Homegrown Hospitality

Here we go...(and THIS is a LONG one!!!)

I promised that I would be back, and here I am.

Grab a cup of coffee or drink of your choice, take a seat in a comfy office chair and relax..this is a rambling long post...

If you remember my now "defunct" Homegrown Hospitality Magazines (RIP), or maybe it was in Home & Heart..or maybe Holiday Home, well, you know...

then you might remember the column called "Train of Thought" where I would try and explain how one thing becomes another, and this project is just that...

plus a ton of "Trailer Park Martha" tips (when I have another magazine...THAT is what I am going to call it...)

anyways...

so, here goes...

 

 

I started with a large canvas and some Barn Red paint...God Bless the color Barn Red...I added a little of another Red too..just to lighten the canvas a tad

so I painted the canvas and set it aside to dry.  Then I grabbed a smaller "zutter" canvas cover board that I had and painted it the same color because I has squirted wayyyy too much paint on the larger canvas.

but it was a little tooo red, so I painted it black...and I thought that I would be "altered & artsy" (still on my Inspired high) and I tore out the definitions of "change" and "focus" and just patted them onto the wet paint.

then I went for a LONNNNGGGGG run....

When I got back, I grabbed my gallon sized zip-lock full of my favorite chipboard letters in all sizes and all colors from Lil' Davis (moment of silence please.....)

okay, I grabbed my favorite glue, Art Glitter Dries Clear and decided what words I could spell from the random letters I had..REGARDLESS of the colors

Oh yeah, BEFORE I placed the letters on the board, I sanded off a little bit of black here and there to expose the red...

okay, NOW I glued the letters into place.

Then I painted the entire thing black, everything but the definitions...

Then I found a "b" and a "y" so I glued them on and painted them

 
I let it dry, then I decided I would sand of the letters a bit.

 
insert screeching breaks...dang it!

The paint did not absorb or really adhere to the letters.....

so I grabbed a can of gray primer, duh, and sprayed the entire thing..including my attempt at being "artsy".  

Why I have grey primer you ask?  I have NO idea, except for that I used to LOVE the color because the boy I was in love with when I was 15 drove a grey primer square-back...dreamy (now "we" have a lime green VW bus with ghost flames for gosh sakes.)

anyways, after I sprayed it and it dried, which was VERY quick I might add, I noticed that some of the edges of the letters were starting to peel...

great.

Actually...it was great. Reminded me of a favorite part of a Pink song on my run play list...."Learning to be BRAVE in my Beautiful Mistakes...."

I sat in the sun on the bare concrete, in my sweaty running clothes and I started peeling off the letters to expose the KRAFT chipboard (next to RED, kraft is my other fav. color)

 
 
and I was sitting next to this pretty little plant that was enjoying the warm morning as much as I was so, so I took a photo of that too...

Once the letters were all peeled off, I lightly sanded the edges of the board, used a white pen to write in the words "your" and "changing" and called it done.

Right now it is just sitting on top of the original BIG canvas...just waiting for a home....like yours.

You want it? Leave me a comment and I will have that boy that I fell in love with when I was 15 (and then married 23 years later) pick a name....maybe even from the drivers seat of the lime green bus...

oh, but wait..there's more (like Vince from ShamWOW)

I was skyping with my dear friendAmbrosia yesterday and she was in a creative rut......

Been there..done that!

She asked me for an assignment....so I told her to go check out the awesome layout that Jamie Harper did for yesterdays Teresa Collins Blog and then create something based on it...

Go check out what Ambrosia did ...and I will show you what I did...

tomorrow

when I announce a winner for the canvas....

p.s..when you go to Ambrosia's blog....please notice to the right that she is actively training and preparing for the Avon 3-day walk.  I will be creating something to Action off for her and her team in the next few weeks...

okay, now, I must go.
 
  

 

Little Reminders...EDIT

   

Thank you for the email today Judy...I think I am going to paint this onto a canvas today..AFTER I run...

I will show you how it comes out.

Enjoy today!

so I got the kids to school, grabbed a canvas, some paint, a big bag of my old favorite Lil' Davis chipboard letters and went to work...while the paint was drying, I went on a LONG sweaty run then came back and well, after a 10 step process of this and that...here is where I am right now...

Make sure to come back to this blog tomorrow to learn step by step how you can make this...PLUS

like alot of what I make, I will be giving this away... 

 

New Kits...with the REAL Link!

Wow you guys...thanks for the comments and love for the Travel Mini!

 
It really is super easy and that is why I was able to make it in record time...and so can you!

The winner of this little lovely is.....(pretend you hear a drumroll)

Lisa Campion

so Lisa, if you are reading, please email me your mailing address at homegrown1@att.net and I will get it on the way to you.

now, if you LOVE this line and are in the OC and want to make an even bigger book, I am teaching it this SATURDAY at Oh, Scrap in Costa Mesa..BUT..

 
there are only 6 spots left, so you need to call this morning! (949) 645-3334

now, I know that many of you are not close to the OC, or in California for that matter, so I am in the midst of kitting a limited number of these pretties...so here are the details..

***FIXED***

Kit is $45.00 & includes the following:

• 5 x 7 Tabbed Chipboard bound book which includes 11 pages
• Coordinating tags and die cut pieces to embellish book
• Chipboard for creating "homegrown & handmade" embellishments
• Pewter Camera with jump ring for cover
• Black Bazzill Cardstock for Photos
• Cats Eye "Creamy Brown" Ink (because you know I ALWAYS use it..)
• A goodie bag full of my favorite coordinating things like canvas, felt, buttons, ribbons, etc. 
• Price includes PRIORITY shipping

  sold out..thank you! 

and because I am the "Creative Enabler", I am also offering a smaller, less expensive kit which is just like the project that I showed yesterday

This is called "Our Trip" and is $20.00 plus shipping and includes the following:

• 5 Chipboard shapes
• 10 Coordinating Patterned paper shapes
• 2 Map Transparency shapes
• 2 Tags and chipboard
• "Our Trip" Tag for cover
• 1 Pewter Airplane & Jump Ring (please note:  ball chain is NOT included)
   

  sold out..thank you! 

BOTH KITS will be shipped the week of June 7th PRIORITY USPS..just in time for Vacation Season!

Please remember that quantities on these kits are limited!

Go on...

Today I am the featured DT member over at the Teresa Collins Blog showing a mini book that I made yesterday using the Travel Ledger papers...

Go on over, leave a comment there and then come back here and leave me a comment because I am giving it away here on my blog (as well as making a few more of these as simple kits that you can purchase in a day or two) but it would be much funner (is that a word?) to win it!!!

go on...go look....

www.teresacollinsblog.typepad.com

oh, okay, here is a little peek...

now go! ( I am a little bossy this morning!)

Home.

Dear Homegrown Hospitality Blog,

I am home now and awake at 4:18 am, my regular time to come and meet with you with of course, my coffee...Just like each morning, the washing machine already running...I missed you my little blog and I am glad to be back.

I met a ton of new friends at Inspired and reconnected with just as many Inspired 2009 friends.  

I think that we will have some new readers so we need to really be on top of our game, but before I think about that, I wanted to tell you what I did while I was gone...

First, Deena & I took a bunch of pictures on my phone but I do not know how to get them off of the phone and onto you so I will look into that in a bit..

We had a successful, memorable and totally INSPIRED trip to North Carolina even though we forgot to throw our Glitter in the Air...dang it!

We ran into Susie Gilmore in Dallas and had a BLAST with her in the airport, in the shuttle, at Sonic and through the entire event...GOOD TIMES...good talks...LOTS of laughs and a blooming friendship!!!! (photos are on her camera, darn it!)

When we got to the hotel, after check in and a quick late night snack, we hit the hay and woke up ready to roll on Thursday morning...we ran into some of our favorite Beach Girls first...whoot whoot...

My first class was a whirlwind starting at 10 am, right after a yummy bowl of grits (even brought some home!) and the first student I saw was MaryElla...

I made her a little weepy (sorry!) because we chatted about last year at Inspired...she is the REAL New Jersey Housewife...and I am one of the REAL OC Housewives....NOTHIN' fake about us!

All of my classes went great (well, I thought so!) and now there are 100+ HAPPY & PROUD paper rose makers... 
I could go on...and on...but you would get bored because it was one of theose "had to be there" things...so I will just tell you a few of the many highlights...

• June & Mechiel...wonderful new friends..looking forward to planning something in Texas....
• Stacey Shuck.....I told her...."don't be late..." but she was anyway..except for when her name was called for the raffle...and I LOVE her tons...Deena & I will be looking into flights soon and will be heading to Grove's, PA!
• Sandy Horton..Thank you for the special little cushion, hopefully I wont poke my finger as much and THANK you for introdcuing my to French General.....
• "The Back of the Room Tables"...each of my classes had one of those CRAZY tables at the back of the room just having an AWESOME super giggly, creative good time.
• Tammy Klass....THANK YOU so much.  Thank you thank you thank you.... & I hope that the pool was a blast....

 

• Havng this girl show up in my last class, even though she was feeling crummy...SHE is a true creative blessing and has "inspired" my inner creative being...

 

• Anna Willet for giving me something to create on the way home

Oh blog, just another GREAT, Creative, Inspired experience and as much as I am glad to be home...I miss my Inspired time already and am looking forward and planning Inspired 2011, which I am totally assuming that there will be one....there will be..right?

If It Ain't Packed...

it ain't goin...

I am at my limit of baggage and baggage weight and even though I could off load about 10# of cookies, I do not think that it would go over well in North Carolina...so...I carry them on...and then off...and then on...and then off again...

because I am the Creative Enabler.

These are the last IMPORTANT things that need to be stuffed into my bag and I then Deena & I hit the friendly skies...

