Today is my Birthday!

Yes...today is my birthday. I am 29 once again. I think in celebration, I would like to give away some BLOG CANDY!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, wish me a happy birthday, comment on my blog, anything you want. Join my subscription list and get 3 more chances to win (all current subscribers get this automatically). Include me in your blog roll and get 3 more chances to win! Just let me know in your comment that I've been added. What do you win? A 9x9 Memory showcase accordian album by CTMH, some rhinestone bling from CTMH and a Michaels acrylix stamp set. Here's another added bonus: if my hits counter reaches 1000 I will include the June CTMH stamp of the month Summertime.

However, you can also guess my age (it's not 29). All correct guessers will go into a drawing to win another little goodie.

Comments can be posted until Wednesday, July 4 and winners will be randomly chosen on Thursday, July 5. Wow, that's a lot of celebrating!

I don't have a lot to share. My husband and I went to Morton's steak house yesterday and so I was so full yesterday I just wanted to lay down. I am trying to continue with the SU items that I made in a stamp camp.

The band comes off and then the card opens to reveal the sentiment. A fairly simple card. I tried to do my CTMH version but I found that I actually don't have any graduation stamps. I guess I need to buy some.

I used the Colors of Spring paperpack and the It's Your Birthday stamp set by CTMH. I colored in the image using my Sakura pens. I wanted to emboss like in the graduation example, however whenever I have time to create, it's usually when my baby is sleeping.

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Pages Completed

Hello all. Well I have been working very hard this month to catch up on my baby's scrapbook. I am not THAT far behind. He's 9 months old and I've completed about 12 2-page layouts. Not too bad. Below you will find my layouts. I apologize for the glare and the overall bad picture taking. Also, I have not journaled yet on these pages. I figured I would sit down this weekend and do it in one go. These pages had been made in the last year at classes and at conventions and I just put my pictures in.

The above uses CTMH Hollydays paper. I left a space on the side for journaling.

The above used a holly stamp and the old CTMH background paper. The squares on the side I'm going to use to put the year.

This scrapbook page uses SEI paper. it was also a way to use scraps. The strips of paper were scraps that were criss crossed to create a border. A TIP: most of my pictures are horizontal so if you have a page that has a space for a vertical picture and you don't have one then crop your pictures down and you can fit two small pictures in the vertical spot. See the page on the left - Tyler is wearing a hat - I cropped these pictures to fit in this vertical spot and now I have more pictures on my layout. Plus sometimes cropping your pictures really makes the people in the picture standout.
These two layouts use CTMH's Rough and Tumble paper and the charm alphabet. I cropped my horizontal pictures to fit in the vertical spot. I think they came out really nice and I hope you enjoyed them!

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I've been tagged!

How exciting! I've been tagged by Erin. The rules are that I need to post 7 random facts about myself, tag 7 other people, and post the rules. I also need to let the 7 people know that I've tagged them in a comment on their blog.

I have tagged: Kim, Tracy, Driggs, Marelle, Alesha, Sharon, Trudee

7 Random facts about me:

1. I'm only 5'3 but played basketball for 11 years including a stint on my Varsity High School team.

2. I absolutely love, love, love Starbucks! I'm addicted to non-fat white chocolate mochas (with whip of course). I find that when I'm driving the whip cream helps the mocha from spilling out of the sipping area.

3. I can't really stand today's music. I mostly listen to 80's and early 90's rock and pop. I'm a huge Madonna and U2 fan. They put on great concerts! My husband is driven crazy by Banarama and the Go-Go's. It sure beats the rap crap he puts on.

4. This isn't really about me but I think it's interesting anyway. My baby has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and is very fair. My husband and I are both dark (we're mixed breeds) with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. Very weird when we go out. He's a totally beautiful baby but I'm half Japanese with a blue eyed almost blond baby!

5. I have a Master's degree in library science. Who knew that you can get an advanced degree in libraries. Yep, you can. I spent a year going to the University of Arizon in Tucson to get my degree.

6. I hardly ever read anymore, irony for a librarian, except for cookbooks and Harry Potter. Yes, I am sure that I was once of the first to pre-order the latest book. I think back in January.

7. Which brings me to the latest random fact - the Food TV Network. Totally addicted! My husband cannot stand the cheesiness of Rachael Ray but I have all of her books and he has enjoyed her recipes when I prepare them. This last one is kind of ironic since we moved into our new house and have not had a kitchen since March! I have been grilling ... a lot... and I am totally sick of it. Apparently we are supposed to be getting our countertops this weekend!!! Pin It Now!

Bella Contest

Hi everyone,

On the CTMH Friends Group there was a buzz of interest about blogs. My philosophy for this blog was to focus as much as possible on scrapping and stamping. My hope is that updating this blog and meeting new stamping friends will motivate me to create! I have so much stuff, from all different companies, my New Year's resolution was to stop hoarding and to start using, since starting this blog, I think that I am finally starting to meet this resolution.

Now on to my creations for today. I decided to do a bella sketch challenge put on by Tracy. I actually do not own any and Tracy was kind enough to send me some images so that I can play.

I used my coluzzle to cut out Flowabella and mounted it on blush cardstock that I ran through my cuttlebug (swirls embossing folder). I also used CTMH chocolate cardstock and More to Adore paper. I colored her using my Prisma colored pencils.

For this entry, I random stamped in buttercup the flower from CTMH's Delight in Everything. I used Cranberry and Garden Green Cardstock and the paper from Let's Get Together. The cranberry cardstock I ran through my diamond corrugator.

For this last entry, I used Hollyhock, Black and Blush cardstock as well as the paper from Stylin'. I have small black brads on the side and tied it off with the ribbon. The paper seemed a little busy so I tried to tone it down a little but I also think the paper goes perfectly with this cute little stamp. Please let me know which one of these you like best!

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Winner! Winner!

Today I won 3 blog candy contests. That's right, 3! I think that I better go out and buy a lottery ticket! First, I won a wonderful stamp set from Rose Ann at Paper Delightz.

Then I got an email telling me that I won a $10 gift certificate to Electric Paperie from Lisa at Inkderdoodle.

Then I won some lovely ribbon from Gretchen at her blog.

I planned on posting another organization tip for Tuesday but I was just so busy this weekend to actually organize anything and then I had a job interview on Monday which really stressed me out. So today I would like to talk about my new favorite tool - the Cuttlebug. I got this wonderful die cutting machine for Christmas but just recently took it out of the box due to the wonderful examples that I have seen posted on various blogs.

The machine is not very expensive and you can use your Joann and Michaels coupons to purchase this. If you can time it right, Joann has 50% off coupons usually around holidays. The dies and embossing folders are fairly inexpensive. I find that the embossing folders are around 5 bucks. Which is totally cheap. I originally wanted it for embossing but I have found myself buying all of the dies as well which I haven't used quite as much. You can use other dies in this machine and there are all kinds of websites out there that discuss how to put these dies in your machine. I just purchased a Quickutz die and I will be trying it out soon to see if it works. If it does, it gives you endless possibilities! I know that there are lots of wonderful die cutting machines out there (I have the Cricut as well!) but this is the one that I use and really love- it's light, its portable and its inexpensive and really easy to use!

I have done some creating. Not as much as I would like. I am still trying to recreate some of the SU stamp camp projects that I made and use CTMH products instead. We made this Father's Day (all products and materials are SU). It has very little stamping.

Here is my version, which I totally do not like. I think that this layout in general does not appeal to me. I think I would much rather have seen a stamp used but at least I met this part of my challenge. All products and materials are CTMH

I als0 made this card using Flowabellah and papers from CTMH. I also used my swirls cuttlebug embossing folder. It's a 4x4 cards. I just happened to have all of these pieces laying around and put them together for this card. Oh, I also used my oval Coluzzle. I colored everything with my brand new Prismalcolor pencils and mineral spirits. I like how it came out!

