The Gentleman Crafter: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

New Project Tomorrow- Sneak Peek!

Good Evening Y'all!

I'm excited to show you a new project that I created for Scrapadabadoo.com tomorrow. It's Shabby Chic and FUNCTIONAL! LOL!

Here's a Sneak Peek....

Please come by tomorrow to see the project!

Have a great evening y'all and here's to wishing us all some good old fashined sleep if there is such a thing! :)

Yours,

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Monday, July 30, 2012

CHA-Chicago Highlights!

Hello Again Everybody!

Like I said in my last post, it's so nice to have the opportunity to sit down and go over my INCREDIBLE week in Chicago. I've pulled out my camera and have had a blast reliving that amazing week in heaven!

This post will be full of pictures and very LONGGGGGG so grab a cuppa joe and sit back and join me on my adventure....

Did you get a cup of something yet? Go get it! Ready? Oh wait, I don't have a cuppa joe! Be right back.....There I'm ready....

Day One

I'm not the best flyer in the world (long long scary story) but a little Zanex and a good pilot and I'm good to go! I'm the goofy guy that actually plasters his face against the glass in the lobby trying to inspect the airplane that I'm about to board! I have no idea what I'm looking for but rest assure I visually go over the plane in detail. Two wings...Check! Jets look good...Check! Landing gear in place, tires inflated...Check Check! The flight couldn't have been smoother! Hallelu-Yer!

Got on a tram to the hotel and even checked in and received my hotel room keys on the tram via some high-tech ipad application they were using! Too Cool!

The hotel was right across the street from the convention center....

I went over to the convention center to find Graphic 45's booth and to meet the amazing Graphic 45 Family! Oh my gosh they are such incredible people! WOW!

Me walking into CHA for the first time! Extra projects in hand... they came with me on the plane!

Here's some pictures of the booth as they were running around putting everything in place the day before the floor opens.

I had the opportunity to walk by and meet one of my favorite artists Dyan Reaveley! Y'all she's heaven on earth! I've got a crush on Dyan but don't tell her!

First Day of CHA - Day Two!

Me taking a breather before I hit CHA for my first day!....Don't tell anyone, but I was actually waiting for the girls to come down so we could go over...and waiting! LOL! Just kidding!!

My New Life Long Pal...Kristin Wilson of Kristin Wilson Handmade!

I met up with my amazing Graphic 45 Teamies, Kristin Wilson and Laura Denison....What fun they are! Too cool to be around so much talent! WoW!

First up was a visit to the beautiful Heidi Swapp's booth! She has the coolest papers!

The picture above shows my totally amazement as I ponder Kristin's talent with Heidi's goodies in a make and take!

Over to see the Ladies of Graphic 45....

Charee Filimoehala and Aimee Filimoehala! Aren't they beautiful! The day's theme was Bird Song!

The most ELEGANT lady behind all the G45 goodness, Diane Shultz helping a customer.

Talking with the sweetest person, Sarah Hemphill of Vintage Figments Blog in front of the G45 booth.

Next, it was picture time in the Graphic 45 Photo booth...

Over to Want2Scraps Booth to see all their incredible offerings.

Obviously we were all doing our thing! Obviously I'm looking at the corset mini! LOL! Got to love their albums and blingage!

Visiting with The Amazing Joe Rotella in Want2Scraps Booth!

Had to go visit one of my favorite paper crafting friends here in Georgetown, Barbara Albrecht's daughter, Kimber in the Jillibean's booth!

I had the opportunity to meet one of my very very favorite people and Inspiration Emporium Teammate. The incredibly talented and totally lovable Linda Cain! You can't resist wanting to hug her! (OH by the way, you gotta go see what she did with the Graphic 45 Bird Song Collection!...AMAZING!)

Can you tell I'm squeezing the crud out of her! LOL! Then to my total amazement and honor, I had the opportunity to meet another Inspiration Emporium Teamie...The fabulously talented and very pretty Shelly Hickox! Y'all this lady ROCKED each and every amazing project she did for CHA! As a man, all you can do is act like your not swooning! LOL!

Below, some fellow bloggers! They were so kind! (I never caught your names fellow bloggers! If would you please be kind enough to email me your names, as I would love to add it to the picture!)

Next it was over to Sizzix to meet yet another amazing person, the uber- talented Tammy Tutterow....

See what I mean, it's a little overwhelming! LOL!

The Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo working her magic! OMG!!!!!

The day was almost over but the cherry on top was dinner with Kristin, Laura and Cesar at the most amazing Italian restaurant that I will never remember the name of! But landsakes it was Too-Licious!

What fun!

Day Three!

Now this was shopping day! I wanted to take part and watch demos and really get into it. But First, I had to go see Mr. Tim! LOL! My hero! I cannot begin to tell you how this man alone has so changed my life. I will be ever grateful to him!

