Today was a much better day in my quest to finish twenty five baby shower invitations.  I freaked out about it yesterday, and I mean, FREAKED OUT!  I decided that I would take a deep breath and make these in an assembly line fashion.  They are in the shape of a onesie, and Rich printed the insides with the information about the shower.  I cut out all of the onesies and then realized some were cut too high and had to be remade, so that put me behind.  I decided to stamp all of the center images before doing anything else.  I was going to change the design from a little girl dressed as a witch holding her Halloween candy bucket to holding a small heart.  I made four or five and then decided it was way too much work and required changing stamps in the Misti and cleaning my hands with every stamp change and then changing colors of ink and masking the candy bucket.  It was just way too involved.  I decided to leave the stamp and use one ink and no masking (initially, more masking comes later.)  So I stamped all of the images and then decided it was time to make a mask of the little girl so I could stamp a big background stamp behind her.  I found one in my stash that looked like a background to a little girls’ outfit and went with it.  I chose a really light pink for the background, even though their theme is more Halloween, as the shower is October 30th.  I know it’s late getting the invitations done, but I was just given the final information on Monday or Tuesday of this week.  So I used the Misti and masked and stamped all of the backgrounds and then used the same light pink and distressed around the edges of the onesie.  So far,  they look ok, not great.  Next step, tomorrow will be to color all of the images then make a collar around the neckline with ribbon I purchased.  The ribbon is turning out to be a nightmare as it’s braided and every time I cut it, it unbraids.  I used my ribbon fray stop on the first one that I finished and I think it looks all right, but am worried about having to fix twenty-four more frayed ribbons, Yikes!  After the neckline is done, I am going to put Stickles on the little girl to make her stand out and then I should be done.  Oh, and I already put glittery matching pink washi tape on the back of all of the envelopes.  Rich and I were talking about how long this process takes.  I had a doctor’s appointment and used my timer to make sure I wasn’t late.  I had twelve minutes when I started it, and to mask, stamp the background, and distress the cards it took almost six minutes per card just for that step.  Can you imagine how much time I’ll be putting into this project?  Good thing I really love the family I’m making them for.  I’ll be honest.  I am going to be extremely relieved when I deliver them and they are out of my hands.  I’m having nightmares about spilling things on them or making some horrible mistake that isn’t fixable that affects a lot of them (like stamping them upside down)….  I’m going to be so happy when this is done and I can get back to making videos of every day normal projects.  I did make a video of the first one I made.  I’m not going to put the video up until I can show the huge stack of the rest of them to prove I actually completed this project.  I maybe shouldn’t get the cart ahead of the horse here and just keep plugging away at the next step.  I’m going to take the morning off tomorrow and go to some garage sales and then back to onesie land.

I’ve decided that I’m not really equipped for producing multiple reproductive projects.  I’ve been seriously devoting my time to making the twenty five baby shower invitations.  I’m absolutely serious when I tell you that I haven’t gotten ONE completed.  Not even ONE.  I’m starting to panic and am not really sure where to go from here.  I had Rich made me an extra invitation (since he’s printing the insides), and I’ve already had to use it.  I’m freaking out because I don’t want to disappoint our friends but clearly, this project is much too big for me.  It would be different if I was making one and then using a copier to reproduce them.  But I’m stamping and masking and then coloring and putting in a background stamp then using ribbon (that frays like you cannot believe.)  I’ve never tried to make something twenty-five times let alone something as important as invitations.  I should have chosen an easier design, but honestly, I didn’t think this one was that hard to do.  Little did I know that it would be a virtual nightmare for me.  I’m putting way too much pressure on myself and need to just forget about the project and take one at a time and forget about the other twenty-four.  Geez, I don’t think I can do it.  This would be a great time to consider anti-anxiety medicines.  Yikes, I’m freaking out for no good reason.  Ok, I do have one good reason.  The insides are so complicated, Rich doesn’t want to try to make any more of them.  It took him all afternoon to make his first twenty-five, and he had to reprint nine of them because the ink ran low and changed colors on some of them.   That little reprint took all last night, so I really hate to ask him to make more.  I’m not going to freak out, I’m not going to freak out, I’m not going to freak out.   Does Jennifer McGuire freak out?  Does Lindsay freak out?  I seriously doubt it.  I’d be thrilled to know that somewhere there’s a blog post from one of them saying they have a big project like this and are scared they aren’t up to the challenge.  That would make me feel so much better.  Enough stalling, I need to make some invitations.  Cross your fingers for me, I may never leave my craft room again since I may never finish them.

