Travel | A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Posted on October 26, 2012 by kath

backyard flame bush

GOULISH GREETINGS YA’LL Yes it’s still fall here and this is the flame bush from my back yard to prove it and I am still working feverishly to get my halloween cards in the mail soon. I also thought at the last minute that I had used ZAZZLE to get some daisy stamps for my Graceful Envelope back in January so I thought hummmmm wonder if they have halloween stamps…..OMG they had so many I had to force myself to only buy one sheet …ordering special stamps is a bit pricey but I do so have fun with the cards that the stamps seemed necessary as the Post Office had nothing available that would work. I just type in Zazzle in google and up it comes and then you can choose your category. I don’t know who they are or what they do as they have tons of stuff on their website but when it comes to postage they are incredible. Wedding , holidays, just about anything you can think of …and they are legal. lol So if you can afford about $20 for a sheet of 20 …I know about a buck a stamp but my friends are worth it….lol I also wanted to share this photo that my hubby took recently of the PINE SISKINS that are swarming our place now with winter on their heels… DOUBLE TRI FOLD CARD FROM CARD MAKER MAGAZINE Ok this is the pattern and and it is going to take a 6 1/4 x 12 strip of cardstock at least that is their pattern…You can also use 6 x 12 and then cut your diagonals. In addition they use a paper that is not duplex well it may be since I believe it is black on both sides so solid duplex rather than pattern. Then to create that pattern effect they cut paper and layer it on top of the folds. I however, am a very lazy stamper/card maker…so my first effort was to use two strips of duplex paper ie it had patterns on both sides of the card stock. HINT The above was what happens IF YOU CUT BOTH PIECES IN AND ASCENDING DIAGONAL ON THE SAME SIDE OF PAPER… YOU will end up with both sides showing on the front and inside. To make them match you will need cut each panel from opposite side. From the left side of one sheet measure up 4″ and cut a diagonal up to the tip on the right. On the other sheet cut from the point a diagonal down to 4″. Then you need to SCORE each panel at 2″, 4″ , 6″ and 8″…then reverse fold the panels with whichever side up that you want to show on the front. Now I don’t mind it being a mix on the front but for my halloween cards that patter was rather busy on both of them so I wanted them to be the same on panels but I wanted to give you the option of doing whichever way you wanted. Also the pattern doesn’t tell you that so that’s how I learned it… cut it and then realized it wouldn’t match up…unless I cut them in the opposite directions…Just so you know… now here is one of my halloween images WITH BOTH SIDES MATCHING. I also used a ribbon to tie it together when its closed. Oh yes, and I am sure you remember Frankie and yep I did put one of those wobbly springs behind him so when they open it , it will WOBBLE…..lol….I do love halloween.

Ok hope you enjoy this card as much as I do and if you have any questions please free to either leave as comment or to send them to me via krhblogger@gmail.com.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL..AUSTRALIA…

You may remember a while back I posted some envelopes that I sent to a woman in Australia who was an ARTIST IN RESIDENCE and she was collecting as many envelopes as she could from as many places as she could. Her name is TRICIA SMOUT and she posted two other blogs about the gardens. This first one is called ARACHNID ARTISTRY and it is showing all the cobwebs that were placed throughout the gardens.. Its very cool so take a quick armchair trip to Australia.

The second one is of flowers that were made of fiber arts again placed throughout the gardens. This one is called FLOWER POWER. AS you have probably guessed both of these were done by locals and they are amazing so for a quick trip via armchair or computer check it out.

LETTERING/CALLIGRAPHY VIDEO

I recently discovered this very cute little ad that we saw at the movie theater… think of it as like the old movies where there was a cartoon at the beginning well this was a short video at the beginning . Since it involved a type of lettering I thought I’d share it with you as well. It’s very well done and very cute and apparently won several awards. I am not sure if its from France or Italy but there is no dialog just video and music and its a bit scary since its at night and stormy… enjoy its called “D”.

Well my friends that its for this week so hope you enjoy and get those halloween cards going...AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…whct aka kath

My Dad used to say always leave them laughing…so for all my PC friends out there this one cracked me up and was sent to me from a dear friend SHARON CLYMER…

Wife texts husband on a cold winter’s morning:

“Windows frozen.”

Husband texts back:

“Pour some lukewarm water over it.”

Wife texts back 5 minutes later:

“Computer completely screwed up now.”

Posted on September 14, 2012 by kath

GREETIN’S YA’LL… yes that there is my southern accent… just a little spice for your Friday mornings. This week I am going to show you two different types of containers for Halloween and adding candy or a treat of some kind. The first one is from DAWN and the second one is just received from SPLITCOAST STAMPERS or SCS.

DAWN’S DOUBLE TREAT BAG

This was just so cute and so quick that I had to share it and also because it is the perfect size for sharing a Ghirardelli Chocolate. And just for a laugh I had to go look up how to spell this 3 times…. and I didn’t eat one any time… lol..

I have a HINT for you when you watch Dawn’s video she is using the STAMPIN UP score board with the diagonal insert. I don’t have that and probably neither do you.. I do have SCOR-PAL and I have thought of buying the diagonal insert cause I think it would fit but I haven’t don’t it yet so here is how I used the SCOR-PAL…Lay your 6×6 on the SP in a diamond shape not a square, with one of the points at 4 1/4 and the opposite point will also be on the 4 1/4 line so you can score it straight down for that diagonal line.

Next rotate your diamond (square) one point and score on the right at 5 3/4 then I turned the card over and lined up the diamond with the left edge of SP and scored a second time at 5 3/4.

If you don’t have a scoring board then you can do this but just scoring diagonal then measure in from the point on the left 2 3/4 inches and then from the right point 2 3/4 inches.

I didn’t have this lined up perfectly when I took photo but you can see how it would work.

SCS’s FLAT BACK TREAT BOX

This one is also very cute and gives you lots of room to decorate and you can fill it with Hersey Nuggets or Hersey Kisses, or some other little treat for a friend and while this one is decorated for Halloween it could be just for a birthday or some random gift box.

SCS…did use the scor-pal to create this one and the box is approximately 1 inch square but if you wanted to stick small candybars in it you could just make the score marks about 1 1/2 inches and you would need to make your paper about 10 inches long in order to have the same amount of space on the top for decorating or you could loose an inch from the top. I think two of the small size that they sell for Halloween would also fit in this box.

In case you haven’t guessed it yet Halloween is my favorite Holiday and I do make lots of different Halloween cards… I probably have more Halloween stamps than Birthday but then again it might be close.

EYE CANDY

I also have some new eye candy to share. This first piece is another of RACHEL YALLOP’S and she titled it DENSE WRITING and it was written with a pointed pen. I thought it was just lovely and I love the texture it creates .

This Next one is by my friend BONNIE NOEHR and was her submission to TRICIA SMOUT’S A-I-R ( for artist in residence) request for envelopes from around the world. Way to go Bonnie, I love the lettering (Bonnie is a terrific calligrapher) and the flower is incredible. I am just guessing but assume she printed the flower on the paper and then made an envelope and addressed it. I’ll check with her and maybe let you know more details later.

This last one is done by ANN ERICKSON and is an ILLUMINATED PIECE she posted on Cyber Scribes. It’s just lovely isn’t it. She had on Cyber Scribes that she did custom work.

Just in case you don’t know Illumination is usually made up of drawn letters with designs or even images within them and are the types of letters you often found in medieval works. The designs around the work love look like Gold…not sure if gold leaf or gold ink, either way its simply beautiful. Monks often had the first letter as an illuminated letter on the page or at the beginning of a piece.

PENS, PENS, PENS

We have talked about a lot of different pens here and some of my favorites are FOUNTAIN PENS.

From left to right the first one is mini Sheaffer then a Pelican (now Koh-i-noor), Larger Sheaffer with a larger tip..Mont Blanc (also Koh-i-noor)… a Cross…and a unknown enameled pen. I love them all and I also have a collection of ruling pens but that’s for another time. They come in all kinds of styles and shapes. From Modern expensive to inexpensive and even old antique fountain pens. The older ones are harder to find and more expensive than when I first started collecting them about 10-15 yrs ago. Then it seemed that folks often didn’t know that these pens had any value especially if they were still working and the nibs were intact. Now they are generally more but occasionally you will see them and very reasonable prices. This is a photo of some of mine and my favorite was the Parker 51… You can see that unlike other nibs it has the plastic right down to the very tip…don’t know why but I find this very appealing. Actually I find it sexy but can one find pens sexy???? I can.

They are fairly expensive now a days and this one does have a piece of cap missing but it holds ink without leaking and it writes very well. I also have a couple that are new and have a broader nib so that they can actually write a modified Italic

…these came from WARD DUNHAM and I am not sure if he is still selling them or not.

My newest one is from PAPER AND INK ARTS...and its a NOODLER’S FLEX PEN the reason for this is the nib while pointed is also slightly flexible and allows you to write a pointed pen or modified copperplate and they can be filled with your own ink colors.*

Noodler’s makes a variety of ink colors that hard to pass up and they are also available at Paper and Ink Arts.

* a few HINTs about fountains pens…if you are only going to use it at your desk and for a short time then not again for while don’t bother filling it just dip it like a dip pen. Also NEVER FILL A FOUNTAIN PEN WITH INDIA INK there is an abrasive in it that will over time destroy your pen nib. If you must use it then dip it and be sure to clean it really well after you are done using it. But frankly I would not use it even in a dip …instead use a regular dip nib and clean it also as soon as you are done. If you have it in your purse and are going on plane I’d either empty it which means you have to carry ink with you also a problem or don’t fill it full and put it in a ziplock baggie just in case it leaks. Even a new pen might leak so be warned… all of that said FOUNTAIN pens are my favorite tool for writing.

As you can see they come in a variety of colors and I just love it. I got the Yellow /Black one they call the Bee.

Now after showing you all these pens I want to link you to website to show you HOW TO WRITE WITH A FOUNTAIN PEN. If you go to this link you will see he has several short videos on how to write using Fountain Pens. You know you need one….lol…

All this talk about pens a quick story, (those who know me know that rarely happens) In 1984 I was on a trip with my husband and another couple and I had taken some rubber-stamps …small ones … plus a fountain pen and ink with me in a small fishing tackle box I got at Wal-Mart. We were staying at the lodge at Lake Yellowstone and there was a huge room with glass windows looking out at the lake. The carpet had just been redone and was lovely shade of green and the room had several small writing desks out of wicker with chairs. I came in and was immediately charmed and went to desk next to the window with my tool box..I did not pay attention to the fact that there were a few men in the room but not many I had the place mostly to myself. I sat down pulled out my postcards purchased earlier that day and suddenly there was a nice man at my elbow….I looked up and smiled, he smiled and with an accent said ..” mind showin me your flies?”…I am sure I looked puzzled and he elaborated with …” can I see in your tackle box ?” At this point I smiled and slowly opened my tackle box all the while keeping my eyes on his face….NOW HE HAD THE PUZZLED look…what is all that stuff he said… I proceeded to show him and to show him some of my cards…” well I be” he replied and I thought he was walking away when he called several of the other men over to see. I think my ears burned the next day as I am certain that I was a topic of conversation while they were out fishing on the lake. Its a great memory…. hope you enjoyed sharing it with me.

