A Small Haul and Learning

I've been watching a lot of YouTube, possibly too much YouTube, but it seems to fit my learning style these days. I've always learned from books, but that was mainly because there were no teachers available and also because visual learning was also not available in any way. But with YouTube I am discovering that I really learn very well from watching someone else do something. It helps to have some pdf files to go along with the videos, but usually those tend to be minimal, and that also is working.

But one of the things that happens on YouTube is people showing off their "Haul" from various stores, so this is what I bought from Hobby Lobby and Tuesday Morning last week. I didn't take photos of yesterday's Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree shopping, but it also wasn't as photogenic.

I'll be showing off another layout and some learning experiences after these photos.

This was from Tuesday Morning. The bottle in the plastic bag is Collage Podge in its old labeling at less than half the price I would have paid in the new labeling. There are two packages of napkins, 4 packages of what I thought was fancy black and white tissue paper, but which wasn't, a stamp pad, package of adhesive dots, and a bottle of what I think is an extra glossy medium by Martha Stewart.


I went to Hobby Lobby with a list. I got the big pad that is the background for both photos. You can just see the spiral binding in the upper left corner. I had bought a craft mat, but it was way too small. I've noticed on YouTube that a lot of the video makers there buy two or three of them and tape them together, but a lot of them have moved to the pad of heavier than copy paper but not too heavy. I found a very happy medium at Hobby Lobby and bought it with a 40% off coupon.

I got transfer paper (in the wide package) and a new steel ruler (in the narrow package). Cutting with wooden rulers is dangerous and the only steel ruler I could find was 18 inches long and just too big for a lot of jobs. The two background stamps were on Clearance and I liked them and just got them.

The latest, but one, layout. Love the colors and love that I painted the flowers. I'm not sure it is finished but if I add something to it, I'll post the new photo and this one (again) so you can see the difference.

I learned to make the flowers when I was painting magazine pages. I learned I could trust myself to paint a simple flower. I love the way they came out.

Which brings me to my way of learning. It turns out that I tend to pick a lower priced way of doing something, like painting on magazine pages, or making stamps out of craft foam, or the printing plate I'm going to be talking about soon, and I just keep working on that particular method until I run it out before I go and do things the more expensive ways. Like a good printing plate or making stamps by cutting them out of rubber with real stamp cutting tools. I seem to want to know how to do whatever can actually be done the cheaper way. And frequently a lot can be done.

I've already done a lot with the stamp making, but I've got several addition techniques I want to try. I haven't done it yet so I have nothing to show. Just ideas floating around my head.

I had ordered a printing plate several weeks ago, but it didn't arrive until Friday. I bought from a place that does odd lots of craft supplies, so when I heard the second bad review of it on YouTube I knew I could not send it back. And, of course, since I got a deal, what I bought wasn't the same plate everyone on YouTube was using. Yesterday I tried the plate I had bought. And yes, the one stencil I tried on it did not work. What did work was making marks with various texture tools. One of my home made stamps also worked but I didn't try several ideas I was sure would work with the stamps I've got, or the ones I intend to try to make. I had to make the photo large so you can see the mark making I did try.

I've got lots more ideas of what can be done with this printing plate. Last night I saw two things on the videos on printmaking with the other plate that I watched. About all the video makers did was use stencils, and all of the ones they used had large holes. The one stencil I tried did not have large holes. Who knows if it would have worked if I had tried one with large holes. Lots of things to try out.

These two photos are also about a learning process. I bought a new printer a few months ago and was curious if the copy function included making the copies bigger and smaller than the original. The last printer did copy, but it could not do what I wanted. For that I had to open Photoshop and manipulate the jpeg file there.

Well this one does. The original is the biggest of the three faces in this photo. I have not learned how to actually do what I wanted to do, but I was half way there when I found I had one copy that was about the size I needed. So I stopped when I was ahead.

The background is the blue one I did with one of my home made stamps several weeks ago and did not know what to do with. Next step trace her face on tracing paper and add hair and then use the transfer paper I bought last week (see above) and get her on the page so I can start painting.

And I've gone full circle from the "haul" to what I'm doing with some of the supplies.

Take care all.