The Gentleman Crafter

Catching Up!

Good Morning Everybody!!! 

Sorry, I've been out of touch this week!  Have you ever had the feeling that your running 90 mph and you look back at what you've accomplished and you're still behind?  Amazing! LOL!  Why am I laughing?  :)

You know this week (and it's still this week...two more days to try to shove as much as I can into these two days!) was one of those weeks where you know you either have good health or it's simply not time for you to go to Glory yet!  If I haven't had a heart attack yet, folks, it's not going to happen! LOL!  Preparing to go out of town for a week both at my job and home has made the normal mix of craziness that much more exciting! Ellie, my little mini dachshund, had three breast cancers removed, then trying to create/design two additional projects for G45 that are just for fun and one other for a blog hop that's  due on the 16th when I'm in Chicago, haircut, packing, air reservations, paying bills, etc. it's been the week from hell!  I'm not complaining really, I know we are all so busy!  Somehow just writing it makes me feel better!  HAHAHAHA!

In this non-stop world of chaos, I completely forgot about my sister's birthday!  It was the big one too!  You can try to figure out which one it was, she'd kill me if I announced it to the world!  Like I said earlier, I'm not ready to die yet! Anyway,  I was even gently reminded by my mother that it was Kim's birthday!  The day after, my mom asked if I had talked to Kim and I said, No, why?  She once again said, it was your sister's birthday yesterday, remember?  I was driving to work  and had to pull off the road and beat myself over the head!  I'm the best about remembering birthdays!  Especially, when your sister turns 50!  Oops, did I say that out loud!  I felt horrible!  Still feel horrible!  That's the cool thing about family though, they understand and she did!  God bless her! I called immediately from work and my friend Marsha and I croaked the Happy Birthday Song to her!

 

Just a quick note about my sis, she's a beautiful, beautiful person inside and out!  Loving, kind, generous, caring, mother to Emily, Gibson, Tucker, Molly, Liya, and Little Finny and a wonderful wife to her husband Truett and incredible sister and daughter!  I'm so proud of her and all of her accomplishments!

Happy Birthday Kimmie!  I love you!

Other news to catch you up....

Yes, I'm Chicago bound Monday!  Decided to make it a vacation and took the week off to explore Chicago after the show.  So looking forward to meeting my Graphic 45 family, seeing all the cool projects, the new products from all the vendors, making new friends and filling up my inspirational cup to bring home and share with you all!  I will be blogging from Chicago, so watch out!  I'm taking phones, cameras, laptops and batteries! I'll try to show you what's new and exciting...so stay tuned!

I will be posting a couple of times today! When it rains it pours, I know! LOL!

Off to get busy!  I CAN DO IT!!  I CAN DO IT!! I CAN DO...I can...I....I think I can!  LOL!

Thanks Gang!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

 

Lovin' It! Graphic 45's New Staples!

Good Morning Everybody!

Just in case you haven't been over to Graphic 45's Blog in the last couple of days, your missing out on one of some of my favorite new additions to the lineup of G45 Staples!

One of my favorite things to do to any project is to incorporate embellishments into it.  Well folks, we have some brand spankin' new ones to play with!  I'm loving each and every one of them!  I lifted these pictures from the Graphic 45 Blog in hopes to share them with you all as well.  Thats how excited I am!  LOL!  We were fortunate enough to receive some of these new staples in our Design Team boxes....You're gonna love 'em!

 

 

The Keys are just like jewelry!  The detail in the filigree work at the top, amazing!

The Key Holes are so cool and so beautiful!

 

The Door Pulls are up there on my favorite things list!  These are spectacular!  Very Very Cool!  LOVE THEM!

The Label Holders are another favorite!  These are so much fun!  You can't tell by the picture to well, but it does have a dandy little pull that is the raised part at the bottom!  Very fun and functional!

Well, just wanted to stop in and say hello and also make sure you check these lovly staples out over at Graphic 45's Blog!  Yahooo!

Thanks for Visiting!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

 

Lands "snakes" it's early!

Who in their right mind would be up at 4:30 a.m. checking their email and getting ready to craft!  Well, I personally think that the chefs, shall we say, at the doughnut shops are incredible artisans and God bless 'em, they must get up before the crack to get all those delectable morsels of sugary fried sweets ready for us to consume.  Well, would so jump in my car right now and say GOOOOOD MORNIN' to a sweet roll, raspberry filled, apple fritter, blueberry, and a few sausage kolaches.  Then over to Starbucks for a Venti Latte to top it off!  But, I'm dieting!  So a nice glass of fiber- all topped off by some luke-warm coffee!  Yummo!  That'll get the gizzards going!

The coolest thing this morning was that I found your comment emails I get from Typepad!  You know how those comments keep me going!  Especially when I'm so out of the loop and have my nose to the Scor-Tape! Anyway, every once in awhile, they all get routed to the SPAM box on Gmail!  Why this happens, I have no earthly!  But somehow, someway, I must remember to look there next time!  Where does one write that down? Maybe I need to make a book for stuff like that!  What am I ...40ish and I just now own a file cabinet!  I thought everyone kept their important documents in their underwear drawer!  When I got to where I can only toss in one pair at a time, I knew it was time to grow up and start a file!

Anyway, this typepad email conundrum has happened before and I couldn't find them.  I remembered it had something to do with Google.  So I've been prowling for a little over an hour now and found them!  Yahooo!

Why is this important?  Well, like I said above, I love to read your comments!  Yes, I could go to that day's post to read them, however, in a single day, people will comment on posts from all over the 9 months I have been blogging!  Nine months already?  Good Gravy on biscuits, where does the time go!

Oh wait, I'm out of coffee, let me grab some....Be right back!....

I love coffee!  I mean LOVE coffee!  Love the smell, the taste and the warmth of it!  I have two favorite food groups, coffee and bacon!  When we were just mere kidlets, my mom and dad gave us "coffee milk."  I had to think for a second what we called it!  Half coffee half milk and half sugar!  Boy, I loved that stuff!  When we would go camping, Dad would always let me have a spoonful or two of his plain coffee with a bit of sugar.  Looking back, I wonder why just a spoonful? Not like the coffee milk was some healthy drink...LOL!  Further, wonder why all that caffeine and sugar didn't make my mom and dad go nuts!  We were already running around 90 mph on our own youthful adrenaline.  Add in the other two ingredients and we were WILD kids!  Oh to have some of that natural energy back!  LOL!

Well, I better hit the studio, I've been playing on the computer for 3 hours now.  Better get crackalackin!!  I just want to leave you with this last paragraph and a picture....

Ellie, my miniature dachshund who could take out any mountain lion I dare say, was barking NON-STOP last night!  I was off in the zone crafting and drifted back to reality when I realized this wasn't her basic, "Oh I see people walking in front of the house" barks, it was a "Lawd have mighty I got me a something...Come Look!" barks!  I looked out the window and knew from past experience, she had trapped something and was barking to alert her daddy!  Here's what she found...

It's an Eastern Hognose Snake.  When I first moved out to the county and walked up on one of these, I swore I had cobras!  Not familiar with really any snake except our Texas rattlesnake, the Hognose snakes can flair their heads out just like a cobra!  Hence, their misname of Puffer Adders or spreaders!  

,]

A better view of his head....

And yes, boys will be boys, I had to poke it with a broom handle just to see what would happen! hahaha!  Oh well!  It was fun and off he went to look for toads and frogs to eat!  And I got those!

 Remember me telling y'all about the snakes in the attic last winter...can't help thinking that this is one of 'em that moved outside for the summer!  And NO, I never called the snake wrangler my friend Nancy told me to call.  It was one of those out of site out of mind things!  Unless I stepped on on one in the middle of the night!  Then I probably would have called at that very minute whether it was 2 a.m. or not!

OK, I really have to hit it now!  Two more days to finish up the CHA samples!  

Have a good one!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

The Gift Of Friendship! Thanks!

Yes, It's me again!  Posting twice in one day!!!  LOL!  Can't help it...I wanted to share some amazing gifts I received this week!   

Let me first start by saying this, I'm so happy and so proud to be apart of a community...further really, a family of AWESOME paper crafters, scrapbookers, and stampers!  This amazing "family" is so incredibly giving.  Sharing tips and tricks on YouTube, lessons on Ustream, patterns and tutorials on blogs, kind comments, inspiring emails and then there's the RAK's.  Random Acts of Kindness!  I have been so blessed this week to have been the recipient of these Random Acts of Kindness!

I was so moved by these gifts, I wanted to share them with you via YouTube videos.  It is my hope, that each of us think of someone this weekend who may need a bit of support, a little love, or a pat on the back and share one of these RAK's with them.

So here we go...

An amazing gift from Sharon Y....Thank you so much Sharon for thinking of me at Michaels!!!  Cuff Link Blanks!  YAHOOOO!  All the treats...Double Yahooo!

 

Check out these awesome basket stamps from Tony at Jaskets.com.....

 

Last, but not least, a wonderful thank you gift from my friend Kathy C.  Amazing!

 

Thank you Sharon, Kathy and Tony!  You made an incredibly busy week so much sweeter!  So appreciated you all!

Thanks for visiting and have an AWESOME weekend!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

A Quick Video On Graphic 45's Nutcracker Sweet!

Hello Everybody!

Needed to take a break from crafting for a second (getting cross-eyed!) so I pulled out the old video cam to share  Graphic 45's Nutcracker Sweet before I cut it to pieces for projects.  I also did a couple of videos on some GREAT and AMAZING gifts I received this week!  I will share those later...  But for now another glimpse of Graphic 45's Nutcracker Sweet....

 

Thanks For Visiting!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

 

*!*!*!*July 4, 2012!*!*!*

 

Happy 4th of July!!

Celebrating America's Independence!

 

Wishing you and yours a safe and wonderful holiday!  

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

 

Things In General!

Good Evening Y'all!

OK, not to make anyone feel jealous or anything...But, I received my Graphic 45  Design Team Box TODAY!  YAHOOOO!  This is a total tease because I can't tell you what was in it!   HAHAHAHA!  OK, maybe not so funny!  All I can say is you all are going to LOVE everything!

By now you have all seen the sneak peaks of the new Graphic 45 collections, Bird Song and Nutcracker Sweet!  They are even better in person!  Oh My Gosh!  The colors are incredible, the graphics POP! and the patterns are AMAZING!...SWEET!  

Other things....

I wanted to give you an update on the Lynn's Light Lighthouse pattern!  Yes, I said Saturday!  I know! Boy was I wrong!  I held myself captive all day Saturday and all day Sunday (yesterday) in my bedroom, in a chair, with the TV off and the door closed!  True story!  Call my Mom and ask!  :)  I finished it last night around midnight and sent it to a friend to proofread.  As soon as I get it back and add a few more pictures I will put it up.  At least it's actually written and no longer in my head!

Right now it's crunch time around my house!  Tons of CHA projects to do and some that need to be packed up and boxed.  Paper scraps can be found from the front door to the back door, from the studio to the bathroom.  This morning, I even went to work with Scor-Tape stuck to my bootie!  Thank you everybody at work, for letting me walk around with this tape tail for half the morning!  

EVERYBODY that lives in this house is pulling their weight!   If my cat and dogs even so much as look at me, I find something for them to do!  LOL!  Dogs can haul things can't they?  I can build them a little strap on cart from chipboard!  LOL!  Well, better get back to it....

Hope you all have a great week,

Thanks for coming by to visit!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

 

 

 

SNEAK PEEK! 2nd NEW GRAPHIC 45 RELEASE!

Hey Y'all!!!

Here's a sneak peek of.....

BIRDSONG!!!!  Graphic 45's new collection of papers!  GORGEOUS!

Check out G45's Blog today for more GOODNESS on this collection!

Thanks for coming by!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Fast and Easy Project Video- Travel Album-DONE!

Good Afternoon All!

Couple of things real quick!  Thanks for the fun comments from my new embellishment love, Industrial Chic!  For some reason, I'm not getting your comments emailed to me.  So, I just read them and have been laughing ever since!  Zandra got the fever and didn't even finish her comment as she said. grabbing the keys......Cindy L. was  obviously out the door on the way to Michaels in PJ's!  LOL!  I totally know the feeling!  Can you believe that I went back today to scan the goodies again!   Might have missed something!  And Low and Behold, I did!  When your shaking and you legs start to go, it's really hard to see everything from the cool tile floor at Michaels!  :)

I also wanted to give you an update on the Lighthouse Tutorial.  Hopefully up by tomorrow on Etsy!  (probably would have been up today if I hadn't of gone to Michaels!)  :)  Thanks for such wonderful feedback on it!

OK, now on to the Album...

My friend Kimmie from work is going to Italy in the morning! I totally forgot to do a Bon Voyage gift for she and her husband last night!  Blast!  So, this morning I got up at the crack and crafted one real quick!  I mean quick!  The coffee was coursing through my body!  I was in a rush!  What to do, what to do...a fast album.

I thought it would be a good Fast and Easy project for the weekend...There is no written tutorial today gang, just a video with the measurements, so grab a pencil.

The cover to the album is really the only measurement you need and that is 4-3/4 x 6-3/4 - inches. The spine piece is 1 x 6-3/4 - inches.  If you don't have one of the awesome Graphic 45 Mini Envelope Albums, try either making one or better yet, using some standard letter size envelopes.  You can either bind them with a bind-it-all or use a 1 to 2-inch piece of cardstock.  Score it in the middle and use as a hinge.

Here is the tutorial in two parts....

 

 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I'll post when I have the pattern up.

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Have Ya Been To Michaels Lately?

I don't think I've been this excited since Graphic 45 put out their new collections a couple of week ago!!!  YE-HAW!!!!

I've been looking for some cuff link blanks for a project I've been working on.  When you need something can you ever find it right?  Good heavens till the cows come home!  Well, I went to Joanns! No!  Then drove over to Hobby Lobby!  Nada!  Then over to Michaels!  When I walked into the door...not even kinda in the door..my most beloved friend Barb who works there grabbed me.  She didn't even say hello..she just grabbed me, grabbed a cart and literally led me by hand to the jewelry section!  She said, "LOOK and thank me later!"  I totally love this woman!  Barb you ROCK Sugar lamb!

What is all this fuss about you say?  The FABULOUS new goodies from Susan Lenart Kazmer's Industrial Chic Collection!  It's like she heard me all the way over in Georgetown, Texas!  SUCH COOL STUFF for embellishing projects! 

I was so excited when I got home I threw on my T-shirt and started filming! I had to share!  Ok get this!  I was waiting for another video to load to YouTube I had done for a friend  (It takes a while on my internet connection.) so I thought I would check my email to kill time and GET THIS!...I opened up an email from a cool friend of mine Cheryl E, with a subject line that read,

OMG Stuff I HAD to share with you!

It was an email with pictures of all the goodies I had just done a video on!  TOOO COOL!  It just means that folks are excited!  So I wanted to share my haulage with you and give you a heads up on how cool this stuff is! 

Here goes....

  

Forgive my excitement, but I love new things that can make a project AWESOME!

Have an AMAZING day y'all!

 

Jim

The Genteman Crafter