Valentine Photo Block

I'm a member of the etsy paper twirlies team, every month we've been trying to have a contest where we submit something we've created based on the theme; this month's theme is Valentine's Day - which I just love. I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do and I usually try to do something different, so I looked through all my stuff and found a wood photo block I bought in November or so. It was for Christmas, it had outlines to paint in on each side of a small Christmas scene, I knew I wasn't going to keep those so I just painted over all that. I quilled a bunch of hearts in pink/red colors and glued them all around the cube. I then took the same lavendar color, added a little white and painted dots all over it; to make it shiny I painted over the block area's with watered down Modge Podge. Once dried, I used clear/white glitter glue and put that over the lightened color dots. Added a doubled pink organza bow and voila - my january entry. I love the colors and the simplicity of the whole thing, may keep this one for myself. I only bought one photo block from Michael's and now I'm wishing I had bought more. I'm going to get on the internet and see where I can buy more, I really like the way it turned out and think they are a good idea for both shops and any craft fairs I do this year - if I do any.

Super Busy

I hung my dry erase board this week-end in the hopes that I can get organized. I made my list of quilling projects and today I wiped away 3 projects from the list and it felt good. I made a gorgeous frame for my sister's birthday present (photo 4), I finished the custom order of 25 Christmas name cards (photo 3) and packaged up the dragonfly tags (photo 2) that are going to be on the front cover of an e-book. That's not it, I'm donating an item for a church silent auction and at first I thought I'd have time to make something new but I looked through my shop and I have a pretty little rose frame (photo 1) that need's a good home so I think that will be my donation. Next on the list is 10 cornucopia name cards, I have to sketch that one out since I've never done anything like that; I think it will be fun. Oh and I can't forget the giveaway I'm participating in - I'm making 2 sets of cards for that; maybe 5 in each set - I'll go into more detail on that later. So that's why I'm super busy on top of just making new stuff for both shops, I say both shops although i have four - but at the moment I'm concentrating on my etsy shop and the one here in town. It's good to be super busy sometimes..........

Table Name Cards

I'm tired so this will be a short post, I stayed up way too late last night working on the snowflake cards and watching Nip/Tuck; love that show but why did I have to stay up - it ended at 12:12 a.m. and I have to wake up at 5:20 a.m. to get ready for work before waking the rascals; so I'm very tired tonight.

I just wanted to show what I'm currently working on, I've mentioned the Christmas table name cards and here they are (the icons at least) - cute huh? I'm almost done then I'm moving on to Thanksgiving table name cards with cornucopia's - I've never created that before so it will be a challenge but I'm excited about it. I've seen some other cornucopia's and honestly I wasn't too thrilled with them so let's see how I can do. I'll post later once I'm working on those. 

Saving Handmade

I'm not sure how many people are aware of the new law that goes into effect on February 10, 2009. It's the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, which will require anyone/company that produces any items for children to spend tens of thousands of dollars for third party testing to prove their product has no toxic chemicals. Please click on the cute little bear to the left on my blog to help save handmade. I appreciate laws that want to keep children safe, I have two of my own; but this law will wipe out small business owners or crafters who make anything that could be for children; the testing is just too expensive. 

My studio

Also known as my computer room. Thought I'd share with everyone my area, the room where I go to be creative. It's a mess, I'm not gonna lie about it. I try to clean it and it will stay that way for a day or so but it eventually ends up with piles everywhere, so I just try to do the best I can in my mess. I have two desks side by side, one is for my printer and computer - you'll notice I have another printer underneath, some day I'll put that on the desk and get rid of the older one. The other desk has my scanner, and my quilling projects in progress, scrapbook paper and my Cricut. I'm trying to keep track of projects this year by using my wipe erase/corkboard to the left of everything, so far so good. I have a 3 drawer plastic shelf for paints, books and painting supplies. Now, inside the closet is insane, I have so many items to add quilling too and not enough time. I have paper mache, wood, paper - just everywhere. I purchased this lovely heavy duty shelf unit a couple years back from Sam's Club and I love it. Next to that I have a tall 5 drawer shelf which has ribbon, felt, pom pom's and a drawer for my son's crafty items. On the top shelf of the closet I have more paper mache and wood items, I also have polyfil and fleece in there too, left over from the days of sewing. My coworker knows to ask me if I have something before going out and buying it, most likely I have it if it involves crafts. Makes me laugh to look at all my stuff, and I'm sure one day I'll actually get to creating with half the stuff I have. 

Lovebirds

I love holiday's and Valentine's Day is one of my favorites. This year I decided I wasn't going to get behind on creating stuff for the occasion and I've already gotten cards and frames done so I'm happy about that. This is a an image of the first two frames I've completed and I must say I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I painted them and added some scrapbook paper and ric rac and my little quilled lovebirds, I'm definitely going to make more - might even make one for me - something I never do. I have no quilled creations in my house, weird huh? The frame with the xoxo lovebirds is available through my etsy shop, the other one is going into my shop here in town and as mentioned there will be more on the way. 

Welcome 2009!

So far this year has started out pretty good. I received a request through etsy for Christmas and Thanksgiving table name cards, I've submitted a quote so keeping my fingers crossed that it will be accepted and I'll be creating 25 Christmas name cards and 10 Thanksgiving name cards. I signed up for the Candy Crop tomorrow night at Eclectica so I'm looking forward to that. I need a break from the rascals and I enjoy going to the crop's; plus I need to start creating new stuff for all my shops. Speaking of that, I just finished setting up and activating my Lollishops shop; I don't have any items in it yet but it's activated so it's ready for me to add some. I'm not sure about that one yet so I'm just putting a few things in to see what happens. I've also activated my Shop Handmade shop and added a card, I'm just trying to get my stuff out there as much as possible.