I spent the morning going to garage sales and finally found stamps for sale.  I think this is the first garage sale that I’ve been to this year, that actually sold some stamps that I wanted.  The woman who was having the sale was so excited that I was interested in her stamps, that she kept trying to add more and more to my pile.  At one point she tried to sell me everything crafty she was selling.  Maybe when I started my crafty hoarding, I might have buckled and bought everything, but I doubt it.  She had rub-ons and loose paper and a lot of really old stamps from Stampin’ Up.  They had the country look that stamps seemed to gravitate toward in early 2000’s.  I didn’t want to hurt the lady’s feelings, but I have my own hoarding to deal with and really don’t want to add hers to it.

I came home and uploaded the video for our great niece’s album and that took forever, because it was over forty minutes.  That was a long video, but the album took probably twelve hours to make, so forty minutes isn’t really all that long.  (Unless you have no interest in making albums,  then forty minutes would feel like a lifetime.)

 

Our great niece is going away to college and I wanted to make an album for her that she could put her memorabilia in.

I had some small embellished paperclips from Michaels (bought them last year) and the colors worked well for her album.

Her school colors are a navy blue and a rusty red color.

I started with white 6 x 6 chipboard and painted the outer edges white.  I marked each chipboard piece at 1″ from the left edge on both sides and added tear tape to the 1″ spot.  I made the same number of 3″ x 6″ white strips out of Recollections 110 lb heavyweight cardstock.  I scored the 3″ length at 1 1/2″.  You will place the backside of the folded 3″ piece on the 1″ line of the 6″ chipboard piece and press into the tear tape.  You take the tear tape lining off of another chipboard piece and lay it on the front of the 3″ paper, again lining it up.  You’ll want to line the chipboard up at this point, as you’ll not be really able to line it up on the tear tape.  Add another 3″ strip to the front of the chipboard you just laid down again, right up to the 1″ mark you made, and add another piece of chipboard.  You won’t want to have any tear tape on the back of the last page or the front of the first page.  The video I watched where I learned how to make this book binding method, was from My Creative Spirit and the video was called “how to bind chipboard pages into a mini album.”  I ran out of time to do the outer part of the binding, so I hope her album stays together, although I did put a lot of tear tape inside to keep the pages in place.
I used some different paper pads Jack Frost paper, Salvage District Paintables from Prima and Recollections Color Splash.  I colored the Paintables and the Prima papers with my watercolors so they matched the colors of her school. .  I used the sentiments from My Creative Times This and That and had some embellishments with words on them that I thought would work already in my stash.
I die cut some random shapes to create pockets from and went online and found all kinds of images with the college’s logo and their mascot and printed them out on Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock on my printer.  I used a lot of tear tape and Martha Stewart Glue, Simply Defined glue and Tombow Mono Adhesive to hold things in place.
I used the circle dies from AliExpress to create a large circle on the front of the album with the colors of her school layered under the logo of it.

To create pockets, I cut my paper to 6″ by 3″ and then score three sides at 1/4″ and then snip the corners that overlap with score marks.  I like to put glue and tear tape on pockets to make sure they stay in place.  I added die cut shapes to the tops of some of my pockets to make sure that the pockets wear better and for decoration.

I made spots for her to tuck memorabilia into that were about 2″ wide and 6″ long scored on the 6″ length at 1/4″.  Add tear tape to the scored areas and place them vertically on the page.  I made some much wide to add large sentiments…those were more like 4″ wide.
The file block I use is a nail file that you can buy in most stores that have nail polishes.
I used an AliExpress die that cut small tags, so I cut papers and corner rounded white cardstock to line the blue and red paper.  I took thin white satin ribbon and doubled it over and pushed it through the center hole of the tag with a sharp object (end of scissors) and then pulled the ends of the ribbon through the loop the was created by pulling the ribbon through the hole to create a knot.  I used a little wet glue on the inside of the loop to hold the ribbon in place.
I used a Martha Stewart paper punch that creates photo corners and punched a ton of them in blue and red so she can put photos in her album using the corners to hold them in place.

I thought I’d take a moment to talk about the giving nature of people.  I was at a garage sale looking at two different camcorders, as I would like to upgrade to one with a better microphone.  I started talking to the man who was having the sale and asked him what he knew about his camcorders.  He said he was selling them for a friend and that he really knew nothing about them.  I explained my channel and why I wanted them.  He said, “Do you know..and then he gave me a man’s name.”  I had met this man on numerous occasions but don’t really know him, but of course, said yes.  This man was a teenager and jumped head first into a river, breaking his neck and was instantly paralyzed from the waist down.  He and his family own a rather large company and he still travels all over the world.  He’s absolutely amazing and has never let his physical limitations slow him down.

The friend who was selling the camcorders started packing them up and said, Mark wanted these to go to a good home, and I know he will be thrilled to know what you’ll be doing with them and gave me both camcorders.  I thanked him very much and said that I would write a note to Mark.  Once I figure out which one works well for me, I’ll find a way to pay it forward with not only the other camcorder, but mine as well.  I am always amazed by the generosity of strangers, and this is just one of many.   Since starting this YouTube channel, I’ve met so many wonderful generous sweet people and hope that I pay it forward, as I’ve been really blessed.

