Very Late But Almost Wordless Wednesday

Lita likes to take advantage of the sun wherever she can find it. Sometimes on my desk. My very messy desk.

This is Zachary James my monster baby nephew who tore up my mother's house on Christmas. My brother and his wife will have their hands full with this one! Luckily he's a cutie. You can see me sitting in the backround with Lita peeking out from under the chair. I was protecting her and she needed protecting too!

New Items in My Etsy Shop & Ebay Store

Herman the Penguin wears his heart on the outside to advertise that he's looking for love. This is one of a couple of critter flat notes that I hope to get in my etsy shop for Valentine's day. I'm also working on some cute kawaii moniji designs.

The ever popular Talking Hearts design is back in my Ebay store. Gift and favor stickers are up in this design too. A brand new for Valentine's Day cupcake design will be listed soon.

It has been a bit difficult doing 2 different types of stationery designs and doll making. I've been jumping from one thing to the other and making myself slightly wacky! I suppose that organizing is the key so I'll have to work on that! I just feel a bit scrambled at the moment like a juggler who keeps getting more balls thrown at him.

Another Try At This Is What I'm Working On...

After I put up the other post I realized from people's comments that I did the "uniform" wrong. Never work from memory, at least never work from my memory, it's faulty! So I spent last night while watching a movie and "The End of Time -Part One"(Dr. Who) redoing the design AFTER I googled the correct images! I'm such a dork!

Anyhoo these are probably a lot more recognizable now. Some details like insignias and legs, hands, heads with faces etc need to be put on but maybe now you can see where I'm going. If not you'll have to wait to see the finished project. They will definitely be "engaging"(hint). I will be offering these for sale but haven't decided what venue or pricing yet.

News From Earlier In The Week

www.oneprettything.com was kind enough to put my free gift tag printables in their Gift Tag Round Up on Wednesday December 23rd. See there they are at the top right hand corner! So excited!

A New Project

A new doll design. Can you guess what it is?

Another Giveaway I Won

This was supposed to be included with the other giveaway list I did but I somehow lost the picture so it's on it's own today.

I entered a contest about coming up with different and new ideas for the polymer clay penguins that Alissa at Diva Dea makes. I had a long list as I really got into the whole idea as did many other people. But I won!

Then Alissa was kind enough to let me pick either a penguin in her shop or one of my ideas and she'd custom make it for me. You know what I chose, right? A custom Dr. Spock penguin! I'm beginning to think I have a strange obsession with Dr's!

Isn't this amazing! See his little Vulcan ears and the uniform! I was so blown away when I opened the box! He stands on his own and can be hung from the loop on his head too. He's about the size of those plastic easter eggs that you can fill with candy and he's weighted so he won't fall over. I loved this so much I ordered a Red Hat Penguin for my mom for Christmas and it's just as wonderful.

I'll be back to order more cause I want to get the whole crew of the Starship Enterprise!

Alissa does other things besides penguins but they are my favorite. I hope you'll take a minute and check out her shop. Click the link to go to her shop. www.etsy.com/shop/divadea

Quick Tutuorial for My Dog's Stocking..sort of

Sitting around alone in the house last night & decided on the spur of the moment to make my dog Carmelita a Christmas stocking. Then I thought I'd share with my lovely blog readers.

First I drew a quick stocking shape on a piece of card stock to the size I wanted. As you can see here the foot part is a bit short and weird, I fixed that later when I cut the stocking out. I'm always re-adjusting as I go cause thing are never perfect the first time if ever, LOL!

Then I drew and cut out shapes for my Carmelita's face. This isn't too hard, you just break everything down into flat shapes. I have the head shape, muzzle, ear, nose and eye shapes cut and ready to go.

Here's Lita bringing me her favorite toy "squirrly". She gets a bit miffed when she's not the center of attention! I had to throw the toy for a while until I wore her out, then back to cutting shapes.

Now here are the basic shapes cut of the the colors I wanted to use. I was going to do more detail on the ears, but decided that simpler was better. Even though Lita is a long-haired chihuahua I knew I'd make myself crazy doing all her ruffles and long hairs so I didn't this time. And I think you get a better idea how to make your own dog or cats face this way too.

