Molly Lee Cards

Craft Day Coming!

2012-01-31T20:13:00.000-08:00

It's high time for another crafting day with some friends!

This weekend, I'm breaking out the Bind-it-All I begged the family for a couple of years ago for my birthday. I made this little sketch pad with it (the cover is from a box of tea):

Isn't it cute?

These pretty books are what we'll be making, with scrapbook paper and chipboard for the covers:

And the insides will be envelopes that I'd rescued, back in the days when I dabbled a bit in dumpster diving:

The envelope booklets can be used to collect receipts over the year, paper ephemera, ideas, etc.

I have some lovely paper and I've taken a road atlas apart for the covers:

Should be fun! Looking forward to crafting with friends. I'll post photos of what we do next week!

Cake Pops!

2012-01-29T01:59:00.000-08:00

Have you fallen in love with Cake Pops yet?

It's just a matter of time before you're smitten...

They were popularized a few years ago by the utterly fabulous Bakerella... and now you can find them at Starbucks... you can buy machines to make them with, but I wanted to do it old school, the way Bakerella intended us to do.

Check out her site for loads of tips and adorable inspiration.... better yet, beg, borrow or buy her wonderful book:

It's utterly chock-full of the most marvelous creations.... and while the website gives you all you need to make your own cake pops, the book goes into the ins and outs in much greater detail.

I decided to make pops based on the Hello Kitty pops posted on her site.

As instructed, I made cake from a packaged cake mix. I chose red velvet cake, but, with some modifications to make it more like from scratch (substituted melted butter for the oil, buttermilk for the water and added a tablespoon of vinegar for that familiar red velvet tang).

Once the cake is made and cooled overnight, break it all up til it's just fine crumbs.

You're then supposed to mix the crumbs with prepared frosting, but as I'm not a fan of canned frosting, I made the homemade cream cheese frosting from this site instead: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-cake-balls-78637

Mix it all together til uniform. You might need to use your hands (it's helpful to have some handy middle schoolers on hand for this messy job -- rewarding them with a lick of the frosting beaters helps!).

Pop in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to firm up a bit. Then roll into balls (I used a scooper to measure out uniform amounts).

Put the balls in the freezer for another 15 minutes or so. In the meantime, melt some Wilton candy melts -- I had to use two 14oz packages to cover a batch of cake balls. Nuke them in the microwave in a small bowl for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, til they're all melted.

Now comes the fun part!

Take your balls, reshaping if necessary. Dip a lollipop stick into the candy melt and then push deeply into your cake ball. Set aside that ball while you do a few more balls.... it needs a little time for the candy melt used as "glue" to set.

When you're ready to dip into the candy melt, try to do it in one motion -- the less you swirl the cake pop in the candy melt, the better (too much time spent at this step will result in the bumpy surface). Gently tap the cake pop to allow excess melt to drip off, then give it a swirl to incorporate the last little drip into your pop.

This will make a perfectly round cake ball. Before the candy melt has set, you can sprinkle it with candy decorations.

To make the kitty shape, with ears, Bakerella cleverly instructs you to adhere chocolate chips where the ears are with candy melt before dunking... the smooth coating over the cake ball and chips will give you that adorable Sanrio shape.

Ideally, I would have punched holes into a spare bit of styrofoam to hold my drying cake pops, but, sadly, we had no such styrofoam, so we made do with a wicker basket, making for an odd device in the kitchen....

Once the candy melt has fully hardened, you can draw in extra features with edible ink pens. This is another marvelous invention Bakerella introduced me to! Felt tip pens you can use on food! They made drawing in Hello Kitty's features really easy....

This would be a fun project to do with kids or other crafty adults. Just have lots of interesting candies and sprinkles on hand to decorate your treats with...

Hope you enjoy!

2012-01-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, that is...

The Lunar New Year begins on January 23rd. Will you be ready?

2012 is the Year of the Dragon, a most auspicious astrological sign. It also happens to be the astrological sign of my twins, who were born in 2000, a golden dragon year, triply full of luck. Coincidentally, their father and paternal grandfather were also born in dragon years, so I'm surrounded by these fire-breathers!

So, of course, I had to make the effort and make a few cards... I'll definitely make one for my mom, who really was psyched about the whole golden dragon thing (and she's normally not into that kind of thing at all, but my pregnancy suddenly had her spouting off strange superstitions like an extra from the Joy Luck Club).

I found some lovely artwork depicting the twelve animals of the Chinese horoscope, which adorns the front of this card:

The inside of the card is blank... in fact, there is no writing on the card, in English or Chinese, making it appropriate for other cultures celebrating the lunar new year. Or as a notecard or birthday card to someone who happens to have been born in the year of the dragon.

For full details, check out my Etsy listing for the card:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89725988/chinese-new-year-dragon-pop-up-card

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Gift Card Pop-Up. Free Download!

2011-12-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Time for some holiday crafting! I love sharing these freebies with you!

This year, the nieces and nephews are all getting gift cards... to make them a little extra special, I designed a pop-up holiday gift card holder. With a very simple mechanism, the recipient opens the card and.... snap!... the gift card is presented with a little pop...

Here's how you do it....

First download these two pdfs:

Then follow along with the instructions and photos below....

1) First print out one of each pdf on some nice stiff cardstock. The outside of the card (with the elf) is 2-up, meaning that there are two of that piece on one piece of cardstock -- you only need one for one card, but I figured you might want to make a second one (and I hate wasting paper). 2) Cut those two pieces apart, as shown. I could only fit one of the inside piece (on the tan background) on one piece. Cut that piece out, close to the colored area, as shown.

3) If you have a scoring board, score the inside (tan) piece along the three vertical lines -- scoring is optional, but it does make your folds nice and crisp. 40 Score the outside piece in half.

5 & 6) Fold the inside (tan) piece in half (unprinted sides facing). 7) Find the diagonal slash mark along the fold and cut that.

8) Fold along the other vertical lines to make the little mountain as shown in the last image, above.

1) Fold the outside (elf) piece in half. 2) Put the adhesive of your choice on the first panel of the inside (tan) piece. 3 & 4) Line the outer edge of the inside (tan) piece to the outer edge of the outside (elf) piece and adhere. 5) Squish down the folded inside piece so that the folds are compressed. 6) Put adhesive on the back panel of the inside (tan) piece. 7 & 8) Fold the card closed, adhering the back panels together.

1) Open up your card. It should look like the first image, above. If you like, trim the edges so that they're all even (no matter how careful you are, the edges won't ever meet up exactly right). 2) Partially close your card and place your gift card in to the diagonal slash.

When your recipient opens the card, the gift card will "pop" into place!

Enjoy! I hope you like this holiday freebie! Let me know if you make this card!

My Favorite Handmade Holiday Tradition

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

This post is part of the EtsyGreetings Team Holiday Blog Hop.

My absolute favorite part of the holidays is giving. I really love is thinking up small, but thoughtful gifts to share with the neighbors. Since I'm on a budget, they are almost always handmade with all the creativity I can squeeze in during the busy season!

I've shared a few of my gifts here... they're all simple, relatively inexpensive and you can make enough to blanket your whole neighborhood with a generous blanket of goodwill!

Christmas Riddler

Remember these? We called them fortune tellers when we were kids, I've also heard them referred to as cootie catchers. I dusted off this old playground favorite and designed a fun holiday-themed gift for the neighborhood kids, chock full of the cheesiest riddles I could find.

The free download and all the directions are here on my blog post last year. The kids all loved them!

Find out how to make it!

Spicy Glazed Pecans

These spicy glazed pecans were a HUGE hit! People couldn't get enough of them (they're really addictive!) -- I ended up making many, many pounds of them and sharing with neighbors, coworkers, friends. They're also a terrific addition to holiday parties.

My blog post includes the recipe and a free download for the cute label for your holiday gift-giving convenience!

Go there now.

Hot Chocolate Mix with Homemade Marshmallows

Homemade marshmallows are easier than you would think. Pair them with hot chocolate mix and you've got a thoughtful holiday gift for the neighbors. The kids helped make everything and then we packaged them together along with a candy cane for stirring. Everything looked adorable all packaged up and ready for distributing.

My blog post includes links to the recipes and photos of my happy elves working away!

Find out how!

Personalized Tacks

Just one more:

These tacks, personalized with my coworker's images, made for some inexpensive workplace gifts. Packaged in repurposed Altoids tins, they were curiously cute.

Find out how to make your own!

Did you enjoy this story of my favorite homemade holiday tradition? If so, please continue with our Blog Hop to read about more wonderful holiday traditions! You'll learn about Kate, from Birdcage Cards, and how she LOVES the tradition of wrapping gifts! It's a great post, so read on! It's really inspiring what she does with the humblest of materials....

Jen and Jason's Wedding Invitations

2011-11-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

My friends, Jen and Jason, were married in September. As a wedding gift, I offered to do their invitations (and a better client I've never had!).

Jen wanted a brocade pattern, which we used as a formal, classic background. The quote for the front read: "Love is friendship caught on fire." I love the gorgeous label she selected!

(in addition to the invitations, I helped her with commemorative bookmarks that they gave away at the wedding -- you can see them in the above image. I've enjoyed having Jen and Jason peer at me over the pages of my books, helpfully holding my spot for me)

Open the cards and they pop up at you... it's a fun and fresh idea for an unusual wedding invitation!

Their daughter, obviously an important part of their lives, was a fitting addition to the invitations, peeks at us from a hidden support in the card.

The invitations were placed in translucent vellum envelopes which allowed the black damask pattern on the backs of the cards to show through, which made for an intriguing preview of the contents.

The invitations were fun to do (it's great having easy, laid-back clients!) and I have been compensated by boxes of comics gifted to me by Jason, which my boys (okay, along with me) have loved (especially the Star Wars ones!)....

Congratulations, Jen and Jason!

Birthday card for the nephew-in-law

2011-11-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

As part of the 52 Weeks of Mail effort, I decided to mail my great nephew-in-law a belated birthday card, rather than just settle for sending him a greeting through Facebook.

This is my favorite card that I make... when you pull the lever on the right, he raises his beer in a toast and says "A birthday? I'll drink to that!"

The envelope is a page from a comic book (it's a duplicate that the boys had) that I thought would be fun to use my Martha Stewart Scoring Board on.... LOVE making envelopes with that thing!

On the back, I stuck on a label for 52 Weeks of Mail:

I love this effort! It's been motivating me to use mail more... and this way of reaching out has encouraged my friends to reach back out to me. Love it!

Glitter Werewolves

2011-10-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm all about glitter werewolves this Halloween!

I found this wonderful artwork from Cindy Mindy Pindy's lovely blog:

http://papercutting.blogspot.com/2009/10/template-tuesday-halloween-werewolf.html

I made some slight adjustments and cut them out of black cardstock.

Working outside, I sprayed them, a few at a time, with spray adhesive and then sprinkled black glitter on them. I like to press down lightly on them with my hands before shaking the excess glitter off.

If I'm being particularly good, I'll give them a coat of clear acrylic spray to seal the glitter on better.

I think they're lovely!

I was so enamored of how cute they looked (the very delicate handles on the jack-o-lantern and the tiny teeth in his mouth) that I ended up cutting out probably dozens on my robo/silhouette and sending them out to all kinds of people.

I didn't mount them on cards -- they were so sweet just as they were -- but I put them in some old glassine envelopes that my husband no longer wanted.

I wrote a short message on the backs with a white pen.

And sent them off to people all over the place!

It was fun because I know most people wouldn't be expecting a Halloween greeting from us, so it will be a nice surprise.

It's my week's offering to the 52 Weeks of Mail that I've signed up for: http://www.facebook.com/52weeksofmail

Cycling Girl Silhouette

2011-10-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have been completely enamored of glitter!

Combine an intricately cut silhouette (cut using the Craft Robo/Silhouette) with spray adhesive and a little bling from glitter and I'm transported...

I love this blog: http://papercutting.blogspot.com/ It's called Scherenschnitte ("scissor cuts" in German) and is the papercutting blog of the very talented Cindy Ferguson.

Her work is FABULOUS! And I can't believe that she cuts her work by hand... and awesome feat!

On Tuesdays, Cindy has a feature called "Template Tuesday" which I very much look forward to! She features an original work that you can download as a pdf, so that you, too, can be a papercutting genius!

I really loved this particular Template Tuesday offering, of a girl on a bike:

You can read all about it (and download your own pdf) at her blog post:

http://papercutting.blogspot.com/2009/08/template-tuesday-end-of-summer-bike.html

I cut some of these adorable girls out in black cardstock, sprayed them with spray adhesive and covered them with black Martha Stewart glitter.... the results were absolutely divine!

I happily sent my first one (adhered to a card) off to a friend to congratulate her on her recent participation in a 10k run (20th place in her age division! Go Linda!).

(It also counts as my week's participation in the 52 Weeks of Mail event... yay! This was a fun one! And it encouraged me to reach out when I wouldn't have done so otherwise!)

52 Weeks of Mail

2011-10-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

My talented friends at the Etsy Greetings Team have banded together to promote 52 Weeks of Mail.

This terrific idea came about as a way to encourage people everywhere to send a piece of snail mail every week. Remember the joys of receiving a hand-written letter? How long has it been since you got something like that? An email (even a clever e-card) just isn't the same as a real piece of mail!

You can find out more at the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/52weeksofmail

Like the page and then let the group know what's in your mailbox this week! It's really fun! I have my last card in the mail, ready to go right now (it involves black cut paper, a girl on a bicycle and black glitter.... it's really lovely, I think!).

Check it out!

Martha Stewart Scoring Board: Making Boxes!

2011-10-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am STILL loving my Martha Stewart Scoring Board!

This afternoon, I selected two coordinating pretty papers I had (a "Taj Mahal" inspired stack of paper from Premium Stacks) -- they're light cardstock:

I checked the handy cheat sheet of measurements on the inside of the compartment of the Scoring Board lid and decided that I wanted to make a base that was 4 x 4 x 4" and a lid that was 4 x 4 x 2":

As per the instructions, I cut my base paper to 12 x 12" and then scored it at the 2" and 6" marks:

(I'm only pretending to score here 'cause I'm right-handed and I can't score and take the photo at the same time)

Then I cut as shown:

Fold the flaps up and secure with adhesive to form the base box:

The top measures 8 x 8". When you score lids, you don't butt the paper to the left edge of the board. Instead, you line it up to the first mark, marked by a downward facing arrowhead. This way, the lid ends up being just a little bit bigger so it fits nicely over the base:

As per the easy-to-follow instructions, I score at the 2" and 6 1/8" marks:

Then cut the same slits:

Fold up flaps and adhere together. Then see how it fits together:

So cute!

The board includes measurements for a variety of different box sizes, but after doing a few, you can get the idea and map out your own sizes...

What do you think?

Scor-Pal vs. Martha Stewart Stewart Scoring Board

2011-10-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Back some years ago, the two scoring combatants were the Scor-Pal and Scor-It. I remember agonizing over the choice and pored through various blogs looking for guidance.

I happily settled on Diana Crick's excellent Scor-Pal and have been very happy since.

But now there's a new kid on the block. You can hardly call yourself a papercrafter and not be aware of the juggernaut that is Martha Stewart and her presence at Michael's and other crafting havens. With her cleverly designed tools, she's really created a lot of covetable items.

And now she has a product that competes directly with the Scor-Pal.

After seeing a lot of interesting videos of how to use Martha's product and with a 50% off coupon at Michael's burning a hole through my pocket, I finally sprang for the MS Scoring Board.

To help you with your own buying decision, if you are thinking of getting one tool, I thought I'd point out my own personal findings.

So here are the two competitors:

Martha's product is on the left, the clean white board. The Scor-Pal has seen a lot of years of use. You can see some ink where I've marked some measurements that I score a lot.

Here are a couple of differences. Below, the ends of the two scoring tools. Martha's tool is a lot thinner and held below:

The first time I tried out Martha's board, I cut right through the paper with the thinner tool, which was very sad. However, once I changed the way I was holding the tool (so I wasn't pressing down with the very tip) and eased up on the pressure, it worked just fine.

Martha's tool comes with measurements for common projects (cards, boxes, etc) in a compartment at the top of the board. Handy!

The Scor-Pal has its tool held near the top of the board. It is VERY easy to grab and snap back into place whenever I need it. The scoring tool in the MS board tends to rattle around in its spacious compartment and, because you have to open the space, it's not nearly as handy as the Scor-Pal's.

Another immediate difference: the MS Scoring Board has grooves every 1/8". The Scor-Pal only has grooves every 1/2" plus some additional grooves at commonly used points (like 4 1/4"). Some argue that the MS Board has too many grooves and that you can skip into a nearby groove too easily when you use it. I haven't found this to be the case. The additional grooves give you extra flexibility and allow for extra projects, like rosette-making, that would be harder to make with the Scor-Pal.

The triangle that is the extra piece that comes with the MS Board fits cleverly into a slot at the bottom of the board. This I like!

The triangle is the envelope-making part of the MS Board, which is unique to this product.

Note the handy measurements below. The video I found on YouTube describing how to make envelopes with this tool was what really sold me on trying this product and I was delighted on my first try at making an A2 envelope.

As per the instructions, I cut an 8.5" square of paper and then lined it along the edge of the triangle and scored it alternately at 3" and 3 3/4". Cut off the four small triangular pieces between the folds and voila!

A quick and special little envelope.... I can totally see designing and printing out some paper that would include a cute design on it for a really fun homemade envelope!

(in the above piece, I rounded the flap's corner for a little extra oomph.)

So, what do I think?

I have LOVED my Scor-Pal. Really, it's been a terrific part of my papercrafting arsenal! But if you don't have one already and were thinking of buying a scoring tool, I think I'd advise you to get the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. Not only is it a great deal ($20 retail, but who ever pays retail at Michael's when you can so easily get a 40 or 50% off coupon, which brings it down to the insane price of $10?), but the envelope-making tool really makes it quite a bit more versatile.

The Scor-Pal is about $30, but is only available online, so you'd have to spring for the shipping on top of it.

(Update: there is a newer version of the Scor-Pal that has grooves every 1/4" plus additional ones here and there.)

Here's how to make envelopes with the Martha Stewart Scoring Board:

The Scor-Pal's website includes a ton of intersting projects (however I find the navigation of the site a bit difficult to manage): http://www.scor-pal.com/projects.htm

I hope that this is helpful!

The Great Greetings Giveaway!

2011-07-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Want a chance to win a GREAT prize?

The talented cardmakers at the EtsyGreetingsTeam have banded together to put together one really wonderful prize package for one lucky winner:

(recognize my drinking gal in the third row?)

There are two very simple ways to be eligible for this terrific prize. You can purchase any card from one of our participating vendors or simply join the EtsyGreetings mailing list. Either way, you will want to read up all the details at the EtsyGreetings blog...

One winner will be selected at random on August 1!

Vote for your favorite card!

2011-06-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

My Etsy Greetings Team issued a design challenge last month: everybody who signed up had to design a new card using one or more of the lovely digital papers in a pack that we all chose together.

Anyway, a creative maelstrom ensued and my talented teammates and I came up with 34 very distinctly different card designs using this same package.

Here are some of them... (recognize my wine-drinking card on the left?)

Care to vote? I'd love it if you would! Of course, pick the one that you truly love the most (but I would LOVE to finish at a higher level than I'm at now -- I have a pathetically low number of votes for my card right now!)

Vote here: http://etsygreetings.blogspot.com/

Oh, here's the gorgeous digital paper package we all purchased, by talented Etsy designer, KatiesWish:

Isn't it yummy?

Presenting Dawnygirl

2011-06-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

I found a new sweet Etsy Shop! I couldn't resist treating myself to a little giftie which came in the mail extra super fast:

I love opening packages....

Look how cute the packaging is on the inside, with the pinked edges on the bright blue tissue paper and cute lil' sticker:

The tag was a sweet touch:

It's a coin purse made by DawnyGirl! Check out the sweet lining:

Yum!

My next favorite thing is this oilcloth wallet, equally perfect for a guy or a girl:

Check out Dawnygirl's shop now!

New Wine Drinking Card!

2011-06-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

I have a new card!

I think it's been more than a year since I've created a new one, so I'm terribly excited about this one!

The thing that broke me out of my huge rut was a challenge issued by my Etsy Greetings Team! This is a terrific, supportive group of cardmakers who sell on Etsy. I've been a part of this group for years now and find all the tips and our active discussion groups highly inspiring.

Our organizer created this terrific challenge for us to share. We all purchased the same digital paper pack (after voting for our favorite from a whole slew of would-be candidates). The paper pack is called The Lake by KatiesWish. It had just a yummy selection of digital papers from which to choose.

The pack looks like this:

I selected the wavy background but I'm also in love with the three on the right....

Anyway, right now, all the other participating team mates are busy designing their cards -- it's so fun and exciting to see what different ideas people come up with when they have the same basic materials. Later this month, we'll feature all of them on our team blog and run a special promotion... more to come!

Purchase my Drink a Toast card here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/75300665/drink-a-birthday-toast-to-a-friend

Buche de Noel!

2010-12-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

This year I decided I wanted to do something a little different for Christmas dessert. Typically I'll do a couple of pies (pecan, pumpkin, sometimes banana meringue) but I wanted to get out of the rut.

I've been seeing a lot of lovely images of the traditional Buche de Noel, or the Yule Log, a French specialty.

I ended up using Martha Stewart's recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/buche-de-noel (but I consulted many, many links, which gave me a nice understanding of how it's constructed).

I started out making the meringue mushrooms. They took a LOT longer to bake than I'd been lead to believe (I think I had them in there an extra 40 minutes), but they finally felt dry enough to be done.

Then my boys helped me assemble them. Below, Colin is skewering a hole in a cap. Then Ethan is spreading melted chocolate on the underside and a stem is inserted into the hole.

The tiny bit of cocoa powder Martha tells us to put in made them look pretty realistic and the imperfections in my meringue piping worked to my favor.

The last image, above, is of the cake batter, all beautifully whipped up.

After baking, it's rolled up in a damp dish towel and allowed to cool (you pre-roll it so that it's less likely to crack in the final roll-up).

Chocolate mousse is spread inside the cake and the whole thing is rolled up once again.

A couple of bits are sawed off at 45 degree angles and attached to the log (one really short stump looks cute on top).

The whole thing is assembled with a chocolate ganache icing that is raked with a fork to give it a rough bark-ey texture. It can be assembled the night before, however the final touches should only be added the day of presentation. (I also added graham cracker crumbs to give it a nice "ground" to rest on and a few sprigs off the Christmas tree, which added a nice touch of color). A few shards of broken chocolate add to the rustic bark appearance and a light dusting of powdered sugar give it the feeling of snow.

It was tasty also! The mousse filling really kept it from being too rich and heavy. Serve each slice with a meringue mushroom (the recipe made enough to cover a field of buches that I just kept handy for little boys to snack on).

I'm embarrassed to admit that I took far more photos of my buche de noel than I did of my kids opening presents (well at all on Christmas) and spent a lot of time inserting as many references to my creation as possible all day ("Oh, just move the buche de noel over there... anyone up for a little slice of buche de noel? What do you think? Just a splinter? Buche, buche, buche?"), but really, I was very pleased with how it turned out!

Spicy Glazed Pecans Gift: Free Download!

2010-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

I made these super yummy glazed pecans as a gift for my coworkers and neighbors. They turned out so well that I'm sharing the recipe and including the label as a free download!

First of all, make a batch of these delicious (and super easy!) pecan from Martha Stewart:

Go to Martha Stewart for the recipe.

Below is a nice big double batch (all piled together -- you'll roast them in a single layer).

I packaged my pecans in cellophane bags that were 3.5" wide.

Download my pdf of labels:

Cut on the crop marks. Each label looks like this:

Fold in half. The back will be white, leaving a nice place for a personal message.

The cute snowman graphic is from here: http://www.vecteezy.com/Holiday-Seasonal/743-Free-Christmas-Themed-Sketchy-Vector-Graphics-Pack Free download! Love the generous web! And it's a vector-based image, so I was able to easily lop off his arms, which didn't work with the design (sorry, snowman!).

Staple over the folded top of the filled bags (I put about a cup of nuts in each bag below).

A great little gift! Enjoy!

Christmas Riddler: A Holiday Papercraft!

2010-12-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

Some people call them fortune tellers. Some knew them as cootie catchers. Whatever you called them, these fun little origami toys were a mainstay of my grade school days.

And now, they're a cute little holiday gift!

I've filled this version with groaningly bad Christmas-themed riddles. They're truly terrible, but they're kind of jokes that my little boys would hoot at. I'm going to make them for all the little neighborhood kids. Super economical and easy to boot!

The pdf is available to download and all the instructions are included below!

Download the pdf template now.

Print the pdf out on regular weight paper (not cardstock).

If you don't remember how to fold these from when you were a kid, it's surprisingly simple. Just follow along with the images below.

