And the Winner is…

Good Morning, Folks!

When I picked March 31st as the ending date of my Giveaway,
I wasn’t looking at the calendar, and didn’t realize it was Easter!

So after a very long yesterday, I decided to wait
until this morning to choose a winner.

Hope that’s okay with you all… I’m sure you had a full yesterday too!

So, early this morning, I wrote everyone’s name on small slips of paper…

And tucked them into this basket…

…Which is amazingly perfect for picking Giveaway winners…

… And pulled out this name!

Kim from Touring with the Crists is the Winner!

Adding a Little Value…

My Mom, my brother, and I had an impromptu thrifting adventure last week… They were in a second hand shop about ten minutes from home, and saw some things they thought I might like and called me to come check them out. So I did… Not quite what I needed, but we hopscotched down the highway to several other shops, and at the last shop I found something I wasn’t expecting to find, but definitely something I could use in the art room…

Sitting on an overflowing shelf were three “shapes,” a sphere, a pyramid, and a cube. Just what everyone needs, right? Well, immediately I knew what to do with them… They would be perfect hands-on thing-a-ma-jigs for art classes to help students learn to draw three-dimensional shapes. I’ve been wanting to buy a set for quite a while, but hadn’t gotten around to it, and here was a small set of three, for only $4! I didn’t know how heavy they were until we picked them up to carry them to the counter. Once I brought them home, I realized their intended purpose. The cube had the original tag from (insert famous brand store name) that said “Set of three paperweights… $58” Well! As you can see, we soon put them to their proper use while cutting backing paper for frames! Though I would have never paid $58 for three paperweights, it sure did feel good to know their value.

“Value” means “how much,” and in most cases we think about money or worth when we hear it. Value is also an element or building block of art and design. The last two weeks, we’ve been experimenting with Value in art class… the amount of lightness or darkness an object has. We discovered that extreme darks or heavy shadows can allow the light areas of a work of art to become focal points. And we played with making tints and shades by adding white or black to paint to create some interesting contrasts…

To add a bit more “Value” or “worth” to my Home is Where the Heart Is design, I played around with it by fancy-ing up the border. My favorite papercut border is a bit lacy or icy-looking, but it adds several hours to the cutting process, so I usually reserve it for “one-of-a-kind” paper cuts. But… if my new “assistant” can help with the snipping, I could add that border to the design! Sooo… I re-cut it!

What little things do you do to add value to your daily work?

If you missed my last post… There’s a Giveaway to sign up for…
Pop over and leave a comment!

Expanding a Design…

We’ve been filling quite a few special orders around here, and it’s been difficult for me to switch gears and get some new designs “up and going.” I find it hard to strike a balance between producing old designs and playing around with new ones… Either the former or the latter takes over, and something always falls between the cracks. However, the idea of “Home” has been consistently coming to the front of my foggy brain, and a new design has recently emerged…

I’ve been wanting to try cutting something larger with my brand new Silhouette Cameo, and this is the first cutting of this design that came “off the press,” so to speak! When I learned about the Cameo, I had mixed feelings. Something similar to how the lacemakers, weavers, and spinners must have felt when the Industrial Revolution hit and factories began making in a few moments what took them hours, or even days to create. Watching that amazing machine cut away at paper had me and my entire family standing there in awe… And in my mind I was thinking “I’ve just been downsized!”

But then I tried to look at the other side of the coin.

I’ve been cutting paper for almost a quarter of a century. Every day. I love it, but must admit that I often fuss about how my eyes hurt now when I push them beyond their daily limit, and  grumble about a sore arm and neck when I’ve been doing lots of papercutting. Maybe it WAS time to take on an assistant. So, during the rest of March, I’m going to play around with this design, exploring the many ways that it can be expanded into products… and hopefully make the best use of technology in the process. Stay tuned!

And… A Giveaway!

The above electronically-cut papercutting
Home is Where the Heart Is
(Mounted on Lime card stock, Fits an 8″ x 10″ frame)
will be given away at the end of this month!

Leave a comment on this post to enter…

…You can include ideas for ways to expand this design if you’d like…

… And we’ll have a drawing on March 31st to determine the winner!

We survived… and more is coming!

Hello folks! We survived the Blizzard of 2010… and more snow is headed our way this week! Goodness! I mean, this is Slower Lower Delaware, and we’re just plain not prepared for this much white stuff! I’m not complaining, because I really don’t mind being shut in… I can putter around to my heart’s content. However, I can say that I’m completely satisfied with snowfall this Winter.

We ended up not losing power, though it did blink a bit and threaten to go off. Lots of folks around us are without power, though, including Hubby’s parents… theirs just came back on as I was typing this post! We were fortunate to have only lost a piece of fascia (had to ask Hubby how to spell that!) from under the roof edge… and that made an awful sound in the middle of the night! And there’s a huge “avalanche waiting to happen” hanging over our front porch, bending down the guttering. But considering the could-have-beens, we made out well. And it turns out we didn’t have to cook anything on the woodstove. but we did anyway. Tonight is Kate’s famous Split Pea Soup. Yum.

Here’s what it looked like out the front door, mid-blizzard…

We had our own little snowy swimming pool in the front garden!

Before I sign out, I just wanted to post about a Give-away on a talented papercutting friend’s blog… Pop over to Sharyn Sowell’s blog and say hello for me!

And stay warm!

And the winner is…

When we returned home from our annual New Year’s Eve get-together last night, Hubby and I checked the blog, and jotted down everyone’s name on pink memo sheets…

And folded them up…

And shuffled them around… a lot…

And Hubby got the honor of picking one out of the pile…

And the winner is…

Happy New Year, Joanne, and to all our other dear friends!

An “At Home Craft Fair”… and a FREEBIE!!!!

Hello folks! We’ve finished up the last of our Fall and Christmas shows, and have finally gotten the entire stock of papercuttings up on the website! There are several pages (5 total!) of papercuttings, from large to small, so if you’re in need of a last minute hand-made gift let us know! We figured this is sort of like a craft fair you don’t need to leave home for, so until Christmas we’re offering…

FREE SHIPPING FOR ORDERS $50 & OVER!

And, we have a special “Scratch & Dent” Bloggy Give-Away!  This sweet papercutting met with a framing accident… somehow our utility knife flew into the air, and landed “point down” on the edge of the mat that this was mounted on. It was really quite impressive. So, Hubby trimmed it a bit and made a frame that hides the little “ding” under the left edge. Or at least it almost hides it… you can see it if you turn the frame sideways and peek under the edge. So, we have another pretty piece to give away on the blog! If you’d like to be included in the drawing, just leave a comment on this post and make sure I have your e-mail! We’ll choose a winner on New Year’s Eve, to be announced on January 1st !

Harmony
10″ x 10″ Framed Size

We’re finishing up the last of our 2009 orders this week, and will be taking a much needed break until early in 2010! I might even get a chance to blog a bit more and visit with our internet friends… I’ve missed you all!

How eXciting!

I finally had a chance to pick a winner for the free papercutting! First I jotted everyone’s name on little slips of paper…

And then I folded them up…

And put them in a mug…

And had Kate pick one out…

Congratulations DiXymiss!!! I’ll get it on its way to you!

(Did I give it away in the title of the post?)

😛

A bloggy give-away…

Hello everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that our daughter Jordan is doing a bloggy give-away of one of her photographic prints! If you get a chance, go visit her website and check it out…

Our Blessed Road

(Moms are officially allowed to blantantly promote their kids.)

And the winner is…

Well, there’s still a little bit of Sunday left! Kate and I had a not-Superbowl party with our long time buddies! This is an annual event… the guys have a (very sedate) Superbowl party, and we gals go do girly sorts of things.

We just did the drawing… by putting all the names in a basket and picking one out. It’s a good thing we decided to do it that way, because all of your entries were SOOO sweet I would have had a very difficult time choosing! The lucky lady that won is…

Cindi Hoppes!

I just have an e-mail for Cindi, so I’ll send off a note to her as soon as I publish this post! Thanks to everyone for entering!

🙂

And I’m back again… Very big OOOPS!

Hello All!

I was doing some framing today, and while putting the sawtooth hanger on the Bloggy Giveaway picture, the silly thing slipped a bit and messed up the frame. Not a big mess-up, but I’m funny about my frames.

😛

So, the revised version is here… I didn’t have another frame exactly like the first. Terribly sorry for the mess-up!