Simple Christmas Gift Tags - Free MTC Project File

Good morning.  I created the gift tags below last night.  All I did was cut the tags, layered the cut out tag on top of a blank tag.  Then I took the tree that was cut out and layered it on top of extra blank tags that I cut out.  These are cute yet very easy to make.

I have included my cut file for you to download.  It is not an svg but a Make-The-Cut project file.

Click Here To Download

Don't forget my give away.  Click the bug face at the top of my blog

Trying To Be Christmasy

It is Saturday morning, just got my shower and now enjoying my coffee. It is coolllldddd out.  We do have a little bit of snow here in Pittsburgh PA.

  I had a thoughts "bugging" me..  I needed to change the look of my blog again.  I had the same look for several months.  I decided to be Christmasy (if there is such a word) for this week. I don't have a header designed yet.  This was totally a spur of the moment thing.

Oh..  don't forget my blog candy...   Click Here To Go To Blog Candy Post

About 3rd Requirement

ok..  about my giveaway..  the requirement to post on your blog,  facebook and myspace works also..  just spread the word

Woooo hooooo! 100 Followers!!

Wooo hooo  I now have 100 followers and time to celebrate with some blog candy.  I gave great thought to what I was going to give away when I reached 100...  Here it is

A one year subscription to.....  the new Cricut Magazine

The Rules:

• You must be a follower
• Post a comment to this post
• Put an announcement of my blog candy on your blog

That is it!!  I will be using Random.org to choose the winner on my birthday, Jan. 12, 2010  You must have everything in place by midnight Jan. 11, 2010

Free Snowman SVG File

Good morning everyone..  it is a coooolllllldddddd (brrrrr) day in Pittsburgh PA today.  The high is only going to be 20 degrees F.  That is cold.  The kiddies had a 2 hour delay this morning.  We have snow (ewwww) and what is the best thing about snow though???  We can make snowmen..  I have made a snowman for you this morning...  and here it is.

Click Here To Download

Free SVG File - Christmas Stocking

Good morning..  I am so happy to see my following growing.  I am have another svg file for you today.  Enjoy!!!

Click Here To Download

Looking For Followers

Good morning..  I am getting so close to my first major mile stone on my blog..   I am looking for followers.  I am planning on some blog candy to celebrate my 100th follower.  I am still getting the candy together.  I will announce what that will be soon...  so get your friends over here and get them to follow me so that I can have my first give-away!

Here Comes Santa Clause... Free SVG

Ok folks..  I am bringing you another svg that I created.  Santa and his reindeer.

Click Here To Download

Christmas Tree Number Three SVG File

Good evening.  I am on a roll with different Christmas tree cutting files.  Me and my boyfriend's 2 boys just finished decorating the tree tonight and the house.  The kids had a blast and it was fun watching them.  I have had decorating my tree on my mind for well over a week...  so understandably I have had a one track or "limb" mind..hehehe..  Anyhow  here is the file...

Click Here To Download

Christmas Tree File from Previous Post

It seems that everyone is having trouble with the link.  There must be some kind of permissions thing that I haven't figured out yet because I can click the link and get to the file.

I decided to put it up on my trusty box.net..    New Download Link for Christmas Tree 2

Another Free Christmas Tree SVG File

Good evening everyone..  I am bringing another Christmas Tree SVG file.  I am using Google Docs instead of my normal Box.net account.  I found someone else offering files to download and they used Google docs and it seemed so easy...  therefore, I am giving it a try.

Click Here To Download

New Free Christmas Tree SVG

Here is another freebie that I made this morning.

Click Here To Download

The New Make The Cut Beta 3 Software

Oh what a dream the new Make The Cut software is!!!  Andy has answered the call for Print and Cut!!  This feature is so awesome.  You can now print your image and cut around it.  Below are instrucitons and a video I found outlining the process.

1) Open MTC and click on the Pixel Trace button and go to where your image is stored, highlight it and click open.  You may want to start with something simple, not very detailed to experiment with.

2) Set the threshold to 254. You want to make sure you get the whole out line of the graphic.

3) Check the “Set Image as Texture” checkbox and click Import.


4) Next, click on the image to select it and click on the Blackout button.

5) You also want to uncheck “outline shapes” at the bottom of the Visual Mat tab.

