Crazy Couple Months!

It's always a blessing when my shop is busy, but every now and again I get so busy in my personal life that I have to close down the shop just to keep up with everything.  Late August through the present has been like that, and as a result, my shop has been a bit unpredictable!  I apologize for the inconsistency with my opening / closing, but thought I'd post a blog to show you what I've been up to!

First, my best friend's baby "sprinkle."  Being obsessed with both lions AND her and her husband's (and thus, their children's) heritage, the "Scottish Lion Prince" theme was a no-brainer :)  I made the invitations, a banner ("Welcome Lachlan!" with the "welcome" in Scottish Gaelic), a door sign, food table label cards, and miscellaneous items for the various games.  I ordered a custom tutu in the colors of the family tartan from The Spoiled Peanut for the big sister, and it couldn't have been more perfect!

    

While I was working on all that (and still currently in progress) is a fantastic set of favor boxes for an upcoming Doctor Who-themed wedding.  The order was placed through my shop months ago, and these boxes have been underway for nearly as long-- the final push is happening right now, and they are due to be shipped out at the beginning of November.  In addition to my Tardis favor boxes, I've also created custom 4th and 5th Doctor favor boxes at the customer's suggestion, and they couldn't be cuter, if I do say so myself :)  (**note-- the photo is of the mock-up boxes I did for the customer's pre-approval-- the final boxes will have smoother color on the scarves, as well as the bride and groom's names and the wedding date on the top flaps).

As I'm turning 30 at the end of the year, and my best friend is turning 30 before me (HA!), we are having a joint 30th birthday party in November (we keep calling it a 30-ish birthday, since we have a 3rd guest of honor who is *slightly* older than 30...)  The theme is going to be Edgar Allen Poe, we are all going to be in costume, and it's going to be fabulous.  The invitations were my first project for this event, and they turned out better than expected!





Lastly, as many of you know, I designed the cover of a book (and companion notebook) for a very close friend-- the book is called "Heaven Has No Regrets" and you can buy it here!  For the book launch party, I created VIP invitations which were mailed out at the beginning of October, as well as bookmarks that became favors for the event itself.


Things *should* slow down for me by mid-November, at which point I'll be bringing back the party supplies to the shop-- for now, for the sake of my own productivity and to keep turn-around times short, I'm only offering my cards for purchase in my shop.  I'm hoping to add a couple of pillow box-style gift card holders ahead of Christmas this year (including one Doctor Who-themed and one Sherlock-themed, of course!) and would welcome any requests for custom Christmas cards!

Flashback Friday-- Breaking Bad-inspired housewarming card!

Shortly after I opened my shop, my sister-in-law asked me if I could create a custom housewarming card for her best friend.  She wanted it to be Breaking Bad-inspired, and sent me a photo of the RV in the middle of the desert.

It took a long time and a lot of patience (which is why it's not currently featured in my store), but I think the end result was worth it!  Each panel of the RV is hand-cut with an xacto blade, and the side of the RV was corrugated using a paper crimper to give it a 3D, authentic-looking appearance.  The sand was created using torn strips of paper to add some texture, and the sky was created by sponging white and red ink onto blue paper.  Finally, I stamped the inside of the card with Jesse Pinkman's famous line from the show (for the sake of anyone reading this blog who might have an aversion to strong language, I've blurred out a key word at the end.  It was not blurred out on the actual card.)

Custom orders like this one are the primary reason I started this shop in the first place!!  I love getting a really strange / difficult request and figuring out how to make it work.  I can't always come up with a solution, but I like to at least give everything a try!

A New Beginning

Hello Everyone!

I've contemplated starting a blog for my craft / shop related stuff for quite awhile, BUUUT was reluctant because I also have a personal blog (which I haven't updated since 2011, but still...) and I didn't really want to mix posts about crafts mixing with posts about my daughter's loose teeth, etc. Still, there are a lot of projects I've done that I don't necessarily want to put in my shop to sell but would still like to share with people, so a blog seems like the right platform for that.

Although I will occasionally post on my shop's Facebook page about blog updates, I likely won't post something every single time the blog is updated (you're welcome, Facebook followers!), so be sure to check back periodically for new info!