I hope all of you who celebrate the 4th of July, had  wonderful day.  We had a really nice time with our friends, and ate way way too much.  But isn’t that what holidays are all about?  It was 90 degrees outside and our house has a weird heating system (coils in the ceilings), so we don’t have vents, so no central air conditioning.  We have a window air conditioner in our bedroom, and two portable air conditioners that sit on the floor and vent through windows, but they did nothing to help with the heat.  It could have been just me though, because when I entertain, I’m never really relaxed, so might have been having slight hot flashes on and off all day.  Yes, I was a pretty, and I do mean pretty, sweaty mess.

We separated the women from the men, and we women ate at our dining room table.  We had one chair that Rich had “repaired” a while ago, and normally I really try to make sure no one sits in that chair.  Unfortunately, my closest friend sat in it and half way through lunch, the chair literally disintegrated under her.  It looked like a bomb had gone off, and all that was left was kindling.  I was mortified, and so worried that my girlfriend had really gotten hurt.  She kept saying she was fine, but I think she was more embarrassed than anything else, so didn’t want to say anything.  I’ll bet she’s got bruises everywhere.  I’ll be seeing her tomorrow and hope she’s not feeling terrible…What a way to ruin her day of fun.

Today we decided we would run the errands that we’ve been putting off.  Getting our passports renewed is a big one.  I hate getting those photos taken, and now they’ve changed the rules, so you can’t smile and eye glasses need to be removed.  I don’t know about you, but looking stern isn’t the way I want people to see me for ten years.  Gross.

Apparently facial recognition software doesn’t work well if you smile or wear glasses.  So going through customs, you’ll need to frown and remove your glasses, or they’ll confuse you with everyone else, apparently.  Frowning isn’t a problem, as I’m usually between connecting flights when I go through customs, and almost always on the verge of tears, knowing I’ll be delayed long enough to miss my next flight.  At least they’ll know it’s me from the frown I’ll be sporting.  Maybe having people frown on their passport is a good idea after all, since how many people do you know that are happy when they go through customs?

It’s been around 90 degrees here all week, so I’ve been spending more time indoors.  Today’s focus has been on cleaning and buying food for our picnic tomorrow.  We normally go to Lake Erie, but with Honey’s anxiety, we decided to stay here.  We’ve invited two other couples that we’ve spend holidays with, almost our entire adult lives.  When Rich’s dad was alive, he had picnics for every holiday of the summer, and that tradition has been lost since his passing.  Rich and I decided to bring it back (in a very small way), by hanging with a few of the same people his dad loved.  Along the way, they became our close friends too.

I’m not a fan of entertaining large crowds, so six or seven people will be great.  I can control Honey with a few people too.  The biggest reasons for us celebrating here rather than Lake Erie are the heat, and Honey’s anxiety.

Our friends were very understanding, as they’ve had pets before, and we’ve never asked to have a change of venue before.

I worked in my craft room yesterday, but it’s so unorganized and messy, that I almost dread going in there.  My girlfriend is going to be refinishing a dresser for me to put more crafty things inside, and that should give me more space for organization.  That’s the one thing that I’ve discovered about me.  I like organization that is hidden and not on shelves.  I’ve bought a few sets of shelves but don’t really like them, because everything I put on them is always in view.  I prefer hiding my messes.  That’s my advice to someone creating a new craft room.  Buy cabinets or dressers, anywhere you can hide the things you buy.  Ultimately, they are easier to keep organized, and hide what isn’t.   Trust me, you’ll thank me later for this tip.

I remade the video from yesterday where my head was completely in the screen, and decided why not try making some fun cards with Dylusions paints and sprays.  I’ll give you a hint.  they are SERIOUSLY messy.  I really thought you could wash her paints and sprays off, but my hands are still pink after several washings.  My project isn’t the greatest and I’ll probably have to rethink it.  I’m just not sure if I shouldn’t wait to try something else before making a card.  I really like the colors, as they are seriously bold, but couldn’t come up with an idea that I liked.  I think I’ll wait and try again tomorrow.

