Feeling Sick!!

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed my shopping trip this weekend: we went, we shopped, and we conquered. It was my 11 year old dd that thoroughly scored, however. I found four tops, but that was it for me. When did outlet prices match regular store prices? Good grief! I'm not driving all the way up to Park City only to pay what I could pay at Old Navy locally. Sheesh! (One fun note: we saw Barry Bostwich at a deli in down town Park City. Funny!!)

In the middle of the night, Saturday, I came down with either a case of food poisoning or the flu. It knocked me out! After all the sick part of it, I literally slept the whole day. I'd wake up, sip some water or Sprite and then turn over and fall back to sleep almost immediately. Yesterday I felt weak and exhausted but I couldn't sleep (I wonder why--LOL!) Today I just feel groggy. I lost three pounds so hopefully it's just my body trying to get back to normal because I have loads to do this week.

For a fun peek, here are the "Love Letters" projects I created for the Little Yellow Bicycle booth at CHA.

The first is a journal:

The second are a batch of cards:

This is a door hanger that you could fill with flowers or candy:

And the last thing is my favorite--a candy box for someone that you love. :)

I just received more of the "Frightful" and "Christmas Magic" lines in the mail, and all glittered and flocked they are even more gorgeous--and HUGE lines. How fun is that? :)

NOTE: If you are interested in that design team opening, I HIGHLY suggest that you make sure you have an online gallery and a resume. Every single team that I work for has requested both. I don't have a resume posted online anymore since ScrapSubmit doesn't exist, but I keep an updated one on my personal computer. It contains my publication history, my scrapbook work history, and awards I have received that relate to the industry. (Also, I need an e-mail address for the DT Lead to contact you when the position comes open so please send that to me as well --it can be through e-mail for privacy purposes.)

Happy 24th of July!

Today is our state holiday celebrating when the Mormon Pioneers first entered Utah to settle here (unfortunately my husband has to work). We're going to the town parade and then we're heading over to my Dad's house for a picnic.

I love a good small town parade--they throw candy!! And that makes a long parade much more enjoyable for the kiddos. I scored some shade (at least, last night it was shaded) for the day so it should go pretty well.

Here are two layouts I created for my July Deja Views DT assignment. The first one was a direct interview quote from my son about his Dad:

The second is a layout about my relationship with my daughter. We get along really well most of the time, but sometimes I just seem to say and do the wrong thing and she's angry with me. She is one of the kids everyone deserves--very obedient, hardworking, and a big help around the house. It's hard for me to be the bad guy sometimes, but I love her enough to do it.

Just a note that my very little Ebay upload this week ends on Monday.

And for those designers looking for a DT, I have an another DT (besides www.creativexpress.com) looking to add one person next year. Shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment if you're interested (link me to your gallery and resume). I'll pass along those that fit the design team needs. (I'm not in charge of selecting, and I'm not allowed to reveal the team yet--but they do have a great compensation program.)

Enjoy your weekend! Tomorrow and Saturday I am off to "Back-t0-School" shop with my dd, mom and sister. Can't wait!! Been saving for months for this.

Kits for Sale

Ok, kits just don't sell all that great on Ebay. :( I get it--paper is expensive to ship.

So I'm going to list a bunch of kits here on the blog. If you're interested in one, holler at me. I'll charge $5 per kit to ship, but I will combine kits for the lowest Priority Rate shipping available, which is typically Flat Rate ($10).

Kits will be sold on a "First Come, First Served" basis. I would REALLY prefer that you pay through Paypal. Then I can print shipping directly through them. I will contact you if you are the one who gets the kit. Then we can arrange payment totals and details.

Kits will be listed in categories according to price.

$5 kit Sets

Ballet Kit:

Winery Scrapbooking Kit:
Valentine Kit:

Fall Kit:

Birthday Kit:

Winter Kit:

$3 Kit Sets

Hockey Scrapbooking Kit:

Wedding Scrapbooking Kit:

Armed Forces Kit:

Ok, I did list a few things on Ebay this week. Here they are (I'm just including links this week):

* Karen Foster Biggie Bundle 2 (slightly used, as I used about 15 sheets for assignments, but the rest is intact and nice)

* Calendar set 1

* Calendar set 2

Christmas Magic

Here's the next CHA sneak peek: Christmas. Deja Views outdid themselves again. Imagine gorgeously flocked items. Sigh! I love the textures I am seeing on products these days. So very lovely to work with. :)

A Christmas Box Set (note--I used my Cricut to create the boxes):

A candle:

And some cards:

I'll will upload some Karen Foster and more Deja Views either later this week or early next week. :)

Color Challenge Blog: Guest Designer

I am very honored that Janet at "Color Combos Galore" contacted me about this. I love good, strong color choices on my layouts and she gave me a challenging set. :) At first I could not get the green and raspberry colors to gel, and then I pulled out some embellishments. That's when the fun started. :) This is a great blog for color inspiration. You can check it out here.

Here's my layout for the challenge:

If yesterday were a color it would be: BLUE

(my color-ful life)

So yesterday I was conducting our Relief Society meeting (our Church's women's program). It was going well and then I sat down after introducing the teacher. As soon as the teacher began discussing the lesson I was concerned.

Our lesson was on finding joy and hope during and after the death of a loved one. Now I've read the lesson before. I read it months ago in the hopes of finding some comfort about Joey's death. I just didn't realize that yesterday was that scheduled lesson.

The teacher was amazing and treated the subject with such love and respect, but I couldn't help it. The Spirit was strong, and I was trying not to cry but could not help myself. Missing Joey is still so painful and raw. But then I really needed a tissue, and I couldn't get up and go get one (remind me to stock some in the room next week). I didn't want to walk out during the lesson and offend the teacher (she knows my situation). Thankfully a neighbor offered to go get me one, and boy did I need it.

At the end of the lesson, I have to get up and share my testimony of the subject and thank the teacher. I was a mess!

Now let me explain something: I don't like public displays of emotion. Even on TV when the actors are crying or overly emotional, I have to change the channel. It's just so raw and uncomfortable for me to feel that deeply sometimes. Emotions are very personal to me, and sometimes I just don't know how to share them with everyone (apparently except when I write about it).

And there I was runny nose, bawling. It was real, and I couldn't help it; but I still struggle with dragging people through my pain. It doesn't seem fair to them. And I am a new Relief Society President and not wanting to dump my life on anyone else.

It was a difficult day. Now my emotions seem to ride at the top, and I'm sure they will for several days.

I just miss Joey. I can't help it. I always will. And even though I KNOW I will be with my son again, it still kills me to be without him.

So if you see me venting on this blog or sometimes going on and on about Joey, I just need it. I just need to let some of that awful emotion all pent up inside to seep out a little bit. Thank you for being patient with me!

As for the lesson, it was absolutely lovely. You can read it here.

"CHA Sneak Peek #1: Happy Halloween"

Ok, well, it's not a sneak peek if you're actually attending the second biggest trade show of the year. :) But I wanted to show you some of the darling things at the show this year with some of the manufacturers that I work with.

Here are the Deja Views "Frightful" projects that I completed:

I'll try to upload a few more things on Monday and then a few after that. It really was a darling release for Deja Views this year. Very cute stuff!!

10 Year Anniversary!

In the scrapbook industry at least. Whoa it's been an interesting ride! :)

I started with PaperKuts Magazine when they had a full-time team. I can't even remember if we got paid or not. LOL! I loved working with Angie, Vicki, and Sandy. So much fun to watch the industry taking it's first steps. Was able to go to a few tradeshows and meet some very cool scrapbookers.

After a few years at PaperKuts, I went solo to freelance. I had my first publication in Creating Keepsakes. I felt so cool!! :)

My first manufacturing gig was with Making Memories. It was a dream job. They were so generous with product and pay and just treated us so well. Jenny Weston was my contact person and she is the most amazing Design Team Lead in the world. Ultra organized, very sweet, and just watched over us very carefully. It's fun to see how Making Memories has changed their style over the years.

Then I moved out East to Georgia and tried a couple of things: Scraptalk.com as a designer (my first online gig), publications here and there, and some other manufacturers.

I worked for Li'l Davis in its early years when their laser die cuts were all the rage. When Jenni Bowlin came on it went crazy. They are fun company with cutting edge products. I loved trying my hand at collage (but it's definitely not my favorite design style for my personal style).

I took a chance and tried out for my first design team (the rest had been by invitation up to this point). I contacted Karen Foster Design. Within a few months I was invited to join their team. Also another company that just treats us right.

I entered a contest with Deja Views and that's how I got that opportunity. Renee Foss is one of those DT Leads that you want watching your back. Deja Views/Little Yellow Bicycle are just awesome to work with: generous in every aspect. Love them so much!!

After I moved back to Utah, I was blessed with more opportunities: Inque Boutique, filming Nth Degree for Creativexpress, freelance work for CK on occasion, and now my writing gig with Scrapbook Trends.

It has been an amazing ride. I'm not sure how many more years I want to keep doing this. I think I will always scrapbook. Just not sure how much I want to take on as my family grows and changes (no I am NOT pregnant). I think I'm going to let some of my design teams go within the next year. Working 30 hours a week sometimes is a lot of work (even if I'm getting up in the wee hours of the morning to do it).

