As I mentioned last week, our daughter Katie's recreation softball came to an end. Each season we celebrate with some mementos for coaches and players alike. One such tradition is the coaches picture framed and signed by the team members. It is real fun to look back over the seasons (we're going on, like, seven years now) and see how the girls have grown, the wonderful players we've had the privilege to play with, and the kind and caring coaches who have trained our daughter and her friends. I can tell you that each of these fine young ladies is a pleasure to know. It is my great fortune to be able to create crafty things to celebrate their seasons. This might just be the only acceptable, public outpouring of crafty affection allowed now that my daughter is thirteen.
One such crafty outpouring is the photo albums that I create each year. They start with a
cheapo plastic 4 x 6 photo album that has pockets to let me slide in my own cover art. I've even been know to buy the kind that has the cover sealed in and cut them open to slide my own art in. Nonetheless, I typically print an image that I create using Word because time is of the essence (though I have been know to pull out the Cricut a
time or
two).
Each girl has a unique nickname although some are growing out of them. I try to personalize the albums and make them special to each girl. Some team members join us for just one season and others have been around for years. I am the photographer for a large quantity of the photos- it is what lets me be in the dugout and working the bench. I find that I need to take 8-15 photos to get just the right one for the album. There's not a lot of finesse to my strategy, but it works!
Each album has one or two of my favorite photos. I am sure that half the girls roll their eyes at me when I ask them to find my favorite photo in their album. However, I truly do always have that one shot where I capture the essence of who that child is to me and why they are so dear. My number 3 (daughter Katie) coming into second base as the second baseman misses the throw- this is a close second to my favorite this season. I've taken the strategy to not publish head shots of the children here on the blog and my favorite photo is a fully identifiable view of Katie laughing hysterically at a teammate's joke in between innings. A close third is the group photos where I can catch the girls cheering each other on.
All these things are the reasons why crafting is so important to me. Crafting gives me a way to increase the beauty that exists between me and those around me. Crafting gives me an outlet for my stress and opportunities to express my creativity that is not on a schedule. Crafting ultimately gives me an opportunity to express love and appreciation and trust me, these girls are a very deserving and ultimately rewarding place to heap both onto.
By the way, the team chose Angry Birds as a tongue-in-cheek name. It has stuck even though there is nothing particularly bird-like or angry about the way they play ball. This year they took 4th place, honorable and noteworthy even if they didn't earn a trophy.
Wishing you happy crafting for all reasons you do it,
Andie
I made these two graduation cards for a couple of close friend's children who graduated this year. Cards made for boys are difficult for me. I am not a CAS designer, per se. As such, keeping it simple and useful for male subjects can be troublesome. I turned to my handy, dandy Creative Chemistry 101 class and created these alcohol agates as backgrounds. From there I simply used my Archival Ink and clear emboss powder to enhance the stamped images, making them pop off the page, but not in a showy or flashy way. I ended up using the left over alcohol ink on my blending tool to lightly change the color of the edge of these cream cardstock cards. Some did bleed through, so I might not do that next time, but the effect was lovely. These cards are extremely difficult to photograph (at least for me) in a way that accurately displays the final look. Even so, I like the final result. I hope the recipients do too (though I suspect they enjoy the gift inside to greater effect, don't you?).
