Candy's Creations
It's a funny thing about discovering your calling. Sometimes it starts by just having fun and hearing people express interest in what you're doing. Looking back over the years, almost everything listed below started as a hobby or as a Christmas present for family or friends. Today, along with Fruitbearer Publishing, they comprise the business of "Candy's Creations."
From computer keyboard to art table to sewing machine to baking pans, there's no telling what God will do with someone who appreciates the words of Colossians 3:17, Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So let me encourage you to pursue your gifts and talents in the spirit of Ecclesiastes 9:10(a): Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!
Watercolors
I didn't find out I could paint until my mid-forties when I signed up for a 6-week beginning watercolor class at Delaware Tech where I worked. At the end of the course, I painted a snow scene that looked good enough to frame, and it graced my office at the College (along with six others) until I retired in December of 2001. Now I enjoy doing commissioned paintings. Pricing is determined by the complexity and size of the project, but the average cost ranges from $125 to $400. Oh, and I forgot to mention . . . I scratch a tiny cross somewhere in every painting, sort of a trademark.
Calligraphy
From wedding envelopes to parchment scrolls and private tutoring sessions, I stand ready to assist with your calligraphy needs. My preferred style is italic, but I can also do Old English and other lettering. My fee is $30/hour.
Personalized Note Cards
I used to go to area craft fairs and spend the day making personalized gift-boxed note cards "while you wait," but I've been doing everything pretty much from my home office lately and have found that computer fonts are just as effective as the handiwork of calligraphy. As low as $1 per card (plus $30 creation fee if you want me to design an original).
Framed Art
If you have a favorite saying, Scripture verse, or poem you want to display, send it to me and I'll combine calligraphy and watercolor and/or pen and ink sketches to turn it into a framed piece of art. Price dependent on scope of project. Great gift!
Candid Calendar
This perpetual calendar contains a saying for each day of the year, some inspirational, some just plain cute. For example, "Hem in the day with prayer and it will be less likely to ravel out before night." "God provides the nuts but He does not crack them." "The best way to save face is to keep the lower part shut." "Nothing will cook your goose faster than a red hot temper." $7 calendar only, $12 with wooden stand (while supplies last).
Baby & Bridal Services
Customized • No-Hassle • Unique • Memorable — Everything from custom-designed invitations and announcements to calligraphy-addressed envelopes, program booklets, and shower coordinating. We'll even compose an invocation if you like. And, if you're within driving distance of Georgetown, Delaware, we can design and make dresses for your flower girl or mother of the bride (fittings necessary). Let us share in the joy of your life's turning points.
General Secretarial Services
Coordinated Stationery
Logo Design: Let us help you design or update your company’s image with a unique logo that will get you noticed.
Custom Letterhead: Create a color-coordinated identity that people will recognize and appreciate. Memo format and second sheets also available.
Matching Envelopes:
Business Size (#10)
Specialty (A2, Crescent, 9x12, etc.)
Mailing Labels
Business Cards: Not too cluttered, not too plain. Get plenty and keep them handy!
Note Paper: For those quick reminders and communications when a few words are enough (4x6, half sheet, Monarch—any size you like).
Note Cards: Coordinated to match your stationery, these cards can be blank or printed with your personal message.
Brochures: Available in three-panel or two-panel with a wide selection of pre-printed papers to complement your stationery.
Invoices: Good looking forms that will get your bills noticed.
Marketing Tools
Newsletters: Whether you want to motivate your staff, provide a service, or keep your customers’ interest, we can help to communicate your message concisely and attractively.
Post Cards: Direct mail your notices, announcements and sales offers to special customers. Available in regular (5½ x 4¼), jumbo (5½x8½) or to your custom specifications.
Promotional Fliers: This effective single-sheet marketing tool is economical and never goes out of style.
Invitations and Announcements: Quality, quality—fashioned with care.
Greeting Cards: Want to design your own cards for holidays or special occasions? We can add pizzazz with ribbon, dried flowers, or other three-dimensional objects.
Gift-tags: Giving your clients a token of your appreciation? Let us custom-design a gift tag with your sentiments.
Résumé: Present your qualifications with confidence to a potential employer.
Presentations
PowerPoint: Let us organize your remarks the dynamic, high-tech way with Microsoft PowerPoint (laptop computer and projection equipment required).
Transparencies: More comfortable with an overhead projector? We can add color and graphics to your transparencies.
Handouts: Help your audience remember the content of your remarks with something tangible: an outline, highlights of your talk, a framed poem—the ideas are endless!
Name Tags: We’ll not only design and print them but add the names—either by computer or by hand (calligraphy).
Certificates: Let your appreciation show!
Printed Programs: Whether a few pages or a full booklet complete with ads, we can do it.
Dinner Meeting Extras: Having a luncheon or dinner meeting? Consider dressing up each place setting with a printed agenda, elegant menu and/or place card. And, don't forget, if you need some help in composing a blessing for the meal, we can help with that, too.
Pen & Ink Sketches
Looking for someone to draw a pen and ink sketch of a significant building— your place of business, a church, even your home? Check out these samples and see what you think.
Costumes & Banners
Holidays, Sunday school pageants, and parades often call for extra creativity. If you're having a special event and need help, I'd be glad to create a costume or banner. At any given moment, I'm prepared to "switch hats," from graphic design to seamstress to glue gun, whatever works best for your project.
Cookies & Confections
Well, I'm not much for cooking and cleaning (unless company's coming), but I love to bake cookies and make fudge and other sweets. Chances are your local bakery can meet your need for this type of creativity, but if you can't find a cookie-cutter to suit you, we can design a cardboard pattern for you to use. And if you want us to bake up a batch, we'll ship them to you fresh from the oven.
Fruitbearer Publishing
The inspiration for Fruitbearer Publishing company came four years after self-publishing my book by the same name, Fruitbearer: What Can I Do For You, Lord? In my journal entry of May 13, 1998, I felt the Holy Spirit saying,
"Writing and printing your book are just the beginning of the blessings, daughter. They are seeds, each planted in fertile soil and beginning to produce good fruit. The fruit comes not only from those who read Fruitbearer, but the book itself contains seeds for other publications you will be initiating. These will be planted in fields you have never even imagined."
Questions poured out of me about the shape and purpose of the publishing
company, and the Lord answered them all, one by one, including some
much-needed advice:
"Relax, dear one. This is not a breakneck speed project. It is a life work. The work is important, true, but there is yet time. The vision is still new to you. Don't rush the details. Rather, let Me guide you daily in the direction you are to take. Capture and save the ideas, but do not attempt to develop any of them yet. In time you will see which concepts are from Me and which ones are diversions that would hinder the work I am calling you to do."
When it came time to develop the Mission Statement and Business Plan for Fruitbearer Publishing, Candy's Creations was already in place as a sole proprietorship. Thus, Fruitbearer Publishing became a branch of Candy's Creations.