First cut the excess paper off the edges of the design, using the crop marks (the crop marks extend all the way to the edges of the paper -- I find it easier to use a paper cutter for trimming when I do this). Do this carefully! If you are precise this paper toy will work better! You should end up with a perfect square.

First, fold the square diagonally, corner to corner. Unfold. Then fold diagonally, corner to corner the OTHER way. Unfold. This will give you two creases that will clearly show the exact middle of the square.

Fold each corner to this middle point. Turn it over.

As before, carefully fold each corner to the middle of the square, as shown in the images below.

When you are done, fold the item in half, as shown in the middle image below (not diagonally). Unfold and fold in half the other way.

Put your fingers in the hollows under the "Ho" corners. Work the creases so it looks like the last two images above. Flip it over and you're done!

Insert your thumbs and index fingers of both hands (not as shown below -- I had to hold the camera with one hand!) and alternately open the riddler first one way then the other.

Ask the child their age and open open the riddler that many times. Then ask the child one of the riddles that appear.

Get ready for fun!

Skeleton Invitations

2010-10-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween.

And I love Martha Stewart (I can't help it, she has such clever ideas).

Throw in some papercrafts and, well, I'm completely yours!

I love these skeleton invitations from Martha Stewart:

I downloaded the wonderful template and made some cute cards to share with the neighborhood kids:

I LOVE them! I love how you pull him out of a regular #10 envelope and he unfolds to an unexpectedly large, gangly size...

The boys just ran around the neighborhood delivering these... if you'd like to make your own, check out the page on Martha's site.

Carved pencil leads

2010-08-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

These carved pencil leads are amazing!

See more of Dalton Ghetti's work here:

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/08/dalton-ghetti.html

and here:

http://www.silvermineart.org/gallery/exhibition_detail.cfm?exhibitionID=119

Customer Spotlight: Shannon

2010-08-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

Constantine is Shannon's son and such a lucky kid! When she decided on a Knight theme for his birthday, she went all out!

See the photos she so kindly shared with me of the fabulous medieval party in the park she put together. Constantine's costume, cupcake toppers, bouncy castle... everything for a perfect party! Shannon made the felt swords and shields, tiaras, wands and painted the little wooden knights -- amazing!

My Knight invitations had been sent out before the party, setting the tone for the event:

And, afterward, guests received a personalized thank you note:

Fun!

Thanks for sharing your photos, Shannon!

Dragon Cards

2010-07-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a biggish order can be a little overwhelming. I had an order of 60 custom dragon invitations to do.

The most tedious and exacting part of the project is cutting out all the pieces. Everything needs to be cut out just right, otherwise they don't pass muster and must be reprinted and recut.

The card stock has to be scored -- I love a nice, clean crease.

Below are all the pieces (finally!) all cut and ready for assembly (my favorite part of the process).

After that, everything goes together pretty quickly!

Community!

2010-07-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I gathered up contact information for all the neighbors (well, the ones I knew and liked) and put together a little directory.

Prior to that, there were people that I had chatted with for years whose last names I didn't even know (okay, I was even fuzzy on a lot of first names).

Thus was born the neighborhood directory!

The first edition was a great success and, I think, helped to bring some of us a little closer together. With email addresses at our fingertips, it was very easy to make plans for gatherings. I could call someone up if I was short a cup of sugar. The neighborhood teenager became easier to engage for date nights. Addresses helped us match names to faces.

So two years later, it was time for a new edition -- people had come and gone and our tight circle was expanding.

Of course, I can't show you the actual information -- that would be a bit of a violation! But on the real directories I included names, address, phone number, email address, cell numbers and names of kids and pets.

On the back, I included some handy local information as well as a little map of the neighborhood (the shaded areas are participating neighbors).

The "guts" with much of the information. I tried in vain to find a stapler with a long enough reach to staple these, but was never successful. Luckily I remembered my own tutorial about stab binding and my ginormous spool of gorgeous baker's twine. It was really easy and is so much cuter than staples!

On the backs I hot glued a magnet, making it handy to keep on the fridge.

It was a fun little mini project! The boys and I delivered them tonight and they were very well received!

Let the community-building begin!

50th Wedding Anniversary Invitations just about done!

2010-06-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

I am getting serious about finalizing the invitations for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. This is my current final, final draft, awaiting final tweaks and approval.

Guests will open the white square envelopes to see a photo of honeymoon-bound teenagers with the inscription: "John and Mary Lou. The First 50 Years." It's meant to look like a record sleeve.

Flip it over and they'll see a present-day photo of their entire brood (that's me in the middle in the red). Their "greatest hits" include the major milestones of their marriage disguised as song titles. For instance, "Double Wedding Bells ('98)" was the year two of their boys were married (one of them to me).

To the right of their greatest hits is a traditionally laid out invitation.

People will notice that this is a sleeve in which is enclosed the record invitation.

It's meant to look like an old time 45 record album of their last big hit "Return to the Scene of the Crime." Since they have chosen to renew their vows at the same little church where it all began, they have been jokingly referring to the celebration as returning to the scene of the crime.

As you rotate the record, the red arrow points to "Who" "What" "Why" etc and information appears in the cut out window.

RSVP postcards are included in a complementary color scheme.

And, in lieu of gifts, the happy couple would prefer that people fill a book with happy memories and wishes from friends. A paper band gives instructions to people to write something special on the sheets and return them at the celebration (or mail them, if not attending). The sheets will be bound into a book.

Hey Cancer Card Featured in MommyMishMash

2010-06-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

Katy, of MommyMishMash, contacted me for three of my Cancer Cards.

While I hate the idea that someone would need to place a quantity order of this particular card, I am glad that the empowering message can bring a little needed levity to someone in a tough situation.

Check out her blog, with a nice feature about the cards:

Cowboy Invitations

2010-06-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

Before I got a Craft Robo or even a handy ATG gun, I had an X-acto knife and a glue stick...

The boys wanted a cowboy-themed party for their fourth birthday and I contrived this somewhat over-elaborate invitation.

As you pulled the tab on the right, the bucking bronco and cowpoke rode across the desert. At the same time, information about the party was revealed on the tab.

In retrospect, it wasn't a bad invitation, really! The tab's a little stiff and could use some work, but it was pretty cute back then...

I got a kick out of finding old Lone Ranger comic art and substituting my own quotes in place of the Lone Ranger and Tonto's conversation for their thank you notes....

Hot Dog!

2010-05-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

June's just around the corner and with summer coming, I can't help but want... a party! Tad's gamely letting us host a little barbecue/potluck next month, to bring the neighbors together. We'll also celebrate the boys' 10th birthday party.

We did the same thing last year -- a neighborhood food fest with a little "Happy Birthday" party in the middle. It was very low key and just felt right (as opposed to the big themed partyzilla with decorations, clowns, goody bags, etc. Okay, I'll admit, I have done the over-the-top parties myself, but as they are a little older now, it feels right to take it down a few notches)

The hot dogs were my nod to frugality this year -- we're in the beginnings of a major home renovation, so we're a little budget conscious right now. The important thing, I think, will be getting together our friends and neighbors and having a good time.

The invitations are a simple cutout, with the front piece pivoting away from the back on a brad.

The artwork was free.... I found it in a big book of clip art that I already own.

Does anything say summer like a hot dog in an envelope?

These bright yellow envelopes were leftover from a long ago firetruck-themed party invitation I did for some friends. The sunny hues just scream SUMMER!

Yay!

Mmmmm.... yummy twine!

2010-05-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

Have you, like me, been seeing baker's twine EVERYWHERE?

Sure it's divine and oh-so-yummy, but what's the deal? It's just string, right? And the prices that I'm seeing for it just seem outrageous ($10 for 100 yards? $.30 a YARD???) Forget it!

Then I found the deal of a lifetime (and by lifetime, I mean I'll be using this spool for an entire lifetime!) at $9 for 3,200 yards!

CRAZY!

Of course, you have to spend almost that again for shipping, but still...

Get your own at: http://www.wesellcoffee.com/page79.html

I plan to use this on EVERYTHING. I started with some new packaging for my card packages.

Check it out:

I like the cheerful red and white twine against the natural brown tissue paper.

What do you think?

World Cup Soccer Mania Invitations

2010-05-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

A mom contacted me asking for invitations for a World Cup Soccer-themed party for her son.

I came up with the above -- the artwork just begged for a spinning invitation style, which worked beautifully.

The flags of all the countries competing this year really look wonderful on the perimeter of the wheel.

I doubt if I'll get anyone else wanting to purchase this invitation (World Cup is just not as big a deal in the States as it is in the rest of the world), but thought it worthwhile posting a generic version just to see... I'd love to see this artwork used again.

Here's my Etsy listing to purchase the World Cup Invitation.

Make a Pop-Up Card Starring Your Friend!

2010-05-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

What's better than getting a pop-up card?

Getting a personalized pop-up card!

When the neighbors threw a party to celebrate four of the girls' birthdays, I made them these special cards, based on my Oompa Loompa card.

With your friend's picture, you can make a birthday card, I love you, just because, thank you... anything!

How can you do it? First download these three pdfs:

Extras:

Outside:

Inside:

Print these three pdfs onto two pieces of cardstock. The "Extras" file is printed on one piece. Print "Outside" on one sheet, turn it over, then print "Inside" on the other side.

Take a bone and score the Inside piece where it will fold, along the dotted line. Trim the Inside/Outside piece using the crop marks printed on the "Inside" piece. Fold along the score with the blue starburst on the inside.

Cut out one of the labels on the light grey lines (pick the one you want, either "Happy Birthday" or the blank one that you can write your own sentiment on).

Score the rectangular strip on the Extras sheet on the dotted lines. This will be the support for the pop-up. Cut it out and fold along the scores to form a rectangular "box."

Apply glue to sections "C" and "D" and adhere to the inside of the card, as shown below, lining up the crease with the crease of the card.

Hold down the rectangular piece as shown (side "B" will have no glue on it (yet) and will be held down flat on the card. Side "A" and the blank side will be facing up. Apply glue to side "A" then fold the card shut. When you open it, the rectangular piece should be in a box-like shape as shown on the lower right photo.

Open the card nearly flat so that you can easily apply glue to side "B."

Now you can attach the cut out photo of the person of your choice to the rectangular support (make sure to test to make sure that it is not so tall that it sticks out the top when the card is folded).

Here's the same card with my friends, Don and John on the inside -- aren't they cute?

Adhere the label on the front with pop-dots, so that it stands out from the card a bit.

I love pop-dots...

Enjoy!

Girly Skull Invitations

2010-05-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'd purchased this girly skull artwork for this hipster gal at work. We were throwing a baby shower for her and the artwork seemed to suit her somewhat goth style much better than the typical cutesy bears and pastel bunnies.

This artwork lay fallow for a long time, but as I'm one of the cheapest people in the world, I decided to repurpose it for a birthday party invitation.

What do you think? For a teenager's sweet sixteen party, when the teen is striving for a less-than-sweet image?

It's worth a shot, anyway! We'll see how this one goes over.

Now available at my Etsy shop!

Record Invitation

2010-05-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

My in-laws will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this fall.

!!!!

They want to go back to the church to renew their vows (which they refer to as "returning to the scene of the crime"), which makes me a little weepy with sentimentality every time I think about it. They've been through a lot over the years and to think that they want to stand up in front of everybody and vow that they'd do it all over again... it makes me realize how special they are.

Of course, I've jumped on the chance to do the invitations.

We're talking about playing the music of their past at the reception and I'd love to do period appetizers (devilled eggs, shrimp cocktail, ramaki -- I may have to encase something in jello).

To fit with the period feel of the rest of the celebration, I'd love to do a spinning record invitation, that looks like an old time 45. It was sparked by this clever invitation, that my friend Carol, of Extreme Cards sent to me:

Isn't it lovely? Check out this link to read more about this beautiful wedding.

Here's the initial proof -- I think it turned out pretty good! Now I'm working on a fake record album cover to slip it into...

Man I love doing what I do!

Stork Baby Shower Invitations!

2010-05-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

New baby shower invitations!

Just a simple cutout design -- no clever paper engineering tricks, but I've been finding these kinds of cutouts to be popular right now (my Knight invitations are outselling all my other invitations by a huge factor right now) and they're relatively easy to cut out and make...

I found a cute verse for the inside: Ten little fingers, ten little toes. Boy or girl? Nobody knows..."

I'll have to figure out some alternate verses in case they know it's a boy or a girl. And, of course, I can work with the customer if they'd like something different, but it's helpful to have something to start with.

I love this baby art!

Here's my listing on Etsy for these Stork Invitations!

Oompa Loompa Pop-up Card

2010-05-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

My coworker, Gil, made a terrible mistake when he bragged to me about the fantastic Oompa Loompa costume he wore for Halloween that year.

