Rainy Sunday

Today the snow turned completely to rain and we were stuck inside again (with a not-so-pretty, not-so-snowy field to watch through the window pane). My hubby and I attempted to brave the cold but ended up with wind-swept hair, snuggled up at home with a hot chocolate. I swear I am getting old before my time! Or was it just an excuse to make more cards...? (tee hee!)

I found a youtube video lately on making stamps and, having bought the tools ages ago, I've been trying the past few weeks to make a few stamps. The image above was on a card I made using a store-bought stamp, that I coloured in with watercolour paint. Here's my first attempt at making my own bird stamp:

Not so elegant as the store-bought one but I think he's kinda cute with his boxed little feet. My next attempt was a coffee cup:

What do you think?

Winter is here!

I haven't been feeling particularly Wintery this Christmas so the snow that started falling last Friday was oh-so-welcome. It's *actually* feeling frosty and new-year's like now :-) Woo hoo! And being stuck in the house the past couple of weekends has introduced me to a new craft: Card-making. I decided it would be nice to try my hand at some Valentine's cards to get my Etsy shop going again and realised quickly that this could get very addictive.

I started making some simple cards out of fabric scraps I had around the house and some cute little wooden pegs I had leftover from Christmas projects. I found tons of inspiration at www.twopeasinabucket.com, which has so many greeting card ideas I could sit browsing them all day (and oh how much do I want to buy *Every*thing in the shop!?). As soon as some of the snow had turned to slush I ventured out to HobbyCraft to stock up on some patterned paper and few embellishments.

Then on Monday--out of the blue--the views to my Etsy shop shot-up from about ten to a hundred and I had sold two of my cards! I had been a "victim" of the 24-hour "Sneak Attack" by the Handmade Movement (www.handmademovement.blogspot.com), which is a group of crafters who help promote and support Etsy shops that are just starting out. (victim? I felt like such a winner!!!) It was such a nice surprise, it made my day! :-) I was featured in blogs and treasuries for the day, and got introduced to a great team of crafters who were viewing my shop over and over all week! And it has motivated me to keep making and trying out different techniques on my cards. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of support they have shown the past week and it's really amazing to know that there are so many crafters out sharing the same enthusiasm. It's not only me who likes to sit in the spare room playing with paper and yarn all day! :-)