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Saturday, January 30, 2010

CTMH STAMPS ARE CLEARLY THE BEST!

Here is a FABULOUS video made by a very talented fellow CTMH consultant to show you why CTMH stamps are CLEARLY THE BEST!
If you would like to try some yourself, just click on my CTMH website on the right and go to the Shop Online tab, then scroll down for My Acrylix Stamp Sets to choose from a huge selection!  And, you can browse the current Idea Book/Catalog  while you're there to see some great ideas for ways to use them in your own projects.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Inspiring video for the day!

If you love dogs too, you have to see this!  Just had to share this video, get out the kleenex!

Friday, January 22, 2010

January 2010 scrap challenge...4 down, 6 to go!

I am soooooo far behind on my photos! Are you like me? Do you have shoeboxes full of photos that deserve to be archived for all time? I decided to challenge myself this year by joining a monthly scrapbook challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers (link on the right). I have to set a goal each month, then post my work. It is really helping me to stay focused!

I am working on a school album for each of my kids. This week I finished 4 pages for my son, and as you can see by the dates, they are from 2005! I'm only a few years behind schedule! Oh well, I'm actually glad I waited, because I got to use the Felicity paper kit which is this month's promotion from CTMH. It is perfect for the preschool layouts because Shane's favorite color is orange and it coordinated beautifully.

This is the first page of the school album. I left spaces to add photos each year, with the cropping dimensions noted in the last square so I don't have to measure every year. I have used CTMH My Reflections 'Notebook' Level 2 paper pack and My Stickease for this layout, and My Acrylix stamps from the September Word Puzzle set. I just love how CTMH products coordinate.


These are done with papers from CTMH Felicity Kit. They are only available until the end of January! You can find them at my CTMH store link on the right, or you can go to the National Papercrafting Month link on the right and leave a comment for a chance to win a free kit every day this month! The papers in this kit are beautiful, and the diecut page shapes are truly unique.


I am spending the rest of today in my craft room scrapbooking, maybe I'll finally
get these school albums caught up this year!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

What's YOUR favorite embellishment?



I love embellishments! If I had to pick ONE, I'd have to say hemp or waxy flax. You can use it for so many things...to dress up a card, to sew on a button, to hang a charm. There are so many uses. Here are a couple of cards using hemp to embellish.







Want to win some free stuff? Just go to http://nationalpapercraftingmonth.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment telling us about your favorite embellishment!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Man Made Card

I just know all of my cardmaking friends will get a kick out of this!
OMG too funny!

Click on the link to watch a funny cardmaking video:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/537FF9DA20B44560845DEE157D1F9DD6/man-made-card.aspx

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Post #1: Who the hell are you?

Hello! I am a perfectionist. Just had to get that out of the way first! According to Wikipedia, I am a "Normal perfectionist...one who derives a very real sense of pleasure from the labours of a painstaking effort", as opposed to a Neurotic perfectionist with OCD issues (although my friends and family may have a different opinion!)

I have always been crafty, I get that from my Grandmother. I remember her drawing iodine bunnies on my scrapes and bumps, (long before Band-aids had celebrity endorsement by Barbie or Spiderman).  She taught me how to draw bunnies, how to sew and crochet, and I'm pretty sure any cooking talent I have came from her. I have tried out most crafts with varying degrees of success, but my favorite ways to spend time are making papercrafts and decorating cakes.

I have discovered that I need to create. As a working mom to young kids, I never had much time for crafts and I felt like I was losing a part of myself, like something was missing. But now that my family is a little more self-sufficient, I have converted our spare room into my own crafting space for sewing, scrapbooking and cardmaking, and am much more content!  Many people would think "What a waste of time!", and some days maybe it is, but my favorite quote is by John Lennon..."Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."  For me, crafting is my therapy, my "me" time, my time to meditate. I can go to that place where creativity drowns out stress.  I can enjoy wasting some time.  Oh sure I have those days where nothing seems to look right (Hello! perfectionist here, remember? Sometimes I swear I am just torturing myself.), so then I just organize my stash of supplies. Did I mention I have a wee bit of an organization compulsion? (I get this from my mother!) Oh, and also a tiny bit of a gotta-have-that-latest-tool compulsion (which I get from my father!)

I fell into the cake thing by accident, I was trying to be SuperMom and make the best birthday cake e-ver! As I googled cake images to copy I thought to myself "How hard can that be?" First mistake. Then I googled cake decorating techniques, and watched some pros on youtube. Now I'm blogging....

Much of my inspiration has come from the blogs of other, much more talented people than myself. My intentions with this blog are to challenge myself, to polish my skills, to share, and maybe inspire someone else in the same way. So, if you like ink and icing too, I hope you enjoy my blog and please leave comments!
 
I'll be adding more photos in the weeks to come, but for now here's a taste of what I like to do.....
 
 
I made this altered chocolate box for my niece. It was supposed to be a gift box to hold a collectible bear figurine that I give her every year, but it turned into a keepsake box that matches her room. I used CTMH Daydream papers, cut to fit, with a good coat of ModPodge to coat it all.  Her name is heat embossed in white daisy, and the tags were cut on my cricut. Adhered and added more ModPodge!  Then I punched holes in the lid and knotted some ribbon from the inside to create the handle. Chloe loved it!




 
This is a scratch carrot cake with cream cheese icing, royal icing daisies, and ladybugs made of skittles. A coworker asked me to make a birthday cake for a party they were throwing for her mother-in-law. She liked flowers and ladybugs, so this is what I came up with. The party was yesterday, so I haven't heard how she liked it yet...I really hope she liked the cake, I think a cake should taste better than it looks!


Here is a close-up of the ladybugs, aren't they cute! I raided the leftover halloween candy and found some skittles, saved the red ones and ate the rest!  I used black food coloring and a teeny tiny paintbrush.




I'd love to hear any comments!

Please standby.....

Ok. So I finally entered blogland. Please bear with me as I get set up!!!