Martha Stewart Spotting

While we were at CHA on Sunday our group saw Martha Stewart a few times as she (and her entourage) went around to the different booths. At one point we were in the My Mind's Eye booth looking at paper when Martha came up to look in the booth and at the same paper. We had to step back of course, but we were right up there by her and Jami let me use her camera to get this picture before they started telling people "no pictures!"

More fun than seeing Martha though was meeting and hanging out with a few SCS gals (and Daven ;) ) from out of state and hanging out with SoCal SCS friends. I got to meet for the first time Lisa Johnson, JulieHRR, Daven, MonaLisa, Sara (who is in charge of SCS advertising) and EllenH. (Sorry if I missed anyone!) What a blast hanging out with old friends and making new ones!

CHA

I got to go to CHA in Anaheim today. WOW!! It was overwhelming to see all the booths and so much fun! It was so exciting to see all the new and upcoming hottest items that will hit the shelves in the next few months! Let me tell you there is a lot of cool stuff coming for stampers and scrapbookers. Of course getting freebies and getting to do make 'n takes was a blast also! I will talk a little more about it later on in the week, but tonight before going to bed I thought I would give you a sneak peak at a few new BASIC GREY paper lines coming out!

The first one is called Stella Ruby and as you can see it is SOOOOO pretty. The top left hand side of the picture shows a 6 x 6 paper pack of the line. Basic Grey has taken their 12 x 12 papers and scaled down the patterns to fit 6 x 6 papers. This is GREAT for card making because often the bigger "scrapbooking" Basic Grey papers have too big of patterns for card making.

The second picture is of the Phoebe line. It is hard to see it's coolness in such a small picture, but trust me...you will want the paper from this line!

By the way check out Joy and Daisy's new online store Eclectic Paperie for Basic Grey paper and all the other hottest crafting items on the market!

(These pictures were taken by Jami. I don't have a digital camera yet. Thanks Jami for letting me show them on my blog)

Quotes and my thoughts on FAILURE

Quote of the day: “When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work” George Bernard Shaw

I like this quote on failure. I have to admit that I don't like to fail, I don't think anyone does. I have learned (slowly and painfully) that in life nobody is perfect and we have a choice, we can either move on and learn from our mistakes/failures or we can be destroyed by them. Sometimes you learn how not to do something and sometimes you grow in character traits such as perseverance or how to accept criticism gracefully. Failure isn't easy, but in my opinion, living through it makes us better and stronger people.


Some of the most famous people know a lot about failure and rising above to achieve...

I am encouraged thinking about Thomas Edison. He "failed" 10,000 times before inventing the lightbulb! Most men would have given up long before 10,000 tries! Some would have called him a failure when his invention didn't work. He is quoted having said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Because of his perseverence I can be a night owl and write this in a fully lit room.

Another example is Michael Jordan. Michael did not make his high school varsity basketball team when he tried out. He used that failure to try harder and become one of the best basketball legends of all time. When talking about failure he said...
" I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why... I succeed."

So persevere and don't give up when life gets tough and it seems like you can't do anything right. Keep going, keep trying, and hopefully it doesn't take you 10,000 tries to get it right ;)

Dream

Joy let me stamp a few of her Rubber Romance girl images (I love them they are so cool!) a while back and I was trying to figure out what to use to color the bathtub image. Shortly after that Taylor posted a picture with this same image and she used pink (cotton candy) ep on the tub. I thought it was a fantastic idea and I realized that I had the same ep! (Thanks Denier!) The picture doesn't do it justice, but the tub totally looks like a shiny pink enamal tub.
I used a bashful blue marker to outline the bubbles and then used Crystal Effects on top. The rest of the picture I colored using prismas. The background is sponged with So Saffron ink.

This picture looks like it should say "relax" and not "dream," but I think that the girl looks like she is making plans and dreaming. I mean what more perfect place is there to make dreams than a pink bathtub with claw feet filled with water and bubbles?!?!

Stamps: Rubber Romance, "dream" from Happy Harmony by SU!, Background dots from Polka Dots and Paisley by SU!
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink, Staz-on Black, Basic Black
other: Crystal Effects, Cotton Candy Embossing Powder, ribbon

Quote for today: "I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down...” Abraham Lincoln

Here is a digiscrapping page in progress. I know that it needs something yet, but I just don't know what.




The journaling reads...