Oh and I worked on finishing the chair for my girlfriend early this AM, and super glued my fingers together and the magnets aren’t matching up, so some of the pieces have the wrong side of the magnet glued down so they keep trying to flip over and that’s making me crazy as well.  Another project I may never finish.  It’s been a never ending battle of which project can break me.  Call the people with the straight jackets, I’m going to be needing a room.

I wanted to replicate a Christmas wreath into a Halloween wreath.  So I bought an 8″ wide wreath form from A C Moore and five sheets of scrapbook 12″ x 12″ paper from Joanns.  I cut my 12″ paper into 1 1/2″ strips.  I used Art Glitter glue to attach the papers to themselves.  I pulled the strips of paper through the inside of the mold and made sure that they were even and then glued it all the way to the form and made sure it was tightly adhered to itself.  The Art Glitter Glue worked really well for this, but any fast acting glue would work.  Overlap the strips so you can’t see the mold.  I made four strips of each of my papers and had a total of six papers that were double sided.  I had to use one of the backs of the pieces of scrapbook paper because you end up needing one extra piece or you will end up duplicating papers side by side at the end. Before you put your last paper in place,  wrap some thick twine or thick embroidery floss around the form and tie it so it will be what you hang your wreath from.  Then apply your last paper.  After all of your papers are glued down,  you will cut your banner ends out of your papers.  You can either made a template and cut each with the template laying on top of each paper or eyeball it and cut your banners by cutting into the middle and then cutting diagonally to the center cut on both sides.  I added a spider web doily behind the wreath and some embellishments I had in my stash.  I added some plastic spiders as well.  I thought it looked really cute when it was done.
I recommend doing this project on a silicone mat and keeping a wet wipe handy to wipe excess glue with.

I spent most of the day today doing two things, cutting out onesies and shopping for bling and ribbon for on the onesies.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take to trace the onesie pattern onto the cards and then cut them out, but let me tell you, your hands start to really feel it after you’ve done the first ten.  I pushed through to sixteen and threw in the towel (for now), and then went shopping.

I need to find some bling that will work well on the invitations.  Right now, they need something to make them cute and worth sending. Naturally our only craft store is Joanns, so this involved driving almost an hour for some serious shopping.   I went to AC Moore and Hobby Lobby and bought small rhinestones and ribbon.  Of course I couldn’t find orange ribbon to match the Halloween theme, so I went with a light pink that will match the color I’m stamping on the background.  I’m not in love with the invitations yet, but hoping the bling will turn my thinking around.  I can’t fail at this project because I don’t want to disappoint my friends and I won’t give them something that I’m embarrassed or just not thrilled with.  I know they are giving these to their friends and family and definitely don’t want to put them in a position where they look at them and are appalled at how they look.

On a side note,  I’m surprised how hard it is to find orange ribbon this time of year.  What’s the deal that I can find purple but not orange?  What’s Halloween coming to anyway?  Geez, give a girl a break, will ya?

I’ve been working on two projects today.  I painted the stars that will be a part of the child’s chair that I’m putting flowers into and then re-painted the chair itself.  This is the third color for the chair as the blue I used was too bright and the new yellow color was school bus yellow and I hated it, and now I’m using a lighter yellow.  The chair is yet to have a coat of polyurethane on it and neither have the wood stars.  I had been given some cute candy corn from our niece, and it turned out that they were not wood (I’m not sure why I thought they were), and they instead, are foam.  Foam isn’t going to work for this outdoor chair, so back to the drawing board.  I need to find another item that will be fall inspired, to be attached to the chair by magnets.  My last piece to attach are small daisies that should look great with the yellow chair.   All in all, this chair has been a problem from beginning to end.  (It’s not even the end and I’m not sure when it will be.)   It seems like I’ll be giving them the chair in the spring with tulips and forget about the mum I already gave them for inside the chair.

The other project are the baby shower invitations.  Rich spent almost the entire day printing the inside information on them as the writing was very specific with a very specific theme.  I’m hoping they will like the inside, but there is a lot of information and confetti, so it’s a little bit busy looking.  I finally got the first finished invitation around 6PM, so worked on it for a long time, as I wanted to make sure that I really like the look of the outside of the card.  I’m not exactly sure if she will like it, but I’m hoping she will.  I chose a pink pattern to put on as a background and I don’t think it’s a dark enough color.  I’m going to work on distressing the edges and I need to buy some ribbon and bling to really make it cute.  Right now, it ok, but just ok.  I can’t give our friends something that is just ok and I need to make twenty-five of them, so ok is not an option.  I need to get serious about these invitations as time is of the essence.

I decided today to get serious about a project I am working on for friends.  They are having a baby shower for their son and daughter-in-law and asked if I would make their invitations.  Normally I would say no to a project this extensive, but my friend is ill and I can’t say no to him or his wife.

