Snowsmoon's Creations

Tuesday Mornings Sketch Challenge - July 27, 2021

2021-07-27T20:17:00.001-04:00

Using Debbie Foster Tuesday Morning Sketch and the following supplies:

Ink Pad and Markers: Black Versafine Clair ink pad, Spectrum Noir Marker CT1 and Sharpie Fine point in black

Glossy Accents to make the Bees Body shine

Stamps: Honey Bee's Busy Bees Stamp set and Hero Arts Everyday Sayings set

Paper:

Master Touch Watercolor Paper- Stamping Bees elements

Honey Bee's The Bee's Knees 6 x 6 paper pad

All other solid color cardstock was from my stash from either Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

50% Off - Halloween & Thanksgiving Special

2019-10-19T13:17:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds you enjoy the cooler weather and the autumn fresh air. I will been working hard on getting more into my store, but a few life events has got me a bit behind. It is what it is but I thought I would post a little something that I have completed from playing with my Cricut Explorer Air 2 machine.

This is Ruby, our bird of 24 years. She is attached to JJ which is fine with me cause after handfeeding her from hatchling she decides she like JJ, not usual for female birds to attach to a male for bonding. She doesn't like me but that story is for another day! (She bite me hard, with her 80# pressure bite, so needless to say, I don't trust her anymore.)

50% Off Sale in my Etsy shop

I am having a Halloween & Thanksgiving Special in my Etsy shop which includes everything in the store for one week, From Oct 21 through Oct 31 at 50% off which includes Free Shipping. There is no minimum either. So go check out my stock, which is growing but not as fast as I would like, but will be adding more next week as well. Thank you for your support! Use the coupon Code: THANKSHALLOW50.

PLEASE let me know you visited my shop by clicking on the FAVORITE Shop button!!!

New items in my Etsy Shop this week...6x6 album and Set 4 autumn cards

2019-09-20T13:17:00.001-04:00

Just added to my Etsy Shop is this cute little Zoo themed 6" x 6" mini album would be great for a child's first trip to the Zoo, a special family visit to an animal themed park or for any animal lovers photos you would like to showcase to share those special memories with your family and friends. Just add your photos and your story and your memories will be preserver for many years to come.

Materials: A variety of patterned papers, cardstock, chipboard with many decorative techniques & embellishments were used in making this Handmade 6" x 6" mini Album. Some embellishments are raised on foam tape for added dimension. Album is constructed of Chipboard, cardstock and double sided score tape with a ribbon closer.

Included inside album, there are many tags and photo mats inside the pockets in sizes:

6 - 3 x 4 photo/journaling cards

4 - 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 blank Booklets made of cardstock inside each page pocket for adding larger photos

7 - pockets for saving memorabilia or more photos

This album should hold approximately 25 or more photos of your special visit to the Zoo.

Disclaimer: This album was inspired by a video I watched by Laura's Craft Zone on You Tube. I did pick and purchase the design papers and embellishments for this zoo themed album and decorated the album myself.

Also added this week was this set of 4 Autumn/Thanksgiving greeting cards as Fall is just around the corner and these autumn colors make a wonderful palette for greeting cards, notes for a friend or for being thankful for the little things by sending a nice handwritten sentiment. They are blank on the inside for you to personize your greeting. Included with envelope in a protective plastic sleeve.

A variety of patterned papers, decorative techniques & embellishments were used in making these handmade cards. Some embellishments are raised on pop dots for added dimension.

These were inspired by Kristie Marcotte and her awesome videos she shares with her "how many cards from a 6x6 paper pad" she so kindly shares on her you tube channel. She is a great inspiration with her great talent she has for card making...Thanks, Kristie!

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by to see what I have been creating.

Happy Scrapping!

Time to Relax and get back to business....Hurricane Dorian spared us here in Florida

2019-09-09T13:58:00.004-04:00

Since about the last time I posted, August 25, I have been preparing for one of the biggest hurricanes that we were predicted to arrive to the East Coast of Florida in many years. I think the news said about 30 years. Dorian at one point was a Cat 5 heading to our coast. It had been days of watching and tracking this monster. Moving very slowly, as a high ridge stirring her movement in a westerly directions, Floridians awaited the predictably "TURN North" before it found the coast of Florida, it hit the Bahamas big islands and just sat there for 30 some hours as 185 plus hurricane force winds and ocean surges with gusts of 220 mph just demolished the beautiful paradise.

As we in Florida can count our blessings, please remember the people in the Bahamas. They were not so luck. PLEASE keep them in our prayers, help in any small way you can as most of these people have lost literately EVERYTHING. Find a way to donate something though your favorite charity, no matter how small.

OK...I have been working hard to get more product in my store for the upcoming holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas...I am working on getting the photos taken and edited and will be uploading them this week.

Can you answer a QUESTION for me?

I have a question for an idea I have been thinking about. If you were so kind to reply to if you don't mind taking a few moments to do so in the comments area below...it is a two part question.

I have been thinking of putting together some card kits to sell. This not and would not be a club or monthly subscription. Just small kits to make two or four cards as well as know exactly what is included in each kit. I would also include a list of what would be needed to complete your handmade greeting cards.

My questions is:

Part one: 1. Would you like to see more DYI card making kits?

Part two:    2. How much would you like done for you?
   a. Meaning everything cut out and you just assemble
   b. Guide/suggestions page included for the cutting?

Thank you so much for reading and following my blog!

Christmas Cabin One sheet wonder Cards

2019-08-25T20:12:00.002-04:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...what have you been crafting? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment and I will reply to your comments!

I wanted to do a quick post and share what I have been playing with this weekend. I know it is only August but I am trying to get a ahead start on making some Christmas Card.

Each year we send a Holiday Greeting card to our mowing customers as a thank you to show our appreciation for their business through out the year. I started this when we only had about 15 customers back in 2004 or 2005 which I would purchase. With my love of card making and my huge stash of Christmas paper collections and pads I thought it would be nice if I made the cards this year. So I looked through Pinterest to find some of the gals that do the One sheet wonders to find some ideas and inspiration because we now have over 75 customers. I found a few I would like to use but chose one by Sylvie Drader, who I believe is or use to be a Stampin Up demonstrator. The sketch I found has the information of a web site: www.createwithpaper.com but from what I can tell, I am not sure if it is still her site or not so I am not linking it here. I do thank her for sharing the sketch on Pinterest though and want to give her credit for her work.

