The Missing Year

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

I keep getting calendar reminders of my 2020 trips. I would have been at my favorite event today - the Artisan Expo in Santa Fe, taking classes from my favorite artists with my sister.

But I'm not. I'm in the same place I've been since March - my office.

And even though in some ways it feels like an entire decade has passed in the last six months, the year has also whooshed by, because there were no milestones to slow it down. No trips, no retreats, just a lot of nothingness.

My garden has benefited for sure. But temporally, it's odd. What would have happened this year? That's what I wonder about. Who would I have met? What new food would I have tried? What would have happened in the baseball games I didn't attend or the cooking classes I didn't take? What's missing from this year is the serendipity of the everyday, if I had to sum it up. Everything is so, so controlled. No room for surprises. 

I'll tell you one thing I've done - I've sent a lot more cards, and I've experimented with a lot more art supplies. So today's card and video are about both of those things.

I've waited basically all my life for a traditional watercolor pencil I could truly say I love, and I finally found it. I bought myself these pencils for my birthday and tried them out, and they checked all the boxes I talk about in the video and I'm tickled pink. The little enevelopes are from this background stamp, and I used this die for the greeting. I didn't add where from, because it's greetings from the missing year...

So here's a link to the video if you don't see the player below, then come back for how I'm virtually traveling :).

My Monthly Hero Kit August 2020 -... [ HA ] DC279 Greetings From Stamp & Cut -... [ HA ] Happy Mail Background :: 6x6 Clear... [ INK ] Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle Pencil... [ BLIC ] Art Impressions 48 PACK Mini Action... [ SSS ] Liebman's Deli | Nationwide Shipping [ GLD ] Lick Honest ice Cream - Ship... [ GLD ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] 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 ]

So in the absence of my trips, I've been taking virtual trips through food. You know I have a dairy allergy, and so I had been using this site to get my favorite local vegan ice cream delivered prior to the pandemic, because the store location is kind of a pain with traffic and parking - if you're just DYING to get rear-ended in this town (it's happened to me EIGHT times since I've lived here), then take a drive up South Lamar. But the ice cream is simply the best vegan ice cream - no gums or garbage, and local ingredients. They have dairy ice cream as well. What's cool about the way they sell it online is you don't have to be a local to get it.

The other day, I was on their site and a suggestion popped up for me for a kosher deli in New York I have eaten at many times. Kosher is always safe for me because they are dairy free by definition. And lordy do I miss the food in New York. So I took a little trip via Paypal and ordered some food from the deli and it was amazing. Just like I'd remembered, and perfectly packed and shipped, which had been my experience with the ice cream as well. So I decided to take a culinary trip once a month and visit some of my favorite restaurants around the country from home. I'm not driving, eating out or traveling, so why not splurge and have my favorite matzoh ball soup delivered? Or my favorite bagels? Or knishes, which don't exist here. Life is short. It doesn't have to be boring. Doodle around their website and treat yourself.

Loveyameanitbye.

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Adventure Awaits... In Your Craft Room

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

Okay well it's 2020, so no REAL adventure awaits, but we can have a paper adventure! That's what I am doing for my Friday. 

When I received my Leaf Stencil, it instantly screamed mountains to me - the open spaces in the stencil looked like the pieces of rock sticking out from underneath the snow of Mt. Everest. So I wanted to try making a landscape with it. 

Now speaking of snow - I have an amazing book recommendation for you after my video. And a terrible story about how long I waited for this book. 

This is just simple ink blending - my colors are listed below - and it forms the backdrop for my cute little camper girl, which is part of today's Stamptember collaboration with my friend Tifany! I'm so excited for her! 

I colored her with my alcohol fineliners (coupon in the footer), and cut her out to put in front of my mountains, which could also pass for trees. 

There is a little boy in the set, and the sentiments are fun - great for campers, scouts, etc. UBER short video on the card base below.

Here's the full stamp set - isn't this cute? And it's bundled with dies here. 

The video is below - if you don't see it or want to watch in HD on YouTube, click HERE.

