My Grandma's Teacups: Focus On You Series: Confidence under stress

You  may be wondering why I am writing this series of posts on focusing on ourselves. Well I think it falls under the old adage of:

And it's true right? If we don't feel well, or are having a rough day it sets the tone for the entire house.

My husband tends to be the stern one in our household but if I get grumpy the kids know it's a big deal. It means they crossed some magical invisible line and they are quick to reassemble on the other side.

The purpose of these posts are in fact just to help us focus on little things that we can do to make sure our cup is just that much more full? fuller??

Transitioning from summer activities to the business of fall can be very stressful and added to that the beginning of shorter days and dreary skies it important to be extra kind to yourself (and everyone else if at all possible.) My plan is to share small things that we can do to boost our self esteem and overall demeanor.

It would be wonderful if we could all just go check ourselves in for a day of pampering at St. Anne's Spa. Realistically I doubt many of us have the time or the funds for such royal treatment.

So here is my quick tip for the day: Find a really great deodorant.

Seriously. You would not believe the difference you will have in your day if you find the right deodorant. There is nothing as distracting as wondering if you smell sweaty. These days it politically incorrect to douse ourselves in perfume so our deodorants need to be that much more dependable. I have tried the rollie type that go on wet and smell nice but make you feel like you need  to flap like a bird for the first half hour its on. I have tried the spray ons that I find don't last. I have used the clear gels that feel like I have jello under my arms and I have tried the white bars that I like but find that I am using them a few times during the day. Which I may add is strange because I don't usually work very hard and don't sweat much :)

My latest Buzzkit was from Secret.

 I use secret anyway so this was a good gig for me. It was for their new clinical strength deodorant. I don't get paid for sharing my opinion...which is just wrong....but that is for another day....I received a trial size sample. Guess what. The stuff really works. I used it this weekend. As you know I have been ill for the past few weeks and this weekend I knew I was staying home in y comfy clothes. I put it on after my shower Saturday and it was still working when I decided to get dressed Sunday afternoon. (Don't judge me...lol). Usually I would have reapplied my deodorant several times in that much time. I have a phobia of smelling sweaty. So if you are looking for a quick boost to your overall feeling of well being, I would suggest trying Secret Clinical Strength...I used the solid so I don't know about the gel one.



Find the little things that will help you feel your best....and be a good friend and share them with us.

My Grandma's Teacups: Being A Little Wish-y Washi

Delight! My order came in yesterday and inside a very small inconspicuous box was a wonder of washi that I spent much to long drooling over. I can't believe how excited this pretty tape makes me. Its like each little roll holds the promise of a great crafting project just waiting to be explored. I know this is far from the last order I will be receiving as I think this just might be my new favourite embellishment. I think it is perfect for the Bible Journaling that I am hoping to start soon.

Check out my haul:

These are all from the company called Love My Tapes and I think I am in trouble because there are over 100 designs available.

This is not like the washi I have purchased before that feels flimsy and fragile. This tape has a real depth to it. I feel like it will hold up to my plans for using it in my planner and bible journal. The colours are very vibrant. (My photography does not do it justice).

I will post some pictures once my new planner arrives. I am still waiting for the journalling bible I want to be released.

Here is sneak peek at the planner I have ordered:

Don't forget to follow my on Pinterest as I explore all the wonderful uses for all the Washi I am wishing for.

Follow My Grandma's Teacups's board Wonderful Washi on Pinterest. Follow My Grandma's Teacups's board Bible Journaling on Pinterest. Follow My Grandma's Teacups's board Planner Printables on Pinterest.

My Grandma's Teacups: Prima Stamp Giveaway

Just because Vicki Gee is such a wonderful person we are going to have a giveaway of a Prima Julie Nutting stamp:...
Posted by My Grandma's Teacups on Sunday, September 27, 2015

My Grandma's Teacups: Sneak peek at some of my favourite Christmas collections

I have officially caught my first really bad cold of the season. It has been a good excuse to cozy up with the September New Goods Catalogue and preview the new lines available for Christmas crafting. I know you don't want to think about Christmas yet, but if you are planning on creating homemade cards or papercrafts its time to start thinking about supplies.

Fabscraps: Christmas Joy Collection

Fabscraps has become one of my favourite paper suppliers. I love the vintage feel and muted colours in this collection. I can see some lovely cards being created with this paper.

