Remember me?

Hey!  I got a message from the folks at BLOGGER that if I didn't write a post soon, my blog would expire.  Oops!
 

No good excuse about why I haven't been around.  Haven't felt real well-tryng to figure out what's up with that.  I just have not made anything lately.  Need some inspiration and motivation!  But I bought some stuff the other day and plan on ease-ing myself back in.  Thanks for being patient!

coming out of it

Hey-finally getting over the frustration of not doing well at the craft fair.  But still not feeling like making anything.  So here's another random thought.

Zumba.  You all have heard of it, right?  It's the hottest new workout classes that don't seem like the boring workout routine that so many of us hate.  (thus the reason I don't workout.)  But when I heard about Zumba a few years ago through my sis-in-law who does it, it totally sparked my interest.  She loves it. 

Background:  I took several years of dance when I was younger.  And I loved it.  After having kids, I thought I'd like to take it up again and do a few adult classes.  But when I looked into it, it was too darn expensive.  So I think I'm going to start taking a Zumba class that is starting June 1st.  I love to dance-so this could be fun.....but I'm so out of shape, I don't know if I'll survive the hour!  But we'll see.  I'll keep you posted. 

Tomorrow I'll do the fun part of it.....shopping for workout clothes.  I've got Khols cash burning a hole in my pocket-and I figure it's the perfect thing to spend it on.  That way, if I end up not sticking w/ the whole work-out thing, it's not much $ out of my pocket.

~J

Big Bummer

So.......drum roll please......(that's in my sarcastic voice)


I made $9 today at the craft fair.  That's not a mis-print.  And no I don't want to talk about it.  I don't even want to be thinking about it right now.  The amount I made didn't even cover my booth rental.


Frustrated-



Jess

I was supposed to be Chinese

Are you laughing at the title of this post?  Let me explain......

Confession:
      I love food.  Like really, really, really love food.  Like obsessed with it actually.  I think about it every 4 or 5 minutes.  Some of you think I'm being sarcastic.  But I'm being 100% honest.  And I don't hink I've ever admitted it outloud to anyone.  Ever.  I'm constantly thinking about what I'm going to be eating for my next meal or snack-even after I've just eaten.  I love eating out.  If money was no issue, and my family didn't care, I'd eat out every meal.  And it doesn't even have to be nice places all the time.  I mean, I sure do love me some McDonald's breakfast. (Ba, ba, ba, ba-ba, I'm lovin' it!)

     You've all heard someone say that they should've been born in another time, right?  That weren't suited for this particular time on earth.  Well, I think that I should have been born Chinese.  It's my favorite type of food.  EVER.  I'll never turn it down.  I would eat it everyday and never get sick of it.  Provided it came from a good Chinese place.  What's up with that by the way? 
      Pizza is Pizza and is good no matter where it comes from.  Chinese is SO NOT THAT WAY!  It's either a good Chinese joint or it's gross.  But to think, I could've been born into a family and culture that eats fried rice with ever meal, crab rangoons everyday, and egg drop soup.  Yum.  Totally feel like I got jipped eating Tuna Casserole and Ham and Beans for dinner growing up.  Don't get me wrong, I had a pretty good childhood, but I wouldn't have been such a picky eater (hence the nickname my dad gave me growing up-BIRDY.  He always said I just picked at my food, not actually eating much of it.) if I would have just been born in China.  I'm just sayin'......

Anniversary/Rain/PMS

      Today is my Mom and Dad's Anniversary.  And it's raining.  And I'm PMS-ing.  For those of you who don't know me personally, my dad passed away about 2 years ago.  He was 57.  I still want to cry my eyes out everytime I think about him.  He'll not ever get to meet (on this side of Heaven) his newest grandson who was named after him.  He'll not get to be able to see the grandkids graduate high school, or get married.  He won't be able to be a great-grandpa.  And he'll never again be able to send my mom a dozen red roses on thier anniversary again.  That makes me sad.

    This song came out not long after I lost my dad.  I'm warning you-it doesn't sugar coat the pain of losing a loved one.  But it's still made me feel ok about all the emotions I was feeling at the time.  It is honestly my favorite song of all time.  If you don't know Danny Gokey, he was a contestant on American Idol a few years back.  He lost his wife 4 weeks before trying out for American Idol.  She was only in her 20's.  He sings this with a knowing heartbreak that is imcredibly raw and so touching.

       My only hope is that I can try my best on a daily basis to tell my family how much they are loved and not to get bent out of shape about the little things in life.  (Some days are easier than others!) So please take a minute today and tell your family how much you love them.  Forgive a friend that might have wronged you in some way.  Play with your kids instead of cleaning your house.  Help a stranger out.  Make your life have meaning. 

