Need to create!!!

Ok, so last week I showed you the 3 brand new Cosmo Cricket new CHA summer collections.

Jolly By Golly
Boyfriend
Earth Love

Tell me which line you would like me to use and I will create something using the line that gets the most votes. Post your choice on this thread and on Wednesday morning I will start creating something using the most popular line. In case of a tie I will toss a coin!

Look what I made...

Ok, I've been in need of a crafting apron for when I pull out the messy stuff! This has been sitting in my "to do" pile and it finally made it to the top.

I started with an apron that I picked up at a local department store for $2.97. Then I found the fabric yo-yos at a craft store pre-made. I could have made these myself but when I found these in the colors I wanted on clearance there is no way I could have purchased fabric more reasonable!

I ironed the Yo-yo's on using Therm O Web's Heat and Bond. This stuff is wonderful and has a nice tight hold. I also cut the leaves using fabric and heat and bond and attached to the apron.

Then I created rhinestone swirls by making the pattern I wanted using iron on rhinestone and then secured them using my iron. Finally I added smaller yo-yo's to the top of the larger one by sewing them in place. I popped some buttons and bling on the top of each and called it done! This is a pretty dimensional apron with all the layers and such.

So do you have a crafty apron and is it plain or decorative?

Back to school

Next week it is back to school for my 5 year old! Off to Kindergarten with her! What will I do with my time you ask? Oh, believe me, I have tons of stuff around here that needs my attention! Lots of cleaning, organizing, and of course crafting.

Anyway, I am busy this week preparing to send her off. I spent some time reviewing the lunch menu and from day to day there was a recurring theme. Saturated fat, Trans fat, and canned fruits and veggies. Then I sat down with her and read through the menu and and out of the whole month there was only one day she said sounded good. Mind you, she is a very picky eater. I mean VERY!

So I decided if I wanted to offer a nutritionally sound meal I'd take matters into my own hands and send cold lunch. The thought of all those plastic baggies and paper napkins made me cringe. Then I found laptop lunches!

I love this system and we are practicing with it all week this week. I want her to get the concept and make sure everything gets put back in the box each day. I've also eliminated paper napkins and will be sending cloth. The only garbage item will be the wet wipe I send with her to clean her hands before she begins eating. We all know there is already big time talk of H1N1 this fall and I want those little hands to be clean before they hit her mouth with the healthy foods I will pack.

Anyway, if you are interested in finding out more about this system the web address is below. And no, I am not associated with the site in any way...stumbled upon it while looking for healthy cold lunch ideas!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

www.laptoplunches.com

Who is Jolly?

Jolly By Golly that is! Here is the third and final new release from Cosmo Cricket for CHA summer! A darling Chrismtas/Winter line with lots of good stuff. What is included in this marvelous collection of product?

1 paper crafting pack
12 Designer Cardstocks
Elements sheet
Borders
Cardstock stickers
1 sheet 12x12 ready set chip
1 package Icon rub ons
1 package letter rub ons
1 package ribbon
1 package Ready Set chip letters
1 6x6 mini deck

This line can not only be used for Christmas but winter as well. I love it because it isn't gender specific! Think of all the card possibilities and scrapbooking opportunities!

Ok, head over to the Cosmo Cricket website and check out the individual sheets of this paper. Then come back to my blog and leave a comment letting me know which sheet of paper is your favorite from this collection!

www.cosmocricket.com

Oh and did you know you can shop right on the cosmo cricket website? The cool thing is you place your order and it ships directly from a store near you that has the product...a win for retailers and a win for you too!

Another collection...

Alright today I feature another new Cosmo Cricket collection! This one is "The Boyfriend." Word directly from Cosmo is that this line is selling like hot cakes! I'm not surprised, since it is so versatile. It's great for school pages for male or female, great for husbands, sons, boyfriends, and even girls! So much you can create with this line from pages to home decor to cards for occasion, etc. I plan to make a coupon book using this line for Father's day next year....perfect!

Anyway, here is what is in the photo!

1 Paper crafting kit (12 Designer papers, element cards, borders, cardstock stickers)
1 sheet of 12"x12" Ready Set Chip
1 sheet of Ready Set Chip alphas
1 sheet of letter rub ons
1 sheet Icon rub ons
1 package ribbon
A 6"x6" mini deck (great for cards or photo mats)

Ok, tell me what you would create with this line!

