So much going on. Printables to begin.

Been a bit since I did some of these, but I did promise so ….

I created a sheet for myself of words that I would use as pairs. Any combo – I could pick them, to accompany a piece already created, or I could draw two at random, which could be fun and surprising, to work towards. Mediocre Scream? Ruthless Self-Portrait? Phenomenal Boredom? Zesty Madness?? I mean any combo could produce a sense of something expected or something odd. I always like a nice typewriter font in lower case and I also did an all upper case one. These are the ones I gravitate towards. Hope you find them usable too.

I used words from some previous printables, just things I had already printed and were lying around on my desk, to make the text on those tags from last week and that exercise prompted me to make these.

You can download the three-page set here and print them all or select only the page you want in your printer dialog box.

Grab them here!

Christmas tags to print and use – Am I a crazy cat lady now?

Perhaps. I seem to have embraced our wee feline grandchild fully, as has Darling Daughter. The Hubster is, maybe, still on the fence, but he is trying. Anyway, for me, feeding her seems to be the key. What a surprise! She did willingly jump up onto my lap the other day, so progress is being made. Hence the subject of this year’s Christmas tags are, unsurprisingly, cats!

I generally create these sorts of things from a resource that comes with a subscription I pay for. I am able to edit the basic designs to suit my purposes. As long as they are not for print-on-demand (like tee shirts or mugs, etc) I could even sell them. But here they are for you, for free, as usual. They make me smile, especially the slightly side-eye cats.

I have another set that I might also add, a bit more cheerful, but for now, these will get me thru the weekend wrapping! Hope you enjoy them. and you can download them here!

A holiday ornament to download, print and assemble

I was working on an ornament for some decorations for a few knitting mates and in the process came across some cute sweater graphics. I usually do some sort of ornament for the holidays so I decided to create a file for people to make. If you recall a past post has a lot of detail on how to make these ornaments (SO easy, I promise) and a helpful video as well. But I will add a couple of tips here.

First is find a circular shape that fits the curved areas nicely. I used one of the old Creative Memories circle cutters but there must be 100 things in your house that will also work. It makes scoring that arc so much easier.

Next, get some grabby glue. I swear by the Art Glitter Glue. That stuff grips almost instantly. I made a few of these where I used a tape runner and that did not hold. Double sided adhesive is ok but honestly the Art Glitter Glue is the BEST.

I also added a hanger by tucking the knotted end of a loop into the area at one end of the arc. Unless you add a daub of glue it won’t hold forever. Instead, I like to use a button hole punch (or a sharp needle) to add two holes to the solid area. Then thread your hanger thru that.

I like to add the bead for a little extra decoration but it isn’t a requirement.

If you print 2-a page, they make diddy little ones that are super cute and still quite easy to do. Give them a go. Such a great result for such little effort. Download the one ornament sheet here! Fair warning, the file is big so may get moved to Dropbox at some point. Speaking of, don’t forget this one I already added…

Have fun!

Junk journal labels – an experiment and some thoughts

I am hoping to start with some sort of brief daily journaling in 2023. This might be the year I manage to follow thru LOL! I have been watching so many videos about Junk Journals. As you know I have made these before, and even started to work in they, managing a few months of very sporadic entries before abandoning it. I have been considering what I need to do to succeed. There are a few things.

1. I need to have a journal I like and that is portable.
2. I need to make it fuss-free
3. I need to do it in a way that reflects my own style

One of the big issues is the style I see most often. It is all very vintage and botanical based, with lots of butterflies and the like. Not me at ALL. I keep forgetting this. I even spent WAY too much time playing about with a set of printables, labels, that I thought would be nice added to the embellishments. Just playing about really, but I do like how they turned out. Link to download via Dropbox.

Larger set, full page

So then I cut them and I thought maybe they needed to be a bit smaller, or at least have smaller options. I usually suggest you print the sheet 2 x per page but in this case I went ahead and just made an additional PDF of the smaller version.

Smaller set, 2x per page

And then, as I was cutting them out, I’m thinking Why? Theses are def. in the vintage arena, and that is not really me. I mean I can DO vintage, pretty well, I think, but it isn’t what I gravitate towards. So I feel like I really need to re-think this and consider making the sorts of embellishments that I will be inclined to use. I feel like I have given myself enough lead time that I can also come up with a reasonable storage solution and enough bits for a month or even two. I have ideas for the journal itself, maybe journals is a better description for how I plan it, and that needs doing too. So I expect between all the holiday stuff upcoming, and the adjustments of Dear Son+Cat, and just a crazy busy schedule, much crafting time is going to be consumed by this pre-new year project. Now off to watch a few more JJ videos and try to find some that are NOT vintage or shabby chic or floral or…not me. I wish I could think of a word that IS me, so I could increase my odds of success!

If you do grab the label sets, let me know what you think of them and if they are useful. Or not! always happy to have feedback…

Just a heads up – deleting Project Life printables and old calendars

I am getting close to the limit of my images allowance for WordPress, and in looking over older posts, I know in the past, when my blog was young, I took high-quality photos and posted them. People could look at the photo on the screen, but f they clicked it, they could see a much larger and more detailed image. More recently, as that limit creeps close and closer, I have been taking a big-enough-to-see photo and posting that, more kilo- than mega-bytes, IYKWIM. In order to claw back some space and knowing that there is little use nowadays for Project Life Cards or pre-2023 calendars, I will be removing the IMAGES for sure and in some cases the posts as well.

I know it is super annoying to follow some Pinterest link out there and not end up on the image or page, but I have not monetized my blog so keeping all that stuff hanging about and taking up space is just not doing me any good.

I have no real grasp on how many people actually still DO project life nor how many of those people currently download the PL resources I have added. I am making the assumption that what I might have designed in the past is going to be hopelessly out of date style-wise anyway so I am hoping this is not going to even be noticed.

So yeah, if you come across a post with no images, I hope you will have seen this as well. I might add a line explaining to any posts I decide to keep, just so eventually people will catch on, but frankly it depends on how much work that is 🙂

TODAY I am still sorting and organizing my stencils and other Gel printing tools. It’s a shocker for sure.

I need to replace the contact paper cover on my desk, as mentioned yesterday so I am ready for a nice clean tidy WOYWW. Wish me luck!

Oh and yeas, we all tested negative for Covid Saturday and Sunday, so it was only Darling Daughter who caught it. What a freakin’ miracle that was. Phew. Thanks for the well wishes.

Thought I would add some printables…

I am working on a project that is taking more time than I would like. Typical. Also, as the window replacement inches ever closer the thought of having to clear my window area is bone chilling. As part of the project, I collected a sheet full of what I am calling ACTIVE AFFIRMATIONS. Lots of lists are (to me) seemingly random words. These are ones that I see as ACTIONS. Single DO words and BE phrases, all in a simple typewriter font, east to cut and use. Download via the link as the image is very low resolution!

I used some of them, you may recall, in the little collage boards I made from last week.

I am still considering where to mount these, although for the moment they sit above my main desk, precariously perched and likely to tumble down on my head as I work. LOL!

Anyway, I have been dithering about adding them to the box o’cards I have shared but then I recalled another project that I had in the back of my head and thought that might be better. I have been hunting for a tutorial and for once, YouTube has failed me. I’ve seen the odd thumbnail of what I want but never instructions. It’s taking me a little while to settle on the best method. Watch this space!

WOYWW tomorrow and oh but my space is a catastrophe at the moment. Time for a quick tidy up, I think…. Don’t worry, I’ll share both the messy and the clean. Full disclosure, always!

Playing card book DONE!

Yippee!

The theme is all around a difficult decision I have to make on adding a rather nasty medication to my list, to try to keep my condition under control. I am still (perhaps foolishly) hoping that when I do my August bloodwork it will show that the upped dose of a medication I am already taking is working, but not massively optimistic. I have been considering this for a couple of months now and it’s coming down to crunch time. For now, till the test results, Indecision IS a decision, of sorts. I really like the way the book has an almost circular effect. Opening the cover and pulling on the right to open out each page reveals one side, with all the worry and confusion and emotions

And then, flipping to the back, it all circles around to the cover again, and the indecision decision cover that ends the book where it began.

Kinda fitting, I guess. Look back to yesterday for both the construction info and the link to download the no-so-positive words for printing and cutting to use yourself.

