home, paper, scissors

Yesterday, I received a copy of home, paper, scissors by designer friend, Patricia Zapata, and I am telling you...I am blown away! I was on my lunch break from work and could not put the book down. I was hypnotized from front to back, amazed at all the great, fun projects that are tucked within. It actually made me think how fun it would be to play hookie from work for the rest of the day so that I could have a secret love affair with a paper craft project!

Patricia not only provides a lot of great paper craft ideas but gives good instruction on how to complete them, including supplies needed and approximate time it takes to complete them. Another thing that Patricia included, that I really do appreciate, is a description of different papers. It's very informative to those that are not only a novice to paper crafting but even a helpful guide to those who aren't.

And if you are budget conscious, these are actually really affordable crafts to make for gifts. I know of a couple of events coming up where some of these ideas could really be fun and cost effective to make. And Christmas will be here before we know it!

Please check out Patricia's blogs: A Little Hut and Crafty Synergy. She offers more fun and inspirational projects. You can also find out more about her and home, paper, scissors there as well.

You can also purchase home, paper, scissors at Random House, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders.

An Invitation a 15 year old Might Approve of...

My oldest son is turning 15 in a few weeks. It doesn't seem possible at all. Where did that time go? Seriously. He's now at the age where looking cool and impressing people seems like an important aspect of his life. He's now officially in high school and a football player. So he's automatically grandfathered into a cool club he thinks. LOL Oh if only it were that easy...

Anyhow- I have been horrible about keeping up on this blog, posting consistently. I have also been a slacker of the creative realm. Doesn't mean my creative brain isn't going non-stop. Just that I haven't made time for myself to develop some of those cool ideas into something more tangible. Such a shame. Such a waste. However, I am wanting to improve upon that. I need to.

I was feeling as though I needed to work on something just to jumpstart things again. Or try. Other than some doodle-cards I need to work on for an exchange I signed up for, I really didn't have anything else to work on. Well, let me rephrase that...I had stuff to work on, but just haven't. That's sort of a long story that I'll work out for later. But anyhow- I was thinking about any birthdays or holidays coming up very very soon that would call for a quick and fun invite or greeting and realized that my son's birthday is coming up....We're not doing anything major this year. Just going to get some pizzas, have cake and ice cream and that sort of thing. Really laid back. But still, I figured that it would be a good excuse to come up with something, right?! Why not? So I had fun playing with type and whipped up something that a 15 year old would approve of. (And believe me, if he didn't like them, he'd let me know! LOL)

Best Day Ever!

July 23, 2009- Cheyenne, Wyoming

(Poster I designed that also sports the invitations I made for my daughter's birthday party!)

Several months ago, I blogged about some Taylor Swift themed birthday party invitations that I designed for my daughter's 10th birthday. I learned to never underestimate the power of blogging from that particular post! There have been a lot of times that I would often wonder how many people really do read my blog, if anyone reads it at all. So you can only imagine my shock when I was contacted about my post and given the most awesome opportunity to take my daughter and the rest of my family to meet Taylor Swift and go to her concert in Cheyenne, Wyoming during Frontier Days on July 23rd! If you read my post about the invitations, you can only imagine the excitement my daughter had when I was able to share the news with her! But what little girl wouldn't have been excited, right?! It was the most awesome gift for my daughter's birthday and I wish I could properly thank the people that gave us the opportunity.

Standing in line at the Meet & Greet, ready to burst! "We get to meet TAYLOR SWIFT!!!"

Check out our awesome Taylor Swift armbands!

It seemed things worked out so that my daughter could invite a friend to go with us to the concert. My oldest son went to New Orleans with our church youth group before the concert and didn’t get back until after. So, it just worked out that the rest of our family and my daughter’s one friend could all go. My daughter was so happy she could take a friend to share the experience with- I designed a fun poster for them to have signed by Taylor. When we were standing in line waiting to meet her at the Meet & Greet before the concert, the girls were worried that they might not be able to get the posters signed. My daughter was so nervous…so worried that her brothers were going to embarrass her (brothers usually do! LOL) But she was also ready to just burst with excitement. Taylor seemed to really like the girls' posters and she also signed a couple of the invitations that I made that the boys were wearing. My daughter had a million questions to ask Taylor and I am sure that if we had been able to spend more time with her, she probably would have had her ear talked off! LOL

While we were standing in line, a woman passed by me, patting me on the arm and said, “Hey, Mom!” It wasn’t until after she had passed that I realized that it was Taylor’s mom. I wish that I could have been able to talk to her a little bit. Considering that I am a mom of a girl who has big dreams, it would have been really cool to talk to her. But sadly, I missed that window of opportunity. Perhaps there will be another time?!

We were able to have a group photo taken with Taylor and it turned out awesome- we're definitely going to cherish it forever! I wish we could have gotten a shot of the girls alone with Taylor, too. But for what time we did have with her and the opportunity that was given to us- it's far more than what we could have ever asked for! Taylor is such a sweet girl in person, too. I mean, I am sure she hears from fans about how great she is, how beautiful, how talented (and she truly is!) but she shows such affection and gratefulness to her fans as well. It's no wonder that so many girls like my daughter look up to her and are inspired by her. She's really an amazing girl and I am so happy for her, for all the success that has come to her!

CHEESE! All of us with Taylor Swift....how AWESOME!!!

After the Meet & Greet, we went to the concert- There were a few issues and we did quite a bit of running around to get into the concert, but we finally managed to get in! The girls got their prized Taylor Swift tees and had the best time ever! Luckily, where we were, there was plenty of dancing room! It turned out to be one of the best days ever for the kids! Huge thanks to Taylor Swift, her managers and everyone else involved in helping make this an awesome experience for all of us! It’s a memory that we’ll all have for the rest of our lives. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

The concert just can't be complete without new Taylor Swift tees!

Best of Friends!

"Love Story"




The new Taylor Swift dance team!

This was the BEST DAY EVER!!!

XOXO