Watch It Wednesday

Today I thought I'd share two crafty YouTubers that I love to watch. Mary Polanco makes wonderful cards, has tons of ideas and has a get-to-it-with-a-little-humor style I appreciate. She doesn't talk too long or get lost in what she's doing and ramble like some people that I have to skip through, and her cards are cool and she has a lot of kit videos so you can see how to create a lot of cards from one kit. Even though I don't often buy kits, I appreciate seeing a variety of cards made from one set of supplies.

You can watch one of her Halloween videos using Lawn Fawn and Distress Oxides here. This card has so much texture!

Someone I could listen to for a long time is Emily Leiphart of leiphartonart. She has the best voice for instructional videos—calm and clear and concise—and you should definitely check out her professional projects. This video has a little coloring and some tips and of course, that fabulous voice. These tags are glittertastic! Yes, that's a new word I'm coining. Feel free to use it in conversation and let me know how people react :)

                                      

Do you have any go-to favorite You Tubers for crafts/cards? 

I just wanted to remind everyone that the Caring Hearts Card Drive has started. This is a fabulous drive for nursing home residents for holiday/winter cards. I love how much it grows every year and while I don't make cards anymore, I do deliver them (my family helps) to places in Ohio. You can win fabulous prizes for sending cards in and you'll make someone a little happier with your art. How perfect is that?

Happy Wednesdsay!

Chark

Friday the 13th!

Eeeekk! It's Friday the 13th, which means bad luck and scary stuff. Except when it doesn't. Today was a fine day (not scary at all)! I got to visit my mom and take my bunch of cards to the nursing home so the residents will have Valentines. 

My mom is at home now, but spent a bunch of weeks in the nursing facility after a fall and it was one of those bummer places. It's good that they exist, just they aren't the most uplifting places. The people there were kinda great, though, since they got my mom back on her feet. So, I took the staff some candy and a thank you card.

 

They said they needed 96 cards when I was expecting them to say 80, so I made 50 cards last night! This is what 96 cards looks like in a box. 

My hubby and son helped me write notes in the cards and it was so helpful! I made a lot of Hello cards, because I wanted to get them all finished for Valentine's Day, but I wasn't sure I'd pull it off. This one uses Doodlebug stickers and papers and I love them!

 

This one uses watercolors and a hello die and a flower sticker by Maggie Holmes. The stamp is Hero Arts and it's my newest stamp...I'm loving it. The lines are so elegant, don't you think? If you want one of your own, you can head over to a2z Scrapbooking Supplies to order Hero Arts/Basic Grey Waves Stamp.   p.s. I have it on good authority that the new Spring Collection from Hero Arts is in at a2z...I'm going to get one of the new Stamp and Cut sets...and some other cool stuff!

Hope your Friday the 13th was good and that Valentine's Day is fantastic!
Chark

Out Of My Comfort Zone

So, the teenaged boy of mine is growing by inches daily, it seems. I bought him some new jeans in the fall, and he's already growing too tall for them. And the leather jacket he had to have last year? The sleeves are too short. Sigh. I'm not buying another coat right now (and definitely not a leather coat), so I started thinking of solutions.

When my daughter was young and growing like a weed, I could add ribbon to the bottoms of her cuffs on pants and shirts to make them last a little longer. I was pretty sure the boy wouldn't take to that idea. So, I remembered seeing a leather coat with flannel cuffs and lining. I thought maybe I could do that, even though I am perhaps the worst seamstress in the history of sewing. Sewing is SO not my thing. I'm more of a "hot glue it and call it good" person.

Once I got online, I found that some people use sweater sleeves to make a jacket sleeve longer. And then—Eureka! I found someone who made cuffs for a jacket from socks! Now, I loved this idea because we had black socks aplenty and I wouldn't have to go find a black sweater to cut up.

So, I did it. I actually got out the sewing machine and sewing kit and made cuffs for the jacket. They turned out all right and it was free!


