Some days are for crafting and some are for cleaning the craft room.  Today was a cleaning day.  Ok, so yesterday was as well, but at the end of the day, Rich said he thought  I was cleaning my craft room but wondered why it didn’t look any different, so obviously the work I did didn’t change the appearance very much, darn it.  I organized drawers, cleaned the top of my work area so you can actually see the counter, and cleaned out that big spinning table top holder that everyone has.  You know the one that is supposed to hold all of your tools, but really just gets packed with junk and then you can’t find any of those things that you bought it to hold?

I’m making a care package for my cousin whose new to crafting.  I was going through sequins and paper and embellishments and dividing them in half as I know I’ll never use all of the things I have and if I share them, I’ll feel a lot better about buying them to begin with.  I’m so glad someone crafty nearby, to be able to spread the goodies around and having her be my cousin makes it all the more exciting.

That probably sounded odd, but I have a very very small family.  Only one sister, no aunts or uncles alive, both parents have passed.  My sister lives in North Carolina, so I might see her once a year if I’m lucky.   I have three cousins and the oldest is a lot older than I am, so we were never close.  When I started my channel, her daughter, who is much closer to my age, found the channel and started commenting.  Through the YouTube channel, I’ve found family and it really makes me happy.  It’s something that when you don’t have much, you feel like you’ve lost that connection to the past.  Our grandmother and stories about when we were kids and spending time with grandma.  We’ve had one girls’ afternoon out and had such a great time, it was like we’ve been talking all of our lives.  So I’m grateful to the YouTube channel for not only sending me so many wonderful viewers who have become great friends, but also helping me reconnect with family.  It’s been a terrific experience for me.

 

I finally finished the t-shirt shaped card with texture paste to look like tie-dye and I think it came out kind of cute.  Of course it’s not a sophisticated card you’d give someone my age (not saying I’m sophisticated, let’s clarify that), but it will be great for a teenager or younger child or the kid in all of us that just never left the 70’s.

I wanted to make another St. Patrick’s Day card, but just haven’t been able to finish one that I absolutely love.  I have the inside done, but the outside just needs something else to finish it off.  I’m just not sure what that would be.  I think I should have thought my plan through more than I did.  I ran strips of shamrock ribbon across the front of the card and intended to put a larger shamrock on top of it, but my shamrock looks a little pathetic and I can’t decide what would make it look better.  I guess this one might not make it to the finish line, or I might just not do a video with it.  Sometimes a card is nice enough for friends and family, but not for a video and this could be one of those.  I try to make sure every card ends up on YouTube as I don’t want anyone to think I gave them a card I wasn’t happy with, so I normally spend a long long time trying to make it acceptable, and often, too much time.  Sometimes I think I should have just given up and thrown it in the trash.  Of course my trash is full of the ones that I just can’t fix.

My cousin, who I’ve talked about, is new to card making.  Yesterday she sent me an email with a photo of all of her card fails.  She thinks she’s the only one with a fail pile and I had to make sure she understood that I make so many scary cards that I just keep plugging away at until I like them, or trash them.  Sometimes I feel the greatest relief when one goes in the garbage can because then I can go on to something else and completely forget about the mess I just made.  I think that happens to all crafters.  Maybe not.

I’ve watched other videos that have shown black inks and what they work best with as far as coloring mediums, but I also wanted to find out if the paper made a difference.  So I chose three cardstocks:
Georgia Pacific White 110 lb. card stock $5.48 for 150 sheets at Walmart
Recollections 110 lb white card stock $14.99 for 100 sheets without a coupon at Michaels–this is a Michaels products so should probably only be found there.
Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80 lb. card stock 250 sheets for $36.00 at Amazon Prime
and a watercolor paper, Fabriano Hot Press 140 lb 50 sheets for $24.95 at Amazon, although I bought mine at AC Moore and used a coupon.  Sorry, I don’t know the price I paid.  I stamped on the less textured side of the water color paper fyi.

The colorijng mediums I used were:
Alcohol Markers (aka Copics, Sharpies, Bic Mark It etc.) I used a Sharpie
Water based Markers (aka Crayola, Stampin’ Up, Marvy,  Le Plume, Tombow) I used a Stampin’ Up marker
Koi Watercolor Paint

Below are the inks I tested, the product information on their packaging (limited info), the prices I found them at (without a coupon)  These are in no particular order:

1.Ranger Black Tie (Waterproof, Dye Ink) $4.99 at Simon Says Stamp
2.Memento Tuxedo Black (Fade Resistant, Dye) Joann $6.99
3.Gina K Premium Black Onyx (Waterproof Dye) Gina K Designs $5.95
4.Simon Says Stamp Intense Black (Premium Dye for Solvent Alcohol Markers) Simon Says Stamp $5.99
5.Versafine Onyx Black (Pigment, fast drying) Joann $9.99
6.Tim Holtz Distress Black Soot (Dye Ink, water reactive) not normally used for normal stamping, but I wanted to see how it would work next to other inks Joann $5.99
7.Color Box Wicked Black (archival, dye-permanent ink) Joann $4.49- much softer ink pad than the other inks, easier to stamp on)
8.Ranger Jet Black (Archival, Permanent) Joann $5,99
9.Staz-on Jet Black (solvent, permanent ink) Has a distinct almond scent. Needs to be re-inked more often than the other inks.

Our findings:

Best for Alcohol Markers:
Simon Says Stamp Intense Black
Tim Holtz Distress Black Soot
(after I finished the video and re-examined the inks, I found another ink that also worked with alcohol markers
Hero Arts Intense Black

Water Markers
Ranger Black Tie
After finishing the video and re-examining the results, I found other inks to work with water markers)
Simon Says Stamp on all papers but Georgia Pacific
Color Box Archival
Ranger Jet Black Archival
Staz-On Black

Pure Watercolor Paint
Ranger Jet Black Archival
Ranger Black Tie
SSS Intense Black
Versafine Onyx Black
Distress Black Soot on watercolor paper only
Color Box
Staz-On

Best for embossing:  Versafine Onyx Black

Best for Stamping on other surfaces: Staz-On

Please note that different alcohol markers can react differently to the different inks.  Below are the inks that were consistent between my findings and other web site recommendations:

Alcohol Markers
Simon Says Stamp Intense Black
Hero Arts Intense Black

Watercolor
Ranger Archival

 

 

I wanted to make a card that was very similar to the monochromatic 3-d card that I made using a background stamp.  I had requests to remake the card, only this time, using a smaller stamp so that viewers wouldn’t have a buy background stamps if they didn’t already own them.  I loved the idea, so decided to make one with a great feather stamp set I own.  I started with the white ink and then layered some copper pigment ink over it.  I thought it needed more color, so I added a cognac colored ink.  I had a really difficult time with my sentiment because I kept forgetting I was using pigment inks and ended up getting fingerprints on the image and just making a total mess of it.  You’d think I would have learned the first time, but it took literally four attempts before I realized I had a copper colored marker that would work instead.  Don’t you wonder where our common sense goes when a project starts going downhill?  I was really starting to wonder about myself as I was getting more and more frustrated, but just wasn’t thinking about an alternative idea.  Isn’t that the definition of crazy, when you keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result?  I did kind of feel like a fool by the time I was done.  This is one of those videos where Rich will definitely be cutting out all of the footage of my repetitive mistakes, as no one really wants to see the same mistake over and over.

I’m not sure about the card, I think it’s ok, but not something to write home about.  Of course I am my own worst critic so I’ll let you be the judge.  In the end, I was just so happy to get the card done that I almost jumped for joy.  Almost.

I really wanted to get back into the craft room today, but decided to take the day off instead.  I have a video on black inks that will go live tomorrow and am so sorry that I’ve been slacking on the job.  I really like to make sure that I stay on top of videos, but this week was a busy one and although I have the videos made, I had to take Rich with me on my trips this week, so he wasn’t able to edit and get more videos live.  I feel bad when that happens but hope to make it up to you in the next few days with more videos going live.

I think I needed a day to regroup.  Once I retired, I tried to pace myself so I don’t burn out like I used to when I worked.  This week, I think I just took on too many tasks so took today to rest up so I can get busy with the many ideas that are spinning around in my head.  I wonder if that happens to other people?  I can’t sleep until I write down what I’m thinking about, because otherwise I might forget the idea and then spend most of the next day trying to remember.  Now I keep a small notebook nearby so when I can’t sleep because of a crafty idea, I just write it down and then back to bed.  It works great for me as long as I can either read or remember what I’ve written.  Sometimes I don’t even turn on the light, so you can imagine what that handwriting looks like.  Regardless, tomorrow I’m back on my crafty horse.

