Market Update and a Card

Today was GLORIOUS! It was supposed to be stoopid Hazy, Hot & Humid, but the gods smiled on us and it all stayed away. We even had a breeze! This is the view down Main St from the market:

Lovely!

Before we get to some market pics. I wanted to show you the smaller banner I got for my table:

Love it!

On to the fruits & veggies! Here we have Berry Central:

That's blue, black rasp, rasp and black berries. Let's take a closer look, cuz I passed this test today:

From left to right we have blackberries, raspberries and black raspberries (or as Farmer Mike put it: raspberries with a sun tan).

At the end of the day, this was the aftermath:

Poor, neglected blackberries. ;(

We had some peppers today:

(love these colors!) ... and here is my fave view of this yummy goodness:

One of the other farmers had blueberries and cherries:

... and fennel:

... and basil:

The kids were back with their beverage table:

... and they were QUITE popular! People have been asking for them for weeks! Now school's done and they can finally come. Notice that handsome signage? And the incredibly intricate attachment mechanism? Hey, it works! And it's from last year, so I did something right. And yeah, I'm going to make them a recycle bag & sign this week. (That green bag was a loaner.)

The rock lady had this:

Back right corner: Beach Chick. Yep.

More blue hydrangeas at the cut flower stand:

I got one in my arrangement this week:

Our shirt du jour:

She said it was an authentic dirt shirt - a white shirt colored with the read rock "dirt". The things you learn at a farmers market.

Moving on... I hope you'll forgive me for no doggie parade this week. Nope, I sat on my hands, mostly because you've seen them all by now. But then THESE GUYS showed up:

PUPPIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About 10 weeks old, brother & sister - Daisy and Willie. A-DOR-ABLE. Just look at this:

ACK! I almost died from the cuteness. People kept coming up to her to see the pups. I'll bet she was there for over 1/2 an hour. FYI, she has two other older dogs at home for a total of 4. She said she had twins, and it was easier to deal with two at once. Okay. I hope she comes back later this summer and lets us see these beauties again!

Right at the end of the market someone stopped by and looked at my Milestone cards. Those are birthday cards I made a few years ago with specific years like 30, 40, 50, 55, 65, etc. One year someone told me I need more 90s, since the market is across the street from an assisted living residence. ;-)

ANYway, when I made the cards, I left a few without the year so people could customize them. It's not like you'll find a 53 anywhere, am I right? And for the record, I did make a 53 for someone. So today, someone was looking for a 100. 100!!! She ended up picking out a different card from my Any Occasion section and we put the 100 on the inside. How fun! So I've realized I need to make more of these Milestone cards, including some with no numbers. It will be a GREAT way to use up some of my pretty papers, so I've added it to the list of things to do.

After I got home and showered off the hot, I decided to make the three remaining cards for my custom order. After stepping into the Captain's Quarters, though, I was distracted instead, and immediately invoked my creative avoidance skillz and dealt with these parts left over from yesterday's challenge card:

I had stamped and punched some of the other images from Go, Graduate, but then ended up not using the squares on the card. So how easy would it be to take these already-stamped images and USE them??!?! Easy, peasy! Lookie:

Everything on this card, except the white base, is made from remnants (formerly known as 'scraps'). The Kraft pieces were cut, but not used, so I embossed them and used them! The green embossed strips under the squares were left from trimming the green panels for yesterday's cards. I stamped the sentiment on a remnant of white, trimmed and cut it badly, and layered it on a remnant of red. (I may actually break down and re-do those, as they sucketh.)

I colored the hats with my SU Basic Gray marker, and the owl with my new Crumb Cake marker. Just think of it as a Kraft marker, and you will be as excited as I am for the new SU catalog in just a few short weeks! :-)

Green strip of card stock? Can you see it? ...


I was amazed when I looked at these pics to see how it just blended in with the Kraft layer. But they are gone from my table, and they do break up the Kraft. It's good.

