Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sketchy Saturday!

Sorry, I know today is Sunday, I've been off a day all week. Better late than never right!? :)

Scrapbook 12x12 Layout Sketch:



Card A2 (4.25 x 5.5) Sketch:



Did you notice anything about the two sketches?  I would love to see your creations inspired by my sketches, please post a direct link in the comment section. Lately, my Linky Tool will not take :(  

Thanks for stopping By and checking out my sketches. Hope to see you more often as I get back into a regular schedule.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now) Jill AKA The Scrapoholic
Until Next Time
Happy Crafting!

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Freebie File Friday

Today's Freebie File for Friday is 2 adorable Easter/Spring Ducks. As always, I have them available in both MTC and SVG. I have updated my MTC to the latest version, so If you have not, I suggest downloading the SVG version.  As, I always have, my freebies don't stay free for long. I am still working on finding a better hosting site than what I've used before so we don't have the issues of not being able to download, I've just not had much time to do much investigating. But hopefully this next month I will get some free time and get my files back up for sale at my low low prices!




Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

Feel Free to leave a "tip" if you desire. Or even post a comment too :) 





TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic
Until Next Time...
Happy Cutting!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Jolee's Series Part 2 ~ School Days Theme ~ School Bus

Continuing on with the Jolee's Series, we are now moving on to Part 2 ~ School Days. Part One was Disney Princesses. If you are just joining us in the Jolee's Series you can start from the first one HERE and follow to the next ones. If you missed the first School Days Post that can be found HERE
Today's theme is the School Bus. Most of us have school pictures of taking the school bus, unless you were a walker.


We start with The Jolee's Field Trip:





Need Jolee's check out Rachel's yardsale HERE or her Etsy Store HERE Let her know I, (The Scrapoholic) sent you.

You can also check out my yardsale HERE and my CTMH Website HERE for CTMH products


Here is the Sketch I did using the Jolee's as the "embellishment" pieces. You could also use the sketch for a "Field Trip" theme too taking the bus and change the "title" to "The Bus Ride" or something to that effect.






I'm going to save my finished layout to share later next week to see if y'all have a layout you do with the Jolee's and the sketch. Share a link in the comment section below. Please make sure its a direct link to your picture of the post, and  I don't have to search a blog or photo album for it, I'd appreciate it. Thanks






Stay Tuned for more Jolee's Series Part 2 School Days Theme.

Until Next time...
Happy Crafting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic




Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sorry for being MIA

I know many of you probably think I've vanished from the blogging world or hacked by FB. But I've been here, just overwhelmed with no crafty and life. This time of year I think is just cursed for me, I swear.  It seems for the last 5 yrs. from Feb. to May nothing goes right for me. Whats that saying when something goes wrong it all goes wrong. I do apologize and everyday, I think, I need to get online and post something and my day just flies by. Just like the other day I started this blog post and started getting wordy and lengthy and just sputtering and whining and thought this is not what i want to post and took a break.  Well, I never got back to the post til today. Between phone calls, emails, appts., physical therapy, napping (alot) and sleeping (which during the night not so much hence lots of naps) there just isn't enough productive hours in the day. 

So if you want to know what's happening with me; for starters you all know I was injured almost 5 yrs ago by a doctor during a "routine Procedure" and am currently suing him, well in Feb. just after getting a fire lit under my lazy lawyer's behind 2 weeks later he dropped me as a client, he finally found a legal way to drop me and i feel he has been looking to do this as soon as "work" came involved. Now it took me a year to find him and thats why I hung on because that year was not fun with all the phone calls and waiting for the rude, belittling denials of lawyer after lawyer. But, I refuse to just quit and its not an easy choice, especially since many are against me, Don't get me wrong I have a few people who are always on my side no matter what and I am thankful for them and being so supportive, but when you are bombarded with negativity and blame for the way your life is because they blame me for it its not easy, when it comes from strangers its a bit easier to ignore but from people who are supposed to be supportive and you thought they were its so much harder and brings the fight that much harder. So, on top of that my health insurance has decided to deny me for my radio frequency nerve block that worked so well and they approved back in Nov. But now in Feb. they say it doesn't work, funny because I had 2 months of such little pain compared to what I am in now and was so much more productive and making strides in improving mobility and usage of my arm. Now I am going backwards and being that my arm is in so much pain 24/7 and spasms, zingers and constant cramping and pin n needles, I am not only physically exhausted but emotionally too. So I have to go thru the appeals process, which so far is not going so well. Then to add to my dilemma, I am still trying to get disability 5 yrs later and layers (HA!) just are in it for $$ so no one wants a person who didn't make tons of $$ and just made low wages. Sorry but just cause I put raising my kids first and not a career doesn't make me any less disabled than someone who has bipolar or ADD only, when I have both and unable to use my right arm on top of it and paid into the system for years. Which would help with my medical debt, even though my insurance covers most of my bills, copays and 20% of everything adds up when you go to Doctors 4 days a week. Then the city has redistrict so now my kids are supposed to go to a different high school next year and they just started at this new one and are finally settling in and have tons of friends and so we had to fill out the form to hope they can stay there and just waiting and I have to drive my kids everyday if they do go and if gas prices don't come down I just don't know what we will do. On top of that my van is falling apart. Then well blogger has lost my posts I had scheduled and would have got me thru at least 3 weeks and maybe not feel so behind. But now I need to rewrite those posts and find my pictures or retake them. I found out recently, that I can write my posts in word and save them there. So hopefully this week I can get a few caught up on and I can get back on track with my Jolee's Series, Friday MTC/SVG Frebiee, Sketch Saturday and MY CTMH Card Kits (which I haven't even started).

