Digital Challenge #4

I have been having fun with a digital challenge on a website called FromCtoshining C. This is a great site for my crafty friends. Well every Thursday a digital challenge is posted. I am trying to make point of participating each week.

Well this week the challenge was to take a picture and turn it into a background. So this was my creation for the challenge. The picture was the bride's bouquet. I zoomed in and blurred the picture a little to make sure your focus is on the couple not the background.

Psst btw ask me about our Wedding package. This is another GREAT deal!

Father's Day Frenzy Details....

Ok we got the details of the Father's Day Frenzy. This is exciting. We have had a package on sale for a Storybook and greeting card. The storybook was available in 2 sizes a 7x5 or a 7x10 and a 5x7 greeting card. Well for the Frenzy the price has been dropped even more. Email me for more details. The sale ends the 25th.

To help facilitate this sale, I am hosting 2 more open houses. One is Monday at 7 and another on Wednesday at 7pm. Please email me for directions. Also I am offering one on one appointments. For a one on one you can actually invite a friend or 2. They can be at my house, online, or at a local restaurant that has Wi-fi available to it's customers. Or there is time to host a party. I have open dates and you can have a great party with little notice. With a party you could possible earn the package for free.

This year give dad something he will cherish and treasure. You can build a book with a template in 20 minutes.

Starting tonight I am going to be on a frenzy of my own. I am going to be working on template designs like crazy to help you build a book in short order.

I am placing 3 orders one on Monday, one Wednesday and one on the 25th. If I get enough orders from one of those orders to earn a storybook credit then I am going to have a raffle for a 8x8 storybook, if not it will be for poster credit. The raffle will work this way. If you place an order that is one entry into the raffle. If you are a new customer that signs up during the frenzy that is an entry. If you host a party that is an entry. If you attend a party or one on one, that is an entry. If you order one of the Father's day specials that is also an entry. (So if you order 1 special that is actually 2 entries one for placing an order and one for the special. If you order 2 specials then that is 3 entries.) I will keep everyone posted if I get a storybook credit or not.

Another wedding announcement

I made another wedding announcement. I have been having fun creating things for my website when I get it launched. Stay tuned for that...

BTW don't forget that Heritage Makers has an announcement contest going on. You can win free products.

Order on Friday-- Ship on Tuesday. YIPPIE!

Father's day is a big sales time for Heritage Makers, so I thought there would be a delay in getting the poetry book. I just had to make a quick post to say that it already shipped! I am so excited. I figure in a week it will be here with plenty of time to get it to the school before school lets out for the year.

Another scrapbook page

Ok I am on a 4th of July theme. Probably because I need to make cards for a swap with a 4th of July theme and I am drawing blanks on what to make. So my mind must be on Red, White and Blue. Now if I can only transfer that to a card made with my Cricut or Cuttlebug for this swap.
Anyway here is the frame. The picture has my oldest daughter and 2 girls from scouts so I need parental consent before I can post it. But here it is..
This was made with the same freedom kit used in my "My Heroes" scrapbook page.

Playing with Wedding Announcement

I am trying to expand my gallery for my website when I get it together. I designed a Wedding announcement. I can also do Invitations and Save the date cards. I have seen Heritage Makers playing cards used for some cute Save the date cards.

This was fun to put together. My goal is to make at least 1 new project a day to build up my gallery.

Well enough chit chat here is what I made.

I used some commercial use elements and the background is from the Heritage Maker's premier art collection. I need to look up what art work I used for the text book, I didn't pay attention. (I know I need to, but I was on a roll creating.) The flowers are from a digital design package.

It is myflowers02 and in the kit I got it was labeled Mega May by:
Cida Merola Digital Designer
cida_merola@yahoo.com
http://cidamerola.com/
http://cidascrap.blogspot.com/

8x8 page for challenge

I took part in a digital scrapbooking challenge. The challenge was to use a photo to create a digital element. I used a flag from some fabric that I had.

I had a patriotic digital kit I got from Digiscrapwarehouse that I used. It is called the freedom kit.

The kit was designed by:
.::. Helena Monteiro .::.
.::. Digital Designer .::.
helena@hmscrapshop.com
http://hmscrapshop.com/blog/



The picture is of my dad and my brother. They both served in the military, and I am proud of them for that. The picture was taken the day my brother came home from Afghanistan. That is why he is not smiling, he was worn out from the trip. He was supposed to get home at 10am on July 4th (I think that was the time) and instead it was like 4-5 am on July 5th. So he was beat!