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A Fun Fold

Happy Friday to everyone! Last Saturday I went to Terri Dunning's stamp camp. She is now my Stampin' UP demonstrator. Just because I am a consultant for another company does not mean that I can't appreciate stamps from everywhere else! We made some very cute things that I wanted to share. I decided to challenge myself to duplicating these ideas using CTMH products. The first project we made is a very cute card using a fun fold and the crab stamp set in the spring mini. The problem that I had in duplicating this idea is that I hardly had any stamp sets that were the color in kind. They all were just the stamp and you're done kind. So I used the CTMH stamp set A Little Bee. The first pic is of the card I made in stamp camp and the second is my version:

In my version, I used the CTMH stamp set A Little Bee and the Curly Sentiments. The cardstock colors were Hollyhock, Garden Green and Buttercup. The ribbon is SU. I colored in my bee with Prismacolored pencils and Gamsol. There is a really good deal on getting these pencils at Michaels. I used my 50% coupon from Joann and bought the 48 pencils, they came with a free box of 12 Verithin Prisma pencils! So I got 60 pencils for 30 bucks! I wasn't completely thrilled with it but I tried this fold with three other cards.

This one I love. I'm sorry the picture is so dark. My camera is not the greatest. I used the Flyin' High stamp set and the Rough and Tumble paper pack all from CTMH. It came out really cute. I'm going to submit this to corporate for this month's Make it From the Heart contest and give the other copy of this card I made to my cousin's little boy for his birthday. He's turning 7!

In this sample I used the stamp set Friendship Blessings which is the cutest darn stamp set ever! The paper is Sweet Harmony and the colors used are Amethyst, Blush, Sweet Leaf and Garden Green. The ribbon is the Blush polka dot bulk ribbon.
This last example uses the Delight in Everything and Happy Birthday stamp sets. The Happy Birthday stamp set just has different fonts and sizes of Happy Birthday, a very useful set. The colors used are Cranberry, Garden Green and Ocean, Buttercup and the paper pack is Delight in Everything. The ribbon is the Garden Green Designer Ribbon round. All supplies listed are by Close to My Heart.

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Father's Day

I know Father's Day was last Sunday but I ended up making my dad a matching bag to go along with his card. I used the Laid Back paper pack from CTMH and the Hang Ten stamp set. It's nothing fancy but it sure looked cute!

I made my husband the Life Delights Memory Showcase accordian album. It was the special of month for May with CTMH. I used pictures of my husband and myself and his kids and our baby. He didn't want me to spend any money on him for Father's Day so I made this album. He absolutely loved it. It was so easy to make. The hardest part was finding the pictures. I really liked how it came out. The album comes with all of the papers and the embellishments to make this album. It also has an instruction sheet. I saw online that someone had made one and used the paper to make pockets and also added a wonderful foldout piece with more pictures.

I wish that I had seen that before. They were really cute ideas but it was hard enough finding these pictures let along more pictures!

I hope that you enjoyed these ideas!

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Tip for Tuesday

In case I didn't mention, I am a librarian by profession, which makes how my craft stuff is organized or should I say not organized so sad. After recently buying the same cuttlebug die twice, I just knew that I needed to take some time and organize. So for the next couple of weeks, I will be describing how I am organizing or I should say cataloging my craft supplies utilizing basic library principles.

The first is my stamps! I have tons of stamps and I somehow end up with duplicates! I must really like these stamps that I rebuy even though I end up using the same stamps over and over again. I really had to think about how I could catalog my stamps and at the same time know what I have so that I can use those stamps that have never seen ink. The first idea was to use a binder. I just happened to find my Stamp-a-log. I had bought this little baby thinking I would get organized over 6 years ago!

The binder is about 9 inches tall by 7 inches wide. It comes with different tabs and different lined pages with art/stamp/scrapbooking categories. I'm going to focus on the master stamp list. Here I wrote the name of my stamp set, along with the category of the stamp and where it is located.

My CTMH stamps are by color group.

To the left, you see a number, that refers to the page number in the binder where a picture of the images in that stamp set are located.

This is a GREAT idea in using up old or outdated catalogs for demos or consultants. I cut the picture of my stamp set out and paste it on this page. CTMH images are at 50% so they fit perfectly. If you don't want to cut up your cattys or you want to make the images a different size just use your home copier or photocopy the stamps themselves. Sure beats stamping each stamp individually!

I find that it takes me forever to get started crafting because I have to look through all my stamps and then put them all back, just to decide which stamps to use, or when looking for the right sentiment. This way, I just look through my binder and decide what I want to use and go right to it, so fast and so easy!

Of course it's always time consuming to organize. That's time away from crafting! But in the end it will not only save you time but money too!

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Last day of School

Today was my last day of work for the school year! I plan on just spending the summer with my 9 month old and catching up on my scrapbooking and cardmaking! I worked today on some cards using the CTMH paper Let's Get Together. I just love these colors. I started with making some clippies. These were inspired by Cambria Turnbow. I used the lightweight coasters and my flower dies in my cuttlebug. I didn't have the right color brads so I used buttons and tied them off with some cute ribbon! I love these. They were really easy to make. The hardest part was finding these mega paperclips! I had to buy 50 of them so I plan on making more of these bad boys.

I then made two Birthday cards. The first I ended up not liking. It just seemed to really lack something. I used the Let's Get Together Paper Packet, Delight in Everything and Happy Birthday stamp set by CTMH. The green ribbon is from Stampin' Up. I also used the Happy Birthday embossing folder for the cuttlebug.


I then took the same supplies and played around with it a little and came up with this. I just think that it


came out so much better. My picture is pretty dark but it looks very bright and cheerful in person. I finally got to use some eyelets I've been hoarding.

Tomorrow I'm going to Stampin' Up stamp camp where I will be making 25 cards. I'll be sure to share what I make as soon as I get a chance. Pin It Now!

Party Time

I have been busy, busy, busy and don't have very much artwork to show for it. My stepdaughter is having a slumber party and I had to make 23 invitations. It took me like 15 hours to make them over 3 days. Cutting the paper and stamping took forever. I used the Close to My Heart stamp set, It's a Party and the colors are hydrangea, bubblegum and ocean. I used the new daisy white pigment ink pad and my cricut cartridge Mini Mongrams for the tag. The ribbon is Stampin' Up.

I am also including the card I am giving my husband for Father's Day. I made it at one of the Saturday workshops that I go to once a month at Susan Bridgford's house. The stamp set is CTMH and called Vintage Father's Day. The paper is also CTMH. I think that it's called Vintage travel or something similar to that.

I just received my packages for new cuttlebug dies and embossing folders! Yeah! My birthday is coming up and I asked for the rest of the ones that I want and a couple of new cricut cartridges. I also got my large clips. I'm going to try to make some "clippies!" I'll post what I create as soon as I can.

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Busy Weekend

Well I had a very busy weekend. On Saturday, I went to my friend Cindy's birthday party. She had a taco guy and a very funny birthday cake involving a picture of her head on a cartoon body. My stepdaughter's birthday was Sunday but she's having her party next month so we went to dinner and had cake. I gave her a target giftcard and made a fun gift card envelope using the wonderful directions found on Cambria Turnbow's blog. The above picture is the outside. I used the Happy Birthday stamp set for the greeting and the inside as well. The flower is from my cuttlebug and the ribbon is Stampin' Up! I used Paisley and Petals paper from SEI. I have tons of SEI paper, I belong to their monthly club. So it was nice to use some of it. The rhinestone flowers are the connection club rewards from CTMH and are so cute. These are really easy to make and I plan on making a bunch more and keeping them handy. Now that I've seen some made with the SU designer paper, I might have to get me some of that paper when the new catalog comes out. I don't have a demonstrator so I guess I'll have to shop for one.

I also worked on Father's Day cards. I only have to make 2 of them. This is one that I made for my dad. The shirt was also from Cambria Turnbow's site. She has an absolutely wonderful tutorial on how to make the shirt. I had tried last year to make one using directions I found on the Internet and I could not make it work. With these directions, I did it on the first try. The front seemed so plain, so I added a tie but I wish I could find something that would work for buttons. I used my cuttlebog dots and blooms embossing folder for the background. The first time I've every used it. All of the papers and colonial white waxy flax is CTMH. The sentiment is from last month's stamp of the month. All of the papers came from the Laid Back paper packet. My dad's a surfer so I always try to make him a card that is beach or tropical oriented.

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1st Post Winner

Cheryl, you are the winner of the blog candy for being my first post. Cheryl wins a Groovy stamp set from CTMH I used it to demo once and I was going to send it to my downline but it's so cute I thought I would give it away, also a card using the More to Adore paper, a 6x6 K and Company photo album and some cute alphabet embellishments. Please send me your address so that I can send your gift!

Do you like my new watermark? I had a heck of a time getting it to go on my picture which is why I don't have any new artwork to share! But this weekend I plan on posting some new artwork so come back to check it out.

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BLOG CANDY

I now have an official banner for my blog. Thanks so much to Beth at Freckled Fun Designs. She not only did my beautiful banner but a new watermark for my photos. I don't have any photo editing software where I am so I can't show off my new watermark just yet but tonight I'm going to play with it and see what it looks like.

I have a few things to share and would like to keep up with posting here. I am new here to the blog world and I think that maybe some BLOG CANDY! might help get the ball rolling.

I will post the blog candy rewards tomorrow but for now - the FIRST person to leave a comment on my blog will receive a wonderful reward .The prizes will be good, I have tons of fun stuff just sitting at home that I would love to give away so check back tomorrow for the pictures of the blog candy!

Now onto what I have to share today. I am finally getting a chance to do some scrapbooking. I did these pages a few months ago at a workshop done by a fellow consultant Susan Bridgford. She does fun workshops out of her home each month. I've finally added some pictures. I think that this paper was intended for winter but the colors and stripes really seemed to work with my pictures. The paper is from the CTMH paper packet "Just Chillin'". It uses the colors breeze and vineyard berry and I used the Charm Upper and Lower Alphabet set. I can't remember what set the flower came from. These are totally not the most flattering pictures of me! But I'm just glad to finally get some pictures scrapbooked.

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Free $25.00 Joanns Gift Certificate

Hi all,
I'm back so soon. For those of you reading this head on over to the Wooden Porch and leave a comment to get entered into a drawing for a free gift certificate! I'm heading over there right now to leave my comment. There are some cuttlebug dies that I'd love to have! Pin It Now!

Hello

Hello, so I've finally decided to get on the blog bandwagon. I've been inspired by some really amazing Stampin' Up! blogggers and would love to see more CTMH represented. I admit to not being a purist, when I see something I like, I have to have it regardless of who makes it. I definitely plan on CASE'ing some of the wonderful ideas I've seen but hopefully put a CTMH twist to it. I've been working on my baby's album. He's almost 9 months old and I'm finally finished working on his birth story. I am way behind! I will hopefully start posting some of my pages in the upcoming weeks.

For now, I have this card I made for my mom and grandmom for Mother's Day. The photo is dark, sorry! I sealed the envelope before I could take a photo of the one for my mom. On this one, I just added "grand" to it. I used CTMH paperpack "Let's Get Together" and the acrylix "Solo M". Got to love those solos! I used it as a template on the background paper and just cut it out. It's size is 31/2 by 8. Fits very nicely in a legal sized envelope.

I am going to my good friend Cindy's Birthday party on Saturday. We've been friends since the 7th grade, which is a long time since we are now in our 30's. I'll let you all do the math. Anyway, I made her a card using the "Flower Power" kit which is now retired but I just love the colors: Amethyst, Bubblegum and Sweet Leaf, they totally remind me of her, all bubbly and fun. The stem for the flowers came from the new "Delight in Everything" stamp set. The flowers I made using my cuttlebug. Can you believe this is the first time that I've used it? I got it for Christmas and I got to tell you, it's totally cool!

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