A New Year, A New Giveaway!!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating the holidays and saying goodbye to 2010! In this new year, I’m sure some of you have been planning new projects (or trying to tie up loose ends from last year’s projects). Some of you may be making New Year’s cards if you didn’t quite get the Christmas ones out in time (believe me, you are NOT the only one!). Some of you may be getting ready to embark on a big memory-keeping endeavor, like Becky Higgins' Project Life or trying to tackle a photographic journal like Project 365. Or maybe you’ve made a goal to do some organizing, try something new or just make a change! Well, at CraftySteals, we’ve also been making goals (beyond bring you guys the best steals!) and looking for a fun way to start the year out right!
Before we go any further, I need to introduce myself. You see, I’m not Stephanie. I’m not even Mr. CraftySteals. My name is Andreana, and I’m a fellow fan of all things crafty and creative, and I’ll be here blogging every now and then. Stephanie will definitely still be around, but I'm going to help her out so that she can focus on getting you guys some awesome deals!

To let you get to know me, let’s do an ice-breaker: I’ll tell you four things about myself. Three factual statements and one lie. You have to guess the lie. Are you game? Here goes...

1) My son has been “friends” (“friends” meaning they tackle each other) with one of Stephanie’s sons since they were 18 months old.

2) I am a girly-girl AND a die-hard sports fan. My husband loves that I make sports-themed Christmas cards every year.

3) I’m a Yankee transplant to the South. I moved down here after college and just never left. My husband would never leave, so I am stuck.

4) Don’t tell my husband, but I’m a patterned paper hoarder. I love the stuff. I can’t get enough of it. I have an entire rack under my desk that is dedicated to it. As long it’s pretty, I want to get my hands on it! And as weird as it sounds, I almost hate to use it because I love it so much!

So…which one am I lying about?

Number 3. I’m a Texas girl, born and bred. I love visiting other places, but I can’t imagine living anywhere else. (I mean, it would be plain odd to go through four whole seasons rather than the two we have here).

I’m thrilled to be able to help Stephanie out here at the Crafty Steals and Stich Steals blogs! I'm looking forward to showing you my creations, seeing all of your fabulous work, and sharing tips and ideas about not only paper-crafting, but getting the best pictures, organizing our stashes, and whatever else comes up!

My first official task, is to tell you about a giveaway! (Rough first day, right?) It is easy to enter, and it might just help give your new year a little purpose! As some of you probably know, there’s been a lot of buzz about an idea called One Little Word. For the last few years, scrapbook celebrity Ali Edwards has been encouraging her fans to choose a word for the year. The big buzz, is that Ali Edwards is doing a year-long class filled with projects related to your word.

What's the big deal about one word? Well, this word becomes a YOUR word. You can use it to inspire you, to remind you of what you’d like to focus on, or maybe what you'd like to become. The beauty of One Little Word as an idea, is that you don’t have to be a scrapper and do the class to have a word. You can keep a journal, you can keep a blog, or you can just simply write that word on a post-it and stick it on your bathroom mirror. Scrappers, crafters, writers, photographers and creators in general can use this word as a springboard for layouts, paintings, ideas for stories…the list goes on and on.

Stephanie and I both chose our words for this year. Hers, is BREATHE! (I loved that! Don’t we all need a reminder to “just breathe” in our hectic lives?). Mine, is PATIENCE. With two crazy kids, a sweet but hard-working husband, and a pile of laundry and toys that seem to multiply whenever I look away, patience is something that I not only need more of, but something I need to encourage my children to have more of as well!

What is YOUR word for 2011? What do you need more of? What do you need less of? What do you want to do, or be this year? Leave us a comment and let us know what your One Little Word is. We’d love to hear your plans. From your comments, we’ll be randomly choosing two winners to receive a custom-made t-shirt with your One Little Word on it!!

(P.S...there is a sneak peek in this photo for tomorrow's steal)

Thanks for sharing, we can’t wait to hear your inspiration for the coming year!