Merry Christmas

Hi guys!  I know I have been shamefully absent from this blog.  We have finally moved and settled in our new home in Louisiana.  We are headed to my parents for Christmas and will be back this weekend.  After the holidays I hope to be back full force with all kinds of creative projects to post here.  ;)

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  I hope you all have a blessed holiday season and an even more blessed new year!  :)

(((HUGS)))

Elena

New Seasonal Cricut Cartridges

Man - I am always a sucker for limited edition items and these are going to be no exception I am afraid! :) I already pre-ordered these for my Birthday at a great bundle price from Memory Making Crafts, but I thought I would share them with you - they are so adorable! I can't wait to see the next Seasonal release (they are going to be released every quarter)!


Snow Friends



Cold Outside



Very Merry Tags

I hope to get them soon enough to start my Christmas cards/projects. They are supposed to be released in mid/late November... I hope it is more towards Mid than Late. :)

Get em while their hot though - once they're gone, they're gone...

Cards for Kate - Card Drive

Hey all you cardmakers out there...

I thought I would share this card drive going on right now at Jennifer McGuire's Blog.

I know that when I am in a funk, creating cards gets my creativity flowing again. And what better reason to start creating cards than for this worthy cause.

So if you have a minute and want to create some cards for this family, please click here for all the details.

I know I am going to get some done! :)

Busy Summer

I have been on hiatus for a while... We had a busy Summer (visited family, were in a wedding, did some traveling...) and now we are planning a move. The USAF is moving us back south in less than two months. I am going to miss my scraproom, but am going to enjoy setting it back up. Again.

Unfortunately this Summer has also brought some bad news. We lost our dear friend Chewy to cancer. He was a loyal canine companion for the last 10 years. We're missing him dearly:



My apologies for the long hiatus. I hope to be back and blogging (and scrapping!) on a regular basis soon...

Thanks!

Cricut Specials and News

Hey guys!

I got this news over at one of my fave blogs: Just a Scrappin

First up: Cricut Cartridges are going on sale for $39.99 at Michael's next week - INCLUDING Lyrical Letters and Life's a Beach at some locations. Read about it here.

Also, Provocraft is offering an AWESOME special! You can preorder the ever elusive Home Decor and a new one named Jubilee Art for $99.

But wait! There's more! :)

You can pay in 3 easy payments of $33 and get a free set of Cricut Markers, BUT if you pay in full, you get a FREE Jukebox and markers.

You can see the details and the cartridges here. This is a great deal! I ordered mine today... :)

Peachy Cheap and the rise of the Quick Deal Sites

I love this new concept in shopping. It reads like a blog, but instead of a daily blog post these sites have one product for sale. Really cheap. Every day. I have been checking in every day at Peachy Cheap to see what the deal of the day is. I just place my 2nd order today because I couldn't resist these:



Aren't they adorable?? I love this idea. I got these for .99 plus $4.99 in shipping. I know the shipping sounds intense. But the book itself retails at $10. So I still got myself a good deal. And that's what these sites are all about. :) Here are a few more. I haven't ordered from them (yet) but I have them on my "Check Daily" list.

Flowers to Flourishes

Crop Chocolate

Happy Shopping! :)

Jumbo Ribbon Tags Giveaway - WINNER

Hey guys! We have a winner for that package of Ribbon Ring Jumbo Storage Tags...

Our winner is...

krystalp24!

Congrats Krystal! Email me at ebedner @ directsalesmoms.com (no spaces) with your address so I can get your prize out...

This was fun! I will try and get some more giveaways going here...

New JUMBO Ribbon Ring - Giveaway

Hey guys,

I blogged a while back about a great way to store your ribbon using these cool Ribbon Ring Tags.
Now Ribbon Ring offers these tags in a new JUMBO size.

They accommodate ribbon up to 2 inches wide and right now they are ON SALE!

Even if you don't have a lot of really wide you can hang four or five pieces of 3/8 inch ribbon side by side on these new tags. You can sort them by color or manufacturer - or however you want! How cool is that:

Right now, the bundle of 30 and bundle of 90 are on sale till March 8th. You can order them here.

I am also giving away a pack! Just post a comment here on how you store your ribbon right now, or what you like about these ribbon rings. You will be entered in the drawing to receive one promo package from Ribbon Rings free! :)

Winner will be drawn on Thursday, March 12th. Good luck! :) Thanks so much to Ribbon Ring for your generosity in providing the prize!

Two New Cricut Cartridges Shipping in March

Hey guys!

