One of my favorite new blogs to read is Crafts 'n Coffee featuring all kinds of great crafting with STYROFOAM brand foam. Even though I have designed with the foam for ten years I am constantly amazed by the variety of beautiful projects, especially the home decor ones.

Yesterday's post features a variety of ten autumn projects to create. One of my designs a whimsical teddy in a pumpkin suit is featured. I love the stacked Halloween blocks and the numerous ways to create a pumpkin. With Thanksgiving in early October here in Canada I will be decking out the place with fall decor in another week!

September is just around the corner! Summer is ending, school beginning and clubs, classes start up again. September is also National Sewing Month, a personal favorite!

I am excited about this fall, our Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop has some great creative challenges coming up the first Monday of every month, September's is party time designs. A new blog hop starts in a month with the new Sizzix Vintage Fresh dies designed by talented designer friend Eileen Hull.

I am working on several new projects. Here at home new classes and workshops for the fall, full schedule will be posted by Wednesday. This month I am featured as a designer for Fairfield World with a whimsical holiday stocking to make. The stocking is created from their so soft Bamboo Batting and a recycled sweater. The birds are needle felted with wool from National Nonwoven. 

So here is to a very crafty creative fall full of inspiration! What will you be crafting or sewing? Debra, CEO!

Well it is Fowl Friday with Fran & Freda! Been an exciting week around here with an earhtquake shaking things up a little! Freda is now running around with a Bible under one wing and an Emergency Kit under the other. 

Debra has to keep shooing her out of the tub when she wants a shower. All the cans and foodstuffs are in there too. Soggy chicken feed is NOT tasty! Now with a hurricane on the way Freda has plans to move into the rubber boots in the closet. She is possibly over reacting a little. We are very lucky living where most of these major weather occurrences are tired out by the time they travel all the way up the coast. 

I just have to get Freda to stop watching the weather channel and get out of the tub! I cannot spend another day eating soggy feed!

Seriously though we are very lucky and we wish all of our peeps are safe and sound through the storm coming! Follow the Fowl, Fran & Freda!

Wandering the aisles of the local dollar store is a source of inspiration and also my bribe for walking some days! I was strolling through the kitchen aisle and saw a package of six brightly colored scrubbies. The way they hung in the package immediately reminded me of a caterpillar, (which probably also says something about my kitchen skills!)

I purchased a package along with a few other interesting items. Fun with those later! With a chenille stem, glue, a couple pompoms and eyes my crawly cutie was created! A very fun and easy kid craft. If strung together with yarn or string the scrubbies could be used making it a great gift.

One of my favorite booths to visit at every trade show is Clover's to see what new tools and products they have. At the summer CHA show the most delightful young woman was demoing Clover's new Kanzashi flower templates. Diane Gilleland or Sister Diane as she is known online is the author of a beautiful book Kanzashi in Bloom and the popular online blog CraftyPod, "a blog and podcast about making stuff".

Clover developed the templates to create the flowers from Diane's book. The templates are easy to use. The folded petal flowers are an ideal embellishment and a great way to use up very small scraps. In her book Diane has twenty lovely projects from wearables to home decor. A stunning black and white check scarf is punctuated with vibrant red flowers.

I took some scraps of fabric with me and the templates on vacation, it makes for a very portable craft! While visiting my good friend Marie Browning in her studio and who was also preparing for her daughter's wedding kitchen shower I sewed up several flowers. A plain oven mitt became a designer original gift package with the addition of a Kanzashi flower and buttons in the wedding color scheme of bright orange and pink!

Thank you Diane and Clover for your inspiration! Create JOY always! Debra, CEO!

I have spent a few days surrounded by the enormous silence of tall forests, the Rocky mountains skirted with the azure ocean lit by the sun. Such beauty, it fills the spirit with a reverence for what this natural life offers. We spent the weekend on an island enjoying fabulous fresh foods from the sea and garden while overlooking the ocean. Good company, lively conversation and laughter, was wonderful!

After the island we headed up to Whistler, home of the winter Olympics and of course shopping in the village for the girls!

On vacation with my girls, such a treat! We are in and about Vancouver visiting family. Been a long long time since the three of us have flown west together. One of my favorite spots is the beautiful walk along the sea wall to Granville Island where there is a wonderful market and many interesting artist shops and studios.

