Friday Feature

Okay so I was at the Y- yes- the YMCA..argghh..excersise... Anyway...........I was on the elliptical machine and watching Talk of the Town in my own little world (while I'm sure Will was terrorizing some poor women in the Y play child watch...) and I see Meryll talking to a lady named Sami Cone. Sami had some great tips on frugal shopping including - the rebate deals at Staples- I do those alot! She talked about all the tax free weekends - back to school shopping, etc... So i jotted down her website address for my Feature Friday... http://www.samicone.com/ OKAY - NOW I MUST say - I wasn't as impressed with the site as I was with her little Talk of the Town clip. BUT if you have some time its worth a look.. You can view the Talk of the Town clip and click on some of her tips, deals, recipes, and she also has some devotionals on there I saw. ALSO........... STAY TUNED TO YOUR EMAILS (if you are NOT on my newsletter email list- get on it now- send me an email or comment here!)FOR AN AWESOME WEBSITE SALE!!! I just got an email from Corp. about it- about to go out now and get the details BUT i know it is a sale on stickers and paper- $2, $4, &$6!!!! WOWSA~ $6.00 LEVEL 2 PAPER PACKS!! I can tell you I saw Evensong on there! Starts August 4th.. Check back for details!

Some slideshows.....

You'll have to give them some time to download all the way through. They tend to repeat the beginnings until they all download. The one on top is some artwork from convention of paper you already seen. Bottom is some random pics from convention. I need to reiterate - this artwork is not my own. it is either from the CTMH art studio OR a consultants work. I cant wait to show you their artwork from the new papers- Slideshow coming soon!

Sharing some love... ARTWORK LOVE!

I just LOVE it when people share their artwork!! It helps creatively and it inspires me to get 'scrappin'! below is a layout Kelly (club Life Preservers) share of her daughter and her buddy! I know these two little dolls and their mommas personally and what I know of them - I promise their personalities MATCH these photos!!! VerY cute! Thanks Kelly for sharing! Check out this detail.....

See next post for some more sharing!

Sharing some more artwork love!

This is a page I made for a good friend in one of my clubs who recently lost a very special pet. Our pets become such a member of the family! Next up is an absolutely GORGEOUS page from Shawn Spivey, a club member. This is her sweet grandmother. What a great photo right? I just love the detail and color arrangement on this page!

UGGGGGh- i hate when this happens and it turns the photo sideways......Takes an hour to upload and then it wrong! ANYWAY- I have to show you what Shawn did on the bottom of this awesome outdoors page... Notice the 'mudd tire tracks' on the bottom. Here's her secret: Roll a little boys truck in some ink and wha-la! This girls is SUPER creative!

Club Life Preservers last Friday night working up some Zippadee!

See baby Gavin scrapbooking????

Flip flops or flip flaps???

I'll take both please! These cool new 'flip flaps' are going to be sooo much fun to play with!! I cant wait to get them in your hot little hands! Check 'em out! This is the front -not opened up. They come in different sizes! (left side opened up)

Imagine the possibilities!!! Think about how many photos you can get on ONE layout!! :-) (Left and right opened up)

Pink and green is the new pink/brown I guess! :-) I love these colors together! This is a 3.5 x 3.5 tag card I made to put on a present for a baby shower this weekend! I thought it turned out really cute! All you have to do is some dry embossing for the stripes, stamp a little and embellish!

This is my favorite part!! I just LOVE putting these lil safety pins on baby cards, pages, items, etc...! I cut out a lil baby and diaper on my cricut once and put the pins on the sides of the diaper!! ;-)

If I use brads on part of a card that will show through the other side- I try to do it so that its in a corner and I can cover it on the inside.... I usually try to make that part look a lil better by rounding it out or something but I was short on TIME! as always! anyway... See you tmrrw!

