Blog Archives - Christina's Creations

Scrapbook Cookbook

10/31/2009

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted anything. I spent most of this week in meetings and then after work I had to take my car into the shop to get the motor mounts fixed. I haven't had much time to sit, let alone do crafts. Is it me, or does this year seem like it is going super fast and life is just really crazy hectic right now?

Before the craftshow I went to last week, I made a scrapbook cookbook. I think the batteries on my camera were dead, so I couldn't post the pictures until now. This is a great gift idea for a mom or a sister that is hard to shop for. I found the recipe cards and the stickers at Big Lots. This little 6x6 cookbook is a great way to show off your pictures along with your favorite recipes. Last year I had made a cookbook with all of my mom's favorite recipes and some old pictures using www.snapfish.com. Everyone loved those photo cookbooks. My husband had some of his mom's recipes on 3x5 cards and I typed the recipe on one page and had 4-5 old pictures of him and his brother on the other side. I did the same for my family's recipes and pictures. Not only are these gifts precious, practical, and thoughtful---they are great to pass down through the generations. You have all your family favorite recipes next to your favorite pictures of your family. It is not that expensive to make them either. I think each book was about $10-20. Below are the pictures of the scrapbook cookbook that I made. I'll have to take pictures of the other digitall cookbooks and upload them later. Hopefully, this inspires you to make your own family favorite recipe scrapbook. Have an awesome week!!! Happy Halloween!!!

This weekend

10/26/2009

I had my first real craft show this past weekend. The other one a home show. It went pretty good for my first show. I was $5.00 shy of making my space rental fees. But that was $5.00 well spent. I made some contacts with people that were much more expereinced than I was. I have another show in 3 weeks and I'm going to make quite a few adjustments.

It's kind of nice hearing that strangers actually like my work. I think I can actually make this business work if I don't give up and get too discouraged now. From everyone I talked with, this has been a difficult year to sell stuff because of the economy. I'm actually surprised that anyone is buying any of these cards at all. I may have over priced the scrapbook pages, but I hate to come down on the price because I put so much time into them and the materials/embellishments are expensive.

I would have taken pictures, but my camera died. I wanted to show you the pictures to because I have a lot more cards than what is on the website. I wish I could stay and chat some more, but I better get ready for work. Have a great week. I hope to make something for your viewing pleasure this week. Don't know if that's going to happen or not because I have to get the motor mounts on my car fixed. Have a creative week!!!

New Christmas Cards

10/22/2009

Hi! I'm so excited!!! Today I finished another meeting with a parent and I only have one more for the month of October. That means I'll have more time to work on my crafts!!!

I celebrated finishing up the last IEP meeting by making some new Christmas cards. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but I think they will make a great set of Christmas cards. I had these stickers of these kids dressed in winter clothes and had no idea what to do with them. So today I made 6 cards and was able to use up most of the stickers. I love using stickers I already have because then I know that I didn't waste all that money I spent on those stickers in the first place. I don't know if I told you this or not. Over the summer I decided to take out all of my stickers and clothes pin them on a ribbon on the wall in my craft room. I have saved so much money using what I already had. I was notorious for buying stickers, storing them in a file folder and then forgetting that I had them. I think I have several sticker sets from when I first started scrapbooking in the early 90's. I probably have enough scrapbooking stuff to open up a small craft store. It's just so cool to see all my old stickers transform into these beautiful cards and scrapbooks. I'm so glad I'm not letting these things go to waste anymore. So without further ado, here are my latest cards. Have a scrap-happy kind of week and enjoy your weekend---I'll be doing another show at an elementary school :)

Life

10/20/2009

I haven't had much of a chance to work on any crafts this week because life has been getting in the way of my free time. Yesterday my husband got into another car accident. That's the second one this year. The other one was just one month before. Fortunately he is ok. I don't think we've even had this new car a whole month yet. The day after he got into his second accident, my car's check engine light decided to go off. I ended up walking from the dealership to the bus stop to the house today. Another friend of the family was diagnosed with terminal cancer and they gave him 8 months to live. My cousin was in the hospital last week. If you pray, could you please remeber us in your prayers. It's getting hard to keep up with all the demands and disappointments that life keeps throwing our way. I know God won't give us any more than we can handle, but sometimes I wish He wouldn't trust us so much.

On the upside, this week I will finally be getting the part I need to fix my washing machine. I'm so exicited I won't have to go to the laundry mat anymore. Also I'm done with half for the meetings with parents for this month at school. I only have 2 more to go for October and I met my other deadlines. I also just signed up for another craft show in November. I'm not sure how it will go, but it's for a good cause. 15% of the proceeds will go to a local high school's drama department. That's all I got for now. I have to go feed my hubby. Enjoy the rest of your week and do some crafts for me. I'll live vicariously through you this time.

My first show

10/17/2009

Today was my first craft show. I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have pictures. It was at my sister in law's house. I don't think I did too bad or too good. But I will say it was a good learning experience.

I figured out that it really didn't take that long to set up my display. I had a pretty good system to set up the display. I'm not sure if I liked giving the top copy as the sales reciept. I need to press down harder when I write. I did more networking than anything. It was kinda nice to talk with others that had done this stuff before.

I don't think I'll do another event at her house though. She had some ladies doing psychic readings and Tarot card readings and it seemed like the people that came out today came to see those ladies and it didn't really seem like anyone was selling much at all today. It was kinda discouraging not to see anyone even stop to look at the display. But then I realized that this event wasn't exactly geared towards crafts and I got over it.

It was a good practice run. I'm actually glad that I didn't sell too much this time around. I have another event to go to in November and at least I have some inventory to bring with me. I wouldn't have enough time to make enough stuff if I would have sold out today. The best part about not selling anything is that I don't have a lot pay back in sales tax to the government. The best part about this little business is that I can write off all the craft supplies I know I'd end up buying anyways. I'm off to bed. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Happy crafting to you!!!

Do It Yourself Kits

10/14/2009

Does it seem like this year is just flying by to you? I can't believe October is half way over and Halloween is just around the corner. Before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here and gone. You'd think that Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all happened in the same month the way the stores have everything out all at the same time. It kind of makes the time seem like it is even going by at warp speed.

I don't know how I managed to find the time, but last night I went to JoAnn's and picked up some of those little pouches that they put jewelry in. They were perfect for the do-it-yourself kits. I had so many extra die cuts lying around waiting to be used, I just decided to make them into do-it-yourself kits instead. I found a cute little scarecrow that is holding a basket and I'm just going to put all of these little pouches in it. People can look through this basket to find embellishments for their own scrapbook pages or they can use them to make their own cards. I am truly amazed at how much stuff I had just lying around here waiting to be used. I could probably start my own scrapbook store with all of my supplies, but I still go out and buy more paper and stickers and ribbon. I think I'm addicted to finding cute things at JoAnn's, Michael's, Big Lots, The 99 Cent store, and Dollar tree. I didn't realize how often I shopped at these stores until yesterday. I went into the Big Lots in San Diego and the cashier greeted me and made a comment like she hadn't seen me in awhile. Even in a city of over a thousand people, they recognized me because I'm in there so much. I guess this is just my one cheap thrill in life!!! Enjoy the rest of your week and remeber to craft to your heart's content!!! Enjoy the pictures.

Gift Bags

10/12/2009

I'm almost ready for this show on Saturday. I have everything packed up in boxes and I'm ready to go and start setting up. I just finished making up a few more gift bags. I used my Crop-A-Dile to attach the rest of the gift tags I bought from Costco unto some bags I found at the Dollar tree. They turned out professional looking.

I have to start working on more of the ornaments. I've been putting off making the ornaments and the Do-it-yourself kits. I'm not sure what people are going to be looking for. We are going to bring the Cricut with us, so people can make some of their own creations and take it home with them after they make it. I'm so glad I have the PT Cruiser, because there is so much stuff that I need to transport. I better start putting more of the ornaments together. Enjoy the pictures and have a fantastic week.

New Christmas Cards

10/9/2009

I went down to Costco yesterday and bought some of their Christmas gift tags. I started making some Christmas cards yesterday. I surprised myself and ened up making 25 cards yesterday and some more today. I also went down to the Dollar Tree and bought some more gift bags. I think I'll start working on those tommorrow.

On Wednesday I went on Craigslist and found out some information for a local craft fair. They are having a carft fair on Nov 17th in San Diego. They are not charging anything for the space rental like they typically do at these craft fairs. Instead they want 15% of your proceeds to be donated to their high school drama department for the space rental. It sounded like a fantastic opportunity and so I e-mailed the lady and next month I will be part of that event. It should be a great learning experience for me. If you want more information about this event, let me know and I can forward the information to you. Have a great week and happy crafting!!!

What do you want from this blog?

10/6/2009

I'm new to the world of blogging. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or not. Before I even made this website, I didn't even know what a blog was and I had never even read one before. I'm not even sure if I am doing this the right way or not.

Do you like it the way it is? Do you want me to change it? Would you like to see more of the same stuff or would you like to see something different? Do you want to see more pictures? Maybe a step-by-step tutorial? Me sharing my day with you? Do you want to have challenges or contests? This is still new, so together we can make it anything you want it to be. Would you like public forums? Has any of the stuff on this website been helpful? Am I updating it often enough? Do you want me to update it weekly? Daily? Every other day? Does anyone else want to share their craft projects on this blog? I'm open to new ideas.

Sometimes it seems like I'm writing to myself and other days I'm just so excited to hear from anyone that leaves a comment or sends a question. I love helping people...that's why I became a teacher. It doesn't make sense to me to keep writing if I'm the only one reading it. Please leave a comment, so I know how to improve this blog...I really do need your suggestions and comments so I don't waste your time. Thanks in advance for your help.

Jewelry Boxes

10/5/2009

Over the weekend, I needed a break from making greeting cards. So I decided to finally sit down and paint the wooden jewelry boxes I picked up at the Dollar store. I had picked up some blue, white, and black paint and started experimenting with the colors. On Sunday before church, I had finished painting all 5 boxes. When we came back home, I added the stickers and used a thin coat of Modge podge to seal it. While that was drying, I started cleaning up the house and helping my husband fix the sprinklers. By the time we were done, it was ready for the second coat of modge podge. By morning it was completely dry and I just finished taking the pictures. I think they turned out great. I think they would make a great gift for a friend's birthday or a Christmas gift, or just because. After I'm done posting these pictures, I have to go cook. So enjoy and have an awesome week.