You’ll receive a 10% discount on  ALL Arteza products if you use the code CraftingForAlmostEveryone5 which is valid until September 20, 2019.

Arteza’s Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/arteza

General links to Arteza sites:

(US): http://arteza.com/?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone

(EU): https://arteza.co.uk/?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone

Product Links:

(US):

Glitter Gel Ink Pens – Set of 14: https://arteza.com/collections/pens/products/glitter-gel-ink-pens-set-of-14?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=e1307ad4

Professional Watercolour Pencils – Set of 72: https://arteza.com/collections/pencils/products/professional-watercolor-pencils-72?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=903a7e8c

Paint Markers – Set of 20: https://arteza.com/collections/markers/products/permanent-paint-markers-set-of-20?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=3c2f67d0

(EU):

Glitter Gel Ink Pens – Set of 14: https://arteza.co.uk/collections/pens/products/glitter-gel-ink-pens-set-of-15?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=6e9a351d

Professional Watercolour Pencils – Set of 72: https://arteza.co.uk/collections/pencils/products/72-professional-watercolour-pencils-tin-box?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=d70885fc

Paint Markers – Set of 20: https://arteza.co.uk/collections/markers/products/arteza-paint-markers-set-of-20-markers-perfect-for-drawing-and-painting-on-virtually-any-surface?a_aid=Youtube_CraftingForAlmostEveryone&a_bid=d2dfc6a9

In this video, I wanted to use the Arteza set of 20 paint markers. As a recap, I really liked these markers, and think they are perfect for a project like this. I liked the colors and their ease of use.

The instructions tell you to open the markers and press the nib down on a surface three times to get the ink moving. I found this to be insufficient to get the ink moving, so kept pressing them on a scrap paper until they started moving.  You can see the ink work its way down the nib until it starts to stain the paper, then it’s ready to be used.

The stamps I used were a gift from a viewer and she couldn’t remember the name or maker of the sets. They appear to be thinner than US made stamps, so if you like them, you might want to check on Aliexpress to see if you can find them there.

I started the project by using spray Krylon Gesso on the pages of my journal to cover the pictures beneath. link: https://tinyurl.com/y5zp3ter

I used Ranger Archival inks that I bought in small sets from pegstamps.com..here’s the link to one of the sets I bought. https://tinyurl.com/yya9ao4v

I stamped the flowers in brown archival inks and the leaves in Potting Soil, and the green leaves in two colors, Library Green and Leaf Green.

I took round stickers from the Dollar Tree and swatched the paint markers onto a sticker and attached the round sticker to the back end of the markers so I’d know exactly what colors I was dealing with. When I was off screen, I cut the circles to fit the bottom of the marker.

I stamped all of the images across both pages of my journal and then painted each flower. I tried to paint similar images with the same paint markers.

After coloring the flowers and leaves, I used the white paint marker to add accents, and some of those had to be done more than once, as the under color bled through the white. It’s really clear with the red floral images.

I added some dragonflies to the top section as well as a couple of sentiments from the same stamp sets I’ve been using and used Potting Soil Ranger Archival ink for the stamping. I bought a Baren from DickBlick.com to be able to have leverage when stamping a large image. link: https://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-economy-baren/

I used Distress Oxide in Faded Jeans and used the Ranger mini blending tool and rubbed the surface with my finger to remove any lines from the edges of the foam applicator to color the whole background of the pages once the paint marker was dry…and that only took a moment or two…

We needed to run more errands today, and that included going to Walmart (which I hate.)  It’s especially bad now because PennDot (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) decided that the current four lane highway that runs past Walmart needs to have a round-about on it.  They’ve been working on the road for the past four months, making travel unbearable, and SO frustrating.. We both needed to get our hair cut, so had to drive by there any way, so decided that we’d go grocery shopping too…and that included Aldi’s, whose store is right at the round-about, so getting in and out of it is a virtual nightmare.

