Cards-february

Hello again,

I am posting twice, because I was having problems with format in the last one. As I explained in the last one, I finished some cards at a crop. I like this card, because I love when a idea comes together, but truth be told, I scraplifted this one. to the person who I scraplifted it from, thank you for this idea. It is my little country card, with the words, thinking of you.

This is a Happy birthday-Feminine card. If you live in Ohio and surrounding states, you know how many months in the year, where you have blah weather. this winter, I think most of the states had some type of blah weather, unless you enjoy outdoor winter sports. I got sick of it, so I thought I would have some colors to brighten my mood. The ribbon is what inspired it. I got it a long time ago from a Round Robin box. I like it then, and I like it now. I nomally will not do Orange. The Flowers I got accidently, as in I was filling one of the Hot Spot tubs at work, and I accidently wanted it, LOL. I have a dangerious job (Giggle). It is dangerious in this economy crisis.

This card, is a thinking of you card. I will sometimes (OK, most times) will create something simple.

The card has flowers from bazill and Heidi Swapp. Bazill cardstock is the background for the flowers, while the card blank is from unknown cardstock I bought a long time ago from QVC. In fact, I believe it was my last purchase with QVC, which was 2005. I have not purchased anything since I started working at Archiver's 3 years ago. I very seldom purchase anything from Michael's and Joanne's, unless Archiver's do not carry that line, or if I happen to be in the store for something else and I think of the item I need. I really wish that Archiver's would carried the cricut line again, but they stopped in 2006. Oh well. What can I say.

This next is simular to the pink card, and also say, Thinking of You. The Flower is also Bazzill. Got the pattern paper from the clearance bin of you know who. All of the sayings are rub-ons. the card blank is Archiver's cardstock. Confession time: I do not buy card blanks anymore, in fact, I have a DreamKuts machine that just paid for itself, two months ago, and once I get the Wild Cards cartridge for the Cricut, I believe I will help put the card blank companies out of business. I helped keeping them in business for years. Now if I can find a way to make envelopes. me and gluing paper for envelopes do not get along for a moment, LOL. Hey, if I can work a computer and a cricut machine, and produce midi files, I can make a simple little old envelope if I just take the time.

This card is super simple. green cardstock background. Flower rub-on and that Thinking of you rub-on. The ink edging is VersaMagic chalk ink, Oasis Green. I love doing this technique. some people take a makeup wedge or sponge to edge their cards, but I like to take the petite ink pads and edge with those. I do not know the proper technical name for that, so I just call it edging. If there is a proper name for it, please put it in the comments section.

this last card, I decided I was going to try to do a cut file in Design studio, but I did not design the cut file. One of the things I promised myself when I created this blog, is that I was not going to be one of those people, who uses someone else's stuff without giving them proper credit. I also compose music, and I think I sound pretty good, and when I get the nerve to, I may post it to this blog, but for now, lets leave it just that. I would hate to have someone else take credit for something I did that they are too lazy to do themselves, and that goes for my papercrafting as well. People work too hard for their craft. The strawberry was made by one of the ladies, whose blog I am following, OkieLadybug. If you are reading this OkieLadybug, I hope it is Ok for me to use it in a card swap, and I promise to not sell a card with this design on it, before getting your premission first.

With that being said, I will bid you a good night, and I hope you all will have a wonder week and weekend. God Bless You and Keep you in his tender care, and may you have Perfect Peace in your little corner of the world.

New Layouts

Hello-

It has been a while since I posted something. I am listening to my IPod (OK, so it is Itunes, LOL). Anyway, things are going fine in my little end of the world. God has kept me alive. As for the rest of life, just fine. I attended a crop yesterday at work. Archiver's for those of you who do not where that place of employment is. I did two sets of double layouts, and a single. I finished up my cards for a card swap (just need to do the blank cards., LOL)

Anyway, here they are:

This first one, Deonte loves sweets, so I dub him the cookie monster. this is Christmas Eve 2008. The tag says:

RECIPE FOR A GOOD COOKIE...

TAKE...

1 bucket of cookies

1 cookie monster

__________
= 1 happy 1 year old!

I made the layout from 12x12 beige cardstock (unknown brand), not sure of the patterned paper, except one is called Let's Bake, and the other is called Cookie Lover. The matting is just from scrap cardstock. The journal block is from Reminince's French Kitchen. The matting is just Cookie Lover, and I put Warm Chestnut from Colorblock around the edges.

