National Craft Month - March and Simonsaysstamp Challenge

 March is National Craft Month so I decided to do something crafty everyday. I even cleared off my desk this month but only because I couldn’t find my ‘don’t care what I cut with them’ scissors. I later found them in the garage where I used them last to cut up the boxes for recycling that some sneaky crafty orders came in! 

So far this month, I have been working on memory dex cards.  I usually try to make one for every month of the year  and have been doing that for 4-5 years.   Unfortunately I stopped somewhere around Oct 2019 so I had 18 to make.  They don’t always have to have photos, sometimes it’s just playing with new product or techniques.  I keep them in the original rectangle Heidi Swapp memory dex box, it isn’t completely full yet. I may have another Heidi Swapp Rolodex style one on standby when the box is full. I also must remind myself that I do not need the new blush memory dex roller! Right?

Without further ado:

Notice anything different about my photos? Hopefully you have noticed that they have improved! I purchased a WRMK Shotbox as soon as they came online for sale in New Zealand. I absolutely love it. WRMK designs are always clever and easy to use. #shotbox @wermemorykeepers #Wermemorykeepers #WRMK #spotlight @spotlightstores #spotlightstoresas 

As 4 of these card include something green, I am entering them into two Simon Says Stamp  Challenges: Monday challenge which closes soon is use something green. The link is Here. The Wednesday challenge is: a bit o green - the link for that is Here

Materials used:

3x4 journaling cards: Project Life, Heidi Swapp (die and card), unknown

Chipboard alpha: Vicki Boutin. Covid Chipboard : scrapmatts

Alpha Stamps: Heidi Swapp Shoppe. Stickers: Heidi Swapp. Die cuts: Uniti

Inks, Sprays and pens: Tim Holtz, Stampin’ Up. Screen and rose gold medium: : Vicki Boutin

2021 so far...and a tip for you

Who was totally ready to end 2020 and ring in the new year? Me. I don’t think I was the only one. Can’t say there’s been much improvement on my end but we live in hope.  January was a right-off for me health wise and I only started to feel more like me around mid February. Who would’ve thought 2021 could be worse than 2020? Sigh. 

Crafting helps though and it’s nice to have had a couple of creative weekends lately. I signed up for the Vicki Boutin Storyteller weekend in November last year and I’m proud to say I recently completed the album and layouts once the missing product was sent in February. I only need to add photos to the album and 3 of the layouts. 

In January 2020, I made another Vicki Boutin album, and true to Vicki style , it is packed even without the photos. The Storyteller album is the same so I split the two abums into three albums. I tried to make the new album similar to the storyteller album by using the stencil. The first attempt did not work, it wiped right off. I switched to archival ink and it worked a little better.  I finished it off by adding some stickers left over from the kit. Gotta use ‘em up!

When I finished one of the sticker sheets I thought to myself: I could use that and stamp in the open spaces.  In the end I backed it with the packaging from some of my Vicki product - it’s too pretty to throw out. The mixed media was already done for me on the background, I just needed to colour the sticker background with Vicki’s water colour pens. Final step was stamping in the blank spaces. I’m just waiting for the right photo, or I will make it into a card. 

 Lastly, I have a tip for you that I worked out.  When I add water to my inks for water colouring, I usually use my spray bottle.  I don’t like to keep a water cup around because of the risk of spilling and I don’t like how dirty the water gets. When I finished a bottle of eye drops I decided to fill it with water and use that instead. I think it works really well.  Let me know if you try it out for yourself