Won the Weekly Challenge for EPE

So I just got the great news that I won the Weekly Challenge for the Team Etsy Project Embrace. The theme was "Winter Wonderland", so I entered my "Let it Snow" christmas card and from all entries, mines won. :)

So as my prize I got to choose next week's challenge. I chose a very appropriate theme "All I want for Christmas".

I have included a link to my winning item.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61086692/let-it-snow-christmas-card

Enjoy :)

Scrabble Tile Pendants

Being unemployed has given me too much time on my hands. Started with jewelry and now I read about scrabble tile pendants and I thought it was an extremely creative and original idea for pendants. So now I am working on that too. (Anything too keep busy) Why wear the pendants that maybe a million people out there may have? Instead buy a pendant that suits your personality and will be hard to find two people with the same one. Of course in my case, I will be making the pendants. Depending on the pendant, I might wear the and do myself some self promoting. When I feel extremely confident in something, I usually try my best to excel in it.

I have 3 scrabble tile pendants in the works. Ofcourse, my first attempt wasn't my best (but it was not too shabby either). My second and third attempt show my progress in perfecting this.

What I like about scrabble tile pendants is that each one has it's own personality and with a ball chain, they make a great gift or personal gift. You can wear them to almost anywhere you want to express yourself in and they can have a cartoon image, a painting, or even a photograph.

I had never used diamond glaze before and I feel weird using it as we speak. (too many rules and regulations, such as "Don't ever shake") But I feel it gives my work a great look to it.

This craft is lengthy though. Each step takes about 2 minutes, but the dry time is about 4-6 hours. This is best done when you are working on multiple designs and ofcourse doing it in the late hours. That way, your glaze dries during the night and in the morning you can finish your pendants.

Well enough babbling about the scrabble tile pendants. I will be working on the pendants this week and by next week I anticipate to have all the materials needed to complete them and post pictures for you all to see and enjoy. :)

First attempt at Jewelry Making

I am the type of person that works better when I am inspired by the items in front of me. Well, it turned out that my visit to Joann and Michael's today turned from purchasing items for card making and banner making to jewelry making stuff.

I found the most adorable Swarovski items. It was love at first sight. So I had to purchase them and take a chance at the jewelry making process. My first attempt was simple. I bought these adorable brass dangle flower pendants and I made earrings. I am so proud of my outcome. I think they are so beautiful. :)

Please enjoy the pictures and feel free to comment. They are available now in my Etsy shop. I had to run and post them right away.

Check them out @ http://www.etsy.com/listing/63853327/amber-brown-flower-tree-branch-antique

Party Supplies

So this weekend I entered a new crafting world. I am now creating party supplies. My first party supply collections is the "Minnie Mouse" collection. I made a beautiful banner. Which took about 4 hours to make, but it was fun and rewarding to make. It is very feminine and great for any little girl's birthday party.

After the banner, on Saturday, I worked on a coordinating door sign. It's adorable and will be great to announce a birthday party. It measures about 9 3/4 inches and it has the same colors and scheme as the banner.

Finally, on Sunday, I completed my Minnie Mouse Birthday collection by making Minnie Mouse cupcake toppers. I made the same die cut as the banner and door sign. I made 12 cupcake toppers, each adorned with pink stickles for a girly sparkle. I think this collection would be great for anyone who is a Minnie Mouse fan or has a little girl that they would like to make their birthday extra special.

As of Friday, December 3, 2010, I will be unemployed and this will not only be my hobby, but I will make it my new job in order to pay the bills. I would appreciate opinions and suggestions. Hope to hear from you all. :)

My Partner in Scrapbooking Crimes is Gone 4 the Weekend :(

So this will be a very lonely scrapbooking weekend. My sister will be out of town until Monday, so I guess I will be scrapping by myself. I guess that just means more room in the table for my stuff :) .

