Friday, February 26, 2010

Name change

Just a quick little note that I have changed this blog's name from Tricia's Treasure to MDN Creates, which is my card business name.    I am also getting ready to create a blog just for my Longaberger business just to not confuse the two.  I feel it is time to get serious about this business.

Correction:   I made one tiny little boo-boo in my last post.   I forgot to list the link to my Etsy account.   I it listed to the side.   I only have one item, with four more ready to make their debut, as soon as I take a picture.

Last quick note about Longaberger.

This is my last entry in this blog about Longaberger, except that I will announce the new name of the blog.   In the meantime, if you want to order, you have 3 days before February and Fall/winter items are gone.   I invite you to visit my website,  www.longaberger.com/patricialogan to order, or if you want to join my team.

Take care and God Bless You

Friday, February 19, 2010

A stall, and a lack of concentration but I will make it.

Well, on February 9, if you all have been following my posts, I have my first card set on Etsy. they cannot promise that these cards will sell right away. In case you have ever been interested in selling you artwork or whatever you make on Etsy, they will hold it for 4 months, longer than Ebay, but in the next few days, I am going to list something on Ebay to compair the two. Now I am stalling with my next set. I have the idea, it is going to be two male cards, juvenile. I need a business plan, I need organization, and I know it. When I was just doing it, making things, I felt good. Iam not saying that do not enjoy it. I think that this weather is getting to me. There is snow, snow, and more snow, and the next storm system is next Monday, and I have a class on Tuesday. They canceled it from the 9th, and it is at Archivers. My week looks like this: My nephew Mike's 14th birthday is Monday; Class on Tuesday; networking event, to which I have a table at in on wednesday; then the rest as far as going out in finished after that.



These are the cards that I am submitting for the next swap I am on, and I will be making more for the store. Story: I was looking for a male card to make. I was thinking of my youngest nephew, Deonte, who will be 3 in May, so I was looking for something super simple that he would be able to recognize. So, I pulled out the My Community Cartridge, and I never really played with it before. I got this cart free in 2008, when Provocraft had a rebate. when you purchase the Cricut E from, I believe it was from November 17-December 31, 2008, and send in the receipt, you got Printing 101 and My Community cartridges. OK, enough of the chit-chat.

From the My comm Cart, I cut out the car, sign post and road, and adhere them to a piece of generic yellow cardstock card blank. the card blank itself is a standard A2 size (or 4.25 x 5.5) card. I went to MS word this time to print out the Happy Birthday on plain printer paper. I left the inside of the card blank so that the receiver can put in their own personal note to the child. You cannot see it through the photo, but I do have a sun, and the sun came by way of George and shape cart. I do not use this foundation cart much, as I do not use my baby cricut much. I know it does not have all the cool features that the Espression and the Create has, but I still like it. the sun was made from my scraps, Kind of a silky piece of paper from Reminence and the other side has an easter saying on it. would you believe it is from the end piece from the stack of paper, and I nabbed it when I was putting away paper at Archivers, two years ago. well, the paper companies got wise, and no longer send a dud piece (the one that says"time to reorder") with their packs of paper.

So my total lack of concentration was not a total lost. I just need to organize. Oh, and I am working on my double scraproom. Double, you say? Yes, I said double. When you are single, it is good to be selfish, because I do not get to hear the words, "where is my space?" from a hubby or children. The main scraproom is on the second floor, but I do most of my work downstairs in my office, so that is how I am preping for that. I also need a place to plop my baskets, and have a space upstairs for that. hopfully I get to plop it all in one space in a few months.

February specials in Longaberger Land.

Check here for all Longaberger specials going on my website. You have one more week to get fall/Winter Products. If you are new to Longaberger products, I think you wil like what you see, and as always, i you have any questions, please email, or comment to this post. Well it is time to turn in, I hope I will have more cards or other paper products to show next time. God Bless you.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

New card, and they will go on sale


I have my first official set of cards that will go on my Etsy account.
Ingredients:
beige cardstock from Wausau Paper, cover weight, Bazzill Ribbon, Bazzill smooth-Black, free digi stamp from my collection. I fell in love with a feature on my cricut espression, it is called Center point. it gets rid of the need for a punch, but I will get a collection of punches just in case I am out at a crop, and I do not feel like taking the cricut machines. Anyway, this card is super simple, and you cannot see it, but I used Swiss dots from the cuttlebug for a background. I used the circle cut from Plantin schoolbook, and the scallop circle from storybook. After rolling the design from the cuttlebug on the cardstock, then I glued the ribbon on the cardstock. I cut out the scallop circle in the bazzill black. I printed the digi stamp on the wausau paper, then cut around the image using the center cut feature. Lastly, I glued the circle and the scallop circle together then on the ribbon. the only problem is I do not have cream envelopes. I could have cut them out with the wild card cartridge, but the paper is not bi enough. trust me, I tried. I am considering selling them for about $12.00 or cheaper.
Well that is it. talk to you later. God Bless.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Ah!!! Snow...

