ICWM - Fail....

Well, I failed my challenge for the International Correspondence Writing Month... 

I had planned on writing a card to someone each day of the month and I started off great but then things feel apart.  I thought I had a cold at the beginning of the month but then we went off to a trade show right after Valentine's Day.  I didn't feel great while we were gone but we had this trip planned for months and I didn't want to disappoint. I had all my cards done and sent for the time we were going to be gone ahead of time so I made it up through the 20th. 

When we got home dh decided that I must have the flu because it was still going strong (and he heard a program about it on talk radio).  I got worse after we got back home and haven't done a thing since returning (well, other than housework and laundry) so I missed out on sending the last 8 cards out :( I am starting to feel better but I feel like I've lost the entire month of February. 

I hate it when I challenge myself and I don't complete it. It sucks!

I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon...I have some fun new goodies I want to share with you but I have to play with them first!  Just have to get the crafting urge instead of the napping urge.

I did get some pretty photos while we were at the show...  We went to PA...

The sky was so pretty over the mountains.

This is the kids (youngest son & his wife) set-up at the show...

they are mfg. vintage garden tractor seats!

After the show we were going to go a different route and head north instead of going to toll road. 

 It went from this....

to this in a matter of about 20 minutes.  It was wicked so we had to stop in Harrisburg for the night.  Most of it melted the next day but it did make for an interesting evening.  We got the last room at the Marriott hotel - Whew!  Would have been scary if we would have had to drive on.

Hot Foil & Letterpress

Hello Peeps....I've been busy!  First I think I mentioned a while ago we bought a Kingsley Hot Foil Stamper.  We are looking at doing some stamping for a company we already work with.  We're hoping to talk them into hot foil stamping their logo into tags that they can then sew into their seating products (they do van conversions).  Exciting stuff. So I've been experimenting with it to get a feel for how it all works and practicing on paper, cardstock, vinyl and leather just to see how the machine preforms under different temps and materials.

This is gold foil on black vinyl.  We have a small die that we can use to cut it out on one of our clicker presses.

These are some business cards I made using an aqua blue foil. 

It looks amazing in real life.

AND....

Look at this baby!

It's our new Chandler & Price Letterpress machine!

We don't have it home yet but it came out of an old print company that closed down last year.  It needs a little bit of work but we're very excited about it. It comes with all sorts of goodies and the alphabets I have for the hot foil machine will work in the letterpress machine as well.  We have been talking about getting one for a while now and this one was less than half an hour from our shop. I think we're going to move it next week sometime...I can't wait!  It has a large print area - 12" x 18" large enough to print book pages! 

So, that's what we've been up to lately...

Oh and the International Correspondence Writing Month is coming right along.  I'm still up to date with mailings. We're going to be taking a trip in the next week or so - I'm going to do a mass mailing at that time so I don't miss any days while we're gone.  I've heard from a few people that their cards are starting to arrive...so happy about that!

What's new with you all?

I've been workin;...

nope, not on the railroad but leather gifts for Christmas!  

We're actually going to be working on a few new ventures at our IRL business so I thought I needed to get some practice in before we start working on the "real deal".  I've never worked with leather dyeing, stamping or carving before...just sewing, it was kind of fun and I think I can do this!  We'll see how it all goes!

And here they are...

It started out as just a strip of leather...I did it all!

This was cut and dyed by me, sewn by DH from a piece of 2-3oz leather.

Found this stamp...it's going to be my "mark"

 - looks like an ink stain don't ya think?  LOL!!

So there you go...This is in part what's been taking me away from here...well, that and Christmas stuff ;)  Are you all ready?  I'm about as ready as I am going to get I think...  Still need to clean the house a bit and maybe make some caramels and peanut butter fudge but that's it.   I'm just ready for it to be here - I think I'm worse than the kids - LOL!!  I have an eye twitch just waiting!

Did You Cave????

I am so glad that this week is almost over...I swear if I got one sale e-mail I must have received 500!  It's not only in my inbox, it's on facebook, on every google search I do, every where I turn there is a sale!!  Not only are there sales but they keep going and going. 

You all know how cheap I am... I am a sale shopping. I hate paying full price for anything so this time of the year is a real test of my will-power NOT to buy everything I see....  Because you know it's SUCH a great price - LOL!!  What's even worse (and killing me) is that they aren't just having sales, great sales mind you, they are extending these sales well beyond Black Friday / Cyber Monday.  What's a bargain shopper to do????

Now I won't say I've been an angel - because ya know some of these sales have been too good to pass up BUT I have bought several Christmas presents as well which is a good thing ;)  LOL!!  And besides, I have been fairly good recently keeping my crafty spending down to a minimum.

SO, the question is...did you cave in to all the folks out there hawking their wares for unbelievable prices????

I did however want to mention that tomorrow starts 

Carve December 2017!  

I mentioned it a couple weeks ago but in case you missed it Carve December is a challenge to carve a new stamp every day. You can click on either link above to go to the website to find out more. I would classify myself as a beginner because while I have carved a few stamps in the past it's been YEARS since I carved anything and the ones I did carve were very crude. I have already started carving and I must say I am thrilled with the results so far. I have made 5 stamps so far and I can actually see improvements with each one!  I wanted to carve a bit ahead because I know there are several days coming up when I won't have time to carve but I have found it to be so relaxing!  It's great fun.  

I also did a bit of an experiment with various types of rubber out there to carve. I will be sharing my findings with you very soon in case you'd like to join in the fun and not make the same mistakes I've made ;)  LOL!!

So I invite you to carve with me :) 

I'm sure we'll have loads of fun!!

 

Rocks in the Mail

You know I'm a big crazy when it comes to all sorts of art.  Well recently a friend offered to send me some rocks when she saw a comment I left on another art blog about not having smooth rocks around here. 

They arrived!!  Aren't they just soooo cool?  I love them and can't wait to figure out what to do with them.  I know I want to paint a couple of them but I have to do some surfin' to see if there is anything else I "need" to do - LOL!!  I know it's odd to get excited about rocks but hey, one year I got some in my stocking and was thrilled.  Rocks are fun.

It was so cute, I have these sitting on my desk and Cole saw them and he thought they were turtles...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be exact - LOL!!

I also wanted to share my recent estate sale find...  this is a tiny 6" vintage cutter! I LOVE it. I've been looking for one of these for years but they've always been too expensive. I'm not paying more for this cutter than I do the one I use every day!  BUT I found one a couple weeks ago when dh and I went to southern Indiana to a tractor show. It was marked $15.00 but as luck would have it it was an extra 25% off because it was the last day of the sale - SCORE!!  The best part is whomever had it before took very good care of it because that knife on the cutting arm is VERY sharp. Works like a charm as you can see.

Hope you've all had a great week!