All Things Jenn

Another "Perfect" Scrapbook Class

2010-04-11T20:27:00.005-04:00

Leisa, a super paper-crafts teacher, is doing a series of "Perfect" classes at one of our local stores, Whim-So-Doodle. The first was The Perfect Brew (a beer journal and tasting), and then yesterday we did The Perfect Crush. We made this cute wine journal, then after a break for lunch did a wine tasting at Bella Brava. The bartender rocked - she is very knowledgeable and had us try 6 different Italian wines (with generous-sized samples). I generally don't care for reds - but I loved one we had. Naturally it's pricey at $55 a bottle lol (

Here are some pics of the book I made (mostly Leisa's design).

Here's our group AFTER all that wine!

This and the very first pic are ones I took just playing around.
The yummy, expensive wine!Jenn

Stamp Club Cards - April

2010-04-11T20:24:00.002-04:00

Did these a couple weeks ago at our monthly stamp club class at Violette's on my birthday - how fun to have a crafty class on my birthday!
Jenn

Coolest Scrapbooking Class EVER

2010-03-19T00:13:00.001-04:00

Saturday I took a scrapbook class at one of my local stores, Whim-So-Doodle. We made a beer journal then went to a local watering hole, World of Beer, for samples!

Here's the book. Design is copyright Leisa Rice, but I put it together and smashed those bottlecaps myself lol. There are supposed to be several pages for rating beers, but I chose to leave them blank for more pics and stuff since I already have a beer rating database on my iPhone that I created.

The coolest thing about the day was that I made three new beer-drinking friends! (Sorry no pics of them, waiting for Leisa to send them to me HINT HINT).

Jenn

Walgreen's

2010-03-12T20:45:00.002-05:00

I never used to shop at Walgreen's until I started couponing. Now I love to see how much I get buy for how little! Here's this week's trip:

I got:
5 packages of Oreos (sale)
1 package or Oreo Cakesters (sale and $1 coupon)
2 packages of lunch meat (sale and $1/2 coupon)
4 packages Dole fruit cups (sale and $1/4 coupon)
Cotton balls (not on sale/no coupons)
Reeses' Peanut Butter eggs (sale)
Walgreen's aspirin (free with coupon)
Green nail polish (St Patty's Day! - no sale/coupon)
Soft Soap pump (clearance for 80 cents)
4 Reach toothbrushes (paid 99 cents for all 4 after coupons and sale)
Charmin (sale and coupon)
Excedrin (free w/ coupon)
3 bottles Dawn dish soap (sale and coupons)

Used $11 in Register Rewards from last week, got $5 more that I used (2 separate transactions today).

Spent $21.77
Saved $64.26 or 75%

Also got a prescription transferred there, and got a $25 cert for future purchases on that! Woohoo!!
Jenn

Too Wicked to Kiss - Update

2010-03-12T20:37:00.003-05:00

I posted about my friend Erica Ridley's new book, Too Wicked to Kiss, the other day.

I saw her on Sunday and got my book autographed, and had just finished reading it before I went. I really enjoyed it a lot! Erica is a very talented writer, and was very descriptive so you could picture everything in your head. In some cases maybe a bit too much lol, but that's better than not enough! The storyline was enjoyable, and I really felt for the main characters, Evangeline and Gavin. Plus with her writing, Gavin sounded a lot hotter than he looks on the cover lol ;)

You can purchase the book at any local bookstore in the romance or new release section, or here at Amazon.

Looking forward to her next release in 2011, Too Sinful to Deny!
Jenn

Too Wicked to Kiss

2010-03-02T19:50:00.004-05:00

My friend Erica Ridley is a published author!!! Today was the release day of her new historical romance novel/murder mystery, Too Wicked to Kiss. You can read about the book at this site.

I picked it up at my local Borders store and plan on having it autographed! I haven't read it yet since I just got it today - but will be diving in soon!

Congratulations, Erica!!!!!
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 7

2010-03-02T09:55:00.000-05:00

Last post on organization in my scrap room! If you missed the others, click here.

Here's how it looks when you walk into my scrap room. Notice I have plenty of room to set up tables in the middle for guests! :)

Thanks for joining me on the tour of my scrap room - I hope you enjoyed it!
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 6

2010-03-01T21:45:00.000-05:00

This post is a fun one since it's all my knick-knacks - not much use other than to make me happy! :)

I had this board made for me at a scrap retreat - it holds four layouts or projects and was just too cute to resist!

