Whoopie! 400 Etsy Sales!

I am so proud to announce that I hit 400 early sales not too long ago. It's funny how these milestones creep up on you! A few years ago I didn't think I would be celebrating this milestone, let alone 100 sales - but I kept trying new things and finding the products that stick. Thank you to everyone who has supported my art and my little endeavour over the year! Best wishes for 2018!

Chickadee dee dee Christmas Ornaments

Brrrr! One of the things I love about winter is how everything slows down - and during this epic cold snap, I'm happy that I don't have anywhere else to be but in my office and catching up on the computer. It's such a rare opportunity to sit and get stuff done! I usually sell cards and magnets at Christmas craft sales here in Calgary. Even though I make Christmas cards, hardly any of them sell. Knowing this, I decided to try Christmas ornaments, which I brainstormed over the summer. Actually, I brainstorm about this every year, but usually at Christmas time, and then I forget by next Christmas :-D This past summer, I sat down and prototyped a cardinal Christmas ornament. It required a lot of steps, but I made 50 of them to give out to co-workers, where they were warmly received. A lot of us take for granted the amount of thought and design that goes into product development. The end result looks effortless, but I can sure you the road to that effortless look is a lot of wadded up paper balls, torn in half prototypes and sighs. However, making the cardinal ornament led the way to a lot of success for the chickadee ornament. I made 12, sold 9, kept one for myself and two as gifts. Here's how they turned out:

Each one is handmade, although I had a little technological help! Here's a rundown:

• I drew and coloured the chickadee, then scanned and reduced it on the computer
• I designed a blue circle fill in CorelDraw and the greeting on the back
• I die cut the circles and affixed them together
• Then I die cut and hand brushed the pine branches with embossing paste, white paint and a glitter brush. I really need to figure out how to make this step better!
• I printed out the cardinals on a laser printer and cut one out by hand. For the cardinals, I printed them on cardstock and made a mask so that my Pazzles could do the job - but the glossy paper would not have worked well in the Pazzles
• I ended up making the ribbons by hand because I could not find small ribbons the right size
• Then I assembled all the pieces and strung it on a gold thread

Whew! I plan on making more next year, along with the cardinals and maybe a third winter bird - we'll see how productive I am! If you want the darling little chickadee for your personal crafts or projects, you can download the clip art which comes with a PDF of chickadees to get you started!