I’m feeling very optimistic about the initial feedback that I’m getting from people and their desire to help the people affected by the storms in the South. I don’t really know what to expect for participation, but I know that my viewers will come through for people and I’m very happy about it.

I have to clean my craft room as Rich is tearing everything out of the closet so I can expand into that space.  I guess it’s not too bad, only taking up an additional closet after two years, but I do feel kind of guilty about it.

My cousin Shelly and one of her friends, Linda, are coming over to craft with me on Saturday and I’m really looking forward to it.  That means between now and then, my craft room has to be at least passable.  It can’t be it’s normal freak show of organization, so I have roughly two days to get things in order.  I don’t know what that means to others, but for me it means that I can walk through the room and there’s nothing stopping me.  That sounds so horrible, but it’s because of my lack of available space and once the closet is mine, that problem will be solved as well.  Hopefully on Saturday, they won’t run screaming out of the room, although I’m not saying it’s not a possibility.

Tomorrow is my last day for interviewing the college seniors in accounting from the college Rich and I attended.  I have six interviews which isn’t a lot, but enough to really be exhausting.  I’ll definitely be ready to come home when the last one is finished.  In the mean time, I need to stop procrastinating and get into my craft room and clean.  No more excuses.

My haul from Aliexpress has some fun things in it and I thought I’d share a card and my thoughts on the hurricanes and floods that have affected different parts of the country and that I would like help.

Below are the links to the dies I bought:

Christmas tree dies https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3Pcs-Christmas-Tree-Metal-Cutting-Dies-for-DIY-Scrapbooking-Photo-Album-Stamping-Decorative-Paper-Card-Die/32798790646.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.St8DxZ

Tree Set that I make the card with : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/110-140mm-Tree-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Metal-Cutting-and-Pressing-Dies-DIY-Decorations-Embossing-Art-Cake/32813481837.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.St8DxZ

Star Christmas tree https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Star-Tree-Metal-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Embossing-Dies-Cut-Stencils-Xmas-DIY-Cards/32825366410.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Cs2IbS

7 pc flower set https://www.aliexpress.com/item/7Pcs-Set-Flower-Circles-Metal-Cutting-Dies-Stencils-For-DIY-Scrapbook-Decorative-Embossing-Craft-High-Quality/32795777568.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Cs2IbS

4 pc snowflakes https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-Christmas-Snowflake-Cutting-Dies-Stencils-for-DIY-Scrapbooking-photo-album-Decorative-Embossing-Hand-Craft-Cutting/32745450710.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.nQjZ95

2 pc flower die set https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Metal-Cutting-Dies-Stencil-DIY-Scrapbooking-Embossing-Album-Paper-Card-Craft-hot-sales-cuts-craft/32815220116.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.nQjZ95

Sun die no longer available from the vendor I bought it from.

Daisy bookmark die https://www.aliexpress.com/item/48-106mm-Daisy-Flower-Frame-New-Metal-Cutting-Dies-Embossing-Scrapbooking-Stencil-Craft-Cut-Dies-For/32825734630.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dzjMPN

Big Frame Die https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ZLDECOR-Cute-Frame-Metal-Cutting-Dies-Stencils-for-DIY-Scrapbooking-photo-album-Decorative-Embossing-DIY-Paper/32824485821.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dzjMPN

Lined die https://www.aliexpress.com/item/102-133mm-cross-stripe-Scrapbooking-DIY-Metal-steel-cutting-dies-Stencil-Book-photo-album-card-Embossing/32821639142.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.dzjMPN

I wanted everyone to know that I am serious about trying to help people affected by the recent storms and am working with others toward that end. I don’t have any specific plans right now, as we are working through the logistics of such an undertaking, but will be getting more information out to everyone as soon as I do. Pleasek keep our friends in Texas and Florida and up the coast, in your thoughts and prayers as I will. I know we can make a difference, it’s just a matter of figuring out how.

Today, Rich built a shelf for me to put all of my paper trimmers, MISTI and Stamp Perfect on.  I love it.  It makes me so happy to have something small, but so stress relieving checked off of my to do list (ok, Rich’s, but it was something I really wanted.)

