Day 235

Yesterday was a fun day. My daughter Jodie came up to do some scrapbook pages. Although I watch her kids two days a week I rarely see her. She is gone before I get there and I leave before she is home.
So she came with 10 month old Hailey and we not only got some pages done but we designed Hailey's first Birthday invites which I cut out today.
The picture today is for one of the pages she was doing. She wanted a swing with the words going down the ropes and up again. I tried doing it out of vinyl but the letters are so tiny it would be a pain to weed and transfer. So I made the design in KNK studio, exported the image to Word, and printed it. Now she can either cut an outline around the swing and use it like that or just place the image on the page.

Day 234

When I was going through my gift wrap supplies I came across this candle. It somehow went with a gift bag. I decided to use it on a card. I stuck the candle on a card, cut happy birthday from vinyl, and another card is made!

Day 233

When I was first making this card I didn't think I would like it and almost didn't finish it. The file was from My Scrap Chick. Using my Klic n Kut I cut the tree trunks from brown vinyl and the tree tops from scrap paper. The background is also scrap paper. When it was done I thought it was pretty sweet. :O) 

Day 232

Another card made with a Crafts Too embossing folder purchased at http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/   It is butterflies! I used a coredinations paper that is called whitewash. The front is a pink that looks like it has been whitewashed. The core is a pretty pink. So when you emboss it and the lightly sand the images they turn pink. I used stickles on some of the butterflies and a piece of pink glimmer as the mat.

Day 231

When I first saw this folder I thought it would make a great sympathy card. I give cards to my mom. She is 85 and has said she needs to buy her sympathy cards in bulk. :O)
 The first one I made was this one. I used green chalk on the leaves and it said Spring, not sympathy. :O) I really like this folder!
It is also a Crafts Too folder purchased at http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/

Day 230

Another card using an embossing folder from Crafts Too purchased at http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/
It is a sweet trio of snowmen. I embossed them, used pastel chalks to color them, and outlined them and the snowflakes with stickles.

Day 229

This week I will have cards made with some of my new favorite things! There is a company called Crafts Too that makes embossing folders similiar to the Cuttlebug folders. They work in the Cuttlebug great! I ordered mine from                http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/ . When ordering, remember that the price is sterling, not dollars.( Sterling is more than dollars) They also add on a VAT fee, not sure what that is, and postage was reasonable and it arrived within a week.
With this card I printed Happy Birthday on white cardstock. Then I cut it so that it fit into the embossing folder and embossed it. I used stickles on the stars, cut a piece of pink glimmer cardstock for a mat, and another card is finished. This card is so quick and easy it will be one that I make for the swim team and whatever group I donate to this year. My 3 year old grandson loves to help by turning the crank on the Cuttlebug. :O)

Day 228

My Great Nephew Drew calls his Grampa "Grampa Moo". They were at a wedding reception and the building had a statue of a cow on it's roof. We live in Wisconsin :O) Grampa kept taking Drew out to see the cow and saying "moo", thus the name. This seemed to be the perfect card for Grampa Moo to give to Drew for Valentines Day. The KNK cutting file was a freebie from Michele at http://www.cuttinupdesigns.com/

I cut the "I love you..." from vinyl.

Thanks Michele!

Day 227

I made this tile for "Anna Banana", a lifeguard at the pool where we swim three days a week. Anna just turn 22 and was 19 when we met her. She is going to school to be a special ed teacher .

Her dad and my husband were good friends in high school. Anyhow, Anna is just a sweetheart and our son Jim loves her! He so looks forward to seeing her and is very sad if she isn't there. She always takes the time to visit with Jim.
I must have cut this saying a half dozen times and never liked the end result. Finally on www.fontspace.com I found a font called Fabulous 50's and it was just what I needed. I did have to do a small amount of editing...just break path and eliminate some tiny cuts. And always remember when you think you are done to weld. So often the fonts look great when you have fill turned on but unless you weld you may be "chopping up" the saying.
I also found out how to tell if a tile will be easy to drill through or not, and that is to make sure you are buying wall tile and not floor tile. Makes sense, you usually need to be able to drill through a wall tile but generally not through a floor tile.

Day 226

This post is all about recycling. I had a magnetic Packer football schedule that was ready for the trash. I covered it with pretty paper, added a picture, and a calendar which was free from MyScrapChick. It was a gift to Stacy who is in the picture with my grandkids.

Day 225

The Hello Friends was another freebie digital stamp. I cut the red mat and the scallop with my KNK and used my Cuttlebug heart folder on a glimmer cardstock. A piece of ribbon and another card is done. Today little Hailey Grace is 10 months old, she is so sweet, we are enjoying every baby stage.

Day 224

First things first. Happy First Birthday Lillian Margaret!

This sweet princess is my great niece. She had some medical problems that could have been fatal but were luckily discovered and surgically corrected. Although she is a bit of a peanut she is doing very well otherwise. The card was designed in KNK Studio and cut on my KNK. Note the octogan card, so simple but it changes the whole look.