Featuring Photography By Amie this Friday

Many of us LOVE to take photos! Especially those of us who like to 'scrap' them! ;-) My sister Amie found her love of photography creeping in all her life, but it was when my nephew Carter entered the world when she realized her PASSION for photographing children. I invite you to visit her website for some photography inspiration! I would take a guess and say 90% of her subjects are children and family, but you will also find senior portraits much more! :-) She recently posted a sneak peek of a wedding from the weekend. Below is a snapshot! Go check it out..... and get some great ideas for those scrapbook pages! http://www.photographybyamie.typepad.com Oh -and Be sure to check out the archives to see my baby Will as he grew from newborn, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months.. Sniff sniff! :-)

Okay so it is WAY to hot to be thinking about Fall right now..........

But the new 'Passages' paper pack has some really cool autumn colors in.. Fall being my favorite season anyway ... my mind drifted to some great Autumn pictures of Will last year! :-) I have another layout I made right after this one with the "Passages" paper pack too - just to show how verstaile it can be.. It's way more fresh with some lighter colors. Stay tuned for that next week along with a layout with the NEW paper pack Magnifique from the new Fall / Winter Book! Oh - did I mention- it has 'flip flaps!!" FUN!

Random stuff... (story of my LIFE!)

Okay ......BEFORE............ after..............AFTER IS SO MUCH MORE FUN ISN'T IT!!! BELOW ARE 'CREATE N TAKE' CARDS FROM CONVENTION. I PROMISE TO ADD MORE SPOILERS OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS... so don't look if you dont want to know! :-) these are cards from the NEW paper packets and NEW colors! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Paper packets are called Magnifique (sp?), hooligans, Olivia (beautiful fall colors) and mistletoe!! Lovin' the traditional Christmas colors in this one.

Yep - I did.... HA Below is the new color palette.. Okay ...spoliers.... Color names: Pear, gypsy, pacifica, sunset, cotton candy, lagoon, sky, & smoothie. Don't they sound FUN!!!!!

And.... here's Will just because I haven't posted him in a while.. LOL I'm sure my mother will appreciate this one huh??? LOOK at that ROTTEN face on him!!! heeteehhee ;-)

LAST but certainly not LEAST! Go check out Jeanettes blog (www.jeanettelynton.com) & click on the two videos she has on there... Hilarious one "scrappin ladies' - funny skit by the CTMH staff! and then the John Schmidt clip- very cool song! LTR TATRS

9x9's!

Okay so the below post was suppose to post first but apparently my auto posting skills are lacking.. anyway- if you got some 9x9's in your goodie box or ever thought about what you could do with them- here ya go!

My favorite thing to do with these is journal on the tab & dress them up even more..................

and attached to a 'scrapped up 12 x 12 page (below)

and stick in your scrapbook!!! They are almost as easy as level ones!

Got 9x9's????

Some folks got some great deals in the goody boxes which included some 9x9's... Thought I'd give you a few ideas for them... Put them in their own 9x9 album for a gift for someone! Decorate them up scrappy style with matching stickease. Don't you just love how easy CTMH makes it to match up all their paper, embellishments, and stickers!

You can simply use them as a photo album for those pictures that are great but just didn't quite make the 'scrapbook it' cut....

dont forget you can rotate them for landscape or portrait.....

Add a title to the journal spot to make it look a lil more scrappy....

I dont have a picture of it, but you can also frame them just like 12 x 12 pages to hang.

Every little thing she does is.................

Oh - ladies!!! CTMH has a new 'how to' book coming out in the new catalog! "MAGIC" is not your ordinary how to book either! This one is unique to any other Jeanette has done! Watch your pages come alive when this book opens a world of ideas to waterfalls, flip flaps and everything 3D! Oh and yes- they will open up even in your page protectors!!

I'll post a sample page soon!!!!!

Cherry O Coaster Book

I will be teaching this class at the Scrapbooking Luau fundraiser for M.O.P.S. in August. i hope you guys are all signed up and excited to go crop ALL day! These lil books are just too stinkin' ca-ute! I STILL cannot get enough of this paper. Makes me want a cherry tree in my yard! :-)

This mini book is a 4 x 4 'coaster' book. The class I'm teaching includes all materials to create a book exactly shown here. You can put in up to 10 2 1/2 photos.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!

