Halloween greetings

I busy working on projects while I wait for the little ghosts and goblins to arrive.  It's always to fun to see the little ones that are soooo excited to be out and about in their costumes!  The candy is ready in a basket by the door and I'm proud to say that I've only snuck one little Snicker bar (so far).

Have a safe and happy Halloween!  Boo!

Fall birthday cards

I recently made this birthday card for a friend with an October birthday.  She loved the pumpkin patterned paper (so do I) and ordered a set of cards.  I made 8 more cards which used up all of the paper I had but that's ok because it's quickly turning from fall to winter!  Right Denver?  Hopefully we have a few more nice days ahead before winter really sets in.

I have a wide open calendar this weekend which is the opposite of last weekend.  I plan to:

• make a Father's Day mini album (custom order)
• make 15 sets of Christmas tags (custom order)
• finish up planning for a Christmas mini album for my Etsy shop

 I have some exciting news coming up in November . . . stay tuned!

Organization, Part 2

I use this 3 drawer plastic storage container to store my patterned paper scraps.  It's nice because it stores them flat, but I feel like scraps get put in these drawers and unless they are on top they will never be seen again.  Sometimes I'm looking for a specific patterned paper (wondering if I have any more) and I get very frustrated trying to find what I'm looking for.

This is an open drawer before I re-organized.  You can see that there's lots of paper in there, but who knows what's on the bottom?

My idea was to take out everything in each drawer, find all of the pieces that belong together, clip them together and then cut a small piece to put on an index page.  Then when I open the drawer I can look at the index page to look for a specific paper, and if it's in the drawer all of the little bits and pieces will be in one spot.  Here's picture of several pieces of one pattern clipped together:

They don't always have a coordinating paper clip but in this case it just worked out that way!  You can see that I have several different sizes of paper, but now I know that's all I have or that specific paper.

Here's the index page I made for one of the drawers:

The clippings are different shapes and sizes - I tried to cut off wierd ends or pieces that were not useful.  It would probably be nice to have nice, square pieces, but this works.  In some cases the paper is double sided so I tried to fold a corner up so that both sides show.

Here's an organized drawer with the index page on top:

When I started this project there are a few things I didn't realize:

1.  how many patterned paper scraps I have!

2.  how incredibly putzy this project would be!

I think it will be worth the effort though - it sure feels good to be organized!

Organization, Part 1

I had plans this weekend to make some new items, but woke up feeling awful on Saturday (my cold seems to have come back with a vengence) so had to change my plans.  I make only the things I had to have done - a couple of birthday cards (which led to an order - YAY!), a card for a bridal shower and a card for a wedding.  I also had to wrap both the shower and wedding presents, and by then I was exhausted.  I literally slept all afternoon.

Sunday was a busy day with a briday shower to attend and book club in the evening.  In between those events I wanted to watch the Vikings, but also felt guilty that I hadn't done much crafting and the weekend was close to over!   Since I still wasn't feeling very creative I decided to do some organization while I watched the game.

I think I've mentioned The Ribbon Ring before, but it bears repeating.  This is one of the best purchases I've ever made, and I think it cost $9.99!   The picture at the top of the post shows my Ribbon Ring full of ribbon.  It's simply a large binder ring that comes with several small plastic cards.  You put your ribbon on the card by weaving it through a few slots, and now you can just cut the amount you need off the end - so simple!  It keeps all of your ribbon out in the open, and you can purchase additional plastic cards to accomodate more ribbon.  Here's a close up of the plastic card:

In this case I have only one style of ribbon on the card, but you can put two different ribbons on one card if you have a smaller quantity.  When you buy the Ribbon Ring you also get some little orange stickers that you can put on the plastic card to signal that you have more of a certain ribbon stored elsewhere.  I don't usually use the stickers, but they are nice to have if you want to use them.

I risked life and limb to get these photos for you.  I wanted to hang the ribbon to take the photo, but didn't have a good spot to do that with nice lighting.  I came up with the idea to insert a stick pin into one of the nail holes in this window casing - no one would ever notice, right?  I stuck the pin in the nail hole but it was too low on the casing so I decided to move the pin up.  However, when I pulled on it the head came off and the straight pin was stuck in the wall.  Not good.  Here's what it looked like:

I thought I was going to have to go out to the garage to find a grabber (pliers?  wrench?) but after a few attempts I managed to pull it out.  Next I decided to use a small nail and stick it in the groove in this wall - another place I thought would go unnoticed.  In order to pound it in I used an antique fishing reel on a nearby shelf (shhhh!) and after a few taps it was in.  Now I have a secret spot to photograph hanging items - let's keep it between us, ok?

Tomorrow - paper scrap organization!

Comments please!

Don't you just love fall? We've had a strange fall here in Minnesota - September was nice and warm and October has been cloudy, rainy and cold! I don't mind cloudy days at all, but I would certainly enjoy some warmer weather.

I heard from many people that they have been unable to comment on my blog, which is frustrating for the user and for me as well! I made a change to my "comments" setting, so if you've had a hard time in the past give it a try now and see if it works for you. If not, please visit my Etsy shop by clicking here and then chose "contact goshery" and send me a note that way so I know if I need to make some other changes. I welcome comments, so hearing that it doesn't work for my readers is NOT good.

