Oh My Gosh, It's October!

Hello fellow Ultimate Blogging Challengers. I feel a bit remiss because here we are almost in the middle of the month and I haven't mentioned my Etsy shop or my crafting work at all! Very poor in the marketing division. I'll have to speak with someone about that! (I AM the marketing division, along with every other division - LOL).

For about 10 or 11 years I have had an Etsy shop where I sell my handmade greeting cards, mini scrapbook albums and other paper crafts. In the last five years I have begun attending craft fairs, mostly around the holidays but I'm beginning to branch out to other times of the year as well. A lot of my creations are interactive and I find that they are best shown in person, although Etsy does now have a spot for videos of your items.

At any rate, one of the things I did recently was be a vendor at an outdoor evening event. It was at a local church and as part of their festival they were having a holiday night market. I have done outside events but none at night so I thought I'd give it a shot.  We just recently got a canopy so that outside events would be possible and I must say that we put it up really quickly. 

I knew that it might get a little windy, especially as night came on, but the days had been really warm so I wasn't too worried. Still, I didn't display everything as I usually do because most of my products are made of paper and I didn't want to have to chase everything if the wind came up. Which it did. Forcefully. I had weights around the legs of the canopy but it almost blew away. Thankfully my vendor neighbor helped secure it by sharing some of their weights. One of my items did fall off and unfortunately it was a glass frame which broke. 

Since it was going to get dark, I bought some twinkle lights to spread around the table. I really liked them and decided I was going to get more for the upcoming holiday craft fairs I have scheduled next month. 

 

Sadly, I didn't make any sales. I think it will be a while before I attempt that venue again. It is was definitely not worth setting it all up and sitting in the cold and wind for 5 hours. It was a three day event but I only could do Friday night. Perhaps if I had done the Saturday one it might have been more profitable. 

These are examples of the products I make. 

Here is a little tour of my studio. This was from a few years ago but it is basically the same, just more crowded with stuff! 

I also have a YouTube channel where I share some of the processes for making my items. That's another aspect of the business that I want to enhance. 

And that's about it for now. Hope you enjoyed the tour of the studio. After watching it again I can see how much has actually changed in the 5 years since I made it and I'll have to do an update. If you are looking for unique handmade greeting cards or need an album for a special occasion I'd love to work with you. Send me a message on the Etsy site! Happy Saturday!

Happy Sunday Folks

There is a little less than two weeks to go until the big A to Z Blogging Challenge. I am getting my letters together and hopefully I'll finish at least the drafts in time. I found the last few years when I had my draft posts made it was a lot easier for me to keep up. I am going to try to get over to visit a few more people this year too. 

In the meantime, I am SO EXCITED because I get to teach a class at our local RAC (Recreation and Aquatic Center). I have been trying to hold a class for the last several months but sadly not enough people signed up. The RAC requires five people minimum and I've only had one or two so the classes were cancelled. This month I have five thanks to some friends. I'll be showing them how to make card sets like this from Creative Memories.

If you are interested, you can get the sets from my Creative Memories site and make some too or you can get the ones that I already made from my Etsy shop. I also got approved to do some classes during the next season about making vision cards and dreamboards. Crossing fingers there will be some interest in that. 

And along the lines of my A to Z theme, I also mailed out some cards as part of a project through the Card Campaign, a group I found during the election last year. I printed and mailed 40 postcards to old Dumpy in the White House. 

The idea was to have everyone send in their postcards on the same day (yesterday the 15th) so that it floods the White House mail. It may not do any good but I have to say that writing those messages was great for my mental health. The return address is the Superior Court Building so there is no way to trace it back to me, although honestly it is free speech so I'm not worried. I said nothing that wasn't true and nothing that hasn't been said before by millions of people. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. It is not one of the holidays I celebrate much for some reason -- mainly I'm not Irish LOL. See you again soon!

August Break - 2019 - Smile, August Was, Couch

And so we come to the end of August Break for 2019.  Gonna try for another three-fur today, combining the last two days of August with the Stream of Consciousness Saturday.  Let's see how it goes.

August 30 - Smile

We went to the Giants game last night with a bunch of friends for Italian Heritage night.  Since my maiden name is Stagnaro, I'm pretty sure I qualify.  Of course I have to take the smiling selfie wherever we are:

But this time we were smiling even more because our picture made it to the big screen!

Game #3

When I say "Big screen" I really mean it because at 153.28 FEET wide by 70.87 FEET high it is the largest video screen in any of California's sports arenas.  So, I can say that was my/our 15 seconds of fame :)  

August 31 - August Was...definitely not a month where I sat on the couch and did nothing!  I started the month with a Backstreet Boys concert, went to three Giants games and the ocean, caught the full moon, made some cards, started a new baby album project and read three books.  Plus, lost 2 more pounds - which is not a lot but with some less than strict Keto eating during these events is not surprising to me. 

Backstreet Boys

Game #1 - "Friends" tribute night.  Some of the Giants players and their wives did a recreation of the opening of the television show "Friends."  It was pretty good!

Game #2 - Baseball card giveaway

The Beach

The full moon

Cards for any occasion available now.

Baby's first year mini-album in a box.

Interesting read about Freddie Mercury.  Added some details that I didn't know. 

 Latest book from the Braxton Campus series.  Stay tuned for another one in October!

Based on a true story.  I cannot imagine.   

Hope you enjoyed my August Break entries.  How was your August?  What's coming up in September?  I'm thinking of doing a would you rather this or that series.    

A to Z Challenge - 2019 - Q is for Quotes

I was going to use Queen for the letter "Q" and then talk about things related to mothers, because you know we are the Queens of the house.  Then I realized that that was just more of the mini-albums and cards that I had already talked about so I decided to use "Quotes" as my word for today.

I suppose when I am making cards I could leave the insides blank.  That certainly would be easier but then the cards seem unfinished to me.  In the post about Overlays I showed the example of tags I had put in with the sentiment stamped on them.  There is always room for people to add their own messages too, but sometimes I think it takes the "pressure" off of having to think of something to say.  Know what I mean?

I am a collector of quotes and am always on the lookout for stamps and other things with good quotes on them.  One of my sources is the desk top calendars with a different quote on each page.  I have quite a few of those. 

They definitely come in handy and I can usually cut around the quote and fit it into the card or mini-album.  

New Job

Birthday

Birthday/Wedding

Mother's Day

Graduation

Just because

I also love to use stamps.  Some have just words on them that you can mix and match to make your own quotes and some have the whole sentiment.

This one is a good one because it has a lot of different occasions on it.  

I've used this one quite a few times on Thank You cards. 

This is one of my favorites though.  It has quotes from little kids.  "Getting married means sharing your toys."  That makes perfect sense to me!  Also, "You make me smile all over my face."  Ever felt like that?

Would you rather have a card that is blank inside so you can write whatever you want or do you like ones with appropriate sentiments already?  Do you have favorite quotes that would be good to use?  Share!

I hope you are getting a chance to visit some of the other 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge bloggers out there.  I know that some are new and would appreciate the love.  Tomorrow is Saturday so see you here for some R and R! 

A to Z Challenge - 2019 - O is for Overlay and Owls

Koala's have always been my favorite animal and I have pictures or statues of them all over the house.  Lately though I've been drawn to owls.  Maybe I'm looking for their wisdom.  Anyway, at the recent Stamp and Scrapbook Expo I found these kits with some really cute owl overlays.  Overlays are clear acetate pages with pictures or words printed on them.  You lay them over papers to get different effects.

The kits come with two sheets of overlays with three designs on each so I have 24 cards I can make.  They also come with two sheets of adhesive glitter paper.  This is clear glitter paper but you can get it in a variety of colors depending on your project.   

One of the packs has black frames and some outline stickers that are multicolored.

 The first step is to cut apart the pictures.

Then you carefully stick the glitter paper on the back.  You have to go slow so there are no bubbles.   For the first one I decided to make a sympathy card so this is what I put together:

 I stamped a sentiment on a smaller card and adhered it to the inside.

Here is the finished first card.  I used some of the colored stickers on the envelope and chalked the edges of the front of the card black.  I thought it came out really well.  This is the first time I have worked with these kits and they are pretty easy to use.  Other than tips about how to put the glitter paper on the back there are no "directions" with the kits so you can do whatever you want with the pieces.  They give you a lot too so I know I'll have some extras.

The second kit had some cute owls cuddling so I decided to use them to make a wedding card.  The frames on this set were white instead of black.  I did the same procedure with adhering the sparkle paper behind the picture and then framed it and put it on the front of the card. 

 I decorated the corners of the front with these stickers and used some glittery pen to color them in.

I used some chalk ink to go around the edges to give it a little pop of color and a more finished look.

For the inside I used a tag and stamped another sentiment on it.

Here is the second finished card.  I used some washi tape on the envelope.  I'm pretty happy with this one too. 

These are the first things (except for the Sketchbook) that I have made since I moved all my craft supplies into the new studio.  It was such a joy to have the space and to be able to get to things easily.  I still have some stuff to move around and the more I work in it I may find that some things need to go in a different spot but for the most part it is working out great!   I have this wise owl as a mascot that I am going to put outside once we get to the yard decorating part of this adventure.  I do also have these cute owl curtains.  

But just so the Koalas don't think I've forgotten them, these two have prominent spots in the studio as well!

Another letter down!  This year the A to Z 10th Anniversary Challenge has been going very smoothly.  One year I didn't finish all the letters in time and had to go back to add them.  I don't think I'm going to have that problem this year, thank goodness.  Hope you liked these behind the scenes examples.  Come back tomorrow for the letter "P."