A to Z Challenge – 2019 – E is for Easel Card

As part of the A to Z challenge this year I am going through my repertoire of cards, mini-albums and other paper crafts that I create. 

Today is the letter E and in my case E is for Easel.  These cards are normal appearing at first.  The front has a large focal point and the inside has a message that is propped up on foam tape to make it pop up…   



but with a simple twist it turns into an easel that will stand by itself.  The front is held up by the message inside and it can be displayed proudly on any table or mantle.   

Here’s another example.

Of course they both have envelopes that match.

And there are a couple of other ones on the Etsy site. 

Have a look at some of the other participants in the A to Z challenge and come back tomorrow for the letter “F”!

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

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Cover Reveal – Mistaken Identity Crisis

So very happy to be part of the cover reveal blog tour for my friend, James J. Cudney’s newest book, “Mistaken Identity Crisis.”  This will be the fourth installment in the Braxton Campus Mystery series and while I haven’t read it yet, I am sure it will be just as exciting as the first three.
I first became aware of Mr. Cudney through a blog post.  I can’t even remember where, but I saw that James mentioned something about a 365 series he was doing on his blog and since I had just finished a 365 picture project it caught my attention.  Through the last year and a half we have kept up the blogging relationship and I have watched Jay’s writing advance rapidly.  When we first “met” he had not yet finished his first book, “Watching Glass Shatter.”  That was a wonderful story about family relationships and unusual circumstances.  His second book, “Father Figure” came right after and was a story about two women, generations apart, who have a connected past that is told in successive chapters.  Both of those novels had twists and turns and I know that Jay is a fan of the mystery genre so it came as no surprise when his first Braxton Campus Mystery, “Academic Curveball,” made its debut.
That was followed rapidly by “Broken Heart Attack” and the recently released “Flower Power Trip.”  Jay has a great way of telling his stories and keeping you turning the pages.  All of the novels are centered around Kellan Ayrwick, his family and Braxton College.  The members of the town come in and out and he has a feisty grandmother who helps/hinders him in his efforts to figure out what’s going on and a sheriff who doesn’t really appreciate his “interference.”  There are always some unexpected things happening and I have yet to figure out “who done it” before he tells us.  He develops his characters well and you easily begin to care about what happens to them.  I am looking forward to reading the next in the series,

 

 

“Mistaken Identity Crisis” is available for preorder on Amazon

You can read more about James at his website:

 https://jamesjcudney.com

Thanks Jay and Shalini for letting me be part of this fun announcement!

 
 
The blog tour is being organized by Shalini at Digital Reads Blog Tours.    

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A to Z Challenge – 2019 – D is for Duckie

Making my way through the alphabet with the cards and crafts that I make, today is D for Duckie.

A bunch of yellow ducks adorn the front of this card made to celebrate the birth of a baby in the family.  I really like the colors and they could be for either a boy or a girl, although truthfully I think boy when I see it.  Is that gender typing?                                                                                                                   

There is a yellow ribbon down the front as well to give a little dimension.  

  

As always room to write inside and the envelope has a boat to match.

Simple one today.  Trying my best to keep up until I have some time on the weekend.  Check the Etsy site to see more pictures.  Make sure to catch up with others on the A to Z train and come back tomorrow for “E.”

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

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A to Z Challenge – 2019 – C is for Castle

Hey there A to Z’ers!  “C” is for castle and today I have two castle cards to show you.

One is in the shape of a castle.  There is a little brad as a doorknob.  The inside shows a cute little princess and the cut out opens so you can write a secret message behind her.

When you stand it up, it kinda looks like a real castle doesn’t it?  
Lighting for special effects – LOL
The matching envelope has a lacy tape strip down the side.  There are some more pictures of this card on my Etsy site. 

The second one shows the castle in the background and a carriage on the front which holds the card closed.

You can still see the carriage on the inside.  

A crown adorns one corner of the message and the envelope has some purple sparkle tape on it and some paper that matches the inside.


I think any little girl would love to get a card like this, don’t you?  I even think there are a few older girls who might like it.  I know I like to be a princess on occasion.  Well, maybe queen instead of princess but queens can have glass slippers and ride in carriages can’t they?  Just ask Elizabeth!

Check my Etsy site for more pictures of this one too.  Thanks to everyone for their encouragement so far.  I really appreciate it.  Come back for “D” tomorrow. 

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

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A to Z Challenge – 2019 – B is for Backpack

I’m going to start this one out by saying that I am bilingual – meaning I am creating my posts on Blogger but they are “simulcast” on Word Press thanks to the IFTTT applet which John Holton, one of the A to Z team leaders taught me about.  John’s a wealth of technical info!  Of course I don’t expect people to leave a comment on both platforms, just trying to reach as many people as I can.

And now we move on to the letter “B.”  Backpack.  I never gave my kids cards to start the school year off but I did try to take a 1st Day of School picture each year for their scrapbooks.  I’ll bet they would have rather gotten a card with some money in it.

I think this one turned out kind of cute with the little handle and buckles.  The big pencil brad jumps right out at you too.

Another big brad on the inside but there is still room to write a message if you want.  During back to school night I used to leave messages in the kid’s desks encouraging them for the year ahead.  A card like this would have been nice to put in there.  I’m sure they would have been the envy of all their friends! 

The envelope has pencils down one side.

Maybe the grandparents who got the card from yesterday’s post would send a card like this to their deserving grandchildren on the first day of school.  Maybe it would have a gift card in it to Office Depot or to Barnes and Noble.  Just in case you’d like to do that, you can find this card in my Etsy shop as well!

That’s B for you.  Make sure to visit some of the other A to Z’ers and come back tomorrow for the letter “C”.

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

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A to Z Challenge 2019 – A is for A+

I am SO not ready yet but here goes…This is the 10th Anniversary of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge which was started by Arlee Bird.  It has grown more than he imagined I bet.  I am happy to be a participant on this special occasion.  Thanks again, Arlee!

I mentioned in my theme reveal that I was going to showcase some of the cards and other paper crafting I do and I am very excited to be able to work in my new studio!  Since I just finished a major undertaking with the Sketchbook Project, my first few letters will probably be of things I have already made but I am hoping that at some point during this month I’ll be giving you a peak at my creative process as well.  There may be some familiar things but I’m also showing cards that are a bit unique.

Without further ado, here is my offering for the letter “A”:

I am not sure how many people know about “Grandparents Day.”  I don’t have living grandparents but my kids do and I was never very good about reminding them to send a card.  This one has lots of detail with a huge A+ brad in the center and string running around the front of the focal point.  It is up on foam dots to make it stand out as well.

A+ for you

The inside says that great parents get promoted to grandparents.  Pretty sure some “not so great” parents get to be grandparents too but that’s neither here nor there.  Still, it’s a nice sentiment, don’t you think?  The inside has plenty of room for you to write a personal message. 

All my cards come with hand made matching envelopes.  This one has bits of paper from the card.  I think it adds something that you are not going to find in most card stores.   

 Grandparents Day is September 8 this year, just in case you want to be prepared to send a card to yours.  You can find this card in my Etsy shop if you are interested.

Make sure to visit some of the other A to Z’ers and show a little love.  Stay tuned for “B” tomorrow.

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

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Blogging From A to Z – 2018 – Reflections

I want to thank everyone who came by my blog and commented or liked my showcase of things found at a Michaels Arts and Crafts store last month.  I was pleased to be able to finish the challenge on time this year and it was a lot of fun.  I was also a little afraid that it would be boring but it seems to have sparked some inspiration in a few people to check their local Michaels for things they would not have done before.  Now if I can just get Michaels to give me a kickback, it would be perfect, right?

In case you missed an installment or want to see something again, here is a recap of my Blogging from A to Z  of Michaels Arts and Crafts store:

A – App
B – Baking
C – Candles and Clearance
D – Drawing
E – Events and Classes
F – Floral
G – Glitter and Glue
H – Home Decor
I – Iron On
J – Jewelry
K – Kids
L – Lighting and Liquitex
M – Miniatures and Missions
N – Necklace holders and needlework
O – Organization
P – Picture frames
Q – Q-Line
R – Ribbons and Rocks
S – Scrapbooking
T – T-shirts
U – Unique and Unusual
V – Velcro and Vases
W – Wedding and Washi tape
X – X-treme, X-acto and X-tras
Y – Yarn
Z – Zentangle, Zippers and Zots

In addition to my recap, I have to put a shout out to several new people I met along the A to Z this year:

Leanne from Cresting the Hill – She blogs about midlife and the empty nest.
Wendy at Wendy’s Waffle – She wrote about sports, the usual and the unusual.
Trudy at Reel Focus – She had a great movie game where you were to guess the title from the tagline.
Deena at Deena’s Days – She was great with Elvis as her theme.
Sue at Sue’s Trifles – Her A to Z was about occupations.
Jeanne Bryan Insalaco at Everyone Has a Story – I thought I knew a thing or two about Nancy Drew until I started reading her A to Z.

