Make a Difference

Weekend Sketch time. Right now I’m just focused on the weekend, and I’ll be moving into that as soon as I can this afternoon. Not before I stop by and see what Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon have created with the sketch.  They always make everything look so pretty.

It’s the middle of deer season (it goes on forever in some fashion - bow-youth-rifle - the days just drag on). It really can make for stressful times on the home front, but last Saturday night, I packed up some jammies for the girls, took them to grandmas and stopped into my LSS, Stamper’s Ink to pick up My Favorite Things Kim and Ms. Cat’s Pajamas herself, Alma. Before we left the store, I was oogling over both of their display sample boards with beautiful cards that their design teams sent to them. I had seen a card here and there, that made me love this set: Penguin Christmas. (Amy & Joanne have that affect on me!)

After I checked out their stamps and samples, I loaded them into my car along with cute Megan Lock, and took them down to the Country Club Plaza for dinner. We chatted and laughed for over 3 hours. It was just what I needed to escape the deer season madness. I’m so glad they squeezed me into their busy KC schedule.

It’s been a long, long week here. I switched to a new computer about 2 weeks ago when my laptop died at Denver International Airport. I’ve had a few learning curves and software bugs to work out. Three hours on the phone to let technical support tell you that you are the first in America to report a glitch in a major software company’s recent upgrade that prevents you from a mainstay function for your job wasn’t really fun. I didn’t get a prize, not even an alternative solution while I wait for the world-wide download update to be released, goodness knows when. Not really fun stuff for a non-techie like me.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to a warm weekend with my family and our annual Thanksgiving Dinner at church on Sunday. It’s all good.

Have a great weekend!

• Stamps: Penguin Christmas - The Cat’s Pajamas 
• Cardstock: Cranberry Dark & Smooth Vanilla Prism, Webster’s Pages Christmas Collection
• Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento
• Accs: Copic Markers, Spica Glitter Pen, Sukura Clear Glaze Pen, Prima flower center

So many wonderful responses for the Copic Marker give away. It’s pretty obvious I’m not the only one who loves these things. I really wish I had 417 sets of Copic Markers to give away.

Anywho,  I did use random.org to choose my number, and then I went to the comment review feature that shows the number by each individual comment, and was so excited for the winner. This comment actually made me laugh out loud when I read it.

Here are your random numbers:

300

Michelle | 

Lori,
You must have had a racing heart as you walked into the Copic Sanctuary! Did you hear angels singing!! LOL! I’ll bet you smiled the whole time you were there! I think I’d walk around with a big old goofy look on my face the whole time! I would have LOVED to see that place!

Michelle

Just so we’re clear - I couldn’t hear the angels singing in the Copic Sanctuary, but I’m pretty sure I could hear the chariots rumbling.  <wink> I’ve sent Michelle an email, and we’ll get her prize shipped out. A big thanks to each of you for participating.

Weekend Sketch time. Loved this one because it was the perfect opportunity to use my Letters to Santa paper from the Christmas Past collection from Graphic 45.  I see endless possibilities with this pattern..tags, decor, card accents.

I used a Christmas sentiment from Taylored Expressions’ Holiday Wonder on a tag accented with a clear Spica Glitter pen to finish off this quick and easy design. You could make 18 cards with this layout from one sheet of this patterned paper. So, in this case, easy also means easy on the budget. <wink>

It’s been a long week here in the midwest…in addition to my trip to Oregon (click here from my current Copic giveaway), my laptop officially died and was replaced. No sales tax Oregon was my friend this week, but it’s definitely come with a little extra work - new software, new files…I’m ready for the weekend.

Before you start your weekend, be sure to check out Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon for sketch-spiration. You’ll be glad you did.

Happy Friday!

I’ve got some cool Copic news and a giveaway today! But, first, this is a card that was recently published in CardMaker’s Sketch Book: Christmas Celebration. I love this gnome image from Kim Hughes‘ set, Forest Friendzy. He’s colored with Copic Markers (YG93,YG95, R59, E31, E34, E00, E02 andW1). This Sketch Book is a great idea resource with tons of beautiful samples. I was very excited to be a part of the book.

I’m posting really late this evening. I’m usually up late, but tonight I returned home from a few days of meetings at Copic’s North American headquarters, Imagination International Inc. (Triple I, as Marianne likes to call it!)  Great discussions, good friends, a visit to the warehouse to see all those markers and an opportunity to meet the wonderful folks that work so hard at Copic, including the ROCKSTARS who focus on packing orders and shipping product. (Debbie has a few pictures. :))  Many thanks to the wonderful staff for their warm hospitality.

On with the announcements, right? Copic is excited to announce their 2010 Blog Team, as well as Regional Copic Certification Instructors.

