my new office + a Nikki Sivils giveaway!

March 9th, 2010

Yesterday, materials were delivered.

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Today, the walls of my new office are going up! I’m working to the wonderful sounds of construction and for now, loving it!

What could you build, if given the right materials?

I’m delighted to feature a giveaway today from advertiser, Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker. Because I selected some fun cord brads to include in my Complete Bliss kit, I wanted to be sure and meet Nikki at CHA. I’m happy to report that I did meet her and her husband/business partner Dan and as you might suspect, when you meet the people behind the product, the product gets even better.

I love to champion new companies — especially where someone is following a personal dream. So … I invite you to help me out. Pay a visit to Nikki’s website. Browse around a little and then leave a comment here, that answers the following three questions:

1. Was this your first time at NikkiSivils.com?
2. What did you see that you liked?
3. What happens when you’re husband has access to your website? (HINT: click on the products tab)

One random comment who answers question #3 correctly, will be selected to receive everything pictured here.

*1 complete set of “Ellie’s Day Out” 12×12 papers

* “Victoria’s Street” 6×6 mini pad of papers and House chipboard album

* “Willow Bee” 6×6 mini pad of papers and Scallop chipboard album

* “My Sweet Cherry Pie” 6×6 mini pad of papers and Tree chipboard album

* 2 sets of Corduroy Brads, Cool & Warm

* 2 packages of Burlap Buttons, black & red

* 2 packages of Pocket of Treats cardstock stickers

*1 Package of Craft Flags

By the way … you can find Nikki’s products online at A Cherry On Top

NOTE: This giveaway and the Lunchbox Love giveaway, posted last Friday will close next Monday, March 15th at noon pacific time. We will post the winners later that afternoon!


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Monday stuff.

March 8th, 2010

Happy Monday!

I have a couple of quick things for you, before I clean up, make my lists and get busy on what will be a very busy week!

1. On Saturday, I mentioned my live chat with Renee Pearson tomorrow night (Tuesday.) What I failed to mention is that I am giving away 3 great prizes during the chat.

One person will receive a pass to Nic Howard’s upcoming 4Experts workshop, called Dimensional Details. Nic has a gift of adding beautiful dimension and texture to her layouts, while keeping the focus on her photos and story. She will be breaking down her creative process and teaching us how to add layer upon exquisite layer to our most special pages.

Two additional people (randomly selected from those who show up to chat with me) will get a FREE pass to Tracey Clark’s Picture Spring workshop. In  this amazing course, you’ll set aside your camera and photography knowledge for a month and simply learn to see through your lens, the world around you as Mother Nature works her spring magic.

So … come chat tomorrow night, live!

2. I accidently gave you the wrong link for the Scarlet Lime jewelry on Friday. The correct URL is scarletlimebeadart.com

And finally, I’ve been meaning to post these cool photo tricks …

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Learn more and download at shapecollage.com

Schmixer is another FUN way to use your photos and share them via email.

ENJOY!

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This week, iPhoto and some Q+A

March 6th, 2010

This week …

Our friend Pete came and started tearing apart our deck.

Weather and wind where we live make it almost impossible to use a deck as it is intended to be used. For this reason and the fact that I really want to move operations upstairs so I can do my work and manage the hub of my home (kitchen, laundry, homework) we are …

turning this space into my NEW office! Yipee! My creative studio will remain downstairs, but I’ll be able to do most of my daily work from right off the kitchen! I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

This week, I took Addie to the dentist for her first “official” visit. It seems her very petite mouth has caused some crowding and FOUR little cavities–in spite of faithful brushing and flouride drops. She was absolutely cooperative and very brave. We did have a very good Love and Logic moment when I tried to convince her to tie her helium balloon to her wrist and she refused. Once outside the balloon lasted about 31/2 seconds before the above-mentioned wind sucked it right out of her hand. I said “Bummer!” She chattered about it all the way home. My guess is on Monday (her first filling) she might just tie that balloon on!

This week, I discovered fullbars and ate them for my afternoon snack — they are yummy! I’m on day 6 of my annual get in shape for spring program. I’m always amazed how good water tastes after just 3 days of no sugar. Anyway, I found these at Costco and thought, what the heck. I’ll try ‘em. I generally do really well until about 3:30pm and then I’m just plain hungry, so I eat one of these, drink a full bottle of water and I can go upstairs, finish preparing dinner and not blow it!

This week, I was asked a great question on the Library of Memories message board. It went along the lines of this, “How do you organize your scrapbooking-related photos so that they are not mixed up with your family pictures?” This is a great question and I have a GREAT answer (if you have a Mac and use iPhoto that is)

I have lots and lots of pictures that I take specifically for my online teaching, my website and blogs and for other scrapbooking-related projects (my work.) About three years ago, my friend Steve Holdaway showed me how to create a new iPhoto library. It took me a year to convince myself that I needed two libraries and to get everything converted, but I LOVE this approach now.

Here’s how you do this:

Completely close iPhoto. Hold down the option (alt) key and re-open iPhoto. Make sure you continue to hold down the option key. This window will appear. Click on the “Create New…” button and create a brand new library. As you can see, I have 3 libraries …

I have my general (family pictures) library. I am learning to use Smart Albums inside my folders to implement my digital organization that supports my personal Library of Memories.

I have a business library. This is where I upload pictures of pages, projects and other stuff related to my work. I recently started another library where I imported older digital images from the other computers in my home. This is also where I’m importing the hundreds of “family history” scans my father in law has sent me. I don’t want these images bogging down the family library that I use every day. When I’ve sorted through all of these and decided which to keep, I can incorporate highlights into my main library.

To switch back and forth between iPhoto libraries all you have to do is close iPhoto all the way and then press and hold the option key while you re-open; the choose your library window will open and you can select the library you want to work in!

Hope this makes sense. I’m sure there is a similar solution with other photo software programs as well. But, seriously Apple ROCKS (just had to say that)

Next Week, I get to be part of ReneeTV and a two-week series called Meet the Pros. I’ll be do a live video chat on Tuesday, March 9th at 7:00pm pacific time. My topic is digital work flow (yes, even traditional scrapbookers like me need a digital work flow.) Visit ReneePearson.com to learn more about my chat and all of the others!

Q+A  Here are few additional answers to recent questions.

Hey, What software did you use to put the slide show together?
I’m just now learning to use iMovie, thanks to Kayce and Clark, but my comfort program is actually Keynote (Macs version of Power Point) so I quite often build a slide show in Keynote and then simply export it as a Quicktime movie. This is what I did for this little flick.
I’ll be sharing my first attempt at iMovie on the blog sometime soon — it was something I created for a lesson at church.

Where did you get the chalkboard in your kitchen?

So, this is a frequently asked question. I do LOVE, LOVE our daily chalkboard in the kitchen, pictured most recently in this post. I purchased it at a little boutique-y store here in Spokane, but I found something similar at Ballard Design, called Hampton Message Board Shelf. Whenever you need to find something on my blog, just scroll down and use the search box on the right hand side. It works 95% of the time for me!

How do I find the books Photo Freedom or The Big Picture?

Right now these books are difficult to find (and PLEASE don’t pay some crazy price for them!) Both books are sold out. This means they cannot be order from the publisher anymore. There are copies in distribution channels. I’ve had several LOM students find both or one of my books at an Archivers’ store. And several have called an Archivers’ store and had them shipped to them. I am trying to negotiate the rights to these books, so that I can make them available again, but this may take awhile!

How do I find Mary’s gallery to see the rest of the “finish line album” you mentioned in the “Random Love” post?

Actually, there isn’t a gallery where you can see Mary’s album, there was just a ‘peek’ of it on the scrapbook page I shared. However … Mary is sending me several of her pages (along with other students) and I’ll be sharing these in the upcoming Finish Line Scrapbooking class at BPS. Stay tuned!

