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, happy mail, weight loss

OMAD and Mail, August 17/2020

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

One of my current reads is David Sinclair’s book about longevity. My spouse and I are reading it together, we’re about 1/3 of the way through and it’s not a quick read. There’s a lot of “sciencey” stuff to wade through.

One of the things this book recommends for longevity, is fasting and calorie restriction (without malnutrition). I’m carrying extra weight I’m having trouble getting rid of. I tried intermittent fasting before (the fancy way of saying your skipping breakfast), but I didn’t lose any weight. I think I made up for the missed breakfast at lunch and dinner. I’m trying something similar OMAD (eat one meal a day).

Today was my first day and it wasn’t too bad. I skipped breakfast and lunch. I had a banana on the way home (around 6pm) and a couple cookies as soon as I got home (I know super healthy). I had a veggie burger and more cookies. Then a couple more cookies (cann’t imagine where this extra weight came from). Maybe I didn’t have the best first day with the horrendous amount of cookies I ate. I’ll eat healthier tomorrow. I plan to stick with OMAD on weekdays and eat however I feel on weekends.

I got this package in the mail today.

It had this pen with different sized nibs.

To switch the nibs you yank out the current nib and put a new one on, then shove it back in then again. I haven’t tried it yet to see if it works properly yet. I think the wider nibs will work better with shimmery inks.

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, happy mail

July 29th Mail and Card

Another mail delivery and experimenting with making cards. The big package contained stamps and cutting dies and I love them.

I love love love this camping stamp and die set and I know to exactly whom I’ll be sending the first card to.

The smaller package contained this camera cutting die. I used it to work with the lawn fawn magic iris cutting (the pink circle in the photo).

The tab to open and close the Magic Iris isn’t long enough, but I can make it longer to work with it. I though I should have a more appropriate use for this cutting die then just my previous one.

This isn’t everyone’s sense of humor, but the recipient loved it. My nieces’ birthday is coming up and a cat butt card is definitely not appropriate. I’ll use the camera die instead.

I wanted to try out my new blending brushes I received earlier this week and chose the Gina K tutorial.

Sorry for the blurry photos! This background reminds me of Joe Exotic the Tiger King guy. I wish I had a tiger stamp, but unfortunately, I did not. Instead, I gave it an 80s vibe.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

Mail Today

My Hero Art kit came in and a couple other card maker supplies I ordered.

I love the Hero Arts kit, it’s pretty pricy for Canadians (around $70 Canadian with shipping), but I love it. I try hard to avoid spoilers until I get it. I like it to be a surprise. There are YouTubers I watch, that get this kit way before I do, and a lot of times I end up seeing it before I get it. They need a spoiler alert lol

These stamps and cutting dies also arrived the same day. I’m not sure my plans for them yet. They are cute, I’ll have fun experimenting with them.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, happy mail

July 2020 Paper Pumpkin Kit From Stampin Up

Paper Pumpkin is an all-inclusive card making kit that costs $33.90 Canadian, including shipping. The kit comes complete with everything you need to put the cards together (your first box includes an acrylic stamping block).

This month’s kit was Summer party themed and came with supplies to make party invites and treat bags (I think they missed the mark doing party invites during a pandemic, but I’ll forgive them, I love these kits).

The kit usually contains cards, but sometimes they do other things (like the treat bags). The invites weren’t the flip open kind, they were a single page, like a postcard.

You’ll be stamping your own sentiments, you can follow their suggestions, but they give you a few options with the cling stamps.

After stamping, the kit comes with punch-out embellishments and adhesive (this time they were stingy with the glue dots and I had to use some of my own).

The invites turned out really cute. I didn’t make the treat bags, I’ll save them for another day. I didn’t want to use these as invites, so I attached them to card bases I already had. I like how they turned out.