It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love Christmas. My favorite time of the year!! There is something so wonderfully magical about seeing all the beautiful lights and most of all, knowing the true meaning of the season.

Christmas was always a huge deal at our house. My parents always had such a way of making us feel special. Mom & Dad's gifts to us were wrapped under our tree. But Santa left everything displayed around our fireplace. I still remember the excitement I felt when Mom & Dad would announce that my brother, sister and I could come out to the living room and see what Santa brought. It was good being a kid! And it's even better being able to look back on fun childhood memories such as this and knowing we were so loved.

Probably one of the best gifts my parents gave us though was taking us to church each Sunday so that we could hear about Jesus. That was the most important gift of all. And it's the one I'm most appreciative of.

Anyway, so on with the excitement of this past week:

Monday night I had a fantastic time with the ladies from our church. We had a special evening of fellowship, food, singing Christmas carols... and the revealing of who our Secret Sister has been. It was so much fun!! As it turns out, the person I was giving to was the same person who was giving to me! And she is one of the sweetest ladies you would ever meet! I hope to get to know her better in the months to come. She has blessed me so much with her thoughtfulness.

On Saturday, Cheryl threw a Christmas party at the Shoppe for all of us who participated in Secret Sister there as well! Again, a great time! Of course there was eating....and these ladies sure can cook!! And we exchanged gifts with our Secret Sisters for the last time. Again, I had a sweet Secret Sister.

I thought I'd share what I made for my Secret Sister. Last year, Cheryl taught a calendar class which was wonderful. It's a calendar that hangs from a banana tree...what a fun idea!! I never got around to finishing mine back then, but decided to give it another whirl, in hopes of giving my Secret Sister something handmade. If you want to check out the class project, here is the link: http://scrapbookshoppe.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-02-05T15%3A03%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=20 (scroll down to the Nov. 10/08 post).

Here is the one I made:

I think the August page is my favorite. I just love all the bright colors and the cute umbrella! And lots of bling throughout which is incredibly Shelley-like! LOL If any of you are wondering, most of the embellishments I used for these pages were made with the Cricut (using many different cartridges).

Thanks for looking! Wishing all of you a fantastic week!!

My latest creation!

Thought I'd share a picture of what I created tonight. I'm sure most of you by now have seen the huge fun diecuts at the Shoppe. Well, I bought three of them. One for a layout of Bailey (our Westie). The other two I intended to layer to make a layout of Muffin.

Here is what I came up with after playing around for a bit. I'm planning on sharing the whole layout once it is done, but for now, you get a sneak peek at my Muffin diecut.

I forgot to take a picture of the Muffin pieces before I worked with them so I'll show you a picture of what the white version of the same diecut looks like.

Very cute, but a little plain. Now, let's see what a little ink, chalk and some bling can do:

Okay, so I see now that the dog is turned the wrong way in the first picture. Oh well. You get the idea. LOL

All I did was simply buy two diecuts...one in light brown and one in dark. I cut pieces out of the darker diecut and glued them on top of the lighter brown dog. Very, very easy. In fact, the diecuts have little detailing/slits all over it, which can serve as a guide on where to cut.

Hope this inspires you to create something fun of your own!!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Another new class!

In case some of you have not seen this yet, I wanted to post about another great class that is going on this Saturday at the Shoppe. Jill is my friend and a new instructor to the Shoppe! You will absolutely love her! She has made an adorable layout that I'm sure you're not going to want to miss.

Here is a little looks-ie:

The birds on this actually have feathers!! Sooo cute!! Great for pictures of friends... or this would even be perfect for a fun spring time/Easter layout. Class is from 10:30-12:30 this Saturday and kits are available if you're not able to attend. Don't miss out~call today to reserve your spot! 706-321-0202

Elmo class!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones!!

There is still time if you'd like to sign up for the next in our Sesame Street series. This class project features Elmo, along with his cute gold fish Dorothy! Class is scheduled for this Saturday, December 5th from 1-3 p.m. (kits are available if you're not able to attend that day). Please register by calling 706-321-0202.

Also, just a reminder for all classes: If you register and find you are not able to attend the day of class, please, if at all possible, call to let us know. This ensures that classes can start on time and that the instructors are not having to put kits together at the last minute. Thanks so much!

Now, on to the fun! :o) Here is what we will be making:

In case some of you will be attending the "Elmo's Green Thumb" show at the Civic Center, I decided to incorporate some cute sunflowers into this layout. If you haven't heard about Sesame Street Live coming to Columbus, you can get all the details here:

http://sesamestreetlive.com/shows/elmos-green-thumb

Hope to see you on Saturday!!

You can make a difference!

Anyone who knows me is quite familiar with how much of a dog lover I am. And this weekend while at Petsmart having Bailey and Muffin groomed, I discovered the sweetest furbaby there in a cage. Her face absolutely melted my heart.

Her name is Lola and she is a Lhaso Apso. She is beautiful beyond words. I would have adopted her in a second, except she suffers from seizures, and being in a wheelchair, I don't think I can give her the care she would deserve. But I can tell you about her in hopes that someone here can be that loving home for her. The people at Safe Haven animal shelter have told me the medication she needs is cheap...about $10/month. (I believe it was Safe Haven. If not, you can ask the people at Petsmart...the workers wore dark green shirts and were located near the fish dept.) The number for Safe Haven is (706) 582-3629. The number for our local Petsmart is 76-323-6788.

Please, if anyone reading this is looking for a pet, I hope you'll consider adopting her. And if you do, I would love it if you left me a note. Knowing this precious doggie got her forever home would absolutely make my Christmas!!

Reminder

In case some of you reading do not receive the Shoppe's newsletter...or even if you do, I thought I'd put a little reminder on my blog about the great deal Cheryl is offering for Black Friday.

Every gift certificate purchased on Friday, November 27th (from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. only!) will receive an extra 10% upgrade! So for example, if you purchase a $25 gift certifcate, you will get $27.50 instead. How great is THAT???

If any of you are participating in the Secret Sister swap at the Shoppe, what a fantastic idea for an end of the year gift! Or, perhaps you have a friend who likes to scrapbook. Heck, considering the upgrade, it might be worth it to even purchase one for yourself! Who doesn't love a little extra spending money...to you, from you! :o)

And ahem...now that I've done my own personal shopping...lol

If you haven't had a chance to drop in lately, Cheryl has some gorgeous new Christmas papers and embellishments in stock. Some have an elegant, vintage touch...and others are just as cute as can be! Just go to the back of the store in the holiday section to check out all the pretties for yourself. I can guarantee you, you're not going to want to miss out on any of it! And if you're working on layouts after a fun-filled Halloween, there is still a great selection of adorable papers for that as well!

Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend!

Facebook fans or fellow bloggers...check this out!

Found this in my online travels and thought some of you might like to try it. There is this wonderful website called Scrappin Blogs that has all kinds of beautiful templates either for your blog or...your FACEBOOK page!! Yes folks, you can now customize your Facebook profile however you would like it. There are all kinds of themes from military, holidays, babies, adoption, animals, flowers...you name it and I'm sure you'll find it there!

http://www.scrappinblogs.blogspot.com/

It's very easy. For your blog, they give you codes for you to add as a html code (under "gadgets").

To use on Facebook, on the right hand side of the home page, you will find "How to use our layouts on Facebook". Click on that. On the next page that comes up, there will be tons of backgrounds for you to choose from. They are on the left hand side of the page, categorized according to theme. Now there is one catch. You will have to download the application to be able to use this. Have no fear though...it's free and they walk you through each step from start to finish.

If you do not see anything you like on these pages, you also have the option of choosing a layout on the main portion of the blog. To do this, you will have to copy and paste the link code they give you there. For each layout there is a designated Facebook code (it's under the picture of each layout). Highlight the FB code of the one you like, hold down your Control button and push c (for copy). Then click on the "How to use our layouts on Facebook". On the next screen, you will see a big green button that says "Create Your Own Background". Click that. You want your background color to be white, so choose that. The next screen will be where you put in your link. Click on the empty box. Hold down the Control button again and push v (paste). Once your link code is written in that box, hit the "load button". Then, next step. Choose the color for the font you would like. (I usually just choose black as I find it to be the most versatile). Next step again. Add a layout name if you want...I never do. Then, hit the save and publish button.

When you go to your FB page, you may have to reload it to see your updated background. Now not only will you have a gorgeous background, but you can also see the ones your friends may have!!

Enjoy!

Happy Fall!

I would like to start out by wishing my Mom the Happiest Birthday EVER!! Love you Mom and hope you are having a wonderful birthday!! xoxox!!

