Gelli Printed Cards

Some of my most popular YouTube videos are on using various inexpensive or found tools.  In this video I'm using a few more 'found' objects. One was given to me by my BFF.  It has something to do with cake decorating and it makes a great impression for gelli plates.

I use bookpaper to make the prints and at the end, create a card using some of the prints and an older stamp set.  The best thing is that I already have my husband's birthday card done months early.  Video:



If you are interested in bookpaper, check out my Etsy shop at Lovely Layers Art.  Thanks for watching!

How Nerds do the Beach

After years of going to the same place, I still take photos and still want to capture memories.  I just find it hard to come up with new twists on an old, beloved subject.  Last year, we traveled to Hilton Head in October.  With the days shorter and the possibility of some cool days, we knew we needed things to occupy ourselves besides beach walking, dining out and bicycling.  There was one day that was almost too cold to be outside.  I persevered but was glad I had some indoor activities as well.  Dh took along some work in the form of circuit board diagnostics.  I took my knitting and had some things to watch on-line when we weren't out.  These are typical activities for us at home.

Based on these photos, I thought we looked a little nerdish so herein lies the title for the page.  I do wish he had been wearing his super magnifying headband.  The stamping technique came from a Craftsy class I took during their free watching weekend called Radiant Stamping.  The class was designed for cardmaking. I'm using a couple of her techniques with a few of my own twists for scrapbooking.  I highly recommend the class as it shows you some new ways to look at stamps and inks.

Look closely to find the pattern paper.  Ha!  There is none!  This is an all cardstock page as well.

Here's the video for this layout:



Thanks for visiting today!

Silhouette Die Cut Background

I don't do kid pages often so I really like to have some fun with them.  These photos taken at the park are full of colors so I raided my 6x6 and other scraps to make the triangles.  The page needed little embellishment as the die cut background served that purpose.  I was inspired by the beautiful layouts I see form Paige Taylor Evans Instagram feed.

Not finding a die cut that worked for me, I created my own.  You can use it too if you have a Silhouette.  Here's the Silhouette file I created for your personal use.

Triangle Breakout.

You may use for your personal projects.  This design may not be used for contest or design team submissions.  The design may not be sold or shared.  Credit to Lisa E Design is appreciated when posting projects made with this design on your blog or social media.

And here is the video:




If you are on Instagram, I hope you will follow me. I post papercrafting projects as well as knitting, a little baking and some pretty flowers.  I'm at lisaecherd at Instagram

Thanks for visiting today!

The best new show on Netflix

If you are a TV lover like me, we are blessed with plenty of good programming the last few years.  At our house, we don't have cable but we do have Netflix and recently added a subscription to Hulu. Between the over the air programming from broadcast networks, originals from subscription sites, British and other international programming and the older cable shows like Mad Men that we never saw the first go round, there is a ton of stuff from which to chose.

Yet, despite having a far longer list in my queue than I really have time to watch, I still look for things to add to keep a balance of drama and lighter programming.  One day I noticed this new show on Netflix and I had a few minutes so after perusing quickly the glowing user reviews, I decided to give it 15 minutes and see how it went.  I couldn't stop.  I watched the entire 40+ minute first episode without even leaving my chair for a break.

The show is Queer Eye. This is a remake of Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy from many years ago.  Having never had cable, I didn't know anything about the original other than it featured several gay guys.  I didn't know if it was a comedy or drama.  I certainly didn't know it was a reality, makeover show.  And that is a very good thing.  Because had I known, I probably would not have watched.

I really detest reality or as I call it UNreality TV. I'll watch makeover shows now and then particularly when we are on vacation and I have access to cable and the show "What Not to Wear" though I'm not sure why since I have quite a few criticisms of that show.

Most reality shows are so far from the real world, it isn't even a joke.  What's realistic about putting a bunch of attractive strangers on an island and making them do silly games to see who can survive?  Contest shows waste so much time not spent on the singing, dancing or whatever.  (Maybe that is where NBC got their idea for drawn out Olympics coverage).

Makeover shows are interesting again if you could actually get to the content.  Those shows though tell you at the beginning what they are going to do and then repeat that and a synopsis of what they have done at every commercial break.  Plus the useless interviews of how everyone feels about everything.

What I loved about Queer Eye is that is breaks those molds.  Five guys - all gay, each with different areas of specialty such as fashion, design, cooking, etc - spend 1 week making over another guy's life including his home, wardrobe, relationships, nutrition and hair.  Oh, the hair!  The guys they makeover are almost all straight but that is about all they have in common demographically.  They are single, married, young, old, with children, living with a roommate, living alone, living in the city or living in the suburbs.  The only thing they have in common is that they could all use a little help with their appearance and home design.

Oh and there is one other thing which is what gives this shows such rave reviews.  Each of these men let themselves go for a reason.  Tracking down that reason and helping them through it is a key element to the show. This happens naturally through conversation.

The interaction between the main cast and their fixer upper of the week often breaks down stereotypes and deals with current issues in a moderate, mature way.  It's these natural conversations that make the show really shine and also mean you ought to keep a box of tissues handy if you watch.

The show hasn't yet been renewed for Season 2 but if the cast is game I certainly think it will be.  It has received critical and viewer top reviews.  I did read that the would probably move from their base location of Atlanta to a midwestern city in a colder climate.  Apparently Hotlanta is just a bit warm for filming.

Wherever they end up, I look forward to the next season to see how they can transform a guy's wardrobe, nutrition, house, social interactions and well, life.

Holiday Page from Object Photos

I really didn't think I had any holiday photos to scrap this year.  We went to several events but I didn't take photos for one reason or another.  I have many good memories and could always do a photo free page.

Then I went through my Instagram and found quite a few photos that represent the holiday season, the parties and the visiting we did.  One of them is of my Mother; the rest are food, a family pet, a door prize I won and a photo of the cards we received.  So this page is packed with memories, photos and hidden journaling.

The papers are from a warehouse box I bought from Fancy Pants. I haven't bought any scrapping stuff except a few inks in months, probably close to a year now.  Working through my stash and enjoying getting my pages completed just from what I have on hand is as rewarding as anticipating the UPS man's arrival - and a good deal cheaper.   I don't have a plan to use a specific amount of stuff.  I figure that eventually I'll be in the notion for some new things.

For now, here is a page made with warehouse box papers and some older stamp sets.  The video:



I have a kid page on my worktable right now.  It's definitely made from scraps with a little help from my Silhouette.  Thanks for visiting today!

Easy All Purpose Birthday Card

I'm using an easy marker technique on this birthday card that would work for anyone.  You just need a greeting stamp and some geometric stamps.  My colors came from the scrap of designer paper.

Here's the video:



There are still a couple of stamp sets left in my Etsy shop including one that wasn't in the video from last week. Check them out at:  Lovely Layers Art

Thanks for watching!

What NBC doesn't get and how to fix it

This Tuesday night will be celebratory at my house.  Why?  Regular TV will be back!  Actually it returns on Monday, but there is nothing on Monday nights that we watch. On Tuesday we will tune into the Middle at 8 on ABC and I will watch This is Us on NBC at 9.  The tissue box and remote will be close at hand.

And if something happens that prevents us from watching?  No problem, we will just catch them the next day. 

For more than 2 weeks, there has been almost no original scripted programming as most networks defer to the tradition of watching the Olympics. In truth, they don't want to compete with the competition, either the network airing the event or the events themselves.  It's sort of un-American to try to persuade us to watch something other than those who have worked so hard for the chance to represent their country in their sport.

Apparently though many, many of us have been watching something else or nothing at all. NBC had 14 million viewers this past Thursday night - the night of the ladies figure skating final which is usually one of their top events.  That seems pretty good until you consider that The Big Bang Theory brings in that many viewers every week for a fictional show you can watch easily the next day usually spoiler free.  Looking at Thursday February 1 as an example, BBT had 14.5 million.  Another nearly 9 million viewers are watching Grey's Anatomy over on ABC at the same time.  Eight and a half million more are split between NBC, Fox and the CW all on a typical Thursday at 8 pm.  When you do the math, NBC only captured just over 40% of the broadcast viewing audience.

Now NBC's numbers (nor any of the others I sited) contain viewers who watch on-line.  The trouble with NBC is they made it so difficult to watch the Olympics on-line.  If I miss the Big Bang Theory, I can go to CBS.com the next day and watch it.  I can watch that episode for several weeks until a certain number of new episodes bump it off.  Anyone in the US can watch it on-line. NBC makes their regular scripted programming available to watch on-line the next day.

