Heeelllloooo! Happy (almost) 2011!

Wow! This was a busy holiday season. Made alot of homemade gifts for everyone from family to friends to teachers. It was a wonderful Christmas. Now, just waiting on the new year but no need to rush. Things are calming down and that's always a nice change.

Well, now to share some of the items I made for Christmas.

First, I'll show you the SLEDDING book I made my dad. He took us sledding when we visited Wisconsin last year. He enjoyed it very much and said I made him cry! Awwww!

I also made him and his wife a 25th anniversary frame. I incorporated the colors from their wedding and put pictures of them from then and now.

I also made ornaments this year for my brother and his wife and daughter. I started this tradition last year. I also gave them a small white tree for them to hang their new ornaments on.



For my son's teacher, I made her a little house that is Christmas themed. I covered it with scrapbook paper, paint and glitter. I used cotton batting to make the smoke come out of the chimney. Then, I took little stocking buttons and wrote each family members name on it. Add a flameless tea light and you have yourself a little decor house to add to your collection.

Then, for my daughter's Glee group, she was making each of them a cookie package. She wanted to add a token gift for each of them. I suggested ornaments. Heck, why not, right? Well, she designed the logo, then we made the girls glittery ones and the boys were more manly without glitter. They all loved them! But I think we enjoyed making them more! Heehee!

Opened on Etsy!

Yes, finally, I've opened an Etsy shop so now I can share even more with you. I've made some great frames that can go in your kitchen. I've also created a 25th anniversary frame for my father and his wife. I can do one for you too and even include the colors of your wedding in the design. I've made a shadowbox with Tim Holtz's Configurations. This one is fall themed and I'm working on a bigger one for Christmas. I will soon have cards on there for sale as well as some other things. So go check it out. It's at www.etsy.com/shop/CherishedEffects. Enjoy!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and are not going out on Black Friday. If you do, stop by the Scrapbook Barn. We'll be having some awesome deals! Stay safe and I'll be back to blog soon.

Long time no blog.....

Yes, it's been a while. Been working hard plus with the swim season on top of it and Scouts, life has been a more than a little hectic. I hope to get back to making regular posts once Halloween is past. I have to blog Halloween, of course. William is going to be Chuckie and Ashley is going to be Kat VonD. Should be interesting. See you all soon!

My Reward

EEEEEE!!!! This is why I do what I do! I had done an anniversary book for this woman's Jan's parents. I think I showed examples of her parents book in an early entry. Anyway, I delivered the book in July and her parents anniversary wasn't until August. I sent her a card asking if she wouldn't mind letting me know how they liked it. This is what I got in the mail today and I am over the moon!

It reads "Dear Joanie, Thank you for your note - Yes, I am feeling well rested. Our new little guy is such a good baby. We are enjoying him so much. My parent's anniversary was August 30th. They loved the book. The funny part is that because I had their pictures so long, they forgot I had them, which made it even more special. My mom especially liked all the personal touches, like the copied handwriting from the backs of the pictures and the tabs she could use to make her own notes. My whole family was here for the celebration, and we all enjoyed the memories together. Thank you again! Jan"

Maybe I'm just a big dork, but this card made me so happy! I love that she and her family, as well as her parents, all enjoyed the book together and reminisced about the photos.

Back to School Bash @ Sonoma Ranch

Last Friday, September 10, 2010 was the annual back to school bash at Sonoma Ranch Elementary, the school my son attends. They had a dunk tank for the teachers and William wanted to try his hand at dunking his teacher. I didn't take pictures or video because, I thought, chances of him hitting the target were slim to none. Boy, was I wrong!! Luckily for me, Will had become friends with a new kid at school whose Dad happened to video Will and take some still shots! Yes, this has nothing to do with crafts but my children are my creations, sooooo, I wanted to share. Thanks for looking!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZJBJ1CpGA


This is the youtube link for the video. I hope it works! Below are the pictures that were taken. Thanks Joseph for capturing that moment for me!

