Dear Blog: I Haven't Abandoned You

Hard to believe that over a month has gone by and I haven't written a thing so sorry. I have been busy learning my new things and finishing up making my first set of cards for my grand-babies who moved to England a couple weeks ago. :( 

I went ahead and posted them online (on Facebook) because I spoke to their mother the day before and she hadn't received them. Thankfully after posting I got a little ding and she said they did come and the kids loved them. Hooray!

I know they are going to have many wonderful adventures and make great memories over there. I'm hoping my granddaughter can go to the Louve to see all the beautiful paintings! She loves to do art and carries a picture her daddy painted for her all over the place. 

For those of you who are a bit confused my son has a beautiful daughter. However he and her wonderful mommy just weren't right for each other so she married a great guy in the Air Force. Sadly he got stationed in England for four years. He wasn't supposed to go anywhere.

My son was a Marine like his father I guess there is a lot to the saying hard to resist a man in uniform. Anyway she and her husband went on to have two more children my little half nanners. I am Nana not grandma eek. So my granddaughter has two daddies that love her very much, and we love her brother and sister very much. We are so blessed but that is another story, lets finish this one shall we.

They left from Georgia and had a straight 8 hour flight over whew. We got to talk to her that evening while in Georgia and apparently there is some sort of an aquarium there. She got to see a dolphin and her sister an electric eel. Her daddy (my son) asked her what she wanted to see first when she arrived in England she said a castle well she will have plenty of opportunity to see many of those.

Since I'm going to send cards over every month I thought it would be helpful to learn how to draw more kid friendly things since they are  6, 5 and 2. I also bought thanks to PawPaw a cute bunny stamp and an owl stamp. I'll post them. I also learned to draw a dolphin too, there are some wonderful drawing tutorials on YouTube. Plus my Simon Says Stamp card of the month kit has a rainy theme how fitting for England. I haven't planned out the cards yet I need to finish up my birthday present for my ex husband. There may be some dolphins in England with umbrellas!

I know giving your ex a present sounds weird but we get along great and he has been a huge help to me with all this medical stuff I'm going through. I found an awesome motorcycle stamp he has a Harley Davidson Fatboy and I put it on some brown paper I got from Amazon shipping I wanted to keep it rustic looking. Bought some Harley Davidson color paint I did 3 tests and I'm about to do the real one. It's scary when you make something for another you want it perfect, but you can't let that stop you. I'll post the pictures and the process.

I also entered a couple challenges which were a lot of fun. I'll try to keep up better with the blog sometimes my medicine makes me sleepy and I can sleep for 3-4 extra hours a day. Doesn't leave a lot of time for much of anything, but praise God I'm getting stronger and I HAVE whipped this!

Post again real soon little blog.

Craft Hack: DIY Homemade Confetti Mix

I recently signed up for the Simon Stamps Stamp Card Kit of the Month, wow that's a mouthful. I was browsing around looking at cards for inspiration, I really don't know anything about making cards. I do know my grand-babies are going to move to England at the end of April for four long years. So my ex husband paid for the subscription so we can stay in touch.

I found a card I might base a design around (here's the link) It uses acetate as a transparency. I believe they call them shaker style cards because you add in a confetti mix and then sew them up and the mix shakes inside the transparency.

I'm sure you have noticed many crafters link to the supplies they use underneath their cards instructions this lovely card was no exception. It used a confetti mix, well a tablespoon of iridescent heart confetti mix was $3.20 and that was one seller's price. I'm sure you can spend a lot more.

Wow, I know it won't break the bank for most people and I'm not saying it isn't worth it. The mix is very pretty but if you are on a tight budget having different kinds of confetti's can add up. Honestly a tablespoon isn't that much I imagine you could only make maybe one or two cards with it. Yikes!

I don't know what it's made of exactly but I have an idea and I found a way to make my own. I haven't checked YouTube this may not be something new or earth-shattering folks may be making their own already. I haven't seen any, but I haven't looked either but I do watch a lot of videos. Speaking of which I will be making a video in the next couple days about this hack. I just thought of it because it looks like it's made of something I had just bought for another project.

Go to your Dollar Tree store and get the colored plastic index dividers I bought 8 sheets for a buck. The pack had 1 each of yellow, orange, clear, green and 2 of red and blue. Some glitter (optional) or glitter glue and you'll need a hole/shape punch. I have 3 which I bought over 10 years ago and you can make your own DIY homemade confetti. You could make many, many tablespoons for sure. If you have different size punches well you have it made, it's a quick and cheap way to save money. You could always cut up a few little ones to toss in there.

You can use the clear divider for the transparency instead of an acetate sheet. I sure there is a way to get around the shiny, the Dollar Tree store also has glitter glue you might be able to make a few of them with that. If you have a Wink of Stella pen (which i don't lol) that might work too. Above are three samples so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about, they are a heart, a star and a sunburst I tried with the glitter glue to see if it worked.

