Staying out of the craft stores…

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.

Yo Gabba Gabba...

 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.

FOOFA

TOODE

MUMO

PLEX

BROBEE

YO GABBA GABBA

Files a little old, a little new...

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...

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...

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.

Happy holidays to everyone...

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...

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...

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.

Still sorting out cut files...

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...

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.

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.