Summer Reading Marathon 2020 Kick Off & GIVEAWAY

Summer Reading Marathon is here! My daughter & I have participated in this marathon for 21 years. We started when she was six & she'll be 27 this August. It's a contest we have with each other to see who can read the most books within the summer months.

For the past few years, I've wanted to make bookmarks and leave them in books at the library as a RAK. Yeah, it sounds like a great idea, but I still haven't done it.

This year, I decided to do something different. I'm having a GIVEAWAY. Leave a comment with a book recommendation by June 15th and I'll randomly draw a name. The winner will receive a handmade bookmark from me. I'm going to post this GIVEAWAY on my IG and FB accounts as well. Leave a different book recommendation on either of those platforms for additional entries.

Here are a few that I made last night...aren't they great! They are in a plastic sleeve with a tassel

 Sorry for all the glare...these are the backsides:

Here they are step by step:
I cut strips from a paper pad cover.

 I added white gesso on all of them before adding different hues of teal/aqua/turquoise acrylic paint.

 Then I used an assortment of sprays.

 Once that dried, I stamped randomly all over with a couple of different stamps.

 Added pink acrylic paint.

 Added script stamp.

 Inked the edges with black archival ink.

 More stamping but this time with white ink.

 I should have waited for the middle one to dry before adding a sealer, but...

Added a clear sealer and then stamped a sentiment on each one.

Since the middle one smudged, I added some black ink spray (it's now the first one). I don't like it as much as the others, but it's still pretty.

Close up of the brighter two:

All the stamps with the exception of the vine stamped in white are from Rubber Paws
The vine stamps is from Bloom Art Stamps
The plastic sleeves & tassels were also gifted from Rubber Paws

Teal assortment acrylic paints are from my stash
Pink from FSJ & the color sprays
Gold spray is Heidi Swapp

TGIF; Thankful Friday #132

Happy Friday! Today is the official KICK OFF of Summer Reading Marathon 2020! I have my bag of books and I'm ready to read!

This week I'm thankful for the high temps we had all week. I know that sounds crazy, but with the current condition of our lives, shelter in place, don't shelter in place, masks or no masks, etc., it's nice to know that Mother Nature still operates the same.

I hope the weather is great where you are and you are enjoying it whether you're outside or sitting in A/C inside your home.

Let me know what you are thankful for by leaving a comment below.

2020 Goal Update; Weeks 15-21

Do you remember my 2020 goal to send at least one card a week? Well, I’m still sending them out. My card box is getting thinner and thinner. Here are the cards for this round:

As I’m going through my card box, I am finding some that need to be updated.
This card went from this:

To this:

This balloon animals stamp set is from Fun Stampers Journey and I colored them in using alcohol markers. The red one is popped up with some 3D adhesive.

Week 15 - Sharon’s birthday
Week 16 - What’s Up to Mellissa and two sympathy cards
Week 17 - May Day to Vicky and RAK to NJ FB group friend and another sympathy card
Week 18 - Mother’s Day to my mom & friend, Lauren
Week 19 - Robert’s birthday
Week 20 - Derek’s birthday (DS2)
Week 21 - Serena’s birthday

Here’s some photos of the additional four cards I mailed out this round:

If you would like a receive a handmade card from me, please leave a comment here and send me an email with your mailing address OR if you know someone who needs a “pick me up”, I can send one to them as well.

BBTB2: Military Challenge

Hey Cricut-ateers! The newest two week challenge at the Bitten By The Bug 2 website is...military. My hubby was a tank mechanic in the Army years ago so I thought it would be fun to make some cards using a military tank & make them punny “tank you” cards.

I used the tank from the Military Silhouette cartridge for the first card & Patriotic Quick Cut Cards for the second.

Other card details:
Camouflage patterned paper
Two different green washi tapes
Silver stars from Stampin Up!
Cool Pool and Black Licorice Color Silk (splatter) from Fun Stampers Journey

Both sentiments were handwritten and matted with green cardstock scraps. To finish the cards, I used a black marker to draw a border around them.

