New Product- Laminated Signs!

Well, this is something that I have been working on for a few years now.  Quite awhile back, when I first got my laminating machine, I made a No Soliciting sign for myself, and made a few extra and gave them away to friends.  I always put a few out on my table at craft sales, but never sold any.  One reason why I never really pursued making this product for my Etsy shop or other venues was because of my personal experience with my own: being that they are outside, they tend to fade in time with exposure to the sun.

The company that I buy my laminating supplies from, the Oregon Lamination Company, does offer a UV laminate that is supposed to help protect items from the harmful UV rays and resist fading.  It is not inexpensive though, which is why I had not bought any before.  My previous signs were about 6x8 inches, which would have necessitated me buying the letter sized laminate sheets.  I decided to try making smaller signs, 4x6, and went ahead and ordered the 4x6 UV laminate.  Let me tell you, every single experience I have had with the Oregon Lamination Company has been nothing short of stellar.  I bought my laminating machine from them, and soon after, I managed to jam it, and not only did they fix it for free, they had someone pick it up and deliver it back to my house, because they had an employee who lived in my area.  How amazing is that?!  I buy most of my laminate pouches from them, and though these particular pouches are on the spendy side, I have no problem paying for them, because I am happy to support a local business.  And guess what?  I ordered this laminate, along with some other laminate (for an idea I will be working on later), and it arrived in my mailbox THE.NEXT.DAY.  Yes, I had my order in 24 hours.  Ok, yes, it helps that I live 30 miles from them, but I just find it amazing that they are SO prompt to fill their orders.  LOVE this company!

So, back to my signs: now that I have the UV laminate and feel a bit better about my product holding up over time, I felt a better about offering these for sale.  Actually, my old signs, which I made with plain old Scotch 3M laminating pouches, lasted about 3 years on my east-facing front porch, and yes, the card stock border and printed text faded a bit, but it was still perfectly readable.  I want something better for paying customers, though.  I like the idea of a smallish doorbell sign- something that can just sit unobtrusively next to the doorbell for those pesky solicitors who would otherwise disturb our peace and quiet, but not be garishly obvious or out of place on my front porch.  I have, by the way, recently begun doing some sprucing up of my front porch- it is an area that I have never paid very much attention to, but after some Pinterest-surfing, have decided needed some prettying up!  I found this gorgeous bronze metal plant stand, which I have been accessorizing with plants and other cute things.  So when I remembered that the Dollar Tree had picture frames in various metallic patinas for only $1 each, I went and picked up a bronze 4x6 frame to put my sign in, and mounted it to the wall above my doorbell.  Well, I already know that it worked, because yesterday when I was leaving to run some errands, I found a business flyer taped to my door.  Hey, at least they didn't ring the doorbell!  You can see by the above photo that it is pretty and stylish and still delivers the right message.

I made some in a few different colors, and I did them two ways: with the "Youth fundraising OK", and without.  I know that some of us really appreciate our Girl Scout cookies and little league candy bars, but some don't, so I wanted there to be options for both!

These signs I have packaged up and taken to Top Drawer for purchase from my card rack- that is the other nice thing about these being a nice compact size, they fit nicely on my rack!  I have also put up a custom listing in my Etsy shop so that people can choose their own custom colors, designs, and even text.  Just think about a "Quiet, Baby Sleeping" sign, or even just a simple "Welcome to the Smith's" on a cute laminated sign!  I don't provide the frames with purchase, but they will fit into any standard 4x6 frame, and with purchase I do include 2 Command strips for damage-free mounting to a door or wall.

I'm kind of taking it easy this summer, and not pressuring myself too much to make a lot of new things, but this has been fun!  I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, so when I have a chance to try them out, I'll be posting about them here.  In the meantime, take care, and stay cool!  (Oh my, but it is a HOT summer!)

Graduation Season!

I am so pleased to say that my graduation exploding box cards have, well, exploded this year!  I started getting orders in January, and have been getting them pretty consistently since about April.  Now that it's late May and graduation season is upon us, it is getting BUSY!  I am working on my 14th order of this year...that might not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but it's a lot to me!  The best thing is the incredible things that my customers have to say about my product. Just today, I sent photo proofs of a work in progress to a customer, and she responded "WOW!!!  This is just WONDERFUL!! LOVE IT!!!  Thank you so much. My daughter will just LOVE this!!!"    Well, that could not make me happier- I want, above all, for my customers to love what I do for them!

