Huge thanks to Christine Adolph!

There is a wonderful trend going around the papercrafting community. Well, I don't know if it's happening enough to truly call it a trend, but still...it's happening, and it's wonderful. Sometimes when you are designing, and working in the industry you get a large collection of supplies built up which are taking up your precious space. Ok, even people who don't work in the industry sometimes have that problem. LOL. When it is becomes necessary to pare down your stash of supplies, a great way to do it is to Stash it Forward. The idea is to pass some of what you've been blessed with on to someone who may not be able to just go buy all that stuff themselves.
I was recently visiting Christine Adolph's blog and she was having a Stash it Forward giveaway, so I decided to enter the name of a wonderful lady I know from my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at church. Jody loves crafting and has helped me out with the crafts for our MOPS group. I was so excited to find out that she was one of the winners! A couple of days ago I received the package from Christine, and I had gone through my own supplies to pick out some more great items for Jody to enjoy. At our MOPS meeting yesterday, I got to surprise Jody with all of her new supplies. So fun!!! Thanks Christine for making this happen. It was a blessing. Now to completely change gears. My father-in-law built us this wonderful bird "hotel" as my neighbor called it. It used to be by our front door, but I noticed that some skittish little birds were interested in it, so I moved it into our backyard, and tucked it into a little corner beside a window. Now we get to watch the little birds build their nest without disturbing them. They are so cute, they fly over with these huge pieces of straw, and usually have to try many times before they actually get it into the birdhouse. It's been lots of fun to watch.

MOPS

This last Friday our local MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) group met. I get to coordinate the activities (crafts) for this group. This time we made these pretty little necklaces. Very simple and inexpensive to make. They are made with Creative Impressions tags, we used rectangular ones. We rubbed on designs from American Crafts, then coated them with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. Add a large jump ring with a bead on it, and you are finished. An easy, beautiful craft to do with a large group of people, including many who do not usually do crafty things. Here are some photos of some of these beautiful moms working on thier necklaces.
Yesterday I got to spend most of the day teaching my Texture Tiles class right here in McMinnville. It is so fun to teach classes like this one. Tons of techniques, tons of products, and each person creates a project that is uniquely their own. I wanted to take pictures of all of their projects at the end, but I forgot my camera. One of the ladies suggested taking pictures on my phone, so I did take one, then realized that I don't know how to put them on my computer. I think my husband will have to help me figure out how to do that. I am learning a lot on the technology end of things, but I still have a long way to go.