Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Why did I join Usborne Books and More???

Why? Why did I join Usborne Books and More (UBAM) and become a book lady? :)


I have always loved books.  I remember many Christmas days spent on the couch reading the new books that I received for Christmas.  I have also always loved children.  As the oldest of six children, I grew up caring for my younger siblings, teaching them, and babysitting for many other children.  I remember teaching “school” to them and organizing neighborhood dance camps in my basement. When I was 19, I had the opportunity to travel out of the country for the first time and I taught English to elementary children in Moscow, Russia.  I returned two more times to teach English in Russia for a total of a whole year’s worth of volunteer time.  It was life changing!  I continued on to major in Russian Secondary Education at BYU and choose a minor in TESOL K-12 (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).  I love seeing how a life is changed through literacy, and I love to be part of that process.  Recently I began to tutor ESOL again and I'm volunteering through Skyline Literacy to tutor a Syrian refugee man and work together to build up his English abilities. It's been so good to be part of this again!

I taught in many different capacities over the years, but my greatest teaching opportunity is here at home with my five children, ages 3-13.  Ever since my oldest was born almost 14 years ago, I have read children’s books to my kids daily, sometimes for hours!  They love to read and be read to.  They can’t fall asleep without books first.  I understand that the process of gaining literacy is different for each child, and I have seen some of my kids flourish with reading and others take more time and struggle to read on their own.  The constant has been a LOVE for reading and books.  

Family Business!  This past year, I have really been thinking a lot about having a family business that allows my kids to be part of the business and to work hard and earn money that they can manage, save, and spend wisely.  Perhaps my 40th birthday this year triggered a mid-life crisis?? ;) But I have felt an overwhelming desire to use and share my college education, skills, and talents to better the lives of the children around me in my community and anywhere I can reach...all while involving my own children at the same time and not taking away time and attention from them.  This past spring I taught LEGO robotics classes for our local recreation department, and my kids assisted in those classes.  We then held a week-long LEGO camp here at our house and it was a huge success with 20 children participating.  Of course, all who know me know that I love arts and crafts, and I have held DIY craft nights for many years, and this summer I taught an art camp as well.  I have a wild and crazy big dream of opening an Enrichment Center one day and teaching all kinds of classes there.  But first, BABY STEPS!  I’m not financially prepared to open a brick-and-mortar business right now, and my focus and priority this year is homeschooling all the kids...so baby steps it is.  

Usborne Books and More is the perfect fit for our family at this time!  We will sell a product that we believe in - BOOKS!  We know reading is good for kids.  We don’t have to prove to anyone that it works (plenty of good studies do that).  We can work with others to get these beautiful, high quality books into the hands of children in our community, throughout the country, and even into other parts of the world!  There are SO many exciting opportunities with Usborne through their parties, book fairs, and fundraisers.  


One specific goal with our family business is for Marie, my 11 year old, to work and earn money for intensive ballet sessions next summer in 2018.  Marie has developed a great passion for ballet and she is working hard to make her dreams come true.  I want to encourage her in any way I can, and I told her that I’d help her earn money.  I grew up needing to pay “half” of anything I participated in, and I also worked hard to pay for my own dance lessons through babysitting, mowing lawns, and a newspaper route when I was about 13.  Marie is still on the cusp of being able to work alone, but she is definitely a hard-worker, and I know she will be a great assistant to me at our book parties and throughout this endeavor.  She has a goal to raise $2,000 for next summer.  We truly appreciate all your support!

So how can you support us and get involved?
  1. *Come party with us!  We have several LAUNCH parties scheduled for the next few weeks.  Find a time and place that works best for you!  Come discover what makes UBAM books so great, socialize with others, and hold & read a few books yourself.  You’ll be amazed.  I'll be emailing out invitations and listing home parties here soon.

  2. *HOST your own party! Get free books! Who can pass up free, beautiful books?  I can’t! There’s not a better time to host a book party for me than during the next few months!  You are guaranteed to earn free books!  In an effort to really support new consultants, Usborne provides DOUBLE the hostess awards for all book parties during my first 3 months as a consultant.  That means I have until Nov. 16 to provide you with DOUBLE the amount of free goodies, on top of UBAM’s already generous hostess rewards.  (For example, I just placed my own personal order of homeschooling books and curriculum, and I was able to choose $80 of free books and $50 of half-off books!)  You can offer a Facebook party or home party or any other creative idea for a party (birthday party, baby shower, preschool storytime)! ;) All you need to do is invite your friends and participate!

  3. *Ask me more!  There’s a lot to share and I don’t want to overburden anyone!  (Too late, right?) But seriously, there are so many neat opportunities with Usborne and I’d love to share more.  In particular, if you can think of a preschool, daycare or mom’s group that would love to have more books, I can do a bookfair for them and they can earn 50% of their book sales back in free books!  UBAM also has a great fundraising opportunity called Cards for a Cause.  Any organization or individual looking to raise money for a good cause can sell beautiful boxes of 30 cards for $30 and earn back $13 from each box.  (Free shipping too for book fairs and Cards for a Cause!)  Also, a great program called Reach for the Stars encourages and rewards children’s reading time and helps develop reading routines and habits.  Here’s a quick summary of these fun programs: http://t6708.myubam.com/slprograms


  4. *Watch for more!  I have a lot of great ideas up my sleeve.  We will be offering lots of book theme-based classes for kids and literacy workshops.  One of the best ways to keep up with what’s happening and to receive literacy tips is through my VIP Facebook group.  Click here and ask to join.

Thanks for Reading!  You're awesome!



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Baby Stackers

Here are a few more examples of some baby stackers I've made lately:



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Christmas countdown blocks

My summer and fall have been very busy with moving and settling into our new house and all the kids' activities, and I'm also pregnant, so I haven't had much time or energy to create any new vinyl projects.  But I'm trying to keep up with my orders and I'm doing a few church craft days.  One of the projects we've done recently for a church group was these Christmas countdown blocks:
Starting December 1, you can move the blocks around each day to count down to Christmas.  I anticipate that my kids will love doing this (and will probably fight over who gets to do it each day!).  These are easy to make: just paint your blocks, adhere scrapbooking paper (I've been using Spray Adhesive and I find it goes on smoother than Mod Podge, although you could use that too) and then add your vinyl.  They vinyl for these blocks is $4/set.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Joshua 1:9 block

This year the youth in our church have used Joshua 1:9 as a theme scripture.  A few months ago I posted a tile with the full scripture.  This block contains the first few words and was designed for a craft night for a group of teen-age girls.  It's on a 2x4 piece of wood and is simple to complete in an hour.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Sorry, no Dayton Days this year!

I thought I'd leave a little note here saying that I won't be at the annual Dayton Days craft show this year like I have been in the past two years.  The main reason comes down to TIME, and that I just don't have enough time to prepare everything for a craft show while taking care of my three little children ages 6, 4, and 2.  However, I am still doing vinyl lettering and taking custom orders.   I may also host some craft nights from time to time and I am planning on having a sale on all my in-stock items...watch for that soon!  The fall season is very busy around here, so please contact me soon if you are interested in a custom order.  Thank-you!

I will really miss being in the craft show tomorrow; it is always a lot of fun.  But I will enjoy walking around myself and checking out all the awesome other crafts there.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Font Examples

Below are examples of fonts I have available.  Please e-mail me if you'd like me to send this to you as a pdf file and then you can view it larger or print it out.  

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Vinyl on the Wall

Here are some pictures from a customer who applied vinyl to her kitchen walls above the cabinets.  She used six "Be" phrases that come from one of our church leaders, President Hinckley.

The letters are around 8 inches high.  This was definitely a learning experience for me to cut out this vinyl!  It's a little tricky!  But I think it turned out looking really nice.  I'm excited to put some vinyl on our walls in our new house that we recently moved into...I just have to decide what and where.

Joshua 1:9 Tile


Here is a tile I made for a friend that was living overseas (I shipped this to Malta!!  And it made it all in one piece!).  This is an example of how you can take any scripture or quote and nicely display it on a tile.  This scripture is special this year in our church as it is the 2010 theme scripture for our youth (ages 12-18).  It is also significant for my friend as she and her husband will be apart for long periods of time due to his work overseas.

Teacher Stacker


A customer wanted to have a stacker made for her friend that was switching jobs, from one school to another.  She liked the look of the baby stackers.  We modified it a little since we had more information to include and made this stacker with equal sizes of wood.  Hopefully it will find a nice spot on her new desk!

Family Sign

Here's a sign I made for a customer's wife for her Mother's Day present.  I heard she loved it. I thought he was such a thoughtful husband to order something like this on his own.  I usually just have women placing custom orders! :)

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Baby Stackers

Two more cute baby stackers...this time for some little girls.
So I actually ran out of ribbon on this second one and couldn't make a bow at the top.  Instead I knotted the ribbon and put this cute flower hair clip in the middle.  I think it turned out darling and might do it on purpose next time!  The hair clip is a little bonus...it can really be used, but I could also just glue a flower on there.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Another Bow Holder Frame

Here's another hair bow holder that I made as a gift, like the one I made here.


I love these.  I have one for my daughter and we use it everyday....they are so handy and convenient for storing bows, flowers, clips, etc.  I added the knobs at the bottom to hang headbands, etc. on.  

Baby Plaques

2 more new baby plaques...
The vinyl colors are light blue and beige.

This second one was a present for a baby shower, so only the name was used (and no birth info) ...hopefully the new parents didn't change their minds about the name! :)  Here the vinyl color is called "sea foam" with beige.  This was the first time I used the sea foam...so I have lots of it if you're interested!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Baby Stacker

I love this stacker!
My good friend ordered it and sent me a scrap of fabric from her baby's bedding.  I was able to match the stacker to her colors.  I think these colors are so adorable that I might have to copy them in my son's room (we're moving soon, so I'll get to decorate!).  The ribbon came from Costco, and I love it too.  I have LOTS more of this ribbon, so let me know if you want something made with it!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are two new signs to use either with Valentine's or anytime.  


Little girl plaques

Two more custom order plaques to match a baby plaque...this little girl is having a room makeover and I think it will be so cute!  I love pink and green!  (Under all that ribbon are little clips to hang up pictures and artwork)


Friday, February 5, 2010

Kid signs

a few more custom signs...

Tile...Home is where your story begins Welcome to our story

This 12x12 tile was popular this year.

Christmas blocks

Of course it is late to post this, but maybe this will give you an idea for next year! Here are some blocks that I mod podged scrapbook paper on and then added the vinyl letters. This is a fun way to add color and patterns to your wood.

And here are some holiday blocks, about 5x5 inches.

Custom Order signs

A few more custom order signs....as you can see, you can do anything you want with vinyl: any color, any saying, any size, any font.... you get the picture!