Can you believe that it's February already? Wow... It looks to be a busy month for me.
First of all, I am celebrating my Blogoversary this month. I've been blogging on Typepad for 4 years this month. You can see my first post HERE. I went back and looked and I started my Blogger blog in June of 2006, but I didn't post much crafty stuff til later on. I've never really celebrated it before, so I choose to go with the Typepad Blogoversary.
I will be having a big contest next week. Come back Monday for the details.
In other news, this month I will be traveling to the great state of Washington, for what I think is going to be the wildest Pajama Crop I've ever been to! Jessica from There She Goes is playing hostess to a bunch of wild crafty women, and I get to go and play with them. I'm super excited to meet these ladies in real life, as so far it's only been the Facebook side of them! And I think I already know some of them a little too well. Thus, my thinking it's going to be wild! I also get to throw in a bit of family time while I'm there so I am pumped!
On the home front, we are going to be putting this house up for sale. My To-Do list is already longer than my arm, but there are some things that need to get addressed before I let anyone come and look! EEk. On that note, the blog might be quieter than normal as my time will be busy with these chores. I am tackling a DIY project I hope to share with you tho... Kind of crafty. The new house is going a lot faster than I thought, so I better quite procrastinating. Well, maybe tomorrow. Tee Hee Hee....
I hope that you can join me this month and celebrate the fun.
Hey there - I do not have anything to show you myself today. At the last minute I got invited on a shopping trip Saturday. I love that!! :D I finished up some sewing projects and cleaned up my space for Project Life. However I do have some new stamps to play with, but we are off again today for the dentists. Might be a quiet week on the blog.
Kim O’Connell is one of the newest members of the RCC Design Team, but you’d think she’d been here from the start! With a wit and humor that keeps us in stitches, Kim is a fabulous artist with tons of techniques up her sleeve. So this week, Kim is challenging us to use the paper-piecing technique somewhere on our creations. Now, if you are using fabric, that’ll work too…just be sure to “ cut and piece” some part of your creation.
And who would be a great sponsor for this challenge? Why, Birdie Brown would be!!
Hello everyone! My name is Torico, the owner of Birdie Brown, and you may know me as an illustrator for There She Goes Clear Stamps. I'm a mom to two kids who live in Japan. I've loved doodling since I was a child, and have a passion for card making now! At my Etsy shop, Birdie Brown, I'm offering whimsical and cute (Japanese "kawaii") digital stamps created from my original illustrations. Speaking about card making, I love "simple & cute" design. So, most of my digital stamps are designed to match such a style. If you also like "simple & cute" style, you'll find something you have been wanting on Birdie Brown!!
Torico will give one random winner their choice of 3 Digi Images from the Birdie Brown store!
Your creation can be anything from cards, quilts, sewn items, paper crafts, paintings! *** Be sure to have ribbon, bakers twine, jute twine, lace, thread (basically anything that comes on a spool). ***
Hi there - Happy Saturday. We are going to enjoy a lay weekend, the boys are going to watch the wrestling tournament and maybe we will get to see the new Chipmunks movie tonight. (We are big fans of the Chipmunks!)
I've been slowly working on some new Valentine cards for the Coffee Shop.
I wanted to play around with some Glubers that I recently picked up. I have seen the cutest flowers made with them. And if you want to know more about them, my friend Jessica made a nice tutorial HERE on them. I used some ribbon from The Ribbon Carousel's kit and rolled it on the Gluber. This is a pretty scrappy card... I used some Crate chipboard sticker words for the sentiment.
I don't like this whole card as much, but I wanted to use the flower I made with the larger Gluber. I laid the ribbon out more and I think it's very pretty. I used a black Sparklet in the center.
This is my favorite of the three. I love the ticket with the check boxes, and thought a hand written Do You Love Me? was in order. The ribbon and pin are from the Ribbon Carousel and the rest of the elements are from the MW kit.
I hope you enjoy your weekend. I'm back in purging mode so who knows what will be going out of the house this weekend! (Watch out Greg!!!)
We didn't quite blow away yesterday, but it was close. Darn the wind!!
We got our To Do lists done for the days yesterday so we had some extra time to play. RC was helping me work on some cards in the afternoon.
I was blog surfing and saw the new challenge at There She Goes. I thought I could handle hearts and love, so I dug out my Buckets Full Of Love set from TSG.
I wanted it to be super simple, but I wanted a little something on the background of the kraft. I hope that you can get the LOVE off the patterned paper to finish off the sentiment.
I die cut the sentiment with a small MFT label die. After I colored the bucket and hearts, I cut them out and popped them up on the front.
Now, for the background, I wanted to show you how I made the hearts impressions. I used the Hearts A Plenty die from MFT and laid it flat on the cardstock.