SOOO Done and SOOO Over It

I've officially hit a wall.  If I have to create anything else, I swear I'll fall over.  I've done nothing but work, work, work  on stuff for the craft fair.  I'm mentally, emotionally and most frustratingly physically exhausted.  I don't want to see paper, stamps, ink or my BiG SHOT for a good while.  I hope I didn't burn myself out for good. 

Anyway, I figured I'd let you all know what kind of "inventory" I'm going armed with for Saturday.  Then, Sunday or Monday I'll post how well the fair went and what my most popular items were.  So here it goes:

-4 Mini Composition Books for $2.50 each  (2 in a pkg)
-12 Tag Bags @ $1 each (10 tags and string per bag)
-11 Ribbon Bookmarks like I made on my Mother's Day Card @ $3 each
-12 Post-It Note Holders with Pens for $2.50 each
-8 Magnetic Build-a-bear Tins @ $5 each(Going to personalize on the Spot with Child's name)

-17 Magnetic Skinny Notepads for $1.50 each
-12 sets of Tile Coasters @ $5 (4 to a pkg)
-5 acrylic frame Post-It holders w/ Pens @ $5 each
-21 boxes (6 cars to a box) of simple notecards with envelopes @ $5/box
                               YES, THAT'S 126 CARDS JUST IN BOXES!

-11 Birthday Cards
-33 Baby Cards
-11 Sympathy Cards
-18 Thank You Cards
-21 Spinner Cards 


All Cards (besides Spinners) will be $2/each or 6 for $10.  Even the Copic cards.  It was just easier that way.  Spinners will be $2.50/each.

Now do you see why I'm exhausted? 

So I will be taking a break from creating for a while.  Maybe a week or so-we'll see how it goes.  Gotta get my Mojo back.  But I will be posting random thoughts (non-creative related) for those of you that are so bored that you'd care to read them!  Hopefully they make you laugh or smile or might possibly make you believe I've got some nuts and bolts that are a little loose! 

Say a little prayer for me Saturday!  Hope it goes well.  I really don't want to go home with all this stuff. 

Side-step and more bookmarks

Here is the side-step card I was telling you about.  You could do SO much w/ a card like this.  Lots of places to embellish.  I kept it pretty simple, leaving a "step" for the giver to write a little note to the person they give it too.  I made about 15 of these the other day.  All of the colors coordinate with the girls clothes so some are different than this one.

There are 3 "steps" to the card.  They are surprisingly easy to make.  You can find a tutorial on SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS.COM. 

Doing the Bookmark card this morning was so much fun I made a bunch of them to sell at the craft fair.  I am packaging them in a cello bag with a bag topper and selling them for $3.  I think they make a great gift!  Here are my favorites I made:

I used the new FUN FLOWERS DIE from SU.  And O>M>G!  If you already have another flower die (like Blossom Party) and don't think you need another one-  You are sorely mis-taken.  This one is SO AWESOME!  And u could use both dies together to add many layers.  Oh what fun!
~J

Good friends and a Mother's Day Card

Hey! My friend Tiffany called me this morning to let me know she was looking at my blog and was "loving" so much that I've made lately. She had said that she went to the blog hoping to find a Mother's Day card for a little inspiration to make one herself. I hadn't made one yet so I told her that I'd make one and post it today. So here's my finished project.......



Pretty, right?  But guess what?  That felt flower with the ribbon has super powers.  No, really.  You don't believe me?  Watch this.......

That's right!  It slips off the card and becomes a bookmark!  Here's how I did it......

I cut out flowers from felt using the BIG SHOT.  Glued them all together and attached them to the ribbon.  Now comes the fun part.....  Here's what the Bookmark looks like all put together without the card~

Here's how I "folded" it around the card so I didn't have to glue it down.  I wanted it to be easily removable. 

Wrapped it around the inside of my card and "tucked it" through my sentiment.  The hint to this is to only adhere your sentiment at the sides.  No adhesive in the middle.  Fold over the flower, and there you have it!  A bookmark card.  Fabulous!!!!!  I'm so glad my mother's an avid reader-I know she'll get a lot of good out of this. 


Oh and by the way Tiffany~ since you came to my blog for inspiration and didn't find it.......I have a free "kit" for you to make this.  I'll bring it to you Tuesday night!

Back later with the Side-step card~

~J

Skinny Notepads

Hey!  Here are a few of the Skinny Notepads I've made.  The notepads measure 2.5 inches by 8 inches.  I made 20 of these.  I'm just showing you the 2 different styles I did.  Each has different paper, but they all either have a felt flower (made with the BLOSSOM PARTY DIE and the BIG SHOT.  Felt came from Papertreyink.com.  This is the highest quality felt there is.  Highly recommend it.  Comes in alot of colors.), or they have a quote stamped on them.  I will be selling them for $1.50 at the craft fair.

