election day: don't worry, be happy

I spent some time this morning looking for positive quotes and printing them on the computer, thinking I would choose one for today's page. They are all "happy" and "laughter" quotes and good ones. But after I got them all printed and went to put them away (I have a pile of quote stuff) I saw this one that I printed a long time ago and it begged to be put on today's page. I only did a one sided page, the opposite page has room for some journaling, which I am feeling the need for today. 

So it's election day. I figure we will take the outcome in stride, but not everyone will. There's a good chunk of the country ready for war. In some places, they mark the street blue where Democrats live, with the intention of harassing and intimidating them. In our little city, there are a lot of gun toting people, the same ones who refused to wear masks for so long. Funny thing, last time we went to the store, everybody had masks on. Something to do with almost 500 deaths in our county, and more than 22,000 cases of COVID. And rising.

We went over to my son's last night to take a gift for their 12 year old birthday boy. SO hard to be that close and not cuddling. I did cuddle with the dog. So much that my kitty avoided me for awhile. 

So positives. Don't worry, be happy. Laughter is the best medicine and all that. The background is a snippet of a piece of paper I cleaned my brayer on while I was doing something else (painting peanut printing) I don't throw those snippets away, I either add more to them, cut them up for these teensy projects, or use them to die cut butterflies or such. Sometimes they get torn up in a collage. On the left side I will comment about how I'm feeling about this day. So it's a very tiny journal. 

When I did a little quote and scripture verse notebook this size for my mom, she flipped through it so much the pages started falling out. I had my daughter and my cousin do pages, and asked my sister in law about her favorite verses and did it for her. That was not exactly my idea but a wonderful one. And now I am doing another one for myself. This time with color and butterflies.

 

how did this get started, anyway?

Sometimes I go into the craft room, and somehow, end up making something. I got these teensy spray things, and have been really disappointed at how they work (or don't work) so I put some ink into a different sprayer, grabbed a piece of card stock, and sprayed. Well, I couldn't stop there, so grabbed some stencils and added some stuff, then had to add some white spatters. I have a mess to clean up now. But there's another art journal page. Just longing for some childhood, simple, wonderful, nonsense.  

treasure the moment

 

Thinking of my mom a lot today. This was her jewelry, mostly butterflies. 

On an afghan that she knitted.

Time goes by quickly
Then it is another year
Treasure the moment

Club Scrap card kit

I ordered something from Club Scrap, which I haven't done in years. I was a member back in 2009, and got a kit a month for several months. Back then it was stencils. I loved it, but it gets expensive when you commit to every month. This time I ordered a card kit, it's one that was featured in a subscription kit but since it's leftovers I think there are no cutting instructions and such. But I saw a cutting diagram of z fold cards, and since I always like something different, I decided to try it with this kit. Here are the results. I have not done every card in the kit but so far I love love love these. 

The kit comes with four of these laser cut butterflies, which are so gorgeous I wanted to hoard them, but put them on  cards. You cut out all the card parts first, it took me about 15 minutes to get it all together and get everything separated into piles for kits. But then when I went to put a card together, it only took me five minutes to assemble! I still have 2 kits I haven't assembled, and I think I've decided to make ahead assembly kits so I can grab things when I want a card. So in half an hour or so I gathered up some cards I already made, made a couple more, and am ready to deliver a little packet to someone who loves hand made cards to send out. 

This second one has a "birthday blessings" die cut I did a long time ago on a Cricut. My sis in law Loretta gave it to me. It's an old one, it doesn't connect to a computer or anything, and I only have 3 cartridge sets, but I love this, and will make more for my stash since this is the last one. The butterfly came in the card kit. 

As I have been organizing my craft room, I have been encouraged. When my mom moved to assisted living, that room got stuffed with her stuff. I've been gradually letting it go. I still have a LONG way to go but at least there's a spot there to craft.

Except I did these on the dining room table LOL

This one is made from scraps from the kit, and a butterfly die cut from my stash. below, one of the cards open. It's hard to see, but the strip across is a folding mechanism. The card is folded into a Z shape with that strap across, so it's a bit different than a traditional card. 

Another  card, with a punch in the center from a Martha Stewart punch. I think the punch broke years ago, but this was cut from one of those paint samples you get at paint stores. 

The puffy butterflies are from the card kit.

All in all I enjoyed this kit. There are still a lot of scraps left, and two more kits I haven't done as well. I'm looking forward to leaving this (below) on someone's porch tomorrow.

In looking around at Club Scrap, I think I could have found the butterfly kit instructions. There are a ton of instructions here.... https://clubscrap.com/how-tos/instructions/

I am loving learning new folding techniques, because I get tired of just doing plain cards and I think there are plenty of room to use custom backgrounds as well. 

Here's kind of where I started. I'm in a Michael Strong facebook group, and This lady is one of the people that run it. Hetty lives in the Netherlands. Here's her blog post about the z fold cards. I need to do better with photography instead of just casually balancing things and hoping for the best. Oh well.

https://craftchaos.blogspot.com/2020/07/a-bunch-of-cards.html?fbclid=IwAR23hpGPwaOHULZ3SIv3B4YZ4wyJYcAwkazWNJ5iULBT6715_B1emL8L14g

I then followed the links on her blog to the Club Scrap instructions. In case someone wants to do this.

And I'm off to look at the instructions for cutting something else. I still have quite a bit of papers I'm trying to use up so I really don't need to order much. But these butterflies caught my eye of course. I don't have enough butterflies, ha ha.

I found the link to the kit, but I don't remember download instructions, LOL... oh well, I had some difficulty ordering because of MY mix up, not theirs. So who knows. It also said limited edition, so it may not be available for long. 

https://clubscrap.com/butterflies-card-kit/

something different

We got a new cooktop finally, we have
been without since April due to screwups with the order and delivery and it took until the middle of July to get it done. Anyway, hubby was concerned with having things (strainers and whisks) hanging up there. So I took them down, but it left the area looking bare and plain. I've been looking for tile decals online but thought about some butterflies that I still had hanging around, so decided maybe I'd put them up. They are probably temporary but they are fun. Five minutes to spark up the back splash. Of course pictures show up all the nicks and oldness of the tiles, plus all the spots I missed. When I actually put up the final decals, I'll have to clean it with alcohol or something. Then I start thinking about alcohol inks and sprays and..... ok calm down, it would just run down the wall. Anyway I'll have fun with the butterflies. Pretend you don't notice the cleaning supplies in the scene. This isn't a professional blog LOL... just me.