More Birthday Stuff, and An Upcoming Event

My daughter had another birthday party to go to this weekend- another friend from her dance classes.  Apparently, we now have a reputation with these girls to uphold- we are the "cool card givers"!  Since I have not repeated a card type for this group of girls, the pressure is on to come up with something new for each girl's birthday.  At first it was easy- I did the exploding box card for the first one back in December, then followed up with a never-ending card in February (which apparently I did not get a picture of), a slide card in March, and then last weekend, a different type of slide card.  I was a bit at a loss what to do for this one, until I remembered a card that my BFF Kendra did a couple of years ago and sent to me.  I emailed her and described it, and she informed me that it was called a waterfall card and that I could find a video tutorial on YouTube on how to do it.  I did find the video, as well as this tutorial, and it turns out that it is really quite easy to make!

When you pull the tab down, each of the decorated panels flips and cascades one by one, which is probably why it's called a waterfall card.  It's very cute, and pretty easy to do, once you get the hang of it!  Meredith decorated the inside with a paper flower as well.

I also made a bookmark for the birthday girl, which I posted about previously.  Since we had two birthdays a week apart, I made both bookmarks at the same time.  Both girls seemed to like them.

Now for an exciting announcement!  I am going to be taking part in the Salem Etsy Team's Spring Craft Show next month- my first real craft show!  There will be a variety of craft and vintage vendors there, and I am really looking forward to meeting to some of the other Salem Etsy sellers!  Now, I just need to have stuff to sell at this show- so I have some crafting to do!  I've been working on cards this weekend, and will post a preview of some of these later in the week.  Also on my agenda is to make some more collage-style bookmarks, and perhaps some gift envelopes to go along with them.  I am focusing on Mothers Day products, but also plan to make a few Father's Day and graduation items as well.  Time is short, however- the sale is May 5th, which is less than 3 weeks away.  Time to get busy!  Be sure to check back and see what I'm making, because I will have lots to share in the next couple of weeks!

Some Birthday Stuff, and a Thank You Card

What a busy time of year!  Though I have wanted to start working on some new stuff for my shop, I have not had time.  Instead, this week I have focused on some stuff for specific events taking place.  My daughter has 2 birthday parties in 2 weeks, so I made bookmarks for both birthday girls.  I have so far made one card, and will be doing the other one this week, because that party is coming up next weekend.  Here are the bookmarks:

I neglected to get photos of the reverse, which I need to remember to do more often!  Alisha's had a really neat blue and teal washi paper with white and red geometric flowers on the back.  Coral's has a pink and orange floral print on the reverse.

I have not made a card yet for Coral, as hers is the birthday party coming up next weekend, but here is the one I did for Alisha:

This is a slide card, similar to the one I did for the slide card swap last year.  The only difference is that I oriented the card so that it slides to the side instead of from the top and bottom.  I like how it turned out..however, I have to say that this type of card is a huge pain to make!  The slide mechanism is difficult to manage, and it really took a long time to assemble.  Besides that, I had to have my daughter show her friend how to open it without messing it all up, and that is just a bit more trouble than it is worth.  I was happy to do the card and glad that it worked out well, but am not anxious do to another on in this design again.

I also did a thank you card this weekend, for my husband to send to his best friend's parents, as they are going to lend us their beach house in a couple of weeks so that we can celebrate our 18th anniverary there.  I can't wait!  They are letting us stay at the house for incredibly cheap, so we wanted to send a nice card.  I had some washi paper I was dying to use, so here is what I did with it:

The colors are not looking great on my computer because I took these pics in the evening when the light was not very good, so I apologize for that.  The card base is actually a deep burgundy red, and the next layer is a deep olive green, though it looks more teal here.  I embossed the sentiment on an off-white piece of paper that I cut out with a Spellbinder die on my Big shot.

Next week I really hope to have more to show that is shop-ready.  There is a local craft fair coming up on the first weekend in May for my local Etsy team, and I would really love to participate!  I just have to make sure I have some good, fresh inventory, since it is the weekend before Mother's Day.  Guess I will have to get busy in the next couple of weeks!

