Crafting For 3 Days

This took me 3 days to complete but, it was so well worth the time. While I don't know what I want to do with this just yet, I can use it to hold some of my handmade cards for future use. Or, I can put some photos in it and use it as a photo album. I could also use it as a recipe book if I wanted to but, I don't really think that I would want this near food where it could get messy. I will likely use it to store cards that I make until I send them out and then I'll just keep refilling it after each card I send out. I might make a different themed card for each tab. So, one tab will be for Birthday cards. One will be for Sympathy cards. Another for Thinking of You cards. Another for Get Well Soon cards. Maybe one pocket can be for stamps and labels. Seems I might have just worked out how I am going to use it! Thanks for letting me brainstorm.

Anyway, I found the video on how to make this on Youtube. One of my favorite fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators made one very similar to it. Here is the link to her video: http://www.youtube.com/user/dawn5377#p/u/0/xafbBQ3kdh4 I hope that works. I've had issues figuring out how to post links in the past but, fingers crossed that I got it right. If not, go to YouTube and type Dawn5377 into the YouTube search engine near the top of the screen and it will take you to her YouTube channel. She is really talented and I often look to her for inspiration.

I used several similar elements but, I also incorporated a lot of my own. Most of the items I used in mine are from Stampin' Up! Every stamp and ink pad I used was from Stampin' Up! But, I used a few punches, some paper, a few stickers, some beads and one other effect from my local craft stores.

I had a blast with this project and I think that I would like to make more in the future to give away. I actually think that they would be great to make as a way to package a pack of greeting cards for friends and family when they ask me to make cards for them to give to others.

It is intricate. There are a lot of details. But, for as intricate and detailed as it is, it is also really easy to make. I think what took me so much time to make it was that I was trying to decide what elements I wanted to incorporate. It took me some time to figure out how I wanted to decorate it. What stamp sets, embellishments, colors, stickers, paper and punches I wanted to use, took time to choose. It is all a part of the process. I often wonder if it would help me save some time if I worked out a little blueprint of my projects before I actually dive into making them. But, then again...that could take just as much time so, perhaps I will just continue to fly by the seat of my pants.

Anyway...I hope you all enjoy this. It is one of my favorite creations so far. I am super proud of it and don't mind bragging! I MADE THIS! :)

Thank You!

I believe in making amends and giving thanks when it is due. So, I am sorry for being so vulgar and vicious in my previous post about my government. And, thank you for making things right, working things out and doing what was necessary to ensure pay for our military! I knew my faith in my government and my president wouldn't be failed. But, I had steam to let off and so I did. While I won't apologize for the fact that I let off that steam, as I feel it is my right, I will apologize for the words I chose to use in blowing off that steam. It was vulgar, immature and disgusting but, I let my temper get the better of me and for that, I am truly sorry. From the bottom of my heart, the tip of my longest toe and the top of my head, thank you so much for making sure that my friend gets the paycheck he deserves and he can take care of himself and his family this month. And thank you to my president, for showing me that I can count on you when the chips are down. Thank you for not failing me. I helped put you where you are today. It is nice to know that my trust is valued and warranted.

Shit! Why?

I love my country and I love my President. I voted for him and was so joyful when he was elected. But shit! I have friends in the military and now they aren't going to be paid? Fuck! I want to continue to support my President. I genuinely think that he has made some improvements. The job market has improved bit by bit. The economy has gotten better. I have said before that he had a huge mess to clean up so, it is ridiculous for the naysayers to continue to expect him to have been the immediate solution and it really pisses me off when some insist on blaming him for it when he didn't start that fire and he is basically a dang one man fire department.

But this son-of-a-bitching shitty crap about the military not being paid because the government has to shut down because they mismanaged the budget? What the fuck people? How about you don't pay yourselves? Or...if you can't pay someone, then you bring them the fuck home from their deployments. I am not going to be another sheep following the herd about the 3 wars we are in now...or is it 4? Who can count anymore. Again, I say, he didn't start 2 or 3 of those fires but he is now in charge of putting them out so, try attacking him on the inability to end it and not rewriting our country's history and blaming him for starting the wars that dude man jackass started before him.

I AM FUCKING PISSED OFF right now. I just want things to be right. I know that life isn't fair but, people can make things acceptable and not paying people who have set aside their own comforts, time with their families, holidays, and sometimes their lives entirely to protect our freedoms is the worst slap anyone could ever give anyone else. Fucking cut your mismanaging paychecks. Sit in your comfy office, work your asses off, make things right and don't get paid for it for one month but pay our men and women who would lay down their lives to protect your stupid fucking irresponsible asses.

Again, I love my country and I really want to support my government. But they are breaking my heart for my friends in the military, and of course for those I don't know. And, with any broken heart comes anger. Raging, irrational, vulgar, cursing, spitting, fighting mad angry venom.

Please...PLEASE...make this right. Do the right damn thing and take a cut to your wallet, not to the wallet of those who serve us our freedom in our warm beds at night while they sleep behind a rock in the cold desert.

Please stop breaking my heart and my spirit. Please don't hurt my friend. Please give him his well-deserved paycheck so that he can take care of his family and himself.

PLEASE!!!!

Screw Yesterday!

Yesterday sucked. My mom called me crying because her best friend's boyfriend died of a heart attack on the treadmill. He was 66 and in good shape and he just died. My mom and dad were really close to him as well. They were all about as thick as thieves so it was a day full of tears for both of them. They are older than both the man who had the heart attack and his girlfriend so, it was hard for them as it forced them both to look at their own mortality.

It is hard for me to handle my mom crying. There is nothing more heartbreaking than hearing my mom cry on the other end of the phone and being completely helpless as to how to cheer her up and comfort her. I've never been good at comforting others. As compassionate as I am, I never have the words to express my sincerest sympathies, nor do I have the words to help them feel better. I don't really think that there are words anyone could say to make a person feel better when they experience loss. I've experienced my fair share. When I was about 18, one of my friends died in a car accident. I was inconsolable. Just a little over 6 months ago, a friend of mine from college passed away suddenly. I don't know how he died and have not felt comfortable asking his widow, also a friend of mine from college, and there wasn't anything specific in the paper or online about how or why he died. So, of course there is speculation which only makes me feel worse about his death. I've lost all of my grandparents. And, like most people, I've lost pets. I know in light of human loss, some might think that something silly for me to mention but, I feel as strong of a bond to my pets as I do to any human, and sometimes and even stronger bond to my pets than some humans. So, for me it is as natural to count pets among my losses as it is to count relatives and friends. And, along with my parents' loss of their friend, one of my friends had to put her cat to sleep yesterday as well.

It wasn't just my mom and dad that felt the loss of their friend. My brother had grown close to him as well. They all hung out together at the marina where the couple and my parents all dock their boats and, that included my brother and his 3 year old daughter. So, while my parents were forced to face their own mortality, my brother was faced with something much more innocent and almost on the opposite side of the spectrum. He must now figure out how to explain death to his 3 year old as she often asked him when they could go play in their pool and hang out on their boat.

To put it as bluntly as I can...death sucks. Especially when it is senseless. How does a man who takes great care of himself just pass away while literally taking good care of himself? How does a guy who was maybe a year or so younger than me die? How does a teenager who has never even left the state in which he was born and hasn't even gotten to attend his prom, graduation or put his first step into college die driving from point A to point B? I'm pissed. I'm sad. And I want to understand the impossible to understand. But, for now, I guess I'll just have to settle for getting it off my shoulders.