Busy Week

I was very lucky to have spent last weekend in Bismarck with my sister and brother in law, they spoil us rotten! The kids all went to see Beauty and the Beast, we went antiquing and thrift store shopping. I did get a few good deals to use at the store. It was a good thing we had some time away to rest up for the busy week we had. 

We've been getting in new products daily trying to keep up is quite a job. Luckily Ron was by my side...even when I was barking orders at him, I can be pretty bossy! You must stop in and check out all the new goods and the 25 new Lawn Fawn samples I made this week, they are sure to inspire you to create. 

Jessica's card class was Thursday and again tomorrow, she was super busy too. She is such a sweetie today she dropped off 5 card samples for me to display. She loved the new paper so much over her lunch break she whipped them up, she is a gem for sure I appreciate all her hard work. Her next card class will be April 20th and 22nd give us a call at 320-629-9960 if you would like to sign up for it.

I'm hoping the orders will slow down a bit so I can do a little furniture moving at the store this week. I've got a couple of display ideas I would like to try. Unfortunately it means heaving lifting of awkwardly long 100+ year old display tables. They were used in our building back when it was The Pine City Mercantile. I figure if they were good enough for them to use I might as well use them too! So cross your fingers and hope that happens for us this week, I've got a lot of sweet talking to do!

Have a great weekend, I hope to see you at the store soon!

Spring Is On Its Way

The snow is gone but it's freezing out. I love it, I can't get out in the yard to start weeding last years weeds out of my flower beds so I might as well hold up in my craft room!

I've been completely obsessed with making cards I can't tell you the last scrapbook page I made. I do need to get back at it I have to decorate the store for spring and put some new pages out. Surprise...I've been procrastinating! Maybe I will do it this weekend...I actually said the same thing last weekend. I've got photos out to scrap and the paper and embellishments I just need to do it!

I don't know about you but sometimes the hardest part is getting the photos. I'm so disorganized with my photos right now so when I need to find photos to scrap I have to go through tons of...memories. Some of those memories I just don't want to deal with so those photo boxes are a love hate relationship. I have so many photos when my life was "happy". I'll be honest and say I haven't printed  many photos since my new life that I feel like I still just float through. Each passing year does get better, but I do miss those that I have lost in my new life. I miss my cheerleaders, even though they were my parents and they had to cheer for me. Lol!

Ah my crazy life, I wouldn't trade it or the people in it for the world. I'm so lucky to have my family and friends by my side holding me up, standing beside me and dragging me through!

We need at least 20 hugs a day...go hug someone!

Holidays

I'm hoping each one of you made it through the holidays. Holidays are both a wonderful time along with the hardest time. I wish that our lives were all as easy as a Hallmark movie but there is a little thing called reality. The holidays always bring up happy memories for me but they are shadowed by the loss of my parents and it's hard to enjoy everything about the holidays.

I was lucky enough to spend it with my husband, three daughters, oldest daughters fiancee and my three grandsons. We had lots of presents, food, fun and noise and I wouldn't want to have it any other way. I remember when our oldest first brought her now fiancee and his two boys into our family. I wondered how I was going to handle all the personalities mixing into our crazy family. And now I can't really remember life before them and I can't imagine my life without them. I always wanted a boy of my own and God blessed me with three girls...and then he gave me 4 boys how lucky am I?! Don't get me wrong I love my girls too but there's nothing like hunting down my grandsons with a Nerf gun and watching them run and squeal in delight...and maybe fear! They have changed me forever and helped fill up the voids in my heart.

2017 is around the corner, I'm not making any resolutions I never stick to them anyway. I am going to make a conscious effort to be nicer. Sometimes it's the little things that make someones day a little better like: wait a few extra seconds to hold a door open, leave a quarter in an aldi cart, just say hello to a stranger or smile at them, shovel someones sidewalk...there are tons of ways to make someones day brighter.

What? Yes It's me again!

I was just looking around at the ole blog reading past posts and I just realized how much more personal blogs are compared to Facebook. Don't get me wrong I love FB but it seems so cold to me. My posts on my blog seem so much more personal. Maybe because I know only the people who really want to hear from me are reading it because they want to hear what I have to say, not just scrolling by to pass the time away. Anyway enough of that!

I've been asked for three photos. That's it 3 little photos and my what a journey I have been on today. I've laughed, cried, felt sorry for myself, I even could smell things I haven't thought of in years, hated myself, found some deep regret in there as well. Wow photos can take you so many places! It doesn't matter if they are in digital format or the old fashioned print photos ;) there is a reason you took them. You wanted to stamp a time, a feeling a memory that you would never forget...good and bad.

Tis the season to pull out those old photos, fire up the old computer maybe print some out. Even if you don't scrapbook them hang them up, pin them to the bulletin board or fridge. Take a walk in your past and just remember how quickly life goes by.

Somehow I've been too busy to notice that my three girls have grown up to be lovely human beings. It's funny because when I look into their faces it doesn't seem possible so much time has passed. I'm also still in awe that my parents are gone, when I look at the photos it seems like just yesterday I was kissing their faces.

Whew what an emotional day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and an awesome new year!

Mosaic Moments

This new product isn't really new at all. They've just taken an awesome product and made it even better! In this post I will show you how I took this

and turned it into...

