PAPER THERAPY

I Can't beleive it'a been so long...

2011-02-12T18:52:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 months since my last the last post and the last page I scrapped. Not sure how I got so side tracked or so uninspired to create anything new. It's not that I haven't taken new pictures, heck I even bought a new Nikon D3100 digital SLR camera last fall. 2010 seemed to be a year of changes and checks and balances, some subtle and some not so subtle, LOL. Then last week my daughter brought me a project she wanted me to make. She was going to a baby shower for her friend we have known since they were kids. The baby's name is going to be Noah and the nursery theme is Noah's Ark. She requested I make a shadow box of the Ark to go with the bedding she had bought from Baby's R Us. She brought over a shadow box that was 16x20 showed me the picture of the quilt to get the basic idea of colors and style. With help from my daughter on what colors and animals this is what I came up with. The ark and Noah are from SVG's I made in Inkscape and cut with Make the Cut. The animals were cut with Cricut using Animal Kingdom.

I cut individual planks for the bottom of the ark and layered them on a solid piece. I raised the pieces of the top and bottom of the boat off the mat to give depth to the inside of the port holes and windows.

The animal heads were raised with foam dots to give them some depth as well. All but Noah and the whales were cut with the Animal Kingdom cartridge. The ark, waves and cloud were done with MTC.

Well I may be in trouble now. I found myself in Joann's picking out paper stacks and found a few new EK punches. Did I mention K & Company has some gorgeous embellishments I couldn't resist. OMG I think the scrapping bug has returned!

Side tracked again...

2010-04-29T23:40:00.007-04:00

My grand daughter spent the night last weekend and we rented movies. Twilight just happened to be one of them. I have seen all the cut files and heard the buzz but had never seen the movies. We enjoyed the movie and then of course we had to watch New Moon. I find if I enjoy a movie I always end up reading the book as well. Four Twilight books later I am waiting to see the new Eclipse movie in June, go figure. Well I finally got back to putting together the Alice in Wonderland layout I had spread out on my scrap table for more than a week. I made the White Rabbit about three inches and it was a bit tricky to work with so many small pieces but he turned out OK after I finished I think. I want to try a larger one so I can get more detail on it. I did end up removing most of the scrolls on Alice's leaves for the smaller cut version as well. The links for the cut files for the Rabbit and Alice are below for anyone that would care to use them.

Alice

White Rabbit

A Beautiful Sunny Sunday...

2010-04-11T20:58:00.001-04:00

It was such a gorgous day out today. Sunshine always lifts my spirits and I just love the smell of spring. Today I went to see the Time Burton and Johnny Depp movie, Alice in Wonderland. I went with my one of my daughter's and four of my grand kids. We did the 3D version and it was all I could do not the laugh during the movie looking over at my three year old grandson. He was wearing those big black plastic 3D glasses trying to keep them up and eat popcorn at the same time. I loved the movie but then I always enjoy Johhny Depp in Tim Burton's movies. The movie gave me an idea for an Alice layout. So I went through my my digital color book pages and pulled out a couple Alice in Wonderland images to break down with Inkscape. I want to cut them in soft colors and use paper from Prima's Nursery Tales stack. I will try to share the cuts in the next couple days. I just want to make the cuts before I do. I find sometimes when there are alot of smaller pieces you have to make some adjustments and I want to make sure they cut before I post them.

Staying out of the craft stores…

2010-04-06T20:48:00.001-04:00

My challenge to myself this past month is to stay out of the craft stores. It is quite impossible for me not to come out with a roll of ribbon, a paper stack or some little something that caught my eye. I’m like a magpie with shinny objects. I seem to have accumulated more paper and crafty things than I will most likely ever use in my life time LOL. I have a habit of spending my lunch hour at Tuesday Morning, Michael’s, Joann’s or the LSS that are all five minutes from work. I have come the conclusion that my brain is not wired to just window shop. It has the over whelming desire to buy. In the effort to break this habit I have been bringing my laptop to work and spending my lunch hour creating or cleaning up cut files. So far so good, I have only slipped once last weekend. I found Fisker’s 7x7 inch clear stamp sheets at Dollar Discount; I bought 5 sheets because even I couldn't pass that up. This is today’s lunch hour file, hope someone can use it. The file contains the double heart mat and all the items on it, click here to open the download.

Happy Easter...

2010-04-04T09:37:00.004-04:00

Well it's Easter Morning in Michigan and the sun is shinning so it looks like it will be a great day for an egg hunt. Nothing worse than hunting eggs in the rain, or even the snow LOL. So I guess I need to get my two most important things done for today. The ham in the oven and my batteries charged for lots and lots of pictures. Each year around this time my daughters take all the kids to get group pictures, with a theme. Last year it was madras shorts and polo tops. This year the theme is going to be preppy boys and the girls are an 80's version of Madonnaesqe outfits. Can't wait to see how these gems turn out. They always are scrapbook heaven for me. My daughter deciding she needed over shirts with sparkly cupcakes on them couldn't find the right ones anywhere. We ended up making them ourselves. I made patterns using cupcake cut files and appliqued them on. The girls had fun coloring their patterns for test placement. All and all it was a fun afternoon yesterday and we even had time to make Peep pops from dipped pretzels and marshmallow peeps.

Yo Gabba Gabba...

2010-04-03T11:21:00.001-04:00

I remember when my children were Sesame Street enthusiasts. Then came my youngest (who is thirteen years younger) and it became the Rug Rats. Well I watch my three year old grandson on Friday's so now it is Yo Gabba Gabba. Funny how the names and characters change but their enthusiasm for them remains the same. Now instead of putting in a VHS tape so we can watch anytime it's push the DVR button. Time passes but kids remain a constant, LOL. I ran across a request on the message board looking for these characters and I remembered a couple of months ago my grandson and I sat at my computer and I made cut files for him. He loves to pick characters from his favorite shows and watch me create the cut files to make for him. I haven't cut these guys yet but did plan to use to make a book to incorporate my grandsons pictures with the characters using my Your Story. So many projects never enough time in the weeks lately. I thought someone else might enjoy doing a project the these cute little critters so I'd like to share. I would love to see what anybody does with them. Just click their names for the files.

Forever Young...

2010-02-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

There are so many recent releases for the Cricut as of late, I am forever lost to keep up buying the ones I like. Forever Young is one of them I just can't resist. I love the cuts from this cart. Heritage is another that was hard to resist and my granddaughters love the new Princess cart. So much for cutting back on my spending there are just way to many. Thank you so very much Provocraft for keeping the dust from gathering on my Visa, LOL. I have finally come to a solution that I am only going for the ones that tie in with my style of scrapping. OK and maybe just a few that the grand daughters seem to think I can't do without. This layout was done with cuts from the Forever Young cart, one that both the girls and I found to be a must have.

Files a little old, a little new...

2010-01-31T17:21:00.004-05:00

Well two days and hopefully that darn groundhog will see no sign of his shadow. I am really tired of winter no mater how pretty fresh snow looks. It has been so cold out lately here in Michigan. So its seems I have been doing more making cut files than cutting them the last couple weeks. I love to sit on on my couch on the cold nights at the end of a long day with my lap top and play. I really don't know what I ever did before Inkscape, LOL. When I was saving a couple cuts I found the file for 'Love Opens All doors'. I had posted the layout on December 28th but didn't share the file because I thought I had mistakenly deleted it. So for anyone who still would like to use it you can find the link Here. The door knob was made from a large gold button I found in my stash

This is a new cut file for a layout in progress so I thought I would share it now for anyone who might like to try it. I have been using silhouettes long before Cricut came out with A Child's Year and Heritage. Silhouettes have always been one of my favorite cuts. The cut file for all seasons and titles are HERE.

Happy Belated New Year...

2010-01-04T22:55:00.001-05:00

I should have been toasting but instead I was just wishing to be toasty 'warm'. New Years Eve around 6 pm sitting in my scraproom I was thinking my feet were getting a bit nippy. My first thought was maybe I need to put my fuzzy slippers on. I got up to get my slippers and check the thermostat and it said 62. I keep my house on the cool side but not that cool. Now mind you I had been on vacation for the previous ten days, could it act up during that time? No it has to wait til a holiday, and according to furnace repairman a three day holiday at that. My three grand kids were due over at 9 pm to toast in the new year, or should I say to chill out with me, LOL. Luckily I did have a large ceramic heater that we use for the garage or emergencies when needed. I live ranch style home so we just closed of all the unoccupied rooms, put on extra socks and a sweatshirt and toasted the New Year in with a pajama party in the middle of the living room. Kids are so resilient, they had a ball and I got lots of pictures to scrap when my scraproom is warmer than 56 degrees. The repairmen didn't come until Saturday morning so I spent half my weekend under my snuggy on the couch playing with my files on the laptop. Seeing as I didn't get to post new any files I found this one. It is an older layout I had posted before but had never posted the cut file to go with it. I cut my Reading Fairy at about 8 inches so the pieces were fairly easy to work with. She is one my favorite pieces I think I have done this past year. I hope you enjoy her if you should decide to use the cut file. May 2010 be a wonderful year for everyone.

Ever have one of those days...

2009-12-30T23:42:00.002-05:00

when nothing seems to go right in your scraproom. The cuts don't go right, you drop the little cut that's about the size of a micro dot under the table. You know those days, we all have them. I had a digital stamp that I had started to convert to an svg sitting in my to do folder. I decided today I would finish it up so I could use it in my layout. It took some work to get it cleaned up the way I wanted it but I really love the finished cut. Lots of tiny pieces always seem to go better on a day when everything else isn't messing up though, LOL. I even pulled out my Tim Holtz stamp pads and glimmer mist and did a couple tags. I had made my own glimmer mist a couple of months ago and this was the first time I used it. It's to pretty even though it doesn't really show in the picture. So after playing with a little bit of this and a little bit of that in the scraproom most of the day this is the only layout I ended up with. The mess I made is a whole other story, It looks like I should have gotten at least five layouts done. Click here for the svg for the suitcase.

Testing, Testing...

2009-12-28T01:08:00.001-05:00

A week ago there was some new buzz on the Cricut message board about a new program called Making the Cut. It appeared to be along the same lines as SCAL (Sure Cuts Alot) a program I use currently use to cut all my SVG's with after putting them together in Inkscape. I down loaded the trial version and was impressed with the early stages of the program, it looks quite promising and easy to use. Needless to say I bought it due to the fact Andy the guy behind this program seems to be really on his toes and working diligently to get his new product up and going with all the bells and whistles everyone is looking for. It imports SVG's and other image formats right into the program so they can be moderately adjusted and then cut. This will work great for a large number of my library images and SVG's I have compiled. I love that it lets me view the SVG files within the program prior to opening them on my mat. The same with viewing the fonts and moving, adjusting and welding text is a breeze. Already in the works is the ability to shadow text, which is a must for me. I know alot of the buzz is people are excited to be able to bypass Inkscape or a simular program but I don't find that the case for me. I love Inkscape and the ability to rework entire images to get what I want and then save as an SVG to be cut within programs like SCAL or MTC. This is a quick layout I cut with MTC to give it a test run. The cuts were precise and it did well on the more intricut filigree pieces. Kudos Andy I think you've got a winner! The cut file for the pieces used have been saved in both SVG and MTC formats.