Lita still trying to get attention by pretending to fall asleep sitting up!

Then poking her nose into everything! She then layed on my lap and let me finish. Silly pup!

I sewed and embroidered the face details together and pinned it onto the stocking. See how I lengthened the foot of the stocking? Much more balanced this way. After the face was on I then hand sewed the stocking together with a fun red thread, added a white cuff that I embroidered Lita's name on and sewed on a loop for hanging.

If I had thought about it before hand and had more time I might have embroidered some designs on the lower part of the stocking, but I don't think Lita will mind.

Here's a close up. I added some small freckles to the muzzle since my Lita has them and tacked her ears down a bit cause Lita's are floppy most of the time.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and also if you'd like me to do more tutorials or just show final finished projects. Thanks for taking the time to read and look at this super long post and Happy Holidays!

Things I've Been Working On Lately...

Things have been slow right now as all my holiday orders have gone out so I've finally had the time to work on some non stationery things. I thought it would be fun the share the things I've been working on.

I'm a huge lover of dolls and toys and have always wanted to learn how to make dolls, specifically art dolls for collectors not so much children's dolls. So I spent 4 days making this guy. He's a character in my favorite British sci-fi series, Dr. Who. This doll is my version of the tenth Doctor played by smoking hot David Tennent. The actor is leaving the show at the end of the year so I thought it was perfect timing (ha, time-ing, o.k. only Who fans will get that very bad joke) to make a doll just for me to remember the actor and his wonderful character. I'm beyond pleased with how he came out and will be making others soon.

The image below is who the doll is designed to be.

The other thing I've been working on is a felt embroidered winter scene. This is a xmas present for my mom. I'm almost done, a small banner with words will be added to the empty white area.

I can't take credit for this cute design I got the template at Checkout Girl and you can make one too. Melissa is an amazing felt artist and I admire her work so much. If you get a chance check out her blog and the tutorial here.

So I've been a busy gal but now it's back to stationery things, after all Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

My Very First Feebie! PDF Holiday Tags

I was making some quick tags for my daughter to use when she wraps presents and thought why not make these available to my lovely blog readers?

Now I've never done this before so I hope it works alright. Here is a PDF of 6 3" x3" tags of the 3 most popular graphics from my recent giveaway. Just trim on the black line, tape or hole punch and tie a ribbon on. Feel free to print as many as you like just don't try and sell them or pass them off as your own, sorry but I had to say that. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED LINK 7-29-17)

In Honor of National Cupcake Day

I've put together some fun cupcake themed items from some great etsy sellers. Enjoy!

Sweet Cupcake Gift Tags from blueberrybandit

She Loves Cupcakes print from rkdsign88

Burglers and Cupcakes print from Tamara Garvey

Cupcake Delight Pendant from simplylin

Cakeify and Friends Notebook from askingfortrouble

Blueberries and Strawberry Cupcake pendant from geminiartworks

Next to coffee, cupcakes are my favorite thing! Hope you enjoyed this little tour thru cupcakeland.

I've been lucky the last few months...

...and have won some really great giveaways! So I decided to do a post to show the lovely things I've won recently.

I won this cute cupcake ring and earring set from Ali of The Lovely Teaspoon. She has some of the most unique and fun jewelry around. Give her shop a peek! http://www.etsy.com/shop/thelovelyteaspoon

I won this great pink hippo lampwork bead from my great blog and twitter friend Lauren of Maybeads. She had a giveaway on her blog and I was fortunate enough to win. I wish my pictures were better so you could really see how adorable she is!

She even made me a special bead of my dog Carmelita! See how adorable these two are together? I highly recommend you checking out her shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/maybeads

I recently won this cute little babushka doll & stocking made by Rosey from Itty-bity and Pretty and I can't sew creations. http://www.etsy.com/shop/icantsewcreations. Isn't her face adorable? And I got some great candy too all the way from Australia!

I won this great Robot dancing with a tree art 5" x 7" titled "Unlikely Lovers" from Raw Toast Design. Jessie is an amazing illustrator and has a giveaway once a month on his blog http://rawtoastdesign.blogspot.com. You can see more of his wonderful illustrations on his blog too!


If you know anything about me then you know I have a crazy passion for robots and was so pleased to able to pick this great print from a very large selection of awesome illustrations.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Windy, cold, rainy, icky. This is my sunshine.

Flat Cards Giveaway Winner Is....

First, let me thank everyone who joined my blog and commented on the giveaway. I was so happy with the number of interested people, that I'll do another giveaway soon!

The winner is #10 Rebecca of 4smartmonkeys!

Congrats Rebecca, I'll email you in a bit for your address.

Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week : Yarncoture

Every week the Esty Twitter Team features a shop of one of it's members and all the other members blog and tweet about that person's shop and their items. I tweet quite a bit but have never blogged about any members' shop, so I'm giving it a go as I can find time.

This week's feature shop is Yarncoture. www.etsy.com/shop/yarncoture.

Yarncoture makes some of the most beautiful scarfs and cuffs I've ever seen. Isn't this scarf lovely? It's perfect for the Urban chic professional woman, like the one I used to be.

These great wrist cuffs are my favorite. You could dress them up or down. So girly, so fun, so unique and different! If you get a chance stop over to her shop and take a peek.

Custom Order I Recently Finished

I was asked to modify an existing design for a group of cheerleaders. I think they came out very well with hair styles and skin colors to match the actual girls. Also I modified the uniforms and color to match the girl's uniforms. The cards each have that particular girl's name on it too.

I have this style of person in baseball, soccer, and basketball for both girls and boys plus ballet girls too.

I can modify most any art I have so please keep that in mind if you are looking for something more personalized than I have in my store. I also do custom graphics to meet your needs when time allows.

I'm In My Very First Etsy Treasury!

See my little Santas are there at the far top right corner. Yeah! A wonderful etsytwitter team member made this great treasury and included me. Thanks, Maria - You Rock!

My Very First Giveaway!

You probably already guessed that the giveaway would be these cute cards I just spent so much time making...and you are correct!

As you can see by this picture I need a lightbox so I'll also post the digital file at the end of this so you can get a clearer idea of the cuteness factor.

There are 5 designs; Snowman, Reindeer, Christmas Tree, Santa and Mrs. Claus. The cards measure 5.5" x 4.25" and are printed on a lovely, thick, linen card stock. They will come with matching A2 sized white envelopes. You will win the entire set of 5 cards.

O.k. to play: 1. follow my blog and leave a comment below telling me you followed and also which character from the cards you like best. 2. If you already follow me, let me know that and leave a comment. Simple, simple...I won't make you jump through hoops for a chance to win. Good Luck!Contest will end Sunday December 6th.

I've been working on a secret project

For the last few days I've been working in secret on a special project. After I made the little felt ornaments I just listed in my etsy shop I thought "wouldn't these be cute as graphics for stationery"?After all that's what I do (I'm a sassy stationery gal!). Although I kind of did this backward since I usually draw something out first then make a little felt thingy.


So off to the computer I dashed and I'm really very pleased by how they came out. But now I'm thinking I should make bigger plush Santa & friends with more details than my simple ornaments. See how my mind jumps from thing to thing! ADD at it's worst here. No wonder I have such a hard time getting things done for my etsy shop! I must restrain myself and save that idea for next year since I running so late on this idea! But hey when the creative juices flow you gotta go with it even if the timing isn't always right.


By now you're probably saying "shut up already and show us the secret project!" So here it is.

I made 5.5" x 4.25" flat cards from the graphics. I have the snowman, reindeer, Santa, Mrs. Claus and the Christmas tree. I'll be offering these on etsy as soon as I figure out the details.

Check back tomorrow for a giveaway! You'll love it I promise!

Also please leave comments letting me know what you think of the cards and the graphics. I really want to know what you think.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day!

Re-opened my etsy shop today

I've been really lax about working on my etsy shop. First I was ill then my ebay store needed attention and I also was discouraged by no sales during last year's holiday season. But lately I've had lovely blog readers and twitter friends telling me to go for it so I did. And I'm pretty happy I did it. Even if I don't sell anything I'm happy to have my little felt creations out in the world being seen instead of packed away in a box.

