I’ve been really busy in the craft room falling in love with my peg stamps again.  I hate it when I forget about a crafty item that I really like using and then when I rediscover them, I’m hooked.  Such has been the case with these.

I found out that I like the open stamps better than the ones that are all ink.  I think the open stamps are so much more versatile–I can do so much more with inks and color combinations, they are just a joy to work with.

I also found that by using a pale background color, I can really make a cool vintage look with them.  The postcards I made came out so great and I think it was because of the grey background.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a project of mine if I didn’t do something in a much more difficult manner than I could have.  If I had stamped the sentiment first, I would have saved myself so much trouble, but that’s part of the joy of crafting..figuring out how to fix one of my many mistakes. It’s just another day in the life of crafting with Sandy.

I’ve been playing with my peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and absolutely love them.  Here’s a link to them as they also are referred to as peg stamps.
http://www.pegstamps.com/

I like their stamps because I can double and triple stamp with them and easily line them up to do it.  There is a line on the side of the peg that allows you to always place your stamp in the right spot on your paper.

I started with 110 pound cream cardstock from Recollections from Michaels cut 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″.  You definitely will want to use a very heavy cardstock because this is going through the mail as is.  I used Stampin’ Up ink called going gray for my background stamp and the stamp was called Pindot Plaid that is retired, but I’m sure you could find it on ebay..  I placed a 2 1/2″ circle that I punched out of cardstock in the center with a little bit of tape runner on the back to hold it in place.  I rubbed my finger over the tape to make sure it wasn’t super sticky.  I put the postcard with the circle face down on the inked large background stamp and put a scrap paper over it and rubbed the surface really well on all edges and especially around the circle.  Remove the circle and we are ready to stamp.
I have a postcard stamp that I used in the Misti but you could just draw the lines on the back and make a square where your stamp would go and not buy a postcard stamp.  I had it in my stash and I think I bought it on ebay if you do think you need one.  I stamped the postcard stamp with a Memento dew drop called grey flannel.

To watch Lindsay’s video, here Is the link.

If you are interested in the offer from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, you will need to spend at least $10 and the offer runs until 7/24/2016
and you use the promotion code LABELS to get a 20% discount.
The colors I used were all Memento Dew Drops, Angel Pink, Lulu Lavender, Love Letter, Sweet Plum, Rose Red and Northern Pine.

In the second postcard, I used northern pine, sweet plum and elderberry.

The stamps I used were
Running Cedar
Pinks
Rose Leaflets

My sentiment came from Rubbernecker Stamps.  I would recommend stamping your sentiment first before doing the flowers, but I never do things the easy way.

I used a Fantastik to color inside the pinks and you can find them at any craft store.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=JCfk_7psjjo

We spent some time with our nephews that live in Virginia when we were at the wedding last weekend.  They’ve never been to our house as we live almost two hours from the rest of Rich’s family.  They really loved the video of Rich’s man room and especially liked the story of how we used sweet n’ low packets for measurements for the booth we wanted to replicate.  Our contractor loved that system as well (not really).  If you’ve never watched that video, we were at a restaurant that had a booth that we really liked the look of.  We went back there for lunch one day and asked if we could photograph it and they said sure.  We forgot to bring anything to measure the booth or table with, so we used the paper placemats and sweet n’ low packets lined across the surface to determine its size.  All we had to do is hand the contractor the photos, placemat and sweet n’ low packet and we were good to go.  He thought it was pretty funny,  and we thought it was a good solution to our problem.  Since then, it’s never occurred to me that we could have taken the photo and determined the measurements from the placemat and sweet n’ low packets ourselves and given him that instead.  Isn’t it funny that it never occurred to us?

I’ve been meaning to do a video of our kitchen and sun room.  The same contractor tackled the sun room that had been a very dark paneled room that was (I believe) originally the back porch for the home.  It was one step down and I never liked it because the floor was cement with carpet on it and was always cold.  There was a huge bricked base for a free standing wood burning stove and a sliding glass door onto our deck.  When they changed it from a porch to a room, they used inexpensive paneling on the outside of the house and painted it a color to match the rest of the house that was brick.  That always kind of bugged me too, because it just looked odd.

I wanted a room that was light and airy and one that we could look at our backyard (that borders on a wooded area), and watch the birds and wildlife.  In the winter we feed a herd of deer and sometimes have over twenty, so it can be pretty entertaining.  There isn’t a television in the room, so we spend our time on our laptops and reading when we are there.

As for the kitchen, I wanted a contemporary look and we live in an area that most homes have a traditional look.  It was difficult to get the kitchen contractor to stray from his traditional roots, but after five months and a lot of heartache, the kitchen is exactly what I wanted.  We had so many setbacks and issues when we did the project, that I said I’d never remodel a kitchen again, I’d just sell the house and buy one with a kitchen I wanted.  I’m hoping to make the videos of those rooms in the next couple of weeks.  I really love the idea of remodeling and have redone most of our home to fit our needs.  Although I love the idea of it, it’s very stressful while in the process and I’m really glad it’s done.

