Halloween Prep

I’m working on my Halloween costume.

So far I’ve shopped for supplies at Joann’s Fabrics & Crafts, The Dollar Tree, Orchard Supply Hardware, Ross Dress for Less, Sally Beauty Supply, and Smart & Final (groceries).

I’m not saying what it is yet, but in due time I promise to post pictures of the finished costume.

Thank you for your visit.

30 Reasons to Participate

Hello, friends.  Here is a great list of 30 reasons  to participate in 30 Days of Creativity which starts tomorrow, put out by the folks at 30 Days of Creativity.  I wrote here about how I’m adapting the concept so I can do it without making myself nuts.

I encourage you to participate at least on some level.  And remember it isn’t “Create a perfect masterpiece every day for 30 days” but rather it is to “Encourage people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days”.  June is suggested by anytime you want is also ok.  See?  Create anything.  Toss a nice salad.  Doodle on your To Do list. Put together an interesting outfit.

Encourage is a great word.  Give support, confidence, or hope to someone.

Garner a sense of accomplishment.
Form a(good) habit.
Conquer the fear of the unknown.
Find new friends.
Solve problems.
Refine your skillz.
Experiment with something new.
Defeat the resistance that’s in your head.
Save $ by being creative.
Build your portfolio.
Motivate friends and family to be creative too.
Exercise the creativity we’re all born with.
Overcome writer’s block.
Utilize the drafting table, DLSR Camera, Guitar you bought years ago.
Break the monotony of not doing anything creative.
Make your mom proud.
Network with other like-minded people.
Challenge yourself daily.
Show off and be proud of your creative work.
Join a creative community.
Do something free of judgment.
Move beyond your comfort zone
Inspire others.
Get excited about new things.
Improve time management.
Eliminate procrastination.
Have fun.
Gain self discipline.
Use this as an excuse to buy a new (camera/screen printer/piano/etc).
Create stuff you’ve been wanting to do anyway.

I’m packing a bag of craft supplies because Rem and I are going down the coast for a few days to celebrate his birthday and I’m bringing crafting along. We are going to stay in a hostel at a light house, visit Half Moon Bay and see the elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park.

Thanks for stopping by.

30 Days of Creativity 2013: Art Journaling

30 Days of Creativity (30DOC) is a global social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June.  I’ve done it for two years (see Year 1 and Year 2) and though I have loved many aspects of it, it has also made me kind of crazy.

Sometimes it was both fun and chaotic, like when I tried making chocolate bowls by painting melted chocolate on balloons. They popped. Fail.

Last year, when the month had ended, I made a decision I would not do it again this year. But I’ve revised that decision: I’m going to do it, but I’m going to do my own version of the project.  The first two years I created many different crafts and recipes.  I did something new for each day and I photographed the results and posted them here.  Some of my time was spent crafting and some was spent finding things to try, shopping for supplies and scrambling to get the project completed, photographed and a post up and published each day.

I enjoyed the creative challenge, building and stretching my creative muscles, trying new things, and the camaraderie with other participants doing 30DOC.   But working full time and getting something made every day and photographed and posted made for some high-stress days and low-sleep nights.  Not really the goal or the idea of the project.

As it is, I often feel like I don’t have as much time to craft as I’d like.  So to spend time and money on craft projects that I wasn’t really loving didn’t seem like the best decision.  This year, Year Three of 30DOC, I’m going to do 30 Creative Projects in 30 Days.  I won’t try and post every single day (though I will when I can) and if I don’t get to the craft table for a day or two, I’ll catch up on the weekend.  I’m going to focus on one craft, Art Journaling, and explore it in more depth.

My decision to participate in 30DOC but to bend it to suit my own needs and desires comes in part from my recent visit to Virginia Simpson-Magruder’s studio, Kentucky Girl Designs in Novato.

Her studio is packed full of art supplies and a stunning collection of Art Journals.  The picture below shows just a few of the journals she filled when she was doing daily spreads in art journals.

DAILY!  For over two years!  She told me that after she’d been doing the daily practice for awhile  (like over a year and a half), she would sometimes let a day or two or even three go by without journaling and then would catch up with a batch of pages. That really struck a chord with me and made me think I might be able to do the 30 DOC on my own terms.

When I learned she had a workshop coming up, I reserved a space immediately.  The “Express Yourself! Introduction to Altered Books and Collage Workshop” was such a pleasure!  Virginia has LOADS of wonderful supplies, so many that I couldn’t even begin to try everything out.  Stacks and stacks of magazines, ink pads in a huge variety of colors, water-soluble oil crayons, baskets of lovely rubber stamps that I didn’t even get started on, scissors, glue, paint, markers, glitter and way more.

There were just four of us in the workshop and I was like a kid in a candy store.  We were surrounded by creative projects on every side in the sunny space. It was all so colorful and inviting.

This is a book that has been recreated into a shrine.  A niche has been carved into the pages of the book and special items are displayed in the space.

This is the cover of Virginia’s beautiful journal about doors for her “Altered Books as a Way of Seeing Workshop Portals: Doors, Windows and Gates“.

Here is the work table where we dug into the creative process, getting our fingers smudged with ink and sticky with glue as we crafted.

One of the students, Susan, is intent on her design.

Her first spread that started with picking a color and writing about it, with Virginia’s guidance.  Layers of color and then collaged images fill the pages. I like the giant watch faces, rising above the animals and girl on the page like a full moon.

For the second two-page-spread we learned how to make pockets (on the right, below) in which to tuck small items, such as business cards or post cards.  This is also Susan’s work.

Detail from the pocket page: “wonder more”.  I love the woman, almost hidden, and how she is turned away from the viewer.  The flower seller on the other page looks away as well.  The tag, tucked into a pocket says “The picture is half the story”. So true!

Jane (one of two Janes in the workshop), shared a spread she created.  She left early and I didn’t get a picture of her second spread.

The other Jane, attending her second class at the studio, shows what she has been working on.

“Seeking Peace” has a dreamy quality with soft blue, green, yellow and red.  Golden fish swim across the pages.

Her pocket pages have deeper colors with rich reds, and lots of interesting images, layered with flowers and swirls.

My first spread, the color page, started with “Periwinkle Blue” and words I associate with that color.  I rubbed the pages with stamp pads in vibrant shades of blue, purple and turquoise ink.  Then Virginia gave us 20 minutes to look through magazines and find some images to use.  I could have quite happily worked on that task alone  for about 2 hours.

My original composition didn’t include the music on the upper left.  Virginia suggested it would balance the music on the lower right and it worked perfectly as birdsong..  This is how the pages looked at the workshop.  I’ll share the changes and additions I made at home.

My pocket page has artwork from a Marin calendar and the pockets work perfectly with the images of rolling Marin hills, fog and the Golden Gate Bridge tower showing through the grey.

I created a few tags during the workshop and finished the others at home.  Since the bridge is almost obscured by the fog, I made tags with images of the well-known bridge and then added a cow tag and a California poppy.   I inked the cord to go with the famous International Orange color of the bridge

Virginia also showed us how to make a pocket in the back of the book.  I’m not sure this spread is done yet.

Another technique she taught us was a way to add a postcard or envelope or some element that you don’t just want to glue down on a page, but be able to see both sides.  This is called a tip in.

In this example, we cut or tear two pages down to about an inch and half wide.  Insert your tip in, in my case some pieces cut from greeting cards, photos and magazine pages.  This is my garden spread.   I did this at home on Monday.

Here is a look at my desk – I was having so much fun with the journal that I didn’t stop to put supplies away.  Hmm, does this sound familiar?

I was so glad to have time on Monday for crafting.  It was wonderful to take all the ideas and techniques from the workshop.

The blue page was my first project.  I made some changes, adding new elements and embellishments.  More bling with a fancy cuff bracelet, a silver ring and some sparkle to the dangling gems. I even added nail polish to the thumbnail and the words “Unique” and “Delightful”

I removed the image of a laughing woman and I’m very pleased with the final result.

This is my first window page – the image of the Native American woman smoking a sacred pipe on the left is from an article about people who are some of the last speakers of dying languages.  On the right, a shuttered window with leaves floating on water below.

The shutters open and you can look through the window and see a path through trees.

When you turn to the next spread of pages, you can peek back through the window to see the wise woman outside.

Or close the shutters to see the branches on the other side.

The last page I completed in my new Art Journal was a kind of happy accident, which, by the way, I think happens quite often in art if we are open to it.

I had pulled a page from a magazine because I liked the image on it.  But when I was looking through my collected pages, I saw the image on the reverse and was drawn to the expressive face of Jane Goodall.  A few minutes of online research for a quote from Ms. Goodall and the pages were practically done.

A big thank you to Virginia and her  Kentucky Girl Designs studio and to the other students taking the workshop with me.  In the words of Jane Goodall: “What you do does make a difference…”  I feel inspired and ready for the upcoming 30 DOC challenge.

