ink-blending

Soup on Sunday | 100DayProject Day 29

Back to taking photos of the beautiful bright red gerbia daisies.

100DayProject Day 29

I have mostly been working on a few other crafty projects today instead of either my 100DayProject or any kit assembly for my upcoming Dementia Society and Canadian Mental Health Association classes.

Part of my crafty project. I’ll share more about it in a few days.

I did select a ‘hello’ die and created several layers of it which I glued together. Some I cut with adhesive-backed cardstock and the others I cut from 80 lb. cardstock. I glued the layers together and ran them through my die-cutter.

I started to cut out a few different die cuts, but finally got more realistic, put away the extras and focused on the hello die!

I tried a few different settings. I did a few trial runs through without inking the bottom vellum layer with ink. There was quite a bit of pressure required to make a good indentation. I eventually ran a few through after inking the bottom. I noticed that the layers shifted a bit from the pressure. I will have to investigate to see if they shifted under the adhesive-backed cardstock or under the glued layers; somehow I think it was the adhesive-backed layers that shifted.

Some of the layers that I cut out to build up a thick die cut image. I tried some from 80 lb white cardstock which I adhered together with glue. I also cut some from adhesive-backed cardstock. And the bottom layer is vellum which I adhered together with glue. I think the glue layers adhered better under the pressure of running them through the die cut machine for the faux letterpress effect.

Definitely some more experimentation required. I think it may work better onto thicker cardstock for a few reasons – the first being that it would be easier to make an indentation – and second being that the ink likely wouldn’t show through. However, I’m going to go ahead and finish the card that I started with 80 lb paper in which the ink shows through; perhaps I’ll add two inner layers – one on each side of the cardbase.

My first trial using ink on a scrap piece of paper. I may turn it into a card front. You can’t see the impression effect very well in the photo.

I think a few late nights combined with way too much recent experimentation with the foiling have left me with little energy or inclination to further experiment with the faux letterpress technique at this time. So I’ll move on and come back to it eventually.

I think I moved the stacked hello die cut a bit before or as I ran it through my diecutting machine. I don’t think this second impression came out as well as my first impression, although I do think I got better ink coverage on the vellum bottom layer.

There is special letterpress paper and apparently it works better with pigment than dye based inks so there is certainly a lot of things for me to try out. Maybe I’ll even find someone who has a for home use letterpress machine that will let me try it out. I will eventually research the real and faux techniques because the look is so nice.

I used too thin (80 lb) cardstock for this technique. You can see the impression from the inside of the card. i will add an inner layer on to cover it up.
You can see how the layers of the stacked hello die cuts started to shift under the pressure of being run through my die cut machine. Further experimentation with the glue / adhesive as well as the number of layers of cardstock, and the weight and type of cardstock for the faux letterpress technique will happen sometime in the future. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get the card finished and move onto the next lesson. This one is the fourth lesson in the Altenew Clean & Simple Boutique Cards class.

Soup on Sunday

The soup I made on Sunday. But we’ll be eating soup for supper tomorrow instead of today.

I made a potroast for dinner. I recently found some horseradish in the fridge that I had bought quite a long time ago and developed a craving for roast beef. Wow, is it ever crazy expensive these days. So we bought a less expensive cut and made a pot roast with dumplings. It turned out reasonably well. It’s nice to have some leftovers. I also went grocery shopping for Heidi and made some soup. She’s trying to eat quite healthy this week in anticipation of ringette Nationals which start on Monday 31 March.

I used pork instead of turkey sausages but pretty much followed the rest of the recipe from the Yum and Yummer cookbook. I really like a lot of the recipes in the book and even bought an extra copy for the cottage. This is the first time trying this soup. It is easier to see what is in the clear containers that using sour cream and cottage cheese containers, but it’s still helpful to write a label on each.

Mail It Monday | 100DayProject Day 16

100DayProject Day 16 (Card 8 in progress)

Card 8 in progress: I got one of three layers ink blended. I hope to finish this card tomorrow.

