Every year, I volunteer at the college Rich and I attended, to interview the students so they are ready for their “real interviews.”  The accounting majors are hired earlier than most, and their interviews are later this month.  I had my first seminars with them today, to prepare them for the process.  I really enjoy doing this, it’s a labor of love for me, as I hope by me volunteering my time to help them get jobs, that later, they will pay it forward, by either donating their time or monies, or both to the college.

After the seminar, I met with my girlfriend and gave her the things I had made for her fundraiser.  I’m not sure if they are good enough or marketable, but I did the best I could in the time I had to do them.  I made six cards and nine covered notebooks, and several matchbook notebooks.  I made videos of all of them so you can see the process of how I made them.

When I looked at the things that my girlfriend and another woman had made, I felt like I was a small fish in a big pond, as they both are extremely talented artists.  The other lady made witches out of deco mesh and a felt hat that was completely adorable.  She even makes her own brand of soy candles.  So yeah, I felt like I was out of my league.  On the other hand, I’m glad I participated because at least I tried.  (That’s the theory I’m sticking with, at least for now.)

I’m watching the weather channel and the hurricane that’s headed toward Florida is frightening.  It’s not bad enough that our friends in Texas have suffered so recently, but now we have another huge storm coming for our shorelines.  It’s really scary.  I saw the devastation in St. Maarten, and Rich and I had been (unfortunately) stuck there in a level 4 hurricane in 1999, and believe me, it was no fun.  They don’t have any resources or technology to help their people get back on their feet, and I saw today, that their brand new airport was almost completely destroyed by this storm.  It took them several years to build it and now it’s ruined.  I watched as a major building just fell into the ocean, and thought how scared the people that live there must be.   The camera crews were filming from the same hotel Rich and I stayed in while we were on the island and I couldn’t believe the difference in a level 4 vs. a level 5.  Our room was on the fourth floor of seven floors, and on the end of the building.  We had water coming through the walls of the hotel (and our hotel was supposed to be the safest on the island.)  We had three to four inches of water on our floor and water was pouring through the bathroom ceiling.  We had water in bottles and the water in the bottles rocked like we were on a boat…and that was a level 4.  I showed a video on YouTube from our last trip to St. Maarten last December, and videotaped the hotel we stayed in, and showed how high the waves were spraying the coast.  There was a smaller hotel in front of ours and the waves were crashing over the roof of that hotel that was on a large cliff.  Again, a level 4.

Our flight was the only one that left St. Maarten, by the grace of God, and people were begging to buy our plane tickets for thousands of dollars.  Our taxi driver had to drive around small yachts that had washed up on the road.  Airplanes were overturns and helicopters were on their sides–it was not an experience I ever want to relive.

The power of today’s storm is massive and entirely frightening to me.  I don’t envy anyone in it’s path and pray that our friends on St. Maarten have lived to talk about it when we see them again.  As for the people in Florida and along the coast, I really hope that they are taking the evacuation seriously, as this is nothing to consider “riding out.”

I hope the storm takes a turn and heads away from the United States, as we’ve already had one horrible storm and we really don’t need another.  I know we’re all hoping for a miracle, let’s hope we get one.

Working on making sets of cards using my new layering dies from Aliexpress.  You never know how much easier things can be until you try using them.  I used to really struggle trying to find ways to make a project look a little bit different than another and now, all I have to do is put a few pieces of card stock together and voila, a great card.  I’m having so much fun with them and have been making a lot of different cards and videos.

Last night I decided to make more bath bombs (you’ll see the video on them soon), and had made some with our great niece Erika (also on video.)  We couldn’t understand what we were doing wrong, as our cupcake shaped bath bombs kept growing and growing.  We’d push them down into the silicone mold and a few minutes later, they’d be bursting from their seams again.  So I decided to try it the old fashioned way, using a Christmas ball (plastic) and filling it with the ingredients and then closing them.  Ok, so the first one was filled pretty tightly and a couple minutes later it was oozing everywhere, so I scraped a lot out and closed it again.  Another couple minutes, more oozed out.  This just kept going and going.  It was like the Blob movie, or what I expect the Blob movie was like…Stuff just oozing everywhere with no end in sight.  So the next ball, I only filled most of the way.   Still too much, oozed out of the plastic…The third one, (I’m now getting a little bit irritated that I can’t figure out how much is the right amount), so I filled it about 2/3rds full.  Still had some minor issues.  My suggestion if you are making bath bombs, is to fill a little under 2/3rd full and hope for the best.  The bath bomb seems to absord whatever space is available, so even if it’s not seemingly full, it probably will be in a few minutes.  In the end, my bath bombs looked and smelled pretty great….I used orange, vanilla and a little clove essential oil in them.  I like them for Rich after basketball, as the Epsom salts seems to help with his muscle aches (a little bit), and they make the whole house smell like a Creamsicle, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I spent today working on some crafty projects for a friend whose having a fund raiser.  I’ve made a bunch of things and have a lot more to do.  I’m having so much fun though and thought I’d make some bath bombs for the fund raiser.  I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but my balls keep getting larger and larger, so I’d remove some of the excess and put the ball back together, and in fifteen minutes, the ball is overflowing again.  It’s really pretty impressive.  I’m thinking it’s like that movie, I think it was called The Blob, where this stuff kept growing and growing.  That’s what’s happening in my craft room.  I have a feeling that by tomorrow at this time, that yellow blob will have encompassed my entire craft room.

I’d really like to write more, but Honey is freaking out from a thunderstorm that we’re having, and no one can make her feel more safe than me.  So she’s laying on me and leaving little to no room for her to snuggle in and feel safe.  It’s hard to be a puppy, as you never know what’s around the next bend, and in this case, it must be pretty big and scary, as it’s really loud and windy.

I’ve been really struggling to keep up with my blog and it’s never been like this before.  I think it has to do with the fact that I’m trying to focus on things I can do to help people in my life that are struggling right now.  One of my college friends has had a relapse of breast cancer and it’s making me feel so helpless as I’ve lost three other friends in the last year to cancer and am so afraid for her.  The other thing that’s been wearing on me is a friend who is from Texas who has lost almost everything in the hurricane.  I’ve been talking to her online several times a day, but feel like I’m not really helping.  I’m not really good at being helpless, I want to make a difference.  I’ve already contacted my college friends to discuss what we can do to help our friend and once I get more details, I’m going to put our plan into action, so I feel a little bit better about that.

But then I started to think about my friend in Texas, who lost everything including all of her crafty things.  And that brought me to all of the other people who lost their crafty toys and what can we do to help them.  So I’m going to do a video and talk about it and ask viewers if they want to help as well, so we can, at some point in the future, help others get back the things that keep them active and sane.  Hobbies are so important to self worth and well being, and not being able to do them because everything you own has been destroyed, has got to be demoralizing.  Can you imagine if you are a card maker and you have so many people you’d like to thank, but don’t have any of the tools to make them?  It would be so frustrating and difficult, and like I said, I don’t do well when something needs fixed.  I have to make a difference.  So I’m saying it now, and I’ll continue this line of thinking…we need to help those people who need our help.  We crafters have so many things that we could all give box loads of goodies and never miss them.  I know I am guilty of having too much and will gladly be sending boxes where they are needed.  Now is the time for inner reflection.  Do we really need all of the things we’ve collected and think we might use someday, or can we share our things with people who truly do need and want them.  It’s time for us to make a difference and I for one, am ready.

I started with a big background stamp called Rose Background 1229-K from Stamp Oasis that’s older and I looked online and couldn’t find any where that sold it. Sorry. There are a lot of really pretty rose background stamps available though. Here are a couple I found on ebay that I really liked. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROSES-AND-BUDS-NEW-BACKGROUND-RUBBER-STAMP-3-x-4-x-1-Montage-Collection-/182744901019?hash=item2a8c71e59b:g:BUgAAOSw2ENW7aoi and

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BOTANICAL-BACKGROUND-ROSE-FLOWER-LEAF-BRANCH-NATURE-Rubber-Stamp-Lot-/232449286466?hash=item361f0ea142:g:jB4AAOSwK6RZDnze

 

 

 

I used pink and purple 5 1/4″ tall by 4″ wide pieces of card stock and a pigment ink from Hero Arts called Unicorn White. With my stamp laying stamp side up on the surface of my work space, I inked the stamp and placed the card stock on the right edge and bottom right corner of the stamp, then rub the card stock all over with the side of your hand to ensure the ink transfers. When you off-set your design, you make sure that the pattern is the same direction, and you move your paper a little bit to the left, but still along the bottom edge and stamp with another color. The ink can be dye based, but you’ll need to make sure your white ink is either heat set, or sits overnight to dry before stamping with another color.

