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.

I finished a card I made using acetate as the card front, and covering it with large gerber daisies.  It looks great and I can’t wait for my girlfriend to get it, as she loves gerber daisies.

I also made a wreath builder template.  I saw it on several YouTube channels and thought, how hard could it be to make, and the answer is, not very hard at all.  The hardest part about it was trying to find small images that I could stamp in my MISTI that weren’t peg stamps.  I actually tried using the template with the MISTI and using peg stamps first, and honestly, I think my wreath turned out just fine.  Did I use it like it was intended, no, but I make the best wreaths with my peg stamps, so why not use them instead?  At the very least, I wanted to show people that you don’t need to use a wreath builder template to make a wreath.  I hope that made sense.  I see people using these templates like there’s no other way to stamp in a circle, and I wanted to prove to myself that it just isn’t necessary.  With that being said, I haven’t tried using the template with floral inspired stamps yet, and will be jumping on that in the next day or two.  In the meantime, I’m so happy that I made a couple of cards that I like, and hope you will like them too.

I’d seen Lindsay, the Frugal Crafter use this plumber’s tape for jewelry, many years ago, and thought it would be fun to use for embossing folders. I also saw Unity Stamps use white acrylic paint as a resist, and wanted to give that a try.
The stamp set I’m using is from Unity Stamps called All Cylinders
and here’s the link to it. https://www.unitystampco.com/all-cylinders/
The embossing folder I used is from Cuttlebug Provocraft called Diamond Plate. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/ycxh86mz
I used foil plumbing tape that I bought at a hardware store that’s used for duct work. Here’s a link to it at Home Depot. http://tinyurl.com/y72uzf65 This tape is VERY sharp, so please be careful when you use it. I covered a piece of cardstock that was 4″ by 5 1/4″ If you don’t want to buy the tape, you could cover the cardstock with aluminum foil instead. I used my Tim Holtz snips to trim the edges. Here’s a link to them: http://tinyurl.com/yb946teq    After trimming the foil tape from the cardstock, I ran it through my Vagabond. Then took Pico Embellisher (my nozzle was clogged) and poured a small amount onto the edges of the embossed image to make it look distressed. Here’s a link for it. http://tinyurl.com/yaqvs956    I used a baby bib to apply it, as a baby wipe just wiped it back off.
I used a wide brush and colored about 1/2″ in from the sides, and all four sides with cheap white acrylic paint.  Use the same color as your paper, so if you use red paper, use a red paint that matches. Let it dry…I used a much larger piece of cardstock than I needed, probably 4 1/2″ x 6″….This was a problem, because in the end, I had to cut out this technique to make the front fit the card base….I’m sorry about that.
After it’s dry, I stamped the car on it with Versafine Onyx Black ink and then put clear embossing powder on it and heat set it.
I used a new set of watercolors I bought from Amazon for $17.99 now $16.95 and here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/y984u6z8 and on Aliexpress, $13.87 and the link: http://tinyurl.com/ycxvj6sj   The set comes with its own water brush, although I found the one in my set very hard to squeeze to release water. I have others that are much easier to squeeze.
After coloring the red, I used a silver Chalkola marker, link, http://tinyurl.com/y9eztlvp  to scribble on a tile and color in the silver parts of the card. I used my watercolors to color the rest of the image, then dried it.
I used Distress Ink Hickory Smoke, to distress the edges of the card front, then wiped the edges so the white paint remained.  It’s too bad I had to cut so much off and lost this effect.
I used dotted tag dies from Avery Elle (that appear to be discontinued) and die cut one in red and one in white once I had stamped Hello Handsome on it. I used my paper trimmer with washi tape to cut the white tag down so it would fit inside the red die cut, then outlined the red one in black ink so it would stand out on my card. I applied it to the inside of the red card base with Tombow Mono Aqua Glue.
If you are interested in how I made my custom stamp for the back of the card, here’s a link to another video where I explain it in detail in the more info below section. http://tinyurl.com/y8j3y5uh
Then I took a ruler and a piece of fun foam and poked holes with my pokey tool through the four corners of the car front. I wanted them to be 1/4″ from the corners, so put my ruler on the card and measured so the brads would be in the same spot and straight across the front. After adhering the brads, I put tear tape on the back of card front and adhered the tire track piece and added wet glue as well as it didn’t want to stick to the textured background.
I added tear tape to the back of the tire track layer and attached it to my red card base that is 4 1/4″ tall by 5 1/2″ wide (an A2 size card)..
I had to trim the car piece down to 3 3/4″ x 5″ which eliminated the cool outer edge technique, so wanted to do something to make it stand out, so made clouds by cutting a card stock scrap into soft waves and laid it on the top of the card and rubbed white Unicorn White Hero Arts ink onto it. I used a 1″ chip brush that I cut down from Harbor Freight Liquidators. Link: http://tinyurl.com/ydf7xcpb
I added Spectrum Noir clear glitter brush marker to the car for more sparkle. Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8lbx3rd

I was asked to make a card that featured gerber daisies.  I have a stamp that I think is a gerber daisy, and decided to make a card with a clear acetate front, covered in daisies and leaves.  I used my new Arteza brush markers, and had a lot of fun making daisies.  The leaves turned out even better than the daisies, and when it came to gluing them onto my acetate, I just couldn’t find the right placement.  The daisies look odd, and I’m just not happy with it.  So instead of waiting a while and coming up with a new plan, I took Stickles and coated the flowers with them.  Right now I’m thinking of throwing in the towel on this project, as the flowers look odd and the only thing I really want on the card are the leaves.

I’m thinking I need to sleep on this to decide what to do with this card.  Tomorrow, Rich and I are going to see the new Mission Impossible movie (if there are no thunderstorms, as Honey has been really struggling with the changing weather.)  I hope we get the chance to go, and I’ll tell you all about the movie after we see it.

 

I spent a rainy afternoon making a card for Rich, featuring his Mustang.  I don’t often make cards for Rich, and he deserves to be spoiled, so today was the day.

The card had some issues, but I hope, in the end, that he likes it.  I did a few different techniques and ended up completely cutting out one of them….I wanted to include it, but the image was too large, so I had to cut it down to fit on the card base….oh well, at least you’ll get to see the cool effect before I cut it off.

Other than making the card, Rich and I tried a new recipe for steak on the grill.  You coat the steak with kosher salt and let it sit for an hour.  Then thoroughly rinse the salt off, and it tenderizes the meat.  What I suspected, and what actually happened, was the salt made it super salty, and no amount of rinsing would help.  The steak was edible, but boy was it salty.  It’s just like making cards.  If you never try a recipe like this, you’ll never know if it works or not…and I don’t recommend this one.

Where did the month of July go?  Holy cow, it went fast!  I put the fishy tag online accidentally, before finishing my notes, or adding any videos to the end, and am not really sure how I did that, but went back in and fixed everything later.  I’m just glad it’s  up.

I went into the craft room and worked on a card featuring an old Mustang convertible, and I really liked the technique I used, but did it on a piece of cardstock that was too small, and I lost part of the car in the process.  So tomorrow I’m going to redo that part of the video and try to make the technique work on a larger piece of cardstock, or do less of the edging technique, so both can exist on a regular size card.  I would have loved to have made it a 5 x 7″ card, but am also using an embossing folder, and it’s only large enough to work with a smaller card.  And speaking of the embossing folder, I wasn’t thinking, and put too many layers into my Vagabond and halfway through embossing, the machine jammed.  The one thing you have to know about the first Vagabonds (like mine), is if something jams in them and you can’t get them out, your machine is toast.  So I tried getting it out on my own, then enlisted Rich to push down hard on both sides of the “sandwich” while I pushed the button….It came right out.  Without his brute strength, I would have had to throw in the towel on it, because I tried to fix it by myself for at least ten minutes before giving up.  Every time I do that (almost getting something stuck), I swear I won’t do it again.  It only takes a few months for me to forget, and next thing you know, I’ve got another jammed embossing folder.  I’m not equipped to use a machine that doesn’t know to reverse when it’s going to jam.  That’s the great feature of the Vagabond II….reverses when it’s going to jam…I could have waited for it to come out before buying one, but just wanted one so badly, and now I kind of regret it, as there might be a time that even Rich won’t be able to save it.

 

I wanted to give our friend Becky a fish bowl for a “thinking of you” present, and thought a fishy gift tag would be perfect to go with it.
I used a Hero Arts Stamp set called Layered Goldfish for my images. I put Gesso on a gift tag and let it dry. I stamped “Just Keep Swimming” from the stamp set on the tag with Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear embossing powder from Ranger to heat set it.
I took a couple of stencils to create a background…I used one that looked like waves and another that looked like droplets of water so I could create colors….I put painters tape on the back of the tag and attached it to the stencil, then used a 1″ chip brush and wiped the small Distress ink cube onto the stencil, then wiped it with the brush onto the tag underneath. It helps make the brushed ink much bolder than if you just brushed with the ink on with the brush. I took the droplet stencil with a darker blue ink and brushed it through….I was trying to do things quickly so didn’t let it dry and wiped it, so wiped away a lot of my pattern….I used Tumbled Glass and brushed it over the other patterns and went around the edges with the Tumbled glass ink pad as well. I took the wave stencil and went over it again with Broken China after drying it.
I took a white card stock scrap and stamped out the goldfish with Sweet Corn ink from Gina K and a Stampin’ Up ink called Tangelo Twist. I used some alcohol markers in oranges, reds and blacks to accentuate the colors. I took a white gel pen and put lines on the fish and colored in the eye with a black Sharpie. I used foam squares to add the fish to the background and took the small circles to make bubbles above the fish with white Hero Arts Unicorn ink and added the seaweed stamped images around with Stampin’ Up Always Artichoke ink. I used the white gel pen to go over the bubbles so they showed up better.  Because the back had smudges on it, I glued another tag to it, then pulled a gold piece of ribbon through the hole to tie it to the bowl handle.