The Gentleman Crafter: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Eyelets AND Brads Oh My!

Hey Everybody!

You guys rock my world. Have I said that already? I've received a gazillion emails today suggesting where I could buy eyelets and I thank you so much....I've ordered some thanks to your awesome recommendations! Yahoooo! Really, I am grateful.

Just for fun here and hopefully to explain my personal opinion with a smile....My point to last nights dastardly dilemma is ....why can't we, as crafters, just be able to walk into a store...LOCALLY.... and purchase 3/16 BRONZE eyelets. Yes, I can find them online and yes, I can color them... been there done that....but, I want to be able to go into a store and purchase what I believe is a standard piece of hardware for paper crafting. I can honestly say from my standpoint that if they are out of style, then whomever made this craftacular decision, did so without contacting the million people who still obviously use them....Based solely from the emails I've received today. LOL!

You know I'm not lazy and would be delighted to ink up or buff on bronze to a very tiny eyelet I can't even get my man fingers to hold successfully for two seconds before it magically pops out of my hands sending me scrambling on all fours to the floor searching impossibly without my glasses... which I had to go find ...so I'll be able to know that what I actually picked up is NOT the bi-colored eyelet, but the petrified- dust bunny covered - dog food morsel that has been under my desk for God knows how long! (breathe) (true story!) I just wanna buy a package, dump them in with my other eyelets and grab some when I need them. See what I mean? Bahahahaha! So yes, inks and buffs are awesome, but to me it translates into just another thing I need to do when I already have things to do....and the bronze eyelets match the chain I'm using perfectly....AMEN! Ahhhhhh!

Oh wait....Let's delve even deeper shall we... since I'm in the mood...HEHEHEHE...Take brads....I personally love antique nickle or mainly BRONZE colored brads. If Tim's are not available in the craft store, there is NOOOOOO way on God's Green Earth that they have standard Bronze or Antique Nickle brads in the store. I have to get back in my car and drive over to Michaels, which is where I should have gone in the first place, to pick these jobbies up. Seems to me this is standard stuff folks...If brads are not popular, than I'll eat my big ole black top hat! The ones I'm seeing lately are all PINK AND LIME GREEN and NO, these bad boys are just not me. But, I'm only one person in a BIG paper crafting sea and I'm sure there are tons of lovely people that use the ever so fashionable pink and green ones. Just sayin'! HAHAHAHA!

OK, now that I've made a political statement for having basic craft supplies stocked in local craft stores, I feel better. (write your congressman!) I wont go into the time I called the pizza place to order a pizza and they ran out of dough....Just won't go there tonight. LOL!

Y'all, I just want to reemphasize how much I honestly do thank you for your suggestions on my dilemma. It's been so much fun reading your comments. I truly know your comments help us all out, as a big family of papercrafters, to be even better.

Hugs to ya!

Jim
The Gentleman Crafter

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

What? No Bronze Eyelets?

Hello Everybody!

Wow! This week has been unreal! I've been working late this week which gets me home around 7:30ish and I eat dinner while I craft. I've decided you can get the most amazing "distress stains" from hot sauce dropped onto Valentine tags! Must be something about the acid in the tomato that does it! Tonight I decided to blog while I eat so if you see anything on my teeth as I write this, let me know!

Anyway, my goal for this year is to go back in between other projects and write patterns for past projects I did last year. Did you catch that? I barely did! I cannot tell you how honored I am to receive scads, well scads may be a bit strong...how about...a lot... of emails requesting these tutorials...So, I'm trying to attempt this task. Is task a good word? This week, I have been busy writing/making the 10 Things I Love About You Heart Box....Actually for this one it's more like 15 things....Hope to have it done by Friday....Next up is what I'm calling Leisa's Wine Box, formerly known as The Traveling Wine Box. Then and yes, sit down for this one...I'm actually going to pull out the pattern that was written but needed a major reno...The Lynn's Lighthouse. Probably, the one project that I get at least five emails a day asking for. LOL! My pleasure I say! Now that that's in writing, I hope I actually can do it! LOL! It's going to be a busy year!

OK, can I vent for a second? Just a second and then you can get back to your fried chicken. Now you know it's going to be serious when I get out the Good Gravy On Biscuits Language! But, GOOD GRAVY ON GREEN BISCUITS GERTRUDE! Am I living in such a cave that I am the only one in this GREAT STATE of TEXAS that uses 3/16 eyelets? Really! How many stores do you need to go to to even find a single package....Yes, I looked in the leather and sewing depatments too! No, there's more....LOL! So, now the question is, WHY IN HELLATIONS can I just not buy a pack of 3/16 Bronze eyelets without having to... one, buy them online, two, buy them in a huge $14.99 JUMBO pack that just has 6 of the bronze colored ones in it! TELL ME! Bahahahaha!

Here's what I was lucky enough to purchase tonight...350 pieces even! Y'all I have about 6 of these 350 piece babies just to get the 6 bronze eyelets! LOL! And yes, I know I should be more organized and purchase a boatload of the 3/16 bronze rarities just to have them on hand! If you see them...Grab them!

Now that I've got that off my chest and dinner finished, I better get back to work....

Just wanted to jump on and say hello! Have an awesome night!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Valentine Cards!

Good Afternoon Everybody!

First, let me thank you all for purchasing the Monthly Idea Organizer Tutorial. You guys rock! I hope you enjoy making it and find it useful. I so appreciate your support!

OK, Now...I guess it's time to get started on Valentine Cards. I'm probably a little late, but I have a few Valentine's Day projects I wanted to get through before the actual day! LOL!

First up are some pictures of a card I just finished. I purchased a box of pink glass heart ornaments from Michaels and wanted to do something with them...Here's what I came up with....

Next, If you haven't seen the "Mini Series" on how I made the next card on YouTube, here it is....

Warning: It's a full hour so... either grab your favorite beverage or skip it....LOL!

Here's the completed card....

Better get back to the studio...Working on a tutorial for the 10 Things I love About You Heart I did last year and a new 3-D heart thing....Hehehehe!

Hope you can find some inspiration from my cards....

Thanks Tons for coming by!

Jim
The Gentleman Crafter

Friday, January 25, 2013

New Pattern Up!

Good Evening Everybody!

See y'all just thought I was watching TV and eating Bon Bons since my last post. Well, actually I've been doing that too, but I have been making a really cool organizer for my ideas. You know how the ideas hit anywhere and at anytime and I can carry this baby with me where ever I go. I can organize it by month even though it may be an idea for December.

If you are interested, the pattern is up in my Etsy Store here...

The Gentleman Crafter Etsy Store

Here are a few pictures...

Here's a quick video tour of the organizer I just uploaded...

OK, better get back to it. I have a ton of Valentines Ideas that I have placed in my organizer and need to pull them out and share them with you. Thank God the weekend is here and I can get started on some new projects for us!

Have an Awesome Night!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Monday, January 21, 2013

Dallas Market - Day 4...

Howdy All!

Hope you all had a wonderful MLK Day whether you worked, volunteered, served or rested. It was a beautiful day here in Dallas. A bit cooler today, but nice and sunny.

There were more cool things to be found today...But first I wanted to share my own personal pick for market...it's actually a textile... I see a trend in BURLAP! Burlap everywhere! Drapery panels, pillows, tablecloths, ribbons, accents, table runners, ornaments, chair coverings and accessories...it's tucked in everywhere and and tons of showrooms! When I had my store, back in the day, I used to LOVE to use burlap on everything... because it was so cheap. It's cool to see it used so much again...EVERYWHERE! I love the look of washed burlap....guess I'm heading to the fabric store for burlap when I get home. I have an abundance of ideas! Just sayin'...Think burlap, natural or dyed.

OK, Today I was a bit...well, let's call a spade a spade...not a big picture taker! I completely didn't remember to take many photos! LOL! I did capture a couple and wanted to share what I had.

Here we go....

This would be awesome made from chipboard. Cool Organizer! Me thinks I need to try it!

Simple idea to upcycle a bottle for a vase.

This picture is for me! LOL! I would love to build one of these! Awesome to see the structural bones.

I love how the company chose a greenhouse to show off their garden merchandise in a rather sterile and contemporary interior hall.

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Another cool organizational idea!

Clever of the showroom designers to put the bird plates in the birdcages. Sorry for the blurry picture.

Christmas idea...take a red berry wreath and place it on the top of the tree to help build op the topper...

STAMP SETS!! :)

Cute idea for my pitchfork at home...

For my friend Fiona in the UK....She just received two of these "real" Border Collies (Joey and Lucky) from her husband for Christmas.

BAHAHAHAHA!

Ideas...hmmmmm...

Had to take a picture of this sign as it brought back memories of both my grandfathers. A little Texas oil history for ya....One of my grandfathers worked for Gulf Oil Company. My other grandfather worked for Tidewater Oil Comanpany. It is my understanding that many of the folks that came out to East Texas during the oil boom in the 20's and 30's worked for one of the many oil companies like Humble Oil (which believe it or not became the largest dometic producer of crude oil during the war), Humble became Esso and Enco now Exxon, Gulf Oil now Chevron, Continental Oil Corp (Conoco), Texas Comapany (Texaco), Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobile), or Tidewater Oil.

WASHI TAPE! I know...Only I can go from Texas Oil History to Washi Tape! Bahahaha!

LOVE IT!

Well, my friends...one more day and I'm back home! Yahooooo! Can't wait to design and work on some new projects. I just know my studio missed me as much as I missed it! I also know it's been awhile since I did a crafty post. Hopefully you've been able to find some inspiration or something that may have sparked and idea from my blog posts while I've been away from home.....Thank you all for following along with me while in Dallas as well as LA!

Have an Awesome Evening!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Market - Dallas, Texas - Day Three!

Good Evening Everybody!

I've decided that this time of the day, when the hush of night falls upon this side of the world, I may be at my calmest. It's a great joy to be able to sit back and finally relax and blog in a quiet space. My time...I must say...being truly honest here, I love to be around people...I love people...but, I so love being alone too. I think I'm dreaming of being in my comfy studio crafting away....Soon Jimbo, Soon!

It's been an eventful day and a lot was accomplished. Sadly, I can't recall a single thing I purchased for the stores today. There were so many things and it all a blur really. So, I'm going through some of the pictures I took and wanted to share.

First, here are a few pictures of Dallas Market Center....This will give you an idea of when I say it's huge...it's....HUGE! And contrary to what most think, market is a place where you place orders for merchandise to be shipped to stores. It is not open to the public, just to retailers buying wholesale merchandise to stock their stores....And no, we don't rent a U-haul trailer and haul this stuff back home. Hahahaha!

Here we go...World Trade Center from the ground floor....

OK, now for some merch and displays.....

Just Dreaming!

I would love to have this for my work surface in the studio!

Cool use of old lampshades....

Pretty!

This stove or oven reminded me of Dyan Reaveley...

Love this garden bench...

Very Cool!

Very True!

Cute Display of the letters coming out of the mailboxes.

Rosette covered topiary.

Pretty!

Santa mail holder.

Made from paper! Cool but wow! Expensive! Would retail for over 80.00!

There's gotta be something cool that can be done to this HUGE heart locket.

This horse was made completely from braided cloth cording.

I so have to try and make this! Made completely from old wooden pallets and then painted white. This tree was about 7 foot tall.

I love how the designers took a pine branch and hung ornaments so beautifully from it.

OH yeah! I need to explain something to y'all. Believe it or not, we buy Christmas merchandise in January to be sold in December! Go figure. The next time we go to market in July, half of this will be sold out, so you are almost forced to buy it now. LOL! Doesn't bother me a bit. I love Christmas anytime, but I know some of you will just have to cover your eyes! HAHAHA!