I have the evening and most of the day tomorrow to work on some craft projects, so watch for another post tomorrow to see what I'm working on. I just got a new blade and channel guide for my paper cutter so I expect to get a lot accomplished!

Giveaway winner!

Thanks to everyone for entering my giveaway - or trying to enter! I heard from several people that they were unable to log in and enter and for that I am truly sorry. I'll check with Blogger to see what the problem might be.

In the meantime, congrats to wenchie! You have won the drawing (I used Random.org as shown above) and I will email you for your address so I can get the prize off to you. Thanks so much for entering!

I've been home sick for a few days - it kills me to have time at home and have no desire or energy to craft. Ugh. Hopefully I'll get some new things made over the weekend.

I'm also terribly behind in my blog posts - if you remember I promised 15 posts this month . . . so watch for lots of posts in the coming days!

Thanks again for your support of goshery.

Time for a Giveaway!

It's time for a giveaway! I've been talking about this for a while and finally got my ducks in a row, meaning that I finally picked some items to giveaway, got them photographed and put this post on my to do list!

This giveaway features one of my favorite goshery cards - the snowman! I love the blue/green combo and I think the little snowman is so cute! Also included is a bunch of handmade tags. These tags are made from some paper scraps I had left over from my mini album, The Garden. The paper is made from 70% recycled material and it has a vinyl feel to it - very fun! The winner will receive the card and the tags which will be the 4 pictured for sure, and maybe a few extra!

To enter, simply visit my goshery shop and check out the items available, then come back here and leave a comment with your favorite item in the shop. Sign up to be a goshery blog follower and get an extra entry to win! If you are already a following you'll get that extra chance too!

The drawing for a winner will be on Wednesday, so be sure to check back to see if you won!

Cute Packaging

It's always fun to order items from Etsy and see how creatively the items are packaged. This week I received a package from Paper Treats, a fun Etsy store that sells . . . paper items! and a few supplies as well. This shop has a great tag line, "as seen on Martha Stewart". I wish! I went to her blog and watched a video of her appearance on the show where she showed Martha (can you imagine? teaching Martha?) how to make some cute tags.

I was slightly disappointed with the communication from this seller. In fact, there was none! I placed my order and never received any thanks or communication of any sort. About 5 days went by before my order showed as "shipped" on the site. Maybe once you are on Martha you don't feel like you have to have excellent customer service? I don't know, but usually when I order on Etsy I get almost instant communication from the seller, and as a seller I try to do the same. Doesn't change the fact the I received my item, but because the item is available from a number of different Etsy shops I do think I will look elsewhere next time I place an order. Hold on while I climb down from my soapbox.

Ok, so the item arrived and the presentation was super cute. Here's a photo of the package.

The purple stipe is the handmade envelope, and notice the cute address label. Very fun. Inside was my item wrapped in tissue paper; wrapped around that was some bright purple crepe paper and a cute "thank you" tag.

This is what I ordered - brown/creme and red/white baker's twine. I'll be using this on lots of future projects.

Please excuse the photos as they were taken at night, but hopefully you can get an idea of how nicely this package was presented.

I'm out of town for the weekend; going to Oregon to visit my daughter at college. It's Parent & Family Weekend so my mom and I are flying (not quite ready to make that drive again!) and we have a full weekend planned. Most importantly I get to hug my little girl and that will be the highlight for me!

Back next week with a giveaway!

New item in shop!

Today I listed a new item in my Etsy shop - a Fall Ring of Tags. This set is full of upbeat messages and the colors are perfect for Fall. These tags are double sided; the back side is lined paper just like you may have used in school when you were learning to write. I could easily see these tags used as a mini album - there's plenty of room for journaling and adding small photos. Maybe those extra school pictures of your kids?

A couple of nights ago I went to a banquet and was lucky enough to leave with one of the centerpieces from the table. These roses are 3 days old and they are still beautiful!

I edited this photo on picnic - have you ever used it? If you don't have photo editing software you should check out picnic. It's free to use and allows you to adjust colors, crop, fix the exposure, or add things like words and frames. If you have an online shop or blog where you post photos you definitely need some type of editing software and since picnic is free it's a great place to start.

Anyway, aren't the flowers beautiful? I was so nervous that someone would see me when I snuck them out of the building but I made it to my car without anyone catching me. Just kidding, they were a gift. No, really!

Just a reminder that I'll be hosting a giveaway in October . . . more news on that to come.

So Thankful Tags and plans for October

These "So Thankful" tags were recently featured on Elise Blaha's enJOY IT blog and quickly sold out. I was happy they sold, but disappointed that I didn't have any more of this fun checkered paper so that I could make more. Over the weekend as I was digging through my patterned paper stash I found one more piece! I was very excited about that and I'm happy to say that the last set of tags are now listed in my Etsy shop. If you wanted a set you should hurry, because this really is the last set!

I have some exciting goshery plans for October including a giveaway! More news on that to come in the next few days. In the meantime, here are a list of my goshery goals for October:

1. Announce my first ever goshery giveaway!
2. List at least 3 new items in my shop
3. Be a better blogger - at least 15 posts coming your way this month
4. Find a good supplier of 1" binder rings. Buying sets of 6 at Walmart just isn't cutting it!
5. Re-organize my craft area . . . it's out of control!

I hope that you check back often to see what's new and to enter my giveaway. One easy way to stay up to date is to become a follower of my blog. It's easy and cheap!