SIZZIX Blog Hop!

In just a few more weeks you'll start to see the new series of Scrapbook Memories. As I mentioned earlier, this series has some brand new features that we hope you'll enjoy. Sizzix is one of our corporate sponsors for these shows so you'll be seeing lots of ideas featuring the new Eclips, digital die cutting system as well as their standard die cutting machines. One of the things I love about the standard die cutting machines is that they can cut thick materials like mat board and Sizzix has introduced a new line of dies especially for this purpose. Not only do they cut the mat board, they also score it! Julianna (Hudgins) has a great project to show you, but there are so many ways you can be creative with this new line of dies. Eileen Hull is the designer who created these dies for Sizzix, so she has organized a BLOG HOP featuring CHA Designers. Each designer will create, then feature a project using Eileen's "Scoreboard" dies. There will be a new project every 14 days. This is how it works (if I understood it correctly). Go to Eileen's blog www.eileenhull.blogspot.com and look for her first project, which is a Scalloped Gift Box. On her blog you will find links to all the other designers who are participating. You'll also find out how YOU can win one of these fabulous dies!

I'm not eligible to participate in the prize, but here's my version of the Scalloped Box:

And this is how it started:

1. Cut the box from white mat board. Using a large, soft brush gently wet the surface, then add your choice of water colors with the same brush. I started at the scalloped end with yellow then went to red then back to yellow again. Work quickly moving the brush from side to side blending the yellow and red where they meet then add a little blue to the scalloped end to create the green shade. To make the colors shimmer, I also brushed Pearl Ex powder over the surface while it was still damp. Let dry then fold inward along score lines. Glue sides together with Elmers Tacky glue.

2. Scallops always make me think of lace, so I used a Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in the center of each scallop. I adhered white rings (hole reinforcements) to each scallop and on the front flap. Bling is always fun so I placed a jewel in the center of each ring (or you could add glitter to the centers which is what I tried first). I threaded some short lengths of narrow green ribbon through each hole along the edge then glued a ribbon rose on top. The roses covered up the holes, so I suppose I didn't really need to punch them, but I often change my mind about what I'm doing as I move along. I seldom end up with a project I originally thought of.

3. I used small, white, round velcro fasteners from the Notions Dept to fasten the front. To me the box looks like a purse, so I glued ribbon under the flap at the fold (for a strap) and voila it's done.

As for me, I'm still working on wedding favors for my son's wedding and trying to make sure I haven't forgotten anything - pedicure, hair appt, dress, etc. Plus, I'm altering my daughter's dress... so much to do and so little time.... I wouldn't be quite so stressed, except for the fact that my printer has suddenly decided it doesn't like to print on the cardstock I bought to make some of the favors. It was doing fine until all of a sudden the paper wouldn't feed unless I cut the width to 2"...... now it's even having problems with that. If anyone has any ideas (other than buying a new printer) I'd love to hear from you. You can always leave me a message on the Scrapbook Memories (Group) Facebook page..... thanks!

Have a great week and Good Luck with the blog hop!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Winter's Last Hurrah!

"The March wind doth blow and we shall have snow and what will the Robin do then, poor thing.  
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm and hide his head under his wing, poor thing...." 
Old English nursery rhyme.

Guess what!.......   It snowed this weekend!  On the first day of Spring!  In Texas! And oh boy was it cold!!!!  With the wind chill, it was about 24 degrees...brrrrrr........  It wouldn't have been so bad if the temperature hadn't reached 74˚ the day before.  I was kicking myself for not getting out to prune the roses last week and now I'm glad I didn't.  Probably won't get out this week either.  I have a rotten cold and am still trying to get rid of a cough I brought home from Cleveland.  Yuk!  Good excuse for a hot toddy though.  Hot water, lemon juice, honey and a wee bit o'brandy or whiskey.........  not sure it helps the cold, but it does make one feel a little better. 

Getting ready to take part in a Sizzix blog hop - soon as my head clears a little, so please check back in a day or two.  You also need to hop over to Julie FFB's blog.  She's doing some online classes for Prima and they are absolutely brilliant.  Enjoy!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Lost In Time

I've just spent the last 2 days looking thru literally hundreds, probably thousands of photographs taken over the past 35 years or so.  Apart from the 7,000+ lingering in iPhoto on my desktop computer and on my iBook I have shoeboxes full of prints.  Yes I admit it, most of them are still in shoeboxes.  Can you imagine how many albums I'd need if I scrapbooked even half of them........!!!!!!!!  We'd need a whole room for them, maybe even a small house!  My children enjoy looking at them just as much as I do - and they haven't even seen the slides yet - but half the fun is just sitting on the floor, flipping thru each photograph, a surprise at every turn.  It always takes us on such a wonderful journey back thru time.

One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I will make books of the most important photographs for each year.  They will be "McGuffee Family Yearbooks" (or Annuals).  Then, of course I can see a book of my family photos taken over the years before I met my husband, entitled "Where did Julie/Mum/Nana Come From?", or something to that effect,  and there'll be another to chronicle my husband's early years.  We both come from very prolific family photographers, so I have a feeling I need to hurry up and get started.  I should start with the digital ones first.  I've been preaching for years not to let our children grow up to be jpegs and I'm the worst offender.  One power surge and all their scrapbook moments will be gone in the blink of an eye.  At least I have negatives of all the 35mm photos I've taken and that's a very comforting thought.

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Time Flies - Whether You're Having fun or Not..

The days are flying by lately...  too much to do and so little time.  Plus I lost a whole hour this weekend!  I've been trying to clean up my computer desktop and also my iBook.  The problem is that I have way too many photos and I just love looking thru them all over and over again.  I've probably told you before, that I love photography - looking at photos and taking them.  I'm always the one with the camera at showers and parties, hopping around taking candid shots of everyone there.  Even before I had a digital camera.  I received my first camera, a Brownie Reflex 620 at the ripe old age of 11 and my first 35mm, half frame Olympus Pen EE at 16.  And yes, I still have them both....... (I should post a photo of them.....)  but I sometimes wonder what I'm missing at all these gatherings while I'm recording the moments that everyone else is living.  Seems like I'm either getting food ready (if the party's at our house), or I'm taking photos of everyone else laughing, talking and having fun.  I've recorded some of life's most beautiful and vivid moments over the years, but do I sometimes forget to be part of them.....  Nah....  I've enjoyed them all to the fullest and I enjoy reliving them over an over again.  A wondrous "looking glass" experience.

Have a great week!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Birthday Boy!

It's my grandson's birthday today, so I picked him and his sister up from school early in the afternoon for a special trip to Toys R Us so he could choose his own birthday gift.  After that we met Mommy & Daddy & Papa at the Pancake House for....  pancakes, of course!  It was a fun outing, but not any where near as exciting as his party this past Saturday.  SPIDERMAN was a surprise guest and all the kids were absolutely thrilled to bits.  This was one of life's "scrapbook moments" that we'll remember for years to come.

Yours truly,
Julie :)

GIVEAWAYS!!

One of my favourite (sp? It's correct, old habits die hard) jobs, for want of a better word, as a host of Scrapbook Memories is to look for new and exciting products at the trade shows that we all feature on the Opens and Closes. So what do we do with them when we leave the set, you may ask... Well, now that I'm getting a little better at blogging (with encouragement from Julie FFB who's a whiz at this stuff), I am going to start GIVING THESE PRODUCTS AWAY!!!! I must admit that I will undoubtedly hang on to some things, but I have so much that I can share. In order to do this, however, I may need to change my blog template to 3 columns, so let me figure that one out first. (I know how to do it, just need to make sure I don't lose content in the process.) So bear with me and keep checking back. I have the iTop Brad & Button Maker from Imaginisce, fabulous Craftworks templates and some great new punches from McGill to start with. Need to run and do a press check on a book right now, but I'll be back.... hope you will be too! BTW: Julie will be participating too so you'll have double the fun. Julie's website is: www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com.

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Scrapbook Memories - Series 1600

Welcome to the studios! There used to be a driveway around here somewhere.......

Julie and Beth with our new, artist to artist segment host, Julie Fei Fan Balzer.

First stop is to see Karen in the make-up room, then we're ready to tape the "Opens".

Beth is responsible for answering viewers questions, so she keeps track of all the different products we show during the "Open" to each show.

This is the "Green Room" where we lay out projects, set out product and prep for segments. It's also the dressing room where change and keep track of what we wear on each show and snack!

Nikki Sivils was one of our guests for this series and Lisa Singer joined us again together with

Julianna Hudgins, who showed us all the great features of the ECLIPS
as well as some old favorites.



We have the best lunch room! It's a the top of the building, so we always have a great view of the weather....... the roof is glass too, so it was covered in snow that week!



Beth and I prep for a segment and Jewels pops in for a quick "Three Julie's" photo before she and I head for the airport. Julie Fei Fan Balzer stayed for the weekend, which was probably a good thing since all flights to New York were cancelled. Jewels and I made it home okay.



There are obviously a whole bunch of folks behind the scenes who play a BIG part in bringing Scrapbook Memories to you. This is Mike, the director.

The show is produced by Kathie Stull, KS Productions. Kathie has been in the Arts & Crafts Industry for over 20 years producing videos and TV Shows for PBS. Her other shows include:
Quilting Arts - Beads, Baubles & Jewels - Hands On Crafts for Kids - Bake, Decorate, Celebrate (Beth hosts this show too) - America Sews with Sue Hausman and Knitting Daily.

This new series won't start to air until late Spring, but you'll notice it's quite a bit different from past series. You'll see segments we taped on location at the CHA trade show and we've added some different types of projects. The Arts & Crafts industry is changing as new products are developed and designers discover new, creative things to do; plus, there's a whole, new generation of crafters out there who are just itching to dive into something creative. Mixed Media is the trend "du jour" and this was evident at the trade show in January. You know something's afoot, when a scrapbook company - Making Memories - features jewelry products in their booth. No we didn't have anything like that on the show, but it's an indication of change. We do talk about mixed media though and are looking for your feedback, so please stay tuned then let us know what YOU think. Viewer feedback is, and always has been very important to us.

Check out our group page on Facebook - you can leave comments there for us too! Enjoy!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Chivalry isn't Dead Yet

Jewels (Julianna Hudgins) and I were leaving the hotel to head to the studio. It was 7:30 am and blizzard conditions. We left our luggage by the hotel door instead of dragging suitcases thru the snow and went to get the car. A gentleman had the same idea and pulled up under the hotel awning to load his own bags just ahead of us. There was only room for one car, so when he saw us pull up behind, he jumped back into his car and pulled forward out into the snow again so we could stop under the awning. Wow! I have to say it made our whole day, just knowing that the "Age of Chivalry" is not dead. A gentleman indeed.

Yours truly,
Julie :)

The "Craft Room"

I've seen some wonderful "Scrapbooking" rooms in books, magazines, etc and I'm often asked what mine looks like. Well this is my "Craft" room. It used to be a corner of our family room until we moved in 2003. The "ping pong" table was ideal for laying out designs and I could store lots and lots of boxes underneath, but now I have a whole room just for me and I love it! It's upstairs, so I can be as messy as I want, which is usually the case. It may not look like it, but I did clean up just for these photos - had to find my camera!



It's very practical, as you can see, with industrial shelving and the countertop under the windows is a formica kitchen countertop from Home Depot which I placed across two drawer units from the Container store. There's also another shelving unit full of boxes in a closet at the end of the landing just outside the french doors. My computer, printers, scanner, etc are all on the L-shaped corner unit, another industrial piece which has served me well since 1996. Nothing glamorous for me I'm afraid, but it fits my needs to a "T" - speaking of which, I could do with a cuppa right now. BTW - there's a balcony outside so I can watch the seasons go by while I work. Check out my snow photo from Feb.12th.



I must admit that I still commandeer the large dining room table downstairs for some of my more long and "involved" projects and I have even more boxes stacked along one wall of the garage. Most of them are full of projects that have appeared in books and magazines and on T.V. I've given a lot of them away to charity gift shops over the years, but there's still a lot left. Time to spring clean again........

Have a happy Monday and a great week!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

On the Inside Looking Out!

It snowed here last week. In fact it was a record snowfall for our area. I had a few minutes in the wee hours of this morning, so I downloaded my photos so I can share the beauty of the day. It was absolutely magnificent outside - outside being the operative word with me being on the inside....... On the other hand, it wreaked havoc in the area. Power lines were knocked down by tree branches that gave way under the weight of the 8"-9" of snow. And, being in Texas, we were definitely not prepared for something like this. The temperatures weren't too low though, so the main roads remained passable for the most part.

Here are the "Views from My Window". Enjoy!

Have a happy day!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

Where Does the Time Go?

I catch up with Beth thru her blog and it struck me the other day that her daughter and my grandson are the same age! In fact their birthdays are within a few days of each other. Is that a happy thought for a Monday morning, or what.........

I also follow Julie Fei Fan Balzer's blog and am always impressed at how she finds time for so much creativity and even more time to journal about it on her blog! So, what have I been doing these past few days? Well, most importantly getting ready to leave next week to tape Scrapbook Memories at the studio in Cleveland. I've also been working on projects for a manufacturer client and just sent a 32 page book to the printer. Unfortunately these projects are for clients, so I'm not at liberty to share even what they are, but I'VE BEEN VERY BUSY!

I've been dealing with the repercussions from the record snowfall too. My satellite connection was down (no TV either) and power was sporadic at best... I'm not sure that total dependency on the internet is a good thing. Which reminds me....... I actually received a hand written note last week from the girls at CHA to thank me for my support at the consumer show. Did you see that I said HAND WRITTEN.....wow! I continue to be impressed and absolutely delighted! I miss the "good ol days" - some of them anyway. These new days are wonderful in a whole new different way. I'm a Nana and my son is getting married in about 8 weeks! I have SO much to do to get ready for that........ I'll definitely have to get started as soon as I get back.

Have a happy day!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

I'm the Adult - I think.....

It's snowing - again!!!! There's such a beautiful snowfall outside. Big ol' flakes that look like chunks of cotton candy. It's the kind of snow that makes you want to run outside, look up at the sky and let the flakes tickle your eyelashes. Truth is, I'm just not that kid any more and I'm more than happy to watch it through the window. I'm a Nana for goodness sake, though I must admit I still jump waves at the beach, wear a swimsuit and build crazy sandcastles with the kids.

I took my grandchildren to school yesterday morning. Dylan went to his classroom first then Jovie and I walked down the hallway to her room. We hung up her coat, put her lunchbag in the cubby then I gave her a big hug. She marched into her classroom, then turned and blew me a kiss as she started to pull her "work" off the shelf. I lingered in the doorway as tears welled up in my eyes, thinking "hey you, you're the adult, YOU aren't supposed to be the one to cry when you leave!" Maybe I do need to go play in the snow.

This is what I see from Craft Studio window:

Yours truly,
Julie :)