Ahhh, inspiration!

I was having a bit of creator's block, and it was getting a bit frustrating. I kept thinking to myself, "but you have some new supplies on order. Just wait." I tracked the life out of that package and finally it arrived yesterday evening. In it was the exact shade of brown that I had run out of, but did not have a record of the name (Bazzil Basics Paper, Walnut). I also ordered a few sizes of circle and scalloped circle hole punches, and le piece de resistance--an apple shaped hole punch from Martha Stewart. With that, I could finally begin my Shana Tova cards. I am so pleased with the results, and with how fast I was able to make them. Sometimes when inspiration hits, you just got to keep going with it. As a person whose favorite color is brown, sometimes ( and by sometimes, I mean most of the time) Jewish themed cards are a bit too ornate for me. I love how simple and earthy these are.



Well, you get the idea. These and more are available on etsy.

Next project: Gift tags made with my new giant circle hole punches.

Mmmm, brown

Look, I can change my blog to Brown. My most favorite color evah.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sell at the Hester Street Fair in between two talented jewelery makers, Saskia Devries and Wish by Felicity It was very hard not to buy anything. I will be back there again on August 15th, with another jeweler. I am contemplating having some space in my booth for buyers to make their own cards as well. What do you think?

And, I always like to add a photo or two to my posts:

Why Not?

It's embarrassing. Not posting for so long, and then all of a sudden...Even though I know it will be a while till the next. But, hey, why not?

So, here is one of the things I have done recently. Though, crafting is a bit on hold while I finish up the apartment. It's almost all painted. Then I get to install baseboard, which I am very excited about.

But, back to scrapping. Max was studying poetry in school, and these are a couple of poems that he wrote in school. I am tres impressed. I guess his teacher was too, because he was asked to read some of them out loud to the class. There are 2 poems in there, that are hidden away in a little pocket that I made. Max did not want those in the book. Those are a bit more personal. One he wrote to me on Mother's Day (super sweet), and one was for Dave for his birthday (super funny), which also happened to be Mother's Day.) I couldn't resist putting them in there. I just hope he doesn't discover them for a decade or so.

Click on the big photo to read his Earth Day poem.



And here it is displayed in the living room:

First Craft Fair of the Season (for me)

Monday night I will be at the Brooklyn College Hillel for a Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration with Jewish artists (like moi), music, food, etc. I then have 4 more in the month of may and one in June. Gulp. I have probably bitten off a bit more than I can chew. All in all, though, it's been a productive week. Here are pics of all that I have done since last Friday, including completing the task of removing old flooring from my mother in law's new apartment.

This is a color WAY out of my comfort zone

Bright orange. I can't do that too often, but I guess there is enough black and white to make it acceptable to me. And this is back to one of those funny, aren't kids just wonderful? moment.

Back to some Old Fashioned Scrapbooking. And Also, Some Musings

I have been dabbling in the full fledged digital scrapbooking, but have been finding it less than satisfying. So, I decided I needed to go back to some hands on paper scrapbooking, but I did use photoshop to do some layout design, and printing some of the journaling. So, that is officially "hybrid" scrapbooking. It's so much more satisfying to me, so I must stick to it. I will continue to use the computer, and keep learning about photoshop to have more tools at the ready, but why make things for myself that I don't really love? Right?

So, anyway, here they are. Ahh, I like them. I even used some colors outside my comfort zone (i.e. not black or brown). I think I will be doing a lot of pages with these nice clean grids in the center of the page. I am influenced by the work of others, but I do think it is a true reflection of my style.

The other scrap issue that I wanted to cover here: I scrapped about a day in which I was tired and cranky, and didn't really have a good time. And that is something that I have been meaning to do for a while. The essence behind scrapbooking is about capturing the small moments in our lives, telling the stories of our lives, and thus appreciating the little things in life. And I have done my share of capturing my kids at play, the things they say, the family rituals, etc. And I love that. I do. But, I have also come to appreciate the messiness of family. We love each other, we have many precious moments together, but we also argue, and have bad days, and we each have our foibles that make us and each other crazy. In the words of KW in Where the Wild Things Are movie, "families are hard." And that is part of the journey-the story of our life together. All those negatives are the things we laugh about when they pass, and I presume we will laugh about them for years to come. So, I am attempting to capture some of those bad days too (without embarrassing the kids too much).