Well that just about does it from here… so don’t just sit here go Make Something…

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…..WHCT…aka kath harney

Posted on August 31, 2012 by kath

NATURE

HERE COMES THE SUN AND I SAY ITS ALRIGHT….That song says it all… we live for the sun during the summer months and we have had wonderful weather lately and I just returned from a weekend at Rainier where I did get up at 6 am to go out and watch the sun rise over the Tatoosh range and gradually light up the mountain. It was stunning and worth the early morning and the chill. The weather was actually perfect weather for hiking and we did some of that and the wild flowers ( see below) were just lovely.

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Lupine in Paradise meadows

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Indian paintbrush pinky coral color

Ok I won’t bore you all my photos but if you write me at the leave me a comment …cause you just love looking at other people’s photos…lol I’ll send you a link to a journal I created of all my Rainier photos. There is not that many… lol…Ipad and Iphone both have an new app called Iphoto that you can use to create journals… publish to icloud or your home page and then send the link to others… Its great lets you edit them caption them etc… kinda like you used to do with mobile me but way better as they are arranged in a collage fashion or just plain squares…you choose…guess what I choose…lol…I know I sound like an Apple employee but I do love my Apple… it is not however available for my Mac…maybe in the future so I choose to create on my ipad as I can see them better than on my phone…. ok so while we are on Apple let me share some cartoons about Steve Jobs in Heaven…my BFF Pamela sent them to me and I just loved them…. love to think he is still out there having fun..

HUMOR

I know that through history each generation has had things that the previous generation didn’t and we come to take those things for granted. I however, know that my life is greatly enriched thanks to Mr. Jobs…..its trite but I can’t imagine my life without my iPod, iPad and iPhone to say nothing of my Mac. Thanks Steve wherever you are.

CALLIGRAPHY

Linda O’Neill sent me this link to a beginningITALIC calligraphy web site and I looked it over because Italic is my worst script and when I do attempt it I always know I should practice it more…that is how you get better. So I am going to share this link in case you are like me and NEED TO PRACTICE or in case you are interested and think you might be able to learn on your own a little ….my hint here is USE YOUR EYES… make sure that while you are practicing your letters look like their letters…if they don’t all you are doing is teaching yourself the wrong way. Another HINT…. no ever tells you that its ok to TRACE a letter or stroke so that you can figure out how to do it correctly… sometimes it just takes that. Now tracing someone else’s artwork and passing it off as your own THAT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE…however, tracing to learn is sometimes very helpful and for Lefty’s sometimes its the only way most of us righty’s can’t do diddly with the left hand so we can’t begin to tell you how to make that stroke with the left hand but tracing it you can find out for yourself what works for you… I have seen lefty’s that write upside down totally and they do lovely lettering just depends on you and your interest level… but one thing I really HATE is when a person says “oh you can’t do calligraphy because you are left handed” ….DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT…. you can do whatever you want and you can learn anything you put your mind to… More questions about left handed calligraphy send me a comment and I’ll be glad to help as much as possible.

Another web site I found via Cyber Scribes on FB….is a woman Tricia Smout in Australia who has a year long project going and one of things she is looking for is envelopes…check this out she has two projects going and both sound like fun and I hope you will try to participate. Her deadline for the envelope is September 30, 2012.

THIS WEEKS CARD….MINI LUMINARY /STAND UP CARD

I made this for the first time several years ago and frankly I have no idea where it came from or who to give credit too… I think I might have seen it at the Impress Rubberstamp Store…then again someone could have shared it with me at workshop… in any case I do love it and will be sharing it with my students at my Akim class at STAMPIN IN THE RAIN.

The size I am working on is so that you can maximize your cardstock and so that it will fold flat and fit an A2 envelope and use only one stamp… unless you put some much embellishment on it that you have it too thick then they are going to want an extra 20cents and what an ugly stamp its of George Washington, oh well if you gotta you gotta.

