The latest 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge ended on Saturday and it’s time to announce the highlights! I must say, I thought this color palette would stump some of you, but it looks like it did the exact opposite. The talent that was packed into these creations was amazing. Bravo to you all for taking this challenge with gusto!
We have many new participants join in this challenge, which is always so exciting. See new names, along with “regulars”, makes me so giddy. Thank you all for continuing to spread the word and participating in the challenges! Okay, now onto the winning entry and the six favorites…
Congratulations to Rachel I!
Please email me (click the contact on the top right) with your contact info to claim your prize. Also, you get to grab the badge below and proudly display it on your blog!
Ready for some of my favorites? If you’re new to the Craft Dash, I always pick out some entries to showcase and share with you. Be sure to stop by each of the blogs to take a look at the beautiful cards and also peek at their inspiring blogs! {Ladies, feel free to grab the badge below and put it on your blogs!}
If you are interested in getting a head start on the next Craft Dash, I have the colors that will be featured on the Pretty Pink Posh Facebook page. This is EXCLUSIVE to those who like my page. If you go there and go to “exclusives”, you get to see the next 10 Minute Craft Dash challenge a day early!
I hope to see you tomorrow for the new challenge that will bring along a returning sponsor. We have some BOLD colors coming your way and I have a feeling you will do beautiful things with them! I shall see some of you on the Pretty Pink Posh Facebook page later. Thanks for stopping by!
I know it’s technically Spring, but sadly the weather here in Washington hasn’t reflected the season change. We had a couple of days with sunshine a while back, but now it seems to be all rain and we even had some hail here over the weekend. I am so ready for more sunshine- this dreary weather is just not fun anymore. If I could transplant my family, friends and job to another state, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Since the sun hasn’t been shining lately, I thought I’d bring a little sunshine to the blog today. After all, we could all use a little more sunshine in our day, right?
The current Product Spotlight over on the DeNami blog is the Elegant Oval Frame. What does that mean? It’s 10% off until Wednesday! I LOVE this stamp so much, it was so hard for me to put it down so I could move onto other projects. If you didn’t get to see the post where the DT created items using it, click here.
I hope that you all get a little sunshine today. I’ll see you tomorrow for the 10 Minute Craft Dash #15 Highlights post. I went through all of the entries and left comments and boy, this one is definitely going to be a tough decision. So thankful I have helpers to help me make the final decision! Thank you to everyone who took the time to play along and share their talents!
Who is ready for some yummy treats and lots of inspiration? Today is the Fancy Favors Blog Hop over on the DeNami blog and I have a feeling there are going to be lots of pretty favor ideas! If you started the hop from the beginning, you should be coming from Tammy’s blog.
It’s no secret that I tend to have a hard time deciding on which stamps to feature for blog hops. So many choices to choose from! I decided I would go with something more bold and immediately thought of going the boy route. After all of the pastel and girly items I’ve been creating, this was a welcome break.
Just about every kiddo likes cookies, so I thought they would be the perfect item to stick inside the pillow boxes. The DeNami outer space stamps are adorable and I was so happy I got to pull them out again! A little masking, some coloring and a few sequin additions and I was able to whip these up quickly.
Your next blog hop stop: Rochelle Washington’s blog!Be sure to leave a comment on each stop- you never know where the winning comments will be picked from. Oh, and did I mention there’s prizes? Two lucky people will win a $20 DeNami gift certificate for leaving a comment!
Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you were inspired!
We are now onto Blogging 101 Pt. 3! It’s been great to get feedback from you and hear what tips you have enjoyed, how you plan on using the information I’ve provided and topics you hope I cover down the road. This series has really made me think about the things I’ve learned these past few years of blogging and I’m hoping it’ll help get you as you either start your blog, or revamp it.
Today’s post is the one I hold dearest so far from this series. I’m talking about quality content, getting personal while blogging and being approachable.
This may seem like a ridiculous point to make, but it’s an important one. QUALITY content is vital to the growth of your blog. Not only will it get people TO your blog, it’s also what will KEEP them as readers. You know how there are some musicians that are one hit wonders? You don’t want to be that as a blogger. Strive to provide quality posts that will have your readers coming back often. Does this mean that sometimes you don’t post because you aren’t inspired? Absolutely. It’s better to scale back on posts than to post everyday and only provide mediocre/ fluff posts that will help you check off your to-do box. I will readily admit that I have stopped following many blogs because the posts and content declined in quality. Be the blog that stands out and CONSISTENTLY posts interesting, inspiring and/or thought provoking pieces.
