I finally got around to organizing the stamps, dies and stencils that I got in the calendar. I’m hoping I also have a chance to write up a post summarizing all of the cards that I made using the products. It was so fun to share the project with Shelli. Now that we’ve finished the project I finally searched on the internet for some other ideas. I’ll include those links in the post so that I can easily find them for future reference.
I have almost finished organizing my Spellbinders Advent Calendar supplies. A few of the die cut sets are hiding with some other supplies.These aren’t my projects but I crealted the collage from the Spellbinders set to store with my supplies from this Advent Calendar to use as inspiration for future projects with these supplies. I hope to create a similar collage of the 24 projects that I made using the supplies. It is inspiration for creating a collage eventually for my 100DayProject cards.
I will add some links to a few sites with great examples including the Spellbinders site.
This morning I got up later and walked with Luna and Roland. The sunshine was gorgeous and we were sheltered from the wind in the woods. Such a beautiful day with the fresh snow glistening under the shining sun with the brilliant blue sky. The fresh snow helped to provide pretty good grip on the previously slippery surfaces. The recent rain and warm temperatures had delivered lots of ice on the roads, sidewalks and even on the trails in the woods. There is nothing better than being out in the fresh air on a gorgeous Friday morning, walking in the conservation area along the river with Roland and Luna.
So many thoughts for what my theme for this Friday could/should be:
Fresh Air: The temperature was perfect this morning. It is so much easier to enjoy being out in the fresh air when it is not too cold and not too hot, not too humid and not too dry.
Finish It: I definitly have lots I would love to finish today. My goal is to finish getting my kits together and maybe even delivered. It would be so nice to have them all done before the last minute. I usually am delivering them on the Monday and sometimes even the Tuesday morning before my 10:30 online class.
Fresh Snow: There is so much to love about fresh snow. Luna’s snow angels, the glistening of the snow, the fresh animal tracks for Luna to investigate.
Finances: I do have quite a bit of work to tackle soon to settle mom’s estate, but that will wait for another Friday.
Further: It was nice to have some extra time for walking this morning so we could go further along the river and up into a wooded area. The mornings when we can walk further are the best!
Forms: We do need to get on with filling in some forms for a fall cruise in the Northwest Passage. So looking forward to the trip, but the forms will wait for another day. No doubt you have lots of paper work to catch up on too.
Flavours: What are your favourite flavours. This morning I enjoyed a licorice spice tea along with the blackberry almond scones that Vicki gave me yesterday. I have no shortage of favourite flavours to enjoy.
Five: That is actually more than 5 things. But that’s a good prompt or theme for another Friday.
100Day Project Day 13 – Thank You – Card 7
I created a card based on the design from All About Layering 4 – Lesson 1 using a layering stencil and the outline stamp from the Cherry Blossom Bunch set. I used Grayy Field, Maple Yellow, Water Hyacinth and Alpine Aster inks. I am very happy with how the card came out. I stamped the image three times and die cut it then used up almost all of the main images and the bits that I cut off to form the flower clusters at the top and the bottom of the card. I added a sentiment from the set into the middle of the card, slightly offset to the right and a bit above the middle of the card. It might have been nicer with a larger sentiment. I also stamped and ink blended the images for the front and flap of the envelope, the back of the card as well as for an inner layer on the inside of the card. Most of my friends think I am crazy for adding the extra details, but I really like having the extra details on my card projects. I love how easy it is to add colour to outline stamps using stencils and how relaxing the process of ink blending is.
AECP Card 5 – Altenew All About Layering 3 Lesson 5
I used an Altenew zero waste die with ink blending stencils to colour and die cut the flowers. The background die is a Concord & 9th set from an SCT Crop and Create workshop. I opted to leave most of the leaf and heart stitched shapes showing and covered up the balloon portion because I didn’t think it went with the floral theme. I made an extra background using the coordinating die cuts which I’ll use for a future card.
I thought the ink blending went fairly well, although I didn’t love the centres of some of the flowers, but fortuntely there were some bright yellow starbursts / tiny flowers to go into the centres. I wasn’t quite sure how to place the sentiment. I liked it lower but didn’t love a bit of open white under the big flower in the centre so I opted to move the sentiment higher and to add in some half pearl embellishments.
I would have liked to have had a bit more greenery so I could have added more near the bottom of the card; I find the current greenery arrangement a bit top heavy.
The card example from All About Layering 3 course – Lesson 5 from which I took the inspiration for using a background die. The die I used just had stitching with no cutouts. It will be nice to try a white diecut image on a white background as well, particularly a soft, curvy, lace-like pattern like the one in this sample card; most if not all of my coverplate dies are more graphic in design. Given the coverplate I used I opted for a centred single floral spray rather than having two sprays with the sentiment in the middle which is quite a nice look in this example card. The rounded coverplate die helps seems ground the floral sprays very well. I may try to create two floral sprays on the other background I made.
Maintenance on Monday
I was awoken this morning to the intermittent beeping of the smoke detector. Luckily the battery lasted through to today so it just disturbed my sleep rather than the sleep of 5 more people who were staying up at the cottage with me on Friday or Saturday night for our ladies weekend.
It was definitely a very chilly morning. Thankfully there was no wind. A preview of how I’ll look when my hair and eyelashes turn grey!
And so, on this morning’s walk I reflected on the need for regular maintenance of the things around us. And, like the beeping to signify the low battery, that there are warning signs for many of those things when maintenance is required; that the batteries need to be charged or replaced. Or if there is not a warning sign, there are maintenance schedules that we follow. We bring our cars in for oil changes and scheduled maintenance. The little stickers that they put up on our windshields with the approximate date and kilometres of your next maintenance are very helpful. Sometimes we need to get a new car battery so that it will start on frosty mornings because the routine recharging as we drive isn’t quite enough to get the battery to turn over on those really cold days even if we plug the car’s block heater in overnight. We change our furnace filters and have them inspected. I try to book our dog Luna’s next mani-pedi while her nails are being clipped and dremelled.
And we should be doing regular maintenance on ourselves. What self-care habits to you currently have? Might it be time to add a few more into your repretoire? Might it be time to block some time off on your calendar to maintain your own body, mind or spirit. I am so glad that I’m really focusing on reestablishing some regular maintenance habits like swimming, morning walks, one&done workouts. I consider this recent weekend with some girlfriends a wonderful way to recharge my batteries. And, I am already working on scheduling another short getaway with some girlfriends.
This was a card I made about a month ago for a friend whose husband passed away quite after a very short illness. Her daughter is a good friend of my daughter. So Heidi and I did a bit of baking and I made this card for them. I don’t quite remember the techniques that I used. But I do like the stamp set and I will definitely be making more cards with it as I work my way through the AECP program during this years 100dayproject. I believe I used black versafine ink for the outline image which I heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I think it was a layering stencil rather than a layering stamp. Before making that card I had experimented using some watercolour markers to colour in the outline stamped image.
Streak Freeze Friday
I decided pretty early this morning that DuoLingo’s streak freeze idea was a good one. Rather than throw a streak totally out the window when you miss a day or two, give yourself some grace and just use a streak freeze to carry you through until you can pick it up again.
I had opted for a 7:30 swim before heading up to the cottage. So no morning walk with Luna, no no chance to write any words in my 750words website account in the morning, no time to draft a blog post, no time for crafting in the day. But plenty of time for grocery shopping and a few other errands on the way up. And some time for some basic cottage cleaning before 5 friends started to arrive. Then it was time for a leisurely charcuterie dinner and to start a puzzle before heading to bed. I am so glad I declared it streak freeze Friday very early on. No 1 km run. No one&done. No card making (although I may do a wee bit of planning of which stamp sets, stencils and other supplies I will use for some of my upcoming projects). But, best of all, no fretting about trying to cram too much into my day, no fretting about missing a day or two of my ‘daily’ habits. Just lots of time to enjoy getting ready for the weekend and enjoying the weekend. And, most importantly of all, hopefully an easy resumption of those habits after my girls weekend. But I will do a quick DuoLingo lesson before turning off the lights, just so I don’t have to use a Streak Freeze for every habit streak today.
