I started working in my craft room late in the day yesterday, after I’d written the blog for the day.  I was making a butterfly pop out card (actually, I made two of them, but only one is on video.)  I embossed the first card base, and I forgot to pull out one of the plastic layers in the Vagabond, and it almost got stuck….So I put it through again, and this time it went well, but made a really weird noise.  I needed to put another piece through, and this time the Vagabond moved it forward maybe an inch, then made the weird noise and threw it backward probably two inches.  Obviously the math says it all…I had finally jammed something into the Vagabond that had broken it.  I had Rich look at it, and because he’s the best husband ever, said, “well it wasn’t made to last forever, and you’ve had it a long time, so now it’s time for a new one.”  He could have said, “I wondered when you’d finally jam something in there that couldn’t come out.” which is what I thought about myself.

Since I had the first Vagabond, anything that jams it, is in there secure and for good.  Vagabond 2 has a reverse on it, so nothing will get stuck in it…So after midnight, I was on Amazon buying my new Vagabond and it should be here tomorrow…YAY!  I’m relieved that I won’t have to worry about jamming it any more, but worry that I still might have the capability of jamming it any way.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

So the card I made last night (after getting jammed into the Vagabond) had a problem with the seam tearing, and I needed to remake most of that card.  I also finished the second card that’s a birthday card for one of my college friends who loves the outdoors and hiking.  I hope she likes is.  Here’s a photo of the one I didn’t videotape…both inside and out.

 

I came up with a really good idea for a video today.  I’m going to go to our local Dollar Tree, and find all of the products there, that I have re-purposed for crafty tools/storage, and make a video of them.  I thought it would be a great way to show you don’t need expensive tools to get a lot of crafty jobs done.  I’m going to ask if I can videotape the items, and hopefully, they’ll allow me to show the items on the racks, so you’ll know what department to find them in.  If they don’t, I’ll just tell people where to find them.  I thought it would be cool to show how to use them in a different way from what they were intended, and go from there.  I’ve already thought of ten items, but once I go through the store, I’m sure I’ll find more.

I’m also going to start working on the purse that holds note cards that is a really great gift.  I’ve put off making it because it’s been so hot, and my craft room doesn’t have direct air conditioning, and I know this will be a long process, and I don’t want to pass out from the heat while making the video.  All things in time, I guess.

If you haven’t been checking out my facebook page, “Crafting for Almost Everyone,”  I’ve been putting up some of Rich’s photos.  I’m going to continue to show them as I’ve gotten great response from them, and I know Rich is happy that people have been enjoying his creations as well as mine…

I watched Jan B make this stencil and thought it would be handy to have.   Here’s the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbccX9qfn8U
I started with grid paper and here’s a link for you to print one.
Here’s the link: https://www.waterproofpaper.com/graph-paper/graph-paper-half-inch.pdf
You need to have one 4″ square cut out of grid paper and the other you want in the center of an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of grid paper so you can make sure the square you trace is in the center of the acetate piece.  Each square is 1/2″, so if you make a 4″ square, you’ll need to count eight squares vertically and horizontally. You can trace it so you know where your marks are, and then put a piece of acetate over your square. Once you’ve made one square in the center of your acetate, then turn the square that you cut out (grid paper) so it is now a diamond, and center it in the first square by poking a hole in the center of your top piece and laying it over the mark in the center of square on your grid paper. I traced my acetate with a Sharpie making sure your lines are straight, then made the marks with the second square in the diamond shape on top of the first marks that are shaped like a square. You need to be sure all of your lines match up with the lines of the grid sheet, so when you have your diamond shaped piece over the square grid sheet, you need to make sure the points of the diamond touch the lines of the grid below it and the center dots also line up.  Your acetate needs to be at least 7″ wide and tall for this to work. I taped my acetate to my grid sheet so it worked for me. To make sure my lines were cut properly, I used my paper trimmer to cut the lines on the acetate. The thicker your acetate, the better, I glued several layers together to ensure my stencil was thick enough to hold a paper inside.
The stamp set I used was from Mama Elephant called Water Blooms. Here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/ybtcclou
, I used Hero Arts, Blue Reactive ink, then went to Memento Dew Drops, Summer Sky, and Olive Grove for the leaves. I wanted to add some smaller images, so added dots with Bahama Blue from the same stamp set. I added peg stamps as well.
Squares without a pattern is actually squares with a dot pattern, and I don’t know what I was reading, but here’s the link to it. http://tinyurl.com/ycvrcmap       I stamped it with Gina K. Powder Blue ink.
I also used a squiggle from peg stamps and here’s the link:
http://tinyurl.com/y9bzowdxThe smallest flower is called FlowerAccent  (peg stamp) here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/y9tlj86f    stamped in Gina K Blue Raspberry

The sentiment came from Inky Antics Simple Sentiments stamp set link: http://tinyurl.com/y72bkzb6
I used Blue Reactive ink with clear embossing powder for my sentiments and stamped it near the bottom of the card three times, so it was dark.  I then put clear embossing powders over it and heat set it.  The difference between using colored ink with embossing powder vs Versamark with a colored embossing powder, the clear embossing powder over an ink color will make the ink darker…If you use colored embossing powder, the powder will stay the same color.
I used wonky circle dies link: http://tinyurl.com/ycdnvbhw to die cut my image, then used my paper trimmer to cut it in half. I used half on this card and put it on foam squares over a satin white ribbon that I put on tear tape and attached to the top third of my card. I added three buttons with two strands of white embroidery floss to thread my buttons and hot glued them in place.
I used a needle threader to help me and here’s a link to them: https://tinyurl.com/y79nvxqb

I’m still recovering from my medicine side effects, but wanted to update you on how things are going.  I am finally feeling less nauseous, but must have pulled some muscles in my back while vomiting (TMI?)   It’s been killing me the last couple of days, so I haven’t really done much.  I went to two, count them, two, garage sales yesterday, and they were really pathetic.  I would have gone to more, but was so disappointed with the first two, that I found no reason to continue.  I think my girlfriend wanted to keep going, but I was feeling crappy and my back hurt so much that I threw in the towel and bought a grand total of nothing.

So tonight I’m going to get serious about starting to make the purse that my good friend took the time to make templates for me…..I love the idea of making them, and since she even sent me the Graphic 45 paper to cover them, I wanted to give it a whirl.  The other thing I’ve been putting off, is making my own art journal.  I don’t know if I want to use quotes on mine, but I might.  Most people build their page around their quote, but I’m  not sure if that’s the way I want to go, maybe make the page, then find a quote that works with it.  Who knows what I’ll come up with, but whatever it is, I hope you’ll all play along with me.

I’ve also been looking into making journals that are simple.  I’ll let you know how that goes too.  I saw someone make a journal with a postcard as the cover, and I thought that would be super cute, so might give it a try as well.  I’ve got a lot of ideas spinning around in my head, just don’t know which one to start with.  Decisions, decisions.

I haven’t been feeling well the last few days, as I have dry mouth from my arthritis, and I was given a prescription for it, and it makes me feel carsick.  Weird, I know, but I’m so nauseous and finally, after three days, decided to look at side effects.  There it is, nausea vomiting, etc,  I’m just glad we figured out what was causing it, as I haven’t been able to go into the craft room since I started taking it.  All it’s supposed to do is hydrate my mouth…You wouldn’t think it would have big side effects, but I’m kind of lucky that way, and get all of the weird things that a medicine might cause..

So luckily, I’ve had several videos done and waiting for Rich to upload, and he still has one more to go.  I’m hoping it will go live tomorrow or the next day, and maybe I’ll get back in the craft room tomorrow for a small crafty video.  I have a few things I really want to do, and one in particular, seems really fun.  I’m going to make a potato chip bag for Halloween for my trick or treaters.  I only get ten or twelve kids, and give them a full size candy bar, so this bag will make it a lot more impressive.  I want to at least give it a try so I know whether or not I want to follow through and make enough for them.  I saw this done where they put a piece of acetate in the front like a window, but I don’t know of any chip bags that have a window, and I am want mine to look more authentic.  I still might decorate the front, but that remains to be seen….Let’s try the bag first, and go from there.

I had a sleepless night, thinking about making a card shaped like a fish bowl, and decided to give it a try.
You need the largest size circle die you own and a 5 1/2″ square card base. Put the top of the circle die a little bit above the square, so the card still opens once it’s cut. Then use a slider die (if you have one, or a 1/4″ wide strip of paper with rounded edges), and glue that to the top of your circle on the front so it still opens.
The stamp I used was from Creative Visions and is called “Goldfish” (shocking, I know), and is really large..Here’s the link to it.  http://www.creativevisionstamps.com/goldfish/      It barely fits inside my fish bowl, so if you have a larger circle die than I used, it would work better. I stamped my fish with Hello Honey ink from Stampin’ Up then used my Arteza Brush Pens to color it. I used reds, oranges, yellows and browns to color it in. I used a spray bottle of water to make the colors flow a little bit by spritzing directly onto the stamp after using the brush pens on it.. I think what made the biggest impact was coloring the edges with a brown color. I colored the eye with black. I dried it with my heat gun and then cut him out.
For the inside of the fish bowl, I used a Hero Arts monthly kit that had a lot of sea life and coral. I used the coral stamps and dies.. I stamped the corals with Calypso Coral ink from Stampin’ Up and used a little of the red inks from Arteza Brush pens to give them some dimension. I used the dies and ran them through my die cutter then snipped off the ends so they would fit inside the bowl better.
I used a sentiment from the same Hero Arts set that said “Go with the flow” and stamped it with Versafine Onyx black ink, then used clear embossing powder and heat set it.
I decided to make rocks for the bottom of my fish bowl, and used Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed and Mermaid Lagoon with 1″ chip brushes I bought from Harbor Freight Liquidators, and cut about 1/2″ off the top so the brush is straight on the top. I use one for every color family.

I colored in the water of my fish bowl with Distress Ink Tumbled Glass then changed to Pool Party by Stampin’ Up as it was a little lighter. I put a piece of paper near the top to make my water line, and had a hard time making it straight…it looked like my fish bowl was sloshing around…so I re-inked  my line. I glued the coral on my rocks then put the goldfish on foam tape and added him to the fish bowl. I stamped the back with my stamp and called my project done…

Rich finally found the time to put one of my videos up today.  I hate it when there’s a big lag in video uploading, and have been fretting about this for a few days now.  I’m going to make sure another video goes up either tomorrow or the next day, to make up for this long wait.

I have been getting some great emails from viewers who are including photos of the projects they have been making and we’ve been uploading those to facebook…and yesterday, I got an email from our crafty friends in Puerto Rico with a photo of the ladies making cards.  I am thrilled that they have kept in touch with me, and worry that they might have another difficult hurricane season this year.  They have been through so much, and I give them so much credit for their resiliency.  Such lovely ladies, and hearing from them always puts a smile on my face.

In their update, they mentioned that they have a new lady in their crafty circle, as we sent so many craft supplies,  they were able to share with her.  I couldn’t be more thrilled to know that all of our collection efforts have helped yet another lady find her crafty mojo..

I wanted to say hello to my friends in Canada going through rehab…My good friend there (who’d like to remain nameless), is part of this group and loves gerber daisies….
The stamps I used are:
Gerber Daisy: Inkadinkado 97774-0
Leaf: Rubber Stampede Aspen A2496F

I put a scrap of white paper in the MISTI for stamping and colored the daisy with Arteza Real Brush Markers. I used reds, oranges and yellows. A112 (orange) A169 (orange rust), and Cadmium orange A140 on the edges. I stamped with these inks, then using a waterbrush, pulled the inks from the lines and colored in the flowers. I changed to yellows and reds, and did the same with them. I wanted several flowers and leaves so made at least two in each color. For the leaves I used A126 Crocodile green, and A120 and a Ginger A138. I ended up using Stampin’ Up Old Olive, in addition to the markers I used, then used the water brush to add in the additional inks.
I die cut four “hello” dies then put wet glue on them and layered them, after coloring them with Tangelo Twist by Stampin’ Up. Then put an ink pad on it to hold them together. I added a lot of Glossy Accents to the hello layered dies to make them really 3-d and shiny. After cutting out the flowers and leaves, I decided to re-stamp them with a matching ink so the veining would show. I stamped all of the flowers and all of the leaves so they stood out more than they had up to this point.. I lined up the flowers on the stamp and with the stamp facing up, placed the flower onto the inked stamp to achieve this effect.
I used a 5 x 7″ card base that was pre-made and kind of flimsy. So I glued it together to make it more sturdy and took a piece of acetate I got from a stamp set that was cut to 5 1/4″ wide and 7″ tall, I scored it at 1/4″ on the 5 1/4″ length, then flipped it over and scored it at the same 1/4″, so it was pliable, and using my bone folder, I folded the score line so it was as flat as possible and would wrap around my card base..I added tear tape to the back left edge of the card base, then wrapped the acetate around it. The acetate is the front flap of the card.
I made a big mess on the back of the card, and didn’t like seeing that small strip of acetate, so added another layer of white cardstock to the back that was also 4 7/8″ wide by 7″ tall.
I added some Stickles to my flowers in yellow, red and orange, then once they were dry, used Tombow Mono Aqua glue to the acetate and glued my leaves and flowers on the front of the card. I left room for hello, and glued it near the top left side of the card.
I decided I needed to add colored plastic dots in the centers of the flowers, and didn’t think they were big enough, so added Stickles in small dots around the plastic centers. I colored the flower centers with alcohol markers when they didn’t match the flower I was gluing them to..Then trimmed all of the edges of my card from the underside, so I could easily see where to cut..
I used two peg stamps for the envelope: Both came from the floral filigree wreath stamp set. https://pegstamps.com/floral-filigree-wreath-peg-stamp-set.html
When using new peg stamps, if you have a thin image, you need to trim the excess around the image with your Tim Holtz scissors.

I stamped my daisy with Stampin’ Up Only Orange and Hero Arts Red Reactive ink to dab around the edges for the front and back of the envelope, then added Stampin’ Up ink Old Olive ink for the leaf stamp.
I had a little spot on the front of the card so used a Tombow Mono Sand Eraser to remove most of the ink.

We spent the day yesterday visiting our friends at their lake house.  The weather was perfect and we had a terrific time….

Today we went to a car show and walked around our downtown area where they had food vendors (and you know I love food vendors!)  It was really hot and I had a huge hot flash and was ready for air conditioning.  We got home and I felt like a beached whale….I was so hot and sweaty, and needed a nap.  I made cookies for a community event tomorrow, and accomplished nothing else.  The cookies are for a bake sale, so I might make some cute tags for them tomorrow before we go.  If I do, I’ll be sure to make a video of it…Why not, a lot of us crafters donate baked goods for community events, and making them a little crafty might help to get them sold more quickly…I’ll let you know.

I forgot to give you my review of Mission Impossible.  Here it is.  If you have seen the trailer for the movie, you’ve seen most of the good parts, so I’d wait for it to come out on video.  I thought it would have a lot more action, but the Mission Impossible with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the bad guy was much more “edge of your seat.”  On the other hand, this movie included a trimmed down Alec Baldwin and the current Superman, so there were some handsome men to keep us girls entertained….maybe it’s worth seeing in the theater after all.

I was in the zone today making cards..  I started by making my own version of a wreath template, as I saw a video making one from a Stampin’ Up rep in England (can’t remember her name, darn it)….It didn’t look hard to make, so I gave it a try.  My first one wasn’t really well made, and the card moved around inside it, so my wreath wasn’t perfect, so I made another one on video, and made a card using the first template.  You can tell that it’s not a perfect fit, as the stamps don’t line up perfectly where they should.  I’m hoping the second one I made won’t have the same issues.  If it does, I’m giving up on it…

I’ve been milling around making a card where I create my own fish bowl and then put the big goldfish stamp that I’ve been showing in hauls inside.  I can’t wait for you to see the video on this one, as it turned out really frisky.  I wasn’t sure if I could make it look right, as my fish is as big as the fishbowl, but it reminds me of an old Dr. Suess book about a fish that keeps growing and growing…My fish bowl is almost all fish and very little bowl left over.  I still really love it and hope you do too.  I think anyone can make this work if they have a big round die and a fish stamp.  I hope a lot of my viewers give it a whirl..And it works for a man or a woman, and it’s always hard to make masculine cards, so this is a great idea for those gaps we need to fill in our card making. 99% female cards and 1% male…Believe me, I know it’s hard to make cards for men, but this one is a keeper.