Now you may ask how one knows what posts are considered quality posts. I personally come at this from a few different angles. Here’s my breakdown:
Have people engaged in the post either in comments, email, tweets, FB messages, or shares? You can’t always judge a post by the amount of comments one gets on a post. There have been MANY of my posts where I may have gotten few to no comments, but will have gotten emails from readers instead. Sometimes they would rather not open themselves for all to see, but would rather have a one-on-one “conversation”.
While I don’t encourage you to just go by what the numbers say, this fact SHOULD help you look at things objectively. If you are doing a series of posts that aren’t interesting, most likely the numbers will reflect that. When you plan out future posts with that subject, take this information into consideration.
Are you able to provide insight, or inspiration, that is not readily available in the blog circles you are a part of? This should also weigh in on your decision. While a post like yours may have been written in the past {seriously, we all know that blogging tips have been down before}, you also have to consider what information YOU bring to the table.
There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question. Honestly, it’s a personal choice and preference for each blogger. Recently, I opened my blog up to share more of my personal life- something I battled with for quite a while. Did I want to open myself up for critique, vulnerability or rejection? No. A little while back I learned that some bloggers had bashed my site and also me personally. The words cut like a knife and hurt so terribly, I almost stopped blogging because of it. A change of heart, life circumstances and a strong desire to help others, and here I am laying it out more than I ever would have thought I would.
This next bit of info is extremely important in blogging and any sort of social media you do. You HAVE to remember that once you post something, it’s out there. All too often I see people posting rants, woah is me/depressing tweets, Facebook statuses and blog posts. Is this bad? In my opinion it is. If you want to be considered for collaborations, design work, sponsorships, etc., you have to remember that these impressions DO make an impression. Now I’ve been known to post an occasional rant, but I try hard to make them few and far between. I don’t want this to be the only thing I’m know for and seriously, who just wants to see negative things from the same person over and over again?
One of the things I find most unattractive in a blogger is when they carry a persona that they are better than you. If a reader has a question or sends an email about a post and receives a snark, abrupt response, I guarantee you that reader won’t think of that blogger the same, no matter how amazing their site is. Now if a readers stumbles across a blogger that is genuine, sweet and makes an effort to be approachable and also provides great content, you can count on them continuing to visit the blog and perhaps even stalk follow their other social media sites.
I must disclose that there WILL be bloggers who are bombarded with comments, emails and other commitments, so they may not be able to respond to all forms of communication. However, there are others who purposely disregard, ignore or respond in a fashion that is rude and condescending. In the event that you become a famous/ popular blogger, don’t be the latter.
That’s a wrap for this Blogging 101 feature. I hope that you got some food for thought. If there’s a specific topic you hope I address in a future installment, feel free to leave a comment with your request. Thanks for stopping by!
When someone says the word beautiful, what do you think of?
It’s been about a month since I did a more personal, heartfelt post {other than my health update}, so I thought it was time to do another one. I was debating for a while on what I wanted to discuss, and decided I wanted to talk about something that can sometimes be controversial- beauty. However, this isn’t going to be the traditional take on this subject…I’m going a little deeper than the surface this time around.
When I was younger, I would spend hours upon hours trying out different ways to style my hair, do my make-up and put together outfits. During a few of these sessions, my mom would remind me to be beautiful on the inside, but honestly, as a teenager I didn’t take those words of wisdom to heart. I would see all the magazines, movies and tv shows and compare myself to those people. While on the inside, I was holding in resentment, anger, stress, low self-esteem….things that are NOT beautiful on anyone. I was so focused on outside “beauty”, that I failed to work on beautiful on the inside.
You may be wondering what kind of beauty one could have on the inside. There are SO many qualities I could have listed, but that in itself could be its own post. Here’s a short little list I put together:
When you read this list, does this bring to mind some people in your life? I can think of so many of my friends who fits many, if not all, of these qualities. You see, they WORK on their internal beauty and it shines through and even translates into physical beauty. When you see someone that is happy, it changes their whole countenance and even their approach on life. That, dear friends, is beautiful.
During this difficult time in my life, there have been health issues that prevented or made it difficult to look beautiful on the outside. Did this discourage me? Absolutely. Then it occurred to me, maybe during this time I could work on becoming more beautiful on the inside instead. I am most definitely a work in progress, but I hope that as time goes on, the beauty on the inside will start to shine forth and radiate on the outside and hopefully also encourage others to pursue the same kind of beauty!
