Pausing!

Hello loyal readers.

This will likely be my last post for a while.  My work and family schedule is absorbing the time I need to finish projects and write content for the blog in a timely manner.

In the absence of deadlines, I will continue to create fun projects for online challenges, for myself and for my family. 

If you are interested in seeing those projects, I invite you to follow my Instagram page where I will post pictures of cards, scrapbook layouts, and sewn garments. In addition, I will announce on my Instagram page when I have posted new content to my blog.

I plan on writing tutorials and sharing resources on my blog when I discover new things that I believe will be of interest to you.

As of August 2021, Blogger will discontinue the email subscription service, therefore, you will no longer be notified when there is new content in a blog. If you do not wish to follow me on Instagram but would like notification of new blog content send me an email (NoFormalities2017@gmail.com) and I will notify you each time I post something new.

Thank you for your comments and support. Have a wonderful summer.

Traveler's Notebook

I was introduced to the traveler's notebook through the Scrapbook and Cards Today's monthly sampler subscription.

In my sampler, I received a cute little cover. I searched Google to find out what it was and what it is used for. It was a cover to hold 3.5 by 5.5 inch notebooks. 

I LOVE notebooks and organizing products - a cover with pockets and a pen holder to house the notebooks; I am in heaven!!! I raced off to Michaels and bought 3 little notebooks to fill the cover I had received.

I used the traveler's notebooks for our family trip to Cuba in 2019. Jotted down the daily events so that when I scrapbook the trip years from now I will have all the information and memories in one place. I also used the notebooks to jot down highlights for each month of 2019 and 2020 so that when I pocket page those events, I will remember what happened.

Recently, I got hooked on Layle by Mail YouTube videos about traveler's notebooks. Traveler's notebooks is not strictly to record your travels but can be used for all sorts of memories, thoughts, lists or anything else you would like to put to paper. 

I am a serious list maker. I make lists all the time. Lists help me braindump, which in turn helps me relax. I have lists all over my house and some lists are in duplicates. 

I used one of these little traveler's notebooks to make a list of the crafting items I want to buy. The next time I am at a store or there is an online sale, I can look at my list and focus my shopping. 

After watching a few of Layle's videos I decided to use one of the larger traveler's notebooks to record each of the Crop and Create events that I have or will have attended from September 2014 to November 2021. 

I am going to use another one to record my flower and vegetable gardens. I will take pictures this year to help plan the gardens next spring - which gardens should I thin out, where are my colours, what changes should I make. Each year I will take pictures of the gardens so it reminds me what it looked like in order to make spring planting decisions.

For me, these traveler's notebooks are a great place to record life's moments/memories that you would not put in a traditional layout or a full pocket page. 

Layle also uses it to make reflective lists, such as a list of your favorite books, favorite movies, your quirks, your bucket list. If you were to repeat these lists every decade or at the different stages of life, the lists will change. I am sure my bucket list at 40 is very different than when I was 20. These lists are an easy way to capture you, your family, your loved ones in moments of time. I could make a topic list with my son who is 9 (goals in life, what job he would like to have) and then have his 20 year old self read the list he made. 

The great thing with the traveler's notebooks is that you can make them as simple or as embellished as you want. 

Once I have filled the traveler's notebooks I bought, I plan on making the others from paper in my stash. Instructions on making your own notebooks can be found here.

If you are interested in recording your own reflective lists, Layle has listing topics in her blog that can jump start recording life's moments - like your favorite cartoon when you were young, what jobs have you had, or what do you want to do more of and less of in 2021. 

No dies? No worries!

If you have stamps but you didn't get the coordinating dies, don't worry. Cricut has you covered.

The other brands of electronic cutters may have the same capabilities but I can't speak about the other brands because I do not own anything other than the Cricut Expression Air 2. 

You could stamp your image and fussy cut with a pair of scissors but if it is an image that you stamp often, let Cricut help you.

A cut image with no border

• Stamp a clear image onto white cardstock

List It! - Mini Clips 'N More stamp set
by Andy Kay Art purchased at Layle by Mail

• Scan the image and save it to your computer
• Log into Cricut Design Space
• Start a new project
• Select Upload
• Select Upload Image
• Click Browse
• Find the image on your computer and click Open
• Select Complex and Continue
• With the Select and Erase tool (a wand) selected, click on the white area around the outside of the image to delete it
• Click Preview to see the quality of the cut
• Click Continue
• Select Cut Image and click Upload
• Select the image in the upload area and click Insert Images

• Keep the size ratio locked, size the image to actual size. The way that I do that is to measure the stamped image and size the one in Cricut Design Space to match
• Once the images match in size - save it so you don't have to do it again
• Click Make it

