Can you believe the month of May is gone so soon?  Seems like it was snowing a week ago.  OK, not a week but it definitely snowed earlier this month here.  It went from winter directly into summer, and I’m still acclimating.  Rich just put our furniture on the patio yesterday, as it just didn’t seem like the weather was nice enough to sit out there until this week.

Last night, I was putting together all of the video clips for the album video, and dropped one of the memory cards under the recliner I was sitting in.  Rich found it plus an extra memory card that I didn’t know I’d lost there.  I was thrilled to find the lost videos from the day I spent crafting with my cousin and our friend Linda.  I thought the videos were lost on a bad memory card, and was so happy, as one of my pet peeves is losing videos.  And speaking of losing video, I had one last video to show from the stamp show we attended.  I was at the Close to my Heart booth and made a card, then got a tour of their products.  I accidentally deleted me making the card, so I’m leaving it up to Rich to decide if there’s enough information on the remaining video, that viewers would be interested in watching.  I don’t want to waste viewers’ time, if it’s not very informative.  I guess we’ll wait and see what he thinks.   I did start working on a few ideas for some upcoming videos.  I’m going to do an inexpensive watercolor paper comparison video and an embossing powder instructional video explaining the different types and their uses.  Then I bought a few different brands of silver embossing powder to see if one performed better than another.  I might also try embossing on different paper brands to see if that affects the end results as well.

 

I spent all day yesterday and today working on the album and it is finally FINISHED!!!  I know you are probably thinking, “This thing better be a masterpiece,” and frankly it isn’t, but I did the best I could with the issues I had.  My first issue was not knowing the color of the bricks on the house I was trying to replicate.  I relied on Rich, who said that they were “brick colored.”  That lead me down a horrible path that included red bricks and red paper, neither of which I liked.  In the end, I found out the colors of the bricks were beige and gray.  So back to the drawing board.  I used texture paste and made a horrible mess, everywhere but on the album, the album came out relatively unscathed.  My clothes on the other hand, did not.
Humidity played a role in the problems I faced.  For some reason, weeks after finishing the pockets of the album, the paper inside kept getting adhered to the pocket, and it didn’t make me happy, I’ll tell you that.

Today was just finishing work, and it was bad.  I lost a key element for the front of the album and ended up actually cleaning my craft room to find it.  It took over two hours and I was just about to give up, when I found it on the floor.  These things happen.  I wanted the front cover to have a wrap-around the binding.  You’ll have to see it to understand what I mean.  I couldn’t find anything that I really liked, so tried dying burlap with Tim Holtz stains.  What a horrible mess..I didn’t try it once, no, I kept going, and cut three separate pieces of burlap to ruin.  My nails that were white when I started the day, now have a weird dark outline.  It looks like dirt, but trust me, it’s stain.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that the album is finished.  I really hope our friends like it and take the time to fill it with photos of their new home.  I’ll be OK if they don’t do anything with it, because after all, it’s the thought that counts.

I’ve had questions about paper cutting, so I thought I’d use a 12″ x 12″ paper pad, and show how to make a card. The paper pad I used was called Pocket Blossom from Die Cuts With a View from Michaels. These pads come with a couple of pages of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) that you can use on your card (or inside your card.)
To trim these from your pad, you’ll want to line up the line between two cards on the cutting line of your trimmer, and holding it against the measuring bar with your right hand, pull the blade from the top of the page, toward you.

To cut an A2 size card that is 5 1/2″ by 4 1/4″, you’ll want to put your paper in the trimmer so it is on the 11″ mark and pull the blade toward you. Then turn the paper one turn, and put it in the trimmer at 4 1/4″ and pull the blade toward you. To score it, I used a pen cap and my paper trimmer. I lined the paper up at 5 1/2″ and put the trim blade at the top of the trimmer so it’s out of the way.  I used the pen cap, and ran it down the cut line (not hard), just to make a mark so the paper will fold easily. The other way to make an a2 size card, is to put your paper on the  8 1/2″ mark on the measuring bar, and hold the right side, pull the blade toward you. Turn the paper one turn, and put it in the trimmer at      5 1/2″ and cut. This will create the other A2 size card. One is long and thin and one is short and fat. It’s all in the way you trim your paper and what you want your card to look like when you are finished.
Since I was using a layering die, I needed two other pieces of paper from the same paper pad to cut from. I put the 12″ paper in the paper trimmer at 4″ and trimmed about 3 1/2″ from the bottom up. Then I turned the paper one turn, that moved the paper cut to my left, and lined up the end of that cut with my cut bar and put the trimming device on that spot and pulled the blade toward me. That cut a 3 1/2″ square piece.
I used a layered heart die and here’s the link to it. https://preview.tinyurl.com/yd4kswmc I used snips to cut my dies apart. Here’s a link to the snips I use. http://tinyurl.com/yab37h8b

I used a corner rounder to round the corners of my card and the piece I cut for the inside. The inside piece is 5 3/8″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide. The corner rounder came from Amazon and here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/yalu76ur

I glued a piece of gold paper under the heart that I die cut from my card. The card is 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/4″ wide. I put the die in the center and used the die that had the most metal for that cut out. Before putting it in my die cutting machine, I opened the card so it wouldn’t cut through the front and back, only the front.  I glued that die cut onto the gold paper that I laid behind the heart, and then die cut and glued the next layer that had less metal on it and then finally, die cut and glued the one that had the least metal. I glued the gold and white patterned paper behind the gold piece of card stock with the gold and white patterned paper facing inside.

The micro brushes I didn’t use, here’s the link. http://tinyurl.com/y87jslxg
The micro brushes I did use, here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/ycwafpdo

I used Hampton Arts stamp set called Enjoy for my card, and used a stamp positioner to hold it in place while I stamped it with Versamark ink and Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, that I then heat set.
I didn’t think you could see the gold embossing, so I used pearl watercolors and here’s the link to them: http://tinyurl.com/y6wwh8lf

At first I only painted over the two sentiments, but didn’t love that, so added watercolor to the whole front of the card and I liked it better that way. I added some gold sequins to the front with my micro brushes.  My card warped but I laid it under a thick book and it flattened out and looked great.
I took the ATC that I cut out and glued it to the inside of the card and then cut a 4″ cut the top on a diagonal so it was about 2″ tall and I could put a gift card or money inside it. I used a scrap to line it.\

I spent a lot of time working on the covers for my album.  I wanted the bricks to really look authentic, so spent all evening putting on colored texture paste, waiting for three rows of bricks to dry, and then repeating the process.  I might have made a huge mistake in laying rows of bricks on both the top and bottom at the same time, and now am reaching the middle.  If my bricks don’t line up properly, I might have another major problem on my hands.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Tomorrow’s blog post might include me crying and throwing in the towel on this album.

I took time out and planted a flower pot, and have always enjoyed planting, but made a really big mess while doing it.  I guess I forgot that I’m not the Martha Stewart with her garden shed and a nice planting box.  I just take my bag of soil and try not to miss the pot.  It’s not a great system, but it’s all mine.   I really like the look of it and hope I remember to water it enough so I don’t kill it in the first month.  I don’t have the biggest green thumb, so there is a good chance I’ll kill it before the summer’s out.  It’s really a case of forgetfulness, and thinking I watered it when I didn’t.  I’m like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz–If I only had a brain….

I went to some garage sales yesterday and didn’t find anything crafty that I wanted to buy.  I did find two great big stuffed animals for the dogs, and they’ve been carrying them around the house like they are their babies.  If you’re a dog person, it’s really cute to watch.  One of them fell asleep with her head resting on the stomach of her animal.  I should have taken a photo of them.