6) Click on File and then Print and Print the image out.

7) Click on File and Print Options..  check the option to show paper on mat.


8)  Align the printed paper just as it shows on mat on the screen and cut your image. 

Its that easy....  check out the following video..  Get your copy of MTC by clicking on the link in my sidebar

Black Friday??? Who has what????

Michaels has tons of good sales..  such as 60% off Cricut Cartridges..  the gypsy is only $99.99!!!  I have held off on buying one of these babies.. but at that price I think I will reconsider.  Click Here for Michael's Black Friday Ad

Craft Warehouse is a family-run Pacific Northwest company that has numerous locations throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. They sell hundreds of craft and art products at everyday low prices. Here, you can purchase materials for quilting, scrap booking, knitting, crocheting, flower arrangements, painting, drawing, and jewelry making. Browse through their name brands which include Acrylic, Crayola, and Pro-Art. Their website also offers a customer forum, where you can get tips and craft ideas. Their sale section has discounted prices on frames, arts and crafts, and home decor.   Click Here   to view their Black Friday ad.



JoAnn's has some good buys also...  Cricut Cake Mini for 99.99 and the Cricut Expression for 199.99...  $50 off the new Cricut Image Print & Cut machine....  Click Here

Your Scrapbook Stash has a November 2010 sale..  20% off sales all month long.

Check out Ribbons and Bows OH MY for some holiday sales.

 
 
Oh My Crafts is a must check out spot for Black Friday!!  Vinyl for your die cut machines only 3.99    Som Cricut cartridges as low as 14.99
The list just goes on and on..  Click here to check out Their Black Friday Specials...
 
That is what I have for you so far but should be enough to wet your pallet for crafts... 

Free Christmas Card SVG

Good evening everyone.  I have not been posting as much as I should recently.  I have been over whelmed.  It started with back issues..  then busy with work and home...  plus had some crochet projects to get done..  I had the flu...  and became addicted to farmville.  But, I can proudly say that I have not touched farmville in about 2 weeks.  I have also spent some time trying to organize my fonts and svg files.  I am trying to get ready for a winter of catch up scrapping.  I also am starting my Christmas cards.  I wanted to get started earlier but just did get the chance.

Anyhow...  I was playing with the newest beta version of Make The Cut software (you can click the link on the right side bar to get a copy) and created this aperture card that spells Noel.  Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to download

Update

I am checking in with all my followers.  I have been away because I had a back injury and have not been able to much of anything.  I still had to go to work and it was hard to make it through the day.  I  just could not sit in front of my computer very long, maybe long enough to check email and that was it.  I do apologize for my absence.  My back is getting better.  I am not 100% yet but slowing getting better.  I am hoping to get back in the swing of things by next week.

Thanks for your understanding and patients.

 -- Jennifer

Bow Easy Update

I am sorry to report that I had to remove my bow easy template from my site.  The owner of the company that manufactures it requested that it be removed.  My apologies to Valera Scott.

Pencil SVG File and Chit Chat

Good Afternoon...  how is your summer going so far?  If you are like me, you are ready for school to start again.  I just made a new svg file today with school in mind.  It is a pencil svg file.  Click Here To Download

Last, non paper related.. We had a bad storm a couple weeks ago which tore a gutter from our house and part of the shingles. Brian, my boyfriend, started tearing down walls and built new. Here is a YouTube video I shot.. The moral is not to slam your doors or this could happen to you..

A Card To Share

This is not for any challenges but for a promotion.  I signed up to be included in The Out of the Box Sampler for the month of July, September and November boxes.  July is here and gone. But there are 2 more months that I am participating in.  Michelle has a great idea going over there on her site.  You have to check it out............  but anyhow.............  I am making some card samples to put in the box for September.  Below is a picture of one of the cards............   I used a simple technique called quilling.  I started a picture a while back and am still working on it.  I am pretty new to quilling but will be exploring this wonderful paper craft further on my blog as well.

Thanks for Looking!!!!

What Will Cricut Come Up With Next???

It is here...  the Cricut Imagine.  It prints and cuts with a touch of a button all in one machine.  No need to use a computer or printer.  It use to be a pain staking process with several steps to print then cut. Cricut answered the call and came out with a brand new machine that does it all.