How to use a photograph to make a digital element.

I am new to writing tutorials and I am not an expert in Photoshop, but since I am working on this for a challenge I thought, I would challenge myself in writing a tutorial.

You can use your own photographs to create digital elements that you can use in digital creations.

It really helps to expand your options in creating scrapbook pages, cards etc. I use adobe photoshop CS2. there might be some slight variation based on whichever version of Adobe you use.

Step one photograph the object you want, or select an item in a photograph.

Step two, you are going to select the item that you want to use as an element. To start with I use my magic wand selection tool. The tool that looks like a wand. On the setting at the top of the image I select continuous. I do this to make sure that I only get the colors that I want in the object I am selecting, not the same color elsewhere in the picture. I select several sections by holding the shift key as I select places in the object. Don't worry if you have areas that are not selected. Once I have a good portion selected then I use the masking feature. The masking feature is the little boxes with a circle in them. The one with the box around it is the one that is selected. Try clicking on the boxes to see what I mean. Double click the box on the left to see the settings. I prefer that my color indicate the masked area, but you can do it either way. Play with this feature and see what works best for you. I also change my color to be a color that is NOT similar to any colors in my picture. For example I was working on a picture that was primarily red, white and blue. I made my mask color a neon green so that it stood out. Also I play with the opacity to best suit my needs. Then I use the eraser to unmask any areas that need to be selected but are showing up in the mask color. If I get overzealous and select an area outside of the object I wanted selected then I just use the paint brush tool to re mask the area. At any time you can click on the other box with a circle in it to see the selection area.

Step four, once I have the object fully selected and nothing else I copy it. I use the key shortcut ctrl-c.

Step five, now open a new project. Make sure that the background is transparent. When you have your new project open paste your object in the project.

Step six, save our new project.

Congratulations you now have created an element. I am going to try to post some pictures in this thread to help illustrate what I am talking about. In the meant time here are a few items that I have done with this technique.

In this item the frogs were from a piece of fabric that I had bought and not used and was photographing to sale.


In this one, I used a picture I took of my daughter's bag for trick or treating. I was inspired by the fact that the flowers on the bag matched her halloween outfit. (She was a "Slumber Party Girl" for Halloween, so she wore her pajamas.) Well for this picture I just used a portion of the polka dots from the bag as a background paper.

Contest

Would you like to possibly win a few Story book and invitations?

Heritage Makers is offering a contest where the winner will get just that. This is not a contest I am hosting but Heritage Makers, I am just sharing this with my readers in case it could help them.

Here are the quick details:

Contest Details

Baby, Bridal, Birthday Contest

DATES

Entries welcome: May 5 – May 31, 2009
Winners announced: June 16, 2009

How do you announce the birth of a new baby, summon loved ones to a birthday party or invite family and friends to a bridal shower or wedding? Babies, marriages, and birthdays mark important events in our lives and the invitations we send become important parts of our memories. We want to see the invitations you send. Enter the Baby, Bridal and Birthday contest and show off your invitation design skills. To enter, create a customized card using the Heritage Makers 5x7 Invitation and send it in.

Winning entries will be displayed on the Heritage Makers website.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prizes:

PRIZES

1st Place, Baby: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Baby: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

1st Place, Birthday: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Birthday: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

1st Place, Bridal: 5x5 book and 10 invitation credits
2nd Place, Bridal: Cookbook and 10 invitation credits

____________________________________________________________________

Here is the website for you to check out the contest, where you can read the rules and how to submit your entry HERE


You can sign up for a free account on my website HERE. I would be willing to help with how to get started with Studio and how to submit your project if you need that help.

BREAKING NEWS--- Father's day sale blitz

Looking for a special one of a kind Father's Day gift? Why not create a custom Storybook or greeting card. Dad will love this far more then a tacky tie.

Heritage Makers is having a Blitz in the days leading up to Father's day. The deadline for storybooks for dad with ground shipping is June 1st and the deadline for other items with ground shipping is June 6th. So to get everyone ready we are having a sales blitz. The sales blitz starts on May 16th and ends on May 26th. I am going to place a party order on the 16th and the 26th. I will know more about the incentives on May 16th, but I am going to take at least 1 item and raffle off to any one that places an order through me or through the website by May 26th. Again more details to come.

As always some items are cheaper ordering through me then through the website. Also with your first purchase if it is placed via me you can get a free month of access to the premier art work.

I can help you get your project ready in time for the Father's day Deadline if you are working on a Father's day gift. I already have one Father's day greeting card template put together, and I am working on more.

Also we have a great specials right now. We have a Father's day special, a cookbook special and a great Wedding package. Please email me for details on those specials. Specials have to be ordered from me directly not online.

You can sign up for a free account on my website.

I am excited about this blitz and hope that you can join me.

Poetry Book Cover

Ok the book is ready to go. This is the cover. I struggled with this the most. We all know the adage "Don't judge a book by it's cover." However we also know that we do. What is the first thing you do when you see a new book you know nothing about? You look at the cover, does it catch your attention. So I wanted a cover that would catch the attention of kids that are K-5th grade.

I hope I did that with the cover I designed.



Now I hope it arrives before school lets out for the year. We are just waiting on the "official" approval from the principal.

The plans of mice of men,

Often go awry.

well things have not gone the way I had planned. I had planned to start up my design services with a website to launch things this month. As my friends and family know my husband lost his job. So while I think this is an important time to get things started, I also feel like I can't justify the costs at this point. My goal is to start offering design services but not as publicized as I would like because that costs money, something I am trying to save right now.

So I am Still going to offer design services. If you know anyone looking for custom birth announcements, Graduation announcements, senior cards, wedding announcements, wedding invitations, etc.. Please feel free to let me know or let them know I am out here.

I am also not currently purchasing any more digital designs without a customer in mind for them, but if there is something that you are looking for, we can talk about options.

Future Band members

Well we went tonight for my daughter sign up for band for next year. She picked the flute. I don't understand all this. My first year in band we picked an instrument the first week of school and it was totally our choice.

This school first she had to take a test. Her score on the test was such she got her pick of instruments to a degree. She had to try the instrument to see if she could get a sound out of it. Again, I disagree with this the flute, can take a few days to get a sound out of. She did great with each of the instruments she tried.

She got to pick what she wanted because of that. she picked the flute. She already owns a flute. I am so excited because I played the flute. I really tried to make sure she picked an instrument of her choice not what I played, but I can help her and I love that idea.

2 in Band and possibly 3 more to go.

PROM!

My Step-mom's nephew went to prom recently and his dad posted the pictures on Facebook. That inspired me to do a Prom layout for a 5x7. The idea was that this is to be printed and put in a frame. I went with Blue and tan because that was the color of his date's dress and his friend's date's dress. I am not posting the completed project because I don't have permission of his parents. If I get permission I will post the completed project.


Of course colors and layout can be altered to accommodate the pictures that you have. I can help you design one for the prom attendee in your life, or I can design one for you.

Another Poetry Club page

Here is another page from the now completed Poetry Club book. I hope that the school really likes this book. A great deal of hard work went into, but honestly it went together really fast because of the wonder premier artwork that we have in the Heritage Maker's Studio. If you need to learn to use Studio, feel free to contact me about a one on one, or webinar. I can show you how wonderfully easily you can create in this software.



The frog was in the original book the kids did. It was a spiral bound book. The book that I made them will be stitched and bound.

National Scrapbooking Day

Happy National Scrapbooking Day.

Of course as my blog shows I have taken all my Scrapbooking digital. However I still love Scrapbooking. There are many specials today for Scrapbooking Day. Here are a few Highlights:

Heritage Makers-- Our May Special is for a Cookbook/planner and a deck of cards for $34.95. Plus in honor of National Scrapbooking day any customer that places an order with me today, I will give a 12x12 scrapbook page credit as a personal thank you.


Ok to show off an example of what you can do with Heritage Makers, I did this scrapbooking page up in about 20 minutes. This is a 12x12 page that I did in Studio using our premier artwork. I love premier.



Ok now on to promoting a few other specials for today.

Stamping Up-- Is having a sale all month long. If you buy 3 packs of their 12x12 Designer series paper you get one pack free.

Cindy (LOVE CINDY!!!) at Stampingscrapping.com has 5 pages of sales!!! She has the wonderfully fun coredinations paper in the sale, and some great Peachy Keen stamps and matching scents from "Scentmycards.com". Check out her website at http://www.stampingscrapping.com/category_268/NAT.-SCRAPBOOK-DAY-SPECIALS.htm Oh and if you spend over $45 before shipping you get a free scentmycards scent. You get to pick from Peanut Butter Cookies or Marshmallow. You need to put in the notes when you check out which scent you want or she will send you Peanut Butter Cookies.