When making my cards I used the following:

2 - 12 x 12 sheets of designer paper from a 12 x 12 paper pad called, "Christmas Cabin" by Recollections from Michaels
3 - 8 x 11 cardstock of white as I used a white mat inside each card to stamp sentiment on and
1 piece of sentiments on the front of the cards and layering-not for sure where cardstock came from it was either Walmart, Hobby Lobby or Michaels.
1- 8 x 11 cardstock of Kraft for layering From Hobby Lobby
2 different Christmas stamp sets from my stash from a few years ago
Some gold mirrored peel offs from Love for Lizzy
Art glitter glue
ATG Gun and 1/4" tape
Purchased A2 Kraft card bases with envelopes from Hobby Lobby

(There is sentiments on the inside of the cards as well with tiny holly berries and leaves stamped as well. Seen above in the middle of the layout.)

(This photo is not the best, but I will be taking individual photo's of them this coming week to share with you.)

I will be using this again, I love how the cards turned out and only took me about 4 hours total to make including my planning, cutting and putting together. I believe I may end up doing a few sets like these to add to my Etsy shop as well.

Labor Day Sale this coming weekend, I will have a 10% off discount on all my items in my shop Aug 30 through Sept 2, 2019. The coupon code is: ETSYLABOR2019 please make sure to check it out. I will be adding more cards during this week as well.

NEW Halloween Card in my store

2019-08-23T22:54:00.002-04:00

Snowsmoon's Creations Store

Just a quick post to let you know that I have been busy, getting some holiday cards ready for my Etsy Store. With one of my favorite holidays just around the corner, I have been busy getting some cards ready for someone to send out their loved ones a special "Happy Mail" for Halloween. I wanted to share what I have added this evening and will be back in a couple of days to do another post to do some more updating and sharing with you.

I do have a few more to upload, but need to retake the photo's so I will save them to share next time.

I hope everyone will please check out my store and sign up for a newsletter....until next time!

Celebration for Parents on the first day of School……

2019-08-14T12:32:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone,

I hope this finds you having a great day and a productive week. I wanted to share an idea I got from the news this morning, which I thought was a great idea. With most of public schools getting back in session this month, it is time you parents celebrate as well. What I saw on the news was a mom, decided to drop her children off at school and was given a button that she was celebrating the first day of school. She thought what a great way to go visit Disney World and take a photo with a few of the Disney characters wearing the button to show her family how her first day of school went after she had asked her family how their day went.

It was a fun story to watch even though I may not have all the facts correct on the gals story, but the point of sharing this was for us as parents and grandparents to celebrate getting our children on a good start for another school year. So with all that said I would like to share a coupon code for a dollar off a purchase from my Etsy shop to use on any of the cards that are uploaded. The code will be good till the end of the month, Aug 31, 2019. I will be adding new product into the store weekly as you may use the code until the end of the month as well, which I did get a few more in there this morning. I now have to retake some photos, so that I can get more uploaded for you.

Use the coupon code: SOFTOPEN0819 for a Dollar off!

Also have been watching the visits to my store and I am very excited that there has been more visitors each day which is very exciting to me. And if you had visited, I invite you to visit again as I have lowered some prices on a single card. I am still doing my search on the best way for shipping to open it up to international views as well. Please keep watch on my blog posts as well as my monthly newsletters, which I want to remind you to please sign up for. Sign up for it is at the left of my blog under my store link. You will get a dollar off coupon to use again, sent to you once you sign up as well.

My Etsy Shop is back opened with beautiful Handmade cards & other paper crafts

2019-08-07T11:37:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone,

MY ETSY SHOP IS RE-OPENED for BUSINESS

We just got back from a nice family gathering in Atlanta, GA. Stayed a wonderful Air bnb home that was huge! 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms almost 3,000 square foot 2 story home. Loved it! There were a total of 21 of us all together. One brother lives in Atlanta with his family and the longest family traveling were from Okinawa, Japan. 15 of us shared the beautiful home and had a nice visit together. It had been 5 years before this reunion in Hawaii. But sad to say, vacation is over....

So now it is time for me to get scrapping and card making....and officially getting my shop opened for business!

This is a soft opening, as I return to My Etsy Shop where I am currently adding new handmade paper items over the next few weeks. There are new items being add daily as I have a good start on my inventory with most being handmade cards which are being added individually. I will be doing that for a little while, then adding new items as I can get them made, photographed and upload. I have found something I really love doing and will be working hard to get new stuff all the time for you. (You can find the link to my shop on the left hand side of my blog at the top.)

Monthly Newsletter

ALSO for the month of August if you sign up for my monthly newsletter I will send you a coupon code for a dollar off your purchase. * I would like to have a monthly newsletter to send information about new products, specials and Sales which you will only get for subscribing to my monthly newsletter. This currant offer is good until August 31, 2019. Bonus as well, when you do make a purchase use that coupon, it will send you another dollar off coupon that will be able to use on your next purchase as well. (Sign up for that is on the left hand side of my blog under that link to my store. I will not be filling up your email, only one per month and will not be sharing them with anyone else. If you find you don't want to receive my monthly newsletter, please unsubscribe which will be at the bottoms of each email.)

I would like to explain why I have choose to keep this shop instead of just opening up another. It is mainly because of the follower I already have, comments they have made and stats on this shop. I did request that my counters be changed as it does look funny that I have been on Etsy since 2010 with only 2 sales. I have been on Etsy since 2010 but only had items in my store for a few months because I didn't have as much time to spend with my shop as I had liked at that time. I am back and I am here to stay, new look, new product and tons more to come.

Also would like to add that I changed my name to Snowsmoon's Creations from Snowsmoon's Designs as not to confuse others, I am not a designer anymore, I use products that are designs by others that I try to credit where proper as I am a true believer in giving credit where credit is due. I try very hard as well to ask permission to use products where I think it may be questioned as I don't want to claim credit for someone's else work. Or try to sell something that I do not have permission to do so.