Are there qualities that I didn’t list that you consider beautiful? I’d love to read them! Are there people in your life that you consider beauties on the inside? Feel free to gush about them! We have one life to live, let’s start showcasing that TRUE BEAUTY comes from the INSIDE!
If you told me last year that I would actually ENJOY creating a pastel baby card, I would have laughed. I’ve never been good at creating baby cards, let alone pastel ones. You would think that pastels would be easier than bright, bold colors, but for me, that’s the exact opposite. While I’ve slowly warmed up to the light colors, I still struggle with these colors….
In an effort to continue to stretch and expand my crafting skills, I thought I’d try my hand at a baby card again. I wish you could have been in my craft studio when I started laying the pieces of this card down- I actually got excited seeing it all come together! Add in some sequins and I believe we have a winning baby card, blog friends.
Have I mentioned how much I love this chevron twill ribbon? I purchased a ton of it from Little Free Radical, one of my April blog sponsors. I got several yards of it in eight colors and I can’t stop using it! It’s so easy to tie bows in it and who doesn’t love a chevron patterns? *wink*
In closing, I know that many of my readers read via email or a blog reader {THANK YOU}… Would you do me a favor? In the past few weeks, I made some design changes on the site- you can now easily follow along on all of my social media sites AND check out my fabulous sponsors on the sidebar. I’m so excited to work with each of the ladies behind the sites that are sponsoring Pretty Pink Posh this month and I think you’ll enjoy their sites, too!
Okay, that’s going to wrap up today’s post. Until next time…
Last month, I had the privilege of playing with Paper Sweeties stamps for the first time {see cards here, here and here}, so I was honored when Debbie asked if I would be one of her guest designers this month. Have you seen how cute her stamps are?! It’s literally like playing with paper dolls- you get to change outfits, scenes, coordinating pieces- in a grown up form!
One of the more recent Paper Sweeties sets, Jelly Bean Time, was calling out my name, so I decided to feature that in today’s card. I love this sweet dress and hat and couldn’t wait to paper piece with it.
As many of my readers know, I have an obsession with sequins and will find any excuse to add some to a project. I wanted to use them in a different way and decided to adhere them to the card and add pearls on top of them. I love how it turned out! You could also use this idea with rhinestones…. it’s twice the amount of “bling” without being too much.
Have you checked out the adorable Paper Sweeties line of stamps yet? Debbie has released so many cute sets recently and she has new stamps releasing on April 15th! You can be sure I’ll be tuning in to see what cute new items she will be releasing!
Thanks for stopping in and joining me for this special post.
I have a little surprise for you all…..I filmed a new 10 Minute Craft Dash video this week! Two videos posted within a week is definitely not something that happens often here. With the pretty color palette and my infatuation with sequins lately, I was inspired to show you how I combined them onto a sweet and simple card. In case you missed the colors for this week, here is the graphic again.
You may have seen me do this technique on a card before {post here}. I wanted to show you how EASY it is to do this and also be a little ambitious and see if I could pull if off for a Craft Dash challenge. Do you think I was able to pull it off? You’ll have to watch the video to see!
It’s been quite a while since I had a crafty session with friends- I’m talking like over a year- so I thought it was time to fix this. A quick text to Ginny {the person who started the Craft Dash challenges with me} and we arranged to have a day of crafting on Saturday. After a tweet, some texts and a little coxing, I got my bestie to join us as well. There were laughs, food, craft supplies scattered about and music going for ten hours straight. Here’s a glimpse into my craft studio and a little peek into our night….
I have one last surprise for you… I filmed Ginny creating for the current 10 Minute Craft Dash! She’s such a pro at crafting quickly- I think you guys will be impressed. {I apologize in advance- I didn’t realized I laughed so much in the video!}
Thanks for stopping in and always being so encouraging. I’ll be back tomorrow with a guest designer post- hope to see you then!
It’s time for Blogging 101 Pt. 2 and today’s post is one that I really wish I had read when I first started blogging. For a little background, I’ve been blogging for 4 1/2 years now, but didn’t really get serious about blogging until April of last year. It’s been a wild journey of trial, error and some embarrassing mistakes. If I had known back when I started what I know now, oh my, things would be different on my blog. Alas, I went into all of this “blindfolded” and hopefully speaking about some of my mistakes will help you from making the same ones.
Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on blogging- I have so much more to learn myself. Throughout the years that I’ve been blogging, I have learned a lot, seen so many things and gained a lot from this world. I’ll share the good, bad and ugly {okay, there really isn’t too much ugly, but just thought I’d throw that in}.
Today’s topics: be a friendly blog neighbor, being authentic & transparent and having blog goals.
I cannot express the importance of this truth, particularly when you’re a new blogger. The blog community, especially a special category one such as crafting, is smaller than some believe. I am still amazed at how some of my blog friends, from different walks of life, know each other and have built friendships outside of the circles I met them through. I’ve interacted with a large gambit of bloggers and craft designers through the years, and something that I wish I did more of was be a better blog neighbor when I was a new blogger that didn’t have much on her “plate”. I wish I had left more comments for others {especially since I know how I appreciate them} and built better relationships with fellow bloggers. Granted, yes, I did build a large amount that I still maintain, but I could have done better. For me, it’s not just with the intention of networking, but rather building friendships with those in the same circles I am in. Having those personal & working relationships are vital to encourage and keep the blog community healthy and thriving.
This may be a phrase that you hear or see in other posts about starting a blog, but it’s a big one. The way you write and convey your thoughts, emotions in posts should be in a way that YOU actually communicate. If you aren’t dynamic in real life, but in your posts you use a lot of “amazing”, “fantastic”, “gorgeous” type words, that’s not really being true to yourself. Do you see me using these words in my posts? YES! Why? Because I actually do talk like this in real life. I would like to think that I’m expressive and using these words help me to convey in writing how I’m really thinking and feeling.
In the same way, like I mentioned in the Blogging 101 Pt. 1 postlast Friday, write about things YOU enjoy and are interested in. If you pair that with writing how you communicate in real life, this will translate to your blog and really reflect who YOU are. After all, your blog is your “online home” and you don’t want phony or fair-weathered readers. If you are being true to who you are, people will sense that and want to visit you often. {Isn’t that true of the blogs you enjoy most? I know it is for me!}
Whether it’s in school, your career, or even life, it’s good to have goals for yourself. If you want a promotion, you need to start planning on how you’ll get one. If you want to get better grades in school, you need to think of the steps that will help ensure you get them. In the same way, if you want to have a successful blog, it’s important to have some goals for yourself. If you want to see ___ amount of unique viewers in a month, most likely, it won’t just land in your lap. You have to provide posts that will encourage your readers to share your blog, keep them wanting to return and stay engaged and of course with social media, it can spread quickly. One could have several different types of blog goals: wanting to post ___ amount of times per week, achieving a winning card on a challenge or link up, driving up a certain number in viewers, or if you are really serious, getting a specific number of sponsors each month. Whatever direction you take your blog, it’s important to have some sort of goal for yourself.
Can I be honest? When I started blogging, it didn’t even occur to me to have goals for my blog. I never researched how to be a better blogger, or how to run a successful blog, so it didn’t cross my mind in my starting stages. Now, I would say that having goals for my blog is definitely one of the things in the forefront of my mind. I’m a person that sets goals and likes to achieve them, it is SO very rewarding when something you worked hard for gets achieved. With all of this in mind, you must also stay realistic. If you have 10 followers, you can’t set a goal of getting 1000 followers within a month- that’s just not realistic. I suggest starting out with smaller goals and as you get more comfortable and achieve those goals, you can start gearing up for the bigger ones.
Well, sweet readers, that is going to conclude this second installment of Blogging 101. I hope I left you with some food for thought today. Was there a particular point in either post that you plan on trying out? Feel free to leave a comment {or send me an email}- I’d love to hear about it!
I’ve been contemplating on whether to do this post for a little while now. For those who don’t know, I was in a car accident back in August that changed my life. {post here} I’ve come out of it a different person and it is reflected in my posts, my outlook on life, just to name a few things. Since then, I’ve posted a few snippets of updated info and then I did a health update {post here} back in November. I haven’t done another real post about it since, mostly because there hadn’t been any major changes and big steps forward.
