Wordless Wednesday - Best Friends :)

Work Smarter, Not Harder

It seems I learn something new every day with my laser. The more products I add to my shop, the more creative ideas I come up with for lasering. I recently added Engraved Wooden Spoons to my shop. For the first order, I just put them in the laser one by one and auto focused them each time. Luckily there were only 3 spoons to do. I recently had an order for 50 spoons and didn't want to engrave each one individually...so I got creative.

I looked for a way to engrave more than one spoon at a time and remembered the jig I made for engraving my wine bottle stoppers...I could do the same for the spoons! It was a fairly easy process. I drew the spoon in my software program to cut out the jig. My largest spoon is 14' long, but all the spoon ends are all the same size. So the jig works for the 10", 12" and 14" spoons!

Now I can engrave up to 6 spoons at once. This really helped the process go much quicker than engraving them one at a time! Plus, it gave me more time in between reloading to work on other projects (yes, I'm a multi-taskers!).

 I did find out after the first run that the spoons are very light and move around a bit during engraving. There is an exhaust system hooked to my laser and the suction moved the spoons a bit. Noting a little scotch tape couldn't fix...another learning opportunity :)

Have your learned anything new about your craft lately?

Woodland Name Albums

I recently finished the cutest set of Name Albums! The woodland theme has been going strong for quite a while now and I'm surprised I haven't made more woodland albums. This set was a little challenging as the buyer wanted purple & cream and blue & brown for colors. Typically woodland things are brown and green, so these colors were a little tricky, but I was up for the challenge :)

The first thing I did was head to Etsy to find some great digital paper packs. I downloaded this one from Mod Paperie. And this one from Digital Stories. Both shops allow for small commercial use, which was perfect for this project.

I was then able to edit the papers in Photoshop to make them the colors I needed. I made certain things purple and other things blue to tie in with the colors of the albums.

 

And decorating these albums was lots of fun! All the little woodland creatures are just so cute. I'm glad this trend has stayed popular!

Wordless Wednesday - The Beauty of Weeds

Creative Gift Wrap

With all the weddings and showers I've gone to this year, I ran out of cute bags and gift wrap and didn't realize it until Saturday morning when I needed to wrap a gift for another bridal shower! So, what's a crafty girl to do...get creative, of course :)

The only other bags I had on hand were Christmas themed and I didn't think that would probably fly. Then I remembered I still had this bag in the recycle pile from leftovers are Red Lobster (yum!).

I created a file in Photoshop to cover the RL logo. I just used sticker paper that I print my shipping labels on to (mostly) cover the logo. I put the bride and grooms names in the label to make it even more special :)

Then I created a cute tag that matches their wedding invitations pretty closely (and my guest book!). The kraft paper and tree design went with the paper bag perfectly!

So next time you're in a jam and need to wrap a gift, look around your house and get creative :)

One Custom Order - Three New Items (Part 2)

On Tuesday I showed you some fun new Engraved Wooden Spoons that I added to my shop as a result of a custom order. And here are the two other items I'll be adding to my shop soon...

This customer also had a special design she wanted used on a cutting board and recipe box. Both of these items have done really well in my shop, so I was happy to create a new design that could be added.

I love the simplicity of the design as well as the fact that it could be a wedding gift, house warming gift, anniversary gift, etc. The design really leaves it open for so many possibilities!

Hoping to have these both listed by the end of the week (where do the days go!!!!)

Wordless Wednesday - Hangin' Out with Mom

 

Even Harley likes my pink rug :)

One Custom Order - Three New Items

I'm sure you've all heard me talk about how much I love custom orders and the customers who request these orders. One of my recent customers requested some really great items I couldn't resist putting in my shop! In fact, there are 3 new items in my shop as a result of this order. I love my customers!

I've been wanting to add Engraved Wooden Spoons to my shop for quite some time, but hadn't found the time to order them and engrave some samples. So when the request came through, I knew it was the perfect time to stock up and get them listed.

I just love how these turned out! This set is for a wedding gift, but I thought Grandma's Kitchen or Mom's Kitchen would be great gifts as well.

My personalized cutting boards have done so well, that I thought more fun additions for the kitchen would be a great idea.

Stay tuned Thursday to see the other two new listings from this awesome customer!

Superhero Cuff Links

As promised, I got some more superhero cuff links listed in the shop this week! I'm terrible at staying on top of trends, but I've been getting a lot of requests for superhero cuff links, so I figured it was time to get more added. And somehow I forgot to take photos of Robin and Captain America, but here are the 4 I have so far.

Spider Man

Iron Man

Green Lantern

 

Incredible Hulk

And as always, I'm taking custom requests for any other superheros you'd like to see as well :)

Wordless Wednesday - Breathtaking

We had an amazing sunrise the other morning! Wish my camera would have picked up the true colors a little better...there was so much pink!

New Name Albums

I recently completed another set of Custom Name Albums. As always, I love the different themes and color combos my customers request. This most recent order had such a fun variety.

Brooklyn is in love with science and is especially in love with the solar system. Her book was all about the sun and planets. Each page had a different planet stick as well as the name of the planet on it.

 Raven is the wild child and has a love for anything zebra print. Her favorite color is purple, so of course her book is too.

Dante is the sports nut. He plays everything from soccer to baseball and everything in between. I used primary colors for this book to help tie in all the different sports.

 

Hayden's favorite colors are pink and lime green and she loves mermaids. Not really The Little Mermaid from the movie, just mermaids in general. Along with her pink and lime green, I added a teal blue which reminded me of the ocean and her cute mermaids.

I'm currently working on two fun woodland themed books...one for a boy and one for a girl. I can't wait to share those when they are finished as well.

Friday Features - Gone Camping

Jesse and I recently purchased a camper. Nothing fancy, just one that slides into the back of our truck, but we're still pretty excited about it. This way we can pull our boat and camp out when we're done! We're hoping to do just that this weekend...our first time on the river this year! And the best part, Harley (our pooch) gets to come along!

So today's finds are all fun camping features...enjoy :)

Clockwise from top left:

Happy Camper - Camping - Hiking - Aluminum Key Chain

Vintage Camping Enamelware Metal Mug - 10 oz (.30 L) - Cobalt Blue

 Camp Shirt - Keep Calm and Camp On

 1967 Coleman Model 220F Double-Mantle Camping Lantern

Do you enjoy camping? Or are you more of a hotel person?