OH MY OH MY... 2013

Well, 2013 is RIGHT around the corner and you can tell by my lack of blog posts I have been busy teaching!  It has been hard to juggle my own family, teaching, professional development, and my love for all things crafty!  Never fear though, I am getting back on track and I have some new ideas up my sleeve. 

* Just a side note... if you are a teacher check out my Teaching Blog ;)

So!  Let's talk about what's coming up for CTMH!

I've got the new spring/summer catalog in and it is GORGEOUS!  I can't wait for you to see it!  And because I'm that psyched, if you visit my CTMH site between now and January 15th, place an order of $30 or more, I am going to send you a SPECIAL NEW stamp set that I have on hand AND the new Spring/Summer Catalog for FREE!

That is a deal and a half. I have a limited number of catalogs though, so if you are really interested ORDER FAST!

And if that isn't a good enough deal, you'll notice when you hit my site that if you spend $35 or more you can purchase the CUTEST Valentine Kit for only $10.   It retails for $40!  Incredible deals... so let's do the math:

Purchase $30 - Get Free Catalog ($3.95 value), Get Free Stamp Set ($9.95 minimum Value)

Purchase $35 - Get Free Catalog ($3.95 value), Get Free Stamp Set ( $9.95 minimum Value) &
                         Get Valentine Kit for only $10 ($40 value)

Isn't it Cute!!!

Plus, I bet you can guess what new product will be in the Spring/Summer catalog just from this photo.


I am going to work on posting more... I promise.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to work on doing some giveaways and maybe even some blog hops to get back into the groove of things.  Thanks for sticking with me!

I hope you had a beautiful and wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Monday Accomplishments

Today I decided to dust off the embroidery machine and get to work on some pillow cases that have been taking up space.  I am always on the look out for great deals and I like to pick up mix-matched pillow cases at my local Goodwill.  At .49 each, you can't beat it!  My goal was to take these home and start embroidering the girls' names on them so that they had something special on their bed. 

I made 2 for Kayla, 1 for Kaileigh, 1 for Haley, and 1 for Grace and felt pretty good about getting something accomplished until I saw their faces when they got their pillow cases embroidered in their favorite color, and then I felt GREAT!

I have a Janome 350e.  I bought this machine about 3 years ago with the intention of doing all types of crafty goodness.  And I love that I got it.  I've done decorative towels, embroidered burp cloths, hair bows, wash cloths, pillow cases, and even blankets.  I think my favorite was one Xmas when I made everyone no sew fleece blankets, and then I embroidered their names in the corner.  Dallas Cowboys for my Dad, Texas Longhorns for my son. 

So I wanted to show you a little of what I did today.

 The picture above is a picture of my machine hard at work.  I have done a lot of trial and error with my machine and I have a lot more to learn.  My biggest hiccup is getting the tension right for different fabrics.  Too much and the white shows through, not enough and I get bubbles.

 This picture here is just a close up of the machine doing its stitch work.  My older daughter says that this machine is a cheater because I don't have to do anything but punch in what I want and hit go.  If it were only that easy LOL... but really... it sort of is!

This is the finished piece.  Not too shabby for a built in font and a .49 pillow case.  One thing I've learned about being a Mom of 5 is that I don't have the extra money to cute up my house right out of the designer stores, but I can do a little crafting up to what I do find and make it as cute as can be. 

I have a couple of projects I'm working on with my machine and when I get it perfected, I'll share on here.

1) Appliques.

2) Embroidery on cards.  Yep you knew I had to have paper in this somewhere LOL.

Until next time keep Crafting, Keep Crafting, and have a great day!

July Constant Campaign for CTMH!

Good Morning Readers!

It is ridiculously early to be up in the summer time (especially for a teacher), but here I am posting away to let you know what the incentives are for shopping with CTMH in July.  This month, purchase $75 or more and receive a popular paper packet and coordinating accessory free.  It gives you a retail value of up to $17.90 FREE.  If you need to coordinate your shopping to which paper packet you want that is perfect!  Here is a list of the packets that will be offered and what dates, so you know when to shop!

