You Make My Heart Sing!

Does this card look familiar?  If so then you must already have a copy of my book The Cardmakers Workbook. This is the card I'll be demoing at my Make and Take at the Quayside (Quarry Books) booth (2552) on Monday, January 26th from 10-11.

We'll be using some of Christine Adolph's fabulous Felicity Line of papers which are made of lovely blossoms and hearts and music.

Stop by for any of my make and takes or the BIG Cha class I'm teaching and make sure you pick up one of my eco friendly bags to lug all your convention goodies.  This year my SWAG is green! (well, really its blue--you know what I mean!)

I'm making this heart shaped card so that the participants who make it are all ready for Valentines Day which happens just a couple weeks after.  

How are you going to creatively plan for Valentines day?

(remind me to tell you about our heart shaped pizza one day!)

A Question....

Where do you go on line when you want to know how to do something creative (like knitting, crochet, cooking, paper craft, painting, photography, collage, other??)????

Enlighten me...you'll see why in just a few more days?

Love is a...

Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.

Or so says Voltaire.

This is the Make and Take that I've designed for 3M for CHA.  I'll be there teaching this lovely card (booth 2775) on Sunday, January 25th from 9:30-Noon.

This project features 3M's Post-it Craft Papers.  They are super easy to feed through your ink jet printer and stick just like a giant Post-it note.  This means you can use it for envelope seals too.  The blue paper is just the right shade to coordinate with Paper Source's Chocolate Pinking Edged Flat cards.  Yummy, chocolate.  

If you are in the Brookline, MA area on the 25th, stop by the Main Library to see the Big Show, an art show of works from Brookline Artist Open Studios Members.  The party is from 2-4.

How are you planning on creatively spending your January 25th?

Trying something new--just do it!

This year for the holiday season I invited my daughters and their friends to play secret santa.  We ended the week of secret notes, doorbell ringing and running and little trinkets with a dinner at Fire and Ice Grill.  In all the craziness of 6 kids and two adults picking out their food and such Becky was asked to help cook.  Sure, Becky enjoyed the honor of being asked but it also raised the enjoyment factor for the rest of our table as well.  It took me quite a while to pick out the right place to celebrate.  I knew it had to be creative and kid friendly.  I'm so glad I took the time--memories, creatively made.

How do you make time to do the creatively extraordinary?  

New Years Resolve

I resolve to:

Blog more

yell less

use my brushes more

cuddle with the dog more

eat less

find more quality time for the girls

complain less

walk more

get a physical

teach the girls something

cook more

try something new more

Enjoy 2009!

So far so good!

What are you going to do this year?  Be Creative!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'll SO have what she's having!  This pic is from the movie Yes Man starring Jim Carrey with romantic lead Zooey Deschanel.
The movie was funny, light-hearted, etc.  It was no MILK or Slumdog Millionare but it made for a nice outing.  

But, what I want to really comment on is the character of Renee Allison, played by Ms. Channel.  She has been haunting me for a few days now.  Carrey plays the uptight banker who finds himself happy again after a 3 year old divorce by saying YES to everything and opening himself up to possibilities.  Creative, yes?  One yes leads to another which leads him to meeting Renee and a crazy scooter ride.  They don't exchange numbers but coincidentally meet again later in the story when Carrey embraces the full YES transformation.  Renee is singing in a band (Munchausen by Proxy) which is definitely more performance art than rock band.  We also find out that she teaches a Jogging photography class.  Carrey asks her what else she does..."anything, (pause) that makes me happy.  

Zooey's character definitely mirrors the person that Carrey is becoming, as seen in their wild dates including a trip to wherever the next plane is going which just so happens to be Lincoln Nebraska.  

As I watched the film, I felt inspired to be a little more crazy, to try something new.  Sure, I tell myself I'm always doing this but that is so rarely true.  Hampered by society? Maybe.  More often stuck in a rut.  Perhaps today I will start small and eat dessert first.

How will you challenge the norm today in an effort to find creative happiness?  Pass the cake!

Rockin' the Design Scene with Jen

For all you reality TV junkies, you probably already know that Jennifer Bertrand is the winner of HGTV's Design Star Season 3.
For those of you who don't know, Design Star is a wonderful show all about creative challenges. Yes it has a lot of the Reality TV Drama but I love to watch it to see how people work creatively. By becoming the season winner, Jennifer also gets her own TV show on HGTV. It aired today and I just couldn't wait to mention it to you all.

Jen's new show, Paint Over! is for all of you reading this. Jen does a fantastic job explaining things in easy to understand terminology that anyone can understand and her projects are outstanding. I promise that you'll walk away from the first episode with at least one project you'll want to implement in your own home.

While all the designers that participated could have done a wonderful job with their own show (the final three especially!), I'm so thrilled to know that Jennifer is able to share what she knows with the viewing public. This world will definitely be a more beautiful place thanks to her wonderful ideas, happy disposition and over-the-top skills. Bravo Jen!
To learn more about Jen, visit her site.

How are you going to be inspired by someone else today?