CREDITS:

Digital scrap items in the header, layouts and sidebar are by Miss Mint at PeppermintCreative.com or Jen Wilson at JenWilsonDesigns.com

Friday, March 7, 2008

Blinkies, Too

These days I have been having a little fun making blinkies. Like I needed anything else to do on the computer, right? Here is one I made for Jen Wilson fans:



Now this is sort of an inside joke. Allison (aka:Alienhard) on our CT loves the chicken wire elements Jen has in some of her 2006/2007 kits. In fact, she uses it so much that people started poking fun at her and she totally played it up, single-handedly starting a chicken wire craze. I thought the whole thing deserved a blinkie!


Next is the new blinkie I made for myself:



No one can keep track of my real name, my nick name and my screen name because they all appear to have nothing to do with each other. The blinkie is nice for identifying myself in a humorous way.

There are some projects & new things coming up at both PC & JW that will probably "need" blinkies so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of my work in the near future! Meanwhile, if you're crazy about chicken wire, too, feel free to grab the blinkie!

It's Friday

And I feel like my to-do list is never ending! Today I get to run up to Lowe's for a stove guard and knob covers so my aspiring little chef will quit trying to turn on the gas stove. Especially after I have left pot holders or something equally flammable sitting on top of the stove! Geez, that boy is in to everything!

I was telling Brian about how Aiden looooooves to press all the buttons on our stack of electronics by the TV. Sure, he gets a kick out of turning the cable box on & off but what he really likes is the XBox. (I swear, do they engineer these things to be instantly appealing to ANYONE with a Y chromosome???) Any ways, Aiden loves to hit the big buton, see it flash green while the thing powers up and watch the disk tray open. Equally entertaining is hitting the button again to see the tray close and the XBox power down. He does this six or seventeen times in a row. I'm sure Brian doesn't appreciate the sticky fingerprints & cheerio smears Aiden leaves all over it but this little ritual of his is actually good for him. In a world where he can control so very little, the XBox responds to his every whim and puts him in charge. Bet you never thought a power button could hold the key to your child relieving some of their stress! Oddly enough, when Aiden has reached the end of his patience, usually because I won't let him pull knives out of the dishwasher to play with, I have found myself mindlessly setting him down near the XBox. Sure, his toys are close by but that big black box of boyish videogame fun with it's simple flashing buttons is a sure-fire way to give our stubborn little man something instantly gratifying that he can control. Even better, it belongs to dad and since it isn't brightly colored, it obviously is not a toy and MUST be off-limits. No wonder my little rule-breaker is so enthralled with it!

I can hear Aiden waking up from his nap. Dang. I thought for sure that playdate this morning would have knocked him out for at least two hours. Oh, well. Lowe's, here we come!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Scrappers, Have A Few Extra Bucks?

I have been really enjoying these 75¢ goodies. Take a peek and pick them up. You'll love having them on-hand: (images are linked to the product pages)




These little fabric swatches are AWESOME! Jen has somehow managed to give them incredible texture and realism, complete with stray threads and everything! The frayed edges look great and these can be covered in another paper using a clipping mask. (Ctrl-G or Ctrl-Alt-G for CS2 & 3)



Cute, versatile little fabric tags. Love the various eyelets! I've been using them like tabs & tucking them behind photos, layering them with other elements & journaling on them. A hundred different uses for under a buck!




Purple and hot pink papers by JEN WILSON for only 75¢??? If you have girls, get these! I bought this set before I was on the CT because I really liked the blue, green and ivory shades for Aiden, too.

Looking for light pink & black? Check out THIS other girlie paper pack by Jen!





If you scrap for boys, you know how impossible it is to find good papers. I know these look like plain old solids but they're not. They're heavily textured with a fabulous roughed-up edge and lots of grit & grime! Every color in the "Second Six" solid pack - shown first on here - is gorgeous and sooooo useful! I also love the brown paper in the "First Six" pack, shown second.

You can pair these with ANY other paper for a great looking page. I really like dots & stripes and am forever searching for a unique, grungy solid to complement my favorite patterns from other paper packs. This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for!

The sock monster keeps dropping off new little finds every 48 hours or so. I'll continue to post my favorite new scrap items here so you can get in on the good deals, too!

PC News: Look for new goodies late this week! (Maybe into the weekend.) I don't have any details that I can share, other than Miss Mint has been working on a dozen different projects!

JW News: The ice storm in Canada has taken out Jen's internet. Of course, no new goodies or challenges are going to be posted until she's back on. Until then, take my word and get the sock monster items while they're still priced low!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

What's New

Oh, there are a dozen different things going on over here! Let's start with the most obvious. I have added a few little scrapped category titles to my blog, which were inspired by the incredible blogs of some of the gals on my new CT. Here is Teresa's gorgeous blog with it's cutesy font titles and this is Jayne's stunning blog with her doodle category headers! (I also LOVE her friend Kim's blog. Kim owns this darling apron boutique and has a great eye for colors!) You may have noticed on some of my pages that I have gotten into punky skulls for Aiden and when I saw that Jayne's scrapped header had one with a hairbow, I just had to use that idea! (Okay, now run along and copy the scrapped titles so we can all have trendy blogs!)

Next, all the activity over at Jen Wilson Designs has been entirely too much fun. I have been chatting with the gals until the wee hours of the morning, submitting ideas and just contributing to the general mayhem on the forums. The challenges are going beautifully and if you haven't been playing along, or ever shopped with Jen, you might want to head on over to JWD and see what is up. While you're there, you can snag some of her 75¢ items that the "Sock Monster" has been leaving us during the launch of her Laundry Line collection. (The papers are a MUST at this price. Jen is a big-name designer who is famous for her papers. Trust me, the depth and texture is amazing!)

Case in point, here is the layout I scrapped for the fifth challenge:



The sixth challenge will be posted sometime tomorrow so if you want to scrap along and try to win some prizes, come join us!

Other new stuff: the playroom is getting lots of use, although some of the larger aspects of the project have been put on hold. I've had the first of my spring bead orders arrive and I'm preparing for the Easter rush, which is just beginning to hit. Some of my cat eye bead colors are no longer available, because of dye lot differences, so if you had your heart set on something GET OVER HERE BEFORE IT'S GONE! Spring is my busiest time of year and it doesn't slow down until after July 4th. I get a month to re-stock and then back-to-school orders for fall begin to pour in. I wish I could say there is a new trend in jewelry but it's kind of the same old stuff. Bright multi bracelets for spring have been popular, purple is picking up and brown & brights together have been a frequent request. I am kind of excited to get a break to play in my beads so I can make myself jewelry to match some of the new shirts I ordered online. (But that break won't come until late March when Jen & Miss Mint are done with all the product debuts and Aiden's birthday is over.)

PC News: Miss Mint has been very quiet and hard at work on several things! Something fabulous is on it's way! It's the first of the month so start watching the site for new products and other fun news. ;)

WHEW! I think that is it for this afternoon! I'll try to break away and post more as I get word on new products and can *finally* share some of the fun, secret things these designers have been working on!