I made two orders from the Peg Stamp company and was really excited when they came.  I didn’t open the first one immediately, as I knew I would be getting the second order and wanted to open them, do a haul and make a card with everything I had purchased.  Unfortunately, the first envelope disappeared.  I mean gone. I know it’s in the house somewhere, but where did I put it.  I’m sure it’s somewhere “safe.” but I spent most of this afternoon searching for the bag and still no sign of it.
If I have to resort to cleaning my craft room, you know I’m serious about finding something.  I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I’ll bet Jennifer McGuire has never lost a stamp order, or anything else for that matter.  I picture her having an ‘in” basket for all incoming mail.  Next, there is a person assigned to opening the mail, sorting it into categories, labeling it, photographing it and putting the photograph into her own Jennifer McGuire Dewey decimal system.  She’s one super organized woman and when I watch a tour of her craft room, I get the feeling that somehow I just saw a glimpse of perfection, something I will never be able to replicate, and like the sun, so bright it could damage my eyes..
It’s like a photograph that’s been photo-shopped.  Can anything really be that perfect or maintained at that level of perfection?  I’m not sure, I just know that my craft room has some serious issues, namely I think it ate the package from the peg stamp company.  That darn craft room.

I have one last thought completed unrelated to my craft room.  If I make a card using one of Jennifer McGuire’s techniques and the card isn’t really up to her caliber, do I still show the video, or do I junk it?  I know she would never show the video, but if I am being honest with myself, I realize I’m no Jennifer McGuire, so shouldn’t I show my card, flaws and all?  It’s not really flawed, it’s just not attractive in my opinion.  I guess I’ll have Rich put it up and see what people think.  I’ll probably regret it, as this isn’t something to be proud of producing.

It’s been fun trying to find new techniques while becoming Jennifer McGuire. The latest has been using Distress Inks and making a “starry sky.”  While I appreciate the fact that a starry sky looks best at night, it was more fun for me to make it a day time sunlit sky with an ocean theme.  I know this isn’t really the best time of year to produce a card of this nature, but I liked the idea of a theme that doesn’t involve snow or a snowy night.  I made a card that was fun and frisky and gave me a laugh while making it.  You can’t ask for more than that.  I’ll give you a small taste of the card.  Picture a gaggle (I’m not sure what you call a group of three flamingos) of flamingos wearing flip flops.  Need I say more?

The other technique I’m working with is using Distress inks on a big background stamp and then dousing it with pearlized water.  So far the card hasn’t dried, but I’m really excited about the look of it at this point.  I’m not sure exactly where to go with it once it’s dry, but I’m hoping an idea comes to me so I can finish this card with style.

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And lastly, I decided I needed to do another haul video as I have so many things I’ve bought and haven’t shown on video.  Those darn end of year sales really sucked me in and I wanted to show how some of the things I bought were specifically tailored to my Jennifer McGuire transformation.  I hope people will appreciate the lengths to which I am willing to go  to become “Jennifer.”  Actually, I just really liked the stamp set she showed in one of her videos and had to track it down.  It sounded good though, didn’t it?

Today was the first garage sale of the year. It was an estate sale in the owner’s home, and I love those, because there are so many fun vintage items to look through. This person had old suitcases and if you know me, and my storage system for crafty things, I absolutely can’t find anything better or more durable than vintage suitcases.  I use them for my seasonal stamps and Christmas embellishments, as well as one for fabrics and another for gelli plate items.  I know, I haven’t used my gelli plate yet, but I plan on using it in the near future as I think I’ll need a break from card making soon.

I have another video that needs uploaded and then I’ll be back to using a technique that involves the white pigment ink again.  It’s a favorite of our Jennifers, and I’m sure you’ll agree that so far, we’ve gotten great results when using it.

I have two different techniques using the pigment ink that I’ll be trying then I think I’ll have my MISTI back and will be making some different and hopefully, unique ideas with it.

My friend Elishia and I have a plan to use the same stamp sets on our channels and each make a card to see what results we achieve on our own.  I can’t wait to see what Elishia does because she’s really talented and actually does use her Big Shot, which puts her at a huge advantage over my crafty skills.

I’m also thinking of playing more with my Distress inks, so look forward to some videos involving them.  There’s a world of Jennifer inspired videos, all I need to do is capture ones that really appeal to me and hopefully, they will appeal to you as well.

I tried another of Jennifer McGuire’s techniques today and it’s the first one where I really don’t think I feel comfortable with the results.  I used her stamp tracing technique which is exactly like it sounds.  You stamp an image and then trace it with pens.  I tried it once with gel pens and hated the results, so tried it a second time using a thin marker instead.  I don’t think my lines looked right and I really didn’t think the results deserved to be in a video.  Sometimes I convince myself that the end result is ok, but this time, I’m just not sure.  To me, the end result looks fairly childish and I’m not thrilled with that.

Rich did look at the card and thought it looked fine.  Fine isn’t great, or really nice, or even nice, it’s just fine.  Let’s just say I won’t be doing that technique again any time soon.  I am going to put the video up though, because Rich felt it deserved to be seen.  We’ll wait to see about that.

I would like to try something that isn’t horribly labor intensive, but give great results every time.  I haven’t gotten to the Vagabond stage and maybe once I start using that, my results will improve and I’ll feel a lot more confident using Jennifer’s techniques.

I am feeling a little bit burned out making cards and want to get back to making other crafty things and trying things that aren’t card techniques.  I’m not sure what I’m looking to do, but for now, just coming up with something other than a card will make me happy.

I guess I’m not a card maker at heart, or maybe I  am never happy doing only one thing.  I like to try different crafts and find different outlets for my interests and doing the same thing over and over has never been my strong suit.  I really do like making crafts during the holidays, because there are so many things you can do and so many different crafty avenues to pursue.  Or, it could be that after making a card that I’m disappointed with, I need to find a technique to make me feel better about the process in general.  I guess we’ll never know, maybe I am a card maker at heart, but currently not feeling very good about the results I’m getting..

I really liked the way this card turned out.  It uses a technique, Jennifer calls ghost stamping.  I tailored my card after this video of Jennifer McGuire’s.

Here are some of the supplies I used:
My Creative Times Many Greetings stamp set
Avery Elle Petals and Stems stamp set
Hero Arts Unicorn White Ink
acrylic block
craft card stock 5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ tall (folded)

I stamped the flowers with the Unicorn white ink randomly on the bottom and sides of my card.  Then dried the images with my heat tool.  I used my corn starch pouch and wiped the top portion of my card and stamped my sentiment in Versamark Ink then used Ranger white embossing powder and heat set it. I chose a set of inks that are in the pink range of colors but in one container from Stampin’ Up that is discontinued but you can still buy them from Kaleidacolor from Tsukineko.  I re stamped using different pinks on each flower but offset a little bit.  Once I had stamped all of my flowers, I took my Prismacolor White pencil and went around the images to emphasize the shadow.  Then I took another pencil that was called Henna and outlined the flowers with it as well.  I then used a Martha Stewart Florentine gold glitter with my Zig two way glue pen to highlight the centers of the flowers.  I thought I needed some Caladium leaf and foliage leaf stamps from peg stamps and stamped leaves around my flowers.  After I finished with everything, I added some green colored pencil around my leaves to make them stand out as well.  I used Glossy Accents on all of the flowers and leaves to make them really look 3-d.  I was really happy with the results and hope you like them as well.

I took on another Jennifer video, this time on craft card stock using a technique called shadow stamping.  I’m not really sure where these technique names come from, because a lot of them seem very similar to each other.  You take white pigment ink and stamp an image, dry it, then shift your stamp/stencil/tape and stamp another color over it.  So far, many of Jennifer McGuire’s techniques have been like this.  I guess I never noticed it before, because I never power-watched her videos, only the crafty favorite ones.  Now that I’m watching several of her videos at once, I’m finding more and more of her techniques involve these same components, just use different names.

I did make one change today in my “Jennifer” process that made a world of difference for me.  Jennifer always makes several of each card she makes.  She says once she has a plan and has the supplies out, why not?  For me, making several cards at once is over-taxing and maybe it’s the same for others.  Although it was fun making ten of a certain card, I find it to be more than I can handle and now I am making a prototype plus the card on video,and I’m done.  It was so much easier for me and made me feel a lot better about becoming “Jennifer McGuire.”  Just because I am trying to use her techniques doesn’t mean I need to make a multitude of cards.  Let’s face it, I didn’t try to organize myself the way she has, so why make ten cards when I only need one or two?

I am really proud of the cards I have produced so far and am looking for a technique that does not involve using white pigment ink for tomorrow’s card.  The problem is that I don’t have my MISTI, and some techniques will require that, so I need to find a technique that doesn’t use the white ink or the MISTI, and that could be a challenge.  Stay tuned, tomorrow’s a whole new day.

I spent the day today travelling to the Cleveland Clinic to meet with a new rheumatologist.  He is supposed to have a tremendous reputation and I was referred to him by a local woman who is his patient and really admires him.

We got there almost an hour early, because it was sleeting when we left home and weren’t really sure about the weather conditions along the way, and didn’t want to be late for the appointment.  They have you complete a very lengthy survey on an IPad and even with the extra time I had allotted, I hadn’t completed the survey by the time they called for me.  After answering the usual questions and providing my medicines etc., the physician arrived to meet with me.  He was very thorough, asking questions about the history of my disease and the medications I’ve tried along the way.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with rheumatoid arthritis, there are a lot of newer medications called “biologics,”  all with very similar side affects.  Primarily, they increase your risk for infection and if you’ve seen any television commercials that reference these medications, they also have been known to cause lymphoma.

Both of my parents died from B Cell Lymphoma and I have had one of my artificial knees become infected, thereby making me very leery of these medications.  That’s not to say that I haven’t tried them, I have.  I haven’t had any good results and the last one I took several months ago, made me gain 30-35 pounds without any increase in food intake.  Since I can’t exercise, losing this weight has not been easy, and it’s one of the reasons you rarely see me on video any more.

After spending almost an hour with the physician (which is almost an unheard of amount of time to see a doctor), he said I should consider another of the biologics.  Which one, he wouldn’t recommend any.  Rich asked for his top two choices, and he wouldn’t give them either.  There was a long moment of silence so I asked, “so what would our next step be?”  He said he couldn’t take me as a patient because I lived so far away, but he would be willing to write up a recap of our visit and forward it to my current rheumatologist.  She’s a very nice lady, but she’s not experienced with my level of disease, which is why I was seeking another doctor with the experience necessary for my disease state.

My biggest fear in going to a new specialist is that they won’t take me as a patient.  Of course, Rich said, they would.  Especially since I had been referred to him by not only my primary care physician but also our local pain clinic.  I’m sure the doctor’s reason for not taking me as a patient had nothing to do with the distance I travelled to reach him (since he has other patients from my geographic area.)  I think it had more to do with the fact that I’m probably beyond his help at this point, and he didn’t want to tell me that.

I think by now you know me well enough to realize that it takes a lot to get me down, but at the end of the visit, I was disappointed and saddened that he wouldn’t give me the real reason that he wouldn’t take me as a patient.  It reminded me of the movie with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise where Jack says, “You want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth.”  Maybe not, but I would have loved to have been given the option.

I like this technique as it’s results are similar to the ones I did yesterday. I decided to try another of the techniques using Unicorn White Pigment Ink. I used 5 1/4″ x 4″ pieces of vibrant color card stocks and washi taped the back of the paper to a stencil making sure the tape didn’t have a lot of stick left on it. I ran the washi tape over my clothes to take some of the stick off. I put the card stock where I liked it on the back of the stencil and taped it there. Then I used a make-up sponge to dab the white pigment ink on it until the colored card stock is white. Once you have covered the cardstock, remove the stencil and clean the stencil and dry it. Once it’s dry, you should also heat set the white pigment ink on the cardstock you just colored until it’s dry. Reposition the card stock a little off set on the stencil so that the white is a little below where stencil now shows through. I used a darker color dye ink Distress ink Tumbled Glass on the stencil this time. Once the blue is finished, let it dry and then take the stencil off and decide how you want your card to look. On the pink and blue card stocks, I put fun foam under the designed paper I just made and used a small oval scallop punch and punched a sentiment that I had heat embossed with Ranger white embossing powder and punched vellum with the same punch then cut the vellum through the center and used tape to attach it to the back of the sentiment so you can see the vellum. I used a piece of matching baker’s twine and ran it through the center of the back of the sentiment where the vellum is missing and then glued the baker’s twine on the back and foam taped the back of the sentiment and glued it and ran the baker’s twine around the back from the sentiment then laid three small rhinestones around the sentiment.
On the orange card, I used Ranger white embossing powder and a big Thanks sentiment on a piece of 5 1/4 x 4″ orange paper and
measured how far the top of the sentiment was from the top of the card. I cut the background that I created to account for that measurement and then laid foam tape on the back of it and laid it above the sentiment on the card. I measured the bottom of the sentiment to the bottom of the orange and cut my background paper to fit and put foam tape behind it and laid it down. Then I put a few pearls around the “thanks” and this card is done.

I liked these cards and thought they were pretty Jenniferish. I also made a small note card that I show in the end.

Here’s Jennifer’s video that I used as my inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tng…

 

 

I made my second video on becoming Jennifer McGuire and I’m exhausted.  It’s not the actual  process, it’s the fact that she makes so many variations of it.  Of course if she makes a lot of color variations, I guess I think I need to as well.  It’s overwhelming and I need to go back to part Sandy/part Jennifer McGuire because I can’t make ten variations of the same card (as much as I would like to do so.)  I think I’ll try for three at most going forward.

I’m putting my MISTI in the mail tomorrow to get the grid fixed and will probably be going through MISTI withdrawals while it is gone.  I hope they only have it for a few days because a lot of the J McGuire techniques work best with the MISTI.

I have an appointment at a new rheumatologist tomorrow in Cleveland and it takes over two hours to get there.  I’m not fond of driving to Cleveland because of the snow and the fact that the drive is all along the snow belt.  I am hoping that this new doctor is experienced and has dealt with people with the degree of arthritis that I have.  My problem has been finding physicians that have seen people with R.A. like mine.  Since new biologic drugs have come along, people with arthritis don’t advance to the degree that I have, which is so wonderful, but that also means that more doctors don’t see cases like mine very often.  I’ve been told that this physician has experience with my age group so I’m crossing my fingers that he has some idea of how to treat me.  My last doctor had run out of options on how to control the disease and although I liked her, I need someone who has some ideas in their arsenal that will work for me.

I’ve been working on my Jennifer McGuire series of cards today and I spent so much time and had some problems that I swear, other people wouldn’t have had.  I used a stencil and stenciled in white pigment ink.  Then you remove the stencil and clean it, put it back on the paper in a slightly offset manner, and ink again with a brighter ink that matches the card stock.  That sounded so simple, didn’t it?  I chose a stencil that I absolutely cannot remember how to place it so the symbols line up properly.  I’m not sure how to fix it as I’ve turned the stencil over, sideways, upside down, and still, I can’t line the images up properly.  I’m really feeling foolish.  How could it be so hard to line things up when it’s a 6 x 6″ stencil and a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of paper?  There are only so many ways you can place the stencil.  Geez, it’s frustrating and I still haven’t come up with a solution.   One thing I know for certain, I’m not showing that card in the video unless I figure out what I’m doing wrong.

The other card I did, though, is really great and I think it looks exactly like something Jennifer McGuire would have produced.  I didn’t use any of the same supplies, only the same techniques, as I want these videos to still reflect my own personality and vision.

I was talking with Elishia today about a bucket list idea of mine.  I would love to attend one of Lindsay’s stamp classes that she teaches near Boston in the summer.  She is one of the teachers at a stamp show and although I’ve attended stamp shows, I’ve never taken any classes, but I’d love to take one of hers live.  I don’t think it’s on the agenda for this year, but maybe next.  I think it would be so much fun and maybe a group of us could all go.  If things work out that we get some interest, I’ll definitely keep talking about it on the blog and in videos as we get closer to the date.

We had another big cold front move through the area today so it was bitterly cold and of course, we got more snow.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the older I get, the more I hate snow.  It’s cold, gray (or is it grey?) all the time and snow, snow, snow.  If you don’t live where it snows all the time, it might be fun, but here, it snows from November through the end of April and sometimes into May.  We’re hoping maybe next year we can spend a few months in the south if we can find a medicine to help with both dogs’ car anxiety.  It would be nice to only suffer through a couple months of snow instead of six.

My plan for tomorrow is to finish the J McGuire video I’m almost done with and do at least one more.  I have a couple that I don’t think are very difficult, but since she always seems to make several cards at once, I’ve been doing the same and it really makes the process a lot longer than I’m accustomed to.   Regardless, I’m proud of my results and can’t wait to upload them so you can see them for yourself.