Are you able to truly tell your stories? A storyteller's tale.

I’m participating in a Blog Link-up with Kris (With a K), from www.withakwriting.com, because she wants to hear about the role writing plays in our businesses.

She is giving a Writing Workshop for entrepreneurs and bloggers, starting May 25th,  and she wants to give away a scholarship to one of the lovely bloggers who participate in this link up. You can participate and get a chance to win too.

Just copy and paste this piece of text into the introduction of your blog post answering the question, “How has writing been beneficial to your business, and what do you want to Craft with your Voice next?” Link back to this post, so any of your friends who are entering will be able to find it for more info.

Finally, go back to Kris’s blog on or after May 12th to add your link to the link-up party there, and you could win a scholarship to her new course: Craft Your Voice. She’ll be drawing a name on the 18th of May for a full scholarship to the 6 week writing course, so you can write and link-up your post any time before then.

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The first time I met up with Kris in August, it was more like meeting up with an old friend rather than someone who I had only recently met online.  She is a wonderful storyteller as well, and we chatted for hours telling stories.  Stories deepen our relationships with one another because we really get to know someone, really know who they are on a deeper level, through sharing their life stories, both big and small.

As I venture into a new 'BIG' Adventure (more details coming soon!), I want to be able to not only use storytelling in my writing as I teach classes, but also to teach others to tell their stories and understand how important their stories truly are.  

I also want my voice to help craft new relationships as I teach.  As a great story captures your attention from the start, draws you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat, I want my teaching voice to do the same.  I would love to bring more energy and flare to my storytelling both in the stories I tell in my scrapbooks, but also as I teach my classes.

Are you a storyteller?  What stories do you love to tell?  Please share in the comments!

 

How you can make paper lace and doilies with your Silhouette

I used these fantastic digital lace edge fonts from creationcassel.com with my Silhouette to make these fun doilies and lace.  The lace border gave this card an elegant feel.

I bet you are asking why don't I just use a store bought doily?  Well, with these fonts I can chose my own design from a large range and without having to buy an entire package of the same design and I can make it any size I want.  Also, those store bought doilies are thin and flimsy and with these fonts I can add stitching holes to a nice sturdy piece of cardstock and stitch a border.  See this previous post to learn how to add stitching holes.

Store bought doilies and lace are usually white, but with these fonts I can chose any colour I want, like this mint for example :D

 

Some helpful tips:
*Use upper case versions of the fonts, they will cut easier.
*They take a while to cut, so be patient, it's worth the wait.
*Use the toggle button on your Silhouette to get the design to wrap around a circle to make a doily.
*Some of the designs are more intricate than others so they are a bit harder to cut out, so if you want to use one of these, then make sure you enlarge it.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Hurry and grab a set today and get cutting :D

Lace Edge fonts

Tips to help you prepare for your next class or event

So I'm going to Version Scrap in Paris in 2 days and I am so giddy!! I'm taking classes from Debby Schuh and Ali Edwards.  I've just finished packing and I realised that I've got it down to a system and I'm pretty good at it ;)

Here are some tips to help you pack for your next class or event so that you are prepared and organised without overpacking but are ready to scrapbook!

I'm packing a lot of my stuff in a Cath Kidston bag, jsut for Debby ;)

If you are taking multiple classes with very different supply lists, then pack a different bag for each class.  For example if you are taking one class that has a lot of messy paints and inks, keep them in a separate bag from your paper trimmer and crop-a-dile for that next, less messy class.

Better yet, if you can, try and schedule all the messy classes on one day and the more paper-only classes on another.  We did this a few years ago, we took all of Donna Doney's classes on one day and Debby Schuh's the next to minimise the amount of things we needed to bring each day.

Don't over pack.  If you feel like you'll want to add your own embellishments in addition to the supplies that are included in the kit, wait until you get home. Otherwise you'll have to bring a tonne of stuff to make sure you have enough choice.  Am I right? ;)

If the teacher asks you to prepare things before hand, make sure you do it.  Even if you end up not finishing the project and you feel like that prep could have been done afterwards, do it beforehand anyway!  I find that I make more effort to finish a project if I've put a lot of work into it before hand, like priniting photos.

Here are all my photos and notes for the Day in the Life that I documented for Ali's class.  It's all tucked into one of my take along memory keepers.  and see that cute little Paris tag, it's from the Cut Shoppe!

Since I'll be out of the country, I won't have much access to internet, but when I do I'll be posting photos to Instagram, you can follow me here!

5 awesome cool things that you didn't know your Silhouette could do :D

 

1. Did you know that included in the free cutfiles that come with your Silhouette there is one to help you customise your control panel?

 

2.  If you use scraps on your mat to cut out different colours for your design you can not only use up your scraps instead of a new sheet of cardstock, you can also cut all of the pieces at once so that you don't have to keep coming back to cut each individual colour.

 

cutfile from the Cut Shoppe

3.  Have you noticed this funny little hole on your Silhouette?  At first I thought it was just a place to hold the ratchet-y thing that you use to change the blade setting.  but it just kept falling off and getting lost and then I may or may not have used my teeth to change the blade setting ;)  Recently I found out that it actually is a built-in ratchet!  Wow, do my teeth feel stupid ;)

 

4. Did you ever have a cutfile you loved but it was just a little too thick or too thin?  Or maybe you wanted to mat it with another cut?  I've tried to adjust images and text before by changing the size, but the dimensions were still too thick or thin. And when I tried to mat things this way the images or text didn't line up.  I just discovered the Offset function! It's fantastic for making things the thickness you want or adding mats!

I love taking cutfiles from the Cut Shoppe and making them really big, but I find they get too thick, so I love to use the Offset function to thin them out and make them look their best.

5.  I recently posted this layout where I used my Silhouette to make the holes for the stitching.  I thought I could use one of the dotted lines in the Line Style function, but they were too 'dash-y' and I needed holes.  A quick google search turned up a tutorial by Corri Garza that showed me how to run a text along the outside of my cutfile, a text with only periods that would then be just a bunch of circles.

Let's talk about Planners!! - the Paperclipping Roundtable

You can listen to us here!

I thought I'd share some photos of my planner :D

It's a faux-dori, or more specifically a fab-dori (made from fabric) and I got it from Cake Paperie on etsy :D  It came with a plain elastic but I added some ribbons and a Tardis charm to make the cover a bit prettier.  There's still a bit of elastic on the back so that it's easy to open.

There are 4 elastics inside to hold my books and right now I have a take along, and 3 moleskines. The take along is for my trip to Paris in a couple of weeks, one moleskine is for planning my days and household stuff and another is for projects, blog posts, and other ideas I have for products and classes.  The last one is empty but I'd like to use it to document fun things the children say and do. I covered the moleskines with patterned papers in my favourite colours and everything I add makes me smile.

And of course, what kind of planner girl would I be if I didn't plan for the recording ;) Here are my notes.  And even though I don't usually add things to my pages, I felt I should decorate these pages :D  I save the page decorating for my Heidi Swapp memory planner.

Thanks Noell and Izzy for inviting me, I had so much fun!
Paperclipping Roundtable

27 Ways you can use one of my Take Along memory keepers

As a Scrapbook:
These little books make great mini albums.  You can document as you go and the book can act as the scrapbook.  Or it can be the holding place for your notes, photos and memorabilia until you get a chance to scrapbook it.

Use one to document:

1.  a small event.
2.  a baby's birth story.
3.  a milestone birthday.
4.  a milestone anniversary
5.  a child's milestone.
6.  any theme.
7.  cute things your children or grandchildren say.
8.  day in the life or week in the life. aliedwards.com
9.  a trip.

10. Or give one to a child to use as a scrapbook.

As a Planner:
I love to use a Take Along to plan things, one time events as well as my everyday life.  It's ever so practical :D

 Use one to plan:

11. a small event.
12. a trip.
13. a scrapbook.
14. any project.

15. Use one to try something new before committing to it in your daily planner.
16. They are perfect to keep papers and things as a holding place if your daily planner is too big to take along with you.
17. They make a pretty addition to your midori, fauxdori or traveller's notebook :D 

As a Journal:
The Take Along books are great multi-media, multi-purpose journals. Lots of room to write, but the pockets and the photo album to make it all the more rich.

Use one as:

18. your daily journal.
19. an art journal.
20. a prayer journal.
21. a pregnancy journal.

As a gift:
Do you know someone who loves to papercraft?  Or maybe someone who you think might like it?  Give them a Take Along as a little present :D

22. Give an empty one to a scrapbooker, planner girl or any paper crafter.
23. Give one to a child going on a trip or staying away from home, especially if the child will be staying away from you.
24. Give one to someone who you'd like to turn into a scrapbooker, planner girl or paper crafter.  They make a wonderful 'gateway drug'!
25. Fill one with advice for a new mother and give it to her for her baby shower.  Better yet, take a blank one to the shower with cards that fit the photo pockets (or any of the pockets) and let the other guests write their advice.
26. You could do the same thing for a bridal shower. :D
27. Send someone one as a 'happy mail.'  Write a nice letter in the journal part, add some photos and papercrafting goodies in the pockets and make someone's day when they open their mailbox!

So, what are you waiting for? ;) Make yourself a Take Along today, or grab one in my etsy shop.  If you don't have my free class, you can sign up in the little green tag right below!

How Creating Everyday can Teach You Things about Yourself

I know I usually start with the handwritten bit, but this post was supposed to go up last week and the reason it didn't is actually the topic of this blog post.  

Huh?  Wait... what?
Let me back up.  

I participated in LOAD (layout a day) throughout February, it kept me busy and I tried to post last week but repeat technical hiccups and less time than usual due to LOAD won out and it didn't get posted.  I hate that I skipped a week, but if I could go back I wouldn't do it over.

That's right, I would go back and FAIL at posting my blog post again!

It made me look at why I failed and what LOAD, or more precisely why creating something everyday for a short period of time, is important.

