I’ve been in the craft room working on several projects, some requested by viewers and some by college friends.  First, let’s talk about the pocket card.  I’m pretty sure I’ve been talking about the problems I’ve had with it, and there were a few.  My video explanation had to be revamped a couple of times, because I’d made a prototype, thinking “this will work” and then it needed to be shortened.  That’s only one of a few issues I had, including scoring more than I needed, so in the end, I left some of my problems in the final cut.  I’m happy with the cards I made, one that doesn’t work well, and one that does.  I show the one that didn’t work well, but decided not to explain how I made it, because frankly, I can’t remember what I did to make it.  I remember most of it, but I made several scores and cuts to make it work as well as it does, after the first round…it’s cute until you try to put it back together…

After I finished the pocket card, I’d promised my college friends that I would make them some simple cards without any sentiments, and a variety of sentiments to glue to them when they decided what to use them for.   But first, I wanted to make a folder exactly like my friend Sherry had made, so I had something to put them in.  I used Graphic 45 paper (that Sherry had given me), and the folder really turned out cuter than I expected.  I did use the scraps to make cards for them, but ran out of time (before I had to leave to meet them) to be able to make enough that they’d both have a lot to choose from.  So I supplemented with cards I’d already made that did have sentiments on them.  When we met, I explained the situation, and they decided they needed to put all of the cards on the restaurant table and go through them, choosing ones they wanted.  I felt bad that I didn’t have a lot (I think I made six or seven) of the ones without sentiments, but I doubt they’ll be using seven cards before they see me next.  And by then, I should be using some of the card kits I’ve been sent, and I’ll make them cards from those.

That leads me to my last note of interest…I have finally been sent the last card kit I’ve been waiting for from Brutus Monroe.  I’ve been talking about the card kit video for so long, that people probably think I’m making it up.  I should have done videos with the kits as I got them (I have done a few), but still have so many to cover.  My plan is to link the video using each kit when discussing the pros and cons of that kit in a comprehensive card kit video…If that doesn’t make sense, I hope it will when I do the video.  I want to show you each kit (and what that kit provides), but if I try to do that in one video, it would be so long, no one would ever want to watch it.  Instead, my plan is to discuss the value of each kit and then compare that kit to the value of others, so people know which one provides the most bang for it’s buck.  At this point, I can’t remember how many kits I’ll be covering, but I know there are a lot of them.  And I’ll be really glad when I finish that video, as it’s been weighing on my mind, not having it done and uploaded.   Today I’m going to work on one of the card kits, and make some cards from it, so I can determine it’s value, and show some of the cute ideas you can create with it…One down, another four or five to go…my anxiety just went up two or three notches…crap..

I was asked to make a wreath by a viewer, and saw a version of this at Christmas in a magazine…I decided to give it a try and then I’ll tear it apart and recreate it for upcoming holidays.
Take the frame apart…You’ll need a larger frame, mine is about 17 x 13″…You are only going to use the wood part.
I found the word “LOVE” at the Dollar Tree and used some real red craft paint from Craft Essentials and mixed it with Mod Podge (hoping the Mod Podge would help the glitter stick to the word.)  I would skip the Mod Podge if I did this again.
I painted and let it dry twice, then used straight Mod Podge and painted the word then put a lot of fuchsia glitter on it.
I bought a hair straightener from ebay, but couldn’t find one there that was inexpensive to link to. Here’s a link to one I found on Aliexpress. https://tinyurl.com/yarjb7wn   These tools work really well to straighten ribbon, just don’t leave it on the ribbon or it will melt it. I clamp it then let go, move a little, clamp it, and let go, and so on until the ribbon is straight.
I bought a bag of resin hearts on Aliexpress and here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/y7wuluw9 then used my Touch Five markers to color them. The set of 168 Touch Five markers are now $62.04 at Ebay and here’s a link to them. https://tinyurl.com/ycwqo3wx
I made a book where I swatched them out by color family and use it whenever I’m trying to match something like the ribbon.
I bought Cosmic Shimmer glitter glue to glue on spots of glitter that didn’t adhere to the word LOVE and on some XO letters I die cut, but didn’t use in the project. The glue came from CraftChameleon.com.
I used fuchsia glitter and pressed it into the wood to ensure it stuck and any place that didn’t, I first put more Mod Podge on, then resorted to the Cosmic Shimmer Glue if the Mod Podge didn’t work.. Once it was dry, I used Krylon Workable Fixative to seal the glitter in. I used a bottle of glitter from Stampin’ Up, so you’ll need a lot for covering a word this size (only on the front and inside.)
I tied a white ribbon and tied it to the loops on the back of LOVE and then hot glued them to the back of the frame so the word dangles in the center of the opening of the frame.
I tied the large fuchsia bow and then hot glued it to the top right corner of the frame and then let it fall “naturally” along the sides of the frame and glued it in a few spots to allow it to stay.
I glued two of the hearts I’d colored to the bottom center of the frame and one white one (with no coloring).