Last time I updated, I mentioned that since I got my Silhouette Cameo, I had made the process of making the graduation exploding boxes much more efficient, so I thought I would share some of the results from that:

I love how the layers now lay exactly diagonal from one another.  Before, the inside layer was only barely offset from the middle layer.  With my Silhouette software, I was able to create cut files to exact dimensions, and experimented until I got it right.  I love the result!  What an improvement- it looks so much better!

You might notice that a couple of these do not have school logos, like I usually include.  That is because for colleges, I will never use a logo if I am not authorized to do so.  I send an email to the college licensing office to ask for permission for all college jobs.  About half of the time, I never even hear back from them.  Sad to say, but they have better things to do than deal with a small request like mine.  I have never had one turn me down- if I do hear back, it is to give permission.  Anyway, two of the above photos show boxes that I had to make without the college logos, due to the fact that the university never responded to my request for permission to use the logo.  On the Sacred Heart one, the customer (the mom of the student) suggested that I just use the heart graphic.  On the one for the University of Illinois, I did actually (finally) hear back from someone, but it was too late- I had already completed the box and shipped it.  In that case, I simply used general graduation graphics found on the internet, and the customer was happy.  I do prefer to use the logos, but I think I am getting better at the ones where it is not possible.

I am so happy that my product has taken off this year- I have actually had to keep it unlisted at times so as not to get too overwhelmed with orders!  Most of all, I am happiest with the feedback from the buyers- I have been blessed with customers who are happy and thankful for what I have created for them, and that is all that a crafter like me can ask for.

In other news, I have transitioned out of my booth at the consignment store Top Drawer, and now just have my card rack there.  It will be interesting to see how it does!  I think I did ok for Mother's Day, so we'll see what happens after this month.  I still think I did the right thing giving up my booth, and will be happy as long as I can sell enough cards to make the rack fee worth it.

Finally, Some New Stuff!

I am well into my transition from my previous booth at Top Drawer to my scaled-back focus on my crafting, and it is going well!  I have gotten rid of a number of furniture pieces, and this weekend went through my crafting stuff and posted some crafting supplies that I will not need since I am pulling my attention away from the other crafting activities apart from paper crafts.  It feels good- I do wish I had more time to do the other crafts, but for the time being, it will have to wait.

In the meantime, we had our Salem Etsy Team spring sale last weekend, and it was fantastic!  We had the best traffic we've ever had at an event!  I sold a number of cards, and my daughter Meredith sold some things to raise money for her choir trip. Now that that is over, the pressure is off, and I have time to get things organized and plan for the future.  This weekend, I did some cleaning and organizing, and managed to get in some crafting as well.

I have gotten a number of graduation exploding box orders this year- I just completed my 10th since January, which is a record for me!  I'm very happy that they are doing so well.  Since I got my Silhouette Cameo, I have spent some time creating cut files for my box cards, and it has really made things much easier and efficient for me!  I can now cut out the box layers and panels in a fraction of the time it used to take to do it by hand, and they are much more precise and even in size.  It takes a bit of time to set up the print files in the Silhouette Studio software, but once done, it prints and cuts easily and quickly.  Hooray for efficiency!

For our SET spring sale, I made some new products- some cards, as well as these little reusable gift tags/bookmarks. This is something I have played with in the past- in fact, for the holiday sale last year, I made mini-bookmarks for the swag bag contributions, very cute, with paper snowflakes in them.  This time, I made them with pretty washi papers and added on a blank white square to the backs with temporary adhesive.  They can be used as a gift tag, then remove the white square to use a as a bookmark after.  I sold a few at the spring sale, and just today listed some in my Etsy shop.  We'll see how they do- I realize they are kind of different!  I really like them though:

I especially love that bird and foliage paper in the first photo- I have made some cards with that paper, and just love it!

Also just listed a few new cards in my shop:

I got a few new washi papers back in December, so used some in these. I really love that peacock feather pattern paper!  The pink/white quatrefoil is not washi paper, but I really like that pattern- it is geometric without being too blocky and regular, and it looks nice paired with a flower.  I just got an embossing folder with a quatrefoil pattern, so will be experimenting with that soon.

It is nice to be focusing once again on my paper crafts!  Looking forward to doing more.  I recently ordered a bunch of new washi papers from a seller on Etsy, and these are in patterns and colors I have not used before, so should be fun to work with!

