TERESA COLLINS

Headed to TEXAS

It looks like I will be headed back to Texas to teach again this year. My second trip this year- I love all things Texas. When I was asked to be apart of this event- I knew it was going to be FULL of fun and filled with lots of creative crafters! 

Here is a link to a short video that Northridge Media made for the event showing segments of those that  have attended the event. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCsJNax0IFQ

The event is organized by the wonderful company QUICK QUOTES. I am honored to be asked to come to their event and teach a workshop!

Some of the details about the event:

 It is a full weekend of

·        Workshops

·         Demos

·         make n takes

·        Lunches included

·        Complete a 20 page album in 1 day

·        $30,000 in scrapbook giveaways.

·        Go home with armloads finished projects and extra product

 Quick Quotes goes over the top with classes and prizes to make it the best scrapbooking weekend you have ever attended. 

The location is around Dallas, TX. The weekend is October 21st-23rd 2011.

Here is a link to their website to sign up. http://shopquickquotes.com/store/PrivateReserve2011LD.html

I have to say...I am definitely going to have to go find a Charming Charlies while I am there. Hope they have one near by. Hope you can join us Texas girls!!!!!

WISE words....

I wanted to share some things that have been on my mind today. I am really thankful that I blogged yesterday on finding balance. I think sometimes when we talk about things, we somehow really work it out ourselves. I read a blog comment from Carrie W. that really is so TRUE:

"The trick is finding the balance and keeping it in an ever changing world with ever changing responsibilities in all areas of your life! One minute you think things are balanced in your life and the next you find yourself falling off the balance scale! Keep smiling!"

I think Carrie must know me really well. She probably said something that we can all identify with. So thank you all for your emails and comments here on the blog. I am doing better at prioritizing things in my life. As you know working out every morning is something I do now. It is now a habit and one that makes me a better me. I still wake up each morning and dread knowing how hard the workout will be. It has helped me to start my day on a positive note. Today was mostly running for the hour and I needed the challenge. 

I wanted to share you some super cute projects that Sesil Cratin designed with Haunted Hallows:

HH papers, diecut sheet,  stamps and brads.

HH trims, papers, chipboard- I love her stitching on this project.

I love this card!!!!! 

I have to say something about Sesil. I have known Sesil for years now. We met when I was teaching at Windy City Scrapbook store in Chicago. A couple of years later, she moved to Utah (pretty close to where I live). We reconnected and something told me to ask her to work for me. We went to lunch and instantly I knew that she was the perfect fit for me. You know like the ying/yang...she is the yang to my ying. ha! I tell her personally how much she means to me and how much I appreciate all that she does for me in business and as a friend. I am so very THANKFUL to her and for how much she does for me. I don't say it lightly...she is amazing and she is the kind of friend that you could call ANY TIME of day and she is there for you. I just want her and the world to know how much I love her and I'm thankful that she really does "help" to keep me focused and in balance. Thank you Sesil!

 

Time out...

I gave myself a time out this weekend from facebook, twitter and the blog. To be honest, I have a hard time working on lines and being on the internet at the same time. I find with me I needed to find a way to balance what is most important to me. So I have decided to "stay off" more and really not be so tied to the computer. It's hard since I work so much on my computer. I have to be online. I need to be accessible but there is a balance to it all. Do you ever feel this way? A few months ago, I was working on the computer and really focusing on the task at hand. My kids were talking to me and I was doing the "somewhat listening" replies. Then I heard my daughter say, "just ask her anything when she is on the computer and she will say yes. " Yikes. I realized that was NOT a good thing. I am not proud of this. This has been on my mind often for months. I have worked hard to "work" when the kids are gone, asleep, etc. However, at times I fall into spending too much "unnecessary" time on the internet. 

Yesterday, I went to church and our Stake President came to talk to the women in the church. I was completely humbled by his talk. It spoke to me DEEP inside my being. I knew that I needed to open my heart and listen to his wise counsel. It was on TIME management. How am I spending my time? Am I doing the things that REALLY have meaning and purpose to my family and myself. Do I truly focus on WHAT is most important to me? Am I spending time being the mother and wife that I want to be? Do I allow things to take me away from WHAT is most important to me? Are the things I'm doing WORTHWHILE and has a purpose? Yikes... ouch...I have to be honest with myself and REAL. I could do so much better. 

