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.
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
main products: sequins from door 18 and door 9 of Spellbinders Advent Calendar along with bee from door 6; Brutus Monroe honeycomb stencil, Stampin’ Up! Friendly Hello stamp set (flower and sentiment), ‘Altenew Dew Drops and Honey Drizzle inks, Wink of Stella glitter pen.
I must admit that when I opened door number 18 last night to find sequins my cardmaking energy rapidly dwindled. I was not feeling like making a shaker card even though I always love them once they are complete. I took some inspiration from some Sending Hugs cards that I had made a long time ago but had not sent. I used them as a model for some cards that we made last Monday at my in-person Card Crew class at the Dementia Society. I had 5 participants plus 2 caregivers and that was a really fun card design for us all to work on together. Some punches, some die cuts, some stamping, some glueing, and a nice message – who doesn’t like to send and receive hugs?
Originally I thought I might use the sequins to intersperse amongst some hearts, but in the end the You are Sweet card that I had made with that cute spellbinder bee behind door number 6 called out to me more as a starting point to use sequins on a card.
I am quite happy with how the Hello Friend card came out. I used wink of stella pen mixed directly with a few drops of Altenew inks directly from the reinker bottle to colour in the flowers. I popped up the bee with foam for a bit of dimension. I could have popped up the flowers too, and I think I would have like to have had a bigger third flower so should have stamped an extra one rather than just using the bit that I had trimmed off that was hanging over the edge of the card. I might have used a heavier weight cardstock or could have blended the honeycomb stencil onto a front panel rather than directly onto the front of the cardbase.
You are Sweet
main products: bee from door sweet die cut from Scrapbook and Cards today Sampler pack, flower stamp from a Stampin’ Up! set, honeycomb stencil, Altenew watercolour brushes to colour flower.
I like the slightly messy look of the honeycomb stencil. I might have preferred to have the stemp of the flower going off the right hand side of the card rather than randomly just ending mid-card. I like how I popped up the bee. I wish I hadn’t smuged black ink on the card front but, as Gina K says, the card is better than horrible. And that’s good enough. I really like the big sweet die-cut sentiment but wish I had taken a bit more time and stamped the ‘you are’ straigher and used my MISTI so that I could have inked it a few times to make it nice and black like the ‘sweet’.
Sending Hugs
I don’t want to emphasize that the hugs were supposed to be Valentine’s Day hugs. In hindsight a more generic hugs sentiment would have been better. In reality, it doesn’t matter that much; I can send Valentine’s Day hugs any time of the year. I think they will still be appreciated. And, I hope to actually get around to sending some of them out very soon. They have been sitting around for way too long. And it has been way too long since I’ve had a regular practice of actually sending out my cards. Hopefully I’ll have a big stack of cards to send out on an upcoming ‘Mail it Monday’.
This is a really fun card design. I like the mix of kraft and white and pink. I like the swath of mini hearts stamped across the card and the randomness of the pink and kraft hearts scattered about. I enjoyed using my Quickutz texture plates to emboss the hearts with a nice variety of textures. It is a fun and easy card to put together. Perhaps it would have been nice to include some glitter or shiny hearts and perhaps to pop some up for a bit of dimension. Using a stencil with tiny hearts along with some coloured embossing paste rather than stamping the mini hearts would have been a fun (but messy) way to have added some more dimension and texture to the card.
Friendship Friday
I got the idea for having a theme for the day from Kessonge when he was hosting Radio Headspace. For a week he opened his episode something like It’s a Marvellous Monday. It’s a Terrific Tuesday. It’s a Wonderful Wednesday. You get the idea. And I liked the idea. It kind of reminded me of wishing a colleague a good morning when you crossed paths with them at the hall in the office. Since I had then already been retired for a few years, I realized that I wasn’t having nearly as many chance encounters with people. But that I could intentionally reach out to friends to wish them a good day. And, although I wouldn’t be seeing them face to face, I could send them a photo of me as if I was wishing them a good day. Who knows, maybe it is kind of jarring for my friends to see a photo of me when they open our text thread and they’d rather just receive a few words, a couple of emojis or a gif. But, I choose to believe that they appreciate my goofy gesture. I know it always makes me smile when I receive a selfie from a friend. It’s not quite as good as seeing them in person, but it definitely helps start my day off in a fun way.
Today might have been a Fantastic Friday, a Fabulous Friday, or even another Finish it Friday. But I really felt today’s theme should be Friendship Friday. Because I’ll be seeing some friends today. One of them, Anne, is from out of town. I met her more than 30 years ago playing hockey back when she was living in Ottawa. She moved back to Oakville a few years later, but we’ve kept in touch. She makes the trip up here to Ottawa almost every winter for an annual cross country ski in Gatineau Park and a skate on the Rideau canal. To spend time doing some of her favourite actitivies with her Ottawa friends. I so appreciate her making the trip. I so appreciate her friendship. While it’s great that we text each other, and that we have some ‘walks and talks’ taking our respective dogs out for a walk and that we had quite a few Zoom calls during Covid, it is so nice to see her in person. Either when we’re down in her neck of the woods, or when she’s back up here in mine. Or when we’re somewhere else together on a hiking or kayaking adventure.
Here’s a photo from today with Anne, Andrea and Flora. And a photo from 1993 with Andrea, Anne and Laura, from back when we wondered if we’d still be skiing together when we got into our 60’s. I am so glad to report that we are. I will eventually get around to putting together a collection of photos of all of the years that we have cross country skied (and skated on the canal) together. But that’s a story and a project for another day. It’s time for me to head back over to visit with Anne and her aunt, to take advantage of the time we have to spend together in person.
Creative Treats 