Something New

Welcome Something New Monday!~
I have been busy over the past few days and have been thinking about a lot of things I would like to share with you. Some of it is now and some of it is just things that I have been thinking about.... 


Scraps... 
I have a ton of scraps!  What do you do with your scraps?  How do you store your scraps? I know some of you have elaborate systems to store your scraps, and others just have a nice pile of them... I just bought a expanding filing folder and store them by color. This is working so far. 
The other thing I have decided to do with my scraps is use them! I have a sketch book and have been working on layouts that will use them as well as some cards. The end results often don't look exactly like my sketch but close enough. The art of creation often leads in different directions! Below is my layout using circles cut on my Cricut using GBS. 

Ok, here is the sketch that I based the lay out on, and this is what it turned out to be.

Not quite the same but the idea is there. The use of the left over paper along with the journal tag worked out well I think.


So, circles, squares, rectangles, any shape that you can manage to cut will work out really well to use of your scraps and get you being productive!

Oh, and if you are making cards, make more than one. I thought I was the type of person that only wanted to make one of anything, but I find that if I am already making a card and have the extra paper (not using only scraps to make the card) that making at least 2 works out great. You have one to give and one in reserve to give again later.

Cuttlebug...

When I was surfing the web I found people doing wonderful things with their embossed images. One of the things that I liked the best was the coloring the raised portions with ink, chalk, even crayons! Well I tried these and lets just say that I wasn't really successful. Then I thought I would give by brayer a try. It worked out much better for me than the other methods I tried.... 

I haven't tried it with a solid color inkpad but that is coming!

Site of the week...

This week I want to share my favorite site for shopping.  Have you tried www.froogle.com? This is one of the best ways to see prices for comparisons and to find out who is selling the item you are looking for. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

New item of the week...

I wanted to get some paper for Valentine's Day. I went to my local A.C Moore (they had a great sale on my favorite paper DCWV $19.99 packs for $10.00) and I looked around and saw lots of the same things that I either had seen before or had at home... Sigh... Then I saw Libby!  Libby is the manager of the scrapbooking section, and I mentioned what I was looking for and she said that there was a new paper that wasn't put out yet and she would get it for me.  Well, when I saw it I knew I had to have it, and wanted to share with you to keep an eye out for it. You will love it too!

I couldn't resist!  Valentine's Day with a Halloween twist!  I love the skull and cross bones, The pack is called Madly in Love. Black, green, red, pink not all the colors for Valentine's Day but they are yummy together.

Well, thats it for now, I will be back on Thursday to share some of the projects I have completed.

Don't forget to leave a comment! I love Comments.

Cricut Saturday!

Ok.. so technically its Sunday, but I have had the worst day... We ran out of oil and no one could come out and fill the tank. After not being able to find someone I did some research and found that I could put some diesel and that should hold me over until Monday.  Well enough, I make 2 trips and get 10 gallons of diesel and thought everything was going to be fine... NOOOOO. NOTHING WORKED!  I pressed the reset on everything and still nothing worked.  I found out that the furnace needed to be bled. Oh Really, Bled!!!  What the heck is that?  YouTube to the rescue!  I watched a couple of videos on how to do just that and was delighted to find out that it wasn't as hard as I thought and it could be done.  Well, I get my son and off we go down to the basement knowing what to do armed with YouTube knowledge sure that this will take just a few minutes and we will be warm again.
Well, no one told us that not all furnaces were made the same that the the bleed valve wasn't going to look the same on my furnace as the one in the video... and then when we figured out which one was the darn valve it was seized on there and would not move.  SIGH.... Now what you have to understand is that I live in a 110 year old house and the furnace although not original equipment ... it is darn close!
I started to get a little frazzled and my son took over and with a cooler head was able to figure it all out and got me back into a warm house, Thank You Brendon!


Now that that is over, onto Cricut Saturday!


There is much discussion going on over at the Cricut.com message boards. It was place on the board by and Administrator that there was going to be a major announcement at CHA later this month. The thought is that there will be a new Expression with a touch screen AND that the Gypsy will built in! Now, I just want to be sure that you all understand that this is rumor and that there is nothing to confirm this coming from Provo Craft. But, what fun if that is the case!


Speaking of CHA, is anyone going? I can't it is across the country. There is a site for you can go to to get some info on the companies that will be presenting its HERE.  


Other News from about Cricut... 2 promised cartridges are not being produced according to a blog that I follow "Just  a Scrappin'"  Here . I don't know why they are not coming out with them but I for one am disappointed. I was looking forward to the European Decor cartridge. 


6 new Cuttlebug folders were announced on HSN. 3 are A2 $4x6) size and 3 are the larger 5x7 size. These folders are geared towards Valentine's Day.  The names of the folders are: 
Romance - A2
Chandelier - A2
Queen of Hearts - A2 (this one is really nice!)
Conversations - 5x7 (the folder is covered with conversation hearts... another cute one!)
Emily's Bouquet - 5x7
Medawlark - 5x7


These are not even listed on Cricut.com, I just checked!!! To see them go HERE . They are 24.95 plus shipping.  


Thank you for indulging me with my earlier rant and I hope you enjoyed today post.


Please leave a comment... See you on Monday for something new!

Project Thursday

I love Project Thursdays! It keeps me on my toes and scrapping or card making.  This week I have been busy working on an explosion box. I have seen them done 2 different ways and thought I would take a stab at combining these techniques to come up with something a bit different. 
The first type of explosion box is from a 12x12 piece of card stock, scored at 4 and 8 inches on both sides creating a 4 inch box in the middle. has the 4 corners cut out.

If you like, layers are added each with the corners cut out but the layer is a bit smaller than the next. 11 1/2 in square then 11 inch square and so on up to 4 or 5 inner layers. This is a very nice box that holds a lot of pictures, or other goodies. 

The other is a 12x12 piece of card stock (a sturdy double sided card stock is best) that is also scored at 4 and 8 inches on both sides (just like the other version). You will cut on the 4 inch score line on each side.

When you are done with this one all 9 boxes can be decorated with pictures, tags, or a 3D decoration in the center. It's really up to you. I know many have seen or done these before but I had to look around for instruction that I could understand and thought I would share these with you.

Now, I made version 2 and used that as the base of my explosion box and then made several layers ala version 1 and I would like to point out that you really need to use a strong adhesive when attaching the layers, these boxes will be touched, tugged a lot and really need to be secure.

The box when done will need a cover and I have made them 2 ways, folded origami style - if you are interested I will post a tutorial on how to do this, or a simple folded square, which is below.

If you cannot read the directions on the cover graphic, click on it and it will take you to a blowup of the graphic.

Now here is my explosion box!

The small box in the middle is from Tags Bags Boxes and More cut at fit to page.  The card stock is DCWV ,  and My Minds Eye. 

I am going to make another one and this time I think I will leave the layers all at 11 and 1/2 inch square to have more room for larger picture. I will post it when it is done.

Next week I will have cards from the Wild Card Cartridge. Do you have this cartridge?  If so how do you use it? Cards, layouts? It's a very versatile and the font is really one of the best. I do not have lots of cartridges but I would like to do a focused Project Thursday by including at least 1 project from one of my cartridges each week until I have to restart OR buy a new one. LOL... 

See you next week. Please leave a comment!

Something New

Ahhh... Monday, with the night over and coffee in hand I bring you a few things that I think are REALLY cool... 
Chatting, surfing and experimenting has brought some good things my way this week. So, here we go... 


I have found a new Deal of the Day site!  its www.bazzzinga.com This site is brought to you by the great folks at Oh My Crop.com.  I love the deal a day sites. You can really save some money with them.


Do you own a Gypsy?  Are your fingers getting tired holding that tiny stylus?  I found a great solution, The DS Comfort Stylus! It is a flexible stylus that wraps around your index finger and you use like other pointing stylus but its like you are actually pointing at what you want and you don't have to worry about dropping it and it rolling under the couch!


You can see it HERE. I don't have a Gypsy but I do have a touch screen phone and use it for searching the web and email and just about everything and this would be great...