I was thinking about calling it Windless Wednesday but there actually was a still a bit of wind as I went down to the lake to snowshoe. And there definitely had been wind yesterday since I had snowshoed. My tracks were once again almost completely covered with snow. A few weeks ago I had commented to a friend that it seems like there haven’t been nearly as many snowdrifts around as there were ‘back in the day’. Well, now that we have a winter with a lot of snow and wind, there has definitely been a lot of drifting snow. Be careful what you wish for.
But it was almost windless as I trudged through the snow, once again reestablishing a trail, following my barely discerable tracks from yesterday. But it was definitely easier going then yesterday. For one thing, when I managed to stay in the trail the snow was quite firm – the wind had done a good job of packing that freshly blown snow down into the trail. For another thing, I could hear the birds chirping. It was nice to have company on my morning trek, a cheering section of sorts. I’m not sure if they had been out on those other windy days and I just couldn’t hear them cheering me on, or if they had been wiser than me and had simply avoided being out on a cold and windy morning. But I was glad that they were there, and that I was paying attention to what was going on around me instead of being totally lost in my thoughts. It’s funny how much of the beauty around us we can miss when we’re lost in thought.
There was even a glimmer of sunshine when I slowed down to pay attention. It’s not yet a blue sky day, but it reminded me that the sun is always up there above the clouds. And we can choose to live each day as if it is a sunny day, because each day actually is a sunny day. And we can remember that our cheering section is nearby, whether or not we can hear their cheerful encouraging calls above the wind or not.
Just Saying Hello
Main product: Spellbinders Advent Calendar, door 10
I was pretty happy with how the card turned out. I have a few tips and ideas for what I could change.
Adhesive:
Because the flowered paper was so thin, I wanted to have adhesive behind the whole image and not just partially adhered as I might a thicker paper. I glued the thin paper directly onto the card front. The ‘spread’ end of the Tombow mono glue bottle worked very well to spread out the glue. I clean out and refill my Tombow bottles – I just remove the label to know that it is no longer the mono glue. I really like it as a dispenser with the versatility of both ends. Paint brushes and sponges are other ways to achieve a thin, even layer of glue over a complete surface. Another option would have been to adhere the flowers onto a sheet of double-sided adhesive paper before fussy cutting around them. There wouldn’t have been a need to deal with a wet adhesive with the potential mess of it as well as the tendancy that a wet adhesive can cause some wrinkles in thin paper.
I noticed that the cardstock does curl up a bit. Using double sided adhesive paper to adhere the flowers would have prevented that curl. Or it might be better to glue the flowers onto a front panel then adhere the panel onto the card base. Or to adhere the flowers with glue to a cardstock then fussy cut around them – that would give them more dimension rather than the look of the thin flowers being right against the card layer.
I may try to put the card in a heavy book for a while to flatten it out. Or to run it through my die cutting machine, with no die or embossing folder, the pressure of the plates can flatten cards.
It would have been easier to adhere the sentiment if I had cut them from adhesive-backed cardstock rather than needing to use liquid glue. I did use a fine tipped glue bottle which helps – you could also use a paint brush or sponge to apply a thin layer of glue rather than dots of glue behind the sentiment. I had some adhesive-backed cardstock at home but not with me at the cottage. You can create your own by running some two-sided tape or putting a piece of double-sided adhesive paper behind the cardstock before you run it through your die cutting machine.
Work Surface:
I use a thick mylar sheet as a work surface – it is easy to later wash off the glue and ink. These mylar sheets are great for transporting to my workshops. The mylar turned out to be too thick to cut on the Cricut to make stencils – but I will eventually learn how to use the City of Ottawa library laser cutting machine and will try that for making stencils. At home I have a glass work surface (a glass shelf from an old fridge). I also have a sheet of teflon both here at the cottage and at home.
Design:
To make it closer to a ‘one layer card’ it might have been nicer to stamp the sentiment rather than to use the die cut sentiment. Or, if I wanted to further emphasis the dimension of the sentiment, I could have cut it out a few extra times and stacked the layers.
I could have taken a bit more time to line up my sentiment so that the bottom and side margins were the same. To fix that problem I could have trimmed down the card front and adhered it to a new card base.
If you don’t have the correct colour of cardstock to make your sentiment, you can always ink blend a piece of cardstock before running it through your die cutter.
Adding a bit of bling using an odd number of clear dots or sequins would have been a nice finishing touch for this card. I’ll have to bring some of them up to the cottage.
Thanks
Main Product: Spellbinders Advent Calendar door 13
This time I adhered the thin floral paper to 110 lb cardstock before fussy cutting out the images. I really like the added dimension that it gives the layers of flowers and leaves.
I did use a thin layer of liquid glue to adhere the flowers to the cardstock. I notice that it is lifing up in a few spots. I could have been more careful to make sure I had a good but thin layer covering the whole flower. Or I could have adhered the thin paper to adhesive backed cardstock or used a double-sided adhesive sheet to adhere the thin paper to the thicker cardstock.
I inked the edges of my 3-3/4″ x 5″ layer to give it some added dimension. It might also have been nice to mat that layer with a layer of beige cardstock. A thin piece of craft foam or chipboard would have added some extra dimension.
I might try to make a similar card using a beige 3-3/4″ x 5″ layer rather than a white layer; in which case I would use a white heat-embossed sentiment or a sentiment strip. Or a brighter red/pink ink for the sentiment. Or perhaps die cut the sentiment rather than using a stamp. See the image a bit further down for my attempt today at making such a card.
I don’t have a lot of inks up here with me at the cottage so I was thrilled to realize that the Altenew Pink Sand ink was a perfect match for the leaf colour. So it was a great colour for inking the edges of the front layer. I think it was a bit light for my ‘thanks’ sentiment. Next time I would try to the Crimson or Velvet colour from that Red Sunset ink set. I think a bolder colour would have added in a nice contrast and would have matched the red of the bud and the highlights in the gardenias.
Adding a bit of bling using an odd number of clear dots or sequins would have been a nice finishing touch for this card, too.
Hello
Main Product: Spellbinders Advent Calendar door 14, doggy die cut
Even though I don’t love putting together tiny die cut pieces, I do love how this cute fellow turned out. I do wish I had had some adhesive-backed cardstock on hand to make the assembly easier, but the fine-tipped glue bottle certainly helped. Rather than using coloured cardstock, I die cut all the pieces from white cardstock then ink blended them. I used black ink to make the grey colour as well as Altenew Blush for the pink and Crimson for the red. I used a black pen to colour in the eyes. I thought that the ink-splatted paper from an old Scrapbook and Cards Today (SCT) Crop and Create online class had the right amount of spunk to go with this saucy pup. I used the Spellbinders door 11 embossing folder on the black cardstock to give it some fun geometrical dimension.
If I was to make this card again I might try the hello in red, but there is already a nice trio of red elements which is why I opted to cut out a white hello rather than to use the red one I had ink blended. I might also centre the dog up a bit more rather than putting the combined dog and heart along the centre line. I might have tried to mat the black with another layer of white/beige and black. In an ideal world I would have had those white elements the same light beige as was in the ink-splattered patterned paper. I have some dog-themed stamps at home that I’ll use to stamp the front and back on an envelop as well as the white inner layer I put on the inside of my card. Maybe it would be nice to put the dog on a heart shape rather than on the square and to move the small heart down lower beside the hello. But, the other doors of my Advent calendar are calling so I will move on. And, I will soon be starting my 100 day project of working my way through my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP).
Hello Fruity Drink
Main Product: Spellbinders Advent Calendar – door 12
I am quite pleaseed with how this card turned out. It was a bit fussy getting the acetate die cut glass together. I was worried about the glue showing through, or not holding together, but it seems to be holding up fine.
I used the Spellbinders door 11 geometric embossing folder. I really like how the geometric pattern contrasts with the curved lines of the glass and lemon. Having the background in white allows there to be some texture while not drawing too much attention away from the focal point of the fruity drink. I might have tried to emphasize the curvy edge of the drink a bit more and could have cut the straw just a bit shorter so that it was in the centre of that oval at the top of the drink. I could have tried a pink or yellow hello instead of the bold black, perhaps I could have also added a few pink or yellow enamel dots or sequins for a bit of bling to step the card up just a bit. I’ll have to find some coordinating stamps to decorate the inside and back of the card as well as to make a coordinating envelope.
Creative Treats 