Graphic 45: Twas The Night Before Christmas

This collection from Graphic 45 was previously released but I am glad to see it make a comeback. It features all the traditional colours and themes that I remember of Christmas' in my childhood. I have purchased the stamps and paper for a mini album I want to make before Christmas. If you are looking for a more Victorian feel for your crafts, the new "A Christmas Carol" line is already available.

Kaisercraft: Yuletide Collection

My Minds Eye: Joyous Collection

This may be one of my favourite collections this season. I love the oodles of goodies that you can get to coordinate with the paper line. It takes the guesswork out of matching up colours in embellishments.

Don't forget the trim and twine to finish off your projects. Maya Road makes beautiful twine.

My Grandma's Teacups: Copics Club Session 1

Our first Copic club was in August and we had so so much fun practicing colouring random stamped images. We began with an overview of the copic colour code. Bet you didn't know there was a code did you? Well, there is, and once you understand it you will be able to follow the rules or throw caution to the wind and create beautiful pieces of art.

So what is the Copic Colour System?

The Copic Colour System identifies and labels each Copic Colour based on the color’s individual: Colour Family, Saturation Number & Brightness Number.

• The Colour Family indicates what sort of color, i.e. red, blue-green, orange, etc.

• The Saturation Number indicates how “rich” or how “dull” the colour will appear (higher number = more dull)

• The Brightness Number indicates how “dark” the color will appear (Higher number = darker)

Is that all clear as mud? Well as you practice with your markers it will start to make sense. You will recall in one of the earlier posts that I suggested you buy your markers in groups of three. Therefore you would look for 3 markers with the same Colour Family, Saturation Number and Brightness numbers within 2-3 levels of each other. This will give you  a base colour and then two shades for adding shadows and detail.

We started with the Copic Skin Tone Doodle Pack as I tend to have allot of stamps of children that we will be using. These doodle packs make choosing coordinating colours a breeze.

We focused on the three marker technique using the lightest colour as the base and then building the shadows from there. It takes some practice to lay down a perfect base without streaks. Small circles allow you to keep working on the wet edge. We found flicking the darker colours made it easier to place the shadows.

This is a great time to start your copic binder. Print off a free template from the web and practice different colour combinations to see which colour tones you like the best.

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supply: Alcohol Markers and Prima Stamps = New Summer Hobby

As I told you I have been enjoying my free time at the camp with my family. This year the children are just that little bit older and I am finding that I spend much of my time on my deck overseeing the activities of the kidlets and their friends and less time actually being right on top of them supervising. It has been a strange shift. I have been monitoring the activities of wee ones for so long I don't remember what it is like to just sit and relax. I have to admit, I am enjoying it.

I promised my hubby to limit the amount of craft material that I take to the trailer this year. Last year he would arrive for a relaxing weekend only to find his side of the bed had been taken over by my cricut and loads of paper. This year I stick to one 12x12 thirty-one bag which holds my marker bag, stamp block bag, paper and stamps. The stamps I have been carrying all summer are my Julie Nutting Paper Doll Stamps. I was talking to Julie a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of joining us here on the blog, but lucky for us she is busy with getting the new designs out. Its ok Julie, we love your work!

If you have not tried using alcohol markers for your stamped images yet, you are in for a treat. Alcohol markers are very pricey so if your budget does not allow you to go out and buy a collection there are some great alternative. Bic makes a great line of alcohol markers that work really well. You won't get the colour variety of some of the big lines but it is a great place to start. If you are ok with slowly building your collection, try to purchase your markers in 3s. You always want to have a light , medium and dark for each colour. I started with flesh tones as I am a huge fan of Magnolia Stamps and now all the Prima Paper Dolls stamps. By using the alcohol markers to define the skin tone I am able to use other mediums to colour the clothing and accessories.

These are a few of the designs I have been working on:

Bridesmaids Prom Queen First Day of School

Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing

My Grandma's Teacups Loves Small Business :Publicity Opportunity

Many of you know that I have a soft spot for Mompreneurs that are raising families, working and building their business as well. I love to do shout outs about all the new ventures that these amazing women are starting. If you have a small business and would like to feature it on My Grandma's Teacups please email me mygrandmasteacups@gmail.com. If you would be interested in a product review please let me know and I will help you with that as well. I also have opportunities for small businesses looking to grow their facebook and twitter following through giveaways.  Let me help you grow your business.

Some of my favourite small businesses from past posts

Deb Tang : Arbonne Review

Imagine Photography

Susan's Dog Treats

Signed By Barb/ Tilander Mack 
Menswear

A Kid In A Candy Shop


You could be featured next. Contact me for more information.




Part of growing your small business is having a plan. The best way to know if your plan is on track is to constantly seek out new information. One of my favourite resources for small business information is the Scotiabank site

Scotiabank Small Business Resources

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies: Vintage Inspired Scrapbook Layout

I think sometimes as scrapbookers we get caught up in adding as many sparkles, bling and embellies as we can to make our layouts pop. This layout was a nice reminder that sometimes the KISS principle is the way to go. Mr. McWilliams my highschool art teacher always preached the principle of Keep It Simple Sweetheart. This beautiful paper from Fabscraps lends itself perfectly to a simple design. We used a little bit of distress ink and a few flat backed pearls to create what I think turned out to be a beautifully elegant layout.

We used Fabscraps Secret Garden 2 (1) , American Crafts Smooth Brown Sugar Cardstock (1) American Crafts Smooth Leaf Cardstock (1)American Crafts Smooth Denim (1) Close To My Heart as the base but any sturdy cardstock would be fine.  I used my cricut to cut out the damask pattern as well at the flowers, wheelbarrow, vines and tags. The ink that we used to distress the paper was Tim Holtz Vintage Photo as well as Close To My Heart Smokey Plum for the flowers.

If you are interested in obtaining a kit to make this please visit my ebay shop
My Grandma's Teacups Crafts

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies: Club Layout: Once Upon A Springtime

We had such a blast last night working with the beautiful Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime Collectors Edition. It was so hard deciding which paper to cut as both sides were so pretty. Even after completing 2 full two page layouts we each have enough paper left to complete several more projects.

 We fussy cut the fairies and popped them up at different levels to make them look like they are flying right off the page. Just a little bit of glitter on their wings and these fairies seemed to come to life. We fussy cut the book pages and folded the second copy in half along the spine and popped up one side giving it the illusion that the pages were turning.
We fussy cut as many of the characters as we could
in order to add lots of dimension to the pages. I think this could possibly the project that I uses the most pop dots on ever. It was so worth the investment.

I know this layout seems a little plain but I cant wait to add my own pictures to it and really make it pop. These illustrations are incredible and will be a delightful addition to my kids books.

Do yourself a favour and get this paper pack before its gone again. It is pure joy to work with.

I am taking my family on a little mini vacation this week so it will be quiet here on the blog. Hoping that you all have a safe and fun holiday weekend.

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies: TIANYANG Dies: Layout #5

This is my favourite layout that I created with the dies I received from TIANYANG. 

This window die is beautiful and the the flowers are just so versatile I can see the possibilities for so many cards and layouts. The stamped images were done using my Close To My Heart acrylic stamps and the freehand drawing was done using ShinHan markers. 

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies: TIANYANG Dies: Layout #4

This is the fourth layout in our series reviewing the TIANYANG dies.  This is one of my favourite dies that I received. The legs on this ballerina are so delicate it is incredible.  I found it hard to decide which of the many ideas this cut inspired would make it to the studio table.

My Grandma's Teacups Scrapbooking and Craft Supplies: TIANYANG Dies :Layout #1

One of the wonderful folks from TIANYANG Dies approached me about trying out some of their cutting dies in my work. Generally I do not use dies as I have a Cricut explore but after several conversations I agreed to test their product. TIANYANG provided several dies for me to work with and I wanted to share what I created with you.

Layout #1

I used the TIANYANG product Product ID:32263845233 and 32263845263 
to create the lovely flowers in the layout. I was surprised by the number of sheets of cardstock that these dies can in fact cut in one pass. The edges of the cut are very clean and slightly embossed for a professional feel when working with the petals. I really liked the versatility of the design as I was able to make several variations with one die.

Susan's Dog Treats Giveaway!!!

Susan Rossy, Owner of Susan's Dog Treats has offered to host a giveaway for our launch of Titan and Legend Blog Dogs. I figured since everyone else in my family is a test subject for reviews and samples it was time my young fur babies stepped up and took some of the spotlight.. Susan joined us last fall in our All I want for Christmas blog series and we are excited to work with her again. Titan and Legend are definitely big fans of her work.

