I am so dumb.  I have no idea what it requires for someone to be able to read this blog, but clearly, the links I put on YouTube just don’t work.  If one of you can tell me how someone can get into my blog, I would really appreciate it…I feel foolish asking, but when I go to WordPress, it automatically takes me to this page, so it appears that it will do the same for others, but no, that’s not the case.  Drat!

Today I did some practice interviewing at the college Rich and I attended.  It’s always interesting to see the truly quality individuals that are juniors and seniors in accounting,  and today was no exception.  I know I wasn’t as poised or ready for the “real world” as these students…I didn’t want to grow up, so did everything I could to destroy my chances for a real job when I was a senior..(I’m still kind of working on the whole “grown up” idea. )

I’ve made a bunch of videos that Rich needs to upload and will be making a couple more tomorrow.  I promise that he’s going to upload several in the next few days..  OK, at least two.

And the big news is that our new Dollar Tree is opening this Thursday, so I’ll be hanging there and making a video after the big crowds go away in a week or so.

I needed to make a wedding card this week, and thought I’d do it with a lot of silver embossing…I used Spellbinder Nestabilities Scalloped Hearts layered dies that have a really pretty embossed border on them, and started with a 4 1/4″ tall by 5 1/2″ wide white Recollections heavyweight 110 lb card stock base. I die cut a bunch of the hearts out of silver foil paper and used a stamp set from Stampin’ Up called Wedding Elegance that I bought on Rbay for this project…it’s an oldie but a goodie…

I used my embossing pouch made from two knee highs put inside each other and filled with a few tablespoons of corn starch then knotted, and the excess cut off. I’ve used this on card stock for years and like the results when I’m heat embossing.
I used Ranger silver embossing powder and a peg stamp called heart dust..here’s the link to it. https://pegstamps.com/heart-dust-mini-peg-stamp.html
I stamped the heart dust all over the front edges of the card base and used the deco ginger heart from peg stamps (here’s the link:
https://pegstamps.com/deco-ginger-heart-tiny-peg-stamp.html
and stamped one inside each of the smaller white hearts, then put some of the heart dust around them…I layered them on to a silver heart for inside the card.
I attached the silver scalloped heart with a white heart that was smaller and had embossed bells on the front of the white heart that came from the same stamp set. I added small foam squares to the back of the white heart so it would have a little dimension. The foam squares came from the Dollar Tree and they aren’t super thick..
I added a Wedding Wishes sentiment from the same stamp set and stamped it with Versamark ink on a white scrap then put the silver embossing powder on it and heat set it as well. I found a Spellbinders die that fit the sentiment and cut it out then put the bottom and top in the Versamark ink pad and into the silver embossing powder and heat set it.. I used tweezers that you have to squeeze to make it let something go rather than squeeze it to hold something. Here’s a link to them. http://tinyurl.com/y7qqz8wm
I used Tombow Mono Aqua glue to adhere the hearts to the inside of the card. I used a simple solid heart peg stamp to stamp on the outside of the envelope. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/yaur8bf6
I bought the stamp that’s on the back of my card from Stampanda. I bought the square address version and mine was called Molly, but I don’t think they make that any more. There is a design called Sierra that’s very similar. You simply change it from what they have written, to what you want yours to say. I used a coupon from Groupon to save a lot of money on it and I recommend you do the same.. Here’s a link to it:
https://stampanda.com/product/sierra/

We spent the morning going to garage sales where I only bought about twenty empty cd cases for stamp sets.  I wish more people would get rid of their empty cases, as I dread having to buy another hundred new ones…

The afternoon and evening was all about our friend’s daughter’s wedding…Say that three times fast….The weather turned ugly and I mean ugly.  We’d been fretting about this wedding for a few weeks because it’s been so hot here, and it was an outside wedding…No need to worry about the heat, but unfortunately, it was cold and drizzling.  By the time we got to the wedding, the temperature had already dropped to 57 degrees and falling.  It never stopped raining/drizzling the entire time we were there.  It was supposed to be outside, but they moved it under the pavilion that was the site of the reception.  After the ceremony, we went into an old house on the grounds for cocktails and hors d’ oeuvres.   An hour later, we were back to the outdoor pavilion.  Cold? Yes it definitely was.  The women were all dragging sweaters and blazers out of their cars to put over their dresses, and it was still a bone chilling cold.  I’m not sure if they didn’t think it would get that cold, but there were no heaters under the pavilion, so as the sun sank, the temperature inside there dropped to the low 50’s…

We still had a really nice evening, as the couple did their bridal dance,  one of the bride’s nephews, who was nine, brought them their bulldog, and the groom put him in the crook of his arm, and they danced with their dog.  It was really sweet.  Later, the same nephew, and his six year old brother both sang individual songs to the bride…They were so cute and funny, you couldn’t help but laugh at how into the song the older nephew was, with  arm gestures and ending the song on his knees, so adorable…I really wished I had my camera with me to video the song, as I know viewers would have enjoyed watching it as well.

Today, I went back to our college alma mater and gave a seminar to seniors on interviewing, to prepare them for their practice interviews with me next week.  It’s always fun to see the students and talk to them, as they have so much more ambition than I had at their age, and they seem almost fearless.  Of course there are a lot more students that were eligible to interview with me, but some have chosen not to, and I’m wondering if those are the students who are more timid about their futures like I was at their age.  I think it was good that I chose not to venture to a big city when I graduated from college, as I believe the stress of it would have brought my arthritis on a year earlier than it did.  Doctors told me that stress is a key factor in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis….and key stresses are things like moving, a new job, marriage and new babies.  When Rich and I got married and we moved, within two weeks, I had arthritis….I’m lucky that I was too afraid to venture out on my own…

Back to crafts….I’ve got some good ideas for the art journal.  I’m thinking about stamping on tissue paper, then gluing it into the book and coloring it with some medium once it’s dry…I thought I’d try a big stamp I bought of a woman’s face.  I’ve never tried doing anything like this, but why not?  It’s almost like using a napkin, only I’ll be printing my own image on it…I like the idea and hope that it works.

Then, and this is more urgent…I want to make the purse that holds several note cards that my friend Sherry sent me the template for.  I’ve had it for months, and just haven’t wanted to spend a long time in my hot craft room until it cools down, but we’ve had a small break in the weather and I’m really hoping that I can do the cardboard purse now..

 

It was another scorcher today….does anyone still use that word?  If not, I’m bringing it back…

Honey decided that she and Bella should lay by the air conditioning vents and suck up the cold air for entertainment, and I don’t blame them.  It was almost unbearable.  Our friends’ daughter is getting married this Saturday in an outdoor wedding and I’m really dreading the heat…She says there’s an indoor air conditioned area for wimps like me, and I’m really happy about it…I’ll be spending my time inside..

Tomorrow, we go back to the college Rich and I attended, so I can give the accounting juniors and seniors a seminar on interviewing.  I interview them every year so that when they go to their “real” interviews, they will be prepared, and know what they should and shouldn’t do.  It’s not something they enjoy doing, but it really helps them prepare for their future.  I know when I was a college senior, I was terrified of graduating, as I didn’t want to go into the real world, and would have preferred to spend more time there….It was the best four years of both Rich’s and my lives, as we had a lot of fun, and best of all, met each other there.  We both keep in touch with our college friends, and after the seminar, we’re going for lunch and a movie with some of our friends, then Friday night, I’ll be meeting two of my girlfriends for dinner.  We work hard to stay in each others’ lives, and I can’t imagine life without them.  I graduated in 1981, so we’ve been friends for a very very very long time (and that’s a lot of very’s)….

When we made our last field trip to the Dollar Tree, I had viewers ask me for more…so we went to our local county fair…
My friend Abby,  showed me her goats and then we visited another goat, who liked to eat a little bit of my shirt. Abby’s goat knew how to ride a see saw and we got to see a video of it, which we thought was really impressive.
Then I took everyone to the bunny barn and showed a few of the bunnies I loved.
We played the dime toss game in honor of our nephew and his family who had so much fun playing that game last year….
Rich took several photos of the fair and we included them in the video….

I wanted to make a video using kid’s supplies, Crayola markers and watercolors.  The first attempt was a big failure, as I tried stamping on patterned paper, and it just looked bad.  My second attempt, with an entirely new stamp and plan, came out much better, but it’s a House Mouse stamp, and the mice are difficult to see, as the colors I used really muted the gray mice.  They almost blend into the sky background, which is kind of odd, as I colored the sky blue.  Those mice need something to make them pop, but so far, I haven’t figured out what that will be.

I’m still happy with the overall idea, as I think a lot of people overlook the inexpensive products that you can buy during “back to school” time.  I spent several hours in the craft room, and just need to come up with a plan for the mice, and the card will be ready to roll.

The other issue is the heat and how it saps energy and the will to do anything but read.  I really have to drag myself away from books, and thoroughly enjoy spending a lot of my free time in our sun room with Honey, reading.  I’ve been enjoying books by Linda Fairstein, who writes criminal prosecution books all based in New York City.  Her characters are entertaining, and if I can get past the legal jargon, i like reading her books.  I lose interest if she covers a lot of legal terms, instead of focusing on her characters.  OK, I’ll admit it.  I have been known to skip pages of books that cover a lot of description, as I prefer when they are talking instead.  (I know it’s horrible, but that’s how I read…_.

Today was a nice day..  We got up late and read and relaxed, then went to an early dinner with friends, then to the horse races.  I’m not fond of going to the races, but our friends like to go, and we enjoy just talking in between races.  If you’ve never been to them, you spend most of your time waiting for the races, then the race takes maybe a minute, then another twenty minutes of wait time…You have a lot of time to interact with those around you, and people watch.  I love people watching and there are a lot of interesting people who go to the races.

I’m glad we got home when we did, as the fireworks starts as soon as we walked in the door, and Honey was already pacing with her stuffed animal, so Rich took her to the basement, and I’ll be going to get them in a couple of minutes, when I’ve finished typing this, as the fireworks seem to be over.  You never know though, because sometimes our neighbors like to set off firecrackers and their own fireworks whenever the mood hits them.  I’m hoping tonight isn’t one of those times.

