Happy Groundhog Day!

Punxsutawney Phil say his shadow this morning so as the story goes… 6 more weeks of winter.

With overcast skies he sees his shadow… I guess we will have to see how this plays out. Here in Utah, if the snow has any bearing on the subject, we might doubt that winter has even shown up this year. Ok, the bitter cold in the middle of the night might indicate in some way that winter is here, or maybe the calendar but with so little snow fall on the valley floor, I, for one, feel cheated! Are you sure Phil?

Last year he also saw his shadow.. and it was the most brutally long winter in the United States! Winter dragged into March..wait… isn’t winter SUPPOSE to drag into March? Spring starts Monday, March 20th.

Here you can read how Phil almost got the death penalty for “misrepresentation of early spring” until a Pennsylvania law firm claimed that the attorney in Ohio was out of his jurisdiction… I am just wondering how they train the groundhog to look for his shadow in the first place.. who explained to him what a shadow was?  That might have been one interesting conversation!

I will however watch the movie from 1993 called “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray and directed by Harold Ramis.  It will make you laugh enough to keep warm today!

Millions of people today will be watching the Superbowl, even those that regularly don’t watch football. Are you one of them? I love Superbowl pools, picking squares and such, so I thought I would bring a bit of that fun here to Creatively Carol Scrapbooking. Every order placed today, February 1st, 2015 will receive a discount on the items they purchase based on the spread at the end of the game (up to 20%off).

Now if you know anything about me, you know our home is a Raider Nation… and if you know anything about the Oakland Raiders, you know we Do NOT like the New England Patriots!  We here at Creatively Carol Headquarters are cheering on the Seattle Seahawks!

So to make it even more interesting, anyone who places their order BEFORE GAME TIME will receive an extra gift with their order.

So Spread the word to all your scrapbooking and papercrafting friends, and click here to go shopping. Then e-mail your order to me here.  I will call you on Tuesday after the game to get your payment information so I can apply the proper discount!

Leave a comment below and tell me who YOU think is going to win and the final score. If you are correct, you could win a free stamp set!

GO SEAHAWKS!!!!

You want to get some depth perception in your stamped image, but don’t find too many 2 stamp sets anymore. Have no fear, I will show you how to create that shading using just one stamp, a sponge dauber and just a bit of time. Here we go: 

Step One:

Stamp a floral image in your desired base color and then clean the stamp.  Now re-Ink your stamp using the rocking technique in a slightly darker shade than the first colorso just the outside edges of the stamp get the ink. Carefully stamp over the previous image.

Step 2:

After cleaning the stamp again, ink only the center of the flower using a sponge dauber using a darker, contrasting color and carefully stamp over previous images. with a sponge dauber. Use a tissue to wipe any ink you don’t want to show.

Step 3:

Carefully stamp over previous image, Be sure to align the stamp correctly over the image so your end result is crisp and clear.

If you have any questions, please leave them below.

If you are like me, you are always hesitant to throw out your tax returns and support stuff.  But since we are buying a house I am trying to get rid of the unwanted or unneeded clutter and paper stuff. The loan company asked me to find my 30 year old divorce decree..can you believe that?? I looked in the file and found it, and a lot of old tax returns.  I have decided to shred all the returns older than the 7 year statute of limitations.

As I grabbed the folders a bunch of checks fell out and I saw one made out to a football camp my youngest son went to in 2003; then a light bulb went off!  I could use information in my taxes to reconstruct a timeline of events.  This can be helpful for both scrapbooking and genealogy. Those returns show where you worked, what you may have won gambling or when an event may have occured if you wrote memos on your checks.  Now I wish I had realized this before the last time I purged tax returns from our 29 year marriage!

So while you think about your taxes this year, or start your spring cleaning, think twice before just throwing them into the shredding. They can be a wealth of information.

Leave me a comment and tell me what you do with YOUR old tax returns.

Would you like the latest news from the world of clear stamping (the clear version of rubber stamping, scrapbooking and papercrafting delivered  to your inbox each month? That’s what you receive when you join my Mailing List!  Each  month, as a  Mailing List Subscriber you can enjoy my newsletter several tutorials worth $4.95 and $7.95 each as well as all the latest news, tips, and ideas… and it’s FREE!!

As a bonus, you will also receive 6 projects with cutting directions, measurements and all the instructions (a $59 value). To join my Mailing List and receive my monthly newsletter, just fill out the box to the right. Don’t forget to confirm your subscription and your free tutorial will be delivered to your mailbox.  If you need any assistance with your projects, or anything, please don’t hesitate to give me a call!

-*When I began scrapbooking some 12 years or so ago, I felt I had to use every photo I took (unless it was an exact duplicate. I even had trouble getting rid of the blurry ones. II never really considered that was you DIDN’T have to scrapbook every picture. I learned later about cropping photos and how it is important it was, but I will save that for another day,  The biggest challenge for me both 12 years ago and even today is organization. Since today is Organizational Tuesday I thought it was a good time to talk about organizing your photos. Here are some tips to help you get ready.

First, decide if you want to put your Christmas photos in a traditional scrapbook, in a digital photo album or in a Picture my Life® by Close to my Heart.  There are benefits to each method which we will discuss later. The next thing you must do is to organize your photographs.  This has become more complicated than just making piles on the floor to separate them.

If you’re making a traditional scrapbook, you will eventually want to print the pictures but perhaps before you do this, create a folder labeled Christmas 2014 and inside it put folders for every scrapbook page you want to do. Divide your pictures up by desired page. Then when you are finished, you can evaluate the pictures in each folder and determine what is worth scrapbooking.

This will work for any occasion going forward.

Next week we will talk about all the pictures already sitting in your computer already and if you are as old as me, all the pictures you have printed and stilling in a box and your albums.   I will tell you that if you have your photos in any of the old “magnetic” albums, please remove them. They will damage your photos because the chemicals doesn’t not play well with the inks in your photos. If the picture is stuck use some dental floss to slide under the picture.

I was reading an article tonight and decided I had to share it.  We all like to find things that are junk and turn them into something wonderful, When the article talked about other uses for butcher Block knife holders, I just had to share!

You can read the rest of the article here.

Sometimes there is photo that you just can’t reduce to a 4″ x 6″ photo without losing the details or that special look. Here is a great layout that puts the focus right where it goes, on your photo. Using the contrasting colors to bring out the color in your photo will help it pop.

The blues and browns have been a popular color combination for quite a few years. Looking at the color pallets for spring, I don’t see this changing anytime soon.

What is your favorite color pallet these days? Leave a comment below and let see how everyone else thinks.

My mind goes straight to the song by Shania Twain when I hear those words. This month’s Stamp of the Month is called “This Moment” and really fits with the song.

Between the banner that says “Remember this Moment” to the bulls eye this stamp set can be used year around. It is also perfect for those Valentine Cards you are thinking about making.  Use the arrow, the heart and the masking technique you can pin the heart to the target.

While it is hard to see in this image the target and  heart are specifically noted to work with the Cricut Collection Artbooking Cartridge, I am sure you can find the banners in our cartridges somewhere.

With a minimum qualifying purchase, get your D-size Stamp of the Month set for $5! Add the stamp set to your cart on this page at full retail price or, with your qualifying order, add it at checkout for the promotional price.

Leave a comment below and tell me what you think of this stamp set. I think it is much more versitile than past January Stamps of the Month that you can use it on so many other pages. What kind of page would YOU use it on? Leave a comment and let me know!

When I was looking us history for National Thank you Month, I found a dozen or so different “causes” shall we say for the Month of January. While I have not found any history on National Thank You Month, I will embrace this one. We all need to say thank you a little more and murmur a bit less. National Thank You Month was probably set in January because people are still able to bask in the warmth of the holiday good will.  Set in August or September people might have been a bit more jaded.

Since New Years Day fell on Throwback Thursday where I usually post the weekly card sketch, I thought I would post one today. Perhap you will make it a Thank you card to send for National Thank You Month. I plan to send a card a day this month. If you are on my mailing list and I have your snail mail address, you might be a lucky receiver of one! Here is a link to go sign up now.  You can also send an e-mail and give me your snail mail address. Business’ you are included here, after all, wouldn’t your business grow if you sent more thank you notes too?

Here is your sketch: Come back later today and see what I have done with the sketch.

Creatively,

Carol

Wishing all of you a great New Years. I will be continuing my planning today for the start of our Photo Journal with great journaling prompts to keep you going.

I will also be watching the Oregon Ducks play in the Rosebowl… Go Ducks!

Have a great day!

Creatively,

Carol