Are You Prepared???

As if an earthquake wasn't bad enough, now we here on the East Coast are bracing for appears to be a very bad hurricane! I am preparing by making a couple tags today to share with you. Both tags use a new product called Goosebumps by Tsukineko. It's a texture spray. On these tags, I sprayed Goosebumps, dried with a heat gun, then distressed with ink. Then I sprayed again, dried and used a different color ink. Then embellished. The Goosebumps acts as a resist so you get a textured mottled spotty kind of look. Very nice. I found it at Michaels which shocked me that they even had it but I know it's available online a lot of places. The faith tag has a large flower I made, a smaller prima flower, a few vintage religious articles and the Faith bingo card. If you're a catholic, you'll get the tongue in cheek innuendo there! The other card of course is Halloween using Tim and Martha dies, stamps and paper. All the inks used were Tim Holtz Distressed inks on both tags. Be sure to click to see the pics larger and hopefully maybe you can catch the texture effect. Stay safe and dry!!!

A EARTHQUAKE in Maryland?????

Well we just experienced a 5.9 earthquake here in Maryland. The epicenter apparently was north of Richmond VA and it was felt from North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts. I was at my desk, felt the initial shaking, stood and had to grab onto the wall when the worst hit and it shook a little longer and stopped. I heard what sounded like a big wind and looked outside and (so spooky!!) NOTHING was moving. We knew right away it had to be an earthquake. What an experience!

A New Adventure

Maybe you noticed the little red link at the top left of my page. I joined Pinterest. If you haven't joined yet, give it a try. It's free and so much fun. I'm not much on these technical things but this is actually very easy to learn how to use. Think of it as a giant set of bulletin boards that you want to save things to. You can save decorating ideas, papercrafting ideas, crafts, designs, signs, rooms, quotations, recipes and anything else YOU can think of. You can get started by looking at my boards or others and see if it's something you'd like. You can also follow the boards of other friends who are members. If you see something on someone's boards that you like, you "repin" it to your boards. And one of the nicest features about doing this is.....when you click on an item you like on someone's boards, it will take you directly to the website it came from. So often you get right back to a tutorial that the item you like was made from. So cool. Create boards of your own and save the things that inspire you. One warning.....it's addictive. Like You Tube, you can spend all day on Pinterest! Have fun!

Inspiration

Here are two views of a little card I did this afternoon. The background was the most fun. I saw this technique on Stamp TV. You take a piece of DP. I think it should be what I call a "quiet" print, in other words not a large print or loud motifs on it. I used SU's Newsprint. Then I ran it through the machine with Tim Holtz clocks embossing folder. Then I used Black Soot Distress Ink brushed across the raised portion, just very lightly so you don't tear the paper. Then I used some Vintage Photo around the edges for a vintage look. I stamped the clock and the saying from SU 's a Sense of Time set. Then I cut them out with Nestabilities scalloped circles and long rectangles. Distressed them with Vintage Photo. With a little black sheer ribbon and a TH charm that says Moments, I completed it. Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them to get a really good look at the background.

A Second Fall Cut

This one is from the catridge Nursery Rhymes. Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.

Playing With Cricut

Playing around with the Cricut today and this is an image from a new cartridge called Damask Decor. I used the Silhouette feature to cut the background and the layers. This is fairly large, about 8" across and 7" tall so it would be good for use on a scrapbook page or the top of a box or a large bag. I was just seeing what the images on this cartridge are like and chose a pumpkin because I am soooooo ready for fall and cooler weather. Been in kind of a mojo slump lately. Don't you hate it when that happens! I'm trying to hard to get back in the groove. A new season and nice weather would help. We're all ready for that right????????

These lasst flowers are made with a five petal punch. You can make as many layers as you like and depending on how you work with them using a flower shaper tool or even the end of a marker will work, you can make them very tightly closed or more open. The one on the right has a MS punch for the leaf base (hard to see) and the left one uses an SU punch for the base. Sort of makes it look like a water lily. The video for this is also on You Tube. I think you could sit on there all day and just watch paper flower videos. There are so many but it's nice to add a few new flowers to your repertoire.

These are some of the new roses I mentioned in this morning's earlier post. They were made with the Spellbinders Rose Creations die. This die was designed by Donna Salazar. I really like it because it actually has a bud i n the center. You die cut all your layers which have a hole in the center. You secure them all together with a brad and then start shaping. Glitter and Glimmer Mist help make them something special. This video is also on You Tube.

