On the Cover!

I've been crafting all my life and got into paper crafting in 2001; then in 2002 I started my own wholesale card business, Card-Blanc. For this reason I am an idea book junkie and subscribe to about every magazine in the industry. I LOVE looking at and drooling over all the gorgeous cards, scrapbook pages and home decor projects and I often think that some of my creations could be in these magazines and idea books too.

This past New Year's Eve I made a resolution to get serious and start submitting my work. For some reason, I had thought that I would be discovered or something, that someone would just stumble across my work and publish it. Right! After submitting some of my cards I got a call for one of my Thanksgiving cards to be published by Scrapbook Trends magazine! I was so excited and couldn't wait until November when I would actually see my first card in print. However, a couple weeks later, the creative editor of CARDS magazine e-mailed to say that she had seen one of my Halloween cards in my galley over at Two Peas in a Bucket and wanted to know if I still had the card and if I'd send it in for publishing! Wow, sometimes you can be 'discovered' and now I had two cards that would be published! Hot dog!

Yesterday I thought it was close enough to October to see if CARDS had come out with their Halloween issue so I went to Archiver's to check. Imagine my surprise when there on the shelf was the issue I went looking for and my card was on the cover! I could hardly believe it or contain my enthusiasm! Thank you Alisha Gordon for recognizing my work and having faith enough in it to put it on the cover!

In Sets of Three

Without realizing it, I made three projects yesterday, all in sets of threes! Three must have been some lucky number for me yesterday. Anyway, more Halloween fun stuff! With all this wicked crafting going on, I'm looking forward to actually decorating the house! Just a few more days. If you're in need of more Halloween decor you can take a peek at http://www.cardblanc.etsy.com/ or http://www.yourcraftyfriends.etsy.com/. Happy decorating!

Your Crafty Friends

They are the girls without great manicures who always have a little glue and glitter stuck to their cuticles! You know, they are 'Your Crafty Friends,' the ones who are always knee deep in patterned paper, adhesives, and embellishments on Saturday night while you're out painting the town red. That's right, they have great ideas for decorating and can whip up the perfect handmade birthday card in not time! Well, now you can count on 'Your Crafty Friends' to create one of a kind cards, home decor items and gifts for you! Come on by and see us at http://www.yourcraftyfriends.etsy.com/ and if you make a purchase of $10 or more before the end of November, these gals will send you a free greeting card! Now that's worth spreading the news!

Crazy About Christmas

Last weekend I had the best time over at my pal Audrey's house crafting all these Christmas goodies. I know it's a bit on the early side since fall doesn't officially begin until next week, but when you have a lot of things to make for friends, family, teachers and an Etsy shop, it's never too soon to get going. In fact, Audrey and I are opening an Etsy shop together in a couple days so come back for the grand opening announcement and address to our new site!

Autumn Decor

Autumn is just about here and in North Carolina the trees have just started turning colors. It's a splendid time of year and I like to bring a little of Mother Nature's show indoors. The garden bucket was actually a spring clearance item I found at Jo Ann Fabrics and covered it with a beautiful leaf print paper from K & Company and added a big raffia bow. The rusty barn star is a perfect prop for fall decorating, found at Michael's. I simply added some silk flowers in autumn colors, a string of earth tone beads, raffia and some leaves. If you don't have the time for a little fall crafting, these two items can be purchased at http://www.cardblanc.etsy.com/.

A My Mind's Eye Halloween

I've been doing a lot of fun Halloween crafting lately and I've discovered a cool paper line that I'd like to share with you called The Spider's Web from My Mind's Eye. These papers are subtle in color and give Halloween crafts an elegant look! Can Halloween be elegant? Anyway, you can pick up a package of these papers that includes a die cut sheet at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/. Happy scrapin' and craftin'!