What REALLY Goes Into a Blog Post

So you want to start blogging, eh? "Go blog" they said! "It'll be fun" they said!

Well it is fun. And very rewarding. But, like much of social media, you only see the highlight reel, not the cutting room floor.

I made a card that took 45 minutes today on my Sunday call with my team. But that is such a tiny fraction of what I'm bringing you today that I feel the need to enumerate the steps. Here's what it actually took to get here today.

Step 1: 4 PM yesterday. Think about what you want to stamp for the one card you will make this weekend. Instead of starting, begin an insane process of swatching 268 watercolors in a very precise and unusual day, because you don't have 85 things that are ACTUALLY on your to-do list waiting for you. Tell yourself that this will make you more efficient!

Step 2: Eat three lifesavers for dinner because you're only halfway through this insane process at 8 PM and it's time to be sociable.

Step 3: Arise at 6 AM and get everything ready for the door installers that were re-scheduled for today because of rain last week. Notice that it looks like rain. Text installer. He says everything's fine.

Step 4: Go back to swatching. When installer arrives, chat about bacon for a while (it's a long story.) Listen to three hours of drilling and hammering. Realize that your teeth are now welded together from clenching at the noise. Inspect door work and let installers go, after some more bacon talk. Go back to swatching. Finish the swatches, but not the grand design, because it's time for your team call. Put everything in a folder for "later" - and by that I mean two years from now when you remember.)

Step 5: 2 PM (22 hours later), hop on team call with favorite peeps. Start working on card, which uses the watercolors you were swatching. Complete design, with their help and advice and lots of fun chat.

Step 6: 3 PM - start dinner, which will be at the senior citizen hour because no one in the house has eaten all day except the cats. Wash and peel potatoes, wash and trim green beans, saute leeks, clean all the things. Soak grapes.

Step 7: Show cats the new door, now that they've awakened from their customary 10 hour post-breakfast nap. Experience the complete boredom that can only be radiated from an unimpressed feline.

Step 8: 5 PM - finish dinner prep and eat. Clean up. Get text from installer about a credit we'll be getting on some unused material and also - wait for it - bacon.

Step 9: 6 PM - glue card together and attempt to photograph. Remove cat from photo tent 47 times. Take photo.

Step 10: Hear thunder, and run frantically around the house emptying trash to take outside for trash day before it rains. Forget about the card completely and delete old stuff of DVR because someone on Facebook told you that there's a new Food Network Star tonight and the DVR is full.

Step 11: 7 PM - edit photo with cat #2 on neck, freaking out over the storm, and cat #1 under desk freaking out over the storm.

Step 12: 26 hours later, finish editing and come to blog it. Pray the power stays on.

That's the reality of a 45 minute card, people. Real life. Right here.

I bet  this isn't how Patty Bennett's process works. She probably gets dressed by bluebirds and then sits down and makes a perfect card with no interruptions, other than the occasional glance at the magical creatures that frolic outside her window. Or that's how I imagine it working. But for all I know, that's how she imagines me making cards. Incorrect, Patty Bennett. Incorrect.

But speaking of Patty - it was HER million dollar stamp set that I wanted to play with today - after starting the process basically last week.

I decided to get out of my comfort zone and use very, very pastel colors. My happy place is brights, so this was a stretch I needed to try. I embossed the ribbon image first in white on some Bristol vellum, and then watercolored it. (Note - this is cardstock, not vellum - that describes the finish. See link below. It's a great cardstock for light water media, and if you have Zig markers - it should be your one and only.)

Just five colors on the ribbon, and a pale yellow, hopeful glow and I was done! It was so much fun, and I love chatting with my team while creating - it's like an e-retreat! And they are hilarious :).

InLinkz.com

I love this doodly image, and the possibilities for making it any color, or multi-colored, or just black and white and zentangly. She did a great job choosing what she wanted for her stamp set. I just love Patty. Bluebirds and all.

This stamp set will be available on June 1st when the new catalog goes live.

And now, I'd probably better shut this 26 hour blog post down before the storm hits.

It's always an adventure! And I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)

Loveyameanitbye.