Those are the only punches I have at the moment I getting ready to buy a bunch from eBay most of them are .76 and up. Although they take 3 - 4 weeks to arrive. But you can pick your own, if you can't wait Amazon has some too just check the dates. The glue seemed to do okay although after it dries tomorrow will be the real test. My star punch is a bit rough around the edges might be time for an update. Plus it's 4 AM.

So grab your punches or scissors some cheap index dividers and cut up all sorts of little confetti and save your money for something else. To make a tablespoon it couldn't take more than a minute or two with a punch and a little bit more if you had to cut it out by hand.

Another idea is if you have a stencil cutter which I just bought and was going to try out this weekend. (I went to the dollar store for the index dividers to use to make my own stencils) that's why the idea was on my mind. You could make the confetti mix with the stencil cutter if you didn't have any punches. Just print off a page full of assorted shapes and cut away. You could make shapes for any holiday, you could write out small words with them. And if all else fails and you don't have punches or a stencil cutter nearly everyone has a X-acto knife.

So there are three ways to make your own confetti. When I started the blog post I just had the one idea the other two came to me as I was typing this out. One thing you should know these little plastic pieces love to stick to you so be prepared. Have some sort of pointy device or tweezers to keep them off you. A dryer sheet might work I didn't think of that until after I cut them out.

Since I'm going to use the sheet for stencils first I'll cut up the confetti with the leftovers.

I hope this post has inspired you to give it a go, I would love to see what you made. I plan on making some cards using this method myself I'll keep on working on perfecting it. It's a quick fix for now but with some glitter and a little touch of this or that it could work. After that I will let you know how the stencil making went too. If you have an idea leave a comment!

Great News from Doctor and Craft Projects Coming Soon

I haven't posted for a while but I have been crafting I just haven't got around to posting. I had some medical tests done two weeks ago and the results/scans came back with a good report. Praise God! My doctor and I were both happy she said I deserved good news. I agree

I picked up a few more craft supplies I have just about everything I need although I'm getting ready to order an embossing heat tool to make cards. My grandchildren are moving to England next month and my ex-husband was gracious enough to pay for the Simon Says Stamp Card of the Month Kit so we can send them each a card every month. I'll need the embossing tool for that reason. I'm so excited, so get ready for some postings. I've tried many new techniques the past couple weeks so I have plenty to show you.

I also joined the Simon Says Stamp Monday and Wednesday Challenges. They randomly pick winners so everyone has a chance to get a $50.00 voucher to spend at the online store. Everyone is so talented but I'm going to try anyhow. I've learned so much and have been inspired greatly. I've also picked up many craft tips from others and learned a few on my own just from trying new stuff. I hardly know where to begin.

Another mixed media art project you may be interested in is the Mixed Media Morsels by Cat Hand from YouTube. I'll do full postings and videos shortly. They are perfect for those of you who are new to art journaling like me or have been doing it a while too. I've noticed that many mixed media YouTubers with thousands of subscribers have joined in the fun.

That was Cat Hand's whole purpose to have fun and learn new things. She doesn't have a set schedule exactly but she has been posting for a couple months now she is on challenge 12. You can join anytime. She had this fantastic idea to get a wee small journal about 3 x 4 ish or bigger if you like and start at the beginning with background techniques then progressing.

She had the thought that many new folks are eager to get started but hardly know where to begin. Then they get intimidated by a huge blank journal and just never start if this sounds like you then by all means come join in the fun. It's a wonderful way to get your feet wet in Mixed Media you can watch video after video to get ideas but if you never put that paintbrush to canvas...you get my drift.

You don't need a bunch of stuff to get started and she lists the supplies at the beginning of the video. So far I've just need basic supplies like a little pad of paper for a journal, she used a mini composition book. Paint, glue, plastic wrap, waxed paper, a sharpie and a hair dryer if you don't have a heat gun.

I browsed ahead on a couple to see if I would need more supplies upcoming are stamps and stencils. I have made my own stamps from erasers and stencils from hot glue so if you don't have any store bought you can do the same. I took pictures so I will get those posted this week.

She also has a Facebook group if you want to post your pictures. I've also noticed many of the "stars" in Mixed Media are making their own videos showing their versions of the challenges which is what I plan on doing too. You will be so inspired to create just like I have, these folks are so talented I won't lie and tell you I'm not intimidated because I am but you can learn so much from their videos.

I'm on challenge #3 however I need to do a couple over. The first one she forgot an important step but the paper is still useful for another project and #3 looks like #1 hmm. Here's the link to the video playlist. Like I said I plan to do full posts on all of them and give you my tips. Well it's nearly 3:30 am so I had better get some shut eye. Well I did get some sleep I fell asleep before I finished editing now it's 5:30am  lol.

Craft yourself happy!