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Post by joblackford on Aug 12, 2024 20:37:36 GMT
Not much for me. A new maple leaf die and a burlap embossing folder, both from a Honey Bee sale, and some stamps and dies I'm borrowing from a Pea.
I've brought some new things into my space in the past few months (from the stamp/die round robin I hosted) and my storage got a bit too full, no longer easily flip-through-able, so I'm working on removing some things to make space.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 12, 2024 20:32:28 GMT
Happy to hear that this leak seems to be resolving more straightforwardly, angel97701 . Nice to hear about folks eking out more crafty time, returning mojo, etc. I'm not too pleased with the Recollections birthday card kit I got a few weeks back. I was trying to fill out a cart to get $10 off $50, so I don't exactly regret it, but even after the discount(s), it was still more than twice what I paid (at half price) a couple weeks later for some AC card kits at Joann -- which make twice as many cards. Don't like that the die cuts are mostly gold-foiled while the stickers are silver holographic. The 10 card bases are patterned and 6 1/4 x 4 1/2. It includes exactly 9 sheets of 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 "scrapbook" (ie very thin) paper, 4 patterned, 5 plain. I find myself trying to come up with designs that will look good, not mix silver with gold, and make good use of the "precious" included paper. And then start feeling fairly hostile about the whole thing. I hope the AC kits come together better, though even if I struggle with them as well, they were still a better deal. And I'm sure that I will manage to pull 10 birthday Cards for Cubs out of the Recollections one. I just won't enjoy it or do it again! Fingers crossed the AC kits are easier to use. I don't like the sound of the Recollections one but hopefully you can at least get some cute birthday cards out of it. Happy Monday all! Today was the first day of school - it's my youngest's senior year so...a little bittersweet. Senior year! I hope it's a great one. Lots to do for parents of seniors in the US, I gather. I hope it all goes well for you too.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 12, 2024 1:39:47 GMT
kitbop your photos sound intimidating! I don’t think I could start with that many photos waiting for me… I would have to do it a little at a time. And it sounds like you have a LOT more going on. I got some more donation Christmas cards stamped and written in today, and I started loading up the box so I could see how many more I need to do to get it ready to go. With all the cards I’ve made and repurposed this year I should already have a full box and then some. I just need to get some more insides done, enough for this box, not all of them, and then I can get back to the fun stuff.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 11, 2024 1:02:20 GMT
Catching up on your lovely cards Shakti and MDscrapaholic Sorry, I keep forgetting about this thread.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 11, 2024 0:56:00 GMT
Well, the card kit sold out. Not lightning fast -- I did take a moment to check Monday evening or maybe Tuesday and it was still available then. I saw a card Channin posted this morning with a pair of beautiful and pretty realistic-looking macaws made with the layering stamps and started to consider caving...saved from myself. This is the first time since May's final MMH that they've managed a sell out. EtA: Was I merely under-caffeinated? Was the site glitching? Did I dream it? I have the card kit in my cart…decisions, decisions. Mostly centered around the fact that macaws are deeply cool, but how truly useful are they in cardmaking?! in vaguely related news, I may have a FB buyer for one of the stupid transfer sets from another kit…. Maybe a glitch? I was surprised to hear they’d sold out with this one. It didn’t seem like it would be a home run. Seems to be in stock now. I can’t imagine using macaws a lot myself, but if you love them… Hope you can sell the transfers
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Post by joblackford on Aug 11, 2024 0:43:59 GMT
Today’s batch of cards got another sentiment I mashed up from examples I found online: “I just wanted to send some cheerful thoughts your way to brighten up your day” with a stamped “have a beautiful day.”
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Post by joblackford on Aug 11, 2024 0:36:19 GMT
Oh no angel97701 !! Water is such a nuisance when it doesn’t stay inside the pipes like it’s supposed to It sounds like you have some experience in handling these things. I hope there wasn’t anything important in that room besides Mr Tiggy ?
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Post by joblackford on Aug 10, 2024 20:21:50 GMT
Linda I love what you came up with for the troublesome cat layout I see what you mean about the photos being very neutral now. The red black and white sets them off really well.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 10, 2024 2:16:07 GMT
I’ve spent about a week of crafty time stamping and writing on the insides of donation cards so I thought I should share what I came up with here. All of the cards of the same theme (Christmas, winter, fall) get the same basic message but I did go rogue with one fall card that had a moose walking on a “ground” of sunshine patterned paper The rest of the fall cards got “fall is in the air, autumn days are almost here. Stay cozy!” mashed together from several stamp sentiments I found online. Aug share by jo.blackford, on Flickr
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Post by joblackford on Aug 10, 2024 2:06:42 GMT
That’s a great resource for cards I would write for my own purposes. Thanks for sharing I’m going to post my card insides on the sharing thread since I just spent another crafty afternoon writing messages.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 9, 2024 18:38:30 GMT
Handball is my favorite sport, I'm so happy to see someone else who likes it! Going to look through my travel stash for an Eiffel Tower now, because I assume this is my one shot at using it. I also like water polo which is a similar, although handball doesn't involve trying to drown the other players After someone explained that handball was like a dry version of waterpolo it suddenly made sense to me. I haven't ever seen a game but I think smultringunn shared a bunch of posts about Norway's handball team on IG during the last Olympics (and/or the one before, probably) so I learned it's a big deal in some countries. My nibling started playing water polo and has shared some of the tricky stuff that goes on under the water! He's a gentle child, so water polo is showing him a more cut-throat side of the world.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 9, 2024 18:28:36 GMT
Catching up on some comments and page posting this morning. Then I need to get busy with garden produce... something like “autumn blessings, pumpkin spice and everything nice” or “fall is in the air, sending autumn cozy wishes” Those sound good for fall cards. Don't write off "Smile!" or "Sending your smiles", or "hugs". I do really like "sending smiles" and variations of that, but maybe because too many people have told me to smile when I don't want to, I tend to avoid that on its own. Making cards for seniors sounds like a good cause. I wouldn’t have thought about sentiments that might not be appropriate. It should be noted that I overthink everything!! I've erased the rest of this comment at least 3 times now... sigh... I just added a "you are my sunshine" sentiment to a couple of cards and now I have that song stuck in my head. That's probably good though - some folks who have lost a lot of their cognitive abilities can still sing songs they learned as kids, so I like to imagine them singing along when they read the card.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 9, 2024 0:58:36 GMT
So, there are a few things I would order at OfficeSupply.com that are creeping up my urgency list. Of course, the Solar White Classic Crest 110 lb IS currently out of stock.... Grrrrr! Oh, how annoying! I used to buy it from Amazon or Joann but it got harder and harder to find, or just really expensive. I was glad when someone recommended the 100lb Hammermill when it was marked down - I tried it and decided it was heavy enough to be my everything cardstock instead of trying to source both 80lb and 110lb Neenah. I hardly miss the extra sturdiness of 110 now.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 9, 2024 0:53:16 GMT
angel97701 sorry, BSTS = Bring Smiles to Seniors is a card charity shakti and I both donate to. I got some more Christmas cards stamped and written in, and added some sentiments to fall cards I made months ago. I’m still workshopping inside sentiments for those. So many fall sentiments are either gratitude based which don’t sound right when you don’t know who will get them (and I’m not going to tell a neglected/lonely senior to “be grateful” any more than I’m going to tell them to smile) or they’re about activities that most rest home residents haven’t been able to do for years. I think I’m going to go with something like “autumn blessings, pumpkin spice and everything nice” or “fall is in the air, sending autumn cozy wishes” I totally looked up stamp sets on scrapbook dot com to see what I could say!
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Post by joblackford on Aug 8, 2024 17:40:05 GMT
I used all but some branding strips and a few sentiments from a 12x12 Paper Rose Christmas collection + the matching die cuts to make 61 cards to donate And I used up the last couple of pieces of SU vellum by cutting it into strips to bundle around donation cards. The weight of it wasn't very good for my cardmaking purposes, a bit too thin. I think it was a hand-me-down I rescued. Worked really well for the bundling though. I just got some nicer weight vellum so I also declared "scrap bankruptcy" and tossed out almost all of the old scraps. I might have to admit that I never use the scraps, but for now I'm just saving the heavyweight scraps that are a decent size.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 8, 2024 17:26:40 GMT
Good morning! A bit exhausted and very overwhelmed, but here! joblackford , you are so good, writing messages in your cards for BSTS! I know they prefer that, but don't require it, so I don't. I do make sure they have stamped greeting inside. The only ones I write in are for the Altenew parents drive and that's usually just a sheetload or two. Hope you find yourself settling in soon. It must be quite an adjustment. TBH I have never written inside cards for BSTS, but I heard many months ago that they had a lot more cardmakers than cardwriters so I told myself I should try and write inside. I'm only just starting now. Christmas cards are a relatively easy place to start because I used to have to write in them for the Caring Hearts drive. If I would stamp and write inside as I went it would be a lot easier! But batch stamping is more efficient... so I justify putting it off. I just emptied out my "clean" trash bin at my desk where I throw scraps knowing I might pull them out again to use as extra cardstock layers or to punch a few matching hearts or whatever. I decided the experimental Xmas card I threw in there last month didn't look so bad after all (seeing with fresh eyes) so I finished it I also declared vellum scrap bankruptcy and threw all my small scraps away. I hardly ever use little bits of vellum and the thin stuff is unpleasant to use anyway, so I only saved heavyweight pieces and a few bigger scraps. Yay
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Post by joblackford on Aug 8, 2024 0:41:09 GMT
Sorry to hear about your son being sick and adding extra drama to the situation angel97701. I hadn’t heard about the Juneau/Mendenhall glacier ice dam bursting - that’s a scary situation! I spent all my crafty time this afternoon half-watching/ listening to videos and slowly adding handwritten messages into 61 cards. I did them 5 or 10 at a time, adding little decorative flags, and bundling them up once I had 10 done so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. Some days my hand forgets how to write and I make lots of mistakes but today everything flowed pretty well
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Post by joblackford on Aug 7, 2024 17:50:07 GMT
My goal this month is to get the cards I've made ready to donate. Most need some kind of internal sentiment stamped and a handwritten message. Some might also need a sentiment on the front. Once they're all the way ready to go I need to bundle them so I can have them truly ready to go in a box. I tend to leave all the final finishing steps until I'm ready to mail the box which makes the whole proccess far more time consuming.
