Washi tape might not be all it is cracked up to be!

The pack of washi tape rolls arrived very quickly.  I was a bit taken aback though by the sizes of some of the rolls, 7 are very narrow, 7 are a bit wider and 7 are a usable size.

I am making a card for my eldest grand daughter right now and I want it to be special.  She is the mother of my only great grandson and a treasure.  I love her dearly.  I decorated the front of the card and I am extremely happy so far with it.

I decided to use the thinner washi tape on the inside and put a couple of pinstripes down one side.  It went on easy and looked great.  However, when I went to check how it held up I was very disappointed to see that it had come loose on both stripes at the top.  I pushed it back down and put more pressure on it and left it.  A couple of hours later it had started to peel off again.  I pressed on it again and left it once more. Now I guess I can glue it but it is supposed to be self adhesive and as it is very narrow I don't want to try and glue it and ruin the card so I think I will just peel it off.  I am disheartened as I had great plans for this tape.

Now Sod's law after the third time of trying to get it to stick it appears to have done so.  I will leave it as is for now and see what happens.

It seems every time I venture into something new on the card making I either can't do it well as in the stamping or it doesn't work well as in the washi tape.  The only thing I seem to be able to do quite well is the decoupage so I will be sticking mainly to that.  I will still be stamping envelopes as I really like them decorated.

Since I started into the card making I have found that I can get the dies very cheaply off of Amazon.  They come directly from the orient so take several weeks to get here.  No 3 day shipping lol.

These are what I have bought so far and I bet I haven't spent more than $25 total and they are free shipping.  That is simply amazing.  I am waiting on another 8 or so dies to arrive then I think I will have enough.  Compared to what other companies charge they are an absolute bargain.

With regards to other things here in the hinterlands, the septic/lagoon guy came out on Tuesday while we were away for hospital appointments and cleaned out the lagoon and flushed the lines.  He charged $500 which is money well spent because no way, even in our fittest and healthiest days, could we have done that.  Specialist equipment required which we do not have and the know how.

My husband's hand is improving slowly, we had to go back to see his doctor because it became very sore.  She prescribed antibiotics to ward off any infections.

It is 4.30pm here so as I have had quite a busy week I am going to sit and watch a TV show I recorded.  Dinner is already made and just needs nuking.  Oh and for tomorrow, Go the Toon!  Newcastle United play Manchester United in the Caribou cup final and my son will be there to cheer Newcastle on.

How did I not know about Washi Tape????? and weekend trauma!

The weekend has been a tad traumatic.  We live in the middle of nowhere so our water comes from a deep well and the waste water goes into a lagoon.  If you have followed my blog for a while you know we had to have a new well dug and new pipework put in leading to the pumphouse two years ago to the tune of $12+k.

Now our sewerage pipes are backing up. Ugh! Can't complain the system has worked flawlessly for 18 years.

I had to wait downstairs so I did not miss the guy coming to check out what was wrong so to pass the time I was watching YouTube videos on card making and I came across one in the Sizzix tutorials and the demonstrator was using washi tape as part of her decorating.  Never having heard about it I was intrigued, so of course I googled it.

My goodness, such a selection and very reasonably priced.

Now it seems that it derives from masking tape but it is patterned in bright colors with lovely designs.  It appears to be quite thin and isn't overly sticky.  As it will just be used for decorating cards and not holding anything together it should be OK and apparently it can be removed without damaging the card.

So to cut a long story a little bit shorter I ordered a pack of 21 rolls for only $6.99.  The link to them is below if you are interested.

Washi tape

I could have done with this tape when working on this card as I got a smudge on the inside from the stamping.  It was the first card I made  in January with the stamps I got for Christmas. To hide the smudge I cut out a frame to glue in.  With the washi tape I could just have just ran a strip of it over the smudge. I will be well prepared next time lol.

Can you see the smudge bottom right of text?

      

Well now you can't!

Prettied up with ribbon and a bow

Stamped Envelope 

The Septic Pump guy showed up and the sludge has to be dug out and the lagoon deepened then the pipes blown out. Thankfully it will not cost any where near what the well did. He will be here tomorrow. Thank goodness. It has been quite the adventure dealing with this, suffice to say when I take the dog out to pee it is a group activity lol.  Good job we have no nearby neighbours and have plenty of acreage!  

On that not so pleasant note I will bid you all a good evening!

Four down now on to the next ones!

