Heart Me Challenge: 100 Hearts by Jan 1!

Edit: We may not make it to 100 hearts by midnight, but this promotion has been a blast! I've fiddled with the dimensions of your free gift for participating and I feel that they are ready to go. I'll be mailing them out to you tomorrow! Love, x, o, melissa

Friends, my new Etsy shop BlueCakeAndButtercup is a subdivision of my little company Crab Apple Designs.

BlueCakeAndButtercup is dedicated to paper goodies, and I'm thrilled to see that 40 Etsians have "hearted" my shop since I opened it up last month!

So here's the challenge: If we can get it up to 100 hearts by midnight, Jan. 1, I will have a gift for you!!!

Just go to my shop (look around of course, hee hee), and click on "add seller to favorites." Come back here and post a comment with your email address. Just for posting,I will send you a free digital/printable Valentine Owl card and envelope. If we make the goal of 100 hearts, I will send you a code for a 20% off coupon for my shop.

So let's get hearting.

A Free Gift for You!

I am developing a series of download-able stationery sets. Hooray! Currently, the theme is owls but I have a ton of ideas for other themes.

The download set will include 4 different designs of cards and stationery sheets, a sheet of stickers, and an envelope design. Once these designs are downloaded, you can print them out to use or to give as a gift set.

The actual downloads will be in the form of high-quality pdf files. Below they are jpeg files since Blogger won't let me upload pdfs for some reason. Still working on that kink.

Right now, here is what is available for download in the shop: stationery, doodles, and color-your-own goodies, which are blackline drawings that require no color ink and are begging to be painted or colored with crayons, glitter, pastels - endless possibilities!

Here are a few of the "Rainbow" printables for you, my precious reader. If you do download and print them, I would love to know if you find that the colors are true, margins are appropriate, etc. I'll be testing them myself once I'm reunited with my printer.

Here they are:

Hello, World.

It's been weeks since my last post and so many exciting things have happened:

1) BlueCakeAndButtercup.etsy.com is doing very well, thank you etsy shoppers everywhere!

2) My first show was a success and I am very thankful to Sweetwolf and the folks at UBC Austin for the opportunity. I'm looking forward to lots more in 2009.

3) Working at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar in Austin, Texas is fun for so many reasons. Although I don't work there as a vendor (but rather as production staff) it is a wonderful place to network and just meet great people. This year, the owner of Crystal Works in Austin noticed me making cards during a slow period at the "back desk" and bought them right on the spot. She reports that her customers are enjoying and buying my cards, which is totally thrilling.

Owls are getting lots of attention in the way of custom orders and retail interests. So that's what I'm doing in all my spare time: paper owls, stuffed owls, big owls, small owls, sleepy owls.....

xo melissa

Lovin on the Kit Cat Clock

I've always loved the Kit Cat Clock. What's not to love? But how do you choose one? Of course, you could be like this cool lady and have them all. Check out KitCatKing for restored vintage Kit Cat Clocks. That is where the image below came from. Also, the Official Kit Cat Website is freakin great.

My first show!

If you're in the area, come downtown off the drag and visit me at my first show at the University Baptist Church at 22nd and Guadalupe! You can also find SweetWolf and StaceyWorld there as well. Hooray!

Holiday Cards Set 1 are Ready!

This card design is simple: 2 hand-carved stamps and 2 colors of pigment ink. The message inside says, "Peace on Earth." If you want to see more pictures, they are in the Blue Cake and Buttercup shop.