Of all the things I’ve squeezed with my hands…

Something I may not have shared before is that I’ve always been kind of a crafty dork. It’s just been a really long time since I’ve allowed myself the time to let my Inner Crafting Dork free.

I’ve done a bit of everything. *eyebrow wiggle*  Drawing, painting, sculpture, random bead madness, hemp braiding silliness, all kinds of glue gun insanity, etc and etc.  But college, grad-school, real-job, spawning a human being… so many things replaced my crafting time.

But.

I found this awesome tutorial online recently. And within a day, I was making paper.

I.have.been.making.freakin.paper.

And oddly, this makes me feel… powerful. Bills and junk mail cannot defeat me! I churn them and add flower petals and onion skins! And out comes pretty, crinkly paper.

MUAHAHAHAHA.

It’s also been calming. And somehow therapeutic. Something about the process and the outcome makes me feel happy and peaceful.

And usually, I only feel that way after mocking someone or making a crass remark.  So this is landmark.

Before long, it occurred to me that I might be able to sell the product of my creative therapy.  Then those nagging bitches, Doubt and Insecurity, ganged up with the insufferable hag called Self Deprecation and threw a party in my head. (With Tequila.  Those bitches don’t play, yo.)  Suddenly, I’m wondering if anyone would actually buy my paper. I’m wondering if my paper is actually ugly to everyone but me.

The banner at the party in my head says, “You think your paper is so great, but PS: YOU SUCK and so does your paper, ya dumb beesh.”  (It’s a long banner.  I have a big forehead.)

I think the paper I’ve made is pretty… but would anyone really buy it?  This is where I turn to you guys, in all your wisdom and awesomeness. I need your vote below!

All Hail The Reader Opinion!

The paper is handmade from recycled (technically, upcycled) product (old papers, bills, envelopes, etc) and natural plant fibers (blossoms, petals, onion & garlic skins, etc).  The paper edges are “deckled” or unfinished – I could cut them straight, but I feel they’re so much prettier this way.

Here are some photos of the papers I’ve made so far. (I’m planning on making more colors as I go along.)

Poll time:  Will you please vote on whether I should try to sell my handmade paper?

(And don’t worry, you can be totally honest.  I have no way to know who you are when you vote – you have to pay for that feature, and I’m one cheap ass bitch. Seriously, who pays for that crap?)

Just vote on the little thingie below. I don’t know if it will show up in your feed reader, or email subscriber posts, so if you use those services, would you mind clicking over to vote?

Then I’ll know if I can give Doubt, Insecurity, and Self Deprecation the finger and send them packing or if I should just bend over and let them shove that banner up my butt and get it over with.

If you are a highly visual person?  So, so sorry about that. (But not really.)

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EDITED TO ADD:

I had some concern about bleeding of inks on the pages, and some of you guys mentioned it, so I figured there was no time like the present to go ahead and test some sheets.  It was just a small test, but I used a Blue Pentel Rolling Ball Pen and a Black Sharpie on each of 3 pages so far, and was astounded (happily!) that neither bled.  BOOYAH!  There seems to be a good amount of the sizing (added to paper to stop ink bleed when it is manufactured) from the original paper products (bills, flyers, etc) remaining in the end product I’m creating to hinder bleed.  So far, anyway.  Yay!

Dis, Dat, & De’Uddah.

Today I have for you…a few ramblings/odds and ends.  What, you were expecting genius?

First off, I’m setting this post to publish right after midnight… so as I write this it’s Sunday night, and I’m excited and somewhat giggly about fun times to be had on Monday morning.  With any luck there will be some fun pictures to show you later.

Also, some things I wanted to mention:

On my old (Blogger) site, I removed the “nofollow” code from the template in order to give my commenters linky love whenever they commented.  To learn more about the “DoFollow” Movement, click on the “You Comment, I Follow” button on the left sidebar.  Many thanks to Dawn for pointing me to this post so that I could install a plugin to do the same here.  So, it’s official, mah peeps.  If you comment here regularly, you’ll get yourself some Google Juice for your own site.  Now, isn’t that just peachy?  And, if you haven’t noticed yet, I also use the CommentLuv plugin, which gives everyone a link to your most recent post – and according to Feedburner Stats, those babies do be gettin’ some clicks!  See, I really do loves you guys.

Next, since moving over here to my lovely new place at WordPress, I’ve gotten behind on updating the Weekly Winners Blogroll.  I have every intention of keeping that blogroll updated at all times.  As such, I’d love for you guys to whip my ass into shape help get me back on track.  If you have participated in Weekly Winners, could you please click over to the blogroll and make sure your link appears there? 

If it is NOT there:
1) Please forgive me!  I suck giant, hairy, donkey balls! (But I’m trying to quit – do they make a patch for that?)
2) Let me know so that I can remedy the problem.

Also, I’ve been throwing around some ideas for actually creating and manufacturing some funny t-shirts, and possibly calendars and coffee mugs, to sell.  What I’m looking for from all of you is some input on whether it’s worth it or not.  I’m thinking silly pictures of Zack (aka The Mexican, our chihuahua) (and yes, I know this other person who does something similar – so sue me)   or possibly some of my favorite nature shots in a yearly calendar.  You guys have seen my shots (and if you haven’t, you can hop over to my flickr account and peruse).  Would you buy a calendar of this stuff?  Would you buy a shirt advertising my site if it said something funny?  Or just a funny shirt?  Framed prints of my best photographs?  How about a dog turd with my autograph on it?  Ok, ok, I realize I just went a little too far.  But how about if Braden signed it?

Seriously, though, what do you think?

For your efforts, I leave you with this video, which might just make your day.  Trust me.