Holiday Shows

The show at Friends Academy last weekend in New Jersey didn't go so well. It was a poor turnout overall for all the vendors. It was also the first snow in the area so that could have played a factor. The upside is that there is less work to do now for the next christmas bazaar this Saturday in Mt. Airy. I am hopeful that it will be the best show this holiday season.

My Adana Five Eight Letterpress, in other words, I got a new MACHINE!

I am SO excited to get started with letterpress! I went all the way to Ebay UK to get an Adana Five Eight, surprisingly it got here rapid fast (thanks Interparcel) and I was in Pittsburgh when it arrived! It's the "lightweight" of tabletop platen presses but is still HEAVY! As I opened it, it was upside down and I had a mild heart attack. Then as I started to unravel the many layers of saran wrap I had multiple heart pulpitations when I thought something was broke or missing. I finally got it together. The long "finger" was bent up pretty bad, I guess during the journey, but I got it pretty much straightened at. I got my 3in1 machine oil and odorless mineral spirits from Lowe's. I still don't have everything I need to actually start running but I'm getting there. A nice printer north of Philly is getting rid of his font so I'm dragging Gerson to Allentown tomorrow to a storage unit to see what I can get for free! To be continued...

a little bit of everything

I was busy finishing up Suz's baby shower invites when my neighbor had me do some bridal shower invitations for her which I've just wrapped up. In between, I've been working on putting together some christmas cards and cards with the milk bands (for nursing). I had a few bites for the letterpress holiday card on etsy but haven't had a sale yet. I've also been perusing ebay and briarpress for a tabletop letterpress from heaven! After one workshop, I'm hooked and hope I can get a press of my own one day and do more letterpress!!

I took the handmade pledge

I took the handmade plege on buyhandmade.org!
I've just finished some wedding thank you cards for a former client, some baby shower invitations for one of my best friends and hopefully have a bridal shower job coming up.
I am hoping to keep busy and always thinking of new ideas. Looking for a good supplier to offer purse valets with paper detail. Also will be trying to launch some cards with milkbands. So lots going on and lots of fingers crossed!

Letterpress

Last weekend I attended a letterpress workshop with Railway Station Press in Alexandria, VA.

Stuart Bradley was great and the experience was awesome! I learned about the letterpress process and the C&P pilot tabletop and made some holiday cards!! They are on crane lettra paper with an ink we mixed to be a blue/grey and also did a blind emboss for the ampersand and "white."

Cards!

Surgery went well and I've been back in the basement making some new cards with seed paper and some coffee cup shaped/themed thank you cards for my nurses. I wasn't able to use the cricut to cut the seed paper which is a major bummer, but you can cut any shape out of cardstock and just use as a template for hand cutting. A marvy uchida large punch did work on the seed paper though so that's also an option for some projects. Here's a few of the images:

Plantable Seed Paper

I just ordered some plantable seed paper so it should be on its way shortly! I have experimented with some sample sheets and was actually sending out "free" bookmarks with my company info on them with all the books I swap with paperbackswap.com. I've recently pposted more books which are flying off my shelves but no more paper so no more bookmarks. :(

I'm also going to incorporate the paper in some holiday card ideas I'm conjuring up!! YES the retailers are already preparing for the holidays, can you believe it?! Although I am usually a summer gal, I'm kind of looking forward to the cooler weather. I think it's because I don't feel well with my arm/neck and just want to wear big comfy clothes and hibernate!! Surgery is on Thursday...