From then on, I harrassed him, sometimes daily, begging for a photo of him in this amazing costume.

"Gil, can you send me a photo of you in your costume?"

"No."

"Just a teeny little glance?"

"Never."

"Pleeeeeese????"

"NEVER!!!!"

His responses became very predictable. And finally I got the message.

Happily that's not the end of the story. A girl with a working copy of Photoshop can do just about anything!

BWAHAHAHAHAH!

With a mole strategically planted in his work group, I obtained a digital photo of Gil's face. A Google search yielded a lovely drawing of an Oompa Loompa that I found online -- you can purchase a "life-size" cutout of this character for your party at this lovely online shop that hopefully won't be mad at me for using their artwork for a personal project.

A little Illustrator work and some cutting and pasting and application of a simple box pop-up mechanism (explained here by my friend Carol, however I cut a strip for the pop-up rather than have it cut out of the background):

And voila!

On the front, a birthday riddle:

Oompa Loompa doompadee doo

I've got a clever riddle for you.

Oompa Loompa doompadah mert

Who do you know that's getting older than dirt?

Dragon Cards

2010-05-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

I had a mom contact me to do invitations for her son, born in the year 2000, making him a dragon.

Coincidentally, my twins were born in the same year. Twin boys born under the sign of the golden dragon kind of made my Chinese mom's head explode a little bit with fortuitous omens. I mean, seriously. She's never been big on Chinese superstition but suddenly she was channeling the Joy Luck Club (Extra folds on the babies' arms meant they'd be happy. Nipples spaced wide apart? They will be smart. Once I caught her checking out the backs of their heads but she found nothing there to report.).

In any case, the astrological sign of the dragon is something I'm familiar with!

My customer picked out the dragon of her choice, for this custom invitation and I did this:

We'll see what she thinks!

Crafty Wonderland!

2010-05-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Crafty Wonderland!

Last year, they organizers changed from a monthly format to one that is much less frequent, but they have a lot more vendors and it's more of an event.

It was wonderful! So many fantastic vendors, tons of creativity! I met a gal who does lasercut pop-up cards, Sarah of candyspotting.

She was so friendly! I loved talking to her about papercutting, admitting that I had a little craft robo, but that it certainly couldn't touch what her lasercutter could do -- the detail and intricacy was amazing.

I took her card, as I wanted to check out her website and she asked to see mine.

Imagine my surprise when she said that she knew my work! She said that she'd seen my cards on Etsy and even at Powells!

I feel famous....

My boys loved making their own buttons at the craft table -- some very fun DIY projects! I made a pair of bottle cap fridge magnets.

I picked up some adorable barrettes for the neighborhood girls, four of whom were having a combined birthday party that afternoon. And I drooled over the many other wonderful offerings...

All in all, a very fun afternoon.... Crafty Wonderland is again just wondrous!

New Pirate Invitations!

2010-04-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Finally: New stuff!

I started working on a pirate invitation more than a year ago, but the idea I had at the time was just too complicated.

Finally, I got down to brass tacks and made a simple cut-out pirate card:

What do you think? I think despite his gruff appearance that this invitation might be just the thing to set the tone for a very fun swashbuckling party on the high seas!

Check out the Etsy listing now!

Amazing Dragon Illusion

2010-04-26T01:57:00.000-07:00

Wow.

This is a terrific optical illusion! As you move around the dragon, it will appear to follow you, turn its head and nod up and down... but it's not really moving at all!

Download the pdf here:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/dragon_illusion/

and put one together for yourself!

Inkjet Cartridges

2010-04-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Unless you're interested in inkjet cartridges, you might want to skip this post 'cause I think it might be boring otherwise...

Okay, last year I was very happy to have found knock-off inkjet cartridges for 75% off the retail price. I write about it in this post: http://mollyleecards.blogspot.com/2010/02/ink-is-putting-me-in-red.html

After spending more than $800 in ink just six weeks after purchasing my Epson 1400, I felt I needed a new solution. The site that I found online guaranteed performance equal to OEM cartridges at a fraction of the price.

Seemed almost too good to be true!

It was!

The new cartridges worked just fine for many months, but then, suddenly, one day the color completely went off. Not in a minor way but in a very dramatic way, almost as if someone had switched some of my ink around. I was baffled -- since I hadn't changed inkjet cartridges in a while, the problem seemed unrelated to the ink.

After posting my issue on an online troubleshooting site, the answer came back quickly. I hadn't even mentioned the knock off ink, but the poster advised me that using them could cause these kinds of results.

I bit the bullet and bought a new set of OEM cartridges at full retail price and... this fixed everything!

Thankfully the offbrand didn't gum up my printer or cause any damage at all.

PHEW!

I'm back on the straight and narrow, realizing that this is one place I cannot cut corners.

With a little additional research, I'm finding that I can buy OEM cartridges at a discount -- I just hadn't looked hard enough before. I'm not finding the too-good-to-be-true 75% off deals, but, well, that WAS too good to be true!

Here's a good deal on those inkjet cartridges at Amazon: 6 Pack (Full Set) Genuine Epson 79 Ink Cartridges for Epson stylus Photo 1400 Printer T079120, T079220, T079320, T079420, T079520, T079620

Not bad!

Oh Henry!

2010-04-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

Years ago I designed baby shower invitations for a friend who was naming her baby Henry.

Henry's a big strapping boy of six now, but I still love these cards. If you know someone who like puzzles or is named Henry or just has a special Henry in his or her life, this would be a fun card to send them. The front of the card features a variety of Henry's. Don't think it's easy! Some of them are pretty tough... If you get stuck, the answer key is on the back (there are 18 total Henry's to find).

First download the pdf.

Then cut using the crop marks as guides.

Fold and enjoy!

Front Page!

2010-04-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

I made it to Etsy's front page today!

Whoo hoo!

(it's the Witty Baby Pop-up Card on the lower left)

You know, it's odd, but I never would have realized that this had happened, but I happened to have my Etsy shop hooked up to my Facebook, which automatically posted a status update on my profile letting all my friends know. When I saw my Facebook status, I thought there was a mistake at first.

Anyway, of course I'm thrilled -- it's such a nice validation of your work to get to the front page, where so many lovely pieces appear...

Knight Cards and an update on the whole "balance" thing

2010-04-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

I know I've already posted about these cards when they were in progress, but I really love the noble panoply these invitations make.

(and, okay, I've been dying to use the word "panoply" in a sentence for years)

My Etsy shop has really quieted down a LOT! This time last year, I was frantically working every single night, waking up as early as 3:30 in the morning to work up new designs and pump out orders.

At the time, I LOVED it! Every order was a reason to run around the house screaming. I had so many highlights last year:

My Italian wedding invitations,
The Circus invitations that almost went to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,
Selling cards for retail to Powell's,
Getting one of my cards featured on the Etsy Finds Newsletter (resulting in MEGA sales!),
Participating in Hearts for Haiti and numerous other charitable events,
and more.

But I have to admit towards the end, all the work, zero downtime and the lack of any balance to my life really started to wear on me, so it was almost a relief when sales went down to a trickle.

Of course, there's every possibility I'm just rationalizing, trying to convince myself that the lack of sales is a relief, not a disappointment.

But I think it's genuine.

Working so much on the card shop left so little room for anything else. It can be hard enough to find free time when you're a mother of two, wife to one and work full-time, let alone when you're spending as much time as you can on a burgeoning side business.

One thing that went by the wayside was exercise. Last year, for the first time ever, I was told that I was borderline hypertensive.

Me! I've always been a little braggy about my phenomenal blood pressure! I would look forward to getting it tested when I donated blood just to hear the nurse nod grudgingly and say "Good!"

But suddenly it was something to worry about. When I talked to the doctor, the first thing she asked was "Have you stopped exercising?"

And, by jove, I had! That was when I took up my new running program (I did the Couch to 5K Running Program) which I called "Running for My Life." Thanks to it's well regulated program, I can reliably run about a 5k without keeling over.

(if you have an iPod touch or an iPhone, the C25K app is GREAT!)

I got the Wii Fit and then graduated up to the more challenging EA Sports Active, which has been a lot of fun.

(can you tell I love gadgets? They really keep my motivation up!)

The blood pressure's down to a non-worrisome level (though I go in for a follow up in a few more months) -- hooray! -- with just a little exercise and cutting out salt here and there.

I don't feel like I've ever neglected the kids, but I now find myself with more time to do things around the house: cook special meals, clean up a bit more, tackle garden chores, etc.

I've even found time to just hang out with my husband! I really neglected him last year -- he patiently hung around letting me work hard on my shop. Nowadays, we've been trying to wedge in an episode of Lost, trying to catch up before the series finale... crazily, it's starting to make sense to me...

Balance has been a good thing!

Nowadays, I might sell a single card once or twice a week and an invitation package maybe once or twice a month (at the height of things, it was easily quadruple that), but this is just about what I can manage, along with occasional blog postings.

While I do miss the thrill of the big sales, I just am not motivated enough to jump through hoops for them any more (I used to customize individual cards for nothing just upon request, which is kind of crazy).

Anyhoo... we'll see how this all pans out!

Meanwhile, another episode of Lost tonight... or we finish the two-part Office where Jim and Pam have a baby... sometimes a little more TV can be a good thing (really!).

The cutest Easter crafts ever!

2010-04-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... Easter! I have to say that for me, a huge part of it is all about pastel candy and yummy treats!

Peeps used to be favorites of mine (nowadays, it's hard to believe that I could eat so much concentrated sugar as a kid without passing out).

The only thing cuter than Peeps? Repackaging them with adorable graphics!

Get the free download from Eighteen25!

Another amazing idea comes from Not Martha... Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs!

She fills the inside of real egg shells with a layer of chocolate and fills them with adorable little surprises.

Find out more!

But wait! There's more!

Can you stand how cute this brioche bunny is? Dang I wish I'd seen this recipe earlier!

Check it out at the Sweet Sensation blog.... (it's in Croatian, but she kindly translates into English for us yanks)

Knight Invitation order

2010-04-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this, my latest Knight invitation comp!

Isn't his cute little face peeking out from the helmet just the cutest thing?

I love it when my customers opt to add in their kids' face to these invites....

Dharma Dolls

2010-03-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

Before Dharma become associated with a mysterious initiative on "Lost," it was the name of a deity in charge of one's righteous path.

It's also the name of a pretty cool little tchotchke you can pick up in Japan or (nearer to home) most Asian shops.

When you buy one, the eyes are blank and white. After bringing one home, you will think of a goal and fill in one eye, promising to provide the doll with full sight when your goal has been completed. The dharma (or daruma) doll will give you a little reminder to stay on task (and perhaps provide a little divine intervention as well).

And now you can make your own dharma/daruma doll out of paper, courtesy of the clever people at Canon's Creative Park:

http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/2022/03262/index.html

Free Download: Sweet Dreams Cards

2010-03-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

Pick someone who wouldn't expect it and send them one of these lovely little cards.... on me!

I love the joy of snail mail, we should all do it more often. I promise to send a few of these to some people I love, "just because" if you'll do the same...

I love these sweet images. Both of them are in the public domain -- feel free to use them for your own personal use (please refrain from reselling them).

The pdf looks like this:

Download the pdf, print it onto cardstock, cut and fold!

Dinosaur Invitations

2010-03-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

FINALLY!

It's been months since I've posted a new item -- seriously bad rut!

I've actually been working on this simple dinosaur birthday party invitation for a long time now, but have finally gotten the colors so that I'm perfectly happy with it.

Hope people like it!

Scary Heart

2010-03-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

A properly Etsy-obsessed vendor checks her Etsy shop pretty much constantly, not only for sales, but for feedback (duh!) and even who is hearting him or her. Interesting avatars merit a trip to that sellers shop and a possible heartback.

This avatar made me laugh...

3D Galore!

2010-03-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

The boys and I have been playing around with 3D images... this is the best of the lot (there were some very weird effects if I moved the camera too far between the two shots).

Check out the Start3D site if you're interested in doing it yourself...

3D photos!

2010-03-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, if there's one thing I love more than papercrafts, it's 3d photos! (well, not counting the kids)(oh, yeah, my husband!)(cats and other family members... okay all the mammals in my life, but really! I do love 3d so very very much!)

When we were on our honeymoon, I brought along a disposable 3d camera that took a series of photos all next to each other. You sent the camera in for processing and they sent you back a series of lenticular photographs -- you know, the kind with grooves in the plastic and as you move the photo back and forth, the image appears in 3d?

Super cool beyond belief! The photos were spectacular!

