Moved to lyssa-beth.blogspot.com!! Switch on over!

Moving to lyssa-beth.blogspot.com! Update Feeds

Moving to my new home!  You will be automatically redirected to Lyssa-beth.blogspot.com
but I am posting this for your feeds, so that it will pop up and you will know!  Hopefully you can update your feeds :)  Thanks guys!

too many ideas...

I want this to be great and exactly what I want.  I'm just figuring out how to do that...

Consolidating...

Hiya Folks.

Ok so this very moment, I am battling the biggest and worse headache I've had since getting spinal headaches from Kate's pregnancy and complications with the epidural...so fun.

But besides that, I've been thinking for sometime now, that I want to simplify things...

meaning change is a-coming.

It's funny that 4 years ago, I had everything on 1 blog but decided to separate my crafting self from my family self.  But you know what?  I want to combine them again.

So I have a new name coming & a new website too.  And I am in the process of getting everything redirected over to the new site so that you can still find me and my past links.

I'll keep you updated as far as the new website and all that fun & exciting stuff :)

But I just wanted to give you a heads up

Hope all is well for you guys.

maybe I should call it slacking party?

I've been SLLLAAACCKKKIINNGG

Sorry about that.

I've been putting most of my focus on my photography business these days.

Do you want to see the fruits of my labor?
www.lyssabethphotography.com

I mentioned this on FB  but I think I have a bad case of  "crafting ADD"
Do you want to know what that is?

It's where you have all these things you want to do or make.

So you start in one field, like say sewing.

You do sewing for a few weeks or months...

and then out of no where, you have no desire to do that anymore.  Like you feel you've conquered that goal and ready to move onto the next thing.
So you do...and then after you make something, you are done.

So this cycle starts again and you go through it over and over again.

Until you have done everything you've wanted to achieve.

That's what i'm feeling right now...

So you might be thinking, then why are you starting a photography business?!

Well, through it all, photography has been always constant.  I've been doing it since high school.  So I feel that it's not a fad for me.

So i'm just getting things figured out with my crafting self. The thing is, I still create stuff. It is just the, taking photos and posting it on the blog part that is just hard for me. I don't know why!

I know that I have been trying to spend more time with my family and less time on the computer. I need to simplify, you know? So I appreciate your support and being here with me while I go through this creative journey :) Next week, i'll get the Link up because now, Sunday is almost over :)

PS, you know my love of my eCraft, right? Well I have been able to start really using it and I love it even more. What is even better is that Craftwell has a blog now for the eCraft creations! Come on over there and follow their blog! They have awesome contests going on. You gotta check it out :)

Guest Post at The Silly Pearl

Hi ladies!  How's your September been?!
Has yours been extremely busy like mine?  I blame that for my absence here.

But in the meantime, head on over to my friend Steph's blog, The Silly Pearl.  It's a fabulous blog and very fun to see the wonderful creations she's got over there.

I'm doing another intro over there today.  Might look very similar to the one I did last week but it's okay :)

Have a great week!

Guest Posting at Christina's Adventures

Hi everyone!  Just a heads up...a late heads up but a heads up none the less.

I'm over at Christina Adventures today!  You can find out a little bit more about me over there.
While you are there, make sure you check out her site.  It's such a great place for eye candy and inspiration!
Thanks for having me over there Christina!

let's share & be friends party

Another week!

Thanks for sharing with us.  It's so fun to see what everyone is doing :)

Most viewed link was from the Liz Marie Blog with her nail polish organizer!

Thanks for playing!

Well it's your turn!

link up anything you want to share:

-thrifty finds

-something you've made

-tutorials

-scrapbooking!

-Thrifty redos

  

Grab a button and help spread the word!!

Please link up specific posts

Add button or text link to it so people can find us :)

<a href="http://www.bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd340/lyssabz/sundaypartybuttoncopy-1.jpg" /></a>

Super Saturday is coming...

I am beyond excited to be part of my Ward's Super Saturday committee this year.  We have so many cute crafts & ideas for the big night.  It isn't until November but we are already getting them all made  :)

I whipped up this poster to display and for handouts.  I love pink, red & blue.

Winner of the eCraft is...

We have a winner!

 Ruthie from Erika Valdez's blog was chosen and has won the eCraft Personal Cutting machine!!

Congrats Ruthie and a big THANK YOU to Craftwell for playing with us and giving away this wonderful machine.

Also a big thank you to all of you who played along with both the Back to School & Sewing Blog Hops.

It's been so fun seeing all the great creations you can make with this wonderful machine.  Don't let the inital reactions you read about it steer you away.  There is a learning curve.  But once you understand her as a machine, it will be worth it!  It is SO NICE not to worry about a mat in order to cut!  I love that it can be independant or plugged into the computer for endless creations!  You  will love the eCraft as much as I do!!

Preliminary Winners are up!

Alrighty ladies!  Head on over to Raven's Blog for the Preliminary Winners!
She also has posted the winners from the last blog hop we had in August.  Those 20 names will be put into the drawing for the big big prize, an eCraft machine!

So jump on over HERE now!

eCraft Sewing Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the SEWING BLOG HOP!

All of the fabulous designers on this hop are showing you a Sewing project in celebration to National Sewing Month using the Fabulous and versatile eCraft.

If you just arrived here from Erika's Blog then you are in the right place. If you just happened upon my blog please start at the beginning over at Raven’s Blog. That way you will be able to see all of the amazing projects and you will have more ways to win.  After me, you will go to Faith's Blog :)

I'm "sew" excited to show you my sewing project!  Ta Daaa!!!

Don't you love those colors?!  And I want this shirt in my size stat!
Alright, let's get down to it and show you how to make this bad boy ;)

Grab your supplies:
shirt
starch
fabrics of choice
heat n' bond
eCraft :)

So I picked out my fabrics from this Charm Pack.  What a lovely group of prints!  It was so hard to decide what 4 to use but I finally narrowed it down.

 Start with spraying your fabric with starch to stiffen it up.

 Once it's been absorbed in the fabrics, iron them dry.

Next cut out heat n' bond to cover the wrong sides of the fabric.  Make sure the bumpy glue side is touching the wrong side of the fabric.

Iron those on and let cool.

Once the fabric is ready to go, prepare the eCraft :)  Load up the fabric, putting on 0 tab settings and choose your design.  Here's a video to show you how it went :)

Once I cut out all my letters, I arranged them on my shirt.  I took off the paper backing as well. Take your iron and iron those letters on!  Press firmly and hold, covering the whole shape to make sure it bonds on! 

Here are the "negatives" from cutting.  Look how great the eCraft did!

Next I secured the letters by sewing them on the shirt.

All sewed up!

And here's the happy model, excited to wear this to school next week!!

Seriously can't wait to make more creations with this machine!!!

Ok so back to business...

Here is a list of all the designers on the hop in case you get lost along the way: **(there are 2 bloggers who are sick and have been deleted from the list.  When they are better and post up their creations, I will add them back to the list!)**

Raven Baca http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
Debi Tullier http://fabric-ecraft.blogspot.com/
Denise O'Connor http://purplepaperparadise.blogspot.com/
Erika Valdez http://www.craftysprouts.com/
Lyssa Zimmerman http://bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com/
Faith Freeman http://faithfulecreations.com/
KimberlyRae Forde http://kreationsbykimberlyrae.com/blog/
Rosa Ahrens http://www.for-micaela.blogspot.com/
Zeni Pradel http://www.scrappyzeni.blogspot.com/
Craftwell USA http://ecraftbycraftwell.blogspot.com/

Okay so you probably want to know what you can win, right? As some of you may have heard from this hop, the amazing eCraft machine that we are all using is created by CraftwellUSA.com. This company is really amazing, their customer service is fabulous and the products are top notch.

Well when they heard about our hop they decided to giveaway (1) One eCraft to (1) One lucky winner!!

So what do you need to do right?!

1.)     Head on over to eCraft's NEW BLOG and follow it :)  Come back here and leave a comment telling me you did so (Only one comment will be
qualify per person additional comments will not count.)
2.)     Like eCraft’s facebook page  so you can see more awesome projects and tutorials.  And you will know who wins the machine!
3.)     Follow my little ol' blog ;).  You can also follow me via twitter, Facebook & pinterest...but not required ;)

***PLEASE READ***

Due to blogger difficulties going on, the Giveaway will end Sept 10th 9AM EST .  Each blog on the Blog Hop will pick a winner.  Since there are 10 of us participating in the Blog Hop, there will be 10 winners that will go into the pool to win the eCraft machine.  The first bunch of winners from the "Back to School" Blog Hop will add another 10 winners.   So at the end, there will be 20 chosen winners that have a chance to win an eCraft!!  Which means you better hit every blog on this Blog Hop and enter for more chances!!

