La Fem Birthday

 Yesterday I had a little time to fiddle with my settings for the Marvey Metallic Gel Pens, I used speed 8, thickness 11 and lowered my pen just a smidge lower than the popscicle stick.  It worked, as you can see it almost created a stamped embossed look which made the Copic blending easier.  The sweet sentiment circle is by Regina Easter "The Cutting Cafe".  The image 8033 from the Silhouette Library, if you are going to look it up you will search it by "Floral Card 8033".  The bee is from the SL and is the Beatrix Potter "Bee".  The background paper also done with the Cameo.

I could not resist adding a flight trail for the bee but did that by hand with the Marvey Pen.  This pic is a little lighter than rl and my camera picked up the blue from my Ott Light, I live in a cave and my photographic light is less than workable, lol.  But you get the idea.  Hope your weekend is full. Hugs

A Male Birthday Card (16)

I was asked by a friend to create a Birthday card for her grandson.  She wanted a fancy car with a driver to resemble her grandson, well she got the fancy car (a Ferrari) but the driver just did not work out anyway I tried it.  While surfing on my fav. blogs, Kelly had done a fab card and I did do a partial lift on it.  Thanks Kelly for the inspiration.  The backgrounds were created using patterns from the Silhouette Library, the car was found in a car magazine, scanned and then cut and released from its background, tweaked here and there and cut with the Cameo.  The honk honk was also created with the Cameo. Some Copic airbrushing on the honk honk and HB panels.  I hope she likes it.  Have a great weekend. Hugs

Lizard Legs

So when was the last time you brewed up some Lizard Legs, lol.  Since getting my Cameo I have found some wonderful labels and have started a collection, this one is from Jen Allyson.  One of my passions is blending Essential Oils, they not only smell great but are healing also, just so you know there is no Lizard Leg Essential Oil.  The jug is from the Silhouette Library, colored with copics, the tag was hand designed and distressed with Tim Holtz and some Copics.  The background is "Quatrefoiltan" the Chillingswoth Manor Collection from Echo Park.
Have a great Friday, as we head into the last weekend of September and move swiftly into October it will be in the upper 90s here in N CA, what's up with that?  Hugs

The Interrupted Chevron

Happy Thursday one and all.  Last week I had coffee with a friend and it is now tradition, we sit and talk and talk and when the world has been finally straightened out we leave and walk across the street to Hobby Lobby.  I needed some tape for my tape gun but other than that I was fine, yeah right, I saw some metallic and white Marvey gel pens and decided to take them home to use with my Chomas pen holder and Cameo.  I haven't had a whole lot of play time, I have been really good about sticking to my tasks at hand but when I got home I popped the white gel pen in to do a Chevron background, hmmmm, either I will have to adjust my settings or this brand is not going to work, did not have time to fuss with it but I did like the interrupted chevron and saved it to use on a Halloween card.  My table is a mass of Halloween and some Christmas and these pressies fell on the chevron and I liked it.  I love little studio minglings.
So this is a standard A-2 card, background "Interrupted Chevrons", pressies are from the Silhouette Library and the holly is by Marianne Designs, I wanted the feel of a tree but did not want a Christmas Tree so this worked fine for me.  The holly was colored with Copics. I love the different patterns on the wrapped pressies.  So that is all I have today, it is back to the schedule for me.  Hugs

Eye of Newt

Good Morning Peeps.  My mojo sings with excitement when it finds a new black and white.  I love the tailored, simple look of it.  Yesterday on the Silhouette Plus Forum, Lisa Barrie showed the cutest water bottle label with a tutorial on her blog, so I popped over to have a look.  She opened her file to the Chillingsworth Manor Elements, OMG, so I asked where she got them and she directed me to the Jessica Sprague web site, WELL, one of my new favorite places to haunt, what fun fun elements and papers to download, so I downloaded the "Chillingsworth Manor Paper pack, they are all gorgeous but this one was a gotta have.  I already had the Jennifer Wambach "bottle label" in my library and they married fabulously for this design.  I mean who doesn't want some "Eye of Newt" for Halloween?  The background card blank is chipboard, then a black mat, the ribbon I found at a local supplier.  Over all size is 6"X6".  Hope you have a fab day, hugs

BBTB2 Challenge - Boy Blue

Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Yep we are there, it is Monday and our BBTB2 Challenge this week is Little Boy Blue.  Our wonderful host is the talented Suzanne, please take time to stop by her blog and our other design sisters for some great inspiration this week.  Also, please remember your focus image must be a Cricut cut.  Our blog rules are posted at the top of the BBTB2 Challenge Site.  We so look forward to seeing what you come up with for our challenge.

I used "A Child's Year" and Cricut Imagination "Nursery Tails" to create the background.  The little boy  was doctored a bit as I had to remove the bird and round his hand off to hold the teddy. They were both then colored with Copics.  I did do a little bit of shading and color add on the background also with Copics.  I added a bow with a blue heart gem in the center.  The tag is an old 7Gypsies tag and I wrote friends in long hand.

Have a great week, hugs

That Mustache Becomes You My Dear!

Oh a little bit of fun this Autumnish Sunday morning.  A dear friends daughter is into mustaches right now and her favorite color is pink.  So when I saw this idea on Maria's Blog, I just had to lift it.  I used a bamboo slat from a placemat to mount the mustache on, painted it "Capri" pink by MM, the mustache is a Silhouette cut 4 times and adhered together and then I HAD to glitter it, lol.  I will do a tag for it that has the recipients name and "that mustache becomes you!"  Hope you have a fun filled day, hugs 

A Stuffed Folio Box

 Happy Friday to everyone!  It is an almost fall morning here, we are staying in the 80s this week and oh it has been glorious.  My project today is a Folio Box this one was done for me by DoodlingDebbie at the Silhouette Plus Forum, she is amazing, I love this one for organizing smaller cuts.  Yesterday, my Cameo cut over a 100 items, WOW, it was sooooo tired last night that I had to reboot my computer twice, my bad.  I have not had a moment when I have regretted my decision to add this to my studio, it is a power horse.  I am leaving in a bit to have coffee with a dear friend and this is for her, the folio box is filled with cuts that are specific to her loves.  There is another packet of just doilies and shape cards.  The butterfly was previously created and was done from a "Memory Box" die, then distressed and painted with Tim Holtz Products, it was then sealed with a sealer and added metal antennae with beads.  The box is trimmed with handmade Irish lace (I have only cut one other piece off this, I protect it lovingly, lol.  The side metal guards are hand hammered florist wire.  The box is covered with Bazzill texturered on top and the bottom is by Petals & Possibilities by Pressed Petals "White Swirl on Orange"

Here is a semi side view to show the depth, the box was cut from chipboard with the Cameo from #110lb settings.  Hope your day is a creative one, hugs

Owl Boo and Halloween Diamonds

Yesterday the Silhouette Library presented some new pattern papers for Halloween, oh my goodness, I was on these like a frog on a june bug.  Then of course had to play with them.  I set up a rectangle 5.5wX4.25h and filled with the owl pattern, then I created a rectangle 2wX3w and filled it again.  I then took the book from the pop up haunted house card and for the small rectangle, now here is a tip for those of you who have never done this before, it is fun quick and very eye catching.

 You create your own wet-glossy letters by filling with black, line black and then besure to check the print lines box.   You want 2 boo images on your sheeet, make sure you have your cut lines on, treat this like a pnc and be sure to add your registration marks. Load 4X6 glossy photo paper in your printer and print. Let your images dry for a good 15 or 20 mins, if you do not the blade will flake off some of the ink. I use the settings for 80lb cardstock to cut, speed 3, thickness 33 and blade 5.  I use two images because it is hard to keep them clean, so I adhere the first set not worrying about adhesive and then the second set I wash my hands, put down a clean work sheet and clean my tweezers with alcohol, so that no adhesive gets on the top of letters, it will NOT come off if that happens.  Because this card is sooooo clean it needed just a little pizazzz.

