A New Card...Finally!

I had a workshop for the first time in YEARS this past weekend. Seriously, I think my last "true" workshop was back in 2007, maybe even 2006!! I know I had a stamp club that took the majority of 2007 to finish, but I didn't really do many proper workshops outside of the club each month. Isn't that crazy?? Even joining back up this past July, I had customer orders from friends but no real workshops. So my friend Tabatha finally succombed to my severe whining and had one for me. :) We have a great deal: she had one for me, and I'll have a Pampered Chef show for her. I'm dying to get my hands on the entire PC set of knives, so I know I'm going to be happy!

I don't even know what the name of this card style is...maybe some sort of pop-up? All I know is I learned from my upline, as she did it at one of my workshops earlier this year. Tabatha wanted a Christmas card and a "thank you" card, so I used the card I posted earlier HERE, the top card, and we just used a different sentiment. I actually just brought all of my sentiments so the guests could choose their own, which I think they appreciated.

Colors used were slightly atypical for Christmas, which I liked. I'm trying to branch out and try new styles and color combos. This is Whisper White, Old Olive, and Rich Razzleberry. Its pretty striking, I think. I used an embossing folder on the background (something called Dots...Perfect Dots, maybe? Golly, I need to brush up on my terminology!), as well as the big snowflake die for the Big Shot. Used Whisper White Craft Ink on the sentiment and then heat embossed in Iridescent Ice EP. Seriously that is one of my all-time favorite things...I'll be sad if SU ever gets rid of it! I love putting it on all cards, especially Christmas ones. Fortunately I have a couple of prospects for workshops in the new year, so I'm very excited! I really want to get this into an avid business.

Details:

(all Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White Craft

Stamp Sets: Word Play, Contempo Christmas

Accessories: Big Shot, Snowflake Die, Dots embossing folder, Old Olive 3/8" grosgrain ribbon, Iridescent Ice EP, heat tool, Scallop Edge Punch

Online Spectacular!

Stampin' Up! is having a fantastic Online Spectacular with lots of awesome deals! Many items are 40-50% off, including My Digital Studio which is 50% off...so its only 40 bucks!!! Also a great feature is orders over $150 will qualify for free shipping! Please go to my website at http://jennifermagreevy.stampinup.net and check it out!!!

Long time no see!

I don't think I realized that I hadn't posted since August 23rd. Golly, that's not good for someone who wanted to really get a Stampin' Up business going, huh. Oh well. Mostly that reason was because of this cutie:



I know I'm partial, but he's seriously the cutest kid EVER. This is my son Cameron, enjoying the bouncy house at his 2nd birthday a couple weeks ago. I can't believe he's two: I feel like I just found out I was pregnant! I know, all moms say that. :) But getting ready for this party, as well as other things I've taken on this fall, and also Cameron's never-ending schedule of appointments (he's delayed in a few areas and requires physical and speech therapy to try and get him back to where he should be), I'm one busy chick.



One thing that takes a lot of my time is my involvement with MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers). Seriously this organization has been my saving grace! Not only has it helped me to meet other moms in my area, but it has helped tremendously with my growth and development as a mom. I've taken on some leadership roles this year, including being the Creative Activities director and a discussion group leader. The creative activities role is a lot more intense than I thought it would be! Our first craft was a "no sew memo board", which while it sounds easy enough, it involved a LOT of cutting on my part. Here is my board, covered with the projects we did at the Stampin' Up regional in Ft. Worth last month.

Here it is without anything covering it. How cute! I really like it. I'm debating on making a bigger one that can go next to my desk so I can really cover it with stuff. this one is only about 12" x 20", give or take.

Here are the regional projects. We received the "Day of Gratitude" set in our fee, as well as all the materials to make six projects. This really opened my eyes to a couple of things: (1) Old Olive isn't as yucky as I thought it was, and (2) any stamp set can be versatile, if you open your eyes to see the possibilities.

This one is an 8.5x11" scrapbook page. I mostly scrapbook in 12x12, but the best thing about scrapbooking is you can just slap this sucker on a 12x12 piece, add some embellishments, and there you go. :) Easy peasy!

Check below for more stuff I've done recently, including a couple of new cards and an awesome fabric wreath that will be the November craft for MOPS. I'd show you the October craft...but I don't think you'd really care too much to see homemade fingerpaints (using flour, dish detergent, water and food coloring) and homemade playdough (using flour, peanut butter, and honey). Its all a gooey mess. :)

Fabric Wreath

Okay. This took FOREVER. But it is sooooooo cool. Seriously. I'm already planning on making a larger Christmasy one for our house, as well as one for my Mom's. Plus this just happens to be the MOPS November craft, so I have a lot of fabric cutting in the next two weeks!

I just {heart} this. Seriously. I just keep looking at it and petting it. A friend of mine made one last year, and I had this memory of it, so she told me how to do it and I winged it. I did one thing different (she used a styrofaum wreath ring, whereas I used a straw ring and didn't take the plastic cover off of it). You cut the fabric, then jam it into the ring with a screwdriver. It takes forever. Seriously, this is only a 10" ring, and it took 2 yards of fabric! I think it probably took 3-4 hours to cut the fabric to size, plus another 1-2 hours of putting it together. But so cute. LOVE.IT. :)

Edited to add: the size of the fabric pieces is 3x3" square. Cut them using pinking shears (available at fabric stores and Hobby Lobby), because they cut in a criss-cross pattern so the fabric doesn't constantly lose threads. For a 10" ring, you'll need at least 2 yards of fabric. A 12" ring needs at least 3 yards of fabric. Don't cover the entire ring: leave part of the back of the ring along so that it has a flat surface to lay against the wall or door. I made three more of these: one for Christmas here, one larger one for my mom and one larger one for my mother-in-law. I am so fabricked out! I plan on making a big one (like double the size) for our house...but I'm not doing it now. I think I'll barf if I look at any fabric. :)

Two new cards

One of the best reasons for being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is that everything matches. It takes the guesswork out of trying to color coordinate things. It also makes it a ton easier to keep track of what you used for a card. :)



I love how bright, yet comforting this card turned out. I had an opportunity to play with a couple of my new stamp sets, Word Play and Growing Green. I absolutely LOVE stamps that can be cut out. I love how they add a new dimension to a card. I used a watercolor wonder crayon and an Aqua Painter to add slight color to the flower, which was stamped in Stazon. I used markers on the sentiment so I could accentuate specific words. I {heart} how it turned out!!

Materials Used:
Stamps: Word Play and Going Green
Paper: Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Celebrations DSP
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Black Stazon
Markers: Pacific Point, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Watercolor wonder crayon (umm...I think certainly celery), cutter kit, dimensionals, smooch spritz

I love that Stampin' Up is now selling fabric. The problem is this: I don't have a sewing bone in my body. Seriously!! I have one of those Janome Sew Mini sewing machines, and I can't get the damn thing to work. So I decided that I wanted to showcase that the fabric can be used WITHOUT sewing. This is also without any of the other fancy shenanigans you're supposed to use (something with fabric adhesive sheets, an iron, etc etc etc). I slapped that piece of fabric on with some mod podge adhesive. :) Now, it did end up bending the main cardstock, so I just put it under a heavy object overnight and it was fine. :) I also did some other do-it-yourself techniques on here. I don't have a Sizzix Big Shot, but I'm sure they have a die that could have cut that scalloped rectangle. Instead, I used my scallop border punch and went along to make my own. No, its not perfect. But a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a Big Shot. I also decided after I had already stamped the two ornament images that I wanted them to sparkle, so I restamped over the images with versamark, then used Iridescent Ice embossing powder to give it the sparkle I wanted. I love how it turned out!

Materials used:

Stamps: Seasonal Sentiments, Contempo Christmas

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Versamark

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Sahara Sand

Other: Deck The Halls designer fabric, dimensionals, scallop border punch, crystal effects EP

New layouts

I keep forgetting to update with the only two layouts I've been able to accomplish this month. :) Ugh, soooo busy! And to top it off, now I'm sick! I've had a hellacious sinus headache for the past two days. I think its weather/allergy related, as the temp here has been above 100 for the past week, with horrid air quality and its just so yucky out. Unfortunately, my child does not understand those things, and basically DEMANDS to be outside whenever possible. So, good Mommy that I am, I suck it up. And then get slammed with the headaches.

In any case, here's what I've worked on. Both kits used are from RebeccaB at MLAS.

The first is using her kit called Lets Hear It For the Boys, a collab with Dream Big Designs. I did a challenge at MLAS called "Scrap Mix", that requires you to use the numbers of your birthday to figure out what portions of a list you are supposed to do. My numbers worked out to using black & white papers, color extraction (changing a color photo to sepia tone and then "extracting" the real color back onto the photo), a date stamp, and to bring the theme of soap operas somewhere into my page. While I probably could have used the title of a soap opera (These Are the Days Of Our Lives...), I decided to just get dramatic in my journaling and make that my overall soap opera theme. :)



This one is from RebeccaB's kit called Little Boy Magic, or something like that. I can't remember if that's right or not. :) I love the scary tree element and the way I used the star-like element behind the trees. Can't believe my little boy was only 4 weeks old in that picture! Just today I was looking at Halloween costumes for him this year, he'll be two in only 5 weeks!! Wow how time flies. :(

Holy Craziness.

I know its only been two weeks since I posted last...but I seriously feel like its been MONTHS. All the moms out there know what I'm talking about: when your kid manages to pick up two consecutive illnesses that both require medical attention, and one of those times you're on vacation. You have to love a child's ability to know when NOT do do something, and do it anyway. :-/

In any case, I'm glad we're finally on the mend. We spent 8 days visiting family in Ohio, and Cameron was sick almost the entire time. At one point he wouldn't stop crying, which totally freaked me out. Typically I can soothe him and calm him down to just a whimper, but he was screaming, arching his back and tightening all his muscles like he was in a lot of pain! After a trip to urgent care (God bless Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, which is well known nationally, because they have created a group of Children's Urgent Cares around the Cincinnati area, so I knew we were getting really good care from doctors who specialize on kids!) and a couple of tests, it was determined Cameron had a virus. Way to narrow it down for us! Sheesh. Lots of motrin and cuddles, and he was finally better the day before we left to come home.

So I have had no time to do any crafting. I have a thousand craft-related things on my plate right now, so I better get crackin'. :) I'm the Creative Activities Director (maybe "director" isn't the correct word, but whatever...I like thinking I'm the Director...hee hee!!) for my local MOPS group, and our first meeting is coming up the first week of September. We're going to be making "No Sew Memo Boards", which just means you use a lot of hot glue. :) Actually we will be sewing briefly, as the original instructions I found involve using staples, but I found they don't hold as well as they should. Plus, goofball me actually managed to staple my own damn finger. Not kidding!!! I stapled almost straight through my pointer finger. Hurt like heck! I couldn't bend my finger for almost two days. Needless to say, I feel a needle and thread is less involved than a stapler. :)

On top of that, I have to create some banners to welcome new moms to our MOPS Kickoff Party, which is next week (eeeek! I'm procrastinating on this!). I also need to create swaps for the Stampin' Up regional coming up in a few weeks. It would also be nice to actually attempt to get some workshops and whatnot on my calendar, as I should attempt to do this in order to make MONEY.

As for my digital scrapbooking life, I've had no time. Seriously no time. Ugh.

The only thing I managed to do this week was join Weight Watchers. I'm seriously sick of being the fat person in the room. And no, I'm not being hard on myself. I'm fat. Seriously fat. I'm in the "obese" category...which is disgusting. 10 years ago I was the skinniest I've ever been, a size 8. I have only kept a few items that I had back then...and I think I could get one thigh in and that's about it. Its pitiful. I've also noticed health problems that are related to obesity. Acid reflux, sleep apnea, joint problems, exhaustion...And I know that these problems could only get worse with age. Did you know there is a direct correlation between waist size and a bunch of types of cancers? And strokes? And heart disease? Its appalling. Its even more appalling that I let myself get to this size. In any case, after my first week of WW, I lost 4.8 pounds! I'm stoked. I can't wait until I've lost enough to actually see and feel a difference. And the wonderful clothes that will be available to me in my closet....woohoo!!!!!!

In my "spare" time, I thought I'd be reading these last few weeks. I've now accrued a few more books that I want to read...my nightstand is looking like the local library. I must have 10-15 books scattered around the bedroom, study, and living room that I'm either hoping to read or have started and never finished. I loooove reading, and hopefully will get Cameron more into reading. Frankly, I think I might throw up if I have to read "That's not my bear! His nose is too squishy. That's not my bear, his paws are too soft. THAT'S my bear! His ears are so fluffy!" one more freakin' time. Cameron loves the "That's not my..." series. But he's loved them for almost 8 months now...will he ever branch out of that stage?? I'd like him to at least comprehend books come in other shapes and sizes that don't involve touch and feel. :)

I'll hopefully have some crafty stuff to post soon. As long as no illnesses threaten to send me over the edge.

(I apologize for my rambling post. Its 10:30PM, I'm tired, it was something like 108 degrees here today, and the heat is starting to wear on me. So there you go.)