Inspiration Unlimited 2012

For my long time followers you might remember that I had the fun privilege of teaching at Pre-Inspiration Unlimited last year. It's Teresa Collins' premier scrapbooking event held at Green Valley Ranch outside of Vegas about this time every year. And last year, it was my first ever event that I stayed and attended as a student and LOVED every minute of it!!

So when I was asked again if I'd like to teach and attend again this year, I said absolutely. Now I don't want you to think I get in as a student for free...I don't. I pay the same tuition as the other students and I am spoiled just as much as the other students and I LOVE it all!! Teresa and her team are amazing hosts and this event is beyond amazing thanks to Ginger from Down to Details. She coordinates EVERYTHING and makes everything so much more amazing.

Here's a sneak peek of the classes I'll be teaching at "Pre-Inspiration Unlimited" this year. This day of classes is open to ANYONE in the area that would like to sign-up at attend. Or heck with this short of notice, drop by the Green Valley Ranch and see what classes are still open. I know my Doodlebug and Echo Park/Kiwi Lane classes haven't filled up completely.

Doodlebug Cards & More

Sponsored by Doodlebug

Echo Park + Kiwi Lane Layout Class

Spooky Decor Class

Sponsored by Imaginisce

Handmade Funny Birthday Cards

I created these Handmade Funny Birthday Cards for the Cricut Circle magazine. I thought I'd share them with you now. Both were created with my nifty Cricut Expression, Gypsy and the yummy papers from Echo Park's For the Record Collection. 

What's the funniest Birthday Card you've even made or received??

Favorite Finds: Doodlebug, Echo Park, Stkr.it QR Code Stickers

I thought I'd share some of my favorite finds from recent blog surfing, pictures from CHA and other email blasts I receive daily. First I cannot overlook the yummiest product I've seen in a while and that would be the DEVINE twine styled products that Doodlebug introduced recently. How cleaver that they'd come up with cardstock stickers that LOOK like you wrote with your twine. Yes, I have a slight obsession with twine. The image below doesn't show all the colors, but it gives you the general idea. 

And who doesn't love the new collections of Echo Park? They release a couple of great holiday collections but I cannot pick which one I'd rather play with first...so I say just buy them all. And of course a BIG shout out to my girl, Kristine McKay. She designed their new Apothecary Emporium Halloween Collection. I think it's fab and will be well used this season!!  Love me some Echo Park...how about you?

This has to be one of the coolest techie CRAFT idea I've seen in a long time. I've seen small little recorders you have to hide on your scrapbook layouts and cards, talking cards and ways to store a CD-Rom. But this has to be one of the coolest, hippest tech idea for scrapbooks. 

You've probably seen these funky little bar code looking images on ads and products lately. They're called QR codes and most smart phones out there (and my iPad) have QR reader apps that you can download, scan these code images and it takes you to a website, youtube video, song, etc that is online. So imagine how cool it would be to record your baby saying "momma or dadda" and then scrapbook a cute picture of them and add one of these stickers. When you scan in the code after visiting the layout, you're taken to the recording or even better...a VIDEO. Awesome idea, don't you think? 

Visit the write up on the Craft Critique or the Stkr.it Website to see a video on how these QR stickers work...sooooo cool!!

Best Birthday Ever! thank you everyone!!

I wanted to spotlight one of the BEST BIRTHDAYS ever!! But I wasn't sure "where" to start in highlighting the BEST birthday ever...so I thought I'd start with the newest. Today I came home from work to find this fun gift sitting on my table. It's from my very talented friend Tya Smith. And like Tya, I'm a huge GLEE fan and I love homemade gifts. Seriously how cute is this...it combines my total addiction of CHOCOLATE, Dr. Pepper and Glee all in one darling package. 

Check out the cute GLEE BUTTONS on the black pinwheels! 

 Tya, this was my favorite part of the entire gift....mouthwash! LOVE IT!

The Britney Quote: "I don't brush my teeth, I rinse my mouth out
with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure DR. PEPPER was a dentist." How
stinking cute is that...and it has two bottles of Dr. Pepper with it! 

One other gift I had to share, it's this very beautiful Polish Cookware set that my cute sis, Trisha sent me. I was so envious of the one she had when we visited in Seattle, that I couldn't resist hinting that I'd love one. She told me I can bake in it, microwave and wash it in the dishwasher...now if it had come with food it and a person to clean it, it would be perfect. Thanks Trish!! 

GREAT Friends, GOOD Food and FUN Times 

I tell all my friends that the gift of their time is worth so much more to me then anything they could buy me. Although I do love handmade gifts too LOL! I regretfully didn't get pictures of all the GREAT DINNERS I had with all my friends, but here's a quick snap shot of the girls that hung out with me ON my birthday (thanks girls). And thanks to Bridget, Andrea and Amy for all the other nights of fun!! 

Dru, me and Jen partying it up at CK

This gift really touched my heart. First off the film reels are the perfect homage to my obsession with going to the movies! Yes, I love going to the movie theater and seeing just about anything on the big screen...anyway, that's not what touched my heart. It is the darling card with pop-up camera on it that did the job. This gift is from my wonderful BFF Jen. This card was her first homemade card she's ever made for anyone and she made it for ME!! 

The Day of My Birthday....

I decided that I didn't want to work on my birthday and my dear friend Emily from CK had been asking me if I would like to come down and test out a couple of their new 2011 classes. So we combined my day off with her need to have me try out the new classes (which were fabulous)! Emily has been a close friend for years and I love any time I can spend with her (even if it is a little like work). But scrapbooking at CK for the day, with Cafe Rio lunch and great people...couldn't have asked for a better day! 

Look how yummy these little treats are...they're called Bundtinis and oh so yummy. They're from a fun place called Nothing Bundt Cakes. I've never had anything from there before, but I'm addicted, I want more. These were Red Velvet with chocolate chips in them...could have eaten them all. 

Emily brought in this cute town of bundtini goodness, the event team sang Happy Birthday to me and we enjoyed our treats...oh you should note that the are RED!!  

The Day After My Birthday....

Remember I took the day off, so I had to wait until the next day to find this surprise waiting for me at work. I walked in and my friend Bridget handed me all these fun packages. They were all from my AWESOME group of friends and design team girls. They'd all sent me the sweetest handmade cards and small gifts and it was such a sweet surprise. 

Here's most of the cards... a few more came in after I took this picture. Thank you girls...you really made this birthday so awesome!!

One More Memorable Gift

My very handsome and sweet friend Madison from Echo Park, posted this on the Echo Park Facebook page. It took me a little back tracking to figure out why I was getting hundreds and hundreds of people wishing me a happy birthday on the Imaginisce Facebook Wall. Although there was some bribery involved, I was still very touched by the thought. Especially coming from a guy, I'm not even sure most guys would remember someone's birthday that they weren't related to. Thanks Echo Park!! 

I posted this on both the Imaginisce and Echo Park Facebook Walls as a thank you! 

Seriously this is one of the best birthdays ever!! 

Lunch with the Echo Park boys at Malawi Pizza

Back in December my friend and co-worker Bridget had to go to Provo for a meeting. We then went to check out our friends at Echo Park. Madison wanted me to see his swanky offices and I jumped at the chance. But the best part of the visit was where went to lunch. The EP boys introduced us to a yummy place called Malawi's Pizza. 

First, don't you love their tag line...this was destine to be my favorite new find with a tag line that read "Pizza with a Purpose!" What they mean by that, is for every meal you purchase they will turn around and feed a family a meal in Malawi, Africa. How cool is that?? 

 The food choices were amazing. I love pizza, but they have gorgeous looking salads (haven't tried one). We also ordered lasagna...yum! Their menu was vast and also included tons of pasta and sandwich choices as well. The prices are typically around $10 and well worth every penny.

Here's some pictures of the yummy flat cheese bread and my check pesto pizza (with asparagus).

 Isn't the interior gorgeous!! Thanks Madison and Jody for a fun lunch (a month ago). If you live in the area, I would highly recommend stopping by Malawi Pizza.

Sneak Peek of My Weekend Projects

I've been busy being crafty all weekend, sacrificing sleep and peace in my home. Regretfully I can only show you a couple sneak peeks. I have so many more projects I need to finish up and I'll try and post what I can. Most of my projects were for my upcoming Good Things Utah segment this Wednesday...I'll post those with the video probably on Thursday.

But these are a couple projects I was working on for the Cricut Circle Magazine for December. Loved how this turned out...sorry you can't see the whole thing! It's made with Echo Park's Wintertime paper!!

This is a fun project using my Cricut, some vinyl and Etching cream...so addicted to this. I think I'm going to etch everyone something for Christmas. Wouldn't it be cute to etch people's names on some glass plates and give them to them with cookies on them....just don't want to make the cookies!! 

This was a fun project I did using The Girls Paperie Holiday (travel) collection. At first I have to be honest, I was worried I wouldn't be able to pull off anything I'd like, the papers are all so different and don't really compliment each other, but with a little Bazzill cardstock and my Cricut I ended up loving my end projects. Regretfully for now only the Cricut Circle members will get to see what this looked like when it was complete.

Be sure to stop by later this week. I have a fun giveaway on my blog this Wednesday!! It will be worth coming back for (I promise)!!

My New Tool: Martha Stewart Scoreboard

I've wanted one of these Martha Stewart Scoreboards for a while now, but it was a blog post for a mini fold book by Lisa Johnson that totally had me hooked. When I find a tool I know I must own it sort of nags at me until I finally buy it...which I did. And I took it with me to a weekend crop to give it a try.  

Here's what I created with my new Martha Steward Scoreboard. I saw this fun Shutter Card on the Scor-Pal website and thought I'd give it a try. After a couple of attempts and adjustments to size, I finally found my groove (ha, ha) and created this beautiful card with Teresa Collins Giving Thanks Collection. 

Then I created this Candy Bar Card from another pattern I found on the Scor-Pal website. It's super easy to make once you figure out the directions.

And if you have ever tired making these pin wheel flowers without a scoring board then you know how hard it is to get it to turn out right. 

It fits those oversized Hershey or Symphony Bars...cute huh?? I created this fun card with the new Everybody Loves Christmas collection by Echo Park. And don't you love my Devine Twine on the card??

Now a little bit about the Martha Stewart Scoreboard, you should know that it's really reasonably priced. It's only $19.99 at most stores and it's competitor, Score-pal retailers for almost twice that ($39.99). And if you'd like to read a sweet review on this, check out Erin Bassett's post over on the Craft Critique.

My recommendation...buy one! Other then it's another tool you have to figure out how to store, it's a great product to own!!

My First Scrapfest...

Some of you have asked me what the heck "Scrapfest" was and why I was at Mall of America for three days....obviously these are my non-scrapper friends. Scrapfest is a three day event hosted by Archivers and held in the huge Mall of America in Minnesota. We don't actually "sell" product to the 10,000 attendees, but we do hold daily demos (also known as Make & Takes) and teach classes. Let me tell you, I explained how the i-top tool works so many times that I even dreamt about the tool!! 

It all started with a quick kids meal at Arby's once we hit the enormous mall...but my most favorite part of Scrapfest are the people, my friends from the industry and fans I've chatted with online but met for the first time!!

We were lucky enough to score the Archiver's classroom which made it much easier to get personal and really work one-on-one with all of our amazing ladies. Thanks for reminding me why I love teaching so much!!

Sometimes you have to get a little goofy...this was after a long, long day of working!

Amy

I did all the shark pictures because my daughter has a recent fascination with sharks...so these are for her.

Yes, when you have a few minutes to eat your banana then you have to take it!!

So Sunday was the only day we didn't have an early morning and we were VERY excited to sleep in. That was until 6:30am when the fire alarm in our hotel went off and we all had to evacuate. One plus...gorgeous sunrise!

Here we are with all the evacuate-ees of our hotel...we later found out someone was heating up their bagel in the microwave in their room and over cooked it. The smoke set off the smoke alarm!!

We ate at a couple of fun places while in Minneapolis area. Our co-workers Nicole & Matt Holmes (Matt grew up in the area) took us to Fat Lorenzo's...favorite local spot for pizza and it was yummy!! It was my friend time trying Gelato and all I can say is ..."why did I wait so long...yummmm!"

We had so much fun eating out at Twin City Grill with Julia Sandvoss (Glue Arts) and Madison Parker (Echo Park) the first night we hit town. We laughed and laughed and the food was amazing!!

I had so much fun! I forgot how much I LOVE teaching consumer classes and working a consumer event...loved everyone I met and cannot wait to return next year.

I posted more pictures over on the Imaginisce blog as well...check it out if you want to see more!