Well, with a New Year, comes evaluation and resolutions to make changes to improve your life.  I have one that has been on my list for the last two years, which was to find an attorney and take care of living wills and trusts and add my kids to my deeds and such.  Another repeated one is to relax more, and I’m not talking lifestyle, because my husband affords me a great one.  I’ve read and reread "Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff" and it makes sense when I read it, but I don’t put it into practice, and I worry and preoccupy myself with every little detail you can imagine. 

I also want to get back into shape, toning and exercising more often. I was doing well from last year’s NY list, which was to work out and get healthy for the April cruise we took.  After that, I went on a leave of absence from my gym. So I started running around the lake again, and I also finally broke down and paid more for my WII FIT than it’s worth, but I can tell you that I’m unable to walk or sit down on the potty (its kind of like falling onto it) today because I did too many lunges yesterday for my thighs to handle.   

I also put reading more often on my list, although the past year I’ve become a more frequent reader, especially with my Kindle. Anyway, I read three more books since Christmas, two of which I purchased with a gift card to Barnes and Noble, and one on my Kindle.  I just love spending 8.99 for a book!  I’ve opted for more books and less card and scrapbook magazines.  Ok, so not really.  I’m just reading more books. 

I’ve got some on my list about improving my relationships, especially with my immediate family members.  And lastly, I think that now more than ever with the current state of the economy,  creating a budget, paying off my credit cards from last year’s IRS tax bill, and putting more of my money into retirement has become a higher priority.   With this comes a lot of groundwork which I’ve never done the homework for.  I never shop with lists, never had a budget before, and we pretty much buy what we want, eat out whenever we want, and go wherever we want.  Yes, I’m very grateful.  But I’ve got MORE than a latte factor going on here.  lol  

So, this process has led me to a very difficult  and painful decision.  I’m not one to throw in the towel especially when there is passion involved!  And believe me, there is a lot of happiness and passion involved.  I have decided to stop being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator effective January 15th.  My website at Stampin’ Up! will go away at that time.  I really tried from the onset, and in so many ways to make this a business for myself.  I created classes, demonstrations, open houses, hostess parties and attended craft fairs.  I spent a lot of time and even more money on my projects, both websites, supplies, tools, the products for classes, tons of marketing materials, catalogs, bags, etc.  You name it, I have given it a try.   I definitely applied my optimism and took the "If you build it, they will come" approach, and made sure that I had all the latest and greatest and remained creative at all times showing off the stuff I love.  I see people doing it successfully so I know it can be done, but personally, I’m not willing to wait 5-7 or more years to make it happen. Anyway, it turns out that this just isn’t the right business for me, no matter how much I love it. 

I haven’t decided what to do with Paper Charms yet.  I have some more ground work to do about changing it from a LLC to a sole proprietorship, and if that can be done with ease, I may keep it.  I’d like to use my stash of products, and see if I can make a go of selling finished product in an online store. I own the company name and all the domains as well, so we’ll see. 

I’m happy to report that at least I will be going to the beaches in Maui, Hawaii in September with my husband by using one of our Marriott timeshares!  I’ve wanted to go my whole life, and can’t wait.  I hope it’s as romantic as it is in my head!  

Well, romance is just around the corner, isn’t it?  Valentine’s Day is our next big holiday to celebrate.  We have a tradtion of having an entirely RED day, with our clothes, our decorations and candles, and everything we eat!  It’s kind of fun, and my son still doesn’t know how in the world I can make heart-shaped pancakes in the morning with Strawberry syrup!  lol  Anyway,  here’s a card using the new "Love You Much Bundle", which you can download the flyer to here.  Enjoy!

Love Card

	Stamps *  Love You Much Bundle Paper * Old Olive card stock * Riding Hood Red card stock * Very Vanilla card stock Ink * Riding Hood Red Classic   Stampin’ Pad * Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker Accessories * Stampin’ Dimensionals * Scallop Edge punch * Sewing machine and thread

Technorati Tags: Candy Lane dsp, Love You Much Bundle

I also used a winter snowflake embossing folder (CB) done with the Big Shot on Baja Breeze cardstock.  Since SU cardstock does not have a white core, I’m not able to sand over the raised embossed areas.  To achieve the same look, I inked over the raised embossed areas with whisper white craft ink instead.  The dsp is from Holiday Treasures and felt snowflakes from Felt Flurries, the smaller collection.  Sentiment from Merry Messages, sponged in Real Red and raised with stampin’ dimensionals.

