I was asked to review this set of 36 Bangood watercolor markers, and found them to be really fun to use. I never receive any monies for products I review, and if you want to purchase them, here’s the link.  They were $12.99 for the set, and shipping to the US is free.  I didn’t check for the rest of the world, but believe the offer free shipping to most places.

36 Colors Washable Watercolor Pens: https://goo.gl/URZ7jT
Banggood.com: https://goo.gl/Y6BfRd
Stationery Supplies: https://goo.gl/fv9sqM
Stationery: https://goo.gl/88JsGh

I used a new stamp I bought from Rubbernecker Stamps called Floral Circle and here’s a link to it. http://tinyurl.com/floralcircle

I inked the stamp with Versamark Ink and used silver embossing powder from Stampin’ Up and heat set it on a 5 x 5″ piece of Canson XL watercolor paper.. I used the set of 36 water based markers from Bangood to color the image, but unfortunately, my camera cut out the blending. I wanted to make sure you could still see me blend, so did some blending with several colors in the middle of the video.. I used a water brush to liquefy the lighter bluish purple color that I used on the background. I used a circle die to cut out the image, then used a piece of silver foil paper and the next bigger circle die to layer under it. I took a label banner die from Die-Namics and used an old Stampin’ Up stamp set called Good Greetings for my sentiment “Happy Valentine’s Day”.. and another Fiskars set for the inside sentiment “You’re the best.” from the set called Petals from Scratch.  I used red card stock that was 11″ long by 5 1/2″ wide, and scored in half at 5 1/2″ to make a 5 1/2″ square card.
I centered the floral circle on the silver card stock and used tape runner to adhere them together and glued them to the center of the card. Then used glue dots to hold the ends of the banner down and put foam tape under the center and then glued it to the card.  I used Versamark ink and the same silver embossing powder for the sentiment on the banner and inside the card.

I decorated the envelope with the Cobblestone Heart from pegstamps.com and here’s the link to it. https://pegstamps.com/cobblestone-heart-mini-peg-stamp.html. I used Versamark ink and the same silver embossing and heat set it so it matches the inside of the card.

I really liked the markers, and thought they blended well.  I showed a couple different ways to use them, direct to paper, as well as scribbling on a tile and picking the ink up with a blender pen.  I think they are a good value for $12.99 and would recommend them to someone looking for a good variety of markers at a reasonable price. The only thing I didn’t like about the markers was the container they come in. There are small circles in the bottom where you put the markers, but once I pulled markers out, I couldn’t figure out where the holes were that the marker came out of. I would either figure out a way to remove the circle slots in the bottom, or store them in a different container.

So our Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow, so it’s six more weeks of winter.  I wish it was only six more weeks.  We’ve had snow in May, so six weeks is a real understatement, but that’s a groundhog for you. I’m not sure if they use the same calendar as us… I’m not sure who came up with the brilliant idea of using this rodent to determine weather, but it definitely brings a lot of people and money to the small community of Punxatawney.  Although I’ve never been there to witness the event, I’ve been to Punxatawney, and it’s not exactly a booming metropolis.  I’m glad they came up with an idea so outrageous to bring tourists and their dollars to the community.  It was a genius idea.  I wish our community had thought of it first.  Maybe we could have an early winter prediction from how many acorns a squirrel hides….Squirrels are much more attractive than groundhogs..I’ll be thinking of ways to use a squirrel’s hoard to my advantage.  Then again, some squirrels might be better hoarders than others, or maybe the squirrel that’s chosen is an over eater…these things have to be taken into consideration.  How much does the average squirrel hoard?  I think it’s more work than it’s worth, but if any of you have a great winter prediction, let me know and we’ll give it a whirl.

I wanted to do something creative today, but Rich’s cold got a lot worse, and I was starting to worry, so stayed close to him all day.  Of course that meant taking a nap, watching some action movies and television shows, and basically, just trying to keep the day low-key.

