Do you shred your bills? I do. I hate it - it's noisy and boring.
But when I was standing in front of the shredder last week trying to hear my podcast over the noise, I thought - wait a minute! This is such a quick way to create little strips for collage! So I dropped the bills and ran and got some of my reject Gel Press prints and shredded them (after dumping out the bill shreds, so that I would only have print shreds in the bucket.)
I used matte gel medium and a foam brush to collage the strips onto a butterfly die cut, and in the process found out something cool about my shredder - I use this one - in the process, which you'll hear in the video below. I used glitter paper for the antennae and the greeting, and this is the background paper. So fun, and on that scale, my "ugly" prints look pretty and interesting. And the process was super relaxing.
So here's my quick, sped up video of the process. All supplies are listed below the video - enjoy!
A few nights ago, on Facebook, I promised to share the results of about a year's worth of experimentation with a cashew based ranch dressing, so I'm here to fulfill that promise among other things. I have tried every vegan ranch ranch recipe since learning I'm dairy-allergic, and they all just didn't get the spice mix quite right.
But the other night I combined a few of the recipes I'd tried and then tweaked them for spice and tartness. Cashew-based sauces are a little sweeter, so you have to go the opposite direction to get that tang ranch has.
I did mine in my Vitamix, after soaking the cashews. Another thing a lot of these recipes tended to do was start with a cup or a cup and a half of cashews, which is a) expensive and b) enough ranch for Michael Phelps, who I am not. So mine is much more reasonable for just a few salads' worth for me.
Lydia's Personal Best Vegan Ranch Dressing
1/2 C. cashews, soaked in water for an hour (longer if you don't have a high powered blender)
1/2 C. additional water
4 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. dried chives
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. dehydrated onions
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Discard soaking water from cashews, add cashews, water and all other ingredients. Blend until smooth & creamy. Drink from the container or be civilized and have it on a salad or in your fave recipe that calls for ranch.
So now that you're fed - how about some cards?
I found the most fabulous masking pen a few weeks (or months - who knows?) ago and filmed my first experience with it for my tutorial today. It's so cool. I've struggled with masking fluid on several grounds. Most of it smells terrible, and I don't do stinky supplies. The one I found that didn't smell bad worked great, but solidified in the tube in short order. I just wanted a fine, non-stinky pen, and I finally got it. It's this raised, dimensional glaze pen - much more 3D than regular glaze pens - and it masks perfectly PLUS adds a shiny, textured detail to your cards - so it does double duty. I'm super happy with it.
Look how crisp the white stays underneath the watercolor! Love it. And it's 3D and super shiny. The pens do come in other colors, so I'll be trying the same thing with those.
So here's my tutorial for this card. You can click here to watch in HD on YouTube. Supplies are below the video.
Thanks to my friend Kathy Racoosin, we all know that coloring lowers your blood pressure and is actually good for you.
In an increasingly digital environment where you have a million inputs per second and encounter somewhat desensitized humans, it's important to get one more bit of peace that can only come from one place - nature.
I'm never more at peace than when I'm walking in the woods. It's quiet in there, it's cooler (important for us Texans) and I get to see little life forms that live happily without politics and news and all the things that make us all crazy.
I encourage you to start your new year outside. Even if it's cold out. Just go outside. Leave your phone in your pocket. Maybe take a notebook and write notes about the temperature, the weather, what you see. It will be fun to look back on. Shoot - take some art supplies and sketch it.
Make it a habit and improve your life dramatically. Thoreau was onto something.
I thought I needed to start the year with that perspective, so that inspired my New Year's card today. I took this beautiful stamp image and colored it with these amazing and super economical pencils. I used the following pencils: Bordeaux Red, Bice Green & Pink - that's it.
I used my circle dies to cut a hole in the panel I stamped on, and glued that to a card base. Then I added this sentiment. All images were stamped in Nocturne. See below for a discount code if you love this stamp as much as I do.
