Have you ever pulled off a really great April Fool's Day trick? Have you ever fallen hard for one yourself?

Here are our tips for getting someone GOOD!

1. Get them early in the morning before their wheels are fully spinning. I am very susceptible to this tactic. As a teen, my older sister thought it was hilarious to come into my bedroom around six in the morning screaming something like fire, earthquake or even boogy man. No matter how many times she did it, I never failed to start running around like a crazy person exclaiming the harshest language allowed in my house, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness."

2.  If your victim would never fall for something from you, enlist a co-conspirator. Last year, my assistant Laura sent Eric the following email, "Myra Mains called, she sounded like she knew you, she said call back as soon as you can. Her number is 435.752.3245." The number was to a funeral home which Eric called asking to speak with Myra Mains.

3. Use visual aids because sometimes seeing is believing. When Eric and I were dating, I convinced him I got engaged to another guy. The kicker... a diamond engagement ring on my finger. This trick, a little on the cruel side, plays on our next tip.

4. Exploit emotional thinking. Eric fell for the above trick partly because when he is emotional, he doesn't think as clearly. Like I said, bordering on cruel. Hey, I was young and immature and have apologized a million times!!!

5. Plan a trick which doesn't require your presence. Typical ideas are changing the clock times, putting a honk at me sign on the back of a car, etc. If you don't have a poker face, extensive experience with deception or are prone to laughter, these are the safest tricks!

Instead of playing an April Fool's Day trick on you I am participating in Moda's April Tool's Day. Since I don't regularly blog on Sunday's I'm letting you all know today that this April Fools you may win my favorite tool for sewing.

I promise, I'm not joking....

Why don't you trust me?!?!? 

I was at CHA, setting up the booth displays when I first saw this project. I had never seen anything like it before! Donna, literally sewed a purse out of our 2wenty-Thr3e papers complete with washi tape ruffled trim. But the paper was sturdy and shiny and not going to tear. How did she do this I wondered.


Well I knew just the person to ask. Tim Holtz.

I think Tim finds my lack of crafting know-how to be quite humorous at times. I failed his make and take once despite Mario's one on one attention. Another time, I asked him about using melted wax over collage and he replied with something to the effect of "Are you sure you want to try that Julie?... maybe you should leave the serious stuff to people that can pass the make and take." (OK, that's not really what he said and I shouldn't put words in his mouth, but he was certainly surprised at my request due to his observations of myself!)


So I headed his way with this fabulous creation. Tim took one look at the bag, he didn't even need to touch it. He told me that she had laminated the paper with contact paper. How cool is that?!?! I would never have thought of it....obviously. 


Maybe if we all beg and plead we can get Donna to give us a tutorial? 

I had a couple friends ask for instructions on Donna's tea card from yesterday's post.

It is so cute and since I'm making several myself, I decided to create this template for all of you. Use it to give away tea bags, gift cards, tattoos or any other little gifts you can think of.

If you do, send us a pic (julie at cosmocricket dot com) or post a pic on our facebook page. I know I speak for all our followers, along with myself, when I say that we LOVE seeing what you come up with! 


To construct your card, begin with a 6.5"x5.5" rectangle of patterned paper. I really love the heavier stock Advantus is using to print our designs. It is perfect for this project.

Score your cardstock on the dotted lines at the measurements given. 

Use a 1" circle punch to cut your tabs by placing the paper into it halfway only.

Fold on score lines.

Glue or stitch where the paper overlaps on the center binding and on the edges of the pockets.

Decorate the front. If adding a ribbon to tie it closed, run it underneath another layer of paper for a secure hold.

Give to a lucky friend and wait for the good karma to come back your way! 

This pretty project comes to us from Donna. I think this is a great idea to give to a friend that loves tea! 
The art of Tea is, for the most part, lost on us Americans. And, if Americans are lost, I would have been considered hopeless beyond repair.

Early on, I decided I hated tea. This opinion was formed when Eric's sister Tami made me a cup. I would describe it as tasting like brewed straw. Even with spoons of sugar added to it, it only improved slightly to grass-flavored kool-aid.

When I did the "5 Dollar Diet Challenge", hot cocoa was off the list and so I tried tea again. To be specific I tried cheap, grocery store tea. YUCK!

But, when I went to China, I drank their piping hot, green tea on a muggy 80 degree day.... out of respect only mind you. Although the temperature nearly killed me in that weather, to my surprise, I liked the tea.

Now, I have entered the world of Black, Green and herbal teas. I like them hot in cold weather and iced in hot weather. Raspberry Quince tea is my favorite with a squeeze of lemon and drizzle of honey! And, since I started drinking tea (two and a half years ago), I haven't even had as much as a cold. Luck? Coincidence? Mystical oriental secret? You decide. However, science has proven many health benefits and boosted immunity is only one of them. 

So, what better gift to give a good friend? (Ok, if a friend gave me this cute card, I have to admit I would not drink the Lipton.... call me a tea snob, it's OK, I don't mind.) 

Once again, your projects are fantastic!

Lynn S. made an awesome layout with Twenty Three using Tiny Text to frame a photo and as accents. I love this! The colors, photos and design are so nice together.


Holly Humbert created this clever layout by cutting the cloud shape and then covering that with Tiny Text stickers and trimming away the excess. So creative! The whole thing is beautiful.

Sandi Pressley combined lots of different colored Tiny Types on this springy Easter card.

 Donna chronicles a blue-hair day with this fun project using our black and clear Tiny Types.

Lorena made a pretty card set. I think these are stamped and then accented with the Tiny Type stickers. I LOVE them and think they are so pretty!

Deborah Mahnken used her Tiny Text on the front of what I think is going to be a fantastic mini album! I like the brushed over text paper on the frame with the stickers.

Savi Ostrozny used Garden Variety with the red Tiny Text for another take on springtime. It's almost here and I can't wait!

Isn't it fun to see each person's take on the same challenge. I love it.

Are you up for another challenge? How about chevrons? Sew them, cut them, draw them, stitch them, paint them. Use them on a layout, card, pillow, bag, quilt, collage, or anything.

We want to see you zig and zag! Post your projects and link them here, put them on our facebook page or email them to julie at cosmocricket dot com. Please put Chevron Challenge in the subject of your email or facebook post. 

We will pick a random winner from the challenge contestants to receive the new Tea for Two papers and chipboard. Which brings us to our winner of the new Tiny Type. Congratulations go to Deborah Mahnken. Deborah, please send your info to julie at cosmocricket dot com so we can mail your prize to you.

PS: To last weeks winners, my car broke down last week, your prizes are being mailed today. Thanks for your patience! 

It's done!

We will be featuring our Tiny Text Love challenge entries tomorrow, so if you have some time today, get busy! I tried to use as many Tiny Text stickers as I possibly could. I really like the effect it gave the layout to angle them along the one edge.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

I had a really fun idea for a layout that would feature a chevron background made out of Washi Tape. Well, that was a bit trickier to figure out than I thought it would be. I thought I would show you how I finally did it because now that I have it figured out, I plan to be using this technique A LOT!!! I love it!

I used a quilting ruler, but if you don't have one, you can make yourself a template. To do this, you would simply cut a square (2" is what I used) and then measure off a one inch border and cut away all but two sides (you will have made a right angle tool).

Take a look at all the circled areas in the photo below. These are where our points on the chevron will be. My important measurements on this ruler are at the two inch point and the four and a half inch point. I need to make sure my tape extends past those. (It takes a longer piece than you think to make the miter.) At the top of the peak I need to imagine a line extending straight up from the six and a half inch mark and have my tape extend past it.

Using a straight edge and a craft knife, cut through the washi tape (it doesn't take much pressure at all) at the exact point where the two pieces overlap on both the top and bottom edges.

Peel off the extra washi tape.

On one side, the washi tape to be removed is below the tape to be kept. Pull up on the part to be removed (this way you won't wrinkle the part that's staying).

Then gently pull the excess away. It's not hard to do at all, just be careful.

Push the top layer back down to reveal a perfectly mitered chevron point.

To know where to start your next point, measure across from the one you just did (you only have to do this on your first row) and place your ruler or template appropriately. Remember I am using the 2 inch mark so I lined it up exactly horizontal to the tip of my last chevron.

