card-making

Trim on Tuesday 100DayProject Day 59 | Card 42a+b

100DayProject Day 59 | Card 42a+b

I didn’t end up crafting as much as I had hoped today but I did get Card 42 completed which was using metallic papers.

When I am making the cards for homework in my Altenew courses, I’m continuing to take my colour inspiration from the Altenew blog monthly inspiration challenge colours as well as the Color Throwdown challenge blog colours. I’ve include the links to the current Altenew and the Color Throwdown challenge blog posts here in case you’re curious.

Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5c (Metallic Papers) | Color Throwdown Challenge 831
Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5c (Metallic Papers) | Altenew April Inspiration Challenge Colours
This is the card that we made in my Dementia Society class today. Vicki put together these kits. I am looking forward to making some more cards similar to this design in the future.

And I got a bit of a start on Card 43 which will be using some foiling. It seems like an interesting technique to add foil to create a ‘gold dip’ look on a die cut. The lesson showed ink blending the sentiment in place within the piece of cardstock you cut it from which you temporarily secure into place with low-tack tape (I expect putting them both onto a sticky mat would work well too). Game changing tip. I was always so frustrated trying to ink blend die cut sentiments in the past.

Starting Card 43 | Altenew Let It Shine course Lesson 6 (foils) | The tip of ink blending a sentiment with it in place within the cardstock from which it was cut was so helpful!
Starting Card 43 | Altenew Let It Shine course Lesson 6 (foils) | You can see the transfer gel I applied to the bottom portion of the hello. Tomorrow after it had dried, I will add foil to it. Fingers crossed it turns out okay.

And I got started on a ‘denim’ card because that’s my Picture This Year prompt for today and I don’t own anything denim because I don’t find jean that comfortable. So I had to clean my denim textured background stamp (which had white Stazon ink on it because last time I used it I couldn’t find my Stazon cleaner), get out some Dapper Denim ink and create some denim cardstock that I’ll use for my card background as well as to die cut out a cute jean pocket. When I saw the prompt for today I thought I might have a finished card to photograph for my denim prompt, but that’s not meant to be.

I may make some gray ‘neutral’ denim tomorrow and figure out how I can do some foiling so that I can have the cards that I make be part of my Altenew Let it Shine class homework as well as part of the colour challenges which do allow neutral colours such as gray.

Trim on Tuesday

Luna wasn’t thrilled that she had to wait for me to draw a flower using the sidewalk chalk that had been left behind in the park.

As I took my selfie on my walk with Luna I was again reminded of how much my hair needs a trim. So that became the theme for the day. Fortuitously I had a hair appointment this afternoon, so at least my hair trim was taken care of. While I walked I thought of all the things in my life that could use a bit of regular ‘trimming’ but sadly I didn’t end up clearing out any clutter from my home or calendar. But I do think I should trim some things back so it won’t be the last time I ponder this and hopefully actually execute some trimming on future Tuesdays.

I had a good swim then had 10:30 card making class, where we made a lovely sympathy card that Vicki had created for us to assemble. And we put together a few simple cards that I had created for which I didn’t actually end up with the kit to make one myself. We had a fun time catching up about Easter activities amongst other things.

You can find the apple crisp recipe here.

My hair appointment was at 1:45 then Roland and I took Luna for a walk then I went for a short 2k run. It’s been ages since I’ve run so I’m easing back into it. Then it was off to Metro to buy some potatoes and a few other things for dinner. I made an apple crisp for dessert as well as a banana bread. Kevin was over for dinner then I was out for a walk with the ladies at 7:00. A good group tonight, 7 of us plus 2 dogs.

You can find the banana bread recipe here.
There were so many of these tiny flowers on a few of the lawns on this evening’s walk.

Picture This Year | Prompt 112 (glow) | Prompt 92 (denim)

I’m continuing to follow along with Tracey Clark’s Picture This Year 2025 photo prompts. I only started on April 7th so I’m also slowly working my backwards through the 96 prompts before I started.

