Die Cuts...and more!

Brand Spankin' New Listings!

2011-09-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

MIA No Longer

2011-09-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty MIA for the last few months - trying to move and get settled. This took me way longer than I ever expected and it seems like my "inspiration" and creative moments took a bit of a vacation. Well, I'm back - as sassy as every and ready to get crafting!

We moved into a great house and I love the layout. All that being said, when we first looked at the home, the colors on the walls were a bit off putting, I can't even begin to describe the brilliant colors, but trust me, they are colors that truly take your breath away! The green is the color of our kitchen and the beautiful blue is what is now my craft room!

Initially I wanted to paint everything, my husband was positive I wouldn't want to keep the walls like this forever....well, now that 2 months have passed, I actually love the color on the walls (no two rooms are the same color!) and think they fit with our personalities just great!

I have been working on a few different projects, mainly learning how to do some different projects outside my norm - delicately cut designs, paper flowers and some other not-so-typical things for me. I have been having a blast and finally getting some new things listed in my Etsy shop!

Here is are a few of the more filigree style designs I have been playing with - French inspired dressforms (from the Cricut French Manor cartridge) and dragonflies (from the Cricut Art Nouveau cartridge).

The dress forms were cut from American Crafts paper (Flamingo and Concrete) on my Cricut Imagine via my Gypsy. These were fun to cut and then re-define with a craft knife for those perfect edges. I think these are some of my favorite things to work on now!

I will post more pictures of the flowers and dragonflies in the next post...just didn't want anyone to wonder where in the world I went! Still here, just slowly adjusting to our new space!

Ever drive a U-Haul to the ER?

2011-07-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

After surviving the tire blow out on the U-haul, we settled into the hotel and quickly fell asleep. It was quite the long adventurous day and we had been through enough.

Early the next morning, Jack woke up full of energy and ready to jump on the very bed that papa was sleeping on - a much earlier wake up call then expected. All we had to do was take showers/baths and get breakfast, then start on the second and final leg of the trip! Easy enough, or so you would think.

Jack was splashing and having a great time in the bath, until we came to the dreaded hair washing. He started trying to push me away and then slipped and split open his chin. There was a ton of blood and tears, but thankfully his teeth looked OK. Papa saw the blood and immediately wanted him to go to the ER to make sure we didn't need stitches. I hadn't showered yet, nor even had time to brush my teeth, so I brushed them really quick (despite not thinking stitches were necessary) and we headed back to the U-haul (towing the car) and drove to the ER.

We were in a fairly small town and the hospital is located on a street that shares my last name - I found it ironic based on how accident prone our family is! My husband pulled the truck up to the ER next to the ambulance bay and we rushed in with Jack (mind you, he had no shirt on, just dried blood and a shorts, blanket wrapped around him...you'd think the hotel was on fired based on how quickly my husband dashed out the door!).

The registration nurse came out and offered to have the doctor take a look at Jack before they checked us in - something you'd NEVER have happen in a larger metro area. The doctor came over and examined Jack and decided that, while we could do 2 or 3 stitches, steri-strips or bandaids would do the same thing. With a handful of bandaids and a much calmer papa (Jack stopped crying an hour ago!), we loaded back up into the Clampette mobile.

We were so impressed with this doctor and the staff at this hospital. They didn't charge us a dime for a 15 minute visit with the doctor, nor did they neglect looking at Jacks gaping wound or his teeth - they truly acted like they were doing jobs they loved and took great care of us.

Well, that about sums up the excitement of the move. We arrived in the new house safe and sound, with a few eventful things along the way.

I am finally able to work in my workshop again, so will be posting more often and getting some new projects up before the end of the week!

Enough Already!!!!

2011-07-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have been gone for almost a month - packing up my workshop, fulfilling orders during a messy move, and am now somewhat settled in the new place! It feels so good to be back in Washington!!!

Our move from Utah to Washington was a bit more exciting that anticipated. We loaded up a very full U-Haul truck, put our car on a trailer to tow and got all settled in for the long drive. Jack (almost 2) was SO excited to be able to see everything - he never gets to sit in the front seat (carseat/safety issues) and not only was he sitting next to mama and papa, he was sitting high enough to see everything.

We fueled up about an hour outside of the city and were commenting on how nice it was that the truck was newer (only 6k miles) and how great Jack was doing. We should have kept our comments to ourselves...about 5 minutes later, were were bouncing all over the place and had no steering. Miraculously, my husband was able to coast to the side of the interstate and we sat there for a minute quietly. Jack was all smiles, he thought it was great!

We got out of the truck, only to find that the right front tire had disintegrated! The metal wheel well was bent and we saw 50 feet of skid marks and tire shards all over I-15 behind us.

My husband called U-Haul and explained the situation (NO, we couldn't pull off at the next exit, there was NO RUBBER left on the tire!) and they were great - within an hour we had a mobile repair service arrive, remove what we left of the tire and return with a brand new one.

Jack was great - what little wouldn't like to play along side a major interstate?!?! This particular stretch was especially exciting - rattlesnakes could be heard in the grass and it was bloody hot (92 degrees F), not to mention that numerous trucks and families were whizzing by on their way to a fabulous adventure for themselves.

We got back on the road and arrived in Baker City, OR to spend the night - the perfect halfway point. Granted it was 2am, and we had planned to arrive much earlier, but we got a bit waylaid one the first leg of this adventure.

What would the next day hold? You will never guess!

MIA for a bit

2011-06-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

So much chaos lately, we are moving back to the Seattle area and have been up there house hunting! Huge Etsy projects came in (4 in one day!) and I had to hunker down and get busy.

I wanted to share with you the business cards I recently designed for my Heritage Makers business - they are simple and clean and can be used by you, just add your info!

Ok, back to work on these projects...I'll update with pictures soon!

Digital Design! Woohoo!!!

2011-05-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have never been much of a scrapbooker. Yes, I love to play and work with paper, but to actually do scrapbook layouts and photo albums...well, they just aren't my thing!

When my friend (a digi design diva) I was skeptical, wasn't really sure if Heritage Makers would be a great fit for me. But, after working on a project for my mom for Mother's Day, I decided this was the easiest way to create personalized ANYTHING!

You can create invites, cards, scrapbook pages, beautiful books (my favorite being a small story book personalized for my little boy, complete with pictures of him and words that will mean something to him when he gets older). The possibilities are endless and I was amazed at what I could easily create!

Today I jumped on board and wanted to share my website with you - there are some great business products that were just introduced and I can't wait to see what you can create! For only $30/month, you can become a Club HM member and benefit from unlimited photo storage and amazing artwork!

I'll post pictures of some my projects in a bit....need to get a few things updated!

Not Happy...Imagine that!

2011-05-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

I woke up today ready to take on a bunch of new projects! Sketches in hand, coffee steaming and finally some quiet! That all changed when I connected my Gypsy to my Imagine...and downhill it went!

I realized I hadn't done an "essential" Cricut update to speed up the communication process of my Gypsy and my Imagine. Typically, these updates have gone fairly smoothly - taking a little bit of time, but otherwise have been somewhat simple. I should have known this couldn't last forever...this update has had me sidelined for the past 12 hours (off an on, of course).

It all started when I wanted to load the Best Friends cartridge for Imagine onto my Gypsy. I wanted to be able to work on my project while I sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. I went the "add" the cartridge to my Gypsy and the Imagine wouldn't recognize it...after 7 attempts of various methods (unplugging machines, uplugging USB cable, you name it), I gave up and hit the message boards!

The Cricut message board is full of folks that have similar problems, but were able to resolve the issues. There were some great things that I hadn't tried yet, so I have spent the past 6 hours trying to let the Sync run while I could get some "real" work done. I am about ready to send the Imagine to some far off land, as it would make a great doorstop right about now! Still not working!

I usually love my Cricut products, haven't had too many problems with them - love what I can create and design.

Looks like I will be making a phone call on Monday to see what else I should try....between my husband and myself, we are very computer/tech savvy. But this just has us stumped!

Creative process stalled...

2011-05-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have had so many great ideas lately, but not enough sleep to accomplish anything! My little boy has been fighting a nasty virus and we have been hanging out until the wee hours of the morning watching Toy Story...over and over and over!

Jack finally took a nap today (four days with no nap and only 3-4 hours of sleep each night) and I was able to do some small projects. While these aren't super exciting, it got me to thinking. What if I started messing with my stamps and use them on a heavy cotton paper for a more sophisticated feel? I'm too tired to question the logic, so I here's what I came up with!

I love giving a small "Thank You" note in each of my Etsy orders, something simple and handmade, but that doesn't feel like it was done as a "rush" job. These are perfect and really feel great - I love this paper!

Kick off National Scrapbooking Month!

2011-05-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

So, if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you already know that I'm not much of a scrapbooking sorta gal. To get some of you caught up....I had film developed when my daughter was in 8th grade and thought we had pictures from the wrong family. Turns out, it was really her first day of kindergarten. Do you get the idea now?

Despite my less than enthusiastic film developing (yes, I know there are these new fangled digital contraptions now), I do love an occasional scrappy sort of project.

In honor of National Scrapbooking Month, I wanted to let you know of a few great companies out there that I have found and some of the great deals they are offering!

Close to My Heart - wonderful acrylic stamps, inks and kits for doing scrap pages or cards. I love their stamps and joined a team a while back just to get these at a discount. For the month of May, they are letting new consultants join for only $50! That's a huge discount and you get over $500 of products to play with! Well worth it!

Heritage Makers - I LOVE this digital scrapbook company. While some gals love getting their fingers dirty with glue and glitter, others (like me) love being able to do funky layouts with digital art! Or even create a museum quality canvas to hang in my home! They have all sorts of things going on for May, too many to list, but definitely worth checking them out. Too many templates to list, but more than you will ever use in a lifetime!

More to come soon!

How do I Etsy?

2011-04-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow I am talking to some great gals about "how to Etsy" - from shopping and finding what you are looking for, to how to set up your shop. I am looking forward to it and thought I'd also post it to my blog, just in case anyone was curious!

My Etsy Shop - What is it?

I started my Etsy shop in the fall of 2010, but have had an Etsy account since 2008. I love the idea of having a community of creative folks being able to sell their wares with no store overhead! Great concept with wonderful results! I started out thinking I would create cards and list those for sale, after a few "mistakes" (had too many cut too many shapes on my Cricut/Slice than intended), I decided to list those as well - afterall, it was only 20 cents!

Currently, my Etsy shop has a few cards, some envelopes and mini cards and lots of journaling spots that have been used for everything from journaling in scrapbooks, wedding table numbers, and invitations (in a much larger size). A lot of my work is coming from outside the US, with Australia and New Zealand leading the pack! I get a ton of custom orders and love those as well! Here are a few pictures of the custom orders, nothing too difficult as you can see, but the client ended up with something uniquely theirs!

These were for a couple's first Christmas as a married couple - I love working on these!

Recipe cards that were a bit difficult to create, but loved how they turned out

These were created for a baby shower to use as confetti

The Oh so Popular kraft paper tags....I do more of these than I can keep track of!

Tips I Have Learned

1. Don't shortchange yourself - you have worked hard to create the item (no matter how simple it appears) and make sure you are accounting for all your supplies and time. If you have a question about how to price something, check out other similar listings and see how they are pricing the item.

2. On the flip side, don't overprice your items! If you are doing a project that takes very little in the way of materials, not a lot of time or creativity, and won't require too much effort - set your price accordingly! Etsy is not a get rich quick scheme, you need to be doing something you enjoy and have that reflected in your pricing!

3. Shipping - if you have an item that is relatively inexpensive to ship (my rule is under $1), then consider making the shipping absolutely free. That's right, I said it, FREE! No one wants to pay $2.00 for an item and $3.00 for shipping - they will most likely look for another similar item with more reasonable shipping. Adjust your price a little to account for shipping charges, and be sure to add an international shipping rate - you only have to forget this once (or three times) to learn! I know I sure did!