 1. Cut socks like this. Machine stitch the cut edge to prevent unraveling.

2. Turn the sleeve of the jacket inside out, slide the sock around the sleeve and hand stitch the sock (cut and sewed end) to the lining of the jacket.

3. It'll look like this when you've finished.

4. Turn it inside right. and it looks like this.

5. Have your taller-than-you son try on the jacket, and fold back the sock cuff and it'll look like this. Whew! We might make it through the season without buying another coat. Maybe. And he's even thinking I'm clever and helpful and that it looks good. That's a win right there! Now if I can keep him from just pulling them off in the day-to-day wear and tear of his clothes, I'll be happy.

Here's another card I'm adding to my stack for the nursing home residents. It uses a Papertrey Ink stamp and Hero Arts bg paper. I think I should've gone with silver for the hello with these blues...hmmm...yep, I'm going to need to change that. Off to fix it!

Happy Friday, my friends!
Chark

Blueberry Pancakes For Everyone!

Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day and I feel that should include some kind of freebie pancakes for me...I don't think I'm going to get that, so I may have to make my own. If you're looking for a good recipe, here's one from All Recipes that are called My-Hop Pancakes. 

Just add a few room temperature blueberries to the batter right before frying. I like to use some berries from a box of blueberry muffin mix, cuz they're little and tasty and they don't have to be in season at the grocery.

Maybe I should just go to Bob Evans. I love their pancakes...and crepes. Okay, I'm finished drooling for now.

Here's another card I made for the nursing home residents in my home town. I used a Hero Arts rose stamp, colored them with Distress Inks and Copics and then trimmed them. I also used Perfect Pearls and water to spray and give them a shimmer. If I left off the shimmer and rhinestones, it might be a good masculine card too, since some men like gardening and the color palette is darker.

It's also my last entry in the challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine. If you haven't joined you still have a few hours! Hope you'll join me! 

Happy Wednesday...off to Bob Evans for pancakes!
Chark

Craft Stamper Magazine Entry

So I stumbled onto this challenge over at Craft Stamper Magazine and the prize was so amazing, I had to jump in. The challenge is an easy one too—use a non-digi stamp to created something. Love how open this one is. And since I've set a goal to make a boatload of cards in the next few weeks for the nursing home, stamping was right up my alley this week.

Here's the card I'm entering and planning to give to a nursing home resident. I used the Flower Burst cling stamp from Hero Arts on patterned paper, added a premade sentiment that I jazzed up with Stickles and then added gray pearls for the flowers. Hope this cheery palette makes someone happy.

Just in case you're looking for some good stamps, a2z Scrapbooking Supplies has some on sale right now. If you like Hero Arts, this is a great place to shop. This little beauty is just $5.50. It's perfect for Valentine cards or tags.

And this one is a cool background stamp that I'm thinking I need. I'd love to try this in a tone-on-tone aqua card. I love how background stamps give you interest without the bulk of layers—especially when you're mailing cards. It's a great deal at $6.00. Better get over to a2z and get mine before they're gone!

Join me in the challenge, you have some days left! And get to stamping!
Chark

Hiya, Valentine!

I decided to make some Valentine cards for the nursing home my mom spent some time in this summer. The Caring Hearts Card Drive inspired me. I've been contributing to the card drive for a couple of years because I love the idea, and after seeing Mom's nursing home in person, I understood how much of a difference a card could make in a person's life, if only to break the monotony of the days.

So I picked Valentine's Day as my date to get about 80 cards finished. But I'm going with more generic cards than Valentines just in case I don't make the deadline. Here's a card I tried to make suitable for a man or woman.

I started with an embossed card base, stamped an older Hero Arts silhouette stamp (you can find it at Jo Ann here.) on Hero Arts patterned paper, added a ribbon behind a preprinted sentiment—fast and easy and hopefully good. I added more black to the ground with a marker, mostly to cover up the messed up stamping :) I like to think I'm the Queen of Coverups, since I make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of experience "fixing" them.

I'm entering this card over at Craft Stamper Magazine's January Challenge. They have a great prize pack this month, check it out!

Happy Monday!
Chark