I’m making 4×6 cards that have (going from top to bottom)

Groom’s Guest/ Bride’s Guest

The names of the people to be invited (so I don’t have to hunt for them when filling out envelopes)

The address of the people to be invited

And check boxes for: Is this someone who should be invited to the bridal shower?  Is this someone who should receive a save the date card?  Is this someone who should be invited to the bachelor/ bachelorette party?  Have I sent a thank you for their gift?  What was their gift?

I saw some of these cards at a store years ago, picked them up and put them away.  The purchased ones did not have all of this information, and that’s why I’m working on my own.  This way, I can give half of the cards to my mom; half to my soon to be mother in law, and they can fill them out for me- so that I can know how many invitations to make, and I can then start to gather supplies.

Not only that, I can then work on an excel document that will be made for every part of that card- the shower, the invite, the bachelorette party, the bachelor party…so that I can print those off for others to see and they can review before we send the invites out, to make sure that no one is forgotten.

I have a friend at work who liked this idea so much, she’s doing the same thing for her upcoming wedding.

Someday soon, I’ll post a pic of the cards.  I made them by hand.  I’m blessed to have a job that I can work and keep busy with my hands while doing my work- so yes, I did write them all.

Think of all of the crafty-goodness that I can share!

The invitations!

The programs!

The jewelry!

The Bridesmaid’s gifts!

The flowers!

My intention is to also talk about cost-saving and time saving things that I’ve learned while going along this road.  I’ve already had one setback.  I chose a perfect, and I mean perfect 12 x 12 piece of paper to be the background for my programs, for my invites, for lots of other ideas and touches during the process.  So what could possibly be wrong?  I can’t find it anywhere online- and I only saw it in one store today.  So, I’m going to do a feverish search to see if I can find another paper that mirrors this one, or at least captures the essence of the design.

Other than that, planning has been fun so far and the big steps are getting accomplished in the coming weeks.  My fiancee and I are going to the church tomorrow to sit down with our pastor- and to get some questions out of the way.  We’ve asked most of the bridal party to be part of our day- and know where we want our reception to be held as well as how we’d like our ceremony to go.

So, here’s to posting more often, and to planning our wedding!

I took photos of it today while I was visiting my family.  I look at it all of the time when I go up there–and I hope it inspires you all to make something wonderful for your mothers- or someone who stands in for a mother for you.  I’m going to be making one for K’s mom this year (don’t worry she doesn’t even know I have a blog), and I plan on making a few more for other purposes this year.  I’m going to make a couple of more posts in the following days (or weeks-the way the work schedule has been), and talk about each of the four corners that I made within this shadow box.

Enjoy!

What is everyone making for Mother’s Day this year?

I’ve written before about the crazy hours that we’re working right now.  I can’t even discuss how intense my job has become in the past two or three weeks.  I work for a company in Michigan and I work in one of their call centers. Since the economy is so incredibly horrible; we’ve been inundated with calls.  The calls are from people who think their bills are too high, those who want to make payment arrangements, who need information about payment programs, or from those that have emergency situations.  Right now there is little down time between calls.  We’re spending anywhere from 8-12 hours on the phone and that is call after call after call after call. 

So to keep our sanity, several people read, knit, bead, and scrapbook. I just had to share what my work space looked like this weekend-it was interesting because we were actually not as busy as we have been recently, so I had downtime to work on Valentine’s Day cards…this is what my desk looked like:

Left side of my desk during work Saturday

Right side of my desk Saturday

No matter how many people yell at me, tell me that my company or I am stupid….I have something that keeps me sane and positive-and it is my crafting.  I’ve also been able to knit at work, and that has had a few fruits of my labor recently.  My sister received a new scarf for her birthday:

I made it from some yarn that I had received as a gift.  I plan on making one for myself in the future out of a pretty lacier yarn…this is acrylic, and since my sister has a young son, I thought that something that would be serviceable and would be able to go into the wash would be a good choice for her.   Here’s a closer look at the ladder stitch pattern:

Although I’m really happy with the results, I can’t wait to make it again with some yarn that is REALLY special.

I’m sure that in the coming weeks, I’ll have a lot more to talk about in reference to my crafting at my desk.  I can’t wait to share!

What you need:

1.  Some sort of container to cover.  I used to work at this place that had tons of containers for small toys, and those have come in handy for several projects.  (Although they have added to my general stash-they have come in handy.)

2.  Nice sharp scissors.

3.  Glue dots or some sort of adhesive that will work for the container you are trying to cover.

4.  Ribbon.

5.  Ruler.

6.  Pretty paper, of course!

I measured the width of the container, and trimmed my paper to slightly smaller than the container size, so that my ribbon  could be the edging for it. 

Then, I adhered it to the container with the glue dots.  (I love those things!)

Next, I used the ribbon to edge the paper and make it look finished.  And there I had it, a new pencil holder for  my desk that is both pretty and functional.

Now, if you look at the back of the container, you’ll notice that I have a small slice that is not covered.  I really didn’t worry about it.  If this would have been for a gift, or as something that I wasn’t able to cover the back with the side of my cubicle, I would have spent more time covering the back and making sure that it was not exposed.

I’m going back to the scraproom to work on more circle journal things…and to make some more pretty pages for the scrapbooks.  I hope that this project gave you some ideas for looking at containers in a different way.  Explore the possibilites with things that you have lying around at home. A box, a bag, or a coffee can could become a great container for a gift or for some other supply.  The possibilites are endless!

So, this weekend, I took the initiative and began working on things to make my desk more pretty.  More Me.

My first project was to cover a box that I’ve  had around the house for about ummm….too long, anyway.  I’d hung onto it with the hopes of either painting it or covering it, possibly for a gift.  I think that every crafter has a few things around the house like that.  It’s too good to throw away, but not pretty enough to use.  Yet.

The desk that I have is entirely too deep, and I’d like to put some pictures behind my computer-so that I see them all of the time.  So I thought this box would be a perfect solution, and I needed to make it pretty.  Some scrapbooking paper, some ribbon and ding!  Here it is:

Pretty and functional.  That’s what I like.

I also worked on an old container that I got as a gift from a Hallmark store years ago.  It is one of those card organizers that has a tab for every month.  That really wasn’t working for me, so I decided to change it up and dress it up a better way.  Here are the results:

Much prettier and even more functional because I couldn’t resist.  I had to:

I just had to make the dividers more “me” by personalizing them, and creating the categories that I typically use for cards. 

This box will allow me to be ready with a card at any time, and have it at arm’s length.  I love it!  Not only that, those touches will allow my desk to be more pretty and feel a little more like ‘home’.

Hey, everyone!

I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions.  I’m a goal-orientated person already.  I know what I want to accomplish at work, I know what I want to do in my relationship with K, I understand that I need to eat better and exercise more- so I’ve never really been a big resolution maker.  But at the end of last year-and during the Christmas season, I’ve noticed the need for more direction in my crafting.

“More direction in your crafting?”  you may ask; but changes in my life this year (new job, new members in my family, new ideas for crafts) took a toll on my crafting time.  So this year, my resolutions will help to keep me more connected with the web atmosphere, they will also make me be more consicous about the time that I want to be crafting-and the time that I have to craft.  So here they are:

1.  I will take more time to craft.  Right now, I’m knitting a little bit every day, and I’m going to make that a continual habit.  I’m also going to spent more time scrapbooking and making cards for friends and family on a continual basis.  This may sound like two resolutions in one, but it really isn’t. 

I used to be the person in my family who was always organized.  I had a hand-made card (and possibly gift) for the members of my family.  I was ready for birthdays and Christmas well ahead of time.  I had supplies on hand if I needed to whip something up, and was always the one using my coupons and paying attention to sales in order to be prepared well ahead of time…  This will become more of a priority this year. 

Since I met K, I’ve let a lot of my crafting time go by the wayside. I want to be clear, it is not his fault.  I’ve just been more interested in sitting next to him on the couch and watching TV.  I can do that while I knit.  I can also bring small projects down to our kitchen table and spend time with him while I craft a little every day.  So, that is how I intend to make this resolution a reality this year.

2.  I intend to blog more.  I have thousands of ideas of blog posts.  I have photos of projects in process.  I have photos of projects that are complete.  Why haven’t I added those to the computer?  I don’t know either.  So, I’m going to kick myself in the butt and do it more often this year.

3.  Through these two resolutions, I intend to take more time for me.  I don’t see how it’s possible to keep up with the other two resolutions, and not do this one.

As you see, they are simple resolutions, and completely attainable.  I’m going to get to work right now. 

Blog post (check) knitting in my lap (check) I’m more than halfway there!

What types of crafty resolutions have you all made for this year?

I plan on doing this during the weekend, since I will have given some of the gifts at that time, and it will be safe to put those pictures up.

Hold me to it!

Hope all of the Christmas Crafting is going well for all of you!

Let me see what you’ve done…

Let me first say that I never iron clothes.  I only iron when I absolutely have to.  I typically don’t purchase clothing that has to be ironed.  So, when you notice that my organization system is an ironing board, you may chuckle, but hey, it’s working.

I also have to comment on the fact that I have a small townhouse that I share with K.  We don’t really have a ton of space, and my crafting supplies take a whole room.  (As a matter of fact, we picked out a two bedroom, so that I had crafting space.)  So, now you understand the reasons that I had to use the ironing board.

I began by organizational system by making lists that have the name of each person who is receiving a calendar, and then put the list of each month under the name of that person.  Like so:

Then, I began to distribute the calendar pages under each person’s name, and I wrote the month that I intended the page to be used for.  Like this:

I didn’t want to come to the page later and think, “What the heck month was I thinking about for this?”.  I also have a hard time with certain months like May and June.  Maybe there are just too many ideas out there for that time of year, but I wanted to work on some of those first, so that I got past my block for those months.

Finally, I placed the written list on top of the pages that I have already made.  This will allow me to see if I’ve avoided a certain month or time of year, and will allow me to make sure that people who will see other people’s calendars won’t be able to see four months of the same calendar page.  It will also allow me to track my progress as I go.  You see?

So, this has already made the work flow easier.  What do you do to make the Holiday crafting less chaotic?