We're Still Here!

Hello ladies!

 
 You may have thought that we'd dropped off the face of the earth but we haven't.

As you know, our last day at the store was Saturday June 28th after which we spent the next two days disassembling all of our racking and moving out of our unit.  

It sure didn't look the same... 

Our last few days were certainly a pleasure.
In true fashion, Lilian was giving instruction right to the very end as she gave one of our crafters a reminder on latch hooking.  But that's not to say that all of her time was spent working!





Lilian may have gotten the pleasure of cuddles but we both did enjoy meeting someone who's mommy I'm sure will teach her to be a crafter too.  And what a surprise that they drove about four hours just to catch us before we closed!



     Along with numerous visits from long-time customers and beautiful flowers being hand delivered, we also enjoyed some show-and-tell.

You know how we love show-and-tell!  This particular customer is a busy crafter all year long.


This photo shows just two of the treasures she creates with the use of her Knifty Knitter Looms.  These two lovely characters will join many, many, many more in the Christmas Shoe Box program in December.  A true crafter - always sharing!

Since our store closed, Lilian and I have taken a little bit of a rest but this week we surprised one of our friends with a visit and then connected with another today.  
So good to see them both again and enjoy their company!  Of course, being crafters, we took along some show-and-tell ourselves!

My first week at home was spent tearing apart my rec room and re-creating my crafting space to accommodate both of my crafty girls.  Now Rachel has her own space where her sewing machine can sit ready for use so she is now back to working on her T-shirt quilt with Gamma (Lilian).  We'll share her progress soon!



With the addition of a much larger craft table, my Emily too has her own workspace.



Take a look at this lovely bouquet of flowers she created to brighten up the room of our friend.  Emily taught herself to make these five petal origami flowers from her favourite magazine - and let me tell you they were very well received!

So, you can imagine just how much crafting we have planned in my house this summer, not to mention what Lilian will be up to!  Be sure to check our blog again because we do like to share!

                                     Happy Crafting!

                                     Linda

It Would Seem I've Been Slacking!

It was brought to my attention that I'm missing a few cards off the Flickr site....oops!  I'll try and get them posted this week, when I figure out which one's I'm missing, sorry about that.

Today I spent some time trying to create a birthday card for Rachel's upcoming birthday.  I wanted an interactive card and I wanted it to be unusual.  Linda's girls have begun to expect Gamma to do something out of the ordinary now.

What I decided to make was a never ending card. This is a card that you start opening from the front, open four times seeing four different "pages" and return to the beginning again.  I've made one before for my brother in laws 60th birthday I think it was. 

Here's a link to show you how to create one yourself.  This is probably the easiest tutorial and she shares with you some ideas to decorate it too.  I can't show you mine yet as it's not quite complete.

A really simple card to make, but the decorating takes some time and thought, and today my creativity flew the coop...it was gone!

I meant to show you a lovely scrapbook room that one of the ladies shared with us.  She had purchased a couple of wire paper racks and showed us how nicely it fitted into her room.  How many of you would love to craft in Jennifer's room?

See how nicely her new paper racks fitted in next to her bookcase storage.

We had a lovely Friday night Crop and Craft last week.  Such a pleasure to enjoy our last one with some lovely caring ladies. We chatted, knitted, 

made some cards and scrapbook pages, a great time together.

Sharon surprised me by gifting me with this lovely wall hanging.  She told me that as she no longer sews and knew that I did, she thought I would reap more pleasure from it.  I was so thrilled to have been thought of in this way and it will find it's place in my craft room. 

Isn't it beautiful.  Made and hand quilted by a lady in Port Sydney.

We had tickets to see Linda's girls at their dance recital on Saturday night.  

Wow, what a show that was!  

So entertaining. Whether your child was in the number or not, they were all so very, very good that your attention was kept throughout the show.  

One of the "dance Dad's" went up on stage at the beginning of the show just after the teachers had given out the awards and thanked the teachers for the excellence that is attained, not only in the dancing, but the friendships that were developed and the hard work put forth by all the students.  

He reminded the audience that for the students this was like their "Superbowl," their time to shine and we needed to let them all know how well they performed. A great reminder and so very true.  Here's just two of the costumes Rachel and Emily wore for their numbers.

