So, I’ve recently started teaching science again. I accepted a job teaching at the middle school level and the Omaha Nation Public School in Macy, Nebraska. Teaching at a reservation school is both delightful and challenging. Being a mom who works outside the home is even more challenging. (The irony here looms like Mt. Everest, since it has taken me six years to become passionate about being a stay at home mom… just in time for me to start working again.)
Since my first day three weeks ago, I’ve been living for the weekends and working to stay caught up with my many responsibilities moment to moment. I’ve found that something I once loathed has become the thing I look forward to most: the day when school gets canceled due to weather. As a stay-at-home mom, these days struck fear into my heart. It meant that my kids would be home-bound and my normal routine would be completely shot. Now “snow day” means that I can return to the bliss that is staying at home on a blustery winter day with my kids.
In honor of today’s snow day, I thought I’d share one of my winter layouts that I made a few months ago for the Spellbinders gallery. The photos of Maiah are from last winter. She’s growing up so fast!
Happy Monday everyone! I thought I’d share a card today that I made a month ago to congratulate my cousin on her 5th child (finally a baby girl! YAY!) This card is super quick and simple, since I made it at the last minute just before shipping her a few hand-me-down sleepers.
To create this, I simply rounded the corners of the card and the patterned paper, wrapped embroidery floss around the card, and stamped and die-cut the title. I used one of the newer Spellbinders labels, which I’ve really been in love with lately. The details really pop when a little ink is added to the embossed areas.
Here’s hoping everyone has a great Monday!
Supplies:
Teal Cardstock
Butterfly Patterned Paper: Making Memories
Fancy Tags: Spellbinders
Embroidery Floss
Dimensional Adhesive
Stamp: Hero Arts
Ink: Clearsnap
I am so grateful for all of the people that have helped us over the past six months. My mother-in-law was instrumental in helping me get the entire interior of the new house primed and painted, including doors and trim. I couldn’t have survived the house finishing touches and the moving process without my mother there to help with kids. My stepfather especially was an amazing whirlwind of action in the final week of construction and when we moved. He accomplished all those little things that would’ve have waited months to get done without an extra pair of working hands around.
I haven’t fully shown my gratitude toward these people, but I’m working on it. Here’s a card I made for my mother-in-law to get myself started. I love the SEI paper from a couple of years ago and the brand new Spellbinders Ribbon Tag die with an oval nestability. The stamp is from Hero Arts. Thanks for stopping by!
I took my two girls and my husband out for Chinese yesterday and it was a nice, calm, fun lunch hour. Our little local Chinese restaurant is actually pretty good and Hannah was able to run around and practice her walking skills.
It reminded me of another Chinese lunch hour about four years ago, when my son was about the same age that Hannah is now. He was such a little bundle of energy, a lot like his sister.
This page was a study in creating spots of texture. I used stencils embossed and colored with chalk. I embossed metal with texture sheets and Chinese coins, then painted over it to mute the effect. The page was created in June, 2004.
Can you tell I really love the pendant dies. You know, I wasn’t sure I would. I thought at first that they might be a little too ornate for my tastes, but it took me about 10 seconds of playing with them to change my mind. These dies are really fun and amazing, and as you can tell from this card, I love mixing them up.
This card features some copic airbrusing and some basic inking. I’ve come to think of the bold color combinations paired with black and bling as a “rock star” look, and I just love it.
Sneak Peeks on CHA Summer Trade Show Release Dies!
July 9 – July 22, 2009
Commenting on this post is welcome but does not enter you into the contest. This contest is sponsored directly by Spellbinders Paper Arts. Please read the post to find directions for entering. If you have any questions, please e-mail ContestQuestions@Spellbinders.us.
Welcome to the 13th day of Spellbinders CHA Sneak Peek Blog Frenzy!
