Hi! I'm bananas for you!!!! My mom created me today - she was leafing through a Crafts 'N Things magazine and saw a pillow with a sock monkey on it and she got all excited and ran like a crazy woman into the craft room to try to put me together. I'm so glad she did!

Once she put me together with punches and a bit of paper piecing for my hat (she made my fringe by cutting a strip of card stock and then making little cuts into the strip...then she sprayed it lightly with water and scrunched, scrunched, scrunched it), she couldn't find an appropriate greeting for my card so she carried me (again, running like a crazy woman) into the office to get on the computer and make a greeting. I suggested she type "let's monkey around," but she said that that would limit who she could send the card to :)

Hope you like me as much as I like me :) And don't forget, I'm bananas for YOU!!!!!

Today's Lesson to the Craft Room: Stick with it!

Yesterday I decided I needed to start reorganizing the craft room...of course the hallway now looks like it has been struck by a tornado! Yes, I'm still working on it and am making slow and steady progress. So today's card is my congratulations for when I'm done! :) (which will hopefully be in the very near future!)

I was inspired by the utensil holder/bucket here http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/fo...d=123579265 3.

I scored 3 lines on the bottom of the card. I punched the stars from glossy card stock. The greeting is also stamped on glossy card stock with Staz-On ink. Whatever it is you are doing today, stick with it. If you do, congratulations are definitely in order!!!!!

Today I tried a new technique! I had never frayed ribbon before and once I frayed it I decided it might look very cool to cut up the frayed ribbon and glue it down to a piece of card stock. It makes the paper look handmade! I was really pleased with the finished product.

I used mono adhesive to coat the card stock and then applied the cut pieces of frayed ribbon. I used was paper to push the ribbon down into the glue (which will save you from getting incredibly sticky fingers if you decide to give this a try!). Let me know if you try it and how you like it!!!!

Today's Lesson from the Craft Room: All You Have is All You Need

Today was a great day to be reminded of the lesson that all I have is all I need. The challenge on SCS was to be frugal - to use something we already had to create a card. I used the acetate box from one of my Sizzix dies and ran it through the Big Shot with the Circle Die and made acetate circles. I stamped them with white craft ink and then made the same circles out of card stock and attached them to the acetate with brads.

I also cut out 3x3 and a 3.5x3.5 squares of card stock and used those to dry emboss the "frame" on the card. I paper pierced around the frame.

I hope to always be reminded of this lesson since I seem to forget it sometimes (particularly when it comes to art supplies!). All I have is really all I need.

Today's Lesson from the Craft Room: Follow Your Own Rhythm!

Today I really noticed how my energy ebbs and flows throughout the day. At times I am focused and energized. At other times, distracted and dragging. So I tried something a bit new today. I worked when I was energized and did household chores when I felt I was dragging and here I am at 9 p.m. feeling like I accomplished a lot by following my own rhythm - rather than letting the time on the clock rule my day.

The color challenge on SCS today was also energizing! What great colors (summer sun, kiwi kiss and pumpkin pie)! I stamped the polka dot punch stamp in white craft ink on the summer sun paper. I also used white embossing powder for the heart image (also from the Polka Dot Punch stamp set). The "heart to heart" panel is attached using dimensionals so I could "tuck" the larger yellow panel underneath. Hope you like it!

Tonight's Lesson from the Craft Room speaks for itself...CREATE!!!! I made this sign using the clear flower Big Shot die and the Naturally Serif alphabet dies along with some of the free designer series paper from Sale-a-bration. I've included a photo with some up close detail since it was hard to get a great photo of the entire banner (need to work on my photography skills).

Today's Lesson from the Craft Room: Take a break!

Today's challenge on SCS was a lot of fun! We had to make a card by stamping with rubber bands wrapped around a stamp block...a ton of fun...as long as you don't snap yourself with the rubber bands (yes, I did it twice...ouch!).

I started the morning with a 7 a.m. conference call and by lunch time I was sooooo ready for a break. I thought...where better to take a break than the craft room?! So off I went to tackle the challenge and I had a ton of fun!!!! Sometimes you just need to take a little break from whatever you are doing...it can change everything :)

I used my sizzix clear flower die for the large blush blossom flower and sponged the edges with blush blossom ink. I punched ovals from sahara sand and then sprayed them with a little water and "crunched" them and then sponged the edges with sahara sand ink. The background was made by wrapping rubber bands around a block and inking it up with versamark and then embossing the image with clear embossing powder once it was stamped. Hope you enjoy...and thanks for taking a break with me :)