Did You Know the Month of April is...

April is such a lively month, full of funny days, classic foods, parties, time to Fool someone,eat some classic food like peanut butter and jelly, partying with the whole wide world, spend the day walking around things, making wishes with dandelion puffs, writing my tombstone epitaph, skipping housework, heading to the zoo, picking a "special" name for myself, hanging out with my awesome siblings, drawing a submarine (or exploring one), then walking on my wild side as I plan my next strategy for Scrabble. I definitely don't want to miss celebrating Look up at the Sky Day or Husband Appreciation Day either...There is so-ooo many things to do this month!

Are you curious about all these celebrations? Check it out at Holiday Insights... not much to look at as sites go but loads of dates to plan some fun. 

Not only do we have days to remember like today April 4th is granddaughter Fiona's birthday ... and in history the day Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated (1968.)

Did you know that on April 6th Twinkies hit the market and  the first Twinkies were banana-filled!(1930)

The fun and funny days are loads of fun, we honor the men and women who have changed our world and other times we focus on awareness and bringing help to our world. One of my favorite times to celebrate and show thanks is coming up soon, Easter! I am so grateful for the gift of eternal life because of Jesus. 

So many fun things to celebrate...but the most wonderful moments for me are those shared with family :) Most recently were a couple of my darling grandchildren- siblings that have birthdays that fall 12 days apart and also conveniently on their school spring break times.  It was so fun seeing them and joining in the festivities!

• March 23 Luke

• April 4 Fiona

• April 13 Megan

Although I am not able to actually be in the same location for all of the celebrations, I think of them, honor them and pray for them that the day for them -their special day, will be simply amazing. 

So getting back to my main topic..."Did You Know The Month of April Is..."  

I wanted to focus on a weekly celebration that falls on the third week of the month of April called Organize Your Files Week.

Why call this a celebration you might ask? For me it is part of a larger challenge several other friends are also participating in. The goal is to get my craft space organized and accessible. It has become so overrun with piles and disorganized clutter that I am not even using my craft space. 

My friends Melanie Diane, Shannon and myself are all focused on craft room organizing tasks and are challenging each too.We took photos and created videos to document the "before and after" of it all! With that in mind I am looking at better organizing my Stamp Craft files. I recently purchased a bulk pack of empty hubless DVD boxes to store my loose stamps and some Ezmount Static Cling Foam Sheets to get all of unmounted loose stamps mounted. I also am creating image covers for the DVD cases. 

As I am working on these tasks, I am also reviewing my old system of organization and updating them. Two other areas I will be working on to get my files organized involve sorting the digital files I have collected for scrapbook and stamp craft and using a favorite APP of mine, Evernote to create a catalog of current products I own. 

I'll be sharing more about our challenge, our before pictures, my organizational tips and more over the next few posts and finally some after pictures as well so stay tuned.

PI DAY another reason to blog!

Do you love Blogging? 

Since I was first introduced to the worldwide web one of my favorite things has been learning and sharing. It may have been about my creative interests or business life-most often I find that the things I want to share combining what I am learning... Spiritual path, business focus, art, ideas to begin anew, Life. Often right in the middle of developing an idea I am interrupted and dang! I lose my train of thought or it may take an entirely different direction.  Pinterest helps me to quickly capture ideas, recipes, sites to go back to and more. Recently I noticed that Pinterest has a widget creator!  I was just in the middle of creating a "Things I'm Researching" board when I noticed this so I decided to try it out an see if it could be a helpful tool. So far I don't get it... Moving on...

DID YOU KNOW TODAY IS NATIONAL PI DAY? 

CASE What? - What Do All Those Acronyms Mean??

CASE what? Doesn't it sound like a person could be up to some trouble, LOL? I had to do some digging through some of my favorite sites FAQ's to to find a few of these. Are you asking what's a FAQ? Oh! You might be new :) You will definitely NEED to keep reading. In our digital world and in the world of stamping I've come across some real doozies so I thought I would share some with all of my friends and perhaps you'll share a few of your favorites in the comments. (This is a family blog site so lets keep those um naughty ones off the air please ;)) 

Whether you come across them in a blog on a forum or on our favorite chat or IM, it seems we have begun to use lots of acronyms or other shortened forms of words to express our thoughts quickly. I decided it was time for me to embrace this change and become more learned.  In the craft world they abound but it never ceases to amaze me that even though I am not new to this digital craft world I STILL run into acronyms and abbreviated words that are new to me so I'm thinking perhaps you also wonder WTH = What The Heck they represent. 