I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather while you do your Christmas Shopping.  I got mine done weeks before Thanksgiving so that I could avoid driving in the Brandon area if I possibly could!  I did make it to Hyde Park last week after a fire alarm at the International Mall kept me from checking out at William Sonoma.  It took all my might to stay clear away from the Peppermint Bark!  Our oldest dog Oreo kept me up all night just a few weeks ago, after eating a half bucket of Costco’s Peppermint Bark.  Nick had left the candy opened on the dining room table and his chair pulled clear away so she jumped up and helped herself.  Wow, was she sick, and she’s so considerate, she goes outside to throw and go!  But we were very lucky, considering she’s only 21 lbs.   Well, flash forward to last Friday night, and I had  (5)-12 year old boys here all weekend for a Nerf Gun Territory War.  They got my 56 oz bag of M&M’s and brought it outside with them.  They left it opened in a pile of guns on the patio, which they periodically traded out, and in doing so, dumped the bag upside down on the ground and took off.  Snickers was the beneficiary this time, and she is not as considerate as Oreo. Then again, she’s half the size too.  So, I think she got sick a couple dozen times.  Again, we were pretty lucky she didn’t die too, but both dogs experienced terrible whole body tremors, and demanded pulling an all nighter for me twice in one month!  We’ve managed to avoid these kinds of issues for years while we’ve had the dogs and kids, usually I guess because we just don’t eat the stuff.  This year, I thought I would sell a number of altered containers filled with asst. candies at the Christmas Bizzarre, so I had a lot on hand.  Lesson Learned:  Don’t buy it, don’t bring it home, and don’t let your kids know where it is if you do. 

Enjoy the season!

Technorati Tags: Big Shot, embossing techniques, Felt Flurries, felt snowflakes, Holiday Treasures

WOW!  it’s been a MONTH and a HALF since i posted….. a record.  I’ve been BUSY, but not with my blog!  lol 

Ok, catch up.  My eldest son of 23, moved back down to FL for couple of months.  I haven’t even completely finished packing the Halloween stuff up in attic.  I have tried learning Photoshop Premiere Elements 7.0 in order to combine 5 home videos of Halloween night and decorations as promised to some of my friends,  in order to put on you tube and post a link to my blog.  That hasn’t happened  yet.  Did a craft fair, which tooks weeks of shopping and preparation including a trip to IKEA and two all nighters without sleep.  It was a bomb.  Did i mention that one of my dogs ate a bucket of peppermint bark and almost died?  Nicholas had double and triple auditions with a talent agency in Orlando, and got picked to be represented.  I spent two days shopping for the clothes he needed.  The following weekend he had a 4 hour photoshoot.  My husband hasn’t been home since September (sometimes on the weekends he makes it home).  I finished my Christmas shopping 3 weeks ago.  I adopted  two orphaned boys from the Brandon Womens’ League for Christmas present adoption and shopped for them this past week.  I drove to Atlanta for 6 days for an awesome Thanksgiving with Dan’s brothers.  I booked and then didn’t get to go to Grease on Broadway; my idea for hubby’s 42nd birthday, which came and went this week.  My hubby was actually HOME for the first time this week, and yet he wasn’t.  He had to drive to Tampa by the airport every day instead of working from home, and was on call 24/7 for two weeks, including thanksgiving in Atlanta.  Hence we didn’t get to take our trip to NY yesterday through tomorrow.  I’m still upset.  He bought me flowers.  I informed him it’s gonna take a lot more sucking up than that to make it up to me, and that if i ever go to NY in December again, it will be with girls I love.  :-)  We assembled our tree  yesterday but it’s not decorated, and my boys started the outdoor lights tonight.  We’re on our way to see Madagascar 2 at Channelside (as I type).

OK, so that’s it.  You’re caught up.

I’ve got a picture, but it’s not of a card or paper project.  I’ve got my 3 girls dressed up for the holidays.  Here they are:

Aren’t they the cutest?   Oreo (on the right) is very embarrassed at her Mrs Clause outfit. 

ok boys are waiting in car now!  bye!  hopefully, I will talk to you soon.

