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Post by joblackford on Jun 18, 2024 23:58:40 GMT
Interesting that a couple of you started driving at 23... I never learned. I had 2 or 3 terrifying driving lessons that involved driving a few feet in a parking lot in my teens and that was it, I couldn't do it. I've never had another lesson, have never driven, even on a back road. Probably not even a bumper car. I can ride a bike (just) but not on a road near traffic. I loved living in Japan because the trains were amazing, none of the expats I knew had a car, and we all got around just fine. It didn't even occur to me that every single one of them drove in their home countries. And no, I didn't grow up in a place with great public transit. People here said I would learn after I had kids (which is when my mum learned, I remember my dad teaching her to drive a manual transmission). I had already told them I wasn't having kids but they didn't believe me about that either. I know a few other non-drivers now, funnily enough, and we all agree the roads are terrifying, but safer without us learning to drive on them!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 18, 2024 14:00:19 GMT
I’m left handed and it is weird answering questions about it a lot - let’s say someone is showing you something sports related or assumes your handedness correlates to you dominate hand/side… they will say are you left or right handed and I will say left but then whatever it is I almost always would use my right hand. I basically write with my left but everything else with right (use scissors, can opener, other tools, play sports, etc). I’ll also add that I am related to Laura Ingalls Wilder on my Grandma’s side (last name Ingalls) and I did NOT like the TV show. lol I didn’t even read the books until I was an adult and knew we were related. I remember meeting my great uncle who was 102 and he had played with Mary and Laura as a child. That’s cool! Have you read Pioneer Girl, the autobiography that was drawn from to create the Little House books? I enjoyed it a lot. It’s got details that were simplified or omitted from the kids books. www.goodreads.com/book/show/22212838-pioneer-girl
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Post by joblackford on Jun 18, 2024 13:51:28 GMT
I spent almost all day yesterday finishing what I was reading for book group, which is today, and finishing an audiobook, which was due today as well. At least the latter allowed me to crochet while I listened so I earned a few points.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 18, 2024 3:52:27 GMT
I watched the video and they do seem fun. I liked the way the spritz could be spritzy or more of a solid coverage, and matching the Distress colors was smart. They are distinct from the mica sprays because the liquid is clear so they don’t really change the underlying color. I’m not really a spray person. He did say the price point is relatively low because they’re an extra top layer type of thing. I haven’t seen anything yet that would convince me I need them.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 18, 2024 3:44:23 GMT
I don’t make layouts but for other crafty inspo I look at YouTube and Instagram. Neither are very good for finding older stuff or more specific ideas. They’ve both made their search results more random Pinterest seems to be another place that might have some older product and blogs, but I’m not sure if the ability to search is any better. Google search or maybe image search might be just as good unless you can find someone with OA specific boards. I could be wrong about that though!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 17, 2024 15:32:00 GMT
I finally sat down to watercolor some bookmarks first thing, like I've been wanting to. I thought it would be a good start to the day, and it's something that keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list if I leave it until later. I did four, and three are quite lovely. One turned out especially pretty. I'm still learning not to fuss with them too much. I get to add doodling or stamping over the top as the next step.
I need to finish reading about wildfire for book group tomorrow. Our theme is natural disasters. I had so many books I would've like to read, but isn't that the story of my life? If only I was better at concentrating...