I've done LOAD many many times and every single time I learn something new and I confirmed many other things about myself and about my style and I tell stories that I wouldn't have thought to tell otherwise.  So I guess, short story is: The result of creating something everyday is well worth the little sacrifices necessary to make the time to create everyday!

Now I've written about this before and the lessons I've learned, but I'm saying it again, because no matter what your creative outlet is, no matter what you are creating, taking a month and dedicating a bit of time to it everyday is important to your growth as a creative.

 

This month really confirmed that I ADORE working with paper! I learned this little trick from Debby Schuh:

Santa flips up and there's a pop-up camera underneath:

Fun, happy, pretty colours will always have a place on my pages, so will white and white space!

 

These are the stories I probably would have thought to tell if it ahdn't been for Lain's prompts. Thanks Lain!!

This month also reignited my love for long mixed alpha titles :D

A Planner Challenge with a CUTE hockey style Face-off :D

 

domesticraft.com

 

Here is what I've come up with!!
Nancy won't know what hit her, the Battle of Cute is on! So, how did I alter this comp book?

First, to create a base colour, I covered the front and back covers in strips of green washi tape, and with orange thread ('cause that's fun!) I went around the edges to prevent the washi from curling.  I also stitched a doily on the front that was cut to fit.  I used the same orange thread with some messy stitches.

The bunting was next and oh so fun!! I picked out my very favourite washi tape from my stash and folded over little strips to make the banner pieces. I cut a variety of shapes and then took them to my sewing machine.  Now, here is where it helps to have a steady hand or teeny fingers.  It's insane that I can't, for the life of me, sew a straight stitch on say something simple like a curtain hem, but I can stitch these bitty buntings together :D  I made sure to leave lots of excess thread at the end of the stitching so I could make cute little trendy string messes at each end of the buntings.

Last, I wanted the binding to have a vintage book feel to it.  After watching my boys tape their hockey sticks, I got an idea. Hockey tape is almost as cool as washi tape. They twist the tape up on itself, spiral it down the top of the stick and then tape over it.  They say it's to get more grip, but I think it just looks cool!  

So, I took this idea and used it on the spine of my book in 4 spots for that vintage binding look.  I actually braided 3 twists to get them big enough.  Then I covered it all with the blue flowered washi and I cut small strips of gold washi to go over just the 'bumps'.

You know, this only took about an hour to do... actually, it would have only taken an hour, but I originally used pink on the spine but it was too bright, so I ripped it all off and started again with the blue floral. :D

So here is the challenge for you:

1. Using only the supplies we used, washi tape, doilies and a sewing machine, alter the cover of a book (not necessarily a planner).
2. Post a link to it here or in the comments in Nancy's post at domesticraft.com before Feb 6th and you will be entered into a draw to win a spot in my Practically Perfect Planner class.  Remember this is a 3 part challenge so the more challenges you participate in the more chances you get to win.
3. Sharing on social media will also earn you chances to win.  Use the hashtag #practicallyperfect and come back here and let me know where you shared.

You can also get another chance to win a spot in my class at SarahShotts.com and while you are there you can check out my guest blog post there too! 

Just DO it!

 

At first, I chose QUINTESSENTIAL.  I like the idea of getting things down to their essence and getting to the core of who I am really, and plus it's a really pretty word :D

Then, GIVE popped into my head just after Christmas and I really resonated with it and went back and forth wondering if I should change it.  When I heard that Ali's word was GIFT, that was it I changed :D

Then, last week after posting 'my best year ever' LO (full layout is below) and having some chats online DO jumped into my life and it was everywhere.  I thought of switching again, but I really like GIFT and I liked the idea of having the same word as Ali, especially as it came around by complete chance.  I resisted for days and I finally gave it :D

I like DO because it's both a noun and a verb, which I actually discovered accidentally when I commented about liking that a friend's word was both. But, I have to say I like the action part of DO, it's motivating and exciting!  And, just maybe I'll go to some fancy DO and wear my hair in an up DO :D

Please share your word in the comments, and how you came to choose it.

How to Make Your Own Handmade Christmas Card Process Stress Free

Some people find the monotonous task of making all those cards boring, but I find it calming.  I'll put on a Christmas movie and I'm able to craft on auto pilot.

The best tip I can give you is to keep it simple.  

* I don't make cards that open, it's just a postcard style card so I can cut six 4X6 card fronts out of one 12x12 piece of cardstock. 
* I use products that are easy to find in bulk, like my doilies.  I use a lot of cardstock as well.  Last year, I added rhinestones which came 100 to a sheet.
* Reusable supplies are fantastic.  I stamped my message on the back of each card.
* If you use stamps, make that one of your first steps.  It's really hard to get a crisp image once everything is already stuck on the card.
* Make it fun! Put on the Christmas carols or a holiday movie, get the kids involved. Unless they are like mine, one year they made a mess of my envelopes and I ended up addressing them all myself :)

 

If you make your own, I'd love to see!  Please share, and I can do a round up of them on the blog next week :D

I am working hard on my Planner class.  It's a class to help you make a planner that works perfectly for you. If you'd like me to send you more information as it becomes available, you can sign up here: