Friday, November 28, 2008

Shophandmade.com

Well, I took the big plunge and decided to expand the number of venues that I offer product at. I don't understand why it's still scary for me to list new items - fear of rejection I guess. Who knows!

I've had a shop front at shophandmade.com since I started at etsy. Mostly to make sure I could still get the name. After working through the item listing (which really is pretty straight forward) I now have 2 items for sale there. They have an interesting concept with the sponsered listings and percentage 'sharing'. I did decide to share some of my profits - I tried to keep it similar to etsy so that when I'm figuring out pricing I don't have to have 2 different price models going.

The only thing that's a little frustrating is that I haven't figured out how to tell if anyone has looked at the items or not. Although maybe that's better because then I can't obsess over it!

Here's a link to my shop: http://mygrandpaspen.shophandmade.com/

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

An experiment with paint...




I've always loved paint but never really knew what to do with it. I admire those who can take a completely flat canvas, add paint or just pencil and have a three dimensional illusion.




I've had this habit of doodling swirls and flowers while I'm supposed to be listening so I took some of those doodles, added paint and come up with these cards. I love them - but I am a little biased!




Some of the cards I added ribbon and other embellishments to and some of them I've just matted and let shine!

Friday, November 21, 2008

So I'm cheating on etsy...

Well - not really. I'm carrying on two relationships at the same time! I created one card at zazzle.com today. If you're not familiar with zazzle you can create personalized products there and if you want, you can post them on their market place for others to buy.

So we'll see. I used one of my pictures from our trip to BC this summer. I think I'll make a series of them. I love to take pictures and my scrapbook albums are so full! Photography seems to be a tough market to break into at Etsy. I might eventually try listing some at etsy - let's see if they sell at Zazzle!

Here's a link to my card...

www.zazzle.com/tsawwassen_harbour_1_card-137118479410621767

Sunday, November 9, 2008

How much fun is a Cricut!!!


So I do a lot of scrapbooking and you know, sometimes we scrapbookers get bored with all the tools we already have. Sounds like my husband but that's beside the point. I was at a weekend retreat and one of the women there had a cricut! I'd been reading about them on a couple of message boards that I live on...I mean read and after watching her use it - I was smitten!
Long story short I bought a baby bug and a few cartridges and did a lot of playing with it. One of the cartridges I bought had some good card making words on it. One thing lead to another and I printed out this 'thanks' on very flowery paper. After adding the green paper it still needed a little something. I had some of the most shocking pink trim I'd ever seen. It was called 'ostrich eyelash' and it was perfect for that card! It's a little over the top but sometimes life needs a little over the top!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Cards for Boys or Girls




So my sister says to me 'I need cards that work for either boys or girls'. Those are not easy to make!




I started with incredible Basic Grey paper with big polka dots on it. The colors were fairly gender neutral. Then I had to find something to put in the middle of the big dots. I ended up using brads in fun shapes and colors. I love to mat so the zig zag stitches just added the feel of matting with the sparkle of metallic thread.




I used the same paper and added metal numbers to make age specific cards for boys or girls!




November 7 08 - my first blog post



As part of this great adventure that is Etsy I've decided to start a blog.




Way back in the spring I started lurking on Etsy, reading the forums and storque and looking at lots of shops. Eventually I decided I wanted to start selling on etsy and began the tedious process of picking a name. I had a list in a notebook with about 30 names on it (many of them variations of my cat's name). I had a moment of inspiration and wrote my profile based on the MyGrandpasPen name. I've wavered ever since about whether I actually like the name or not but I guess I'm stuck with it now!




The first cards I created specifically for Etsy were my Crossword cards. These use a recycled crossword puzzle as the main feature and are then embellished with all the fun stuff. Originally I wanted to use small clear epoxy circle stickers to highlight the title but I couldn't find small enough circles. Then I tried stamping small circles right onto the crossword but it didn't achieve the effect I wanted. That lead to stamping small circles in patterns like the dot matrix printers used to - I then outlined with my favorite old fashioned pen and added a raised title. The picture is of my first crossword Christmas card which, to my surprise, was the first item of mine that sold on Etsy.