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Christmas

This Create a Calendar Kit found in our Winter mini-catalog comes with the calendar pages for the year 2009, some stickers and tabs for the cards and month, the outer pocket and sticker borders, and a large piece of chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon.  It requires that you purchase the triple clipboard separately, and the paper you’d like to cover the clipboard with. 

I covered left and right sides using the Old Olive dsp grid paper using a template that I made originally with our single clipboards awhile back.  I traced the template onto a new piece of sturdy confetti cream and shortened the length to 7.5" and trimmed a sliver 1/16 off each side.  With this new template created for the triple clipboard, I needed 3 sections, and traced it onto the backside of the dsp I chose.  The middle section is a piece of striped Hawaii Papaya dsp.  I added two pieces of Pumpkin Pie grosgrain over the seams and tied at the top of clipboard.  I used Chocolate Chip stitched ribbon, Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, and Old Olive 5/8” grosgrain ribbon for the tops.  I used Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie felt flowers from accents kit, with an aged build a brad in the center.  I punched the red flower with our 5 point flower punch, and placed a smaller pumpkin pie flower from the collection of die cut blooms.

On the packing, they used two sets of number stickers:  one on the clipboard, which you don’t see adhered yet, and the other on the outer calendar pouch.  Since there was only ONE set of “2009” stickers inside the kit,  I took a “2” and “9” from on board chipboard letters, and two solid circles from our other chipboard collection, on board essentials.  On the two solid circles, which were the same size as the numbers, I used the crop-a-dile to cut away at the center a little at a time. 

I used a chipboard label, also from the on board essentials, covered with Old Olive cs on the outside packing and attached the “calendar” sticker.  I covered square chipboard with dsp, attached Riding Hood Red mat, then Whisper White mat, and then “2 0 0 9” numbers sponged in Pumpkin Pie.

For my display, I included a small bag stamped with punches of flowers, and lots of arrows in coordinating colors, punched with My Way arrow punch.  I also included lots of stamped images from Calendar Cues and Fundamental Phrases (nice and small).  Calendar cues and Cute Cues would work especially nice in this project (I think). 

This may or may not be an upcoming “gift” class, because I have TOO DARN ideas already for others that I want to do!

I hope you think of the teachers and the HS and college students on your list, or make it for yourself to coordinate with your office or craft room!  Of course, everyone needs a new calendar at the beginning of the year, and this is just a really unique and special one.

See you soon!  Thanks for looking!

Technorati Tags: 3D items, 3D Projects, Calendar Cues stamp set, Calendar projects, crop-a-dile, Cute Cues stamp set, desk accessories, Hawaii Papaya dsp, My Way Arrow Punch, Old Olive designer series paper, On Board Essentials, On Board Letters, Triple Clipboard

Here’s my jar from Super Target and my Spooky Spider Decor Elements, in Black, size Large.  Again, it’s HUGE!  But so is the jar!

What’s funny about this, is that we will fill this at least 20 times.  We started keeping our candy in a contractor size garbage bag.  Right now there are 17 of those JUMBO bags of candy in my wine closet, instead of wine!  :-(  We will pick up a few more by next week, just because we run out every year even though we keep adding more and more.  All of our friends don’t understand it, because they spend about $20 in candy and their lights are out by 8pm.   It’s going on all night here in our neighborhood and if it’s a weekend night like this year, it’s even worse. 

The last time the holiday fell on a weekend night, we had someone ring the doorbell after 1am.  She apologized and asked if we would take a picture with her and her mother next to our witch under the patio.  I was shocked!  She said her mom had to work and she couldn’t pass up coming back to see it with her.  Halloween is a real treat (no pun intended) because there are so many kids anticipating our decorations and coming to visit, sometimes twice.  Even the little ones come, and I’m surprised because it’s pretty creepy.  Not that some of them haven’t run down the walk way screaming!  It wasn’t me!  It was probably my husband.  He really enjoys scaring everyone in his super gory grim reaper costume, especially the teenage girls who scream so loud and schrill, it reaches my spinal column.  But they drop all their candy and my son collects it all and high fives his dad!

So this is a last reminder to give me a call by tomorrow to order the Spooky Decor Element before it’s too late!

Thanks for stopping by…. again!  Today’s been exhausting.