Another video for you today, Tattered Angles will be introducing a new product called Glitter Glaze at the Winter 2009 CHA. I have watched this video several times and cannot wait to get my hands on some!
Take a look and let me know what you think!


Don't forget to leave a comment! Have a great day, see you on Thursday!

Cricut Saturday!

 Welcome to my first Cricut Saturday!  I am going to be passing along interesting Cricut tidbits and links to sites that you might find helpful. So here we go...

Do you Twitter, or Tweet? I do and although I receive more tweets than I could ever send, its a lot of fun. Did you know that Provo Craft Tweets too?  Yup, they do.  You can check them out Here They have give aways and some really lively conversations. It might be worth checking out!

Have you been to this site yet?

http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/2008/01/helping-with-letters-on-sides-of-cards.html

It is a FANTASTIC site and the tutorial that the link takes you to is exciting!  I can't wait to give this a try. It teaches you how to cut letters on the top and side of your card. Go and check it out if you have Design Studio it is a MUST learn experience!

Were you one of the luck people to get their Circut Expression on Black Friday from Wal-Mart?  The Serenade Cartridge is just about the cutest thing. There is currently no word as to when it will available for separate purchase, but id you would like to see some of the great things on it take a look at this video on the Cricut.com site.

http://www.cricut.com/movies/default.aspx?id=8


Hope you enjoyed Cricut Saturday! See you on Monday for Something New!

Project Thursday

This is the first Project Thursday and I have a few cards and layouts to share.  I have 2 layouts that I made to put pictures of us with the family pups. Rocky and Chloe aren't crazy about their pictures being taken but in the end we get great pictures!

The papers and stickers are from a $1.50 kit from Big Lots!  It had 6 double sided sheets and stickers, rub ons, Rain Drops,  and chipboard stickers. This page will have Rocky and me, and the next will have pics of Jess and Chloe.

Now for the cards!

I have started making the birthday cards for friends and family for the year. Oh, and of course there is Valentine's day which happens to also be Jess's birthday so I have been making a few cards to see which I like the best to give to whom...

Here are a few:

This first card was made for my brother Jonathan. His birthday was the 5th. He is a really great guy and my best friend. He turned 50 and commented when talking about his b'day cake that instead of putting on candles his wife should just set the darn think on fire!  Well I had to put lots of candles on his card!

But the best part of the card for me is the "sentiment" inside! I used the the Wild Card cartridge to cut the candles. I used the Auto Fill feature and it cut 18 candles on my paper. On each candle I used a yellow Micron Brush Art marker to color the "flame" and Worn Lipstick Stickles to highlight them.

The inside of the card, I like to hand write my sentiments so I wrote "So many candles... So little Cake!" Jonathan thought that was really funny!

The empty cake dish was also cut from Wild Card all of these are found on page 61 in the booklet.

This next card I made for a friend who love pink and I haven't spoken to in a couple of months. I miss chatting with my friend and sent this off today...

Inside I used the cut that says Miss Talking To You. This is another card from the Wild Card cartridge. and can be found on page 58. The paper is from A.C. Moore and it cuts really well on the E. the yellow is from a random stack of card stock that was in an old scraping bag that I found the other day.  I don't know who the manufacturer is.

and the last card is I think my personal favorite. I made my first poise flower and my first gate fold card so I hope you like it.

 

The front of the card wouldn't stay closed, I put the tab closure to help with that. It worked out really well. The paper is from K&Company the Wild Saffron pack. Very nice paper with a good weight and it cuts well. The heart was cut from George and Basic Shapes. So was the circles that I used to make the flower.  The stamps are from Studio G. I love those little stamps.  The insert is white card stock from A.C. Moore and I used the heart as a template to ink around it.

Phew.... I hope you like this and that you leave comments. If there is something that you would like to see let me know.

Something New

Sorry this is late... but life has a way of getting in the way!  I have been so busy working and helping my son with his search for a job that I have not had much time on the computer. But while I was surfing the web I found the greatest thing.

Martha Stewart.com has a great family tree that would be wonderful on a scrapbook page. You can find it HERE. There is a PDF of the template that you can download that link is HERE.

On M's site she has this framed and it looks lovely, but I was really thinking that it would be a great 2 page spread in a heritage album. Every family has at least one person who keeps the records of our family. You can be the one or help the person who does!

The Last of Christmas Scrapping!

 promised here are pictures of the last scrapped project of the 2009 Christmas Season. I made a tag album for Christmas memories for Jess. It's housed in tissue rolls and is I think really cute. Its my first attempt at this sort of album and it went together quickly. The thing that really helped was cutting the icons with the Cricut and using one base color and then choosing background papers to coordinate with the background papers.

I used 7 rolls and I made 2 tags for each roll. I used the Tags Bags Boxes and More for the tags. The icons were cut from Joys of the Season.  The background papers came from the DCWV Christmas Stack. This stack had 180 sheets and some REALLY nice designs, many would be great for a 12x12 layout. I will be using this stack for a few seasons to come!

Christmas Tag Album

The front of the album with a belly band. I used the belly band to help keep the album together,  the "pages' don't really lay flat so the book fans out and takes up a lot of space!

I used red tags in every tube, but alternated with tan and green tags to make up the other tag in each tube.

This flower is the only element that is not truly Christmas. But it is red and I really liked the color and I embossed the brad in the center with UTEE and red pigment ink to get the color I wanted for the center.

 

The snowman had such tiny cuts that I used my Micron pens to color in the scarf, hat, button, and eyes. For the hat I used a scrap of black card stock.

The mittens have some home made "Flower Soft" for the cuffs!  It worked out really well and I used Scor Tape to hold it all on.

The cuts on the left are the middles of all the ornaments that I used in the album.  Waste not want not!

The ball ornament has to be my favorite cuts on the album. The colors work together so well

The back cover, I love the snowmen, they came from the Doodlecharms cartridge. Its the only cut that wasn't from Joys.


Another last minute project was a card for a coworker. We had our Christmas the Sunday after Christmas due to schedules. It's a farm scene, because I at time with affection call her "cow"!  When I thought of what to make for a card, this was a natural.  The inside (which I didn't get a picture of) says, "Have a very Mooie Christmas!" LOL... I thought it was really funny.  There is also a gift card holder pocket cut from TBBM. It fit the card perfectly!

I made several of the cereal box gift boxes to hold the smaller gifts this Christmas and this is one of my favs. Its simple and just has enough bling on it to make you look at it and say "Ahhh, thats nice!". 

 I made several scarves, you know the fuzzy kind?  Well when you pack (and I mean pack) them into one of these, you have to tape the box cover down so that it doesn't spring out at the wrong time!




This was a great Christmas and I really enjoyed making so many different things and the learning that went along with it was wonderful!  


Please leave a comment, I would love to know what you think!

HAPPY NEW YEAR...Blog Updates and News

Ahhh... the first post of a new year!  I am so excited about all that this new year will bring. Cricut will be introducing new cartridges later this month and I have my eye on a few of them... If you haven't seen them you can take a look at them Here. 

As you can see I have changed the blogs layout.  My new motto for the year is Simpler is Better!  So, away with 3 columns and lots of flashy things, and Hello to simple straight forward beautiful things. 

Later today or over the weekend I will be posting a few of the last minute items that I made for Christmas, and then its on to Birthdays, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. 

I have cards to make for all of them! 

I am going to post new cards once a week on Thursdays, so mark your calendars and come back to see the new posts.

Mondays I will try to post Something New... What's that? Well, it will be something new that I have learned, I love learning new things and want to share with you all the goodies I come across.

Saturdays will be all about the Cricut and Cuttlebug.  What's happening with Provo Craft's wonderful machines and discussions about new cartridges, tools, embossing folders and dies. I am excited about this and can't wait to get started.

If there is anything specific that you would like to see me review, or discuss here let me know.  I will do my best to get the latest information for you. 

All of this will start on Monday January 4, 2010! 

Please leave a comment: I would love to know what you're thinking!