4. Social Media - if you don't have a Twitter account, consider setting one up and linking it to your store. You will attract followers from all over the country and the world! Use it to promote your items, your coupons and your blog! I have found that Facebook isn't as effective for me, but I think that has more to do with me not having the time to do a second Facebook account for my Etsy shop...all my friends know what I do and where to find me :)

5. Etsy Showcases - Have you wondered if the $7.00 fee for a showcase is worth it? I can solidly say that each one I have participated in, I have made that $7.00 back and more! One showcase landed me a $120 custom order! I will definitely do it again! Make sure you have your shop current with new items, have all your prices where you want them, and get ready to watch as more people view your shop that may have never found it otherwise.

6. Tagging Items - This is the only way you have to direct people to your items - you need to make it count! Make sure you are listing the items in the proper category and utilize the Etsy drop down suggestions - they are there for a reason (they work!). After you have used the 3 drop downs, think about how you would look for that item if YOU were the one shopping for it - use the most natural language you can. You can use more than one word as a tag, so be descriptive.

7. Have fun - If you enjoy what you are doing, it will show! I have had several repeat customers, one gal that I have actually gotten to be friends with over the course of lots of emails! It's meant to be a collective community and make sure you join some of the teams, add to your favorites and check the Etsy blog - it's full of information and great tips!

Happy Etsying - it's worth it!

How do You Promote Your Shop on Etsy?

2011-04-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

I was at my local craft store this evening and started talking to a this gal. She was in the scrapbook paper area with her arms full and I mentioned that another local store was closing - she should check out the deals there! I mentioned my Etsy shop and told her the name, she mentioned that she hated the shipping prices some Etsy shop owners charged and would I be willing to meet up with her, since she was local. Of course I would!

So this got me to thinking...how do you promote your Etsy shop? Do you blog? Have cards? Use social media? I would love to know how you go about telling others about what you are doing.

Please share your ideas with me, and I will pass them on to others I know that are struggling with how to gain traffic. I have been working with a couple gals getting them up and running and would love to share some more ideas with them!

Have a great week! Here are today's projects, more to come tomorrow....really, I promise!

Simple cards with envelopes - going to give these out as a small gift for a a group of Moms!

Steph

Schizoid Projects

2011-04-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit MIA lately and have so much going on (Etsy projects, moving to Seattle in a few months, teething toddler...). But now I am back on track and will be posting pictures each day about what the project of the day has been - I know I have you on the edge of your seat. Maybe not, but I think you'll like what I'm working on.

Usually I work with paper and various techniques related to paper - intaglio, letterpress, stamping, oragami, leaving small bits of paper scattered everywhere. Last week I decided to try something different. My friend encouraged me try working with some digital media - create a museum quality canvas that has my personal touch - anything goes! After some skeptical half hearted attempts, I sat down with my Macbook and decided to "man up". I found out that I loved working like this - it's so much easier than I thought.

I knew that Mother's Day was coming up and I wanted to do something for my mom that was a bit outside of the flowers/card box. I attempted to create a memory book with some of my favorite photos of us - that was too overwhelming, I had too many things to pick from. So I switched gears and decided to work on something that she could hang in her new office. Here's is what I finally created! Thanks to my friend and her company, it will be a great Mother's Day gift! The final size of this canvas is 8x20 inches.

More to come on projects for the week. Have a wonderful week creating anything your mind can imagine!

Paper Diva vs. Potato Part 1

2011-04-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those days, or in this case months? There seems to be an unending parade of really situations that weren't all that amusing at the time, but looking back are downright laughable! I was at Paradise Cafe last night, enjoying my frozen mocha with the largest straw I have ever seen NOT attached to a hookah pipe, when I was telling my friends about several things that had happened lately...and we realized that our family attracts situations with Potatoes of all things! Let me explain...