Speaking of Peachy Keen and Scentmycards: At Peachy Keen's site, she has wonderful stamps, and her own exclusive scentmycards scent. Of course it is called Peachy Keen and smells like peaches. They are also having specials but you need to sign up for their email list to get the sales. Check them out here: http://www.peachykeenstamps.com/index.html BTW she is great to deal with, and she has wonderful faces and stamps to match with your Cricut cut outs.

New toys!

I am so excited today I have to share. I found someone that was hosting an "Ink Club." 8 months to get all the regular colors. I get 6 ink pads a month. YIPPIE. I got Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Carmel, Pumpkin Pie and 2 other colors that are escaping me right now. I have to go play. I had a Chocolate Chip ink spot and I used it so much it was almost dried out. So this was perfect timing.

Poetry Jam

I am working on a book for the Poetry Club that the girls were in. I am putting one poem from each kid in the club. I am then donating the book to the school library. This is my middle daughter's poem that the teacher that ran the poetry club sent me. I am going to try to replace the picture with a picture of her brother crying.

Digi Crop night!!!

My first Digi crop night is set! Thursday May 7th from 6:30-9:00. You can come any time during that time frame. The first Digi Crop is going to be at my house, while I look for a location that we can go to.

From 6:30-7:00 I am going to have a class on how to get started with Studio for those new to Heritage Makers Studio. The theme is going to be Mom. What that means I would love to hear your favorite story about mom. There will be small gift to the one with the best story as decided on by those attending the crop. So start thinking about a story about mom or someone that you look to like a mom.

I am really excited to have a chance for people to get together and share their ideas for projects they are working on. In order to be able to work on your project you need to bring a laptop, or reserve a laptop/computer from me. I have 2 computers available for use, so make sure you reserve your spot early to ensure you get one.

I will provide a snack , but ask you bring your own drink . So come and have fun and work on your projects.

Spring is clearly in the air.

Well the dogwoods are in bloom and it is getting warm. I love this time of year. It always feels like a new start. So what a great time to start something new for me.

I am going to be launching my design services officially the start of next month. I am excited. I hope that they are well received. I am working hard to come up with templates that I can use. For customers that order through Heritage Makers the templates will be $5 for a pre-made template. That is a reasonable rate. If they want moderate modifications to an existing template that will be $10. For a complete new template it will be $15 for the design fee.

Colorization will also be available. Here is an example of that feature.



I will be working on posting templates every day. I will also be posting a new website when i get it made. You do not need to order your prints from Heritage Makers. However in that case it will cost you $25 per template for a design fee. I am doing this to help boost my Heritage Makers business, however I don't want to exclude people that want to order from other places.

Recent projects

Ok since I am gearing up for my Celebration Rally weekend, I am going to show of some recent Heritage Makers projects.

First is a poster, I made for my middle daughter. She was so jealous of the poster I made her older sister

.

I just love this. She is so sweet looking. We have problems getting pictures of her because she hates the attention.

Next are a few pages from my son's book. It was so exciting when his book arrived. I can not wait to do more books. The red lines show where you can't see because it gets cut off. So ignore them. That is why I had not posted the pictures yet because I have not had the time to edit them yet to not see the red lines.








Ok there is just a sample of what I have in Stephen's book. The Rolling Pin page is on one of my favorites is because to be honest that is what Heritage Makers is all about. There I tell the story of my family's glass rolling pin. Also I write about how we would make cookies with my grandmother every year and the importance of that event. I also wrote how we shared that tradition with my kids when we went for a visit. How we even let Stephen put his hands on the rolling pin and took his picture. That is what we do. We save those stories. We preserve those memories for you and your family.

So I have ask, what story does your family need you to tell? Every story deserves a book of it's own, and you can create yours.

A celebration Rally!!!

I am so excited and I just hope that you will join me. We are having a Rally! We are celebrating that the president of Heritage Makers has survived Cancer. 1 year ago tomorrow he was very ill and the next day he would learn he had cancer. He was not expected to make it. Here a year later he is in remission.

We are CELEBRATING. Through the months that followed his diagnosis he saw even more the mission of Heritage Makers was important. The idea of sharing our stories, for our families, for our friends.