My mom was excited to finally have a girl after three boys. She thought dressing me up all girly would be so much fun. To her disappointment I just wanted to be like the boys. Haha sorry mom! I still don’t dress up very often, probably because I don’t think I am very good at it. This picture was taken at Heather and Duane’s wedding. It was the first time I had dressed up in a long time. I bought a new dress, curled my hair, and put on makeup. I have to say I felt beautiful that night!


Paper from Merry Little Christmas by Leah Riordan
Swirls from Holiday Magic by Shabby Princess
Grunge edge brush by Seebee (Seebee's freebies)

Cute envelope and a tiny card

I found these cute little clear envelopes at the Fabric Barn yesterday. They fit a 2 x 3 card. I just had to have them and try them out! I think they will be the perfect size for little Valentines!
This card is for a good friend of mine who is frustrated with her current job, and has big dreams for the future, but has to wait to follow her dreams.
This card is made with the SU set Happy Harmony. I cut out extra flowers and popped them up on the card. It is hard to tell, but I sponged the edge of the white layer with Pretty in Pink.

Stamps: Happy Harmony
Paper: Whisper White, Rose Red
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Certainly Celery
Accessories: ribbon, sponge, pop dots

The Little Things in Life

Here is the first card I made with the SAB set Happy Harmony. I am just getting warmed up with it. I love the phrases in this set and the font they are made with--so fun!
To make this card I first stamped paisley on the pretty in pink cardstock in versamark. Stamping in Versamark gives a very light look that doesn't overtake the card. I then went to work sponging the layers! The Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery layers are sponged with Creamy Caramel ink and the white image layer is sponged with Pretty in Pink ink. The white image layer is roughed up a little and the corners bent. The ribbon is from the Fabric Barn and the brads are the ones that were in the Target $ spot a while ago.

So what are the little things in your life that make it big?

Finally a card!

I am finally starting to get back into my stamping groove and I have made a couple of cards that I will be sharing throughout the next week.

I always have a hard time making cards for guys. This card I made is for a friend who is going through chemo right now and I wanted to let him know I am thinking about him and praying for him during this time.
The background is Weathered (SU), the tree is called Country Tree (A stamp in the Hand Co.), The sentiment is an acryllic stamp and I have no clue who makes it.
This card was going to be very simple, but while I was adhering the tree layer with my UHU glue (review of UHU glue coming soon) the glue smooshed out and smudged onto the top layer. I couldn't get rid of the smudge so I decided to cover it up! I put versamark over the top of the tree image and clear embossed the whole layer. You can't really tell, but it is shiny. I also roughed that layer up a little bit (this is courtesy of trying to take the layer off after the glue had started drying ;) ) Overall I think it looks pretty cool even though I hadn't planned on having all of those extra steps!

I also wanted to share a new digipage I made. These mirror pictures were so fun to take. I think the bottom pic is my favorite because she looked up and saw her Daddy standing there just as I took the picture.

This layout was scraplifted from Kim (OliveJuice) as part of a scraplift challenge. (check out http://pachimactoo.typepad.com/ to try it out!)

The kit is called New Beginnings and it is by Heidi Dillon (Isn't that paper super sweet!?)

The font is called MA sexy

Quote

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
Mark Twain

Love your family

I just want to start today's post with a quote I found on Alora's blog. It has been on my mind since I saw it last week so I thought I would share it with the rest of you.
"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible." ~Corrie Ten Boom

On to Family. There is a lot I could say about family. Sometimes they hurt you, sometimes they make you want to scream, sometimes they make you want to hurt them...but at the end of the day they are your still your family and still there for you always. I didn't get to spend Christmas with my family this year and it has been tough. All the things that usually drive me crazy about them I missed :( So I thought I would scrap pictures from this summer when we all got together. We were celebrating my parents 35th wedding anniversary!

The journalling reads "Sometimes you all drive me crazy and make me want to scream, but you also make me laugh until my cheeks and stomach hurt. I want you to know that...{I will always love you}"

Swap card

This is the card that I made for Jami's SAB swap. "So Very" is a great set, and yet it was a hard set to showcase so I had to add a couple of other sets. I just had to use my favorite tool--my paper piercer--to make some holes in the card. I also used a scissors to fray the edge of the image layer. I know there is a tool that would do the job a lot quicker in the SU cutter kit, but I have been on a spending freeze and I haven't gotten to try it out yet. If you have used it tell me what you think of it and if it is worth getting one.
Stamps: Mon Ami, Paisley, So Very
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Black
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Black