I am still working on getting the shipping figured out, so for now I am offering Free Shipping on everything but only shipping to the US for now until I do more research on the cost of shipping outside the US.

If you would please stop by my store and check out the new products I have so far and as I said more to come daily for a while, please leave a comment even if you don't make a purchase so that I know you have stopped by.

Thank you for your support and please email me is you have any questions. snowsmoonscreations@gmail.com

Snowsmoon's Creations

(**credit for Open Sign photo unknown, but is not mine. I could not find the author or creator when doing a google search for an image with an open sign)

Readers….Need your input on a New Die cutting Machine

2019-07-25T20:42:00.002-04:00

I have been doing some research on getting a die cutting machine for my new passion of card making. I would love to hear your thought on your favorite machine. I have had my eye on a Sizzix Big Shot for some time now and also been looking at the Spellbinder's Platinum 6 as well. Scrapbook.com has a really good deal on both of them right now until the end of the month. So I went digging into "Spellbinders vs. Sizzix Big shot". I have decided to share my finding with you but would really like your opinions before making my decision. Thank you now, for your help.

So here is my review with the research on both the Spellbinders and Big Shot. I prefer watching videos over reading endless reviews. Seeing the machine in action especially when I personally have never used one, is my choice of means of review a new product. So I went to you tube, entered in the search bar, "Spellbinders vs. Sizzix Big shot" and watch about 10 to 15 different videos. There wasn't as many as I thought there would be but I watched many, some favor one or the other.

Here is my conclusion/opinion:

Over all they are very compatible machines, so I guess it would be purchaser's brand choice, and or the deal you find on either machines as a bigger factor, what the costs are and what you get with it. I didn't look into the cost or replace cutting plates for the Spellbinders but have looked on the Big Shot unless you want the longer plates they are not that bad.

Noise- I have heard the noises from both machines, which has to do with the type of die you are using. Not all wafer thin dies are created equal. Which is why the noise comes from the pressure from the rollers on the cutting plates to do the cutting. One of the gals I watched described it as a car driving straight over a big bump in the road, like a speed bump, hitting it straight on puts more pushed on the car but it you hit is on an angle, moving one tire at a time over the bump, it is less force on the impact of the car. So turning the die on a slight angle will put less pressure all at once on the rollers, making less pressure on the cutting plates.

Size for storage: Spellbinders has a smaller foot print once folded up for storage. So if you prefer that to be part of your decision because you are limited on space, the spellbinders does close up in a more compact foot print.

A couple of video's said, "Spellbinders works best with its own dies", and that other manufactures dies can warp the cutting plates is not carefully placed on the cutting plate as some are a little thicker than other die are. In my opinion, means the person is forcing the plate through which I am sure you should not do on either machine. Both machines will cut almost all dies, just need to make sure that the plates are moving through the machine easily, don't force them. And of course you have put the sandwich together for the type of die you are cutting. Until watching these I had no idea there was more than one type of die other than the wafer thin dies.

After watching these gals using both machines, I think the Big Shot has a more stable foot print which would make since to me that is why at times the machine base can move around when turning the handle to move the sandwich plate through the machine. The Spellbinder is more compact for easier storage, but could be the reason it can be harder to stabilize. With all that said, I think for card making using mainly small dies, this should not be a problem so I am still not sure which is the better machine to purchase. I have a Cricut Explore Air 2, but it just doesn't cut shape like a die cutting machine does.

So this is what I found, please comment or email me your thoughts on these two wonderful die cutting machines.

Happy Crafting,

Snowsmoon's Creations

email: snowsmoonscreations@gmail.com

Dawn

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE AT THE TOP LEFT OF MY BLOG.

Wednesday Sketch Challenge #445- My Favorite Things

2019-07-16T10:43:00.001-04:00

Another quick post for another challenge I did over the weekend, was going to post tomorrow, but just looked over the rules, ect and realized it is do in a couple of hours....hoping I made it. The large element was fussy cut from one of the papers and the stitch like border, I hand scored as I do not have a die cut machine (yet!?).

It was so much fun doing these challenges this week. Here is my entry for the challenge I found at My Favorite Things. Marieke back to their blog with her take on this week's sketch.

#445 Sketch

My card is for my son's 33 Birthday which is this weekend-

Supplies:

Dia De Los Muertos V from Designs by Reminisce (element fussy cut from paper and backed with white card stock),
Card stock from paper studio or recollections
Peal-offs- Love from Lizzy
Card bases and envelopes from Darice (A-2 80# weight paper)
MAMBI- Happy Birthday planner stamp
Welcome to Joyful Home Stamp set from Woo Yang Fun stamped sentiment on the end side of the card. I got from amazon.

As I said on my last post. A lot of what I have used is from my stash that I have had for many years. If I can't find a name on it, I will state that it was from my stash.

(it says: Hope your birthday is as special as you are)

Thank You for stopping by and Enjoy your day!

Sketch Saturday Week #572 Challenge

2019-07-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by my blog to view my first ever entery in doing a sketch challenge for making cards. I have been a digital and paper scrapper for a lot of years, but I just started card making very recently. I am also new to stamping and coloring but am sure I will get better with more practice. I enjoyed doing this challenge, and had so much fun, I did two of them.

Some of the things on my supply list have been in my stash for some time and I am not sure where or when I got them, but when I make my list I do try to list everything I use and tell you if I don't remember or it was from my stash.

Supply list:

Paper from Doodle Bug's Simply Spring (6x6 paper pad)
Bee was a stamp set from my stash which I don't know who designed.
Everyday Essentials Colored Pencils- purchased from Amazon. I used two light blues, two med yellows and dark yellow. I used the white to do some blending with.
Doodle Bugs' Beehive Enamel Dots
Peal-offs- Love from Lizzy
Card bases and envelopes from Darice (A-2 80# weight paper)
MAMBI - Planner stamp set -Be Happy
Seaskyer Clear Stamps-Stamped sentiment on the end side of card

Have a blooming marvelous day

Inside stamped:

Sketch Saturday Week #572 with Becky's Place

Enjoy your day!

