Yep, I can’t believe it either.
What started out with the days passing SO SLOWLY…seriously slowly here, as each and every movement of my body HURT…and now the days just seem to fly by. It’s like I blinked and all of a sudden I’m at our 30 day mark. I was VERY excited to take our 30 days pictures and tally up our progress thus far.
But before I share with you how I did, I have to talk about the things that you can’t necessarily measure. I’m sleeping better, really soundly especially now that I’m no longer waking myself up when I roll over on sore muscles. I’m drinking more water now that I’m working out (which is SO good for me!) and I’m making better food choices. This is something that’s slightly unconscious on my part, but I’m enjoying this side benefit all the same. And lastly, I feel a little more graceful. I know, I know. There are some people out there (Mom CC) that might be rolling on the floor laughing right now, but I promise you that I feel tighter and more “fluid” in my movements. Which might not be “actual” grace, but a type of grace…but work with me here people!
Now for the fun stuff…
My grand totals to this point in our plan are as follows:
4 pounds lost
½” on my waist is lost
I don’t love you enough to post my Day 1 picture against my Day 30 picture – sorry ladies, that’s really for your benefit, maybe it should be that I love you TOO much to post those pics! I need you here, reading my blog, not running the other way! But I did some work in Photoshop after we took our pictures putting the before and after shots side by side, and I do have to admit to being both amazed and disappointed all at the same time.
Amazed at all of the smaller changes that I can notice, especially on my arms and back. Disappointed because I was expecting to see more results – especially around my tummy area. Oh well. Just gives me something specific to work towards in the next 30 days, right? And maybe I’ll be brave enough to post those 60 Day pictures at that point…
But I need your help with something this week…I’m travelling this week, on the road and away from my workout regime. I was a good girl and packed one set of weights and my resistance bands. I also brought along my workout notebook, where I track my reps and exercises and all…so I’m going to struggle and TRY to do my workouts this week. And being on the road means eating out three meals a day…so I’m going to also TRY to eat right. Keep me in your thoughts and drop me an encouraging line or two, if you have the time. Thanks!
How do you get through times like this? When you’re away from your program and your workout buddy?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Oops! Did I Do That?!?!?
Sorry, ladies, but I couldn’t resist that title when I thought about writing this post…images of Steve Erkel just came running to the forefront of my mind…
You see, I ALMOST made a mistake with my STD envelopes. Well, in actuality, I DID make a mistake, but since it’s correctable, it turns into an almost mistake…you like the way that my mind works? I thought it worked out nicely for me! Anyway, back to what I did. Or didn’t do.
When I first started thinking about what I wanted for our Save the Dates, I fell in LOVE with embossing. Being a scrapper (like I’ve mentioned previously) you would think that this is something that I would be familiar with. Turns out, I’ve never even thought about it before. But I love the finish that it can give to your paper goods. Love…love…love the wedding invitations and STD stationary that I’ve seen where brides have added a touch of embossing to their project and saw what a change that little step can make. I knew immediately that our wedding stationary would be embossed in some way.
I’ve also been very good at reading what they did right and wrong and trying to learn from their mistakes. So in that frame of mind, let me share with you what I think that I did WRONG…and how I found that I could correct it!
I wanted something embossed on my STD, but with the postcard ordered and the magnet small enough that my stamp of choice for our stationary set was too large to use, I was bummed thinking that I would not be embossing anything on our STDs. Then I came up with the idea to emboss the envelopes with the scroll that I wanted to use. Cool! Back in business.
I read all that I could, and bought my supplies. I already had some stamping stuff, for my scrapbooking, but not an embossing gun or any powders. I followed the advice of other bloggers and went with colored ink and clear embossing powder, and picked up the gun at Hobby Lobby for a cool $20.
I thought that a “test drive” was in order for my new toy, and proceeded to stamp some scrolls and stuff on some test paper…dumped the powder on…shook off the excess…turned on the gun. Low and behold, that stuff works! And it’s easy! Cool. Miss CC is ready to do some embossing.
But I also noticed that my stamp was bigger than my ink pad. Hmmm…when I bought the embossing tools, I seem to remember a large black ink pad…maybe I could get a new one of those…since my black ink pad is old…kind of drying out…yeah, I can talk myself into anything! Off to Hobby Lobby for the BIG ink pad and back home again.
