Very soon after retiring, I found myself with lots of time to indulge my passion for crafting! Within one month, I had discovered my niche and opened my Etsy shop, My Little Pretties USA.
Most of my crafting history was scrapbooking my family’s holidays. I have several (actually many!) scrapbooks full of my daughters pictures: her birth thru adulthood, her cats, her art, and her school days and activities.
Encouraged by my two nieces, I opened My Little Pretties featuring decorated cigar boxes. It was a small corner of the crafting spectrum but with so much potential!
Who doesn’t love a pretty box?!!
It isn’t hard to find pretty paper, and I have an addiction to pretty paper! My favorite is from artist Jen Bishop of Blue Fern Studios. I have a dozen boxes in my shop using her gorgeous paper! I also use Graphic 45 paper sets. G45 is my go-to for both fun and nostalgic collections. Also, Stamperia Intl and Mintay both have beautiful papers. Stamperia has some rather funky paper too, especially the steampunk style.
Sometimes, I buy the paper because I can imagine an amazing decorated box created with it. I have far too much paper! So many ideas and so little time!
Since opening my shop nearly 5 years ago, I have created and sold more than 600 decorated cigar boxes! I feel abundantly blessed! Thank you to all my awesome customers, especially the gals that trusted me to make a custom box for them…sight unseen.

Coming soon…🎀 Decorated Window Shadow Boxes (12x12x2”) You choose the theme!
🎀Altered Little Golden Books
🎀Decorate Folios-small albums

New ideas need courage to pursue and good health to complete—working on both so I can do this for a long time! ❤️ Linda