This!

Mosaic Moments is an awesome product that has been around for years. Back in the day when I had more time I used to achieve this look using a metal ruler and a cutting mat. Now they have taken all the work out of it and made steal rule dies to use in our Big Shots, Cuttlebug or any roller machine, I love you people!!!!!

So here we go...I chose a Disney photo to try this out on only because I'm so many years behind and these are what I currently have out cluttering my desk along with all the matching Say Cheese line by Simple Stories. Another company I love because they are sort of like Geranimals back in the 70's. I remember school clothes shopping with my Mom and running around matching tags so all my outfits were perfect together. Ahhhh the good old days...

I trimmed down my large pieces of paper to place on the grid paper next.

The next step was my favorite, I used the new Mosaic Moments One Inch Grid Die to cut coordinating 1" squares to put on my layout. Can you just imagine how long that would take the old fashioned way?! Btw did you notice my new colored cutting plate, it's pretty awesome huh? You can pick up a set of your own at The Pine City Scrapbooking Co. They come in pink and purple too, call me (320-629-9960) if you would like a set and I can send them out to you!

I'm also loving this number die from Mosaic Moments as well. No surprise they are 1" square so they fit perfectly on the grid paper. 

For this project this is my adhesive choice. I like using the Scrapbook Adhesives E-Z Dots because they are re-positional for a time and then become permanent. The Quick Dry Adhesive worked awesome for the number squares because there isn't much to glue down. It is actually always my wet glue adhesive choice. It has a low water content so the paper doesn't bubble when you use it.

Time to assemble! The grid paper makes short work of it, everything is evenly spaced.

And there you have the finished product! It was super easy, this would work to use up your scraps as well. 

If you are interested in trying out Mosaic Moments, mention this blog post when purchasing the grid paper or any of the Mosaic Moments brand dies and receive 15% off between April 2nd - April 16th 2015. 

If you can't make it into the store we can also ship to you. 

Below you will see what we have in at this time. You can either order over the phone (320-629-9960) or through email. 

Full Grid Paper $1.59 per sheet

4x4 Grid Paper $1.59 per sheet

4x6 Grid Paper $1.59 per sheet

6x6 Grid Paper $1.59 per sheet

Corner Dies $8.59 (Sorry about the blurry photo!)

1"x3" Rectangles $31.49

Number Die $20.99

3"x6" Rectangle $37.99

1" Square die $42.99

2"x6" Rectangle $37.99

12 Days of Christmas

Just a sample of the 12 Days of Christmas make and takes we have done. I'll take some more pics to share.

These little Winter Sparrows from Lawn Fawn are simply adorable!

12 Days of Christmas

It's been forever since my last post. I'm going to try this yet again!

We have been celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas since December 6th. We had a great kick off with Ladies Night Out the same day! So far we have had two give aways and 2 days of make and takes. It's so fun giving to all my great customers after all the support you have shown me. So keep your eyes out for more great give aways in the days to follow.

I think I need to add some twinkle lights to my display.

All the new Wendy Vecchi

There are great bargains to be had, for gifting to others...or yourself! :)

Drawers 4

These drawers are the closest to my "cockpit". I use this stuff all of the time so I keep it near so I don't have to keep jumping up to grab something, but it is contained so it doesn't make my room look cluttered.
The space we have our office/craft room was supposed to be the dining room it doesn't have any doors. It's one of the first things you can see coming in the front door and you can see it from the kitchen as well. It was very important to me that it look presentable and match the kitchen as close as I could. I think it turned out pretty good for a couple of green horns! So that is it, I hope you enjoyed the tour! It almost makes me want to go mess it up now!

Drawers 3

I love doo dads, can you tell? I'm so happy I saved all the baby food containers from when the girls were little, they work perfectly for my doo dads! My drawers

Drawers 2

Oh I love my Art Bin containers! I love the bags of buttons but I have to keep the colors together...I know, I'm a little crazy. The bottom deep drawer is filled with vintage ephemera.

Drawers 1

It was very important to me to have as many drawers as we could get in the space. I have a lot of stuff! I love the drawer dividers in the bottom deep drawers to hold all my product so I can file through. The purple fabric boxes work great to store glitters, mists etc...
Imagine an empty drawer, I'm sure it won't be empty long!

Craft Closet 2

This wardrobe was only going to have crafty things in it, but scrapbooking overlapped...surprise! I'm still tweaking this one to work better for me. We designed this space using the deep wardrobes to maximize storage. Everything in the wardrobes are stacked two deep.

Craft Closet 1

This IKEA wardrobe holds a ton! The pull out drawers hold my collection of Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon and anything else new that I should be making samples with. The other shelves are filled with ribbon, buttons, punches, stamps etc...

Craft Closet

Since I am terribly afraid of basements we built our house without one, which gave me this wonderful space under the stairs for a closet! I can thank my older brothers for that fear! I try to keep it organized, but I have to admit if I need to stash things quick they do end up in here. I store all of my cardstock and my paper "collection" that I just hoard in here along with other crafty items.

Ron's Space

This is Ron's space. I'm ready to boot him out, he is messy! I cleaned it up for the photo! Just imagine what I could do with that spot...