A thousand things to say to catch up....

I can't believe I have neglected my blog for so long!  Life has been so crazy for me lately , I just didn't have the time or energy to post here but that changes as of today! You see,  I have been struggling with a job I had come to hate and it was really bringing me down.  So, with love and support of my DH, I quit my HR job and will now have more time for blogging, crafting and creating! Yippeeeee.  I will be searching for ideas on how to create a job to earn some cash doing what I love best....crafting and teaching.  So if you have any ideas of what you would like to see me do, please share!

I have also been doing the Provo Craft demos every Sunday at Michael's since May.  It has been fun and I do love sharing my crafting passion with customers.

This job last until end of June. We are waiting to hear if the schedule will be extended...keeping my fingers crossed on that.   So far I have been demoing the Cricut Cake, the Expression, the Gypsy and this coming week I get to demo the Yudu.  Getting some hands on with all of these products has been fun.  Plus I have met so many really nice ladies that are part of the Cricut Demo Army that share the same crafting passion.  The talent in this group is off the charts and so inspiring!

Plus I have been busy with all the High School and College Graduation Parties of  some of our friends kids and our best friend's 25th Anniversary party. I did get to be a little creative with packaging up their gifts....and yes, I used my Cricut to create  these customized gift bags.

Joan got an amazing scholarship and  is going to Notre Dame...yes, she is a brilliant girl !  I did her bag in ND colors...the green on the bottom left says "Go Irish"!  She was so thrilled when she saw this bag.  Plus the gift inside of a Vera Bradley laptop bag...in you guessed it...blue, yellow and green !  Good luck Joanie...hard to believe you are going off to college...seems like just yesterday you were a little girl.

And Kristen got a scholarship to Houston Baptist University.  She loves Pink so I couldn't resist creating her a big PINK gift bag with her initial on it!

And I did create a gift bag and 25th Anniversary Plate to celebrate our best friend's Bob & Anne special anniverary. DH and myself used to double date with these two in high school so we all go back a loooooooong way !  Wishing them at least another 25 years more of wedded bliss! 

So you can see that I have been a very busy girl.  Still no excuse... I will do better posting and sharing creative ideas that I hope inspire you so stay tuned !

NSD Done Right !

Ok, first you may want to know what is NSD, right?  Well it is only one of the most IMPORTANT days in a scrapbookers life....National Scrapbook Day of course !  LOL

Ok, for those of you who didn't have May 1st written down on your calendars to celebrate this auspicious day...I have a few pics to share of what I did to celebrate with my scrappy friends.

We started the day off bright and early by going to By Designs Scrapbook Boutique. One of our favorite PINK PLACES on earth !

LtoR: Jill, Debbie, Michelle, Alisa

We started off by doing their three fabulous Make N Takes created by their design team.  We had so much fun playing with some new products. 

Here is one of the projects we did.

And of course we couldn't resist doing a little bit of shopping too! See, we even left some for you :)

We then went back to my house for a lunch of homemade taco salad and strawberry shortcake for dessert....So no pics of that, cause WE ATE ALL OF IT !  Yum !!!

We spent the rest of the day enjoying each other's company and scrapping.  And like I said earlier....It was NSD Done Right !  Hope you got to spend your day finding INSPIRATION with your friends too.

I'M Back From Provo Craft Training...whew!

The reason I have been MIA is that I was selected to be a Provo Craft Demonstrator at Michaels.  Woohooo!  They selected about 200 of us nationwide to kick off a campaign that starts this coming Sunday, May 2nd.  We are going to be demonstrating.....get this..........

THE BRAND NEW CRICUT CAKE MACHINE !!!

I am so excited for this opportunity!  We get to demo the Cricut Cake the month of May every Sunday afternoon from 1 to 5 pm.  Select Michaels nationwide were chosen to have demonstrators. 

Plus get this....we are getting paid to do this!  Can you imagine, getting to play with one of the newest Cricut machines on the market ?  I am one lucky lady for sure.

To top it all off, they flew all of us to Chicago for a three day training class...all expenses paid!  We were treated like Cricut Royalty :)  We are working for Campaigners which is part of ASM.  They are supporting this huge campaign for Provo Craft.  We had training sessions on many of the Provo Craft products such as the Cricut Expression, the Gypsy, the Yudo, and of course, the Cricut Cake.  I learned so much about each of their products. 

Here are a few pics from the weekend. I will post a few more later this week.

Training Room Full of 200 wild and crazy Cricut Lovers !!

Lots of New Friends Were Made During this Trip.

 Here are a few of us from all over Texas. We even named ourselves the Cricut Mafia !  LOL

After a long day in training we managed to have a little bit of fun !

32 of my new BFF...of course, we had to see a scrapbook store while in Chicago. 

We all piled into a stretch hummer limo and made it to Windy City Scrapbooking.

Thanks to their wonderful team that stayed open late just for us to come to their store. 

We had a blast getting to know each other and of course shopping !

Here is one of my new BFF,Michelle, getting out of our stretch hummer.

As you can see here, Windy City Scrapbooking is an amazing store!

And of course, everywhere I go, I always look for my 2 Peas Message Board Friends.

Here is part of our group that got together and did a swap.

As usual, the 2Peas group was full of creativity and wonderful swap items were given. 

Thanks ladies. I LOVE everything I received from you !

This post is getting too long...so I am cutting myself off.  Check back tomorrow and I will share some info we received from Provo Craft during our training weekend.

I will be at the Michael's at Bissonnet and Weslayan here in Houston. Come by and see me if you are in the area on Sunday afternoon. Would love to see you and show you the Cricut Cake ! If you know anyone who might enjoy this fun new machine, tell them to come on by.

I am a Guest Blogger !

We had a great time taking our granddaughter Bianca to the Houston Zoo over spring break a few weeks ago.  Recently I was asked to be a Guest Blogger on the zoo blog and showcase our trip. The article was posted today...go to HOUSTON ZOO BLOG to read about our fun zoo adventure.  Please leave a comment on the blog post there....I have dreams of being a frequent blogger on the site since we really enjoy our outings there and also supporting the zoo.  The number of comments I receive might help give me another shot as a Guest Blogger...thanks! 

Stay tuned for a Zoo Mini Album I am already working on about our trip.  You will want to come back to see the album when I finish it since we captured Bianca and  some of the animals doing some interesting things that day !

Here is a taste of some of the fun we had...different pics are on the HOUSTON ZOO BLOG posting.

SWIMMING WITH THE FISHIES...ISN'T THAT COOL !

TESTING HOW THE ANIMALS THAT LIVE UPSIDE DOWN FEEL

JUMPING FOR JOY...ON A SPRINGY FOREST FLOOR IN THE CHILDREN'S ZOO

"I HAD THIS MUCH FUN AT THE HOUSTON ZOO!"

Wishing you all a wonderful and INSPIRING time this weekend.

Lambs, Chocolate Bunnies and Easter Chicks...Oh My !

I am having so much fun with my new Cricut Easter 2010 cart...LOVE it!

We are having more people than originally planned for Easter Dinner so I don't have enough Easter napkin rings to go around (they were flower felt ones I made ages ago)...so, I had the brainiac idea tonight to make new ones using shapes from the Easter cart. Lambs, Chocolate Bunnies and Easter Chicks, OH MY !

I hope my family loves the Easter Napkin Ring Holders as much as I do!

Directions for those that are INSPIRED to make this quick Easter project:

I cut the shapes at 5 inches and used a glazed pen to highlight their bows and a 2" X 6" green strip of cardstock rolled up to form a little tube, stapled using Tim's Tiny Attacher and then glue dotted on to the back of the die cut shapes.  Super, super easy and fast ! 

You could easily make these as place holder to depending on the placement of the paper ring.

HOPPY EASTER everyone !

Come Join the Craft Carnival !

Have you ever done a craft blog hop?  If not, you are in for a real treat. For those that have blog hopped before you know what great inspiration you can find on other peoples blogs. 

My blog is being featured on the Craft Critique Spring Carnival. Just click HERE and then click on each listing to go to that person's blog and see what Spring Craftiness they have to offer !

I also wanted to share with you some additional Spring Craftiness I have been up to lately.  With Easter just around the corner...April 4th...it seems sooooo early this year, I created this table scap to get the spirit of Easter started early at our house.  Enjoy and hope you find some INSPIRATION to get your Easter decor out soon.

I can hardly wait for my family to sit down to Easter dinner

surrounded by all these pretty Spring Colors.

More Spring Projects to Share

I promised in my last post to show you the other two projects I made using the Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board. 

The first is a Spring Paper Medallion...It was so easy to get even scores using the score board to then fold to create the total medallion shape.

Once I scored the 12X2 1/2 piece of patterned paper, I then accordian folded it.  I made two of these.

After I made the two accordian folded pieces, I then manipulated the paper until it formed a fan shape with each piece and then glued the two fans together to get the medallion shape.

After I made the lovely Spring Paper Medallion, I then used some circle punches for center pieces and a cute crocheted flower to the center. 

