so many moos!

While I remain ever hopeful of some more sunshiny spring weather to swing this way, I figured we could start the week off with some lovely colourful progress!

Hooray! Bright rainbow of ribbons - wonderfully snipped and tied onto all sorts of kate illustrated mini moo cards making one giant pile of moo bookmarks!

Yeah! I'll be fully stocked and ready to give away these babies with online and summer craft show sales! Best of all? This handiwork was all thanks to two wonderful pals - Lindsay and Hetty! Yay! Thanks ladies for all your hard work! Here's to hoping this week is just as bright, cheery, and productive!

A Mini Moo Miracle!

I know I've been talking about my best bud Lindsay a lot on here lately - but she's seriously the best! In fact, two Mondays ago I came home from an early shift at work to find her cutting up a ribbon party in my living room:

Oh what a colourful delight! There was even Doris Day playing and before I knew it I had some wonderfully finished (with very minimal effort from me) mini moo bookmarks:

Hooray! With all the joint pain I've been suffering from this fall I haven't been very physically able to do much crafting at all (poo) so it was so lovely to have her supple fingers and wrists assist me in making piles bookmarks:

Yay! It's mini moo miracle! There was no way I could have done all the punching and knotting on my own and now I have plenty o' bookmark/gift tags to give out with all my etsy purchases! Yipee! Happy Monday! 

Do you enjoy the internet?

Back in the spring, I made some blog business (or blogness if you will) cards printed up from moo.com (link).  I was so excited to share my love for blog writing with anyone willing to let me bend their ear and have found them quite handy to carry around in my wallet.  Once I started doing markets this summer I figured it would be a great opportunity to share the cards again but since I only had limited numbers (unlike my ample supply of regular etsy shop cards) I'd just hand them out to interested customers.  It has, however, lead to some very awkward conversations of how exactly to bring up my blog.  

As Fraser (my loving booth mate) knows, I tend to have little spiels I go off on about certain items in my table and whip them out whenever someone looks interested in an item. For example - when someone picks up a pocket mirror I'll mention how they have little felt cases they come with so they don't get scratched in your bag! Checking out some stud earrings? Why the backings are coated with white gold so they don't irritate sensitive ears! Oh that E.coli plush tickles your fancy? He comes with a fun little fact card so you can learn about your germ! Yup - apparently that is the extent of my craft selling skills and although I often feel like a broken record (okay, I pretty much always feel like that) it's good info to know if you're wavering on buying something. I figure I just need to come up with some sort of spiel to go with my blogness cards with potentially interested folks before whipping out a card to pass along:

Unfortunately I am still feeling a little rusty with the blog introduction talk and usually fumble over something on the lines of, "Do you enjoy the internet? Check out my blog!". Oy. Do you enjoy the internet? Really Kate? Eugh. After five weeks of marketing with blogness cards I haven't got much better at selling myself but generally people who are super into the items on my table react well to my silly blog lines. I also seem to be fond of telling them how "I run a daily blog full of projects I never have time for!" Seems like an accurate description don't you think? Oh well. Maybe I will come up with sort of little sign to put with the card on my table...but in the meantime I'm sure I'll be asking many more strangers about their fondness of website browsing...Any thoughts?

Yarny Moo!

I've been meaning to do a little moo reordering ever since I created my yarn themed illustrations last August and (more of less) a year later I finally got around to it! As always the products I ordered were top notch and I can't wait to share them this week at the market! Since I am still well stocked in business cards, I ordered some stickers and postcards to sell at my table! Take a peek:

Oh and don't forget the postcards! I decided to get my sea life and woodland creatures made into cards this time too since I've had a few requests this year:

Yay! I totally want to buy some frames next time I'm out shopping so I can put the crochet yarn balls up in my craft room! I really love framing cards as an inexpensive way to add some colour and art to a room and those little yarn dudes are just asking to be under glass!

For good measure I reordered loads of mini moo cards to make bookmarks from since I give them away with sales online and at shows. They're usually a pretty big hit so I decided since I'd stock up!

Usually I wrangle Lindsay into helping me hole punch, ribbon, and tie the bookmarks together, but sadly we're too far apart for slave labor (er...I mean friendly help?). Alas. Looks like I'll be spending a few hours on the couch with Jessica Fletcher instead! (In case you didn't catch that - I've been watching all 265 episodes of Murder, She Wrote for the last month and am totally hooked...) 

In the meantime I'm out selling at the Bastion Square Market again today and am hoping that the lovely weather and long weekend mean oodles of sales!  Oh, and in case you are craving your own amazing printed moo order take a gander at their site and enjoy 10% off from me (link)! Hooray!

Blogness Cards!

Good old moo. A wonderful online print shop with amazingly high quality goods and fantastically enticing packaging:


I do love me some pops of colour on white! And what is in those little boxes you may ask? Why some new mini moo cards of course! After much humming and hawing I decided to make myself some blogness cards (blog business cards for those of you wondering where that word came from)! I often get asked about accessories I'm wearing that I've crafted or why I'm taking pictures in public and figured having some cards to hand out would be the perfect solution. Instead of trying to explain about blogging and stumbling all over my words, I can direct them straight to the source (and even recommend checking out my products page for consignment opportunities too)! Hooray! Take a peek:


Look familiar? I figured making the cards as similar to my blog as possible is the way to go so you can get a sense of my online style and then when you find the site you'll immediate know you've come to the right spot. All my important info is on the back of the card introducing me (and my title - oh la la), the blog URL, and my email so you can get in touch with me:


Yay! I am so thrilled to have blogness cards and can't wait to see them in action. Do you want to get in on the mini moo fun as well? Luckily I've got a discount code for you to enjoy:


Yay! So what do you think? Do you have your own blogness cards? Do you think they'll come in handy for me? What do you think of my amateur design skills?

All in the name of progress!

Even though Canada Post has been on strike (meaning my application for the Artisan's Square Market hasn't been received/accepted), I've been trying to craft up a storm to prepare for a summer of Saturday craft markets! I'm going to go on Lindsay's word that, "[I] am the best crafter in town!" and hope that I've made it past the juried selection so all my hard work isn't going to waste - but I figure it can't hurt to have extra stock! I thought I'd share a few of the projects I've actually made headway on even if they aren't really new as far as my shows go!

Item #1 - Cabochon Rings!


Because my vintage cabochon goods were so popular at my last Fabulous Finds sale in Kelowna I thought I'd restock my rings for a nice flowery summery addition to the market. I couldn't find the same roses I used many moons ago for the last set I made so I went with chrysanthemums instead. I'm loving how bold and colourful they are and I even went with two different sizes to suit your ring needs!

Item #2 - Cabochon Studs!


Why yes - these are very similar to the rings (except, your know, they go in your ears)! I went with three different styles of flowers (two roses and the chrysanthemum poms) in some more summery fun colours. Since the reds, pinks, black, and cream tones sold like hot cakes at my last show I tried to make a few more of those while still keeping a few of my personal favourites (I am in love with the pale blue and green) in there for good measure! I showed these to a few girls at work and they think they will be a hit so here's hoping!

Item #3: Mini Moo Freebies!


Okay...so this isn't really a craft show specific item, but I was in desperate need of making more of these for my etsy orders! Micheals even had ribbons on sale last week so I stocked up in loads of bright colours! Then it was just a matter of punching, cutting, and tying and voila! Mini Moo bookmarks for all! Hooray!

Since I'm still waiting for a few more supplies to arrive in the mail (which will hopefully be sooner rather than later with the whole postal strike deal), I am working on a few fun projects I already have the goods for. I did subtly hint at my next craft project in a blog post a few days back - any guesses? Or suggestions? I'm always up for crafting!

more moo

My moo order finally arrived and boy am I excited for all my moo goodies! Take a peek!


What crisp bright packaging holding so much kate stuff! Let's take a look inside some of those packages. First off - my business cards:


After running out of cards at my last fabulous finds show in november I knew I'd have to restock sooner or later. I ran into a few issues with the print shops in town and without my graphic designer (quinn moved to the coast) to assist me in my printing, I figured I might as well go with moo. After all their printing is reasonable and consistent, the colours are always great, and their cardstock is awesome (super thick and screams, "I'm amazingly high class!"). Sounds perfect right? Well...not completely ideal. Their business cards are a different dimension than your standard card (moo is 55 x 85mm while standard cards are 52 x 90mm) meaning the wonderful card design quinn made up for me back in 2008 wouldn't do! I didn't want to bother quinn and her fabulously busy life in the big city (and I had a coupon code to save on my order that was going to expire the night I decided to order) so I thought I'd test out my photoshop skills and rework the design to fit the moo cards. My redesigning ended up taking me about five hours to complete (oy!) but thankfully my novice skills aren't noticeable in my fantastic new cards! Oh! And this also means I get to use the showcase business card holder moo sent me for free a few months back for being a loyal customer (yet another reason to love moo). I'm not entirely sure how useful the carrier will be, but apparently it can hold credit cards and it does look fancy:


Hooray! Onto moo product number two - stickers:


I had stickers printed up before my last show and even though they weren't overly popular there, I still think they are super fun! I ended up almost selling out of them at my kate party back in december so I figured I should restock! Since I'm still testing the waters with them so I am not overflowing with sticker sheets, but if I have tons left after the show I'm thinking about selling them in groups on etsy. Since I'm asking $1 for a sheet of 3 it isn't really worth my while to post them individually online (with that 20 cent listing charge and epic shipping costs) but maybe groups of sticker sheets will be a hit! I mean who doesn't love stickers?

Product number three from moo is a double order of mini moo cards:


I use my button illustrations on these little gems and whip them into mini moo bookmarks I give out as freebies with orders. If you haven't seen me make them before you can check out my ultra easy instructions I posted a while back (link). Even though I don't really make money off the bookmarks I feel that they add a little extra nice touch to all my orders and hopefully hey help amp up my advertising a smidge. This time around I ordered 200 cards and bought a whole bunch of fun brightly coloured ribbons to make them with! Fun!

My final moo product from my order was more labware art/postcards:


Postcards aren't the most successful product I offer online and at shows but they pull their own weight. You can frame them for a super fun and inexpensive art installment or send them out and keep in touch with those far away from you! I still have quite a few sets left to sell but the labware cards seem to be the most popular on etsy (hence the restock). I'm super excited that moo now lets you customize the back of the cards too! I added my ciliated bacillus logo under where a stamp would go and added my site url there for a little added branding and personalization! Yay!

Whew - that was a lot of moo rambling but I am pretty excited about all my new goodies! Oh! And if you're new to moo you can use the coupon code "2RB2CK" at the checkout and get 15% off your first order - and if you aren't all about making your own illustrations like I am they have loads of premade designs to chose from. As for me, I best get back to work - those mini moo bookmarks aren't going to make themselves...