Summer Fun

I don’t know why, but spring and summer seem to wreak havoc with my schedule.  Maybe it’s because there’s so many things going on with schools and holidays, and then suddenly it’s summer and there’s more holidays, and kids to deal with, and summer vacations…. And even though both my children are fully grown (although one does still live at home), I still always seem to get lost in there somewhere.  This spring, all the Crafty Neighbors were busy getting ready for our cruise at the end of May.  It was something of a challenge because during our prep time we had three conventions, National Scrapbook Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Mother’s Day, several birthdays, tax season (did I mention that Shelley is an accountant?), and our Crafty Neighbor garage sale.  That was just January through May! I foolishly thought things might slow down for us, but that was not to be.  I’m leaving on another cruise in about four weeks with my Aggie Moms group, we have another scrapbook garage sale coming up next weekend, we’re trying to find a venue for our annual Think Pink for the Cure crop, and I just got back from my second convention in two months.  Whew! I guess I was not meant to live a slow and relaxing life – I wouldn’t know what to do with myself anyway!

Speaking of the convention…last month we went to the Great American Scrapbook Convention, which is now owned by Creating Keepsakes.  Last year, I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to be making a come-back, but then this year there were less vendors again, so I don’t know if last year was just a fluke, or what.  This weekend was the Heirloom Pro Rubber Stamp Show.  This one has always been a bit on the small size – they use the Grapevine Convention Center – and the last few years, they went from having a full room plus vendors out in the halls to not even being able to fill the main room. I was starting to worry about them.  They come here twice per year, but was it worth it? Today, it seemed like they, too, were having a bit of a come back, and there were several new vendors we hadn’t seen before.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Laura, Cindy, and Sixta
Laura is going to be one of our instructors on the next cruise!

I hadn’t really intended to do any shopping (I know, that’s what I always say!), but we stopped to do a FREE make-n-take at the Craft Fantastic booth, and then I had to buy some jewelry parts to turn it into the piece I really wanted.  I also bought a few more Copic markers for my collection, and select Tombow markers.  I like the Tombows for my calligraphy…the brush tips are wonderful.  So here’s what I got, including the glass piece we made at the CF booth and the cute bag tag we made at the Fun Stampers Journey booth.

So the make-n-take was FREE, which is pretty unusual in itself, but all we did was add the paper to the glass.  The show special was to offer a bracelet kit for free that you can add your glass piece to, but all they had was the antique color, and I much prefer silver, so I bought these pretty bird cage brooches, some pinch bails, and a bit of ball chain.  When I got home, I pried the pin back of the bird cage and sanded it down good, added one of the pinch bails and the ball chain, and voila!

What do you think? I think it turned out really cute, but I’m not sure if I want to keep it or give it away!  While I try to decide, I should tell you about our semi-annual scrapbook garage sale.  I know this won’t mean much to you guys who live out of state, but for anyone in the DFW/North Texas area, this is a must-see event! Our sale is so big and so good that we have people drive from Louisiana to shop – more than 4 hours away!  It really is that awesome!  This year I have 23 vendors, each with at least two 5-foot tables full of merchandise.  If you’re looking for scrapbooking and craft supplies, stamps, punches, Cricut, inks, totes, etc., we’ll probably have it.  So come on out, next Saturday, July 21, to the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Service Center at 6001 Summerside Drive, Dallas, Tx 75252 from 9AM to 2PM.  Sorry but all our seller space is full.  If you’d like to be on our waiting list, visit our website (see the link below), and sign up for our mailing list to make sure you don’t miss it next time.

That’s it for today.  I’ve got to get to work finding a location for our Think Pink crop.  If you know of a good place in the North Dallas – Carrollton – Plano – Irving area, please let me know!

Belated Happy New Year!

I’m a bit late, but I just wanted to send out a “Happy New Year” and a thank all you crafty folk for your continued support of the crafting industry, and especially for your support of Crafty Neighbor by attending our events, following us on Facebook, reading my blog, and by sharing your love of crafting with your friends and family.  I hope you had a fabulous 2015!  It was a good year for Crafty Neighbor, and I'm looking forward to many more fun events in 2016!

A sneak peak at my new "SmashPlanner", which I'll share in an upcoming post.

Every year, around this time, I choose a Word of the Year to live by.  It helps me stay focused on my intentions.  More than a resolution, it is a philosophy that I try to apply to every aspect of my life.  You can read more about my Word of the Year here on my blog, but I wanted to share a bit about this year's word, and how it applies to you, too.  This year, the word I chose was DECLUTTER.

My intention in choosing this word was to spend my year getting rid of all the stuff I don’t need, cleaning up, sorting, and organizing what I do need, and maybe, finally getting to all those unfinished projects.  After further thought, I decided that the word I really needed was SIMPLIFY, because that really encompasses both decluttering, organization, time management, and so much more. So my challenge to myself is to finish the craft room, complete all of the unfinished projects, and get rid of all the things that are cluttering up my life.  That means if I don’t love it, I need to get rid of it!  I’m going to try not to start any new projects until I’ve finished some of these old ones, and I am not going to buy anything new except to resupply stock of basics as they run out.  This year is going to be a year of getting organized and of eliminating some of the excess stuff that is cluttering up my workspace, my computer, and my life.

One of the most obvious ways I'll be getting rid of clutter is by hosting the Crafty Neighbor semi-annual scrapbook garage sale.  I'll also be holding more classes this year, more crops, and I'll even be offering up some kits and supplies for sale online.  As I declutter the craft room, I will be adding more tables and space for more croppers so we can expand our classes and have a little more room at our Thursday Mother's Day Out and weekend crops.  And best of all, I’ll be offering a simpler, less expensive version of our annual scrapbooking cruise – our brand new Crafty Neighbor Scrap Cruise LITE!

So thanks again for reading my blog, and I hope you’ll stick around for another year!  Finishing all these unfinished projects means I’ll have lots of stuff to share with you here on the blog, and even if you’re not local to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I hope you’ll be able to make it to some of our events, which I’ve listed below.

Happy New Year and Happy Crafting!

Cindy
Crafty Neighbor

Semi-Annual Scrapbook Garage Sale

Sellers have a wide variety of scrapbooking supplies to sell at our semi-annual Scrapbook Garage Sale.  There are always good bargains to be found!
Saturday, February 13
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
6001 Summerside Drive
Dallas, Texas 75252

3^rd Wednesday Stamp Club
Join us on the 3^rd Wednesday of each month for a fun evening of stamping and exploring new techniques here at Crafty Neighbor Studios in Carrollton.  Each month, Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Barbara King will share 1-4 fun cards and projects highlighting new techniques and Stampin’ Up! products.  A minimum purchase is required to participate.

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Crafty Neighbor Studios
Carrollton 75007

Crafty Neighbor Scrapbooking Cruises
Register for one of our exciting scrapbooking and crafting cruises!  Our cruises feature fabulous food, friends, family, and tons of fun! Don't scrapbook? No problem. We still offer fabulous all-inclusive cruise pricing for your personal or family vacation getaway.

Crafty Neighbor Scrap Cruise LITE
October 5 – 8, 2016
Carnival Liberty - Galveston, TX
Progreso, Cozumel
Starting at $478* per person

10^th Annual Scrapbooking Cruise
January 8 – 15, 2017

Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas - Galveston, TX

Honduras, Belize, Cozumel
Starting at $758* per person

For more information on these and other events
Website: http://www.craftyneighbor.com
Meetup.com:  http://www.meetup.com/craftyneighbor/

You can also find us on
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/craftyneighbor
Or email:  info@craftyneighbor.com

Christmas in July

Today I am thinking about a little Christmas in July.  This is about the time of year that I start thinking about Christmas gifts and Christmas cards, and I make all kinds of plans to create all kinds of handmade things.  I wind up getting less than half of them done, but it’s nice to think and plan, right?

When I make Christmas cards, I usually pick out one design and make a whole stack of the exact (or near enough) same card – 100 of them to be exact (although some years my design turns out to be a little more time consuming than I originally planned, so I’ll scale it back to 75 or 80 and finish the rest after Christmas.  Why so many and why finish more after Christmas?  I have a mailing list of 60+ people.  The count fluctuates from year to year, but it generally stays in the 60-75 range.  I make extras because I never know who will send me a card that’s not on my regular list, and I always like to send them one in return.  Then after Christmas, whatever cards are left get sold online or donated to “Cards for Soldiers”, “Operation Write Home” or some other charitable card-giving organization.

Since I only do one kind of card each year, I have a lot of Christmas card ideas that I never get to use.  Last year, I took a card workshop from Valerie Jackson of Creative Sanctuary in which we created these handsome Christmas cards.  These cards demonstrate some really fun ways to use Close to My Heart stamps, inks, and papers.  I really enjoyed making them, but since my cards are pretty much already planned out for the next several years, I didn’t know what to do with them.  I finally decided I should just package them up and sell them on Etsy.com.  And since I’m thinking Christmas in July, I’m thinking this is a good time to get them posted, so I did.  You can see these cards and some of my other Etsy projects here:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/craftyneighbor

I think I’m going to pull out some of my older cards that are lying around and put them on Etsy, too.  I have so many cards and projects lying around here, and since I’ve started this whole “clean out and reorganize the craft room thing” (that’s taking forever, btw), I really think I should purge myself of these craft projects that are just hanging around and serving no purpose.  I’m also getting ready to start sorting through some of my excess supplies and selling them off on Ebay and Etsy, too.  A while back, I read a tip from another crafter who said she was stuffing supplies in a USPS flat-rate box and shipping it to the highest bidder.  What a great way to get rid of a lot of miscellaneous, mixed up scrapbooking supplies!

Speaking of an excess of miscellaneous, mixed-up craft supplies…this past weekend, we had our semi-annual scrapbook garage sale, which amounts to having our own little Christmas, or at least it felt so to a lot of crafters.  This year’s sale featured 15 different vendors with almost 40 tables of merchandise for sale, and we had shoppers lined up outside the building waiting for the sale to start.  I tried not to do too much shopping myself, but I know there must have been some really good bargains out there because I saw a lot of crafters making multiple trips to get their purchases back to their cars!  Cross your fingers that we will be able to get the venue again in the spring, otherwise we might have to move this event to an annual occurrence, rather than twice per year. 

Well, that’s it for today.  I am on a mission to get some of my leftover sale items sorted and posted on Ebay and/or Etsy.  I need to get these stacks of boxes out of my house ASAP!  I have company coming in two weeks and I can’t even get to the bed in the spare bedroom.  Oops!  Thanks for subscribing to my blog, and I hope you’ll read it again tomorrow!

Croppin', Shoppin' and More....

I am so excited that our Mother's Day Out crop parties are back in swing and I have met so many great ladies these past few weeks!  Last week, we visited The Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie. And next week we are going to Scrappin' Goodtime in Corsicana. The weeks in between, we crop here at Crafty Neighbor Studios in Carrollton.  These little trips and crops are so much fun and we have met a lot of new croppers and learned a lot of new tips and skills.

Today we are here at Crafty Neighbor Studios.  Here's a picture of us having fun:

If you are in the Dallas area and are interested in joining us for our little crops, we meet every Thursday and you can check out our schedule and sign up to join us by visiting our Meetup.com page.

This Saturday, we have another event coming up -- our semi-anual scrapbook garage sale.  If you like to shop, come out and check out some of the many bargains.  We have 16 sellers with 40+ tables of merchandise for your shopping pleasure -- there's sure to be a great bargain just waiting for you!

We also have one more awesome event coming up in August, and that is our annual Think Pink Crop for the Cure!  We will be gathering on August 16 for a full day of cropping, shopping, and raising money for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure which supports various breast cancer charities.  If you would like more information, please visit our website at http://www.craftyneighbor.com/retreats/2014/pink14/2014pink.html

That's it for today.  I need to quit playing with this blog and actually do some scrapbooking!  Have a great day!

May Events

Wow!  I cannot believe how fast time flies!  This week, my son finishes up his 3^rd year of college at Texas A&M University and will become officially a Senior!  Kids grow up so fast and it all just goes by in a blur, especially this time of year when there is so much going on.  I was just talking to him on the phone and realizing how much we have going on over the next couple of weeks.  I hope we can get it all done!

Thankfully, we won’t be dealing with graduation this year, but I know many of you are, so you are going to be thrilled to see that our topic for this month’s blog hop is “ConGRADuation”!  That starts on Friday, May 2, and I have three really cute projects for you, so I hope you’ll stop by to check them out!  If you do, please leave a note to let me know you were here!  I’d love to know what you think!

One big project I am dealing with this month is LOAD 514.  I’ve mentioned it before, and I hope you’ll take the time to check it out.  LOAD stands for Layout A Day, and it is one of the most fun and challenging online classes I have ever taken.  Founder Lain Ehman brings us a super fun and inspirational approach to scrapbooking with 31 days of layouts, prompts, and ideas.  Join hundreds of other scrappers in a private gallery where you can show off your work and get inspired by others.  This will be my 6^th LOAD, and I just can’t wait!  It all starts on May 1^st, but it’s not too late for you to join, too!  Just click the link below, and get ready to create lots of layouts in the month of May!

LAYOUT A DAY 514

Look for lots of page layouts this month as I share with you some of my LOAD creations.  I am especially excited that LOAD is kicking off right around National Scrapbook Day, which is Saturday, May 3^rd.  Normally, I would go to a crop or retreat somewhere, but I have family commitments this year, so if I can’t crop with everyone in person, at least I will get to participate online with all the LOADsters!  If you’re in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and you haven't made plans for National Scrapbook Day, then check out the navigation tab above.  There are some really great events going on this weekend!

And speaking of events…many people have been asking, and we finally have a date for our semi-annual Scrapbook Garage Sale!  Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 19!  We’ll be at the Girl Scout office again, Joann Fogg Service Center, 6001 Summerside Drive, Dallas, 75252.  The sale starts at 9AM and ends at 3PM.  Anyone interested in setting up a table to sell can find more information here: 

Scrapbook Garage Sale

That’s it for now!  Come back May 2 for the start of our blog hop!