Happy Mother's Day

Just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very happy Mother's day. We hope you all have a very special day that is filled with love and laughter. Being a mother is is a tough job to have but one that is also filled with moments so special that you wonder how you ever lived with out your children. They make you laugh, they make you cry, and sometimes they even make you want to pull your hair out in frustration, but as a mother, we would have it no other way.

This is also a day that many of you are remembering your Mom's and to you we send special hugs. A mother may leave our sides, but she will forever live in our hearts.

I received a very special e-mail from a fellow crafter that I wanted to share with you and put this request out to you. This would be a great thing for us to do, to make a difference in the life of someone we will never meet.

I have a huge favor to ask. I need to put out an SOS to as many paper crafters as I can. My Mom has been recovering from breast cancer and completed her chemo (YOU KNOW THIS PART) last week but on April 25 we were walking into a shoe store and she stumbled backwards off a curb and has a massive skull fracture. She will never come back to us due to the massive brain bleed. She is in hospice care. Honest, this could happen to anyone one of us, young or old!!! She is at a nursing home and I noticed while my Mom is receiving lots of flowers and cards many clients have not had anything sent to them in yrs. In all honesty she will not be there much longer but I want to show these nurses and staff how wonderful they are and I want to fill the doors with banners. The clients can decorate their doors. I hope to get as many words of encouragement up on those doors as possible. Please put out an SOS to anyone who has time...yes I know it is Mother's Day Weekend!!! to send a banner to Edgewater Nursing Home  1214 Water Street, Kerrville, TX 78028. Think of it as another way to honor your own Mom and the many Moms in nursing care or hospice care elsewhere who's children cannot send them something at this time.

My Mom is 79 years young and is a folk art painter for more than 35 years. I used to tease that she and I had such different color pallets. I love pastels and she loves the "gypsy colors" of reds, teals, yellows, purples...close your eyes and see a gypsy wagon and you see my Mom who is full of joy, laughter, adventure and love. I want to fill her room and others with inspirational colors of live and a life well lived. If you can design in her spirit it will be spread from door to door.

Blessings To you all

Carol & Barrie

Welcome May !!!

I am so delighted to wake up this morning to find that the sun was shining. It gives us hope that winter is on it's way out and spring may make an appearance. I should be out pulling weeds but instead I am inside finishing up a few projects and getting some things done before we head up north to the Tulip fields. I spent the last two days playing and managed to finish an entire mini. I have been itching to do something with the new Tim Holtz Craft Resist Paper and this is what I came up with.

I used the Chipboard Book that we have in the store (each page can be purchased separately) . The cover is the Scallop page, and I used the new Glubers to create the flower using the Making Memories Pleated Velvet Ribbon, and then the center flower is a fancy button. I added one of the Graphic 45 Envelope Tags, and gears from 7 gypsies. The leaves are cut out of Khaki Canvas using the Tattered leaves die and then I used crackle paint on them. The entire album is inked using the Vintage Photo Distress ink.

The inside page has a pocket that holds two tags, and is decorated using the pleated velvet ribbon, word sticks from Tim Holtz and fancy buttons on the tops of the tag. The round page is cut from Acrylic, and then I used the Time Travel Template and StazOn ink to put the clock face images on the acrylic. I also cut out two acrylic tags and used the Steampunk Embossing folders to create embossed tags. I also used alcohol inks to color the tags to give them more dimension. I created a pocket for both sides of the acrylic page to stick tags in.  The ribbon on the tops of the tags are the crinkle ribbon, colored with distress ink.

The acrylic really does emboss well.

The Bracket page was left very simple, I covered the page with the Cordinations Distress paper, sanded it, inked it and then added the mats that are papers from the Craft Resist Paper Pad. I punched out a border using the Martha Stewart Linked Double Edge Punch, and then ran a piece of the crinkled ribbon, colored with distress ink through it. This punch is probably one of my favorites :-)

I used Laura Denison's waterfall pages for these two pages. I cut the pages out of the Coredinations paper, sanded and inked it, and the added the pattern papers that matched the background on fronts. The ribbon is the brown crinkle ribbon and the word sticks were added using the Making Memories Garment Pins. The edges of the pages were punched using the Martha Stewart Iron Gate Punch.

I of course can never resist using the Tim Holtz Caged Bird die, and the paper was perfect for it since it had a nice bird in flight on it. I cut the bird cage out of grunge board, sprayed it with the Perfect Copper, and then used the rock candy distress paint on it to finish it off.  The mat is cut using the cordinations paper, and the corners were created using the Crop-A-Dile Stub/Deco. Then the next page is the Tabbed Page, and I created two pockets, one shorter than the other and cut 5 tags out to stick down inside of them. I used some of the left over papers, to decorate each tag and then added a bit of cord to the tops of each one.

Of course I had to finish the book by adding a post card. Stamped with the Tattered Angels Timeless Romance Stamps, then decorated with a Making Memories Stamp from the Stamp findings.

 

And for the back of the post card, I added a Prima Flower, and then put some Glossy accents onto the large butterfly image.

Thanks for letting me share with you and I hope you all are having a happy crafting kind of day.

Blessings Carol