Picture This Year | Prompt 92 (denim) | April 2 prompt, photo taken today | I had hoped to have a finished ‘denim’ card, but I only got as far as making some ‘denim’ cardstock for my card backgrounds and to die cut out a pocket.
Picture This Year Prompt112 (glow) | Today’s prompt and photo taken today | There is always a nice glow in the kitchen with the overhead lights off but the blue and red growing lights still on and casting a blue/red glow over the plants on my windowsill.

Face the Future Friday | 100DayProject Day 55 | Card 34 | Card 35

The flowers Louise dropped off yesterday are all buckled in with the seatbelt for the ride up to the cottage this morning.

100DayProject Day 55

Today I worked on Card 34 and Card 35 for the Altenew Let it Shine course. The 2nd lesson class focused on using heat embossing to add some shine. The 3rd lesson class focused on adding embellishments for shine.

Instead of using coloured embossing powder I knew that you could first stamp with a coloured ink then stamp with Versamark on top of that then emboss with clear powder. I learned that you can actually simply ink up your stamp with Versamark first, then ink it up with a coloured ink then stamp and emboss with clear powder. This seems to save a step and doesn’t require a stamp positioner (like a MISTI). I tried it out on some of my sentiments. It’s good to know for future reference but I think I will usually continue to use a MISTI and stamp the coloured ink and the Versamark separately then emboss.

I also assembled a sample card for an upcoming Dementia Society kit and added the black jewels to each kit. So those bee card kits are completely ready for one class. I still have to create some more types of cards for other cards. I hope to make another class kit this weekend. Vicki has also been working on kits. My students already have a kit for this Tuesday’s class but I have to deliver new kits before the class on April 29th.

I am continuing to try to use the current colour palette from the Color Throwdown Challenge when I am making my cards. CTD831 colours are sage green, yellow and coral.

Card 34 | Altenew Let it Shine course | Lesson 2a + 2b Embossing Powder

You can see the nice sheen that the clear embossing powder adds over the black Versafine ink in the ‘Spring’ sentiment. I like how the vellum ‘Celebrate’ coloured with alcohol markers allows the colour of the polka dots to peek through. The ones that I coloured in with acrylic markers don’t allow the colours beneath the vellum to show through.
Card 34 | It’s a bit hard to tell, but the sentiment on the envelope has a nice sheen from clear embossing powder over an image inked first with Versamark then with the coloured ink. There is also a bit of extra shine in the flower centres where I applied some Nuvo crystal glaze. | Color Throwdown Challenge #831

Another Card Similar to Card 33

Today I finally tried this with black polka dots and a red sentiment since I had created one with red dots earlier this week. | Color Throwdown Challenge #831
This is the card that I created on Tuesday because I had wanted to create a card using the cute ladybugs with a polka dot stencil similar to the bee cards I had made using a honeycomb stencil. This had become the inspiration for my Card 33 which was made using an Altenew floral image rather than this Stampin’ Up! one.

Card 35 | Altenew Let it Shine course | Class 3a | Embellishments

Card 35 | Altenew Let it Shine course| Lesson 3a | Embellishments. It’s not easy to see, but there are some black jewels as well as black stenciled polkadots.
Card 35 | Altenew Let it Shine | Lesson 3a |Embellishments | Color Throwdown Challenge #831

Dementia Society Class Kit

I assembled this sample card for an upcoming Dementia Society class and added the black jewels to each of the kits. Now all they need is the instructions to be written, printed and added into each kit.

Face the Future Friday

The tulips Heidi had in her classroom and brought to the cottage look gorgeous with the light coming in from the front window.

I have been thinking about this as a Friday theme for a few weeks now, ever since listening to a recent Mel Robbins podcast episode. The doctor on the episode had a great acronym for the fundamental things women should be doing to age well; to have a long health span as well as a long age span. It focuses on 4 areas of finess: Flexibility, Aerobics, Carry a load (strength training) and Equilibrium (balance). So I am setting up a challenge for the next 12 weeks leading up to my 62nd birthday.