I used Distress Oxides and colored the green of my leaves, then stamped back over the whole design with the Unicorn white ink to enhance the pattern. Because I put the paper in the right hand corner both times I stamped with white, the ink will end up in the same spot both times and allows you to accentuate the green ink beneath.
I used a white Uni Posca marker to color in my flowers to accentuate the design of the flowers after I painted them with Distress Oxides and they were dry.

I used different discontinued pink pigment inks from Stampin’ Up on a light pink cardstock with the Unicorn white stamped first, and then moving the paper about 1/16″ to the left, to offset the design and really make it pop. The Stampin’ Up inks also need to be heat set as would any pigment ink. Pigment inks are easy to find and here are some ideas of some inexpensive ones if you are interested in trying them. Clearsnap Colorbox 5 ct cats’ eyes are small and come in a wide variety of colors.. currently on sale for $8.39 at Joanns. Here’s a link to them. http://www.joann.com/clearsnap-colorbox-5ct-cats-eye-pigment-ink/zprd_14944029a.html#q=cats%2Beye%2Bink&start=1

Pigment inks are slow to dry, so you either need to heat set them, emboss and heat set them, or let them sit overnight to be sure they are dry. They are exactly the same color as they appear in the packaging, so it makes it nice when you are looking for a particular color, because what you see is what you get. I don’t own many because I’ve very impatient to continue projects, but do like to use them from time to time.

I started with an 8 1/2″ wide by 5 1/2″ tall brighter pink card stock and scored it at 4 1/4″ on the 8 1/2″ side to create an A2 size card.
I used some Old Olive Stampin’ Up ink on a piece of acetate and using a little water, mixed the ink and water. I then watercolored the leaves on the pink cardstock that had the brighter pink flowers on it with a paint brush.

I used a die from Serendipity Stamps that says “Hello” on it and die cut the pink flowered card stock. Keep all of the pieces that come out of the die as you’ll need some of them later. I used Scrapbook Adhesive tape runner to attach my flowered card stock to the card base without the hello…I had to use a Zig 2 Way Glue Pen and put glue inside the cut out for hello, so my new die cut will fit inside and stay there. It’s important you put as much glue in the opening as possible. I die cut a darker pink Hello and laid it in the spot where I cut the hello from and once it’s in place, find the pieces that are missing that you saved from the first time you cut the hello out of the flowered paper. I used a Spectrum Noir glitter marker to go over the flowers and the Hello to make it a little bit sparkly.

At this point in the video, I talked about my facebook page, crafting for almost everyone. I would like to see the facebook page be more interactive with my viewers, so am encouraging people to put some of their project photos there. It’s simple to do..where it says write something (I think), you would write whatever you want, and then below it says attach photo, and you can add your photo of your project there. I love to see what my viewers are creating and I’m sure other viewers would enjoy seeing others projects as well. Please do not write anything negative on people’s projects as they are sharing their best…you can save any negative commentary for me on this channel if you want. I think it will be so much fun to see more and more people adding their projects to the facebook page because it gives us a space that’s all our own to share with each other and the world.

For my envelopes, I used some purple sprays that I just bought at Michaels and made a rounded rectangular shape and laid it on the envelope before I sprayed it so it created a space for the address. (This didn’t turn out perfectly, but I kept going.) To decorate around the purple spray, I used peg stamps, Three ripply flowers, and a leafy branch with Vintage Violet (discontinued, I think) ink from Stampin’ Up and Old Olive ink for the leaves. I stamped Blushing Bride ink from Stampin’ Up with brambly roses from peg stamps and a strawberry leaf and Old Olive ink, on the back of the envelope for the pink cards.

On the purple cards, I used an Old Olive colored die cut, so used a similar sheer ribbon near the top and tied it into a bow. I apologize that my camera cut out for part of it. You know how these things happen, darn it.

In person, the words show up much better than they do on camera and I apologize that you can’t see it as well as I would like.