8 1/2 x 11 cs cut it 4 1/4 x 11 this way you get 2 to a sheet of paper…

12 x 12 cs you can cut it just 4 x 11 and that way you can get 3 to a sheet of paper

Next using your Scoring tools you will need to start at the left edge and score at 21/2….5…..71/2… AND 10

NOW you can fold on each of those score lines and and you will see that the last one is only about 1 ” wide this is the piece that you will glue to the opposite end when you are ready to assemble. I recommend that if you are writing or stamping or even punching on this that you do that before you adhere it together it’s just easier that way…and if you use punches like this sample of a leaf one below you can then add one of those new little fake candles with battery in it and stand that in the center and of card and you have a mini Luminary. It also makes a great place card holder …simply write the person’s name on the card then punch out some shapes ….stars, snowflakes…hearts ….leaves etc and stand it at their place with the mini candle inside… you can use really candles in the little dishes but fire ….paper …this could be scary I recommend the faux candles…much safer.

You will notice that there is nothing punched on the first fold so that I can write a message or stamp an image or even punch out another leaf or a tree…and the flap on the far right is where you would use your double stick tape to adhere it together. If you fold it in the middle and tuck that small flap inside you can be sure that it will in fact fold flat and it’s the easy way to get it to line up perfectly. This was a sorta autumn colored paper with punch out but you could use stickers of leaves or even punch out the leaves and then adhere them to this form. You can make it larger, for instance you could make the it 6 inches tall or even 8 1/2 ” or 12″ depending on your cs or what your purpose is. It’s just such a great little shape to use for lots of different things and I know you are tired of hearing this but cut your cs then while you are watching tv or sitting out in the sun you can score the paper so its ready to go in the color you want and the size that you want.

Here are some other samples I did using the candle punch , and just a plain circle punch, and a cobweb/spider border punch…and on one the tree with copper leaves and then the little mini calendars. With that calendar one you can take the calendar apart and do all four seasons just by adding a design on each of the four sides then put 3 pages for each one..ie Dec, Jan and Feb are winter, Mar, April and May are spring, June, July and Aug are summer and Sept Oct and Nov are Fall…. and it folds flat for mailing you could also use fun photos for the person you are sending to or even funky postage stamps, cancelled or new.

The one below is meant to look like a balloon with string hanging down and balloon stuck on with foam tape so that it stands out a little on the card.

This is one of my favorites since its HALLOWEEN…my favorite holiday and look I used googley eyes… you can never have too many googley eyes.

The circle punch in various places on the luminary will allow the little mini light to glow thru the holes and in addition if you used squares of vellum then it will cover the circle and yet let colored light show through. Give this a try and you will probably come up with lots more ideas of your own.

One last smile… My BFFWA Stephanie got a Harley TRIKE ( yep, 3 wheel) and recently took her little dog Panda for a ride on the back of her brother’s bike to see if she liked it…as you can see she did so I bought her a pair of DOGGLES…too cute…

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Panda's first Bike ride

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Panda and her purple Doggles

That’s it for another week… hope you have fun and AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY.….wireheaded cyber toad aka kath harney

Posted on July 13, 2012 by kath

GREETINGS Y’ALL.. I am feeling my southern roots due to the fact that the PNW went from wet/winter/spring to SUMMER in just one day….lol… yep that is just how it happens…no warning just jumps right into summer and while we are only having Mid 80′s temperatures it still seems warm after being in only the 60′s….. You can also tell that we are having summer by the silly grins you will see on us Mossbacks if you look at videos on line. You will also note a high level of bare feet and you do know that the NORTHWEST is the only place where it is considered “COOL” to wear Birkenstocks with socks…winter/spring only. Ok, I have a few more photos to share with you from the calligraphy conference in Portland. They are not my photos but they were gleaned off of FB ( so guess it does have some redeeming value). I am also going to give you a link to the Keynote opening speech by DENIS BROWN. It’s a twenty minute video and he is very funny and its quite well done…and he was in charge of doing it so I assume that he slides easily from the digital world into the calligraphic world. At the end of the video are two other sites, one that he is trying to self publish calligraphic disks for you to learn by and also just to use for inspiration. It’s pretty cheap and I am going to sign up …no word when they will actually be available. Since this is a pre-register I assume he is trying to see if he can get enough to cover his costs before he begins produce them. He does allow those who sign up to see what he has so far. If his keynote speech is any example then they will be great. I don’t know this person but assume it was done by one of the attendee’s to CNW and that it was taken during the sharing time at the end of the conference. Again, I think this might have been done by same person or another person who was taking this class and I am guessing but think the class may have been in Pointed Italic. Again, guessing from a Pointed Italic class . very funny.

This is MARILYN REEVES and you can tell by that smile she was having a great time.

CORRECTIONS

Well I couldn’t have made more mistakes about the above and they were taken by my friend BONNIE NOEHR and thankfully she read the blog and sent me the correct info so I could set it straight…guess I was in too big a hurry sorry Bonnie.

Since the CNW photos were taken by me, perhaps I should clarify. ”Hallelujah” was a 7×7″ piece in the participants’ exhibit, not done doing the conference. “Create Joy” was done by Carrie Imai who taught. The “If” piece was mine, done in Martin Jackson’s double stroked letters class. As you can see, all I did was the “I” since I found this challenging. I took the photo of Marilyn during faculty demos night; love what she does with a brush! And, the Weathergrams photo was taken of CNW staff hanging them before the conference began. SORRY everyone, I’ll try to be more patient and get the complete info before I POST…mea culpa.

These are another variation on Julie Gray’s cut out letters…very detailed and it was small booklet with a page for each letter.

These are students choosing their favorite WEATHERGRAM to take home with them as a souvenir!

PHOTO’S FROM RECENT TRIP TO VICTORIA BC CANADA

EMPRESS HOTEL and Victoria Harbor taken from back of Ferry as we heading back to Washington.

Government Building which is always lighted up at night. Taken from our hotel room.

Me at the edge of Chinatown in Victoria with a lovely Dragon…and yes you can tell I have been shopping.lol

FORT MYERS BEACH 2012

I believe that these photos were taken by my granddaughter Rachel and/or my Daughter Becky from their balcony at the Beach. Some of them are storm clouds and she even got one of Lightning and a great one of the moon breaking thru the clouds. I do miss the storms this time of year as I love thunderstorms , however, I don’t miss the heat that helps to cause them.

DAWN’S FILE IN THE MIDDLE CARD

I think this is kinda a weird name for a card and it basically has a page in the center that has a peep hole… but I can’t come up with a better name for it than she did… Peep Hole in Middle …doesn’t sound to good either…in any case it does what I love it gives the person receiving it a little surprise… and I loved it.

Ok this is her sample from the video and I am going to post the one I did.

Again… I do recommend that you make up what I call a dummy image and place it with the page where she gives you the dimensions of paper to cut and then you have all of that at your finger tips and it may be all you need to make up a card…but if you need to go see the video again you can always come back to the blog and look at it or when you get it open to her page you can BOOKMARK (APPLE) or list it in your FAVORITES (PC)on your computer and then you have it there also. One thing I would also suggest is that while she is using 81/2 x 11 paper it will require you to use two sheets of paper to make the card… I found that using a piece of 12×12 card stock ( if you have it ) works better and has less waste or scraps left over… don’t know about you but keeping scraps is a pain yet I can’t just throw away reasonably large pieces of paper. I also liked using a piece that was duplex (double sided …each side different color or pattern) made for a fun card. That is what I did with this anniversary card.

TOOLS/PENS

I have to share a few calligraphy tools with my pen friends…these were found at CNW at PAPER AND INK ARTS…They are called COCOIRO (yeah I can’t say it either) and what they are is first you buy the pen holder basically and then it had multiple colors and even sizes of inserts and the inserts are complete cartridges with very tiny brush tip that can be taken out and put aside with its cap back on ( i.e. DON’T THROW AWAY THE CAP FOR EACH COLOR). This will allow you to write with different colors or you could splurge and buy two penholders and work it that way… in any case…as my mom would say they are the CAT’S PAJAMA’S… first the brush is very tiny and while I know people who can write very tiny with Pentel color brushes or even paint brushes that is not me…so this was wonderful. When you go to link be careful to see that you are buying the FLEXIBLE pen tip not the ball point… I went for the brush tips and you can get different colors of refills for whatever pen body (thats what they call it) you purchase. The sample below is done with the BLUE/BLACK cartridge and that tip is VERY SMALL. Know what else, yeah they are by one of my favorite pen people ZIG…Zig made the first disposable calligraphy pens in 5mm and 2mm that had felt that stayed crisp and sharp ..the Marvey ones always got soft and mush way before they ran out of ink….I even kept the Zig ones after they were out of ink and dipped them in ink instead cause the felt nib was still good. Now I am glad I did as I think they stopped making them with the 5mm tip and switched to only a 3mm which is ok but I love that big one for dramatic letters on an envelope or card.

Now speaking of calligraphy (chisel nib) pens there is another new or updated guy on the block… its PIGMA CALLIGRAPHY (which is apparently from SAKURA) my other favorite pen company. These are also available at PAPER AND INK ARTS and that is the link I took you too ( ya’ll do know that there maybe other sources but I am not here to find all the sources but rather to give you a quick fix as to where to get the product and No I don’t get a kickback but merely like to help businesses that work hard to supply me with my needs ok maybe I should say wants…lol ) These come in sets at least that is how I bought them one is a multicolor set of 3mm and the other is multicolor set of 1mm. The great thing about them is that they make really fine hairlines cause their tip is not FELT but rather a hard plastic ( i think) and it stays crisp and sharp also they are great for ” take-along”. They are disposable and not refillable but while I have yet to try it again I bet you can dip them once they are empty.

By now you are probably wondering just how many pens do I have…THE ANSWER is unknown and I am thinking seriously of donating my stash to SMITHSONIAN…lol… or at least to one of the calligraphy groups I belong to so that they will go to good homes when I am gone which I hope is long time from now as I have lots of projects and of course this Blog to do… lol.

One last tip… if you want to subscribe to my blog…all it means is that you will get an e-mail every friday with my new blog… and if you go to any of the blogs you will see in the upper right corner under the heading there is a box that asks for email and then hit subscribe…then to make sure you are not a robot , they have you write in one of those wiggly words.. then one more step…they send you an e-mail and think you have to confirm it so that you are then registered and it will arrive depending on your time zone some time on Friday with the new Blog for that week…

Ok its been fun … but the sun is calling and I have company and birthday and anniversary cards to make… GO MAKE SOMETHING….AND AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY..THE WIREHEADED CYBER TOAD…aka kath

Posted on May 18, 2012 by kath

APALACHICOLA FLORIDA 2012

great driftwood against marsh

Our room is bottom right

painting on wall of building

sunrise over marsh

Favorite name for a grocery

WOW its Friday again…. seems like it keeps coming sooner and sooner maybe because the past two fridays I have been out of town so I worked like a demon the week before to get the posts ready and then set them to auto…well I am sure by now that if you looked at the blog more than once you saw that I had to keep making updates …..why you ask… well because I forgot things and then while I had planned while on the road to make a few tweaks to blogs I was unable to connect well enough… the blog on the 12th I forgot to say that all those lucious samples came from my friend, teacher and fellow calligrapher ELIZABETH WALSH. Also I came home sick with what I think they are telling me is Bronchitis…not sure if that’s correct spelling but I can tell you it means trying to cough your toes up… I am a little better or perhaps its the meds so if this blog seems really weird chalk it up to the meds.

