I bought this set of 36 Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors,.and I couldn’t tell what shades the colors would be once they were wet.  Lindsay, the frugalcrafter recommended them for a beginner watercolorist like myself and I loved using them but hated not knowing which red shades were which so needed to swatch them.

I used a 1 1/2″ circle punch on 140lb. hot press Fabriano watercolor paper and then cut each punched circle in half.  Then, ran them through the Xyron to turn them into stickers.  I put them on the plastic cover piece so you could still see the number for each color.

I took a 3 1/2″ piece of washi tape and taped it to the under side of the end of the plastic in the center to make it easier to remove.  I looped it over to the top of the plastic and then squeezed it so the loop was completely adhered to itself.  This makes it so much easier to remove the plastic cover.

To swatch the colors, I wet the paints, then used a watercolor brush and painted each semi-circle with the color that would be under it, once I put the plastic piece back in place on top of the colors.  To clean the excess paint off of the plastic, I used a damp brush and wiped the paint off as I went, then wiped my brush on a cloth and rinsed it between colors.

Some colors required a second coat of paint to really see the color well.

Before you replace the plastic on the watercolors, make sure the paints are dry, as otherwise, you’ll end up ruining your watercolor paints.

This is a fast and easy way to swatch watercolor paints that have a plastic cover.

I spent the morning sending notes to all of the people who had responded to the pocket page video.  It was so nice to see the really nice responses I got, but even better was how supportive the viewers were of the “winner” and each other.  I love that the subscribers on my channel are all so great.  Really wonderful people, committed to crafting and being good to each other.  It’s rare on YouTube, as I’ve looked at other crafting sites and the viewers are often not kind to the crafter or each other.  I’m so lucky to have such a really wonderful group to be a part of.

Speaking of the subscribers, I have a lady who has been struggling with learning how to use her paper trimmer to cut small pieces of paper.  She asked if I would do a video on it, so today I made the video.  I also incorporated how to cut a square out of the center of a card for people who don’t know how, as well as how to cut paper if the pattern lies in one direction.  These things can be confusing for a newer crafter and I thought it would be something that could help her as well.  After I started cutting the box, I thought about how difficult it was for me to explain it, and hoped she could follow me.  I’m not sure I followed it myself by the end.  Sometimes it happens like that when I’m trying to explain a process that involves (I’ll call it) engineering.  When there is a process that has math and a process all in one.  I struggle explaining what I’m trying to do, even though in my head I know what I should be doing–it somehow comes out like I’m confusing myself.  Which of course, by this point, I am.  Geez, I think I may be making her even more confused than she was to begin with.  So my plan for tomorrow AM, is to watch the video and see how I can explain the process more clearly.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably have to delete that portion of the video.  It’s always something!

Early this AM, I remembered that I hadn’t made a card to go with a baby shower gift for our niece.  I wanted to make something fast plus an envelope to go with it.  I thought that it would make a great video as so many of us attend showers of one sort or another, and buying a card in addition to a gift and wrapping, or a gift bag, can often really add to the cost.  I like the little 3 x 3″ cards that you give with a gift and wanted to make one that went with a little boy theme.  I liked the idea of using a giraffe on a wheeled cart in succession to make it look like a train or a pull toy, so I connected the images together with a marker.  It looked cute, but you can really tell that I’m flustered in the video (at least I can tell I’m flustered), because I was running out of time and needed to wrap my gift as well.  I bought her a box of goodies that helps you turn people food into baby food.  Since we didn’t have children, I’m never good at buying gifts for babies.  I used to buy the mother a set of lotions and powders and cologne, but I didn’t really think my niece would be into that.  She and her mother-in-law grow a big garden and I thought this gift would be a  perfect way for her to turn their vegetable garden into organic food for her baby.  I’m not sure if she liked it, but her mother-in-law thought it was a terrific idea.  Like I said, I’m not very good at buying gifts for baby showers so it was probably a big fail.

My plan for this evening, is to make a video for a viewer who asked me to help her with her paper trimmer.  She said she struggles with knowing how to cut small pieces of card stock.  She needs to have pieces of paper that are cut to 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ and can’t figure out how to do that in her trimmer.  I think she might be starting with paper that might be too small and if you’ve ever started with very small paper, you know it’s almost impossible to use that small paper in your trimmer.  It will move and you’ll get an uneven cut.  So I’m going to make her video tonight and work on some cards that I owe some people.  I hate it when I get behind in my card making.  You’d think I would have tons of leftover cards, but I try to use as many as possible as soon as I make them, so I don’t have a big stockpile of them.