I intend to blog after the store is closed, but would like to be sure that you able to connect with me through the blog.  If you could take a moment and add a comment at the bottom of this posting.  Just let me know in some way that you have seen this blog, then I'll know I can connect with you later. 

I'm hoping to continue to share some inspirational blogs with you, that will feed your love for crafting as they do mine.

We were very blessed last week with some lovely cards, flowers and plants given to us by customers.  

One dear customer comes in every Tuesday, though last week she was en route to Europe, but still she came into the store in spirit when these beautiful flowers were delivered to us. 

From another customer we received this award.  How very kind she was to take time to make this for us. She made us feel special when we opened it.  Thank you Friday for the opportunity to get to know and teach you.

So many of you have wished us well and thanked us for inspiring you to create in a way you didn't know you could.  

It has been a pleasure over the years to teach you and to develop friendships through those classes.

For the opportunities you have all afforded us, we in turn thank each and every one of you. 

It has been our pleasure.

And the words to keep you going this week are these.....

We all feel so much stronger, so much more valued when a kind word or action is bestowed upon us.  

It doesn't have to take a lot of time or money to make someone happy. 

Why not set yourself a goal this week to use the power you have to make someone happy.

 Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian
Don't forget to leave a quick comment at the bottom of this post, so that I know you are connecting with us....thank you

Truly, This Will Be Short and Sweet This Week.

You wonder why?  Well it's because I am enjoying a very few days with my sister Christine as she visits with us from England.  She flies home on Wednesday so every moment is precious right now.

What are we doing you wonder, well we're crafting of course!  Christine is enjoying (I think) working with my lovely distress inks, as she makes the cards that were presented in last week's card class.

What a great class that was.  If we wanted to have a good memory of the card classes we've presented in-store, then the ladies certainly left us with a great memory.  The laughter and camaraderie that was shared around the tables was second to none!

Here are the cards that they created together.

This thistle card we masked off, heat embossed the image and stamped within the mask.  Using a border punch and a narrow strip of cardstock we created a nice ribbon like border. 

The night sky birds was a quick and simple card once again masked off to create a rectangle, then using Ranger Distress inks for the sky.  The bird stamp is actually an outline stamp and we coloured it in to become a silhouette.

The poppy card below was embellished with a frame of scorelines which we created on the Martha Stewart Score Board.

The final card was a special fold that was really simple to do creating a card that stood on the bottom square box like edge.

It's not easy to see in the photo, but the floral piece at the bottom of the card is actually a small box like section.  The focal image is then glued on the top and it all folds flat to fit into a 6 x 6 envelope.  Simple, but different.

I do have a couple of things to share with you despite this being a short blog.  

Wrong time of year in a way, but to celebrate Canada Day, how about knitting this ready for those winter days that will be back.

You can find the pattern here

For those of you that have a Silhouette Cutting Machine, you can pick up a free cut file here to make this bow which can be used as you see for a topper on a pillow box or any style box. Maybe even for an embellishment on a card, you're only limited by your imagination aren't you.

Here's a quick peek at some of the pages that I've been making the past couple of weeks for an album that I will be gifting soon.

These are the pages that the recipient will be able to add photos to. 

You can see the white spaces are where the photos can be added.

There are seven more double page layouts, but I can't show you them as they have photos in them and I don't want to spoil what I hope will be a pleasant surprise. 

And now the words for this week.  Actually this is something that Joanne one of the lovely ladies that come into the store brought in for me.  

I hope it gives you the same smile that it gave me.

I have visited many places, but I have never been in Cahoots.

Apparently you can't go alone.  You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito.  I hear no one recognizes you there,

and the town is made up mostly of A. Nonnie Mouse.

I have, however, been in Sane.  They don't have an airport, 

you have to be driven there.  

I personally have made several trips there, thanks to family, friends, and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but to get there you have to jump.

I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I've also been in Doubt.  This is a sad place to go 

and I try not to visit there often.

I have been in Continent, but I don't remember

what country I visited.  It's an age thing.

I just remember it was very wet and damp there.

I've been in Flexible a time or two,

but only when it was important that I stand firm.

As I've gotten older, I find myself in Capable more often.

One of my favorite places to visit is in Suspense!

It really gets my adrenaline flowing and the old heart pumping!!

Yesterday I found myself in Adequate. There are too many mirrors

there for my comfort, which made me fully aware of my short comings.

When I finish up here in a minute, I'm heading over to in Cessant.

I hadn't planned to go there today, but now that I started this,

I know that before I can even catch up, all the people in my head,

are going to be in Clined where there is a huge World Travel Agency.

Until Later.....Happy Crafting,

Lilian

What A Beautiful Day For A Wedding!

We couldn't have asked for better weather had we been able to order it up, and we did enjoy it so much.

I won't bore you with multi photos, but will show you just a few. 

   

You can see how Sandra's peacock colour scheme came together really well with the mix and match colours of the ladies ensembles along with the men's shirts.

Rachel's dress that she worked so diligently on looked lovely on her as you can see.

Brian's young grandchildren were delightful doing exactly as was hoped for with never a murmur.  

Here's a closeup of both the flower girls basket along with the ring bearer-pillow.

We had a lot of trouble finding a small basket, so it was finally made by covering and lining a strawberry basket, using plastic canvas for the handle.  

All the necklaces were made by Sandra and myself along with her own being made from Swarovski pearls and blue crystals

Here's the way we set up the hall in Milford Bay. One half being used for the dining area, the other for the ceremony.  

To lessen the impact of the gaping hole of the stage, we cut tablecloths into strips and hung them. We tied a knot at the top of the cut strip to allow it to fall in individual strands.  

The overall effect was quite pleasing. 

This was the dividing table between the ceremony area and the dining area.  The small vases were then moved to the dining tables.  

The Peacocks were cut from the Silhouette in all the lovely colours and placed on the glasses at each table setting along with these cards and bracelets.

So as you can see, a lot of crafting took place before Saturday and it all came together really well.  Both Sandra and Brian were very happy with their day.

And what were you crafting at all week?  I've got started again on the scrapbook that I'm making for a gift. I'll be able to show you that soon, but not now as it's for a gift.

I found some interesting stuff on the web this week despite the busyness of the wedding preparations and going to Toronto to pick up my sister flying in from England.  She was here for the wedding and has now gone to spend her birthday on Friday with her twin sister in Belleville. 

If you like the idea of trying some Faux Stained Glass, there's a great tutorial here.  We still have a selection of Gallery Glass Paint in the store if you're leaning toward trying this craft.

And for my needle artist friends another lovely design by Lesley Teare.

She is so willing as an artist to share her talent, kudos to her.  Here's a little peek at what she's offering this week.

Here's a great idea for an end of school autograph shirt.  All you need is a shirt and your handy dandy Silhouette cutting machine to create a unique way for a child to bring home a memory of the last day of school.

They are offering a free cut file for the tee shirt in both version 2 and 3 of Silhouette files, so at the very least hop on over there and grab the file that's being offered.

Although the store will be closing at the end of the month, there's lots still going on there. A card class this coming Thursday, are you registered yet?  

I believe there's a couple of spots left and this will be the last class we will be offering at the store, so don't miss it.

Here's what we did in our last class.

Both of these cards though cut to open in different ways, featured a scored corner which we created using the envelope template on the Martha Stewart Scoreboard.

With the blue card we created our own patterned paper using a variety of background stamps.  For the greeting we stamped it multiple times to create a focal point along with the doodled flower.

The Best Wishes card is a fancy fold as you can see from the image where it shows it open.  A very simple but effective fancy fold.  Once again we created our own patterned paper using a large background stamp.

There are still a few available at the store at a mighty fine price if you choose to add them to your collection.

There are many many sales going on at the store right now, so don't miss out on the selection as well as the bargains. Drop in soon before it's too late.

Should you want something special that's no longer in stock then the last date to place an order will be June 16th.  These orders will have to be prepaid and should arrive into the store by June 23rd.  So make your wish list and get it in to Linda ready to be ordered.  Mine's already there!

Don't forget also that the last Friday Night Crop Night will be June 20th.  We'd love to see you there.  Give a call or email the store to be registered.

