We now return to our regularly scheduled program…with a new look.

There’s  method to my madness. I promise.

Things have been quite busy here at A Paper Buffet.  Lets have a little recap, shall we?

Last weekend I got to visit some bloggy friends, Kendra and Kelly, the creators behind The Character Cafe.  I’m sure, as with all of you when you get together with your crafty friends…it’s more gabbing than gluing!  We had a great time, lots of giggles and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.  I think we’re going to do a class at our LSS since we’ll likely get more done!

For the past few weeks I’d been gearing up for my first Craft Show; it was held at a local public school this past Saturday.  It was basically a bust.  However, I did  manage to make my table fee back, met some wonderful customers and made a few network connections, so overall, I’m happy.

Notice anything different around here?  The blog background is just a seasonal one and it’ll likely change in the future…but look up. Look wayyyy up.

A Paper Buffet has a new logo!

The new look is part of a bigger plan, and I’ll be making a few big announcements in the weeks to come, so please stay tuned.

I’ve been blessed with wonderful friends who help and encourage me, no matter now many times I pester them with questions, so I’d just like to say a big official THANK YOU!!

I’ve had quite a few Etsy sales in the past few days, so a big THANK YOU to my Etsy customers, I’m nearly at my business goal of 100 sales by year end.

Currently I’m working on filling some custom orders, and trying to figure out my new accounting software before year end!

I’ll be back this week with some projects to share; see you soon!

Happy Sunday!

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A Birthday card inspired by…towels?

One of my best friends celebrated a significant birthday this weekend, and we’re celebrating by going to a concert on Tuesday night.  We’ll be seeing Dave Matthews and his band play at the Molson Amphitheatre; right now there’s a 70% of rain, but only 1mm, so fingers crossed we don’t get drenched!

She also just bought her first condo, so as part of her birthday/housewarming gift I bought her some towels in her favourite colours and used that as my base for her card.

I followed the pattern on the paper and pierced it according to the design.  This is the first time I’ve done that and I’m happy with the way it turned out.  I used the sketch from the 2sketches4you site; I missed the midnight deadline, but decided to play anyways.

 

The card base is chocolate chip, I used some Kraft paper for the layering, my favourite MS border punch and my trusty Nesties labels.  Stamp and sentiment are both SU birthday whimsy; I stamped an extra present and added some dimensionals- you can see it a bit in this picture.  I used SU Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon and added some bling…I thought at first I went a little overboard, but you can never have too much icing!

I still have to decorate the inside of the card, wrap up an Etsy order and today I received a RUSH custom order for a wonderful customer in Phoenix, AZ.  I’ll be making 2 8X8 bridal shower cards, and I’m really excited about them.  I’ll be sure to post when I’m done, they need to be in AZ by next Wed, so my catch up on TwilightTuesday.com challenges needs to be sidelined again:(  Poor Twilight. ;)

Happy Sunday!

Ciao for now,

 

Technorati Tags: Birthday cards,Custom order,Etsy,twilighttuesday.com

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Candy and Lemonade

Two weeks ago I was blessed by my bloggy friends Dani and Margie with my first blog award!

Here’s what it means:

The rules of the award (To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award) Comment on this blog. Save the award logo to your own computer and use it in your own blog.- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.- Link to your nominees within your blog post. Comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve
received the award.- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

I first want to apologize to both of them for taking so long to put this up, but with the office renovation done taking over my life, now I have the time to fully say:

“THANK YOU DANI AND MARGIE!”

Now for my nominees…

1. Maureen of My Purhple Purse: Maureen shares her wonderful photographs of her friends and family, has introduced me to new music and tells me when to record great theatre on PBS.  Check out her blog now so you can sing along to a song I KNOW you all remember.

2. Natasha at Thursday Sweet Treat: Natasha has created a place to inspire the artist in everyone.  Each Friday she provides a theme and we have 1 week to do anything we want, without fear of judgement and she showcases every entry.  Although I’ve missed the past 5 weeks, I can’t wait to get back into this again.  I’m amazed and inspired by the talent every week and in awe of the wonderful work and effort Natasha puts into this compilation and celebration of art.

3.  Sara at Arts Afire: Sara is a very! talented artist with two! Etsy stores! Her blog is wonderful to read, and I love seeing all her new creations!

4. Joyce at Happy Cloud Moments: Joyce takes THE most incredible photographs, both of her gorgeous jewelry and of events in her life.

5. I’m going to go out on a limb for my next nominee:  TwilightTuesday.  I’m grateful for this site and forum because I have met so many wonderful people here, including Dani and Margie, among others.  I think this entire site practices great attitude and has used a pop culture book to launch discussions, laughter, prayers, tears, and created many friendships.

Thank you to Dani and Margie of course, but also to Maureen, Natasha, Sara, Joyce and all the creators of TwilightTuesday.com.  Please go check out there blogs and see what I’m raving about!

