Thank YOU! (teensy peek at a sneaky playful silly fun project)

Thanks to your understanding, your brilliant advice, and your just plain downright amazing-ness, I feel worlds better. Thank YOU! I'm having a blast making a fun little world of my own: a silly kit of digital freebie stuff...(in the pic above) it's to go with a new stamp that previews soon & it's been nothing but FUN! I just can't wait to share it with you.

With your help to ease that all pressure that I had created for myself, I've been able to work happily on big ol' tutorials for the coming week without resorting to nocturnal madness or utter panic. lol

Charles & I been eating so healthily, snuggling and playing with our sweet kitten mitten (Mouse), and spending such peaceful moments together. Laughter is louder around here. Life is lighter!

Thank YOU--more than I can say! (I knew you would be awesome about the big mess in my head, but your kind kind wisdom always blows me away anew.) Can you say "happy crying, again!" ? ;o)

I hope your days are as bright and beautiful as you've made my days,
giant hugs,

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Blog tales of a toast-eating-zombie-stampire-hermit. How DO you balance it ALL?

For a while there, I was feeling a lot like this:

(a dark cloud of gloomy-messy-backwards-unfinished-ness) LOL

...so this is a

cry for help! (lol)
wait, let's make that
'a crafty life chat'

This post is my attempt at an ultra honest (lengthy but hopefully not too heavy)
dialogue about trying to balance blogging-crafty-life with LIFE-life.

How do you balance it ALL?

...by balance it "ALL" I mean: how do you balance crafting and/or blogging (and all the activities that entails) with taking good care of yourself and your loved ones... while avoiding burn-out?

My Sweetie Charles's buzz word lately has been "balance" and while I love the concept (and he is beyond angelic to be unceasingly supportive of my non-paying full-time job) I am simply not sure how to go about actually achieving that balance.

I'd love to hear any of your pointers or your thoughts on the subject.

Throw in the towel syndrome?

Well, You Guys might have noticed that I've been struggling to keep up with everything... Not to be melodramatic, but I crashed the other day--badly. Maybe the evil perpetual-migraine-beast finally got to me, but I had seriously decided it was time for me to throw in the proverbial blogging towel for at least half a year, and it hasn't been the first time I've considered whether quitting for an extended period of time might be necessary.

However, there must be some compromise, right? (After my brain just about exploded from the thought of giving up this passion cold turkey and no longer participating in the crafting community... and after some rethinking "with a little help from my friends"...) I thought that there must be some way(s) to balance things--that I'd better try working smarter not harder...that I should Keep It Simple Stupid! (I mean, these are clichés for a reason, right?)

Please know that this is not meant as complaining at all. :0) I'm ever so grateful that anyone even visits my blog! This is just an attempt to open up some dialogue... to find a balance so I can keep blogging, but also get well... and I hoped that the subject is one that other bloggers might have ideas about or be interested in.

Some ways I had tried to manage
(a while back, and then gave up on):

At first, I gave up sleeping & became a stampire. ..

As you can imagine, it was not pretty. Charles had been known to drag me from my chair & put me to bed. (He was kind of freaked out about the burn-out schedule I was keeping.)

--------------

...so there I was, up all night & sleeping in the day. Hence, I became a toast-eating-zombie-hermit! (I gave up cooking & going out of the house.)

LOL (but seriously) Cooking was awkward because it was noisy at night in our small condo (but I really do love to cook.) Leaving the house was tricky, because where do you go in the middle of the night? (Really, where is the 3 AM Craftmaniac Anonymous scrap-a-thon when you need one? (If these DO exist, please don't tell me; I might revert to my evil ways if I smell a hint of fresh ink on the evening breeze. hehehe)

All in all, I really really really love people, so I don't want to be a stamp-by-night shut-in. (And don't even let me get started about the "secretary spread" that insomnia and sitting 16 hours a day in a desk chair can get you!) ;o)

--------------

...so then, I gave up TV watching & blurfing (blog surfing)

& quashed the impossible hope of trying keep up with emails...

I haven't missed the television & haven't reintroduced it, but blurfing!?! I've missed it like oxygen! Not making time to admire and leave appreciation for other people's work left a creative rift in me that felt like the "Chasm of Sorrow" or to quote the movie Labyrinth "bububaboom! Certain Death!!! wooooouuuuuuuuuu" The real dilemma for me in the blurfing department is how to comment on only some, because what if you (inevitably) miss someone?!?

...and not being able to answer each email, or each comment, with a long personal letter, ...or make custom requested templates for people and so on... (which I would love to be able to do)...

All of this, to be Frank, left me rather depressed and feeling like a failure and then I simply felt inert. Hmmm, a little equation maybe? --> insane perfectionism + humanness =potential depression & inertia (or the lack of ability to do anything...) maybe? sort of?

--------------

sadly, I had to give up almost all of my Design Team work...

...I do want to give everything I can to everyone under the sun. Maybe if I'm perfectly honest, I might be so insecure in myself that I fear saying "no." What if I hurt someones feelings, you know?

--------------

finally, most recently, having joined the living (non-inksucking non-stampire humans) in daylight hours, I had to cut way back on the blog posting schedule...

...but that leaves it pretty boring around the ol' blog for those of you who are amazingly sweet enough to visit daily. (a million-squigillion Thank Yous!)

...SO this all brings us to compromising...




Some ways that I hope might work to
bridge the "chasm"
between life & blog:
(I'd love to hear how you feel about these)

...new blog schedule: I was thinking every other day would be realistic.

...prepare much smaller posts ahead of time.

...which basically means being "normal" or un-insane and posting some cards all by their lonesome (in other words, cards that do not have a dissertation & 30-odd photograph tutorials attached to them.)

...only write some posts for beginners (I have no idea how many people who stop by here are beginners; I try to write for beginners all the time--just in case, but I know many of you are more advanced than I am....bso maybe I'm wasting space & time (or insulting your intelligence, heaven forbid) by repeating things--I mean am I preaching to the choir? ;o)

...write technique-based tutorial posts that don't have a fully finished sample project. (Is that just boring?)

...share some freebies (templates & digital elements) all by their lonesome (again, no finished sample)

...blog about life. I love reading other people's life posts, but somehow I feel that my own life stuff is a snore. However, in the interest in enriching our home-life in a healthier way, I thought why not include some life stuff here? Like recipes and photos and other snippets.

.......

Well, that's just a few random thoughts on the bloggy-crafty life subject.
I hope you don't mind that I shared them.
I'd love to hear your thoughts ever so much.

Thanks again for being You,
and for being there!
xox

(Please click if you'd like to visit the blog

from an email or from a reader.)

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New MFT Set & Templates--- Sheltering Tree 4.5" box

Spring is in the air, hey? :o)



I had a blast making this box with that new Sheltering Tree MFT stamp set .
(You might end up seeing too much of it around here.; I have a real thing for trees.) ;-D

The box is a new template set (available at MFT here) that
I made to hold 4-1/4 inch square cards with room for the envelopes...
(4-1/4" seems to be another one of those really economical sizes of cards to give
as gifts) ... but you can also use it to hold a gift or treats, of course. :o)



...a little info about the template set...

It comes with these templates:

• A bottom that measures 4.5 inches square
  
• A lid that fits snugly on top (but with room to line it)
• Liners & panel templates to decorate the box bottom & lid
• An envelope template (made to fit 4 1/4" cards)
  
• Liners for the envelopes (to decorate with patterned, digi, or stamping)
• Shaped card templates for owl or acorn shaped cards
  

There are 2 styles of box & envelope templates:

The 1st is the basic template style (with dotted score lines) but the 2nd is my fave since it has no score lines, just tick marks to show exactly where to score. It's intended for clean printing (with no dotted lines showing) in case you don't want to make liners for the box. :o)

The lid is 1 inch deep
& the bottom is 1 3/8" deep:

(So the lid is easy to lift off)

The lid can also go on the back of the box, for display:

...or for use as a child's wee play-set:

...make a Sheltering Tree
4.5 inch square box:

All the templates used to make this 4.5 inch square box, are from the MFT Sheltering Tree 4.5 inch box set.

This tutorial uses the templates with the Score Guide, since the box bottom & top are both lined. A PDF on how to make it comes with the template.

• MFT clear stamp set Sheltering Tree
  
• MFT Sheltering Tree Digital Paper Collection
  
• Computer & Printer
• Heavy weight 100lb white Sweet tooth cardstock (to print the boxes)
• Text paper (to print digital papers)
  
• Black Archival Brilliance ink, clear embossing powder, heat gun
• Copic Markers (or what have you)
• Paper cutter and-or Scissors, Scoring tools, Paper piercer, exacto knife
  
• Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac, Beacon's 3-in-1
• Distress ink (Brushed Corduroy & Peeled Paint); green pigment ink.
• Waterbrush, Sanding block, Scallop edge border punch
• Paper piercer, needle and blue & green embroidery thread
• Flowered paper is BasicGrey Origins 6x6 paper

Make the box bottom:



Step 1) Print the MFT 4.5 inch Sheltering Tree Box template onto 100lb white cardstock. Print the wood paper (from the Sheltering Tree Digital Paper Collection) on the other side to get the wooden look.

[This pattern is so stunning--Looks like real wood, but with a really clean modern feel to it!]



Step 2) Score on the dotted lines; cut on the solid lines (including cutting the 4 lines that make the tabs) and crease the folds.



Step 3) Assemble the box (Adhering the 4 small tabs on the inside, with the corners flush.)

Make the box lid:



Step 1) Print the template for the lid and follow the same steps as above to score, cut, & crease it.



Step 2) Create cloud panels to decorate the lid:

• Print the template for the panels on one side of cardstock
• Print the MFT cloud pattern on the other side (also from the Sheltering Tree Digital Paper Collection.)
  
• Cut along the solid lines to make 5 panels.
  

Step 3) Sand the pieces to distress. (That's one of the neat things about digi paper: it has a white core so it distresses wonderfully.) And pierce holes around the panels, if you'd like to add sewing (or faux stitches with a pen...)



Step 4) Sew the panels (Cheap Trick: Nice big random stitches save time!)



Step 5) Adhere the panels to the side of the box lid.

Line the lid:



Step 6) Make a liner for the lid:
6A) Print the template for the lid liner on one side of a piece of paper. (This one is printed on text weight/copy paper.) Print more cloud paper on the other side.
6B) Score it on the dotted line & cut it out along the solid line

6C) Decorate it: scallop the edge or add other shaped border edging, if you like (and trim the tabs with scissors so they hide behind your scallops or other edging.)


Step 7) Sand the liner to distress it.


Step 8) Glue the liner into the box lid.



Step 9) Make some clouds: Glue some scraps of the cloud paper onto cardstock & cut out the clouds (no need to stay on the line exactly.) ;o)


Step 10) Adhere the clouds inside the lid (on foam tape for dimension.)

Decorate the top of the lid:

This tree is from the new MFT set Sheltering Tree

Step 1) Stamp the tree trunk & cut it out. (This is stamped in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, on the MFT wood paper & embossed with clear embossing powder and heat set)



Step 2) Paint on a little ink to colour shade the tree trunk. (This is Brushed Corduroy Distress ink on a waterbrush.)



Step 3) Stamp & distress the tree top:

• Stamp the tree top in light green pigment ink.
• Emboss the wet pigment ink with clear embossing powder.
• Heat set with a heat gun to melt the powder.
• Cut it out with a circle cutter (or scissors)
• Rub with a darker dye-based ink around the outside of the tree top. (This has Distress Ink--Peeled Paint rubbed all around it.)
  

Step 4) Stamp the leaves & cut them out. These are stamped with a combination of the light green pigment ink & the Peeled Paint Distress Ink & embossed in clear before cutting.



Step 5) Adhere the tree trunk to the tree top.



Step 6) Glue the leaves onto the tree (the leaves that are part of the tree top stamp make the perfect shadows.) :-)



Step 7) Pierce around the outside of the tree--in a circle.



Step 8) Add stitches in green embroidery thread.



Step 9) Highlight around the stitches using a Copic marker. (This is YG23 New Leaf.)



Step 10) Make a hill:

• Cut a piece of patterned paper to measure about 4 inches by 2 inches.
• Lay the tree over it temporarily & draw a curve with a pencil.
  
• Cut it out.
  

Step 11) Add a bit of white paint to it to make the paper more subtle.



Step 12) Pierce around the outside of the hill & stitch it in more green embroidery thread.



Step 13) Adhere the hill to the top sky panel & stick it on the top of the box lid.



Step 14) Adhere the tree to the box using foam tape for dimension (the thickness of this tree trunk hides the foam tape so nicely!)

Line & decorate the bottom of the box:



Step 1) Make a liner for the bottom of the box: Print the template for the bottom liner and follow the same steps as above to score, cut, & crease the folds on it.



Step 2) Insert it into the box bottom & adhere it.


Make the Grass & Sky:



Step 1) Use the scraps from the liner to make grass strips. These 8 pieces (2 for each side) measure 2 2/8 inch wide by 1 inch high.



Step 2) Adhere the grass strips onto cardstock pieces (for stability). These green cardstock strips are about 3/8 of an inch high & 4/5 inches wide.



Step 3) Pierce holes along the bottom of the grass strips, in a zigzag pattern, using a paper piercing tool.



Step 4) Add shading to the grass by painting on watered down ink. (This is Peeled Paint Distress Ink painted on with a waterbrush.) The water also curls the grass for you & reacts in an interesting way with the ink from your inkjet printer: looks like watercolour.



Step 5) Stitch green embroidery thread in the zigzag holes (a simple backstitch pattern.)

Little Tip: You might want to check the grass strips to make sure they fit perfectly before stitching. Depending on your cuts or scoring they might need a wee trim. (Hmmm, cutting the grass--no weed-whacker required!) ;o)



Step 6) Cut 4 pieces of the cloud paper to measure 2 2/8 inch wide by 1 inch high.



Step 7) Adhere the cloud pieces around the inside sides of the box bottom.



Step 8) Adhere the grass strips in the bottom of the box as well (over the cloud pieces.)

Make some animals on a log:



Step 1) Stamp a second tree trunk. (Again, it's stamped in Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, on the MFT wood paper & embossed with clear embossing powder and heat set.)



Step 2) Shade the tree: Mix a little ink with water & paint the tree (or colour however you prefer.)



Step 3) Cut part of the tree off too make a log...



Step 4) Adhere the log so that it's lying on its side inside the box bottom.



Step 5) Stamp the animals & cut them out. I debated, and ended up using the owl sweeties, but you could use both critters, of course.



Step 6) Colour the animals. (The owls are coloured with Copic markers: Cool shadow BG10; Frost Blue B00; Putty YG91; and a colourless blender.) The squirrel is stamped on a scrap of the MFT wood digi paper & painted with more Distress Ink, like the tree trunk. His body is popped up on layers of scrap paper for dimension.



Step 7) Adhere the animals so that they're sitting on top of the log inside the box bottom.

[Wait a minute! This is starting to sound like that log song: There are owls on the log, on the grass, on the sky, in the bottom of the box...! heehee]

...and that's it!

Of course you could use the Squirrel in the tree instead...

...and the owl buddies are sized just right to fit in the tree as well:

The envelope:

To make the matching envelope:

• Print the envelope template on copy paper
• Print the wood MFT paper on the other side
• Cut along the solid lines & score on the dotted lines
• Crease the folds & add adhesive to the two side flaps

To add the envelope liner:

• Print the liner template on copy paper
• Print the cloud paper on the other side
• Cut along the solid outline& score along the dotted line

To make the envelope closure:

• Stick a strip of double sided tape along the top of the envelope flap
• Leave the backing paper on the tape, if you are using the envelope as a gift
• (or you could use envelope glue, instead of tape.)

Thank You for stopping in;
hope your day is scrumptious!


P.S. Sorry for the weird posting time. Would you believe it if I told you I took a break from blogging to try & unpack some more? (We moved a month and a half ago, LOL.) Oh, and I planted a whack of lovely herbs & flowers. Don't you just adore spring?

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