I had a card that I’d gotten from a viewer, Liliana, that used the Concord & 9th, Hello Lovely flower. I wanted to use my Touch 5 markers to color it and sentiments from MFT True Friends and Creative Times Floral Sayings. I stamped in my MISTI with Memento Black Ink so it won’t smear with the alcohol markers. I didn’t end up using embossing powder on my sentiments.
I used my Touch 5 markers that I bought in a set of 168 on Ebay for $63.99 (with no shipping costs.)
I used a variety of reds and purples as there aren’t a lot of mid-tone purples or reds in this or other marker sets I’ve purchased. If you want the mid-tones in those color families, you’ll need to buy individual markers that are from open stock. The best varieties and lowest prices on open stock markers, I’ve found at Dickblick.com.
After I finished coloring my card, I added foam squares that I bought from the Dollar Tree and added to the back of my floral image. The floral image is 5 1/2″ tall by 3 3/4″ wide. The card is 8 1/2″ b 5 1/2″ tall, scored at 4 1/4″ to make the folded card 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide.
I used peg stamps (www.pegstamps.com) to decorate the card from one of their new sets called Autumn Glory. I used Sweet Sugar Plum and Always Artichoke inks from Stampin’ Up to stamp the mums and leaves.

I’ve finally found a group on YouTube that I think I/ we can help with their lost craft supplies.  It’s no secret that I was disappointed in the number of requests we had after the “make a difference” video aired.  I was really hoping that more people would have asked for supplies. I did get an email from a nice woman who mentioned that Puerto Rico had two facebook groups for scrapbookers, and that I should contact them.  I finally found one of the groups and sent a note to the woman whose name was the only one I found connected to the group.  She sent me three photos that I’ll have Rich upload on my facebook page.  One was her street during clean-up, one was the flood that was all the way to the roof of the home and the third was her craft room after the flood waters left.  She said her home was fine and she didn’t need anything, but her craft room told a different story.  Like so many of us, she had a lot of craft supplies before the hurricane.  She might be using this as a way to eliminate things she no longer uses, but regardless, the photo tells a lot.  She said many of her friends had lost their homes and craft supplies and she would begin contacting them about the video and my offer to help.  Today, I’ve already had two requests which made me really happy.  I have all of the leftover supplies that we didn’t sell in the destashing, as well as more supplies I’d like to send, and of course, the monies we raised from the destashing, that I’ll be turning into Walmart gift cards, as there are three Walmart on the island of Puerto Rico.  I hope that those monies will go toward necessities, as I’m not sure how much they are receiving in the way of help in replacing homes, cars, etc.  and can’t imagine the fear and overall frustration that they must be feeling.  We can’t help everyone, but at least we’ll do our best to help those that contact me.  If you have any interest in helping me with this, please email me at saundralparker@yahoo.com and we’ll discuss any number of ideas on how to help.

I decided today I would take apart all of the destashing packages I’d created for the fundraiser that hadn’t sold.  There weren’t as many items left as I had originally thought, so that was good.  I made three boxes, one for stamps, one for dies, and one for miscellaneous.  Of course I had a lot of stamps leftover, so that box had the most inside.  The dies were flat so didn’t take up much space and the last box had inks, ribbons, papers and other miscellaneous items.  I thought what I would do next is contact the people who had received boxes and find out if they had gotten all of the things that they needed, and if not, I’ll supplement those with the things we have left.

I had a viewer from Germany send me a really nice box of stamps that anyone would be lucky to receive, and have one person that I think might want those.  Other than that, I am trying to find a group of scrapbookers in Puerto Rico that might be interested in the things I have to offer.  I’ll be contacting them tonight to see if they are still active, as their last post to facebook was in 2015, but at least I have the founder’s information, so I can hopefully contact her directly.

Who would have ever thought that I’d still be looking for people to donate to?  I really thought we would have a greater response to our video, but was glad we were able to help those that we did.

As for the rest of the day, we had a rough early morning with Aggie…She was panting really loudly and didn’t seem able to get her feet under her, so we were up for a few hours while most of the rest of the world was sleeping.  She seems much better today, but that might be due to the additional pain medications we gave her.  It’s so hard watching your dog get older and not knowing if she is suffering or simply just overheated.  We made an appointment to take her to the vet later in the week, to have her examined, cut her toe nails, and discuss the future.  It’s not something we want to think about, but it’s the reality that we unfortunately have to face.

For the rest of you, but I’ve had a few days of pure laziness.  I haven’t wanted to do anything and really, haven’t.  OK, we did to a movie and out to lunch with friends, dinner with another set of friends and a late breakfast with them another day.  I guess if it’s a food related event, you can count me in.  Other than eating out, I haven’t been motivated to do anything.  I could blame it on a lot of things, but it’s probably due to weather changing.  I could probably make a lot of money predicting weather changes, but we won’t go into that now.  Let’s just say that I can predict a change in weather, and how soon that will happen with a fair amount of accuracy.  Drizzle is one of my worst adversaries and today, it was all drizzle, all the time.  We had a flash flood warning, so it must have actually rained somewhere nearby, but here, drizzle.  I seriously doubt we could have had a flash flood from it, but I’m no weatherperson.  (I don’t even play one on TV.)

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day…The fact that November 4th was warm enough that I didn’t wear a coat will tell you everything.  I decided to pick up lose sticks in the yard as Rich was going to mow for the last time this year, and I didn’t want him just running over them, which he has a tendency to do.  I love making a small fire with them, and that was my big adventure for the day.  Picking up sticks, making a small fire, then feeling like I might have broken my (excuse the term) butt, the rest of the day.  Rich kept laughing at me as I would limp by him, saying “I think I broke my butt.”  Of course I didn’t, but it was pretty funny and I was really happy when I woke up today and my butt no longer felt broken.  How would I know what a broken butt would feel like any way?  That might have contributed to my overall feeling of laziness, but luckily I’m over it….The butt thing, not the laziness.  Still feeling like I don’t want to accomplish much.  It’s a really good hing I have a bunch of stockpiled videos from the last month or so.  Otherwise this could get really ugly, really fast.

 

My friend Elizabeth had sent me watercolor paper leaf shapes and I wanted to play with them. Using a lot of paper under them, so I could make a huge mess. I used a stiffer brush, and my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors in the 36 count set. Here’s a link if you are looking to buy them. http://tinyurl.com/y7kjb6x8
I dipped the brush into the watercolors (that I had pre-wet) and added a little water to the end of the brush. Take your finger and pull the brush fibers toward yourself while aiming it at the leaf or whatever shape you use. Use a bunch of colors until your leaf is covered. They take on a metallic sheen when you add any of the metallic colors near the bottom of the palette of colors. I used tear tape and a little wet glue to adhere them to green card stock.
For the sentiment, I used Rubbernecker Stamps Freehand Phrases #900 (link to them — http://www.rubbernecker.com/product-p/900.htm )
and stamped it with a darker ink color on the bottom corner of my 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ card. I glued the leave to the front of the card on an angle and trimmed away any that was hanging over the edges. I used gold Stickles and went around the edges of the leaf to accentuate it. I added some dots of gold Stickles (here’s a link to Stickles http://tinyurl.com/ycvbpfds ) on the Maple leaf. Any time you use Stickles, make sure you give them a really long time to dry, overnight is best, and keep them out of your work area, or you’ll end up smearing them–not that I would know anything about that. haha.
On the envelope, I used a leaf from the Autumn Glory set of peg stamps in Always Artichoke ink from Stampin’ Up. Here’s a link to the peg stamp I used. Here’s a link to the stamp I used.
https://pegstamps.com/cart.php?m=search_results&headerSearch=Y&search=SFL34134

I went to Michaels and found some great deals on Halloween things…Martha Stewart Halloween washi tape 80% off, and some fun things for Rich when he scares the trick or treaters.  I found a cool macabre battery operated candlestick that he can hold up to his vampire face, since he used to hold a flashlight under his chin to accentuate his fangs and fake blood.  The seven kids we had this year got a big laugh out of him, so they know what to expect.  He doesn’t scare any little kids, as that’s just wrong…Older kids are kind of asking for it (in his opinion.) bwahaha!

