I’ve been wanting to do a video for a long time and today I finally made it.  I wanted to go through all of the different kinds of inks that are out there and talk about them and why you use them, when you use them, and why you need them.  I think (as usual) that it was too long, but that’s what happens when I start talking about things.  Plus I found ten different types of inks to discuss, so it takes a few minutes with each one.

I also finally got my collaboration video up with Gracie Harrold.  I made a 3-d baby Groot card and it looks pretty good.  The card itself was really easy and yet it took me hours to cut and color five small flowers.  I almost gave up at one point because I just couldn’t make a flower that looked decent.  They all looked like I hacked them out with garden sheers and colored them with a three year old.  I hated the first five, so I made another set, different but still horrible, and finally, set three were the winners.  By that point I’d given up on hand cutting them and just die cut them.  Beaten by five small flowers.  That tells you where my head was at when I tackled them.

Oh, and lastly, Honey decided she needed to taunt the neighbor’s dog.  They were outside minding their own business, and Honey ran at their small dog like she was going to maul it, only to run away at the last minute, and repeat.  It took me forever to get her back in her own yard and into the house and by then she’d done her scare tactics at least ten times on the poor dog.  I do believe she might be insane.  I doubt they’ll ever let their dog go outside again without serious adult supervision.  I feel so stupid that I can’t keep my lunatic puppy where she needs to be.  People keep telling me I need to get her a shock collar, but I just can’t stand the idea of shocking an animal, even if it might fix her crazy side.

Brother, it’s always something.

I saw the idea of this card in a photo somewhere and wish I could find it again. I think it was in an old card magazine and feel bad I don’t remember which one.
I started with a piece of 110 lb white cardstock that was square 5 1/4″ and traced my largest circle stitched die from AliExpress and here’s a link to them.  I think I paid $2.43 for the set.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170604121610&SearchText=8+circle+dies+metal&blanktest=0&tc=af

After putting the largest circle in the center of my paper, I traced the outside with a pencil, then used a ruler (it would have been so much easier if I had used a protractor so each piece of the pie was the exact same size as the next.)  I centered my ruler horizontally an drew a line across with my pencil, then I centered the ruler vertically and drew a line. Then divided each of the four pieces in half and drew a line to end up with eight similarly sized pieces of pie.  Then I took my markers, Spectrum Noir and Touch 5 and colored them in rainbow order.  The red was Spectrum Noir DR4, then the rest of the colors in order are OR1, LY3 and 43 , 72, 87, 83, and 147. The order is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, lavender and purple.  You want to color to your lines and then you can color outside the back of the pie as far as you want as none of this will show.
I took all of my circle dies and centered them on the image and made sure they were perfectly centered then put washi across all of them and around the back so the dies are well adhered, then ran them through my die cutter.  I carefully held onto them and put scotch tape across the back vertically and horizontally to hold them in place.  I put foam tape behind the circle and adhered it to the center of a 5 1/2″ square white pre-made card.
I used sentiments from TAC Trendy Greetings (after researching, TAC stands for The Angel Company)  and the set Floral Sentiments from My Creative Times for my sentiments.
I show me stamping my images on vellum but didn’t like how the vellum looked, so re-stamped them with Versafine Onyx Black ink on white scraps of card stock and used clear embossing powder by Ranger, heat setting them and layered them on a red piece of cardstock as it was for a 40th anniversary which is the ruby anniversary.  I didn’t measure the white cardstock as I just trimmed them so the sentiment had about 1/8″ above and below it and made them long enough to fit on the card where I wanted them.  I added about a 1/8″ border of red behind the white so you could just see the red and trimmed the red with scissors to fit there and used a tape runner to adhere the two together and attach them to the card..
I had chipboard letters and numbers and found 40 so laid it on a Distress Festive Berries ink to make it red and used my micro brushes that I bought from Wish.com for $1, to color the edges, then clear embossing powder and heat set it to make the chipboard letters shiny.  I put the 40 below the “Happy Anniversary” sentiment I put on the inside of the card.  I was going to put it on the front of the card but didn’t like it there.
In the end, the card looked close to my vision, and I hope you like it.

Today is the day for my Groot card.  I had Staples make me copies of the image as my copier wasn’t delivering crisp results like I wanted for the card.  I forgot to bring my own card stock that would definitely have been better than theirs even though I was going to use Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart.  I think the Staples employee told me they use a 40+ grade of cardstock which I didn’t even know existed.  I’m a little bit worried about the sturdiness of the paper, but am willing to give it a try.  The worker was willing to try making the image darker and lighter and gave me all of the “samples” she made, which was really nice of her.  At this point, I’m not sure if their copier is that great, because I expected miracles and didn’t get them.  Is there a chance my standards are a little too high?  Maybe.  I thought I’d get these really crisp images in colors that were almost unbelievable.  Huh, that might be a little bit of a stretch from someone who looked like she learned how to use their copier a couple of days ago, although, to her credit, she had mastered the light/dark button.

I’m going to make the card and it’s going to be fabulous.  Now all I have to do is think of a reason someone would want a baby Groot card.  It’s not like I have little kids to give cards to and I’m not sure if others will understand the saying “I am Groot” as apparently that’s all he says.  I thought it would be funny to write that on the outside and on the inside of the card, write the translation.  I might just use “thinking of you” as my translation, because otherwise, it might not work for “happy graduation.”  It could be a stretch but I’m going with it.  After all, I am Groot, which means “I’m screwed.”

Ok, so I missed a day of blogging and I’m not sure where the time went.  I haven’t been doing a lot of crafting as I’ve had a few doctor’s appointments this week and just haven’t been up for doing very much.   Honestly, sometimes the days just slip by me and I forget what I’m doing (or what I am supposed to do.)  Today I went to some garage sales and for the most part they were disappointing, but that’s because I have everything I could need or want and don’t have many items that friends have asked me to get for them.  I did find a two tiered K-cup rack that made me really happy, so I can replace my two individual ones for one big washi tape rack.

Naturally I found baby stuffed animals for the dogs and since garage sale season is in full swing, I can’t get through the door without being mauled by my dogs looking to see what kind of toy I’ve brought each of them.

After coming home, a nap was in order as we had an anniversary party we needed to attend.  The party was really nice, and they had a great band, but you know you are getting old when the band is so loud that you can’t hear anyone around you or what they are saying.  I’m sure I didn’t make the appropriate responses to the things people were saying, because I really didn’t have much of a clue as to what they said.  I felt a little bit dumb until I asked the lady next to me a question, and her answer was completely off track, so I knew she couldn’t hear me either.  I wondered why the couple didn’t ask the band to turn down the volume, as the average age of their audience was probably 65-70.  We decided it was definitely time to leave when the band put strobe lights in different colors pointed at the crowd.  (This is the moment you know Rich and I are old.)  We looked at each other and Rich pointed to the crowd and said, “I think these lights give people seizures.”  The funny thing was I was thinking the same thing.  If you had only seen these lights, they reminded me of movies where they are interrogating  and torturing the person at the same time.  Definitely not a great idea for the age of the crowd that attended.

And finally, to end the night, I got two cupcakes on a plate as we both wanted a treat for the road, and one cupcake rolled off and a man stepped on it and kept walking (not realizing he had a cupcake attached to his foot.)  Honestly he must have been ninety.  Rich kept trying to get him to stop walking so he could remove the cupcake from the man’s foot, but the poor guy couldn’t hear him over the music, or maybe he was the first to let the strobe lights affect him, it’s a toss up.  We finally retrieved the runaway cupcake and left after feeling terrible for the poor man and his icing covered shoe.   Ah, the glamorous life I lead.

 

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.