All of the papers on this card are from the 6×6 paper pad of BoBunny’s new Country Garden collection. I adore that collection! This card combines a few of my favorite elements that were included in the collection: the distressed background papers that look like torn newspaper, the striped paper that has stitching, and the grid on the yellow paper.

I also used one of the tools that I can’t seem to function without lately: the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Border Punch. I can’t remember who it was, but I owe big thanks to whoever it was recommended that as a pick on the Paperclipping Roundtable!

The technique of cutting a strip from a piece of striped patterned paper is one of my favorites to use. Layering the same floral stamp using different tones of ink is something I’ve started playing with lately that I am starting to really love. The stems on the flower stamps were actually longer than the length to the bottom of the paper strips across the card, so when I stamped them I laid a piece of scrap paper across the card underneath the area where the paper strips are, to serve as a mask and protect the bottom area of the card.

This same blueprint could be used to create a variety of cards…I look forward to playing with it with some of my other stamps for cards for other occasions!

We’d known this move was coming for quite some time, as it was something that was approved by DOC back in October. The wait was excruciating as we expected it to happen much much faster than it eventually did. We lived in a state of constant suspense about when it would happen for over 5 months, since inmates aren’t allowed to know when they are moving for security reasons. By the time it finally happened we’d been waiting in such a state of high expectation for so long that it seemed hard to believe that it finally was real!

Bridget had not seen her Daddy since Halloween due to a combination of her health making long-distance travel difficult for her and the environment at the previous facility being not appropriate for her to visit in due to her autism and age. She can now visit every weekend and is so happy that she gets to go play games and read books with Daddy every Sunday! Last weekend, on our second visit as a family, she jumped out of her chair and ran across the visiting room yelling “Daddy!” when he came through the door. And Mike, for his part, takes absolute joy in getting completely trounced at Angelina Matching Game – and pretends not to notice her blatant cheating. (Her autistic quirks make her insistent that certain pairs be kept together, so she will steal them from us if we get one that she thinks should be with one she already has.) Bridget also insists on eating her lunch when Daddy eats his, even though his is brought to the visiting room and served at 10:30 or so in the morning. Watching them together is a beautiful thing.

So for the foreseeable future, I’ll be setting my alarm earlier on the weekend than I do during the week, to get to the center right at opening time and make the most of every minute we can have together.

More frequent visitation is not the only benefit of Mike’s new location. This rehab program is one-of-a-kind in Florida DOC, very difficult to get into and the best substance abuse treatment that DOC has to offer. The facility is privately-run under contract to DOC by a local mental health company. We believe that being there is the best possible way for Mike to complete the rest of his sentence while receiving help for the issues that brought him to DOC in the first place. The program is designed so that Mike should complete 9 months of rehab and then transition into doing work release for the remaining 10 months of his sentence while housed at the same facility, assuming bed space allows.

This transition is a giant step forward for all of us, the first positive progress we’ve had since the day that this personal hell started almost 2 years ago. (Wow, is it hard to believe it has been that long since all of this started…) Mike is now in a much more humane setting than his previous location. Community custody means no fence, more comfortable living conditions, and less security hassle for Bridget and I when we visit. In a few weeks when his orientation period is complete, Mike will be wearing street clothes for most of his day (unfortunately, not for visitation, so Bridget and I will continue to see him only in his DOC blues). He’s being treated like a person, and being given the tools he needs to fix his life and move forward in a positive manner.

This sure isn’t over by a long haul…we aren’t even halfway through his sentence yet. But it sure feels today like we’ve made major progress in the right direction for the first time since the day this started. Thanks to everyone whose expressed their support as we have fought our way through this battle. It means more than you’ll ever know.

Or at least I thought it was. Until I saw Kristina Werner’s four part blog series on one layer cards that concluded Friday. She makes it look so easy to make one layer cards that I couldn’t believe that I’d been struggling!

I can’t wait to take some of her techniques and concepts for one layer cards out for a try. My favorite is this monochromatic card. I would never have thought to try for a monochromatic graphic effect like this, but now that I’ve seen it I can’t wait to try it:

Another thing that Kristina accomplished was giving me a reason to love border stamps, which I’ve never been a huge fan of until I saw what she did with them here!