I spent part of the day today shopping for clothes.  I don’t normally talk about things like this, but thought you might be interested.  I went on a medication last summer for my arthritis.  It was an injection that I took once a week called Orencia.  My rheumatologist gave me the highlights of the drugs’ side affects, but failed to mention it can cause significant weight gain.  In the three months I was on the drug, I did not change what I ate, and I gained over thirty pounds.  I’ve worn the same size clothes my entire adult life.  I’ve never been thin, but never weighed this much either.  So my pants haven’t been fitting and I haven’t wanted to appear on video as I just don’t feel good about myself.  I’ve been off the medicine for at least four months and haven’t lost one pound, not one.  It’s disheartening, but I try to roll with the punches and instead of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to buy more clothes, ones that fit.

A local clothing store was having really terrific sales today, so I bought several outfits.  Did I really need them, no.  But honestly, I felt a lot better about myself when I was done shopping because now I feel like me again.  I’m not sure if that makes sense to anyone else, but I was lost in the idea that I couldn’t control the weight gain.Since now I know I probably won’t be able to lose the weight, (as others who have been on this medicine have reported), I need to let it go.  I have a “moon face” from steroids and that doesn’t make me happy, but maybe if my clothes look good, I’ll just forget about why I had to buy them.  No one ever said that life was going to be easy or fair, so if buying a few new clothes makes me feel better, I’m all about it.

I went to Joann’s today and found out that they are putting a lot of stamping products on clearance.  I think they might be changing the store around, but the area they are focusing on is primarily stamping.  I found a really great deal on the yellow set of Spectrum Noir markers, six for $7.99 plus they took an additional 20% off. I also bought a box of Tim Holtz tissue paper.  It looks like it will be a lot of fun for backgrounds on stamps, or maybe to line an envelope to match the card.  Anyway, those were my purchases.  Joann’s also had some good deals on water based markers, so if you’re looking for those, you might want to hit your local Joanns.  I think I must be really hard on my markers or maybe Spectrums have issues with drying out quickly.  I have heard from others that is the case, but I’ve had enough problems that I did a video on adding alcohol to them to make them usable again.  I like the markers though, because they aren’t overly expensive and I like to color with them.  But then I just like to color, period.

One of my closest friends just put up photos on her Facebook page of Mandalas she’s been coloring.  When Rich showed me the photo, I had to send her a note telling her that Mandalas are the gateway to a whole bunch of crafty goodness.  I told her that’s how I started and the next thing you know, she’s going to have a YouTube channel for crafting.

I’m working on a t-shirt shaped card with texture paste that I’m coloring and using a stencil to make the shirt look like it has a tie dye pattern on it. So far I’m not exactly sure if I love it, but it’s one of those things that you won’t really know if you love it until it is finished.  I had a company called Chalkola send me chalk markers that you can use on all kinds of surfaces and I wanted to see how they would work on cards.  The only problem is the colors are pretty neon, so I’ve struggled with finding the right fit for them.  This t-shirt idea has really been a great way to use them to color the texture paste.  I forgot how much I love texture paste and playing with it.  I’ll have to find some other ideas for it.

I really wanted to try Kristina Werner’s ink smooshing technique, but I honestly couldn’t do it without modifying the technique.

Here’s the link to Kristina’s video:

I used Hello Lovely by Concord & 9th and Simon Says Stamp set you matter and the matching “You” die.

I started with 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ watercolor paper and a piece of acetate to smoosh with.  You’ll need a water sprayer and some distress ink colors for this process and a piece of acetate.  I stamped my images with Versafine Onyx Black and then used Ranger clear embossing powder and heat set them.  I used fired brick, ripe persimmon, mowed lawn, mustard seed,  spiced marmalade and crushed olive inks from Distress ink as well as Real Red from Stampin’ Up.

I used the acetate to move the ink around but had some issues with it and modified the technique to include using a paint brush to also move the ink.

