Successful First Craft Show!

Emily and I had a marvelous time at our first craft show yesterday! It actually wasn't a craft show, in fact we were among only two or three vendors with handmade products, the rest were resellers, so not much competitions for us. There was not much foot traffic, so sales were very low for everyone, but we did at least make enough to cover the booth fee plus a little extra which we both spent at other vendor booths. I won a door prize from an awesome small business that makes dog treats. My dogs will enjoy their third of the cupcake I won after I take a picture and post on their blog.

Emily was interviewed by a local tv station and there's a bleep online here.

There's also an article in our local paper here.

Visit Emily's blog to see pictures of our booth (and one very tired momma!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning to everyone! This is such a great day here in the good old U.S. of A. because it is when we gather with family and friends to give thanks. Here are a few bits of history for those interested in how it got started and what some of the celebrations are like.

First, from the History Channel online. They've got some really cool videos there too!

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.


Then hop over to Holidays.net to read all about similar celebrations all over the world.


Please remember to think about friends and family that are away from their loved ones. Say a little prayer if you will, or do whatever you desire to lift them up and ask for a spirit of love and joy to fill their hearts. 

Still working on products for Saturday's show

With just a couple more days to go I'm still busy getting ready for the After Thanksgiving show. I discovered that it isn't a craft show so much as a vendor show, so maybe there won't be as much competition as I expected. There was a flyer at work that listed vendors that have door prizes and places like Avon, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Longanbarger (sp?) baskets and some other places that I've never heard of were on the list. It will be an awesome experience for Emily and I and will certainly teach us some lessons that I'll share with you on Sunday or Monday. My project tonight is to finish embellishing the 72 folders for hot cocoa mix packets. Here's a sneak peak at some that are already done showing one that has a packet inside. Oh and while I'm at it, you might as well get to see our little JC who decided that Mike's sock and underwear drawer was a great place to escape the stalker dog, Libby. I tried to get a pic of Libby stalking him, but she moved too quickly so you get to see him with Katie instead who was totally uninterested in the cat in the drawer.

Now is that a "what do YOU want" look or what???

 I didn't realize how icky this dresser looked until zooming in on the pictures! Can't imagine WHY since it was given to us used back in Nov/Dec 90 after the big explosion and fire at the condo in Coffeyville. What a great husband I have who is willing to actually use this girly dresser, huh? We're all about inexpensive and using what we have. We even still use the matching nightstands! One of these years maybe I'll get around to painting all three, until then at least the cat likes it!

Slider boxes for Hershey's Nuggets

I got this bright idea the other day that it would be great to sell some of these little slider boxes (think wooden matchbox) for those yummy chocolate nuggets. Keep in mind now, the show we're doing is on Saturday the 27th and that's HOW many days away??? AND I work three of those days! Well I got ten of them done last night and as you can see there are still a bunch of nuggets left over. I found a couple of other tutorials for making a longer version that has seven nuggets, allowing you to spell out BELIEVE. I'll make a couple of those and maybe, just maybe will have some time to make some singles. Won't these make awesome teacher, co-worker, child, parent or whatever gifts! Oh I'm also making hot cocoa singles packets. The cardstock is cut and scored (6 x 12 scored at 4 & 8), now must be embellished, as must these little slider boxes. You don't know how tempted I was last night to eat half the bag, but I can proudly say that I didn't eat even one! There's a little affliction called gout that kicks me in the butt.... well actually my big toe... if I over indulge in chocolate, mushrooms, red wine and a few other foods, so I keep them to a minimum. Okay, back to work!

Mini album fun!

I finally got some of the mini albums done that Christie showed how to do on her blog the other day. Wow are they ever addicting! I've already got two other gals at work making them too! Thanks Christie!

 The cards below were a bundle of fun. It's the first time I've tried sewing on paper and incorporating fabric in the design. I cut out the stockings out of denim, sewed on to the paper, then fringed the edges. I then sewed the plaid paper "fabric" on to card stock which was then adhered to the card blank (5 1/2 x 11 folded in half). When I looked at the finished product and decided to use some of the die cuts I'd made with the Cricut I decided to use some Stampin Up white craft ink to dress up the stockings and ornaments. The little santa on the bells was stamped with an ancient set I've had for over 20 years and does not have a name on it. I used a red and black sharpie for his suit and boots, then a puffy glaze pen by Sakura for the white and red buttons.

 These cards have gold lame circles sewn on card stock, except the one card that used black velvet. For the ornament strings I used a versamark pen and gold embossing powder. I used some Studio G clear stamps and another stamp from that really old set using Stampin Up Ruby Red classic ink.

 The mini album below is one of my favorites because of the saying, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." I jazzed it up a bit with some Tim Holtz distress Stickles in Scattered Straw (pretty appropriate, huh?) and the touched the star up with Studio G gold glitter glue.

Winner of OWH Valentine Blog Hop Candy!

Ok folks, after struggling with this announcement all morning I will just go ahead and do it, then see what happens. I pulled out all of the qualifying comments and used Random.org to draw a number and listen to this, I kid you not, the winner was my daughter!!! (She's in the comments as Emily and Matt.) I haven't even told her yet because, quite honestly I wondered if I should do like most of the big companies do, you know exclude family members. Than I said, well, she DID follow the guidelines. She left a comment and she is a follower, AND I used a random generator, soooooo unless she objects and wants me to pick another number I will let the chips fall where they may and congratulate her. Thanks to EVERYONE who participated in the blog hop and for your support of Operation Write Home!

Operation Write Home Be my Valentine Bloghop Today!

Welcome to my little contribution to the Operation Write Home Be My Valentine Blog Hop! I’m so glad that you made it over here and hope that I am able to provide you with some fun and inspiration so you too can create some Valentine’s cards to send over to soldiers serving our country. If you didn’t come here from Susie at SA Scrapping Gal, then please make sure to hop over there for a looksy at what she’s doing. When you’re done on my blog please hop over to Jamie’s site Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! There are over 100 blogs participating in this awesome event today so please visit as many as possible and leave some shout-outs. If you come across a link that doesn't work you can get to the beginning page at OWH here. I know the rest of the folks love comments as much as I do *hint, hint*.

Now before proceeding with my contribution today, here are some formalities:

The reason this is called “Be My Valentine” blog hop is because we want you all to start making Valentine cards to send overseas to our soldiers. The deadline for getting those to your shipper is January 7, 2011. It’s never too early to start planning. Contact your friends and family and maybe even set up a little get-together so others can join in on the fun. I did my first group card-making session for the Christmas holiday cards and I tell ya, it was a barrel of laughs and so rewarding! With each card that I made I whispered a little prayer for the soldier who would hold it in his or her hands and so lovingly write their personal message to send home to family or friends. There are tons of suggestions, tutorials and card galleries on the OWH site. They even have a page that tells you how to get a card-making party set up. It’s on their Event’s tab. If you haven’t heard yet, I am the daughter of a career Army dad and also served with him in the Army for three years; so I know firsthand how much OWH means to our soldiers! Oh yes, the deadline for mailing Christmas cards has already passed, but you can always start planning for next year.

2.       Did you know that Operation Write Home was a finalist in the JoAnn’s Craft for a Cause? Well, in fact, we are one of three finalists and we NEED YOUR HELP to win the $50,000 Grand Prize! You can vote once during every 24 hour period, so please go vote and then bookmark the site so you can vote every day!

Ok, so now ladies and gentlemen, let’s get On with the Shee-ohhh (if you’re not old enough to know what that means, just ask your parents or grandparents and they’ll have lots of funny stories to share!) Here are a few of the cards I made to send to OWH for Valentine’s Day. I wanted to show you that cards can be very simple or very ornate, most of mine fall in the simple category. My camera was not cooperating with me, so I’ve just put three pics below and made a slide show of some of the others. The first card below is a sheet of paper from the DCWV stack cut to fit the front of the card, then a sticker and some ribbon from my stash to bling it up a bit. (I'm giving away one of those Love and Wedding stacks in my blog candy at the end of this message.)

The card below is a mosaic made out of paint chip samples. Fun and something your kids would love doing!

To make the card below I inked up the brayer to create my own background, then stamped words on top.

I just took a sneak peek at one of the other participants at Creations by Christie and am so happy to see that she posted a video tutorial of one of the techniques I used on a couple of the cards in the slide show below. (PHEW, got me off the hook!) You've GOT to go watch it and learn how to use your Cuttlebug embossing folder to ink up your card while embossing it at the same time! The one below that uses that technique is the one with the 1/4 inch red ribbon bow over the heart. Since I'm all about using up what I have and couldn't bear to part with the ink left on my brayer I slipped a piece of onion skin paper over the embossing folder and brayered over it, leaving a faint design on the paper. Then I cut a rectangle in the front of the card and glued that paper on as a window to what was inside. It's the one with the red sequins in each corner. If you have any questions about any of the techniques please ask and I'll prepare a tutorial. So far I haven't gotten brave enough to attempt a video tutorial, but with a little prompting maybe I'll try!

Card components:

Paper:  DCWV Love and Wedding, StampinUp Ruby Red

Ink:  SU Ruby Red classic

Sentiments:  Making Memories Express It

Embellishments:  ribbon from stash, stickers by Special Moments

Cuttlebug and Sizzix embossing folders
Stickles and Studio G Glitter Writer

I've got some candy for one lucky winner and it's full of stuff you can use to make tons more Valentine's Day cards for our soldiers. Please leave a comment with your email address and become a follower, then I'll draw the winner randomly on Monday. Thank you so much for participating today!

Now, please please hop over to Jamie’s site Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My!

Happy Veterans Day slide show of my Dad

I am so proud of my father for the over 20 years he served in the military, including two tours of duty in Vietnam. Sit back and enjoy a little slide show of him through the years.
It is now May 24, 2012 and I just discovered that Slide.com closed its doors in March, so the slide show is no longer available. I'll come back later with my own pictures to share with you.

Let the Voting Begin for Operation Write Home!

It's time to vote! OWH is now in the finalists round in the JoAnns Craft for a Cause contest - we are SO excited! We made it into this round because of all of our wonderful crafters who entered. Thank you for doing such a great job!

For this round, we're up against two wonderful organizations - the American Cancer Society and Project Linus. Now, while we LOVE other folks who do such great work....we need to win this one for our heroes!  Voting is open NOW - November 7 at midnight, and ending December 4th - see the link below for the rules.

OWH is the small fish swimming in the big pond, so we need your help in taking this on. There's only one vote per email per day - and we need you all to vote daily, get your friends and family to vote, and remind folks regularly to go do so! I'll be sending you a weekly reminder/update as the voting wears on. We'll have the link all over our Facebook page too, if you forget where to go!

I recommend you first bookmark the link below on you computers at home and work....set a time in your mind each day to vote. Maybe when you sit down to check email in the morning, or as you check your facebook account during lunch, or after the kids go to bed. Whatever it takes to remember every day! Please post a reminder to your facebook, blog, or twitter account every couple days for your friends and family; start a thread on a discussion board you take part in; don't bother people so often that they don't pay attention to you. But INSPIRE them. Post a photo of a hero from our Flickr album. Republish a favorite hero letter. Tell them why YOU support our heroes - and invite them to do the same with the click of a mouse!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE! 

My Teresa Collins Stampmaker is here!

Oh I'm just beside myself right now because the mail carrier just dropped off my package with my Teresa Collins Stampmaker!!! I bought it from Marti over at Pez-a-Doodle Designs. I also got a full set of Studio G Christmas stamps and glitter writers from her. Teresa did a great job of packaging the supplies and totally surprised me when I opened the box to see them in those dvd boxes. Now I've got to go open all those boxes to see what's inside and start playing! Back later with more pics and maybe even a video!

Check out these mini books by Christie

Good ole Christie came through again with another awesome project video tutorial. This time is a mini book made out of one 12 x 12 sheet of paper or cardstock. Go check it out on her blog Creations by Christie. I made 8 while watching tv tonight and will post pictures after I get the embellishments and ties made.

Oh yeah, last night after work I completed a freeform crochet purse which I'd started many years ago. All it needed was a lining and strap. It will be listed in my Etsy shop tomorrow, but you all get a sneak peak here.

Kombucha and Kefir, altering clothes and other projects

What is it they say about the best laid plans? Well I am happy to say that I did manage to get a few things done today, just NOT in my craft room YET. I still have two more hours before bedtime, so will head in there as soon as I post this slide show. Just a few words to explain the pictures. First I show you my new batch of Kombucha and Kefir. I got starts from someone on Freecycle and thought I'd give them a whirl. I used to make Kombucha tea all the time, but haven't in quite a few years. I've never tried Kefir, so anyone with hints please pass them along. Next I show you what I call my dungeon. It's my sewing room and is a horrible mess. The projects that I show hanging up are clothes that I got at the Salvation Army. The pants are all too short, so I needed to lengthen them. One shirt needed the cuffs cut off the too-short sleeves and the other needed stitch-witchery ironed on the front sections to keep them from folding back on themselves with each washing. I discovered that by "welding" the facing to the fabric I wouldn't have to iron the front every time I washed the shirt. Oh the last project is a repurposed towel I want to use to clean my stamps. Baby wipes are great, but they tend to fuzz up too much. You'll also get to see two of my dogs, Libby and Katie, who were hanging with me down in the dungeon. Enjoy!

Amended: Please vote for Operation Write Home in the JoAnn $50,000 contest!

Just got this today:
Dear Sharon,
Sorry about all the emails! You guys know I don't like to bug you much, I hope.

I just heard from someone at JoAnn's and they had an oops. The poll got posted early, and I suspect it will be a different poll when it really goes live. Voting is supposed to start Nov 7th, end Dec 4th, with one vote per day per email address....so they may have a new poll type with a place to enter your email.

That does give us a little time to plan! Pick a time of day that you can remember each day to go vote for OWH. Remember that your kids can vote from their emails, your mom can vote, your grandma....even Ciara has an email address so she'll be voting!
I'll also have time to get some blog badges ready too. PHEW!

I'll be posting more on FB and the blogs as I know more - so stay tuned. I'll shoot out a quick email on Nov 6 or 7 when we know the voting is ready - set - go!
Sandy
President, Operation Write Home

Time to do some organizing

Today my goal is to get my desk surface cleared off so I can find room to create. I took the day off and have no other distractions to keep me from accomplishing this goal. Unless of course if you take in to consideration the fact that before starting on my craft room I promised myself that I would get the mending done in my sewing room. Then there's those three pair of slacks that need to be lengthened... yeah, the ones that came from the $11 bag at the Salvation Army... oh and the two shirts that need the sleeves altered because they're too short. Well it's 10:30 in the morning now, so if I spend a couple of hours sewing I'll have the rest of the day in my craft room. Ok.... so I'll report back this evening on my progress and maybe even post another one of those "look now at this clean desk because it won't last long" pictures!