The photos at the beginning of this blog are from my recent trip to APALACHICOLA Florida. If you are wondering where in the heck that is look at map of Fl and its up in the panhandle a little south of Panama City . For you oyster fans it is also where about 90% of US oysters come from , at least that is their story. I wasn’t sick there so I am pretty sure that is what they said but they may have said 90% of Florida oysters come from…that makes a little more sense to me since I know WA has lots of oysters and they don’t come from Florida cause FLorida oysters are much smaller and I am sure that a connoisseur would be able to tell you the merits of both… My confusion indicates alcohol was involved. Right, moving on the place we stayed was on a Creek and was both a hotel and Marina so there were boats tied up right outside our room which was more like a condo than a hotel room …Its called the WATER STREET HOTEL AND MARINA. Ok I am not really changing this blog to a travel blog but still thought I’d share some of this with you. We went kayaking on the creek and around in some of the inlets of the creek which brought us really close to marsh…. I am in love I am ready go stay somewhere on a marsh for a long period of time… It was fantastic and I fell in love…it is also extremely peaceful and relaxing.

DOLLAR BINS

I am sure you are all aware of Jo Ann’s and Michael’s dollar bins well actually they seem to be going up at Michael’s but I recently went into TARGET and they had a dollar bin with lovely little tins already decorated with MARY ENGLEBRETT designs and I thought, WOW just a dollar and it makes a great little box for an accordion card…and just in time for one of my favorite people so below is the photo of my birthday accordion card that I slipped into the ME box for my friend SHARON CLYMER and she is so good at sending me photos back just in case I forgot to take one. So if you have a TARGET near by pop in and see if you can find some little tin boxes for $1 and you can use them for tiny gifts or as I did make an accordion card. I rounded the corners and I did not glue the card in thinking that Sharon might also re cycle the box and make a card and send it to someone else… Thanks for the photo Sharon..

accordion card in tin by kh

You can see I also used the Clothesline Caps with colored pencil as well as some embellishments..there was plenty of room for them in the box and you can make your accordion as long as you want. Sharon also shared with me a great web site of decorated envelopes by Mark B Hill. They are great so take a peak and once you are on his site click on his ENVELOPE PROJECT.

STAND ALONE POP UP from SCS (split coast stampers)

Ok on to the stuff you came to see. This is a lovely little stand up card…and I have suddenly taken a great interest in TAGS and this card works great to either make your own tag for the pop up or use a ready made tag that you decorate. You can use designer papers for the tag but it must be rather heavy or it won’t stand up on its own. So light weight card stock with designs on is fine but text weight paper will not work. I actually got this card in a kit and then found it on Split Coast Stampers…yippee… I was trying to write up the directions and then when I found it on SCS I realized I did not have to re invent the wheel..merely share it with you all they called it the FREE STANDING POP UP. I

Now they decorated theirs with ribbon and embellishments but I have a tendency to decorate mine with more stamps.. I also write a personal message on the back of the tag . You do not have to follow either of our examples but can make your own.. and of course if your willing please share a digital photo with me. There are lots of pre-made tags out there and you probably have some already … if you put embellishments on your tag remember that you might need to enlarge the slit so that it has room to slide up and down with the embellishments.

Again this is a great card to pre-cut, pre-score and have in various colors so that you can grab it and go … you might even want to make up some tags ahead also.

I used some zebra stripped card stock to make my tag and then some crayola crayon mini cards glued on top . I also had some mini popsicle sticks and also a cupcake brad. My tag is actually a little longer than the one in the pattern so it will require a larger envelope when I get ready to mail it, probably a 5 x 7. But that is still regular mailing size so it won’t require extra postage except for the fact that I have bumps being the brads as well as the popsicle stick that would make it require extra postage.

I can’t remember where I found the little green crayola cards but it was definitely a dollar bin…probably from Michael’s and I have had them for a while…

This is the back of my card and I just like to add a little personal note on the back as well as the decorations on the front. I still haven’t added the string or ribbon at the top that you would use to pull it up and you may want to enclose a note to the person receiving the card so that they will know to pull up and make the card stand on it own.

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…….hugs the WHCT..aka kath

A Blog by Kath (Kathy) Harney

Kath (Kathy) Harney's Blog

Category Archives: Travel