Also, don’t forget to enter my blog candy contest, found HERE.

Thank you to all that have entered, I’m dying to leave comments, but I don’t want to screw up the numbers, so I will comment after the contest is closed :)

Happy Monday!

Ciao for now,

Technorati Tags: blog award,lemonade stand,My Purhple Purse,Thursday Sweet Treat,Arts Afire,Happy Cloud Moments,twilighttuesday.com,blog candy

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Happy Monday!

I was a bit absent online this weekend, which makes me laugh since I finally! got my computer back and *fingers crossed* it seems to be ok. 

I received my new SU! order on Thursday and was looking forward to playing and creating some new cards, but then Friday night I decided to go car shopping and start test driving, and well, it stressed me out.  I love cars, but the two that I’m comparing are so even on paper, it’s coming down to price and my liking of the vehicle, which is making it hard to pick.  I’m going for test drives round two this week, so maybe one will come ahead of the other after that.

I spent Saturday afternoon with my friend D, we went for Thai food and ran some errands, it was a good visit and we had such a laugh when I told her one of the test drives wasn’t allowed to include left hand turns (apparently it’s policy for the first test drive, they need to follow a specific route).   She thought it was hilarious that a dealership would actually think a customer would purchase a car without making a left hand turn.  It is really funny!

Now that we’re all caught up, I’ll share with you the cards I did make this weekend.  I mentioned last week I re-discovered some sticker quotes all about friendship and I'm determined to use them.  Some of them are wonderful quotes.  I made this card with my new SU! paper (yay for Sale-a-bration!)

I was really happy to see that my MS heart punch was THE perfect size for the hearts on the patterned paper.  This card is pretty simple. 

I did manage to use one of my new SU! sets “To have and to Hold”.  It’s a wonderful stamp sets for weddings, and as soon as I saw it in the catalogue, I had this card in my head.

I used some of the beautiful paper I won in the January TwilightTuesday.com blog candy, and found some red paper to match (it’s actually really hard with all the different shades of red, I must’ve tried 6 different red papers!)

I inked the stamp in VersaMark first, then inked with Dew Drop Memento ink in Rhubarb Stalk, then poured some clear embossing powder and used my heat gun to set it.  I added 3 adhesive pearls to the side and one tiny pearl to the flower in the Bride’s hair just to tie it all in

On the inside I used the frame stamp included in the set and stamped “to have and to hold”.  I’m really happy that this came out so well, I get nervous with stamping inside of frames.

I made a few others, but will wait to share them, I still need to take the photos.

Have a great afternoon!

Ciao for now,

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Thursdaysweettreat theme “You’re my Rock”

Super duper quick post---my computer is NOT fixed and I have to give it back to them.

Here’s my submission to Thursdaysweettreat's theme –You’re My Rock, which immediately makes me think of friendship.

Here’s a card using a quote sticker I actually thought of using for the TTIC Jacob challenge:

I love the quote and wanted the colours to represent both the sunshine and the shade, and found some co-coordinating paper from Me and My Bid Ideas.

 

Ok, now run over to Thursdaysweettreat and check them all out.

I’ll be back, when I can

Happy Thursday,

Ciao for now,

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Look Ma, no stamps!

I recently re-discovered some clear stickers I bought for a scrapbook I made for a friend.  All the quotes have the theme of friendship.

I saw this particular quote and had an ‘ah-ha’ moment.  I went to my paper stash and pulled out a piece of paper that was still in it’s clear page protector.  I am a self-admitted paper hoarder; I was drawn to this paper because of the colours, and just knew it was perfect for this quote.

I used some Bazzil shimmery cardstock and some SU cardstock which matched the blue in the flowers perfectly.  I found some green and blue rhinestones in my stash and put one of each in the paper flowers.  I’m really happy how this one came together, and will be the first card in my new Friendship series I will be releasing in my Etsy store over the next few weeks.

And no stamps! can you believe it?

So…does this post look any different? More organized? a better layout?? That’s right!! I have my computer back!!!!! I got ‘the call’ today (well, after I’ve called each day for the past 4 days)…my poor computer was so sick.   A total of 3000 viruses were found.  

Yes, you read correctly, no need to adjust your monitor;  apparently the main virus was a ‘root virus’ which infected EVERYTHING and destroyed the operating system.  They can’t trace it back to a specific point, so they can’t tell me where it came from.  Even my virus scanner was infected! Jeez!!   I lost quite  a bit, but mostly the stuff that makes life easier, like internet bookmarks, etc.  So, that’ll take time to build up again.

Make sure you come back tomorrow to see my submission to this week’s Thursdaysweettreats theme.  I’m going to email my submission in right now and hopes it makes the deadline…either way I’ll share with you tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

Ciao for now,

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