Craft Fair Mania!

Hello bloggers! Sorry it's been so quite here lately. Between losing Keno, getting sick and preparing for a craft fair, I've been busy and a bit out of sorts. Thank you for all your kind words about my little man. I picked up his remains from the vet office this past Friday, so he's home with me now.

The week after saying my goodbyes to Keno, I fell ill with a nasty head cold. Unfortunately, there was no rest for me as I had to prepare for a craft fair. It's been a couple of years since I've been a vendor at a fair, so getting back into the swing of things while feeling like pooh was pretty difficult. I had a few items left over from a craft fair I had done a few years back plus I had been working on some items before Keno got sick. However, I pushed myself to have a variety of items to sell, so I worked non-stop for an entire week. My craft room looked like a tornado had hit it! In the end, I was so pleased with how everything turned out. I didn't take pictures of all of my stuff simply because I ran out of time, but here's a sampling of some of the items I made and sold.

My "Snowman Poop" packages sold like hotcakes and were gone in less than an hour. I forgot to take pictures of them, but I plan on making a few more this week, so I'll be sure to photograph them when I do. I sold them for $1 each. Another popular item was the Post-It note holders that I made using plastic 3.5x5 photo frames that I got at the Dollar Tree. I sold them for $3 each.

My $1 notepads also sold out quickly. I used PaperTrey Ink's new exclusive notepads which are already pre-cut for you. They were a real time saver!

Throughout the show, I found that people were really intrigued by my hot cocoa/apple cider sliders. I had lots of fun making these! You just untie the bow, pull up on the ribbon and the packet slides right up! I priced them at $2 each and sold about half my inventory.

My lovely friend lent me her two-tired basket to house my sliders. It worked out great!

I also made some fun treat holders. I got the wooden boxes at Michael's for $1, spray painted them different colors, then decorated each one with festive tags and bows. I sold half my inventory at $8 each.

My nugget tins were a big hit as well. I wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey Chocolate Nuggets in holiday paper, stuck them in the tin, wrapped the tin and called it good. I sold out at $5 each.

Speaking of candy, I also wrapped some Kit Kats to resemble little purses. I wrapped some Hershey bars as well and sold out of all of them at $1.50 each.

The binder clips weren't as big a seller as I had hoped they'd be. I sold a few, but that's it. I think they're pretty cute! I priced item at $3 each.

These fun $1 paperclip bookmarks were pretty popular...

...as were my laminated bookmarks. I got this idea from Kerry's blog. I sold over half my stock at $2 each.

The most fun item I had on my table had to be the Rudolph's Spares. I got so many laughs out of these, and they sold well, too, at $1.50 each.

These pencils at $0.25 each were a hot seller, too! These are the only ones I have left.

Besides papercrafts, I also made some of my S.A.M. Charms. S.A.M. stands for "Supporting our Animal Menagerie," and the proceeds not only go to my own critters, but also to various shelters. My mom surprised me on Friday by presenting me with this jewelry tree to hang my charms from. Isn't it awesome?

Hanging from the tree are a few of my holiday charms. I sold a few of these at $10 each. I still have the ones I'm about to show you, so if you want one, let me know!!

Now onto my booth! I took pictures the day my friend and I set up, but I was so busy the day of the fair that I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of my full set-up, but you get the idea.

On this side table I have some wall decor items as well as my treat boxes, nugget tins, comp books, Post-It note holders and some ornaments made by my late grandma.

A quick close-up of the table:

In this picture you can see my S.A.M. Charms along with more Post-It note holders, notepads, bookmarks and wrapped candy.

Moving left, you can see the hot cocoa/apple cider sliders, another two-tired wicker basket with my handmade cards inside, the Rudolph's Spares, the Snowman Poop packages (in the blue bucket), some decorated wood frames and another tree with handmade ornaments.

Last up is my display of picture frames. I sold quite a few, so I was happy about that!

I hope you enjoyed my virtual craft fair tour! If you see anything you want or have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. I also want to thank all of my friends who came and showed their support! You all ROCK! Thanks to everyone who came, saw and bought :) You made my time and effort totally worth it. Hugs to all!

I'm back!

Wow - I have had the most exciting week ever! I think I need a vacation from my vacation, though, because I'm totally wiped out! It's definitely going to take me a few days to recover and catch up on my sleep.

Now, what would a vacation be if I didn't have lots of pictures to share with all of you?! I'm going to show them to you slowly over the course of the coming week since together, my friend and I took over 800 pictures! Yikes! That's what happens when two scrapbookers go galavanting around Southern California.

I think you might like these first pics. Last Sunday at the stamp convention, Tim Holtz was demonstrating all of his fun new products, and he gave this tag to my friend and even signed it on the back! I already had a Timmy-tag at home, so I didn't need another one (not that I didn't *want* another one!). Now we both have original art by Tim Holtz! How cool is that?!

Later that day at IKEA, we picked up some picture frames to alter. We decided to give our plain white frames a distressed look a-la-Tim style, so we roughed it up, added some trinkets, and popped our prized picture inside. I love how it turned out!

We used a whole slew of different products on this frame - Distress Inks, Paint Daubers, Glimmer Mist, Stampin' Up stamps (Definitions Set)...we had a really good time making this sterile frame look much older than it really is!