To see the other three cards Kristina made, and to find out what supplies she used (and even watch videos about how Kristina made them!) check out the One Layer Card series on Kristina Werner’s website!

Everyday Storyteller: 33 Practical Ideas from Real World Scrapbookers is an upcoming e-book from Jennifer Wilson of Simple Scrapper. I’m honored to be included in a group of 33 scrapbookers who are contributing content to this e-book, a list that includes talents such as Debbie Hodge, Melissa Stinson, Elisa Blaha, Amy Tan, Jessica Sprague, CD Muckosky, and Anna Aspnes.

My segment of Everyday Storyteller is about creating a quick & easy version of the vintage collage look for simple scrappers (like me) who love the look but whose natural design instincts it goes against. I hope that it works as well for you as it does for me!

With the change in our family situation lately, our budget is understandably very tight now. While channel surfing not too long ago I caught an episode of Extreme Couponing on TLC (one of my favorite TV channels). It reminded me of the value of couponing – although it didn’t inspire me to go want to go to the extremes seen on the show – and I learned some couponing tips from the show’s website and the shoppers on the show.

I decided to start couponing again and start paying attention to sales to plan my shopping (not just when I was already in the store).

One of the major things that changed my mind was discovering some websites that aggregate the sale ads and match them with recently available coupons. I like that I don’t have to try to remember what coupons I might have in my stash as I read the ads, and figure out how to combine them to make the best deals. The websites do that for me and make it really easy. My favorite website for doing this has become the free site Coupon Mom. I’m signed up to lists for my favorite grocery stores that send me previews of the Sunday ad information days before they come out. I can look at a list for each store, or search for a product to find where it is on sale. The store lists are sortable and show each item on sale that week, any current coupons that can be matched with the sale, and what the final price and percent savings are after using the coupon. I can click checkboxes next to items that I want to shop for and then it will print out a shopping list for me with all of the info on it, so I can take it right to the store and know what coupons to look for in my binder and if items are scanning correctly at the register. If there is an online coupon available for an item, it will even link you to the site distributing the coupon so you can print it!

I’ve started now to buy two Sunday papers most weeks. I’ve also been using printable coupons that are available online through free sites, mostly coupons.com. They are contributing a lot to my savings. The only annoying thing about coupons.com is that they don’t support my default browser (Chrome for Mac) so I have to switch to an alternate like Firefox to be able to print coupons. But the amount of money that I’ve saved makes it well worth the minor annoyance.

When I couponed previously, I just stored my coupons in envelopes sorted by product type (toiletries, frozen foods, etc). But I had a really hard time keeping track of what coupons I had and finding them when I wanted to use them. Getting rid of expired ones was also difficult. It’s just another organizational problem that my ADHD self couldn’t manage. I discovered the answer to this problem while watching Extreme Couponing. The extreme couponers use huge binders with pocket pages in them to hold and organize their coupons.

The extreme coupon shoppers on TV have binders that are two or three inches thick (sometimes even more than one) that are stuffed with coupons that they tote in their grocery carts. I realized that although I don’t clip and keep that many coupons, I could still scale down the same concept and use it by selecting a smaller binder.

So, I am using a 1″ binder – which fits perfectly in several tote sized purses that I have, so it is easy to take out shopping with me. The binder was a hand-me-down from my daughter, since her collection of Daddy letters got too big for a 1″ binder. She got a new, bigger binder for her letters, and I claimed her old one for a coupon binder. So now everyone is happy!

I have filled the binder mostly with page protectors designed to hold baseball cards, along with a few 3.5″ x 5″ photo pocket pages that I had left from my old acrylic stamp storage system that I retired. They are useful for gift cards and larger coupons. I bought some really inexpensive plastic page dividers by Avery (I’d never seen those before the day I bought them in Staples – they are really cool!) to separate the page protectors into categories. The plastic ones were way less expensive than the paper ones I have always used in binders before, and they are more durable. Also, you can see through them, which is a bonus. (It seems counter-intuitive to spend money to organize my money-saving coupons, but if it helps me make better use of them and thus save more money – which it already has – then it is a good investment that I’m getting a return on.)