From BusinessWire.com:


“Cricut Imagine is not only unique to the crafting industry, but to the world of technology. There is not another device that incorporates printing and cutting the way this machine does,” said Jim Thornton, CEO of Provo Craft. “The pairing of print and cut technology could only be done by the leaders in each category—HP and Provo Craft. We’re eager to see what our customers can now do with a simple sheet of white paper and Cricut Imagine print-and-cut technology.”

“HP is always expanding its personal publishing portfolio with new products and services that inspire and enable creativity among individuals and families,” said Kathy Tobin, Vice President and General Manager, Specialty Printing Systems Division, HP. “Cricut customers can benefit from high-quality Original HP ink to achieve unique and professional results.”

Cricut Imagine features include:

•Cricut Imagine cartridges are enhanced by Cricut Pattern and Cricut Color cartridges to add dimension and layering

•Cricut Imagine is fully compatible with all original Cricut cartridges

•Compatible with Gypsy by Cricut handheld design studio

•Easy-to-use LCD touch-screen navigation so that all information is right at your fingertips

•New detachable accents to be able to personalize your machine with colors and textures

•Access to a vast new library of content and artwork: Over 150 original Cricut cartridges (with several new cartridges introduced each month), 12 new Cricut Imagine Art cartridges specifically for this new machine, plus 12 new Cricut Imagine Colors & Patterns cartridges

•On-board color and pattern selector - choose your own colors, sizes and much more

•Works with paper sizes up to 12” x 12” and makes cuts from .25” to 11.5”, making large-format print and cutting possible

•Retractable paper tray

•No computer necessary

•Uses same blades and blade housing as current Cricut products

•Uses a separate mat than original Cricut machines

Suggested retail for Cricut Imagine is $599.99.

Boo Book Free SVG file

Good morning.  Hope your weekend went well.  Mine sure did.  Me and my BF took a 3 hour dinner cruise on a river boat Sunday night.  It was so nice.  Then we watched a water fountain show on shore.  The fountain show was like your light shows with music but done with water instead.  It was too cool.

Anyhow..  I am here again with a free svg file.  It is a "BOO" word book for the upcoming Halloween season.  Enjoy

Click Here To Download

New Birthday Card - Challenges

Good morning folks..   Hope your week went well.  If you are like me, you are quite ready to see the weekend.  At any rate, I have created this card for an upcoming birthday and am entering it into 3 challenges.

Cardvarks - had to create a birthday card.  So I made it for a friend of mine.


Bitten By the Bug 2 - the challenge was to create a card with a fall theme or colors and a die cut and stamp of some sort. The border is from an svg file that I had.. colors are fallish, the sentiment is stamped

2sketches4U  -  we were to create a card based on the current sketch.  I followed the sketch.

Here is my card

Thanks for looking

Rumors Raging Around The Cricut World!! New Machine????

Good morning everyone.  This is so cool.  There are rumors running rampid around the cricut community that a brand new machine will be revealed at the CHA next week.  It prints and cuts!!!  Could it be called the Cricut Imagine perhaps??  Provocraft has been hinting of some kind of great new cutter hitting the market.

Here is some info from http://www.trademarkia.com/

On Friday, March 19, 2010, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for CRICUT IMAGINE. This trademark is owned by PROVO CRAFT AND NOVELTY, INC., 151 E. 3450 North, Spanish Fork, UT 84660. Trademarkia.com is a free search engine of publicly available government records. Trademarkia.com is not a law firm and does not represent owners & correspondents listed on this page.


The correspondent listed for CRICUT IMAGINE is MICHAEL A. LISI of HONIGMAN MILLER SCHWARTZ AND COHN LLP, 38500 WOODWARD AVE STE 100, BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 48304-5048 . The CRICUT IMAGINE trademark is filed in the category of Machinery Products , Computer & Software Products & Electrical & Scientific Products , Fabrics , Paper Goods and Printed Material . The description provided to the USPTO for CRICUT IMAGINE is Electronic cutting and printing machines for cutting and printing on paper, cardboard, plastic, and other materials in flat form, and accessories therefor; blades for electronic cutting machines.