Creative Treats Club

The card making at Card Crew went very well this afternoon. We had 3 ladies living with Dementia in attendance today plus a volunteer and a caregiver as well as the caregiver’s daughter who happens to be off on March Break. I’m including a sample of one of the cards that was made. I meant to take photos of all of the cards that they made but forgot. Other than the diecutting of the ‘zero waste’ flower/leaf die, the participants (with a bit of help from others) did all of the steps of making the cards themselves including stamping (using a MISTI) stamping platform, stamping using traditional wood-mounted rubber stamps, ink blending and cutting out sentiments. It was very helpful to have adhesive-backed cardstock to die cut – it made the cards much simpler to put together for the participants than if they had had to use glue. I am hoping to buy some more adhesive-backed cardstock since it is really a great option for participants living with Dementia. We peeled the backing off for them, but they were easily able to place their flowers and leaves. I had everyone use some wood-mounted alphabet stamps at the beginning of class to make name cards. I plan to do that every class to get the participants more familiar with the process of stamping. I think it is easier to have them use wood-mounted stamps rather than using acrylic blocks and photopolymer stamps.

A few days ago I put together a card using a left over kit from a few years ago. Heidi had asked for a congrats card for a supply teacher who was leaving because she got a permanent job at another school. This one was from one of the kits that Vicki had put together. It’s such a nice card. In fact, Vicki has designed (and made kits for) so many great cards. I need to get all the old extras sorted out in a better way and dig out the instruction sheets for them so that I can bring them to future Card Crew classes so that the participants can assemble them. This one I’ll keep in my stash to eventually mail out because Heidi opted to use one of the 2 ‘adventure awaits’ cards that I made as part of my Spellbinders Advent Calendar project – I love how the cat is holding the suitcase by its tail while getting lifted up by a hot air balloon. I’ve included a photo of it in my Mail It Monday section because it is a card that got out of our house into the hands of a well-deserving recipient.

I made this for Heidi but she didn’t use it. I realized that I actually have to send a Congratulations card so I’ll actually consider this part of this week’s ‘Mail it Monday’ collection, too!
I think this card that I made as part of the Spellbinders Advent Calendar project was a perfect ‘congratualtions’ card for Heidi to give to her supply teacher colleague that was leaving because she got a permanent position.

Mail It Monday

I am trying to get back into a routine of actually sending out the cards that I make rather than collecting them. So it seems appropriate for today to be a ‘Mail it Monday’. I will include some photos of the cards that I have mailed out recently. I haven’t yet written one for today. I am leaning more towards trying to work on my Card 8 than sending out a card.

These were cards that we made last week in my Dementia Society card making classes. My Crafty Crew had helped me to put together these ktis and did the ink blending and penguin colouring. I also made this design in the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Arts for All class that I did in December; since it was an in-person class those participants did their own ink blending and colouring. And, the most fun of all, was making this card with six 10-year-olds at a Christmas party. They all did a great job ink blending the backgrounds and colouring in the penguins.
I have quite a collection of these valentine’s cards to send out belatedly. One down, many to go! I made cards very similar to this design about a month ago in my Dementia Society Card Crew class. The participants had a lot of fun punching out a whole bunch of hearts as well as doing the stamping of some hearts and sentiment(s) before adhering the hearts.
I really love how this card turned out. It was one that I designed for my card making classes with The Dementia Society.
They are a bit hard to see amongst the dark water, but there are lots of ducks in this shallow part of the pond, perhaps nesting?

It was certainly a gorgeous morning to be out walking Luna in the forest. It was magical with all of the snow still stuck onto the trees. I am pretty sure that the ducks are trying to pick their nesting spots because there are a lot more of them hanging around the shallow section of the pond than their usual spot in a deeper section of the pond. I am so thankful to have a beautiful conservation area along the river so close to our house. And for having a dog to get me walking down there on a very regular basis.