How do you organize your odd sized photo’s?

have four shallow drawers by Memory Dock. My drawers are labeled Us, People, Places and Things — I store enlarged prints and other odd sized photos in these drawers. I often place a sticky note in my storage binders (where I keep the bulk of my unscrapped photos) to remind me that I have a related photo in one of my drawers. Please note that the Memory Dock line of products has been discontinued, so current supplies are limited. You can find shallow drawers like these from other online retailers.

Have a GREAT weekend!

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Friday FIVE for March 5th (giveaway too!)

March 5th, 2010

I tried to write a post all throughout the day yesterday and finally finished late last night. I’m saving it for tomorrow, as I’ve also had this very FUN Friday Five planned. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about products I love, so here goes …

ONE. LunchBox Love

I adore bright happy notes that I can tuck into my kids’ pockets and backpacks, or as the name suggests, lunchboxes (or at our house lunch sacks.) I found this particular line not too long ago and wanted to share them with you. You can buy several different volumes, each with 10 different cards and phrases and they have several new releases that will help you say positive things to teenagers, girlfriends and co-workers too!

The company, Say Please, Inc was founded in 2007 by two moms who got tired of seeing negative verbiage and sentiments on products being sold to children and adults. They decided to create a company that put more positive words into the world. (totally something I can get behind!)

You need to know that Say Please is not a sponsor of stacyjulian.com (yet) but I did contact Say Please and ask if I could do a little giveaway on my blog. I said please, so they said YES! See details below …

TWO. Scarlet Lime Watch Art

Can’t even say how much I’m enjoying my two Scarlet Lime Watch Art bracelets that I got at the CHA Super Show. If you haven’t yet seen these, go NOW. They are so totally chunky and fun. I of course selected the flower-shaped watch and two of the interchangeable bracelets, the Tropical Fruit punch (pictured above) and …

Hello Sunshine. Because each watch face is only $7.95 and bracelets are $8.95, I’m sold! Next up for me?

Crush, and …

Fruit Punch.

THREE. Clear Converse Tennis Shoes

Hello? How cool are these — Converse Chuck Taylor tennis shoes in clear! Now everyone can see my very colorful Little Missmatched socks that I love to sport so much. I’m currently breaking mine in. My feet are aging with the rest of my body and don’t like wearing new shoes more than once a week, but I LOVE these and I got mine on Amazon.

FOUR. Kokuyo Dot Adhesive

Still my favorite for photo to paper. And just to make sure that you know you can purchase this from my sponsor, Cherry Blossom Studio. There are some new adhesives I’m playing with, but for now — this is my standby!

FIVE. Cute stuff from Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker, Jillibean Soup and Bella Boulevard

So, this last pick isn’t so much a product as it is a push for something that I think ROCKS. I love to promote collaborative efforts in the scrapbooking industry because I believe when we decide we are all on the same team and choose to work together, we will ALL succeed.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes from your Friday to  participate in a Blog Crawl that brings together three great manufacturers.

Not only will you be able to purchase great product, you could win some delightful homemade items. Nikki Sivils in giving away this collection of 8 greeting cards which feature her product along with product from Bella and Jillibean. Kudos to Nikki, Jill and Stephanie!

Lunchbox LOVE

So … one lucky blog reader will receive volumes 1-4 of Lunchbox Love from sayplease.com
Leave me a comment and tell me what else you like in your lunch, besides LOVE!

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Reason 14,963

March 3rd, 2010

There are countless reasons that I love scrapbooking.

No. 14,963
I can drop what I’m doing, take a photo and capture a thrilling emotion.

Can you ever have enough American Crafts Thickers and Flair buttons? What about Coredinations cardstock? I think not.

Last Friday, while busy at work, my phone rang. I looked down at the caller ID to see “Miss Riddle.” Miss Riddle is Chase’s language arts teacher. My heart sank a little assuming she needed to talk to me about a late assignment or some other concern. I said “Hello, this is Stacy” and she said, “This is Miss Riddle, I’m calling just to say what a great kid Chase is. I really enjoy having him in class and he is doing so well!”

“Thanks” I said. I hung up and started bawling as the most amazing emotion swelled inside of me. I cannot even say what it meant to hear from a teacher in this way — wow!

When Chase got home, I ran upstairs with my camera and snapped this photo while he was playing the piano.


Earlier that day I discovered that Sarah Milne (creative genius behind Scenic Route Paper Co.) has a blog. I took her post titled WORDS to heart and found inspiration for my page.

I absolutely love that as a scrapbooker I can freeze moments of time and add to them important sentiments that cannot be expressed often enough!

For years the most popular column in Creating Keepsakes magazine has been Tips & Tricks. The concept of bringing readers snippets of helpful ideas and solutions is NOW a special issue.
Jennafer Martin and I collaborated on a short article about non-chronological scrapbooking — if you’ve taken Library of Memories or read Photo Freedom. It will be very familiar.

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Learn more about Tips & Tricks.

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thank you Theodore!

March 2nd, 2010

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What if this man hadn’t pursued his true passion? What then?
So very grateful he did –

My top three books are:

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And my favorite collection of stories …

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I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today!

Tell me your favorites and by all means visit the Dr. Suess page at Amazon and buy something in his honor!

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Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

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the weekend report and more …

March 1st, 2010

Can you believe it’s MARCH FIRST?
I can, because I’ve spent the entire month of February telling myself that I am going to eat really, really, really good in March. I do this every year in March … and dang it all, now I have to follow through!  Spring and warmer weather are just around the corner and I’ve got my winter ‘coat’ to shed. I’m doing NO refined sugar and LOTS of whole foods.

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Feel free to join me.

There’s a really fun idea on Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s blog today. It’s a challenge to March Fourth by March 4th — to START whatever it is you’ve been pondering or planning — to set something into motion, be it a health campaign (like mine), a spring-cleaning project, new book or class or the first steps towards realizing a dream.

Kolette Hall is teaching a 4-week workshop called Life Tunes that starts on Thursday (conveniently, March 4th) She will help you use the music you love to explore some of the important moments and memories in your life. The result will be a super-cool 9×9 scrapbook album.

I’ve heard a lot about another online class, called Mondo Beyondo, taught by Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen that is designed to help you take your dreams from the realm of wishing into everyday action. I have a few dreams of my own I’m currently working on, but mostly putting off so I’m intrigued and considering this class — although I’m not sure how involved I could be. If you’ve taken this course, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

March 1st also means it’s time to check in with the girls at Write. Click. Scrapbook.

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The theme this month is No Kids Allowed and so the gallery is chock full of great layouts celebrating the things we do that don’t involve children. I love this one by Katrina Simek. I think it’s appropriate to share on the first day of March!

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My layout shares some reflections after diving into Seth Godin’s new book and let me add that I sincerely hope you are reading this book!

Ok, back to life …we had a really good, relaxing weekend with very little scheduled. I needed one of these!

Trey + iTouch

We started off with heart-shaped pizzas for dinner (the results of a fundrasier) and then we headed to Trey’s final Upward basketball game. After that we all sat around and watched the Olympics. Trey purchased his own iTouch last week. I’m not sure how much TV he really watched, he was pretty smitten. This btw, is one of only a few successful low-light pictures I’ve taken — I love the light on his face.

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Speaking of kids and money, I match my kids’ savings 50/50 when they are working toward something expensive. My kids don’t get an allowance, but they do have daily clipboards. I’ve posted about our clipboards before, but was recently asked to post again.
Each child has a morning clipboard. These clipboards outline the tasks they need to do to prepare to leave home. If they follow the clipboard and mark off each item, then I clip a dollar bill to the clipboard once they are gone and I’m cleaning up.

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I keep all of our clipboards in a little red bin on the kitchen counter. You  need to know that Clark and Chase have completely outgrown the clipboards — or it seems any other attempt I make at job-sharing. No … they still help, but with much less frequency and enthusiasm. I’m sure this is to be expected in the teen years.

I have a word document for each boy and I can update as items on the list need to be added or changed. For example, Taft and I have started walking two mornings a week, so his list now reflects that. On mornings we don’t walk he is supposed to do some little exercise on his fitness log from school.