Following time...

2009-12-27T09:10:00.002-05:00

I have become our family's unofficial photo journaler. The keeper of our photographic memories. This small piece of tradition was started purely by accident. I was doing a birth announcement for my granddaughter Zoe. I love the look of black & whites, I think black & white photos have a way of taking away the distraction of color and emphasizing the content of a picture. I had matted the 5x7 photo I used for the announcement in an 8x10 frame and my daughter loved it. After that I would go through the pictures taken on Zoe's birthday each year, choose one, make a black and white 5x7 then frame it. This year when I asked my daughter what was on her list of things she wanted for Christmas she included her yearly photo of Zoe. Looking a the previous years hanging on her wall I had an idea. The first photo was done before I owned my Cricut Expression so it was just plain black matted and the subsequent years followed the same format. This year I wanted to try something different so I added a bit of design to the corner of my mat and added one word in white that the picture brought to mind and used a diamond jewel for the dot on the i in beautiful. I liked how well it turned out so I 'borrowed' the ones off her wall and redid all the matting. She loved them, so I guess now my tradition has been officially updated. I had to laugh when my daughter said Mom you are going to run out of words. I told her not a chance, with a wonder like my sweet Zoe there will never be enough pictures to even begin to use all the words.

Happy holidays to everyone...

2009-12-26T15:27:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our family was blessed with a wonderful Christmas day gathering yesterday. It always seems the more children present the more festive the day is. My three year old grandson, who totally believes in Santa, was a delight to watch. Today I find myself still full from to much good food and still content for time well spent with family, so I thought I'd relax and spend the afternoon in my craft room. This year my two daughter's put in their request for presents from my craft room and I must admit I had fun doing these projects. One was a shadow box for my oldest daughters bathroom. She wanted a picture to tie into the theme she had used but couldn't find anything she liked that matched in the stores. So with the help of my eight year old granddaughter as creative consult on the paper selection and trims this is what we came up with.

The shadow box is 10x20 inches and the items in it are layered at various heights to make it look 3D, like it is standing in a room. The corset is cut from 2 layers of pearlized paper then trimmed with satin ribbon, lace and flat backed pearls. I added gel pen stitching and gathering on the gathers to give it a bit more dimension. My cut file was done in Inkscape and cut with SCAL2. Although I love the ease of all my Cricut cartridges I find I gravitate back to using Inkscape to get those really individual cuts I need. I very recently bought the new program called Making the Cut and so far I must say I really like the ease of it. I have yet to make a cut with it due to getting ready for Christmas but will try giving it a work out this week. If anyone wants the cut file for my shadow box I would love to share. Here are the links to the SVG - Corset & Stand, SCAL2 both layers. If anyone would like the MTC version I will be testing that out in the next couple days so let me know.

It has been far to long since I've posted or just relaxed and crafted these past months. Life just seems to keep getting in the way sometimes. You think I would have learned by now taking time to scrap is the best stress reliever there is for me. My doctor should just tell me to take 2 asprin, make 1 layout and call him in the morning. LOL.

Good intentions...

2009-10-11T21:26:00.041-04:00

is what I had to make test cuts this weekend. I seem to have gotten side tracked. This past week there were a couple of threads on the Cricut message board about wide format printers on sale. I have been wanting a wide format for sometime now but could never justify the expense of adding yet another printer to my scraproom. Well I checked them out and caved. I brought home the HP Photosmart B8555 for only 149.00 with 50.00 bonus Officemax points. It even has reasonably priced replacement ink with individual color cartridges around 10.00 each. It is a bit noisier than my other HP but the prints are clear and true color (up to 13x19 if you choose). I really was more interested in using the printer for background papers so the great photo quality is a bonus. I did a test digital stamp on print paper and I think I am really going to use this more than I thought. It is however a large printer so I ended up moving my entire scraproom around trying to find the right spot for it. I guess you never realize how much stuff you have until you try to rearrange it. Long story short I only got one of my test cuts done but he is a real cuttie. Someone off the MB ask if I had this image and I did so I converted it. I made the passy a separate piece so you can add it or leave it off. This is Alvin should you care to try him.

This is the 12x12 with the digital stamps added with the wide format printer.

My first Tilda comes to life...

2009-10-05T20:54:00.002-04:00

and I must say I really adore this little girls. They have so much character for someone with only eyes and eyebrows. The first one I tried was at 5 inches and she is small so it was harder to get alot of extra details on her. The next try I cut her at 7 1/4 inches and she was so much easier to add detail to. I like both sizes and anything in between would work great for a scrapbook page. So far I have about 24 of them in cut files but only these 2 have been tested. My goal for this coming weekend is try to test cut at least 10 more. I get so wrapped up in converting files that I haven't been doing much cutting, LOL. If you would care to try these files here is the link for Tilda Fall and Tilda Stylish.

On another great note today I was lucky enough to be chosen to win a Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge for week #4. I'm so glad I didn't buy it at M's last sale. Don't forget to go to the Message Board and put your name in there is still one more week to win.

Don't You Just Love Tilda...

