Changes are coming

I know it has been a while since I last posted anything but I have a really good excuse!!! There is a change coming with my business. Wait for it...

I am now a registered business!!! My new business name is:

INK-possible

I am working really hard on my branding, getting colours, fonts and a logo designed. I will then be changing Facebook and Instagram to the new name and changing my blog provider as well. I will let you all know when all of these changes happen. I am hoping to have everything sorted by the end of January 2018.

Speaking of the new year, I will be unavailable from Saturday 23rd December 2017 until Sunday 28th January 2018. Of course there is Christmas but from the 27th December to the 25th January my family and I will be out of the country on a well earned trip to Europe to visit my sister and her family in Germany and then onto Poland, Italy, France, England and Scotland to take in the sites and sounds.

There are a few things that will be happening at the start of January though with the new Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogues coming out. I am hoping to be organised enough to be able to have things come out about it on Facebook and Instagram so keep an eye out.

I will also be reorganising myself with classes next year. As a few of you know I am studying with CSU online and will be in my second year next year. I discovered this last semester that doing 2 subjects and trying to run classes didn't work very well so I will be getting my schedule for uni first and then working classes into that. So there may only be a handful of classes next year but I will try very hard to keep you all up to date and throw a couple of surprise events in.

With my business being registered and having a logo, etc I am also going to be going to a few craft markets and fairs during the year as well. My first one I will be at is the OLQP Craft Market next Saturday 25th November 2017. If you are in the are come and visit me!!!

So that is my news for now. I will be working hard to get everything sorted and ready by Christmas so that I start the new year with a new look and new name. Keep an eye on Facebook and Instagram to see the changes. I am very excited to get it all done.

Cheers and talk to you all on the flipside, or the side of all the changes anyway.

Jodi xx

Doing favours for friends

Birthday invitations are so much fun to do and using the mini treat bag thinlits to make a cute little envelope to hold the invitation is always a cute little bonus.  However this blog is not about the cute little invitation it is about being a good friend and trying to help people out when you are also trying to run a business.

I absolutely love playing with paper and stamps and creating gorgeous cards and invitations for people.  I also love being able to share my love of this craft through my card classes.  Like everyone these days I do not have a lot of time on my hands with 3 kids, full time work, part time study and my card classes, oh and trying to fit in time to see my husband as well, time is of the essence.  When I offer to do a sample of an invitation for a friend it takes time and I do it understanding that they do want to order the invitation from me.

I did the sample above for a friend.  She wanted a design for her younger and older daughter's birthday parties in July.  She required 30 invitations in total and I spent an hour designing and making the sample as shown and quoted her $2 for each invitation, which included an envelope as well.  This is very cheap I know but I could make it for that as I wasn't having to buy any of the product I was using. This amount didn't even cover the time I would have spent making the invitations but she is a friend and if she is happy she will tell friends and that is how word of mouth happens. However, after spending an hour deciding on the design and colours and going through all my patterned papers (non SU!) to pick out colours to go with the coloured cardstock (SU!) I had picked, putting it together and then photographing it to send to her, she came back to say that her husband would kill her if she spent that much on invitations and so the job didn't happen.  I was really upset but it has been a lesson learnt that if I am going to do even just a sample for someone, even a friend, I will ask for money for my time and effort.

A baby is coming

Five months have passed by so quickly.  There has been so much going on with the kids, study and classes that I have not had time to come on here and update you.  I have had many successful classes over the last few months using a lot of different techniques and stamps. Hopefully, one day soon, I will have time to blog about them. With the new Annual catalogue coming out last month I had a launch class with 2 lovely ladies. One of them was a new lady which was so wonderful.  I love meeting new people and sharing my passion with them.

This blog however is to show you a project I have done recently for a gorgeous girl that I consider a sister. Loryn and I started working together almost 10 years ago at an event decorating company. She and I hit it off straight away and we have seen each other through many life changing events. She has always asked me to make invitations for her life changing events and the one I have just completed was her baby shower invites as she is expecting her first baby.

I had so much fun choosing the colours and with the new Annual Catty coming out there were new baby stamp sets to pick from.  I chose the gorgeous Moon Baby and used some of the new colours as base cardstocks.  I did use a retired DSP, the beautiful A Little Foxy DSP which I absolutely love. It is great to be able to use retired cardstock and DSP on invitations.

I did the printing on my inkjet Canon printer at home and then stamped the baby with the umbrella, toys and stars with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with the Stampin' Write markers. The actual colours I have used for the colouring are:

Lemon Lime Twist - baby and umbrella to match the cardstock used as base

(from the 2017-2019 In Colour Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Daffodil Delight - baby and umbrella to match the cardstock used as base

(from the Brights Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Peekaboo Peach - baby and umbrella to match the cardstock used as base

(from the 2016-2018 In Colour Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Bermuda Bay - baby and umbrella to match the cardstock used as base

(from the Brights Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Sweet Sugarplum - baby and umbrella to match the cardstock used as base

(from the 2016-2018 In Colour Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Tranquil Tide - ears and body of sheep

(from the 2017-2019 In Colour Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Pear Pizzazz - arms, legs and face of sheep

(from the Subtles Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Wisteria Wonder - rabbit

(from the Subtles Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Smoky Slate - teddy bear

(from the Neutrals Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Crushed Curry - all the stars

(from the Regals Stampin' Write Marker box set)

Baked Brown Sugar - baby's hair (retired)

For all the other products used please see the supply list below.

If you wish to replicate these gorgeous invitations please contact me through Facebook or email to order the supplies.

Mistakes???

I held a class on Friday night with my regular 3 ladies that come.  We used the Lift Me Up Bundle from the Occasions catalogue, along with the Carried Away DSP from the SAB catalogue that goes with the bundle.  I have cased the cards, which I am doing at the moment until I get the confidence to design my own cards, from Pinterest.  (Thank you to Sandy Mott, Su Moh, Julie DeSuia and Juana Create for your awesome ideas).

On the very first card one of my ladies made a "mistake".  Now I put that in quotation marks because as we all know as crafters, there are no mistakes in crafting, it is artistic flare and we can always make it look like it was meant to be.  The first card is how I had done the sample and the second is Deb's card:

Looking at them you really can't tell what has gone wrong but Deb had stuck the clouds under the holes in the watercolour paper instead of on top.  However she turned the watercolour paper up the other way so that clouds were above the holes and she stamped the sentiment above the balloon.  It is different but also the same.  It just adds a little touch that is her own.

When I was demonstrating a different card I tore a little piece of the Whisper White cardstock on the front and I thought I would add something to it once I was finished but instead of that I covered it with what I already was using on the front of the card.  Once again the sample I had made earlier is on the left and the demonstration one is on the right:

It was just a matter of moving the sentiment and the balloon to different sides and it was all good.

Deb's comment when I showed that I had had to move some stuff around was, "Oh I feel better now that you have made a mistake too".  I told her it wasn't a mistake just a way to make it look a little bit different.  So don't be worried if you think you have made a mistake, it gives you options to just be a bit more creative.

What's in a Challenge?

So there are a lot of blogs and websites out there that encourage us to challenge our thinking and the way we design.  Last weekend, during the hot, hot weather that hit Sydney my upline, Katrina, was doing a challenge she had found on TGIF Challenges.  I decided I would try it as well and came up with the following:

I wanted a good luck card for a casual that has been working with us at school for the past few months and she is leaving on Friday to start Uni next week.  I know she will do well, I just wanted her to know I am thinking of her.

The challenge sketch was #TGIFC94:

I am pretty happy with my attempt.  I hope the designers at TGIF Challenges love it too.

Supply List: