Never Rains But it Pours

I have been tinkering with a new series of cards based on the Irish weather (naturally, it being an all-consuming topic here). There have been a few incarnations, over months and months now, but finally with Inkscape in my life I thought I was happy with the images, and just needed to print...

Sigh. Something still seemed wrong! I decided that it was my home printer - and since I didn't want to outsource the printing, and couldn't afford to train in and buy the equipment for something really gorgeous like Letterpress printing, I thought I could make the Paper my USP (unique selling point!).

I wanted the really thick almost fluffy card, but could only find suppliers outside Ireland which meant shipping costs were awful so...I thought I'd make it myself! I tried white pulp, newspaper pulp, and mixes of both.

Then printed as many variations of my images as I could.

But I can't help but think it still isn't working that well...

And bizarrely, they are improved in the photos!

Not sure where to go with this next, but actually really like the newspaper ones with the white pulp strategically positioned so might make up a batch of these and offer them as supplies on Etsy. A few of my efforts were thwarted by my printer's rollers leaving marks on the uneven surface of the handmade paper, but I'd say someone who uses stamps and other embellishments might like them as cardstock...

'Course then my USP is gone out the window! Frustrated!

Belated Hello 2012!

Looks like my last post was April 2011, which is absolutely extraordinary! I've been doing well enough on Etsy, and very much enjoying it, but now I am making an effort to take it a little more seriously and start doing projects that I really enjoy and need to get out of my system! So hopefully, coming soon will be a new shop with it's own url, moving away from the embossing and focusing more on handmade paper, handbound books, and even some screenprinted t-shirt designs. It will be less Oirish, but definitely still Irish, as no doubt the wild west coast here in Connemara is a huge part of my life and so must influence my creativity, such as it is!
But Paperpennies will continue to fend for itself, as it has been doing these past few months, and will be the base line for my new experiments in slightly-less-amateur crafting! Here's a printscreen of Paperpennies on Etsy, today :)

Still listing, barely!

...And only my second ever Irish Sale :)

Picture Curses!

Cards look better than pictures, pinky promise! How often have I said that?

As a result of (a) not having access to the printer for the inserts and (b) being an absurdly impatient person and (c) changing my mind about having the Irish phrase and English translation on the front of one of the cards...they are blank, the background in the pictures does no favours at all to the cards and they are odd sized!

Also, one has the textured paper as an insert, the other has the plain coloured card...But which do I prefer?

First Irish Sale :D !

Yip, all that green energy paid off after all - a green customer, of the éireannach variety, my first! And she bought green too - all of the Patrick's Day cards except the snake. Poor snake! Anyway, voila the package...

Back in the Upswing

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39115749

3 things:

1. New sale - and to a familiar Name: Peppercorns2! Which I am convinced prompted...


2. Receeding cold, cough-cough-phew! It's a miracle! And the final miracle...


3. a new treasury! As a result of having the great good luck to be born on this damp lovable little island, I have struck leprachaun gold and been featured in an Irish centred treasury, http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=87279 ...yay!

My favourite item of the treasury is the photograph listed above, or more precisely the next photo in the series, Dark Hedges 2 - the link below the pic goes to Photosworldwide's shop for a peek ;)

Talk is cheap...

It's an odd thing, that the more immersed I become in the bells and whistles of having the Etsy shop and hoping to make something of it ( = 'talk') the less crafting I'm actually doing. Shame, and more fool me...

Today I cracked the Google Analytics nut: I was trying to do it all myself, and managed to find my tracking code and copy it, and thought I understood where it was meant to go, and yet no matter how often I pasted and saved, it was never there when I went to double check on it!

And inevitably I finally realised that Etsy has your back, and thanks to a little button, typing my number in once, and pressing Save or whatnot - done. Now I know for a fact how inconsequential I am in the great Etsy scheme of things :-p!

I have however managed to do a little doodling for my sister (above) - her friend has recently had a baby, and as the family have Irish roots (they are American) I guess she figured it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel for me, you can't fail with the Irish-Americans and the cupla focal! If it turns out at all nice I may list it on Etsy as a custom order, just to show that I'm not all dry-stone walls and rudely named sailing boats!

Gold Embossed Thank You in Irish

Thank You Irish Language Cards

Lovely Linda, my only ever Buyer, of anything ever but more particularly 5 cards on Etsy, recommended that I do some 'thank you' versions of the cards...so I did!
And I do need to be thankful to her in particular - my own mother, on hearing that Lovely Linda was going to buy from me, 'ordered' a batch of 15 from me - aw! Isn't that lovely? That was after a glass of wine though, and apparently it was Dutch-Maternal Pride (a la Dutch courage, you know), because by the next day she had spent her money on some other mother's child's work ;p !! Sad!
Anyway, here's to a Positive and Productive and Grateful for What I Got NEW YEAR, and the same to all.

Nollaig Shona, Irish Christmas Greetings to cheer me up

Aw, it's good to remind myself how much fun the embossing has been, at a time like this...my credit card and Etsy are no longer on speaking terms :o! Why?! I only wanted to pay off my little bill for posting the cúpla cards, and feel like I was doing something constructive - hope it turns out ok.
Then I wanted to write in here and vent a little about how I'd been looking for a little comfort and was denied...and I completely blanked on the password for the blog! Random!
An Up moment: I went back to Etsy, feeling pretty morose by then!, and suddenly realised...Reader, I have been VIEWED! Viewed, and if you'd believe it, favourited! Granted, the shop who favourited me has over 1,000 PAGES of favourite sellers, but still: I'm absurdly chuffed :)

Growing pains

So I'm happy with the images, the paper/card, the 'design', the embossing idea and the end result...and the pictures look absolutely crap! Grr!
I did what I have read recommended: put taking the pictures off for three days until I had the time to do it in the morning light; changed the white balance on my sister's beautiful new camera; USED my sister's beautiful new camera - a panasonic lumix (sumthinsumthin), 8 optical zoom, 12 megapixel wonder machine...colour Blue! How could it fail?!
And yet, they all look awful. My only idea is to try taking them beside the big sliding door windows, as opposed to under the velux window upstairs, which I was convinced was a touch of genius by the way!
FINAL straw to be clutched at: it was pouring rain that day...although having said that when is it NOT going to be overcast during an Irish December?!

Next Up...

Ummmm, this is meant to be a drawing of a traditional Irish sailing boat called a Hooker ("who-ker"!), but it looks kinda like it could be ANY old sailing boat, right? Hmm.