So I guess I am just be honest and open and wondering if I am the only one who struggles with this. In the end, I simply want my family to always know that they are my number 1 priority. I think the little TIME OUT this weekend was just what I needed. I plan to do it more often.

Football tonight...

It's been a week now with the kids back in school. I feel like I am living half the day in my car. Can you relate? I am keeping super busy and with some tight design deadlines I am going on very little sleep. I know this is not good, but I am trying hard to balance being a mommy/wife and designer. 

I am so happy that I was able to recover the photos from the first day of school with the kids-

Zach is in 8th Grade and 13 years old. McKay is 17 and a SENOIR!!!!

I have to say that Zach really touched me today. He had early day (get's out at 12:30) from school. I LOVE this time alone with him. He was telling me about his day. I asked him what he wanted to do for the rest of today. He said, "I want to invite "Eric" over to our house. He is new to the school and doesn't have any friends." Seriously...I am BLESSED that he is KIND and cares for others. I told him that I am most proud of him for his desire to be a good person. 

Tonight...is the FIRST football game of the season. That means I get to go watch McKay perfrom with the MHS drill team. This is her third year on the team. I can hardly wait to see them tonight and take lots of photos. She is starting to think about where she wants to go to college next year. I'm going to SAVOR and ENJOY this year. It will go back so fast!

Photo taken on the 2nd day of school. SENOIR YEAR!

I wanted to share something that I think is just crazy cool-

This is a mixed media book that was created with HAUNTED HALLOWS. It was designed by Christi Spencer. She simply purchased an old book and created her book. She teaches workshops on how to create all these cool effects. 

This is the cover of her book. She painted the stripes across the book. I love how she added the staple effect. Love it! 

That reminds me  to talk about PINTEREST. I posted it on my facebook page www.facebook.com/tcdesigns and got lots of questions. I was talking about how I love this site. Now it can be very addicting so I limit my time but I post things that inspire me both in art, home, jewelry, photos, etc.  Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. 

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite.

I am on there and you can see my pinboard at http://pinterest.com/teresacollins88. I took a little screen shot of a FEW of the things in mine.

I am big on quotes and I love that I can save them in ONE place. Come join in on the fun!

Have a GREAT weekend. 

I'm going to KANSAS....

I have been working hard the past few days on trying to work on my 2012 travel and teaching dates. I have been wanting to go back to Kansas for some time. I was thrilled to be asked by Tanya to come teach at STAMPER'S INK- I have wanted to try to get to the stores that have been contacting me or been on my waiting list. I am a really great place now in my business and family life and have been able to plan a few more workshops.

So it's official-  on April 13th and 14th 2012...

I will be teaching workshops here:

Stamper's, Ink.- 2007 Rubber Stamping Retailer of the Year! 

12152 Shawnee Mission Parkway (SM Pkwy & Quivira)

Shawnee, KS  66216

913-248-7826
Website:  www.stampersink.net
Blog:  stampersink.typepad.com

I came across this layout that I did with my JOURNAL-IT line a few years ago this morning.

It is one of my older but favorite layouts. I love the photos and I love the painted red frame on the page with the journaling inside. It makes me happy to know that I've "tried" to document our family life. I get asked often what inspires me most... and it's easy to answer- it's our family PHOTOS and wanted to express the thoughts and feelings that it evokes. I want to tell a story through my pages. 

Today Gentry is now back at college. I just spoke to her to find out that she spend a "bundle" buying food. I asked her how much that meant and she informed me it was $78.00 for food and $30.00 for laundry detergent, and apartment supplies. She is already meeting with her college friends to go to a park concert tonight. It makes me happy to know that she is with her best friend Dani too. 

I am working on a project tonight for charity- The Ben Franklin store in WA. I will try to post it tomorrow! Hopefully I will have a productive and inspired evening.

