Hello! I know it’s been a while. Life has been hectic in the best kind of way (for the most part!) In addition to starting a new job, I’ve been gathering tools and materials to progress in my artistic endeavors as well. So, to update about the things I was writing about last time…

I finally acquired my printer, after a monumental trek that included about 60 extra miles and a trip to 2 separate FedEx facilities, haha! But, I brought it home and set it up and printed a test page and was astounded at the quality! It communicates fine with my laptop, but last night I was trying to get it to print from my work laptop, which is much lighter and less clunky and thus easier to print from in theory (all of my files are on my portable HD), but it doesn’t seem to be able to find the right drivers? So, they weren’t understanding each other correctly when I tried to print out pics for cards last night. I was tired and eventually gave up, but will work on it more tonight and hopefully find an adequate translator! Oh, and, I didn’t have to buy ink which is AWESOME! It came with cartridges, which for some reason surprised me?

And! After a sketchy trip down several miles of dark, gravel roads in the middle of nowhere, thinking I might be walking in to a death trap, I picked up my new-to-me mitre saw from the nicest people!! He also threw in some other framing clamp things for a few extra bucks! It was awesome! I haven’t tried it out yet, but I do have it all set up in the basement so that’s exciting.

What else…I got over to Hil’s and she hooked me up with an entire trunk load of mat board, some frame clamps, a mat cutter, and some random pieces of molding that I can practice on! SO MUCH STUFF!! It took me a week or two to get around to it, due to overtime and new job, but I finally got around to sorting it. I thought a lot of it would be unusable, because some of it was pretty musty and a bit moldy, but! Turns out that most of it is actually fine, and I can totally use the yucky bits to practice on! I have the mat cutter set up in the basement, but the board is all up in my art room because 1. I didn’t feel like taking it all downstairs 2. there’s no where to put it downstairs 3. downstairs is more damp than I’d like it to be, which isn’t optimal for mat board. I do need to find a more permanent place for it, though, cuz right now it’s just leaning against bookshelves and such and it not totally in the way, but is definitely taking up needed space!

I’ve been picking up other random things at sales and off of FB market places…got an f-ton of ribbon from a gal for cards. Bought some organizationy containers and sorted my buttons! Found some card stock on sale, and picked up a few of the cellophane sleeves for the cards. Stocked up on double sided tape, zots. Also bought some essentials…safety glasses, a t-square type thing, clear labels to put on the back of prints and cards possibly. But I haven’t decided yet what to put on the labels. Maybe just my website addie?

Ohhh!! Also! I ordered business cards and a personalized stamper that says “handmade with care by panicbutton productions”! The stamper has arrived, and the cards should be here Monday. I’m pretty excited about those! I used Vista Print because they were having one of their constant deals, and they were the best deal for double sided, rounded corners at that point. I might switch it up next time, though, cuz I found one site where you can upload like, 50 different back images for the same price, and that would be cool. But they are more expensive, overall, for the same amount as the VistaPrint ones, so I figured I’d wait to see if anyone even took any. But, I do like options! I picked up a cheapo card holder at Staples, but I am always on the lookout for a cooler, fancier one.

I just finally ordered some clear shelve ledges to install for prints. I still need to find a greeting card display option. They might go on the ledges. I’m also going to go hunting at the FH to see if they have anything I can use. I don’t need anything huge or bulky. But those things are expensive! heh. What else do I still need….not much! It’s just a matter of actually getting things printed at this point, and relearning how to measure and cut mat board and molding. Oh! I guess I do need to buy some molding. But, I would be satisfied with just getting a bunch of prints matted and cards made. Cellophane bags for prints, I do still need those. But I haven’t determined what size prints I’m doing yet, so, silly to buy any without knowing!

Pricing is also something I have to actually sit down and figure out. I mean, now that I’ve bought and gathered most of my supplies, I at least have some actual numbers to use. That makes it much easier. And, I scoped out some of the other artists’ prices on their stuff, which also helps as a reference point. I just need to price as if I didn’t get everything used/cheap, because at some point I’m going to have to buy new stuff, lol, and if I start off charging less and then raise prices…that’s sucky. So. Blah. Will deal with that after I actually have a product to price! I’ve been doing super good at keeping receipts and tracking how much I’ve been spending on things (for now), so, that’s also helpful!

I did another semi-thorough scan of my portable HD, and came up with about 200 files for use as cards/prints. Last night I managed to pick out about 30 of the 200 and put them in a folder as potential cards. Then further wheedled that down to about 6 that I was going to actually make prints of to bring to work today, in addition to the 2 or 3 sets I already had from previous card making sessions. All I need to do tonight is get my laptop to talk to my printer and also sort my ribbon in to bags (that will live in a box), and then get together a bag to bring to work tomorrow to hopefully make some caaaards!!

Well. I just wanted to give a bit of an update about what was going on. Things are moving forward, bit by bit. I’m pretty ok with the pace of things, for a change. I mean, I obviously would have ALL THE THINGS DONE NOW! if that were possible, but it’s not. So I’m content with things coming together a little more each day/week.

I have also been meaning to add a donate button to the website, and add a few more photo galleries. But, I haven’t gotten to that yet. But it’s on my radar!