Ink Blot Shop LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE... [ SSS ] Picket Fence Studios LEAF Slim Line... [ SSS ] *Gina K Designs Red Hot Ink Cube [ SSS ] Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist Ink [ SSS ] Gina K Designs WILD DANDELION PREMIUM... [ SSS ] Gina K Designs KEY LIME Premium Dye... [ SSS ] *Gina K Designs Blue Raspberry Ink Cube [ SSS ] Gina K Designs LOVELY LAVENDER... [ SSS ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool... [ SSS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Simon Says Stamp SMALL TEFLON BONE... [ SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Okay, so it's been a crazy three years for me. So in that time, I had to let some things go, and one of them was the absolutely horrid public library interface for borrowing audiobooks. 

If we dug up Lenin and all the dead Soviets and had them invent the world's most inefficient and unfriendly, bureaucratic and hideous book borrowing service they could conceive of, it still wouldn't hold a candle to the Austin Public Library. 

George Orwell probably spins in his grave every time someone tries to check out an e-book or audiobook.

So I just walked away. But I walked away with several requests for audiobooks active. 

And get this. I get an email this week telling me TWO books I requested - wait for it - 

in November of 2017

were finally available!

That's right - THREE YEARS TO CHECK OUT AN AUDIOBOOK. Bravo, APL. Bravo. 

Well anyway the first book is quite good. It's interesting to me how politics infects everything. In this case, meteorology, among other things. The scientific explanation of this horrific storm is fascinating. And the discussion of early meteorology in the US and how it became politicized is quite something. 

I haven't listened to the other one yet, so I'll report back.

Hope you have a good weekend lined up! 

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

Using Comic Screens: VIDEO

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

I just realized a fun product I used here in a blog post ELEVEN YEARS AGO, has been being neglected by me - and there are some fun updates to it.

I LOVE the halftone dot look of comics, as you can tell by many of my cards, and I forgot all about screen! But when I bought my beloved Graphit alcohol fineliners, I saw that they make MANY of these screens in lots of fun patterns - and guess what - there's a trick with them with the markers - EEP!

And because they are in the same store, you can use my coupon code for 15% off at Marker Universe in the footer if you like today's video!

First up, this incredibly sweet back to school set from my friend Tifany is PERFECT for this technique, because the characters are big enough to see the patterns! So fun to color too. I colored them with the Graphit Fineliners and then applied the fine dot screen. If you get them somewhere you don't want them - no problem - there's a neat trick for that in the video. For all three cards I used this amazing comic/superhero paper pack. And for a little something different on the sentiment strip - instead of cutting the traditional little fishtail, I used a circle punch to round them instead. 

Now for the cute little backpack boy, I used this brick screen to create a wall texture in the background - EEP. I love it. I also used the dots on him. All these screens can be colored with the markers too! But I liked it black and white.

And finally for this adorable little girl, I did the same. I LOVE COMICS.

Okay so here's the video - click HERE if you don't see the video player below! Then come back for more cute stuff. 

Little School [ INK ] Graph'it Brush & Liner — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Paper Rose SUPERHERO Paper Pack 18096... [ SSS ] Graph'it Transfer -1 A5 rub on... [ MRK ] Graph'it Transfer -1 A5 rub on... [ MRK ] Teacher Greetings [ INK ] Fallish Borders [ INK ] Farm Friends [ INK ] Landscape Borders [ INK ] Spit Free [ INK ] Ink Blot Shop Pen [ INK ] https://inkblotshop.com/collections/f... [ INK ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] 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 ]

The full stamp set is freaking adorable. Back to school is so stressful for so many right now, the timing is perfect for a positive, encouraging school-themed set. I love that you can choose from two fonts for each greeting.

She has a teacher sentiment set to go with it.

Here are her other sets out today - so adorable. I just love her style. First - the Fallish borders set, which matches the critter set below.

This insanely adorable Farm Friends set.

Then, her Landscape Borders Set. She sort of specializes in border sets!

Then she has two freebie items you can pick from for ANY purchase while supplies last - just add it to your cart before checking out - the first is a branded, sweet blue Energel Pen. 

And this hilariously relevant set for the outside of your envelopes. 

So head over to this lovely lady's shop if you're so inclined! I will be doing the same. 

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