Craft Show

My first ever craft show was on Saturday May 19th. It was a small outdoor show combined with a salon's cut-a-thon to help raise money to benefit a cancer non profit. The fee was minimal with additional requirements to donate 10% of sales and also to donate a baked good for the bake sale so I figured it was a good first show- Minimal cost but an opportunity to set up a display etc. I had just over a month to prepare but coupled with working two jobs and my March for Babies stuff I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted. I did make plenty of tutu's in a variety of colors but I didn't get very many flower clips done and I had hoped to add in a couple other items but just ran out of time.

I used my brand new Inkadinkado alphabet stamps and $1 ink pads to finish my color card and to make some signs.

I have seen a couple of displays around the internet using luggage.  I happened to find a piece that is in perfect condition and used it in my display.  I tied some twine around the top and used mini safety pins to hang several tutus up.  I have picked up a second piece of luggage but it needs some TLC before I can use it but for 30 cents at a garage sale I couldn't pass it up!

I used a mug tree to display some of my (few) clips by stretching a headband between the pegs and clipping three flowers to each side.  I also clipped a couple flowers to the twine clothesline.

The day started off just slightly breezy but soon some gusts had my tutus flying away.  So I rearranged my display using a basket I had brought just in case and making more of a twine clothesline.  

                                      

I also used some mini clothespins to pin some of the tutus right to the table. 

I was pretty happy with the display.  Although, there are definitely a few things I'd like to fine tune, plus a few more items I'd like to make. I was also happy that I had a nice neighbor next to me on one side (an empty space on the other) who was nice to chat with.  I certainly didn't have a spectacular day sales wise but I'm considering it a learning experience and hopefully the next one will be better!






  Crafty Scrappy Happy

Birthday Card

Card making is one of the first "craft" things I really really enjoyed. Not saying I'm the most talented at it, but there is something super satisfying about making a one of a kind card for someone versus buying one a the store. Even with all the different cards on the market I have on more then one occasion seen someone get two (or more!) of the same card.

So for my boss' birthday I made a little card from our group of ladies who work for her.  I created my card and then took pictures.  I really never start a card with an exact idea in mind- I just let the ideas flow.  So don't mind that a few things I used are missing and that there aren't step by step photos.

1. Pretty paper

2. Coordinating piece of card stock

3.  Deckle Scissors (favorite!!!)

4.  Singing bird stamp (another favorite!!)

5.  Happy Birthday stamp 

6. Gel glitter pen

7.  Tape roller

Left out of the picture: My blank card & my red ink pad

 I started off with a blank canvas of a white card &  matching envelope.  Once I picked out the pretty paper (#1) I decided to use my deckle scissors to cut a big piece out for the background of my card.

I then needed a coordinating piece of plain paper/card stock to stamp on.  I cut a rectangle and a square out of the yellow card stock and stamped them with my chosen stamps.  I added a few hand drawn music notes to tie in with the singing bird and glued it all on with my glue roller.

I also decided to jazz up the envelop a little and using the same pretty paper cut out a faux stamp and made a little fancier To: area.






Simple, but more fun and meaningful for me.




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Bookmark Card

A few weeks ago I made this cute bookmark card for a birthday.  It's nice to send a card that has a little something special that can be useful, especially if you know any readers.  It would also be great paired with a good book for a gift.

 Since I made this before I started my blog I made another one with the same bookmark idea to post tonight.

Here are the supplies I started with although they are not exclusive because as I was creating I grabbed a few other things.  PS the cupcake stamps and the bird stamps in the first picture are Inkadinkado's Cling Stamps and they are so cute!  I also saw the cutest fish from the same line that might have to become part of my collection very soon!

So I stamped my bookmark, punched a hole and added brown ribbon. Then I decided to also trim the edges with my deckle scissors.  (I deckle almost everything :) )

Next I trimmed down my pretty paper to the right size.  

After playing around with positioning and also re-trimming a little I finally settled on this angle and glued it down with a glue roller.

I lined up my bookmark and ruler and then made a slit wide enough for the bookmark to slide through.  Make sure you have your card laid out flat so you don't slit the back page of the card and be careful when cutting.

I repeated the cutting step with the top, only I placed the bookmark in the bottom slot and then ended up sliding it down to just above where I wanted to cut the slit making it more likely that I'd line up the slits well!

