Saturday Share :-)

This layout was created for my National Scrapbook Day workshop ladies. I have been stamping in my scrapbooks almost as long as I have been stamping and was thrilled when CTMH went all acrylic a few years ago. It is SO easy to stamp on your pages and even to create your own patterned paper (which I do quite often when I can't find that paper that is like the picture in my head) when your stamps and blocks are clear so you can see exactly where you are placing them.

This layout was created in response to my ladies who wanted to learn about a technique called random stamping. The circles and stars on the white daisy cardstock are created using one of my favorite CTMH stamp sets called "Star Struck". The secrets to random stamping is to start with your largest image and stamp in "triangles" then go back and fill in some using smaller images and the same technique. The ink colors are watermelon, ocean and hydrangea which match the colors in the "Whoops A Daisy" paper pack. I also stamped my jounaling block using an Image from the "Ticket Tags" set and the open space on the right will have a carousel from the "Laughter" set when mine comes in

I am in such good company

Hi everyone.

First of all I want to welcome all of the S4I guest bloggers Peggy, Beth, Shirley and Kris. You guys are awesome. I'm in good company that's for sure.

I might soon regret asking such fantastic blogger to join me as I'm going to look like such a rookie compared to them. Well I guess I am a rookie so I should look like one then

Beth.... oh Beth.... for someone who has never blogged you certainly have a nack for it. I'm in awe of your writing and humor. Oh and I do hear the word 'no'.... it sounds like this

"I would love to"

You just need to live in my world to understand my perception of the english language. lol

OK so I'm officially the Friday blogger just so you all know.

At this point I'm not sure what I want to share other than the fact that hopefully soon we will have another guest blogger sharing about living with a child with a disability and the value of inclusion. Be patient, it's coming soon to a blog near you.

We are getting closer on some dates for locations. I hope to have some new ones to announce really soon. Off the top of my head I can remember that Las Vegas is getting closer to a firm date as well as Des Moines Iowa. I'm sure there are others.

We have 2 new registrations for event locations. One of which is Beth and the other information is at home and I can't remember where she's from but she's another IRW instructor so YAY for our wonderful partnership with IRW.

I'm going to be spending lots of time over the next few months diving head first into the 'social networking' world. I'm pretty good with most technology and I pride myself on being up to date with new trends etc but this world of social networking is somewhat scary. I just never jumped in at the beginning and now I see great value in it for building up our network and spreading the word. The first place I'll be spending some time building is at Care2. It's a social network of do-gooders. Over 8 million registered participants all of whom are there to make a difference in our world. I should be able to find myself a few people over there who would be interested in helping us spread the word.

The next two places are crafting social networks. One is http://www.mycraftivity.com/ and the other is one that has been recommended to me from a few of the IRW instructors and from Beth herself. I haven't even opened an account there yet but it's called http://www.cr8everydaycrafts.com/ and it looks like a great group of craters there as well.

The final social networking leap will be to Facebook. YIKES. I started a group there but that place is just so overwhelming I backed off. Once I master the other three places I'll take another crack at FaceBook.

Blogging and Social Networking are the places to be these days. They are the wave of the future and I need to get on that wave and ride it for a while. Part of my job as the creator of this program is to get it out there and let the world know about us. Build up a team of organizers and spread the word about our program so that when a local event is taking place people will know about it and really want to participate and get involved. This kind of building apparently takes ALOT of time. Who knew that I couldn't build Rome in a year or two. Oh well, as Beth so wonderfuly put it...... one small step.

Well gang I am really looking forward to how this blog is going to build and be very interactive and I'm anxious to start getting the rest of the world involved with commenting on it. Please if you are reading this blog let us know what you think. Have you got any suggestions? Please share them.

Today is a 'reminder' day for me. If you read my initial story FOUND HERE you will know that shortly after I heard "that voice in my head" there came a day where I asked God for a sign to let me know what I was to be doing with my life and 1.5 hours later I was laid off from the job I truly hated (I don't hate many things). Well that was 2 years ago today and I can't believe I'm here doing what I'm doing. Some days I think.... wow it's been 2 years already and I can't believe I'm still doing this ..... and then other days I think...... I've only just begun. Isn't it weird how things happen in life. I guess this is what I am meant to be doing or it would have run it's course by now. OK enough living in the past.

Tonight by the way is my Friday scrapping night at my neighbours. I love Friday nights. It's time to chat and catch up with my friends and time to hopefully get a layout or two done. Some nights are more productive then others but on average I get about 4 2pg layouts done each Friday. Oh and it's 'take out' night so I dont' cook either. Woooo Hooo for Fridays!

Sometimes, if there's lots to say I just might blog on Sunday's too but not all the time.

Well by for now everyone and I'll see you next week.

Greetings from Texas!

Howdy ya'll! I am Kris, or Texaskris on the internet. I will be your Thursday blogger. I am thrilled to be here, thank you for having me!
As for the introduction, I will try not to talk to much, but don't hold your breath.
I am a stay at home mom to two wonderful and active boys, ages 5 and almost 8. I have been married for 13 years to the most wonderful man. My husband is the full time youth and education minister at one of the many Baptist churches here in central Texas. We were called to serve at BMBC the weekend after we were married, and I wasn't much older than some of the youth! It has been a fun ride. I started selling Stampin' Up! 6 years ago. I have loved every minute of it. I have met some wonderful friends, have has some amazing opportunities, and have ministered to ladies because of it. How fun!?!?!
I met Laurie with S4I last year when she "randomly" contacted me about hosting an event. I get so much junk email, that I often delete them without much thought if I don't recognize the sender or title. Her message title had the word "inclusion" in it, so it instantly got my attention. I am familiar with that term, see, I am for all practical purposes a "Claymate". So I knew about Clay's foundation and dream of inclusion. It also hit home for me because in my area, there is a high population of children with autism. In our small church we serve 3 children with special needs. My heart for inclusion is watching how interacting with a special needs child affects my boys. They need that interaction. And it saddens me that their elementary school doesn't have a program at all for special children. I gladly took on the role of organizer for S4I in my area.
I am also VERY involved in the boy's PTA. In fact, next year I get to make the PTA scrapbook for our school. So, between my husband, children, church activities, running my Stampin' Up! business, and PTA there isn't much time for hobbies. But I do have a few. I have a great friend that I enjoy going to movies with, traveling to see music concerts with, and other silly stuff. I love music, magazines, and surfing the web for craft ideas to make and give. I love to have people at my house, and we often do. I tend to get overly involved in my children's interests, for example when Jeremiah loved Batman, I could tell you all kinds of stuff about Batman and DC comics, or when Jonathan loved The Wiggles, I could sing any of their songs and tell you all kinds of random facts. I have to admit I am really enjoying our current passions, Jeremiah is into the Marines (and also wants to sell Blue Bell ice cream, because you eat all you can and sell the rest) and Jonathan loves the Jonas Brothers. So what a happy home... which brings me to my first scrap layout to share, HOME.
Did I mention that my mom is living with us? Well, when I was looking through my files of what to start with, she suggested this layout, she loves the colors. So, being the mommy's girl that I still am, I did as she suggested. I have a monthly scrap book club that gets together and does a layout and then we order and take turns getting the hostess benefits. This is one of those layouts. It uses Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Blush Blossom, Old Olive, and Certainly Celery card stocks and inks. I also used our punches for embellishments, the large oval, tag, scallop circle, 1 1/4" circle and 1 3/8 inch circle. I love roller wheels, they have so many functions, a background, or a focal point, an accent, the sky is the limit. I colored the houses from the roller wheel and the boys I stamped with our watercolor crayons and blender pens. The "h" of home is one of our new sticky cut letters. It is just like sticky strip, except it is in letters, I added some of our cosmo glitter to it and it just sparkles. I added a rhinestone brad to the tag for some added bling! Also on the tag I used the direct to paper technique with ink pads, just drag your card stock across your ink pad until you get the desired look. You can't go wrong with ribbon, ever. So I added some matching double stitched ribbon. A few stamps for accents and that is how I scrapbook. Simple with lots of photos. I love that everything SU! sells is in coordinating colors. The paper, inks, markers, crayons, glitter, ribbon, brads, EVERYTHING they make is in one of their exclusive colors, and it makes projects worry free.
I look forward to sharing some ideas, techniques, and Stampin' Up! products with you each week! If you ever have any questions, please feel free to check out my blog, http://texaskrisstamps.blogspot.com/ and I am pretty sure you can contact me through there.
Happy Thursday everyone!

Livin' life in a new way!

Hi, I’m Shirley Pando…Wednesday’s blogger here on the S4I blog. I want to introduce myself a bit before I start chatting up a storm!! :D

• I am a wife of 20+ years to my husband, Howard; mom to three teen boys(!); and “mom” to an aging black lab. We live in beautiful Longwood (Orlando), Florida just minutes from Mickey Mouse and Disney World!
• I have my own at-home scrapbooking business as an Independent Scrapbook Instructor with I Remember When. I host monthly crops, vend at events, and have a website called Scrapbook and Paper where I sell products, kits and premade items.
• I have been a product demonstrator for Xyron, Inc. and have created projects for the Xyron website and product packaging.
• I have traveled the U.S. working the consumer scrapbook shows with Advantus, Corp. and Scrap-Mart.com.
• I am a Creative Arts Instructor with My Creative Classroom.

OK, on with the chatting…

So, guess how much it cost me to fill up my (gas guzzling) SUV last week??? NO, not $50, not $75, but $96!!!! Can you believe it? And that was for regular unleaded! As soon as my long and lanky teens move out, I'm getting me a hybrid!!

I also was recently on a plane flight for a business trip. I had to pay an extra $25 (each way!) for my second piece of luggage, which houses my very important makeup, beauty items, and shoes. Can't live without that, right?? But do I really need to pay the airline to let me bring my luggage with me???

I cannot believe how fast the price of things has sky-rocketed! Pretty soon we’ll all just stay home and get to know our neighbors…hmm, interesting thought, huh?

So what does all this have to do with scrapbooking? Well, a lot, I think. With all of these rising costs, we’ve got to do something to save money in other areas. But where?? Well here’s a suggestion…how about taking online crafting classes! Save that precious gas in your car and stay in those P.J.’s! There’s no need to go anywhere to learn new techniques or make a great project…learn in the comfort of your own home.

Say hello to My Creative Classroom! MCC is a virtual learning center, where the pursuit of creativity takes many forms. Our courses are highly interactive and facilitated by talented teachers ready to assist you on your creative journey. My Creative Classroom focuses on Art and Craft classes; from altered art to scrapbooking to card making to stamping to candle making to art journals to sewing and everything in between. It is our mission to provide our students with an outstanding learning experience.

I am so proud to be a Creative Arts Instructor at My Creative Classroom. The classes I teach focus on altered arts, scrapbooking, paper arts...and a little mixed media thrown in for fun! We have a fantastic teaching staff full of people who are as passionate about crafting as you are! And because of the fact that we have students and Instructors from all over the world, I get to share my passion for crafting with people I would otherwise never get to meet.

Check out just two of the classes I am teaching now at My Creative Classroom:

"Our Family" 12 x 6 Handmade Album class begins June 10th. CLICK HERE for more info and to sign up.

Enjoy the Journey/Travel Workshop begins June 16th and a second session starts July 17th. You can choose which one works best for you. CLICK HERE for more info and to sign up.

"See" ya next week! :D

one small step...

"My name is Beth Kingston...and I am blog-o-phobic."

is what I said to myself when Laurie asked me if I was interested in blogging for S4I. I was envisioning myself sitting in a room full of other people who also don't blog - coming up with excuses to get myself out of what was about to happen. "I'm too busy." "I travel too much". "I barely know how to use my computer". "No one wants to read what I have to say". The truth was that I was a little intimidated and I had no clue what I'd ramble on about - but if you know Laurie like I have come to know and love Laurie over the past few months...she can't hear you when you say no. :) So here I am. Beth Kingston - first time blogger, proud Army wife, Instructor Programs Manager for IRW and recent transplant to the South - trepidaciously coming at you from cyberspace. One small step at a time.

For those of you who don't know about I Remember When (IRW) - we are a Direct Sales company that offers brand-name scrapbooking supplies with the personal touch of home parties and workshops. But we are so much more than that. The thing I have always loved most about IRW is our instructors' deep sense of community and friendship - with each other, with their customers, and with the world at large. When other instructors have needed prayer in times of crisis - these amazing women have rallied prayer vigils around the clock. When instructors have loved ones deployed - letters and care packages and words of encouragement come from their IRW sisters all over the country. When an instructor suffers a loss or celebrates a blessing or just needs to know they are loved - their IRW family is there. It is truly something to behold. So when Laurie asked us to join S4I as a National Partner, I knew we had found our calling. So many IRW instructors are raising, teaching, mentoring, or loving someone with disabilities - this was the perfect opportunity to combine their passion for the hobby and their ties to their own communities to raise funds and awareness for such a special group of children.

