CASE Me a Christmas Card

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

Hi friends! 

I'm here today as part of my friend Michelle's CASE me a Christmas card series this year and it's such an honor to be asked! I'm CASEing a card of hers, and she's CASEing one of mine! I used a super fun Diecember die based on the card that inspired me, which you can see here. 

I LOVE the clean style of this card, and as I was making notes to turn it into a Christmas card I thought to myself - why don't we ever see yellow Christmas cards? It's in the heart of the "dark months" as we used to call them, and who wouldn't want some cheery yellow up in their holiday eyeholes?

So I decided to make a VERY non-traditional, clean, yellow Christmas card with just a holiday season theme.

If you search "bee" on Michelle's Blog you will find a LOT of beautiful bee cards! And she has such a way with color!

So to make this card, I first covered two different colored yellow cardstocks with packing tape and cut them with this super modern set of dies - I left the dies tabbed together to create these three openings in a line, but you can cut them apart to use them separately. 

Then I pieced the shiny yellow pieces back into the openings cut with the dies. The shiny tape makes them look like honey! Then I added the bee from this stamp set and coordinating dies, a white snowflake from these dies, and the sentiment from this set. I used this snowflake die to add a white snowflake and these embellishments in the center!

Simon Says Stamp HEXAGON TILE Wafer... [ SSS ] Picket Fence Studios I BEE FIERCE... [ SSS ] Picket Fence Studios I BEE FIERCE... [ SSS ] *Honey Bee Holiday Traditions Gem... [ SSS ] Honey Bee OH CHRISTMAS BEE Clear... [ SSS ] Picket Fence Studios WINTER... [ SSS ]

No reason to stay inside the box for our Christmas cards in this wacky year, right? Bees it is!

Thanks for having me Michelle! I couldn't bee more honored!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
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

Happy Thanksgiving + Turkey Bookmark

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

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I was marveling yesterday that my mom used to do all her Thanksgiving cooking in a single day. I worked HARD yesterday and still have a ton to do today. 

I think the difference is probably focus. Although our telephone rang a lot, it's not the same level of distraction as going into my office to check on work, answer email, get texts, etc. I feel like my whole life is one big notification dot some days.

I think focus might actually be a blessing of the pandemic. Without all the activities we were doing before, maybe we've all been able to focus a little better. I know all the extra time in the kitchen has improved my skill!

So for my American friends, whatever today looks like for you, I hope it's happy and safe and peaceful and full of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes!

I have the cutest little bookmarks for you today. I made these on my Facebook live yesterday. I'm very grateful for smart people who put these things out in the world for us! This lady has the CUTEST patterns! The turkey one is free for now, but her paid patterns in her shop are adorable and I bought some you'll see below.

These little turkeys are a perfect activity if you are zooming with your grandchildren today - they are an easy kid craft. Just need scissors and a glue stick and you can both access the pattern for free here. 

I put mine on one of my mom's old cookbooks - The Gold Cookbook - first published in 1947. After watching the show Glen & Friends on YouTube, I'm becoming obsessed with old cookbooks. You can see SO much of the culture of the time in a cookbook. More so than any other kind of book, I think.

Listen to this intro to the hors d'ouvres section: "It is becoming the modish thing these days to preface even a simple family dinner with a cocktail and a few tasty snacks. The cocktail may be tomato juice, citrus fruit juice, sauerkraut juice, seafood juice or something of that nature, or again it may be the conventional alcoholic appetizer or a glass of sherry, Madeira or a dry wine. Service for this is usually in the living room, which gives the family and guests a chance to assemble for a few moments of conversational exchange. The living room service has another advantage, for the main course of the meal can then be brought to the table without the need of jumping up to remove the glasses and bring in the plates."

The fact that the intro to appetizers goes on for a page and a half is a wonder all in itself. The recipes are in paragraph style, not bulleted lists of ingredients and then instructions. A vast majority of the terms are French, which was heavily influencing food at that time. Imagine how hard it was in 1947 for that to even happen - French recipes and techniques to make their way over here. Now you have the entire world's cuisine available at a click.

This cookbook is a 1256 page low tech wonder. I was surprised to find a recipe for chicken waffles on page 807 - take that California! Well loved, it's falling apart now.

The quotes that precede each section are little cultural gems too - like this strange one: "Food never should be prepred in a dim light. Turn the brights on your salad, and see how it looks before your guest does." ~Oscar of the Waldorf

And holy Lord did they love their gelatin back then! The section entitled "How to use a refrigerator" amused me.

Anyway - on with the show!

Here are my turkeys on the prized cookbook! So cute. 

Then when I was poking around her adorable shop - I found these and had to buy the pattern.

Here are some sales for today! 

AND - the new and improved Mini MISTI is here! So the old one is on clearance and the Memory and accessories are on sale!

Happy Thanksgiving! Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES 

15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
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

Voiceover Takeover by Paul from the Varmints Podcast

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

Listen to Paul, who hosts the adorable, kid-friendly Varmints Podcast, try to figure out what I'm doing in real time as he watches my latest video and gives live commentary! I made him very anxious at one point! He is a LaCroix superfan, so I thought he'd enjoy watching me make these cards. Just a little levity for your Tuesday! Click here if you don't see a player below.

