Time for a Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Summer Hop!

We're all sharing some fun things with you for the next 4 days.  Make sure you check out the links below to head over to Alyssa's blog.

Here's an update on my Summer Smash book.  Click here to see the first post.  I'm documenting our entire summer in this one book.  All of our activities.

The first page is our trip to San Diego on the Amtrak.  My son loves trains so we take him at least once a month - either to San Diego or LA.  The second page is a picture of my cousin Tammy holding Nick.  Great shot of them but not one I'm going to actually scrapbook.  And I found the perfect use for those chip flowers from the October Afternoon 5 & Dime line.....

Some of those cool Smash pockets hold our ticket stubs and other pictures from the trip.  I have the Canon Selphy printer.  I printed out 12 different photos before choosing the ones I want on the page.  The rest went in the pocket.

Another trip to Chuck E. Cheeses.  Thats what happens when you live right around the corner from one.  Plus we had a bag of tickets to redeem from the field trip.

Next up was our harbor cruise in Newport Beach.  I got a great Groupon Deal for this and bought several of them.  I figured we could all go at least twice this summer. 

 I like to look at the boats and houses and pick out the ones I would buy if I had a million dollars.....

 This page stumped me but I can't bear to rip it out.  So it became the movie ticket stub page.  All of our ticket stubs will go here.  So far we have Hangover 2 and Cars 2.

If you haven't purchased a Smash book yet, you should.  These are great ways of taking your scrapbooking on the road.  The next update I have will be the pages I got done during our Calgary trip!

Thanks for checking out my latest Smash ideas.  I have two Stash Cash certificates to give away this week.  Leave a comment on this post with your fun summer plans ....... then, head on over to Alyssa's blog now for even more chances to win.  I'll draw (1) winner on Friday July 29th!  You can also win some of the new Fancy Pants lines (win it before you can buy it!) by participating in our Scraplift Challenge.  Lift any idea from the July Gallery for a chance to win.  All of the details are over on the store blog.

Store Blog
Erica's Blog <-------- You're here!
Alyssa
Jennie
Kristin
Shellye
Sharm
Jessy
Yvonne

And if you want an extra chance to win, head on over to our Facebook Page.

Thats 20 chances to win!

NSD Crop

Since I barely brought out the camera that weekend I don't have a lot of photos to choose from.  A lot of them just aren't for public viewing.

I have a great group of friends (Lisa, Cori and Bea) and through you I've met even more great people (Elaine, Sandy and Gloria).

Thank you all for a great weekend.

So much to share.....

I've got posts scheduled for the next two weeks just so I can share everything thats been going on.  That includes some layouts too.

These flowers made their way onto canvas bags for the NSD Crop I hosted last month.  What a fantastic weekend.  This was the first crop I had ever hosted and despite a few snags, everyone had fun and I'll be doing another one in the fall.

A mix of MME and Pink Paislee Sweetness. Lots of stitching and Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.  For the border, I punched several strips of the Martha Stewart Cherish border set and then cut them into random bits.

I've been holding on to these pictures and papers forever and finally used them.  I have a hard time using papers I really like and this school line from Crate Paper was no exception.  I added in some American Crafts Zing powders on the Maya Road chipboard and some Shabby Chic Crafts labels.

Finding time to scrap

because thats why I take the pictures right?  I carved out a few hours this month to make something.  Really, I was at a breaking point.  I love owning a store but sometimes the responsibilities that go along with it are just too much.  So I broke down and brought people in to help me.  In the past, my wonderful friends have spent the day helping me catch up on order so that I can handle some website updates but I really needed someone on a regular basis.

So, 2 days a week, there is someone that comes in to help fill orders.  I used to work with her way back when I had a 'real' job.  She was telecom and I was Help Desk.  In the past 2 weeks since she's been here, it's freed up little bits of time that allow me to spend more time with my son (like taking a day and going to Disneyland).  In the end, the business isn't suffering.  Instead, its growing.  Again.

So while Alyssa handles the DT and the blog and Pam fills orders - I'm adding new products to the store.  I'm able to finish editing the pictures from CHA (because you really want to see them right?) and assist with the warehouse 'remodel'.  After the construction to repair the leaks, it needed some organization.

See, I'm organized but I'm not.  When it was just me filling orders, product had its place.  I *knew* where it was and it made sense to me.  Not to the people helping me though.  What they don't see as 'buttons', I do.  So, slowly, I'm working on some reorg for this poor thing.  That includes new racks, new ways of storing and displaying the boxes of product so that we can pull items easily.

And it reminds me of all the products sitting in my *stash* that are seriously neglected.  Like the cute little containers of Zing.  My mists.  My washi tape.  And that rack of patterned paper.  We won't even go into how many trees make up my stash.

About that stash.  Its a little lighter this week after throwing together some layouts and a quick mini book.

Daddys Girl - Echo Park  - Little Girl line(Excuse the wrinkled white paper.  Thats where the photo will go when I get it printed).  KI Memories pocket and Glitter Word stickers, Studio Calico stamp with Jenni Bowlin ink pad, Bakers Twine, Martha Stewart Border punches, Maya Road velvet ric rac and some My Little Shoebox Tiny Alphas.

Another one for the same friend.  No title.  But her little outfit was yellow and navy.  I mixed and matched the Little Boy and Little Girl lines from Echo Park.  The navy paper is from the Little Boy line and the yellow is from Little Girl. Circle punches, border punches and heart punches.  I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to staple the tiny hearts.  The dress is an older Maya Road item. It was from the girls chipboard keychain we sold a couple of years ago.  I've been hoarding it for something like this.  I tried to recreate an outfit similar to the one in the picture (again, one that needs to get printed).  The flower is cut from the KI Memories Glitter Words.

A mini album using scraps from Echo Park Little Girl.

Just something quick I threw together.  I used a Jenni Bowlin paint dabber (Malted Milk) to cover the edges of the Maya Road mini.  I didn't want to waste time cutting the paper out to fit or using a craft knife.  I'll be adding Stickles and other random bits (butterfly punches) before I send this to my friend.

I have more to share but I'll save that for another post.