Vellum is tricky, because glue will show through it. There are a couple of different strategies for getting around this.

To watercolor with the spray stains, I made sure I shook the bottles until there was no mica sludge left at the bottom. Then I unscrewed the spray mechanism and touched the stem where I wanted the color. I used brushes to push the paint where I wanted it. The first layer was very blotchy, so I followed up with a second layer.

Mother’s Day cards are keeping me busy, but here are some recent photos.

If you’re not sure how to place flowers, there are two principles that can guide you. The first one is to place flowers around the focal point of the card. The second one is to place decorations in a diagonal. If you combine the two principles, you cluster decorations around the sentiment and let them trail off into opposite corners.

Said and done, these codes are now live:

• TWO20: Buy 2 cards, get 20% off

• THREE30: Buy 3 cards, get 30% off

• FOUR40: Buy 4 cards, get 40% off

These codes are very generous. I’ll probably adjust them in a month or two.

The theme for the Instagram hop this Sunday was Butterfly or Bee and Symmetry. I took the chance to use the recent Flowering tree pop-up die set from Spellbinders. It creates a fantastic four-tiered card that folds flat into a regular A2 format. It’s a real stunner and not too hard to pull off.

The weather is finally getting warmer here in the Bay 😎 Area. I celebrated by going for a swim in the community pool. It’s been such a cold and wet winter, we’re all longing for sunny days. 🏝️

This is where things went wrong. Out of sheer habit, I doubled up the die cuts. That meant that I couldn’t create an eclipse card. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Find out how I recovered from my mistake.

I’ve opened the shop here on ValleyOakPaper.com. Currently there are three boxes for sale. This is a bit of a soft launch, because I’m still setting things up. But it’s important to get stuff out there well in advance of the holiday season.

I started by laying out the dies on inexpensive watercolor paper and marking out how much space each of them would need. Then I colored the marked areas with Distress Crayons.

There are things I can spend money on that help my shop. Like a remote control for my phone that will make it easier to take video and photos. There’s still so much to learn and improve on the photography front. Like taking good photos and videos of cards with a lot of glitter and sparkle.

At this point I really wanted to add dimension to the card. But it was supposed to be a single layer card. So instead of adding dimension, I added texture.

The next reveal is on Sunday. The theme is “Single layer spring.” It was a bit of a challenge for me because I like my layers.

Tips for coloring flowers: Look for commonalities in the images. If you paint what’s typical, people will recognize the flower and your coloring will seem realistic to them.

The main focus of these cards are flowers from Pinkfresh Studio’s Chrysanthemum collection. I applied the washi tape to tan cardstock to tone down the vibrant colors.

Usually I post a crafty tutorial on Tuesday or Wednesday. But business is top of mind for several reasons. So I’ll blog while the iron is hot, so to speak.

Most succesful Etsy shops have a specific niche that they cultivate. It can be a product category such as jewelry or clothing. Some specialize in a material or manufacturing process, like resin. Still others sell a wide range of products but they cultivate a specific audience such as art deco lovers or gamers.

It’s not hard to find stamps and dies that say Blessings or Blessed. Not so for Pagan holidays. That’s why I have lots of alphabet dies. The drawback is that I have to cut out each letter individually, and some of them twice.

I know this headline is going to get some people’s hackles up, but hear me out. In my situation doing things for exposure actually makes sense. My fledgling business needs all the exposure it can get. Everything is a marketing opportunity for me right now.

It’s almost embarrassing to write a tutorial for the red, blue and white earrings in my Etsy store. They’re so easy to make.