Birthday Blessings

 Three cards today, one made at 4 AM when I wasn't sleeping anyway. The first one is a gelli print. I put blues and a bit of green on the plate on top of a stencil, took off the stencil, and pulled the print. I loved it, didn't think it needed any more layers. The Birthday Blessings was from playing around with the Cricut that Loretta gave me, and I was experimenting to see the sizes. I cut out a whole page of these in different sizes, because I love the sentiment for birthdays, and have used it before on cards. Loretta's birthday is coming up, but since I can't send it to her, I'll have to figure out who to send it to. 

The second one is a piece of card stock I used to clean the brayer while gelli printing! I loved the colors, added a touch of yellow with bubble wrap, some stamping, and some glitter. It was fun. I never use glitter, but somehow ended up with glitter embossing powder, I think I got it in a thrift store box. But I was just laughing and glittering away... and now I'll have glitter in the craft room forever. 

The last one is a marble print scrap from a long time ago. You take a box, put a small amount of ink in it, several marbles, and fasten a piece of card stock in it, then tilt the box around until you get the effect you want. Sometimes just little lines like this, or use more ink and it has thicker lines. It's fun. I remember doing a bunch awhile ago, but I was clearing out my scrap box and there it was. 

I'm getting there, using up scraps, clearing out extra stuff. Thinking of my mother in law especially today, since her birthday was in September, and there are strangely no other birthdays in September in our family.  Every other month has at least one. So I'm sure I'll figure out who to send them to. 

Still super smoky here, we're in the red zone, that's second highest. I've been glad for masks, since I've even been wearing them in the yard. 

It feels so good to create. Yesterday I was in a lot of pain, couldn't sleep last night so I made cards! I have decided to just not get anxious if I can't sleep, just go ahead and get up and craft. Why not? Well today it meant I was up from 3 to 7 and then slept from 7 until noon. I don't like that. BUT.... for now, it is what it is. I know there are plenty of people out there in the same boat.

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/

More finishing what I started

I've been fighting inertia and depression today. It's all I can do not to just go crawl in bed.... but I've been promising myself to get into some kind of routine, even if it means get up, make bed, get dressed, make sure kitchen and bathrooms are clean... most days I make it through the bathrooms but that kitchen is a stinker. I get stuff WASHED but then not put away. It's hard on the inertia days. And I don't remember if I made my bed, but I AM dressed. 

This one I stamped a long time ago with a piece of a shoe liner that looked interesting. I am never reluctant to stamp with oddments, shoes sometimes have interesting patterns, like flip flops, some are better than others. I've used flyswatters as stencils, and printed with leaves. I just get a kick out of the unusual, and patterns catch my attention. 

I think this is the first white on white on white card I ever did. But for some reason, I just had to leave it un-inked. I got that set of word dies, I really should give credit here but I have no idea. 

Another one of those ink swiped embossing folder ones. I could use more practice so there weren't such ink lines. But all in all I love it.

Same issue with this. I was trying to get the effect of a storm, but those lines.... I will definitely try again, and imperfect just means I am human, right? And getting the edge of the work surface in the picture... I'm not professional. I'm just me.

These four are to make a set for whoever. This is a fun embossing folder, I have used it a lot.

So now I should go finish what I started, get those dishes put away. It's way better than I used to be, at least, there's not dirty dishes in the sink. I didn't get very far with FlyLady, but I did get into THAT habit, making sure the dishes are washed before I go to bed. And make the bed when I get up. I don't know how many years it took me to get that far, but hey, I am also not allowed to kick myself when I'm not perfect, that's every day. 

I CAN have a clean kitchen. It does not look like this at the moment. But this was a few years ago, I refinished the floor, waxed the counters and doors and drawers, and put up a new blind (which the cat tore up since then) Just to remind me that I CAN DO THIS. Pulling away from depression is sure not easy. This blogging stuff helps. 😀 and yes there are butterflies in just about every room in my house. 

