Howl Long Did That Take?

If you're a crafter you must have heard this question a Million times. "How long did it take you to make that?" I never knew how to answer that question. I've made many things besides cards and depending on what it was the amount of time was difficult to calculate. For instance I could usually knit a mitten in a short time but what if it was something special? Do you count the amount of time you took to decide what colors to use, if you embroidered a design on it, the amount of time it took to decide what design and what colors to use? I've made quilts. They take a long time. Depending on what size the quilt is it could take a day or two or a couple weeks. Then there's the UFO factor. I have lots of unfinished objects. Every now and then I'll pick one of them up to finish. So you count the time off you took? So do you try to calculate the actual amount of time spent working, or do you take the day you started to the day you finished and what if you didn't work on it for a week or two? See what I mean, the calculation of time is tough for me.

This card is based on the Midnight Madness Challenge #18. Every week Priscilla posts a new sketch challenge and midweek she posts a tutorial AND she gives away bog candy. You can see a picture of her current prize on my sidebar and if you hurry up you can enter to win it. Just click on the picture it'll take you there. Well this card was a terribly difficult card for me. I've had this sketch percolating in my head all week. I like to view that sketch and just whip up a card. I don't mean that I shirk on the details when I make it but I like to see a sketch and have an idea come quickly and then sit down to play with it and not have to struggle over the details. I'd been thinking and thinking and nothing good was coming to me. It's the lacing that got me. I kept getting shoes in my head and bodices. Neither of which moved me. I wish I could tell you how I got the idea of a Christmas tree with gardland in my head but this morning that idea came to me and after that it flowed. That's a beautiful thing when you make something, that is as you go along the ideas keep flowing.

To make this card I used a tree from the Close To My Heart "Evergreen" set. I stamped the tree twice in Stampin' Up Always Artichoke and the tree base in Memento Tuxedo Black. I cut one of the trees out and propped it up on dimensionals on top of the first tree. I edged and sponged the cardstock with Ranger Tea Dye then distressed the edges. It's mounted on DCWV neutrals cardstock as is the designer paper. That paper is Basic Grey, Figgy Pudding, Forest. I distressed all those paper edges and mounted them on an ivory card base. I sponged the edges of the card base with the tea dye. On the bottom layer I used Making Memories FaLaLa christmas ornament shaped brads to lace the gold ribbon around, at the bottom I used a Stampin' Up filigree brad to tie the bow around. On the tree I used gold stickles for the gardland and red stickles for the ornaments. the star topper is a Darice Self Stick Gem.

So when you ask me how long it took to make that card do I include all the time I thought about it, and the time it took for the stickles to dry or just the hour or so it took to assemble it?

Thanks for looking. Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon, someone will be grateful for that and it'll improve your karma.