I need inspiration . . . mostly to get upstairs and clean up my scrap room. No way I could work in there right now! There was some sort of explosion . . . Christmas cards, a wedding project, a Christmas project, you know, just the usual! lol

Still kids that need adopted for Signs And Wonders Xmas party! If interested call, text, or email me!

I'm back . . .

After a very long absence . . . I'm BACK! Life has been somewhat crazy for our family lately. Seems like it's that way for everyone these days. I haven't scrapbooked in forever! But I'm starting to get the bug again. Christmas cards need made. Presents to create. Time to have some fun!!!

SDU at Michaels

Yea! Finished my certification process. Now just gotta learn everything in the book, make samples, and get people registered for Sept classes!

Little girl no more . . .

My youngest daughter's new hair cut! It's shorter than it's been since she was 2! Last year we cut it up to just below her shoulders. I nearly had a heart attack then. I guess that little girl with the hair down to her waist really isn't coming back! It's really cute - now that I'm breathing again! lol

SDU . . .

I'll be teaching in the Jackson Michaels, also!

EK Success - Scrapbook Design University

. . . will officially start at Michaels in Flowood, MS in September with ME as instuctor! Yea! It's official now so I can share the news!

Crop Connection . . .

Wow! This weekend was so much fun! Nadine, Andrea, and Deanna always do such a wonderful job putting everything together. And what sweet ladies they are! Thanks to all of the croppers who made this such a memorable first-time event for me! Can't wait to see you all in January!

Crop Connection, Pearl, MS

Hey, ya'll! Come see me at Crop Connection this weekend! For more info, here's the link:

Crop Connection

June Kit

Kit is done just haven't gotten pictures posted. Had to go on vacation. But kit is gorgeous! If I have any left after Crop Connection, they will be in my Etsy shop!

Pearls and silver and gold! Oh, my! June kit is beautiful!

June kit will be out soon and it's going to be gorgeous!

My definition of crisis management:. Bops or Baskin Robbins ice cream!

Shea Arender the Illusional Legend

This is a promo clip for one of the concerts my hubby is playing for. I'm not a big Elvis fan but Shea is a great entertainer! If you like Elvis, Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Michael Buble, Harry Connick, Jr., you'll really enjoy this show! 

Oh, and of course the band is awesome!

Etsy Craft Party!!!

Anyone in the Jackson, MS area interested in an Etsy Craft Party to celebrate Etsy's birthday? @etsy #craftparty : june 18!

Send me an email or a message on Facebook. I have some locations in mind if we can get a group together!

Pics from May kit

Unfortunately it's rainy and cloudy today so I'm having problems getting good pics of these layout. But these are the ones I've gotten done so far. They are really simple but I didn't feel these pictures needed a lot.  I still have lots of product left and more pics of these events to get done!  As always, pictures are clickable for a bigger/better view.

The first 2 are my granddaughter, Jolie with my neice, Lauren. Lauren was playing with her on the playground at church. Jolie loved it. I layered some of the tissue paper diecut flowers and used the green glitter glue in the kit to make the swirls. This stuff is a lot like Stickles but came from Michaels. The little word pieces (love, for you) are cut from another paper in the kit. The "constant motion" is from stickers in my stash. I love the blurry picture of Jolie at the bottom. She is so busy it's almost possible to get a picture of her not moving! That picture just typifies what my pics of her usually look like! lol

The next 2 are my grandson, Gavin. We usually go to Myrtle Beach each spring and there is a couple who build a huge sand castle every year. I took these pictures from the balcony of the condo on the 7th floor. Gotta love a good zoom lens! In the pictures, Gavin is making sand angels and walking on the beach with my husband to see the sand castle The boats and anchors are cut from one of the papers. The "memories" diecut is included in the kit. I did add the "sand angel" stickers. Notice the cute little alligator brads? Those are included!

