I chose a Stampin’ Up small flower punch as well as two Martha Stewart punches. A leaf and branch punch and a cherry blossom border punch. The stamp set I’m using is from Stampin’ Up and is called “Another Thank You” and it is retiring at the end of June, so it is still available to buy.

I used 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″  which makes it 8 1/2″ long when unfolded, white cardstock as well as an orange piece the same size.

I used a variety of brads and glittery sticky backed embellishments that I bought at Michaels.

The inks I used were real red from Stampin’ Up and Versafine Onyx Black.

I used a wooden stamp that says “You’re simply the best.” that I don’t know where I got it. The background stamp that is used is also a retired set from Stampin’ Up and is from a set called Confetti.

I used an acrylic block that I bought at a stamp show for $2 and Tombow Mono Aqua adhesive to attach my flower border.

 

 

 

I made a card that’s really masculine and really attractive for the fourth in the series of scrap and punch cards.  It involves a ticket punch and a lot of tickets, I mean A LOT!  I really liked the way it ultimately looked like wallpaper and I’m pretty happy with the results.

I’ve gotten a lot of great ideas of projects to do going forward and it’s helping me to see what others are interested in viewing.  I really like finding out what others find interesting and am looking forward to putting some or all of them into videos.

I got a request today to discuss my favorite crafting knife.  I don’t think I have a favorite, but am definitely going to be looking into buying more so I have a good representation of them.  I’ll do some research first to make sure I find ones that are both sturdy and light weight.  I’m also going to do a comparison of bone folders as that was one tool that took me seemingly forever to find one I liked.  The ideas keep pouring in and I’m so excited that they are.

I got an email from a friend that warned me about people assuming other people’s identities to win YouTube prizes. I even watched a video of a woman who had it happen to her channel.  Is that crazy or what?  I can’t imagine the prizes would be worth the work it would take to assume someone else’s YouTube identity.  Honestly, can people really be that desperate?  I know the answer and that is, no, they aren’t that desperate, but they are either that bored, or that greedy, or that pathetic.  My career was spent watching people do whatever they could to defraud the bank.  People will do virtually anything for money.  And I mean anything.  I’ve sold things on Ebay that were antiques and people would buy them and then tell me the inside of the lid had a chip from shipping.  You can’t get a chip on the inside of a lid from shipping.  It is impossible.  So I would tell them to send it back so I could look for the mark that I put on my pieces that can only be seen with a black light.  I never heard from them again.  Huh.  So they had the same piece with a broken lid and they wanted a new lid for free.    When you spend almost twenty years making sure people didn’t steal money from the banks you were running, you most certainly know when you are being scammed.  So if you are thinking about trying to take one of the prizes my viewers will be winning, think again.  You are messing with the wrong girl.

The 500 subscriber giveaway video went live last night and it’s really taking off.  We’ve had ninety views already and I’ve gotten a lot of really good ideas for upcoming videos from the comments viewers have left.  I’m thrilled that it’s getting the response it has.

The second “scrap and punch” card video also went up this morning.  I really liked it and hope the viewers do too.  I also have the third card video done as well.  I’m not sure when Rich will put it up.

I got a really great idea for the fourth card.  I bought a set of dies that are puzzle pieces.  I’ll need to find a paper punch to use as well, but my thinking was to use the back of scrap paper to stamp a design on and then die cut the puzzle pieces from the watercolor.  I can separate them a little and line them with black paper so they stand out.  At least that’s my plan for now, it could be a huge failure if the paper is too thin for water coloring on.  I’ll have to look at my scrap paper to find one that is thick enough.  So that’s the idea, and I hope it works.

Our 500 subscriber contest is live, YAY!  I’m so excited and hope we have a big response to it.  The video has only been live for about an hour and we already have three comments.

I thought I should get busy with the scrap and punch card series and made a card with flowers punched all over it.  I thought it came out pretty well, but maybe not as nice as the second card,  with the bird on it.  Unfortunately, Rich put the videos up in the wrong order, so the bird card will be uploaded tonight and go live tomorrow AM.

I also did a little cleaning in the craft room today, and it could stand a few more days of cleaning, so maybe tomorrow I’ll make another commitment to clean.  Maybe not.

I’ve never liked the way my colored pencils have looked on Mandalas until I watched Cherthefire blend using Vaseline to blend with.  She has a video that I will link here that gives twelve different blending techniques.

I am using my large set of Prismacolor Premier pencils.  I also used a set of colored pencils I got in a metal box from Michaels and I could not get them to absorb the Vaseline, so it didn’t seem to work on all pencils.

The least expensive Prismacolor Premiers that I have found is on my set of 132 was from Dickblick.com and it was $102.99 but you can get a set of 12 to try them for $12.19.  They are a very velvety texture and I’ve heard a lot of people discuss their quality control.  Prismacolors are supposed to have problems with the leads’ breaking, but I’ve not had that happen to mine.

The gel pens I used were from Sakura Glaze pens.  $13.99 at target.com.

I also used a black Sharpie and Staples currently has a 12 pack for $6.

Uni Posca Paint Marker White 3 pack from Amazon Prime $8.03

Beautiful Mandalas Volume 1 by Elena Bogdanovych was the book I was coloring in and I found it on Ebay now, for the lowest price.

My plan for tomorrow is to film the 500th subscriber video.  I was going to incorporate it into a bigger video, but why?  Let’s just celebrate the moment and talk about some prizes.  YouTube has very specific rules about contests so I’m going to have viewers comment on the video, and on a specific date at a specific time, I’ll go to a website that picks random numbers from a number it is given.  Then I count the comments until I get to each of the five numbers and those people will win the prizes.  It’s not hard to do and it complies with YouTube guidelines.

As for the prizes, I’m sending each person a Stampin’ Up set of stamps and hope they will enjoy them.  I know if I won anything from commenting on a website, I’d be happy.  Hopefully they will be as well.

I am so excited to exceed 500 subscribers and frankly, am surprised that we’re growing as quickly as we are. Rich and I hoped we would have viewers, but never thought about the channel growing.  It’s thrilling and we are so happy and proud that it is.  So thank you, for subscribing to the channel and we hope you enjoy the videos.

I had a great time today finding fun crafty things at rummage sales.  I found a really big set of shelving that will work perfectly for holding crafty things and although I don’t have a lot of room for shelves, I’ve found I find things easier when I arrange them within shelving units.

I’m hoping to get the shelving unit in and filled within the next couple of days.  It was such a great day, the weather was perfect and the sky was bright blue.  I found a couple of great places for Rich to photograph and we like to take small road trips to do that.  There was a chicken coop with probably one hundred chickens that sat in the middle of a field with nothing around it.  It was unusual because it had a solar panel on the roof.  I’m not sure why that struck me as odd, but I wasn’t sure why the chickens needed electricity.  I envisioned chickens sitting around a space heater warming their wings.  I need to get out more.