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

I Missed It!!!

I've told you before how Fall is my most favourite time of year, (not the work of picking up the leaves).   I love the colours and will gravitate to them in clothing, art, decor...well anything and I missed the glory of Fall this year because it came early.  

I did get a taste of it when my daughter Sandra showed me a photo one of her friends had put on Facebook. 

Such beautiful trees in all of their Fall colours....ah well....such is life.

You're probably saying, how can she complain like that after just coming off a cruise....true, I have nothing to complain about..."life is good."

That's what's on the back of Linda's vehicle, and we had to keep that in mind when we had an unscheduled stop due to a vehicle breakdown on the way home. 

Life was good even at that point because we were able to coast into New River Gorge scenic lookout in West Virginia as we awaited assistance.  

We had found this lookout last year and though we didn't intend to stop again this year, it was a great place to have this happen and spend a couple of hours.

It brought back lovely memories of our previous visit there last year, and we did arrive home safely, though later than intended.

Here's a thought that pertains to our waiting time...

                                               

Or perhaps this could apply too.....

                                             

Well, now we are home after our adventure and today Linda and I worked on an order that came in whilst we were gone, along with catching up on the notes that Elaine and Judy had left for us.  With some people having to cancel out of classes and others asking to be on waiting lists for perhaps the same classes, we've been able to juggle people around and satisfy most everyone.

We will be opening up another All Day Christmas Card Class and though I haven't had a return phone call of confirmation of venue yet, I hope to be able to tell you that soon, so stay tuned.  

There are already sixteen ladies on the waiting list, so if the date suits them all, then there will only be four more spots available!  So if you're interested, once the date is announced, then don't delay in calling or dropping into the store to register.

Can you imagine with a fourth class being offered, that has the potential of eighty ladies attending the card class.

Here's a sampling of some of the cards that we made at last year's Christmas Card Class.  

You'll have to be registered to see what we are doing this year.

And of course we are in high gear now for the Mega Crop Weekend with 36 ladies expecting to attend there.  Can you imagine how many lovely pages we will have the pleasure of seeing?  Linda and I are always thankful that we remove ourselves from the judging, allowing all the Crop Weekend participants to vote because it is sooooo hard!  

Truly top notch artwork is created that weekend, feel free to drop into the Rotary Youth Centre and take a look. 

Are you ladies getting prepped so that you are ready for a successful weekend?  

My sister-in-law is attending from England this time, her second such Mega Crop Weekend and she emailed me to say that she is working on all the "P" words.  

"Planning and Preparation Prevent Poor Performance."  

I thought that was a good thought to pass on to everyone to help you have a "Productive" weekend.  

Have you taken some time to look at the website I linked you to for title ideas?  Just scroll down a little and you'll find the link there.  I often find that to be one of the brainteasers when the page is coming together, but I can't come up with a catchy title.

 Don't forget also that you don't have to scrap just your most beautiful photos.  

Sometimes you may have a photo that is less than perfect perhaps because it's blurred or over exposed. 

Even those photos will bring a memory into your mind, so don't ignore them because they are less than perfect.

I came across this example of a page and thought it was well worth showing you.  

Here you see a child covering their eyes when the photo was taken.  That photo though, will bring back a memory of the day to the family involved and therefore worth scrapbooking.

Are you a knitter who HATES having to sew in all the ends on their finished work? 

Here's a great tip that's called Russian joining  which will save you that task.

How I wish I'd known this method a long long time ago!!!

Here's another great link for the knitters in our community.  I'ts a free eBook download that shows you how to make approximately 13 different pattern stitches.  You may need to set up a free account, but they have loads of great ideas beside this free pdf eBook, so well worth doing.  

Here's a sampling of some of the stitches you could learn

Well I do hope I've inspired you in some way to either try a new craft or try a new aspect of a craft you love.  

I cannot encourage you enough to take advantage of the opportunity to look at the world of scrapbooking by dropping in to visit with us at the Rotary Centre on the weekend of the Mega Crop.  You are most welcome and believe me those 36 avid scrapbookers will love to show off their work to you.

Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian

Hot, hot, hot...

Well I hope it is, because I am writing this on Monday September 16th but you are hopefully reading it whilst we are cruising on the Disney Fantasy.  Thank you Lisa for introducing us to this style of vacation!

Decided to post this blog a little early as the scheduling doesn't always appear to work.
It's  ten in the morning, we've breakfasted and had a swim, now doing the last minute rearranging of suitcases before our shuttle arrives at noon.  We can look out of our hotel window and see our ship docked waiting for our arrival at twelve thirty.
Weather is amazing....going to be a great cruise I'm sure.

So did I inspire you last week to try a new craft or help out a charity after reading about all those charities that need our help? 

We love to hear your feedback as we did with Pauline and the slippers she made from a link I gave you.

Today I want to focus more on the paper crafters in our midst, in particular the scrapbookers as they prepare for their weekend getaway.

They will by now be busily sorting through the photos that they want to preserve in a scrapbook album. 

Don't forget scrappers, that even the bad photos are worth using if that's all you have.  They too will preserve a memory and take your mind back to that moment in time when the photo was taken.

For those of you that don't know the difference between a scrapbook album and a photo album, it's simple. 

If I was to show you the photos in a photo album of our Disney cruise for example.  Very soon you would get bored of page after page of 4x6 photos that I have to explain to you who, what, where, when and why they were taken.  

A scrapbook album you are able to look through the very best photos of a trip or event where the five "w's" are taken care of in an interesting manner. 

Every page would be a different design, colour and along with that would be a short "story" of what you are seeing on that page.  The "story" can be in depth or very simply told by strip journaling, short multiple lines of information.

This is a great example of a scrapbook page where you can see a variety of different sized photos that add to the interest of the page.   

The title on the banners to the right tells you where it was, the tickets on the left tell you when it was. The journaling, telling of the story, is to the right side, which after you read it you will know those involved in the page and why they were at Wonderland in August of 2012.  

Don't you love the bright colours too.

Here's another lovely page with vastly different colours and again with all the information readily available for the reader. 

This time the "story telling" is done by way of strip journaling.

That in a nutshell is what makes scrapbooking so much more interesting to the eye than a photo album with 4x6 photos in sleeves on a page.  Though perhaps those photos will have labels to identify the people and places in the photos.  

Every time you turn a page in a scrapbook album you will see something uniquely different to not only catch your interest, but to keep it so that you simply have to keep turning pages to discover what else there is to see.

Of course that's being said to you by a scrapbooker and I'm more than aware that not everyone has the same tastes as me, but WHY NOT????  

I would invite you to drop into the Rotary Centre for Youth on the weekend of the Mega Crop (October 18-20th) and see for yourself the beautiful work of the thirty five ladies who will be enjoying their art.  They come from all different walks of life, therefore having many different styles, but all enjoy the same craft and are happy to teach, learn and share with one another. So why don't you take a few minutes out of your busy day, drop in and see what they are up to.

And for the card makers in our midst.  I've been asked a number of times about the pop out flower card I made here for Emily. Scroll down a little to see it.  I found a Martha Stewart tutorial for you so that now you can make one for someone special too.

Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian

The Season it is a Changing

We have lots of activity at our bird feeder right now and the squirrels are busily stocking up for winter too. Won't be long now before we are raking up the leaves instead of cutting the grass.  Have you ever thought about that?  Winter we shovel snow, Spring we pick up the winter debris, Summer we cut grass and Fall we rake leaves, hmmm condo living almost sounds attractive. Operative word...almost.

Did you go to the Fall Fair this weekend?   My hubby and I went on Friday night with Linda's family.  The girls were most excited to find out how their fall entries fared.  As you know Rachel entered the doll that she made recently and Emily entered some art work, a scrapbook page and bracelet. We bumped into Jonathan there too and he had entered some of his photography.  

He's been getting lots of pointers from his Uncle Randy, Linda's husband.

Well you can imagine they were all pretty pleased to find they had ribbons on their various works of art. 

Emily had a first in her age group and category for her bracelet with an honorable mention for her scrapbook page.  