We won’t be going anywhere in the evenings until after July 4th celebrations are over, as we’re trying to keep Honey as a priority.  We were invited out with friends on Wednesday, but had already made plans to stay at home and entertain, so Honey wouldn’t have to fret.  She definitely doesn’t like me doing anything crafty, and the barking that’s always heard during a video, it’s her explaining to me that it’s time for me to play with her, or at least keep her company.  The dog is neurotic.  We’ve put off putting her on anxiety medicines, but I think we’re fast approaching a time when we need to reconsider.

I’m not concerned about staying around the house, because I’m not sure how long it will take to get the Dylusions sprays off of my hands.  I think it’s safe to assume they’ll be pink for a while.

I saw a video by Splitcoast Stampers and Linda Bauwin on the making of this card and combined the two card techniques.
Start with a piece of decorated paper that is 12″ long by 5″ tall. (after making this card, a friend told me she thought it was supposed to be 4″ tall.) I used a stamp set by Stampin’ Up called “Hey Chick” and a stamp from Amuse Studio “For Peeps Sake.” I also used a wooden stamp that is really old called Image Tree EK Success IT04C, Just Chicken stamp. I used perfect layering circles from pegstamps.com  link to them: https://pegstamps.com/perfect-layering-circles.html ….
On the 12″ length, score at 2″, 4″, 8, 10″. Keep your score tool out and with a ruler, make a mark with a pencil at the top and bottom of the 6″ mark. Fold the 2″ and 10″ scores so you can see where they are. Then using your ruler, line it up at the top of the 2″ score and put the ruler diagonal from that to the 6″ mark at the bottom and score it. Then put the ruler to the bottom of the 2″ score, and put the ruler diagonal to the top of the 6″ mark, and score. Then do the same from the 10″ score to the 6″ mark on a diagonal at the top and bottom. Make sure your scores are accurate so they are exactly at the 6″ mark. Fold all of your scores, backward and forward. Pinch in the top and bottom of the “X” that you’ll see on the left and right side of the center. Rub your bone folder over it and burnish it. Pinch the other side, and fold the last score forward so it creates a flap on the left and right of the center diamond. To make a center paper, I put a white piece of paper on top of my center diamond and flipped the card over. Fold back the end flaps and you’ll be able to trace the white paper to cut out your diamond. I cut it a little smaller so it has a border. I used a Close to My Heart stamp set called Chairished to create a scene on my card. I stamped with black ink the chair and the lamp shade and then cut them out of the same paper as I used for my card. I thought it would be fun for them to match the background. I also had a long sentiment from the same stamp set and lined it up with a ruler and stamped the side of the diamond with the sentiment and SSS intense black ink. I used Tamnit markers to color the rug that I stamped near the bottom of my diamond shape. I wanted to color it in a little more, so scribbled the marker on my acrylic block, wet it with water and used a paint brush to paint in my rug.
I used a Little Darling Rubber Stamp Creative background stamp called “Wildflowers” to create wallpaper behind my chair and my lamp. I put the chair I’d stamped and the lampshade I’d stamped and put them on their respective images backwards, so they could act as masks. Then I inked my background stamp with “Sweet Corn” by Gina K. I laid the background stamp over my image with scrap paper under it and stamped it. I scribbled the sweet corn ink on my acrylic block and used a small paint brush to color in the flowers in the background so the wallpaper stood out better. I had a dog stamp from the same stamp set and colored the dog with another Tamnit marker and colored it in with the same marker. I glued the cut out chair and lamp shade down with foam tape so they had some dimension. I decided to surround my diamond with a scallop edge so using an edge punch from EK Success, I started the paper with one scallop showing on the right. Punch, then move the paper so it lines up with the images on the punch, and punch again, keep doing that until you get to the end. At this point I should have cut the scalloped paper in half, as I’d punched scallops on both sides, but lost my mind and forgot to do so.  I put glue on one side of my scallops right below the scallops and trimmed the edge. The next piece I lined the scallop up with the one at the end of the last piece and glued it down. At that point I realized I hadn’t cut it in half and then cut it, as I had cut scallops on both sides so I would have enough to surround my image…
I cut two pieces of 1 3/4″ x 4 3/4″ strips of matching paper for on the back of my card so I could write on it. If you use paper that has a single side, you can write in the inside, but mine was double sided.
Rich accidentally didn’t show the inside when you open the card, but it is cute when it’s open and I added a small square inside with hello on it.