I know he’s feeling terrible when I offer to make something simple like homemade apple sauce, and he turns me down.  I had to ask a second time before he reconsidered, and was glad I made it for him.

I’m a worrier.  I’ve always been that way, and when Rich gets sick, I fret until I see him rebounding.  I know a lot of people can shrug off almost anything, but I’ve always been the opposite.  I can make myself a wreck over the smallest things, and no matter how much Rich reassures me, I’ll still continue to worry until he’s better.  Today he’s started to cough a lot, and even though we have a lot of cough and cold medicines, they aren’t seeming to do anything to stop his cough.  In case you’re thinking “this is just a cold,”  I might have thought that too, but that was before our friend’s 57 year old healthy wife, died on her way to her doctor’s appointment from the cold/flu that’s been going around this year.  I’ve heard of so many people ending up in the hospital with this bug, and I just don’t want Rich to get any sicker.  If I could have a plaque made for “World’s Best Worrier,” that would be great..I definitely think I’m at least in the running for it.

I had every intention to do something productive today, but decided to read instead.  I love to read and don’t do it as often as I would like.  Rich’s cold has gotten worse, so he slept most of the day and I didn’t want to disturb him by talking on video.  OK, that’s a half-truth…I just didn’t have the ambition to be creative, and didn’t want to wake him.

We had a dinner we needed to attend tonight at the college we attended.  One of our friends was talking to seniors about his career being an air traffic controller.  He talked about 9/11 and how that changed the way that he looks at life.  How he talked briefly to the plane that went into the Pentagon and didn’t really remember doing so until he went online today and found a voice recording of the controllers talking to the plane.  He had told us on a previous occasion that when the plane that eventually crashed in Somerset, PA went off of their grid, he was able to find a way to relocate it, and that when they were given the directive, they got every airplane in US airspace to land within an hour after the order.  That’s an amazing feat, and one he’s exceptionally proud of.  The thing that’s really sad, is the college seniors were only five or six years old when 9/11 happened, and don’t have the memory of the days and weeks that followed.  We all remember precisely where we were when it started and the horror that followed.  These kids are lucky that they don’t have those memories, but in some ways, it’s unfortunate, because it made us better people, better citizens and neighbors in the aftermath.  I can’t imagine what any of the first responders that survived have lived with, or frankly, the air traffic controllers, that could do nothing to stop what happened that day.  They could only sit back and watch it transpire on their screens.  I give him so much credit for being able to go back to work the next day.  My college roommate was a flight attendant, and 9/11 was the last day she put on her uniform.  Her husband decided the risk wasn’t worth it.

I was so glad our friend talked about his experience and how proud he was that they got every plane out of the air in an hour.  I think that’s how he got through 9/11 and the aftermath, by focusing on what he could control and not on what he couldn’t.

I’d really like to take a trip somewhere warm, and am just not sure what I want to do or where I want to go.  I’m so indecisive now, and I never used to be that way.  I wonder if others get more indecisive as they get older.  Rich and I used to go to St. Maarten every year for Valentine’s Day, but with the devastation there from Hurricane Irma, there’s no chance we’ll go there until more clean up has been done.  I watch the most current videos of clean up on YouTube, and it’s still in really bad shape.  Even there most commercial areas where cruise ships drop people are in terrible disrepair.  I’d love to go back, maybe we’ll go in 2019.  Since I didn’t have to make any decisions in the past, and always knew where we’d be going, I haven’t had to really think about our winter travel for several years.  I’m just not sure where to go, or what to do and winter’s almost over…at least it is in my head.  In reality, we’ve probably got three more months of it to look forward to.

So that’s what I’ve been doing today.  Basically thinking about where to go and what to do.  I’d like to say I’ve come up with a plan, but so far, not so much.  Rich’s cold has gotten worse, so we’re planning on spending the evening watching old movies.  At least that’s something I can decide on.  If only travel was as simple.

I wanted to share the stamp sets I bought from Altenew.. They are on sale at scrapbook.com if you want to check them out.  I love Carolyn Shores Wright stamps and found Holly House on Ebay.  I used my Poppy background stamp from Rubbernecker that I showed in my last haul…I used Versafine Onyx black ink to stamp it with and Recollections 110 lb white card stock for it cut to 5 x 7” and used a new clear embossing powder from Nuvo.   I used my Touch Five markers to color it.  I bought a set of 168 markers from Ebay for $63, as it was the only set they offered that had a lot of the lightest tones and I color with those for the majority of my coloring.  I swatched them in a book, so I can easily find the colors I’d like to use.  I also put a sticker around the markers, so I can see what the color actually is (compared to the color on the cap.)  The colors I used were 70,144,183,37,41,12,15,2,3, and a colorless blender.

I colored the lightest red tone for the entire flower, then went around the edge of the flower with the next darker shade, then the shaded areas with the darkest red, then went back with the lightest color to cover the entire flower.  That’s my system for coloring with markers, and I hope it helps you when coloring.  I usually use three shades of the same color and always color the entire image with the lightest tone first and then go back over all of the coloring with the same marker after using the other two colors.

When I colored the blue background, instead of using all of the shades of blue, I used a colorless blender to lighten certain areas to make it look like I did shading…it’s a sneaky way to make your coloring look like you worked harder than you did.

I trimmed the background on it to look good on a 5 x 7″ card…it’s 10” by 7″ and scored at 5″ to make a 5 x 7″ card.

I used a ruler to make my edges straight with the blue marker and put foam tape behind it to adhere it to the red background.  I stamped “You are Simply Wonderful” on the bottom in black ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder then heat set it.  By using this sentiment, I could stamp Happy Valentine’s Day on the inside of the card, or leave it blank.  For now, I’m leaving it blank.

I took a 1” chiffon ribbon that matched and tied it around the front panel and tied it in a bow and cut a notch out of the ends of the ribbon by folding it in half and cutting toward the bow on an angle.  That gives you (I think) a fish tale edge, but I might be making it up.

The stamp I used on the back of the card came from Stampanda.  I went through Groupon to get a discount code for Stampanda, then went to the Stampanda site and found their square self inking address stamps, and looked for the one that I liked, and changed it from an address to “Made for you by Sandy Parker”…  Hope that helps if you want to make one for yourself.  I think it ended up being around $20 to make it.

I was asked by a company called Bangood, if I would be willing to do a video on one of their products.  I like water based markers, so agreed that if they sent them, I’d try them out on video.  They’re really inexpensive, $12.99 for a set of thirty-six markers..The markers arrived today and I thought they be fun to watercolor with.  I used a really pretty round stamp from Rubberneckers and used silver embossing powder on it, then used the markers to color it.  Of course, I had a major malfunction with the camera, and it didn’t record any of the coloring of the flowers on the card.  They were the best part of the coloring, so I had to come up with additional footage to show me blending the various colors on watercolor paper.  I find it hard to believe that I make as many mistakes as I do, but these things happen.  Unfortunately, they happen more than I would like them to.

I liked the end result with the card and think it’s  a frisky Valentine’s Day card.  Rich and I don’t exchange Valentine’s cards, so I’ll probably send it to one of my friends/viewers.  I just wanted to make something with a Valentine theme since I normally don’t make many cards with a Valentine motif.

I did want to tell you about Rich and the quatrefoil on the last card.  He was convinced that he needed to fix the issue with me making up a word on the video, and was shocked to discover that I hadn’t made a mistake at all…I did use the proper word.  The scary part is that I have no idea how I knew that was a quatrefoil.  I’m pretty sure I pulled that out of thin air…Impressive though, right?

