The Notecards Are Here :)

Yay, I finally got it in gear and did a photo shoot with my notecards. I've had them done, it was just the taking of the photos of the photos (lol) that I was procrastinating on. What, me procrastinate? NEVER. Anyone who has read my blog and knows of my intention of posting every day with relevant content is aware that I'm lying. So anywho, I'm going to only post one or 2 into my shop every day and that way I don't put them all out there at once. I took photos of five of them today. Of course each card gets like 20 shots. There's the card in the envelope, the card out of the envelope, the envelope insert, the outside of the envelope (front and back) and the card itself - the outside, the inside, etc. etc. Of course I shouldn't complain. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and it wasn't to hot yet. So, without further adieu, here is the debut of my first notecard :

The FRONT of the card.

The FRONT side of the envelope, it's 5" x 5"

The BACKSIDE of the envelope with the flap partially opened. When it's closed it looks very pretty the way the printing is on the book page (the envelopes are made from vintage books).

Opening the envelope to reveal the card inside. Notice the decorative envelope liner. I made the envelopes and liners from entirely different books. I looked and looked for pictures that would coordinate with the card inside for the inside of the envelope.

Removing the card from the envelope. The cards are actual fine art photographs in 5x5 size. I have adhered them to cardstock with photo safe adhesive. I was selling these same photographs in my shop for $15 each so at $6 per card + one of a kind envelope, it's a steal.

The card out of the envelope. Notice the blue square on the inside for writing your own note.

And here we have the envelope all by itself.

The great thing is that you're getting a card that you can frame if you don't want to send it. I mean, it would be beautiful to send but if you chose to keep it, you could always use the envelope to send a letter in. You really are getting 2 unique products. Every envelope I make is going to be one of a kind.

A bit of a change of subject, but I noticed that I've been tagged by Peachtree in my comments as in 'tag, you're it'. I'm going to have to investigate this evening and see who I can tag. This will probably mean another post later on tonight :).

Adjusting to my New Freedom :)

It seems like it's been longer than a week since I turned in my notice at work. I think I've been kind of shell shocked this past week, disorganized, generally optimistic, always grateful that I can get up after the sun rises :). I need to get focused this week, get a good schedule going and make sure I'm heading in the right direction. I think keeping a good attitude about finances and success and running my own business is going to be the key to it all. Anything can be accomplished if I believe in myself and my ability to make it happen. I've done some new art, I had a particularly creative day yesterday. My bf had the awesome idea of using canvas as a backdrop for my photos and I love how they turned out. It's opened up a whole new avenue of self expression. He also showed me a super cool photoshop trick that I'm going to have to master this week. I sold another photograph, it's one of a little robin family living on the tree next to our deck. They built a nest right there where we can watch them every day. There's 3 little baby robins in the nest :

I love being able to go outside and sit on the deck and watch. That's definitely a perk of working from home. You get to actually see your home in the daytime lol. Our yard needs mowing sooo bad. Richard tried to mow it today but neither of our lawnmowers would work. I guess we're going to have to get them fixed. I'm thinking we should just pay somebody to do it every couple of weeks since both of us hate mowing but Richard seems to be against it.

I'm getting ready to add cards to my shop, I'm just looking around for a good printer ~ I want one that uses recycled materials and I want to do my cards in like a square size. I just like square photos for some reason. I've not really found who I'm going to use to print them yet. Some of my photos would lend themselves very well to cards though. I'm going to sell some as sets and some as single cards.

I also want to add a matting service to my shop. I think a lot of people would utilize that. So those are my shop plans for this month. I'm going to start doing local craft shows also. There's a farmer's market on Saturdays at Market Square in Knoxville. I'm looking into setting up a booth there. It's just getting a tent and tables and mattes, etc etc together. It's a bit overwhelming. I need to make lists, that always helps.

I'm really trying to participate more fully with the Etsy Bloggers Street Team. Their blog carnival is tonight and I've yet to participate in it. I always remember to do it after it's passed. Tonight I am though. My understanding is that I just need to post on their thread with a link to my blog entry to show that I posted. They encourage you to do it weekly I believe is how it works. I suppose it's to keep everybody blogging :).

Here's my new art and I want to give a special thank you to Peachtree for being so supportive. Here's a link to her shop (and one of her gorgeous creations).

My new photographs are:

It would be a good idea if I blogged a little bit everyday I think, that way I could feature other artists better and it would give more variety to my blog. I already mentioned that in a earlier post didn't I? I'll get it together here sometime soon lol.