I got my new peg stamps in the mail and had to play with them to make a card.  It was so much fun and I can’t wait to hear what people think of them.  I didn’t use any of Lindsay’s stamps yet, but will definitely be playing with them in the next couple of days.

I have been really busy with comments from the emboss resist technique.  It’s strange, I really thought people would respond to the monochromatic green card I did a few videos ago, but this one was a huge hit.  I guess I’m not a good judge of what cards people will relate to and which ones that they won’t.  I’ll keep trying to come up with new and different cards to help people learn new techniques.

I  made a fun fold paper dress card and forgot to mention it yesterday, or maybe I did and forgot,  I had a really hard time streamlining that dress so it looked like a normal size doll would wear it..Mine continued to look out of proportion and more plus size than the woman that I copied them from. I’m not sure how hers all looked trim, and mine all looked like they’d been eating lots of pancakes, but I struggled to make the dresses look like they were properly proportioned.  I think the last dress finally was closer to what I thought it should look like.  I think it was a matter of art imitating life, as I’ve never been skinny, drat!  I hope Leslie, the lady that requested it, enjoys the video.  I really tried to make a card that was simply a folded dress, but couldn’t find one that was like the shirt card I made for a man.  I’ve made a wedding dress card, but it was really ornate on the outside, with lots of flowing material, but a plain cut out of a dress…No fun folds involved.

This is the first in our videos showing different techniques that you can do with embossing powders.

I started by die cutting five of the word “thanks” and glud them together with wet glue. To hold them together, I laid an ink pad on it until I was ready to use it.

I took a background stamp from Rubberneckers called Abstract Roses. and inked it with Versamark ink and inked a light 65 lb white card stock. I rubbed it with an anti-static pouch before stamping. I laid the white card stock on the stamp and rubbed it with my hand to ensure a good image. I used Ranger princess gold embossing powder and then heat set it, (after making sure I didn’t have any stray powder.)
I used micro brushes to clean off the excess powder…I found mine on Aliexpress and got 100 for under $2.00.
I painted the background with Viviva color sheets, and showed the second image colored with Crayola Markers to show you can use anything to color your images with. I colored the centers of the flowers with the darkest red, then colored the whole background with a lighter combination of vermillion and burnt umber. Then I waited for that to dry and then added burnt umber to the crimson and colored around the centers of the flowers with that combination. I did re-color the crimson centers after everything was dried. My paper was not watercolor paper, so it curled, so I tried to flatten it with my die cutting machine, but it didn’t really flatten, so I used foam tape on the back and attached it to a craft colored Gina K card stock that was 11″ long and 4 1/4″ wide, scored at 5 1/2″ to make an A2 size card.
I used several Crayola markers in the purple, blue and dark pink families and scribbled them on a ceramic tile then wet them and blended them together to make my background for the second card. I used a dark purple to color the centers of the flowers then the blended color for the rest of the design. I used a Royal and Langnickel watercolor brush to paint with.
To make the molten look on embossed surfaces, press the die cuts into the Versamark ink pad, then pour the Ranger Princess Gold powder over it. Then heat set it, and wait for it to cool, then press it into the ink pad again and pour the powder over it again and heat it again. Repeat this until you like the molten look. Try not to get any of the powder on the back of your image as it makes it hard to glue to the card if it has the heated powder on the back..
I took a 1 1/2″ wide x 4″ long strip of white card stock and colord it with the crimson watercolor and dried it, then put tear tape on the back and made it into a flag shape then glued the hello to the flag with wet adhesive. On the purple card, I used the princess gold embossing powder on a sentiment on purple cardstock that was 2″ wide by 4″ wide and adhered it to the front of the card with tear tape.

I took forever making the embossed cards…they are nice looking (in my opinion), but I wanted to show that you can get the exact same look with kid’s supplies, ie. Crayola markers, so made an additional card with those.  I liked all three cards, but because I didn’t use watercolor paper, (again, wanted to show you can make this card with basic supplies), they curled, and I really had to make sure I put good adhesive on it to flatten them.  I did try running them through my Vagabond and stopping it when they were in the center, where they were getting a lot of pressure.  Left them like that for a few hours, and when I took them out, they were still curling.  (Drat!)   They were not in the mood to be straightened, so I had to work around that small issue.  In the end, Rich felt one of them looks “waffly,” so I’m a little bit paranoid that you’ll only focus on that and not on the technique.  Oh well, I gave it a good try…

I’m not sure if I mentioned the crazy winter storm we had where it started to rain, and all of our snow thawed, then it froze, and the town was closed for several days because of flooding and ice.  In thirty-five years, we’ve never had a storm quite like that, but oddly enough, it looks like we’re going to have the exact same scenario this week.  We have probably four inches of snow on the ground, and it supposed to start raining on Monday or Tuesday, then by Wednesday or Thursday, the temperature is supposed to plummet, and voila, same ice conditions.  The only difference is that the creek that flooded last week, is solid ice and is level with its banks which makes serious flooding inevitable.  It’s supposed to get into the upper 40’s by tomorrow, so the snow will have thawed by Tuesday.  I’d hate to live near the flood zones, and we have several areas of them…Luckily, we live at the top of a hill that’s almost one-half mile to the top and the city is at the bottom.  I’ll keep you updated.

