If I'm being perfectly honest, I've always been something of a perfectionist. I agonize over my creative creations whether it's a paper for British Lit, frosting a cake, or if I'm tackling a brand-new sewing project. Just ask Mikelle about my meltdown over the apron I made for Tuima's Christmas gift. I don't know what it is about crafts that gets me so anal about details. It's all about being creative and not following the rules right? Sigh. This is a lesson I still need to learn.
Funny enough I LOVE doing crafts whether it's sewing a quilt, making satin flowers pins, or modge-podging the crap out of something. I love sitting back and looking at what I made and going, Wow. I did that? Cool!
Also, as mentioned before, Pinterest is NOT helping matters any. I have a Loooong list of cool stuff I want to make.
Anyways, I just wanted to give an example of my perfectionism at it's best...worst?
Anyway, Ere and I planned out a crafty craft night a week or so ago and just craft whatever the heck we wanted to.
This obviously required a lot of craft supplies as well as chocolate. So we met up at our local Hobby Lobby store and I proceeded to corrupt her from there. (Seriously. Once you get into this crafting thing it's pretty hard to quit. Oh, and p.s. (because I love you all)...if you sign up for Hobby Lobby's weekly email they send you a list of all their sales for the week as well as a coupon for 40% off 1 item of your choice each and EVERY week.)
We split up for a bit as she got her stuff and I got mine. She'd found her inspiration for her collage frame at a local Farmer's Market and I got my idea of putting a quote in a glass frame from a sister's roommate. I already had the frame I wanted and just needed to buy vinyl for the lettering. I didn't know what exact quote I was going to put in the frame, but figured I'd eventually figure it out.
Once we arrived home Ere was able to proceed right away with hers since she already knew what she was doing.
My project....
Yeah....
Here's the other thing about crafts. I cannot make them up out of my head. I NEED an example to look at in order to make sure I am doing it right, that everything is straight, that it doesn't look stupid etc. which is yet another reason why I love Pinterest.
Only this time I had nothing to go from because I was making it all up in my head. All I knew was that I wanted to place a lovely quote in vinyl in my glass see-through frame as well as a silhouette of a bird or a flower. However...which quote or picture was anybody's guess. Ere was WONDERFUL and listened to me read through several dozen of my favorite quotes as I narrowed it down and finally picked a piece from William Butler Yeats' The Stolen Child.
Next came an hour and a half of downloading fonts to find the perfect one.
No joke.
Couldn't find one I liked to save my life. I don't know what it was. They were either too curvy, or too skinny, too bubbly, too swooshy, too pokey, too small, super tacky, way too hideous, and so on, and so on.
(Seriously, Ere has the patient of a saint. She listened to me whine and moan and just be generally indecisive and picky without ever complaining herself.)
I eventually realized I was getting WAY too invested in fonts so I decided to move on and try and find a picture to include with the quote. Another hour and a half later with no luck of finding the right one (Midnight had come and gone at this point) I just had to call it quits for the night.
Jess put the finishing touches on her project the next morning and it looked AMAZING!
I however was still looking for a font and a picture.
After finally narrowing it down I was SO ready to print it out on our super awesome Silhouette CAMEO...only to discover that the fonts I'd so meticulously downloaded the night before were not an option on the family's computer.
Wot?
And perhaps they were, I just was not in a good place mentally to figure out how to get them to work.
So...several more hours went by as I narrowed down my font choices AGAIN, going back several times to fonts I had already crossed off the list. I just wanted it to be perfect. There was so much pressure (from myself only) to get it right. Anyone else like this...ever? Please?
THEN it was time to find a picture. (Ere had left long before this point so it was me and my neurosis all alone with options.) I scrolled through the hundreds of pictures of birds and flowers with a speed that left my poor dad scratching his head.
"Why didn't you pick that one?"
"It's not the style I want."
"What's wrong with that one?"
"It just doesn't look right."
However, I must make mention that without my dad this thing never would actually have gotten finished. He's the one that helped me set up the vinyl cutter and made sure it was working properly. Thanks so much for that!
We FINALLY got everything through and printed only to find that I had set the wrong setting on the cutter and it didn't cut all the way through the vinyl.
Whoops.
It was ok. I was so close. This was NOT going to get me down. I simply cut out the whole line of text in one block of black vinyl, lined it up with the grid underneath, and then, armed with a pin, a pair of tweezers, and a very bright light, proceeded to re-cut out every single letter by hand with the pin and peel away the surrounding vinyl leaving only the letters behind.
This actually ended up being a really great thing because I was able to line all the words up perfectly. Ugh. Can you imagine what a pain it would have been if I'd tried to put down every single letter separately? Gross.
And TA-DAAAA! Forty-eight hours later it was FINISHED! I am SO pleased with the final project and my perfectionism streak is satisfied as well. I can't WAIT to hang it up in my new apartment!
In closing, I want to apologize for the "Me Me Me Mine Mine Mine". I am just proud that I was able to even FINISH this in one weekend with all the hang-ups that occurred. We're not even going to talk about the previous week's jean skirt project that is sitting in my closet balled up and stuffed in the back. We're just not.
Once we arrived home Ere was able to proceed right away with hers since she already knew what she was doing.
My project....
Yeah....
Here's the other thing about crafts. I cannot make them up out of my head. I NEED an example to look at in order to make sure I am doing it right, that everything is straight, that it doesn't look stupid etc. which is yet another reason why I love Pinterest.
Only this time I had nothing to go from because I was making it all up in my head. All I knew was that I wanted to place a lovely quote in vinyl in my glass see-through frame as well as a silhouette of a bird or a flower. However...which quote or picture was anybody's guess. Ere was WONDERFUL and listened to me read through several dozen of my favorite quotes as I narrowed it down and finally picked a piece from William Butler Yeats' The Stolen Child.
Next came an hour and a half of downloading fonts to find the perfect one.
No joke.
Couldn't find one I liked to save my life. I don't know what it was. They were either too curvy, or too skinny, too bubbly, too swooshy, too pokey, too small, super tacky, way too hideous, and so on, and so on.
(Seriously, Ere has the patient of a saint. She listened to me whine and moan and just be generally indecisive and picky without ever complaining herself.)
I eventually realized I was getting WAY too invested in fonts so I decided to move on and try and find a picture to include with the quote. Another hour and a half later with no luck of finding the right one (Midnight had come and gone at this point) I just had to call it quits for the night.
 |
| The creative zone approximately 11:45 p.m. |
I however was still looking for a font and a picture.
After finally narrowing it down I was SO ready to print it out on our super awesome Silhouette CAMEO...only to discover that the fonts I'd so meticulously downloaded the night before were not an option on the family's computer.
Wot?
And perhaps they were, I just was not in a good place mentally to figure out how to get them to work.
So...several more hours went by as I narrowed down my font choices AGAIN, going back several times to fonts I had already crossed off the list. I just wanted it to be perfect. There was so much pressure (from myself only) to get it right. Anyone else like this...ever? Please?
THEN it was time to find a picture. (Ere had left long before this point so it was me and my neurosis all alone with options.) I scrolled through the hundreds of pictures of birds and flowers with a speed that left my poor dad scratching his head.
"Why didn't you pick that one?"
"It's not the style I want."
"What's wrong with that one?"
"It just doesn't look right."
However, I must make mention that without my dad this thing never would actually have gotten finished. He's the one that helped me set up the vinyl cutter and made sure it was working properly. Thanks so much for that!
We FINALLY got everything through and printed only to find that I had set the wrong setting on the cutter and it didn't cut all the way through the vinyl.
Whoops.
It was ok. I was so close. This was NOT going to get me down. I simply cut out the whole line of text in one block of black vinyl, lined it up with the grid underneath, and then, armed with a pin, a pair of tweezers, and a very bright light, proceeded to re-cut out every single letter by hand with the pin and peel away the surrounding vinyl leaving only the letters behind.
I will admit that the tulips were a BEAST to cut out, but I rather like the end effect.
And TA-DAAAA! Forty-eight hours later it was FINISHED! I am SO pleased with the final project and my perfectionism streak is satisfied as well. I can't WAIT to hang it up in my new apartment!
In closing, I want to apologize for the "Me Me Me Mine Mine Mine". I am just proud that I was able to even FINISH this in one weekend with all the hang-ups that occurred. We're not even going to talk about the previous week's jean skirt project that is sitting in my closet balled up and stuffed in the back. We're just not.
Bahahahahaha!!! Oh Emily. This is either a family trait, or a first born trait. I am so with you on this. You are definitely not alone, hence the reason I NEVER craft - like ever. I must say though...the finished product is beautiful! I adore the quote :)
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