I was thinking about making something crafty today, but then decided I needed to put more of my dies in better storage.  I’d bought some of the heater vent covers that so many people use for dies.  For some reason, I thought that they would be a lot more sturdy than they are.  I couldn’t get my dies to stay on them, as every time I picked them up, the magnetic sheet wobbled enough that they fell off (or partially came off.)  I originally bought this system, but the refills seemed a little bit heavier than I expected, making the box truly unmanageable for me.   You can buy them just about anywhere, but I got this photo from Consumercrafts.com.

Ok, so the photo wants to move every time I type, so I’m just going with it.

I like the sturdiness of the box, but it’s really heavy once you add the sheets and dies.  I thought by adding some of the vent covers, it wouldn’t increase the weight that much, but didn’t take into account the flimsiness.  So I spent my crafty time today, lining all of the vent covers with cardboard..I know chipboard is the chosen word, but I’m an old fashioned girl, with old fashioned words.  That almost rhymed, haha.

So in the long run, maybe the magnetic vent covers aren’t the best alternative.  Hey, I might as well find a picture of those as well, in case you’ve never seen them.  You can buy them at any hardware store that sells supplies for your heating system.  Apparently, these are used to cover the floor grates the send hot and cold air through your house.  I have a really unusual heating system in my house, coils in the ceiling, (weird, huh?) so don’t have any vents.  So much for my day, and frankly, yours, as you’ve had to listen to my long-winded story of how I spend my time.

 

I got serious and made a haul video of AliExpress purchases plus some nice gifts people have sent me.  I really like making haul videos because it forces me to put the things I’ve purchased into the storage I’ve created for them.  It’s sometimes frustrating when I don’t have enough space for things, but I’m focusing on making sure I’m as organized as I can be with the limited space I have.

I think one of my biggest problems is paper storage.  I used to put scraps back into the hanging folder with the color it belongs to.  It never occurred to me that it would increase the width of the folders instead of decreasing it with the cards I make.  Unless I make a few cards out of the same color, my folders never seem to get any thinner.  Of course the fact that I continue to buy cardstock doesn’t help things either.  I’m getting more organized than I’ve been, but every time I organize myself, I lose track of things I use all of the time and that makes me crazy.  I’ll put things in a “safe” place, and the next thing you know, I’m digging through every crack and crevice in the craft room looking for it.

I hope tomorrow I’ll have time to make another video and have Rich upload one as well.  I like to stay at least three or four videos ahead of him so I don’t feel like I need to create something in a hurry.

I didn’t really feel like doing very much today as I had the carpet cleaning people here and had to keep the dogs out of their way and out of the house.  Two of the three dogs were losing their minds over the stranger danger.  I never have anyone in our backyard, so the dogs are safe there, and a ChemLawn man showed up and wanted to talk about changing our lawn service.  Isn’t that the way it goes?  You end up having your neurotic dogs in what they consider a safe place, and it’s no longer safe.  Rich had a doctor’s appointment (regular check up, nothing big), and so we were without the man of the house.  It wouldn’t have been bad if they had a safe place in the house, but didn’t.  Almost three hours later, we were good to go, but most of the carpets were wet, so only had one room they could hang in.

Luckily, it was our bedroom, so the dogs and I decided to take a long nap.  Yes, I know my life is extremely difficult.  Honestly, though, I was completely exhausted from the commotion and dog anxiety and needed a nap.

I did take the time to upload the die video and was glad to make sure I accomplished something.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll accomplish something else.  Maybe not.

I bought this die from AliExpress, thinking it would be fun, but didn’t realize just how many uses there were for it.

Here’s the link to the seller I bought it from, but you could probably find it cheaper if you looked.  $2.98
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Rectangle-Cutting-Dies-Scrapbooking-Metal-Cutting-and-Pressing-Dies-For-DIY-Decorations-Embossing-Art-Cake-Die/32813529559.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.qHzAM1

The first method is using the die with several colors of cardstock that all match.  I put the pieces that came out of the die cut into a pile and chose a base that was 8 1/2″ wide by 5 1/2″ tall.  Score the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″.  The one color you can’t use is the color you chose for the front of your card.  I used wet glue and a jewel picker that I bought from Amazon to inlay my die cuts.  Here’s the link to the jewel picker:
https://www.amazon.com/Uchida-90G-C-Marvy-Jewel-Picker/dp/B0082A2CR4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1502212146&sr=8-3&keywords=jewel+picker

I used a basic wet glue that I put thin rows into the openings of the background after gluing it onto a card base.  You will go through your pile of different colored pieces and find the one that works for the row you are gluing and make sure your colors vary as you go.  You can create a pattern of colors or just use two and vary those.  Make sure you put enough glue on the ends to ensure that the pieces don’t come out.  Once you are finished, you can lay a book over them as long as no glue has seeped out and would stick to the book.  If that happened, you can use a piece of silicone mat under the book to ensure it doesn’t get glued to the book.
I added a die cut sentiment to the card to make a clean and simple card.

