to Make it Work

To make this layout work, I had to switch gears a bit (OK, terrible pun! I just couldn't resist).

Glitter Girl's challenge this week was to use 6x6 paper pads. Usually I cut mine up into shapes and that is what I'd planned here with a row of rectangles coming down the page but something just didn't seem right to me so I took a break and did my exercises.  While lying on the yoga mat staring up at the ceiling of my craft room, my eye focused on my watercolor wall quilt as it often does (who wants to look at a bare ceiling?).  I started thinking about pattern and color and pretty soon I knew I wanted to piece together some of those 6x6 patterns and then cut them into a shape.

So here we are, large pointed triangles.  It sort of creates a chevron when put together though I really never planned that.  Anyway, the idea was that we have to often piece together solutions to our customer's problems.  That is what the photo is about.

Here is the journaling:

We’re problem solvers.  We have to be.  Customers who want custom window treatments often have a challenge.  Refurbishing a pinball machine that’s no longer made requires salvaging, restoring, rebuilding and often reengineering components to make it work and look good.

This spring I had a customer who wanted draperies outdoors.  So the challenge was to find products that would withstand the elements and be relatively inexpensive.  Thanks to the world of blogging, my helpful husband and my suppliers we were able to create beauty and privacy on her back deck.

At the same time Lenny was trying to make a robot head turn.  While this was an absolutely necessary to make the Dr. Who pinball machine function, it was something he had always wanted to do.  And with four weeks’ worth of work, he did it!

Sometimes it’s frustrating, but it makes the work more fun.

The sad thing is I never got to see the robot head turn!  After hearing about this practically non-stop for a month, he got it done right before the guy picked up his machine and I didn't get to see it work.  Maybe next time...

You can see my draperies on this post on my workroom blog.  My customer took many of these great photos herself.

The gears on my layout are canvas mistables from Prima. They were something fun I picked up in my Black Friday Two Peas order.  I didn't have any brads the right color so I inked some purple ones in Versamark and then embossed them with Weathered Wood embossing powder from Ranger.

After doing quite a bit of scrapbooking and Christmas cards, I think I'm going to switch gears (oh, there I go again :-) and do some Thank You cards this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!