Copic Blog Team now includes:

Debbie Olson
Michelle Wooderson
Sharon Harnist
Sherrie Siemens
Sally Lynn MacDonald

Copic Certification Regional Instructors-US:
Northwest: Sherrie Siemens / Marianne Walker
Southwest: Marianne Walker
Northern Midwest / Chicago: Kathy Sanders
Central Midwest: Lori Craig
Southern Midwest: Sharon Harnist
South: Colleen Schaan
Northeast: Sally Lynn MacDonald

Copic Certification Regional Instructors- Canada:
Western Canada: Sherrie Siemens
Eastern Canada: Sally Lynn MacDonald

Floaters:
Debbie Olson & Marianne Walker

I’m excited that I will be teaching several Copic Certifications in the coming year, mainly in the Midwest.  If you are interested in receiving information about any upcoming certification classes in your area of the country, you can sign up at Marianne’s blog (large green box on her right sidebar).

GIVEAWAY!

So, what you really want is the info on the awesome Copic giveaway, right? To celebrate the new team, we each have some blog candy to give away!  Winner gets their choice of either an ABS-1:

or their choice of any 12 Sketch Colors!!

Please leave us a comment letting us know either:
1. How you use Copics
2. Which Copic products you use
3. Why you love them or why you wish you had Copics

There will be 2 ways to win:

1. One winner from each blog will be randomly chosen.

2. In addition, we will be reading through comments as well. If we find a testimonial that we really like, we will contact that person to use their story for our CHA booth. You would then be given an equal prize to the random winners!

Make your comments good! There will be 2 or 3 “comment” winners chosen total. These will not be announced right away (please give us a little time to read through them all!).

Blogs to visit:

Marianne Walker
Debbie Olson
Sherrie Siemens
Sally Lynn MacDonald
Sharon Harnist
Lori Craig
Colleen Schaan
Michelle Wooderson

I will be taking entries here on my blog until this Saturday, November 14 at 8pm CST and I’ll post the winner soon thereafter.  Please note, we’ve each set our own blog giveaway cut off times, and they will vary by person. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about your Copic products … Good Luck!!

Just for Fun - I’ve been holding on to this project for a few days.  Every month, I participate in a friendly little challenge, just for fun, with my girlfriends Alli Miles, Julie Campbell, Kim Hughes and Michele Boyer. One of us picks an image and one of us picks patterned paper for all to use. It’s always neat to see how everyone’s mind works just a little bit differently for several cool card ideas. This month, Julie selected Autumn Abundance for us to work with, and Alli mailed everyone this delicious paper from My Mind’s Eye, Colorful Christmas. Fun stuff!

I colored my mum image with Copic Markers (BG10, BG11, Y38, YR09, YR16, YR31, G82, YG93, YG95) and added a little bit of glimmer with a Spica Glitter Pen. I used an airbrush with Copic YR31 to create the back glow to the mum image. The ribbon along the bottom was ruffled by making a loose stitch with my sewing machine along one edge and gathering the ruffles together. You need to start with a length of ribbon about 1 1/2 times the finished size. Button and twine finish it off. The cardstock is Suede Dark Brown from Prism and Flame StarDream Metallic.

I hope you have time to check out the other JiFFy projects. I always enjoy them. Have a great day!

It’s that time - or maybe it’s really past that time. At any rate, I’ve started working on a few holiday things, and I used today’s Weekend Sketch Challenge to make a few ‘flat’ cards that are easy to mail for Christmas.  I’m using Christmas Blessings from Taylored Expressions today.  We Three Kings is one of my favorite Christmas Carols, probably because it’s one of my dad’s favorite Christmas carols.  Never a sentiment more true, ‘wise men still seek Him‘. The pretty patterned paper is Holiday’s & Winter’s Wings from Webster’s Pages.  It’s all stamped with Brilliance Chocolate Pearlescent ink, so it just shimmers and shines.  Sentiment is cut from Spellbinders’ Labels Nine, and it’s shaded with a little mist from my Copic airbrush.

We’re gearing up for a big weekend here in Missouri. I’m off to Science Olympiad with my youngest this morning and then a swim meet with my oldest this afternoon. We’ve got a lot to do in the next 2 days, but it will have to work around sleeping in tomorrow. I’m still playing catch up from being under the weather last week, and while I feel much better, I can’t seem to get enough sleep or OJ.

For other takes on the sketch today, visit Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Mary Jo and Sharon. Better yet, play along and create your own.

Have a wonderful weekend!

it takes hands to build a house, but only {hearts} can build a home

tap..tap..tap…Is anyone out there?

I’m back from a unintended, but needed break from paper crafting. It felt really odd to be sitting at my stamp table this morning, and even more odd to not know where my USB cable had drifted off to in the last few weeks. Don’t you always find yours under the passenger seat of your car when it disappears? When I left off last month, I was in the middle of 3 or 4 big projects (work, PTO and home improvement). I’ve wrapped most of them up, and it feels good to be moving on.

For the Weekend Sketch Challenge, this is a card for my mom — we’re celebrating her birthday this weekend. My brother and his kids and my parents will arrive today, and I’m really looking forward to it - even though my house is a mess and I’ve not cooked a thing. It’s always fun to spend time together.

To give you a hint of how sweet my mom is, she has just called from Costco in ‘the city’ to confirm a few things I had sent her on ‘my list’. Bless her heart - it’s the PTO paper goods list for the entire year. Then she’s stopping by two other stores to pick up things for me that I just can’t get here in town before she heads this way. I could really go on for hours about the many, many ways shes built our lives with love - of course - I’d be in tears because I just don’t fathom how a girl could be so fortunate. My mom blesses me, not by what she does, but for the woman she is.

As usual, more sketch-spiration from Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon.  It’s good to be back, and I hope your weekend is full of wonderful moments.

•  Stamps: Hearts can Build a Home & Vintage Backgrounder - Unity Stamp Company 
• Cardstock: Indian Summer - Basic Grey, Kraft & Ivory cardstock 
• Ink - Rich Cocoa Memento 
• Accs: Copic Markers, ribbon - Taylored Expressions, oval nestabilities, sew-mini, brad - Basic Grey & punch - Fiskars 

Every month, just for fun, I do a challenge with a few friends where one person picks a stamp image that they like and another friend picks some patterned paper. Then using only the selected patterned paper (with solid papers to coordinate) and the stamp, we each make our own card. A few weeks ago I got this sweet little package in the mail from Kim Hughes with this cute Twizzle Tree from Memory Box, compliments of sweet Ellen. (Thanks, Ellen!) Then a few days later, sweet Julie sent me a few pieces of this pretty double sided polka dot paper,  Pink Floral JustChillin’ Girl from Making Memories. So sweet!

I paper pieced the circles on the tree from the big floral print on the backside of the paper, and added the fun polka dot print from the front side and some pearls that I airbrushed with Copic ink. Ribbon from Papertrey and a sentiment from Unity…Sweet!  This came together very quickly, but I am happy. (That’s not always the case! LOL)

Make sure you check out all of the Just For Fun girls: Alli, Julie, Kim and Michele. I love these girls, and I love watching them work.

In other news: It’s a day full of blessings here in Midwest USA: new babies, pretty paint colors finally decided for an exterior face lift, hubby is returning safely from a long hunting trip, crisp fall weather… God is good!

Weekend Sketch time…this darling little set called The Poppies from MFT came out last summer, just about the time that my DD started guitar lessons. I’m so grateful I didn’t have to say ‘drum lessons’… LOL! (Even though the drummer in this set is just adorable!)

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You are the light of the world. Let your light shine out for all to see! ~ Matthew 5:14-16

Every month on the 9th, I try to share a project inspired by Scripture for a challenge at Splitcoaststampers called Divine Design.  All are welcome to participate. The only requirement is that your project contain a Bible verse. Most often I choose 6×6 cards that I display on a wooden stand in my stamp room.

I picked up a new Bible study book the other day called Annointed, Transformed, Redeemed, a Study of David.  It will be the fall women’s study at my church. As I leafed through the early pages, this verse jumped out from Matthew. “Let your light shine out for all to see!”

This lamp that hangs in my kitchen was an inspiration piece for the layout of the project. I can see this lamp from my workdesk, and I love to look at it even though it might not necessarily fit in with the rest of my kitchen. You know what? Even when it doesn’t fit, it’s light still shines. It lights meals and laughter, homework and bill paying, magazine browsing and Bible studying, friendship gatherings and long, lost sock matching. My family sits under this lamp in sad times and good times and all those in between. I pray we’re like this lamp, even with it’s off-center glass chimney. No matter the circumstance, I hope we still shine for Him.

If you missed my post last night, here’s a reminder to check out the Scripture Chicks Angel Wilde, Jami Bova, Nancy Morgan and Taylor VanBruggen. I {adore} these girls.

• Stamps: Light of the World - Our Daily Bread Designs & Everything Extraordinary - Unity Stamp Company 
• Cardstock: Kraft & Cherry Hill October Afternoon 
• Ink: Brown Memento 
• Accs: twine, Prima flowers, glassy accents, Copic Marker, Star Dust Stickles, brads - CTMH, rik rak and buttons