I am married to a wonderfully eccentric man, close your eyes and imagine Latka from "Taxi" with the IQ of "Frasier" and the food choices of "Elf". Now that you are utterly confused (and amused that it's me and not YOU that's married to him), let me share with you a day in the life of me, the paper diva, married to a Mensa member software guru from Eastern Europe.

Actual picture from our wedding...despite having purchased "nice" socks, he chose to wear the more sensible WHITE gym socks! I love him....quirks and all

About a month ago, my beloved came home beaming. You would have thought he had just been awarded the medal of honor. I looked at the bags and realized he had been to his (not mine) favorite store. That big box store that pushes out all the mom and pop joints in small towns across America. From his bags, he proudly pulled out a Fry Daddy. "Look what I got for us, now we won't need to go buy french fries anymore" was how he introduced this awful, never meant for home use, device.

Our first foray into the world of fried foods went against everything I believe to hold true - food should not be saturated in fat and make your house smell like a diner. I hesitantly agree to help with this french fry fiasco. To my chagrin, it went without a hitch, other than the Rosie's Diner smell, which dissipated after opening all the windows in our home. Not too bad, "Sure", I agree, "We could do this again".

Well "again" happened to be the following Sunday. Fry Daddy sitting on the counter with a 5 gallon "bottle" (if you can call it that) of peanut oil waiting next to it. We were now one of the elite white trash couples who go to the store to purchase baby formula, Cheetos and BIG containers of oil...all we need to do to complete the look is the wife beaters and for me to be braless...but I digress. Back to our fiasco at hand.

I was not really loving the idea of smelling up our house again so soon, but since I was outnumbered, I decided to help. I placed the first basket of fries in and finished getting the salad and hamburgers ready. No big deal. But then Jack (19 months) started crying, he was starving and I wasn't about to give him a freshly fried potato. That's when my husband decided he'd help. We got Jack settled with some string cheese and all was right in the world....until I was being shoved out of the kitchen with an "Oh Baby, get out, get out". That was about the same time I felt grease splatted on the back of my legs.

My husband had thrust the next basket of fries into the oil too quickly....the oil had boiled over (thank goodness Jack was no where near) and gone ALL over the kitchen. I was furious...this was exactly why I hated that thing. I knew no good could come from frying foods, the FDA should have THAT warning! It took my wonderfully quirky husband three hours to clean the kitchen - he had to pull the stove from the wall and clean the side of the cupboards, the floors, the fronts of the cupboards. It was awful.

We laugh about it now, because I don't think I had been that angry in a long time - at least angry at a stupid appliance.

Did we learn from that experience? Oh no....just wait for Part 2. Potatoes, blood and some very burned fries!

Solid Color Cardstock Choices

2011-04-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give you an easier way to pick out papers for your custom orders. Here are some of your choices, just let me know what you like and I will get started on your project!

Textured Solid Color Cardstock

All paper shown is 80lb heavy quality cardstock

Banana

Blush

Boysenberry

Bubblegum

Cascade

Clay

Concrete

Eggplant

Flamingo

Fountain

Key Lime

Kraft

Latte

Leaf

Limeade

Lollipop

Mint

Pansy

Parfait

Peach

Peacock

Poppy

Salmon

Spearmint

Truffle

Surf

Wine

Give Away Time!

2011-04-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

So...I thought I'd start a new Tuesday give away for anyone and everyone who wants to share their creative ideas.

Here's how it works:
Send me a picture of what you are working on - this can be a card, scrapbook page, or just anything you are doing with paper that you enjoy.

I will post these pictures and each Tuesday will do a drawing for a bunch of cool papers from My Minds Eye and Basic Grey. You will love it!

So....what are you waiting for? Let's get to it and show me what you are working on!

Sorry for not updating lately...

2011-04-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

I feel bad for not being able to update my blog lately, my goal was to do this each morning with my cup of coffee in hand....but lately migraines have me sidelined.

I have been having so many custom Etsy orders that I could barely keep up! Lately I have had orders from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Germany. Lots of weddings going on and baby showers coming up - thank goodness for brides and friends helping others with their showers!