 

 

A new beginning....

Well, it is the first week of school here for my children. So with this there is lots of change. I have three kids at different public schools. I feel like I am living in my car again. Thankfully McKay drives herself to high school. She is a BIG Senoir this year!!!! Zach is in 8th grade and Ty is in 7th grade but they are at different Jr. High Schools. Gentry leaves today to go back to school at Brigham Young University. The house is quiet in the day again. The only good thing about this is that I can design during the day and not feel guilty. In the Summer, I tend to stay up way to late to get things done so I can spend the days enjoying my family. This Summer was probably the best ever. It was simply many many days & hours of quality family time. I used to be so uptight if the house was clean and always on the kids to clean more. I did not do it THIS Summer...it made a HUGE difference in our home. It really does not matter at the end of the day if I had a perfect home. I made a decision when the kids got out of school to not let the kid mess (trust me they are MESSY!) get to me. I am happy to say it WORKED... and I realized how unimportant my clean house really is. 

The kids are now in school. Zach's fall baseball starts tonight (love THIS!), Ty is doing his BMX bike racing and McKay will perform at the football game Friday night with her drill team. THIS is what I love! I can't express how much I love watching them grow up. I know it is WHAT inspires all my product lines. I am just like YOU and I want to remember- soak it all in!!!! I stayed up to 2am working on a new line. It is so ME...so what I believe in. I can't sleep because I know it will be debuting at CHA W and it's something that speaks to my heart. 

Today I am preparing my visuals for CKU Reunion in San Deigo. I love hearing from those of you who are going! I have some fun things in store and hope you will join us. It will be a event full of fun memories.

Now I want to share (since for many of us it is BACK TO SCHOOL time) projects designed with the TC Stampmaker-http://photocentric-imagepac.blogspot.com Check out the website for more inspiration!

 

This layout is designed by Julie Jacob. The A+ is the August FREE download stamp on the TC Stampmaker website.

Julie wrote: "This is an 8x8 chipboard mini book for my son's school pictures.  I think it's fun to have them all in one place, so you can see the changes year to year.

I have them for all my children, and I'm looking forward to displaying Luke's book at his High School graduation party next June.  

I just covered chipboard pages with various school-themed patterned papers, matted a 5x7 picture, and added the grade, school, and teacher's name.

I made other stamps for the book as well (see picture).  I left the binder rings "naked" so to speak.  The kids love to look through their books...and lots of opening and closing is hard on ribbons and doo-dads. :)

Thanks so much for the extra supplies, as well!  Much appreciated. :)

~julie

Supplies Used:

TC Stampmaker - Photocentric
August free download stamps

Ink - Tsukineko (Versa Fine - Onyx Black)
8x8 chipboard pages

Patterned Papers - Simple Stories (cover), Studio Calico (kindergarten), Fancy Pants (1st grade), Basic Grey (2nd grade), Bo Bunny, October Afternoon, Crate Paper.
Embellishments - October Afternoon, Ting A Ling, 7 Gypsies

Letters - chipboard - Scenic Route, foam - EK Success

Mist - Studio Calico (Schoolhouse)

Black cardstock - for matting photos

3D foam squares - ThermoWeb

2 binder rings
black journaling pen

I love what Julie created and feel inspired to work on my own children's school memory books and love how she created her own stamps!!!!

Have a fabulous day!

 

Off to college-

Gentry is headed back to college tomorrow. It's been the best Summer having her home and working with me. I love that she gives me the best feedback on my designs- from a young and artistic perspective. I love watching her love to craft in her own way. She is now on PINTEREST too. It's really a great thing to watch your children grow and mature. So she wanted to do her own artwork for her dorm room. She made her own pillows for her bedding and then wanted to a some art for her walls. So I suggested we buy the FABULOUS black frame from IKEA. Gentry wanted it RED...so SPRAY PAINT was the next step!!!! 

Then she wanted to do a quote. She has been keeping a QUOTE book for some time. Things that inspire her. So then she decided to pick one that she found inspiring to look at each day. 

