Saturday, July 31, 2010

My creative past: Cake Decorating

That summer my best friend was getting married and I was in the wedding party. As the cake arrived that morning I thought to myself, "I can do that!". I picked up some Wilton books and did some research on the internet and found an overwhelming amount of information. So a few months later, the perfect excuse came up, and I felt prepared. Her parents were having their 50th wedding anniversary and she asked me to make the cake, and sure enough, I could! Here is my first cake:

Then her daughter wanted to design her own birthday cake, so I did that too:

In the midst of all this cake decorating stuff I came across a forum that discussed the use of a Cricut Expression for cutting fondant. I happened to have one of those so I just HAD to try it out. Sure enough, guess what, I had a new obsession; decorating cakes with fondant. Oh how I wish I'd borrowed a camera, because for a while I didn't own one. I only have a few pictures of a couple of simple cakes but I hope by now you can imagine how intricate the cakes became with more experience! These two are birthday cakes that I made before my camera died. The first is for a boy's birthday and the second was for a Boston Celtics fanatic who was turning 33. If you are not a Boston fan, you probably don't know the significance of that number, but it is jersey number of the legendary Larry Bird. I was so proud of that little cake at the time! I wish I had a photo of the assembled cake, but no one thought to take one once it reached the party.


Eventually I got so good at using my Cricut with food mediums that I wrote a tutorial on how to convert an Expression into a cake decorating machine. Soon after, the Cricut Cake came out and my report sold like hotcakes on eBay for a few months. It was empowering to know that the report helped a lot of people save a lot of money by just using the diecut machine they already owned.

My creative past: Sewing Children's Clothing

After the holiday season passed, I found myself wanting to make something completely different; something easy without all the fussy details. My favorite cousin had a little girl and I desided to make her some gifts. I decided to sew something pretty out of some vintage sheeting I had. Here are the results:

I made a simple dress with a matching headband and had enough fabric left to make a ton of other things including a few more dresses that I gave as gifts for baby showers and some listings I sold on Etsy. With the scraps from all the clothes I made grocery bags. There's a lot of fabric in two fitted sheets!
Back when my children were little, I made all their clothes. I was also a quilter and belonged to a guild and I also made crazy quilted Challah covers that I sold. It was nice to get back in front of a sewing machine and it is funny how, over time, the process of constructing clothes seemed to be easier than when I was younger.

My creative past: Beaded Christmas Ornaments


My first attempts at making beaded ornaments were encouraging. I used bits of interesting things, vintage finds, and leftovers from my mixed media craze. I loved the color combinations and the freedom that comes with experimenting from the unknown. As always, my appetite for information took over and I began to research everything I could find about beaded ornaments. This is when I stumbled upon Crackerbox ornaments. Now THOSE are amazing! I studied them intently throughout the summer and the following holiday season, I began designing ornaments in earnest. Once again I'd found a niche market and I ran with it!

As you can see, my later attempts were far more polished and commercial looking. I began to write tutorials and sold the ornaments, kits and tutorials on Etsy and eBay. This is an art form that still captures my imagination and I plan to offer them again this coming holiday season. I also intend to develop some jewelry designs that incorporate ornament techniques.

My creative past: Journals & Bookbinding


After the discovery of Teesha Moore and the journaling days with my daughter, I started making journals to work with, to give as gifts, and to sell. I also had the opportunity to make some custom orders on Etsy too. It was a fun, but short lived period, as I soon discovered beaded Christmas ornaments, and a new obsession was born.

My creative past: Cards & Rubberstamps


Somewhere in the mix between buttons and scrapbooking, I started making greeting cards and collecting rubber stamps. I sold the cards on eBay for a while and made some good money at it. Unfortunately, the buttons took over my world and I eventually sold my rubber stamp collection on eBay for over $400!
While collecting the rubber stamps, I came across an artist named Teesha Moore and I was smitten with her work. Soon I was having "journal days" with my eldest daughter, although I must admit that I'd sneak some greeting card work in there too. We would work away for hours and chat about life.

My creative past: Embellished Buttons

While exploring altered arts, I found I had a passion for buttons. This passion lead to an insatiable appitite for vintage buttons. I don't know how it happened, but I found myself collecting huge amounts of buttons from eBay. Well, after you pick out the pretty ones, you are left with LOTS of ugly ones! So began my 2 year career of embellishing buttons. I'd stumbled upon a niche market and I ran with it until my fingers were sore and my eyes crossed. My customers wanted more, but I was burnt out.

My creative past: Mixed Media & Paper Arts



My little sister suddenly passed away in June 2005 and that prompted me to make scrapbooks for her children and for myself. As with everything I do, I became obsessed and scrapbooking became my passion for the past 5 years. I've invested in plenty of tools, books, magazines, and spent endless hours scouring the internet to keep on top of the newest trends and products. But as I dug around, I found myself drawn to the wider variations of the world of paper arts and mixed media. I learned about image transfers, painting techniques, altered books, ATCs, collage, texturing, piercing, punching, diecutting, and every other thing you can think of related to paper transformations. This opened doors that I never could have dreamt of, but first I got sidetracked with a little side business of selling embellished vintage buttons, a move I would never have predicted.

Friday, July 30, 2010

My creative past: Mosaics

Being creative is my obsession. I've made all sorts of things to sell over the years.
My "job" for a while was creating hand painted mosaic tiles, which lead to learning everything I could about the art of mosaics. I developed a wonderful customer base and completed lots of exciting projects that sold very well on eBay.
Since my educational and professional background was in publishing and graphic design, it was only a matter of time before I looked to create something in print.
I found a creative partner through the Yahoo forums and we attempted to publish a gorgeous, glossy, full color magazine. Ultimately we failed to go to print, but the experience helped me grow by leaps and bounds and helped make me realize that I needed to change direction. After years of mosaic work, I moved on to mixed media and paper arts.