So tomorrow morning I'll make those remaining three cards I need for my special order. Then I'm getting a pedi. Yep, it's time, and I'm worth it. After the pedi, I hope to get crafty some more so I'll have something to show you.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Challenge Grad Card

Back in the days before I lived in the Blogosphere, I lived on Splitcoast. My upline told me about it as a great source for ideas for card-making, and since it's SU-centric, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven. You can look up all the SU sets by name and see a bazillion cards made by other people using the same set. GOLD! Plus, they have weekly daily challenges to keep you trying new things. No, that wasn't a typo. By "weekly daily" I mean that each day of the week is a different challenge. For example, every Tuesday is a Color Combo challenge, and every Wednesday is a Sketch challenge. They also have challenges to try new techniques and to use things in different ways. All of this is to help you get out of a rut, or just to keep learning new things.

But since I've been blogging, I have neglected SCS. I have so many blogs in my Google Reader that I have more than enough ideas to keep me going. I seem to have swapped the Blogosphere for my old friend SCS.

The past few weeks, one of my Tweeps has been doing the SCS challenges, and the other day I mentioned that I used to try and combine challenges, mostly to get them in and only have to make one card. ;-) She was intrigued by this idea, so I challenged her to combine a few challenges on one card, and I'd do the same. This card, dear readers, is the result of my efforts:

This combined the Color Combo of Barely Banana, Mellow Moss and Real Red; the Sketch; and this week's Ways To Use It challenge of using ... RIBBON! Monday's technique challenge was a one-layer card, and I decided that didn't fit with my goals, so I scrapped the idea of attempting a four-fer. ;)

I'm pretty sure I broke a ton of rules with this card. I used So Saffron instead of Barely Banana, and I introduced another color with both the blue buttons and the Kraft card base. But I was INSPIRED by all the challenges, and I think that counts for something.

As I was planning the card, I decided to try and stack some of the images on my acrylic block. One of the cool things about clear-mount stamps, whether they're red rubber or clear stamps, is you can stick more than one to your acrylic block at the same time. This saves you the step of stamping twice, plus you have a better chance of getting things straight. As we all know, in my world, this is necessary. Very necessary.

Here is what I'm talking about:

The first time I used these stamps, I stamped the grads first, then went back and stamped the sentiment. THIS time, I put both stamps on the block with the space I wanted between them and stamped once with both images. SWEET!

See:

I did manage to get the sentiment to curl up on the right, but hey, at least they are all consistently curled, so I can say I meant to do that!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results:

And I'd like to mention, for the record, that this SU stamp set Go, Graduate uses correct punctuation! YES! Notice the comma both in the set's name AND in the sentiment. This makes me very happy, indeed.

Gotta run to the Day Job now. Thanks for stopping by!

I've CASEd Myself!

I just realized I hadn't made my Dad a Father's Day card yet, and since I would need to mail it tomorrow for it to have a ghost's chance to get there by Saturday, I began to panic. I feared I'd be forced to join the Bad Daughter Society. THEN, I realized my eldest son's birthday is next week, so now I would also be joining the Bad Mom Society. Can't have that ... I wouldn't have time for all those meetings.

When all else fails, go with what you know. I stepped into The Captain's Quarters and glanced at The Captain's Table. Remember this card from last night:

I have declared it my son's Birthday card. Yep. And since all my supplies were still out, I decided to use up another whole 1/3 sheet of DSP and make a Father's Day card just like it. Like this:

Ta da! I actually made four of these, so I'll have three for this weekend's markets. Yay!

Except for the punches to get the right sized circles, it's all SU, too. I love it when a plan comes together.

So tonight I'll start on some more Grad cards and work on coloring some more of the houses on my City Cards. I only have tomorrow evening to finish everything since I'm doing my Friday market this week. WAIT! I've asked for 1/2 day off on Friday! Woo-hoo! I might get home in time to craft before the market. Oh, happy day!

On that note, I think I'll go eat some cold pizza and then get crafty. Thanks for stopping by!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Today has been interesting, and very enlightening. I had the day off from work with the plan to stamp all day and make a dent in my To Do list.

