Origami Butterfly for June 30th marathon.

At the card marathon I'm doing in June (date is now June 30th) we'll be doing some origami. I'm not great at origami but one of my crafting buddy is. Tim will be there around 2:00 to show everyone how to make a butterfly and crane. We'll add them to base cards. The butterfly in the picture is just  a mock up but it still turned out well! 

Marathon Workshop - June 30, 2019 at FabMo

I'm working on doing a marathon Paper Crafters workshop for FabMo on June 30, 2019. 
The date is still tentative but that's what we've penciled in. There are several people helping out, so there will be a nice variety of projects to do as well as food. The card in the picture will be one of the projects. There are lots of steps to making this card so it's perfect for a all day class.
The cost will be a $50.00 donation to FabMo. More information later. 

Cat Card 2019

I really wanted to do this card for my next workshop at FabMo in April but stamping on a huge square block (see post below) isn't the easiest thing to do. I finally broke down and pulled the stamps off the block and put them in my stamping platform. I prefer to use the Tim Holtz stamping platform for political reason, long story so ask me if you come to one of my classes.
Pulling the stamps off any block is a sticky mess, one reason I don't like doing it but if you've stamped for a long time, you have a lot of wood mounted stamps. The stamping platforms is a game changer, so even us die hard stampers will want to use the platforms at some point. 
Anyways, I used color pencils and gamsol because I wanted it to be a one layer card. Copics would have been faster but I don't like the bleed through on the back. 

Old school stamp - 2019

Back in the day this is how stamp companies did "set". This cube is super old, 20+ years?
I really like the images so it's been saved many times when I've had to purged my crafting stash. 
This will be a card I'll be mailing out to friends and doing at the FabMo Paper Crafters workshop this weekend. I used color pencil and gamsol - another old school technique. 

Cottage Crafts Booth

When Cranberry Hill in Sunnyvale relocated to a smaller location, I had to move my vintage booth to another store in Campbell, Cottage Crafts. Only my card rack went to the new Cranberry Hill store. The space CCB is much smaller but at least I'm still able to hunt for hidden treasures to keep it filled. I did have a cute little hutch in my booth when I              first moved to CCB but it really limited how much I could display. Finally gave in a got glass shelves which allows me to bring in bigger things and change things up faster. 
I hope at some point to have a small card rack in my booth, since making cards is what I do. 

mike strong card 2019

I've done this card before using Michael Strong's stamps but you always get a different look when you change up the washi paper. 
This will be one of the cards we will be making at the FabMo Paper Crafters Workshop this month. 

Copic Storage

When life throws me a curve ball (and I got hit with a big one), I clean. Really doesn't help resolve my problem but it helps keep my mind from spinning out of control. So I've been cleaning up my crafting space. 
I love the posts on how other crafters organize their stuff. As much as I like the look of everything matching, (Ikea etc) being a vintage dealer, I come across some pretty cool stuff. 
What is holding my Copics is an old gardening box, at least I think that is was it is. It has a thin metal handle that you can't see and the green paint is original. The card catalog holds all my extra seasonal cards, waiting to go into my card rack at Cranberry Hill. The frame in the background came from a friend's office that was going to be thrown out. It very flat, so doesn't take up any room on the wall. I had a metal sheet cut to fit so I could use magnets to hold everything up. 

Photo light box

I'm a night owl when it comes to being creative. That means I don't always have the best light to take photos after I finish something. I also don't have a lot of free time in the morning before work, so it can take days for me to post anything. I decided to bite the bullet and set up my light box in a more permanent location. I've had this light box for years (I think it was a birthday present from my kids) and rarely used it when I had a big art studio with great lighting. But now it's coming in really handy and I have no more excuses on why I can't post my projects more often. 

Fish Card 2019

While on vacation a few months ago, I played with my Twinkling H2O watercolors.  I painted up a storm but didn't do anything with the images. 
I finally got around to doing something with this fish. It's an old stamp (on wood) from Hero Arts. I sat on my desk just asking me to do something different with it. 
I had my wood grain embossing folder out to make an owl card. Sort of looked like water ripples if you didn't know it was for wood. So I embossed some Stardream cardstock (can't see the shimmer in the photo) and added my fish. 
I wanted to add a sentiment but everything looked to harsh, to I did a mono die cut. Looks like it was embossed on the card but it's not. Think I have to do this more often!

Booth Over Haul 2019 - Cottage Crafts

Before

I've been a vintage dealer for many many years. One of my favorite things to do is go to auctions. If you drag home enough stuff at some point you have to start selling the over flow. :)

My booth was looking a little tired and I wasn't able to get all the things into it as I wanted. I like the look of the hutch but it limits what I can do. I finally broke down and got glass shelves (not as vintage looking) which gives me the option to add bigger things or switch things around as new stuff comes in. 

Only took a few hours of to switch things out and I was able to find a new home for the hutch so I didn't have to haul that away. Now we'll see if my sales improve with the new look. 

After

Simple Card for FabMo 2019

photo taking at night ;(

  I'm a night owl by nature but having a dog that wakes up at 5:30 am every morning I don't really get into my full creative mode very often. Clean and simple is the best for those days. 
Also designing cards for a class of non card makers can be a challenge.

FabMo 8X8 Challenge 2019

FabMo 8X8 Challenge

FabMo gets more 8X8 fabric squares than anything else. This month there's a challenge to showcase what you can do with these squares. I don't sew too well but I can make cards. :)

Having the kimono die made these quick cards to make. Easiest to use the thin fabric samples. I think when people first hear about FabMo, don't know all the cool stuff they get in. Fabric samples, bolts of fabric, wall paper and now art supplies. I've come across great watercolor paper from someone's hoard. Worth checking out each month!

I'm thinking of doing this card for the March 17th workshop so if your interested don't forget to sign-up!

Gift Card Holder 2019

I may live in Silicon Valley but it doesn't mean I know anything about computers. I may work with some state of the art medical equipment but it doesn't mean I know what to do when I can't down load my photos to my computer anymore. It's taken me several days to just get this photo to post! 
Saw a SU person's (sorry can't remember who) post on how to make these little coffee cup gift card holders. I'm always looking for something new to do for my workshops at FabMo. and thought these were too cute. We'll be making some cards too, I just have to figure out how to get them to download on to my blog!