She painted the cardstock piece that comes with the frame- cream. Next, she wrote the quote in pencil. She went over it with a black sharpie pen. She wanted the lines to be curvy to add some visual interest.

Next, she used RANGER glossy accents (my all time fave!) and outlined each letter. As she did each word she put on BLACK GLITTER (martha stewart brand). It took a while, but the frame came out GREAT and it was just what she wanted!

 Here is the finished frame that Gentry created. I have to say as a crafter and journaler this made me so happy to watch her create this. I am going to miss her... tomorrow...saying goodbye again. 

So today I have some news... my latest Cricut cartridge is SOLD OUT!

So THANK YOU so much for all the support. I honestly have been blown away with the response to my cartridge designs. I am overjoyed and hope you know how much your emails, and feedback mean to me. I will keep you posted when they will be back in stock!

Hope you have a GREAT Tuesday!

Let's take a walk

This weekend we had a GREAT weekend visit with Maxson. To be honest this is just what I needed. With constant deadlines and so many events coming up for me- sometimes it's important to STOP and LIVE in the moment. (In the photo below you can see SOME of the many boxes in my front room. KITS for Scrapfest and Inspiration Unlimited!!!!) I just stopped and allowed myself to enjoy our little guy. 

So he was so cute. We were in the family room and he went and got NIMBUS (his doggie) leash and tried to put it around his neck. That was his way to tell us he wanted to go on a walk with his dog. It was adorable. I had my camera right by me and decided to take some photos-

This is McKay trying to get Maxson's shoes on. He was ready to go!

Nimbus is almost a year old now. He is such a sweet and well-trained dog. (way to go Kayla!)

 

N

Nimbus is waiting patiently for his walk.

I am so glad that I got this photo. Maxson is headed towards the front door. I just find this ONE of those MOMENTS that I will always remember. 

II a

Our family loves Maxson so much and we fight over who get's to hold him. You can see here that he let Nimbus go and decided to wander himself. 

McKay tried to help him with the leash and show him where to walk. 

 

Finally, McKay knew she was going to have to try to get both Maxson and Nimbus walk together. It was just fun to be able to capture this on film. 

I am feeling really grateful for my family. I love them all  so much and when life get's crazy I KNOW that they love and support each other. FAMILY is everything to me. I truly feel like I'm the luckiest girl.

PS Today was the FIRST day of school for Zach and McKay today. I took photos. Guess what? I put them in my card reader. I see that they are unreadable. hmmm... I guess tomorrow I will take the photos again and THIS will be okay. 

Good workout today. I feel so GREAT after I work out. I want to really step up my game and focus on pushing myself MORE. I have been lifting the same weights for a while now. I guess if I say it here...I will mentally do it. ha! 

Have a great MONDAY!

Chic & Scary WINNER!!!!!!- BACK TO SCHOOL

It was Ty's first day today going back to school. He is now in the 7th grade. His first day going to Jr. High School. I woke up very early thinking about his day. I knew he was probably a little nervous. However, he would not admit to it. Ty even picked out his own clothes and shoes and did not want my help. Hmmm... he is growing up way too fast. I woke him up extra early and made his favorite breakfast- waffles. I asked him to let me take a few photos. He obliged, but said "not in the front yard." I will cherish my photos that I take every year at this time. I no longer have any kids in elementary school. This is so weird to me. Although, I am loving the season that we are in as a family. 

This is Ty today-

He is the baby of the family. Truth be told, he is my hardest child. He is just very independent and being the baby of the family he does try to get his way.

He still does not want to play much baseball, he plays the guitar and now races in BMX bike races. Truth be known, he is more of a homebody. He is very close to his dad. They have a very special bond and relationship. I love to watch them together!

He loves to go fishing and hunting with his dad. He has his own style and no one can talk him into anything else.

Like this photo- TY wanted to do his feet like this. THAT is so his personality!

I love him so much and I'm really thankful for the young man that he is becoming.