So, needless to say I'm quite stressed out and emotions are on a roller coaster and just wish I could be crafting all day long. I'm hoping over the next 2 weeks I'll be back on a better schedule and posting regularly. However, April I do tend to get depressed more and have a hard time simply cause its the anniversary of my injury and I've yet to have closure and am just this past year accepting and realizing my fate of my arm and life. But I am working thru it and my crafting does give me some escape.

To leave you with a small gift here is a MTC/SVG Freebie





Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

Feel Free to Pin my Pictures to Pintrest, so long as you give credit where credit is due! 
Tip when pinning is to be on the blog post where the picture is so the link brings them back to the exact blog post of picture not the "home"/"main" page of the blog.



Thanks For stopping by and continuing to read my blog.
Leave a comment so I know you where here and I'm on the right track of what my Followers are wanting or looking for. 

Until Next Time...
Happy crafting
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Jolee's Series Part 2 ~ School Days Theme

Continuing on with the Jolee's Series, we are now moving on to Part 2 ~ School Days. Part One was Disney Princesses. Once I start feeling better and can talk without my throat hurting or sounding like I have a frog in my throat I will be adding video tutorials until then, unfortunately I am stuck with just picture and written posts.

For the first Part of Part 2 School Days, I thought we'd start with "First Day", thinking best to start at the beginning of a Child's days of school :)



Need Jolee's check out Rachel's yardsale HERE or her Etsy Store HERE Let her know I (The Scrapoholic) sent you.

You can also check out my yardsale HERE and my CTMH Website HERE for CTMH products


Of course I used Jolee's Boutique 3 Dimensional stickers, along with other products to make my layout. I didn't do a sketch on this one this time. I used a pre-existing partially done layout I was working on that needed finishing touches and of course the Jolee's First Day was perfect!

As you can see, I changed up the title, I didn't like the yellow with the pinking edge under the First Day nuetral/beige colored cardstock. I used my undu to safely remove it and put a different simple chocolate cardstock layer under to go with the colors I was already using. I added the lil embellishments to the paper and saved some for other pages I plan to do later.

My Layout:


Close up of title:

Close up of embellisment corners:




Stay Tuned for more Jolee's Series Part 2 School Days Theme.

Until Next time...
Happy Crafting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Freebie File Friday

Today's File is all about Love and Hearts! Since February is Heart month I thought it would be great to have lots of hearts and love cuts! We can never have enough Love and hearts in the world.

I missed Last Friday's Post so today you get a bonus of 2 Files!

Last Friday's missed post File:

Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

This Friday's Freebie File:

Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired


Hope you enjoy the file!


Or simply just say "Thanks" for the file in the comment section below.

Until Next time...
Happy Cutting!

TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Jolee's Series Part 1 ~ Day 3

Continuing on with the Jolee's Series. We are still on Part 1 Disney Princesses. Today, I am going to show you how I used the Jolees's Disney Princess Dimensional Stickers to alter a mini notebook. The same can be done on a larger scale note book too. This notebook has a closure flap and pen with a spot for the pen inside, you'll see in the pictures below. The book measures 5.5" x 4.75" (I think or about there). Its just plain craft cardstock for the cover and a small spiral notebook inside. I just altered the outside, not sure If I'm going to do for the inside. Once, I decide, I will be listing these in my yardsellr store

The Jolee's I used from Rachel's Yardsellr store (HERE)



The Notebook before I altered it:




The Notebooks altered with beautiful papers, inked the edges (of course) and the wonderful Princess Jolee's Dimensional Stickers:





Comeback tomorrow for some Card Sketches and Finished Cards using the same Princesses!

