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Friday, January 24, 2020

The Great Key / Murder Debacle of Creativation 2020

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

So I'm back from Creativation with all kinds of ideas, and more than a few stories for you. Stay tuned after the card for those.

But today is my third guest post for Concord & 9th this month. I love them. Their booth at Creativation was a thing of beauty and represented their new ink and cardstock line - YAY!! It's gorgeous, and the ink names are so cute. 

The Tagalongs stamp set and the Tall Type Tagalongs Dies were part of the new release, and even though there are season-appropriate dies in there - it's an all year set - I decided to showcase one of the dies that's fall themed. The dies are all double-cut, so they are PERRRRRRFECT for shaker cards, and the pumpkin was so cute I couldn't move past it! I cut it twice - once into my white card panel, and once out of orange cardstock to inlay. I used these awesome, skinny shaker strips to create the shaker section and to edge the white card panel. I filled the pumpkin with Ombre Sunshine sequins and added them to the card front as well. The sentiment is from the supremely adorable matching stamp set, and the banner is too, stamped in Wild Dandelion to match. 

All of these dies make the cutest shakers, and what's nice is they are small, so you don't have to use up all your sequins on one card! Winning! Now I have a 2020 fall card ready to go. 


Tall Type Tagalong Dies - Concord & 9th
[ C&9 ]
Tiny Tagalongs
[ C&9 ]
Amazon.com: Bulk Buy: Darice DIY...
[ AMZUS ]
CH304 Ombré Sunshine Sequins - Hero Arts
[ HA ]
Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE...
[ SSS | ELH ]
GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Wild...
[ GNK | ELH | SSS ]
Amazon.com: Vogmask Cat VMCV Large:...
[ AMZUS ]
Amazon.com: Vogmask
[ AMZUS ]
Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473
[ SSS ]
Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White
[ GNK ]
MISTI Stamping Tool
[ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ]
Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -...
[ BLIC ]
LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for...
[ BRG ]
Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC
[ ELH | SSS ]
Crafter's Companion GEMINI...
[ SSS ]
Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring...
[ SSS ]
Essentials by Ellen Storage...
[ ELH ]
Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets...
[ CHC ]
XL Stamp Storage Pockets
[ ELH ]
Mermaid tidy towel case and glue...
[ ETS ]
Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045
[ SSS | CST ]
Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies
[ ART ]



Ready for storytime from Creativation? 

First, everyone there got the flu pretty much. One friend didn't even make it to day one, poor thing. Two trips to the urgent care later she got a positive test. Boo. And of course, she had had the flu shot, as had several others who now have the flu. It's a lottery.

Except me. And I 100% credit this to my now two year old habit of wearing masks on planes. I started with the scarf / hood thing my friend Mel got me, three or so years ago. I would just hold it over my face on the plane. Prior to this I got sick literally EVERY time I flew. Then, I went with the masks you can get at hospitals and doctors office - just the blue and white paper masks. 


The side bonus of these was that people didn't know if I was contagious or if I was keeping their gross germs off me, so if there was only one seat empty on the plane, it virtually guaranteed that it would be next to me. 

But those didn't fit great and it seemed sort of wasteful, so after seeing a story about Naomi Campbell's flight routine, which is EXACTLY mine - she dons gloves, wipes down the seats, tray, seatbelt and armrests (she then puts a blanket over it - gold star) and puts on a mask. She is my spirit animal - she says "I do not care what people think of me - it's my health." I would add that it's my health and the health of my loved ones and people I come in contact with. I think it's extremely irresponsible to travel while ill, but I'm in the minority. My flight home sounded like a TB ward. I read up on reusable masks but never really found one I liked, until I read a post in a food allergy group about this amazing mask. An airborne peanut allergy sufferer had posted about them, and I was intrigued. On their website it says "Highly efficient filtering masks help protect the mask wearer from particles .254 microns and smaller." 

Nice. I don't want anyone else's microns up my noseholes, KWIM? So I bought two of them. The bonus is that they are in ADORABLE patterns! You measure a few things before picking your size. 

I put the mask on when we line up to board, and I don't take it off until I'm in my destination airport. Never a cold. It works, y'all. And look - kitties! The one I wore to Phoenix was the geometric pattern, shown on the header of their shop here, but it appears to be sold out now. I also bought this kitty one. :)



So anyway - I don't care if strangers on a plane think I'm weird - I don't have the flu. And that's after being in a room with thousands of people (many of whom had the flu) for a week - the difference is - no small quantity of recirculated, flu-ridden air and tons of uncleaned non-porous virus-filled surfaces. Your chances at a trade show are much lower than on an airplane of contracting an airborne illness. 

Second - I have a bone to pick with car manufacturers who thought those "keyless" (insert dramatic air quotes here with an eyeroll here) push button start cars were a good idea. First of all, I'm still lugging around a ginormous remote - so what the fluffy is the point? Do they think I get THAT excited pushing a button? I do not. And, since it means you have no idea where the damned thing is because it doesn't start the car, the following true story happens. 

On the last day of the show, I had to valet my car after visiting Waffle Flower in Mesa. PS I love Nina - such an amazing person. I got to have breakfast with her and her husband and I wish I could have stayed all day - they are both just a joy to be around. But I needed to valet my rental car with the stupid keyless key afterwards so I could get a dolly out of the back and head back to the show. So I get out, and get my ticket and start walking towards the convention center across the street. At which point, the valet starts chasing me, in my car, because I still had the keyless key clipped onto my belt loop! He was so close to the car shutting down from being too far from the key. Insanity.

Not key related, another fun car adventure happened when I UN-valeted it to go to the airport. Because I'd paired my phone to it for Google Maps, when the valet pulled up, my MURDER PODCAST WAS BLARING. I'm sure he was glad to see me go!

