How bout a sneak peek of an upcoming tutorial??

Can't wait to show you all how to make one yourself :)

And the winner is...........................

by random pick is ANN CICILIE!!!!! Congrats Ann and THANK YOU to all that left comments about why you love Jenni Bowlin products AND those of you that also left comments about my mom and her progress. It means the world to me that you care!!

Ann! Contact me via email at hudy5@msn.com with your snail mail address so that we can get your Jenni goodies out to you ;)And once again....CONGRATS!!

I AM BACK and with a Jenni Bowlin GIVEAWAY!

It has taken me this long to finally come back and blog and to get back in the scrappy world after hearing my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It has been a very long three months and I have NEVER EVER in my life known anyone as strong as my momma. she has endured a MAJOR operation, recovery, major weight loss, eating issues, and now is going thru chemotherapy. All with a smile on her face and positivity in her voice. I am proud to say as of the last scan she is CANCER FREE!!! I am trying to move on and be faithful and know that SOMEONE somewhere is watching out for her and our family. God and prayer have played a huge role in helping me get thru this time mentally. I thank Him everyday. So now I am feeling ready to resume a more normal life, a happier life thinking happier thoughts! and with that said I HAVE A GIVEAWAY!!

JBS Mercantile is introducing a new quarterly kit we are fondly calling the Mercantile "Dime Store" Kit. Each quarter this kit will be packed with classic JBS products at a special price - 25% off of the total retail value! And. . .best of all, it comes with a project idea and basic instructions to get you started.



You can find more of the kit information RIGHT HERE!! And all the purchase info RIGHT HERE!!
The very exciting part about all this is I get to GIVE AWAY the NEW Dime Store kit to someone!! so starting today until Thursday June 10th, at 8pm cst, LEAVE A COMMENT about what you adore about JBS product and your name will be entered to win the Dime Store kit!!! All entries will e accepted until the above posted time, then I will have a winner picked at random and notify you all on my blog on Friday about who the lucky person is.

Can't wait to hear what you all have to say about why you Love Jenni Bowlin products!

There's a reason for my absence

I have been thinking about blogging about my absence for two weeks now. I am no good at writing interesting stories. I just type what comes into my head and sometimes that isn't all that eloquent, doesn't read like a romance novel, and I dont use extremely large words. But the reason for my absence is extremely large in my life right now. I dont even know how to say it but I will say it....my mother was just recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I remember the phone call on her way home from the biopsy like it was two minutes ago. I froze in my footsteps not knowing how to react. I stuttered over words, I was silenced by fright, and then tried to muster up the courage to give some promising words to her. The minute I hung up the phone, I cried like a baby. I am an only child and dealing with this whole ugly cancer thing is difficult to do it alone. I dont like it at all. Not that I ever thought dealing with a loved one with cancer would be fun, but PANCREATIC CANCER????? I found a quote the other day quite suiting for the situation at hand.... I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. I went thru the whole gammet of emotions, denial, anger, sadness, and I am now focused on HOPE.

For days I buried myself in the internet learning all I could learn about pancreatic cancer, and that made me even more mad and sad and angry, so I just QUIT! So my new quote of the day is Once you choose hope, anything's possible. I have chosen hope and I hope they will be able to treat her and make her well. I hope everyday that she lives a very long life and sees each of her three grandchildren have grandbabies, I hope that she has hope like I do.

My momma left for the Mayo Clinic this morning in Rochester MN. It's all real now, no turning back, no just 'talking' about surgery and treamtents and doctors, its REAL. Time to turn hope up another notch and believe in the doctors and believe they are giving her the best care.

So this is the reason for my absence on my blog and possible absence from scrapping for a bit. I am researching ways to hold a fundraiser for my mom as her medical bills are going to be completely OUTRAGEOUS to say the least. She is only 57 years old and can not get full retirement benefits from her job for another five years, I believe. I want to help her out in any way I can. So if any of you are aware of fundraisers out there, how to organize them, or helpful sites on the internet, let me know!!!

Seriously, MARCH???

Seems like I have been waiting an eternity for March to come....with the new month brings promise of Spring being right around the corner, melting snow, sloppy yards, and WARMER weather....goodbye grey skies, goodbye snow! well not soo much goodbye snow since we still have mountains of it and the temp right now is 18, but I am dreaming :)

Now for my gallery reveals for the March Jenni Bowlin Studios papercrafting kit using the brand new Homespun line!









I love the whole color scheme and feel of this papercrafting kit, could create just about any theme, boy or girl. Lots more to come from the kit and the project kit during the mid month release on the 10th. If you would like to be inspired by the rest of the JBS design team, go check out the entire gallery HERE!

Mid Month JBS Gallery reveals

All of the DT reveals should be up soon over at JBS Mercantile so I thought I would share my mid month reveals here, too :)
First up is the JBS February project kit, a mini vintage aspirin tin with LOTS of tiny little vintage goodies inside. I decided to use my circle punch to create a very mini mini album for the inside of the box. I used my sewing machine to sew the circles together leaving a space in between each 'page' that is all being held together by the thread.





I love the look of the aspirin tin being open just a bit. Reminds me of a vintage mini suitcase filled with goodies :)
I managed to crank out a couple more layouts as well with the JBS Mercantile February Kit...






And after all of that creating, I STILL have leftovers to create more!

They are my Everything...

I created this 'canvas' to celebrate Valentine's day and you can see full instructions at the JBS Inspirational blog :)



What are you creating for your loved ones this year?

JBS Mercantile February Creations and more...

First off two layouts from the JBS Mercantile February papercrafting kit....LOVE IT!



I absolutely love the fact that with the kit, you have soo much product that matches so well but still can pull off two totally different looking layouts. Much more to come from this kit with the mid month release on FEB 1OTH!

I have the pleasure of being the blogger for the JBS Inspirational blog coming up so I thought I would show you a sneak peek of something I have created ;)



In other news besides scrapbooking, I have decided to take on a very big task of bilding some furniture for the home :) I have really been insipred by some of the blogs I read and the women that are creating all of this GREAT furniture. I decided that after much searching onling and in magazines, a bunk bed for the girls is a necessity to give them more space in their room. Problem being all the beds I find online or in mags are WAY too pricey....well that lead me to try to build my own bunk beds for the girls! I started two days ago and was halted in construction today due to a nasty onset of a head cold, so no progress today. But I do have the head board and footboards built, just attaching some posts and headers and putting it all together, painting, and then I will be sure to post some pictures! wish me luck!!

Jenni Bowlin Studios Home decor anyone?

I will be the first to admit I am a chronic hoarder of anything butterflies and Jenni Bowlin Studios UNTIL I find the absolute perfect use for them. Well this week has been my week to conquer the mess of my daughters' room. My 7 yr old and 4 1/2 year old share a room and I swear that room fills up with more stuff than I even ever knew they had. So after some cleaning, more painting, dismantling of the baseball ceiling fan that had been in there previously from their brother occupying their room, I decided to 'alter' a ceiling fan for them :) I first painted the blades a shade of purple to match the colors of their room, then just used two different rub ons, alternating which blade they went on and came up with this...


My next little project was a brainstorm of just how I could get my girls to quit using packing tape to hang their artwork on their newly painted walls??? They both LOVE to draw, write, color, and paint and always want their artwork displayed so I came up with an idea of using a regular 1 by 4, adding some JBS Mercantile mini papers to it, then adhering some clothespins on it for hanging papers and now there is NO tape going up on their walls anymore :) Makes this momma very happy!



I definitely think the crappy Iowa winter weather is getting to me...cuz if I don't stay busy creating, sewing, altering, or painting, I just might go INSANE!! Next project...the girls art desk ;)

Random Blathering

I have not blogged in two weeks and feel I could cover a lot of ground, but would you really be interested in reading it all? doubt it....so I will summarize...

SNOW DAYS X 5 with no snow days built into the school schedule, we will be lucky to be out of school before the 4th of July ;)

THE FLU hit us all like a ton of bricks...first the wee one, I was up with her all night, and then it spiralled downward, we dropped like flies in this order, Kamy, Averee, ME, Brayden, Jason, and then Brayden again? (or was that just a ploy to miss another day of school??)

THE BIRTHDAY Today is Averee's birthday...she is a very glorious seven years old and acts the age of a much older, much more sophisticated 14 year old. I love that about her. She is laid back sometimes, way too loud other times, and just down right, undeniably irresistable. Due to above mentioned sicknesses, all parties are postponed til next weekend when we are all healthy and ready.

SEWING I have been doing some sort of sewing almost every day. To break up the day, to break up the monotony of no sun, to just play around and learn and love and create.

SCRAPBOOKING That has been a big part of the last week and I guarantee it would have played a bigger role, had we not all come down with the plague. JBS Mercantile Janury mid month release :) I give a little tutorial on how to create this on the JBS Inspirational Blog if you would like to see.




I am already working on a project for the JBS blog for February and boy am I in the festive Valentine spirit already! Want a little peek?

Most of what you see here so far is just fabric, but will be asdding lots of Jenni goodies to it to make it complete! Look for my project to be on the blog February
2nd.

January Jenni Bowlin Creations!

and what a kit it is!! I love the color palette and still have soo much more creating to do. With the holidays now over, and the kids back to school in a couple days, maybe I will be able to get something done :) I did get a chance to create two layouts already...




And there will be lots more to come on the 10th at the JBS Mercantile site, where the design team has a mid month reveal, so don't miss that!