SO... Here are a bunch of common ones and a few not so common. 

IM = Instant Message
FAQ = Frequently Asked Question
ROTF = Rolling On The Floor
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
IMHO = In My Honest Opinion
NIP = New In Package
TFL = Thanks For Looking
DH = Dear Husband 
TFTT = Thanks for the tip
OOAK = One of a kind
WTA = Winner takes All 
PC = Postcard
ATC = Artists Trading Card
APC = Altered Playing Card
TFS = Thanks For Sharing TAN = Tangent, off topic
LO = Lay out
CASE = Copy and Share with Everyone, Copy and Share Experiments, Copy Another Scrapper/Stamper’s Efforts
DSP = Designer Paper
A2 = The most common handmade card size. It measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. 
ATG = Automatic Tape Gun 
CS = Card Stock
UM = Unmounted Stamps
CAS = Clean and simple card design
RAK = Random Act of Kindness
DAK = Deliberate Act of Kindness
Envy = Envelope
Addy = Address

I hope you found this list helpful. Now for those who need a bit more, I wanted to share some of my favorite and most helpful sites for clues to some of the more tricky acronyms you might come across as a papercrafter. Whether you just love hanging out online and need some help with those weird terms or maybe stampers forums at Splitcoast or are just trying to wade through a specific set of rules on Swap-bot you will find lots of help. 

So now you know a bit more than before but then there will always be those who want to split hairs about what comprises an acronym and for those individuals be sure to check out this post.

  

New To Me...New to You?

It's been a whole week I have been on the road traveling. My craft room recieved a much needed straightening before I headed out and of course while getting things back in thier places I came across a few items I had squirreled away.
Today I wanted to talk about a few of these products... they are/were new to me...perhaps they are new to you too.
Each of these products have special qualities that intrigue me. Some I have been using already and some are products I really want to try out. I'm hoping all of you, my friends will share too so please jump in and share your experiences with these products too :)

So first I'll share a favorite new to me product...The Stampin Up diagonal plate that fits the Simply Scored board. I bought it quite a while back but it just sat on the shelf until one day a few weeks ago I was in need of a specific sized envelope..."How do you go about making a custom envelope" you might ask? Well that led to the project share below... a post from several weeks ago.


 I posted a project, Simply Scored Custom Envelope Tutorial . It used the diagonal plate to teach a very useful project...the custom sized envelope. There are lots of fun things that can be done with this diagonal plate but this is by far the most helpful thing ever!

Next is a product I bought just because...you know what I'm talking about..."I have a coupon for 50% off and I'm not leaving the store until I pick something new!"
I picked the Gelatos because I a swap friend made mention this product...it was new to me so I had to pick some up. I haven't played with these as yet but I found a few places where others shared thier experiences...maybe this week?? Each of these projects sounds fun and I'm excited to play with them!

Gelato's~ A Product Review
Coloring Fabric With Gelatos
Any Occasion Card With Gelatos



I saw a video a while back and it was showing how to make your own custom sized glue dots. It used a product called Scrap Happy Sheer Glue. Some of the fun things you can use these custom sized glue dots for are making your own rosettes.
http://www.scrapitgirl.net/index.php/tag/scrap-happy-sheer-glue/

This sounds like another fun product! Around the holidays I'm always wishing I had just the right rosette or other specialty pin or jewelry. This product seems to be just the ticket for creating those pieces!

Well for now I have enough to experiment with so I'm off to the craft room...dear craftroom I've missed you so!

Spring is in the Air!

I love the advancing of SPRING! It is a whirlwind of changing weather, hopeful anticipation of warm sunny days and promises to allow us the utter joy of stomping in puddles.... well maybe... or at least our daring kids and grandkiddies!

Thinking of the delights of spring I enjoyed the words of this quote that aptly describe its joys...

"Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring? " - Neltje Blanchan

 I've been down in my craftroom several times this week and all those floral designs beg to be played with. I've been going to town using my floral cricut die cuts, flower punches, floral embellies. I've also finallyused some of my bought flowers and combined them with rhinestones, border punched designs and all those wonderful stamps I've collected throughout my stamping career...yippee!

After playing awhile I realized I will need some verse for the interior of my cards so here are some ideas I came up with.

1. Spring has sprung!
2. It's Spring - Do you know where your bloomers are?
3. "Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
4. "All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday."

Then a poem....

It's almost here - It's safe to say,

I saw a Crocus yesterday

Its' colors bright - A lovely thing

My heart Rejoiced! 'Twil soon be Spring!