Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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

The other day, a friend quoted one of my favorite books - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - on Facebook and I decided it was time for a reread. The first time I read it, my dad had taken a summer job at Wright State, and I went there instead of home for a summer off from college. He'd go to work and I'd lay on the couch and nap and read. Ohio was so fun and different for me. We used to eat at this hamburger place he loved called Rax. I have no clue if that's still a thing, but it was basically a build your own burger place, and even in Ohio in the 80s, there was this delicious guacamole as one of the toppings and that's what we always got. 

Eating out was generally a million times better back then. It was before restaurants started using cheap fillers instead of real food, and this place was great in those days.

Now, I listen to so many podcasts that I've sort of let my audiobooks go, but I forgot to cancel my Audible renewal, so I think I'll get that book and the other one I read that summer and LOVED - The Master and Margarita.

I dove deep into the UFO pile this weekend and found a beautiful Brusho background I had made for an older class, and decided its watery goodness would be perfect for my no-line watercolor whale. I stamped him on watercolor paper in Fadeout ink, and then painted him with Daniel Smith - Moonglow and Ultramarine Blue. I used a Copic Multiliner to draw his eye back in when I was done.

The little fish die in this bundle is so cute! I decided to mount it on black cardstock so they looked like little shadows. The sentiment is from the new Stamp Club combo - I cut the layering piece in clear glitter paper - their glitter cardstock is really nice, no-shed paper - Nicole enabled me to try it and I love it.

True confession time - I am terrible at shaker cards. I make a mess, I don't cut my tape right, so if you look at the edges of my cards, it looks like a serial killer made them - it's awful. That's why unless there's a pre-made shaker of some kind, you'll not see them on my blog because I just can't be proud of them most of the time. 

And then what walks into my life? THESE PRE-MADE SHAKER POUCHES. All you do is put them face down, fill them, put a card front (they make different sizes), peel the tape liner off and stick it on the back of the cardstock. No psychotically uneven foam tape, no sequins all over the floor - bim, bam boom. 

I love them. So today - in a very rare sighting on my blog - I present to you - A SHAKER CARD. 

Into the easy pouch, I poured Black Russian and Moonshine sequins (PS everything is 20% off there through Tuesday with code MEMORIAL20), popped a black card front in there, closed the pouch and squealed a bit. I used the cloud, lightning dies (glitter paper for the lightning) and sentiment from the stamp club set and just used double sided tape to attach those to the shaker. This is such a cute combo this month. 

Here are all the supplies I used today. Come back for more weekend sales + a giveaway!

Tonic Studios - Shaker Creator -... [ TNCUK ] Stamp Club - A Whaley Great Set -... [ TNC ] Stamp Club: Shoot for the Stars [ TNC ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] Moonshine Sequin Mix – Picket Fence... [ PFS ] Black Russian Sequin Mix – Picket... [ PFS ] Brusho Crystal Colours - Set of 12... [ BLIC ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors -... [ BLIC ] Copic Multiliner SP Pen - Set of 10 [ BLIC ] Glitter Craft Card - Sugar Crystal -... [ TNC ] Understand Blue MINI Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Double Thick Crystal Clear Foam Tape... [ THR ]

Oh - and before I leave you with giveaways and have a much needed holiday weekend - there's another sale - free stamp set with every order and buy one get one clear tape half off! That's the tape I used to make my light up lighthouse card - if you're using EZ Lights, it amplifies the light a LOT on your cards. She said you can mix and match sizes of tape as well - no code needed. 

So today - there is a hop for this stamp club release - and if you leave comments, you have a chance to win a £50/$50 Giftcard to Tonic Studios and the Shoot For the Stars Bundle! (I'd spend the $50 on glitter paper - just sayin'.) To enter, comment on every blog in the hop by 11:59pm PST on June 2, 2021/ 7:59am GST on June 3, 2021 Winner will be announced on June 4th, 2021 on IG and FB so make sure you're following all Tonic accounts!

 BLOG HOP LIST:

Maria Willis

Sandi MacIver

Daniel West

Jen Kray

Lydia Fiedler

Marie Heiderscheit

Seeka

Ilda Dias

Michelle Short

Jessica Frost-Ballas

I hope you have a great holiday weekend and get crafty! Loveyameanitbye.

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

MIA: Summer 2021 + Giveaway

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

We are having the strangest spring - just like we had the strangest weather. It's been cooler longer than I remember in the last 31 years! I'm not complaining about cool weather in a Texas spring in the least - don't get me wrong. It's just odd. Even odder, despite how cool it is - THE MOSQUITOS ARE THRIVING. 