The next 2 layouts are my grandson, Freelyn playing in my brother's backyard on Mother's Day this year. He was so enthralled with the my nephew's, toys, the tire swing, and the bikes in the backyard. I hand cut the hearts out of one of the papers. And the green bandanna paper is a square 12x12. I just cut out the middle to use as a diecut on my page. I'll use the border I have left on another layout.

May Kit at last!

Finally! May kit is listed on Etsy! Still working on samples. Will post those probably tomorrow! This kit is full of cute Martha Stewart cardstock and lots of other goodies! Fun!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/48006427/may-whole-kit-and-kaboodle-scrapbook-kit

New Kit

Still trying to get the pictures of my kit done! Took them Sat but for some reason the lighting just hasn't cooperated with me. So re-doing them today. Cute Martha Steward papers and great for those school activites you need to scrap or those summer outdoor pics! That's all I'm saying for now! Heehee!

'Things can appear to grow worse, but if you conquer despair, no deeper pit remains to trap you.' Of Men and Angels, Bodie Thone

Crop at Michaels this Fri 5-9! Space is limited so sign up and join us!

Any Hero Cards

Wow! I actually got something made! Operation Write Home is doing awesome work sending cards to our service people for them to use to send back home to their loved ones. If you aren't familiar with them, check them out! These are called "any hero" cards. I will write a note in these and add them to a box of cards. Operation Write Home will make sure both of these are delivered to one of our military people. Cool, huh?

These are both made on a kraft paper base. The papers are MME Bohemia line. Stamp on the pink square is Inkadinkado Flower Sentiments. Ink is Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.

Yea! May kit is done! With very cute Martha Stewart papers! Now to get pictures and samples made.

Do you ever just wonder what you're supposed to be doing? As a Christian, I know God has a plan for my life. Some things I never question. I know what I believe. I know where my allegiances are. But sometimes, more often than I care to admit, I just wonder where I'm going. Or if I missed a turn in the road somewhere and am on an extremely long detour. Lost and wandering in the wrong direction. Or just lost and not going anywhere. I've been in one of those phases for several weeks now. I don't like it. I'm ready to get wherever it is that I'm headed. I've never been good at waiting for anything. Patience truly is a virtue that I totally missed out on. But God is good and I know His plan is always better than my feeble ones. So, wait I will. Even if I don't like it.

With that said, for those of you who noticed there was no April kit, hopefully the May kit will be up and ready for purchase by  this weekend! But not if I don't quit whining and get off of here! So off to try to finish it up and get off this detour before I go completely mad!

New prayer request. Beth is in a small town in TN stuck in a hotel for 2nd day due to flooding. She was trying to go see Chuck.

Great. My dog has learned to unlock the deadbolt. Next she'll be inviting strangers in and saying, 'welcome!'

PRAYER NEEDED! Latest word on Chuck is liver damage. They won't start the treatments back next week as planned. Still in hospital. Blood count not improved.

Urgent prayer request- Chuck Nutt having surgery now to remove port used to administer cancer treatments! He has a blood infection!

I've been MIA!

The last few weeks have been just insane! I know, my life is always insane but it really has been worse than usual. For those of you who have migraines, you understand when I say I've had about one a week for several weeks and they've been lasting for days. Sort of cuts into everything in life, ya know?

On a brighter note, family life has been very busy as well! So I'm posting a few pics of things that have been going on with us! As always, pictures are clickable for a better view if you are so inclined!

There was an Easter Egg Hunt at church. Jolie had so much fun!

Easter was a blast for my husband and me this year. Each year we do a scavenger hunt for the Easter baskets. This year there were 7 adult children (including spouses) and 2 grandchildren participating in my mom's not so huge house and yard. It was quite comical watching the parade of people going from one clue to another. These are a few of my favorite pictures from this event. Of course there are lots of others but didn't want to bore anyone with all of them! lol

 My son, Lee, "Mom, you've got to be kidding!"

 Daughter Andi and Crys on the right, "What the heck does that mean?"

 Liz, daughter-in-law on the left, I have no idea what she's thinking but the look on her face is priceless! And the next one is daughter, Brittney on the left looking at me like I've lost my mind!