Catching Up and Changing Direction (Yet Again)

Wow, I can't believe it's been since Christmas that I last posted!  I guess I have been otherwise occupied.  Family obligations have taken up a lot of my time and focus in the last few months.  My dad passed away in November, and though he didn't want a service, I took my kids to the other side of the country over spring break to visit my step-mom and other family members, sort through photos and other things of my dad's, and spread his ashes in the mountains.  It has been a different, and sometimes difficult, time, and has definitely affected the time I am able to spend on crafting and my Etsy and other craft businesses.

Lately, I have had to reassess my commitments and make some decisions about them, because I have been feeling spread very thin.  I did not do the Jane Austen Faire this year for this reason, and am kind of scrambling to fulfill other commitments.  So, I have made the difficult decision to give up my booth at Top Drawer Upscale Resale and Boutique, as much as I have loved having it.   I am not leaving Top Drawer altogether though- I will be keeping my card rack there, which will only cost me half of what my booth fee has cost.  I have found that I have been spending way more time and effort on the "supplemental" things in my booth than I have on cards, which were the main things I wanted to sell there.  In fact, they are my best selling items there, so removing my focus from them has been a disadvantage all this time.  Making this decision has been very freeing- I feel better than I have in months, because I do not have all the pressure that I have been putting on myself any longer.  I have really enjoyed refinishing furniture and making the other items that I have done, but I simply do not have the time for everything at this stage of my life.  Maybe in a couple of decades when I don't have to work full time and have 2 teenagers to raise/guide!

SO...I am in the process of clearing out my garage of the furniture I had stockpiled to refinish.  I have gotten rid of a number of items already, and it feels great!  That's how I know that I have made the right decision.  In the meantime, I have been working on some new cards, for my card rack at Top Drawer, as well as in preparation of the Salem Etsy Team Spring Sale, which is scheduled for May 2nd.  I don't have much made yet, but hope to crank out lots of Mother's Day cards in the next couple of weeks.  Also, my daughter is still raising money for her choir trip next month, so will be making some items to sell there.  She'll be making some seeded gift tags (gift tags with flower seeds that can be planted to grow flowers), bird seed cakes in fun shapes that can be hung from trees, and pretty clothes pin magnets.  All of the proceeds from those items will go toward her trip to Seattle, which is coming up quickly!!

I have learned a lot in the last few months, not the least of which is what my personal limits are.  There may be things that I want to do, but those must be balanced with what I *need* to do.  It is a delicate balance, and as every working mom knows, is a moving target- no 2 weeks are exactly the same.  While I am sad to have to give up some things for the time being, I feel really good about moving forward in a way that will not create so much pressure on me, and I can enjoy my craft again.  My graduation exploding boxes are currently, well, exploding!  I have already done more orders so far this year than I did all of last year, and the momentum seems to keep building!  It is nice to once again focus on my Etsy shop, since I have had little time for it since having my booth at Top Drawer.  Hopefully the decisions I've made to scale back will benefit every area of my life and business(es).  I will be able to focus on what sells the best at Top Drawer, which is the cards, and my most popular product on Etsy, the exploding box cards.  And not go crazy in the process- it's a win-win!!  I am excited that I have been able to reduce a lot of my physical labor on the exploding box cards by using the Silhouette Cameo, and look forward to making more efficiency changes in the near future.

So- onward! :)

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone!  Santa came to town, and look what he brought!

Wishing you good cheer and blessings for the New Year!  I am looking forward to a new year of creating great things, and sharing theme here with you.  Can't wait to start making some new stuff in 2015!

New Fall Items

Looks like I have some catching up to do!  Whew, time sure flies- it does not seem like it was nearly a month and a half since I last posted!

Well, I continued my fall product development with this:

Isn't this cute??  It's a wreath made from a picture frame, embellished with faux fall foliage.  I got this frame at a garage sale for all of 50 cents, and painted it with paint I got at Lowe's from the clearance section.  I added a burlap bow on the bottom.  And in the center- a chalkboard that I made myself.  I bought a plaque at Michaels and painted the edges with acrylic paint, and the front with chalboard paint in a dark brown. So yes, it's a chalkboard!  I hung it from the frame with twine, keeping with the rustic look.  I really like how it came out.  I put it in my booth at Top Drawer, and I hope I sell it!

The other exciting thing that happened last month is that I had this great custom order from a customer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  I had never shipped to that part of the world before, so was not sure what to expect.  The customer, Raeed, was a really nice guy who was purchasing a custom graduation exploding box for a very close female friend who was graduating from college.  I communicated a lot with Raeed on the design of the box, and because of the high number of personal words and phrases he wanted to use, I proposed the idea of creating a word collage for part of the box.  He loved the idea, and I got to experiment!  I really like how it turned out.