Seriously - it's like a malaria horror movie down here. So even though it's cool out, it's not a great time to be outside. But my plant loss total went down by one last week, as a "dead" shrimp plant that I had transplanted with some seedum that was too close to it to separate from the dead stick and roots sprang to life! So now I'm down to just one ginger plant, two blue plumbagos, and my orange tree. My selloum is unfurling itself and looking amazing. 

To cheer myself during the depressing aftermath of the storm, I got some new plants that are also doing well - new plumbagos, a new orange tree from my sister who also dug up a HUGE shrimp plant and some arugula out of her yard for me. Immediately after planting those we had a week of rain, so they really bucked up and settled in. Then two chile pequins (our large bush died mysteriously and suddenly a few years ago), and some bulbs that I haven't seen hide nor hair of yet.

I'm ready for summer and some distance between me and that storm. 

Today's cards, not by coincidence - are all from the new Hero Arts Summer Catalog - these are some of  the cards you will see in the catalog - that is always so exciting for me to see them in print. I happen to be growing strawberries right now in my Click & Grow in my craft annex, along with my lettuces, dill and a few other things that don't do well outdoors here but that I eat all the time. Strawberries are a point of Texas pride, as the Poteet Strawberry Festival is a required bit of knowledge in all Texas history classes in public school. So this new color layering strawberry set is on point!

I used the neons to build my berries. Neon Yellow, Red and Green for the base layers - and then Forever Green and Red Royal for the shading layers. It's so bright and happy. I love how the way the stamp is designed, it just leaves white space for the blossoms. Cute. The background was created with the new checkerboard bold print - doesn't it remind you of a racing flag?? - and circle infinity dies.

When I showed you the new Looking Glass dies earlier in the month, I was sitting on my hands about the ones in the catalog - because I had worked on this catalog in the early spring and couldn't wait to show these. I used them with the mini peekabo doors die to create a layered, dimensional vignette on my card rather than a window opening. At that time the alignment stencil wasn't out yet, so the Peekaboo dies were perfect for alignment! This Canyonlands scene reminds me so much of Santa Fe, and I love this scene. I want to do it again the warm reds and oranges of the southwest.

For the tulip looking glass die, I felt super compelled to watercolor it. I painted the background with Daniel Smith watercolor and lifted the clouds, and then painted each layer. Such a sweet little shadowbox type feel, these have. 

Yesterday on my live we were talking about sea creatures, and how scary Jaws was when it first came out. I remember the hype around sharks and killer whales, and I love them both for that reason. But who says they have to be realistic colors? I chose Neon Pink for my killer whale! The background is the one from above, just tilted and cut with infinity dies. 

You know what I'm REALLY ready for? BRISKET. It's literally been a year since we smoked one - we like to do a whole one and freeze it - it's a 15 hour process, so you want to be able to eat it for a while - so it will last nearly a year, but there's nothing like eating it the day it's smoked. That is on the agenda soon! The lifestyle dies - think paper dolls - are adorable, and this little BBQ one was made for Texans, even though we don't typically BBQ - we smoke things. But it's the thought that counts. And for you Aussies - I PUT SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE :). I colored the shrimp & veggies with graphit markers to get the veins on the shrimp with the super fine point - super simple and quick card.

Now I have some super duper exciting news for you today! My dear friends have added to my cardstock bundles. Now you can order pre-cut and scored slimline and mini slimline cards - WHEE! And stay tuned for something super fun in the mini slimline department - I'll have a video for you soon.

Here are all the summery goodies I used today. I'll have details on a giveaway for you below.

https://heroarts.com/collections/summ... [ HA ] Color Layering Strawberry Combo [ HA ] Slanted Checkerboard Bold Prints [ HA ] DI199 Nesting Circle Infinity Dies... [ HA ] Looking Glass Canyon Lands [ HA ] HT206 Alignment Tool A2 & A6 Stencil... [ HA ] DI764 Square Peek-A-Boo Doors Mini... [ HA ] Looking Glass Windmill Tulips [ HA ] Sun Ray Bold Prints [ HA ] Hero Lifestyle BBQ [ HA ] Color Layering Orca Combo [ HA ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] AF225 Red Royal Mid-Tone Shadow Ink -... [ HA ] AF229 Forever Green Mid-Tone Shadow... [ HA ] AF221 Green Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF220 Yellow Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF259 Red Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] AF218 Pink Neon Ink Pad - Hero Arts [ HA ] Understand Blue MINI Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Slimline Folded... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] 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 ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Summer Catalog Blog Hop [ HA ]

I'm part of a catalog blog hop today - so be sure and see the rest of the inspiration! We will give away THREE $50 gift cards, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, May 30th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

Hero Arts

Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Libby Hickson
 ** Lydia Fiedler **
Maria Willis
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Pocono Pam
Seeka
Special Guests:

Nichol Spohr
Jenn Shurkus
Jennifer McGuire

Loveyahappysummermeanitbye.

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