Love ya bunches

People always ask me where from ideas come from. Unfortunately, I don’t really know. I get inspired by many things: colors, music, designs, graphics, etc. I do know that I like orderliness. I like geometrics with a twist. I tend to be a happy person and I have a love of jewel tones.

Usually, I have a ritual before I start any card. I need to have a clean workspace to get started. I don’t know why but I do. I don’t like distractions on my work surface. Even if I work on a card immediately after having just finished one, I clean up my space and return all of my tools to their appropriate space—even if I know that I am going to use them again. Go figure.

I know—it’s kind of silly to put away my scalpel when I know that I will be using it again if less than two minutes. But I put all of my tools away. I sit down, usually sketch out the design, collect all of the materials that I will use, collect (or re-collect) all of the tools that I will use, put on some music, and get going. Minutes or hours later, I get done. I always make two samples of the card of the moment: one to put in my card journal and the other to send out.

If I know that I will be selling this particular card, I make all of the pieces for the card, wrap them up in newsprint or in a manila envelope, and put them in a storage bin. I do this because I usually get tired of a card after it is designed and made for the first time. By storing the parts, I can duplicate the card when I am bored or watching the Mets lose. In a pinch, I can steal one of the cards and assemble it for personal use when I need a card immediately.

Today’s card is a SCRAP card. It is a card that can never really be duplicated because it is made from leftover materials that I have saved from other projects. I have a rule when I design cards: I never throw away anything over 2 inches wide by 4 inches long. I have two bins that I save these scraps--one for paper and one for cardstock. When I need a card for personal use (one that I will not be reproducing for sale), this is where I start.

Here is a SCRAP card that I made to send to David this week. The interior is a popup with paper posies.

What a Wasted Day

What started out as a creative morning quickly turned into an unproductive day. I had all of these ideas running around in my head only to find out that I didn’t have the supplies that I needed to complete them. Rather than redesign cards with what I had on hand, I fixated about the cards that I WANTED to make rather than the cards I COULD make.

So, I ventured into Manhattan (from da Bronx during the Yankee’s final weekend at the old Yankee Stadium which translates to bunches of people) to go to some of my favorite supply stores. Once I am in the city, I get an email on my TREO telling me that I am needed at work because some business needs to be done before the work day starts on Sunday afternoon.

In total, I spent five hours away from home and away from making things. I finally get the mock up done for the Chicken Soup card that I will send to David this week and realize that I don’t have any cup of soup packages. So I venture out through the crowds to the local supermarket and buy some instant soup. I get back to dry fit the mock up and realize that I bought cup of noodles rather than cup of soup. So I have to go out again to get the right soup.

Finally, having completed the card, I realize that I spent all day on a single card and didn’t even get to gocco print any of my postcards. Today, I will have to really get to business.

I am SOOOOOO Dense!

Sometimes I can be so dense, I amaze myself.

One of my friends is in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. I promised myself that I would send him a card a week until he feels better. I sent him two cards already and have fallen behind sending cards because of the work have I been putting into the postcard swap.

I designed a couple of cards but they really didn’t work out for various reasons. So, a week passed and I still hadn’t sent him a new card. Finally, I decided to wake up early and send out whatever I made—regardless of whether it was perfect or not. I came to realize that he would be happy to receive whatever I sent—it didn’t have to be perfect because it was the sentiment that was important.

Something amazing seemed to happen. When I freed myself from the need to be perfect, I ended up with a nice, simple card that I might actually add to my online store.

The interesting aspect of the design of this card was getting the odd cut on the right side to line up. Here is where the dense part comes in. I kept trying to get the off-cut perfect when all I had to do was cut the off-cut the same for both the card and the paper. What I needed to do was cut the opposite side (the straight edge) to show the reveal. DUH.

I will send the card today and will put it into a vellum envelope so that it can be appreciated as it goes through the mail.