One thing I’ve discovered over a bit of time of using coupons and doing sale shopping is that the extreme couponers with their huge stashes do have the whole concept of stocking up on items correct (even if they take it to a ridiculous extreme). There are patterns to the way that many items have coupons put out and go on sale. If you stock up during one sale/coupon cycle with enough of a non-perishable item to last until the next coupon/sale cycle, then you never have to pay full price for that product! It requires a bit of planning and some storage space, but if you can keep your pantry organized so you know what you have and don’t waste stuff through expiration, it can save you a lot of money. I’ve expanded my kitchen pantry space in two areas. I already had a Closetmaid Pantry (bought at Target) that I was using in my laundry room before I started couponing, along with some Closetmaid wire shelving. The consolidation of my scrap space into a more usable and accessible format (more on that coming soon) left me with an unused 72″ book case in the spare room. That has become pantry storage, with toiletries in baskets and food stacked on the shelves, which will be shielded from view with curtains hung down its front on a spring rod as soon as I find the right ones to use.

The one pitfall a lot of couponers fall into is that they buy items they otherwise wouldn’t just because there is a coupon on them, and they end up not saving money but spending more instead. To avoid this trap, I only clip coupons that are for products that I regularly buy – with a few exceptions. If I typically buy one brand of a product (like for instance, Cheer laundry detergent) but absolutely know without a doubt that I would be happy using another brand (in my case, Tide) if a coupon made it a better deal – then I will clip that coupon and file it “just in case”.

The other exception I’ll clip of a product I’m not already using is for a brand new product being introduced that I want to try. I’ve found some good products this way that have become regulars in my household. The most recent one was the new Kraft Fresh Takes. These are cheese and breadcrumb blends for coating chicken, pork and other meats. The coupon was a great deal and I knew instantly when I saw the product in the coupon flyer that I wanted to try it anyway, coupon or not. I know any decent cook can do this kind of coating themselves from all well-stocked kitchen very easily but I’m not a decent cook. (Hey, at least I own it!) And coated chicken like that is exactly the sort of meal that meal that my husband would make me, and that I haven’t had since he left home 14 months ago. I clipped that coupon, hauled it off immediately to the grocery store…and was thrilled with the results. It actually felt like the first home cooked meal I’d had since 201o. Because I have NO cooking skills so I’ve been living on frozen food and Subway sandwiches (our daughter eats a special diet). And I might never have found the product if not for a coupon!

I’ve found that I average saving around 10% on my grocery trips lately using my coupons and shopping the sales. Today, I saved almost 20% off my total bill (not everything i bought was a coupon item) doing a toiletry stock-up at Walmart. I regularly see extreme couponers on TLC rack up savings of more than 90% on their bills when they buy only coupon items. That is impossible to do where I live because it requires using a store that doubles coupons and there is only one store location in the entire state that does that.

And, on a side note…I find doing my coupon work oddly therapeutic. Organizing is soothing to me for some reason. I like to do it when I am stressed. It’s like restoring order to chaos makes me feel better. Sitting with my coupon binder, clipping and filing my coupons, looking for anything that is expired to pull out, and then having a perfectly organized system ready to go to the store when I am done, is so good for the soul as well as the pocketbook!

So, that is the story of how I became the crazy coupon lady toting my little pink binder around the grocery store. I may look crazy to everyone else, but the money I’m saving is crazy too!

[Note: I just joined an ad network for my websites that includes coupons.com and Red Plum coupon promotions. I'm so excited to offer my readers these promotions for products that I use myself at least a couple of times every week. It's a win-win - you save money by clicking on the links and printing coupons to use when you shop, and it supports my site as well. So enjoy saving, and thank you for supporting the site.]

So what from the recent releases did I plunk my credit card down for, and why? Let’s play show & tell!

First, of course, I had to have some of the new 2012 Hero Arts releases.

I knew as soon as I saw the new Hero Arts designs that have newspaper fill pattern in them that I was going to have to have them. I started with these two, the butterfly and the heart. I’m looking forward to using them for multi-colored stamping with the new Distress Markers and also for stamping watercolor effects with the Distress Stains.

Some of my most-used stamps are background stamps, so of course I had to add more of those to my toolbox. I’ve been coveting the Studio Calico Grid Pattern since the moment I first saw it at CHA Summer 2011, and finally ordered it. I find doilies to be a great background pattern but didn’t have a good doily stamp so I just had to have this Circle Lace one to work with, although it isn’t brand new either. Then, finally, the newspaper background I know will get a ton of usage on tags and cards and plenty of other applications. I love using text fill as an element in my work and this stamp is fabulous!

Yes, I know…you’re shocked it took this long into my shopping reveal for a Tim Holtz product to show up. No, I haven’t found a Tim Holtz rehab program..here’s one of his products finally! I have (I think) every set of his quote stamps so when I saw these at CHA Winter 2012 I knew that I would definitely be buying these Words For Thought as well. I especially like the “you’re the one who makes me the way you see me” and “things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least” stamps. These will be perfect for an envelope album set that I am working on.

The other stamps in this picture are also intended for that envelope album project, as well as for cards and layouts. The wood block ones are Penny Black, called “Our Love” and “A Lifetime“. I am starting to accumulate a good set of Penny Black sayings stamps – I love the handwritten font that they use and the sayings are just right for cards but also useful for other things as well. The My Favorite Things “Clearly Sentimental About Love” set also is perfect for my envelope album, although I may remove or mask the name attributions for the quotes when I use them. We’ll see.

Besides stamps, I also got some other tools. First, I am going to try the Ink Refresher that I saw Tim Holtz use during a Ranger demo at CHA in January. I think it will help perk up some of my dry Distress ink pads (especially anxious to see how it works on my Antique Linen, which seems really dry) and also I want to try a technique he demonstrated where you spray it on paper, crumple it and then let it dry. He did this on a tag and it gave it a leathery consistency, kind of like the kraft glassine paper from his line. It could be interesting to experiment with on different papers.

With the purchase of this Walnut Stain Distress Ink Pad, I’m now only two ink pads away from having the entire set of Distress inks. I use them constantly so they are a great investment that I’ve acquired gradually over a few years. I even use colors that I never would have imagined when I first became acquainted with Distress ink that I would ever use. These inks have changed my whole relationship with ink. Now it will be time (after I get these last two pads that I still need) to focus on building my toolbox of Distress Markers and Stains. Having a wide palette range available I find makes them much more useful…I found once I accumulated a certain sized palette of Distress Ink Pads, that I suddenly started using them in whole new ways and for many more things than when I just had a few. They became my go-to tool.

What good are stamps if you don’t have anything to stamp them on? This Melissa Frances envelope album will be volume two – 2012 – of my envelope album project (volume one for 2011 is a 7 Gypsies spiral bound album). This order and another I have on the way to me contain all the basic supplies (I hope – if I planned well enough) for completing both volumes.

The Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper is something that I saw demonstrated at CHA and was really impressed by. I knew I had to try it myself. I’m looking forward to doing some side-by-side samples with white Bazzill and seeing if there is a difference in “real world” conditions.

The Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die is the bestselling Sizzix die of all time. I use it quite a bit, but sometimes find it too big for my projects. I’m completely addicted to the Sizzix Movers & Shapers – I have a basket that is full of the little magnetic dies to use with the tray – so I was thrilled to find the Tattered Floral die re-interpreted as a Mini Movers & Shapers set at CHA Summer 2011. I didn’t do a lot of shopping for budget reasons in 2011, so I am very happy to finally add this to my toolbox as I get caught up on past favorites that I missed.

I’ve been wanting to try the Hero Arts Frame Cuts so I figured that hearts, which are currently one of my most-used icons, would be a good way to start trying them out. I’m not used to using anything but Sizzix stuff with my Big Shot machine so it will be an interesting experiment. I’ve never wanted to hassle bothering with figuring out how to make other things go through it. I guess I’m going to now!

The Follow Your Heart collection that Rhonna Farrer designed for My Mind’s Eye is simply gorgeous. I picked up a few of the pieces of it in my order. First was one of the 12×12 transparencies that cut down into 4×6 photo overlays. I absolutely cannot wait to use this when I dig in to get caught up with my Project Life!

The other Follow Your Heart item that I picked up in this order was epoxy brads. I’m using a lot of these lately and could not resist these beautiful ones. The detail is just amazing in them…they will be especially perfect for adding a nice touch to my tags, where I only use a few embellishments so the extra detail really stands out.