Bookmark Giveaway!

Just a quick note that I wanted to pass on!  Elizabeth Loupas,  the author for whom I did the big custom project, is doing a giveaway of three of the bookmarks I made for her.  Enter the drawing today and she will be choosing the winners tomorrow, which is the release day of her new book, The Flower Reader.  Enter by leaving a comment on her blog here:
http://www.elizabethloupas.com/2012/03/29/bookmarks

New Bookmarks!

Well, I took a few weeks off from making bookmarks after my last big custom project.  The break gave me a chance to think ahead to some new designs, and how I might take what I learned from my project and apply it to new products in my shop.  Life has been busy these last few weeks- we just finished spring break here, which is busy in its own way, and finally today I had some time to play with some new designs.  One of these days, I need to go through my flower inventory and reorder some stuff that I ran out of, but for the time being, I still have plenty to work with.  I took the collage concept that I used on the bookmarks I did for Elizabeth Loupas, and applied it a little differently here.  For one thing, I used coordinating patterned papers on the reverse sides.  For another, I did not use ivy leaves, just flowers on these.  Also, I did not limit myself to natural flowers- I used a few dyed ones (well, one at least), and that enabled me to use some colors that I might not normally use.  I like the results!  I was able to use some gorgeous new paper that I got the other day, and also some fantastic teal satin ribbon, which is a color I have not been able to find previously.  My daughter and I went shopping up in the Portland area the other day, and we visited a paper store up there, which is where I got both the paper and the ribbon.  I love both!

Here are the four new bookmarks I made today- all are listed in my Etsy shop:

  It was fun to get back into making bookmarks again!  With spring now here, I am excited about restocking my shop with fresh new designs!

Also today, I made a couple of bookmarks for friends of my daughter who have birthdays coming up.  Both are friends from dance, and will be having parties in the next couple of weeks.  I have enjoyed making personalized bookmarks for her other dance friends' birthdays in the last few months, so seem to be working my way through the group of girls- don't want to leave anyone out!  Here are the two I did today:

I hope they like them!  I will be doing cards for them as well, but didn't have time today.

I am glad to be over the hurdle of having the first bookmarks done for the spring season, and now am motivated to get some more done in preparation for Mother's Day.  As it is already the first of April, there is not much time!  I'll be working on that in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for some new stuff!

New Bookmark for Me, and Happy Birthday Dad

As promised last week, I have my dad's birthday card to share.  I didn't want to post it too long before he got it in the mail, because I'm not sure when (or if) he ever checks my blog!  He should be getting it in the next day or two though, at least I hope so- his birthday is tomorrow!  Here it is:

As I think I have stated before, I find making masculine cards a bit challenging.  For one thing, it is not easy to find papers that are geared toward/would appeal to men.  The vast majority of scrapbook paper out there is pretty feminine in terms of color and design.  That's why when I find a good paper with masculine colors or patterns, I try to stock up.  I have had both of these papers for a long time, pretty much since I first started making bookmarks, so you have probably seen them both before.  I did try to find a new one for my dad's card, but right now, everything in the stores are very pastel and flowery.  I didn't want to do anything too close to the card I did for him last year, so stayed away from any of those same papers.  I like the two of these together.  The argyle is bold, while the pin stripe is more subtle, but the color tones go very well together and don't clash.  The little bit of gray in the pin stripe gives an extra color to work with beyond the different shades of blue and the black.  I didn't stamp a setiment on the inside- just left it blank, and hand-wrote in my Happy Birthday message.  Hope he likes it!

Next, I would like to share a bookmark I made for myself today.  A few months ago, I told you about a book cover I bought from a fellow Esty seller, Rebekah, for which I made a coordinating bookmark.  You can see both the book cover and bookmark here.  Recently, I have found myself reading more trade-size paperbacks than I have in the past, and have missed having a book cover to protect the books I read.  So, back to Rebekah's shop I went!  She was so nice and accomodating with my first order, I knew that her shop was the right one to go to for my next one.  Besides that, she works with the MOST beautiful batik fabrics!  The hardest part about shopping in her shop is picking just one- they are all stunningly beautiful!  After perusing her shop, I found one or two fabrics that I really liked, and sent her a message about customizing a trade-size book cover for me.  This time, my eye was drawn to a beautiful batik fabric in blues, greens, and teals with dragonflies.  Unfortunately, I only saw it on a checkbook cover.  So when I messaged Rebekah, I mentioned that I liked another fabric, but if she had the dragonfly fabric, that would be my preference.  She responded that she would be able to accomdate my request.  Again, I asked for no ribbon to be sewn in, as I wanted to make my own bookmark.  And this time, I asked for a custom closure for the cover that was similar to another one I had seen elsewhere.  I thought it would protect the book better, and since I live in the rainy PNW, I am happy for any additional protection for my books!  Rebekah was great about it- she had not done anything like it before, but was willing to try.  It came out exactly how I imagined it, and I couldn't be happier!

When I saw the fabric, I immediately knew what kind of bookmark I wanted to make.  You might remember these cards, where I used a sponge and different colors of stamp ink to make a pretty mottled background in colors very similar to the ones in this book cover.  So I used that same technique, and then stamped a very subtle leaf pattern in a light green, and a dragonfly in the teal ink.  I framed it in deep blue and teal, and topped it with a coordinating blue ribbon.

The leaf detail is difficult to see, so here's a closeup:

Ok, maybe it's hard to see here too..but the ligth green that you see is the viney leaf stamp.  The lighting wasn't great when I took this picture, but in reality, there is much more differentiation between all the colors.  Anyway, I love it, and it goes great with the book cover!

My family is off on spring break for a few days, so I may actually have some time to craft in the evenings this week!  I'm anxious to start on some collage-style pressed flower bookmarks to list in my shop, since I enjoyed making the ones I did for Elizabeth Loupas so much.  I'm planning to do some gift envelopes that can go along with those as well, in hopes that they will sell for Mother's Day, which is just around the corner!  I also need to make a card for my cousin Trina's birthday, which is on April 1, so will have to get that done soon too.  Til next time!

Thank You Card and Some Odds and Ends

I'm getting back into a crafting groove after a couple of weeks off since finishing the big custom project for Elizabeth Loupas.  Who, by the way, will be having another giveaway this week of her new book, The Flower Reader, along with one of the bookmarks I made for her!  Be sure to check her blog for details on how to enter!

I might have mentioned while I was doing that project that I decided to get some new business cards.  The ones I have been using were ones I made myself with some of those perforated sheets that you can get at office supply stores.  They were ok, but I was ready to upgrade to something a little more professional.  I have had the idea floating around in my head for awhile for a logo- actually, I have had the image in mind since I started my shop nearly 2 years ago now.  But I am no graphic artist, that is for sure!  However, I do know one, and I enlisted (begged for?) her help with this.  Kindra is one of my coworkers, and does a bit of graphic design on the side.  I showed her what I had in mind, and she ran with it, and several versions and much patience on Kindra's part later, I have a logo of my very own!  And none too soon- I got my new business cards printed up the same day that I shipped the big custom order to Elizabeth!  She graciously offered to include my cards with each of the bookmarks that she is giving away, so I really wanted them to look nice.  I'm very happy with how the logo looks on the cards.  What I'm not so happy with is how Staples printed the cards offset to the right- I had everything perfectly aligned in the center in the template on their website, so I don't know what happened there.  In any case, like I said, I got them the day I was shipping Elizabeth's order, so there was no time to ask to have them redone.  I guess next time I will go somewhere else to get cards printed.  Anyway, have a look:

I think it's very cute, and it's just what I had pictured in my mind!  Now I just need to figure out how to get it onto my shop banner and stuff like that!