The USPTO has given the CRICUT IMAGINE trademark serial number of 77963240. The current federal status of this trademark filing is PUBLISHED FOR OPPOSITION.
Trademarkia is the largest search engine for U.S. trademarks. Each month hundreds of trademarks around the world are filed by licensed attorneys in the Trademarkia network! You can register your trademark in 55 countries in the world through Trademarkia.

Free SVG - Pumpkin

Good evening.

I haven't had much time to create svg files, but I did do this one tonight.  It is almost August and some of us like to plan way ahead of time.  I am already thinking about my Halloween scrapbooking.  I made this pumpkin this evening.  Enjoy!

Click Here to download

Just an Update

Hello everyone...

I know that I have been MIA for a few weeks.  I am working on a major project that has taken so much time.  I am writing my first fiction novel.  It is for young adults.  I don't want to give too much detail yet.  I will post my progress and may even post a sample chapter or two.  I have a publisher interested.  But I am not signing right away.  Waiting to see if I get any other offers.  I just started writing it a couple weeks ago.

I am hoping to get a couple new svg files uploaded.  At any rate I was mainily just checking in.

Jennifer

Bow Easy Tutorials

Good morning and Happy Monday!

I have been looking at my stats on different svg files I have posted.  I have found that my bow easy template has been downloaded over 1,000 times!!!  I never imagined it would become that popular!  So, I figured some may need some help in learning to use this great tool.  I did a search and found this great video.

Have a blessed day!

Product Review... The Ultimate Crafter's Companion

Here is a tool for you to take a close look at.  It is an all in one paper crafting card making tool.

The Ultimate Crafters Companion. Everything you will ever need for your card making and paper craft projects in one handy and portable carry case. It builds on the features of the award winning Top Score and Enveloper tools and is designed to take your crafting onto the next level by providing an array of crafting utilities at your finger tips. Perfect for creating professional looking cards in a variety of imaginative styles: Pop out; K-card; embossed and classic. It was also designed to create boxes; trim paper; make envelopes; make bows; and even store your projects in progress. Also included is a video Tutorial DVD with Sara. Constructed of durable plastic with a double-hinge system that allows this unit to lie completely flat giving you approximately 14 by 23 inches of work surface. Everything stores quickly and easily inside so you can fold-n-go or fold-n-store in a hurry.

You get an envelope maker template, box templates, card templates, embossing templates,  bow maker, measuring and cutting tools.  Plus they have an awesome instructional DVD and booklet with step by step instructions which are easy to follow.  The  DVD has many projects to make.  I could spend hours playing with this tool.  It comes in a hard plastic case which is pretty sturdy and light weight.  You can take your card making crafts with you.  This tool is extremely portable.  It is not limited to card making.  There are tutorials and projects for creating exploding boxes and mini scrapbooks.

Free Ladybug SVG file

Good morning...

I am back with another freebie svg file of a lady bug I made using the new MTC software.  Enjoy!!

Click Here To Download

New Make The Cut Beta Version Just Released!!!

Andy at Make The Cut has done it again.  I mean he has really out done himself on his newest release.  It is still in beta but works perfectly and if all goes well will become the official new version.

Download Now  The trial version or purchase.  On sale now for a limited time for $58.36

==========================================================

Pixel Trace (Trace Raster)


The big enhancment is with the Trace Raster tool (now called Pixel Trace). The tracing has been completly redone from the ground up. You will now get cleaner, more precise traces -- We believe this new tracing interface is the best around and am sure you will think so as well.
* You can now paste from the clipboard as well as import from a file or TWAIN source.

* You can preview the trace with the original image in the background.

* When importing an image, it takes in to account the image's DPI (great for TWAIN imports).

* And many, many more features!

Auto-Simplify

If you don't know what nodes are, or what they are for, you can skip this part!

Welding, Boolean Joining and Shadowing creates output that are made of many nodes, otherwise called "Flat Paths". These paths (shapes) take a long time to cut. The only way you could remove unneeded nodes was to use the Smooth & Simplify tool. This is tough to do sometimes. So, we came up with a new method called Auto-Simplify. Auto-Simplify (shortcut is CTRL+G) will automatically remove these unneeded nodes. We also added an Auto-Auto-Simplify... which is on by default. This will simplify all welds and Boolean Joins automatically.