I also got a set of brads from Echo Park’s new This & That: Graceful collection. The colors are amazing in this set and they will be very versatile to use in a lot of projects.

I indulged my 6×6 paper pad passion with the Echo Park This & That collection as well. This Graceful paper pad is going to be fabulous for die cutting and using on cards and tags…I’m especially in love with the mini bingo card paper. It’s so adorable!

And finally, I picked up a few embellishments since I always seem short of those. I’ve been using Tim Holtz’s bingo numbers on a lot of my monthly tag series, but the red paint on them doesn’t always go with the project’s color scheme. So these black bingo numbers by Bottle Cap, Inc. will be more neutral to work with, although they are slightly larger than the idea-ology ones.

I love word stickers and these mini ones from Tim Holtz‘s CHA Winter 2012 release just have so many possibilities that I knew I had to try them. In fact, I think this may end up being the first item from this order that gets used as I’m eyeing a couple of these words for the tag that is on my kitchen scrap table at the moment.

That will keep me busy for awhile, don’t you think? I can’t wait to find out!

The primary word that comes to mind about CHA is exhausting, as the days are way too long and way too busy, and the trip is bookended on each end by what is usually a lengthy flight for me.

So here’s some random images of CHA from my point of view…

Like most attendees I was glad to be back at the Anaheim Convention Center for this year’s winter CHA show after the venue being Los Angeles last year. There’s plenty of extremely convenient hotels in Anaheim (I especially like the Marriott and Hilton pictured below that sit right next to the convention center). The convention center also has decent (if not affordable) food for a convention center and is easy to navigate.

Seeing all the hills that surround the LA area off in the distance on the horizon is very weird to someone who comes from mostly flat as a pancake Florida.

Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure sit literally at the back door of the Anaheim Convention Center – this picture is taken from a lanai on the roof of the center, looking at the Tower of Terror and the back of some other scenery from California Adventure. For a Disney fanatic like myself, this temptation is just too much to resist!

Scrapbook Update’s resident Disney fanatics, May Flaum and I, did what many CHA attendees do and spent most of Saturday (the day before the show floor opened) at Disneyland.

But then it was time to get to work…because that is really what CHA is all about!

Seeing people is one of the best parts – and most important jobs – at CHA. There’s friends that I’m happy to see, business associates, and industry experts whose knowledge I want to soak up. (And many who fall into multiple categories!)

I stopped by the Technique Tuesday booth – always want to see their new stuff – to see Ali Edwards and do her make & take. Ali’s a frequent guest of ours on Paperclipping Roundtable, so it was great to talk to her in person at CHA for once!

You better not mind crowds if you want to see a Tim Holtz demo! This is about average, although I’ve seen worse. It’s well worth planning to spend some time and jostling to get a good view though, as Tim is a font of information about his products and his demos are never the same twice. He always seems to go off on some unplanned topic that is highly educational in response to an audience question. I’ve picked up tons of fabulous little things just listening to him talk during his demos. And of course the demos themselves are always wonderful too!

Ranger has a way of finding the most amazing people and creating products with them. Brit designer Dyan Reavely was added to Ranger’s line of signature designers at CHA Winter 2012. I hadn’t expected to be as excited by her CHA debut as I ended up being, given that her signature style of doodle-y drawing is not really my “thing”. The reason is that Dyan in person is an irresistible force! You can’t help but smile watching her demo. Her joy in what she does is contagious. I love the photo above that I took of her demoing. The blurred hands and book pages really evoke the speed with which she works.

After a few minutes of watching Dyan throw ink around with abandon with her stencils and sprays and paper towel…you are not only convinced that you want to do that but that you can, because her demos are so easy to follow. That is the mark of a great instructor. I’ve already been playing at home with some of the ink techniques I saw her demo and been pleased with the results. I can’t wait to get my hands on her palette of spray inks – the brilliant colors are amazing.

And with Wendy Vecchi and Claudine Hellmuth there as well doing their magic…I could hang out in the Ranger booth all day just soaking up tips!

It’s always great to catch up with the folks at Stampavie, like co-owner Heidi Johnston. (And Heidi’s husband, Stampavie co-owner Stuart Johnston, is also wonderful to have around because he can make us look this good on camera!)

Two Nancy’s in one photo! It’s fabulous at CHA to get a chance to meet up in person with some of Scrapbook Update’s long-time readers, like the wonderful Nancy Grant. It’s always a delight to see her.

The ever-fabulous May Flaum did a book signing in the F + W booth for her recent book, Scrapbook Workshop. (That’s Scraptime’s Christine Urias snapping her picture!)

Bodyguard Melissa Stinson is of the opinion that papparazzi harassment of Ms. Flaum should cease and desist. Immediately. Or risk a demonstration of her black belt martial arts skills.

One of the highlights of the west coast shows recently are always the get-togethers to tape an episode of Paperclipping Roundtable! It’s so great to see Izzy and Noell and sit all together in a room while we enjoy taping the show!

Having everyone together – the hosts, the panel, and a studio audience, too – makes for a really special time taping the show. This time around we had Ali Edwards, Stacy Julian and Angie Lucas on the panel with a cameo by Shimelle Laine.

To find a career where you get to count your colleagues as your friends is an amazing thing, and one of the great things about working in this industry. Roundtable is the epitome of that aspect of my work.

Learning is the whole point of the show, so it’s always great when I can take a good workshop like this one on Mixed Media that was put on by Cloth Paper Scissors. (Yes, I did spend the whole workshop petrified I was going to get ink and/or paint on my light colored sweater! Such is the difficulty of getting creative in your good clothes…)

Fashion takes a big role for a lot of women at CHA, but sometimes it feels pointless to try too hard or too accessorize, since you unavoidably end up with some of the most unfashionable accessories layered on top of your outfit: Show credentials, a camera, and a tote bag. (photo by May Flaum)

So there you have it, a peek of what it is like to go to CHA…the only thing missing is the hotel room that looks like an explosion hit it and photos of crappy, usually very unhealthy, food. I’ll spare you that horror!

And when it is all done…

…I wave bye bye to California as we soar over the beach towards the Pacific Ocean! See you next year, Anaheim!

If you follow me on Twitter or listen to Paperclipping Roundtable, you may have picked up bits and pieces of the fact that our family is facing yet another new challenge in the past few months (and I also mentioned it briefly in another entry here last month). But I’ve never fully explained what is going on. Our eight year old daughter Bridget was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis last fall. Shortly afterward a second diagnosis of Scleroderma was added to her issues when she developed an aggressive skin condition that started on her ankle and began to spread rapidly.

The time since then has been filled with what must be to her a scary and never-ending cycle of doctor’s visits, tests, and medications. She’s taken it surprisingly in stride. Every time, she goes tromping gamely off to the doctor, the lab, the hospital…she has momentary freak outs about the hard things – blood tests, shots – and then when it’s done, like magic, she’s back to her usual spunky self.

In short, she’s amazing.

This week Bridget faced her biggest challenge yet. After seeing an anomaly on her lung x-ray a few months ago, the doctors started to believe that her Scleroderma may have traveled to her lungs – which would have been a very serious development. Determining for sure the condition of her lungs required ordering a CT scan with contrast. In a normal child, it would have been a simple 10 minute procedure. Only with an autistic child, nothing is simple. To get the procedure done on her, she had to be completely anesthetized the same as if she was having surgery.

We’d been worried about how she would react to waking up after having been knocked out, and to waking up with an IV. But when she woke up and was taken to the pediatric recovery room, she was just her usual stubborn self. She wanted no part of being bothered to have her blood pressure or temperature taken, at one point announcing repeatedly to the entire room, “I quit.” That’s vintage Bridget, and I couldn’t help but have to smother a smile while trying to coax her into cooperating.

Bridget was definitely something of an anomaly in the post-op recovery room. While the rest of the patients were begging the nurses for more painkillers, what Bridget needed was milk – which they had to send someone scrounging to find. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that no one else had their pillow pet and blankie. The milk and her iPad improved her mood considerably.

But her day wasn’t done then. While her rheumatologist has been pleased with her response to her initial regimen of medications, he feels more needs to be done for her. So since she already had an IV in from the anesthesia and CT contrast, she was taken upstairs to the Pediatric Specialty Clinic’s IV Infusion room.  We spent a bit over an hour there and she received her first dose of IV steroid therapy while watching her favorite Disney channel shows on her own private TV.

This almost certainly will not be Bridget’s last IV infusion. Although it may not be the same drug, it is likely that she will be embarking on a course of treatment soon that will see us visiting the infusion room at least once a month. These drugs, along with the daily meds that she is on, suppress the immune system and make her susceptible to every little bug that comes along – a bit of a problem when you are a student in an elementary school that is a natural petri dish of germs. She’s already been sick several times since being on the immune-suppressing meds.

And yet, after this long day, as soon as the IV was taken out (which she tolerated like a trooper – she’d been asleep when it was inserted, thank goodness) she declared that it was time to go home. And got up and started out the door. She had places to be, I guess! As exhausted as she was, she was her usual peppy (ornery) self the whole 2 hour drive home in the car too!  (That made one of us, anyway….)

She just doesn’t stop. She puts up with constant discomfort of one level or another, limitations on her activities, the constant meds being shoved at her, and the scary and sometimes painful medical visits. And she bounces back and keeps going. I’m just astounded, amazed, and honored that I get to parent this amazing creature. I’m learning so much from her.

(And after all of that worry, we got good news yesterday – her CT scan was normal! Huge relief!)

Tag #9: September 2011

This tag is quite a bit different from the usual dark, very vintage look that I do, and it may be one of my favorite ones that I’ve done so far. Sometimes it is interesting to stretch ourselves a bit!

Additional supplies: Technique Tuesday stamps (Williamsburg – Numbers & Punctuation, Small), Hero Arts stamps (Artistic Calendar), fabric (unknown).   This is Florida’s version of fall, I guess! Although I stamp a lot on my tags, this tag is almost completely stamped. I started with a pink graph patterned paper as the base, and then layered the other elements on top of that in various shades of ink. The pink pearl brads and chipboard number add some dimension (and shine) to the tag. The chipboard “9″ is covered in paper from a 6×6 paper pad (Jillibean Soup Apple Cheddar Soup) and then covered in Ranger glossy accents to create a lacquered wood finish.   Even the ribbon tying the tag used ink! It is actually a strip of white cotton fabric that was dyed with Tim Holtz’s Distress Stain in Spun Sugar. The edges of the fabric were frayed with Tim Holtz’s Craft Scratcher before it was tied on.  

Tag #10: October 2011

  Making this tag, I had two creative goals. I wanted to experiment with stamping on patterned paper, and I wanted to play with these cool paper butterflies from Close To My Heart. (I have a thing for butterflies, and what they represent, lately.)

Additional supplies: Close To My Heart “Just Blooms – Flutter” Paper Shapes, Elle’s Studio – 2011 Vintage Calendar Tags, Girl’s Paperie sticker alphabet, Recollections by Michaels lace ribbon.

You can’t see it really well but I inked the patterned paper around the edges with Distress ink (Antique Linen) and also used an edge distresser on the calendar tag. I love the vintage touch of the lace, and it picks up the cream color in the inking and the calendar element.

Tag #11: November 2011

Most of us, if we are lucky, make something every so often that exceeds our wildest expectations and makes us say “I made that!” with pride. For me, that is the case with this tag. I created it to try some new spray ink skills that I had learned at CHA Winter 2012, and was absolutely thrilled with the results! Sometimes everything just comes together. Creative magic!

Additional supplie: American Tag tag, Studio Calico Mister Huey’s (Schoolhouse, Sunshine, Apple Jack), Ticket (unknown).

This tag used a spray ink technique that I wanted to try after watching Dyan Reavely demo it at CHA Winter 2012. I’ll be posting a video shortly of her demo…it was fantastic. I was so happy with how my attempt at the technique came out! I got lots of color blending and texture in my background, even on my first try! Of course, the game piece shows the number of months gone by, the ticket gives the date, and the butterfly represents flying free…the other elements are just a random collage. I can’t usually make those work but I’m very happy with how this piece came together!

With my December tag already half complete, I will soon have six completed pages in my album…it’s hard to believe those pages are filling up! Many more to go, but they are filling!

But, in the spirit of the dream of unlimited time and creativity…here’s the things that really spoke to me on the show floor in Anaheim, that stoked my creative fires and made me say “WOW!”

One of the first things I saw in the previews that excited me was the new lines from Pink Paislee. Literally everything they released this show, including their new signature lines, was stunning. But  a few specific pieces really got me excited.

These tags from Spring Jubilee, one of my favorite two collections, grabbed me immediately. Although they are not my favorite tag size (#8) for making stand-alone tag projects, they will still be incredibly useful on layouts.

These collage cards from the Spring Jubilee collection will nicely solve my problem of lusting after Spring Jubilee tags in size #8 that don’t exist after seeing the tags pictured above. They are the perfect size for die cutting a #8 tag out of by using my Tim Holtz Tag & Bookplates die!

I have a bit of a fetish for chipboard buttons, and so these resist chipboard buttons from London Market (my other favorite Pink Paislee collection at CHA Winter 2012) are like a dream come true! They have beautiful vintage designs, but I can make them any color that I want using all of my inks!

Another of my favorite companies, Lily Bee Designs, didn’t disappoint at CHA either. As usual, their paper lines were filled with beautiful small patterns that are so versatile to work with.

Buttercup and Victoria Park are especially fabulous, particularly in 6×6 tablet form. Buttercup’s blue, yellow and gray palette is beautifully trendy without being cliche.

These little die cuts from the Handmade line will be perfect for Project Life. There are sets with the other lines too, but these are my favorites for both their colors and their sentiments.

I’m almost incapable of creating a project without putting at least a button or two on it, and one of my favorite bright and happy companies came through in a big way in the button department this show: Bella Blvd.

Button Market features button cards at very low price points that are just right for using as detailed accent pieces on a project.

This set, in particular, just made me imagine all sorts of delightful girlie projects that it could adorn!

Graphic45 gave us something that really excited me. I have always loved the beauty of their papers but found the detail and rich color difficult to work with. In Anaheim, they debuted a collection that showed off their signature style in black sketched on kraft paper.

The Kraft Reflections collection will let me enjoy Graphic45′s signature vintage beauty in my projects without feeling overwhelmed, perhaps accenting it with their full-color designs to create a coordinated look.

Another kraft paper that has me inspired is from Canvas Corp’s new Coffee line. This particular design reminds me somewhat of Starbucks logos and the holders they put around their cups.

Although I don’t drink coffee, my husband does. Since no one else in my family ever drank it either, it’s something I associate strongly with him. I look forward to its smell returning to our home soon. This paper is the perfect paper to scrap that with, or to use in Project Life.

A fun little thing that I found in the new exhibitor section but didn’t hear getting much buzz really grabbed my attention as being unique and great for card makers. It’s called the Action Wobble Spring, and makes pop-up sections on cards that wobble and bounce.

The spring is lightweight plastic and compresses flat for mailing. It’s self adhesive on both sides for adhering to both the project and the item that you want to have “spring”. I look forward to bringing more smiles to the recipients of my cards with these quirky little accessories!

And of course, my CHA favorites wouldn’t be complete without some picks from my favorite designer – Tim Holtz!

I knew as soon as I saw the preview of these that I would love them, and after seeing them demo’d and getting to try them myself, I know I am right. Tim Holtz’s new Distress Markers line from Ranger will definitely revolutionize the way that I use my stamps, and even change what stamps I buy since I now have an easy way to use multiple ink colors on the same stamp.

The only question now is whether I will assemble a collection of these little by little, as I’ve done my Distress Ink pads, or will just jump right in with the full set immediately.

Although I love my Sizzix Big Shot machine, I have not yet invested in an alphabet die for it. It’s almost like I had been waiting for this without knowing it!

This new Word Play die from Tim Holtz is a fabulous, versatile font in a great size, and the steel rule die will cut all sorts of materials. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Even better than the alphabet may be the new stencil number die:

These stencil numbers are Movers and Shapers dies, and the perfect size for cutting inside the #8 tag in the Tag & Bookplates die. They will be fabulous for working on the tag album that I am making to count off the months that my husband is away.

Of course, there is plenty more on my CHA Winter 2012 wish list…this is just some of the highlights. I look forward this season to not only getting some beautiful consumable supplies that will make me happy to use, but acquiring some new tools that will also serve me for a long time to come.