Cricut Magazine!

Did you know that the people who bring you Scrapbook Trends magazine, Cards magazine, etc. is releasing a new magazine just for the Cricut? I've been getting newsletters about it for a few months. Well, I just got a newsletter letting me know that you can get this magazine online as a digital issue!! Check it out here. You can buy individual issues or get an online subscription. I've gone ahead and bought an issue and am looking forward to being even more inspired with ways to use the machine.

I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, just passing along the info in case anyone would be interested.

I'm off to check out the magazine...

I Got Some Flower Soft!

I went to a scrap/stamp show and there was a booth there selling Flower Soft. Kathi had used it recently and so have other bloggers. It looked intriguing so I was excited to see it demo-ed. I picked up a couple of containers, this one is called Sweet Pea. This is all I was able to do with it today. The booth was also selling paper covered wire. You put the glue on the wire, add the Flower Soft and set it aside to dry. I made 5 pieces. Then I tried to figure out a way to wrap it up like a bouquet because even though they sold the pieces to wrap it, I didn't buy any and now I'm sort of kicking myself. This is a triangle with the edge punched using a Martha Stewart border punch. This is as far as I was able to get before my crafting time ran out today. As I am typing this up I did a Google Search and came up with the Flower Soft website and even the project I saw demonstrated is posted! Very cool.

I hope to finish this project tomorrow. I also stopped by a booth that sold the punches needed to create the flowers as shown in this book and this book. I picked up a few punches and worked on creating a rose, but it's still drying, so it'll also have to wait til tomorrow to be completed.

We got invited to a friend's house for dinner, so I'd better scoot for now. The rain/snow has finally stopped and the sun is trying to peek out. Yea!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to have something "complete" to share tomorrow...

Jeanne

Milk Carton Container...

Hi there! Well, I wanted to finish this yesterday but ended up spending the entire time both girls were in school cleaning up their room. Ugh. It had gotten so bad, I knew it would completely overwhelm them to do it on their own. Plus, I was able to weed out some things without them all of a sudden deciding they HAD to keep it after not having touched it in forever. I'm sure you know what I mean. I didn't think it would take the whole time, but it did. Sigh...guess I'd better stay on top of them picking up after themselves, huh? (Insert slightly guilty and blushing, but not sos happy, mom face here).

I still have some more things to go through in there, but decided today I wasn't going to do it. I finished the project I started on Sunday instead. I picked up a tutorial on Becky Robert's Inking Idaho blog. Look on the right side of her blog. Following the tutorial led to this...

Cute, eh? I think so! Imagine the milk cartons from elementary school and you have a good idea of the size of these. I'm going to fill them with Easter goodies for my friend Kelly's boys. The directions and photos in the tutorial are very clear and easy to follow. There's even a cool feature that allows you to open the milk carton from the bottom, preserving the decoration on top. I thought that was nifty-and no, I'm not gonna share that part.

I used CTMH's Clover Meadow and Dutch Blue cardstock as well as Papertrey Ink's Summer Sunrise cardstock. I also used DCWV's Glittered Stack (bought a long time ago) in colors I thought would be suitable for young men and still spring looking. My Scallop Circle Nestabilities and some circle punches were used for the tags as well as CTMH's White Daisy grosgrain ribbon. The ribbon on the handle is from Bazzil and I found that in the Hot Spot bin at Archiver's a few months ago. I used my Cropodile to punch the holes for inserting the ribbon.

The stamping is done in Memento's Tuxedo Black ink (picked up at Hobby Lobby) and the images are from CTMH. The chick is from C1146 Super Set. The bunny is from D1141 So Sweet Seasons and the happy easter is from C1222 Seasonal Thoughts. I think the sets might be retired by now, though. I used my Koh-i-noor pencils, odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps to color the images.

To make the hole in the handle here's what I did (since I don't own any of the SU punches that Becky used in the tutorial) I marked my cardstock at the measurements provided and then punched circles with the outermost part of the circle hitting the mark. Then I took my craft knife and a ruler and cut from the uppermost part of one circle to the other. I did the same on the bottom parts of the circle. This way you can achieve the same type of look.

I think that about covers this project. If I've left anything out, please ask away.

Remember my grrrrr moment with the yarn for my project the other night? I found a different yarn to try the same part of the project and it went together like a breeze. So, I'm tickled about that. I'm getting close to finishing this project and then I'll share. I'm getting pretty excited about it.

The snow yesterday didn't last too long, thank goodness, but the wind picked up so it just wasn't the most pleasant of days. Today is sunny and nice, but April is slated to come in with a storm. I hear we have a couple of storms waiting in the wings, too. I'm not really complaining though, as I know we really need the moisture. We had wildfires earlier this winter (which is highly unusual) due to the dry conditions resulting from very little snow. So, it's all good, albeit inconvenient.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I highly recommend Becky's Tutorials if you are of a mind to make something like this!

Jeanne

Jessica's Wild Hair - Digi Layout

Happy Monday! The girls have been contented playing around the house, so I took the opportunity to work on a layout of Jessica's Wild Hair for Spirit Week.

Journaling reads: Jessica took a little stroll on the wild side for Spirit week. She wanted her hair in ponytails like Amy's. The thing is, Jessica really doesn't like her hair brushed because she says it hurts. After only 3 ponytails and lots of "ows," she was done. I managed to squeak one more in. She was proud of her "wild and crazy" hair. March 2, 2009

I used another kit from Kay Miller Designs. This one is called Cranberry Infusion. I also used a template from Collection 25. I love templates because they give me a direction in which to take my layout and I get to scrapping much more quickly. So you see...even in digi scrapping, I am a copier! LOL

Because I've been re-bitten by the digi scrapping bug, I just signed up for Jessica Sprague's self-paced class on editing photos. I've thought about it for a while and since today is the last day for the discount, I figured I'd better make a decision. So we'll see how it goes. I absolutely love Jessica's classes. She makes digi stuff so easy with her videos and step by steps. If you are even remotely thinking you might want to dip your toes into digi, I strongly recommend taking a class of hers. You won't regret it for a minute. The extra bonus is you have access to the classes FOREVER so you can go back time and again to refresh yourself.

I probably should get going and work on completing some to-dos that need getting done. Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Jeanne

Two Cards & Don't Blame Me if you are Enabled...

Happy Saturday! We had a dusting of snow overnight, but the skies are clear and sunny today. We may hit the 60s tomorrow...

I went to Archiver's so I could redeem the coupon I had for a free stamp set (for being such a good customer...), but I didn't do either of the make and takes. They didn't impress me all that much. There was a $10 project I could sign up for if I wanted, but I didn't want to make that either. So I wandered around for a bit. I was able to get two free studded stickers from Imaginesce, but I didn't take a picture of them. I guess I was within the first 50 customers that showed up this morning, LOL They are clear stickers with little tiny gems on them in a shape. 

 I did find something new that I think is very neat, though. These are from Bo-Bunny and are called Chunky Charms. I bought them in clear, but you can also get different colors. I bought it for the label-y looking items on the left side, although the swirls are fun too. You are supposed to use them ON projects, but I'm going to use them as stencils as you will see in one of the cards I am posting today. They come nested together like that, but they are individual pieces.

Since I was close by, I went to Joann's again (for the yarn for Wubbzy...sigh). Wandering around there I saw a card by the Cuttlebug items and fell in love with the sample. I decided to make it, but couldn't find the focal piece, which was a butterfly. I discovered the butterfly is a two-step die that they only sell online! Grrrr. I didn't know that while I was out and I stopped by Michaels to see if they had it, but no luck. I did find a super cute die of a turtle from the Cuttlekids line on clearance, though and used that instead. You'll see it in a minute. While I was going to the register to buy the die, I passed a brand new display of EK Success punches. I mean the ones that were introduced at CHA. AND one of the punches was just like one I've only seen through Stampin' Up

This is the kind that you can lock closed and it's supposed to take up less room for storage. I think they even have storage cases for them at Michaels.

I'm tickled to have found it and yes, I used a coupon.

 

Now for the cards since you've been so patient reading through my jabber.

You can see how I used the Bo-Bunny "charms" as a stencil here. The cardstock is orange but I wanted some shimmer so I painted over it with Angel Wings Shimmerz. Then I sponged orange ink on the edges. The image is a digi one I got from Pink Petticoat. I colored it in using Koh-i-noor pencils and I didn't use any odorless mineral spirits on this one. I was inspired by this video on the Hero Arts blog so I thought I'd try it and this is the result. I added  a bit of Shimmerz to the image, too. I pop dotted the frame for dimension. Oh and the ribbon is an Archiver's Hot Spot find (ie, $1.99). It's Making Memories ribbon, probably an old set and they want to get rid of it. I think the package said MM Kids/Max on it. I'm too lazy to go check right now. The "label" for Happy Birthday is a stamp set from Joann's that is by Lah-di-dah and it was in their dollar bin! Cost me a whopping 97 cents for 8 stamps! But I really liked this one to go with the frame shape. Those images are stamped in Orange ink (CTMH). The dp is from the DCWV Citrus matstack.

And finally, here's my version of the card I saw on display at Joann's. I hope you can see the black cardstock is embossed, and the sentiment is embossed. I actually don't own the 'thinking of you' folder that was in the sample, but I like 'just because'. I added the punched frame using Fiskars' Apron Lace border punch (which is now being sold at Joann's-shoulda waited, darn!) I added a bit of a black mat to set it off. And of course, a little bling. You can see the cute little turtle die I found. I never paid attention to the Cuttlekids stuff (maybe no one did, and that's why they are on clearance?). But looking for that butterfly die made me 'see' them for the first time. I used Citrus Leaf and Clover Meadow cardstock in addition to the black. You get the solid body die and another die for all the pieces. The solid die has little cuts in it so you know where to put the edge of the pieces so it all lines up. Pretty nifty.

Okay, did you make it thru this huge post? I hope so! I'm gonna close for now without credits (I think I covered it all in the post & if I missed something, please ask) because my fingers are tired.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Don't forget, I'm just a messenger of what I find...don't go blaming me if money leaves your wallet...ha, ha!

Jeanne

                                                              

Fun Discovery to Share...

Happy Sunday to you. I'm getting ready to sit down and watch the Super Bowl (so I have an excuse to work on a yarn project), but I wanted to share something I discovered today. Well, the idea isn't new, but using what I had is new to me.

I was doing a couple of errands for hubby and ended up near Archiver's, so I told him I was going in. I found they had some NEW Fiskars border punches. One was the Scallop that I've heard about and the other one (the one I bought) is called Apron Lace. There are others, but these are the two I focused on. Anyway, when I got to the checkout the manager saw my selection and showed me what she created that morning using the same punch. Maybe you've seen on blogs the squares with the scallop punched in a way that makes a border-using SU's version of the border scallop punch? Well, that's what she showed me only with the new Apron Lace.

I hurried home to try it and to see if I could do it with other border punches...

I've noted on the squares which brand I used and the size of the square...in case you can't see it well:

top row: Martha Stewart (MS) 3 inch, Fiskars 3 inch, Fiskars 3 inch
middle: Fiskars 3 1/8, MS 3 1/8-punch worked well here, too, MS 3 1/8
bottom: each is an MS punch 3 1/8 square

I don't remember the names of all the punches, so hopefully you can see them well enough to recognize those you may have in your stash.

I just eye-balled that the square was centered...using the diagram on the front of the punch as a guide. I'm sure you could measure it, but I wasn't worried about being that precise. Just punch one time on each side and this is what you'll get!

I tried to work on a card today, but couldn't focus, so this is all you get. Hope that is okay! LOL

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the game if you watch it, or simply enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Jeanne

Paper Embroidered Flower Card

Happy Monday to you! I hope the beginning of your week is going well. We woke up to snow falling, softly at first, then much more heavily. We were expecting snow, just not so much in such a short amount of time! Steve said it dumped about 3 inches in an hour! Steve's commute took a couple of hours, where it's normally about 30 minutes, max. It was done by noon and the skies cleared, so it's all good.

I have a card to share with you that I have to confess I absolutely love! I worked on it yesterday and was SO looking forward to sharing it, but I didn't get it done and had to finish it today.