I've been sad to see the industry change lately. The economy is affecting everyone--including scrapbookers. Companies are slower to pay (if at all). That makes me sad. I hate to see a large company that doesn't offer financial compensation for hard work. Product is great, and I LOVE it. :) But spending 6 hours on a project for a sheet of paper and a sheet of stickers just isn't worth it any more.

I'm sad to see LSS failing--even here in Utah. Hate to see the little guys going out of business.

I'm sad to hear that CHA will be smaller this year and releases are smaller as well. I'm really interested to see what everyone thinks after the tradeshow this week.

I wonder where I'll be in the next ten years--more scrapbooking, another industry, back to school? I don't know.

I just feel grateful for the amazing people I've had the opportunity to meet and work with and for the creative outlet this has provided me.

So tell me about your scrapbooking stories? I'm sure you have lots of great memories as well! :)

Weekly Ebay Listings!

Ok, here we go again (LOL!). This week is mostly kits. If they don't sell well, then I'm going to sell them to gals in my neighborhood. Kits just aren't that popular on Ebay.

The Amazing Page Idea Book:

What About the Words Idea Book:

Pirate Scrapbooking Kit:

Fall Scrapbooking Kit:

Lacrosse Scrapbooking Kit:

Valentine Scrapbooking Kit:

Birthday Scrapbooking Kit:

Winter Scrapbooking Kit:

I also have a brand new lavendar Karen Foster Design Seat-case to list, but I need to photograph it. It's never even been taken out of the shipping box. Just don't carry that much to crops any more. :) I'd rather just pull out stuff and work from home or take kits to work on at the stores.

Hey, Miss Burns!!

Brett and I talked to Rusty today. :) Miss you guys like crazy. Said you read the blog and wanted to wave hello. Shoot me an e-mail sometime (see below). I'd love to hear how things are going!

Giveaway WINNER!!

Thanks so much everyone for your advice! It's so hard to know how to price things on Ebay. And sometimes what I think will be hot is definitely NOT. LOL! So thanks for helping me out!! So without further ado, the winner is . . .

lizzy simpson

Lizzy, will you please e-mail me your address: js_gallacher@hotmail.com.

On another note, it has been absolutely CRAZY here this past week. I've been finishing up CHA work for Deja Views and Inque Boutique. I don't believe Inque Boutique is releasing anything new, but if you missed them before then check them out at this show. Darling felt and chipboard, not to mention amazing stamps!! Deja Views has Halloween, Valentine, and Christmas lines coming out. And they are gor-geous!! Halloween is all glittered up, Valentine is flocked, and Christmas I believe is glittered as well (we only had prototype to work with). It's always so much fun to see the new releases but it means cranking out tons of goodies, and by the time I'm done--I'm BURNED OUT!! :)

I've also been called to a new position in our church. I'm over the women in our congregation, and I've been busy trying to get that up and running. Our congregation was so huge that they took half of our congregation and have of another congregation and merged them. And that's great, but we have about 40 women pregnant and due in the next 5-6 months. That means meals, visits, etc. I'm excited to get to know all the women in our ward as I've been in the Children's Program--Primary for over a year now. It will be good to be with adults again; although, I miss the children that I taught in my class terribly. They were adorable, and I was constantly entertained with their darling stories.

Are any of you going to CHA or at least drooling over the latest goodies? I can't wait until the local (and online) stores start stocking the new items. Woohoo!! (Good for me, bad for the check book.)

Speaking of bad for the checkbook. I hit a Pebbles in My Pocket warehouse sale on Saturday. I scored on some 50 count cardstock packs for $2 and their ribbon packs for $1. I felt pretty good about that. Sending my sister in Alaska some goodies--yeah, Sandy!! I also hit a LSS "going out of business" sale. It made me sad to see them leave as they had loads of fun stuff through the past year, but apparently they are going online so that's great for them. 40% off my entire purchase was great for me!! (I was good and didn't go crazy. LOL!)

So did you have a good weekend? What are you up to these days?

Oh, here are two layouts for my monthly Deja Views DT assignment.

The first is using the Cat tablet:

And the next uses a combination of Zach's Life (big surprise there) and some of their older Sports line. We just don't have much athletic coordination in our house. I was a dancer in high school, but ask me to throw a baseball and you might want to step out of the way. :) Dh played a year of football but isn't really into watching or playing sports--lucky me. ;)

Well, thanks for dropping in! Have a great week! (Oh, and I'll post my Ebay auctions later today or tomorrow if I can get them uploaded at Ebay today.)

Looking for a New DT?

Then check out the open call at Creativexpress. :) I love the girls that I've worked with, and it's been fun to work with an online store. I'd love to see you on the team!!

