Brave New World

Woo HOO! How is everybody feeling today??? I'm all excited and have my pom poms in the air!!! I really love this month's kit Field Trip and LOVE all the colors and patterns! Honestly this is a collection that would normally just get hoarded in my stash and I'm so glad I have so much inspiration and encouragement to USE this stuff!! It's way too pretty to stay hoarded up! Our theme this month is "Be Brave" I didn't have very long to think about what subject matter I would choose for that, I simply chose my move from Memphis, TN to Annandale, VA all by myself. Well I had friends that helped me pack up and get here but I am now 6 hours from my nearest relative and for someone who grew up in the rural south, that is kind of a big deal!

In my new attempts not to hoarder, I'm trying to go ahead and use multiple die cuts and ephemera on a layout. I love when someone else does it, and when I hold back, I just keep things in my stash that don't get used as often as I like. I used several exclusive printables that came with the kit, the tiny anchors from map paper, That AWESOME washi tape and my die cuts, I layered the letter stickers over some paper from the kit to help them show up better on the stripy background paper. I fussy cut several flowers from the papers and layered them around, that gold file folder contains a ton of journalling and the little chipboard globe is by fancy pants as are the chipboard buttons scattered around although they didn't come with the kit. LOVE the accent of those Studio Calico stars! I did edge almost everything with Black soot distress ink to kind of define edges a bit better. Here are some detail shots:

Here is the lineup... be sure to stop by everyone's blog... I hear there is a fantastic giveaway! Thanks for stopping by here!

Clique Kits ..... The hop starts here

Gia

Jody

Erica

Lacey

Sophie

Brooke

Madge

Charity.... You are here

Gina
Rosann

The Special Order Baby book!

I have SEVERAL co-workers expecting babies, well two right now, the third one began labor Monday 4/28! NOW I can reveal that I created a baby book for her! (I'm not so nice that I did this as a gift, she commissioned it from me). This was truly a labor of love, and I put all my favorite hoarded Sassafras Lass Stash in here:

This tooth tracker page was a special request and I didn't make it myself, I googled, and found one for free online, it was already in the correct color family for my book so I printed it and trimmed it to size.

The girl I work with is Hawiian and I asked her if it was ok for me to use the word Ohana on her family tree. I then found this awesome palm tree in the silhouette store. I cut loads of butterflies out of coordinating pink and blue papers for her to write names of her family on and glue to the tree... I cant wait to see it when it's all filled out. 

This is the "and all this happened" page, it has a Heidi Swapp inspired photo stack for news clippings and places to journal "things happening in current events" type stuff.

I used the We R Memory Keepers Albums made easy and customized some 4x6 cards, I made most of the book 12x12 double page spreads and unified it by making the background all kraft. I customized some thickers with stickles and used lots of Sassafrass Letter stickers with stickles added as well. There are also some tiny type from Cosmo Cricket.

I think I've said how much I love love love this book, I wish my photos were a bit better, but I didn't want to slide pages out of protectors because I was afraid something would happen, and I kept adding things... seriously this is the book I would want myself and my friend LOVED IT!!! I can't tell you how happy that made me. 

Thanks so much for looking. Have you made anything with your precious hoarded stash???

Craftastrophe

I love my Cameo! Let me state that and get it out of the way first. That being said, sometimes you need to do a practice cut. I find that when I'm working on a 3d object and it's going to take my whole special piece of paper that it works better if I cut one to practice with that it goes smoother and I don't mess up my "special" paper. The silhouette store has a 50% off sale right now so I'm using that to my advantage (um or I was buying up shapes I wanted until I had to go buy 4 new tires this week... sigh). Anyway I picked up a few CUTE purse shapes by Samantha Walker and went about trying to cut out my fav with some paper that I had been hoarding... making the special lovely hoarded paper turn in to...