I was completely enthralled with this card made by Joanne on the blog called Mainly Flowers. Joanne creates the most beautiful paper flowers! Well, when I saw the daisy and stitched card, I HAD to find that pattern so I could recreate it. The link Joanne put up didn't have the pattern posted any longer, but I took a chance, and emailed the owner and asked if I could have access to the pattern. Ann, of Ann's Paper Art, very kindly emailed me and included the file! Then she posted the pattern again. It's a freebie, folks! If the link doesn't take you to the pattern, just click on the free patterns button on the left side of the screen. Here's the card, which is a case of Joanne's, but I love it!

I've done this technique before, but it's been a long time. It's not difficult at all, but takes time, patience, and tape! I printed off the pattern and used a T-pin to prick the holes. I used a foam mat so I wouldn't mess with the table top. You do have to be careful not to poke the holes too close together (or rather make the holes so big that they blend into another hole). Then you create the pattern using a needle and thread. I used one strand of DMC embroidery floss (from my counted cross-stitch days). Ann has directions on her website that explain the technique well.

To make the daisies, I confess, I bought the punch specifically for this card. I had some punches but I wanted a larger flower than the punches I owned. I had a 50% off coupon from Joann's and picked up the Fiskar's squeeze punch called Oopsie Daisy at Michaels...the store is closer. My flowers are a little larger than the inspiration card, but I think they work well. I punched two flowers for each daisy and inked the edges of the petals with CTMH's Baby Pink ink. I also sponged some Sweet Leaf in the center. I punched the PTI Lemon Tart cardstock with a 5/8 inch circle punch and inked the edges. Then I rolled a tool over the cardstock to shape it. The tool looks like an extra large embossing tool with the name  "Studio By Sculpey Style & Detail Tools Set Of Three" (picked up at Joann's). Link above should take you to the item on the website. Anyway, I rolled the tool over the cardstock circle on a soft surface and it shaped the circle enough that I could add a small pop dot to adhere it to the center. I hope that makes sense. I used a smaller tool from the same set on the flower petals to allow them to curve up just a bit.

I used a Corner Adorner punch called Iron Eagle to punch the corners and finally used the Martha Stewart fern leaf punch.

Textured cardstock is from Hobby Lobby (white) and DCWV (Fall Cardstock Stack).

The card size is 6x6.

I think that explains everything. I had so much fun creating this one and want to thank Joanne and Ann for their inspiration and help!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Jeanne

I Felt Like Coloring Today...

Hi! Back again with a couple of cards this time.

Just to give a little update from the mouse post, I neglected to put a cover on the trash can, so I'm sure you can imagine how nervous I was driving with the mouse behind me. I don't think my back touched the back of my seat the whole time. LOL (I know that is silly, but some things you can't help). I get to the dog park and grabbed hold of the trash can, one hand at the top, one at the bottom and I FLUNG that rodent as far as I could. I saw him sail through the air and then run as fast as his little legs could carry him in the opposite direction as me. Whew! A lady noticed what I did, so I felt the need to explain. She was all kinds of impressed and will remember the tube idea. She complimented me on catching the mouse in a "humane" way. LOL I didn't explain that being humane was a coincidence. LOL

Alright, onto the cards. Yes, there are two! I do have to share a little back story to go along with the cards. I tried something new to me today. I've read about digital stamps recently on different blogs. The one that comes to mind most is Lauren Meader's blog, My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence. She's colored images that she downloaded from a site called Squigglefly. I was really intrigued, but worried that the images printed from the computer would smear, especially if you colored with markers. A very nice lady read my comment on Lauren's blog asking about that and she emailed me to assure me that she hadn't had problems with smearing especially after she heat set the images with a heat gun. This was before Christmas and you all know how sidetracked I got with the yarn projects. Well, today Lauren posted about a contest at the Pink Cat Studio blog and you could download a Lily Fairy image free from the site. I thought she was adorable and remembered what I'd been told about printing off images and heat setting. So, I downloaded and colored and this is the result:

Isn't she adorable? I'm not very good at coloring as you know, but I still think this came out flippin' cute. I even added some Prisma glitter to her wings, but you can't see that too well, unfortunately. It's pretty sparkly in real life.