On the inside I just made a little handwritten note to let the recipient know it was meant to come out and tucked the ribbon in.  Of course in the very first photo I used the ribbon as part of the card.  There are tons of different ways to customize this card from what you put on the bookmark to how you display it in the card.

Front of finished bookmark card.

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Clean & Scentsible





I Heart Naptime Sunday Scoop

Another {Craft} Blog Is Born!

 I've been devouring craft blogs for a little while now and decided it would be a lot of fun to have my own so I can share my projects with people who might appreciate them...  It's so much fun to create things, but the husband,well he doesn't really appreciate my creations nearly as much as I do, and really what fun are crafts if you can't share them with others?

My creative side was slow to show itself, or maybe I was just slow to let it out, because I thought I'd NEVER be a crafter like my mom.  But at the very beginning of 2011 I thought scrapbooking might be a good idea.  So I bought a few very basic things to scrapbook about my children... I created 5 pages and decided I wasn't really  much of a scrapbooker.  I won't share them on here...  the main reason being how absolutely terrible the pages are!  I literally slapped some pictures and stickers on a page (and originally though, oh not bad! YIKES) and that was that.  I could probably do better now- but for the most part scrapbooking isn't much of a draw for me. Then, one evening I just started doodling and writing out some Bible verses with my fun gel pens on some fun colored flat note cards I had and though those first little doodled cards were nothing fancy (nor very good), they inspired me.  I kept creating cards and started falling a little in love with Etsy and craft blogs and at all the awesome handmade things out there, gathering inspiration.  I started out crafting at the kitchen table and my beginning craft supplies were contained in one (large) shoe box that only held two pads of paper/cardstock, a box of flat notecards, 5 pairs of fun scissors, 12 colored gel pens and a gluestick.  And now, less than one year later this is my craft room (I share space with the spare bed, and it's not done yet but I'm still excited about it!)...

The main work area.  My husand's computer desk from before we knew each other, that had been in the basement since we turned the "office" into a nursery! 

The sewing area.  I've had my sewing machine since Christmas 2010... it just came out of the box in September and has been used once.  The sewing table is an anniversary present from my grandma as I mentioned I wanted one that would allow me to use the machine "flush" with the surface or with the arm "free", however, this table doesn't fit my sewing machine... so I'm waiting for the husband to take the flipped up part off- or find me a square screwdriver so I can do it myself!

My shelves in the closet which hold fabric, project supplies like jars, notebooks, boxes, frames, bags .

My (new) ribbon storage.  A 99 cent find at St. Vincent De Paul's that works wonderfully to allow access to my ribbon.  So much better than the box I had it stored in before!  Two problems... I need to find a better place to hang it (maybe a hook on the wall?) and that it is nearly full already and I just bought a couple more rolls....  hmmm

It's been (and continues to be) done on a very small budget so as you can see I'm using a lot of odds and ends like pickle jars and coffee cans as well as some nicer Goodwill finds.  Someday I'll get around to making them pretty (covering them in pretty fun paper) but I haven't yet.  I hope to add a dresser next to store more items, (including my baking stuff that doesn't fit in my kitchen and all my gift wrapping stuff) and have another flat work surface that can double as a place to iron (once I get into sewing more!)

I love pretty much all things crafty... so far my favorite projects/craft areas include cards, tulle flowers, rolled fabric flowers, clothespin picture frames, jars filled with Bible verses and/or quotes, bookmarks, gift bags and gift tags.  I also have metal stamps on the way as I plan to start making stamped silverware plant markers. My mom has a greenhouse and I thought they'd be a cute addition...and will hopefully satisfy my desire to do metal stamping without spending a lot on jewelry supplies as you can find silverware at thrift shops for like 10 cents a piece.   Above, you also see a picture of a sewing machine and a pile of sewing materials on the shelf... Sewing is the hardest of all my craft areas for me to get to (or learn), because my craft room is next to my son's room and I don't want to wake him up so I must wait for some Mama time when he is not sleeping (doesn't happen very often at all!).  My current favorite supplies include clear/cling rubber stamps (especially  Inkadinkado Clings, ribbon, acrylic paint, buttons, brads, paper flowers, notecards, my Fiskars Deckle scissors, my Fiskars Rotary Trimmer (the 3rd rotary trimmer I tried!), stencils.

So again, welcome to my blog, I hope I can live up to (and eventually work up to!) some of the fabulous blogs that have inspired me to join the craft blog world!  I hope my crafts and projects will make others as happy and inspire, just as many of the craft blogs have given me excitement and inspiration to try something new!