Since then, sadly, the company went belly up (unfortunately, AFTER we sent them a nice check, all our negatives and a request for multiple reprints). If anyone knows of anyone who's doing these clever 3d photos, let me know!

In the meantime, I've discovered Start3D, which allows you to upload two images (taken side by side of the same subject) and, within minutes, create a clever 3D animation -- super easy and effective! You can then order lenticular prints of your creations... WOW!

The screenshot I show above isn't as crisp as the actual animation here:

"Eugene, Nate and Matt"

(and, okay, still not perfect -- you really need your subjects to stand REALLY still)

These handsome fellows are the brother, friend and groom of my niece Christine -- she was married years ago (my twin boys were ring bearers (they thought they were going to be "ring bears" and perhaps wear furry costumes)) and, just in case I ever figured out how to do 3D, I asked the men to hold their pose while I took two side-by-side shots.

Pretty cool, I think!

Bonus image of the "ring bears:"

Oh my goodness! So much cuteness! One more can't hurt:

Twins in cowboys boots!

Gen's Scrapbook Kitchen Interviews Me!

2010-03-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

Gen, of Gen's Scrapbook Kitchen, was kind enough to do a little interview of me on her blog!

Check it out!

Free. Paper. Foldables.

2010-03-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

There are few words in the English language that get me as excited as the idea of free downloadable papercrafts.

I was dropping off a bag of paper goodies for my friend, CraftyLinda. She shared the most cunning little paper accordian that doubled as a calendar that she'd made using a downloadable pdf from the Paperfoldables website.

Check it out! It contains a wide assortment of fun, subversive, clever and sometimes even practical papercrafts. My faves? The poor kitty wearing a cone, the card holder that looks like an Atari console and Twiki (from Buck Rogers).

Make a Mini-Book with a Greeting Card!

2010-02-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

When I received this gorgeous card from Eliza Wheeler, of Wheeler Studios, from a card exchange I'd organized last year, I knew that I had to save it for something special.

I finally found what I was looking for in an online tutorial that cleverly showed how to make a cute little booklet out of a letterpress card.

Here's my version:

Gather up these items: a cute card, a paper awl (to punch holes), some twine and some plain paper. Some binder clips are handy.

Cut your paper to the same size as your unfolded card. Fold in half, creasing the fold well. As I'm a little anal, I trimmed the paper down about a 1/4" off the top and and 1/8th" off the side (to give a tidy 1/8th" clearance all the way around).

Insert your paper "guts" into your card and center it. Use the binder clips on either side to hold it in place.

Use the paper awl to punch three holes in the spine of your booklet (one in the center and the other two perhaps and inch from each end).

Thread your needle with your twine. If you'd like to use baker's twine (which is so adorable!), Annie42's Etsy shop is a terrific source for it! (and she's super nice!)

Sew your booklet this way: Starting on the outside, push your needle through the center hole. Then poke your needle through the bottom hole to the outside again. Poke your needle through the top hole to get back to the inside. Poke back through the center hole. Both thread ends should now be hanging on the outside through this center hole.

(for a more thorough explanation of this binding technique, check this link)

Make sure that each twine hangs on opposite sides of the middle twine and tighten it up. Tie a bow or make a square knot and trim the ends. You can trim it close or leave a bow or even hang beads on the twine.

(if you prefer the ends of the twine to be on the inside, just start on the inside of the booklet)

Enjoy!

World Crafty Domination

2010-02-24T19:42:00.001-08:00

So what do you do when you've been laboring at your crafts, becoming moderately successful and are ready to take things to the next level?

If you're like us, you gather together some like-minded people and form a powerful cabal!

The first meeting of World Crafty Domination convened on Monday, over pretzel fondue and burgers at a local pub.

Above, Shawn Gascoyne-Bowman (the brain behind www.criminalcrafts.com), me (of Molly Lee Cards) and Wendy Cull (DoggoneKnitting and QueenBeeHandmade)

And Kathy Larsen (MosquitoLodge), Linda Candello (Crafty Linda) and Jane Sabatini (half of Three Little Clouds).

Not present were Christine Thatcher (Christine Marie Studio and Eugenia Sabatini (the other half of Three Little Clouds).

Between us, we are veterans of the craft fair circuit, have sold thousands on Etsy, taught classes, taught ourselves our craft, shopped around book proposals, FaceBooked, Twittered, been featured in magazines and numerous blogs, are resting retail space in a bricks and mortar store, and, well, pretty much approached the crafting world at many, many different angles.

Why am I going on and on about a social engagement? If you happen to be stuck in a crafty rut, put out the word to find other crafty people, set a date and meet! Not all of our group knew each other and we'd never met with the sole purpose of finding ways to take over the world one cute handcrafted item at a time.

The energy and flow of ideas was so invigorating! Each of us had different skills and experience to bring to the table.

We've created an online group where we can keep up with the exchange of ideas and continue the spirit of collaboration.

Some of us will be attending the I Heart Portland/Etsy Meet and Greet on Friday at PNCA together and we've made plans to meet again in March, to check out Kathy and Christine's mini shop within a shop.

More to come!

Mason Jar into a Soap Dispenser

2010-02-23T17:34:00.000-08:00

Apartment Therapy always has such terrific ideas!

Check out this super cute soap dispenser from a Mason jar...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/diy/how-to-turn-a-mason-jar-into-a-soap-dispenser-109086

Gymini Giveaway!

2010-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

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Hooray! I've drawn a winner for this contest!

Emily (HutchyHutch) was the randomly drawn winner for the Gymini! I have sent her a note to get her address from her so that my very generous sponsor, CSN, can send the play mat to her.

Thank you, everyone, who entered this contest! And thank you, CSN, for making this all possible!

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When my boys were tiny, they spent time literally every day of their lives til they were past six months playing in a Gymini, probably one of my favorite baby products ever.

And -- yay! -- thanks to CSN stores, I get to give one away!

(CSN is an online source for all kinds of family-friendly products, from kids bedding to high quality toys and games to some amazing kids furniture.)

Let me tell you why I seriously love the Gymini: it's a play mat with two arches that connect to make a framework to which to attach baby toys. At first your babies will just enjoy looking at them, but as they get bigger, they'll reach and grab for them. You can swap the toys around for a little variety.

The best part about it is how simple it was to disconnect the snap at the top and fold the playmat flat. We took ours everywhere! When we visited homes, we didn't have to worry about finding a safe, clean spot to park the children -- we just brought it with us.

Convinced yet? Take a look at all three of my boys, enjoying the Gymini some awesome friends bought us (thanks, Bob and Chris!):

The boys are tuckered out from a fun play session (are they so incredibly cute or what?). The version that we had wasn't nearly as nice as the one I'm giving away this week!

If you're interested in winning one, all you have to do is leave a comment with your email address. If you follow this blog, leave a second comment saying that you do for an additional chance to win. (if you don't leave your email address and it's not provided on your profile, then I'll have no way of contacting you to let you know you've won!)

I'll collect comments for a week. One winner will be selected at random on noon on Saturday, February 27th and notified by email (the winner's name will be posted here as well).

Good luck, everybody!

And thank you, CSN, for this fun opportunity!

Let's Get Fit Together!

2010-02-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

Today's tutorial and free download is a fitness log!

All right, a fitness log might seem to be an odd choice of a download for a crafty blog, but given my recent post of putting some balance in my life, it actually feels just perfect to me. Life is not all about the latest clever card-making technique, after all!

One thing that always helps me keep on track, fitness-wise is if I have to log what I do. The fact that I'll have to record a big goose egg under exercise for a day is one way to motivate me right out the door for a quick walk. I've been working out diligently for about two months now and I'm ready to share this with you!

First, download these two pdfs:

You're more than welcome to download them and print as many as you need for your own use, to share with friends or whatever! I do ask that you not sell them, of course, or make a product for use in resale (that would just be rude!).

Print one copy of the Motivation Pages and as many copies of the Fitness Log Pages that you think you'll need. Perhaps start out with eight sheets -- this will get you through 32 days and a month seems like a good start. Plus it makes a cute-sized book.

Cut all the sheets in half one way and then in half again. If you want to keep things simple, you can just staple the sheets together on one end, adding in a front and back cover to make it a little fancy. Another thing I've done is take the whole stack to Kinkos and have them bind it into a little book with spiral binding -- super cute! But today I'll show you how to make a cute cover from the comfort of your own home with just some cardstock and a stapler.

You'll need two pieces of card stock. Cut your cover to be 4.25" x 5.5" -- in this case, this is my yellow cardstock.

Cut the other (green) piece to be 4.25" wide and about 7" long (it will be cut down shorter than this).

Score the green cardstock 5.5" down and fold on this score. Line your stack of paper up against the fold and mark the thickness of the stack of your pages. Score the cardstock again at this mark. Make another score 1/4" away from this last score. Cut the end of the cardstock another 1/4" away from THAT score.

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Just look at the photo on the far right in the middle row: the first score is 5.5" in, then another score the height of the stack of paper, then another score 1/4" away from that and then cut 1/4" away from that.

Straighten your stack of pages. Put the cover (yellow) on top of the pages. Line the newly cut edge of the long cover with the left edge of the stack, on top of the yellow cover. Staple the entire stack close to the fold. Then fold the green cover over and around.

So cute! I love this kind of binding where the cover folds to hide the staples -- I used this technique on my own wedding invitations, a few years ago.

I'm a simple kind of gal, so I've left mine as it is, but I know a lot of you papercrafting lovers would enjoy embellishing your cover to your heart's content.

How to use it: the motivation pages are meant to keep your focus on your goals and remind you of why you're doing this.

Where I'm going is the page you'll fill up with your goals (I want to lose 20 pounds! I want to get in shape to run a 5k in the fall! I want to fit into my skinny jeans again! I want to walk into my class reunion and make heads turn!). Put it all in -- be as descriptive and detailed as you possibly can make it -- you want to make it more enticing than, say cheesecake!

Where I've been is where you'll note what you want to leave behind (I couldn't keep up with my nine-year old biking. I outgrew every pair of jeans in the house.). Again, pour yourself out here!

I will is what you'll be doing to achieve your goals. Instead of saying you want to lose X pounds here, this is where you put in how you will get there (I will do a 10-minute mini workout every morning before work and a 30-minute run on alternate days after work. I will pack a healthy lunch and snacks for work every day. I will allow myself no more than 100 calories worth of indulgence a day (even if that's just one bite of something decadent). I know I will fall off the bandwagon occasionally and if that happens, I'll get right back on again!).

I won't will be where you'll list all the potential stumbling blocks that have plagued previous efforts (I won't snack after 7pm. I won't eat the leftovers off the kids' plates. I won't defeat myself with negative thinking.).

The Fitness Log Pages

Use the fitness log pages as you wish, but try to log every single day. For me, weight loss is trying to keep my calories in lower while maximizing the calories out, so that's how I've organized things.

I put in a space for a mini workout (this could be a set of tricep dips off my desk chair at work) in addition to cardio and weight training. I log my minutes, but you can do as you like!

One of my biggest hobgoblins is evening snacking. I put in a spot where I'd have to mark whether or not I succumbed to this particular issue. Just having this there would make me hesitate about dipping that spoon into the ice cream...

I put in a generic temptation notation for you to use as you wish.

However you use it, the important thing is to use it! Keep it with you always (in your purse, handy with a pen -- if you find yourself early for an appointment, walk around the block and then log that extra walking time!).

I hope you like this download! Enjoy! If you use this or would like to share your own fitness goals and ideas, I'd love to hear from you -- please leave a comment!

Pop-Up Card Giveaway!

2010-02-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

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WINNERS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!

Thank you to everyone who entered to win a card in this giveaway!

The winners are (drumroll please!):

Mavericks Mommy (Drink a Toast Birthday card)

Kittycat/Tiffany (Birthday Cake Pop-up card)

Emily (Three Reasons Why They're Awesome card)

Darci K (Hey Cancer, Take THAT!)

Marie McGrath (Three Reasons Why She's Wonderful Bouquet card)

Thanks again! I will be contacting the winners shortly to get your addresses to send you your cards!

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Well it's a whole new year and I'm dying to do another giveaway! Now's your chance to get a free pop-up or mechanical card of your choice from my shop! I will choose five winners at random, so there's a good chance of winning.

How to enter? All you have to do is check out my etsy shop and then come back here and leave a comment about one of my cards. Pick any single pop-up card that you like and tell me what you like about it! Be sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you're a winner! Whichever card you select will be the one that you win!

For a second chance to win, you can follow this blog and leave a comment saying that you do so (if you already follow me, just leave a comment saying that you already do).