If the video won't play just go to youtube and search William sinks Ms. Eggen. It should be the first video that comes up on the list. Happy viewing!

We've got spirit, yes we do!

Ashley and I get our toes done with tiger print every swim season to show our school pride. When we went to get them done, the owner/designer asked if I wanted a tiger face. I said, you can do that!? He said sure! Now, I'm sure you've heard how people can paint amazing things on grains of rice, well, this was incredible too! He painted these tigers on my big toes down to the wispy hairs on the tigers face. Check it out!

Ashley is swimming in her first invitational today. She has to swim in three to so she can try to qualify for state! Go GHS Tigers!

Gilbert High Swim & Dive Fundraiser

So, before the school year even started, I hatched this idea for a fundraiser for my daughter's swim (dive) team. We had been doing a lot of board books at the store and I thought how cool would it be to have a souvenir book for the team. The even cooler thing was these could be used as a fundraiser for the team. I was so excited to share this idea. When the first parent meeting of the season was upon us, I took my sample and hoped I would get a good response. The response was more than I could have imagined! The parents, especially the mom's, were very receptive to the idea. They also asked if I could so some for other sports. YES!

Something even cooler than this happened. At the first meet of the season, I asked our head Booster Club mom if I could put the books out on the concession table. She said sure, no problem. At the end of the meet, she said I didn't get any more orders, BUT, moms from the opposing team wondered if they could get a book done in their colors! Of course! I would even give some of the proceeds back to that respective team!

This has been an exciting adventure! Every day I am in awe at watching it unfold. My horoscope for my birthday (9/4) said I was a lucky person. The actual horoscope for the day said this, " The sages say not to live in the past, and yet it is a fun place to visit now. (Eeee!) There are riches to be mined there." Mmmmm, sounds scrapbook-esk, no?

Happy Birthday to Me!

SWEET! My family got me a Cricut for me birthday. This will help me complete my projects faster and allow me to do things I only dreamed of. Thanks Brad, Ashley and William! This is awesome!

Mr. Dragonfly

Hanging outside this past Saturday, William came inside all excited and said that a dragonfly has landed on his finger and just sat there. When he went to come and get me it flew away. I told him dragonflies will do that. About an hour later, Will and I went out in the pool. He said the dragonfly was still hanging around. We started looking at it. When we got close to it sitting on the plant, it didn't move to fly away. I told William to watch it while I went to get my camera. When I got back, it was still sitting there and William was talking to it, trying to coax it onto his finger.

The dragonfly wouldn't go on his finger again but didn't fly away either. William felt sorry for it because his wings looked like they had been through the ringer. Then William asked me what dragonflies eat. I told him I wasn't sure. He asked if it would eat a Cheez-it. I told him I didn't know. He asked if I would go in the house and get him one, just so he could see.

Here he's trying to coax the dragonfly onto the Cheez-it.

Here the dragonfly is crawling onto the Cheez-it.

And what do you know, he got the dragonfly on the Cheez-it. The dragonfly sat there for a few and then took off. It didn't go near the Cheez-it again, but as Will and I were in the pool, Mr. Dragonfly kept us company. He would flit from plant to plant or sit on the cool decking in the shade.

Now, this goes back to the tribute book I'm making because the man that the book is about was an avid fisherman. It just seems symbolic because I'm doing this book, then the thing with the mailbox and now this dragonfly hanging around my house. All coincidence, probably, but it makes you wonder........

What do you believe happened????

I don't know if it's fate, or karma, or a higher power but something unexplainable happened to me last week. I only thank goodness that my son was my witness because if I had to explain that it was something that only I witnessed, people would probably be calling me crazy. I'll do my best to explain....here goes:

Last week, I took a phone call from a woman looking to do a memorial/tribute scrapbook because her husband has just passed away. She asked if the store took on projects like that. I told her no, but that I do it personally so I got her number and we made a plan to meet and discuss her project. I met with her last Thursday. Her husband's funeral was only a week prior so she still had all her pictures out to go through. During our visit, I was overcome with sadness for this poor woman. Her and her husband had only been married for 26 years and she misses him so terribly, it was just written on her face. She said that since he loved to fish, they were going to have "Gone fishing" put on his gravestone. She then began to cry. She said if she just told herself he had gone fishing and that's where he was, it made it more bearable for her. I reached out and hugged this woman. This woman, whom I never met before, who just needed a shoulder and she allowed me to hug her. I also got misty but she snapped out of it, so we continued discussing the book. You have to admire someone for finding the ability to go on when part of your life has been irrevocably shattered.