Until Next Time...
Happy Crafting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Jolee's Series Part 1 ~ Day 2

If you missed the the First day you can see it HERE.  
Today, I'm continuing with Disney Princesses Theme. 


You can modify the sketches and Layouts with another "theme" and using different Jolee's and other embellishments.  Yesterday, I showed how I used the Larger Jolee's/Die Cuts as a "picture" and Matted them. Today, I am going to show the larger Jolee's/Die Cut unmatted. Most of my Scrapbook Sketches are with multiple pictures and usually using at least one if not more at a "regular" sized photo, of either a 4"x6", 4.25"x5.5 ', or 3.5 'x5". I will on many occasions use smaller pictures sizes so you will need to trim them. But I try to think realistic and simply so that I can have as many pictures fit in my scrapbooks as possible and spend more time on embellishing than trimming pictures or trimming very few. Hope that make sense. I also do not like to use "printed" paper as my top mat unless its a muted print.  An unfinished layout like I have looks pretty with the "printed" papers but for me personally, I don't feel it works when you put the pictures down. I scrap with my pictures being the focus and the rest is accenting to help tell the story.  So onto the Fun part my Sketches which are specific themed for the specific Jolee's Dimensinal sticker I used.

 I used the Lil mermaid and The Waves in my Sketch and Layout.






 I used both the Jolee's Princess Aurora and Silver fancy Stickers for my Sketch and Layout






Need to stock up on Jolee's? Check out Rachel's yardsellr HERE!  Be sure to "like" her yardsale, maybe "love" a few items or leave a comment or two :)

You can find my Yardsale HERE and you can  "like" my yardsale, maybe "love" a few items or leave a comment or two :)

Want to win a set of Jolee's or some Baker's Twine? Do a Scrapbook Layout using some Jolee's that is "inspired" by one of my four sketches from yesterday or today, Post a link in the comment section below with the link to your picture of your Layout, which Sketch Inspired you and what Jolee's Pack you used. The Layout does NOT need to be a Princess theme or use the same Jolee's even, but it does need to have some Jolee's in it. Post by Next Tuesday the 14th.


Until Next Time...
Happy Crafting!

TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

How to use Jolee's Series Part 1

So often, I am asked how do use Jolee's Stickers and die-cuts in your scrapbook pages and cards.  I decided to do a Series to help others see different ways to use them.  With the help of Rachal at Expressions of Faith I have purchased a bunch from her on yardsellr.com.  She also has an Etsy store. You can check out her facebook page HERE, her Yardsale HERE, my Yardsale HERE and her Etsy store HERE. My Etsy andZibbet stores are kinda empty.

Today, I have two Scrapbook Layout Sketches that incorporate Jolee's Dimensional Stickers. Both are Disney Princesses, Aurora and Belle. I will have two more tomorrow. Over the next month i will be doing different Themes, that will have Scrapbook Layout Sketches with finished Scrapbook Pages, Card Sketches with finished cards, Titles, tags and Embellishments as part of the Series. To give you inspiration and hopefully help see how you can use those fun Jolee's Dimensional stickers or Die-cuts.


The best way to look at embellishments is that they are accent pieces to decorate your pages. Like the way you add throw pillows and blankets on a couch or dust ruffles and curtains to decorate your bedroom. embellishments are a way to dress up your pages. Too many can be too much, not properly placed can seem messy. You want to keep small embellishments in odd number groups and balance your pages. I'll cover more of that later.

When I have a Die-cut or a Jolee's Dimensional sticker that is similar to a die cut, like the Princesses, I look at them and treat them so as a small picture. When I do my sketches, I think how many pictures do I want/need on a page and what size are they. I get those placed first, then decide whether or not to mat them. Once I have the pictures figured out, I move on to what am I going to embellish my page with and again, I think of some of these as a picture and whether or not it needs a mat or not.  Most times I add a mat or double mat for small to large stickers/die-cuts.  Other embellishments like buttons, brads, skittles, bling, ribbon, paperclips are tiny embellishments which are more accent pieces. These types of embellishments can go just about anywhere, however you don't want to over do them either. Balancing out your page with pictures, Jolee's/Die-cuts, then finish with the tiny embellishments to "weigh" out your page with those.  

Here are my Sketches and Finished Layouts, I did for with the Jolee's Dimensional Stickers; Disney Princess Aurora and Belle.





 


Come back Tomorrow for more Scrapbook Pages using the Jolee's Disney Princess Ariel and  a different Princess Aurora.


Until Next Time...
Happy Crafting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Thursday, January 26, 2012

CTMH Rock The Block + Charity

This Past month CTMH has Rock The Block Campaign. It includes one of the new items that will be in the New Spring/Summer Idea Book! Its simple, order $25 from the Winter catalog which you can do on my website HERE or email me your order and I can send you a paypal invoice, pay me either thru paypal, money order or personal check( personal check has exceptions and rules.) and get The My Creations Collage Cubes plus a bonus E-size adorable Rock The Block Stamp set.



Here's the great part, not only do you get to get some fun new CTMH items to use for your scrapbooking or cardmaking or whatever papercrafting project your working on now or in the future. I am taking my profits and going to give it to a friend who has been fighting cancer and her husband has been recently been laid off and they will be loosing their health insurance.  I personally know what its like to be out of work and not have any social government benefits, such as unemployment or disability) to relieve your income loss but to also have mounting medical bills and the stress to find a way to pay them and try to pay just the day to day bills that you barely make enough to pay. So, This campaign ends Jan. 31, 2012. Thats a week to order!! So please Hurry! You will be helping, not just my friend, but me too by meeting my minimum too!
I will have more opportunities to help raise money for my friend too!

Until Next Time...
Happy Crafting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Monday, January 16, 2012

Its been a while... lot's to catch up on

Here it is Jan. 16th and we are honoring Martin Luther King Jr. today. He is a man who had a dream and followed it and inspired so many.  You can check out my fan page I Can Make a Difference HERE, I started this last year and kinda got away from it with life interrupting me, but its one of my New Year's resolutions to try to post at least every other day and hope to get a list going to post something everyday.

Sure hope everyone's new year is going better than mine.  It started off great as my oldest was still here visiting but boy it turned quickly. On my husband's birthday just a week and a day ago we spent the day in the ER. Then we spent the next week in the hospital, as he had pancreatitis. Very scary and not fun because on top of that he is diabetic and so his sugar was thru the roof.  My husband is not one to complain of pain nevermind being sick so seeing him hooked up to about 6 IV's and not looking well was not something I ever want to do again and hope no one else does either. But he's home and doing well now thankfully. There were a few other mishaps that have happen to but not worth mentioning.

So needless to say, I'm trying to get back to a regular schedule and get back to what I love doing and that's crafting. I am in the middle of changing up my craft room. We originally put it out in the garage, thinking it would be ok since here we had a real good garage door and seals it up tight, however it gets alot colder here than CA at night and even the day, which I don't mind, my arm does but the trade off is worth it. However, nevermind the cold sets my arm off into spasms, even when I go out to do laundry I look like I'm going outside. We just can't afford to heat the garage and we are only renting, if we owned it would be a little different. Though, if we get to buy a house I'm hoping we can find one that has a room for my crafts :). So we are moving some of it to my bedroom cause that really the only spot we have to put it, I do have a small desk in the living room to work too so I don't occupy my kitchen table and can be out here with the family at times too. While moving stuff, I'm going thru more of my stuff and destashing stuff. I am listing it on my new friend Yardsellr.com  Haven't heard of it, oh its wonderful!  You can earn these things called Photon$ which is like free money but it does take a bit of work and you can't save them for long as they decrease very slowly instantly but If it weren't for yardsellr.com  my kids wouldn't have gotten anything for Christmas this year but maybe one gift and I know its not about the gifts its about time with family but still I want to give my kids something as they don't have much to begin with. Anyways, check it out my yardsale is here. You can learn all about yardsellr HERE. I list everything seperatly, cause you just never know what people will want and don't want, however I can combine listing to save $ especially on shipping.
Side note for those who don't ship often, shipping is expensive and postage has gone up I swear overnight. I didn't ship anything for 2 weeks and 2 lbs. parcel use to be about $7 (includes track #) now its $10 (includes track #) so its been rough trying to find the right shipping place and choice as a seller/shipper.  I"m not a business that gets a discount, I do get to see my husbands UPS account at work which gets a slight discount but it has to be a pretty heavy item to make a difference. like 5lbs or more if it doesn't fit in a flat rate box. Just realise I am a seller who is a consumer too and I hate paying shipping fees that are outrageous too. I simply just pass the cost of actual shipping I don't charge a handling fee, I use to charge $0.50 to $1.00 but I'm also, now recycling my shipping boxes, envelopes and what I can to save $ and I don't purchase the ship self stick labels I print on recyled paper to save $ too. Unfortunately, I can't recycle ink for the printer and I send my empty carts into school for them to get whatever they get because the $3 off at staples, I'm still paying $10 more for ink vs. at costco. Anyways, I try to get as much as I can for the best shipping options prices for my customers. I'm always willing to negotiate and barter too. The best way is to either FB message me (Jill Thee Scrapoholic) I accept messages from everyone, you don't have to friend me to send me a message or my email  put subject Yardsellr . However, to get photon$ you need to "love my items" so that if you are a friend i can get the pop up to send you photon$ daily.  As, I watch my nightly line up I go to yardsellr and go thru to find photon$ and the best way I have found is the pop up that says so and so would love this send them photon$. I will probably list some stuff on etsy and zibbet on occassion. We will see, so far in just a few weeks of selling I'm doing awesome at yardsellr. I do plan to sell more handmade embellishments too. I'm also, going to be looking at selling baby clothes again too, i use to do that before they are 2nd hand but I am picky so if you've got little ones it maybe something to look at. I am also looking into selling scrapbooking tools and papers if I can find them wholesale. I am still doing CTMH and I'll cover that in another post. I want to start a monthly club on-line so if your intrested watch for that post coming in the next day or two. I know I had tried it before and had a few intrests.

