Party tag (and a hot debate!)

{I wrote this blog post last night and forgot to hit Publish.  I thought oh I will just publish it today and then I have battled with it all day because today is 9/11.  I attended the 9/11 ceremony at Pezza's school this morning.  I spent a lot of time thinking about it today.  Like most of you I remember everything - where I was, how I felt.  I was setting up for a membership drive in the lobby of the Poly Sci dept that morning for the Political Science Honor Society.  The TV was on but I don't remember what was on it.  A friend came running down the stairs shouting....he was fumbling to change the channel.  I couldn't understand what he was trying to say...a plane crash...maybe more than one...they think it was on purpose.  On purpose?  We watched as smoke poured from the World Trade Center...and then another plane flew into view.  It was too low.  It was going to hit the other building!  What's happening???  It went right into the building!  It didn't try to move......The common area of the Poly Sci building was usually so loud....it was just silence.  I thought I was going to be sick.  And then another Poly Sci student yelling for us to come up to the dept.  The phones were ringing off the hook,  reporters, questions, we had a professor who specialized in Arab studies...terroists.  WHAT?  A good many of our classmates went on to DC after graduation just like I did a year later.  None of them could be contacted....It felt like the disbelief went on for days....But we healed, we moved forward...and we continue to.  And so I will publish my post because the evil people who flew those planes into our buildings wanted our lives to stop and I refuse to stop.  So here is my post.} 


SOOOOOO...now that I am out in front of the house alot more in the morning walking to the bus stop I am realizing how many people drive ENTIRELY too fast on our street!  Not like we live on a highway or anything - we live in a neighborhood - our street is a half circle with cul de sacs going off of it.  Now I am a little rough around the edges and not the type to hold back.  So when I am standing on the sidewalk and see a car going to fast I will walk right out in the street and scream at them.  Which is what I did when a Sears work truck went by the other day - and did he slow down??? NO!  So I got on my bike and found the truck and called in and reported him but seriously - it's ALOT of cars!  My neighbors notice it too so I was brain storming on ideas with one of them.  Here are what we have so far:

1. Give the kids airhorns and seat them on the sidewalk to blow airhorns at cars we tell them are going to fast.
2. Put one of those plastic "Kids at play" turtles up near the curb - holds a red flag.
3. Call the police dept. and request a speed trap be set up.
4. Have the cop in the neighborhood park his patrol car on the curb for a while.
5. Set up cardboard cut outs of kids about to run into the street
6. Actually THROW the cardboard cut out INTO the road in front of a speeding vehicle so they think they hit a kid and scare the living shit out of them (my personal favorite BUT we decided probably too dangerous and likely illegal.)

Where DOES one buy an airhorn?????

We had a birthday party to attend - and so it begins!  The little boy across the street turned 6.  Despite having BOXES (plural) full of cards and such I have nothing for birthdays.  My long term blog followers will remember I was once an avid card maker but I gave that up.  I was making beautiful things but not useful things.  SO I need birthday cards/tags/bags.  The Cricut is perfect for that so I whipped one up:

 

I used the Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge.  the tag is 4.5" and the party hat is 2.5".  It has some great basic tags and cute images to go on them.  After cutting them all out I inked all of the edges.  It really makes the finished tag looked "polished."

One thing that makes a HUGE difference when putting the layers together is to use foam tape - it adds fun dimension.  I finished it off with a long neglected craft room staple - Stickles in yellow and firefly.

I am entering  my tag in the following challenges:

• Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly - Child's Play
• Creative Cutting - Anything Goes
• Card Mania - Favorite Color Combo
• Craft Your Passion - Glitter or Gloss

Now let's have a bit of a chat about a real hot button topic on papercrafting message boards - what will happen to this adorable tag now that it is actually on a gift?  Well obviously it will go in the garbage which is where gift tags GO after they have been put on a gift.  And so do cards and gift bags.  NOBODY keeps these things folks and they shouldn't.  Ever watch an episode of hoarders?????  There is never a shortage of posts where someone is outraged that their handmade card/tag/bag wasn't given the proper acknowledgement or worse it was not kept forever.  It went in the trash.  I am ok with that.  I can't possibly expect someone to hide them away and keep them forever.  Besides what difference does it make REALLY whether it is stuffed away in a drawer somewhere never to be seen again or stuffed away in the garbage can never to be seen again?  I had fun making this tag.  I liked every step - choosing the color scheme, picking the cuts, inking the edges, popping it up with foam tape, adding the glitter glue and figuring out the best way to tie it onto the gift.  I did it for ME.  I get joy out of the creating.  In fact I often don't care what happens to it afterward :P  NOW if you can't bear to have your hard work and expensive supplies go into the trash then don't make items that are to be given away.  This is where scrapbook pages come in - I can spend hours putting it together, use all sorts of supplies on it and know that I will keep it forever and perhaps whoever ends up with it after me might too.  Same with my mixed media pieces I do.  And that is a big reason I quit making cards - it just seemed like a waste to put all that work and supplies into something and then be too afraid to give it to someone because it would be thrown away.  Do I think I should be singled out and my work praised by the recipient - not really.  Unless they are also papercrafters they aren't going to get it, and may not even realize it was hand made.  That's what blogs and papercrafting galleries are for :)

Besides - I don't like gifts of any type being given with intricate strings attached.  It sucks being on the receiving end of that and I won't do it to anyone else.  So what do y'all think?  Am I the only one who feels like this?