Supply Fast

Well I don't even know if anyone reads my poor little blog any more.  But I need to keep a list of my "Use Your Stash" challenge started by Karen from Chocolate Dog Studio.  And I must participate in this challenge because my expenses are huge this year.

We won't even talk about the $400 crown I just had done today or John's root canal right before Christmas.  Let's list the fun things:

May - Gabriel's graduation means a trip to Pensacola, Florida and a graduation gift.  What do you buy for college graduation anyway?

November - Hannah's last extra year at college means she'll be there without Gabriel for the first time.  So we've been planning to spend Thanksgiving with her.  Yes, that's another trip to Pensacola.

December/January - Gabriel's talking about getting married which means a trip to PA, a dress for me and most likely Holly, a rehearsal dinner, a wedding gift.

I think I need to make about 2,000 sales this year. And go on a supply fast because I have a lot of things here at home.


Here is my continued list:

These cards were made entirely of things I already had here at home.  Destash challenge numbers 2 and 3:

 

Thinking of You Card

 

 Blank Inside Encouragement Card

And for my own challenge of listing supplies, numbers 5 and 6.

Silver Heart Beads

Round Silver Spacer Beads

 

Creations from craft stash - 3 down, 97 to go

Destash of craft supplies - 6 down 44 to go

Countdown

Gabriel left for his last semester of college before the new year. The last two weeks he has been busy taking an inter term class - a semester crammed into ten days. Hannah left yesterday and the busy semester begins on Tuesday.  This will be the last one for Gabriel and so the countdown has begun!  There are 108 days until graduation.  That is a mere 15 weeks.

I do not really need anything extra to keep me busy.  Between homeschool, church, Etsy and housework (yes, I sometimes get to that), I have enough going on.  But graduation and a trip to Pensacola is going to cost money.  So here is my attempt at earning a bit extra.  Karen from Chocolate Dog Studio has challenged me to use my craft stash to create 100 new items.  And I have challenged myself to list an additional 50 craft supply destash items.  Do I have that much stuff?  Probably.

Here is the beginning: 

Newly created item #1

 Valentine's Day Card

Here is the first few destash items:

 Radiant Orchid Purple Tags

(I have a lot of purple cardstock leftover from a custom order I did last summer.)

 Wild Berry Purple Tags

(I call this Barney Purple but that's probably not a good search term for brides searching for escort tags.  Wild Berry or Light Magenta is a better choice.  What would you call it?)

 Mixed Beads Grab Bag

(These belong to Hannah and the profits will go toward her mission trip to Romania.  But it counts as getting rid of clutter in my home.)

Mixed Beads Grab Bag in Browns, Golds, Reds, and Pinks

(Also Hannah's)

Creations from craft stash - 1 down, 99 to go

Destash of craft supplies - 4 down 46 to go

Gift Exchange!

This is the second year in a row that I have been able to participate in the CAST Team Secret Santa gift exchange.  I always have a lot of fun with it even though it's challenging to find just the right gift for someone I've never actually met. This year, my Secret Santa was Jane from Love a Little .  She sent me the cutest fabric covered bulletin board that matches perfectly with my new craft room.  It has adorable push pins and a mini "God is Good" banner.  I absolutely love it!  And it came all the way from England  - a country I would love to visit someday.

 The bunting is removable and I probably will put it somewhere else eventually as the board gets filled up.

 Fabric flower and button push pin

More button push pins

Craft Room Reveal

Two years ago today, I opened my Etsy shop at Ellie Marie Designs.  I had about four or five items on there.  It took less than three weeks for me to get my first sale.  The little online shop soon grew to 20, 50, 100 items.  Now, 2 years and 540 sales later, I have 175 items in my shop.  

When we moved into our new home, we decided to use part of our living room as my craft room.  It's right by the dining room and kitchen making it convenient for working with Holly on homeschool and keeping an eye on dinner. 

I originally wanted the trendy white that everyone on Pinterest seems to have.  But we decided that since my desk is oak and my dining room is oak that we would make it match.  John did all the work - measuring, buying, building. (Thanks Sweetheart!  I love it!!)

I don't have any before pictures to show.  Before, everything was....everywhere.  Now I have plenty of counter space to work on and plenty of storage for all my supplies.  (We're not quite done yet.  There's a few finishing touches.  John is going to hang up a bulletin board for me and I want to add some pictures on the wall.)

I love my shelves. The cute bottles and storage boxes are easy to reach and just look pretty.

 
The teapot was a wedding gift some 26 years ago.  I can't decide if I want to sell it in my vintage shop, Ellie Marie Vintage or just keep it for decoration.  

I didn't have a color theme in mind - other than blue of course!  But I found these peacock boxes on sale at Michael's and a theme was born.

And here is my desk.  I spend a lot of time here working on photos and writing up item descriptions.  Sometimes that takes as long as creating the item itself!
 

I've enjoyed making things for Ellie Marie Designs.  All my profits have gone towards my children's education.  This week, in honor of my two year anniversary, I'm offering 20% off everything in my shop.  All you have to do is use this coupon code when checking out - 2YEARS

Personalized Wedding Favor Tags

Here are personalized wedding favor tags I've been working on for a friend's wedding.  Trying to decide if I want to list them in my shop Ellie Marie Designs

Wedding Table Numbers

A few months ago, I added wedding table numbers to my Etsy shop.  They have been fun to make and a pretty big hit actually. So far I've sold 10 sets with the dictionary pages.  One of those was for 40 table numbers! 

 I use "random" vintage dictionary pages on the background.  It's proving to be a bit more difficult than I first thought.  I choose a page by random but then I scan the words to make sure they are "wedding appropriate".  I figured that words like "affair", "divorce" and "argument" should probably be avoided.

 Other sad words like "barren", "morbid" or "tragedy" probably wouldn't be so nice.  And then there are things that I personally wouldn't want to see as I sit down at a wedding reception such as "earthworm" "diseased" or "fungus".

Other than avoiding certain words - which usually come in the middle of some beautiful words - I've had fun making these table number tags.  I'm planning on expanding the dictionary tags to other types of books as well.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

 Strawberry Pretzel Salad

• 2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
•  1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored Jell-O®
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F.
2. Stir together crushed pretzels, melted butter and 3 tablespoons sugar; mix well and press mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minute. Set aside to cool.
4. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture onto cooled crust.
5. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in still frozen strawberries and break up with a fork as you stir. Chill until slightly thickened. Poor over cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until set.