July 1 - 5                 Mischief Paper Packet and Mischief felt shapes                     $15.90 Value

July 6 - 10               Dreamin' Paper Packet and Harvest Charms                           $14.90 Value

July 11 - 15             Fanfare Paper Packet and Level II Assortment                       $17.90 Value

July 16 - 20             Lucky Paper Packet and Lucky My Stickease Assortment     $17.90 Value

July 21 - 25             Mayberry Paper Packet and My Stickease Assortment           $17.90 Value


July 26 - 29             Sophia Paper Packet and My Stickease Assortment                $17.90 Value

July 30 - 31             Believe Paper Packet and Holiday Pockets OR
                                Wonderland Paper Packet and My Stickease Assortment        $14.90 Value


If you are ready to get shopping just click on the picture above of all the cute paper!  This week in the blog I will be posting a project I'm working on for my classroom.  I need to make a door decoration that welcomes students to the room. I've got a design in my head, and I'm about ready to put it down on paper.  Until next time.. Get CRAFTING!

Inspiration in Books - Review

I ask a lot of my crafty divas where they get their inspiration from.  I've had a lot tell me from the internet, something they saw on TV, a craft show... lots of places, one of the few listed places though was from books.  And I'm not talking about just craft books either, I'm talking about regular fiction/non-fiction books.  Have you ever read a book and a character had something in it that you thought... man, I'd like to have on of those!

The possibilities for this kind of inspiration IS endless, so I'm going to try and remember to throw up a book or two every now and then that I think are really neat for inspiration or just a great read so your mind can relax and get that inspiration flowing again.  I'm beginning to think I need to start having theme days... Like Food Friday, Scavenger Saturday LOL.

In honor of my first book posting, I'm going to post a children's book.  Let's face it... all you crafting parents out there KNOW how hard it is to get some serious crafting on when the kiddies want to help.  Here is my solution:











How can you go wrong with a book that gives you 365 different things to make and do!!

The best part about this book is that right now it is ON SALE.  Regular price is $24.99 and it is on sale right now for only $10.00!  That is MORE than 50% off for all of you math buffs out there ;)

This book has 128 pages, and is for ages 6 and up, but I'm betting you could squeeze some activities out of there even for your younger ones!

If you'd love to have the book, just click on the book and it will take you straight to where you can buy it!

Now I'm off to do some Sunday reflecting with God and Spiritual Crafting.  Have a great day!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole - YUMMY!

I really was in the mood for some Mexican food, but this summer we are on a budget because I'm not working, so that really ruled out restaurants.  While I'm a decent cook, I'm by no means restaurant worthy.  However, now is the time to work on that otherwise we are going to be eating the same boring foods all summer long.  With that in mind, I decided to ramp it up with some different recipes that I never tried before, or I haven't made in a long time. After all, cooking is an art, and if you make something you really like that just leads to making CUTE recipe cards for swaps!

So, without further ado I'm going to explain how I made this:

It was ridiculously good.  Here are my ingredients:

Bone in chicken breast halves

Enchilada Sauce
Corn Tortillas
Rotel (hope I spelled that right!)
Garlic Clove
White Onion
Olive Oil
Sour Cream





So, the first thing was boiling the chicken breast halves.  Yes, life would be so much easier if you used chicken breasts without the bone, but you NEED the chicken broth that is left over to make the dish.

(1) First step is to boil  the chicken.  After the chicken starts to fall apart, I turn the heat off and fork it out into a colander to let it cool off.

 (2) While the chicken is cooling, I go ahead and finely chop my onion and garlic.  I don't put an amount on my recipe simply because I'm kind of a "ooo this looks like the right amount" kind of girl.  I'll tell you I used three pieces off my garlic clove and about 1/3 of my medium sized onion.

(3) Once the chicken is cooled off you are going to need to pull it off the bone and shred it.  By this I mean make it look stringy when you tear it apart.  I don't use the skin or gristle or bones, those go into the garbage.  Just the breast meat.

(4) I put a dash of olive oil in a pan to heat up and then I saute' my onion and garlic together, then once tender I add the can of Rotel.

(5) Once that is nice and tossed up I add the shredded chicken and then I cook together just for a few minutes to heat the chicken up and mix the juices together.  *Feel free to add chicken broth if your mixture looks too dry.  Nothing worse than dry chicken!

(6) In a separate container I added 4 cups of hot chicken broth with 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce and 1 cup of sour cream.  Give or take of course ;).  This mixture is what you soak your corn tortillas in before putting them in your casserole dish.

(7) This is what I did.  I used glass pyrex dishes.  To prep them I poured enchilada sauce in the bottom and then used a brush to spread it evenly on the bottom of the pan.

(8) Next, I took tortillas out of my tortilla soak that I made (see step 6) and put them in the bottom of the pan, somewhat layering them so that the entire bottom of the pan was covered.

(9)  I then added my chicken and spice mixture covering the tortillas evenly.














(10) I topped with cheese.

 11) I repeated this process until my pan was full with my last layer being the soaked tortillas covered in cheese.

12)  I put my oven on 350 degrees and popped those suckers in there.  *NOTE, cover your dish with tinfoil for the first 20 minutes or so, and then uncover for the last 5 minutes or so to brown the cheeses.

I ended up with 2 casserole dishes worth of enchilada casserole.  To me this is better than traditional enchiladas because its the same taste, but I didn't have to individually roll all those corn tortillas! 

I pulled out of the oven and cut with a spatula and served piping hot.  Which is WAY too hot, but watching all that cheese in long strings just make it worth it.

Family survey gave this dish 3 1/2 stars out of 4.  It was kind of messy making so didn't get the full 4 stars, but the overwhelming benefit for me was that the left overs were eaten up within 24 hours!  It was well loved in this house!

CTMH June Incentive

June brings a great incentive for stampers to get their stamping on!  CTMH is offering FREE stamps!

It’s Stampaganza Time!

June 2012 Constant Campaign

Purchase any two stamp sets (sizes A, B, C, D, or E) at full retail price and receive a third stamp set of your choice FREE (of equal or lesser value)—a savings of up to $29.95!

Stamp sets that count toward the qualifying purchase include full-priced A, B, C, D, and E sets only. Stamps that do not count toward a qualifying purchase include customizable (K), Workshops on the Go™, Cricut^® collection, and Stamp of the Month (both discounted and full-priced) sets.

Dates: Offer valid June 1 (9:00 am MDT) – June 30 (11:59 pm MDT)

Shop now to get your favorite sets at MY WEBSITE.

Questions?  Contact me!  I'm available for crops, shopping help, tips and tricks, and just plain talk!

Have a great day!

It is June Already! Some definite changes.

It is June already and I have not been as vigorous in my posts as I've needed to be, but in my defense please let me explain why!  I was working on getting my Master's degree and started a new teaching intervention position in a local school.  That didn't leave much time to play around with my crafts sadly because when all of that was done, I was trying to spend as much time with my children as possible.

Now however, it is the summer time ;).  And teacher's don't really work in the summer; sort of.  So these are my blogging plans, and I hope I stick with those plans!

1)  My blog is not going to only feature crafts and tutorials, but I am going to add how you can integrate your crafting in with other areas of your life!  I'm going to feature some books that I find in my shopping journeys, food for the family (because hey, food is a craft after all), and I'm going to integrate curriculum and education with crafting.  I'm hoping this last part will help inspire teachers, but I for those teachers, I wanted to shout out that I will be adding things to my blog that I had to maintain as part of my Master's curriculum.  You can find that blog HERE.

2) I'm going to ramp it up a bit!  I'll be adding lots of photos, maybe some videos, lots of links to cool things, and please feel free to leave comments and let me know what you want to see!

It is SUMMER and I have plenty of time to explore crafts, foods, and cool educational pieces for my upcoming school year!  So let's enjoy ;)

March Incentives with CTMH

Hey everyone. I just wanted to give you a cute little video involving the March incentive. There are incentives for individuals and for new consultants!

For the individual:

The cute as can be stamp of the month!

Purchase alone for $17.95 or if you purchase $50.00 or more, you can get the set for ONLY $5.00.



For the New Consultant:

The Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge FREE!!!

Check out this video to learn more! To order online visit my website or just give me a call and I will help you out!

Fabulous February Deal!

This February CTMH is offering a Buy 1 Get 1 Free on Studio J 5 packs. Buy the first 5 pack at the regular retail price of $55 plus tax and get the 2nd one FREE. This is an amazing deal! Here is what the 5 pack includes:

5 - 2 page layouts
5 Memory Page protectors
FREE shipping!

Everything you need is included in your 5 pack and it is a GREAT way to try out Studio J if you haven't before and if you have, its a great way to continue your journey and give the gift to a friend or family member.

I tried Studio J for the first time not too long ago thinking I'd just like to have some samples to show customers what they finished product looked like, and I was so impressed that I'm HOOKED!

Here is what I made:

I think what I like best was that if I really wanted I could add 3 dimensional items to make them 3-D, but I loved these so much I didn't change a thing.

If you are interested, please visit my website Craftastic Scrapping and order today! Remember this is only available in February!

Story Time Cubes

Here is the post as promised showing what I did with one set of my collage blocks from the Rock The Block promotion that CTMH is having right now.

I made Story Time Cubes: Here is what they are!


Story cubes are a cute game or educational tool for the classroom or family. You choose a minimum of 3 dice (you can choose all of them). Using the pictures that show after the dice have been rolled, make up a story that incorporates all of the pictures on the dice. You can do verbal story telling, written stories, you can even have the next player roll and they have to add on to the existing story with what they've rolled. A GREAT GAME with 10 million combinations!


Materials:

1 Set of Collage Blocks
Patterned Papers (I used some of my retired CTMH paper to do this: Olivia, Paper Garden, Perfect Day, and Grace)
Ink (Hey you can't stamp without inks! I used Cocoa Ink, Desert Sand, Sorbet, and Twilight... CTMH ink of course!)
Stamps (There are too many sets to list here, but the object was to find all kinds of different images from my sets so that I could cover all sides of the blocks (that's 54 sets of images))
Modge Podge
Foam Brush
Liquid Glass
Sponge Daubers
Stickers
Round Sponge
Ruler





Here is what I did:

1) I measured the block sizes and I cut base pieces to cover the blocks in various patterns from my paper. (2" cuts were perfect!)

2) I used Modge Podge to fix these to the blocks. I DID NOT paint the top of the paper with the Modge Podge, I just painted the block and affixed the paper. (Make sure you leave time for them all to dry and don't place them too close together... you may get them stuck if you used to much Modge Podge!)

3) Once everything dried, I used the sponge daubers to give a little color to all the edges. Just pick the ink you want to use, and daub away!

4) Once that was done it was time to cut the pieces that I was going to stamp on. I used a creme colored card stock and cut them at 2" also.

5) After all the cutting was done, I selected my stamps and went to town stamping! You have to do 54 DIFFERENT stamps for this game... so get your stash ready!

6) After stamping, I cut around them.

7) Next I used the the round sponge to color the edges. I made sure I colored the edges of each one to match the pattern paper I was going to adhere the stamped image too.

8) To adhere, I used liquid glass this time. LOVE THIS STUFF!

9) Now its time to work on the base! I simply used the ruler to measure the outside sides of the bottom base and the inside of the base. Then I cut patterned paper for the outside and creme for the inside. (This is where the rules for your game are going to go)

10) I used stickers I had from a retired level one paper packet and markers to write up my rules.

11) I adhered everything using liquid glass again. (Ha Ha... look at the twix wrapper.. wonder how that got there!)

12) And voila! You have a great game for classroom or family time!


