Are You Any Closer?

I have to admit that I'm not...closer to checking names off my Christmas list that is.  We just celebrated two more birthdays in the last couple of days and still have two more to go before Christmas.  I have always had great difficulty thinking Christmas until the birthdays have past.  This has always created a problem inasmuch one of them is on December 19th!  Needless to say I have to get past my mindset and think Christmas.

We had a great time in class with the ladies as they created the three little gifts we had planned for them. Not only that, they each had a piece of birthday cake as Linda's husband and daughters came into class with birthday cake and a song to celebrate her birthday.  For a moment I wondered if we would be able to complete the three little gifts, but the ladies outdid themselves and everything was done by end of class. 

A great hit was the folded ornament that was introduced to us by Jennifer, a customer from Barrie area. It's such a simple ornament to make, but has a huge WOW factor.  Pauline who joined us in class was showing some of her co-workers and said the same thing...they were all "Wowed" by it's simplicity.  Linda ended up making another ornament so that we could offer you a picture tutorial below.  Hope you enjoy it!

There are many many good crafting ideas floating around in our heads, so we've decided to show you a different one each week that may just hit the spot for your gifting needs. Also if you drop into the store there will be others on display to get your creative juices flowing in time for the upcoming season.

 Christmas Ornament Tutorial:

Supplies:

5 - 3" square reversible patterned paper

2 - 1.5" square patterned paper

1 - large bead

1 - Piece of 1/8" ribbon approx 10" - 12" long

Glue Runner

Here in the first step you see where we stamped an outline image on the less colourful side of our reversible paper.

We then coloured the image with our green and red Identipen markers

If the paper you choose is colourful on both sides, you can skip these steps.

The next step is to lay the paper down on the table having the side that you want to be the outside touching the table.  We wanted the red to be the outside colour so our piece was laid red side down on the table and we then folded it horizontally as you see it.

Open that fold and fold again the opposite way (vertically).

Open the fold again.  Now turn your paper so that the pattern you want to be on the outside of your ornament (red for us) is now facing up from the table.  Then fold from one corner to the other once only.

as you see it here.




Flip your paper over so that the good side (red for us) is facing up.  Gently push the sides in so that you can fold this piece into a smaller square.
You are pushing on the diagonal fold that you made, and the horizontal and vertical ones (first and second fold) will pop up.
See the picture to the right




Do this with all five pieces and you will have five 1.5" squares now.







The next step is to glue them on top of one another with the closed points all the same way. 
Here you see a view of  the inside of two squares glued together with the open ends to the left and right and the closed end down in the middle.

You are then going to thread your bead onto the folded ribbon, tying a knot at the looped end so that it can't fall off.  The loose ends of the ribbon you will glue at the front and back of your stack of five squares as you see to the right.

You're almost finished now.  Just attach the 1.5" squares of patterned paper to the front and back of your stack to make covers and you're good to go.



Slip the bead down as you see it here to close the ornament. 
The magic happens when you push the bead up the ribbon, then twist the ornament covers to touch each other.
Now slip the bead back down and your ornament is open.

We went on to "dress" the ornament up with some gold stickles around the outer edges and on all the centre points too.

Here you see a side on view where we stamped the image.  To close your ornament, simply slide the bead up and close up the squares until your covers are again on the outside.  

Drop in to the store to see the sample we worked on in class and have a demo on how the opening and closing works.

I had never realised how in tune I was with Albert Einstein  until I read this quote of his the other day...LOL.

In class last week, we also made a candy box with a surprise as you opened it.  My niece sent me a a photo of some similar

ones she had made over the weekend.  Whereas ours were made matchbox style with the surprise pop-up.












Angela's were a sleeve over a package of gum that had a hole punched and ribbon tied through the hole to pull it out.  Two great quick ideas to give as fun gifts to co-workers or fellow students and all those people that you meet on a daily/weekly basis that you'd love to share a small gift with.


I mentioned earlier that there are many samples to look at in the store for inspiration.  We also have a number of quick kits at a very nominal cost such as this one.

With directions enclosed to make the whole craft easy peasy for you to do, it's another good idea to use on a gift or as a tree or mantle decoration.

If stitchery or paper crafting are not your cup of tea, how about another knitting pattern.  I really liked the look of these finger-less gloves, how about you?  Check out the pattern here.  They are worked on two needles and no thumb gusset or fingers to worry about. Quick and easy and made with a scarf to match would be an awesome gift.

Remember now what Albert Einstein had to say about creativity and intelligence...now go have fun.

Until Later....Happy Crafting


Lilian

Hey, Hey, Hey.....

Are you seeing the impending change in the weather?  Soon now we'll be saying Ho, Ho, Ho, won't we.

Are you ready for that?  I'm hearing via the family grapevine that one of my sisters-in-law in England not only has her gifts purchased, but wrapped as well as cards written out! 

Well I'm not there yet. Having just finished the fourth Christmas Card Day and with two gifty classes and two card classes to go before Christmas I know I have to begin thinking about it though if I want my cards to be in England before Christmas.

I'll be posting the Christmas cards from class on Flickr probably tomorrow now, but here's one  for you to see that we made in the meantime.  

I took the day off today except for Rachel's sewing class tonight.  If you missed out on her first wave of crafting bags, the next batch will be in the store later this week.  They're a great gift idea for yourself or a crafty friend.  Certainly saves picking all those little pieces up off the floor when you're sewing or crafting.

I had the pleasure of having one of my sisters stay over on the weekend and after card making for five hours during the day, we continued crafting until the wee small hours of Sunday morning too. Evelyn wanted place cards for her trailer clubs Christmas dinner, so we used this as inspiration for eighteen place cards. I can't show you the finished card as we only cut and stamped portions, Evelyn will finish them off when she gets home.

There are many ideas in the store if you're looking for a craft, whether it's a place card as Evelyn wanted, or perhaps you want to make your own Christmas cards or a small hostess gift.  Cheryl attended one of our Christmas Card Days and then taking the format of one of the cards she had made, she had her Sunday School class all make her "take" of that card.  Great card Cheryl.  Linda shared Cheryl's card on the newsletter so I'm sure you saw it there.

Kim was in on Friday and she wanted a small craft to do when she went to visit her Mom. After listening to her and looking around, we came up with this felt Santa.  

We traced off the face pattern and a quick phone photo (I think), some felt and a few beads she was set to go. 

My niece sent me some photos of scrapbook layouts she made whilst attending a fundraising crop where she lives in Belleville.  

I liked the simple blocking of this layout.  

By using squares and sizing her photos to 4 x 4 and 4 x 6, she created an interesting blocked layout.

Here's another layout she made this past weekend.  I told her that I'm in the middle of creating a page similar to this one. I'll show  it to you once I'm done.

Have you been scrapbooking lately?  

It's such a great way of recording your memories for not only yourself, but future generations as they will look at how our fashions and styles have changed over the years.

Maybe paper crafting isn't your forte? How about this lovely crocheted stool cover?

Worked in yarn for a quick project, you can find the pattern here.

Perhaps you prefer knitting, so how about these fingerless gloves to go on you Christmas crafting list.

The pattern for these can be found here.

Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian

The Bar Has Been Raised!

We told the ladies at Christmas Card Class #3 that some of the ladies at the second class were finished by 2 o'clock with just some colouring to do.  

Well the third class rose to the challenge and four of them were completely finished before 2 o'clock!  

I can't imagine what we might expect from the fourth class this Saturday.  

Linda and I had jokingly been saying that the fourth class may regret being in that class as we may be tired of teaching by then, but not so.  

We have had some lovely ladies in all three classes and everything has gone extremely smoothly, thus we've had lots of fun teaching.  

Nothing to fear if you're signed up for class number four, 

we're not burnt out.

We're well into the creating of samples for the next four classes now. See the dates in the newsletter.  In the two gifty classes the registrants will be making two to three quick hostess style crafts. Each class will have different crafts, so be sure to register for both.  There are so many people at Christmas that we want to recognise for the little kindnesses they show all year long, such as school secretaries, teachers, doctors, the cashier at the grocery store, the mailman/woman, the shut-in down the street.  The list could go on and on and these quick little crafts are an ideal way of saying thank you.

The third class will have you making five to six quick Christmas cards when you've realised that you aren't going to get those special ones done.  And then the fourth one will show you how to make two to three very ornate cards that are a gift in themselves.  Make sure you get registered early for each class as they will only happen once!