In the past week, I’ve had a lot of people ask me via email, Twitter and text if things have changed recently. As of this very moment, yes, there have been changes! Actually, a lot of progress has been made in the past week or so. *insert squealing and happy dancing all around*
A few months back, while I was going to the chiropractor/ naturopath, he randomly suggested that I might want to change some of my eating habits, to see if that would help with the severe back pain. We quickly learned that I had digestive issues and my body no longer could handle any sort of MSG products. Uh, for those of you who don’t know, that’s in a LOT of things, especially Asian foods. Oh, and don’t just look for the label to say MSG, it’s disguised under a LOT of names. Lots of research, cutting out of just about every place I used to eat and no longer consuming my favorite “go-to” items, I could tell a difference, but I still wasn’t feeling that great. Time for more experimenting….
Another visit to the doctor and he suggested cutting out all grains {not just wheat items} and processed sugars. I won’t lie, I cried when he said this. My life pretty much revolved around breads, rice, and any sort of sugary drink or treat, how was this going to work?! Honestly, I was in so much pain, I knew I had to at least try this for a little bit. One week in, no changes. Two weeks in, a slight improvement. One month in, I could tell something was changing.
Now the question: what was causing my back to be in pain {after the accident}? Sugar, grains or both? After carefully planning out a day where I could afford to be sick, I ate a couple of Wheat Thins. Just a few triggered something, but then I realized it was dumb because it had both wheat and sugar in it! Another go at something with grains and I learned that was the thing that was inflaming my back. After introducing sugars into my system again, it seems to be okay and doesn’t trigger any major pain.
So……I’ve had to completely cut out all grains, MSG products, all nuts {since my body doesn’t seem to digest oils very well} and this seems to keep my pain level at bay. Granted, it’s not gone completely, but I’m SO grateful for this improvement.
Now the question that I get asked a lot, “Are you back to driving?”
Up until literally six days ago, I was only driving 10-15 minutes away from my house alone. Anything further and I would get panic attacks and flashbacks. I had a few failed attempts at driving further, which resulted in a mental/ emotional breakdown. Why couldn’t I get past this? It had been over seven months since the accident, surely I should be “over it” by now. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t seem to shake the fear and anxiety.
Thanks to the suggestion of one particular reader, I looked into talking to someone about my anxiety. I know many would try to hide the fact that they are seeking a counselor, but honestly, this person has helped me so much. Not only have I been able to talk through my fears, she’s been able to show me that some of the things I’m allowing myself to believe are completely untrue. I’ve had two visits with her {I have a third one today} and I can tell I’ve started to change the way I’m thinking of the accident and various situations surrounding it.
So I still haven’t answered if I’m driving alone yet. Well, the last couple of days, I’ve been able to drive 40 minutes away BY MYSELF! This feeling is even greater than when I first got my license! Do I still get nervous? Absolutely. However, as I’m doing it more, I’m getting a little more comfortable and hopefully, I’ll be driving everywhere by myself again!
What happens from here?
Well, we still haven’t figured out how to get the pain to go away completely, so hopefully down the road, that answer will reveal itself. I’m not able to stand for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time without pain shooting up and getting nauseated, which is still a mystery. I’ll still have to continue to eat the way I do, since my body literally won’t allow me to go back without major effects. I’m hoping and praying that as time goes on, I’ll be more comfortable driving and won’t need to have help with transportation anywhere.
Thank you from the very bottom of my heart to those who have checked in on me, sent me cards or gifts to encourage me, or somehow contacted me during this time. My blog has almost been a lifeline, since I wasn’t able to go many places for a long, long time. Your comments, words of encouragement and prayers have {and still do} mean so very much.
Whew! I know this was a super long post and I probably lost a lot of you along the way. However, for those who have been wondering or asking, I hoped this cleared up any questions. If there are any more improvements, or changes, I’ll let you all know! :)
Who is ready for some yummy treats and lots of inspiration? Today is the Fancy Favors Blog Hop over on the 
There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question. Honestly, it’s a personal choice and preference for each blogger. Recently, I opened my blog up to share more of my personal life- something I battled with for quite a while. Did I want to open myself up for critique, vulnerability or rejection? No. A little while back I learned that some bloggers had bashed my site and also me personally. The words cut like a knife and hurt so terribly, I almost stopped blogging because of it. A change of heart, life circumstances and a strong desire to help others, and here I am laying it out more than I ever would have thought I would.
When you read this list, does this bring to mind some people in your life? I can think of so many of my friends who fits many, if not all, of these qualities. You see, they WORK on their internal beauty and it shines through and even translates into physical beauty. When you see someone that is happy, it changes their whole countenance and even their approach on life. That, dear friends, is beautiful.
