Irish Wet Weather Words...

...in a Print!

I enjoyed doing this, apart from the week or so I spent reading an Irish language dictionary from cover to cover and picking out the most descriptive or unusual wet weather references! I like that it came out basically as I had envisaged, which rarely seems to happen to me - I'm hoping to see what it looks like printed up, if I ever figure out PNG's and PDF's and all the rest of it to send it off to Photobox or Vistaprint etc...watch this space!

Finally: a card

Two cards actually, for Father's Day. Things have been a little busy and awkward for cardiness lately, so I'm glad I got these put together and listed on Etsy. I described them as being maybe good to give to a new father, as the saying Biodh Gra agus Cairdeas i Reim (Let Love and Friendship Reign) could be a nice blessing for a future father/son/daughter relationship, aw.

SECOND PAGE!!!

My first time ever reaching a second page of listings on Etsy...seems like a Thing to be caps-locking about! YAY!!

Still listing, barely!

Just in time - another listing!

This every second day listing gig might not be that easy after all! Well, I was inspired to try to fix up the phonetic cards a bit, I think they have more potential than has been realised! And American Mother's Day is coming up in April...And I did get a lot done with them, and am relatively happy with the two versions I came up with (cute and colourful, and speech bubble...makes sense when you see them!) - however it took me two days, that's absurd! And they ain't THAT good! But though it has taken me this long, I am just glad that I did manage to get them done, papped and one listed today.

I did threaten...

...that I'd get a little more colourful! Inspired by Google, which looks a little like 'Gaeilge' (= Irish for the Irish Language...but you knew that!) :P

This is my first attempt at a pack of cards, I think I just went with it with these cards because they suit being in a little series so well - I may offer them individually as well.

Actually I really like these pics, they came out well considering I only had a few minutes to do them and was certain I'd have to come back later and have a do-over! Maybe I underestimated the advantages of bright colours, they do half the work for you :)

I figured I'd go for a different background, and make a little distinction between the more fun cards and the more Earnest ones! And to make sure to keep the pics and the cards looking as bright as possible I just used sheets of white card as the background, and then to help the cards stand out and pick out a bit of the colourfulness of the lot I spread a whole load of my magpie's collection of biros, pens and pencils underneath!

Hm, as I say, pretty pleased considering!

Final St. Patrick's Day Card: promise!

This, like the Tricolour card (completely unloved and unhearted on Etsy btw! Boo!), has been kicking around in my head for a while, mostly because I do like drawing snakes; but, of course St. Patrick afficianado's out there will know, snakes are also relevant to the great man himself, seeing as it is popularly believed that he single-handedly drove all serpents from Ireland (and kept them out by growing fields of shamrocks - news to me ;p !)

So here's the before and after - dammit all but again I'm disappointed that I couldn't get all the details of the drawing to show through in the embossing, but CLOSE! Actually the detail - showing the under-and-overs of the celtic knotwork - can't be seen in the above pic, the final one is in Paint and I couldn't find it to upload. Silly!

Anyway, I'm retiring my Green goggles now - my Etsy page looks mouldy at the top, thank goodness for the featured spots to showcase a little colour!

St. Patrick's Day

Naturally, I had the best intentions of doing up some Paddy's Day card ideas, and then Didn't! But today I received an enquiry on Etsy about whether I would be doing anything and tada - I was up off my tóin and giving it a go.

Having said that, in such a short time I fell back on an old reliable: the celtic heart design, on lovely sage green card, with gold embossing and a white inner card: green, white and gold, see? I DID put some thought into it :)

Another day another...

...treasury list!!!

I couldn't make this up actually :p, at the end of a long day yesterday I had a few minutes to glance online and there was a note from modmomME on Etsy, saying Oh, By the way, You're in my new Treasury...!! It's called Love in Many Languages, here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=110735

Sweeeeeeeet! Granted, the last treasury made very little to my Pocket (read: none!), but jeepers it is a huge help to think that anyone likes the look of them enough to announce to others that hey, I like the look/idea of this...Nice.

However - it is sad to add a new post, that picture in the last one is gorgeous against the green when you first log in! Damn my popularity on treasuries all of a sudden!

More of the Little Grey Seal

More pics of the custom card: and voila in the bottom picture, the teeny tiny Big Sister card and teeny tiny matching envelope :p

Cute, cute, cute!

Custom Listing

Finally, FINALLY, I've finished the little boy's card - delays and premature aging caused primarily by a breakdown in communication between me and the printer, sigh...But it's done now, and thats...that!

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!

Upcycled Card!

So back in the day, when I first started making a whole bunch of cards, my inspiration was the idea that cards are basically, drumroll, Thought Presents! Really, you are giving someone the gift of knowing that you were thinking of them, y'see? I know, it's a little Oprah-Tastic, but I was young :p
Anyway, two of that original batch of starry-eyed prototypes were salvagable, woo-hoo, and just needed to be 'Irished', to fit in with the rest of my Irish Language brand for Etsy...Voila, the little tag, hand-written by my own good Mother (yes, really, she has the best hand-writing I know!), with the Irish word "Bláthanna", referencing the 3 little cut-out flowers on the inside...
I like it!
Pity the photos are all kindsa crap, boo...

Gold Embossed Thank You in Irish

Step 1: Connemara tree card

So, it began with this - my first attempt at a Connemara-esque wind sculpted tree, my idea being that I will make and sell cards with Irish language messages and a couple of hand drawn images to make them authentic-like.