I have been tagged by Lorraine....!

Five things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Working Full Time
2. Celebrating my 42nd Birthday
3. Driving my 1st motorhome, I’m on my 5th one now
4. Having fun on a personal watercraft, Can’t do that now do to neck injuries
5. Trying to figure out how NOT to work full time

Five things on my to do list today
1. Celebrate my birthday today!
2. Clean my craft table…to make it messy again
3. Give my doggies lots of love!
4. Make thank you cards for the great birthday dinner we all went out to!
5. Go out to dinner with a good friend tonight….she’s buying!

Five things I will do when I’m a millionaire
1. I already bought the big house
2. I already have the jewelery
3. I already have the 33 ft motorhome
4. I am already retired…except for the home crafting bus
5. I already travel…..in the 33 ft motorhome.

Five things I’ll never wear again
1. a size 4
2. Oh yeah the bikini era left a long time ago
3. Tube tops
4. leggings
5. Daisy Dukes (aka short shorts)

Five of my favorite craft toys
1. My Crop-a-diles both the regular and big bite!
2. My Computer
3. My Pazzles Pro Creative Cutter
4. My Rubicoil spiral binder
5. My 6 ft Light table I built …that is a great toy!!

Five banes of my existence
1. LAUNDRY
2. Vacuuming yuck Husky hair city
3. Dieting
4. Mean, cranky, negative people!!! Ok I agree with Lorraine on this one!
5. Washing my motorhome…

I will tag others later...I have to go finish that to do list....

Birthday RAK

Well My birthday is upon me! ARGGHHH another year! Yesterday I came home to 3 USPS packages leaning against my front door. Two of the packages I knew were coming soon... Some used SU purchases that I scored from others that were kind enough to sell to me. The third one had Happy Birthday written on it.....Ummm that one puzzled me. WOW! I received a nice surprise from a fellow stamper by the name of Lorraine Castellon-Rowe!!! A birthday RAK package!

The picture above is the absoulutly adorable card she made me! The hearts are on chipboard and she used a new paper that is coming out from SU in March. If you love little cherries this will be the paper for you! Inside the envelope there were some cute ribbons, post it notes Valentine style, an RSVP pen with cute paper and ribbons attached and a magnetic list pad Valentine style! This was such a pleasant surprise for me. Its funny because I sell stamps to some of my best friends and still get store bought cards!! Thank You Lorraine!

Blog Candy Winner Is:

Hi Everyone!
The Blog Candy winner is KTStamps:

ktstamps said...
I think the LOVE book is worth it's wait in gold! Thank you so much for all your posts and CONGRATs! You are the best. Thank you! kt
January 25, 2008 6:36 PM

Make sure you check out her blog too! She hails from Seattle, Washington!

I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments! So thank you all for making my day and reading my Blog!

More "Love" Word Book Pics

Here are two more pictures of the inside of the Scrappin'Words Love book. I used a Nestabilities Scallopped Heart to cut and emboss this cute little heart. With matching Groovy Guava ribbon from SU.

And here is the whole V layout. I have had requests for instructions on this and I am sorry this was designed in a sign makers program Called WinPC Sign. I use my PAZZLES PRO creative cutter to cut these out. If you have a Pazzles machine or a version of WinPC sign for another cutter, I will send you the file pattern. Don't forget to put a comment on the Milestones post if you want to win this little Love word book!

Blog Milestone Giveaway!

Blog Milestone Giveaway! For me hitting over 100 subscribers and over 10,000 hits in 4.5 months is amazing. So to thank one lucky reader I have made one of my Scrappin’Words© word books. You've seen them at the Scrapbook Expo and now even Bo Bunny is making large versions with chipboard. I love these little books and have started to design custom ones out of Stampin' Up paper to sell! So if you want a unique stamp workshop item you won't find anywhere else contact me! The one I am giving away was designed out of the new SU Ginger Blossom Double sided paper collection. Embellished and just enough room to put a couple of cute pictures and a little journaling to give to your favorite Valentine. Along with my custom word book you will get 2 adorable Studio G clear stamps, a roll of American Crafts Ribbon (4ft) and 2 little bags of cute bauble gems (like the "Dew Drops")All you have to do is leave ONE comment at the end of this post between now and Saturday night 11:59 PM PST I will use a Random Number Generator to pick the winning number. Then I will post the winning comment. At that point I will ask the winner to email me with their snail mail address. So you will have to check back on Sunday PM for the winner. Blogspot does not send me your email address with your comment unless you type it in, sorry. If no one claims the blog candy by Wednesday Jan 30th 11:59PM PST, I will RNG another number.... Here is a close up of the front cover. Good Luck and Thank You to all my readers!

The BAD but funny day!

I don't usually put too much about my daily life in this blog because I prefer a blog with more pictures of crafts then the writing about them. But....yesterday was such a bad {in a funny sort of way} day. It started out fine but...on my way to get my hair done....my light in my dashboard that indicates I have low tire pressure started flashing..about a mile from my destination. Mind you my hair guy I have been going to for over 15 years is about 25 miles away. I use my side mirrors to see which tire is low..aah drivers rear... but I can make it...I hope! Made it to my hair appt. on time barely.. with a little air to spare in the tire.. Whoo Hoo! Even called AAA to meet me at 1:30 after my hair appt. OK hair is done, looks great.. Go outside and the wind destroys the newly coiffed hair. Oh well ..The guy AAA sends me in this tiny little Toyota truck apparently does not change tires much. He does not know how to get to my spare. Owners manual to the rescue. Had to take all the stuff out of the rear of my Jeep Grand Cherokee to get to the spare tire drop. {I have a carpet cover protector back there so it covered the tools and the access to my spare tire drop} What a pain in the rear! Meanwhile my dogs are barking at this strange man too..Yes I travel with my fur babies and they have cozy beds in the car. Ok finally the tire is changed and he does not know how to get the flat tire back up in the spare position. ARRGH now the dirty tire has to go in the back where my shopping bags and things were. He leaves and I go back in the hair salon for a minute. I come back out, rearranged the car and try to start my car.....nothing....nothing.....*.^$&* DEAD BATTERY....and now the rain is starting...Call AAA back ASAP ...send the guy back PLEASE...The guy comes back with a giggle on his face.....GRRRRR. He checks my battery and says I have a dead cell...GEEZ Now he tells me do not stop the car after we get it started because it may not start again or hold a charge. To the dealer I go ...not turning the car off when I stopped like I was told. Pouring rain and no building eve to park under....what a day... My battery was replaced under warranty YEAH! But my tire had a slash in the side wall. So $245 dollars later for a new OEM tire. I should have been home stamping at 2:30, instead I am in a dealership reading my new Better Homes & Gardens and my new Creating Keepsakes magazines with a raincoat in a chair with a sleeping poodle. I really hate days like this!!

2 Milestones For This Blog!

Today marked my 10,000th hit to my blog! AND Subscriber #100 and #101 signed up today! All that in only 4.5 months. I do not know about you, but that is amazing to me. I want to thank everybody that has contributed to these milestones!! Also my birthday is next Monday!! So I have to celebrate these milestones. I will be giving away some blog candy! Details to come tomorrow.

For today I am posting a pic of two Target $ spot finds all dolled up with ribbon and heart eyelets punched with the Crop-a-dile. Now I prefer small heart eyelets. The big ones ended up splitting on the tins.

True Friend & Bali Breeze Thank You Card

My first Internet sale Thank You Card!! I finally did my first Internet sale and this was the card I mailed with my goodies to Lisa. I have been trying to learn how to do the PayPal route and invoicing and the Click & Ship, all the fun stuff you need to know when you start a little Internet endeavour. I am now trying to get the PayPal storefront widget on my site too. That way I can show people what I have to offer to sell. This card was made with the new SU Bali Breeze paper and ribbon from the Jersey set. The inks were my little Stampin' Spots CRAFT ink then I heat embossed that ink with clear detail powder. Then I used a hand punch to do the little punch holes around the edges! Oh yes dimensionals and a SU crystal brad.

You Make My Day Award Flowers

I wanted to thank Lorraine for making MY day by sending me this cute little award flower badge! Now I have to pay it forward to some great crafters that make my day when I read their Blogs. Well here goes: Tangii, Sharon, Lauren, Maria, Dee, Rochelle, Kathie. Hope that is enough for now.

Valentine Candy bags

How about some more candy...Yup ate all the RED HOTS except this bag. Stamps are Happy Heart Day and the Love wheel and the retired Love swirls wheel.

The Little Mouse

I just love this cut little guy! From the stamp set "Happy Heart Day"! Used a 3 x 3 card with Real Read and Whisper White. All Stampin' Up except for the little hearts around him. That is a Judith Stubby Stick Heart. More Valentine's tomorrow.

Valentine Bag Set...I'm eating all the candy and I can't Stop!!

Here is a cute little Valentine Bag Set that we did at my workshop this weekend. I used the mini bags from Michael's. Then cut out a panel of Whisper White with a top fold over. Took some Real Red and made little scallop edge with a corner rounder. Then used the "Love" roller with Real Red ink on the front and the edges of the tissue paper. Tied some cute ribbons to the handles and attached a quick tag to the front with an eyelet using my faithful Crop-a-dile. I love the rollers for quick gift bags. OK I just finished the bag of Sweethearts Necco candy...Can you say SUGAR RUSH.........

Cute Catalog Tips

My upline showed me that if you cut the back off the catalog and put a spiral coil on the back of your catalog it is easier to open and view. She is paying $4.00 for every catalog she does this to at Staples. She also has a clear cover put on hers too for that price. Great Idea!! I have had a GBC combbind system for at least 20 years. So last year I purchased a RubiCoil from Bonnie's Best Craft Tools because I wanted to make cute minibooks with colored coils. Combbind systems have very boring colors. Provocraft at one time was going to make pretty colors but scrapped the idea. So now that I have "monster" cutter, I cut my catalog back off myself and put a coil on. To make it cute I put ribbon on it from SU's various ribbon colors. BUT the best part is I took a plastic school notebook pouch and cut off the 3 ring part and punched my RubiCoil holes and put that on the back of my catalog. Now I have a slot to put my special's brochures and extra order slips or whatever I want. Just not loose in my catalog.