I just bought a couple of Ornare templates from Ellen Hutson's store. I had a bit of Christmas money from my dad and have been eyeing these templates for a while. She had a one day sale on Monday and I took advantage of it. I was quite impressed when the package arrived yesterday. That's pretty fast service! I tried to take a close up of the piercing, but I don't think you can see it too well. I didn't want the holes to be too much, so I just used a straight pin to poke the paper. It might be just a tad too small to make the holes. Oh well. I got this and another template, but the second one must be out of stock as I don't see it on the website right now. I just used my Bic and Sharpie markers to color as well as the Flesh colored Tombow marker. The dp is from the Blossoms and Butterflies matstack. The cardstock is all CTMH, Clover Meadow, Bubblegum and Watermelon. I used a Martha Stewart border punch and a little bling to finish off the card.

When I decided I wanted to try to color a printed image my brain started whirring. I have a bunch of DJ Inkers CDs and discs full of images that I used to use when I was teaching and when I used to write the newsletter for the MOPS group I used to belong to. I hadn't used them in forever, it seems. So long ago that the stuff wasn't on my hard drive. But I knew where they were located and I brought them into the house and manually installed what I could. The floppy discs are so old, the computer doesn't recognize the information on them! Anyway, after spending a bit of time doing that, I printed off a bunch of images to color. I got one done! Here it is:

Again, I used the same markers as before. Something different I did, though, was run a piece of pink vellum thru my Snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder. To be sure it would work, I had a piece of white cardstock behind it. Then there are those little snowflakes in the corners. This was a fun find at Michaels. They have their Christmas stuff on clearance for 70% off. As I wandered the store, I came across these packages of "garland" that were originally $1.29. That's a good price for how many snowflakes and little iridescent beads were attached. Figure the 70% off that price and a package was just 38 cents! Whoohooo! I probably should have bought more than one package, but just how many cards will I truly make that would need snowflakes? Anyway, I just cut apart the flakes with my scissors and added them to the card with glue dots. I'm tickled with how it looks.

On both cards, I pop dotted the focal pieces to have them stand out just a bit more.

I hope you've enjoyed my little foray into creativity today. I sure had fun creating! It's always nice when you feel the mojo.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your weekend concludes on a great note!

Hugs,
Jeanne

Stuff I used:
Fairy Card:
Downloaded image from Pink Cat Studios blog,
Paper: Clover Meadow. Bubblegum, Watermelon cardstock(CTMH), pattern paper from Butterflies & Blossoms Matstack (DCWV)
Accessories/tools: Oval and scallop oval Nestabilities, Martha Stewart border punch, Prisma glitter, Quickie Glue pen, Bic and Sharpie Markers, rhinestone bling. Ornare Piercing template, straight pin

Snowlady Card:
Printed image from DJ Inkers software
Paper: Bubblegum, Watermelon(CTMH), pink vellum (Hobby Lobby)
Accessories/tools: Rectangle and Scallop Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, Snowflake embossing folder, Bic & Sharpie markers, snowflake bling (Michaels)

Moebius Neck Warmer

Happy Tuesday!

Last night I finished my first Moebius Neck Warmer and I have Nona Davenport to thank profusely for her help in getting me started. A few months ago, I came across this post on her blog, Nona's Pearls of Wisdom, where she talks about this cool new scarf/neckwarmer she'd found and started working on. I thought it looked cool and a great idea to try to raise money, but didn't think too much more about it. Then she modeled the neckwarmer here and I thought...those are REALLY neat. This is when I started getting a niggling urge to knit, but still didn't do much about it. Then she posted these neckwarmers and I thought...I want to make one. However, I knew she was knitting these for selling to raise money for their adoption. I felt a little funny asking her for where to locate the pattern, so I hesitated for a while. But I couldn't get them out of my mind, so I took a deep breath, wrote an email and sent it to her. She couldn't have been sweeter and she kindly let me know of the book The Treasure of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi and so my quest began to find the book (and a pair of 47 inch long circular needles-the ideal length needed to make the neckwarmer). Which apparently is either very popular or not so much because I had a dickens of a time trying to find it. I knew I could have ordered it off of Amazon, but remember my dog with a bone personality? I decided I wanted to make some as Christmas gifts and I wanted to start yesterday! Anyway, I finally found a shop called Showers of Flowers that actually had the book in stock. Whooo hoooo! When I had just about resigned myself to having to order the book, I was doing some sleuthing on the internet and came across this video by Cat Bordhi which shows how to do the cast on (Moebius Cast On video). Because it's out there, I thought I would share.

Here's the neckwarmer I made: It's kind of hard to see the ribbing because of the variagated yarn I used, but it's there. I had started one with a different yarn, but I determined it was actually too itchy to be worn comfortably around the neck. So I found some softer yarn and started again. This is the yarn that gave me fits the other night getting all tangled up. I discovered why last night.

Most skeins of yarn have an end that you can pull from the side of the skein which is tucked into the skein and when you search for it, you sometimes pull a clump of yarn out with it. Well, apparently this yarn I selected (a type I've not used before) they make it easy for you by not tucking the end into the side of the skein and instead wrap it around the skein and tuck it under the wrapper! Not noticing this the first time, I bungled the whole skein that night. But last night when starting a new project with a different skein I happened to see it. Whew! Who knew? LOL

Now, I'm sharing quite a bit of information with you on where to find the book and how to cast on yourself and I am happy to share, but at the same time I don't want to take away from Nona's efforts to raise money. I want to really encourage you to check out Nona's Neckwarmers on her Etsy shop, where you can purchase one already made for you and you'll also be helping her family raise money towards their adoption. Nona's Etsy Shop I truly think you'll be pleased!

I've asked Nona for permission to share all this information, because I honestly don't want to take away from her efforts to raise money, and she is fine with it. While I've never met her in person, I can tell you she is super talented and super sweet. She is a Close To My Heart Consultant and as you can see, if you check out her blog, she is VERY crafty. She has an adorable daughter, Sammie, who is featured regularly.

Thanks so much for reading all of this if you've gotten this far. I'm working on another neckwarmer and will be trying something a little different with this one. I'll share when I'm done, if you like.

Thanks again, Nona, if you read this! I SO appreciate all your help!!!

Jeanne

Jeanne

A Couple of Purses & Possible Enabler Alert

Happy Sunday to you! The Broncos aren't too happy as they are lost to the Raiders today. Blech.

Thanks for the encouraging comments on my card attempts yesterday. I know you are thinking I am being too hard on myself, but I neglected to tell you just how many times I had to take the first tree card apart to get it to look right! I think all the work on it for what should have come together quickly definitely affected my feelings about it. And on the second card, I forgot to mention the stamp I used. It's from a Hero Arts set called Merry Christmas and I got it from Archiver's. It came with the rhinestones I used on the other card and is supposed to be exclusive to Archiver's. But maybe that's just because of it being packaged with the rhinestones. I stamped it in White Daisy Pigment ink from CTMH. The jewels are from Hobby Lobby and the cardstock is New England Ivy.

With that out of the way...on to what I was able to create today. I saw a purse on a blog (but forgot to note which blog...which is unlike me) that was really cute. The post linked to the Scor-Pal website for a tutorial on how to make the clutch & purse and since I want to give the girls' teachers a little something for Thanksgiving, that's what I decided to work on this afternoon. You can find the tutorial here and if you want to print it off, read all the way to the end of the next page for a PDF file. I didn't know there was one and spent too much time trying to copy and paste the tutorial onto a Word document before seeing it! (Just trying to save you a little time & frustration if you decide you want to make these). Anyway...here are the results of my efforts this afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the record, I'm quite pleased with how these came out!

The blue clutch uses paper from Heidi Grace...the Winnefred set, I think. The body of the clutch is cardstock and I added some shimmery dp from the same set on the front flap. I had a matching adhesive backed chipboard circle. On top of the circle is a button I picked up at Joann's today. In fact, the paper is currently available at Joann's as well. For the button, I clipped off the shaft and attached it with a glue dot. The ribbon is from my stash...I think I got it at Michaels. The striped purse uses some Making Memories dp I picked up at Michaels a long time ago. I think I found the cardstock there, too. The pink round "gems" are also buttons I picked up at Joann's today. Again, I cut the shaft off and attached with a glue dot. The corners are a die cut from that Vintage Cuttlebug set. It's actually a square, but I cut it in half and trimmed a couple of "strays" off from that cut. The top of the flap is punched using a Martha Stewart Spiral Lattice border punch and I added the ribbon from Walmart for some interest. I took the second picture with me holding up the ribbon strap (from Michaels). I suppose I could use something to stiffen the ribbon up and I may do that, but I wanted to show you what I made.

This may end up being a long post because I want to share a couple of things with you all. I took a little road trip to a nearby city east of where I live. I was wandering the bead/jewelry aisle at my local Michaels Friday night...taking a kid break to be honest, when a lady approached me and asked if I'd been to the new store in Brighton. I hadn't, since this Michaels is so close. She told me the new store is a concept store, one of only two in the nation. She said they had a huge scrapbooking area as well as a bead/jewelry area that was to die for. Well, that piqued my interest, so I headed over yesterday morning. WOW! I was impressed! The way they have it set up is very different and almost feels more open. There were tons of open stock single sheets sb papers I hadn't seen at a Michaels before with names I both recognized and some that were new to me, more clear stamps (although I'd seen a lot of them before) and lots of fun stuff set up in little sections, like holiday, girls, boys, babies. Remember that Basic Grey butterfly stamp I picked up in Fort Collins a few weeks ago? Well, some other Basic Grey stamp sets along the same lines are being sold there! I picked up a couple. The bead/jewelry section is very different. They actually have open stock beads/jewels that you can buy individually, like you can at a bead store. You are encouraged to take a black velvet backed acrylic tray so that you can get an idea of how things would look together.  You put the open stock beads in a little baggie and mark the numbers on a paper they have available. The department was set up in a U shape with items along each wall, and the open stock items in the middle. You can even make your purchase right there if you want! I think my friend Felicia would be in bead heaven there. (wink, wink). Oh and the kids craft section is fantastic as well. Lots of crafty goodness there! There was a gal setting up for a demo/class and she had a couple of takers before I left. I spent over an hour between those departments just wandering around-I didn't really check the rest of the store, though. (Becky, I think you should head over there one day if you haven't already...I think you'll like the sb area)!

So there's that enabler alert for any local readers. Here's another one. I have mentioned a few times how much I admire Becca Feeken's artwork. Some of the things that really strike me about what she creates are the little details. I noticed some items she listed as brads that were so different from any other brad I have seen and I emailed her to ask where she got them. Well, it turns out they aren't brads at all, but some items she found on clearance at Michaels...earlier this year they carried a line where you could decorate your own bangles. I remember passing this end cap many time without really looking at it. The items I thought were brads were from this line. Of course, I looked to see if I could find any and I was unsuccessful. But, even though I haven't found those I decided to check out the button aisle at the Joann's I frequent to see if they had any smaller buttons I could use to mimic brads. I had a blast! There are many buttons that are so pretty and they don't necessarily look like buttons. You can see a couple of my purchases in the purses above. So, I encourage you to check out buttons as a decorative item for your card-making. I hemmed and hawed a long time before buying a tool to snip off the button shaft, but awhile ago I decided to go for it. I am so glad I did! It makes it so easy to snip off the loop. You can sand any edges down if you want/need to. You can find the snipping tool in the button aisle at Joann's, and probably the same type of aisle at Michaels/Hobby Lobby or your local craft store.

Well, thanks for reading if you got this far! I hope you have an awesome beginning to your week...it'll be a short work one with the holiday coming up, right?

Jeanne

 

Do You Have An ATG Gun? **Enabler Alert**

Happy Sunday!

I was checking out some suggested blogs on my Reader and came across one where the gal talks about ATG guns and refills. She'd been holding out on buying the big red gun because of the price. Apparently there's a website where you can buy the adhesive for a great price. Click on this to see what I bought. I checked out the reference on Splitcoast (the thread is 6 pages long!) and decided to place an order to try it. You get free shipping on orders over $35. Oh and for those who don't have a tape gun...they sell those, too for $25! I will soon have 24 rolls of this stuff that appears to work well or better than the 3M tape. If you read the thread on Splitcoast...the tape is acid free and doesn't leave what they are calling "boogers" like the 3M tape does. I was down to my last couple of rolls of adhesive for my gun and didn't relish buying more...would rather spend the money on goodies not adhesive!

Anyway...the reviews are positive and the price is good, so thought I would share for others who may not know about this. Just doin' my part to help the economy, you know! 

I love bloggin'!

Jeanne

Stories In Hand...Free Class!