This card is 6.5" X 5.5", I again set up a rectangle for that size and filled pattern with diamonds from Sihouette Library printed it out and adhered it to my card base.  I then took 3 of the new images and sized them to 2"X3" and left a white area in between and printed, adhered over the background added a ribbon and a Martha Stewart bat punch in the lower right corner.  How easy is that?  A fun play day.  Hugs

I Think It's Time To Hide

5 more days til Autumn, oh boy!  I am working on some Halloween cards.  I love this one.  We have three cats so thougt it was just right.  The cats and moon are part of a Silhouette image, there is a fence I did not use because the background is very fussy.  I created the background using my Cameo and pattern papers.  The witch is a Martha Stewart punch.  The moon was cut from Bazzill textured cardstock and then I used Copics to shade it, I love coloring on Bazzill it takes the Copics so well. Inside it says, "I Think It's Time To Hide".  Happy Tuesday, hugs

BBTB2-Things That Fly in Nature

 Welcome to our BBTB2 Challenge, cause it's Monday.  I am host this morning and that means I got to pick our challenge theme.  Things That Fly in Nature, wow that is a broad challenge, I have been awed by Mother Nature as far back as I can remember.  Butterflies will never cease to amaze me, I love ttheir elegant flutter and glorious color, like a whiff of smoke they are here and then they are gone.  Please visit our BBTB2 Challenge Site to see how my talented design sisters interpreted this theme, then we all look forward to see what you have in store for this challenge.  Just remember your focal cut must be from a Cricut Cartridge.  Rules for our challenge are posted at top of challenge site.

Now on to my card.  Card size is 6"X6", I used a seemingly 2 tone with many shades in gray.  My focus cuts were done in black linen cardstock.  The butterfly and bee were cut from "Art Nouveau" and "Nature" was cut with the "Graphically Speaking" cart.  The background paper was created with the Cameo and patterned paper from the SLibrary by marrying 4 blocks together.  I knew as soon as I saw the black and white print I wanted to use the "Art Nouveau" cart with it. I love the way the Cameo enhances my Cricut and visa versa.  Nature was cut 3 times and adhered to create almost a chipboard block, the butterfly was also cut 3 time but 2 were completely adhered and the top one only the body was adhered to the top of the other two, to give the butterfly the feel of motion.  The bee was cut once to give the whole design some variance, since I used depth of image as one of my design features.  A little sheer polka dot ribbon and I was done.

This is a side view of the card, giving you the view of the depth and movement.  Our challenges run for a week, so we will be checking to see what you have come up with.  Thanks for visiting and as always we hope our Monday has inspired you, bee safe, bee happy bee creative. Hugs

Foiled Leaf

I am getting slower and slower, lol or maybe it is more and more distracted, there is so much to play with here, lol. I could not get it to photograph last night, so waited for the light to get right outside this morning and it still isn't not picking up true color but it is closer, the leaf is very shiny so maybe that is the prob. I played late yesterday with foil leaves, I adhered a piece of tin foil to 80lb card stock, then placed it on my Cameo mat and used the flourish leaf from SLibrary, I put an offset around it and then embossed with a loaded inkpen, so I got the indentions and also some black lines.  I then did a cut.  I took it to my color table and airbrushed with Copic Markers and then I did a quick spitz of alcohol to get the little water droplets.  The background is from Silhouette pattern paper.  The tag is just a stock punched tag, airbrushed with copics, spitzed with alcohol and fall was just written by hand.  Photo corners are EKSuccess.

Fall it was in the air this morning, have a great Sunday, hugs

Coming or Going?

Good Morning Peeps, it is Saturday and we don't know if we are coming or going, lol.  This is a card for my sister, I love to send her cards that make her laugh.  She used to collect pigs and when I saw these little piggies I knew I was going to create a card with them.  It is sort of a family joke, when I am in a hurry or stressed I tend to misspell words.  The sentitment bar was done with the Silhouette and my computer fonts. The piggies are a Silhouette image.  The washi tape was printed with a Silhouette letter scramble image and contain the first 2 letters of her intitals.  Inside the card says, "If you don't know whether you are coming or going, then it is time to sit down and rub your little piggies".  Hope everyone has a great weekend, hugs

Bewitching Hour Upon Us

I have been working on some Halloween card and fell in love with these pocket cards.  These are all Silhouette images.  This one is a collection, colors are Copic and the talk bubbles were created with DE.  The small bats on the insert card are from the Martha Stewart punch.

 This is the insert card tucked into its pocket, these are perfect to tuck in a 5spot or Starbuck's card.

The little vinette was gifted by Adele on her blog and is a print and cut studio file.  I can only print out 8 1/2X 11" so I sized it down and it fit perfectly into the pocket and I put the little "Trick or Treat" tab on the side, so you could pull out the card, it tucks under the ribbon on the pocket.

This is that precious little card out of the pocket, the background paper is a pattern paper from the Silhouette Library.

Create today with happiness, hugs

Folio Box with note cards

It is hump day, hope it slides by smoothly for everyone.  I did this box last week for a friend but did not want to post it until she had received it.  I saw this folio box on an ad and just fell in love with it.  My abilities are not honed well enough to create this yet in Silhouette DE so I put a plea out to the Shilouette Plus forum, asking if anyone had a file or knew where I could get one.  That day 3 wonderfully creative women popped up with a cut file, wow what a great forum.  The box was cut from chipboard and then I applied some trim and ribbon and embellished with some of my faux gems.  The faux stitching around the box was done with the Silhouette.  The circle butterflies are from a collage sheet from "Call Me Victorian".  The butterfly on the box has the recipients initial but I left the note cards plain.  This projects takes a short time to do and yields such a great result.  Have a good one, hugs

Lead me from distraction

Tuesday morning fodder.  The other day while at the grocery store, they had put out pumpkin muffins, definitely a downfall for me.  Usually my first pumpkin treat is a Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks but somehow I have managed to resist but these muffins just kept calling and I walked out with some.  So this morning I got a wonderful cup of latte and a muffin and I am sitting at the computer just cruisin and I look over and that muffin looked like one of the most perfect muffins I had ever seen, LOL.  So I got the camera and took a picture and sure enough it was a beautiful muffin.  My first thought was that I was going to sketch it and then I decided to take it to Photoshop and do an extraction, which came out pretty good.  So then I took the muffin to my Cameo mat and did a select image and full trace on it, I then did cut lines and then took it to line color and did "black", hmmmm, I am liking this a digi from a photograph.  Then I printed it with my pen and cut it and then played with Copics and finally added just a touch of "stickles" on the top.  Some EKSuccess punched hearts.  Background paper by Barbara Ann Williams from "Cuddly Buddly".  A little scalloped border with some baker's twine.  Morning confection with an offset (internal) and I have a card.  Now do you see where this is going?  Every morning I ask to be led in peace and love, but I really need to add to also be led from distraction, lol. 

 And here is the offending muffin that led me to distraction:

Hope every one has a great day, hugs

Designing and printing washi tape with your Cameo

Wow, two posts in one day.  It is busy and exciting around here this morning.  Last night as I was winding down I was looking at my butterfly washi tape and although I liked it, I felt it was sort of washed out and wondered how I could get it crisper.  Then I wondered if the Cameo with the pen holder would work, so I got up, fired up the computer and Cameo again and played, I am telling you, I love this Cameo, it just works and works and works, lol.  The washi tape on this card are the birds in a row, it is an image from the Silhouette Library, I replicated until I had enough to fill a 1" by 5.25" rectangle, then lined the washi tape on my mat and installed a Micron pen into the Chomas pen holder (fyi - this process is pretty rough on the micron pen, so I have designated one just for my pen holder).  After it printed my images I took it to my table and filled in with copics (black) and then airbrushed it with Copic "Tuscany Orange".  The moon was colored with Copic. The top background rectangle is a Silhouette pattern and all other images are also Silhouette.

