Silhouette for Cheap!

Just wanted to let you all know that the Silhouette is $153 at Overstock.com after using coupon/discount code 206572!  That includes shipping.  It also comes with a $10 download card.  Jump on it!  It's a great deal!  Guess who bought hers last night!

Paper Galore!

 A look into my paper obsession.  I copied this from one of my other blogs.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Oh my goodness did I go crazy at Joann's today.  I walked in there intent on raiding the open stock paper.  It is on sale for 6 for $.96.  This is the best sale I've seen on open stock paper anywhere so of course when I saw it in an ad a few weeks ago I was excited and impatient.  They don't have their paper this cheap too often so now is the time to buy and buy I did.

I walked in a few minutes after they opened and walked straight to the paper.  I was like a madwoman and by the time I had raided just two sections I was overloaded.  I had to take a step back and reassess my game plan.  How is it that I already had over 100 sheets of cardstock and I had only gone through two of the rows?  I know how...madness!  I put it all the paper back in their proper slots, left the store and went to my car for a moment to breathe.  "OK, there's no way I can buy 4 of each color paper, that's insane" is pretty much what I told myself while standing at my car trying to figure out how to go about calmly buying paper.

After a few minutes I was ready to go back in.  This time around I slowly grabbed one of each solid color cardstock and a few of some of the colors I already have plans for.  I went to the patterned paper next and did the same, well kind of.  I grabbed two of some that I really liked.  I counted the paper after I was done and had about 250 sheets.  OH GOSH...still way too many!  I went through each piece and put back some of the duplicates I had grabbed of the decorative paper and whittled down the amount of paper I had by a little but not much at all.

Next it was off to embossing powders and embossing folders.  I found a jar of sparkle powder for $1.97 on clearance.  Not too bad.  I also bought two sets of two embossing folders that were originally $15.99 but on clearance for $6!!  Woohoo!  Two are obviously Christmas folders but the other two can be used for any occasion.  I still had a 50% off one item coupon so I bought a ribbon I can us for Valentine cards and my adventure was over.  I made sure it was over.  I had to.  I knew the total was going to come out to way more than I had planned on spending.  Oops!

I apologized as I walked to the cash register.  The nice customer I was, I set up the paper for the cashier so all the barcodes were on the same side as she was scanning.  She chatted with me as she rang up my massive amount of paper and we joked about how long the receipt was.  What if I needed to return something?!  Hahaha.  The damage wasn't too bad but still a nice chunk of change.  But guess what?  I  have plenty of paper to last me forever!  Now all I need is more storage!  *Side note....I think I was lying to myself about the paper lasting forever because I havent' stopped stocking up!.*

Oh how I love thee!

That is he longest receipt I have ever seen!

 As of today, June 23, 2011, I have yet to buy very much more storage for my paper.  My obsession is growing out of hand! I keep buying and buying and buying.  Today I am trying to fit this:

Just hanging out on my couch

and this....

into this....

Sad little bitty bit of storage

Those sad containers hold all my paper (not including paper packs) and scraps!  I am overflowing.

Oh, there's more paper than that!  There's some more paper stacks laying around on top of all the paper I bought this past weekend which includes more paper packs and more open stock paper!!  Don't say anything about that though.  It's cleverly hidden in the trunk of my car patiently waiting to be sneaked into my craft room!

My Treausry Made the Front Page!

Just had to share my joy!  This morning I kept getting emails up the wazzoo from Etsy stating this person likes my item, this person added me to their circle, this person favorited my shop, etc.  I had no clue what the heck was going on!  Was Etsy messing with me?  Was it spam?  What the heck?

When I got home from taking my husband out to lunch for Father's Day I decided to take a look at my Etsy account.  I noticed that a treasury I made yesterday, Ode to Dad, had a ton of hits.  Wow.  OK.  That's super cool.  That explains the massive influx of people checking out my shop.  Then I got an email from RCTees thanking me for featuring their super cute men's Ghost Elephant Tee in my treasury which made the fron page of Etsy!

