TERESA COLLINS

TOMORROW....

I know that a few of you have seen the latest TC Cricut Cartridge that I designed. I am going to share it TOMORROW here on my blog and we will be doing a GIVEAWAY. Oh, I can't wait to share it with all of you. It is SOOOO ME! Most of the images on the cartridge are ones that I hand drew. 

I am home busy doing lots of preparation for my IU event, Scrapfest and getting my kids ready for school to begin. Gentry and McKay have kitted almost 1,000 kits in the past month. They are very thankful for a job and I'm very thankful for the help. 

Today at the gym, I conquered a fear. You see after I hurt my back doing a dead lift, I have been really afraid to ever do them again. My back is still hurting every day and I still go to the gym. Today I got to the gym and each day they post what we will do for the day. I saw DEAD LIFTS!!!!!! I instantly got nervous. I made a decision that I would do them. The trainers were with me and helped me to do them properly. I did them slow and readjusted my form after each time that I did it. Two weeks ago, I had told myself that I would never ever do a dead lift again. I was afraid and so today I guess I changed my mind.

Look at these cute cards that Colette made with my HAUNTED HALLOWS papers and stamps!

 

Hope you are evening a great Summer too!!!!!

As seen on OPRAH WINFREY- Jill Strasburg IU KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Oh, can you tell that I am super excited to ANNOUNCE who will be the keynote speaker at my INSPIRATION UNLIMITED 2011  event.

This is the beautiful Jill Strasburg. If you watch Oprah Winfrey (they rebroadcast her last appearance this past  Friday), you may remember her. She has been on the show THREE times. That is not why I invited her to come to the event. I want to share with you how it came about.

You see Jill and I have a friend named Brie in common. One day, I was at lunch with my friend. We were talking at Mimi's Cafe and she mentioned her friend Jill and how special she was. She told me about her journey and some very tough things that her beautiful friend had went through. I was told about how she had lost 170 lbs. As a woman, I think you are instantly like..."wow, how did she do that?"  and "What is her secret?" ha. Well, she mentioned that she has had quite the difficult journey and she still is full of light, happiness, and love. 

Brie mentioned to me that Jill would be on Oprah that week again for the third time. You see, Jill's show and story was one of the most talked about show. Oprah brought her back to discuss how things were going in her life now. I don't want to share the story since it's HER journey and I know JILL does HER story justice. 

So I went home and watched Oprah on the day Jill was on. I instantly remembered seeing her on Oprah the two previous times. I cried as I watched it. I felt a connection with Jill. I admired her greatly. I wanted to be more like her. I wanted to know more about her. So I emailed Brie and asked more about her. I found her blog and read for a long time. I felt like I knew her. I emailed Brie and told her that I needed to get in contact with Jill. Would she think it's crazy that some scrapbook lady wanted to talk to her????? 

I prayed to know why I felt so drawn to her and her story. THEN a prayer was answered. I needed Jill to come and speak at my event. If she touched me in this way, then I needed others to get the honor to hear her too. I contacted Jill and was so thrilled to hear that she was willing to come. She is so super sweet and I know that those of you who got into my event this year are in for a huge treat. 

I am going to POST here what Jill wrote on her blog today about coming to IU 2011-

It's officially Monday and since Teresa is announcing that I am going to be the speaker on her FB page then I guess I can announce it on my blog. I have been asked to be the keynote speaker for this years Inspiration Unlimited down in Henderson NV at the Green Valley Ranch. I am so honored I can't explain. When I was asked a few months ago, I was touched, in shock, and knew instantly that I was supposed to do this. I can't wait to go down to this conference and learn so much from these women. I know they are coming to listen to me, but I know I will be getting a lot of my strength from them. 

I have thought long and hard about what I want to talk to these women about and though it comes in different waves, the main principle is the same, and I can't wait to share my story of hope and hopefully inspiration with them. I am so honored, once again, that I get to share this amazing weekend with these women. 

I know so many of them have been through so much more in this life then I have, and they have so many different experiences then me, but I know I will be able to teach them something different, and in return they can do the same for me. I'm so looking forward to spending time with these amazing women. I can't wait for next month! 

Love, 
Jilly Strasburg 

That is WHY I knew she was the perfect girl to come. THANK YOU Jill for coming and I am very happy that you are bring your husband too! Please visit her blog and say a thank you for coming! http://thestrasburgfamily.blogspot.com

*The event is sold out. However, you can get signed up for the waiting list for 2011 by emailing me. Yes,  we will be doing year FIVE next year!!!!!

This week....

We had a great week. My son Zach is home from camping. He had a wonderful time and came home with lots of bug bites. He hiked so much that he lost weight this week. Gentry is almost ready to go back to BYU. She has worked for me all Summer and I am going to really miss her.

