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.
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 squeakysoles 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.
Card 11 | Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 5a. I just used a marker to make the white dots, but they aren’t really random like ink splatters.
I made Card 11 (2 versions) and Card 12 today. I’m still quite a long way from being caught up. Hopefully I’ll continue to be able to make 2 cards a day for the next week or so. While I am loving learning how to use a big variety of Altenew products and am quite liking the resulting cards that I create, I must say that I find them quite time consuming to make. All the the layering takes a lot of time. I think I will definitely consider Stefan’s suggestion of selling some of these cards. He was mentioning how expensive store bought cards are these days. It would be nice to raise a bit of money to put towards the materials that I use when making the card kits for the Dementia Society and it would be even nicer to have some extra money to buy some things to donate in Treat Boxes to Debra Dynes Family House. But that will all be a project to consider after I complete my 100DayProject. And after I have better mastered getting almost all of the work done for creating the kits by my Crafty Crew volunteers.
I think I actually prefer the white edge around the diecut images rather than the version of the card that has the white edges coloured black. I’m still havne’t figured out how to get white splashes of ink looking at all similar to the sample class card.
Card 11 | Hugs | Altenew All About Layering 4 – Lesson 5a
This is the design inspiration for Card 11 from the Altenew All About Layering 4 lesson 5a.
I have some other photos as well but will edit the post tomorrow to add them in.
I started this card yesterday but opted to abandon the idea of using a turquoise rather than black background and started afresh today with new (red) flowers as well as a black background.
Card 12 | Sending Hugs | Altenew All About Layering 4 – Lesson 5b
Card 12 | Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 5b. I used the Chocolate Flowers Zero Waste die for my flowers and leaves. The backgroun was created using a Concord & 9th cover plate and coordinating die which I ink blended to get a look somewhat similar to the stenciled embossing paste background of the class card.
I have some other photos to add but will edit the post tomorrow.
The inspiration from Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 5b. Unfortunately I didn’t have any embossing paste or a suitable stencil at the cottage today so I didn’t use that technique on my card. I also didn’t have a stamp set with vines. I do like the look of the mixture black and white images as well as some coloured ones so I will try to make a more similar card when I have the appropriate supplies on hand.
Frozen Friday
It is 9:38 p.m. and I am just starting to write some words for today. I am definitely very far from my goal of getting my blog posts done before dinner! Even skipping my afternoon nap wouldn’t have helped the cause today.
The snow was nice and frozen this morning so I was able to step off the path and go down to the river’s edge a few times. For most of the winter the snow has been deep and soft so wandering off the path hasn’t been a great idea unless you want a lot of snow to get into your boots. I always enjoy seeing the different perspective of the views along the river when I get off the path.
I expect that the freezing and thawing cycles of spring have been triggering good flows of the maple sap. A friend usually taps his maple tree and makes some syrup. While I like the idea in theory and actually bought (and subsequently misplaced) a few taps, I opt to buy maple syrup from an old work colleague whose inlaws make maple syrup. I am so glad to live in an area where maple syrup is readily available. All this talk of maple syrup has me craving some; so I expect I’ll make some pancakes or French toast tomorrow morning for breakfast.
Another benefit of the freezing and thawing cycles is the ever changing beauty of the icy falls in the small stream on my walk. Through my Headspace app and their great collection of videos I am gradually learning to embrace the mindfulness attribute of impermanence. Like so many things in nature, our thoughts, feelings and the things that are happening around us are everchanging. At this time of year in particular, I love to see how the stream looks different each day.
The cold nights have helped to make walking on the lake at the cottage possible as well. I went for a few walks with Luna and Roland. It may be too soft for the next few days since it isn’t going down to freezing over the next few nights. I really love to see how the dark colour of the leaves (and the occasional feather) causes the ice to melt in the bright sunlight and creates small watery holes into which the leaf or feather sinks.
I was happy to finish Card 10. I found it a bit tricky to learn how to use this layering stamp set using yellow ink; it’s not that easy to see the earlier layer for alignment.
The card front along with the envelope, the inner layer and the back of the cardThe inspiration for my card came from this card which was in Lesson 4 of Altenew All About Layering 4.
Card 11 – inspired by Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 5a
I had some extra flowers from when I made some for Card 10 so I decided to try to use them for my Card 11. As you’ll see below, the inspiration photo has a black background and the instructor coloured the white edges around the flowers and leaves black. Rather than having a black background, I decided to try to use of the extra backgrounds made for Card 9. I haven’t finished the card yet, but my preliminary impression is that colouring the edges turquoise for a turquoise background isn’t quite as effective as colouring edges black for a black background. Where I didn’t have much white outline, the turquoise became more green and didn’t really match the background turquoise. And black seems more natural against the leaves or flowers where there is overlap; turquoise seems a bit weird. I haven’t glued anything so I may decide to trim off the turquoise border where there is overlap.
I think the black background with black outline is better than my attempt with turqoise. Where the turquoise border is right against the turquoise background it looks great but it seems odd where the flowers or leaves overlap. I may trim the edging off. I expect that a nice big sentiment will help as might some splatters or perhaps some jewels to lessen the emphasis of the turquoise border where the flowers and leaves overlap.The black marker edging around the flowers and leaves in the instructor’s card seems like a much better design decision than my turquoise background. But it was still fun to try it out.
Thankful Thursday
It was a beautiful morning for a walk. Crisp, fresh air. Hard packed snow and grippy ice underfoot. The trail conditions seem to change daily. As does the sounds and look of the stream. It was quite pretty this morning with fresh and interesting ice formed around the small waterfall area. That is such a nice spot to pause and take a few deep breaths to savour being outside and to really take in the sights and sounds of nature. Lots of birds chirping. The bubbling and gurgling of the stream.
I am going to stick with a Thankful theme for today and likely some upcoming Thursdays. I want to try to remember to take some photos during the week of small (or big) things that I’m thankful for to share on Thursdays. I really enjoyed doing that when I was regularly writing Thankful Thursday newsletters.
If you are reading this I hope that you will pause for a moment to reflect on some small (or big) things for which you’re thankful.
I am thankful for …
licorice tea and the lovely tea cup that Lynda gave me several years ago … and for the other favourite tea flavours and mugs that I have on hand to warm up my mornings.
blackberry almond scones from Vicki … and having Stef home for the weekend and being able to share one with him freshly warmed up from the freezer …
help from my Crafty Crew to make my card kits … and for being able to spend time connecting them while making the card kits … and for time connecting with my Creative Cards and Crafts participants when we put the cards together … and for having completed cards ready to send out to brighten someone’s day
taking the time to create cards for myself … and for the instruction and design inspiration from the Altenew courses that I’m taking.
On Thankful Thursday’s I’m also going to try to share photos of Thank You cards that I have sent during the week leading up to and including each Thursday.
Throwback Thursday (to Tuesday 13 March 2012 – Crafty Creation)
I always enjoy coming across something that the children have made.
The 19th anniversary of our first date; skiing at Mont Ste. Marie, mistakenly arriving 1/2 hour before the lifts opened. Roland had moved to Ottawa from Toronto the year before and had been pestered for several months to call me by his U of T, match-making friend Gerry from Toronto who was married to my Waterloo friend Karen. We had a great ski day which included Roland handily fixing my binding which broke during a mogul run. I’m so lucky to have him taking great care of me ever since them.
I stopped at Country Grocer on the way home: a roast chicken and some hashbrowns were my non-pasta/non-tomatoey dinner selection.
Stef didn’t join us for dinner since he was still over at Kyle’s, having gone to Rideau by bus with Kyle and Kyle’s friend, Alexi (or something like that), during the afternoon.
Heidi entertained us at the dinner table with her abilities to independently raise her eyebrows, flair her nostrils and wiggle her ears. I had suggested that it would have been better to exercise the inside of her head (during those long hours at school, apparently with quite a bit of idle time to master such talents) rather than to exercise the outside of her head. Not necessarily a highly useful claim to fame, but certainly an entertaining one.
Heidi had a skating treadmill session over at OSPC. We were grateful that her teammate, Emma’s mom was able to bring Heidi along with Julia Y and Erin.
Heidi’s hip, which she hurt in a quirky fall a while back, was acting up a bit yesterday after her run to/from Emma’s and was sore again today after ‘skating’ so Roland made a doctor’s appointment for Friday to get a physio referral.
I worked a bit on a scrapbook layout while listening to an online class video before my walk.
Dawn, Kyle’s mom, was the only other walker out today despite the gorgeous weather. A high of 16 degrees; crazy for early March in Ottawa but well appreciated. So many families are away for March Break; I’m not sure if the slopes are holding onto much snow and I’m not nearly as envious as I had been of the south-heading friends since we are experiencing such great weather here.
Heidi’s after dinner activity was some volleyball in Emma’s driveway then likely inside since I doubt they played until 10:00. Somehow trumpet practice didn’t get done; she hesitates to practice in the day since Roland doesn’t really like it, especially in the midst of working from home.
Stefan had declined a ride home from Kyle’s with Dawn, claiming instead that he had a light and could ride home. He stopped in at Bennett’s on his way home so hasn’t yet had a discussion with us about that (wrong) choice nor about his increasingly frequent and inappropriate tendency to forget to ask permission/consult us about his plans; we are getting very upset about how he seems to assume he can just do whatever he wants and often has things much to far in planning stages with his friends before even mentioning it to us, much less it actually occurring to him to seek our permission.