One of the most popular styles of tags that is being used for everything from invitations (sized 4x7 inches) to name cards (1.5x3 inches) is this simple, yet elegant vintage feeling tag.

This tag has been done in every color under the sun! White, orange, Kraft paper, turquoise....you name it, I have been cutting them in that color! It's been fun to see the ideas that gals have when they are working on their wedding and preparing for their big day. I love being part of this process!

The other big item lately are these simple tags. I recently sent 150 of these to a gal in Ireland and she just did another big order for these - she is using them as her pricing tags for her clothing boutique. It's another example of a unique way to use these simple tags. Scrapbooking isn't the only thing you can do with paper!

I am off to work on another order, so in the meantime...can you tell me how you would use these tags? Give me your ideas so I can share with others!

Envelope Envy

2011-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to update lately, I have been working on several custom orders for envelopes, padded mailers and a few upcoming design projects for logos!

When I started making envelopes, people thought I was crazy! It's a bit tedious and the folding can be a headache, but once you figure out the system, it's great!

Here are a few of my projects...

3x3 inch kraft envelopes

6x9 inch and 4x6 inch padded envelopes (shown below also)

Cricut Imagine...it's not what you think!

2011-03-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

For several weeks I have been asking my husband for a new camera, we just purchased one for my daughter, so I wanted one too...can you hear my whining? Ala, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia".

So to halt my camera hints he has come up with different ways to ''distract" me. First it was a new vacuum, not romatic? Oh, but it was a new Dyson, so I was very distracted and forgot all about the camera and had the cleanest floors in the neighborhood.

This past weekend, my camera longings returned. He was quick to come up with the next distraction! This time one that would help my Etsy store and challenge my creativity! A new Cricut Imagine! I never knew I wanted one until I had one sitting on my table! Let me tell you why...

Have you even wanted to create something - card, tag, journal spot - but didn't want to go through the hassle of matching all the papers, making sure the size was correct, or just deal with all the pieces? This is the way to go - I have great plans for it! I have been working on some custom labels and branding, drawing up the designs and scratching my head as to how I was going to get all the text/images to line up with a cut. Printing on a printer, cutting on a Cricut...lots of mistakes (and lots of successes). Worry no more! I will continue to let you know if I think it's really that fabulous, but right now, I'm stoked!

The best price on the Cricut Imagine will be at Cricut.com, during the month of March, you will save $200! The price, after tax and shipping was $325 - the machine is regularly $499, but for the month of March was $299! Get it while you can!!!

Here are a few of the first projects, I didn't tweak them much, but will be messing with some of the coloring schemes and layouts this weekend!

The Opposite of Scrapbooker

2011-03-22T05:24:00.000-07:00

When I moved to Utah (the scrapbooking mecca of the world), I had no idea that there were actually HUGE stores dedicated to nothing but paper and cutesy little things to put on paper, ways to cut paper, ways to stain paper, even how to make a paper lasagna! Ok, so I made up that last part, but you get the idea, I thought I'd moved to bizarro world! (and in some ways I had!)

This is how much of a scrapbooker I am, quick story. When my daughter and I moved to Utah, we didn't know a single person. We were adjusting to the nuances of the area and unpacking slowly. We both missed our familiar Seattle skyline and all the flavor that comes from a large metro area. Seeking something more like home, we decided to head out the Costco for "dinner", we had film we needed to pick up and we could look at those over a ginormous slice of pizza.

We were sopping up the grease from our pizza and flipping through our pictures. I was having a hard time placing who these people were in the pictures...did we have another families REALLY boring pictures of kids standing around? I told my daughter we had someone else's pictures and we should return them to the film counter (note that there were nice families sitting all around us, this is Utah of course). Then I flipped to THE picture....it was one of my daughter standing near the front door on her first day of KINDERGARTEN! She was currently in 7th GRADE!

