This is a big one folks!!

Edited - we did have an error with the main kits last night if you tried to purchase them. As of 7:00am this morning all is well so shop away! Thanks for your patience!

After you read this post you just might see why I missed posting yesterday! We have been BUSY getting ready for our biggest December 1st release yet! Keep reading for all of the details.

This month's Papercrafting Kit is full of color and vintage appeal . . .

The Add-On Kit comes with all of the extra bits and baubles (including some great vintage items) that complement the main so very well. . .

This month's Project Kit is of course our annual calendar project. This one is small in stature but big on impact!

And for the last minute gift buyer (or crafter!) we have several new "old" items to share with you (and with shipping on the 8th this month instead of the 10th, domestic shoppers will have no problem receiving orders in time for Santa's flight)!

These are early 1900's Toy Blocks with wonderful color and graphics . . .

German Foil Christmas Bells in a set with 2 colors. . .

Vintage Christmas Sheet Music . . .

Early 1900's Christmas Postcards . . .

Vintage Christmas Carol Booklets with these oh-so-sweet choir boys on the cover (I am going to scan my cover in and make ornaments out of them!). . .

Another version of our popular Vintage Price Tag Books - these look orange here but are actually more red. . .

Vintage Grey Thread Spools. . .

And finally a set of Vintage Cork Lined Bottle Caps with Christmas colors. . .

Also tonight you will find all of the new JBS October release up for individual sale in the General Store (in the "New" section). We have two new paper pads. . .

The entire line of Red/Black Extension III products. . .

New Mini Bingo Calendars and the new Die Cut Journaling Card Pads. . .

We also have another round of Mercantile Exclusives up for sale including the last 6 papers in a set, the 6 Die Cut Journaling Cards in a set and the 6 individual exclusive colors of Chalkboard Alpha Stickers!

And last but not least we are having our first ever JBS Warehouse sale! We are offering several discontinued packs of paper for sale at 50% off of retail! If you teach classes or are looking for multiples to create cards or invitations with nows the time to stock up! We also have several mini paper packs for sale as well as Gold Crown Alpha and Gold Crown Numeric Rub-Ons for sale (perfect for Christmas projects)!



Tis the season for crafting!! Everything's on sale tonight at 12:00 midnight central time.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's to not counting calories for one day of the year (eat an extra piece of pumpkin pie for me)!!

Do you see what I see???

You will if you sign up to join us the weekend of December 3rd and 4th for our 3rd annual Christmas Vintagefest in Lebanon TN. Part of the festivities is a Finger Food Soiree at our home Friday evening where we will create a make-and take, eat good food and tour my studio!

It's not too late! You have until this Friday, November 26th to sign up. Click on the Vintagefest photo to the left to see all of the details.

Hope to see you there!

In love with labels. . .

I'm not sure why or when it started, but for a very longtime now I have collected anything to do with vintage labels, particularly old apothecary jars. These are my only amber colored examples, but I have a rather large collection of the clear jars with labels under glass on my mantel. I also have a large collection of Dennison labels (and share them fairly often in the kits at Mercantile).

This also reminds me of the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" and how my heart skips a bit in the beginning when they show the back of the General Store (ever notice the apothecary bottles lined up on the shelves)?? Ah. . .one of my favorite Christmas memories (ha)!

Just in case you wondered. . .

Ranger Paint Dabbers prove to be very useful when trying to create Styrofoam mountains for a Biome (a.k.a. -habitat). If you have a third grader you know what I'm talking about!

And by the way, Seed Packet and Brown Sugar mix quite nicely to make a realistic mountain (with a little mica on the top for snow)!

Final night of peeks!

Our BIG Mid-Month Release goes live tomorrow, Saturday November 20th at 10:00 a.m. central time! Find everything in the Mid-Month Release section in the General Store.

Here are the last of the peeks. . .

This is my secret project! I used our JBS Banner Chipboard Pieces and stickers for the roofs on these tiny houses. They were so much fun to create! I put some up on pop dots to give it a bit more dimension. I found these XL Lotto Cards when shopping with my mom this summer and fell in love. I had never seen them this big (they are about 5 3/4" x 10")! Saved them for the perfect project. Lots of vintage paper stuff on this one. . .

The 2010 version of the Christmas Crafting Embellishment Kit (I love the coal and ice coupons!). Some good re-runs and a few new things I have collected this year. . .

This was a really cool find! Vintage Salesman Sample Folders of Christmas Greeting Cards. Each folder has at least 7 cards in it. Awesome 40's through early 60's graphics. . .

Just picked these up at an estate sale this morning. Vintage Christmas Carol Music Booklets with about 32 pages of favorite carols. So very sweet. Great for scanning in and using for holiday projects each year.

We are also restocking the July 2010 Project Kit (find it under Past Kits). Very limited however. This was a sold out kit that many people emailed us about. I thought it would make a great Christmas gift so I decided to order more of the 7gypsies books and put them together. While they last!!

See you tomorrow morning!

More teasers. . .

This is a BIG mid-month release. . .

I have a few of these French wire bundles (I think they are some sort of French Brillo Pad) left after almost selling out at Silver Bella. I think they look a bit like petite fencing material and it cuts fairly easily with scissors.

German Foil Paper Ornaments (lots of crafting possibilities here)!

Old Store Stock Feather Tree Toppers - these are amazing! A full box of 12, still wrapped in their tissue. You could easily add some wire to these and use them as ornaments. Someone purchased a box at the Country Living Fair and said she displays these on old receipt holders (which I thought was so very clever). . .

I plan to have different versions of these every month. This month I'm sharing my rarest find - old Victorian photo album pages (in 2 versions) in very good condition with gorgeous embossed details. Most often they are either plain or printed but these are embossed. Imagine the possibilities with ink and paint!

