I wanted to make a card with a lot of masking and embossing, so started with two stamp sets, one from My Favorite Things, All Occasions Sentiments, and from Stampin’ Up, Forever Florals which is retired.  Here’s the listing I found on ebay for a set that’s available.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stampin-Up-FOREVER-FLORALS-Stamp-Set-NEW-Retired-Bonus-/201937002785?hash=item2f04622121:g:BgcAAOSwdzVXsjFb

I stamped the sentiment and used a bunch of small flowers from the Forever Florals set from Stampin’ Up.  All of the flowers came from them except a flower I used from Rubber Stamp Tapestry  (Pegstamps.com) to fill in where I couldn’t use the three small flowers from the Stampin’ Up set.  Here’s a link to the peg stamp I used.
https://pegstamps.com/individual-peg-stamps/flowers/peruvian-lily-open-small-tiny-peg-stamp.html

I used a gold embossing powder from Ranger with Versamark ink on all of my images and heat set them as I went because otherwise the ink or powder will smear..  I made masks for all of my flowers and started by stamping the center image, adding embossing powder, then heat setting it, then laid the mask on it (once it is cool) and stamped the daisy type flowers on either side of it.  I repeated the embossing powder and heat setting and then laid the mask on the daisy flower and stamped the next smaller stamp next to it (on both ends).  Lastly, I stamped the tall flower behind the end two flowers by putting masks over both of those flowers and stamping the tall flower with Versamark and gold embossing powder, then heat setting it.
I used Touch 5 Markers to color all of my images.  I mentioned the colors I used and Rich wrote the colors on the screen before I started coloring.  I used a lighter purple then a darker purple to color the small flowers on the bottom of the images.   Then I colored the tall flowers with the same light and dark purples.  Then I went to the end flower and colored them in shades of orange.  The daisies I used pinks and darkers pinks and used pinks and purples for the center flower and then colored the background in light blue colors.  I used a little darker blue color to outline all of my flowers and words.  For a single layer card, I think it came out ok.
Used a 110 lb Recollections cream colored card stock for my  5 x 7″ card and then added three pink brads to the front to offset all of the blue. I added a blue piece of card stock to the back of my colored image that was 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ so you don’t see the alcohol ink that bled through or the backs of the brads.
I stamped the peg stamp on the back of the envelope with Versamark and gold embossing powder and heat set them.  I didn’t color them as I didn’t want it to bleed through the envelope.

I had a doctor’s appointment in Pittsburgh today, so didn’t get much done.  Ok, nothing.  That’s not totally true, I’ve continued working on getting my craft room from hoarder, barely can walk to the desk, to normal, walking is a breeze, status.

I like to make sure I tell you these things because anyone who crafts and doesn’t make a mess is an anomaly.  Most of us make crazy messes and then we find bargains and continue to add to the mess with new products.  It’s a vicious cycle, but we all seem to do it.

One of my friends just got her own craft room and I warned her about what she can expect.  She said not to worry, because she was already there.  I love that about people who make crafty things.

I have a plan for the next few weeks.  I’m going to take a small portion of each day to first go through my clothes and find ones that still fit me and get rid of the rest.  If I didn’t tell you, I was on a medicine last year that made me gain 30+ pounds.  Since I’ve basically always been the same weight (not skinny by any means, but usually a size 12-14), now I’m pretty bummed with the weight gain, because I have almost no way to exercise and don’t eat very much.  I read (after being on the med) that you gain the weight, but very few people lose it.  I have to say, if my doctor had warned me of this side effect, I would never have considered the drug.  That’s probably why she didn’t tell me.  I already tell her no to just about everything she comes up with because of risk for infection and the increased risk for lymphoma.  You’re probably wondering why I’m so paranoid but both of my parents died of b-cell lymphoma and I have already had one artificial joint get infected.  Apparently if that happens, you are at a much higher risk for another joint to go that way.  Since I have four artificial joints, I’m not thrilled about the risk for another infection.

I know I don’t usually talk about my health, and it’s not that I won’t, it’s just that I don’t really think people want this much information about me.  But back to the story.

So my plan is to first get rid of all of the clothes I can’t wear, they make me mad and sad, and then after that, I’m going to get rid of all of the crafty things I can’t or don’t use.  That one is tricky, but it’s a necessity as my basement is overrun with crazy crafty things.

Maybe these are pipe dreams, but I really need to get control of my clothes and my crafty things.  Once I do both, I’m going to be so much happier.

I watched Lindsay do the de-cluttering video, and it made me think of all of the things I really need to get rid of, and now is the time.  I’m seizing the day, or several days, or maybe a year.

I made a twist and pop card today after a subscriber had asked me to make one on video as she really struggled making one.  I followed MayMay’s instructions to the letter and somehow, one half of my card was 1/4″ longer than the other half.  The weird part about it is that MayMay has you trim 1/4″ off the length of the card when you begin.  If that somehow was the cause of my error, I’m not sure, but it was quite the coincidence if it wasn’t.  There’s only one part in the card that is physically taxing and I’m not sure if people with hand/wrist issues will be able to make this fold.  It’s not easy and I really struggled and made a big mistake and had to fix it while folding the paper.  It’s a crazy diagonal fold on paper that has no scores or folds to help you make a clean fold.

It was a really fun card to make (other than my boo boo) and if others have the same issue, I don’t really think they will mind, because it still works perfectly and fits into the envelope.

I got a really nice package today from a viewer named Kay.  She sent all kinds of Distress Oxide tips as well as ribbons, laces, and Graphic 45 papers as well as a really nice card.  I was so impressed with her card and she said she really didn’t want to part with it and I can see why.

I also did a haul video with a bunch of AliExpress dies.  This haul was full of dies that I didn’t really check the sizes properly, so got a few very small dies…at least I expected them to be larger than they were.  I got a set that were birthday oriented and the largest die was maybe 2″ and the rest were under 3/4″ so they were pretty disappointing.

I have a lot of videos in the hopper waiting for Rich to put them online.  I’m amazed at how quickly I can get really far ahead of poor Rich.  He must want to cry when he sees me in the craft room…Let’s face it, he knows I’m not cleaning in there.

I bought a small die with birds on a wire from AliExpress and really wanted to see what I could do with them. Here is the link to the bird dies that I paid 93 cents for.  Please remember that their prices can change.  https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170526062217&SearchText=bird+party+die+metal&blanktest=0&tc=af

I started by using the dies with several different colors of cardstock.  I used an 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ Recollections white 110 pound cardstock and scored it on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″ to make the card a 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ card (an A2 size card.)
I used two other rectangle dies I bought from AliExpress that were the two largest in the set.  Here’s the link and I paid $2.39 for the set.
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170526062020&SearchText=rectangle+wave++die+metal&blanktest=0&tc=af
I centered them on each other and washi taped them together and put them in the middle of the front of the card and ran it through my die cutter making sure that the card is open so I’m only cutting through the front of the card .  I used My Creative Times This and That stamp set for my sentiments and stamped it on a scrap piece of white cardstock.  I used another rectangle set to cut the sentiment and edged it with the same ink I’ve been using.
I took the center out of the two rectangle shaped die cuts and put some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on a piece of plastic and added water to it and painted it on the rectangle so it looked like sky blue, then let it dry.  I did the same thing with the inside of my card to make it look like sky as well.  I decided to smoosh ink inside the card and then pressed the plastic into the ink pad then pressed the plastic onto the inside of the card to make it look like clouds, then dried the card.
I used three brown die cuts of the birds and cut out the individual birds in different colors and glued them to my brown die cut.  I alternated the placement of the birds on all three wires so that the bird colors were varied on the card.  It would be a lot easier if you die cut three  birds on a wire in white and then colored them.  I never thought of that, Rich asked why didn’t I just color them.  Geez.
I had some plastic from a stamp set and laid it behind my front of the card and used a lot of tape runner to adhere it.  Then I used a Zig Glue Pen and put some on the back of each bird and their wire and then laid them on the acetate/plastic.  After making sure they were glued down, I added the inside rectangle die cut that I had colored blue.   The back of my card did get blue spots of ink (even though I cleaned my area thoroughly.)  So I cut a piece of white cardstock that is 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ and put glue on it and applied it to the back of my card.  I realized after stamping my “Made by Sandy Parker” stamp on it, that there was no good place to write in the card, so tore that piece of paper back off.   In the end, I glued the card shut so the clouds were really visible and no writing would show.   I decided that I should add another card base to it.  I added an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2″ piece of white cardstock to the back scored on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″ .  I’m sorry I forgot to mention that in the video.
I had an extra line of birds, so glued them to the back flap of the envelope.
I used three peg stamps and Versamark ink with chalk colors that matched my birds.  The peg stamps are soponaria solid, dainty floral and another tiny flower.  The chalks I used were from Inkadinkado and the applicators are from Sofft sponge applicators.

 

 

It was late the night before my niece’s baby shower and I had forgot to make the card to go with her gift. So started with white 110 lb. white cardstock and cut it to 6″ long x 3″ wide and scored the 6″ length at 3″ to create a 3 x 3″ card. I used a 1″ chip brush that I cut about 1/2″ off the top of the brush and used Twisted Citron Distress ink over the front of the card. I had an old Stampin’ Up giraffe stamp that said “for baby” on it. I’m not sure why I keep saying “Copics” when I use alcohol markers, but I apologize, as I really mean Spectrum Noir markers.

I used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on the giraffe and put a piece of post-it-note paper on “for baby” on two of the three images of the giraffe. I used the Stamp Perfect to make sure my giraffes were all in a row and colored them with alcohol markers. I used a piece of paper to act as a guide and used Frayed Burlap Distress ink and used the chip brush to apply the ink. I liked the idea of adding some washi tape that looked like grass below the “road” I just created. I ran another piece of washi tape inside the card and felt the need to cover the alcohol ink that bled through the front of the card, so cut a piece of the paper I used on the envelope and cut it to 2 3/4″ x 2 3/4″ and attached it to the inside of the card behind the giraffes.

To make an envelope, measure your card from edge to edge on a diagonal. This card measures 4 1/4″ on the diagonal, then add 1″ to it, to end up with 5 1/4″. You’ll want your envelope paper to be square at 5 1/4″ Put your card in the very center of your envelope so the flaps are on the top and bottom and left and right side of your card. (I rounded my corners with a Creative Memory corner rounder, but that is optional). Fold in the sides to the edge of the card, and crease them and then fold up the bottom to the bottom edge of the card and crease it. Open the envelope back up, take out the card, and cut out the spare paper on the corners where your side flaps and your bottom and top flaps meet each other. Then fold the top down to the top of the card and trim out the corners again. I use tear tape on the inside paper that would be under the flaps you’ll be folding and close to the edge, making sure the tape doesn’t end up touching your card or you will have glued your card to your envelope. Put tear tape on the top inside flap to close it as well, again making sure the tear tape doesn’t adhere to the card.

It’s a fast and easy way to make a card to go with a gift at the last minute using minimal tools.

I worked on cards for hours today and only ended up with one that I really liked.  I thought I could use one of the dies I bought from AliExpress to make a pretty card, but honestly, nothing went well.  I decided at one point to add glitter into the die cut, which was really not a terrific idea, because I really am not fond of glitter and don’t have the best of luck with it either.  I wanted to see if I could fix it somehow and of course, I couldn’t.  I really hate spending a lot of time trying to make something usable when I knew all along that glitter was not a good plan.  Sometimes I think I’m a wishful thinker.  I make something I really don’t like and then in the future, try the exact same technique and think it will turn out differently.  I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of insanity.  Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

So on to card number two.  This card has been in my head for a long time and I don’t know why I didn’t just go with it instead of wasting time on card number one.  I wanted to make a circle with different colors in the pie shapes within the circle. Then after I colored it, I wanted to lay all of my circle stitch dies on top and cut it out, then put foam tape behind it and put it on a 5 1/2″ square card.  Honestly, it came out much better than I hoped and I’m happy I finally made it.  Today I’m going to make my baby Groot card and clean my craft room.  I absolutely am committed to getting the floor space clean and putting the things I want to get rid of in boxes and put them in my basement.  Phase two of the plan is to organize the basement mess into some kind of order and start selling the things I don’t need or want and organize the rest.  I have so many things that I need to get rid of, it’s just not even funny.  Friends have said I should sell things from my stash on my YouTube channel but I am really uncomfortable with that plan.  I don’t want people to think I’m on a quest to sell off a bunch of things and that every video is one where I’m selling things.  I just don’t know how to sell these things.  Probably ebay.  I’m so strung out with anxiety thinking about the amount of work involved in doing that, I’m not really excited about it either.  I just need to get organized.  I’d feel so much better if I did.  Maybe cleaning my floor of my craft room will be the first much needed step toward feeling better about the mess I have here.  These are the times when I wish I had a neighborhood kid that loved to organize and then I could pay them to do the physical things that I’m incapable of doing.  Darn it, my neighbors are all our age or older.  (I’m not saying it’s a retirement community, but there are very few spring chickens here.)

Maybe I’ll get serious about cleaning tomorrow.