So, that's the back story. Well, that same night, Will and I were out walking the dog, like we always do after dinner. During that time, we check the mail. I still can't explain what happened. I put the key in the mailbox and William told me to wait. He wanted to check the mail for me. I put the key in, took my hand away, and before William could do anything, the key TURNED BY ITSELF! IKID YOU NOT! If William hadn't been standing there and witnessed the same thing, I would say I'm crazy. William looked at the mailbox, looked at me and said, "Did you see that?" Yeah. I checked the box, which was empty and we walked, fast, home. On the way, William kept asking me, "Did you believe what we just saw?" I couldn't, it was too weird, too movie-like to believe it could be true.

Now, I am a Christian (Catholic) and I believe that somehow, this woman's husband was letting me know, that he appreciated me being there for his wife and doing this project for her. In thinking about the project, I just said a little prayer. I said, she's going to love the book and I will make you proud. I just have such a good feeling about this project now, like it's been blessed or something. I know that probably sounds creepy or weird, but it's true.


I also have a friend whose husband is a mailman and he said there aren't any springs in these locks for the key to just turn by itself. Things that make you go......hmmmmmmmm..............

Christmas in July

The store I work for, the Scrapbook Barn (yes, I am shamelessly plugging them) had a 12 hour crop event on Saturday the 31st of July. It was called Christmas in July to help crafters get ideas and prepare for the upcoming holiday season. Preparing for it was difficult for me because I personally don't start thinking about Christmas until October....but once the event was here, I had a lot of fun.



Picture of Jen, Wendy and myself. Jen is one of the owners of the Barn. My dear friend, Wendy, used to work at the Barn and is now starting a new venture as a business owner. Her and her husband Bill now own Unique Pages. Check them out at uniquepages.net for more info.




One of the crew on the left is Patty. She's an amazing designer and teacher of all things heritage at the Barn.
On the right is Janna. She is our rep from WeR and was on hand to demonstrate the Cinch machine.



Our other fearless leader, Teresa, taking some of our crafters through the steps of a make and take.

And here's Melissa teaching one of the make and takes.

Here we have Crystal helping our crafters check in.

The crop went from 9 to 9 and everyone had a great time. Sorry I didn't get any pictures at the store. Charly, Lori, Becky and Rhonda held down the fort for most of the day while the crop was going on. The crop was held at a different suite then the store. The next one is being held on October 23rd to celebrate the stores 11th birthday. You'll have to wait and see what kind of theme it will be....but it'll be super fun! Thanks for looking!

Shark Tale

So William asks me this past week, "Mom, can we make me a shark tooth necklace?" I asked him why and he said because he had seen several people at camp with shark teeth necklaces and since the shark is one of his favorite animals, he thought it would be cool. I told him first we would have to figure out where to find a shark tooth. I checked Michael's, no luck. Then we went to the bead store in Chandler called Another Bead Please and no luck. The gal there said to try Black Market Minerals at Arizona Mills Mall. We gave it a try. Walked in the store and found two baskets full of shark teeth. Plenty to choose from. Here's the one William picked.....

Now, how to turn it into a necklace. I would have to wire wrap it. I've only done wire wrapping one time before so I wasn't sure how long it would take me or if it would even turn out. It ended up taking less time then I thought. Not anything too fancy but William loves it and that's what counts!

What I've been up to....