Well I think that's all for this week, but what thought can I leave you with. Have you ever thought what kind of person you are?  Are you a half full or half empty thinker?  

I tend to be a half full, mostly an optimist looking for the best in any situation, how about yourself?  

Have you ever thought about it? 

Do you need these words as a reminder that you should...........

Until Later ...Happy Crafting,

Lilian

How Nice is This Weather?

We can only hope that the lovely sunshine that we're getting right now will last until next Saturday at least. Perhaps without the bugs would be nice, but we'll take whatever we get I guess.

Please note that due to the upcoming wedding, we will be closed this Saturday only, June 7th

The final preparations are happening this week and for all of you who've had a wedding in the family in the past, you know how busy it can be. Perhaps more so if you like to craft and want to make so many things yourself, but it's all good.

Which makes me ask you .....

what have you been crafting at this week?  

I've been making lots of cards which I can't show you just now, maybe next week. With graduations happening or coming up soon, Elaine has been busy making some lovely graduation cards.  One for a high school graduate and one for a public school graduate, aren't they lovely.

Great use of layered colour on the card to the right, topped off with some grad caps, I'm sure it will be well received.

I loved the way Elaine used the pearl bling to look like a necklace on the card below.  And the layering at the neckline helped to make this my favourite card.

I've been selfishly thinking this week of all the time I'll have soon to do so many more of the crafts that I love. I love to sew, knit, crochet, paint, embroider, cross stitch,  make jewelry and of course paper craft in all it's forms.

It's been hard over the last ten years (yes, it's been ten years in September since we took over the Craft Nook), to make time for these things, usually only getting done what has to be done, rather than those projects I'd like to work on.

I've told many people as they've come in the store this past week that I plan to continue to blog after the store closes. Hopefully  my passion for all things crafty will rub off on at least one person.

Have you taken time this past week to come into the store and grab some of the bargains that are there to be had?

Don't leave it too long that there's not the selection of product to be had as so many folk are stocking up on the crafts that they love to make.

We had a lady from the Toronto area who was here for a few days drop in last week.   She was quite taken with the little felt purses that I made last spring and picked up a great selection of felt squares to make some.  You can  use them as card holders, bill holders or coin purses, whatever you use them for the colours of felt make each one of them quite unique

Click here for the pattern for them if you'd like to make some, I've also shared the link on the side bar under Felt Purse pattern. 

Don't forget to drop in and pick up some felt whilst the selection is good.  

You could also make a case for your phone or iPod, or even a needle case whilst you're at it. 

A great inexpensive little gift for someone too.  The pieces of felt are just .49 cents at regular price and Linda has them on sale right now at 40% off the regular price.  Great time to add to or create a stash of your own.

There are so many ideas using felt, here's another that I've shown you in the past.  A simple piece of linen, a few embroidery stitches and strips of red felt made this interesting wall hanging.

 

Or how about a felt pin for to embellish a jacket, sweater, hat or........well use your own imagination, it could brighten up many a garment.  

Pin backs for these flowers are still available in the store if you need to add them to your stash.

Embroidery is another passion of mine and I came across this little wall  hanging that I thought was quite lovely.  It could be incorporated into so many different items.  A bag, a quilt the front of a tee shirt, once again you are only limited by your imagination.

The needle artist has kindly shared the template for this design if you would like to pick it up here  Scroll down to nearly the bottom of the post to find the link.

We had our bi-weekly card class last Thursday and the ladies had a fine time making four cards.  How I did enjoy Sandra's enthusiasm and laughter as she made her cards. 

I would show you the cards, but for some reason I don't seem to have the file, so I guess you'll have to drop by next week to see them...sorry about that.

For all our Silhouette owners, there's a great tutorial here on compound paths.  

Compound paths you say...what is she talking about. Well that's the point. Click here to understand what they are and what you can do with the knowledge. 

Here's another great tutorial on how to make thicker letters if the font you chose was somewhat skinny.

.  

Don't forget

that this week only we will be closed on Saturday June 7th as we celebrate the marriage of our daughter to her best friend.

I think that's all for this week, though I've got much more that I could share with you, so see you next week, but in the meantime........

Until Later.....Happy Crafting

Lilian