Spreading the Word

Hey everyone, head on over to my friend Willa's blog, The Old Cupboard Door, and see what she is giving away.  Willa is a very talented painter and comes up with the cutest stuff ever!  If you follow her blog and make a comment on her give away, then you are entered to WIN this wonderful  spoon.

Who wouldn't want to win this?  I've already left a comment, so I hope I win!

I've been so busy making things that I haven't had time to take any pictures.  I will get that done by Friday, so talk to you then.

I'm Back

Told you I would be back today.  I am in a much better mood after venting about the crazy customer.
So I had seen some pictures of fake caramel apples and I thought these would be great in my kitchen for Fall.  I asked the gals over at PrimMart if they knew of a tutorial on how to  make these.  Well true to form, those women gave me several sources to pick from.  I liked this one best because it seemed simple and looked so real! Who could guess they are Modge Podge and Hampster Bedding!

Check out the neat tutorial at Dragonfly Treasures.

After I got them finished I thought I would make a few and sell at the fall craft shows.

Who wouldn't like one of these?

I have a ton of things almost finished and I will be busy all weekend so talk to you Tuesday.

Mad, Mad, Mad!

I should have posted on Tuesday but I was so mad I just couldn't see straight!  Sorry if I am ranting,
but just needed to get this off my chest.

I have known for a long time that when you deal with the public you get all kinds of reactions to the work you do.  I think that I am pretty tough and don't take the comments to heart or let it get under my skin, but this women has stepped over the line with me and I am astonished by the gall of some people.

As some of you know I am the owner of the website Kraft Outlet. We sell paper, envelopes, labels and grungy hang tags to many customers all over the world.  I had gotten a phone call about 2 months ago telling me she had purchased some grungy tags from Kraft Outlet back in mid 2009.  (Now that is before I became the owner of Kraft Out).  She told me the tags hole protector had come loose on all the tags and want to be assured that this would not happen with this batch of tags.  I assured her it wouldn't and she place a nice order for the tags.  I hand make each tag and am always surprised at how different each batch comes out.  As we all know handmade items have variations and differences.  I shipped her order and never heard any complaints, or praise, back from the customer.

Last month the same customer places a sizable order for more tags and I make and ship the tags to her.  Monday, almost a full month from the time she received the tags, I get a nasty phone call from the woman.  She says she is calling to tell me that these are not the same tags.  I questioned her, did I make the wrong size or what?  No, they were the right size, but they didn't look like the first batch of tags I had sent her.  I told her that hand made items never look exactly the same and that I had made this group of tags exactly as the other ones, but that I had no control over how the paper takes the stain.  She kept telling me she was a small business owner and that the only reason she was calling me was to "help" me improve my product, and telling me she wanted to place a very large order with me for more tags.  She kept asking me what I could do to make the tags look like the first batch.  After 15 minutes on the phone with her, I thanked her for her "help" and explained again that I could never guarantee the outcome of the tags because they were HAND MADE.  She said "So what you are telling me is that you have no control over the paper?"  Right lady, that is what I am saying.  Now just to mention I never got mad or raised my voice, I just kept repeating the same information over to her.  She says OK and tells me if I cannot make sure they look like the first batch she will not be placing the order with me and hangs up.

Five minutes goes by, phone rings and I see on caller ID it is the same women.  I am a little steamed now, so I let the answering machine take the call.  When I listen to the message I am really mad.  She is now raising her voice and tells me that she thinks I didn't do anything to the tags but take them from one box and re-package them with my label and they are terrible and they look like I PEE on them!  OK that ripped it, she had crossed over the line, and I didn't care if she had a million tags on that order, I would not be doing business with her!  Now the good part, she left her phone number and said I should think about it and call her back to talk about the large order!  What is she thinking? 

Well, I have gotten over the Pee comment and now I can write about it without getting mad again.  So here is a picture of the tags from another batch

from what I understand the tags she received didn't have enough stains on them.

What a whack job!

I will post again later today with happier thoughts.

Boy is it a hot one!

This last week have been stuck in a heat wave.  The temps have been around 97 degrees during the day with the humidity around 90%.  The nights are not much of a relief, same humidity but the temps have been in the mid 70's.  That doesn't do much for getting me excited about going outside and working on stuff that can only be finished in the garage. 

Most of my OOAK things start with just things I find in the garbage, at garage sales or Goodwill.  I love to find these hidden treasures and turn them into something enjoyable.  I like to look at the "Trash" and see what it says to me.  I know it will be a seasonal item, but sometimes I just don't know which one.  These two old windows were things I found in Tulsa at River City Trading Company.  I love how they turned out.

This Jolly Old Soul started out with a broken window.  The frame was about $4, but all the glass was broken in it.  We turned it sideways and added an old antique doorknob and escution plate.  Santa is happy to greet you and he is even wearing my old leather belt!  The feather tree is decorated with vintage glass ornaments and a rusty star.  We topped this piece off with his name, an old skeleton key and a grungy prim tag that says "Santa's Magic Key".

This window started as a mistake.  We cut too many of the tall snowman on the left and he was in the scrap pile.  I never throw wood away, so I knew he needed to be on this window.  I filled in with another snow guy and of course Santa. This one has glass and that makes this project even more of a challenge, you have to cut the pattern backwards and cut things to go around the trim.  This window is hung from chain and has a festive plaid bow.

This wooden piece is something I found in Goodwill. I really don't know what it is or what it was used for, but I envision it holding bills and keys and being hung by the telephone in some Early American decorating theme in the 1960's.  When I was a kid there were only three kinds of interior decoration, Early American, Danish Modern and Crap. My mother was Danish Modern and my mother-in-law was Early American.  Back in the day I can just envision this hanging in her kitchen next to her Harvest Gold wall mounted telephone.  But now it has that Retro vibe; I painted it black and Mr. MySpareTime distressed it and gave it his wonderful hand rubbed finish.  I then painted Season's Greetings on the bottom and filled it with holiday greens, red ribbon, a reproduction vintage postcard and antique Christmas Tree ornaments.  I wouldn't have been caught dead with the one from my mother-in-laws house, but this one would be great by the back door to welcome me home with an old fashioned holiday feeling.

Well it has started to rain and that will make it like a sauna here.  So I better get dinner started, I have already had a glass of wine, or two, and dinner shouldn't be far behind.

Talk to you Tuesday!

I've Been Working Hard

I went for Federal Jury Duty on Monday and was released late that afternoon, but I am still on call all week and even next Monday.  That sure puts a cramp in my style, I'm a gal who likes to plan things out.  My sister and Mr. MySpareTime are always kidding me that I plan Christmas dinner on December 26th!  Nothing like having a plan.  So with things up in the air, as to whether I will even be in the office from one day to the next, I really made this weekend count!

These are just some of the items I got finished.

A few Santa Things.

A few Snowman Things.

And even a few Halloween Things!

(I really like this Witches Boot, think it might need to stay with me)

Mr. MySpareTime was busy as a one armed paper hanger and got a lot of things ready for me to finish.

We worked on the vintage window frames and they are almost complete.  I really thought they were finished but kept looking at two of them and decided to tweak them a little more.  He also assembled all the vintage wood turning angels for me.  Some have antique metal ceiling tile wings and others have wooden craved wings.  As you can see all they need is their heads and the rusty metal crosses.

So if I don't have to go for Jury Duty, I know what I will be doing tomorrow!

Thanks for following along on my crafting adventures.  It is nice to read the comments, it makes me feel like I am not talking to myself. 

See you Friday!

A Productive Friday

Well today has been a productive day for me.  I got up at 5am and instead of painting I went to work getting orders out for Kraft Outlet and KraftyGirl on Etsy, printed 3 large orders and got all this finished and in the mail by 11am today.  I felt so happy about getting caught up and then the "ding" of the email.  Another order and this one had paid for a RUSH, so off I went to get it ready too.  I finally got finished with orders and headed outside.

I had gotten a lot of little things painted this week in the wee hours of morning and finishing those things were first on the "to-do" list.  I had posted an earlier picture of this spoon and said how much I thought it looked like Santa, well I love the way it turned out.  One of the perks to being creative is once in a while getting to keep the things you make.  This guy has my name on it, and I already have the perfect place for him!

The other thing on the "to-do" list was finish the great wooden toy box we found at a garage sale.  Here it is finished and it is so cute.  Mr. MySpareTime does a great job on the prep work and then finishes it with a hand rubbed shine with paste wax.  I know this won't last long at the craft shows.

We also worked on some vintage window frames and all the pieces to the angels are finished and ready to put together, then I will do the paper mache` heads and they will be completed.  It feels like I got a lot done today and then again there is so much more to do!

Thanks for looking and I will talk to you on Tuesday, that is if I am not called for Federal Jury Duty.