I am hoping for some play time over the weekend, but as Darling Daughter is now out of education, I suspect we will be doing a LOT of Mommy/Daughter time till September. Then it will be the replacement of the windows and that is going to require a LOT of prep work and a few weeks of chaos. Not sure at this point if I will try to blog on a reduced schedule or just skip a month. Time will tell….

Progress on my little playing card book

I made a lot of progress on my little book, and it was a lot of fun to make. Let me do the construction, then when I finish it I can talk a bit more about the theme. I used a set of printables from Roben Marie, as I mentioned yesterday, and a method for making “washi tape” (i.e. not really) using Scor-tape from Robyn McClendon. The process is exactly as you would expect, just reading those words LOL!

The printables

fit two widths of tape perfectly

and cut in strips

The tape really has none of the properties of actual washi tape that make it so appealing but it is decorated and sticky, so it works. I covered the playing cards with some of my gel prints

and kinda ignored the little rounded corners. Each corner was covered with tape, in my version, so it didn’t matter. Also my cards were smaller than the decommissioned Vegas cards Robyn used and I had no reason to make them even smaller by cutting anything off! From there I only had to lay them out, decide on the tapes to us, and stick them together.

I did every join (rather than every other, like the original) and also the first and last pages so when the book was closed you can see the colourful tape on every edge.

I really love it – it’s so tiny and cute, and should be quick to decorate. I am delving into my pot of not-so-positive words (I shared these to download and print a while back) and I think they will be perfect for my planned theme.

With luck, finished book tomorrow!

Just a quick one while the house is in chaos

I was working on Easter cards for the family and as I made them, I figured I might as well share them, as the painting and minor repair etc. will mean the house is chaotic and getting to do actual crafting is tricky.

eastercardDownload

I am also experimenting with a new way to add the PDFs. Not sure how much I like it but we will see when it publishes how it looks! Sometimes, “improvements” are not!

Anyway, easy peasy. Print and cut the quadrants then pop them on a cardfront. These fit an A5 card but should be easily trimmed to fit a 1/4 US letter size or perhaps even a few others.

Darling daughter is mad keen on anime, and she has been missing her annual trip to HyperJapan for the last few pandemic years. They did hold it online in 2021, but it’s just not the same. Anyway, kawaii cute cards are perfect for here, and these bunnies made me smile. Hope you find them useful if you need a quick card!

I’m curious – is it better to do a card with the front arranged so all you have to do is print and fold on plain printer paper? I always cut the high-quality printed PDF images then stick them to the front of an actual card base, either a commercial one of one made from quality cardstock leftovers. But I always wonder if more people would prefer the easiest and most basic option. LMK!

More words for Art Journals (or ATCs) – not overwhelmingly positive

Hands up if you work in your art journal to help you process things in your life that aren’t all fluffy bunnies and rainbows…. Yeah. Me too. In exploring all the pages I see here there and everywhere, I am struck by how many times I see a page with what appears to be a totally random word plunked down on it. I’ve done it too, plenty of times. Not so much recently but I have been guilty. Well, maybe not, actually. Scrolling back thru my pages I am hard pressed to find single word pages. The only one I found was this one, in all of my finished pages:

I do find some ATCs with things like ART and CREATE and BELIEVE. But positive words are not always the thing you need. Sometimes, I make a page and maybe the right word is PAIN or SCREAM or BOREDOM. And it is both a waste of time and a hassle to create a single word to print and add, or grab my stamps and stamp it out. Since I have been on a bit of kick, making words for my art journaling that I can draw from randomly, I decided to make a couple of pages of not very positive quotes and words. No up-lifting, not artistic really, some have a slight positive spin, but most are depicting ambivalence in the best case, or real anguish in the worst. You might find them useful, unless your art journal is more about the pretty and the positive. Print ant cut, but grab the actual 2-page PDF not this image!

I did them in two styles, the ones I generally prefer, which is blackout or typewriter. I hope you find a use for them.

As a side note, if you recall I mentioned some fab paper that I use for printing.

When printing my words to cut, I grabbed the wrong paper. As I had both, I thought the side-by-side comparison might interest you all.

I know which I prefer! I’ll add it to the AJJ more for the download than the page. The custom cut stencil is very much part of my style so I guess that works!