Today's Post - An Unintentional Experiment

Today's post may be a bit weird. I'm not sure how well it will translate to the various forums in which I post, and my standard routine of writing, posting, grabbing a copy from my personal pages at AOL, and re-posting it to LJ and DW may not work today since AOL is down for some service. If I have any say in the matter, they'll fix whatever has been really effin' up their service lately because it's been super bad since their last major update. 

Today will be an experiment and I hope my
blog will be readable for all of you who read
off my carryover posts on LJ and DW. 

Nonetheless, today's post may look really bad on LJ or DW or both, and if so, I apologize in advance. 

Today is my "day off" and I'm going full steam ahead on my holiday cards. By the end of today, my interiors should be ready for signatures and small notes, and the exterior fronts should be completely finished. I still will have the backs and the envelopes remaining, and need to punch holes in the small attachment that many of you are getting. It's supposed to be able to hang, thus the holes. 

I really pushed the capabilities of my Big Kick Sizzix machine this
year, cutting not only paper, but also copper with it. I'm surprised
it's still working and didn't just pop apart at the joints with the
last few passes of metal. 

I can say that this year's card pushed my equipment to the max! I don't think my Big Kick Sizzix was ever meant to do what I pushed it to do this year. It came through like a trooper, but I totally ruined several pairs of carrying sheets, and I'm sure my arm got a few extra muscles by cranking copper and steel through something that should only be used for lighter-weight metals, no steel, and usually only on paper. 

I wish I had the talent to paint something this pretty, but
styles differ. I love this fox in the snow, though. Although
there is a fox in my cards this year, it's not in
the snow - LOL. 

A lot of this year's cards are hand-painted and embossed, thus the time sink. It's been a tremendous amount of fun seeing things come together. I never really know what will happen when I start off with a wisp of an idea. I start collecting things that I want to use, and embark upon a journey which will leave parts and parcels behind as I move toward the finish line with a final group of stamps, inks, and pens. My Conestoga Wagon has left several dressers and at least one fine marble-topped entryway table behind me on the desert flats while working toward the finish line. The end is in sight. 

Conestoga wagons conquered the West of the USA. Don't kid yourself - it
wasn't the army who actually conquered the Westward expansion, it was
these intrepid families who packed up everything they had in their farm
wagons, attached a shade over all of it, and set out for places they had
never seen to start a new life in the West. 

I ordered stamps yesterday while on-line at the Post Office website for a mail order. They'll arrive at the shop within a week, and by then I hope to have most of my cards ready to put into the mail. My internationals will go first, in hopes of your getting them before Solstice. But I always promise to have things in the mail by Solstice, so I'm still on time - LOL. 

So, here's to experimenting and projects. I hope you have a glorious Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully back to my normal interface and order.