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 made just a wee bit more progress on my Day 3 Altenew card (which will feature Spellbinders door 23) and and barely got started on my Day 4 Altenew card (it will be unlikely that whatever is behind door 24 happens to go with what I am planning for my Day 4 Altenew card but who knows, maybe I’ll be able to have a combined project again).
But I did get quite a bit of progress made on a card kit for my online cardmaking classes that I give for the Dementia Society. And, more importantly I had a great lunch and spent the crafternoon with Nancy and Eleanor. It is so nice to be able to visit with friends while working on my class kits. I equally enjoy seeing what projects my friends are working on and having them help me on my class projects.
And I played Pickleball in the morning and went with 6 other friends to play golf on a simulator. And so there was very little writing and very little 100DayProject progress.
Waiting Wednesday
Are you someone that tends to make others wait? Or do you feel like you tend to be the one waiting for others?
Luna had to wait for me this morning while I put out the garbage. I had to wait for her while she makes her snow angels at random spots along our walking route. She has to wait for me while I pause at the turn around point on our walk. I like to slow down for a minute at the small wooden bridge over the stream by the train bridge. This is usually my first ‘take 5’ of the day. I try to take 5 one-minute breaks each day where I practice being mindful, I breathe slowly and deeply for 5 breaths and try to pay attention to what is going on around me (my 5 senses) and within me (my thoughts, sensations, emotions, feelings). I have a bit of a mantra that I say with for those breaths: in, out; up, down; through, around; calm, ease; expand, relax. And, Luna has to wait for me then.
I have lots more thoughts on the topic of waiting but rather than having all this written in the morning, I am writing at 9:30 which is already past my bedtime. So I will have to . And you’ll have to wait until I have time to add my further thoughts on topic some other day.
Suffice it to say that I feel that I make others wait a lot more for me than I have to wait on others. And, that is one of the things that I’m working to improve.
I do have a few other cards from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar to share but that will have to wait as well.
Today I woke up feeling a bit off, like everything was all too much. And, so I took a bit of time to recall a few thoughts on the matter that I had recently given to Heidi when she was feeling overwhelmed.
There are actually very few things that we actually have to do. Three main ones in fact. The first is breathing. And we do that automatically. The second is consumuing fluides to stay hydrated. And that’s actually pretty simple and easy to do where we live. And third is consuming foods to have energy. And that’s actually pretty quick and easily done around here too. It’s definitely a bit trickier to consume nutrient-dense foods, but just consuming some food for energy it very doable.
Believe it or not, it helps to remember that. We can easily get our top 3 priorities in each and every day. And the rest is optional. Honestly, it’s all optional. Very few things are as pressing as our mind wants us to believe. Taking a step back to remember that can help reduce the overwhelm.
And, so I was able to enjoy my early morning walk. And I opted to move last week and this weeks new habits (a short run and the short one&done workout) to later in the day. So I was able to enjoy my breakfast and my swim with F. And I had enough time to enjoy the process of finishing getting the card kits and supplies ready for the in-person class I was giving at 11:45. And, I was able to enjoy my run (and did 3 km instead of just 1 km – and was able to talk with Shelli while I ran) and did my one&done workout). And, I made a card using door 22 of the Spellbinders Advent Calendar, and got started on a card inspired by anothe Altenew lesson for my 100dayproject.
I have a few other thoughts on Too Much Tuesday that I had hoped to share, but they’ll have to wait for another day. Because I want to spend just a few more minutes on my 100dayproject before heading to bed.
Spellbinders Door 22 (pink sequins) | Congrats
Spellbinders Advent Calendar Door 22 (pink sequins)
main products: pink, yellow and blue sequins and circle confetti stencils from Spellbinders Advent Calendar, Altenew inks, circle dies from SCT Crop and Create Cardmaking class, congrats and onesie dies from SCT Celebrate online class kit, circles embossing folder from provocraft.
Door 20 had 3 layering circle / confetti stencils.
Spellbinders Door 20 | Happy Birthday Wishes
I liked how the sequins went quite well with the circle / confetti look of the layered stencils. It would haave been nice to have had a diecut shape of some type in the centre for added interest. A birthday cupcake would have been nice. My friend, Shelli, who gave me the Advent Calendar put a die cut sundae in the centre of her confetti and it looked great. I’m not sure if I should have had the yellow die cut curly streamers on both sides of the card; it may have looked better just having it on the right hand side?
Main Products: Spellbinder Advent Calendar door 5 curvy streamer die, door 9 yellow sequins, door 18 blue sequins, door 15 embossing folder, door 19 habby birthday wishes stamp and door 20 circle / confetti layering stencils. Altenew Inks: Fresh Lemon, Teal Cove, Aqualicious; Stampin’ Up! Hello Cupcake stamp set.
Last week’s ‘one tweak a week’ was to add in the 11-12 minute ‘one&done’ workout habit. I’m happy to report that I did the ‘speed’ workout every day last week. And I feel so much better for it. I’m starting to regain a bit of flexibility. This week I’m going to do the ‘agility’ workout. It’s easier to do the same workout each day for a full week.
This week’s tweak is still on the ‘moving’ theme. So, after my morning walk, Luna and I went for a 1k run. In the past I’ve enjoyed having a 2k/day run streak, but I don’t think I could be consistent at 2k this time around. So I’m aiming for 1k/day. Right after my walk. I may end up moving my ‘one&done’ to before my walk.
Someone had commented that, now that my mom has passed, it may seem like I have a lot more time. I estimate that I was spending about 10 hours a week on visits with mom, including driving time. So mom’s Celebration of Life, I started to think about what ‘moving on’ would look like. If you were suddenly to have 10 more hours in your week how would you want to spend them? I’m going to try to use one hour each day to build back up some great daily habits. And to use the other 3 hours a week on weekly habits. But I’m building up those habits gradually.
AECP Card 2 | You Made my Day
The second lesson of the All About Layering 3 class included a technique of spraying some black ink on the background. I really like the look of some random black ink dots on a card so I decided to invest in some black ink spray. And I repurposed a cardboard box to become my ‘spray box’. The lesson video (which I had watched 6-7 weeks) ago had recommended masking the sentiment so it is still legible. I decided to use another of the white ‘wood’ frame card fronts that I had made when I was working on Day 1 projects, so I had to mask that area off. And, I had glued my flower cluster down before spraying so I had to mask that area off as well. I decided to try masking with strips that I had cut from cellophane packaging that was going to go in the garbage any way. It worked well to see what I was masking.
AECP Card 2 | I used a frame again for my card today but added in some black spray ink.This is the Day 1 card. I prefer the frame in my Day 2 card. I’ve included a photo of a few other frame sizing options as well.
However, I did have some lessons learned: 1) it is better to cut closer to the edges of the mask; 2) it is better to spray before putting down a frame or your flower cluster; 3) the spray bottle makes a very fine mist – if you want to have just a few random dots it is better to take the spray mechanism off the bottle and simply gently tap it so that random dots of ink splatter on your project (I went back to rewatch the video since mine had come out so differently than what I had expected – I actually don’t mind the look I got – it was just different); 4) cellophane doesn’t make a great mask because the ink doesn’t absorb into it – I had to be very, very careful removing the mask so that I didn’t get black ink everywhere on my card front; 5) you can add in extra fine and not so fine black dots with a marker if you make your mask too big.
I think it might be nice to put some black enamel dots into the centre of the flowers to continue with the black accent design element.
The card I made yesterday had the frame’s outer edges sized at 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″. I decided to try a few different sizes. I liked the 4″ x 5-1/4″ the best. I think the 3-3/4″ x 5″ frame is a bit small. I also tried to make some unmitered frames which was certainly easier than mitering them. They look fine too, just a different look than mitered. I also think it would be interesting to try ink blending the frame planks – that may be a bit tricky to do on the panels that I already have frames adhered to.
I liked the mitered 4″ x 5-1/4″ frame the best, but it was worth trying out the unmitred frames (which are way easier) and the smaller frame with the larger matting. You don’t know what you like better until you actually try some options.I will try to ink blend the panels to make a darker rather than white frame on future cards. I think it will be best to cut the panels before blending to make sure that all of the edges are appropriately inked. This was my trial spray; I should have realized then that it wasn’t going to turn out like the sample class card. That might have been the better time to re-watch the video.The celllophane had potential for a masking material – it was nice to see what what underneath when I was trying to cut the mask down to size.This is how the spray looked. It was a bit tricky to remove the cellophane that had undried ink on it.I should have masked very tight against the sentiment and the flower cluster. Nothing that a black pen and/or marker won’t fix.This is a screenshot from the class video that shows how you can take the end of the spray mechanism out of the spray bottle and gently tap it to create a random splatter of black ink spots as an alternative to spraying from the bottle, which gives a much finer mist. Notice how much less masking there is to do if you only need to mask the sentiment rather than a whole frame and your flowers.This is the sample card from the class (Lesson 2). Mine looks totally different due to the smaller flowers I used, the different colour that I used, a less bold sentiment, the fact that I added a frame and that I had a fine spray mist rather than splatters from the black ink. I think I will try again in the future to make another card more similar to this one using products that I have on hand.
There were so many ducks in the pond this morning!
Start on Sunday
When you are starting to work on developing a new habit, do you prefer to start on a Sunday or a Monday? I prefer to start on a Monday. A few weeks ago on a Monday I started to get back out for a walk first thing in the morning to get some early morning sunlight which helps to reset your circadean rhythm which helps sleep. And I’m so glad I did. Last Monday I restarted doing svelte training’s One&Done 10-12 minute workouts. And I’m so glad I did. I have quite a list of habits that I’m planning to re-introduce into my daily routine. Tomorrow I’m considering adding a daily 2k run but that may be a step to far. I know I have loved having a regular running habit in the past, but I haven’t been doing very much running at all lately so that may not be the wisest choice for next week’s ‘tweak a week’. I heard that expression about a few years ago and do like the idea of trying to make one small change each week.
But this post is called Start on Sunday, not Start on Monday. Why is that? Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing the 100 day project again this year. The 100dayproject community leader picks a different start date each year. This year’s start date is today. And so, my theme for today is Start on Sunday.
Last year I crocheted 3 baby afghans during the 100 days. This year, I’ll be working my way through the Altenew Educator Certification Program. I’ll share some more details about that program in another post. But essentially, I’ll be watching a 10-20 minute cardmaking lesson, then making a card incorporating something that I’ve learned from that class then writing a short post about the process. I expect that some days I may watch more than one lesson and some days I’ll watch less than one lesson. Some days I’ll create more than one card and some days I’ll created less than one card. Some days I’ll create more than one blog and/or Instagram post and some days I’ll create less than one post. But each day I’ll try to spend a bit of time on my 100 day project. I expect that it may take me more than 100 days to create and post about 100 cards.
AECP Card 1 | Spellbinders Door 4 | Hello Friend
AECP Card 1| Spellbinders Door 4
I must admit that I sort of started my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) back on 3 January. That is when I made this card based on the first module in the All About Layering 3 class. Before I launched into making this card, I first experimented with the Primrose layered stamp set in the journal that I am using to try out my Altenew products. I’m planning to stamp each stamp set so that I’ll have a consolidated quick reference of the Altenew images, sentiments, inks and colouring mediums that I have on hand. I think this will help me a lot as I work my way through the AECP program classes. You can see that this stamp set has outline as well as layering stamps. The class was using a stamp set that just had layering stamps without an outline image, so when I made my card I didn’t use the outline stamp.
Some of the things that I learned when experimenting in my journal
It is best to condition your stamp before using it for the first time; that will help the ink to better adhere to the stamp and you’ll get a better stamped image. You can do this by using an eraser, or rubbing it against your skin. I’ve also heard that stamping with versamark then cleaning off before using with a die based ink works for conditioning.
The cardstock or paper onto which you’re stamping makes a difference.
Having the colour names on the bottom of the ink pad helps when you’re putting the lids back onto your ink pads. I’ll talk about this more later when I talk about how I store my inks and reinkers.