I found this kid’s book at a thrift store for a quarter, and thought it would be really fun to convert into an art journal. I wanted a place where I could try out new techniques and products, without worrying about what the end product looks like (if I was giving it as a card, for instance.)
I started with homemade Gesso, and here’s the recipe:
GESSO
1/4 cup plaster of paris
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white acrylic paint (buy it at a craft store, or if you have leftover white acrylic house paint, you can use that as well.)
1/4 cup Elmer’s or other white glue

Add the Plaster of Paris to the wet mix of the other ingredients slowly, and stir really well until it’s all well combined, with no lumps. I recommend that you put it in a good sealed container (with a screw on lid), so that it doesn’t go dry.

In previous weeks, I’d put some leftover paint on the cover and today, I covered the front of the kid’s book with the homemade Gesso and wiped the edges of the book and my Dollar Tree cutting mat (that I laid under the book) with a dry baby wipe. Keep your dried baby wipes, as they are perfect for this kind of clean up.

I separated a napkin that I bought at either the Christmas Tree Store, or got from a friend…I’ve had it a while. To separate the napkin layers, attach a piece of washi tape to the edge of the napkin on the back, and pull it so the layers separate. If there are more than two layers, you have to do this more than once.
I put matt Collage Pauge that I bought at Hobby Lobby on the book with a foam brush and then applied the napkin to it and trimmed the edges that overlapped the edges of the book. (after if was dry)  Then, I brushed a layer of Collage Pauge over the front.
I had bought a couple colors of Nuvo Mousse and have to say, don’t like them, as they are really dry, and one I had to add a significant amount of water to get it to be pliable. I used a little wooden stick from the Dollar Tree to mix it.
I combined some Texture Luxe in Pearl from Faber Castell to try to tone down the pink that was Pink Flambe from Nuvo Mousse and it was still really bright pink..
I also added some pink mica powder to it from the Dollar Tree, LA Colors eye shadow, that should have made the Mousse more sparkly, but really didn’t…(and I added a lot to the mixture.)
I used a chicken wire stencil to add the pink Mousse, and laid it on the front with painter’s tape that I had rubbed on my clothes and skin to ensure it wouldn’t rip the background when I took it off. I hated the way the pink mousse looked with the chicken wire, so wiped it back off before it set. I took the palette knife and added pink mousse to all of the small pink tulips, as well as the flowers on the left side in the pot.. I added some yellow Mousse as well and hated it, as it was super bright once dried.
I wanted to accentuate the colors of the naplins, so used Ranger Archival black ink to rub the ink pad around each of the edges of the book, and then used a Sharpie to get into the spots that were hard to reach. I used a Tim Holtz blending sponge to make sure the ink distressed the front edges of my book. The archival ink is important to use when doing layers, as it won’t re-wet or smear.
I hated the yellow mousse on its own, but once I cut out new vases from the napkin and recovered the vases that had yellow mousse on them, the yellow wasn’t so annoying. Every place I laid the yellow mousse, I basically cut the images again and covered over it. That includes the table, as half of the napkin front has one type of table on it, and the other half has a different table, and I didn’t like that. So I cut out two of the same tables and laid them over each other.
I wanted to add dimension to the flowers, so once they were dry, I added Crystal Effects that was from an old bottle that had thickened. I used the end of a spoon to get it to come out and then dripped it onto the flowers. Once it was dry, I really liked the effect.
I had an old stamp that a friend had given me with the word dream on it.. I stamped “dream” several times on yellow tissue paper from the Dollar Tree and cut the words out and laid them on a diagonal on the bottom section of the book and added another dream at the top near the center. I added another layer of Collage Pauge over the entire front cover and called the cover done.

I have never had a more frustrating crafty day than today.  I wanted to make a simple 60th birthday card for a friend, and started out by cleaning a new set of stamps to ensure that they would take the ink well.  I’ve never actually had this happen before, but I couldn’t get them to stick to the MISTI.  I even put dots of Aleene’s Tack it Over and Over on them, and they fell off, or slid around on it when I inked them.

It was a set of stamps that I bought on Ebay that I’d seen on  a card a friend had made, and I had to have…I think they came from inside a magazine, but these were the worst stamps I have ever used.  I couldn’t get them to stay attached to the MISTI no matter what I did.  I put a frame in the center of the card with a large “60” inside of the frame, but then when I tried to add a sentiment toward the top and bottom, neither would stay in place…..so attempt number two.  They moved again, but this time I’d adhered them with Aleene’s and let them dry….Couldn’t believe they moved, and decided I’d add a strip of paper over them to hide the first attempt…I cut (and I’m not making this up) four sets of two strips, Sometimes the sentiment was crooked, another time the ink was spread over the sentiment somehow so embossing powder blurred the word out, then lastly, I couldn’t get the embossing powder to stick to the ink.  Then the last set finally worked.  I couldn’t believe it…So frustrating, and, we were an hour late to the party because it took me so long to make this very simple card.

And the worst part, is that I gave up on the video after so many failed attempts and had no interest in trying to piece together a video from the different segments when one thing would work, but another would not.  I have to say, this was not a good day of craftiness for me.