Dawn aka Snowsmoon

2019-06-27T13:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends,

It has been a couple of years since I have shared with my creative scrapping friends. Life gets busy and Life just happens...so with no more about why I haven't been here and more about what I am back to share with you.

I have been scrapping in many forms and I want to say that I have really been enjoying actually working with paper products themselves. Most recently I have been very addicted to making A-2 size greeting cards. After watching many you tube videos of other fellow scrappers/card makers, I decided to give it a try bashing through and seeing how many cards I could make from a 6 x 6 paper pad. Oh what a relaxing and enjoyments it is to challenge yourself to use as much of that paper pad as you can, having little or no scraps left over at all. I am so hooked.

I follow Vanessa Peters of Scrappin it up, who teaches how to make DYI Albums from chip board as well as file folders that is so amazing. Her kindness and helpfulness sure shows her passion for scrapping and helping others in her group Facebook Live videos. So many times she goes up and above for each one of us. Her work is awesome as well. Very inspirational.

An example of March Madness Album we made watching her Facebook lives, she takes you through making the album as well as decorating it. So much fun doing this as a group. Thanks again, Vanessa! I will add more photos of this when the photos are put in to it. I made it for my trip to visit my brother in Okinawa back a few years ago.

credits: March Madness Album by Scrappin it up

Paper line is: Vintage Traveller by Simple Stories

Title was cut with my Cricut

I have also followed a couple of gals that have a very interesting way to teach how to make 12 x 12 pages as well with the same paper line and watching a process video by Simple Cut Creations. If you would like to watch her process videos, look her up on You Tube. This one she showed you how to make 6 pages. I don't have them totally finished until I find photos I want to put in them but here they are all made in one evening. Sorry for the poor quality of photos, I am working on finding a way to take better photo's in my house, it is dark and overhead lights as well. If you have any suggestion, please leave me a comment below.

With all this new creativeness I have learned, I am thinking about doing some scrapping for hire...if you have experienced this type of work before, please leave me a comment below as well.

More good stuff to share with in the next month or so, so please stop by and let me know what you have been up to.

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate your following me!

Dawn aka Snowsmoon's Design

....Continued of Week One, Kendallynn Meets the Family

2017-03-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

I have had a few busy weekends and between working long hours those weeks, I haven’t had much time to put my thoughts down on paper, So let me see where I left off in sharing from my #happyplanner and continue in my story.

I think, we were still sharing about the visit we had with Greg, Joy and Kendallynn. We were at the beach at Kendallynn’s request and the day was a windy rainy day so we only stayed down on the beach to take a couple of pictures which I shared on my last post…….…

We had family meet us at a family favorite pizza place I use to take the kids to a lot when they were young, the original Bizzarro Pizza in Indialantic, FL. This was the first time my kids meet her. We were all excited.

Kendallynn’s birthday is in a few days, so Jessica gave her an early birthday “mini” party. So she opened her gifts while we waited for our pizza pie.

We had a nice lunch, check out this LARGE pizza, it couldn’t even fix on the table. Not sure you can tell by the photo, but is was as big as the table top. One piece hung over the paper plate, they were so big! GREATEST pizza in the world!

She was so excited and must have been over whelmed with all these new people in her life doeing over her. It was an amazing time to see them all excited for her, wanting to meet her. As we sit and ate our lunch we chatted of old times and catching up with each other as well. We decided to go back to Jessica’s house to wait for Dusty and the boys to arrive.

We all got into the cars and drove to John and Ashley’s house so Kendallynn could meet the rest of her family. Uncle John and Aunt Dusty with Javi, Mateo, Tre (she had already dropped Xander off to his Dad’s house so she didn’t get to meet him).

The boys were so shy, so they really didn’t get to know each other, but I did get this of them all. (missing is Ashley who was at work and Xander, Chaz and Brittany which she saw earlier in the day).

I don’t think they realize how so HAPPY they make me when we all get together. THESE are the VERY BEST times and so enjoy them so much. No, it’s not the WALTON’S (inside family joke) but they are my pride and JOY and a Mother can only hope!!! I would love to have them all together in one house to be able to say, “Good night, Jessica & Alex. John & Ashley. Dusty and JonC. Greg & Joy” just one more time!!! and of Course a GOOD NIGHT with lots of kisses and hugs to my grandchildren, “Chaz, Brittany, Michael, Kendallynn, Javi, Xander and Mateo” as well as Tre. Need to get a house big enough for that first.

Here is the most resent photo of My children, which I had made on canvas to hang over my desk for now, but my black and white wall collection I am hoping to put up soon!

Thanks for letting me share my life one week at a time. Hoping to get caught up soon, but this was week one and it was a big one.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Feb 19, 2017 Planner update. SCRAPPING WEEKEND-Week 1

2017-02-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

Glad to be back here to share another update, As you can see I am still working on Week one. Week one was a very busy week and with all that happened, it is taking me a while to get it all documented. This weekend I found my digi files for Simple Stories Snap albums so I found myself scrapping without even "planning for it". It was so much fun and I really do miss the storytelling in this matter. Also found my Project Life templates as well. I am one scrap-happy mama!

I am realizing that after finishing up January in my planner, that is won't hold it all even if I slip it up into two or three planners, so I will going to keep that photos I take along my 2017 journey will be kept in a Simple Stories Snap Albums, I have three of four of them. So as I keep memories and things to do in my planner I will have everything I need to keep my pocket scrapping a organized and fun to do. I have more than enough supplies to do this, but have been overwhelmed with thinking that I have to get the many years in my albums first and it seems to never get a good start on it. So, again, Linda thanks so much for telling me about and sending me a happy planner!

Week 1 continued: Above page layout.

Before getting to go over to visit and stay the night with Kendalynn, I had some bad news happen at the beginning of the week. The journal on the layout, explained:

A few days before I was to go see Kendalynn, my car decided that it didn’t want to stay started. We couldn’t even get it to stay started to get it to the auto shop. We called AAA to tow the car to Dave’s Auto Repair in Cape Canaveral. I rode home with JJ and He brought me to work that next day and picked me up so that we could go get my car. It was dirt battery terminals and bad ignition switch. Not as costly as I thought and JJ saved the weekend with my kids. JJ wanted me to try the awesome New England Clam Chowder he thinks is the best he has ever had at Grills. He had a large bowl and we shared an order of their famous Fish Tacos. It was a new first dinner date for 2017. Ended by a beautiful sunset over the Indian River on the drive home.

In my last post I explained these two layouts, so I won't go in to too much details. It was a very special time for me for almost all my kids to be together. I am going to make a 12 x 12 pocket layouts to share my next post.

The next few weeks will be finished and ready to share. My first week was a big one and family gatherings are always a great sharing moments. I will share my planner for Week one:

Have a GREAT week! Thanks for reading and stopping by!

January 2017 Special Memories- Week 1

2017-02-04T16:19:00.001-05:00

HI, I hope that everyone is having a good start to 2017. I am going to do a little catch up for the month of January. As I want to use my blog as my Journal for memory keeping. So when I do start putting my photos together with my Happy Planner notes, I will have the journal all finished. I think I will break it up over the next couple of weeks so that I am not rushed or leaving out important details out that I would like to share with my family one day. The first week of the year was a great family gathering time, so I want to make sure that I get all that happened in writing before the moments start slipping away. That is the little ones that make the big story the best. I have been a little journal in my planner as well so but I really think this will work out better.

WEEK 1- Jan 2, 2017

As I begin this New Year I was gifted this planner and goodies to create with. It was given to me by a very dear friend and best friend of mine, Linda Walton. Really excited about it as I can keep track of my memories and jot down things to pass on to my kids. As I explained in my first post, I am so thankful for all the love and support that she has given me over the last 10 years or so. Thanks again, girly!

January 6, 2017 – I got out of work early and went to see Kendalynn, Greg and Joy. They came to Florida to take her to Disney, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. She had a great time but so much wanted to meet the rest of the family. I am not sure how I pulled it off But I did. There was only two family member that was not there and that was Xander & JonC. Dusty dropped Xander off before she got to John’s house. JonC stayed and worked for Dusty so that she could come to meet Kendallynn.

Here are a few pictures. I have been pretty luck in the last few years to get them all together at least once a year and this time I did it twice within a few weeks of each other was a sure blessing. We took Kendallyn to the beach, she wanted to she it. Of course it was colder thatn it has been in weeks and the to top it off, it was a light rain and very windy. Had Pizza at our family’s favorite Pizza place, The Original Bizzarro Famous New York Pizza . I thinks she was little overwhelmed with us all but it was an awesome day. Before today, I had been the only one who had meet her. Jessica’s and I have been kind of in her life but Jessica’s love it!!!

I have a couple more things to share in January before I get into some exciting news for February goings on!

Well until next week, I hope that everyone is taking the time to put your memories on paper or any other form a keeping them in light so that your future generations can enjoy, laugh and know what has happened in the past. I know I am enjoying this new journey. May God bless each of you with many happy memories!

January 2017- New Beginnings for Memory Keeping - My new Create 365 Happy Planning Planner

2017-01-29T11:51:00.003-05:00

Hello My Friends & Family,

So where to even began, I would like to say Hello to everyone and to any one who is reading this blog post now. Can not BELIEVE IT....WOW.... it's has been almost three years since I have done a blog post. Where on earth has the time gone? Must add that to my #HappyPlanner right away, Get back to my "BLOGGING". Any one have stickers for posting/blogging reminders?

I would like to begin with thanking my BFF for the AWESOME Christmas gift, Linda Walton, surprised me with. As I opened the case, tears ran down my face. They were happy tears but I am not usually a person that tears up about happy things ,but she knows me so well and has a good idea what this means to me. It was FILLED with all kinds of goodies. I have to admit, my first thought reaction was, boy am I in trouble BUT I was so wrong. So again I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart. I love my HAPPY PLANNER!

As January is coming to an end, I realized that I would like to take this Happy Planning to the next level (praying I can keep up with our fast pace and ever changing world). Coming back to my blog for sharing my life happenings with friends and family I am hoping will give me just that boost I need. Social media has been sucking up too much of my life & time. Hours of hoping from one site to another getting nothing productively documented..... Many things started and NOTHING finished. Although this is a form of it, I have always felt it was a whole lot more personal as well as useful to me when trying to find a special moments to share. As with most of my digital journey of sharing things over the years, I love that I can make this my own "Happy Place" to keep my love of Memory Keeping alive and sharing with you. I also really MISS my digital scrapping, so how knows, there may be some more of that in my future as well. I sure hope so!

MOVING FORWARD, please help me along this next year by letting me know that you have stopped by. Leaving a simply "Hi" or "I was here" comment below. It was always been a great encouragement to me in the past. I will have My dear friend & BFF to help me through getting my social media site hooked up so that when I post, it goes to them as well. I do have some very near and dear followers that do follow me on them as well. I was old school in the past when sharing my posts through them, don't laugh, I would login to each of them and post my links to share. Sad but true. But as I said moving forward.

Over the next few days I am going to catch you up on my journey through January, it was sure a busy and fun month seeing family who lives out os state, a few birthday celebrations and weekly photo's of just because to share with you. My Happy Planner is all complete with many things I would like to share. So stay tuned as they say in hollywood.

Welcome back! May your life be Blessed & Thank you for all your support

Week 8...A little late but a real busy week.

2014-03-03T18:12:00.003-05:00

I am behind so this post is going to be a rough outline of Week 8 and I am looking forward to posting Week 9.

Sunday-Had a wonderful dinner with JJ's family in Orlando At Joe's Crab Shack. Debi Bratcher and Johnny (JJ's dad) along with Debi's kids, Allison and Timothy. Thank you guys, it was fun! Even though I had to skip around the restaurant on a Stick horse wearing a ratty looking straw hat while everyone sang, Happy Birthday! (I played along and they said thanks for being a good sport.

Monday- I decided to stay home from work as my back (which I did find out is a pinched nerve) was hurting and I really just didn't feel up to dealing with the world. RELAX and DID NOTHING!

Tuesday- Wednesday Some of the same things in a daily work week. I did find with new sign of spring in a trimmed back tree at my place of work. I know the leaves look like fall, but this bird worked so hard for the last few days building the nest.

Thursday- started out the same as any other week but the thing that happened is the reason I have fell behind on my blogging, scrapping BUT...I am going to keep my new outlook and not share what caused the messy and depressing mood I had gone through over the last week and half. LIFE is just too short to look back over it.

Week 8- Inspirational Quote

Friday- I backed up an over night bag and went to my daughters house for the night so that I could go with her to look at houses. Went to dinner with Lisa, Alexis and Jasmine. It was fun catching up with her and seeing the girls. By the time we got home and relaxing it was late so we decided to go to bed early so that we could eat breakfast before we had to meet Bluma, lady who was showing us the houses, to look at six different house for Jessica to check out to buy. (That lady was a mission to sell a house that is for sure).

Saturday-This is the one she liked and so she decided to put in an offer.

Somewhere in this week my new storage 12 x 12 scrapbook paper containers came. Caught you up on the HAPPY SPACE next week.

Happier Day to come!

Week 7: Busy Birthday Week

2014-02-16T23:29:00.001-05:00

Busy Week so grab your favorite drink and I will try to make it as interesting as I can.

Sunday, Feb 9,2014: The girls wanted to take me to lunch for my birthday, so we meet at Mimi’s Café in Viera, FL. It is really nice for us to spend some fun time together.

We communicate on a daily basis but face time is my favorite of all. Dusty and I drove together to meet Jessica, Brittany and her bff, Julia.

After a nice lunch, we took few pictures and they gave me my gift…a new purse and wallet, a Vera Bradley print…I love it! Plus a bonus shopping bag that it came in, which should have been a sign, they are going to drag me off shopping. Just kidding but Brittany and Julia were asking to go look for a new top at Ross.

We then decided to go the Ross so the girls could look around. Shopping is not my favorite thing to do but going with them is fun. Jessica and I looked through the dresses but couldn’t really find anything that pleased us but lots to laugh about, like this dress that Jessica spotted. She grabbed the skirt of it saying, “This looks like someone puked up highlighters.” What do you think? We laughed and I had a wonderful day with my girls. Feeling so blessed!

Monday, Feb 10, 2014 It Was pretty normal, dreading the thought of going to work and praying real hard that I had the patients to make it through the day with my micro manager boss.

Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014 Tomorrow is my birthday and I saw this interesting post on FaceBook about the unusual common things between Lincoln and Kennedy

Did YOU KNOW?

· Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

· Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

· Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

· Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

· Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

· Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

· Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

· John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

· Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

· Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."

· Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

· And here's the "kicker":

· A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
AND...................:

· Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a warehouse...
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theater...
I saw this had to share just in case anyone did not know.

Wedsday Feb 12, 2014 I called my brother Adam to wish him a Happy Birthday. We share the same day. He called himself the retarded twin cause he waited 8 years to come out of the womb.

Thursday Feb 13 2014 My back is starting to hurt again. After talking to my BFF I decided to call the Chiropractor to see if he would take new xrays before adjusting me. if the ultrasound was too much money. I so need to understand what is going on.

RIP Ralph Waite, the actor that played Daddy on my all time most favorite TV show, The Walton's ....he has also been on NCIS as Gibbs father and played Father Matt on Day's of our lives. He will be sadly Missed!

Friday Feb 142014 I called and made an appointment to the Chiropractor on the way to work. It wasn't til 5pm so I decided to go see the boys. All of my Happy Valentine Boys. Xander gave me a red heart shaped sucker...XOXOXOX

Mateo was on his own agenda. He brought me a shirt and sweat pants to help him put on and then he went and put on some slides shoes.

Walking around happy and following me all around the house. Well, I had an idea he may think he was going with me, but found that out for sure when he went to the door and told everyone bye like he was going to walk out the door with me. I felt so bad that I couldn't take him with me. He went to his mama and got the mad face of his....Tater, Grandma LOVE you!!!!

This is about as romantic as JJ and I get, candle light (Taco Bell) dinner for a Happy Valentines that I stopped by to pick up after my doctor's appointment. Happy Valentines..................off to do our own thing. Neither one of us make much of the Hallmark Holiday.

Saturday, Feb 15, 2014 Today my intention is to get my crafting/scrapbook area CLEANED up and ORGANIZED. Here is what I have to work with and on:

After 11 hours, I felt that I made a huge improvement, a huge trash bag of stuff I got rid of and many boxes broke down. I got it looking good. What do you think?

I hope everyone Enjoys your next week. Happy scrapping!

Week 6: Some sad news and A Happy ending….

2014-02-09T23:27:00.003-05:00

Fond memories of Mr. Fred Bear:

When my father lived in Grayling, MI and I went to visit him in the summers; I worked at a cafe Fred Bear would come to have coffee almost daily with my father. His coffee cost 25 cents and he always left me a dollar tip and always kind words. Since then most of his stuff was moved to Gainesville, FL, the museum and the Bow and arrow plant. I also worked at a bottling factory which made camo wax for hunters to use on their face and hands that was for Fred Bear Archery (that is the plant in Gainesville, FL). When I told the vice president of the company (Val jeans in Indian Harbor Beach, FL) about serving him coffee as a teenager, he told the guys he was making the product for. He came to visit the plant and brought him a wall pluck of one of Fred Bears Bows and Arrows with a special title plate Thanking Val jeans for making his product.

I have the visited the museum many times in Michigan and after it moved to Florida and remember the man with kind words in light conversation with my father and a big tip when his coffee cup would be sitting there empty and needed to be cleared away!

As I pondered over the post on face book I came across this article, which is why I started writing this post, because a part of my childhood memories of my father maybe lost and it was one I didn’t want to forget to share with my grandsons as they get older. I have posted part of the article and the link so that I can share with them when they are older. I wish I could find the picture of my brother’s and I standing under the arms of the big grizzly bear when we visited in Grayling Michigan….will have to ask through the family to see if anyone has a copy of it.

So sad: Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions

“Fred Bear died in 1988. The Florida museum continued open until 2003, when Bear Archery sold the museum's collection to the Bass Pro Shops chain of sporting goods stores, which also took over operation of the Fred Bear Sports Club. Bass announced that they would display parts of the collection at one or more of their retail stores and planned to use parts in a traveling exhibition. The Gainesville industrial plant continues to manufacture Fred Bear branded bow hunting and archery equipment, but the museum is gone.” L!

http://www.lostparks.com/fredbear.html

Happy ending!

This week has been an up and down rollercoaster for me at work. Expected to be Wonder Woman is an understatement. But with lots of Faith and tons of Prayers, I made it through it and Saturday was filled with Friendship, Family and FUN Creative play in my HAPPY PLACE in the middle of my chaos Scrapping area. (No, I haven’t got much in the way of the area ORGANIZED totally yet. But it is getting there). Debi and I got lots of pages put together on her Project Life Album that we are making together as a special gift for someone special. (It is a secret so I can’t share right now, but will later in the year.) And yes, I am in my FAVORITE sleepwear and Debi in her 70’s tie-die t-shirt that made me think of my brother, Mickey, all DAY!!!! WHAT an AWESOME time was had!!!

After Debi and Johnny left, I was picking up and going to get started on the ORGANIZING of the area. BUT ended up very quickly looking through some photo’s I had just had printed and very shortly after that, working on a couple of pages for my own PL Album…. It is as I have heard said, “It is very addicting!” is an understatement. Ended up finally going to bed around 2 am…. Here is what I did,

Although I have not been very creative in my photography on taking pictures of my art to share with you, I am trying hard to at least get it documented. That way I have time to edit if I so choose to add to one of my albums.

I like to compare our weather each week with my BFF’s weather in North Dakota. These screen shots were taken at 1 pm in the high of the day Monday. See what 2000 miles different it can be….Stay warm my girly, Linda, cause baby its cold outside your door!

Have a good Week 7 everyone! Enjoy, create, and be HAPPY!

Organizing and Cleaning OUT!

2014-02-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

Credits: Media Web Apps

Facebook post I loved...and needed this week. Was still not feeling the best this week, but I made it through feeling some what like myself again. I so wish I had a person who would do a daily walk or a few days a week at least. In today's world I just really don't feel safe doing it alone, but I have to start facing theses fears because my health is depending on it. (ok, enough of the poor me stuff)!

I always find comfort in my BFF chats. We have been internet, Skype and phone pals for many years now. And if you have followed either of us through the years, you know that the craft of digital scrapping has made for many people a way to have a social outlet, become friends though the craft and end up a life long friendships. The support and kindness is endless in connecting with the right person. With all the many things that are fast trending in forms of communication, Linda and I have fumbled though it all together and I so love her for it!!! (many other reason too! *wink). Face time would be an awesome treat, but it doesn't matter as we are always in each others heart.

So for my Sn@p album I am making of and for myself I made this to print for it. Because it is truly meaningful to us.......No Matter the Miles between us! BFF's 4 Ever!

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at everyone's ORGANIZED Project Life and other ideas to keep your life running smoother, I have spent most of this weekend, cleaning "Out" my office. Here is what I started with....The picture doesn't really give you the real MESS I was trying to work AROUND.

Not totally finished but here is how far I got last evening. Doesn't look that much different BUT, Two and half large Kitchen trash bags later, drawers cleaned out, only currant files for mowing business and LOTS of foot room cleaned out under the desk.

Going to leave you this week hoping you all have a SUPER (Happy Scrappy) Bowl Sunday! (Goal for me is getting a touch down on the finish of this office and next my scrapping area, again).

PS....Here is the finished OFFICE!

Happy Birthday, JJ.

2014-01-28T08:05:00.001-05:00

"Happy Birthday, JJ!"

It has been a long week of not feeling the best. And I have been a little under the weather, so not too much got accomplished especially storytelling wise. I did get a few goody in the mail, that did get opened but that is about it. After four different doctor appointments with two different doctors, I finally found out yesterday what is going on with my aging body. I am passing a kidney stone. On the down side today, my co-work called me and said that the boss said to stay home one more day to make sure things are doing ok and I am able to sit all day. WOO HOO, staying and may be able to do something scrapping wise, we will see.

Sunday we took my partner to dinner for his birthday to one of his favorite restaurant. His dad and girlfriend came over to visit and went with us.

It was a rainy day, but when we got there is was dry and warm enough to sit out on the deck with the river view. Had a really nice time, just wish the pain wouldn't of not distracted me from taking more pic!

I almost forgot, the prints came from Persnickety. I love how they came out and did get them trimmed and put into pocket page. This page had a white border that I really didn't think was going to be there, but I made it work. I trimmed the white from one of the pics and decided to check the size, then decided to leave it on the others. Going to have to make sure the size is different next time. The other 12 x 12 pages turned out GREAT, too!

Friday, on the drive home, I saw the funniest sign on a truck that really made me laugh after taking a hard look at the wording to make sure I was reading it correctly. It was a small maintenance business box truck. I took a pic for my weekly album....(I add the gray writing with my phone app). SERIOUSLY....LOL.

That is about all the update worth writing about for this week, but we will see what I come up with for the rest of this week.

Happy Scrapping and Storytelling!

Project Life's first 12 x 12 order is on it way....

2014-01-19T13:27:00.001-05:00

Credit to Dunia Designs for the Journal cards, Thanks!

Good Afternoon everyone!

I am really excited and can't wait to get my order from Persnickety Prints. For once I didn't go hog wild and order tons and my testing I talked about last week, (printing my Project life pages as a 12 x 12 and cutting them to put in the pockets). I did order a some of layout I did a while ago of a visit to Brevard Zoo. I have not had a 12 x 12 print, have always printed 8x8 because of the ability to print them myself, but at $1.99 I thought I would give them try. I would love to add some of my layouts to my albums, so I am excited to get them in a couple of day!

Here are the layouts I ordered.

