I spent all evening working on a birthday card for a close friend, and in the end, decided it needed to go into the trash.  I wanted to use colors that coordinated with the birthday sticker set I had, so decided to make my own green pigment ink.  I didn’t have a stamp pad to put the ink onto, so stamped directly onto a tile.  I have stamp pads that are blanks but somehow thought this would work.  The green was splotchy and uneven, and I just didn’t like it.  The card itself really looked pretty OK, but the green really killed the look of it, and I decided I’d give her a card I’d already made instead.  I hate to admit defeat, but this one was not going to make it.  Rich really thought it looked great, if I could fix the green mess, but I tried, and there was no way to redeem it.  Drat, I hate spending a couple of hours on something that goes into the trash.

I know we’ve all had days like this, but it’s pretty disheartening when you have an idea that should work but doesn’t.  Tomorrow’s another day, and even better, it’s a garage sale day…..one of our first for the season.  YAY!

I have three videos that Rich needs to edit and add music to, so I’m feeling kind of free and unencumbered.  I think it’s nice to have a few days breathing room, but on the other hand, I need to keep pumping them out, so Rich always has something to do, haha.

I am going to make a card for a good friend whose birthday is this week, and I wanted to try making an acetate card, so that’s my plan.  I’m not sure if it will work, but you never know until you try.

I’m also still trying to find the perfect papers for the album I’m making our friends who have built their new home.  The problem I’ve been having is in papers.  Although they make a lot of paper for new babies, they don’t make many for new homes.  So far, I’ve got some Graphic 45 paper that I thought would work, but it’s mostly floral and vegetable themed, “Home Sweet Home.”  I’m kicking that to the curb and trying to find other papers I like.  So far it’s been a bust, but if any of you know of any paper that is focused around a new home, I’d really appreciate it.  I’ve found a lot that say the word home, but most were a new home for a baby, or a new garden, definitely not what I’m looking for.

I got some great envelopes and embellishments from my friend Rhonda and her little girl, Faith, as well as some lovely thank you notes from Puerto Rico.. Rhonda had gotten a lot of handmade envelopes from a friend and wasn’t sure what to do with them, so sent them to me for ideas. I have two, and decided to make a small flip book/album with some of them to share with all of you today.  I share my other idea in an upcoming video.

To make an envelope flip book, it’s best if your envelopes are all the exact (or as close as possible) size. Take your largest envelope for the front cover, then open the envelope so the front of the envelope is laying on your desk. Take a second envelope with the front of the envelope facing you, and push the “V” of the closure of the second card, into the opening of the first envelope, then lay the second envelope over the first envelope and put some glue along the edge of the top of the envelope. Don’t push the envelope past the score line and make sure when you fold your new envelope on top of the others to line it up, so the book is straight and then glue it in place. I found if you glue it before pushing the “V” into the first envelope, it gets stuck and is too tricky to do. If your envelopes have a point sticking up in the back, cut it off so it’s straight across and easier to push into the other envelope. Once you’ve put as many envelopes into your book as you want, you’ll want to score the top by the width of the thickness of your envelopes and it’s probably only 1/8″ and score past the score line 1/8″ to make it so your book will close and look more professional.
I added a piece of 2″ by the length of my book (4 1/2″) and scored it on the 2″ length at 7/8″ and 1 1/8″ then put tear tape on the back and wrapped it around the binding of my book. I used some butterflies and a piece of lace to decorate the book.

I spent tonight going over three new videos I’m ready to hand off to Rich.  He didn’t seem very excited when he heard about them since he’d worked three days on the last video.  Let’s face it, his work is never done.

Today was a big errand day, running all over buying groceries, and finally dropping a lot of mail that I’ve promised people at the mail box.  I always have a great sense of relief when I get everything in the mail, and then the process starts all over again.  I wouldn’t have it any other way, though, because I love sending cards to friends, family and especially viewers.  I’ve had so many wonderful responses to my cards, and I’m always surprised when people tell me they’ve framed them, or are keeping them where they can be inspired while crafting, or showing them to others.  The viewers really make this channel worth doing.  So thanks to all of you, for the encouragement you give me to continue on this path.

I had promised a viewer that I would make her a hummingbird inspired card. Although I had a great idea, it fell apart halfway through the process.
The set of stamps I used is from Stampendous and is called Hummingbirds CRS5072.  I did find a set on Ebay in case you are interested.  I stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink as it works great with alcohol markers
I started with 5 x 7″ Recollections white card stock for the hummingbird, but ultimately cut it out.
I used my Touch Five markers and the colors are 43, 51,172, 174, 36, 101, 34,, 44, 14, 23, 100, 103, 15, 3,10 and one Spectrum Noir marker GT1. I layered two hummingbirds on top of each other by coloring two and putting two layers of foam tape under the back of the hummingbird wings and one layer toward the center of the bird and none under the head so it is really dimensional.
My red marker was starting to get dry, so I’m adding a video at the end that shows you how to re-hydrate an alcohol marker.
I had a sentiment die cut that says “For You” and layered three of them on top of each other then put Princess Gold embossing powder from Ranger on it and heat set it. I reapplied Versamark and more Princess Gold and re-heat set it so it had a more molten finish and the embossing powder covered the edges of the die cuts. The die was from Avery Elle from a die set called Tags for All. I have to say, I’ve been disappointed with the results from cutting with these dies. I love the font, but hate they way they cut, just an FYI.
I put Diamond Glaze on the hummingbird and the flowers and then made a horrible mistake with green paint and decided to cut out the hummingbird and the flower and stalk. I decided to make a frame and layer the bird and stalk inside and over the edge of the frame. After cutting out the flower and bird, I used a black marker and colored all of the edges.
To make the frame, I took craft card stock and cut it 7″ across by 9″ tall and scored it at 1/4″, 1/2″, 1″, and 1 1/4″ on all four sides of the card stock. I folded all of the scores and cut out the corners where the furthest scores at the 1 1/4″ mark to the intersecting score line.
To make the frame, fold under the first 1/4″ score with tear tape and wet glue on it, then it lays flat under the the other bends, and creates a square. I cut out the ends and realized that the end of the frame would be open, so instead of cutting off the paper at the end where the side meets, I trimmed the paper down so I could slide it into the corner, and glued it in.
I used a burlap paper for the inside of the frame that ended up being smaller than my original 4 x 6 as I didn’t take into account the frame, so the paper inside is smaller, and you’ll want to measure yours before you put it in the frame.
I then hot glued the edges that didn’t want to stick down, and added some gold nail decorations to my frame and then hot glued the bird and flower into it . I added a card base to the back of the frame so it is an actual card.

Finally, Rich was able to edit down the video with the framed card.  He had almost two hours of video that he whittled down to around 30 minutes.  I feel bad for him, as I really make editing a chore.  Too much talking, too many mistakes and a lot of corrections on his part.  I guess it’s the nature of the beast.  Carol Held tells me that some of her videos start with almost 40 hours of filming.  Wow!  I can’t even begin to imagine  handing that to Rich.  I think he’d resign as my chief technical engineer.  How’s that for a title?  Right hand man doesn’t have the technical side I wanted to include, so there you have it.  Maybe I should have business cards made for him.  Probably not.

Today I went to a few craft stores and did a haul video, then did another video showing how to make a card with envelopes on the front.  I had a difficult time making the card, and should have saved it for another day when I was more focused, as  I made a lot of mistakes (more than usual) with getting ink and hot glue all over, again, more than usual.  I think I’ll look at it tomorrow and decide if it’s worthy of going online, or if it needs to be tossed.  Oh well, I gave it a shot.

I think it’s really wonderful that I have so many kind and thoughtful viewers.  One of them, sent me a box of embellishments she had created, as well as (literally) hundreds of small envelopes her girlfriend had sent to her.  She had no idea what to do with them and hoped I could come up with some ideas.  So today I sat down and started playing with them and have come up with two ideas that are fast and fun.  I made small mini-albums out of some of them and then had the idea to use business envelopes for my card size, and create cards with a note in each envelope.  I think I already talked about this (or maybe I just imagined that I did), and am really looking forward to getting started.

My cousin Shelli, and her good friend Linda, (from the fairy garden video), will be coming to visit this week, and we’re still trying to come up with ideas of things we can create together.  Obviously we can make cards, but it’s always fun to find new crafts that we can try together, and that’s our plan.  I’ve given her some ideas and so far we’re still thinking.

I got an email from a viewer, who sent me a box of goodies today.  She and her daughter hand made a lot of small envelopes, and oddly enough, I’d been thinking about making some cards for people with small envelopes glued to the front, with each holding a small message inside.  I owe a friend a belated birthday card and thought it would be fun to have four or five small envelopes with a tab that says “open” on them, then inside a one or two word sentiment.  So now that I have lots of tiny envelopes, I’m going to get serious about making those cards.  It’s weird how people unknowingly think along the same lines.

I didn’t sleep most of last night, as I had an idea of how to save the hummingbird card, and I genuinely believed that I could do it without any intervention or YouTube videos to show me the way.

This video of the hummingbird card is probably the longest, but funniest video I’ve ever made.  If people didn’t know me, they would probably think I’ve been drinking, but alas, I was just having fun.  I created a frame from my own design, which, in retrospect, might not have been the best idea, but I did it anyway.  The frame is by no means perfect, but the card is kind of cute.  It took forever to make, but don’t all masterpieces?  (Insert coughing and gagging here.)

I really had fun creating the frame, and hope viewers enjoy it.  I’m not sure if anyone will ever try to replicate it, but at least I accomplished what I set out to do.  Rectify a card that was clearly in the hot mess phase, and almost certainly, destined to stay there.

I have been wanting to make a card with a hummingbird stamp for a viewer.  I had a vision of making the bird really three dimensional, so today I worked on the card.  The background was white, and I really didn’t like it.  So I decided to watercolor it a bluish tone.  BIG MISTAKE!  At this point, I’m at the hot mess stage and not sure what I want to do next, but I think I’m going to have to cut the hummingbird and it’s flower out of the original card stock to eliminate the ugly blue background.  I’m hoping I can edit it out of the end card, because it is really bad.

I cut out some different fiber type papers to maybe make a background that is almost like burlap, but that doesn’t sound like it will work well, so I’m on to thinking of other ideas.  I might try to find some handmade paper that I can layer it on.  All in all, I’m starting to freak out, but hope by tomorrow I have a plan that will save the hummingbird card.  Cross your fingers, we’re in for a long and bumpy ride.