Author: creativetreatsclub

Wayward Wednesday | 100DayProject Day 25

100DayProject Day 25

Foiling is such a fun technique!

I finally used my foiling machine. I started with the easiest way: using a polyglaze sheet that already had a pattern on it. I ran two of those through and they worked out well, particularly the one that I used heat setting 4 rather than 3 for. I then tried to create some full cardfront panels covered with DecoFoil Due transfer gel. Once it dried I ran it through with the remaining foil to create the opposite pattern. I also created a few card fronts with polka dots stenciled with the transfer gel. Those came out very well. I’m going to create some more card front panels fully covered with the transfer gel tomorrow – ideally once I find my brayers – because I found that it was difficult to get a smooth layer of transfer gel when using a palette knife to spread the transfer gel. The resulting ridges show up because the foil didn’t always transfer quite correctly along the ridges, and even where it did, you can notice the ridges when you angle the card front in a certain way. I did some ink blending on the 2 swirled card fronts which turned out well. I meant to try to ink blend on a full card front before applying the transfer gel but forgot until after I had already cleaned off my tools and worksurface so I’ll try that tomorrow when a few friends are coming over for lunch and a crafternoon. I will also try ink blending on the dotted cardfronts. And will also try to run the opposite patterned ones through with another colour of foil – because that looked like an interesting technique when I watched a foiling video several months ago.

Heat setting 4 worked better than heat setting 3

I also tried using a few different types of embossing powder (Ranger clear as well as two types of sticky embossing powder – one Stampin’ Up! and the other Ranger) with a few different types of sentiments. I’m not thrilled with the results so far but will do some more experimenting tomorrow. My first attempt with the clear embossing powder didn’t work, perhaps because I double stamped the versamark which perhaps resulted in too much adhesive so too much foil stuck. Maybe I used too hot of a heat setting? The sticky embossing powder didn’t seem to get adequate coverage and too little foil transferred. I can’t remember if I used put down 2 layers of versamark first or not. Maybe the heat wasn’t hot enough? I do want to try stamping with the transfer gel as well – I think having an even coat of transfer gel using a brayer will lead to a better impression of the stamped image. So hopefully I can find those wayward brayers.

I got some transfer gel onto the back of my card fronts which ended up sticking onto my carrier sheet.
You can see the how the foil didn’t transfer as well where the ridges in the transfer gel formed when I tried to spread it over the full surface of the card front using a palette knife. I think using a brayer may give more even coverage.
In this photo you can see how the ridges show up when the light hits the foil in a certain way.
The two cardfront will definitely be usable even if there are a few spots where the foil didn’t transfer. Some ridges it still transferred fine (but you can see the ridges at certain angles of light) and some others the foil didn’t transfer.
The polka dots transferred the foil very well. I’m looking foward to seeing how it looks once I’ve ink blended.

Clearly I need to do some more experimenting. And recording what works so that I will remember it when I come back to these techniques in the future.

You can see how some of the cardstock stuck to my carrier sheet because I got some of the transfer gel onto the back of the card stock when I was stenciling the gel onto the card front. Perhaps I should have put a bit of parchment paper behind. I’ll try to see if I can clean off the carrier sheet with some soap and water. I’ll definitely have to buy some extra carrier sheets to have on hand when I wreck some other carrier sheets with wayward transfer gel.

There was definitely some wayward foil in my foiling experimentation today. And some wayward transfer gel. And I expect there will be some more in my continued experimentation tomorrow.

Card 17 (partial)

I ink blended onto the cardfronts after foiling the swirls. I also created a ink blended card front which I haven’t yet put transfer gel onto but I will try that tomorrow. And I will try to turn at least one of these foiled card fronts into an actual card!

But I won’t experiment too much because I want to move onto getting at least one card finished tomorrow for my Card 17 for The Foiling Metallic Details class which is lesson 3 of the Clean and Simple Boutique Cards course.

Some of my samples of trying foiling using clear embossing powder as well as some sticky embossing powder. Tomorrow I will label them and make some notes about what worked and what didn’t to keep for future reference and future experimentation. I also made a few samples which turned out fine just using clear and gold embossing powder (not foiling on top of it) so that you can see the sentiments more clearly for comparison purposes.

Wayward Wednesday

Just when we were almost back home my theme for today came to me: wayward. This was because the Canada Geese overhead (a sure sign of spring) seemed to be heading more east than north so not exactly the direction that I was expecting. But I was happy to hear their honking regardless of their somewhat sloppy formation and wayward direction.

I skipped Pickleball today. Roland wasn’t going since his Achilles has been bothering him. I opted to stay home and tackle the huge mess that is on my desk in the family room. That desk seems to be the spot that so many of my wayward items accumulate. Which makes the desk completely unusable and means that my wayward items spread onto the kitchen table and counter and dining room table. So spending some time to try to reign in my wayward items and redirect them to more appropriate places in the house seemed like a better use of my time this morning than playing Pickleball. Here’s to hoping the desk stays clear and usuable for a long time. I shall endevour to keep it clear of wayward items so I can use it to work on my laptop, to send out cards (a habit which will be much easier to implement if I have a dedicated, clutter-free (okay, let’s be real, a tolerably-cluttered) space) and to pick back up some Spanish studying (which will also be much more likely to happen if I have a dedicated spot to work on it – although I do need to figure out how to have some time to dedicate to it as well – it might have to wait until after I’m finished my 100DayProject.

Kevin came over for lunch which was great. I also enjoyed an hour playing virtual golf at The Bunker with Louise. Definitely some wayward balls! A very fun evening out. We have another golf night with a larger group of ladies next Wednesday as well. Which reminds me that I need to send out a reminder email.

Teamwork Tuesday | 100DayProject Day 24

100DayProject Day 24

I only got as far as unpacking my foiling machine, it’s similar to a laminator but can go at higher temperatures.

Teamwork Tuesday

Very little progress on my 100DayProject but some great progress on another crafty project. I had three different friends drop by for 1-2 hours each at separate times to help me with a project. Teamwork is such a wonderful thing! I got back to swimming this morning since Flora was back from vacation. I didn’t get swimming at all last week by myself when she was away. I also hosted my 10:30 online cardmaking class for the Dementia Society. Luna had a walk with me this morning plus a few short ones with me and Roland plus our 7:00 Tuesday walk with the ladies. A nice big group out today which is lots of fun. It’s amazing how quickly an hour of walking flies by when you’re busy catching up with friends. And while I’m not loving that I’m still adjusting to the time change, I do love that it is still light when we start our walk.

Luna didn’t want to get into the picture but she did enjoy having another dog along for the walk tonight. I’m still wearing my reflective t-shirt. The roads are getting nice and clear for walking. It’s great having a big group out for walking and to be able to start when it’s still light due to daylight savings time.

Mystery Monday | 100DayProject Day 23 | Card 15b and Card 16

100DayProject Day 23

One and a half cards complete (since I stared Card 15 yesterday) to bring me up to 16 cards in less that 24 days so I’m getting closer to 67%. Still a long way away from 100% progress. Tomorrow I’ll be finally getting out my Gina K Fuse machine to try foiling. I am looking forward to it. I have had the foiling machine for maybe a year now and keep meaning to try but somehow haven’t gotten around to it.

Card 15b

When I got into my craftroom this morning and saw the 2 partially made cards on my worksurface I decided that they were good enough; there was no sense in starting them over for this lesson assignment even though there were some things that I’d like to try if/when I use this technique again. I realize that I’m rather rigid/structured in my card designs, this technique of building up an arrangement with random flower and leaf images is definitely out of my comfort zone. In the end, the black sketching and adding a sentiment seemed to finish the cards off well enough for me. As Gina K likes to say on her crafting videos, it’s better than horrible. I preferred the less bold letters on the sentiment.

I used the same technique on the envelopes, back of card and inside of the card.
This card is very similar to the first card, I just used a darker in on the pinky/orange flower on this one.

Card 16

I think I prefer to flowers all to be coloured the same colour.

