Scrapping, Card Making and Living with Fibro: FCCB -

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Awesome News

Good morning dear friends,

I have some very exciting news to share with you! It should have been posted a while back, but you all know my situation... I have made it on the design team for Creative Cutting Room (CCR)!!! I'm so honored that Cathie chose me to be on her amazing team. (We were teammates last term on FCCB.) I was scheduled to be on the first term, but had to switch because of health issues and now I will be on a later term; however, I will be posting things here periodically for CCR because I will still be participating in some of the challenges and what not. I am so thrilled that I get to work with such a talented group of women!

In other news, I am staying on with Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB) for another term! I will not be doing the coordination this time around, but I will be a regular DT member, meaning I will be posting a lot more projects this time around! Robin, the owner of FCCB, is taking over the coordination again this time around. I'm super excited to start creating again! Plus, I will still be handling the Wednesday Winners posts over there as well. I am so honored that Robin let me stick around for another term. Let me tell you, the new girls that were picked for this term are AMAZING!!! I can't wait to work with them! Several of the ladies are on my Favorite Blogs list so I am thrilled!

As you all may know, I am also on the DT for Paper Piecings by Nikki (PPBN). I will be continuing with that, and posting many projects. I have been on it for quite a while just kind of hovering in the background because I didn't have the strength to do the challenges. I believe I have what it takes now, so expect to be seeing a lot of posts for this DT. We do a lot on Facebook as opposed to a regular blog; however, Nikki (the amazingly talented owner/designer of SVGs and Digis) does have a blog that she posts our info on regularly. Please friend me on Facebook (FB) and check out the PPBN Fan Page on FB! We'd be honored to have you join us!

We are in for a great Spring/Summer season and I am so thrilled to share it all with you! Thanks for stopping by my blog and please check in as often as you can or subscribe to my emails! I can also be found on Pintrest, listed as Amy Courchaine (I believe -- same as my FB name). If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks!
XO ~ Amy Jo

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Thursday's Tutorials

Hi Everyone!

I have some more exciting news. Robin over at FCCB has so kindly chosen me to help out with the Thursday Tutorials! Every Thursday on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog I will be writing up a little feature including an awesome tutorial that I have found on the Internet. Each week will be something different, but they are bound to be fun and informative. I hope you all will check it out and give some suggestions as to what other tutorials you would be interested in seeing. Normally these tutorials will feature the Cricut machine and everything associated with Cricut. While you're over there, don't forget about Challenge Me Mondays where you can enter our challenges and win prizes!

For those of you that have popped over here from there to finish the blurb about Fibromyalgia and more of my story, here it is... Fibromyalgia is a chronic widespread pain disorder with no cure and no certain cause. It can be very debilitating to the point of sometimes needing a wheelchair and sometimes not being able to get out of bed, except to use the restroom, for days or months on end. It has changed my life drastically, but not all for the worse. I am extremely lucky to have very supportive friends, family and especially my patient and kind husband. When you develop an illness like this you really find out who your true friends are!

Through this illness I have discovered the joy of paper-crafting. I’ll admit, years ago, during my first marriage and before my father passed away, I used to love scrapbooking and got obsessed with it for about a year. That all fell by the wayside when my life started changing and sadly, I left the craft for about ten years. Then,when I fell ill with Fibro and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), I went from being a very active person, holding down two jobs and enjoying a very busy social life, while attending online classes from the Academy of Art University for fashion design, to gradually being practically bedridden for a very long time. In fact, I still spend quite a bit of my time in bed due to the extreme pain and fatigue associated with Fibro & CFS.

As you can imagine, that gets old real fast. I needed something to do to keep myself sane so I looked to the past and remembered my long lost friend, my old scrapbook. I didn’t hesitate. I went right over to the local scrapbooking store and within a week I was signing up for classes (I didn't care how much pain I was in)! I even took on some part time work at the store for trade in supplies! That was in September of 2010 and eventually I was unable to continue even working my light schedule there so I had to quit, but now I have a home-based business and take custom orders for any type of papercrafting such as cards, layouts, mini albums and very soon, shirts, onesies, aprons, and other fabrics too! (I'm getting a Yudu!) I realized that to thrive and make it through this disease I needed to get back into my creative self and the more I create the more I come up with and the more ideas I have. This hobby is limitless! It's amazing and it keeps me going. Now don't get me wrong, there are still lots of days where I can't get out of bed to create or do anything, but those are the days when I blog if I can or I come up with ideas and goals and let's not forget... online shopping! LOL I never let the illness get in the way of that.

No matter how ill I am, when I step foot into my newly converted craft room, which, btw, is pink, black and white and includes a zeba print rug LOL (trying to relive my childhood or something I guess), I get an instant surge of joy coursing through my body. Those of you that love the craft as much as I do must understand what I’m talking about. I’m sure you’ve all felt it too. Just the smell of the paper and looking at all the gorgeous tools and products gets my gears turning and my heart smiling! So now, here I am, just trying to do what I love and hoping that eventually I will be a success at this and it will become my career. I have so many dreams and goals and no illness will ever hold me back. I have too much to do to let it rule my life!

