Clip it Up Witches

Three little witches flying on their brooms ... off to the quilt show they go!

Since we’re going to be at the International Quilt Show on Halloween, Carolyn had the idea that we should dress up.  We’ll show you our whole outfits as soon as we can but here’s our hats.  We all started with the same hat.

Wow, Carolyn's is really purple not blue!

Carolyn is the Purple Witch, so she used a purple feather boa, ribbon, white tulle and white  gems.

Renee is the Green Witch and she decorated her hat with black tulle, green ribbon and green gems.  

Bobbi is the Pink Witch and she decorated her hat with pink tulle, gems and an antique pin.

We have another witch but I don’t have pictures of her hat yet.  I’ll post them as soon as I can :-)

Happy Halloween!!!

Simply Renee

Lesley’s Ribbon Organizer

Tell us what your biggest problem area is and if we get 100 comments we’ll have a drawing and the winner will get a 36” Ribbon Organizer (Only one comment per person will count). The drawing will be held on Wednesday Nov.3rd. If you leave a comment make sure you check back for winners will only be announced on the blog.

Plus don’t forget to enter our Floor Model drawing. Click here for details!

Jewelry Time Again…

I had so much fun making the bracelet, I decided to make a necklace!  I make lots of necklaces with old jewelry, and  I like to mix and match different chains.  When I’m out “junking” I like to buy necklaces with fun chains (I may hate what’s on it, but if the chain is cool, it gets to come home with me).  I’m always on the look-out wherever I go for fun jewelry parts!

Here’s some pictures of the chains I mixed and matched.

Excuse the undressed top and messy room!  I did put one of my black fleece jackets on it so you could see the chain better (but you can also see the lint on it).

 

 

I have a hard time photo documenting what I do – I was really good at the first to take pictures as I went along,  BUT…I change my mind so many times, and I forget to take photos cause I’m so busy trying to figure out what looks good, so I’m sorry! One of  these times I swear I’ll take a pic of all the different combinations and it will be a LONG tutorial, so you can thank me now for forgetting.

Here are some close-ups of what I finally ended up with.

 

I used the buttons the same way I did on the bracelet, but separated them so I could use two on one side and three on the other side.  The cute buttons I used would have made another darling bracelet, but they also look great for my necklace!

The center part of the necklace was made by using  Tim’s Facets, Lot and Found paper inked with Frayed Burlap and glued on with Ranger’s Glossy Accent.  I then added one of Tim’s swivel clasps and attached a Muse Token and a  Pearl Bauble.  To the left of it I attached a Charm from Tim’s Adornment collection with one of his Mini Pins.  Loved how easy the pin made attaching the charm!

 

  Front Side   

Back Side

The bottom part of the necklace I used another Muse Token and Mini Pin, two different Baubles  and one of my antique pins.

 

I took pictures of the whole necklace on my jewelry mannequin and on my antique mannequin.  Both made it look at bit different so I included both  for you to see.

Drum roll please - the final and full view of the necklace… 

           

I personally think the old mannequin looks better, but the necklace  looked a little different depending on what it was on. I had a hard time taking the pictures – need to work on my still life photography.  I’m great at action shots of water sports because I get a lot of practice doing it on vacations, but this other is obviously something I need to work on!

Taking off for the International Quilt Show in Houston, Texas.  We have a booth and this will be our second time there.  We’re excited to go and see all the beautiful quilts, fabric and fun “must haves” that are new in the quilt world.  The people are so nice, friendly and we love going!

Since Halloween is on Sunday while we’re at the show, we decided (Carolyn’s idea) to dress up.  We’ve been working on our costumes, so we’ll post some previews of  what we’ve been working on, and then we’ll take pictures at the show!

Thanks again for visiting the blog.  We love this time of year and I’m in the giving mood.  So leave comments because we’re having surprise drawings, announced drawings and our BIG Floor Model give-away for Christmas.

See you after the show!

Renee

 

Products Used:

Tim Holtz’s: Lost and Found Paper, Idea-ology Baubles,Word Keys, Adornment Charms, Mini Pins, Muse Tokens,  Accoutrement Buttons, Fanciful Buttons, Swivel Clips, Facets and Jump Rings, Craft knife, Craft Sheet,  Rangers Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and Glossy Accents.

My personal stash of chains and my antique pin.

