Wood Grain Birthday

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Hey friends! My woodgrain technique class starts tomorrow - registration is open indefinitely - so please join us! This background is one of the samples I make in the class! It's so much fun, and I found a way to make a crackle texture without a crackle medium too!

The birthday set is the Hero Stamptember collaboration! Super cute birthday set. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Loveyameanitbye.

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SQUIRREL!

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Yesterday, Clarence finally came and had a few peanuts with me. Since the second set of babies, he has been a little standoffish. I think their diet changes at this time of year because for about a week, Clarence and ALL the babies - the old and new babies LIVED in our pecan tree and ate 100% of our unripe pecans. Why do they eat green pecans? Mysterious.

What we are worried about this winter is the fact that the freeze damaged all the oak trees and there are no acorns this year - normally the ground is covered with them by now, but the trees aren't making them - I've seen one tiny, deformed acorn smaller than a pea. 

You can see what the trees are going through - to me, it looks like they spent all their energy trying to re-establish foliage and there was nothing left for acorns. But that's really bad news for the squirrels. I am not sure what they will eat. 

Clarence obviously will eat peanuts, but still - it's a little worrisome.

So today I have a card with Clarence and the babies! This adorable bundle looks just like them! To do the background I used this sunburst stencil in Wild Dandelion. On top of that I used the Big Dots stencil and the smaller dots stencil for a bokeh look. This is literally what I see when I see adorable little Clarence! And if you look at the stamp set, the image of the squirrel in the nest is so, so cute. 

I did all the stenciling on their new mini Stencil Mat! The soft silicone grips your card so it doesn't move, and it has an open corner so if you're doing a larger format card, it still will fit. Between that and Pixie Spray, ink blending is way, way easier and I don't have to use tape.

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So I'm trying a new chicken recipe this week - if it's a hit, I'll post it with notes in a few days - I'm excited - I haven't tried a new recipe in a while.

Don't forget my woodgrain class is coming up! You can sign up here. 

Loveyameanitbye.

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The Joy of Black & White Backgrounds

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We did a MAJOR culinary experiment this weekend that I'll tell you about after my cards. I'm not ready to call it a success, but it was interesting! 

We also had unseasonably cool weather which was really nice. I got lots of cards made, played a little June's Journey - my new fave game that I blame Dawn from WPlus9 and my friend Sandi for getting me hooked on, and tried to make one of those loom potholders with loops and realized I have lost that skill!

I also took a visible mending workshop from a lady in Scotland, which was super fun! I literally have no reason to know how to mend sweaters, since I don't own any, but I wanted to learn that as a way to do decorative stitching, and it was such a fun and relaxing class. 

I also binged the LulaRich documentary and WHOA. If you haven't seen it, it's on Prime. Pretty riveting stuff. 

But I mostly made cards. Next weekend I am going to mail cards. I am trying to develop a schedule - like every Sunday I send cards or something - but I haven't succeeded yet. Let me know if you have.

Anyway - here is a super fun crossover fall/winter stamp - the seamlessly repeating background of trees can fit any season, but I used them in black to cover a mini slimline card for a winter scene. I watercolored this gorgeous deer die cut after looking at my own pics of deer at the ranch. I noticed that they all have a white area around their eye, so I added that and an eye, and a tiny red nose, because Rudolph. I took just the joy out of the Joy To The World die and put that on a vellum circle.

In addition to those deer dies though, there are more deer dies! I used this double tree stencil to create both trees and shadows with ink blending and then added more watercolor deer.

You already know I'm big into aqua and red at Christmas, so here is a super fun opportunity for that color scheme! I took the background stamp and stamped that in Sea Glass, and then used the little winter people stamps and dies to fill out the scene. 

Oh and this sweet little girl and her bear! I used my tried and true brick background with Paper Glaze, and then colored her with Graphit Markers (Coupon code below).

Finally - and hardest to photograph - Paper Glaze is gorgeous on Glitter Paper. I used this stencil and masked off part of it to isolate this design and then used Marigold Paper Glaze. I also spread it on a piece of cardstock and cut it with the Happy Halloween die to match. I wish you could see all the shimmer and sparkle, but cameras are jerks!

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Okay so our culinary experiment was smoked meatloaf! We made two identical meatloafs using my recipe, baked one as normal and then smoked one on the grill. I wasn't wild about the smoked one - it lost 4 oz. more than the baked one, so it was dryer and tougher than the baked one, but it also had a little tangy weirdness from the smoke that was not my fave. But it wasn't horrible! Feel free to try it.

Loveyameanitbye.

Like this post? Never miss a post by following me!

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE