FANTASTIC DEALS!!!

Ok, so I went running around town tonight looking for a sub ribbon for work and ended up finding lots of goodies. I was shopping in Mesquite, at Hobby Lobby. There I found ribbons 50% off, All punches and paper/paper paks 50% off, and the best find of all....are you ready for this....get ready....Mini Mark rubon alpha sets $4.79! Reg price $7.99, I got 'em for 4.79! There were lots there and lots of alphas I use already so I stocked up!

I also went to Target becuase Deana was telling me about some fun stuff she found in the dollar bin. Sure enough, the Target on TownEast had cool stuf...for $1!!! I bought some fall ribbons, fun ribbon for cards, brads, and felt embelishments!

I do have a fun LO to share soon, just gotta get more ink in my printer so I can finish the page. Stay tuned and I'll cathc ya on the flip side!
Love ya!
Jessi

Congratulations are in order!

To my new scrap gal pal Aleida Franklin and to my Momma, Congratulations!! Aleida is one of my favortie scrap divas and she has recently been invited to be a Design Team member at Scrap to the Music. If you've never seen her work, check out her diva-licous blog. If you've never been to Scrap to the Music check it out. Either way you won't be sorry. Both are filled with awesome and inspiring works of art by very talented ladies! Now, to my Mom....She has been invited to the Fiskateers Round up. There she will learn the art of being a Fiskateer! She gets to go and meet...yes meet...Heidi Grace, Nancy from Cloud 9 Designs and other fun Scrappy celebs and big wigs. I am way jealous, but I am SOOOO happy for her. She is a fantastic scrapper and a wonderful teacher. I know she'll do Fiskars proud. Maybe I can giver one of my cards I made with my fave HS and Cloud 9 paper and get autographs...hhmmm.... Well, I know there are no pics this week, but I promise soon...really, soon. Have a good night! I'm off to the Scrap-Diner and to scrap. Happy scrappin'! Hugs, Jessi

Frustration!!!

So I feel the need to vent. I haven't been trying very long to get published, but lately I've been annoyed with LO's I'm seeing in magazines in my store. It's not that I don't appreciate their beauty or the effort the artist put into them. The problem I have is I don't think they portray the way over half of America scrapbooks. I never realized how frustrating this truly is until I was at a crop this weekend. I was seated next to a couple of ladies who NEVER scrapbooked before 2 weeks ago. They were asking our crop hostess for ideas, and our girl referred her to our store supply of idea books. One lady brought them back and 10 minutes later she was up again to find another mag...then another, then another. I asked if she was finding any inspiration and she said "I don't have the money it takes to scrap the way these magazine people do." She showed me the pics she was looking at and sighed, "They only have one picture per page. If I did that I'd have 100 albums just for my daughters Freshman year." Another instance arose a few weeks ago when I was scrapping with my girlfriend. She said she loves my pages, but she takes way too many photos to scrapbook the way I do. I know she and I have very different scrapping styles, which I love, but it frustrates me that she feels her pages have to be less exciting because of the amount of pics she takes. I know there are a lot of styles out there, I really to. I just wish more of the mainstream magazines and websites acknowledged this. I feel I am an very talented scrapper, but sometimes I feel even my pages are inadequate against those of the "celebrity designers" because I go for max pics per page in over half my album. I just want to teach new scrappers that you can have fabulous pages with multiple photos without sacrificing style and beauty. I wish other sites and magazines would join me in this...it would make scrapping more fun and enjoyable for all, I think.

Ok...I'm off my sopabox now. I'll be posting new pics over the next few days, so keep an eye out. Good night bloggers, and thanks for reading my ramblings. You mean the world to me.
*~*Hugs*~*

Work...Work...PLAY!!

