All About Me!

I love when I see a scrapbooker enter one of their "ALL ABOUT ME" pages into a contest, mag, or online zine. You can see all of these little things about her you may other wise not know. And at the same time the obvious has been all pulled together in one area as well. So many of us put ourselves last, and this is a good way to remind yourself that you are still here. You just happened to have other layers that make you up.

I did my all about me on a upper case "A". I felt like, how could I ever fill a entire 12 x 12 page. I just started my large "A" and I can see how I could fill it, that is for sure. It is far from being done. I have been working on it for a couple of days and I keep thinking of more things to add. Everything that I have used so far has something to do with me. I started by adding the 38 at the bottom because that is my age when I am creating this. Everything has a meaning. Something would only be obvious to me, but isn't that the reason for this exercise. To look at yourself and who you are. How many of you knew I collect stamps. Yes, the same girl who LOVES speed, likes the idea of collecting a little history when collecting stamps. To me the big flower is my incredible love for gardening. The clock represents my dad, why you ask? Growing up there was never a good enough excuse if you tried to blame things not getting done on not having enough time. He always said..."AmyLynn, we all have the same 24 hours in a day it is just how you use it" Well, AmyLynn is still looking for that 27 1/2 work day but it is not showing up.

And please lets not forget about the crown. As every woman worth her weight, you should truly BELIEVE you are a QUEEN. You are totally incredible and the back bone of so much. Many would look at this and just see a cute little embellishment, but I know it means that I am the QUEEN around here even if no one else knows it.

So, so many of these little ideas that you can go and use as well. Try making an all about me project. You can try it on a letter such as I did or you can do it on any size page. What about a all about me mini book? There is a great idea as well. Just do something and maybe you will learn something about yourself that you may not know or have forgotten in the crazy wacky thing called life!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE COME SPRING!

Well, Valentines Day is over and this is always my indicator that SPRING is on the way. All of the seed and plant catalogs are arriving daily. I LOVE the SPRING. I can't help myself. The new life thing with baby birds and passing by a farm with baby lambs always gets me excited.

I started this set of journal tags a couple of weeks ago and just released them on Sunday. They are actually my first set of Kraft colored paper. I love the black on them. I am for sure going to make more of these. I have some great old Easter decorations. And I love to add to them. I stopped by a great country store that had the cutest Easter stuff. It makes me want to go home and change everything. I love change and that is why I love SPRING!

I also brought back my Easter Flashcards set. How exciting to have holiday flashcards. I also like tucking these guys in behind a picture in an unexpected area on a page. I love using them vertical. That really draws your eye in.

And how can I have all of this SPRING and Easter happiness without some darn cute Easter stickers? Well I can't and I think these ones are going to go over really well. The picture does not do them justice that is for sure. Some of them have glitter( the kind that doesn't come off all over you). They would be so great to seal and envelope or add to a Easter Basket.

So here are a few new things for you to look at over at http://www.brambleberrylane.etsy.com/ so check these and other great handmade items out. I as always would love to hear what you think or if there is something else you are looking for but don't see here!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

Hugs For Caden From Logan

It is hard to see the stamp on Logans 4 year old hand, but it says "HUGS FOR CADEN". Caden is a 4 year old little boy in Logans Pre-K class that has Mitochondrial Disease. He has been in and out of the hospital many times over the last few months. We attended a benefit in his honor last night to raise money to help with the mounting cost of his medical expenses. About 3 weeks ago, Logan and I had stopped to take money out of a ATM and on the board behind it was a flyer and a picture of his friend Caden. Logan had me read the flyer to him. After he wanted me to explain to him what a benefit was. I told him as simply as I could that people would go and eat and bring a couple extra dollars to help out Caden and his family. We went and got back in the car and ran around and went home. That afternoon, while doing laundry, he commented on the jar on the dryer that had change in it that I pulled out of peoples pockets before washing. He looked at me and said, "is there a couple of dollars in there"? I told him sure there must be. He then asked, totally from his GIANT four year old heart, "can we give that to Caden"? I said sure and the rest was history. Every time he saw even a penny on the ground in the parking lot he would pick it up and put it in what had become CADENS JAR. He called people to request..." just a couple of dollars". My mom and dad jumped right in. Pat told people at work about it and his great friends (Wes & Sherry) sent Logan money for the jar as well. It was just WONDERFUL. So proud, he carried that great big jar in last night and gave it to Cadens mom. I had everything to do not to cry from the pride that was inside me that Logan could care so much for someone else at 4. So this Sunday, instead of talking about some great new product or a fun new project I just finished, I HONOR my LOGAN and thank God for this incredible boy he has added to my life. He is a loving and caring soul. I could take credit for it but if you know Logan, you know he was just born that way!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

GLITTER A BIRD!

Oh yeah, I am feeling the love, aren't you? Here is my Valentine Gift Tag that I made to hang on my husbands dark chocolate Valentine Candy. I am a milk chocolate (with caramel inside) kind
of a girl. But the darker the chocolate the better for him. They say the dark is better for you. It may be true, but I will stick with my milk chocolate. So what do you think of my little tag here? I started with the large chipboard tag from my chipboard tag set and went wild from there. I love to ink the edges of projects. If all else fails, and you are really not that happy with what you just created, ink it. I love those little ink pads that you can just go around the edge quick with to give it that great look. On this one I used two different browns, one a light tan and the other a dark chestnut. It gives it more of a gradual staining over time look.
Well, I better get back to the creating thing I oh so love to do. The list seems to get longer by the minute and I am not totally keeping up with the ideas. Hope you enjoy this tag and get some inspiration to make something fun for the day of love yourself!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

How Do You Use That Product?

I have many people ask me how I use certain embellishments that I make. They know they like the embellishment, but they aren't sure what they would do with it. This has led me to actively try to use the new products I create in projects that you can draw inspiration from. Here is a ATC or could be used as a GIFT TAG, just needs a whole punched. I took some scraps of paper, I like to call them "table scraps", and layer them in no certain size onto one of my base chipboard ATC's. Next, I took one of my Paris Base Cards and cut out the image. Then I took one of the chipboard frames in the middle size and turned it over. OK, this is where my mind starts to work over time every once and a while. I was working last night and I turned over this little frame and realized that there is a impression on the back, along the edges, from me die cutting it. Well, next I took a brown marker to it and it ends up kind of looking like a real piece of metal. The lesson here...TURN THINGS OVER! Any who, I attached those with a couple of dark brads lending to the metal look and added one of the flowers from my new sets. And there you go. It looks like a little piece of ATC/ACEO heaven to me. And of course my most important lesson that I ever learned from SHREK was about LAYERS. You know, the entire thing where he explains to Donkey that he is made up of layers like a onion. Yes, I am the mother of a lot of kids...can you tell. I am happy with it and I hope it inspires you as well to put together some odds and ends and create something fabulous today as well. So here is the list of products I used to finish this look...

~Chipboard ATC

~Image cut from Paris Atc Base Cards

~Chipboard Frame the middle size(on the back)

~New Layered Burg Flowers

~and some brads and scrap paper I had laying around!

Now I am taking the dive into this blossoming art form, jump with me. It is kind of like a great mix of medias and fun things you have laying around to create something GREAT!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

I Have Been Creating Again!

You all know how much I love to create new products for you to make fun projects with. Well lately the old river of creative thought has been flowing like crazy. Here are a few of my new ideas. I am going to have a bunch of different color combinations for these flowers. They are a great 4 layers of flower power held together by one of my favorite crystal brads. They are a great dimension addition to your project and I love how you can see to the next layer with the open flower petals.

Next I have these to cute red and blue stickers. Who doesn't love poke-a -dot patterns. The red and blue play off each other so well and they will be sure to please when added to a page or envelope. They really POP!

Then how can I start a new line of layered flowers with out starting a new line of ATC/ACEO'S. These are a combo of some of my favorite images...(so far)...that you will be able to layer on as well as use the plan back to make your creation and with these images on the other side your project will be finished. You can layer all sorts of things on this set of 8 different images. There are 4 themes, CROWNS, PARIS,CHAIRS, AND TEAPOTS! More to come so keep your eye out for them. Or you can always punch a whole in them and look like a very stylish gift giver with these great tags. Have fun with them!

Well it is time for me to get back to the drawing board. More things in my head to create then time in the day. Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have. I hope I have inspired you today to go out and make something new and fresh, or maybe old and vintage!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!

On My Grandmothers Dressing Table...

When I was a kid, my mothers mom lived about 2 hours away. When we would go to her house she would always look nice. She was always dressed like a lady. She had a large dressing table in her room. She would have pictures on there of my grandfather and other family members. At one point there was a picture of my mom or one of her sisters getting ready for a function with in the reflection of a mirror. In all of the wedding albums at grams there where these same pictures just of different daughters getting ready to walk down the isle or be a bridesmaid. And some where them getting ready for the BIG DANCE. This weekend my girl went to her first big dance. At first she wanted to go, then not, then did, then not and then finally settled on going. She enjoyed this right of passage as I did being the mom and taking the picture in the mirror. I love tradition. And I love being her mom!

CREATE SOMETHING FABULOUS TODAY!