I wish I had his teeth! They're perfect! Why I'm at it, I wish I had an ounce of his talent! Wow!

The DCWV Booth! Cool pumpkins!

Want2Scrap Goodies!

I so enjoyed my day! The last trip was over to see Dyan doing the MOST AMAZING THINGS! It was like, people, move out of my way I gotta watch too! LOL!

Linda Cain, Dyan Reaveley and I looking at some art!

Laughing!

The amazingly talented..No, totally amazingly crazy talented Anna Dabrowska taking a picture of Linda, Dyan and I! Where the heck was my camera to take a picture of Anna? Hell's Bells!

Dyan Reaveley in action! This woman has my kind of sense of humor! I could have laughed all night!

What an amazing trip! I am so fortunate to have been able to go and meet all of these wonderful people! All under one roof even!!! You would think the building's roof would blow off with this much talent and art in a single place!

I had so much fun! Hope you enjoyed walking through those magically days with me!

Thanks for coming to visit!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

The Winner!

Whew! I'm done with all my projects for July and August! I can't even begin to tell you what a wonderful, relaxing, calm, happy feeling that gives me! Three cool projects for Graphic 45 for August, a couple for Inspiration Emporium Inspiration Team Challenge for July (still need to do August LOL!) and one for Carol over at Scrapadabadoo! Three of which I finished yesterday! I was on a roll this weekend! It was fun! I love to be busy and love to craft!

My mom asks me often, if I ever tire of crafting and making projects...My reply... I really don't! The reason, I believe, is that each project is so completely different. I get totally excited about each one. I have an idea of what I'm trying to create in my mind, but have no idea what it will become or look like. So I look forward to seeing it. I totally enjoy thinking about what's next and then look forward to actually putting it into motion. Make sense? I may be a craft weirdo but who cares! I'll just be one in a top hat! :)

Anyway, on to the winner...

Thank you all for your kind and inspiring comments on the Graphic 45 Hokora in the beautiful Bird Song Collection. A BIG thank you for coming over to follow me here at my new blog home. Which brings me to this....I want to announce the winner for my Blog Hop Give-a-way!

The envelope please....

cyndiemartin.......... I'm assuming this is Cyndie Martin. Congratulations!!! Hope you enjoy it! Cyndie, please email me your info and I will get the Graphic 45 goodies out to you! Thank you all for putting your name in the hat! You Rock!

OK, I'm doing back to back posts tonight so Highlights of CHA coming next....See y'all in a few!

Thanks again Cyndie and each of you for following and subscribing! You all rock! Seriously...You all Rock!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Friday, July 27, 2012

Graphic 45 Extra Project Reveal For CHA!

Hello Everybody! Happy Friday To You All!

As promised, I would like to show y'all the extra project I did for Graphic 45's booth at CHA. I used Graphic 45's new Bird Song Collection! I really didn't think I was into Asian art, but folks, I'm totally in love with this collection! The colors are incredible, the graphics and patterns are marvelous! It's truly an amazing collection that Diane Shultz and Graphic 45 have come up with.

On with the project...I had a few pieces of Bird Song left over and I really wanted to come up with a reason to use shoji doors that would slide back to reveal one of Graphic 45's altered boxes. So that's when I thought a small house, temple or shrine. Here's what I came up with.

Bird Song Hokora

Supplies for the Bird Song Hokora:

Graphic 45 Bird Song Paper Collection
Graphic 45 Door Knob
Graphic 45 Brad Buttons
Graphic 45 5 x5 Altered Art Box
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Hitch Post
Wooden Ball
Bamboo Skewers
Chipboard
Cardstock
Black and Red Acrylic Paint

The Hokora Closed - Front

The front showing the shoji doors that wrap around the middle box unit and slide back to open. The doors were covered with paper, a chipboard frame and then bamboo skewers were added inside the frame. Finally, the doors were fitted with a set of Graphic 45 Button Brads for knobs.

The Roof

The roof was really the hardest part for me. Trying to get the right shape was a bear! So finally it hit me to draw it on cardstock. Once I was happy, I folded the cardstock in half, cut out the design and made a template to use to trace around on the Chipboard. I then cut out the piece twice for the front and back. Next, I cut the two side pieces, scored them on the back with a craft knife so the would bend and glued them to the front and back pieces. Last I just added a curled edge flat top roof. It's basically an upside down box with no lid...well, with wings jutting out! LOL! Finally, I cut roof tiles and used my corner chomper to round the edges and then rolled them around a dowel to get the "tile" shape.