Hey peeps, it is Fowl Friday with Fran & Freda! Well we are not pleased! Debra has gone to the birds and her fowl of choice is the Owl! Yikes! When Kate was visiting she made a fondant owl for a cake, Debra liked "Walter" so much she made him in felt so now we have our own "Walter"!

And of course there is nothing more two fowl would like than another owl in the house! We at least have Oliver broken in but now there is Walter! Those eyes are huge and he seems to stare at you no matter where you are in the room! Scary stuff! Freda is off her food and that doesn't happen very often! Sooo if you do not hear from us next week you will know what our fate has been! Follow the Fowl!

More from the CHA show! The Scrapbook Saloon was a fun place to walk by each day during the show. It was so authentic I imagined a cowboy would come strolling out, tip his hat and say "Howdy Mam!"

Tim Holtz fans crowded around his demos. The display of his products and designs was dramatic displayed on shelves in a way that conveyed a sense of history, nostalgia and treasured items of years past. The vintage feel is solid, not pretty but attractive, rich and dark rather less grunge. The shelves were tall so the whole display enveloped you in a room atmosphere. It was very effective. Ties to the past created anew.

Try #2 today, sometimes a post is just about finished then poof! it disappears. That is what happened today. My memory is not as good as it used to be so the post is slightly modified from the original! At CHA (Craft & Hobby Trade Show) there was inspiration everywhere with very creative booth displays and products. One of my favorite booths was Graphic 45. Their giant clock could be seen everywhere on the show floor.

The booth was based on a Wizard of Oz theme and in a glass case were the beautiful glittery ruby red slippers. The paper art projects everywhere were just gorgeous from miniature houses to home decor lamps, frames, boxes. Just amazing! Follow the Joy of Creativity always! Debra

Finally a Fowl Friday! We thought we had been totally forgotten, it has been a busy month around here and Debra was away. However that does not excuse her neglecting us! Freda has been in a slump literally, she has spent so much time in the nest that it has slumped totally out of shape. (Freda has too but don't let her know I said anything.)

We are slightly concerned as Debra seems to be very interested in canines which are almost as bad as felines in our estimation. She is making this kind of odd looking dog which looks like it has pompoms growing all over and then some parts are almost bald. We almost feel sorry for the poor creature.

We are also assuming it is female as it is now sewn onto a very pink apron, an adaptation of a "poodle skirt" Debra informed us. Anyway we are now resigned to there always being a parade of creatures passing through and feel lucky that no day of the week starts with P! Follow the Fowl, Fran & forlorn Freda!

While at summer CHA (Craft & Hobby Conference & Tradeshow) I met the an amazing textile artist Lynne Bruning, she calls herself a "textile enchantress" and indeed she is! The garments she creates are pure magic and fantasy, a mix of intricate patterns, rich materials and glorious vibrant colors!

Lynne is passionate about creativity, art and education, exploring the fusion of art mediums and technology. She travels educating and can be found at the Maker Faire. I feel extremely grateful to have been invited to sit down at a table by a young woman wearing very cool cowboy boots. The conversation was interesting and inspiring.

Her entry in the Crafty Couture Designer Challenge was one of six chosen to be featured in the winter issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. "Spellbound" was a striking gown lit with LED's through conductive thread sewn into the sumptuous midnight blue gown. Here is just a peak at the gown. Thank you Lynne for sharing your amazing creative vision! Follow the JOY of Creativity always! Debra

It is the first of the month and that means it is time for the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop! Of course there are wonderful projects from forty plus talented designers and a great give away with details found on Julie McGuffee's blog.

This month's challenge was to post a project related to our favorite craft technique. Mine is not a big surprise by now, I love to needle felt! I just taught a group of kids this week to needle felt and they loved it. It is very easy to do and using STYROFOAM brand foam as a base makes all kinds of characters possible.

The sharp barbed needle repeatedly punched into the raw wool felts it into the foam shapes. On my How to page there are step by steps and a video in the home page which shows you how easy it is! I use Wool Wisps from National Nonwovens. This little bunny below is made from a ball and egg. Since it is a hop, a bunny seemed appropriate! Just hop along on the button to the right! Follow the JOY of Creativity! Debra!