I was pleased with how these cards came out. I made 2. Actually I stamped the cards and envelopes to make 6 of them. I am sort of thinking ahead to the 6th Lesson in the Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards class which has to do with packaging cards. However, I ended up putting the other 4 cardbase / envelope sets aside because I really should progress on my lessons rather than make extra of each card. Although I really do like colouring with my watercolour markers and had hoped to make a set coloured with each colour. I tried a multicoloured bunch but think I prefer the single colour per bunch.

The dark colour near the bottom was definitely too dark, I would have preferred to have repeated a colour. I think it is nice to have different coloured bunches, but I’m not sure if I like the different colours within one bunch.

Mystery Monday

I haven’t quite decided my theme for today. As I did the shorter loop with Luna on the very icy path, I was considering misstep as a theme. I was really trying hard not to take a wrong step and fall down and break a wrist. Grippers would definitely have been handy but they are all up at the cottage. Luckily my only misstep was stepping off the trail onto a grippier snowy area and getting a soaker. And so I have on a new pair of socks. It is a Mail It Monday so I plan to write a few cards. If you don’t like mailing cards you could also merely make it a Message Monday and send an unexpected Just Thinking of You message to a friend or family member. Maybe I should rename my Mail It Monday? But a bit of breakfast and 8:00-10:00 Pickleball followed by a lunch with some friends await so it’s time to pause my writing. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I’m not quite sure which buttons I pressed on my phone today when I was sending this photo to a few friends as a ‘Memories on Monday’ text message, but the effect is interesting. You’ll have to imagine them sitting on our dock boat with the lake in the background.

I haven’t written or mailed any cards yet, but I did make my Card 16 as well as finished my Card 15b. And I sent out some Memories on Monday photos to some friends as text messages when I had to sit out a few times in Pickleball. Our numbers seem to have risen again and there were lots of spares today. Roland has been scanning in a few old photos so I have one of those to share as a Memory on Monday as well.

One of the photos from him parents’ negatives that Roland has been scanning recently. Cutting our ‘Congratulations on your Engagement’ cake at Roland’s parents’ house about 30 years ago. We got engaged on a Marchish? kakaying trip in Belize and got married in August of the same year. As Stefan commented when he saw the photo, purple squad. Memories on Monday is a good day for this memory to have surfaced.

Roland and I played on opposite teams at 7:45 curling tonight. His team creamed our team. They seemed to get almost all of their shots. We seemed to miss almost all of our shots. Thus the 12-1 score for the 6 end game. But it was still very enjoyable.

Soggy Sunday | 100DayProject Day 22 | Cards 14, 15a and 15b (partial)

100DayProject Day 22

I finished Card 14 this morning at the cottage before heading to Heidi’s ringette game. And then I did some more card making at home in the late afternoon and evening around taking Luna out for a walk and having some dinner. Card 14 was the last project for the All About Layering 4 class. So I’m moving onto making the cards for the 6 lessons in the Clean and Simple Boutique Cards class. Like the lessons for All About Layering 3 and All About Layering 4, I had watched the videos quite a while ago. But I rewatched Lesson 1 of this new class and will also rewatch the other videos as well.

Card 14

I am quite pleased with how the card came out. I didn’t have any diagonal striped patterned paper like the sample card from class had but I did find a diagonal stripe on the packaging of a pack of patterned paper. I quite like the bit of extra contrast that it adds.
As usual, I like to have the image from the cardfront featured on the envelope, on the inside of the card as well as on the back of the card. It’s definitely a lot more work, but makes for a very nice look for the finished card.
Having a coordinating die makes it so much easier than fussy cutting out the floral spray.
I inkblended the light aqua colour to help ‘ground’ the floral image that I was adding to the card.
I often like to use old cardboard (rather than foam squares or craft foam) for dimension behind elements of the card.
The card before the sentiment was added.
All ABout Layering 4 Lesson 6b – This was the design inspiration for today’s card

Card 15a

This card is actually not at all like the card sample from Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards Lesson 1 (Simple Styling), but I was trying to get the effect of a mix of colour and black outline that was in the sample card. I do like how my set came out. I later got started on making Card 15b which is using the technique from Lesson. I’m not totally loving my card 15b so may restart that card tomorrow.

