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? 

Embellishment Heaven

Don't you just love embellishments for your scrapbook and cardmaking! Ever since I started crafting with paper I have been collecting to have just the "right" embellishment for this or that project. It used to be a shoe box then it grew to a drawer and by and by it turned into a bank of drawers! Eek, how to get those fabulous embellies under control??? I think

I found the perfect solution, especially for my flatter embelishments...in fact I have opened those "Embelishments" storage drawers more frequently in the past 2-3 months than ever :)

So what is it??? ATC's my friends ;)

Embellies include: Eyelets, brads, flower punch and bird punch.

Embellies include: Doiley, flowers, pearls, add ribbon.

Embellies include: Rhinestones, scrap paper & butterfly punch.

 

Collage is fun! Old book pages, magazine clippings, snippets of this and that are so-ooo perfect for an ATC. Not only that, but rub-ons, specialty brads, small die cut designs, flowers and buttons are simply divine!

Snips of this and that of wonderful prints, solids

and textures..my paper collection is probably double my embellishment collection, LOL. Ok, so what CAN we do with our  abundance of paper...create homemade embellishments! Well here are just a few  great ideas for turning those "old" scraps into your own "new"embellies.

•  Die Cut Flowers
• Paper Bow Ribbon
• Rosettes
• Pinwheels

My dear friend and favorite Stampin Up demonstrator Melanie Diane Sibson used several of these ideas in a past workshop. Take a look at my finished piece by clicking the topic above.
Other great embellishments you could make yourself...

Here is a fun and simple Ribbon Flower Medallion using a fav quote in the center of the flower...such a cute idea for you favorite sister, niece, mom friend or grandma :)

How about a clever use for turning ribbon or lace into a flower embellishment...I found a fun tutorial for making a ribbon flower recently and just had to give it a try, so thank you to Charity Hassel for your Ribbon Flower Tutorial. Super simple! I found that her recommendation to use stiff ribbon was "right on". My stiff lace, approximately 5/8" wide which had detailed edges, made a very nice ribbon flower.  

How about all those fabric scraps? Awww... don't tell me you don't have any!! This adorable idea came from Portobellopixie.

Next a fun idea from Heidi VanLarr called Paper Bow Ribbon. Think of how much of that scrap paper we could finally get used up if we just put a create a bow for all those fun fabulous cards we make. I tried my hand at this technique and although I didn't quite "follow" her directions it was so simple I was able to follow it visually without a hitch.

And finally a clever idea on reducing the problem of storage from our friends over at Tip Junkie, digital embellishments and scrapbooking. Take a look at all thier cute digital ideas... potentially  we could reduce my need for more storage. I'll think on that one some more...

 

 Since this topic deserves multiple posts of my blog I hope you'll check back soon, better yet "Follow Me".  

Bits and Pieces

My dear friend Sarah and my husband have been so sweet to me since I broke my ankle. Not only have they been concerned about helping me with everyday life but they have also been wonderful about making sure I am able to get to keep busy where I can. Sarah has been a huge advocate of making sure I am able to get to my craft supplies, she knows me well ;)Tom helped me get downstairs one day and I pointed out my basic supplies then I remembered I have a drawer marked card components that has grown quite full over the past year. It holds parts and pieces...items that are from an experiment with a background on plain cardstock, or when I've assembly lined a bit more than needed or when I start a card and I find that it isn't working, it gets thrown in that drawer. Well I am quite excited! I have put together quite a few cards in the past week. A side benefit is that I am still on track with cleaning up and reorganizing my little craft heaven...YEA!!