I got the INSPIRE plaque at Pier 1 - totally Tim Holtz and the purples matched my room perfectly! Although it's not nearly as girly as the rest of the space lol. Below that is a wood shelf I painted white and display purple things on.

This is a better view of the knick-knack shelf I showed you last post. I made several of the frames and other things on it.

A view above the Expedit - mini albums on end and in the white basket, Christmas and Birthday and two empty Iris cases, and above that shelves that dh painted white and put up and I lined with ribbon for all my stuffed animals. (A couple more Build-a-Bears are shown lol).

The other half of the top of my Expedit (another BAB). Empty mini-albums are in the white bin.

Some Mardi Gras/Gasparilla beads and mask.

My Wall of Fame. CKU tote signed by all the scrap celebs, CKU diploma, Ali Edwards and Donna Downey autographed pics, Club Scrap owners autographs, Heidi Swapp's autograph, and a mini book with pics of me and celebs. The the right of the closet is a 12x12 frame from Michael's painted white and lined w/ thick felt w/ several buttons on it. Below that and below the clock is a frame my dad made me to house my graduation tassels (I don't have as many degrees as it looks like lol, I went to Community College and there's two tassels from one degree due to honor society or something).

Almost done - the last post is a few overview pics so you can see how everything goes together!
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 5

2010-03-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

Here are pics of the other things around my scrap room.

This is my computer setup - we have an old laptop that the router is attached to, and my laptop stays docked down there. All the cords are in the basket. The white wire 2-drawer unit has my Epson Picturemate printer and my dock/card reader in it.

This is the top of the computer cart. My Cricut Expression and phone are on top, and you can see a few of my many Build-a-Bears. It's right next to my desk for easy access.

This unit is from Target and holds my idea books.

Behind the door - ribbon hung on the ribbon tags from Ribbon Ring. The over-the-door hanger was a steal at Big Lots for $3! I keep a spare folding table behind the door for when friends come over to play.

This is on my knick-knack shelf - brads and eyelets stored in a Craft-Mate organizer, the SDU binder I got free and use it as a swatch book (in progess) of pens and inks and Stickles (oh my! lol). The purple notebook has stencils. The cute ribbon-tied box I made at the Club Scrap Rolling Retreat a few years ago and use it for my spare printer ink. The shelf was originally an ugly fake-wood brown, so I painted it white and ran ribbon along the edges (you can see a bit at the bottom of the pic).

Next post is just general decor in my room!
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 4

2010-02-28T21:09:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the next installment of my scrap room pics! This post shows you my desk area. Our good friend Dave gave me the desk and it's PERFECT! I wanted something that could be used for both my computer and scrapping, and this one works great.

The desk is an L-shape with 2 shelves (not attached) and a keyboard drawer. The below pic shows the corner. You can see my bulletin board full of fun things, my inkpad holder (shown in more detail in my post about stamp storage), my Making Memories carousel (LOVE that!), a glass of my ever-present sweet tea, and some other misc. things.

These next few pics show the shelves.

I got the cute unit w/ the pink and green drawers from Michael's on clearance. The white thing on top is the Slice desktop storage unit.

I use these 6-section Art Bin boxes for my Cat's Eye inks, journaling blocks, Smooch, gel pens, and Sharpies.

I keep my adhesives handy in a cute white metal colander and you can see my self-healing quilting mat and my trimmers.

This pic shows how big the drawers area - I keep my Xyron X machines (one for repositionable and one for permanent) in one and my acrylic blocks in another. You can see I have double-stick tape with the blocks - rather than putting Tack-It Over on all my unmounted stamps, I just attach them to the blocks with the tape. Much easier!

A third drawer holds date stamps and embellishments - anything having to do with time.

This is a view underneath the L of the desk. Paper shredder, specific projects in the black unit (with larger things like my Scor-Pal on top). The white drawers (from Joann's) hold my bills, candy (yes, that warrants an entire drawer lol), techie stuff, and misc. stuff.

Since paper towels are a major need when crafting and making messes, I got a cheap plastic paper towel holder and attached it underneath the desk using strong Command by 3M strips. LOVE those things!

You'll see a pic later of the whole desk, but for now I hope you enjoyed looking at the things I store on and under it!

