Were You Watching and Proud to be a Canadian?

Although I didn't see the start of the men's hockey game (not being a hockey fan) I did see most of it. We cannot help but be proud of all our athletes for their outstanding performances in the 2014 Sochi Games.

Undoubtedly many stories to be told once again, heartache, pride, sacrifice all the qualities of Olympians.

WAY TO GO CANADA 

and particularly Huntsville's Dara Howell on her gold medal win, shown here with Kim Lamarre who won bronze in the same event.

I was wondering if you ever look at our Flickr Site?  

This is where we post the photos of card classes, or Mega Crop Weekend scrapbook pages.

Here's just a sample of what you'll see there.

I've been negligent lately in keeping it up to date, but have uploaded some photos tonight if you want to hop on over there to take a look.  

GARAGE SALE

We've had good response from vendors to the Garage Sale, so make sure you're available if you want to get some of the bargains that day.  

There's still time if you'd like to be a vendor. Please drop into the store soon to register.

Just as a reminder, it's March 8th at the store and we open at 9a.m.  

This is an ideal time to increase your supplies if you're a new crafter.

The sale will go all day, but it's the early bird that gets the worm they say.

I came across a great website this week for all the embroidery needle artists in our midst.  Well actually it's a Pergamano website so works as a double whammy, whether you like embroidery or Pergamano, this site is well worth a look. 

Here's just one design they're sharing, click here and scroll down a little to see more.

For those that don't know what Pergamano is, it's a card making technique using parchment paper. You trace the design (like the one shown to the left) using the ball head of your stylus onto the parchment paper.  

The pressure of your stylus creates a white line on the parchment paper.  

Once the design is all traced, you can enhance the lines by going over them a second time.  You can also add shading to a flower in the same way.

Still not clear on it?  Then drop into the store and see some samples and look at both the parchment paper and stylus for a better understanding.

Have you registered for the Spring All Day Card Class yet?  Not too many spots are still available so if you're wanting to participate, now is the time to get off the fence and call the store. 

The date doesn't work for you? Then let us know and we'll put you on a waiting list for another date.  

We have seven of the ten cards made now and two more in the works. That means only one to go and the cutting begins!

Speaking of registration....are you ready because....

THIS IS THE WEEK!

Registration for the Mega Crop Weekend opens on Thursday morning of this week, February 27th 2014.  

27 hours of joyous scrapbooking with others who love to craft in the same way as you do. Time for memories to be recorded in our scrapbooks.

Is that not BLISS!  

And as well as that, there are prizes, goodie bags, challenges, and make and takes for you to learn from.  

And it doesn't stop there!  You get to be waited on with your meals and snacks. No preparing food, no washing dishes and all of this for just $120.00.   

The early bird special for the first fifteen registrants is a free class.  

Don't despair though if you aren't in the first fifteen, you can still participate in the class for just $20.00 and believe me it's well worth that fee.  

Linda has been diligently prepping the pages for this class, and they are coming along beautifully. We don't like to reveal what you will be doing exactly, but be prepared to be busy making six single scrapbook pages, full of techniques and embellishments.

I was looking on the Red Heart website the other day and came upon this pattern for wristlets. 

What they had to say there is that if you can knit a swatch, then you can knit these wristlets.  

Basically if you can knit and purl these are very doable for anyone.  

I was intrigued by them and had some oddments of yarn so had to sit down (yes I just had to) and make them last night. 

Took me about an hour and a half and I was done. 

Here's the link to the PDF pattern and here's what I made.  

I did make the rib at the wrist longer than the pattern called for, but otherwise much the same. You can see there's no thumb to be knitted and no casting off at the top of the hand, so a very simple rectangle sewn up the side.  Great for driving I would think.

Well I'm almost done...I bet you're glad about that...LOL

My sister in law sent me some household tips and tricks that she thought may be interesting to everyone.  I've loaded them as a page that you can access on the right hand sidebar under 

PAGES - Household Tips and Tricks.  

