Triptych Completed

This week I finished up (mostly) my triptych. I like how it turned out!

I couldn't get rid of the glare. The blue is actually more of a denim blue.

Here are some close ups of the third piece. I couldn't get rid of the glare.

For the middle piece, I made a collage (which I loved and hated to see go!) and then masked off the tree. Then I gave it a good coat of paint followed by modpodge.

I haven't hung them up yet, but I will.

Maybe I will try for some better pictures later--
til then, enjoy.

Christmas Card 2011

I know! I know! Enough already with Christmas. Actually, I think this is the Day of Epiphany and so I think we can still talk about Christmas.

Anyway... I have already confessed that I always make cards and feel like I have to live up to others' expectations. I also confessed that this year I was cutting myself some slack. SOOOO, this is the easy and inexpensive card I made this year.


This one is a little worse for wear. It was returned to sender after a couple weeks.

 Supplies:

12 X 12 cardstock. (I bought mine on sale at Joanne Fabric and Craft for 5 for $1.00)

A photo (You will need to trim the length of a 4 x 6 photo down to about 5.5".)

A coordinating sticker.

Directions:

On your computer, change the paper size in your page set up menu to something that is longer than 12". This will allow you to print all the way to the edges of the paper. Use landscape layout. You will need to experiment with placement. I used 12x12 paper I didn't like or taped together regular paper both cut to 8 x 12 to practice. You will make 2 copies of the card on each page.

For the outside, use the drawing tools to draw three parallel lines in red and green. I liked mine to touch each other. I later straightend the top green line. Once you get everything perfect, make a second copy on the page. I inserted text boxes everywhere I wanted text.

Decide on the the placement of your message and your return address. Practice! Practice! Practice! Maybe other people don't have to practice as much as I do. Don't tell me if you don't. I feel inadequate enough without any help!

Cut a 4x12 inch strip off each sheet of cardstock, then use the remaining 8 x 12 paper to print the backs of your cards.

Now... practice the inside. Use your practice pages to see where to fold your card. On the small flap on the listed the family members in the photo. Write your message on the right.

The more you practice the less paper you will waste.

Once I had printed all my 8 x 12 papers, I printed the cards on the leftover 4 x 12 strips. That way I got 3 cards from each sheet of cardstock.

For the sticker, I ran shiny gold paper through my sticker maker. Make sure it will keep the card closed. I only had repositionable adhesive stickers, so I ended up reinforcing the seal with glue.

In all, the cost for about 36 cards was less than $10.00, including photos.

Organizing your Christmas list

Like many of you, I have been busy baking, eating, shopping, and being with the family and not crafting. Additionally, Jasmine and I are finally painting her room. So, instead of a craft today, I will share an idea that has evolved over time. Once all of my birth family was grown with families of our own, one of my brothers used to have us all fill out Christmas wishlists that he and his wife prepared. Then they were shared them with the whole family. (Note: we did not love filling these out! However, they were very helpful when shopping.) Now I have taken this a step further and gone to Google Docs. Instead of having pages and pages of lists, we have everything on one spreadsheet we can take with us when we go out shopping.

If you have lots of people on your list and need their input on what to give this year, you might try our way. Today when we pulled out the spreadsheet, the salesman was very impressed!

You will need to use Gmail. In  Gmail, click on Documents. Then click on a red box on the left side called Create. Under Create, select Form. Now you can create questions for your family to complete. The first question should be NAME so you know who is answering. Then I created a question for categories such as clothing, electronics, DVDS, jewelry, toys, games, books, etc. I also have a question for any online wishlists.

Once you have created your form, you can send the link to the family. They complete the form and submit it. Their responses appear in a spreadsheet. You can give access to your family to be able to view the spreadsheet or you can send them copies.

Have fun with it!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

And the winner is....

Today there are kind of 2 winners! One won the fall table runner.

The winner is

ALLISON

Congratulations! Please send your mailing address to waywardgirlscrafts at gmail dot com. Thank you who entered so much!

The other winner is ME! I purchased my new sewing machine on Monday. (Pfaff Ambition 1.5) It is fantastic. I made a receiving blanket and burp cloth and used some of my 195 stitches to trim them. I learned to choose wisely-- the leaf pattern, though adorable, took a long time to do and a lot of thread to do it.

Wayward Girls send out a salute to the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces to protect our country! Happy Veterans' Day.