Next post is other miscellaneous storage in my room.
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 3

2010-02-20T14:25:00.005-05:00

This post is about my stamp and stamp supply storage.

The first pic is how I store my wood-mounted stamps. I don't have too many, since a lot of them I've removed from the blocks. I use plastic boxes from Joann's (which of course I can't find online now that I need to lol).

All of my stamps are cataloged in this notebook by theme, with their location listed.

This is the top drawer of my IKEA cd holder, that you saw in a previous post. It's two drawers, unfinished wood. I keep some of the cd cases holding acrylic and um stamps, my pre-inked stamps, and other misc. things in here.

The bottom drawer. CD cases holding um and acrylic stamps (not CTMH; those are all in a fabric drawer elsewhere in my room). I try to keep sets together, but there's no rhyme or reason as to which case gets which stamps since they are all organized in my catalog.

My wonderful CTMH ink tower. The pink basket on top is from Joann's last fall and holds mists. I used SU rubons to decorate - is that wrong lol? The other side, not pictured, has my color wheel velcroed to it.

This awesome unit houses non-CTMH inks, my glue pad, reinkers, texturing tools, misc. specialty pads, all silver/gold inks/pens, and swatch rings. The drawers are all sold separately, so you only get what you need. I got the cute little shelf it's on at Michael's and painted it white.
Thanks for looking! Next post is my desk.
Jenn

Stamp Club Cards - February

2010-02-20T11:17:00.002-05:00

Here are the cards we made at Violette's stamp club earlier this month. My niece got the bumblebee one for Valentine's Day. :)

Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part 2

2010-02-19T22:18:00.005-05:00

Next up is my Jetmax cubes from Michael's (Target and a few other stores carry these as well). They were so easy to put together and are pretty sturdy. And they hold a TON of stuff!

The first pic is an overall view. I have 8 cubes total. I would have gone higher on the stack of 3, but the darn lightswitch is there :) The ugly wood thing on the bottom is a CD case holding stamps - coming in a future post.

Two cubes are the ones with shelves, holding all my 12x12 non-themed paper, solid and patterned. The purple box on top holds pics.

This cube had two shelves (notice the paper sample inside, as if I couldn't tell what color it was lol) and two large drawers - perfect for mats, including 6x6 and 5x7!

I have three 3-drawer cubes. The dividers in this one came in the one shown below w/ the shelf and larger drawer, but they made more sense to me in a shorter drawer. I have flock, glitter, microbeads, Flower Soft, daubers, wax thread, binder rings, adhesive refills, and a couple other things in here.

This drawer holds my Staz-On inkpads, Distress Crackle Paints, Stickles, and Alcohol Inks.

Here are my chalks, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor crayons, and Pearl-Ex/Perfect Pearls.

This is the "Naked" drawer - chipboard and acrylic mostly.

My Spin Art machine (that is over a year old and never used, shame on me!) and Bead Spinner.

Paints.

This is the cube the dividers originally came in. The shelf holds two Xyrons and my Scrapcessories Cricut cart holder. The drawer has misc. tools.

The final 3-drawer cub. A drawer for new purchases that need to be filed away.

A drawer for page protectors.

Black letters. Not really sure where all these came from lol!

That's it for the Jetmax cubes. Next post will be my stamp storage. Thanks for looking!
Jenn

The Latest Incarnation of My Scrap Room - Part I

2010-02-19T21:50:00.007-05:00

I took a ton of pics of the latest re-do of my scrap room and will be doing a series of posts. The first is my Expedit from IKEA.

The first pic is an overall view of the wall and corner where my Expedit sits.

The 4 open cubes on the left are filled with my themed items, all stored in Cropper Hopper paper holders or Dollar Tree paper holders for the most part. Pretty much everything relating to a theme goes here - paper, stickers, brads, ribbon, etc. Only stamps are elsewhere.

These are almost all my alphas - stickers, buttons, chipboard, diecut, etc. They are in Craft Keeper envies by color. Black and "naked" are stored in my Jetmax cubes, coming in another post.

All my color embellishments except ribbon and brads/eyelets are in plastic drawers. I've opened the brown one so you can see.

I used different sized drawers in order to fit more on less shelves - two 3-drawer units and 4 one-drawer units. Beading books are next to the stacked single drawers.