Finishing touches done to cards and verses put in, did stamping on the envelopes so four down and goodness knows how many to go.  A bit of ribbon and a nicely printed out verse makes all the difference. Mailed 2 off to the UK, the other two were our Valentine's cards.

Now on to the rest of the year. I have one already made and need another two for March,  then three for April and May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December all have family birthdays, then of course Christmas again.

We had a trip to the ER last week, my husband had a spontaneous hematoma come up on the back of his hand, no idea why, he hadn't bumped it or anything. Here it is a week later, waiting on a call from his doctor to see if he needs to go back. Even the palms of his hand is bruised and he says it really hurts.

Time to make dinner so off I go.  Have a great week everyone.

A makeover, a modification and His 'n Her Valentines cards

I did get the curtains made for one room, two windows so 4 curtains made.  They are nothing spectacular but they are clean and fresh.

Last year we made a drastic change upstairs, we moved our king bed into the room that was my sewing room as the air conditioning works much better in that room. We were in the process of replacing two walls in the sunroom where we usually sleep in the summer so we had to sleep in the main part of the house all year.

This meant some of my work tables and craft stuff got moved into the other bedroom but not all of it.  So our bedroom is part bedroom and part craft room and the other room is visa versa.

This year neither of us are up to moving heavy furniture so the rest of the changeover is happening very slowly. Eventually the computer table and computer will go into the other room and the dresser and tallboy will go in it's place.

In the card making department I did a makeover on the card that I said would languish in the made box and now I am happy to use it.

It went from this:-

To this:-

And I modified the unicorn card front from this:-

To this:-

I added some dragon flies to another card I am working on for my daughter.

I am working on our valentine's cards, I have the fronts done, waiting for some printer ink to get here so I can print out our sentiments which we write to each other.  I do not have any Valentine's verses stamps.

I am really happy with these so far.

So that's what I have been up to since my last post and also helping my husband with his project.  He is self publishing some short stories he wrote in the 80's and 90's.  He has also written several novels but they involve a massive amount of work so we will be busy on those for a long time yet.          

Wowser is all I can say!

The new stamp pads arrived in Monday's mail.  Considering I didn't order them until Friday afternoon and they were sent from the east coast that was pretty impressive!

Any way, they are so much nicer to use and they make nice clear impressions.

I have learned some lessons though about the stamping process:

• It can be messy and you can smudge the the card or paper using them.
• You only get one go at each stamping and if you blow it you could ruin the project.  I have decided that I will not stamp directly onto my cards, I will stamp onto a different piece of card and stick the piece of card with the stamp on into the card.
• I still need to practice.....a lot!
• You can roll ink on embossed card and it will just colour the bumps as in the pink card with the blue dots above.  The pink card next to it is just embossed so you can see the difference.  This will be great with my Christmas cards as I emboss the front on a lot of them.  I like to layer my other cards with one of my layers being embossed so it will be nice to add a bit of colour to the embossed layer.

I will not just be using stamping on my cards, I will only use it for verses and backgrounds.  I like to decoupage my cards with the cut outs.  I have spent a couple of days assembling flowers.

I need to use my dies to cut out some more 'greetings' then I will have plenty of things ready to make more cards.

I do so like the winter months as it gives me more time to do crafty things.

I need to make some curtains next for our bedrooms upstairs.

An update on the stamping progress!

**Warning! Photo heavy and a bit boring**

Well, I am a little disappointed in my progress on the stamping front.  I have concluded that the problem is the cheapie ink pads that came with the stamps I got at Christmas, (as well as user error!)  They have dried out very quickly and are not very big so I have difficulty getting the stamps inked evenly.

I did a lot of online research and have realised that you need to buy good quality refillable ink pads and bottles of refill ink to ensure even stamping.

But! and as I have said many times before, there is always a BUT!

Good ink pads and refills are very expensive to get an assortment of colours. The ones I like are $8 for the pad and $4 for a bottle of refill.  To get six different colours that comes to $72 plus mailing costs as we do not live anywhere near to a good craft store.

So I have been churning over and over whether to spend the money on the inkpads and refills.

I couldn't commit that much money, it defied logic to me.  I decided to check out ebay and found some inkpads that came with refills in  the brand I wanted.  They are the previous model of pad but a pad and a refill bottle were only $5.50 for the two. So I gritted my teeth and ordered 6 and I eagerly await their arrival next week. I negotiated on the mailing cost so that helped with the decision making. As you can see from the cards below, the stamping is patchy and feint.  I am really hoping the new ink pads and ink will solve that problem in the future.

