I love making cards for my sister for St. Patrick’s Day and decided to make a card with a rainbow and made a watercolor background with Koi watercolors on Fabriano hot press 140 lb. watercolor paper, let it dry, and then I used Holographic Ranger embossing powder with Distress embossing ink and heat set it to make a glitter background.  It’s so much easier than working with glitter.  I didn’t have black shiny paper so I used black paper and put Ranger clear embossing powder over Distress embossing ink and heat set it.  The sentiments came from My Creative Times “I believe in Leprechauns.”  The hexagon punch is from Creative Memories and I used the 1 1/4″ on the glitter paper and the 1 1/2″ on the black images then I ran them through my Xyron to make them into stickers.  I laid the glittery rainbow pieces on the black pieces and then attached them to a glittery piece of green card stock that was cut to 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ and attached it to my card base with double sided taped.  I used a rectangle scallop punch to punch the sentiment for the front of the card.  It’s from Marvy and I bought it at Hobby Lobby.  It’s a big punch, about 2 1/2″ across.

The wide tear tape I think I bought at Punch Place Plus.

I used a small shamrock stamp with Stampin’ Up Gumball Green ink on the front of the envelope and inside the card by the sentiment.

I realize this isn’t like my normal cards but I thought it fit the holiday and my sister’s taste.  I hope you can use the techniques you learned and create a card you like with them.

I know I said I didn’t think I would be doing a blog post today, but I got home and there was a package from one of my subscribers, Bekki.  I was thrilled and it had been a really long day, but I still wanted to share it with you.  She sent me some ribbons and embellishments, a pack of paper, glue (you know I love glue) and a wide variety of stickers and I know I’m missing other crafty tools.  She also sent several already made cards that you pull the top up and they become a holder for a small tissue package.  Each one was different and they had to have taken her a very long time to make.  I’ll be sharing them with several friends who have come down with the flu.  Bekki also sent some handmade (crocheted) dish rags.  I love those and my mom used to use them, so they reminded me of her.  All in all, it was so terrific, it made my exhaustion disappear and I had to send out this message.

There are so many great people that I’ve met through YouTube and Bekki is one of them.  I’ve really enjoyed the YouTube experience because of all of the sweet and thoughtful people I have met through the process.

The 3-d card I made and put up yesterday was a huge hit.  I’ve had a couple people say they don’t have any background stamps so I offered Sherri C. and a couple other viewers to re-make the card but use normal size stamps this time and still create the same affect.  So far, Sherri C. has taken me up on the offer, so after the videos we have finished go live, I’ll make sure that this is one of the next videos I make.  My friend Elizabeth also mentioned that she thinks it’s time I update my favorite paper trimmer as I’ve changed from Fiskars to Cricut, and found a rotary trimmer I can use as well.  So we’ll put that on the list of upcoming videos as well.

I’m not sure if I mentioned that I finished the black ink video, boy is it a long one.  I hope it’s not overly long, but couldn’t figure out a way to shorten it.  Sometimes a video just can’t be shortened, so I’ll apologize in advance for it’s length.

Tonight I made the video on black inks.  I can’t imagine how others could do a video on them and do it as fast as they have.  Mine is a really long video, but I made sure I covered not only the inks, but how they reacted on different papers with different mediums.  It took me forever and I never actually stamped on camera after the first images as I realized it would make the video hours long.

My results were similar to other videos I had watched but with at least one notable difference.  I won’t go into any detail, but I was surprised that others felt an ink worked well with alcohol markers when it was a failure for me.  Not just a failure, but a failure on three different brands of card stock and watercolor paper.  I’ve always heard that Neenah paper stamps so much better than other brands, so I put it to the test and the results were pretty interesting.  I hope you’ll take the time to watch at least the end of the video for the results.

I’ve been fretting about Rich being caught up with me on videos, and tonight when I looked at the video of the inks, I found two other complete videos on that memory card and neither have been put onto the site.  So now I’m really ahead of the game.  The pressure is off, Yay!

I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging at least tomorrow, as I’ll be interviewing students.  I think I’ve already mentioned this, but I volunteer at my college alma mater to help the seniors prepare for the real world by practicing interviewing with them.  I enjoy the process and our students are getting jobs and that’s all that matters to me.

I took one of Jennifer McGuire’s techniques and made it look 3-d.

Use craft card stock that is 5 1/4″ tall by 4″ wide and stamp it with a background stamp with a pattern that is consistent. I used Stampin’ Up’s Bitty Blossoms that is retired, but I found several on Ebay.
. Make sure you stamp on the right or left bottom corner with Unicorn White Pigment Ink. Let it dry or heat set it and then take an ink that is darker than the card color, I used Baked Brown Sugar from Stampin’ Up and moved my paper a little bit to the left of where I stamped it the first time. I cut my paper to incorporate about one-third from the top so I had enough room for my sentiment. The sentiment came from Blockhead Stamps and is called Feel Better. It’s an old stamp set and I stamped it in my MISTI. I laid the two pieces on my white card stock that was 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ scored at 4 1/4″ on the long side to make sure my inked card stock was cut short enough to incorporate the stamped sentiment and then put fun foam on the back of both the top and bottom sections of my background. I thought it would look better if I used Baked Brown Sugar matching marker to add what looks like a third color on the inked background and it makes it look three-D. I also used a Prismacolor white colored pencil and highlighted the white areas as well. I used matching washi tape on the envelope.

I’m not a huge fan of glitter, but wanted to make a card for my sister for St. Patrick’s Day that was almost all glitter.  The card references the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so I thought it was a perfect card to play with several different techniques.  I made a water colored rainbow glittery, as well as showed how to alter punches to make them work for you and used the Xyron to make gluing things together a snap.  I created my own matching black paper with embossing powders and in the end, the card is pretty frisky, but only if you like a glittery card.

I don’t usually do a lot with glitter because of the mess, but honestly, I didn’t have any mess (other than the embossing powder I dumped on my background.)  Let’s be honest, we’ve all done that a time or two.

I’m starting to feel better about things as now I’m two videos ahead of Rich and I’m hoping he puts one up tomorrow and I’ll keep the train rolling with more videos so I stay ahead of him.

I thought I’d make a video on the different black inks I own.  I own quite a few and for a variety of reasons.  Some I bought because I thought they would be blacker than the ones I currently owned.  Some I bought to work with alcohol inks etc.  Let’s just say that I have a variety of them and thought it would be a good video for the newer crafter.  Let’s face it, we’ve all bought the wrong inks from time to time and hopefully, this will help people avoid that pitfall.

It was such a beautiful day today that I went out and picked up fallen branches in my yard with the dogs.  They weren’t much help, in fact, they were stealing the branches as soon as I piled them up and ran off with them.  Note to self, leave the dogs inside when picking up branches.

Tonight I thought I would start making a St Patricks’ Day card and am using some new markers I was given called Chalkola.  The company wanted to find out if someone with hand issues could use them and asked if I would consider doing a video.  I was asked to work with digital images and learned a valuable lesson about saying yes before I see the product.  Let’s just say the images weren’t what I expected.  I had a very honest discussion with them about my feelings, and they still wanted me to make the video, so am working on it.  The markers are large and I think primarily used on dry erase boards and windows.  They said they were fine for paper projects as well.  The nib is about 1/2″ wide and has no ink in it when you open the packaging.  You have to shake them for 30 seconds and then hold the nib down on a piece of paper until the ink starts to flow.  I explained that this process was more than I could handle and would be explaining that to viewers and they were fine with it.  The colors are almost neon, so I think they have limited use for card making (unless I make a neon card), and so far, I’ve really just used the white color.  It’s a great white and I used it with a background stamp on a dark green card stock and it looks terrific.  Because of the size of the nib, it made inking the stamp a breeze. I got a tie dye looking stencil today from Tupelo Designs.  It was part of their January celebration where they would give you a give with your purchases and I guess this was my gift.  I just started thinking about how cool it would be to make a t-shirt shaped card and use the stencil with the neon markers to make a tie-dye t-shirt card.  I could put a 70’s type sentiment on it, like “I think you’re Groovy” or something equally 70’s. Since the markers are water soluble, they are easy to clean as well.  The set did come with a small set of metallic markers that don’t require any prep work and I really enjoyed playing with them.  I’ll be doing something with them soon.

I played with watercolors to make a rainbow effect and will either incorporate it into that card or make another St Patrick’s Day card with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow idea.  I’ve got a lot of ideas, but none have approached the finish line yet.  Rich only has one video to put up and then he and are caught up with each other.  This will sound kind of silly, but I get panicky when he’s ready for another video because then I have to come up with ideas more quickly and sometimes my brain just doesn’t work that way.  If I can get these cards made, that will give me a head start on him of a couple videos and take the pressure off (that is totally self inflicted.)

Our weather is supposed to change from the 70’s to a snow storm by Sunday night, so I better suck up the nice weather while I can.  Too late, it just started raining and that’s the first step in our weather decline.  Darn it, the window for great February weather is now closed.  Oh well, it’s better for crafting.

I’m so sorry this video is so choppy, Rich accidentally deleted some of the dimensions and parts of the video that make it a little difficult to follow.  I tried to fill in the blanks as best I could below.

I wanted to make a junior legal pad cover and thought the papers from Stampin’ Up would look great backing my white paper that I turned blue and created an ombre look with Distress Inks..  I used Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky.  I decided ultimately that I didn’t like the ombre effect and used the Chipped Sapphire over the front again.  I used Dream, Create, Believe stamps from Rubbernecker Stamps with white embossing powder and Versamark ink on white 110 pound Recollections card stock that was 11″ long and 1/2″ wider that the  junior legal pad.  I used the 12″ long Stampin’ Up DSP (that is retired and I don’t know the name of) as well as a 12: long navy blue paper, and adhered them together.  I cut them to 1/2″ wider than the jr. legal pad and left then 12″ long.  I adhered the blue and DSP papers together with tear tape and then made two score marks.  One score mark was made by leaving 1/8″ longer than the legal pad and then the second was 5/8″ above the first score.  Since all of these pads might not be the exact same length, you’ll need to measure yours to know the dimensions you’ll want to score on.  Remember that you will make the score mark 1/8″ + length of pad and second score is 5/8″ above the first score.   Once you fold both of these scores, you should be able to fit your legal pad inside.   Because legal pads require more than a 12″ piece of paper, you’ll need a second set of DSP and blue 12″ paper adhered together and cut 1/2″ wider than the legal pad.  You will put this pad against the front cover and draw a line and cut the paper.  Using tear tape, adhere this to the piece of paper that wraps over the top from the front sheet.  Attach the paper with the words embossed into it on the top of the pad .  Rich cut out the part where I explained that I wanted to have washi tape on the top so it would make the seam reinforced.  The “beautiful” is washi tape.

Stampanda Stamp—I found through Groupon, a coupon for Stampanda to make the stamp I made.  It’s considered a square address stamp and in the end, I think it was $14.50.  I typed in my sentiment, so you can make it say whatever you want, but it was you will find it under square address stamps on the Stampanda site..

My green mat was an oven mat that came from Ebay and it was no longer available, but I found another one I liked that is $2.12  and is item #142156077801 on ebay.

 

I made a video tonight and it was a successful one.  The card came out great and I was really happy with it.  This is the first card I’ve made in days that I’ve been happy with.  I sometimes wonder if the big YouTube crafty people have days of misfires.  Do you think they sit and have absolutely no idea of what they should create?  I’m sure they do, but wouldn’t it be great if one of them started a video by saying, “I’ve been trying to come up with an idea for over a week and my mind is completely blank.”  Better yet, how about, “I’ve been making cards for over a week and they’ve all gone into the trash. ”  Now that’s something I’d love to hear.  It would make me feel so much more productive in times when things just don’t seem to be working.

I’d also like to have an assistant.  I know that sounds dumb, but once I explain it, you’ll want one too.  If I had an assistant, I’d use them like in an operating room, where the surgeon says, “Scalpel” and they hand him/her a scalpel.  If I had an assistant, my craft room would be clean and organized and I’d never have to wonder where I put something because my assistant would clean it and put it away as soon as I’ve finished with whatever tool I’m using.  Just think how clean my craft room would be.  I make poor Rich edit out all of my issues with not finding tools when I need them.  We leave in all of the mistakes, but if you knew how many times I lose things that are virtually right in front of me, you’d feel really sorry for Rich.  I can’t help it either.  I used to be a very organized person, but since taking on this channel, my craft room is a crazy mess and it never gets any more organized.  So until I either get an assistant (and we all know that’s never going to happen,) or I get organized (probably the same chance of that), my craft room is going to continue being a scary mess.  I think it’s a safe bet, it’s never going to improve.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything crafty today, as I spent most of the day at the college Rich and I attended.  Every year, I go back and talk about fraud in banking to an ethics class.  It’s a lot of fun and I enjoy doing it, but don’t think I’m cut out to be a teacher.

After that class I ran a seminar for the junior and seniors on interviewing. Next week, I’ll be there two days spending time practicing interviewing with the students.  It’s really exhausting, but the college is small, and their business and accounting departments are the biggest majors on campus.  This helps ensure the students get jobs and other schools don’t offer tools of this kind. It gives our students an edge and they are getting more jobs and internships than the schools they are compared with.

Rich and I both loved our time in college, and we’re always glad to do anything we can to help them.

Tomorrow, though, I’m back into card making.  I have a few ideas and am going to give them a whirl. I hope they turn out better than my last card as I’m still kind of freaked out by those results.  I did show the card to Rich, and he recommended that I stick with my plan of first shredding then burning it, so no one ever knows it existed.

My cousin, who is a new card maker, made a card for a baby shower and was embarrassed by her results. She said she tried to make it sound like a child had made it after she gave it to the expectant mother, joking of course..  The reason I’m telling this story is because I made a card tonight that is so bad, SO BAD, it looks like this is not just the first card I’ve ever made, but also that I don’t have a clue how certain medium work when you use them together.  I tried using alcohol markers with pigment inks.  Of course the alcohol markers bled into the pigment ink or the pigment ink bled through the marker.  Regardless, it was terrible, but you know me, I wouldn’t give up.  So I added Tim Holtz picket fence stain over the pigment ink.  That didn’t really make it look much better and, of course, I ended up with a little bit of alcohol marker on the dauber for the stain and the alcohol marker bled through the stain.  The reason I’m telling you this is because you’ll never, and I mean never, see this card.  It’s beyond redemption and I’m mad that I spent so much time on it before I threw in the towel.  I should have just taken one long look at it and made that decision about two hours before I did.  I should mail the card to my cousin with a note that makes her promise to destroy it as soon as she’s done laughing, or crying, because it is that bad.  But what if someone else accidentally looks over her shoulder and sees it, and knows I made it?  Or even worse, what if she looks at it and it makes her head explode from disbelief?  No, I think I better run it through the shredder, then burn the remains and never speak of it again.  That’s the best way to approach it I think.

So, now you know, it can happen to anyone.  Sometimes a card is just not meant to be.  Sometimes when you sit down and think you will produce something, you can’t or maybe just shouldn’t.  I think tonight was one of those nights.  I would have been better off watching television.