Christmas Cards 2020: Wooden Tag Cards...

Hey,

Happy Monday!

I finished my Christmas cards weeks ago, so I really need to be sharing them here!

After Christmas 2019, Hubby and I went to London to spend 10 days with our families. One of the things I got to do, was to go post-Christmas sale shopping with my Momma.

Sainsbury's is a supermarket in the UK and near my parents, there is a giant Target/Walmart style version of it (sells, clothes, books, etc as well as food).

I bought x2 boxes of 20 wooden tags for 25p (approx 50cents!), I thought they would make great Christmas cards and they really did, it turned out to be a HUGE win for me :)

I also bought a bunch of amazingly cheap papers from a local store near my parents. I used these, glitter papers, stitched circle dies and a deckle edge die to create my cards.

1st card from the tags, the Christmas papers, and the Christmas tree tags

The main photo shows the cards using the first box of tags, which were all Christmas trees. The card below shows the cards made with the second box, which had trees, baubles, snowflakes and Reindeer/Moose. 

It was the easiest Christmas card batch make I have ever done. 40 cards made SO quickly, the hardest part was adding the super-strong red tape to the back of the tags and then peeling that off 40 times. 

But the rest of it was all very easy, I cut all the backgrounds and glitter circles at once. Then I stamped everything and then I affixed everything to the card blank, adding the wooden tags last.

I have asked my Momma to keep an eye out for the sale bargains again this year for me.

Cx

Some news...

Hey,

Happy Friday..

So I debated for a while about what to write today..

Today is my last day at work for 3 weeks as next week I will be having a Hysterectomy.

I guess people never really talk about these things and I have talked about it a lot.

In part this is the way I cope with tricky things, but also I wanted people to understand I am genuinely ok, this is just a long overdue thing that needs to happen. And on a happy note, because of this surgery, I get a bonus visit with my Ma, she arrives on Monday...I also have another surprise guest coming too - yay!

I don't want to bore you with a tale of 13 years of pain, surgeries and more pain. I'll cut to the chase. I have Fibroids, I keep getting them, they are a pain in the arse and they won't stop coming until I am post-menopause and goodness knows when that will be..

Anyway, that's it, I'll still be blogging, but majority of it will be scheduled as making things will be tricky, I am also going to be continuing on with my two DT commitments at Retro Rubber and Sketch Saturday.
Both teams have been 100% supportive and it will be a great distraction, looking at pretty things..

So what image do you share on your blog when sharing news like this? I opted for a card I made last weekend. The sentiment makes me smile.

The flowers are Bold Blooms by MFT and it is the latest addition to my growing collection of MFT flower stamps. Blue leaves are a new one for me, but I saw it somewhere and I liked it.
The sentiment is by Concord & 9th. The wonky die is by Lil Inkers and the kraft card blank was on super bargainalicious sale at Target and I bought them all - see...

Also - take a look at my 2016 highlights..what a fun craft year 2016 was and I have high hopes that 2017 will yield the same fun and success.

Finally a massive thank you to everyone that has known about this for a while and has been helping me navigate a difficult time with some semblance of grace ;)

Cx

Crafting in NYC

Hello!

Well Hubby, the Fur children and I have now been in NYC for a month. We are getting settled nicely and I am starting to get my craft mojo back...it went missing for a while with all the house stuff to do :(

I have been a teeny bit naughty and have acquired bits of new kit here and there, whilst I am waiting for all our stuff to arrive from the UK. So I thought I'd show you what I have been up to - apologies for the quality of the photos, I am not used to the light in the apartment yet!

The main picture today is of a birthday card I made for my friend Carrie's husband Tom. The robot punch is a new purchase and had 50% off, so I felt it was rude to not buy it!! It's by EK success, the papers are from a scrap of the American Crafts set that I love and use often.

I also purchased some cool moustache stickers. I have made a few fun cards with them, but I think this one for Carrie is my fave. Carrie and I have a moustache thing, too long to explain here, but we are always buying each other moustache things!! I like the simplicity of this card.

Moustache!

My SIL had her baby on the 17th of May - a niece Florence Mae, she is gorgeous, sad we aren't there to give her a cuddle, but I did manage to make this card for her. Yep, they are the usual butterflies from JT's punch, I punched a bejillion of them before I left!!