Have Courage

I don't know where this little paragraph came from, but the internet says Henry Ward Beecher. I mean the cutout. I've been cleaning out stuff and there's this envelope with stuff that meant something to me at one time or other. I was reading this and thinking about how true it is, and also came across this little piece of paper with stenciling on it.  Then I remembered the "Have Courage" die from Catherine Pooler, and it all came together. So someone will get a card with this little paragraph in it, because it just seems like it all fits together. 

Two posts in one day. Little by little things are coming together. I think there's hope somewhere here.

Can a Squash Blossom be Encouraging??

Sometimes life feels normal, sometimes it doesn't. We picked up groceries this morning, we choose to go at 7 am when few people are there. We don't go in, we just pick up our order outside. It's a pretty good system, I wouldn't even mind keeping it up under normal circumstances, if it ever gets normal again.

The garden was encouraging today. The squash are blooming again after a few days of dry heat it was cooler yesterday and today. There is even one tiny green bean. That struck me funny. I planted NINE green bean plants, and only 3 came up, and only 1 survived bugs. So we may be able to have a bean or two for dinner some night. I'm going to plant again pretty soon, we don't have frost here until November or so, so we may get another crop in. 

I have to learn about how to prune these roses, I've just been chopping at them, and they bloom really well, but still. They were supposed to be a tiny mini rose plant. They have turned out to be about 6 feet tall, and definitely NOT miniature. 

This card front has been done a long time, but never mounted on to a card. It's a Michael Strong stamp, and a script background stamp with glittery embossing, on an ink blended background. Sometimes I like cards so well I want to keep them. This one is that. But it's getting sent off tomorrow, hope they like it.

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. 

birthdays and sadness and thankfulness and trusting

so are birthdays sad? Sometimes, because the one who is having a birthday is so very far away and I have not seen my brother in more than a year, and before that,  years, and before that, years. And my mother and brother share a birthday, so that's sad too, because I can't wish her happy birthday, only in my thoughts. 

However, I have a brother. Even if he's far away and we have to work hard to stay connected. And with this pandemic, it makes me feel alone, because I often AM alone. I go outside and there is so much smoke from the fires it's hard to breathe. My little garden is suffering, it's full of ashes, and the zucchini doesn't ripen properly. Feeling like a failure with that. But it's not my fault we're in a heat wave, and there are like 500 fires in California. It's a long time until frost here, probably November, and I will probably have a bumper crop around October. And more tomatoes than I know what to do with. The yellow pear is NOT a yellow pear, however, they are ripening red, but they're pear shaped.

I've been working hard in the craft room, which I'd like to turn into partly a bedroom, so I can move the bed out of the dining room. It seems so endless, like I can't seem to make progress, but I can get into the craft room, and have even been making cards. I cleaned out 4 drawers, so I AM making progress.

Today's cards are odds and ends, things I had started, or that my sister in law did. She died this year, so there's more sad, I miss her lots. And as usual all the sad comes to the surface and demands attention. All the friends and acquaintances who died this year. Which reminds me that I need to write to Dorothy, whose daughter died a couple months ago. The sadness of seeing the numbers rise from pandemic deaths. The sadness seeing the hate and division in our country. Seeing my kitty lying around and wondering if Now is when she's dying. She's about 15 with diabetes, and intestinal issues since she had surgery from eating a bunch of sewing thread. But this morning she was speeding like a kitten from one end of the house to the other, leaping over furniture and landing on a chair and then falling off and racing out to the garage. Who needs television when she's acting like that!

This (above) is a stencil, then home made ink spray with Catherine Pooler inks

Found this stamped on a piece of paper in a drawer. I remember, stamped with crayola markers on a stamp. That was all I had at the time. I don't even know if I have that stamp any more but it was one of my favorites.

In Real Life, the purples match better, and you can't see the wrinkles, I may iron it a bit. This cross stitch was done by my sister in law Loretta, so I may send it to her brother for Thanksgiving.

