Life... One Step at a Time

I love Clark Color prints!

I guess I lied.

I really do have one resolution that I made, thanks to my dear friend Melody Ross at Chatterbox. Last February, when all the Chatterbox designers went to the Chatterbox retreat in Idaho, Melody really inspired me with her discussion about digital pictures. Many of us who are strictly digital (myself included) can probably identify with this, but she really hit home with me. She spoke about how it doesn't do us any good to have all these archives of photos sitting on our hard drive unless we get prints of them so that our kids can look through them. Now don't get me wrong, I realize that some of you may be superwomen and can scrap all of your photos, therefore eliminating the need to just have prints made, but I am not a fast scrapbooker, so I have literally thousands of digital images sitting on my hard drive, with no way for my family to really view them. So Melody inspired me to resolve to get prints of my images (even all the less than stellar ones!) and put them into simple acid-free photo albums so that I can leave them out for my kids to look through whenever they want to.

That being said, Clark Color online had a great sale last week on digital prints (and they send great sale offers periodically to their customers!) so I took advantage of the deal. I had several hundred photos printed (just of Christmas and New Year's alone!) and they came in yesterday. The quality of the prints is outstanding! I knew it was worth it when my kiddos came into my office and saw the stack of photos; immediately asking me if they could look at them! I saw smiles on their faces as they remembered the events from the photos. Priceless to me, to say the least!

So get some digital prints made and don't keep those pictures stashed away on your hard drive! To get you started, try Clark Color! Click here to register - New customers get 20 free prints! Shipping was fast and inexpensive, plus my photos came carefully enclosed in a sturdy box mailer to keep them safe during transit.

Thank you, Melody! You have changed my life in so many ways!

Mountains of laundry.

This is what my laundry room is beginning to look like. Nope, not out of laziness, but because my washer is BROKEN! The stupid thing stopped draining water, so we called out Maytag and the pump went out! This thing is only a year old! And that, my friends, is why we buy the three-year extended warranty! So it won't cost a dime to have it fixed, but because the parts are on order, my laundry is piling up in the mean time. More time for scrapbooking, right? HEHE!

Here is a page I did for the December issue of BHG. I used a dingbat that I found online for the gingerbread "cookie", then mixed artist's gesso with acrylic paint to make the "icing". I sprinkled glass beads onto the gesso while it was still a bit wet to mimic the cookie sprinkles, then let it dry before adhering the gingerbread man to the layout.

I am starting on some more projects for the May/June BHG issue and some layouts for Chatterbox for CHA! Whew! When I can, I will post some more projects!

Happy New Year and some ornaments for you!

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that this is your best year ever! Here at the Hanback house, we celebrated at home by making tons of snacks, toasting with juice at Midnight, and throwing lots of confetti while we watched Dick Clark on TV! It is what we do every year and I wouldn't have it any other way! I have to admit, though, that when Dick Clark started speaking, my heart fell and I almost cried. It is just so strange hearing his voice the way it is, after his stroke, especially since we have all grown up watching this guy do the New Year's thing every year. I guess it is almost like a realization to me that an era is coming to an end. When he is gone, our kids will hear someone else do the Rockin' Eve. I don't know, I am strange. It just brought tears to my eyes.

I haven't really made any New Year's resolutions; I try not to do that because I feel like every day is a reason to try to be the best that I can be - I shouldn't have a specific "day" to try to decide to make positive changes, if that makes sense. I am always trying to find ways to improve myself, my relationships, my life.

Here are a couple of Christmas ornaments that I created for the December issue of BHG. I hope you like them!

(above) This one is my favorite! I used Chatterbox grafik rub-ons and adhered a round one to the top of the glass ball, then another round rub-on from the bottom of the ball.

(above) For this one I used Pearl-ex inside the ball and then swirled it around, turning it upside down in an empty egg crate to let the excess drain out and to dry. Once the inside was dry, I embellished the ball with Chatterbox grafik rub-ons and a jewel.

(above) This one was made by punching out lots of 1/2" circles then adhering them to a glass ball ornament using Mod-Podge. Once the ball was completely covered, I gave the entire ball a good final coat of the Mod-Podge to seal. These can take some time to dry thoroughly, so let them sit (or hang) for a few days to eliminate any tackiness from the Mod-Podge. Then, I embellished the top with a ribbon, a brad, and some colored wire spirals.

(above) This ornament was so simple - I just cut 1/4 inch x 6" strips of patterned Christmas paper and inserted the strips one by one into the glass ball. Once it is filled to your liking, just put the metal collar back on the top then add some ribbons. I also adhered a "Merry Christmas" button with a glue dot. See? Easy peasy!

(above) This one would look better if I had taken the time to iron the wrinkles out of the ribbons. *ahem* Anyhow, simply cut strips of cardstock into 1" x 6" strips and roll them up tightly, then insert the rolls into the glass ball. Embellish with a rub-on and some ribbons and Voila! An ornament in maybe 2 minutes tops! The cool thing about making these is that you can color-coordinate them to match any theme, etc.

I am working on several different projects for BHG right now, but will continue to post here! I hope to share some more stuff with you soon!

And would somebody please take away this bag of pretzels I keep eating?!? Good grief, I am gonna gain a ton because I keep snacking on them!!