2009-09-21T19:53:00.001-04:00

I have been playing with Inkscape again this past weekend. I find late at night when I'm watching movies I love to sit and play with Inkscape. I have four granddaughters and two daughters so I have plenty of little girl pictures to work with. Looking for some images to convert I came upon a large selection of Tilda images that were perfect for what I was looking for. Well one image led to two to ten and so on. Now I have a whole collection of Tilda's to cut. I think she is adorable. These are some of the ones I've finished so far. I've yet to test cut them because I'm not sure what pic's I am using and need to color coordinate them. Detailing them will almost be like playing with paper dolls. I will try to get the cuts made and some of the files posted this week. I still have another bench, a window and awning etc... and more Tilda's. I will try to post them as well.

Still sorting out cut files...

2009-09-12T10:34:00.007-04:00

and it seems to be a never ending process. I am finding so many files I had forgotten about and a lot of them I want to tweak now that I've become more proficient with Inkscape (and still learning everyday). For those of you learning Inkscape might want to check out Mary's tutorials over at Mardenz blogspot. Her tutorials are great and her cut files are never ending. You will be like a kid in a candy store there are so many to check out, LOL. I really do need to stop playing with cut files and get back to working on my scrapbook pages. I'd like to share a couple simple files of mine I found. I love to read and just love the look of books on a shelf. They are a window to the world and imagination without ever leaving the cozy comfort of comfy chair on a rainy day. I always encouraged my kids to read for enjoyment starting when they were small and we bought endless shelves of books. With today's technology it seems so many kids rather put in a DVD. But in doing that they lose the unique feeling of getting lost in a tale that comes alive in their minds eye.

Girl With Book and Comfy Chair links should you care to use them.

Faeries, Pixies and little enchanted creatures...

2009-09-08T19:52:00.009-04:00

are such a favorite of mine. I have always been enchanted by mystical creatures. I always loved to loose myself in books like Lord of the Rings when I was younger and let my visual imagination run. Now you can watch all the creatures you imagined come to life via DVDs. Isn't technology grand? The people who create the costumes and makeup leave me in awe. You can almost feel like you are there. Then there are the ageless gems like Tink who is loved by all generations. Faeries seem to hold the ability to bring enchantment and lightness of the heart to anyone who can let them into their imagination. With four granddaughters imagination is never in short supply at my house. The grandsons seem to lean more toward the trolls, go figure. All this being said I'd like to share these files from my fairy collection with everyone.

These were done with Inkscape and imported at 12x12 into SCAL. There are a lot of pieces and I cut my shadow in black and all the rest in white card stock and used Cats Eye chalks to color them. They were cut about six inches high. The wings with highlighted with matching glitter. Every fairy needs fairy dust. Click here for the file.

Here is the file for the Reading fairy as well from July 21st post as well.

Organization can lead to obsession...

2009-09-07T19:35:00.014-04:00

well I seem to have gotten lost in organizing my cut files as of late. About five weeks as of late LOL. It seems to have all started when I couldn't find a cut file on my laptop and from there I was knee deep in virtual files. I decided to add a jpeg file to match all my saved Inkscape files so I didn't have to open them to see what the were. At least with Design Studio files if you open them up in DS you can look at the file. So I was on a mission and have yet to complete it all. I think I'm at somewhere around 1500 files and counting between all the programs. I have been trying to tag the ones I have gotten from other people so when I use them I can give them credit due for their hard work. I will say one thing I have gotten from this is I have become much more proficient in Inkscape and that in itself has been worth it. So today I decided to test cut 5 of the files I had made and I will try to post all this week along with the file should anyone care to try them. Well here is my first cut file and it's done with SCAL. I love vintage and this reminds me of warm memories of my girls when they were small with books and stuffies and wonderful imaginations. It is set for 12x12 to be imported to SCAL. Here is the link to the cut file if you care to use it.

Reading Fairy Tales...

2009-07-21T23:31:00.012-04:00

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...

2009-07-20T22:02:00.006-04:00

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...

2009-07-12T09:28:00.008-04:00

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...

2009-07-03T01:30:00.008-04:00

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...

2009-07-02T21:57:00.012-04:00

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.

Paper flowers to bring in spring...

2009-05-16T14:10:00.037-04:00

I joined the May challenge on the Cricut Community message board again this month. The theme is Cricut cut flowers and we have taken on the name Bloomin Bugs. Amy a fellow team member came up with a wonderful signature for this month. Flowers and sparkles, what could be better to head into the spring months. I was getting so weary of winter this year. Bring on the flowers even if they are just made of pretty paper. Well when I sat down to start this project two weeks ago I really couldn't decide what I wanted to do. When you think of Cricut cartridges and flowers it really brings up a vast amount of choices to choose from. For mothers day my daughters brought me over baskets of flowers so I thought that just may be a good base idea to build on. The flowers were cut using the Wedding and Walk in my garden carts. I chalked the edges, ran them through the Cuddlebug and layered them using bronze brads and pop dots. All the green foliage was cut with Storybook. My pot was done making two cuts using WIMG then cross cutting them, chalking the edges and weaving the pieces into a basket. Lattice was from the cart with the endless possibilities, Wildcard. I find that cart has so much on it that can be used for details in layouts. Of course my favorite butterfly comes from Indie (the small ones are from Pooh). I was in the dollar store this week and found a great deal on chipboard journaling pieces, 36 in each box. Most of the time the colors they offer are to bright but a little distressing and they are perfect. So the chipboard journaling piece completes my project. I haven't found the picture I want to use for this project yet but I'm sure before the summer is over it will be filled.

Pretty in pink...

2009-05-06T12:15:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday I spent some quality crafting time with my youngest grand daughter Zoe. Our chosen project was a tee shirt and matching ball cap, in pink of course! I keep a stash of iron on rhinestones and fabric paints on hand so we can decorate shirts, jeans, hats or purses when the mood strikes. It's a joy to craft with the kids and find I am always amazed at how much I love them and what great little people they are becoming as they get older. Some of my fondest memories from when I was a child were of doing things with my "gram". I want to leave my grand kids the same memory legacy that my beloved grandmother left me. Family is the most important part of our lives, to love and be loved by them is the ultimate gift.

Saving scraps, to toss or not to toss that is the question...

2009-05-05T21:14:00.023-04:00

Do you ever save too many bits and pieces of scrap paper or elements you save? I find if it has an interesting shape, texture or color I tend to save it. Sometimes the piece looks totally useless and I still tuck it in the drawer for future possibilities, ah the curse of a pack rat. But then again whenever someone needs something, a bit of this or a piece of that who do they ask? Why the pack rat of course, and I produce the needed item from a drawer or shelf with a bit of a smug smile on my face. Mind you never saying aloud "see I told you it would come in handy" but just handing it over with a renewed conviction that being a pack rat is not always a bad thing. This is a layout of my daughter when she was about three. I started with a piece of pink polka-dot paper and than proceeded to dig through my scrap leftovers drawers. The green in the corner is a left over piece of cardstock I used to punch out my flower leaves for various flowers I have made in the past. I had punched every usable inch of it and was going to toss it out but changed my mind and stashed it back in the drawer. Looking at it reminded me of a quilt pattern so I used my Zig pen and applied stitch line around all the cutout areas. I added a few flowers to give the piece a splash of color it needed. All the remaining pieces in this layout are scraps from my stash, the only new cut item was the title (I used Cursive 101 & Home Decor). I finished "stitching" everything to tie it all together. Moral of this story is "Waste not, want not" (or never throw away something you may use sometime, somewhere in someones lifetime, LOL).

The Graphics Fairy...

2009-05-01T18:57:00.019-04:00

I want to extend a gigantic thank you to the The Graphics Fairy. Every morning I make my coffee and sit down for ten minutes or so at my computer. I check some of my favorite web sites, the The Graphics Fairy being the first one I open. It’s like opening a treasure chest of vintage graphics. Each day there is a new post added. Karen’s collection includes something for everyone even if you are not a vintage enthusiast as I am. That brings me to my post today. Karen's post for April 26th was this adorable little girl all dressed in pink and it made me think of my daughters baby pictures when she was about three. Needless to say it became the starting point for my layout. The paper I used is from the Prima Nursery Tales collection I had shown in an earlier post. It really is beautiful quality weight paper. The harlequin print almost looks like glittery patent leather. The pink is pearlized and I love the bunny and little girl print, it almost reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. The photo I scanned and converted to a light septa tones then colorized with the paint brush tool. I choose to just color the gingham on her dress, her pink cheeks and blue eyes. I gave it just enough color to tie in with my pink theme. The flowers are from the same Nursery Tales collection. The title is done with a stamp set from Creative Imaginations called Sonnets. I used Cats eye chalk covered with Diamond dust on vellum. Adding a bit of ribbon and lace, rhinestones and sparkle here and there and my ‘Baby Girl’ was complete. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by.

One can never have enough pretty ribbon...

2009-04-14T21:30:00.016-04:00

Like many crafters I have a love for ribbon and fibers. What started out as a dozen rolls quickly grew into many, many multiples of dozens. Storing and displaying that many rolls becomes a challenge especially in a small scraproom. I started out with dowels. Then display racks I picked up from my local scrapbook store. Then a combination of both plus a couple of drawers filled to top. Still it seems each time I needed that certain ribbon it was in the middle of a dowel or the bottom of the drawer. Worse yet I ended up using something that wasn't quite as perfect for lack of finding the perfect one in the jumbled organization I called my ribbon stash. Last week I was browsing in a store called Tuesday Morning and found a carton of Cropper Hopper ribbon and storage units. I had always seen these at Joann's but was not willing to lay out the cost of them at full price not knowing how well they would work for me. At 70% off I figured what the heck I'll give them a try. I am truly amazed how well they work for such a small investment. I filled up a 30 gallon trash bag of empty rolls and fit it into this neat little area. I even gained back the use of 2/3's of my peg board. They also had the embellishment containers that fit into the drawer units but I found them more useful as stand alones for my needs.
Before this entire board was covered with ribbon rolls, plus 2 full drawers. It compacted down to 6 of the drawer units. I left my small thin ribbons on the rolls because it reminds me of a ribbon rainbow, LOL! These are the small embellie containers, easy open and compact.

Embelishment Heaven...

2009-04-10T13:59:00.009-04:00

How do you know when you over do it on the embellishments you use on a layout? Can one over do the amount of embellishments as long as it ties in with your page? My life has always been a 'collection of things' and that theme seems to carry over into everything I do. I think that is why vintage is my favorite style. Vintage invites collection and always gives me a homey feel, a sense of treasures. I am partaking is a team challenge on the Cricut message board where we need to use a card cut as part of our project. That idea inspired this layout. This is a photo of my baby boy who turns twenty in two months, how quickly the years pass. I used so many different bits and pieces putting this one together. The paper base has four layers and my thanks goes out to ScrappedLives' Nestie look alike cut file. I used it making an oversize version for my matting. The title is done with Ranger distress stickles and I must say I really love these, they are a perfect amount of glitz without the glaring sparkle. In place of Ranger Perfect Pearl I used metallic Scribbles to get the same effect. The flowers are from the Prima Nursery Tale collection. By the time I was done loading my selection of files into my DS I had used five different carts to get what I needed. I love how you can take a cut file and skew the proportions to fit your picture. Embossing always adds just a little extra so part of the title and photo frame were done using the A2 Swiss dots folder. I think I ended up pleased with the overall effect of this one. I know I love the little boy it is all centered around.

