Design by Cassandra: September Make n' Tell Challenge, Day #29 & #30: Gift Wrap for Earrings

Oh, and we've come to the end of the month, which is the official end of the September Make n' Tell Challenge.

This challenge opened up a community within our small group, and has certainly extended outward with our blog followers and friends. If you are reading this, and would like to be part of our creative community, leave a comment with your blog post, and start the Make n' Tell!

I would like to extend a special thank you to Laura at A Frayed Knot Knits for being so innovative to start the September Make n' Tell Challenge, and for inspiring us to push ourselves beyond the limit! The original 'rules' can be read here, but Laura has stressed that we all have our own schedules to keep, so these rules are 'bendable'. I have many other weekly posts that I enjoy writing, but found myself immersed in the creative processes of the many projects I've completed in September. I found that creating and blogging every day can be daunting, especially when I have so much else I'd like to share by promoting my fellow artisans. I found that posting a few days' work every two days or so is a little bit easier for my schedule. I'll still try to post what I make that day, but I will be making something every day!

Now, onto the last two days of the September Make n' Tell Challenge!

Depending on what you make and how much you make, you'd probably would want to gift someone just to exercise the "pay it forward" kindness. Well, so happens, I have too much stuff from this past month, I don't know what to do with it all!

Day #30: Enter Ann, a friend of mine at work, and office manager of the Long & McQuade Brampton store. She's a very fashionable lady when it comes to office wear, and we've even done a couple of clothing swaps - the best way to get some really cool clothes for free! I had picked out two pairs of earrings I had made from Day #14 I thought she and her daughter would really like, and dressed them up all pretty for gift-giving.

I had a huge pile of older backing cards and tags featuring my original photography I had used a while ago to mark jewelry prices, but opted on something else instead. So, I still have a bunch of 'em, and I use them for the odd project now and then. Here, I had traced out a star around a photograph of an angel statue, entitled "Angel of Harod Square" (you can see the same photograph in a beautiful silver frame I've decorated here!), cut it out and used foam scrapbooking tape so that it had a 3D effect.

I had a lot of fun making the gift tags! I have a pile of these blank business card templates to use as the actual tag, and made a couple of paper cranes out of a few different paper choices and stuck 'em on with double-sided tape.

I surprised Ann with them yesterday, suffice to say she loved them! I told her to pick her favourite pair and give the other pair to her daughter, Sarah. When I left her, she still couldn't decide which pair she wanted to keep.

And on Day #30, I kicked out the jams!

Every Wednesday Tracks Brewpub hosts a live jam, sponsored by my awesome day job Long & McQuade Musical Instruments! Teachers from our lesson centre, staff from the store, our customers and other people who hear the awesome music from the streets come wandering in every week to play some awesome music and inspire each other! I didn't really have anything in mind to sing, because I can occasionally get sketchy with lyrics. (Interesting, as a theatre performer, you'd think the opposite? It's a different pattern for me - memorizing melody and words can be trickier than a script!) The end of the night broke out into an instrumental jam with these guys: from the left, Adam on guitar, Graham on drums, my boyfriend Nick on guitar, Andrew on alto sax, Gary on keyboard and Paul (taking the picture) on bass guitar; a good mix of teachers, customers and staff all together! As they were playing, a melody kept going over and over in my head. Not really with any words, just a melody. I got up to the mic and started ripping on the melody, which eventually turned into Aretha Franklin's 'Respect'! So, that's me in the middle with these awesome musicians after the jam finished. I got a great compliment that night from Graham, the drummer, who said he was initially worried when this 'little girl' stepped up to the microphone, and wasn't too sure what to expect. He said he was blown away! It's always great to hear some positive affirmation!

Modesty aside, chuckle, I do get that a lot. I'm 5'3, very petite, and on a good day weigh no more than about 110 lbs. Yep, that's what I was born with. I'm a life-size pixie. My short-cuteness comes from my father's side, who's about 5'4 right now, and my pint-size supermodel figure comes from my slender mother, who keeps well in shape by working in the trades. Both parents have fast metabolisms, but bad cholesterol (that's what I have to look forward to!), and great genes. Dad's 59, but always wins by no less than 8 years on the Guess Your Age/Weight game at the CNE every year. My vocal training came from years of musical theatre starting at the tender age of 11, but I haven't performed in one in almost 10 years, but I've got a good and powerful voice. (I wouldn't need a microphone in most intimate settings. I would just set off feedback.) I had a good laugh with some fellow pub patrons when I told them my vocal training came from years of yelling at my little brother, and learning a neat trick by "yelling from my stomach" (using the diaphragm to breath and project while singing) so that I could yell louder and for a longer time. I just thought of it at that time, and I like it. I'm gonna keep to that story.

The unfortunate part is that the jam itself wasn't recorded. Yes, unfortunate, because I think that one was probably the best jam I had ever participated in! You can check out some of my vocal talents performing in a Led Zeppelin tribute performance with my friend Brent 'Jimmy' Lindsay on guitar here!

What a way to end a month of 'creative' jamming! And what a great way to get to know some new friends! A special thank you to the great people below for being such good sports for this month and showing us some of their most excellent works!

A Frayed Knot Knits
www.afrayedknotknits.com

BeadCrazed by Lisa Lutz
lisalutz.blogspot.com

Brainphreak
www.brainphreak.com

Designs by Victoria
dbvictoria.blogspot.com

Life Stiles
iron-chef-bbq.livejournal.com

Mrs Gryphon
mrsgryphon.blogspot.com

The Tote Trove
thetotetrove.blogspot.com

That doesn't mean it ends here! We plan to take this all the way!! Want to join in on 365 days of creative juices racing? Leave a comment below, and we'll all get in on this together!

previous September Make n' Tell Challenges:

Day #1

Day #2 - The first Make n' Tell giveaway! Congrats to Tracy from The Tote Trove!

Day #10 & #11
Day #12 - Happy Birthday, Dad!
Day #13
Day #14
Day #15
Day #16 & #17

Day #18 & #19