Because our YouTube channel has exceeded 3,000 subscribers, Rebecca and Donna Walton, the owners of Rubber Stamp Tapestry,  are offering 15% off everything in their store until April 17, 2017 (4/17/2017.)  The promotion code is SANDYPARKER.  I’m so excited and hope you are as well for this great bargain on pegstamps.com also known as Rubber Stamp Tapestry.
I wanted to create a scene using peg stamps, so stamped with Simon Says Stamp black ink using a new sentiment set called Uplifting Sentiments for Thinking of you and the sets Just Add Flowers and Country Lane that are red rubber from Pegstamps.com.  I cut the sets apart and then put a little Aleene’s Tack it Over and Over on the back so that I can get the stamps to stick to an acrylic block or MISTI or Stamp Perfect without any issues.  I had an old grass stamp that I used (that had no name on it.)  I used Old Olive Stampin’ Up dye ink for the grass as well as an Old Olive Stampin’ Up marker.  I colored using alcohol markers, Spectrum Noirs and used markers that are listed on the screen to color with.  I also used my 1″ chip brush to brush the Old Olive ink onto the background where the grass is to make sure the color is consistent and used Ballet Blue, an old Stampin’ Up ink color that is now retired (still available on ebay I’m sure).  I also ran the same ink pad around the edges of the craft card to accent the blue sky.
I love how the peg stamps red rubber background stamps have the masking done for them, as there’s a gap between the handle bars of the bike so you can fill the bike’s basket with flowers.
I used some of the peg stamps, Bitty Peony, Five Sprigs of Grass,  Foliage Leaf, Saponaria Solid,  Hyacinth Bloom, pinwheel flower and a crackled sprig.  I used Early Espresso Stampin’ Up dye ink for the branch in the basket and then used Old Olive ink to stamp the five sprigs of grass and used the small foliage leaf in the basket with the same ink.   I stamped Saponaria with the pinwheel flower in the basket and used pigment inks for these flowers so put Ranger Clear embossing powder over them and then heat set them.  I stamped some Blackberry Bliss from Stampin’ Up that I added a metallic tint to it with eye shadow.  I’ll attach that video to the end so you know how to do this yourself.
I used the Early Espresso marker to make stems for the Hyacinth Bloom and put embossing powder over the hyacinth as well as the other purple flowers on the ground. Where the ink had dried, I used a Marvy embossing marker to make the flowers so the embossing powder would stick to them, then heat set them as well.  I used Wink of Stella for some sparkle on the bike and birds and the bird house and a silver Sharpie to make the bike shiny and added Wink of Stella over that.  I used a white gel pen for some highlighting on the images.  Added fun foam to the back with tear tape and put it on a purple base that is 5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall.  The craft card stock top card is 5 1/4″ x 4″ tall.  Used purple washi tape for on the inside of the card and on the envelope.

I hope you like the card and go to pegstamps.com for your 15% discount until 4/17/2017 using the promotion code SANDYPARKER.  Here is the link to their site.  http://pegstamps.com/

I am really getting excited because my cousin Shelli, is coming to our house tomorrow to make some cards with me.  This will be the first time we’ve been able to get together to actually produce something and we plan on making a video with our craftiness.

I have been making some videos, but they haven’t gone up because one is to coincide with Carol Held’s video where she will be doing sign language to the technique and mine will have the technique written below as I always do.  It’s amazing to me how many people don’t know that I write everything in the description.  I often get questions for things that are clearly spelled out in the comments I leave below the video.  A friend of mine said that I’m the only crafting YouTuber that writes out the entire technique.  I told her that my channel is devoted to people with physical limitations, so I feel that requires me to cover as many types of limitations as I can, including hearing impaired.  I do the best job I can with my explanations and sometimes trying to explain cut on the second score then score on a diagonal to the next line I believe might not make a lot of sense, but I do my best.

So my video for pegstamps.com will go live tomorrow AM and I’m really excited to offer my own promotion code.  There is something thrilling about knowing that because of our YouTube channel, others will benefit with a discount.  It really makes Rich and me proud.  I think I’ll go buy some stamps just so I can use my code, just to see it work.  Yes, I am that weird.

Ok, so we just finished uploading the longest video known to man.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I was making this card.  The thing that’s funny now, is that I couldn’t find a sentiment that worked with teacups.  The sentiment I finally used talked about beans.  So why didn’t I think of coffee beans?  Where was my head?  So the outside of the card has tea cups and a joke about beans and the inside features “thanks a bushel” and has vegetables on it.  I think most people will not get the connection, because frankly, there isn’t one.  After Rich edited the card, he made me put it up.   I really wanted to ditch it.  I think he probably spent ten hours working on cutting out material to make it that short and I don’t blame him for making me put it up.  What an absolute mess!  I feel so dumb that I never connected the beans with coffee and the cups with coffee.  Holy cow, that would have made the card so much faster and easier.  I probably could have cut ten minutes at least out of it.  Oh well, live and learn.  I’ll probably get a million thumbs down and I really don’t blame people if they do.  Although the card idea is pretty nifty, it just doesn’t seem to work.  Another day, another video.

Since we went over 3,000 subscribers,  Rebecca and Donny Walton the owners of Rubber Stamp Tapestry aka pegstamps.com, are giving me my own promo code for 15% off of everything in their store.  They have just about everything and anything people could want.  I just made the video using their stamps so that people will get an idea of some of the things they have to offer.  They are such nice people.  I don’t get any kickbacks from the sales and made sure I told people that in the video.  It was just a nice way for them to help me to say thank you to all of my subscribers.     I’ve been so lucky to find such sweet people who really believe in the channel.  I’ve been awed by the kindness and generosity  I’ve found since embarking on this YouTube adventure.

I watched a video of a box card and thought it would be a lot of fun to make. Here’s the original video by Valita https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jCZ…
I didn’t realize that the video would be so long. I am so sorry that it is.

On the 11″ side of a 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of cardstock, score at 2 1/2″, 4″, 7″, 8 1/2″ then turn to the 8 1/2″ length and score at 1 1/2″ and 7″. Fold in the 1 1/2″ and 7″ so the folds are clean and then unfold them. On the 11″ length, make a mark at 5 1/2″ with a light pencil on both sides at 5 1/2″. Put something squishy under your paper like fun foam or a phone book and put it under your paper. There are two score marks before the mark you just made. You will want to use a ruler and using your scoring tool, you’ll make a diagonal score from the center mark we made with a pencil, to the score line on the left and right of the center mark. This should create an upside down “V” shape. Turn the paper to the opposite edge and score exactly like you did on the first side. Take scissors with long blades and cut on the 8 1/2″ length, cut to the second score mark on all four corners. Then cut the first score mark off on all four sides, so you’ll be cutting a box off where you already cut one cut.

With the short sides facing you, fold the scores closest to the inside in, then fold the next score lay the down and bone folder it on both sides. The bottom and top pieces you will fold the two flaps in and where the inverted V is, fold those flaps back and use your bone folder on them and make sure all folds have been bone foldered (or whatever term you would use.) Reopen your folds and put tear tape on the little flaps on the outside edge of all four corners then remove the tear tape liner off of one piece and fold one side of the 11″ length up straight and put the flap behind it and attach it to the back of the piece. Do this to all four sides to create a box. Your flaps should be 2 1/2″ wide by 5 1/2″ tall and I made 1/8″ border. The patterned paper will be 2 3/8″ x 5 3/8″. I used a scallop border punch from EK Success for the edges of my paper.
Although I traced the half circles, it was just as easy to glue the paper down and then cut around them. I used a tape runner from Elmer’s to attach my papers to the outside of the box.
I used a piece of matching ribbon that was probably 12″ long and laid a length of tear tape on the back of the box so that the ribbon could be attached to it.

For the inside, I couldn’t find anything tea related, so I found some vegetables and wanted to make them into covers for my paperclips, but instead, attached them to the paper I put inside my box. I know the vegetables are weird with the teacups, but couldn’t figure out what else to do. My girlfriend that I sent the card to loves to tell a joke about carrots, so the vegetables are perfect for her, as is the joke about the beans that is the front sentiment..

I stamped the vegetables from a stamp set from Jillibean called Fresh Vegetable Soup with Stampin’ Up gray archival ink and made a mask for the thinner vegies, and then stamped beside the masked vegies to create a thicker piece of vegetable. I colored them with alcohol markers and Rich listed all of the colors in the video. I used one of the pink pieces of cardstock that we cut off of our box for our sentiment and punched it out with a punch from Stampin’ Up that I don’t know the name of. Sorry. I ran Soft Sky ink from Stampin’ Up around the edge of the sentiment using a Fantastix.. I put tape runner on the back of only the right side of the sentiment to adhere it to the left side of the right flap so it covers the front but will allow the card to open.
I cut another piece of pink cardstock and stamped my inside sentiment with the same gray archival ink and then punched a small hole and put a piece of ribbon in the hole so I can remove this paper from inside my box. After coloring my vegies, I glued them to the bottom of this piece of paper and then laid it inside the box. I don’t have the measurements for this piece of card stock, but to create it, measure the back of the box and cut it 1/2″ shorter than that measurement. You’ll need another piece of decorated paper to cover the back of the box, so use the measurement of the back of the box and make it 1/4″ shorter and 1/4″ thinner than the measurements you made. I’m sorry I forgot to record these measurements for you.

 

My 2017 resolutions are complete.  In my own way, I did channel my inner Jennifer McGuire.  On December 31, 2016, we were at roughly 1,800 subscribers and thought 3,000 was a stretch, but really wanted to achieve that by the end of this year.  Today, we have 3,001 subscribers.  I’m sure a large percentage of that growth had to do with focusing on cards and different techniques that Jennifer McGuire uses, but the fact remains, 3,001 subscribers!!!!!

We uploaded the craft room tour video on October 29, 2015, and I was hoping 100 people would eventually watch my videos.  It is amazing that in a year and five months, we’ve grown to 3,001 subscribers and have on average, five hundred views per video.  Rich and I are so blown away by it and are really proud of what we’ve created.  If we continue growing at our current pace, we will have 5,000 subscribers by year end.  I can’t even begin to imagine that, but that’s what the numbers are saying.  I’m really happy that we’re doing well with the channel and staying true to our original mission and still having fun doing it.

With that being said, today I spent the entire day labeling stamp sets and putting them into cd cases.  It sounds like I would be done, but sadly, I still have several more sets to put into cases.  Rich, on the other hand, spent his day, editing a video I made of a card box.  In theory it was a great idea, but in reality, the video is at 42 minutes and he’s not done with it yet.  Holy cow, I had no idea it was going to be this long.  I wish I could think of a way to shorten it, but I just don’t have a clue.  The card idea was a good one, but I couldn’t find a sentiment that I liked to go with the paper I used, so the sentiment and the paper seem odd together.  I hope people can get past the confusion of that and just watch the video for the technique.  It’s a cool card and I think people should try to make one, but I think they will be put off by the time the video takes to watch.  I feel horrible when a video goes over 20 minutes and have no idea how we could make this into a part 1 and 2.  I really hope we can figure out a way to shorten it.

I went to the dentist today for my regular check up and everything was fine, so no need to sweat for another six months.  Several years ago, my dentist told me he thought I was the biggest baby in the dental chair until he met my mother.  Somehow that made me feel a lot better about myself.  I don’t know why I’m such a chicken, but I am.  I had to have a root canal many years ago and my dentist sent me to a specialist and made sure I had Valium so I wouldn’t freak out.  I took the Valium and about an hour later, I was in the dentist chair and his assistant came in and started talking to me about the procedure.  She told me that in the future, I should consider Valium as it would help me with the anxiety.  I didn’t have the nerve to tell her I’d already taken it (and just think what a mess I would have been if I hadn’t.)

I did my part of the editing on the video of different papers and how they respond to blending alcohol markers, so I’m hoping Rich will get that video up tomorrow.  I also have a lot of stamp sets that need to be put into cd cases, so I’ve been working on that.  It’s a mystery how I end up with so many that need to be put away and a little bit odd when I don’t remember buying some of them.  I’m happy though, when I find sets like this, as it’s almost like getting an unexpected present.  Being ditzy isn’t all bad.

To finish the day, we met a bunch of our college friends for dinner.  It was a really nice night and it’s been fun getting to know the wives, as I graduated with the men and Rich played football with them, so they have that camaraderie that exists when you are teammates.

Although we got home relatively early, I thought I’d want to make a couple of cards, but decided to go to bed.  Sometimes it just goes like that.

I have nights where I can’t sleep because I’ve got an idea spinning around in my head and until I do something with it, like write it down, I just can’t sleep.  Last night was all about blending alcohol markers on different papers.  I was obsessed with the idea of trying to blend them to see if cost would make a difference, or type of paper, etc.  So tonight I tried it on video.  I had a really difficult time trying to find a color family where I had three colors that weren’t necessarily in color order.  I wanted to find a range where there was a big skip in my colors so the markers would have to really blend to make up the difference.  I started with green markers, but one of the three wasn’t wet enough to complete the task (naturally), and I ended up using red.  I’ve always heard that red is one of the most difficult colors to blend, so what better color to choose?  I used DR1, DR4, and DR5.  Oddly enough, the skip from DR1 to DR4 wasn’t very noticeable, but the difference between DR4 and DR5 was.  Sometimes I wonder if they mislabel markers as I’ve got some colors where the higher number is actually lighter than the lower numbered marker.

I used six different papers, some watercolor, some inexpensive and some expensive.  My results were surprising, but I’ve often found this to be the case when I test out a theory.  I have not been impressed with the performance of Neenah Solar White Classic Crest cardstock.  In the video where I tested black inks, Neenah didn’t out perform the other papers, and this was no exception.  I was really happy with my results and hope you’ll enjoy the video as it should be going live tomorrow.

I was really pleased with the video of the card I made for our great niece’s birthday card.  I got such a great response to it and had so many wonderful comments and it really made my day!

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment and I’m not looking forward to it as I really hate the dentist.  I have pretty good teeth, but just dread the whole experience.  I wonder how many other people fret about the dentist?

I write these daily blogs and sometimes wonder if I should.  I’m not sure if anyone really cares what I do in the course of a day, but since I’ve done it since starting my YouTube channel, I thought I’d continue doing it until I can find a reason to stop.

My channel has been growing steadily, and I was really happy that Jennifer McGuire chose to feature it on her Facebook page, but when I looked at my growth, her Facebook reference only increased my subscribers by an additional 5%.  I guess I was kind of surprised by that, but then I thought about the number of people who would be put off by my hands, and am happy for the 5% increase.  At this point in my life, I can’t remember a time when my hands were “normal” or the last time I ran anywhere.  I mean RAN.  I’m sure it was in college or right after, because a year later, things were already going downhill.  I don’t miss running but the one thing I do miss sometimes, is shoes.  I loved shoes.  High heels, I lived in them.  I loved every kind of high heel and I wore them year round.  No boots for me, high heels all the way.  I used to run on stairs in heels.  I have trouble remembering doing a lot of things, but I can vividly remember running downstairs in our dorm in heels.  It’s weird the things that stick with us.  Maybe that memory is there for a reason, and if so, I don’t know what it is, but it’s forever.

When I was in high school. I took a biology class and the teacher said that things you remember forever are in your chemical memory and things you’ll forget are in your electrical memory.  I’m not sure why, but I decided the moment I heard the difference in memories, that I would put that in my chemical memory.  Well here I am over 40 years later, and I still remember.  Weird.

I’m not sure what any of this has to do with anything, just thought I’d share.  High heels were awesome.

I needed to make a card for our great niece for her 18t birthday and I really liked the stamps from Rubbernecker Sammy and Spot and Pup plus stamps from A Shore Thing from Stampin’ Up that’s retired and is available on Ebay as well as So Happy for You another Stampin’ Up retired set for my sentiment.(also available on Ebay.)

I used a lot of alcohol markers to stamp with from Spectrum Noir.
Rich wrote all of the markers I used on the video so you can see them there and I listed them before I started as well.

I used Versafine Onyx Black Ink to stamp all of my images and put Ranger Clear Embossing Powder over it and then heat set the powder.  This ensures that the inks stay where you put them as well as making sure the ink doesn’t smear when you use the alcohol markers over it.

After coloring the images, I stamped the sand with the Shore Thing stamp from Stampin up using a Stampin’ Up marker in creamy caramel.  I stamped the crab on a piece of scrap card stock and used Really Rust and Only Orange Stampin’ Up markers to stamp the crab. Use the side of the brush tip to ink your stamps or you will ruin your markers.  I fussy cut the crab and then placed him in the sand on the card.  I would recommend that you stamp your crab on the card before putting your sand down (but I forgot to do that.)
I used my 1″ chip brushes from Harbor Freight Liquidators (cutting about 1/2- 3/4″ off the top) to lay down some background colors.  I used Creamy Caramel ink from Stampin’ Up on the sand area and Cool Caribbean Ink from Stampin’ Up for the sky.

I had some cute tear shaped sequins that I got from my friend Bekki, and used them for the rain drops and applied them around the umbrella and in the sand over the dog.  I applied Wink of Stella on the card in the areas that I wanted to look wet, so I put it on the umbrella in the darker areas of the umbrella as well as on the dog where he is the darkest (his back, feet, top of his head) and on the girl’s and dogs scarves as they would be glittery in general. I put foam tape on the back and applied it to a bright pink card base.  This card is 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ and the white card stock is 5 1/4″ x 4″.  The white card is Strathmore Bristol paper that is supposed to be great for blending alcohol markers.  (I didn’t really notice a difference, but it gave me an idea to do a video on blending with different papers.)

I used a sparkly pink washi tape for the envelope.

Well, I got my taxes done and didn’t cry or pass out, so it was a good day.  I have to say that the relief I feel when taxes are done is so great, I just can’t say.  So we came home and had date night that involved pizza and a movie with all of the dogs laying on blankets on their own private spots.  Aggie likes to lay beside me on the couch, but gets bored with that after about half an hour, and gets down, then Bella moves from another couch onto the couch with me, and at some point, she moves back to her couch and I have Honey.  Apparently I am the chosen one.  I think they know which one of us will buckle and give them a small bite of pizza crust.  I am a big sucker for a sad dog face.

Rich tried to upload a video today and I had one segment that was corrupted, so he couldn’t play that part.  He asked me to recap it for him so he could write notes about what I did during that segment, went back to the computer and he lost everything he’d uploaded.  He was so frustrated that he’d lost an hour’s worth of work, that he threw in the towel for the day.  It happens.  I’ve lost so many hours of video footage, I can’t even begin to count.  So another day and no video, but he promises me, one will go up tomorrow and I’ll be working on another one to add to his pile.