So I am having 2 open house celebrations. I am having one on Friday and one on Saturday. My goal is to have 13 people join me as Heritage Makers. If you are not local that is fine you can still join in. Go to my website and contact me by Sunday afternoon.

So how to you become a Heritage Maker?

Simple, Host a workshop, publish an item, scan your pictures, or join my team. I can explain each one of these in greater detail if you are interested.

Also remember that right now we have the 8x8 storybook on sale. This would make a great Father's day gift instead of another Tacky Tie, or purchase a credit for mom. It is too late to make her a book, but you can get her a credit and help her make a book. What a great time to discover what Heritage Makers is all about.

I am going to share some of my recent projects in another post to help inspire!

Again 13 people, that is what I am aiming for this weekend. Will you join me and be one of the lucky 13?

Something different (Vinyl)

I am posting another Cricut Related project today. Take a peek at my Laptop.



This was made with my cricut, and the new Life's a Beach cartridge. I used vinyl from ohmycrafts.com and printonit.com. I love it. I have wanted to do this since getting my circut but had no clue what to do. When I saw the hibiscus on this cartridge when it was ordered, I knew this what I needed. I love Hibiscus plants. My grandfather worked on a street called Hibiscus when I was little.

My first design for Birth annoucments

Ok, I am going to be doing some design work, because some people expressed that they love Heritage Makers but they are afraid they won't be able to make the wonderful creations that I have. First off, I want to point out that with the wonderful studio program YES YOU CAN! However I am trying to be a wonderful consultant. As a result I am going to listen to my customers. So I am working to address those concerns.

I have made this "Girl's Birth Announcement" I am excited about this. I had fun making this while watching Thunder. This was made with digital elements that I purchased that has a commercial license. Under the terms of that commercial license, I can not sale or distribute the template. If you are interested in this design, I can add your pictures in and send you a flattened image. That way I am in line with the Terms of Use of the elements. I take copy right and terms of use very seriously because I know what goes into my work.






The elements in this design are from
.::. Helena Monteiro .::.
.::. Digital Designer .::.
helena@hmscrapshop.com
http://hmscrapshop.com/blog/


I can do custom designs as well.

Reunion and Mother's day

I am so excited today. I was pricing how much it will cost me to fly to Reunion in September. I told my husband I want to no matter what. He is such a good husband he said he would like to see that happen. Well if I can get the prices on Southwest I found today (which varies but should happen) it will be $256 to fly to Las Vegas. YAY! Reunion is Heritage Maker's annual convention. This year it is in Las Vegas at the Flamingo. I can't wait. If you want to join me, you have to be a consultant, but this is a great company, a great event, and a great time to join. I would love to have you join me in this. I will learn more details about the "Race to Reunion" later this month and I am excited. Ok how many times can I use the term excited? I think you get the point. I promise I will look in the thesaurus before I post on this topic again so I don't overwhelm you with the same word over and over.

Ok on to mother's day. I am going to share Design #2 of my Mother's day cards.


This is almost exclusively a Stampin Up card. The paper is all Stampin Up. It is Real Red, with Whisper White. The ribbon is the In Color ribbon color Pacific Blue. A reminder that the In Colors are 7 colors that Stampin Up has for one year only. Come July 1, this color will be gone and 7 new In Colors will take their place. So if you like these colors contact your Stampin Up Demo before June ends. If you don't have a Demo, there is a link to my Demo, Shelley Nanney's, blog. On her blog she has her website.

The stamps that I used are the Flight of the Butterfly set, and an acrylic stamp that I got on clearance at Joann's. I love the Flight of the Butterfly. It didn't catch my eye in the catalog or online until used it at a stamp camp. Then I knew I had to have it. It is a 2-step stamp set but I opted not use the outline around the other butterflies. The colors of the inks I used were Real Red and Brocade Blue.

The texture that I did was with my Big Shot (available from Stampin Up) and a texture plate that I have (not a SU one.) I love doing the texture on my cards now. I have one more Mother's day design that I have to post. So look to seeing that in the future.

BTW--- And Their Off--- Thunder Over Louisville went off wonderfully last night. My youngest daughter was so excited she would look out the window, look at the TV, look out the window. We can see the highest fireworks from the house. She was really upset at the sound at first, until I showed here how pretty the fireworks were. Then the noise didn't bother her, she was more excited about the "pretties." She was so upset when it ended. I think she will be going down to the river in a few years. My middle daughter still has not gone down because the noise bothers her. So maybe in a year or two she will get to go.

THUNDER IS HERE!

For those not from this area you don't understand what Thunder is. Thunder or rather Thunder over Louisville, is North America's largest recurring fireworks show. The company that makes the fireworks for the show, say it is like "Opening game and the last game of the World Series" rolled into one show. Because it is in April it is early in the year, but it is the cream of the crop. In fact in years past (not sure about this year) the show is recorded and shown to our service men and women overseas on the 4th of July on Armed Forces television. What can I say it is the best of the best.

So why in April? Many don't understand why we have a huge firework show in April and not OH say the 4th of July? Because Thunder is the kick-off celebration for the Kentucky Derby Festival. Yes we celebrate about 2 weeks for a 2 minute horse race. But the Derby here is more then just about the race. Hey did you hear even Barbie is getting decked out in a Derby dress and hat this year.


Isn't she pretty, it is a safe bet she is not going into the in-field in that outfit. If I had the money I would buy one for Joe's birth mother for Mother's day. She collects Barbies. Speaking of Mother's day, I am going share the first of my Mother's day cards. Mother's day I have lots of cards to mail out. Joe has 2 moms, 2 sisters and 1 sister-in-law he wants to have cards. I have 2 grandmother's, 1 step-mom, 1 mom and 1 sister-in-law (not counting Joe's sisters) to mail cards to. So I figured I better get busy. This card design # 1.


How it was made:

This card I used my Cricut, Stampin up, and Big Shot. So it is an equal opportunity card.

The paper is Riding Hood red and Baja breeze from Stampin Up. They are 2 of the in colors that retire in July. The Ribbon is also Riding Hood Red. The ink is Chocolate Chip from Stampin up. The greeting is an acrylic stamp I got on clearance at Joann's. The images were cut with my Cricut from the new Life's a Beach cartridge. The texture is from the Texture plates for the Big Shot. In the window I used some Lemon Ice Stickles so it would like the light house is lit. Also the elements were cut out of Whisper white because that dainty lighthouse needed cut out of a heavier weight paper it seems. I need to add a greeting to the inside.

The sun is shining on the sunny side!

The sun is finally shining and that means no more wacky Internet, or at least till the next rainy day. This is an exciting time to be here in this area. Tomorrow is Thunder over Louisville (which by the way the best view is in Indiana because you get to see the Louisville sky line as the backdrop for the fireworks.)

I have scrap booking tonight. I have to get organized and decide what I am doing tonight.

Also while my Internet was being a see-saw, I got to get some pictures saved of non Heritage Makers items to post. So you get to see what I create outside of Heritage Makers.

I have to admit my confidence in my paper crafting is not as firm as my confidence in my digital designs. That is one reason I am not as apt to post them. However it was my intent to have a blog that was about my creating not just my digital creating. so here it goes.

I am in a "card swap" on one of the boards I am on. I chose "Get Well Soon" cards. I picked those because I love my new stamp set from Stampin Up called "Thoughts and Prayers." (BTW quick and shameless plug, if you are interested in these stamps or any other Stampin Up products and don't have a Stampin Up demo, Shelley Nanney is a great Demo and you can find her blog in my list of links..)

I started my cards and 1/2 through learned that my grandmother was in the hospital and I opted to make an extra one for her. Then I debated making another one. I knew my Shelley my Stampin Up Demonstrator was not feeling well, but I didn't know if it was a cold or what. So i thought if it was something minor she could be better before she got the card. Well later that night I learned she is really sick, so I am really glad I opted to make her a card.

Ok enough blabbing here are the cards and the details...




The patterned paper is a Designer series paper that was free with a $50 order during Salebration that has ended. It was called Delicate Dots. The ribbon is from a ribbon share I participated in with Shelly. They are 2 of this years 7 "in colors". Every year Stampin up has 7 colors that are only around for 1 year. So forgive me I don't tend to learn many of the in color names. I am too busy trying to build up my selection of the constant colors to focus on the in colors right now. I did have some paper from the in colors that Shelley gave me when I had my party. As a gift she gave me one sheet of each of the 7 colors. Then on the swap cards I used cheap white card stock (I save my nice Stampin Up paper for people I know...) I used Certainly Celery for the greeting and the flower. Then I had some blue ice stickles that I put on the flowers to give it a little something. Dazzling diamonds would have also looked really nice there but I don't have any Dazzling Diamonds right now. I have been borrowing my daughter's and decided I shouldn't borrow her supplies for a card swap.

