My Etsy wishlist

Like it or not, Christmas is around the corner!  I admit that I’m just trying to make it to 5pm December 4th before I do anything remotely Christmas related.  At 5pm on December 4th I’ll have finished a weekend at The Met.  After that, I’ll be able to breathe.  Then I’ll have time to finish my own shopping, decorating, wrapping and all the things I love about Christmas.
I’m trying very hard to shop local and/handmade if possible this year, more so than in the past.  Except for some little kids I know, I will be choosing to purchase local/handmade items, or making things myself whenever possible. I’ve already purchased a few gifts on Etsy and have a few items in mind for the rest of the people I’m shopping for. 
I was taking a peek through my favourites on Etsy; I’m still amazed every day about the talent of the artisans.  Here are a few things on my Etsy wishlist:

A TwillyPop Bianca necklace. Or anything TwillyPop.  I have been eyeing so many things from her shop for a long time.
Photo credit: twillypop










A photo calendar.  I can’t decide between Paris or New York as they are two of my favourite cities.  EyePoetry Photography’s work is just absolutely gorgeous, so either would be amazing to hang on the wall.
Photo credit: EyePoetryPhotgraphy







Isn’t this leather Dalia brooch gorgeous!  I’m very much intro brooches now and this one from Leatherblossoms is just beautiful!
Photo credit- Leatherblossoms











I love this yarn bowl from LennyMud.  I actually have a piece from the artist Lorrie, who very generously gifted a pink elephant to me after we both participated in a Thursday Sweet Treat challenge.  I have never forgotten her kindness and proudly display my pink elephant on my shelf in my office.  You can read the story of the Pink Elephant here.  Lorrie’s work is incredibly awesome and her Etsy store indicates she’s busy working day and night to keep her popular items in stock.  Unfortunately her knitting bowl has sold, but I will continue to keep my eye out for after the holidays and hopefully a few more will be available.
Photocredit: LennyMud




And finally, this picture from PibbleSlobberStudio.  I don’t know where I’d put it, but every time I see it, I can’t help but smile and laugh.  This may go in my office for some stress relief.

Photocredit: PibbleSlobberStudio



















I hope that more people will find Etsy, or other avenues of shopping handmade and/or local.  It may not be possible for everything, and I have many things in my possession that are not handmade.  But when I have the choice, I will choose to purchase handmade or local.

Besides, it’s pretty exciting to shop online comfy and cozy with some coffee and look forward to a package in the mail amidst all the bills ;)



Happy Holiday shopping!
Stephanie

Technorati Tags: Etsy,Christmas Shopping,twillypop,EyePoetryPhotography,Leatherblossoms,Lenny Mud,PibbleSlobberStudio

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Time to walk the walk

I have always said that I want this blog to be about more than just A Paper Buffet and my store.  I haven’t been doing that.  The past few weeks, I’ve been trying to blog more, but I haven’t kept my word about content.  The  majority of my posts have been a breakdown of my cards; the same pictures found in the listing, but I explain what colours I used. 

I’m not that boring in real life, I promise.

So, I’m committing, once again, to change up the content of this blog and make sure it’s about other things that just cards.  With the holidays coming, I have lots of ideas for homemade gifts, holiday decorating and some non-holiday related things.  I’ve been practicing some new things in photography so I can share that with you as well.  I will still feature some cards, but I don’t want to make it my entire focus.

I hope you’ll join me, or come back if you’ve left because of my boring content {I don’t blame you}.

 

And if you’ve stuck through it all, boring posts and me blabbing endlessly about different shades of cardstock- thank you!

 

Until next time,

 

Stephanie

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Vintage card- part 4

Here’s another card made with some vintage Authentique paper.  I used the striped paper as the background and kept the rest of the card quite simple.

 

I used Old Olive as the card base and added a cherry cobbler mat.  I cut a poinsettia with my Slice machine from cherry cobbler paper; the poinsettia is cut in two layers and I really like the effect.  I used a large rhinestone in the centre of the poinsettia to add a touch of sparkle.

 

I stamped the Christmas tree in old olive ink; this tree is one of my favourite Christmas images and is from the Season of Joy set.  I cut out the Very Vanilla paper with my nestibilities, but before I removed it from the die, I sponged some Crumb Cake ink around the inside.  I’ve often seen this technique and was quite envious.  I’ve only recently gotten better at it, the trick is not to have too much ink on your sponge.

 

I used a scallop punch for the bottom edge of the DP, and placed a rhinestone in a pattern on the bottom. Finally, I added my absolutely favourite ribbon…which technically isn’t ribbon at all- it’s called seam binding in Cherry cobbler.

The inside of the card used come more Authentique paper (I seriously can’t get enough of it!), more scalloped border punch and distressed all of the edges.

 

I’m also really pleased how this card photographed. Some cards are very easy to photograph and some are…well an absolute nightmare.  I am getting better, but sometimes it’s still a struggle.

 

 

 

 

Happy Tuesday!

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Lest We Forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

 

Never again.

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Vintage Christmas- part 3

This might be one of my favourite cards so far; and it came about by accident!  I had cut the background paper, punched the red edge and attached the red ribbon and then…hit the creative wall.  The card I had planned out, just wasn’t working anymore.  I tried a number of different images, sentiments, but nothing was working.  I put the card away for a night and decided to come back to it later.

I looked over my craft table and saw a scrap of the Authentique Christmas paper tucked under my paper cutter.  This little group of birds was staring back at me…eureka!  It was perfect! The answer to saving the card wasn’t a stamp at all…it was patterned paper!

I cut out the birds with my oval nestibilities, and added a cherry cobbler mat oval and it became the focus point of the front of the card. 

The inside of the card used coordinated paper, with a lace punched old olive paper. 

This card is a bit vintage, and for some reason I feel the bird image makes it a bit country/shabby chic.  For a card that didn’t come together as I had envisioned, I’m thrilled with how it turned out.  Some times you just have to let the creative process completely take over.

 

  I’ve added this card to the A Paper Buffet Etsy shop .  I’ll have more cards to share with you from this paper collection soon!

 

Happy Thursday!

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Christmas cards,vintage Christmas cards,Christmas greeting cards,A Paper Buffet,Christmas card,Authentique paper

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Vintage Christmas- part 2

Here’s another card with no stamping on the outside.  Another vintage Christmas cards using Authentique Christmas “Wonder” paper.  I just love this snowman!

I added a different stitch (and did it by hand…I must be crazy!) to the border to add some texture.  I used the cherry cobbler for the base, with a black mat and black stitching.

There’s not much more I can say about this card- I think it speaks for itself.  The collage paper is absolutely gorgeous, I can’t wait to show you more from this line.

I added more to the inside of the card again, using more patterned paper and distressing all of the edges.

  I’ve listed this card in the A Paper Buffet Etsy shop and I have some more vintage themed cards to show you, so stay tuned!

Happy Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Vintage Christmas Cards,Authentique paper,A Paper Buffet,Christmas cards,handmade Christmas cards,Etsy

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Vintage Christmas; part 1

Surprisingly, there’s no stamping on the outside of these cards.  I recently bought some gorgeous Christmas paper (Wonder by Authentique) and I just couldn’t bare to cover it up with stamped images. 

This paper has a very vintage theme, which isn’t something I normally work with, but I couldn’t resist this paper.  I added hand stitching to the border of the card to add some interest since I was using the paper as the main image.  I was most happy about using black and red, what an impact it has!

 

I just love this old vintage Santa image, and the postmark just adds to it.  I decided to dress up the inside of the card since the outside didn’t have anything extra

 

I added some more of the Authentique paper, and a border of green cardstock, punched with a lace punch.

 

 

 

The card base is cherry cobbler and I used some black paper for the matting.  The inside panel is more black with a

very vanilla panel. 

 

I’ve listed this in the A Paper Buffet Etsy shop  and I’ll be back tomorrow with another vintage Christmas card.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Technorati Tags: Christmas cards,vintage Christmas Cards,Authentique paper,handmade cards,A Paper Buffet

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Coffee mug gift boxes

  Are you ready for some cuteness?  I am so happy to be finally sharing these with you.  I’ve made some cute new gift boxes that are shaped like coffee mugs! 
Just in time for the holidays and perfect for teacher’s gifts, the office gift-exchange or that hard-to-buy for person on your Christmas list.

