MEWsager Gift Tag

Finally! After many technical difficulties and a few lost posts, I got my blog back to working!

Welcome to the 2020 Cat Lovers Hop, (our 6th year!) hosted by HerPeacefulGarden.

As you know, I look forward to this hop each year. Unfortunately, those of you who follow my blog know that I haven’t been able to craft as much this year, as what little energy I have has been used up caring for my folks. In trying to get ready for this hop, I find out I’ve been away so long that WordPress has completely changed up the format and it’s like learning how to make a post all over again. Argh! (I think there’s something to that saying about not being able to teach an old cat new tricks!) Ok, enough caterwauling!

I found this adorable little hand held massager at the Dollar Tree. Not only is it cute, but it’s perfect for my mom whose psoriatic arthritis makes it too painful for her to give my dad a back massage that distracts him from his pancreatic cancer pain. This allows her to knead his muscles without hurting her hands.

I was hunting for a cat stamp to shadow my printed punny sentiment, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. They say necessity is the mother of invention… So I drew and drew a likeness of the cat until I was satisfied with it — which reminded my why I really prefer buying stamps!! After printing the message on cardstock, I cut out the tag (Spellbinders Exquisite Labels 11)and then traced my cat image and colored it in. On the back side I used the cutout of the cat image and then wrote a personal note around it.

I copied my drawing and made this .jpg file (aka “digi”) in case you happen to find a similar massager at your local dollar store and want to use my kitty drawing for a card. You should be able to right click and save it. If not, you’ll have to take a screen shot or draw you own. I rarely use digis, so I don’t know anything about re-sizing, etc., sorry, but I’m sure you can figure it out! Tag me or come back and comment when you post your project so I can cheer your efforts!

This will be my only entry in this year’s Cat Lovers Hop. I hope you have a FURbulous day and enjoy the rest of the hop!

~D.Ann

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How to Color Your Hair When Quarantined Card

Hello, all you poor, bedraggled peeps!

I was ecstatic when my hairdresser finally was allowed back to work! They have a huge retail space that’s broken down into individual salons and everyone has to stay in their cars until called. She is very fastidious, so with both of us wearing masks, we felt safe. I don’t color my hair, but thought these cute free digi stamps by Impression Obsession stamps (HERE) would give her a chuckle – So I colored up one for her and one to give to a friend. She like them both!

I started out easy, getting back into coloring with Marvy Uchida LePlume II markers, and Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils with Pebbles Inc. chalks.

 

It’s always restful to take some time to sit and color — no matter what your age!!

While the markers are brighter, I had a hard time remembering how to blend and the paper kept wanting to ball up on me, so I switched to the colored pencils…

Hope this brought a smile to your face!

Hang in there and be very careful out there!!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

Stamplorations Love Always Card with Salt Colored background

Hi there! Welcome back to another crafty whim! This time I’m experimenting with a ‘digi’ and watercoloring with salt. Because a printed ‘digi’ (digital image) from my printer often smears, I decided to do the background FIRST and then print on top of it. I really wanted to play with this nifty technique I’d seen on Betsy Veldman’s blog (HERE). She had a cool variation of the salt technique — where you sprinkle salt on your watercolor and let it dry for some interesting patterns. She COLORED her salt and sprinkled it around for some really cool effects! I especially liked her aqua border with flowers, so decided to try something similar. I guestimated where the orchid and lily would fall and tried to get the yellows and pinks more in those areas. Since I wasn’t going to do much until I was sure I could get similar results, I colored up 1/4-1/2 tsp of coarse salt.

The handiest colors I had on hand were distress inks and spray stains. It only took 2 drops of the ink, but about 6 of the spray stain to color up the salt. I didn’t have a purple, so mixed Mermaid Lagoon with Abandoned Coral until I got the color I wanted. By the time I sprinkled my salt down, the paper was dryer than I’d’ve liked, so I gently spritzed a bit of water across the top. Let dry and brushed off the salt:

Sherry Russ at Stamplorations kindly made available these lovely free digis over on their blog (HERE):

You know I rarely use digis, but I decided to give this lovely one a whirl. First, I had to size the digi. Another reminder of why I prefer stamps. Sure you can resize digis easier, but getting them exactly right is a bit of trial and error (for ME, at least!)

Not bad, but I thought it could use a little more. When Betsy was done with the salt, she went back and added some more watercolor. I was afraid to re-wet the surface as these were distress inks and would react with the water, so I chose to use some Copic markers to make the leaves and a few details stand out, then added a bit of sparkle…

In the end, it turned out nifty, but not near as cool as Betsy’s projects. Some day I will have to come back and revisit this, experimenting with different watercolors and inks.

Supplies used:

• Stamplorations framed Love Always digi (Free HERE)
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor cardstock
• Yasutomo Metallic Watercolors
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink – fossilized amber
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain – abandoned coral & mermaid lagoon
• Costco Kirkland Mediterranean Sea Salt
• Copic markers: C3; G24, 82; RV17; V6; YG17, 61; YR2, 4
• Spectrum Noir by Crafter’s Companion Sparkle pen – clear
• Scotch adhesive runner
• Core’dinations Parisian Nights card base

I’m playing along with the following challenges – click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun:

• Stamplorations – Hey, Love linky party
• Betsy Veldman’s Watercolor + Salt Technique Linky
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Love Is in the Air
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes
• Stamplorations Never-ending Anything Goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and for sharing your comments!

~D.Ann

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A Fun Diet Tip and a Free Digi!

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I’ve posted something! lol! Let’s hope this year is better for all of us! To help get it started off right, today’s post is going to be a bit different from my usual crafting posts. This past May I made some adjustments to my diet that helped me lose 40 pounds in four months. Then life’s circumstances kept me from sticking to it for the past three months. Fortunately, despite that, I’m only up 2 pounds. Now that life has calmed down some, I’m ready to knuckle down and lose the last bit of my excess baggage. Since I know many of you are trying to be good, too, I thought I’d share a fun diet tip with you. I know, using “diet” and “fun” in the same sentence is a major juxtaposition, but you’ll see what I mean soon enough.

Disclaimer: this post is in no way to be considered medical information and you should consult your doctor before following any dieting advice. (Although this is very true, you’re going to chuckle when you see what that advice is!)

If you’re like me, you might have grown up around folks who always kept a candy jar on hand ‘for company.’ I loved visiting family members that had those jars when I was a kid and now I keep one myself – only it somehow seems to run out of chocolates more often than I have company to share it! So I made up a sign to put on the candy jars.

Before I show it to you, I will preface this with a disclaimer… For those of you that know me as a Bible Study teacher, know that I work hard to make sure that what I teach is accurate and never taken out of context. This, however, is most definitely taken out of context and is totally just for fun, ok?! So here’s the sign (from above)…

Just in case you don’t have your Bible handy, here is what Colossians 2:21 says:

“Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch”

Hahahaha! A dainty reminder of a stern order. Of course, this was not originally intended to keep one away from chocolates, but it sure does make me smile! I did it in ombre red to subliminally indicate STOP.

If this makes you smile, too, and you want to use it but don’t have the gumption to letter your own sign, nor to use Paint Shop or another program to make up your own sign, I’ve created a free .jpg digi you are welcome to save and print out for your personal use. All I ask is that if you post it on your blog or on social media, please link back to this blog post, ok? Thanks! Come back here and leave me a comment if you do and I’ll try to visit your post. Have fun!

Right click on the image above to save it to your computer.

Supplies:

• Spellbinders Wonderful Locket die
• Core’dinations 65# white cardstock
• printed digi (see above)

And, yes, I am going to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes. : )

I hope I made you smile! Wishing us all the best as we try to maintain our resolve and reclaim our figures!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

 

 

Kindness is the Way Coloring Class Cards

I’m excited to tell you about a wonderful coloring class and a gorgeous digital stamp set you can get for FREE! Yep, $0.00!! AND, if you’re reading this before August 16, 2018, you still have a few days to enter the coloring contest and win one of up to $200 in prizes! You can find the details on these two sites by the two ladies who are so generously sponsoring this little bit of KINDNESS:

• Kindness is the Way Digital Stamp Set (by the artistic and kindly Marcella Hawley – Thanks Marcella!!) I chose to use the one without the sentiment, but there are some with it in the set, too.
• Kit & Clowder’s Free Floral Coloring Class for markers and pencils by the talented and generous Alice Keegan – Thanks Alyce!

I took the class and learned a lot. I tried coloring using two different sets of pencils…(and learned it’s a lot slower going than with markers, but maybe that’s because I’m more used to using markers. The first pencils I used: Spectrum Noir AquaBlend pencils (which I just colored, but was too chicken to use water to blend. maybe next time!):

See the fuchsia and pale yellow color combo? That was Inspired by Home  – the current Power Poppy Sparks Challenge… 

The color combo for those gerbera daisies inspired by one of my orchids that’s currently in bloom:

I then had a go with a new set of Faber-Castell Polychromos that I received as a gift. Yes, you can see lines in the border shading… I was coloring on leather covered lap desk… come to find out that made the surface too soft and it was embossing, too! Oh well, it has a distressed, shabby-chic look!

And, since this week is the first Creative Confetti Challenge at  PowerPoppy – You’re a Gem! using birthstone colors, I did the background in light emerald and added this sentiment in emerald as the leaves go so well with the flowers:

Supplies:

• Power Poppy Kindness is the Way digital stamp set (get yours HERE)
• Elizabeth Craft Designs A Way With Words: Thanks die by Quietfire Design
• Spellbinders Blooming Garden Especially Made For You die by Marissa Job
• Spectrum Noir AquaBlend pencils: Apricot, Azalea, Beeswax, Bison, Blue Marine Brunette, Carrot, Cherry, Claret, Cobalt Blue, Coral, Currant, Fossil Gray, Grapefruit, Mango, Oregano, Papaya, Persimmon, Petunia, Pineapple, Pink Tulip, Rose Sky Blue, Soft Red, Sorrel, Tobacco, Watermelon, Wheat
• Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils: Brown Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Cinnamon, Cobalt Blue, Crimson, Dark Naples Ochre, Fuchsia, Green Gold, Leaf Green, Light Cobalt Turquoise, Light Green Light Magenta, Light Ochre, Middle Cadmium Red, Middle Phthalo, Naples Ochre Orange Glaze, Permanent Green Olive, Pink Madder Lake, Red Voilet, Rose Carmine
• Core’dinations cardstock: white, orange, blue, black and green
• Scotch tape runner
• Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue

I’m playing along with the following challenges – click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun:

• Power Poppy August 2018 Power & Spark Challenge: Inspired by Home
• Power Poppy 8/7/18 Creative Confetti Challenge: You’re a Gem! Birthstone
• Kit & Clowder 20 Days of Craft Giveaways Day 20 Free Floral Class
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Distress It

Feel free to leave a comment… I enjoy reading them!

~D.Ann

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