Advent Calendars with Tins

I made 2 of these last year and I am busy working on my first two for this year. These are for a first time client I met at the Parents of Multiples event last week.

These make great holiday gifts and a unique advent calendar to count down the 24 days before Christmas. Each day has room to add your own picture (though it has to be SMALL to fit on the page) and I provide a small easel. Please contact me for information on how to order one of these cuties. They are a lot of work and are time consuming so if you need one for your holiday decorating, I'd need to know in the next few weeks.

D-Day!

It's Deadline Day to order name albums for the holidays. If you not yet contacted me please do so by the end of the day today. I do need deposits to guarantee your order will be placed. Thank you to the ladies who have ordered so far.

I have already told my husband to show my girls a picture of me at least once a day in November so they remember what I look like since I don't think I'll see the outside of my scrap room. I do have a new friend to keep me company here though.... my in-laws gave us a fern and I put it in here and it's just the touch this room needed.

Hitting the Road

Last night I attended the Parents of Multiples vendor show at the Galleria. I had a terrific time meeting these amazing multi-tasking mommas (and papas!). I made some great new scrapping contacts and hope to add some people to my scrapbooking circle. I also took a few orders for (of course) name albums and some lunch boxes. It was a very successful night!

Today, Catrina and I went to shangri la. It was like heaven on earth. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Creative Gatherings but I must say that my visit to Lasting Memories in Baldwin Place certainly opened my eyes to other wonderful places to shop within a 60 mile radius of my house (it was a hike to go there but I justified it with a detour to Danbury to check out the Christmas Tree Shop). Unfortunately, Lasting Memories is closing its doors and will only be doing crop classes at hotels. I took advantage of their great sale to score some fabulous Wild Asparagus paper (Creative Gatherings doesn't carry this line and it's always been a favorite of mine) as well as some new brands I'd never seen before. My best purchase by far is my new metal paper stacker that will stack my paper 12 shelves high and allow me to sort them a little better. The metal stacker is now my third favorite inanimate object (after my car and my cricut expression).

Ok, enough about all that... let's talk Ebay! I just listed a whole bunch of new Halloween and Christmas items that I'm super excited about. I previewed one of the Halloween layouts and told you to keep an eye out for my Disney Halloween layout and -let me tell you- this layout is CRAZY... the giant icon is made out of some really cool paper and the little Mickey on the 2nd page is adorable for anyone who has a child who is going to dress as Dracula... or just loves Mickey!

Bewitched

I needed an escape from names and I also wanted to get my hands on my Halloween supplies that have been waiting patiently for me. I love the Scenic Route line of supplies. I even managed to stitch all of the mats (I went out of my comfort zone and did a STRAIGHT STITCH... holy cow!). I hope you like this too and remember there is more than just basic black and orange when making your Halloween layouts.

Stay tuned for my upcoming Disney Halloween layout. You'll be able to bid on these Halloween pages when I get them listed on my Ebay page in the next day or so.

Closeup of the witch skirt:

Love the Primas!:

Field Trip!

My name albums have been very good so I decided to let them stop their work and go on a little field trip.... ok, so it was just in my backyard. I think I'm losing my mind with these name albums, don't you?

Speaking of field trip, please stop by and see me as I'm out and about at the Poughkeepsie Galleria's Community Room on Wednesday October 15th from 7-9.

Cowgirl theme:

For my favorite California Momma:

How cool is this one? Notice the LOVE spelled down the front of the first letter.... I love this one!! I may order one for myself.

Progress Report:

Finally! Finished Name Albums! This set was 90% done and just needed the rings for finishing so after a quick trip to Office Depot today I was able to finish them. These clients should check their mailboxes this week... I'll be shipping Tuesday (post offices are closed tomorrow).

No, you're not seeing double. This was a unique assignment for me. A mother wanted to give these to each set of grandparents for Christmas but they had to be IDENTICAL (I can totally relate! She didn't want either set to think theirs wasn't as nice) so I had to make sure I used papers of which I had more than one. I actually worked on this set at the same time... as I put a button on one "R" I put the same buttons on the other "R".