The notepads also came from Papertreyink.com.  They were $6 for 10.  But from what I understand, you can purchase bigger notepads from anywhere and have them cut to whatever size you want at Staples.  So you could make these any size.


Stay tuned tomorrow for a bunch (about 15) side-step cards I made today.  Got the tutorial for this type of card from Splitcoaststampers.com.  They were SO much fun to make.  And it really creates a WOW! effect.

Acrylic Frame Post It Holder

Here is a sample of some Post-It Note holders I am making for the craft fair.  They are made out of a 4x6 frame from Dollar General.  But you can find these anywhere. 
I just cut a piece of paper to 4x6 and inserted it where you would normally put your photo.  Then I adhered a pad of post-it's and a little piece of ribbon to hold the mini gel pen from Staples.  I plan on selling these for either $4 or $5.  Leaning towards the $5 though.

I tied extra ribbon around the whole thing to keep people (kids!) from flipping through the post-it's at the craft fair.

I'm counting down the days till the fair.....  11 to go!  But I'm not counting down because I'm excited.  I'm counting down b/c it means that is when I can stop working so stinkin' hard!

Back tomorrow to show you some skinny notepads~

~J

I'm still here

Hey long lost friends.  I've been working every spare minute (almost literally-ask my family!) on stuff for the craft fair.  After all this prep time, I tell you one thing.....if this craft fair doesn't go well, I don't know if I'll ever want to try another one again!  I've had some time to post though but my camera's batteries were dead and we had no AA's in the house.  It finally dawned on me yesterday to "steal" a couple from a Wii remote.  So that brings me to some pics of a few things I've been doing..... (bear with me-there is alot of pics)

I cased this card from the Occasions Mini.  I made about 20 of them-I will be selling them as a set of 6 for $8 in a card box.  They are still missing the sentiments on them. 

These are "mini composition notebooks".  I found them for $1 for a set of 3 at Dollar General.  I will be selling them in sets of 2 for $4.  They are packaged in a cello bag with a bag topper, but I took them out to take the pics. 

A "With Love and Caring" card that I have duplicated about 12 times:  (Made from the wonderful stamp set THANKS FOR CARING from the Occasions mini.)

Baby Onesie cards:  I've made about 30 of them.  I'll sell them for $2.50/piece.

Sympathy card:  also from the THANKS FOR CARING stamp set.

Cute, cute, cute cards made with the versatile OWL PUNCH.  Sorry for the glare, they are in clear envelopes.

Post-it note holder w/ mini pen.  These are SO much fun to make.  They are quick and easy as well.  You can find the instruction video on how to make these on Dawns Stampin Thoughts.  The pens I purchased on sale for $1.99 for 12 at Staples.  They fit perfectly!  The flowers are made from the DAISIES #2 Die for the BIG SHOT from SU.  THese are also in a cello bag with bag topper.  Selling them for $3.

Tag bags.  10 in a pkg (assorted) for $1.  Made with the TWO TAGS DIE.  I also have Bookmark bags made with the same die.  Just no TO and FROM on them and no hole punched at top for string.

MY FAVORITE!>>>>>>>>>

Spinner cards.  Wish you could see these in person....they are so stinkin' cute.  I have made about 10 or 15 of these, then ran out of dimensionals so I had to stop.  Think I'll pick up some cheap ones somewhere this week to make more of these cards.  I think since they are interactive and move-they will be a big hit.  I'm going to sell them for $2.50.  It's so much fun to tilt the card left and right to watch the owl twirl!

This is what I do at night when I am watching tv or waiting in the pick up line at the school waiting for the kids to get out.  I've got about 60 girls here, and about 60 more stamped and ready to color.  Then I'll just slap them on some cards.  It's much easier to Mass-produce these this way.  Since these cards take me longer to make, they will be selling for $2.50.  All other "regular" single cards are gong to be $2 or 6 for $10. 

Ok...that's it for now.  That post wore me out!  I'll post some more pics of things in a few days (maybe Monday.) Hoping to get some more tiles done today and some special other things I haven't shown yet. 

Have a wonderful blessed Easter.  And don't forget to thank the Lord for what he did for you 2,000+ years ago.  I try to do this on a daily basis, but this weekend is a great time to reflect on it and be ever so thankful for his amazing love. 

Coasters and a Baby Onsie Card

Wow.  Where has the time gone?  It's been super-nice weather here in the Midwest, so I've been spending alot of time outside.  We've finally been able to plant some flowers.  Now our house has some color in the garden! 


