Friday, February 28, 2014

Time Saver!!!!

I normally do not do this but I often hear that someone does not scrapbook because they just to do not have time. Well I think I found a way to squeeze some more time into your day.

Part of the “deal” for me to stay home was that we eat out less and I cook MORE. Well that sounds good in theory but you would not believe what I have forgotten after 17 years of working at night and outside of the home.

Enter my lifesaver:

I am not sure how to make a clicky thing so here is the web address:

http://emeals.com/

So what is emeals?

How It Works

How Icon 1

Pick Your Plan

To start getting eMeals, just choose a meal plan
based on your eating style, your family size
and even your favorite grocery store.

How Icon 2

Get Great Recipes

Every week, your meal plan arrives in your inbox —
complete with seven simple, creative, family–friendly
dinner recipes. Each includes an entrée and side dishes.

How Icon 3

Shop and Save

Along with the meal plan, you'll receive a detailed
grocery list organized by section and coordinated
with the weekly sales at selected stores.

How Icon 4

Relax and Enjoy

We take care of the meal planning, the grocery list and
the budgeting — while you take credit for making healthy,
home–cooked meals that your whole family will love.

They even match up the store sales with the coupons in your Sunday Paper.

I wish I could show you just how organized this is but I am having tech issues. So for this week I have a plan, I know what to buy at the store and I know in advance what I am making each night for dinner and all I had to so was print an email! No more spending half the morning trying to find what to make for dinner just to give up and eat out again.

Oh and an even bigger upside is that the picky teenager likes the recipes she see’s and is willing to give them a chance. I signed up for the classic meals for myself but once I get my cooking chops back I may switch over to low fat or low carb just to see if I can loose some weight.

You know me … I would much rather scrapbook!

(I am not getting paid to write this blog post!)

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Fast And Furious

In more ways than one……

It has been a very productive week. I was able to get several layouts done for Kaela’s 9th grade album and a couple of cards made up for the vendor fair in April. I have already posted the cards but wanted to post the layouts.

Here goes:

I like the general layout of these pages. The Ribbon Title did not come out the way I had it in my head but the idea worked ok so I decided to keep it.

Have you ever been on a bus (or 3) with about 300 teenagers? These kids were very well behaved but it could have been because it was still dark thirty outside and they were not awake yet. Smile

If Kaela looks like she could crawl under a table and go to sleep it is because she really could. I gave her some meds for motion sickness and all she wanted to do was get some sleep poor thing.

The Campus Tour took us to the dorm rooms. This is where Kaela saw for the first time how small those rooms can be – that you have a share a room and (gasp) you have to SHARE a bathroom!

As part of the tour the choir sang for member's of the college choir. Kaela was able to sing but was a little puny about it. (Mom feels horrible right about now).

For dinner we stopped at this fantastic place called Lamberts! If you ever get a chance to go---- run there as fast as you can!

As we were driving around town we saw the damage that the recent tornado left on Branson.

After dinner we were able to go and play with the go-carts. We were running so late that the company only had us in the park. They waited for us to get there and still honored our tickets for the full amount of the time we paid for. They understood that one of our buses broke down and then we had the feed the little monsters. While everyone was having a good time…. including Barbara who was kicking some teenage booty on the track the owners told us this was the best group of kids they have hosted. They were amazed at their manners. I was very proud of all of the kids for they way they were representing Allen High School.

For the go-cart pages I did something that I rarely do. I used my stamps on my layouts! I always forget that I can use my stamps for more than just cards. Smile

For these pages I even made my own background papers.

The stamp I used was:

Fast And Furious

Item Number: D1541

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Set of 10
Recommended My Acrylix™ Blocks:
2" × 2" (Y1003), 2" × 3½" (Y1009), 2" × 6½" (Y1010)

I bought this stamp because I really wanted the “bug” image so I can scrap the photos I have for Kaela’s first car. But look I found another use for it and I do not even have boys.

Yay Jenny…..

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Beautiful Sunday

This is one of those days that I love. It is warm enough outside that I can have my window open and I am listening to Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts. It is one of my favorite books. This is not the best photo but shooting into the light is always difficult.

The cards that I am working on are for my Aunt Jackie. This time she needs simple everyday note cards. And since I can not just make one card I am making multiples Smile

I am using a way retired cardstock (Ocean) and retired stamp from the Wings workshop but I am pairing it with a Cricut Artiste Collection Word Balloons stamp (D 1531) This stamp comes with the:

Cricut® Artiste Collection

Item Number: Z1790

I am not huge on word balloons but I loved the “Hi” sentiment so I just cut the word “Hi” from the stamp and now I am a happy camper. I am not worried about messing up this stamp because I know I was not going to use the whole image the way it was. Now it is more useable to me.

Once I stamped the sentiment in Black I am going over it with Clear Embossing Powder to make it pop.

Add a little Black Shimmer Trim and you have yourself a smart looking little card.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Etsy Shop Is Closed

Good Morning. I have some good news for everyone.

I have decided to close my Etsy.com Shop and this is good news for you. I opened the shop in November hoping it would give you a good way to see all of the cards that I make and to be able to order from the comfort of your home.

What I found out was that because of the service fees each month I had to raise the price of my cards then you add in the postage to mail the cards to you and one little card was over $5.00! That is way over the price range I wanted. I had a couple of face to face sales but none on the website and I think it was the cost per card that was doing it.

So here is what I am doing.

1. Lowering the price of each card back to $2.00 each (I like that price range)

2. I will still be selling cards at crop

3. I will still be featuring and selling cards at craft fairs

4. If you are in a pinch and need cards just call me. I can load up my creations and you can have a personal “hallmark” experience in your home. You will not even have to get out of your jammies!

I am really happy with this decision and it will free up some time to work on making more cards. I love how this works out.

Happy Crafting.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Artbooking Made Easy: Sweet Smiles

Friday, February 7, 2014

Score Big with Embossing

I just learned something about our cardstock that I did not know!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

It is Snowing!

Ok that really has nothing to do with the post other than the fact that I am able to look at out the window and see pretty snow today. This is our one day of February snow that we get each year. Smile

On to the progress that I have made on the 9th grade album. When I started this thing I was thinking it was going to be on the small side because I did not have much to work with. I think I was wrong.

In my last layout post I was talking about how I have custom Allen High School scrapbook papers and other goodies that I have been saving over the years to make Kaela’s high school album. This is the bucket I am working out of along with using CMTH papers depending on what the photos call for. It is a bit of a challenge but I think I am making it work.

Kaela took these photos at school one day on her phone. Not the best I have ever worked with but hey you work with what you have. Smile

I have a post it note over one of the kids because his Mom does not want his picture posted. But since they are buds and have known each other since kindergarten Kaela wanted him in the album.

This is a gain a combination of the custom papers and CTMH. The layouts are all from the CMTH How To Books that I love to use so much. I am mainly using Reflections but the others pop in from time to time.

Reflections™ Scrapbook Program (Soft Cover)

Item Number: 9037

Alyssa was staring in her first Drama production and we had to be there!

These next couple of layouts were fun for me for a couple of reasons. First the way that I was able to get the photos and second just remembering that day. This was one of the first dates that Kaela and Jarrett ever went on – at the park. They were gone for a while so being the parents that we are we went to spy on them. I had my trusty camera and was able to get some great shots until they heard the click of the shutter. I was busted! (hee hee) After that it just turned into a photo session with Mom and Dad.

I was going to fill in the trees in the banner (goldrush area) but my fingers told me they were going to fall off if I did not stop stitching. So I stopped. I may go back in later and finish filling in the tree line to make it more woodsy.

So that has been my crafty time the last couple of days.

How has yours been?

Keep Crafting!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Shipping Options

I am not sure about you but I have been having trouble with the “Economy” shipping that CTMH offers – it is the one that is $4.75. I have personally had this problem the last couple of months that I have ordered this way and thought it was just me but when it effected another Allen customer I called the CTMH home office and this is what they told me:

CTMH sends out the package by Fed Ex and then Fed Ex delivers the package to your local Post Office. The Local Post Office then delivers it to your house.

This is where the problem begins…

NOTE: This is my experience only.

The Allen Post Office then takes up to a week to deliver the package to my house. When I call to locate the package the Post Office tells me it is on the truck for delivery everyday.

But I found a solution!

This time when I placed my personal order I upgraded one level to Fed Ex Home Delivery (about $7.95). I placed my order on Saturday (1st) and it will be delivered to my house by Fed Ex on Friday (7th).

(Happy Dance)!!! Smile

Now I am back to the fast shipping that I have become spoiled to with CTMH. I can not tell you to upgrade your shipping but if you are having similar issues with getting your goodies in a timely fashion this might be a good option for you.

I think I am also spoiled to Amazon’s lighting fast shipping but that is just me!

Happy Crafting..