Upcoming PB & J Meetings

Hey gals, I'll be working on March's newsletter later today but since I'm online now I'm sending this out to give you a heads up about upcoming meetings so you can schedule early our March and April meetings on your calendars. Remember we meet the 2nd Tuesday of every month at Barnes & Noble in Midland, TX (7:00PM-when we're through).

March I will be bringing a "stand alone" photo printer as well as my laptop to demonstrate the difference in editing and printing with the printer and your memory card or stick AND editing and printing with the software that comes with the "stand alone" printer.

Scrapbooking is all about photography and I want to share an easy option to printing on the fly. Another thing to think about is printing at CROPS. Imagine taking your memory stick and your little printer to a CROP and then printing only the pictures you want to use in your project. We will have refreshments and door prizes so be sure and come. We always learn something new and have such a great time sharing our love. Oh yes, I make sure and always bring a CD with printable goodies that you can take home and print and make from cardstock. I'll be hunting for Mother's day goodies as well as some holiday goodies. I might even add a few children's projects you can print and have ready for Spring break. Hey you need a break after a week of "I'm bored". These cost $5.00 to cover CDs, labels and envelopes.

April Sandra Wenger from the Midland Genealogical Society will be our guest speaker! She will be presenting "Genealogy 101". I'm so excited! I know that we can all add just a little more family history in our scrapbooks. Imagine merging scrapbooking with good genealogical information. I am sure it will take our scrapbooks up from pretty to pretty and practical. What a delight for someone who is seeing our scrapbooks years from now. The pictures will jump from the pages with beauty and with history as well.

I'm also working on getting a published writer from the West Texas Writer's Group for an upcoming meeting. Journaling is a part of most scrapbooks and having someone who knows a little about writing may cause more of us to try our hands at journaling in our books.

May we have a member who is going to share some techniques with us. I won't mention her name in the event she has a change of schedule. It's a little early to plan for sure, but I know I am anticipating all the good things she will share!

Mark those calendars now! The second Tuesday at 7:00PM of every month is PB & J day.

See you there.

Cerise

Praying for One of Our Own

Hey Gals in the Permian Basin,

Vivian Popenhagen is home recovering from what I heard was emergency surgery. I won't go into details, but a couple weeks ago her mom told me she was hurting and having complications from a previous surgical procedure. I guess there was more wrong that met the eyes.

Anyway, just stop and take a moment to pray for Viv. If you get a chance to drop her an email, that would be even better. She's a sweet heart and needs our prayers and love.

Cerise

So Far This Month

Hubby is away until tomorrow, I'm sleepy, but it's way too early to go to bed. I've got a mess in the kitchen and only two of my bagged Stampin' Up! orders left to deliver. I've had two workshops already this month and have three left. Whew! Can we all say, "Way too many irons in her fire?"

We had our PB & J Paper Crafters meeting last Tuesday and had a really great time. We shared the Valentine's the gals made and Ammie won the contest. We had two new gals come and we discussed how we express love in a multitude of ways. We had so many door prizes that we drew names twice! Stephanie brought yummy cookie bars and popcorn. It was a great deal of fun.

I stupidly didn't call the nursing home BEFORE I committed to make Valentines for the residents. After our meeting Tuesday I called and was informed they had 92 residents. I counted all the Valentine's we had made and they totaled 26. Even a rocket scientist knows that 26 isn't 92! So I got my rear in gear and mass produced Valentines all Wednesday and then signed each and every one Thursday. Hubby drove me to the nursing home and I hand delivered them to the activities director. I only saw one or two residents while there, but I can imagine that they would be surprised by the little cards we made. I kept out two of the Valentines for folks I personally know are "shut-ins" and hand delivered one of them. I will hand deliver the second tomorrow! I am blessed that the gals made so many cards as I would have had to work even harder without their beautiful cards.

While deciding what our March meeting topic might be I came up with the idea of using a stand alone photo printer. I own a Canon Selphy as well as a HP printer. I think I'll bring the Selphy and print off some of the club pictures for the gals. These stand alone printers are really quite fun. I may contact one of the computer stores in town and ask them to lend us a couple printers for the March meeting. We shall see if they remember me from my computer geek days!

It's almost half way through February and it's been a very busy month. I may take a couple naps in March! I'm thankful for a patient husband, great gals at PB & J, my fun business and my great daughter, son-in-law and precious grandkids. Oh yeah. I really enjoy Facebook too.


