One

Yes that's right, one card.  And it was a bog standard Kanban decoupage card that required none of my exquisite skills or expertise (ho ho)
The lady next to me said that it was the worst fair she'd been to (I know how to pick 'em) and even if there had been more than about 50 people through the doors, I counted 5 cards stalls out of about 30 so cpmpetition was rife. [Clearly, mine were the best (ahem)]

But the main plan was to get some experience and maybe have some thoughts on what to do differently.  This definitely came to fruition and I did actually enjoy it!

Roll on Friday and the Mother's Day Ladies Evening.  Maybe I can even manage to sell two...

First Craft Fair

Here we go then.  Tomorrow I am attending my first craft fair as a seller!

I had a run through of my stall set up yesterday and think I'm OK with that as it's not going to be too big.   I shall spend a while pricing things up later today and then this evening will most likely have a frantic panic about not having enough cards of a certain type (Mother's Day and Girl's birthdays spring to mind) and then craft into the wee small hours, forget to set the alarm and then miss the fair!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing how things go.  I don't have dreams of selling out or even getting close to that but if I manage to sell just one card, I shall be very smiley indeed.

Wish me luck

Gone Live

Well that's it then.  I have just emailed out a sort of mail shot to many of my previous customers as well as friends and relatives to let them know about this blog and Kalamazoo generally.

If you are one of those people and are reading this blog for the first time, thank you for making the effort to come and have a look!  Please do spread the word.

I'm hoping I get a bit of interest from doing this and will obviously be handing out business cards and leaflets at the Craft Fairs so with any luck I'll get a lot more requests for items soon.

Word of mouth and repeat purchases are my favourite type of contacts as it normally means I have satisfied customers!

Wish me luck and have a good weekend

Natalie
x

Cards coming out of my ears

I am very happy as I was asked to make 6 cards on one day this week!  2 Mother's Day cards, 2 New Home cards, a baby card and a birthday card.  I have been beavering away and got half of them done but am still working on  a 50th card for someone else and also am trying to get loads of cards made for my first fair which is happening a week on Saturday.

I've uploaded the new ones I've made for sale on the 'cards for sale' page (!) and the commission ones so far are below:

 An easel card using Polka Doodles Back to Nature CD.  

The house and path have been decoupaged.  The sentiment was stamped with See-Ds and embossed with clear powder.  The flowers are little sequins and the butterfly is an embellishment that I 'borrowed' from my daughter (she 'borrows' loads of my stuff too)

Come to think of it, this is my first proper card made using a CD.  Hurrah!

They're moving to Australia.  I stuck the house on upside down (on purpose!) and found it hysterical

The backing paper is from Polka Doodles Back to Nature again and I did the wording using the basic Microsoft Office WordArt tools

Brief: An 8 year old called Lucy who likes cats.

Think this should fit the bill.

Stamped the pawprints on the backing paper using Distress ink and handcut the letters from mirri card using word letters as templates.  The 'L' and the 'C' are on 3D foam pads to make it a bit more interesting

The cat is a Kanban stamp, coloured in promarkers

Having a night off from card making now.  I may have been mumbling about DST in my sleep......

Change of headline

Haven't got time to blog properly just at the mo but I thought it was probably quite off putting for anyone visiting the blog to be met by an entry entitled BUM, so I've added this one to be at the top!

I'm spending so much time trying to get cards made up for my first craft fair (11 days and counting) that I haven't had a chance to upload any.  Cross my heart etc I'll get some done soon and will be back for a chat too......

Aargh

BUM!!
I tried to upload the rest of my paypal buttons to the jewellery page this afternoon and I have somehow managed to destroy the layout of that page (just that one, fortunately).  As I am not an HTML monster, I've decided the best thing to do is to delete the whole page and start again.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

And even time for a few jewels!!!

Finally for now a couple of jewellery items I made last night.  I think that makes up a bit for my lack of blogging for the meantime...

Some more of my recent offerings

A few more cards produced during my period of enforced non blogginess...

Olive green handmade paper distressed at the edges.

Paper from a swap with Crafty Sandra stuck on top with 3D foam to raise it up

Organza ribbon knotted at the side.

Circle cut using my cuttlebug and nesties

Handcut '40' printed from my PC and enhanced with Glossy accents

Glazed and glittered backing paper got in a swap 

Fuchsia pink cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart punch

'mum' cut on my cuttlebug with a serif alphabet

pearly turquoise brads!!

Children's Cards

Some cards for some of our younger acquaintances....

Lucy's first birthday

Plain white cardstock embossed with a Tim Holz folder on my cuttlebug

The Knight is a QuickKutz die used on my Cuttlebug and cut mostly from DCWV metallic stack

The card is shaped as a double fold back gatefold

I'm back!

After a VERY hectic couple of weeks with very little time for beauteous creatvitiness and which included the birthdays of two of my offspring one day apart, a potential court appearance, a birthday party for 30 children, a trip to the zoo, half term and an outing to see Steve Backshall I am finally able to upload the few projects I have managed to complete.

Here are the cards I made for Talia and Torin: