I got a request from a viewer to make a video showing how to make a Heidi Swapp iridescent paint. So I figured, why not? I should try to make it and while I’m doing that, I should also make some Wink of Stella. I always love trying to replicate a product, and helping others save money at the same time. I made the paint and think it came out close to the real thing…here’s the funny thing..I didn’t know I already had a bottle of the Heidi Swapp paint, so could compare what I made to the original. I know what Wink of Stella looks like, so that wasn’t hard to duplicate.
I finished the video and hope people will give one or both a try. I guess this is my DIY weekend, since yesterday was all about marble techniques.
I should also tell you that I’ve tried really hard not to buy a lot of crafty things on cyber weekend, and it’s been a struggle. I keep telling myself I don’t need anything and that if I buy one more thing, I’m a certified crafty hoarder. OK, so there’s a good chance that I actually am a crafty hoarder, and I’ll let you know tomorrow night how I fared with not buying anything…It’s not looking good.
I thought I’d buy myself one stamp set that I’ve been looking at, and today was the day. I’ve been trying to go onto Simon Says Stamp for at least six hours and their website is down. I’ve got to wonder, how much traffic would it take to bring down a site like theirs? Six hours is my maximum commitment, so I’ve decided to kick this stamp set ot the curb. It’s not like I need it anyway, but since their sale ends tonight, I thought I’d buy it.
I made a video today showing different ways to make paper look like it’s got a marble finish. I tried using the word “marbilized,” but that wasn’t correct, so went with “marble finish” instead. I had a really good time with the different techniques, and think the video will go over well. It’s always fun to show a technique that’s simple and also, one that can be done in a variety of manners. I think I show six different ways to make paper have a marble finish. Geez, what’s the correct way to say that? I think I’m losing my mind. It’s probably something really simple, and I need to figure out the proper terminology before I put the video up. It’s going to look really foolish if I call it marble finish…It won’t be the first or last time I’ve looked foolish, but I’d prefer not to, if I can avoid it.
I think I was a little bit brain-dead when I wrote the last post, as I talked about how I got up at 11AM, and that was today, not yesterday. It would be funny if I had gotten up at 11 on Thanksgiving, as my meal for 1PM might not have gone off as scheduled. And one of our guests arrived at 10AM, so I would have slept through an hour of her visit. So I apologize for my misrepresentation of the day.
I’m off to a great start.
When we were getting the house in order for our company, I did something really stupid. Anything I found that I didn’t know what to do with, I threw into my craft room. It had been really starting to look better, and now it’s back to crazy messy. I’d like to say that there’s going to be a time in the near (or distant) future, where that room doesn’t look just terrible, but it’s looking bad.
I wanted to do a video today, but honestly, I’m still exhausted from entertaining. I always love people who say they love to entertain, but I’m not one of them, and I kind of think those people might just be lying about it. I fret that I’ll forget to do something, or will burn something or the meal will be cold, you name it, I fret about it. So by the time the guests leave, I am too exhausted to think about anything. And obviously, 14 hours of sleep didn’t make it any better, as I’m thinking about taking a nap. It’s almost 4PM, so I’ve been out of bed for roughly five hours, and still, I’d like to sleep some more. So those of you who love to entertain, I really need your secret. How do you do it? I need to know. Or is it all just smoke and mirrors, and you secretly dread it too?
November 22nd is my birthday. In my head, I’m about twenty-five, but in real life, I’m 58. When did I get so old? It seems like yesterday I was in college, but it’s been forty years. Did I say forty years? Holy cow, that’s a long time ago. I’m not fond of my birthday, not because of the aging thing, but it’s just not been (historically) a good day for me. I’ve probably mentioned this in the previous two years, but my first memory of my birthday was in 1964, when I turned four. President Kennedy was shot and killed and my first memory is of my mother and her two friends crying, while their two kids and I sat and ate cake while watching the news coverage. Since then, many birthdays have not been good..my sister had a major seizure, my mother an emergency hysterectomy, my hip dislocated, I had a major infection that couldn’t be cured, and the list goes on and on. So I hold my breath and hope I’ll get through the day unscathed. I know it sounds silly, but I really fret until the day has passed.