Before we get to that, I wanted to show you something. Remember the growing Heaplet:

Quite the mess, eh? Well look at it now:

Yep! I worked on that the other day and got it respectable. You can even see the small paper trimmer on the right. I filed all card stock remnants (those worth saving) in the Scrap Heap, and I just left all the patterned and specialty paper remnants here. Everything else got recycled. MUCH better!

Right on top of the now-smaller Heaplet you can see what I identified as my next project:

I get some of my best ideas from my scrap heaps.

Look what else I found lurking in the Heaplet:

I'll bet all you SU veterans know what that is. That green striped and blue striped (and still-hidden pink striped) paper is looooooong-retired, though I have no idea how it came to be part of this relatively-new Heaplet. In fact, I think it may be some of the first DSP I got from SU. I may even have the matching vellum! Remember when SU had the DSP and matching vellum?!?! My challenge now is to USE this stuff. OMG.

Speaking of the Scrap Heap, I have decided to rename it. I think calling these poor pieces of card stock "scraps" is very unfair. When I make a card out of scraps, it's not like I'm digging in the rubbish for pieces of paper. These are not "bad" papers; they are just partial sheets. SO I have renamed my Scrap Heap, and it is now to be known as "The Remnant Heap". Oh yeah, much better. They are now officially "remnants". Done.

But before I could play with the Heaplet remnants, I needed to make headway with my custom orders and my backlog of OMG, I NEED TO MAKE MORE OF THESE projects.

First, I have an order for several copies of cards of which I had only one on hand, and I spent a good part of the day making those. Since I was making two or three of each, I went ahead and made a few more for my farmers market stock. As I worked on them, I remembered why I gave up on mass production. While I like the creative process, I find I don't like going back and re-making more of anything I've already done. So after this batch, my new mantra will be, "Sorry, that's all I have of that design." I think it will help me keep things fresh and moving forward.

That last statement totally negated my OMG, I NEED TO MAKE MORE OF THESE whine. Well, in my mind these are different issues. For example, I am selling a lot of City Cards and 5-packs of plain note cards, so I will make more of them. The note cards are all different, and I like that. The City Cards will remain my only exception to mass production. I am also almost out of graduation cards, which I keep on hand year-round, so I will make more graduation cards, but probably not the same as any I've made in the past.

So after a few hours of working on those cards, I finally took a break and I printed off some more City Cards, then lined them up for the coloring phase:

Here they are staged for coloring, and I've since started in on that effort. I am totally sold out of my Kentlands cards, running low on the Lakelands sets, and I have a special order for that third set. It will take a few evenings this week to finish them.

After I spent a while coloring those, I moved on and treated myself to using the papers in the Heaplet and I made two cards. The futzing and creativity I did with them just reinforced my decision to not go back and re-do older projects. I actually made two cards using the same piece of DSP. Here's the first one:

... and the second one:

I took two pieces of coordinating papers from the Autumn Meadows DSP and used them to cut some of the stripey-ness. A little of the yummy Vanilla Satin Ribbon around the middle, and done. On that first one, I cheated and used a Martha punch on the bottom edge of the vanilla panel; otherwise these would be all SU.

And I am so happy with the much-reduced Heaplet, that I plan to work on the right-hand corner of my Captain's Table and do the same thing. Most of that stuff is UFOs, though, but I can thin the herd by taking all the remnants out of the pile.

So that's it: the new me. No more mass-production or re-producing older designs; keeping up with the Heaplet; "scraps" are now "remnants"; working on the UFO pile; and doing stuff that makes me HAPPY!

Now if you'll excuse me, I am all stamped out and need rest, and lots of it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Sneak Peek, A Boy Card, and The Mess Revisited

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I am happy, happy, happy since I have today off of work. It's my "recovery" day after a weekend of farmers market in the heat + my monthly Stamp Camp prep + three sessions with The Ladies. We have a blast, but it's tiring for me, so I take Tuesday off to recover and catch up on life (you know: laundry).

