Some days you just want to hang out and do little or nothing, so we went to see “Jason Bourne.”  There’s nothing like watching a good action movie on a Tuesday afternoon and eating so much popcorn, you feel kind of sick.  Of course as soon as we got home I started thinking about my next video and some cards I need to make.  I need to make a couple more sympathy cards, a birthday card and a thinking of you card.  I didn’t want to make any more sympathy cards until I got a new set of sentiments.  I think it’s important when you are making cards for someone’s loss that you really say something that shows how much you care.  I don’t really like “with sympathy” or “for your loss” as neither really says much in the way of “I am so sorry for your pain and for the heartache you are experiencing.”  Isn’t that what they should say instead?  I found a stamp set that had a lot more “heart” in it and it finally came today.  I’m going to get serious about making the next two cards now and get them mailed.

As for the birthday card, it’s for a friend who is in his early thirties. I have this funny herd of animals stamp that will make a great card for him.  I even think I’ll be gluing some googly eyes on it.  I’m rolling my eyes even considering the use of googly eyes, but I guess I’ve finally turned into my mother.  Yikes!  I think I’ll watercolor the animals and make them really frisky.

The last card is a thinking of you and it’s for our friend who has been extremely ill.  I’ve been trying to send him cards every couple of weeks so he knows we are thinking about him.  We’ve been friends since college, 1978 is a really really long time ago.  He was so much fun and so full of life, that I can’t even begin to imagine him ill.  I have so many photographs from those days and he was always doing something fun in them.  I’d like to have the chance to visit and remember some of those crazy times with him. One of his son’s is 20, and  I think he would love to hear all about some of the things his dad did when he was young.  I think we all love to hear stories about our parents.  Although it was a lifetime ago to his children, to us it seems like yesterday.  Life is funny that way, isn’t it?

I thought it would be fun to make a project that I could make and stamp a bunch to give to my local library for a kid’s art project.
My card stock was 8 1/2″ tall x 3″ wide and I used a variety of colored 65 pound card stock.  If you use tape runner, you can attach two of them together to make a thicker book mark as well as ensure the alcohol ink doesn’t bleed through to the back of the book mark.  I used a monster stamp from Woodware as well as a giraffe stamp from Penny Black and a To and From stamp.  I used a variety of alcohol ink markers from Spectrum Noir, as well as Bic and Sharpie markers to color my monsters.  I also used a white Uni Posca paint marker on the teeth of my monsters and the eyes of them.  I used a black gel pen and drew around the edges of all of the monsters and outlined their teeth and eyes.   I cut a piece of clear contact paper about 3 1/2″ wide and the length of the width of the contact paper then pulled enough backing off of the contact paper to lie the length of my bookmark on it.  Then I laid the bookmark on that contact paper and started pulling the backing off of the rest of the contact paper and carefully covered the other side of the bookmark with my contact paper.

I decided I’m going to start making projects for the kids at my local library so I made a bookmark and stamped a bunch of them to give to the library.  I’ve given them a lot of markers and colored pencils and scrapbook paper, but never anything they could use to keep kids occupied.  I love the library and donate money there in memory of people who have passed away instead of flowers.  If they designate where they want gifts to be sent, then I send the money there, but otherwise, it goes to the library.  Rich and I really enjoy spending time at our local library and I’m crazy about reading.  Rich reads a lot on vacation, but normally, reads magazines at home.  I only read magazines on vacation and always take a lot of books with me when we go on trips.  I have a Kindle but prefer reading the old fashion way.  I love the smell and feel of books and hope that libraries do not become obsolete in my lifetime, but they probably will.  I remember when we were in school and had to write term papers. It seemed we would spend forever doing research in the library.  I wonder if kids do anything but use the internet for research today.  Probably not.

At least little kids still read books the old fashioned way and my bookmarks will go to good use. I’m going to stop by and ask if there are any other projects they would be interested in having me make for the kids who spend time there.  It’s a great place for kids to go, especially when it’s hot and they don’t have air conditioning in their homes.   It’s also a great place to donate craft supplies that we no longer need or  want.  Libraries are always looking for crafty ideas to occupy young minds.

I made another sympathy card today and had one complete fail and then a card that I think will be ok.  I’m starting to think that my cards look a lot alike.  I like to mix the medium I color with, but generally, my cards are fairly straight forward.  I think a lot of card makers have a distinctive style.  I’m not sure exactly what my style is, but I think it usually involves layers, fun foam, a large open stamp that I can color, and some type of coloring medium. Oh, and of course, ribbon.  I need to break out of my box and make different cards that don’t resemble anything I’ve made before, but the times I’ve tried to make a change, the card isn’t worth sending and ends up in the scrap pile.

