M. M. DeZigns...

I have a plan & I need your help to make it happen. I am on a journey to reach 250 followers. I promised that when I reached 250 followers, I would give away a Cricut cartridge. Well, I am holding to that promise & I am taking it up a notch. SO FAR , I have 2 cartridges to give away - brand new, in the package, reward points in tact, never synced to a Gypsy. So, the plan is this - when I reach 250 followers , I will use a giant bowl (easiest method with all the entries I hope to get) to pick the lucky winner who will get to choose which of the 2 cartridges they would like to have. If I reach 350 followers in that same week , I will pick another winner and they will get to have the other cartridge. Sounds fair enough right? So how do you win? 1. You must be a follower of my blog - that's the whole point of all of this right? 2. Leave a comment on this post to let me know that you are supporting me in my quest to 250 followers. But, I think these things ...

The death of my soror was a very trying time. To help me get through it & to support the others dealing with this rough time, I made a few cards. I used my Gypsy & Expression to create the sentiments. Both cards measure 5" by 6.5".

Last week's challenge was to use your biggest ticket crafting item to make something other than a card or layout... boy, did my sistahs step up to the plate! Christel over at Scrappin' Sista created an Explosion Purse and it is so cute: April from The Purple Scrapbook was thinking along the same lines as Christel and made a purse too... except her purse is designer & comes baring gifts! She made a Faux GUCCI Purse gift card holder: I used my Cricut Expression & Gypsy to cut vinyl for an etched glass project. I used Cricut Cuttables Adhesive-Backed Vinyl in Raven (black). Using my Gypsy, I set up my design ~ "In God's Hands" ~ from the Printing Press cartridge - I love the mix of this font & how it doesn't have to be perfect. I am out of transfer tape, so I used a few strips of my wide width masking tape to help transfer the vinyl (including the little "circles" in the As, Os, & Ds) to the glass. When I removed the m...

I realized I haven't updated my blog in a few days & I am sad that this is the first update. On Thursday night, a friend & sorority sister of mine was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. She had dated him for about 5 years and had broken up with him a few months ago. He didn't take the break-up very well & when she finally changed her relationship status on Facebook, that was the last straw for him. He went to her home and, from what we can tell, when she answered the door, he shot her multiple times. Her 7-year-old son & 12-year-old niece were in her home at the time, and even if they didn't see the incident occur, they were the first to see her body. Before the police could catch up with him on Friday, he killed himself. There have been many things said & lots that have stuck with me. Power & Control are very serious things - when a wo/man shows you who they really are, believe them. If it feels wrong, it probably is & it is best to get out of t...

Last week's challenge was to choose three Bs - items, colors, etc. as long as it started with a B - to create a card or a layout. The ladies who participated in the challenge really rocked it! Cassie at Cassie's Crop Corner  created two cards. The first using black, blue, & bling and the second using brown, blue, & buttons. Her cards are beautiful:   Cynta at Living According to the Master's Plan  whipped up this musically inspired card: I chose for my Bs, brown, blue, butterflies, and a bonus of BLING! I pulled out my DCWV Blossoms & Butterflies  stack and found a super cute brown & blue sheet with silver foil detail in the corner. To make this tall card, I cut brown American Crafts cardstock at 8" by 9" and scored it at 4" the long way to form a 4" by 9" card. I cut white Georgia Pacific cardstock at 3.75" by 8.75" to form the mat for my DCWV cardstock (which I cut at 3.5" by 8.5"). I used my Corner ...

So the winners of my 125 Follower wonderful happy time didn't come forward to claim their prizes :( So, back to the drawing board I went and now... drumroll please... the new winning # is Translation ~ Congratulations to PinkBlingCrafter & Charvonna Stackhouse !!! (If you are confused as to why there are two winners, click here to read the previous winner announcement post) Please send me an email at mycraftz (at) aol (dot) com with your name & mailing address along with your favorite color & favorite craft (scrapbooking, cardmaking, crochet, knit, quilting, etc.) by 11:59pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. If I don't hear from you, I will choose yet another winner. I can't wait until the winner gets to claim their prize when I reach 250 followers & give away a Cricut cartridge - I'm so excited!!!

So, I decided to add a new "segment" to my blog called The Thursday Test . At least twice a month on Thursdays, I will try to explore products in my stash & in the stores. I will let you know what I think and invite you to chime in with your thoughts too! Today, I am exploring white pens/markers. I have been intrigued by projects, cards in particular, with the faux stitching and white accent marks. I polled my sistas over on the Cricut Messageboard and found that most of them use the elusive Uni-Ball Signo White Gel Pen ... well, the only place I have seen that online for a decent price is at JetPens , but unless I buy a case of them, the shipping is a bit much. So I turned to my specialty pen/marker collection. There I found four different white pens & markers - Marvy Memories Opaque Stix , Sakura Glaze Pen #800 , Sakura Souffle #950 , and Marvy Extra Fine DecoColor Opaque Paint Marker . I got the ink flowing in all four pens/markers and tested them on brig...

My cousin commissioned me to make a birthday card for her spiritual mother. Her prerequisites were to include fuchsia, lime green, and a diamond ring... I said ok. I pulled out my Gypsy to search for a diamond ring & found one on the Sweethearts cartridge. I decided to make the entire card in the shape of the diamond ring - easier said than done. I found a circle card on the Wild Card cartridge and decided to add the diamond ring to the front of it. This helped the card base be a little more sturdy. I didn't think the ring had enough "bling" to it... can't be a diamond ring without the bling! So I pulled out some Joann's Holiday Inspiration gold ribbon, some Core'dinations silver cardstock, some hotfix rhinestones & my hotfix applicator and blinged it out! I adhered the blingy ring to the front of the card ~ But there still seemed to be a little something missing... I added "For You" from my Sentimantals cartridge ~ My cousin l...

57N8ZAYSHE6G A few months ago, I started a group on Facebook to bring crafty sistahs together. I am so pleased with the response & love I have felt from the members of this group. So far, we have hosted a Blog Hop (click here for that post) and have began to support each other in all things crafty & some not. Last week, I started weekly challenges within the group. The challenge is posted on Monday and the group members have until noon on Saturday to post their projects. Challenge #1 was to create a card, layout, etc. with black & white as the primary colors and one accent color. When I am able to choose a color, I always go with my favorite - ORANGE ! Here is my take on the challenge: The orange ribbon - which has been in my stash for what seems like forever - was really what got me going on this creation. I used DCWV patterned paper, black cardstock from Recollections & a white Recollections card for the base. The card base measures 6.5" by 5"....

In February, IslandV of Scrap InnoVations  organized an altered container/box & mini album swap for the Sistas Scrap Too forum on the Cricut Messageboard. I jumped in & then realized I was not a scrapbooker! LOL! I searched my saved videos on YouTube and came across an album I thought I could work with where I could use my card-making skills to make the pages. Fo the mini album, I started with three sheets of black Recollections cardstock cut at 8.5"x8.5". Each sheet of cardstock was scored at 4.25", turned, and scored at 4.25" again (forming a cross in the middle of the page & 4 equal squares). Each sheet of black cardstock is then folded in half diagonally. Creasing on the folds & caving the diagonal folds in, gave me three accordion sections that I interlocked & secured with my ATG gun to form the album. To decorate the inside of the mini album, I cut 10 squares of cardstock in complimentary colors/patterns measuring at 3.75"x3.75...

Angie from  My PaperPassion  has given me the The Liebster Blog Award! Thanks so much Angie! You make me feel so special! The Liebster Blog award is given to bring newer blogs into the light. It's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise have been noticed and should be! As recipient you must share the love and pass it along to others. As well as these four things: 1. You must post on your blog and tell a little about the award and announce your 3-5 picks. 2. Let those know you have chosen them. 3. Copy and post the award on your blog for all to see. These things are always hard for me... but, I’ve decided to pass this award on to the following wonderful blogs: Nubian Crafter NC P-Kay Sunshine Made by Dee and Michelle at NowStampThis

I reached 125 followers! Thank you all so much for following my blog. I am so excited & inspired even more to share my work with you. As I move into reaching my goal of 250 followers, I will be sharing more of my inspiration with you - the videos I watch, tutorials I try out, blogs I follow, etc. So definitely stay tuned to see what is to come. As I mentioned before, on my quest to 250 followers , the winner of the Cricut cartridge will be an active follower - so make sure that you are commenting on my posts at least once a week so that you can have a chance at this sweet blog candy. And now, for the moment you have all been waiting for... drum roll please... The winner of the special blog candy is... Follower #66 - who is that??? I figured out after I did the Random.org number-picking that I had no way of knowing who my 66th follower was (or, I should say that if there is a way, I don't know how to do it). After much searching, I did find that I could print a l...