Prairie Sky Paper Crafts

I'm very excited. This year, my husband and I have been creating items to sell at craft sales. It's been several years since we have done any craft sales, and I can't wait. He's been busy in the garage making cutting boards, tablet holders, business card holders and absolutely stunning hand-turned pens. While he's been in the garage, I've been up in my craft space creating with ink and paper. The first sale is this coming Saturday (November 5) at Acadia Hall beside the library (for local folks). The second is the Marley's Hope Holiday Fair on Sunday, November 6  at Cole Harbour Place. Marley's Hope is a local rescue that helps dogs and cats who need a new start. Pet rescue is a cause near and dear to my heart, and I am really glad that we are able to take part in this sale.  It was lots of fun trying to decide what to create for this sale. I got to use a lot of my well-loved stamps, paper and ink. Because I started making items for the sale before I s

My Stampin' Up goodies came yesterday. It's so much fun to take a look at new toys and think about ways to use them. I've been getting ready for craft sales, and promised myself that I would get nearly everything finished before I broke the seal on my new goodies. I was making good progress on my to-do list. Then my husband came home and requested a card. One of the people he works with is injured, and everyone wanted to send him a get well card. Mission accepted! It took me about two seconds to decide on which set(s) I would use, and about another two for the colours I wanted. While I was making this card, I grabbed some retired items (Really Rust cardstock and some older ink spots), some well-loved items (Lovely as a Tree) and one of my new stamp sets (Crazy about You).  I took the ink spots and rubbed them on the lower half of the cardstock, sprayed it with a little water and folded the cardstock in half to create the watercolour look. I stamped the tr

Retired. No longer working. Time to relax. I was inspired by a post from a group in my Facebook feed this week about retired Stampin' Up goodies. It got me to thinking about the stash I amassed before joining SU, and that it's not good to let all that gorgeous paper, stamps and ink gather dust. Just because it's retired, doesn't mean it doesn't deserved to get used... seriously- SU paper is GORGEOUS, and it coordinates with everything in the SU line. In the spirit of getting ready for some craft shows, I created these little gift boxes. The pattern isn't mine- I got the instructions from Sam Hammond Donald at Pootles. I have watched a couple of her tutorials, and I have to say, I am mildly obsessed. Check out her website for all kinds of ideas and awesomeness!  Short post for today. Check back soon!

New adventures are nothing new to me. I enjoy the challenge of finding my way around new locations and deciding how to deal with new adventures. My first adventure was moving away from home to attend college. Then, I moved around several small towns on the prairies as a community newspaper reporter and editor. Then I met my husband who was in the military- that was a whole slew of adventures- from moving across the country, to dealing with deployments and taskings and rolling with the punches. Then came along the children, and it's been a non-stop adventure ever since. I've always enjoyed having a creative outlet, and it has varied over time- cross-stitch, sewing, quilting, and card making. Drawing and painting are something I would love to be able to do, but it's not in my genes... stamping is my way around that. I love playing with colour, pallets and texture and pattern, and that is something all my crafty aspirations have in common. I enjoy finding unexpected uses for