Stacked Stones Studio!

Have you checked out this month's paper crafting kit? I have been having a lot of fun playing with it myself...I made a little mini-book and put it in the brown jewelry box that comes with the kit as a gift for Royce for Valentines...just a little place to write some sweet notes to him. There are some other layouts in my gallery ...and more to come in the next few days.

This is the view out of my hotel window in downtown Dallas. Love the lights of a city at night. The conference has been terrific. Really lovely people to work with -- and terrific music. I am now off to spend the night and a few hours tomorrow with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. Just an added blessing to the trip to get to see family too. Have a great Sunday

I thought it was only yesterday that I blogged...and then I checked the date on my last post...and had to just laugh...time just speeds by (when you're having fun, have a huge list of to do's .... or you are over 40!). I had so much fun getting together with a group of ladies that I have met on SIStv . We all got together for a day of scrapping, eating, giggling and all around fun on Saturday. It was actually one of my most productive days ever at a crop! It helped that we did several "round robins." Have you ever done that with your friends? The basics are: you start a layout with your picture...and you have anywhere between 5 - 10 minutes to begin. Then the buzzer rings and you hand it off to the next person at the table -- and you take the layout from the person on your right...and have 10 minutes to work on it. and so on and so on -- until your layout comes back to you....with a bit of everyone else at your table on it! I love it because it stretches me in a coupl...

We have lots to do this next year! I have been having the best time getting ready for our next taping of What You Make It . I have begun to get emails from you, our viewers, and it is such a treat to begin to imagine you on the other side of the camera while I am taping. Several of you have mentioned that you liked the segment we did on "scrapping our faith" -- so I have been working on some regular segments on that topic. Here is one of the layouts I am going to show you how to make this month. It uses our What You Make It Februrary Paper Crafting Kit that will be available in the store in a few days...and features the "fussy cutting" technique...where you cut out a portion of the patterned paper to use as an embellishment. I promise, it looks harder than it is -- I'll show you a couple of tricks that will have you "fussy cutting" all over your pages! Everything on the page (with the exception of the letter stickers) are in one of the February kits.....

Welcome to 2008. Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? I have a few -- and I will share them with you -- that certainly helps with accountability, right? But first a funny story... This is the honest, truth. A few year's ago I was standing in line at a Target store waiting to check out during an "after Christmas sale." I was amusing myself by people watching -- and I confess..."people listening" as there was a very animated group of women behind me chit chatting as they waited to check out too. The topic of their conversation was "pet peeves." They were talking about things that their husbands do that drive them crazy...and you can guess that there was a fairly common and specific list of complaints. But one of the ladies chimed in with a kind of unique one... she said, "I hate it when he uses a word that he doesn't know the meaning to -- and acts like he does...you know WORDS matter!" At the time, I had a couple of thoug...

I have had fun over the past couple of days getting to know my camera a bit better. I have been meaning to study my cameras' manual since the day I got it -- but just haven't gotten around to it. The very talented Becky Novacek has done a wonderful photography tutorial on Scrap In Style tv ... and I printed it out and grabbed my manual and worked through both of them over the past couple of days. Becky really emphasizes that she rarely uses her flash -- even for indoor photography...and I decided to take that as a challenge to learn how to do that (although her results are WAYYYYY better than mine) too. After playing with settings, and reading and re-reading both her tutorial, my manual and Brian Peterson's book, Understanding Exposure , I took the following pictures around my house. I did play with Photoshop on a couple of them -- but only to emphasize something that I liked -- no need to lighten them since the settings allowed me to get plenty of light without a ...

One of the things my grandmother, Jammy Jane, used to always say to me was "never stop learning." Her advice has become one of the tenets of how I live my life...I love to learn -- I love to try new things. I love to take classes from other scrappers -- I think it helps me think outside my "creative zone." Thought I would share with you something that I am participating in this Christmas...It is Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class. We get a prompt every day on what to journal about that day -- with a couple of challenges (ideas to try while we are working on our pages). I really wanted to participate in this class because I love the idea of recording some daily thoughts during this holiday season -- Honestly...there have been days that I did my writing/journaling but didn't get around to scrapping the page until the next day -- which I think is fine considering how busy this time of year gets to be. This is the cover...had a super fun time playin...

And perhaps my youngest student for a scrapbooking class EVER! She did great during my button painting class...look at the detail she put in the wreath and tree on these buttons! She ended up doing a full card....and her sister (younger than she is) also painted right along with us! Her mom did tell me that they do a lot of crafts -- but I still think she has a huge future in the arts! The class was in Glasgow, Kentucky at Scrapbook Village ...it is just a wonderful store...lots of yummy goodness that you just want to wander around for hours! I have been working on a journal called Journal Your Christmas ...it is a great way to focus on the important stuff during this season that can get overlooked in the hustle and bustle...hopefully will keep going all the way til the 25th. Will take some pictures of what I have done so far in the next day or so and share. Think about taking time to write down some of your observations about Christmas over the next few days...and then tuck ...

Ok....so today I intended to get all the white lights up...it is kind of the thing that signifies the :officialdom: of the Christmas season being in full swing. I start with the ceremonial placing of the nativity scenes (multiple ones in various rooms) -- and then move on to the placing of the trees/garland and the hanging of the WHITE lights. But being the "orderly" person that I am -- there are pre-requisites...like the house has to be cleaned first....I can sorta squeek by on the nativity scene activity -- afterall Jesus was born in a MANGER -- which probably wasn't totally clean either...but the rest of it -- the decorating the house simply requires cleanliness. I have been in a major organizational tizzy...trying to figure out a way to use my guestroom (still as a guestroom) and as a warehouse for kits for the show. I have company coming -- and I would prefer for them to not to have to sleep on the shelves! *smile* So....as I said when I started writing...I INTENDED ...

Thank you so much for all the great feedback you have given me about these Christmas letters we created for an episode of What You Make It . I used vintage Christmas sheet music, Tinkering Ink papers and German glass glitter...I got the letters from Deb Dambroise Designs -- she has so many absolutely FANTABULOUS letters, shapes and words. She is also offering these letters ( Tuscan Joy ) along with Melissa Francis paper in a kit that I thought you might enjoy...go check out her store on ETSY...I know you will fall in love with her products the way I did. She also has a very inspirational blog... here .

Do you watch You Tube? I occasionally will find a link that just makes me laugh...and this video is just that kind of thing. These boys cannot dance...but I love how committed to this video/dance that they are....The boy in front knows the words...the one in the back is bustin some moves! Enjoy...Happy Monday

A few days ago, I pulled out my Mom's nativity scene and was hit by a wave of nostalgia. First of all -- I remember my Mom making it -- it is ceramic and back in the 70's it was the creative "rave." (Ceramics, that is). Instead of painting the figurines, she chose to antique them and then just put a cream glaze...very timeless and classic. They became a centerpiece of our holiday decoration...one of the first things we put out when we started decorating. It was really fun to pull each of the pieces out and reminisce. What a great reminder then (and now) that Jesus' birth is the "reason for the season." I decided to have a little photo shoot (so much easier than with people, by the way -- ceramics are VERY cooperative -- stand where you want them to stand and don't mind you taking TONS of pictures *smile*)...and did a little layout with Kelly Panacci paper to capture my memories from my youth -- and perhaps the new tradition of this nativity s...

Don't you just love the Christmas paper from Basic Grey...Figgy Pudding? I do -- they always amaze me with how versatile it is...you can go graphic with it -- or more layered collage and it just works -- depending on what you want from it. I decided to layer it for this layout of the boys...the title I combined the BG raw chipboard "HIP" with the monograms that match the Figgy Pudding paper. I particularly liked that they are both self adhesive -- totally speeds things up a bit. I added some paper glaze on top of the letters to give them a bit of shine. The journaling and frame are a couple of Sizzix die cuts from the same paper. After Thanksgiving the Christmas tunes went on -- and I got busy with Christmas...will have some new things to show you in the next few days. By the way, we only have nine more Advent Calendars in the store...but I am going to try and put some more together -- so if they are sold out by the time you get to them, please check back -- I will...

There is a family of deer that lives in our neighborhood. With the drought here in Tennessee, they are going to have a hard time this winter. Royce has put a trough out with corn for them. I think it will be fun to sit out on the porch and watch them come to feed in the back yard...wonder if Rudolf will show up!?!?! Hope you all had a good black Friday -- did you go shopping? I stayed away...just didn't feel like fighting the crowds. Weston however, went to spend the night with friends camping and waiting for Best Buy to open. I am sure I would have thought that was quite an adventure when I was 17 -- but at 46...it just sounds like a cold sleepless night!

