Shopping Made Easy–Amazon Prime

Posted by Liz McCoy Thursday, November 19, 2015 View Comments

This post may contain affiliate links, where I may make a commission on any sold product. All opinions are my own.


Okay I’m a huge fan of shopping Amazon, because of the convenience.  I have the mobile app that makes it dangerously convenient.  I’ve been riding in the car and my hubby said he needed something and I ordered it for him right there on the spot.  Of course it arrived 2 days later. NICE!

 

As a busy mom who doesn’t like to take 3 kids to the store (especially stores with toy sections) I love being able to get so many things delivered right to my front door.

 

One of the things that makes shopping amazon so appealing is our prime membership.  Amazon prime gets us free shipping no mater the order amount. We can share it and ship to other addresses and still get free shipping. We can stream video, rent movies, and buy content through amazon’s digital services.  I’m sure there are other amazing benefits of an amazon prime account.  Do you have Amazon prime? What about giving it as a gift to someone this year?

 

Bible Journaling

Posted by Liz McCoy Wednesday, July 22, 2015 View Comments

This post contains some affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll could receive commission.


For a while now I’ve really been missing getting together with crafty friends and had been wanting start up again. My thoughts were that I could host it in my new craft room but alas that is much to messy still and I couldn’t really fit many friends in there.  So I put the idea on the back burner and let life move forward.  My sister introduced me a few months ago to Bible Journaling.  When I checked out the photos of what people are doing I was so impressed and knew that is exactly what I had been wanting to do. It turns out in the 3 fellowships in our branch there were some other believing ladies who were interested in the whole bible journaling idea and were interested in getting together.  So far our group has met twice and and have been so inspired and have done a few entries outside of our meetups. We are meeting at a local coffee shop here in Duluth called Espresso Theory I really love getting out of the house and meeting new people and being in an environment that is easy to spread out and work on our works of heART. 

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Here are some of my pages I’ve done, along with pictures of others in our groups pages.


I thought I’d put together a little bit of a list of what we’ve been using and how one might need to get started, as well as links to resources available online.

I’m not an Artist? Can I do this?

YES!!!  Yes you absolutely can.  First off I am also far from an “artist” but I have found out some ways to get away around that. 
First is TRACING!!

I do not to too much free hand entries into my bible (yet) I rely a lot on tracing. For my first page I did the configuration on my computer using fonts and set the placement and printed it out.  I did buy graphite transfer paper in order to trace things too.
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Since there was nothing on the other side of my page I was able to just stick my printed lettering and patterns under my page where the blank is and trace it using my markers i bought. (Linda traced an image right off her phone!!! like a portable light box).  I am going to try and use my Ipad to trace off of next time. A cool thing about my print out is that mom was able to trace it to her page next, so bonus of multiple uses!! You could also print off images from the internet or use coloring books or other art books to trace from.

 
Another option is STICKERS!
I’ve actually designed a couple layouts that fit in the margins and printed them out on sticker paper then cut them out to fit right in my bible.  My comfort zone is definitely on the computer designing and this lets me incorporate that into my bible journaling.

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I have some of these designs available in my etsy shop right now.


Freehand
If you are an artist, doodler, enjoy creative lettering you can easily take all the mediums and methods you currently do your art in and apply them to your bible.  There are some amazing artists out there doing lots of great work free hand. My friends Beth & Fran do amazing freehand work.
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Mixed Media
In this page I did I used a bunch of different media. Washi tape, cardstock, clear paper, and markers. For me I still like to be able to read all the text in my bible so for the flowers and the clouds I actually doodled and colored on white cardstock and then glued them in at just one point so I could bend them back or to the side and read the text. I also allowed parts of it to go outside the page kind of like a tab when my bible is closed.  You could easily add layers of ephemera, stamps, stickers, tapes, paints etc on one page really layering the look. Again there are many examples of mixed media styled pages when you do an image search of bible journaling.
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Bible

You can use any bible you might have on hand or you could invest a little bit of money (approx $10+).  A bible with a super wide outside margin works really well for bible journaling, especially if you don’t want to cover up any text with your art.  When looking, you might find them called Note Taker or Journal Bibles.

My Recommendations:
The bible that checked all the items on my list is: the Mid Size Note Taker Black Vinyl by Local Church Bible Publishers. I really like the 2.5” side margins as well as the large print.  It does make for a thicker bible but that works just fine for me.  I also love that it is KJV (my preferred version) as well as the price point as a group we ordered a case and with shipping it worked out to be about $13/bible
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Things you might want to keep in mind:
The bigger the margins, either the text gets smaller or the bible gets larger.
Paper thickness, thinner papers more bleed through or ghosting.
Do you want to be able to read and use the bible regularly

Art Supplies

Much of what you already have will work in your bible.  People are using colored pencils, paints, markers, stamps, watercolors, washi tape, and more.