Organizational books. I have an illness, what can I say ;) In front of them is my ribbon scrap jar. The shelf below has an accordion file with my paper scraps by color, a zippered binder (from K-Mart) with my dies and embossing folders, and another jar with leaf embellishments.

My Gasparilla beads and my treasured light-up Cracker Barrel. Under them are paper holders (12x12 size) from The Scrap Rack holding Club Scrap kits and my black and gray papers. The little gold box is from my engagement ring and the bubbles are from my rehearsal dinner years ago :)

I LOVE this totes. Got them from Michael's - they have a few other colors too. They fit perfect and hold a lot. From left to right: Punches, Circle/Square Punches, Alpha Stamps, and Die-cutting supplies.

Cropper Hopper photo cases. Next to them are memorabilia and other pics to be put away.

Inside one of the IKEA Drona boxes (13x13x15 fabric drawers) that fill the bottom row. This one is patterned paper that is more than one color, or coordinating kits. The others have pre-made layouts ready for pics (2), alterable items, and beading supplies (see next pic).

Beading supplies are stored in plastic sandwich containers, one color per container. Findings are in the divided floss container you see in the middle, and tools are in a stackable container from Joann's.

I got these purple containers on clearance at Target. They hold extra themed items that won't fit in the theme paper holders, extras of various supplies, and misc.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my Expedit! More to come in the next few days!
Jenn

Juxtaposition

2010-02-07T21:40:00.002-05:00

I saw this truck the other day - love the manly red Ford truck with the ladder in the bed - and the "License to Dance" license plate frame. Yes, I know he could be the next Patrick Swayze, but it still made me chuckle :)
Jenn

Stamp Club Cards

2010-01-25T15:02:00.002-05:00

I made these two cards at my monthly stamp club class at Violette's a few weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to posting. Enjoy!
Jenn

Swagbucks

2010-01-11T18:43:00.003-05:00

Swagbucks is a search engine that uses Google and Ask.com to find results, but it also allows you to earn Swagbucks (SB) good toward prizes like Amazon.com gift certificates! I've been using it for a few days and have 14 SB already. 45 will get me $5 at Amazon, or at 20 I can get $5 at www.alice.com. Check it out!

Jenn

Departure Fail

2009-11-30T19:24:00.003-05:00

Here's a pic I took of the departure screen at the New Orleans airport on Friday. Even airports aren't immune to Windows errors! (Sorry it's blurry, took it w/ my iPhone and it was a couple feet higher than eye level lol).
Jenn

Sunshine Challenge

2009-11-15T23:48:00.003-05:00

Rob and I went to the Sunshine Challenge this weekend in Orlando. The SC is a homebrew beer & mead competition. Rob plans to enter next year (he's brewed for years and usually turns out some yummy stuff!), but for now, we just went to the weekend-long event to enjoy what others made.

We met a bunch of great people and had a lot of fun. Tried some new beers and got a TON of prizes and freebies.
Friday night was a dinner and beer fest. Sort of. "Dinner" consisted of appetizers (of the bar food variety) and were in short supply. Many people didn't get anything to eat at all, and others got only a little. We missed most of the first round and were lucky enough to get food the second time around.

Saturday was a pub crawl - much more fun than the field trips we went on in school lol! We went to BJ's and tried their sampler, along with the food they provided us (wasn't too fond of their pizza, but I've eaten at other locations and enjoyed the other menu offerings). Next was House of Beer which had a great selection on tap, including a couple of IPAs we hadn't tried. We both liked Rob's better but he was kind and let me have it all. Finally, we hit Bar Louie, which had a large draft selection too, although not as many good ones. I got free sweet tea there so I was happy lol :)
After the pub crawl was a nice sit-down dinner (it was really good after all that bar food!) and awards for the best beers. Hopefully next year Rob will be up there! At dinner, someone had this cute little guy - he moves!
Jenn

PS: Funny iPhone story - there's an app called Bump that I have but hadn't used yet. You put your contact info in it, and then literally bump hands with someone else who has the app (you both need to have the app open) to exchange your contact info. I "Bumped" for the first time with our new friends (they all downloaded the app as soon as I mentioned it). I thanked the guy for "bumping" with me, so that was the running joke all day lol.

Can you say CLUELESS?

2009-11-15T20:15:00.004-05:00

You all know my poor doggie, Malley, had surgery to repair a torn ligament. Well, her sister Madigan is CLUELESS. I had to take them to the kennel this weekend, so got Madigan in the back seat and then put Malley in the front since that would be easier on her leg not to climb in the back (I have a two-door).

