Day 175

This was a tile I made for my friend Colleen. I used a dark tile and the winter scene was from the font MarshMallow World which can be found here
http://www.fontspace.com/dani-foster-herring/marshmallow-world
It is a cool free font that is all snowflakes and winter scenes.
I did delete a few things from the ding and I added the star in the upper right corner which was from a nativity silhouette which was found online. It was cut from white vinyl with my KNK.

Day 174

This tile was made with a "pattern" or file that I had purchased. I bought several files at the same time. What I discovered is that they did not all cut as well as they should have. This file I had a problem with the font cutting decent so I changed it and then added the star in the right hand corner.
I have been having a lot of fun cutting vinyl lately so you are going to see a lot of tiles. :O)
I did manage to make a few cards this weekend so I will get them posted soon.
Enjoy what is left of the weekend! We had snow today but it didn't last long.

Day 173

On Day 163 I posted a picture of an ornament I made for my Granddaughter's First Christmas. When my grandson Gavin saw it he said "Where's mine?" So here it is. :O)
I used the same alcohol ink technique as I did for Hailey's and then I used Chrishmkbold font for Gavin and the opposite side has the year 2009. I added a small snowflake on each side. Hopefully Gavin will approve.
The other day Gavin and I were reading and there was a picture of a macaw. I told him "Grama would love to have a macaw". He told me he would like to have a pigeon. :O)

Day 172

My daughter and I shopped "Black Friday" today. It was a first for me and it was fun, mainly because I was with my daughter. :O) I get to see her husband and of course my adorable grandkids, but my daughter works long hours so time with her is always special.
Saying all that, it was my son-in-law who inspired this tile. He is the best Daddy and his kids adore him. It is an 8x10 tile, designed in KNK Studio and cut on the KNK. So simple!

Day 171

Happy Thanksgiving!
I am waiting for the guests to arrive! I hope I have everything ready and didn't forget anything.
At the retreat Sandy had some cute placecards that she had made and she shared the file with us. So it is what I made for our Thanksgiving. I used brown vinyl for the names so that I didn't have to glue on all the putzy letters. I made 30 of them and they went pretty fast. I used the Coordinations paper so I sanded the edges of the pumpkins.
Last Thanksgiving dinner doubled as our son Joshua's funeral dinner. He passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I really don't remember much of it, other than I didn't cook, everyone else did.
As a family we are truly blessed. There is my mom, her 8 children, assorted spouses, both current and ex's still come for the Holidays. There are 16 grandkids and 9.5 great's in the family. In the 59 years since my parents married we only lost my dad and our Josh. We are a family that gets along and who support one another. Our parents did good!

Day 170

No, it is not a card or a tile! I made this for my husbands snowmobile trailer. It has been on all summer using the Oracal outdoor vinyl and looks like new. It was fun to do and he applied it himself. Tomorrow is Turkey day at our house, should be fun. We will have 4 little ones from 8 months to 3 years and they always make us smile.

Day 169

This simple card was made doing a scan and trace. I had purchased some note cards at Michaels in the dollar bin that had a leaping reindeer.
I decided to try to duplicate it. Using the scan and trace method in my KNK Studio it was very simple. I cut the reindeer from vinyl and applied it to patterned paper like a sticker.
After having the grandkids 4 out of the last 6 days and being up at 5 am for the past week, I am one tired Grama! I have some neat stuff to show you in the upcoming days so keep watching!

Day 168

This card is so simple and sweet. I don't know who to give credit to because there was no name on the file. It was cut from white cardstock with my KNK and lined with red cardstock. How easy is that?
Update 
My friend Colleen sent the following...

The beautiful Peace card on your blog is by Ginny at PaperThreads. The link is:

http://www.paperthreads.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3441

Thanks Colleen!

Day 167

The picture is enough to make you dizzy...sorry!
I bought a pack of 35 foam snowflakes for $5 at WalMart and then had to figure out what to do with them. My sister works at a group home so I decided to make a personalized snowflake for the residents and staff. I found all vinyl is not created equal. I had bought a small roll of Silhouette vinyl on clearance in baby blue which I used on the white flakes. It didn't stick to the foam very well. Then I used the Oracal repositonal, 631 I think, in white on the blue flakes and what a difference. It adhered perfectly. Of course the vinyl was cut on my KNK.

Day 166

This card was made with a file that we received as part of the retreat. I love the way the rose turned out. The With Sympathy was a cut and print and then I had a file for the scalloped oval. The green background paper was run through the Cuttlebug with the swirl folder.It turned out to be a very pretty card. :O)
I sure do love my KNK! (And the Cuttlebug :O)

Day 165

Yesterday I was suppose to take my
MIL to my SIL's house because she had an appointment today.
MIL called to say she changed her mind and want to go this morning. So I had a few hours of free time that I hadn't planned on. I was able to get several projects done so that made me happy. This morning I have about 1 hour free and hope to get my craft room straightened up a bit. It is probably a month long job but in an hour I should be able to make a spot where I can work. :O)
Today I have 2 cards, both from I Scrap Designs at http://www.paperthreads.com/. It is actually a lollipop cover file but I made it into a card. I made two versions and decided I like the one with the white background better. The card on Day 156 is also fromn this file and there are a couple others included as well.  Both cards are 6x6 with rounded corners and cut with my KNK.