So I've been uber busy at work lately. It seems like only yesterday when I was stressing over my first open house. Sunday we had a staff meeting to discuss our holiday open house! It's in 4 weeks, so I will be uber busy over the next several weeks. This week has been HELL at work tho. I'm trying to make sure the current feature (Halloween) get set in time and try to start pulling for Christmas...criminy I'm a tired girl.
On an up note, I am very excited about the Recollections paper this year. I am also excited about the projects. If anyone should find them available the first weekend of October, please come by and say hello to me and the girls!
On to the personal front...let my just say, I have the best fiance in the whole world! I came home after a very long Sunday and he had re-arranged our bedroom and decorated the walls! All the laundry was done and my aprtment was clean. I was so happy to be home and smother him in smooches. (Mom turn away and go "ewww" now.) I also wanted to show off some cards I made a few weeks ago. I was waiting on a challenge to be over, so here they are!

Hello moon...

Here it is, 3am again, and I'm sitting at my computer, again. Tonight I'm a little frustrated because I have to leave for Grapevine to drive Dave work in 3.5 hours. The fact that I have to go doesn't really bother me. I've known about it for a week. It's the fact that it is 3am and I'm still wide awake. I will be coma-tose in about 3 hours, which make for quite unsafe driving conditions.

I'm also a little frustrated because I've been rejected. I tried out for 3 DT this past month. I've been rejected by 2, and the third won't announce until Oct. I know I shouldn't worry about the rejection...it still stings a little tho. I have, on the flip side, found a wonderful site called the Scrap Diner. You should definitely check it out. It's a funky little site with a great group of talented ladies, and the store is pretty neat too. I'll probably be spending a few $$ in there once my pay check hits next week. Woo Hoo!!

Here's my latest creation. I'm still on this crazy card kick. I'm hoping I can get back to regular pages soon. I'll have a few more goodies to show off once the weekend is here. Until next time, good night bloggers, and much love to you!

To submit, or not to submit...

A year ago last week I made a promise to myself that I would work very hard to get onto a Design Team or get published by the time I'm 30. At the time I was 25, and thought I had plenty of time to make it. I'm now 26, going on 27 and can feel 30 breathing down my neck. Until last month, I had all but forgotten about my goal. I hadn't really done anything that incredibly spectacular, hadn't been very active in the few sb sites I actually belonged to. Then I met Aleida. She rekindled a passion in me to get myself back into the game. I've joined a few more sites and become more active. I've even started a blog that isn't MYSPACE. She's so talented and such a great person - she's inspired me to strive for my goals and grow into the artist I was born to be.



I have actually applied for 3 DT in the past 2 weeks: Paper Jam Studios, The Little Scrap Shop, and Scraptastic. I got my first notice today from Paper Jam...didn't make it. It's ok though. I know I tried, and that's a good first step. I'm still waiting to hear back from The Little Scrap Shop and Scrap-Tastic calls end Sept 30. I'm a little anxious, but after talking to several gals online about this I feel better. They all told me that they got a lot of rejection when it came to DT when they first started. They also told me that when they first started submitting to mags and books they had to wait 6 months to a year before they heard anything, if at all. I'm definitely going to have to grow a tougher skin to get over the rejections, but I really want to share my creativity and style with the rest of the world, so I will keep on trying. Who knows, maybe in 10 years I'll be a big name in Creating Keepsakes...or maybe I'll still be trying. The point is, I'll still be me, and I'll still be scrapping. :)

I'll keep y'all posted as things come up. Thanks for stopping in, and enjoy your Labor Day Holiday.

Hugs!!

Jessi

Cards and More!

Hello Bloggers,
It's after 4 am and I am still up, playing with all the goodies from my scrap closet. My card kick continues. I have been designing and creating like crazy the past few weeks. My latest creations have stemmed from challenges from one of my new favorite places, ScrapFreak.com. It's been so much fun and I've really allowed myself to get to know the site and expand myself as scrapper and card maker here. The ladies and gents (if any) have been so wonderful. I am saving my card challenge cards for the site, but I'll be posting pics as soon as the Challenge winners are announced. :)
In the mean time, here are a few cards I made in the past few days. I have also been working on a card keeper box for MIL. I will be posting pics of it as soon as it's done. Thanks for looking, and enjoy the cards. If you have any comments, please fell free to leave 'em. I love the feedback!
Happy Dreams bloggers, I'm off to bed now!
Hugs,
Jessi