Just to show you I've actually been stamping, here is another sneak peek at some new stamp images & paper from the upcoming SU catalog:

The paper is from the new Newsprint DSP pack, and the fourishy-looking thing is from Artistic Etchings. Now, as most of you know, I lack the collage gene. I got the idea to stamp that image in red (Cherry Cobbler - a new color!) on the paper, but ... then what? I layered it on a piece of Cherry Cobbler and added some of the new 1/8" taffeta ribbon (yum!), and then I looked at it some more. Tick, tock ...

Then BR #2 stopped by to pick up her order and drool & exclaim over the new catalog, and since I know for a fact SHE has the collage gene, I asked her for help. She suggested what I attempted to do with that layered sentiment: a skinny layer of the red, a layer of the DSP punched in the opposite direction (words going vertically), and then the sentiment layered on top of that. I like it! I called it DONE.

Next, I made a few of these:

This is Simon, a digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil. This is me cheating on my stamps. But I love this image, as it fills that void between little kid images and manly images. I think tween boys must be the absolute most difficult group of humans for which to make cards. Seriously.

I've used this image in the past, but I printed it much larger this time (not on purpose; I was tired and not paying attention) so the layering was a challenge. That skate board sticks out and doesn't allow me to use my skinny rectangle dies, so I had to go BIG. Next time I think I'll try moving the copyright down below the image so I can use a skinny die on this and have the skate board sticking out of the shape.

Moving on, I wanted to show you that even though my place becomes a total mess throughout the month, it is all part of a much larger plan. I get to this point with my Dining Room table:

where all my projects are staged, with their associated materials. Then when I get ready to prep for my Stamp Camps, I take that blob labeled 2:


...and it becomes my Mis En Place:

Now doesn't that look much less messy? ;) I had A Moment while doing all the cutting for this month's project kits. Look at the card stock I cut for Project #1:

Just one piece of white card stock for the base. But I made up for it with Project #3's supplies:

If I were selling things by the pound, this one would win. For those of you who take classes from your Demos, this cutting effort is part of what you are paying for. (WHAT was I thinking when I designed this card?!)

After the kits are made, I set up the stations, and in the end, my two tables look like this:



Looks like a totally different place, doesn't it? :-) After classes are over, I put everything away, take down that long table, and start over. I have my next Stamp Camps on July 11th, so I have 4 weeks to make up 4 more SU-only projects.

Speaking of July, since I don't have enough going on already, I signed up for my first Shoe Box Swap (SBS) and it's July 10th, the Saturday before my July Stamp Camps. I couldn't have timed that one better. ;/ I'll miss my market that day, but I think the SBS will be fun! It's a smaller group (20 vs 30) so it will be a good chance for me to have the experience without being overwhelmed by the number of people. And now I get to design a card for 20 people to make, and make up the kits. If I'm smart, I'll plan to make something based on one of my July Stamp Camp projects. Let's see if that actually happens.

In addition to doing laundry today, I need to work on my custom card orders. And sales have been so good the past two weeks at the farmers markets, I am out of several popular items and need to make more. I'll get most of them started today, and I'll finish them during the evenings this week. Hey, I wanted good sales, and I've got them! Oh, the pressures of success! I'm NOT complaining! :)

Gotta get moving now. I've already printed off some sentiments I need for a few of the custom orders, so I need to go slice and dice and assemble. I may even sneak in a few new designs of my own along the way so I'll have something to share here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Market Update (long, again)

I had two of my three Stamp Camps today, and because I am old and tired, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday's market update until now. Plus, because I am ... old and tired, I didn't feel like re-ordering these pictures into logical groups like Vegetables, Crafts and Dogs. So instead, you'll get a really good sense (I hope) of my totally random and disorganized days spent at the farmers market, but rarely in my chair. Yeah, I get up a lot and roam around. I've told you I don't sit still well, haven't I?

Let's get started!

