SHIP AHOY! CLASSES, OH BOY!

I've been busy, busy, busy trying to get everything I need to do done before embarking on my Artful Cruise to Mexico with Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi! (Yes, I feel compelled to use the proper name for the cruise from ScrapMap) Oh my golly, am I EXCITED! Maybe a little TOO excited if you ask Cliff. Anywho, I've been busy ordering supplies and putting together kits for the classes which start the week I return from Mexico. Seriously, I think Tim and Wendy bought every spec of Idea-ology out there, not to mention Ranger products! Boy, are we gonna have some fun with all things inky! Tim has our Yahoo Group for the trip whipped almost to a frenzy with excitement as he and Wendy both tease us about what they have in store for us and our workshops. And shopping? Oh my YES! All the latest from Idea-ology, Ranger, Stamper's Anonymous, 7 Gypsies, Graphic 45 and Maya Road! Do you think I am going to come back with some Timmy and Wendy classes for you? You betcha! In fact, some are already scheduled... but you'll have to wait for the details!

Speaking of workshops, you can now pick up the class schedule for October (since we're IN October) for the two local Hobby Lobby stores. I'm offering a Spellbinder Pendant class and the Countdown to Christmas 16 x 20 calendar this month. Here are some brief descriptions of two of the classes. A version of the Calendar is on display now at the South Side store, fliers will be available soon.

(You all can't see this, but my big lilac point Himalayan just crawled up on my lap between me and my laptop (no grace needed here), laid down and curled up into a ball, stuck his face into the crook of my arm and is purring away as he takes a nap. How cute is that? Aside from the fact that I can't breath as he's mostly on my chest, and I can't move except to type and he lays his ears back—the Ears of Irritation—when I do that. Pewter wants complete compliance with his cutefulness. Oh, and I have a face full of long white cat hair to boot.) OK, back to class descriptions...

Spellbinder Ornament—make a beautiful snowflake ornament with pearl and ribbon accents using the new Spellbinder Pendant dies on your Cuttlebug! All the supplies are included but bring your standard scrapbooking kit (see description to the left). If you've ever wondered what Spellbinder Dies can do and how you might use them in your Cuttlebug, this is the class for you! You'll also see a demo of the Scor-Pal scoring tool. A must have for any card maker!
Cost is $8
Oct. 22 from 1-3p at the North Side store
Oct. 23 from 1p –3p at the South Side store
Nov. 23 from 6p–7:30p at the CK Home Studio
Nov. 24 from 6p –7:30p North Side store

Countdown to Christmas Calendar—A 16 x 20 Christmas calendar with removable boxes for goodies for the kids (or yourself)! A fun way to count down the days to Christmas. Uses DCWV Christmas Glitter pad, Cosmo Cricket Christmas paper or bring papers of your choice. This is a GORGEOUS project worth every penny and more, don't miss it! This project involves a little homework for the North Side store, but nothing too strenuous. EVERYTHING is supplied! Can be done in colors to match your decor, uses Christmas picks or Kaiser wood embellishments. Bring your standard scrapbook kit.
Cost is $30
Oct. 26 or Nov. 9 from 6p – 10p at the CK Home Studio
Oct. 27 or Nov. 10 from 5:30p – 7:30p North Side store
Oct. 29 or Nov. 12 from 1p – 3p North Side store
Oct. 30 or Nov. 13 from 1p – 5p South Side store

So, what about those Timmy classes? Let's just say in November and December we're going to do a little Decor Grunge! We'll be using all the new Tim Holtz products as well as his current products. We're going to sponge, smear, blend, stamp, staple, paint, glaze, sand, glitz, mist, heat, canvas, crackle, distress, ink and grunge our way to better art! A technique extravaganza that is going to knock your socks off! In case you haven't noticed, Hobby Lobby carries not only the Distress, Adirondack and Alcohol inks, but they now carry the Paint Dabbers, Sander, Stickles, Grungeboard, Tiny Attacher (better buy one now, you just might need it...), and other Ranger and Idea-ology products. With a coupon, what could be better? Or cheaper...

