For All the Christmas Card Class Registrants

I've been asked a couple of times if I'm going to post a list of supplies we will be using and you may want to bring to the All Day Christmas Card Classes we are holding.

Though the cards aren't all complete yet I do have a list of supplies that you may have and want to bring with you.  These supplies will be provided on the most part, but I will also list at the bottom some of the must have supplies for you.

So here we go.....if you have them you may want to bring the following:-

Distress Inks :-

Walnut         Frayed Burlap         Forest Moss         Brushed Corduroy

Inks :-

Black  Versafine             White                                    Black                       

Dark Moss Cats Eye       Olive Pastel Cats Eye          Chestnut Roan Cats Eye

Identipen Pens:-

 Red         Brown         Orange         Yellow

Stickles:-

Red         Green         Gold         Diamond

Embossing Folders and Cuttlebug Machine:-

Sizzix Sugar and Starry Night                              Crafts Too Christmas

                                                                                   Greetings       

      

      

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots                                Crafts Too Pinetree Scene

                    

Nestabilities Dies:-                          Inking Tools:-

Scalloped Circles Large Set                                          Distress Inking Tool

Plain Circles Large and Small Set                                3-4 Foam Attachments

Scalloped Ovals Large Set

Plain Ovals Small Set

Labels 8

Large Deckle Edged Rectangles

Punches:-

Threading Waters by Fiskar or                

EK Success Dotted Scallop                

(same cut pattern)                                        Ek Success Open Scallop

           

So the above are supplies you may have and want to bring to enhance and speed your card making. 

Below is a list of supplies you will be required to have with you:-

Sakura White Pen                Black Permapaque Pen              

Scotch Tape                         Sakura Stardust Pen                     

Trimmer/Guillotine              Piercing Tool and Soft Mat   
1/2" Double Sided Tape      Glossy Accents or Scotch Quick Dry Glue                 
Pencil/Eraser/Ruler              Both Thick and Thin Dimensional Dots                     

Fine Grit Sandpaper             Glue Runner and LOTS of Refill   
                              

Please remember this is only a PARTIAL list and WILL change before your class, so BE SURE to drop back here again later and re-check the list.

Happy Crafting

Lilian

Just Wanted to Share This With You

I heard that my nephew Brian along with his team mates were awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal recently.  They received this from what I understand from Prime Minister Harper in Ottawa earlier this week.  From there they've been whisked around to a number of places to encourage and share their medals with others.

Here are a couple of links to some photos of Brian when he was at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.   A place where he was once a patient....what hope and encouragement for the children there now going through their own trials!   

Tap here to see one of the photos and here for another. This shows Brian with both his Olympic and Queen's Jubilee Medals.


Hats off to all the Olympians who are sharing their stories with fellow Canadians.  Generously giving of their time and also freely sharing their medals with anyone who would like to hold it or wear it.

For all you ladies who will be joining us for the crop weekend coming up and who are looking for layouts.  I found this layout on Scrapbook.com and loved all the curves to it.  I would probably add a couple more photos to this page and figure out another page to go with it, but a great starting point.

Sorry I've had to put all links in this time, but I'm doing it from the iPad and not so easy to capture and insert photos.

Until later, happy crafting,

Lilian.

By the Time You Are Reading This

We will be well on our vacation journey.  Did you know that we have a scribe for our travels?  Her name is Sandra and it's her responsibility to record our activities and she does a lovely job of it too I might say.  So much so, that I decided to make a Memorabilia Travel Log for her this time. 

I began with an empty small binder that had it's own storage case.  It's been around my home for some twenty years waiting for the perfect craft re-purposing.  This was it! 

I've taken a few photos and hope to inspire you to make your own.  I've already got one customer who saw it inspired to perhaps make these as gifts next year.

It's a bit like the current "Smash Books" where you just put all and everything from your journey into the book.

I began by aging the edges of the binder with distress ink.  Not totally successful as the ink didn't dry on the material of the binder, so I had to wipe a lot of it back off.  However it does give the used/aged look I wanted. 

The next thing was to decorate the cover of a dollar store book for Sandra to write in.  That included attaching elastic to the back of the book to hold the glue runner at the top.  I didn't have any black elastic, so out came my Permapaque pen and white turned to black.  Using Scotch quick dry glue the book was attached inside the front cover of the binder and a small pen inserted into the coil for later use.

Now the fun of creating pages began.  The photos will show you the pages, but you will also see how some of the pages are actually yellow business envelopes decorated up and available for storage of leaflets or other memorabilia.  Each page also had it's own tab for turning from one page to the other.

These are just a sampling of the ten double pages that make up the Travel Log.

 The final "embellishment" was the vinyl CD storage case inside the back cover to hold a copy of all the vacation photos.

Here you see the embellished storage case for the binder.  You can just see the binder on the left hand side in the little cut out.

Guess what I'm hoping now!  I'm hoping it's too "fussy" for Sandra so that I can keep it myself....LOL.  No really, she could have an ongoing journal and complete scrapbook of our vacation by the time she gets home if she wants to.  I have plans to make another from a small ring bound photo album I have.

I hope I've inspired you to give this crafting idea a try.  Well worth the effort and now I've done one, I know the errors and pitfalls to avoid and a second one would take a lot less time.

Until next time, Happy Crafting.

Lilian

 

P.S.  She liked it!!!

Crazy Crazy Days!

I'm sure there's someone following me moving things when I put them down!  How else can I possibly be losing so much in the last few days....well yes, I do find them again, so maybe I'm the problem???

Methinks I need a holiday!!!  Yay, hurry up Saturday. 

My sister asked me to try and come up with a spectacular Christmas card for her to make for her friend, so this is what I found. 

It's the same style as I made for granddaughter Emily's birthday (I don't have a photo of that for some reason) and what we made in our Technique Class in August.  A spectacular card inasmuch as when the person opens it the gifts pop out, and yet surprisingly easy to make with a few simple measurements and cuts.

Certainly you realise that when you change up the papers a card can go from birthday to Christmas very easily. Have you seen some of the lovely Christmas papers we've been getting into the store in the last few weeks?  Don't miss out on the selection whilst it's there, because Christmas papers don't stick around long. 

We had some happy artists and crafters last week who enjoyed the blog special of instock canvas opportunity.  One happy crafter bought a large canvas for her daughter to create a piece of artwork in her room that she could change up when she chooses.  Could end up painted or with mix media on it, but certainly a great way to create an inexpensive decorator change in a room.

This week our special is in the needle arts section to celebrate Linda and my choice of travel crafting.  We will be, among other things as we journey to our destination, doing some cross stitching.  Mine is a counted cross stitch and I prepped my pattern today, enlarging it 200% so that I can read it easily as I travel.  I'm changing the colour of the Aida cloth, so I will prep the cloth tomorrow after purchasing it from the Craft Nook.  Linda's working on a stamped cross stitch, so she follows the colours stamped on the cloth.

So to celebrate our choice of craft, you can choose any in stock cross stitch and receive 35% off the regular retail price by mentioning that you read it on the blog.  The special as always will run from Thursday of this week until Monday of next week, so don't delay in coming in to get the best selection but not before Thursday.

And here, courtesy of Kreinek Threads, to further celebrate not only our choice of travel craft, but the upcoming season is a link to a freebie pattern.  Isn't she cute and don't you love her name (you'll have to click on the link to find out what it is)?  We have all the supplies you will need for this project, DMC floss, Kreinek Threads, Aida Cloth and needles.  If you've never tried this needle art, drop into the store when we get back from vacation for some pointers, it really is an easy art and though it can take some time to complete a piece, it's very relaxing too.

Well I'm not promising you much, if anything on the blog whilst we're away on holiday.  That means little or no blogging, and no specials until we return.

Be kind to our lovely Elaine as she holds down the fort with the help of Anita and Lizette. All three of them are just the nicest people you could hope to come in contact with in your day, so take time to drop in and say hello and they'll be happy to help you with your purchases.

Until later, Happy Crafting,

Lilian

Saying Goodbye....

As Summer draws to an end, we've had to say goodbye to a number of our summer crafting friends again.  There will be many changes for families as some students go off to college and university.  We think particularly of one of our crafting families who have just seen their son off to Japan for a year under a Rotary exchange program.  How much more exciting can that be and yet I know there were feelings of trepidation too.  We wish all our students a happy and exciting year of studies wherever they may be.

We have some cardmakers busily making their cards right now for the card swap.  Nine happy carders registered and their design was to include a cut or punched border along with at least two layers on their card.  We'll be away when they are due in, so the onus is on Elaine to make sure that we get to see photos.  If you're not sure what a card swap is, look back at the July 17th posting to see how it works.

Are you a crafter that likes to re-cycle and re-use?  I came across this lovely idea for using an empty tissue box that you may like to try.  This is the link here but here are a couple of before and after photos to get your juices going.

       

We can't offer you the empty tissue box, but we do have the jute and glue you'll need for this craft.

And here for the beaders is a tip for using your empty beading wire spools.  Keep them to store the short cut pieces of beading wire you have.  The spool helps the wire retain it's shape when stored on the spool and also free from tangles.  Another re-cycle and re-use tip.

Have you ever wondered how you are connected to various members of your family?  Are you cousins, or second cousins, or cousins once removed?  So confusing isn't it. 

We had the pleasure of having some cousins from England visit our home just recently.  Although my husband and I had met them briefly before, our daughters and families hadn't.  As always there's the concern, "will the conversation flow well," and as always there shouldn't have been that concern in the first place.  Somehow families connect regardless of how long or how often they've met one another.  We determined that night that we had cousins once removed as well as second and third cousins around our table for dinner. 

We all know what a cousin is, but the child of that cousin would be your cousin once removed. Your child and the child of your cousin become second cousins as do their children then become third cousins. Though your child and the grandchild of your cousin are cousins twice removed, and you and that same grandchild of your cousin are cousins three times removed. Now did I make it clear for you?  Likely not I know.

We have a customer who brought her cousin into the store last week so that we could meet them.  They didn't know of one another's existence until about a year ago.  The one lives out west and was able to visit the other here in Bracebridge last week and meet up with another twenty six cousins she had never met before.  Can you imagine the scrapbook pages that could come out of that meeting.  What lovely memories.

We sadly heard recently of yet another scrapbook store closing down south.  Retailing has changed dramatically over the past few years with the availability of the internet and the perceived lower pricing.  Local businesses find it harder and harder to offer service to their community because of that and sadly often have to close their doors.

We are thankful for the support of our customers and as we prepare to offer classes and weekend retreats we wait, worry and wonder if they will be of interest to our customers.   Our thanks go to each and every customer that registers for classes, retreats, crops and swaps...thank you for your support!

And now for the weekly special.  This one is for all the artists out there and we know there are many gifted artists in our community.  All canvases are 40% off when you mention that your saw this on the blog.  That's both stretch and board canvases and a choice from the many sizes we have in stock.  Dont forget the special goes from Thursday to Monday of each week. 

If you don't use paint, maybe you can use the canvas for one of the ideas we have displayed at the store.  Linda has made a lovely photo display with two canvas' hinged together, or perhaps you like the way she wrote the word "Family" with fast drying tacky glue onto a canvas, then painted over the top to make a lovely gift idea. Ask us about them when you drop into the store.

Until later, Happy Crafting,

Lilian