At Mom's house the laundry room is right next to the kitchen so all the overflow dishes for big dinners goes in there on top of the washing machine. This is them moving everything to find the clue inside.

So this is them digging in the bags they found!

 Gavin with a basketball egg.

And a Spider Man book!















On  another day, I took my granddaughter for a few pictures while the flowers were blooming and before everyone mowed them down. She was much more interested in the sticks than the flowers! lol

 Gotta love the sunglasses!  But my favorite is the one below with the sticks!

Friday, my son got married! It was just a simple, fill out the paperwork and *boom* you're married! They will have a service later this summer but it was so cute to see how excited they both were.

Just attended the cheapest, fastest wedding ever! I now have a new daughter and a married son!

Wow. Worked in the yard today. Hope I can move tomorrow! lol
Crys and I had so much fun at Art, Eats, and Beats Thu night! It was great to hang out with my daughter and walk through all the shops. And the food samples and music were great, too!

Congrats! Today is tax freedom day! Everything you've earned from Jan to today has gone to pay taxes!

Art, Eats, and Beats tonight in Fondren! Come join the fun and shop local!

Monday blahs

I'm not sure if I'm just trying to recover from last week getting ready for the craft show or all the pollen. But these headaches are really getting next to me! Went to chiropractor today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Lots of new stuff to post! Coming soon!

Don't forget to come shop at A Hand Crafted Affair tomorrow! 9am to 5pm, St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Brandon.

Frantically working away!

Saturday is the local craft show that I'm participating in and I'm frantically working away to make sure I have enough items to sell. Isn't it funny how when you aren't HAVING to get layouts done, you can come up with tons of ideas? But when you feel pressured to create, you hit a creative block? Or is it just me?

Ok, back to work. Sleep deprived and very dirty house. But that will have to wait until next week! lol

If I don' get back to here before then, hope everyone has a very happy Easter! I'm looking forward to a great meal with my family and fun egg hunting with the grandkids! I know we use it a lot at Christmas, but seems to me that this is really when we should remember the REASON FOR THE SEASON! Just remember, as miraculous as Christmas was, salvation for the lost came through the death and resurrection of our Lord. God's blessings to you all!

Michaels helping Operation Write Home

We had a great turn out last night for our first crop at Michaels, Flowood store! We had a total of 6 croppers and these ladies graciously used some of their crop time to make cards for Operation Write Home! Thanks so much to each of you! We have about 75 cards made now and will be sending them soon!

Operation Write Home

For those of you who are card makers, check this out! This organization sends cards to our troops for them to send back home to their loved ones! It's an awesome project! For those of you who are local, we are doing this at Michaels in Flowood on a monthly basis. Let me know if you are interested and I'll get you the dates. OR you can send your cards to me and I will make sure they get included to mail in to OWH.

 http://operationwritehome.org/

Yea!

Yea! One of my cards made the glitter treasury list by Color Boutique! The list is here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=120302

And this is the card:

A Hand Crafted Affair

Hey, if you're in the area, come shop and support a great cause at the same time! See the details at the link below. 20% of all sales will go to support a mission trip to Honduras!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=369389630249&ref=nf

March Kit - finally!

I finally have my March kit completed and WOW is it a WHOPPER!!! This one is seriously a huge deal! You won't believe what all is in this! This kit is all about fun, bright colors, bff, pirate princess type stuff! Great for all those colorful pictures from spring and summer!

So, starting with the colors - as always I started with the color of the birthstone for the month, aquamarine. Add in some Me & My Big Ideas papers in March's blue/green birthstone, aquamarine, plus juicy lime green, bright fuschia pink, funky orange and sunny yellow and you have a great collection of spring/summer love!

Then pile on the embellishments with 12 yards of ribbon and fibers, almost 100 brads and eyelets, lots of Colorbok chipboard, painted wooden buttons, sticky stitches (not counted in the 12 yards of ribbons/fibers!), and tons of flowers, and WOW! You have one MEGA kit and kaboodle of stuff! And it all goes together!!!

Take a look at my etsy shop for a complete listing of everything in this kit. Just the embellishments alone would cost you more than the price of the kit!

I've added lots of extra for the same delicious price of $20.00 this month for a few reasons which are:

1. No samples this month. Sorry, getting ready for a local craft show and just no extra time.
2. These Me & My Big Ideas papers are adorable. BUT they are not true 12x12. They are more like 11 7/8. This bugs me but what can I say?
3. It's national craft month! So I'm helping you be a little extra crafty at a thrifty price! Hey, every little bit helps, right?
4. Cuz I just felt like it!

So happy crafting everyone!

No kit but a journal . . .

Nope, no kit yet. But I do have a journal done. And I've started a new account with ArtFire.com where I listed the journal. Any of you familiar with this site? If so, let me know what you think!

Anyway, here's the journal. As always, the images are all clickable to see a bigger view.

Yikes!

Wow, is it already March 16th? Seriously? Yikes! I haven't gotten my March kit ready to list yet! I try to have that done by the 15th each month. Looks like it will be a long night tonight!

Experience is a brutal teacher. But you learn. My God, do you learn. - C. S. LEWIS

Say a prayer for my friends Chuck and Beth today. He is having tests for cancer.

New tip . . . getting unstuck!

Many of you scrapbookers are familiar with a product called Un-Du. Or is it Un-Do? Oh, well, no matter.
It's a wonderful product. You may also know of all the hoopla over it being taken off the market, then put back on the market . . . but no one can find it . . . etc, etc.

If you aren't familiar with it, here are the basics:  It's an adhesive remover/deactivator that works wonders when you accidentally stick the wrong thing in the wrong place on your scrapbook page. So this is what happens - you pour this liquid on your page and it deactivates the adhesive so you can lift off the item without damaging your page. While it's wet you can gently rub over the sticky and remove it completely from your paper.

However, you may be wondering why I'm telling you this if you can't find the crazy stuff in the stores. AND it's pretty pricey when you can find it. SO, HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!

Are you ready for this secret? Plain old lighter fluid that you can buy at any grocery store or dollar store does exactly the same thing! Yep, the kind they use in cigarette lighters, about 3 bucks a bottle, is perfectly safe for your layouts. (Not the kind you use in your grill! It may be the same stuff but I'm not sure, so, just sayin . . .)  IT DOES NOT HURT YOUR PAGE OR YOUR PICTURES!  It completely evaporates, leaves no greasy residue, and does not change the color of your paper. It works for tape runners, xyron, glue dots, and just about any kind of sticky mess you can think of.

What it does NOT work on is dried, liquid glue. Usually, that is. I haven't tried it on EVERY glue but that's been my general experience. And I haven't found anything that it damages. And believe me, I've unstuck some pretty unsightly messes!

Obviously there are common sense warnings - like don't have a candle burning close by when you open it.  And you probably shouldn't be frying bacon when you use it. Not that you would be while you're scrapbooking, but just in case. And if you smoke, um, well, hopefully you can figure that out. So if you're a pyromaniac, this is not a good product for you. But for the average scrapbooker, it's really awesome! I have even used it to remove an entire piece of paper that had been run through the xyron with permanent adhesive. I was altering a notebook and had already stuck it down and it wasn't straight. Yep, soaked the whole front of the notebook with lighter fluid. Took about an hour to completely dry out but no damage done! So, now you know how to get UNstuck!

PRIMA FLOWERS CLEARANCE!

Michaels in Flowood has a bunch of Prima flowers on clearance.
Bottles of Iced Got Flowers in Fresh Green - reg. 6.99, now .99!
The Calypso Tins in green, orange, yellow, and teal- reg 6.99, now 3.99!
Not that I would contribute to any of your addictions or anything.
Nope, not an enabler here.
Just being informative.
Just sayin . . .

