Craft Fair and other things....

I have decided to take part in a local craft fair selling my cards and other scrapbook items. I received much encouragement from my daughter and sister to do so, so I said "what the heck" I have nothing to lose! So I have been very busy crafting. I have 77 cards made so far, a couple of mixed media canvases, a trinket box, birdhouse ornaments, tags and bookmarks. The fair is on December 1st so I have lots of time to complete more projects. I have mainly focused on Christmas cards but I do have some for other occasions. I think I will make more of these as a lot of people may already have their Christmas cards bought.

I have not sold one thing in my Etsy shop, but I have made no effort to promote it either. Maybe I will after Christmas, I am not sure if I will bother. I will have to see when the time comes. I just love to create and the reason I am trying to sell things is so I can create more!! I can't keep doing all this when I have no one to give it all to.

Here are a few examples of the cards that I have made, and the trinket box.

I just opened an Etsy shop- eeek!

I guess I will have to keep up with blogging now :) I have been very neglectful of that as you can see. I have only 9 listings in my shop as of right now, just to see how it goes. I may never sell a thing, who knows! lol It will be fun if nothing else.

I have really gotten into the groove of making cards. There are still some different techniques,etc, that I want to incorporate on my cards if I can get them right. so stay tuned. I bought an Enveloper to make my own envelopes for odd sized cards, but so far, that has not proven to be successful. I will have to watch the You Tube video to see where I am going wrong. SO I have a couple of lovely cards sitting on my desk with no envelope :(

I will have a couple other projects that I will put in my shop over the next couple of weeks. I am pretty nervous as Etsy has sooooo many beautiful handcrafted items that I don't know if I am up to par. Time will tell. I will try not to take it to heart if nothing sells, as I am doing it mostly just for my own creative outlet- I love to work with my hands and scrapbooking, etc, has been the thing I am most passionate about creating.

First place scrapbook award

In my email this morning, I was told that one of my layouts had received first place at scrapbookawards.com- cool!!! Now there were only 3 entries :) but still I was thrilled! I actually won $150 worth of professional photographic printing!! Yay! This is the entry that won, it was in the vacation category. Guess I will enter some more of their contests!

Summer has been pretty slow for me in regards to scrapping. It's a good thing though, as our weather has been awesome and we are having the best summer in years!! I did manage a few things however. The bookmarks below were for "abandoning" I am part of a FB group called Art Abandoned, where artists/crafters leave their creations in public places for people to find. It's just our way of sharing our creations and making the world a little brighter :) It's fun!

Another fun thing to do is to make mixed media canvases. I have only done this twice, and they have been tiny ones, about 5x7, so I am just starting to experiment with these. This one I did as a gift for my cousin who is soon expecting a baby. This one is pretty basic- paper, paint, ink and various embellishments. I will experiment more with different mediums, etc, in the future. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I have a little stand for it to go on too.

Now I have decided, after much encouragement from my daughter and sister, to open an Etsy shop to sell some of my cards (mostly) and other creations. I will make a bunch of things and then open it up and see what happens. I may also get a table at the local Christmas craft fair when it comes around. Can't hurt to try! I made 3 cards yesterday but have not taken pictures of them yet, but will upload them when I do.

Have a happy Sunday everyone!!

I would love to.....

be like those awesome bloggers that blog every day or every other day, about life in general and their crafting. I love reading these people's blogs (special shout out to Jules). My life is pretty boring I think, so I don't feel that I have anything to blog about. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but I am a homebody and don't go out much when I am off from work :) I love spending time at home with my husband and daughter, and I would much rather do that than go out and socialize with other people haha. I LOVE scrapbooking, but am also a "binge scrapper"- I may go for weeks or longer and do nothing, then scrap a bunch of layouts in a few days.

ok, so here are my latest layouts.

Postcard Exchange....

I am part of a postcard exchange group where we make and send postcards to whichever group member is designated for that month. It's a lot of fun- the postcards are fun to make and it's neat to think that people you don't know in person are getting a little gift from you every month. This month I am the recipient and I am anxiously awaiting some postcards!!!

Here are some of the postcards that I have made. The first one was for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and the last one is for my father-in-law for Father's Day

Finally, a new blog post.....

A couple of layouts that I did this week.

This one is a picture of St Paul's cathedral in London, England. This is actually taken from the back- it's such a pretty building that you can take a picture from any angle and it looks beautiful. I used Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection- the background paper, the large chipboard clock and the small clock embellishment. The flowers, I believe, are Prima. the star stickpin is Websters Pages. The clock cardstock is from Coredinations- Core Impressions Graphic 45 collection. I sanded over the clocks to make them stand out. The flourish is Tim Holtz grungeboard which I inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then inked over again in bronze. The metal ornate plate is also Tim Holtz. The lace, tag and brad are from my stash. I inked around the tag in black. Voila!!! I am still unsure if I like the balance of this page- not sure of the placement of all the embellishments are "correct". 

The next layout is also a picture taken in London during the same trip. It was taken at the Victoria and Albert museum. I love this picture, it just cracked me up when hubby stood between the two busts  . I think he is definitely the best looking dude there :) I wanted the paper/embellishments to look museum like, so I went with Tim Holtz papers. I just adore his stuff- vintage and cool! The base paper is Coredinations. The fancy border I cut from another piece of paper- not sure what manufacturer. I cut it so I kept the glittery part and then I painted over the design on it as it was too light for my liking. The strip of crinkled paper under the photo is actually a piece of brown paper bag- I crinkled it up, smoothed it out, rubbed it over with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. The rest of the papers are Tim Holtz. I distressed all the paper edges and rubbed it over with the distress ink. The hinge is Tim Holtz grungeboard, inked and embossed like the paper. The ticket and gear are also Tim Holtz. Fragile tag is Bo Bunny. Flower chain is Jolee's boutique. Tag and button are from my stash and the circle is corrugated cardboard inked with distress ink and inked around edge in black. I have to say that I was pleased with the outcome.