Time to Get Ready for the County Fair!

It's almost fair time! As you've surely noticed, I am a HUGE fan of county fairs. Fairs have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up entering dozens of items in the fair each year, including arts and crafts, all sorts of baked goods, woodworking, preserved food, and more. My first paid job as a teenager was as an Exhibits Worker at the fair. As an adult, I continued to enter my stuff in the county fair. When I started teaching, I would enter my students' work in the fair and take them on a field trip to the fair to see their work exhibited. Eventually I was asked to be a judge at the fair.  I still enter items in the fair (though obviously not in the categories I judge!). I love everything about the fair. So does Trevor.

2013, 3rd place- Kids Tablesetting Contest

Sadly, entries are down and fairs across the country are losing money. It is possible, even likely, that some of our fairs will die out in the not-so-far future. That makes me really sad. So what can be done to change the fate of the fair? Attending the fair helps. If you've never been, give it a try! We visit at least three fairs a year and sometimes more. They're each very different.

However, I'd like to encourage you not just to attend your local county fair(s) but also to consider entering something you've made, grown, or collected. Since you're reading my blog, chances are that you enjoy scrapbooking, cooking, or kids' crafts and quite possibly all three. You can enter all of these in your local county fair.  There are categories for gardening, photography, gift wrapping, poetry, preserved foods, and cake decorating. You can enter flower arrangements or display a collection. The list goes on and on. People are always surprised to hear just how many different types of things can be entered in the fair.

Entering is easy. Entering is inexpensive. Entering is fun. Entering can be profitable.

If you're local to me and live in or near Solano County, click here:

If you live elsewhere, simply Google "_____ county fair."

Most counties allow residents from surrounding counties to enter their fair, so if entering in your own county fair is inconvenient (perhaps you'll be vacationing during the delivery dates) or the deadline for entries has already passed, consider entering in a surrounding county.

Don't forget your kids! The age differs in each county, but Trevor has been entering at the Solano County Fair since age 3. Any child can enter; you don't need to be affiliated with a school or youth organization. The crafts your children do at school, the projects or drawings they do at home, the photos they take, the foods they make.... all of those are things you can enter. Here are three of Trevor's blue ribbons from 2013, all for projects I've shared here on the blog.

Every year I encourage friends to enter things in the fair and each year I hear people tell me that their stuff isn't good enough. First of all, it probably is. Don't sell yourself short! The cards you make, the scrapbook pages you put together, the photos you take, the stitchery you do, the flowers or vegetables you grow, the cookies you bake... I'd be willing to bet there is something you've made or grown that deserves to be entered in the fair. And, to be honest, entries are down so much in some categories that there are fewer people entering than there are prizes. As a judge, I have awarded first place to the ONLY item entered in a category. A more popular category might only have a dozen entries, with cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Those aren't bad odds.

I hope all of you will consider entering something (and helping your children enter something!) in your local county fair. If you have any questions or need any help, please let me know. This is something I believe in passionately and am more than willing to help walk any of you through the process of entering. Long live the fair!

3 Years

Today is a special day for me, as my blog is now three years old.  I can't believe how many amazing people I've met and opportunities I've had over the past three years, all because of My Creative Life!

I originally started this blog for two reasons.  The first was that an increasing number of Design Team gigs were requiring active blogs and I didn't want to miss out on an opportunity because I didn't have a blog.  The second reason was that I had been doing a lot of blogging for others and I wanted more control over my writing.  I was worried that if any of these sites shut down, the articles I had worked so hard to write would disappear forever.  If you look through the archive of my blog, you'll see entries dating back to September 2010.  Before this blog went live, I added copies of the articles I'd written for others here, then backdated them to when they were published elsewhere.  I'm very glad they're saved here. 

I published the very first post written solely for own my blog exactly three years ago today (April 4, 2011). It was titled Craft Withdrawal and fewer than 10 people read it.

My readership has grown quite a bit since then!  By far, my most popular post is The World's Best Classroom Birthday Treat, with over 35,000 pageviews.

My Giraffe Cake is in second with about 10,000 pageviews.  

Close behind are my Snowman Gift Tags.

All three of these have been very popular on Pinterest and show up high in Google image searches.  They've each been featured on other sites as well.

Most of the traffic to my blog comes from searches about classroom birthday treats, giraffe cakes, and snowman crafts.  I also see a lot of traffic for bunny rolls, Lego pinata, ribbon barrette tutorial, id reactions, dollar bill dispenser, and Pinewood Derby designs.

