Designer Showcase: We are Thankful

With the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching here in the US, we thought it would be great to share with you what we are thankful for.  But there is a twist.  It's what we are thankful for that is crafty related.  This is a jam packed post, with lots of inspiration, tools to add to your wish list, and some great layout ideas too!

Vicky shares that she is most thankful for a supportive husband that gives her plenty of "me time" to play at her craft.  She adds, "I'm still working on the unlimited budget though, LOL." Vicky also is very thankful for the inspiration that she gets from her family, "my layouts would mean nothing without my main inspiration - my family (especially the 3 little short ones - at least shorter than me for now."  Awwww, that's really sweet!

She is also thankful for her Distrezz-it-All by Zutter, this is one tool that she can't live without.  Looks like a pretty cool tool. Check it out, they are having a sale right now, your choice either 20% off or free shipping, good through December 1, 2011.

Heather is thankful for her Cricut.  She has even given it a name "Bessie". Here is what she had to say "I am thankful for my Cricut because it makes things so much easier. I remember the "old days" of cutting out paper piecing patterns by hand. I used to spend so much time making layered embellishments and now it goes much quicker. My kids also adore it for creating school projects. Plus, it's green and absolutely fabulous!"

I love the title of her page "The best bug" very cute!  Have you checked out the Cricut web site? I don't own a Cricut so I've never visited the site. But, wow, there is a lot of inspiration there!

There are so many crafty things that I am thankful for. I thought I would share just a few.  I love my Nikon camera. I don't like to be anywhere without. You just never know when you will be creating a memory and want to capture it.  To use the photos that I take for crafting and scrapbooking, I use Adobe Photoshop on my computer. A great deal of my crafting is either hybrid or mixed media, so I absolutely adore my Cutter Bee Scissors.  I recently got a Silhouette electronic cutter (before the Cameo came out) and I'm finding that I am using it more and more. Love that it can cut anything that I design!

This page by Cindy is too sweet. She loves her Micro Tip Scissors by Fiskars.  I just adore how she did this page as a letter to the manufacturer.  She has this to say "They are the most comfortable scissors I've ever held.  Even with hours of cutting, my hand doesn't get sore. As a leftie, most scissors are very awkward for  me. Not these!"   What a great idea for a page.  

Marlene is thankful for her craft space.  Like so many of us, Marlene started out having to find space in her house to do her crafting. She finally landed a permanent location in the basement.  Now look at the space she has. WOW!!!  Here are Marlene's words of thanks "I am mostly thankful for my scraproom.  It is wonderful to have a space that has been organized to my needs.  Often, I do not have time to finish everything I start,  and having my own space makes it so I can walk away and leave everything out.   Over the years I was nudged out of a few different places in my house and finally settled for the bottom of the basement stairs.  I have a love hate relationship with the location - sometimes I hate the isolation of being downstairs away from everything, then other times I love being downstairs and away from everything.  All the time I am thankful to have it."

I'm taking in all that crafty goodness that surrounds Marlene while she works. What a great space for gathering inspiration and letting her inner artist explore!

Dolores shared that she is really thankful for paper punches. "I love paper punches.  Therefore, that is what I would pick as a crafty thing I am thankful for.  I have so many of them and I love that I can use them for so many things (cards, gift boxes, scrapbook pages, the cover of a journal, tags, invitations, etc.).  I am attaching a photo of a couple of my favorite Martha Stewart punches (these are ones I use over and over), they are always close at hand."  I'm so glad that Dolores has this addiction - er, um, love of paper punches. I personally think she does the best work I've ever seen with punches, simply gorgeous!  Guess what, EK Success Brands is having a sale on Martha Stewart punches!  Check it out here.

Nancy shared this layout that she made about her appreciation for the scrapbooking site Scrapbook.com.  "I am thankful for scrapbook.com.  Not only is it a great source of inspiration and products but also opportunity.  Most of all though, it is a place where I have made many friends over the years."  Perfectly stated!  All of the Contributing Artists here at Ideas For Scrapbookers are members of the community at Scrapbook.com.  If you've never visited, you should give it a try.  Just as Nancy said, it is a really great site.

What are you thankful for?  We would really like to know. Leave us a comment and let us know what crafty type things you are most thankful for.