Thanksgiving on the other hand, combines my favorite foods, carbs, carbs and sugar, into a wonderful day. We had some friends over, and it was a really nice afternoon. I was so exhausted, I went to bed at 9PM and woke up this morning, at 11AM…I’m not even embarrassed to admit that. It was funny, when I looked at the clock, I thought there was something wrong with it, it couldn’t possibly be 11, but it was..
I spent a lot of Thanksgiving worrying about Aggie, as she’s not fond of any commotion, or changes in her routine. She wandered out, figured out there were more people here than usual, and went back to bed. I love how dogs handle stress…just sleep it off until things get better. Aggie’s new favorite meal is vanilla yogurt mixed with peanut butter and her dog food. She probably wouldn’t eat her dog food without it, as she’s now decided she’ll only eat what she wants. And don’t try to sneak any medicine in there, as she’s got a nose for meds…and won’t eat it. She’ll just walk away. Thus the peanut butter and yogurt, because she loves anything sweet, and she’ll eat her pill when she knows it’s going to be hidden with something sweet…Smart dog. We were giving her chicken and rice mixed with dog food, but she figured out really quickly that her pill was in there, so now she sniffs it and walks away. I had been making frozen treats with vanilla yogurt and melted peanut butter combined, and she loved it…I figured if she liked it frozen, she’d love it cold, and does. So far, it’s been a real winner for us. I’ll feed her anything she wants, in order to keep her eating. It’s only fair. If I was approaching my 16th birthday as a dog, I’d hope my family would feed me whatever I wanted too…
I started with gold pearlized card stock that is 8 1/2″ by 5 1/2″ tall, scored on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″ to make an A2 size card that is 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide.
I used a sunflower die and cut it out on my die cutting machine in brown and then in blue. I used the blue out of the excess of the die cut. I used a diluted wet glue and laid the brown flower on my gold card base. Then added the blue to the top section, then took a brown Sharpie and colored in the center of the sunflower. I used a bronze colored glitter pack from a pack of multiple colors of glitter that I bought at Joanns last year. Added the wet glue into the center of the flower and then gently rubbed the glitter into the circles.
I have a set of banner dies from MFT that I used to lay my sentiment on. I used a thank you die and cut the gold card stock from it and centered it on the brown banner. I added foam tape behind the center of the banner and tear tape on the edges to adhere it to the front of the card.
For the inside of the card, I used My Creative Times This and That stamp set and Versafine Onyx Black ink with clear embossing powder and heat set it.
I used peg stamps to decorate the envelope. http://www.pegstamps.com and Stampin’ Up ink Delightful Dijon and a sunflower set called Greetings from Kansas. The leaf stamp is called a wide leaf stamp. The green ink is also from Stampin’ Up and is called Always Artichoke.
I decided I really needed to get serious about packaging the boxes for Puerto Rico. I know it doesn’t sound like it would be a lot of work, but it took me about six straight hours to fill eleven boxes. And that was after I’d spent probably another ten hours sorting through stamps, dies, embellishments, ribbons, embossing powder, and the list goes on and on. I bought a lot of new things for them as well, and the boxes are almost completely full. I wish I could say I feel like I really accomplished something, but for some reason I don’t. Maybe because the boxes are still sitting here staring at me. (If boxes could stare, they would be, of that I’m certain.)
I have some serious work to do tomorrow, as we’re having Thanksgiving dinner here and although I’ve made turkeys, never for anyone other than my parents and Rich. We’re having another family over, so the pressure is on.. I need to produce a turkey that is totally edible. It’s a scary thought, and I hope I’m up for the challenge. Wish me luck.
I’ll let you know how things go tomorrow, when I’ve gotten a bigger grip on the rest of the meal. This could turn ugly fast.
If you’ve left a comment for me on my blog, I feel really badly, because I accidentally made my blog comments spam on email, so I wasn’t getting any notifications about them. I realize that’s a pretty lame excuse, but I’m going to jump on it today and try to figure out how to find them from this page instead of email.
Once I’ve done that, my life will be back on track..I absolutely hate it when I miss any comments on YouTube, Facebook or on this blog. It was a commitment I made to myself when I started the YouTube channel…I was going to answer comments until there were so many, that it’s virtually impossible to keep up with them. I know a lot of the bigger YouTube pages let their comments go unanswered, and I’ve always wondered why people continue to leave comments for them. One of my favorite parts of YouTube is the interaction with viewers and I think it’s sad that others don’t find the same joy from it.
