Can you keep a secret?

I spent this past weekend at a scrapbooking convention. I had big plans, going in. Since I would have a table to myself, stores available on-site to buy anything I needed, and no kids or husband around demanding my attention, I felt confident that I could knock off at least twenty cards, maybe even more!

Well, it kind of didn't work out that way. I spent a lot of time browsing (and shopping) at the stores; lots of time visiting with people and watching demonstrations; and a shockingly HUGE amount of time staring at the stuff on the table in front of me, facing a total creative stall.

Finally I was able to come up with a card. Yep, ONE card. Want to see it?

Okay, you asked for it. Here it is:

Dudes, I really hope you like it.

Convention fee: $60

Hotel: $126.50

Food: $50

Shopping: $$$

One card produced: PRICELESS!

Love Shelley!

One-of-a-kind, like your mom!

I made only ONE card today and (ta DA!) here it is. I've been hoarding - no, saving these letter stickers for something special, and what's more special than Mother's Day? Of course there are only two "m"s in the pack, so I could only make one card. To me, that makes it even more special. I believe I'll charge four hundred dollars for this one.



So I'll tell you a secret - when I sat down with these pretty papers, I was planning on making some thank you cards. I'm not sure how or when I changed my mind but I'm kind of glad I did! I cut the scallops at the bottom by hand, and by the time I was done I was ALSO kind of glad I was only doing one. There are those cute little flat-back pearls again, and the stitching on the front is actually fake. Shh, don't tell!




Here's the inside. I apologize for the dark and blurry pictures. I truly suck at getting good pictures of these cards - good thing I'm not depending on them for advertising! Anyway, I rounded the bottom outside corners to match the scallops on the front. Then just a layer of patterned paper, and a layer of very vanilla cardstock. I sponged ink around all the edges to give it a little depth. Obviously the cards looks much nicer in person; but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it! : )

I'm taking off for the weekend tomorrow morning, so look for more cards starting either Sunday night or (more likely) Monday!

Love Shelley

Look, no pink!

Today I worked on a batch of thank you cards. Most of these were for orders but I still have four left that will be going in the box at work for sale. I wanted them to be pretty gender-neutral because I know that a lot of the ones that were for orders will likely be going to guys. Maybe I should have laid off the flowers and scallops but I just couldn't help myself. Bahahahaha!




Here is the inside of the card. I used scraps to decorate the inside. I really like this - I picture neat rows of small handwriting inside, detailing why the thanker is thanking the thankee, and why they're just so darn great.

Okay, back to the drawing board! I can't decide what to work on next: more thank you cards, or some manly birthday cards. I think I'll go sit in the craft room, look around, and wait for inspiration to strike. Back soon!
Love Shelley

Things are coming together!

I made an even dozen of these little babies today and yep, that's real sewing on there. That's a first for me, mainly because I don't own a sewing machine. (Thanks for letting me borrow yours, Mom!) I'm not an experienced seamstress, which is why my stems are a little more "leaning drunkenly" than "gracefully waving in the breeze". HA!

I've noticed that I've been using a lot of pink on my cards lately and I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that my craft room is now in Joelle's old bedroom. See the Cinderella Pink paint behind that card? Yeah. The whole room is done in that awesome pepto-bismol colour. I've heard that the colour of your surroundings does have some influence on what kind of colours you end up putting into your work.

OR maybe it's just part of the cycle, and next week I'll be all into orange! Or red, or green, or purple. Well, no, probably not purple. Bleah.

One thing's for sure: the more cards I make, the more cards I want to make!

Later gaters,

Love Shelley

So Far!

I'm on vacation from my real job this week, so guess what! I'm actually going to FINISH SOME CARDS and post them! I can sense your skepticism but here are a couple of cards that are done already, just to show you that I'm not totally full of it.

I started both the girl and boy versions of these baby cards several days ago, but it took me forever to finish them. On account of my indecisiveness. I just couldn't decide how to finish them up! It's a good thing this isn't my day job or I'd be living in a cardboard box down by the river.

But anyway! Here is the girl version:

I've been using those little flatback pearls on everything lately - I love them!

Here's the inside. I added the extra scallops for interest.

And now for the boy card:

This one's a little different - I gave it a bit of a shabby-chic look by inking all the edges. Is shabby-chic still cool? I hope so. Someone will surely tune me in if I was wrong. Right? : )

I love the little row of embossed buttons at the bottom of this one.

Anyway, that's all. FOR NOW. But like the Terminator, I'll be back.

Love Shelley!

I can't decide...

whether this girl is happy or sad. She's got that Mona Lisa thing going on.

Very mysterious and serene. Content?

Maybe we'll never know. Either way she was fun to colour. I've listed her in my etsy shop here. She's a little more expensive because she was a bit labour-intensive.
Now I better get back to filling orders! Playtime's over... for now. ; )

Want to see what I've been up to?

It probably seems like I haven't been doing anything, but in fact I was working on a giant batch of cards. These are 24 masculine birthday cards for an order. I still have more to do but it will be nice to get this batch out the door!

Here are a couple of closer-ups:

All of the leaves are actually stickers. I put them down on watercolour paper and then filled them in with watercolour pencils; and in some cases some ink right out of the lid of the ink pad.

These are for mens' birthdays so I didn't want anything cutesy or even remotely girly. In fact, if I know anything about guys at all, they probably won't even notice that they are receiving handmade cards. : )

I think this colour scheme is my favourite - it still starts off with a blue card, but then all the other colours are warmer. Then again, fall is my favourite season, so maybe that's why these appeal to me.

I have a couple more big orders to fill (meaning repetition and not too much to show) but after that I have some very interesting things planned. Stay tuned!!

xoxo

Shelley