* I haven't done this yet with mine, but you will want to put a top sealing coat on all of your blocks and the base piece. That way when the dice are rolled often you don't lose the quality of your work! I'm flirting with spraying a clear gloss coat on and then using a shellac type covering.


I think my next project will actually be a picture collage! What are you making?!

Rock the Block Promotion!

In my last post I went over a little bit about the Rock the Block Promotion from CTMH. Here you'll find the official CTMH video. Look for an upcoming post where I show you how to turn the collage blocks into a fun game for family, teachers, or home school parents!



I have a few of these on hand now and I have so many different ideas for using them that I will probably use them ALL!

Have fun!

New Close To My Heart!

I had to give a little post as I haven't in awhile and share with you the new goodies CTMH is offering. FIRST:

Until January 31st you can get 2 new products from the NEW spring/summer catalog for only $15 with a qualifying purchase: Those 2 products are the Block Collage set valued at $14.95 and a NEW size E stamp set valued at $29.95 Purchasing is easy, just visit my website HERE.




The next thing I have to tell you is this:

I've already got my Spring/Summer catalogs in! I'll post a sneak peak here and there just for you of some of my favorite must have items!



I apologize for the poor picture quality, but if you want to see the new catalog give me a call! I have only 10 available!


Contact me today to schedule your gathering, or to inquire about club/workshop events!

Have a great day and happy Crafting!

Glass Etching On Coasters

I got this great idea from a blog post I saw, and couldn't resist making my own. I wish I could give the nice lady the credit so, if you are out there... THANK YOU! Here is what I did:

* I went to Lowe's and purchased the glass tiles from the bathroom/kitchen tile section. I also bought the cork backing from Lowe's in the kitchen drawer lining section. I know.. there really isn't a "section", but it the aisle where that stuff is sold.
* Next, I selected a design from my Cricut cartridges and chose this tea set theme from my Heirloom cartridge. I LOVE this cartridge for so many reasons. I bought it for doing my family tree scrapbooking and have used it for everything I can think of.
* I bought the glass etching cream at Hobby Lobby, and the foam brushes I picked up on sale at Michael's when they were only 5 cents!

* After choosing my picture, I cut it on my cricut onto vinyl at 3"
* I then pulled the image off and flattened it out onto the glass tile.
* I covered the area around the picture partway and the details with the glass etching cream and I simply followed the directions on the bottle. I waited 5 minutes and rinsed it off with tap water.
* After all my tiles were done and dried, I cut out the cork backing the size I needed to completely cover the back of the tiles.

These make nice coasters, but also they would be cute as a hot pad I think. Just be careful to not scratch your glass. I am going to make some of these as Christmas gifts, and I REALLY like the cork backing versus cork circle feet or the velvet feet circles.
For those really suave home decorators though, imagine selecting glass tiles at intervals in your home and adding your own personal touch with the glass etching cream to make it truly unique. I chose a picture, but really the sky is the limit with monograms, phrases, or motifs.

Happy Crafting!

Homemade Baby Wipes!

Ok, this has nothing to do with CTMH, but it is really cool and I thought I would share. I have to credit my sister Jennie Murphy with this idea, and I don't know who she got it from, but this is what you need:

Materials:
(2) Glad or Rubbermaid Containers (big enough to hold a toilet paper roll)
(1) Container of Coconut Oil (I got some organic from Wal-Mart)
(1) Roll of Bounty Paper Towels (Get the kind where you can select your own size towel)
(4) Cups of water.
(1) Really good cutting knife

This is what you do:

Cut the paper towel roll in half.

Put 1/2 of the roll in 1 container, and the other 1/2 in the other container

Mix together 2 cups of water and 1 tsp of coconut oil

*You can also add a few drops of essential oil at this point (think lavender or something soothing!)

Pour mixture into container with paper towel, add lid, and turn upside down.

Do it again for the next container.

After about 5 minutes you should be able to pull the center of the roll out of the paper towels and just make sure you know where the start of the roll is. Voila! You are done!

The coconut oil lasts forever and can be used for all kinds of things from cooking, skin treatments, or more baby wipes! Your cost per tub after your initial set will be about 75 cents. Much better than the $2.99 for 80 wipes and you are making over 200!

