CELEBRATING LIFE!

Wow!! So winter has finally hit Saskatoon! My whole body is aching from the amount of snow I have shoveled! But it is not minus 30 or colder, so for that I am thankful!! I also got to stay home in my comfy clothes all day yesterday and have a craft day!! YYYAAAYYY!!

I wanted to write this post to tell you all about my exciting Saturday night! I got to spend the evening watching an amazing (and a bit crazy :D) group of ladies come together to help celebrate a birthday and to celebrate life!!

I have an amazing friend Barb, who for her birthday (don't worry, I won't mention any ages!! Lol) decided that instead of a birthday to celebrate her age, she wanted to rally her friends together to support a project for the Saskatoon NICU and to celebrate life. While browsing ads on Kijiji one day (which she explained on Saturday is something she rarely does and just felt compelled to do this one time) Barb came across an ad asking for homemade cards to be made for the NICU, that would then be used to place on the baby's bassinets to display their names and milestones!

Barb thought this was an excellent cause and so then set forth gathering as many people as she could to help honor her birthday by coming together to create as many cards as they could and to help celebrate life at it's earliest stages! 

Also being the extremely generous women that she is, Barb also provided an amazing amount of food and snacks, as well as entertaining games (with prizes) and all her scrapbooking tools and products to help her friends out (some of which had not even scrapbooked/crafted before). 

I have to say that I was so grateful to have been able to witness this group of women and to share in the laughter! Barb is such an amazing spirit that just makes you feel so appreciated and valued!! 

Although I was sitting behind the till working while all the fun was happening, 

I still was able to contribute by answering questions and offering crafty advice to any who needed it! This group of over 20 women were able to create over 300 cards for the NICU!! It was such a very successful night!!

Which now brings me to another moment that happened that evening and a tip I would like to share with you! Another wonderful gal that was at the store that evening (lovely Kate!) had made a comment during the evening about wanting to purchase a stamp that was just lines, you know, for journaling! I happened to overhear her and remembered a trick I had learned from somewhere along my crafting journeys (I am sorry, I don't remember exactly where I saw it. Maybe a magazine I had read? Or on the internet?) I suggested the trick to Kate and she was astounded!! She told me I just had to blog it!! I guess I just assumed that the stuff I had stored up in my head was all old news!! LOL But Kate insisted that it was a great idea and that there was probably someone else out there that might be grateful for this tip! So this is for you Kate!! Thanks for giving me a nudge!! :D

CREATING YOUR OWN JOURNALING STAMP

You will need the following items

1. acrylic stamp blocks (or a wood block would work also)
2. rubber bands (experiment with different types to get desired effect)
3. desired ink (I have used just about every type of ink in this technique and the best ink is any that are quite "juicy)

 The first thing you want to do is to wrap the rubber bands around your block and place at the desired width apart. You also want to make sure the bands are laying flat and are not all twisted up.

 Next you would then just ink up the rubber bands like you normally would a stamp and stamp onto your project. You may want to practice on some scraps to get a feel for how this is going to look!

And voila!! Your own customizable journaling stamp. Try using different size blocks and spacing your rubber bands more or less apart to get different looks!

This is a canvas I am working on and I promise to show it off once I am done it!!

Thanks for stopping by!!