Spellbinders is revealing 17 new die templates to be released at the Craft and Hobby Trade Show on July 28, 2009, with some of their greatest fans…YOU! From July 9 – 22, 2009, you will have the opportunity to be a part of these world wide sneak peeks through visiting the Spellbinders designer blogs listed below and trying your luck at winning spectacular die templates! You will have a chance to win the die I’m introducing AND the dies previously revealed in this CHA Blog Frenzy by entering the contest at the end of this post. This is a progressive prize, each day the daily prize grows! Be sure to read all the rules before entering! You still have until July 22nd, 11:59 pm EST to enter Becca Feeken’s blog contest at: http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/ and until July 23rd, 11:59 pm EST to enter mine.
To see previous reveals, or to go to any of the blogs of future reveals, feel free to visit the following:
After the entry deadline is reached, Spellbinders will randomly pick one entry from each Blog Frenzy reveal as stated in the “Rules”. Winner will be contacted by e-mail within 24 hours of the contest deadline. Winner will have 72 hours to reply to that e-mail to claim the prize. If Winner fails to respond within 72 hours, a new name will be drawn for said prize. Winner will receive the new die templates being revealed on the specific daily blog post they are entering.
Entrants visiting all 14 Spellbinders CHA Blog Frenzy Reveals and correctly entering their information into the separate drawings, as described below, will automatically be entered into a GRAND PRIZE give away of a full set of the CHA Summer 2009 die templates and Impressabilities releases, 29 products, with a retail value of $561.71.
I am so excited to share the projects that I’ve created here for you today. I love Christmas, even in the middle of the summer! These dies are fantastic for both scrapbook pages and those Christmas cards we’re already planning to make.
The scrapbook page I created to share features lots of distressing. I’ve put together a video to take you through the creation of this page. Watch and enjoy!
Spellbinders Supplies:
S7-015 Grand 12″ Holiday Lights Border
S4-225 Holiday Cheer
S4-224 Snowflake Borderabilities Petite
Other Supplies: Digital Frame: Rhonna Farrer/House of 3; 3D Foam Squares: 3L; Chalk Ink: Clearsnap; Distress Ink: Ranger; Cardstock: Bazzill; Versamark Ink: Tsukineko; Clear Embossing Powder: Stampendous; White Embossing Powder: Mark Industries; Ribbon: Creative Impressions; Patterned Paper: Doodlebug Designs; Pen: Creative Memories; Metal Charms: Unknown.
The second project I put together is a really exciting one that I think my kids are going to love. This is a fantastic low-cost gift idea for Christmas and I just love the way it turned out. I used an old frame, plastic baseball card pockets and several Spellbinders dies to put this together. This was also a great “use your stash” project. I used lots of older stickers and products that might have otherwise gone to waste. And can I just say how much I love the new Labels 8? It’s perfect!
Here are the images of the two awesome dies that I’ve been working with for this sneak peek. They are: S4-225 Holiday Cheer (MSRP $19.99) and S7-015 Grand 12″ Holiday Lights Border (MSRP $24.99).
Rules
Any participant wishing to be included in the daily drawing for the Spellbinders CHA Blog Frenzy give-away must adhere to all of the following rules. We are happy to welcome US and international blog guests for this Frenzy.
To enter each drawing on sneak peeks between July 9 and July 22, visit the reveal blog and click on the contest link to reveal an e-mail window. In the subject line of the e-mail, enter the die template name being revealed. Each blog reveal will remain open for 48 hours. Only 1 entry per blog is allowed and participant must use the same email address daily to be considered for grand prize entry, no exceptions. Please consider whether you will have access to the same e-mail address from July 9th through July 22nd and plan accordingly.
Spellbinders Design Team members and employees are not eligible for drawings.
Any participant wishing to be automatically entered into the drawing for the CHA Blog Frenzy Grand Prize must enter all 14 blog reveals and follow all the above rules.
Please note:
*Spellbinders will only use email information to contact the winner.
*Spellbinders will not share this email address with any other parties.
*Spellbinders will not use this email information for advertisements or communications
other than to contact the winner.
*If you wish to be included in further communications from Spellbinders, please go to their homepage SpellbindersPaperArts.com and sign up for their newsletter.
(If you use an e-mail client that does not work with this pop-up box, you may copy and paste this address to send your entry to: ContestDay13@spellbinders.us
In preparation for the CHA Spellbinders Blog Frenzy, Margie asked me what the first project I ever created with the Wizard was. That took me on a fun little stroll down memory lane and through my digital files. Here’s the scoop on how it began…
I started papercrafting when my son Isaac was born over six years ago. At the time we lived in Cleveland and many of my friends were scrapbookers. I attended church with Becky Higgins, and while we were not close friends, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much she really inspired my taking up the hobby. It was her baby article in the May 2003 issue of Creating Keepsakes that sealed the deal for me. I saw the issue while in the pediatrician’s office and would not have picked it up to read if I hadn’t recognized her on the cover from church. After reading the article, I really wanted a scrapbook like hers for my baby.
Becky’s fabulously clean style wasn’t quite what came out of me from the start. I began to find myself scouring magazines and websites to learn new and innovative techniques. I especially gravitated toward stamping and the newly popular “grunge” look. Scrapbooking quickly became a creative outlet for me that I hadn’t experienced before. I’m still fully dedicated to preserving memories, but I wholly embrace the art of it all. (Hence the name Preservation Arts!)
In my thorough cover-to-cover examination of the February or March 2004 (I think!) issue of Creating Keepsakes, I ran across a small half-page ad about a “Universal Die-Cutting & Embossing System” called the Wizard. I was intrigued by the idea and did not yet have a die-cutter. Hand cut titles were very popular at the time and I was interested in ways to cut letters that didn’t involve an x-acto knife.
I emailed Stacey to find out more information and found out that her little office was just a few miles down the freeway from where we lived. It was so fun and exciting to see Stacey demonstrate her invention to me. I was immediately enamoured with her and her machine. As soon as the machines and dies were ready (handmade by her husband Jeff), I purchased one of the very first ones and took it home with me.
The first dies I had were the original daisy die and the star and moon… the old ones that Jeff made out of aircraft aluminum. The first project I created was with shrink plastic and the spellbinders Totally Texture Sheets.
Not long after I met Stacey and got my Wizard, she asked me for help with several projects. I started playing with lots of different ways to use die-cuts and many wizard-specific techniques such as photo transfers, charm embossing and more.
I created the beach page shown here with one of Stacey’s photos to be featured on her first appearance on the PBS show Scrapbook Memories filmed in May, 2004.
That summer, I started traveling with Stacey and the two of us taught classes and gave demonstrations all over the country, including Camp Memory Makers, the Great American Scrapbook Convention, Creating Keepsakes Conventions, and more.
I served as officially as Spellbinders Education Director until August 2006 when I took time away to work with my mom and be with my family. I am absolutely loving being on the design team. I missed the creative challenges that being a part of Spellbinders brought to my life.
If you got this far, props to you for reading all this. Have a wonderful day!
I am so thrilled to have been a part of the Spellbinders Blog Frenzy. I’ve been overwhelmed by the kind comments several of you have made. I’m so glad that many of you appreciated the tutorial. I can’t wait to make more for you.
As promised, I’ve put together a digital kit containing the embellished shapes from my scrapbook page as well as five free digital papers. For tips on printing out digital paper and using it in your papercrafting, check this post from a few weeks ago.
My youngest daughter Hannah is learning to walk. She hasn’t quite taken her first steps yet, but she’s standing up on her own now and she cruises around with her little walker, which is an adorable sight. If I have time tomorrow between paint touch-ups and other chores I’ll upload a video of her doing it.
Her struggle to find her balance reminded me of this fun page of my daughter Maiah at almost the same stage of development. My two girls are so very different in looks and personality, but their milestones have occurred at about the same age all along the way. My favorite part of this page is the funky way I cut Maiah out of the photograph in the bottom right. Even then it looked kinda weird, but somehow the page all came together. Fun stuff! The paper is Basic Grey, the large ric rac was from Karen Foster. The flowers are Prima and the title is the Spellbinders Indulgence font.
