Sucks.

Yesterday was a bad day. I was going through photos of my cards and trying to find ones to list on Etsy. I found very few out of a lot of cards. I came to the realization that I make a lot of crappy stuff.

I'm not looking for sympathy here, just stating facts, ranting and moping. That's ok, I suppose. Everyone has their bad days.

When I first started out, I said it was ok because everyone starts out somewhere, and I was convinced that I would grow from everything and make less crappy things. I am reminded of this post where I talked about this image I found on Pinterest:

It's been two years since I posted that. I craft a lot. I guess I should've done more cards, because I do a lot of non-card related crafting and my cards still generally are not good. Maybe they don't super suck some of the time, but the fact that I found very few cards that I felt proud enough to list on Etsy really depressed me!

So yesterday and today I've spent a lot of time stamping. I've thrown out a lot of stuffs. Sucks. I did make one that I am ok with. Not proud, but it's decent I suppose.

Step your game up, Tessa.

In SUPER HAPPY news, my friend in Australia, Michelle, lost her dog, Coco, almost 20 days ago. She was found in a park by a loving family who brought her to RSPCA. Coco didn't have a collar on, but luckily is micro chipped. She was returned to Michelle yesterday. I heard about it on her Facebook page. I was so happy for her that I started bawling. Cried like a baby. Coco has lost so, so much weight but looks so happy to be home.

Michelle, I can't tell you how strangely happy and relieved I am for you.

Portal.

In case you haven't been here before, (chances are that's a "yes") let me clue you in in just a few, blunt sentences:

1. My husband and I can't have kids. 
2. But we want kids.
3. Therefore, we would like to adopt.
4. We do not have the $20,000 to fund such adoption.
5. I'm trying my hand at a fundraiser to earn said money.
6. This fundraiser consists of, among other things, an Etsy shop selling paper crafts that I make.
7. Read more here.

This blog is one way I'm promoting my stuffs and trying to get the word out there. I am shamelessly pinning my own work to Pinterest because I want a baby *that* bad. Sue me.

/the end.

Have you ever played the game Portal by Valve? A lot of guys I know have. Pretty much all of the guys I know have. The premise is easy: it's a puzzle. Each level you have to figure out how to get to the next level using a gun that creates a portal from one side of the room to the other. In one of the levels, a weighted companion cube appears to help you complete the level.

Weighted Companion Cube

This is the icon of the game. There are products upon products of this precious cube, even Adam and I own some: Stuffed "animal" Cube, Cookie Cutters, Cookie Jar, Fuzzy Dice, Coasters, Plush Turret, Potato, Hoodie, Silly Putty Gels, ...

WHOA. We own a LOT of Portal stuff. We should've invested in Valve stock. So... we're a little obsessed. We can't help it! It's just such an awesome game!

So awesome, in fact, that I had to make Portal Cards! I used some Google Images as my guide in making these.

I made a lot of variations, and I'll just post them all here

And then I made some cards out of a stick figure holding the cube, also using Google Images as a guide:

My obsession is clear. How many variations does a girl have to make of the same card? What's more sad is that I made more than just one card of each variation!

oy vey.

The good GREAT news is that I'm not the only one with this strange obsession. I hope this means I don't have to work very hard to sell some of these cards. In other words, I've pretty much convinced myself that nothing that I make is going to sell, but I think these will! I shouldn't get my hopes up though, eh?

As always, much love and sunshine,
T

Birthday.

In case you haven't been here before, (chances are that's a "yes") let me clue you in in just a few, blunt sentences:

1. My husband and I can't have kids. 
2. But we want kids.
3. Therefore, we would like to adopt.
4. We do not have the $20,000 to fund such adoption.
5. I'm trying my hand at a fundraiser to earn said money.
6. This fundraiser consists of, among other things, an Etsy shop selling paper crafts that I make.
7. Read more here.

This blog is one way I'm promoting my stuffs and trying to get the word out there. I am shamelessly pinning my own work to Pinterest because I want a baby *that* bad. Sue me.

/the end.

There's a new item listed in my Etsy shop and, of course, is for my fundraiser so my husband and I can adopt a baby!

Here's the link to the listing. 

All balloons are paper pieced, which is a lot more annoying than you'd think!

I really like the glossy accents on the balloons that give them that little shine. I think it makes them fun :)

I put all three cards under the same listing because they're so similar.

Hmm... not sure what else to say. I like these cards!

Adam and I really appreciate you even coming and looking. That makes me happy. Comments make me happier. Babies make me giggle.

<3 <3 Hearts and chocolates,
T

Lots.

I am finally trying to go through, organize, and blog/post pictures of the work I've done in the past three years.

I'm starting to pull my hair out. I'm not showering. I'm not eating. I'm not even smoking anymore.

Conclusion:

I have made a lot of freaking cards.

UPDATED: Kali.

UPDATED:

Kali sent me a card back, so I was able to take a picture of it! She added some stringy glitter (what is this called??) and some bling to make a cute doorknob!

I have put these up for sale on my Etsy shop! 

Help support the Tessa-Wants-A-Baby Fund!
Contact me if you're interested in something like this (see the widget on the right hand side)

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A few weeks ago I volunteered myself to make my cousin 75 "We Moved/Christmas" cards. It took a LOT longer than planned, as things always do.

Because I forgot to take pictures before I sent them to her, she was kind enough to send me this picture.

I used my Silhouette to cut out Bird's House Card, which she graciously allows everyone to use her files for any purpose entirely. Kali picked out the blue; she said it's her favorite color and she uses it all over her house for Christmastime.

I love the way the cards turned out, and so did Kali!!

Newsletter.

UPDATED: I reposted this with some more photos that I found later HERE.

I have a lot of fun doing little things that end up taking a long, long time:

The Rathsack Family's Second (Not-So-Annual) Christmas Newsletter!

I did a newsletter in 2011, but not one in 2012 (it was a sad year), and decided to do one this year because so much happened!

They were printed on off-white paper so the print on the inside was not a stark difference from the backside.

Did you know that Office Max still charges you $.49 per color copy, even if you use your own paper? RIDICULOUS.

This is how the cover page turned out once printed with some AWESOME lighting... yes. it's awesome. You're jealous. Most of the covers ended up with dirty spots somehow, so I used some iRocks (SHINY!) to cover them up. They turned out pretty random on most, but I don't care. That's how I roll in the first place: Random.

Better Lighting, less bling.

The newsletter was a tri-fold card, and because I like to mix things up to break the monotony, bound either by a ribbon across the folds or by tying the corners together with small ribbon, shiny silver string, or red baker's twine.

I shamelessly stuck my brand stamp that Erin purchased for me a long time ago that I don't really use. I really like the stuff I do, but if someone else doesn't like it, I bet they think "I TOTALLY wouldn't put my name on THAT piece of crap". You know what I have to say about that!? DEAL WITH IT! People are dealing with things now, Ted. (if you know what I'm referring to here, then you just made my day.)

Tri-fold in action.

I forgot to take pictures of the corner-tied cards. I liked these ribbon-on-the-fold cards (as pictured) better, but they were a lot more time consuming, so I didn't do a lot of them.

The first page of the newsletter!

CONGRATS a million times to Adam for his promotion ( and his raise :D )

The second page! 

I posted about this story earlier.
It was like being on an HGTV or TLC show about a poor newlywed couple that got their house made over for free! We are truly blessed.

The third and last page!

It's hard to pick my most favorite part of the newsletter. I think I'm hilarious, so I'd probably have to pick the "© T to the Essa, Inc.", or the "Love, Smooches, Rainbows and Unicorns".

I love the way this project turned out. I had a really fun time making them, even though I stayed up until 2 AM a lot of nights adjusting, re-adjusting, tweaking, moving this or that an eighth of an inch here and there... then they took me hours upon hours upon hours to complete by hand once printed. I only had to make 65 of them.

<.< 

(looks left)

>.> 

(looks right)

So much fun!!

Thanks.

Just now I made a pretty cool image on my Silhouette and thought I should share! I think they turned out pretty dang cool!

It's a print and cut file, because just cutting it just doesn't work. I tried it :) You can change the color of the leaf to whatever your heart desires. I made three different cut sizes, ranging from a far/thick offset, to medium, to a thin/small offset, meaning the thinner the offset, the closer the cut will be to the actual shape.  

Click on the image or right here 
to download the free .studio file! 

Camera.

My really good friend, Tanya, had a birthday the same day as my brother, November 8th. I made her a card with my Silhouette and a free cut file that I found on the interwebs:

A camera!

Backstory: Tanya is a hoarder at heart. She admits this. She doesn't present her symptoms in the traditional sense. Let’s just say Tanya loves her pictures. She has thousands upon thousands of photographs from just the last three years. She doesn't print all of them, only the ones that she really likes, and then someday she’ll actually get around to scrapbooking them when she comes over to craft. Recently she’s been sewing when she comes over. Last week she came over and we made ADORABLE invitations for her daughter’s three year old daughter’s birthday party in a few weeks. Which I accidentally posted yesterday instead of scheduling it for tomorrow...

I digress. I wanted to make 1,000 camera cards as a joke, but I didn't. I made one huge one instead. I think she liked it!

Clouds.

I'm trying to catch up posting a few cards that I made months ago before I go onto the awesome Halloween pictures.

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted these yet. If I have, oh well. DOUBLE FEATURE!

These cards were made a loooong time ago, probably even a year ago. I was on a cloud and sun kick because of some cloud dies that I bought. I should never spend that much on a product, especially something so simple and with such little product return. But I did, and I loved them.  Now I have a million free cut files for my Silhouette and I hope to never purchase another die cut again.  I've pretty much paid for my silhouette ten times over by not buying any more die cuts!

Some of these clouds are cut out of the blue card stock, and the others are adhered with foam adhesive for that lovely 3D effect that I’m addicted to.

This card was actually not made from the die cuts, but rather from a really old stamp set that I ordered years ago for my friend, Erin, for some baby shower invitations that we made. Also I stitched the edge of the card. I believe this card was one of the very first card that I tried my sewing machine on. Dang, it is SO hard to stitch a straight line, ESPECIALLY on paper! 

These clouds are a negative of what I cut out, so then I took the blue paper and adhered it to the base with foam adhesive for the ever beloved 3D effect.

The only 3D effect here is the sun. 

Aaaaand that's it. I still love my clouds and suns. They all feel to be about the same, but that was kind of my point. Same elements, same colors, different cards. I like the way they all turned out!

Leila.

My friend, Tanya, and I made some invitations for her daughter's third birthday party the other day. This is how they turned out:

Can you tell the theme is Chip and Dale?

Adam came up with the pun. Tanya wanted something totally punny that had to do with Chip and Dale or acorns or leaves. Once he came up with that, I printed and cut the words on my Silhouette, along with 18 card faces with the leaf cutout.  The leaf is one of the free shapes that Silhouette gives you with your Silhouette! It was exactly what Tanya was looking for.

We made really easy shaker cards with silver stars as the confetti.  I can't find the tutorial that I used, but they're really popular. Just Google "shaker card" or visit this link for a bunch of cute cards! 

Legoman.

I have an AWFULLY photographed card for you today. I don't know why I could get these primary colors to look like primary colors. Probably because I used my iPod and I don't have a better camera. With failed attempts at properly editing the pictures, I decided to add an "effect" and purposefully change with (what I think) is called a filter.

I made this card for my brother, Drew, who is actually two years older than me: 29. He's not still into Legos, but when I think of a Lego, I think of him. He loved them as a kid. The cut file came from this link which I obtained through Pinterest. All I have is that link to the 4shared account - not a blog or anything!

No picture filter - pretty close to the actual color

I had a lot of fun with this card! I cut everything out on my silhouette via print and cut, and I adhered each circle of the base individually with foam adhesive for dimension. It didn't take as long as it seems!

You wanna know something amazing? I drew on the face parts ALL.BY.MYSELF. That's saying something. Sometimes I can't even draw a rectangle. Joking. But the smile was hard! I'm proud of that accomplishment LOL!

Pleased.

From Saturday's post, you could see that I was frustrated with stamps, ink, and paper. Since I wrote that post *however many* months ago, I've done a lot more trial and errors and had a lot more success.

I found this post which is AWESOME and helped me decide on ordering a case (10 reams) of Neenah Solar White paper that Michelle said "everyone [was] raving about". I was actually able to purchase it through my work and just pay the company back, which, although a lot of money to drop on card stock all at once, was a steal and even cheaper than Walmart's card stock option: Georgia Pacific for a ream of 150 sheets.

I've found that Neenah is dreamy and creamy. I don't know how I used the old Staples card stock!

I've also found that for the crispest images, I like Archival Ink the best, otherwise Color Box is really nice if I want to heat set it. I'm going to try Michelle's idea to turn the stamp upside down and put the card stock on top of the stamp. I would've never thought to try that.

As far as my project today, I'm posting something new. I started a Project Life scrapbook, a mini album for a reception I helped Erin throw together in just one week, a mini album for our trip to New York from two years ago, and another mini album for my SKYDIVING ADVENTURE. Did you know I went skydiving?? True story. I paid (quite a bit) extra for a photo and video package, and you can see the video here: http://www.skydivemilwaukee.com/videos/6e7321b52002

As far as the projects I'm showing goes, I started Project Life up. I know, I know, I'm such a conformist.

But it's really fun with the pocket dividers. It makes it really easy to scrap something every day. 

I wanted a starting page:

And an introduction page, starting with our home:

Our house looks a little different now - we have a raised flower bed in front of the deck:

It's not the best photo, and the plants on the deck look like they're dead because the picture was taken during a heat wave that kinda killed them (but they're coming back alive now). 

In several weeks we will have new siding (EEEEK!!!!) because of a HUGE hail storm that came through last month and dinged up nearly everyone's siding and/or roof in the city. We were fortunate enough to have our siding messed up from the storm! We're so excited! We hate the brown and white and cannot wait to get rid of it. We even got a few quotes for new siding before the hail storm hit, so it was a blessing in disguise! 

Lazy.

I'll chalk this card up to being lazy. I hate it, it's boring, it's lame, it's ugly, it's not worthy of posting. But here I am, posting it. I took a piece of patterned paper, Threw it on over a label made from a Spellbinders label die with another patterned paper, and used foam tape for a little dimension. I dislike it so much that I’m not even trying to fix it and make it better. I’ve moved on to bigger and better things.

Honestly I don’t know why I’m posting this and I'm annoyed at myself for doing so. I think it's just because I like to be able to look at everything I made, good and bad, so I can see how I’m progressing as a "crafterella", as my husband calls me.

Trial and Error.

*disclaimer: I wrote this entry months and months ago, so when I say "yesterday" and "today", I actually mean like a year ago*

I have to do a lot of trial and error in this crafting adventure lifestyle.

As you know, I'm obsessed with Damask Love.  She did an awesome series, Start Your Stash, a few months ago.  She recommended Market Street Stamps's Candy Stripe stamp.

Here's one of her awesome cards she used with this stamp:

http://www.damasklove.com/start-your-stash-day-5/

Yesterday I purchased said recommended stamp, along with the argyle stamp (I luff argyle!), and I received them today already!

I've been talking to Michelle from Amusingmichelle.com about how to get crisp stamped images.  She says she uses a lot of Stampin Up! inks, so I decided I would use one or two of mine.  I have about 15 ink pads that I inherited from my friend, Kelsi.  I never liked their quality, but I wanted to give them another try since Michelle has great cards, they're a super popular brand, and I know this stamp is high quality. You can tell just by the way it looks and feels on your fingers!

Here's my test sheet: 

I wrote what each color/stamp was as I went, so I knew exactly what to use and what not to use in the future.  I should've done this a long time ago.  But you can pretty easily see that every image is not perfect.  It didn't matter how long I sat there inking the stamp, how evenly I SWORE I pressed down the stamp, whatever. Do you even KNOW how frustrating that is!??!?!?!

I've come to the conclusion that Stampin Up! sucks, "Designer" ink pads suck and apparently don't have the same quality in mind when they call themselves designer, Adironockackirdacki (I totally misspelled that on purpose) sucks, and Staz On takes two paper towels to clean if you ink the entire stamp, and it still sucks.

I've also discovered that three ink pads that I've never once used, which I also inherited from Kelsi, are pretty awesome.  The orange one has nothing on the ink pad:  no company name, no logo, no color name, no type of ink it is, nothing.  The two smaller ink pads are Hero Arts Little Inkers pigment inks, and that's all I know.

Sigh.  I wish Amber (Damask Love) would post her fail cards or tries!  This is discouraging :)

So what are die ink pads used for?

Pigment inks seem to be great

Archival can be great
I already know that Distress Inks aren't for crisp images... they're too ... watery. 

Lights.

This card may be super simple, but I love it.  I may be having a slight problem lately with making my cards TOO simple.  I always say "it's easier to add more, but you can't take off less"... without starting all over, I guess.

I'm still trying to find a perfect way to get the lighting without having to edit, but it's close enough IMO!

I love the felt ribbon and the tiny Christmas lights that I picked up from the doll house section at Hobby Lobby.  So cute!

Ransom.

I remember back in the day when I watched cartoons and when I read Calvin and Hobbes comic books. Calvin wrote a ransom note once to Susie, saying he had her doll and wanted something in return. In an effort to keep himself anonymous, he cut out letters from magazines to form the words on his note.

I used that same principle here and I had a ton of fun with it!

I know it's not the best photo, but I gave it away before I had a chance to take a better picture.

My husband gives me input on nearly everything I make. He's able to tell me instantly if he can see what I intended to accomplish, if something is easy to read, or if just looks... off... in general. This card was one that he definitely helped with.  Without the small print behind the sentiment, even with the "THANKS" raised on foam, it still wasn't immediately easy to read. When I added the small print strip in the middle behind the sentiment, he agreed it's easier to see that it’s a thank you card, not just a random card.

I did a lot of projects like this growing up, to inspiration boards, to collages, to letters to friends. It felt like a blast to the past.

Father's.

I'm trying a new routine that will make me productive and still let me do fun things.

Do one hour of each: (or less than an hour, usually, but the idea is to DO it for a little while)

1. Scrapbook/Project Life/Craft of some sort (for the record, I started Project Life a week ago and I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF IT. Mom, if you read this, you'll want to talk to me about this. It's like 2084 times easier than scrapbooking and gets it done faster, but you can still be creative with it.)
2. Clean or tidy up or do something productive to make the house moar bettar
3. Post one blog entry, or take photos of previous work that's waiting to be photographed
4. Attempt to get my STUPID silhouette to actually work good
5. Home improvement stuff (painting the mudroom, put things on walls that have been sitting around for 3 years, work on fixing up the pieces of furniture I picked up off the side of the road, etc)

Did you read that?

Adam let me get a silhouette off eBay for $100 OFF!! AHH!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it sucks.

It's SUCH a neat idea, and I KNOW I'm doing something terribly wrong, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure it out.  I don't get clean cuts most of the time.  The paper tears, even sometimes on easy cuts.  I've fuddled around with the settings, thickness, speed, blade number, type of paper, etc. SO MANY TIMES I WANT TO THROW THE DANG THING OUT A WINDOW! But I won't do that because we just got new windows. :)  I even purchased a brand new blade, not trusting the "new" blades that came from the eBay seller.

Does anyone have any help for me? 

On to the card I have today... it's a really fun one that I sent my dad for Father's Day!

It's a suit! I loved it the second I saw the free template on Paper Craft's website. 

Because the template was only for the front, and I think it was actually supposed to be adhered to the front of a gift bag, I had to do a little work-around to make it a card.

See my fix? I just made the suit paper a little bigger and wrapped it around a second sheet of card stock. Viola! 

It was super fun and quite easy to make. I love the way it turned out.