• Continue as you normally would when cutting images with your Cricut

A cut image with a little white border

• Stamp a clear image onto white cardstock
• Scan the image and save it to your computer
• Start a new project in Cricut Design Space
• Select Upload
• Select Upload Image
• Click Browse
• Find the image on your computer and click Open

• Select Complex and Continue
• With the Select and Erase tool (a wand) selected, click on the white area around the outside of the image to delete it

• Click Preview to see the quality of the cut

• Cricut will cut all the little black dots. You can erase these using the eraser tool.
• Click Continue
• Select Cut Image and click Upload

Succulents stamp set from Scrapbook and Cards Today

• Select the image in the upload area and click Insert Images
• Keep the size ratio locked, size the image to actual size. The way that I do that is to measure the stamped image and size the one in Cricut Design Space to match
• Once the images match in size - save it so you don't have to do it again
• Select the image(s) and click Offset in the top toolbar

The settings I selected for this stamp set
are 0.056 inches of "border" and rounded edges.

• Click Apply
• Click on the original uploaded image and delete it leaving only the offset image
• Click Make it
• Continue as you normally would when cutting images with your Cricut

images cut with Cricut

images stamped onto Cricut cuts

For either images - with or without borders, Jennifer McGuire best shows how to stamp on multiple cut images here. 

Do you own a Cricut or another electronic cutter? What type of projects do you create with it?

Yoda

My son and I are members of Scouts Canada; he is a cub scout and I am a scout leader.

During these difficult times when in-person scouting is prohibited, Scouts Canada and Scouters across the country have gone above and beyond to ensure that the youth stay engaged and continue to participate in scouting activities. They have created virtual programming and events, such as virtual campfires, Trash the Trash challenge, hiking challenges and a collection of learning events.

Most recently, my son and I participated in a Facebook live tutorial "Paracord 2.0 with Scouter Rob Ramsden". The tutorial showed us how to make a Baby Yoda keychain. After registration, Scouter Rob mailed to us the supplies we needed and two Virtual Venturing crests for our campfire blanket. 

If you are asking what is a campfire blanket, it is a blanket where you attach all the crests for the different events in which you participated. It is like a scrapbook on a blanket or a memory quilt.

My 9 year old cub and I were excited to create a Yoda keychain from paracord. The project was a little more difficult than expected. We stretched the project over a few days, breaking it down into parts: the head; the body; the arms, ears and attaching to the clasp. 

Mine is on the left and his is on the right

We are both proud of the results and learned two new knots; the monkey's fist and the cobra knot.

Click here if you would like to make your own Baby Yoda keychain. 

I saw other related videos on YouTube that we may try: Thor's hammer, and The Mandalorian.

OOPS!

Sorry Friends I lost track of days.

I am in the middle of Scrapbook and Cards Today's virtual scrapbook weekend.

and Scouts Canada Great 8 Challenge.

Due to these events and only so many hours in a day, I am not able to post a tutorial or resources this month.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. 

Well, I better get back to the crop - I am already a class behind.

Cards and More Cards

What have I been up to since March 15th? 

MAKING CARDS!!!

My mom and I were lucky to spend a weekend together participating in the first ever Crop and Create Delivered Cardmaking virtual event. Scrapbook and Cards Today hosted the event and 1,200 participants from across the world attended.

The C&C Delivered Cardmaking weekend was more than I had hoped for. Six teachers presented different stamping, stenciling, colouring and other techniques and not one teacher repeated a technique from another teacher. Over the course of the weekend we learned at least 25 different techniques and created 25 cards or more.

Here is my favorite from each of the teachers: 

Gina Krupsky - Gina K. Designs

Jill Broadbent - Close To My Heart

Jenn Shurkus - Lawn Fawn

Cathy Zielske - Your Next Stamp

Becky Moore - Photoplay Paper

Libby Hickson - Hero Arts

Kicking off the cardmaking weekend with Cathy Zielske

Last week, I worked on a couple of other cards. These cards are going to one of my friend's mom who is turning 80 this year. Happy birthday Sharon's mom. 

I cut the pictures in cardstock with a Cricut Expression 2 and coloured it with Lawn Fawn Mermaid ink and Copic markers. 

What is your favorite cardmaking technique?

What are you working on this spring?

Fun Nails

I had an idea and ran with it.

Could I use some of my craft supplies to decorate my nails?

Some of the idea worked... other parts, not so much.

The nails looked better in person than they do in the picture.

The small images, the ant and the flower, are stickers. The 2 bands of blue floral are washi tape.

I stamped the images from the Lawn Fawn stamp sets "dandy day" and "crazy antics" onto Koala Inkjet Sticker paper using Memento ink. I coloured the images with Copic alcohol markers and cut them out using the coordinating dies and a Big Shot die cutting machine. 