My sandwich is my A Plate, B Plate, Cushion, Cardstock, Die, B Plate. The cushion needs to be underneath the cardstock and under the cutting edge of the cardstock.
Roll it through the Cuttlebug and Viola! You have a cute impression. Works with most dies.
We got to venture out to the new house yesterday. The kids had not seen the inside since the walls had gone up, so we wanted to check on the progress. The french doors came in and were installed, and the other exterior doors should be in now too! WOO!
But I thought you might enjoy my new craft room. I am loving that view, the light and then the large closet!! I'll keep you posted on the progress, I can't wait to show you the doors I have for this room!!
The kids are out of school, so we are working on some projects that are due tomorrow for a couple of them.
I thought I'd pop on and share my latest Project Life pages. I also wanted to share I got my Feb. 2012 Cards Magazine (I've put a link in the sidebar ------> ) yesterday in the mail. My tag is in there..it was a happy mail day!!
I went with some of the older Life Documented items from Memory Works. I drew the colors from the long decorative strip.
This part of the week I documented some accomplishments from school for the boys. David got an award for bringing up his grades and RC got a 100% on his spelling. The weather was also worth documenting and I threw in some details about Pinterest. I made a couple recipes last week that I'd found on there.
We didn't really have a busy week, but there was a lot to document this week.
Lots of developments about the house last week. Plus David was getting special rides from grandpa on the bus and rides home from me after school.
We also celebrated my Great Aunts' 93rd birthday. What a lady - she is flying back to her winter home in Arizona tomorrow. I wish I were that agile at 40 let alone 93!! I documented that with a journaling card from my SMASH books. I also added a photo of Greg's football party, and the weekly date.
This week, we’re changing things up in a Non-traditional kinda way! Suzanne is challenging us to use NON-Traditional colors for our creations. Making a valentine card? How about NOT using red or pink, or not too much of it anyways? Creating a gorgeous winter scene? Try it with creams instead of whites. Whatever you’re making….try a non-traditional palate as a challenge!
So, what else can we do in a Non-traditional manner this week? How about a JOINT challenge (One challenge, two sponsors on two challenge sites, twice as many chances to win) with our amazing sponsor this week, the fabulous Paper and Such!
Paper and Such is an online store that just opened in May of 2011. Shortly after opening, we decided to begin our own stamp line, and it's been nothing short of exciting. Our stamps are clear photopolymer, and are made right here in the USA! Our HOT SHOT line is a line of chicken stamps - if you haven't seen them, be sure to check them out. We are constantly adding to our stamp line, and love to hear what our customers want.
Paper and Such will be giving one lucky randomly drawn participant a $15 gift certificate to their store! And…..RibbonCarousel.com is sponsoring their challenge this week, so there is twice as much inspiration and twice as many chances to win! And yes, you can enter your creation here AND at the Paper and Such challenge.
I made my card for my Valentine... So this challenge was perfect. I went with a few more manly colors. However the flower might be a bit girly. :D
I kept things simple. Paper and Such carries the My Minds Eye Rosy line of papers so I choose to work with them. I used the Mat Stack dies and the MFT Prima Donna dies.
The flag is from the MME Rosy accessories pack, and I took the brad out to use it on the flower. I finished it off with some twine and a scalloped strip.
I wanted to take some time to discuss the differences between some monthly kit clubs. Maybe for my own personal decisions, but I wanted to share on the blog too. I recently told you I purchased the Studio Calico monthly kit. And I wondered out loud if I wanted to go with the SC kit or keep up with the Memory Works Express kit. So I did some research on the subject.
Originally, I wanted to share this with you in video, but I didn't make one of the SC kit before I dug into it.
Memory Works is an At Home Party like company, and I'm not getting into the details of that. You do need a consultant to order or you can become your own consultant. I use MW for my own personal hobby, but if you would like more information, I can get it for you. Studio Calico is a open website, where anyone can order from anytime.
Price $34.50 or $29.50 with a subscription*. Plus shipping. *I found that if you cancel your subscription you can be charged $15 fee depending on the date canceled. Obviously, they would keep charging you and sending you a kit each month if you subscribed. I've listed the Subscription Benefits below.
What are the benefits of subscribing? • Order add-ons 12 hours early during a special presale • Multiple orders are bundled automatically and combine towards free shipping when you order between the 27th and end of the month. Your subscription will not be assessed the shipping fee if the combined total (including subscription price) is greater than $75, or $99 for international customers. • 10% off online classes • Special promotions and discounts given periodically
PROS - They offer a large variety of Add On kits and supplies, that can be combined to get you free shippping. They also offer a large variety of other supplies in their online store. There is no commintment to anything, no signing up. I don't know if this is a PRO but I have seen peaks of their new CHA goodies and I'm in love.
CONS - Compared with the price, you are not getting as much as the MW Express kit. (See Below) I personally wish there were more ribbon. Cannot skip kits you do not want.
