National Craft Month

It's National Craft Month! Let's celebrate! Let's CREATE!! 

Did you know crafting has many benefits? Crafting of any kind can help reduce stress, bring families and friends closer together, and even help you get through tough times. It really helped me in the year following my grandmothers death. I created a lot of mini books for my family and quite a bit of journaling. 

At the store we meet so many people that say, "Oh no, I am not crafty." But what they do not realize, is they truly are! The term crafting does not mean scrapbooking, card making or painting.

Crafting can be anything. According to Webster's, crafting is: "Use skill in making (something): "he crafted the chair"; "a beautifully crafted object".
Dictionary.com says "to make or manufacture (an object, objects, product, etc.) with skill and careful attention to detail."

So whether you scrapbook, journal, create mini books, make cards, paint, crochet, sew, bead or work with wood or pottery, or even bake and decorate cakes, you are a Crafter.

For those of us who love to craft, it is a perfect time for us. This can be a time to try a new technique, or teach someone how to do your favorite craft. National Craft Month can also be the perfect excuse to pull those half-finished projects out of their hiding places and get them done. As I am organizing my scraproom, I realize I have a lot of these (yikes). 

So let's get started! Create something and celebrate, it's NATIONAL CRAFT MONTH!!

I would like to share some photos of my most recent project- and now that I think about it, I made it more than 2 weeks ago. I really want to get my crafting time back up and add it back to my priority list. But that's an entirely different discussion...

Here's the mini I made for the store using the new Rhonna Farrar 'Follow your Heart' line, Maya Road chipboard book, Ranger paint dabbers and crackle paint, and Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Tape and Alpha parts.

 

Looking at this mini makes me so happy. I love the colors and the pure joy of my girls faces. It sure does warm my heart.  

Business Trips = Inspiration

If you have a craft hobby, you have heard of CHA-
if not, it is the Craft & Hobby Association conventions

We recently went to the show in Anaheim to see all the manufactures new and upcoming releases. It's basically the biggest shopping event for the store and were extremely excited with all the awesome product we saw. This is the first show in a long time that had the "buzz". People were happy, excited and inspired. So much to see and so much to do.
It really was a great show.

We visited with our manufactures, hung out with friends and order lots and lot and LOTS of product. If you can believe it, I did not take my camera to the show. So I did not take any photos. I had to snag these from Patti. 

Here are our friends from Prima- MJ and Tanya

Our boys from My Mind's eye- missing Jason here. He was actually working... what is that all about?

I can't wait to actually create with some of the new product we ordered.
I, too, was inspired at the show. Hopefully I can get the ideas out of my head and into a project before I loss the mojo!

ramblings

Believe it or not I have actually typed up a few posts for my blog over the past few weeks.
I just never hit publish.
I have been typing in pure randomness.
I have been engulfed with emotion in the past weeks.
Sadness, distress, happiness, excitement and pure exhaustion to tie it all together.
I have 4 posts in a draft status- 4 posts I don't think I will ever publish.
I may print them for myself, but still not even sure about that.

I lost my Grandma on January 22nd.
She had been ill for awhile, but it still does not make it an easier. 
Death causes family members to do and say thinks they normally wouldn't.
Death makes you react to things you normally would let roll of your back.

The hardest part of it all was seeing my daughters cry.
That image still makes my heart hurt and brings tears to my eyes.
Then just when I think I'm good. When I thought I was past it-
The emotion spills over again.

I feel like I'm on a roller coaster.
Up, down, Up, down.
I feel like I can sleep for a week.
But really, how practical is that?

Weddings are coming

This Christmas there were 2 engagements in our family. Very exciting to say the least!

My cousin and my sister...not to each other of course... but both are now planning weddings.
A couple weeks ago, my sister invited me to go with her the bridal faire at the Ritz Carlton in SF- It is a gorgeous hotel! Too bad it is so expensive!

The night before my sister asked me to make her a small notebook she could use to keep track of business cards and take notes. Of course I said YES, I was so happy too!
Then I realized I packed up my entire scraproom!!

Never to fear, I own a scrapbook store. I picked out some Teresa Collins Mr. & Mrs. Line mixed with a little Carolina Breeze and knew it would be absolutely perfect for her. 

 

A quick, fun altered composition book. I added pockets and small paper tabs to some of the inner pages. The fairy charm is something that I have had for years knowing I was going to use it for something I made for my sister. It worked perfectly!

We did get some ideas at the bridal faire, and possibly a venue, but I think pinterest has better inspiration. I found several things that I want to show her that I think she'll like. 2 of my favorite things I found for decorating...

Source: iloveswmag.com via Diana on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Diana on Pinterest

Moving time

Task #1 of moving the scraproom has started.
I got a really good start. Since I am switching rooms to benefit my daughter, I am making her help. We started with everything that was already organized and packed in containers. Piece by piece things made their way out of the room and into the dining room and living room.
As we were moving things, I started to notice or should I say "find" items in my room that I haven't used in YEARS!
Yes, YEARS! 
The first was a set of plastic drawers that were full of miscellaneous chipboard and plastic alphabets. All different fonts, sizes and colors. I organized them when I first did my room 4 years ago and honestly have probably only gone to it 2 or 3 times.

Then I found a storage tub of half used (mostly gone) thickers. There were at least 50 sheets of stickers. My first thought for these was a preschool, good thing my sisters works at one!
2 flat rate boxes later...

I felt a huge sense of relief.
I was proud of myself for actually boxing stuff up without going through every piece talking myself into keeping it.

The next day... more moving!
Suddenly my sense of accomplishment was replaced with disgust.
My clean dining room and living room was very quickly a rip-tearin' mess! I went from one messy space to 3! I could not believe it.

MOM to the rescue!!

My mom, the queen of rearranging, stopped in to help me. Before I knew it, everything was out of the scraproom and situated very neatly in the dining room. There is not an empty wall and the chairs are not accessible at all. Can you believe ALL of this stuff was in my room? We even ended up with a bookshelf in my hallway. 

 

It's all out. Well.....mostly all out. I need to empty the closet, but ran out of boxes. Daughter dear asked to keep the white shelves so some of them will stay up. I was surprised how big this room actually is. Now I have to finish the closet and get her stuff in.

Here's to change and working through a task!
Now, I am itching to get my scrap room back together.