Ok, how can this little girl not be the coolest kid on the planet? What a hip name!! Her album is just precious... Albums like this are like slow-pitch softball for me... it's in my comfort zone... PINK!!!!!

This album presented me with its own challenge.... my first 9 letter name. The boy's name is John Mark and I had to incorporate both names with a space in between. His room is a nautical theme so I used some cute elements that (hopefully) compliment his decor.

Two more cool girl names! If you remember from WAY back I made wall letters for Kayla and now a matching book.... this girl is totally decked out in Jeune Girl! Finnley is a new kid on my block but I've been communicating with her mom quite a bit so I'm thinking she's going to be following Kayla!

Jeune Girl Update

It's been almost a week since my last update! I know many of you are wondering what I've been up to and I'm happy to say that I've been BUSY. BUT... I've been busy STARTING a bunch of name albums. Unfortunately, I haven't FINISHED any this week to show you. The reason is that I have been having some issues with my sewing machine (first it didn't work and then I needed new thread) so all of my mats for the albums are in sewing limbo right now. Once I finish the mats I will be ready to ship them out. I'm expecting to have all the albums that I'm working on finished and in the mail by Tuesday so keep checking back here to see photos of the finished products.

I will be appearing this Wednesday from 7-9 at the Community room at the Poughkeepsie Galleria for a gathering of Mothers of Multiples. I will have a table with items for sale and will also be taking custom orders at that time. Hope to see some of you! You don't have to be a Mother of Multiples to stop by... just bring your own kids and some of your friends LOL just kidding... everyone is welcome!

I am happy to report that my web designer worked overtime for me this weekend and fixed the glitch I was having with the mailing list requests. If you haven't signed up to be on my mailing list, please do so! I have some great mailing list exclusive deals. If you're not on the list, you don't get the deals!

Meanwhile, here is a lunch box I made as a custom order for the woman who runs Catrina's playschool. She received one as a teacher gift last Christmas and loves hers (says she keeps it in her bathhroom with soaps in it) so she wanted to have me make one for a friend who has a patriotic theme throughout her house.

Jeune Girl is Going International

Actually through the power of Ebay I have had a few international orders (I've sent things to France, Sweden, England, Korea, Canada and Australia to name a few) but this time I have been working closely with a sweetheart in Canada who won an Ebay auction for one of my name albums. She then asked me to custom make 4 other albums for her. It turns out she is giving two of them to two little girls (ages 3 & 5) who are being treated for cancer. This woman is a real angel and I'm so happy to be helping her give something special to these girls.

And another reminder, I will be accepting orders for Christmas gift name albums until October 20th. Other custom gifts will still be available after that date. Email me for ordering details.

Jeune Girl Website Info

This week I received a few Jeune Girl mailing list requests through my website. For some reason, the contact information that is supposed to be attached to the request wasn't attached to the request. If you plan on joining my email list through my website, you need to include your contact information (email address) in the space provided. I have mentioned this to my web-designer (as he poured his coffee this morning.... hey, it takes a staff to run a scrapbooking empire) and he hopes to fix this glitch.

If you haven't joined my mailing list but would like to, please contact me at meg@jeunegirl.com. You will receive emails with exclusive discounts (once a month if you're lucky.... I definitely don't send those out as much as I blog so you won't be bombarded with unwanted emails!)

Well, I can't do a post without a photo and I figured I'd be festive with this Halloween layout I made last year. I do hope to get more Halloween layouts done and listed on Ebay sometime this week.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As many of you know, October is "Breast Cancer Awareness Month". I was approached this summer by Carole Trone, co-founder of an organization called "Crickett's Answer for Cancer", to decorate a lunch box tin & mini-album with the theme of "hope" in the traditional breast cancer awareness color of pink. I was happy to do this for her organization.

Here is an exerpt from the Mission Statement of the organization:

Crickett’s Answer for Cancer is a nonprofit corporation formed in memory of Crickett Julius, who passed away in October of 2006, 4 months after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the age of 39. Her family created Crickett’s Answer for Cancer to ensure that women with breast cancer have access to wigs, mastectomy products, facials, and other pampering services, as a way to feel feminine and beautiful despite losing their hair and/or breasts.

This item will be added to the already large inventory of hand crafted items available for purchase through their charity website.