I thought I already posted this, but apparently it didn't work. This past spring, my cousin retired from the Army after 25 years of service. I made this word book for him as a military retirement gift. As a former veteran, I know how hard this transition can be and I wanted to do something nice to honor his accomplishments. I had all this military paper leftover from a project that I had done for my brother in law, so it worked out perfectly. I cut out the words from Lee Greenwood's son "I'm Proud to be an American" and used those for each of the title pages. I added the embellishments and some squares for him to his pictures. I love the way it turned out. When I gave it to my cousin, he said that he loved it and said that I should sell these. I do sell custom made word books in my etsy shop. If you'd like one, contact me and I can make a custom order for you.
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So I'm back. Sorry it has been awhile since I've written. Once again I've taken on too much stuff and had no time to write. I have been asked again to be the vendor coordinator for the Oktoberfest, they increased my hours at work, and I'm trying to get ready for my biggest show of the year: Christmas in July. Fortunately for me, I didn't sell everything at my last show, so I do have some inventory left over to fill up my booth. But I did make a lot of new products. I went to the scrapbook expo a few weeks ago and learned a ton of new techniques and I spent way more than I was allotted by my hubby. I hope to make it up by selling some new great products at the Christmas in July at the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside this weekend. I ordered 200 bobby pins and I used them all up in one day. I've been frantically making more onesies, capes, hairclips, and lollipops for this event. I finally got to play with my new Critter 2 cartridge and some of my older cartridges to come up with some very cute lollipop designs. I am so excited how they turned out. I don't really like the cartridges with all the layering, but they do turn out really nice as final projects. Maybe I will actually upload some of these new designs into my Etsy Store. But I have to do this show this weekend, and next week I have to work on my taxes, I am still working on making my business plan to open up my own store, and trying to keep all of these vendors happy for the Oktoberfest in September. So here's what you've been waiting for: the pictures. I'll start with the lollipops and later I will take pictures of the other stuff and hopefully I will find the time to post everything up here again. If you have never used modge podge, you have really been limiting your creativity. This stuff is awesome and oh so versatile. This is the stuff they use to make collages, to save puzzles, to seal different projects, to add texture to a project. But there are some tricks you should know when using this stuff. To use it, you need a paint brush or a sponge brush. It can be used as a glue to adhere a picture to a box or a tile. You would apply a small amount of the glue to the back of the picture and adhere it to the surface you want to mount it on. Then use your finger to smooth out any bubbles. To protect your image, put a thin coat of the modge podge over the image and let it dry. It will be white like Elmer's glue when it goes on, but it dries clear. If you are putting the image on a tile or a coaster, you will want to spray a clear acryalic sealant over the image. If you don't do this, the condensation from a cup will ruin your image/coaster. I just made about 10 of these photo tiles for a mother daughter tea party we were doing. I had left them out over night to dry. Fortunately, I had sprayed them with the acryalic sealant and it had dried before it started to rain. When I brought them in the next morning, they were all ok and I was able to dry off the tiles and they still looked great. I also recently used the modge podge to decorate some wooden owls that I was using for my friend's shower. The modge podge was great for allowing me to cover up the owls with decorative scrapbook paper that I had here. The sealant was used to prevent it from being tacky. A long time ago I had made some jewelry boxes for a craft fair using modge podge. I forgot to spray it with the sealant. I had stacked the boxes on top of each other after they were dry. Unfortunately, the modge podge was still tacky, and then all the boxes got stuck together and were ruined when I tried to take them apart. The morale of this lesson is to always use the sealant if you are using modge podge. I don't have a picture of it, but I have used modge podge to put fabric pieces on a painted cigar box to make a really cool gift box for my dad. I had cut out the Chargers logo from a piece of leftover fabric I had. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but the modge podge was able to hold the fabric on to the box and it made a great little gift for my dad. So stop by your local craft store and try some today and show me what you made with this stuff. Hope you have a great week.. I am kinda excited about this owl themed baby shower. I wasn't sure about how it would turn out, since I never did any owl type projects before. But it is allowing me to explore different creative elements on some of my cricut products. I had all the ric rack and had know idea what to do with it, but I think it looks really cute on these owls. I've been looking for a different type of banner. I've been doing so many scallop circles, I was getting dizzy. I relly like this marquee design and I think the style will be a welcomed addition to the banners that I already have in my etsy shop. Who knew how helping someone else, would inspire me to start new lines of products. I'm looking forward to making some fresh new banners and cupcake toppers. I needed to come up with some new designs and I think this is a winner. Hope that my friend likes the way everything turns out. So one of my friends is pregnant. I asked her if anyone was throwing her a
shower yet. She said her family was, but they live an hour away from here. I volunteered to help throw a shower for her here. The theme came together quite quickly. She was going to have her nursery with owls. So why not throw an owl themed baby shower---that seemed logical enough for me. Her colors were grey, aqua, green, and orange. I couldn't really wrap my head around this color combo, but we went ahead with it. This week I looked up some owl themes on pinterest and I figured out how to make the stuff up myself. These pictures are some of the samples that I've been working on for the past two days. I think everything is coming together great. I just have to see which one my other friend likes better and then we will cut everything out and start getting the invitations together. Let me know which things you like so far. It's a bird, no it's a plane, no it's the newest super hero capes that I started to make. I have been racking my brain to find a fun and creative product that I could make up for all the little boys that pass through my booth. It is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I was saiving toilet paper rolls for the longest time, trying to figure out how to make them into cars. That didn't work out. Then I started talking with my husband about the comic con that is coming to San Diego. Then it hit me, I should make super hero capes and masks. I'm not an excellent seamstress, but how hard could it be to sew a few straight lines. I did some research and figured out how to make them. I could have just left them blank, but I decided to to add some of the heat transfer vinyl and added a design on the back of them. They are reversible and have two colors for twice the fun. The capes turned out super cute. It actually looks like I knew what I was doing. I'm still working on the masks, but I think I have an idea of how to do it....execution will be the problem. I was able to make about 7 of them in time for the OB Kite Festival that I am going to be at this Saturday. I don't know if they will sell or not, but I actually had fun making them. On Monday, one of my friends brought their toddler over and he tried on the cape and the one mask that I had finished. He looked super cute. I was going to take a picture, but my camera battery had died. I have to figure out a cool way to display them. Maybe I will just have to make one for myself and wear it all day. Now that would be super funny. I can see it now...me wearing a cape and a mask, and trying to sell stuff to customers. Maybe I should figure out how to make a luchador mask next time...mmmhhh. Have fun looking at the pictures. Recently I started playing around with making those fabric flowers. Most people burn them with a candle, but knowing me, I would probably burn my house down. So I started experimenting. I had this fabric that I picked at a thrift store and I had no idea what to do with it. It is that old polyester they used to make pants out in the 70s. It was part of a larger bag of fabric. Something I never would have picked up on my own. Anyways, I cut out some circles, heated up the fabric with my heat embossing gun, and glued everything together with some hot glue. I was surprised how realistic this flower looked. I have it on a clip that can be removed from the head band. It can be worn as a lapel pin, a head band, a hairclip, or even dress up a pair of shoes or a purse. I really like the way it turned out. I will warn you that if you try this technique, use a pair of tweezers to hold the fabric. I don't know how many times I burned my fingers before I figured that out. I made several of these head bands, but every fabric has a different look and feel to it. Some fabrics work better that others. I think I need to use up the fabric before I go out and try to get anymore. Below are some pictures of the other head bands I was able to make with this technique. The purple one, I actually did use the candle technique and my house didn't catch on fire :) Have a great week! So Saturday was my first day to bring out these lovely jars to a craft show. Well, I never want to do that again. They look really cool and were fun to make, but it was a pain to drag them out to a show. I broke one of the candle holders when I went over a bump with my dolly and all of the boxes fell over off the cart. I was so greatful for all the vendors that stopped to help me pick up the broken glass and the boxes that fell on the ground. It is a pretty tight knit community and I am so thankful to be part of it. I was so afraid that the wind would pick up and knock these over, I didn't display it as well as I should of. Needless to say, I didn't end up selling any of them. All that work for nothing. Maybe I will give them away as gifts to unsuspecting friends and family. That's how it goes with crafts...you never know what will sell until you actually make it and bring it out to the market. My biggest sellers at a craft show are my onesies and my hairclips and the ornaments at Christmas time. Online I sell a whole lot of custom made banners and the favors. I definately need to get more products in my etsy store. There are so many onesies, hairclips, and t-shirts that need a new home...especially since my garage is filled with them :) Such is my life as a crafter. It is a crazy handmade life. I don't know that I would change anything---except maybe I would like my own store so I don't have to keep transporting and breaking all of these craft projects of mine. Someday. Someday. I'm still amazed that people actually want to pay for something that I made. It feels good knowing that I helped someone make a lasting impression through crafts. I guess that is why I will keep on doing this for as long as I can....that and I have so many supplies, I have to use them all up. One of these days, I will come up with a great creative idea, but until then, here's some of the other candle holders and jars that I made for your enjoyment. So here are the first few pictures in a series of the new spring projects that I started making in January. Here are the Chalk Board Plaques. You can write notes to yourself, welcome messages, menus, whatever your heart desires. I was going for a shabby chic kind of look. I just learned how to make the fabric flowers. I was going to use them on hairclips, but I decided that I wanted to use them to decorate these boards instead to give them a little more flare and personality. I made the purple and the dark blue flower myself and the rest were store bought leftovers I had from previous projects. I added in the ladybugs and the butterflies. I really like the way it turned out. I may keep it myself. I have been experimenting with a few different mediums for these chalk board frames. This one and the first one in the picture below are tims that I found at the dollar store. The other one is a picture frame that I picked up at the thrift store. I have been experimenting with both the green and the black chalkboard paint. Not sure which one I like better yet...I think it depends on the final product. Hard to believe all I used to do was scrapbooks only. I've come a long way since then. Now I dabble in a little bit of everything. That's why I tell people I'm an ADHD crafter. I have a hard time doing the same crafts over and over again. I'll be posting pictures of some of my other projects up in the coming weeks. I can't wait to go back to the craft shows and see what customers think about my new creations. I have been busy making a whole new line up of crafts in preparation for the Chocolate Festival in Escondido on February 9th down on Maple Street. I have so many ideas in my head, it is spinning like the exorcist---just kidding...but I am running around like a mad woman trying to get everything done. I have a bunch of new products available. I learned how to make those fabric flowers. I've used them in some new hair clip designs and some new home decoration products. I am starting to get some chalkboard projects ready and have been going crazy with the spray paint. I may have sniffed too many fumes, because I also started to make these apocarthy jars and candle holders. I also have some new onesies ready to go. But even more impressive to me is that my craft room is actually clean at this moment in time---we will see how long that lasts. I just need to take some pictures and then I will show them to you in my next post. I got to get back to work and keep cranking out some new cards as well. So much to do and so little time left. Se la vi. Have a great one. |
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