Category: Uncategorized

This one time I was in Anaheim (for CHA) and I planned my entire arrival around going to Disneyland for the evening (special ticket) and meeting Thor.

Ok, not THE Thor… just some dude with a hammer that looks kinda like Thor… and I just noticed the photo here on my computer.

There was much silliness. LOTS of laughter with Thor and just such a great memory. I can have fun with me, myself, and I. Yes I can.  I had so much fun running all around Disneyland just doing whatever I wanted to do. Nobody to raise an eyebrow at my choice of two chocolate covered pineapple spears for dinner with a cherry coke. Being an adult and giving yourself a chance to go play just because can really rock.  I’m the grown-up, so I say I go chill with the Avengers and ride Thunder Mountain a bunch. GOOD TIMES!

So what’s new? Well it is April. APRIL. How did that happen?!

The studio is still a mess with no end in sight. But things are good. SO MUCH craftiness happened in March, and I’m *loving* my vacation class – last call to sign up for early bird before the price goes up! The price gets raised on April 4th…

Happy April…

First up – email me mflaum@Comcast.net if your name is below – it means you won one of the random “share my stash” boxes!

Holly Denghel
Delana f.
Laura Mooney
Marileew

I met with the flooring dude (13yrs of being my studio carpet = current carpet is DEAD) and “between 5-14 days” from now the flooring goes in. BEFORE that happens? Well before that happens I have to have my studio 100% clean, empty, sorted, and painted. I am at the point now where a) the $ to do this project from a job I did finally showed up and b) I needed the push to get this DONE. Nothing like handing your money over and saying “let’s do this” to a third party to add the needed pressure! Ha!

I will be back with a project or two this week/weekend and also? If you’re interested in product videos you’ll want to watch my YouTube channel! I have plenty of videos here – with new ones coming every 3 days or so. A lot of the new videos are product “first look” and review type videos which basically is me testing out and giving my first impressions of a product. Hero Arts Ombre ink, more from Ranger, Prima, Faber Castell, and more coming! (These videos are shot/in my computer… nothing new being made in the studio at this point!)

Have a GREAT day – I’ll be back tomorrow!

Long story short: I’m in the home stretch of the “cleaning & sorting” phase of moving every single item OUT of my studio. Want the long version? Stay tuned next month I will begin posting a weekly studio progress series!

My point: I just noticed the prizes sitting here… as in… I FORGOT TO DRAW!! So, random.org to draw numbers and the winners are:

Keetha Mosley – my class + random stamps/stencil goodies
Joanne Rosario – Simon Says Stamp stamps & dies
JBarnes – Hazel & Ruby big washi tape assortment

Email me mflaum@Comcast.net ladies and let me know which prize you won + where to ship it!! I will get it out ASAP!

But wait, there’s more!! I have stamps, dies, and assorted goodies and supplies enough to fill 2-3 flat rate USPS boxes that I will ship off to lovely blog readers here. One catch and I’m SO sorry – all my give-aways are international friendly normally – it would be 4x the rate to ship these boxes overseas so unless you’re willing to chip in for that kind of shipping this is a USA addy give-away please. So I don’t forget to draw for a week (egads where does time go?!) this give-away will be open until Thursday (march 26th) morning and winners will be randomly drawn and contacted. To enter for your chance to win one of these boxes of fun goodies just leave a comment here! Would you share them with friends? New and building a stash? Just want some fun crafty goodness? Let me know and good luck!

This tag with a face? I’m not sure where I’m heading with it. In the background you see my desk and my vacation album in current progress. Right now I just counted and there are over 20 “must complete soon” projects sitting around in some state of progress from a product pulled to feature all the way to “waiting to be photographed”.

So how on the busiest days do I keep finding minutes to work and create and play? I utilize small pieces of time. Instead of sitting and surfing social media for the few minutes between an appointment and picking up the kids (for example) I might:

• Pull out paint or paste, a few stencils, and cardstock and just stencil quickly a few backgrounds for later play.
• Take one paste/stencil/stamped background and add color (ink, watercolor, paint, mist…)
• Pull out photos and decide on a design for a layout
•  Take out a commonly used punch or die cut and punch scraps of paper
• Add stitching or pen work to finish off a project
• Flip through older stickers and find inspiration for a project – start setting it up

The list goes on and on! By thinking about those tiny bits of time between the crazy rush, I find sometimes as much as an hour in a “there is no time to create today” day. The benefit as I see it, is that my brain is happy (yay! crafting!) and when I do have time to actually sit down and craft it isn’t like I haven’t been keeping active so I won’t experience crafter brain freeze where I just don’t know where to start. I’ve already got stuff in the works.

Do you have tricks and tips for using small amounts of time? I’d love to hear them!