I made the rainbow card video and thought that I had asked Rich to eliminate a lot of the stamping at the beginning, but can’t bear to ask him to re-edit, so it’s got a lot of really boring stamping that you have to get through before you get to anything worth watching.  I had a great time making the video as I love to watercolor, either with the pencil or true water coloring.

I made another video that Rich is editing today that shows how I swatched out my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I bought a set of 36 and really love them, but couldn’t really tell which colors were which in the container they come in.  The great thing about the set is that you can remove the little plastic paint holders and use them outside the box so you never make a mess with them, or leave them inside.  I have a set of Koi watercolors that are in a travel box.  It didn’t occur to me that “travel” meant super small.  I have a really hard time using them, as I can’t seem to keep my paint brush in one pot, and instead, end up getting one color paint intermingled with others, and it happens most often with the lighter colors.  I asked Lindsay what she recommended and she suggest a huge watercolor palette that was 16 x 20″.  I just don’t have the space for that, and I was watching one of Kristina Werner’s videos and she used the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, and as soon as I saw the container they came in, I knew they would be perfect for me.  Now that I’ve made my swatches and can tell which colors are which, I absolutely love them.

I thought it would be fun to make some cards with a rainbow look to them. So I started with watercolor paper by Tim Holtz that was 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ and used Versafine Onyx Black ink to stamp within the Stamp Perfect. I’m sorry there is so much stamping at the beginning of the video as I thought Rich would cut it out, but unfortunately, didn’t..
The stamps set was from the Stamps of Life called Crazy4Daisies. One sentiment came from a Stampin’ Up set called Sassy Salutations (that is now retired.) I stamped the sentiment twice and then used Ranger clear embossing powder and heat set it.
I thought I would explain the rainbow as artists discuss it. They use the acryonym ROYGBIV for the order the colors exist in the rainbow. R=Red, O=Orange, Y=Yellow, G=Green, B= Blue, I=Indigo and V=Violet.

I used watercolor paints on one card and used water to wet the whole background then used lighter blue and a lighter green to make a light wash of background and then let it dry. I colored the floral images with the rainbow of colors (in rainbow order) using my Koi watercolor paints then stamped the little black circles from the same stamp set and put a sequin in the center of each circle. I trimmed the front of the card to 5 1/4″ x 4 and put an orange layer that was 5 3/8 x 4 1/8″ then laid them on a purple card base that was 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ .

I made a second card using watercolor pencils that were primarily Prismacolors, Karan d’Ache and Derwent Inktense Hot Red. I used a Stampin’ Up blender pen to wet my watercolor pencils.

The little circle stamps were in the same stamp set and I used in Versafine Onyx black and stamped them and colored them in on one card and just left the black circles on the second card. In both cases, I did add a sequin in the center of each circle.

I used 1″ chip brushes from Harbor Freight Liquidators and bought a set of 36 for $8 (with a coupon) and then trimmed the top 1/2″ off to make the brushes work more effectively. I used Color Box Lemon Drop ink with the brush on the background of one card with the colored circles and trimmed it to 5 1/4″ x 4″ then put it on a red background that was 5 3/8 x 4 1/8. I put foam tape on the back of it and laid it on a white card stock that was 8 1/2 x 5 1/2″ and scored on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4.

DeAnne, one of my viewers, recommended I buy Wikki Stix, and somehow my explanation of the name of the rubber pieces got deleted from the video. I took two of them and twisted them together and doubled them in half then used them to pick up and drop sequins. It worked really well and I recommend this tip. Thanks DeAnne, for the tip!

The last card I described, I said I used Copics, but I meant Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and the brushes to make an interesting background and used a clear light green ribbon and tied a bow on the front putting my 5 1/4″ x 4″ piece on a white background that was 5 1/2 x 4 1/4″.

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I’m a little late in getting my post online, but wanted to make sure I did.  Today is my sister’s favorite holiday of the year, so I sent her a box of gifts like it was her birthday.  I think she was really happy with the things I sent her, and she got them yesterday, so they arrived in time for her to play with everything before St. Patrick’s Day.  I found a Mandala that was framed that she could color herself and then hang on the wall.  She’s really into coloring them, so I thought she would really enjoy making her own wall art.  I found it at Michael’s, and I swear, you can find just about anything at a craft store now.

My girlfriend found a small teacup Christmas ornament with shamrocks on it and bought it for my sister, so I included that in the box as well as a pair of jeans I thought she might like, and cards I had made for her.  Her birthday isn’t until November, so it’s like having two birthdays this year.

I gave Rich a couple more videos to upload, so I hope he doesn’t crack under the pressure.  Tomorrow, I’m making a video for a viewer that wanted me to show her how to cut small squares on her paper trimmer.

