A study in opposites

Yeah, I blinked.  TWO months have passed since I last wrote.  How on earth did that happen?  Well, I've been extremely busy, that's how.  I submitted 6 classes for next year's Bead&Button Show, and I worked on some new products for my booth at Point's Fish Fry and a Flick.  I also made some minor changes in my website.  There's a calendar of events and a feed from my Facebook page.  The website design information is still there but off in a separate section available from the main menu.  More changes will be coming as I have time.

One big event that we did recently was the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 5th.  When I heard that a custom team banner would cost around $90, I said, "I can do it for much less than that!"  I also offered to create posterboards for the food we were selling.

I purchased a blank banner and some vinyl, and here's what I came up with for the team banner:

The width of the banner is 5 feet, and I think the height is around 3 feet.  Here's where the study in opposites comes in.  I put some of the beads I normally work with on the banner - not sewed on, just placed them on for picture taking.

Can't see them, can you?  Let's try this:

How about now?  No?

Ooh!  There they are!  The lighter ones are size 11/0 and the darker ones are 15/0.  Now look back at the first picture.  That gives you an idea of how different this project was than my usual work.

It was very awkward!  Steve helped me - he needed to.  Each word was far too long for me to work with on my own.  I am proud of how the banner turned out, and our team captain, my Aunt Nancy of the "Nancy's Angels", cried out, "Oh, Traci!"  She was pleased.  Yay!

Here are the food posterboards I made:

I was very pleased with them, too!  I used the Cricut and my Gypsy for all of this, of course.  The pineapple and grapes were not in my shapes.  I created the pineapple by modifying both parts of the strawberry - elongating each piece and even flipping the berry part.  The grapes are a bunch of circles stacked on top of each other.  The vine is from a different shape, and the highlights were added by Steve's X-Acto knife later.  Yes, that is the correct spelling.  My geeky husband just informed me of this.  :)


Here are a few pictures from the event:

My Mom at the food table (I do have to say that our table looked much better than most of the others):

Steve high-fives my Aunt Nancy and Mom during the Survivors' walk:

 

And here is Steve starting his time on the track:

They had a number of activities throughout the evening.  Steve took place in a cupcake eating contest.  I thought for sure he would win, but see the girl to the left of the woman in green, the grass skirt, and the coconut boobs?  Well, she won while Steve was still chewing the first cupcake.  It was quite impressive!

Late at night, here's our team campsite:

I think that's about it!  Our team has raised just over $3200, and the Kenosha event has raised over $300,00!  Just a drop in the bucket, but every drop helps keep people alive!