 
If you want to follow me, I will be posting to FaceBook via Blackberry...NO ROOM for a lap top...so if you are not my friend yet, I mean, well, you know, "FaceBook" friend...friend me so that you can follow along...

See you back here on Sunday!

This is what he said....

I have always wished that I could "hear" God speak to me...I realized in the car last night as I sat at soccer practice, that HE has been, I have just been listening too hard and have missed, or maybe, not recognized that it was HIM. I thought the voice would be kinda "biblical" like in deep voices (with rolling clouds and stormy skies...)

nope.

HE talks to me wayyyyyyyy different, and I have been missing it...

until now.

Background on me:

I talk to GOD ALOT, in my own way.  Many of you know that I am NOT a good "out loud" prayer, it ends up being a big giggly mess...I prefer to chat with HIM when I am running, in the shower, when I am in a rut, when I am super excited, when I am in a tug-o-war..the great thing is..I (and you too, duh!) can talk to HIM whenever, no matter what....and I just realized as I was typing this, that the same goes for HIM, I just had not put two and two together.

Back to my story...

The question that all of you ask me more than anything is  "how" I come up with the projects, ideas and things I do, and my most common answer is "my mind just never shuts off" and I usually act as if it is a "bother".

whoops.

guess who has been filling my head with those ideas...and, ut um, speaking to me...

yep,

GOD.

I realized it yesterday, while in the car at soccer practice that he spoke to me yesterday while I was up to my eye balls in baking cookies and burning discs...

 
He speaks to me and inspires me Creatively, duh!

double duh. If I had a dunce hat & if you make one, send it to me, I will wear it.

I do not come up with all of these things on my own.

I thought I did...

until yesterday.

Like I said, I was over my head with prepping, kitting, finishing, packing, washing, typing, answering, cleaning, folding...getting ready to go out of town, when "it" the words that I had been wishing for, flashed in my mind after seeing a project somewhere on the internet at one time or another...

"Teresa's Letter Stickers...Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, masking tape..and that canvas bag GO GET THEM NOW." That was it. No lightening, no rolling clouds, no deep voices....

huh? right in the middle of everything else I was doing? NOW?

I did. (and when I was done, you would have thought I had just invented the Ipod.)

"Use the letters as a mask, use the tape to mask it off and spray!"

"dab off the excess and peel away the stickers..."

"then peel away the tape"

 hello, I LOVE you little project....like I mentioned, you "woulda"
 thought that I had invented the airplane...I looked at it all day....seriously, wherever I was, I would glance at it...

even took it in the car with me to soccer practice...

when, it happened again...HE inspired me to stitch on it.....and that is what I did while I sat at soccer practice....

I am not done yet, but it will be, by the time I get to North Carolina....

THANK YOU LORD for filling my brain with ideas and with creativity...and for NOT turning it off..ut um, ever....even when I am prepping, kitting, finishing, packing, washing, typing, answering, cleaning, folding and getting ready to go out of town.

 

It does not matter...

the theme of the paper, when it was released or how many I make,

it just does not get old....

I am the Creative Enabler, getting ready to pack ALOT of paper roses into my suitcase to head for North Carolina...

and here is an exciting little announcement...

IF you will be meeting me in Henderson, NV this September for Inspiration Unlimited or in South Africa in October, I will be unveiling a BRAND NEW flower..JUST FOR YOU!

Now I must excuse myself to get the kids up, fed and off to school, laundry folded, emails answered and about 300 cookies..baked.

Have a GREAT day! 

pssst..you wanna make them too??? the roses, silly...go here to get the 411...

Around Here....

It is a beautiful Saturday morning....The kids are getting ready to get on their skateboards and head to lake and more importantly, the donut store...and I am getting ready to go for a run,

well, and

I just finished making a card for my mom

 
and these are drying and waiting to be packed up for Inspired

and these are cooling so I can frost them

 and these are needing to be wrapped up as little Mother's Day goodies...

We are celebrating Mother's Day today...and tomorrow...I hope that whatever you are doing..wherever you are doing it, that is is special!

With Love,

S. 

Right in the middle...

of a really focused creative kitting stint, where I was really on a roll, focused, working like a freight train at full power, moving along, getting things where they needed to be and best of all, getting things DONE...

the FEDex truck pulled up.

Darn good thing there was a big scrap of Travel Ledger paper (which I have discovered that is very similar to water color paper) right here on the big table o' kits and a lonely paint brush in my big cup o' pens right here by the computer...

more to come...Thanks Liz & Tattered Angels.....

p.s. Thanks to all of the ladies who came out last night to Timeless Treasures!  We had a GREAT class and EVERYBODY left with a bound book..yay!!!

Next Stop...Inspired N.C....then back to Oh, Scrap in Costa Mesa on Saturday, May 22nd or Friday night, June 18th for this class..call to sign up....space is limited on the Saturday class...(949) 645-3334.

and looking forward to salad & small group with friends tonight