There were all kinds of fun things at the show that you can see in my public Facebook album here, along with the real attraction - the people!

And a huge congratulations to the human version of a glass of champagne - Heidi Crowl, the owner of Simon Says Stamp, who won the AFCI Online Retailer of the Year award. An amazing human, a pillar of our industry, and a bubbly and sweet, kind, generous person with the hugest heart. She makes our crafty world better every day. Send her a note through the website or a card - she's a self-made woman who has my complete admiration.

Loveyameanitbye.

Monday, January 20, 2020

New Stamp Scrubber + Crafty Friends Coupon Code!

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I'm so excited to show you a new product today - I've had this video in the works for a while, and it just makes me smile every time I see the new Stamp Scrubber from Picket Fence Studios!

It looks like a cute little lawn, so of course I had to take the still for the video with a little deer sitting on it. :)

It's a really amazing material - it's soft and scrubby - will not damage your stamps or your MISTI or anything you use it on BUT - it will get all the gunk out of even the most detailed stamps. Plus, like those magic sponges, it expands when wet! Stay tuned for a video overview below! But can we talk about how seriously cute it is for a second? Because it's seriously cute.





Okay fine, I'll give you the video. But after you watch it, come back for your 20% discount on your Stamp Scrubber and the rest of their amazing Creativation release!





You have to  click the banner and use code CRAFTYFRIENDS20 to take advantage of our special discount!


Here's a peek at their latest release if you want to take advantage of my coupon code! Click any image to go to the new release!




Loveyameanitbye.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Softening Detailed Stamp Images with Graphite (Video)


*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

When you read this, I'll be in Arizona at the Creativation Show, so be sure and check out my Facebook and Instagram feeds for updates!

Picket Fence Studios will be in the Stamping Village this year! To celebrate, they have a huge Creativation release I'll be showing you peeks of (with a video!) today. It's a real beauty!

They have three large, showy florals in this release - a bridal bouquet, a bird with flowers and leaves and this huge Barberton Daisy.

I found a new podcast this past weekend, and I binged it while painting this gorgeous daisy - it covers the deaths of Princess Diana, Natalie Wood and JFK Junior in the seasons that are out now. It's excellent. Done by a former Aussie detective. Highly recommend. Whatever I'm listening to, I remember when I look at what I was painting at the time, and I painted this gorgeous daisy listening to the Princess Diana season.

I originally intended to cut this down to card size, but when I was done, I like it by itself, so I might just frame it and give it to someone as a gift. To give you an idea of how big this background stamp is - I stamped it partially off the page on a 5x7 piece of cold press watercolor paper in Fadeout Ink, and then painted it with just four Daniel Smith Watercolors - Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Quinacridone Purple, New Gamboge and Aussie Red-Gold. The greens are Undersea Green, Rich Green Gold. (All from the Lydia Split in my split group on Facebook.) For me, this is hours and hours of painting, so I don't film full sessions of these, but you can see my method in my watercolor playlist or my no-line watercolor playlist on YouTube.



Next - my FAVORITE BUNNIES ARE BACK! Peach and Piper have returned in this new happy-mail themed set! It's so sweet, and it comes with matching dies for all the critters, as well as a mail-themed background stamp! I stamped these in Fadeout Ink and painted them with Daniel Smith watercolor. So cute! I actually filmed this card and my phone ate it. Bad phone. But I do have another video for you today so don't despair!



Now this one is off kilter, because I had to tilt it to show you the amazing shimmer on this gorgeous swallowtail image! All I did was paint the whole image with my Peacock Sparkle Pen - that's it! I love the ginormous scale of this image. I didn't even need a sentiment!
Finally, another large background stamp really grabbed me - it's these tennis shoes from my childhood. It comes with lots of inspiring sentiments, but I wanted to do something simple with a very simple art supply - just graphite. I wanted to do something that made the shoes feel soft and well-loved, because aside from jeans, there's nothing better than an old, soft, broken-in pair of tennis shoes. So stay tuned below for the video. I just paired it with a simple "hey" word die-cut so that I didn't obscure the image. I stamped it in Whisper ink first, and then you'll see how I shaded it very simply in the video, and I'll give you some random trivia about shoes. :)


So here's the video! Enjoy!















Barberton Daisy
[ PFS ]
Peach and Piper Checking the Post
[ PFS ]
Peach and Piper Checking the Post...
[ PFS ]
Swallowtail Beauty
[ PFS ]
Walk, Crawl or Run
[ PFS ]
Hey You Die
[ PFS ]
The Stamp Scrubber
[ PFS ]
Spectrum Noir VINTAGE HUES Sparkle...
[ SSS ]
Amazon.com: Pentalic Art 6-Piece...
[ AMZUS ]
Gina K Designs WHISPER AMALGAM Ink...
[ SSS ]
Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink
[ INK ]
VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -...
[ ELH | SSS ]
Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors
[ BLIC ]
Escoda Versatil Round - BLICK art...
[ BLIC | INK ]
Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes...
[ BLIC | ELH ]
Fabriano Extra White Cold Press...
[ BLIC ]
MISTI Stamping Tool
[ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ]
Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045
[ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ]
Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -...
[ BLIC ]
Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art...
[ BLIC ]
Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two...
[ SSS ]
LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for...
[ BRG ]
Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473
[ SSS ]
Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White
[ GNK ]
Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC
[ ELH | SSS ]
Crafter's Companion GEMINI...
[ SSS ]
Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring...
[ SSS ]
Essentials by Ellen Storage...
[ ELH ]
Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets...
[ CHC ]
XL Stamp Storage Pockets
[ ELH ]
Mermaid tidy towel case and glue...
[ ETS ]
Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies
[ ART ]


LoveyameanithopeIseeyouattheshowbye.