I found a website with other recipes and other types you can take a look at called Full Circle Baby

I hope you enjoy! Within the next week, check back for redone clipboards, and some cute recipe books I am making with the new CTMH catalog papers!

Have a great week!

It's In the Box

Hello to all who stumble upon this post today! It is labor day and I am spending the day at home with my kids who are all out of school as am I. This morning I woke up knowing I needed to work on my own homework and work on my lesson plans for this week, but I couldn't fight my creative bug this morning and had to make a little treat.

I got this idea from Split Coast Stampers. If you've never visited, I promise there is so much inspiration for cards, scrapbooks, and paper crafts, you won't be sorry! It is free to become a member and you can browse galleries for projects as well as the forums. I modified my box just a bit to suit my needs, but the tutorial and measurements can be found HERE.

Here is a list of my supplies:

Retired Close To My Heart coordinating papers
CTMH's Liquid Glass
CTMH's Borders
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Scissors
Retired CTMH decorative grosgrain ribbon
Dbl sided tacky tape (red rolls)
Pair A Phrase Stamp Set
CTMH Heavenly Ink
CTMH Cocoa Ink


I followed the tutorial for cutting my paper and scoring my paper, but instead of doing the embellished cut around the box top, I used the Kraft borders. Then I used ribbon to help the transition of papers.

On the top of my box, I used my Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut out these tags. I made the top layer a 2" tag and the bottom layer a 2 1/4" tag. Then I used the pair a phrase stamp set to stamp an image in heavenly blue in the back ground and I used cocoa to stamp the words in the foreground.

Right now I'm working on making flowers to add to the top, but you can do so much with this little box.

Now as you've seen from the tutorial this box can be used for 3x3 cards. But how about a little treat box? Or you could put words of encouragement on slips of paper in the box. There is so much you can do, and the best part is it was made by you, so that makes it more special for the one receiving it. I hope you've enjoyed!

Until next time, happy Craftastic Scrapping!

It's the end of August!

And I really haven't accomplished much at all! It has been a crazy time.

1) I'm working on my Master's degree.

2) I left my secure full-time job to teach! (I'll be a long-term substitute this year and praying for a position for next year)

3) I went to Scentsy convention! (Yes... I sell Scentsy... and I LOVE IT)

But! Never Fear! I'm working on a project! I have a daughter who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and developmental delays. The real challenge has been discipline. She is sometimes all over the place. And this is what happened:

1) Listened to a friend talk about how her granddaughter has a treasure box. This box holds all kinds of cool stuff that if the little girl is good she gets to choose from. Just 1 item per day. But she has to earn her item through good behavior.

2) I told a story to my sister about how my mother asked my daughter if she'd rather have a spanking or miss dessert. My daughter chose the spanking. So my mother made her skip dessert LOL. My sister says to me... hmm... she's reward driven.... I said hmmm... you are right.

3) So I was on the hunt for materials to make her a treasure box of her very own! When I'm done, I'll get it posted.

But let me tell you my ideas for what to give her. I found a great place that sells hairbows for $1. I know... I make them right so why would I pay for them! (Time is the answer here). And we have a $1 costume jewelry store in town, plus some added little this' and that's from the $1 store in town. I'm not even done with the box yet, but she sure has been good in anticipation!

I'll post again with pictures, and ideas soon!

Client Gifts

If you've read any of my posts before, you know that I'm in sales for my full-time job. Part of what I do is giving the clients little tokens of appreciation, and I'm stretching my imagination because I want what I had out to be a bit more personal.

Today I made some Starbucks coffee gifts. It was really easy. I found some great coffee cups at a $1 store, some brown crinkle filler, some clear party bags, and I have tons of ribbon laying all over the place. I headed over to Starbucks and bought their Coffee Via and this is what I did:

Step 1: Cut out a 2 1/2" X 3" card (I used a creme cardstock)
Step 2: Get a corner rounder and round the corners out
Step 3: I stamped on them, a little pot with steam and Thank You
Step 4: I aged the paper by using a sponge to distress the edges all the way around
Step 5: Sink this down into the cup so the words face out
Step 6: Put in the Starbucks Coffee Via
Step 7: Put in the Brown Crinkle filler
Step 8: Put in the clear party bag
Step 9: Tie close with ribbon.