I’ve been working like crazy, trying to come up with an idea for a Valentine wreath one of my viewers asked me to make.  I had a terrific idea that involved gluing pieces of candy to a wreath form, but once I figured out how many Tootsie Rolls it would take, I threw in the towel on it.  I thought about doing a wreath out of fabric strips, but when I saw a video on that, it looked like my fingers wouldn’t be able to easily fit between the wire rows on the wreath form, so strike two.  I remembered a really interesting “wreath” that I saw somewhere that was an empty large frame with different items strung inside at different heights, and thought it was adorable.  So I went on a quest (keep in mind I’ve been on this quest for several days), trying to find something that was three dimensional that would fit inside the frame.  I have a large frame that should work perfectly, and found one and I tried to find more things, that I could glue inside.

Last night I started working on the wreath, and it took an entire bottle of glitter to make the center “Love” word look good.  I’m not sure if anyone will like the “wreath” but I’m going to rip it apart after Valentine’s Day and recreate it for St. Patrick’s Day, then rip it apart for Easter, etc.  I really hope viewers think it’s a great idea, repurposing something like this, and in the end, I wasn’t thrilled, but was happy with my results.  The video should go live tonight or tomorrow morning.

I’ve also been working on a pocket card.  I’ve really struggled with it and tonight I think I’m going to master my own version of one.  I couldn’t sleep last night until I wrote down the dimensions I thought it would take to create this card…I might be wrong, but I hope it works.  I made one version and although it looks all right, I couldn’t put it back together, so that’s not a winner.  Tonight’s version is going to be the one…I’m hoping so any way…If not, I’m not sure what I’ll do…

I’ll be honest…we’ve been having the snow storm that’s hitting the eastern half of the United States, and with it has come exhaustion.  Sometimes that happens to be…when the barometric pressure changes, my arthritis decides I need to hibernate (like a bear.)  I’ve got to say, this has been a longer period of exhaustion than usual, so I haven’t been creating anything.  I have every intention to create, but my intentions have not been able to over power my will power….My will power says, “let’s nap,” and I go along with it.  Yesterday I slept fourteen hours and then took two more naps during the day.  You don’t get a lot accomplished when you sleep that much.

I have a bunch of ideas for videos, but just can’t motivate myself to do anything.  I hope tomorrow is a new day, and that I feel more like myself, and want to get in the craft room and do something….anything.

I bought the supplies I used from the Dollar Tree…You’ll need a large gift bag (mine was for a wedding) and a folder that has a zipper pouch on the side of it.
I started by cutting apart the gift bag so I had as many big pieces as possible.. I cut a piece that would fit inside the zipper pocket and then glued it to the inside front of the pouch with Ad Tech fine line glue, by gluing the front of my paper (once it’s in the pouch) on all four sides then rubbed it to ensure it would stay glued inside, but still allow us to use the pouch.
Then I took paper that was on the sides of the bag, and used them to cover the flaps on the inside of the folder. I used tear tape to ensure the paper stayed in place. You want to use a serious adhesive to make sure the paper stays in place.  I added wet glue as well, to ensure a tight seal.
Here are the dimensions for the paper that I used on the folder (although you might want to remeasure your folder to ensure the sizes of paper are accurate:)
Outside front to fit in the pouch 8 15/16 x 11 1/8″ tall
Back cover 9 3/16″ wide x 11 3/8″ tall
Pockets 8 3/4″ wide x 4 3/8″ tall

