Janine the Maker

Easy, versatile crafting: Printable PDFs

2011-02-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

I feel like I'm the last person on Earth to discover printable PDFs. The idea is so natural and perfect that I wonder why it took me so long to discover them.

The concept is simple: You either buy (from a website like Etsy) or download (often from a blog) a PDF with artwork in it. You print the PDF from your printer, using whatever paper you like, and then make something from the printout.

For example, I bought a few recipe card PDFs on Etsy. The finished size is 4"x6", but the PDF is formatted to print on 8.5"x11" paper. So I load up my printer with cardstock then print the PDFs with no scaling. The images have cut marks surrounding the recipe cards. I use my paper cutter to chop where the cut lines tell me to, and voila! I now have darned cute recipe cards to fill out and file, give as gifts, or tuck away for later use.

Some PDFs even have form fields so that you can paste or type in text and print out the recipe cards (or mailing labels or gift tags or whatever) with tidy fonts instead of scribbling on them with a pen.

You can print out PDFs of tags or artwork on sticker paper and use a punch, decorative scissors, or a paper cutter to make your own stickers. Or you can cut out the images using a Cricut or die-cut machine, but this can be a little tricky.

I also purchased calendar PDFs. One is a paper calendar that folds up and fits in a pocket. The other has individual pages that are cut out and fit in a CD case. Genius! Pure genius, I say!

The biggest project of all.

2011-02-06T13:34:00.003-05:00

As I near the beginning of my third trimester, I should probably start admitting that I'm pregnant.

It's not like I can hide the belly. I haven't been able to hide it for two months. I haven't been trying, of course. I just had a hard time looking at myself and thinking I am pregnant instead of Wow, look at that pudge. Watching particularly enthusiastic kicks make one's stomach move, and being able to see that through clothing and even blankets, does have a tendency to make one accept the possibility that perhaps maybe one really does have a bun in one's oven.

In our case, two buns. Two little baby boys. :)

It's a poor artist...

2011-01-19T14:41:00.001-05:00

...who blames her tools, but I'll freely admit to being a poor artist. MY COMPUTER SUCKED.

Even though I have an awesome camera that I enjoy using, the crummy computer was the conduit through which my photos made it to Flickr. Flickr photos made my blog posts so much more enjoyable. So the crummy computer can be blamed for the decline in my Flickr uploads, which can then be blamed for the decline in my blog posts. (Decline in quantity and frequency, that is. No comment on quality.) Blogs are only fun if you keep up with them regularly. By now, so much time has elapsed since I wrote a post that I don't identify with my old content any longer. It was as if someone else had written it. So I nuked it all! You can insert an evil laugh here if you like, but a more true-to-life sound effect would be a sigh of relief.

I love having the power to reinvent my (online) self with a few clicks of the mouse. I bought a new computer. I purchased some interesting software. I cleaned out my Flickr account. I wiped out my Ravelry stash, which took a lot of time to manage for very little gain. I updated Goodreads. I'm ready to start over, to document my new projects better than I have in the past, and it feels great.