I worry about running the envelopes through my printer after the embossing process, so I proceed to print out the return address and all mailing addresses onto the envelopes first. The envelopes were just cheap cream envelopes that I picked up at Office Depot for about $8, so they ran through my printer like a charm, and I loved the font that I chose to do all of the addresses in.
I take out my new toys again and get to stamping and layering on that embossing powder. But to my surprise when I shake off the excess, almost no powder stays on the envelope…hmmm…scratch my head. Chalk it up to me not being fast enough. Try another two or three envelopes…same result.
The first thing that I decide was that the envelopes were such a cheap quality that the ink was just drying too fast. They were thin, after all. And they weren’t specifically an invitation weight paper or anything. Could be….but since it worked on regular computer paper, I think not.
I decided to live with it. The envelopes looked fine as they were.
But then, the other day while “killing time” at Hobby Lobby, I notice my big mistake. Embossing apparently requires embossing ink. Guess what I bought? Archiving ink. Yep, that’s right. My big black SUPER stamp pad was the wrong. kind. of. ink.
Boy do I feel dumb…
Luckily for me, I remember from my previous research that another way to do embossing is to use clear embossing ink and colored powder. Hmmm…since I’ve already stamped the scrolls in black, I wonder if I can stamp over it in clear embossing ink and cover with clear powder and get close enough that you won’t be able to tell the difference. Since all embossing supplies were on sale this week for 50% off at Hobby Lobby, I gave it a whirl.
Did another “test drive” last night with the already stamped envelopes and clear ink and powder…works like a charm. So now I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…fixing the other 70 envelopes…oh well. Live and learn, right? At least it’s fixable.
See? You can't even tell that I did this in two steps...
And don’t get me wrong. There’s not a thing wrong with leaving my envelopes just stamped. They look great. But I think that they look BETTER with the stamp being embossed! Yeah, Type A personality…bridezilla…whatever you want to call it…it’s peeking its head out right about now!
Did anyone else run into a little snag during a DIY project that you were also able to fix? Better yet, did anyone else realize that there were like 5 types of ink on the stamping aisle at your local craft store? And that it mattered which one you used? I didn’t!
You see, I ALMOST made a mistake with my STD envelopes. Well, in actuality, I DID make a mistake, but since it’s correctable, it turns into an almost mistake…you like the way that my mind works? I thought it worked out nicely for me! Anyway, back to what I did. Or didn’t do.
When I first started thinking about what I wanted for our Save the Dates, I fell in LOVE with embossing. Being a scrapper (like I’ve mentioned previously) you would think that this is something that I would be familiar with. Turns out, I’ve never even thought about it before. But I love the finish that it can give to your paper goods. Love…love…love the wedding invitations and STD stationary that I’ve seen where brides have added a touch of embossing to their project and saw what a change that little step can make. I knew immediately that our wedding stationary would be embossed in some way.
I’ve also been very good at reading what they did right and wrong and trying to learn from their mistakes. So in that frame of mind, let me share with you what I think that I did WRONG…and how I found that I could correct it!
I wanted something embossed on my STD, but with the postcard ordered and the magnet small enough that my stamp of choice for our stationary set was too large to use, I was bummed thinking that I would not be embossing anything on our STDs. Then I came up with the idea to emboss the envelopes with the scroll that I wanted to use. Cool! Back in business.
I read all that I could, and bought my supplies. I already had some stamping stuff, for my scrapbooking, but not an embossing gun or any powders. I followed the advice of other bloggers and went with colored ink and clear embossing powder, and picked up the gun at Hobby Lobby for a cool $20.
I thought that a “test drive” was in order for my new toy, and proceeded to stamp some scrolls and stuff on some test paper…dumped the powder on…shook off the excess…turned on the gun. Low and behold, that stuff works! And it’s easy! Cool. Miss CC is ready to do some embossing.
But I also noticed that my stamp was bigger than my ink pad. Hmmm…when I bought the embossing tools, I seem to remember a large black ink pad…maybe I could get a new one of those…since my black ink pad is old…kind of drying out…yeah, I can talk myself into anything! Off to Hobby Lobby for the BIG ink pad and back home again.