The next day we headed over to Disneyland. The entire park was all decked out in holiday decorations. Main Street looked beautiful with all the garland and lights. New Orleans Square was absolutely magnificent. The whole park just had this wonderfully magical feeling to it. I felt like I was a kid again as evidenced by this first picture of me acting goofy in the Goofy section of the parking lot:

The Disneyland entrance was just as I had remembered it:

Our first ride of the day was Space Mountain, and it ROCKED! Here I am waiting in line:

I was able to get a fairly good picture of Mr. Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse:

We rode the Matterhorn, a classic Disney ride. I have to say, however, I think that might have been my last time on this particular ride since it was so bumpy that it gave me a bit of a headache! Two Tylenols later, I was feeling much better.


One of my favorite rides is Big Thunder Mountain. I snapped this picture while we were on the Mark Twain river boat.

Here I am at the entrance to the exclusive and elusive Club 33 located right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean. What is Club 33? Club 33 is a membership-only club that not even money can buy passage inside. Membership is passed down family lines and through organizations. No sneak-peaks, no tours, and no visits are allowed unless you are an invited guest of a Club 33 member. Pretty nifty, eh?

That's all I have for you today! I'll be back tomorrow to show you more pictures and more crafting projects from my vacation!

Need a place to keep your thoughts?

How about an altered composition book? They're relatively easy to make and once they're done, you'll be strutting in style all over the place! I love altering comp books because it really allows me to be creative and make something functional at the same time. This particular comp book has a magnetic metal closure that I found at Big Lots for $1 (and it's Basic Grey)! The rest of the items you see on the book are Stampin' Up.

Supplies: Old Olive, Baja Breeze, & Whisper White cardstock; So Saffron and Old Olive markers; Basic Grey magnetic clasp; We R Memory Keepers Ribbon; Hero Arts bling; comp book

I have a demonstrator meeting tonight, so I know I'll come back with some great projects to share with you! Have a wonderful evening!

Baby Shower Saturday

I had a great time today reconnecting with friends I hadn't seen in over three years at my girlfriend's baby shower! I had so much fun, and I even won a prize for guessing how many diapers it took to make this "cake."

How many diapers do you think it took to construct this cake? I guessed 135. The answer was 133! Pretty darn close if you ask me :)

Look at this beautiful cake that my friend's mother-in-law made for the event. It was SO GOOD, and I got such a sugar rush off of it!! Just ask my poor friend sitting next to me who had to listen to me rattle on at an outrageous speed.

I must admit that this morning I was scrambling to decorate and wrap my friend's shower gift. Yesterday was so incredibly hectic (hence the missing post) that I crashed before I could do what needed to be done for today. I quickly grabbed some fun baby girl rub-ons and got to work! A little rubbing...a little inking...a few Making Memories flowers...and viola! A quick and simple gift bag and tag.

All in all, I had a great time today! I'm exhausted, though, and my scrap room is a mess from all the commotion this morning, so it looks like I'll be doing a little organzing later on. Have a fabulous weekend, and thanks for stopping by today!!

{Friends}

Happy Thursday everyone! Today's card is all about friendship, and it came about quite randomly. I had this left over piece of orange paper from one of my Basic Grey 6x6 paper pads and decided to put it ontop of a brown Memory Box notecard. From there, I have no clue where the idea for the card came from. I just went the flow. I used elements from my monthly All Moments Remembered kit including the ribbon and the little journaling block which I mounted to a piece of white cardstock and then cut out. The block, along with the letters, are from Making Memories 5th Avenue Line. Super fast, super simple.

I also altered a puzzle piece for a friend who is gathering a bunch of different puzzle pieces from people and then putting them all back together. I can't wait to see how it all turns out for her!

I have a super busy Friday ahead of me. I'll be out and about all day long, but I'll come back with a new do! I don't know how short I'll go, but we'll see. Perhaps I'll come back with bangs! It all depends on what kind of mood I'm in at the moment. If I don't post tomorrow, have a wonderful weekend!!

Your kind words have touched my heart

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Thank you, everyone, for leaving such kind comments on my last post about my little Noel. Your caring words were very comforting to me during such a difficult time, and your kindness will certainly never be forgotten.
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The Northwest Paper Chase is now over, and I'm basking in the glory of all my loot. I somehow managed to pick up something that wasn't on the list - a cold. I haven't been sick since last June, so I'm fairly wipped out. I took some cold medicine, and I'm drinking lots of water and eating a whole lot of fruits. I want to nip this bugger in the butt.

Back to the chase. We finished our trip on Friday when we headed up to the Olympic Peninsula and went as far north as Port Angeles. Too bad it was gloomy otherwise we could have seen Canada! The store we visited up there was really small, but I ended up buying the most stuff there because she had some product in there that I had not seen before (*gasp*). After that, we were off to four more stores, one of which was not a participating store, but we wanted to check it out anyway.

All in all, we had an excellent week. What better way to spend time with girlfriends than scrapbook shopping?? The trips we took also helped me take my mind off the sadness of losing Noel, if just for a little while. Here's just a little peek at some of the items I grabbed this week:



Yesterday, I picked up a CD of pictures from the trip from our official picture-taker, Amy. Some of them came our really cute! If we took a picture with our passport in front of at least 8 of the 16 participating stores, then we can enter into a drawing for a $50 gift basket from Tinkering Ink. How exciting is that?!

On the ferry, Day 1 (Monday):

In front of a scrappy cottage, Day 2 (Thursday):

Here are a few random ones of me on different days. This first one is in downtown Seattle at a rubber stamp store:


Here I am in front of a store in Gig Harbor:

This next one was taken in Olympia:


Okay, enough pictures of me! I hope you are all having a fabulous Sunday. I'm going to go lay down on the couch and make this darn cold go away, but before I do, here is an older project that I thought you might like to see since I haven't posted any creations lately. It's an altered comp book with a bookmark. Enjoy!