Mother’s Day officially ended oh…17 odd hours ago, but since I’m a (step)mom myself, I’m going to cut myself some slack with this late posting. Slack which, for the record, could be cut with the pancakes the mister decided to make from scratch for me yesterday morning. Very sweet sentiment, but I think I’ll steer him back over to the BBQ where he belongs.

Anyway, my mom is awesome. She’s always been the type of mom that I could talk to about anything, even the stuff that I knew she wouldn’t approve of. She has that way of being open and always supportive without being a pushover, without compromising her own values or biting her tongue when she doesn’t agree with my choices. No matter what, I’ve always felt loved and I *love* that we have the type of relationship where a healthy debate doesn’t dissolve into tears.

My mom has been my constant cheerleader and when I decided I really wanted to make a go of being a full time artist, she was quick to become my first customer, my first patron really. I couldn’t ask for a better mom and am so grateful that she’s moving out west this year so we can spend more time together.

Love you mom!

Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching and if you’re running out of time or simply not inclined to spend 6 bucks on a cheesy card, you can download a cheesy Cagey Bee card for free! I drew these squirrel cuties in my sketchbook with ink, scanned them into the old ‘puter and then added the color digitally. All you have to do is print, fold and sign. Ta da!

I got some lovely comments after I posted my last printable card for Valentine’s Day and I’m tickled to do it again, thinking of all the happy moms out there smiling at my silly squirrels. My mom didn’t raise me to spend money frivolously, so I’m sure she’ll approve of this homemade sentiment. Like me, she’s the practical sort that would rather receive a new book versus a bunch of flowers that are just going to die in a week. On the other hand, my dad? Total romantic. In 30 years of marriage I don’t think he’s ever come home from a business trip empty handed (& he travels several times a month). Such a sweetie!

OK…so this is what you need to do!

1) Get some thick paper or card stock (not *too* thick unless your printer can handle that kind of thing).

2) Open the PDF file for the inside of the card & print. Choose “borderless” printing if you have that option, otherwise it will may give you a message about clipping the edges. That should be fine. There’s extra room for trimming off later anyway.

3) Give the paper a few seconds to dry.

4) Open the PDF file for the outside of the card. Once your paper is dry with the inside greeting, flip it over & then pop it back into the printer to print the outside of the card.

5) Fold in the middle & trim off any excess. That’s it!

Click here to download the inside of the card.

Click here to download the outside/front of the card.

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A note on printing both sides of the paper: your printer may work differently, but for me, I feed the paper in face up. That means that when I print the INSIDE of the card, the greeting will show up on the lower half of the page. Perfect. When I flip it over, I have to flip it end over end so that the greeting text is being fed into the machine first, but FACE DOWN. Like this:

Between Got Craft last Sunday & Foux de Fu Fu a couple of weekends ago, I’ve got some major blogging to catch up on, among other things. Got Craft was a huge success & I’ll be happy to take part in anything that Rob & Andrea attach their names to in the future. They did such a great job with the marketing, plus putting together the fantastic swag bags, that there was a line up of people around the block by the time the doors officially opened at 11:00 a.m. Pretty nice feeling to make your table fee in the first hour of the show!

There were some familiar faces at the show, so I’m happy that my Foux de Fu Fu photos will work for the Got Craft update because is was so busy, I never got a chance to leave my table & walk around. There were heaps of vendors I would’ve loved to have at least chatted with, if not snatched up some handmade goodies for myself, but I never got a break. A quality problem to be sure!

So, in repeat craftiness, we had the lovely  Patty of ThugFairies.com who sold me a gorgeous feather headband:

The purse sewing rad booth buddy & her awesome mom from malenkost:

Jennifer Conway, who makes funky vintage-inspired jewellery, was great to chat with at the Foux show & I didn’t get a chance to even say “hi” at Got Craft. So…hi Jennifer! Hope your sales were rocking!

There were seriously too many talented folks to mention here, but I have to at least give a tiny shout out to the girls from UrbanHarmonie who kept me company (& fed me snacks! Thanks Christel!), Amanda from ebbandflo, TanisAlexis, Christy from Bueno Style, elseetee, Rita from smeeta…OK this is getting ridiculous. Y’all are awesome!

Happy crafting everybody!

My kitchen table has once again been taken over by prints, postcards & pendants as I prepare for my next craft show – Got Craft. I’ve been really looking forward to this one & have to say I’m extremely impressed by how professional Andrea & Rob, the organizers, have been to work with. I guess that’s what you get when you take wedding planners & unleash them on the craft world! Here are the details:

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Royal Canadian Legion @ 2205 Commercial Drive (at E. 6th Ave.)
Vancouver, BC

Admission:$2 (kids 10 and under are FREE)

Bringing a modern twist on the conventional craft fair, Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair features over 50 local handmade vendors.

First 30 people through the door receive a FREE handmade swag bag packed full of goodies from each of our vendors.

(FYI on the swag bags: people have been known to stand in line for over an hour to try to get their hands on these puppies. And judging from the pics posted on the Got Craft blog, it might be well worth it!)