I worry about running the envelopes through my printer after the embossing process, so I proceed to print out the return address and all mailing addresses onto the envelopes first. The envelopes were just cheap cream envelopes that I picked up at Office Depot for about $8, so they ran through my printer like a charm, and I loved the font that I chose to do all of the addresses in.
I take out my new toys again and get to stamping and layering on that embossing powder. But to my surprise when I shake off the excess, almost no powder stays on the envelope…hmmm…scratch my head. Chalk it up to me not being fast enough. Try another two or three envelopes…same result.
The first thing that I decide was that the envelopes were such a cheap quality that the ink was just drying too fast. They were thin, after all. And they weren’t specifically an invitation weight paper or anything. Could be….but since it worked on regular computer paper, I think not.
I decided to live with it. The envelopes looked fine as they were.
But then, the other day while “killing time” at Hobby Lobby, I notice my big mistake. Embossing apparently requires embossing ink. Guess what I bought? Archiving ink. Yep, that’s right. My big black SUPER stamp pad was the wrong. kind. of. ink.
Boy do I feel dumb…
Luckily for me, I remember from my previous research that another way to do embossing is to use clear embossing ink and colored powder. Hmmm…since I’ve already stamped the scrolls in black, I wonder if I can stamp over it in clear embossing ink and cover with clear powder and get close enough that you won’t be able to tell the difference. Since all embossing supplies were on sale this week for 50% off at Hobby Lobby, I gave it a whirl.
Did another “test drive” last night with the already stamped envelopes and clear ink and powder…works like a charm. So now I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…fixing the other 70 envelopes…oh well. Live and learn, right? At least it’s fixable.
See? You can't even tell that I did this in two steps...
And don’t get me wrong. There’s not a thing wrong with leaving my envelopes just stamped. They look great. But I think that they look BETTER with the stamp being embossed! Yeah, Type A personality…bridezilla…whatever you want to call it…it’s peeking its head out right about now!
Did anyone else run into a little snag during a DIY project that you were also able to fix? Better yet, did anyone else realize that there were like 5 types of ink on the stamping aisle at your local craft store? And that it mattered which one you used? I didn’t!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Adobe Photoshop...Love It? Or Hate It?
I really don’t know which camp I’d like to take residence in. I originally wanted the program because I was interested in doing digital scrapbooking. The frugal side of me was just overjoyed at the thought of being able to purchase digital paper that you could use over and over and over again. Do you realize how many solid pieces of paper a scrapper like me has in her book of papers? A LOT! I’m a BIG fan of matting pictures out…I tend to scrap with patterned papers for the background and matting the pictures on solids on top of that. Just a style that I personally like. I can’t tell you how many pieces of Bazzill black textured paper I have bought over the years since I started scrapping…
So this thought appealed to me…and I did some research into which program was the better one to get. Hands down, Adobe Photoshop won. But the part that I didn’t like was the big price tag that comes along with it…lucky for me, Mr. CC stepped up and got the program for me last Valentine’s Day (2008). Then I was a BAD fiancé and didn’t actually try to use the program until this Valentine’s Day. Yep, you read that right – I let the program sit for about a year. You see, he got a great deal from a friend of his. The family owns or works in computers and has access to lots of programs, and this friend just downloaded the program onto Mr. CC’s home computer for him via the net. Then he put a folder on the desktop that would allow us to burn another copy of the program and install it on my own personal laptop too. Mr. CC’s friend was up front about the fact that doing it this way meant that I wouldn’t get the user’s manual.
Uh, who really cares about a silly user’s manual when this expensive program is mine for free? Not me…
Yeah, I actually had that thought. Silly me.
You see, I didn’t realize how complicated Photoshop would be to work with. It was overwhelming. At the time, Mr. CC and I didn’t live together and there were several nights when I would have little CC that we would not spend together. This was the perfect time in my mind for me to put Photoshop on my laptop and “teach” myself the program. No big deal.
Until I ran into a snag on getting the program to load. It downloaded just fine, but when you get to the part of registering the product, the number that our friend gave us didn’t work. Mr. CC tried for several weeks with no luck to call his friend back and get it straightened out. I think that we did make contact with said friend one time, but something was going on and he would call right back…so we waited…and waited…we’re still waiting.
So I guess you could say that I got a bad taste in my mouth right away with my new beloved program. What’s the fun of this if I have to sit at a desktop computer to do this? None in my mind. The fun of scrapping for me is doing it in front of the tv…involving others – since I scrap with several friends at given times…being mobile is part of the new era in computers. So now that I’m stuck upstairs at the desktop without even a tv to keep me company, this is no fun. Plus, splitting my time between travel for work, time alone with little CC, time with our whole family, and time alone with Mr. CC just didn’t leave me a lot of time to sit down and learn this.
Then I got engaged…and several wedding projects popped up in my head, and I became determined to conquer Photoshop. I mean, it’s just a program, right? I can’t be THAT hard…yeah. I know, silly me.
In a lot of ways, Photoshop is easy to use. On the same hand, in a lot of ways it’s really hard to use. Learning the ropes takes a little bit of patience and practice. And the manual REALLY would have come in handy, it turns out…because it’s a graphic design program, something that I know nothing about. There are a lot of little tips and tricks that you can do with this program, but you have to know that the tricks even exist and then how to do them…to say that it is a bit difficult for a newbie is an understatement.
But I have this wedding project for the centerpieces in my mind that would be SO easy if I could conquer this monster…so slowly but surely I’m learning. I’ve been able to find a lot of free tutorials by surfing the net, but that’s time consuming as well. And I can still only do it at our desktop which annoys me. I spend all day long on a computer at work, so there are days that I just DON’T want to be on the computer at night. And even though I’ve now decided that spending $80 for the newest version of the program is really NOT that expensive…I don’t have my personal laptop anymore and can’t load the program onto my work laptop…so I’ll just stick with the version that I have at the moment.
So, I slave away…upstairs in my “tower”…all alone. With the help of my webinars that are slowly teaching me the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop. Luckily for me, I’m a quick learner and I’m really not afraid to just push buttons until I can get it to do what I want…I’m stubborn like that. LOL! Due to my progress, I’ve also been able to design our magnets for the STDs and come up with a monogram that Mr. CC and I love that we will use in our invitations. And the thought of doing my own invitations no longer gives me terrors or weak moments…
Adobe and me? We’re progressing. We might not be tight and close and all, but we’re on a first name, acquaintance-type of basis for the moment…
Which camp do you fall into? Or did you attempt something like this just to discover that it really was easier to “hire” out the design portion of your DIY projects to the many designers that are available on places like etsy.com? I’d really like to know…
So this thought appealed to me…and I did some research into which program was the better one to get. Hands down, Adobe Photoshop won. But the part that I didn’t like was the big price tag that comes along with it…lucky for me, Mr. CC stepped up and got the program for me last Valentine’s Day (2008). Then I was a BAD fiancé and didn’t actually try to use the program until this Valentine’s Day. Yep, you read that right – I let the program sit for about a year. You see, he got a great deal from a friend of his. The family owns or works in computers and has access to lots of programs, and this friend just downloaded the program onto Mr. CC’s home computer for him via the net. Then he put a folder on the desktop that would allow us to burn another copy of the program and install it on my own personal laptop too. Mr. CC’s friend was up front about the fact that doing it this way meant that I wouldn’t get the user’s manual.
Uh, who really cares about a silly user’s manual when this expensive program is mine for free? Not me…
Yeah, I actually had that thought. Silly me.
You see, I didn’t realize how complicated Photoshop would be to work with. It was overwhelming. At the time, Mr. CC and I didn’t live together and there were several nights when I would have little CC that we would not spend together. This was the perfect time in my mind for me to put Photoshop on my laptop and “teach” myself the program. No big deal.
Until I ran into a snag on getting the program to load. It downloaded just fine, but when you get to the part of registering the product, the number that our friend gave us didn’t work. Mr. CC tried for several weeks with no luck to call his friend back and get it straightened out. I think that we did make contact with said friend one time, but something was going on and he would call right back…so we waited…and waited…we’re still waiting.
So I guess you could say that I got a bad taste in my mouth right away with my new beloved program. What’s the fun of this if I have to sit at a desktop computer to do this? None in my mind. The fun of scrapping for me is doing it in front of the tv…involving others – since I scrap with several friends at given times…being mobile is part of the new era in computers. So now that I’m stuck upstairs at the desktop without even a tv to keep me company, this is no fun. Plus, splitting my time between travel for work, time alone with little CC, time with our whole family, and time alone with Mr. CC just didn’t leave me a lot of time to sit down and learn this.
Then I got engaged…and several wedding projects popped up in my head, and I became determined to conquer Photoshop. I mean, it’s just a program, right? I can’t be THAT hard…yeah. I know, silly me.
In a lot of ways, Photoshop is easy to use. On the same hand, in a lot of ways it’s really hard to use. Learning the ropes takes a little bit of patience and practice. And the manual REALLY would have come in handy, it turns out…because it’s a graphic design program, something that I know nothing about. There are a lot of little tips and tricks that you can do with this program, but you have to know that the tricks even exist and then how to do them…to say that it is a bit difficult for a newbie is an understatement.
But I have this wedding project for the centerpieces in my mind that would be SO easy if I could conquer this monster…so slowly but surely I’m learning. I’ve been able to find a lot of free tutorials by surfing the net, but that’s time consuming as well. And I can still only do it at our desktop which annoys me. I spend all day long on a computer at work, so there are days that I just DON’T want to be on the computer at night. And even though I’ve now decided that spending $80 for the newest version of the program is really NOT that expensive…I don’t have my personal laptop anymore and can’t load the program onto my work laptop…so I’ll just stick with the version that I have at the moment.
So, I slave away…upstairs in my “tower”…all alone. With the help of my webinars that are slowly teaching me the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop. Luckily for me, I’m a quick learner and I’m really not afraid to just push buttons until I can get it to do what I want…I’m stubborn like that. LOL! Due to my progress, I’ve also been able to design our magnets for the STDs and come up with a monogram that Mr. CC and I love that we will use in our invitations. And the thought of doing my own invitations no longer gives me terrors or weak moments…
Adobe and me? We’re progressing. We might not be tight and close and all, but we’re on a first name, acquaintance-type of basis for the moment…
Which camp do you fall into? Or did you attempt something like this just to discover that it really was easier to “hire” out the design portion of your DIY projects to the many designers that are available on places like etsy.com? I’d really like to know…
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Dreaming of Pocketfold Invitations...
Where do you get your inspiration from when you’re trying to make decisions?
Some people like to look at magazines…some look at books…some drive around looking for inspiration. I guess that it depends on what you’re trying to get inspiration on. If it’s wedding inspiration that you’re trying to find, then I seriously doubt driving around would help you all that much. Well, I guess that any given Saturday you could try to crash some weddings to pick up inspiration, but that seems like a LOT of work…
Me? I go to the web…surf the internet and “stalk” websites searching for inspiration on ideas that I’m looking for…one of my recent favorite searches has been for wedding invitations. Now that I can see the end in sight for my STDs, I am trying to start the focus on my wedding invitations.
You see…I have a confession to make…I’ve had SO much fun making my own STDs that I can’t imagine not trying to make our wedding invitations. Since one of my hobbies is scrapbooking, it just seems SO logical to me that I would be able to do this. In order to do that I needed a little inspiration for what exactly I was looking for in a wedding invitation. Because obviously, if I fell in love with something too complicated then I would have to hire at least a portion of the invitation out…
So I went to work searching…and searching…took a few weeks off to work on STDs…and went back to searching.
Yesterday I finally decided that my initial love of pocketfold invitations was something that was going to stick around, so I started looking into the cost of doing them myself…or buying them pre-made.
But before I set out to see if this was something that I could do or not…I decided that I needed to make sure that Mr. CC was going to love the pocketfold as much as I did. Probably not AS MUCH as me…but you know what I mean.
So I pulled some pictures off of the internet for him to look at, some different options that I liked. Actually, the first thing that I did was try to get him to give me “free reign” of this whole process…no such luck. I think that I messed myself up with the words “free reign.” He immediately got suspicious and wanted pictures since he had no clue what a pocketfold invitation looked like, and my descriptions didn’t really clear anything up for him.
To my pleasant surprise, Mr. CC liked the pocketfold concept too for our invitations, and even went so far as to pick out my favorite shape – the square invitation. Nice, Mr. CC – don’t ever let anyone tell you that you don’t have any taste!
So now that the biggest question has been settled on – back to my project of seeing if I could do these as cheaply as I could order them pre-made (which is NO fun at all!).
Cardsandpockets.com is a company that I found that will make JUST the pocketfolds for your invitations, so that you can DIY the rest. And the cost of fairly minimal – ranging anywhere from $.75 to $1.38 per pocketfold. A great deal, if I do say so myself…and they can be ordered in a wide range of colors, including shimmer/metallic papers. A nice alternative if you don’t want to do it yourself.
But what happens if you don’t happen to like the sizes that they offer? Can a handy DIY gal do it herself for the same price?
I set out this morning to figure out the answer to that question. I made a “trial” pocketfold (including all the mattes and invitation paper too) just to see it all together. Perfect – JUST what I had in mind…
Now for the cost…I can order the larger, heavier paper from here and get enough for all of my invitations for less than $40 (including shipping). Sold! That’s only $.04 per pocketfold…a thrifty gal like me with a paper cutter and scissors and tape can totally make these! Even factoring in cutting charges and tape, the total cost of my pocketfolds should be less than $60, which makes 100 of these come out to $.06 a piece.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I can’t WAIT to get started on these…and my BMs are chomping at the bit to start helping me with things – this is the perfect project for that!
Have you found a project that would be easy to purchase already done, but just can’t justify the cost when you actually figure out the savings that you could have if you do the project yourself?
Some people like to look at magazines…some look at books…some drive around looking for inspiration. I guess that it depends on what you’re trying to get inspiration on. If it’s wedding inspiration that you’re trying to find, then I seriously doubt driving around would help you all that much. Well, I guess that any given Saturday you could try to crash some weddings to pick up inspiration, but that seems like a LOT of work…
Me? I go to the web…surf the internet and “stalk” websites searching for inspiration on ideas that I’m looking for…one of my recent favorite searches has been for wedding invitations. Now that I can see the end in sight for my STDs, I am trying to start the focus on my wedding invitations.
You see…I have a confession to make…I’ve had SO much fun making my own STDs that I can’t imagine not trying to make our wedding invitations. Since one of my hobbies is scrapbooking, it just seems SO logical to me that I would be able to do this. In order to do that I needed a little inspiration for what exactly I was looking for in a wedding invitation. Because obviously, if I fell in love with something too complicated then I would have to hire at least a portion of the invitation out…
So I went to work searching…and searching…took a few weeks off to work on STDs…and went back to searching.
Yesterday I finally decided that my initial love of pocketfold invitations was something that was going to stick around, so I started looking into the cost of doing them myself…or buying them pre-made.
But before I set out to see if this was something that I could do or not…I decided that I needed to make sure that Mr. CC was going to love the pocketfold as much as I did. Probably not AS MUCH as me…but you know what I mean.
So I pulled some pictures off of the internet for him to look at, some different options that I liked. Actually, the first thing that I did was try to get him to give me “free reign” of this whole process…no such luck. I think that I messed myself up with the words “free reign.” He immediately got suspicious and wanted pictures since he had no clue what a pocketfold invitation looked like, and my descriptions didn’t really clear anything up for him.
To my pleasant surprise, Mr. CC liked the pocketfold concept too for our invitations, and even went so far as to pick out my favorite shape – the square invitation. Nice, Mr. CC – don’t ever let anyone tell you that you don’t have any taste!
So now that the biggest question has been settled on – back to my project of seeing if I could do these as cheaply as I could order them pre-made (which is NO fun at all!).
Cardsandpockets.com is a company that I found that will make JUST the pocketfolds for your invitations, so that you can DIY the rest. And the cost of fairly minimal – ranging anywhere from $.75 to $1.38 per pocketfold. A great deal, if I do say so myself…and they can be ordered in a wide range of colors, including shimmer/metallic papers. A nice alternative if you don’t want to do it yourself.
But what happens if you don’t happen to like the sizes that they offer? Can a handy DIY gal do it herself for the same price?
I set out this morning to figure out the answer to that question. I made a “trial” pocketfold (including all the mattes and invitation paper too) just to see it all together. Perfect – JUST what I had in mind…
Now for the cost…I can order the larger, heavier paper from here and get enough for all of my invitations for less than $40 (including shipping). Sold! That’s only $.04 per pocketfold…a thrifty gal like me with a paper cutter and scissors and tape can totally make these! Even factoring in cutting charges and tape, the total cost of my pocketfolds should be less than $60, which makes 100 of these come out to $.06 a piece.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I can’t WAIT to get started on these…and my BMs are chomping at the bit to start helping me with things – this is the perfect project for that!
Have you found a project that would be easy to purchase already done, but just can’t justify the cost when you actually figure out the savings that you could have if you do the project yourself?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Attaching Your "Flowers"
When first reading about this project, I got it in my head that Styrofoam would be a better medium for the ball than a paper lantern. I don’t know what I was thinking. Not only is it heavier and harder to work with, but Styrofoam balls are also expensive!
So I stuck to what the girls that had already done this project told me to do and went with paper lanterns.
I ordered my paper lanterns from paperlanternstore.com in the sizes of 10”, 12” and 16”. I was actually going for either 10”, 12” and 14” or 12”, 14” and 16” but the 14” paper lanterns were always sold out. I ordered in either white or off white, depending on what was in stock. And keep in mind that each paper flower stands about 2-2 ½” off of the paper lantern, so a 10” lantern becomes a 14” pomander. Even in varying sizes, the total order (with shipping) came to less than $20.
I would make a good pile of flowers before I did this stage of things. I actually kept a box of flowers in our living room. I would “fluff” flowers while we watched television at night and then throw them all into the box to wait until I had enough done to finish a pomander at once.
So, I already owned a hot glue gun. I used a mini glue gun, but size doesn’t really matter, whichever you’d prefer. Heat up the hot glue gun and open up your paper lanterns. They ship to you flat and you have to assemble them. This is easy and hard all at the same. Well, that’s not true. It’s not hard at all. I was just worried about sticking that metal bar through the fragile paper and ruining things…
Obsessive much, I know.
Anyway. Once your paper lantern is constructed, I would recommend starting at the bottom of the lantern. I did this backwards on the first one, and the poor flowers at the top got all smushed by the time that I finished because I kept sticking my arm into the lantern and smashing them. For me, it was easiest for me to get my hand inside the lantern at the top…if it’s easier for you to go through the bottom, then start at the top. Just start at the opposite end of where you plan on getting inside the lantern from. You’ll just want to make sure that the bottom of the lantern (since this is the part that when hanging you can look up and see) looks the best and is really full.
(you can barely even see the opening, huh?)
Take a paper flower and fluff any smushing that may have happened while in the box.
Find the middle of the flower and stick your finger into it.
Keeping that finger in the middle, fold the fuzzy wire down flat.
Add a good dollop of hot glue around the head of the wire.
Allow the glue to cool for a minute before attempting the next step or else you WILL burn your fingers. Please, learn from my mistakes!
Once ready, position the paper flower on the “top” of the lantern and ease your hand other hand inside the lantern to apply pressure from both sides. See, why you have to cool the glue off? Now you are pushing from the center of the flower on the top and the center of the hot glue dot on the back. It will still be warm. Trust me. Just be careful and take your time. When the glue cooled a little and becomes just warm instead of hot, the flower is probably pretty firm. You can test gently.
Repeat the process for all of your flowers. When placing the next flower, I recommend getting them nice and close in together. This helps them look more real, and “fluffs” them even more. (The “mums” cover more ground than the “roses” seem to, which was also another reason that I went with them for my flower.)
Here’s a shot of a nearly finished lantern…just to keep you encouraged on your progress…
Also, you’ll notice that I alternated white and cream flowers. My artistic little sister and I thought that blending the two colors might make it more “real.” I have to admit that she was right. The first pomander that I did I alternated one to one. But it was too much white. Not enough to re-do the whole thing or anything, but just not quite right. So all of the other ones I have just put a white one in every once in a while. No real pattern or anything.
I will attach these to the underside of the roof of the arbor at our ceremony site with some black satin ribbon that I can find at any craft store.
So what do you think? Do you think that they look as classy and neat as I do? I LOVE them! And they have been worth the work. And since I can watch Platinum Weddings, Rich Bride/Poor Bride, My Fair Wedding and various other wedding shows while doing all of these activities; I have to ask the question…is it really work? I think not.
Did you have a project that when you started it you really weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, and then as it progressed you just fell in love with it?
So I stuck to what the girls that had already done this project told me to do and went with paper lanterns.
I ordered my paper lanterns from paperlanternstore.com in the sizes of 10”, 12” and 16”. I was actually going for either 10”, 12” and 14” or 12”, 14” and 16” but the 14” paper lanterns were always sold out. I ordered in either white or off white, depending on what was in stock. And keep in mind that each paper flower stands about 2-2 ½” off of the paper lantern, so a 10” lantern becomes a 14” pomander. Even in varying sizes, the total order (with shipping) came to less than $20.
I would make a good pile of flowers before I did this stage of things. I actually kept a box of flowers in our living room. I would “fluff” flowers while we watched television at night and then throw them all into the box to wait until I had enough done to finish a pomander at once.
So, I already owned a hot glue gun. I used a mini glue gun, but size doesn’t really matter, whichever you’d prefer. Heat up the hot glue gun and open up your paper lanterns. They ship to you flat and you have to assemble them. This is easy and hard all at the same. Well, that’s not true. It’s not hard at all. I was just worried about sticking that metal bar through the fragile paper and ruining things…
Obsessive much, I know.
Anyway. Once your paper lantern is constructed, I would recommend starting at the bottom of the lantern. I did this backwards on the first one, and the poor flowers at the top got all smushed by the time that I finished because I kept sticking my arm into the lantern and smashing them. For me, it was easiest for me to get my hand inside the lantern at the top…if it’s easier for you to go through the bottom, then start at the top. Just start at the opposite end of where you plan on getting inside the lantern from. You’ll just want to make sure that the bottom of the lantern (since this is the part that when hanging you can look up and see) looks the best and is really full.
(you can barely even see the opening, huh?)Take a paper flower and fluff any smushing that may have happened while in the box.
Find the middle of the flower and stick your finger into it.
Keeping that finger in the middle, fold the fuzzy wire down flat.Add a good dollop of hot glue around the head of the wire.Allow the glue to cool for a minute before attempting the next step or else you WILL burn your fingers. Please, learn from my mistakes!Once ready, position the paper flower on the “top” of the lantern and ease your hand other hand inside the lantern to apply pressure from both sides. See, why you have to cool the glue off? Now you are pushing from the center of the flower on the top and the center of the hot glue dot on the back. It will still be warm. Trust me. Just be careful and take your time. When the glue cooled a little and becomes just warm instead of hot, the flower is probably pretty firm. You can test gently.
Repeat the process for all of your flowers. When placing the next flower, I recommend getting them nice and close in together. This helps them look more real, and “fluffs” them even more. (The “mums” cover more ground than the “roses” seem to, which was also another reason that I went with them for my flower.)
Here’s a shot of a nearly finished lantern…just to keep you encouraged on your progress…
Also, you’ll notice that I alternated white and cream flowers. My artistic little sister and I thought that blending the two colors might make it more “real.” I have to admit that she was right. The first pomander that I did I alternated one to one. But it was too much white. Not enough to re-do the whole thing or anything, but just not quite right. So all of the other ones I have just put a white one in every once in a while. No real pattern or anything.I will attach these to the underside of the roof of the arbor at our ceremony site with some black satin ribbon that I can find at any craft store.
So what do you think? Do you think that they look as classy and neat as I do? I LOVE them! And they have been worth the work. And since I can watch Platinum Weddings, Rich Bride/Poor Bride, My Fair Wedding and various other wedding shows while doing all of these activities; I have to ask the question…is it really work? I think not.Did you have a project that when you started it you really weren’t sure how it was going to turn out, and then as it progressed you just fell in love with it?
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