Wait what?
Say that again?
Did you say FRONT PAGE?

Woohoo!  I had no clue at all!  Now all those emails make complete sense!

Go check out my Ode to Dad treasury to see what landed me on the front page!

You Light Up My Life

I am really working on my distressing and inking techniques, as is evident in what I made today.

I made a center step card for a challenge at SVG Attic (see the forum or Jessica's Crop Corner for rules) using the lighthouse from their Cape Cod collection.  I am so extremely proud of this card!  I have been thinking about this project for a few days and how I was going to tackle it.  I couldn't wait to make it. 

Ta-daa!!!

You light up my life step card

I used ink on every edge of the paper

A brad stands in as the light

Sentiment

The step makes the front of the card pop out

Laying on it's back so you get an idea of the dimension

This was my first time ever making a step card.  I was browsing blogs this morning (while I was supposed to be at the gym) and happened upon a tutorial for this (don't worry I went to the gym after).  It looks little complicated to make but it was really easy.

I used paper from a stack I bought today at Joann's for half off.  It's the Linen Closet pack from DCWV. 

I'm so glad I bought the Tim Holtz' ink blender.  It blends and spreads the ink so well.  The blender I was using before wasn't cutting it for me.  And as you can tell, I inked the pop out of that card!

One thing I think I may need is the Zutter paper distresser.  Distrezz It All, I think is what it's called (don't quote me on that).  I am using a hand held distresser and it takes some time to make the edges just right.  I sometimes bend the paper doing it.  No bueno ("no good" in Spanish).  With the Zutter machine you stick it in an zoop it's done!  Agh, I better stop talking about toys...my husband barely OK'd the Silhouette and here I am wanting MORE! 

So I am thinking this is my favorite card I have ever made.  I can't stop looking at it.  Corny, I know!

Now it's time for you to stop by SVG Attic and join in on the fun!!

Challenge Entry

I decided to throw a little something together last night for the Paper Dolls third weekly challenge.  For the challenge you are required to use at least one SVG file created by Belinda of Bee's Hive O'Drama.  I used two in my entry which is a mini note card measuring 4" x 2.5".  Not sure if length or width is supposed to go first in that whole measurement thing.  I know I work with numbers all day long but I have a calculator that tells me what to do...completely different than these numbers.

Of the SVG files available (by the way go get yours...they're free...and submit a project too!)....OK, back to what I was saying before my mind wandered (as usual), of the cute SVGs that Belinda created, I used one of the hearts with the scalloped edge and the scalloped edge frame.

I crinkled the scalloped part of the heart, inked it with Tim Holtz' Dusty Concord (purple) Distress Ink then spritzed it with water to make the ink run.  I then sped up the drying process by using my heat tool.

I used a small snippet of hemp cord (teehee, that always makes me giggle) for the middle of the heart to make it appear to be a button.  The holes were in the SVG but with the lovely Cricut you won't get holes that small.  You'll just end up with some torn and wasted paper.  Now the Silhouette can probably do the job...*sigh*...I'm dreaming.

I stamped the sentiment in the same ink color as the tie-dye looking heart.

The purple base of the card was embossed with a swirly design then lightly inked in Ink It Ups! Lavender.

I think that pretty much it.  It was fairly simple to make.  Don't forget to head on over to Paper Dolls and Bee's Hive O'Drama.

Pink lemonade anyone?

All day yesterday I shopped for a car or read a book.  Not once did I feel like being crafty.  Seriously not once all day.  Skip forward many hours to 10:45pm last night...I was bitten by the craft bug and there I was in my craft room making a card.  My eyes were tired with sleep and strain and yet I was awake coming up with what I think is one of my cutest cards to date.

The card I made last night in a sleepy haze was sort of an experimental card.  I didn't think it would turn out as good as it did but I surprised myself!  Who knew I could be creative even when exhausted.  I bought Tim Holtz' Paper Distresser the other day and some Kraft cardstock (the brown paper bag looking type) as well as an ink blender, also by Tim Holtz.  With these items I set out on an adventure to make something vintage looking.  Seeing that I have a birthday party to go to this weekend I decided to make a card for that occasion.  The theme is Pink Lemonade.   