I bought this very cute bunny stamp in the sale (stamps are rather expensive here in the US) and thought it would be fun if I stamped lots of them in a row. I like this, JT suggested I could use the bunny for new baby cards..this particular card is going to JT's folks to say Thanks for a wonderful Memorial Day weekend - more about that in another post :)

Lots of Bunnies!

So that's all from me for now, just wanted you to see that I am still alive and crafting!

Cx

Hard work pays off!

Hello - so I missed a couple of days this week - but I have been feeling quite tired, as I pulled an all nighter on Friday, so I could be ready for Saturday.

Saturday was a huge success and I am very grateful to my friend Sooze and her mum Mary for hosting the mini fair for me - it was a huge confidence boost and made all my hard work more than worth while!

Even though it was a mini fair at a house, I decided it would be good to road test some of the changes I have made to my stall / display following the Berkhamsted Market. I was pleased to see that the 3 major changes drew results / compliments.

The changes I made were -
Brooch Display - I have never really sold that many brooches and I was convinced that this was in part due to the way they were being displayed. So I bought some really beautiful boxes and put the brooches in and it worked - I sold 10 brooches on Saturday, so definite improvement - hopefully using the vintage cake stand to display them at the next 2 fairs will bring even better sales.
Price Display - I usually have my price list on one sheet, in a nice perspex holder centrally on the stall, but I realised that this is not great for everyone - so I made individual tent cards and wrote the product, price and any special deal on this and positioned them infront of the products. Once again this worked, as people didn't have to ask for prices and I think this makes them feel more comfortable.
Card Display - Normally, I display my cards in the boxes I use to transport them - they are pretty, but don't showcase the cards. I bought a decent card rack and this means you can see what the cards are like - therefore tempting you. One of the ladies on Saturday commented that this made it much easier to choose cards.

I am really pleased that I was honest enough with myself to implement changes, even though they are relatively small, they have enhanced my sales a great deal.

This is my first week of not working on a Friday - hurrah! However, there is a reason for these non-working Fridays - I need to concentrate on the next 2 craft fairs, I need to start sewing the bags for the Esher fair, finishing the painting of the Christmas Decorations and replenishing my depleted stock (cards, brooches, felt decorations, scarves) - please note I am NOT moaning, I am happy that my stock is depleted because I have sold it!

I am also busy compiling a list of what to make / buy / give people for Christmas, there have been lots of requests for cards, so once the craft fairs are out of the way, early December is going to be busy! Hubby and I have also been working on our Christmas card list - which is epic - how did it get so big?

Today's picture is from Hobbycraft - it is an advent calendar and I have modified it to make my own - which I have sold 10 of so far!! They are so cute and really easy to make and a good way of using up oddments in your stash.

Cx

Yummy, yummy, yummy for my tummy!

Hello!

Hope you all had a super weekend! I had lots of fun, dinner with some friends and hubby on Friday, lunch and theatre with Hubby on Saturday - which was excellent, and yesterday was spent food shopping, baking and relaxing.

Today's picture is of the cupcakes I made using the Hummingbird Bakery book I was given as a birthday gift (thanks Lemon). These bad boys are Chocolate and Banana and they are totally yummy and really really bad for you!

I also managed to squeeze in some crafting, although I might need to review some of the things I made over the weekend - too much vino tinto means some of the items might be a bit crazy and have to re-locate to the sale box!

Which leads in nicely to a top tip - the first craft fair I did was run by an amazing woman, she gave me these 2 tips:

1 - give a free gift - no matter how small, people getting excited (at Christmas I give Candy Canes)
2 - have a sale box - people LOVE a sale box - it is also a good place, for selling the items that are not quite right - be it broken, damaged or just weird, they ALWAYS sell if they are in the sale box. Which is great, as you don't waste things that aren't quite right.

Also both the free gift and sale box are good talking points, often people will stop and ask what is the free gift - I always say 'you'll only find out if you buy something......' I find that if people stop and talk to you, they will often buy something - so remember to smile and be friendly (and preferably not hungover and smelling of booze!!!)

Short post today, it's a bit busy today, but I promise more on Weds!

Cx