Will It Ever End?

That's a rhetorical question, because of course we know that eventually winter will end, but oh my it's taking it's time this year.  

As I was talking to my sister on face-time this morning, her young granddaughter was with her and asked me if I could show her all our snow again.  

Later in the morning I was speaking to a sister-in-law, once again in England. She said that they have no concept at all of how much snow we get, even in saying that it is still three feet deep on the grass, it's hard for them to grasp that amount. 

However that said, we know that although the snow offers us many challenging moments, such as having to shovel a foot out of your driveway in order to come to the card class on Saturday, it also offers us many enjoyable moments.  

Linda's family went out Rosseau way on Sunday afternoon. Not only a beautiful afternoon for a drive, but for to see the ice on the rocks on the side of the road.  

They trudged up the hills, fell down into the snow to their waists, had the snow disappear from under them as they were admiring the view, causing them to slide back down where they had climbed up, and  generally admired the thickness of the ice and the way it hung way over the rocks.

These photos were taken by Linda's husband Randy  

All in all, the joy and beauty of winter on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

As I mentioned, two of ladies who joined us on Saturday for the All Day Card Class, had to shovel a foot of snow out of their driveway before they could make their way up here from Barrie.  Another two who came over from Midland way said that it wasn't nice driving, but like the two who came from Peterborough, they all made it safely here.  

All twenty of the ladies with varying skill levels, were able to complete the ten cards they had in their kits. Some finishing touches may have been needed once they went home, but on the whole, complete.  

That's 200 cards made in five hours, quite an accomplishment I would say. There was a pretty high consensus for a favourite card this time, which of course you won't get to see until after April 5th when we hold the second class.  

Are you registered?  There will very soon be a cut-off time for that class, so don't sit on the fence any longer.

As at the All Day Card Class this past weekend, there was also a consensus at the Thursday night class for a favourite card.  

It was the spring garden card to the left.  

There was a definite "Wow" factor when using the Kaisercraft wood-grain stamp to make the fence boards. Then by adding a few punched flowers and a stamped flower, a lovely spring card was created.  

Too bad the weather that day didn't co-operate as being like the first day of Spring we may have expected.

Now our focus has moved from the All Day Card Class to the upcoming Mega Crop Weekend.  A customer was asking us how much scrapbooking we achieved on these weekends and was somewhat surprised to hear that we don't do any of our own scrapbooking at that time. 

We have always been committed at these weekends to ensuring that those who register have our full attention.   Not only through the weekend, but prior to it.  Planning is key to a successful weekend, not only for each registrant as they plan their pages, make up their kits and execute those plans, but to us also as we strive for a great weekend experience for everyone.  

I've directed you to this article before, so you may well have seen it already, but it's well worth a read as you sort and organize your "stuff" for to be productive at the Mega Crop Weekend. This is one person's view on how to pack and organize so that she doesn't have to take EVERYTHING to a weekend and by doing this she has found herself to be much more productive.

So are you registered?  Have you begun your page sketch/map selections?  This Friday night we have another Crop and Craft Night and would be pleased to help you if you are in need.  There are many great graphic artists out in the cyber world willing to share their sketch ideas with you.  

One of my personal favorites continues to be Page Maps which you can find here, but there are many others.

This is a sample page from February Page Maps

  

Here's another from Scrapbook and Cards Today.

Each of these samples show how to use paper in a different way to enhance your layout.  Also showing where to place embellishments of your choice to bring the focus to different places in the layout. 

Both of these layouts have six photos on them, and yet due to placement bring a completely different look to each layout.  It's by using varying layouts and paper placements that the interest of the viewer is kept when showing off an album.  

As each page is turned, the surprise of the layouts cause interest to be held. 

Speaking above of Scrapbook and Cards Today, have you picked up the latest edition yet?  You simply have to spend $20.00 in the store to receive this magazine free to you.  It's packed full of ideas and techniques  for both scrapbookers and card makers so don't miss the opportunity of this free to you magazine.  A great resource, but limited quantities.

Linda has mentioned in the newsletter how we are endeavoring to post more on Facebook during the week if something extra comes up to notify you of.  

Have you "friend-ed" us so that you receive notification of these posts?  

It's really easy.  You simply have to find us as Craft Nook Bracebridge, then hover over the word liked, then click on the "get notifications text". You'll not miss out on any of the midweek postings that way.

For those of you with a Silhouette cutting machine, did you see that the shapes are on sale until March 27th in the Silhouette Store?  That means just 55 cents per shape.  

Drop into the Craft Nook to pick up a download card so that you can purchase some new shapes for yourself.

Also if you've ever wanted to weld some words inside a shape but don't know how, I found a great tutorial here that clearly explains it for you in picture format.

Now for the non-paper crafter, what to share?  

Once again for the cross stitcher I came across a lovely design.   This is suited to being a card, but could well be a part of a small grouping of floral designs. 

The instructions and graph can be found here.

Remember we have Aida cloth as well as a full complement of DMC embroidery floss in stock at the Craft Nook.

I found this idea on a blog here and thought how clever it was and could be used by any kind of stitcher.  

The needles are all threaded onto a reel of thread (could be floss bobbin too) so that when you are busy hand sewing, all you have to do is pull out the first needle and the amount of thread you want and you're good to go!  How neat is that.  A few minutes of prep to begin and you're ready.

Do you have a boring bottle of hand sanitizer sitting on your counter? We have many stickers in the store that could be used like this to make a boring bottle more fun to look at. 

It would make a quick and easy little gift in a basket too.

And the words for the week.  Sometimes as we travel through the daily grind of living, it's hard to see that each day can bring us a degree of joy. 

Perhaps  it's hard to uncover that joy some days, but if we......

.....maybe it will.  Could be it's all in our state of mind?

Until Later.....Happy Crafting

Lilian