So, here it is: ( You can click on the bottom photo to read th journaling, if you are so inclined.)

Cleaning for pesach? check. Scrapping? check.

Of course none of these things are DONE, but it's a start. And I did sign up for two more craft shows.

So check out the scrap progress now:






I still feel like my digital scrapbooking is a work in progress for me. But, if I don't do it digitally, then I will do NO scrapbooking. And that's not good. So, I am posting them anyway, and feeling accomplished, even though I am not yet completely satisfed with my work.

And now about those shows:

On Sundays, May 16th and June 13th I will be at the Brooklyn Indie Market. Check it out. There are lots of talented people out there making some pretty cool stuff. And the woman who runs it, makes these great skirts. Knee length and below. What more could an Orthodox girl ask for? I still regret that I did not buy one when I did this show in December.

Can She do it? Yes! She Can!

Sorry for all the exclamation points. Normally, I don't like to use that many, but I needed to capture the Bob the Builder theme song energy. Is that show still on?


So, everyone, watch as I: Get lots of crafting done, sign up for craft fairs, try to list more items on etsy, promote myself more, blog more, scrapbook more (also included in crafting), promote craft fairs that have asked me to do so, clean and prep for Passover, and renovate an apartment that My mother in law will move into this summer. All while still making dinner for the family, doing laundry, helping with homework, and being the wonderful wife that I am.

So far today, I photographed lots of stuff for etsy, listed one of them, removed a carpet, cleaned a 50 year old stove, and blogging. Must..keep...going. Note the lack of pesach cleaning here. We might have to skip that this year.

Some visuals to document my progress:



And while we are at it, let's make sure to promote the LYCEUM SPRING FOOD AND CRAFT FAIR ON MAY 1ST AND 2ND (when I will be there.)

Plus a visual:

Another Page and a Craft Fair

I am excited that I was just accepted to sell at the Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market on May 2nd. I am also now a member of The {NewNew}, a team of artists and designers in the New York area. So, I guess that makes this a productive week, even though I am itching to just sit and pound out tons of stuff for hours at a time. It's hard not to feel like the other work (like learning photoshop and organizing supplies and researching shows) is not a waste of time. It is just as necessary, just not as fun.

Speaking of photoshop, I also made this layout. While pretty enough, I am starting to miss the tactile experience of paper, scissors, glue, etc. But it will all go into the vault of skills that can be used. Right? Of course, right.

Whew!!!!

I have been trying to learn the world of photoshop and digital scrapbooking. I took an online class by Renee Pearson, and it was a AMAZING. At first, I did not love the medium; I missed my papers and scissors and glue. And I couldn't make things look the way I wanted. Well, 3 lessons later ( I haven't even done the last lesson yet), and I am able to design pages to my taste. I invested a bit in some digital papers in various shades of brown, and together with the digital elements from the class, I was able to make these:





They are actually the exact same layout (made with one "template"), but slight differences between them. They are both based on recent blog posts. I have to say, I am wonderfully proud of myself. But, I am still worried how I will feel about the printed versions. The staples are only pretend staples. The paper will actually be flat and smooth, even though they look like they are textured. On the other hand, I finally feel like I am joining the 21st century. And it is so much faster, easier, and neater. I guess just have to make enough of these to send away and get them printed, and then I will know....

And even more new items on etsy!

Okay, 2 are cards that I made a while ago, but never put up on etsy. One is newly designed, and quite frankly, I am madly in love with it. I might marry it. That would be the lovely Kraft colored card, with shiny turquoise and black stamp. Flowers, but not too frilly. Mmm. Delish.

New items on etsy

I finally had a chance to go back to creating and designing some cards. It is quite fun, I must say.

Here are what Valentine's day cards look like when designed by a girl who doesn't like things frilly, cutesy, or too pink. Very tiny hearts surrounded by a lot of brown and black.