This layout is titled A family of hats. My sister got happy with m camera, and had everyone except daddy wear the stupid Santa Hat. As you see, some were thilled about it, and others. well you see the faces, LOL. the background Paper is made from Reminince paper Holly glitter (again! love this brand), and the for background paper is made with Memory Makers Artisian ? paper (trying to read from the receipt, LOL). The Santa hat (there is a second one that fell off), is made from cricut cartridge's Joy of the Season. I do not have it personally, but I borrowed one of the ladies' cartridge. pet peeve time: I was explaining to her that I had my own mat (brought my expression, but had no place to put it, because there were three others up and running (even though Archiver's no longer sells the cricut line) I need to email them about that, the war is over (will explain later). Anyway, I explained to the woman that I found a you tube video where you can prolong the life of your mat by putting 2 way glue on it. Later when the crop ended, I thanked her for the use of the machine, and she said that a ProvoCraft Dealer, who was an expert on all things cricut said that doing things like that, may void the warrenty of your cricut, "just one scrapper to another", she said. My opinion is that is just ProvoCraft's way of making you buy more of these mats, which can sometimes be expensive. well as they say, we pay for our craft. OK, enough with the whining, let's move on...

OK, I loaded this wrong, but only minor problems (still learning how to blog, LOL). This is Nine'na's page. Not sure if I am going to put this in her book or not. I really should not act like that. If I really want one, make a second set of this layout, plus I have the pictures, LOL. anyway. in the crop, I won a baby paper pack. My manager saves the day. the first 12x12 is by American craft, the second sheet is a bazzill Smooth, watermelon, cut down to 11x11. the butterfly paper (unknown), but it is in the baby bay area of Archiver's, cut down to 10x10. the title says, "Princess", and the tag says, "Happiness is a warm blanket w/a binky".

Part two is coming. Having formatting problems.

What I am working on

Hello-

I am only making this brief: How many of you keep up with your blog? I have been lazy, because I have been busy. OK, I will plead the fifth, and go on the side of lazy, with a touch of busy. I have 12 cards to make, 13 if you count for a friend who has been sick, and I am due to send out some cricut cutouts. I am almost due with the cutouts and the cards. the truth on the cards is creator's block. I have already created cards that have a flower, with some double matted, a couple of triple matted. I showed you my cricut bag creation, and now it must go away, but I have another one in the works.

My business is slowly coming along, and I will hope to have the other one planned and scoped out by Spring. other than that< everything is OK.

Well, I said it would be brief, so I will see you later.

My first Cricut Bag

I made a bag! My first cricut bag, since I got the Expression. I still have my baby cricut (or original cricut cutter). This is what it looks like:

It's it cool! I have 10 heart note cards in them. I will get to the cards in a minute. The bag is cut out of the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge at 7". The cardstock is pink bazzill bling 12x12. the heart is from SEI Valentine pack from 2 years ago. The heart is cut from the same cartridge. So if anyone needs a few bags cut, let me know. Now for the Card. this is it:

Real simple. The card blank is from Stampin Up! 3x3 Whisper White. the square is made out of the same pattered paper that the heart on the bag is made from (same sheet, now that is recycleable.) It is 2 1/2' The second square is made from some paper I got several years ago. i am not sure what brand it was. It is a 2" square. The 1 1/2" heart is made out of the bazzill Bling (again same sheet as the bag).

Well that is all I have to say this morning. Take care, and have a blessed scrapping day. If you expecting snow in your area (like Columbus is trying to get, Uck), be careful driving, and stay in if you can. I have a Longaberger meeting in Grandville, Ohio, home of my Branch leader.

Speaking of which. If you are looking to supplement your income, lost your job, or need to save for a vacation, it is a great time to be a consultant. If you would like some info, or have any questions, please email me at plogan@columbus.rr.com. I would love to have you on my team. I do not want to take too much time on my blog.

Being Social

I just got finished looking at both of my Twitter and Facebook pages, updated them, and joined some groups. As I was doing this, I was just thinking, " Do I really need this much company? in some cases, ok, in most cases, yes. Online, I am on several Yahoo groups, including some business groups, scrapbooking groups, and a couple of financial groups (through the business groups). On Twitter, I follow channel 10 news (as if I cannot follow them when I watch them), and people who invited me to their page. On Facebook, I am again following channel 10 news (do I sense a pattern, LOL), and several people, who I am on yahoo groups with, and one of my aunts is following my page. On My Space, which I got on, because my 12 year old nephew is on there, plus several people again from Yahoo groups. I am on LinkedIn (my cousin from Indianpolis has a page), Plaxco (my dad and his buddy both have pages), Direct Selling Women's Alliance (because I have a direct selling business, more on that later), Ryze, several other social groups. then there is this blog, I started several weeks ago. I am not counting my church, family, friends, business associates, co-workers, and a couple of network groups. all of this coming from a person, who used to be very shy as a child, who still would like to adopt a child of my own.

