Greeting Card Maker of the Month: Jennifer of Scrap About Love

I'm Jennifer. By day, I work in TV and IT, by night I'm a wife to a wonderful husband, Josh, and 'mom' to adorable pups, Fry & Leela(Named for the Futurama characters). When I'm not at work or spending time with my family, I have a small time photography business doing portraits and sports photography, as well as my photography oriented Etsy shop: By Jennifer Leigh. My biggest hobby has come to be scrapbooking and card making, which is where my shop, www.ScrapAboutLove.etsy.com comes in.

I have found a huge creative outlet with ScrapAboutLove. I get to play with paper, markers, stamps, ink and glue ~ it's like being back in Art class in grade school (except with a more sophisticated result, lol). When I'm not scrapbooking adventures taken with my family, I'm usually trying to keep up with birthdays and holidays and the like, and on occasion, I find a new idea popping into my head, and that is what ends up in my shop.

The reason I have found that I have taken a liking to creating cards was the reaction I got from my brother of all people. I felt if he could appreciate the time and effort(and love!) put into a handmade card, there would be other people that would appreciate my cards as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my followers who are in the United States:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't eat too much turkey and enjoy the football games

Cathy 11/ 22 / 2011

Greeting Card Maker Of The Month: Royal Regards

I'm Sara, of Royal Regards Handmade Greeting Cards and I am a member of the Michigan Trolls on Etsy. I was born and raised in Michigan and have lived here my entire life. I grew up on the East side of the state, attended college in the middle of the state and moved to Southwest Michigan with my husband after we got married a little over 8 years ago. I work full time in the commercial real estate industry (not a realtor though) and spend my weekends and evenings (often into the wee hours of the night) making cards and working on my etsy shop. I enjoy scrap-booking, reading, shopping, movies, photography and interior decorating.

My motto when making cards is that "less is more." I like a clean, simple yet cute and elegant look. I especially love the look of embossed cards so I have a pretty large selection of those in my shop.

Fallen On Hard Times

When I was a teenager, Big Boy's was the place to go on date night. I remember ordering from our car and the carhops who brought your food. Usually, a Big Boy sandwich, onion rings and a coke. Our local Big Boy's closed. We didn't even notice they were closed until they took down the sign and the Big Boy statue was gone.

It was rumored that it was due to failure to pay their taxes. More likely they are just collateral damage caused by the recession.

An article in the paper last week said that Big Boy and Denny type restaurants, classified as Family Restaurants are having a hard time, they are aging businesses with an aging customer base.  Places like Applebee's, T.G.I. Friday, and Max and Erma's the next tier up who run specials and serve alcohol are taking their lunch customers.

The flagship Big Boy's on Hall Road in Clinton Township revamped their menu and redid the interior. The colors are brighter, the over head windows are gone, they added a wide screen TV, and they have cute glass cups for coffee and hot drinks. Unfortunately, revamping is costly and will franchise stores be able to afford to do it?

Notes From The Road: International Peace Garden Sept. 11, 2011

It is the 10th Anniversary of  9/11. There is a service in the garden today, where they have laid i-beams from one of the Twin Towers. The flowers are blooming, the day is hot for this time of year so far north. Both Americans and Canadians are present. The RCMP look impressive in their red dress uniforms.

The Peace Garden lies at the northern edge of North Dakota and Manitoba. At times you are in Canada, and other times you are in US.

I will never forget Sept. 11, 2001: We were in Wichita, Kansas, on the 10th we celebrated my birthday. The next day on Good Morning America we watched a plane hit one of the Towers. Later we got caught up in a gas panic and had to wait in a long line to fill up, all they had left was premium at a premium price.

It was a long day. I refused to stop until we heard from President Bush. Then we could eat dinner and find a hotel and decide whether we should head home or go on to Colorado.

Cathy 9 / 11 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Minnesota

Actually, we are still in Wisconsin, in Superior, our hotel is the last one before you cross to Minnesota. We go over the bridge to Minnesota every night so we can go down to the harbor in Duluth for dinner at Grandma's Saloon. The building right next to the Aerial Lift Bridge in the harbor is where the saloon is located. The bridge goes up when a Freighter needs to go back out to Lake Superior.

Tonight I walked down to the canal into Lake Superior and a big lake Freighter was coming through. It was a nice bonus, I was actually down there to get the two lighthouses on each side at sunset. Due to road work we had to give up going to Split Rock Lighthouse and did the Wisconsin Point instead.

Driving through Wisconsin and Minnesota going west is a wonderful trip for photographers. The weather is still unusually warm for this time of year. Unfortunately, for me, my 7D is having a battery problem. Time to switch to my back up camera body.

We hope it will continue with good weather and no snags in our trip.

Cathy 9 / 20 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Michigan

 I am on the road again. It has been a year since my last trip. Travel is fun and exciting, I love going to new places and seeing and photographing wonderful things.


My one problem with a trip is getting going. I have trouble getting out the door that first morning. I worry about my house, my cats and a million small things. We have a very competent house/cat sitter. So I really don't have anything to worry about.

We are taking I-75 up to the UP,  there we will pick up Hwy. 2 and head for Manistique. It was raining when we left home, it is a beautiful summer day now. I have spent many a gloomy day up here at this time of year.

Everything is picture perfect, warm and sunny.


I hope the rest of our trip is as nice.


Cathy 9/ 12 / 2011