She enjoyed some down time this week with her friend Chandler. I had to give her a big MOM lecture in that she layed  outside at the pool all day this week and got very burned. I wish she would listen to me about sun damage and cancer. Trust me I try trying!

The MHS drill team performed for the first time this weekend at their football game. The girls did a great job and McKay is enjoying her role on the team. Although, I miss all the baseball games since we only have Fall ball left, I LOVE knowing Winter time is spent watching McKay dance. I LOVE going to the competitions, Football and Basketball games, etc. 

This little guy raced in his second BMX race Friday night in Farmington. I missed the first time, with my back injury. He raced one race and he had a great start and was leading the race. I started to cry as I watched him. The race was over and Ty had come in first place. This meant he would qualify to go into the championship round. (They take three bikers for the final). My husband saw me crying and that it made me emotional- he is so used to this and I had to just comment that I am not afraid to show how I feel and how much it meant to me to watch him do something  that he loves. He went to the final round and won. It was a close race and he was just so happy that night! He is a beginner and so he has a lot to learn. 

Yesterday, I went to see the movie, The Help with Gentry and McKay. I have to say that I have not had a movie touch me so deeply in a very long time. I cried often in the movie. I grew up in the South and I grew up in a community that still treated "black people" differently. I remember riding on the school bus and children not sitting beside the boy and his sister who were MIXED. It was still taboo to play with a black child if you were white.  I did not understand. I remember how members of my own family did not think it was acceptable to mix the races. I recall when I was 16 years old, I was friends with a boy who I met at my first job. I worked at McDonalds and he needed a ride home one day after our shift. I remember how mad this made my mother- that I gave a black person a ride. She would have been really upset if she knew that I secretly had a crush on Michael Jackson at the time.

When I went to college, my sister had a black boyfriend. My sister had tried to hide it from the family at first. This did not go over well. I have always thought it was wrong to judge anyone for their race, sex or religion. I am thankful that by the time my mother passed away that she had opened her heart. The movie was a beautiful reminder to me that we are ALL God's children, that HE loves ALL of us equally. This world needs LOVE and there is no room for hate. It hurts me to know of the unnecessary pain and suffering that was caused due to complete ignorance.

Tomorrow I am taping the remainder of the MY CRAFT CHANNEL episodes. My car is completely FULL of projects. I know it will be a fun but LONG day. I am so fortunate to be able to do this. It will debut next month and let me say that I'm over the top excited for the line up of hosts involved in the MCC productions.

Have a FABULOUS day!!!!!

Good Things Utah Video

 

Here is the video from yesterday. Today I was busy finalizing some product designs. Then I had to go pay the school fees for my kids. It's pretty expensive these days. Then I met with my friends and we spent the afternoon yuduing t-shirts for my gym girlfriends. 

TONIGHT...I am going to watch my son Ty race in his SECOND BMX bike races. LOVE this so much!

I am a lucky mom! Can't wait for Zach to get home tomorrow from camp. We have so missed him.

Good Things Utah today...

I got up extra early to go to the gym this morning to work out. We spent the hour doing mobility exercises. It hurts while your doing it, but it felt amazing afterwards. I had to quickly get home, shower and get out the door to head to the TV studio. McKay went with me today (I love this!). The segment went well and I'll post it on the blog within the next few days. 

I returned home to my disaster craft zone home. The girls and I are kitting for Inspiration Unlimited (my event in NV is NEXT MONTH!!!!). Boxes are everywhere and all My Craft Channel shows projects are everywhere too. I have to say that I am married to such a supportive and amazing husband. My kids are great to overlook the mess right now too. Truthfully, it drives me CRAZY. However, I am so fortunate to be able to do my work from home. 

The big drama in the house today was Gentry accidentially knocking off McKay's cell phone. It broke the screen and the phone was completely dead and broken. I felt so bad, since it was an accident. At first, there was anger and then I decided to go upstairs and let the two girls work it out. I listened as they called stores to figure out if the phone could be fixed. They looked online to look for used phones. Gentry had agreed to pay for a "cheap" phone replacement. Then I heard them calling their phone provider. They worked together as a team and I quietly observed from upstairs. In the end, she was able to get another phone since the family plan was due for a new phone. 

I wanted to share this SUPER awesome tutorial on how to make your own stamps with the TC Stampmaker-

The following is credited and written by Cheri Piles:

Here is a HOW TO made by Cheri Piles on how to make a great necklace using the Teresa Collins stampmaker.

"Are you ready to take your Teresa Collins Stampmaker to the next level??? Here's a little something that is a ton of fun and has HUGE impact. Once you make one, you will be making these for all of your friends - or at least be the envy of!! ✿ Although I would love to take credit for this idea it is not my original idea - I had seen it on a blog where they took their images and had them made but when you own your own Teresa Collins Stampmaker you can make them yourself.