Technorati Tags: Decor Elements, Home Decor, Spooky Spider Decor Elements

What if I could teach you how to make this gift, and that it would be that much more special because it not only came from you but was made by you? 

This project entails a total of 10 round plate adornments, each of them themed for a major holiday and an extra one for a birthday too!  There are fasteners that make it easy to change in and out every month.  Each month/holiday is unique, and heavily embellished with all kinds of Stampin’ Up! accessories from about every collection. 

Take a look at January:

I can’t tell you how great these look in person, because you can’t tell from the pictures how much some of them sparkle and just how much they are all dressed up.  This January design’s main focal point is the beautiful die made with the Big Shot, cut from white glittered felt.  It also uses our Winter Flurries rub-ons.  In addition, the other embellishments include: 3 different kinds of brads, silver cording, brushed silver cardstock, silver embossing,  In this class you will use over a dozen of my stamp sets, pearls from our Pretties Kit, Hodgepodge Hardware, several collections of Designer Series Papers, rub-ons, embossing powder, glitter, Craft pigment ink and Versamark inks, Buttons, Hemp, Ribbons, Punches and more!

I picked two plates for my display purposes, but the class will entail either a smoked brown clear plate or a regular clear glass plate.  So you’d have to choose.

Here’s a peak at the others in smaller versions:

This will be a class offered on my next 3D class:  Wednesday, November 12th, both morning and evening as usual, and Saturday the 15th which follows.  Please see the class/events tab for more information.

The WELCOME is a Decor Element in chocolate, size LARGE.  The wood piece is 23" long, to accomodate this size.  It’s great for a set of double doors or a front patio.  I thought about the olive because it would have matched my paint nicely, but I wasn’t sure if it would be dark enough to be seen.

All of the paint is from Making Memories, used for scrapbooking, so it’s acid free believe it or not!  You definitely don’t need to use this on the wood, because Michael’s has plenty of companies of acrylic paints.  Some were on sale for 2/$1 this week.  I like Folk Art brand personally.

You can see more Decor Elements here.  The new phase II just came out.  I really love the flowers and other ways of decorating a girl’s bedroom!  Too bad I don’t have any girls.   

Spooky is coming next!

Technorati Tags: 3D Projects, Decor Elements, Home Decor

You know when the holidays come, and you have that awkward conversation with your spouse about whose family you and your family are going to spend time with on Thanksgiving, and then you repeat the same process at Christmas?  You know, you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives!  Well, they whoever coined that phrase must have known my family well.  Anyway, one good thing about having a dysfunctional family makes it a no brainer to determine the answer to that question.  Even if the nearest one is 8 hours away!   Ooops, getting off topic. 

So, I made this as a gift to my brother and sister in law that always have us for Thanksgiving and they make a superb feast every year, although we can’t make the trek to Atlanta every year.  Now I love to cook, and I consider myself a foodie, so for me to think it and say this, is a huge compliment to my husband’s brother Paul who cooks most of the meal with his wife, Patty.  Actually the two brothers from GA are both descent cooks, and why that didn’t rub off onto my husband, I can’t understand.  GO figure.  Ooops off topic again.

Well, I bought this amazing shadow box frame at Ikea, which comes in black or white.  I like the black because it’s a little more sophisticated.  This frame is a lot bigger than you probably can determine from the picture - it’s 20×20, so it’s a descent size piece of wall art!  See that cut out in the center of the mat?  That’s a full sheet (only a 1/4" margin adhered to the mat with sticky tape) of our 12×12 designer series paper from the Autumn Vine collection found in the Winter mini-catty.  The decor element I used is called Season of Thanks, in chocolate brown, size small.  BTW- They are so much bigger than you’d expect, and  you need to use the measurements in the catalog in front of you on a yardstick and really try to envision them at the size you’re thinking, and then order the next size down.  lol

I filled this shadow box frame with "naturals", which is a collection of real dried  leaves and some other silk stems and fall elements, which  I picked up at Michael’s with my 20%purchase coupon.

I know that they’re going to love it and I can’t wait to give it to them.  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!  The boys can’t wait until Halloween.  Enough of that family mushy cherish stuff that you girls like (my youngest actually said that today).  lol   Actually, he made me smile super big when I made this gift; he told me that this was the nicest scrapbooking thing I’ve ever made!  Awwwhhhh.  That deserved a big hug and kiss.

