Artsy Envies + Tomato Clip Tips!

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

Hey. Hi. Hello! I'm back today with a super easy and fun card and some INSANELY beautiful envelopes + a gardening tip if you grow tomatoes!

First up - the card. I'm super special, so I actually used this word bubble stencil BACKWARDS. That's right. Be jealous. It means nothing for the purposes of today's card, but there is a matching stamp set I intended to use, so out the window that went, and the design was too pretty to toss so I rolled with that particular punch. 

I wanted to use this new outline alphabet - THAT HAS MULTIPLES OF THE LETTERS. That should actually be a stamping law that there are fines for violating. Oh my gosh it's so much easier to set up greetings with multiples. So I used that for the outlined greetings. The rest are from this superhero set, another talk bubble set and probably my fave everyday sentiment set. 

But wait - LOOK AT THAT ENVELOPE! I didn't make it - they are printed like that and they are stunning. I used the same alpha set to stamp Tif's name on it - it's actually the ideal set for envelope art if you are not a calligrapher, which I certainly am not. I'm also mostly too lazy to make my envelopes colorful like this, so what a blessing these are. I haven't seen anything like them.

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I used my MIS-T ruler to line up the stamps, with the envelope stuck down to my sticky mat.

There's a splatter pattern envie too!

Outline Alpha Clear Set [ INK ] Shout Out [ INK ] Sunset Envies [ INK ] Tiny Bubbles :: 4x4 Clear Stamp Set –... [ INK ] Superhero Bursts :: 4x4 Clear Stamp... [ INK ] Simple Sayings :: 4x8 Clear Stamp Set... [ INK ] Splatter Envies [ INK ] INK PAD- Blue Raspberry - Gina K Designs [ GNK | SSS ] INK PAD- Passionate Pink - Gina K... [ GNK ] INK PAD- Wild Dandelion - Gina K Designs [ GNK ] MI006 Hero Tools Ink Blending Brush... [ HA ] Garden Clips [ AMZUS ] Sticky Mat Original, My Sweet Petunia [ ELH ] MIS-T Rulers [ MSP | SSS ] Floral Glass Craft Mat — Glassboard... [ GLS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | ELH ] Scor-Buddy Mini Scoring Board 9x7.5 -... [ ELH ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Understand Blue Bundles Specials for... [ CTC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Shout Out [ INK ]

Now for the gardening tip! For years we used straws that we ran twine through to wrap around our tomato stems and tie them so they didn't break. It was a real pain. 

So when I found these garden clips, I was thrilled! And apparently Dawn from WPlus9 knew about them and didn't tell me! THE AUDACITY! Anyay, you crimp a piece of suspended twine - I tied mine on the beams of our shed - in the hinge of the clip and then just close it around your tomato stem. IT IS SO MUCH EASIER! I clipped up all of our already huge plants this weekend in about two minutes. 

So for all you frustrated gardeners out there - take heart!

Have a great week! Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

VIDEO: Mid-Century Modern Dreaming + Giveaways

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

Oh my GOSH did I have a food odyssey this weekend. And it was NOT all good. 

I was doing a combo of prepping for next week and also trying some new things. I tried steaming eggs after seeing a friend post that that was superior. But it really just affirmed my personal theory that some eggs are jerks, because about the same percentage were jerks after steaming. I will say it is no more or less work than boiling, so six of one, half dozen of the other. 

Then I tried the NYT shawarma recipe in hopes of recreating a local favorite, and while it was not terrible, it was not Tino's worthy and not particularly flavorful. I marinated for 24 hours and it didn't seem to absorb much flavor. Again - it was good, but not like Tino's. This is a white whale of mine. I really need to find the perfect mix. BUT the upside is I do have some delicious chicken, boiled eggs and whatnot for the coming very busy week. 

SO - this week's kit is so perfect for my cheffy heart - and I have a fun video and lots of cards for you with the kit and the add-ons. 

But I fell HARD for one of the add-ons. Holy cow. Number one - I have never seen an olive stamp like this. TWO - my sister has successfully grown olives here. Three - olives are one of my favorite foods. Four - like pomegranates and crabapples, the plants themselves are so spectacularly beautiful, the food is incidental, in my opinion. Such is this lovely olive branch. 