 

I spent Friday morning going to garage sales and it was the best garage sale day of the year.  I’m not saying I bought a lot of things, but I did find a few things that made me really happy.  Since our neighborhood bear has been helping himself to my bird feeders, I’m always happy when someone else is getting rid of theirs, so I don’t spend a lot of money to have them destroyed a few months later.  I was smarter this year, and took the feeders down before the bear found his way to them.    Bear 4, Sandy 1….Not that I’m keeping score.

It was getting really hot, so we threw in the towel and that was fine, because I’d had enough.  If you didn’t know, I get a little whiny when I’m overheated, so it was a good thing we came home.

Today I made two videos and then realized (when getting it ready for Rich to edit) that my head was in the frame for a lot of the first video.  I can’t tell you how dumb I feel when that happens, so I’ll be remaking that video.  Drat!  The other video is for a diamond fold card, and I think viewers will really like making this card.  It’s easy and really versatile…so I made three of them.  Two with chickens on, because chickens are apparently “in.”   Who knew?  Apparently the makers of stamps determine the trendy bird, and chickens are big..  They were fun to color and the cards are pretty frisky, if I have to say so myself, and apparently I do. (I’m hoping you’ll get a kick out of them too, so I’m not the only one.)

We were invited to friends’ house for supper and I was a little hesitant because people have been setting off fireworks, and Honey freaks out with popping sounds, but thought we’d be home before dark.  Unfortunately, we got home a little after dark and the fire works and fire crackers were already going off, so poor Honey had gotten so scared, she had diarrhea in her cage.  It took me almost thirty minutes with her sitting on my lap before she calmed down.  I feel like a rotten pet owner, and won’t make that mistake again.  It’s now almost midnight, and she’s finally sleeping on the chair beside me, so all is well in her world again, thankfully.

I’m in the mood for a small rant.  It might be a little bigger, but I’ll try to hold back.  I had bought a lot of Dylusions paints online from Joanns.  They are very clear that it’s not a problem to return anything you purchase online to any of their local stores.  I decided I’d bought too many similar colors, so wanted to return six of the bottles I had purchased in one order.  I printed the receipt and made sure that every bottle I returned had the matching receipt with a photo of the color.  I’m normally not so anal about making sure I have every possible piece of paper when returning items, but for some reason, Joanns has been a problem to return anything purchased online.  Today was no exception.

I didn’t think it would be a difficult transaction.  After all, I had the receipt with the item information, the packing receipt number and the cost of the item.  I also had the page that showed when the items had been purchased and the order number.  The first cashier starting scanning the bottles.  I asked if she wanted the individual pages showing the paint and it’s color. No, she had all she would need with the cover sheet.  GREAT!   I’m thinking, this is going well…Until she got that furrow in her brow.  Perplexed, I’d call it.  She said, “Did you buy these paints on the same order.”  Yes, I said, and here’s the copy of the order.  “Are you sure you bought these last two with this order?  Yes, here they are on the receipt.  “Huh.”

So I waited and the line grew, and she had no answer, but two of the bottles (I keep calling them bottles, but I guess they are really jars.) were not included on the order.  Super!  How could that happen?  She didn’t know, but she’d need to get the manager, and since it was after 5PM, they only had two workers, and one (the manager) was cutting fabric, so she couldn’t ask her for help.

The line is growing behind me and I’m feeling terrible for both the cashier and the people who have been waiting patiently behind me.  I finally said, “How about if I shop around and when the manager is free, maybe you could ask her for help.”  OK, great.

I came back about ten minutes later and she was talking to the manager, who was equally confused.  I’m not sure about the rest of you, but when I have a receipt, I don’t care what your computer says, you need to honor the receipt.  I had even pointed out to them that one of the colors that was not recognized on the order, had the same tracking number for shipment as the other colors that were recognized.  I’d think that would be enough proof that they should just refund the transaction, but NO.  We need to call corporate headquarters for $6.00.  I wanted to throw the two jars of contraband paint out the window and call it even, as I’d already been there over forty minutes.   I know it’s not the employee or the manager’s fault, but geez, she spent another fifteen minutes with headquarters, who finally walked the manager through how to refund me for all six paints.  Remember the days when a cash register just had dollar amounts on it and no computerization was required?    Remember when a receipt actually meant something?

I lost an hour that I’ll never get back trying to return items with a receipt.  I wish life could be simple again.

I wanted to do an inlaid embedded emboss, but I couldn’t come up with a design for inside the front panel of the card. Instead, I made a homemade diffuser. Here’s how you make one.
Open an embossing folder and put a piece of copy paper inside the embossing folder (on the side that does not have the manufacturer info on it) and holding the paper in place, rub over the entire surface with a pencil. I wanted to only emboss the outside frame of my embossing folder, and not the center section. I cut out the inside of the design and the outside edge of the embossing folder and fit it back inside my embossing folder. This allows us to make sure it fits where you want it inside the folder and ensures your diffuser will sit where you want it. Then take cardboard (I used the back to a children’s doodle pad from Dollar Tree) and lay the paper you’ve cut out on the cardboard and draw the outline, then cut it out. You’ll need two pieces of cardboard cut the same. Adhere them together and then tape them to the outside of the embossing folder, put a piece of cardstock inside the embossing folder, and run it through a die cutting machine. It should come out with the inside not embossed and the outer edges embossed. You can do the opposite as well, if you cut the center out and using that doubled piece of cardboard, put it on the outside of the embossing folder over the center (taped in place), and run it through the die cutting machine.
I put the embossed image aside and went on to the stamps I wanted to use. I used Altenew Painted Flowers stamps and went to the Altenew website and found the template of how the stamps work. I laid all of the stamps from the set onto the template so I could make sure I lined the stamps up properly. Altenew stamps are not easy to line up without the template, so I highly recommend if you are using their layered stamp sets, you print out the template and lay your stamps on it, so you can just lay your acrylic block on the stamp and it will positioned properly to lay it on the image you’ve stamped before it.
I liked using reds and oranges and browns and grays for the backgrounds. I used Stampin’ Up basic gray and early espresso, as well as Stampin’ Up baroque burgundy and Gina K;s Cherry Red. For the oranges, I used Really Rust by Stampin’ Up and Gina K’s Peach Bellini ink. For the leaves, I used Old Olive and Always Artichoke, both by Stampin’ Up. I stamped a lot of the flowers and then fussy cut them out.
I went back to the white embossed 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ panel and decided I wanted to use a leaf stencil with Ranger Texture Paste and clear glitter from Stampin’ Up combined. I used a lot of glitter, as an fyi. I angled the stencil on the center of the unembossed portion of the paper and covered most of the unembossed area. Any that I got on the embossed area, I wiped off with my finger before it dried. I cleaned the stencil and knife and plate before the texture paste dried on them. I had some extra glitter texture paste, so I took another 4 3/4″ x 6 3/4″ white cardstock, and used the leaf stencil and covered the bottom 1/3rd of the paper for the inside element of the card. I also wrapped satin ribbon around the leaves and glued them to the back.
I used an LDRS die to cut out a Celebrate sentiment and put it on foam tape and laid it on the front of my card, along with dark orange circles I bought at Hobby Lobby in the party section. There are a bunch of different colors and sizes of circles that you throw on tables during parties that work great for this.
I put Stickles and generic glitter glue on my flowers. The black generic glitter glue would not dry no matter how long I waited. I ended up wiping off the excess that wouldn’t dry and put foam tape on the back of some of the flowers. I had run my stylus on those flowers on a piece of fun foam, so they looked more 3-D. The rest I just glued around the “Celebrate” sentiment. I took orange sequins and glued them around the flowers on the front of the card. Inside the card, I stamped an old Stampin’ Up stamp that said Mr. and Mrs.
Before gluing it together, I put a piece of ribbon around the bottom front of the card and cut the corners of the white paper out so the next orange layer of cardstock would show through. I cut it to 4 7/8″ x 6 7/8″ and laid it on my white card base that was 5 x 7″.