I made the foam pumpkin that is decorated with napkins and has the whole back open for a fairy garden inside.  When I bought it, I didn’t know about fairy gardens, and thought the opening was so you could cut the face out easier or so you could put candy in the back….ok, I don’t know what I thought it was used for.  Now that I have a clue, I decided to buy grass that has a sticky back to it and glue it inside the pumpkin.  I found a really fun creepy gate at a craft store an hour from where we live and thought it was perfect, but it was too large for the opening…Darn it.  So when I was at Michaels, I’d seen a fun door for my pumpkin at Michaels.com and they said they had them at the store I was going to go to…..Of course I couldn’t find them and had no idea where to look.  It’s like those Jane Davenport items that everyone else buys there.  I think they hide them in my store, so I never find them.  I have no idea where to look, but apparently they sell them there, at least they say they do.

I asked one of the many workers about the Halloween gates for fairy gardens.  “No, we clearanced out all of the fairy garden things.”  So I stupidly explain that I had just been on the website, and it said they were carrying them in that particular store….Worker #1 gets on her microphone and asks worker  #2 where to find the fairy garden gates……They haven’t had those in months is what apparently was said over the microphone.  I know when to throw in the towel on asking for help, and this was the time.  I thanked both workers and went on my way.  I had a few minutes to kill, so roamed to the front of the store near the floral section and ran into the big Halloween clearance display. 80% off everything…..including, wait for it, a HUGE section of Halloween fairy garden things.  I know you are shocked, almost as shocked as when I ran into a third worker and asked her for Mason jar lids that you can put flowers or pens in….Are you waiting for me to say that she got on her microphone and asked someone else where to find them?  I was going to lie and say she didn’t do that, but she did.  This was actually worse, because she said she’d get back to me, and then I never saw her again.  I get so frustrated when I ask people for help and they don’t know more than I do…I’m sure that these employees have down-time where they could roam the store and then have a better overall understanding of what their company sells.    I seriously could work there and do a better job of finding things for customers with no training, but armed with the notion that there is a sign at the end of every aisle describing what you can find within   You can find everything but Jane Davenport items, as they hide those from me.

Did I mention that I started my YouTube channel the last week of October, two years ago?  I can’t believe that so much time has passed, when in some respects, it seems like it was only a few months ago.  But when I look at the list of videos, I can’t believe I have had that many ideas in two years.  It’s a good thing I have so many people on YouTube that have given me inspiration.

I was talking to my closest college friends at breakfast a couple of weeks ago, and they asked me about my YouTube channel.  I had asked them about what they thought of me starting it, before I actually did, and both said they thought I wouldn’t be able to handle the negative comments that all YouTubers seem to get.  Fast forward to two years later, and they can’t believe the channel is still up and running, and in fact, growing.  Neither of these ladies have ever made anything crafty, so that part of the channel is really alien to them.  One asked me how many videos do I put up in a month, two, three?  I laughed and said well, two or three a week and sometimes more.  They were amazed that I could have enough ideas to accomplish such a feat.  I told them it’s not just me that has ideas.  I  take others ideas and try to make them my own.  I could tell from their facial expressions that I was basically talking another language, and that they had lost interest in the discussion.  That’s the difference between people who are still physically active, and those of us who aren’t.  It’s hard for them to see life without hiking, running, jogging, and bike riding, and it’s really hard for me to imagine life that would include those activities.  Luckily I was never very sports minded, or I think getting arthritis at 22 would have been a lot more stressful.  I used to joke that I got arthritis in the 1980’s, so I wouldn’t have to do aerobics, as that was a huge craze back then.  Jane Fonda had workout tapes and were the forerunner to all of the women’s exercise classes that were to come.  Women wore tight spandex bodysuits that showed every bump and bulge and I never had the body type for those, ever.  Actually, arthritis was the perfect excuse so I never had to try one on.  Thankfully, when Olivia Newton John came out with her “Let’s Get Physical” video, I was not lining up to buy a headband that matched my frisky Lycra bodysuit.  And you thought arthritis had no upsides to it….Oh, how wrong you are.