Just a reminder, don't forget to bring your scrapbook kit to class as we don't supply tools or adhesives unless specifically noted. These classes are always available for scheduling for private groups or events, and they may be offered at other times outside of Hobby Lobby store hours.

Keep the faith! ~Vicki

AND THE LIST GOES ON...

Tam and I worked on the class list today. So many good ideas and so little time to make them. But for those of you wondering what we have up our sleeves, I list out the names of a few of the classes just to whet your appetite. We'll be doing some perennial favorites as well as some new, cool stuff. Read on!

Additionally, we're going to be doing some product demos at Hobby Lobby North Side. If you've ever wondered what some of the best tools are, come to a Demo Day where we will be showing the Cricut Expressions, Cuttlebug, Electric Big Shot, iTop, Crop-a-dile, embossing folders and how they work in the various machines, SpellBinder Dies, Tim Holtz products, and any other tools we think are smokin' (not literally!). We'll be having some make-n-takes at these events, so mark the dates down when we announce them. If you want your hubby to buy it for you, we'll even help him shop! With the Cricut demo, we'll show you how to use the pens, the JukeBox, Design Studio Software, Vinyl, the new stamp and embossing products (to create stamps or your own embossing folders) along with the cartridges, and we'll talk about the Gypsy for the Cricut.

Since you all know I am going on the Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi, it's a safe bet that we are going to be having classes on how to use both the Tim Holtz products, but also stamps by Wendy Vecchi and products from Ranger (think Rock Candy Stickles and Crackle paint, alcohol inks, paint resist, blending, using Grunge paper and Grunge board, stamps, Glossy Accents and lots of techniques).

All of our classes make EXCELLENT Christmas gifts, so don't miss out. Classes include:
Countdown to Christmas Calendar (16 x 20 Advent calendar using canvas board, trims and other secret ingredients—this class sells out every time we do it, so sign up early!)
Days to Celebrate (birthday book using the Zutter binder) or Prayer Journal
Bill Minder with Calendar (this makes an excellent Christmas gift, don't miss it!)
Grunge and other wall hangings (lot of Timmy and Wendy here, in Christmas and home decorating options, we're teaching some new techniques that will knock your socks off!)
Christmas Card Tin (need a place to store your cards? This is it!)
Note Card Tin (Your own personalized stationary and a beautiful place to store it, or do it for a friend!)
Spellbinder Ornaments (Uses the NEW Pendant dies with the Cuttlebug and Big Shot)
Planner (a beautiful renewable planner that you might just keep for yourself)
Recipe Book (they gotta go somewhere, eh?)
12 Tags of Christmas (Straight from the Tim man himself, a multi-part technique class)
Ideology Jewelry (More Timmy in a way you can't imagine)
Joy of Christmas Wall Art (Capitalize on the letter craze and choose your own colors!)
Christmas Card stamping and embossing class (need something to fill that decorative tin, right?)
and the Fantasy Box makes a return!

Another highlight this season are some one hour classes to make small gifts, technique classes that you can apply to many projects, and prizes given away in EVERY class!

Our class sizes are kept smaller so you can finish your project in the class, no taking it home and wondering, what do I do now?

Lastly, soon we are adding an Adobe Photoshop Elements for Scrapbookers class. Come learn all about digital scrapbooking and also how to fix your pictures to make them look their best for your album.

To inquire about all the classes and demo's listed above, you can email me at vconquest@conquestkeepsakes.com. Remember, we do private parties as well, so if you want to plan a class just for you and your friends, or as an event for a group in your office or church, drop me a line and we'll set you up!

Keep the faith!
Vicki

CRUISIN' RIGHT ALONG...