I’m committing to 4 workout sessions each week addressing these areas. My aerobic activities will include swimming, cycling and running with the addition of some sprints (4 x 30 seconds on 2 minute repeats). For my flexibility I will get back into doing CARS (controlled articular rotations) and will do a short 10 minute stretch or yoga routine. For my strength I have a goal of being able to do 21 full pushups (as it turns out I think we should be able to do 11 but I thought it was 21 so that’s my aim). I also want to be able to hang for 90 seconds (just a basic hang, not a flexed arm hang). And I want to be able to jump higher. Back when I did a bit of cross country dryland training in the fall, I was shocked to see how little my feet come off the ground when I jump and thought I should work on that. Here I am 6 months later and finally committing to working on my jumping. I’m also going to work on my core strength which I should always be doing and my recent back issues reiterated my resolve to get back into working on my strength. For my balance I am thinking about some type of challenge of putting my socks on and off several times since I find myself taking the easier way out and sitting down rather than standing up. In particular I noticed that I wanted to hang onto something when putting on my spiky grippers on my boots this winter. So, stay tuned, I plan to report on my progress on Fridays.

Capture This Year | prompt 108 (stitch)

Picture This Year prompt 108 (stitch). It’s high time I get back to crocheting. I brought my project over to Ivana’s to show her yesterday. I haven’t worked on this since December. It was a good reminder for me that I should get back into crocheting more regular. It worked out well that I had dug this back out since today’s prompt was stitch. Notice our cute new moose ottoman.

Mail It Monday | 100DayProject Day 51

Mail it Monday

Roland was up early and went with me for part of the walk with Luna before he went to Pickleball. I skipped that today since my back had been bothering me since mid-last week, perhaps due to Pickleball last Tuesday. It’s mostly feeling better now but I didn’t want to reaggravate it since we have our last Monday curling tonight, and one more curling on Thursday so I may skip it this Wednesday as well. I did get out for a swim which was great. We also went into the (now fixed) sauna afterwards for a while. I had my Card Crew at the Dementia Society from 1:00-3:30 then an appointment with a dentist to have my night guards checked. Fortunately I haven’t been having any jaw issues (knock on wood) since I had a ‘rinsing’ surgery several years ago. It was such a nice day that Luna got some extra walks before and after my card making class.

These are some of the 5 cards that I mailed out today. The first one is the one that I used for inspiration for the cards that we made at Card Crew at the Dementia Society today.

This was the inspiration for the cards we made today. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the die for the wispy circle shape so I had to use a more solid circle which worked reasonably well.
I send out 4 of these cards. It’s nice to mix up the embossing folders. I couldn’t find this stamp set so we didn’t make any of these cards at Card Crew today but I hope to find it before next class because I think it is a very cute spring card too.
Slightly different stamping on the envelope for this and the other 2 of these cards that I sent out today.

Card Crew

There was a great group out at card making. 2 of my regular ladies were not there, but 1 (very independent) lady as well as another lady with her caregiver were there. Plus there was a new wife with her husband who has dementia plus two new ladies with their daughters. I was glad to have the help of two volunteers but I was pretty busy getting the papers cut out and the die cuts made. Hopefully the new participants all enjoyed it and will come back again. My aim is to not have too much prepared in advance and to have the participants and volunteers using the tools for most of the steps themselves. That being said, I should make sure to have more sample cards available and/or photos/instructions for the sample, and possibly at least a few kits available for those who aren’t as interested or able to make their projects entirely from scratch.

My class at the Dementia Society made a lot of cards today. Here is a sampling. One participant made 4 cards, the other 4 participants and their caregivers (4) made 2 cards each.

I love the look (and ease) of using patterned paper on cards. It’s been a while since I’ve made cards using patterned paper but I think I will definitely have designs using it more frequently in Card Crew classes.

Picture This Year

Picture This Year prompt 104 (stick). Prompt for today and photo taken today. Luna was actually not very interested in stick play today so it was a bit of a challenge to include her in a stick photo today.
Picture This Year prompt 104 (stick). We have no shortage of sticks at the front door. Now that both Roland’s hockey season and Heidi’s ringette season are over I think it’s time to move the sticks into the garage to make room for the spring umbrellas!

100DayProject Day 51

Unfortunately all the personal crafting I had time for today was to watch the rest of the video for the Day 1 class of Altenew Let it Shine course entitled ‘glitter’. There are a few more good ideas for adding glitter to cards which hopefully I can try out tomorrow. I know I definitely won’t be making my own glitter paper anytime soon!

Thinking of You Thursday | 100DayProject Day 33 | Card 18 | Card 19

My mother of pearls? plant that Sheela gave me last summer is still alive! It’s growing slowly but surely.

100DayProject Day 33

Happily I have made some progress on my 100DayProject. I finished Card 18 (and made a second slight variation of it) as well as started and finished Card 19. I’ll have 3 days up here at the cottage so I think I should be able to make some pretty good progress on some of my project.

Card 18 – Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards: Lesson 4:Faux Letterpress & Embossing Cards

That addition of the black inked Friend is a really nice contrast to the teal faux-letterpress Hello that I created and wrote about several days ago. I put the card into my ‘spray box’ to add some splatter as they had done in the sample card.
I’m starting to like the splatter process. This time I put a few drops of ink along with a few drops of water from a watercolour brush for 3 colours of ink in my mini palettes. Then I tapped on the brush to splatter the ink onto the card front. I like working with ink directly from a reinker rather than pressing the ink from a stamp pad out onto a block but that’s a great option if you don’t have reinkers.
Because my ‘hello’ faux-letterpressing was visible from the inside of the card, I added a card insert into both sides of the inside of the card. I just added a floral stamped image on the back of the card. I added splatter to both inner card panels. I like how the black centre of the flowers adds a nice contrast. The stamp set is from an old SCT class or kit of some type (I am pretty sure).
I adjusted the design slightly for the 2nd card that I made from my my trial ‘hello’ faux-letterpress impression. My sample cardstock scrap of paper had to be trimmed down smaller than a full cardfront and had an uninked faux-letterpress impression in the top right hand corner that I needed to cover up with some flowers. I quite like how this card came out, too. You can’t really notice in the photo, but this trial ‘hello’ impression actually had better indentation than the one I made into my first card. You can sort of see it where the ‘friend’ black ink overlaps with the teal ‘hello’ impression. You may also notice that I was able to get rid of most of the teal ink above the end of the ‘o’ in hello and the black ink in the middle of the ‘h’ using a very fine sandpaper from Roland’s stash. I’ll definitely be keeping some sandpaper around to remove future spots of ink that inevitably end up where you don’t want them. Apparently rubbing a pencil eraser after the sanding can help to smooth the cardstock.
This was my original trial ‘hello’ faux-letterpress attempt. You can see that there is an extra impression near the top that I had to cover up. And because it was just done on a scrap of paper I had to trim it down. But I think it ended up working out well.
You can really tell in this photo how much darker the envelope and the flowers I stamped to add to the card front were because I reinked my Aqualicious ink cube with Teal Cove ink. Oops!
By mistake I reinked my Aqualicious ink pad with a darker colour of ink (Teal Cove) which I realized after I stamped the envelope. So, I tried to rub most of the ink out of the block onto paper towels (which I will try to convert into card fronts) then reinked again with the proper colour of ink. You can see that the colour of the flowers on the back of the cardbase is almost back to the Aqualicious colour that is on the single flower on the inner layer. These are all of the pieces of my second card. You’ll see how I die cut then trimmed the flowers to cover up that texture in the top right corner, then I added partial flowers in a few other spots as well. I tried to create a visual triangle with the black by having just two of the 3 black flower centres showing along with the black friend.
Lots of ink came out of that ink cube that I mistakenly reinked with Teal Cove rather than Aqualicious ink. I think these will make interesting card fronts. I just need to do a bit of research about the best way to turn inked paper towels into card fronts. Perhaps a thinned out glue on the card front to adhere the paper towel to the cardstock as well as to covering the surface of the papertowel.
Luna was lying on the floor in the usual spot that I use as my photo background when I am taking photos of my finished cards when I am in the basement. She’s so cute!

Card 19 – Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards: Lesson 4: Luxury Papers

It was very slow going colouring in the already die cut hello (on beige adhesive backed paper) using my blending brush. So I opted to first try to ink blend the cardstock before die cutting which is easier. But even easier is to just rub the ink cube over the cardstock before die cutting!
I was back to using my reinker ink with a bit of water to colour my images. For the card front, back of card, inner layer as well as the envelope. The diecut flowers I coloured yesterday but added the Fresh Yellow watercolour brush centres today.
I am quite pleased with how the silver foil paper looks die cut with the coverplate that I got from a Scrapbook and Cards today kit.
A closer up view of the card (and my blue thumb. Would a crafting session be complete without ink coloured fingers?
And an even closer up view.

