Hello HALLOWEEEN!!

OK, so here is the thing, I started writing this post like an hour ago.  I keep erasing because I am not sure what I am trying to say.  Let me start off with - "Don't you just love this candle holder?" come on, sure you do. Well it comes straight out of  a Better Homes and Garden magazine from Halloween 2000.  I fell in love with it from the minute I saw it.  If I wanted to make it I would have to buy 5 rubber stamps, a glass vase, numerous specialty papers, and an array of basic craft supplies. People please it was the year 2000.  Did ya hear about Y2K.  My daughter was in like 5th grade.  Who had money?  Well I didn't. Mostly because of, well ya know taxes, braces and oh yeah...CRAFT SUPPLIES.  So trying ever so hard not to be disrespectful of the magazine and the designer and the rubber stamp manufacturer and of course my parents who raised me to not take what is not mine ... I did the worst thing ever.  I scanned in the pictures from the magazine and then cleaned them up with Kai's Photosoap (Really ... who even remembers that software) printed the cutouts onto card stock with my Canon bubblejet BJ-10 printer and cut them out by hand.  Even the spider web background. Yup, thought I was as slick as a counterfeiter do'in $100.00 bills.  I made 5 of them for friends.  When I get sued I know just where to find them and I am going to give 'um back.  Well now its 2010.  I still got the magazine.  The designer was Roberta Royce (sorry Roberta) The rubber stamp manufacturer was Visual Image Printery (sorry VIP, I tried to track you guys to buy the pumpkin stamp but alas you are gone) So to all I say I am sorry but boy does that luminary so look sweet every Halloween, glowing.
So by now most would think that this post was about my need to purge my soul of my rip off tendencies. Yeah, NO its more about how I discovered how to blend my computer with my crafts.  I find that I love Arts and Crafts but always felt a bit skewed.  I always looked at items and thought I can make that.  I seemed to struggle with my own ideas and seem to find it easier to put my spin on things that I see.  My point (as wordy as it is) is if you can't create an original idea from within, do your best to interpret something you've seen.  There is no right and wrong in crafting.  There is simply a feeling of "Hey, I made that".  I've grown as a crafter and do more original things now then I did in the past but I will never forget my starting points because when we forget our beginnings that is when we fail at our futures. As always thanks for visiting.
Lysa