~ Welcome ~

Welcome to my blog! Here I'll be occasionally showcasing some of my work and letting you know when & where I'll be at craft fairs. I hope to see you there!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Boating Card

A few weekends back we had an unexpected night of babysitting for our kids...so what did we do? Well, my husband called his best friend, who lives about an hour away. Lucky for us, he was in and had no plans, so out we came for a little overnight visit. When we got there we found out that a friend of his offered to take us all on his boat that night...so off we went! We had a blast! I just had to make him a thank you note to show our appreciation, and this is what I came up with.

For the front of the card, I used D'vine Swirl embossing folder for the 'waves'. I cut along the swirls to give the illusion of rolling waves. I stamped 'many thanks' on light yellow paper and punched it out with my 1 3/8" punch. On darker yellow paper I punched a 1 3/4" circle to create the layers of the sun. Inside I used my Silhouette to create the pop-up, the boating/anchor and waves, and the text above. The boating file came from Darcy's Designs. Her boating file comes with the waves (enough for a border on a scrapbook page) and the 'boating'/anchor combo. I created the mat behind the waves and assembled them together before cutting them in half - that way I was able to layer them on top of one another and adhere behind the anchor. You can't really tell in the picture below, but I adhered the anchor with pop dots just to give a little more dimension.




Tools used: Cuttlebug, Silhouette, punches

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Gram's card

My gram turned 86 today! Happy B-day Grams!

For her b-day I made her this card. Her favorite color is red and she's a great indoor gardener, so that was my inspiration for this card. I used a square Nestabilities on my Cuttlebug to cut the square frame out of the front of the card. The flower was cut on my Silhouette and I used Darcy's (Darcy's Designs) freebie flower. The file cuts two swirls, so I used one as is, and the other one I cut. With the cut one I placed part on the outside of the card and the other part on the inside of the card on the top of the flower. I also lined up the leaf on the outside to match the leaf on the inside. A little chalking around the frame, a little bling in the bottom corner, a little stamping sentiment on the inside and I'm done! I hope she likes it! :-)

(Front of card)

(Slightly opened to show how the leaf/stem line up)

(Fully opened)

Tools used: Silhouette; Cuttlebug

Friday, October 9, 2009

My first challenge......Jazzy Die Cuts

This was my first challenge - but boy was it fun! My 5 yr. old daughter is such a girly girl that I thought this would be a great file and challenge to do something for her. So, I created a doorknob hanger. I used my Silhouette to cut the doorknob hanger as well as the girly girl file from Darcy. Pink and purple, silver and gold, are Kyla's favorite colors, so that was the basis for my project. The jazzying (is that a word?) that I did was this: Over the words 'girly girl' I stamped a background image using Versamark - I love that stuff! Over the flowers in the cut out I stuck on some glittery flowers I had left over from my daughter's Fancy Nancy b-day party. For the center of the flowers, to give more dimension, I took out the centers of some other flowers and stuck those on top. Then I took my silver glittery gel pen and outlined the whole girly girl part. I also used the gel pen to write Kyla's Room at the top (may not be able to see that too well in the pics - silver is hard to photograph!). I also took a green glittery gel pen and drew on the stem and leaves of the flowers to make them stand out a bit more. For the flowers on the bottom I took other pointy flowers and cut them up so that I could make the little sprigs coming out the sides. I don't know if my project will win, but my daughter loves it! She's decided that she's going to keep it on her closet door (which is where the picture was taken) so that it doesn't get caught in the bedroom door and rip. Smart kid! LOL





Thursday, October 8, 2009

Snip, snip...

Back in Dec. '07 my then 3 yr old daughter and I cut our hair for Locks of Love. Nearly two years later, I've finally got the scrapbook pages done! Better late than never, right? In any event... Most of the digital cutter files I used here came from the haircutting collection at Darcy Designs. The 'For Locks of Love" title I created it in Robomaster (the software that comes with the Silhouette, if you're not familiar) using a font I had downloaded and welded the letters together. Then I matted around them. When I was peeling up the 'snip snip' with scissors portion, I realized that the letters for snip, snip were perfect....so I used them on pg. 3 of my scrapbook. I wanted to tie the middle pages together, but without using the same exact image, so I edited it a little :) I also created some extra tendrils to have as embellishments on the pages.








Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Glad to be a grad...

My husband's cousin's husband (did you follow that?! LOL) graduated with his doctorate. Although the invitation said no gifts, I still needed to bring something, so I figured something handmade is always a good choice. I got some digital pics of the family and graduation and created a photo collage to celebrate all he's done for his degree. I used the Glad to be a Grad file, but had to finagle it so that I could fit it on the 8.5x11 paper & frame. In the Robomaster program I layered the files together, grouped them, and then resized them. That way all the layers would match up. After resizing, I separated them again so that I could cut out the separate colors/parts. The rest of the page was done digitally - digital pics and background.

(Sorry 'bout the pic - should have taken it without the glass - oops!)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

I've got news!

I've been holding out for awhile now, but the announcement has finally been made so I can post it here. I'm so excited! I've been asked to join the Creative Team over at Darcy's Designs! This is my first CT and I'm super excited about it! If you're not familiar with Darcy's Designs, please check out here blog and store. Darcy is the creator of fabulous digital die cut files and I'm honored that she has chosen me to join her CT! While I'll be posting my creations here, there's also a new blog in town that's all about digital cutting and I'll be posting there as well. The new site is a joint venture of two fantastic designers - Darcy and Tina (Card-I-ology) - and it's called Designing With Die Cuts. Come check it out!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

12 FREE cutting files!

Hey all!

In celebration of VDBC's 1yr anniversary Darcy (of Darcy Designs) is giving away 12 cutting files during the anniversary celebration! If you've got a digital cutter, you have to go check this stuff out! Click here for information on Darcy's giveaway...and then head over to VDBC to see what's going on. There's lots to do!

Good luck!