People ask me all the time about my favorite posts.  That's a really tough question, one that gets harder all the time.  But a few do stand out.  Here are 10 of my favorites, in no particular order:

• I Might Not Have Been Trendy Before...
• A Year of 40 Things
• My Film Debut
• 'Finding' Time to Craft
• If I Were In Charge of the Chopped Baskets
• Mindy Derosfir, at your service
• Exactly Five Years Ago
• The deRosier Project Runway
• A (Fairly) Typical Day
• International Rabbit Day

When I started my blog three years ago, I expected a small readership of family, friends, and random scrapbookers.  I didn't expect so many people from around the world to follow the ins and outs of my creative adventures.  I certainly didn't expect to receive job offers as a direct result of this blog.  I didn't expect to connect so deeply with fellow bloggers.  

 To all my readers- thank you.  I am incredibly grateful for your support and the enthusiasm you've shown for my blog.  For the handful of you who have read all 820 posts, a special thank you!  I'm really excited about what the future holds for me and My Creative Life.

Trash-to-Treasure Mouse

Remember the bunny I made from an empty Snapple Jelly Belly container?  As I passed by it one day, I realized it would make a really cute mouse.  

Materials: empty Snapple Jelly Belly container, grey and pink felt, monofilament, googly eyes, a Sharpie, scissors, a hot glue gun, and chocolate chips.

Cut ears, nose, and a tail from felt.  Draw a mouth with the Sharpie, then use the glue gun to attach the eyes, whiskers, nose, and tail in place.  Glue the ears to the cap of the container, making sure the container can still be opened.  Let the glue cool then add chocolate chips.

Fun, easy, fast, and cute!

Family Traditions

Like all families, we have a lot of holiday traditions.  One of our more unusual traditions grew out of our struggle to find time for the three of us to open our Christmas presents to each other. Most years, we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family, then drive to spend the rest of Christmas Day with Steve's family.  Depending on who is hosting, it can mean a lot of driving and a lot of rushing.  Steve, Trevor and I used to hurry to open our gifts to each other before or in between the visits with the two sides of the family.  It was not ideal.

For the past few years, we've kept the calendar clear on December 23 and spent the morning opening our gifts to each other then.  Instead of rushing, we're able to take our time and truly appreciate each gift.  Since we're not racing off anywhere, we have the time to enjoy our new games, puzzles, toys, etc. together.  It's made such a difference having this special day for just the three of us.

I've been going through my huge file of pages torn from magazines (dating back to the first issues of Creating Keepsakes) and purging the ones where I can't figure out why I ever tore it out in the first place.  In the process, I've found a lot of gems.  This layout is based on a layout/sketch called "School Party" by Shannon Zickel from the October 2011 issue of Scrapbooks Etc.

Using Up Scraps

I've found that there are two kinds of scrapbookers in the world: 1) those who get rid of all the scraps as soon as they finish a project; and 2) the remaining 99.5% of us who save pretty much every scrap, sure that one day they will come in handy.  Here are some of the ways I make sure to use my scraps instead of letting them grow out of control.


1) I shop my scraps first.

In order to avoid being overrun with scraps, I try to make them the first papers I consider when putting together a layout. For this layout, I wanted small pops of color to bring attention to Trevor. Since I only needed small pieces, there was no need to cut down full sheets when I had tons of perfectly good scraps. I layered tiny scraps of patterned yellows and reds haphazardly under the photo, then punched a star from a bit of red.

2.  I keep scraps organized and accessible.

If my scraps weren't convenient to use, there's no way I'd use them.  I sort them by color in plastic storage envelopes so that I can go straight to one envelope when I need a particular color. When I scrapped the photos of our family's Angry Birds jack-o-lanterns, I grabbed scraps of three different orange patterns to emphasize that it was a Halloween layout.

3.  I only save scraps I will use.

If I hate a particular patterned paper and only use it for an assignment, there is no point in keeping the scraps because I'll never use them.  It makes more sense to move them to Trevor's stash if they're large or recycle them if they're small.  For papers I love or for versatile solids, I save even the smallest of scraps because I know I'll use them. On this layout, I used a 2” x 3” scrap of white to house my title, then matted that with a black scrap. I cut tiny white scraps into even tinier pieces to write my list of adjectives.

4.  I stretch scraps across hidden areas

Because I save small scraps, I sometimes find a perfect scrap that isn't big enough to fit the place where I'd hoped it would go. That's when I have to get creative and stretch the scrap. By cutting a strip and hiding it behind another feature, the scrap looks larger than it actually is. In this layout, I arranged the small pieces on each end to appear as though they run nearly the width of the layout, when in fact you are seeing the entire scrap, minus a millimeter tucked under the edge of the photo mat.

5. I make a card

I try to avoid moving scraps into long-term storage where they might be ignored by using them as I generate them. When I finish a layout, I often use the scraps that remain on the desk to make a quick card. Because they worked together on the layout, I already know they'll work together on a card. Here's a card I made immediately after finishing a layout. The paper scraps, punch, flower and Stickles were already out; all I had to do was cut them to size and put them together. It took about three minutes. A quick sentiment stamp and it was ready to go.

Do you save scraps or are you part of the 0.5%?  Any other tips for making sure you use them?