Inside it says something along the lines Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery. That was also stamped with Certainly Celery.

The base of the card I am most excited about. I have texture plates for my Big Shot (plug again, Stampin Up also sells the Big Shot, the texture plates along with a set of Stampin Up exclusive plates that is on my extensive wish list...) Well I had already cut and folded my cards. I was trying to figure out how to add some texture and wasn't sure where or how. Then I opted to try the base card. I ran the folded card through the Big Shot with the texture plate. Oh it turned out so nice. I just love it when an idea comes together like this card did.

I hope they brighten the day of the people that get them.

Would you like to learn how to use the Studio on Heritage Makers? Here are the details of how you can join the meeting?

I am going to be hosting a Webinar tomorrow on how to use the Heritage Makers software. What is a Webinar? A webinar is a online meeting. This meeting/class will be on how to use the Heritage Makers Studio. My goal is to have one class a month and one virtual party a month. So if you can't make this one, don't worry I will have more. As well Heritage Makers has a class 2x a week. You can join in any of theirs.

If you want to register for a Heritage Makers account before the webinar, go to www.shareyourheritagestory.com So here are the details.

Here are the details of how you can join the meeting.

1. Please join my meeting.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/585836970

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone. Note this is a long distance call, so the preferred method is a microphone and speakers, or a phone with free long distance. The call will be 45 minutes to an hour.

Dial 215-383-1001

Access Code: 585-836-970

Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Meeting ID: 585-836-970

GoToMeeting®

Online Meetings Made Easy™

Jennifer

P.S. If you are interested in being a host for a "vitural" party, let me know. I don't have one scheduled yet, but I am working on it.

Cutest blog on the block.

I found a website on another blog and I had to give it a try. I decided to spruce up my blog. I have to play with the colors to make sure the text is all legible. I hope that everyone likes it. I picked this background because it was cute and the title is my middle daughter's name.

Quick post today

I am making sure I post every day. Well since my Internet is acting up I don't have time to wait till I manage to get the pictures uploaded off the camera. So more Heritage Makers stuff, sorry about that.

This is not one of my favorites so I wasn't going to post it but with the Internet being up then down, I need to just post something.

This is a Boyish birth announcement I designed. I have a harder time with the boy stuff.

Easter post

With Easter this Sunday I figured I would post the template that I plan to use with my Easter pictures. I did not design this one. I found it in our wonderful template gallery. I am excited. It is an 8x8 scrapbook page. I am hoping to find an 8x8 tile that I can decoupage this to. Then I am going to put it on a pretty stand and put it on the piano.

I hope you like it as well. You can make your own 8x8 page in minutes with this template as well. Feel free to ask me how.

Rough day and Father's day card

I am glad I posted earlier today because my Internet connection went down for a few hours today. I admit it I am addicted to my Internet access. Of course my phone line is Internet based, so I felt so cut off from the outside world without my Internet.

But I am back online! Yay.

So time to do more design work. Here is a card that I worked on last night. SHH don't let Joe know about this. I plan to take a few pictures of the kids and put them in there. They will be in the brown boxes with the brown as a border around them.

















The brown with brown and green plaid is the outside cover. The striped is the inside. Then of course it is folded in 1/2. The finished size is 5x7.

Now to get the pictures taken. I am thinking Easter is my best chance to catch all 5 dressed up nice. Wish me luck.

SALE SALE SALE

We are having a sale and I am so excited. I am not allowed to post prices online but let's just say it is our 8x8 that is on sale and it is exciting. Also we are having a selling blitz later this month. In honor of our president going into remission with his cancer. Last year on April 24th and 25th he had a major health scare. To celebrate his recovery we are having a blitz.

If I do $500 in sales, have 2 celebrations and sign up 10 new customers I get a special charm for my charm bracelet. I really am excited about this. Since the 25th is a Saturday I am trying to have 2 parties on that day.

So if you can host a celebration for me, I would love to come to your house. I have 3 open time slots on the 25th and one on the 24th.

Also I am going to start doing design services. So stay tuned for designs I make being available.

Daughter's birthday gift...

I can not wait to get this. I made this tonight in about 20 minutes for my daughter. Her birthday is next week. I am going to order this and hope it gets her by the time we celebrate her Birthday.

I am so excited. I think that maybe this will boost her self-esteem. It is a poster 18x12. It is going to be a great gift.

Not much to add today.