Now it’s your turn. Link up your military themed project using your Cricut machine. Check the rules on the BBTB2 site and be sure to let us know what cut you used or how you used your Cricut machine. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Bash Your Stash; (Animals) Stamps

This whole "Bash Your Stash" is a lot harder than you think! I opened the next drawer of stamps for this series & it's animals. I removed all the stamps from this drawer and separated them by animal type (birds, cats, dogs, farm, zoo, etc.).

Once I did that, I pulled out the stamps that I felt I will not use and moved them into a donate pile. During this process, I realized that I have a lot of dog stamps! My first instinct is to keep them all, but if you are looking for a particular dog breed stamp, leave me a comment. I'd love to gift one or more.

Now, I need to use the stamps that remain in the drawer and make a final decision to keep or donate. Here are some photos of a few projects I've made.

I love punny stamps!

I have a whole set of these birds...

All four were made from the same masterboard.

I filmed the process of making the masterboard for the zoo animal cards and then each card. I love how they turned out! Check out the video on my YouTube channel:

More info on the zoo animal cards:
Stamps: Gifted from Rubber Paws (read about her HERE) & Elements II from Bloom Arts
Paints: Grass Green, White, Granite Grey and Flag Red acrylic paints
Sprays: Lindy Starburst, FSJ Sour Lemon, Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine and handmade white
Crayons: Vicky Boutin
Stencils:  Dollar Store and handmade
Ink: Licorice Black and Deep Roast from FSJ
Markers: Tombow #026 and Dk. Brown watercolor marker
Twine: FSJ
Sentiment Stickers: Tim Holtz Chit Chat and Small Talk

Things to note:

• My big jar of Modge Podge was almost empty so I pour the small amount in the travel size bottle.
• All the extra ink, paint, etc., gets placed on random paper scraps that I use for my Junk Journal and other projects.
• My water jar is a souvenir shot glass when my friend visited Puerto Rico. It's the perfect size for these little projects.
• Dry each layer before adding more medium. 
• I also ironed the completed piece to flatten it. I used parchment paper to protect the iron & paper.

If you're not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and also this blog. Also, if you are interested in receiving a handmade card from me, please let me know in the comments or leave me an email by going to the CONTACT tab at the home page.

Cards For Kindness; Card Goal 2020

Scrapbook.com is gathering cards to donate to hospitals and organizations. Go to their blog to read more about it, but when I received the email from them, I was totally onboard! This gave me a chance to donate and also continue my 2020 goal to send out cards.

I went through my card box and gathered 26 cards. I could have gathered more, but I didn't want to completely deplete my card stash.

If this is something you'd like to do, check out their blog HERE for more details. The do require a minimum of 10 cards so this is a great project for a group of card makers!

If you are interested in receiving a handmade card from me, send me an email. You can find my email address in the Contact tab on the homepage.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #131

TGIF! I really mean it, TGIF! This was my first official full week back to work and I AM TIRED! This week I'm thankful for Hello Fresh. I had subscribed to this service awhile back but stopped after awhile.  I restarted it and I'm so happy! We ate the best meals this week thanks to Hello Fresh and my DIL.

And...on one of my favorite crafters' IG account, she posted that she made the Chicken over Garlic Parmesan Spaghetti (which we did too on Tuesday) and I commented that it was so good AND then she replied to my comment. Isn't that funny? I love that we can correspond with people that we'll probably never, ever meet.

I hope you had a great week and are able to find something to be thankful for.  Leave a comment and let me know!

WOYWW #572

Happy WOYWW and Happy 11th Year Anniversary! Wow, Miss Julia has been hosting this linkage for 11 years! WOW! Go to Stamping Ground to celebrate.

Instead of exchanging ATC, we are to complete UFOs. I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of that lately with being in the house for months so I don’t have one project to showcase this week.

But I do have a photo of my desk with is full of scraps and supplies that I used to make small cards for gift tags using older punny stamps from my stash.

Have a great week!

Be sure to click on over to the Stamping Ground site and check all the other desks.

Upcycled the Junk Journal Cover (LTCCB)

Remember this post for the May LTCCB Design Team submission? Well, the cover has changed a bit. I participated in a virtual Paint Night with a local artist and decided to use my Junk Journal cover as the base instead of a canvas.

The project was Wonky Flower and this is my final piece:

I had to redo the leaves a couple of times. I kept wanting to make them even but the idea was to make a wonky flower so the more uneven they were...the better.

Do you do that? Are your projects constantly changing? My guess is we all do.

There have been a lot of FREE virtual paint classes during this quarantine time and I'm trying to take advantage of as many as I can.

Free art lessons = awesome!

If you haven't had a chance, you have until the end of the month to link a crafty project on the Love To Craft Challenge Blog (LTCCB)! Click on over to see the DT projects and link your handmade project.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #130

Happy Thankful Friday! This week I am thankful for little treats. More specifically, these little gingerbread pig cookies (marranitos).

They are my favorite! When I was little and whenever our family went to the Flea Market, my sisters and I would always get a treat of our choice of Mexican pan dulce & I would always choose the pig.

For whatever reason, we've been having a hard time finding them (they're my hubby's fav too) and he found them this week at Walmart. Yes, I said Walmart!

So good! It's the little things!

What are you thankful for this week?

WOYWW #571

Happy Wednesday and Happy WOYWW!

My desk this morning:

Let’s see...bottom left is the front cover for my junk journal signatures. I painted that wonky flower in a virtual paint nite. To the right of that is a paper snippet (I think it’s called that). I made this using an old calculator roll and scrap papers. That was a lot of fun to make. I added some strips of it inside the journal. The rest is just crafty goodies.

Click on over to Stamping Ground to read all about WOYWW and take a peek into other craft rooms/desks/areas. Have a great week!

BBTB2: Graduation

Although most (if not all) graduation ceremonies are cancelled due to the Shelter in Place order, we can still celebrate the graduates. I made this card by following directions by Melody Lane Designs. I saw this on IG and knew I had to learn how to make it! The current challenge at Bitten By The Bug 2 (BBTB2) is Graduation.

My son is graduating from UC Santa Cruz this June but isn’t able to take part of any ceremony. I feel bad for him and all the other graduating students everywhere.

I decided to make this card in UCSC school colors so I can give it to him.

 Go to Melody Lane Designs to learn how to make this card. It’s easier than you think. Basically, you weld numbers (or letters depending on what you’re making) to a rectangle. This should be 5.5 x 4.25 if you’re making an A2 card. Then you duplicate and flip the card. Weld those two pieces together and add a score line where they butt up.

I used multi-layer Varsity for my letters so the top layer of this font was welded to a slightly smaller rectangle for a top decorative layer.

The “congrats” and graduation hat were also welded together and cut from both white & navy blue cardstock. I love this card! I used the Arab Brushstroke font for “Congrats” and Class of... for the cap. I also added a few strokes of a clear glitter pen on the cap.

Be sure to link up your graduation project to the BBTB2 site and be sure to let us know how you used your Cricut.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #129

What day is it? Oh yeah, it’s Friday. Are you losing track of days, dates and even time? I believe most of us are during this time.

Happy Thankful Friday! What are you thankful for this week? This week I’m thankful for the extra time to organize around my home. I already did my pantry and this week I finished my linen closet. I still need to attack the “Tupperware” cabinet, but that one I need to really prepare myself for!

It is packed with containers but we really only use around six of them on a regular basis...so what do you think??? Should I donate them or continue to stack them in the cabinet? This is my dilemma!

Anyhow, please be sure to let me know what you are thankful for this week in the comments.

Have a great week!
From this:

 To This:

I didn’t take a “before” picture, but this is the “after” of our pantry:

Both don’t look like much, but I removed three full garbage bags worth of things that I either threw away or will be donating.  Three bags from each location!