My friends from previous years:

Jacqui Murray at WordDreams who talked about the different genres in writing.  Jacqui, in addition to being the inspiration for my A to Z theme, was also the 100th follower of my blog!  Thanks Jacqui!

Patti at Scarlett 79 who shared great movie quotes.
Erika at Dorky Mom Doodles who doodled her way through her past.
Cathy at Curious as a Cathy who used her iPad to create some really neat sketches.
Iain Kelly at Iain Kelly Writing who took us on a trip through Europe.
Deborah Weber who gave us wonderful new words to learn in her manifesto.
Joe Owens at Fiction Playground who wrote a great detective story.

and we can’t forget the founder of the A to Z and his wonderful assistants:

Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out who talked about cleaning the clutter.
John Holton at The Sound of One Hand Typing who played his word games again.
J. Lenni Dorner at Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner who once again gave us a thrilling tale of speculative fiction story of life on another planet.

If I’ve left anyone off my list, it was not intentional.  There were hundreds of participants again this year and while there were a few minor glitches with linking some of the days, all in all I thought things went very smoothly.  Of course you can’t visit everyone every day and there are probably many more blogs I would have enjoyed reading so I’m thankful the lists are still available.  There is also the Road Trip starting on May 23 which should be fun.

Just a couple of things I tried this year and felt that they really helped was to get a draft post started for each letter, even if I didn’t have the pictures or even the writing done.  There are a few paragraphs at the beginning and the end of every post that were the same so by having those things in place at the start made it much easier when I got down to putting the pictures in and writing the story.  The next thing was to start this recap post at the beginning of the challenge as well and then each day after I officially posted my letter, I would link it here that way once the challenge was done, all my links would be ready and I would just need to add the fluff.  It was also nice to see the number of draft posts I had start to decrease as the days went on.  When I was down to 3 to 4 drafts left I knew I was gonna make it!

Did you have a good time with the A to Z?  Do you have your theme for next year yet?  Any bloggers out there I should immediately go check out?  Any tips you want to share?  Let me know.

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Blogging From A to Z – 2018 – Z is for

Welcome to the letter Z in the A to Z Challenge for 2018.  This year I am making my way through the alphabet as seen in Michaels Arts and Crafts store.  We have reached the end of the road today with the letter Z.  It was one of the first letters that I looked around the store to find something to feature since I figured that if I could get a “Z” I’d have the alphabet licked.

Thank goodness for Zentangle!  The cover says “Drawing your way to increased creativity, focus and well-being.”  I call it doodling and it totally would have fit in with my letter D for drawing, but I needed a Z so there you go.

Fortunately for me, they make Zentangle tool sets so I had some additional information.

I didn’t research too much but there are apparently different types of tool sets.  The Apprentice set is for children.  

The Renaissance set is for drawing on old-looking papers.  The colors are more browns and tans.  

This is what is in the Renaissance set.  

They even make special “artist tiles” which are pieces of paper cut to a square.  These are 6 x 6 and the paper is black.

I have never tried Zentangle and oddly enough, I don’t really doodle much.  You would think I’d be all over doodles but no.  Intimidated maybe?  I color great if someone else draws the thing. 
This one almost made it into the X-tras Friday but I decided to keep it here.  Michaels has zippers.  Not many, but you can get some.  

During my last round of picture taking for this A to Z as I was in the scrapbooking section taking a picture of the X-ron machine, I saw the Zips and Zots and had to add them.  
Zips and zots are small round bits of adhesive that you can use to hold your embellishments down.  I use them a lot when I am adding flowers to a project because the round shape is perfect to hold the middle of the flower down but leave the petals loose.  Sometimes they are raised a bit because the Zot is thick.  Even more dimension.  
The flowers on the front of this card 

and this Easter Mini-album are held on with Zots.  

You can see the dimension it adds and the petals are loose but the flower won’t come off because the Zots are very strong.  

Well, I made it!  Last year I finished the A to Z but not on time as there were some of the entries I had to add in after the fact.  This year was much easier and once again I have to give a shout out to Jacqui Murray at Word Dreams for giving me the idea to base my A to Z on the things you could find at Michaels.  
As you exit the store, and my A to Z posts, I’ll leave you with this:

I hope that you have enjoyed the journey through the store with me.  I found some interesting things during the six months I worked there (September 2017 through March 2018) both in the store and in the people I interacted with.  It was definitely a learning experience.  
Now I have to think about what to write for next year’s A to Z.  Got any suggestions?  Did you like my Michaels series?  Learn anything?  Do you Zentangle?  Love to hear about it.   
(Note:  I decided I should add a disclaimer to these posts because I certainly don’t want to give the idea that I am being paid by Michaels to do this or that they are furnishing me with material.  All pictures used in this blog series were taken by me at local Michaels stores, or are my personal pictures and every Michaels store may not have everything shown.)

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Blogging From A to Z – 2018 – Y is for

Welcome to the letter Y in the A to Z Challenge for 2018.  We are down to the last two days here in the A to Z of Michaels Arts and Crafts.  The letter Y is definitely for Yarn.

Yarn has a whole section of its own.  There are so many different colors and thicknesses of yarn for any kind of project from blankets to hats to baby items.  It’s hard to tell from my pictures but the yarn in the picture on the right is SO big.  You can kind of tell on the teal one on the bottom and the cream colored one above it how thick the strands are.  If you look at the same teal color in the picture on the left the strands look much thinner.  I have no idea what people do with the yarn so thick.   

Red Heart, Loops and Threads and Vanna White are some of the brands. 

Yarn can be expensive so it is kind of a big deal when there is a sale.  

These are called Sugar and Cream.  I don’t know why they want to call yarn by food names but whatever.

They call these Caron Cakes.  They come in Big Cakes, Cakes and Cupcakes.  Mix them with the Sugar and Cream above and you have cakes with frosting – LOL.  I think they are pretty neat in that when you are making something you don’t have to change colors, it is automatic.  I suppose you might have to pay attention to what pattern you are making so that the colors match but mostly I make blankets and shawls so I think it would be okay.  

Perhaps these big knitting needles are for the large yarns.  I don’t think I’m coordinated enough to handle something so big.  I’m not a knitter anyway, crochet is my thing. 

Fortunately there are plenty of both knitting needles and crochet hooks to satisfy everyone.  Well, almost everyone.  One of the unpleasant experiences I had while working was with a customer who could not find the size needle she was looking for.  When I tried to help her she was less than courteous as I explained to her that we didn’t seem to have the size she was wanting.  It ended up with me calling the manager over because I just could not satisfy her.  I had to bite my tongue and not tell this lady she was wacko.  It was situations like this that reminded me how lucky I had been to be able to work for myself from home for the last 18 years and it helped me make the decision to stop working at Michaels.  I mean, look at this selection!    

There are even loom sets for those more adventurous.

And lots of instructional books and patterns to chose from for all manner of things.  

Even the Celebrity baby fashions!  How cute is that?  

Two of the scarves that I crocheted are on sale in my Etsy shop.  I got the yarn from Michaels 🙂

Okay, tomorrow is a day of rest from the A to Z and then Monday is our grand finale, Z.  Hope you’ll be able to make it to the end with me.  
(Note:  I decided I should add a disclaimer to these posts because I certainly don’t want to give the idea that I am being paid by Michaels to do this or that they are furnishing me with material.  All pictures used in this blog series were taken by me at local Michaels stores, or are my personal pictures and every Michaels store may not have everything shown.)

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Creative Live Classes

I’ve mentioned that I am an affiliate for Creative Live and I promised that I wouldn’t bombard with pitches but this one is a good one.  $20 classes on a wide range of topics from photography to self-help.  I’m thinking about a collage one.

20 Classes For $20 Each

Can’t hurt to check it out, right?  Even if you can’t watch it now, they are downloadable so you can take it whenever you have time.  These are on sale from 4/27 to 4/29/18.

Happy Friday all. 

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