Day 164

I was putting away some things and came across this antique china dessert plate. I had bought a half dozen at Goodwill sure I would come up with a use for them. :O)
As soon as I saw the plate I knew that Joy, from Sam&Hailey's at http://www.paperthreads.com/ belonged on the plate. A little silver vinyl and it was done. The best part is when you are sick of it you can peel off the vinyl and do something different.

Day 163

My first ornament! I bought the clear glass ornaments on sale at JoAnne's  and then used the Farmer's Market 3 pack of Ranger Alcohol inks and sponged the ink on. I allowed a few minuted for drying and  then used K1996j font and cut the words from white vinyl. My first attempt I used tranfer tape and transferred all 4 words at once. Because of the curve of the ball it came out cockeyed. I then recut and transferred one line at a time and it worked much better.

Day 162

Everyday I have high hopes of getting a ton of stuff done, and I usually do manage to clean, do laundry etc, but any thing requiring concentration is still hard.
Last year at this time we were in the middle of our struggle to keep Josh alive. By the 18th we knew he wasn't going to make it and spent the next 3 days waiting for the end which came at 7 am on the 22nd. It is really hard not to think of him every minute. I am hoping as we get through the one year mark it will be a bit easier.

This tile I made for my niece who has a more modern decorating theme. It originally had a frame around it but I didn't like the way it looked so I removed it, otherwise I would have made the Initial part bigger. But I am still pleased with how it turned out.

The tile was designed in KNK studio and the vinyl was cut with my KNK.

Day 161

This is another example of Rub and buff
The ornament at the left was from the glass etching class at the retreat. The one on the right is the same ornament with rub and buff applied.
If I was to do this again I would apply my vinyl, etch the glass, remove the etch cream, apply the rub and buff, clean it off, and THEN remove the vinyl. It makes it easier than trying to clean the rub and buff off the unetched glass.

Day 160

If you recognize this plate it is because you saw it on day 157.
I used a product called Rub and buff that I found at Joann's for 3.99. It is a small tube but you use a tiny amount. I just put it on my finger and rubbed it over all of the etched parts and then rubbed it off with paper towel. The part that is etched "holds" the rub and buff. I would suggest you do a small area at a time to make it easier to rub off the paste easily. While it probably wasn't a great idea to do this on a plate that I intended to use for cookies, it would be great on an ornament or jar. It really makes the etched part "pop". They also had it in other colors.

Day 159

This card turned out so pretty. The background is a piece of fall colored vellum that I have had for a while but it was too pretty to use, until this card.

The cutting file is from Jen Adkins from www.paperthreads.com called Give Thanks. I cut it from a brown textured cardstock an it cut so nicely with my KNK.

Today was the funeral for my former sister-in-law's mom. Her mom was the nicest lady! As I sat in church with my mom, 2 of my sisters, a brother and 2 of my kids I thought of how blessed I am to have such a great family.

Day 158

I have seen stamps in both CTMH and Stampin up where they used the word Noel and incorporated an ornament for the "O". But I hate paying so much for stamps I use once or not at all so decided to try to make a cutting file that would look the same. It wasn't too hard. The little scalloped hanger part at the top isn't perfect but I am probably the only one who would know. I used vinyl for the gold part but wanted the hanger part to be sturdier than just vinyl so I put it on a piece of card stock and then cut it. The
scrolled embellishment is also vinyl applied as a sticker. It is really much prettier than the picture.

Day 157

At our Retreat Kylee taught a class on how to use our KNK for etching glass. I had everything I needed at home ready to go but needed the courage to try it. Kyleee showed us how and it was not difficult so I finally gathered my things and using a word file from Sam& Haileys at www.paperthreads.com I made this plate!

You cut your file from vinyl and then you save the negative, the part you would normally toss, and apply it to a clean plate. Kylee had us wipe the plate with rubbing alcohol to make sure it was clean and then apply the vinyl to the plate so that there are no bubbles and the edges are very secure. Then apply the etching cream and wait. This plate cost me about $1.50 to make and will be used for our family Christmas cookie share. Thanks Kylee!

Day 156

What a beautiful day in Wisconsin! It was in the mid 60's , something we haven't had for a while. I spent the morning cleaning the llama pen, then I picked apples to store for the winter, and a few other outside chores. Then I went to a boutique Christmas sale that is held each year. I have only been there once because I was always in a different craft show. For the first time in over 20 years I haven't been in one craft show. :O(

Ileana, from I Scrap Designs had a file that she called the Holiday lollipop cover . It is made to cover up lollipops to make them into extra special treats. Being the more chocolate type person I knew I wouldn't be covering any lollipops but knew just by looking at the file that Ileana saw lollipop covers, I saw cards.

With this "lollipop" cover I enlarged it to 5.99" square and cut it from coredinations solid core colored paper using my KNK. I then made a base card using a brown from Stampin up. I made it into a 6x6 card that folds at the top rather than the side and used a corner rounder punch to round the corners. Such a pretty card. Ileana's file has different variations to cover other holidays and is available at www.paperthreads.com.

Day 155

I continue to have fun cutting vinyl. I put the letter K that I cut onto a 12x12 piece of vinyl and it is pictured above. Then a I made a simple 4x7 tile. They look so cool. I really need to make some cards as my supply is running low. But in order to make cards I have to clean my space up. We ended up with so many "prizes" from the Raleigh retreat that I need to find room to put everything. Such a problem!