Tune in tomorrow to see the last of the peeks (including the project I have been working on all week). Everything will be live on this Saturday morning, the 20th at 10:00am central time zone!!

(p.s. - thanks for sharing your stories in the comments. I love to read them)!

A little peek at mid-month releases. . .

I have been busy, busy, busy unearthing things that I stashed away all year, just for this release!

Today I have two items to share. These vintage ink bottles are in their original boxes. I loved them simply for their graphics but they are unopened, still full of ink as well. They would make a wonderful addition to a Christmas display!

I also have several of these vintage velvet reindeer picks with little brass bells around their necks. They still had the plastic on them when I found them.

More tomorrow and Friday (including a peek at the adorable project that is laying on my desk, almost complete). I love this time of year!!

Everything will be available on Saturday. I will post the exact time on Friday.

Decorating Tuesday. . .

This is my favorite chair.

I'm not sure it has ever been sat in but its awfully nice to look at!

The chair is actually very special to me. It was a birthday gift from my mother and father in-law one year. Noah wasn't quite two years old yet and we were living pretty leanly. I found the chair in an antique shop. It had a white with gold 70's style paint finish with some gold upholstery . . . but I had a vision. I went to the fabric store and found some remnant yardage of white damask fabric and began the task alone of recovering and refinishing it. I remember clearly using paint thinner with a toothbrush to get the paint out of every nook and cranny. If you have ever done this you know just how fun it is! I then sewed the cushion cover (I use the word "sew" loosely) and tacked down the fabric on the frame. As a last step a glued trim down over the tacks until I got to the last 5 inches on one of the arms where I ran out.

And in true "Jenni" fashion, that is how it stayed for more than 6 years, with the unfinished arm.

That is until this past Spring when I had it reupholstered by a true professional with the German Grain Sack I found at Scott's Market in Atlanta as its back. I wanted a big contrast so I went with this darker linen for the rest and a contrasting welt. My upholster wasn't so sure about it at first but he loved it so much when it was done that he took pictures to show clients. That made me smile!

My Favorite Places. . .

Part of my new blog initiative is to start sharing some of my favorite people and places on the web and beyond that inspire me.

One such place is Curious Sofa.

I am an avid magazine reader. I rarely pick up a book, but I almost always have a magazine in hand. For several years now I have dreamed of visiting Curious Sofa in Kansas City. I have seen this beautiful store grace the pages of Country Home, Country Living, Romantic Homes, etc. more than once and I had the pleasure of meeting the store's owner Debbie Dusenberry one year while vending at Silver Bella. She is extremely talented and gracious and I have enjoyed getting to know her better in the years since.

And I did make it to Kansas City, last year. Even purchased a light fixture for our upstairs landing and now have a little piece of the store here with me.

But the greatest news of all? You can now purchase items from the store on-line here including one-of-a-kind pieces.

And for almost daily inspiration, add her blog to your favorites now!

Day Two Silver Bella Teasers . . .

I love enamelware for craft room storage. I have been collecting every color under the rainbow.

Some extra wide antique lace, embroidery patterns and vintage paper rulers. . .

Just a small peek at the LOADS of vintage bits and baubles I always come with and some vintage velvet reindeer pics in two colors!!

Day three peeks coming tomorrow. . .!

Silver Bella Teasers, Day 1. . .

As promised, here begins some teasers of the goodies we are packing away for Silver Bella this Friday evening (and remember, you can come and shop even if you are not attending the event). . .

My new obsession - vintage honeycomb decorations. These are from the 1930's/1940's and so precious. . .

Lots of red and green items perfect for holiday decorating but not necessarily "holiday". Loving vintage toys lately for storage. . .

Not sure of all that's in this one, but it looks like fun!!

Vintage hankies waiting for someone to "re-invent" them into something beautiful. . .

More tomorrow!!

Fall Festival . . .

We spent our Saturday at Christian's school's fall festival. We always donate a product basket for the silent auction and this year they added a vendor faire for those who donated. I decided to just keep it small with a Christmas theme. Made this. . .

and this . . . (tutorial coming soon on the rosettes with banner)

found a tiny version of a red truck with bottle brush trees. . .

made a few of these. . .

and showed off a few of these. . .

And in case you ever wondered what goes on at an elementary school fall festival, the girls get their face painted and the boys get wrapped in fake bandages . . .

and play games like ring toss to win 2-liters (I think we came home with 6)!

We are headed to Silver Bella on Thursday for the Vendor Faire so I thought it might be fun this week to show some peeks each day of what we are preparing to bring so look for that beginning tomorrow.

And look for a big mid-month release at Mercantile with lots of festive goodies and projects coming on the 20th of this month (so big we need an extra 5 days to prepare)!

Happy Monday!

And the winner is. . .

Cindy in Pasadena, Ca. You win the new JBS goodies! Just send us your addy through the contact us link at http://www.jbsmercantile.com/!

And. . .for the locals, I will have a little booth with some vintage items, handmade items and various Christmas products from JBS at the Mt. Juliet Elementary School Fall Festival tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Bring the kiddies for some games, hot dogs and shopping!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Just call me "Noah"

It is not an uncommon thing for animals of all kinds to make friends with me, even when I'm not so sure I need another a friend. Spiders, cats, squirrels, and in this case a mastiff/bulldog mix (so we surmised), all seem to want to cuddle up to me, like it or not. This big guy sat on my boot and leaned his whole body into me for at least 5 minutes before moving on. The 200 kids on the field trip tried to get him to come to them but he didn't bite (no pun intended)!

Must be the new perfume I'm wearing. . .