Rich and I went to see “Tag” with friends today.  We thought it was funny and we really enjoyed it.    My original plan for the day was to hang out with the dogs and make cards, but our friends called, and we couldn’t say no.  So naturally I haven’t followed through with the cards I wanted to make today, so I guess tomorrow’s another day.

Since it was a rainy day, Honey gets nervous….we didn’t anticipate thunder, but we must have had some, as Honey had accidents all over our living room,  Yikes!  So we came home to Honey whining because of the mess she’d made on the carpet and herself, and we had to reassure her that it was OK, so she would stop crying.

Our neighbor’s construction project has been really upsetting her, and we now wake up to Honey whining.  Once we pull her between us and both of us put one hand on her, she calms down and goes back to sleep.  It’s only taken us two years to figure out that she needs us to hold her to calm her.  I feel terrible about that.

I looked into making a DIY thunder shirt for her and it’s really simple.  It takes an ACE bandage and you wrap it from her back over her chest and leg, then around her back, and then around the other side of her chest in an “X” and around her back again.  It sounds confusing when I explain it, but there are tons of YouTube videos that show how to do it.  The next thunder storm/fireworks/hunting season, we’re going to be trying it out.  That poor dog needs to have some relief from her anxiety.  Some of you probably think I’m nuts for talking so much about her, but we’ve had dogs all of our married lives, and we’ve never had a dog that has this much stress.  It’s painful to watch, and if you’re a dog lover like me, you know what I’m saying.

I spent most of today researching new card techniques.  I’d like to make some new fun fold cards and wanted to play with some ideas for them.  I asked Rich to put up the wedding shower card video, so he’s working on it now.  I think it will probably go live tomorrow morning.

The rest of the day we spent trying to calm Honey down, as construction next door is getting louder and more intense.  They are putting in the foundation and it’s seriously noisy.  Poor Honey, can’t let anyone sleep when she’s scared, so both Rich and I spend our early mornings trying to calm her.  Unfortunately, the noise went on most of the day, so she was really in bad shape.  I think I’m going to look into buying her a thunder shirt, that’s supposed to calm her.  I’m ready to try just about anything at this point.

We have nothing going on tomorrow, so I’m going to make a couple of fun fold cards, and maybe try a few different folds to see which ones I like best.  It’s going to be a fun fold kind of day.

Rich and I went out to lunch with friends and ate overlooking Lake Erie.  It was a nice break from our normal routine.  After, he had an appointment to get dry needling and I read in the lobby, then went across the street to a deli, and got their day’s special for dinner.

Rich was tired, but wanted to stop on the way home at a historic war remembrance site, where they have a Vietnam helicopter on display.  He took several photos that I’m sure will be on his facebook page at some point in the future.  He’s really talented and does a terrific job making his photos memorable.

Tomorrow will be the video upload of the card I made for the wedding shower, and I hope people learn from some unusual techniques I did..  I intended to do one thing, and ended up doing another.  The techniques are interesting, but the card (I think) is a little over the top.  Maybe every once in a while it’s OK to do a crazy glitter card.