I do admire other card makers and their styles and especially Lindsay, the Frugal Crafter, because her cards are never the same and that really impresses me.  She tries all kinds of techniques and layers things you wouldn’t think would go together, but when she tries it, they do.  I realize that she has been making cards for a very long time, but I wish I had more of her creative vision.  I’m going to need to break out of my comfort zone and try something new and different.  It could be soon!

I’ve been looking for new ideas for a background for my YouTube crafting videos and found this roll of wallpaper for 25 cents at a yard sale.  You can always find wallpaper at thrift stores as well or ask friends and family for their old wallpaper..
I used my old background as a base, but a poster board from the Dollar Tree for 69 cents will work, as would a piece of cardboard (chipboard), or nothing at all.  Just folding a piece of wallpaper in half and gluing it together should work just find.

Measure the length of wallpaper you want for your project.  In my case, the width of the roll of wallpaper is perfect for my needs.   I attached a piece of 1″ wide double sided tape (you could use wet glue or any other type of adhesive) across the bottom of the front of my poster board and across the top of the back of my poster board.  I wrapped the wallpaper around the back of the poster board and  folded a couple of inches around the bottom front and made a fold at the bottom.  I removed the backing of my double sided tape on the bottom front of my poster board, and pressed the wallpaper into the tape.  I then lifted my poster board and removed the backing from the double sided tape that was on the top back of the poster board and keeping the wallpaper straight, pressed it into the tape and made another fold at the top of the poster board.  I added another piece of double sided tape across the top and middle of the poster board, removed the backing off the top piece and pressed the wallpaper into the tape, then did the same with the middle.  I ended by putting double sided tape over the wallpaper at the bottom of the poster board on the front, removed the backing, and pressed the wallpaper into the tape.  I then cut the wallpaper so it was even with the bottom of the poster board.
The thing that is great about this, is that wallpaper won’t reflect the lights and would be perfect for photographing things you want to sell on ebay, act as a background for any kind of smaller photography, as well as act as a background for YouTube craft videos.  I think it’s a great use of a product that normally ends up in the trash.
Best prices I have found on double sided tape are at Punch Place Plus. com for 30 yard rolls and Ebay.  On Ebay, I like the seller named my_1989 as his prices are low for 10 yard rolls.  The only drawback is waiting for their tape to come from China.

I bought a bunch of stamps from Joanns.com from a company called Woodware and I am crazy about them.  They have so many really large stamps that are perfect for coloring and I am OBSESSED with them.  I’m not sure exactly how I’ll store them, but will probably have to revert to the three ring binder system as they are too big to fit into the cd cases that I have been using. I have to say, I am really loving the cd case system, especially when I watch them on videos.  You can clearly see the stamp set, the name of the maker and the name of the stamp set from the label I attach to the top.  For me, I can readily find the sets I’m looking for and have them categorized by sentiment, animals, flowers, and other in my storage case, so I know where to look to find the stamps I’m looking for.

But back to Woodware.  I think their stamps are really interesting and classic so they won’t go out of style soon.  Speaking of classic stamps, I found another Carolyn Shores Wright bird stamp that I have never seen before.  I didn’t care that I had to pay too much for it, because I know I’ll use it a lot.  It’s two birds sitting on a limb above what looks like a frame and inside the frame is a sentiment.  I think the sentiment is fine, but I think I’ll be masking it a lot and putting my own inside.  I’ll be stamping and coloring it today and a video of it will go up in the next few weeks.  I have to say few weeks because Rich is so backlogged with videos, I’m not sure when he will get to it.  I think he has seven or eight that he needs to put up, including an album that will take him a long time to edit because it involves several small clips.  He’s a trooper though, and has been working out all of the kinks we’ve had.  The audio is now fixed and the only thing that was left was to make sure the music volume was the same as my voice.  He corrected that in today’s video of the background out of wallpaper, so we are on a HUGE roll and I am thrilled!  YAY!  Life is GOOD!

I found a really cute little kids’ chair at a garage sale with a wicker seat.  I’m not sure about the color of it, but I think it will be a great planter once I’ve refurbished it.  I almost hate cutting the wicker off the seat because it is really cute, but the wicker doesn’t really work for my purposes.  I have a very good friend who has a lake house and I’d like to make a gift for her.  She just had a huge tree removed from her front yard and isn’t able to grow anything there.  Because it was such a large tree, the stump has left a rather sizable mound behind and the chair should work perfectly there.

Becky’s been through a rough couple of weeks with her mom, who had a horrible fall resulting in breaking her hip as well as needing screws and plates to repair it.  I think Becky would benefit from a little “thinking of you” gift and I’d like to turn the chair into that present.

I need to make a trip to see her mom, so I should get serious about refurbishing the chair today.  The reburbishing will require a trip to my local plant store, where they are offering huge discounts on their hanging planters.  I’ll take the hanger off and drop the planter into the chair to complete the project.  Luckily, I was at another sale where the seller had a bunch of silk flowers, bags of moss accessories for wreaths and little embellishments that will work for this project as well.  All in all, it was a great day to find things to remake a child’s chair into something cute.

I’ve been playing with the new rotary paper trimmers I bought yesterday at Staples.  I thought it would be fun to cut a whole bunch of pieces of paper, so decided I would make book marks for our local library for the kids to color.  I cut cardstock at 3″ x 8 1/2″ and cut twenty or thirty of them and really liked the trimmer.  Unfortunately, I still can’t figure out how to cut a ten inch piece of paper on the new professional trimmers because I can’t find a pull out ruler to make it longer than 9″ long.  I’m really frustrated by it and need to do some serious research to figure out how to cut at the 10″ mark.

I used some cute little monster stamps for the bookmarks and colored one for a video.  Why not?  Kids aren’t the only ones who like monster bookmarks, Rich is really happy with his.

Funny enough, after all of the whining I’ve done about my paper trimmer, I finally buy the rotary trimmers last night and today the replacement Fiskars trimmer arrived.  Isn’t that a great coincidence?

I have one more big social media announcement!  We are now on Instagram!  Crafting for Almost Everyone is our Instagram name.  It’s really exciting for us because A.C. Moore contacted me about being a part of their social media.  They will be featuring different people each month and they’ve asked me if they can feature me.  Rich and I are thrilled!  We won’t know anything more until they decide it’s time for us to be featured and I will keep you in the loop as soon as I know any more about it.  YAY!

My card is 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ tall. It is 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ scored at 4 1/4″  You make a second card that is 5 1/4″ x 4 1/8″ tall which is 5 1/4″ x 8 1/4″ tall and scored at 4 1/8″.  I used a Creative Memories cutting system to cut my oval out of the smaller card and if you don’t have the Creative Memories system, you could use an oval punch or a circle punch or trace a circle and cut it out with a craft knife.

I used a Stampin’ Up set called Too Kind and another Stampin’ Up set called Blooming with Kindness for my sentiments.  I stamped one below the oval on the smaller card and one inside the bigger card.  I used a beige cardstock for the smaller card and a craft colored card stock for the larger card.

The smaller card is folded in the opposite direction from the larger card.  You will open the small card and stamp around the oval with your stamps.  The Raindrops on Roses stamps are not available, but all of the peg stamps are.

I used Old Olive ink for my sea grass peg stamp.  I used a crab stamp and used markers in More Mustard from Stampin’ Up and with another Baked Brown Sugar marker, I made some small spots on the crab.  I used Spectrum Noir Marker CR1 on the crab as well. The coral stamp is retired from Stampendous and I used markers, Lost Lagoon, Rose Romance and River Rock.. I used a starfish peg stamp with river rock marker.  I used two sea shells stamps with Soft Suede.  The bigger shell is the fancy shell peg stamp and the smaller is the Babylon small shell peg stamp.  I used Cool Caribbean Stampin’ Up ink and a Judikins Stipple Brush to blend blue color around the top and sides of the front of the card with the oval as well as inside around the fish.
On the inside of the oval, I stamped three fish from stamps that were from my stash and some bubbles then stamped coral around them to match the front of the card.  I also stamped a seahorse peg stamp inside the card with the river rock marker.  I colored my fish with the same markers, Rose Romance, River Rock and Baked Brown Sugar.
You will need a baggie that you can seal, I used a Smart Sealer, here’s the link to it on Amazon.   https://www.amazon.com/USB-Rechargable-Smart-Sealer-Re-sealer/dp/B00XJZMMXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470361410&sr=8-1&keywords=smart+sealer

You can use your own baggie and seal it with wet glue and tape around the edges or use the baggie with the Smart Sealer and make the bag just a little larger than your oval.  Fill the bag with a couple tablespoons of hair gel or just enough that the bag has gel everywhere you look but not overly thick.  I use LA Looks from the Dollar Tree because it’s blue and has bubbles in it.  You will want to surround the inside of the oval with foam tape and attach your bag to it and make sure the foam tape is larger than the baggie so the card can close.  Put tear tape on the back of the small card and attach it  centered to the front of the  larger card base.  Stamp the sentiment inside the larger card and put matching washi tape on your envelope.

I went to Staples for a new laptop and found this incredible deal on paper trimmers.  I found a clearance cart with four different types of rotary trimmers by Carl.  Staples did not have the correct price on their trimmers, so people were not buying them.  The prices range from $1 to $4.  My Staples did not have the correct prices on these trimmers, so if you find them, ask for them to do a price check on them.  The clearance prices were on 8/3/2016 at my Staples.  Good luck and I hope you find them!