To thank Kindra for her efforts, I made a thank you card for her:

I saw this paisley paper at Michaels, and even though I am an admitted paper addict and really should not have been buying more, I HAD to!  I love the color combination, and the design is kind of fresh and springy, and boy am I ready for spring!  In any case, Kindra certainly deserves thanks for the great job she did and especially the patience she had with me and my revision requests.  I also happily offered to pimp her talents and graphic design business, so here is where you can find Kindra for all of your graphic design needs: http://www.designsbykindra.com/

I haven't done too much else lately- I did make a birthday card for my dad yesterday, so I will post that next time.  Still need to do one for my cousin Trina, but may not get to that until next weekend.  I'm having a spring cleaning sale in my shop- use coupon code SPRNGCLN12 at checkout for 15% off entire purchase through the end of March.  And I am still working on a concept for the wall art that my friend Sandra asked me to do for her office.  I have a plan, but it is a bit slow in coming together.  Thankfully, Sandra said she can be patient with me!  I am looking for some materials and having a hard time finding what I am looking for, so may have to figure out a plan B, but I'm not ready to give up yet!  And yesterday, I took a class at Michaels where I will use what I learned to create this project.  That's all I'm going to say about it for now!  Finally, I am going to begin work on some new bookmark stock for my shop in preparation for Mothers Day, so look for some of those designs soon!

My Big Secret Custom Project: The Unveiling

Hello all!  I am so excited that I can tell everyone about this now!  I mentioned before that I was asked to complete a big custom order, and now I can let the cat out of the bag on what that was!

http://www.elizabethloupas.com/2012/03/12/win-a-signed-advance-copy-of-the-flower-reader/

About a month ago, I was contacted by Elizabeth Loupas, an author of historical fiction.  Her second book, The Flower Reader, is set to be released next month.  I custom-made three dozen pressed flower bookmarks for her to give away along with promotional copies of the new book, and today she announced the giveaway on her blog, which is linked above.  It is so exciting to be a part of something like this!  I have to tell you, Elizabeth could not have been more lovely to work with- it was truly a pleasure to do this project for her, and I loved putting together these bookmarks!  These are different than anything I have ever done before, and as a result I think I have really grown in my creativity through this project.  I still enjoy the "portrait" style bookmarks that I have made since the beginning, but I love this "collage" style as well, so plan to do more in this style in the future.

Elizabeth asked me to make each bookmark completely unique, and I will admit that I was a bit daunted by that in the beginning.  I wasn't sure that I could come up with 36 totally different designs, even with the large variety of flowers I had to work with.  I managed to do it though!  I think I used every conceivable color combination that there is!  Here are a few of my favorites:

What a truly rewarding project this has been!  I am just thrilled that Elizabeth chose me to do this for her, and I'm so glad that she is happy with what I made.  And it's pretty exciting to see all the wonderful comments she is getting on the above blog post!

Well, now that I have completed her project, I am moving on to other things.  I have a very dear friend who recently asked me to make her some wall art for her new office, and I am doing some research and coming up with a plan for that.  My dad's birthday is at the end of this month, so I want to make him a card, and also one for my cousin whose birthday is April 1.  And also, I need to start planning ahead for Mother's Day, and start stocking my shop for that!  I want to do some bookmark gift packs in pretty spring colors, as well as some cards, of course.  I took this weekend off from crafting, but will be getting busy next weekend, so look for more stuff here then!

Birthday Slide Card

Hello!  I have been super busy working on my big custom project, which I will post more about in a week or 2 when I have it completed, and when the customer has gone "public" with it.  So exciting!  In the meantime, I have had a little time to do a few small projects, one being this slide card.  My daugther had a birthday party to go to today, and I made the birthday girl this card.

I loved making this card, because it really was pretty simple and easy, but the result is so cool!  It was WAY easier than the slide cards I made for the PBS swap last year- this one took me only a fraction of the time to make.  I love that the ribbon is the slide mechanism too.  You can do so much with this design- the possibilities are endless!  I had to explain to Haley how to slide open the card, but once she got it, she seemed to like it.  I also made her a bookmark with her name on it, but did not have time to take a picture of it.

