Craftiness...

It never fails. Every time I undertake a large-scale craft project, say, making holiday cards, I look around my craft room, shake my head at the sheer volume of stuff there, and vow that for this project, I will use only what I have and not buy anything new. Good theory, no? Somehow it never quite works that way. Take this year's cards, for example (just finished tonight! hooray!):



I knew I wanted to do something with an embossed element. I had no ideas beyond that. Then in looking for something else a week or so ago, I came across these tags I've had since who-knows-when. The design sprang from that. I played with it, selected some stamps, made a prototype, made a plan, and I was good to go.

I tend toward dark blue or green card stock for a base. I had a bunch of navy duplex stock (a different color on each side, lue and white in this case) that was no longer flat despite laying flat continuously. Sure enough, I didn't have enough. No problem - I had some red to use up as well. Next supply: tags. I ended up having only half as many as I needed. This led to the first trip to the store, a package of 100 tags, and now as many, if not more left over than I had to start with!

I'd overlooked the fact that the tags I already had had no string or ribbon on them. But I have a drawer full of ribbon. No issues, right? Wrong. I never have enough of the right color or quality. But I had almost enough of the white organza ribbon I wanted so I was content to improvise on the last five or so. Luckily all of the new tags come complete with string already attached.

Inks are always a dicey proposition for me. I have a ton of them, but they don't, in fact, last forever. I never know which ink pads will be extant when I sit down. Luckily, though not all of the inks worked out as I had hoped, I was able to regroup and not purchase anything new.

Last element - the sentiment. I tend to be minimalist in the sentiment on my cards at holiday time, not wanting them to be Christmas cards, but more generic. This year's sentiment is very brief: Joy. I tried creating the word with alphabet stamps, but none I had were the right font and size. Then in looking through my word stamps, I came across a quote that included the word. I was in business - stamp out the quote, cut out the word. Alas, that left me with a small bit of paper to adhere to the card - difficult, but not impossible, though possibly time consuming.

I'm a fan of dry adhesives, preferring them to the messy and not quick enough to dry glues out there. Double-face tape is my friend and constant companion in the craft room. But no tape I own is narrow enough for these tiny pieces of paper. Last year I had a similar issue and used a product called Glue Dots, which were perfect for sticking small pieces of paper to each other, etc. And, I had some left! But of course, the dots I had were too big for my one brief word. Another trip to the store, this time the dangerous craft store, for, yes, micro glue dots! (That's all I bought. Really.) They were perfect.

Finally, tonight, all supplies in place, all elements complete, all address labels printed and postage stamps purchased, all that is left is to write a million notes and pop them in the mail!