A Prima Nursery Tale...

2009-04-03T19:56:00.009-04:00

Leaving work yesterday I found I still had a couple 50% off coupons calling my name in my purse. Calling rather loudly I might add. Seeing as I pass right by Michael's craft store on my way home I thought I just might be able to quite them a bit by stopping to just look. Well I'm sure all avid scrappers know the outcome to this story. To look is to buy - oh my! I found the most delightful new line they have in. It's called the Nursery Tales Collection by Prima. I love it, when I looked at it I thought of Beatrix Potter. They have the paper stack, flowers, resin emblies and letters etc. I couldn't resist the paper and a couple packages of flowers. I will most likely go back for more flowers and the resin embelies. For anyone who loves vintage nursery tales this is a must. I can't wait to use it!

These 2 are flocked paper

Sugary Sweet & The Color Is Pink...

2009-03-30T19:42:00.009-04:00

I was checking in and reading the new posts over at the Cricut messageboards. I came across the new blog Cheryll (Memory Keeper) put together to host her new design team. It's called Sugar Sweet Paper Treats and it's off to a wonderful start with a great blog layout. I am excited to see the new inspirations they come up with. The first challenge is from Jason (the only guy on the team) and the requirements are a sweet treat, the word sweet and lots of pink. What scrapper couldn't resist that combination, it lends itself to getting those creative juices flowing (not to mention mouth watering) right off the bat. I recently picked up the Studio G, dollars cupcake stamps from Michael's. They immediately came to mind with this challenge. My granddaughter has a birthday coming up in a couple weeks so I thought I would give this challenge a try at my scrap table as well. This is the sweet pink treat I came up with. Thanks Jason for the motivation to help me get my birthday card finished.

Important people in our lives...

2009-03-27T21:58:00.013-04:00

Did you ever know someone who was such a nice person it always left you a little in awe? My co-worker and friend is going on sick leave for the next two weeks. She is one of the most awesome people I know. Always so kind and generous with her time and efforts, she just brightens your day to be around her. I wanted to do a little something to let her know her presence will indeed be missed. It's always nice when people remind you that you matter in their day to day lives. Who have you reminded anyone lately? I know I don't do it near enough and I am truly going to make a effort to remind a least one person daily I am glad they touch my life.

Spending a day in my scraproom...

2009-03-23T21:10:00.013-04:00

Yesterday ended up being such a pleasant day. I spent most of it puttering around my scrap room. The lighthearted mood it left me in seemed to carry over into today. Scrapping and Spring, how much more could a person ask for. Even though the chill was still in the air today the sunshine was gorgeous. This is another one of the layouts I finished yesterday. The soft colors of Easter are such fun to work with. Pink of course is my granddaughter Jayla's favorite color, add in some Easter mini brads and glitter and the page practically colors
itself.

It's been far to long...

2009-03-22T12:57:00.007-04:00

Well it's been over thirty days since my last post, a long thirty days I might add. Seems like after my desktop decided to play dead my printer wanted to get in on the game as well. My desktop had been revived but my printer is still printing a lovely shade of green, it was like an eternal Saint Patrick's day! All mechanical difficulties aside I have had some flair ups with an ongoing medical problem as well. I wish fixing those were as simple as buying a new laptop and replacing a printer. Oh well, I guess all things have a shelf life, computers, printers and people. The trick is to make the most of it, enjoyed it all and scrap the memories for the next generation to remember. Now that everything seems to be reasonably back in working order again I decided I need to just relax and scrap. I love the way scraping brings an inner peace and gets those mental juices flowing again. This layout is of a photo of my grand kids (Angelica, Alyssa and Jacob) that I don't get to see very ofter as they live out of state. I love fall colors and plaids. I embossed my title on plain card stock and used the argyle pattern to give is a little punch. By the time I was done making my layout in Design Studio I think I had ended up using 5 or 6 cartridges, but I was pleased with the way it turned out. It's good to be back.

You never realize until it's gone...

2009-02-15T18:35:00.004-05:00

The unthinkable happened last week. The power supply in my computer just stopped working, puff and it was black. I never realized just how much I rely on my computer. First thought was no email or Internet access, and panic set in LOL. Although I have access from my son's room that option comes with a lot of ifs. If he isn't on it, if I can wade through to it, if I can get his keyboard (with missing buttons and no back space) to work and we won't even talk about the mouse. Although I have access at work it just isn't the same. Then there was scrapping, no printing pictures, no printed journaling and no SCAL. I know my Cricut Expression is stand alone but I have become so enabled by Design Studio that it's near imposable for me to be productive with out my computer. What has my world come to, being held captive by technology. I can truly say I went through withdrawals and the thought of going without until next week when the new part arrives it's unbearable. Thank goodness for credit cards and 18 month no interest plans. One laptop later all it right with my world again.

Check out Sharon's blog...

