Saturday Showcase: September 28, 2013

Hello!  I hope that you are all having a wonderful day in your corner of the world.

If you are new to my blog, it is time for the Saturday Showcase where I highlight other artists' work (whether it be stamps, cards or otherwise), a blog post offering a great technique, or I might even just pick a whole blog to showcase. The criteria I use is that it has to move me in some way (it makes me laugh or cry; awes, inspires or astounds me; etc). I believe that it is extremely important to support other artists within our creative community and this is one of the ways I am able to.  If you are new and would like to find out more on why I created the showcase, you can go HERE.

If you have been popping by every Saturday in September, you are well aware that I have had one particular blog in the spotlight.  As I mentioned at the beginning of September, my intentions were to focus the entire month on this amazing blog simply because it offers so many different features and it is impossible to cover it all in just one post.  At the beginning of September I covered the Vintage Digital Images displayed on this incredible blog.  Two weeks ago I showcased the phenomenal talent of the TLC Design Team.  Last week, I covered some of the awesome freebies that I have loved.  So, it is time to spend one last Saturday with the blog stylings of...

CREATE WITH TLC
My focus for this week is to show you some of the...

Miscellaneous Special Feautures 

On This Blog

Owned and Operated by...

Paulette 

Her store can be found HERE.

We have come to the final Saturday in September, and as such, it is time to finish our tour through the wonderful world of Create With TLC.

Did you know that Paulette has been at this for over 20 years?  I certainly didn't.  I thought she was extremely generous before but to have been giving away goodies for over two decades?  Well that is just phenonmenal!  It started with a Yahoo Group.  She had a huge mailing list of people that she shared her incredible creations with.  They also bounced ideas off of each other and developed friendships along the way.  That mailing list was for her printables--candy bar wrappers, boxes, little bags, etc.  Things that I and many others have only become familiar with in the past couple of years, she and her group have been creating long, long, LONG before I knew this world existed.  From the Group she moved to her own Forum and then that lead to the blog that so many of us love today.  What I found most incredible is that Rhonda from her DT along with about 30 of her followers, have been with her since the beginning.  Can you imagine the depths of those friendships?  I hope that I can be sitting here in 20 years with all of you guys still by my side.  Wouldn't that be an incredible testament to friendship?!!

Okay, so believe it or not, there are still some features of Paulette's blog that I haven't covered yet.  So how about we take a look at them...

FOLLOWER FREEBIES
Along with all of the freebies that Paulette give out in general, she also does something special for her followers.  By being a follower, meaning that your little picture is listed under her Crafting Buddies Section through Google Friends Connect, you have the opportunity to collect special, exclusive, one of a kind goodies by following the instructions laid out in these special posts.  Generally it means firing off an email to Paulette.  It can't get any more simple than that to add these unique items to your collection.  Since I started following almost a year ago, I have personally collected at least 21 of these wonderful vintage images.  For Paulette, it is an opportunity to thank all those people who continue to follow her and of course another excuse to party!  In fact, right now as of today, Create with TLC is celebrating

2,320 FOLLOWERS!

So what are you waiting for?  If you aren't already following just think of all the extra goodies you are missing out on!  Click HERE to find out what you need to do to get a hold of this unique bestowal.  Membership definitely comes with privileges!

TLC CLUBS
Another feature that is really cool is the TLC Clubs.  While in the past they have been a bit longer on occasion, now they are generally 5-10 days in length.  For an extremely low price considering what you get in return, you have goodies mailed directly to your inbox for the entire length of the club.  
Right now the November Club is on sale.

For just $7.73 CA (€5.56, US $7.50, NZ $9.08, ZA R73.95--did I forget anyone? oh and please note that these prices will change daily [US excepted] in accordance with currency fluctuations), that is quite a phenomenal deal.  You are paying a little over a dollar a day CA to receive lots and lots of digis each day including word art, digis, vintage images, digital papers, coloured printables, etc.  To give you an example, one past kit had over 77 images in it and another one had 130. It all depends on the club and the length. The Halloween Club had over 160 images! The minimum that has ever been received is 12 images a day. That is like paying less than .10 cents an image.  You'd be hard pressed to find a deal like that anywhere on this planet!  Paulette's current intentions are to do one club every month.  There is usually something to celebrate each month and of course Paulette knows all the great holidays and occasions to observe (more on that in just a moment).

Paulette is graciously sharing with you all, a peek into this month's club exclusively for my readers...

So, if you have a little change lying around, this is definitely the perfect place to spend it.  If you are interested in checking the current Club out, I've linked the above two watermarks to take you straight to its location in the TLC Store.

Unique Dates for Celebration 
Another feature I love is that Paulette knows, and often celebrates all the unique, weird and wonderful occasions right along with the more popular ones.  Where else would I learn about Hug a Vegetarian Day which was celebrated yesterday--and yes I did hug a vegetarian--a real live one--my hubs!  Then of course there is also:  Love Note Day, Confucius Day, Safety Pin Day, Vegetarian Day, Guardian Angels Day, Ten Four Day, and Balloons Around the World Day--and those are just SOME of the interesting occasions being celebrated just next week!  Paulette will often create unique word art pieces, papers or other printables to celebrate some of these obscure dates.  Only on TLC do we find word art to celebrate Intl Eat an Apple Day, or digital papers to honour Vinyl Record Day which is still available HERE or Clam Chowder Day which is still available HERE, if you are interested.  There are so many more to check out.  Have fun strolling through the archives to learn about days you never knew existed!