I should finish up my custom project in the next week, and then I will be working on some stuff for Mothers Day...I'm thinking some cards, and some pressed flower bookmark gift packs in gorgeous spring colors.  Can't wait to come up with some new designs!

Valentine Lollipop Flowers

Hello!  Meredith and I have finally, FINALLY finished the lollipop flowers, and not a moment too soon- Valentine's Day is in 2 days!  They were a lot of work, but Meredith is happy with them, and that is what counts.

I know my pictures are a little wonky, but I've been experimenting with using a daylight bulb, and don't quite have it all figured out yet!  I think it might be the answer to some of my lighting problems, but I have some work yet to do to get it all worked out.  Anyway, aren't they cute??  The tissue paper is delicate, so it doesn't take much for them to start looking a bit bedraggled, but they spruce up easily.  All I can say is that I am glad this project is done!

In other news, something very, very exciting happened last week...but I can't talk about it just yet.  I will just tell you that I got the biggest custom order I have ever gotten, and it is going to be one of the most challenging as well, but I am so looking forward to doing it!  I have about a month to do the project, so I will reveal more about it when it is all done.  It is going to keep me very busy for the next few weeks, so I may not have anything to share here until it's done, but it will be well worth it!  Already the work I have done on the project has made me expand my ideas beyond what I am used to doing, and it has given me so many new ideas.  It is always great to work on a project that makes you reassess your regular routine methods!  I have some new ways of looking at things now, and that is going to bring some fresh perspective to my work and my future products.  So, I will share more when I can!

Custom Bookmark Project

Hello!  Well, Valentine's Day is less than 2 weeks away, and traffic is really picking up in my Etsy shop!  I have sold a couple of cards already, and yesterday received a custom order for a bookmark and gift envelope.  I was/am so excited!!  I love custom work, maybe more than anything else.  It is fun to make my own creations, but I love helping someone else bring their visions to life.  I got a convo from a nice guy who asked if I could customize a blue butterfly delphiuim bookmark and make a gift envelope for it.  His sweetie loves blue, so he wanted to start with my basic design and replace the yellow ribbon with a blue one.  No problem here...one of my biggest weaknesses is ribbon!  You should see my stash- I buy way too much because it is an affordable luxury, so I have way more than I should!  We also talked about some ways to customize both the bookmark design and the envelope that I would create.  I am really happy with what I came up with, and the customer seems happy as well, from the photos I sent him.

Here's the bookmark.  Basic design, except I replaced the middle layer with the blue/purple mottled paper, which works really well with these colors.

The customer requested an envelope to match, and asked for a seal with a shape I did not have.  I suggested some alternatives, including other shapes such as circles, squares, or hearts, and threw out the suggestion of creating a seal with a pressed flower.  I have not done it before, but had some ideas on how it could be done.  He liked the idea, so I went with it, and I love it!!  I will definitely be doing this again!

Above is the envelope and a close-up of the seal.  It was pretty simple really:  I glued the pressed flower to a piece of card stock and then covered it with a piece of clear packing tape.  Yes, just regular packing tape- it worked beautifully!  Then I punched the circle out using a 1" circle punch.  The patterned paper was punched with a 1.5 inch scalloped circle punch, and the circle with the flower was adhered to it, to make the seal.  I adhered it to the top flap of the envelope with the ATG, and did something different with the bottom half this time.  Usually I use the temporary adhesive, but it is kind of flakey and doesn't stick real well sometimes.  So this time I used a peel-and-stick adhesive.  That way, the customer can seal up the envelope before giving it to his sweetie.  I think it will work out great, and am really happy with the outcome!

Meredith and I are still working on the lollipop flowers for her class Valentines, and am about halfway through now.  We have another weekend to work on them, so I am not panicking quite yet. ;)  I think we should be able to finish with no problem.   She has been a real trooper with getting the tissue paper cut out and forming the flowers!  They are going to be really cute in the end!

That's all for now!  Coming up in the next couple of weeks, I hope to finish the flowers, plus make a birthday card for my sister, who is turning the big 5-0 at the end of the month.  See you later!