I found that the ink can tend to bead more on the surface of your stamp if you leave it there for a long time before stamping, which affects how the stamped image looks. Using a stamp positioner so that you can stamp your image a few times would minimize this effect.
Putting a line on the wrong side of the various layers of a flower stamp can help you align the images. Of course, using the layering guide and watching the Altenew videos that are available for their stamp sets will also help you learn to align the different stamp layers.
The exclamation point in this stamp set doesn’t stay stuck that well back onto the acetate, so I’ve put it into some foil to hopefully prevent me from losing it. I’ll come up with a better alternative for storing tiny stamps in the future.
It seems easier to line up the layers when you’ve used an outline layer first. So, if there is an outline layer available, practice with it first even though you may not be using the outline layer on your card project.
The light ink colours don’t ‘stamp off’ or do that well with ‘multi-generation’ stamping but that is an option to get ‘different’ colours of ink for the various layers. But I found it easiest to just use the different ink colours that come in the 4 ink sets. They are packaged like that for a reason: they make it very easy to create beautiful multi-layered stamped flowers.
To make the frame, I embossed a 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ piece of white cardstock using the deck planks embossing folder. Then I cut apart each plank. I adhered the 4 edges of the frame in the centre only onto the card front. Then I mitred the corners and adhered the rest of the frame to the card front. In the future I might try making the frame from coloured cardstock or ink blending the planks. But I was trying to mimic the design of the card in class which had a white leafy frame. I have added that versatile leaf frame coverplate die to my wishlist.
You can see why I love that leafy frame coverplate. It’s particularly gorgeous with a vellum layer in behind.
Have a Sweet Day (Spellbinders Advent Calendar Door 19)
Overall I am fairly pleased with how this card came out. I had been wanting to try mounting the chocolate bar onto a lighter coloured background – I think the ‘Have a Sweet Day’ stamp set made it a bit last jarring than it would have been to have had a plain kraft background. I could have been a bit more careful stamping the sentiment on the background – but it’s good enough. I had overinked my stamping spot so I smudged a few spots and had some inconsistent darkness to some of the words. I do like the sentiment mounted onto the bigger brown rectangle; it would have been nicer to have had that brown rectangle being 3 squares of the chocolate bar embossing folder. I had made the brown of the chocolate bar and the brown rectangle by ink blending Dusty Rose and/or Toasted Mauve ink. I think that gave a bit nicer texture / dimension than when I had embossed the chocolate bar out of brown cardstock. I think my flower clusters worked out okay. I like how there are three on the bottom right and two on the top left. I may add in some glitter pen, glossy accents or enamel dots into the centres of the flowers. Perhaps it would have been better to have placed the sentiment a bit more to the left so that it wasn’t covering a flower centre. It might be interesting to see how it would have looked if I had used white rather than kraft cardstock for the background and the sentiment strip. I also think that a scripty larger die cut sentiment might have been nice instead of the smaller text of the Have a Sweet Day sentiment strip. I had tried to clear emboss the sentiment onto a kraft cardstock strip which I then ink blend with the brown ink, but I didn’t like how that had turned out. I had also tried an ink blended (rather than repeating sentiment stamped) the card front. But I had used a lighter weight cardstock that wasn’t really suitable for a card base. And then when I opened door 19 to find the sentiment stamps, I thought it would be more interesting to use it on the background layer rather than having a solid ink blended brown background layer. I think the lighter weight cardstock of the embossed chocolate bar and the heavier weight cardstock of the sentiment strip have taken the ink blending a bit differently, but the colour may be slightly different because I used a different colour of brown ink that I thought I had – it would have been better to have done them both at the same time and with the same cardstock.
main products: Spellbinders Advent Calendar door 19 – Have a Sweet Day sentiment; Altenew Chocolate Flowers Craft Your Life kit – chocolate bar embossing folder; Altenew Primrose Build a Flower Primrose stamp set and die; Altenew Woodland Escape 4 Ink set – Dusty Rose and Toasted Mauve, Altenew Sweet Dreams 4 ink set, Altenew Green Valley 4 Ink set
Creative Treats 