Craft Day Field Trip - Paper Source

August's craft day meeting was a field trip to an amazing store called Paper Source.  If you have one in your neck of the woods and have never been you are missing out.  I was fortunate enough to win a certificate for a card making class at a charity auction a few months back and we had been meaning to use it but it kept getting pushed back.  Finally we made the appointment and met out class instructor, Taryn, to get down and dirty with some paper crafting.  

This was a medium we had yet to tackle in craft club and now that I'm thinking about it I'm really surprised its taken us two years to do so.  Our class was a monkey see monkey do kind of approach where we learned some fun and new techniques to make three different cards.  (See finished products below.)  

I have to admit the most fun process was using embossing powder and the heat gun.  See below the intense concentration centered on our instructor as she explained this totally cool process.  

Basically you take any stamp and ink it up.  You stamp on your card where you want the graphic to be and while the ink is still wet you take some glittery, or not, embossing powder and sprinkle it on top.  After tapping off the excess powder you use the heat gun to set it and the texture of the graphic becomes raised off the paper as the powder melts together.  (On a side not, I always want to use the glittery embossing powder, not sure why anyone wouldn't want to.  Mmmmm glitter.)  

I learned this years ago in college but scrapbooking and cardmaking had fallen to the wayside in my arsenal of crafting since.  Of course I still have all the supplies to make these things, since I'm a crafting horder but it was really cool to have a reason to get all glittery.  Plus now that the girls know I have a heat gun they are all about doing some more cards and maybe even some scrapbooking.  Look how excited Sarah was at the idea.

 

Before we knew it we were in the crafting zone and cranking out cards like nobody's business.  Look at how messy our table got.  Best part was we didn't have to clean it up.  That alone was worth paying for the class.  

Now I have to warn you about this store.  In addition to having tons of fun paper, stamps and supplies Paper Source has the most adorable selection of cards and gifts.  I love going there for stocking stuffers around Christmas time.  Since we got a coupon to use in the store for taking the class we couldn't resist browsing around.  Check out the apron modeling that was going on.  

Are you paper crafting obsessed?  What is your fave thing to make?  We are always looking for projects for craft club and I really need to break out that amazing Silhouette so send me ideas if you have them.  

What about the puppies you say?  We did miss them but this is how I found them when I got home.  They had a full day running around with Dan, can't you tell?  Just made my heart melt.

If you can't tell they are snuggled up together in the bathroom.
It was kinda hot that day and the bathroom is always nice and cool.

Stamp on! 

Anita

A fun farewell to Halloween.

I spent the few quiet hours of Halloween, before the tricks-for-treaters showed up, processing one of falls greatest gifts: squash.  I baked four acorn squash to freeze and filled several zip-lock freezer containers with yummy butternut squash pasta sauce.  We are ready to enjoy the flavors of fall all winter long! With all that squashing about I got lots of seeds to bake.  I roasted both butternut and acorn sqash seeds. While pumpkin seeds are the tasty leftover gifts of jack-o-lantern carving, squash seeds can often be over looked. The squash seeds are smaller and thinner skined, yet just as good.  Now you can enjoy squah for the flesh and the seeds.

These are two butternuts worth of toasty seeds.

  This was four acorn squash worth of seeds but my husband got to them before I could snap the picture.

To roast squash seeds:

Take clean dry squash seeds and toss lightly with oil.  Spread on a foil-lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for twenty minutes.  Toss well and bake 20 minutes more, untill golden and lovley. 

In addition to all the crazed baking, I got a wonderful homemade card from my mom to celebrate the most spooky of holidays.  I adore the topic she choose, it fit right in with my day. I had no idea mice could be vampires, thank goodness for garlic!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and didn't get a tummy-ache from all the candy love, you can bet I did.

Kelly, the origami ninja



Come create and enjoy

Well, I am out on a merry jaunt to the great state of North Carolina.  The mountains abound with pine trees in full needle and nekkid hardwoods shivering in the cold.  Seriously, I came to the south to get away from the unusually frigid weather blanketing the Midwest right now, only to find it here.  Did you know that ice on the roads in these mountains means the school buses can't get kids so school gets cancelled?  Never, I mean not once, do I remember having a snow day, though my mother the teacher vehemently assures me we did.  So with the schools closed most of the shopping opportunities are closed too.  Thankfully the crafters in the area have ice water in their veins, come hell or high water nothing will stop them from keeping appointments with their favorite hobby! Enter the paper crafters.......this rowdy bunch will not let below freezing temperatures, ice covered sloping driveways, and snow covered roads that drift right over cliff edges stop them from a class at the local paper craft store.  The The Bear Pages Paper Arts, Etc was a fine collection of color and texture, of sight and sound, of retired ladies cutting and pasting like they were in kindergarten. 

We made Christmas cards that were right up my alley: animal themed.  We had a Polar Bear with mittens on his ears, a dogger with a candy cane, and a cute kitty with a hat and mittens.  I kept getting distracted by all the stuff, and things, and uses of paper and its derivatives.  I had no idea there were so may techniques to make such a collection of cool cards.  As you can imagine after all the zoning out about different card ideas I would fall behind in the class, thankfully my mom is a card carrying member of this paper guild so she helped me get back on track using that tiny paper cutter of hers, sometimes I even required help with the glue stick.

We drank Hot Chocolate, we made fun cards, we chatted about "how would the kids make up the days they missed due to the weather" to no end, everyone here has an opinion on that last one.  The two hour class flew by and it was time to leave.  I loved my time with these crazy carders, so much so that I think I will do this every time I visit my mom down here in the NC. So if you are ever in the Southeast and you are looking for some creative fun, head on over to Murphy, NC to the Bear Pages.  They have tons of supplies, great classes, and plenty of inspiration. They even ship!

Even if you are out on vacation you can still enjoy crafting.  It's a great chance to try something new, learn a new skill, and bond with others.

I hope you are all having a great Holiday season!

Craftin' mountainside,

Kelly, the origami ninja

This is my mom's dog Bogie making his internet debut with the cards. How cute is he?