Reading Fairy Tales...

is a joy at any age. I have always loved to sit and read with my kids and grand kids when they were small. Fairy tales have always been a favorite. Now I seem to have found a way to bring them to life at least with paper. What could be more adorable than a little pink fairy on a stack of shinny books and a pastel picture of my beautiful granddaughter reading. My fairy was cut with my Cricut Expression using SCAL and Inscape, She originated from an online coloring book page by E Dulemba.

I want to say thank you...

to Lesley of http://las-cricut.blogspot.com/. So many times I sit down to work with Inkscape and and just end up frustrated. I finally give up because I can't get it to do what I want when I want it to do it. There are two videos on her blog, part one and part two for Inkscape. They are simple, informative and easy to follow. Now I have watched videos and read instructions but Lesley's just clicked for me. I sat wondering just how I struggled some days at what now seems to be so easy. Although I must say I still can not get two nodes to join, LOL, but going back and cleaning up the jpeg works just fine for the most part. Well needless to say I spent my whole weekend playing with Inkscape and I ended up with lots of new cut files to play with. This is the first file I cut but I am not quite finished with the layout she goes on. I made her about ten inches to go on the side of my page. I will post the layout hopefully in the next day or so.

A Child's Year...

I knew from the moment I saw a hint of this cartridge I would have to have it. Silhouettes have always been a favorite of mine and this cartridge is pure heaven. Provocraft you did good, this will become one of my long standing favorites. It begs you to take out all those wonderful pictures of the kids when they were growing up and weave them into your scrapbook memories. The possibilities for cards, crafts and layouts are endless when you let your imagination and creativity flow. I've already seen many great pieces from other Cricut message board members. Even the fact it's not yet loaded into Design Studio did not dampen my enthusiasm to start making cuts. Believe me that is saying something because I've become spoiled and never make cuts without DS these days and I have five cuts made to set up layouts with already. I would also like to give https://www.scrapbookpal.com kudos for their fantastic prices and speedy delivery. I ordered it late Friday night (the 3rd of July holiday weekend) and it shipped first thing Monday morning for only $49.99 and free shipping. This is the first of my cuts and I used my favorite colors and my adorable grandson on his first birthday. If you are on the fence about this cart take the leap you won't regret it.

Roll On...

Finally this is the first layout I have finished since May. It felt good to sit down and play with paper again. My grand daughters take skate lessions every Saturday and last month was the recital. They have such fun, even my two year old grand son puts on skates and gets pulled around. When I went to look for a cut file for skates I found I really didn't have one that matched the rolladium style skates. So I hit the web for pictures and opened up SCAL and came up with these. I cut two skates and just layered them. For some extra dimension I punched holes and laced them with ribbon. I set up a 4 shared account and will post the cut file there for anyone with SCAL that would like to use it. Just click here for download. This will be a first so I hope I can get it to work. Thanks for visiting.

Organizing leaves little time for actual scrapping...

I seem to spend a fair amount of time in my craft room but as of late I have nada on paper to show for it. It all started when I couldn't find what I wanted for a LO. So the reorganizing of my cut files on my computer and embelies in my scrap room began. I had been looking at the 'Clip it up' but didn't really want a table top system. With a basic plan in mind I went salvaging through my garage loft and local Salvation Army store to see what I could find. This is what I came up with . I used an old brass floor lamp that no longer had all the light parts for my basic stand. Next I looked for the metal insides of lamp shades to make the rings to hold the clips. I had originally decided on three until I found this round white wire basket that I could add clips to and toss in non-clipable items if I needed to. The clips them self's are made of binder clips attached to Ideal Clamps that slide onto the rings. I must say it works rather well and holds the six binders and the peg board I had filled. I have plenty of room to add more. Organizing my computer cut files proved a bit more labor intensive. I guess you never realize just how many files you accumulate until you can't find the one you are looking for. I am still in the process of categorizing them trying to add a jpg view of each of them. It always amazes me just how talented so many people are and how generous they are to share their work. I have started to clean up my own files so I can share them on my blog as well. I'd like to contribute back a small portion of the generosity I have received from others. I just finished a pair of ribbon laced roller skates that I will try and post tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by and sorry it's been so long since I've posted.