Saturday 29 July 2017

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.




Monday 3 July 2017

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.