Getting Organized for Christmas

Today I thought I would show you how I have organized my Clip it Up Jumbo.  This is the season where I am sewing like crazy.  I have 2 Halloween costumes done YEAH HOO and with 2 weeks to spare. 

I also have 2 out of the 3 quilts for Christmas done (there really isn't anything better than checking things of my To Do List.)
So to keep all of my projects and ideas organized I have prettied up my Clip it Up Tabs and Labels and gone to work.  With all the wonderful free patterns that we have access to online and in stores sometimes the quantity of them can be a little bit overwhelming and can get lost in the shuffle of endless papers.  For my tabs I have Quilts, Crochet, Accessories, Kids, Me and Holiday.  Even with just that Little bit of Organization I feel ready to go till January.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post, I hope that its helped and I would love to see how you've organized.

Jenifer

Don’t forget to comment.  If you do your name will be added to our drawing for special prizes and even the Floor Model. 

Click here for details.

And the winner is…

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!   Tiffany Sherman is the winner of the bracelet I made from my Tim Holtz products!  Please email us your address and we’ll get it sent out to you!

Thanks for all the fun comments about the bracelet.  I’m glad you liked it – I really enjoyed making it.  I’m thinking of making a necklace today to see how that will look.

Continue checking back with us!  This is my favorite time of the year and we’ll be doing lots of surprise give-aways for comments left on the posts!  You never know…

Renee

Quote of the Week

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
William Shakespeare

Happy Halloween! 

Drawing!!!

If we get fifty comments on today's post Jewelry Time-Tim Style by Monday Oct. 25, then we'll have a drawing among everyone who left a comment.  Renee is willing to give the drawing winner the bracelet that is shown :-)

Jewelry Time –Tim Style

My sister Dianna and I got together Monday to make some bracelets for Christmas…you know, trying to be ahead of the holidays anyway I can!  We made bracelets using some  old jewelry and they turned out great!  (sorry – don’t want to show them right now because they’re gifts).  Since I had my jewelry stuff out, I decided to use some of Tim’s embellishments to make a bracelet.

I started with a plain bracelet I’d been using for my other bracelets. 

I scoured through all my “Tim treasures” and pulled out what I thought would be fun to use.  I thought the buttons would look darling on the bracelet, so I chose those first.

 

I then decided on the dangling pieces and laid them out to see how they would look before I started attaching them.

I snipped the loops off the back of all the buttons and then ran my Dremel over it to smooth them down.  I decided it might be easier to hang the danglers before I glued on the buttons, so I attached them first. 

Sorry – I didn’t realize the pictures I took at this stage turned out blurry until I downloaded all of them at the end of the project!

I then used Beacon’s Jewelry Glue to attach the buttons.  It takes 24-48 hours for it to set up completely, so here is a picture of the bracelet while the buttons were setting  up.

I didn’t have a wrist to hang it on for a picture except mine, and I’m not talented enough to have it on my wrist and take the photo.

I thought it was a fun project and it didn’t take long at all!  I wish all my projects could go so fast.

Renee

 

Products Used:

Tim Holtz  Baubles,  Charm Clips, Muse Tokens, Fanciful Buttons, Accoutrement Buttons, Craft Mat, Word Keys

Beacon’s Jewelry Glue

Dremel

Spooooky Tree

Hi there Scrappers!  Since it's almost Halloween, I thought I'd bring you a little festive project today.  It's my Spooky Tree.

To make my cute little tree, I first trimmed my branch and spray painted it black.  Then I placed it in a glass cylinder and filled it up with candy corn to keep the branch from wobbling.  To finish off my vase, I tied some ribbon scraps around it.  I'm not very good at bows, so I just tied a knot. 

Then came the fun part.  Decorating the tree.  Each ornament is an altered tab hung by a clip. 

For this last ornament, I linked three tabs together and spelled out the word Boo!  To link them together, I just punched a hole in the bottom of each tab with my Crop A Dile and then put the hook through the hole.

How fun would this tree be at Thanksgiving?  You could leave the branch in its natural form and decorate your tabs with leaves.  You could even create one ornament for each person in your family, complete with photos and a list of what they are thankful for.

Or how about Christmas?  Easter?  Are you seeing it?  Yeah, me too!

Well, that's it for me today!  Hope you all have a Happy Halloween, and I'll see you back here in November. 

Aphra

Organizing in Pennsylvania

Technorati Tags: Simply Renee,Clip it Up

As you know, I’ve been crazy busy trying to get my new craft room done.  One of the reasons I needed to get it done was because I was asked by a great store in New Britain, PA called Byrne Sewing Connection to come and kick off their lecture series.  They wanted me to talk about organization, and do two presentations – one on Tuesday evening and the other on Wednesday morning.  

Since I have been going through the biggest test of my organizational skills with my room and vast “collections”,   I felt I could probably help them out with some tips and lessons I learned while trying to organize my personal “stash”.

Another motivation was my son, his wife, and three      grandchildren live in Hershey PA. and my husband was asked to speak that same week in Providence, Rhode Island, so we worked out a plan and surprisingly it all came together.

I flew out on Monday the 4th, and Dale flew out on the 5th.  I went straight to my speaking engagement, he flew into Harrisburg, rented a van, and went to my son’s in Hershey.  I spoke Tuesday night, and they left Wednesday morning to drive to Rhode Island.  After speaking Wednesday, I flew to Rhode Island and got there ten minutes before I was suppose to go out to eat with the doctors that invited Dale to speak.  CRAZY – YES!  AMBITIOUS – YES!  Was it worth it – YES!

The owner, Debbie Byrne picked me up from the airport in Philadelphia and on the drive we started talking and we had sooo many things in common!    She told me she grew up with 5 sisters – so did I.  I asked her what number she was -  #3 – same as me!  She adopted twins then got pregnant – I adopted two boys 5 days apart – and then got pregnant!  Needless to say -we BONDED!

Here are some pictures of the women at the Tues. evening event.

The Door Prize winner of the 36” Ribbon Organizer Tuesday night.

                Some pictures of the Wednesday morning group!

 

The winner for the  36” Ribbon Organizer for the Wednesday group. 

                            Congratulations to both winners! 

My favorite part of both sessions was the “show and tell” before I spoke, and meeting the customers who came to participate.  Seeing the beautiful pieces of quilted artwork was AMAZING!  I was so impressed with all of the pieces shown, and how genuinely nice everyone was!

The women who worked for Debbie were all customers at one time and talked about how you get “sucked into Byrne Vortex”  and end up going from a customer to valued employee.  Thank you again Susan and Linda for being my chauffeurs, helpers, computer set-up and friends while I was there.  Thank you Debbie for the hospitality shown to me during my visit!  You have a great store, employees and customers!  Thanks for letting me be a small part of your world!

Thank you to all the wonderful ladies who showed up to learn about organizing!  Sometimes it’s not a subject people want to hear about, or get excited about  because it makes them feel guilty, overwhelmed, etc.  So thanks for sharing your comments and thoughts and I wish you well on your organizing journey!  Remember… enjoy the process!

Renee

…now the second half of my trip!

The rest of my trip was filled with my husband, my son and his wife, and my darling  grandkids, beautiful places to see, and lots of fun memories as we did our road trip back from Providence to Hershey!

Outside of the Vanderbilt’s “Breakers”  Summer Mansion in Newport.  What a gorgeous place!

Restaurant in Cape Cod

  

  Just a few shots from the trip

My grandson is the sweetest thing ever – but he loves to spit up!  As you can see,  he got both the couch and grandma -  but he’s so cute, who cares!  The van was a bit crowded, but everyone still had a great time!

Cape Cod – the kids loved the beach, collecting sea shells and whatever else they could find.  We did find 5 tiny starfish. It was a beautiful day, but the wind was really blowing so it made it a bit on the chilly side!

 

The joy of babies and traveling in the car.  When he messed his diaper completely up his back side, my son was holding him up so mom could clean him off, and he decided to throw up all over dad.  Couldn’t resist taking pictures of it.

                                  Amish buggy ride in Lancaster

Our driver for the ride giving us some information.  Dale sat up in front since it was a bit crowded in the back. 

The kids did great for being in the car for long periods of time, new beds every night and just being away from home!  I LOVED being with my son and seeing what a great dad and husband he is!  His wife is the best mom ever and I know my grandkids are  in great hands. 

Nothing can make me happier than my family!

Thanks for letting me share my “two trips in one” with you!

Renee