An Odd History and Mini Blog Hop

Well today is the day! HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! *throws confetti and blows party whistle* You'll find our mini hop alllllllll the way at the bottom :)

Today, 2010, was the day we turned the website on, put out the shopping cart and officially opened for biz. :) What a scary thing to do but also exhilarating! What if no one came? What if the site breaks down? What if what if what if what if.... that is about all you hear in your mind as you open up shop with such high hopes. Since this is our one year mark and I guess I like to reminisce I wanted to give a lil past, present and future for us as we go into year two.

Some Odd Girl may have opened its doors on January 18th, 2010 but its inception date was much, much earlier.  In the late spring, early summer of 2009, a couple of my besties got together and apparently hatched a plan :) I say hatched a plan bc it took a lil effort to come into fruition, not just a run and tell type plan. I've always been an artsy chick and had just a couple months prior gotten into stamping and making cards. You know what that means, no stamps of my very own to create with! So I was scouring the internet with my friend Leah looking for what I wanted to bring home. I'm not sure, maybe she and Miss Adina will fill us in in the comments, if this was what sparked the thought or what but I found somethings I liked but nothing I was super crazy for. We three chatted regularly online and one day I got a card in the mail from lovely Adina, who doesn't love gifties and handmade love delivered directly to your door? We'll inside was a awesome handmade card and a lil something extra I never expected (sneaky girls!), a red rubber stamp of one of my drawings! This one to be exact...

click to see it bigger :)

I've always done realistic line drawings, even if the subject matter was more make believe :) , and never really thought about combining the two hobbies. That is what my friends were suggesting. I was like, eh, whatever for a lil while but then the idea became stuck in my brain, as things tend to do, and I started sketching. I didn't really want something so serious for my stamps so I started in a different direction entirely. Sometime in August 2009 I had some sketches I liked to show them...

You thought I was going to show you something that looked like Kaylee huh? LOL! Nope, these were the first thoughts...someone said they looked like the Mii's from the Wii, which me never having a Wii (just got one at Chrimbo this year!) was like the what?? I was never quite happy with this entirely so I went back to the drawing board. I looked around at a lot of different styles and what I liked. It was a long while it seemed before I was finally satisfied with something enough to show it to my hubby and pitch him the whole crazy idea.  While I might be able to draw it, he has always been my go to guy to put my crazy ideas into action. Poor hubs! The saying "dream it, do it" has always been part one me, part two him :) So the first Kaylee was born!

This Kaylee is still up on the site for sale as I feel like I can't take her down, its  history! lol I kept drawing different versions of Kaylee and I finally got a scanner and made the first digis and then my first Some Odd Girl card :)

I didn't have copics then and you can tell I had alot to learn about coloring! Still do :) We opened up shop on Jan 18th with 35 digis that were Kaylees, Kodys, Critters and Confections. I'm not even sure how many we have now but I'm sure its gotta be more than 35 :) I took on my first DT in March last year (Kimmy, Marcie and Robin were all on the first team, putting up wit my newbie-ness) and have been plugging along since. Kaylee has gained a new friend, Mae, and everyone has updated their looks a bit. The site has had 3 makeovers, I'm purty happy with this one even though I still see some room for improvement :) (poor hubs!) . 

The future for Some Odd Girl? Or SOG as Leah and I started affectionately calling it sometime ago and has spread lmao! Still makes me laugh! Anyways, 2011 is going to be bringing a few things to the preverbial table. Most notably we will be going physical! Photopolymer Acrylic stamps to be precise :) You can see in Robin McKinleys post HERE her take on one of the samples I received from the manufacturer. The 4 girls, with me since the beginning, each got one to give me their opinions on. We are hoping to have it ready to go in the next couple months! SO exciting! Each one will be a single with a coordinating sentiment, totally ready to go card making!

Also the name, if you've noticed on our Facebook, Some Odd Girl Stamps and Designs will finally be fufilled when the design site, www.someoddgirldesigns , gets up and running hopefully in the next few weeks :) This site won't have stamps but other handmade goods for sale. I've been busy makin stuff for it so I hope you'll check back! 

Our last change, so far, for 2011 will be the blog. This blog :) We will still be hosting bi-weekly Challenges as we have for a long time but we will also be having more features and projects and more action! We are going to be having regular Guest Odd Girls and be featuring SOGgy Sightings from around the web. There's more in the works but you get the idea :) 

Are you excited? I am! The Odd Girls are!

To close up today we have a mini blog hop for you :) Each of the Odd Girls has posted their favorite Some Odd Girl Cards they've made during their terms, some are longer terms than others lol! So hop thru the list and see what's in store. I don't even know what we'll find!

Kristy

Leah

Kimmy

Robin

Marcie

Cassandra

Robin F

Yvonne
Tanya

Thanks so sticking around for the long read :) Like I said, I like to reminisce. This time and this company have become my world and I'm so glad I'm getting to share it with so many wonderful, supportive, people!