I used my Kadomaru Pro corner rounder from Amazon on the small setting to round the corners for the pockets.  I attached the paper to the pockets with tear tape and wet glue, and after gluing down the pockets, I folded back the paper where the plastic is open on the inner edges,  then trimmed it with scissors and rounded with my scissors as I went.
I covered the back of the folder with tear tape and wet glue to ensure I could wiggle it if I had to.
On the inside of the folder, I wanted to add accessories, so took a single paper pad from the Dollar Tree (from a set called Mini Writing Tablets) and opened it so the cardboard is exposed, then put hot glue on the inside of that cardboard on the bottom half of the cardboard, then put it inside the plastic folder so when you run out, you can basically snap it back off as the hot glue will allow it to be pulled off of the plastic pretty easily.
I took retired Stampin’ Up satin pleated ribbon and hot glued it over the seam I had in the paper on the left pocket and made small loops of ribbon wrapped around the pen cap unglued, so I could slide the pens in and out. On the right pocket, I put another row of ribbon, with a couple of sections unglued, so I could slide paper clips into them. I used large Dollar Tree paper clips and buttons and ran a strip of white paper through the button to look like string, then hot glued the ends of the paper to the button…I added a large paper clip with hot glue, making sure the small loop ends of the paper clip is not near the hot glue, so the paper clip still works.
Cover the paper clip top with hot glue and press it in place and hold it there so it stays attached to the button.
Lastly, I wanted to put a small legal pad (from the Dollar Tree) in the folder. I used a piece of cardstock (Stampin Up Sweet Sugar Plum) cut to 5″ wide (the width of the legal pad) by 11″ long. I scored it on the 11″ length at 5″ and 5 1/4″. I used a scrap of the same paper from the bag that was about 3 1/2″ wide and 11″ long, and put tear tape between the 5 and 5 1/4″ scores on both sides of the sugar plum paper, and added a lot of tear tape to the back of the bag paper so it stays adhered to the sugar plum paper. I centered it on the sugar plum paper and used the score lines on both papers to help line it up perfectly. I’m not sure how the end of the legal pad was missing, but I simply lined up the score lines on the legal pad and glued the paper onto the legal pad with the short end on the back of the pad and the long end covering the front of the pad.  I folded the front up to the spot on the legal pad where the paper tears off and put tear tape above that spot, so the decorated paper stays in place when I’m tearing off pages beneath it..

 

 

 

Yesterday, Rich and I went to lunch and a movie with college friends…and we saw Bumble Bee….an action movie, with lots of car chases and explosions….a perfect man movie.  When the movie ended, I thought the guys would say it was kind of long and too many repetitive action scenes, but they both really liked it..I guess it wasn’t geared to my tastes then…darn it.

I finished working on the plastic folder I bought at the Dollar Tree, and recreated it into something that you could use as a movable paper work station,a term I just made up..I was pretty happy with the results and hope all of you will be as well.

Today I’m going to work on a pocket card.  I’ve made one before, but this one is going to have a lid on it.  I was sent a photo by a viewer of this card and have no idea how the original person made it.  My viewer is struggling with recreating it, and I thought I could come up with my own version of it, and I hope it looks a little bit like the photo she sent me.  This pocket card appears to have a “lid” on it.  I don’t really know how to create something with a lid, but I’m going to try.  I know it sounds like the card is a box, but it’s not.  Here’s a photo of it.   So my plan is to make this a Valentine’s day card for a friend and I hope I can make it work….

I’ve been thinking of so many ideas I’d like to try on videos and yesterday made the card with gel and the school of fish stencil.  I had so much fun with it and hope everyone enjoys the card.  I think this technique has such a big wow factor, that anyone receiving it will be thrilled.

I’ve been making almost daily trips to the Dollar Tree, as I’ve been talking to several viewers about upcoming projects.  If you saw the video I made with my Christmas gifts and cards from viewers, I showed a really fun folder my friend Sherry made.  I wanted to do something similar, so today I took a Dollar Tree folder that also had a zipper compartment and turned it into a terrific work station.  I put a lot of different touches on it and it will be a great gift for people to give…I checked, and only a couple items didn’t come from the Dollar Tree, and wait til you see it, it’s so much fun.  I think lots of viewers will want to give it a try.  It’s pretty and super practical…I can’t wait to hear what people think of it.