The Shoji Doors Open

I made an open box for the doors to wrap around as well as to hold the Graphic 45 Altered Art Box. I made two rectangular open boxes and cut the middle top part out to slide on a chipboard rail, if you will, that was attached to the square open box. I did this on both the top and bottom for the shoji doors to open and close. On the rail I adhered a double layer of chipboard for the roof and the base to sit flat against. This also made a channel or track for the doors to open and close. Did that make sense because it confused me! :) I'll have to show you when I make another for a class. :)

The Graphic 45 Altered Art Box

I wanted the altered box to be simple and hopefully elegant and this collection is sooo elegant, (Gotta love it!) so I used the border of the paper and made a frame and adhered it to the front of the box. Next, I cut the beautiful geisha from the collection and placed that on the inside back of the open paneled Altered Art Box.

The Panel Opened

Once again I was drawn by the beauty of the Asian ladies and placed this one on the inside of the box.

The Inside

Now, I'm not the best fussy cutter around, but I sure try to give it a go! I need some big boy scissors to make these cuts! My fingers will not fit into the blasted finger holes! LOL! The scissor I use now are what I believe looks like baby nail scissors for goodness sakes! Sorry :) ... OK where was I?..Yes, the inside...I wanted to give the inside a dimensional look, so I cut the geisha out of the paper collection, added a fan to her hand, (because I whacked off her fingers but don't tell anybody!) lined the box and then adhered her toward the front of the box. Next, I cut a purple plumb branch from outside and glued that behind her inside the back of the box. I then cut out multiple flower shapes, used my stylus to round them over and adhered the layers together for what I was hoping to look like cherry blossoms. OK, so they look more like Grapefruits, but I thought they looked nice! :) Actually, I loved these flowers so much I used them on a layout that one day, you all will see. Well That's it. I hope you liked it! It was my great privilege and honor to give this piece to a very beautiful and talented lady that has given me an incredible opportunity. I humbly thank you!

Thanks For Visiting!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Where Texas Meets Great Britian

Well, I'm totally amazed at how everyone is finding me! Thank you so much! So glad to have you! New or old you are welcome here! I once said how cool it was to be apart of this amazing family of paper crafters and it truly is! How cool is it that we all share with each other different things for the betterment of the community! Here' my attempt...I hope that you can find some inspiration from my blog whether from ideas, projects, videos or me just hanging out shootin' the shenanigan's! LOL!

I just wanted to give you a heads up on some things I will be sharing with you soon....I never showed you my CHA Graphic 45 Bird Song Extra Project. It was one of my favorites for CHA. Well, I will share that tomorrow! See it was just a tease! Mean huh? LOL! Can you tell I was the only boy in the family of two older sisters! Brat! I say Brat! :) Hopefully my sister is still trying to find my blog over at Typepad! She's got a fist on her like nobody's business! I've experienced it before! I was the only student that had a black eye from their sister in 6th grade! What can I say! Oh that reminds me...you all need to....well...remind me for lack of other words....to tell you about the time I tripped over two guys fighting in the hall at school! Yep, they were fine, I came home with a broken arm! Bahahahhaaha! True story! I can't help but sit here and watch my belly jiggle I'm laughing so hard!

OK, Sorry, where was I...I haven't got a clue! :)

Oh yeah, I wanted to do a big thank you to my UK friend, Lynn Wild for the amazing gift she sent as a thank you! If you recall, she was the one responsible for giving me the idea for the Lynn's Light Lighthouse project! Here's a vid of me being totally blown away and even eating some of the goodies she sent while I'm talking! My Mom would die! She seriously taught me better! Right Mom? Hey Mom are you a follower yet? Why can't I get the people who love me the most to follow? I think they are afraid I will do a tell all novella! Hmmmm, maybe I could write it and make a chipboard box to put it in! :)

Anyway, here's the vid....

Thanks for Visiting!

Jim
The Gentleman Crafter

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Thank You All!!

Oh, it's so good to be blogging again! I have so missed it and missed you all! Thank you so much for following me over to my new blog home!!!! You don't know how much I appreciate you following and subscribing! I know it's a pain! In return, I hope that I may offer you all some sort of inspiration through my crazy posts and projects! LOL!

It's so nice to be able to have a chance to breathe for a second before the next round of projects begin...tonight! LOL! The last couple of weeks have been doozies! I think yesterday hits the top 100 list for male-multi-tasking!! It was like this...Came home from work...(when I come in the door to my house, I enter through my studio! Big mistake, never do this to yourself!...It'll kill you!) and literally would undo buttons, glue the lanterns together, pull off belt, glitter the manse roof, etc, etc! When I finally put the last touch on it, I was dressed in my comfiest of clothes glittering and gleaming from Art Glitter's...glitter...and then I sat down and tackled a new blog! Whew! All this to say...I really do appreciate you taking the time to come visit my new blog (Typepad, EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!!) and I'm so excited you all like the Happy Haunting Haunted House! I had so much fun making it! It was one of those projects where you just wanted to keep going with the detail and literally had to say.."ENOUGH JIMBO! ENOUGH!"

Tutorial you ask? Well, I'm not promising anything until I finish up the Lighthouse Tut! I've learned my lesson there in promising something that I just couldn't get done by when I said I'd get it done! I totally try you guys, honestly I do! Writing patterns sucks up so much time and I always have so many projects to get done...rather want to do. If any of you are pattern writers, let me know, let's work out something! :)

In someones email, did you say that YouTube has a live video now? I'm so ready to do Ustreams or YouTube live...if there is one!! As I've said before, my "Country Connection" with my Internet satellite company is not the best! However, I have had a couple of offers from some followers that live near me....Thank Kim! Is the offer still good? LOL! Anyway, better get started! I finally picked up the studio to make a video on the Haunted House! Got to love picking up the studio before company comes! LOL!

Here's a video to walk you through the Haunted House! Sorry it won't post to my page, but just click the link below....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24x03x5eNZc

Once Again y'all, Thank you so much for following and subscribing!! It means the world to me!! Oh yeah...Tell your friends what my new home is and head 'em over! :)

Y'all Rock!

Jim
The Gentleman Crafter

Graphic 45 - Want2Scrap - Art Glitter Blog Hop Today!

Good Morning Everybody... thanks for making it over to my new blog home! So far it's feeling pretty good!

It's going to be a Fun day! We are having a Graphic 45 -Want2Scrap - Art Glitter Blog Hop! Yahooo!

Graphic 45 an award-winning scrapbook and paper crafting company— owned and operated by a mother and her two daughters. Together we create vintage inspired crafting products that capture the flamboyant style of the 1920's and 30's - with vibrant color, irresistible texture and imaginative design to create products with decades-old appeal that's both fresh and familiar. Let our products inspire your next scrapbook layout, card, album or home decor project.

Want2Scrap™ manufacturers rhinestones lines including the specialty Nestabling™ line along with the newly released Nestaboard™ chipboard line that coordinates perfectly with the Spellbinders™ Nestabilies™ die templates. Want2Scrap™ also manufacturers their own line chipboard albums and accents, acrylic albums, and multi-layered laser designs and other fine scrapbooking products. Want2Scrap™ brings ease of use and flexibility in their product lines by offering products uniquely tailored to its customers’ needs.

Spread the Sparkle! Be it cosmetics, scrapbooking, t-shirts, cards, jewelry, quilts, rock star toes, home decor or even cement...everything is better with Art Glitter on it! Barbara Trombley opened Art Institute Glitter, Inc. in 1982 and now supplies artists and artisans, crafters and craftsmen with more than 400 brilliant cosmetic quality glitter colors and industrial-strength adhesives. Art Glitter products have been featured on “The New Martha Stewart Show”, “Carol Duvall Show”, HGTV, Home Shopping Network and several times in “Martha Stewart Living Magazine” including this upcoming December, 2009 issue. Thousands of retail stores throughout the world carry Art Glitter products. Barbara’s first book, “Glitter Artistry: Bags, Tags & Cards,” was warmly received by artists in 2006 and is still a big hit today (Sterling Publishing, Inc.). Art Glitter’s retail showroom is located in Historic Old Town Cottonwood, Arizona.

This week, Graphic 45, along with Want 2 Scrap and Art Glitter, will be having a blog hop filled with tons of inspiration and your chance to win one some cool prizes from both myself and Graphic 45! All you need to do is comment on the blogs as you hop!

Here are the Graphic 45 Goodies they will be giving away!

Here's what I'm giving away on July 30th....

To win, simply become a follower of my blog and leave a comment under this post.

That simple...

The winner will be chosen at random on Monday, July 30th from the comment left here on my blog.

WOW!!! Three chances for prizes!!!

OK, now the detail are over here we go.....

Today we will be hopping with two of my G45 teamies, Arlene Cuevas and Betto Cesare!

Please Hop to each of the blogs and see their wonderfully amazing creations!!

Hope you like my....

Happy Haunting Haunted House

A haunted mansion with gate and courtyard, ready to spook any
trick-or-treater! Made from one of Graphic 45's Altered Art Boxes,
the spooky house pulls out of the courtyard and hold a photo album for
Halloween pictures! The Want 2 Scrap gate and the glittered
embellishments add to the haunting effect.

Supplies Used:

Graphic 45 Happy Haunting
Graphic 45 ABC Primer
Graphic 45 Metal Hinges
Graphic 45 Metal Stamped Mini Brads
Graphic 45 Metal Butterfly (bat)
Graphic 45 5 x 8 (I think this is the right size?) Altered Art Box
Chipboard
Want 2 Scrap Gate Mini Album
Glitter
Wooden Balls
Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder
Black Soot Distress Ink
Ultra Thick Embossing Powder
Bamboo Skewers
Black Cardstock

Here's this week's Schedule....

Monday, July 23rd