Valentines decorations and cards

So, I'm starting my V-day creations early.

Just a few things I made this weekend.

Styrofoam cone I found at Michaels. Used various Making Memories Love Notes papers and embellishments.

Chipboard heart is by Maya Road. Its the new love keychain we just got in.

A couple of cards.

A chipboard necklace pendant. Inked and coated in Glossy Accents. Added a crystal in the corner for flair.

Taking a break....

from filling orders.

I want to scrap, but I'm just too tired. I do have a few projects I managed to get done this week including some Birthday Cards and some Valentines Day projects. I'll upload those photos this weekend. I actually have 2 good friends coming over to scrap on Saturday and I expect to get a lot done. I've got some sketches I need to complete layouts for but more on that later.

So, here is my test video upload from the FLIP. Lets see how easy this is. Story behind this one is, that my son is a total ladies man. He'll flirt with anything. I can't even take him to the grocery store without him flirting with the 16 year old bagging my groceries or the older lady ringing us up. Customers behind me get tired of waiting and there are a lot of heavy sighs. And at the Kings games, any female fans behind us are totally smitten with him. This video is him hugging his girlfriend - the little girl next door. She's older. he does like older women. :) And how do you like the manly grunt after the hug? Kinda cavemanish in the sense that he's declaring her HIS woman. Does anyone else think I'm in for some hard years ahead with this one?


Also, please check the last post. I haven't heard back from the 2 ribbon winners. I sent you girls emails too! If I don't hear anything in the next couple od days, I'll pick 2 new winners!

Ribbon winner and a tutorial

First, the winner. Well, two winners. I just keep finding ribbon in every drawer of my room!

Sylv and Marielle - please email me your mailing address and I will get this out to you. Enjoy your ribbon! bmw1367@gmail.com

To comment on your comments from that post - I'm loving the FLIP. I've already uploaded a few videos and emailed them out to people. I'm going to test posting one here this week. Its the easiest thing to use!

As for the ribbon, I see ribbon used in layouts and on cards. I see this really cute ribbon when I shop and I pick it up. My problem is, I never use it. I have this aversion to actually putting it on the paper. So, I just keep collecting it. Nina said I should challenge myself to use some of it. Well, Nina, I did. Sort of. I'm in the process of making a lot of things for Valentines Day and I'm trying to use some of the new ribbon and some from my stash. See the tutorial below.

I wish I had enough to send to each one of you!

Pillow Box Tutorial

I needed a creative way to give someone a gift and I thought a pillow box would be cute!

I downloaded the templates and saved them to a folder on my PC for future use. I ended up using a medium sized one that is perfect for candy and Gift Cards.

I downloaded the template, printed and cut it out.

Then I traced the pattern onto some really cute papers. I ended up using some of the new My Minds Eye Be Merry paper. This may be Holiday paper, but some of the patterns reminded me of some cute wrapping paper.

After its traced, cut it out. You can get 4 of these out of 1 - 12x12 sheet. If you use the smallest template, you can get 6 out of a sheet.

Instead of messing around with an uneven flap hole, I used a 5/8 inch circle punch. Just punch a half circle.

Fold your paper. The suggestions on the template site say to print directly on your paper. If you do that, you may not be able to get 4 pillow boxes out of one sheet without some creative cutting. If you do print on the back, then you have the fold lines. If not, its pretty easy to see where you need to fold.

Apply adhesive on the printed side of your paper. Unless you use double sided paper. Then its the top side of your folded flap. (see picture). Seal the box.

Fold down the two ends and tie it shut with ribbon or some embroidery floss.

Now comes the fun part. Labels, tags, trinkets - something to decorate the front. I used some of the Scenic Route chipboard buttons. Inked them and added Glossy Accents to make it look like a button.

Or, use a circle punch to punch out a small piece of cardstock. Use a stamp to create a to/from tag. Here I used the new Cats Life Press To:/Love: stamp that we just got in the store. This was originally from their Christmas release, but really, you can use it for anything.

I added some Glossy Accents to the back of the circle and laid a piece of embroidery floss in it. Once its dry, you can tie it around the ribbon for a cute little tag. Of course, you can do this on a larger circle and write the names, but I thought it was cute with just the stamp image.

The possibilities are endless. You could top this with a big bow, flowers and anything else really. I was going to do something with some Maya Road chip swirls but my son must have run off with that box so maybe next time!

Bad Blogger

Its been so busy around here with the big sales, making sure products get marked down, the Birthday Bash, CHA...... it just never stops!

But I'm here.
Busy, but here.

Got through Christmas and New Years. Made my husband stay up with me this year - he did it begrudgingly. Tried to get the kid to stay up too - just to get a family picture at midnight but he barely made it past 10.

Next year we'll celebrate on New York time.

So many fun things planned for the store this month and in February. I've been thinking of things to do for the store that appeal to our shoppers and I think I have a few ideas in mind.

Contests, sketches, sketch site sponsorship, kits etc. You get the idea. Just make sure you check the store blog for updates! There are going to be a lot of them this month!

I finally broke down and purchased a FLIP camera. Okay, I'm in love. Its the same size as my Ipod and I love that too. It came yesterday so I started playing around with it last night. So cute and definitely easy to use. You may be seeing my ugly mug in some CHA videos this year!
I am almost done with the December Daily - man that one kicked my butt. Trying to be creative once daily - not easy in my life. But I have a few more pictures to show you so those will be posted later. I've been trying to use my Pink Paislee Pixie Stix wherever I find a place to glitter. The snowflakes on day 9 are done using the Pixie Stix.








And I wanted to do a giveaway - maybe some of my ribbon. I have a lot of it and its scary. Scary because I rarely use it. So, who wants a pile of ribbon? It will be some of the ribbon off the hanger and some from the bag - a nice mix of colors.













Post a comment here and I'll pick a winner on Sunday. Sunday seems like a good day to give ribbon away.

{Update Part 2} - Layout and December Daily pages

So, the rest of the update from the other day.

I was asked by some of the girls at Studio Calico to join a 4 product challenge. Fun but definitely a challenge. I actually ended up loving the color combo I picked - red and brown. Totally different and then I mixed in some silver just to make the page 'pop'. I submitted this to Scrapbook Trends so we'll see if it gets picked up.

Products used:

Bazzill cardstock (red and kraft)

Crate Paper Prudence - Fortitude (both sides used)

misc ribbon and buttons

Stamps from Studio Calico and Pink Paislee (Tinsel Town line)

Used Cats Eye Chalks and Pigment inksGlitter is Pink Paislee Pixie Stix (LOVE this loose glitter. Not a big loose glitter fan, but this stuff is awesome and it comes in fabulous colors.

Layout is based on a sketch by Inspired Blueprints.

December Daily Pages 4-8 (I'm almost caught up - if thats what you want to call it. Just finished the page for Day 12 today. Not exactly where I wanted to be but with the sale and everythint else life drops in your lap, it just wasn't doable this year. But I have pictures printed out and ready to go for each day.)

Day 4 - the aftermath. Nick pulled the tree down. This is the backside to the page for Day 3 where I used the KI Memories Sheer Delights. Stickles to accent the tree and disguise the back of the journaling card for Day 3. Trees are cut from Fancy Pants Happy Holidays line and Stickles added. (Okay, Photobucket is loading the page sideways again!)

Journaling for Page 4 is on an old Junkitz card designed by the fabulous Teresa Collins. They came in a long strip with several different designs. Stay tuned... I used more in the book. I wish I could get my hands on more of these!

Backed the tree with some KI Memories Festive papers.

Day 5:

Maya Road Chipboard Album - just used one page of it here. Covered in Making Memories Fa La La papers, page from MM Journaling Book (Rouge), Stickles and Gold Gel Pen. Ornament is chipboard and comes from the Bare Naked Chipboard set for Cosmo Crickets Oh Joy line. Love these cute chipboard pieces. Covered with Sass Lass Life at the Pole papers and Stickles. Decorated both sides since it hangs off the edge. Red scallop above picture is a tiny strip from the October Afternoon Good Cheer papers.

Day 6: Took a cool picture of my temperature gauge in the car on the way home that day. It read 46 degrees. LOVE the cold weather. Little did I know that these cold temps would mean snow on the 'hills' behind us. Just a short 10 minute ride up the mountain and we would have local snow.

More Making Memories FaLaLa papers and glitter letters (LOVE this font)

Day 7: Paper Source Large envelope. I used this to post Nicks Christmas list. I'm going to fill the envelope with pictures of the things we got him. Used another one of the journaling cards from Elle's Studio Christmas Prompts pack.

The back side, I used another one of the journaling spots from Junkitz. This time, its the letter to Santa one. I'll let Nick scribble in the open space for the sake of having his 'writing' there.

Picture is the cart at Toys R us filled with all of the cool stuff we got him.

Day 8- October Afternoon Good Cheer line. Papers, rubons, cardstock stickers and journaling cards. Number 8 is actually made with 2 - o's from the alpha sticker sheet. There are no numbers so I made my own. Cardstock sticker is backed with Bazzill cardstock. Punched out using a 3 inch scalloped punch. Holly is a rubon from the rubon pack. Tree is also a rubon. I used Stickles to accent a few parts. Red letters are from the Alpha sheet. New Journaling cards from the Good Cheer pack. Actual page is a Scenic Route 8x8 mini album page. These books come with 5 pages so I stuck them in every once in a while to mix the pages up.

I'll post more December Daily pages after Christmas. I'm taking the next few days off to spend it with my family.

Merry Christmas!

Update Part1

So here is the SNOW update. December Daily post coming later.

So its been colder here than usual - which makes me happy because I can finally drag out the few sweaters and long sleeve shirts that I own. We've had a lot of rain which I LOVE. Rain here means snow in the mountains so maybe we can get up there some weekend before it melts.

All of the complaining I did about not getting any fall weather or even winter weather must had been heard by Santa or something because he sent me lots of rain AND some snow. Here, just a few minutes from my house - not hours away like the mountains.

Came home from my parents house this weekend and the temp in the car said 46 degrees. Brrr. Luvin' it.

Then rain.

Cold rain and low snow levels. So low, we got some in the mountains right behind our house. The snow level came down to about 1500 feet. Top of the mountain is 2600 feet. Not too shabby. So when I drove home on Thursday afternoon, we passed by all of these people having so much fun. Whats a scrapper to do? Drag your kid out in it even though they aren't properly dressed. But hey, it was only 5 minutes and he enjoyed it! He even cried when I picked him up to leave. So, we have to come back. With 2 more Arctic storms on the way, I think we should luck out and get more snow. Too bad Bryan wasn't here, this would have been the perfect backdrop for our Christmas Card picture - which still hasn't been taken yet. Guess I'll be sending them out in January - again.

And I saw all of these crazy people shoveling snow into the backs of their pickup trucks. Why? Well, as we came around the corner, our neighbors were busy uploading snow from the back of their truck and having a SNOWBALL fight! Several neighbors were involved. Nick and I sat and watched and when the odd snowball would come out way, he'd run over to pick it up. I even caught him eating some of it - his teeth were chattering but he kept trying to eat it. I guess he's going to be a snow lover like me.

Took Nick to another hockey game Wednesday night. Took a night off from filling orders. He's starting to watch the game more and more. Fingers crossed he's obsessed over the game as I am.

My future draft pick - here's hoping a team like Toronto will pick him up.

And I can't forget the tree 'incident'. Sweet little boy looking at the tree.....

Naughty boy who pulled it over......

Santas watching........

Lots to share....

But I've been filling orders this afternoon so it must wait for a few hours.

Snow update
December Daily update
Did I mention a SNOW update????

Elf Yourself

Found this little gem last Christmas and turned us into Elves.
Its back this year BUT you get to pick the dance. After uploading photos of all of us and checking out the different dance options, we went with:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/a64OKC19LafW84wWRxdd