I stamped it in Contour Ink and used my Lydia Split Daniel Smith watercolors. This image is PERFECTLY sized for coloring. Wow. 

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The cooking-themed kit is SO fun - you will absolutely love what you see today. So many creative ideas. It comes with all of this. Wait until you see the way all this can be used on tags on home baked gifts. 

The grid stamp in the kit is full of possibilities - you will see lots of fun ideas on the hop. It's a great backsplash, makes perfect brick, etc. I decided to build a mid-century modern scene by turning it into a checkerboard floor. I cut the scene with the main die, separated the oven, and colored the little oven with OLO Markers and Derwent pencils, finishing it with a Posca Pen. I ordered a set of the white pens in various widths MONTHS ago - possibly last year, and the supply chain finally freed them up and I got them last week. I have a video of this card for you today.

This was my sneak peek card. The kit comes with extra little free-standing dies like this cute pie. I used the grid stamp for a tablecloth. I used Jammie's sparkly coloring paper - you can see the sparkles in the photo - and I colored it with OLO markers with Posca highlights.

I'm not sure this was EXACTLY the intention with this little kitchen tools die set, but if you give me an apron die and a butcher knife die, I'm pretty sure you know I'm going to make a Dexter card, right? The splatters are from this kit, and the sentiment is from this set. I cracked myself up! I cut the knife once out of black cardstock, and once out of holographic cardstock. I used my craft knife to separate the little circles on the handle, trimmed the black one and glued them together - it's the perfect chef's knife! I colored the apron with OLO and Derwent - I tried to make it look like leather in true Dexter form. I was cracking up making this. 

The other set of dies in the add-ons are these gorgeous crocks - the jars and lids are separate dies, so you can put all the little spatulas etc. from the tools set in them! I went for more of a cookie jar style, coloring them with OLO markers, and then using Soft Vanilla Ink to partially stamp a backsplash with the grid from the kit. I then masked that and created a countertop by ink blending Soft Vanilla for a little scene. The sentiment is from the kit. 

Here are all the Add-ons - I LOVE the chicken/egg one! Hoping to make a card with that soon.

So here's my video for today - come back for more inspiration and the giveaways!

Here are all the supplies I used today.

MMH May 2022 [ HA ] Get them all May add-ons [ HA ] Olive Branch Bundle [ HA ] AF468 Contour Ink Pad | Hero Arts [ HA ] Kitchen Crocks Fancy Dies [ HA ] Kitchen Tools Fancy Dies [ HA ] Apron Stamp & Cut [ HA ] Treat Tags Stamp & Cut [ HA ] Eggcellent Bundle [ HA ] Animal Cooks Bundle [ HA ] Kitchen Shelf [ HA ] Bottle Cork Infinity Dies [ HA ] MMH 0322 [ HA ] CM536 Color Layering Orca - Hero Arts [ HA ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors -... [ BLIC ] Derwent Chromaflow Colored Pencils -... [ BLIC ] OLO [ OLM ] Uni-Posca Paint Marker - White, Set... [ BLIC ] Holographic Cardstock Set 1 - Pink... [ PNK ] Sweet Sentiment Premium Coloring... [ SWT ] Floral Glass Craft Mat — Glassboard... [ GLS ] MISTI Laser Etched Stamping Tool... [ ELH | MSP ] Scor-Buddy Mini Scoring Board 9x7.5 -... [ ELH ] MIS-T Rulers [ MSP ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Understand Blue Bundles Specials for... [ CTC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Hero Arts Blog [ HA ]

Here's a TON more inspiration for you. 

Be sure and leave comments so you are entered in the giveaway! 

Loveyameanitbye.

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

Jennifer Kotas
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

CURRENT COUPON CODES
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

A Day Filled with Sweetness + Some Fun Kitchen & Bath Finds

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

I've cooked so much in my life. Sometimes I wish I'd been a life long journaler. I could say - I've cooked 1,000 pies, and here's what the gas prices were in x, y, z years. But I'm not. It's pretty often that I think I'll start - my grandfather faithfully wrote a few lines each day and I love reading them - but not a lot of people have that discipline, and the world was also quieter then, and kinder to routines.

I can tell you I've cooked enough to be one of those people that knows the sound of properly cooked bacon, and the fork feel of a properly baked potato and so on and so on. And I enjoy the heck out of it. I've cooked since I was VERY young, thanks to my mom and the cooking track of 4H, which I would recommend to anyone. I knew more about food safety by the time I got hired at McDonald's at 16 than the people hiring me did, and back then McDonald's was spic-n-span and so trustworthy. Fun fact - my job there was JUST before the RUINOUS low fat craze, and the fries there were fried in beef fat, not some gross processed oil from God knows where - and they were literally the best fries in the world. It puzzled me even then that people thought cooking food in a chemical substance instead of the natural oil in what they were eating was a good idea, but I don't pretend to understand humans anymore.

So today I'm bringing you a little sneaky peeky of tomorrow's Hero Kit and it's a doozy for us kitchen loving types! I can't wait to show you the kit and the add-ons, one of which I used in a VERY edge-case way as you will see tomorrow - MUAHAHAHAHA.

The kit for May comes with an incredible fancy die with a frame - I've used a part of it here - the pie, a cling that you can use for a tile backsplash, brick, or a cute Italian tablecloth as I've done here, and then some FABBY food-themed sentiments. I colored this with my OLO Markers and a white gel pen, and embossed the sentiment in white on Pitch Black cardstock. SO cute for making tags with foodie gifts, or just really cute cards, as you will see in all the peeks and tomorrow. You can see all the other kits (I'll be using a past available kit tomorrow) and subscribe here.

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Now speaking of food, I decided in 2021 that a subscription to the New York Times cooking site would be a good idea. I actually joined for a single recipe - their picadillo, because for as long as I've lived here, I've longed to recreate the TacoDeli Akayushi picadillo - it is to die for. I can say that the NYT got DARNED close, so to me, that was worth my subscription! I know there are a lot of free recipes out there, but like anything else, you get what you pay for! So I pay for that and Homesick Texan.

This weekend's cooking plans include the third round of the RIDICULOUSLY awesome red lentil tofu, which I will make into Sticky Peanut tofu again - that stuff is so good. But the really exciting news is I'm trying out my new tofu press with it!! This is made in the USA, stainless steel and no awkward, fiddly business like rubberbands, screws, blah blah blah. It's not cheap, but it's less than the ones I've thrown away for being terrible. In my allergy food groups - I'm allergic to soy, that's why I make my own, but I LOVE tofu - you would not BELIEVE how many people have smashed expensive casserole dishes and pans doing DIY tofu pressing. Here is an example:

This is from one of my FAVORITE food sites - the Spruce Eats - for their tofu nuggets recipe for kids. (Literally everything I've tried from them is a favorite so check them out.) This is how many of my friends break their dishes.

I would die if an Emile Henry or Le Creuset went crashing to its death onto the tile, when I could just use this.

There are oodles of plastic ones, which, no. Also lots of contraptions that require you to tighten screws every so often - also no. 

Then I'm going to make another white whale of mine - shawarma. I'm trying to recreate the chicken shawarma from Tino's in Austin. We will see. I haven't succeeded yet, but if I get it right this time, I'll share.

I wanted to share two more finds with you, one of which I can take no credit for - it comes from Aaron at Hero Arts, who was kind enough to share a few recommendations with me for gifts to send to a friend in the Bay area. First was this LOVELY florist who creates art with California grown flowers. I absolutely will never do any Teleflora/1-800-Flowers etc. sites because literally every time I have my credit card has been hacked. So I look for local florists I can contact directly, and man was I impressed with this one. I also wanted to send her a food-themed gift, since she's even more of a foodie than I am and just finds the best things. So Aaron recommended this UNBELIEVABLE local bakery that has a delivery service in the area. As I was drooling my way through their site, I noticed that they deliver some of their items outside California, so I ordered my sister this Cafe au Lait spread for her birthday. I was hoping if it was good, I could try to make something similar with coconut milk instead of dairy. She said it's TO DIE FOR. I also ordered the raspberry lychee jam and the tabasco salt for me, which I will be trying this weekend. So if you are in the Bay area and want to treat yourself, I can tell you Aaron is right on the money with these two, as usual.

And, in non-food news, I saw this hilarious shower curtain with a little surprise in it in one of my home design groups, and I might have to get it. 

I hope your weekend is filled with nothing but sweetness!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.
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
Arkon Mounts - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE