Quick Video

I made a video a few days ago, just pretty quick. It's got a few cards, a description of an awesome prize and it's just enough to make you excited for the return of GothamGal's Scrap N Tell videos. Yay!

Excellent Blog Candy

Priscilla Styles is giving away a Big Shot die cutting system, some dies and a FANTASTIC bag. Be sure to check out this blog candy and put your proverbial hat into the ring, you won't be sorry!

492

I just got done with my first 'Craft for Hire' project.

The number in the title of this post is how many pieces I had to provide. 492 diecuts.

Luckily, my Cricut made short work of the whole process. And I'm making 4 more pieces for her.

I didn't know what to charge. There were 3 sizes of diecuts, in 4 colors and the breakdown is as follows:
96 small diecuts x 4 different colors == 384

18 medium diecuts x 4 different colors ==72

9 large diecuts x 4 different colors ==36

--------------------------------------------------

492 total pieces.

Now, they provided some of their own paper for the project, and I used my Cricut. But I used a mat to nearly pieces and popped in a new blade. I spent maybe $2 total on cardstock that they needed, most other I used was from my stash. The person did provide a big thing of leftover cardstock from a pack they purchased, but I just used a few of the colors and plan on giving them back the rest of the colors. If they need future stuff.

I mean, I set prices at work for items, and I can usually look at something in the store and tell you how much it probably costs from the vendor. On my own stuff, I'm always trying to make sure the person is happy with the price. When I did scarves, they were really cheap. I probably lose money this way, but I like thinking that people get a good deal and walk away happy.

How do you deal with pricing goods? Do you have an online system or in your head system that works? Do you not deal with it because there is an online site you use that handles things? I was thinking of pricing the small ones at $0.02, the medium at $0.03 and the large for $0.05 and multiply that by 2. That's around the $22-$24 mark. I told the woman $15 or $20, whatever she thought was fair. And I'm cool with that. I think once I get a little more confident with what I'm making, prices shouldn't be a big deal.

Pros
Got to use my Cricut and learn how to work the software

Went through some stash

Got to go shopping for extra cardstock

Changed my Cricut blade (it DEFINITELY needed it)

Cons

Broke a mat (down to 8 now, darn, LOL)

Lots of cardstock scraps (need to get a trash can in the room where I scrap/craft)

Bought a few 'extras' at the shop when searching for cardstock

And to think of it, my cons aren't even that bad, so really, it's cool. Just watching my budget for the next couple of weeks. I've bought way too much lately, and I need to have a massive cleaning and inventory before I can conceiveably buy more stuff. After all, if I don't know I have it, I can't use it, right?

I'm really happy I took on the project. I learned what my Cricut E can do. I learned how I can work with the computer and the Cricut, so I got to use my design work. I also got to use some of the tricks I've learned on the Pink Stamper, through watching her videos.

Overall, it's a WIN!

Picked up a few things

I was trying to be good, but there's been a few things on my wishlist for a while, but there is still one thing I am looking for. If anyone knows where I can find my ISO, please let me know. Ebay is going to charge me just about as much as the stamp costs to ship it, and since I picked these up at the Archiver's hot spot ($1.99 each), I would be spending nearly $6. I don't know if I'm willing to pay the $6 right now, LOL. I'm hoping someone can find this at their archiver's and agree to mail it to me. I not only will pay you, I can send a little gift bag of some other images, some clear stamps that I have that you will like...


Okay, so did you know Basic Grey came out with a line of little stamps called Gamma? They totally did and they're adorable!

Doesn't this little girl look like such fun to color?
I want to rhinestone the eyes on these guys!
These might be tricky to color.

And I'm in search of:
After seeing what someone did with something similar from PTI, I have a project in mind.

Aren't they adorable? I've gotten quite a few of the Studio G or Imaginesce stamps, but these combine the easy of acrylic with the awesome-ness of Basic Grey!

And then, I also picked up a few other BG products, from the Bling it line. They are:
I've really not used a lot of rhinestones before. I'm excited!

Just What The Art-Doctor Ordered!

Today I was struck by the creative spark, so I made a few different things, and decided that it was time for me to post a few of my recent creations for your enjoyment... Okay, more for my enjoyment.

I've also taken a digital photo class, so those images should be up in the next few days.

Out for now, 100th post and all!
Happy Creating!


FYI, There's a giveaway going on at Starving Artiststamps. It's really cool. They're giving away 4 sets of stamps, in two really cool themes, and all you have to do is go to the site, submit a comment and tell people about it. Please check it out. Click here to be taken to the blog to sign up!

Whoa!

17 August 2007, that's when I started this blog. It wasn't updated as much, as I'd originally hoped, I just had an idea, a drive and some free time.

The ideas still come in, but the drive and free time seem hard pressed lately. But it's okay because I have been doing a few things differently. Started a notebook with ideas. Made a calendar with deadlines. These are two tools that go really well with my favorite thing in the world--lists. Between the notebook and the calendar, I can conquer the world. Woo HOO!

My craft room isn't going as well as I'd hoped. Partially it's because I'm going out to sing karaoke 10000 times a week. Okay, sometimes I sing and sometimes I don't. There are places I will sing, and places I won't. HOWEVER, I need to work on some new material. I need to record myself and listen to myself to see what I'm doing right or wrong. LOL.

I've got a pretty free weekend this weekend, and I hope to get some time squared away. Tonight I'm working on my first real scrap for hire project--stuff for someone's family reunion. I'm brushing off the Cricut and digging into that paper. LOL. Making confetti, centerpieces, hanging elements and more.

I'm excited. Woo HOO!

What, I'm at how many posts?

This post marks 98 posts on this blog. Wow! I can't believe it. Can you believe it?
This has to mean another contest, but I'm not sure what yet. Maybe a Blog-Centennial Event. You know a century is 100 years, and a blog is 100 posts?

Anyway, Hero Arts unveiled their new website today, and it's FANTASTIC!!!! Seriously, really, REALLY nice. You should go check it here.

My room

I'm kinda nervous to show you the room where I do my artsy-crafty thing.

Why?

Because it's a mess right now. It's the spare room, so there's a bed with tons of books, luggage and clothing that needs organized on top of it. There are boxes of things that SHOULD be in the closet. There are books (did I say this already?) EVERYWHERE.

And because of this, I've started just grabbing what I need/want and taking it somewhere else to work on in another part of the house. I know this is NOT the best solution, and it is by no means permanent, but it works--I still get things done with a messy room.

Obviously the best part of my time would be used CLEANING the room, before I scrap, but I have some deadlines. And those aren't changing. So really, the only option is to work around it.

But I think I'm making progress. I went into the room over the weekend and hung up a new addition (will post about that later), then started going through and sorting things. I have a feeling that I'll need to use multiple garbage bags. The good news is that the bookcrossing books I have will become more organized, prompting me to find them easier to read and release (yay!). The good news is that the clothes and luggage will be put away in their proper places (again, Yay!).

And, if that wasn't incentive enough, I'll actually be able to create in the room reserved for it--which means less mess throughout the house (double YAY!). Just think of all the time I'll save getting all of this taken care of, right?

Yes, that has to start motivating me. Okay, so the plan is to get done with chores tonight, maybe work on some crafty stuff...but then, do SOMETHING in the spare room. Yes.... Hopefully I can get one whole component finished by the weekend. I'll keep you updated.

Question: How do you control clutter? Does your room tend to get things from all over the house in it? How do you cope?

Summer is Here!

I was directed to a new site this morning, and I'm already in love. See, one of my 'duties' every day is to check my RSS feed. I've used Bloglines for many years, but I recently switched a lot of my crafty sites over to Google Reader. I love it because so many of the people I follow (close to 100) end up there. I read a LOT of entries, but don't reply too much. I don't know why, it's just some quirk that I have I guess.

Anyway, I've been reading Triple The Scraps (Patter) for a few years, I think I met her over that those veggies in the receptacle site. Today (or last night), she linked to Elle's Studio, which is a FANTASTIC and FUN site!

There are free projects, a great store and much, much more. And something I'm most excited about is Summer 2009 Doc-U-Ment-Ed. There's a series of posts about documenting Summer 2009--how fun would that be to incorporate into your own projects?

Go check out Elle's Studio and try not to fall in love with her tags and accent pieces. Check out the Pixie Stick Flower tutorials. Everything seems really fun!

Agggh!!!!

I'm sorta published....

A few months ago, I sent in some cards using Inkadinkado stamps to get some stamps in return (did a video).

Anyway, they posted me...
http://www.inkadinkado.com/shop/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=41

(Look for Nicole K)

I'll have to make a screenshot later.

BIG week at Hero Arts

Big week this week at Hero Arts. They're unveiling something new on the site as well as giving away some awesome product. So, head on over there and check out their blog.

What are you waiting for?

Win $1,000 at TheCuttlebugSpot.com!

I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (www.CustomCrops.com)! GO NOW and check it out at www.TheCuttlebugSpot.com

2 weeks since my last post?

What???
How can I have been putting off posting for the last two weeks? I mean, seriously!

Okay, I've got a confession to make. I've been singing karaoke a lot lately. Hanging out in places and watching others sing as well.

You've caught me--I've been neglecting the crafty side of life too much. And now I'm paying for it. I have a massive crafty to-do list, so that's gotta start being a priority.

I don't know if I've ever bought anything from Stampin' Up. I've heard good and bad things about them, but always out off buying from them. I got an amazing idea book/catalog earlier this year, and really liked some of the items, but couldn't make the plunge.

When the new book was slated to come out, I decided to purchase from Samantha who is also the person behind a site I follow , The Scrapmaster. Any purchase before July 1st made you eligible to get a free catalog/idea book.

One of the things I've really been loving lately is kraft paper. I've been trying to find it all over the place and have been coming up empty handed. Archiver's doesn't have it. I cleaned an LSS out of it.... Well, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to try out their cardstock (the pink stamper is always talking about it)--so I bought a package of 40 pieces (for under $8) of 8-1/2" by 11" cardstock. I love that you can cut the paper in half and make the perfect size card with it. And I also picked up some transparent (sealable) envelopes.

First impressions:
Stampin Up ordering process is pretty smooth.
Once item is ordered, the processing is a bit long.
Once item ships, it's pretty quick.
Cardstock is SMOOTH!
Packaging is very basic.
You get what you order, nothing frilly.

I placed my order online, it went to a distribution center and then was processed. And it came really quickly once it shipped, which is pretty cool. The packaging is very eco friendly, and it wasn't bent or the corners of the cardstock were not hurt in any way.

Overall, I think I'm happy. I will probably pick up some of the in style (that's the exclusive colors for the year) cardstock and a stamp set or two--one featuring a deer and an owl (yes, I know, I have deer and owl stamps coming out my ears, but it's SOOOO cute and such a great price!). Overall, I'm pretty happy with the stampin up order and will get to work showing off what I've been doing.

What about you? Any experience with Stampin Up? Or what about any other crafting companies like this (direct sell?)...