We had our first real snow last night and had a couple of inches on the ground. We’ve had snow earlier in the November, but it didn’t accumulate. Luckily, it’s already melting, and I see grass again, so life is good.
Did I mention my plan to make easy gift bags? I’m not creating the bags, but will be decorating them. I thought it would be fun to create a handle for them too. This is sounding really familiar so I probably already talked about it. I think I could be losing my mind. I’d bet if I read a month’s worth of blog posts, I probably repeat topics at least a third of the time. I need to start writing down what I talk about instead of just jumping in with an idea. That’s an exaggeration, as I don’t even jump in with an idea, mostly I just jump in. I’d love to say I’ve got a plan for what I want to talk about, but mainly I just start telling you about my day, or a project I’m working on, and go from there. No planning required.
I know I told you about Aggie going to the vet, and feeling really frisky when she got home. She’s not been feeling well the last couple of days, and we started to worry that we’d have to make a big decision about her. But today, she decided she needed to go for a walk and did. She roamed around our backyard and accidentally walked into a tree. She wasn’t walking very fast, so it just surprised her..these are the things that happen when you’re an old lady. Oh, and a couple of nights ago, she walked to the front of our yard where it slants toward a dead end street. She fell down and before Rich could get his shoes on, walk to her and pick her up, she’d already decided to take a nap…Like I said, it’s not easy getting old. Some days are better than others, and today is a good day (other than walking into a tree.)
I loved making the peek-a-boo card to help my friend Kelly, who really struggled with it. It wasn’t an easy card to master and I’m still not very comfortable with it. I spent most of the day yesterday working on my craft room. I wanted to go through all of my tools and supplies and decide which ones I’ll be using and which ones I’d like to donate to the women in Puerto Rico. I have so much stuff and I’m ashamed that I have let it get so out of control. I have embellishments that I must have thought I would use at some point, but aren’t anything I’d really every use. In the beginning, I bought things thinking I would make cards for kids and cards for men etc., and that’s really just not the case. I primarily make “thinking of you,” get well, thank you, sympathy and birthday cards. The birthday cards I make are almost always for women (except Rich’s card), so masculine themed cards just aren’t something I make many of.
To make a long story short, I’m really starting to make a dent in the huge piles of craft supplies I own. I’m happy about it, because now I feel like I have a grip on my supplies, whereas before, I felt like they owned me.
I can’t wait to finish my de-cluttering, so that I can make the boxes and get them in the mail. I know it will be a huge weight off of my shoulders when I hand them to the post office to send. I can’t wait.
My friend Kelly asked me to give this card a try. I went to Dawn’s Stamping Thoughts on YouTube for inspiration. If you make this card, you can’t alter the size of the punch. I recommend you using a 2″ circle punch or die, as that’s what Dawn used, and hers came out well.
Here’s the link to the holiday sales I found last year and wanted to share with all of you.
It’s important that you write on two pieces of paper “front” and “inside” and attach
Inside — 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ colored card stock
4 1/4 x 5 3/4″ white (or a color you can stamp on)
Front — 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ colored
3 x 4 1/4″ white
Scoring on the:
Inside pieces:
4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ score on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″ (this is now square when folded)
4 1/4″ x 5 3/4″ white piece, score on the 5 3/4″ length at 5 1/2″ (so you only have a 1/4″ score)
On your front: Score only the
3″ x 4 1/4″ white piece, score on the 3″ length at 2 3/4″
Using a really strong adhesive, (I use tear tape),
on the front of the card, fold your raised score under and put tear tape on top on the 1/4″ piece that is scored, up to the score line, but not over it, then attach it to the back of your card front. Then rub it to make sure it is well adhered and fold it under so you know it will stay attached.
On the inside of the card, fold the score down on the white card stock, and put tear tape on the edge up to the score, but not over it. Then attach it to the back of the red paper…
Take the front of the card and fold it closed so you are looking at the white and colored card stock. You will want to punch or use a die that is 2″ round (if possible) and center it on the colored card stock and cut it out.