Make a Smilebox slideshow

Inkblots

There are so many techniques one can employ when scrapping or paper crafting, but one of my favorites is as easy as putting on makeup with a sponge. In fact I use makeup sponges to do this technique.

Supplies:

• makeup sponge wedge
• ink pad
• card stock or other paper
• hands

Take your makeup sponge and blot it on your ink pad. Don't get carried away, you are just putting a little ink on the edge of your paper. Now take your punched item or piece of card stock and just brush the edge of the paper with ink. Voila! That's all it takes. I love to make a piece of cardstock look like leather. I use Soft Suede ink from Stampin' UP as it is the perfect color. I then use Kraft colored cardstock from SU as well. I not only edge the cardstock, but blot the entire piece. I don't worry if I get every square centimeter as I want a varied look to my blotting.

I have a Bigz die called "Top Notes" from Stampin' Up. The shape reminds me of a saddle. I use it for loads of things as it's such a classic shape. Blotted it looks so beautiful that I love to experiment with different colors of cardstock and ink.

I will add a picture this afternoon to this post. Gotta run for now.

Cerise

Valentine and Thank You Cards

For those of you who missed the Forget-me-not Keeper workshop. Here are the faces of the cards we are going to make. You should be able to duplicate them with the kit that came along with your FMN Keeper kit.

If you have questions email me at cerwelt@gmail.com

Cerise Welter

Forget-Me-Not Keeper Video tutorial

Lady's Home Journal

I think there is a magazine with a similar name. Hopefully I won't be sued over using it in a similar yet different way.

I have been journaling since I was about 11. I have so many journals strewn around my life that I don't even know how many are stuffed here and there. Why do I journal? Lots of reasons. When I was young I had dreams, fantasies and aspirations for things higher than the present situation I found myself in. I also had a gift for it. Journaling comes easy to me. I started with a "diary" given my by my mother. That got me hooked. The little lock on it was so tiny and the key equally diminuative. I would start with the familiar, "Dear Diary". As I grew up the diary thing turned on me and several people invaded my world and made me regret ever fantasizing about anything.

I got over that. I no longer write fantasy down. Folks with weird perceptions don't understand that pretend and dreaming is normal to a teenaged girl. Let it suffice to say that I learned that I never put down on paper what I don't want the ENTIRE planet to know. People can't keep secrets and invasion of privacy is the norm not the exception.

As I grew to adulthood I learned that "talking out" my problems and perceptions helped me understand others better. I came to learn that other people don't necessarily think like I do or believe like I believe. I would document things God taught me along the pathways of life. I used it for a place to create poetry and song. I used journaling for documenting actual dreams that I felt were significant. I even documented other people's dreams in picture. I also have the ability to draw, another gift from God.

Journaling has become a regular thing with me. I don't journal everyday, but when something significant in my life comes along I write it down. Friends know that a journal is the perfect gift for me. I was given a most elaborate one recently. It was made in Tuscany (Italy) and is covered with tooled leather. It has a leather thong strap that wraps and ties around it. It smells wonderful and feels so textural in my hands. I only put my most imporant thoughts in it. It just seems right.

One of my favorite things to do when I make the time is to go and find old journals and revisit them. I see a cross section of my life during a specific time. I see how I reacted to hard situations and how I rejoiced at good times. I've seen maturity as it developed in my soul. I have even seen the seeds of patience sown in the soil of my heart, watered with the moistening of endurance and weeded of the roots of anxiousness. Those seeds have come to fruition over and over and made me know that God is working a work in me. He is not finished till the curtain is closed on my life and my journals become my memoires.

I don't know what will become of my journals when I go. I'm not afraid to be transparent with others. God has shown me that folks really need to know there are people who aren't afraid of living life honestly before the world. I have nothing to hide. My past is gone and I am living for today. Tomorrow isn't mine until it becomes today. I am content with where I am and looking forward to the moments God gives me each day.

I would encourage the strong and those who want to become strong to journal. Go slowly at first. Just write down things that you are confident in. Things you personally have lived. Never write down mad feelings about others. Those will come back at you as weapons. Just a note written in experience. Write down hard things too. You may have a shell of iron built around you, but others need to know you have survived hardships. You may cover yourself with a fig leaf, but we all have things we want to hide but need to confess to someone, anyone.

I journaled this morning. I am journaling now. Blogs are electronic diaries and journals. They have become the confessional of this century. They are very cathardic and as hard as life is today, a real necessity for the masses.

I hope you have enjoyed this lady's home journaling.

Cerise