Easter Wrap Up + Giveaway

 

We had a belated Easter party yesterday in our backyard.  I was going to do something fun for the kids and their friends last week, but with Hyrum, then Hazel, then finally Eliza getting pink eye, it put a damper on our plans to do so.  On Monday I just did a really low-key, spur-of-the-moment event with cupcakes to decorate and an egg hunt.  This is Hyrum's creation...can you see the frosting at all?  It's somewhere underneath all those sprinkles.  He was, as you can tell, tickled pink about having free reign of the sprinkle supply.

Ah, such sweet indulgence...and Hyrum was relishing every morsel of it.

 

This was Hazel's interaction with sprinkles just before the party began...fascinating, isn't it, to see what happens when one dumps out an entire container of sprinkles on the floor?  It looks like she's thinking, "Now how in the world did those get down there?  Hhmmmm...where should I start eating first?"

I had turned away just for a second to look for a funnel to pour the large container (the contents of which you now see on our floor) of sprinkles into separate smaller containers with shaker lids on them.  That's all the time it took for Hazel to reach up (not even counter height is safe with her anymore!) and test the effects of gravity on an open container of sprinkles.

 

After both of us stared in awe at the mess (remember this is just before the party started) Hazel immediately embarked on a feeding frenzy while I got the broom and the vaccuum cleaner.  I'm glad I had my camera right there to document it.  I must admit it's pretty funny...and I'm just glad it wasn't something liquid and sugary spilling all over my pretty kitchen rug!  In the end, there was no harm done and we still had plenty of sprinkles to go around (I always keep a hefty stash of sprinkles in my house, the kids love to use them).

Eliza loves to smear food on her face to create the mustache/beard effect.  Charming, isn't it?  I'm sure it makes the cupcake taste better.

 

Here's a beardless version of Eliza...I can't believe how grown-up she's getting.  I still think of her as a toddler sometimes.

 

Through the years I've started on countless (admittedly half-baked) projects with the intent of generating a little income while being a stay-at-home-mom, only to be stymied by the marketing aspect of the deal.  Here is one such project I started a few years ago, but never went anywhere with it.

Back when I was doing a fair amount of scrapbooking, I decided I'd paint these holiday-related images with watercolor on nice, thick watercolor paper, cut them out like these are, and sell them as cute little original images on ebay for people searching for hand-made accessories for their pages. 

I thought that, as long as I kept the images fairly simple, it shouldn't take me that long to make them so I could turn a little bit of a profit on the side when my kids were in school/napping.

Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that if I broke down the number of hours it took me to paint these, cut them out, photograph them, list them on ebay or etsy, and pay the commission, I'd be making somewhere in the realm of $1 or $2 an hour for my efforts = NOT worth it!

 

So then I thought, well, maybe I can just color photocopy them on heavy-duty paper and sell collections of them for just a few dollars apiece, and then the buyer could just cut them out her/himself.  No go, because the copies looked lousy.

THEN I thought that I could just find a company that does licensing work and have them do all the un-fun marketing/producing stuff, and I could retain a percentage of the sales.

 

That, obviously, didn't pan out either.  The quality isn't really good enough to reproduce (remember, I was trying to do simple, quick little images to sell the originals of?) so these little watercolor ditties have been sitting in a box for quite some time now. 

I'm not exceptionally proud of them, but it would be nice to do something with them instead of putting them in a box until the unknown day I find the time to start doing scrapbooking again.

 

 

So here's what I'm going to do: 

I'm going to host a little giveaway of all the little ditties you see pictured below so that one of YOU can start making use of them!

 

I may end up giving away more of these later, but for now I think I'll start with these.  It's a smorgasbord collection, with a little bit o'everything!

Sooo, if you're interested in winning these to do a little springtime scrapbooking with, then please just leave a comment at the end of this post.  I'll have one of my kiddos randomly draw a name in one week, say, next Tuesday April 21st.  Until then, happy blogging!

Comments

[Morgen]

I have to comment and say that you SHOULD be exceptionally proud of your work and that as crafters, most of us are guilty of under-selling our talent. I'll bet these could be packaged and sold at fairs or on consignment without dealing through eBay or etsy. And if they don't fly off the shelves, you are no worse off than you are with them sitting in a box!

[Shanna Wheeler]

I love water color painting of any kind. These are adorable.

[Edith Songer]

Here I am, commenting. Again. To get more of your cool stuff. Man, I'm such a user.

[Julie]

You have such talent (in many areas)! I would love to use them on cards, scrapbook, gift tags, etc...

[Amy]

I love all of your work! You are so talented and inspirational!

Amy

[Heather]

Everything you do is amazing! I have lurked on her thanks to K Weber! She wanted me to see how amazing you are, and I have to agree with her! Well, just this year I was thinking of making a paper garland for Easter, but like you I never got around to it, but with these, it would be way nicer than I would have done, and beautiful! So, I hope I win! I will have to show you the finished product!!! Heather

[Michelle]

Hi, I have only just recently discovered your blog and I love it. Your use of colour is inspiring. I'm a twirly skirt devotee after finding your tutorial. Thanks for brightening my day!

[Dawn]

Boy, have I been there! And Morgan is right, we so undersell ourselves as artist/crafters. I thought these were very cute and you definitely could unload them at a local craft fair.

[grace]

oh wow, just found your website and it's beautiful! love your artwork and thank you for sharing those tutorials too!

[Jeannie Lucky]

I THINK THEY ARE PRECIOUS. yES, ALL THIS WORK PUT INTO SOMETHING DOES TAKE TIME.

[teresa]

nice work. i've sold 2 paintings and it feels great. but most people wont pay what u have into the pieces. i'm looking for info on unfolding box scrapbook. the layers are made with 1 sheet of paper.and cut into flaps. i can only find the ones that u glue the flaps on. thanks, cool music