I can’t believe one month of summer is already gone.  It’s never like this in the winter, as a month of winter lasts about five summer months.

My girlfriend and I went to some garage sales and then to Home Depot so I could buy some magnetic register covers for extra die storage.  They were less than $5, but have three sheets that are pretty long compared to the ones that come in the magnetic die storage system that they sell to crafters.  I’d just like to make sure that my dies are easily accessible and don’t fly everywhere when I open whatever system I’m using.  I’ll be honest, I don’t really like the box system that crafters came up with, as the box is heavy and the magnetic sheets are weird shapes and hard to get out of the box.

I have a bunch of videos I’m going to start making.  I’m going to do one on the essential tools for every card maker.  One on my storage system for dies, another on storage systems for inks, etc.  I could do one tour of my craft room again, but to show every component of it at once, just takes too much time.  I think it would be smarter to focus on each individual component so I can take as much time as I need with each item.  First will be the tape runner video, then the embossing powder video, then one on embossing powder techniques and then all the ones I mentioned above.  I might lose the interest of some of my watchers because I won’t be doing much in the way of creativity, but these videos are all really important to me.

 

I spent the afternoon researching my tape runners, lowest costs, etc.  I know it sounds like I spent an unusually long time doing something so simple, but finding the lowest price for several tape runners does take some time.

We also had to take Bella to the vet because Honey doesn’t know how to play like a young lady…she is more like a ninja, sneaking up on poor Bella and biting her on her neck.   It happened a day or so ago, but it must have bothered Bella, because she used her back foot to scratch it until she had big open sore on her neck.  Because this is a holiday weekend, we normally have big dog issues on weekends, so we decided to do a preemptive strike and take her to the vet before she could do any more damage than she already has.  The vet shaved the area, gave her a shot, an antibiotic, and some steroids, and sent us on our way.  Since Bella’s afraid to ride in the car, Rich rides in the backseat with her so she can tuck her head under his arm and shake like a leaf.  It breaks our hearts when we have to take her in the car, but she’s always comforted knowing Rich is there to hold her, while I drive with one eye on the road, and one on my poor shaking dog.

We’ve always dreamed of spending our winters in the south somewhere, maybe the Myrtle Beach area, but getting our dogs there is a mystery.  I told Rich we should find someone with a Winnebago type vehicle, who would be willing to just drive us there (with our dogs) and pulling our car behind them, and then come back and pick us up once the winter is over.  Of course we’d pay them, but it still seems like kind of a stretch…Seriously, who would want to drive people with their two big neurotic dogs (we won’t do this until after Aggie’s no longer with us), and pull our car behind their Winnebago type vehicle… I did say it was a dream, didn’t I?

I needed to make another graduation card, but wanted to make a card that you could use for almost any occasion, so am making a shaker card.  I started with 110 lb. Recollections white card stock that is 8 1/2″ long and 5 1/2″ wide.  I scored it at 4 1/4″ and 4 3/8″ (sorry, I gave the wrong measurement in the video), so I would have extra room for my shaker pieces.  You’ll need to cut a little piece off of the bottom to make sure the back and front are the same length once you fold on both score lines.
I used a star die set by Nellie’s Multi Frames and used the largest three dies so that I have an extra piece to insert into my frame.  I stamped inside the star with one of the sentiments from the stamp set with Color Box black Archival ink.    I wanted to put gold stars all over the front of the card and used Versamark ink with a star stamp from the same stamp set, and stamped them all over the front of the card.  I used some older gold embossing powder that didn’t work well, and ended up using some gold embossing powder that I had in my stash (with no name) and covered the old powder to even it out.  I used a heat tool to melt the powder.   I took the star that I cut out with the dies and pressed it into the Versamark pad.  Make sure you use a thick card stock to do this or you could rip the paper.  After making sure the entire surface was covered, I used a no name gold embossing powder all over it and then heat set it.
I used Koi watercolors number 15, which was as close to navy blue as possible.  I added a little water to it and colored the front of my wet card, using a thicker brush.  In the end, I didn’t love the look of this blue as it wasn’t dark enough, and once it was dry, went over it with one of my Touch 5 markers to make it navy blue (with marker #69.)  I also colored in the word “grad” on the inside of the card with this marker.
I put tear tape over the back four sides of the card to glue the plastic to it.  I then put tear tape 1/8″ on the back of the gold star and put it on the acetate.  Then I added foam squares all around the star making sure there aren’t any gaps for my shaker elements to fall out.
I put some shaker elements, sequins, table confetti, etc. into the star and went around the edges of my foam tape with the anti-static powder I used for embossing, so the shaker elements won’t stick to the foam tape inner edges.  You’ll also want to put foam tape around the edges of the card so it holds its shape.
I closed the card so it’s sealed closed and then took another piece of card stock (doesn’t have to be 110 lb.), that was white 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ scored at 4 1/4″ and put tear tape on the front of it to adhere it to the back of the card I just made.  Then I stamped a sentiment inside from the same stamp set in Night of Navy Ink from Stampin’ Up.  I trimmed both cards once I adhered them to each other with tear tape so you can’t see the other card.
I stamped some stars and a diploma on the flap of the envelope with Versamark and used the same gold embossing powder and heat set it.  I colored the diploma with my #69 blue Touch 5 marker.
I thought the card was a lot of fun to make and hope you’ll give it a try as well.