I felt really sorry for Rich because it took him all last night and almost all of today to finally upload the video for the pocket page.  Apparently my videos had taken up a terabyte of memory on his computer, so we needed to buy another 4 terabytes of portable memory to keep track of all of the videos that we’ve made, and for the ones we’ll make in the future.  Normally I would have thought it made no sense to keep the old videos, but I talked to another YouTuber who said that they had a friend whose channel was taken down in error by YouTube, and they thought all of their friends data had been lost.  Let’s just say that if that happened to me, I’d be done.  I wouldn’t be able to function, let alone reestablish my YouTube page.  So with that in mind, we made a quick trip to Staples and we’re back in business again.

I wasn’t sure when I made the video with the pocket page if anyone would really want it.  I didn’t want to open it up to anyone outside of my channel, so I didn’t mention giveaway or gift or prize, as I don’t really consider it any of those things, plus I didn’t want the person to win it if there were just trolling for freebies.  I really want the person to win it to want it.  That might sound odd, I don’t mean that I consider it something everyone would want, but if people collect pocket pages, or just like my channel, I’d want them to be the ones to receive it.  I didn’t know exactly how to word it in the video, so I came off sounding like I don’t care if I get comments and that was wrong too.  All in all, I think the way I handled the pocket page giveaway was not the best.  I hope the people who watch the video will understand what I was intending.  Geez, it’s stressful trying to give something away.

I’ve been so lucky to meet so many really nice people through YouTube and especially ones from outside of the United States.  I need to figure out a way to do a special prize for those people and am working on it as we speak.  If the pocket page goes over well, I might do another one of those, but I was thinking of mailing a card with something small inside.  I’m sending a card to Germany in the next week and once I find out what the shipping costs will be, I’ll decide if I can handle sending something else outside of the USA.  I’m not sure if I sent a card to Australia, if it would cost a lot of money, as I’ve never tried it, so I’m looking into it so I have an idea.  Maybe I should wait until I have more subscribers as I’m not sure if I have five or fifty or five hundred subscribers from outside the USA as my YouTube channel doesn’t have enough subscribers for me to be able to get any of the data that they collect for larger channels.  I’m not sure how big I need to be before I will get access, but I’d love to know where my subscribers reside.

I’ve never made a pocket page before and thought it would be a great time to make a spring themed pocket page to give to one of my viewers.
I trimmed different papers to the size of the pockets and made sure the colors all coordinated.  I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to be doing in making my pocket page, so went with a spring theme and gave some ribbons, twines, buttons and sequins as small tokens for the receiver of the pocket page.
I used peg stamps from http://www.rubberstamptapestry.com and had so much fun stamping backgrounds with them and on one page, made a basket full of flowers.  I love playing with the peg stamps and think you will too.  Lindsay, the Frugal Crafter, currently has a promotional code for 20% off peg stamps and the owners of Rubber Stamp Tapestry, Donny and Rebecca,  are also offering a bunch of sets on clearance (that I had to have some and just ordered more, because I love them.)  Here is the link to Lindsay’s video where she offers the discount code.

I used Stampin’ Up inks, Distress Ink, Memento Dew Drops and Hero Arts inks.  I used a Stampin’ Up Always Artichoke marker for all of the green details.

Rich thought it would be too long if he didn’t speed through the stamping so unfortunately, he cut out the names of the stamps.  I’m sorry about that. If you want to know the name of any of the stamps, please ask and I’ll be sure to get back to you with it.

I used Spare Parts from the Paper Studio for the big white paper flower and then used a pink brad from a set of brads called Chunky Brads from Doodlebugs.

I used wooden shaped buttons of a dog and butterfly and added a dot stamp as the background for it and put some twine on to finish another card.

I used a small purple flower stamp and some pink ribbon to finish another.

Dollar Tree stickers of flowers finished the next.

The caulk medallion that was colored with Ken Oliver Liquid Metals in Amethyst and some purple twine covered the next paper.

I used one paper to surround with sequins and glued a few on the card and filled the pocket with more sequins and used washi tape to close that section so the sequins wouldn’t fall out..

The last paper, I had punched with the EK Success punch on pink paper and put a stamp of “Your Friendship is a blessing” on the pink and backed the pink paper with purple paper and added three flower buttons that I put pearls in the centers of to create another floral card.  I stamped some leaves on it as well.

If you are interested in having me mail this pocket page to you, (within the United States), please comment below with why you would like to have it.  I’ll choose the person whose comment really speaks to me to “win” this pocket page.  I always love hearing from you and would love it if you leave a comment even if you don’t want to win the pocket page.
Please give the reason you would like to have the pocket page, to be considered for this pocket page by midnight March 19, 2017.  It’s not a drawing, I’m basing the winner on the comment that is the most heartfelt.  I know this isn’t a big prize, but I’m hoping someone will really want it for their collection of pocket pages.  I really hope you enjoyed this video and that one of you would be happy to have it.  Thanks for watching!