Take a hint from the title, I'm goin' on a cruise! Yeppers, in October I am going on the Artful Cruise in Mexico with Tim Holtz and guest teacher Wendy Vecchi! This cruise is sponsored by ScrapMap and I am BEYOND excited, I had a blast in Tim's class at CHA in July so I thought a whole week of Tim would be even better. I've been hinting at the hubby for the last three or four months about the cruise. He did a really good job of ignoring me. Finally, he was nice enough to give me the green light to go, after I pestered him to death. How else does a woman get what she wants? Does that count as a green light? It's just icing on the cake that Wendy is going to be teaching too. I am an absolutely HUGE fan of her grunge flowers. EVEN CLIFF admired her grunge roses while we were touring the Ideology booth at the show. Cliff wasn't going to let me go by myself, however, so I convinced my friend Tammy to go with me. Luckily, I only had to ask once, right Tammy? Yes, I can hear your head shaking from here. A whole week without cat hair, what will I do with that extra hour every day that I'll gain from not having to roll my clothes with a lint roller? Sleep or stamp? Now that I've spilled the cat kibble, on to other news...

I AM working on my list of classes for the holiday season. You all know how much I LOVE Christmas—Christmas papers, Christmas stamps, Christmas cookies, Christmas parties and Christmas cards. Oh and Christmas Kitties! So I am making my list, probably making it twice, gonna find out who's... oh, did I mention Christmas music? LOVE Christmas music. I think I have more Christmas CDs than regular music CDs, or maybe I should say more Christmas DOWNLOADS with the advent of iTunes (see how I worked in the word "advent"? uh-huh, it almost slipped by you). Glad you all were paying attention. :-) OK, yeah, I was saying something about a list... hmm... uh... yeah, a list of classes! That's it! (It's really hard getting old, hear what I'm telling ya?) So classes are in the works. I'll have the October schedule here shortly, with a big hole in the middle because I am...going on a CRUISE! Oh yeah, I told you that already. :-)

We'll be having classes in several locations again this year. First off, as usual, classes at the north side Hobby Lobby on Tuesday nights and Thursday days, and at the south side Hobby Lobby on Friday days; classes here at the Conquest Keepsakes Paper Studio, Craft Night at Northbridge Baptist Church and some additional classes scattered around Springfield (details as they develop). As an aside, my husband informed me that there was a CK—S and a CK—N, Conquest Keepsakes South (my craft room downstairs, which is at the south end of the house) and Conquest Keepsakes North (the breakfast area upstairs, which is on the north side of the house), so now I am telling all of you that all the classes at CK will be held in the M location, the room midway between my craft room downstairs and my breakfast area upstairs, which is the living area downstairs. Are we all clear now? Hmm, maybe I'll draw a map. Coming soon to a location near you...

Keep the faith!

Day One on the Trade Show Floor at CHA Summer 2009

Today was a wild and crazy day! This show isn't nearly as large as the Anaheim show, but it is still an interesting place to be today! I'm working in the Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker booth with Nikki, Dan, Chastity Hassel and Susan Dupre. It was a very busy day for us, lots of traffic in our booth, we were quite busy the whole day right up to the close of the show floor. Chastity and Susan were making paper cupcakes for the make-n-take and they were busy from beginning to end! We had video cameras in our booth several times today (the ones run by professionals, not us wanna-be's with hand-held cameras!) and we had all kinds of compliments from everyone! Nikki has worked hard for this show and it "showed" in how well-organized she was and how professionally she handled herself with everyone. A more gracious person you could never meet! We took more orders than I could count, and we had a lot of fun passing out the Willie-B lapel pins and catalogs. All of the samples done by the girls were phenomenal and we had many, many wonderful compliments on their work. Their art was wonderful and the displays looked so good! My husband also came down with us and today he was making the rounds scouting out all the booths. He even did a Make-N-Take over at the Spellbinders booth! Now THAT is a miracle! I can't even get him to cut paper for me at home, and there he was with a table of girls making a paper box. Ladies, as my friend Katie says, "He's a keeper!"

I'll try to get some pictures posted up from today, and from my class with Tim Holtz yesterday! You betcha, THAT was the best class I have EVER taken! I had an extra ticket, so Susan went with me and we had a blast! I have pictures from the class, and he signed my book to boot. How great is that? More later, need to stop to eat (tired of paying $5 for a cinnamon roll...). Tomorrow, I'm sending Cliff out with a camera. Be prepared for beheaded projects...

I GOT TO SCRAP!!

I know this sounds a little odd coming from someone who is SUPPOSED to be scrapping, but believe it or not, I don't have too much time to scrap lately. But I did get to go to a crop, Scrapbook Generation's Scrap-A-Palooza over the weekend, and it was a BLAST! Nikki and I went together as we saw an opportunity to get some samples done for the upcoming CHA show in Orlando. [roll eyes] Ahem, well, Nikki managed to get most of her haunted house made from her Halloween papers, Boo-tiful (was that not the cutest thing you ever laid eyes on? Oh yeah, you've not seen it, but trust me...), while I worked on a Christmas Advent calender made from her Christmas papers (you are going to LOVE, LoVe, lOvE those papers!). I got all wiggly with the Glimmer Mists on my canvas, so we'll see if that was a product of clear thinking, or of chocolate overload from the awesome chocolate fountains they had going at the crop. If there was any more justification going on regarding my chocolate intake, I would have had to right and left aligned the tables! All the food was flat stick! (that is your new Australian slang word of the week, someone in Australia told Nikki her papers were "flat stick" and we're hoping that was a complement...) Those ladies at Scrapbook Generation know how to do a crop! Well, aside from the part where a spider chased me in the parking lot trying to hitch a ride on my foot. There was some small amount of screaming that happened. Technically, it was after the crop was over, so I'll let the spider slide. :-| I saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones, and that is why I like a good crop. Of course I do have to say it was a privilege to see Nikki all excited about people buying her papers. Scrapbook Generation is carrying both her My Sweet Cherry Pie and Victoria's Street papers and embellies, along with their usual broad range of everything scrapbooking.

This week has been a real whirlwind of orders from all over the world. We were billing, packing and shipping all day today, which is a minor miracle because we're still inputing financials into the system and realized we couldn't officially generate invoices until we officially received the products into the system! Details, details. But, as they say, we got'er done.

Because Willie-B is our mascot, we have this "Bee" thing going, so now we have the Graphic Bee, and today I was told I was the Wiki Bee. Everyone keeps asking me what I do for Nikki and I never know how to answer that, as it encompasses so many things. Like graphic and prepress work (nothing like 20 years of experience in the printing and graphic arts industries to come in handy for a company that designs paper for a product), technical support for our Macs, PC's and network, marketing and advertising, implementing our business processes, event management, packaging, sourcing, and general moral support as needed. (lol) So today, when Nikki was trying to explain what I do for NSS to Lexy, she referred to me as the Wiki Bee, which really kind of fits. I know a lot of occasionally useful information, as over the last 20+ years (put away your calculator, that's not nice...) I've worked in print, publishing, graphic arts, web, instructional design, training, tech support and business management areas primarily in the graphic arts industries and software/hardware training industries. I currently own and run a consulting and training business, and in the past I've started up several new businesses and then sold them. I'm almost dangerous in accounting, but I try to stay out of that and let the DH handle it since that is his profession. Heaven forbid if he would try to design a brochure, that would be like me trying to reconcile a balance sheet! :-) Actually, the hubby is adept at using Photoshop and Illustrator and I feel like a proud momma about that! At least the DH has the books covered for Nikki.

So another day is done and we're looking forward to what kind of challenges tomorrow will bring us. Keep the faith! God knows what we need before we even know that we need it! ~Vicki

Nikki Anounced Her Design Team!

Nikki announced her Design Team today for Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker LLC and what a wonderful group of designers she has chosen! We are so excited to have this team and it was really hard for her to narrow down her choices, all the submissions were excellent and making a choice almost seemed like a crime!

All the pieces for the Summer CHA show are coming together nicely, we have product and it is beautiful. There's nothing like seeing a plan come together! So many details go into it and seeing the finished product is mind-blowing! I feel lucky, honored, humbled and excited to be able to have a part in helping her get her new business off the ground. Talk about living vicariously!

Switching gears for a moment, I want to move on to stamping. I've been designing a set of stamps for Clear Dollar Stamps called the Flowers of the Month in the Timeless Treasures series. We've been introducing them two at a time each month and every set has a picture of the flower, a nice paragraph about the flower and what it means, as well as stamps for the name, scientific name, birthstone and month to go with it. While doing research for these stamps, I have learned more interesting facts about the flowers than what you see in the set, so I will start sharing with you some of the extra-interesting tidbits and stories about these flowers that we can't put into the sets. You will be amazed at some of the legends and myths surrounding these flowers, as well as learning some more practical applications that these flowers have to our daily lives. I guar-an-tee you will learn something new that you can bore your friends with at the next PTO meeting! We will have them all out and available before Christmas in time for you to create calendars, planners and birthday books and gifts using these series of stamps.

You can also start watching for some sneak peeks of Nikki's second paper line Victoria's Street! I wish I could say it was named after me, but Nikki's niece Victoria actually gets the honor for this line. She is just as sweet as the Victoria's Street papers!

That's all for today! Keep the faith! ~Vicki~

FINALLY, A GOOD SUMMER MOVIE!

This has nothing to do with scrapbooking or crafting, but I have to talk about it anyway! As a Trekkie from years gone by, I have to say how much I LOVED the new Star Trek movie! The special effects and even the acting by a relative group of unknowns was superb! I think they managed to do an excellent job of catching the flair and feel of the original show with all the show- stopping, jaw-dropping action and effects available in modern movie-making. The characters of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu and Scotty were pretty good, my only disconnect was with Checkov, and to some extent, Uhura. But hey, Uhura and Spock? Hmmm, fodder for thought! By far the best movie I've seen since the Lord of the Rings and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (my PERSONAL favorites for their overtly Christian themes). IMHO. :-) Back to your Memorial Day weekend... and don't forget to pray for our troops as they lay down thier lives for ours in defending freedom, and for all the ones who have already died defending our right to live free!

Keep the faith!

EXCITING NEWS!

I have been SO busy helping my friend Nikki with her new scrapbook paper line that I've not had time to blink! I am working with her on a consulting basis and we've been having a blast! She has six different paper lines, with four double-sided papers and one die cut paper. Nikki and Dan leave tomorrow to go to the press check for the papers. What's really cool about her small papers is that they are reductions of her full size papers AND they come with three or four pages of each design, how cool! Cardmakers will be thrilled with that!

She also has several other products coming out at the show and a couple of surprise products new to the scrapbook industry. We are SOO excited about this as we are exhibiting at the CHA Trade Show in Orlando in July for both the trade show and the consumers show. We'll be doing make-n-takes for both shows, so be sure to look us up, we're in booth #552 during the trade show (across from Prima and next to May Arts--uh oh) and then we'll move to booth #1925 for the retail consumer show. We won't be selling product to end users, but we should have several retailers exhibiting in the Consumer show carrying our papers and supplies.

Nikki will be doing an official Call for Designers posted shortly, so be looking for that on her blog. We'll pick the best of the best and they will be on display at the CHA show! We also plan on doing the Winter show too. We'll be doing some sneak peaks of the papers and projects as we go along, so make sure to check back often. The web site should be up in about a month (or less we hope!) and you'll hear more about everything that is happening!

In the mean time, I am still planning my fall classes at Hobby Lobby. We'll be doing some altered art tags courtesy of Tim Holtz inspiration and the Countdown to Christmas calendar, along with a Birthday Book and a Planner. You'll want to look at our local Hobby Lobby stores for more information.

Additionally, I'll be adding some technique classes, some of which will be how to color and shade with Tombow and Copic markers, new classes on Tim Holtz' fabulous line of distress products and finally some classes on how to use my favorite tools like the Cuttlebug with the Spellbinder Nestabilities and the Cricut Expressions. I'm also considering adding some classes on Adobe Photoshop Elements and digital scrapbooking, so keep an eye out for all of these and more. OK, you can put your eye in and still look for these great classes!

Keep the faith and I'll chat with you later! V!ck!

CMN, WHAT A WONDERFUL CROP!

