Good night.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Monday, June 16, 2014
Here's the Mail, It Never Fails
This bird mailman card was a recent custom order. The card was requested for a friend who was having the grand opening of his own UPS store today. Of course, I don't actually have anything that specific, but I sat and thought about it for a while and came up with the mailman from the "3 Birds on Parade" Cricut cartridge.
The bird was cut at 3 inches, so it was pretty easy putting the pieces together. The other birds that have the thin orange legs can be a bit more difficult if you don't have the patience to deal with it or if you don't have tweezers to hold the tiny cuts of paper. Thankfully, this one wasn't too trying especially since it was a late request that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to accomplish.
The sentiment was cut from the "Birthday Bash" cartridge at a height of 0.611 inches. Haha, I know that's a weird number, but I guess the size is in relation to the image on the same page in the handbook. I just put the word on my mat and then shrunk it down based on the gridlines and recorded the height so that I could refer to it in the future if necessary. I actually made a mistake because the request was for a "good luck" card, but I didn't realize it. Thankfully, it was okay because I had been crafting all day and was running out of steam!
It makes me happy when I can figure out an image to use on the many cartridges I own. It's sometimes a challenge, but it's always a relief when I can complete a specific request!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
For My RIGHT-HANDED Father
Happy Father's Day! Each year, it's always interesting seeing the kinds of things that are written about fathers on social media. First of all, they're mainly written by daughters, and secondly, I've also noticed that there's definitely a difference between those who are Asian and those who aren't. I've seen some of my Disney friends write about how their dads are their best friends and how they're so grateful that they can tell them anything. In all honesty, that kind of baffles my mind because that's not really how it works when you're a daughter with a Chinese father!
Though my dad has never been the kind of person to verbally shower me with love, he shows how much he cares in so many different ways. Growing up, I didn't understand why he couldn't just say "I love you," but now I know that in his eyes, making sure our family had everything we needed and providing a good life for us was his way of showing his love. It's kind of like having to read between the lines. Even though I am married and living out of the house, he still does those seemingly subtle things.
For example, I still drive to my parents' house on work days so that my mom and I only take one car to school. On snowy days, my dad knows just how difficult it is for me to park sometimes with the mountains of snow blocking the regular spots. He will just have me pull into the driveway and then move my car for me so that I can just get to work without having that to stress me out. Another example is that when he does food shopping on Sundays in Chinatown or when he goes to Top Tomato closer to home, he'll buy an extra avocado or two and give it to me along with bagels since he knows how much I like them and don't really get it myself because they're expensive.
And even today, I know that my dad appreciated the card I made and gave to him today because he kept mentioning it and talking about it during lunch and in the car on the way home from church. Of course, he was teasing me saying that I made a mistake by making the tennis player left-handed. Take a look at it!
I made it last night knowing that the only way I could really let him know I appreciate him is by writing it down and giving it to him in a card. I didn't even make a Mother's Day card for my mom (sorry, Mom!), but I know that when school is out, I can take her out for lunch and we can just talk and talk and talk. I know that because of the relationship we have, I don't have to wait for the cards to express my gratitude. That's why it was important to me to make the card especially since I know he's been stressed lately taking care of my grandma.
For the tennis ball image and the tennis player, I actually used a cartridge I hadn't touched before called "Sports Mania." The ball was cut out at 6 inches (how awesome is it that I happened to have paper that's similar to the Wilson tennis ball color?!), and I cut two of the shadows in white to use for the actual card base. Knowing now that there's no way to make an envelope that big on the envelope punch board, I will make sure I don't make them any larger than 6 x 6! The shadow made it just a little bit over, so I had to figure out another way to make some sort of an envelope.
The tennis player was cut at 3 inches. I actually thought in my mind, "My dad is a rightie," but it didn't occur to me that I could just easily flip the image before I cut it out (yes, or flipped it before I glued it, but the cut edges would show more). Whoops! Dad was saying that he wanted to take a picture of it and show it to all his tennis buddies, but I put the guy on backwards!
Lastly, I used the cartridge "Boys Will Be Boys" because I liked the font on it. A lot of my other fonts on cartridges like "Lyrical Letters" and such are too loopy or cutesy. I used the text box to type out the letters, so on Cricut Craftroom, the text size was 1 and then I decreased the letter spacing to -3 so that most of them were welded together.
Like I said, I couldn't make an envelope with the punch board or with the score board. So I ended up cutting out a 7.5 x 7.5 square, scoring half an inch in, and applying adhesive to stick the two pieces together. The second piece was a little longer just so that I'd have a flap to close the envelope. I cut out the letters using "Boys Will Be Boys" again.
Even though I made a mistake with the right-handed and left-handed thing, I still think it came out pretty well considering it's very specific for my tennis-loving dad. I remember that as a kid, I didn't understand why he was always playing tennis after work. I used to think that he must love tennis more than he loved me, but I really didn't understand the differences between how men and women think and function until I started dating and got married. Now I understand that he needed a breather and to release some stress from his job, and I'm glad that he's still so fit and into the game now because of the exercise and the friends he has made through it! Maybe since he's such a great player, he can learn to play with his left hand so that this card is more appropriate ...
Though my dad has never been the kind of person to verbally shower me with love, he shows how much he cares in so many different ways. Growing up, I didn't understand why he couldn't just say "I love you," but now I know that in his eyes, making sure our family had everything we needed and providing a good life for us was his way of showing his love. It's kind of like having to read between the lines. Even though I am married and living out of the house, he still does those seemingly subtle things.
For example, I still drive to my parents' house on work days so that my mom and I only take one car to school. On snowy days, my dad knows just how difficult it is for me to park sometimes with the mountains of snow blocking the regular spots. He will just have me pull into the driveway and then move my car for me so that I can just get to work without having that to stress me out. Another example is that when he does food shopping on Sundays in Chinatown or when he goes to Top Tomato closer to home, he'll buy an extra avocado or two and give it to me along with bagels since he knows how much I like them and don't really get it myself because they're expensive.
And even today, I know that my dad appreciated the card I made and gave to him today because he kept mentioning it and talking about it during lunch and in the car on the way home from church. Of course, he was teasing me saying that I made a mistake by making the tennis player left-handed. Take a look at it!
I made it last night knowing that the only way I could really let him know I appreciate him is by writing it down and giving it to him in a card. I didn't even make a Mother's Day card for my mom (sorry, Mom!), but I know that when school is out, I can take her out for lunch and we can just talk and talk and talk. I know that because of the relationship we have, I don't have to wait for the cards to express my gratitude. That's why it was important to me to make the card especially since I know he's been stressed lately taking care of my grandma.
For the tennis ball image and the tennis player, I actually used a cartridge I hadn't touched before called "Sports Mania." The ball was cut out at 6 inches (how awesome is it that I happened to have paper that's similar to the Wilson tennis ball color?!), and I cut two of the shadows in white to use for the actual card base. Knowing now that there's no way to make an envelope that big on the envelope punch board, I will make sure I don't make them any larger than 6 x 6! The shadow made it just a little bit over, so I had to figure out another way to make some sort of an envelope.
The tennis player was cut at 3 inches. I actually thought in my mind, "My dad is a rightie," but it didn't occur to me that I could just easily flip the image before I cut it out (yes, or flipped it before I glued it, but the cut edges would show more). Whoops! Dad was saying that he wanted to take a picture of it and show it to all his tennis buddies, but I put the guy on backwards!
Lastly, I used the cartridge "Boys Will Be Boys" because I liked the font on it. A lot of my other fonts on cartridges like "Lyrical Letters" and such are too loopy or cutesy. I used the text box to type out the letters, so on Cricut Craftroom, the text size was 1 and then I decreased the letter spacing to -3 so that most of them were welded together.
Like I said, I couldn't make an envelope with the punch board or with the score board. So I ended up cutting out a 7.5 x 7.5 square, scoring half an inch in, and applying adhesive to stick the two pieces together. The second piece was a little longer just so that I'd have a flap to close the envelope. I cut out the letters using "Boys Will Be Boys" again.
Even though I made a mistake with the right-handed and left-handed thing, I still think it came out pretty well considering it's very specific for my tennis-loving dad. I remember that as a kid, I didn't understand why he was always playing tennis after work. I used to think that he must love tennis more than he loved me, but I really didn't understand the differences between how men and women think and function until I started dating and got married. Now I understand that he needed a breather and to release some stress from his job, and I'm glad that he's still so fit and into the game now because of the exercise and the friends he has made through it! Maybe since he's such a great player, he can learn to play with his left hand so that this card is more appropriate ...
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Crafty Days
This is just a brief glimpse into the crafting I've been doing for the past three days or so! I had a lot of custom orders to fill, and since I thankfully started earlier than normal, I will have 18 cards with 5 different designs to deliver tomorrow!
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| Don't quite know why the photo is so distorted. Photobucket has been weird lately. |
Friday, June 13, 2014
Friday Favorites
Here are a few things that I've really been enjoying lately!
Favorite #1: Edy's Outshine Bars
About a month ago, there was a really awesome California Pizza Kitchen deal at Target to buy two pizzas and get a box of Edy's bars for free. With the coupons available at the time, each item technically came out to be only $1.67. I actually saw it as paying $5 for the pizza and getting the bars for free since we were just trying it for the first time, and it wasn't necessarily something I would have bought anyway. Well, once Howard and I tried those peach bars, we were hooked! Now they definitely will be something we buy again!
Since neither of us can have ice cream and our apartment can get really hot and stuffy rather quickly because of the lack of air flow (and who wants to pay an arm and a leg for constantly having the air conditioning on during the warmer months?!), we like to occasionally have an ice as a snack or dessert! These Outshine bars make it so that I don't feel as guilty compared to the Luigi's Italian Ice though we like those in the summer months too. The box says that there's a good amount of Vitamin C in it, and there really are chunks of fruit in the peach one and the strawberry one that we also tried. We were actually able to try the lime and strawberry flavors too because CVS had a decent deal on them with coupons and ExtraBucks, and I had ExtraBucks to spend. When I got them there, each box was a little over $1, but I got $4 back to use. Ooo, that reminds me that I need to use it by Monday, I believe.
I would definitely recommend these bars! Even at full price, I would have to say it's "worth it" compared to buying it individually, of course, but it's still too expensive for me personally. Sales and coupons are the way to go!
Favorite #2: 24 Live Another Day
Since Howard and I don't have a TV, we don't watch many current TV shows. If there's something that interests us, we have to watch it on Hulu or some other provider. We do that for things like MasterChef and Top Chef, but recently we started watching the latest season of 24!
I have to say that watching "24: Live Another Day" is exciting though because we do actually have to wait until the following week to find out what happens next! It has that excitement that we both missed, and we're both quite happy that Chloe was brought back for this season too!
Favorite #3: Martha Stewart Crafts Simple Circle Cutter
It was only fairly recently that I finally found the blade part of my Martha Stewart circle cutter! I thought I had lost it for some time because it wasn't back at my parents' house, and I couldn't find it in the apartment. I had actually put it in one of my plastic flower and eyelet cases for safe storage and apparently forgot it was there! But now that I have it, it's making my craft life so much easier again, and I have plenty more options!
With it, I was able to make a circle card that I haven't yet posted since the person who requested the custom order didn't yet give it to the recipient. I was also able to use it to make little circles to glue in the middle of scalloped circles cut out with my Spellbinders Nestabilities when I wanted a different shape for the sentiment of the cards I was making. Of course, the only thing that makes this easy is the fact that I have the Making Memories Slice Glass Cutting Mat. I remember when I bought that for the full $19.99 price at AC Moore. I know; it seems strange that I didn't use a coupon, but apparently coupons excluded Slice products and I figured I needed it anyway (of course, it later went on clearance!). Right now it's just $8.98 on Amazon probably because I think the Slice machine is obsolete. It's okay though because I'm happy with how both of the products work together once I read that glass cutting mats are the best. It makes me excited knowing that I have my options available to me again!
I'm extra happy this Friday that Howard got home safely before the thunderstorms started. Stay safe everyone, and have a great weekend!
Favorite #1: Edy's Outshine Bars
About a month ago, there was a really awesome California Pizza Kitchen deal at Target to buy two pizzas and get a box of Edy's bars for free. With the coupons available at the time, each item technically came out to be only $1.67. I actually saw it as paying $5 for the pizza and getting the bars for free since we were just trying it for the first time, and it wasn't necessarily something I would have bought anyway. Well, once Howard and I tried those peach bars, we were hooked! Now they definitely will be something we buy again!
Since neither of us can have ice cream and our apartment can get really hot and stuffy rather quickly because of the lack of air flow (and who wants to pay an arm and a leg for constantly having the air conditioning on during the warmer months?!), we like to occasionally have an ice as a snack or dessert! These Outshine bars make it so that I don't feel as guilty compared to the Luigi's Italian Ice though we like those in the summer months too. The box says that there's a good amount of Vitamin C in it, and there really are chunks of fruit in the peach one and the strawberry one that we also tried. We were actually able to try the lime and strawberry flavors too because CVS had a decent deal on them with coupons and ExtraBucks, and I had ExtraBucks to spend. When I got them there, each box was a little over $1, but I got $4 back to use. Ooo, that reminds me that I need to use it by Monday, I believe.
I would definitely recommend these bars! Even at full price, I would have to say it's "worth it" compared to buying it individually, of course, but it's still too expensive for me personally. Sales and coupons are the way to go!
Favorite #2: 24 Live Another Day
Since Howard and I don't have a TV, we don't watch many current TV shows. If there's something that interests us, we have to watch it on Hulu or some other provider. We do that for things like MasterChef and Top Chef, but recently we started watching the latest season of 24!
The funny thing is that I didn't actually finish the previous 8 seasons of 24! I lost track of where I stopped, so I'm actually starting from the beginning and now am in the midst of season 2. Because that's on Amazon Prime, I can watch an episode and keep going if I so wished. I remember my older brother would stay up late at night watching episode after episode on DVD.
I have to say that watching "24: Live Another Day" is exciting though because we do actually have to wait until the following week to find out what happens next! It has that excitement that we both missed, and we're both quite happy that Chloe was brought back for this season too!
Favorite #3: Martha Stewart Crafts Simple Circle Cutter
It was only fairly recently that I finally found the blade part of my Martha Stewart circle cutter! I thought I had lost it for some time because it wasn't back at my parents' house, and I couldn't find it in the apartment. I had actually put it in one of my plastic flower and eyelet cases for safe storage and apparently forgot it was there! But now that I have it, it's making my craft life so much easier again, and I have plenty more options!
With it, I was able to make a circle card that I haven't yet posted since the person who requested the custom order didn't yet give it to the recipient. I was also able to use it to make little circles to glue in the middle of scalloped circles cut out with my Spellbinders Nestabilities when I wanted a different shape for the sentiment of the cards I was making. Of course, the only thing that makes this easy is the fact that I have the Making Memories Slice Glass Cutting Mat. I remember when I bought that for the full $19.99 price at AC Moore. I know; it seems strange that I didn't use a coupon, but apparently coupons excluded Slice products and I figured I needed it anyway (of course, it later went on clearance!). Right now it's just $8.98 on Amazon probably because I think the Slice machine is obsolete. It's okay though because I'm happy with how both of the products work together once I read that glass cutting mats are the best. It makes me excited knowing that I have my options available to me again!
I'm extra happy this Friday that Howard got home safely before the thunderstorms started. Stay safe everyone, and have a great weekend!
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