Yesterday, I had a couple of my good friends over to help start them pocket scrapping with the project life goodies we had gone shopping for a couple of weeks ago. Debi has asked me to help her make an album for her daughter for a gift. Allison will be graduating from College and will be a great gift for her to treasure. We had a wonderful time throwing around ideas and enjoying some common interest in photos and having them tell a story. We planned out her title page and organized the themes she wants to use. I started a couple of pages and having so much fun with it. Funny how it is sometimes easier to work with other people photo's and ideas than your own? Would love to share our work in progress but can't take a chance Allison will see it, so will have to share it in May after the graduation.

This morning I opened my email to find another deal of 50 prints for $5.99 at Walgreens, so I have been editing and upload more photos for my PL of 2012...yes I am a little behind but working at each of my ideas a little at a time.

Even though I am working on 2012 I found some cell phone photos of Mateo's birth that I was going to try to edit because they aren't very good for printing, they are all we have, so I came up with this, please let me know what you think?

Have a good week and I will hopefully have some more to share next week.

Happy Storytelling!

Hello Scrapland Friends and WELCOME 2014

2014-01-12T00:19:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year EVERYONE!

Project Life Page of "2012 in Review"-pg 1

I hope this finds everyone having a great new beginning to 2014. It has been a crazy end of 2013 for me and I am just getting back in the swing of working in Photoshop, my scrapping tools/supplies and photographs. I have organized photos, supplies and setting up a work space about half way through last year and made four albums for my children for Christmas this last year. With that said, been editing and printed over 500 photos for those albums. I used the theme of Christmas Gatherings from the year 2005-2013 (after Christmas was over, I picked out the best ones and had them printed so they could put them in their own books). For my girls, I got 12 x 12 albums so that they can add more pages (or pages I make for them to add in the same albums. Pocket pages are so the way in preserving memories and storytelling of ones life. I have to say, Becky Higgins is a GREAT inspiration for her beginning her Project Life method of scrapping memories for future generations.

During the rest of the year, I got a new job, finally. But I was not feeling well which isn't like me at all, so I spent lots of time running to doctor appointments to find out that my blood pressure was running high again. Finally got that fixed (I hope) so I am back to my real love, documenting our life in pocket pages using photographs, mostly digital but doing some of my older prints as well. I am sure you see that I am couple of years behind scrapping, I am starting my 2012 album now, but really enjoying it.

My best friend and I were talking the other night, in one of "Whip the World" long chats, how she saw some gals putting together their project life pages digitally, having them printed 12x12 and then trimming them apart to put into pocket pages. I thought that is a good idea, especially for gals like us, that have been digitally scrapping and sharing on our blogs with other gals in our scraping communities. I added her idea to the idea I had seen that gave me the inspiration to make my 3x4 card in gray scale and adding a splash of color with glitter for the monograms in the colors of the months birthstones. The day just got away from me, I made all the cards. Then took Linda's advise on making my own template for the page. And last I added the photos to just see how it would turn out....I am very pleased. Now just need to get the page printed. WOW...I think I really like this idea. THANKS Linda aka Bon Scrapatit Designs for the great IDEA. I am sure you are going to love it too.

Well, I sure hope it doesn't take me as long as it did this time to get back to my blog, but until then I hope and pray everyone is doing well and still putting your memories and storytelling in an album for all your loved ones or even for yourself to share your favorite and even some of your not so favorite times so they are kept alive. Sweet Dreams!

PS....Here is page two!

PSS....I forgot the most important thing that happened this week...how could I have forgot this!!!!!

This pages was made for my Sn@p Album I am make as a Photo and Craft Journal for 2014

Photo Editing and Restoration

2013-06-13T19:52:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone, have been playing in Photoshop the last few days and had watched a very good video on you tube for masking and touch up for photos. So I had to put this new knowledge to use. This is a photo I had edited before, but it was one I had scanned in for repair, so I used it again. WOW, I have to say that I have learned a lot since the last time I edited and repaired it before. What you think? In stage one was the touching up and repairing using PSCS5 newer tools I learned in my Digital Photo Class. Stage 2 I did some blending, masking (from the video I watched) and in the final stage I had lessened the saturation and lightened it up just a little bit. It all took me about 2 1/2 hours.

First time This time

I have been working on the organization of my printed photo's still for Project Life and designing a few core cards for the older photo's I have been working with as my story is starting when I was born. I did get one page together but have not go the journaling complete yet. I am trying hard to take my time and do this for the final time. I have had my photo's in albums, old school magnetic photo albums, but they were falling part, so Project Life has it's own meaning to me....started way back in the day first to tell a story of my life and family.

Here is a look at my first stage of page one, the photo is not very good, but you get the idea....Until next time....Happy Scrapping!

Memorial Day....Walking down memory lane.

2013-05-27T14:41:00.000-04:00

I hope this finds everyone having a great weekend and feeling as Grateful and Thankful as I am on this MEMORIAL DAY....all my brothers served our country and so very thankful and proud of them for doing so and that they are all very proud AMERICANS. Thoughts and prayers to those whom were not as fortunate as our family is to have them home with us.

I have spent the weekend walking down memory lane, sorting through my old paper photos. I was actually finishing up the organizing job I had started a year or so ago. Just about got it all filed. I will be so glad to start the storytelling part of this Project Life. I am trying hard to get the paper photo's arranged and start my album with them. I have about 35 years of paper photo's until I changed over to digital....I have so much going through my head about this project but my main purpose is telling my life story with all these captured memories. Hoping to leave my kids with a story to go along with shoe boxes of photographs I have collected over the last 55 years.

All of that said to say, getting a page finished to share is a larger order than I had expected...I have my goals set on what I want it to say, but actually getting, what I want it to look like is something a bit overwhelming faced with too many options to go with. One thing that is been a challenge is that during the 60's and 70's there were so many different size photo's, so they have to be trimmed and mounted or wait til that size page protects are made. I know I could start in the middle where the photo's get more standard in sizes. What is a girl to do? Paper scrapping has always been a challenge. No second chances once you cut...no undo button like I have used a lot in PS.

I could go on and on about the things I have been coming up against but it is a start and just sitting here looking through them has brought me a wonderful stand in time looking at all the blessing I have to cherish. So I will carry on and update you with the progress as it gets started in the right direction.