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Post by joblackford on Jun 16, 2024 19:21:52 GMT
No luck on the 50/50. Someone is taking home a cool $8 million. But not me. Now my only dream is to have the Oilers win just three more games... Making rhubarb crisp again. Put together a facing page for one that I finished last weekend. Dd & fam are on the ground in Alberta and should be here on time for steak bbq supper. Darn! I was looking forward to seeing what you bought with your winnings Rhubarb crisp sounds yummy, as does steak bbq supper. Enjoy your day with the family!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 16, 2024 1:03:17 GMT
I don't have much to share right now because I've been upcycling cards I've received into new cards for charities. But I was pretty proud of crafting this one. I think the nativity scene was from the inside of a card that got upcycled years ago. The 2nd photo shows where the "a-side" of the background came from A Star Wars themed (birthday?) card! http://instagram.com/p/C8Pp9mIpUAy
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Post by joblackford on Jun 16, 2024 0:48:49 GMT
Here to pick brains, if there are any around on a summer Saturday.... I'm spending some of today remaking Pea card exchange cards for Bring Smiles to Seniors, since they take all random holiday cards, which Cards for Kindness really doesn't. I mean, they may have a brief window when they accept Halloween cards or whatever, but who has time to chase that down all the time? BSTS doesn't like completely blank cards, though, so I'm making sure to stamp a sentiment on the insides. I'm looking at my fall/autumn non-Halloween cards now and wondering whether to stamp a generic fall message or Happy Thanksgiving. I'm leaning a little toward the latter. Thoughts? Curious if you decided to go ahead with one or the other... I don't think there's a wrong answer. I tend to mostly make general fall cards, but I'm sure they have plenty of use for either.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 16, 2024 0:45:45 GMT
I have booked a scrappy date for Tuesday. My vehicle has an appointment in the morning for a recall issue, and I have book club in the evening, so I have booked a table at the LSS for the day to play with paper! Just can't decide which theme(s) I want to go with... I have family travel pic's (from Hawaii, Phoenix, Mexico and Florida), sports photos (baseball, hockey, and soccer), pic's from two different grad's... Lots of choices! It's great that you can spend the day at the LSS That sounds like a win-win for you and for them. I'm almost completely through my huge stash of cards waiting to be re-made! I've thrown a few away, and made a few that might be a little hard to use and unsuitable for donation, but I've gotten crafty with some that might've been trash otherwise. I'll share a tricky one later if I remember. I even found one very random long skinny card that I could cut up to use for a Sheetload card. It had some beautiful peonies on it, so I'm adapting it to work for 2 cards for this month's sketch.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 15, 2024 2:15:03 GMT
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 14, 2024 21:33:14 GMT
Which folded cards do you buy Shakti? Do you mind dropping a link if they're online? I'm finishing up dealing with all this stuff from MIL's and then I'm hoping to do some crafting. But I also need to read a book about the Paradise wildfire before Tuesday and I'm not a fast reader, so I need to get started on that. No Bridgerton until I get the book read, I think. I had grand plans to do watercolor meditation/flow/practice in the mornings but that hasn't happened yet either. I was awake at 3am with hot flashes, a sore neck, and !bonus! fire engines responding to a house on fire a few blocks away, so that's my excuse for today.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 14, 2024 2:41:53 GMT
I got in a few upcycled cards today before my husband got home with another carload of junk from his mom’s place that needed sorting for donation and then laundering… Some really crazy and random stuff. Glad we’re dealing with it, little by little. (Glad she’s letting us!)
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Post by joblackford on Jun 13, 2024 19:49:42 GMT
I know grammadee makes cool cards for the men in her life She can probably link you to some examples in the gallery.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 13, 2024 16:40:27 GMT
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Post by joblackford on Jun 13, 2024 16:28:13 GMT
I bought the new Disney lines from Simple Stories, concentrating on the stuff that could be used for non Disney pages, just because it was so cute. And yesterday I found more Disney photos I didn't know I had. Yay! Since I didn't have embellishments for some of them I had to go deep in my stash. Like, at least 10 years deep. I was really happy to add all kinds of things- Disney stickers, Star Wars stickers, puffy stars, acrylic stars, etc., that have been sitting all that time doing nothing. It really is fun to shop my stash and get those long lost items on pages. That's wonderful! That's what stash is for, right?!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 13, 2024 1:11:20 GMT
In the last few days, inspired by Shakti talking about organizing cards to remake and donate, I’ve used about 70 card fronts that I had saved for upcycling to make new cards. In the process I’ve also used up all of the extra 5x7 grey card bases and envelopes I bought for a commission project, and I’m almost done with the white 5x7 envelopes I have too. It’s not a size I prefer so I don’t plan to restock when these are gone.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 13, 2024 1:05:16 GMT
I just got back from running errands. On my way to Target I saw a guy letting his (harnessed and leashed) parrot fly next to him while he went down a back road on a motorized skateboard Oh TELL me you got a video! I wish! My parrot loving friend would’ve loved that too. Unfortunately he was too far away from me and getting further away by the time I realized what was happening. I did find a photo that might’ve been the same bird, an African grey, riding the bus during the pandemic. The birb was sitting on one of the seats with the DO NOT SIT sashes draped over it
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Post by joblackford on Jun 12, 2024 21:35:44 GMT
I'm also amazed at your output. Your cards are always so beautiful. I like all of the different techniques you use. What do you do with all of those cards? Thanks Almost all of them go to charities. A lot go to Bring Smiles to Seniors, but there are some that go to foster kids charities like Cards for Cubs as well. The happymarks are also for a children's charity.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 12, 2024 21:31:27 GMT
so it's probably good enough for now. But having run into the age discrimination thing and already answering so many questions about too many too short jobs, that feels like a trap. So much of the job market feels like a trap or a catch-22 situation these days I just got back from running errands. On my way to Target I saw a guy letting his (harnessed and leashed) parrot fly next to him while he went down a back road on a motorized skateboard
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Post by joblackford on Jun 12, 2024 4:27:39 GMT
Too busy sulking over the Oilers? Exhausting from travel? Li'l bit o' both? Li'l bit o both. Stupid Oilers. Ya can't score if ya don't shoot! Drove 5 1/2 hours today. Did a bit of shopping in Edmonton (about half way) for boring stuff like house and garden supplies. Dh always wants to talk my ear off when I get home from a trip (at exactly the time I am feeling the most peopled out LOL). And I needed to check on my garden, water some plants. Most of the seeds I planted are growing! Sometimes gardening is like watching water waiting for it to boil--you just need to step away for a bit! I hope you get some rest and relaxation. That’s a long time to be on the road.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 18:09:19 GMT
I have a few ongoing projects like the photobook I do for my family and an ephemera/sticker journal. They're "put away" and only brought out when I'm actively working on them.
I have some seasonal projects like a digital Xmas journal and seasonal card drives.
I have one crochet project going at a time, or very rarely two (because the one I'm doing doesn't work for travel, etc).
I think of cardmaking in project terms - getting out a paper pad to finish or a sheetload to work on, and I don't put that away until I'm done with that (which usually means all the paper I pulled is gone). Much less often it's a single card for a specific event.
Sometimes I have to stop and move to something else while I still have a bunch of cardstock pulled and unfinished die cuts, etc. I put it halfway away (a specific spot) but I don't know when to admit that it's actually a finished project with leftovers, not something on hold. I die cut a bunch of little pieces and put them in my deviled egg plate to sort/separate, then I have trouble knowing when I'm finished and throwing away the bits that aren't used. I don't have the energy/time to keep working on assembling more die cuts, but hate to waste good bits. Maybe I need a divided pill organizer or tiny zip bags so I can put it away without mixing it all up.
TL;DR: once I use it up I know I'm finished. If I don't use it all up I get confused.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 17:50:47 GMT
Well, you will...maybe not today, maybe not this item, but you will. I personally will use a hand-cranked machine until I physically can't. And then I will resent my frailty. As for the magnetic mat, I am eagerly, eagerly looking forward to SB.C's magnetic magic mats finally being available! I got a magnetic base platform thingy for my Big Shot last year. It's a bit finicky at times, but having something magnetic is really helpful and saves me from taping 95% of the time.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 17:45:19 GMT
Oh boy, I should probably do some reorganization of my finished cards and my donation-remake bin too! I think it's pretty out of control, and I don't have a great system for grouping cards by who they are going to, when, what more they need, etc. I like making the cards and then I just stash them away... I might have to declare bankruptcy on some of the Christmas cards I have saved to remake. I got a bit overloaded taking on other people's extras and a bunch of random sized cards and it became more of a chore. That sounds like a good project for today. Some of it is easy — Cards for Cubs cards, for instance. Those I can wrap into their labeled bundles as soon as I have 10 in one theme. BSTS used to be easy because they’d take anything. But with guidelines changing, it’s gotten trickier. By “extra” Christmas cards, do you mean new, unused boxed commercial cards? Because BSTS accepts those without remaking into handmade cards. The thing I was doing that doesn’t seem to be working for me anymore was stamping sentiments inside the blank cards from charities and sending them to BSTS. I should try bundling as I go! Never even occurred to me... Extra was a mix of new unused Christmas cards (but many have glitter so they can't be donated), thank you notecards, random commercial greeting cards from the 90s, charity cards, and a friend's old received cards she needed to declutter - so I got the fronts of holiday, birthday, thank you, encouragement, all manner of random. I should've been better about sorting them in a detailed way when I got them, but many of them show up when we're removing bags and bags of 40 yo paperwork from MIL's den. It's all I can do to grab the cards and see if they can be used by someone instead of being trashed. I was proud of myself for putting them straight into my donation/remake bin instead of leaving piles on my table until I could deal with them, but I haven't sorted the donation bin in too long. It's looking better though! I worked through a bunch of easy (re-make into A2) cards yesterday. So thanks for the inspiration!
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 2:22:30 GMT
How does she have her Halloween line already and Shimelle hasn’t even seen IRL the line she designed that was supposed t8 be available this month?!!
Anyway, I can see a few bits that look appealing, although I probably won’t buy much.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 2:17:34 GMT
My binder is for card making so not sure that it will translate… I had some binders and pocket pages from when I tried to do PL in letter size, so that’s where I keep my die cuts and premade sentiments etc. I like to be able to page through and rearrange them. I allow for serendipity by not organizing too strictly, but I also make lots of cards, have a small stash, and use up whole packs of die cuts on a regular basis. It’s quite different from how most people scrapbook, from what I’ve seen. My original idea was to have each pocket represent a card I could make so I’d group die cuts and sentiments that were similar in one pocket, like all the limes and there “lime yours” and “Valenlime” puns. Being able to store it standing up is great for my small space, and if the binder gets too full it’s time to make more and buy less.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 11, 2024 2:03:17 GMT
I am a messy cook, and I was a very messy scrapper when I used to do traditional paper scrapbooking. My scrap room desk was always messy. These days, my “clean up” consists of me closing my MacBook and putting it in the drawer. 😂 But how does your Mac desktop look?! can you see it or is it just files? I’m just as scattered and messy digitally as I am IRL. So many duplicate files and “piles” of things to deal with later.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 10, 2024 18:32:47 GMT
I could never let my space go as much as some people do, mostly because it's in the middle of my house, open to everything! I clean up at the end of a project, for the most part. It tells my brain I'm done, relax, so I try not to clean up too much when I'm in the middle of something, lest I never finish it. But I have a tiny space and mess makes me crazy, even though I'm the crazy person who keeps making the mess, so I'm training myself to do partial tidy-ups all the time. I look around and ask what can go back to its home, which is where I would look for it when I reach for it and need it, not on my desk. So for the most part all that's out are the unfinished card elements and maybe the stamps and dies I want to use. I worry that I will forget if things aren't out. But at least once a day all the tools and things I'm finished with, or couldn't possibly forget about, are put away. this person likes to leave 1 incomplete project on their desk. This project being left out continually calls them to come in and work on it. Like, you look forward to getting in your room to do the next thing, and you always know what that is. I tend to do this too. Especially when I finish a big project and want to jump into the next one but worry I won't know where to start. I try to leave myself a drafted card and a die set and some cardstock on the desk so the next time I walk by I have a little head-start. When I'm tired of a project I'll straighten a little bit but leave the next step front and center for the next day.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 10, 2024 18:21:37 GMT
I had zero interest in the card kit until I watched Jennifer McGuire’s video and now I want it. Geez that woman! Hahahahahaha. I swear she could just about sell me anything!!!!! She did some cute stuff with this kit for sure. She is truly an evil Influencer genius. I have to be really careful that I don't fall for her influencing just because I like the colors she uses.
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Post by joblackford on Jun 10, 2024 18:17:56 GMT
Very cute cards justjac I like how you added the sentiment on the left side of the (adorable!) characters. I will try that if I do another set.
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