Have you registered for the gift tag swap yet?  This is your last chance to do so.  Pauline approached us about this as she can see the benefit of designing one gift tag and getting ten different ones back to her in the swap.  If like me you enjoy wrapping the gifts that you give, then a fancy and unique tag is an important part of the gift.  Linda has all the details, simple as they are, for you in this weeks newsletter. Don't delay, call us this week to get registered. Here's another idea for you if you're sitting on the fence wondering if you should participate.  Just type Christmas gift tag into Google images and there's a myriad of inspiration there.

This is the time of year when so many products and ideas are flowing. Scrapbook and Cards today has their new Planner/Calendar coming out soon and if you want to be sure to snag one, then get your name on the list before they come in. They're due into the store by about December the fourth.  That's a 64 page spiral bound planner/calendar with 30 page sketches for you to work from with more layouts created by the designers to inspire you.  

All this for only $12.99....

                 DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS ONE!

For all the knitters in our midst I came across an amazing revelation this week on a blog.  They have a video that teaches you how to knit without turning your work!  After watching the video I realised I knew how to do it, but had never applied it as such.  It's a great idea to keep in your mind for when you are knitting short rows and well worth a few minutes of your time.  Bonus, they also have a number of interesting free knitting patterns you can download.

I was looking in my files the other day for some felt patterns and came across this door knob hanger that I've had a long time now. Although I don't have a cutting pattern for it, I think you could duplicate it with very little effort.  

Another great little Christmas gift idea.

Here's another idea that I made as a table favour for all the ladies at the recent Mega Crop.  With a little bit of felt, embroidery floss and some beads it makes a quick and easy tree decoration.

Drop into the store to see a sample of this Santa.

Did you get all your leaves raked up?  With all the rain this year, we found it a particular challenge, but I finished up the last the other day.  As I came into the house to make myself a cup of tea, I thought I'd check my emails first.
This is what I found in my inbox.............

I thought it was a great idea, so I sat with my cup of tea and read my book.






Until Later, Happy Crafting......

Lilian

Fall is Definitely Here

And the leaves are just about all down.  We spent the day today raking, blowing and picking them up from the ground, but still not quite done.  Did I mention I love the fall?  Hmm.....maybe it's the colour that I love rather than the work that goes with it when you live on a treed lot.  Never mind, I saw on the news that Manitoba has had a good falling of snow, so what am I complaining about.

Our company went home yesterday....(too soon, too soon), with the concern as to whether or not their plane would land at the scheduled airport.  It did, but lots of damage in southern England due to a nasty storm.

We went from shirt sleeve weather whilst they were here, to warm jackets...oh Canada.

Our Christmas Card Classes began last Saturday with twenty busy ladies making ten cards each.  Can you imagine at the end of five hours, 200 cards had been produced.  From newbies to more experienced, our ladies quickly learned that they have to work as a team and not dally over what comes next, just get it done. In the end they were thrilled with their accomplishments.  One of the ladies said to me, I can't believe that I've just made ten cards that I like and haven't heat embossed one of them!

Linda and I always wonder which one will be the the eye catcher.  Which one will be most liked by the ladies. This time it was an old world Santa.  Not what I expected, because I had picked a tree to be the most popular.  We strive to have a real mix of styles and colours in the hopes that they will appeal to most people and I think from the comments we achieved that once again.  We'll see what tomorrow brings, but here's a little sneak peek of a couple of them.

Last week found me busy making a scrapbook album that my sister-in-law took back to England to mail to a niece.  I don't often take the time to scrapbook in blocks of time it made me feel like the ladies at the Mega Crop only I was scrapping in the evenings mostly.  I certainly enjoyed what I was doing though and completed seven double layouts and one single.  I'm not the fastest scrapbooker as I enjoy the process of design and embellishment, so this was quite satisfactory to me.  I will be making more pages and mailing them to be added to the book later.

How about yourselves, what craft did you achieve this past week?  I found a great knitting pattern here which I may work on soon.  It comes in child through adult sizing and is bulky yarn and large needles so you can imagine it will work up really fast methinks.

I also had the pleasure of a visit from Rachel tonight as she wanted to make an apron to go with her Halloween costume.  What a joy it is to work together, she is quite the sewer.

Have you seen the crafter's trash bags that she has made and are for sale in the store?  Here's a sampling of one of them.  With non-slip gripper to keep them firmly in place, they're perfect to take to class to collect your scrap paper and such in.

Have you committed to being a part of the gift tag swap yet?  Linda will be calling that to start soon, so if you think you would like a variety of tags for your Christmas parcels, make sure you get in touch soon.  All you have to do is design one Christmas tag.  