Roland did the dishes then tackled some more editing of ringette Provincials photos.
My decluttering focus for this evening was my craft room; slowly but surely I’m working my way down to the work surface. I am so looking forward to having it totally cleared so that I can actually to some scrapbooking and cardmaking.
It is fun to come across some of Heidi (and occasionally Stefan’s) old crafty creations during the clean-up process.
Posted at 10:58 p.m.
It is so interesting to read about what was going on 13 years ago and to see a few photos from that day. I am still battling with trying to declutter my craft things. I am still posting my blog entries much later than I would like. It’s nice to have Stef home from Toronto this weekend and it is fantastic that he still has much the same friend group that he did back when he was 12. Heidi’s still playing ringette, sometimes with hip issues. I’m still walking almost every Tuesday night and the group of ladies still includes Dawn. I still love when I come across something that the children or a friend have made. I’ll have to ask Heidi if she can still wiggle her ears, raise her eyebrows and flair her nose. She’s a high school math teacher now and is spending the day at a coffee shop with a colleague to try to get focused on an extra qualification course she’s currently enrolled in. Roland’s still taking great care of me and fixing everything around the house and cottage.
I am still battling crafting clutter; sadly it has spread to even more of the house! The Welcome quilt sign that Stefan made at school is now hanging on our fridge.
No progress to report on my 100DayProject although I might try to sneak in a wee bit of work on it before going to bed. But it is 10:10 as I write this because I’m just back from book club where we celebrated pi day a bit early. We enjoyed quiche, chicken pot pie, apple pie and a berry pie. I wish we had had a family tradition of having a pie meal on pi day every year. Heidi was mentioned that she never gets to celebrate pi day with her math students because it falls on March Break so I think she’ll be happy if we develop a new family pie on pi day tradition.
It’s now10:47 and I did take about 10 minutes (or was it more?) to try out the Garden Delights stamp set. I just realized that there is actually a few more small stamp layers to fill in the centre of the flowers but that will have to wait until tomorrow to add it. I haven’t decided if I’ll go for the darker two shades of green or for the lighter 2. And I haven’t decided if I’ll do a mix of the two types of flowers or just the one type. I’m leaning towards just using one for simplicity, although I think I will include some of the second variety of leaves. Tomorrow’s 8:00 swim is now in as much jeapordy as my Tuesday one (which I skipped). Fingers crossed I get up when my alarm goes off at 7:00 despite me being so poor at adjusting to the time change.
It’s beginning to look a lot like I’ve at least started my Card 10!This is definitely not a card that I’ve made, but rather it is thefeatured project for my Altenew All About Layer 4 Class 4 which I will be using as my design inspiration for my Card 10 of my 100DayProject. I had better pick up the pace since it is now Day 18
I received my Advent Calendar on December 6 and did the first card on December 9th. While I’m currently only batting 500 on my 100DayProject, I am making much faster progress on my daily Altenew card quest than I had on my daily Advent Calendar quest.
Wide Open Wednesday
It took me until the turn around point of this mornings walk for me to decide my theme for today. The stream was finally wide open after having been covered in snow and ice for many months. It was also a theme quite consistent with a thought after I set out when I figured out why the toes of my socks were wet: while they weren’t wide open, there was certainly an opening in the toes of my boots where the soles meets the upper part.
On my way back home I considered what I would do if I had a wide open day. It’s definitely a good thing to think about every once in a while. How much of the things you do every day would you want to include if you started your day with no routine or any commitments? If your ideal wide open day would vary tremendously from your typical day I think its definitely time to start thinking about making some small tweaks each week to better align your typical day with your ideal day.
I definitely had a good day. I enlisted Heidi’s help in tackling the disasterous kitchen rather than just doing it myself. There is still lots more disaster areas to tackle on the main floor, but somehow the kitchen always takes priority and all of my energy. Having some help is less draining for sure. It’s not what she was planning for the middle day of her March Break I’m sure. Here’s to hoping I can tackle some my disasterous desk in the family room tomorrow. I had a crafternoon at the Dementia Society with 2 of my Crafty Crew volunteers and we got a very good start on making 2 sets of cards. I decided that I really like the two cards I made with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar bee dies (back on January 5 and February 21 which were doors 6 and door 18) so we’re making them for my online class to do.
I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the sequins from door 18 along with the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.I liked the Spellbinders Advent Calendar card featuring the bee die from door 6 that I’m making card kits featuring this design for my Dementia Society class.
Creative Treats 