One of the other things I've always thought set IRW apart is that we "walk the walk". Everyone on the management team is also an instructor - we have to meet our minimums, we get the same discount as everyone else, we do home parties and workshops, we use the products we carry - so we know what questions a customer might ask because we've got customers of our own. We also know what it feels like to put on that first open house and worry that no one will show up! :) As Laurie and I put this partnership plan in motion I was feeling really good about the program and how great this was going to be for IRW and we decided to have a kick-off conference call. Laurie would be on the call to talk about Scrapping 4 Inclusion and I would be on the call to explain what IRW was going to do to support the instructors and how easy it would be to put on your own event. We were about 24 hours out from the call when I said to myself (can you tell that I talk to me quite a bit?) "How on earth can you tell these girls how easy it is to put on an event if you don't do one too?" To me - this was the ultimate example of walking the walk. Not only encouraging these girls and telling them how successful they could be - but actually doing it WITH them. Finding a place and picking a date and marketing the event...right down to deciding if we want chips or cookies with our catered lunches. Every single detail - one small step at a time.

So that is going to be the theme of my Tuesday blogs. I will share my journey from deciding to hold an S4I event in my town to the planning and marketing to the day of the event and beyond. Along the way you'll hear from other IRW instructors who are at all stages of their journey - we'll share our triumphs and our challenges, our funny stories and those days when we just want to pull our hair out. This is such a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wants to take it - scrapbooking has always had a way of bringing people together, and this is YOUR chance to inspire your community to do just that. So Tuesdays are for those of you who want to do an event but just don't think you can...WE'LL DO IT TOGETHER.

One small step at a time...

Exciting New Blog Format

Well I figured I should pop in here to announce/explain our new Exciting blog format since Peggy has already introduced herself to everyone.

Starting RIGHT NOW! the Scrapping 4 Inclusion blog is taking on a collaborative format which I'm hoping will help take us to where we want to go. The unfortunate thing is that I'm not really sure where that is..... I guess that's a good thing ...... now we can just go wherever.

The new blog format will have contributors from three of our volunteer organizers. They will be sharing layout ideas, techniques, new products etc. Things that every scrapbooker is looking for.

We will also have one day where someone from the I Remember When team will stop by and share their experiences in being involved in the Scrapping 4 Inclusion program.

Of course I will be blogging too about Scrapping 4 Inclusion and what's going on and I'll also take the opportunity to share person things as well cause I just like to talk.

We are also working out some last minute details to have another guest author stop by weekly who will be able to share with you her experiences as the mom of an autistic boy. She will be our voice with respect to Inclusion and why it is we are all joining forces to help make a better world for our children. Hopefully this piece will be added in a week or so. Keep your fingers crossed.

Anyways, that's the new format. I hope you all like it and please feel free to comment and let me know if there is anything else we can be adding. It's very difficult sometimes to find just the right things to talk about to ensure you are providing value to your readers. Hopefully this new format will do that for us.

Have a great Memorial Day!
Laurie

Formally introducing myself

Hi everyone. I thought I would pop in and make a post to formally introduce myself. My name is PeggyS. I live in NE Oregon (transplanted from Upstate NY). My "real" job (the one that pays the bills) was as an autism paraeducator and more recently as a title one paraeducator with the local school system. When we lived in NY I helped open and run one of the first dual diagnosis (psychiatric diagnosis combined with a developmental disorder) in the state. I also teach scrapbooking and stamping and I am an independent consultant with Close to My Heart. The layout I chose to share is one of I did as a CTMH demo using a favorite photo of my 3 youngest chidren.

I am mom to 4 miracles. My oldest is Ashleigh (18 and living on her own so not in the layout). Ashleigh has a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis. The main issue with her disorder is fibroid tumors that grow and move and attach themselves to nerve endings and cause a great deal of pain. She also has a pretty significant secondary scoliosis and adhesions on her eyes. There is no cure..... all we can do is manage her symptoms as best we can. Amanda is 13. She is a TAG student and most definitely my "glass is half full" gal. Joshua and Jeremy are 9. They are genetically identical but don't look anything alike. We think it may have something to do with Jeremy's autism. Thanks to my training and early interventions for him he has come a long way socially and behaviorally but still deals with many food texture issues and he is much smaller than his brother.

So, as you can see, the scrapping 4 inclusion program touches issues near and dear to my heart and I am honored to be a part of it and help with it in any way that I can.