A morning spent among the flowers.....

This is a new flower technique for me. I found it on You Tube under tea bag folded flowers. You use a scalloped circle for the petals. I used four. Each circle gives you two petals. All in how you fold it. Used it to make a quick sympathy card with some older SU paper and Nestabilites and SU oval scalloped punch.

My Sunday Afternoon.....

It was kind of a stinky hot muggy day with lots of cloud cover and finally some much needed rain. I spent the afternoon working on this card using the MS Punch Around the Page punch along with MS punches for the flower spray (told you this wouldn't be the last Kitty C. card!) and a prima flower in the center. I used my old favorite Flourishes strawberry stamp and popped the large strawberry up on dimensionals. Colored with Copics and the sentiment is an SU set called Whimsical Words. I'm working on some new paper flowers, roses to be exact, and hopefully will have them to show in a few days. Enjoy your week everyone!

Tribute to Kitty!

I am a big fan of Kitty Caracciolo's work and she has developed a beautiful style with paper florals. This card is my first effort at her style and it won't be the last. Looks sort of Christmas-y but wasn't really. I just love red and green! The sentiment is from ODB. The flower is another of the ones from the EK Success flower punch I showed you below. Foliage and tiny flowers are MS punches as is the punch around the page edge. Thanks Kitty for the inspiration!

SOLVED!!!

I was in a major funk when I found out the MTC software was not available to me yesterday. But my wonderful son figured a work around. He took a version of the software on the internet and was able to extract the Plug In for it from the old computer hard drive. Problem solved! I am elated!

I'm In Shock..........

While finishing up some remaining programs to be installed on my computer, we realized that my papercrafting software called Make the Cut was no longer on my computer. When I purchased this software for approx. $70 about two years ago it was an internet download and I was told all I needed in case my computer crashed in the future was the registration code which I have. I had no disc. I have loved using this software. So I wrote to them and because of legal action they had with Provocraft the maker of the Cricut they can no longer allow me to download the older version I had of this software. I am left with nothing. Not only that but I have hundreds of file, both free ones and many I purchased which are no good to me because the Cricut Design Studio Software does not work with these files. Only the Make the Cut software did.

Sooooooo, I am appealing to anyone out there who might have had the last version of Make The Cut before the recent update (which doesn't work with Cricut). I wondered if someone could copy their disc for me and mail me a copy. I am willing to pay for it because otherwise I'm up a creek without a paddle so to speak. I'm disappointed in MTC as well as Provocraft that they have left their customers high and dry. Provocraft even will tell you that use of Make the Cut software invalidates your Cricut warranty. This is big business at its worst my friends! So if you have the disc or you could ask among your crafting friends if they have it, I would be eternally grateful.

I'm Baaaack......

I apologize for being gone so long. The whole computer update thing has taken longer than anticipated. My wonderful son is my resident geek. He built my new computer from scratch with a new motherboard and processor and I also got a new keyboard and mouse. Typing is so quiet and things are much faster. As I said in the last post, I wanted to share a few things with you. The first is this: The punch you see is a new EK Success punch purchased at JoAnn's. Looks like a normal border punch but what it makes are these beautiful flowers. You simply cut two 12" pieces, glue them together, off setting one strip slightly from the other and then roll around a pencil or quilling tool or whatever and glue the end. Add a little gem or center ornament and you're done. The punch is one of several EK Success has come out with and JA's has them. What fun! (NOTE: Unfortunately I can never get Blogger to place my pictures where I want them in the text. GRRRHHH!)

The next thing I wanted to share with you is the current craze for Kanzashi. What you ask?!?!

Kanzashi are Japanese flowers made from fabric. They're so fast and easy, bet you can't make just one! I'm just showing a few styles. There are several and endless variations. Clover has some templates out for making them without doing the traditional folding but I haven't tried those yet and there is a book available from your local library called Kanzashi in Bloom. Joggles.com has all the supplies, books, templates etc as well as videos on the how tos of making them. It's simple folding and you really don't even need an iron, unless you want to use one. They're great for scrapbook pages, altered projects, clothing, on tote bags, hair barrettes, jewelry, etc. Endless possibilities. Also if you google Kanzashi you'll see lots of info and examples. Great summer fun and girls of a certain age really love them for hair accessories! Give it a try.