I've been super busy working on stuff for the craft fair I have coming up that my friend Amy and I are doing. Here are some Coasters:

I made these using the Craft ink Spots from Stampin' Up.  Then I sprinkled them with clear embossing powder and stuck them in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.  I've made 30 so far and I plan on selling them in sets of 4 for $6 in a cute little box.

FYI-for all you Stamp Clubbers of mine.........guess what?  We are making one of these next month at our Club!

Here's another thing I'm mass-producing:

Onesie cards.  I'm making girl, boy, and neutral versions.  Aren't they so cute!?

I'll try to post a little more regularly for all you committed readers out there!

Off to color with my Copics to get some cards together today!

~J

Stamp Storage

Hey-I'm back real quick to show you all the Binder I got from allthatscraps.com.   It holds all my loose "single" cling mount and clear stamps I've been purchasing lately to color with my Copics.  It holds SO many stamps!  You have to buy the panels for the binder seperately, but allthatscraps sells them too.  I took a piece of cardstock and stamped the images that I have in the binder  on it and placed it iin the front pocket. This way I can know what stamps are where.   No, this isn't all that fit.  I did the same thing to the back side too!

I'm thinking about storing my SU stamps in some of these too.  I wouldn't have to have so many stinkin' cases that way!  More room in my bookcases for other things! 

They all cling so nicely without fopping around in there.  Love it!

Finshed Cards

I'm on a roll.  It's only 10:15 and I've made 9 cards so far this morning.  I plan to get alot done today for the craft fair I have coming up.  Here are my finished 9 cards.  What should I charge for them?  I want to make sure I price them to sell, not to high.  But at the same time, the quality of these cards are far superior to other cards I tend to make.  Hmmmmmm.............

 Glossy Accents on the Apple

My favorite is this last one.  It reminds me of my daughter so much.  Not the way she looks, but her personality.  It's as if someone took out their camera to take her picture and she immediately struck a pose with a little sassy attitude!  LOVE IT!

I'll be back later when my motivation to be crafty has run out to show you my storage for all my new single cling stamps.

More Copic Cuties

Hey!  Here are some more cute Copic girls I colored today.  These are some new stamps I got from AllThatScraps.com.  LOVE these stamps!  They are so much fun.  For the ones that are sitting on the bench, I stamped the girl twice onto the cardstock.  Then I cut out one of them very carefully to make a "mask".  I then temporarily glued her down on top of the other girl image I stamped.  Next, I stamped the bench on top of her.  Lifted off the "masked" image and voila'!  Instant fabulous-ness.  Stay tuned tomorrow.  I'm hoping to put these on some cards and I'll share with you a wonderful storage solution I came across to store all those lose cling stamps of yours. 
Later!~

 I really need a red marker to do the cherry!

Some Copic Cards

Still waiting fro the adhesive I ordered to arrive, but here are some cards I have made with my 2-way glue pen (yes, it's time-consuming!) the past few days.  Sorry I haven't posted the past several days.  I've felt like crap b/c I've just been eating whatever I want to be eating instead of sticking to the gluten-free diet I'm supposed to be on.  But I woke up this morning ready to be a "good, little G-free girl" again.  So I'm looking forward to feeling better.  On with the cards.......

 Here's what the inside sentiment says:

I colored the Rhinestones with my Copic markers so they would match the butterflies.  You couldn't do this w/ most markers, b/c they would just smear off.

That's all I have for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

~J

Not the best priorities!

Ok......Confession:  I don't always have my priorities straight.  I went to Hobby Lobby today to get some adhesive (b/c I was out.).  What did I come walking out with?????? Six new Copic markers!  And no adhesive!  I just couldn't help it!  Really, I tried.  But I couldn't narrow it down to any less than 6, and that took up all my $.  I had been wanting to get a few blues to color jeans and a few nice pinks.  Then I had to get a few greys to color in my "sidewalks" I like to make. 
    I figured I'd spent the last couple weeks "practicing" coloring, it was time to bite the bullet and actually make a card with one of my new little girl stamps. 

So here is my first copic card.  I may keep it forever! 

I am SO in love with these markers I can't even stand it!  The only part of making this card that was not fun was glueing everything down with my 2-way glue pen!  I really need adhesive!

Sorry for all of you that tuned into my blog today to see the cards and tags I made for the red stationary box.  Maybe tomorrow!


~J

Creativity is all spent up, and so is my adhesive!

Hey everyone.  I've been very creative today and have got alot done.  However, about the time my adhesive ran out, so did my creativity-so that worked out well! 

Here is the finished blue stationary box.

Here are the 4 tags:

And the (3) 3x3 cards:

Last, but not least-the full sized cards:

Hope you like them!  So the question is.........how much should I charge at the craft fair for one of these stationary boxes?  Any suggestions?

I will be posting everything from the red box tomorrow.  (After I get some adhesive!)  Have a blessed day-

~J