Crafting with the Ladies

Hi Everyone - if you'll bear with me for a bit today; this is going to be a long one.  But I thought I'd share a little of my "adventures" today before I get to some projects.  Last week I was pretty busy because I had three crafty "get-togethers" all in one week.  All three were small gatherings, but since I was in charge of two of them; I had a good bit of time invested in crafty gatherings last week.  But they were all so worth it!

One of the gatherings was the monthly Stampin Up "Stamp A Stack" I go to.  So fun to just walk in, "plop down", and have everything ready to go to make a bunch of cards and share some great company.  That's assuming you finish your cards.....which we rarely do because we have so much fun socializing too - lol!  It's a really nice crafty night out though!

The two gatherings I ran involved planning some projects and of course choosing and packing "essential supplies" (read everything) from my massive collection of stamps, inks, papers, pencils, markers, tools, embellies, etc. etc. etc.  Packing seems to take FOREVER!  Well, see if this sounds about right.....I need to pack all the basics mentioned above (big task right off the bat)... then of course I might want to dry emboss - need to pack the Cuttlebug & all the folders.....and then if the Cuttlebug goes; the Spellbinders might as well go too......or if it's a Cricut gathering - then that would be my Cricut, Gypsy, cutting mats, tools etc (and maybe still my Cuttlebug & EF's so I can emboss)......probably also going to need all my SNS EP's, glitters, or both and the heat gun too then......what about ribbons.....rhinestones....scissors, paper cutter.  It never ends!  And ask anyone that knows me, I'm rarely able to get it down to less than a car full - particularly when I'm in charge of the gathering.  Don't want to forget anything someone might need.  Lord help me!  I'm completely lost without access to all my goodies.  I'm going to need a studio on wheels pretty soon.  And no, I don't mean those cute little scrapping totes (got one of those too).  I could fill about four of those!  I know, I know, there must be a program for people like me - LOL!

But despite the craziness of packing; it's always so much fun to get together and craft!  It's really great to put aside a bit of time to share ideas & good times.  So I thought I'd also share a little from my two recent get togethers with you, my online friends - one today & the other a little later.

My first gathering was a Cricut Swarm.  I have an amazing Love-Hate relationship with my Cricut (& my Gypsy).   But in the end; don't know how I ever did without them.  If you don't know what a Swarm is; I'll tell you that they're held all over the US & each one is run a little differently.  But the main things that seem to always be about the same is crafting with the Cricut, sharing, socializing, and a little snacking too - lol!  I started the Swarm in our area a year ago because they sounded like so much fun!  We've met four times so far and have been having a lot of fun with this.

We've have a wide variety of projects brought to the Swarms.  Here's some of the main projects brought this time.


This get well card was one of my projects - love this little old fashioned truck card.


The papers I did this in were from a collection that was a great find I came across last year around the holidays.  It's not from any name brand I've ever heard of.  But it's a huge collection with awesome coordinated prints & was perfect for this card.  Sadly I think it was a one time only - just available for the holidays deal.  But I was smart enough to snatch up a second one for my sister in law.  Really glad I did - haven't seen them again since then.    

Back to the card - for a fun little touch, I added these great little silver studs to the centers of the tires so they look like they have hub caps.  So cool.

The inside saying is from Sparkle N Sprinkle (of course!)  And it matched the card so perfectly.

I also did the card in another color combo.  I thought the red truck version looked pretty great too!  I just love how this card turned out & have already sent a couple of these out to family/friends. 

One of my good friends brought this adorable roller skate card done up in both boy & girl colors.  I love shaped cards; so this was lots of fun & so sweet.

And my sister in law did this really fun party hat card. Who doesn't need a bunch of birthday cards on hand and this one is so fun with it's bright colors & sparkling accents.  I just realized now that we forgot to put the birthday saying on, but I can do that later.  Cute, cute.



We did have a couple other projects.  But since there was only a few of us and we were having such a good time sharing ideas; we decided to keep those for the next time. 


Lives are so busy these days; it's sometimes hard to find time to set aside for something like this.  But it's so worth it if you can squeeze it in.  Crafty ideas, time with friends, and time to just let it all go - you can't beat it!  Hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my "crafty adventures" and seeing some of the projects we did.  And I really hope you'll find some time to get together with some of your crafty friends sometime real soon!

Until next time,

***Julie***