My Recommendations:
Here are some product either I have used or friends in my group have/are using:

Things you might want to keep in mind:
Markers and inks may bleed through but there are page primers that will help block bleed through. Colored pencils of any quality are producing amazing art in bibles.

More Online Resources, Tips, Tutorials and more!


A bunch of people are sharing their processes and tutorials via Youtube. I even have a video of how I use my tool caddy for to store my bible journaling supplies.
Someone also started a group for kids here. I have a bible journaling group on facebook called Bible Journaling Down South you're welcome to join.
If you enjoy searching pinterest for inspiration my sister and I have a great pinterest board:
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Prime Day!

Posted by Liz McCoy Wednesday, July 8, 2015 View Comments

This post contains affiliate links when clicking or purchases result I may earn a commission.


Anyone else excited about Amazon’s first Prime Day!  I’m already a prime member and LOVE it…just ask my UPS driver Open-mouthed smile.

 

Apparently the mega online retailer didn’t want to wait until black friday to have great sales so they made their own holiday Prime Day! 

 

If you’re not already a prime member or if you want to find out more check out this link:

 

Mark your calendars for July 15th!!  Tell me what do you have on your wishlist?

Showing our #DisneySide and Practicing our Manners

Posted by Liz McCoy Thursday, March 19, 2015 View Comments

Thanks to Disney Parks and Mom Select for the opportunity to host a Disney @Home Celebration, and for the goodies that came in our party pack.  All opinions expressed here are my own and here is how we showed our #DisneySide.

 

Last month I received a package in the mail full of goodies and treats.  Originally we were going to have a birthday party but my just turned 4 year old was having a hard time recovering from a stomach bug so our party got moved to Valentine's Day which also happened to be the day we were scheduled to have a Children's Fellowship. Part of our topic for the day was learning manners and how we could be kind to others with our good manners.

 

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Is there any better way to have good manners than at a tea party?  All the goodies in our party box were just right for a princess tea!

 

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My daughter & her grandma made some super sweet Frozen cupcakes we found at our local Sam’s Club. They were super cute and a big hit with all the kids (and parents).

 

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We had all the boys seat the girls and we all practiced our manners while we ate our snacks and treats.

 

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Even the boys used their manners, they just didn’t use the hats.

 

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After the “tea” party time we played games and activities that were provided in the pack.  The favorites were pin the smile on Mickey & Disney Parks Bingo.  All the kids participated in the pin the smile on Mickey there were so many laughs and giggles when the blind fold came off.

 

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I loved how classic games like pin the smile on Mickey or Bingo were just as much fun for the kids as if we’d had a video game or something “high tech”. We used goldfish crackers as our bingo markers, I think the kids ate as many as they used on their boards. The bingo games got a bit excited at times and we all cheered for each of the winners.

 

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We all had a great time showing our #DisneySide and playing games and practicing our manners.

 

The older girls in our group enjoyed making hair barrettes with the craft kit that also came in the box.
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The party pack came with a bunch of great goodies to make party favors for all the ladies big and little. The girls were excited to receive the princess goodies and I added a few other treats in there too.

 

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We had boys at the party so I found in my stash a few Disney goodies to make favors that suited the young gentleman in our Children’s Fellowship.

 

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The goodies even covered party favors for the parents. Which they really liked getting a gift too.

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Overall we had a great time celebrating and practicing our manners and showing our #DisneySide.

 

Thanks again to DisneyParks and MomSelect for sending me the party pack.

Usborne Book Party

Posted by Liz McCoy Thursday, October 23, 2014 View Comments

Hey Friends & Family!!!

I'm hosting an online book party and would love it if you would come by and check out some of the great kids books available.  They have books for the babies in your life all the way to the teens.

Here is my friend Candy giving you some GREAT information about the books and showing you a few of the available books:

 

I've purchased a few of these book in the past and I've also inherited some from my aunts from when their kids were younger.

While I find most of the non fiction books super helpful in our homeschool classroom the books are not limited to homeschooling families.  They are really great resources.

Here are a couple of the and items we have and LOVE:

 

My 8 year old son loves the The 'Hey Jack!' series, they are perfect for his age as they have a good number of pictures but also they're chapter books.  They're at his level and aren't too complicated but still have great content.  His favorite right now would probably be "The Winning Goal"


This is a deck of large FULL color cards that have great facts. I especially love the quality of the card they are super thick and large enough to handle and easy to read. The COLORS are amazing and really keep his attention.

 

Both my daughters 2 & 3 enjoy this book.  Now that we’ve almost finished the sticking part we read it each night like a story book.

 

My family will be going on a road trip soon and I wanted to pick out a few new books for them to have for the trip. Plus I have a baby shower coming up and I think one of the books in the "That's not my..." series might make a great gift.  Oh and this is perfect timing for Holiday shopping, a book or two under the tree will definitely bring excitement in our house.

Here are a couple in my shopping cart right now:
     

If you're interested in chatting or finding more info we have a facebook event set up

The party will be ending Oct 29th, and you'll want to place your orders by then.

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