Daily Special - Technique Day 2

Oh my. . .reorganizing my craft room was so painful. It was worth it though but unfortunately, I'm behind on my cardmaking. I did manage to work on my "Daily Special" for Tuesday which is "Technique Day".

The technique for today I will call "Brayer Rainbow Background". It's called something else but I'm not sure what it's called. Basically it's using a brayer to create a colorful background. Using this technique is actually a great way to create a water or ocean background. If you want to create an ocean background - the dye ink that you would use would be a multi-colored or shade of blue with one area being lighter and gradually getting darker. The lighter colored portion represents the sky and the darker area would be the ocean or water.

This tutorial will be a on the basic mult-colored background using the brayer. I'll use this technique sometime this week perhaps to demonstrate on how using this technique can create beautiful water or ocean backgrounds.

Materials:

Glossy White Cardstock

Rubber Brayer

Multicolored Dye Inkpad ( in this case I used Kaliedacolor - Pastel)

Instructions:

Run the brayer across the multi-dye ink completely inking the rubber portion of the brayer. You would need to run it across several times before it can be completely inked. You will need to shift the brayer slightly left or right of the pad to cover the spaces in between the inks pads that will leave un-inked spots on the brayer. Avoid shifting it too much to prevent contaminating the ink pad with the different color inks.

When completely inked, the brayer should appear like shown in the picture.

Run the brayer across the glossy cardstock until it is completely inked. You will need to re-ink several times before the glossy cardstock is completely covered. You will need to overlap the colors slightly to get complete coverage.

The end result should be a uniformed colored background. Set aside to dry before working on your card.

You can stamp an image over the background as shown in the picture below . You can also emboss over it. Treat the background as you typically would when rubber stamping on regular cardstock. Below is a card I created using the "Brayer Rainbow Technique". As you can see it's very colorful. Use subtle colors or earth tone colors for a less overpowering colored background. I chose this pastel multi-colored ink pad to demonstrate how vibrant the colors are when using this technique.

Try it out with different colors! Stampin' Up sells a multi-colored dye ink pad called Spectrum pad. It's basically the same multi-colored pad as the Kaleidacolor pad.

Until later. . .

All of this for $32 Including Tax

Look at what I bought at Joann for $32.00 including tax. Amazing! Each of the 3 sets of metal embellishments regularly sell at $14.99 but they were on sale for $7.47 and I used 3 coupons - 2 were Joann's coupon (40 and 50% off) and the other one was a Micheal's coupon (40% off). Basically, after all the discounts the price of the embellishment kits were approximately$4.00 to $5.00.

Did you know that Joann accepts Micheal's coupon? Yes, they do! So. . .if you have a Micheal's coupon and don't find anything there that you like, hop on down to Joann's and they'll honor it on any regular priced items in their store. I didn't know this until I looked up at a sign above their customer service counter and it stated that they accept other store's coupons. Luckily, I brought my Micheal's coupon along with me.

Back to my great buy. . .the Joann Essential 300 brad set cost only $2.74. . .I couldn't believe it. The label price was $12.99. I don't know if this was a mistake but the salesperson honored that price anyway. The rest of the Joann Essentials were 40% off so I took advantage of the sale.

I walked out of the store smiling that's for sure. I love it when everything I buy are all at close to half-off. I was debating on whether to get the Cuttlebug or not and decided I didn't need it. I know it's all the jazz right now but I have a die cut and embosser machine that accepts the Cuttlebug products so I'll save myself from jumping on the band wagon.

Oh by the way, I finished reorganizing my craft room this evening. . .I'll post a few before and after pictures tomorrow. Until later. . .

Global Warming - The Inconvenient Truth

I watched the "Inconvenient Truth" last night with my kids and husband. It's a documentary - not really - more like an educational video in regards to global warming and it really had an impact on me.

Al Gore did a wonderful job presenting the issues in regards to Global Warming and the impact it will have on Earth in the next 50 years. It's very scary because this winter especially, it has become quite apparent that the impact of global warming is now actually manifesting itself. Consider the unusual weather we've been having in the last year or so, it's no longer speculation that it will occur - it is occurring, today.