WINNER of CHIC & SCARY TC Cricut Cartridge and HAUNTED HALLOWS paper pack:

 Ruth Gauss:

The cartridge is truly Chic (good for grown-ups and bigger kids) and could be Scary for little kids or those adults who can't wait to get their hands on it...ME!!! I love the words, too! They are totally right up my creepy, dark and cobwebbed alley (I just love graphic stuff like that - love Graphically Speaking cart...) The borders would be wonderful for all the scrapbooking I have to do for Halloween! The Haunted Hallows paper is amazingly perfect! I could go on, but I will tell you I already follow the Cricut Blog and I "Like" your page on facebook. And I don't usually win anything...

 

TWO winners of the HAUNTED HALLOWS paper collection:

Queen Mary:

I love your "Chic and Scary" cartridge especially because it compliments your "Haunted Hallows" collection. And as a party planner, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that it has a mask, cupcake holders and treat bags! Hope you continue collaborating with Cricut!

Wayne Michael:

I hope did it right. I followed with google, subscribed with email and added this post with facebook..  all so confusing! 

 

PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESSES- thank you!

Have a great weekend.

 

DEBUT... CHIC & SCARY TC CRICUT CARTRIDGE

I am super happy to share with you my latest Teresa Collins Cricut Cartridge creation. It is named CHIC & SCARY. It really fits the design collection and style. It was special to me in designing this cartridge since I hand drew so many of the elements. I wanted to do a cartridge that could be used for cards, layouts, home decor, parties, etc.

I love to decorate my home for Halloween and so I designed frames to highlight the Chic and Scary die cuts. *All the die cuts were cut from my latest HALLOWEEN paper collection- Haunted Hallows.  I think the papers coordinate with the new cartridge so well. 

TC Chic & Scary Spider and OWL die cut. Simply cut die cut from Haunted Hallows paper and place on BLACK BAZZILL cardstock and put inside your favorite frame.(frames: Hobby Lobby)

When designing the cartridge I really wanted to do cupcake holders. I wanted crafters to be able to do their own party decor items. Here are a few of the designs- SKELETON, BATS, PUMPKINS, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Are these not super cute????

I was very impressed with the detail of the HAPPY HALLOWEEN holder.

This layout showcases a few of the diecuts- the bird, the word text quote, the large bat. (pattern paper: Haunted Hallows)

I love the word's....LOVE!!!! Are you thinking of HALLOWEEN invitations? 

When I adhered the BAT down, I only did pop up dots in the center so that I could FOLD the bat wings upward. I love the dimension!!!!

You need to know that this newest TC cartridge is a LIMITED EDITION!!!!!!! They go on sale TODAY.

Oh, I included MASKS so that you could really have a fun party!!!! I love these and my kids do too. 

Here are the images on the cartridge. Can you tell that I am pretty excited to finally get to share what I designed for the Cricut machine?

So I found this cute display board ($9.99 Hobby Lobby) and I placed my die cut images inside the board. I layered them with pop up dots too for added dimension. Each slot is 4x6.

 

Up close view of the diecuts-

How cute is the witch holding the broom? 

(All the papers in this project are Haunted Hallows)

Here is a layout using the word SCARY and 31 CIRCLE, along with the spider web.

I placed one of my brads in the center of the spider web.

So FINALLY I am able to share with you my latest creation. I have LOVED designing for both the Cricut and the IMAGINE machines. I love this!!!

I even have something else to share...TODAY will be someone's lucky day-

Provo Craft is giving a Teresa Collins a Chic and Scary cartridge away today on my blog. You simply need to make yourself a follower of the Cricut Blog (www.cricutblog.org).

In addition, I am giving away THREE Haunted Hallows collections. One to the winner who gets the Chic and Scary cartridge and the other two to TWO other lucky winners!!!!! You will need to visit my TERESA COLLINS DESIGNS facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tcdesigns and LIKE. Please leave a comment so that I know that you visited. 

Then come back and leave a comment that you did both! Winners will be announced TOMORROW right here on my blog.

Good LUCK everyone! I hope you like the new cartridge.