It can be round, rectangular, square.  Cut on your Silhouette, Cuttlebug or by hand.  

Not entirely sure what other parameters there may be, but I do know that there will need to be a minimum of two layers. 

Then all you do is make however many tags for the numbers signed up, for example 10 and you will receive one of yours back and nine other different tags.  Now how easy is that and how great your Christmas parcels will look this year! 

Pauline who suggested this swap kindly offered a few samples for you to see right here.  

Here are a few more ideas for you to ponder for your design.

 

And look here at these "Tim Holtz" style tags.  There's no end of inspiration for you to tap into, so don't delay any longer, call the store and register to participate in the gift tag swap.

Until Later....Happy Crafting,

Lilian

How Quiet Can 35 Ladies Be?

Well if they're busy scrapbooking, they are pretty quiet.  Such was the case of the weekend as thirty five avid paper crafters busied themselves with the crafts they all love.  There were a multitude of cards made, many mini-albums and numerous scrapbook layouts.  

We asked each table to tally up what had been accomplished and the end result was 233 scrapbook layouts, 48 cards and 15 mini-books completed.

No wonder there was so much quiet concentration!

Here's a look at one of 

the cards that were made.

This was what all the ladies had the opportunity to make at sometime during the weekend.  This make and take offered them the chance to make a small hand sewn ribbon flower, banners, flags, circles with faux cording, a stamped embellishment and altered chipboard.  A busy make and take with many elements to work with.  

And here is the sketch that they had to follow and interpret with their own papers, embellishments and photos.

What a hard task the ladies had when it came time to judge the work of their peers. With so many stunning pages it wasn't at all easy, but here are some of the winning pages.

 As you can see this is an interpretation of the

sketch challenge.

 

                                                                                                Here we see how the make and take page was worked into a double page layout.

Many of the ladies commented on the new venue that we had this time.   All in all everyone found it an excellent venue, with plenty of lighting and space for everyone.

We now move on to the beginning of the All Day Christmas Card Classes. Have you looked at the list of supplies to know what you have to bring? Don't delay and find you're missing something important to complete a card.

Are you thinking Halloween yet?  One of the table favours at the Mega Crop was a pumpkin.  Very easy to make and you could easily make it into a Christmas tree using different papers.  We then moved into Christmas mode with a felt Santa. Drop into the store to see a sample of each of them. 

Here's a cute knitting pattern if you have a toddler to knit for

And if you like to embroider then you can get this free pattern here

I think that's all for now.  I know Linda mentioned I would be posting more photos of the mini album we taught in class, but did you know that.... 

                             ...so you'll have to wait until next week for the photos.

                                        

 I'd love to hear what craft you like to do and even if there is something you'd like to learn.  Just leave a comment in the box below...sign your name to the comment and post it under the "anonymous" choice.

Until Later....Happy Crafting,

Lilian 

Hope Everyone Enjoyed A Happy Thanksgiving?

Ours was a lovely elongated weekend in that family arrived from England on Thursday afternoon.

Unbeknownst to them their son, daughter-in-law and grandson were already visiting in Canada and we had planned to meet up with them and surprise their parents.

And it indeed was a surprise! 

Can you imagine seeing your son and his family in front of you at a restaurant when you are thinking they are 3,000 miles away in England.

A lovely few days spent together with glorious weather for a trip on the Lady Muskoka and then they flew home on the Sunday, leaving my brother-in-law and wife to enjoy another two weeks in our beautiful town.

The reason for their coming is so that Diane can enjoy a weekend at the Mega Crop Weekend this next weekend.

Are all you ladies who are coming as well organised as she is?  

Her photos have all been developed now and they are in page protectors with the page design as well as any memorabilia.  

Hopefully this week we will be choosing papers that will suit each page and she will be able to create many pages this coming weekend.

Feel free to drop in if you're in the vicinity and see some of the wonderful works of art being created.  We will be at the Rotary Centre for Youth, just down the street from the store.

I heard our other most organised scrapper Barb, was in the store last week choosing her papers to go with the photos and designs she's prepared.  I cannot stress too much how doing this makes for a very productive weekend.

If you haven't done it, then look again at this link  scroll down just below the page of my great niece for ideas on how to be organised for a weekend of scrapbooking.

Also here for title ideas scrolling down once again just below the sub title 

Planning and Preparation Prevent Poor Performance.

And of course our cardmakers will be preparing for their Christmas card classes too.