I am trying to be a good girl and post everyday. Although I admit right now it is a challenge. I
have had a rough day craft wise. My arthritis has been acting up. I did make a card for a young man I know that I just learned go married 2 weeks ago. I was surprised to hear that. I saw his sister a few weeks back and she didn't say a word. So I used my SU stamps, my cuttlebug and some studio G stamps and made a cute card. I went to take a picture but the camera was dead. So pics tomorrow of that and the Hello Kitty cards.

I have also started to work on Joe's Father's day book. He wants a 5x5 brag book to carry with him. So I am making him one. I am going to get 2 copies printed. One for him and one for me to carry as a sample. I picked a template from the gallery and now I just have to take/find the perfect pictures for it. The deadline for Mother's day books is April 20th so I have plenty of time but my goal is to complete the book in April because I plan to make one item a month at least.

I am also working on Mother's day cards for our moms. So stay tuned for pictures. Again I apologize that I have no pictures.

BTW if you are interested in a free 5x7 greeting card credit or how you can join as a Heritage Makers consultant email me I can give you all the details.

Productive day...

I was so productive yesterday. Unfortunately I paid for it today. I started out working on 20 cards for a card swap. I picked 20 birthday cards for a girl. I made 20 Hello Kitty birthday cards using my Cricut, Hello Kitty Greetings and the Happy Birthday stamp from the Itty Bitty Birthday Stamping Up set. In return I will get 20 cards that other people make. This is a great way to build a collection of cards to send out. In fact from another card swap I did, I have 20 Easter Cards to mail out on Monday. Well I am not going to send out 20 but I have 20 t0 choose from.

I didn't do anything with Heritage Makers yesterday. I also had a "Date Night" with my husband. Our church hosted a "Date Night." They watched the kids for free. Joe and I figured it out that we had not had a meal in a restaurant without kids in 10 years! That was 3 kids ago. So we went to dinner. If they do another one we decided we are going to a movie. We have not gone to a movie together without kids since we went and saw Star Wars II Attack of the Clones.

Ok I didn't get a chance to post a picture of my cards since I wasn't feeling well today. I just overdid yesterday. This Blog entry has been open for about 6 hours, so I am going to post it as it and post a picture tomorrow. I am really trying to keep up with one blog entry a day.

My kids

I am working on this for my kids. I love this. It will be 16x20. I used to have a picture of the kids (well it was taken when I only had 3) that was on my wall for years. But my son just broke the glass on his birthday. Aww the clumsiness of a teenager.

It was time to replace it anyway but it is so hard to get 5 kids to take a nice picture. If I get a cute smile out of one, another one will be looking another direction, and a another will look like a goof. Aww the joys of taking pictures of 5 kids. So this was the best thing I could think of. It is dated 2008 because all pictures are from 2008. I need to find a better picture of my 2 youngest girls. Then I also debated what order to put them in. Right now the order is from youngest to oldest. However I debated putting the 2 boys on the bottom and the 3 girls on the top.

This was an alteration of a template already available on Heritage Makers. I just changed the colors. It was a green/yellow template. That would not match my living room. Which is warm browns and a burgundy red with gold paint. It sounds weird but it works. So this matches the living room.

Oh well time to get to work. Tomorrow will be a Cricut post hopefully. I am working on 20 cards that I have to get done this weekend so they can go in the mail Monday.

Ok my first share.

I was so excited with this. I made a template for the Heritage Makers' template gallery. I decided that I needed to play with the Heritage Makers' studio so that I can teach others how to use it. So I am playing every day. My first project was Stephen's book that I will post later. This was my second project.

I love birth announcements that have pictures. So I love to create templates for birth announcements. So of course that is what I started with. I was going to do one for a boy until I saw this paper and was inspired.

If you would like to use this for an announcement or would like to learn how you can make your own announcements just email me.

Welcome

I have never been much or a blogger. I am just the type of person that figures that no one really cares what I have to say. However I am hoping that people will like what I create. So that is what this blog is for. I picked Sunny Side, because I live on the "Sunny Side of Louisville." Or at least that is what they call my little corner of the world.

I am excited to share this blog with everyone. This will mostly cover what I make with Heritage Makers. I am so excited about Heritage Makers and hope that my friends will join me an preserve their family Heritage with me. However I will post things that I make with my Stampin Up stuff or my Cricut. What can I say I love to create.

So that is what this blog is about. I hope that my blog can motivate, teach and inspire others.