I created 6 cards. 2 with this purple wine colour as well as one each of turquoise, crimson, sunkissed. The first card I created was a mix of purple wine and crimson which I didn’t really like, so I changed it to just crimson.
I also decorated the back of the card, the inside of the card and the envelope.

Card 15b

This technique involves somewhat random stamping of mostly solid image flowers (a few with an extra layer) and leaves, then going in with a black marker around the leaf images. The class sample is very nice. I’m hoping I can achieve a bit of a better design when I have a few more tries tomorrow. Once I add a sentiment it will likely look a bit better. I think it makes a big difference if you have a nice variety of flower and leaf images; I may dig into some of my non-Altenew stamps to give me just a bit more variety of images. And I may do some masking.

The black stetch lines definitely help the look of the the card. Adding in a sentiment tomorrow will also help. But I think that I will try a new one using a few more flower and leaf stamps as well as some masking.

Soggy Sunday

As forecast, a lot of rain arrived today. Which meant no walk for Luna. A lot of other potential themes for the day arose starting with sleepy and slumber. It was definitely a tough morning to get going. I was feeling quite sloth-like. There were lots of splashes as the rain hit the deck and the roof and as we drove to the Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau for Heidi’s final regular season game. The first week of April will be Nationals which are here in Ottawa this year. There were definitely some slippery spots on the sidewalks where the ice hadn’t yet melted. My boots that need repair have squeaky soles which let in water leading to stinky socks. I’m going to throw them in the washing machine then bring them in for repair. Because it was a feature weekend, there were some young ringette players out on the ice with Heidi’s teammates for the singing of the national anthem as well as lots of players in the stands. I love it when there are young players around. Of course there was lots of skating, shooting and scoring by Heidi’s Gatineau team. It’s nice that their goalie, Stephanie, got a shut out against Nepean. I hope you’ve enjoyed all the S words I tried to include. I just had a snack even though it’s 9:50 p.m. Not a good idea from a sleep-perspective but the left-over cake that Chris brought for dinner last night called out to me when I peeked in the fridge.

Not the best photo of me trying to get the image of Heidi that is on the big sign on the side of the Slush Puppie Centre featuring Heidi and 2 other of her teammates. It is always neat to see that sign when we go to watch her games.
Roland took this photo of the very soggy lake this morning.
It was my turn to get my photo taken with Hieid’s sign today. I was envious of the photos that Roland and Stefan had taken with Heidi’s sign yesterday.

Splendid Saturday | 100DayProject Day 21 | Card 13

Card 13 | Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 6a | Altenew Build a Garden Dear Dahlia outline stamp and layered stencils.

100DayProject Day 21 | Card 13

I really enjoyed making today’s card. I think I prefer layering using stencils rather than stamps. It seems much easier to line up the layers.

I used the stamp and stencils for the envelope, the back of the card, the inner layer as well as 2 images for the front of the card.
The die makes it very quick to cut out the stamped and ink blended images.
The Taylored Expressions stencil make a nice background for the card. The sentiment is from Altenew Cherry Blossom Bunch.
The layout before trimming off the overhanging portions of floral images.
I added the trimmed off portions from the card front onto the inside of the card.
This is the design inspiration from the Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 6a class. I didn’t have a suitable die so I opted to use a stencil for background texture on my card front.

Splendid Saturday

Luna helped me search out some leaves that were melting holes into the ice.

Uggh, 9:45 p.m. and I’m just starting to write some words for today. But it has definitely been a splendid day. Starting with my walk with Luna this morning. It was great that it did get cool enough overnight to make the ice solid instead of slushy again. The sunshine was splendid. My breakfast pancakes with maple syrup were spendid. As was the time I spent making a card. My walk mid-morning on the softening lake with Roland, Poldi and Luna was also splendid with the warm wind whispering the news that spring’s on its way. Watching Heidi play ringette was splendid. And taking Luna for another walk in warmth of the afternoon. And having family and neighbours over for dinner. And playing Bananagrams.

What types of things contribute to making your day splendid? I hope that you fit in some of those splendid things today.