After Walmart, we went to Tim Horton’s drive thru for lunch.  All I wanted was a bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam.  In the first round, they completely forgot my bagel, but did get Rich’s meal correct.  Round 2, they gave Rich the bagel, but no knife for the packets of jam that they charged us for…No way to get the jam on the bagel without some type of utensil, and they also forgot napkins.  Why would we need those anyway?  Round three, when they saw Rich walk through the front door, the women that work there all scattered, leaving a new hire to deal with him.  He politely asked for a knife, was given one, grabbed napkins from a nearby table, and left.  By then he was in such a mood, I felt sorry for anyone in his path..

The rest of the errands ran smoothly until we had to pick up one of my medications (also through a drive thru) in a big rainstorm.  Walgreens has a weird speaker set-up.  They talk on a telephone and it comes over the speaker outside, where it was really raining hard.  We couldn’t hear him, he couldn’t hear us, and so we just kept repeating the same things.  SAUNDRA PARKER, S-A-U-N-D-R-A P-A-R-K-E-R, and over and over it went….Finally, he heard it correctly, and then said we needed to wait until the pharmacist asked us a question..It had gone on so long, the rain had now started to let up..And here’s the question.  “Does Saundra know what dose of this medication she needs to take?”    Is this a trick?  I’ve been taking this medicine for years, and apparently now I’ve gone brain dead and have no clue the dose…Instead of waiting for me to answer, Rich screamed the answer so they could hear it the first time, and we were good to go.

I finished a couple of videos and put Rich to work uploading a third, and the day is almost over.  Some days are rougher than others…

All of the links to the items I purchased, are below:

Wendy Vecchi Blendable Make Art Ink Pads $3.99 http://tinyurl.com/y7pxhf2y

Rubbernecker Felt Paper Not available online, you can contact Rubbernecker Stamps at (909)-927-8244

Rubbernecker Watercolor Trees Stamps $9.90 I couldn’t find this stamp set available on their site so please call them at (909)-927-8244

Worlds’ Greatest Embossing Powder $5.00 http://www.rubbernecker.com/product-p…

Gary Burlin & Co. Copper Ranger Alcohol Ink available at garyburlin.com

Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink also from Gary Burlin & Co. online at http://garymburlin.com/

Custom Ink Ranger Ink Pad Joanns.com http://tinyurl.com/y8t54ymu $4.49

Lost Coast Designs Pencil Stamp $7.00 http://www.lost-coast-designs.com/bac…

Little Birdie and Hampton Art Stamps bought on ebay at this site: http://tinyurl.com/y6vqko5j

Technique Tuesday pencils, art supply stamps http://tinyurl.com/ya8tjltf

Christine Adolf Fresh Flowers #2 http://tinyurl.com/ya9m7rdb

Concord & 9th Dotty Turnabout http://tinyurl.com/y9ubgsod

Tim Holtz Stamp Platform http://tinyurl.com/ybwafjrh

Tim Holtz Ruler http://tinyurl.com/y9e8pm6f

Tim Holtz small scissors http://tinyurl.com/yb946teq

Dylusions Paints http://tinyurl.com/ybp428kt

LDRS Creative Dies https://ldrscreative.com/collections/…

Ranger Letter It http://tinyurl.com/y8gxn938

Today, Rich and I drove to Erie to run some errands and buy some supplies I need to make the boutonnieres for our nephew’s wedding.  I decided that I should get started on the boutonnieres, as they require a matching ribbon, two different seashells, and something to adhere the shells to…I thought that maybe the thicker sticks for lollipops would work best..I’m not sure if they will, because they might be too long, but they were thicker than the short version, and I thought sturdy was more important than length.  You’ll be the ones to know if I’m wrong, because I’m going to video the whole process, so you can decide for yourself if I was meant to be a boutonniere maker instead of a YouTuber, haha…

I finally found a shadow box that I really liked for the bottles with messages for the wedding.  You’ll hear more about this in upcoming videos as well.  I want to get serious about making these things, as time is starting to run out.  I know I have over a month, but that could pass in an instant, if I dally, and there’s a good chance that I might.

I bought the first shadow box at Amazon and you can now return things to Amazon through Kohls, IF, you live within eight miles of a store.  Of course I don’t live anywhere near eight miles close to a store, and the first store we tried to return the shadow box that looks like a medicine cabinet, they told me I just needed to change the return address to the Kohls address where I’m returning it….Funny, that didn’t work…I think he was full of baloney, but oddly enough, the UPS charge did change to zero, so we thought, incorrectly, by the way, that we could return the shadow box to the Erie store…The first return attempt was in Hermitage, PA, but we didn’t have Rich’s phone with us to change the address, so took the shadow box home…Today, at the Erie store, the person manning the Amazon desk said he’d never heard of changing the return address, and the return label we had should be attached to the box and taken to Staples (who takes UPS boxes.)  I’m not sure if we will be charged for the UPS return or not, but so far, it didn’t show any charge when Rich printed the package label, nor did Staples charge us anything to take the box.  We’ll probably end up paying for the whole shadow box, as I saw a notice on the bottom of my UPS return slip that said we’d be responsible for any damage done to the package in shipment.  Isn’t that a sneaky way of getting out of giving us our money back?  I’ll let you know how it goes in a couple of days when they send us the “We’re so sorry you’re so dumb, and here’s how much it’s going to cost you email….”  I live an exciting life, don’t I?

I have made a video using blending tools, but I wanted to use the newest tools on the market in this video.  Some of these products are older, and some have come to my attention this year, so I’m combining both..

Inks Used:

Stampin’ Up Tempting Turquoise replaced with Coastal Cabana:
https://tinyurl.com/y2lgavyx
Wendy Vecchi Blending Inks: Conflower blue: https://tinyurl.com/yyskcryw
Distress Ink: Broken China https://tinyurl.com/y2f3h9ml
Distress Oxide Ink: Wilted Violet link: https://tinyurl.com/ycrso69p

Stencil Revolution Stencil: Lavender https://tinyurl.com/y5l6cr5d

Blending Tools Used:

Ranger Mini Blending Tool: https://tinyurl.com/yyd4pexw

Black Aliexpress Brushes: https://tinyurl.com/y6keovn3

Shaving Brush: https://pegstamps.com/blending-brush.html

1″ chip brushes: Harbor Freight Liquidators: https://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-chip-brush-61496.html

Copper or Gold Colored Aliexpress Brush link: https://tinyurl.com/y5x5z5db

Cardstocks used:
Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 80lb. link: https://tinyurl.com/y4qq3py4

Recollections Heavyweight cream cardstock 110 lb: https://tinyurl.com/y4jzxm99

Georgia Pacific 110lb cardstock https://tinyurl.com/y7hchlcp

Results per tool used:

Ranger Mini Blending Tool:
I found it left lines from the edges on all of the card stocks, and only really liked using it on the stencil and it works well with Distress Oxide inks
]Aliexpress Black brush —I had great results with all papers, but my big concern is the handle and how flimsy it is. I was afraid I would break it, so had to hold the brush by the head to ink it.

Shaving Brush–Gives a very scratchy look, and leaves a blurred image on the edges of the stencil.

1″ chip brush–Also gives a scratchy look, but looks like it lays down more ink than the shaving brush. Also blurs the edges of the stencil..

Copper/Gold Brush from Aliexpress—My favorite..the handle is much more sturdy than the black handled brush…I like the blending it does more than the other tools, and the stencil edges are very sharp. I recommend this tool above the others, and found it did the best job of being consistent on all papers, but I found they all blended best on the Georgia Pacific cardstock.

Here is my contact information:
Email: saundralparker@yahoo.com
Instagram: crafting for almost everyone
Pinterest: saundralparker
Google+: crafting for almost everyone
Facebook: crafting for almost everyone

 

I wanted to make a pocket card for one of my viewers, and thought I’d use a spirelli on the front, but I couldn’t get the string to stay in the grooves on the sides of the heart, so decided it needs to be a circle. The first pocket card I made, I couldn’t put back together, so went with plan B, a whole new card.
I started by using a piece of red cardstock that was 8 1/2″ x 11″ and put it in the score board on the 11″ length and scored at 1″ and 5 1/2″ then turned it to the 8 1/2″ length and scored at 2 1/8″ and 6 3/8″ but only down to the 1″ score mark.
Using the paper trimmer, put the cardstock on the 8 1/2″ length, with the one inch score at the top of the page, and cut it at 6 1/4″ all the way up to the 1″ score, then flip your paper over and put the paper at the 6 1/4″ mark and trim again up to the 1″ line. Then turn the paper so the 1″ line is at the bottom in your cut line and cut up to the first cut  and then move your tool up to the next cut, and cut to the top…You should end up with a T shape. You’ll also need to cut the bottom of the T another 1/2″ so you don’t have a lot of paper to tuck under your “pocket.”  In the end, your paper should now be 10 1/2″ tall.
Take the T and fold the sides in and put a little wet glue on the edges so it’s now closed, but not glued down, so you can tuck paper under it.  To open and close your card, you’ll simply tuck the bottom part up and under the part you just glued together.
I used a piece of white cardstock that was 4 5/8″ wide x 6 3/8″ tall and I used a big heart stamp from A Jillian Vance Designs. That heart stamp is now discontinued, sorry, but here’s a link to her site. https://tinyurl.com/yd4cu4r7
I inked the background stamp with two Distress Oxide inks, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry and laid my white cardstock on the stamp and rubbed over it with my hand, holding it so it didn’t move around…I put a piece of scrap paper over it so I wouldn’t get ink all over my hands.
To make a spirelli, take either two scallop circle dies that are similar in size or two scallop circle punches,center them so the center is even all the way around, then cut out what looks like a scalloped wreath. I used glitter red paper as it was thicker than normal cardstock. I started my spirelli by taping down the end of the twine on the back of the wreath. (I bought my twine from Hallmark after Christmas, and it’s really thick twine.) You will choose a starting spot and put your twine on the outside wrapping the twine from underneath, so that you are always on the paper and not inside the wreath. I think I made my loops four indentations long, then move down one indentation from the original starting spot and then put that into one indentation below our first, and you’ll keep continuing around your circle moving one indentation below your top and one indentation below your bottom loops and eventually, you’ll have two pieces of twine in each indentation, and that’s when you are done. If you have trouble keeping your twine in the indentations, you can put some tape on the back to hold it down, and/or snip your indentations so they are a little bit deeper…I would only do that as a last resort, if your twine is super thick. Once you are done, trim off the ends and tape them so they stay in place.
I wanted to decorate the spirelli, so took the same inks I used before and colored some scrap paper and dried it, then used a small Recollections heart punch to cut out some hearts. I used a stylus on a piece of fun foam and rubbed the back of the hearts so they because 3-d. I used tweezers and hot glue to adhere them to the wreath. Before I did that, I taped the back of my white cardstock and attached it to the card base.
I took a piece of red cardstock that was 1″ high by 4 3/8″ long and adhered it with tape runner over the top flap of my card so I could add ribbon to it and you wouldn’t be able to see the spot where I’d glued it together. I added pink ribbon and more of my twine plus a red die cut heart that I’d made look 3’d with the stylus technique.
I hot glued the spirelli to the front of the card. I have a die that cuts Happy Valentine’s Day and cut out the red glitter card stock and adhered it to the inside of the card and stamped the back with my Made by Sandy Parker stamp.

 

I have wanted to see if there are better silver embossing powders and if they work differently on different card stock.
I chose the four most common embossing powders and card stock that is common and at a variety of prices.

I used:
Wow! Super Fine Embossing Powder 1/2 oz. $3.49 at Joann.com–that’s where I bought mine, but they no longer sell silver in this size, so here’s a link for a selection of metallic embossing powders from Amazon. https://tinyurl.com/yyagptma
Stampin’ Up! Emboss Powder 1/2 oz. $5.00 https://tinyurl.com/y38vpo2k If you don’t have a Stampin’ Up representative to make your order, Brian King has been really kind to me and is a terrific representative, and you can contact him by email at stampwithbrian@gmail.com
Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder .56 oz. $4.99 at Joann.com
link: https://tinyurl.com/yxryw7qk
Brutus Monroe Ultra fine Embossing powder Sterling 1 oz. $5.99 link: https://tinyurl.com/yydyszh3

The fine and super fine powders are better used on sentiments and lined images instead of on a filled in image like the circle we’ll be using.

To keep your paper clean and ensure your powder doesn’t stick where you don’t want it, you can make your own pouch of corn starch or baby powder by using a knee high, filling about 2 tbsp. of either powder or corn starch and knot it close to the filling, then cut off the excess knee high, or buy a pouch or tool online…Here are a couple of options. Pick one that is a pouch or on the second line, the bottle with a brush on top. https://tinyurl.com/y22hy5e8

Stamps used:
http://www.pegstamps.com
Happy Birthday (no longer available) here’s their current happy birthday peg stamp. https://tinyurl.com/y4vzmo68
Perfect Layering Circles https://tinyurl.com/y22adarh You can buy a single circle or the set and I am giving you all of the options..I used the second largest circle in this video.

Card stocks used:
Cream Recollections Heavyweight from Michaels: Link: https://tinyurl.com/y4jzxm99
Neenah Solar White 80 lb. I apologize that I said it was 90 lb in the video, as I threw away my packaging…. link: Amazon https://tinyurl.com/y3oc9r8u
Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock from Walmart link: https://tinyurl.com/y7hchlcp

I stamped with Versamark ink link: https://tinyurl.com/y66mqj5t

The only embossing powder I used that was NOT super fine was the Stampin’ Up, and I did not notice any different in results between it and the other powders when inking once.

All of the powders did a great job on the sentiment and all did not do well on the full circle when inked and heat set once.

When I inked and heat set twice, the results were as follows:
Stampin’ Up and Brutus Monroe both worked best on Neenah
Ranger worked best on Georgia Pacific
Wow worked best on Recollections Heayweight

 

I did one of those jobs today, that we all dread…I clean out my freezer.  It’s a side-by-side frig and freezer, so it’s not like the old days when you had a chest freezer, and either had to basically crawl into it, or the stand up kind that you never find anything that drifted to the back.  We did find some things we’d lost along the way, includng a Cool Whip from 2015 (gross!) and some mystery meat…I feel terrible when I see the things we’ve wasted, and try hard not to do so, but I needed a better system.  So today, I came up with one…Will it work?  I don’t know, but I’m hoping so.  I made each shelf a sticker and made sure that the only things on the shelf were what I wrote on the sticker.  It’s only a matter of time until we figure out that we don’t have enough fruit for that shelf, and way too much ice cream, or meat, and need to change things up, but for now, it really looks good.

I’m always happy when I’ve organized an area that’s been bugging me….My next step will be our hall closet that seems to be a catch-all for everything from Q-tips to cleaning supplies.  Anyone want to volunteer to help?  haha

On Friday, I went to a bunch of garage sales with my girlfriend and found some clear embossing powder and a House Mouse stamp that I didn’t have.  I almost never find stamps or stamping tools, so it was a good day.  After, we went to lunch with a good friend and on our way home, found sweet corn at a roadside stand, and bought some to take home for dinner.  There’s nothing better than fresh corn from Pennsylvania.  Because we get so much rain, our corn is crisp and different from any I’ve had anywhere else in the country (and I’ve tried it as often as possible when we travel.)  It made for the perfect date night supper, and then on to movie night.  We normally rent movies, but decided to watch something on Amazon Prime or one of the other channels on HULU (I’m not even sure that’s the correct name for it)….I have to say, I rarely see a movie that’s worth watching or that’s from the last few years, unless it’s so bad you can’t sit through it, and that was the case for date night…We started to watch three different movies, and they were all so bad, we couldn’t continue, so decided to turn in early instead of wasting more time on bad movies.

Saturday started with a friend who runs a carpet cleaning business, bringing his daughter and her sister to do crafts with me while he cleaned our carpets.  I let the girls decide what they wanted to try, and they wanted to make a blanket by tying squares together.  Let’s just say it wasn’t a craft that held their attention long term, so in the end, they both had their own homemade dog toys and a pillow that they’d made when they left.  I think they had fun with me, but I can never tell, because I don’t think I’m particularly interesting to younger kids.  The girls were happy with their pillows though, and that’s all that matters to me.

Once the girls left, Rich and I went to one of our college friend’s house, where we met up with four other couples, all of who went to school with us.  It’s weird to realize over forty years has passed since we met, and it seems like we never lost touch, as we can pick up where we left off without any effort.  We got home late, and Honey was super anxious, so I went to bed and Rich stayed up to watch television, as that normally will calm her.

This morning, I finally worked on a video, and did an iris paper folding technique that one of my viewers showed me.  She sent me templates and card bases with envelopes.  I’m not sure where she got them, but will try to find that out before putting the video up.  The technique is really simple, and can be done with paper scraps and old envelopes.  I had a great time trying the technique and will definitely be doing more of it.  I’m going to do a second video, showing how to make an image without a template, since I think a lot of people will try it using dies they already have on hand…I think you need a die that is a simple outline and no paper left in the middle for this technique to work well, so I’ll look through mine to see which ones I have that will work with this.  The other thing you can do is download free printables online, and then cut the image out of the center of the front of a card base.

After I finished paper folding, I got a call from one of my college friends (the ones we met last night all played football with Rich, but graduated with me).. She invited me to have lunch and we met at the Cracker Barrel, as she lives in Pittsburgh, and was driving through the area on her way home….I love seeing her, and we meet several times a year, and I enjoy every minute I have with her.  She’s funny and interesting, and makes me remember being eighteen again..She was in my wedding, and I’m grateful that we still can make time to see each other.

I’ve been working on a lunch box that I bought at a thrift store for 49 cents.  It had a weird Japanese inspired design on it, and I wanted to repurpose it to hold my nail polishes.  It was white with a red and black pattern, so I spray painted it with a deep beige color…of course I’m not very skilled at using spray paint, and ended up with a bunch of paint runs that didn’t look great.  I decided I’d cover the lunch box with a napkin, or a couple of napkin patterns.  The top of the box has a rose pattern, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with the sides and the bottom, as they aren’t looking really good right now, with the paint runs so obvious.  Tomorrow I’m going to look at the rest of my napkin collection and see if I can find some that are simple but that will match the rose pattern (the background color)…I think the lunch box will look a lot better if I can find two napkin patterns that coordinate with each other….so far, I haven’t been very lucky finding them.

I had ordered five dresses from an online store called Shein.com for my nephew’s wedding…Their prices are really low, and since I’ll only be wearing the dress once, I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on it…They had all arrived in the last couple of days, so I decided to try them on today.  I really liked one of them and the rest I’ll be returning….but it’s a great relief to find one I like…

It started raining about 1PM and by 3PM, Honey, Bella and I were in the basement, riding out the thunderstorm watching old movies.  OK, not old, but not new…We, the dogs and I, watched Notting Hill…Nothing like a Julia Roberts movie to get us through a thunderstorm.  I think the weather front has stalled over us, as my arthritis doesn’t want me to do anything but sleep and watch television.  I’m glad I have the luxury to be able to do both, as I don’t think I’m equipped for much more.