You need to put the ink on the acetate and add some water and then combine them with a brush and push the acetate onto the water color paper.  I used 140 lb Fabriano Hot Press watercolor paper.

I liked the end result and added some Nuvo orange crystal drops to my background for added interest and used black Pico Irresistible on the word You.  I attached it with a Xyron machine that created the You into a sticker.

Carol Held’s video with her hidden tape technique.  Thanks, Carol for letting me use it!

I used green leave washi tape on the envelope and covered the foam under my watercolor paper layer like Carol Held’s video.

I decided to play with the Stamp Perfect a little bit tonight and so far, am a little bit disappointed.  It comes with the foam insert like the MISTI, as well as two magnets, exactly like the MISTI.  The difference is that if you put the magnets on the foam insert, the door won’t completely close.  I find that to be a little bit alarming because I hadn’t even put a stamp inside it yet.  So I made a video on how I prepare a new stamping tool to make it work for me.  I made a clear acrylic sheet to protect the inside as well as made a grid paper and covered the magnets with washi tape.  I told the story about the foam insert, but hadn’t developed a solution for it then.  I think I’ll be adding to that video, because I discovered that the fun foam you buy for kids is thinner and is the exact width for the Stamp Perfect, and you only need to cut a little over an inch off of it to have it fit perfectly inside.  I haven’t tried stamping with it yet, but thought I’d give you my initial ideas about it, and at least now the door almost closes perfectly.  I really want this to be a great tool, but so far, I’m finding it to be not really well thought out.  Time will tell.

I got an email from a company that watched the video I made on demon sticks, aka craft knives.  They say that their craft knife is far superior and wondered if I would consider trying it and using it in a video.  I explained that I will be glad to try their knife, but will want to discuss it with them first before I make a video about it, because if I don’t like it, or I don’t think it’s safe, there’s no way I’m going to make a video about it.  I’m thrilled that company’s are asking for my input, but I want them to understand that if a product won’t work for me, I’m going to make sure I talk about it in the video as I would never want anyone to buy something that I can’t or won’t use.  On the other hand, if this is the greatest craft knife, aka demon stick, we definitely need to know about it because the one I thought I liked has been a problem so far with the blade not holding it’s sharpness.  Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m too hard on tools.  I have the so much trouble with paper trimmers and I’m sure it is entirely my fault because I like to do a quick trim with the trimmer on my lap.  Of course I know that isn’t the smartest thing to do, but honestly, if a paper trimmer can’t stand up to being on my lap, how great is it?  It’s not like I’m cutting through chip-board or more than one piece of card stock…we’re talking one single piece of card stock.  Really?  I’m just a little bit frustrated by that.  I watched a video today from a Stampin’ Up demonstrator who was talking about their paper trimmer.  She says she changes her blade in her trimmer every week or so.  Of course she said, the average crafter wouldn’t have to change theirs that often, maybe every month or so.  I think I might be losing my mind.  Could she really have meant every month or so?  The average crafter?  How many pieces of paper is the average crafter cutting in a month?  Twenty?  I think that’s got to be high for the “average” crafter.  I wonder what the Stampin’ Up people would say about that?  I’ve watched so many videos of the Stampin’ Up representatives using those trimmers and thinking they must really love them.  I’ve never once heard another representative discuss changing their blades every week or so.  That’s incredible.  I’m not sure why this is bothering me so much, but it is.  I’m just blown away by what she said.  I think I should re-watch that video, because it has got to be wrong.  There’s no way she said she changes her blades every week and that her customers would change theirs every month.  I did laugh though, because she showed the storage under the paper trimmer and she must have had ten or more spare blades back there.  I saw them before she talked about how often she changed them and I just thought she was a trimmer blade hoarder.  No, she’s not a hoarder.  She needs them…Those wouldn’t even last her three months.

So this rant is bringing me to my next point.  Maybe the problem I’m having with paper trimmers isn’t that I cut paper on my lap.  Maybe I should buy a few dozen blades and change them every week or so.  I honestly can’t see myself doing that and wonder what the average shelf life is for a paper trimmer blade and does anyone else change their blades that frequently?  Even once a month?  Once every three months?  Now I’m on a quest.  I have to know the answer to this question…