Happy Thanksgiving - November Word Puzzle Card

Here is a card I created with help from Just Cards! magazine and CTMH's November Word Puzzle (retiring this year!!). Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, family, and fellow CTMH consultants!!

I host a card swap and we exchange very 2 months. Our first rotation was in September. Here are the beautiful cards!

Back to Blog World!! My Scrap Space

My "I Love Lucy" wall (yeah, I'm a fan!)

My vanity base Steve added wheels to and a countertop for added storage/scrap space. It tucks perfectly under the countertop.

Our stamps fit perfectly in the $1 bins at Walmart and see how great they fit in the cupboards, as do our My Acrylix organizers!? Love it!!

My main scrap area. 10 feet of countertop space to work! Come on over friends!

After 2 months away I figured it was high time to get back into blogging. For those of you who follow me, I apologize for my absence!! I have been a busy bee! I attended CTMH Regionals in St. Paul and had a blast!! I came back with so much information and creative ideas I was about to burst! Also during this time, my husband rearranged my scrap space for me!! Here are some pictures for you to see where I will spend my scrapping time in the future.

Long time, no blog!

Well, I see it has been well over a month since I last posted on my blog! Shame on me!! I have been super busy the last few weeks and I can't figure out exactly why...I just went to part-time and have been busier than I was before! Of course, I have my girls home with me 2 days a week and they do take most of my time :) I love being part-time and having the opportunity to spend the extra time with the girls. We are still in need of getting into a routine but that will come eventually. First Mommy has to get on track and then we should be set! I'm SUPER excited about the launch of the Autumn/Winter 2009 Idea Book!! It has been redesigned and has some awesome new products! My Watertown Hostess Club has been doing the Workshop on the Go projects and love them! We will start with Jingle for September's gathering. I am excited to get this kit and begin the creating process!! The new kits offer an exclusive stamp set that coordinates with each paper pack. There are also coordinating embellishments that can be added on (some are also included in the kit!). If you want more information, please visit my website www.nickilentsch.myctmh.com and look under Workshops on the Go~I'm sure you'll love what you see! p.s.s There is also a cardmaking option.

In honor of National Scrapbooking Month (September), CTMH is offering a fabulous card kit! This kit includes 4 sheets of patterned paper (2 of each design), 2 sheets of cardstock, 16 bracket-shaped card bases, envelopes, full-size stamp set, 2 mini inks (chocolate and dutch blue), chocolate ribbon AND the Chocolate Mini Medley collection...all for only $39.95!! PLUS, if you order $60 in stamp SETS, you will receive this kit for FREE!! Host a party and have a total of $400 in sales, you receive this FREE as well! There are great opportunities to get this kit, contact me TODAY! I will be offering a workshop for those who order this kit. Date yet to be determined....I will do ALL the cutting for you, too!!!

Simple Pleasures

I think I forgot to attach the pictures to this post a while back! Ooopss!! Here are the pics!

Tinkerin' around with Tinkerin' Level 1

I ordered a photo collage of the girls at Walmart documenting their first family vacation! We headed south to Omaha and stopped at Falls Park in Sioux Falls on the way down. We headed to Omaha's Henry-Doorly Zoo on Friday and afterwards headed to Downtown Omaha to Old Market. What a treat! Cobblestone streets and old fashioned candy!! We ate supper at Spaghetti Works where the girls (OK, just Stephanie!) but they sure had fun with the dangling spaghetti over their mouths! We also hit Lauritzen Gardens before we headed home. It was the best vacation I've had so far!! Even though my wedding/honeymoon and anniversary trips to Jamaica were awesome, I had the best time with my children and husband on our first family vacation!! Looking forward to many, many more!

Emporium 2 pg LO using Flip-Flaps - Ice Cream Fun!

I had quite a few pictures of Stephanie's First Ice Cream adventure and the new Flip-Flaps worked perfect for the extra picture I wanted to use that didn't fit, and also will allow me to add my journaling and keep it hidden. I do believe I put the Flip-Flaps on wrong, but I think it turned out OK. The tab is supposed to be flipped UNDER the picture not sticking out unless you want to make a photo book with it and bind it. I love the versatility of the Emporium My Reflections paper packet! This was Summer 2008.

KELOLAND.COM - Turner Co. Authorities Search For Missing Teen

KELOLAND.COM - Turner Co. Authorities Search For Missing Teen

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My Little Fish

Stephanie is definitely taking after her Mommy in the swimming department! I was a little fish when I was younger, too. Lucy gets is getting much better at the pool thing, but Stephanie is definitely going to be our little fish!! She loves the pool and the sprinkler! We went to the big swimming pool last weekend and Stephanie and Mommy went down the big water slide into the Lazy River. Stephie was pretty speechless at first, but so was Mommy...I had no idea what to expect but definitely not almost flipping over inside the slide!! What a landing, too! We got stuck and needed the assistance of the lifeguards to give us a push through the river so we could get out. Mommy looked like a blubbery whale trying to get out of the inner tube! Stephie was mad that we had to put the tube away...she wanted to go down again!! Maybe next time Little Fish!