I make cards because I really enjoy doing it and also because good quality ready made cards are very expensive.  I try to personalise the cards too, like my daughter likes dragon flies and one of my my granddaughters likes unicorns so I try to incorporate their likes into their cards and I really like matching envelopes.  I can  pretty up the envelopes to match the cards using the stamps or even make them with nice paper.  

This is what I have done lately:-

This one I will use, not 100% happy with it but it was made with love and it is my first home made matching envelope

This one will probably languish in the bottom of the 'made cards' box to be used only in emergencies. The stamping is not good, partly user error and partly bad ink pads.

This one is not finished yet, will certainly not be doing any stamping on it until the new pads are here.

It is dull and cold so I am trying to get organised by cutting out flowers, butterfies and greetings etc so they are ready for when I want to make more cards.  My husband is also tied up with a project of his own so I am getting more time to spend on my card making right now, which I am thoroughly enjoying.  There is something very therapeutic about running these dies through the Sizzix machine and popping out the shapes.

 I also cleared out an old set of plastic drawers to use for my supplies.  I had things in there belonging to my son from when he was a teenager.  They are tucked away now in a plastic tote and I have organised the supplies into the drawers.  Much easier! They sit right by my work table.

Will post again after the ink pads get here.  Fingers crossed they help a lot.

Wolferman's 1910 Original Recipe English muffins

 My goodness, have you ever tried these?  They are the most delicious muffins I have ever had.  We received a gift of a hamper which included a packet of these.

My husband said 'Oh they are good, my mother used to drive to KC to go to Wolferman's bakery just to buy them.'

We toasted one each with breakfast on Christmas Eve and I was instantly smitten.  We saved the other two for Boxing day.  

I googled if they were available online and yes, you can buy them online direct from the bakery.  I ordered a box of 6 packets and they arrived today.

They are so nice and thick, there are 4 in each packet.

I will be having one for dinner tonight, my husband says they are a breakfast thing but my mouth is watering so I will have one with some raspberry preserves. Yum!!!

All is revealed!

 Now all the festivities are over I can disclose what we bought everyone for Christmas this year.........

Yep, everyone got a wooden letter money bank with their own specific initial.  I thought they would be something folks could use and keep for a long time regardless of their age.

Now let me show you what I got for Christmas, I love it!  We saw it in the Black Friday deals at Walmart and it was only $50.  I couldn't believe it when I saw the price and said to my husband "That's what I want for Christmas please."

It sat wrapped up in Christmas wrapping until Christmas morning.  I don't know how I resisted opening it before.

Our trusty toaster had began to go on the blink and it would have cost more than $50 to replace it with a good one so this was the perfect solution.

I found some time this week to experiment with my new card stamping supplies.  I usually start out with an idea which doesn't come out quite like I envisage so it morphs into something else.

Here is my first attempt at including stamping.

I have watched several YouTube videos on stamping since then so now have some better ideas.

I am enjoying this hobby a lot and strive to get better in my endeavours.

Happy New year everyone.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 I juggled things around and finally found a place for the tiny tree, so from our house to yours every one, Merry Christmas!

Santa and the Nativity didn't cheer loud enough!

We sat down yesterday to watch England -v- France in the quarter finals of the World Cup.  I thought maybe England needed some extra support so Santa and the Nativity watched it too to cheer them on but obviously we didn't all cheer loud enough!  I think it might have been Maggie, our dog's indifference that did it, she slept through the whole thing!

The decorations and lights are up, inside and outside, cards have been mailed, gifts have been ordered and mostly delivered so just some baking and caramel corn to be made much closer to the time.

I have been thinking about introducing stamping into my card making so have been researching that and watching You tube videos.  

I am liking what I have seen so far.  I can buy a starter kit with stamps, stamping blocks and ink pads so will probably do that after Christmas ready for birthday cards.

Christmas cards are made

I have managed this year to get all my Christmas cards made in a timely fashion.  Stamps have been bought, labels have been printed so I am ready to start writing them, but I am procrastinating!!! Why? I have no idea.  I keep finding other jobs to do.  Weird!

Here is a selection of some I made:-

I have been quite ill with a really nasty cough and cold for 12 days now but I have managed to do other things.  Maybe I don't want to spread germs in the mail, yes! that must be it.  I am not infectious anymore I don't think so I must start on them soon.