Here's just one of them...did you know this?  There are many more if you look under Household Tips and Tricks.  Thanks Di for your contribution.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.  If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

And here for everyone this week are words that I have had saved forever and surely apply to each one of you that read the content of this blog don't you think?

Until Later...Happy Crafting

Lilian

Were You First Out of the Starting Gate?

I posted an extra blog this week when we received confirmation of the date from the venue where we will be holding the Spring All Day Card Class.  Did you see it?  No? Well how about where I posted it on Face Book?  

Some people did, and as a result registered right away for the day event. So put your running shoes on and get yourself registered before all the spots are taken.  

The date is Saturday, March 22nd. The time is 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.   The Venue is The Community Room at Independent Grocers. The cost is just $40.00.

Here is just a sampling of cards we've made at previous All Day Card Classes.

Linda and I have been busily planning and prepping the new cards for the upcoming class. 

We had a great time last week at the Friday Crop and Craft Night.  

Ideas were shared, pages were made and yes, some of us learned how to use tools that we have in our stash!  

Speaking of stash....have you been sorting through your much loved, but not often used supplies and tools in readiness for the Garage Sale?

The date for that was also announced over the weekend, hope you saw it.  

It's Saturday March 8th at the store. If you want to be a vendor, then you need to be registered for that. The cost is just $5.00 per bin. 

In the past there have been some super buys, with happy customers and vendors alike.  

As a vendor, you can choose to sell part packages of product. Just price and mark them accordingly.  

Your supplies need to be into the store ready for the sale no later than Thursday March 6th, with any unsold product picked up by the following Wednesday. Vendors receive an in store credit for any product that is sold.  

This is a cash only sale, so make sure you have a few extra bills in your wallet that day, and have fun picking up some really good buys.

Check out some of the happy shoppers here from last year's Garage Sale

Have you cleared your calendar for the Spring Mega Crop as well? 

That's April 11-13th and should be lots of fun and productivity.  

Linda and I spent a couple of days last week planning what we will be teaching in the class.  Now we have to put it together, but we have a good plan in action.  

Next will be the make and takes, but everything seems to be falling into place. 

We'll be ready....will you?

And above you see the page the scrapbookers made at the "make and take" table at one of the Mega Crops.
Book with a friend and enjoy laughter, learning, productivity and the being waited on for the weekend...what more could you ask for?

Here's a little look at last years Spring Mega Crop.

Have all the knitters found Ravelry yet?  Just click here to pop over to their website for a humongous amount of free or paid for knit or crochet patterns.  You do have to register for a free account and NO you aren't bombarded with loads of emails, so don't cause that to be a concern for you.

As I was strolling through Google images last week I came across this image. 

Unfortunately it didn't take me to a page, but I did like the look of these mobius scarves, so I did another Google search and found a free pattern for this one on the left which I thought was similar (well it's knitted the others are crochet, but both use yarn..does that count)?

You can find the free pattern here for the white one. It's knitted with a fine yarn in garter stitch on large needles, with a yarn over pattern row, so will work up very quickly and be open and lacy. It reminds me of the one I knitted for my daughter at Christmas, less the beading I added.

We've added a lot more yarn at the store, and can order even more if we don't have quite the colour or weight that you want.

Drop in and have a look

I came across a number of pillowcase style embroidery patterns too. You can find them here.

It's easy enough with the right tools to trace and transfer these designs, or designs from a colouring book even.

We carry both Tracing Paper, and the Heat Transfer Pencils you will need for this technique, at the store. 


All you need to do is lay the tracing paper over the image you want to use.  With a sharp point on your Heat Transfer Pencil, trace over the design (remember that this will be a reverse image so any words will be mirrored).  When you've traced everything, place the tracing onto your fabric pencil side down, and iron over the design with a fairly hot iron until it transfers to the fabric.

The good news is that these tracings can be used more than one time as well.