Tada.....now it is ready to hang or use as a gift package topper.  You could easily create very large medallions and then used them in banners to hang up in your house and decorate the fronts to your liking.  Don't be too shocked if you see me make my next banner using this technique !

     

The Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board not only includes instructions to make various size cards and envelops but also includes instructions to make your own Paper Gift Boxes.  That was sooo exciting, I decided to give it a try now that I had "made friends" with the scoring board.  Here is what I ended up making out of scrap paper I had laying around.....

It is a cute 4X4 Paper Gift Box with a lid that lifts off. You could put lots of small treasure in this box to give to someone special.  And it was super-uber-easy to make in just a few minutes.  Seriously !  How fun would it be to use up more of your patterned paper and create adorable Paper Gift Boxes for your family and friends.  There are directions for making both smaller and larger boxes too that are included in the instructions. 

Oh, and I added one of those paper roses that are all the rage now using a large circle shape, cutting in a spiral and then wrapping the curly strip until it forms the flower.  I also made a couple of paper leaves to complete the look.

Hope these projects INSPIRE you to get a MSC Scoring Board and make some awesome projects of your own.

A Crafty Review Just 4 You !

Even though I have been making scrapbooks for a number of years, I had never really gotten into making cards with my scrapbook supplies. While I have admired those who use beautiful patterned paper to make their own cards and envelops, I was frustrated at the complicated templates and scoring products I had tried. Repeatedly over the years, I had abandoned my dream to join the card maker ranks until recently.

Low and behold while on a recent trip to a local craft store, I found a scoring system that didn’t look so awkward and promised to be easy to use. It was the Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board. I have loved all my other Martha Stewart Craft purchases so I was intrigued they had a scoring tool. Retail was only $19.99 USD but with my craft store coupon it was even less expensive so I decided to give it a try.

I joyously share this great find with you.

After reading the easy instructions, I was ready to make my first card and matching envelop. I chose to make a standard A2 card and envelop. The Scoring Board comes with everything you need except paper and adhesive to make a card base and envelop. Plus it has handy built in storage for the scoring tool in the tray on top and envelop template fits on the back of the base.

Crisp, clean lines are achieved due to the great scoring tool included. As you can see in the picture, the scoring tool (on left) is thinner than a traditional bone folder (on right) and fits in the scoring tracks perfectly. I love that the folds created are also thinner and not as bulky as those made by a traditional bone folder.

The large scoring base easily holds both small and large paper up to 12 X12.

You place the envelop guide in the upper left corner of the base. The guide lines are easy to read and after locating the appropriate measurement, it was simple to place the scoring tool in the right place and run down the length of my paper in one simple motion.

Once the envelop was scored, it was easy to follow the directions and snip the sides of the folds as directed. The scored lines were easy to fold and made a nice sharp edge all around the envelop.

Tada…I had made my first envelop ever and a card to match !

This was such an easy and fun tool to use, I immediately jumped into creating a few other projects that would benefit from using the scoring board.  I will post those another day. 

Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board
Pros
• Extremely easy to use right out of packaging
• Clever built in storage for scoring tool and envelop template, which are included
• Easy to read markings for scoring
• Crisp, clean, thin lines made with scoring tool
• Large base surface fits up to 12X12 paper and light weight to transport
• Easy to follow instructions for various size cards, envelops and gift boxes included
• Instructions are in English, Spanish and French

Cons
• The grooves were a little hard to clean out when I accidently got adhesive in them

I couldn’t be happier with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. In fact, I think it is one of the best purchases I have made to expand my crafty projects. Don’t walk, run to get one for yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

What kind of projects do you make that could use a score board ?

Signs of Spring are EVERYWHERE !

I LOVE Spring Time, don't you?  Most of all I love the colors of spring...greens, pinks,  yellows, blues, purples are exploding in nature everywhere you look.  So INSPIRING !

My eye naturally finds these wonderful spring time colors no matter where I go.  And who could resist creating a special project show casing not only spring time but the most important spring time event, Easter!  Can you believe that Easter is only a few short weeks away?  WOW, this year is going by so fast.

Here is a special Easter Egg shaped mini album I made to showcase a family Easter gathering.  The album in actually an egg shaped corregated/mylar garland that I bought at Jo Ann's Craft and Fabric store.  See you can find inspiration in unusual places too :)  I used my Cricut to cut some of the shapes, American Craft patterned paper, Cuttlebug embossing, various stamps and lots of cute Easter embellishments I have collected. 

Hope this Eggstra-special Mini Album INSPIRES you to make a spring time project soon. I taught this class last year at a local craft store so if you have any questions about putting this project together, please post a comment and I will happily respond.  Have a great week !