If you want paper to cover the outside of your card, you’ll cut it to 4 1/8″ high by 5 3/8″. Once you’ve cut the circle out of your front (or an oval), you’ll put the decorated paper on the front where it would be once it’s glued down and put a paperclip on it to hold it there. Flip it over and take a pencil and draw the inside of your cut circle or oval. Then using your punch or die, cut that out. If you can, use a larger punch or die and center it over your pencil lines and cut that out, so you have a frame around the front of your card.
Now to the inside of the card…make sure the white part is to the left of where you are cutting. You’re going to line up the front of the card over the colored card stock from the inside of your card, making sure the right edges line up. then using your pencil, draw a line around the inside of your circle or oval. Then using your punch or die, cut this out. Then trace inside that hole and cut the other piece of your colored card stock (that’s inside the fold)—make sure you don’t cut through the white card stock that’s attached to it.
On the white of your card inside, you’ll want to have drawn a circle or oval where the colored card stock folds on it, and then you’ll want to do your stamping here. I used Color Box Archival Black Ink and Sunny Studios Bundled Up stamp set for this.
For the front of your card, you will take the front and push the white piece into the inside of the card as far as it will go, and draw a circle or oval where the opening is, so you can stamp in the right place. You’ll need to erase this mark when you are done. I had an issue with my first card, and had to add another layer in that opening and didn’t have any issue with the card opening or closing.
I took water markers from Stampin’ Up and scribbled them on some plastic and added a little water and watercolored my penguin with a fuchsia, orange, gold and gray.
I apologize that I had camera issues and was out of frame for my ribbon. I added tear tape to the back of the decorated paper I added…use some wet glue as well to give you wiggle room when laying the two down.
To put the card together. take the front of your card (open) and lay it over the right side of your inside of the card (the part that is furthest away from the white paper. I added tear tape to the front of the inside of my card as well as wet glue, then took the card front (open) and line it up with the edges of the colored card stock inside of the card.
I used three falling snowflakes peg stamp that I just bought and used Melon Mambo ink from Stampin’ Up to stamp around the penguin. I added evergreen trees to the envelope with Garden Green ink from Stampin’ Up. Here’s the link to the trees. https://pegstamps.com/evergreen-trees-tiny-peg-stamp.html and the snowflake stamps. https://pegstamps.com/snowflakes-three-falling-tiny-peg-stamp.html
I have spent most of the day going through my craft room to find things to put in the boxes I’m giving to the women in Puerto Rico. Here’s the funny part, the pile keeps getting bigger and bigger, but I haven’t made a dent in anything in my room. I have so many crafty things, and I could donate to another fifty people, and still probably not make a dent.
I really need to get a grip on my craft purchases. I know this sounds crazy, but even as I say this, I really would like to buy some inks I just saw. What is up with this obsessive need to buy and try everything? I can’t stop myself. I really wish I could just say no, but if I find a really great bargain, I go nuts and buy things. I need to just say no.
My friend Carol Held has a system now, where she’s shopping out of her craft room. I’m so proud of her, because she’s a lot like me..she wants the newest things, so she can show them on videos. She has every Copic marker they make and if she buys a set of something, it’s the biggest, best set they sell. The fact that she figured out a way to stop shopping is amazing to me. (In case you didn’t know, there are over 300 Copic markers, that sell from $4-$7 each…) I think Carol has a lot more in her craft room than I have, but she’s been doing it longer. The fact that she’s now stopped buying things, is a real testament to her will power. My will power is unfortunately, low.
I’m going to go back into my craft room tomorrow and gut a few more drawers and cupboards, looking for more things to mail. I haven’t even gotten into my embellishment stacks yet, and need to go through more ribbon too. I have some deco mesh I know I’ll never use that I’m going to donate, as well as Nuvo drops..I can’t make those into anything other than a drop that looks like a Hershey’s kiss, so I need to get rid of them. If I got rid of just the products I don’t like, I’d be doing great, and would be sending a ton of products to people who truly need them. And if they don’t like them, I’m sure they can pass them on to others who do. There are so many crafters who love the Nuvo drops, so I have to wonder if it’s just me that can’t master them. Probably so.