He gave me enough material for me to create two word collage panels on his box.  They are the larger ones on the outer layers.

Kind of hard to see those text panels, so here the are up close:

I mixed in some graphics, and I think it makes it fun.  Raeed seemed really happy with the final product.  I was very happy that he was happy!

I am currently working on some new holiday stuff, both for the Etsy shop and my booth at Top Drawer.  In addition, the Salem Etsy Team is planning our annual holiday sale, so am coordinating that again.  This time, I have some help- yay!  We have brought on some new people to help with marketing, vendor coordination, and other tasks, so that I am not doing everything myself!  The volunteers we have brought on are doing a fantastic job so far, and I think this will be our best  holiday sale yet!  This year, I will not be selling my own products.  Instead, I am giving my booth over to my daughter Meredith, aged 14, who is looking to raise money for her choir trip to Seattle in May, for which she has to earn half of the cost.  They are doing some fundraisers at school, but this is a great additional opportunity for her to earn some money.  She has been hard at work making glitter ornaments, gift tags, holiday decor items, and more!  It will be kind of different for me this time to have a role only as a sale organizer and not a seller, though I will be there to support Meredith on the day of the sale.  But as she is making most of the items for sale, and will be manning the booth, all proceeds will go toward her choir trip, so I want to let her head it all up.  I know she will do a great job!  We have some great new items that we will be debuting at the sale...stay tuned here for previews!

More Fall Stuff

This week I did a couple more fall cards.  You know...I LOVE flowers, that is not a secret, given what most of my cards and bookmarks look like.  But wow, it has been so much fun to work on something a little different!  I have had a blast experimenting with some of the fall themes in my cards!  I just love fall-colored leaves, so it has been great to be creative with that theme.  This week, I tried my hand at making pumpkins on a card, and I like how it came out!

 These are actually pretty easy to make.  The one on the left is 3 die-cut circles with an oval in the front.  The one on the left is 3 ovals.  They were cut out of a pumpkiny orange paper, and then I inked the edges with a darker orange dye ink.  The leaves were from fall leaf punches, and I even cut thin strips and curled them with a quilling tool to make whatever that curly thing is on pumpkin plants.  All of this set on an embossed background.  I also made another leaf card today, since the similar one that I had at Top Drawer sold this week.

I used the same leaf punches on this one that I used on the pumpkin card, instead of the maple leaf punch that I had used on the previous ones. These leaves are a bit smaller, so there was room for more.  I figured out on this one the easy way to ink the leaves: ink a piece of paper, then punch the leaves from it, rather than inking the individual leaves.  Duh!  Not sure why I didn't think of that before!

Yesterday we had a great meeting of the Salem Etsy Team to talk about team structure and the upcoming holiday.  It was nice to see everyone!

It was so much fun to see new and familiar faces!  We haven't gotten together in quite awhile, and this really made me think that we need to do it more often!  We are making plans for our holiday sale and doing some neat new things too, like workshops.  Can't wait to see what we all come up with!

Finally here is a picture of the co-captains (Me and Megan, of Phytotherapy) after the meeting, when we both stopped by Top Drawer to fluff our booths.  We are SO ready for fall- bring it on!!

Oh!  And check out the great new Salem Etsy Team blog!  We just launched it this weekend, and can't wait to do more with it!  http://salemetsyteam.blogspot.com

New Fall Cards

I'm so excited to have some fall cards to post about!  The other week, a Tim Holtz Sizzix tattered leaf die that I had been eying went on sale on Amazon, so I finally bought it, along with some stamps and embossing folders, both fall leaf-themed.  My package finally arrived on Friday, and I couldn't wait to get to work!  It took until today, but I spent some time playing with my new toys and made a few cards.  Love the fall colors, even though summer is not over yet...in fact it is in the 90s here today, ughh!  Well, looking at these cards makes me look forward to fall!

This is a design I have made before, waayyy back when I first started making cards, and was a member of PBS Swappers.  There was a fall card swap, and this was the design I made.  It was fun to get my fall color dye stamp pad and leaf stamps out again!  This one features a punched leaf that I stamped with one of the new stamps I got- I love the veiny look, just like a real leaf!

This one has two layers that are embossed with mixed fall leaves, and two leaves in the center.  One is cut from my new die, stamped with a stamp, and embossed, while the other is from the same punch as the first card.