Don't you just love it, LOL? I know, I know, I have now written here is almost a month. Before I report about the snow, I have news to share. I no longer have a steady paycheck. This was my choice. Last post, I said I was leaving, and the week before my last employee crop I went to, I wrote my manager a letter, stating that I was leaving at the end of the month, and do not schedule me after January 31, and she did not schedule me after...January 17th. That was not what I asked for, but OK, I did not fight it. I just hope that I got paid for the last day that I was not supposed to work. OK, scratch that, I did not. OK, I never could keep up what weeks got paid for with what weeks. so now the last day I was not supposed to work was paid two weeks ago. BUMMER!!! I think she intentionly did that.


...So you know what means....


I am officially in business with my cards. After all, I can have my Longaberger business while working, but making cards and other paper type stuff. In case you are now just getting into this blog, I have two businesses, and I unofficially started the card business, called MDN Creates, inc. two years ago. I started only doing papercrafts for family and friends, and they did not have to pay me for my stuff, but they did sometimes. life was wonderful, selling for a wonderful company like Longaberger, and making my own cards and scrapbooking albums on the side was wonderful while working for a scrapbooking store. In December, my manager asks me to read and sign the new employee book. I read it, and saw that I could no longer do what I love for family and friends, and I know that at least my relatives were going to pay for supplies, but no more. I have always toyed with the idea of leaving Archivers, and knew that a person has to leave one day, so I made that decision to leave. no job was going to stop me doing what I really love. Again, they had no problems with me selling Longaberger.


Two types of Disney...


There is the franchise. Love it, but sometimes, change is a bad thing. My beloved Fantasyland, which I love, will be undergoing a change. I do not like this at all. will have to explain in a separate blog. then there is scrapbooking. I am on a yahoogroup called scrapping Disney. It is a fun group, and it is simply that, scrapbooking your Disney trip. if you want to join this group just go to the yahoogroup area of Yahoo. You do have to get an account if you do not already have one. you can also google it (do not ask me how to work yahoo search engine, I am sure it is the same principle as google and ask.com.) put in the search term, scrapbook and Disney, and the group will appear.


Anyway I entered my first swap with this group. I had a female card (which you saw, and i have as my avatar). The next is a scrapbooking page from a sketch, and it looks like this :
It is made with: 1 sheet of bazzill (12x12); 1 sheet of coral cardstock (from Archivers-12x12); 1 sheet of bazzill white(8 1/2 x 11); 1 sheet of Mickey Stripe (use the bottom half to make a pocket. black letters, 1 sheet of black cardstock for the extra photo card, which is 4x6. Ribbon to match.

...And what is with the white stuff.



Like I said, I am snowed in. Columbus, Ohio rarely gets caught in the middle of a snow storm, but...HERE IT IS!!!! I would have documented in pictures, but I have on short sleeves, and the heater on, LOL. Wow!!! I remember my first snow storm in Columbus. My father was in the Air Force, and had worked the night security police position the night before, and the snow started. I was in the 8th grade, and my brother was in the 2nd. My sister was not born yet (1988). This happened during the winter of 1978. Me, my mother, and brother was hudled in the basement on the sofa bed, while my father was in a barricks room. School of course was cancelled, and it was bitterly cold outside. Ahh, good times.....NOT!!

Now, here we are, in separate homes, me in my home, my brother in his in Dayton, Ohio, my parents and my brother's son in their home, while my sister and her little ones are in their home.


.....and what's for dinner...


Well, I am sort of lazy today, so I went to grilled pork shoulder and filled tortilla, which is a knock off from a You Tube vid titled Chinese street food. in the video, the person makes a crepe like bread, breaks an egg on it, and spreads it on it. then they add green onion, no cheese (I do not believe that the Chinese use cheese in any recipe), and bean paste. then they fold it over, put some kind of cracker, and fold it over again. they put it in a plastic bag or hands it to the customer, and off you go. my version is much, much different, but simular. I use a tortilla instead of crepe batter. I poke tiny holes in it, so it will not poof so much. No onions, even though i love onions. Sorry, no bean paste, I use Kraft's tomato and basil dressing instead. No crunchy cracker. To me, it taste just as good. Of course, I do not know what bean paste taste like, and I do not want to know what beans they use. They are probably not grown in the USA.
Well that is part 1, I will be back for part 2....