It’s getting to be crunch time for the wedding album I’m making for my friend’s wedding next weekend.  I’ve done some work on it and decided I’m probably going to scrap a portion of what I have done.  Have you ever looked at a project and thought “this is just terrible?”  That’s where I’m at with this album.  I like the cover and the box that holds it.  There were small envelopes inside that I’ve covered with card stock, but they look terrible (in my opinion.)  I think they need to be scrapped and either make my own envelopes to hold tags, or skip them entirely.  I’m thinking scrapping them might be the way I go with them.  I’m probably my own worst critic when it comes to crafts, but this is one of those times that I think you would definitely agree with me.  It just looks bad.

I was shopping at Joanns with my girlfriend, Cora, and she thought I should buy some white cord to put around the jean pockets that are on the front of the album.  I bought a yard of it and was pretty happy with it until I lost it.  I’m not sure if it’s still in the bag (rhat I threw away), or if I put it in a “safe place.”  Probably put it in a safe (site to be determined) place. So I went to Michaels and bought more that was included in a set of white ribbons in their $1.50 racks.  It might work fine, but I’m mad that I lost the first cord.  What to do?  I need to get a couple more embellishments for it and I think it will be fine.

I’m really hooked on using the peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  I made postcards with them and today I covered a small notebook with pretty paper and then added a 2 1/2″ circle to the front with roses in different colors on the circle.  It looked so romantic and vintage and I was really pleased with the results.  I bought some of the peg stamps in a sea theme and I think I might make an underwater themed card with them tomorrow.  Maybe a smaller card.  I think it will really look cool using their stamps combined with some of my larger ones.

I made another notebook video and then decided I had already made a video showing people how to make a cover for their post it notes.  It’s funny that I am already not sure if I’m duplicating video ideas.  I wonder how someone who has been making videos for years keeps track of their content.  I’m already thinking I’ve replicated videos but maybe I can blame my problem on menopause.  Yes, I’m pretty sure I can’t remember duplicating ideas because menopause is making me unstable.  Is it menopause or just me?  I’m pretty sure it’s just me.

Today was our niece’s wedding.  It was outdoors at a barn and you walked through a field to get to it.  The scene was lovely but somehow there weren’t enough chairs for everyone so the people who owned the farm were scrambling to find seats for everyone.  As they were doing so, we were looking at the sky and thinking we should have brought umbrellas from our cars (which only a few people had.)  The bride started walking toward the event as the first drops of rain fell.  By the time she reached her groom, most of us were out of our chairs and under a nearby tree as it was really starting to rain.  Someone thought to bring a clear bubble-type umbrella for the bride and groom to reside under, while the rest of the bridal party got wet.  The rain was coming down so hard, you could barely see what was going on.  A few people who remained seated had brought golf umbrellas (smart), and their umbrellas blocked some of our view as well.  The bridal party were all very gracious about the rain and as soon as the ceremony was over, we hustled to a covered garage and waited out the downpour.  It only took another ten minutes until the rain ended, but by that point, we were completely soaking wet and laughing at each other.  I have to say that was a wedding to remember.

I made a postcard video today and had all kinds of issues but finally thought the video was complete.  I always watch my videos before I give them to Rich to edit and when I got to the point that I was going to stamp the sentiment, the camera shut off.  I knew there was no way to fix the video since I had already stamped the image, so I made another postcards exactly like the first.  I started filming at the point that I stamped the sentiment so I could finish the video exactly like I would have on the previous postcard.  Unfortunately, I forgot to push the record button, so I still had no video, and since I had stamped the sentiment, I had to redo the entire project yet again.  This time I gave myself time to regroup because my frustration was really starting to build.  I stamped everything pretty much the same, except I used different colors.  The end result is similar although the colors are not.  Let’s just say I couldn’t create one more of those postcards without losing my cool.  It’s just another day in the life of a crafter with more time than brains.  If it happened again, I would have scrapped the video, and probably would have on this one, except that I just tossed two other videos for being out of frame too much.  Three really isn’t the charm, believe me.

I have finished the outside cover of the album I’m making for my friend who is getting married.  I like the way it looks and thought I better get started on the inside.  I’m not crazy about the paper, it’s way too shiny for my taste and shows every tiny drop of glue.  I wanted to work on the envelopes that I will be turning into spots for my tags and journaling.  I covered four of them and really don’t like the way they look.  The paper shows every little mishap, every wrinkle, every drop of glue under the paper and in general, just appear sloppy.  I was going to say unprofessional, but I’m not sure how professional any handmade project will be.  I want this to look good for my girlfriend, like something she will be proud to own.  So far I think the cover meets those expectations, but once she opens it, it’s a scary mess.  (In my opinion.)

I’m wondering if other crafters admit to their mistakes in their blogs or if I’m the only one who airs my dirty laundry.  Now that is a great saying and here’s the scoop on it.