Thank you for the visit.

Scorecard for 30DoC

I’ve been thinking about all those things I created during the 30 Days of Creativity (30DoC) project, and I decided to review and rate them in several areas:

Was it fun to make?  Did I like the results?  Would I suggest it to others? Would I do it again? Do I consider it a winner?

I’m using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1= No Way! and 10= Definitely!

Project	Fun?	Like?	Suggest to Others?	Repeat?	Winner?
Day 1: Washi Tape B-day Card	8	9	8	8	8
Day 2: DIY Cake Stand	7	10	10	5	8
Day 3: Icebox Cupcakes	6	9	10	6	8
Day 4: Double Sponged Card	10	10	10	10	10
Day 5: Tape Dispenser	6	10	8	4	7
Day 6: Shrinky Dink Rings – Fail	5	0	0	0	1
Day 7: Lemon Ice Cream	7	10	10	10	9
Day 8: Cardamom Cookies	5	6	7	7	6
Day 9: Glass Tile Pendants	9	9	10	10	9
Day 10: Veg Potato Salad	5	8	8	8	7
Day 11: Button Rings	9	8	10	7	8
Day 12: String Jar	7	10	10	5	8
Day 13: Vegcycle	10	10	4	0	6
Day 14: Business Cards	10	10	10	10	10
Day 15: Lined Envelopes	7	9	10	6	8
Day 16: Carved Rubber Stamp	10	7	7	10	8
Day 17: Chocolate Bowl	8	0	0	0	2
Day 18: Banana Message	10	8	10	7	9
Day 19: Wrap Bracelet	9	10	10	10	10
Day 20: Chewy Granola Bars	8	10	10	8	9
Day 21: Bleach Pen T-Shirt	9	10	10	10	10
Day 22: Water Marbled Nails	6	4	5	0	4
Day 23: Crepe Paper Flower	6	8	8	9	8
Day 24: Lace Pancakes	8	10	10	10	10
Day 25: DIY Blue Glass Jars	7	9	9	5	7
Day 26: Recycled Gift Bow	6	9	10	5	7
Day 27: Image Journal	10	10	10	10	10
Day 28: Marbleized Notebook	5	8	10	3	6
Day 29: Plastic Spoon Rose	5	6	7	0	4
Day 30: Macramé Bracelet	8	10	10	10	10

Some projects didn’t really work in the end, but were fun to make.  I have to say the Chocolate Bowl project that ended up splattering melted chocolate all over me was fun.

Would I suggest it to someone else? No.   The final score isn’t always mathematically correct.  I rounded up for some and rounded down for others just depending on my own gut response.

I have a total of 7 projects that I gave the full score of 10 in the Winner Category.  Does that mean they’ll work for you or that you’ll love them?  Nope.  But those are the projects I will go back and do again, in fact, I’ve already completed another wrap bracelet and I did a batch of Sponged and Embossed Cards.  I want to make another batch of business cards because I so enjoyed making them and because I want to have business cards with my blog site on hand to give away.

The recipe for the Lacy Buttermilk pancakes made delicious pancakes even in a traditional but boring round shape.  I’ve made another batch of those but I loved the lace ones too and I’m sure I’ll make them again.

I don’t know how soon I’ll do a Bleach Pen T-Shirt but I’m completely delighted with the one I made and I am happy to put it on every time I wear it.

I’ve had my Image Journal for years but it had been gathering dust lately.  It was such a pleasure working on a layout that I plan to continue doing pages.

My final project, Macrame Bracelets, has been keeping me busy in recent days.  Some friends at work wanted a closer look so I  organized a crafting session at lunch.   I love it when I can combine crafting, eating, talking and laughing with friends!  I’ve made a few more macrame bracelets and I keep going back to the bead store for more supplies so I’m not finished with this project yet.

What were your favorite projects?  Are there any you’ve tried or plan to try?

Thanks for the visit.

Day 27: Image Journal

This is a two page spread I did tonight in my image journal.  I’ve been keeping it for years though I don’t sit down with it as often as I’d like.  My sister also keeps one and very occasionally we’ll sit down together for a relaxing afternoon or evening of journaling.

Tonight I reorganized all the pictures or images that I collect for the journal.  If I see something in a magazine or want to save a greeting card, bookmark, postcard or other visual piece, I tuck it into a translucent plastic box.  When I’m ready to spend some time working on a page or two, I pull out the box.

