We aren’t normally social butterflies, but yesterday we went to lunch and a movie with our college friends that love movies. We saw “Night School” with Kevin Hart. It was all you would expect from the title, but there was a scene that was so funny, we couldn’t stop laughing. If you have an experience like that at a movie, it’s worth the price of admission. In fact, we laughed about it all afternoon. If you’re feeling a little bit like the weather, rainy and dreary, you might need to take a small trip to the movies.
When we got home, I wanted to finish a birthday present for a close friend. She’s had a tough year, losing her mother that she was very close to….so I wanted to try to make a special day for her. I covered a glass plate with a vibrant fall material and used a Mod Podge safe for dishwasher’s to coat it. It came out better than I expected (you’ll see the video), and I made chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries for on top. You need to let the plate set for 28 days, so I covered both sides with plastic wrap so the smell or any residue didn’t get near the food….Then I bought her some cute presents and found a pin I had from her mother, and attached the bee pin to one of the presents. I think it will make her happy…she may cry, but only because of her loss, and that’s to be expected.
She’s the last of her husband, Rich and I, to still have a parent, and now we are the family that we celebrate holidays with, as we don’t have any relative nearby. It’s sad once you lose your family nucleus, but we are so lucky to have each other…I know Thanksgiving won’t be easy for her, but we’ll make it as light as we can. We’ve all been through it after all, and know how hard it will be.
Some days you feel like you don’t accomplish very much, but today, I actually did. I finally found and listed all of my 2017 Hero Arts Monthly kits that I had never opened. Not one of them. I’m so ashamed that I bought them, didn’t like them enough to use them, and just stacked them in the basement. It’s embarrassing and so stupid.
So I put them on Ebay. I hadn’t listed anything there for years, and it’s changed so much since last I put something on. Now you are supposed to link the listing to your facebook page, which I did, but then felt kind of dirty about. I know some viewers might be interested in the kits, but I don’t want anyone to think I’m desperate to sell them..I just want them out of my house. And since I did “Buy it Now,” Ebay sets the prices that they think the items should be listed for and I just went with what they said. Maybe I should have lowered the prices to something more reasonable, but the suggestion was to start with their number and ask for offers…So I did that, but now feel a little bit slimy. I sometimes wish I didn’t have such a huge guilt complex, but there you go.
It took Rich and I three hours to list six or seven things. We aren’t the greatest at copying and pasting images, especially when ebay sets a minimal limit for pixels…at least that’s what I think they called them. So I’m giving my self a pat on the back for actually following through and doing something useful for a change. I have accumulated so many things that I need to part with, and this was a good first step.
Yesterday I went to the dentist, who told me I needed to get a crown on one of my teeth. You probably don’t know this, but i hate the dentist and anything related to him, so this was not news that I was looking to get. So I went into a state of funk and ate a bunch of Halloween candy and then worked on a Double Slider card that was a total nightmare. I probably should have spaced out the dentist and a card that was difficult, but that’s not how I roll. I had finished the card the day before and showed it to Rich, and somehow the mechanism came apart so I was trying to fix that…not very successfully so far. Darn it.
So today I decided to do laundry and run errands. I ran a couple of errands and came home. It was really rainy and not the best weather to do anything outside. In the end, I spent the day finalizing the editing on several videos and contemplating ones I need to do tomorrow, since I accomplished virtually nothing today. Some days just go like that.
And since this afternoon, my computer lighting is off and I can barely read what I’m typing. I’m not in the mood to shop for a new laptop, so am hoping it’s just having an off day.
Every year Rich dresses up for our trick or treaters. He likes to decorate the front porch so it’s a little spooky, so I included that.
He only gets between 5-10 kids, and this year, sadly, only five, but he loves it and so do the kids. If there are any small children, he takes out his teeth and tells them he’s not really scary, and he always feels badly if one starts to cry…But the next year, that same child is ready and will try to scare Rich first.
I hope you laughed at the craziness that is the Parkers….
I bought the bat at A C Moore last year.
The door mat came from a store called At Home last year
The pumpkin Rich carved came from Joann Fabrics and he learned to cut the skeleton from a carving book we bought at Big Lots.
I wanted to make a video showing a comparison of the same image colored with inexpensive watercolors, colored pencils, and alcohol markers. We sometimes think we can’t afford to get a great result, because the videos we watch are made with expensive tools.. I thought if we compared using basically the same colors, but with different mediums, we can see if the cost has any impact on colored results.