I will be starting up my MTC/SVG freebie File day again but I've decided to do it on Fridays instead of Mondays, So that will be starting up latest by 1st Friday in Feb. I'm hoping maybe this week or next we'll see how my week goes. I will be still doing my Sketchy Saturday, again depending on how things go, latest by first sat. in Feb. I'm still undecided if I'll have a Design Team or not. I love working with all the ladies I have had in the past. We will see, If I do you will see plenty of posts to apply. I also am going to be doing some different Series on different themes and how to's probably on Tues. or Wed. I was overloading myself before trying to post everyday and I just have to realize my life has changed and I can't do what I use to do when I had two good arms, even though PT is helping alot I still have lots of pain and limited use of my arm and it is going to always dictate my days. I don't like it but I'm slowly accepting it. Some weeks I'll have 4 posts maybe even 5 but most likely 3 on average.  I did join a small group where we are to use our stash, so I will be sharing those and you'll have opportunities to follow along and use your stash too :)

I think that catches me up for now and hopefully soon I'll be posting regularly :)

Monday, December 26, 2011

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday MTC/SVG Files ~ Day 25

Today is the Last day of 25 Days of Christmas and Holiday MTC/SVG Files!
Sure Hope all that have downloaded all the files are enjoying them. I'd love to see what you've created always feel free to leave a link in the comments section of projects you've done using my Cut files and posted somewhere.
I took Christmas Day off for my family traditions of celebrating the Birth of Jesus.
This next week or so i will most likely not be having any new posts as my oldest is home for Christmas break and have lots of QT for her and the family. Check back after the new year and I will be getting back to my MTC/SVG Mondays and Sketchy Saturdays and maybe some new stuff in between.



Today's File:



Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

feel free to say Thanks by leaving a comment or taking a second to click the Thanks box or Feel free to leave a donation, not required at all, for the files I've shared!


I do love reading comments I do receive, I may not directly respond but I do read and often in my post acknowledge them too.  They do mean alot to me.



Until Next Time...
Happy Cutting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

Saturday, December 24, 2011

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday MTC/SVG Files ~ Day 24 Bonus 3


Today's File:




Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

feel free to say Thanks by leaving a comment or taking a second to click the Thanks box or Feel free to leave a donation, not required at all, for the files I've shared!

I do love reading comments I do receive, I may not directly respond but I do read and often in my post acknowledge them too.  They do mean alot to me.




Until Next Time...
Happy Cutting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday MTC/SVG Files ~ Day 24 Bonus 2



Today's 2nd Bonus File:



Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

Check For $ale Tab or My Etsy Store for Possible Purchase

Until Next Time...
Happy Cutting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday MTC/SVG Files ~ Day 24 Bonus 1



Today's Bonus File:





Freebies expire after awhile and are removed as a Free download.

Sorry Freebie Has Expired

Check For $ale Tab or My Etsy Store for Possible Purchase


Until Next Time...
Happy Cutting!
TTFN Jill aka The Scrapoholic

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