Firstly I get quotes from printers for quality business cards and I order these in the quantity I believe I will need, remembering that business cards are affordable only if you are ordering by the quantity of 100 plus. If ordering small quantities, it may be more affordable to print these yourself with a quality colour printer.

Then while my print image business cards are being produced I purchase the office supplies , glue, decorative card and paper, archival ink pens, lamination pouches and I make sure my equipment, laminator, paper cutter, paper sheers, for trimming the card and papers to shape, and cellophane bags for packing the gift cards, are all ready.

The rest is up to your imagination. Cut papers and card to size, glue on the business card sized prints, and decorate or hand print on the cards and bookmarks. Laminate the bookmarks if you like to, I do this, and pack the gift cards in cellophane.

Great for gifts and if you have bought your supplies, at a competitive price, these could be sold at craft markets.

Now I am not ‘great’ at crafts, I kept to simple ideas and rely on my print to be the main feature of my art/print/crafts, so I have included, for your use, this link to paper craft ideas free.
Picture
Rack of my art, print, craft, bookmarks to the left, and art, print, craft, gift cards on the left.
 
 
Picture
This is a picture of the artwork; I painted of my youngest daughter, showing her on her wedding day.

When my daughter and her fiancé were searching for their first home, I was conveniently, teaching art to a couple of real estate agents. They were keen to help my daughter, find a dream first home at first homebuyers, price.  They let us know about home that was about to be auctioned as a bank foreclosure. My daughter and fiancé and his parents attended the auction and got the house far lower than the going rate and this got them off to a fantastic start in life.

Someone else’s problems became someone else’s dream start to life.

My daughter looked radiant on her wedding day. J

I loved this artwork and entered it into a professional art award and it came second to another work of mine, one of a brumbies in the Snowy River.

The image above iis available to purchase as a fridge magnet from the artist at http://www.fridgemagnetart.com and direct from the artist, at her caravan awning studio, while on tour.
 
 
The Giveaway:

In conjunction with Mummified Times Five, I am giving away up to $1000 worth of Maimeri Classico oil paints!

Each prize pack includes 10 tubes of Maimeri Classico paints valued at $9.55 each…so with free postage, that’s a prize pack valued at over $100!! And we have 10 packs to give away!!

To enter, all you need to do is:

-comment on any post ON EACH of Kathy Shell’s blogs (listed in my blog side bar and below):

http://www.artslim.org/
http://www.cards-art.com/
http://www.kathy-shell.net/
http://www.doggiesblog.com/
http://www.gray-nomad.com/
http://www.bloggermuse.com/
http://www.functional-art.net/
http://www.postcards-art.com/
http://www.campfire-yarns.com/
http://www.fridgemagnetart.com/
- then go to the competition post at

http://mummifiedtimesfive.net/2010/02/01/spotlight-on-kathy-shell-giveaway/

and say why you would like to win a 10 pack of Maimeri Classico paints.

(Both steps are mandatory to be in the running to win this prize)

Giveaway finishes 15 Feb 2010

 This blog post has been illustrated by postcards from the art of Kathy Shell. These can be orderd through the artist's postcards-art web site or purchased 'direct from the artist', in her caravan awning studio