I’m using the onesie template that I made in an earlier card, and the mother wants an autumn theme.  So far I have given her four ideas and am waiting for her to get back to me with the one she likes best.  I used a sock monkey holding a baby rattle in one, a pumpkin with candy corn on either side of it for the second, one with three pumpkins in a half circle as the third option, and finally, a little girl dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween for the fourth choice.  I changed her candy basket to a small heart and it looks cute.  I was pretty sure she would pick the little girl, and in the end, she did.  The girl will require coloring with something other than alcohol markers as they will bleed through the paper, so I’m leaning toward using water based markers and a blender pen.  I’m also going to highlight the colors with colored pencils so it’s a brighter image.  I guess we’ll wait to see how they come out.

Of course I’m making a video of the making of the invitation, so you’ll see the process and the end result.  I’m making twenty five of them and anticipate this taking a very long time to finish.  The shower is October 30th.  Time is of the essence.  Yikes!

Ok, I’ll admit it.  It drizzled today so I didn’t do anything but nap.  Some days just go like that. Sorry.

I love this time of year and found this stamp of a seed packet that I had in my stash and thought it would be fun to color with watercolor pencils.  I used Derwent and Prismacolor watercolor pencils on Canson XL paper.  I started with an orange background 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ A2 size cardstock and then added a layer of black paper that was 5 3/8 x 4 1/8″ and then another layer of orange paper that was 5 1/4″ x 4″ and my watercolor paper was 5 1/8″ x 3 7/8″.  I used Antique Linen from Distress ink around the edges of my watercolor paper to make it stand out and put a layer of foam tape under the watercolor paper and ran an orange taffeta ribbon around near the bottom of the watercolor paper and made a bow with fishtail ends.  I put orange washi tape around the envelope near the bottom edge.  I ended up putting some Stickles on the flowers and Wink of Stella to make the flowers more frisky.

 

 

I got this message when I logged into my site this morning and thought I would just attach it so you can see it.

Encourage your US-based visitors to register to vote by adding a subtle prompt to your site.

 

Do you think that was subtle enough?

I thought I would tell you about my trip to Joann’s.  I am an addict.  It’s official.  I walked around that store and up and down every aisle. I probably could have bought a lot more than I did until this happened.  I wanted to buy another pair of the Fiskars Easy Action scissors that I love.  If you watch my videos, I did a run down of a lot of different types of scissors and these are my favorite for ease of use and convenience.  Here’s the part that made me laugh.  They moved them to the top row, so if you do have some issues with mobility, you won’t be reaching them. Now they have a lock on them that says, “Ask for assistance.”   I probably would have had to ask for assistance anyway because of their height, but now they assured themselves that I’d be asking, since it is now locked into place.   At our Joann’s location, you have to ask for assistance for Spellbinders dies and now some, not all, of the Fiskars line of scissors.  I guess shoplifting must be reaching an all-time-high for scissors and dies.  I’m ok with it (since I couldn’t reach the scissors anyway), but the funny part was the “assistance” I got, couldn’t figure out how to work the lock so had to ask for assistance.  This could have gone on all day, but luckily assistant number two had the secret code to unlocking the lock.  Oh, and the first assistant brought some device that she thought was a key but made the second assistant laugh really hard.  I don’t know what it was, but clearly it wasn’t a key.  Oh, how I long for an A C Moore,  Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

I had a great idea (or at least I thought it was a great idea) for a card.  I was going to make a window with shutters, without using a die.  I thought I could use my score board and create the shutters with the score board and also create siding by scoring the paper.  I wanted to make a card with a flower basket below the window and have flowers cascading below the basket and add some three-d flowers into the basket as well.  I’m not sure why it looks so bad, but the video is probably an hour long and I’m still not done with the card.  I thought it would look great if I put acetate over the windows, and the glue that was supposed to be “invisible,” currently is not.  I really thought I could make this a cute card, and I’ve spent so much time on it, that I hate to scrap it now.  I used some really cool techniques on the card.  I put a couch inside and made it a patterned material by “kissing” two stamps together.  The couch looks ok, but the rest of the room looks odd.  The couch seems like it’s too large or, I’m not sure, just out of place.  I hate it when I put so much time into something and have it turn out so badly, I can’t use the video, and worse, I can’t send it to anyone.  I really thought this was a good idea and that it would be really cute.  It’s not.  I guess I’ll have to add this to my “thought it would be a great idea, but wasn’t,” pile.  Some crafty days just turn out badly I guess.  Darn it.

On a brighter note, the card I made yesterday that I really was unhappy with, doesn’t look so bad now.  Maybe I’ll have the same thing happen to this one.  I seriously doubt it.