I’m got another project that a viewer asks me to make.  She wants to make a gift box for a nail polish, a manicure set and a nail file.  I’m going to start working on it tomorrow or the next day and then I’m thinking about taking all of my almost empty candles and turn them into a new candle.  I’m talking to a viewer who makes and sells candles for a living, and he’s given me great tips on how to do this properly.  I’m really excited about doing it, as I have tons of candles that are in different stages of usage, and would like to turn them into new, better smelling candles…It’s going to be a fun January, that’s for sure.

I wanted to play with the School of Fish stencil (link: https://tinyurl.com/y8dys3ln ) from Stencil Revolution…they asked me to try out their stencils and I really like them. They are a heavy weight plastic and worked well with spray adhesive. (I’m not paid for showing this stencil or for any sales that might result from this video.) Here is Stencil Revolution’s website, in case you’d like to visit it. https://www.stencilrevolution.com/
I started my card by using a piece of Recollections heavyweight 110 lb. white cardstock cut to 11″ x 5 1/2″ and a second cut to 5 1/2″ square. I wanted to color them to match each other, and used Distress Oxides in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers.
I colored the papers using a Tim Holtz mini blending tool with Twisted Citron and colored the edges of the 5 1/2″ square paper in a circular pattern…then added a little Mowed Lawn, and finally Peacock Feathers. I didn’t use any ink in the center of this piece as I will be cutting it out. I did the same coloring on the card base and made sure the center of this piece was colored to match the square piece we colored first. I took a larger circle die and cut it out of the square piece so it can be the top layer of my card.
I took the school of fish stencil and sprayed Aleene’s Repositionable Tacky spray on the back of it. I laid the stencil on the card base so that when I laid the top page over it, you can see a lot of the fish, so had to reposition it a couple of times. Once I liked where it was sitting, I pressed the stencil down on the card base and laid the top card piece over the stencil so I’d know where the fish would show up once the card was put together…I didn’t attach the top card, just sat it on the stencil. I took my Quickie Glue Pen that I buy at pegstamps.com link: https://tinyurl.com/ybm4lrcq
I used the glue pen to “color” inside all of the fish that showed on the stencil and then waited for the glue to turn from blue to white so it was ready to put glitter on. I used a pipette link https://tinyurl.com/yd9mcgdc to apply the glitter so I didn’t get a lot on the fish. I used Stampendous blue glitter embossing powder and a green glitter I bought at Joanns link: https://tinyurl.com/ycobcavt. I applied both colors to each fish then heat set the embossing powder. Now for the fun part…I took LA Looks hair gel from the Dollar Tree and put about 2 tbsp. into a baggie. I spread the gel around and pushed it so it wasn’t near the top of the bag, then closed the bag. The bag was too large for my card, so I used my Smart Sealer link: https://tinyurl.com/yax3srzb and ran it down the side to cut off the part that needed to be trimmed off. Then I used scotch tape and covered all four sides of the bag to ensure it doesn’t leak. Then I laid tear tape on the sides of the bag and on the four sides of the fish piece. I put foam tape on the back of my front layer and laid it on the baggie, then laid the top with the baggie attached to it, to the card base. I made up my own sentiment and printed it on my computer and colored it to match the card, then glued it over the center of the gel bag. I used a Hero Arts set called Sea Life #MH0716C for coral and jelly fish. I stamped them and colored them with different colors of peach alcohol markers, then adhered them to the front of the card. I decided the card needed something else, so I put the stencil onto the front of the card and lined up the fish so they followed the same pattern as on the inside of the card, put Quickie Glue Pen on the fish that continued to the left of the gel piece and  added the same glitter on the fish to give it a more finished look.

I got so many truly inspirational cards from viewers and friends for Christmas, and thought I’d share them with you..I am so grateful for all of the lovely cards and gifts…thanks to all of you who sent me them..

I bought some Dollar Tree items…Removable Labels link:  https://tinyurl.com/y9tbxgp7
Sponge make up blenders https://tinyurl.com/ydccogaa
Placemat link https://tinyurl.com/y7rl7box

Stencil Revolution stencils:
School of fish link: https://www.stencilrevolution.com/products/school-of-fish-stencil
Lavender stencil link: https://www.stencilrevolution.com/products/lavender-stencil

Harbor Freight Liquidators
4″ magnetic part holder: https://tinyurl.com/yceusghc
18″ magnetic bar link: https://tinyurl.com/y7oc9xve

Bryan King Stampin Up rep sent me a Paper Pumpkin, which is Stampin’ Ups version of their monthly stamp kit…if you have any interest in looking into them and don’t have a Stampin’ Up representative, Bryan can be reached at this Stampin’ Up link. http://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/default.aspx?dbwsdemoid=2104107

Peg Stamps
http://www.pegstamps.com
Tombow Adhesive runner link: https://pegstamps.com/mono-removable-adhesive.html
Quickie Glue Pen link: https://pegstamps.com/sakura-quickie-glue-roller-pen.html
Tombow Mono Aqua Glue https://tinyurl.com/yd4zsge4
Folded Flowers https://tinyurl.com/y9d6kjr3
Warp flower https://tinyurl.com/ycwbeot7
Wild Rose flower https://tinyurl.com/yd7gmgov
Roses three shaded https://tinyurl.com/y8xrflpy
Huge Poinsettia https://tinyurl.com/y93h6whd
Flower Mix https://tinyurl.com/yaspebx9
Double Pointy Leaves https://tinyurl.com/yad7jwpn
Swirly Rose https://tinyurl.com/y87upst2
Flowers in groups of 3 pointed https://tinyurl.com/ydghsruu
Triple leaf with a sprig https://tinyurl.com/ybl2z3td
Flower Top https://tinyurl.com/ycq6olnh
Flower ribbon edge https://tinyurl.com/yaasbnuh
Color Me Happy set https://tinyurl.com/ya5caga2

Fails:
Set of brushes from Aliexpress—they will be refunding me the purchase price of $1.85. here’s the link if you are interested in them. https://tinyurl.com/ycr44ln6

I contacted Peachy Cheap and they refunded me for the Prima chalk edgers.

Pick up Tool…couldn’t figure out where I bought it….so ordered a bunch more from different sites so we can do a video comparing them…wish me luck on the new ones.

We went out to lunch and to a movie with friends on Friday…We saw “The Upside” with Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.  If you’re looking for a movie that will make you feel good, it’s the one to watch…  It’s thoroughly enjoyable and there’s no sad ending (as you’d expect in any movie with one “buddy” in a wheelchair.  After the movie, I wanted to go to the local mall and check out the after Christmas clearance sales, as I had three gift cards for Penneys that I’ve been accumulating for years.  We had fun finding things to spend them on, and then went to the Hallmark store that was having huge clearance sales on almost everything, including “Life is Good” t-shirts.  If you know anything about Rich, it’s that he likes to wear their shirts almost daily, so has several of them.  He now has three or four more, and says he’s going to get rid of some of his older ones….I’ll believe that when I see it..haha

Friday night is date night….we usually have pizza and watch movies, but for some reason I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open so went to sleep by 8:30…some date I am.

Today is all about buying food and getting ready for the big Dallas Cowboys game tonight.  Rich is a huge fan and wants to make wings and hopefully, celebrate a big victory with his team.  It would have been a lot easier to buy the wings from a local restaurant we like, but he wanted to make them from scratch, so I’ll let you know how it goes.  If his team loses, it won’t matter how good the wings are..

I won’t be watching the game, and think I’ll go to the craft room and see what I can come up with to do. I have several video ideas, but think I’ll focus on the new stencils I was sent by Stencil Revolution.  I got one that’s a school of fish, and I thought it would be so much fun to make them look like neon fish.  I’m not sure if I’m up to it or not, but that’s my intention.  Did you have an aquarium as a kid?  If so, you probably had neons…they were small and the bigger fish usually ate them, but were so bright and (OK, neon) that you had to love them.