Early on, this pup stopped by with his owner, and laid down to wait for said owner to stop chatting:

Yeah, yeah, let's get a move on, mkay?

Tick, tock ...

He was actually very good the whole time, just laying there like a beached whale.

Time for some veggies before things get too busy. Maters:

Peppers and more baby eggplant:

Pickling cukes! YAY! -->

Some of these came home with me.

Berries:

Kohlrabi:

I got one of these, too.

Helloooooo, I'm still here .....

Cherries:

These are sweet cherries. We should get sour cherries in a week or so. Yum!

Strawberries:

Yellow squash:

In real life, these were almost orange! I am so sorry you are stuck with moi as your photographer.

Speaking of which, I bring you an out-of-focus shot of some wild black raspberries:

And no, black raspberries are not the same as blackberries. I know. I've failed that test from Farmer Mike.

Blue Hydrangea at the floral tent:

I would guestimate every other person yesterday took a bunch of these home. I saw them everywhere!

More fleurs:

... and more fleurs:

I happened by one of the jeweler's tables and spotted this turquoise + red necklace and decided I needed to take its photo. I see a future color combo here:

I am responsible for placing it on top of those lovely freshwater pearl necklaces to take its pic. (I put it back whn I was done.) I am also pretty much in love with those freshwater pearl necklaces, but they don't go with polo shirts. Plus, I don't wear much jewelry, so I just admire them from afar.

This guy was really cute:

... and this one:

... this guy came back to see us:

Oh, here is MY kohlrabi:

It's half-gone already. I peeled it, sliced it thin and ate half of it last night.

Oooh, my favorite doggie:

This next guy is a German Short-haired Pointer, or GSP for short:

I know these things because one of the other crafters was standing right next to me, and he has two of them. In German, kurzhaar = short hair. This is also (probably) the source of our word 'curt' ... being short with someone or giving a short, pointed answer. Get it: short-haired pointer? (I just made that up, but it flowed so nicely.)

Anyway, he said they come in three colors: solid brown, white with brown splotches (like this guy's big brown spots), or speckled (like the rest of this guy). I guess this dog is a blend of two of those. He was pretty neat-looking, anyway. (The dog, of course.)

See what you can learn at a farmers market?

Then Tweety came by to visit us again:

One of these days I'm going to get a pic of him in the sunlight so you can see his bright blue feathers.

This next dog was being so good, and then his owner tried to get him to stay still for me. Here is attempt #1:

Wha? You talkin' to me?

Then he got the dog to sit:

Guess what Dad has in his pockets!? See Dad, I'm sitting! I'm being good. Now where's my treat?!

See Dad, I'm so good, I'm now laying down for you:

Now where's my treat??!!? HAHAHA!

Next up I bring you my first attempt at a new-to-me skill within GIMP, the freeware I use to edit my pics. (Yes, they are edited...leave me alone.) I used the Free Select Tool that lets you draw around an image and cut it out of its background. This is a little girl's top from MaryBeth:

Unfortunately, I'll need more than 5 minutes of training to edit out her hand. Please be patient with me. But don't you love that little bird applique?!

Oh, and another doggie:

... and a PUPPY:

SO CUTE! He's 11 weeks old.

This next pic is the best I could do to capture what I thought looked very funny:

This guy was carrying a kohlrabi. It was so big, it looked like he was carrying a baby! Okay, maybe I was getting a little hot by this time of day, and maybe I was a bit more delusional than normal, but I swear it looked like he was carrying ... oh, never mind.

Another cutie:

Oh, and we have a new vendor ... a family from Ecuador who does beading. Check it out:



She had this one stashed and brought it out for me:

So pretty! I'm not sure where I'd wear it, but again, I like to admire the workmanship, at least.

Oh, look, another dog:

And these are my flowers this week:


So that's pretty much a typical day in my farmers market world...

But now it is past my bedtime, and I need to be vertical for the Day Job tomorrow, so I bid you good night. I'll be back tomorrow with some craftiness, as I've actually found the energy to stamp tonight!

Thanks for stopping by!