So I pulled out a sheet of paper that I liked, but simply hadn't used yet as opposed to having hoarded it in my stash for a few years... took a deep breath and cleaned out my blade (sometimes that sucker holds on to a piece of paper and can't cut like you want it to... it's just maintenance, she was trying). Then I got to this lovely: 

Simply ADORABLE! Now, what to do... ok so def when I make it again it will have the buckles either out of a metallic paper (I have some from Chickaniddy Crafts that would be perfect). And a few other accents like brads or something to make it even more lifelike. OMG it's so cute. And what to do with them, well Easter is coming and some birthdays are coming up. It is adorable and will sit on the palm of my hand. I shrunk the file just a tiny bit so that all of the pieces fit comfortably on a 12x22 sheet of paper, I wonder how big I can get it...This purse is about 5 inches long at the bottom and a bit over six inches tall at the top of the handles. This paper is by Fancy Pants. I hope you like, I've made some cards inspired by a recent Jennifer McGuire video that I'll be sharing next week and I'm off Sunday and Monday this coming week (because I work today) so hopefully I'll be inspired to make something wonderful to share with you. Hugs everyone and I hope you have a lovely day. What are you making this weekend?

Scrapping REAL (meaning not so good but of happy times) photos!

I wanted to do some scrapping with my kit lately and they had this inspiring sketch online that I wanted to play along with so I went flipping through the photos that I've had printed for a LONG time and found photos from when my friend Christi visited Memphis and she took ME to the annual BBQ Fest that is part of the Memphis in May activities every year. We had a BLAST! So I made a page with some of the photos and then because I wanted to keep the rest and because I had some Pocket pages handy... this basically became a 3 page layout! I love how the pocket page (this one is by We R Memory Keepers) made it easy to put TONS of photos next to the layout, and ALSO because  I put all my journalling in there and just played with photos and embellies on the layout.

I added Mr. Huey's mist in the color Hot Dog (there are a few drops of Shine also but it's not showing up really well). I cut the title Memphis in May with my Silhouette and covered it with Picket Fence Distress Stickles. The thick black Thickers were just in my stash already. The "orange" Thickers were included in my January kit and they are the canvas color it yourself kind.

Have you made any pocket pages? I know this will inspire me to scrap even MORE of my older photos to get them "looking" nicer in the album.

What can you do with a Slhouette Cameo?

I must have done something right, because there was a brand new Silhouette Cameo under the tree for me this year and I had NO IDEA it might EVEN show up!

I was so excited that I took it out of the box right away, and plugged it in just a couple of days later :).

I wanted to see what this baby would do so I just started trying things out.

1. Would it cut vellum?

Yes it would! Intricately as well!

2. Is print to cut easy to master?

Why yes, it is, look how awesome that looks!!

3. Can it cut both Glitter as well as Regular cardstock?

Yes! I can make one of those awesome Putz-Style houses that Samantha Walker designed and put up on the Silhouette store for sale. (I had purchased these houses as fast as she put them out, and was going to make them before Christmas with my original Silhouette machine, but alas I ran out of time... I just had to make one though it's so cute. Here it is on my tree (yes, it's still up right now).

The glitter paper here is American Crafts POW! (um, I am loving that stuff!) The trim is cut out of metallic silver Bazzill and the snow is white Bazzill. I covered the whole house with Distress Stickles in Rock Candy and had some Vellum with doilies on it that I have no idea how old it is... it's by K and Company and has been in my stash for several years. But I put that behind the windows. The stickles made my icicles bow out a bit, but for my first complex 3d project I am overjoyed !!!

4. Will it cut Vinyl?

5.Will it cut Canvas?

Why yes, it will. The Vinyl does NOT need a cutting mat, and the machine has it's own vinyl settings that I used and it worked perfectly. I cut the elf shape above from that weird sheet of vinyl that I had just in my stash from forever ago. The tag and the butterfly are both cut out of Claudine Helmuth's stickyback canvas. If you are cutting this material you DO need your cutting mat and I suggest double cutting for best results. My butterfly is cut cleaner than the tag. I used the method of transferring paper my friend Christine posted here to transfer the stripy paper to my tag, then I covered it in Corvette Red Dimensional Crystal by Art Anthology. Then when it was dry I peeled my elf shape from my vinyl and stuck it on the prepped tag. This is going on a late to mail xmas gift

Oh, here it is on the gift which is inside a 3d purse box that I also cut with my awesome new toy :)

6. Will it cut chipboard?

The answer is actually yes, it will cut thin chipboard with no problem at all!

This was some Recollections brand chipboard that I picked up at Michaels one time when they had their loose leaf paper on sale. The chipboard was included so I got several sheets, they were in with the 12x12 scrapbook paper. 

I have some Graphix chipboard which is really thick, I could NOT get it to cut that, but boy I tried :)

I don't have any of their special materials like their vinyl, the vinyl I have came from Vinyl Superstore. I also have some metallic cardstock but I haven't tried it yet. I will keep you posted. 

OH in case I haven't mentioned it I took a beginner class from Kerri Bradford now that I have upgraded to a Cameo, there are more classes there that I want to take, but if you are having any sort of issues starting out, I can't recommend her beginning class enough! Also she gives you some shapes. 

I can't wait for my New Year's day off, and I kind of can't believe that I have been pushing this machine so hard to see exactly what it can do. I've been having SO MUCH FUN!!!

TFL!

(the printed cardstock is from the Studio Calico Magical collection paper pad)

Christmas Cards 2013 Part 3

I decided I wanted to make a few cards with the leftover piece I had from cutting out those triangles (because all the card bases I have now are Ivory and this was the year of trying to use up my stuff). I took the Triangle Stencil and some Distress Paint in Tarnished Brass (and this is messy and inexact btw) and stencilled (is that a word?) six triangles on the front of my card. I purchased this ADORABLE Reindeer from the Silhouette Store I sized it down and cut him out of some lovely silver colored Bazzill cardstock (I think it's the Bazzill Bling but I've had it forever). Then I took some of that lovely string from EndlessInkabilities and tied it around the neck of my deer like a cute little scarf, used popdots to apply the deer to the card and TA-DA! A few more cards ready to go.

Christmas Cards 2013 Part 2

I actually made these cards first, and sadly I only had three Kraft card bases left in my stash because I LOVE these and I'm trying to be good (are you listening Santa?) and use what I have, so I just made these for the Kraft Card Bases that I had. I used String that I won from Scrapbook Circle that came from EndlessInkabilities Etsy shop (she has some really cool stuff, check her out!). I used my trusty Silhouette and created my own little triangle shapes to wrap string around in various colors. I used the Let it Snow stamp set from Lawn Fawn for the greeting and came up with this:

Simple and beautiful!

Christmas Cards 2013

I generally like to have my Christmas cards made early (if I'm making them). I didn't make it this year... but since I need some kind of count in the twenties and I needed them quickly I decided to come up with some ways to make them faster and get them finished. I had purchased the Studio Calico Holiday collection because I didn't have any Christmas paper and it was available locally and I could go ahead and make my cards. This was before Thanksgiving and I still didn't get them made early like I thought I would, LOL. But I do really like this collection. So yesterday I decided to take a cue from Shimelle Laine. She has talked about cutting up her papers into sizes that she uses (she never measures btw and that is so refreshing to me because well, I don't measure a lot myself) and just has a pile of pre-cut papers that she can use. So I pullout out some patterns from this collection that I liked and thought would work well together and hacked away until I had three piles of papers. I punched a few of the peppermint circles out but then my punch decided it wasn't going to work anymore so I gave up on that for the meantime and started just slapping papers together onto premade cards to see what I thought looked pretty. I made ten cards in just a few minutes and you know what, they look fine. They are handcrafted and I'm happy with them. I just Cut out some tags and embossed a sentiment Here they are...