I want to thank all of you that have sent well wishes and congrats. We launched What You Make It last night and have had some emails from folks that were able to catch it...and a few that said they were unsure of the times...so I wanted to make sure I posted them here again. Channel 31, Scottsville WPBM Mondays - 6:30 pm Thursdays - 2:00 pm (on Thanksgiving right before the 3:00 football game -- bet that will go over BIG! *smile*) Saturday at 10:30 am Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and I will leave you with a few of the things I listed on my "blessings" list last night. 1. A loving family -- father, stepmom, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, fiance and future stepson. 2. A group of friends who are awesome and supportive 3. A brand new tv show that allows me to share my love of art, creativity and documentation with a whole new group of ladies. 4. A yard where deer show up each night and walk slowly down my driveway. 5. A porch, where on crisp mornings I can ...

Hello from Atlanta! I thought I was headed south -- but it is CHILLY here. Actually, winter is my favorite season...love crisp cool air -- somehow clears my head and energizes me...but I came here a bit unprepared...am sporting a sweatshirt hoody (that I randomly threw in my suitcase) everywhere I go! Guess I was thinking winter this week when I created this layout...when I looked at the yummy October Afternoon papers -- I thought they would work with some wintery pictures I have been want to to scrap...and this was the result. The frame is just some left over chipboard that I sewed one of the pieces of paper to -- and then cut a free form frame out and popped it up with some pieces of cardboard to give it some depth. I may have to do this again...I like how it turned out. Well... What You Make It starts airing on Monday...I can barely believe it...and am totally excited (and a little nervous). Am so accustomed to teaching live classes where the ladies taking the classes give you...

Scrapbook Village . Oh my stars...these ladies were so much fun. Bonnie, the owner of this fun store really knows how to create a crazy kind of fun event. I had the pleasure of joining them for their fall retreat...and I am still laughing! I had the best group of ladies attend my class on creating your own stamps. They had already had a full day of cropping and shopping...and I am not sure that using some of the E6000 glue didn't put them over the top! (if you haven't ever used this wonderful product -- it will hold just about ANYTHING on a page -- but it also has a very strong smell that can make you a little giddy FAST!). We were all giggling pretty soon after the class started. I told them -- you are going to leave my class "happy" one way or the other! *ha* I love the community that happens with scrapbooking. You can't find that community at the "big chain stores" -- the friendships are formed around the tables at your local scrapbook store...and ext...

These were fun projects. The first is a set of ATC cards with the Night Before Christmas poem spread throughout. The plan is to create new sets of cards for various holidays and seasons...so that the Spindle can become a permanent part of the decor. This "ho ho" card I saw on Ali Edwards blog...cute cute...had to snag it -- made with Heidi Swapp "She" letter masks...lumiere paint and then sprayed with Hollyberry Glimmer Mist....that stuff is addictive. This spread I just ran Terrifically Tacky Tape all the way around the edges and then sprinkled with German glitter...sticks better than with liquid adhesive. Love these "My Word" books from BoBunny Press...cute Christmas papers too. The trick is to alternate light/dark or pattern/solid between the letters to make sure they show up well. I added an outline to help it pop a bit more.

Before we begin taping on Friday...and hope to begin airing edited programs on Monday, November 19th. Our air times areL Mondays at 6:30 pm Thursdays at 2:00 pm & Saturday at 10:30 am -- I believe we will be replacing the last remaining fish and wildlife program on that channel. I somehow think this fact will come as a blow to my 80 year old father who is very proud of the fact that he raise two daughters that LOVE to fish....amd sure it will be seen as a betrayal to our family values for me to kick the fishermen out of their PRIME spot so us girls can (and I quote) -- just go to town cuttin and pastin, bitchin' and stitchin'" Perhaps it would just be best to leave the details down to the bare minimum...and distract him by taking him fishing soon! Life seems to get complicated even in the midst of very good stuff. Drove up to Scottsville where the station is on Friday in order to do an interview with the talk show host of the station -- Francis. She is a precious...

Here is the Advent Calendar we are going to do on "What You Make It" tv. Several of you have asked if you can get the kit even though you can't see the tv show -- and the answer..."but of course!" Just click here to see the kit in my Etsy Shop. The kit comes with the die cut sheet metal, vintage sheet music, American Craft Thickers, a vintage German embossed Santa, enough buttons and sequins to decorate the edges and each of the handmade date tags. With everything in one place, it is a quick project -- and would make a fun gift either as a finished calendar or as the kit.