For the next row, place your ruler to match your previous row and continue as before. This is why we cut away all but 1" on either side of our square if we are using a template. If you want your chevrons closer together, make your template narrower.

This goes quite quickly once you get the hang of it. I however, didn't get the hang of it until I had tried several different methods, so unfortunately my paper is now waiting to become a layout instead of being one already. I can't wait to finish it up though and maybe do some chevron cards too!

If you try this technique, let us see how it works for you. Share your projects on our fanpage, link them here or even email them to me so I can feature them in a blog post.

Enjoy your Friday everyone. We have sunny weather here today and at Jack's request, we are having hot dogs tonight. So, Frank Goodness It's Friday! :)

 

Frames can be really expensive. Sometimes I'll get a great deal on them at second hand stores, but it seems others are looking for them too and there just aren't enough to go around. So, I love this idea by Donna. 


Instead of using a frame, Donna created her collage on a serving tray. I can tell you from my frequent thrift store browsing that there are usually many serving trays to choose from. One can of spray paint in your favorite color and you'll have the perfect surface for a beautiful project.

If you're as in love with those gorgeous flowers as I am, they are the chipboard from Evangeline... the papers are from Evangeline too.

Have a great Thursday everyone... we just need to hang in there a bit longer and then WEEKEND! YEAH!!! 

Donna rocks Baby Jane, with this charming collage. Looking at this reminds me of looking at Eye Spy books... just when you think you've noticed everything you find something else to admire!

In other news....

Tell me what you think, can a family of 6+ dog currently living in 3400 square feet be comfortable in 2200 square feet without a garage?

Yep, Eric and I might be crazy because this is exacty what we're thinking of doing. Do you live in a big house? Do you live in a tiny house? How do you like your own situation and what do you wish were different?

Our Bloomin' Project challenge was so much fun! We had tons of card entries and I'm feeling all inspired to make some to giveaway now.

But, before we get to all your fab projects, let's do another challenge. This time, let's see how you use Tiny Type and Tiny Text. We came out with some fun new skus at CHAW, but you don't have to use those (although I would love to see how you do use them). Use anything and everything. Here's a layout I did to get you all inspired.... you may have seen it before.

To the winner of this challenge will go one of each of the new Tiny Text skus!


So spell out some love for Tiny Text. You can upload your projects anywhere and link them in the comments here. Or put them on our facebook page with Tiny Text Love in the title. Hey, you can even email them to me with Tiny Text Love in the title to julie at cosmocricket dot com.

Now onto your Bloomin' Projects!

Lisa Sumpter's card is covered in flowers since she used Evangeline's Rose paper and a tag from the matching Element Deck. I think the whole thing turned out GORGEOUS!!


Karrie  used some Early Bird to make a great "Girlfriend" card decked out in coiled paper roses. I love how she has the lady holding one of our teacups! 
Shanna used a line I love, but haven't seen in a while... Honey Pie. What a fun card for Easter! On her blog she mentions that she got a great find of vintage lace at a thrift store. Isn't it cute on the card!

Next up is a stamped Thank You card by Char Dobson. Her flowers all come from Garden Variety... both the chipboard and the stamped ones! 

Click here to see Ivy's card on her flicker page. It's really cute and worth the click!


I love, love, love this project by Kayla Dupont. She took some plastic containers and re-vamped them with Earth Love to make really cute treat containers for gifting to friends. Very eco-friendly and friend-friendly I might say!!!

Shannon Lane made these cards that are bright enough to cheer up even the gloomiest friend.

Let's round this all out with a really cute card by Kerry Prill. Kerry combined Nutmeg with Hey Sugar. I love the bird in the center of the flower!

Our three lucky winners of the Chemistry fabric Charm Pack and the Magazine are:
Kerry Prill
Shanna
Karrie

Ladies, send your info to julie at cosmocricket dot com and I'll send you your prizes!

Thanks so much for playing. It really is so fun to see what you all come up with and I LOVE all the inspiration as I'm sure everyone does!!!

Hi Everyone,

How are your Bloomin' Challenge projects coming along?

Here's some great inspiration for you all from Donna again. She is so talented!

I love the strand of pearls and the stamped journaling. The whole thing is just so romantic.

Now I am off to Austin to look at houses. I hope to take some video and maybe we can play "Which House Should Julie Buy".

We may also drop by South by Southwest, so if you are among the crowd there, keep an eye out for me. You can recognize me because I'm the girl next to the super, tall guy whose hobbling along with his knee in a brace. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Our house in the middle of our street,
Our house is the place we used to meet.

But, we are hoping to sell it and move to Austin! 

It's definitely a bitter-sweet day for me. I have never loved the winters in Providence, Utah. You all have heard me complain about that for six years. But, I have grown very attached to this place and will miss so many things.

(We took photos of it last summer, the yard does not look like this right now!)

I love gardening and working in this yard has sparked many a product idea. I often get ideas while doing menial tasks!





 My mural of mirrors inspired the labels paper in Tea for Two.

You have seen so many videos filmed right here in this kitchen!

I can't tell you how many make and takes have been collated in this dining room! 

When work deadlines get overwhelming, I like to come out here. I sit on the deck and throw a tennis ball for Suki.

Or watch the kids jump on the trampoline!

The colors Eric and I painted in the master and master bath were the inspiration for the line Ever After.



 
I'm a little embarrased by this photo. You can see all the dresses and skirts I wear at the trade shows. I don't have a lot of clothes! I try to rotate them between events and have been teased when I've been caught in the same skirt or dress at multiple events (only in good natured fun to be clear!).

I think I have more pillows and bedding than clothes!

 This is Jack's room. Abby painted the picture of "Square Bear" for him. We also like painting on the back deck.

You've already seen Abby's room.

I don't know how, but Ethan managed to talk Eric out of one of the prints his friend Nate Williams gave him.

Kate's room. She is my only child to tolerate a tiny bit of "princess-girlie" decor. 

This is the room I like least. Well, not really the room, just the function... I hate laundry!

This may be the room I like most. Here I perfected my Just Dance moves, watched Some Kind of Wonderful with Ethan and Kate and rolled out sleeping bags for many a slumber party.

The family room is open to the office that I use for my craft room. 

The "homework space" as we call it is nearby so I often get interrupted in my crafting for questions like "what is mitosis" and "how many times can 7 go into 63". 

If you want more info (sizing, pricing, etc), please email me: julie at cosmocricket dot com. If you know anyone looking for a home in this area, let them know about ours.... pretty please!

THANKS! 

Do you ever win a bet and wish you hadn't?

Have you ever made a joke and then realized it wasn't funny?

I have often teased Eric that he was "abnormal." And, I bet him yesterday that he would need to have knee surgery.

A week ago, when his knee started collapsing on him at random, he wasn't worried. He told me he would just take it easy for a couple of days and was sure that would solve the problem. He's never had more than a flu the whole time I've known him. I'm pretty sure he's been to the doctor less than 5 times in the 18 years we've been married.

But, having had two knee surgeries myself and watching an otherwise healthy 6' 6" man suddenly drop to the ground, I was pretty sure this wasn't just going away with rest.

As we left the MRI building yesterday, I asked Eric what my prize would be for winning the bet. He said, "You get to take care of me and I think that's a pretty, darn, special prize."

Don't be surprised if in upcoming blog posts we feature washi tape embellished crutches, a pain chart made out of scrapbooking paper and a hospital gown decked out in Gluber flowers!

Until then, please enjoy this fun corkboard project by Donna using Twenty Three.

I love how she used the paper to make captions for the photos that might be pinned up. I also love how she covered the tacks... talk about attention to detail! And that little rectangle in the upper right corner opens to reveal a stack of sticky notes, perfect for leaving messages!

Update: I forgot about our winner. So sorry! Congratulations go to Celeste Wyrick. Celest, send your info to julie at cosmocricket dot come with Evangeline CHA Bag Winner in the subject line. Thanks so much! 

Happy Tuesday Everyone. It's not really that the blog is late today, it's that the clocks are early, RIGHT!!!


(Card by Donna of Meme's Art Place. This was one of our CHA projects featuring Evangeline. I thought the pretty flower motif may inspire some of you!)

Here are the top ten signs you are suffering from DSS (Daylight Savings Syndrome). If you answer yes to at least five, you need to contact your pillow and eye mask. I answered yes to all 10!

1. Today, your children are eating school lunch... and breakfast.
2. You are not yet dressed.
3. You are not yet showered.
4. You have only been out of bed long enough to feed the dog, make oatmeal and coffee, and write half a blog entry.
5. You keep looking at your clock and thinking, "That can't be right!"
6. You had to hurry with dinner last night so the kids didn't miss out before bedtime.
7. You have started fantasizing that an hour lost could be like a pound lost and come back ten-fold with a couple brownies.
8. You keep arguing with your kids about what time it "really" is.
9. You revel in putting your kids to bed early thinking that it's "really" only 7:00.... I can get to so much done. 
10. Your sneaky plan backfires when a fully-rested 6 year old jumps onto your bed at what is "really" 5:00 in the morning!

Tell me I'm not the only one with Daylight Savings Syndrome! I will pick a random winner from the comments today to receive a highly sought after Cosmo Cricket CHA bag, an Evangeline Mini Deck and some Evangeline Stacked Stickers. Good luck!

(backside of the bag)

 

You guys made the funnest projects this week. I love getting to see and share them all!

Kristen made this cute no-sew tote with DeLovely fabric and a Gluber flower. She has instructions for it on her blog.

Another fabric project by Donna. She took a dollar frame and made a pincushion. I think this is so cute!

Vanessa Menhorn made this fun card and bookmark set out of Odds and Ends.

Regina Mangum had another take on Odds and Ends. I think this is lovely for spring!

It seems Odds and Ends was on the brain. Here is yet another take by Merdrey Chew using the line and the same paper (what are the odds?) for a friendship card. She paired it with a cutout from the line and some of our Ready, Set, Chip alphas.

Jennifer Stricker made this vintage card using Circa 1934 paired with a bit of Mr. Campy. I love how romantic it feels!

Kayla Dupont took the challenge agian with a fun bag featuring DeLovely paper. Isn't the technique she used for the grass fun?!

That makes $35 for a micro loan to KIVA. Add that to our Make a Difference challenges and we have raised a total of $275 for charity over the last four weeks.

Now I think it's time to do a challenge that results in a free prizes for some of you! For this challenge, I want to see what you can do with flowers. Maybe they are flowers you made out of Glubers, maybe you sewed them or punched them from paper. Maybe your project features one gigantic flowers, maybe it's covered in dozens of little fowers. Well, you get the idea! Let's see your Cosmo Cricket beauties in blossom!

I have three Better Homes and Gardens All Small magazines. I would have four, but I am keeping one for myself! The projects in this magazine are so cute. I think my favorite is the mushroom scissor and needle keeper, but Aneela Hoy's pillows are very charming too.

I also happen to have three Chemistry Charm packs in my hot little hands and so I thought I would pair a charm pack with a magazine for three random winners. To enter, all you need to do is make your bloomin' project with Cosmo Cricket and post is here or on our facebook page with the title Bloomin' Project. We'll pick our three winners next Monday morning.

Thanks!

Good morning everyone! I'm so excited to get to show you some of the fabulous work that Donna from Meme's Art Place did for our trade show booth. She made the cutest projects and I've just been dying to get photos of them for you all to see.

Today is a shadow box project that she made with Baby Jane. Isn't it just the sweetest?

I imagine that a cutting machine makes quick work of those dresses. I love how she decorated each one!

Oh, it makes me wish that Abby were a girly girl sometimes when I see things like this. But she does love Betty Boop and bold, graphic black and white prints which is pretty cool. Here is how we put her room together with new carpet and all.

Here are eight reasons I love this octagon layout by Erin Morehouse-Kislingbury.


1. She used octagons for the background which I think turned out super-fabulous.
2. She used Twenty Three which is the hippest line from the CHA release. And that means that you get to see how to use it too, which is something some of you have been asking me for.
3. She has the most beautiful cat. I love black cats!
4. She made the design graphically interesting without relying on tons of embellishments. That's hard for me to do and I really respect it.
5. The printed number 4 in the upper right corner works to balance the design of the octagons in the lower left corner brilliantly.
6. Some of the octagons go over the top, some go underneath the photo. I like it!
7. I like the matting of the layout itself, the octagons and the photo. It makes it all cohesive. 

And, EIGHT!!!

She is saving my bacon on the blog today. I have workers replacing all the carpet in my house as I type. This means that all my furniture has been strategically placed in my bathrooms and kitchen. It also means that I had to get a lot of painting done in the last week and life is pretty crazy.

Here's what my kitchen looks like this morning.

And my dining room. I can't get to the bathrooms to show you those packed with furniture. It's lucky we have one bathroom downstairs that's too small to fit anything in... or we may have had to hang some sheets around the tree in the backyard!

Here's what my living room looked like on Saturday. I told Eric we could just paint him to match the wall and have a life-sized relief sculpture feature. 

He wouldn't agree and so we just painted the blue taupe and we painted the mirror frames a brownish black. We love it.

We'll show you some pics when the new carpet is in. Stay tuned.

And now, we owe you the winner of the bag of scraps from my box of scraps.  Congratulations go to Pam who said, "I love the "confession" note !! Maybe we all should write little notes to ourselves like that ... purge our consciences ! " I told Betty about Susan. " "I took the biggest piece of cake ." "I told my husband there was no cake left ...". lol." OK, Pam send your info to julie at cosmocricket dot com and I'll send you a nice bundle of scraps. I think you should send you confessional too! ;) I could use some good gossip. Just kidding!

Have a great day everyone! 

Sometimes people surprise you don't they?

Sometimes people are surprisingly thoughtful. I was having a bad day yesterday when out of the blue I got a really nice surprise. It was just little, but it was so unexpected and so nice.

Sometimes people are surprisingly clueless. I was at Hobby Lobby the other day and I asked an employee if they had any home decor items that were "spa-like". She didn't know what I meant so I elaborated.... you know, earthy, organic, like you would see in an Aveda Salon, maybe jute wrapped or wooden balls, black rocks or grass. She said they had some stuff like that. She took me to their Easter display and showed me the plastic grass for putting in the bottom of baskets.

Sometimes they are surprisingly honest. I was cleaning out my night stand when I came across this letter Ethan had written to Eric when he was 10. He came in and gave it to us one night. He couldn't sleep and was tired of fighting his conscience. I think I need to ask him for an update on his current "crimes." 

Let me translate this for you:
Dear Dad,

Here are all the crimes I ever did in memory.
1. Stole extra toys from the dentist (the one where they were twins or whatever) a long time ago.
2. The suckers I stole from Mrs. Glover. I ate a handfull.
3. I stole Sender Unknown from Mrs. Martin because I liked it so much. I stole extra prizes, suckers and a handful of marshmellows.
4. For a while I stayed up and watched TV while you were asleep and ate a handful of chocolate chips sometimes.

From Ethan,
PS: Me and Kate stole caramels from the bag. 

And sometimes they surprise you with giveaways! Leave a comment today and I'll pick a randon winner to recieve a bag of Salt Air scraps from my big box o' scraps!

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

I'm so excited to report that we have achieved anther $95 toward our Make a Difference fund for a new total of $240!

Take a look at some of the fantastic projects you all made in cheery yellow.

First up, a beautiful, victorian-styled, paper cone made with Tea For Two and Evangeline by Donna of Meme's Art Place. 

Kayla Dupont made a sunny Kindle cover with DeLovely fabric. This looks so professionally done that I think we should all demand a tutorial! She has more photos on her blog so you can see the cover and inside.

Another happy DeLovely project comes from Izzy B. I think this card would brighten anyone's day.

Emerille made some fun tags and a layout. See them all on her blog.

This layout from Tamao features a softer, butter yellow. Tamao also made another layout and some cards. Check them out on her blog.

 Shannon Lane made a cute card that she posted to our facebook fanpage. This one is makes me so excited for spring to get here!

Another project from our facebbook page that is sure to put a smile on your face are these cute little Early Bird gift boxes from Vanessa Menhorn.

A special thanks to all our other participants:
Victoria Frail
Lowri McNabb
Celia (Celia, your link didn't work for me. I would love to see your project though!)
Sheri
Beth Williams
Jean Marmo 

It got a little difficult to know which projects posted to our facebook page were intended for the challenge and which weren't. We tried to err on the side of counting them, but if we missed yours, please let us know and we'll adjust our total!

For this coming week, we have one more Make a Difference Challenge. Facebook fan Melissa Cook posted on our page suggesting we do a Gift Challenge. I think it's a great idea! Make something to give away by Monday and Eric and I will give away $5 for each participant to KIVA.

KIVA is a a micro-loan organization. For as little as $25 you can make a differenc in the world and watch it happen. Kiva takes donations and lends them to the very poor in the world so that they can invest in opportunities that can lift themselves, their families and even entire communities out of poverty. These people then repay your loan to you. If you choose, you can then donate the money to help someone else all over again. Pretty cool, don't you think!

To help us track the entries, please post them in a link to this blog post. If you post them to our facebook page, please put "Make A Difference Challenge Entry" with the post. THANKS! 

(The Lucille Bag, by Marcea Smith of Abbey Lane Quilts. Is that just about the most awesome thing you've ever seen? She has the pattern and yardage requirements on her site.)

How do you feel about plastic bags?

I don't really know exactly how it happened, but Eric and I went from typical-American-plastic-bag-taking shoppers to atypical-bring-your-own-bag-or-else shoppers.

Eric is extremely passionate about it going into long rants with store checkers about how plastic bags are ruining our oceans, etc, etc. You know you are getting old when you start debating environmental issues with an 18 year old at Walmart.

The other day we found ourselves at the store to pick up a random assortment of necessities. Unfortunately, earlier that day Eric had cleaned out the car and forgotten to put the bags back. I told him not to worry. "We'll simply carry it in our arms," I said.

The cart started filling up a little and Eric told me that there was no way we'd be able to carry it all. I assured him we could. At the checkout, I told the girl we wouldn't need any bags. She asked if we had our own. I told her we would carry it. She didn't believe me.

With the receipt in Eric's teeth, should anyone think we were shoplifters, Eric and I carried out:
4 Boxes of cereal
2 Bags of corn chips
1 Bottle of nail polish remover
1 Bottle of furniture polish
1 Bottle of all purpose cleaner
1 Loaf of bread
1 Gallon of bleach
2 Quarts of Yogurt
1 DVD organizing album

OK, so maybe we're crazy! But, we have the best time and awesome memories.... and there will be at least 6 less bags floating around the landfill. 

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend! 

I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all YELLOW!

As you will recall, this weeks challenge is to use the color yellow. And you have a lot to pick from. There is at least one yellow paper in each of the new lines. They should be showing up in your local stores as we speak.

You may also remember we will donate $5 and a can of food to our local food bank if you complete a project and post it on our facebook fanpage or in the comments on our challenge post. 

I have plans for more, but here is a card I made during a blizzard yesterday. It was nice to work with such a warm sunny color and for a good cause. It really made the grey weather less depressing!

I used a paper from Baby Jane's mini deck and paired it with our Salt Air fabric. This is a really quick card to make even with the machine stitching.

1. Cut the background mat 1/8" smaller than your card base.
2. Cut a second paper the size you want your bow.
3. Cut a strip of fabric the 1/2" wider than that paper.
4. Finger press the raw edges back and on the back side of the bow paper, stitch the fabric down along the short end (I'll bet you could just use glue, but I sewed for extra strength since I would be pulling against it).
5. Bring your strip to the front and slide on your gem (you can also use a loop of fabric if you don't have any ribbon slides). Then you'll know how long to cut your fabric.
Trim the fabric and glue it to the back side (you definitely don't need to stitch this time because you won't be pulling against it.)
6. I then top-stitched along the edges of my bow, but you wouldn't have too. I think you could glue it if you did it before you glued down the second end.
7. Adhere this unit to the larger mat and adhere that to your card! 

We will post our favorite projects here on the blog Monday morning when we post our next challenge. If you have a challenge idea you would like to see happen, let us know!