 

I feel really sorry for Rich because he’s been editing my pocket page video for a full day now and it’s still not online.  Well it was online, but that was before I figured out it was only 49 seconds long.  When I told him, to his credit, he didn’t burst into tears and scream, “WHY ME?”  He just laughed and said, “Geez!”  I’m taking that as a good sign.

I had every intention to do at least one video today, but it continued to snow all day and once it hit a foot, I gave up my will to do anything but nap.  Was that the wrong approach?  I thought it made perfect sense.  When I see the snow coming so hard you can’t really see the backyard,  I just want to throw in the towel and call it a day, so that’s what I did.  Tomorrow is another day and after all, Rich already has at least five videos that he needs to edit, so I don’t want to throw more fuel on the fire.  The poor guy needs a little bit of a break after all.

I have a couple of ideas of videos I need to do.  One is swatching my watercolors and I’m sure I already mentioned that in my last blog and a card for my friend Elin and a birthday card for one of my girlfriends.  I think I’ll use a rose stamp that I just found from Stampendous, and then I promised I’d make my niece a card with peonies on it, as those are her favorite flowers.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  I can’t wait to get started, unfortunately, it’s too late tonight to do anything, so I’ll just write myself a note to remember the videos I plan on making, otherwise, I will probably forget.  These are among the things that happen once menopause hits, we forget just about anything and everything, no matter how important.  Our minds just blank.  Oh well, that’s why they invented paper and pens, right?

 

 

I had great plans for today, but got distracted along the way.  It was one of those days.  By that, I mean it just didn’t go the way I had planned.  Rich had to have an injection in his lower back and then I had a small mishap, and the day was shot.  I made Rich swear he wouldn’t tell anyone this story, but in retrospect, it is kind of funny, so I’m telling it anyway.  He had his shot and everything went well, we came home and I decided to fold some laundry.  I swear my laundry room is going to be the death of me.  I’m not sure if I even was writing the blog in November of 2015, when I bent over the drier and my artificial hip (that was from 1992), popped out of the joint.  I didn’t fall, I just bent over, pop, out it came.  I had the hip re-replaced in January of 2016, and it works like a champ.  So today I was folding a towel, and I somehow lost my balance and ended up falling in slow motion (really, it felt like that) into the laundry basket face first.  So I have a big mark on my face that I think will turn into a bruise and, because I fell so slowly, had time to protect the artificial joints that could have been ruined by the fall.  I scuffed my knee and will probably have a lot of bruises tomorrow, but all in all, I feel ok.  Our niece is having her baby shower on Sunday, so I’ll probably look like Rich punched me in the face by then, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.  As I was laying half in and half out of the basket, I was trying to think of a way to get Rich to come get me without scaring him half to death.  I said something like “Rich, I need help with something.”  He said he could tell from the tone of my voice that something was really wrong, but I was trying to make him believe everything was ok, but he knew it wasn’t.  I could tell from the way he jumped out of his chair that he already knew that I was in trouble.  I feel so foolish when things like that happen and I guess people fall all the time and think nothing of it.  When it happens to me, I think of all the things I should have done to prevent it.  Rich’s solution is that I’m never allowed to do laundry again.  Of course he said that when my hip popped out and I was back doing laundry the next week.  I’d like to say I won’t have any lasting reminders, but when I get a bruise, it normally lasts about a month because of the medicines I take, so obviously my face is going to tell the tale for at least a couple of weeks.  Years ago, when Noel, the dog in the photos I use for this blog, was a puppy, we were playing ball.  I leaned over to pick up the ball and she was sitting on the bed.  As soon as I picked up the ball, she quickly lifted her head and collided with my cheek bone.  It hurt so bad and I knew it was bad when Rich took my hand away and said, “we better put some ice on that.”  I had a black eye for a month.  I was with girlfriends at our local county fair and an older woman pulled me aside and said I should consider counseling, because no woman should put up with that kind of abuse.  I had no idea what to say to her, and tried explaining the puppy story, but she wasn’t buying it.  So if a true story about a puppy doesn’t work, how’s it going to sound when I go to this baby shower and tell the ladies I fell into a laundry basket?  Geez!  Poor Rich, can’t catch a break.  He was so great all day, when I should have been the one taking care of him, instead he was putting ice packs on my face and my knee and trying to give me treats to make me feel better.  All in all, it wasn’t the best day, at least my joints were protected and I don’t have to worry about having to have anything surgically repaired, well nothing but my pride.