Okay now back to business...

It has been brought to my attention that at least one of the class projects is not on my blog. So, for anyone who ordered a kit for the "Babies are a Blessing" class, here is the class sample:

If there are any others you would like to see that are not currently on my blog, please leave me a message and I'd be more than happy to do that.

In other news...

Last Friday we had a Halloween crop at the Shoppe. There were alot of people who decided to dress up this time, so it was tons of fun! I decided to embrace my quirky sense of humour this year and go as...are you ready for this? "Meals on Wheels"! LOL Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure (or a good laugh...whichever may be the case). A huge thanks to both Cheryl and Bob for their contribution to my costume.

I also made up a complete Halloween menu. I went around taking "orders" and served the customers a little diecut on each plate (to be later used for their Halloween scrapbook pages). It was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of my taking my friend Kay's order...doesn't she make the cutest witch?? The tulle around her hat had spiders on it!

Daisy Duck, a Joker and a Witch all made an appearance. But I think one of my personal favorites were the costumes my friends Janice and Theresa wore. The came as a pair..."Sick & Tired". Theresa spent a good portion of the night with a thermometer in the corner of her mouth and giving out "pills" to everyone who would like some. It was pee in your pants hilarious! The "pills" were all kinds of great candy like peppermints, M&Ms...all kinds of good stuff. So, we were all too happy to take that kind of medicine! ;o)

And with all that excitement going on last week, I still managed to get a couple of sample pages done for the store. Please note: These are not upcoming classes, but rather pages that are featured at the store to give you a bit of inspiration on how to use some of the papers for sale.

I used some cute Pumpkin paper that Cheryl had at the store to make both of these layouts. For the fall page, I used the actual paper. For the "Pirate Princess", I used the pumpkin paper only as a template for the carriage. So, one piece of paper served two totally different purposes.

One other thing before I sign off for now....keep checking back because soon the next Sesame Street class project will be posted here. This time the character of the month will be none other than ELMO!!

Have a great day everybody!!

Class info and some other stuff...

Hi Everyone,

I hope you're having a wonderful week! I had a few things I would like to mention. First, there is still time to register for our "Cookie Monster" class this Saturday. If you want to ensure your spot, please call and sign up today (706-321-0202). Registration will soon be closing.

The other thing I wanted to blog about is more really an FYI. Last week, hubby and I decided to take a little trip to Panama City Beach for some R & R. Well, one particular store we went to had the cutest pink hat. It had the word "hope" embroidered on it as well as the breast cancer ribbon also on it.

I think that most of us know and maybe even love someone who has been affected by this terrible disease. And so, like many, I love to buy things that hopefully contribute to research. So, I take the hat up to the sales lady and inquire how much of the purchase goes to Breast Cancer research. Now to be honest, that is something I cannot ever recall doing. But yet, I did that particular day. Anyway, to make a long story short, the lady said "Oh, nothing for that item, but we do have these other products where a donation is given."

Now something about that seems wrong to me. I'm all for raising awareness, but I think it's also important that people do not use something like the breast cancer ribbon for simply a marketing ploy. To be honest, it made me appalled as a consumer. I realize changing the rules is probably not within my power. But, I can certainly use my blog to make others aware so that we CAN get the donations toward this great cause and support those companies that DO make this a priority.
I wish you all love, happiness, health and happy scrappin'...
Shelley

Money saving tip alert!!

I'm back to the blogging world with a fun new tip to share! Glue dots are wonderful for adhering embellishments to our pages. But we all know how expensive they can be when you use a lot.

So, in my online travels, I found a wonderful idea for making your own homemade dots using glue! All you will need is a bottle of "Aleene's Tack It Over and Over", and an old empty sticker sheet from your stash. Some people have tried using wax paper but apparently, it will NOT work for this purpose.

Cheryl just received a shipment of the Tack It today so if you're interested, stop by to pick some up. Each bottle retails for $4.59 and will make TONS of dots! The best part about this is you can make yours any size you like. Maybe even try making some lines to adhere your favorite ribbon to your layouts!


Apply the glue to your sticker sheet as shown. (Make sure you use the glossy side of your sticker sheet so that the glue dots will peel off easier later.) Allow your dots to dry overnight. The dots will turn clear when they are ready to use.


Hope you enjoyed this tip. Be on the lookout for some more great ideas in the near future!