Hello Birthday

Finally, the Birthday invitations are ready to go.  I had a lot of fun putting this Hello Kitty birthday invitation together in Silhouette Studio.  Lots of welding, converting to a path and even releasing the compound path- OH MY!  

Along the way, I encountered something crazy with my Silhouette Cameo.  I made this file into a print and cut.  The first cut just fine but the next three gave me fits.  My Cameo was off on each one of the cuts and it would not read the registration marks.  I tried to "go over" the registration marks thinking maybe it just wasn't dark enough but that didn't work. Frustrated I went to bed.  My sweet hubby asked if I needed to recalibrate the Cameo.  Good thought. 

The next day I awoke DETERMINED to finish Curly's invitation. I went searching for an answer.  I asked for help on the message board at Two Peas.  It got several views but no replies.  A Google search turned me onto a Pinterest Board with a bad link - GRRRR!  But now I had a couple key words to aid my search. 

Finally I found a FAQ link on the Silhouette America Store. Now why didn't I think of that? Sure enough directions to recalibrate your machine!  EUREKA!  That hubby of mine is so smart...maybe if I would just listen to him, right?  At any rate, it worked and the invitations are now complete. 

I think they turned out adorable.  Curly thought it needed some glitter, sure enough some Crystal Stickles on the Kitty's hair bow are the perfect accent!  Curly sure has an eye for design!  Off to work on more scrappy goodness for the Birthday Party! 

The Hello Kitty image used here is not my image.  I did not create this image. The image came from a Google Search from the following site:http://kittypalace.tripod.com/kitty.html   

Magazine Challenge

Each week Paper Crafter's Corner hosts a Magazine Challenge.  I only discovered this unique challenge a few weeks ago.  After several weeks of observation I finally decided to try my hand.  This week's magazine cover inspiration piece:

I was really intrigued by the embellishment in, through, and around the title.  What a neat idea!  As I began thinking of a project for this inspiration another idea hit me.  What if this was a TITLE PAGE?  I NEVER make title pages in my albums. I usually make the album pages, page by page but never return to create a title page.  I certainly do not BEGIN with a title page! 

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the letters and embellishments.  I am so thankful for the ability to turn on and off the cut feature.  I first created his name and then offset the words for unity. As I added the embellishments I placed and sized them appropriately on screen.  This allowed me to get all my embellishments the right size for my page BEFORE I cut them all out!

 

 

 

Welcome

Welcome!

I was listening to the Adventures in Arting podcast and realized I suffered from what Julie Fei-Fan Balzer calls "Fear of Failure."  I was stuck in a rut.  Too afraid of trying anything new for fear I would waste time, money or energy that would be better spent elsewhere.  As I work to overcome that I also realized I give up too soon.  I was stopping at good enough when my very best was just around the corner!

I have a PASSION for all things creative and I get a nervous tick when I do not have a "project" in the works.  Yet I avoided creating and I was addicted to Pinterest.  Finally, I realized this was akin to treating a bug bite with poison ivy.  Pinterest is for inspiration and yet it was holding me back because there are so many wonderful ideas out there and I felt lost and not good enough.

I believe there are many people out there paralyzed by a fear of failure.  Stuck in a downward spiral of "not good enough" and "I don't want to try." I hope this blog champions those that are scared of trying, terrified at the possibility of failing, and addicted to all things Pinterest.