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.