2009-02-08T02:08:00.002-05:00

I've been busy checking some wonderful blogs today. You know how it is, you visit your regulars and one link takes you to another and before you know it you've found at least a half dozen new blogs full of creative treasures. I found a link to Sharon's Blog who not only has some adorable cards but Valentine's day blog candy as well. She has a great blog and you will love her cards. Her Tilda's are are delightful.

A little challenge for motivation...

2009-02-06T13:06:00.009-05:00

Do you find yourself more motivated when you do a challenge. I know for myself it always seems to give me a little direction to channel my creativity in or a little boost when mine is at a lull. This is a challenge from Visual Designs by Chris. This layout was done with SCAL. I used his embellishment cut for my hinges. I cut the first one attached to the frame and layered the second with pop dots and brads to give it a dimensional look. My intention for this page was to resemble an old book cover. The picture is one of my grand daughter regally posing in one of the gowns I made for her dress-up trunk.

Family history albums...

2009-01-31T21:48:00.009-05:00

A family history album is one of the most important scraping projects you can do. Since last fall I have been working on a family history heritage album. It started one afternoon when my grandson was spending the weekend with me and we were going through old family photos. My grand parents and parents have passed from my life and with them a many pieces of our family history. It made me realize that so many of the family memories I hold will be gone as well when I am no longer here. If I don't save them for my family they will be lost forever. It's a much bigger undertaking than I had originally thought when you start adding in great aunts, cousins etc. Heritage style layouts have always been my favorite to work on, they seem to be the ones I always gravitate back to. I love all the antique looking bits and pieces that can be added. In a way they are not unlike an antique dresser top fill with assorted treasures. This is another cut using my Expression and SCAL. I love the way that the Expression allows you to cut an entire 12x12 page.

Silhouettes done with SCAL...

2009-01-29T22:12:00.004-05:00

This week I have been playing with my SCAL program again. These are a couple of silhouettes I found among the down loaded fonts on my computer. Butterflies and fairies have always been a favorite of mine. The cuts turned out so well I didn't want to waste them so I made cards. Both cards are cut 5 1/2 x 7 1/2.

Die cuts and glitz...

2009-01-28T18:57:00.010-05:00

How do you decide which die cuts or embellishments you want to add to your layouts? Sometimes I feel so over whelmed trying to decide. Glitz, fibers, chipboard, textures, etc. which do I want to add? I have so many drawers/binders full of pre-made ones and tools to make them with that it’s hard to remember what I have. I feel a lot of times I could have picked something that would have been more complementary had I just opened the right drawer or looked through my paper just one more time. I have to be careful not to spend so much time putting combinations together so that I never get the layout done. I make many of my page elements with my Cricut Expression cutter using DS (Design Studio) and the forty plus cartridges I have acquired over the past couple years. Although I can most always find what I need on the cartridges and DS I love to use SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) and Inkscape. You can take an image break down the layers then save as an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file. I am still slow at manipulating Inscape and tend to get frustrated with not being more proficient at it. With practice and tutorials I hope to someday breeze through it. With SCAL I find the ability to use computer fonts a big plus and you can always find a font that matches a cartridge font if you look. Currently I have 2683 fonts & dingbats on my computer. I love the ability to cut available silhouettes and doodlebats/dingbats. Some of the intricate silhouette overlays available are simply beautiful. With SCAL shadowing is so much easier as well. The layouts below are all layouts I used SCAL to add elements to.

Re-working old layouts...

2009-01-27T13:49:00.011-05:00

Do you ever go through your old scraps books and want to redo your pages? I know a lot of people say you should leave them because they show how you did things at that time. In many ways I guess that’s true. The progression of your skills is clearly shown when you compare the “back when you started” pages and the layouts you craft now. I tend to take pictures of my crafts and keep them on CD. That way when I give them away I still have a picture to reference back to if I need it. In a way I kind of look at redoing pages like redecorating a house. You want your homes décor to grow with your improved tastes over the years. I know I don't want to invite friends and family over sit amoung those shag rugs and coffee tables crafted from utility wire spools that we thought were “groovy” in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I just want to look at the pictures of them and have a good laugh. I do want my albums I pass down to be something I am proud of. Next comes the question do you or will you ever have the time to redo your pages? Most likely, if you are like me you can hardly keep up with the current photos you take. But for the fun of it, and because my daughter was commenting on how much my scraping techniques have changed in the past five years I decided to try something. I took a layout I did the end of 2005, reprinted the elements from the page and started from scratch. The before and after pictures below are what I ended up with. I guess my tastes have changed. But never enough to redo all my books, maybe just reprint those really special pictures and do another layout with them

After:

Before:

Kreativ Blogger Award...

2009-01-25T12:48:00.006-05:00

I received this award from Susie Sugar this week.

What a wonderful compliment because her work is absolutely beautiful. Thank you Susie. The more links I follow on everyone’s blogs, the more treasures I find. There are days I sit down to just check out a couple of the blogs I frequent and before I know it an hour has passed. It’s like getting engrossed in a good book, my list of saved blogs seems to be growing. Thank you everyone for sharing your creativity. This small list doesn’t begin to cover the blogs I think are Kreative. It is just a few in no particular order I would like to pass the honor to:

http://lovemypaper.blogspot.com/
http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/
http://arkansasmom.blogspot.com/
http://jenny-outofmymind.blogspot.com/

I was tagged today...

2009-01-24T21:16:00.015-05:00

by The Memory Keeper. Who by the way has a beautiful blog and I now have Over the Rainbow stuck in my head, LOL!

The instructions for this tag are:

*Go to the 6th folder in your my pictures folder.

*Post the 6th picture.

*Explain the picture.

*Tag 6 people.