And on to the BIG news! The winner is...

If you can't read upside down it is Doreen, Creative Monkey.

Once Doreen let's me know she has received the package I will post a picture of what was sent. I don't want to ruin the surprise. Also, Patricia, Papaer Temptress ,has said she will donate a package of Silver Lustre to the winner. Thanks Patricia and Congrats Doreen!

Day 223

Another simple card. The I Love You was a digital freebie I think. :O) Some pretty paper, ribbon, and the card is done. I did some more cleaning today and my oh my do I have card parts. My goal is to go through them an use them or lose them.

My husband is on vacation this week and yesterday he left for 4 days of snowmobiling. Usually I think of this as my vacation also, but this time I missed him before he left. He called yesterday around noon to say he would be home today. :O) The trails were awful so he is coming home and will snowmobile around here. I did get a lot done yesterday which was good because the grandkids came today and will be here until Thursday.

Tomorrow is the big Blog Candy Drawing!!!! We go swimming in the morning and seeing I have to have 4 kids ready to go out the door by 8am I will probably doing the drawing while Hailey has her afternoon nap. Make sure you are signed up as a follower!

Day 222

My son would say "Christmas is over mom", but I just can't let it go. :O) A friend Sue, sent me a great card that I decided to try to duplicate with what I had on hand. I wish the ornamant showed up better. It was a circle and ornament top cut with my KNK. I used photo paper for the ornament and then used alcohol ink to color it. I then used a SU stamp with Versa Mark and added Zing embossing powder for the flourish. The hanger is just a piece of silver thread dipped in glue and laid on the card. What the ornamnet doesn't show is how pretty the Zing powder looks, it is just great stuff. :O)  The "branch" it is hanging from was the tree from the SU Truck set. I attached it to some cranberry cardstock and it is really a cute little card.  I very seldom use my stamps, alcohol inks, or embossing powders so this was rather fun.

Day 221

A simple but elegant Sympathy card. I made a gate fold card from a pretty double sided card stock. The With Sympathy was from my card parts pile and was printed in word. I attached it to a rectangle of silver cardstock and attached it to the card. On the inside I attached a piece of parchment paper so that a handwritten message of sympathy could be added.

Day 220

I made this plaque for my great nephew, Quinn, who will be two next month. Quinn is quite the little guy, so smart, so sweet! Our family is so blessed with little ones. My mom has 10 great granchildren ages 12 to 9 months and another arriving April 1.This picture was taken Christmas Eve. Quinn is on the left, his mom is hiding behind him trying to hold him.

The two little ones on GG 's (Great Grandma) lap are Lilly, who will be one on the 20th, and Hailey who is 9 months. Hailey kept grabbing Lilly, and the rest of the crew was wild. I took about 7 pictures and this was as good as it got. :O) One family was missing but this is 7 of the 10. 

Day 219

This card was so simple, especially after yesterdays card. If you are signed up to get MyScrapChicks newsletter, she gives away a free file each week and this was one of them. It is like the Love postage stamp.I made it into a 5x5 card.  I cut the red paper 10x 5 and scored it at 5 inches. Then I cut the black and rather than cut the heart seperate cut it out of the black piece so that the red showed through. Then I cut the LVE Squares with the letters cut out so that the black showed through.So there were only 5 pieces to the card. The black and red paper are plain cardstock, the white is a textured coredinations paper.

Day 218

If you like puzzles you would like making this card. The file was from MyScrapChick and I made it smaller to fit on a 5x7 card. There are over 60 pieces involved in assembling the 3 characters, yes, over 60. :O)

The detail in this file is just something. From the stripes on the clothing to the little pom poms on her boots, and they all cut great. When I make a card like this I print the pdf  so that I have a picture of each piece and they are labeled as to what each piece is. Then I cut the file. I usually cut enough for 5 cards. Then I put the little pieces where they go on the pdf  and start assembling. It took me 2 days to get all 5 sets of characters cut and assembled. The blue background was embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder. On the inside of the card I printed "Enjoy the Holidays".

 How often are the Holidays spent racing around getting gifts that will be returned when we should have been making a snowman. :O)

Day 217

Not too different than yesterdays card, just different  words, different embossing folders. Once again the Thinking of you came from a Cricut cartridge converted to KNK and the embossing folders were Cuttlebug.

Day 216

Just a few things before I get to todays card. A reminder that I am going to be giving away some "blog candy"  and have decided the date will be  January 20th. To be eligible you have to sign up to be a follower of my blog. If you leave a comment it will count for "extra candy". 

 The other is in response to CAZ's question on how much I resized the SC file for the owls. And the answer is I don't know. I marquee select the entire file and then keep downsizing until the pieces look like they will fit. Unfortunately there is no exact science, at least in my world. :O)

Todays card was made with a Cricut file converted to KNK. The Just Because was in my cards part pile (and I mean pile) and unfortunately I don't remember what cartridge that it came from. I matted the just because in red, the black oval was embossed using the Cuttlebug swiss dot folder. The white background and the red border were both embossed also, but I don't know the names of the folders.

Day 215

This card was made using the Cuttlebug numbers folder for the background. The scalloped oval was cut on the KNK as was the white oval. I used the cut and print method to add Happy Birthday to the white oval. A bit of black and white polka dot ribbon and the card is finished.
You can't go wrong with black and white. :O)

Day 214

This card turned out so cute I would like to frame it. :O) It is a paper piecing set from http://www.myscrapchick.com/If you haven't used her patterns yet they are great. They cut wonderfully and they look great without having to do a lot of shading. On this card the only color added to the paper was chalk for the pink tummy and cheeks. I used textured paper for all of the pieces and cut them on my KNK. The moon was a white glimmer paper so it is sparkly. The rest is coredinations. The little gold stars were "leftovers" from the card I posted on Day 143!

On the inside of this cvard I printed "Congratulations on your new addition".

PS Almost forgot..the eyes...black vinyl. :O)

Day 213

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron is my first nephew. He is a police officer for the Town of Grand Chute and I am sure he will enjoy the time and effort I put into his card. :O)

Rosemary, from http://rosiart-rosemary.blogspot.com/
had a beautiful card on her blog where she used gold mirror paper and alchohol ink . The result was a background that looked like a vintage tin ceiling. Well, I didn't have gold mirror paper so I used a gold texture paper, embossed it with the Cuttlebug Birthday folder, and I inked it with rangers butterscotch and lettuce alcohol reinkers. It turned out great! Then I used my KNK and cut Happy Birthday from gold vinyl and put it on a piece of black organdy ribbon. I almost hated to send it out!

Day 212

This card was made using a Sizzix texture plate for the white embossed paper and the Martha Stewart Valentine heart punch for the bottom border. Pretty simple!

Day 211

Such a simple card! I used the Cuttlebug thank you folder to emboss the white background. Then I used a Sizzix thank you folder to emboss the circle which I cut out using a punch. I used coredinations paper for the circle thank you and then sanded it to make the design show up better. A piece of ribbon and the card was finished!

Day 210

Judy, from our KNK yahoo group, scanned the Cuttlebug tree folder and was able to come up with a cutting file for the tree. She made one that fits perfectly into the folder for embossing and a second to mat the tree. Judy said she had made one from black paper and then colored the embossed part with gold. I decided to give it a try and used silver rub and buff to color it and then matted the tree with a silver paper.It is another one of those things that looks so much better in person. 
Thanks for sharing this Judy.

Day 209

Another applique pattern converted to a KNK file. This little angel was a challenge. It was difficult to make her look the way I wanted her to, and her face still isn't what I wanted. I used the cuttlebug swirl folder on the red background paper and used the Martha Stewart valentine heart border punch on the bottom edge. I reverse embossed the paper for her dress, not intentionally, but it looked fine. The heart was embossed with the swiss dot folder. And no matter what I did for her hair/halo it didn't look right, so when I added the gems and they looked "ok" I decided it was what was staying on her head. :O)
The wings are a textured white coredinations paper.

Day 208

My Daughter made the above plaque for my Grandson Gavin's room and wanted some words cut from vinyl, but she wasn't sure what. (I think she said she purchased everything at Michael's) So I made her two choices and told her that if she wanted something different to let me know. I will let you know what she decided. :O)
The third picture are some "blank canvases" that I bought at Hobby Lobby. All of them, with the exception of the plaque on the bottom right that has the beaded hanger, were in the 80% off Christmas clearance. I think all were between 25 & 50 cents! The white ones are like porcelain, the larger red one and the circle are light wood, and the maroon one at the top left is tin. The one with the beaded handle was regular price 2.99.
I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet but I am sure I will come up with something!

Day 207

Lisa, from www.QuillingPatch.com was nice enough to give us a free file for the Maltese Cross. I used the KNK cutting file and personalized it for the St. Anna Fire  Dept. On Tuesday of this week the fire department responded to a dumpster fire. When the water hit the hot metal it exploded, killing 33 year old Steven Koeser, known to his fellow fire fighters as "Peanut".  8 other members of this small rural volunteer fire department were also injured. They also lost a lot of their equipment. When I saw this file I thought it would make a nice 12x12 tile for the St. Anna Fire Department to have in "Peanuts" memory.

Day 206

This Santa was another applique pattern made into a KNK cutting file, I cut the pieces and used the cuttlebug swirl pattern on his beard and the swiss dot pattern on his mustache. He is so sweet!

Day 205 Happy 2010

Best Wishes to all of you in 2010!

This card was made using a free KNK file from Brenda of our KNK Yahoo group. She gave the group 3 flourish files and this was one of them. Isn't it sweet. I cut it from vinyl but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I decided to make a card and used a red textured paper and put a flourish on each side.  Then, seeing I needed a sympathy card cut With Sympathy from vinyl also. It looks so elegant, the picture doesn't do it justice.