Just got an email from one of the online stores I shop from... There are two new cartridges set to be released NEXT MONTH. Woo hoo! Here is a peek:

Life's a Beach: This is perfect for those vacation photos you need to scrap...



Lyrical Letters: A really pretty font that would be great for cards. Don't know what the special features on this cart are yet though...



Both of these are full featured cartridges and will start shipping in the middle of next month. I am getting Life's a Beach (waiting on Lyrical Letters) through Memory Making Crafts. If you want them - order soon! She needs to put her order in by March 3rd for mid March shipping.

I can't wait to see this one in person! I have lots of cruise photos waiting... :)

Acrylic Heart Mini Album

Here's the acrylic heart mini album I did as a gift for my husband this Valentine's Day. The pages contain photos of us at different stages of our marriage:

Cover:


Page 1 & 2:


Page 3 & 4:


Page 5 & 6:


Back Cover:


It was a fun album to do! It was my first acylic album, so there were definitely some challenges. But all in all I like how it turned out. I didn't realize we had so many photos of us together! :)

Thanks for your Kind Comments! :)

Thanks so much for your kind comments on my Valentine's Day project everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We opened the box and read each other's notes. It was so sweet, and we enjoyed it so much we are going to do it again next year.

The blog post that featured the project was featured on the Valentine's Day Blog Carnival at Craft Critique - thanks so much guys! :) I just love their blog...

I finished an acrylic album that I will be posting very soon too. I gave it to my hubby on Valentine's Day... Here's a peek at the cover:



More photos to come! :)

Valentine's Day Project

I have had this box for a while with an idea of what to do with it... I finally finished (right before my Child Development Class started - WHEW!) and am happy with how it came out...

I made a Twilight inspired box to hold little notes from my husband in. Right now, we are using it to write one thing we love about each other every day until Valentine's Day when we will open the box up and read them to each other... I am hoping this becomes a tradition! :)

The box was white, so I spray painted it black and then covered it with sealer. Here is the box:











The quote is from the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. The paper covering the top and the inside of the lid is by Making Memories (The Love Notes Collection). I seriously want to get more of this paper and cover everything in my office with it. :) LOL Here is a list of other supplies:

Bling: Prima
RubOns: Basic Grey & Tinkering Ink
Die Cuts: QuicKutz
Flowers: Prima
Cardstock: Bazzill

I wanted to plaster Edward's face on it somewhere, but I didn't want to get a strange look from my hubby. LOL

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

I am in love with the new Prima...

I have been waiting to see Prima's sneak peeks for CHA 09 and let me tell you - I wasn't disappointed! The new stuff is just GORGEOUS. I wish I could see it all in person. Just look at this:



You can see the rest of the photos of some of their new products at Scrapbook.com. I can't wait to get my hands on some of this...

There are LOTS of sneak peeks at Scrapbook.com. You can see an index of all the company sneak peeks here.

The wait is always so hard! :)

New Slice Releases!

I almost missed them! (Thanks Lisa!) They were up on the Making Memories Blog all along... LOL

Here's a peek at what they look like:

Fonts:



Just Chillin' Teen:



Sports:



Spring:



Studio Essentials:



Travel International:



Travel USA:



Wedding:



Words & Expressions:



There are three more, but I don't have photos of those just yet:

Big Kids
Calendar (Just makes me giddy even thinking about this one... LOL)
Tag Maker (To be used with a new Tag Maker Making Memories is coming out with)

Can't wait to see what those look like! :)

There is also a new Embossing Tip for the Slice. You can see it in action below:



Holy cow - I am so excited for all these cool new releases. I am gonna be so broke. :)

New Cricut Cartridge: Stamping Solutions

This is a cool cartridge. Though you can use the cut outs traditionally like diecuts, they are specially designed to be used as acrylic stamps. You can buy the cartridge alone or in a kit so you can make stamps right out of the package (though I think you may obviously need to buy the deep cut blade and housing separately).

Here is a sample of the cartridge:



And here is the kit:



Fun!

New Cricut Cartridge: Spongebob

Derek will freak out when he sees this. He will want a near life size Spongebob cut out for his room. Nuff said. LOL

New Cricut Cartridge: Kitchen and Bath Decor

I WANT THIS ONE. LOL I preordered this one right off the bat. I can see decorating my kitchen and making plaques with vinyl with this cartridge. I can't wait to see all the images on it.

New Cricut Cartridge: Hannah Montana

Holy cow... This one will be flying off the shelves. I don't have a daughter, so I probably won't be in the market for this one, but I know many friends who will be!

New Cricut Cartridge: European Decor

This one is definitely one I am going to preorder. It reminds me of antique wallpaper. I love it just for the peacock!