Her peanut butter and bacon dog treats are favourites of not only my precocious pups but of my Mother's pampered pooches as well. I will post Titan & Legends Reviews tomorrow....as brief as they were...my dog's are pups of few words...

Enter to win a prize pack for your four legged family member and you will find out that homemade is by far a better treat than dry old store bought biscuits.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Heroes of The City Baby App

Exciting news! We are teaming up with Heroes of The City once again to bring you another amazing giveaway! Heroes of The City has launched their new app that is designed especially for wee ones.

Here’s some facts about the Baby app:

"The app is completely free, with no advertising and has no in-app purchases. Everything in the app is designed for the youngest children. The app is easy to use, entertaining, educational and will inspire our children to be creative. This app takes the smallest children seriously and we have specially designed everything in the app to suit children between 0-2 + years."

The app includes:

• 3 animated short movies (Language: English and Swedish )
• Music Panel with two different themes
• Color and shape game
• Magic coloring game
• Balloon Game

In celebration of the launch of the new App I will be inviting several of the Mama's I know to bring their little ones over to test drive this cute new product. Be sure to check back over the next few weeks to see what the "baby reviewers" thought of Heroes of the City Baby! We will announce the giveaway prize in that post, along with all the details of how you can win. If you missed out on the last giveaway be sure to enter this time. Remember there will be extra chances for entries by tweeting and posting about the giveaway!

Do you want to try the Baby App too! Just follow the links to get your copy.

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/heroes-of-the-city-baby-app/id860084935?mt=8

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rutaett.HeroesBaby&hl=en

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQIZNADyAdMEWhjM8cq7ROw

I hope your family falls in love with Heroes of The City as much as mine. These cute, colourful characters will inspire your little ones to be Heroes too!

June Stamp of the Month: Kaboom

Have you started planning all those summer celebrations yet? This month Close To My Heart is offering the cutest stamps set that would be just perfect for your Canada Day Celebration invitations, cards and layouts. Its called Kaboom! You can snag this set for only $5 with a qualifying purchase in June. Be sure to take advantage of the anniversary kit offer at the same time. Have fun creating with these explosive deals.

Don't limit yourself to fireworks and picnics. I see this set being used for an action hero type layout for my five year old. Bam, Bang, KABOOM! Love it.

National Scrapbooking Month

What are you doing to CELEBRATE National Scrapbooking Month? This fun kit is available for just $5 with a $50 purchase. Guess what: You can still get your Stamp of The Month for $5! Go ahead and double up on the May deals.  After all,  National Scrapbooking Month comes but once a year....treat yourself! 

April's Stamp Of The Month

The stamp of the month for April has got to be one of the cutest sets this spring. Imagine all the projects you will be able to create with this adorable collection of "blurbs" and "chat balloons".

Balloon Talk is available to purchase for just $5 with a qualifying purchase in April. It has 24 sweet sentiments that will have you stamping happily for every occasion.

To order this adorable set just visit my site at My Grandma's Tea Cups Close To My Heart

Now is the Time to let your Creativity Make Your Dreams Reality

Have you been dreaming of starting out on a new adventure? Last year, that was me. By chance I was invited to party at a new neighbours house. I had heard of Close To My Heart as I was an avid scrapbooker. I even owned a couple of the cricut bundles and a few stamps.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would sign up to be a consultant and a year later have my own business that I love, an amazing scrapbook club, a downline of enthusiastic consultants, a schedule of classes and workshops and so much more.  My life has changed in ways that I can not begin to describe.  Are you ready to take that first step? During the month of April, Close To My Heart is offering an incredible package, The consultant kit contains over $300 in products and supplies and costs only $99.

If you reach your sales goals of $1200 for your first quarter they will give you your enrollment fee back so the kit is free. 

For the month of April only new consultants get their choice of one of our three exclusive Cricut bundles. FREE!!! $99 value

If you are unsure of the cartridge bundle that suits you best Senior Director Melissa Laverty created a really helpful video:

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to follow your dreams. I did and now I can't imagine my world without Close To My Heart. Take the leap and join my team ------------------------------> Your dream starts here------------->