These strange kids I didn't recognize, were some of the neighborhood kids. The nice families around us were in awe "Did you hear that? She didn't even recognize her own daughter, must have been away for a long time". I'm sure they thought I'd been in prison doing hard time for some unholy crime, but would be in more shock once they found out that no, I wasn't an exciting criminal, just a really good mom who was way too busy to develop film! Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Fast forward 7 years to present day...now I frequent some of those stores and find that the people I meet in them are really funny and quirky. Just like me!

This is how my adventure in paper began in Utah! Cricut reviews up next!

Busy Esty Weekend!

2011-03-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who kept me busy this weekend - it's been a blast! I have been working on 4 different Etsy projects, one outside order from a neighbor and some "just for fun" things for me!

I had one Etsy shop owner order 100 vintage style tags - a nice change of pace! I love the style and have decided to offer them on my shop!

I have come across several vintage style tags that I have been working with on projects for myself - I will definitely be putting these in my shop soon, as I love the look and style of them! Pictures will be posted next time!

Please let me know if there is something out there you would like me to try or review - I am open to anything paper related! I will be posting non-insider reviews/opinions of several Cricut cartridges this week, as I have been playing around with them a bit more. I am NOT a scrapbooker, but do pretend to know what I am doing.

New Website Launched!

2011-03-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

I have been crazy busy with projects and getting our business things in order.

We have done a soft launch of our new website (www.doadiecut.com - the link is to your right) We are excited to offer individual journaling spots, accents and embellishments for all your scrapbooking and cardmaking needs.

Currently, we carry My Minds Eye and are just waiting for our other suppliers to ship the products before we name them - you will love them, we promise!

We will also be launching kits, so keep an eye on Twitter and here at the blog for more information, we can't wait to show these to you!

Do you have an idea of what you'd like to see? Project ideas? Pictures of your projects you'd like to share? Please send them to us and we will post them.

More to come soon - don't miss out!

WOW! A New Year and need to get on it!

2011-01-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy with the holidays and some custom orders, that I haven't had time to keep you updated on some fun projects!

I have been working on several custom orders from Etsy and some new things I'm adding to my store, so here are some pictures of the most recent items!

Custom recipe cards - decided to add them to my shop!

Favor bags for a birthday party

Wedding favor boxes...another custom order!

Decorative bubble mailers - HUGE custom order!

Letterpress flat note cards in funky green

Letterpress Thank You in retro black

Gift Card holders

2010-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

I know how often we purchase gift cards for those hard to shop folks in our lives! I have a teenager and end up getting her Starbucks cards, American Eagle and Holister gift cards all the time - she's way too picky to shop for!

I came up with a much cooler way to package these gift cards, take a look! If you are looking for some, check out my Etsy store and get them while they last!!!

Letterpress is here!

2010-12-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

I have been so excited to start working with some letterpress items! I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this is...

I had studied printmaking and intaglio in college and loved the way you can manipulate the textures, colors and layout when working with inked plates. Let me tell you - this is a great way to get a very customized look and each piece is a bit different from the last.

You don't need to spend a lot of money to get started. After you have your initial tools, contact a local printing press (one that specializes in letterpress invitations is the best!) and see if they are willing to give you their scrap paper and left over ink. Some printer will charge a small fee, but others will give these things to you entirely for free! Just make sure they know that you are doing this as a hobby, and not competing for their business.

Here is the first set of flat notecards I was able to produce (it took a few trial runs to get the right amount of ink, pressure for embossing, and making sure the layout was correct).

Another Busy Weekend!

2010-12-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

I love weekends during this time of year - holiday boutiques, baking, Christmas music playing the background while I work on my projects!

On Saturday I went the American Crafts Warehouse Sale - if you live in Utah, this is an absolute must! I was able to pick up about $200 worth of paper, ribbon and various items I use for projects, for only $83! I thought it was a great deal, my husband on the otherhand....I just don't think he will ever consider paper a "great deal"!

Here are a few of my newest projects, I will post pictures of other projects soon - I have a Favor Cake that I am working on for a gal, I love the idea and concept, let's just hope it comes out the way we envision it!

These are mini-cards on burgundy Bazzil cardstock

These gift tags were a lot of fun to work on, they look great on the tree also!