Check this out!

Over on my site Kraft Outlet I have added a new Idea Gallery.  Here is a peak of a great idea for our Kraft Journals.  This was done by my talented friend, Ms.S (she chose to keep her identity secret).

I have customers all the time ask me for ideas about what to do with items they see on that website, so to answer those questions and because inquiring minds want to know, I have added this gallery to my blog,
The Kraft Journal.

Just thought I would rant a little today.  It is dreary and raining here and that is pretty much the way I feel.  I bought something on EBay the other day and boy was it a surprise when it arrived.  I have never seen such a mess when I opened the box.  (Sorry I didn't think to take a few pictures)  The items I purchased were these cute recycled tin can candles with vintage Santa pictures on them and when I went to the EBay store that was selling them I noticed they had vintage signs and I was intrigued by the fact that they came scented.  I wanted to learn more!  It said that if you purchased candles the shipping on the sign was FREE!! Well I am a sucker for FREE shipping and decided to bite. I picked out three cute candles and a darling Vintage Halloween sign that had crows on it. (I love crows).  It said that I could pick different scents for each candle and even one for the sign.  I paid and waited with anticipation. 

The box came and I tore into that puppy with zeal! You know you are in for something bad when the product was packed in trash, that's right trash!  Not recycled paper, newspaper or anything else acceptable I can think of, it was old USED Christmas gift wrap, with the stick on labels on it.  Old sacks from Wal-Mart that were torn and wadded up, bits and pieces of TRASH!  That should have been my first clue.  Oh wait, it gets better.  There was a note from the lady under the trash and it said "If you are unhappy with your purchase please contact me and I will make it good."  That should have been hint number two.  The candles were cute and she had a great idea, but I have never smelled anything so bad in my life.  I don't know how you screw up Cinnamon, but this one did.  I have never seen a Christmas candle tinted brown and to top the whole mess off, the sign was made with plywood and the scent was leftover soy wax rubbed into the cracks on the sides of the sign. 

Now I should have know better to order Soy candles in June to be delivered to South Texas, but I wasn't thinking and did.  When I opened that sign I held it up for Mr. MySpareTime to see and got semi-melted wax all over my shirt and hands.  I was not too happy, to say the least.  I will not mention names or post pictures, but I boy did I learn a lesson. Caveat Emptor!

Coming Right Along

This getting up at 5am everyday and painting for 3 hours has sure paid off.  I seem to get quite a bit done in the early morning hours without all the everyday distractions.  My "studio" has a great view of the back yard, but who would know, because at 5am it is pitch black out there.  It is kind of soothing to see the sky turn from black to grey and then to blue, or today's overcast hazy sky.  When my husband is in town he brings up coffee refills and checks to make sure I didn't curl up on the sofa and snooze back off.

Here is where I was working just few short hours ago.

As you can see I was working on 6 different canvases all at the same time.  That drives Mr. MySpareTime crazy, but I think it makes a lot of sense.  You don't get as much finished at first, but boy when you get through you have so many things done!  The missing 6th canvas was drying on a back table.  These are great sellers at craft shows and I stock up on double packs of canvases when Hobby Lobby runs a sale! I just love saving money!

On our last trip to Canton, Texas we picked up an assortment of blank wooden crosses and rusty metal crosses.  These are how they came out.  I always sell out of these and make more each year.

Well I have another full weekend of things to complete and many are almost finished, so I should have some great pictures on Tuesday.

Talk to you then.

Diamonds in the Rough

As promised, here are a few of the things I found at River City Trading Company in Jenks, OK.  Mr. MySpareTime was in his full hunting mode and found both of these great children's chairs.  He also found this great vintage window frame.

I found a wonderful old newel post and we cut it in half  to make two primitive angels.  They will have vintage tin ceiling tile or wood turning wings. We picked up some rusty metal crosses in Canton, Texas and they will be added along with paper mache' heads. 

As you can see, Mr. MySpareTime has already started getting them ready.  He has been busy sanding, painting, sanding  again and waxing all my finds so I can paint on them.    I promise to post  pictures of the finished angels in a few weeks. 

I got a look at the craft show counter and almost had a stroke!  My son, Trey is getting ready to start summer school and will have to get up for school about 5am, so I thought this would  be a great time to get some peace and quiet and work on my painting.  So today was the first day of my 5am wake up call and I feel like I got a lot finished.  I will post on Friday and let you see what I  have completed.

Talk to you on Friday.