There ya go! Inexpensive ways to show your appreciation! Here are my finished cups.

New Catalog... A great Deal! A Great Sunday!

Close To My Heart has finally unveiled their fall/winter catalog to their consultants and man is it AWESOME! Customers can view the catalog beginning Aug 1 on my CTMH website. But... I'll give you a little sneak preview what is new:

1 - EXCLUSIVE Cricut Cartridge! This cartridge has over 700 cuts and comes with 3 stamp sets and 3 chipboard sets! Best of all the catalog is layed out showing you what stamping sets the cricut cartridge has cuts for! ONLY $99. And there is buzz that for the August launch there will be a purchasing incentive to make it 1/2 off! I'll let you know when I know more!

2 - Stamp price DECREASE! Yep... some of the stamps and stamp of the month stamps have new pricing.

3 - GORGEOUS new papers. I don't want to spoil it but for all those zebra print fans, lets just say there is a set that has you in mind!

4 - AWESOME holiday sets! Papers for fall, Halloween, and Christmas! And of course... gorgeous stamps for all the holidays.

I can't wait for you to be able to see all the wonderful things CTMH has done for this upcoming season!

Now for my steals and deals! Today I went into Michael's to get some Cricut mats for my cricut. I always wander back in to the clearance section to see what I can find... And I found a GREAT deal.


Yep. Retails for around $69.95.... and I paid $29.99! I'm so excited for the upcoming workshops!!

And... I think I've fallen in love with a new cutting system. Not that I don't LOVE my cricut... but... check out the Pazzles. Crazy name AMAZING things you can do.
Visit the Pazzles Website and check it out!

Just a quick overview:

1 - No cartridges
2 - This machine can cut, WRITE, distress, emboss, etch, and well... the list goes on and on. This is a definite must LOOK at!

Plus... they even have a commercial version for those that are in business.... just saying...


If you google "Pazzle $99" you can find the link to pay only $99 for this machine instead of $599 by getting a two year subscription to the Pazzles craft room. They also have a $199 option with a 1 year subscription which if you can afford the extra bucks up front makes this machine cheaper!

Happy shopping :) If you get one let me know what you think. I'm trying to hold out and not do it, but I don't think I'll hold out for long!

Booking Board

I got this idea on the Journey to Director board on the CTMH forums, so I can't take any credit. But I loved it so much I had to make my own! This is called a booking board:



All you do is set these up at your parties and encourage your attendees to book a party. They use a dry erase marker to book a date. You can either pre-select open dates they can sign up next too, or they can choose their own, your choice.

What I really liked about this project is that it is manageable for so many businesses. You don't have to be a crafting Queen to have one of these for display. It would work great for any Direct Sales consultants. Imagine it at your Scentsy, Mary Kay, or WHATEVER table.

My materials:

12 X 12 scrapbooking frame (purchased @ Michael's)

You & Me scrapbooking set from CTMH

I used cocoa Ink, and the small and large chocolate alphabet sets.

I love these papers and all I did was a little inking to make some of the paper looked distressed and there you go!

I'm thinking of offering pre-made one's for sale on my website store. But this pretty girl is mine!

Happy Weekend!

Update: Being Creative With Your Job

I am getting ready to take my first basket over and wanted to add a special little something. This idea came straight from Jeanette Lynton's Originals book. Wish I was smart enough to come up with this design! If you don't own a copy of her book you are missing out! Click my link on the side bar to order your's today!

At any rate: here is my creation for a client!
I hand stitched the little pocket and used some cute pieces to really make the card pop. I'm really hoping the client likes it and thinks WOW she made this herself just for me!

Have a great night everyone!