I don't know how many of you were able to attend, but Cox Health and the Scrapbooking Momeez put together a wonderful charity crop for the Children's Miracle Network this past weekend. I was one of the vendors to attend along with my good friend Lori McCroskey from Clear Dollar Stamps, the Momeez Debbie and Angie (of course!), Sheri Beersman with the ScrapNook in Bolivar (and shortly to have a store here on the north side of Springfield) as well as folks from Close to My Heart and Stampin' Up! As usual, we had a wonderful crowd of about 85 croppers and never a dull moment! I was able to convince my accountant hubby to hang out with me for most of the event as I had to be away from my booth to teach a class. This was quite the sacrifice for him, as he is a HUGE March Madness participant and to miss the games while watching a bunch of women cut and paste was a great gift. Who could ask for a better hubby than that? :-) I am truly blessed!

We did a couple of make-n-takes and I taught the Days to Celebrate birthday book class. We were completely booked at the event, so for those of you who wanted to take the class, I will be offering it in April at both the north and south side Hobby Lobby stores on several dates, and I will confirm the times in a later post. I will list my scheduled dates and times for both stores, but they are always subject to change and by enrollment. To take a class, you will need to contact me directly, the stores do not take reservations. You can reach me at 417.350.4569 or at 417.833.8760. If the schedule doesn't offer a convenient date, give me a call, as I still offer classes at my house. You can also see projects for sale at Neighborhood Pizza Cafe, along with the current schedule of classes. That should be back up by this weekend. :-)

Saturday's crop was such a wonderful time to catch up with old friends and support a wonderful cause at the same time. If you didn't purchase a shirt, you can still contact the Scrapbooking Momeez!

Here is my standard Hobby Lobby schedule, keeping in mind that it is always subject to change. You can pick up a calendar of Hobby Lobby classes next to the store sale fliers. Classes are subject to enrollment, I usually need at least four people enrolled to confirm a class, so bring your friends! These do make wonderful Mother's Day gifts as well as Christmas gifts if you want to get a head start on the holidays!

Northside Hobby Lobby
Every Tuesday Night from 5:30p to 7:30p
Every Thursday Afternoon from 1:00p to 3:00p
Saturday, April 25th time TBD

Southside Hobby Lobby
Every Friday Afternoon from 1:00 to 3:00p
Saturday, April 18th time TBD

I'll be teaching the Days to Celebrate Birthday Book both Saturdays (one at north side and one at south side) and Tuesday Nights at Northside. Class fee at Hobby Lobby is $15. Other class subjects and times are TDB.

For the Days to Celebrate class you will need to bring a ruler and pencil, paper adhesive to apply paper to chipboard and to seal envelopes (glue stick works well to adhere paper to chipboard and any kind of adhesive you can apply in a thin line works well for the envelope), a trimmer and a scoring tool would be handy to bring, along with a eyelet setting tool. We will be using the Zutter Bind-it-All and I'll be demoing a Scor-Pal scoring board. If you like to age your projects, then bring your favorite aging ink! Examples of the projects should be available by this weekend at both stores.

We'll be looking forward to having a crafty time!

Have a catscrappy day!

TECHNOLOGY I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT

You all know I am a certified Macavist, I live, sleep, drink, dream, collect and bleed Macs. Back in the day we used to say I bleed six colors (in reference to the six color Apple logo at that time). I have owned almost one of every generation of Macs sold. The only notable Macs that I've not purchased for myself are the iMacs, mostly because I have always required a production Mac. By that I mean an upgradable or expandable machine. I've owned Apple's printers (all 3 versions, can you name them?), their camera, scanner, the Newton, monitors, modems, the first true laptop, Shuffle, iPod 5th Gen and now my most favorite, my iPhone! With my MacBook Pro 17" breathing down it's neck. I AbSoLuteLy ADORE my 3G iPhone. If I can't get to my laptop to get my email, it's OK, because I get it on my 3G. That alone is worth the price of admission! Coordinating my calender, contacts, music, and photos is just too slick!! Surfing and posting to my blog with it, priceless. My favorite app that I've downloaded? Lightsaber, complete with background music! Yes, I am easily entertained.

