I was asked to show a watercolor paper comparison, and I wanted to use insexpensive papers.

I used:
Crayola Paints set of 8 $1.99 Target.com
Niji Yasotomo Pearlescent set of 16 Amazon $6.62.  I bought a bigger set at Hobby Lobby for less, so recommend you check there.
Kuretake Gansai Watercolors 36 set Amazon $29.38
Crayola Markers set of 10 $1.00 Office Depot
Distress Marker 1 at Joann.com $3.99 full price without coupon
Stampin’ Up Marker $2.50 Stampinup.com
Prismacolor 36 set watercolor pencils Dickblick.com $22.91
Distress Crayon set o 6 $14,99 Joann.com
Perfect Layering Circles https://pegstamps.com/perfect-layering-circles.html

Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper Distress 20 pkg 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ $5.39 scrapbook.com
Fabriano Hot Press 9 x 12″ 140 lb 50 sheets dickblick.com $22.25
I bought mine at AC Moore for a lot less with a coupon
Winsor Newton Cottman Spiral Bound Pad Cold Press 5 x 7″ dickblick.com 15 sheets 140 lb $9.99
Canson XL cold press 9 x 12″ 140 lb 30 sheet $5.97 Walmart.com

I really liked the Fabriano Hot Press paper for paper crafts, as it is really easy to stamp on, and with all things considered, the other papers performed the same in all other categories.

Lindsay the frugal crafter did email me and said her favorite for
stamping is the Fabriano hot press, so we are both on the same page.

I decided to make a video on different stamp cleaners and how they work.  What I found is all of the commercial ones I have work the same….As does my homemade stamp cleanser.  I also found that I got decent results from using alcohol to remove some of the old Staz-On and archival inks on red rubber stamps.  I really liked using hand sanitizer for cleaning clear stamps and the MISTI.  Funny how things we have on hand at home, work just as well as the expensive cleansers we buy in stores.

I talked Rich into uploading another video today.  I have a lot of long videos finished, and I know he’d really like to put those off for a long long time, so I gave him an easier one to put up today.  It’s comparing different inexpensive watercolor papers.

Some days I’m inspired to do a few videos and I think I’ll make at least one card video today as well.  I have a few really great ideas I’ve been sent from viewers, and I’d like to get some of those cards done.  I’m hoping the rain continues so I feel like working in my craft room.  Rain has a way of motivating me like snow does in winter.

I have a viewer in Montana named, Sherry, that had made a paper purse that holds several cards inside.  It makes a terrific gift, and I really wanted to make one.  Sherry said she would send me a template and I received it today in the mail.  I couldn’t believe all the work that she did for me.  She not only created a template, but made two different purses in different stages so I would be able to see what they would look like as I created them.  She also sent me a stack of 12 x 12″ Graphic 45 paper, as she and I both have a fondness for it.  If you are ever doing a project that you want to last a lifetime, Graphic 45 paper is made for just such a project.  It’s beautifully colored, strong, but doesn’t crack, and looks rich and elegant.  I can’t recommend it enough.  Sherry also sent some dies, a glue pen and other goodies, and I’ll make sure to share them in a video.  I have the nicest viewers.  So kind and generous–I’m truly blessed to have them.

If you watched the video with Shelli and Linda, it’s really choppy, as I used an old memory card that had issues.  I probably had five or six different segments to the video, but the memory card didn’t record most of them.  It’s so frustrating when that happens.  Then I lost the card and just found it under a chair.  Luckily, the additional footage was on another memory card, and I couldn’t bring myself to delete it, even though I was pretty sure the rest of the footage was lost.  So in the end, Rich pieced it together so there is a little bit of footage of our afternoon together.  I wanted him to write an explanation on the screen about the memory card loss, but he forgot, so viewers really won’t understand what happened unless they read the information below or this blog post.

I guess these things happen to other crafters, although they probably don’t share when it does.

Sorry, I had a memory card that had issues, so I lost the video with Shelli, Linda and I. I feel so dumb when these things happen, but luckily I found the rest of the video (under a chair.)

The card boxes were garage sale finds, and I thought they would be a great project for us to update as they both had a 1990’s feel to them. My box is wood and can be found in almost any big craft store and I put a link to one at Joanns that looks just like the one I covered. The papers we used on them are from DCWV from Michaels in their discounted paper pad section. I bought them last fall to they might not be available any longer.

My paper trimmer is from Cricut and here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/ycev5wbq

Mod Podge http://tinyurl.com/ydbuc2xv

Wood Box like mine: http://tinyurl.com/ya4gujkw

I’m sorry I had so many camera issues with Linda and Shelli, as they are so much fun to craft with…And I wish you could have seen and heard our antics.

I decided today was the day for making the video comparing different brands of watercolor paper.  I thought it made sense to also compare different coloring mediums on the paper, to see if there was a significant different in them.  I used Crayola products and compared them to more expensive paints and markers.  I really wanted to do a thorough job, and hope that I did.

As usual, I made a big mess and had to clean a large area, as I got watercolor paint all over myself and the craft room.  I probably should wear some type of Haz-mat suit when I’m crafting, because I make such a mess.  And what was I thinking when I decided to wear white pants today?  Let’s just say that they are no longer totally white.  Darn it.