For  those who prefer, we do carry already stamped pillowcases in the store, along with embroidery needles, DMC embroidery floss and embroidery hoops.

And the last item I wanted to share with you this week is one on felting. 

I've noticed how it is becoming more and more popular as customers try the easy kits and find exactly that....felting is easy and has the scope to be extremely creative. 

One of our customers began with a felting kit and moved on to purchase more roving wool from us as she created her own designs.

She was kind enough to bring in some of her work this past week to show us. What do you think, isn't it beautiful?

She found an image she liked and transferred outlines to the fabric before she began the felting.



Now the words for the week.
I was listening to the Olympics today and they were doing a story on a bob sled athlete, Lyndon Rush from Humboldt Saskatchewan.  
One of his comments was that he hoped by doing his best, he would inspire the next generation to strive to be the best they could be in their endeavors.


That struck a cord with me, as we all hope to teach and inspire others the things that we love ourselves. 

It made me think back to Penny whom I've known for many years, and whom I taught to crochet.
Just a few short years ago, she was telling Linda how she remembered me pulling out her crochet work when she had made a mistake.

I was mortified that that was how Penny remembered the lessons I taught her. However she went on to say how grateful she was for that. How she learned not only to correct  her mistakes, but because of my help she learned to be able to read a pattern, and grow through that experience.
Wow, I thought, take a breath again, it's okay.

 Until Later....Happy Crafting,

Lilian

We Have A Date So Registration Is Open!

Just a quick blog to let you know we received confirmation today for the Spring All Day Card Class, which in turn sets the date for the Garage Sale.


The Spring All Day Card Class is at Your Independent Grocer's Community Room on  March 22nd.

The Garage Sale is being held at the store on March 8th.  Clear your calendar and call us to register for Card Day.  Remember it's a first come first served basis, so don't delay.

Have you been going through your stash to see what you need to exchange for new stash at the Garage Sale?  We're signing up vendors for the Garage Sale as well now, so give us a call.  705-645-6231.

Until Later.....Happy crafting

Lilian

How I Love to Learn! (Well Most Things Anyway)

Whether it was the twelve year old customer on Saturday, so taken with the intricate knots she was working on her friendship bracelet, that she wanted me to understand the technique. Or the fourteen year old that saved some of her school work in order to teach the technique to me....I do love their enthusiasm and that they don't see me as too old to learn something new.  

Rachel and I had a lovely couple of hours together again tonight as she worked on her ongoing T-shirt quilt. It's a learning curve for both of us and yet we enjoy the lessons we learn together.  All our cardmakers may like to know that she's just as conservative of material as I am.  

So what have you been up to this week?  I have some more mittens knitted for the school and have begun in earnest to prepare for both the upcoming Mega Crop Weekend and for the All Day Card Class. Though we haven't been able to secure confirmation of our preferred date yet for the Card Class, we know it will be happening and have five cards in the works already.  Two made, three in the works and just five more to go, not too shabby.

Talking of Card Classes, we had a lovely time with the ladies last Thursday as we put them through their paces, and they came out glowing with pride in what they were able to achieve with ease.  

Using the We R Memory Keepers envelope score board and the measurements Linda and I had worked out, they were able to make an easy envelope box for the Valentine card they made.  

This card had a paper bow on it, which the ladies made on the envelope score board. 

The bow caused the card to be a bit thicker than the average card, hence the need for the box, which they decorated with stamps as well. 

And here you see the box.

                        

As you can see from the side shot, it's an envelope style of box, and once you've got the measurements worked out, as easy as pie to make.

Just so that you can get a good close up look at it, here's the other card the ladies created.  

Using one of the Cover-a-Card Impression Obsession stamps on both this card and the Valentine card (yes the hearts were stamped from a Cover-a-Card Background stamp), the ladies learned a little more of the versatility of these stamps.

Having them on sale last week, they were pleased to have the opportunity of a bargain.  