So, here I'd like to share with you some of the projects I have been working on over the summer. It actually started in April in preparation for Mother's Day. I made my sister-in-law, Brooke, a keepsake 6x6 book commenorating her first Mother's Day. It's a chipboard book commenorating the first six months of Allison's life. I used the Teresa Collins Chic Bebe' Girl line of paper and embellishments. I coated the outside of it with modgepodge to seal it. Hooked it together with binder rings and added ribbon to make it more girly. Brooke loved it! It made me so happy to make it! Heehee! Yes, I'm a big dork who geeks over scrapbook stuff. If you haven't figured that out by now.......




Then I had to make a Father's Day one for my brother Dan because how unfair would that be if he didn't get recognition too. I wanted the same kind of brag book for Dan but it had to be more masculine. While Brooke's book was a look at Allison at each of the first six months of her life, Dan's book was going to be about his love of photography. He's always taking candids of her and some of those pictures are going to get him into trouble when she starts dating. Thank goodness that's not for many years yet. The Mamarazzi line of paper from Bo Bunny was just screaming Dan's name. It has all these vintage cameras on it and all these references to photography. I finished off the covers with modgepodge again to seal it. I also used metal hole protectors and I can't remember if they are Tim Holtz or 7 Gypsies but they added a masculine touch. Of course, I needed to add something to the rings to dress it up, so I used a ribbon that wasn't too fussy.




I also made some Father's day gifts for my Dads (Glenn who is married to my mom and Bob who is my biological dad).

For Glenn, I took a wooden block, sanded and painted it. I got the wooden block from Scrapbook Barn. I think you could find it at other craft stores too but I'm not sure. Then I took some 7 Gypsies paper and ripped it and distressed it with Tim Holtz ink. I printed the pictures in sepia tone and added them to the block along with the die cut letters. I modgepoded over the whole thing to seal it. My dad loved it and has it on his desk at his job, which is what I had intended.



For Bob, I got a chipboard book that spelled out "Christmas". I painted the outside green and the inside red. Then I modgepodged it again as a sealant. I like modgepodge....if you couldn't guess. Then I decorated the inside with pictures we had taken during our Christmas visit. I used several different brands of designer paper and embellishments. Dad loved it! All he could say was, "Wow!" Made me smile.



I use modgepodge on these types of things because I want to preserve what the paper looks like. It acts like a preservative, Iguess. Just in case you were wondering.

And, of course, I had to make something for my darling hubby too!



For Brad, I commenmorated this years baseball season with our son William. I figured, since I was making keepsakes for all my other family, I should, naturally, make something for him. He liked it.

Oh, how could I forget to show you the framed scrapbook art I made for my Mom for mother's day. Shame on me!



I used paper from Prima Marketing, a sentiment from Bo Bunny and Stickles.



Then after that I had an 50th wedding anniversary album to work on for a woman named Jan. She hired me to do it for her parents. She said that they did not own anything like it and she was not a scrapbooker. It wasn't too hard a task as she didn't want alot of embellishments. It was all I could do to restrain myself because I LOVE embellishments. I hid alot of journal boxes throughout the album. Jan said, at first, that she didn't want journal boxes in the album because she didn't think her mom would want to journal. Jan said her mom didn't think her handwriting looked nice and didn't think she could right well. I showed her a couple pages that I finished with hidden journal boxes and she loved the idea. This way, her mom can write down her thoughts, preserve her family history but it doesn't have to be on display. Another cool fact was her mom wrote on the backs of some of the photos. I scanned the writing, copied it to cardstock and incorporated it into the album. So, her mother really did personalize the album. Their anniversary is at the end of August. I hope they love it as much as I loved putting it together. Here is a sample of some of the pages I did from that album.













For the papers, I used 7Gypsies, My Minds Eye and Graphic 45. They collect antiques and these lines have a heritage look to them.


So, now I'm on to other projects. I'm finishing up my wedding album. Yes, you read right. I've been married for 17 years and am finally doing my own pictures (more on that later). I'm also working on updating a wall in my kitchen. It's been decorated the same way for 16 years and needs a change. Here's what it looks like now....

You'll have to stay tuned for the result....... :)