I made this card awhile ago but loved it and didn't want to let it go. But I'm sending it to my brother for his birthday next week... That house is dry embossed from a little plastic rubbing plate in a kid's play set and then lightly brushed with distress ink. Twine from the Dollar Tree! Once in awhile there's some really good stuff there. 

Little by little, piece by piece, it's either getting put away or going in the out pile. This is still painful, since it's Loretta's, my mom and dad's, my mother in law's... who have all died in the last few years. 

So, birthdays and sadness. Thanksgiving and trusting come a little harder some days. 

More Cardmaking and Thinking

Sad days, it just feels like endless waiting. And in addition to a pandemic and a heat wave, California is burning up. You know how during an eclipse you can look at the sun through smoked glass? Well it was like that. 

There was ash drifting down everywhere. I went outside to check on my little garden and the plants were covered with ash, the ground was covered with ash, the car too. I didn't stay out long because it was coming down like light snow and I didn't figure it was good to be breathing out there. 

So I've been trying to declutter, and get things out to donate, and I decided to do some card making to use up a little stash as well as reward myself for working hard to dig through the piles and be brave and Let Go of Stuff.

This one is done with resist paper from a pad that I impulsively bought last year and never used any of it. Turns out it's fun, and a quick and easy elegant card with the "blessed" word die from I don't remember where. 

Sometimes when I am card making it's for something specific, or sometimes the plan is to replenish someone else's stash of my hand made cards. It's fun to make cards for them, and they love to use them.

Sometimes I am just making cards to make cards and that's today. So I don't know where they're going yet. 

I've been inspired lately by Jennifer McGuire. She comes up with such wonderful cards.

These next two are a two in one thing. I cut a cover die, then used it as a stencil on one card, and then used the die cut on the other card. And yes, I'm on a "blessed" kick, because I have been feeling blessed. Some days are such sad days, like when I hear of another friend or acquaintance who has died, and sometimes I have to force myself to think of what I am thankful for. There's so much. I am so thankful for a roof over my head, air conditioning, and that we aren't in the path of the many wildfires our state is dealing with, just to start. I am thankful I have a bountiful crafting stash. I am thankful that I remember how to quilt even though I haven't for awhile. I am thankful for the technology that helps me keep connected with my daughter and her family even though she's far away. I am thankful this heat hasn't killed off the zucchini plants even though they wilt nearly every afternoon. I told someone today to write down their thankful stuff, I need to follow my own advice more often. 

Simple patterned paper and a flower I got many years ago from an overseas Yahoo group friend. I used most of what she gave me a long time ago but this was in a pile that I was sorting and it matched the striped paper scrap so there you are. It looks like a more masculine card, so I'm going to find a sentiment that says "happy birthday" and send it off to my brother this week for his birthday. 

My brother and I have had our ups and downs, and he lives far away and I rarely see him, but once in awhile we talk on the phone. Sometimes relationships are valuable but need a little extra work, so there you are.

I saw this technique first on a video by MayMay Made It. It is SO quick and easy, it's just swiped ink on an embossing folder image. I've gotten so I do a stack of these and keep them on hand for a quick card. This is one of my favorite folders, and Tim Holtz distress inks, the little cubes, seems to work best.

I miss being out in a meadow like this. Early this spring, I let one little corner of the yard grow into a "meadow" and lo and behold there were some edible friends growing there. So I enjoyed a little browsing in the garden snipping off some tasty morsels, and learned more about mallow, and how to make a throat tonic from it. So even though I am not living in the country any more, I can still have a bit of country here. There's still one plant out there I've been watering, I have no idea what it is, but it's fun to just wait and see. And there's a dove that greets me out there every morning with a little "good morning" song.

A long time ago I made a bunch of cards with the red "Just Because" that I printed on the computer and just cut it to this shape.and tore the top. I found this lonely one in a pile, and saw another scrap of patterned paper to pair it with. The flower sticker on the bottom matches much better in person, it looks purple, but it's really red. 

