Tuesday, November 5, 2024

October 2024 in Books

October was a decent reading month, a nice mix of books of all types.  Here's the rundown:–

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife - Anna Johnston - fiction - five stars - This was a cute book.  Frederick Fife is an elderly man who has fallen on hard times, he's about to be evicted from his home because he can't pay the rent.  He is at the park when he sees a man in a wheelchair who appears to need some help, but then an accident occurs and Frederick has now been mistaken for the man in the chair, Bernard Greer.  He tries to explain the mix up, but no one pays attention and he takes up residence at Bernard's nursing home where he begins to make friend and help those around him.  A very sweet read.

Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life - Kao Kalia Yang - biography - five stars - The story of the author's mother Tswb, a Hmong from Laos who becomes a refugee after the US leaves Laos.  Her family survives wandering in the jungle for several years until she meets the man she marries.  His family decides to leave the jungle and go to a refugee camp.  After many years, they are able to emigrate to the U.S., but Tswb never sees her mother again.  Tswb's story is difficult from beginning to end, life in America is a struggle as well, but they are able to raise kids who go on to college and help to support them later in life.  Excellent read.

Spy School Goes Wild (Spy School, #12) - Stuart Gibbs - juvenile fiction - five stars - The latest Spy School book sees Ben Ripley kidnapped, along with his nemesis Murray Hill.  They're being taken to Africa to perform slave labor for a construction project as punishment for foiling the Chang family's plots.  Ben manages to escape, and when reunited with his team, thwarts Chang's most recent scheme.  I thought the premise of this one was pretty interesting (in terms of Ben getting kidnapped).  These books are always a fun read.

Here One Moment - Liane Moriarty - fiction - four stars - I really enjoy Moriarty's books, but this one was a little bit of a disappointment.  The premise is that a woman on a flight starts predicting when people will die and from what.  Most people think she is just a kooky lady, but when the predictions start coming true, people start to freak out a little bit.  It was interesting to see how people reacted to their predictions, tried to change their fates, etc.  I enjoyed the characters a lot, but I wasn't crazy with how the book resolved itself.  It was a bit of a let down, I was expecting something better, although now that I'm typing this I remember I felt similarly about Apples Never Fall.  I'm thinking Moriarty needs to think through the full plot of her books a bit more.

Brooklyn (Eilis Lacey, #1) - Colm Tóibín - historical fiction - four stars - This is an older book that has been on my list for a while, but the author recentely wrote a sequel, so I figured I needed to finally ge around to reading the first book.  Eilis' family in Ireland has fallen on hard times, the kids have slowly left home to find work away from their hometown.  With few job prospects, Eilis' sister arranges with an Irish priest in Brooklyn to have Eilis move there and work in a department store in the U.S.  I enjoy immigrant stories and this one was good.  There's not really a particular plot arc, it's just her story, but I really enjoyed the character of Eilis, her experiences, thoughts, etc.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next book.

I Cheerfully Refuse - Leif Enger - fiction - four stars - I read and loved Peace Like a River a couple of months ago, so wanted to try something else from Enger.  This is is his most recent book.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, I guess something more like the previous book and this was not that.  Still a very good story, but a very different genre.  This isn't quite post-apocalyptic, but something along those lines.  Society/governmenet has broken down, the climate has changed significantly.  The main character, Rainy, is on the run due to circumstances that he has just kind of fallen into following the loss of his wife.  The book covers his journey around Lake Superior, those whole help and do not help him, and how he heals from the loss of his wife.  I felt like this book was a little less focused than Peace Like a River, but still quite good.

My Side of the River - Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez - autobiography - four stars - Elizabeth is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.  She, and her brother, are American born, and when her parents tourist visas run out, they return to Mexico to renew them, leaving Elizabeth and her brother in the care of a family friend.  Unfortunately, the visas are not renewed.  Elizabeth navigates staying in the U.S., depending on the kindness of others, to complete high school and then college.  After graduating from college, she brings her brother back to the U.S. as well.  Elizabeth's story is is a difficult one, and she is pretty honest about it.  I wa a little put off by the style in the latter part of the book.  She seemed to have a huge chip on her shoulder which was off-putting.

Hera - Jennifer Saint - fiction - three stars - A retelling of Hera's story.  This one was a disappointment, more like two and a half stars rounded up.  Saint tried to paint Hera as a strong character who doesn't want to marry Zeus, but does because she knows she can't not.  She plans to somehow be his undoing, but this plot line fell flat.  Hera never really was able to carry this out and it just made her sem weak.  Also, it seemed like Saint felt compelled to be exhaustive in her mythology and cover all of the women Zeus impregnated.  This got repetitive.  I really just never connected with Hera, she wasn't a sympathetic heroine at all.

Favorite book this month was The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife least favorite was Hera.  I still have lots of books lying in wait.  Hoping to put a big dent in the TBR list before the end of the year.  Right now I'm reading and loving The Lion Women of Tehran.  Please do share what you have been reading!

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Merry Everything and Octo Stencil

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


I've got a couple of cards to share today using the Merry Everything stamp and Octo stencil from Simon Says Stamp's Sweet Wishes release.

I used two colors of ink for each of these backgrounds.  This lighter color was blended over the entire stencil, and the darker colors was added using a smaller blending brush just in the center of those Octo designs.  For the red, I used Terracotta and Brick, and Sprout and Fairway for the green.

These backgrounds were then trimmed down, coordinating cardstock mat was added, and then adhered to the card base.


The Merry Everything sentiment was stamped with Versa Clair black ink and then die cut.  I added a bit of inking with the darker ink color around the outsides of the sentiment (be sure to use a heat gun to help dry the ink as Versa Clair stays wet a bit longer than most inks).  The sentiment was then adhered with foam tape.

A added a few snowflakes from the Merry and Bright die set with Glossy White cardstock which were arranged around the sentiment.


These were a very quick make and would be great for mass producing.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

SSS, Same Card, DIfferent Occasions

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


One of my Instagram friends mentioned last week that some of the Holiday Messages sentiments could double as sympathy sentiments.  I thought I would put that to the test, and ended up creating the same card twice, once for a holiday card, and one a sympathy card.

These were super simple and easy to create.  I started with two white cardstock panels cut to 4" x 5 1/4".  The Octo stencil was turned 45 degrees and I spread a bit of Silver Lunar Paste through the center.


Once the paste was dry, I used some liquid adhesive to adhere a white Winsom Branch die cut.  The adhesive was placed along the stems, but the leaves were not fully adhered.  I really love the dimensions all those little leaves give you.

The sentiments were embossed in gold andd ie cut, and then popped up with foam tape.  To add to the dimensional look, I popped one of the little leaves up on each card so that it lies over top one of the sentiment pieces.


To give the front panel just a bit of differentiation from the card base, I used a Natural White cardstock, and popped the panels up with foam tape.

I love that this sentiment set works for so multiple needs!

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

SSS, May your Christmas be Merry and Bright

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


I've got another Christmas card to share today using a some old and new Simon Says Stamp products.

I started by inking up two panels of cardstock.  To save myself some time, I used colored cardstock.  For the green, I used a chartreuse cardstock, inking it with Fairway and Field.  For the blue, I used a light blue cardstock along with Cadette and Marine.  The panels were inked from the outside in to give them a bit of a glow in the center.

I die cut the green piece with my Laurel Leaves Background Plate and adhered this to my inked blue panel.


For the sentiment, I white ambossed the merry sentiment, from my Holiday Messages set, on red cardstock, die cut it, and popped it up with two layers of foam tape.  The secondary sentiments are also from that set but were white embossed on black cardstock and popped up with only one layer of foam tape.

It's so fun to pull out some old favorites, hope you are doing the same with your creating!

Thursday, October 17, 2024

SSS, Peace a Savior is Born

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


I've got a card to share today that mixes a couple items from the new Simon Says Stamp Sweet Wishes release with some older products.  That's one of the things I love about creating Christmas cards, it's so easy to mix and match old and new.

I started by stamping the cat and star images, from Colorado Craft Company's All is Bright set by Anita Jeram, on a piece of Neenah Solar White cardstock, and colored it with Copics.

The sentiment, from the Holiday Messages set, was then stamped with Versa Clair black ink.