This weekend I will be working on a special request from my boss and what I hope will be my new project. I was showing my boss all the cool Christmas stuff that I have created for my Etsy shop and she was totally psyched about the gift card holders, but she had a twist to them. She wanted a gift card holder with princess die cuts on them. (Piece of cake. A little on the annoying side, but none the less, the Cricut is an amazing tool for any crafter.) But my boss also wanted to hang the gift card holders from her tree like ornaments. Sounds like a new adventure in the scrapping world for me. :)

So starting tonight after class, I will be trying to create a Gift Card Holder ornament. My sister and I actually started coming up with ideas last night on something that might work for her, so now I just need to make it come to life.

This is very exciting for me. I love special orders. They are fun and creative. Plus they give a lot of exposure to my shop. My boss knows a lot of people, so it will be an honor to be placed on her Christmas tree for all to see.

Once I create this new work of art, I will post pictures for you all to see.

‘Til then.

Gift Card Holder Cards

Gifts have become more impersonal than ever nowadays, with the break through of gift cards in the market. No more standing in line to buy the perfect gift for your loved ones during the holiday season. Now you can purchase gift cards at the same time as you would be purchasing the goodies you will be having for Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner.

I still enjoy receiving thought out gifts wrapped in pretty little paper with a pretty little bow. But a lot of people do enjoy gift cards. It helps you avoid receiving an awkward gift that you’d want to run to the store and return the next day.

This opens up a wide array of opportunities and creative ideas for card makers, like myself. ( Yes, I just started making cards, but I feel like an official card maker. )

I searched high and low through very popular sites, such as YouTube and I found a nifty little gift card holder idea. It allows you to have a slot in the front to place your gift card, but at the same time it folds open for a personal message.

At first, I had a hard time figuring out how to make them. It was really a pain in the booty to get those cards to be perfect and straight. After 2 tries and several head aches later, I figured it out. My first gift card holder was of a snowflake. My ideas were to coordinate some of my gift cards with some of my greeting cards. You never know who your customer might be and it gives them an opportunity to buy a greeting card or a gift card holder, in the print that they adore. No more “Darn it, I wish they had this card in a gift card holder format” moments.

 Another thing that I enjoyed from the gift card holder is that you are able to use scraps. Since the measurements of the gift card are smaller than your average greeting card. You can perfectly use all your left over scraps from greeting cards in order to avoid throwing perfectly good cardstock in the garbage. I think it was a fantastic idea and very useful too.

Unfortunately, the downside to these adorable gift card holders is that I need to custom make the envelopes for them. Since they are about 4” by 3 ½”, I need to make the envelope from scratch because the typical store bought envelopes measure about 4 ½” by 5 ¾”. Which would make them very loosely fit in the envelope and that wouldn’t look to nice. But on a bright side to custom making the envelopes, I can now coordinate the envelope to match the gift card holder. This is an added feature that is not available on greeting cards.

Well, I think I have rambled enough. I must get back to my regular 8:30 – 5 job. :) I am definitely looking forward to some card making tonight after work & school. So hopefully I will be able to share with you a new idea/technique I used for my shop.

A Scrapbooker turns to the WILD crafting side of Card Making

I have always been passionate for scrapbooking and any other craft would be a complete turn off for me. Everything seemed so complicated that I would give up after 5 minutes of trying.

Well, this weekend, the family and I decided to go Cabin camping (it's a campground that offers cabin rentals for those people who want to experience nature with comfort). My sister and I decided to set up early in the morning and "scrap". I wasn't exactly prepared for scrapbook layouts, so I decided to give card making a chance, especially since the holiday season is already here.

At first, I was a little tormented by making a card. Something that measured only 4 1/2" by 5 1/2" was so complicated for me. But yet I had no problem creating a 12" by 12" scrapbook layout. It took me about 30 minutes to finish my first card (with the help of my sister of course), but I eventually created a very adorable card with a reindeer and the message "Jingle all the way" for my Etsy shop (2mommysscrapin.etsy.com), which had never featured handmade greeting cards until this weekend. :)

It made me very happy to finally have created a handmade greeting card. The rest of the cards just flowed out of my hands like a river flows.

I hope you have enjoyed my first blog. :)