A Gilded Mess

 

Large gilding flake, off-brand flakes, and washi tape

Those who detest glitter probably want to read no further. It gets messier. Messier than glitter? Oh yes. Myself, I love glittery and metallic papers for card making. Sparkle just makes a card better! But I’ve met my match with some off-brand gilding flakes.

The major brands of gilding flakes come in large pieces (see above) that are easier to manage. But I loved the colors in this thirty pack set. 

 

 

 

After an initial attempt at using them I immediately discovered this was an outdoor endeavor. Why? Gilding flakes are incredibly volatile, in the sense of flying. As soon as you open the jar, flakes take flight. This is neither an activity for anyone with hay fever nor undertaken on a breezy day.

 

Gilding flakes can be used in several ways, though my favorite is with sticky-back paper. Other methods are with glues applied to an entire card base (4.25 x 5.5), or with stamps to gild an image. They also cling to anything in sight--skin, clothing, everything in the crafting room, and kitty.

I do love the effects of beautiful metallic pieces for entire card backgrounds or used to die cut shapes as accent pieces on cards. I tried several backgrounds and decided the multicolored panels don’t show up that well when embossed.

Gilding flakes and glitter work great in resin coasters without making a mess! 

I’ll be sticking with hot foiling, metallic papers, and metallic washi tape for a while now. My gilded age is taking a break while I attempt to clean up the craft room, sweep the patio, and brush kitty.

Roadtripping for Research

North Cascades Highway

Last month we took a road trip around the north Cascades highway. The trip allowed me a great opportunity to do historical research for my next book by way of small town museums. The first stop was Sedro-Woolley, a town far north of Seattle, established in late 1898. What an education this was!

According to the museum in Sedro-Woolley, outdoor privies were often relocated and then used as trash dumps. A lot can be learned about history from digging up these pits. Pottery, utensils, old bottles of many varieties, pistols, shoes, buckets, decorative household pieces, and tools were disposed in privies. Why my interest? I was going to have my protagonist avoid an old outhouse while searching property that had belonged to her family for over 100 years, but now this might be a way for her to dig up history. At the very least it deserves a mention in the story. Hmmm….

https://www.omventure.com/blog/mazama-store-in-mazama-washington

The next little community was Mazama founded around 1900. I fell in love with this little “town” tucked into the north Cascade mountains. While the community consists of just a handful of buildings, it's rustic and provided an experience of what a small pioneer town would look like. I’d love to live here if the gardening season weren’t so short. 😀
 
Another excellent example of old northwestern towns is Winthrop,

https://www.travelyesplease.com/travel-blog-winthrop-washington/

WA. The sidewalks are still boardwalk and all of the stores feature old western fronts. Due to the timing of our visit, I had to satisfy my museum interest with an online visit to the Shafer Historical Museum. It’s a town I hope we can visit again when everything is open.

I brought home two books about the history of life in small towns in the early 1900s. This information will aid my research of the historical period in my dual timeline story. While we can read about history, dig it up, and view artifacts, sometimes all this information raises more questions than answers about the past.



 

Birthdays

 

Foiled and hand-colored card

 

I continue to bring in cards to the food bank where I volunteer weekly. Since we are past Mother’s Day, I’ve focused on birthday cards. Every day someone is having a birthday!

Watching a card maker who has fantastic videos, Natasha Foote, I’ve learned new techniques to use with my cards. Natasha encourages everyone to use what they have when recreating cards they see online—you don’t have to buy the latest dies, inks, or patterned paper. I appreciate this approach as I have neither unlimited funds nor space to store regular purchases of card making accessories.

So, focusing on using what I have, including those pieces that don’t turn out as hoped, these cards are going into the food bank this month.

Embossing folder and paper

Two cards were made using my foiling machine and an embossing folder.

 

Unfortunately, embossing with foil didn’t work well. By trimming the bad pieces, I was able to make two very nice cards.

  

 

 

 

 

Employing the same embossing folder in its intended use--without foiling--and adding some inks, this card came out very nice.

 

 

Using both pieces of a card front with a balloon cut, I was able to make two cards that I really like. One card uses the empty space, and the other uses the piece that was cut out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another way I use what I have, is to recycle pages from my daily calendar into cards. Using dies to cut a nice edge and adding some embellishments, I love the way these cards turn out. I figure anyone can use a pick-me-up card now and then. 

Sometimes Life Does Imitate Art

 

The book I’m currently working on features a protagonist who is an assistant manager at a food bank. The idea came to me because I love volunteering at a food bank near me. Recently, while setting up for the morning shift, I noticed several Easter cards on a table with miscellaneous non-food items.

If you’ve read this blog even occasionally, you probably know I’m a card maker. I love incorporating new techniques and patterned papers, but

have far too many cards to use myself. In my book, the main character is also a card maker (write what you know, eh?). I asked one of the managers at the food bank if I could bring in cards that I make and he gave the okay.

Joy! Something to do with the cards I love making, and our clients have been enjoying them as well. I brought in several Easter cards last month and since it’s a little too early for the Mother’s Day cards I’ve stockpiled, I focused on birthday cards this month. 

 

I pulled out the hot foil plates and press and spent 45 minutes preparing card bases that were then ready for embellishments. The week after Easter, I started taking in the birthday cards and saw one woman take home three! 

While there are organizations that take extra cards, like my protagonist, I enjoy seeing my cards go home with people who are excited when they see them.

I'm blessed to be able to craft cards and have a full plate. I'd love it if readers would consider regular donations to their local food banks. All proceeds from my upcoming book will be going to the food bank where I volunteer.

https://www.udistrictfoodbank.org/donate/

 

Easter 2024

 

 

 

Easter seemed to be early this year, so I checked the earliest and latest dates it can fall, which can be anywhere from March 22 to April 25. So, not the earliest this year, but I still had to get hopping on card making!

Pinterest is always a great source for card ideas, and Easter is no exception. I also found a tutorial for an Easter hat card on a blog by a card maker I follow. Along with patterned papers, ink, glue, die cuts, and the Cricut, several different cards are now ready for mailing.

I love the simplicity of the card at the top of the page and the cute little bunny standing in for the letter “A”. The Cricut made this one easy.

What’s Easter without a chocolate bunny? I used the bunny cut out from another card to make this one. The patterned paper featuring chocolate bunnies made a perfect background.



 

This card uses the reverse of the chocolate bunny card above and features an embossed design over patterned paper. The cut image allowed me to use another sheet of patterned paper.

 

 

Here’s a cute little bunny peeking in to wish us a happy Easter. This one used very basic shapes and it was fun to powder the bunny's cheeks and draw on whiskers.

 

 

This card allowed me to use the most patterned paper of all the cards. It’s simple, and I love how it turned out.

 

What’s Easter without an Easter bonnet? Yes, this is a card based on a card maker’s blog this month. The bottom of the hat opens up to allow for a written message.


 

 

But the best Easter basket of all? This little cutie! :) 

Quashed!

Trellised Squash

I’d been planning my 2024 garden for months, and double-checked a list of vegetables in the brassica family. Due to a thyroid condition I have to avoid brassicas, so they shouldn’t be taking up space in my raised beds.

Plans quashed! The brassica list is longer than I realized and includes the well-known broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts. Never having grown those successfully, I wasn’t disappointed. However, greens I love such as arugula, Swiss chard, and bok choy are also brassicas.

https://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

Fortunately, I love squash so I searched the Burpee seed catalog last month for several varieties to plant in the new 4x8 raised bed that I have. This year I’ll be trying baby butternut (my favorite squash), a new squash that resembles the look and taste of mashed potatoes, acorn squash, sugar pie pumpkins*, and winter delicata.

I don’t have a lot of horizontal garden space, so the squash will grow on trellises (photo at top of page) which worked out well last year. Beans are a great companion plant for squash, and this year dragon’s tongue and scarlet runner beans will join the squash. The latter can also be trellised. Last year we had more beans than I could enjoy fresh, so the rest went into the freezer.


*I use a lot of canned pumpkin as a replacement for oil or applesauce in recipes such as these bran muffins. Be sure to toss in a teaspoon or two of pumpkin spice and some cranberries for a fall treat!

https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/moist-molasses-bran-muffins/

I am often low on eggs, so I replace the two beaten eggs in the recipe with a mixture of a tablespoon each of chia seeds and ground flax as a binder. It is so good that I make the muffins with the egg substitute every time. Extra fiber and Omega-3 too!

Pumpkin seeds are a great substitute for nuts and I look forward to roasting my own pumpkin seeds this year. The original garden plan may have been quashed, but now it's squash!

 

 

 

 

 

What a Wazer to Go

The Wazer: https://wazer.com/

 

I retired last month after working 44 years at a large university. Woo hoo! Some people worried that I’d stay at home, just resting and rusting. Pffft! I've already found a couple new hobbies, one of which is stained glass work.

Nice clean edges, and simple pieces for beginners

The first step on the learning curve was to be certified to operate the Wazer, a water jet cutter, at our nearby makerspace. It was intimidating! It seemed there were so many steps to getting it set up, but after a few runs I gained confidence. Other than glass, the Wazer can cut steel, stone, and tile. When cutting glass, the edges are smooth and no grinding is needed, nor do I need to trace patterns and scribe the glass for manual cutting.

 

Having learned to operate the Wazer, I now needed supplies: solder, copper tape, a fid (to firmly press the copper tape onto each cut piece), flux, flux brushes, flux remover, and a carborundum stone to smooth the one area the Wazer leaves to hold the cut piece in place during the high pressure cutting process.

Ready to assemble? Not yet. The PDF designs I purchased from Etsy needed to be converted into the DXF file format Wazer uses. I thought wrapping copper foil around each piece with only a millimeter of play was difficult, but learning to convert files took much more trial and error! Fortunately, my husband is a wiz with various software applications and patiently walked through the process with me over two days.

So, in addition to learning how to solder stained glass pieces, I’ve now learned to use Inkscape to convert files for the Wazer, create the Wazer files, and save them to an SD card. Whew!

Finally, some completed pieces! My foiling and soldering skills have a Waze to go, but I’m enjoying this new hobby.