2015, new affiliates, and a new shop (and a Layout too)

Snow Day picture used in the layout
Snow Day  (c) P. Lynne Designs

Hello, and again, happy 2015.  I want to start out by say that I am so glad that 2014 is over with.  I will not say why, except to say it was not a good year for P.Lynne Designs.  I let a plot of person items get in the way, and I was not make very many things, except playing with Cricut Design Studio, which is amazing.  I cannot wait to begin cutting them out.  Also, I have just been reviewing and promoting Cricut all year. (Due to the burnout I experienced in my life.)

It is a very cold day here in Columbus, where I live.  So cold that bible study was cancelled.  Yesterday, my niece and nephew had an unexpected snow day, which was unusual for the one of the major school systems to close its door due to snow, but the night before, it was really coming down hard.  Winter has really reared its ugly little head, and then some, but not like last year.  I remember last February spinning my wheels just trying to fit my car into the garage, without hitting a wall.  I went to my parent’s house upset, and my dad, just went back to my house, rolled over the spot a few times with his bigger car, and I was able to get in the garage.  I pray that I do not have to go through that experience this year.

Snow Day:

So to commemorate the snow season and the Polar Vortex of 2014, I decided that I was going to do my first scrapbook layout of the year.  There were several reason behind it.  First of all, I have not done one in over a year (yikes).  Sometimes as crafters, we get into a funk, and I commend anyone who crafts during their funk period.  In case you are wondering what a funk period is, it is a time when you just do not feel like crafting anything, altering anything, the ideas just stop coming, or get too busy doing other things.  In my case, it also put a serious damper on my Etsy shop.  I have had the same 5 journal notebooks sitting in my shop for the past 6 or so months. I get traffic, and followers, I am sure they are wondering when I am putting up something new and fresh for them to look at.

The second reason is I had this picture of my niece Nine’na sitting in my phone for over a year.  The moment my sister took and sent it to me, I had to scrapbook it, no doubt about it.  Third is I was commissioned by a lady at my church to make a scrapbook album for her 105-year old mother around August (her mother’s birthday month), and the only thing I did was the monogram for the cover.   I needed the motivation to get started and do what I always tell people, who are contemplating about starting something, JUST DO IT!  I guess I was just fretting over it, because I want the album to be just as good as the last one I made, when she turned 100 years old.

The Layout itself:

I did not buy anything new.  Unless it paper, or something that I cannot make with my Cricut or emboss with my Cuttlebug or my new Sizzix machine (which I had to get because of the letter

Snow Day (c) 2015 P.Lynne Designs

press option a few weeks ago).  Everything on the layout was in my stash.  I love the minimalist look of scrapbooking pages now, and that was the concept of this page, except the more blank spots I saw, the more I had to fill up, LOL. So typical of me.  Anyway, I decided that I was going to pull out the blues in this layout, and I have 4 different types of paper (2 blues, a putty grey, and a teal paper that looks like a bookkeeper’s pad). I ended up using a 3^rd blue for the lettering of “Snow days” and a tag (which you cannot see the snow flake cutouts on the tag, but the reverse of them you can see on the layout.) Those I cut out with my Cricut Explore, as well as the boots and mittens on the page. 

I saw a trick On You Tube that another crafter used on one of her layouts, and for this you really need removable adhesive for this trick (which I did not have).  You use one little piece of tape and stick it where you think you are going to place it permanently.  That way, you can move it around, tuck elements under it, and when you are happy with the outcome, you put more permanent tape down to hold it in place.  I place the photo and one element in place, then started tucking, and I know I am going to love this tucking method.  It creates this temporary pocket, and I just love how the bigger snowflake (which was a sample from a die cut machine I did not buy) is peeking out.

Comments

I loved how this layout turned out.  There are a few more things that I needed to add, but I will add over time (I will sometimes go back and update a layout).  But it is good for now.

Zazzle Affiliation and Shopify

Last year, I fell in love with the different sites that allow a person to custom make their own t-shirts, binders, phone cases, even pillows and deck of cards.  You can even make a business out these sites by just designing your own t-shirts and placing the link on your website.   It is super easy, once you get the hang of it. 

I do three of them, and it is Zazzle that I have an affiliation with.  So check out the site, and if there is there is anything you want me to have, just let me know.

I also opened up a Shopify store in addition to having the Etsy shop.  It is still called P.Lynne Designs (Plynne-designs), and right now, I have only one design from Zazzle that I created on there.  In addition to my designs like on my Etsy Shop, I will also include some retired Longaberger products that I no longer want, but would be happy to send to a new home.  As you may not know, I am also an Independent Longaberger Home Consultant, where I sell baskets, pottery, wrought iron, and their accessories. Most of these products are samples that I bought for that month, and that product has gone into the retirement stage (no longer selling).  I am also placing anything from my Shoplocket shop on there as well, and will eventually close down that account.  

Well, that is it with this long post.  Sorry for the MIA, but it was so worth it now that I am back into the swing of things to come.

The Beauty of Christmas Snow

Hello, today, I am presenting to you, "The Beauty of Christmas Snow.  I love snow, but the thought of driving in it scares me.  Here in Ohio, the weather is divided into 8 seasons:  Spring, road construction, still more road construction, blazing hot where's the air conditioner, Autumn/summer (can't make up its mind on which Real season it wants to be), rainy season/winter, and are you crazy I am not going out there in THAT weather.  Well, snow here qualifies in two of them:  Winter and are you crazy, I am not going out there.
Well, today's card reminds me of a Christmas that used to be.  I am talking Norman Rockwell with the old time feel about it.  To some, it may even remind people of that Charlie Brown Christmas tree the rest of the kids fixed up after he thought he killed.  My first battery operated toy was when I was 5, and I had a doll that walked and talked.  Her official name was Swingy, but you may call her Carol.  I actually had three Carols.   The first one did not last that long.  I danced her legs off, The second one, same deal, but she lasted until 1977 when we moved to Columbus, Ohio, my father throw her away.  And the third one?  It was my friend, Lonnie's, and I claimed her (whose name was actually Billie Joe), and renamed her every time I would go over to Lonnie's house, while still carrying mine.  Anyway,  back to 2012 and this card...
The materials you will need are:

• Half a sheet of cardstock (cut 1 8.5" x 11" into 8.5" x 5.5")-any color.  I wanted a night scene.
• white paint in a dauber bottle or paint and a sponge.
• Versamark ink pad
• embossing powder (clear and green)
• Snow flake and tree stamp (I am using a retired Close to My Heart stamp set, The Beauty of Christmas, hence the name of the card)
• Computer or stamp. with red ink.

I have 10 minutes to post this so here goes: (spent too much time getting some chocolate)

• Cut the cardstock in half.  Fold
• Dab white paint on the bottom of the card.  I did it horizontal, but either direction is fine.
• Take the snowflake stamp and with the Versamark ink stamped the remaining card blank.
• Sprinkle the embossing powder over the stamped images, flick off the excess.
• Heat emboss to melt the embossing powder.  set aside (6 minutes to post)
• On a separate sheet of cardstock, stamp the tree, and put a combo of green and clear embossing powder on and do the same thing.
• cut out the tree, and pop it up on card .
• Type or stamp out a sentiment  (I used a printer a Publisher for this task) (3 minutes)
• Done, and enjoy your card.
• A lot of work, but it is easy.  

See you next time, and be blessed.

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....