T Stands for Tea at Panera

"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. ⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. ⁷ And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. Matthew 28:5-7"

Today has been a wonderful day so far!  I met friends Panera for tea first thing this morning. We had several hours of great fellowship!  Then, when I arrived home I decided to take a walk.  I wore a coat, muffler, earmuffs and gloves and was very comfortable.  But about halfway I saw this and it shows 60 something out!  

So, as I warmed up, I removed my muffler, gloves & earmuffs, but kept my coat on but open.  After 4 miles, I had warmed up!  I tell you this to tell you that when I got home and looked at the temperature, I was surprised it was only 49!  I guess the thermometer I looked at must have been in the sun! LOL Oh, well!  I have photos for you of some decorations that were on the trail, today.  Someone sure keeps busy decorating our trail for each season!

I quit taking photos after a while as I wasn't getting any walking done stopping to take all the photos!  Now if I was Elizabeth, I wouldn't have quit; she says her camera is her right hand. :)

 

You all know that I love meeting dogs on the trail and today I met a dog named Dash.  He is a Shih-poo.  Isn't he adorable? He loved being petted.  I also made a new friend, his owner who might visit my blog.

I have been doing a lot of crafting, but unfortunately can't show any of my card projects because they are samples for our upcoming VSN (Virtual Stamp Night)  event at SplitcoastStampers this weekend.  I am one of the hostesses for the challenges. 

Here is a photo of today's tea for TSFT over at Altered Book Lover where Bleubeard & Elizabeth host this blog hop party for us every Tuesday.  To join, we just have to have a beverage reference in our blog post.

 By the way I got to go over to Elizabeth's last week, and she taught me a new technique.  She prepares her cardstock for her journals by using Stazon re-inkers & alcohol.  She has tried to explain this process to me over the phone several times, but I guess I am pretty dense! LOL So we had a fun session making these pages.  We mixed re-inkers and alcohol and then pounced with little sponges on the paper.  Something I noticed is how soft the paper feels after this process.  I love them, as they turned out I think very lovely!  These are 12x12 papers.  My color is not showing very well.  They were mostly teals and this look too blue.  Anyway, they are pretty, and I can't wait to use them either to scrap on or for card backgrounds.  Or maybe they will end up in a journal! I showed her how I use oxide inks to make a background. We did a lot of die cutting and embossing, in fact we had quite the "play date."

Thank you, Elizabeth, for the tea, cookies, hat and birthday gift!  Loved the lesson on this new technique, and just the fun time in general.  

That is about it for this week.  Thank you for stopping by!  Happy T Day to the T gang!  See you next time.

T Stands for Terrific Weekend!

  ⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV

I did have a terrific weekend! I took part in the four-day Card Maker Success Summit!  A friend had sent me the info, and link to sign up for it.  Then, every morning I received an email for watching videos at certain times, and live stream presentations from people like Ellen Hutson.  I learned new alcohol ink techniques, and was reminded of techniques I had forgotten, like stacking die cut sentiments for depth.  I got freebies, like color charts, or handouts from the hostesses' with the measurements to make cards such as shaker cards or pop-up cards and slider cards. I saw new to me demonstrators such as Daniel West.  He demonstrated Copic techniques. I did all of this from home, sometimes in my pjs!  LOL This was my first summit.  I am already planning on the next one July 28thru the 31st!  Did I say it was free?  And did I say they drew for over 100 giveaways?

Here are a couple of the cards I made while watching a demonstrator.

For this card I used a technique I learned from watching Tiffany Solorio.  I applied drops of alcohol ink and 91 % isopropyl alcohol to a yupo panel.  After it dried, I ran it through with the SU! embossing panel, then sanded the color off the raised parts.  I just added a flower die cut to finish the card.  This is being submitted for the Flowers VSN Challenge on Splitcoaststampers, which was this weekend, also.

This is a card I made by blending Distress inks with a brush, and then spritzed with drops of water and after dry, spritzed with Shimmer.  

I didn't want to cover the background up too much, but went with this House Mouse panel I had colored.  this card is being submitted for our VSN Rainbow Challenge on Splitcoaststampers, also.  This is also being submitted for the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge, anything goes.   Check these challenges out.

So, it was a busy weekend!  But fun!

My ticket for today's TSFT (over at Altered Book Lover with Bleubeard & Elizabeth), will be a photo from Valentine's night.   We had a delightful time at a Sweetheart Dinner.

I don't know why, but with this formal dinner, they served my hot herbal tea in a Styrofoam cup. LOL We had a great dinner, grilled filet topped with stuffed mushrooms, twice baked potatoes, and mixed vegetable medley.  I had already eaten the mushroom and vegetables, before I remembered to take the photo.  For dessert we had Crème Brulee.  It was a great evening with great companions. And, can you see the roses on the table?

Today we had 70s for our temperature, so I was able to walk on the trail.  

Crazy weather, snow on the ground and 70s.  Tomorrow we start a week of cold, tomorrow 31, and Wednesday highs in the 20s!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful crafty week!

T Stands For Sanded Embossing Technique

 Mark 16:6 KJV  "And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here:"

Good evening,  or to some morning.  I really want to share this technique from Splitcoaststampers Technique Challenge today. They have technique challenges every Monday, and lots of tutorials also on the site.   I am excited because you can use up some ugly gel prints with it!  I love to do gelli printing with stencils, and I love using every bit of the paint once I put it on the gel!  Sometimes, I have let the paint get muddy, I think, and that is why some of my prints are ugly.  That is why I love this new to me technique.

I made the card before I thought to show you the steps, so began with another piece just like the first piece so you could see the process.

Here is a piece of the print.  It doesn't look like a stencil was used, it  might have been one that I rolled a golf ball on, so we will call it 3D gel printing.  Ugly, right? LOL

This is the piece after I ran it through my big shot die cut & embossing machine with the Cuttlebug Divine Swirly embossing folder.  Looks a little better, doesn't it?

Looks even better after sanding the raised portions.  Be careful with this step, it is easy to tear the card stock.

The ugly gel print made a pretty good card, didn't it?  I think that I will be using this technique as I have a lot of pieces of gel prints to be used. Or you might just have some pieces of painted background you didn't know how to use.  I will try other embossing folders, too. Stay tuned to this channel and see what I do. :)

Supplies used:  

Recollections white 65lb  card stock.

acrylic paints & Gel plate

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Sanding block

Stampin' Up Sincere Salutations stamp for the sentiment.

SU! Rich Razzleberry Cardstock & Ink

SU! flower punch

SU! gems

Gifted die, from Jan in Spain, I think.  Thank you Jan! :)

Glue dots,

Tombow liquid glue

dimensionals

I hope you like the technique and try it.  It was so easy and quick.

  I submitted this project to the Technique Challenge on Splitcoaststampers as well as to CalvinBall Challenges over at ScrapHappy.com.

Since some will be celebrating Easter this Sunday, here is an Easter card for you.  This background was created with alcohol inks on plastic wrap, then aying the glossy card stock  directly on  the inks on the plastic wrap.  Then I just put on some blue cardstock and added some die cuts. 

Here is one that actually says Happy Easter! LOL  The one below is with a digital that I colored with pencils.  It is from The Graphics Fairy.  I layered it on a Seaside embossed panel of Marina Mist card stock.  Both the paper and the embossing folder are from Stampin' Up.

Happy Easter!

Oops!  Here is my ticket for the tea party over at Altered Book Lover hosted by Bleubeard &  Elizabeth.

She calls it T Stands For Tuesday, and we all have a party and show and tell what we are doing all over a cup of tea or coffee or even a drink of water, whatever your choice of beverage is!  Be sure and stop by over there.

These are some of the teas that my sister sent me for my last birthday.  I am drinking the Moroccan Mint green tea today.  I like it.  Happy T Day to the T Gang!

Thank you for stopping by!  

T Stands for Spring is on the Way!

John 13:34  "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." KJV

 We have been so cold this past week that today feels like Spring!  Last Tuesday morning it was minus 17F. Today it got up to 62!  I even got out for a walk. I am so ready for Spring after a week or so of sub freezing temperatures!  But I did stay in long enough to play in my craft room, which I cleaned up a little during our freeze.  I happened on to a  Tim Holtz Facebook you tube video on alcohol inks and lifting.  I have done this before but decided to try it again as I watched.  I put on some inks and then used the lift pad to ink up some Tim Holt stamps.  I think I like the result and it should make a nice card.  My alcohol inks are very old, some of them from RiverCity Rubber Works that was here years ago.  Do you remember them, Elizabeth? 

Here is my photo of my Tea in my Christmas Starbucks cup in my photo of my project, with Tim Holtz in the background.  The cup of tea is so I can join the T Stands for Tuesday over at Altered Book Lover.  The lovely Elizabeth is our hostess along with Bleubeard.  Check in and see what it is all about. 

Below are the two panels I did with alcohol inks, alcohol blenders and Silver mixative on Yupo paper.

Below I stamped with Alcohol Lift ink.  After you stamp, then you dab with a paper towel and it takes the ink off where you stamped.  Then the stamp has ink on it, so you stamp that on something; I stamped on watercolor paper.  Now I have two panels for cards.

Also for the last few weeks I have been working on another junk journal.  They take so much time.

I had made four as gifts at Christmas time and since have made two more.

Here is a couple of photos of my journal I made for the February Dear Julie Junk Journal Challenge.

We were to make a fabric cover.  There were items we had to make, such as fabric flip, fabric pocket, flip flop pages, etc.  We were to have at least one signature ( a group of pages sewn together), 50 pages.  Mine had one signature with 52 pages, that is 13 pages, but each is four, counting each side and front and back.  We were to use a paper pad we had on hand, a no buy challenge.  This is first time I used a hard book cover.  In other words I took a book a part, then covered it and sewed my signature into it.  I covered the stitches with the lace.

The digital pages I used were Julie's .  I earned them for finishing the December Challenge.

I am just showing you the cover and some of my favorite pages.  I spare you looking at all 52! LOL

Thanks for stopping by!  Stay warm!  Happy T Day!

Happy 6th Anniversary/Birthday to TSFT

Can you hear me singing?  I hope not!  We are celebrating Bleubeard & Elizabeth's 6th year of doing T Stands For Tuesday!  I have had such fun since I started linking over to Altered Book Lover  to celebrate T Day!  I have gotten to know so many bloggers from all over the world!  If you ever want to join in our T Days, just post to your blog a drink related post, and then link up on her blog.  Elizabeth has been so gracious to hostess us each week!  Thank you,  Elizabeth & Bleubeard of course, too!  Some of us will even swap ATCs this week to celebrate!

So,  here is my drink related post.  I am sitting here doing this post drinking my Twinings Lady Grey!  The reason it is sitting on my Big Shot is because I have been going through my stash of cards looking for one to send a friend.

The reason I wasn't here last week, was because I was busy hosting our Virtual Scrapbook Challenges on SplitcoastStampers,  and also participating in the Virtual Stamp Night for cards. I posted 6 scrap challenges, and also did  16 card  challenges!  I have a photo for you for all the cards and a rock, and separate ones I already put in the mail.
I was using them almost faster than I was making them! LOL

One challenge was to paint a rock!  LOL  Another was a slider card. ( the one with the fairy on the robin)  I used alcohol ink backgrounds I had made one day when playing, on several of the cards.  On the snail mail card, we used a Fossilized Rock Technique.  I will have to demonstrate that on one of my future posts!

This was a sketch challenge.  

I hope you enjoyed looking at these cards.  I really had fun doing the card  challenges!  Our theme was Rock Star.

My scrapbook challenges had a theme of Scrap Fireworks.  We just got our inspiration from different scenarios surrounding 4th of July.  I gave them a color challenge for red, white & blue, for example
You can play these challenges for the whole month of July if you are a scrapper. Just click on the link above.

Lastly a few photos of my walk I take every morning.  Not along the Rhine, or a lake even!  And bad photos too, as I am having problems with my camera, or the operator!  The best photos were the ones my camera wouldn't take! LOL  First the batteries weren't working, but I jiggled it.  Then my memory card was full!  LOL

a cemetery

the funeral home of the cemetery

The path no longer overlooks the cemetery here.  The path is actually an up and down, and curvy.  So not only do I get my steps, I get some exercise, too.

Sometimes, I actually go over and walk in the cemetery; it is so pretty and peaceful.

That is my post for our Celebration Tea Party!  I am scheduling this, so hope it works!
Thanks for stopping by!  I will probably be late! But I hope I remember to link this after it posts, and to put my asterisk by my name!  I do want to exchange ATCs.
Have a great week!

T Stands Another Technique

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord:  he turns it wherever he will Proverbs 21:1" ( Our memory verse for  our  Revive Our Hearts Esther Bible Study.)

Hello to my dear Blog Readers.  I have been playing with alcohol inks!  We had a challenge on SplitcoastStampers to make a card with an alcohol ink background.  I got very messy!  I only have a few bottles of the ink, but love the colors I do have.  I put it on some yupa like paper; it is a synthetic paper.  When you put the inks on it and add the alcohol blending solution, it really spreads. I also use a Tim Holtz blending tool to move the ink around, or you can even blow threw a straw.
On the first one, I had already cut, so had to lay back down together to get a photo.  You can see that I even played with my alcohol lift ink.  You ink up a stamp (dragonfly) with the alcohol lift ink then stamp it on the alcohol inked panel, and it lifts off the ink and you have a dragonfly.  Love this technique!
Here are the two sheets I did :

I made the card below out of one of the turquoise panels.  I die cut the sentiment out of silver cs and the 13th are rub ons.  I also added a punched flower.

This was for a semi local scrapbook store celebrating being in business 13 years.  By semi local, I mean it isn't very far from me, but it is in another little town near here.

We are also celebrating TSFT (T Stands For Tuesday) over at Bleubeard & Elizabeth's over at Altered Book Lover.  We just include a drink related item in our posts and we link our blog post over there.  Then we all have a giant international tea party with Elizabeth as our hostess!

We had a coupon for buy two dips of ice cream and get another two dips free at our local BR baskin robbins.  So, of course hubby and I went for ice cream this week, as we love ice cream.  We both got dips of the Gold Medal Ribbon flavor, which had chocolate, vanilla, and caramel.  It was recommended by the clerk.  Then he got a  peanut butter chocolate flavor which I would usually get, but  got the  Upside Down Praline instead!  They have so many flavors to choose from!  So good!

 As we didn't even have our usual lemon water, I took a photo of their drink machine as we left for Elizabeth!  Hope that counts! :)

Thank you all for stopping by!  Happy T Day to the T Gang!  Have a great week, everyone!
Happy 4th of July to all my USA friends!