Madigan decided she wanted to be in the front too, first getting into my seat, which obviously wouldn't work. So once I got in, she moved over to the passenger seat and sat ON Malley. She finally must decided there wasn't enough room for both of them in the seat (you think?!?) and moved to the back.

Love those dogs!

"UGG," Malley says, "GET OFF ME YOU TWERP!"

Jenn

Card Class at Violette's

2009-11-10T19:51:00.003-05:00

Jill and I took a card class at our lss, Violette's, last night. We tag-teamed our cards - she did the Cuttlebug cutting and embossing, and I glued everything together. Stamping was already done for us, and we each colored our own. They turned out great! Jenn

iPhone App - DoodleBuddy

2009-11-09T14:34:00.003-05:00

I have had an iPod Touch since last fall, but finally succumbed to the pressure, joining the millions who have an iPhone. I got the 3GS a month ago and {heart} it.

I'll be posting about some of my favorite apps and features periodically. If you have either the Touch or iPhone, I'd suggest taking a look at the online guide at Apple - it's full of great tips. Also, Apple stores offer free classes on how to use your new toy. I took one today and wish I had taken it when I first got the phone!

An App I just got that's a lot of fun for all ages is Doodle Buddy. It's free in the App Store. Here's what I made with it within just a few minutes of downloading. Sorry the first two are sideways!

Happy Doodling!
Jenn

I downloaded this App for free (normal cost), and did not receive any compensation. Opinions are my own.

My Doggie is Nekkid!

2009-11-06T21:45:00.003-05:00

Malley, my almost-11-year-old Princess, had surgery on Tuesday to fix her torn ligament and minascus in her knee. Almost $2000 later, she's home and doing really well. Here are some pics of how they shaved her - the best way to describe it is that her rear quarter panel is nekkid lol :)

"Mama, why won't Malley play with me?". The little dog is cute but oh-so-CLUELESS.
Malley doesn't seem to be in any pain and is moving around more than she should. Have to leash-walk her for EIGHT WEEKS. She's doing good with that, but I don't see her cooperating for that long!
Jenn

Monthly Stamp Club Cards

2009-11-06T21:14:00.001-05:00

At Stamp Club at Violette's, my lss, we made two Christmas cards. I love the little single tree stamp!
TFL,
Jenn

Simply Inspired Event - Classes and Goodies

2009-11-01T16:43:00.005-05:00

I just showed you the project from Jenni Bowlin's class, now here are some more.

Charm bracelet and Necklace using Tim Holtz products and Graphic 45 papers, taught by Teri Davis who is on the DT of the store who sponsored the event, Simply Scrappin'.

Debby Schuh taught us some cool things using a composition book - I had never thought about cutting the front cover to use it as a frame! The second pic is the flap we made for the back cover. The subject of the class was "What's in Your Bucket", and the idea is to keep a journal about things you are good at - i.e. things you have in your bucket. I most likely won't use it for that, but haven't determined what I'll use it for yet.

Here's everything that was passed out over the weekend to everyone.

These are almost all my prizes - Jill and I each gave up one since we kept winning! The Halloween stuff is a project that was selling for $25, although there are only a few sheets of paper, a pack of stickers, and some ribbon. (Glad I didn't pay for it!)

These next two are from one of Margie Romney-Aslet's classes, "Flower Frenzy". Totally not my style! The first I pretty much followed, the second is a hybrid of both the other two layouts and still isn't my style, but at least I might have a chance of using it ;)

The next two are the left and right pages of Layle Koncar's layout class. Love this!

Here are some of the make-and-takes from the Sample Frenzy night - love them all! The first was supposed to be on polka-dotted paper, but I couldn't do it. Might move it over to a solid since this background is so busy.
This one will have a pic of me and Jill - notice the title says "Whoo let them loose?" lol.
Ornament with chandelier crystal and tag inside, and a plastic ring with a crown paper glued inside!
Cards.

Here are all the teachers except Teri: Jenni Bowlin, Rebecca Cross (owner of Pink Paislee), Margie Romney-Aslet, Debby Schuh, Layle Koncar, and Elizabeth Achvin who put on the event.

Still have 3 more class projects to show - gotta finish them first :)
Jenn