Well, stay tuned, got lots more decor elements to show you when I get all the pics downloaded, cropped, resized and watermarked. 

Hugs!

Technorati Tags: Autumn Vine designer series paper, Decor Elements, Seasons of Thanks, Thanksgiving

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like brown in my Christmas papers, but I absolutely love the color combinations together.  They are very rich.  Ok, now for the magic!  Let’s peak inside, shall we?  These are the first two pages; page 2 has a large round photo frame.  Gosh I love that tree from Snow Swirled!

The next two pages become interactive.  At first glance you see the obvious two pages, but  each side are both pockets.  The left side has a pull out (see the red ribbon) and the right side has another mini-book with it’s pull tab, that flips open for more pictures and journaling inside.  It tucks neatly into the diagonal pocket.

This is what is inside of those pockets:

Don’t forget to check off the "naughty" or "nice" on the wish list!  I think I’m getting coal this year!  Apparently, the consensus is that I’m a MMIA (a mom missing in action).  The woman who used to run this tight ship vanishes every day to her scrapping room and doesn’t come out sometimes til dawn!   lol

Ok, two more interactive pages again. 

Oooh!  This one has a pull-out on one side for a photo and a beautiful ornament for the tree on the other! 

Lots of ornaments decorate these two pages  Another page to pull out with the tab on the left, and three tags express my wish for my holiday:

I just can’t wait to watch "It’s a Wonderful Life" for the gazillionth time!  It just never gets old for me, especially when he is falling apart and desperately tries to fix ZuZu’s petals.  But I digress….. 

Ok, the last two pages include another large frame, in the shape of a wreath.  Both of these pages have a lot of sparkle, but unfortunately, it’s not reflected in the pictures.  The wreath have both glitter and groups of our larger beads while the poinsettias have glitter on the leaves and the centers.

And finally the back; nothing too exciting here.  I didn’t photograph the spine, so you can’t see how I made the book itself.  I guess you’ll just have to come to the class if you want to learn how. 

This little book is packed with product!  Besides the SS kit, I used two patterns from the Holiday Treasures designer series to cover the book.  Again, the same color combinations, just different patterns, so they coordinate beautifully.  I used plenty of punches, ribbons, chipboard, beads, die cuts with the Big Shot, glitter, wheels, and at least 5 Christmas stamp sets, including my newest favorite, Snow Swirled.

It’s the cutest little book, just waiting for your holiday photos!  Or you could bless some loving relative or friend with this book as a gift!  With the next two months of holidays, I’ll be changing my class schedule around quite a bit to avoid conflicts with the holidays.  The class will take place on Saturday, November 22 (instead of Sizzix Saturday), and again on Tuesday, November 25.

Hope to see you then!

Technorati Tags: Holiday Treasures dsp, I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit, mini-album, Punches, Snow Swirled stamp set

I love embossing cards, especially during the holidays.  It always gives that extra special wow factor.  I know it’s sometimes time consuming, but once I have all the stuff out, at that point, I may as well do a hundred!   The stamp set I used for this card is called Snow Swirled.  The main image of this card is stamped in Baja Breeze on whisper white cardstock and the smaller snowflake images are stamped in Pacific Point.  The small snowflake on the top of the tree and the larger snowflake is stamped with Encore Silver, and then embossed with Silver embossing powder.  I used our snow blossom punch which coordinates with this stamp and popped it up with dimensionals.  Besides the tree, my favorite image in this set is the largest snowflake, which I didn’t use here because it’s too big, but it’s design is simply gorgeous!  Check it out online!

The main image is distressed on the edges with Pacific Point, matted in brushed silver cardstock, and then matted again on Pacific Point.  The sentiment outside and inside is stamped with Pacific Point and matted on Pacific Point cardstock.   I used our silver cording, which I’m so pleased to have back.  I use rolls of this at christmas time for ornaments and tags, and wrapping gifts, but it really works with this card too adding just another touch of silver!

This is what the inside looks like:

I hope you take a closer look at this set using the links above. It’s so pretty! 

Lots of posts coming this weekend, so stop by frequently.  Thank you for visiting.

Technorati Tags: Baja Breeze cardstock, Encore ink, heat embossing, Pacific Point cardstock, silver embossing powder, Snow Swirled stamp set