Ho, ho, holidays are coming!

I've been spending the morning working on some holiday promo stickers for the business. They are photos of little felt ornaments that I designed and made myself. I intend to use these on my shipping packages and may possibly include some tags of a similar design inside the package.

My original goal was to make these little ornaments to sell on etsy. But time has gotten away from me again this year and I'm not feeling very confident that they would sell. So I thought they would be perfect for promos and possibly to sell to other sellers with their business info. If anyone is interested please just let me know.

I'm also thinking about having a giveaway of one of the actual ornaments just after Thanksgiving, to spread a little holiday cheer.

Sale at my Ebay Store

I'm having a 15% Off Sale until Saturday, November 7th in my Ebay Store. www.thesassypackrat.com

There are lot's of holiday stickers available to stock up on and everything in the store is on sale too. If you are in need of Personalized stationery, gift stickers, invites, address labels and more, please
check us out.

Wordless Wednesday - A Quick Smile

I just made Power Seller on Ebay

Wow, so I finally made Power Seller. It's exciting and worrying and tiring all at the same time.

It was a huge goal of mine when I first started selling on ebay. I worked so hard to reach this and it was always just out of reach. Really I gave up trying because I had other issues in my life to worry about. So it was a huge surprise to me that I qualified!

I can't really say that I'm entirely happy though. In order to retain this status I'll have to work my butt off and I'm not sure I have the energy to maintain that level with my illness and other family problems. The economy doesn't help either. I have many loyal clients who come back again and again and I'm so very grateful to them! I've gotten a lot of new referrals lately too but I see myself and others on ebay who do what I do struggling to stay afloat with ebay's fees going up and competition getting stronger. It's enough to wear you out!

I am grateful that I achieved a goal I set for myself, that's always a feel good moment. So yea me!

Chicken & Dumplings Time

Chicken and dumplings is one of our favorite dinners and since it's getting super cold here in the Midwest, it's a perfect hearty meal.

First of all let me say I really don't cook I make food. I used to really cook everything from scratch years ago when I was married, but kids, divorce, single parenthood, soccer and crazy work schedules got in the way. Now when I cook it's all easy versions of things that can be whipped up fast and taste good too.

The other day I was twittering about what I was making for dinner and one of my twitter friends wanted this recipe so I thought blogging was the easiest way to do the recipe, post something on my blog and maybe someone else might be interested too. I'm going to try not to show much of my ugly kitchen.

I didn't realize when I started cooking that I might blog about this so I don't have pictures of all the steps but hey it's a one pot meal super simple. I use this high sided pan but you could use a soup pot too. I'm a loosey goosey cook and don't really measure things I just go by eye but I tried to write measurements down so use more or less depending on what you like.

2 cans or cartons of chicken stock. I use low fat. You could also use 6 cups of water and 3 or 4 bullion cubes in a pinch.

2 cups of water. Only if you are using the canned stock.

6 to 8 chicken breasts depending on their size. Also could use cut up chicken pieces, just let it cook longer if it's on the bone.

1 tsp Garlic powder

1/2 tsp pepper

salt if you want I don't cook with it.

2 cups of sliced carrots.

1 can of corn

1/2 bag frozen peas

3 really large or 6 smaller potatoes cut up. I keep the skin on mine and wash them well.

To make it super simple use frozen veggies and add after the potatoes have cooked.

1 can of cream of chicken soup

Baking mix for the dumplings. I follow the directions on the box.

Bring the chicken & stock to a rolling boil then simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. I then take the chicken out and slice into smaller pieces, return to the pan and add the carrots and potatoes I cut up while the chicken was cooking.

While the potatoes and carrots are cooking I add a can of cream of chicken soup. Then when potatoes are soft I put in the frozen peas. I make the dumplings while the pan starts to boil again and then drop them in on top of the boiling liquid. Place the lid on until the dumplings have expanded and are cooked inside. Just poke then with a fork.

We are very informal at my house and I keep this on warm and people serve themselves from the pan when they are hungry. It takes less than an hour to cook, even faster if you use frozen veggies. This can be made ahead of time it's even better the next day.

Hope you enjoyed my recipe and will try it and I didn't bore you.