(1) One lucky winner will win an eCraft Machine & be announced on the eCraft's blog on the evening of September 10th. The winner will also be listed on the eCraft Facebook page 

All are welcome to hop, however the eCraft giveaway is only open to U.S. entries. Thank you so much for your understanding.

Let's Share and Be Friends Party #3

Another week!

Thanks for sharing with us.  It's so fun to see what everyone is doing :)

A heads up for tomorrow!

The eCraft Blog Hop starts TOMORROW! This time, we are featuring projects with sewing !! Can't wait to show you what I have made. This is another chance to win a spot in the big drawing for an eCraft machine!

Ok now onto our sharing party...

The most viewed link was Miss Kopy Kat with this:

Thanks so much for sharing!

Well it's your turn!
link up anything you want to share:

-thrifty finds

-something you've made

-tutorials

-scrapbooking!

-Thrifty redos

  

Grab a button and help spread the word!!
Please link up specific posts
Add button or text link to it so people can find us :)

<a href="http://www.bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd340/lyssabz/sundaypartybuttoncopy-1.jpg" /></a>

Winner, Winner

Have you been just waiting and waiting?!  This week is crazy for me.  My eldest is off to Kindergarden this Friday.  We had her teacher meet today and just a bunch of other stuff.  So I am posting the winners from the My Memories Suite giveaway & UPrinting giveaway today. 

So winner of My Memories Suite is...
True Random Number Generator
Min:
Max:


Result: 5

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

#5 is The Risdons!


WInner of UPrinting 50 brochures is:

True Random Number Generator
Min:
Max:
 

Result: 2

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

#2 is Gretchen!!

Both Winners, please contact me for further instructions!  Congrats ladies and thanks for playing along!

a wee bit of reminders...

How was your weekend?
Well thank you guys for playing along with me on Sundays with my Let's Share & Be Friends Party :)  I love what you guys share!!

So a few things wrapping up this week:

My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software giveaway!!  Very low numbers folks!  This is a great scrapbook software.  If you are wanting to try Digital scrapbooking, this is a great place to start!  This Ends tomorrow night!

UPrinting Giveaway Ends Wednesday Night!  You have a chance to win 50 printed brochures!  These are great quality prints to help you with your business needs! 

You gotta get on these!  You don't want to miss out on this.

Also, a heads up, another eCraft blog hop will be happening on Sept. 5th!!  This time, we are doing anything sewing with it...So excited about this!  I love experimenting with fabrics.  Hopefully something good will come from it :)  But you have another chance to get in the big drawing for an eCraft ;)  So watch for that.
Have a great Monday!

Let's Share & Be Friends Sunday Party #2

Thanks everyone for linking up last week!!  What a great turnout.  I love seeing everyone's links.  You guys are awesome!

So the link with the most clicks was from The Liz Marie Blog with this number right here:

I LOVE mason jars!  What a cute way to serve drinks!
Well it's your turn!
link up anything you want to share:

-thrifty finds

-something you've made

-tutorials

-scrapbooking!

-Thrifty redos

  

Grab a button and help spread the word!!
Please link up specific posts
Add button or text link to it so people can find us :)

<a href="http://www.bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd340/lyssabz/sundaypartybuttoncopy-1.jpg" /></a>

UPrinting Giveaway!

I am excited to share with you another great giveaway this week.  It's kind of odd, having awesome giveaways on my blog, but I have been lucky to have been contacted by these lovely companies.
UPrinting is one of those companies!  They are a printing company that can meet all your advertising and marketing needs!

They have everything from Business cards to Calendars and everything inbetween.  You seriously need to check out their website for their large array of items that they can print.  It's a businesses dream!

Another great thing they print are Brochures! 

Do you know what you could do with brochures?
Well, for one, it's perfect for a new business wanting to get the word out!
You take them around local businesses and have them available to customers.
These brochures can be customized with the highest quality printing.  It will be a perfect addiction to your company.

I haven't told you yet but I am starting a photography business, Lyssa Beth Photography and these brochures will be perfect to help me grow this little venture of mine.  They make it really easy with their brochure templates.  I can't wait to get started on designing them.  And when you are done, order them off and no more worries.  Their print brochures are wonderful.  I can't wait to see how mine turn out!

Sooooo UPrinting is giving one of you 50 custom brochures!!!

That's right, you get:
-50 pcs Brochure printing for One (1) Winner
-8.5" x 11"100lb Paper GlossWith Folding (Half Fold, Trifold/Letterfold, Z-Fold, Roll Fold, Accordion Fold),
-Outside and Inside Printing
-2 Business Days Turnaround
-*Free shipping

Restriction: Limited to *US residents 18 years old and above only

So in order to win, i'm going to make it really simple:

Leave a comment and tell me what you would do with your 50 brochures.
That's it.

If you want extras:
Spread the word about the giveaway via Twitter or FB (there are buttons for those beneath this post, super simple!).  Leave a comment for each.

Giveaway ends Aug. 31st at midnight :)


Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting and I will receive brochure printing services for hosting. Visit UPrinting.com for more information about brochures and available brochure templates.

My Memories Suite giveaway.

One of the things I love about digital scrapbooking is that I can download a picture on the computer and immediately scrapbook it!  I have done digital scrapbooking mainly through free sites, like scrapblog.com until the end of last year, when I got a photo editing program on craigslist for a killer deal.  That has helped me to get more familar how things work on the computer.  Yet the program I was using wasn't digital scrapbook friendly...BIG learning curve!

Well recently I was contacted by My Memories about their digital scrapbook software called My Memories Suite.  My fears and confusions are out the window folks.

The program is so simple.  It immediately downloads into your computer so you can access it right away.  Do you want to see what I made in 5 minutes after downloading the program?  Seriously, i'm not kidding.  This thing is so easy and user-friendly...

And this wasn't even their papers and embellishments that are found on the program!  So you can imagine how much easier and faster it would have been to make something already in the program!

Speaking of stuff, their designs are adorable and so fun to play with!
I made a chore chart recently from them just to show you that there are many things to do with their scrapbook software:

Inspiration is from here.

Do you want to hear GREAT news?

My Memories is giving away a My Memories Suite Scrapbook software package to a lucky reader!!

That's a $40 value for free :)

So how do you win?

1- head on over to My Memories and pick a favorite digital goodie they have :) come back here and tell me!

Extras-
1 - Follow My Memories Suite on Facebook, Twitter or their Blog.  Leave a comment for each.
2 - Follow yours truly via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Blog. Leave a comment for each.
3- Tweet or FB about this giveaway!  LEave a comment for each thing you do.

Giveaway will be open for one week.

So for those of you who can't wait and want the software right now, have I got a deal for you...

My Memories is giving you readers your very own coupon code that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software AND a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!!!

Coupon Code:  STMMMS33862

You will not regret having this product in your home.  It makes digital scrapbooking a snap.  Think how much family history you can do with this thing?  ;)

Let's Share & Be Friends Sunday Party

Today's the day!  I think it would be fun to link up anything you want to share:

-thrifty finds

-something you've made

-tutorials

-scrapbooking!

-Thrifty redos

The possibilities are endless, my friends :)

So for now, it'll go for a week.  We will see how it goes.  This is a test, this is only a test.

And I would love for you to help spread the word!

Grab a button and add to the post you link up.  Or you can do a text link too.
Either way, just link up back to here.

<a href="http://www.bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd340/lyssabz/sundaypartybuttoncopy-1.jpg" /></a>

Let's Share & Be Friends Sunday party

So I've got something new to share with you tomorrow!
So I don't know if you remember all the linky parties I used to have?  Like 3 a week?  Whoa, way too many!  So I am consolidating!
Cue Sunday Linky Party!

I'm calling it "Let's Share & Be Friends" Sunday Party.

I figure it's a great place to share ideas, things you've made, thrifty finds and redos!  I would love if you would come and join me tomorrow!  It will be a weekly linky party.  More the merrier, if you ask me!

See you tomorrow with things to share!!

My friendship bracelet.

I signed up for the Friendship Bracelet Swap over at Ruffled Sunshine.  It was so fun being part of a wonderful idea and group!

So I took a different approach to the traditional friendship bracelet.
I did a fabric bracelet :)

I used THIS tutorial but changed it up a bit.  I used buttons and a button hole instead.  This was my first time doing that and I practiced over and over again so I wouldn't mess up!  Not as hard as I thought though...after doing it 100 times ;)

I really like the yo-yos on them.  They are so bright and fun.  And I just really love gray these days so I couldn't pass up using these fabrics!

 

I got them mailed off to my new friends.  I hope they like them!

"Hello Friend" printable found HERE. 

Linking it up to THESE parties

eCraft "Back to School" Blog Hop!

Welcome to the BACK TO SCHOOL BLOG HOP!

All of the fabulous designers on this hop are showing you a BACK TO SCHOOL project using the
Fabulous and versatile eCraft.

If you just arrived here from Erika's Blog then you are in the right place. If you just happened upon my blog please start at the beginning over at Raven’s Blog. That way you will be able to see all of the amazing projects and you will have more ways to win.  After me, you will go to Faith's Blog :)

Here is my project for the hop :)

I decided to make a cute little "Survival Kit" for my daughter's Kindergarden teacher.  Heaven knows that that many 5-6 year olds will drive you crazy!  So i figured this little stash of treats will help her survive the first day of school!

So I began by getting a pencil case, on sale for .50 :)  talk about cheap!!
I gathered some paper I had on hand and measured and cut my paper...courtesy of eCraft, duh!
Next, with the help of some modge podge, I started putting the paper on the case.

I cut out my letters via eCraft.  The small letters were 1 inch and the larger ones were 2 inches.

Done with the modge podging!

Next I grabbed some treats and filled it up!

Then I got some cute "back to school" ribbon I had and tied it around the case.

It's ready to go!  I hope Emma's teacher likes it. :)  It's a great & very inexpensive teacher gift!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ok so back to business...

Here is a list of all the designers on the hop in case you get lost along the way:

Raven Baca http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
Carley Carter http://the-real-icarley.blogspot.com/
Debi Tullier http://fabric-ecraft.blogspot.com/
Denise O'Connor http://purplepaperparadise.blogspot.com/
Erika Valdez http://www.craftysprouts.com/
Lyssa Zimmerman http://bornagaincrafter.blogspot.com/
Faith Freeman http://faithfulecreations.com/
KimberlyRae Forde http://kreationsbykimberlyrae.com/blog/
Rosa Ahrens http://www.for-micaela.blogspot.com/
Zeni Pradel http://www.scrappyzeni.blogspot.com/
Craftwell USA http://craftwellusa.com/

Okay so you probably want to know what you can win, right? As some of you may have heard from this hop, the amazing eCraft machine that we are all using is created by CraftwellUSA.com. This company is really amazing, their customer service is fabulous and the products are top notch.

Well when they heard about our hop they decided to giveaway (1) One eCraft to (1) One lucky winner!!

So what do you need to do right?!

1.)     Please leave one comment here on my blog (Only one comment will be
qualify per person additional comments will not count.)
2.)     Like eCraft’s facebook page  so you can see more awesome projects and tutorials.
3.)     Follow my little ol' blog ;).  You can also follow me via twitter, Facebook & pinterest...but not required ;)

***PLEASE READ***

Due to blogger difficulties going on, the Giveaway will end next Monday at 6 AM!!! 

Each blog on the Blog Hop will pick a winner.  Since there are 11 of us participating in the Blog Hop, there will be 11 winners that will go into the pool to win the eCraft machine.  We are also having another blog hop on September 5th.  ALL comments left this week and on the September 5th blog hop will be eligible to win the eCraft so this will give you more chances to win.  So at the end, there will be 24 chosen winners that have a chance to win an eCraft!!  Which means you better hit every blog on this Blog Hop and enter for more chances!!

(1) One lucky winner will win an eCraft Machine & be announced on Raven’s blog on September 10th. The winner will also be listed on the eCraft Facebook page 

All are welcome to hop, however the eCraft giveaway is only open to U.S. entries. Thank you so much for your understanding.