Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

Paper Pumpkin September 2020

This month’s Paper Pumpkin was both Fall and Halloween themed. The box costs around $35.00 Canadian, including shipping.

This months ink was a really pretty orange/brown colour. The ink covered the stamp really well, and stamped great. The only Fall/Thanksgiving sentiment was Give Thanks, the rest were Halloweeny.

I was disappointed this month’s box was for candy boxes. Not that I don’t think they aren’t cute, it’s that I don’t have enough people to give these to. I think my friends and family would find it strange if I handed them a candy box and I only have two grandchildren. If Halloween happens this year, these would likely just get trashed in the kids’ candy sacks. As cute as these are, I don’t have enough recipients for them.

They give you a lot of options to decorate the boxes with.

The boxes were double sided so you had a choice of these colours. I went with the decorations pictured on the box. I’ll fill these two boxes with candy and give them to my grand kids. I posted a video below of me opening the kit and putting these two boxes together.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

A week Of Mail – Sept 14/2020

I managed to save all my mail and Amazon packages for an entire week, to open in one big opening adventure. I get so excited getting mail, that I usually have it open before I get to my front door. There was a lot of craft supplies and pens.

I love watching YouTube videos of people opening their mail. This time I put myself on YouTube opening my own mail. It was a little awkward, but I enjoyed doing it. I’ll post the video below.

This pen set came.

It looked really cool, but I managed to break the tip within the first hour of using it.

I can’t fault the pen for this, I was tapping it on the bottom of the water jar, and I knew I could break it.

The bottles were super messy.

I got ink all over both hands. I STILL have ink stained hands, several hours later. I managed to try every ink before I broke the pen. I also sampled the ink with a dip quill to compare it with the glass pen.

I liked the quill better. In defense of the glass pen, I was probably using it wrong and didn’t have a chance to get the learning curve down. I think I had too much ink on it and most of the smearing in the photo below, is due to me being a left handed side writer. I found the ink bled a lot with the glass pen and not so much with the extra fine nib on the quill. I do believe these inks aren’t the greatest quality, but they did have their charm.

The shimmer in the blue ink was incredible. The others have some shimmer to them as well, but it’s not showing up in the photo. The bottle design could should be different. The ink pooled inside the lids. If you’re going to get a glass pen be very careful with it. Apparently, glass is breakable 😀

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, weight loss

Mail and Crafting Sept 9/2020

Two packages came in the mail today.

The smaller package contained these cutting dies. They were much smaller than I had expected.

The bigger package had these HUGE cutting dies.

They were bigger than my hand! I wasn’t expecting them to be this big. I’ll be able to do a lot of different things with them.

I didn’t use the new dies today, instead I used these sweater dies, to make a card.

The card is a little plain. I should have staggered the words more unevenly and used a less bright ink colour.

For the second card, I used a baking themed stamp and die set. I really love this set, but I don’t love the card I made. I’m not sure how to use this set in a better way. The set is perfect for gifting baked good.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, wine

A Week Of Mail, And Wine

This week I got some crafting supplies in the mail.

These two embossing folders came. I love plants and grow many of them in my home. They couldn’t be more perfect for me (especially since my favourite plant is a monstera deliciosa, which is the leaf on the right).

I love these sweater cutting dies. When I look at them I hear a line from a Lana Del Ray song “You fit me better than my favourite sweater”, which would make a perfect sentiment for a card with these dies.

These rain drop embellishments came. They are bigger than I thought they were. I hope I can make them work. There is a very slight difference in colour.

I ordered this double sided adhesive to see if it was a better deal then going to your local dollar store, but really I think you might as well go to the dollar store. The adhesive isn’t would tight and I don’t think there is as much of it. I’ll go to the dollar store for it.

As for the wine, I bottled a batch of Merlot at the wine shop, last Wednesday. It made 30 bottles. We drink a lot of wine at our home, so I ordered a batch of a blend of Gewurztraminer and Riesling. I’ve never made wine with Gewurztraminer before. I hope I like it.