Well, I'll close on that note and I'll thank you all for listening and understanding and again, being on this journey with me. I know a lot of you have heard all of this in some form or other for me, but I have to keep repeating it so I can remind myself of all the reasons I have to keep on keeping on.

Goodnight to all! I'm off to finish my Mother's Day cards. :0)

XO ~ Amy Jo

P.S. If you know of anyone who needs anything custom made, please think of me and remember, I'm a Memory Works consultant, Amway distributor, Be Young Essential Oils distributor, and soon to be T-shirt designer in need of people who need these things. Oh yeah, I also make custom jewelry and design fliers, invitations, business cards and just about anything you can think of. :0) Thanks all. Much love. I believe in paying it forward. Keep that in mind too. ;)

Monday, April 11, 2011

FCCB Spring Fling Cricut Crawl

Welcome to Scrapping, Card Making and Living with Fibro (Fibromyalgia) and the fifth Fantabulous Cricut Crawl...Fantabulous Cricut's version of a blog hop!

It's Spring Time, even though some places may not look like it :) and everyone at Fantabulous Cricut has decided to have a Spring Fling! Each Design Team member will be featuring an original Spring project that includes Pink, Green and Yellow on it along with at least one Cricut cut.

I am super excited to be here today! I am so lucky as to be a part of (let alone, the first stop!!!) this Cricut Crawl! I get to work with a wonderful design team over at FCCB and today's the day we are showing you what we are all about! I am glad you all could join us. You will find some great creations and lots of fun goodies along the way. Curious if I'm having blog candy? Guess you'll have to just read through this post and find out! ;)

Make sure to check out each DT member's blog for some awesome inspiration! There will be PRIZES along the way at some of our DT members' blogs, AND there will be a Grand Prize up for grabs at FCCB for one participant that submits a "Spring Fling" project at FCCB!

How fun is that?

You won't want to miss a single stop along the way. Since I am the very first stop, you probably came here directly from the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog or you are in luck for checking my post directly today! There is a list at the bottom of my post of all the participants so you won't get lost along the way.

I used all the colors required in the challenge and then some. My Cricut cut is the word "Spring" from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge which came with my Gypsy. When I first saw a Gypsy, I thought, really what would anyone need one of these for? I didn't think I'd ever have a use for one. Boy was I wrong! If you own a Cricut you NEED this machine! It is sooooo incredible and tons of fun. It allows you to do things you can't do on your cutting machine. I highly recommend checking it out if you don't already own one. Plus, the cost has come way down!

Onto my project... I decided I really wanted to do something other than a card this time and I couldn't do a layout because I really couldn't think of any good pictures to put on it so I created a cute 12x12 page to frame and hang up on the wall. I think I will do one for each season and switch them out!

*I am sorry for all the pics, but many were needed to get the full effect. Please feel free to skip through the details so you can get through the hop. I just wrote them out for people who are interested.

Details: I just loved this background paper from my K & Company Snuggle Bug paper pack. The photos aren't the greatest (I apologize) and don't do it justice. You should be able to enlarge them, by clicking, to get a better idea of the actual colors. Next, I found the cutest cutout 12x12 sheet from Fancy Pants, called Kraft Kuts #2 - made from Kraft paper. That's where the awesome tree and birds and flowers came from. Talk about making a simple project! ;) Also, the sunshine is from there and I added glossy accents to the center, but on camera it looks like an egg yolk! LOL Ooops! Not quite what I was going for. I used some magenta cardstock and paper from my stash (that I won!) for the "Spring" word and as I mentioned before, the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge for the cut. I stamped a little loop de loop by the bee with Colorbox inks and a loop de loop from We are Memory Keepers - Maple Grove. The cloud is stamped (beginnings) and the sticker in the middle of the tree says "Make the most of every day". Something I truly believe in. :0) The caterpillar and butterflies are actually cardboard stickers from Cosmo Cricket - Pixie Liscious. The cloud is from a Crate Paper cutout sheet - Katlin Collections, Impression Die Cuts. I also used Stickles on the bee's wings and the tree. The bottom border came from another cutout sheet in my stash. Finally, I pop dotted a lot of the cute little die cuts and inked the edges of the whole sheet. Whew! That was a lot of information. So sorry bout that, but I get nutty if I forget one little thing! :p

Spring Wall Art

Spring Wall Art Tree Closeup

Spring Wall Art Bottom Left Closeup

Spring Wall Art Bottom Right Closeup

Spring Closeup

Spring Wall Art Sunshine Closeup

Now for the BEST part.... drumroll please..... and the winner will get.... a Paisley Cricut Cartridge!!! I have won a few cartridges and it brought me so much joy that I have decided to pay it forward and send out a cartridge to one lucky person!

All you have to do to win this is, be or become a follower and leave a comment with a way to get a hold of you. That's it! Super easy. :0) And yes, this is bribery to get you to come back to my site and to be my friend. ;0)