My craft supplies are getting more and more organized and it is so fun to just be able to go in there, and whip out a few cards with very little effort. 

So if my house doesn't burn down, I should be able to really get going on card making and other crafting again, I feel so much better when I make time to make things. There are a bunch of rocks I washed for painting, some have a base coat on them. A wall hanging just needs quilting. A quilt is all cut out and ready to piece. 

 And so I write and write, and nobody reads, but still I have this desire to document my life somehow. I know my Grandpa Linton was the same, I come by this naturally. I wonder how things would have gone with him if there was internet? Hmmm. 

Never ending card

This is a tutorial of the Never Ending card that I've been making.

https://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/neverendingcard/

It's a bit of a challenge to get everything lined up just right but the more I make the better they get.
#1 a valentine

This is the front of the card. I also made envelopes to match. 

The second opening

T

The third opening

The fourth flip. The fifth flip takes you back to the beginning

The second card is a birthday card. I made the second flip the front of the card because that's the paper I had for the envelope. I like it this way too!

The first flip. I wrote a bunch of stuff between the hearts.

The second flip. I really like how this looks.

The final flip. This would have been the cover but I changed to the second flip. Confused? LOL watch the tutorial.

dreaming...

well this carved eraser was inspired by a card.... but sure isn't anything like it. I am excited to have carved it though.

We used to live way out in the country. I mean WAY out.

Our "driveway" was a mile of dirt and gravel. There were three neighbors on the road and one was my cousin! The neighbors at one house had peacocks and James and I often drove by in the evening when they were the most active. They are LOUD... we could hear them all the way to the top of the hill where our house was. We always enjoyed "talking" to them and their answering screeches.

I sure miss the hills. Wonder if I'll ever get to move back there?

Now that I am in the city, actually a smaller town really... there are advantages to both. It isn't 45 minutes to everywhere. I am still amazed that when I get down to the orange bar on the gas gauge that I better get gas "one of these days" instead of panicking that I won't get to the station.

But the nights looking at the stars that one can actually SEE... and hearing coyotes calling... and the silence... I miss my dreamland.

greeting cards...

Well for better or for worse, here's the first card I did with my hand carved peacock feather. I used my Colorbox rainbow ink pad that I have had for YEARS and it is amazingly still usable. I printed the lowest ones then masked them and went up the page. I am not too satisfied but I could spend DAYS trying to be "perfect"... so there you are.

Since I am just beginning to learn about carving, I can see there is a ton to learn. First, what is the best thing to carve. I got some linoleum for carving, but for stamps it is too hard. This eraser is a bit too soft. I found that when pressing down if I put an acrylic block on the top I got more of an even impression. Otherwise, the eraser bends and you get a lot of background.

This is fun though. Here's the second card, no focal image yet, but I like it better. As usual, p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e... and like when I took piano lessons, I just wanted to DO it and not have to practice. Also as the piano lessons, the more I practiced, the more I could just DO it. LOL will I learn?

Now, of course, I will have to either get or carve a peacock head, because that's what I visualize there in the middle of the bottom. ;)

look... see the moths?

My title is in celebration (?) of my ADD. Yes, I am highly distractable.

I knew what I wanted to do today but I did something else. The advantage of having a cold is it is easier to say "I don't feel like it"... I won't get away with that ALL day....

I saw a picture of a card that I just loved.... and as usual started wanting the stamp, the ink... and then I thought, why couldn't I make my own carved peacock feather? So here it is. I modified my blind contour sketch... I am NOT a great draw-er. But I am learning. I love the way this eraser stamp looks inked up with my rainbow ColorBox ink pad.

Here it is stamped....

and it morphed from the first, as i carved out other parts. Have to decide just how much to clean it up. That's a work in progress, now the trick is to stop when it is done and not overdo the carving. I expect to improve as I practice.

ummm..... wasn't I thinking of getting some SEWING done??