For the bands of blue floral, I took a small square of freezer paper, placed it on my nail and traced the outline of the nail with a stylus. The stylus will cause a crease in the freezer paper providing you with a template of the nail. 

I placed the washi tape over the template and cut both the freezer paper and the washi tape following the crease outline. I did not worry about the length of the tape. This will be removed after it is applied to the nail.

With all the artwork prepped and ready to go, now it's time to do your nails. 

• I applied a base coat to each nail. 
• I applied 2 coats of polish to each nail except for the washi tape nails.
• I removed the backing on the stickers and positioned them on the nails and trimmed the stickers down with scissors.
• I removed the freezer paper from the washi tape and positioned them on the nails.
• I filed off the excess washi tape by filing in a downward motion.
• I applied one layer of top coat to the coloured nails and 3 layers of top coat to the sticker and washi tape nails.

Did this work? Some of it did. The stickers started to peel up the following day. The washi tape, surprisingly lasted 4 days - through 3 showers, a weekend of crafting and a lot of COVID hand washing. 

I thought it was going to be the opposite. I thought the stickers were going to last a few days and I had expected the washi tape to be gone the next day. 

It was a fun little nail embellishment. I don't think I will do the stickers again but I may give the washi tape another try. 

Double Page Layout

I am not sure about you but I find that the creative projects I am working on coincide with the type of craft videos I am binge watching at the time. 

I am inspired to quilt if I watch Missouri Star Quilt Company, Midnight Quilt Show, Jordan Fabrics; I want to create travel journals and focus on my memory planner if I watch The Life Facilitator or Ali Edwards, card making after watching Jennifer McGuire, Cathy Zielske or KristinaWerner - who by the way also inspires me to try water colouring.

Lately I have joined Patreon and have been binge watching RTS Scrapbooking. Janet has inspired me to whip out layouts within hours. Well, my layouts don't come together that fast but I did manage to complete this one in a couple of days. 

I find that I get stuck in the details - the embellishments. I am not sure which embellishments to use, how to effectively layer the embellishments and how much to add. I understand the principles of design - balance, visual triangle and odd numbers of the same elements but I have to practice the rest. 

This is a time where the phrase "better to have things done than perfect" works. The memory is captured. I am hoping that adding details to layouts will become second nature as I complete more layouts. Janet from RTS Scrapbooking makes it look effortless.

Do you binge watch craft shows? If you do, what are they?

Small Notebook

As you may have read in one of my previous post, I love journals. 

One day last month, I was surfing Amazon to buy yet another journal book so that I could organize my very long task list. Ordinarily, I would have gone to the Dollar Store but we were in COVID lockdown and the non-essential stores were closed and non-essential shopping was prohibited. I am not one to disobey rules (much) so I was online shopping. 

I was looking for something inexpensive. It was just a journal/notebook to list my tasks. Amazon did not provide such options. As I sat there at my computer in my craftroom thinking of my options, ideas from recent memory keeping and travel journal YouTube videos that I had been watching came to me. I would use items in my craft stash and make my own journal/notebook.

The notebook's final measurement is 5 by 7 inches

Join me in making your own notebook.

Supplies you will need:

• 1 sheet of 2 sided cardstock (pattern on 2 sides) (8.5x11 or 12x12) - This will be the notebook cover
• 4 sheets of decorative paper (pattern on 1 side) (8.5x11 or 12x12)
• 8 to 12 sheets of copy paper (8.5x11)
• 2 sheets of white cardstock (8.5x11)
• twine
• piercing tool 
• foam pad, foam board, panel cut out from a cardboard box
• binder clips
• paper slicer
• adhesive
• Stickers to decorate
• corner rounder (optional)
• sewing needle with a big enough eye for the twine but small enough to go through the premade holes

How to:

• Cut your papers down to the following sizes:
• 2 sided cardstock - 7 by 10 inches
• 4 sheets of decorative paper - 6.5 by 9.5 inches
• 8 sheets of copy paper - 6.5 by 9.5 inches
• 2 sheets of white cardstock - cut in quarters - 4.25 by 5.5 inches

• Fold all sheets of paper in half, except for the 4.25 by 5.5 white cardstock.

• Round cover corners - optional.

• Stack the papers as follows, matching the folded centers:
• 2 sided cardstock - cover side facedown
• 1 sheet of decorative paper - pattern facedown
• 2 or 3 sheets of copy paper
• 1 sheet of decorative paper - pattern facedown
• 2 or 3 sheets of copy paper
• 1 sheet of decorative paper - pattern facedown
• 2 or 3 sheets of copy paper
• 1 sheet of decorative paper - pattern facedown
• 2 or 3 sheets of copy paper

• Clip the stack together.

