It's all in the craft

I've always been a creative person. I remember in fourth grade we were doing sand art. I had a photo of an alligator (this sounds a little too amateur for fourth grade, huh? so I'm not sure why we were doing this at that time). I colored him in, along with the scene around him. I outlined him with the sand art. After recess I came back to my desk and was pretty much done, but my classmates were still working on theirs. So I decided to fill in some areas with sand art. I think the end product was outstanding, if I say so myself. :)

A few of you may know, but others probably don't. I am a crafter at heart. My obessession is paper and fonts. (I think I've mentioned that in a previous post.) My niche..invitations and cards.

It all started in the mid to late 90's. I want to say 1997-ish. My aunt wanted me to help her make invitations for my cousin's baptism. I used that blue stationary paper with the white clouds. Ha, ha!! That just screams BEGINNER!! I'm the type who always wants to add more. So with that invitation, instead of printing directly on the blue cloud stationary, I printed on tissue paper. Tissue paper, like the one you use for gift wrapping. Literally. I think I was going for the vellum look, but didn't even know what vellum was, or even that it was called vellum. Couldn't they name it "stylish see through paper"? I wish I saved a copy for myself to have as a memory.

Little by little I would try to kick up the next one up a notch. Another one I did was I used parchment stationary paper and gold ribbon. After that I believe I took a break because I don't remember any other invite that I did until 2004 when my nephew was born. I also did his baptism invites.

I used a sepia photo of him that I took while I worked at the JCPenney Portrait Studio. I printed it on cardstock, used vellum for the inside and tied it all together with gold yarn (but not really yarn...more like string). I really liked that one because the photo blended in with the card.

Around 2006 I took it to another level. I wanted to make a business out of this, but started small. I went to Craigslist.com and found a couple who was getting married. They were on a budget and were looking for someone to do their invites. I was nervous, but accepted the challenge. I believe I made 60 bucks off it. Probably spent more creating it all, buying the supplies, and shipping, but at least I got my name out there, right?

Fast forward to today. I don't get to do a lot of paper crafting because photography has taken over my life, in the most wonderful way possible. However, a couple of months ago I promised myself that I would dedicate one day a month to paper and nothing but paper. I intend to keep that promise because I really do love emerging myself in all my scrapbook paper, various types of glue/adhesives, different colors and styles of ribbon and my Cricut...oh how I LOVE MY CRICUT!!! Sometimes I just sit and stare at it because there's SO much you can do with it that I don't know where to start.

Here's some that I've made in the past.

Another craft that I have started to do is custom hangers, or what I like to call it, wire bending. I'm sure you've seen those wooden hangers with "Bride" or "Mrs. fill in the blank" in recent weddings. I decided to try my hand at it because after seeing one in action I never want to photograph another wedding dress without one.

So I bought some hangers and some wire and I started my newly acquired wire bending skills. This is my first completed hanger. You'll be seeing more of these for my 2012 brides who do not have one. Congrats Brides :)

Because I have decided to rededicate myself to crafting, I have decided to make it a feature on my blog. Therefore, you guys get to see what's freshly made :) About twice a month I will talk about what I've made, or plan on making. I haven't quite set a date for these yet, so they may just pop up one day. So be sure to keep coming back. I appreciate the company :)

There may also be giveaways...and don't we all love free stuff?

Happy crafting!!!