Another blog award

Thank you Lisa for this award...I will post the "rules" for receiving it and links to Lisa's site and everything later. Sssssshhhhhhhhh do you hear that...that's my bed calling me!

Blog Candy and LOTS of it...

If you're like me, free is your favorite price right? And free scrapbooking stuff well it's almost as if you've died and gone to heaven right....pop on over to Melissa's site to see what she's got for you! Well wait no she's gonna pick me so nevermind LOL....ha ha ha seriously check her out! While you're there, check out her creativity...she's got loads of talent!

When you're done there, be sure to check out Joanne's giveaway...a set of 36 copics. WOW!!!

My first BIA album

I made this for my daughter....

I used 12 x 12 chipboard that comes inside my 12 x 12 papers from Creative Memories. I covered the back with purple 12 x 12 generic card stock, and the inside covers with red. The cover page came from a stack but I can't remember which one, nor did I write it down.

The left border is I think 2 or 3 inched trimmed with the Martha Steward Lace Doily punch and the name "Candace" is cut with Simply Sweet, layered of course. I later added purple stickles to the letters for a little more flair. The rectangle on the bottom right is a 3 x 5 photo mounting sleeve, also from CM, and the purple paper inside it is joined by some red ribbon. Another lace doily trimmed accent along with "Memories" cut from Home Decor and voila! The inside is filled with 20 plain white 12 x 12 pages for her to scrap her heart out with!

Marketing strategy

I have my own home based business and have decided to give new clients a free gift when they sign up for services. Here's the first gift I've made so far...

Altered ATG Stand

My Daddy made me one yesterday...here's how I altered it.



Here is my altered ATG and stand together:

Till death do you part...

A 2 page layout I did for my brother's wedding. I used Potpourri Basket for the flourishes Wedding Solutions for the couple. Forget what the flourish was cut out...I just used the piece that I cut off for the accents in the bottom corners....and stickled them. It needs journaling still but hope you like it and you can click on it to see it bigger if you like.

And the winner is....

Well, the second roll went in about 5am this morning plus or minus and hour or so and my daughter just picked a winner....the 1st lucky winner is....

Since it's not fair to allow more than one entry to count, that means that Melissa S is the winner of one of the two RAK's. It took two days for me to empty the first roll. The person with the closest guess for how many days it'd take was GrandmaD who guessed 2.5.

Hopefully, my adhesive doesn't continue to deplete at this rate...can you imagine....3 rolls a week, times 4.3 weeks a month....13 rolls a month...that sounds excessive but maybe not.

Congratulations ladies, please be sure to email me your mailing address so I can mail the stuff I'll be picking up at Archiver's for you today!

My altered ATG and first RAK

I finally got my gun YAY! I ordered it from www.findtape.com (gun and 12 rolls of tape less than $50 shipped...ordered Thurs arrived yesterday) and it's WONDERFUL!!!! I got what is called the ATG 50...bascially a knock off brand of a Scotch/3M version. It will hold 1/4 OR 1/2 inch tape and the tape has 108 feet PER roll with rolls being $1.42 each if you order 12 or more at a time. Holy Adhesive you say? I used an ENTIRE spool of Ad Tech runner on my first BIA project...since I am HOPELESSLY addicted to paper crafts (maybe it's just paper I'm addicted to LOL), I can use some adhesive like it's nobody's business....this gun is a lil large but very easy to use and with the adhesive savings I'm bound to have, I think I'ma have to buy a new cartridge or two or 25 hee hee! My darling daughter says with the way I craft, she thinks it'll take me only a week to go through my first roll. While I realize many of you have your own ATG's and you know how fast YOU go through it, it's impossible for you to know how I craft and therefore I'm taking bets. I will be giving the winner something awesome...not sure yet, but it will be awesome. All you have to do to enter is comment on this post how many days you think it'll take me to empty my first roll of adhesive. My child will draw a random winner from all comments and the person who's guess is the CLOSEST will get a lil extra somethin somethin!

And now....without further delay here is my altered gun:

Bind It All meets Simply Sweet

I got some unexpected monies and did a lil shopping...ok wait no a LOT (I'll post pictures later maybe), but, to my credit, I didn't pay FULL PRICE for anything except lunch! That counts for something right?!?!?

Anyway, one of my purchases was a BIA (Zutter Bind It All). I recently won a CMB Random Act of Kindness (RAK) and the amazing Osheasmom sent me a new CARTRIDGE!!!!! She sent me Simply Sweet and I finally got a chance to play with it!

Notes:

Cover: 8.15 by 11 chipboard decorated with paper from CM's Starry Night (a favorite of mine)
Butterfly: Assorted cardstocks from that FABULOUS paper sale at Jo'Anns
(cut at 5 and 1/4 twice and also another using shadow feature)
Title: Cardstock letters shadow cut and then regular cut
(cut from Simply Sweet at 13/4)
Ribbon: Likely came from Wal-Mart and adhered with glue dots...lots of them.

There is blue paper on the inside covers similar to the color of the ribbon. I used glitter glue and skittles to for bling after several thick layers of ModgePodge to seal everything up. Tfl!

Them Daughtry Boyz

They've got a new album out....FINALLY! WOOO HOOO! Daughtry is one of my all time FAVORITE FAVORITE artists. "Over You" became my mantra during a ummm a ummm...I can't really say difficult because getting divorced was pretty easy all things considered. Anyway, this song became I guess my theme song as I mourned the loss of my marriage...even though getting divorced was the VERY best thing I could have done for my children and I, it was still difficult..."Over You" STILL gives me strength and reminds me that he was never good enough for me even now...a few years later. So yeah, they have a new album out called "Leave This Town"...I'm listening to it RIGHT NOW...lemme see is September my favorite, or is it No Surprise or is it Tennessee Line (with Vince Gill of all people...isn't that like Tim McGraw and Nelly?!?!?) or is it Call Your Name, or maybe it's What I Meant To Say...yup folks that's right....they done did it again...the ENTIRE album is FABULOUS! The release date, according to Daughtry Official, is Tuesday but you can listen to the entire album here and I'd check your local stores cuz they just might have it early...here's that the CD cover looks like...awesome ain't it?!?

And, here's a page of Daughtry I did after going to a concert a couple years ago.


I scanned my ticket and printed it on photo paper. Then I broke my Crop-a-Dile in in STYLE by doing the laced embellishment on the left. I didn't have a great camera and the venue was SUPER dark so I didn't get too great of pictures and went with a bunch off the net for my page...I made another page with the lyrics to the song "Over You" journaling why this song meant so much....I honestly wasn't a super big fan (no I don't watch Idol) till I heard "Over You"....the day I did, it changed my life and I've been hooked on Daughtry every since. Chris and his wife even waived to me as their bus pulled out of the fairgrounds. It was AWESOME, I can't wait to attend another show!

Life's a Beach and thar b pirates about...

Shiver me timbers mateys...and that's about all the pirate language I know. This year my 4th grader's Spring Musical was "Pirates The Musical" and this cartridge was PERFECT I think, don't you? For a larger image, please click the picture below.

Notes:

Blue 12 x 12 pages: CM's Discover tone on tone
Waves: basic blue cardstock
(cut at 2 3/4 inches)
Sand: General Purpose 60 course grit sand paper (yes REAL sand paper)
(trimmed with CM's 12 inch decorative trimmer)
Treasure Chest: "paper bag" cardstock (forget maker) inked with black ink to age, filled with gold glitter glue and stickles to embellish...oh yeah gold lock done on yellow neon paper and inked as well.
Skulls: basic black, yellow and red cardstock...crossbones heat embossed...which made one set of crossbones orange dang it
(cut at 1 or 2 inches and layered...one black one yellow skull crossbones cut off and adhered to contrasting skull)
Title: Rapscallion font (email me if you'd like me to share it) printed on transparency paper at size of 250 pixels, mounted to yellow cardstock and adhered to page (the characters my daughter and her bestie played were no-beard yellow beard and yellow beard respectively)
Palm Tree and rock: "paper bag" paper 81/2 by 11 and green cardstock to layer...coconuts cut from paperbag paper and inked..the "rock" or whatever the palm is behind was traced onto sand paper and cut out with inked edges for effect
(cut on protrait setting @ fit to page)
Anchor: cut out on gray cardstock and glitter glued (not stickles but I will be using ONLY stickles from now on)
(I forgot the siz...maybe 3 inches??)
Ship's Wheel: "paper bag" paper and inked
(cut at 2 inches)

And the award goes to...

ME!!!!! Yay me! I'd like to thank Denise for giving me my first blog award! I have also received this same award from Sandy and now from Erin! I now have to pick 15 people to give this award to...I guess it should technically be 45 since I've gotten the award three times, HOWEVER, I lack the time it will take to search out 45 blogs or more to give awards so you will have to settle for just 15. I would like to say that Denise, Sandy, and Erin's blogs are some of my all time favorite blogs, but since they've already received this same award I'll exclude them from my list this time.

And now...drum roll please....here comes my list of recipients in total random order:

1. Robyn aka Pink Stamper: Why you ask...because her blog is an amazing wealth of information on all things Cricut. She has saved me money with her resticky your mat video, and I learn something new EVERY time I watch a new video! Thank you Robyn for all of your hard work!

2. Olivia aka Girl with Red Lipstick: Olivia's blog isn't a craft blog but it's one I enjoy and spend a great deal of time reading! Her wit is as charming as her smile and I always enjoy reading her blog no matter what the subject is.

3. Eva over at For the Love of Life: This girl can create some INCREDIBLE things with paper. One of my favorite flower pot cards is on her blog. Click here to be taken to that exact post.

4. Kathy Orta of Paper Phenomenon: You will be completely BLOWN AWAY by what Kathy can do. Her paper gift/hand bags are out of this world and then I saw her tree this morning...WUH OW that's all I can say...Kathy's work is amazing, do be sure to check her out!

5. Mary at KreatesKards: She has the most amazing gate fold card I've ever seen! I love her step by step images showing you how to duplicate her results.

6. Capadia at Capadia Designs: Her's is a another all things Cricut blog I enjoy.

7. Tammy from Creative Critters Cricut Club: Check out her water bottle project. Man this was so cute, I can't wait to have an event come up I can scraplift this for!

8. Sarah of Sarah {Plain} and Small: I love Sarah's blog. I get so many great ideas from her site! Our shared love of paper crafting has allowed us to become on-line friends too.

9. Chocolate on my cranium: This lady has an amazing collection of ideas and tips for Family Home Evening. Even though I've been LDS (Latter-day Saint or aka Mormon) for more than half my life, I did not grow up in a Mormon family and honestly have no idea what FHE is SUPPOSED to look like...I have found numerous ideas to make holding FHE with my own lil family a whole lot easier thanks to Chocolate's site.

10. Sonia at Scraps for Fun: What to say about Sonia....just when I think I've seen my favorite thing from her blog, she amazes me with yet another project. I absoulutely LOVE her blog!

11. Nilda from the Cuttlebug Challenge Spot: I have ONE word to say about Nilda's creations....AWESOME! She is a favorite poster of mine on the CMB as well.

12. Scrappin Cricut: She is so generous as to post all the best coupons in one spot for us to snag! It's SOOOOOOOOOOO convenient....her creations are great too! If you are in need of a scrapbooking coupon, be sure to check out her blog.

13. Kelly from Kreative Korner By Kelly: Her cards are so simple and sweet that even I might be able to create some of them. I'm new to card making and love seeing what she does because it's truly awesome without overwhelming a newbie like me.

14. Scrappin' Cottage: Nilda posted a link to a tip from this blog on the CMB and this blog has made me like my font cartridges all over again. For an easy way to get perfectly straight letters every time, please click here.

And last but certainly not least....

15. Lynn from Adventures in Being A Wheeler: I have been good friends with Lynn for YEARS...in fact, she was one my Maids of Honor (yes maidsuh plural) when I married evil umpteen years ago. Her blog is so well rounded and I really enjoy reading it. I love to see pictures of her special lil angel Miss M and the love her and her Hero have is INCREDIBLE...the two of them almost make me want to do marriage again...almost but not quite. From her blog I have gotten acquatined with many other blogs, been able to try some great new recipes (Lynn I sure miss those) and even saved HUNDREDS of dollars by menu planning!

All right, there you have it...I am passing the award I've received on. For the 15 of you I have selected, you need to do the same. Choose 15 people to receive this same blog award. On your mark, get set, go...oh wait I'm sorry it's not a race.

Thanks again Denise, Sandy, and Erin for the award!