The above two are simple, embossed cards- found this fun fall leaf embossing folder at Joann's awhile back.

Another card featuring a die-cut, stamped, and embossed leaf, as well as some jute ribbon.

I really like these two!  The trees are embossed, and then I added some punched maple leaves, which I stippled with dye ink in fall colors. These are mounted on the cards with foam tape, so they are raised, and sort of float above the card.

These will be going to Top Drawer Upscale Resale and Boutique tomorrow, along with the Paris bookmarks, and some pressed fall leaf bookmarks that I've had hanging around for awhile.  Time for fall to come to my booth!  Next time, I am looking forward to making some cards that feature pumpkins...I've seen pumpkins made by layering die-cut ovals and circles, so look forward to trying it!

Paris Bookmarks

This past week, I stopped by Top Drawer Upscale Resale and Boutique to "fluff" my booth, and while I was there, I fell into conversation with a woman who was shopping there, assisted by Krissy, the owner.  The woman was looking for Paris-themed items for a charity event- she was sponsoring a table, and had to decorate it with a theme, which in this case was Paris.  She was interested in some bath teas by my fellow Salem Etsy Team member/captain, Megan, of Phytotherapy, and was looking for other small items.  Krissy asked me if I had anything, and I said that while I didn't have anything currently, I might be able to design a laminated bookmark with that theme.  The woman was interested, and I gave her my card and told her to let me know if she wanted to talk about doing something.  Long story short, Krissy contacted me and passed along the woman's phone number, I called and left her a message, but alas, I did not hear back from her.  I imagine she probably changed her mind, or found something else to use.  She had been looking for small gifts for each of the 8 seats at the table, and I am sure there are plenty of things out there that would be lovely for that purpose.  Easy come, easy go- I am used to getting inquiries that do not pan out by now.  It's disappointing, but I don't take it personally.

Well...sometimes when I get an idea in my mind, I can't let it go until I actually do something with it, and this was another one of those cases.  I had done some research and had found some neat digital images that I had thought I could layer for a sort of Paris-themed collage.  I stopped in to Top Drawer again today, and Krissy said that even though the woman did not call me back, she thought I ought to make a few items anyway- she said the Paris stuff flies off of the shelves there.  That was all the encouragement I needed!  I spent some time this evening working on my idea, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Here is the front.  Let me break this down: the background is an image from a vintage postcard written in French, and I lightened it up considerably so that it made for a softer background.  I then layered on other images: a Paris postmark, an image of the Eiffel Tower, a fleur de lis, some roses, and a butterfly.  I like it!  On the back, I put on some paper in a black and white damask pattern that looks a bit like fleur de lis.

I also managed to get my shop name on the bottom of the back- you can barely see it down there, but it's there!

I have never done anything quite like this before, and I am pleased with my first attempt.  I actually had to print it in two separate layers, the background first, and then the items that are on top of it.  I set up the layout in Power Point in two separate slides and printed them one at a time, so that the top images printed right on top of the background.

Next up I will be working on some fall-themed cards- I just ordered some stuff from Amazon and can't wait to get it and play with it!

More New Cards

Well, I decided that I liked that new card design that I came up with for my sister's speedy recovery card that I used it on a few other new cards!  I wanted to make a few more birthday cards for kids, so I did a couple each for girls and boys.

I did this one in the large (5x7) size.  I still had some of the floral and striped papers left, so I made two smaller A2 cards next:

Here are the boy cards:

Cute little car and truck pattern, and lots of neat colors to use!

I also made a "thinking of you" card with some papers I've wanted to use for awhile but haven't had the chance.

I don't recall where I found this paisley paper, but I suspect it was probably Craft Warehouse.  I think I got the argyle paper from Scrapbook.com when I ordered some papers to use for Valentine cards, but I never got around to using this one.  Anyway, I like the combination of these papers together- yes it is busy!  But I love how the colors mesh.

So I'm still plugging away at the cards and building up my inventory at Top Drawer.  I'm afraid my poor little Etsy shop is starting to feel neglected! I do need to try to get some new things in there soon.  I actually do have some of the thank you cards from a few weeks ago that I reserved to list in my shop, but I haven't had time to take photos and do the listings.  Hopefully soon!  I still have not sold that little table that I painted a few weeks ago- I just marked the price down and did some promoting on Facebook, because I really would like to get it sold.  I scored some new furniture pieces at a garage sale last weekend, and have already started working on one of them.  Fortunately I have made my booth fee and then some already for this month- yippee!