I put up a haul video from Aliexpress and at the same time, decided it was time to talk about the hurricane and my plans to help.  Of course my plans right now are fairly vague, but I’ve started enlisting help, including Lindsay and Rebecca Walton of Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  The problem is logistics.  How do we determine what is needed and how to get it to the right people?  I’ve thought it through and Lindsay came up with an idea that I think might work.  We are still so far away from rolling anything out, but I have a date as my implementation date.  The last Saturday in October is Make a Difference Day in the USA.  Normally that’s a day where people volunteer to help others sweep leaves, paint, do garbage cleanup.  I think it’s also the perfect day for us to roll out how crafters can make a difference.  All we need to do is try.  We might not help a million people, but every person that is helped on their way to a crafty recovery, will be one less that is not.  I don’t have the answers, lots of questions, but not a lot of answers.  I’m starting to contact craft companies to see if they might want to help or participate.  It’s very new to all of us, and I for one, can’t sit back and let this opportunity to help others pass me by.  It takes each of us to make a difference, no matter how big or how small, and from my experience on YouTube, I know my audience will be there to help as they are the most kind, generous, caring people I’ve ever encountered.

So if you have an idea or suggestion, or you just want to vent, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere until we have a plan and it is implemented.

Today was one of those days that you feel sad, but can’t really put your finger on why until you look at the date.  We all remember 9/11 and no matter how many years go by, we still take pause on this date.  With the hurricane, now a tropical storm looming, it’s given us one more thing to fret about today.

I spent the day practicing interviewing with the accounting majors of the college Rich and I attended.  I love volunteering there and hearing when the students get their jobs. It gives me real pride that I have a small role in their success.  I was really exhausted when I got home and didn’t even watch the weather, and I’ve been glued to the weather channel for days (as most of America has been.)    Instead, Rich uploaded one of my videos and I was able to add my commentary and make it live.  A day well spent.

 

I wanted to make a 90th birthday card for a close friend’s mother and started with a Stampendous stamp called The Peony Spray. I used a sentiment from Amuse Studios Birthday Greetings set as well as and old Stampin Up set called Favorite Thoughts . I bought Viviva Color Sheets through a video of Lindsay the FrugalCrafter’s video where she shows them. Here’s the link to her video where she shows how you can get them. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/THANK-YOU-ARE-WEIRD-AND-I-LOVE-IT-Scrapbook-DIY-photo-cards-account-rubber-stamp-clear/32828005989.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.j36lLs
I used clear Ranger embossing powder and Versamark ink to stamp and emboss my peony sentiments on a 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ white Recollections heavyweight card stock and put the peony in one corner then heat set it, then turned the card stock around and stamped the peony in the reverse corner. I decided to start with Niji pearl watercolors and colored my peony, but decided it didn’t have enough color or definition, so got out the Viviva sheets and darkened my images and liked it much better. Unfortunately, the dark peony made the white background too stark, so I felt the need to color it as well and used one of the blue pearlized inks for the background. I used my Creative Memory corner rounder and rounded all of my corners of the peony. I ran the word happy through the die cutting machine several times and then ran them through the Xyron to create stickers. I laid them on top of each other and used my pokey tool to poke out any sticky goo that is left inside the word. I layered four sets of the word Happy. I thought the word happy needed some pearlization, so took my LA Colors eye shadow in pink and a paint brush and colored the happy with it. I used chipboard numbers, “90” and colored it with the Viviva colors and then ran it through the Xyron and then laid it on my card below the word Happy. I added foam tape to the back and some foam squares that I bought at the Dollar Tree in the automotive section. I love the squares but hated the foam tape and am thrilled it’s finally gone. I rounded the corners of the card base that is a 5 x 7″ base and then added some Stickles to the outside and inside of the card in Magenta. The Stickles take a long time to dry, so make sure you put the card somewhere out of the way while it is drying
On the envelope, I used large dogwood and Hollyhock vine peg stamps from http://www.pegstamps.com to decorate it with Stampin’ Up Melon Mambo ink. I used Memento Dew Drops Bamboo Leaves to stamp my vines. I also used Rose Red Ink from Stampin’ Up with a smaller flower peg stamp and stamped both flowers and vines on the front of the envelope. I took the Stickles in the Magenta color and used it to color in the centers of the flowers on the envelope..