Generally speaking these clipboards work really well — I don’t have to remind kids to do everything, rather I can just yell out “Are you doing your clipboard?” or “Is your clipboard done?”  And really, they end up doing this stuff anyway, so doing it independently and marking it off means they get a “bonus buck” so they can practice spending and saving!

I also have a clipboard for our nanny with a daily list of errands to run and extra things to do, like run to the post office, gas up the van, get groceries, or … bake the cakes for the Blue & Gold banquet, so that after school Taft and I can decorate. I’m very fortunate to have found wonderful young women to work for our family in my home. They do so much to make my life easier and more manageable, so that I can work more efficiently and spend quality time with my kiddos.

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Back to the weekend: I did a Library of Memories chat on Saturday morning and then cleaned hard and fast. I lost track of time and didn’t go jogging until after 11:00am. The sun was shining when I got back and Geoff and Trey were throwing the football. I joined in for quite awhile and then thought, I’d better go fix some lunch. I came in and was met by Taft who had prepared our first picnic of 2010.

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We all sat around and ate delicious white-bread PB& J with milk.

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Geoff thought about fixing bikes for a ride along the river, but we decided all of our winter recovery wasn’t going to happen in one day. He took the kids swimming instead and I worked on my personal Library of Memories. I fine-tuned all of my keywords in iPhoto and wrapped up my 2009 pictures in terms of uploading and archiving — that feels good!

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I totally caught Chase and Addie on the trampoline and love the results …

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Saturday evening Geoff and I had a long-overdue date night and watched Avatar in 3D on an IMAX screen. In case you haven’t heard, I’m love this movie — primarily for the memories it elicits in me. If you haven’t yet seen this you really need to. I was surprised how full the theater was after all this time. The fact that this movie is still in the theaters says it all.

I’m hoping to have a really good, productive week. I’m wishing you the same!

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UR2Cre8tive WINNER

February 26th, 2010

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I just selected Dara Golden as WINNER of my latest ebook with Ella.

Dara’s comment, submitted on 2010/02/24 at 4:17pm
The one I’d like to see would be an ebook version of “Me: The Abridged Version.” I’m been stopping & starting doing that as a tribute album and just need that extra hand holding reference guide.

Thank you ALL for your feedback and ideas regarding the BPS and Ella partnership for future ebooks. We’re so excited to work together in this way!

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good news. more kits.

February 26th, 2010

So somewhere between transporting kits around we lost and now found 40 additional Complete Bliss kits.

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You can order one by clicking the Paypal button on the left side of my blog. For now, we are only able to ship to the United States and Canada. Please make sure you click on your country before you press the “buy now” button. Kits are $40 plus $5 shippingfor US residents Canadian customers will pay $55

I’ve had a few questions about where to find the Finish Line Scrapbooking pod cast. From the stacyjulian.com homepage, click on the red “Living With Your Library” DOWNLOAD button. This will take you to the page where I post all pod casts especially geared for those with a Library of Memories system. Finish Line Scrapbooking is a wonderful way to handle either big stack of photos from a single event, like a trip to Disneyland. Finish Line Scrapbooking is also the best way I know of paring down a hefty collection of photos in your category drawers. This Complete Bliss kit is designed especially for photos of your immediate family, showing love. I found all of my photos for this kit behind my Together Forever tab in my All About Us drawer.

Naturally, you don’t have to be using a Library of Memories system to have fun with this kit!

I so appreciate everyone who has purchased my first-ever kit. We (Allison + Molly + I) are learning a lot. But you’ll be glad to know that we are going to do this again — thanks to your enthusiastic response. Seriously … thank YOU. And thank you for your patience while we waited for boxes!

Here’s one of the emails we received about Complete Bliss along with my response:

I purchased your kit at the Treasured Memories booth and just wanted to tell you how happy I am that I did and how excited I am to use it!  I checked back at the booth a few times hoping I’d catch you there-but to no avail. But I did get to look through (firsthand) the album you featured on your blog – I loved it.
Normally my style is very orderly, simple, Becky-Higgins like, which is another reason I’m glad I purchased your kit.  I love your fun, colorful style as well and hope that it will get me to branch out a bit.  I love your philosophy on scrapbooking and your realistic approach to all this. You are a breath of fresh air!  I LOVE my Creating Keepsakes magazine and will keep it forever, but your Simple Scrapbooks magazine was….home. Everything about appealed to me and my ideas of what this hobby should be.  I miss the magazine!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the kit – I’ve got some ideas to showcase various pictures of my 2 little boys (they are 3 and 6 months) and I together.  Perhaps I’ll send you a picture when I’m done–it should only take a few hours after all!

Have a great day!
Katy B

Katy,
I really appreciate you taking the time to write. I too miss Simple Scrapbooks magazine (so much!) I’m glad you brought this up because the demise of my beloved magazine is one of the reasons I’m working so hard to broadcast my scrapbooking philosophy via the Internet. Pictures and the memories and emotions they evoke in us are full of magic. I sincerely believe that when we choose to let go of crazy expectations and limiting ideas about scrapbooking, we will find clarity and insight for living a happier life.

Enjoy those little boys. Follow the Finish Line Scrapbooking process and get stack of pictures in an album that they can hold and enjoy. You can do this and I’m so very pleased that you are!

Stacy

To learn more about Finish Line Scrapbooking, click HERE.
To post images of your Complete Bliss kit, visit the new Complete Bliss Flickr group, or click HERE.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Random + Really COOL.

February 25th, 2010

So, I’ve got really GOOD news coming later today, but I’ve just got to share a few random and really cool things first …

Random

So, I’m sure I’ve mentioned that my children get a birthday party or a date with Mom & Dad on alternate birthdays. Clark celebrated 17 yesterday and is due for a date. I’ve got a killer idea that I’ll be repeating for everyone at 17, but it won’t play out well in February, so he has to take a rain check (or rather a sun check!) No worries, he still did quite well yesterday. He came home to a fun little scavenger hunt involving 5 mini cupcakes …

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Each cupcake had a sticky note ‘fill-in-the-blank’ clue attached. These clues eventually led him to his final gifts:

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Final Cut Express, a membership to Izzy Video and his own URL (clarkjulian.com) — more on all this later. Clark is really passionate about video and so I’m setting him to educate himself and pursue this passion.

Last night was our annual cub scout Blue & Gold banquet. I love this event because it involves decorating cakes. I love surfing around the Internet for fun ideas and then making them happen!

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We got our idea from Easy Cake Ideas and this is what Taft’s turned out to be …

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We totally skipped the somewhat complicated tomato slices that you really can’t see. Taft doesn’t eat tomatoes anyway!

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And here he is, winner of the “Beefiest” cake!

Really Cool

So, I need you to know that I could not do stacyjulian.com with advertisers. These advertisers (or sponsors) pay for wonderful people like Allison, Dani and Shelley — my website administrator, my graphic designer and my programmer. Time is short and I want to focus my time and energy on those things that I do really well. This means I need to be able to pay other people to help me do other things that I do not do really well. I always want to be  transparent with you, so that you understand my intentions. I want to bring you great content and I cannot do that without the help of the wonderful people and companies that believe in what I’m doing.  So … please help me welcome and thank, the following sponsors who are each relatively NEW to stacyjulian.com

Scrapaholics
Love the elements that Scrapaholic creates for my LOM system. If you are taking LOM or have in the past — you simply must check out Maegan’s  website and blog!

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Nikki Sivils
Among other things, I’m particularly fond of Nikki’s Burlap Buttons — anytime someone makes me look like I spent extra time I LOVE it!

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Benzilla
Love these super-affordable CoasterBets that Michelle creates in her Etsy shop. These are the kinds of things I purchase to replenish my color-bins!

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I’ll be sharing more from other sponsors in the coming weeks. If you know a company who’s products would be a good match for the work I do and the fun and colorful things I want to have happen for our industry, email me stacy@stacyjulian.com and I’ll send them more information.

And … thanks for reading!

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