She was the 9th comment on the 12th day of the month (the second post of the day)!  Congratulations to the winner, she’ll receive her gift tomorrow (remind me if you don’t receive it, just in case I forget :-)!)

For those that don’t know it, every month I have two contests and all you have to do to enter is post a comment on any or all of my posts.  We pick at random on the 16th and 1st.  Good luck.

Off to watch my beat-up, banged up Chargers!  Have a great day!!

These gift tags were part of the prizes from the crop event and are being made available to those that didn’t win them for only $2.48 at the Daisie company store tomorrow.

These are only a few of the combinations that are possible with the 20 pc. set.  Perfect to match with Classic Christmas color wrapping papers and add the finishing touch to your gifts.

There are bright colored layers and layers that have been prepared for you to write your To: and From: on.  You can do this using your own font before you print them or just use some cute markers and do it by hand.

You can also mount these tags on a card to make an extra special Christmas card. You can also add jewels, glitter, ribbons, wire or beads for a little more glitz!

THE CHRISTMAS STORY: Luke 1:67-2:1
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),   71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us- 72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel. 
NIV

I’ve been working on my Carbonite backup and discovered this morning that they can only back up internal hard drives on a PC at this point.  So if all or most of your files are located on your actual computer, it’s a great service, but if you are like me and are running 3 external hard drives it won’t work in their current configuration.

I will say this, their customer service has been prompt, thorough and very good, they just didnt’ have the answers I wanted to hear!  The hopeful news is that they are planning a new release in early 2008 and it just might be able to do what I need it to do at that point.  DRATS and DOUBLE DRATS :-)!  I will keep checking back and let you know if and when the improvements are coming. 

THE CHRISTMAS STORY:  Luke 1:66-2:1 Zechariah’s Prophecy

67 Then his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy: 
68 "Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,because he has visited his people and redeemed them. 69 He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, 70 just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago. 71 Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us. 72 He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant with them, 73 the covenant he gave to our ancestor Abraham. 74 We have been rescued from our enemies,so we can serve God without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness forever. 
76 "And you, my little son,will be called the prophet of the Most High,because you will prepare the way for the Lord. 77 You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. 78 Because of God’s tender mercy,the light from heaven is about to break upon us, 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,and to guide us to the path of peace."
80 John grew up and became strong in spirit. Then he lived out in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel. NLT

I wanted to bring this to the attention of those of you that read my blog frequently, but don’t necessarily frequent the DAISIE COMPANY’s Store.  This is the Daisie Company’s "Friday FreeBee" kit for today and it will be available for free for the next two weeks and then it will retail for $2.98.  It contains a full sized greeting card and matching envelope, a stationery note sheet that fits the same envelope and two gift tags. 

Just click on the picture and it will take you to the store.  This set also matches my "Penguins at Play" art kit which became available this morning.

This art was so much fun to create this week.  I wanted to make my snowmen playing around having "Frosty Fun" so I imagined them skiing and skating and this was the result.

(UPDATE:  This kit is now available for $6.98 in the Daisie Store.  Just click on the first picture to go there)  This kit will be in the Daisie Company Store next week.  It contains a Trifold Stationery Portfolio (folder) with two pockets to store two different sizes of cards.  A full sized 5" x 7" greeting card and a smaller Note card and their matching envelopes.  There are three characters and several different art pieces that can be layered in many different manners to create three dimensional cards and gift tags. 

This set will have a companion set that is a Note-n-Tote basket with stationery as well.  I’ll preview that a little later this week when I have completed it.

I have some more plans on developing out this collection of Frosty Fun characters, now I just need more hours in my day to paint them all!

one of two comments on a post on the 4th of the month, Miss KittyDog!  Once I saw there were only two comments on that day I had an entirely impartial friend who is over this morning pick for me so I wouldn’t feel guilty because both of the ladies that posted are such sweet people :-)!

KittyDog wins a set of my Gingerbread Cottage Alphabet, CONGRATULATIONS, Abby!  Thanks to all who posted comments I soooooo enjoy reading them.  The second half of the month contest starts today.

I forgot to mention that the blog contest ends tonight and the winner will win a set of my Gingerbread Cottage Alphabet for his/her efforts 🙂  Just write a comment on any or all posts from October 1st to October 15th.  Tomorrow morning we’ll draw the winner at random and let you know if you won.

Carol aka CACrafty!  You have won my "We Give Thanks" printable Fall/Thanksgiving decor kit.  I will be sending it your way later today.  And thank you all for participating in my count down (or up actually!)  It was a lot of fun to celebrate with friends.  GranAnn, I’m still waiting to hear your choice of kit, just let me know and it also will be heading your way.

As to my word of wisdom today… on my 49th birthday… just a short one.  My late husband passed away when I was 36 and he was 44.   I realized then, that birthdays were a treasure and not a curse.  I determined that I would choose never to regret or resent a birthday or the number or years that it represented as each one is a very special gift.  I realized that aging was unavoidable but getting old was a choice.  I also realized that the youngest people I knew who were older had a few special things in common, 1. they all kept young people in their lives and continued to make and nurture relationships with many people who were younger than themselves.  2.  They all loved God and His people  3.  They were all invested in seeing people’s lives change around them.  4.  They dealt with change gracefully, because as you age change happens.  You lose friends and loved ones, you lose body function (and a little off of the brain’s function 🙂 ! )  So much of life is about constant change.

So I’ve never had a "hard" birthday, I don’t sweat the number or worry about how many years I have passed through or how many years I’ll have yet ahead of me, I just enjoy each day to its fullest.  I delight in the family God has given me, as well as the husband who is the love of my life and truly my dearest and best friend.  I marvel at the career that I’ve been blessed to have, one that I wake up each morning excited to see what I’ll get to create that day and have a hard time stopping at the end of the day.  And I LOVE the incredibly wonderful heavenly Father that made all of them possible!  Thank you all for your sweet birthday messages, it’s been so fun to wake up to them and so hilarious to see the countdown to my birthday around the world thread on the message board at DAISIE yesterday.  THANKS!!!!

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  NIV

Simply mind boggling that I only started this blog 9 months ago and have had that many visits!  Thank you all for coming to visit my blog and for your wonderful encouragement and comments. 

Gran Ann at THE DAISIE COMPANY message boards is our winner, she predicted that we would cross over at 5:18 PM today, she was just over 5 hours off, pretty close Ann!  Ann will win her choice of any kit in my Daisie Company catalog.  CONGRATULATIONS!

If you leave a simple comment on this post or yesterday’s post, tomorrow morning we’ll pick another winner who will also win a free digital clip art kit.  So, post away!

Snapdragon!   For her comment on the post on the 25th of the month.  Congratulations Miss Snapdragon you win the "We Give Thanks" decor, card and invitation kit.  Thank you for taking time to comment on my blog and keep it up!  It’s such a pick-me-up for me to read every comment from you guys.

The contest continues from the 1st to the 15th and the winner this coming half-month will win the Thanksgiving Star Card and table decoration set as their prize so join in the fun! 

(UPDATE: now available at Daisie for $4.98.  Just click picture to go to the store.)  I didn’t get a chance to show the third Fall/Harvest or Thanksgiving craft set that I created, so I thought I’d give you a sneak peek now.  I’m not certain which day this week that these are coming out at THE DAISIE COMPANY, but it will be Tuesday or Friday.

This kit comes with a favor box with a three dimensional top and two different designs of place mats.  If you have an oversized printer there are files that you can simply print out and use as is or laminate.  If you have a normal size printer, there are files that you print, cut and assemble together to make the placemats out of.

The favor boxes are 2 3/8" square when finished and will hold a small gift, candies, or other treats for your guests to enjoy.

This kit matches with the other 2 sets to create an entire decor for the fall or if you’re in the USA the Thanksgiving holiday. 

(UPDATE: Thanksgiving Card/Table decoration now available at Daisie for $6.98.  Just click on picture to go to the store)

I have a couple of additional previews of the centerpiece card showing the envelope and a single section that can be used for a Thanksgiving card or invitation on its own and then will match the really fun and intriguing centerpiece star card.  It looks quite difficult but is very easy to assemble.

A lot of you have never tried any kind of crafting with your computers.  If you can digitally scrapbook, you can create an amazing array of crafts and home decor items.  In the next few months I’m hoping to begin to really explore creating some new home decor projects for Daisie Company… so stay tuned!!!

THE PROVERB OF THE DAY:Prov 1:20-22 Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:  "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?  NIV

Each time I read the Proverbs I realize how little mankind has really "evolved" or changed.  Men still need to seek out wisdom and more naturally are drawn to foolishness.  It’s still harder to become a person who lives by an internal desire to walk in integrity and righteousness than someone who simply gives in to every desire and natural drive.  But he or she who seeks wisdom as a way of life will still eat of its fruit and that fruit will still be sweet!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

(UPDATE: Now available at the Daisie store for $6.98.  Just click on the picture to go there.)  I’ve had a llooooonnnnnggggg day!  I completed 4 separate kits for THE DAISIE COMPANY, one is for October’s DAISIE Club and 3 are printable craft kits for the Fall/Harvest &Thanksgiving seasons so I wanted to get them out as soon as physically possible!   I’ll give you a sneak peek here of one of the printable creations I put together today and it was so much fun!  It looks hard, but couldn’t be much easier.  It’s sure to impress your Fall guests all the way through to Thanksgiving.  It will be in the shop next week some time.

Before I turned in for the night, I wanted to say Hi! to all of you and tell you a little bit more about my trip to the show. One of my favorite things about being an artist is getting to meet other artists, designers, authors and industry professionals when I travel to shows.  Some are "famous," some are "yet-to-be-discovered," and most are somewhere in between!  All of us are like bats that have flown out of their caves and are squinting in the sun light.  We tend to work too long, too hard and spend most of our lives locked away in front of our computers, so when we get out to show… look out!  It’s time for some fun!

I mentioned earlier that I had the privilege of spending quite a bit of time over the 3 days with many different people who work at CK Media (Creating Keepsakes Magazine, Simple Scrapbooks, Digital Scrapbooking, Room to Room & many other magazines of particular interest to crafting and scrapping people).  As an organization I found them to be characteristically bubbly, fun, and excited about what they do.  Each had a passion for scrapbooking, creating a beautiful home environment or expressing their creativity in ways that will bless their families.  I found each staff memberto be very warm and welcoming to everyone that they encountered. 

One of the warmest of the individuals I met from CK Media was Renee Pearson.  She has a smile that lights up her face and goes absolutely Las Vegas Strip neon when she starts to talk about Digital scrapping!  Renee is the Online Managing Editor of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine and the author of two of the books I was fortunate enough to receive signed copies of.  "Digital Designs"  and "Digital Designs 2" are sure to become workhorses in any studo and they were designed to be kept right next to your computer for a lifetime!  Even the covers are tough and durable for the wear and tear that they are certain to experience. 

Inside, Renee’s instructions are simple, precise and accompanied with illustrations and screen shots so that you can easily follow along and begin to create some truly amazing things.  The topics in book 1 are, Photo-ready Templates, Using Simple Digital Schemes, Creating Your Own Digital Simple Schemes, My Favorite Tips and Techniques, and What to do With Your Finished Pages (and Other Stuff!)  In book 2 she covers creating backgrounds, embellishments, and also using brushes and other special effects.

Renee uses Adobe Photoshop Elements in her instructions and focuses her topics on tips and techniques that a scrapbooker or crafter would definitely want to know.  I’m hoping that a lot of what Photoshop Elements is capable of doing is transferable to the standard Photoshop so that I can take advantage of her expertise.  There are CDs included with each of the books.  She has a delightful blog at  www.reneepearson.typepad.com and you can find her books there at http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/shop/item.ihtml?idx=549 .  I hope that those of you who are longing to know more about what your computer is capable of doing will invest in one or both of Renee’s books.

More tomorrow, I’m off to bed!

The show traffic is very light this morning, so I’ve had a good chance to sit down and talk with several manufacturers that may be interested in licensing my art for scrapbooking products… we’ll see where it goes and you guys will be the first to know when and if the lines go to market.  One of the companies does the most amazing stickers, epoxy stickers and premade 3D tags etc.  Very, very fun!!!!

I discovered a beautiful product called Prism Papers.  They produce an exquisite line of cardstock that has a very elegant shimmery or metallic finish to it.  The papers are two-sided and the color runs through the entire paper so when you tear your edges to make mattes out of it has the color running all the way through.  I wish I could show you how beautifully it tears.  This paper would make fabulous greeting cards or tags and frames to coordinate with the graphics you print out.

You can only find this product in local stores (none of the majors carry it) so if you have a local scrapbook shop you might ask them to carry it.  You can also find them online at www.prismpapers.com.  I forgot to ask if they sell direct to the public off of their web site. 

I also did a make and take at Lasting Impressions.  They produce some extremely cool brass embossing plates that are very fun and contemporary.  I will stop back by their booth and pick up a catalog (I forgot to 🙂 ) so I can give you their website.  They produce a scrapbooking program called "Memory Mixers" that I picked up a review copy of to test out.  If it’s as easy as it appeared to be, I’ll let you know and recommend where you can get it.  Its entry version retails for $35 and the upper version around $80.  The only difference is the amount of art that is included. 

Well… I"m going to wrap things up pretty soon and head back to my hotel to catch my shuttle.  I hope you enjoyed tagging along with me.  I sure wish we could have roamed the aisles together as I’m sure you would have spotted different things than I did — there’s just toooooo much to see, even at a smaller show like this one!

I stopped by one of my favorite suppliers in the industry, Impact Images.  They produce crystal clear resealable bags and a lot of other goodies that a professional crafter or someone who just wants their gifts to look as professional as possible can use.

Clear acylic resealable bags are available in any size including 12 x 12 for scrapbooking, 5 x7, 8 x 10 and a host of other common sizes.

The other item that I imagine a lot of you might be able to use is their  soft fold clear boxes that can be used as totally clear packaging for notecard kits or other items.  Their web site is www.clearenvelopes.com for retail sales and www.clearbags.com for wholesale.  You qualify for wholesale prices if you order $40 or more.  The only information needed is if you are in California or Tennesee you’ll need your resale # for sales tax collection purposes. 

They have a wide range of shapes and sizes and are extremely affordably priced.  Have fun peeking around!