Take A Moment

Hi everyone! I haven't said much lately but this time of year always sparks me to speak out.
We have just kicked off the summer with the first holiday weekend ...Memorial Day. We fired up the grill...put the beer on ice and invited family and friends for a BBQ. The kids played in the pool if you were lucky enough to have one ...but for kids the sprinkler is always a hit. We enjoy the warming weather and know it will be a few months of sunshine, gardening, tanned skin and kids constantly  running out the door as it slams shut with a BANG!

Now the next summer holiday weekend is approaching...4th of July...which happens to be on a Monday too. So we have another nice long weekend to head off to the lake or campgrounds. Hoping that it won't rain. Even those of us that will be staying close to home will still pray for  nice sunny days in case we want to have another BBQ...After all...isn't that what the summer holidays are all about?

So many of our viewer have husbands, wives, brothers,sisters, sons and daughters in the military. Many of them are in active duty far from home and the manicured lawns and bright beautiful flowerbeds that host our backyard festivities. I would like to ask all of you to please take a few moments to bow your head and give thanks to the enormous sacrifices these families have made so that we can all enjoy the FREEDOM to which we have become so accustomed.. To ALL our service men and women...past , present and future ....
THANK YOU!!!

Now...on that note...there is one remarkable young man that will be working hard to thank our troops. His name is Stephen Goodman. He is a fifth grader from Surprise, Arizona that wants to send a handmade "thank you" card to every actively deployed service person. You can find out all about him and his quest at the link  provided    http://bazzillbasics.com/blog/make-thank-you-cards-for-the-u-s-troops-overseas/. Please visit this site and read about this amazing young man.

This story was brought to my attention by Kathryn from "The Scrap Beach". This Thurs... June 9th ...Kathryn will be devoting her show to making cards for this event. She will be featuring several styles of easy to make but beautiful card for you all to make and send to Stephen's "call for cards". Please join her tomorrow 2-4pm and 9-11pm  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-on-the-scrap-beach. We will be there and we'll have our supplies on hand to make cards right along with Kathryn. Join us for the fun and lets help this young man realize his dream and help push his wish all the way to the stars.

See ya on Kathryn's show. We will show some wonderful papers for this project. Carol will post them in the morning.

Good Nite,
Barrie & Carol

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

The Gluebers Are Here !!!!

The long awaited box of glubers Glubers have arrived and we are so excited. There were very few things at CHA that made us say wow and these were one of them. I had so much fun making the project and these great little dots make the task of making ribbon and fabric rolled and ruffly Roses easy as pie. What is even better the package comes with the supply list and the measurements printed on the back. Each package has an assortment of glubers in them so you can make different sized Roses. Here is a picture of the one I made at CHA.

You can add these to the front of a Mini, add a clip to the back for a hair piece, or even a pin to make it a broach. You can cut your fabric thinner and longer and make them a tighter roll. or, even use two different fabrics. The possibilities are endless !!  I am so glad that I no longer have to use my glue gun for these, as the glue gun was like a burn magnet to my fingers !!!

I also discovered a very useful die.. I do not typically use the border dies, but this one is not just for borders. This is one of the Sizzix Dies, Birds & Branches. I used them to decorate the fronts of some of our Thank you cards.

I had fun with it, as I cut all the pieces out of white card stock and then colored them with the Ranger Distress Stains. I had been dying to give the stains a try and boy do I love them. My hands look a tad bit stained, but that to me represents creativity !!!

Hope you are all having a great day. We are hoping you are all safe in light of the storms back east.

Blessings Carol & Barrie

It's been way to long

Hey There Friends

I can not believe that it has been a month since either of us posted to the blog and that is way to long. I know we have both been busy, and now that I have some help, things are starting to get a bit easier for me and giving me some more time to get crafty.

When we were at CHA, KaiserCraft was giving away a bunch of their beyond the page items, and I was lucky enough to be able to get this shelf that I had been eyeing for so long. I had to do some trading to get it, and then prayed that it would fit into my already full suit case, but lo and behold it made it home with me. It has been sitting on a shelf, looking at me, just dying to be decorated. I finally decided that over the week end, I would do some crafting and this is the end result of the finished project.

There are three drawers that I made spiral flowers with fabric sent to me from Char, misted the fabric with Starfish, and then dressed them up with some of the Tim Holtz Buttons. The paper is the Butterfly Garden by Pink Paisley and I used Starfish Glimmer Mist to color the edges of the box (yes it works great on wood)

The back is decorated with another spiral flower, a butterfly sent from Char with the fabric

and then I made myself a post card with an inspirational message that says

"Life if full of twists and turns, but no matter what happens,

 you have it with in yourself to over come it all. Live as each day as is it were your last"

And last but not least this is the side view. I had to use this paper on each end because when I looked at it, it was a love love love relationship.

Thanks for looking !!!!

Hey Friends and Followers

Just a quick update to let you all know that I have not forgotten that we have a blog !!! Things have been so busy around here that It has been hard for me to keep up with everything and some things just get left for last !!!
First of all, let me get the house keeping out of the way.. We are happy to combine your order as long as we have not sent your shipping invoice to you. We try to have all the orders packed within two days so if you need to add something, please let us know as soon as you possibly can that you have an add on order, or will be adding to your order. We have several customers that have open orders, so that they can add to them and when they let us know they are finished shopping we send them their shipping invoice. There are some international customers that continue to shop until they have filled up their flat rate box, and I have heard that it was said that I (Carol) can fit a small camper van in one of those boxes.  So now on to fun topics !!

We are loving all the new products that have arrived and I have even had a chance to use a couple of the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Movers and Shapers dies on my thank you cards. Some of you have probably received one of them, the bird cage, and or the butterfly !! These dies are just the perfect size for cards, minis, tags  and of course the ATC's. You can even cut these little gems out of chipboard too.

I must try putting my paper onto the chipboard before cutting them out. They have Also come out with some great new flower dies and I am enjoying these as well and because they are a bigz die you can cut them from different materials such as the chipboard, fabric, and my personal favorite.. canvas.

With canvas you can paint it, stamp it, spray it, and even add some glitter to it !!!!

We also had a little birdie tell us that our Order from Pink Paislee shipped this week and will be on my  door step in no time. This is one line of paper that I know I will be hording some of !!!

This is just one of the papers that are in the collection and we have other great elements coming too !!

We are still looking for some of you to send us pictures of your projects so that we can feature you in our news letter. We know there are a ton of you out there that are making some great things, so please send us pictures, a short over view of what it was made from and I promise you it will not hurt you one little bit !!!

Hope your having a great week !!!

Toodles

Carol