Just Moved Postcards

I had what I thought was a good idea, but a quick Google search showed I wasn't the first to think of it. I decided to go ahead and make these "just moved" postcards anyway, since I'm not selling them, I'm not hurting anyone. Also, I get extra points for actually using one of the boxes I packed my stuff in! ;)

There's my weak attempt at photo styling again..I love love LOVE this airmail pouch! The postcards were super simple to make. I ripped a cardboard box into several pieces, roughly 4x6 inches each. The front has my new address, "Fragile" written with a sharpie and a "Handle with care" stamp.

The back has part of the room name (to make the cardboard look more like a moving box) and a label stamp with the recipients' address. Then, of course, the top right hand corner is for the stamp.

It was so nice to finally sit down and make something! I also got a chance to finally use the die I bought from Lifestyle Crafts & it's the perfect size to package up my mini cards and tags! Best purchase ever!

The chipboard is recycled (everytime we get a shipment of wrapping paper at Papyrus, it comes with this piece of chipboard, which cut up gives me 6 boxes). Twine is also from Papyrus and I used yet another stamp from this awesome Cavallini set. I only had a chance to snap a couple of pictures before my camera died (no idea where the charger is) so I'll have to wait to share my small camera collection.

Have a great 4th of July weekend everyone! I'm planning on going to the harbor to watch fireworks with a couple of friends. This will be my first "outing" since I moved- can't wait!

Art

Haven't posted in a while again..I've been packing & posting stuff on Amazon & eBay & looking at apartments & trying to figure this whole moving thing out. It's so stressful & it's definitely a change to have to go through it alone but I feel stronger already. :)

I really promise things will get back to normal with posting once I settle in next month, but in the meantime here's my most recent art.

 

That is a drawing of my brother. He asked me to draw him & I said yes because it's one of my goals for this year. I obviously have not mastered drawing hair yet. ;) & his lips came out kinda too big..it was a close up picture though. He liked it & I think it's pretty good for not having drawn a portrait in, let's see, 10 years?? 

If you haven't already done so, please enter my neglected giveaway! :)

My very first card!

So, do you think I ended up cleaning off my desk? Crafting?

Nope..

But, I did manage to take 116 photos of things I need to sell / get rid of! (& I now have 2 boxes & one bag of stuff to donate.) While doing that I found my very first digital camera (Kodak EasyShare) & on it a picture of a card I made for my dad when he was in the hospital for heart problems. (He's ok now!) Actually now that I think about it, this may even be the very first card I ever made..The pictures weren't the greatest so I used the Lomo-ish effect from Picnik on them to try to get it to look better. So it seems I do have a card to share with you today.. ;)

 

 

This was so long ago but I'm pretty sure all the supplies I used were from Dollar Tree - even the Band-aid!

**I've decided to extend my giveaway due to my upcoming move & not really promoting it this month!**

  Check out what I added!

26 before 27

Inspired by Elsie, I decided to make a '26 before 27' goal list to help me actually accomplish some of the things I've been putting off forever. I have this terrible problem with procrastination...when I was in school I would always put off doing projects until the very last day- one day even the morning it was due. But if my goals are on paper & you all can read them & hold me accountable, I'll do them! (Hopefully not all in March of next year..)

 

[1. Move into & decorate my first apartment (alone).

2. Get a new hairstyle.

3. Fashion style makeover.

4. Learn Photoshop.

5. Holga photoshoot.

6. Start doing yoga.

7. Cook more often.

8. Learn to sew.

9. Pay off credit card; work on school loan.

10. Take a road trip.

11. Draw more.

12. Repurpose / restyle something thrifted.

13. Craft at least once a week.

14. Have a birthday or 'gotcha day' party for Cinnamon.

15. Sell something from my shop!

16. Get 50 followers on my blog.

17. Participate in a craft fair.

18. Bake more often!

19. Work on my art journal.

20. Organize craft space.

21. Get rid of all craft supplies I no longer use.

22. Learn CSS / HTML- fix up my shop.

23. Get rid of all junk / clutter in my apartment.

24. Self publish a book of poetry.

25. Start camera collection.

26. Learn how to style photographs.]

The jelly beans are my first attempt at #26...I have a long way to go with that one! Sorry for the lack of posts- I've been going through some personal stuff {read: breakup} & have been trying to keep busy & haven't been home much. I've been pretty stressed with figuring stuff out. It seems my "can't live in any one place for longer than a year" curse struck again...though this will be my record (1 year & 2 months- the landlord never contacted us to renew the lease). I'm definitely excited at all the possibilities the future holds for me but kinda scared to live on my own. We'll see how it goes..

Piggy Birthdy Card

I made this card and tag for Jose's niece (who's mom loves pigs!) for her first birthday. I loved making it & as soon as we come home from the party I plan on making lots more cards! :)

Supplies used:
* DCWV cardstock
* October Afternoon patterned paper (Ducks in a Row: Sleep Tight & This Little Piggy)
* Imaginisce B-Day Bash rub-ons
* Pink Paislee chipboard alpha in Limeade

P.S. Welcome to my new followers!
P.P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Start to Draw Your Life

This morning I came across a free ebook, Start to Draw Your Life & even though I haven't picked up a pencil & sketchbook in about 7 years, I was inspired to start drawing! I decided to use a pocket size sketchbook because I'm more likely to keep doing this if the drawings are small. I could easily spend hours trying to get something to look perfect but decided these were good enough for me.  I'm going to share some drawings from time to time & the rest will be in my Flickr.

 What are you waiting for? Check out the ebook & start drawing! If you'd like, please post a link to your drawings, so I can see!

Tutorial: Unique Business Cards

For me, one of the most exciting parts of starting a business is deciding what kind of business cards to get. I knew from the beginning that I was going to get them printed on kraft paper, with pink ink. This was part of the reason it took me so long to get them done- no one seemed to be able to print business cards on kraft! I finally found an album from Checkerboard, at work, that was able to do this! 

I had all these plans to do my own logo but eventually decided just to use text & got them thermography printed. They turned out just like I imagined & didn't cost a fortune. This brings me to the tutorial:

If you plan on making tags, like I did, ask the company to leave a little space on the side blank (I did 3/4"). Make sure to get a proof because nothing is worse than opening a box of business cards to find out they misspelled your name or copied down your phone number wrong!

I decided to make my business cards into tags, because my business is papercrafts so I thought the card would kind of speak for itself. I'm sure there are places where you can order cards already shaped like this & assembled, but this was definitely cheaper! I used Pink Sorbet bakers twine from The Twinery (by the way, if you place an order through March 27, they will donate 25% of all their sales to help Japan!) for my cards, but you can also use ribbon, yarn, scraps of cloth or whatever else you can think of!

A business card should not only tell people what you do, but show them, if possible, especially for those people who own creative businesses. If you sew, why not run the card through a sewing machine or add a couple of stitches by hand? If you design clothes, add a bit of your material to the card. Knit? Tie some yarn to the cards! Make jewelry? Print a picture of a face on your cards & add some "bling stickers" (I'm blanking on the actual name of these...will change this once I remember!) to the ears or necklace. If you're a writer, get cards that open up like a book, etc. So many possibilities!

For more inspiration, check out Lovely Stationery. They have tons of beautiful & creative business cards shown, though many look as though they cost a fortune! (I'd love to get letterpress business cards, but they're a little too out of my price range at the moment!) Please link up your cards here; I'd love to see!

{*All resources used are from the lovely Katrina!}

 (ETA: I hope you all can see the text in the pictures...I'm super new to using Photoshop, templates & all that so I'm not sure how to make the pictures bigger. I added the pictures through Blogger's picture uploader.)

Catching Fall

Where has this month gone? I last posted in the first week of November, with the intention of blogging a lot more this month...but somehow that didn't happen. There was a lot going on for me; mainly, I started working again & it's a retail job so around the holidays the store is very busy & I've been working overtime. One of the other reasons I haven't been blogging as much, you'll find out soon! But for now, the last day of November, I wanted to share a recent project. I had to use old pictures because I haven't gotten my Thanksgiving pictures printed yet & wanted to give you an idea of what it would look like finished but didn't want to wait til December to post it!

The printers tray is by 7 Gypsies, papers, banner & word stickers by Lily Bee Design & the other stickers are K&Company. Here's some in progress shots & close ups:

First I cut my papers (& cardboard) to size & adhered to the tray.

Then added what is probably my favorite part of the whole thing: a leaf doily (from Dollar Tree). I positioned  it over the tray where I wanted it to go & drew a light line with a pencil so I knew where to cut & adhered the pieces one section at a time.

 The 'i am thankful' envelope was made from a piece of kraft cardstock; I simply traced a coin envelope & added a notch to the top. In this picture you can also see a better view of one of the banners. I stuck the Lily Bee stickers to cardstock to make them more sturdy & cut them out. Then I punched holes in the two top corners of each & joined them together with these K&Company brads in the shape of acorns & leaves. Aren't they adorable?

 This is what's inside the envelope. I thought these stickers were perfect to write what we're thankful for. Jose has yet to fill his out, but he told me he's thankful for his family & pets too. :)

 The paper with the 'piles of smiles' sticker on it, in the top left of the tray, is actually an accordion fold booklet that will hold some more mini pictures from this month. The pictures, envelope & booklet are adhered using pop dots so they pop out a little.

 I'm still pretty shocked November is over already, though the light snow we had on Thanksgiving definitely got me excited for winter & Christmas. Next project: December Daily. :)

Last Halloween Post

Just wanted to share the rest of my Halloween projects for this year, before November starts! These were all made for challenges at 2Peas. I love, love, love this card that I made:

I used Pink Paislee patterned paper & alpha, Hambly overlay, Cosmo Cricket alpha & the super cute spider stickers are really old Marcella by K&Company. They're on springs!!

Next up is a card I made using my favorite Halloween collection- Spook Alley from Making Memories. 

This tag uses some really old Martha Stewart papers & Studio G & Inkadinkadoo stamps.

The pumpkin is paper pieced. Love using this technique!

The last tag is double sided & also uses Spook Alley & some Hambly.

& that's it for Halloween stuff..hope everyone has a happy & safe Halloween!

If you haven't done so, enter the giveway!!

ETA: This is my 10th post this month; not too bad...my goal for November is going to be 20!

Halloween Minicards- Set #2

Today's set of minicards uses the same supplies (DCWV paper & Studio G stamps & inks) but the images are more "spooky". :)

I have one last set to share tomorrow, then a couple more last minute Halloween projects during this last week of October!

P.S. I finally got my copy of Creative, Inc. in the mail today! So excited to start reading it! :)

Halloween Minicards

Another quick post today to show you a set of 4 Halloween minicards I made. I used DCWV paper & Studio G stamps & inks for these. They are so easy to make! Cutting out the images probably takes the longest, but you could always use a circle punch instead of detail cutting. These would make really cute tags or you could include them in goodie bags if you're having a party or handing out candy to trick-or-treaters!

I'll be back tomorrow with another set!

Small break from Halloween crafting..

So I didn't quite finish the card set for my boyfriend's sister, but I did get something done for WCMD! I made this card for a challenge at Betsy Veldman's blog. The challenge was to take a non-holiday card from Card Creations Vol. 8 & make a holiday card based on that design. I decided to use this card by Renee Morris:

and here is what I came up with:

I kept the card pretty similar. I was inspired by the text background & the three elements (trees). To make mine, I used some inked paper from October Afternoon's "Very Merry" collection as a background. Then I added some lace, chipboard & cutout Gingerbread men & Mini Market stickers for the sentiment. The finishing touch was the obligatory bling for the cookie's buttons. :)

P.S. Don't worry, I still have lots more Halloween stuff to share this month before really getting into the holiday projects!