Candy Corn Card GIVEAWAY

My first involvement in a blog giveaway, I'm so excited. Crafty Ladies is hosting a contest over on their blog, http://creativeladies.blogspot.com/; to win one of my halloween cards - candy corn. You can enter October 1st - 6th by dropping by and posting a comment on the contest thread with your favorite item from my shop, http://quillynilly.etsy.com/. The contest is open to everyone. So get to it, enter now and good luck!

I will also offer a 10% discount (custom orders included; on total purchase, before shipping) to anyone who leaves a comment during that time - let me know in notes to seller and I will send you a revised invoice.

New Earrings

Ok, so I haven't been on here in about a week, I'm a slacker; actually I'm busy - which is good, but I'm tired and need about 5 more hours in each day. Let's see what's going on - I sold two sets of Holiday Tags, and a set of 4 chocolate brown and pink polka dot envelope tags, an order for 8 cards and received two custom orders - all on Saturday. I had to make 10 reindeer, that was time consuming but they turned out so cute. I also volunteered to make 20 samples as promotional pieces for a craft fair swag bag promoting etsy - I believe it's in North Carolina the first week in November. Things are definately picking up.

My birthday is next Thursday, October 2nd and that night I'm going out with a few friends, we're not sure where but I don't care we'll figure it out - I only go out once or twice a year so this is a big deal for me plus I absolutely love birthdays! Well because of this I've been ordering accessories and my newest purchases are two sets of earrings from designsbyvanessa.etsy.com. Received them today and they're both so pretty, can't decide which to wear out that night. They each came in a gift box with a bow - perfect for gift giving and like most etsians she gave me a little extra treat - a pink (my favorite color, how did she know) little birdy tag. Cutest little thing, so go check out her shop you won't be dissapointed. 

Love this messenger bag

Today I spent hours on the etsy forum threads trying to promote my shop and came across some really talented sellers/products and one that caught my eye is http://magnolyadesigns.etsy.com. She was promoting a butterfly messenger bag and it's gorgeous, click on the title and it should bring you to her shop and the bag. Not only is it gorgeous, but the price is affordable too - $20, and $4 for shipping - I say that's just awesome, you'd pay the same if not more at Target (don't get me wrong I love target) but this is handmade and her fabric is just lovely. It's fall colors with beautiful butterflies, I have to have it. She's making me a custom one, I'm picky and would like the print on the outside of the strap; but she said she can make it in one day and ship it out - and she has a 2 year old; how does she do it?

Her story is also nice, she started her store to help raise money for the adoption of twins - that's really sweet, so go stop in her shop and check out her stuff. She has messenger bags, magnets, and the cutest kimono style baby booties, makes me wish my little one was that small again; well maybe not but they're adorable - and she has really nice fabric patterns. That's my favorite for today.

Spooky!

                                       

I'm in Halloween mode - I've been creating halloween cards and wanted to quill something different - I went to Hobby Lobby looking for scrapbook paper and came across some cool skulls paper, and decided I was going to make a skeleton. I went home, got on the internet looking up cartoon skeletons, it took me hours to finish but when it was done - all I can say is that I love it!

I call him Spooky Skeleton, I almost don't want to sell him he's so cool.

I love finding new products

Today I discovered something extremely cool, it's called "Sure Cuts A Lot" and it works with the Cricut die-cut system; which I own. Basically you buy this program, working with true type fonts (which can be found free on the internet) you create on your computer and cut on your Cricut - that is so awesome. With this "Sure Cuts A Lot" I no longer have to rely on cartridges for my text options - I can choose from hundreds of true type fonts; I cannot wait to give it a try. I think there may be a free trial to try, I'm going to see - and the best part is it works on Mac's, nothing ever works on a Mac so I'm so happy about this. 

I hope I can figure it out - along with having the option of choosing from 100's of fonts; it also lets you weld the letters together for 1 die-cut, instead of separate letters; how cool is that. Click on the title to go to the "Sure Cuts A Lot" page.

the beginning

I love to talk, ask anyone who is around me a lot - they'll tell you; I however don't know how good I'll be at this whole blog thing but I'm gonna give it a try. I have been quilling for about 4 years now and I absolutely love it. I was researching something on the internet (for the life of me I can't remember what) and somehow ended up on Martha Stewart's website, I do not like Martha but I saw these cute christmas package embellishments that were quilled paper and I was immediately hooked - went to the local Michael's during lunch, bought a book on quilling, some paper strips, a tool and taught myself that very same day. 

I wish I had more time in my day to quill, I have so many ideas and just not enough time to do them. A couple years ago I did a couple craft fairs to try and sell my products, and I did ok - at least made the booth fee which was great and I met a lot of people; it was fun. A year or so ago I received a call from a very nice woman who had seen my quilled delights at a craft fair and wanted to know if I would like to rent a booth in her shop and sell my stuff - I was very excited, it's been a little over a year and business has started to pick up for me; I'm selling stuff and have to hurry up and restock my booth. I also a couple months ago thought it would be cool to have a shop on etsy. Etsy is addictive - I'm on there all the time checking my items, looking at other handmade stuff and trying to participate in the forums - trying to get my shop out there, it's working - I'm getting more people looking at my shop and actually sold 2 cards this week - one of which was a custom order; my first official custom order - how exciting!

So that's what's going on in my world - I'm busy creating for my booth here, creating for etsy. I'm a member of Paper Twirlies on etsy and we have a September quilling challenge going on so I have to get creating for that too. In November we're having a holiday sale (I'll post more on that later) so I have to start quilling so I have enough product for that - this is all exciting but exhausting at the same time. I find myself writing everything down so I don't forget anything, I'm sure I still will but I'm trying.