One of our customers came up from the city last week, especially to purchase one of these stamps when she saw them on sale in the newsletter. She was thrilled to find the one she wanted was in stock!

You never did tell me what you have been working on this past week?  

I know my sister-in-law has been busy knitting double thick mittens for my mother-on-law, with just one more to finish.  

We gave a quick little lesson in the store last week on how to make these to Diane.  

I know my sister has been busy sorting through her crafting stuff, partly in preparation for her upcoming move, but also for  her granddaughter to take some to nursery school.  

Have you been sorting through yours ready for the garage sale? 

Although we don't have confirmation of the All Day Card Class date, which impacts on the Garage Sale choice of date, it is coming up soon.  So be like a girl scout and "Be Prepared".  Imagine how much fun it is to change that which you aren't using into an in-store credit note to purchase new "stuff".

As for knitting, I was browsing the Internet the other night and came across this design, which I promptly fell in love with and just HAVE to try.  You know how it is don't you?

 

I'm not in love with the colour, but love the Celtic Cable design, and the pattern is available here for free.  

In some blogs it was called a Saxon Braid.  

I see it as a band around a toque like this, how do you see it?   Click on the highlighted words and you can download the pattern for the toque. This website, though not as full of patterns as Ravelry, still it's a good resource.

I was privy to some nice show and tell last week. Not only did I see the finished large crochet doily that Carol's been working on, she also showed me a lovely little beanie she crocheted for her granddaughter for Valentines Day.  

Carol found the free crochet pattern on the Red Heart website here.     

Isn't it delightful?  We tried to find a free shamrock pattern, but didn't have any luck there. If you know of one, please leave a comment at the end of the blog and Carol can make another for St Patrick's Day.

Well we've segued nicely into Valentines again, do you have a card made for your beloved, but are looking for the perfect words?  There are some nice words here, and you can print them directly.

Now we've looked after the knitters and crocheters above.  

Don't forget if you want to learn either of these needle arts, all you have to do is, let us know, and sign up for the Friday Night Crop and Craft Night to learn. 

I had a lady into the store on Saturday and she was just learning to knit.  She  told me she'd never knitted in her life before, and her first project was a hat and scarf with a cable stitch.  This lady shared with me that she was 82 years young!  She also said she wished she'd learned years ago, so don't have the same regret yourself, start now!

For all of you who have a Silhouette Cutting Machine, have you looked at this blog here?  It's a great resource for learning how to get the best out of your machine. Why not hop over and take a look. There are so many tutorials to learn from. None the least is how choosing a design from the Silhouette online shop can sometimes nab you more than the simple design you are looking for, but perhaps more embedded within that design that you can use. You can also download a full manual from this site if it would be helpful to you to have one on hand.

My very last item this week is for the needle artists in our midst. If you like to embroider, then you'll enjoy this little design which I've had on my PC for a long time, so don't know where I downloaded it from.

Wouldn't it be cute on a pillowcase or a quilt block?

The words for this week are keeping in mind that Valentines Day is almost upon us......

If you look carefully, you will see I've taken the liberty of altering these words just a little here. You could maybe use them for the inside of your beloved's card.

Whichever way you may use them, please enjoy Ginger's House words.

Until later....Happy Crafting

Lilian

Do You Believe Six More Weeks of Winter?

No way I say, that ground hog must be wrong.  However I'll take the snow and cold every day over the flooding in other parts of the world.   Did you also know, that February 3rd is usually the coldest day of the year?   At least that's what I heard on the news last night, so that's behind us now as well. Looking and moving forward to warmer weather.

I came upon this as I was trolling the Internet this past week, and thought what lovely gift it would make. With Family Day and Valentine's Day soon to be on us, maybe it could be an unexpected gift for someone in your family?  

Just a simple black frame, a flourish and the word family cut from black cardstock on your Silhouette machine.  Add to it the photo of your choice, and you're done. Quick, easy and inexpensive to boot.

We have some nice 12 x 12 shadow box frames in stock 

at the Craft Nook.