For a third chance, become a FaceBook fan by clicking on the link. Don't forget to leave a comment letting me know that you're a fan!

You get another chance if you follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mollyleecards. Don't forget to leave a comment letting me know that you follow me!

And, lastly, if you have a blog, mention this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment letting me know with a link to your blog post.

This giveaway ends in about a week, February 21, at noon and winners will be announced at this post. Winners will also be notified and the prizes will be shipped out shortly thereafter.

Reusable snack bags from Mosquito Lodge

2010-02-11T05:43:00.001-08:00

Check out these amazing reusable snack bags from Mosquito Lodge, a new Etsy shop!

They're lined with nylon and feature velcro closures. When you're done using them, just flip them inside out, closing the velcro and toss them in the washer. The little bags, available in a variety of cute prints, have gussets so that they will stand up on their own.

I think they're terrific to bring nuts and healthy nibbles to snack on at work. I gifted a mom of young kids with a set of these and she's gotten rave reviews from the other parents at her preschool.

In addition to the nifty snack bags, Mosquito Lodge also sells some handy iPod Touch covers and the sweetest lavender sachets you'll find anywhere!

In which I contemplate watching more tv

2010-02-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

I've always been an all or nothing kind of gal. A few years ago, I got obsessed with fitness. I worked out a LOT! I was getting up an hour or so early, working out an hour, walking during breaks at work and doing other workouts in the evenings.

When the kids were babies, of course, my only focus was on them and, almost literally, every waking moment of my life (other than work) was aimed at them. When I wasn't caring for them, I was preparing food for them, finding and reading literature on how to better care for them, etc. I barely had time to feed myself at this time.

After buying a KitchenAid stand mixer, I spent a good year baking bread and other high-carb treats in my spare time (giving most of it away, but still gaining a good chunk of weight anyway). Knitting followed a similar pattern (and I have a LOT of leftover yarn stash in the basement still!).

2009 was definitely the year of Etsy for me. I really worked hard on my shop, designing new cards, refining my photography, bending over backwards to accomodate the smallest of requests. It was insane! Again, I was waking up an hour, sometimes two, early in the morning to work on new ideas, fulfill orders, write in my blog and more. After work, I would spend a little time with the family but then be irresistibly drawn to my email to check on orders or to check on Etsy to see if anyone had left me feedback, to Google analytics to see if my latest postings had brought me any traffic.

I belong to the EtsyGreetingsTeam, a collection of Etsy cardmakers and one topic getting a lot of notice on our discussion boards has been our goals for our shops. People have chimed in eagerly about wanting to take their sales figures past the 40, 100, 500 mark, about blogging more regularly, about putting together new designs, starting a FaceBook fan site, etc.

I may be the only member of the group seriously thinking that I need to watch more tv.

Let me 'splain: Last year was terrific for my shop and I had so much fun, but I spent so much of my mornings, evenings and weekends fulfilling orders and tending to business that I feel like I've neglected other parts of my life. I stopped exercising (and my blood pressure's gone way up!), I was having very little down time, my other interests took a back seat (I stopped knitting, baking, reading for pleasure).

It was all Etsy, all the time.

So when the other gals on my team talked about how they were going to achieve more, more, more on their shops, I realized that I needed to do much, much less.

If I set a goal for my online crafting business, this may take time away from other activities. Time is the single most valued commodity in my working mom's life. Since it's a limited resource, I need to budget myself very, very carefully.

So I'm cutting back on the Etsy addiction and making a conscious effort to exercise more, to spend time with my husband and play with the kids and catch up on the television that we've cut out the last year -- we need to catch up on last year's Lost episodes before the grand finale!

Ink is putting me in the red

2010-02-06T16:37:00.001-08:00

Last fall, I took some of my card profits and invested in a nice new printer, an Epson 1400.

It's really nice! I love being able to print on large paper (I can print on 12 x 18" cardstock, for instance, and trim it down to get letter-sized paper with full bleeds -- awesome!).

But here's the downside: the thing guzzles ink like there's no tomorrow. Seriously, I need to enroll my printer in some 12-step program.

Above are 46 empty inkjet cartridges. Most of them were used up when I was in crazy production mode before the holidays. Forty-six inkjet cartridges at about $20 a shot... well, I can't even bear to do the math on that.

Paying for the ink has seriously put the profitability of my shop into jeopardy, however I did find what I think to be a good solution: knock off inkjet cartridges.

There are several different online sites. I found the FAQs on this site to be quite reassuring: http://www.itsupplies.com The fact that they offered free shipping and a 75% reduction in costs was tempting enough for me to venture out of my rut of paying full price for the comfort of using something approved by Epson.

I've only had a chance to use a few of them so far and haven't see any problems yet. The cartridges do look a little different than the original ones, but so far the results have been really positive so far! At least, I can't see any difference in the quality and the printer hasn't exploded or anything...

Cupid Pillow Box Download and Tutorial

2010-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

I never realized how easy pillow boxes were to make until I'd checked out a tutorial. Then I had to make my own and share it with you!

First, download the pdf here.

Download the pdf here.

Cut around the box on the solid lines. Carefully score on the dotted lines (using a ruler on the straight lines helps).

Fold along the straight lines. Apply glue to the flap (it's good to get it in the corners).

Carefully fold on the curved lines, folding the sides with the finger hole in first.

Be sure to stuff with little treats, like chocolate truffles or maybe something a little blingier to make your Valentine's Day!

Enjoy!

For an extra special Valentine, check out this coordinating card at my Etsy shop!

(It's part of my Three Reasons series cards -- you turn the wheel and write in three reasons in the spots: 1, 2, 3 -- they're a lot of fun to fill in!)

Valentine CardEnvelopes

2010-01-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

Check out these lovely cardenvelopes (free to download!) at the wonderful Natalie Jost blog!

I love how generous the crafting community is and I got sooo much lovely attention for my Busy Little Silhouette Pop-Up Card Download that I hope to be able to do more this year -- it is a nice way to pay things forward.

I've been thinking of tagging 2010 the year of generosity (contributing to HeartsforHaiti has been so wonderful, for instance, and I contribute to several school auctions and other worthy non-profits), but am still mulling things over.

Time to think about Valentine's Day!

2010-01-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Don't let Valentine's Day sneak up on you! You don't want to be one of those people scanning the card racks at Walgreen's late the day before, trying to find that perfect little something, do you?

(full disclosure: I'm usually one of those people for EVERY holiday)

While of course I'd suggest that my new Cupid's Three Reasons Why card would be absolutely perfect, it's possible that this card just isn't your cup of tea.

My fellow EtsyGreetingsTeam members and I have banded together and assembled a really lovely lot of Valentine's cards for you to browse -- these are our very favorites from our shops.

Here's the best part: every single one of these cards includes a special offer. Some of us are offering free shipping, some are including a special surprise bonus gift with purchase.

For myself, if you buy my Cupid Three Reasons card til the end of the week, you'll receive a coupon good for $5 off your next purchase from my Etsy shop. That means your next card is practically free!

Check out the great Valentine's Day cards with specials now!

Selling a lot of pop-up winged heart cards!

2010-01-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

In the last few days, I've sold EIGHT of these pop-up winged heart cards.

Thrilled? Making loads o' money?

Yes and no... I'm losing money on every purchase, but am very happy about it!

I've donated the cards to Hearts for Haiti, an etsy shop which is accepting donations of handcrafted goodies from etsy sellers. All the proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.

Check out the store! There are tons of great goodies to purchase on it! If you're an etsy seller, contact the shop and get details about how to participate. It's a great feeling to be able to contribute a little something to help out!

Hearts for Haiti

2010-01-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a creative way to help the people in Haiti, here are two ways you can assist the men, women and children in this devastated area: craft and/or shop!

Hearts for Haiti is a new etsy shop that was created for the sole purpose of accepting donations from etsy sellers and selling them to benefit the people of Haiti. Their shop has already raised thousands that goes directly to Doctors without Borders to help fund their humanitarian efforts.

Want to donate your handmade crafts to help Haiti? (incidentally, this will likely get your product and shop a lot of great exposure, if the notion of helping out the world isn't enough motivation for you) Send an email to etsyforhaiti@gmail.com. Victoria needs this information:

Your shop name
Your location and country
Item Name/Title
Item Price (please do include this! we don’t want to undervalue your work :)
Item Description
10 tags
Materials used
Up to 5 clear photos of the item

Be sure to check out the shop -- there are lots of wonderful products that have been donated already (they'll be posting my Pop-Up Heart card soon). All shipping is free, so this is a great time to snag some good deals (again, if the idea of helping the world isn't enough motivation). Remember, all the proceeds go to an excellent cause!

Busy Little Silhouette Card Tutorial

2010-01-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs is Cathe Holden's Just Something I Made blog. I've mentioned it before -- it's a treasure trove of wonderful ideas, inspiration and generous downloads.

One recent download was a series of old-fashioned busy day silhouettes. Cathe asked what we might do with them, so I took that as a challenge. And, of course, being me, it had to be a pop-up card!

What do you think?

In the spirit of Cathe's generosity, I'm paying this one forward! Download the pdf to make this card!

Print the pdf out on light card stock.

Make a card base by cutting a letter-sized piece of darker, contrasting cardstock in half and folding that in half to make a standard folded A2 card base (5.5" x 4.25").

Carefully cut out the shapes on the cardstock (dotted lines indicate folds). Gently fold on dotted lines and table legs where they meet the floor.

Apply glue to the back of the rectangular piece (avoiding the parts that are folded away). Adhere to the card base, lining up the top of the rectangle with the fold line (allow a millimeter or two of space from the actual fold so that the card can fold easily).

Repeat for the rounded piece, making sure that the two sides mirror each other.

Glue the upper part of the figure and the top of the table together, carefully matching the pieces.

Voila!

Superhero Secret Slider Card

2010-01-08T06:06:00.000-08:00

What do you think of this one?

I had a customer request a Spiderman-themed card. Of course, I can't use real Spiderman imagery, but I purchased this stock imagery from iStockphoto which won her son's approval.

It's still a work in progress, but I am very pleased with how smooth the mechanism works already.

On the outside, it reads: "Guess who's turning four?" and when you pull the tab, you'll see a photo of the birthday boy (which I have yet to put in).

Still honing it up a bit, but the general idea is there!

Best 2009 Crafting Tutorials

2010-01-03T01:13:00.000-08:00

Wow! Check out this fabulous list of 100 of last year's best crafting tutorials, as compiled by The Long Thread.

LOVE THEM!

http://thelongthread.com/?p=5455

Felting Can Be a Little Addictive

2010-01-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, I haven't been able to stop felting after my super fun New Year's Crafternoon session.

This morning, when my friend Jane came by with a super-adorable-cute Japanese book on needle felting little critters, I knew I had to try it.

You can get the general idea of the technique from the book, even though it's in Japanese (with lots of helpful photographs). You make a little wire armature first, then wrap wool roving around the body parts, letting the ends be all wispy so that your little animal doesn't end up with seams.

Once you've played around with it a bit, needle felting isn't all that hard. You just have to mess around a bit. And trust that you WILL get occasionally poked with those super sharp needles, but with all that cuteness, it's totally worth it.

I used the same basic techniques as demonstrated on Martha Stewart for the felted chick that I made yesterday.

You know, I think that my projects work better if I just dive in and DO IT, instead of dithering about getting everything perfect before I start. Otherwise, I'll never get started.

Okay, so my kitty's a little on the longish side -- kind of like a feline Daschund (I squished him in a little, but he still wants to elongate) -- but still... HE'S SO CUTE!

Best. New. Year's. Day. Crafting. Day. Ever.

2010-01-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe it's the only New Year's Crafting Day I've ever had, but isn't it a great idea? Everyone has that day off and unless you're terribly hung over (and I hope most of my friends are past those days of regrettable drinking), just the perfect way to begin the new year.

We began our crafternoon, as we always do, with a potluck brunch. Yum! Egg and spinach dish, German Potato Salad (with loads o' bacon), scones, chocolate chip muffins, quiche (with more bacon) and other tasties.

Yum!

Brunch was so yummy, it took an effort to get down to the business of crafting, but once we got started, we could barely stop.

We shared our stashes of wool roving (batting), which gave us a pretty nice array of colors to select from, and various needle felting tools.

We started by wet felting wool balls and beads, as in this tutorial: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/felt-balls

I'd never wet felted balls before, but since I'd seen this project originally in an article about fun projects to do with kids, it seemed safe to try out... and it was! Basically, you just take a rough ball of wool, try to smooth out any hard edges, dip it in hot, soapy water and gently roll it in your hands (without squeezing out the water) until it forms into a ball. Miraculously, it does! And after it becomes more formed, you can add embellishments, like stripes and spirals. And you just keep rolling 'til it turns into the right size.