I did a layout!

. . . and it's NOT for a kit! I know, shocking, huh? This is my youngest dd, Crystal, in her graduation pics from K-5 and highschool side by side. She's such a sweetie! I love the K-5 pic so I used it in 3 sizes. After all, she's 19 now. I'm obviously not mailing them out to relatives at this point! lol As always, pictures are clickable for a better view!

 

I used A Child's Year Cricut cartridge to make the scalloped oval. It had a diploma in the center but I cut it out to put her name in. The scrollie things in the corner are from the Home Decor Solutions cartridge. The font is Plantin Schoolbook. I used the tag curler for the little "congrats" tag on the ribbon.

The next one is a layout I did about a year ago. (Yeah, the picture is older than that!) But I still love it. So decided to post it here. It's of  my granddaughter, Jolie Grace, when she was 3 months old. I've blogged about her birth before. She truly is a precious little gift to our family! That's her mom's hand and her dress in this picture is a newborn size. She was a little bitty thing! 

I used paper glaze on the letters, around the picture, and on the edges of the tag to give them shine. I sewed the layers together. Each layer has a different stitch pattern. Then I used chipboard flowers and glitter, Jolee's mini flowers, and some Michaels flowers and butterflies. The tag has a rub-on but I don't remember where it's from. The papers are mostly Martha Stewart, a K&Co., and can't remember what else.

Sometimes when God opens a door the hard part is knowing we have to close another.

Sunny and 60 degrees! Welcome back southern style winter!

Wow! Just figured out I can update my blog from my phone! Awesome!

Free Download at Creativity Prompt

Check out the free download of cool journaling tags on Creativity Prompt.

http://www.creativityprompt.com/fancy-a-freebie-printable-journaling-labels/

Feeling unproductive . . .

Ever just have one of those unproductive weeks where nothing seems to come together for you? This has been one so far. Friday night Crystal was up all night with stomach virus. So since I didn't go to bed till 4am Sat morning, I got nothing done all day. Of course I did manage to babysit sweet little Jolie for a couple of hours Sat night. But no creating done.

Sun night hubby was up all night with the bug. So Mon I was a zombie again. But I tried really hard last night to make this cute little purse mini book. It just wouldn't cooperate. I finally put it aside and gave up and went to bed.

Today I worked this morning then came home and crashed. Tonight I'm sitting here on the laptop. Nope, not creating. I really should get busy. Really. I should. Seriously. Maybe if I just pull some papers out and look at them. . . .

A little toot!

I'm so excited about this! I got a sweet comment on my layout at Practical Scrappers! Thanks so much ladies! You can see it in this post here:
http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2010/02/flower-challenge-winners.html
Yea!

RAK at Snobby Walrus

Snobby Walrus is a new online company that I came across. They are having a give away this week. You can see it here:
http://www.snobbywalrus.com/1/post/2010/02/our-first-rak.html

Butterfly challenge

I decided to enter one more on this challenge.
http://bellichallenge.blogspot.com/2010/02/belli-challenge-85-butterflies-and.html

I stamped the butterflies and the "hello" with red ink then embossed with clear detail embossing powder. I cut them out and bent them a little bit to make the wings stand out a little. 

Etsy Inspired Challenge

Etsy has a challenge up using Spin Designs as inspirations. They are awesome! This is my inspiration - all of their beautiful silhouette designs. Check them out here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/spindesigns

This is my take on a silhouette style card:

Crystals 1st tutu layout

This is a picture of my youngest daughter, Crystal. I think she was 5 years old. I gathered the tulle and sewed it to the title. The papers are Martha Stewart embossed papers. I LOVE these papers and we don't sell them any more at Michaels. Boohoo! The flowers around the oval I cut in half and stacked them then added a gemstone. They are silk flowers from Michaels. I'm entering this in the flower challenge at Practical Scrappers. You can see them here:  
http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2010/02/this-weeks-challenge-is-flowers.html

All images are clickable to see a bigger and better  view!

!