Quite simply the only thing it is for is my own pleasure.  It has no deadline and the only theme is things that I like.  When I sort through the torn pages from magazines  I’ve saved, I put like things together.  Than I paste them in the book.

Following are close ups of the two pages I put together tonight.  I used some Washi tape, a first for my Image Journal.

Creativity isn’t far away.

On Day 27 last year, I created Photo Cards.

Thanks for stopping by.

30DoC Status Update + Magic Shell Chocolate Sauce

It’s the 15th of June, the halfway mark for 30 Days of Creativity.  It is going very well for me.  Having plans for possible projects has made a huge difference.  I started copying down ideas along with websites and supplies or ingredients needed several months ago.  A few weeks before the start of June I put them all in a chart.

When the 30DoC calendar was posted I was able to look at my chart of ideas and pick out ones that could work with the themes, although that wasn’t a big concern for me.  The themes are fun and sometimes help direct me towards an idea but I don’t focus on them most of the time.

I’m happy to see that I’ve still been flexible and open to other ideas so I’m not completely tied to my chart.  I’ve created three things that were not on the original list (and we’ve still got 15 days left).  What I’m noticing is that even with plenty of projects to choose from, more than enough to get through the month, I’m more affected by the weather than I thought I would be.

I’ve got a Chewy Granola Bar on my list but when I’ve had time to make it, it’s been too warm out to turn on the oven.  Even a project that won’t heat up the apartment but is more tuned to cold weather (a Felt Flower Scarf) isn’t very appealing when it’s 90 degrees outside.  Not that I won’t ever make these things, but they just may not debut as a creation during 30DoC!

Two nights ago I made Magic Shell Chocolate Sauce.  I started to write a post and put some pictures together but I was really, really exhausted.  It was the day after my dad’s Memorial Service and though it went beautifully, it was emotionally draining.  So here is the sauce.  It isn’t a fail but nor is it a big success.  Kind of a “meh”.  Luckily, Rem and I put together the vegcycle that evening so I still had a creation to post!

Attempt: Magic Shell Chocolate Sauce 

Maybe because I was tired and cranky, but chocolate usually makes me happy and this was disappointing.  I saw the recipe here on Whipperberry.  Heather on Whipperberry was adapting a recipe from foodnetwork.com.  Maybe if I used the tip from Aarti Sequeira on Food Network and did it with something besides chocolate chips (she specifically says not to use chocolate chip), I’d like it more.  On the other hand, Heather said she used chocolate chips without any problem.

I tried the sauce the next evening and was still underwhelmed.  It is fairly thick and gloppy.  Not very magic.  It’s still chocolate so it can’t be all bad!

It takes just two ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

8 oz.  Dark Chocolate chopped up in small pieces –  I used chocolate chips

Heather suggests you use a double boiler for melting, but I used a microwave. In a microwave-safe container, melt the coconut oil.  Stir in the chocolate chips and heat in short bursts of 15 to 20 seconds at a time, on 50% power, stirring chocolate sauce after each heating time.

When the sauce is cool, drizzle on your ice cream and watch it harden.  Rah.  Magic.

Ta da!

The flavor of the coconut is apparent in the sauce which for me was fine.  It reminded me of a Mounds Bar.  But keep this in mind if you are serving to a coconut-hater.

I’m glad to be doing the 30DoC again this year.  It does take time and energy but that is really a plus for me in these days after the death of my dad in late May.  Grief ebbs and flows but the crafts give me focus and I’m very comfortable sitting at my craft desk making something.  Creativity also seems to attract more creativity so I’ve been cooking and making things that I don’t blog about.  It is wonderful therapy for me.

Now, I’d best go create something for today, Day 15!

Thanks for sticking with this and with me through the 30DoC.

Congratulations!

The first of my 30 Days of Creativity Giveaways has a WINNER!  Congratulations to Emily in California who will be receiving a bottlecap necklace and a few other little goodies I threw in for fun. Wishing happy crafting and collage creativity to Emily.

Since the response was so small this time I’m contacting all those who participated for their shipping addresses and will send them each a little tag that I made.  Thanks to those who took part and watch for another giveaway soon.

Day 30 (at last!): Honey Vanilla Ice Cream with Caramel Sauce

It’s over.  It’s all gone. Hallelujah!  Am I talking about 30 Days of Creativity or the amazing honey vanilla ice cream with decadent, dark, buttery caramel sauce?  Since I still have more ice cream and sauce to enjoy tomorrow I’ll tell you, it isn’t that.  I have to admit that I’m glad to be at the end of the 30 Days project.

But let’s talk about my project for today, my final creative offering for the month.  When I assisted with a cooking class, the teacher, Tom Hudgens taught us to start with dessert because he said no matter what might go wrong with dinner, if you have a great dessert, that’s what you’re guests will remember.  You want to be sure and get dessert made before you worry about the rest of the meal. Likewise, I wanted to have a sweet finish to what has ultimately been a sweet experience.

That seemed like a pretty straightforward idea but this has been one of my most frustrating projects!  One of those that seemed to go wrong at every turn. My original idea was to make a really good vanilla ice cream, a really good caramel sauce and swirl the sauce into the ice cream. I also wanted a crunchy add-in and considered pretzels, peanuts, and toasted almonds before deciding on crushed waffle cone bits. That is how this has become a “Do as I say, not as I do” post.   Don’t stir crushed waffle cones into your nice ice cream.  They just become soggy bits and do nothing to improve the pairing.  And please disregard the bits in the pictures.  I love my readers, but it’s Day 30 and I don’t have the time (or energy) to whip up another batch of ice cream.

Luckily I started on the caramel sauce last night because the first batch seized up and had to be thrown away.  I’m sorry, I didn’t capture any photos of it but you’ll have to take my word that it was a mess. When you get to the point that the sugar is melted and caramelized, you don’t have time to look for the measuring cup.  It will continue to cook and can quickly go from done to burned.

I read a few more caramel recipes and notes about making caramel and this morning I tried again.  YAY!  It worked and boy, is it good.  I mean this is why we go to Jazzercise!  So we can enjoy the occasional dish of homemade honey vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce.

But Rem some people don’t like caramel sauce, finding it too dark and bitter.  We agree to disagree on this because I think it tastes wonderful, especially with this ice cream – the two seem to become greater together than they are individually. Anyway, back to Rem.  If he doesn’t like caramel sauce that means more for me!  All is not lost if you are not a fan of caramel.  Just make the honey vanilla ice cream (which is pretty incredible by itself) and have it on a cone.

Or in a dish.  Both are good. But remember, don’t stir in any crushed waffle cones.  Best to eat the cones as they were designed to be eaten: not crushed into the ice cream but with ice cream in them.

This is a custard-style ice cream with egg yolks in it.  Many ice creams have more heavy cream in them but this is icy yet the cornstarch keeps it creamy, letting the honey-vanilla flavors shine.

Honey Vanilla Ice Cream

Adapted from The Commonsense Kitchen Cookbook by Tom Hudgens

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

3 1/4 cups half and half

2 Tbsp honey

pinch salt

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

4 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix sugar and cornstarch together in medium sized heavy saucepan until there are no lumps. Pour in half and half, and add the honey, salt and the seeds and pod of the split vanilla bean. Slowly bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until foamy on top and steaming.

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl.  Very slowly whisk in about 1 cup of the hot half and half mixture, then slowly whisk this mixture back into the saucepan of hot half and half.  Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until steaming hot and slightly thickened.

Remove from the heat and let cool, continue to stir frequently for about 5 minutes.  Remove vanilla bean pod and discard.  Let cool to room temperature.  Stir in the vanilla extract and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.  Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.  Serve immediately, while still soft and creamy or pack the ice cream into a container, put in the freezer, and let it freeze hard.

My first try at caramel sauce ended in disaster.  In the version I tried both cream and butter were added with the cream going in first.  Well, the volume of cold  heavy cream going into the super hot pan of molten, melted sugar ended up causing the whole thing to seize and stay separate instead of blending into the decadent dessert I imagined.

When I compared several caramel sauce recipes one thing I noticed was most added the butter first and then the cream, and one also suggested warming the cream before melting the sugar.  This should prevent the problem I had with my first batch.  The other important tip is to have everything ready to go when you reach to point to add them, so you want your butter and cream measured and ready.

I didn’t read anything about making a larger batch but I doubled the following recipe and found I was having a problem with sugar crystals that I ended up having to strain out of the sauce.  I think it was from having too-large a batch.  It is possible that the heat was uneven or the pot not thick enough.  But in the end I got the results I was looking for: a flavor akin to the caramelized sugar that tops Creme Brulee.  Delicious.

Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Elise at Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1/2 C heavy whipping cream

Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a large saucepan.  As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon.  As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.  Swirl the pan a bit from this point on.

As soon as the sugar crystals have melted and turned a dark amber color, add the butter to the pan and whisk until the butter has melted.
One the butter has melted, remove the pan from the heat.  Slowly add the cream to the pan and whisk to incorporate.  Adding the sugar and the cream will cause foaming in the panWhisk until caramel sauce is smooth.  (if necessary, pour sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps of sugar).  Let cool in the pan for a few minutesThis will keep nicely in a jar in the refrigerator.  I saw a note that said it would keep for a month.  Not at my house!

The 30 Days of Creativity have come to an end.  I was in great company with so many other creative people.  I loved and continue to enjoy looking through the wonderful photos on Pinterest.  I’m delighted with all the great comments and support I’ve received and also with my growing list of subscribers.

I will certainly continue to be creative and share that here.  But not every day.  And not tomorrow.  I will be having a giveaway of some of my 30 Days creations, so watch for that and thanks for stopping by.

Day 28: Bottle Cap Necklaces with Aquarium Tubing Beads

Collect some bottle caps for these fun necklaces.  You probably want to wash them.

For the beads you will need plastic tubing that is used for aquariums.  I got mine at a Pet Store.

Drill a hole in the edge of the caps (or have someone do it for you).  You can also make a hole with a hammer and small nail.  I used a Crop-A-Dile II to punch some holes but ended up with holes too close the the bottom of the bottle cap.  It was kind of a problem, so don’t do that!

This is a good place for your hole.

If you have the right-sized circle punch, punch out some cute designs for the center of your bottle cap.  I think this is 1 1/4 inch.  Otherwise, you’ll have to trace a circle of the correct size and cut out your image for the centers.

It’s a good idea with  most paper to punch out another sturdy piece of card stock to back your image and glue the two pieces together.  If your paper is double sided, I strongly encourage you to do this.  Otherwise your image can be ruined by the other side of the paper showing through.

Glue your circle of paper into the bottle cap.  Squeeze a thin layer of Diamond Glaze or similar dimensional adhesive over your image and let dry.  (Remember those holes?  This is where I had a problem – holes that were low on the side of the cap leaked the Diamond Glaze that I put in.  What a sticky mess!)

Cut aquarium tubing into matching lengths, about 3/4 of an inch in length.

Cut small pieces of paper to coordinate with the bottle cap pendant, and with a round toothpick, roll the paper into a tube to put into the aquarium tubing bead.  Trim the ends.

Put a jump ring into the hole that you created in your pendant earlier.  I only had some jewelry pins so I used small pliers and made a small loop on one end, put the loop through the hole and added a few beads than bent another loop at the other end of the pin.

If desired, add a few crystal embellishments to your pendant.  A drop of Diamond Glaze will glue down the crystals.

Thread the aquarium tubing/paper beads along with some spacer beads and your pendant onto thin leather cord. Tie a knot in the leather cord.  Wear.  Enjoy.

Good night.  Day 28 done, two more days to go!

Day 27: Photo Cards

Day 27: Pick out pretty photographs from your files, scale the photo to work with your cards, print them onto nice, heavy, smooth paper, trim them and glue to ready-made folded cards of different colors.  Easy, huh?

I needed an easy project for today and had this one in mind.  I like to take photos when I’m out on a weekend hiking or visiting a beautiful garden or farm.  I share the photos with friends and that’s about it.  Using them for cards is a way to enjoy them again and give them new purpose.

The photo of plums on the upper right was taken on a visit to Green String Farm in Petaluma, CA. with Rem.  I took the pictures of the tangerines and dates and the colander of raspberries when I assisted Tom Hudgens with a series of seasonal cooking classes.  The icelandic poppy pictured below is from Filoli, a beautiful estate and garden in Woodside, CA that I like to stroll around with a friend.  These pictures are all connected with good memories and it is a pleasure seeing them and using them.

You could fold colored card stock (cut an 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch sheet in half for two cards) and use that, but I had cards left from this great assorted box of 50 textured cards in various colors with envelopes that I got at Michaels a few years ago and they were ready to go. The brand is is DCWV or Die Cuts With a View.

I wanted to try something – I signed my first initial with my last name and the year on the front of the cards.  About halfway through I decided I didn’t like how it looked on the front of the card so for the remaining cards, I left it off. Which way do you prefer? The inside of all the cards is blank.

The finishing touch is a signature or initials on the back of the card. I have a wonderful rubber stamp I received as a gift (thanks, Carson!) that came from the Etsy shop called Love to Create Stamps.  I stamped it in grey ink on white paper then added some color, cut them out and adhered them to the back of the cards.

I’m really delighted to have so many new subscribers here -WELCOME!

Thanks for taking a look.