Here’s a photo and article showing the ice in a local plaza.  Sadly, the restaurant they are showing is directly in front of Joanns, the only craft store in 40 miles.  They were closed for several days while the parking lot was being de-iced, not an easy proposition when the ice is two to three feet high.

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180115/meadville-crews-scraping-up-ice-as-flooding-issues-persist

 

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I wanted to make another embossing video and haven’t gotten all of the powders in that I ordered, so decided to do a technique video.  A lot of people don’t know how to make “molten” embossing powder out of regular powders, so I thought I’d give that technique some air time.  But first, I really wanted to do embossing resist, where you show how embossing powder will hold watercolors, or really any coloring medium inside the lines of the heated powder.  I made a couple of examples and am really happy with the results.  Sometimes you just don’t know what direction you want to go, but I really love working with embossing powders on big background stamps, because it makes the process so simple.  It also almost leads you to your next step in coloring, because the backgrounds are so detailed.  I really think every card maker should know how to do this and should make sure that they give this a try.

I got a card in the mail from one of my viewers in France.  I absolutely love getting mail from overseas, and like to send cards to viewers from all over the world.  It’s like when we were kids, and met someone who turned into a pen pal…You get to know these people and learn about their cultures…I think it’s one of the best parts of having a YouTube channel.

Did I mention that I finally mailed all of my Christmas/New Year’s cards this week?  I feel awful that it’s taken me so long to get them out, but time just seemed to slip through my fingers.  Maybe 2018 will be the year that I stay on top of sending mail out on time.  I guess we’ll all have to wait and see how I manage it…

I finally uploaded the white ink video that was requested by a viewer, Cardstockcollector.  I really love it when people come up with creative YouTube names for themselves.  I’ve often thought about what name I should have used for myself…maybe crafty hoarder or crazy crafty hoarder…I’m still thinking about it.

The white ink video had some interesting results and I hope it helps some of you to decide what inks to buy and more importantly, what papers to use them with.  I had no idea that the paper would make such a big difference in the stamping results, but they definitely did.

After working on the video, we went out for a late lunch and a movie with some friends.  Rich and I love going to the movies, and since we normally see action movies, or what I like to call, man movies, it was a nice break to see Pitch Perfect 3.  I really enjoy a movie that doesn’t require me to look away when something is extremely violent, and this was a perfect change for me.

I was really excited, as we came home to a box from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the peg stamp people.  I had talked to them about an idea I had for stamps and they created a set for me and even allowed me to name them.  I can’t wait for them to go live on the 23rd, as I’ll be able to talk more about them and will definitely have a video go live using them on that day.  You’ll probably laugh when you see my creativity, but I’ll wait for you to see them before we talk more about how little talent it took for my idea.   I am really excited about them though, and think that you’ll find all kinds of ways to use them and they might be your go to stamp for a lot of different ideas.  I hope you’ll let me know what you think about them when you see the video.

To determine which white pigment ink worked best, I felt I also needed to determine if the card stock used would make a difference in the results.
I used four different card stocks:
Stampin’ Up Blackberry Bliss (I didn’t have black Stampin’ Up papers
Darice Premium Car Stock 50 pieces for $2.50
Gina K Neutrals Pack called Onyx Black
Michaels Recollections Heavy Weight Black Card Stock

The Inks we are testing are:

Stampin’ Up Whisper White craft ink (craft ink is what Stampin’ Up calls a pigment ink) $9.50 with re inker

Hero Arts Hero Hues Unicorn White Pigment Ink– $4.90 Pegstamps.com

Dew Drops Brilliance (mini pad) Moonlight White $2.85 pegstamps.com

Memento Luxe Wedding Dress Joanns $6.99 joanns.com (full price)

Versamark Versacolor 80 White (mini pad) pegstamps.com $2.00

Color Box Frost White. $7.49 full price Michaels

Ranger Glacier White $6.49 Joanns.com

Staz On Cotton White (not sure where Rich got his spelling that was on the screen, kind of crazy.) this is a solvent ink and can be stamped on glass and other surfaces.. $14.99 with re-inker Joanns.com

I used a circle stamp from Hero Arts and tried to ensure all stamping was well inked and that I held them in place to ensure the ink would transfer to the paper.

What I found was that the paper did make a big difference. I found the inexpensive Darice 65 lb. Premium card stock performed best with white ink.

The top three performing white inks are:
Color Box Frost White
Hero Hues Unicorn White Ink
Stampin’ Up Whisper White Craft Ink
All three of these inks performed equally well in my opinion.

Today I finally finished the video on white inks and here’s what I discovered.  The brand of card stock used makes a huge difference in the results that you will get from stamping with white ink.  I used four different brands of paper, and the least expensive brand worked the best.  I’m not sure if it was because it was a lighter weight, but there you have it.  Expensive card stock is not always the answer to your stamping needs.

I also finished some cards that I had started in a recent video, and I wanted to share a photo of those cards with you..  I think they all looked good when they were finished, but I believe the green one from the video is probably my favorite, although the blue one is really simple, but elegant too.

I showed the Christmas present that I got from my good friend Cora in the white ink video.  It’s a wood sign of my YouTube channel and I really love it.  I know I’ve already talked about this, but I am so excited about it that I wanted to share it again..Some gifts just keep on giving.

Rich and I had a great day today…We met some of our college friends for lunch then went to see the house they are in the process of having built.  It’s so nice to see friends so happy with where they are in life and with their plans for the future.

On our way home, we stopped at my friend Lynn’s house to drop off food for her family, as her mother is in the hospital and Lynn is the chef for her mother, her son, and his two young sons.  I wanted to give her a small break today, and hopefully, giving them dinner will give her a few minutes to herself.

I really wanted to finish the white ink video, but ran out of steam, and had to put it off until tomorrow.  Some days just go like that.  I can plan and plan, but time just seems to slip away sometimes.  Tomorrow’s another day, right?

I think tonight is the night to make the white pigment ink comparison video.  I really enjoy making those kinds of videos and want to get that one finished, as a viewer had requested it.  I especially enjoy making videos when people request them, as I know that they wouldn’t ask unless they really needed the information.

I just got the last couple of inks in the mail on Saturday, so it’s time to get serious about making the video.  The only thing left to do is write all of the prices on card stock to attach to the inks.  I like to make sure I try to find the lowest prices available on the internet for a comparison.

I’m going to try a couple different card stocks to see which ones work better with what inks.  I know that helps others when deciding what card stocks to invest in, and I like to know the results for myself, so my cards look better when used with the right inks.  I guess we’ll all know in the next couple of days….which white inks are best with what brands of card stock. I guess I better get busy…

I have to admit something.  If I’m not creating something, then I’m shopping for something to create.  I don’t shop like some crafters, buying hundreds of dollars worth of items at a time, but I do like to buy a lot of things.  Especially if things are on sale, second hand, or a bargain.  I love a bargain and struggle to just say no.

So yesterday, when I wasn’t feeling like doing very much, I shopped.  I bought a few things from Blitsy, and then went on Splitcoast Stampers and bought some card stock, designer series papers and some background stamps.  I really love Splitcoast Stampers because it’s primarily Stampin’ Up reps who sell off the things that are discontinued, and it seems like they discontinue a lot of things.  They have “in-colors,”  that are colors that they only have available for two years, then they are done.  They offer inks, re-inkers, markers, ribbon, paper, and designer series papers in these colors, and at the end of two years, the great ladies on Splitcoast Stampers sell off the things they no longer can sell to their customers.  It’s a great way to find used anything and everything, and I love the quality of Stampin’ Up products, so buy whenever the mood hits me.  I really try not to get excited about the new “in colors” as it can be an expensive proposition.  Of course I need to buy the ink and re-inker, because once they are discontinued, you’ll never be able to buy them again….Plus if I love a color, I’ll definitely want to buy matching card stock and the marker….The list goes on and on.  Needless to say, it’s not a good thing when I’m having an off day, as I will spend the entire day looking at Splitcoast Stampers, Ebay and watching old Lindsay the Frugal Crafter videos.

Today, I’ve been trying to stay off of the craft sites that “make” me buy things, and instead, am reading.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love to read books.  Not a Kindle, books.  I love the feel of them in my hands, the smell of them, and being able to hold it open to the page I’m on, and know exactly how much of the book I have read.  I have a Kindle, and a lot of people think I should use it more, because it’s lighter and easier on my hands/wrists.  The truth is this.  If I do anything that is extremely repetitious, like clicking one button to advance to the next page in a Kindle, my thumb and eventually, my wrist, will pay the price by swelling.  I think it’s weird that one tiny button will do something that an entire book will not.  Make my hand/wrist swell.  Another of my physical oddities has to do with buttons on a computer.  Certain computers have buttons that click when pressed…Those buttons will eventually make my wrists swell.  Even more odd are cellphones and touch screens..  Your fingers have to press those pads in a certain way, and since my fingers aren’t straight, I have a really hard time getting touch screens/cellphones with touch pads, to work.  Maybe I’m just an old-fashioned girl, but I can’t use Rich’s cellphone, and usually either disconnect the call, or end up dialing someone else with my cheek while talking on it.  I don’t like the size of the new phones either, because my hands can’t grip them very easily.

You probably didn’t expect me to give a rant today, but modern technology is not the greatest for people like me.    I’m really lucky that I have no interest in technology, otherwise I’d be really mad that I can’t use a lot of it.  I love my flip phone.  I know it sounds weird, but I can hold it, I can dial it, and I can hear when I use it.  I don’t text (I know you are shocked), and believe that if I take the time to contact someone, I want to hear their voice on the other end of the phone.  I rarely keep my cellphone turned on, and never use it at home.  I still have a land line, and think it’s just great.  I know a lot of people think land lines are a thing of the past, but I like having an extension in several rooms, and frankly, where we live, cell phone service can be spotty…so if I’m in our basement, I really want the phone to work, and cellphones don’t have reception there.  Basically, I’m just a crazy middle-aged lady prone to rants about technology…And you thought I still maintained some semblance of sanity…Not so much.