 

Your going to create your image in the same fashion as you would for stenciling. However, if you are creating a monogram you will have to "flip" your image as I did. You will need to measure your necklace frame - both the opening of the frame and the interior width, which is what the dark square around the monogram is, I'll tell you the importance of that in a bit but the black part of the square is the difference in the opening and the interior part of the frame. This also gives you the dimension of your image or monogram in my case.

When you "cook" your image, instead of cooking it for the three minutes you are accustomed to when you create a stamp you are only going to cook it for two minutes - otherwise your image will not be recessed enough, trust me this took me a minute (or a few image pacs) to figure out...

Trim your edges away just as you normally do. You can tell you have a great image when you peel away that top piece and can see the image real clearly.

Wash your image just like normal.

Set your image just like you do for a stamp, for the full two minutes.

Next, you want to trim around the outer part of your square - this will create a "LIP" for your stamp to sit perfectly into the necklace frame. So only trim the outer, NOT the inner part of that square.

You can paint the back any color you want, I was experimenting and added some GENTRY's GLITTER into my paint.

Next you want to paint over your image and wipe away, you will end up doing this in a few layers... This does take time, I found using damp q-tips helps clean it up as you go. I also found that chocolate helps during this process. ✿ It takes practice and a little patience but the results are worth all the effort and by the time you do your third one you'll be a pro at it. I had a little extra time and added some glue and then a layer of Gentry's glitter to this one - I'm totally loving it!!

Next you will want to seal your creation with clear sealer - I think I picked it up at the hardware store for just a few bucks. OK, you should just know this as well, when your experimenting you should let everything dry completely before adding your sealer - some of the glitter went flying when I sprayed the sealer... I still love it so it's all good.

Once dry go ahead and put them in your frame. In real life you can see those flecks really do sparkle...

I am really in love with these!!!! Thank you Cheri for sharing with us- your amazingly talented!

Have you heard CKU Reunion????

Yes, it's  back and I was asked to teach at it. I choose to do an album track because I like to do bigger projects. I am THRILLED at the location and the teacher line up. 

A CKU Reunion event to celebrate the event’s 10th anniversary is scheduled for Oct. 27th-29th, 2011 in San Diego, CA. The three day event will cost $295 in tuition. Album tracks will be taught by Teresa Collins, Darcy Debord (Technique Tuesday), Megan Hoeppner (Creating Keepsakes), Michelle Hill (Polka Dot Whimsy) and Jodi Sanford (Fancy Pants). Core classes, taken by all attendees, will be taught by Stacy Julian, Christy Tomlinson, and Jen Cushman & Kristen Robinson. *Info from Scrapbook Update!

I am excited to be asked to come back. I can't wait! 

This is my album. It is a 8x8 packed full travel memories journal. So join us for the FIRST time ever CKU Reunion event!

CKU Reunion October 27-29, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in San Diego, CA.

Cost is $295 (does not include hotel room or food)

Includes: album track, four 90 minute classes, evening activities, goodies, prizes, and more

Register online at www.creatingkeepsakes.com/cku

Today I felt so good when I left the gym. It was a grueling cardio/weight day. I have to say the one the killed me was the chair hold. You bend like your sitting in a chair for a minute. My legs were BURNING in pain- LOL! I still can't do a pull up on the bars. However, I can lift heavier weights and not have to stop. I'm making progress. I wake up in the morning and honestly wish I could just stay in bed. I would love to sleep in more, but I know I can't. I just have to DO IT...not think about excuses and GO! 

I am on TV tomorrow. Good Things Utah Channel 4 at 10:00am. I am doing a segment on my TRAVEL binder album kit. I made a cool travel banner and I think I'm set. I'll post the video on the blog as well. 

Have a FABULOUS day!

Home decor inspiration...

I wanted to share something that I LOVE with you today. 

This pillow was made with my Cricut cartridge- Sophisticated by the girls at Everyday Cricut.

http://www.cricutholiday.com/2011/06/teresa-collins-sophisticated-pillow.html

If you visit their blog you will get instructions on how they made the pillow. I love it!!!!!! 

I have been designing several projects with the "new" TC Cartridge that will be debuting this month. Oh, it's been so fun to create with. It is made for the Cricut machine. I "think" it will be a limited edition too. I wish I could say more....

So today at the gym we did HEAVY cardio. You know the kind where your chest is burning and your feeling a little lightheaded. I could tell that my stamina is not back yet. I struggled... a lot! Then about a half hour after I got home, my back started to ache. I have to say that although no one wants to have pain, I do feel like it's given me a bigger appreciation for my body. I will just need to be careful. I had a decision when I got hurt. I could have easily said, "your body is done, your getting older, you shouldn't be working out every day, etc and give up." That just wasn't in my head. To be honest, in the past it WOULD have been. I've changed so much. I am so much stronger. I realize that I have been the one who has held myself back for so many years... ME! My self doubts and issues with weight were ongoing. I just surrendered and came to the point that I ACCEPTED myself as I am. Working out does make me feel wonderful in so many ways. I have never been happier. I have a husband who loves me and does not care if I'm the "perfect size." What is that anyway? I think it truly does come with growing up, getting older and realizing what is most important. I no longer weigh myself and that number affects my day. Can any of relate to this? I wish I had this mentally years ago. I caused myself to suffer with my own self doubt. It's hard when as a society, we are so focused on WHAT we look like, and are we thin enough. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. When we surround ourself with people who love us for WHO we really are- what a blessing! I hope each of you reading this will truly realize your worth and value. Don't listen to the "voices" that say otherwise. Hmmm... I'm on a role tonight.

 

Tim McGraw- for the fans!

I think I mentioned that my entire family went to the Tim McGraw concert on Saturday night. He came to SLC and my entire family loves country music. One of the things that is important to me was to raise my kids to appreciate "where I come from" and my southern roots. Growing up in NC... I grew up (thanks MOM!) listening to country. I still miss living in North Carolina. It just reminds me of being home and every time I hear George Strait, Alan Jackson and George Jones well I ALWAYS think of my mother. It's CRAZY how songs can evoke such profound and deep feelings within us. They can transport us back to a TIME, a PLACE, and feelings. Anyway, I love that my kids love and appreciate all  types of music. Seth had the BEST seats in the house. He went to the concert and even got to shake Tim's hand. ha!

 My friend Ginger Nelson will LOVE me for posting these. I think she has a "secret" crush on Mr. McGraw!!!!

The family said it was a GREAT concert. I was home with Ty and was working on some deadlines and ordered out Sushi. It was a fabulous night! 

Okay...TODAY... This MORNING- I went to the gym for the first time in 12 days. I could hardly sleep last night. Let me tell you laying in bed for days is NOT good for the body. I watched my form and was very careful. Judah (gym owner and trainer) was really helping me to not hurt myself. I did okay BUT for some crazy reason I was feeling dizzy. Hmmm... but I did it and did not quit working out. I just was slow and really tried to keep thinking that I am just going to keep getting better with time and be patient.

I am home today being crafty again. I have 8 show segments to prep, design and execute by Thursday/ Friday. Thankfully, I do it on my main level of my home so I can be with the kids. Actually, McKay is back at drill daily and Zach went to Camp Steiner for an entire week this morning. I miss them!!!!!!! 

Have a GREAT Monday!

Sunday inspiration....back to the gym

I have been creating projects and new products samples all weekend. I have worked with all my new collections and create some new fun home decor in the process. I am going on Good Things Utah Channel 4 on this Thursday. I am showing my new WORLD TRAVELERS kit. Tune in and I will also be doing a give away.

Anyway,  I saw this and loved it...

This is a layout by Maridette Cochola that I think is super cute too -

Products: Haunted Halloweens Collection- TC Designs

I am a little nervous tonight. Tomorrow morning is my first time back to the gym after really hurting my back 12 days ago. I am feeling so much better and I have really missed the endorphins from working out. I miss all my friends and trainers at the gym too. I feel so out of shape again. Maybe it's just mental on my part. Anyway, I know that the fear of getting hurt again can't stop me from going. However, I will be VERY careful to use good form and I'm thinking the dead lift is a no go for me for a awhile. 

I also film more segments for the CRAFT TV Network this week too. It's been a lot of preparation but I know it will be worth all the time and effort. The shows will begin to air in September. 

Hope you had a great weekend! 

This is what I do...

I'm in major non-stop design mode. All my deadlines are in full force for NEW TC products. I guess you could say it's a good thing I have deadlines. They push me and sometimes they stress me OUT! I'm feeling creative so it's all good this go round. Some big changes have happened within my company and with growth I've been able to add to my team recently. It's a huge blessing.

Today, I picked up my basket of fruits and vegetables for the week. I do a food program that I love. I get a basket of good food every Saturday. My son Ty likes to go with me to pick up our food. This week we met Taylor and Gentry at Ikea afterwards. Gentry loves to decorate her dorm room. She goes back to BYU soon, and I will miss her.

All the kids are going to the Tim McGraw concert tonight. I decided I needed to stay home and work. I know I can PLAY later...but deadlines do have to come first at crunch time. 

I wanted to share a layout by Jamie Harder that I found inspiring:

 This is my WORLD TRAVELER collection, brads and stamps (filmstrip). I simply loved that she made it into just a "non-themed" layout. I love the blue added too!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!