I bought two pairs of inexpensive canvas sneakers to try to make tie dye sneakers. I used to do tie dye in the 70’s (I know I’m too young to remember the 70’s), so thought I’d try it with alcohol markers (Sharpies) and 91% alcohol and some sort of dropper to control the alcohol that you are dripping onto your shoes. You’ll want to put a large wad of paper or plastic bag shoved into the toe of your shoes so that it’s easier to color on. Make sure your paper has no writing on it, because it might bleed onto the canvas from all the alcohol you are dripping onto it..

Make sure you do this project in a well ventilated area or outside so the smells are not so strong.

For this project, you’ll need 91% alcohol, Sharpies in a rainbow of colors, a pair of white canvas tennis shoes (sneakers), and painter tape or masking tape to wrap around the plastic base of your shoes, and a pair of scissors, plus paper to jam into the toe of the shoes and a medicine dropper or some sort of way to drip the alcohol onto the shoe, vs pouring it out of the bottle.

Step 1: Cover the plastic base of your shoes with the masking/painter tape and when you come to a curve, snip the top of the tape so you can curve the tape and overlap your tape to allow it to curve. You might need to rip the tape if you can’t make it overlap enough to make the toe curve, Don’t get the tape on the canvas portion of the shoe, only on the plastic. Really press the tape onto the plastic to ensure a good seal. Remove the shoe laces and keep them somewhere where you won’t forget about them.

Step 2…I made a design that looks like the curve of an ear. You need to make sure that each shoe has an “ear” that curves in the right direction…Look at the drawing I made of the ears, to know what your shoe should look like. I draw lines to make the colors look precise. The brighter the colors you use, the more your shoes will resemble traditional tie dye. Leave some room between the colors to allow for bleeding. Yellow is especially difficult because the other colors seem to absorb into it . You’ll want to color the tongue of the shoes to match the colors around it.

Step 3 Make sure your tape is still well adhered to your shoes, then take your dropper and start at the top of the shoe and work your way down the shoe. If you have an area that still looks like individual lines, put more alcohol on it.

Step 4. Wait for the shoes to dry and then put your shoe strings back in. Your shoes are ready to wear and are lots of fun.

If you get any ink on the plastic sides of your shoes, rub a little of the alcohol on them to remove it.

My girlfriend is having a craft booth at a local fund raiser and asked if I would be willing to participate.  I had a couple of ideas that I thought would be fun, so finished the first, the covered notebooks, and began the second, matchbook notepads.  I saw these on a video a while ago and can’t remember the name of the site I saw it on, but will definitely include it in the video.  You cut double sided decorated paper and then score it so it’s shaped like a matchbook, then put ten pieces of typing paper folding in half inside, and staple the bottom.  Then decorate the front and slide the top paper under the bottom paper and your work is done.  It seemed so simple when I saw them made, but I didn’t like the look of the staples, so decided to cover them with washi tape, and my decorations always seemed to be too large and my staples too close to the top, and it was just more labor intensive than I anticipated.  I think it was because I used an electric stapler, as I couldn’t get the staples to go through all of the layers of paper when I tried it with a manual stapler.

I think in the end, they looked fine, but I was hoping they would be much faster and easier to produce than they were, darn it.

For the last project, I’m going to make a bunch of cards using my new layered dies…They should be extremely fast and easy to produce, and I think I’ll use the MISTI and stamp several sentiments in it and then punch them out so they can easily be added to the cards on the inside, so each card is individual.  I’ll start working on those tomorrow and hopefully, will have enough complete, that I will feel like I’ve done my part.  I did think I would have produced a lot more than I did, but with my head hurting for most of the week, I had a lot of time when I wasn’t doing much of anything….And yes, I’ll be wearing hats when I go outside from now on.  At least I plan to wear hats.  Either that, or figure out how to apply 100 SPF to the top of my head…I better plan on the hat.

I know it’s been a few days since I’ve added anything to the blog and it’s really not like me, but I probably should explain.  Keep in mind that this is a total excuse and I should have still written something on the blog instead of forgetting to write about anything.

On the 29th, I had to have some minor skin cancer taken off the top of my head.  It isn’t serious and just required some surgery to rectify the situation.  They started at 10AM and by 11, the surgery was complete and they were looking at it under a microscope to determine if all of the edges were clean.  By noon we knew everything was fine, but they needed to fit me in to the rest of the day’s scheduled to close up the hole they had made.  We all know I have a hard head, but this was a true testament to exactly how hard it is.  The surgeon started by saying that my scalp was tight, and he was having a little trouble closing the wound.  That precipitated more injections as I started to feel things again…after all, it had been four hour since this process had started.  So they must have used clamps or something to pull the skin and twist it at the same time, because it took them an entire hour, and they only closed the wound by 90%.  I say only 90%, because after all of the tugging and turning they were doing, I was hoping it was completely closed, and I guess after an hour, you’d have thought they could have pulled my skin from one ear to the other.  The end result is that my head started to ache later that day and hurt for the next three.  It felt like they had used a vice on it, and I normally think I have a pretty fair pain tolerance, but I have been feeling pretty crappy until today.  I’m feeling much better and getting back on the crafty bandwagon.  Rich on the other hand, had to have his lower back injected today, so he’s not feeling like uploading videos, so I gave him an easy one, and I think it’s up and running.  The Parkers have had a tough week, and we need to take a long nap to make up for some of it.  We’re both very lucky though, because our medical conditions are completely fixable and we’ll be up and causing trouble any day now.

I’d seen this card many times on Stampin’ Up sites as it’s an oldie but a goodie, as far as fun fold cards go.  I found the name of the punch you will use — it’s called a decorative label punch and Stampin’ Up made the one I used.

I used a crumb cake colored cardstock and used an old Stampin’ Up set called best of Butterflies for my stamping.

The cardstock measures 5 1/4″ tall by 11″ wide and score it on the 11″ length at 2 3/4″ and  5 1/2″ and one at 8 1/4″.  Take the decorative label punch and center it between one of your scores and the end of the card.  Put your punch inside up to the center where there is a point that protrudes on either side, and make sure it is perfectly centered and punch it.  Then fold one length of paper over, and line up your first punched spot as a guide, and punch there.  Do the same to the other two scores and your card is made.

Now all you need to do is decorate it.  I cut off-white cardstock, four pieces, 2 1/8″ x 4″ tall and Raspberry Ripple (I think) cardstock from Stampin’ Up, four pieces 2 3/8″ x 4 1/4″ tall to create layers.   I used a stamping tool and stamped two of my off-white panels at once.  I used Stampin’ Up Raspberry Ripple dye ink to stamp my butterflies.  I used Stabilo 68 markers and colored a little bit on my butterflies.  Some of the coloring I didn’t like, so had to stamp those butterflies over, so if you think you’re seeing things, you’re not.

I used two butterfly punches from Martha Stewart and punched some green butterflies and put some rhinestones on them.  After applying all of the panels, I realized that I put one on the front of the card when they should have only been placed on the inside….so I had to stamp another panel of butterflies.  These things happen.  Most people only put four decorated pieces in this card, but I wanted a front to my card, so made five.  You could still make four and then a fifth that you leave blank for writing space as well.  This is a really simple card to make and I hope you’ll give it a try.

People have been talking to me about the lack of new videos we’ve been putting online.  There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is having family visit for almost a week.  The other issue is Rich’s lower back and hip, and having a lot of pain in both places.  He’s been getting shots to help with the pain, but sitting for long periods of times (doing videos) has not been great for him.  I think the turning point was when Rich concluded that he is at least ten videos behind and it made him panic a little bit.  It’s not like I’m doing more videos than normal, it’s just that he’s not putting them up as quickly as he used to.  I haven’t been giving him any pressure, but he’s started putting one up every day for the last few days, and I’m happy he’s feeling well enough to edit them.

I love it when viewers mention the music or Rich’s editing, as he is really proud of the channel and his role in it, and he should be.  I’m amazed that we are creeping up on the two year mark for the channel.  Time passes so quickly, and it’s been so much fun for both of us.  The dogs, not so much.  Aggie gets really frustrated when the craft room door is closed, so I leave it open so she can see me, but her panting sometimes is pretty disruptive.  After your dog is fifteen, you pretty much let them do whatever they want, and Aggie is the queen of the household.

I’m still working on the projects I’m donating to a friend’s charity, and will be videotaping making one of them before I am finished.  I’m thinking it’s time for a movie and bed so I’ll talk to you tomorrow.