{1} ½ Yard Brown with Cream Dots Ribbon (Creative Impressions)
{1} ½ Yard Soft Pink and Cream Gingham Ribbon (Creative Impressions)
Cards
{1} 5.5 x 8.5 Cherry Splash (Bazzill)
{1} 5.5 x 8.5 Hot Fudge (Bazzill)
{1} 5.5 x 8.5 Date Swirl (Bazzill)
{1} 5.5 x 8.5 Walnut Cream (Bazzill)
{1} 5.5 x 8.5 Raspberry Splash (Bazzill)
{5} 5 3/4 X 4 3/8 Natural Envelopes
Pros - I guess the only Pro v. the SC kit is more for your money. A larger variety. Love the there are cards and envelopes in every kit so I can use left overs to make a card or two. MW offers a large variety of product from top brands. Carries their own Simple Stories line of product.
Cons - Must sign up under a MW Consultant and kit is shipped to consultant. Otherwise, you can sign up as a consultant yourself: $75 per year minimum to keep status. No Add ons, but depending on when you order you can combine your order with other product. There is no promise of that, and no savings on shipping.
These are my own personal findings, Pros and Cons to my taste and liking. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them. I know there are many other options too...these are just two that I was looking at.
So, what have I decided to do? I DON'T KNOW!! :P I'm still up in the air. I will honestly tell you that I am leaning more towards the Studio Calico kit. What sold me? I think it's the Add Ons and seeing the new product lines for 2012. I've been getting MW kits for almost 2 years (maybe more) and while I love the variety, I am open for change. I'll keep you posted.
In the mean time, I hope that this helped some of you. If you know of any other kit clubs, I'd be willing to check them out and analyze them as well. :)
Hey there. Hope you are enjoying the weekend. I am a bit too much, laying around on the couch watching The Vanilla Ice Project marathon.
I wanted to share a couple things with you...
Due to the weather, Corinna was not able to get product ready for this Friday's Fresh Off the Spool, so she's offering up what she does have in stock ON SALE! YAY...
Wanna see what I got last week?
I picked up some Maya Roads Trinket Pins, Kaiser Craft Sparklets, KC Mini Crochet Doilies and this vintage ruler twine.
However, yesterday I spent the day working on some doll clothes for Missy's babies. I am no seamstress but they made her happy.
This was the outfit I made yesterday. I wasn't really thinking too hard about it so I didn't match the thread on the pants. She doesn't care... she loves it.
OK, go shop at the Ribbon Carousel. I'm going back to see what Ice is up to now. *wink*
TGIF - I hope you are ready for the weekend. It's been bitterly cold here, with highs the last two days still below zero. Yuck! So I've been holed up in the craft room, working away. I am happy to report I am nearly caught up on the kids'2010 scrapbooks. I'm going to take a new approach from now on with the artsy side of PL coming out. I cleaned up my room, organized my papers better, whipped up the following birthday cards and my table is almost spotless. I'm about to make it messy again, and work on some sewing projects to kick off the weekend.
When I was cleaning up/sorting out my papers, I found a MW Kit that I hadn't really jumped into yet. I believe it was the November kit maybe. It's not on the webstore anymore. Anyway, it is very shabby chic to me. Usually the kits come with A2 size cards and envelopes. This month, there was 6x6 sheets of cardstockand some small 3x6 manilla envelopes. So I decided to make my cards 3x6 and use the envelopes.
This card is for my great aunt. She's going to be 93 on Sunday and we are having a small get together. She's been living in MN and wintering in AZ and fell ill after Thanksgiving, so she's been here in MT since. She's heading home to AZ on Wednesday. I'm kind of jealous.
I used the printed paper on the base and sprayed the white doily with Mister Hueys spary mist. Then I added the January jotter and trimmed them both off the side. I hand wrote the sentiment and added the cute ribbon and wooden star. Pretty simple.
I made this card for my bestie whose birthday is today. We get to celebrate on Monday night with a girls' dinner. YAY!! I kept this one really simple, because I wanted to show off the banner papers. I also die cut some MFT banner dies on anothe sheet of patterned paper. I added another one to the envelope.
I used the Bliss sticker...my friends business is called Bliss for the Home. Then I covered up the flower on the sticker with hard resin flower. Super simple...
I have to tell you a funny about ordering some doilies to work with.
I placed an order on Amazon the other day for some things I wanted. One thing that ticked me off is that it all comes from different places so I had 3 packages from one order. Oh well. SO I ordered some new straws for my Starbucks cup and they were too short. :( Next day I get this huge box and I couldn't remember what I had ordered anyway, and I open it and the doilys are HUGE! Oh man.. Fail twice. So I have some large almost 12x12 doilies to use up.
Have a great weekend... I'll be back Monday to share!!
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