We had a really nice day..Started with meeting a group of our college friends, as the men wanted to get together, so the women went to a coffee shop while the guys did their thing…then we all went out to lunch together.  It’s great that Rich has reconnected with this group of college friends, and I’ve had so much fun meeting and getting to know their wives.  We all live within an hour of each other, so it’s not difficult to find a central spot to meet.

When we got home, Rich and I made the executive decision that it was time for a nap.  He’s been fighting off a cold and it was exactly what we both needed to get rejuvenated.

I wanted to tell you about something we bought for Rich that I think is really helping his lower back and sciatica.  It’s an inversion table…you know the ones that turn over so your head is near the floor and your feet are near the ceiling.  You only use it for 3-5 minutes at a time and only two or three times a day.  Rich thinks it’s really helping him, and this is coming from a guy whose had his back injected with steroids on at least four occasions without any relief.  It’s not supposed to cure the problem but give pain relief…I don’t know about the rest of you, but pain relief is better than just about anything…and not having to take any medicines or have any injections makes it even better.

On to crafting….I’ve been thinking about the circle stamp that I bought from Rubbernecker stamps, and how I could make it into a card.  I thought it would be really pretty, painted with bright watercolors on a dark background, and using silver embossing powder to really set it off.  I started working on it and couldn’t get the water colors to look exactly the way I wanted, so put it aside for another day.  Sometimes it really helps me to do that, as it give me time to think about alternative products and ideas…I guess we’ll have to wait to see if I can make it work, or if I need to kick it to the curb and try something else.

I bought some great stamps from Rubbernecker Stamps, http://www.rubbernecker.com/..

I thought it would be fun to show you how to mask with the MISTI.
I used two old Stampin’ Up sets, Hello There and Madison Avenue that you can still find on Ebay… I used Color Box Cat’s Eyes in fawn, butter, chambray, plumeria, black cherry and mint to stamp with. To mask a long strip, put a piece of paper on the portion of the stamp that you don’t want inked, and ink the rest of the stamp, then remove the paper, and stamp it on your image. I stamped the long stamp that I kept calling a Quatrefoil (and it’s actually a quatrefoil, shocking, I know!) I stamped two of the quatrefoil on the left side of the bottom row in one color, then stamped beside it with the entire stamp in another color, then stamped the end of that row in a different color. I stamped three quatrefoil in the second row on the left, then the full stamp, then two quatrefoil at the end of the row. The third and fourth rows i only stamped the full stamp in a different color on both rows.
To remove the ink that I had on the card that was an error, I used my Mono sand eraser to take it off.

The “Hello There” I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink and then used clear embossing powder to heat set it.

I stamped the smallest stamp from the Madison Avenue stamp set between the rows of quatrefoil in different colors. Then I took my colored pencils from Marco Renoir and my white Prismacolor pencil. After coloring the insides of each quatrefoil with two different shade to accent the ink, I took Gamsol on a baby Q-tip and blended the colors. I used the white on the very centers of each quatrefoil. I took Judikins Diamond Glaze and coated all of the quatrefoil then let them dry. I stamped the envelope with another quatrefoil shaped stamp from Madison Avenue as well as the smallest stamp from that set.

I thought I had written in the blog yesterday, but apparently I forgot.  It’s funny how I can convince myself that I’ve done something when I haven’t.  So today I worked on a new card and really think it turned out pretty good.  I bought a bunch of Rubbernecker backgrounds and played with the poppy one..I can’t believe how long it took me to color it with alcohol markers, or how much marker ink it used.  In the end, a couple of my red markers were really struggling to color in the background.   I wanted to make this card something you could give for Valentine’s Day, but not specifically for Valentine’s if you can follow that.  I just wanted to send a card to one of my girlfriends so she knows I’ve been thinking about her, as she’s had a really tough couple of months.

I got another haul in the mail today…I had found some Altenew stamps that I wanted.  They have the nicest floral stamps, so I bought them and will be using them in some upcoming videos.   I love it when the mail comes and there are crafty presents just waiting for me….It really made my day.