Great Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I know I did.  This was the weekend that I normally go to my Fall retreat.  A 3 day event held by another Scrapbooker and I get tons done.  Well, with my broken wrist issue, finances just didn't allow that this year.  I did stop by and say "Hi" to everyone, but didn't stay.  Instead, I got to play with my sister for 4 days.  It was great!

She still worked every day, so we started about 1 every afternoon, and organized, and purged and scrapped and made cards for 4 days!!  It was so nice to spend some quality - relaxing time with her and still get something done.  I think we are going to try to do it at least once a month.  Won't that be great!

Today, I am working on the Dreamin' workshop that I will be presenting this weekend in Rapid City and next week in Sturgis.  This is the YUMMIEST paper!!  I wish I had more fall pictures!  I have been terrible about getting my camera out and taking pictures.  (Oh shoot!  Another goal to reach this year!  :(  )  Any way, I hope you had a great weekend and enjoy this peek at the upcoming workshop!

WINGS Calendar Class

Last week, I taught the calendar class again, only this time we used the WINGS paper pack from CTMH.  I love this paper!!  I was so sorry that it was one of the ones that retired.  I did stock up a little (**blush**)  I couldn't help myself!  And making these beautiful calendars just confirmed my belief that CTMH makes some of the prettiest papers around, AND they are right on track with paper crafting trends (maybe even a bit ahead!)

So, enough jibber jabber! On to the pictures .... these are my calendars. I may add a bit more bling when I get the pictures on. I am giving these as gifts this year for Christmas (sorry to ruin the surprise for those of you on my list.)

 The first page is the cover of course, but the rest are the months, in order.

 The punched butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch, but I can do a really pretty butterfly with my new Art Philosophy Cartridge and my Cricut too !

 And, of course, one picture has to be sideways!  Ha, I have you twisting your head around on this lovely Sunday afternoon!  ;-)

And now hubby and I are off the take a motorcycle ride through Spearfish Canyon.  The colors are PERFECT this weekend, and I want to see the leaves before the wind blows them all off.  We haven't seen leaves in several years because of the wind beating us to them.  Today, 90*, 3 motorcycles, 4 friends, and all afternoon to ride.  A great way to end the weekend. Hope you have a plan too!  c

Exciting Update

Hey!  I am so excited!  I just discovered that Blogger - the company that helps me publish this blog  -  has added a new button, one that I have wanted for a long time. 

You can have my blog updates sent right to your e-mail!  YEAH!  You don't have to track me down, it can come to you.  What a fun thing, to have some creative juice show up in your email now and then! 

Just look in the column to your left, enter your e-mail address and we will do the rest.

I hope you will consider signing up and having me show up in your in box!

YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

New Meets Old

Hey everyone!  I am sorry about the delay in posting. I have broken my arm, at the wrist and I am moving a bit slow.  Typing is one of those things that can only be done in short bursts.

Today I have so much to share!!!  I have had several classes since I last posted and I have had plenty of time to spend in my scrap room since I haven't been able to work.  I am trying to at least be able to see the floor before I return to work.  It is a slow process! 

So, on to New meets Old:

This card is made with some of my favorite paper from a couple years ago.  I have been hoarding it, and now it is time to use it up and move on!  Can you see what the "new" is?

  Your right, a NEW  stamp set, 'Thank You' #D1361 and ..... Art Philosophy!  This scalloped circle is from the cricut cartridge!  I cut 6 of them faster than I could ever cut them out by hand or even punch them.  And while they were cutting, I was doing something else.  I love the CRICUT, it allows me to multi task.  (Don't tell my husband!)

 These cards are from my last monthly work shop.  We used the Mischief paper pack. My card makers wanted both Halloween and Fall cards, so that is what I did.  These are all the same paper, the exact same location on the cards, just different stamp sets.  Isn't it cool that we can do that? 

 And the OLD part of these cards .... the pattern.  We used a CHRISTMAS pattern for our card maps!  If you look, I have all the cards laid out in the same positions as the flyer.  Just the paper and stamp changes make the difference.  So Cool.  (sorry, I am very impressed with myself today, ha ha )

Well, I think that is all I can do for now.  I will chat at you again soon.  c

Fair Returns

So, the Central States Fair has been here and gone and I am pleased to share the results of my entries.  I entered 11 two page spreads and got ribbons on all of them!!  That is so cool.  I love when other people tell me what I am doing is OK. 

I got 5 first place ribbons, 3 second place ribbons, and 2 third place ribbons.  I also took Judges Choice on one of my pages.  That was really neat. 

Several of the pages I entered were pages that I created using the workshop guides from CTMH.  The one that took Judges Choice was the page I did from the Olivia Workshop last Fall.  The page turned out beautiful, and the judges commented on all the attention to detail.

What I found interesting, knowing what the trend is in the scrapbooking world, were the comments on my second and third place pages.  It really bothered the judges that I didn't fill up all the space.  On this Disney page, they felt there should have been some sort of a border. 

On this page, the judges thought I should have had more "stuff" in the blue space of the page. 

Now, I think leaving the top blue, with the focus being below that including the embellishments and photos, draws the eye more to the subject matter, but that is just my opinion. 

Even in this page, they wanted me to add more 'stuff' to the black area.  I guess I am just really comfortable with the concept of 'white space' while some people aren't. I'd love to know how you feel about the new 'white space' trend.  Please leave me a comment and let me know.

Well, that's all the news for today.  I better go get the last of my weekend things done so I can enjoy the week ahead.  See ya!

Going, Going, Gone

Summer is going so fast and now we have finished another week.   It has been a wild one too.  I was really busy at my day job (yeah!!)  and came home and was really busy with my CTMH business.  I had my monthly club meeting in Sturgis on Wed. and that was such a mess!  For some reason we didn't have the room scheduled and there I was .... with no place to play and 17 friends coming to play!  Well, thank goodness, the Sturgis gals take such good care of me, we found a spot to play at the last minute! We made pages with the TYPESET papers from out new catalog.  What great paper. 

Now, I am gearing up for next month!  We are going to be playing with the Mischief papers, only we are making FALL cards instead of HALLOWEEN cards.  It should be really fun to design some cards that will use our new papers.   I am also preparing a great second calendar class for Sept. 4.  We are going to be using the WINGS paper pack from the SPRING Idea Book.  I can't wait to see the dramatic, beautiful calendars that these papers are going to finish.

And, Oct. 1, I am going to be celebrating NATIONAL CARD MAKING DAY by creating 8 CLEAR CHRISTMAS CARDS.  This is going to be a great class and I will be taking sign ups for this class soon! 

Well, I need to run off to get some sleep (how inconvenient!) So I can get a few things accomplished on my day off tomorrow!

OK - Fall is coming

and I need to get this BLOG thing going again.  Who thought it would be so hard to find the time to talk to all of you?  You know how good I am at this!  Talking, that is.  Not keeping up this blog obviously.  I am going to be better, I am going to be better. 

Part of what stops me is that I think I need to have something to show you every time, and honestly, life has been to busy to create for awhile.  I feel lucky if I get the CLUB workshops done.  (Speaking of which....I am needing to finish those soon!)  So, I am going to worry less about having something to show you, and more about getting our creative mojo going.  I'll see if I can share a bit of what I find interesting and what gets my creativity going.  This week, I am playing with my new CRICUT EXPRESSION. I can tell I have alot to learn, but I really am loving it.  I have been cutting out the elements for every ones cards and pages for club this week.  For hours!!  I am not crazy about this.  We may have to come up with another solution for cutting things for club next time we need to use the cricut. 

Anyway ... I did have a workshop for the first Christmas gift I have made this year. I am planning on having another workshop on SEPT. 4, 2011. This is the nicest way I can think of to give family pictures to a relative and not have them shoved in a corner. This Calender is put in our 'My Creations Display Album' #Z1054 found on page 131 of our new Fall and Winter Idea Book. So ... check out these pictures, and if you would like to make a gift calender like this one, contact me and join our class SEPT. 4.

These layouts were made using the Whoops a Daisey paper from 2 years ago. 

The class I am teaching on SEPT 4 will use the wings paper pack from last spring's idea book.

These layouts are so FUN!! and you really can get a ton of pictures in this book to share with family and friends. 

I hope you will consider coming and playing with us.