Throwback Thursday

We’ll start with a few photos from the negatives that Roland has been scanning in. It’s so fun to see photos of him and his parents from way back when.

Saturday 27 March 2010 – Birthday Balloons Finally Delivered

Stefan had soccer tryouts in Gloucester at 9:00 so I took advantage and brought the birthday balloons that we didn’t deliver on Thursday over to Kevin’s (and had a nice, although somewhat short visit with Kevin and Lynne). I also dropped by the Scrapbox to pick up my ‘free’ magazine and (of course) couldn’t resist buying a few (not free) things. Roland and Heidi went out to Navan to volunteer at the CORA-run Bunnyfest ringette tournament after her 9-11 gym soccer tryout. I made some lemon squares and homemade turtles (yum!) to bring to Dulce’s and some chocolate macaroons (here) for Heidi to bring to Emily’s for her sleepover then I went for a bit of a run in the afternoon after walking Stefan over to the Foerster’s where he hung out with Andrew for the evening. Stefan had spent most of the day with Luka (first here playing Monopoly, then at Luka’s, likely playing video games). Roland dropped Heidi off with Emily and Emma after the Bunnyfest, send out emails for his first soccer tryout cuts (before tomorrow’s session), then joined me (who got a lift with Mark and Rosemary) over at Dulce’s. One of her friends had the thoughtful idea to put on a fundraising dinner (Dulce’s brother, a police officer in Mexico) was injured when he was shot in the leg several times while on duty; limited medical coverage makes it a very trying time financially for his family). It was fun to see some of the Mexican and paddling crowd. When we picked Stefan up on our way home, the girls were busy creating their Facebook accounts.

now for the 2025 thoughts on that post: I saw Kevin today for lunch. I wish I had looked up the Throwback Thursday post before he arrived and I would have thought to have some belated birthday balloons for him again this year! We did enjoy burgers for lunch. The Scrapbox store is long gone. And the other local brick and mortar papercrafting store, Multicraft, will also be gone at the end of April. But, I still enjoy the Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine. I have a paid subscription and really enjoy looking at current and past issues which are available free online. And I love all their events. Stefan still plays a bit of soccer but indoor co-ed adult instead of outdoor competitive youth soccer. Heidi was a teacher coach at her high school team’s ringette tournament yesterday so while she’s no longer coaching for the City of Ottawa Ringette league (which is what the Bunnies team she was coaching back in 2010 was), she’s still coaching ringette!

Thinking of You Thursday

It’s another Thinking of You Thursday. And yet, I did not get to sending out any thinking of you cards today. It’s 11:00 and I’m just starting to write some words and to get my blog post done. We had curling tonight and have just arrived up at the cottage afterwards. With Roland driving, of course I had a nap on the way up. It would have been better to just crawl into bed upon arrival, but here I am typing instead and will likely be well overtired and find it difficult to get to sleep when I do get to bed. I’m turning off my alarm while I think of it.

The particularly good news up here at the cottage is that the weather has finally been warm enough to thaw the pipe between our septic tank and the septic field to which we have to pump the liquid. It was a cold early winter with little snow and we weren’t the only ones who had this problem. Our interim solution was to ‘convert’ our septic tank into a holding tank and we simply had it pumped when it became full. This summer we’ll get a heating line installed that we can turn on when/if it ever happens to freeze again.

Luna’s hanging out with me while I finish up my blog post here at the cottage.

It’s now 12:50 so I’ve been up way too late working on this blog post (I did post it just before midnight but have been adding updates). And, since it was Thinking of You Thursday and I didn’t get any cards sent out, I did send out my Thinking of You Thursday photo to several friends as emails and texts. Did you reach out to anyone on Thinking of You Thursday?

Saturday Semantics – 100DayProject Day 14

100DayProject Day 14 (working on AECP Card 8)

I didn’t make very much progress on my card 8 (Class 2 of All About Layering 4). Maybe I’ll have some time tomorrow after I finish my kits. I did emboss the flowers but still need to ink blend them to add colour. And I stamped the envelope as well as the back and inner layer of the card so that’s done. I’ll include a copy of the sample card from class that I’m basing my design from. I like how there is a higher tulip so I picked my Altenew set that has a bouquet that somewhat has a higher element. The texture in the embossing folder is amazing. I’ve included a sample of the colour blending I did on the embossed image for the recent ‘ you have been on my mind’ card that I finished on Day 8 (Card 4).

I opted to use silver ink instead of the grey colour that was used for the background in the All About Layering 4 Class 2 card that I’m using as design inspiration. I think the background stamp as well as the sentiment would have looked even better if I had heat embossed them with clear embossing powder ontop of the silver ink.
These are the the stencils that I’ll use tomorrow to magically colour in the flowers made by the embossing folder.
Look at the amazing texture that the embossing folder from the Lush Garden Craft Your Life Project Kit provides. Amazing!
I’ll pick different colours from the ones I used for Card 4 that I made using the same embossing folder as I will be using for Card 8
The design inspiration from Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 2

Saturday Semantics – 100DayProject Day 14

Different words have different meanings. And sometimes the context matters.

Sometimes we don’t know what a word means in a certain context.

Today we are going to play in a curling Bonspiel. So I have been learning what some words mean in the curling context. We had to look up what an in-turn and an out-turn means. And it means something different for a right-handed than an left-handed curler. For a right-handed curler a rock released with an in-turn spins clockwise and an out-turn spins counter-clockwise. I’m mathcing the ‘ou’ in ‘out’ to the ‘ou’ in ‘counter’ to help me remember. Curlers used to start with the handle of the rock at 12:00. And then would turn it out to 2:00 for a clockwise spin and an in to 10:00 for a counterclockwise spin. So back then the terminolog made sense. Now they teach us to start at 10:00 or 2:00 and turn it to 12:00 so the naming of in-turn and out-turn doesn’t make as much sense. So I think of it as starting with my thumb turned out or in.

The real reason that I was thinking about semantics is someone had recently said something about nice and kind not being the same thing. Which is very true, but I hadn’t actually thought about the the difference betweeen the words and use them somewhat interchangeably in the past. While being nice is a good thing, I think the more important quality is actually to be kind. And I am going to do a better job of properly attributing kindness rather than just niceness to people who are actually kind. I was happy for the help of ChatGPT after my walk this morning to help me concisely understand the differences between the two: Kind refers to a deeper quality of being considerate, compassionate and caring. A kind person genuinely want to help others and acts out of goodwill. Nice is more about being polite, pleasant and agreeable. A nice person behaves in a way that is socially acceptable and friendly, but doens’t necessarily mean that they are deeply caring. Someone can be nice without being truly kind (e.g., being polite but indifferent) and someone can be kind without always being nice (e.g., giving honest but tough advice for someone’s benefit).

In the speech I gave at mom’s Celebration of Life on the 8th February, I spoke about people being nice. And about my mom being nice. And about her being so much more than nice. About her being kind, thoughtful, strong, campable, caring, determined, stubborn, supporting, loving and fun-loving. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a month since her Celebration of Life and two months since she passed away. I realize now that when I referred to people being nice, I really meant to say that they are so much more than nice. I meant to say that they are kind. I was so lucky to have one of the kindest people I know for my mom. And I am also incredibly lucky to have so many other kind people in my life.

ChatGTP has also helped me figure out some Canadian sources for licorice tea. I discovered that I like that type of tea about a year ago and recently, like many Canadians am trying to find non-US suppliers for some of our favourite products. I’m looking for a new bike, likely a gravel bike to be able to ride the gravel roads near our cottage. I was at at bike show on Friday night and was very happy with the information and guidance that a Bushtukah representative gave us, but I realized that they only carry bikes from US companies. A small local (Arnprior-based) company was at the show as well and makes custom bikes so that may end up being who I buy a new bike from. I think I’ll get ChatGPT to help me with my bike supplier research. ChatGPT helped me to understand some of the main historical stages of International Women’s Day. I was very glad that a friend had several women over tonight for dinner to celebrate IWD together. Enough random thoughts. Time to head to bed. I didn’t finish my kits and must definitely get them done tomorrow.