On my desk today - sunflower and bee magnets, using the 3d bee and flower svg set from Canada Crafts Studio.
Materials:
For our daughters college graduation, we replicated the basket Christopher sent Lorelai for her college graduation.
On my desk this morning - Poppy Pins for Memorial Day. I used the svg from Abbi Kirsten, with a few minor modifications. 1. After all the pieces are uploaded, select all, align center. Then resize to 6.5 wide. I may even go to 6 wide next time - but 6.5 worked, and the centers still cut well, I cut on cardstock plus for the centers - just to make sure they cut well. 2. I deleted 3 of the 3 petal pieces - making each flower just 3 layers. The 4th layer is nice for bouquets, but for the pins, I wanted a little less fluff.
For the history of wearing Poppies for Memorial Day -
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/11/in-flanders-field-poppys-grow-wearing.html
On my desk tonight... an Easter Shadow Box. This one surprised me, because typically all downloads from Design Bundles are high quality files. This download was a little bit of a mess, but it all works and cuts great, you just have to use some of the png files.
Once you download and unzip, you upload part 3 (there is no part 1 or 2 for cutting) as a png, the svg will not work in design space, it errors out as too large of a file. Then you can upload the svgs for 4-8, but there are no svgs for parts 9-11 in the download. (I messaged the designer, but have not yet heard back) For 9-10, again I uploaded the png files. Because they are transparent pngs, and the nature of this design, there's no need to do anything other than upload and choose "cut" - there's nothing to clean up nor erase.
11 is actually just a square, you wouldn't have to upload anything, you can just use the shape tool to create your own square.
For the pieces you upload as pngs, you will want to resize - they upload at very large sizes. This is set to be a 10x10 piece, but for shadow boxes, it's always best to resize to 9x9, or 8x8, especially if you want to make your own shadow boxes from 12x12 cardstock.
I forgot that, and cut it as 10x10. I was able to make my own shadow box using my scoring board, cutting just the "window" for the top part with cricut. It's not perfect, the frame is a little thinner than I typically like, but it was quick and easy to make.
This design was in the 90% off sale in February 2022 - Making it $1.30.
These days when I finfish a book, the phrase "penny dreadfuls" comes to mind. That does not mean the book was dreadful. Quite the opposite! They were often thrilling reads, based on sensational stories.
In the 1890s, Alfred Harmsworth began publishing half penny publications, with "more respectable" content. Originally these were high minded moral tales. But before long, they too became dreadfuls, publishing stories similar to the originals. So much so that A. A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, said, "Harmsworth killed the penny dreadful by the simple process of producing the 'ha'penny dreadfuller'".
Over time, the phrase "penny dreadfuls" came to refer to any time wasting sensationalist fiction.
Today we have a tendency to regard reading as a superior activity, no matter what is being read. Those of the Victorian Era would not have agreed. That didn't mean they wouldn't read the penny dreadfuls, merely that there was a distinction between quality literature that enhanced the mind, and sensational dreadfuls that merely entertained it. One hundred years later, that distinction appears to be completely lost.
I read a lot of modern penny dreadfuls. I love thrillers and murder mysteries. I also love historical fiction. More and more frequently however, I become a bit frustrated, because the line is so blurred. I start out thinking I'm reading an account based on true history, and then find that I'm reading a thrilling tale of adventure and crime, with a mention of a historical event thrown in once or twice.
"Historical Fiction" can mean a lot of things. I remember my grandmothers bodice ripper paperbacks being referred to as "historical fiction". Adults around us would use that phrase with a smirk on their face, "Historical Fiction" meant smut, plain and simple. Bodice rippers were the 1980s version of penny dreadfuls, much more salacious than anyone could have dreamed would be commonly available in print, in 1880. By definition, those bodice rippers (so named for the photos on the covers) are true historical fiction.
"Historical fiction is a literary genre where the story takes place in the past. Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as possible for authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs, and traditions. Many novels in this genre tell fictional stories that involve actual historical figures or historical events."
In other words, I expect too much when I read a book labeled Historical Fiction.
We need another category. Something between Non Fiction and Historical Fiction, where the historical events are researched and portrayed accurately, but extra fictional characters are added in, or an additional modern story line is added with historical flashbacks, preserving the integrity of the history.
The historical fiction most of us are reading today is, in my mind, more dangerous than the smut our parents were hiding from us 50 years ago. Todays historical fiction distorts history completely. [ahem.... Marie Benedict. Although perhaps it is unfair to call her out, she's far from alone - she just happens to write about a lot of my favorite Pennsylvania based subjects, and therefore draws my ire more than most.]
Actual historical events as we know them have been distorted and sensationalized until there is no distinction between fact and fiction. It's hard not to confuse the two even when you have read the historical background. Stories make an impact, facts are forgotten. That's just our nature.
We start to believe that we are reading noble, educational, works, learning as we are entertained, when in fact, we're all reading nothing more than penny dreadfuls. Even worse, history is being rewritten in our minds, facts completely lost in exchange for salacious stories.
That seems unnecessary, when you realize how many salacious stories already fill our factual history.