Most of the Christmas presents have been ordered and delivered except one which was missing from one of the packages.  I have messaged the supplier through Amazon and they assure me they will get the missing item sent out.  Everybody, regardless of age or sex are getting the same thing this year and no, it is not gift cards or chocolates.  Can you guess what I have brought almost everybody? (All will be revealed after Christmas). I still have to find something for our son and daughter in law though.  The orders have been received for the three grand children from that family but 5 of the same thing in one house would be a bit much so I have to think of something different for the parents.

My husband and I are just getting one gift each this year and we have them already.  We got mine in Black Friday sale and I can't wait to get it.  I am very strict about not opening and using Christmas presents early so I have to abide by my own rules too.

It has been a tough year financially for most folks and we are no exception, our income is fixed so with the roaring inflation our buying ability gets less and less. But I will always try to buy presents for everyone at Christmas and hope that will always be the case.  With health issues and other things that had to get done this past year we haven't made any Christmas gifts, hopefully next year we will get back on track.

I did mail off the hoodie and felt Christmas tree ornaments for my great grandson in England this week so hopefully they will be there before Christmas.  They are not his Christmas gift, just something for the adorable young toddler whose 2nd Christmas this will be.

I also mailed off a birthday card for one of my granddaughters in England and I think this my best birthday card so far.

This will probably be my last post of 2022 as I only seem to post monthly these days so to all my blog friends I wish you the merriest of Christmases and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

A delightful Christmas addition and on sale too!

Today we had to go for a doctor's appt. at the VA clinic which is 75 miles away.  To make the journey worthwhile we nipped into Menard's (big DIY store) to have a look around and to see their Christmas display. It wasn't as good as prior years but maybe they haven't finished it yet.

We found this Barn snow globe reduced from $24.99 to $9.99.

It is very well made and has the bonus feature of an LED light and a motor to move the liquid around so the glittery snow flakes are always moving.  I made a little video but it didn't upload so here is a photo instead but it doesn't do it justice. 

Even without the light and the moving liquid the snowflakes stay suspended for a long time.

It is absolutely delightful, a treasure to be brought out at Christmas for years to come.

The fallen tree

 In May when we were having such a lot of rain we had a huge oak tree uproot and fall.  It is at the back of our property so there was no rush to do anything with it.  As usual, I never thought to take a photo at the time.  From June onwards we have had very little rain so the top of the tree dried out nicely and it was time to cut it up.  It must have been at least 75 feet high before it fell.  Such a shame to lose it.  

We started to cut it up this past week.

At this point there is about 15 more feet to cut up.  The branches have all been cut into usable size logs and stacked already.

The larger logs at the back of the woodshed are from a previous year and still have to be split.  We plan to rent a wood splitter when we have it all cut up and probably fell another tree to make the cost of renting it viable. (We only take down dead trees or old leaning trees that could uproot, we would never have cut down the tree that fell). For a splitter that can be towed home and can handle those big logs it costs $80 plus for a day to rent. But the guy at the rental place told us if we pick it up early Saturday morning we don't have to return it until Monday morning for the cost of just 1 day so that's what we will do. Below is what we need to split so far from this tree.

The tops of the branches are always a nuisance to deal with, it is horrible to pick up and load into the small trailer to take to the brush pile.  It takes up a lot of room and pokes you all over when picking it up. Unfortunately, right now I am not much help at all as my back is still very sore and standing and walking is a problem.  But, when my husband is cutting wood I have to be there incase of any problems.  So I was sitting and and watching him work which I find very frustrating.  I was looking at the branch tops and thought that some enterprising teenager could break that all up and sell it as fire starter.  Well, no teenagers anywhere around so I thought I can do that whilst sitting down.  Not to sell but to make fire starter kindling for ourselves.  So now that is what I do and I feel so much better for being productive.  

I reduced 2 piles like this:-

To this:-

Much easier to load up and haul and can be cut up too for small fires.

I broke up the small brittle top branches and bagged them in old Walmart plastic bags ready to just throw into the fire and they will easily light with just a few pieces of scrunched up old flyers.

Today I added to this pile of kindling bags and still have more to do.

So, that and finally finishing replacing the studs and siding on the back of the sunroom is what we have been up to these past weeks.  We still have to finish out the inside but no rush on that, we can do that over the winter months.