Swap card & the Monster cutter!

The above image was my swap for the Leadership meeting. And my fingers are still sore! (last post)Plus I was playing with another set in the background. below is the new MONSTER stack cutter and when I put it together I made sure to line it up SQUARE! This baby will cut the back off catalogs and then I just use my Rubi-coil to put a coil in! As you can tell I am a "gadget toy" queen. My Catalog is so cute now with all its ribbons and bows..

Sore Fingers

My fingers are sore...I made the mistake of designing a cute little Valentine card for the leadership swap with 4 brads...one on each corner.....that equals 200 brads for 50 cards. 10 cards took twenty minutes to put in 40 brads. That equals 1 hour and 40 minutes of poking my fingers and poking under my fingernail to split the brads. One brad per card did not look right so I opted for 200 brads. I had heard from multiple sources, there are some very PICKY women out there when it comes to leadership swaps. Some women will turn their noses up at a card if they don't think it is worthy. Worthy of what I ask? I am then told that they feel their work is superior and they only want a superior card..Harrumph!!. Wow and I thought I was a stamping snob. Well this is what my table looked like while I was making 50 cards. ( Did I say remind me not to put brads in a swap card again? OK there I said it!) I have a 6 ft crafting table. Why is it I end up in only a small portion of it? Go figure I leave myself a 2 ft x 1 ft area. Craft clutter sure can accumulate, I call it other 4 letter words but since this is "no swearing" blog I will say clutter... I will post the card tomorrow.
Also tomorrow I will post a picture of my new cutter and what I did with it...I found the perfect cutter for mass producing card cuts without having the cuts be all "cattywampus" aka crooked. This is a word my mom used to use. Yes it is in a dictionary: cattywampus (adj.) A slang word meaning awry or askew, as in "the newspapers were all cattywampus" on the floor . This cutter is the monster...it will take a finger off if you are not careful. I have returned several cutters for not being square or just being plain off in their measurements. Or just being cheaply made for the money charged. Mind you I grew up with a sharp Ingento guillotine cutter that would cut off ....well you get it. I wanted something that would cut Catalog backs off and cut at least 20 sheets of SU or Bazzil paper paper accurately in one fell swoop! I found it.....

SU Designer Papers and Matching Cardstock

Here is a list of the Designer papers for the 2008 Spring and Summer Catalog with their matching Cardstocks. Each color has a link to the page in the Catalog so you can go right to it! Hope this helps everyone!

Azure: Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla
Bali Breeze: Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie
Berry Bliss: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa
Cutie Pie: Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, So Saffron
East Coast Prep: Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard
Fall Flowers: Old Olive, Really Rust, Soft Sky, Sahara Sand
Flowers for You: Certainly Celery, Lovely Lilac, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise
Ginger Blossom: Ruby Red, River Rock, Cameo Coral, Groovy Guava
Jersey Shore: Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue
Le Jardin: River Rock, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue
Notebook: Soft Sky, Kraft, Vanilla
Olive Press: Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Porcelain Prints: Blue Bayou, River Rock, Wild Wasabi
Spring Break: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky
Spring Fling: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron
Spring Silhouettes: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla
Western Sky: Ruby Red, River Rock, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky

Happy New Year! New Stamps and New Paper!!

Did everyone eat their Black Eyed Peas for good luck in the New Year? Yup! Good old southern tradition. Every year on New Years day I go to my old street where I grew up and go to a good friends family home for this wonderful tradition of good food and good old friends (They were like my second parents growing up and since my parents are long gone, I get a bit of "family" time) Enough chit-chat......This pretty card was a Sketch Challenge from fellow blogger Lorraine Castellon-Rowe. This was my 1st Sketch Challenge ever. It's a New Year lets try new ideas. I absoulutly love the way this card came out! Thanks Lorraine for the inspiration! Also made a cute notepad and bag to give as a gift to the "Black Eyed Peas" cook.

Stamp Set: Embrace Life
Paper: All SU: Ruby Red, River Rock, Ginger Blossom DS paper, Natural white for the flower
Ink: Ruby Red Craft Heat embossed with detail clear. Ruby Red Classic w/ aqua painter for flower
Ribbon: River Rock Double-Stitched
Punch: Lg. Oval Punch

Happy New Year! Ginger Blossom Note Pad and Gift Bag

This adorable note pad is a Wal-Mart special. AMPAD 50 sheets 2 5/16 x 4 5/16, tiny and cute, perfect to put a quick shopping list on. Made this to match my Embrace life card. To tie it all together I quickly stamped a small gift bag, tissue and topped it with matching River Rock Double-Stitched ribbon.I really think this new stamp set Embrace Life is going to be a favorite of mine! And Ginger Blossom DS paper is going to get way tooooo much use from me.