I live in California and we had a freeze warning for this weekend. The temperature went down to the low 20s in California! Wow, that's bizarre. We have a waterfall in our backyard and it has been frozen for the past 3 days.

There's been news reports on the crazy weather in the East. New York at 72 degrees in the winter and other states having unusually warm weather. About two weeks ago, California had an unusual heat wave during the winter when the temperature went up to the 90s. During the summer San Francisco reached close to 100 degrees which is very unusual for San Francisco. Temecula, where I live, there was a week when the temperature rose to 114 degrees.

Please watch the DVD and educate yourself on how you can contribute in saving our beautiful planet. It's predicted that if we continue to emit C02 at the level we are currently emitting, in 50 years our Earth may not exist in the way that we see it today.

Did you know that the Polar Bears have recently been placed on the endangered list? The polar ice caps are melting and many Polar Bears are drowning because the amount of stable ice are dwindling down. It is sad to hear that in a few years the Polar Bears may no longer exist in the wild.

To the top right corner of my blog, there is a pledge widget. Please sign in with your email address and pledge that you are going to watch the DVD and educate yourself. The pledge is not asking for money or anything like that. . .just the pledge to help save our planet!

Until later. . .

My Craftroom Being Revamped

I'm sitting in my kitchen on my laptop because my husband, at this very moment, is putting up shelves in my craft room closet. I was inspired to clean up my craft room after looking at that other lady's room (see my previous post).

I hate messiness. I can't concentrate when my room is messy. I, literally, become confused and absolutely distracted. I have a serious problem taking things out of a container and never putting them back because it's such a hassle to put things away then later taking them out again. Unfortunately, sometimes when I put things away, I don't put it back where it originally was stored. Here is where the confusion begin to manifest itself.. . .I'll spend 30 minutes looking for whatever I had put away because I can't remember which container I mistakenly put it back in. It drives me crazy.

Honestly, I do clean my room on a daily basis because it gets messy on a daily basis. I wonder if other people have this problem. I know I'm not the only one but it don't matter because I don't like it. Do you know how many times I've reorganized my craft in the last 3 months. It really don't matter because the truth is, the reason it never seem to be organized is because I can't fit everything in my room.

I hope the shelves help because if it don't, I think I may have to get rid of a few things. Well, that's stupid because I'll just end up re-buying them again in the future. Okay, I won't do that. I guess if the shelves don't work, some of my stuff has to be stored in the garage. . .which by the way, is not something I want to do.

Anyway, once I'm done organizing my room, I'll post a before and after picture.

Until later folks. . .

Holy Cow - Check Out This Person's Craft Room

I've, from time to time, felt guilty about all the stuff I have. I look at the mess in my craftroom and I'm beginning to wonder if I have a problem. My husband tolerates it and don't necessarily discourage my excessive need to collect as many stamps and accessories I could possibly afford Nonetheless, at times, he will comment that I couldn't possibly use all the stuff I already have. The conversation came up because I mentioned to him that I need to stop by Joann's today because there's a half off sale on a bunch of items I want and I don't want to pass up the opportunity.

Anyway, looking through another person's blog, she posted a blog about another person's stamp room and I took a look at it and HOLY COW - this lady's mad. Take a look at the picture gallery of her stamp room and you'll see what I mean. Click here

See what I mean. . . she's obsessive and I'm okay. Ha!

Isn't it funny that when we're feeling a little guilty or bad about our own behavior, we have the tendency to compare ourselves to others and rationalize that we're actually okay or not so bad. I emailed the gallery to my husband so he can take a look at it and he was like "WOW". He then said. . ."well, just because a person murders multiple people and you've killed only one person, it don't make you less of a murderer". Hmmmph! He's right but pleeeeeease, it's not the same thing. Here I am rationalizing again.

I don't care. . .I'm heading to Joann's today anyway. I'm, actually, feeling okay about it after looking at this other lady's craft room.

Heading to Joann's now. . .until later!

Thursday's Daily Special - Fun with Words 2

Hello. . .I've been a good girl today and actually worked on my daily special for Thursday. Today's Daily Special is Fun with Words!

Because I'm behind, I decided in order to make up for it, instead of making one card for this daily special, I made 4. I am so proud of myself because I actually sat down and focused on making the cards.

I have a problem with concentration. I think I may have ADD because in a span of 1 hour, I'll jump from one activity to another and can't sit and focus on one thing at a time.

Here are the cards I made:

These cards can be created in 15 minutes because there's no real technique to making it. It's basically layout and color combination that is required to make this card.

Both of the "Family" cards were created using the following materials:

Stamp: Hero Arts' "Family", CTMH "heart stamp
Paper: DCWV Scrapbook Paper, Dark Brown, white and light brown cardstock.
Ink: Stampin' Up Pixie Pink Classic Ink
Accessories: Gold metallic cord, 3/8" pink satin ribbon
Tools: Hole puncher, sponge, foam tape

Instructions:

• Cut the dark brown cardstock to create a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card base
• Cut the scrapbook paper 4 x 5 1/4" and attach to the card base
• Rubber stamp the "Family" stamp using the Stampin' Up Pixie Pink Classic ink on regular white cardstock
• Cut the image to the dimensions of the sentiment as show in the sample given
• Sponge the edge with the same ink to shadow the edges
• Mat on to light brown cardstock about 1/8" larger around the edges
• Punch hole to the lower portion of the stamped image
• Rubber stamp 2 hearts for the first sample and 3 hearts for the second sample using Pixie Pink ink
• Cut the hearts out
• Punch a hole at the upper left corner of the hearts
• Using the cords and ribbons attach to the the main image as shown in the picture
• Attach the whole design on to the card base using foam tape

* **If you want to keep the hearts in place rather than dangling, apply foam tape to the back of the hearts and attach to the base to keep them in place.

Materials for this next card:

Stamp: Hero Arts "Laughter"
Ink: Stampin Up Positively Pink Classic Ink,
Paper: Stampin Up Positively Pink Cardstock, Stampin Up Old Olive Cardstock, DCWV Scrapbook paper
Accessories: 5/8" Pink Grosgrain ribbon
Tools: Transparent tape

Instructions:

• Cut the Positively Pink cardstock to create a base card such as that described on the previous instructions.
• Cut the scrapbook paper to 4 x 5 1/4"
• Cut 2 ribbons - 5 inches
• Position the ribbons horizontally as show in the sample
• Tape the ends to the back
• Tie a bow on to the ribbon as shown in the picture
• As with the previous cards, rubber stamp the sentiment stamp using the Stampin Up positively pink classic ink, cut to the dimension of the image, sponge the edge using the same ink, and mat on to Stampin Up Old Olive cardstock 1/8" larger than the sentiment image.
• Attach the image vertically to the left of the ribbons using foam tape

That's it. Simple. Nothing very complicated about it and you can actually make the card in 10 to 15 minutes.

Anyway, back to card making. I still need to do Friday's and today's daily special. Hopefully, I'll have time to finish them today!!

Until later. . .

My Email is Annoying

I have a terrible suspicion that I'm not receiving all of my emails. It's really strange because I'll have long gaps of no emails then all of a sudden I'll receive 20 at a time. I've had notes from online groups that I've joined stating that I need to reactivate my account because they've received returned emails and for this reason, my group accounts were deactivated.

Very, very annoying.

Until later. . .

Friday Clean Craftroom Day

Friday is my craft room clean up day. The first thing I do in the morning is straighten out my craft room, reorganize the room a little and put things where they belong. It's a good idea to clean up at the end of each day but at least once a week designate a day week to do a thorough cleaning. It's not necessary to rearrange or completely reorganize the room but it's a good idea to vacuum, straighten out and just refresh the room so it feels good to be in it.

After cleaning I did make a few cards. Here are a few of them:

Until later. . .