You all know I am a huge fan of  Jessica Sprague, right? She offers some very cool digital scrapbooking classes that are available forever! Well, Ms Jessica is offering a FREE...unlimited number of students class and the registration started this morning. Go to Jessica Sprague's website and read all about it. Then sign up! You DON'T have to be a digi scrapper to take the class. She just wants everyone to have a chance to see how her classes work.

I signed up first thing this morning. Hope to see you there...

Jeanne

Acrylic Discs from Michaels...

I could have sworn I blogged about this before, but I cannot find the post, so I will share now. I was just reading Kathi's blog and she had a Q and A post. She gets asked about the acrylic discs from Michaels, as do I. She answered a question about them. Because so many people are having a difficult time finding these little things, I decided to risk a double post and talk about them.

Unfortunately, these are on clearance now at Michaels. So, if your store has a clearance section like mine does...look there. I actually picked up some clear ones last week, so my store still has them. They are $2 a bag right now. This is the size of the bag, and it is jam packed with discs, both clear and in a color. Feel free to print off these pictures and take it to your Michaels when asking where they might be located.

Now why would I go out and buy a bag of just clear? Well, I have often heard that using Copic Markers (pricey little suckers that I do not need to get hooked on) on the clear discs will work in coloring them. It got me to wondering if using Sharpie Markers will work. I finally tried it back when I had a creative urge and they DO work-just color the bottom!!! You'll get your fingers dirty in the process if you are like me and hold them in your hand, but whatever...The light blue I tried didn't work all that well, but the other colors did. So...seeing that Sharpie keeps coming out with more colors in the markers and they are cheaper than Copics, I picked up the clear...just in case I should ever run out...And there's my enabler tip for you today. :o)

I actually started a digi layout last night, GASP, can you believe it? But then I got sucked into watching Super Nanny, which was followed by Boston Legal and all was lost! But at least I attempted something right? Boston Legal moved nights and I've missed watching it. Last night was funny because someone told Denny Crane they wanted him to run for president. If you watch this show at all you know how scary the thought of Denny Crane as president would be.

And today marks one week since I've had an "episode," so hopefully they will be just a memory soon. My pressure has been pretty decent all week, if I do say so myself. Yea...

I am starting to feel the itch to create, so hopefully this weekend will provide ample opportunity to play. After I cut out 55 paper turtles for Jessica's preschool that is! Sniff Sniff...next week is her last week in preschool....

Man, I got windy in this post...sorry about that!

Icicles Layout and an Enabler Alert

Ever look at a word and it just looks like it isn't spelled right? That would be the word icicles for me today. I have even spell checked it! I'm such a dork sometimes! LOL. Anyway, here's a layout I was able create this afternoon. I was in the middle of doing laundry and taking a break from the housecleaning I was doing. The girls were playing rather well together after our playdate this morning. I'm continuing to promote my love affair with Kay Miller Designs! There is a joint gallery for Kay Miller Designs and NitwitCollections and I decided to take a look around. Oh boy! I saw a layout there with an icicle as the subject and I remembered this picture I took of the icicles off our porch at the beginning of the back to back snowstorms we had in late 2006-early 2007. (how many times have I typed icicles now and it STILL doesn't look right to me. LOL)

This layout is the result of that inspiration. I used a template (#84) from Mrs Wresh and the SnowPrincess Kit from Kay Miller Designs. Font is Mammagamma, which I'm sure I pulled off the internet somewhere. :o)
And now here's my enabler alert for those of you who have Cuttlebugs and a Hobby Lobby near you. Kathi posted recently that there were some new Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders coming out. Weeeeeeeeelllllllll...of course I had to hunt and see if I could find any locally....and I was successful this evening! The Hobby Lobby near where I live has the Swiss Dots, Perfectly Paisley and Floral Fantasy embossing folders. AND Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon this week....I was too impatient to buy just one a day with a coupon, so I used the coupon on one and bought the other two outright. (can you believe it) I just knew if I didn't pick them up right then, when I came back they'd be sold out. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). So, there you go! Just passing along the info. It's up to you what you do with it. (big grin and mischievous giggle)....

Thanks for visiting! I'm going to go scope out some more of the gallery I discovered....Hope you create a little something today.