I've started by stamping "seasons greetings" in 61 just-finished cards, and now I'm second guessing whether to handwrite or stamp another greeting. doh! I think I'm going to write it to make it more personal, but copy one of my stamps for the actual wording.
ETA: I got through those 61 cards this afternoon with a handwritten sentiment, signature, and a little decorative banner inside each. 6 bundles ready!
Next goal is to locate other cards that need the same treatment, choose a stamp, write, bundle, rinse and repeat.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 7, 2024 17:41:08 GMT
I'm still looking for a new trimmer for 12x12 paper, but I want one with a base that is 6 inches wide to the left of the blade (looks like the CM one goes to 5.25 before having to pull out the arm) The Tonic one I have has markings and grid up to 5.5" but where the black bar ends is actually 6" without engaging the extra arm. I've also marked 6.25" on mine, right on the edge of the upper left edge. Cutting anything between 6.25" and 6.75" is tricky, you have to do math! or mark the paper. But otherwise it's a pretty great guillotine trimmer. www.scrapbook.com/store/ton-1980e.html
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Post by joblackford on Aug 7, 2024 17:34:07 GMT
Ooh, it looks nice I have the Tonic 6x12 guillotine which is great but I missed the handy little CM trimmer I gave to my friend years ago so I rebought it from eBay. Turns out for cardmaking I need something that goes to at least 5.5" wide so the little trimmer is not as useful as I had hoped. This bigger but still in-between size doesn't look like it would solve any problems I have. It's just got me brainstorming how I can add my own extension to make my little trimmer more useful.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 7, 2024 17:22:01 GMT
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Post by joblackford on Aug 6, 2024 22:33:26 GMT
My husband isn't a scrapbooker but I guess he is a bit of a memory keeper. Friend and I were talking about her taking her kids to Chicago this weekend and their surprise at all the skimpy outfits on Lollapalooza festival-goers. I only knew a little about Lolla from the 90s, so I'm thinking grunge flannel, very different. When I googled I was surprised to see that back when it was a traveling festival there was a show at our local county fairgrounds, and then my husband says, yeah, I went to that show! A few minutes later he pulled out his $29 ticket from 1992
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Post by joblackford on Aug 6, 2024 22:25:51 GMT
The main thing that caught my eye was the colorful paper, but it looks like that's actually washi sticker sheets - much harder to use than paper! I'm sure I would mess them up sticking them anywhere. And it doesn't look like any of the DT examples used them at all. The style of the illustration doesn't really seem to go with the style of the stamps.
Scott at Card Cutups has had trouble using the rub-on sheets with the rest of the kit for the past couple of months too. It's like that's added to add value and make it more mixed media but it takes away value if it doesn't really work with the kit, at least to my way of thinking.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 6, 2024 22:14:00 GMT
Oh wow, that's a lot of water Linda and it sounds like it will be an ongoing issue for a while. The linemen do such important work in such awful conditions. I'm amazed your services have already been restored. I have been trying to go to a new crafty meetup at my local library for a month but every week something comes up that day. I was so proud of myself for getting out of the door early today with all my yarn organized, and even my own coffee from home, ready to craft and chat. And then as I walked down the street I found an outgoing election ballot in the bushes, then another one ripped open with the ballot thrown aside, then more and more stolen mail discarded along the sidewalk. Ugh! I detoured a couple of blocks to deliver them to the police station but the sergeant said if I was willing I should take the unopened mail to the post office to be re-delivered and the ballots to the elections office (primary elections are today!) If he accepted them as found property he'd have to hold them for a month to be reclaimed or something like that... so I was 40 minutes late to the meet-up and a bit more flustered than I would've liked. But USPIS is going to investigate the mail and the elections people were very nice and said I could drop the ballots in the drop box and they would deal with them. Sigh... Hopefully starting next week I can go to the meet-up without any drama and earn some double crafty hours. The ladies seemed nice and I wasn't even the youngest person there I think I need a nap now!