I’ve been working over the past few weeks trying to figure out how to ship these, in a manner that won’t cost you your first born child.  Shipping is very expensive here in Canada; funny enough, it’s cheaper for me to ship something to the U.S. than it is to ship within Canada!

I’ve decided, due to the cost of shipping, to sell these paper mugs in sets of two.   You can gift these as a set, or individually. 

Aren’t they adorable!  Each mug is 3” high and has a diameter of almost 2.75”.  You can fit a package of hot chocolate and some marshmallows, or some little cookies inside.

 

   These will be perfect filled with little goodies; I’d wrap some clear or Christmas cellophane around the whole mug and tie it with some ribbon.  It’d be so sweet!

 

I’ve made these mugs in three colours, and they’re available in the A Paper Buffet Etsy shop 

 

 

 

You’ve already seen the green set, so here is the blue:

 

and red:

I can’t decide which one I like the most- they are so cute!

 

What would you put inside your paper coffee mug gift boxes?  Chime in below!

 

Happy Monday!

 

Technorati Tags: coffee mug gift box,Christmas gift box,Christmas,paper gift box,paper coffee mug,Etsy,A Paper Buffet,coffee theme

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Thank you card

I bought some mini shipping tags months ago, and completely forgot about them.  I needed to make a thank you card, and thought the mini tag would be the perfect way to stamp the sentiment.  I used some of that great Simple Stories Elementary paper that I used for these birthday cards and a simple layout.  I just love this paper, and the slightly distressed look;  I distressed the tag using some SU Crumb Cake ink to compliment the DP.

 

 

 

The card base is SU Very Vanilla, and I layered Cherry Cobbler paper for the matting.  I love the deep colour of the Cherry Cobbler paper.  I added some Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon to the tag to tie it all together.  I made the card 5” square- I needed the card for work and 10 people had to sign it, so I wanted to make sure there was enough room.

 

 

Happy Thursday!

Technorati Tags: Thank you cards,Simple Stories paper,Stampin Up,A Paper Buffet

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Knit poppy and a penguin sweater

In Canada, November marks Remembrance day, celebrated on November 11th.  We pay tribute to our military personnel, past and present.  We wear poppies on our lapels as a sign of remembrance.  The poppies are pinned on using a small straight pin, and  I often lose many poppies each season. I hate the thought of losing a poppy and having it lay on the ground somewhere.  I think I lose them, in part, because I drive so much and the seat belt often moves the poppy that I wear on my left side.  I was browsing Ravelry and found a pattern for a knit poppy.   I thought this was a great way for me to have a poppy that I wouldn’t lose. The pattern was written by Laura Chau, and she also has it posted on her blog here .  The poppy was my knit flower, and it knit up quite quickly.  I didn’t have any black yarn, so I used some left over dark grey yarn.  I added a few rows to make the poppy larger; the grey yarn was double the thickness of the red yarn, and I wanted to keep the flower proportional to the size of the centre.  I added the following rows:

                           Round 10: Knit
                           Round 11: kfb k2 repeat to end 56 stitches
                           Round 12: Knit
                           Round 13: Knit
                           Round 14: purl
                           Round 15: bind of pwise

I’m happy with how my very first flower came out.  The first few rows are the trickiest; the needles (2.75mm) are very small and I felt like I kept getting tangled in the yarn and the needles.

 

 

Poppies are received when you make a donation to the Royal Canadian Legion Poppy fund.  I’ll continue to make a donation when I see the Legion members with their poppy boxes, while wearing my knit poppy.

 

 

And now for  a penguin sweater update- it is complete!  I finished knitting and then added the elastic thread on the collar and on the bottom edge as recommended.  I don’t have a stuffed penguin, so I modeled the sweater on my Harrod’s bear.  He looks pretty cute!

The penguin sweater is on it’s way to Australia. It might not help this round of penguins (the request went viral and the wildlife centre received an abundance of sweaters), but perhaps some other little animals can put it to good use.

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Technorati Tags: knit poppy,poppy,Remembrance Day,Ravelry,penguin Sweater,knitting

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