Skewering them with toothpicks turned some into nifty beads.

Then we turned to needle-felting.

This is the process of taking wool batting and poking it with felting needles til it turns to felt. You get more control with the process and, of course, things stay drier.

My friend, Beth, brought catnip, which we rolled inside a wad of wool batting and then wrapped more around it and felted the big ball (which shrank and shrank) to make catnip balls for some lucky felines.

This got the attention of Joey, who seemed to be volunteering to be a tester from his perch on Jane's lap.

Experiments were made.

I was completely enamored of these adorable felted chicks: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/needle-felted-chicks?backto=true. With a little string, mine turned into a lovely Christmas tree ornament.

Fun crafternoon! I'll be doing it again!

New Year, Time to Get Crafty!

2009-12-31T07:15:00.001-08:00

Every crafter's resolution: make more stuff in the new year.

To get this off to a good start, I'm inviting some friends over to felt with me on the first, tomorrow. No time to waste!

Check out these super-cute projects by Martha Stewart:

http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/felting-projects?lpgStart=1&currentslide=1&currentChapter=1#ms-global-breadcrumbs

The little colored balls and beads might be just right for a single felting session as we're all newbies, however I'm really intrigued by these adorable needle-felted birds:

The video is great to watch. The guest has a site with a gallery of the incredible little critters she's made: http://jenndocherty.com/bears.html

Cute Last-Minute Gifts for the Neighbors

2009-12-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

I made these packets of hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows for the neighbors as easy last-minute Christmas gifts.

I didn't do it alone, I had a little help from two able assistants.

Colin and Ethan helped me with the recipe for the marshmallows I found on Martha Stewart's website:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/homemade-marshmallows

We had everything we needed in our cupboards to make these up. The hardest part was being patient while the thing whipped itself up to amazing volume in nine minutes.

You pour the mixture out and let it set for a couple of hours while the kids try to lick all the sticky goo that has accumulated on their bodies.

Later, you cut it up into cubes and roll it in a generous amount of powdered sugar.

The hot chocolate was even simpler. Just measure and mix up some dry ingredients. I got premium cocoa and it really tastes great!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,173,149189-254196,00.html

I scooped some into some cellophane bags, arranged some marshmallows on a bit of wax paper in another, made a cute label with directions (and our Santa photo) and stapled it all together.

Super easy!

The boys and I delivered them today. Fun!

Cancer Card Brightens a Day!

2009-12-20T07:47:00.000-08:00

No other card I make gets me the kind of feedback that my "Hey Cancer! Take THAT!" card gets me.

If you haven't seen it before, it features the popular iconic Rosie the Riveter image... but with a twist.

Pull the tab on the right and her bent arm moves in a rude gesture, to put cancer in its proper place.

In one of my giveaways, one of my winners asked if she could substitute this card for the card that she'd won, giving me a bit of the story. I recently received this feedback from her:

Hi Molly,

I just wanted to let you know how much my mom loved the cancer card.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, our family was worried, of course, but also positive. We were fortunate in that the doctor's found the cancer by accident (if there is such a thing) and in a very early stage.

From the first night we found out, we decided we were going to kick ass and take names. Even though it was my mom's body, we were all in this together and we were strong. Luckily, surgery did the trick and now she's cancer free! We feel like we dodged a bullet and we are so, so happy. Your cancer card fit our situation perfectly. "Take That, Cancer!"

Thank you so much for making such a great card.

Take care,

Darcy

Feedback like this really makes my day! This is EXACTLY why I love to send this card out so much -- making a sale is always fun, but the thought of brightening someone's day with this defiant sentiment is the real motivator for me!

Thank you, Darcy, for taking the time to let me know your story!

Tutorial: Personalized Tacks

2009-12-18T05:33:00.001-08:00

I decided I wanted to make tacks for my coworkers for Christmas. They look soooo cute displayed on a piece of leftover bulletin board cork cut to fit inside an Altoid's tin.

The red border of the front of the tin is ready-made for holiday embellishment!

Anyone who's ever made these flattened glass fridge magnets or tacks knows how incredibly simple it is. The hardest part for me was finding nice clear flat marbles -- I used to get them from the craft store or even the dollar store, but lately all I've found there are opalescent or riddled with pock marks.

I finally found some nice ones at a local floral supply store.

My 1/2" circle punch is sure handy for punching out the photos (you can cut out with scissors but it sure does take a lot longer!)

Here you see the different stages. On the left, just a plain, flat glass marble.

Next step: add a small drop of Diamond Glaze (what a wonderful adhesive!).

Press your photograph face down into the drop, pressing down so that some gooshes out of the edges (then you know it's covered the whole photo).

Add another drop of Diamond Glaze.

Press down the tack.

That's it!

It's so simple I did them all in one quick crafty evening. What made this gift a little extra special was the presentation. I cut the cork to fit the inside of the Altoids tin. The tin would be an equally cute way to gift refrigerator magnets made with this same technique.

Enjoy!

One Pretty Thing: Craft Roundup!

2009-12-15T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ever wish that someone could take the work out of browsing the web for the good stuff?

One Pretty Thing does just that, for people who love to craft! Every day, it features one daily do-it-yourself theme, like "Crafts for Kids," "Gifts for Grandparents," "Printable Roundup" and delivers the very best online tutorials for the very best the web has to offer.

Myself, I have my eye on that cute soldered photo pendant tutorial...

Check it out! Enjoy!

Customer Spotlight: Jungle Invitations for a Baby Shower!

2009-12-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Oh my GOODNESS! Is that cake the cutest thing or what?

And the amazingly decorated cookies! Yow!

I had a customer who wanted to use my jungle invitations for a baby shower -- they've been used that way probably more often than for birthday parties already, a super cute theme!

Rovie was kind enough to send me photos recently of the shindig. Doesn't it look amazing?

I loved hearing this:

"The invitations were a BIG HIT! Oh, yes!! Everyone raved about them (both kids and adults alike).

I am super thrilled that you made them because it set the tone for party which, by the way, was a huge success!"

This is what went on the back of the invitations (all of my spinning wheel invitations can have overflow text go on the back easily):

I love books as a gift for a baby shower! I know that of all the wonderful items we received when the twins were born (clothes, gear, toys, etc), it's the books that we still have and still look at occasionally.

Rovie was such a fun customer! We worked together on getting these absolutely perfect -- she asked me to substitute a lion in place of the tiger as the new mom and dad are associated with a monkey and a lion.

So much fun!

Thanks so much for sending me photos, Rovie!

Online Auction -- amazing and wonderful items!

2009-12-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

Looking for a way to snag some amazing gifts this holiday season AND give back a little bit? Here is a great opportunity! Starting today, there will be a charity auction at BLOOM (www.placetobloom.blogspot.com) to benefit Claire and Benson Skinner.

Here's a helpful link to the entire list of auction items! Mine is #53.

As explained by their parents, "Benson and Claire were born with a rare genetic disease in which their liver produces too much oxalate--called primary hyperoxaluria. Claire's condition has progressed much faster than Benson's. She has been on dialysis since she was 3 months old and is on dialysis 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. She is now on the waiting list to receive a combined kidney / liver transplant. It is expected Benson will eventually need similar transplants."

Read more about the Skinners' experience.

All proceeds from the auction at BLOOM will go directly to Claire's COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) account to help pay for her transplant. Please head over to BLOOM now for the auction! It ends on Saturday!

Check out the auction now! (remember to click to see all 82 items!)

Featured on Etsy's home page!

2009-12-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

Whoo hoo!

I'm so excited! My pop-up Elegant Elephant Card has been featured on Etsy's home page!

Yippee!

Help for Two Adorable Children

2009-12-06T07:35:00.001-08:00

Reading this blog post made me want to weep:

http://placetobloom.blogspot.com/2009/11/help-for-two-little-angels.html

Two little kids with a terrible disease. The little girl has to be on dialysis for 15 hours a DAY (12 at night, three during the day). They need liver and kidney transplants. Sometimes I think it's hard to be a parent and then I read about something like this and I realize all that I have to be thankful about.

Anyway, the gist of the blog posting was that they were holding an online auction to raise money to help and they were seeking donations to this cause.

I picked out a bunch of cards and I'll see if this works for them -- the deadline for donations has already passed, but I hope that they can still use them.

I feel lucky to be in a position to help, even just a little bit.

When the auction goes live, I'll link to it here!

Another Grown-Up Party Invitation Order

2009-12-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

My invitations were originally designed for kids parties, but there's nothing wrong with using them for a fun-loving adult!

The above invites were created for an adult's 30th birthday party. Adam is having his party at a place called Medieval Times, which hosts real live battles and a feast for the guests. It looks like a total fun.

Anyway, I love how Adam's face looks, peeking out from the knight's helm. So cute!

Tualatin Country Club Craft Fair

2009-12-03T04:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my friends, Christine Thatcher and Kathy Larsen and I met at the Tualatin Country Club. Christine had heard of a Ladies' Luncheon which included a vendor area.

Since it seems clear that we need to reach an audience with deeper pockets (the better to appreciate our fine wares), this seemed like the perfect opportunity for us!

The Country Club provided tables with cloths and skirting. We were allowed one 8' table and one 5' round, which meant we were a bit squished, but, as Christine had mentioned, we could make good use of vertical space.

With complementary offerings, we artfully wove together all of our offerings, trying to find ways to use every bit of available space.

I think we did really well! Click on the photos above to enlarge any of the images. You can see how Christine's jewelry is arranged throughout, Kathy's lavender offerings are placed strategically about and my cards flank each end and get little spots here and there.

The effect we were shooting for was of a small boutique.

I have to say that after checking out some other lackluster displays that I really think ours was, hands down, really great! Most people simply laid their work out without any thought to display. In some ways, being cramped for space forced us to use our scanty area very sparingly and things ended up looking great!

One really nice thing for our customers was that, thanks to Christine and Kathy, we could accept credit cards, which was pleasing to some and really had them looking through our items thoroughly before committing a charge to their card.

Overall, sales were a bit of a disappointment. I think I gained about $35, plus I put some cards in trade towards an AMAZING cashmere shawl (which is keeping me nicely cozy now) from a really sweet vendor, Naturally Knotty Designs (check out their websites for information about their sustainable practices).

The cashmere shawl I scooped up (Kathy and I got the last two black ones) is a nice, medium-weight. The gal told me that these items were leftover from a set that Nordstrom had purchased from them last year and which retailed for $300! Mine for only $25 and a handful of pop-up cards! Whoo hoo!

We all had fun together -- it was much easier for me to "sell" Christine and Kathy's wares than my own (it seems too braggy to talk about your own stuff so much). It was a lot of fun watching people's reactions to my cards, if they were into them. While we all made little in sales, it was still good experience.

I think, all in all, though, I'm realizing that there's not much to be made off of pop-up cards on the craft fair circuit. At least for now (whether it be the recession or craft fair oversaturation).

Better to concentrate on etsy or branch further into the retail market!

Superior Scribbler Award!

2009-12-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

My friend, Jessica Smedley, sent me this Bloggy Award! Whoo hoo!

Jess is the scribe behind the "Have We Met" blog which has been chronicling her encounters with irritating people, her culinary exploits and, lately, some holiday angst. She lives, unwillingly, in North Carolina but someday, maybe she'll return to Portland and we can be friends outside of of the internets.

So, the rules of the award are listed below (this is a little like some crazy chain mail idea or maybe a pyramid scheme, but with lots more internet traffic involved). Like Jess, I'm going to state a few random facts about myself:

A doctor once told me that if my blood pressure got any lower, I'd have to get a pacemaker (but years of a high-sodium diet and sloth have happily reversed this!)
I started this website: http://www.techforchildren.org/ for a colleague at work who had been selling stuffed animals door-to-door for orphans in Laos and Thailand.
Our cat, Joey, has 24 toes, seven on each front paw. It looks like her has furry slippers on all the time. Our other cat, Gus, is 18 and looking forward to voting in the next election.
I often have to drag my husband to the latest action flick with car chases and disaster sequences. Love them!
As a teen I played Dungeons and Dragons avidly and still consider myself a total nerd at heart.

And here are my nominees for the Bloggy Award:

http://extremecards.blogspot.com/ This blog, written by my cyberfriend, Carol, is chock full of wonderful tutorials and inspiration for the pop-up card maker. It's a must-see!
http://www.craftypod.com/ Sister Diane runs this blog and also hosts a podcast, the CraftyPod. Both are wonderful and cover crafts of all kinds! She has been very supportive of this budding etsy entrepeneur!
http://theinfiniteblog.wordpress.com/ Nicolette, of Singapore, was the person who first put in a a wholesale order with me last year when she was selling handmade cards at flea markets. Since then, she's got her own store, renting part of a larger store, with a partner, to sell the goodies she finds from crafters. This blog chronicles her adventures!
http://modpodgerocks.blogspot.com/ The name of the blog says it all, doesn't it? Amy keeps the creative juices flowing with a constant flow of cute and interesting craft projects, all featuring Mod Podge.
http://hip2save.blogspot.com/ Want to save some serious money? Check out the constant stream of amazing deals found at this blog! Absolutely incredible bargains!

Of course, as with every Bloggy Award, there are A Few Rules. They are, forthwith:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Don't forget to add your name to the long list of links! I'm number 1325... whoo hoo!

DoggoneKnitting Collar Featured on City Dog Magazine!

2009-12-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

My friend Wendy, of the etsy shop DoggoneKnitting, has been featured in City Dog Magazine!

Check it out above and go to the link here: http://citydogmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/11/holiday-issue-hot-of-press-here-is_30.html

Amazing!

Apparently her screams, when she discovered her Gingerbread Man Dog Collar featured on the site at last (she's known about it for months) were enough to make her long-suffering husband, Patrick, fear for her life.

Wendy started out on etsy sometime before I did, making baby booties. Inspired by her success, I jumped in as well.

Now, Wendy's famous! And selling dog collars and leashes at Doggone Knitting and super darling sewn pouches and handbags at QueenBeeHandmade.

Check it out! She's had amazing sales and terrific feedback! I think it's a matter of time before you'll see Wendy featured in an Etsy "How I Quit My Day Job" article....

An Up-Pop Tutorial and Link to Interactive Card Blanks

2009-11-30T06:01:00.000-08:00

Carol, from the wonderful ExtremeCards Blog just posted a terrific tutorial on how to make an up-pop box. Check it out! It's pretty cool...

She also mentions how Whitney Woods, which makes very amazing promotional products, has jumped into the craft market, with (among other treasures) blanks for some of their very popular, interactive marketing materials. These are really cool...

Stop Action Papercutting Video

2009-11-25T06:32:00.000-08:00

This is absolutely amazing.

Master of Paper Art

2009-11-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

I am sooooo not worthy...

See many more amazing works at: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/masters-of-paper-art-and-paper-sculptures/

Just one more holiday card....

2009-11-19T05:34:00.000-08:00

I had said that I was totally done earlier this week -- I was totally flogged after pumping up my inventory for craft fairs -- but here's just one more... a special request from Nicolette, who owns a little retail shop in Singapore.

It's a Three Reasons card, so you turn the wheel to 1, 2 and 3 and write in your personal reasons in the window.

I have to take some photos, but I can probably post this to etsy pretty soon! Yay!

Winners of the Elf Pop-Up Cards!

2009-11-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

The giveaway for the pop-up elf card ended at noon today! I selected five random winners and they are:

Aileen, Erma, Janette, Jolt, and Bandbabe (Bandbabe didn't leave an email address -- if this is you, please email me and I'll send you your prize!)

I had an amazing number of people sign up for this drawing! In the past, I was pretty excited to get more than 30 responses. This time, I got more than 60!

Like before, I found a number of online blogs and giveaway sites that allowed you to register your giveaways for free. I also advertised via Google Adsense, which brought me a number of click-throughs, which might have helped. And I posted this on FaceBook and tweeted about it. Cyberspace offers so many ways to promote something like this!

Hearing all the positive comments about my cards really was very exciting and very helpful for me to know what it is that people like about my little shop. Oddly enough, the items that were picked out aren't necessarily the items that sell well (My Lazy Daisy cards were mentioned several times but they've never sold a single time!).

This giveaway went so well that I'm very likely to do at least one more before the holidays are over, especially since I now have other holiday designs. And, of course, there will be future drawings for other cards as well.

If this is something you're interested in, let me know!

New Christmas Tree Pop-Up Card!

2009-11-12T05:03:00.001-08:00

This card came together really fast! It' easy when the artwork is beautiful and inspiring. Plus, I had most of the mechanics already worked out -- this card shares a common genetic identity with my Giraffe card.

It's the first card in my 180 degreee stand-up series that I've printed on the pop-up -- usually, as for my African Animal series, I leave the subject white, so that the simple white silhouette has more power, but in this festive card, I know that this artwork is a real winner.

I think this would be a nice card for people to send out -- you don't get many unusual pop-up cards in the holiday mail and it would certainly stand out! I'm going to offer free personalization on orders with at least ten cards, I think...

Now posted at my etsy shop.

In other news, my Elf Pop-Up Card Giveaway is going strong! I can't believe I have more than 30 entries already and still half of the week to go. I love love LOVE hearing all the nice comments from people about the things in my store -- it's really worth it just to get that kind of feedback! Plus it's nice to know what people are liking. I got several comments, for instance about my Summer Breezes Thank You Notes, which I never thought of as being anything special.

Anyway, I'll pick some random winners on Sunday, so if you haven't already entered to win, head on over and do so! All you have to do is leave a comment (or more for extra chances). There are five cards being given away, so the odds are really good.

Holiday Elf Pop-Up Card Giveaway!

2009-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

I was at PaperZone yesterday and heard it: Christmas music merrily filling the store with song.

REALLY? The kids haven't even eaten the good stuff from their Halloween candy yet!

But after the initial annoyance, I realized that I had a choice. You know that old adage, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?

Well, I'm kicking off my OWN premature Christmas season with a giveaway!

Five lucky random winners will each receive one Pop-Up Holiday Elf Card.

How to enter? All you have to do is check out my etsy shop and then come back here and leave a comment about one of my cards. Pick one that you like and tell me what you like about it! Be sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you're a winner!

For a second chance to win, you can follow this blog and leave a comment saying that you do so (if you already follow me, just leave a comment saying that you already do).

For a third chance, become a FaceBook fan by clicking on the link. Don't forget to leave a comment letting me know that you're a fan!

And, lastly, if you have a blog, mention this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment letting me know with a link to your blog post.

This giveaway ends in one week, November 15, at noon and winners will be announced at this post. Winners will also be notified and the prizes will be shipped out shortly thereafter.

With any luck, you could be sending some premature holiday cheer before Thanksgiving hits!

What are you waiting for? DO IT!

-------------------------

We have WINNERS!

I will be emailing Aileen, Erma, Janette and Jolt! to get their shipping addresses so I can send their prizes! Bandbabe is also a winner, but didn't leave an email address. If that's you, please click on my profile and send me an email!

Everybody else: THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! I can't believe I got so many responses! I loved hearing all your comments and I plan to be doing more giveaways quite soon!

Powell's Order II: DONE!

2009-11-07T07:18:00.001-08:00

Okay, JUST finished with my ginormous Powell's wholesale order:

Whoo hoo! I have to say that this involved MANY nights of work. I'm not even really sure if I'm making any money, given that my printer ink costs have SKYROCKETED with my new Epson printer (lovely prints, archival and water resistant, but totally guzzles very expensive ink). But I just really love that they are in the local bookstore and, apparently, selling well.

Packaging for retail involves a little extra something. A few of my cards require a little explanation. Even for the simple animal pop-ups, which are pretty self-explanatory, I need to put something on the front to let the casual browser know that there's something fun on the inside (otherwise I'm sure they'll just pass by the mostly simple fronts for something flashier).

Some of the labels and things below:

Powell's opens at nine this morning -- I'll drop these off then!

(and, with any luck, they'll make it out to the actual floor next week!)

I'm really excited to see how my holiday elves cards fare...

New holiday cards! Elf pop-up card!

2009-11-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

Remember those elves in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (the one we saw as kids on TV every year by Rankin & Bass)?

I love this elf for how he reminds me of someone that Hermey might have hung out with.

As the card is opened, the elf pops up from behind the presents (emerging from a slot in the card) to present you with "joy."

I struggled with this one for AGES, but I'm really happy with how it turned out at last!

Available at my etsy shop...

Jewelry Party/Craft Fair Warmup!

2009-11-02T05:53:00.001-08:00

My friend Christine makes jewelry as ChristineMarieStudio. Christine's cousin-in-law was having a housewarming and she thought it would be fun to turn it into a showcase for Christine's work. Ever generous, Christine invited me and our friend Kathy, who have a lavender farm and has done the crafting circuit for years now, to join her as vendors.

Christine and Kathy did all the work in setting up a terrific display the night before (I had kid duty that night), borrowing props from Christine's mom, really pretty stuff. Here's my little card display:

(sorry for the blurriness -- I didn't want to disturb the guests with the flash)

The two main tables had Christine's jewelry stands interspersed with Kathy's lavender baskets and shorter things.

I think it looks so very inviting! That's Christine in the cashier's corner, above.

In the past, I've always had a policy that I'd rather gnaw off my left arm than attend a "party" where the sole purpose was to guilt my friends into buying products so that the hostess could have a nicer hostess gift, but this was actually fun! Christine's cousin had a loveliest house and the food was incredible! And the guests, who were mostly family, were very welcoming.

I made $44 just for showing up! Christine and Kathy did very well also. Kathy and I spent much of the evening sitting on the sofa while Christine worked the crowd -- our role was apparently completely ornamental.

This was sort of a warm-up for craft fairs. We have a little employee craft fair coming up later this month, which is quite low-key. After that, I'll be ready to take on something bigger!

Personalized wooden blocks

2009-10-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

Check out this wonderful tutorial! You can transfer colorful images like the one above using an inkjet printer, elmer's glue and mod podge -- AMAZING!

Tutorial: http://matsutakeblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-transfer-inkjet-images-to-wood.html

Combine this idea with the plain wooden blocks you can purchase on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33409617&ref=sr_list_1&&ga_search_query=wood+blocks+plain&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=date_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

What a wonderful gift for a new baby -- personalized play blocks!

Superhero card saves the day!

2009-10-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

One of my readers won the "Tell Her Three Reasons Why She's Your Superhero" card in a recent giveaway. When I notified him, he told me:

"I just had my 20th reunion and my wife (who didn't go to school with me) was instrumental in making the event a success. She is my Superhero!"

Nice, eh? I loved hearing that!

Today, I received a note from him:

"She got it today. I stayed home with our son and she substituted at school today. I put it in the mailbox with the other mail before she got home.

She came in with tears, she loved it! It was perfect since she had a rough day. She substitutes in the special needs room at the elementary school and this year's class is especially tough.

Thank you for having the contest and allowing me to touch the heart of my favorite person in the world. Being unemployed, I don't get that opportunity very often these days."

I'm a bit of a pushover for a sentimental story and I have to admit to tearing up when I read his note.

Thanks, Scott, for passing this on! You've made my day!

Because I'm so pleased with how much the three reasons series cards seem to touch the hearts of those who receive it, I'm lowering the price of all of them by a dollar.

Enjoy!

Powell's: Order Two!

2009-10-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

Getting my first order at Powell's was pretty exciting. 54 cards seemed like a really big order!

Today, I heard back from them. The card buyer told me: "Your cards did very well. I am so pleased."

Hooray!

She's upping the quantities considerably, so now I'll be putting together an order of 156 cards.

Whoo hoo!

The timing is actually quite perfect as I've been gearing up for a couple of little crafty events, so I've been trying to increase my inventory anyway. At the end of the craft season, I should have some extra to get a really good start on this big order.

This also comes at a time when I've been making serious eyes at the iPod touch, which I've just learned can connect me to email and the internet when I'm away from home. Honestly, when I'm out and about, I go through serious etsy withdrawals and the thought of being able to stay connected is pretty thrilling to me. This big order might just be the excuse I need to make a fun little purchase...

Thanks for listening!

(P.S. The text on the marquee on that Powell's photo is photoshopped, of course!)

"Brown" Princess Invitations Done!

2009-10-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here she is! The customer approved my comps for my new African-American princess invitations yesterday and I was able to pop these into the morning mail later that day.

She'd asked for soft green accents, which go so beautifully with the pink dress.

I LOVE these!

Now I need to find artwork for an Asian princess...

Adding "Brown"

2009-10-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

I had a customer ask me if I could customize my Princess invitations so that she could order a brown version.

Totally ethnocentrically (and I'm not even white!) I told her that I could change the hair or dress color, whatever she liked.

Of COURSE she was asking if the princess could be customized to an African-American version! Duh!

And how did I miss that opportunity??? Anyway, I found that great artwork and added an option to my princess birthday party invitation listing.

SUCH a good idea! (wish I'd come up with it!)