Can you believe the month of May is gone so soon?  Seems like it was snowing a week ago.  OK, not a week but it definitely snowed earlier this month here.  It went from winter directly into summer, and I’m still acclimating.  Rich just put our furniture on the patio yesterday, as it just didn’t seem like the weather was nice enough to sit out there until this week.

Last night, I was putting together all of the video clips for the album video, and dropped one of the memory cards under the recliner I was sitting in.  Rich found it plus an extra memory card that I didn’t know I’d lost there.  I was thrilled to find the lost videos from the day I spent crafting with my cousin and our friend Linda.  I thought the videos were lost on a bad memory card, and was so happy, as one of my pet peeves is losing videos.  And speaking of losing video, I had one last video to show from the stamp show we attended.  I was at the Close to my Heart booth and made a card, then got a tour of their products.  I accidentally deleted me making the card, so I’m leaving it up to Rich to decide if there’s enough information on the remaining video, that viewers would be interested in watching.  I don’t want to waste viewers’ time, if it’s not very informative.  I guess we’ll wait and see what he thinks.   I did start working on a few ideas for some upcoming videos.  I’m going to do an inexpensive watercolor paper comparison video and an embossing powder instructional video explaining the different types and their uses.  Then I bought a few different brands of silver embossing powder to see if one performed better than another.  I might also try embossing on different paper brands to see if that affects the end results as well.

 

I spent all day yesterday and today working on the album and it is finally FINISHED!!!  I know you are probably thinking, “This thing better be a masterpiece,” and frankly it isn’t, but I did the best I could with the issues I had.  My first issue was not knowing the color of the bricks on the house I was trying to replicate.  I relied on Rich, who said that they were “brick colored.”  That lead me down a horrible path that included red bricks and red paper, neither of which I liked.  In the end, I found out the colors of the bricks were beige and gray.  So back to the drawing board.  I used texture paste and made a horrible mess, everywhere but on the album, the album came out relatively unscathed.  My clothes on the other hand, did not.
Humidity played a role in the problems I faced.  For some reason, weeks after finishing the pockets of the album, the paper inside kept getting adhered to the pocket, and it didn’t make me happy, I’ll tell you that.

Today was just finishing work, and it was bad.  I lost a key element for the front of the album and ended up actually cleaning my craft room to find it.  It took over two hours and I was just about to give up, when I found it on the floor.  These things happen.  I wanted the front cover to have a wrap-around the binding.  You’ll have to see it to understand what I mean.  I couldn’t find anything that I really liked, so tried dying burlap with Tim Holtz stains.  What a horrible mess..I didn’t try it once, no, I kept going, and cut three separate pieces of burlap to ruin.  My nails that were white when I started the day, now have a weird dark outline.  It looks like dirt, but trust me, it’s stain.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that the album is finished.  I really hope our friends like it and take the time to fill it with photos of their new home.  I’ll be OK if they don’t do anything with it, because after all, it’s the thought that counts.

I’ve had questions about paper cutting, so I thought I’d use a 12″ x 12″ paper pad, and show how to make a card. The paper pad I used was called Pocket Blossom from Die Cuts With a View from Michaels. These pads come with a couple of pages of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) that you can use on your card (or inside your card.)
To trim these from your pad, you’ll want to line up the line between two cards on the cutting line of your trimmer, and holding it against the measuring bar with your right hand, pull the blade from the top of the page, toward you.

To cut an A2 size card that is 5 1/2″ by 4 1/4″, you’ll want to put your paper in the trimmer so it is on the 11″ mark and pull the blade toward you. Then turn the paper one turn, and put it in the trimmer at 4 1/4″ and pull the blade toward you. To score it, I used a pen cap and my paper trimmer. I lined the paper up at 5 1/2″ and put the trim blade at the top of the trimmer so it’s out of the way.  I used the pen cap, and ran it down the cut line (not hard), just to make a mark so the paper will fold easily. The other way to make an a2 size card, is to put your paper on the  8 1/2″ mark on the measuring bar, and hold the right side, pull the blade toward you. Turn the paper one turn, and put it in the trimmer at      5 1/2″ and cut. This will create the other A2 size card. One is long and thin and one is short and fat. It’s all in the way you trim your paper and what you want your card to look like when you are finished.
Since I was using a layering die, I needed two other pieces of paper from the same paper pad to cut from. I put the 12″ paper in the paper trimmer at 4″ and trimmed about 3 1/2″ from the bottom up. Then I turned the paper one turn, that moved the paper cut to my left, and lined up the end of that cut with my cut bar and put the trimming device on that spot and pulled the blade toward me. That cut a 3 1/2″ square piece.
I used a layered heart die and here’s the link to it. https://preview.tinyurl.com/yd4kswmc I used snips to cut my dies apart. Here’s a link to the snips I use. http://tinyurl.com/yab37h8b

I used a corner rounder to round the corners of my card and the piece I cut for the inside. The inside piece is 5 3/8″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide. The corner rounder came from Amazon and here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/yalu76ur

I glued a piece of gold paper under the heart that I die cut from my card. The card is 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide. I put the die in the center and used the die that had the most metal for that cut out. Before putting it in my die cutting machine, I opened the card so it wouldn’t cut through the front and back, only the front.  I glued that die cut onto the gold paper that I laid behind the heart, and then die cut and glued the next layer that had less metal on it and then finally, die cut and glued the one that had the least metal. I glued the gold and white patterned paper behind the gold piece of card stock with the gold and white patterned paper facing inside.

