Thursday 28 June 2012

A Sad Day

Today was supposed to be a celebration for my son and his class as they graduated from grade 9 (no more Junior High! wooHOO!!) but it turned out to be a very sad day. We received a call this morning that one of his classmates committed suicide last night. The two of them were friends and hung out as teenage boys do so the news hit hard.

Instead of a joyous day, it's been a sober day. The remaining classmates gathered at school today to seek out each other, knowing very little except that no one wanted to be alone. They told stories of good times and wished they could have done something to prevent this. They've vowed to always remember him and to support each other. They're good kids, most with God's love in their hearts. One of their teachers read a passage from Isaiah about young men not growing weary but being given the strength of the Lord and prayed with them. Many parents were there too - all not quite knowing what to do or how to ease this situation for their children.

I've become a hover-Mom over my own son as I can't imagine the pain of another Mom today. I know she'll treasure the photos and other memories she has of her son, and they will comfort her after she sees him laid to rest in a few days. And I think - isn't this why we do what we do as crafters? We create scrapbook pages that are more than photos; they are pages that tell our stories and commemorate our lives. We create handmade cards that say "I care" much louder than anything store-bought could. We create gifts from our hearts, inspired by the hearts of those for whom we create. And we love doing this so much partly because of how much we love the people for whom we do it.

I hope you'll excuse me as I go hover.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Getting things organized

Day two of blogging... this has gone better than some diets I've tried so that's GOOD news.

The bad news is that I took a look at my crafting space and decided it needed an uber-overhaul. So, since I've come home from work, I've been schleping out boxes, and totes, and bags, and containers - you get the idea. It's a big pile. No, it's REALLY big, like take-over-the-entire-dining-room big. Who needs somewhere to eat anyway?

But there's MORE good news. I'm rediscovering things I had purchased for past projects and my creative juices are flowing. There's the dollar-store wooden bird house and the papers, metal foils, wires and FlowerSoft that was going to transform it into a work of art. There's the shadowboxes that I cut from Lori Whitlock's design that just needs a final touch, and the laces and other goodies that were going to make it per-FECT-a-mundo. Then there's the baby card pieces I had cut out on my Silhoutte Cameo, all neatly in a pile, waiting to be inked and assembled. Bad news - I need more nifty organizing bags that I get at Scrap & Bean, the ones that hold 12x12 paper perfectly and have a zip closure at the top.

My challenge now is to stay the course organization-wise and create a space that lets those creative juices flow before I succumb to the temptation of these projects calling out to me. I bet even you can hear them - "Barbara... come play with us... we're waiting for you..."

My cuppa tea is down to the leaves so it's time to get moving again - towards organization!

Toodles for now!  

Monday 25 June 2012

Starting a blog is a leap for me.

It is a leap of of commitment to both myself and the three people that might read or even follow this blog. This is a leap of opening myself and my 'craftiness' to feedback from strangers and friends alike. Eek - what might they say! Mostly, this is a leap into the unknown because I'm not sure what I want to post here yet, other than some of the projects I've recently completed, ergo, "Snippets 'n' Pitts".

My name is Barbara Pitts - that's the "Pitts" part. I've been a crafter for a while but only really started paper-crafting during this past year. I never knew you could amass such piles of paper pieces - that's the "Snippets" part. Although my most common projects are cards, I've done scrapbooking, altered art, and a bunch of 3-D projects. I would generalize my style as clean and linear with bright colours (think your first box of Crayolas), but then I surprise myself by dipping into vintage, steampunk, grunge or something completely unexpected for inspiration. I love inks, die-cutting of all sorts, my Silhoutte Cameo, texture, and recycling. I'm not friends with my scissors and have no desire to spend more time than absolutely needed colouring an image. I'm also Canadian so you'll find my spelling may a bit off if you're American, or spot-on if you're British. And yes, because I'm Canadian, I can also say "Vive la difference!"

So now that I've dipped my toe into blogging waters, I'm going to have a cup of tea and consider my next move into this pond (if it is a pond, but that's a question for another day). Don't want to start too big, do we?