Object Import Menu


The Custom Shapes tab has been removed. I know this is probably going to be a shock to most people, but it needed to go. Imagine having to add an icon for each supported format. Make The Cut! would have tons of icons as time goes on. Instead, we added an Object Import menu. You can now import from the File>>Import menu as well as the Toolbar at the top. The new icon is the Sprocket/Gear.


The "Personal Library" has been moved to the "Basic Shapes" as a new tab entitled "Your Shapes"

New Import/Export File Formats


You can now import:
•Vector PDF files

•SCUT/SCUT2 files (Version 2.012 and older -- this is experimental and will be worked on)

You can now export:
•Vector PDF files

•EPS Files

•AI Files

•Alpha PNG Raster Files

We also added in Inkscape clipboard formats. Now you can copy and paste between Inkscape and Make The Cut!

Bézier Warp/Text On Path/Object On Path, Vertical Text


Here is something fun! You can create some great new effects with this tool. I won't get in to it too much since this is more-or-less a fun thing to learn on your own. You can also do vertical text in 2.3.0.

Here is the new Bezier Warp tool:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And Much Much more!


There are so many new things here and there that listing them all would take a while. So I will leave it up to all of you to find the rest of it!
Get Your Copy Now

Some Paper Flower Tutorials

Good morning everyone.

I started a new project for my future sister n law who is expecting and her shower is this Sunday.  I am making her a Baby Mini book for her baby's first year.  As I was planning her book, I wanted some neat and easy paper flowers to make.  So, I set out on the net hunting some tutorials and decided to share my finds with my readers.

       Scraptiffany created these flowers.  Click here for the tutorial

Tissue Paper Flowers

Torn Paper Flower

Vintage Paper Flowers

Another Easy Flower

Rebecca Sower's Paper Roses


 

Paper Flowers With A Craft Punch

There are so many more but this should be enough to wet your flower appitite.  Enjoy and get crafting!!

 

New Michael's Coupon

Expires June 12, 2010

Where Do Your Customers Come From?

Good morning.   I found this great article in the forums on ETSY this morning.  Have you ever wondered how your customers found you???  Keep on reading.....


Jewelry maker Sassy Belle Wares solved a problem that we all have. Where Do our BUYERS come from? Yeah we can track visits on Google Analytics, but knowing where out actual buyers came from is a mystery.
So here is the simple solution using Pay Pal:

SassyBelleWares says:
When I was going through the checkout process, I noticed something in the PayPal part that I had never seen before. There was a one question survey asking how I found Flapper Doodle. I always wonder how buyers have found my shop, SassyBelleWares, so I was almost as excited about this question as I was about my new notecards! Yeah, I know about Google Analytics but that makes my head spin so I was thrilled to find there was a simpler way to get an answer to, “How did you find my shop?”! Of course, getting an answer is dependent on the customer answering the question, but I figured it can’t hurt to try.



So off to PayPal I went to figure out how I could get this question into my checkout process. I found the answer almost immediately and was shocked at how easy it was to implement the one question survey! I realized I couldn’t be the only one who did not know this was an option. After all, this was the first time I had seen it at checkout and I have done lots of shopping on Etsy! Thank you Eloise and Ramona for making me want to buy your notecards thus stumbling upon this helpful feature! In return I will share my discovery with everyone!



The quick and easy steps to add the one question survey:



1) Login to your PayPal account



2) Under “my account” click “profile”



3) Under “selling preferences” click “custom payment pages”, then click “options” and go to “merchant service options”



4) Check “add a customer service survey” and fill in the blanks*



5) Make sure you click “SAVE” before you exit

* I used “How did you find SassyBelleWares” for my question. I thought using my shop name rather than just “us” or “me” might help them remember my shop better for next time. You can ask any question you would like and add any answers for the customers to choose from. For the five answer choices, I used:

-friend/family
-google search
-yahoo search
-facebook
-Etsy


Hope this information is helpful to you!



Here is the link to the guest article on Handmade Spark for all the easy to follow screen shots:

http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/ever-wonder-how-customers-find-your-etsy-shop/

June Sizzling Giveaway

This incredible.  As I hop around blogs I am finding all kinds of goodies.  This one is worth over $100!!!!

So hop over to All Scrapbook Steals - The Blog

Great Blog Candy I found

Good afternoon everyone....

I was just browsing around some blogs that I follow and I came across this awesome blog candy.  So, you want to hop over to Bev Rochester's Blog and sign up to win!

Paper Beads!!! Plus Free SVG

Good morning. I just want to show off one of my new obsessions. I am now making paper beads. What a great idea.. I can combine 2 of my favorite crafts into one .... jewelry making and paper crafting. Below you will find pics . The first one is a new batch drying and the second pic is a couple finished beads. They feel almost like glass. People at work couldn't believe they were made of paper. As you can see by the picture, I turn a styrofoam plate upside down and put the beads on toothpicks and stick them in the plate to dry.  Plus as a bonus I have a svg file of my paper bead template to cut out of either chip board or what I did was cut 3 copies and glued them together. Makes it easy to just trace and cut your beads instead of having to measure every time. I am offering it for free.

Click Here To Download the Bead Template

Thank You To My Followers

I just want to post a thank you for all of your prayers and condolences sent over the past week.  Some posted publicly and I received several private messages and emails.  It is greatly appreciated in our time of loss.

Blog Candy

There is this great blog giving away..  follow this link http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-my-birthday-blogcandy.htm

My Cousin Daryl

I am posting today to explain my MIA status lately.  My cousin had been battling leukemia for over 2 years.  I had posted a mini book that I made of our childhood.  He and his brother, Travis lived next door to me growing up and they were more like brothers to me then cousins.

I am sad to say that we lost Daryl this past weekend.  He lost his battle with leukemia.  Daryl passed on Saturday, May 15, 2005 and will be sadly missed.

http://www.jamesstumpfuneralhome.com/Obituary/05May/Horne.htm

To Tweet or Not To Tweet??

Good morning everyone.  I have just posted a poll  on the right side bar.  I am curious of how many people use twitter and if it has helped increase sales and exposure.  Honestly, I have had a Twitter account for nearly a year but have only published 6 tweets.  I may use Twitter more once I see the results of the poll..  so cast your vote!

Checking In

It has been a while since I have posted anything.  I have been busy..  I got changed to a different dept at work and have been in training for the past 2 weeks plus I started my next set of classes.

Lastly, I am working on a quilling project.  My mother gave me a quilling kit last year.  It was a bit too advanced for a beginner.  I started it a couple days ago and am half way done.  It is a sampler of different herbs.  I am shooting to finish it, mat and frame it and give the finished project to my mother for mother's day.

So, I have had many irons in the fire and haven't been able to do much posting in April.  I am hoping to get back on track in May.

News From the Cricut Front

In mid May, the all new Cricut Cake Machine will be shipping.  This new product was announced in the Winter CHA 2010.  It is designed specifically for decorating cakes, cupcakes, or what ever else in the baking industry...

Also, a new cartridge will be shipping with this machine and will only be available if you buy the cake machine.  It is Cake Basics.  Below you can see some of the images on the Cartridge.

Hopefully once this product is offically shipping, a full review will become available.

Cricut Program Updates and Font Packs available here

What else is going on??  Provocraft is retiring a couple carts.  Sad to say that Stamped and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More will retire and no longer available.  Once the current stock sells, they will be gone.

Got Coupons??

Hey and good evening everyone...

I am so stuffed.  We just got back from eating out with my boyfriend's parents.  I over did it as usually..  I may regret eating too much but don't regret the blackberry pie.

Anyhow..  here are some coupons for you

Good April 18 - April 24

That is all Ihave for right now.  All of my online stash is expiring today.

Freebie Friday.. Photoshop Brush

Hello everyone..  since diving into digital, I started creating my own brushes.  I am giving my first brush away for free...  It is just a simple sun.  I don't know how much I can actually commit to this, but I am going to try to give some kind of freebie away every Friday.  It could be a brush, digital paper or other image..  who knows.

                                                        Click Here To Download

                                                        

First Attempt At Digital Scrapping

Hello everyone..

I just wanted to post a layout I recently created.  It is a digital layout.  I recently became interested in digital because part of my background is graphic design and this is right up my alley.  I have already dabbled a little by doing hybrid layouts for my physical pages.  This digital page is a tribute to my grandmother who is dearly missed.

New Card for A Couple Challenges

Good afternoon...

I bring you a card that I made today for 2 challenges.  One is for the weekly challenge on Cardmaker magazine's forum and the other is for Cardvark's Weekly Challenge.  The theme for Cardvarks was to use lace and for Cardmaker magazine was to do a "happy" themed card for any happy occassion.  Below you will find my card..  I was going for a vintage look.  Thanks for looking.

Mini Album For My Cousin

Hey there everyone.  I just finished an 8x8 chipboard album for my cousin, Travis.  I had already made one for his older brother Daryl for Christmas but didn't get any pictures of it.  I took pics of Travis's though. 

Warining:  A Long Post

History:  The 3 of us grew up next door to each other.  Our maternal grandparents lived in the house next door on the other side of my cousins.  We are a tight knit family.  Our grandfather passed in 1982 after an extended illness.  My grandmother cared for him with the aid of a nurse who visited every day.  Then around Christmas time, 2005, my grandmother fell sick at the age of 91.  She turned 92 in January.  She passed away the day before Memorial Day 2006.

In 2008, tragedy strikes again.  In May of 2008, Daryl, at the age of 41, got luekemia.  He has been battling it every since.  He had a couple stem cell transplants which didn't work.  He is home now, but he has been bouncing in and out of the hospital.  He lost so much weight.  I almost can not recognize him.  He is now 43 and will turn 44 Sept 4.  Please do keep him in your prayers.

With all of that said, this past Christmas, I decided to create mini albums of the 3 of us growing up from the time we were still in diapers through our teen age years.  I finished Daryl's Christmas Eve and gave it to him.  He teared up over it and was really thankful.  I promised one to his younger brother Travis.  I finished his today and will post the pictures.  I will be doing one for myself as well.

Here is the album..............

This is the cover.  I used a crinkled card stock, cut the title from Platin Storybook Cricut Cart, used a scallop punch and circle punch for the round pic matting with blinging the cover with some stickles. Ohh..  the small border I used a martha stewart border punch.

This is when Travis had just come home from the hospital in July of 1970.  The paper used for the border I created myself and printed.  The rattle and title are svg files which I have available here on my blog. And I used a small flower punch.  I made a boo boo and the paper ripped in 2 places, so I covered the rips up with the punched flowers.

Left:  Just some pics when we were real little

Right:  A pic of Travis and me with Santa.

Again, I used my cricut with Make The Cut for the Titles and the Christmas Tree.

The mat with the holly was a print and cut.  I cut slits around the inside of the holly in upper right corner and tucked the picture behind.  I used gel pens and more stickles.

Easter pictures on the left and halloween on the right.  I cut the flowers on my cricut plus the easter eggs and title.  I used my cuttlebug and embossed the photo mat with devine swirls I believe.  The halloween page...  that year we were in a parade and we were dressed like Raggedy Ann and Andy (me and Travis and my mother) and Daryl dressed as an old lady.  Another neighbor girl was a witch.  We won first place.

The left is some birthday parties as we got older.  The right is Travis (in the window) and Daryl with the football helmet in a toy clubhouse.  I thought the title "Boys Rule" fit perfectly.  The title was cut out of chipboard and covered with paper.  The stars also cut on my cricut out of card stock.

Every year as youngsters, we all took an annual trip to Fenwick Island, Delaware.  Our families rented the same beach house each year. This trip was in 1975.   The lower right corner we were standing in front of Mt Vernon in VA.  This is probably my favorite out of the whole album.

On the left are just some misc pics as teens.  I stamped a floral image and heat embossed it and I had drew the border with a gel pen then went over it with stickles (love that stuff .. like you can't tell).  The right is a picture of Travis and me when we were in the high school marching band.  I got lucky and found our Alma Mater on the internet.  The paper for the pic mat and border I created and printed.  The paw (Leopards) I cut in MTC on my cricut and used 3D foam squares to pop it off the page.

This layout features Daryl in 1984 when he went off and joined the Army.  On the left is when he was either on leave or just after boot camp I think.  On the right was at Fort Dix, NJ at boot camp.

This is the final page.  I dedicated it to our beloved and greatly missed grandparents.

I hope I didn't bore you too bad.  Thank you for taking the time to view my book.