Happy 100!!!!!!!!!!

No not me.......I am not 100, LOL!

Thanks to all who recently added themselves as a follower to my blog to reach 100 followers! Yipee....I am excited! Ok, you are all thinking I am sooooo silly! But really, I am excited and this calls for a celebration.

To celebrate I decided to go to Randomizer.org and enter 1-100. The result is the number 47! So I counted from the top of my followers and #47 is Maggi from North Carolina! Maggie you lucky girl you just won yourself a prize package! Did you read that? Not just a prize, but a prize package!!!! Send me an e-mail at lfalduto@charter.net with your mailing address and I will get your prize out to you!

See, you just never know when I am going to throw a little prize celebration on here and who will win! So what number of followers should I shoot for next? Leave me a comment and let me know. If I see a common theme occuring I will run with that number and of course when I reach it, I will have another impromtu random follower prize package!

Natural beauty...

Ok, I have in my hands the entire collection of Earth Love which is one of Cosmo Cricket's brand new lines. Three lines were released at CHA from Cosmo and this is the one I am sharing with you today!

I love the natural colors, the fun designs, the earthy feel of it all. This collection has many possibilities for how you could use it. Great for upcoming fall photos, good for any outside shots overall, you could use it to talk about your love for the environment or green changes you are or have made in your life, garden photos, kids playing outside photos, etc.

Now I want to tell you what is included in this collection!

Paper Crafting pack (12 patterned cardstocks double sided, element card, borders, and cardstock stickers)
Ready Set Chip (12x12 sheet)
Ready Set Chip letters and journaling boxes
Package of letter/sayings rub ons
Package of Icon rub ons
Ribbon
Mini Deck which is 6"x6", wonderful for cards and photo mats!

I would love to hear if you have purchased any of this line. If you have and you have actually created something with it leave me a comment with a link to where I can see it because I want to take a peek at what you have created. If you have not yet, then tell me what you think you would create first if you had this line or just tell me what it is you love about the Earth Love line!

Winner, and thanks!

First of all, a huge thanks for the supportive comments and e-mails on my post yesterday. It means so much to me that so many of you care! Things are on track again today and the pity party is over! LOL

Second, I wanted to say another thanks for the folks who recently added themselves as a follower of my blog. I am up to 98 followers now, and only a couple left to go before I hit 100!

Third, as promised I am choosing a winner of the Heidi Grace Stamp set and Fiskars Stamp block sets from my Augus 6th post. So the winner is---

sandyh50 said...
Hi Lisa, I love checking out your blog and seeing your work. Great giveaway! Thanks for the chance!

August 6, 2009 10:50 PM

Sandy....send me at e-mail at lfalduto@charter.net with your mailing address so I can get your prize out to you! Congrats!

Stay tuned this week as I have had new product arrivals that I will be showing off! The first collection will be tomorrow! Yes, I said collection...as in entire collection. This week I will show them off before ripping open the packages and then next week I plan to do a little something fun with each collection!

I had a bad day...

Ok, I know we all have them...days where things don't how you had hoped they would. Well today I received some news that made me feel really sad. Over the past year I have poured my heart and soul into a dream...a dream that I never imagined would be possible and yet it became possible. I am so grateful for that dream coming true and I wish with all my heart that the dream were not ending. But it is my reality and it hurts and it stinks and it doesn't feel good to not have any control over that dream. No way to change it, no way to know, didn't see it coming, and taken by surprise. It hasn't mattered how hard I've worked, how committed I've been, how loyal I've been, how creative I've been, or how many folks have told me that as a result of my dream/work how inspired they have been and how much they can relate to my work more than others because it is real. The reality is, that dream is over.

Now I am an optimistic person by nature! I tend to feel my hurt and pain, pull myself up by my bootstraps and move on. I know there is a plan for me...a new dream I will dream that I will try to make reality. I don't know what that dream is yet but I do know one thing......

If I am going to create something new for myself I cannot spend too much time looking at that closed door. I have to look for the open door and head down that path into what my next dream will be!

Wanna help?

Ok, I have this goal for my blog...I want to have 100 followers! I am only 9 away from getting to that mark! Oh, I am so close! Do you have a crafty friend that you think would enjoy following my blog? If so send them over and let them know to add themselves as a follower!

I appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to pop in to my blog and see what I am up to! So thanks for continuing to come back, for being so supportive of the work I do, and for always having such wonderful comments to share with me. That is my favorite part about my blog is getting to read the comments that each of you leave!

So here is a layout I created from our last family vacation. We were sitting in the airport and my daughter started asking daddy questions about what he was listening to. So he let her take a turn and he could not get it back...she was hooked. So started snapping pictures and created this layout!

You just never know when you may need your camera to capture an everyday moment. I just think it is so cute when little kids get into technology! I know it is normal for them but thinking that it wasn't when I am little and how sometimes I am really challenged by technology it just cracks me up when she picks something up and is hooked right away!

Christmas in August?

Ok, another trade show project for Cosmo Cricket. I will tell you that I didn't have the chipboard pieces when I created this so I printed out some pretend pieces and asked Julie to place the real ones on at the show. So what you see isn't the actual ready set chipboard. But at the show it was! I also created some cardstock poinsettia's for inside the vase and then place a few sprigs of beads around them.

This was created using the Jolly By Golly line and it is darling. The colors are festive and fun and there are some very cute and very beautiful papers all combined into one collection. I love it!

Cosmo Cricket Project

So I do some freelance work for Cosmo Cricket and of course always love doing a couple of projects for their booth at CHA each show. Last summer at CHA I started a new tradition with my projects for the booth. I created a cute little altered Bi-Plane with none other than Linday in the cockpit! He pretended he didn't like it but when I spent some time in the booth during the show I saw him take people over and show it off, so I know he liked being in the cockpit.

Then for CHA winter I continued the tradition this time picking on Julie a bit. I decided to use the Snorkel line to deck her out in some beach attire. I blew up a head shot and then created some clever chipboard dangling earrings and other beach accessories.

I know Julie and Lindsay the best so it was easy for me to pick on them. I know Eric the least because I have spent the least amount of time with him since he isn't at Scrap Fest each fall with the gang. (at home with the kids) But I decided even though I didn't know Eric well, I was still going to pick on him!

The photo above is what I came up with for CHA summer. I used Cosmo Cricket's "The Boyfriend" line and altered this cute little doghouse placing poor Eric's photo right there on the pooch! Anyway, I of course showed him the project in advance and I'm pretty sure he thought it was pretty funny..........

So let me know what you think!

Time for a giveaway!

It has been awhile since my last giveaway. This one is going to have a rubber stamping focus. What will you win? A set of Heidi Grace Urban Acres Blvd. Clear stamps along with a set of Fiskars Acrylic Stamp blocks!

What do you have to do to win?

1. Post a comment in this thread
2. For every person you send over that comments on this thread and mentions your name you get another entry, increasing your chances.

I will draw a random winner on Tuesday August 18th so you only have until then to round up your crafty friends and post!

New projects for you!

As many of you know I do 2 projects of the month for Wausau Paper Creative Collection cardstock. It is so much fun to see what you can create using only cardstock and tools, don't you think? If you have never tried it, you really should. And to get you started here are the August projects right along with step by step instructions to complete these school themed pieces!

http://mywpcreativecollection.com/BeCreative/Project-of-the-Month/archive.aspx

You will find a Teacher card as well as an altered composition notebook that you can personalize for someone special.

Now, if you have created something using only cardstock I would love to see it. If you have not I challenge you to whip something up and then post a link in this thread so I can go and take a peek! If you happen to create one of the projects of the month based on the link above, I for sure want to see it so post a link for that here as well!

You can also sign up to get the Wausau Paper Creative collection newsletters so you can stay up to date on what is happening and be reminded to check out the projects online each month as well! Here is the link to sign up-

http://mywpcreativecollection.com/KnowCreative/Newletter.aspx

And here is a link to sign up to receive the project of the month-

http://mywpcreativecollection.com/BeCreative/Project-of-the-Month/PotM-Welcome.aspx

Jolly By Golly

As promised here is a Christmas card I made using Cosmo Cricket's brand new Jolly By Golly line! I don't have chips or ribbons yet, so I needed to cut some pieces from the patterned paper I do have to create this card.

I used some Liquid applique for the snow areas on the tree, sprinkled glitter on it while still wet, then used my heat gun to puff it up so it looks like snow is sitting on the tree. I've included a close up so you can hopefully see that detail a bit better.

This was such an easy card to make yet has such a nice finished look. So leave a comment and let me know how many Christmas cards you hand craft each year!