I have to get serious about graduation cards as I need two more, and both need to be extra special because they are  both for relatives. Our great niece just graduated from high school and is going to college to become a nurse.  I found a really cute house mouse stamp of one mouse checking the heart beat of another mouse, and thought it would be perfect for on her card.  The other card is for our cousins’ son (Hi, Shelli!), and I didn’t know the colors of his high school, but know where he’s going to college, so built his card around his college colors.  I don’t think boys are overwhelmed with a card, but his mother will get a kick out of it, because I thought it would be fun to make him a shaker card.  I wonder if he’s ever had a shaker card before?  Anyway, so that was my plan for today.

Originally, I was going to finish the research for the tape runner video, but I spent part of last night finding prices and writing the information on each tape runner, and it got really boring really fast.  So today I decided to take the day off from research.  Tomorrow’s another day.

I have one more card that I need to make by the weekend, a wedding card for a close friend.  I think I’ll use the heart dies I just got from AliExpress as they might really be fun.  Other than the heart die, I have no idea where to go from there.  I seriously need to get started on a plan, because this is my oldest friend and next door neighbor as a kid, so it’s important that I do something special for him.  He and I were so close, he was sad that Rich didn’t ask him to be in our wedding.  Of course Rich didn’t know him well and I didn’t know until after the wedding that he wanted to be part of it, so always felt bad about it.  Fast forward fourteen years later.  He and his then wife, met Rich and me in Las Vegas for a long weekend.  It was over our anniversary and we saw that one of the wedding chapels had a drive thru ceremony and thought it was hysterical, so we decided $25 was definitely worth it to get re-married there.  My neighbor acted as the best man for Rich and man of honor for me.  He was thrilled.  We had so much fun watching people taking photos of us “getting married,” as they thought we were seriously getting married.  I’m sure people do it every day, but we did it for fun and it definitely was.  The minister said “Love is like a rose that blooms” and then he stopped and said, “Oh, you already know that.”  We could have paid for a “borrowed” bouquet or bride and groom t-shirts, but the experience alone was priceless.  Oh, they also offered to have us pay to have our photo taken in a limousine, but not go anywhere in it.  We declined.  That’s Vegas for you.

I started to work on my tape runner video and I’m starting to worry that it’s going to be horribly long.  I have a box that’s two feet long, full of tape runners.  Granted, some of them came in sets of three, so they all won’t be on the video, but regardless, I still have a lot of tape runners to share.  I wanted to cover the widest number of brands that I could, and I think I’ve accomplished that.

I did finish the rose card today and I think it came out pretty well.  I had a small mishap when I used my diecutter to cut Happy Birthday out of the card.  The little pieces of paper in the loops of letters just seems to disappear, so I had to rig a few more.  They aren’t a perfect match, but what can you expect?  I did use a lot of the dreaded foam tape and I’m really getting close to the end of the roll.  This could be a great time for me when I finish that roll.  I could be jumping for joy, or at least thinking about jumping for joy when it’s gone.

I have all of the things I need to make my embossing powder video as well, so this should be a busy week.  Rich has finally caught up with me on videos, so I’m a little bit nervous that I’m going to have to get really serious about making videos so I can have a few in the bag.  It’s kind of crazy that I’m so obsessed with making sure I stay ahead of him, I think if I let him catch up, it means I’m lazy, so that’s why I push myself to stay ahead.  I know, it makes no sense, but whoever said I made sense?

I wanted to try something fun with watercoloring and making note cards and thought I’d like to try decorating my envelope with peg stamps.  I chose to make it as easy as possible, so used pre-made note cards from Michaels.  I used a stamp set from W Plus 9 called Kind Soul for the sentiment “hello” and the large floral stamp.
I used a couple pieces of clear plastic and used Distress Inks Carved Pumpkin for my orange card and a mixture of two green Distress inks, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss, and smeared each on their own plastic piece.  I added some water to make the Distress inks more watery then used a waterbrush and colored my stamped image.  I stamped the patterns with an Archival black ink from Color Box before coloring them.   The note cards are 5 1/2 x 4 1/4″ so I cut my white layers 5 1/2″ by 3″.  I stamped the inside with the same archival black ink.  I adhered the layer with tape runner to the note cards.
To stamp the envelopes, I used peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  I used  Bitty Peony, Chinese Privet, 3 Ripply Flowers,  Foliage Leaf, Sopanaria Solid, Bunch of Daisies, single daisy, dainty floral, 7 petal group solids, tiny apple open and two ferns.
I used Stampin’ Up inks to stamp on my envelopes.  You need to determine where you want to write your name and address and outline the area with stamps, then try not to stamp inside that area.  I tried to stamp enough that the stamped area looks almost like a wreath.

The weather was really nasty today.  Rain, sunshine, rain, thunderstorm, rain, sunshine.  We had just enough sunshine for Rich to take each dog for a walk and they were thrilled.  I was not feeling like doing much because of all of the weather fronts moving into our area, so I didn’t do much of anything.  Ok, I read and watched a few videos.  That’s basically all I did.  Wait, no, I also took a nap.  I know, my life is full of excitement and glamour.  More excitement than glamour.  Ok, not much of either.  With that being said, I didn’t really do much today, and I definitely think I might go to bed early as well.  Some days just go like this.

I really got serious about making a card with triple layer stamps in rose patterns that I bought from AliExpress.  I found just the right color combination, (after a lot of experimentation), and went nuts stamping all over a card.  It was so hideous that I had to start over.  That happens sometimes, and sometimes it happens more often than not.  I really needed to cut back the number of roses, so settled on three.  It seemed like a good number and really started looking good.  Then the phone rang.  It was our nephew’s wife in Virginia, and I always look forward to talking to her.  She put me on speakerphone and I got to speak with our great niece as well.  She’s a hoot.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think she is related to me and not Rich, because her personality is very similar to mine.

They made plans to spend a long weekend with us this summer.  We had talked about having them visit when we went to Virginia last year to see both of our nephews, but didn’t think they would be able to fit us into their very busy schedule.  I don’t know how people handle the schedules that kids have now.  They have every week planned for the summer except the time they are visiting us.  That’s amazing.  We are just so excited that they will be spending time with us, as they’ve never been to our house before and we just want to relax and hang out with them.

So two hours later, I was off the phone and done with the idea of finishing the card.  That’s the way things go sometimes.  I’m thrilled for the interruption and even more excited about their visit.  That also means more videos featuring Erika.  YAY!

I saw this single layer dutch fold card idea from FaithfuleCreations who got the idea from Splitcoast Stampers and I thought it would be fun to reproduce it in my fun fold card series.
You will start with a piece of cardstock that is 8″ wide and 7 1/8″ tall and score on the 8″ length at 2″ and 6″ and then on the 7 1/8″ length, score at 2 3/8″.  You will find that you will have two longer rectangles that are scored on the 8″ length so you will want to cut those rectangles out.  Make sure you cut the rectangles so that you can’t see any score marks left behind.  Once you’ve cut out the rectangles, you have what looks like a “T” left.  You will fold the bottom section of the T in half so the length of the long paper is half of what it was when you began.    The top pieces will fold toward the center and the bottom piece will fold up toward the two pieces that are folded inward.
I used sentiments from My Creative Times This and That and used Onyx Black ink from Verafine then used clear Ranger embossing powder and then heat set the sentiments.  One of them is on a piece of the paper that my friend Kay had given me with Distress Oxide inks layered on it.  I used a die from AliExpress to cut it out and layered it on a pink layer of card stock that I used the next size die to cut it out.
I used green cardstock to back my pieces for on my card and
the smaller pieces in green are 2″ tall x 1 11/16″ wide, and the pink colored  layer is 1 3/4″ x 1 7/16″..  The bottom larger layer is 3 3/4 x 2 1/8″ green layer and the pink decorated layer is 3 1/2 x 1 7/8″.

After laying the bottom piece down with tear tape,  I decided to put brads in the smaller pieces at the top, so put one larger pink brad on the left side and two smaller brads on the right side.
I layered my sentiment on the outside on a ribbon that I wrapped around the layers that I had already adhered to the card and just lifted them up and shoved the ribbon under with a little wet glue on the ends of the ribbon to hold it in place.  I should have done this step before gluing the layers to the bottom section, but didn’t think about how I wanted to layer my ribbon until it was too late.  I took another length of ribbon and wrapped it around my brads at the top to hold the flaps closed.

Today, we’re spending the day with friends and going to a sea glass festival near Lake Erie.  I’ve never been to one, so I’m hoping it involves fun things to buy and lots of carnival type foods.  I love the smell of a carnival, and hope that we find this event similar to one.

I got up early and went online and bought the rest of the things I need for my tape runner comparison video, as well as for a video on embossing techniques.  I’ve been collecting tape runners for a few months now, and got input from several crafters and now I have a bunch.  It’s not over-the-top-crazy like my wet glue video, but I think I should have enough comparisons to  encompass just about every need.  I’m so glad that the video will finally be done, as I made a promise to a viewer many months ago, to help her find the perfect small tape runner, and I hate to break a promise.  I think the research took the longest, as I put a message out on Splitcoast Stampers asking for input as to the best tape runners, and it took a few weeks to really get the amount of responses I was looking for.  Then tracking down some of the tape runners took some time, as they weren’t particularly accessible within the US.

With promises in mind, tomorrow I’ll be making a video using the layered rose stamp set from AliExpress, as a viewer asked to see the stamps in action.  I love it when people request videos, as it helps me with ideas and gives me something to focus on before making the video.  Rich is behind in uploading videos, so this will really add to his pile.  All in all, it’s going to be a great week for video making, as the ideas are already in the bag.