Ok, I know I said I would finish cleaning my craft room today, but I just couldn’t do it.  Rich and I went to Home Depot because I need him to build me a shelf so I can put all of my paper trimmers/MISTI/Stamp Perfect in one place and have easy access to them.  We bought the things he needed and then I started talking about space and the problems I have with finding solutions to where to put things and how to organize and if only I could to this or do that.  He said why don’t we just redo your whole room like other crafters and make it the way you want it?  He’s the greatest guy…He really is.  The thing is, I just don’t have it in me to rip everything out and reconfigure, find the right products that work for me and in the end, spend thousands of dollars on something that in the end, might not work any better than what I already own.  So he said, what if we gutted the closet and took everything out of it?  It was like a light went on in my head.  He has clothes there from his working days that we could definitely relocate and we have one of those metal closet organizers that frankly, I’ve never liked.  I would love it if we ripped everything out of the closet and started from scratch.  I’d like to put all and I mean all of my stamps in there so if I need a stamp set, I know exactly where to go to find it.  I have a lot of stamps but I can’t organize them because I have some here and some there, some in binders and some in bins and it just doesn’t work.  I can’t come up with a workable solution with the way things are today.  I’d love to get all of my wooden stamps and figure out a way to know where they are and what they are at a glance, but don’t know what that system looks like.  You have no idea the amount of stress that I put on myself trying to basically fit a round peg into a square slot…is that how that term goes?  If not, I think you know what I mean.  A lot of people use the Jennifer McGuire system where you put your stamps and dies in baggies…That doesn’t work for me because I don’t want to create books to look through to know what stamps I have and would never remember if something was Lawn Fawn.  If I see something, I can use it.  That’s why I like the CD cases.  I can look at the name of the stamp set (I’m working on a further system) and at least I can go from there.  I need some way to set my stamps in groups of flowers, animals, sentiments, etc, but haven’t figured that out..I guess that will come when I have the closet gutted.  I have plenty of storage for my cd cases, but lack the spot to put the storage, so again, having the closet space will really give me room to organize.

So what did I accomplish today?  I burned some branches that had been falling from our trees and did some laundry and worked on emails and responded to comments on YouTube.  Now I’m going to go into my craft room and do a video or two.  Clean it, what’s the point?  I’ve got a plan now and I’m starting to see some light at the end of my very long tunnel.

Wow, I need a day like this more often.  I cleaned the craft room, spent hours in there, and the end result…it still looks terrible.  Bad, cluttered, messy, just gross.  I think my problem is my storage and the fact that I need to use bigger storage and use it more effectively.  I’m so mad at myself because I let it get away from me.  I’m not sure if any of you do this, but you buy some things and put them in a spot, not where they should go, but then eventually, there are no spots left to put things.  If you organized the storage you have, you’d be in terrific shape, but you don’t take the time to do that.  So today I did.  I took drawers out and ripped cabinets apart and what I found was that I have not done a good job of staying organized.

I know I sound like I’m unhappy with my accomplishment for the day, when actually I’m pretty happy with the amount of organization I’ve done.  I now just need to take out the small storage and replace it with the bigger containers that I already have, and make sure I stay organized.  I also need to make sure that when I buy things, I put them where they need to go.

I have one large drawer that I keep small bottles and containers in.  Why do I need all of these bottles and containers?  I don’t.  So tomorrow, they go into recycling.  I have another drawer that’s full of craft magazines and books that I never look at, and I mean never, so I’m giving those away.  If I just utilize my space more effectively, I think my room could say in semblance of order, I just need to hold myself to it and that’s something I just don’t do.

My commitment is that by the end of tomorrow, I’ll have my craft room organized to the point that I’ll have more work space and a better overall arrangement.  I’m not going to stop until I do, so if I don’t write the blog tomorrow, you’ll know it’s because I’m still organizing, or died trying.

I love Fridays.  I used to love them because it signaled the end of the work week, but then many years ago, Rich and I started having “date night” every Friday.  We’d order pizza or wings and watch a movie and it was a nice start to the weekend.  We’ve continued our date nights, so even though I don’t have a work week to consider, at least I still have date night to signal the end of the week.  Rich and I both really look forward to date night and so do the dogs.  We order food and then as soon as Rich comes back with it, the dogs are ready to assume their spots in the man room.  If you’ve never seen or heard the story of the “man room” I’ve attached the video tour for you to watch.

I really love spending time there as it’s the perfect spot for a movie, with the lights dimmed, it’s almost like a movie theater, except we can put our feet up and there’s no one talking on their cell phones or asking us to move our feet so they can walk past.

I don’t know about people who have children and how they break up their weeks so they have things to look forward to, but date night for us is a nice time to relax and not think about anything, just have time together.  Whenever I can, I convince Rich that we should extend date night to Saturday as well, and have termed it, date night 2.0.  If it’s not football or basketball season, I can normally make it a two night event, and I’ll take what I can get.

As for right now, it’s mid-afternoon and it’s drizzling outside, so it’s a perfect time for a nap.  I know my life is tough, but somebody has to do it.  I hope you have a happy date night and if you can, stretch it into date night 2.0, you won’t regret it.

I wanted to get some things done today, but went to a couple of garage sales, where I found nothing but a new electric toothbrush (yay!) and that’s about it.  It gets more and more depressing as summer winds down and we head toward fall.  I’m not really excited about the upcoming seasons, as fall is much too short and winter is much too long.  You’d think  I’d be happy to find a lot of undivided time to be able to make projects, but I find the fact that it gets dark at 5 PM really depressing.  I know that a lot of people struggle with the greyness of winter, and I am willing to admit that I am one of those people.

I’d really like it, if the weather stayed around 50-60 degrees, ok, I’ll even go 40 degrees, but once it gets really cold and gray, I start to really dread the upcoming changes.  If I could just come up with a viable plan to go south for part of the winter,  I honestly think I could handle the changes better.  It’s funny the things that bother us.  My arthritis really doesn’t bother me like the change in weather.  I think that’s really weird.  One is so painful and permanent, and the other, six months and back to good weather.  Wouldn’t you think my arthritis would bother me more than winter?  I know, I am pretty quirky, and here’s yet another example of just how quirky I am.

I didn’t get anything accomplished in the craft room today, but have big plans for tomorrow.

I have a lot of the smaller stacks of decorator papers and wanted to start finding new ways to use them.  I have a set of layering dies from AliExpress that when combined with the paper stacks, made the cards appear to look almost like a quilt.  Here is the link to the site that I bought the smallest opening die from.  They offer all three on this site, but the middle sized opening die appears to have the wrong measurements on it.  Since the site I bought mine from no longer offers them, you might want to buy all three on this site, or find the one with the odd measurement on another Aliexpress site.  Here’s the link:   https://www.aliexpress.com/item/135-45mm-New-Fashion-ladys-Carbon-steel-Die-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Embossing-Dies-Cut-Stencils-DIY/32811751547.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.KW75FC  for the biggest opening die.  For smallest opening die https://www.aliexpress.com/item/135-45mm-New-Fashion-ladys-Carbon-steel-Die-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Embossing-Dies-Cut-Stencils-DIY/32811751547.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.KW75FC and for the middle size opening die, but with the wrong size measurements.  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/135-45mm-New-Fashion-ladys-Carbon-steel-Die-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Embossing-Dies-Cut-Stencils-DIY/32811751547.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.KW75FC  This is the only one that might not line up, but then again, they may just have written the measurements incorrectly on their listing.  It’s up to you if you choose to go with this one or not.

My paper stacks were called All Dressed Up and The Pink Navy from Hobby Lobby, that had patterns that needed to be used, but I really didn’t love some of the patterns, or they were too large for cards.  By using them with the dies, I could combine the papers to make them almost look like a quilt on a card base.  I used cream Recollections 110 lb heavyweight card stock for my first card and used the excess die cuts for decorations on the envelope.  Then in the second card, I added a silver foil layer to make it more festive.  The get well die was from Lawn Fawn that I used with the Pink and blue paper on a navy blue heavyweight Recollections card base 5 1/2 x 4 1/4″.  The pink card base is also Recollections Heavyweight cardstock, (same size) and I used the pink and blue papers on a navy blue card base.  By alternating the colors of paper packs,  one layer, blue, one layer pink and the other layer blue and pink, it really makes the layers work together, even though the patterns aren’t very cohesive when you look at them on their own.

I tried using wet glue to glue the layers together, but found it made my cards warp, so I used tape runner instead.  If you line up your layers on the bottom right corner and right side, you’ll have good luck lining up your layers and gluing them together.  I glued all three layers together and then cut any excess off the edge where you could see a layer that you don’t want to see.  Then attached the three layers to my card base and added the sentiment on the inside of the card.  I used different dies for the words and there was enough space on the bottom of my card stack to put the word die on it, when I ran it through the Vagabond, so I killed two birds with one stone.  I used wet glue to attach the words inside the cards.  I have a lot of colored pearls/rhinestones, and used those to decorate inside the openings of the dies once they were attached to the card bases.
I decorated the envelopes with either the pieces that came out of my die cuts and layered them, or used my peg stamps, wacky flowers and delicate ferns stamped with matching inks.  The peg stamps are available at  http://www.pegstamps.com.
I hope you find a way to use your paper stacks and your layered dies together, as I found this to be a fun and easy way to use both.