Behind the stack of papers is a foam pad

• Pierce a hole at each end, ⅜ of an inch away from the cover edge. Pierce 8 other holes evenly spaced between the holes at each end. You should have 10 holes in total.

I forgot a hole and had to add one later

• Cut a length of twine around 20 inches long.
• Starting from the cover side, pass the needle through the first hole (it doesn't matter at which end you start), leaving a tail approximately 3 inches long.

• Pass the needle through the second hole and tie off the tail of the twine with the length that you will use to sew the notebook together. I used a square knot.

• Continue sewing the notebook by passing the needle up and down through each of the holes.

• Tie off the last bit of twine on the cover side of the notebook. 

• Glue or tape the 4.25 by 5.5 inch sheets to the middle of the patterned side of the papers.

• Decorate the cover and the pages (optional) with stickers.

Be careful. Making these cute little notebooks can become addictive. 

It is definitely a good way to use up papers that you may not love anymore. They may not be up to par for a scrapbook page but they look lovely in the notebook. 

Rope Bowl

I have been wanting to make a jelly roll rug (a modern version of the braided rug) but I am not ready yet. I don't have the supplies, I haven't picked a colour combination and I don't know where in the house I would put the finished project. Which is too bad because they are so cute.

I regularly watch my favorite crafting sites for new images (embroidery, printables, cut files) and projects. 

Embroidery Library posted a beautiful rope basket with an image embroidered to the bottom. Seeing this post, I had an "Aha" moment. I could try my hand at a rope project and give the finished basket as a gift. 

It took a while to find the right type of rope. I thought my local hardware store would carry this but to my dismay, they don't. I ended up ordering the rope from Amazon. The embroidered image, I had previously purchased from Embroidery Library. You can use any open design image. I chose the "I Love Quilting Wreath".

The basket turned out to be more of a bowl. It was a fun project and I learned a lot while making it. 

I learned that it is a fairly simple project and next time I will give it a gradual curve, not such an immediate one (the difference between a deep bowl and a shallow one).

2021 Project Goal

As for my 2020 Project goal, I would like to quote my son and say "It was an epic fail" but I will be kinder and a little more supportive and just say, "it was not a success". 

I could fill this page with excuses on why I didn't manage to complete the project; 

• COVID
• Busy homeschooling
• Family commitments
• I changed sizes during COVID and expect to return to my previous size once life gets back to normal. I don't want to make clothes that won't fit in a year. 

But the honest truth is, I am a procrastinator. I thought I had lots of time and then, time got away from me. 

I had set out to make a crisscross top, dress pants and a purse. I made the top but the style is not suitable for my body type. I will likely not wear it again. 

Not reaching my goal never stops me from making new ones. This year I would like to set the following goals.

1. I would like to sew a trench coat. It is something I have been wanting to do for years. I have the fabric (let's hope I have enough of it). 
2. I want to complete and post on Instagram (@craftycanadianladies) a scrapbook layout each month. 

Here is the layout for the month of January. One done, 11 more to go. 

I have blurred out the faces and personal information of the people in the picture.
Let me tell you that the face of the little boy under the blur is very intense on the game. 

Were you successful in your 2020 goal? Tag us on Instagram using hashtag #craftycanadianladies so that we may see your work.

Have you set any crafty goals for 2021? We would be happy if you would share them in the comments below. 

Notebook Cover

Hope you had a wonderful holiday and that you and your loved ones remain safe. 

I am not one to be addicted to shoes and purses. I am simply a running shoes and backpack type of person. 

While shopping, however, I am unexplainedly drawn to organizing containers and journal books. 

Actually, I can explain my addiction for organizing containers - I love organizing! 

My attraction to journals, though, baffles me. I love the idea of writing. I admire those who can easily express their thoughts but I am not a writer.  I struggle with words and eloquence. 

I often remind myself that I don't need another blank journal sitting on my shelf collecting dust. 

When this project appeared in my subscribed emails, how could I resist? Plus, I could justify purchasing the very cute In The Hoop (ITH) quilted notebook cover from Designs by Juju. The project could make lovely Christmas presents, teacher "Thank You" gifts and of course I will have to make one for myself while I am at it. 

The pen holder was the final deciding factor. It screamed to my organizing side. 

Front

Back

Inside back cover

Designs by Juju offers a variety of quilted cover patterns and different notebook cover sizes. The one above fits a standard college ruled composition notebook.

The project takes time to stitch out but the instructions are thoroughly explained and the cover is well constructed. I ended up making a few covers in different colours and patterns. 

What has been occupying your "Stay Home" time?