Thought I'd try out a "banner" for my blog.. I see all these cute ones on everyone elses, but sometimes I think even the background (side decor) is too much- too busy. I thought I'd browse and I saw this one. "Peacock" feathers and designs are apparently 'in' right now... uggghhh. not a fan. It reminds me of Hidden Hollow (local girls know what this is) when I was a small child- those things use to FREAK me out! LOL It certainly doesn't match the cool bling cherries I've got going on on the sides, BUT I thought Id see how much it got on my nerves and go from there.. HAHHA Hope you all have a great weekend!! We have plans to do a bunch of NOTHING- my favorite kind!!! Its gonna be a hot one. I bet we spend alot of time cleaning and taking breaks to play with will in his kiddie pool!

Feature Friday featuring.......

Cooking up Dreams with April! If you like to learn new easy recipes this is a site for you! One of my roommates at CTMH convention sent me this blog. It is her niece and sounds like she has a very bright cooking career ahead of her. She just recently participated in Paula Deens Real Women of Philadelphia cooking contest. (one of only 16 finalist! yowsa!) It was a contest where Philadelphia cream cheese was the main ingredient. She lives in TN, and as a matter of fact may hopefully be doing Taste of the Town soon on channel 5. So go check her out for some great recipes, ideas, and inspiration! Below is a picture of her Pretzel Cheese Chicken. Recipe is on her blog- YUM! http://www.cookinupdreams.com/

Swap anyone?

If you scroll down to July 6th - you will see my post about my 26 pages (13 layouts) I created to 'swap' with others. Now you see what I got in return! I have been chasing my tail all week trying to catch up, get stuff done, and back into routine and haven't printed off the photos to put on these yet. I wanted to go ahead and share the pages though b/c who knows when I'll get to this! They are great - I was pleased with my group! :-) Sometimes it will repeat a layout in the slideshow until they all download but there are 12 different layouts! enjoy! :-) Maybe next year you'll be going and swapping with me! :-)

Tired of me talking about convention yet?

Give me another few days (maybe even through next week) to come down off my 'post convention-itis" & I'll start talking about other things again! LOL Below is a photo of an example of the camaraderie that you find at convention. Everyone is so friendly it doesn't matter whose 'team' you are on. Below is a picture of our scattered hearts banner than our team so proudly waves! We're a big group as you can see! Okay - so you know all those 55+ cards I made- here's what I got back for them in exchange- 55+ cards of GREAT ideas!!!! sorry the pic is sideways--- no time to fix it! ha!

OKAY - here's your sneak peek for now! this is a photo of me during our 'create n takes.' I would love to just post ALL the pictures here to show you all the new colors and paper BUT here's why I probably shouldn't... The new book isn't 'live' until September. Lots of consultants do a quarterly open house 'reveal' every time a new book comes out and goes live. It helps build anticipation for the new product. It's really not fair to those ladies who put in a lot of time doing that just to have 'spoilers' out there. Plus Corporate 'frowns' on it. HOWEVER!!!!! :-) I cannot keep a secret for any of those who know me- SOOO I will have to let you in a little- but try not to give away the farm!! Plus- if you are on facebook at all- You have probably seen as much as I have by now! hahahaha! Below are 3 cards we made using our new papers and some of our new colors!!! If you are in my clubs- I'll bring these to show off soon!

The first day walking through the lobby of our hotel we ran into Mr. Washington and Mr. Lincoln. Abe wanted me to sit down and confer but no time for that! There was too much scrapbooking fun to be had!

Here are the steps we walked daily (and the escalators by day 2!) CTMH sure doesn't 'half' do anything!!

If cooking is your second hobby (becasue scrapbooking is your first right??LOL) then come back tomorrow for an awesome FEATURE Friday!