This is the test I did last night, on this one I applied the copic color to the tape by hand for those of you that do not own the airbrush.  I then filled in the mat with the snowflakes (I was not interested in the alignment etc on this one, just wanted to see if it would work).  I created a 1"x11.5" rectangle (remember to turn off the cut lines on the rectangle but make sure the cut lines are on for the images), I have a grid on my cutting board so I turned my grid on for the Cameo and was able to place the washi tape in the exact area I needed it to print.  So if you are off to create washi tape, please, please share when you are done.  Happy Monday, hugs

BBTB2 Challenge - In Honor

Monday 9/10/12 brings to the eve of 9/11, our BBTB2 Challenge host is the sweet design team member, Brenda and she has chosen to Honor all who serve and have served to make this country our home of freedom.  Please take some time to browse and visit our other members and the fabulous designs and inspiration they share.  Blog rules are listed on the BBTB2 site, please remember your focus cut must be done with the Cricut.
I lived in Boston many, many years ago and at that time my brother lived in NYC.  I would fly down for the weekend and we would haunt art museums, eat bagels and lox, sit on a bench and do the NYTimes crossword puzzle, people watch, browse antique stores.  I wanted this card to reflect some of my memories of the grand ole town.  These memories are sight, sound, color and wonderful smells.  Graffiti on the sides of buildings, vendors with aromas that would make your mouth water, horns honking, the bustle of a crowd wearing coats and hats of many colors.  Puffs of white, cold frost in the air.  The jingle of bells on a street given up by a Salvation Army worker dressed as Santa at Christmas.  Department store windows that twinkled, snowed, trains tooting and children with noses pressed to windows.  These are but a snippet of what comes to mind when I remember NYC.  I remember too exactly where I was on 9/11/01 as I watched in disbelief not that it could be conceived but that it could actually be happening.  I felt the pain, the anger, the fear and I cried with passion as I watched Americans rally to the site to offer aid, support and friendship.  We proved we still have the grit, determination and might to stand tall, we still believe in the premise this country was forged with, so I give thanks today for you, for my freedom, for all who are willing to stand at the line, no matter what.  God Bless America, my home, sweet home.
My project today is a 6"X6" card, The Statue of Liberty and Honor were cut with the Cricut from "Stand and Salute cart. All colors were done with Copic markers.  The background papers for the card and the sentiment block were created, printed and cut with the Cameo.  Misc. ribbon and the stars were punched from an EKSuccess punch.
Happy Monday and hugs

Polka Dot Fever

Happy Sunday everyone.  I have a severe case of Polka Dot fever this week, lol.  Everything is looking so good in them.  Flowers are high in my imagination, but I think that is spurned by the coming of a season change.

This is a standard A-2 card, the Zinnea is a Silhouette Library cut #32049, I used a big brad for the center and mounted it to a polka dot oval so that the polka dots were just teasing a bit.  The bottom boarder is washi tape that I created using Assured Paper Tape (from the Dollar Tree), 1"wide, 10yds., this tape works great, I stamped a clear set butterfly with Memento "Black Tuxedo" and then filled in with copic yellow and then airbrushed the tape with Copic Violet, it has a good firm grip.  The butterflies were punched from "Paper Studio" with a Martha Stewart punch.  The sentiment block was done with a Silhouette nested set and filled with polka dot pattern and cut. The sentiment is from "Barbara Ann Williams" at Cuddly Buddly.  Misc ribbon box and EKSuccess photo corners at the top.

Hope your Sunday shines, hugs

Friendship Rose

Happy Saturday everyone, I have had a wonderful week of creating.  As I needed a break here and there, I would stop and watch tutorials to hone my skills at Print n cuts with the Silhouette.  The rose came to me in an email and I loved it so much thought I would see if I was ready for some really fine detail cuts with the Cameo.  I have to say I am happy with the cut.  The dark polka dots are "Paper Studio", the smaller background was created and printed with DE for the Cameo, as well as the tag which printed the friendship with the Chomas pen holder.  The tag was tied to the rose using baker's twine.  Did you know that the yellow rose represents "Friendship".  Hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend.  Hugs

A challenge submission for Silhouette Plus Forum

Hi and Happy Thursday, this is for a design challenge at the Silhouette Plus Forum, I am doing it on my blog because my computer will not let me do a screen shot and because my computer is so touchy I cannot download any new progs from online that would assist. Some day there will be a brand new Mac sitting here and all my prayers will have been answered, lol. I probably should be careful, don't want the computer to think I am bad mouthing it, I did bad mouth my printer the other day and it is now in the junk heap, yep it died, toasted, it was a 3 in one and the scanner went out, hmmmm, I wonder why, maybe cause I will scan anything that doesn't move, and if it is slow I wouldn't be opposed to doing live scans, lol.  Okay on to the challenge.

For the challenge I designed an envelope seal.  I know it is no feat of porportion but since I played a little with the knife when I first installed the Silhouette and it was awful, or maybe it was that I was awful, anyway I have been a little leary of it ever since and decided to start small and work up.

 first set of steps taken, I chose the "fastner & photo corner" #20531 from the Silhouette Library.  Deleted the photo corner.  Then cut the fastener with knife and deleted the lower portion.

I then replicated and mirrored down the image and welded them.  After the weld was done I did some point editing on the lower lip.  I then filled the lips with pink and set it up as a print and cut.

I then cut them out and used Copic markers to give definition and more color.  And that is my project.  Have a great day and hugs



A spoonful of sugar

This sweet treat box was the object of a converstion on the Silhouette Plus forum yesterday and when I saw I loved it and knew I wanted to cut it from acetate, but I did not want it to cut so deep that the pieces would come out, just enough to for the outside areas, so I adjusted my settings and this is how it came out, it looks like etched plastic, I used little clips to hold the top shut wth some curling ribbon and the tag is a cut n print from a Barbara Ann Williams "Get Well" Collage sheet tied on with some baker's string.  Inside are some yummmmmy "Bliss" dark chocolate pieces, good stuff.  Hugs

Tuesday Fun!

Happy Tuesday, I usually don't post this late in the day, my brain usually shuts down about 3pm, but I am still going strong and finished up this card, so thought I would share.

So, on to my card, I finished another Christmas card, the background paper was created using Silhouette Studio fill properties, the flourish tree is from the Silhouette Library, I took it and colored in with my Copic markers, then added all the polka dots, scanned the piece in and then treated it as a print and cut with my Cameo.  Merry Christmas done with one of my fonts and the Cameo.

Hope all is well with everyone in blog land, hugs

What's in your chimmney?

Is everyone enjoying their Saturday?  Hope so!  I am a little behind in my Christmas designs, so the next week is partially slotted to get these done.  The Silhouette forum helped me some this morning as they have a Chrsitmas card challenge going on for September.  We were to use a sketch done with Silhouette Design, mine is the squiggle at top and the "Merry Christmas" done with "LD Painters Hand" font and the Chomas pen holder, I then filled in the Merry Christmas with "Tim Holtz" distress pen "Fired Brick".  Then we were to use a print and cut, mine is from www.callmevictorian.com it is a black and white vintage Santa image, I print and cut and then did a little Copic magic.  The three snowflakes were cut from velum with the Cameo and then embossed with my cuttlebug.  Added some bling and EKSuccess photo corners.  Inside is a touch of giggle, it says "What's in your Chimmney?".  One down, LOL.

Have a great weekend. Hugs