The second card, I layered the backgrounds on top of each other.  I chose three different colors of backgrounds and the card base was not the same as the other colors.  I lined the first two up so that I could put tape runner on the left edge of the first background and then laid the second background on it, but offset just enough that you can see that color.  Then using glue stick on the front of the next layer, I laid it under the others and off set it enough so you could see that color, but there was still a small amount of light showing through.  You will have to trim these pieces now so that you only see the top color when you lay it on your card base.  The card base size is the same as the one in the first card.  I die cut a sentiment and put it on this card to finish the second card.
The third card is a little trickier and doesn’t really look like the first two.  I used all of the same color background die cuts and glued them on top of each other with Multi Matte Medium..  I started with four.  I glued a piece of plastic backing you get from stamp sets to the back of the four to create a shaker card.  Then I took another background and stamped it with a rose background stamp using water based markers that I colored the stamp with.  Make sure you don’t use the tip of your marker directly on the stamp, use it more on an angle, so it doesn’t ruin the tip of your marker.  After stamping the design onto the paper, I used the markers to color in the design.  I used pink, lighter pink, green and darker green markers to color in the design.. Then glued a piece of acetate behind that background layer and laid small beads into the four layered pieces and then glued the top layer to it and glued the whole group onto a card base the same size as the other two cards.  I added a banner and used a sentiment from My Creative Times, This and That .  I put pink flowered washi tape on the envelope from A C Moore. .
I really think this die is versatile and could have found more uses for it if I had more time.

I really thought that I would accomplish a lot of clean up in the craft room today.  I’m pretty certain at this point that I am destined to live in squalor there forever.  I will find almost any and every excuse not to clean it.  Today’s excuse was looking for marbles.  I know you think I’m making this up, but I need ten marbles for a crafty project and I have them, just can’t remember where I put them.  So I started searching.  That lead to more disarray.  Then I thought about the new Aliexpress dies I had purchased and wanted to make sure I keep them separate from the other dies I have, so that distracted me.  I never found the marbles and am not sure if I have all of the dies separated, but both of those activities prevented me from getting any kind of organization done.  I know what you are thinking..  “She’ll do anything to avoid cleaning that room..”   Probably so.  On the other hand, I gave Rich at least four videos to upload, so at least I did something worthwhile.

Today we drove almost three hours to meet our niece and kids (not kids, one is eighteen and leaving for college in two weeks, and the other is sixteen.)  They live just outside Washington DC, so it was about halfway for both of us, not a bad drive at all.  We met in Somerset, PA. It’s only claim to fame is that one of the hijacked planes from 9/11 was crashed there by the passengers.  The town has a really nice memorial to the people on board, so we toured it while we were there.

Of course we all remember the story of that plane, but I never realized that there were only thirty-eight people on board, including the pilots.  Five of the thirty eight were terrorists.  I also never knew that the terrorists all flew first class.  I guess it makes sense, as they would be closest to the pilot, and it also explains why the people were able to make telephone calls, since they were on a huge airplane, with very few people on board.   The other passengers were spread out within the rest of the airplane and although it’s been almost sixteen years, you only have to see a photo, and it brings that day back in vivid memory.

We were glad we visited it, but were really ready to leave once the tour was over.  I was able to give our great niece her album and some other things I’d bought for her for college.  She was really impressed with her album, and was completely amazed that I had found hornets for her book.  I had so many hornets, that I gave her a small bag of extras to use however she wanted.  Her mom teaches first grade and she was excited to take the tie dyed tennis shoes that I had made, so it was a great day to rid myself of so much crafty goodness.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that I stayed up until almost 2AM finishing the album, and we left to meet them at 9AM, so I was completely exhausted on our trip home.  I remember Rich saying something to me and the next thing I knew, we’d driven fifty miles.  I am a riveting travel companion.  It’s been a long day and I am ready for bed.  It’s not even 9PM, I must be getting old.

I think you’ll get a small chuckle out of this, but I really had thought I was blogging every day, until I checked the dates, and hadn’t done a blog post in three days.  What was I doing?  I’m not really sure, definitely not blogging though.

Today was the last day to finish the album for our great niece.  I can’t even begin to tell you how badly things went…not so much with the album, but when I was going through my tiny brads and other little embellishments, I dropped the entire divided box…Oh yeah, that was some fun to clean.  I had brads everywhere and kept either stepping on them or rolling my chair over them while trying to get them back in their box.

We all know I’m a crafty hoarder, but this was an exceptional day for it.  I have four divided boxes with different small embellishments.  I was going through them looking for something blue or red to match the book, and you won’t believe what I found.  I had probably ten to fifteen gold colored metal hornets.  I have no idea where I got them, I know I never bought them, because, well why would I?  Our great niece’s college mascot is the hornet.  What are the odds that I would ever find a use for that many hornets?  Was that crazy or what?  It almost made dropping the entire divided box of embellishments worth it…Almost.

Tomorrow, we’re meeting our family and giving her the presents that I’ve made for her…I really hope she likes them.