Opening a new shop!

I have decided to open a local shop for Pjoe and Lylie at the Fayetteville Trading Post. I am soooo excited!!! I already have a booth there with another creative soul called The Perfect Pair. We sell original art, prints, mixed media paintings, handmade cards, handmade jewelry, upcycled home decor and some other odds and ends. Since we opened that booth it continues to grow each month. We just started in April and the Trading Post has not even been open for a year yet. So, I feel pretty confident about opening another booth for Pjoe and Lylie.

Pjoe and Lylie inside the Fayetteville Trading Post will be dedicated to children items and clothing. (I will continue to sell my items geared towards adults inside the Perfect Pair and online) I get to paint the space and I made a sign.

I have been working on some paintings, upcycling some frames and making recycled pencil holders! I absolutely love making the pencil holders! (Maybe because they are new to me!) A little spray paint, decorative paper and ribbon can go a long way for these tin cans! Now they are lovely to display on your desk, organize the kids craft supplies or keep change in them. These have so many uses!


I will keep everyone posted on the status of the shop! I can't wait to have it up and running!

Are you being noticed???

I know that I have been out of pocket for a minute...My sister had a baby, kids returned to school and...wait for it...I am looking for a "Job". Returning to the work force has been interesting. I must say I love crafting but still working on a way to "make it work" so that it can be my "work". I am still going to focus my efforts on my handmade shop but I have to get a more secure job. ;) All in due time.

I continue to list items in Pjoeandlyie's Etsy shop and make postings to the Facebook fan page but I wonder if anyone has noticed. (Other than friends and family, LOL)I have been doing a lot of research lately. I have found a few sites that I wanted to mention. The first site is Craft Cult. I was always curious if all of my items made it to the front page. Unfortunately, not yet. But I can find out by stopping by Craft Cult. You will find a tab up on the top left hand side that says Heart-O-Matic. Click it and you can check out the following features for you shop: shop hearts, item hearts, single item hearts, item view, featured and charts. It also has an option to add a pocket shop for your Etsy shop to you blog...very cute and helpful. I added one of course!

Another site that I found useful is social mention. You can see if you have been mentioned anywhere on the web just by typing your shop name (or any criteria for that matter) in the the search bar. There are several categories to pick from or you can pick all of them to search.

Hope you get a chance to check out the sites mentioned above. Talk to you soon!

Handmade Mini Gift Boxes

Lately I have been throwing around the idea of making diaper cakes and onsie cupcakes. I noticed that a lot of the people making the onsie cupcakes are actual using baking cups and cupcake boxes for their packaging. Super cute! I started looking around and found the ones I wanted from Wilton. Of course they were almost $5 for 2 or 3 of them. Being the frugal crafter that I am, I searched for an inexpensive alternative. I came across an awesome little link from Etsy! Make your own boxes out of scrap paper...What?! That sounded too good to be true but within 8 minutes of watching the video I had already made my own box!

These boxes could be used for anything...gifts, treats or display packaging. Super cute, easy and inexpensive!!! What could be better? The video uses an 8x8 square piece of paper I believe but I used a 12x12 and it worked just as well! I personally used a tad bit of adhesive on the last flaps for added durability. I have included the link so you can make your own boxes! Have fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBf957XC-4k&feature=player_embedded

Prints, bags and Family Rules

I have totally been M.I.A the last few weeks. It is crazy how life can go so fast but yet you seem to be standing still in the same place. My biggest thing I am working on right now is time management. I never seem to have enough time...but that is typically how it goes around here. I did have a few craft projects that I had completed the over the last few weeks.

I love to paint words! Sayings, quotes or something I just made up. Since I had been playing around with the photo editor, picnik.com, I decided to print my words for a project. I absolutely love the following quote by Gandhi: Be the change you want to see in the world. I created a "print" of the quote with the many fonts on picnik. Very easy, very fast and no drying time! I then matted in on an amazing scrapbook paper and framed it. It looked quite wonderful.

I also experimented with iron-on images. I need to make my niece a "big sister" shirt for when her brother was born. I purchase Avery printable iron-on pages. I created my image with picnik again. Once the image is created then you will flip the image and print it on this special "paper". Follow the directions and it is pretty darn easy. So, while I was making the shirt I also made a tote bag. If you know me personally, then you know that I am easily inspired! I saw a banner outside of a local church and the top read: live, love and inspire. I absolutely loved it!!! So, that is how I choose my words for the tote bag. The bag will come in handy for the Farmer's Market, the library or shopping!

I also found a list of family rules that inspired me to come up with my own rules. I tried to think of the most important things to teach my children. I turned the rules into a 16x20 painting. I couldn't fit all of the rules on the canvas but I picked some very important ones. I put one of the paintings at my booth and it sold in two days! I guess someone else enjoyed it as well.

See you next time! ;)