A Video Showing My Doodle Starter Book

Today I wanted to show that even though I haven't been posting a lot lately I've still been doodling (in stages).  So, rather than show pictures of every page I decided to do something a little different.... I showed you one of my doodle books in a video!  Ever learning as I go....it was the first time video with this particular camera so I wasn't sure how the sound would come out.  It was my first time with the tripod and it was casting a shadow and the strap fell down into view without me knowing until I was finished!(ARGH!).... AND, I wasn't zoomed in enough to really see any of the actual drawings that well but, I did A LOT of talking!

I know, I am clearly "copying" other people's work... but not maliciously, I hope.  I really am just doing it because I LOVE what I see and I want to see if I can draw it... with a pen.  I  won't be selling any of it, it is my way of practicing and ending up with a "happy book" to enjoy myself.

I mentioned borders about two dozen times but never explained that I am always looking for a way to fill white space so when I see a zentangle, or a cake design, or whatever that has a design in it that I think I might be able to use later inside something I am doing I will pull that little piece out and doodle it.  Cake decorators are MASTERS at lacy borders!

Here are some of the pictures I talked about in the video, which is at the bottom.

The video: ... get ready, I sound some kinda country on it! ...it will seem a little choppy because I had to cut 7 minutes out of it to get it saved to YouTube.

It Was a Great Weekend....

Home AT LAST!!!... and with a whole day of "catch - up - sleeping"!  YES!!!

In case you haven't read past posts, I just did a two day show at the Georgia Apple Festival.  The actual deadline for the show was March 31st but I only found out and tried to get in three weeks ago... and to my shock I actually got in, thanks to some drop outs.

First I'll just say, it costs WAY more than I would have ever paid in the past (I FINALLY made back the cost Sunday afternoon!) but I figured that since I got in it must be God so I bit the bullet and stayed up working 24/7 for the last three weeks trying to make product for the thing! 

I am pretty certain that I had THE BEST location in the event...under the "barn".  Even though the weather was PERFECT, it got a bit warm.... but never inside the barn, it was cool and a great retreat for folks seeking shade so we were never lacking plenty of folks.

Set up was a breeze, we had all day Friday, and I was able to drive right up to my space and unload!!!  DREAM!!!

OK, maybe there was a better location, on the other side of the "barn" where they were able to just back their trailers up to their spots and leave them!!!

Here is a view of where the barn was from the rest of the festival.

This is the side I was on, see, no room for a car/trailer... but TONS AND TONS of space behind the 12x12 I paid for! ... that's where all the boxes and extra "stuff" went (you never have that a shows, it usually has to go under the tables)

 Here are just a few of the booths away from the barn.

Now, to my little space .... I was so excited to go down into my garage and find stuff I had made for past craft shows .... everything on this table came from back then.  I was also thrilled that I was able to use my black/white theme again... I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE!

That's my friend Nancy in the back behind the table.  THANK you Jesus! that I have a friend willing to come help, I couldn't have done it without her. THANK YOU NANCY!)  

I actually had lots of help... Another friend, Patty, lives in Ellijay (where it was...about an hour away from home), loaned me three tables, brought some of my product from Atlanta to Ellijay, let us spend the night, and fed us!!!  It was actually Patty's idea to try selling at the festival. HECK!  Patty was the even inspiration for one of the designs I sold!  ...

 THANK YOU PATTY!!! 

And Karen loaned me three of her tables.  THANKS KAREN!  I so appreciate my good friends.

And, on the left side are the signs that took all of my past three weeks to make! (actually, there are more, I just ran out of space so I had fill in gaps as things sold.

I desperately needed something to hang behind everything so you couldn't see the mess, but...I ran out of time, energy, and "care" to act on ideas for it.

I took this picture from the back of the booth to show the TONS of people that were at the booth next to us....unfortunately it doesn't show it that well.... but trust me there were TONS of people ALL DAY, BOTH DAYS!  They sold out of most everything they were selling!  It is a company called Perky Moose....and they sell THE BEST instant teas and cappuccinos ... just add water.  They have been at the festival for years so folks come in search of them to buy more.  Lets just say that it was SO GOOD that this morning as soon as I woke up I came upstairs and place a large wholesale order from them to put in gift baskets, sell separately and give away....soooooo good.... Nancy and I were the official tasters for each new sample pot that they made since their "tasters" weren't like "new users"... Shawn (the guy on the left of the picture) was no dummy, he had me hooked on the first taste!

Finally, here are a few close ups of some of my signs:

9x12 Price Inc S/H within USA.

Colors

Blue $15.00 USD Pink $15.00 USD

4x4 - $20 for 3 letters and s/h in US

What three letters? with color

9x12 -$35 (Price Incl s/h in USA)

colors

Pink Blue Yellow Mint Green Other

Other Color

 There are lots more but I'll show them later, I might not have anything to say later and I'll add them then.

I love that I sold this one to a male Christian counselor for his office.

That was one fun thing, when you have Christian signs up it opens people up to talk!  I was able to pray for one lady and heard lots of stories from lots of folks.... from spouses dying suddenly to aunts being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  

I loved seeing teenagers and small kids wanting scripture pictures... and even seeing almost every man that walked by laugh at one or more of the sarcastic things I had.  Actually everyone laughed but I loved making the men laugh....  THOSE sold quickly, but thankfully I had more to take their place.

I gave one of the clothes pin frames (not this one)

to a lady that volunteers at a pro-life clinic so that she could hang pictures of newborn babies that lived because the mother was brave enough to go through to delivery.  The one she got had the first part of 

Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart....



So, all in all, while I didn't make any money this weekend, it was a good weekend.  I had a great time because I was able to get people to laugh....without actually saying a word.

Proverbs 17:22
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.


Yes, I think I WILL do it again next year, even if I do just break even, it's worth it.  I'll just be smarter with what I try to sell next time.

Header Change

WAIT!  You're in the right place!  Did you notice the header change?  I have decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and change to the "Not Just Any Bee" because I am trying to build a shop and I need everything to start looking/feeling the same.

The MAJOR problem with this change, and the reason it has taken me so long to go with it is that I can't change the url!!!  BA HUMBUG!!!  I REALLY REALLY need to do that!   I am breaking every design rule in the book by not having the url match the header.  I AM SO SORRY!!!  If there weren't so many folks already linked to this site I would create another blog and start from scratch but now that Pinterest has so many links here I don't think that would be smart.

I do actually have a "blog" using that url but I'm going to make it my "store" (this will be my blog, that will be my "store") .... it is now on all my new business cards so I have to take advantage of that.  I had to do something quick so I'm not pointing you guys there yet because all that is there are the fonts that are available here.  As soon as I can get past this big show this weekend I am going to be adding tons of "stuff", and I want you guys to see that when it is more ready.  

I am actually trying to trick Blogger into thinking it's a "store" so I'm learning as I go... using tables and PayPal.  Pray that it works!  I'm making this up as I go!

Talk to you sometime next week when I'm sleeping and "playing" again!

Good Gifts for Teachers... I hope :-)

This week I'm trying to come up with some inexpensive teacher gifts to sell next weekend.  I did this as a canvas.

I liked the way it (the word "difference") came out so I decided to create a font like it... though now that I see the two together I see I did a different "e" and I like the one above better so I need to change that!

Today, with my new font, I did another good canvas for teachers... good to hang in their classroom. I think.

Truth be told I actually did it in rust, olive and black but the scan colors were awful so I changed the hue with my software and I like these colors much more! Hummmmm.... a card maybe?

Well heck, here is the progression:

Catching Up!

Oh Gosh!  I just realized that it has been over two weeks since my last post!  BAD BLOGGER!!!   But, but, I have such good excuses!  I just got accepted into a large Festival on the 20-21 of October and I have to get ready!  Right now, if I sold everything I have to sell I wouldn't make the costs back :-(

I've done some new painting and such, I just haven't posted them here.  I even made myself a 8.5" x 5.5" Doodle Starter booklet so that I can now just write the sayings I like on Pinterest into framed areas, .... and they will actually be part of something, not just a random sheet of paper.  It is a good way to practice letters and I can doodle on it too.  The plan is to just leave it here by my PC and doodle into it when the mood strikes.  Here is a page...  

I'm bummed out though, there is a blue grid behind all the pictures that you can't see :-( ... I had to get a new printer/scanner and I don't know how to control the scanner!  It is MUCH clearer than the old one, but where's the background??? :-(

One thing about the picture...see the three girls in the middle?  that was my "need to remember this look" version of THIS on pinterest done by Susan Faye.  I LOVE HER STYLE!  Sooo simple, but CUTE!

OK, so early this morning I saw something on pinterest that I wanted to repeat...if you link to it you will see it...it's just the side (3D part) of the letter "g".  I spent the next half hour figuring out a "g" that came close, then went about making the same "look".  Once I figured it out I decided to make a whole font set from it ... in case I actually get orders for it at the festival:

I know I've seen  one "out there" that exist already but I didn't feel like searching for it so I made it myself, and  its mine!

Here is what I did really quickly so I could have SOMETHING to blog about! (because I had forgotten about the booklet I made)

I wish I could show you what I made from it this morning.  I cut my initials out of shiny black vinyl on my vinyl cutter then stuck them down on a flat black board. ... very pretty!  I think anyway :-)  Thing is, black on black doesn't scan so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I did the same black on black with the phone booth from Dr. Who because I thought it might make a good  guy gift ??? .... always needing a good guy gift.

Well, speaking of it, I need to get back to work!  I'll take pictures of things I end up making.  Like I just decided to make some beer bottles filled with candy, good for the person that has everything... (I did these for Valentines day last year)

and I'm going to embroider toilet paper :-)