I started with alcohol markers, Studio 71, Copic YR04, Touch Fives in 48, 123, 124, 81, 83, and 135. Touch Five set of 168 Ebay: $61 http://tinyurl.com/ycaudmbp I bought this set because it has a lot of light tones and I use more lights than any other colors, as it is the base for all of my work, then I add in the darker tones and go back over it with the light to blend everything… Touch Five set of 80 Ebay $30.99 http://tinyurl.com/y9kjw7s8 Animation. Touch Five sells other sets of 80 markers, in different color palettes. I’d check them out to see which set meets your needs before buying any. The set of 168 includes all of the colors that you’ll find in the smaller specialized sets.
The colored pencils are from Prismacolor set of 72 Ebay: $35.00 http://tinyurl.com/y9vww8et There are other much cheaper sets calling themselves Prismacolor Premier pencils on ebay. If you want to make sure you are buying the authentic ones, they should be in a black tin with a woman on the front holding grapes. The inexpensive ones say they are Prismacolor, but in the explanation, say they are compared to Prismacolors, but are called Platinum on the top flap of the box..These are not Prismacolors.. DickBlick.com $39.99 http://tinyurl.com/yavuwxhb –I like Dick Blick’s site because you can buy certain individual colors of the pencils if you prefer..
The watercolors are a set of 42 with no name on them. Here are a couple links and the prices at those locations. Amazon: $14.96 http://tinyurl.com/yasvk3al Ebay: $13.34 http://tinyurl.com/yamv3jrb
Aliexpress’s prices are now higher than those on Ebay, so I didn’t include them.
I wanted my cards to be able to go in business sized envelopes, so the card base is 9 3/8″ tall and 3 1/4″ wide. I lined it with a gray paper that is 3 1/2″ wide by 8 1/2″ tall—I wanted to use one piece of cardstock for all of my inserts, so that’s why they are shorter than they could have been…they normally would have been 9 1/8″ tall instead of 8 1/2″.
To make the front of the card, I wanted to use ripped paper. I started with 9 1/8″ tall cut paper, then ripped the paper toward me to get a white edge. I ripped three pieces of card stock that looked good with the colors I was using in Frankenstein’s coloring. I took the first ripped piece and laid the center piece over it, and the third piece needs to be applied so after laying it the first two pieces about 1/8″ from the left side of the card, I put the third piece under them until there would be a 1/8″ gap from the right edge. Then I glued it to the other two papers.
I love the Kadomaru Pro corner rounder. I bought it at Amazon for under $10 but they’ve since raised the price. Here’s the link to it. http://tinyurl.com/y9exs5nc
I used Fabriano hot press watercolor paper from a 9 x 12″ pad. I bought it at AC Moore and think with coupons, they offer the best prices for it. NOTE: I did not like using alcohol markers on this paper as it balled and didn’t blend at all..
I only wanted to color the face of Frankenstein so you wouldn’t have to watch all of the coloring. Frankenstein came from a company called Stamplistic and is called Frankie, and here’s a link to it. $14.00 http://tinyurl.com/y9zqtr95
I used a Loew Cornell natural hair brush #5 for my watercoloring.
When I used colored pencils, I don’t like to see the lines in my coloring, so I learned a great tip from Cher the Fire, in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luC6GMVBlbw where you dip the tip of the pencil lead (ONLY, not on the wood), into Vaseline, and color with it, then IMMEDIATELY wipe the Vaseline off the pencil lead.
If you can’t tell the difference between the images, (like me,) then it tells all of us that we don’t need to spend a ton of money on tools to get the results we would like. I hope this helped you recognize that, as it did me…
I’ve been working on a card that is one the has a pull tab and pushes an image up into the center circle, and finally finished it. It’s quite an accomplishment and took me a long time to make sure I was doing everything correctly, since I didn’t use a die. I got it finished and handed it to Rich to demonstrate, he pulled the tab, and broke it off the pulley system. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to cry…I’m not sure how to take the card apart, as it has about ten rows of foam tape holding the layers together. Some days just don’t go like we hope they will.
I need to make a couple more cards in the next two days, as it’s one of my closest friend’s birthday and my sister’s birthday on the same day, November 2nd. I’m already sweating because I’m late in getting my sister’s gift in the mail, so now that her cards not done, I’m feeling even more pressure. Yikes, I need to get serious and fix today’s card (for my sister’s husband whose birthday was at the end of September….yes I know I’m a little bit late, and now I have two more cards to make. I’m going to have to get serious about making them.
Did I already tell you about the three cards I made that were all the same except I used different mediums, so people would see that they don’t have to spend a lot of money on supplies to get a good look. I used inexpensive watercolors, colored pencils, and alcohol markers, and you almost can’t tell which is which. I think it’s a good project to help people really see the results you can get when using each product.
I didn’t accomplish much today, but answered a lot of comments and put up the demonstration video from the expo. I have now been getting comments about people missing seeing me instead of the expo techniques…I guess they’ve seen enough of them.
Tomorrow I’m going to try doing the same stamped image, but making several of the same one, only with different mediums. I thought it might be fun to color one with watercolor paints, one with watercolor pencils, one with watercolor crayons and one with alcohol markers. I might throw a couple extra ideas in when I start doing them. I thought it would be interesting to see which one has the most appeal and then I’ll know what mediums work best for me. I’m not sure if anyone else will care about this idea, but it might help me in the future.
Rich has been playing with paracord. it’s what they use for military key chains and a long time ago, we donated money to a group that retrains dogs for ex-military, and they sent us a paracord bracelet. Rich loved it and has worn it until it’s so faded that it looks terrible. He decided he wanted to try to make one for himself, and did. He did a terrific job and I’m hoping it’s something he’ll be willing to do on video. I haven’t seen him in action, but once it’s second nature for him, I think he’ll do the video. I think he’s been delaying making his Christmas card video, and as much as viewers keep reminding me, he’s still a little leery about trying it. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if we can get this show on the road.
Beverly Cole, from Sparkle n’ Sprinkle demonstrated how to make a glitter background with double sided tape at the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo Rich and I attended..
If you’ve never purchased anything from Sparkle n’ Sprinkle, here’s a link so you can get five free glitters. https://sparklensprinkle.net/collections/5-free-glitters-new-customers
Beverly starts with 2 1/2″ wide double sided tape link: https://sparklensprinkle.net/products/2-1-2-double-sided-tear-ific-tape-small-roll-sat15
and took the back lining paper off of one side and gently laid a piece of cardstock on the side that’s now sticky. She rubbed it to make sure the tape was well adhered. Next, Beverly removed the other release paper from the double sided tape to lay her stencil on.
Before Beverly adhered her Dreamweaver Stampendous stencil called Bare Trees (link: http://tinyurl.com/yc72y8aj),
she rubbed the back of the stencil with Hawaiian Coconut Oil Soap (link: http://tinyurl.com/y93xuopw)
so the metal stencil would not permanently adhere to the sticky tape.
Beverly made sure the stencil was well adhered to the tape, then took a clean flattened coffee filter, and put it under the project to catch her excess glitter. She used:
She starts with the Purple Rain glitter to do the skyline (top third of the stencil,) then uses the Campfire glitter for the middle third, and Luau Green for the bottom third of the stencil. With each color, she used a different filter and really burnished the glitter into the stencil with her finger to ensure the glitter covers the area she wants..…it’s really important to make sure the glitter covers the entire area, otherwise, the black will fill it in later, and that’s not what you’re looking for.
After Beverly used one color, she tapped the stencil over her coffee filter. With Purple Rain, she put the excess glitter back in the bottle. After that, you risk cross contaminating, if you put the Fireside into it’s jar from the filter, as the Purple Rain could be in there too..If you look closely at the glitter that’s in the filter and it doesn’t appear to have another color in it, you can put it back in the bottle..It’s best to use a little less glitter each time, just enough to cover the area you want in that color, and tossing the rest, so if it does have other colors in it, you won’t be wasting much.
After you’ve covered the entire stencil area with glitter, gently remove the stencil from the paper…You’ll want to try not to put your fingers in the sticky area, as it removes the stickiness if you do. Once the stencil has been removed, take the Black Ice glitter (with a filter under your project) and cover the entire thing with Black Ice glitter. Really rub it in and then take a glitter brush to remove any excess.. Glitter brush: https://sparklensprinkle.net/products/glitter-brush-sg1400
Last night we celebrated Halloween. I know it’s odd, but here we have always done trick or treat on the Thursday night before Halloween. Then the Saturday night before Halloween, we have a Halloween parade in our downtown. I’m not sure what the reasoning is for either date, but that’s how it’s been done here since I can remember. For the first time since having the YouTube channel, I decided to videotape Rich. He likes to dress up like a vampire and entertain the kids. I thought my viewers would enjoy seeing how much effort he puts into the event. Sadly, we don’t get very many kids, and this year we only had five. Five kids, what a bummer. We give full size candy bars or bags of candy to try to entice kids to come to us. We live on a dead end street with several houses, but many of them don’t participate giving candy, so the kids that used to come here, now go elsewhere. I think it’s a real shame when people can’t find it in their hearts to get a bag of candy to share with five to ten kids. The most we’ve ever had is fifteen, and that was in one of the first years we lived here (and we’ve lived here twenty-five years.) I remember one year, a boy came back to tell Rich that Rich gave the best treats on the block. It made Rich’s Halloween… Last night we decided to go big or go home, and made a bag with a Pez dispenser shaped like a witch or a vampire with Pez candies, small Snickers bars, chocolate eye balls, a couple of small Reese’s cups, and a pair of vampire teeth with a packet of fake blood. Rich thought the kids who came here might tell their friends, so that next year we get a few more trick or treaters. I love his enthusiasm, but doubt anyone will remember a year from now. For his sake, I hope it works, but I’m starting to worry that we’ll hit a year where we get no kids, as many are not doing traditional trick or treating, and our neighborhood is aging, so we have very few kids to start with.
I put the apron video online last night and this morning I had a comment from Lindsay the Frugal Crafter. Since I’ve learned almost everything I know from her, it’s an honor whenever she takes the time to watch one of my videos. It’s so nice to know that she watches videos from small channels like mine…YAY!
I bought a canvas apron at A C Moore specifically to try the Arteza Fabric Markers on. The nice people at Arteza sent me the set of 24 fabric markers.
If you are interested in the fabric markers, here’s a discount code to use in October for an additional 10% and free shipping..the code is SPOOKY10. This link will take you to the fabric markers http://tinyurl.com/y9yznadh (As always, I don’t make any money from your purchases of the products I demonstrate in my videos.)
You can buy canvas aprons at any craft store. I wanted to use templates so my coloring would stay within the patterns I chose. So I took a rectangle die and a small circle die and cut them out of cardboard scraps. I made sure to cut them more than once, so I didn’t spread one color onto another. I accidentally did that with the yellow box, as I had orange on the edges of the cardboard template and smeared it onto the yellow rectangle. So make sure you change your template when you go from a darker color to a lighter one… I colored the markers in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo an violet. I didn’t have a true indigo, so only used six colors (as I didn’t have room for a seventh.) I then used the circle dies with additional colors (staying on the pockets of my apron.) I put a piece of cardboard in the apron pockets while coloring there, to ensure the colors didn’t bleed onto the inside of the apron. After using sky blue, raspberry, bubble gum pink, and lime green, and tangerine, I realized they were much brighter and darker than I thought they would be.
As for the markers, I think they are terrific and if I was a true artist and could color images with them, I would have given it a try. I did notice that lighter colors show up better on the apron, as the canvas shows the fibers of the cloth with darker colors, and you need to really color the cloth in several directions to ensure true color coverage.
I used Tim Holtz Alterations die called Tattered Florals and here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/y7juvfc9 I wanted flowers on the pockets and near the top. I used a circle die to cut the centers out of the flowers.
I used buttons to sew onto the small flowers I cut out of felt. I used a needle threader to help me thread the needle and here’s a link to them. http://tinyurl.com/y6w6jzfr
I used embroidery thread to sew the buttons to my flowers in the same color as the button. I used Fabri Fix glue to glue the flowers to the apron. I bought Fabri Fix at Joanns and it’s made by Beacon Glue.
I decided after gluing the large flowers to the rectangles, that I wanted to add black glitter to the center of them, so I took very fine glitter (don’t know the maker) and put the same glue into the centers of the flowers then added the black glitter into the centers and rubbed the glitter with the back of a plastic spoon to get it to stay inside. I used coffee filters and they removed the excess glitter by wiping the filter over the felt and tapping the back to remove the excess.
CraftingForAlmostEveryone.com 