This picture is of my youngest grandson, Colton, taken Halloween 2008. I always thought when my kids grew up my costume making days were over. Little did I know it just was passed to the next generation. Arggggggh matey!

http://ruelysicreativecards.blogspot.com/

http://angelacres.blogspot.com/

http://dreamofscrappin.blogspot.com/

http://www.splatpat.com/

http://koalatkreations.blogspot.com/

http://catmillerscreations.blogspot.com/

*********
You've been tagged!

Punch a paper garden...

2009-01-23T17:54:00.010-05:00

It's hard sometimes to remember even making die cuts without my Cricut. All the paper shaper scissors and small simple punches sat on my shelf gathering dust. When the Design Studio software came out for Cricut it opened a whole new world of die cuts. With a little imagination and a lot of patience it was amazing what could be made. Then I found a wonderful program called Sure Cuts A lot (SCAL) that turned fonts and dingbats into die cuts. But then as so often it happens, what was old becomes new again. Fiskars, Marvy, EK Sucess and Martha Stewart have put out some amazing punches. Martha Stewart's holiday punches seem to be a favorite and become scarce shortly after release. I love her flower and leaf punches and the embossed button punch is one of my favorites. I hope she decides to put out an embossed flower punch that mimics the Prima type flowers in the future. The EK Success corner punches are another punch I often use. Punches take so little paper that all those pieces I have saved from my Cricut cuts are an endless supply for my punches. My grandmother used to say waste not want not and I'm a firm believer in trash (scraps) to treasures. So as I watched a PBS Jane Austen movie I made flower treasures. They turned out to be just what I needed for the dozen note cards I had to make.

Sometimes you just need bright colors...

2009-01-18T22:32:00.007-05:00

My favorite way to spend a cold Sunday afternoon is choose a couple good movies, a warm pair of fuzzy slippers and make a fresh pot of coffee (with Irish Cream creamer). Then head off to spend a relaxing day in my scraproom. I really love to work with K & Company papers. One of my favorite stacks is one done by Brenda Walton. The papers are so warm, bright and full of color. With the next to zero temptures outside right now everything warm and colorful is a plus. So I scanned through my photos and found two just as colorful as my paper choices. I could almost smell the grass and feel the sunshine behind the faces of my beautiful grand daughters. It's been a great afternoon, I just may have to repeat it again tomorrow.

The end of another holiday season...

2009-01-11T10:56:00.002-05:00

Well the last ornament and Christmas decoration is packed away for another season. As the years pass the holidays seem to arrive more quickly and pass much to fast. For the amount of Christmas decorations I have accumulated one would think I considered it a year round event. I think after this year I am able to decorate five trees, each in a different color/theme. I do believe there are five trees of different shapes and sizes lurking in my storage loft as well. Mind you I live in a three bedroom ranch that has a one tree capacity if I still intend to accommodate furniture and family over the holidays. I guess for me Christmas decorations are kind of like scrapbook supplies, you will never use them all but you can never have enough.

Black & white or color...

2009-01-07T21:07:00.002-05:00

This is the first of my layouts using the new stacks I bought yesterday. The background paper came form the Paper Pizazz Heritage stack. Each year my daughters take all the kids to have their portraits taken together and it always gives me a wealth of ideas for layouts. I have a love of black and white photos, they tend to be my favorite to work with. Color photos I find you have to blend in the basic colors in the photo with your page color scheme while black and white allows you can choose the color the photo makes you feel. For that reason many times I will make my color photos b&w or just add a touch of septa tones . With this layout I loved the colors in the photo and they seemed to tie in well the the paper I had picked to work with. I wish I could say I had a process of how I pick my paper or pictures but I don't. Sometimes I find a photo and work from there. Other times I find a paper I want to use and work form there. Sometimes when the scrapbook Gods are smiling on me I get an I idea that brings to mind a picture and paper at the same moment. I love those layouts that just come together, because I tend to be one of those scrapers that tweaks a page until it feels right.

Never could resist pretty paper...

2009-01-06T19:52:00.002-05:00

Over the holidays I made an honest effort to stay out of the craft stores. I really need to use the paper I have on hand and not buy more. Being a member of the Cricut message board and it never fails that someone posts a great sale or a new item just put on the shelves. It's so hard to resist not just checking it out. So into Michael's craft store I go just to look at the new Prima stacks. Bad move because all stacks were 50% off and for a paper addict that can be dangerous. In all I ended up adding seven to stacks to the fifty I already own. To justify this new foolishness I will challange myself to make at least two layouts from each stack in the month of January. I will post them as I complete them.

A little less tweeking and a little more scrapping please...

2009-01-03T17:25:00.001-05:00

Day two and I seem to have gotten a large part of the basics down for my new blog. Although I must say I got NO actual scrapping done. It was kind of fun and frustrating all at the same time trying to lay all this out. Next comes adding in some fun gadgets, but that will have to wait for another weekend and a little less coffee intake. My scraproom looks like gale force winds sweept through so I guess I know what I will be doing later tonight. If you are reading this thanks for stopping by.

And the blog begins...

2009-01-03T01:34:00.002-05:00

Well it's a new year so I thought I would give something new a try. Today I decided to try to start a blog for my scrapbooking projects. So here goes...

I started out yesterday by sifting though the drawers of my paper scraps and extra cuts of this and that. I never disguard scrap pieces I think might be used somewhere, sometime for something. So now that I am having a bit of trouble getting those drawers to close I figured I should make an honest attempt to use some of them. I did get three layouts done and have another possible three laid out.