Midori D-Clips In The Shop

I have been happily filling my store with new products lately.  One of my favourite new things are these adorable paperclips by Midori.  They come in a variety of different shapes, but they are all so darn cute!

There's a cute little penguin

 A pretty bird

 A butterfly (I had to add this one to my shop since I carry so many butterfly paper shapes)

 A car (because my friend voted and said this was her favourite)

 An alligator/crocodile (because they are awesome)

 A duck... just because

 An elephant (because I have so many origami elephants in my shop and I am mildly obsessed with them)

 A hippo (because "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas")

 An airplane

 Squirrels (because who doesn't love these nut-crazy tree planters)

 A turtle (because my sister has turtles... oh yeah, that totally makes sense, right?)

A whale (it just looked cool)

You'll find them all in my shop.  Hurry, favourite styles sell out fast!  Also, ribbon and washi tape are on sale right now.  Go check it out!

New Paper Goodies In The Shop!

Time off means lots of fun working on new things for the shop!

Check out how cute these hearts are!  They are made from recycled envelope paper.

I needed something to write the number of items in packages and this was a really cute way to do it.  If you have a paper punch, consider making some of your own!  They look like so much fun and I have been using quite a lot of them.

I happened to find a pink envelope and that was one of the best parts  :)

I have also been making 3D paper flowers!

I needed a few big ones to make a mother's day card and now I have a whole collection of them!

I sell the petal layers in my shop, so you can make some too!

You can choose them in different designs and colours.

Look at all the different flower designs I made!  There are matching leaves too!

Purple butterflies are now in the shop too.

I have them available in assorted small sizes and some big ones too.  They are perfect for writing messages on and hanging from a decorative tree at a wedding or baby shower. 

Speaking of wedding decor, the classic white butterflies that I used to carry in my shop are back! 

I have designed a few new shapes as well so you have more options!

F is the classic butterfly shape, but look at all the other options!

I even made some swallowtail butterfly shapes.  They are quite lovely. 

I also made a few more detailed shapes.  I am quite pleased with how they turned out.

I tested a few of the shapes out and they look quite good.

My favourite were the monarch butterflies.  This monarch butterfly has rounded wing tips.

This one has scalloped, more pointed wing tips.

They both turned out quite lovely.

I made a few SUPER detailed butterflies.

They look amazing, but they cannot be made in small sizes.  The details are so fine that they must be made large or the details will turn to mush in the machine!  I'm going to test out a big one soon.  I think they would look nice on a card.

I have been busy!  What do you think of all the new paper products?

As a side comment, let me know if you need these shapes in dxf, silhouette cameo, jpeg, pdf, or other formats.  You can contact me through my shop for more details.

Cheerio!

Yay! 500 Sales!

My Etsy store just reached 500 sales!  I am so happy!  I never thought I would reach that number of sales so I want to sincerely thank you all of you who have supported me in my journey into running my very own online store!

I have learned so much along the way.  I think what surprised me most and has made me feel very thankful is that there are people out there that seem to like and appreciate my art work.  Thank you for your wonderful feedback and your faith in me.  You have given me an avenue to express myself and to share my ideas with others (like you!).

In celebration of this happy milestone, PDF paper dolls are only $1 each!  Most of them are usually $6, so this is a super good deal.  You could get all 12 available patterns for only $12!

So, cheers! And here's to another happy 500!

Piles of Elephants

My sweetie bought me a giant stack of new scrapbooking papers so my desk is covered with new origami elephants.  They make me happy.

They look funny all fallen over.

I'm also loving these new papers.  The variety means that I can make lovely new colour combinations that inspire me.  

I started off with some papers that reminded me of East Indian textiles.

Then I put together a marvelous collection of papers that look like paintings.  I love this set!

These pretty floral prints looked just right together in a sort of shabby chic rose collection.

And in the process of collecting the flower papers, I found that these orange, yellow, and blue-grey-green papers fit well together.  They remind me of an orange creamsicle in the summertime.

If you'd like to see more pictures.  You'll find them in the shop!

It has been pretty busy in the shop lately.  I think that a lot of customers are preparing for weddings and babies.  The elephants and butterflies are popular as party and baby room decor.

Have a great week!

Matchbook Notebooks Bonanza

I had an order for matchbook notebooks today and I realized with a start that I had sold out of my stock! So I set out to make a new stash.

As you can see, once I got started, the stash grew quickly.

Here are some of them packaged into sets of 2, ready to be mailed out.

I read in the Etsy forums that customers often want multiples of items, but they don't want to go to the trouble of contacting the seller to make them a custom order. With this in mind, there are now matchbook notebooks available in sets of 2, 6, and 12.

That should make your gift giving much easier :)

Have a happy weekend! I'll be busy studying for my final exams next week now that I've taken my proper break.

Cheerio!

New Zipper Pouches In The Shop!

My internet was down yesterday so I had time to make two new zipper pouches. Both pouches feature lovely bird prints by Valori Wells. I am really happy with how cute they turned out!

The interior of the Bird in Twig zipper pouch is lined with one of my recently acquired vintage fabrics - adorable vintage black dots on pink. It's such a versatile print! I even went to the extra effort of making three pockets for cards and other knick knacks!

The Bird in Rose zipper pouch has a pretty light blue Valori Wells print inside. It has one large pocket that a card can fit neatly into.I learned a lot from making the first batch of pouches, so I used iron-on interfacing this time for the outside lining so that it is more sturdy and doesn't wrinkle as easily.

I also sewed a thin layer of padding onto the inside lining so that it is less thin and flimsy overall. I used micro fleece for that as an experiment and it worked out very nicely because it is not bulky at all. If I didn't tell you there was padding in the pouch, you probably wouldn't really notice it.

All in all, a nice set of pouches. You can find them in my store. Don't forget to use the coupon code BLOG10 in order to take advantage of 10% off until the end of December.

I have some other fun experiments coming soon, including a new tutorial.

Have a great weekend!

My Fabric Stash from Patalier

If you think my life is all gloom and doom right now, that's not totally correct. Some good things DO happen, and here's one of them:

If you can believe it, ALL of that fabric came in the mail the other day. A neat box filled to the brim with fabric! The fabric on the bottom was expected, but ALL of those smaller pieces of fabric were unexpected.

I just want to send out a HUGE thank you to Patty from Patalier for sending me these wonderful vintage and new fabrics. I was sooooooo surprised when I opened the box. In fact, I was confused. "I don't remember ordering these..." I pulled the fabric strips out of the box and discovered the pretty vintage fabrics I had ordered underneath. When I realized that she had simply sent me the fabric strips as a gift to feed my fabric scrap obsession, I was really moved.

They look so pretty all stacked up on my dresser, and the fuzzy edges look soft and friendly.

They didn't actually arrive that way. They were perfect, crisp fabrics protected in clear plastic.

However, I had an incident where I became allergic to some of the fabrics sent to me from a shop owner that had pets, so I now insist on washing all of the fabrics sent to me before I work with them, whether they have pets or not. I figure that someone with allergies will appreciate this extra precautionary step because I have essentially "saved" them from getting allergic. That is, unless they are allergic to laundry detergent and fabric softener. I use only half a sheet of gentle fabric softener since I seem to be allergic to everything.
It's more work to wash all of the fabrics, and I have to trim all the edges afterwards to remove all the threads that become loosened. Perhaps Patty will cry when she sees that I have washed her perfect fabrics and made the edges fuzzy, but don't worry Patty, once I trim them all and iron them out, they shall look perfect once more. If it makes you feel any better, I used the gentle settings! :P Oh, and the fabric smelled wonderful when it arrived. If I wasn't so paranoid, I wouldn't have washed them so I could have preserved the scent.

Do you see the giant ball of threads that I have collected thus far? It looks too fascinating to throw away.

If you ever need an awesome quilt or pretty vintage fabrics, Patalier is a lovely shop to buy from.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thank You To My Readers

I just wanted to take the time out to thank you all of the people who stop by this blog to read my posts and to leave me comments. I really appreciate it! Your comments cheer me up immensely and I am always amazed to see how many of you stop by!

From now until December 31st, you are invited to take advantage of 10% off all items in my Etsy shop. I also take custom orders, so feel free to ask for specific things if you so wish.

Just use code BLOG10 when you're checking out.

Have a great day!

P.S. - Check out the snow at my house! I couldn't believe it when I looked out this morning. "Holy Smokes! It's snow!" It looks really weird on the bright orange marigolds so I had to take a picture of it to show you.