When we made our last field trip to the Dollar Tree, I had viewers ask me for more…so we went to our local county fair…
My friend Abby,  showed me her goats and then we visited another goat, who liked to eat a little bit of my shirt. Abby’s goat knew how to ride a see saw and we got to see a video of it, which we thought was really impressive.
Then I took everyone to the bunny barn and showed a few of the bunnies I loved.
We played the dime toss game in honor of our nephew and his family who had so much fun playing that game last year….
Rich took several photos of the fair and we included them in the video….

I wanted to make a video using kid’s supplies, Crayola markers and watercolors.  The first attempt was a big failure, as I tried stamping on patterned paper, and it just looked bad.  My second attempt, with an entirely new stamp and plan, came out much better, but it’s a House Mouse stamp, and the mice are difficult to see, as the colors I used really muted the gray mice.  They almost blend into the sky background, which is kind of odd, as I colored the sky blue.  Those mice need something to make them pop, but so far, I haven’t figured out what that will be.

I’m still happy with the overall idea, as I think a lot of people overlook the inexpensive products that you can buy during “back to school” time.  I spent several hours in the craft room, and just need to come up with a plan for the mice, and the card will be ready to roll.

The other issue is the heat and how it saps energy and the will to do anything but read.  I really have to drag myself away from books, and thoroughly enjoy spending a lot of my free time in our sun room with Honey, reading.  I’ve been enjoying books by Linda Fairstein, who writes criminal prosecution books all based in New York City.  Her characters are entertaining, and if I can get past the legal jargon, i like reading her books.  I lose interest if she covers a lot of legal terms, instead of focusing on her characters.  OK, I’ll admit it.  I have been known to skip pages of books that cover a lot of description, as I prefer when they are talking instead.  (I know it’s horrible, but that’s how I read…_.

Today was a nice day..  We got up late and read and relaxed, then went to an early dinner with friends, then to the horse races.  I’m not fond of going to the races, but our friends like to go, and we enjoy just talking in between races.  If you’ve never been to them, you spend most of your time waiting for the races, then the race takes maybe a minute, then another twenty minutes of wait time…You have a lot of time to interact with those around you, and people watch.  I love people watching and there are a lot of interesting people who go to the races.

I’m glad we got home when we did, as the fireworks starts as soon as we walked in the door, and Honey was already pacing with her stuffed animal, so Rich took her to the basement, and I’ll be going to get them in a couple of minutes, when I’ve finished typing this, as the fireworks seem to be over.  You never know though, because sometimes our neighbors like to set off firecrackers and their own fireworks whenever the mood hits them.  I’m hoping tonight isn’t one of those times.

I found this kid’s book at a thrift store for a quarter, and thought it would be really fun to convert into an art journal. I wanted a place where I could try out new techniques and products, without worrying about what the end product looks like (if I was giving it as a card, for instance.)
I started with homemade Gesso, and here’s the recipe:
GESSO
1/4 cup plaster of paris
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white acrylic paint (buy it at a craft store, or if you have leftover white acrylic house paint, you can use that as well.)
1/4 cup Elmer’s or other white glue

Add the Plaster of Paris to the wet mix of the other ingredients slowly, and stir really well until it’s all well combined, with no lumps. I recommend that you put it in a good sealed container (with a screw on lid), so that it doesn’t go dry.

In previous weeks, I’d put some leftover paint on the cover and today, I covered the front of the kid’s book with the homemade Gesso and wiped the edges of the book and my Dollar Tree cutting mat (that I laid under the book) with a dry baby wipe. Keep your dried baby wipes, as they are perfect for this kind of clean up.

I separated a napkin that I bought at either the Christmas Tree Store, or got from a friend…I’ve had it a while. To separate the napkin layers, attach a piece of washi tape to the edge of the napkin on the back, and pull it so the layers separate. If there are more than two layers, you have to do this more than once.
I put matt Collage Pauge that I bought at Hobby Lobby on the book with a foam brush and then applied the napkin to it and trimmed the edges that overlapped the edges of the book. (after if was dry)  Then, I brushed a layer of Collage Pauge over the front.
I had bought a couple colors of Nuvo Mousse and have to say, don’t like them, as they are really dry, and one I had to add a significant amount of water to get it to be pliable. I used a little wooden stick from the Dollar Tree to mix it.
I combined some Texture Luxe in Pearl from Faber Castell to try to tone down the pink that was Pink Flambe from Nuvo Mousse and it was still really bright pink..
I also added some pink mica powder to it from the Dollar Tree, LA Colors eye shadow, that should have made the Mousse more sparkly, but really didn’t…(and I added a lot to the mixture.)
I used a chicken wire stencil to add the pink Mousse, and laid it on the front with painter’s tape that I had rubbed on my clothes and skin to ensure it wouldn’t rip the background when I took it off. I hated the way the pink mousse looked with the chicken wire, so wiped it back off before it set. I took the palette knife and added pink mousse to all of the small pink tulips, as well as the flowers on the left side in the pot.. I added some yellow Mousse as well and hated it, as it was super bright once dried.
I wanted to accentuate the colors of the naplins, so used Ranger Archival black ink to rub the ink pad around each of the edges of the book, and then used a Sharpie to get into the spots that were hard to reach. I used a Tim Holtz blending sponge to make sure the ink distressed the front edges of my book. The archival ink is important to use when doing layers, as it won’t re-wet or smear.
I hated the yellow mousse on its own, but once I cut out new vases from the napkin and recovered the vases that had yellow mousse on them, the yellow wasn’t so annoying. Every place I laid the yellow mousse, I basically cut the images again and covered over it. That includes the table, as half of the napkin front has one type of table on it, and the other half has a different table, and I didn’t like that. So I cut out two of the same tables and laid them over each other.
I wanted to add dimension to the flowers, so once they were dry, I added Crystal Effects that was from an old bottle that had thickened. I used the end of a spoon to get it to come out and then dripped it onto the flowers. Once it was dry, I really liked the effect.
I had an old stamp that a friend had given me with the word dream on it.. I stamped “dream” several times on yellow tissue paper from the Dollar Tree and cut the words out and laid them on a diagonal on the bottom section of the book and added another dream at the top near the center. I added another layer of Collage Pauge over the entire front cover and called the cover done.

I have never had a more frustrating crafty day than today.  I wanted to make a simple 60th birthday card for a friend, and started out by cleaning a new set of stamps to ensure that they would take the ink well.  I’ve never actually had this happen before, but I couldn’t get them to stick to the MISTI.  I even put dots of Aleene’s Tack it Over and Over on them, and they fell off, or slid around on it when I inked them.

It was a set of stamps that I bought on Ebay that I’d seen on  a card a friend had made, and I had to have…I think they came from inside a magazine, but these were the worst stamps I have ever used.  I couldn’t get them to stay attached to the MISTI no matter what I did.  I put a frame in the center of the card with a large “60” inside of the frame, but then when I tried to add a sentiment toward the top and bottom, neither would stay in place…..so attempt number two.  They moved again, but this time I’d adhered them with Aleene’s and let them dry….Couldn’t believe they moved, and decided I’d add a strip of paper over them to hide the first attempt…I cut (and I’m not making this up) four sets of two strips, Sometimes the sentiment was crooked, another time the ink was spread over the sentiment somehow so embossing powder blurred the word out, then lastly, I couldn’t get the embossing powder to stick to the ink.  Then the last set finally worked.  I couldn’t believe it…So frustrating, and, we were an hour late to the party because it took me so long to make this very simple card.

And the worst part, is that I gave up on the video after so many failed attempts and had no interest in trying to piece together a video from the different segments when one thing would work, but another would not.  I have to say, this was not a good day of craftiness for me.

I’ve been working on the art journal that I wanted to create out of the cardboard childrens’ book, and it’s going pretty well.  I’ve had some ups and downs and hit the hot mess stage (that I might cut out of the video), and decided the cover is finally looks like I wanted it.  I’d used the Nuvo Mousses, and have to say, they are really dry. They don’t look like that when you look in the side, as they appear super whipped and luscious..  I used a pink color that I’ve had for probably a year, but never opened.  It was so hard, I had to add water to it at least three times, to get it to a consistency I could use.  I’d heard that I might have to do that, in a video I’d watched where someone used the Mousses.

With the year old container being so hard, literally, hard, I decided to try the light yellow color I’d just bought.  It was almost as hard as the pink was.  I definitely won’t be buying those again.  The other thing I noticed, is the color appears to be much lighter in the container than what is applied to the project.  I really don’t like buying one color and getting an entirely different one in a product that I’m spreading onto a project, as it’s so hard to remove…Of course I did remove some, and covered more with more napkins.  I guess I forgot to mention that my base was a napkin.  I’m lucky that it was, as I could cut out parts of the design and apply it over the areas with Nuvo Mousse that I absolutely hated.

This was definitely a learning experience for me, and I’m happy to say that I lived through it to create another day…haha….

I saw a potato chip bag done on LiveLoveScrap’s channel and here’s the link to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5pGsJ0Mggk
She uses a piece of acetate on hers so you can see inside, but I want my contents to be a surprise.
I used Hobby Lobby paper pad called Trick or Treat that is 8 1/2″ x 11″ and scored it on the 11″ length at 10 1/2″. You’re doing that so you have a guideline to make your bag even.
Put a line of tear tape on the very edge of the face of the paper between the score line and the edge of the paper. Since I used 1/4″ tear tape, I used two strips to make it go all the way to the 1/2″ mark. Then flip your paper over and put tear tape at the 11″ edge on the very top and bottom. Make sure you get as close to the edge as possible.  This project is made more easily if your paper is thin, like what you would buy in individual sheets from craft stores.
I took some dies I’d bought last year on Aliexpress (type in Halloween dies and you’ll find ones you like). Here’s a link to this year’s dies. https://tinyurl.com/y8xuvuau
I cut mine out of glittery black and orange card stock and then positioned them on the bag (toward the tear tape on the right but keeping in mind that the bag will be folded in half, so you need to center things if possible.
I used a Tonic pen (wet glue) and a make up eye shadow brush from Dollar Tree or Aliexpress to apply glue to thin die cuts. Here’s a link to the eye shadow sponge applicators I bought from Aliexpress. http://tinyurl.com/y9c3arqk

After adhering the die cuts, I took the backing off of the two pieces of tear tape I at put between 10 1/2″ and 11″ plus the ends off of the top and bottom tear tape backing, and took the two sides and lined up the edge so it lines up directly on the score mark I made and making sure the bottom two edges line up as well.
Then once I’ve done that, I pinch the bottom and top of the edge and lay it on my desk and put my hand inside to rub the tear taped area and make sure it’s well adhered.
Then I took the tear tape off the top, pinch the center so the front and back line up evenly, and pinch it closed there, then slowly keep pinching the edge until it’s entirely closed, then rub your hand over it to ensure it’s well adhered and flat. Don’t do the bottom until you’ve filled it with whatever goodies you want to put inside. I added candy and some small spiders that I think are table decorations you’d buy at any party store or Hobby Lobby, that were spiders, and some candy, then took the backing off of the tear tape and repeated the same process that I used on the bottom.
If you don’t have a crimper, use your score board and put the edge of the bag at the top left corner of the board and score every line for the first four lines and it looks like it is crimped. If you have a crimper, use that. Here are some crimpers I found on ebay.
https://tinyurl.com/ydflgyds
I did the project live, and it only takes about ten minutes to make one, so if you have kids or grandkids, it would be a great way to send them off to school with a trick or treat bag from home…

I made a cute potato chip bag for Halloween today and thought it would make a great video.  So Rich is uploading it right now, and then we’ll maybe put our field trip to the county fair video up after that.  I don’t want to have too many field trips close together, as that could be way too much Sandy and Rich for our viewers. haha

I still can’t believe how many views we’ve had on the Dollar Tree video.  I think it’s approaching 25,000 now.  I would never have dreamed that many people would want to watch us sneaking around in a Dollar Tree.  And the number of subscribers we’ve gotten from it, is amazing…we’re fast approaching 10,000 subscribers.  It’s like a dream, and if I pinch myself, I might wake up…Needless to say I’m not pinching myself any time soon.

As for my next video, I think I’ll make one with Crayola markers. It’s the perfect time of year for people to find them really inexpensively for back to school, so why not use them to color a poppy?  I really like that idea.  And I love the color red…poppy red.

 

I watched the video I made of our trip to the county fair, and although I did a great job of talking to a calf, two goats, and several rabbits, I didn’t really show much more of the fair.  I showed Rich playing a dime toss game for our nephew and his family, who spent fair week with us last year and were addicted to that game.  We wanted them to see that we remembered them, even though they couldn’t come to play with us.    So I’m not sure how interested anyone will be with our field trip, but I did record a goat who ultimately ate a piece of the sleeve of my shirt.  Maybe that’s worth the watch, haha.

I definitely will be doing more field trips though, and will take my camera with me to the next stamp show I attend, and will walk around showing new techniques and tools.  I did a little bit of that this year, but will try to show more techniques next year.

I guess I never realized the attraction of the Dollar Tree, until I made this video.  It has over 10,000 views in under a week….Who knew?  I know it’s not my magnetic personality that brought that many people to the video…It’s really mind boggling to me, but I guess if you are a crafter, and have a Dollar Tree nearby, you’d want to know all about the ideas people have to use the things they sell in a different way than is normally intended.

I’m off to make a video….Wish me luck.

Today we went to our local county fair with two other couples (college friends)…I don’t know how many of you keep in touch with high school or college friends, but Rich and I are so lucky to have a lot of our old friends nearby, with similar interests to ours.  As we were getting ready to go, I said to Rich, “I ought to take the camera and video tape our “field trip” to the fair…So we did.

I taped animals and our friends, and Rich playing a dime toss game, and I hope it’s something viewers would like to see.  They might not love it, but I had a terrific time and wanted to take everyone along for the ride.  We saw a day old calf that was so darn cute, and baby bunnies, and my friends’ goats, and while filming her goat, another goat tried to eat the sleeve of my shirt….it was so much fun, and I hope the video reflects that.

But now I’m hot and tired and am ready for a movie and bed….Tomorrow Rich has a skeet shoot, so I’m planning on garage sales with my girlfriend.  I’m hoping there are some good ones…and you’ll be the first to know if there are.