I then took stamped the Sparkle Strands background with Versamark on some red cardstock and clear embossed.  Using one of the Nested Domed Arches dies, I die cut an arched opening to create a frame for my image and senetiment.  This was then popped up with foam tape for a bit of dimension.

A pretty simple recipe, but you could create a whole set of cards with it using different images from your stash.

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

SSS Sweet Wishes, Merry Everything

  *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


Just a very quick card share today.  I made some very simple cards using my new Merry Everything sentiment.  This big sentiment was created for a friend from work who wanted a sentiment that covers everything in the year.  There's a coordinating die that goes with the sentiment but I went with easy one layer cards here.

I used the large rectangle from my Printmaking Houses stencil to mask off the portion of my panel to be inked, and then chose two colors of Distress Oxide for each panel.  Clockwise from top left, I used Abandoned Coral/Broken China, Villainous Potion/Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron/Lucky Clover, and Chipped Sapphire/Crushed Olive.


I mixed up the orientation of the inking - diagonally from corner to corner as well as top to bottom.  I had another panel that gave me issues with the gold embossing.  I was having a hard time getting even inking for the embossing...it was hard to tell when the Versamark didn't fully cover the area.  My fix was to ink all the sentiments with Versa Claire black, and then some were embossed in gold and some in clear.  



I also added some splatter to the Chipped Sapphire/Crushed Olive card, and for the Abandoned Coral/Broken China card added some very subtle stamped accents using the small stamps from the Zippy Winter set using Versamark.

That's all for me today.  Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend!

Friday, October 11, 2024

SSS Sweet Wished Blog Hop, Sketched Leaves

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


Happy Friday!  Today I'm helping celebrate the new Simon Says Stamp Sweet Wishes release with a blog hop.  All good blog hops have prizes, and there are lots to be had here.  Simon is giving away a $25 store credit at every stop on the hop.  All you need to do to be entered is to leave a comment.  AND, with any order placed this weekend, you can receive the Tidings of Cheer die set pictured above with code FYCHR.

You should be arriving from Mindy Eggen's blog, and I'll have the full hop list at the end of this post if you need it.  

Today I'm showing off my Sketched Leaves set.  I have to say I'm pretty thrilled with how this set turned out.  I had so much fun creating today's cards.


For this first card, I used all four of the leaves in the set, randomly stamping them with Watermelon, Amethyst, Pucker, and Cherry ink to create my own patterened paper.  I love the look you get when the leaves overlap!


Once I was happy with the coverage, I trimmed the panel down, and added a dark purple mat.

The sentiment, also from the set, was embossed in white.  I added a mat to that as well and popped it up with foam tape.

I went super simple with the next card.


I started by creating a panel using Distress Spray Stains and water.  I used Ground EspressoCarved Pumpkin,, and Candied Apple for the panel.  I started by liberally spraying my panel with water, and then with the spray stains.  I added a bit more water and then more spray stain moving the panel around to mix the colors until I got the look I wanted.  This is a very inexact science, but I love the depth and coverage you get from the sprays vs just using watercolor.


Once the panel was dry, I ran it through my die cutting machine by itself to help flatten it out, and then gold embossed the leaf and sentiment.  The panel was then popped up on my card base with foam tape.

I created several panels along with the one above, and used another of them for this last card.  This time I used Villainous Potion, Candied Apple, and Carved Pumpkin, and Ground Espresso.


I used three different metallic embossing powders for this card, one for each leaf: Copper, Princess Gold (this is actually my go to gold) and regular Gold

Each of the leaves was placed on the panel using my stamping platform, stamped and embossed, and then I rotated the panel 180 degrees and stamped and embossed again.


The sentiment was embossed with Princess Gold on a watercolor panel, inked with Villainous Potion and Ground Espresso Distress ink, adhered to a Matte Gold mat, and popped up with foam tape.

That's all for me today.  Your next stop is Bibi Cameron, and the full list is below.  Don't forget to leave a comment ot be entered to win.  Good luck!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Laura Bassen
Nichol Spohr
Cathy Zielske
Barbara Tarayao
Mindy Eggen
Miriam Prantner
Bibi Cameron
Cheiron Brandon
Heather Ruwe
Keisha Charles
Karin Åkesdotter
Kath Stewart
Barb Engler
Betsy Green