Lobster Shorts books, card making, crafting

Book Mail, Cards, and Vacation

This came in the mail awhile ago, from a gracious friend and talented writer, Shannon (you can find more about her here). I finished the book I was currently reading (The Escapist, by Gabriel Filippe and it was SO GOOD) when she sent this one . I like to read every night before I go to bed. I usually only manage to read a couple pages before I get too sleepy, so it takes me a really long time to finish a book. I’ve never read this author before and I’m looking forward to it.

I made a couple cards while I was on vacation as well. I like the minimalist aspect of them. I only added sequins to the one because I got some ink smudges on it, otherwise I would have left it as is. I don’t care for the pink ink as much as I prefer the dark ink, for the Thank You sentiment.

As for my vacation, I went to a cottage on Lake Huron. It was on an island and the water was so clear and beautiful. One of the highlights of my vacation was snorkling. I saw lots of little bottom fish they told me were called gobis. They were really cute, but apparently invasive. They reminded me of mud skippers, but the lake bed was all rock. I saw lots of little shells, I think they were zebra mussels (also invasive). The company was lovely and the water was beautiful. I made it up to visit my folks as well. I’m always a little nervous to visit them during these difficult times, COVID is still a big threat here in Canada. There has been rain the last few days, so I’ve had some time to play with my newest craft supplies.

As for OMAD, I’ll be restarting that tomorrow. I had lost three pounds, but I’ve since gained it all back. I ate like a fiend during this vacation.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

August 16/2020

I made another card today.

Sorry my photos are blurry. I used this embossing folder and mermaid stamp and die set I got on Aliexpress. I also used parts of the sea themed Hero Arts kit I got awhile back.

I used a water brush and ink pads to colour the mermaid, then embossed the sparkly paper with the fish scale embossing folder. I adhered it to a plain craft card base and glued on the mermaid and sea floor. I added a sentiment and stuck on a couple embellishments.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail, Plants

August 15/2020

I have been having to cut my glad flowers off. I didn’t plant the bulbs deep enough and they are falling over and growing flat on the ground. So far only one of the grown bulbs has been able to stay upright.

I bought a bag of glad bulbs at my local Costco and they are BEAUTIFUL! I only planted half the bag and the colours have been gorgeous. So far pale lilac, soft pinks, red, and white glads have grown. There are a few more that still haven’t bloomed and I can’t wait to see what colour they are.

I wanted to use the new cutting dies with this spider web embossing folder. I haven’t used either one of them yet.

I loved the spider web background and the doll dies are cute too.

I have no idea why I chose Thinking of You as the sentiment. It really didn’t go with the card. It came off as bad creepy, not good creepy. I’m still struggling with embossing. I powdered the background of the Thinking of You sentiment before I embossed it, but the embossing powder still ended up sticking everywhere.

In the end I chose a craft paper card base, took the wings off the doll, and used the pink arrow background. It suited it much better. I’ll try an eraser to get the powder sprinkles off, but it’s melted on. I’ll keep practicing.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

August 10/2020 Mail

Two packages came in the mail today.

The black package had galaxy papers. I bought them to make into envelopes. If I ever make space themed cards, they would be perfect, but they would have to be small.

The other package had the mermaid stamp and die set and a die set that makes cards that look like a makeup palette.

So many fun new things to try!

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

August 05/2020 Mail

Today’s mail brought me delight.

My Sizzix Big Kick die cutting machine had broken. I love to make cards and although I could still somewhat use the machine, it was a nightmare to cut with. It only partially cut and I had to shove things into it to make it work. Today, the new one arrived and I can’t wait to try it.

I got the replacement part for my food processor today.

I got this for Christmas years ago and although the base is built really well, the plastic jar became brittle and broke. Instead of getting a new one, I replaced it. I really like it, it does a great job and I wanted to keep it instead of trashing it. It makes pie crust so easy.

The little package was a cutting die. I will have to think of a cute card for an animal lover for this one. The little flower must be an extra add on. I didn’t order it. It’s cute too.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting

Long Weekend Outgoing Mail

This rainy long weekend day was a great day to get some outgoing mail made. The firefly card is for my in laws and the heart card for my parents. The grey card is currently in my mini library with a gift card to the local bakery.

I tried using the July 2020 Hero Arts kit to make this under the sea card, but I need to fix the dolphins. I stamped them lopsided.