Oh, and the gallery is having major issues right now and nothing seemd to be uploading yet, but they're working on it. (At least you can start gathering your three favorites for the DT gallery and then a bunch of other things for the regular gallery for when it is working again. Right?!)

Weekly Ebay Listings

Ok based on your AWESOME advice, I tried a few different things with my listings this week. I put some at the lower bids as you suggested with the shipping listed separately. And then some I listed with shipping included as the bid amount. We'll see what happens.

These are the items listed this week.

Karen Foster Large Casual Number Snap Stamps:

Joy of Scrapbooking Idea Book:

All Men Scrapbooking Idea Book:

Ho, Ho, Ho Emboss and Punch:

Miscellaneous Stamp set:

Rub-on Calendar set:

Karen Foster Biggie Bundle 3:

Pet Scrapbooking Kit:

Playing Games Scrapbooking Kit:

Miscellaneous Sports Scrapbooking Kit:

And the Back to School Scrapbooking Kit:

Thanks again for your advice, and don't forget that you have until Saturday to post your opinion and get your name put in for the drawing. :)

You guys are AWESOME!!

Thank you for your quick responses!! Keep them coming. :) It helps to know what people are willing to pay.

And all you lurkers!! I love hearing from you. Don't be afraid to comment. Even a smiley face makes my whole day. :) It's just nice to know that new friends are out there in cyber space.

Junking and a 4th of July Giveaway!!

Ok, I can't even tell if anyone reads this blog anymore. ;) Are you lurking or have you abandoned me for better reading? LOL!

So because I need a little help, and I want to do a giveaway (and admittedly check to see if anyone hangs out here any more), please answer this question:

"How much would you pay for a scrapbook kit containing 6-10 pieces of pattern paper, stickers, rub-ons, and a package of embellishments? (Keep in mind that shipping is around $5-6.)?"

(And no I am not contacting you to sell something but want my Ebay auctions to be fairly priced.)

NOTE: The drawing will end on Saturday, July 19 at midnight MST. :)

Ok, everyone that answers that question will be put into a random drawing to win this:

And this:

And on another note, I totally scored the other day. I decided to hit a local thrift store and see if they had any cool goodies. It's not the best thrift store and typically doesn't have what I'm looking for, but I felt inspired to go today. I've been wanting a storage system for my most used punches, which are usually circle punches. I didn't want a tupperware box or something uninteresting. I knew that I wanted to see if they had any small luggage pieces--no luck! Not a single piece of luggage. So I was going up and down the aisles and saw these:

I saw the bottom two in a section of small storage pieces. I opened them up and discovered they were tape storage cases (remember those lovely mixed tapes we all used to make). Well, the glue had more than deteriorated so I just yanked out the goofy plastic tape holders and that left me with the empty faux leather suitcases. I spotted the third purse/tape holder/camera bag on another aisle and knew I had to have it to complete the set. I need to get a strong knife or cutter to cut off the strap, but I'm so happy to have scored on these.

Feeling pretty pleased with myself and the $3 whole dollars I was about to spend, I headed for the checkout line. As I was handing over my money, I saw my next prize. My heart started racing . . . "I MUST have it!" I thought. "I'll pay $25 for it and nothing more!" (hoping and hoping that it would be so unreasonably priced) I paid for my items and drove my cart like a madwoman over to the "collectibles" section. Was that woman eyeing my prize? She'd better not be. But no, it was a vase she had her eye on. I looked down at the lively green price tag: $25. Cue the choir!! I headed back to the check out line, learned there is no tax, and carried home my lovely new TYPEWRITER!!! I've been wanting one of these so bad (I blame my Dad and Jennifer Pebbles for inspiring this new junking habit--as I love the way she decorates her home with lovely junk!). I felt so giddy all day. (I did have a good laugh, though, when my kids wanted to know what it was.)

Here's my beautiful new treasure:

So it's been a great weekend so far, and in advance I thank you for helping me figure out my question! Happy 4th of July weekend!!

CK KOTM (again!)

Loved this kit. I know I said that last time, but both kits totally appeal to my favorite scrapbook colors. Love the graphic feel, and if you have like a century to work on projects you'll still have plenty of goodies in this kit. AMAZING! I also loved the cardstock quality papers and awesome embellies. Just too darn fun!

This is a layout that I created using the kit:
And then I knew that I wanted to use the clear circular star tabs to create a composition journal cover. They are DARLING!! So this is what I made:

And finally a "thank you" card for those teachers that endure and survive a very long school year (LOL!):

If you want to see more cool stuff created with this kit, then hope on over to Robyn Werlich's blog. She's one of my most favorite designers. (Sure genius I tell you!) She's done some awesome layouts using this same kit. :)