T Stands for Technique

 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in

from this time forth, and even for evermore. Psalms 121:8

How does it get to be Monday afternoon so quickly?  We had some friends visiting from Saturday through Wednesday. She was a crafty friend, and we burned the midnight oil in my craft room, because in the daytime we were walking or going to museums and seeing the sights!  While we crafted our hubbies' watched sports, for example, the Super Bowl. and college basketball or went to bed! LOL We had fun using each other dies, embossing folders, stamps and stencils.  It was a die cutting marathon!

We did a bokeh technique:  For this card she did circles with alcohol inks.  Then I did the circles with white craft ink.  Then we each made our card.  Each of ours looked totally different as she used different colors. This is mine.

It is beautiful here, 71 degrees right now!   I shopped and walked to celebrate President's Day.  There were sure a lot of people out shopping today, even though it is a Monday; I guess they were all off for the day.

Here are some photos from our Sweetheart Dinner on Valentine's Day.  We ate at Red Lobster to celebrate the day, but also my husband proposed to me 60 years ago on Valentine's Day!

When the waitress heard that, she brought us dessert after our meal.  Everything about the meal was delicious!  I love coconut shrimp and the Cheddar Bay Biscuits, too.

That is my ticket for the TSFT over at Altered Book Lover with Elizabeth & Bleubeard!  

Thanks for stopping by!  See you next time.

T Stands for Truly Cool

  "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you," Philippians 1:3

Good afternoon! Yes, it is cool here; highs in 70s!   I am enjoying it, going walking and spending time in my craft room.   I have been working on my submission to Art Journal Journey challenge for September.  Mia has challenged us to make our own background.  I had just made a card where I did a color wash with watercolor and still had my paints handy.  So, I started my page with a watercolor wash.  Then I did some background stamping and spraying.  I stamped my title and added a photo I took this Spring on my trail. Be sure and check out the entries at Art Journal Journey.

I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and Tim Holtz Distress Mica stains: Sugary Gumdrop and Wonderland and Frosty Mint.   I stamped the letters with  Stampin' Up inks, and   stamped the Stampendous background writing stamps with Archival black ink.  The panel in back of the photo is a gel print scrap.  I used the weekly art journal sketch from ACOT.

And here is the card I made with the color wash and doodling.

I had fun doodling the people and then hand wrote the sentiment, too. I was just practicing this technique while watching a YouTube video.

That is what I have been doing craft wise and of course we went out to eat, this week to Hog Wild.   We always get the $5.99 special.  He gets the fries for a side and I get the coleslaw, then we split them.  We like the coleslaw on our pulled pork sandwiches to make it Carolina Pork.  Yum, yum!  Sorry, Elizabeth. :)  This time our drinks came with our combos, so he got cola and I mixed the lemonade with the unsweetened tea and had an Arnold Palmer.  This is my ticket to the T Stands for Tuesday over at Altered Book Lover hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Then we went to an ice cream social!

I put almost every topping on my ice cream.  It was like I had ice cream on my toppings!  Also, besides the variety of nuts, different candies, and cocoanut, they had chocolate and caramel syrups, cherries, and whipped cream!

Thank you for stopping by.  It is always fun to read the comments and see who visited me.  Happy T Day to the T Gang.  See you next time.

T Stands for Too Hot!

 "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,"  Philippians 1:3

Although, I tried to go walking this morning, it is still too hot.  I walked about a mile at 9:00 this morning.  I did errands and was home by noon, and it was hot.  I am so over this heat!  Maybe by September I can walk again.  I haven't even crafted much, only made a couple of cards and printed off some photos for scrapping.  

What I have enjoyed is reading.  I have read a couple of good books.  One was Restored in Tuscany: A True Story of Facing Loss, Finding Beauty, and Living Forward in Hope by Angela Correll.  I really enjoyed this book.  The writer has also written a trilogy of fictional books called Grounded, Guarded and Granted.  I haven't read those yet but loved her book of her renovations of a home in Italy, and restored faith.  It was a beautiful story of the little village and people in Tuscany and even included photos. 

What else is going on this Summer?  We have discovered a new place to eat, Magnolia Cafe.  We love their Chicken and Waffles! We went for lunch.   I forgot until we were almost done to take a photo.  We were full after eating the large waffle and one of the chicken pieces so we each took home two pieces of chicken, and had that for dinner, later.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  The chicken was drizzled with honey.  Oh, my goodness, scrumptious!

I recently was reminded of this sunburst technique when perusing the Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers.  She had a link to the way to cut it.  For a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card or A-2: You cut 2 strips of three different patterned papers of 1 1/4 x 5 1/4.  You then cut those strips diagonally from opposite corners.  This is great way to use up those scraps!  You glue to a 4"x5 1/4 panel.  Arrange how you want and cut off what is off the card and cut off the points instead of gluing down.  I put another panel to cover up the points. I distressed everything with TH Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I submitted this for three challenges on Splitcoaststampers: Featured Stamper, Clean and Simple &  the Fan Club Monthly Challenge for Back to School.  The image with the books is from a free digital from Sande Woodson or Sande's Poema on Facebook and You Tube.

This one is a submission for a card challenge of ACOT to use a inspiring sentiment.  The DSP for both these cards is from a 6x6 paper pad by Authentique.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you are staying cool and having a great T Day.  Stop over at Altered Book Lover and check out TSFT.  See you next time.

T Stands for Technique Re-visited

 Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

⁵ Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:4-5

 How are you all doing on this hot afternoon?  I am composing this post Monday afternoon, and it is 95degrees F out, with heat advisories for 105 degrees heat index!  Great day to spend inside with the A/C.  Although, I did go to Michaels earlier, went in and used their 5.00 reward coupon and only spent $1.06!  I got some mini-ink blending foams, 20 of them in a package.  I am happy with that.  I have no idea why they emailed me this reward, not because I have spent any money there.  In fact, I haven't spent any money since the last $5.00 reward they sent me!  I only spent $2.00 then, the difference between the coupon and some snail adhesive.  Thank you, Michaels!  All that to say, that I then walked the whole parking lot of the very large shopping center, even walking another block to Dollar Tree to get some double-sided tape, then back to my car, near Michaels.  I now have 6000 steps!  But the heat was brutal as it was around noon.

Down to business!  As the title says, I revisited a technique this week.  It is called Cling Wrap Background.  Here is a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.

I did a few of the backgrounds in different colors using oxide inks on Watercolor cardstock but didn't take a photo of the one I used before I made the card.  Below shows the process:  Swipe the oxide inks onto the cling wrap, spritz with water, scrunch up, then lay on the cardstock, and leave until dry.  When you lift it there will be a pretty pattern on the paper.  You can do this with inks, or watercolors, either one.

Below is the finished card using TH stamps, Archival black ink, and twine.  This particular card is going to one of our church ladies who will me 102 or 103, can't remember which.  A couple of years ago I made her a special card for 100. 

Lastly, here is a photo of freebie digitals from Scrapbooking With Me on YouTube, Edith Wray

I can't wait to make a journal with these pages.  Don't those drinks look scrumptious?  I think these would work especially for a coffee drinker who likes music.  Of course I have someone in mind.

Happy T Day, as celebrated every Tuesday over on Altered Book Lover where our host and hostess are Bleubeard and Elizabeth.  Thanks for stopping by.  I will see you next time.

Happy New Year

⁴ Delight thyself also in the LORD;
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
⁵ Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:4-5

Last post, I named Snow.  I should have saved it for this week!  Here is what it looked like yesterday at our house.  I couldn't get the door open wide enough to take a good photo, and I couldn't take it through the glass as you can see.

Today after early temps and feel likes of 0 and -5, the sun is shining.  My husband who is elderly like me, went out the garage to begin shoveling.  He was standing there as the garage door opened, and surprise, there was our neighbor shoveling our driveway!  My husband asked, "what are you doing?"  He said, "helping you".  He did the whole driveway and most of our walk to our porch.  How wonderful!  Hubby did a little and cleaned off our porch.  Well, the neighbor is nice for sure, but also about 60 years younger than my hubby!  We haven't got to know them really well as they just moved in a couple of months ago.  I took them a plate of goodies at Christmas; I am sure glad I did!  Thank you, God, for good neighbors.  We live on the right side of the street, so with the sun shining, even though it is still 13 degrees out, it should hit that concrete and do some major melting.  I think we had over three and a half inches on ice, as it had rained and sleeted first.  So everything is closed here, and we had alerts on our cell phones to warn us not to get out on the roads!  So we are in for a while.  Temps are going to remain below freezing and with feel likes below 0!  So, we continue to leave cupboards open at nights under sinks and leave the faucets dripping!  

Okay, enough about the weather!  Let's craft.  One thing about the weather being this way, can't go anywhere, can't go walking, so it is great for crafting.  I have been playing today.  

 

I found this note I had taken when watching videos sometime, don't ask what video as I have no clue:

So instead of cleaning, which is what I had started out doing, I tried this technique:

So, first I looked in my gel print drawer and came up with this piece, which I thought was quite ugly, so I didn't think it would matter covered in black:

Then I found an old embossing folder that I wouldn't care if the black ink ruined it.  (it didn't, it washed off real easy)

I then inked it up with VersaFine Black Onyx ink.

I had cut down to size the gel print to run through in the embossing folder through with my Big Shot.

I don't think I got a photo of it after the black.  This photo shows after I ran white ink over the raised parts.

I glued to a turquoise base.  Then had to decide how to decorate.  I decided it looked masculine  card and I always need those.

I added a vertical greeting that someone had given me and added some chipboard from 49 and Market, my newest mania.  LOL

What do you think?  It sure improved on that gel print, or at least I thought so!  I will try again with different gel prints, (after all I have a drawer full on them!) and different embossing folders.

Today is TSFT over at Bleubear & Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover.  All you have to do is have a drink reference and you can join the t-party. (link to her blog and be part of the blog hop).

We went out for the first time in 2025 at Braum’s one of our favorites.

What we love about it is we get the combo, cheeseburger, fries and shake!  Their ice cream is wonderful!  My shake was peanut butter. Then despite knowing it was going to be record setting low temps, we bought ice cream to bring home, and we have been eating it! LOL He got Chocolate Carmel Moose, and I got Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup frozen yogurt.  So good!

Happy New year!  Thanks for stopping by.

Stay warm! Stay Safe!  Stay Crafty!

T Stands for Quick Post

 

 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Hello readers!  I have been busy over the weekend creating for NSD (National Scrapbook Day May 5th).  I did several layouts plus some cards, all part of the challenges on SplitcoastStampers and A Cherry On Top craft sites.  

I made this card using a technique shared with us on SplitcoastStampers.  It is called Embossing with Watercolor.  

I used oxide inks and put the ink on my glass mat, sprayed with water, then with brush put dabs of it on my watercolor paper.  I let it dry.  Then I sprayed with pearl ex gold.  Let it dry again.  Then inked up my TH Paris embossing folder with London Fog gray ink.  I put my watercolor paper in the embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot.  Then I cut it down for my card.  I took photos of the process, but can't find them! LOL  I will share them when I find them.

Here is my ticket to Bleubeard & Elizabeths TSFT over at Altered Book Lover.  We went out to eat last week to Longhorns.  We love the luncheon special Grilled Chicken & Strawberry Salad with side.  Hubby got the seafood soup and I got the loaded sweet potato!   Delicious!  I brought home salad; of course I filled up on the bread and butter.  Great bread!

I have been walking early in the morning as it has been in the high 90s the last few days.  So, home by nine!  Still, I don't have enough hours in the day!  Thank you for stopping by.  I love hearing from you.

See you next time.

T Stands for Another New Technique

 

 Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen,
and I will sing praises unto thy name. 2 Samuel 22:50

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  We had a wonderful day beginning with our Easter servies at church with specials even from our church children celebrating our Risen Saviour.  After that celebration, I walked because it was gorgeous outside.  Then we had our Easter dinner which included baked ham, almond green beans, sweet potato casserole and deviled eggs.  I didn't take any photos, but it was all delicious.  I did remember to take a photo of the deviled eggs when I prepared them on Saturday, and luckily, my cup is in the photo for TSFT.

Easter Eggs

What have I been doing today?  After a trip to Walmart early this morning, I walked and this time I walked the direction with the sidewalks on my trail and found these signs of upcoming events:

And I have also been crafting:

The card is made with the Embossed Ribbon Technique.  This is a great technique for using some of that stash of ribbon we all have.  I love this technique! If you are interested, here is the challenge on Splitcoaststampers with the video by Nastasia, and all the details.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week.  See you next time.

T is for Trail change

 "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"

I wish you all a wonderful Easter.

Good afternoon, peeps.  It is a beautiful Spring day here.  I walked this morning and enjoyed it so much!  Trees blooming, birds singing, and not too windy!  The lack of wind was the best!  I walked a different direction than I do usually.  One reason is there are more trees; another is less traveled.

Here are a couple of photos plus a selfie with me in the hat Elizabeth gave me.  I must say, though I had to hang on to it when a breeze would come up and also it got warm.  I am not used to wearing a hat but loved wearing it because of the big sun visor on it.  Then I didn't have to wear sunglasses.

I think Elizabeth would like this trail, because it isn't concrete going this direction.

I only passed a couple of people this morning.  I really enjoyed the cardinal but couldn't get a good photo of him. 

I was busy all weekend with making cards and hostessing VSN on Splitcoast.

Here are a few of my cards I made:

This was to use leftovers.  I had this leftover background made by using this technique:  Easy Glue Printing Tutorials at Splitcoaststampers.

Do you recognize this, Elizabeth?  This card was made with the background I made with oxides at Elizabeth's  I used one of her stamps on it; such a cool postage collage.  I just stamped the sentiment.  I think this was for mostly blue challenge.  I thought I would use it for a birthday card and on the inside say something like "Look whose 60?"  or something like Oooh-la-la-Look whose birthday it is.  

This was for two challenges, one for sweets and one to use patterned paper.

This was to use something cirtessy, and this is also for my ticket to TSFT!

That's it for another week!  Be sure and stop over at  Bleubeard & Elizabeth's at Altered Book Lover for our TSFT blog hop.

Thank you for stopping by.  See you next time.

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.