To be honest, I have to say this is one of my most productive tools. At CHA this little puppy helped me find places to eat, keep up with emails without lugging my laptop around, gave me directions to the nearest grocery store, took pictures of cool layouts and displays, helped me find my group when we got separated from each other, and I could go on endlessly about it. This is why a Mac will always trump a PC, ease of use, totally useful in every way, productive, and FUN!! it is never a chore to work on any of my Apple products. Yes, dare I say it, I am an Apple snob! Chuck your viral PC in the trash and buy a Mac. Macs can even run Windows, if you just can't give up your addiction to the BOD and hate to give up your one-on-one personal time with your antivirus routine. I do have a PC laptop but I have no reason to run it. I have my Cricut DesignStudio software running on my PC partition on my Mac. :-)

Go get a Mac and an iPhone and use all that extra free time you'll gain doing some serious Scrapbooking!

DON'T LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN

I must have some latent urge to watch old movies and listen to old hymns, as those seem to be the things that pop into my head when I get up in the morning and go to post on my blog! Actually, every morning when I wake up, my brain already has a song embedded in it. I am not sure how that works, so I am going to say it is Divine Intervention. I think God gives me a song to hum every morning that somehow fits my day when I think about it at the end of the day. Normally these songs are hymns that I learned growing up or it could be one of the praise songs we sing at church or a new song from the radio (once it was row, row, row your boat...NOT analyzing that one), but sometimes, the song I get is a real thinker. Those songs are usually good old hymns, many of which the words were taken right out of The Word of God (aka, The Bible). Like today. The song of the day? "His Eye is on the Sparrow." Now this is an old traditional favorite of mine, as sung by Selah. I was brushing my teeth, the bathroom windows were open and the birds outside were just chittering away, and the sound of it just captured me in that moment and BAM! the words just popped into my head. That song touches me in so many ways, to think that God is specifically watching me today, that His eye is on me, ME! He CARES for plain little old me brushing my teeth and wondering if my husband's interview for a job will go well today (hes' been unemployed for four months so far). The words aren't long, but the message is straight from The Word just for times like these when life feels uncertain. Here are the words:

"Why do I feel discouraged? Why do the shadows come? And why does my heart feel lonely and long for heaven untold? When Jesus is my portion, a constant friend is He, His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me. So I sing because I'm happy, and I sing because I'm free! Yeah, His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me."

I am special and unique and God loves me for exactly who I am, right this very minute, even if I am like the man behind the curtain running to and fro trying to put up an illusion of grandeur and magnificence and have others think I am more than what I am. At the end of the day, I am still God's child, deeply loved and cherished, no matter what I actually get done on my list! Now, that makes me happy and puts a song in my heart. I just try not to sing out loud, the cat's haven't started a fan web site for my singing capabilities yet—they're too busy covering their ears! teehee

I'm getting ready to fire up the Cricut and put in some major project prep time. I'm a big believer in the right tool for the right job, especially when it comes to prepping for a class. One of the best things about going to CHA is seeing all the new tools! I just LOVE tools! There weren't as many this time (OK, I'll qualify that by saying "not many that I would USE"), but I did order one really nifty tool/appliance that I am absolutely DYING to use, but I've not had the time to fire it up! Can you believe that?! This nifty new product comes from the other side of the pond, and I am sure that once I start using it, it may break me financially! Possibly mentally too... But I'm not going to tell you what it is until I've actually USED it. Hopefully that will be before April...

You'll just have to get the deets later! :-)

WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND

Tomorrow I'll be "working for the weekend" as an old Loverboy song goes. I have a LOT to DO before Saturday gets here as we prepare for the CMN crop, the Scrapbooking for Miracles crop held Saturday, March 21, 2009, from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm at the Wesley United Methodist Church at 922 W. Republic Road, in Springfield, MO. This crop is presented by Cox Health Nursing, Cox Health North Outpatient Therapy Services and the Scrapbooking Momeez and benefits the Children's Miracle Network. This is one of the best crops in Springfield, you'll find old friends here and make new ones too. They are offering classes and various types of make-n-takes at the vendor tables, mine included! ;-) You can find out more about the crop on the Scrapbooking Momeez web site here.

