Hey everyone!  Yep! That’s me at the Tim Hotz class a couple of Sundays ago.

This Labor Day week-end we went to Canton .  For those of you who are not familiar with Canton, every first Monday of the month there is a huge trade day in a little city called Canton, Texas.  There are acres of new stuff, old stuff, things you grew up with and things you never knew existed.  This is a great place to people watch and it is also a great place for food.  It is the greatest girl friend trip you can do together.

When we (usually my 2 daughters and my best friend)  go there is always a game to see who will make the first purchase.  Once that first purchase is made, it is easier for everyone to get in the mood to spend.  This family of girls loves to shop.  Also, Canton has several vendors that carry my favorite flip-flops …Yellow Box Shoes.

I’ll try to get some pictures up of the great finds and there are some real cute $1 finds at M’s, they had a 50% off coupon for Labor Day and then when you bought something you get another 50% off coupon for next week.  Well, I’m buying some Christmas items now before they put them on sale for 30% off and coupons can’t  be used on them.

So stay tuned……..

Hi Everyone!  I spent the day with some great new friends (3 of them from Arkansas) and 1 from Sachse along with Tim Holtz.  Be sure and click on the picture so you can see these beautiful woman up close.

It was a perfect fit.  I’m always amazed how 5 total strangers can meet at a given time and instantly like each other and feel like long friends.  Thanks for making my day so enjoyable.  All of you are so talented.

How cool is this!  Tim is so much fun and when I asked if he was tired of signing his name, he remarked I’m always humbled every time someone ask for it.

This is Tim’s curio cabinet he made and this is what we spent the day replicating (with our own twist).

The time past quickly and I didn’t get mine finished, but when I do get it completely done we’ll re-post.

Thanks for stopping buy and leave me a comment.  I would love to hear from you.

Today, I’m at a workshop with none other than Tim Holtz.  I’ll try to get a few pictures but I am so excited about spending all day learning some new techniques.

So stay tune, things are gearing up here at Talent is Optional. com.  See, I told you I was busy!

Hi everyone!  I know it has been a while since I did a post but man have I been busy.

Our church is having it’s first church wide banquet and we have been busy designing some thank you bags to give away at the banquet.

This is the table marker that will be on each table.  This is just a glimpse of what we did and I hope to have some additional pictures of the final product.

I want to give  a shout out to Leo over at SVGCuts.com.  Late one night this week (I mean around 10:30PM) I was having difficulty trying to get an image in Trace Bit in SCAL.  I couldn’t even get it to work right in Inkscape.  By chance I contacted SVGCuts.com via e-mail and Leo responded right back.  He gave me a different version of SCAL to see it would hold up better to what I was trying to do.  Then I finally told him I thought I was doing something wrong and explained to him what I was trying to do.  He e-mailed me back the next day and solved my issue.  Wow!  I was so impressed that he took the time and stayed with me until we figured it out.

During the process of designing and getting the Thank You bags built I learned a couple of tips that might make your life a little easier.  I’ll be sharing them over the next few post as I share some pictures and tutorials on how to make the Thank You bags.

All I can say, is my Cricut Expression and Design Studio save me a lot of time and cut like a work horse through 55 bags and all the embellishments.  Sweeeeeeet!

Alright so I really didn’t need another tape dispenser! However, I received an e-mail from Flowers to Flourishes and they had a great price, so I bit the bullet and order it.

This is the new pink ATG that is smaller than the big 714 or 700. This one has been made with the crafters in mind. When you purchase this particular ATG they donate money to the Susan Komen Cancer Research (nice).

It also comes with two rolls of the gold 1/4″ wide tape that is acid free/photo safe. A roll has 36 yards of tape and depending on how you buy it, it can be as low a $1.25 a roll (you have to buy 12 rolls) or around $10.00 if you can find it at your local craft store. The Pro Glider’s tape is only 13.3 yards and runs $8.99 a roll. Now I didn’t figure in the 40% coupons that you can use on these from HL, M’s or JA’s. But it doesn’t take a rocket science to see that this will pay for itself in a short period of time just on the savings on the price of the tape.

Now, this is not particularly pretty, and what you are looking at is the backside of the instructions on how to load the machine that is kept inside.

I took out the card and used some of my favorite pattern paper and dressed up the chipboard instructions.

Now that is more like it. I was reading on a message board where you could spray paint them but I like the Hot Pink with the Black/White Hounds-tooth. Besides with keeping it hot pink it reminds me to pray for those ladies that are battling Breast Cancer each time I pick it up and use it.

Hmmm, this will not replace all of your tape runners because the size will not enable you to get into places but this will take care of most of them.   I think I am going to be one happy girl!

I didn’t get the video done on the flower….duh! I was working on my Christmas cards for this year. Yeah, I know but I’m going to submit it to a magazine and see if I get published.

I thought I would give you a little teaser on the next flower video that I’m in the process of making.

Again, this is using the TH Alterations Tattered Floral die cut.  This is a combination of distressed inks and Copic Markers along with some pattern card stock.

So stay tuned, I’ll try to get this video up this weekend.

I could not help myself!  I visited a website called Waltzing Mouse Stamps and absolutely fell in loved her Claire’s work.

This stamp set is called Vintage Circles Small.

You can find her here.   This is her blog but from there you can venture on over to her store.

All of the  stamp sets I’m showing  are designed to use with Spellbinders Nestibilities.  Now for the added bonus…..Claire and her team then shows you how they use them with the Nestibilities.

This is called Vintage Labels 2.

There are so many stamps on each sheet and they add so much to the Nestibilites.

This one is called Vintage Labels 1

Claire’s attention to detail is awesome and that is the reason it was so hard to only choose a few.  Alright, a lot!

This is called Vintage Label 3.

Take a close look at the border.  This border stamp is 8″ long!

The circle stamp is so beautiful.

This one is called Victorian Frippery.

This group of stamps have little tag toppers….so versatile.

This one is called Vintage Label 4.  Hey I think I’m beginning to see a pattern!

This is the last one I got.

I love the designs absolutely blows me away.

This is Vintage Labels 5.

I know you are thinking what spurred this massive buy of clear stamps?  A couple of things, I’ve been gradually building my Nestibilites as HL has their 40% off sales and then I got an e-mail from Claire about a new release and that she was offering free shipping.  Well, once in her shop and seeing all the beautiful things I couldn’t help but want the stamps that matched the Nestibilities that I own.  Now, all I have to to is get busy and start making some things.  Claire makes it look so easy, we will see.  I’ve got my eye on her stamps that makes a plaid pattern next.

Again, I do not get compensated for mentioning these products or her website, I just like what I saw and it only took about 8 days for it to get from across the pond to excited me, right here in Texas.

One of my great pleasures is to sit out on our deck and listen to the birds, drink a refreshing beverage and read.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do that because my new umbrella I purchased this Summer got destroyed in a storm.

I decided to go ahead and buy another one and I so enjoyed my time out there over the weekend.

I need an umbrella to help my Basil and mint from getting scorched by the Texas sun.  I getting ready to start making Basil Pesto.

The fern always seems to do so well on the deck.  We are getting an estimate to have it redone.  It is 15 years old and showing her wear.

Oh well, back to work!  Thanks for stopping by!