But what about the Olympics?  What if I don't want to watch 3 hours at one time or stay up until midnight to see who claims the ladies singles figure skating gold?

Tough luck.  As far as I can tell, I can only watch 45 minutes of Olympic coverage because we do not have a cable or Dish provider.  We use an antennae and get our TV over the air.  Despite the overwhelming number of commercials which I'm sure are in the on-line portion as well as broadcast, NBC doesn't let those of us who don't pay for basic TV anywhere near the bulk of the games without suffering through hours of coverage each evening often going until midnight.

This is what NBC does not get.  People don't want to watch TV at a specific time.  We no longer want to watch 20 minutes of commercials every hour.  

We want content.  Hulu, Amazon and Netflix have given us the best of TV. We can watch when we want and we can get excellent content for our viewing time.  The time difference made the Olympics a bit of a challenge but we almost always have some time differences to deal with.

So here is my wish list for making watching the Olympics a better experience:

1.  Create an online viewing subscription option separate from the cable companies.  Partner with Hulu or one of the other providers as does Showtime and HBO.  And I'm not talking about an option to watch live but to view taped events so people can watch just what events they want.  Commercials are fine if needed to keep the costs down.  As long as we can skip the commentary, I think people would buy into this for the convenience.

2.  When the time difference will cause viewing to go past 11 pm on a regular basis, plan to tape delay the programming. Figure skating is a big draw so make it available for people to actually watch and cut out the filler by...

3.  Firing at least half the commentators.  They are completely unnecessary. It's irritating to know that Tara Lipinski was actually paid money to say over and over again "she really wants a gold medal," "He came here to win,"  "They have their eyes on the podium."  Well, duh!  Don't all the athletes envision themselves with a medal around their necks?  Isn't that the point of all that hard work?  We don't want them talking over the performances as they relive their own glory days.

3. During live events when time is needed to scrape the ice or for the next set of skaters to warm up, why not show us one of the earlier skaters on tape?  Fill the time by showing the work of these athletes, not by exercising the jaws of those who have had their moments in past Olympics.

4.  Drop the meaningless interviews of athletes asking them how they 'felt' to lose or to win particularly when they lose.  That's just mean.

5.  Another annoyance was the amount of time spent on qualifying runs.  Personally I think almost all of the events other than skating are beyond boring.  But to have to watch people slalom down the same hill over and over for qualifying and then again for the actual event is just double boredom.  No wonder so few people watched.

6.  Keep the cameras on the athletes.

7. Make the figure skating gala which was apparently a taped event into an Event.  Run it all at once without cutting over to other competitions. Have one skater after another with a reasonable number commercials.  Having a 4 minute skate followed by 5 minutes of commercials every. single. time. was just greedy.  We know you need the commercials to make money but the same Chevy commercial ran over and over again until viewers would start holding a grudge against the advertiser rather than being persuaded to buy.

8.  Announce upcoming events with times displayed on the screen.  Networks have no problem putting stuff on the bottom of our screens during regular programming yet during the Olympics if you wanted to know what time something was coming up, you had to be listening or look at the TV at just the right few seconds to see the announcement. Face it, people want to watch certain events.  Clearly from the ratings, viewers will not be bullied into watching everything just to see what they want to see.

Not only was viewership down but this was the least buzzed about Olympics I can recall.  The only time anything related to the Olympics trended on Twitter that I noticed was when there was a costume mishap.  I participate in two message boards.  Early posts about the games were quickly lost in discussions about current events, hobbies and other things we regularly discuss.  A few posts popped up near the end but the responses were slim compared to other discussions.  No where did I go in the last 2 weeks, that anyone mentioned the Olympics.  I brought it up with a group of friends but the conversation quickly fizzled.

Personally, if I never saw another Olympics my life would go on just fine but I realize that many people enjoy the biannual event and athletes work incredibly hard to be seen.  It's would be a shame for the Olympics to fade into history because a network is so greedy and set in their ways that they can't reach their audience.

Cards to Share and Stamps to Sell

The video below shares some cards I've made using a few sets one last time before I find them a new home. Will it be your home?  If you are interested in any of these sets, head over to my Etsy shop Lovely Layers Art where they are listed.  This set is bundled with the Boho Blossoms punch. I've used this punch many times without a matching stamp just for flowers.  (Card is not included in sale.)

Here's the video:




Thanks for watching!