Here are a few of the sales I know about at this point. Just click the graphics to head to the sales.

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
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

Socially Distant Owls, Gratitude Week + a Sale or Two

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

It's gratitude week!!

I'm going to be listing all the things I think have been AMAZING about 2020. My Gen X, youngest child heart is quirky that way, so bear with me. 

The first one is - masks. I've worn masks on airplanes for years - and as soon as I started, I stopped getting sick after traveling, which used to be a constant. I have several immune compromised loved ones, so not being the only person wearing a mask in crowded situations is great! Everyone wins, and we will have a milder flu season as a bonus. My post from January on this topic now feels a bit eerie in hindsight. 

I never really enjoyed being in stores when people were closer to me than six feet anyway, so that's another win - #strangerdanger. Please see this blog post from 13 years ago if you don't believe me! 

Grocery delivery! I've been an Instacart member for SO many years, and I'm happy to see that they were ahead of their time and that other people are enjoying them now as well. I have never enjoyed any non-art related shopping except online, so what a godsend services like this have been for me. And I spend SO much less - impulse buys are real, y'all! I'd say Instacart has cut my grocery spending by a minimum of 40% - sort of frightening, looking back!

That's enough for today - I'll come back this week with more things 2020 has made great.

But now - I have some socially distant owls sticking to their safe pandemic pods for you today. This image is an adorable wood stamp from Hero Arts. I love tiny stamps for clean & simple cardmaking. So to make them perfectly aligned, I just taped down my Cut-Align, because it's thick enough to align a wood stamp with. Then I just stamped the owls with the bottom edge of the wood block snug to the Cut-Align. Then I used a Copic Multiliner to draw a wire/line for them to sit on. The sentiment is from this set, and I colored them with my alcohol fineliners - perfect for small stamps! Coupon code in the footer for those. Stay tuned below for sale info!

A6435 Three Wise Owls - Hero Arts [ HA ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Cut Align [ MSP ] Copic Multiliner SP Pen - Set of 10 |... [ BLIC ] 3D printed craft tools by... [ ETS ] OrganizeMore! Craft storage made easy! [ ORG ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] 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 ] Picket Fence Studios - Stickers,... [ PFS ]

Click the graphics to go to the sale pages! First up - a super fun sale concept from Hero Arts - a build your own sale!

Then an amazing deal from my friends at Picket Fence!

And 15% off at Make it by Marko - no coupon needed and low free shipping threshhold. I love the shammy holder and all their glue rests and MISTI and brush holders - and they are very nice peeps!

Hope your gratitude week is off to a good start! Loveyameanitbye/

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
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

A Little Floral Fun!

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

Hey peeps! Happy Fri-yay!

I'm sitting here trying to figure out the timing of Thanksgiving grocery orders. I made a declaration last year that never again would a slippery bird the size of a human child darken my door ever again, so I will be making my perfect roast chicken with all the normal Thanksgiving sides - stuffing, cranberries etc. Then we will zoom with our larger family and share recipes - my brother and his kids always make interesting non-traditional sides or desserts, so I will miss getting to try those but at least I will see them!

A few years ago, my niece made this cranberry tart from Cook's Illustrated and it was INCREDIBLE. I'm going to try a non-dairy version this year. I'd post the recipe, but you have to be a subscriber - I can tell you it's worth every penny. If you subscribe, search "cranberry curd tart" on their site. I do believe there's a free trial period. 

So on to the show!!! I have a little floral break for you today from holiday crafting. I always get to a point during the holidays where I want to see something springy or tropical, and this week was that week. So I have a bright and happy tropical floral for you today. I have a weak spot for hibiscus - if you Google them, you'll see what a big variety grows in my zone of the country and they're such beautiful plants, structurally and of course color-wise.

This stamp and die combo is genius - there's a big background stamp that is slightly larger than card front size so it's perfect for an edge to edge design like I did. But then the dies cut out the image section that I colored! So I cut that out after stamping it, and colored it with my alcohol fineliners - perfect for the intricate details (coupon code in the footer) and popped it up in the center with dimensionals. On the main image, I used the black marker to color in the background to make the popped up part more dramatic. Then I used the layered word dies in the set (there are two) for the greeting. There are also two sets of stitched, nesting rectangles that I love. It's quite the combo - 13 stamps and 16 dies! What is neat about the packaging is it comes in a little page protector that is hole punched to fit in an A5 binder you can see here. I freaking love products that come in their own storage solution. They do a small release like this every month - it's not a subscription, but it is while supplies last, so when they're gone, they're gone. 

Stamp Club - Happy Hibiscus Stamp &... [ TNC ] Designer's Choice - A5 Ringbinder Die... [ TNC ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | 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 ]

Look at the different ways you can use the dies with this! Totally different from what I did and super cool.

Here's some more inspiration for you from some of my friends! If you leave a comment on each blog you'll be entered to win a $50 gift card AND this bundle!

 BLOG HOP LIST:

Amber Rain Davis

Channin Pelletier

Daniel West

Emily Midgett

Jen Kray

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Kelly Taylor

 You are here Lydia Fiedler  You are here 

Maria Willis

Seeka

My coupon code for the markers is below.

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
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