M. M. DeZigns...

SO, I woke up this morning to find my power out... no, real good reason for it at all. There was no weather event last night while I was sleeping (which I was only doing from 2am to 7am). No report of a truck hitting a pole or anything. So, I wonder what happened? I am, however, using this time to the best of my ability. I have already swept the kitchen floor. I am going to do some light cleaning in my living room/craft area - gotta avoid sweating or I'll defeat the purpose of my late shower last night {LOL}. And maybe throw some crafting in there... I have a few projects I started that got derailed because of the last two big orders I had come in - I have some prize winners waiting on their prizes & I might just get them into the mail today! {praying I do} I'll keep you all posted!

A friend asked me to create Retirement Party Invitations for her mom's party. She said she needed 50, so I planned to keep the design simple but elegant for her... But 50 turned into 100... And 100 turned into 110! I soon learned that even a simple dezign is a dezign nonetheless & takes many hours to complete. I deliver the order later on today & I am hopeful my hours of "hard" labor will be appreciated.

A friend is getting married in August & decided she wanted to create her own unique invitations. The invites will be in a specially dezigned envelope & sealed with wax; the entire invite/envelope combination will be placed in a box and mailed to all the invitees. In order to create her desired look, she needed the help of the Cricut Expression . I was recruited to cut the envelopes... ALL 200 OF THEM! Luckily, both, I and my Expression came out of it all will minor cuts & bruises - LOL! {I will come back & post a pic of the finished product when I receive mine in the mail!} Another friend called on my services for thank you cards. I created a few different ones - using my Cricut for some & not using it on others. The ones I did use the Cricut on are in an earlier post. The two you see here I chose not to use the Cricut on, but I did incorporate the Sizzix Texture Boutique . I love the embossed "thank you" squares on each of these cards!

I always claim that I am not a scrapbooker... but I was cleaning & organizing my crafting life & came across an almost empty scrapbook. In the book was probably the only 2-page layout I ever completed. Interestingly enough, I love it. What do you think?

Happy Father's Day to all the dads (and moms doing double duty!). I am getting a late start today after spending the night camping out for the 2010 American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Detroit. It was a wonderful event & I am proud of my sorors who came together to raise over $1,000 for the cause! I had to work yesterday - demoing the ProvoCraft Yudu screenprinting machine . I must say, I was skeptical about my ability to effectively demo this machine, since I had never had the chance to play with it. Well, it was so fun & I can see endless possibilities in my dezigns with it. For example, if I use a 220 screen (smaller holes for the ink to pass through), I can use vibrant colors & metallics to print invitations and more! I am adding it to my short list of things to look for on sale :) {Here are some of the things I was able to create} I am also continuing to work on my personal challenge to use all of my Cricut cartridges before I can buy anymore. A friend reques

I got started on my personal challenge and was able to use 4 Cricut cartridges between the two projects. The first is a graduation card for my little cousin. Last Saturday, he graduated from Kindergarten and I decided that I couldn't attend the event empty handed. I used my Cricut Design Studio software to create his name & the "2010" for the card. I used images & fonts from Everyday Paper Dolls & the Calligraphy Collection for this & I decided to use a graduate for the "A" in his name to make it that much cuter! The second project is a Summer Journal for my daughter. I used Design Studio again to lay out my design. I used Everyday Paper Dolls, Forever Young, & A Child's Year. I was also able to use my YourStory to bind the book & I am now officially hooked on creating books!! I will continue to work on completing my challenge - I believe it is 4 down & 40 to go LOL! I'll be keeping this updated in my "Personal Challeng

I have been away from my blog from a while, but I have been inspired by my sistas to get back in the swing - really to get it going, as I hadn't done much with it before LOL! Well, in the time that I have been away, I have begun to perfect my craft & really launch my business . I have also become addicted to that wonderful toy called the Cricut ! It is such a wonderful accessory to any crafters arsenal - if you don't have one, you should definitely check it out. Anyhoo, I realized that I have been spending way too much money on this toy & its extras - the cartridges! I went from 28 to 44 in a few months and that is not a small amount of money. Luckily, I don't believe in buying anything full price & I do believe that you can buy things from anywhere they sell it... so I will find deals in some unlikely places at times (that's another entry all together). To get my life back together, I decided to stop my craft spending for June, July, & August, with the