And my work of art....

Pink lemonade

Distressed edges

Would you like some ice with that?

As I mentioned above, I used the distressing tools to create the aged look.  I used the paper distresser to scrape and curl the edges.  I then inked each edge with the blending tool using a swirling motion from my mat onto the edges of the paper.  I created the glass of lemonade myself after some research and playing around in MTC but you can get a similar glass in SVG Attic's Backyard BBQ Collection.  I used a cloudy sheer velum sheet for the glass and a light pink piece of cardstock for the lemonade inside the glass.  I inked the edges of the glass in pink and dobbed some pink onto the surface of the velum glass to add a little more color.  It turned out to go well with the distressed look the rest of the card has.  The orange, straw, and cube of ice have nothing special done to them but I cut those out as well to add a super cute touch! 

I think I did have a little bit of "I'm too tired to be crafting" last night while making this card.  The orange was supposed to be a lemon and for some reason when I picked the orange paper I thought it was yellow.  I am not colorblind...it's a consequence of being too tired to think clearly.

Enjoy!!

**Remember to follow me on Facebook!!**

She Said Yes

Time for another day of wedding cards.  Well, let me rephrase...wedding card.  Am I obsessed with weddings again?  No.  Promise!  I met some wonderful women whom I still speak to daily during my wedding planning but I am not sure I ever want to deal with the stress of planning a wedding again. 

This particular card was made for a friend who loved the "I Do" card I made last week.  Actually this friend is one of the ladies I met a few years ago while we were both planning our weddings, which happened to be in the same month.  She has a bridal shower coming up and asked if I could make a bridal shower card.  My answer?  "Why of course!"  Me make a card?  I sure can!  It's one of the things I love to do aside from eating and reading. 

For this card I again used SVG Cuts' Kate's Silhouettes.  I love those super cute silhouettes.  I am looking for reasons to use them any time I can so of course I jumped on the opportunity when asked for a bridal shower card!  I had the perfect idea for it.  I actually made it compliment the style of the "I Do" card. 



Man proposing on one knee





"She said yes"

  There's not much to tell on the techniques I used for this card.  It actually was quite simple.  I just chose paper that I thought looked good together.  Notice a sliver of green is poking out around the edge of the card?   I love pink and green together. 

In order to add contrast I cut the woman's dress out of blue and white polka dot paper. At first I was concerned that it wouldn't match but then I realized that's exactly what I wanted! 

I used pop up squares to make the two silhouette figures 3D. 

As for the sentiment, once again I don't have a stamp that says "She said yes" so I had to print it out.  I inked the edges and it is slightly popping off the page.  I cut a pop up square in half and glued the bottom so it wasn't as high up as the silhouettes.

Maybe one day when I get the Silhouette SD I won't have to print my sentiments out.  Shhh, don't tell anyone but my husband actually gave me the go-ahead to buy it!  He actually has an ulterior motive on this decision.  Since it has print and cut abilities it can cut his pepakura.  It's a form of papercrafting as well.  He makes 3D things out of paper.  He's made a helmet and a gun so far.  It's actually really cool.  He plans to take it a step further though.  With the SIlhouette he won't have to sit and cut each piece by hand.  Ha, I didn't even realize he was a papercrafter too....even before I was!

It feels like summer!

Summer feels like it's here and what better way than to show you something that makes you think beach?!

I made this awesomely cute Hawaiian themed card for a friend of mine back in January.  I started out with one idea but it all changed once I started making the card.

I started out with making Hawaiian looking flowers like I made for a scrapbook page and the hula girl.  I put it all together and it just didn't look right.  The hula girl needed an environment.  She looked off just there with nothing but flowers next to her.  I scrapped the idea of flowers and decided to create a scene for her.

Hawaii anyone?

The sky is actually the base of the card.  For the ocean I dry embossed using my Cuttlebug and then inked it to give it two shades of blue rather than the one.  On top of the ocean I place a shiny tan colored cardstock that I also embossed.  I tried to ink it but the ink just slid right off.  Note to self: glossy paper = no good with ink.

Next came the palm tree or is it a coconut tree?  The palm trees here don't grow coconuts so there's my confusion!  Anyway, isn't it cute?!  I traced the image from a jpeg I found on the internet.  I embossed the tree using the Cuttlebug and a Sizzix embossing folder that I got for 60% off at Joann's.  I inked it to make the textured look give it a more real look.  The coconuts were actually scraps form another card that I had laying on the table.  Score!

I love how the coconut tree turned out

Little miss hula girl is precious.  I cut her out and pieced her together giving her skirt and hair flower double layers.  I drew in her face with pencil.  Let me tell you...that is hula girl #2.  Number 1 looked like the wicked witch of the west (that's the ugly witch right?).  I had her all ready to go and then drew in her face....umm, she looked so horrible!!  I had to take all the pieces off and redo her body/face.  Oh, and her leg foot off!  Hahaha.  The one I ended up with is perfect.  No funky face and she has two feet!

I used a hand punch for the flowers (Martha Stewart I think)

The Sentiment is stamped and embossed

A lot of work went into this card but it was fun to make and I love the end result!

Guest Designer for The Paper Dolls!

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by!

I am honored to be a guest designer this week for the fabulous Paper Dolls, Tamara and Thienly.

If you are part of the crafting community that uses SVGs then you may have come across their work and know what amazing crafters they are.  Well, obviously if you came here from their blog then you know all about them!  Hehe.  If you don't know how amazing they are head on over to their blog, The Paper Dolls.  They both are such amazing crafters that have truly been an inspiration for me.

This week's design is a mini doll house.  Adorable, right?  I am starting to see a theme here....paper dolls last week, doll house this week.  Love the genius of it!!

As a guest designer I have the task of creating a project using the dollhouse SVG file as inspiration for you all.  Here is what I made:

 Housewarming Gift Tag

How to:

 Using Make the Cut (MTC) software I sized the mini dollhouse file down so the front of the house measured 3" x 5".

*Note - when sizing a file I make sure to size the entire file down at one time, in this case the windows and main house.  It makes things so much easier*
 

I then cut out each piece of the file, including the house in it's original state.

To create the look I was going for I trimmed off the sides and bottom of the house so I was left with just the front, where the door is.

I made the roof in MTC by using a rectangle from the basic shapes, sizing it down, and setting it at an angle.  I then duplicated that rectangle, mirrored it and placed the two together as so:

 I then welded the two together to create my roof.

Roof

In order to create the light blue shadow layer I created another rectangle from MTC's basic shapes.  I then welded the two pieces (roof and rectangle) together to create this:

Shadow layer

I sized the image to be slightly bigger than my main house so it was indeed a shadow layer.

After cutting out the shadow layer I had to trim the two extra peaks that I didn't need.  I only wanted the center peak.

When assembling the house I used pop up squares for the window frames that I had to cut down to size.  I also used pop up squares to adhere the roof.

The red flowers were made using a hand punch.

I used a border punch for the red eaves that drop down from the roof.

The door knob is a tarnished silver brad.

The sentiment was printed out on white cardstock in blue and inked along the edges in blue as well.

I lightly inked the edges of the windows, doors, and house in blue.

I hole punched the top of the light blue shadow layer in order to string a light blue ribbon through.

There you have it, my housewarming gift tag!

I hope you enjoyed it!

In closing, I would like to thank the Dolls for allowing me the opportunity to be apart of their new venture.  I had fun making this house!  Thank you!!


-Kasi

Vintage inspired

I have been eyeing vintage inspired items....cards, tags, anything paper that looks vintage.  I am drawn to that look so of course I had to figure out how to do it (as is my M-O with anything new that I like).  Last weekend Joann's was having a Memorial Day sale with scrapbooking items 40% off and active military or veterans could get an additional 20% off.  That equals a whopping 60% off all items for me!  Oh, if you didn't read the *about me* blurb I'll quickly explain.  I was in the military way back.  It really wasn't that long ago but it feels like it sometimes.  Actually it feels like a whole other life that was never even mine.  Does that happen as you get older?  Hmmm. 

Back to the story.  I went to Joann's to take advantage of the great sale.  Now, I thought I pretty much had everything I could possibly already want at Joann's but that wasn't true and of course I found something I *had* to have.  I decided that it would be a good time (and a cheap time) to try out something new.  And of course as the title mentions, vintage inspired. 

I already had some of Tim Holtz' distressing ink pads, which I really love but I knew that just wouldn't do the job by itself for the look I was trying to achieve so I purchased a large bottle of Walnut Ink, a few packs of vintage inspired cling stamps (I love those!), and a few more colors of Tim Holtz' ink pads (just because it was all 60% off for me).  My total purchase between paper, five ink pads, two packs of cling stamps, and the large bottle of walnut ink came out to $21!  SCORE!!  With this purchase I was well on my way to making my first vintage inspired item. 

I decided to go small.  Nothing too elaborate for my first time and since I was into tags this weekend I went with that.  Here are my vintage inspired tags.

This one looks a little leathery because I took the picture at night

Six pretty birdcages

Walnut Ink and Tim Holtz' distress ink was used to create the vintage look

The birdcage is stamped using Momento's rich cocoa ink

To complete the tag is a pretty brown ribbon

I made these tags from scratch.  I cut the tags out of two 8 1/2 x 11" stark white pieces of cardstock.  I then spritzed the Walnut Ink on both sides of the tag and blotted it to make the ink spread and to reduce the amount of liquid pooling in one area.  I then let the paper dry completely (which takes some time if you don't use a heat tool).  Once the paper was completely dry I used Tim Holtz' Distress Tea Dye (color) Distress Ink to dob around the edges and on the entire tag, back and front, to give it a two-tone effect.  Once that was finished I used Momento's ink in Rich Cocoa to stamp the birdcage.  I then used a whole punch to create a hole for ribbon, twine, etc. to go through.  In this case, I used a deep brown ribbon as the finishing touch to my vintage inspired tags. 


 

Mini note cards anyone?

Part of my crafty weekend was spent making cards and the other part was spent making tags.  Here is yet another set of items I made while I had steam.  The contest I held was actually for a set of this item.  Unfortunately no one guessed the theme correctly.  I would have taken "spring" or "garden" as an answer or even something close to that.  Maybe next time. 

I'm always on the lookout for new ideas whether it be new techniques, new tools, or new items I can make.  I have a list of what I would like to make and this was one of them.  I can now cross off mini note cards from my list.  Yay!  I wanted a theme for these cards but I didn't want to make each card exactly the same so I delved into my brain and picked an item I liked to make.  I chose the butterfly from the "Spring Butterflies" card since I really really love the look of them.  What goes with butterfly was my next thing to work on.  The theme that popped into my head was "garden" and so off I went in search of more ideas that would work with a garden theme.

Side note - I actually made the butterfly tags after I made these notecards and as you can see, they are the same colors.  I liked the colors enough to use them again. 

Spring Garden mini notes

Set of 5

The bee has googly eyes!  What's a garden without bees hovering over the flowers!?

You've seen this little lady before on my lunchbox notes set

And of course the pretty two-toned butterfly!

Here's something new!  A plant waterer?  Not sure what it's called!

Each card measures 3"x3.5".  I actually made them a decent enough size that they can fit into little envelopes.  Not a perfect fit but a good fit.  In fact these guys are so small I was able to cut quite a few of each card out of one sheet of cardstock.  Awesomeness!  I ended up making four sets!  I am struggling choosing my favorite design.  

My question to you....which is your favorite?