Here's a flourish I found on Google images. To use it, all you have to do is take it into your Silhouette program, and trace it to make a cut file. 

I took this flourish copied and pasted it, then overlaid it to make a longer flourish before I made it into a cut file that I've saved in my Silhouette library for future use.

Don't know how to do that?  Then why not join us on a Friday night for some instruction.

We had a good night last Friday and although I didn't get any knitting done, I did start on the bones of a scrapbook page that I've since completed.  Here's how I go about creating a scrapbook layout.  

After I've chosen the photos I want to use, I begin my pages by finding a layout that appeals to me.  My page may not look the same as the sketch by the time I'm finished, but I like that jumping off place that a sketch gives me.  I may rotate the original sketch, flip it, or mirror image it to make it work for me. 

My next step is to crop, or more likely to reduce the size of a photo in my photo editing program, to fit the suggested sizes in the sketch. I'll also look at the sizes and placement of the papers on the sketch, making note of the measurements.  

Once my photos are printed I look at the paper combinations I want to use and perhaps the embellishments at the same time.  

I prefer to do some legwork before I begin my layout and then the actual layout doesn't take me long to put together.

Here's my beginning sketch and my finished layout.  Taken from Scrapbook and Cards Today.

The photos are very personal so I've blurred and covered them, but you can still see the colour concepts that caused me to select these papers.

You can see how I've flipped the page with the large circle to the left page and only used four rather than five photos on that page. My journaling was minimal on this layout so I removed the journaling space and used an 8 x 10 photo on that side. The title went on the top left corner instead of the bottom middle and I didn't add the circle highlights to either page.  You can see how my sketch was the jumping off place, but then I made it my own layout.

Marta was asking me about a place to get title ideas from.  I have posted it before, but for those that missed it here are not one, but two websites that offer a myriad of ideas.  There are groupings and then sub groupings so save them to your favorites and you should never be at a loss for a good title.

Come and join us in two weeks for some scrapbooking and crafting fun on Friday night. 

Looking to the weeks ahead, have you cleared your calendar so that you can attend the April Mega Crop Weekend?

You know what they say about good intentions don't you?  

I had intended to knit a few pairs of mittens this week to donate to one of the schools, but I only managed one pair. Still one pair more than I had last week.  

How about you?  Did you dig out any of your scrap yarn to use up this way?  

Did you see some of the lovely yarn that just came into the store? Oooh it's nice and if you want to try some arm knitting there's some really great chunky yarn now too.

Linda and I are always up for show and tell, so it was lovely when Pauline emailed to us a photo of a card she made.  

In the last Thursday Technique Class we had introduced the ladies to some quilled flowers. Pauline used this idea on a sympathy card she made. You can see the quilled flower in the centre of the heart cut out.  Didn't she do a terrific job?  

Thanks Pauline for sharing.

If you are interested in the heart die, let us know.  Although we don't presently have it in stock, we can get it for you.

Make sure you get signed up for the Thursday Technique Class to learn new ideas you can use on both your card making and scrapbook pages.  

Just two spots left this week!

I'm pretty sure most of you know about the elastic band craft that's so popular right now.  Well after the exams were completed last week and Rachel had three days off school, she spent the first day just vegging out. 

Here's what she created, what do you think?  All done with elastic bands!

We have the bands and clips back in stock right now, but still waiting on the looms.  Let us know if you want one and we can tag one for you as soon as they arrive.

Do you have your valentine card made for your sweetie yet? 

Linda showed you

lots of items that will help you create the perfect card, so don't delay.
Get in early before they're all gone.

For all the crafters and recyclers out there.  See how to change these empty wipe containers into useful bag storage. 

 By using Mod Podge a foam brush (both available at the Craft Nook), and either fabric or scrapbook paper (available at the Craft Nook) a somewhat boring container can begin a new life.

This blogger also explains here how to fold your plastic bags so that you can pull them from the top of the container.

Your words for the week....

Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian