The Empty Bin

Last Saturday night, we had a fundraiser concert and silent auction at my church.  My card sales had been pretty slow since Christmas, so I pretty much cleaned out my bin of cards. I took almost all of the birthday, blank and thank you cards I had on hand, grouped them as 7 sets of 10 cards and put them into clear boxes with pretty ribbons around them and donated them to the silent auction. They all sold for decent prices and I was happy to start with a proverbial 'clean slate'. Or empty bin!

Then my mom called to remind me that I had promised to make her 30 bell cards for her Handbell Symposium next weekend. I dropped everything and got them done. (I have photos - I'll show you one day!)

Then one of the teachers at school asked me to make her 40 thank you cards.

Then I made plans to meet up with a girlfriend this weekend. She asked me to bring my card bin because she's desperately low on birthday cards and needs to stock up (she often buys 30 at a time since we don't see each other very often).

Then one of my long-term Christmas card clients emailed me to ask that I make her a 'box' of assorted cards for her personal use.

Oh, the irony is not lost on me! But I'm not complaining!

All this week, I've been busy looking back at my designs to see what I can reuse to whip up a bunch of cards quickly. But I also like to try something new. And it's amazing how just 'having to get it done' gets the creative juices flowing! Love that productive feeling!

This is the first new design I was really pleased with - a simple graphic card using a Michael's sentiment and a Paper Smooches (Sugar Rush) candle. Bold, high contrast colours, simple shapes, a little sparkle and done!

And this is an old design (see here) revamped:

It reminds me of Billboard magazine. And I've entered it into this year's Papercrafter's Gallery Idol contest. If I get chosen by the PC staff to be in the top 20, then I'll be needing some votes for future rounds. Hint, hint! ;-)