The micro brushes I didn’t use, here’s the link. http://tinyurl.com/y87jslxg
The micro brushes I did use, here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/ycwafpdo

I used Hampton Arts stamp set called Enjoy for my card, and used a stamp positioner to hold it in place while I stamped it with Versamark ink and Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, that I then heat set.
I didn’t think you could see the gold embossing, so I used pearl watercolors and here’s the link to them: http://tinyurl.com/y6wwh8lf

At first I only painted over the two sentiments, but didn’t love that, so added watercolor to the whole front of the card and I liked it better that way. I added some gold sequins to the front with my micro brushes.  My card warped but I laid it under a thick book and it flattened out and looked great.
I took the ATC that I cut out and glued it to the inside of the card and then cut a 4″ cut the top on a diagonal so it was about 2″ tall and I could put a gift card or money inside it. I used a scrap to line it.\

I spent a lot of time working on the covers for my album.  I wanted the bricks to really look authentic, so spent all evening putting on colored texture paste, waiting for three rows of bricks to dry, and then repeating the process.  I might have made a huge mistake in laying rows of bricks on both the top and bottom at the same time, and now am reaching the middle.  If my bricks don’t line up properly, I might have another major problem on my hands.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Tomorrow’s blog post might include me crying and throwing in the towel on this album.

I took time out and planted a flower pot, and have always enjoyed planting, but made a really big mess while doing it.  I guess I forgot that I’m not the Martha Stewart with her garden shed and a nice planting box.  I just take my bag of soil and try not to miss the pot.  It’s not a great system, but it’s all mine.   I really like the look of it and hope I remember to water it enough so I don’t kill it in the first month.  I don’t have the biggest green thumb, so there is a good chance I’ll kill it before the summer’s out.  It’s really a case of forgetfulness, and thinking I watered it when I didn’t.  I’m like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz–If I only had a brain….

I went to some garage sales yesterday and didn’t find anything crafty that I wanted to buy.  I did find two great big stuffed animals for the dogs, and they’ve been carrying them around the house like they are their babies.  If you’re a dog person, it’s really cute to watch.  One of them fell asleep with her head resting on the stomach of her animal.  I should have taken a photo of them.

I have a frustrating story to tell you and see what you think.  We went to our local Sears to buy Rich a new riding lawn mower.  He’d already picked out the one he wanted at Sears.com, but he wanted to buy locally, so we went to the store.  They told us they basically “rent” the Sears name and if the Sears chain goes away, they will still be functioning.  We thought that was kind of odd since the name is “Sears”, but went along with it.  Rich gave them the information on the tractor he wanted and they said they didn’t have one in stock, but could get one from “Sears.”  The delivery fee would be $82.11 (not sure where that number came from), but we could get that waived if we applied for a Sears card.  The price of the tractor online was $100 less, but they said they would price match it.  Also, they were having a special and we would get an additional 5% off and $50 if we applied for and used the Sears card.  So we decided to think about it.

Since both of his tractors aren’t currently working (don’t ask), time is of the essence, unless we want to live in a hay field.  So we went online and applied for the card and were approved, but, you can’t use the online approval to purchase anything online, you can use it in the store however.  (I thought it would be easier to use it to order the tractor online, get the online price and free delivery that they offer, but I’d need to wait for the card that we’d get in 7-10 days…hay field time.)  So we take the online approval and go back to our local “Sears” store.  The man that helped us must have been new, as he wasn’t really sure how to do a lot of what needed done on the computer.  He did ask for assistance and here’s what we got.

They would price match with Sears.com, and since we now had a Sears credit card and were buying a Craftsman tractor, were eligible for free delivery.  (At this “Sears” store, you could only get free delivery on a tractor if you used a Sears card AND, bought a Craftsman Tractor, but not the more expensive Husquavarna tractor that Rich thought about buying, but didn’t.)   And that’s when things fell apart.  Keep in mind, if we’d have bought it online from Sears, we would automatically have gotten the price we had to fight for, and would also have automatically gotten free delivery.  Also, online we would have gotten an additional 5% off the tractor price (but couldn’t get that in the store because they had given us the price match.)  Online we would also have gotten $50 and be able to use a $25 coupon, but couldn’t because we weren’t technically in a Sears store.  So in the end, we gave up $160 in savings because we bought locally from a store that wasn’t really Sears.   I have no idea why they show the offers that real Sears stores use, as they wouldn’t honor them, because they aren’t really Sears.  Could you follow that logic?

My head was spinning by the time we left there, because we had to have the tractor, and it still won’t be delivered until Thursday, but isn’t that the way it goes when you have to have an appliance in a hurry?

Long story short.  All things called Sears, are clearly not Sears.