As in previous years, my booth for Conquest Keepsakes will be set up next to Clear Dollar Stamps. I design stamps for Lori and we like to tag team the attendees with some of the best make-n-takes in southwest Missouri. I have heard of some people coming up from Joplin to attend the crop. I'm sure they are ready to get their hands a little inky, don't you? You know who you are! Lori will be showcasing her knew stamp sets for the month of March, and if you're REALLY lucky, you might even get a sneak peak at some April stamps! Be sure to check out her web site and her blog. Her blog has some of the best tutorials and tips that I've seen anywhere. [grin] OK, so I wrote of couple of them along with a few other guest designers...

That brings me to the class that I am offering at the Children's Miracle Crop this Saturday. This class utilizes one of my most FAVORITE tools, the Zutter Bind-It-All, along with two other tools that I really like, my Cuttlebug and Cricut Expressions. You all know I am Arr--rrr--RR tooltime about tools, especially those that plug in or make scrunching noises. You may laugh, but I have a serious problem with tool addiction! Ask my hubby, he's the first to tell you not to get between me and my tools. I OWN THEM ALL! Cricut, 7Gypsies Binderie (I'll have that at the crop), Crop-A-Diles ad nauseum, Cuttlebug, Sizzix, Sizzlets, mat cutters, knives, Melt Pot, heat guns, punches, corner rounders, cordless Dremmel tool (woo-hoo-oo), 15 rulers (don't ask), Nestabilities dies from Spellbinder, I could go on. My hubby will tell you that if it plugs in or uses batteries, it's ALL ME! I'm a sick puppy. And I digress.

Back to the class. We will be using the BIA (Bind-It-All) to make a very cute wire-bound book. You will have two choices of the type of book to make, the Birthday Book or the Prayer Journal. This cute little darlin' of a book can be made using library envelopes or you can cut your own, or even use your Cricut with the Boxes, Bags, Tags and More cartridge. It cuts a very nice envelope and tag, should you choose to go that route. All papers will be cut for you, this will be an assembly party! We want to make this a fun class without having you drag a trolley of supplies to the class and camping all day at my table.

However, you do need to bring a few supplies and tools to the class, Here is what you need to bring for this class: 1) your favorite adhesive (I would recommend Zip Dry, my new FAVORITE adhesive), 2) scissors, 3) a brown chalk ink pad for aging (but optional), 4) a fingernail file (one of those big black ones you can buy at the Dollar Store, Walmart, Walgreens, etc.), 5) pop-dots or other dimensional adhesive, 6) Crop-A-Dile or other eyelet setting tool, 7) a folding bone will come in handy, and 7) any stamps and inks that you think you might like to use. If you don't have the supplies you need, I know that most of these things can be purchased at one of the onsite stores.

I've posted some sample pictures at the bottom of this post and a full copy of the tutorial will be made available to class attendees. The sampels posted are not the colors we are using for this class, but the look and feel will be similar. This project has several paper options to choose from, 1) Kaiser Craft paper from the Elegance line, 2) Kaiser Craft Paper from the Old World line, and 3) Basic Grey paper from their Porclain or Marakesh line. When you walk away from this class, you will have a beautifully bound book with gorgeous ribbons, beads and embellishments, along with some extra embellishments for another project. Come over to my booth and take a look at the kits and pick yours before they're gone! Space is very limited! Cost for this class is $15 and worth every penny and then some...I see Christmas gifts to friends in your futures!

All of these papers and embellishments, along with supplies for the BIA will be available for purchase at Scrapbooking Momeez, Clear Dollar Stamps, Scrap Nook and Conquest Keepsakes. I'll have a complete selection of wires, covers, and closures, some that you cannot find anywhere else, or you can place an order from me or CDS for what you don't see. My tip of the week BEFORE you come? Go use your 40% coupon and purchase a BIA at Hobby Lobby and bring it with you to the crop!

I'll be posting everyday up until the crop with more information on our make-n-takes, door prizes and a show stealer of a product, you won't want to miss this! Also some new and fascinating news on the scrapbooking front! Stay tuned...

Now, enjoy a few pictures...