I’m still working on trying to get the word out about the video for helping those affected by the floods and hurricanes.  I guess we’re just not going to get very many requests since Lindsays’ blog post didn’t really stir the pot.  I was hoping that by having others spread the word, we’d start to see more people making requests, but that just hasn’t been the case.  It was a good idea, but it didn’t seem to really work well.  I have a couple of ladies who are still trying to pass the information along, and unless that works, we probably will not be seeing many more requests.

I’m getting ready to file this under, a good idea that didn’t work like I thought it would.  If I had a dollar for every idea I thought was good but didn’t have big impact, I’d be sitting pretty.  That’s such a weird expression…I’m going to check it out.   From Phrase Finder, here’s what I found:

Sitting pretty

Meaning

Comfortably placed or well situated.

Origin

We don’t know how the expression ‘sitting pretty’ was derived. That is, we don’t know who or what was being referred to as ‘pretty’ when the term was coined.

The image of a young woman posing for a photograph or ducks sitting tight and making a difficult target for shooters may spring to mind. The expression isn’t known until the early 20th century so both of the above are plausible.

We do have something that can help locate the source of the phrase. The word ‘pretty’ has another meaning, in addition to the more usual ‘attractive’ and that is ‘in an advantageous or safe position’.

The earliest uses of the phrase in print seem to point to ‘sitting pretty’ just meaning ‘sitting (in a real or metaphorical sense) in a position of advantage.

Those first uses are all American and we can conclude that ‘sitting pretty’ was coined in the USA. Here’s an example, from the Nebraska newspaper The Lincoln Star, May 1915:

Clyde Wares returned to his club in the metropolis yesterday and according to reports everything is ‘sitting pretty’.

 

Back to me:  I’m not sure who Clyde Wares is, but the fact that he returned to his club in the metropolis in 1915 tells me more than I need to know.  Apparently, not only his club was, but it seems old Clyde was probably, “sitting pretty” too.   I always thought the term referred to money, as in sitting pretty meant that they had a lot of money, but apparently it has to do with feeling safe or, in fact, oddly enough, pretty…  How about that reference to ducks sitting tightly to make a difficult target for hunters?  I guess that makes sense, but I’d prefer to think of it as the woman in the picture, actually sitting pretty.  OK, so I learned enough for the day…I don’t want my brain to explode over sitting pretty, now do I?

 

I’m thrilled that Lindsay has posted the information about our Make A Difference video and hope we’ll start getting some requests for craft tools…

Source: Power is Back On! Happy November!

I had Rich upload the video for the second part of the waterfall card.  I don’t think people will be very impressed with it, as mainly it’s just me gluing paper to the album…We’ll wait to see what they say.

No more responses to the hurricane/flood video.  I’m disappointed to say the least.  I have a lot of leftover things from the destashing that I was going to donate, plus the money we raised.  I really hope Lindsay gets her power back on so she can put the video on her blog and we can hopefully get more inquiries.  I wish I knew what else to do to get the word out, but at this point, I guess I’ve done all I can think of, so will just wait for the week to wind down and then address it at the end.

The highlight (yes, this is pathetic) of my day, was going to the dermatologist to get the OK to dye my hair.  I know it sounds dumb, but I had a small spot of skin cancer removed from the crown of my head and they couldn’t get my scalp to pull over the affected area and so I couldn’t dye my hair.  It’s not like I’m completely gray, but I’m just gray enough that I don’t like it.  It’s a foolish thing to whine about, but I’m going to whine regardless.  I think we women really want to extend our youthful hair for as long as we possibly can, and I’m committed to doing that.  I want to have brown hair for a while longer, as this mixture of brown and gray is really not in my game plan.  (As if I have a game plan?)  So I got the OK and tomorrow, I’m forty again…maybe 35….Probably more like 50.  It’s just one of those things that is important to me.  Maybe I should look at some bold colors, like lavender, or pink….probably not.