Monday, December 4, 2023

Easy Garden Journal + Giveaway


*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

Happy Monday! I spent the weekend wondering where the base of my turquoise Christmas tree went. I have the three legs, but not the center! So we had to DIY a new stand and now it's very festive in here, even without ornaments. I also gave away a bunch of stuff on Buy Nothing - the crafters in our group are going to make out like bandits this week. For example - I no longer use the 11x17 grid paper pads I used to use for classes, etc. and I had SO many pads of them. It never struck me until I went to give these away how very sustainable my glass mat is. I spent a TON on those pads and the insane shipping cost of them because of their size. So that felt good to clear out some space and make some art teachers & moms happy. 

I also re-painted our curb numbers this weekend. A few notes here. First - this service has gotten so expensive. When we moved here I think it was around $15, and usually done by a kid, which is always money well spent, in my opinion. Now it seems to be companies that come around and do it and it's $100! That's just way too much, so I decided to use my craft skills once again, because earlier this year, I restored our cast concrete house number by repainting the recessed letters black again - they had completely disappeared. The curb was more challenging, because it's a curved, rough surface. So here are my tips. These letters are modular with little tabs, so you put your address together and then tape it to form a single stencil. This tape works great, but you need to mask off outside the tape with packing paper because spray paint does what spray paint wants. I used this white and this black, and holy cow the coverage was great. I put double sided tape on the back of the stencil to try to hold it to the curb, and that definitely helped, but you will still need to put a glove on and press the number stencil tight and flat to the curb for a nice crisp number. I'd also recommend gathering a few rocks to hold the packing paper down on the grass and in the gutter while you work. Also if your knees are only 20 years old, that will probably help as well. 😂 But they look great now and I'm so glad I did it. I'm passing the stencils and paint around my Buy Nothing group for a while too - you don't use much paint, and you want to use spray paint while it's fresh, so share!

This card from this month's Hero Arts kit and release is probably what put the curb painting idea in my head, because the die reminds me of the big bold stencils. Wait until you see all the cute ideas people have with this die. I used the fine tip applicator with white ink to create cinema style dots on the U, and then added a modular sentiment from this add-on set.



Here's what the full premium kit looks like. I think this would be fun for kids. You can see the applicator I used and the inks.



I'm REALLY excited about the next project - there's a whole planner series in this release, and it was time for me to make next year's garden journal, so the timing was PERFECT. I use a garden journal to record what days different plants bloom and come back from winter. This has been invaluable to me in our last two catastrophic storms, because, like everyone else, my urge was to dig up what looked like dead plants and plant again. BUT I got some great advice from our local gardening expert to wait until in some instances - June - because the plants will come back and they will be even hardier if you let them return. They were right!! So by the second storm, I had already learned patience, and started to journal so I knew what to expect, and how long to give different plants. My garden is thriving as a result, so every year I make a new journal. 


This one is a simple one that uses a tape binding, but if you want to make your own, I have a handmade journal class you can learn bookbinding skills in to make journals of any size.

For this one, for the pages, I covered index cards with music paper someone was giving away on my Buy Nothing group. I hinged then with translucent washi tape. Then I created the covers using this stunning cork fabric that has little copper flecks in it - this comes in various colors and it's so soft and beautiful. I used this decorative die to cut the element on the cover and layered it on Pitch Black cardstock so it was dimensional. I used the Months stamps to stamp on gel prints and glued them as titles on each page. I then painted the edges of each page with gold metallic ink from the kit, and also painted little faux tape on the page titles with the same paint. It's so cute and a great size for my gardening apron pocket, which always has a pen, a journal and pecans for the squirrels in it 😍


Finally - here is yesterday's sneaky peeky of the kit. I used infusions with embossing ink for the numbers, then sprayed them and wiped them with a baby wipe. 



Here are what the add-ons look like this month - planner peeps rejoice! You can click any of the images to see the larger photos on the site.




Ready for more inspiration and a giveaway? Leave a comment here and at every stop on the hop to be entered to win a $50 gift card at Hero. Enter by December 10th.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
Bujo/journaling supplies - 10% off with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off everything at Acorns & Twigs with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

The easiest way to navigate the list is from the first stop on the hop, or you can use my list below. 







Saturday, December 2, 2023

It's Just a Number! (Sneak Peek)


*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*


I saw the funniest post on Facebook this week, and I made a card about it. 

The post was this one. OHHH those lucky punks. My response was that I haven't known how old I am for a long time, and I'm just too tired to do the math, so I don't. Maybe I'll figure it out the next time the ending year matches my birth year. But also maybe not. 

So that is what inspired today's little sneak peek of the new Hero kit, which I'll show you on Monday.

This will give you a small hint at the theme, but I bet you won't guess it! What I will say is that the timing is perfect for you to do some important things for the new year. I used the numbers for a "it's just a number" themed birthday card, by adding random numbers so it will work for any birthday.

I used the Premium kit for this card - with accents from infusions and gold pearls.

If you want to see if more is revealed about the theme, you can see more inspiration on the Hero blog today.



Do you know how old you are? Or are you tired of doing the math?

I hope you have a great weekend! 

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
Bujo/journaling supplies - 10% off with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off everything at Acorns & Twigs with code UNDERSTANDBLUE







Friday, December 1, 2023

Three Months To Go!


*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

I'm REALLY hoping we don't have a catastrophic winter storm. I just can't do that three years in a row. So this morning, when I was trying to decide if I should disturb Maddie and get up (she sleeps on me), I realized that it's only 90 days until we are out of the woods. The latest we've had a paralyzing winter storm was February, and that's really not that far off. Since El Nino made for a milder hurricane season, maybe it will bring Texas a much needed break. We can hope. 

So I'm going to manifest that with some spring cards today, and revisit my own recent videos for inspiration.

First up is this beautiful embossing folder, that features a flat heart shape in the center for your sentiment. I used the process in this video for this background.


For this second one, I used the same embossing folder on the foreground and the background, because - can you ever have too many floral patterns? I think not! The swoopy little die is from this set. The colored portion was made with the same process above.


This cute, sort of French feeling die set has a swinging element - the little girl swings back and forth, like my little mariachis. I did it all in blue Distress Oxides and then splattered it with raindrops!


The last one isn't techniquey at all - just a cute layering stencil with the color combo that grabbed me in 2001 and still has a firm grip on me! I used the same swoopy dies as above.


For the last one, I used a regular embossing folder, and the same technique from the first card, but on the FLAT side of the embossed paper, if that makes sense, with yellow ink. 


Hope you have a great weekend, with no crazy weather!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
Bujo/journaling supplies - 10% off with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off everything at Acorns & Twigs with code UNDERSTANDBLUE







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