When I am making cards I normally make them in batches.  I figure if I am going to make the cuts for one card let’s do enough for 10 cards.

Then I set everything up assembly style.  When I am making cards I love to listen to books so I like to do one job (like inking) all at once so if I get lost in the book it is ok.  

Here are the cards that I have finished during the last 3 days.

 

This card come right from the CTMH Consultant side.  The original is a 3x3 card that we use at gatherings.  Just something small to showcase our products.  I wanted to upsize it! 

This card was found on Pinterest.  The original artist is Kim Richardson and the card is a baby card.  I loved the “bones” of the design so a change of papers and sentiment and you have a card that will work for Anniversary's, Wedding, Couples… The pattern paper is a retired sheet of “Bliss”.

Pinterest again:  The Original artist is Lynn ( http://themangoboysandme.blogspot.com)

Her birthday card is a more lively fun card but this card is a challenge for me.  I needed to work on my “flag skills” and I needed a more elegant birthday card in the card racks.    I am thinking of doing this card again using the “Dotty for You” papers for some personal birthday cards.

All of the cards that I having been making will be on sale

Fall Bazaar

Saturday October  26, 2013

First United Methodist Church

601 Greenville Ave

Allen, Texas 75002

9am – 4pm

Bring money!  You will get all of your Christmas shopping done at this one location.  This is a great craft fair!  This church is huge and it is filled with so many talented people.  Come check us out!

Designed Décor Frame Kit

Clearly the Best: A Burst of Creativity (S02E01)

Artbooking Made Easy (6): Designed Décor Flip Stand Album

Make Me Stop!

I think I have a problem… Pinterest, Old Catalogs, old Christmas Card Ideas, So many talented consultants… They all are making me a card making fool!

Fall Bazaar

Saturday October  26, 2013

First United Methodist Church

601 Greenville Ave

Allen, Texas 75002

9am – 4pm

It is getting closer and I am pretty sure I am ready but I have to stop making cards or my hands are going to fall off.

Here is what I have so far to take with me.

Two Card Spinners that are almost full

 

One very full CTMH Large Organizer

And some more cards that I made this week.  The Christmas cards are from the Frosted Workshop on the Go and the Halloween cards are from Pinterest.  I would love the give credit to the artist but the link just went back to Spit coast  Stampers and there was no artist name there.  If this is your original artwork – then you lit a fire under my butt with inspiration with just one card.  Thank you.

And one last card – this artist is unknown also but I fell in  love with the clean and simple artistry and had to re-create it. 

I used the Allen High School colors for the gem stones in the flowers. So simple that I never would have thought of it on my own.  

All cards will be on sale at the craft fair and all cards are:

In addition to cards I will have free Catalogs to pass out and a stamping station to try our stamps before you buy them.

Come out the see me I will be in the Gym.