New Cricut Cartridge: Ashlyn's Alphabet

This is a really pretty one with European flair. This is great for those who use a foreign language in their scrapbook projects:

New Cricut Cartridge: A Child's Year

This is a really cute one. Perfect for all those milestones and the day to day events of a child:

New Cricut Releases - CHA 09

I finally got all the pictures for the new cartridges coming out... They are SO CUTE. But the wait will be agonizing. LOL They don't come out until sometime between April-June of this year...

Here's a list of what's coming out, with individual photos to come:

A Child's Year
Ashlyn's Alphabet
European Decor (Solutions)
Hannah Montana
Kitchen and Bath Decor (Solutions)
Spongebob (So going to have to get this for Derek)
Stamping Solutions (comes by itself or in a kit)

Posting the photos in separate posts here in a sec... :)

Making Memories at CHA & GIVEAWAYS!

You guys have to check out the Making Memories Blog! They are doing Updates from CHA from Jan 25 - Jan 28th. They have some AWESOME giveaways every day too. Someone won a Slice yesterday - lucky gal! :)

Be sure to keep up with the blog as the giveaways are awesome and the new products are so cool! :)

Weekend Plans & Fave Photo of the Week

I don't have anything at all planned this weekend. You know what that means? BLISS. And time to actually scrapbook. Oh I hope so! :)

The weekend after this one, me and some friends have a girls night out planned. I can't wait! We need a girl's night out like no one's business.

Project 365 is still going strong. I have been taking photos every day. This one is my fave this week. Shhh - don't tell Dave I am stealing photos of him while he naps:



So, hopefully I will have some new project to post at the end of this weekend... Hoping to have lots of time to create...

No More Simple Scrapbooks Magazine

Heard this bit of news today and I was so surprised... I really like Simple Scrapbooks Magazine. It looks like they will cease publishing it after the May/June 09 issue.

Here's the Official Announcement

I am so sad... I liked this magazine. They are supposed to fold more of its content into Creating Keepsakes Magazine, so we'll see how these changes affect that magazine...

Project 365: Days 13-15

I may rethink blogging all these photos and probably start posting only one favorite per week I think... So this may be the last daily update on my Project 365 progress. That being said, here are my photos for the last three days:

Day 13: My Font - I did my own free handwriting font at YourFonts.com - this was the worksheet you had to scan...



Day 14: Countertop - Another scene from my kitchen:



Day 15: Simple Things - This is the book that Stacy Julian mentions in the Glimpses class at Big Picture Scrapbooking is based on. It is a beautiful read so far...

CHA 2009: Sneak Peeks

Want to see sneak peeks of the new stuff coming out at CHA this year?

Scrapbook Update has em!

My favorite so far? Everything Tattered Angels is coming out with - especially a great big PINK work mat for which part of the proceeds is going to breast cancer research. What could be better to Glimmer Mist on? This is on the top of my wish list for sure...

Project 365: Day 12

This one is for 2009 Challenge #2: Spirals...

Project 365: Day 11

Just a typical, lazy Sunday...

Project 365: Day 10

Hey guys! I almost forgot to post today's photo... This is the ceiling fan in my living room. Exciting stuff I know... LOL I thought it cast some neat shadows though so... :) I know - I am easily amused... :)

Project 365: Day 9

I am really enjoying taking my photos every day and sharing them. This was my photo for today:



This is another that came from my kitchen...

Project 365: Day 8

Ok... So I literally took DOZENS of photos of my morning coffee... LOL This one was my fave:



My hubby gave me the coffee mug for Christmas (you have to know me and coffee mugs to appreciate this mug as a gift... LOL) and I have used it every morning since! :) I am on a total red kick...

Project 365: Day 7

Here is today's photo. It also meets the first Challenge for 2009: "What's Cooking".



Scrambled eggs for my little man Derek this AM... :)

Project 365: Day 6

Here is today's photo:



I have these grapes all over the kitchen. They remind me of Italy and the dream trip I want to take there one day... :)

Starting Project 365

Happy New Year Everyone!

What are your goals this year? I like everyone else want to lose weight. I also am committing myself to Project 365 this year. What's that? That is taking one photo a day every day this year. I know, I know... Crazy. I think I can do it though! :)

Here are mine so far:

Jan 1:



Jan 2:



Jan 3:



Jan 4:



Jan 5:



I am going to try and keep up and post my photo here every day... Now I am not SCRAPPING each of these photos mind you. I know better than to think I would keep up with that goal... :)

Wish me luck! I am going to need it. Especially for the losing weight thing. LOL