Love affair with paper

 I watched a YouTube video on making faux vellum paper.  I don't recall the name of the artist, sorry.  She used a can of clear spray paint on a variety of papers.  One paper she used was painter's masking paper.  I've been using the masking paper in the green tone and the brown tone colors for several years.  I first came across this paper at a shop in Albuquerque.  I love the lightness of it and love love love the colors.  It comes in 18" rolls so I cut it to 8 1/2" x 11" sheets and printed some vintage images and text on to them.   I gathered up a few pieces of pattern tissue, book pages, and tea dyed graphed paper.  I used clear matte spray paint I bought at my local Walmart.  Nothing fancy.  Used a box to lay the paper in and sprayed one side at a time.  You need to do this outside or in a very well ventilated area, believe me.  Hung them to dry and I love the way they turned out.  My favorite is the dress pattern tissue!  I may have to try a glossy clear next time.  The matte is nice but I'm curious how the glossy will make the paper feel and look.

Here is a sample of the masking paper.  It's not transparent but it does have a nice translucent look.

My Fat Boy, my constant companion, my Winston dog....may you rest in peace my love.

Wednesday was such a tough day.  This dog, WINSTON gave us 13 years.  Last week he was showing signs of aging more so than normal for him.  We knew the hard decision was upon us.  We thought another week and we'll see.  Two days ago that all changed.  He deteriorated fast.  Could walk on his own and yesterday he was not interested in eating or moving around much.  Now, Winston is always interested in  eating anything anytime.  The signs were all there.  I looked into his eyes and he was telling me he was ready.  Today he was so sick and could not move at all.  Today was the day he chose.   He was so ready and at peace.  We love this dog and he gave us all his love all the time!  I will miss him terribly.  Bella girl, not sure how the  change will impact her.

Winston

Winston as a puppy, he was so cute!

Winston, a year old!

Winston's first road trip, Flagstaff

Winston, he loved swimming in rivers, swimming pools not so much.

Winston's first road trip to Idaho.
Last trip there was to watch the lunar eclipse.

Monday thoughts...

Blogging with breakfast! 

I've been journaling for a long time, but like everything  else in my life I do it for a minute and then I stop for a bit and then jump into it again.

A page from my current journal.

I think blogging is the same for me.  I love when I take the time to post but I over think what I should post about.  I read other blogs and find them fun to read and think to myself I should write about that...I started this blog years ago and it really hasn't taken off.  I'm not tech savvy on writing the code  or setting up this blog site properly to where it will have buttons to feed my instagram and Facebook page.  The other thing is I never had the foresight to name everything similar.  So my blog, Facebook page, and Instagram all have different names.  One day I should figure out how to consolidate all of it.  I think the main thing I wanted when I began was to get exposure for my artistic and creative side of my life.  Back  then I was working a pretty serious full time job in the criminal justice field and the creative time was a great balance.  I'm retired and have plenty of time for all the artistic fun but I forget to share it!

Sticker crazy!

I used my Cricut machine this week.  I made stickers!  It's been a journey of so many unfortunate events to complete satisfaction!

First, I needed to design the stickers.  I ventured into my stash of inspiration drawings and images.  I came up with a whole set of greenery/floral tiny designs.  First, I sketch.

Once I get the basic designs on paper it gives me a good idea of what I want to use for my stickers.  I kept the designs simple as for my first attempt of making stickers.

From this point I get out my iPad and use the Procreate app to draw up the stickers.  Here's the process in video.

  Once the sticker sheet is done it's time to import it to Cricut Design Space.  Here's where the problems began!   Once I sized up the sheet I made two side by side and attached them.  Set up print/cut option.  I watched a tutorial on what settings to use on the Cricut for stickers.  I was making stickers on white sticker paper and clear glossy sticker paper, both for inkjet printers.  I have a Canon Pro 100 printer.  Once I hit printer I could not get the print settings  box to open.

Last week we had a electrical outage and all my printers were lost since the modem and router were shut down.    I had to add them and the setting just weren't coming up the same.  I added drivers and software updates, geez what a process so I figured this was the reason the Cricut software was not showing the print settings.  After more research I finally got it figured out.  One reason I needed to figure it out was the Cricut could not read the cut markers, what a mess.  Once all this got figured out it was  magic!

I was able to print and cut the stickers out.  I printed some on clear glossy sticker paper and a few sheets of white sticker paper.  The few sheets the Cricut would not read I cut out with scissors and craft knife.  

I put samples of both the clear and white paper stickers on some brown kraft paper to show you how they look.  I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  My brain is on creative overload on new designs, holiday designs, kids sticker designs, bullet journal stickers, planner stickers!  I must admit I'm really liking the clear ones.