Scavenger Hunts
Another fun thing that Paulette does is to occasionally have a Scavenger Hunt.  Every now and again, she'll come across some really cool vintage images that she wants to share exclusively with people willing to take the time to play along; people that really appreciate her generosity, people who spend a moment thanking her, as opposed to the hoards who consistently grab and run without ever a word of thanks.  Sometimes it is just an image or two up for grabs, sometimes it can be many more. They are usually only available for a limited time and you never know when they are going to pop up; so, for those of you who enjoy these kinds of fun events make sure you check the blog each day, sometimes more than once a day!  You never know what you might miss, missing even just one post!

Freebie Mailing Service

Are you sometimes unable to be at your computer for a few days at a time?  Are you often so busy that you don't get a chance to download the freebies on Create With TLC BEFORE they have retired (fingers pointed firmly in my direction)?  What happens when you are away for the week and miss all the goodies Paulette has posted?  Well, I have a solution for you!  Another feature that Paulette offers is a Freebie Mailing Service.  Right now for the low fee of $6.00 US, Paulette will take the time to send each and every freebie posted during the month of October, directly to your inbox on a daily basis.  This way, you won't miss a single freebie offered during the month.  In fact, there just may be a few extra goodies that find their way to the members of the mailing service also! If you are interested in this service, please click HERE.  You can purchase it, directly from that post by clicking the 'buy now' button!

Random Acts Of Kindness

If you believe that kindness has fallen by the wayside, I'm afraid that seems to be the trend.  However, I am here to tell you that it really does still exist out there.  The many incredible readers and followers that I have who take the time to read my posts and share their thoughts, show me that it still exists.  The beautiful words and acts of kindness I see when visiting your blogs from the readers who have left YOU a kind word, show me that it still exists.  The many new friends that I have now who send me a card 'just because', or an email to make sure I am doing okay, or those who have sent me gifts for no reason at all, show me it still exists.  The very many artists out there who continue to offer freebies to their readers, even though the comments left are staggeringly low compared to the number of hits or downloads, show me that it still exists.  Today, this week alone I have been the recipient of TWO random acts of kindness.  One that I will be sharing with you in a different post.  The other was from the lady of the hour, Paulette herself. Kindness still exists and Create With TLC is a sure testament to that fact.  

The last feature I am going to share with you today is based on this concept of random acts of kindness, or as they are also referred to: RAKs.   According to Wikipedia, a random act of kindness is a "selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people."  It is believed that the phrase may been coined by a lady named Anne Herbert.  She states that she wrote the words: "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" on a place mat in a restaurant in Sausalito, California in the US back in the early 1980s", and she believes that the concept of RAK, stemmed from someone picking up that quote and running with it.

Back in November of last year, Paulette tried to see how much kindness she could spread.  Given the thousands of people that visit daily, it was her hope that each person reading the post would take a moment and pass on some kindness to another.  Then, for those recipients to spend a minute passing it on even further.  Now while it didn't have quite the spreading effect that Paulette had hoped, it was certainly a beautifully thought out experiment; one I hope to duplicate in the future.  Can you image if all 2000 of her readers (that is roughly what her numbers were about a year ago) had taken the time to engage, and it had multiplied?  Think of all those moments of happiness, all those smiles, all that positive energy that could have lit up the world for a brief moment in time.  Just imagine the possibilites!  Two of the freebies that Paulette offered during that time are the watermarked ones I've used above.  If you want to send a little random act of kindness card to someone you care about, you can still get these images.  Just click on the watermarks above to go to the original post.

Another random act of kindness that Paulette did was to create a RACK--a Random Act of Christmas Kindness--last December.  In that case, she asked her readers to send her the email address of the person they would like to have RACKED.  Then, she in turn sent out a goodie to that person.  I myself was the fortunate recipient of a RACK from the lovely Suze of Craftysuze.  It was a complete surprise to me as I had been blogging for just a little over a month at the time and certainly didn't expect to be hit with a random act of kindness.  But that is the whole point isn't it?  That you just do something special for someone for no reason other than to show kindness?!   

So, make sure that you keep your eyes opened for the opportunity to participate in a future RAK over on Create With TLC.  For that matter, keep your eyes opened for the chance to take part in a future RAK on this blog.  Paulette has inspired me in more than one way and I hope to be able to create my own little experiments to pass on kindness.  Kindness is one of the most valuable gifts you could ever give someone.  How many people have you gifted with a kind word or deed today? 

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Wow.  What an incredible honour it has been covering all that is Create with TLC.  I am so grateful that Paulette agreed to let me showcase her blog and store throughout the month of September.  I hope that you have enjoyed your foray into the other unique features of Paulettes blog along with everything else that I have explored this past month. 

The artists that I showcase work very hard to provide the inspiration that I bring to you.  Please be sure to go and check the world that is Create with TLC.  However, you'd better pack for comfort, you are going to want to stay and visit for awhile!  If you do pop over, leave Paulette a little bloggy love if you can, thanking her for all that she has provided us with over the years.  A little thank you can go a very long way.

Until next time,

 

Note:   *Thanks to Nikki from Limited Runs Stamps for creating my Saturday Showcase badge.

Reference:
Author Unknown. (Year Unknown). Random act of kindness. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness. Last accessed 28th Sept 2013.