I leave tomorrow morning after the boys go to school for Scraptoberfest in Gaylord.  I love it there and I’m excited to go.  Mom and I will be cropping all weekend after some business in town in the morning/afternoon.  My goal… and hopefully I’m not gonna shoot myself in the foot here, is no ticket.  Last time we went, Denny got a ticket on the way up.  Of course if you know him well, you know he is ticket prone and the month he got two.    So I plan to use good old cruise control and only tempt the police gods with 5 over.  Assuming I can stand moving at that pace.  I hear I’ll hit construction on I-75 so it may be a challenge to hit five over.  Yeesh.  State Mascot should be the orange construction barrel!

I sent out a reminder today for cards registration.  Today is the last day to reserve your kits… Sonyia, lol, poor girl, I’ve been tempting her all week apparently.    If you are on the mailing list and got the reminder you also probably noticed the new look to the emails.  Thanks to an old friend that I’ve worked with in the past is a very talented graphic designer and has done a great job with a logo and will also be working with me on a new site.  Stay tuned for that… I’m loving what he has come up with this far!

Happy Thursday!

~j

Hard to believe it’s Wednesday already and I am one step closer to my Scraptoberfest weekend in Gaylord.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I really just love it there.  It’s being held at The Otsego Club, starts Friday and runs through Sunday.  That makes for a very happy me!!

I’ve been busy working on cards for the October kit.  (Tomorrow is the last day to register.)  Here is a sample from this months kit…  How cute is this owl?!?!?  I’m loving him!!

I put him together last night and Denny said, “Yikes, that looks like a lot of work!”  Really, it isn’t bad at all, and being you get all the parts precut for you in the kit, it’s really just layering paper and sticking it together. 

Enjoy your Wednesday and stay warm.  May I just add… it’s way to early to be this cold!!  Yuck!!!!!

~j

Well it started with Dylan and a case of the sniffles and has now moved to Shelby and Ethan.  Shelby just has a mild running nose and a low grade fever.  Denny has a tendency to freak out, and a temp of 99.9 degrees sends him into a state of panic, which I have to admit is driving me CRAZY.  There is a line between being concerned, and being a lunatic.  From the moment he comes home to the moment he goes to bed he has a thermometer in hand.  Really.  After three days of this, I can’t tell you where I’d like to stick that thermometer!  Well I could, but in an effort to keep this PG, I’ll let you use your imagination.

The boys haven’t missed any school yet and hopefully it stays that way.  We leave for vacation November 6th for a week so I’d rather them not miss any school before that point unless it can’t be helped.  So no fever = get your butt to school, especially today as it is a MEAP testing day.  I heard Ethan sniffing all night long so he is lucky that today’s testing was reading.  The kid is a book worm, so I think he’d do well even if he slept through most of it.  Which may very well be what is happening right about now. 

Shelby and I had a PJ day today, and spent our day snuggling, coloring and making cards.    Here is my creation for today.  I cut out part of the Jeep and adhered it over the original stamped image with tiny 3D foam squares.  I shoudl have taken a photo from the side to better illustrate that.  This is one of the cards for this months card kit by the way so if you haven’t already registered, you need to do so before the end of the day October 15th!

I’m off to freshen up a bit before Denny comes home.  I’d like to be out of my sweats before he walks in the door and at least somewhat presentable. lol.

Happy Tuesday!
~j

It’s a rainy Friday here in Michigan, I get to have a fondue lunch with my good friend Michelle, my fantastic husband, and my sweet little Shelby.  Does it get any better than that???  I’m loving the rain and all the overcast.  Generally I love that type of weather anyway, but some days I’m more in the mood than others.  Today is certainly one of those days.

Some of you may know that I have the Pazzles Creative Cutter Pro, which I’ve had a love/hate relationship with for the last several years.  When I bought my new PC it came with Vista, and the old software for the cutter didn’t work.  After calling the company I found out they suggested Funtime Scrapbooking and that basically if I wanted to use the cutter I’d have to buy it.  At any rate, now that I’ve been using it for several months I gotta say its GREAT.  For those of you that have a Silhouette, this software works with that too and I find it far more user friendly than the software that ships with it. So with my new found “cutter love” I’ve been making a ton of great shaped cards.  Crafted a file yesterday for a square card, but not an ordinary square card… this one has a top flop that is a flower, while the back flap is square.  It’s a pretty cool look and I love the way it turned out.  I also used my Epic to emboss the flower portion of the card with “swiss dots.”  This is certainly going in this months kit, so here is a little peek!

Yeah, lol, that’s all you’re getting. 

Happy Friday!!!
~j

I ordered an Epic Six near the end of September.  I’m pleased to say it came yesterday.  (The kids Halloween costumes came too – so a happy UPS day all around, lol).  I ordered it as a pre-order from the website www.scrapbuggy.com.  The customer service there was great, and they communicated every step of the process and even sent me a tracking number when it shipped.  They had a great deal on it, so I’m even more excited about my purchase.  Check them out if you are looking for anything QuicKutz.

Anyway, I had been waiting for it and had a card in mind all this time.  It’s something I had seen on a blog someplace, but it’s been so long now that for the life of me I can’t remember where.  Coming from the girl who has trouble determining what day of the week it is without the calendar, I’m not all that surprised.  LOL.  So here is my first Epic project, (doesn’t that sound monumental), and I’m pretty happy with it!

I die cut the window in the card with a Nestabilities die and the Epic.  Cute and easy to boot.  Gotta love that!!

Happy Thursday!
~j

I spent yesterday getting a card sample done and as promised here it is.  This sample is a card that will be included in the October General Kit.  Sadly my glossy accents didn’t show up much in the photo.

Today I’ll be prepping some more cards, making a trip for Denny to get some work shoes and waiting for Art Van service to show up to service our couch.  My service window is 8-11am.  I suspect they will arrive sometime around 11:30am, lol.  On top of which, I’m expecting them to come with a cushion cover fabric that doesn’t match, just because historically that’s the way my relationship with Art Van goes.  Good old Art and I can’t seem to come to a mutual and peaceful understanding. 

I saw a card sample yesterday night that included clear hair gel in the supply list.  Yes, you read that right.  If I wasn’t so concerned about sending out baggies of clear hair gel out in the card kits, I might consider it.  I can only imagine the mess factor involved should a kit meet some type of terrible fate when being processed at the post office.  EEEWWW.  Either way, it was a very cool thing, so check out the tutorial here.  For those of you with cutters, there is even a downloadable template to go with the tutorial.

That about covers it for today!  Happy Tuesday & Happy Crafting!

~j

All of you that purchased the September Birthday/Thank You kits and the special edition Halloween kits should have them by now.  Hopefully everyone is happily assembling their cards.  If you have any questions, please let me know!  I heard back from several of you that got them Thursday and Friday and want to thank you for the positive feedback.  We had A LOT of kits go out this past month and I’m sure my mail carrier was excited to see my porch covered with kit packages… not.  LOL. 

October kit registration is now open.  The October kits will ship with a free gift from me!  I’ll be including a spool of American Crafts ribbon in all orders that are reserved and paid for by the 10th.  Just a little gift from me to you.  The October kit is a general kit and will include things like Get Well, Sympathy, Friend, Missing You and Thanksgiving, just to name a few.  If you care to register now, the information is below and you’ll also find it from now until the 15th posted along the side of the blog.

I’ll be posting a new sample tomorrow and sending out the information to the Card Kit Mailing List.  So if you aren’t on the list and want to get the info, you can sign up via the “mailing list” button located across the top of the page.

I took a class last night at our local Archivers in Sterling Heights.  It was called Copic Christmas Card Workshop and advertised basic Copic Skills.  I was really looking forward to it and learning a bit more about my markers.  Sadly, it was a real dissapointment.  The gal “teaching” was nice and did a good job, but there was NO educational content at all regarding the markers!  We did four cards, one of which didn’t involve any coloring.  The extent of the Copic skills was just pick up a marker and color in the lines.  Seriously?  I’m pretty sure my kids could have gotten that far on their own.  I wanted some information regarding blending, etc.  So, if anyone has an Copic tips they would like to share, please do.  I’ve seen a lot of tutorials on YouTube and it seems everyone has their own technique, so please share!!

As always, I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

~j