I'm such an ink tightwad !

Current Mood : Spurred along by chills !

We had arctic blast winds last night, and evidently some got inside - I found several cut-out pattern pieces from my latest purchase, Simplicity #1955, scattered around the kitchen floor this morning. Well, when the universe wants to get something done, it often has to club me over the head to point it out. I confess, it's been sitting around quite a while, all cut out and waiting for me to scan, I've just been lazy.

Still, I'd have to drag out the ironing board and iron to flatten the pattern pieces - most were wrinkled badly enough to distort the lines, and I surely didn't wanna scan 'em that way. I gathered what I needed, waited half an hour until most of the house went back to sleep or retired to rooms to watch TV, then set up the space-hog board and antique iron. Seriously, it's from the sixties. I kinda feel 'vintage' just using the thing. 

Of course, the iron had barely heated up enough to press a pair of shots I'd repurposed for the Monster High guys when suddenly everyone needed to cross right in front of my little base of operations, over and over. I didn't get it. Everyone had breakfast already, and were either asleep or engrossed in NCIS or Burn Notice episodes for nearly an hour... I'd even waited for foot traffic to die down. (sigh)

But I got it done, and started scanning. I always scan patterns before I use 'em, so I can alter and change and even ruin the pieces simply by using them, but still not lose the originals. Sure, when they're on sale for a buck or two, they're easy to replace, but fully 3/4 of the patterns I actually own aren't in print anymore. And when it takes me nearly an hour to cut 'em out the first time, I'm not eager to repeat it because I was careless ! Luckily I hadn't lost any of 'em, so about three hours later, I had it all scanned - at least, the S (Bratz) size. It wasn't until I completely lost a pattern that I started scanning the directions, too. I still skip the layout directions, though.

I am sooo cheap, I reduce the scans to black and white, and clean up stray marks in PaintShopPro, so I don't waste ink printing greyscale pieces. I even delete other languages while I'm at it, because it makes them look cleaner, less intimidating without six different words for 'sleeve' or 'center back seam' running down them. If it helps make that overpriced ink cartridge last for a few more print jobs, I'll do it !