I have a frustrating story to tell you and see what you think.  We went to our local Sears to buy Rich a new riding lawn mower.  He’d already picked out the one he wanted at Sears.com, but he wanted to buy locally, so we went to the store.  They told us they basically “rent” the Sears name and if the Sears chain goes away, they will still be functioning.  We thought that was kind of odd since the name is “Sears”, but went along with it.  Rich gave them the information on the tractor he wanted and they said they didn’t have one in stock, but could get one from “Sears.”  The delivery fee would be $82.11 (not sure where that number came from), but we could get that waived if we applied for a Sears card.  The price of the tractor online was $100 less, but they said they would price match it.  Also, they were having a special and we would get an additional 5% off and $50 if we applied for and used the Sears card.  So we decided to think about it.

Since both of his tractors aren’t currently working (don’t ask), time is of the essence, unless we want to live in a hay field.  So we went online and applied for the card and were approved, but, you can’t use the online approval to purchase anything online, you can use it in the store however.  (I thought it would be easier to use it to order the tractor online, get the online price and free delivery that they offer, but I’d need to wait for the card that we’d get in 7-10 days…hay field time.)  So we take the online approval and go back to our local “Sears” store.  The man that helped us must have been new, as he wasn’t really sure how to do a lot of what needed done on the computer.  He did ask for assistance and here’s what we got.

They would price match with Sears.com, and since we now had a Sears credit card and were buying a Craftsman tractor, were eligible for free delivery.  (At this “Sears” store, you could only get free delivery on a tractor if you used a Sears card AND, bought a Craftsman Tractor, but not the more expensive Husquavarna tractor that Rich thought about buying, but didn’t.)   And that’s when things fell apart.  Keep in mind, if we’d have bought it online from Sears, we would automatically have gotten the price we had to fight for, and would also have automatically gotten free delivery.  Also, online we would have gotten an additional 5% off the tractor price (but couldn’t get that in the store because they had given us the price match.)  Online we would also have gotten $50 and be able to use a $25 coupon, but couldn’t because we weren’t technically in a Sears store.  So in the end, we gave up $160 in savings because we bought locally from a store that wasn’t really Sears.   I have no idea why they show the offers that real Sears stores use, as they wouldn’t honor them, because they aren’t really Sears.  Could you follow that logic?

My head was spinning by the time we left there, because we had to have the tractor, and it still won’t be delivered until Thursday, but isn’t that the way it goes when you have to have an appliance in a hurry?

Long story short.  All things called Sears, are clearly not Sears.

I had to make a bridal shower card, and made one that turned out pretty well.  I wanted to show people how to cut 12 x 12″ paper pads to make a card and how to use the ATG cards that come in those paper pads for cards.

I worked on the album again, and am getting closer to finishing it.  It seems like I’ve been working on it for a year, but I’m repapering certain pages, as I didn’t like having red based pages when the album cover was no longer red brick.  It’s been a drag ripping the covers off and changing out the colors, but I think in the end, the album will be much nicer, and have a much more cohesive color flow.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I just want it done, haha….I had Rich ask our friend for a photo of their bricks, and I’m pretty sure he thinks I want to copy his brick work for something, (not sure what,) but he gave us the name and manufacturer of the bricks.  Won’t he be surprised, when he realizes I have no interest in copying his bricks for anything other than this album.  (I hope he’s happy with it.)

I started with a robin’s egg blue card stock cut to 8 1/2″ wide and 5 1/2″ tall. I used a stamping tool called Stamp Perfect that’s not available outside of ebay….I scored the paper at 4 1/4″ and 4 1/2″ then trimmed off the excess paper I had when closing the card to make both front and back even. I needed the extra score line for my shaker component. The stamps were from the stamp set “Congrats” from Hero Arts and used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink to stamp the sentiment that said “We’re so proud of you on your graduation.”  I practiced stamping it on a scrap paper to make sure the words were spaced evenly and were straight.   I used a die that creates a shaker look and here’s the link to it. http://tinyurl.com/y857rh9q
I used a piece of plastic that I got with a stamp set and cut it to 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/8″ and ran glue dots to attach the acetate to the back of the card front. I like the little medical bag that came in the set of stickers I got for nursing from Michaels and wanted to use it in the card. I put foam tape along the bottom and top edges of the back of the acetate (to avoid it showing through the die cut portion, then cut smaller pieces of foam tape to go around the circle and not allow and gaps. I took the medical bag and put it in the center of the circle and put some Mermaid shaker components (not a lot) and shook them inside the circle. I cut a white piece of card stock to 5 1/2″ tall by 4 1/8″ and laid it on the foam tape, lining up the left side and bottom to ensure it covered the acetate correctly. I used some of the other stickers from the Nurse set inside the card, and stamped the back with my personalized stamp. I used one of the stickers for on the envelope, as I was going to hand it to our nephew. I hope you enjoyed this shaker card, as it was a lot of fun to make, and really simple.

Today I did work on the album.  I pulled both covers off and tried to color the white brick paper.  What I discovered was this.  Thin scrapbook paper is not made for coloring mediums.  It was a mess and I couldn’t figure out a way to redeem it.  In the end, I spilled a small container of water onto the paper and decided to throw it out.  I can’t decide how I could have done anything differently, so my next move is to take gray paper and use texture paste on it to make it work.  I think I’ll make the texture paste a mixture of gray and tan, as the photos of the bricks make it look brown in one light and gray in another.

I guess we’ll see how that plan goes, but for now, at least I have a plan…not a great one, but a plan.

I really wanted to say that I have finished the album, but, unfortunately I’ve failed yet again.  I know it’s starting to sound ridiculous, but I’m completely exhausted.  I’ve never made excuses for myself, and find I’m doing it so often now.  I’m so sorry to tell you that I haven’t done anything else crafty, but I have slept about thirty-two hours in the last two days.  I feel like I’m really letting all of you down, and hope I start feeling better, and have more energy.  In the meantime, it’s a good thing that I have a backlog of videos for you to watch and for Rich to upload.

First let me tell you about Dead Pool 2.  It was funny, gory, and not suitable for children, but if you like Ryan Reynolds and his humor, you’ll enjoy it immensely.   College friends who have relocated back here from Maryland love movies as much as we do.  The only difference is the wife doesn’t really like action movies.  Almost forty years of watching them with Rich have made them a staple for me, but at the end of the movie, she turned to me and said “That’s two hours I’ll never get back.”  I can’t tell you how hard I laughed at that.

So today was going to be the day I finished the album I’m making them for their new house.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see the house during the bricking phase and relied on Rich, who said “It’s brick colored.”  I made the cover of the album “brick” and guess what? It’s not really “brick colored” at all.  It’s more of a beige/tan brick, so the brick colored paper I bought and re-bought is not going to cut it.  Luckily I bought some white brick paper early on, and I think (keep that in mind) that I can color it and make it match their home better.  Of course I did say “think” so we really have no idea what my end result will look like.

I didn’t get up for the royal wedding, but did see (on YouTube) the beginning of Meghan’s walk down the aisle.  When the trumpets started, the little boy on the right holding her train was astounded, and utterly adorable.  If you haven’t seen it, he’s now an internet sensation.  Rich got up and asked if I watched any of the wedding and I only showed him the little boy and he just smiled.  You could tell that kid will remember that moment for the rest of his life, and what a moment to remember!

Mid-afternoon, we got a call from another of our college friends, wanting to go to dinner and gambling.  They texted the rest of our gang, and the eight of us met to donate money to the casino in Erie, PA.  We had a great time at dinner, and donated some money, then headed home in a horrific rainstorm.  It was hard to see the road, and I’m glad we left when we did, as I don’t think it would have been safe to drive after dark with it raining that hard.  We were glad to get home and the dogs were really glad to see us.  Honey hates wind, rain, basically anything unexpected, so she was super anxious when we got home.  She’s finally calmed down after an hour of laying with me.

I am committed to finishing that album tomorrow.  I’m going to have to remove the covers (YIKES!) and replace them with much sturdier cardboard, and change the color of the white bricks.  It might be a long day, but it’s not over until the fat lady sings.  Where did that saying come from?  I know it has to do with opera, but geez, can’t they let us sturdily built women have a break?