Today I fancied the idea of creating business cards to carry on me just in case I so happen to run into anyone important or needing my services. ...And maybe because I was pretty bored.




Too simple? This is one of those times I wish I had the luxury of a letterpresser. Letterpress makes paper look 1000x better, even when design is lacking.

I recently bought a Fiskars Paper Trimmer and a bunch of other rotary blades to go along with it.




Fun with my scallop blade.




This is the second time I've cut myself since buying this paper cutter. Both cuts were from the same blade (the top one is from last week) and both by trying to change the blade.

Yes, I am practicing my paper cutting skills. Part of the reason why I'm so bad at it would have to be that I can be a major klutz sometimes. I don't get along with blades... The stab wound on my left thigh can account for that. Not to mention the time I cut off a part of my pinky finger with a pair of scissors. And the time I sliced open my thumb in the woodshop during college. Hah... Hah.

Two paper cutters and a low ink cartridge later... Leona's wedding invitations are cut and embossed! She is one tough cookie--she refused to succumb to Kinko's $3/cut, and declared that she wanted to be hands-on with her invitation assembling process. And thus, as I fed her stacks of papers, her hand remained firmly on the handle of the cutter. I give her major props. We started at around 6 p.m., I left at around 8 p.m., and she finished at 10 p.m.! Not bad, huh?




After setting up my laptop to be connected to this behemoth of a printer, we were excited to load in her cardstock paper.




Yes, this warning sign made us nervous. Originally, Leona's invitation had a lot of gray, and without color toner, the gray appeared pixelated and faded. We then decided to change most of the gray to black, and everything appeared crisp! Whew. It's all about the loopholes.




Laser printers are amazing--they are so fast! When they came out, the paper was piping hot, and therefore became curled. We originally thought that we would have to put heavy Christian commentaries on top of the stacks to flatten them out, but they uncurled on their own as they cooled down.




The slicer and dicer at work. This, my friends, is what I call dedication.




Our friend Henry even decided to join in on the fun. Don't let those big man hands fool you! I was skeptical about Henry's cutting skills. Personally, I am a REALLY bad paper cutter (I am definitely turning to Kinko's when it's my turn). However, Henry is GREAT. He has excellent precision and speed. And ladies, he's single!




I designed Leona and James' monogram stamp and she got it turned into an embosser at Berkeley Stamp. It is quite a monster of a tool, and definitely toned out my right arm.

How it works: Place the paper in-between the clamp and press down on the arm. This is where it got tricky. If it was too light, the stamp would barely show up on the paper. If it was too heavy, the paper would slightly crease on the edge. You really had to find that sweet medium, which was difficult. Another issue was that it wasn't easy to gauge where the stamp would appear on the paper. Solution: practice, practice, practice! Measure, measure, measure!




Totally worth it, right?




After a couple hours came signs of doubt and frustration.




And then came thoughts of insanity and destruction.


Thankfully, phase one is done. Now we can all take a break while I go off to play in Southern California and the East Coast!

Things have been a little dead lately... How am I ever going to keep this blog up when I go back to school? Actually, maybe it was just today. I found myself indulging in episodes of "Desperate Housewives" and constantly checking my Google Reader for subscription updates.

To catch you up... I recently completed my first official (money makes things more official) assignment. My college floormate stumbled upon my blog, contacted me, and together, we collaborated back and forth, and ultimately I came up with a design for her own Engrave Your Book cover! I'm excited to see how it will turn out on leather, and hopefully that will be displayed here shortly.

What are some upcoming projects?
- Leona's envelope and invitation printing will begin as soon as next week!
- My good friend and college roommate of two years, Cassandra, asked me to design Kollaboration SF Tshirts. She's heavily involved in the event, which is coming up on April 10th.
- Kathy went to look at venues this past weekend, so hopefully I can start drawing up a delicious map (yes, her invitation theme is sweet and delicious).
- I'm also counting down the days until Bethany's RSVP date is up so that we can start working on escort cards and table signs. Unfortunately, these can't be revealed until after the actual wedding.

By the way, how are you accessing this site? Because *drum roll* I purchased whimsicalthumb.com today! My mother was the one who called me up from her work today and pushed me to buy it. I questioned her why the heck she was being distracted by this at work and told her to let me think about it, but she insisted I do it immediately in case someone else steals the domain name. Honestly, who else has whimsical thumbs? Well, as you can see, I gave in to her spontaneity. 

I now also have a personal email address for this site, which you can see in the menu bar (to the right).