why do I join all of these groups? I am not complaining at all. I love it. being able to communicate what you are about is a wonderful thing. For one, I am an Independent Longaberger Home consultant, and in need of promoting Longaberger. I would love new customers, and this is one way of doing so. I also scrapbook, you already know that, and I just like to share what I can do. I am also a people person. I grew up from being a scared of what people thought of me, to a confident person, who is ready to take on the world. You have to get like that, if you want to sell baskets, pottery, wrought iron, scrapbook albums, cards, and the like. you also need thick skin, because everything you sell, everyone may not like it, or have any use for it, or your taste in a particular style may not be someone else's style.

Since I am into sharing, let me share you three people. these are my niece and nephews. they are cute. One thinks she is a princess, one is sometimes a moody teen, and the other is very friendly.

This child, is Deonte. his will be 20 months next week. I call him sneaky(nickname is Tey), but he is just a little explorer. He loves sweets, and is talking up a storm. stubborn at times, just like my sister. nosey, I think that is typical toddler. He is my little buddy.

This is Michael, my typical teen nephew. he will be 13 years old next month, but I have been watching how the young ladies have been acting around him. let's just say, I have one of those applications to screen them, and I will make sure they know who is his aunty. He likes vidoes, vidoes games, music, talking on the phone (can't you tell by the picture, LOL), and hates chores.

This little cutie is my niece, Nine'na. she will be 4 months tomorrow, and is a good baby (not that her brother or mor other nephew were not). she is true diva, need her bottle on que, and knows at the moment, she is the only granddaughter. The apple of her grandparents' eye (that might once she starts walking, LOL)

she too has her mother's personally.

I love all three of them, and as I watch they grow, I look forward to many more things to teach them. I was the unsusal child. my brother was into sports (he is Michael's father), in turn he gave Mike basketball and smart skills. Deonte loves to dance, and I hope that both he and his sister will get good grades when they are older. Mike never wanted music lessons from me, until last month, I said that I was going to teach Deonte and Nine'na, then he said that he wanted to learn how to play the piano, so I will have to teach him, but he must practice. I hope that my sister will let Nine'na take dance lessons, and Deonte could be a jack of all trades like me. I also want to continue to teach them things that will get them along with this world, as this is a world of change.

I want to leave you with this (speaking of change, I heard Oprah say this: "e the change you want to see in the world". God Bless you, and I will see you next time.

Cards-December

Hello-

Since I did not start this blog last month, I thought I would show what I did for my Christmas cards I made my aunt in Oklahoma.

The first one is real simple. using evergreen cardstock, I stamped snowflakes all over the front and back. I tied see through cream ribbon to the side. for the square, it came from my cutting out a window for another card you will see in a bit. the snowflake is from my stash, and the brand name is Masterpiece, and the snowflake is called Glitzy Snowflake. they come 10 to a pack.

The second card is from made with red cardstock, the image was stamped in a cocoa ink from Versamagic, and I destressed the edges with Colorbox chalk inkpad named Chestnut Roan. the saying (which is a scripture from Luke) and image of the shepards are from the Stampin Up! line (I am not sure if this is discontinued or not). with ribbon. Tip: I got this as well as the cream and the black from Archiver's in the Hot Spot area. all scrapbooking items in that area are $1.99, and each spool holds 15 yards. It is even a better deal if you are an employee at which I am . Now, for those of you have have talking to me on my Yahoo groups know one of the reasons why I never have a paycheck, LOL. I also destressed the cards

My next card I had a little help...from my Cricut. I love this machine, and I live it so much, I had to have two... Both were Christmas presents. The baby (or original for those do not follow scrapbooking trends) was given to me in December 2006. Archiver's used to sell the cricut, and my mother got the last one that was sold at the store I work at. Well, I did not use it much at first. I turned it on occassionally just to keep it from breaking down, LOL. About May of 2008, I decided I better dust off this little bad boy, and get to work. I even joined a few cricut groups on Yahoo, to get some help. Next thing you know, I am working this baby bug, and I am loving it. I do not know why I had not used it before. so around November 2008, Black Friday, someone said on the group that the Expression was on sale for $199 at Walmart. OK, I had said that I was not going to get the Expression, no way, no how. OK, so now I have the Expression, and again, mom said that this was one of my christmas presents. so that is how I got two of them.

OK so back to the cards...The card is a magenta cardstock that I get when I was a member of club Scrap. you get kits that has paper, cardstock, and other embellshments, including rubberstamps. I cut the cardstock in half using the DreamKutz machine (another item that is my fav.) I went 1" in, and 1" down. this with the George and basic shapes cartridge, I cut a 2" circle. I, then took scrap paper and with same cartridge, and made a star, and painted with a gold leafing pen. For the card itself, I thought it looked really plain, so all i did was take Midnight Black in the versamagic line, and started rubbing the pad all over the cardstock. I put a pop dot to elevate the star. for the bible verse, it is just white ink (forgot the name of it) on wine cardstock. Then I took the gold leafing pen and just went around it.

This one is just like the Magenta card, without the ink, and it a square. I cut out the dove (you cannot see it through the ribbon) from beyond Birthdays cartridge. I broke off the branch that the dove holds. Just stamped the verse on cream card stock. No pop dots.

with this card, the circles came from the magenta card that I cut out to make the card with the black ink (hey, they say waste not, want not, LOL). I forgot what line the letters were, but I got the letters from Archiver's during an employee crop (never used them for that project I needed at the time.). I used gold cording for the strings.

Last one- wow, didn't I tell you that I was not going to have these long posts, LOL. Well, the last card I made for my aunt was made with deep red (more like a burgundy) cardstock. I tied cream ribbon around powder blue cardstock, glued it onto the card blank. Oh, I forgot, I did stamped it with the snowflake stamp by Hero Arts, as well as the lighter wine cardstock squares made with the cricut. the doves (the dicut and the reverse image) were made from the cricut as well (by the way, I used to Expression with all of the doves, using the autofill button) The Noel is from the same company as the letters in the other two cards.

whew, that's it. I am tired from all of that pasting of the pictures and other stuff, but it was fun. let me know what you think. Take care, and God bless.

Resolutions

Now that I have a following, I want to ask you out there, what is your new year's resolution? My resolutions are :

• To organize
• To stop beating up on myself when something is not done the way I want it to.
• To love myself more, and it is not the way you think.
• To do more of what God asks of me.
• To scrapbook more.
• To take my business more seriously
• To take time for me, and to learn and grow more.

To Organize: I do not want people to see my house at the moment. I live in a 2 bedroom condo, and you would think I live in a 4 bedroom single family home. I want to move, but financial obligations have not allow me to make that move for the moment. I started out with a notebook, and now that I have a new printer (old one died on me over the holidays), I can print out my pages again. I am starting with downstairs, and work my way up.

To stop beating myself up: I work at a store, who has cut back their hours, although it is not my fault, I spent this past weekend telling myself that if I had not applied to the job in the first place, I would not be going through this. I have been there for 3 years. People just do not have the money for luxury items, and only depending on the basics. The same with my business. I can do only so much, and if I stop complaining, and let God, then I will get through this. In the meantime, I started looking, again. This will lead to love myself more, and as Oprah said today on her show, to schedule time for me, like hair appointments again, and exercise more. It also leads to letting God do his thing. I am a constant participate of an take-backer. I do not know if there is such a word, but that is basically a person who takes back something that you previous have given to God in prayer.

To scrapbook more: I have so many projects that I started or thought about getting started in 2008. the only thing I finished to date was my youngest nephew's baby book. I took it from one day to 12 months, and I am very proud of it. Now that I have the ability to finish something, I can do more. I need to get started on vacation books, a niece book (she is only 3 months), a schoolbook for my oldest nephew (he is in the 7th grade and I have K-6 to start). I want to do bind it all projects. I did complete a Christmas card set for an aunt in Oklahoma, and I took pictures. I need to to get them off of my camera.

I also seen in 2008 what my business can be, so I am continuing with that, as well as starting a new one. more on that later.

Lastly, I heard on Joel Olsteen's message yesterday to never be still, and to always keep growing in your life. You never know what God has planned from that experience, and for you. I have a degree in marketing, but my information on the latest trends in marketing are slightly out of date, so I need new classes in order to be competitive. The classes do not have to be from Franklin University, where I got my Bachelor's degree from, even though I want to get my master's degree in marketing and communication from there. I can get a free class from Ohio State, because my father works there. I need to keep up on scrapbooking techniques (which is current for the moment). My business info is current, but there is so much more I need to learn. My wish for you is to learn more, even if it is from your mistakes. If you do not learn something in your life, you will stop living. I do not plan on doing that.

Oh, one other thing. I am now published. I submitted an organizing article with Associate Content two weeks ago. That link is: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1341187/cleaning_organizing_my_house_my_2009.html?cat=9 . Let me know what you think. It will make me a better person.

Well this entry is long, but I am just getting started. I promise the posts will be shorter next time. take care and God Bless.