We are holding four this year, all at the Independent Grocery Store on October 26th, 29th, November 2nd and 9th.  I think there may be a couple of places left, but in my absence from the store in the past few days I'm not sure, so give Linda a call at the store if you're interested.

She will be posting a list of MUST HAVES for the cardmakers to put in their stash ready for class. 

MUST HAVES mean that you have to have them to create your cards as we won't have them available to you in the kits.  How great is it though that we have a venue close to the store though if you forget something.

So what else have you all been working on?  Were you as excited about how to join your new yarn into your knitted work as some of the ladies I heard from in the store?  

Now the trick is to remember it when you need it...LOL.  Here's the link again if you don't recall it now.  Just scroll down a little and you will see this image and the link.

If you enjoy knitting and have babies in your family, then here's a great link for free patterns.

It's from Knitting Daily and I think you may have to create a free account first, but well worth the few minutes spent in doing that.

Here's a look at one of the patterns.

If embroidery is your passion, then here's a link on how to use a hoop. These are the hoops that I prefer to use as they keep your work nice and taught rather than the wooden ones.  Drop into the store for a selection of sizes to suit your need. 

 Also a free pattern here if you'd like.

Thanksgiving is a time in our family to celebrate birthdays and this year we celebrated three in the week of Thanksgiving.  This is just one of the beautiful cards I received.  It was taken as you see from a layout in the fall issue of Scrapbook and Cards today.  Do you have your copy yet?  All you have to do to receive it is spend $20.00 at the store and you too can take advantage of all the layouts, tips and freebies offered throughout the magazine.

There's never any reason to be bored if you check out the various links I've given you.   If you are though, drop into the store and we will introduce you to a craft that will while away a few hours for you.

Until Later...Happy Crafting


Lilian

The Snowball Effect

     Well aren't you lucky - you've got me this week instead of Lilian!  The snowball effect seems to have started and it's not even winter.  Lilian's house will begin to fill this week as the first of our Mega Croppers arrive.  This one is an international paper crafter who I'm sure has brought an empty suitcase along to fill with treasures!  The snowball effect continues with more Mega Crop relatives and card classes soon after.  But before all of this can happen there's a little bit of prep left to do - hence the reason I'm writing your blog today.

     We enjoyed yet another great Technique Class last Thursday - even though some of you wondered if we'd be up to it when we'd just returned from our vacation.  A little while ago one of our ladies asked for a refresher on how to emboss with Spellbinder cutting dies ... so, that's what we did in class.  This card was shown in this week's newsletter but of course they're always better in person.  For now though we have a close up ...

     Having cut the rectangle, on which we later stamped our tree, we used our polymer mat to emboss the inside edge of the cutting die.  The same was done with the label cut from our floral patterned paper.  However, we sanded this edge to allow the white core of the paper to show through.  Also take a close look at our ribbon and button - instead of tying a bulky knot with the ribbon we simply stitched through and the around the ribbon causing it to be pinched in and have the look of a knot.

     As much as we enjoy sharing with all of you, we very much enjoy when you share with us!  This past weekend one of our avid scrappers/paper crafters dropped into the store to update her "stash" and introduced Lilian to a great app. 

If you're not familiar with the techie jargon - an app is an application that can be downloaded to your phone or Ipad.  This app is called Scrap Stash available through Scrappypedia.  Click HERE to link to their website.

   The first step involves downloading the app then creating a free login.  Once you've done this you can use your Iphone to scan the barcodes of everything in your stash.  
Now when you drop by the store to shop and can't remember whether you already have a particular colour of Distress Ink, you can simply check your Scrap Stash! 

But there's more!

     Scrappypedia has so much more on their website...tips & tricks, inspiration, and sneak  peeks at new collections.  Are you trying to organize your stash?  Join the Scrap Stash Organization Club and receive daily prompts to help you get control of your scrapping supplies.  Start organizing by joining the club at any time and these 15 minute tasks will keep you on track.  Once your stash is organized you'll be more productive and what better way than to use up some of your stash.  The Scrap Stash Kit Club will provide you with a monthly video and photos of a kit created from the stash of Scrappypedia.  Your job is to pull similar items from your own stash and then create pages, cards and projects along with Scrappypedia!

And it's all FREE!

     Once you're organized and using up your supplies, it will be time to shop and add to your stash again!

     Until Later ... Happy Crafting!

     Linda