Rachel and Jonathan both had a second in their age group and categories. Their age group went from thirteen to nineteen (they are fourteen) which is quite a wide age range, so they were very happy with their results.

All in all there were many entries and although I have to admit I much prefer to look at the needle art and crafting type categories, there were some pretty nice looking food entries there too.  Linda and I were able to recognise a number of cross stitch items that had been sold from our store and beautifully worked and then matted and framed.

I'm very much a fall person and was really taken with a cross stitch fall scene that was quite stunning.

Though not a quilter I can very much appreciate the art form and the hours that go into making a quilt, so they were a pleasure to look at too.  I do hope you had the opportunity to wander around the exhibits as I did and along with that to meet your friends and neighbors there too.

Very soon now Linda and I will be off on vacation for a short time.  When our daughter Sandra's boss asked her what she was doing for her vacation and where she was going, her response was the best  of what we like...a cruise and Disney all in one.

I've been busily working on the cards ready for the Christmas Card classes when we return and Linda's been creating the samples for the Scrapbooking weekend.  

I do believe there is only one spot left for the weekend, so if you're sitting on the fence....get off it before the gate is closed!

All in all we will have our feet down running when we get back, but we will be ready.

We mentioned last week that all the Christmas Card Classes were filled now, but we're still been getting inquiries about them.  If you missed out on the three classes but would like the opportunity still, then get in touch with either Elaine or Judy and have them put your name down on a waiting list.  

If there's enough interest we will open up a fourth class on a Saturday in November, though don't know a date yet.

It always interests Linda and I how many long distance customers we have. On Saturday I had a customer from Saskatchewan phone me wanting us to send some pillowcases and dressers scarves out to her.   We've done this a number of times as she's unable to source them around her and she was vacationing here a couple of years ago when she came into the store and saw what we carry.

Early last week we had another couple of ladies in from PEI saying much the same thing, though cross stitch was their passion.  They went out with a number of projects and a business card.  We often don't appreciate that which is on our own doorstep until we hear from others what we have that they can't access.  Made me do a mental walk around our town and realise we have a nice variety of shopping experiences here.

This is the cross stitch that I so admired at the fall fair (not the actual one, an image of the design).

Does it make you want to learn to cross stitch?  We have some lovely beginner pieces in the store and would be happy to get you started.

I think at least two of us will be cross stitching as we journey down to Cape Canaveral this week.

Or if embroidery is what you would like to learn then we have stamped pillowcases like this, along with many other designs.

If pillowcases aren't what you are looking for, then there are quilt blocks to embroider, tea towels, dresser scarves to name a few.

You won't be bored this winter if you learn a new craft. Keeping your hands busy will make the long winter will fly by.

For the knitters that come into our store I thought you may like to know about this.  I subscribe to Leisure Arts website and every Friday they put out a free knitting and crochet pattern.  The other week their free pattern was the most delightful Pierre the Beret Bear.  You can see him here, though unfortunately he is no longer free...still cute though and he has a sister too.

I had told another customer who was knitting some lovely bears for the Christmas Shoe Box program of a doll my mother used to make for the same reason.  Our customer had said, lovely though the bears were...and they indeed were, they were very time consuming hence she couldn't make as many as she would like.

When I linked her up with these comfort dolls, she was thrilled because now she can make and donate so many more dolls. 

Here's the link for the easy doll pattern, just scroll down a little to read the pattern many more dolls. 

Although the pattern shows them as one piece, our customer knits them on a knitting loom in the round. She changes colours as she goes and then simply sews in the arm and leg placement after they're stuffed.

This is the teddy bear that my sister-in-law in England has been knitting for the Fish and Chip baby charities. 

So many people in Africa have so little that they are taking their babies home wrapped in paper and have been dubbed "Fish and Chip" babies.  Many groups are knitting for these babies.

How can anyone say they're bored or have nothing to do when there are so many worthwhile charities out there just looking for help.

I hope that once again I've inspired you to try something new, or use the skills you have to keep your hands busy for yourself or others.



Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian