Category: Paper crafting

Posted in Cardmaking, Encouragements, Mini Albums, Paper crafting, Project Life, Supplies, YouTube Videos

March Is Happy Crafting Month pt. 2!!!

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace11.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

I am so excited to be back and continue celebrating Craft Month!!! YAY!!! 🙂

Today I am sharing some more favorites. I hope if you haven’t seen their work or products lately, you will take a minute to go take a peek. 🙂

My two crafters this week are:

Kristina Werner can be found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/starofmay

and blog:

http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/

And

Jennifer McGuire can be found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/jennifermcguireink

and blog:

Hi There

Both these ladies are wonderfully talented and extremely generous in sharing information/teaching of their craft/skills.

My two favorite craft companies this week are:

http://www.scrapbook.com/

and

https://www.simonsaysstamp.com/

Both of these companies sell a variety of supplies. They are more of a retail outlet online for the newest and greatest supplies.

This week’s raffle:

I will offer 4 crafting goodie gifts to four different winners!!

They will include goodies from the companies I have shared about so far in the March Crafting month articles.

This National Crafter’s Month giveaway will run until Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 3 PM CT. The giveaway is open internationally. All who enter must be  18 years or older. Four winners will receive a lovely craft goodie bag!! 🙂  You can enter by leaving your answer to the question listed below in the comment section of this blog post.  I’ll announce the winners on this blog post and then contact them directly through email.

Who is one of your favorite craft designer/crafters?

Best wishes and I can’t wait to see who you LOVE in your crafting!! 🙂

k

Posted in Encouragements, Miscellaneous, Paper crafting, Supplies

Why No Postings?!?!

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

I have been chief cook, bottle washer and nurse!! Last week I spent the week tending my Sweet Family that was sick with serious colds/congestion. PTL all are back up and doing well….but I am still catching up.

I will be posting a joint drawing and favorite March Craft Month designer and companies tomorrow. I am super excited to share this week’s favorites!! What a fun month to remember all who have previously and continue to provide wonderful supplies and inspiration!! 🙂

So come on back tomorrow…now time to finish up the bits and pieces. And then to make a new batch of gluten free english muffin bread for my family!! 😉

Have a wonderful day,

k

 

Posted in Cardmaking, Encouragements, Paper crafting, Supplies

Scrapbook.com Graphic 45 Sale TODAY ONLY!!!

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

 

Hello Dear Friends,

A quick note to share about a sale on Scrapbook.com or click on: http://store.scrapbook.com/.

They are an EXCELLENT company to order from!! My last order was shipped and landed before I could even believe it!! Literally a matter of days. Their online ordering is always in real time…so no ordering with a message later they are sold out!! (Or even filling a cart and by the end of shopping you do not receive a message stating the item is gone either.) Love this!!

Everything is packed exceptionally well and comes in good order!! And with one of my favorites mentioned last Wednesday…a special sale on Graphic 45 (http://www.g45papers.com/) at Scrapbook.com (http://store.scrapbook.com/), I had to share!! 😉
                                                             

After I ordered just now, they sent me some wonderful crafting ideas for the items I purchased. Talk about great service!!

So if you are interested and wanting a good by from a great company…head on over to http://store.scrapbook.com/. They will treat you right!!

Have a wonderful week,

k

Posted in Encouragements, Miscellaneous, Paper crafting, Supplies, YouTube Videos

March Is Happy Crafting Month!!! YAY!!!

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

Craft Supplies 13 Stock Photo

Hello Dear Friends,

Ok, like I need another reason to craft?!?! 😉 I really love that this is a time to recognize and support your local and online favorite artist/crafters and craft companies!!

I have a long list of favorites. Every Wednesday I plan to share a quick note of thanks to those for helping to create such a wonderful industry!! I will also include some of my favorite crafting companies that have kept us all well stock all of these years!! Their efforts to create great and encouraging designs and the wonderful supplies continue to encourage us all!! 🙂

My two crafters this week are:

Shannon Greeen can be found on YouTube channel and her blog.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/byShannonGreen Blog: http://shannongreen.blogspot.com/

and

Amy Rysavy can be found on YouTube channel and her blog.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PrairiePaperandInk Blog: http://prairiepaperandink.typepad.com/

My two favorite craft companies this week are:

Graphics 45: http://www.g45papers.com/

and

Stamps of Life by Stefanie Barnard: http://www.stephaniebarnardstamps.com/index.htm

If you have time…please go check these great artists and great companies. I do not get paid or am I affiliated with any listed. I am just a follower of these ladies’ work and consumer of the companies listed.

FYI: I will have a fun giveaway later this week that either come from one or both of the companies listed. And/or something that helped me to learn from these two artist. So keep checking back!! 😉 FUN! FUN! FUN!!!!

Have a wonderful week,

k

Photo credit: http://www.dreamstime.com/

Posted in Encouragements, KwithJDesigns Etsy Shop, Miscellaneous, Paper crafting, Supplies, YouTube Videos

Crafting Supplies Stash Shopping…

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

Art supplies Stock Photos

Hello Dear Friends,

How many of you acquire more than you create? I have suddenly realized as the “acquisition officer” in my home…and the busy-ness of our home, I have become the best and yet biggest shopper ever!! We all go through the typical…gonna cut back on spending. But I am going to cut-off my craft spending!! My goal is to save money by using what I have, give great handmade gifts for all occasions this year and fill my Etsy shop to bless others!!

Today begins a new journey for me. I have through the years accumulated a “large” stash of supplies. I have had a Spinning, Weaving and Sewing business as well as Scrapbooking business. I am planning on spending the next month (and each month for the next year…baby steps, baby steps) using my stash. I will take each month at a time. I will have to be creative and shop my stash!! 🙂 Don’t panic…yet!! 😉 There will be a very small allowance each month ($20) for custom orders useage of: adhesives, ink for my printer, printer paper, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong…everything I buy is usually ALWAYS on sale or clearance….or I use a coupon or even double stack the coupons. I had become fascinated with extreme coupon-ers. But enough is enough!! You can only have so many supplies…the room is full and it is time to get busy!!

I also will begin next week tracking all expenses. With the online world of debit/credit cards I have totally given up tracking each spend…like we did all those years ago with a simple check register or even envelopes of cash. As I go through this process, I will do my best to share my experiences.

Honestly…I LOVE a good cheap buy!! I always feel as if I have climbed and conquered a mountain with my checked off shopping lists!! Now as a good steward of all I have been blessed with…it is time to get to work and begin blessing others!! The first is to bless my Sweet Husband who has worked hard in the “work world” to pay for most of these goodies!! And then next is to bless my family with hopefully (in time) freeing up space in our home by eliminating the “store”. (I literally have my inventory from my store in my basement!!) Then it is to bless others with gifts of handmade love from our family. And then finally it is to get busy growing and creating in the skills the Lord has given me!! It is all His.

I have loved watching some of the YouTubers share in there journey. I am currently watching ‘OCD Must ?’. Amy does a great job as well as the first video I ever watched…running her home like a business. YES!! Why has that been so hard for me? I have endless experience running and working in businesses? I now see how I need to implement that complete record keeping and accountability to if only myself in written form. I see I have let things slide with the online daily check of our accounts. It is too much with as busy as life can be to try to mentally keep a running tally. Time to tighten the belt and get to business!! 🙂

Now you may read this and think…what a downer!! But I am happy and content to say…honestly, I will miss the looking/shopping but it will be great to get the hoarder monkey off my back!! As well as working to bring in money and not spend out money. Can any of you relate?

On my other blog, I am doing a series of organizer/binders/journals etc. to help better prioritize myself, my family, our finances, my blogs and my YouTube/Etsy shop. I will reblog here to encourage you all as well. There are some fun creative mixed in with the everyday “planning”. 😉 Hey…I can still have fun in the “planning” game too!! 😉

So I could look at this as the glass half full or half empty. I am determined to see the glass half full!! I am excited to see where I go as a Christian/wife/mother and artist. I am excited to live within my budget and my stash…so to speak and see what is created!! Some of my best recipes when cooking dinner come from using what’s in the fridge!! So here’s to “fridge” shopping my stash and creating some fun new projects this next year!!

I will also have some fun giveaways beginning next week to encourage each of you throughout this next year!! So keep coming back and see how it’s going. Hopefully you will be encourage and inspired as well!!

Have a wonderful week in the Lord,

k

Picture credit: dreamstime.com

 

 

 

Posted in Encouragements, Paper crafting, Supplies

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It Is Off To Work I Go…

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

Do you do a major clean/reorg after periods of major crafting?

Today begins early Spring cleaning/organization of my office/studio. You know…keep, give, throw away or move to another space. After all the holiday crafting fun, I need  a big clean out/reorg. I always have more plans than time to make all the projects each year at Christmas!! As a result I then must clean out, organize and pack away all the supplies not needed….for now. 🙂 I usually have this done by the end of December, but with all the travel over the holidays that went well into January…I am running a bit behind.

Today began the pulling everything out and off the shelves. OK, can you hear crazy serious reorg happening? Tomorrow I will be moving the furniture and reloading/reorganizing all supplies!! I’m sooooo excited!! I love this part!! I literally find goodies I forgot I have!! I am genuinely able to “shop my studio” afterwards!!! 😉 This process really gets my creativity a-going!! FUN!!!

I also LOVE to plan the arrangement!! Literally with every move from house to house throughout my marriage, I draw serious diagrams with full explanations. I LOVE THIS!! I am such a nut!! I genuinely LOVE pulling out the graph paper tablet, ruler, tape measure and pencil/eraser!!! I love this part so much that I carry this tablet everywhere I go to think and plan. Like today, when I was waiting to get my hair cut…out it came as I studied the plans. It is so much fun to dream of what it can and/or will be!! Yes, even as a little girl I LOVED to redesign my room!! Once a year my Mom would let me pick out a new bedspread and sheet set. I always was super excited!! It was then the major moving around of all my furniture would take place. All my furniture was very big and very heavy. I still don’t know how I moved it all by myself…but I did!! And I absolutely LOVED the entire redecorating/reorganizing process!! It was fun, fun, fun!! I still feel the same way!!

The main room I change constantly is my office/studio. Mainly because it is a small space that is used daily. I have allot of materials and I am always looking for the most efficient storage and use-ability. It has been a multi purpose room up until today. I am now taking all my educational/teaching materials out and storing them in another part of the house. Therefore…truly studio/office now!! YAY!!! 🙂

For the fun part…today I found these great little baskets at Target in the Dollar Spot. When I brought them home and showed my youngest I shared that they remind me of when I was in school as a little girl. I explained how we used baskets similar in elementary as our make shift storage of our books and supplies and then later in gym class for our uniforms/clothes. Sooooo cute!! Not only will they perfectly fit my shelves , they bring back sweet memories to boot!! 🙂 There were only so many available and…you know it, I bought all I could!!

20150210_200901

 

(HINT: Always measure before you buy. Sometimes items do not give measurements. For instance, I forgot my tape measure I carry in my purse for project purchases. So I just walked over the office supply area and used a ruler. Voila!! )

Well, it’s time to get back to work!! Keep checking back and when all is set up, I will share pictures of the finished studio/office!! 🙂

Have a wonderful evening…hi, ho…hi, ho it’s back to work I go!! 😉

k

Posted in Cardmaking, Encouragements, KwithJDesigns Etsy Shop, Mini Albums, Paper crafting, Supplies

Today Is A New Day…

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

I just wrote an article and my computer glitched somehow and it didn’t save. So as I rethink the previous article, I see the blessing of possibly something a bit different.

I have been busy, busy, busy working on a family project, finishing up all the new mini album kits in my Etsy Store (KwithJDesigns), dealing with a computer that needs my Sweet Husband’s genius touch for a little repair work,  helping my youngest with Latin, going through all the new inventory that has come in in the last week or so and well just being a wife and Mom. I have also been researching and purchasing new materials for a new article on my other blog (HealthyLiving4Him.wordpress.com) It’s an organizational article. With so many different things going on in our family as well as in my world of home, property and my little business…I am enjoying the joy of getting all organized.

As you can hear in my writing…we have been busy. Like all of you, we go through the holidays working as fast as we can to get everything done we desire on our list. My list…maybe like some of y’all’s is always a bit long. So after the rush I have stacks of supplies…well honestly boxes of supplies for all my hopes and dreams for Christmas crafting. I am honestly set for the next 5 years of crafting for my family and friend’s gifts if I didn’t buy another thing!! 🙂 But none the less it is all still there. Looking me in the eyes…daring me to try to store it!! And now with all the wonderful Spring/Summer supplies coming in…I now have to do something!!

So “Today is a New Day”!!! It is time to grab that bull by the horns and get busy cleaning up, organizing and getting all working in a much more efficient manner. I need organization at it’s best. With such a small space I need the ultimate efficiency in this room. I am so thankful to have this room…well I kinda commandeered it. It used to be our dining room. It was used on special occasions and as time went by I slowly took the room over until this last Summer I took the table and chairs out (the china hutch had been moved a couple of years prior) and made it my office/studio. In my other blog (HealthyLiving4Him.wordpress.com), I recently wrote about adjusting and learning to “bloom where I was planted” in our out in the country older farmhouse. It is a lovely home and I am so thankful to the Lord for it!! But there are times I honestly miss my huge newly built home that was in a large city. I don’t miss the city except when I need something quick and easy at a store and it’s now at least an hour away. 🙂 And I honestly LOVE the quiet of our little country life. Life seems so much more real here. There is life and sometimes death on a farm that make you stop and realize the Lord’s plans are so much more than our own. And in that blog…I come to the realization I can make this home work and not look back!!

So all this to say, as I look at my challenge before me…Today is a New Day!! And in the words of our Lord…this is the day that the Lord has made…I will be glad and rejoice in it!! So my major reorg begins. My Sweet Husband travels next week for work. We will be tied up as well…so today the planning begins. I will be pulling everything out and clearing everything out…Lord willing. But how exciting to again, find all the gems in the drawers and shelves I have forgotten are in there. To find a better spot for them to be used more readily. And to be the good steward the Lord needs me to be of all these supplies for my little business!! So exciting!!!

I hope somewhere in all this…you can find encouragement in your spaces of your home. May we all be so well prepared for what lies ahead of us that we can be ready at any time to do all as if unto the Lord. That is my goal in preparing this work space in my home. It is a place filled with joy, fun and whimsy!! A place that needs order and easy access so that I may enjoy doing all that is before me and blessing all that come in or receive what comes out of this space in my home!!

So after all the investigation of planning tools…here begins the first planning project of the year!! FUN!!!

May your day and your life be filled with the joy of the Lord,

k

Posted in Cardmaking, Encouragements, Mini Albums, Paper crafting, Supplies

Adding New Goodies to the Kits….

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

Exciting news!!! I just had 4 packages of goodies come in and I am having fun adding a few new things to each kit!! I also found some beautiful embellishments to add to each kit!!  So hopefully all will be posted tonight or in the morning!! I am sorry to be running late….but I decided everyone would rather have the fun extra new goodies!! 😉 Please be sure to keep checking back!!

Have a great week in the Lord,

k

 

Posted in Encouragements, Mini Albums, Paper crafting, Supplies, YouTube Videos

What’s New at Josephine’s Designs…

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

 cropped-josephine-hatwomens-hats-2-josephines-silk-flowers-and-lace1.jpg

Hello Dear Friends,

I am excited to announce 4 new album kits will be available this coming Monday evening in my Etsy shop!! Please be sure to stop on by for these amazingly beautiful, easy, quick (ready to craft) and affordable kits.

Do you love to give homemade gifts…but sometimes do not have the time or extra resources for crafting that special gift for someone you love? I have put together some truly lovely kits and am excited to provide a simple, easy and affordable solution for gift giving to those you love!! 🙂

I will later in the week have my own albums for all to see what I did with the kits on my YouTube channel. So please stop on by and see what’s new here at Josphine’s Designs.

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to see you all soon.

Have a wonderful weekend,

k with JosephinesDesigns.com

Posted in Encouragements, KwithJDesigns Etsy Shop, Paper crafting, Project Life, Supplies, YouTube Videos

Happy and Blessed New Year!!

Posted on by JosephinesDesigns.com

Josephine hatwomens-hats-2.jpg Josephine's silk flowers and lace

Hello Dear Friends,

I have been busy away organizing our home, business and studio these last few days! I am excited with all the new projects planned for Josephine’s Designs this new year!! There are new tools purchased and on their way. As well as the fun discoveries while organizing for new projects!! 🙂 I literally will be shopping my studio as well!! FUN!!!

I hope each new project I share this year inspires and encourages each of you to fun new discoveries for your wonderful new projects!! I am so inspired by so many of you wonderfully talented artists. And with each project I try something new to learn and grow in my skills. Though meager…I still keep working and so should you!! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And some of my “not so great” projects…at least in my mind, seem to bless others in such amazing ways!! To God be the glory in all!!

There will be many new projects, extra goodies/supplies and items in my Etsy shop. And fun new kits available as well. And many new YouTube videos!! So come and join with me in the New Year of crafting!!

So as you enjoy your first day of 2015, I encourage you to think how you can bless and inspire all those in your life!! You are a blessing and I am thankful to each reader and those who kindly encourage me in my blogs and projects. What an exciting year ahead for all of us!!

And as always…I pray you find joy and whimsy in each fun project this year!!

Have a wonderful year in the Lord,
k