Little Daisies 2020

The idea for this card has been floating around in my head for weeks. I made the little daises last year for another project. I liked the way they turned out so well that I made more just for fun. After cleaning up my work table they resurfaced again. Funny how things turn up when you clean up. :)
I'm a big fan of mini punches which turn up at all the used rubber stamp sales. Yes, it does take up a lot of space but I don't have to worry about losing those tiny dies on my work table! Making several cards to send out to friends. The flower pot die is from a Hero Arts monthly kit that had a bunny and garden theme. So far I haven't lost it. :) 

Paper crafter's nightmare

One of the biggest fears any paper crafter has is running out of a basic item. During the weeks before the city shut down, I was really good about making sure I had my kitchen well stocked. 
I know I have enough craft projects to keep me busy for years but adhesive is the one thing I knew I would run out of. Going to the craft store wasn't high on my list so I forgot to stock up. I'm totally out of my double side tape and down to a few drops of my liquid adhesive. I have never gotten this low in my whole crafting life. I'm now down to using up my glue sticks, which I got for a class I taught using paper napkins. Glue sticks are messy, messy, messy things. I know I could order more tape and glue online but during this time, I don't want to add to the delivery people's already full trucks. 
The plus side is I'll use these up before they dry. Still not a fan but happy I have them. 
Now if I can just think of a way for a cheesecake or gallon of ice cream to  just magically show up. :)

Just slap on the color! 2020

Years ago I got the Copic marker air compressor to do very simple air brushing. That was before Copic markers became the go to markers for paper crafters and the prices went way up! It just wasn't cost effective to use the markers that way anymore so my machine went into storage.  
There are many YT videos showing how to blow the alcohol inks around but I'm not a straw person and I didn't want to buy one of those hand pump bulb thingy. Then I saw Sandy Allnock's answer to the my problem. No more hyperventilating using a straw ! I had a tools that would do all the heavy breathing for me!
I'll be mailing out these cards to my friends this week, just a note to say hi!

Tim Holtz Inspired

Years ago I took a workshop with Tim Holtz at the Ten Second Studio in Texas. Tim was just starting to use power point to do his classes because of a recent trip to Africa. With 200 ladies attending he had to find a way to show all the steps without having the samples being passes around. 
Our workshop only had 25 but it still made a big difference!
He said for us not to over think the project, just grab a color and slap it down. It's the creative process that's important. I was at a table with two ladies who just couldn't slap color down. They had to think where the final project would go, what color the room was, was it going to be a gift, what colors did they like more etc....  They were without question several steps behind everyone else in the class. So here is where the power point came into play. Instead of having to go over what they had missed, Tim would just scroll back the photo of the step they were on. I don't think they finished the project but it didn't hold up the rest of the class. If you've ever been to a big class and someone can't work without the sample in front of them or the exact color on the sample, you know what I'm talking about. 
OK back the the card. Tim's live video today was about just being creative, play with what you have while we all have to stay at home. It's the process of having fun not the end result. I decided to do the smooching technique using my Twinkling H2O watercolors. The surprise was the grid lines on the acrylic block  I used transfered on to the paper, which added more texture! I then tried a tip Jennifer Mcguire showed awhile back on how to get your sentiments to line up straight. You save the cut out part of the die cut and use that as a guide on your card. It worked, not that I didn't believe JM. :) 
Oh, hello there is a Simon Says die.

Penny Black Stamp - clusters

Penny Black Stamp - Clusters

It's been very hard to stay focused and positive during this self quarantine time. It's a double edge sword for me. I live on a property with plenty of space for my dog Annie to run and be outside. A very large garden I can putter around in and no real neighbors. The downside that all comes with a cost. Not knowing how my office will be able the handle the shut down and with all my other sources of income tied to people still being able working, it's scary.  I've cleaned up my craft area and I know without question I have enough supplies (glue being the only thing I would run out of) to craft non stop for years. Living alone for so long, I have many hobbies to keep me busy. But I do like having a scheduled work routine too. 
Still happy I have my crafting space and when I do get a creative moment I can play.  

Things find when having to stay home.

While cleaning out my very small pantry during the shut down, I found a Christmas project I did when I first moved into my studio several years ago. I had access to a ton of lemons back then so dried them and made these shimmer pot bags. It's very much like the spices you use in mulled wine. Since I have to be home 24/7 I decide to boil up a batch. The lemons really don't have any smell anymore but it does make the house smell festive. 

Nice Surprise From a Neighbor

Every other Thursday night my neighbor up the hill from me gets a veggie delivery around 10:00 pm. The delivery guys can never find their house because being in the hills the GPS will show you where the house is but there are five driveways that look like roads that look like it may lead to the house. I've gotten use to seeing a noisy white van going up and down the main street pulling into different driveways/streets. When I'm out with Annie playing fetch before bed, I have a flashlight with me. I now flash the light at the van and show them the correct driveway to go up because seriously it looks like a dead end. The big UPS trucks bottom out so they leave Fred's packages in my driveway. 
Fred dropped off an extra box a veggies and fruit. Guess there was a mistake shipment to them. It was such a nice surprise to find the box on my doorstep after work. Because I now had extra produce, I clean out my refrigerator and made Japanese curry with the veggies I had been stretching out. I don't do much with sweet potatoes but it was in the box so I found a simple recipe and baked them. That was a nice treat while I waited for my curry to finish. 

Spring Colors Popping up

We finally have a little break in weather. Getting started on doing a major clean up and redesign in my garden area. Now that we're all asked to stay home for 3 weeks, I have no excuse not to get things done. Annie of course likes that I'm home so she can play fetch all day! 
My son in law is from Holland so he brings back tulips for me. I've planted them all over my yard so it's fun to see pops of color everywhere. I had a squirrel last year replant some, so I'm also finding them in some very weird places but totally makes sense for a squirrel!

Alcohol Inks 2020

A big shout out to Sandy Allnock (artist and paper crafter) who posted a video using her Copic air compressor instead of a straw to blow the alcohol inks around. I was so excited to see another use for this very $$$ machine that I haven't used in years. It really is an air brush machine to use with Copic markers but when the price of Copic got very pricey, it wasn't cost effective for me to use it in a class room setting anymore. It sadly went into storage. Sandy did a great video on how to make sort of flower impressions using alcohol inks and the compressor. There is definitely a big learn curve but having to stay home for the next two weeks, I have plenty of time to practice. I think it also works best with the brighter alcohol inks that are new.  I'm using what I have, so it's a bit more challenging but until I can master making something close to looking like a flower I'm ok with old dark colors. 
THANK YOU SANDY!

The start of staying home.

Wednesday was the first day I stayed home all day on purpose. My office has closed down for the next 3 weeks and that's a little scary there's no income coming in. I have a small consignment booth at Cottage Crafts but of course they are also closed. 
Being a life long crafter, I do have enough supplies to keep busy for a long, long, long time. I'm slowly cleaning up my stash, starting with my iris folding projects. I'm building up my back stock of cards for my card rack at Cottage Crafts when they're finally able to open up. 
Next up is doing some very labor intensive cards, that I've had in the works for a long time but never had the time to do. Really it's the clean up that takes the most time. :) 

nature's easter egg hunt

I live next to an open space reserve, so there are always a lot of critters running around my place. Last year my son-in-law who is from Holland, brought back some tulips for me. I planted them in a pot out in my garden. Something dug them up and I thought at the time ate them. Well this year I'm finding them all over the property in what I can only call squirrel friendly places. It's like an Easter egg every morning as I look in secret hiding places to see if a tulip was planted there. 

In my garden 2020

After working all day getting things cleaned up on Sunday, I took some pics of things in bloom in my garden. My yard is a hot mess but in-between all that are some awesome blooms. Living on a  large hilly property things are spread out and there's always something that needs attention. We're coming up on having to weed wack everything down on the hillsides to prevent wild fires. May 1 is the deadlines and most of my neighbors wait until then to have a crew come in to get it done. It's very hard work because you have to carry a gas powered weed wacker on your back on very steep hills. I have a hard enough time just planting and pulling weed let alone having to carry anything heavy on my back!

The yard work is never done.

Spent all day on Sunday cleaning up the property. Climbing up and down the hill dragging/throwing all the down trees parts to the recycle bins. We have 4 recycle bins and yes we fill them up every week. I also weeded for 3-4 hours and it still doesn't look like I did everything. Annie had a great day, becasue with me being outside her ball was getting tossed almost non stop. The flowers are starting to bloom everywhere, which makes me very happy!

Sunset in Carmel 2020

Carmel Beach 2020

This was a lucky shot of Annie's ball hitting the water. Think this will be our Christmas card for 2020!
I like to walk the beach during low tide, much easier on our knees. While we were there, low tide was happening at sunset. I'm not a sunset taking picture kind of person. Annie was tired and really didn't want to walk the whole beach to play fetch so I stood in one spot to throw the ball for her. To kill time (pokeman stops were too far away to play) I decided to take pictures of Annie. I didn't know what the pictures looked like until I got home. This is a keeper!