I wanted to share another AliExpress haul with you as well a card I’ve gotten from a friend.  I bought some cat stamps that were maybe $2.51 (at least that is what they sell for now.)  Check the listing toward the bottom of the page and you’ll find the cat and five choices of stamp sets.
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170531055607&SearchText=cartoon+cat+stamp+scrapbook&blanktest=0&tc=af
I couldn’t find the floral stamp with the birds again, but did find the rose set   The link to the rose set is:  https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170531055912&SearchText=roses+stamp+scrapbook&blanktest=0&tc=af
I wanted to use one of the AliExpress stamps so you can see how well they stamp.  The house stamp was $2.33 and here’s the link to it.
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170531060132&SearchText=houses+stamp+scrapbook&blanktest=0&tc=af
The houses stamp did stamp really well and I was happy with it.
I also used a set of paper by Prima called Paintables and the pad I used was Salvage District and I think I bought it at Michaels (but I’ve had it for a while so I might be making that up, sorry.)  I’d check online and see if you can find it there if you can’t find it at Michaels.

I started with two pieces of paper, one green 4 x 6″ and score on the 6″ side at 1/2″ and 1″ and 5″ and 5 1/2″.  You’ll score the printable paper 4 x 6″ at 1/2″ and 1″ and 5″ and 5 1/2″.    I used the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and used green #54.  I’m sorry if I mispronounced this again.    I colored the printable paper from Prima and made sure the colors weren’t really bold by adding a lot of water to them.   I made clouds with a white colored Prismacolor pencil and white gel pen and used the gel pen to make the windows of the houses look like windows.
I colored the houses with Touch 5 markers and the numbers are listed on the screen.  I had a set of stamps from Paper Smooches called Promenade that had a bunch of accessories for in front of the houses.  I also put some of the accessories on a scrap of the printable cardstock, colored them with Stampin’ Up water based markers, then cut them out.  I also used Wink of Stella where I wanted the bike to be glittery.
I used Stampin’ Up square dies and used the #6 die to cut the center out of the printable paper.  The center is the scrap I used for all of the accessories I cut out and added to my card front.
Take the back green paper and fold the scores closest to the center of the paper up, then the scores closest to the outside of the paper, fold down.  On the front paper which is the printable, you’ll take the inside score and fold it down and the further scores from the center, fold up.  Put tear tape only on the outside 1/2″ scores to the edges.  Don’t put any tape past the first 1/2″ score on either side.
I had to cut the background piece down to fit inside my box,  The height is 3 3/4″ high and the width is around the same width.  I put tear tape on the back of it to attach it to the card.
I used sentiments from High Five and Tag Talk from Stampin’ Up.  (both retired but available on ebay)..
I show you how to make an envelope.  Take a ruler and measure your card from corner to corner on a diagonal and add one inch to your measurement.  My card was 7″ on the diagonal and I added one inch and then cut paper at 8″ square to make the envelope.  Then you will center your card on the paper and fold the sides of the envelope over the card and I round the corners on the top and bottom of my card.   Once you’ve folded in your sides, you’ll have a small notch on the sides you’ll want to cut out.  Use tear tape or a good tape adhesive to glue in your sides making sure you don’t get any tape inside where your card would stick to it.
I really hope you like this card and I apologize for the length of the video.

I’m exhausted.  Normally on a three day holiday weekend, if Rich and I have one activity, that’s normal.  This weekend I spent Saturday going to garage sales with a college friend and then to a late lunch with our husbands.  Yesterday, we saw them again with a bigger group of our college friends at a picnic, and then today we spent the day with our best couple’s friends.  The husband was a good friend of Rich’s since childhood, and I bonded with his wife, so we do a lot of things together.  We had a nice day and ended it by walking around a small town that’s almost like a small amusement park.  It had all kinds of vintage games and arcades, so of course I had to check out this weird game where you throw balls and have them land in holes to create a bingo type win.  The balls had to drop into holes in a straight line or diagonal line with four or five holes to win.  I’d never played it before, and you had to throw the balls under a piece of glass.  About the third or fourth throw, I hit my finger on the glass really hard and decided the game was set up all wrong.  I just started throwing my balls over the glass, completely cheating.  I didn’t care if I won, I just wasn’t going to get hurt playing the stupid game.  So one of the kids that was running the game came over to “talk” to me.  I think he thought he could talk some sense into me, but I just told him I intended to cheat until we were done playing and I hoped it was ok with him.  By then, my tossing skills were so spectacular, that I actually tossed one of my balls into the next person’s game.  Luckily no one was playing there, or they might have been a little freaked out that I was helping them win.  Since it was only our friends and Rich and I playing their game, I don’t think anyone cared what I did.  Besides, he could see that I was bad no matter what I did.  In the end, we put all of our winnings together and I ended up getting seven glow sticks.  Sadly enough, only two of them had the things that turn them into bracelets.  I don’t know what we were supposed to do with them, they were so pathetic…My girlfriend ended up with both bracelets and was really happy with them and I was glad she liked them.  Personally, I wanted candy or gum, but the guy that worked there steered me away from the gum saying it wasn’t very good.  Geez, how bad can gum be?  It must have been seriously awful for him to talk me into seven useless glow sticks.

Today we are celebrating Memorial Day with college friends.  It’s amazing that after almost forty years has passed and we keep in touch with so many of our friends.  I have several of my girl friends that we try to do trips together every couple of years and a few of my friends that are more local, see several times a year.

The friends we are picnicking with today were a group of men that all played football with Rich, but some of them were my friends as well.  It’s been an adjustment for me, because the wives hang together as do the men at these events, and I don’t really know many of the wives so have just recently started to feel comfortable around them.  When I hear the men telling old college stories, I remember those stories well, and was sometimes part of the story, so I miss the inclusion that came with all of us being young and friends.  I’m so glad that one of the men in the group and his wife have decided to move back to our area from Maryland.  I was good friends with him and he and Rich have played three on three basketball together for many years.  He seems to be the social organizer of their group and now that he and his wife (who thankfully I did know) have moved back, we are seeing the whole group a lot more often.  It’s amazing how similar he and Rich are in personality and they really click when they are together.

Back in my college days when I was healthy, I was almost always with my camera.  So today before the picnic, I’m going to go through my college albums and find all of the photos of our friends, and take them to the picnic to give to them.  I think they might like having old pictures to remind them of being young and a little bit wild.

Let’s just say I didn’t just study in college, but made those four years the best years of my life.  We went to a small college, but had the best time and a few years ago, Rich and I bought a marble bench for the college, to thank them.  It says “For Thiel College, because we found ourselves and each other here.”  That’s the truth.

I’m wishing everyone a Happy Memorial Day weekend.   We’re not putting up any videos until possibly tomorrow, as I’m giving Rich a couple days off for good behavior.

One of my friends (who refurbishes old furniture then chalk paints it), wanted to go to garage sales with me today.  I was really kind of worried that she wouldn’t find the things she was looking for, because unless I find an estate auction, I rarely find much good older furniture that isn’t completely beaten by time.  She lives about 40 minutes from us and doesn’t think her town has very good garage sales, but I normally think the same about a lot of our sales.

The first garage sale we found was one where they had a cute shelving unit that she got for $10.  I had to laugh because she said she wasn’t very good at bartering and neither am I, but she’s a lot worse than me, because the man said I’ll take $5 or $10 for it, and she paid him $10.  When we got in the car, she told me the story and I laughed so hard and said, “you definitely aren’t very good at bartering.”  I offered to barter for her if she would barter for me, but in the end, we didn’t do any more bartering the rest of the day because we found really great prices on the things we did buy..

I was having her drive to a little store in town that sells customized unique furniture.  I think her pieces would fit really well there, but don’t know if they take consignments or not.  On the way there, we passed a huge home that is one that’s normally featured in the city’s tour of homes.  They were having a garage sale and they had so much old furniture, it was unbelievable.  She bought big drop leaf tables for $25 and an old enamel kitchen table for $25 as well as a set of Thomasville end tables for the same price.  She bought some other pieces, but I’m not really sure what they were because there were so many really great things there.  I’ll be honest.  I couldn’t believe we found that sale. It wasn’t advertised, and if we hadn’t driven past, would never have found it.  So it was a great day and really, we only went to four or five sales.  We had a terrific time and her husband had to bring his truck (a 40 minute drive) and so we ended up having lunch with our husbands.  Lunch was great because we went to college with her husband, and I haven’t seen him in a while and really enjoyed our time together.  We’re all invited to another college friend’s house tomorrow for a picnic so I’m looking forward to what she’s thinking about her purchases after getting them home and really looking them over.

I found a really neat vintage jar that barbers used to put their combs inside to sanitize.  I thought I might use it to store paint brushes or markers.  It’s really fun because it has a metal piece inside that has a handle that pulls everything inside up to the top of the jar.  $2, a great bargain!