Animal Cookies card

Here is a card I made for our unit meeting's card swap during the launch of the current IB. Animal Cookies was the new PP I chose to make my cards with. I used a tag punch (SU), and the rest CTMH products: Clover Meadow Bigger Brads, Natural Hemp, White Daisy Bitty Brads, and It's A Zoo stamp set (C1360). I stamped the monkey image on the punched out tag and then layered onto another piece of CS and cut around it. I was unsure if I should leave the monkeys hanging or glue them down, but I chose to let them hang for movement. A friend of mine (thanks, mashelly!) freehanded the bananas and I cut them out (i'm not good at drawing...she did awesome!

Scrap Room

Here are some pictures of my scrap room. I share it with the laundry, so it is easy to get laundry and scrappin' done at the same time, if only I frequented my room more often. Ha! Actually, I get down there quite a bit just every time I sit down, I get tired and my brain hurts. Anyway, this is not a finished room, yet. There are potential plans for putting in wall-to-wall cupboards and countertop with cupboards below. Right now, I'm just happy to move my stuff from the living room to the basement! I am going to decorate in "I Love Lucy" memorabilia.

Monday again??

It was a rather fast weekend for me! On Friday night, I participated in the annual Relay for Life walk for cancer. Got there about 5 and hung around for a while, then came home to work, and went back and stayed until 6 a.m. Boy was I tired!! I really can't calculate how many miles I walked as we had to move the relay inside versus at the track field because of potential storms. When I got home, I crawled into bed..Ahhh, what a nice feeling that was! I woke up around noon, got up for a few minutes, and then crawled back into bed. I didn't get up for the day until 3:30!!! My kids were at my in-laws so it was just me and my hubby home. I'm so grateful he didn't wake me up! Then off to work I went! I had to make up some time. I would have rather stayed in bed or on the cough, though, because I was still quite tired and a little sore. I really wanted to accomplish SOMETHING in my studio but just didn't have it in me. I figured I could accomplish that on Sunday....WRONG!! I still had to work and I didn't make it up until Noon on Sunday. I know, I know, what a lazy bum!! My girls were to come home on Sunday so I got myself to the computer and worked until they got home. We had a nice afternoon. The girls went "swimming" in their pool. Daddy set up the pool at the bottom of the slide. Lucy didn't like it so well. Stephanie was OK with it but it was a little chilly in the wind. We were in and out of the pool throughout the afternoon. Then it was time to eat. We grilled pork chops and hot dogs and had a nice family supper. Then Mommy went off to search for a new bike and trailer. First stop, Shopko...They have NO bikes at all there. Next stop was Target. I really liked one of the bikes they had there, my favorite color PINK, but it was a little higher than we wanted to spend. So off to Wal-Mart I went. I had to get groceries, too, so it was my last stop. I found 2 bikes that I liked, but figured I go with the mountain bike versus the cruiser....and I found a trailer for the girls to boot! Steve put the trailer together and off the girls and I went. UFFDA! That trailer was sooo much harder to pull than the neighbors' trailer!! I made it down the street and back and my legs HURT! So, Daddy will have to adjust the trailer so the girls aren't dragging their little behinds on the ground as that seemed to be the problem..I think??? Well, that's all for today. I better get back to work. Off to Sisseton tonight for CTMH Hostess Club!! These ladies are super fun, and they are so excited it just makes me so happy to go there!!

Rustic Alphabet

My husband is pretty handy with a chain saw and he created this bear in one afternoon. He asked me to stamp our last name on the board so I thought the Rustic Alphabet would be PERFECT! Because I was unsure how CTMH regular ink would work, I decided to use our Staz-On. It really stained up my stamps, but I think it turned out great!! Now I just need to add a few outdoorsy stamps to the ends and it will be even better!!

Father's Day card

Here is another father's day card I made. It is hard to see on the picture, but randomed stamped the fly from the World's Best Dad (April SOTM) on the Olive CS. I then stamped the 3 fish in Olive, Cocoa, and Autumn Terracott and cut out. I stamped the fishing rod in Cocoa and cut it out. I added Natural Hemp as the fishing line to connect the fish to the rod. Using B&T paper from Rustic Trail (retired), I added the waves stamped in black for the water.

Tool Time

Thanks to Cheryl Even for inspiring me to create this card for my husband. He has a side business in woodworking, framing, making logs with names carved out. He has his own shop that is about the size of a garage......I just love the way it turned out. The only true measurement on this card is the card base. I just stamped the images from Tool Time stamp set (C1314) with Autumn Terracotta (hammer and saw), Olive (paint brush), and Indian Corn Blue (screwdriver) onto Colonial White CS. I then random stamped the 2 screw stamps in Olive and Indian Corn Blue to the Colonial White CS strip on the side. Happy Father's Day sentiment is from Say It In Style (D1283) stamped with Autumn Terracotta with Chestnut Roon (cat's eye fluid chalk) around the edges (I couldn't find my Chocolate distressing ink!). I attached this with brads and added 2 more brads for embellishments. The CW CS is layered on Black CS. The card base is Grey Wool. Thanks for looking!!

Tickled Pink

CTMH came out with Tickled Pink at the perfect time! This kit matches the Easter pictures of Lucy & Stephanie! I followed the LOs shown in the instruction booklet but added my own touches. I used the Cricut to cut EASTER. For the pictures ahead of the Easter one, I need to add a few more things, but not quite sure...Any ideas??? Comments would be greatly appreciated!

Be Yourself card

I made this simple and fast card from May's SOTM, "Be Yourself". I ran the White Daisy CS through my Big Shot using the Swiss Dots from Cuttlebug and then cut out the girl. To add a little 'touch' I added the black gingham ribbon. Thanks for Looking!

Family Fest Fun!

OK, so what if I had a headache yesterday?? I needed to get out of the house and do something with my girls. We live across the street from McKinley Park where they hold a yearly Family Fun Fest with free games for the kids and free hot dogs, chips, and pop. I wanted to take the girls but didn't want to do go by myself (steve was 'busy' helping a friend...) with the way I was feeling and so once again to my rescue, Neighbor Girl (a.k.a. Jodi), Allan & Shelby came and "picked" us up on their way over! Oh what fun the girls had in the jumping thingy (what IS it called anyway???)! Jodi snapped a few pictures (I didn't even think to bring my camera, even though I was holding it when she came!) The girls also enjoyed finding money in the sand, but unfortunately, only 1 nickel was found by Lucy :( Off to the ball toss to knock down 3 bowling pins. The girls did great so they each got a piece candy. Then to the beanbag toss. Who knew that Lucy had such good aim?? She made 2 in a row into the hole!! Woo Hoo Lucy girl! More candy was given...... Then we headed back to the jumpy thingy for more fun while Mommy grabbed some hot dogs, chips, and pop. Lucy also tried to dunk a young boy in the dunk pond, but didn't quite make the hit! Enjoy the pictures! More posting tonight of artwork if I find some time! Once I get these pictures printed, will post the LOs created with them!

Simple Pleasures LO

These are the first 2 pages I completed in my newly renovated scrap/laundry room (not much to post for pictures yet, though...) I used the Simple Pleasures level 1 PP and stickers. I also added "Happiness is..." rub-ons from CTMH along with some of the rub-on picture corners & swirly bracket. The letters are cut from a Sizzlit with the Big Shot. Pictures were taken professionally by Linda Kuehn for Starrography. This is one of my favorite color combinations and thought it was perfect paper for the sepia tone of the pictures.

Wednesday Wearies...

Happy Hump Day, as they say! Today once again I woke up with a thumper of a headache. This marks the 10th day in a row of having a headache. I have seen the doctor once, been on 2 different meds, and still they keep returning. SO, the next step...CT scan of the brain. Since I have braces (with pretty blue bands, Lucy's choice!), I cannot have an MRI. Finally, after 8 hours and 2 doses of Vicodin I finally have some relief while lying down. If I get up, then the throbbing starts.... Thank goodness for wireless internet and long cord on the laptop. I'm so tired of lying in bed and trying to sleep...I'm NOT tired, just have a headache. A person can only sleep so much, but I much prefer to be working (what's wrong with me??? i'd rather be scrapping, duh!). However, after 10 days of a headache, I'm ready to work normal hours and be done for the day so I can spend evenings worry-free with my family; not rushing to get back to work at 9 p.m. Once I'm feeling better, I will get more artwork posted here. . Sorry to my 2 followers that there isn't much right now. I promise....coming SOON!! That is my goal for the weekend, to load up on artwork here on the blog. Then it is time to start participating on some of the wonderful challenges I see on other blogs. I'm thinking of starting off with Color Me Monday by Jeanette Lynton.

Magic Moments Level 1

These are 2 layouts I demonstrated at a home gathering. They are using the level 1 preprinted cardstock in the Magic Moments kit. They took me a total of 10 minutes to create and I showed them how easy it is to stamp your title on a scrap if you don't have enough letter stickers! This was one of my favorite kits.

Lucy's Babies LO - featuring Dazzling Die Cuts

CTMH offered a past special called Dazzling Die Cuts. I needed to showcase these to my customer so I created this LO of Lucy & her babies that stay at Grandpa & Grandma Lentsch's house. I used Life Delights B&T dueo, flower Dazzling Die Cuts from the spring harmony set, Hollyhock craft buttons, Dimensional Elements "L" and sparkles. I believe I adapted this LO from the Reflections reference book. If you have any questions about the LO or would like to know more about our products, please visit my website: nickilentsch.myctmh.com, Products, Shop On Line. The Dazzling Die Cuts are no longer available, but we do carry the Fancy Cuts Botanicals and new Fancy Cuts Borders that are equally as wonderful!