I just got the Distress Oxide inks that I ordered from Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  I only bought the colors I really wanted as in the past I thought I had to have every color and that’s really not the case.  Originally, the Distress inks focused on a lot of the browns and beiges so, of course, I have all of them, but with the oxides, I only wanted one of the browns for stems and trees, but otherwise, I’m sticking to colors that I can use for vivid backgrounds and flowers.

I need to come up with some new ideas for cards as I need to make some masculine ones.  I always seem to need them for thinking of you cards, since I send more of them than any other cards.

I’ve never been into sending birthday cards and as much as I think I should, I just never seem to remember to send them on time.   I want to make a very specific card for the person whose birthday it is, and then once I use that particular stamp, I can’t think of another use for it because I bought it specifically for that person’s birthday.  I’m pretty sure that they will remember it if I forget and send them another card with the same stamp.  I’m not saying that won’t happen, because my memory isn’t what it used to be, that darn menopause.

I saw Jennifer McGuire do a video where she used her paper shredder and cut thin strips of paper and then glued them to her card base.  I love using paper pieces on cards and might just create something like what she did, only I think I’m going to do it using different widths, significantly different, and see if I like the results.  I’m also thinking of putting in a few strips of glitter paper, or making my own glitter paper, just for the fun of it.  I always think glitter will be loads of fun until I start using it and then I remember why I don’t like it.  There is so much mess involved and I always end up with it on my face for days after I do a project with it.  Just one or two little teeny tiny pieces of glitter that I just can’t seem to remove.  What’s the deal with that?  Am I the only person who has that problem?  Probably so, as I never hear any other crafter mention the angst of   glitter that just won’t seem to go away.  Showering doesn’t get rid of it, it seems like I need to take sandpaper to any exposed areas of skin.  Maybe that’s the key.  Raw skin, but at least it will be glitter-less, it’s a thought.

 

 

I finished putting all of my stamps into cd cases and feel a large weight off my shoulders because of it.  I was really getting overwhelmed with the huge quantity of stamps thrown into a large basket and now they are out of the basket and life is good.

I got the marker box that I ordered on Ebay and started swatching the markers and did a video showing the swatching.  I’m not sure how others know what their marker colors truly are, because the colors on the ends never seems to be close to the color on the marker.  It drives me crazy and I feel like I must be the only person who can’t figure out marker colors.  Am I dumb?  Possibly.

I have three videos done but Rich had a lot of outside jobs he wanted to get done today, so I probably won’t have a video up until tomorrow.

I’ve been watching this “pouring technique” in videos and I have to try it.  You use acrylic paints and a pouring medium and you put all of the paints into little cups them pour them into a single cup from high above.  There is a reason for that, but so far, I’m not 100% sure what that is.  Maybe to get the paints to interact in the cup differently, I don’t really know..  Then you take that cup and either pour it onto a canvas or flip the cup over on the canvas and then pick up the cup and the paint oozes all over the canvas to create a really interesting effect with “cells”.  Cells are big or little circles within the paint that create the look of what you would see when you look through a microscope (to me)…I’m not sure why they are called cells unless it has to do with my microscope theory.  It’s so interesting to watch and to see the final effect, I’m going to have to try it on video.  You know the reason I want to do it is because the paint makes a horrible mess and I’m really into making messes!  I’m so excited about the idea that I bought two canvases today to try it.  Maybe one try not on video where I fail horribly and one where I don’t fail horribly. I’m not really sure if both won’t be failures, but I have to try it anyway.

I spent this afternoon swatching my new Touch Five markers.  I’m sure you’re thinking, all afternoon?  The reality was that once I got started swatching, I started thinking about using the new journal I’d made to color some images and see how the markers performed.  I really liked them and although they didn’t blend well on the paper in the journal, they did blend well on Georgia Pacific 110 lb. cardstock.  I thought I would use the journal for coloring images, then beside them, write down the colors of markers I used to create the results I got.  I did one image on craft and one on white paper as the journal has both included.  I put a piece of acetate behind the page I colored, so the alcohol markers wouldn’t bleed through to the next piece of paper.

Although I got sidetracked, at least I feel like I was productive.  No, I didn’t finish putting a sticker on all of my new markers, but I probably finished almost 50%.  Ok, it doesn’t sound like much once I put it into percentages, but you have to consider that I also colored two images, made a video and showed how well the markers blended on Georgia Pacific cardstock.  See how much better it sounds once I add those extras into the mix?

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we’ll be meeting friends for lunch.  I’m not really sure why, but I always miss Rich’s dad on Easter. He passed away on April 13th a few years ago, maybe that’s why I miss him more this time of year.  He was a sweet man and always made holidays special.  I’m hoping all of you have a great day with your families and I wish everyone a very happy Easter.

I thought it would be fun to watercolor with Stabilo 68 pens and used the Inspired by Stamping set Flower of the Month Sweet Pea and stamped the Sweet Pea and Happy Birthday from that set with Ranger Archival black ink.  I used Canson XL watercolor paper for my image.  I used Royal and Langnickel brushes and water with the Stabilo pens.  Although these are markers, they liquefy really well and move with the water fairly easily.  The reds and purples are difficult to blend, but the other colors aren’t.
I used several colors and they are listed in the video as well.  They are 17, 29, 56, 53, 33, 63, 89, 26 and 31.
I used a Creative Memories corner rounder and rounded the corners on my card and on my sweet peas. The card base is 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and the sweet pea layer is 4″ x 5 1/4″.  I used Diamond Glaze by Judikins on my sweet peas to make them really glossy.

I put pink glitter washi tape on the envelope and some of the leftover blue watercolor from my palette.  I added a sentiment on the front by making it on my computer and printing it out and put it on the front of my card and ended up turning it into a banner by cutting a little V in the ends.  I added a very thin green ribbon to the bottom of the card and attached it to the foam tape on the back.

I bought a really nifty journal at the Dollar Tree where half of the pages are white and half are craft card stock.  I really liked it but the cover says something weird on it and that, I wasn’t crazy about.  So I decided to cover the book with pretty paper and then put a book mark in it so I know what page I’m on.  I think I’m going to experiment with my new markers in the book to see how it works with them.  I thought I would do a video of the process, so I’m done with the first part, covering the book, and next will be stamping in it and coloring the image.  I’m not sure how much the ink will spread so I’m pretty sure I’m going to use embossing powder so the image has some sort of protection from bleeding.  Then I’m going to put a sheet of acetate behind the page I’m coloring on, so the whole journal isn’t destroyed with one page of coloring.
I might use it to swatch my markers on as well since I bought a set of 168.  Yesterday, I was on Ebay and found a wooden set of trays for $30 (including shipping) that should work for the entire set.  I’m really hoping it will because I’d like to be able to have all of my markers in one spot and easily accessible to me.  I’m still going to swatch them like my other colored pencils/markers, because it’s the fastest way to determine the actual color.  I’m not really sure how many crafters can tell the colors of their markers by the caps, as that has never worked for me.  The only way I can ever be sure of the color, is swatching it on a sticker and wrapping the sticker around the marker.

No point in talking about it any more, I should get started on the video.

Rich finished editing his photo video and we put it up today.  I really think that people will appreciate the concept, if not the entire project.  We had one comment from a lady who said her daughter takes great photos and she thought they might turn one of her daughter’s photos into a card.  I love it when subscribers take the ideas we put up and then make them their own.  It really makes me feel like I’m helping people open their creative minds to come up with their own ideas and projects.

One of my subscribers was telling me about a website where you can buy dies really inexpensively.  I’m not really into punching out all of the tiny little pieces but would like to have ovals, squares, rectangles and circles to play with.  The site is called aliexpress and they are from China and Japan (I think.)  The things you buy will take a little while to get here, but their prices are really low.  A set of five or six stitched dies were less than $3.  You know how much I love a bargain and can’t wait to get them to see how they work.  I’ve heard the biggest problems people have when ordering from Aliexpress is determining the sizes of the dies they are buying.  Some sites don’t offer the sizes or if they do, the sizes are in centimeters not inches.  The same is true of embossing folders.  I saw one embossing folder that a lady bought that was the size of a baseball card.  I’m hoping I won’t make that mistake, but you realize that I am prone to do so.  One great note of interest is that the Vagabond is working again, and only needed to have the power strip on the floor turned on.  Yes, I am that dingy.

I ordered my sister a set of 72 Prismacolor colored pencils yesterday from Amazon and I’m hoping that she will get them tomorrow.  Cathy loves to color but only has sets of 24 colors in her pencil sets.  It’s time to broaden her coloring horizon.  She has diabetes and has had a lot of problems with her eyes, so she doesn’t think additional colors will be beneficial for her to use since she can’t tell the colors apart.  I told her whatever system she’s currently using to determine color families will work for this set, only on a larger scale.  I love my Prismacolors and hope she will too.

Lastly, my Touch Five markers came today and I’m really looking forward to playing with them.  The colors don’t seem to be in any particular order, so I’ll have to swatch them and then come up with a system of storage where all of the oranges are in one compartment, and all the blues in one, etc.  Since garage sale season is starting, I should be able to find storage that appeals to me for my new markers as well as more storage for the many cd cases that are overflowing my current storage.  You know when you craft, storage is an ongoing process that always needs tweeking.  And my process is really falling behind and needs me to make it a priority so I can start to find the things I am looking for.  It’s a lot of work, if only I had a magic genie, darn it.

 

Rich made a great photo and then turned it into a JPG file so that you can use it to make a great card very quickly and easily.

You will use the link below to print with your regular printer and using white cardstock.  You can use 110 lb or 65 lb cardstock in your regular printer connected to your computer.  Use 65 lb. cardstock if you are layering your card, and 110 lb if you are sending it without any layers.

Here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-DLO0m6zf9fN3hFT2tIUWN5UFE/view?usp=sharing

After printing this photo with the link above, you’ll want to trim the image with your paper trimmer.  Then you will want to either stamp on the back with a postcard stamp or draw the lines and the stamp square and the word “Postcard” at the top on the back of the image  to create a postcard.  I recommend using 110 lb cardstock if you are going to use this by itself to make it a postcard.

If you want to line the image with another color like I did, then trim the image to 3 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ and then make your backing paper 4″ x 6″.  If you back your postcard, you should use 65 lb cardstock so that both papers aren’t really thick.  Make sure you use a lot of tape runner so the two pieces of paper are really well adhered so they go through the mail really easily.

After printing the image from above, you’ll want to stamp a sentiment on the front of it.  I chose cherry cobbler ink from Stampin’ Up and my sentiment was from a Hero Arts set called Celebrate Everyday.  I stamped my postcard stamp on the back.  Amy Tangerine makes a really nice postcard stamp.  I used Versafine Onyx Black ink to stamp my postcard image.

If you choose to make the image into a regular card, trim it on the sides to 3 3/4″ x 5″ and then back it with another colored layer that is 4″ x 5 1/4″  attached together with tape runner,  then put foam tape on the 4 x 5 1/4″ layer and attach it to a white card base that is  4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″.  I put washi tape on my envelope and my card was ready to go.  I thought it was really nice of Rich to give us a simple but lovely image for us to make quick and easy cards with.

Each card should take less than two minutes to make if you make them in an assembly line fashion.

Well Rich’s idea for his photograph was really amazing.  He took a picture of some spring flowers and then created a distressed background around them.  He then set the pictures up so they are a JPEG file and can be printed on cardstock.   I printed out four of them and made some into postcards and some into cards.  All it takes to make an Easter card is to stamp a sentiment on his photo and then either stamp a postcard stamp on the back of the image or cut the paper down enough to attach it to another piece of cardstock and then stamp a postcard stamp on that.  You don’t even need a postcard stamp, you can just write the name and address on the back and draw a line between the address and your message.

Ok, I realize that it doesn’t make much sense the way I explained it, but the bottom line is this.  Rich is giving anyone the photos so they can print them on their regular printers and make them into really lovely cards for spring, Easter, Passover, whatever the occasion.  It was such a nice thing for him to do and the video will be up tomorrow so you can start making some cards for yourself.  I think it takes about five minutes to create a card that is really nice…Just wait until you see them, I think you’ll be impressed.

I really liked the rainbow inspired cards I made a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be fun to make a Mandala inspired look with rainbow colors and the peg stamps.  If you didn’t know, pegstamps.com (Rubber Stamp Tapestry), are helping me celebrate 3,000 subscribers by giving me a discount code of 15% off their entire store by using the promotion code SANDYPARKER until April 17, 2017.

I used the following peg stamps:
bitty peony
bunch of daisies
middle swirl flower
distress bottom leaf
soponaria solid
Three ripply flowers

The inks I used were Stampin Up Real Red and Summer Sun

Memento Dew Drops Tangelo, Bamboo Leaves, Danube Blue and Grape Jelly.

I used a Stampin’ Up set called Another Thank You for my sentiment and a yellow 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ card base.  I cut Strathmore Bristol paper to 4 x 5 1/4″ for my stamped images.

I tried stamping each image in a circular shape to maintain my circle shape.  After I was finished stamping, I used the 1″ chip brushes to brush yellow on the center to the orange, then used orange brush over the orange, then green brush over the leaves, then blue over the blue flowers, then purple over the purple flowers and out to the edge of the paper.  After I was finished with the brushes, I put the mandala on my yellow background paper but used foam tape between them.

I was amazed that as soon as we uploaded the video of Shelli and I crafting, that we started getting so many wonderful, lovely comments about the video.  Shelli was worried that we would get some thumbs down on the video, but instead, people are encouraging Shelli to come back and do another video with me.  I was thrilled and I know Shelli will be as well, to the response we got from the video.  You really never know if people will respond well to a video or not, but this one was a big winner.

I’ve been trying to finish Easter ideas and Rich has come up with one of his own.  He’s taking some photographs of spring flowers and is going to let me know tomorrow what plans he has for his pictures.  I can’t wait to see them and hear his ideas as he is really creative.  I guess we’ll all just need to wait and see.