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Post by joblackford on Aug 5, 2024 21:31:03 GMT
I thought I'd get one more card from my scraps but I ended up with three. The little scrappy scraps will go inside some of the cards. The only other bits I have left are some branding strips with the tone on tone stripes (like the edges of the top right card) and a few of the sentiments. I got 61 cards from the 12x12 pack plus a pack of die cuts Scraps Aug share by jo.blackford, on Flickr
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Post by joblackford on Aug 5, 2024 20:56:30 GMT
This exact same situation happened with last year's Paige Evans Christmas line. Do they not learn? They have faith in her designs but not enough to order sufficient stock? If this is some kind of FOMO thing I think they're missing the mark.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 5, 2024 16:42:09 GMT
That is a crappy thing to do about no restocks. At least one would be nice. It was a big misjudgment on AC's part! It sounds like they literally didn't make enough to supply every shop that ordered it. With manufacturing offshore I don't think they would be able to get extra product made to arrive in time for the holiday so they will miss out on a lot of sales. They really don't seem to know what will be popular and what won't.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 5, 2024 16:34:50 GMT
Good morning, Peas! It is early here. I need to leave the house in about an hour. I've showered and am eating breakfast. I do not like eating early -- the last time I had breakfast this early was probably 6/27 when I had the on-site interviews for this very job! My typical office MO is to pack both brekky and lunch to the office. It seems like maybe I am remembering how this whole "work" thing works.... Hope everyone has a great week!! Good luck getting back into your work groove christinec68 - it's wet, very wet. I've heard we've gotten 4-5 inches of rain overnight and at least that much still to come today. Loads of branches down and I'm feeling very thankful about the four trees we had taken down this spring. Power has been flickering on and off for a couple of hours but so far it's still on. Not true for many around here Glad you still have power for now... I was checking the storm news this morning, thinking of you. I'm so glad you had those trees removed. Rain and flooding are not good but wind and trees are really scary. I recently read Isaac's Storm, about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It was very well written but also very hard to read because so many died. I can hardly imagine what it was like back then when no one had ever seen a storm from space and the science of meteorology was still in its infancy. Some people were figuring out where storms were based on the wind patterns and predicting what would come next, but most people didn't trust weather predictions at all and had that same attitude of "last time it wasn't as bad as you said so why should I believe you?" that many still have. Stay safe!
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Post by joblackford on Aug 4, 2024 21:49:04 GMT
I think I just have to conclude that I don't care for this brand any more. I've bought a few gems from them, but the vast majority of their stuff (especially the last couple of years of kits) are not my jam. I still always watch Card Cutups kit videos though, because he has so many creative ways to use them, I figure maybe it might help me see my supplies in different ways.
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Post by joblackford on Aug 4, 2024 21:43:17 GMT
you kinda live in an area NOT known for lots of sunshine except a few summer months. Having lived in the PNW much of life life. You learn that when the sun is shining you get out and enjoy it! At least a bit of a relief from the heat wave you've had this summer. Do you have AC? Many don't in that area. Yeah, the dry sunny season is pretty short here in WWa. We only have a window AC unit in one room and fans to pull cool air in at night in two other rooms. When it's really hot (90s and up) we get pretty uncomfortable - anything above 83 inside is pretty miserable! And the basement is unfinished - much cooler, but a bit spidery and not much fun to hang out in. This area is funny because the second we reach the 60s in spring you start seeing guys walking around town with shirts off and ladies in tube tops, so different from their winter fleece hoodies, but when it gets over about 85 everyone hides inside and moans! It doesn't help that Puget Sound is glacially cold year round so most of our water is not safely swimmable. And I live near a naval maintenance facility that can't be trusted not to accidentally let toxins into the water (or so I've heard) so I've never actually touched the water down the street from me. That's quite an adjustment after growing up a short drive from literally dozens of delightful sandy beaches. It sounds like you're loving lake life
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