Daily Special - Retired Stamp Set - Oh My Word

This is a card I made using a sketch from a group site I'm part of called Handmade Cards With Love. Gabby did the sketch and to contribute to the group site's activities I decided to participate. To see the sketch, you need to join the group.

This card was made using the stamp set "Oh My Word". I believe this was a 2005 Hostess Set. I think it's such a cute set.

I don't have a Giga scallop punch. . .I cut a 3 inch circle and by using Fiskar "Scallop" scissors, I cut around the circle and layered the cards and again used the scallop scissors to create the scallops on the mats.

I no longer have to do this because I created a template on my Craft Robo to cut my scallop shapes. I can't believe how many things I can do with this machine. Each time I learn new things and it's capabilities, I become more impressed with this machine. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just inserting a cartridge and running the machine or running a die through a manual die cut machine.

The benefit is the capabilities are far more advanced than other machines and I am very happy my husband bought it for me.

I'm now on Chapter 3 of "the Secret" and it talks about the fact that if you want certain things to happen in your life, all you have to do is "ask". That is way too simple. Well, I'm going to be asking for a lot of things if that's the case. The book really emphasizes "positive thinking" and what it can do for your life. Positive thinking results in positive actions which results in positive attraction. So. . .I've been trying to think positive and avoid thinking anything negative. . . which by the way can be pretty hard. When I start to think negative about something, I change my thought process to the opposite of what that negative thought is.

For example. . .I am on a waiting list for jury duty. I have to call in everyday and find out if I'm going to serve. Well. . .when I call, I initially think "I hope they don't call me in". . .and I realize that it's a negative thought so I change it to "I hope I will be able to stay home tomorrow".

Try it and see if you can make a bit of a difference in your life. Change the negative thought into a positive thought, okay!!

Guest Stamper - Karen

Good Morning Folks! Happy Father's Day to y'all! Look at what Karen made! Wow, I love it! She said that it even looks better in person! Well, even in picture, it's beautiful!

Karen said that she used the "Crayon Resist" technique to create this card. She said that she had a lot of fun making the CD Envelope Shaker Card and I'm glad! I think I need to create a few considering I haven't made one since posting the tutorial!

Karen didn't send me a blog address so I'm not sure if she has one but she should start one if she doesn't so she can show us more of her beautiful work.

Thank you Karen for sending me a picture of your creation!! If you interested in creating this project. . .Click Here fore the Tutorial.

Send me a picture of your card via my email lbmcd66@hotmail.com and you can be my guest stamper too!!

Have a great day everyone!

Jen's Sketch Challenge at Pieces of Me

Jen at Pieces of Me has a sketch challenge in progress and she has a little prize to give away. Today is the last day. . .unfortunately, I'm a little late because I was busy all week.

Anyhow. . .check out her sketch challenge and try it out! It's always fun to challenge yourself.

If you read my previous post, I discussed the fact that I'm reading the book "the Secret". I'm now on chapter 2 of "the Secret". It talks about the fact that "thoughts become things". . .basically, what ever you think about becomes tangible in the things that your mind attracts towards you. If you concentrate your thoughts on things you "don't" want in your life, because it's a negative thought, negative things will still enter your life. It says you need to change your thinking towards positive thoughts . . . things that you "do" want, not what you "don't" want. Got it?

I, again, used my "Craft Robo" (CR) to create the sentiments on the cards. Why the word "smile"? Well. . .I was playing around with the different fonts to see how they would look when the CR cut them out. I didn't want to waste them so I decided to use them. The is the "negative" cut of the CR. On my previous post, I created a card with the "positive" cut.

Card Details:

I used the "Wishing You the Best" stamp set to create the circle sentiments for both cards. For the first card, the flowers are embellishments by Jolee's by You, the DP by K&Co, and I used Tim Holtz Distress inks to color the die cut sentiment. I used a sponge dauber to rub the ink on to the white cardstock.

With the second card, I punched out the flowers with the "Daisy Punch" and applied rhinestones by Darice, the DP behind the sentiment is by DCWV and the background DP is by K&Co. The ribbon is by Dots, Dashes, and Checks. The cardstock is Certainly Celery, Pink Passion, and Cool Caribbean.

Anyway. . .be sure to stop by Jen's site and check out the challenge!!

Daily Special - Craft Robo Projects - My First Card Using Craft Robo

How is my Craft Robo working out? Well, so far so good. Just a few snags along the way. . .one of which is going to be fixed soon. I had a few great expectations that right now isn't working out but once I get it to do what I want I want it to do, I think everything will be all good.

This is the first card I made using the Craft Robo (CR). For those who don't know what a CR is. . .well, it's like a Cricut but rather than using cartridges to create die-cuts, it works with your computer. Unfortunately, it works with only AI, WPC, and GSD files which most files are not. Most are jpg, jpeg, bitmap, etc. What's the implication of this? Well, it won't work with any clip arts or scans so I either need to look online for premade GSD, AI, or WPC files or purchase them which I am not about to do. For $80, you can purchase the WinPCSign software that will allow you to convert other files to GSD files so that the machine recognizes that the lines on the image are "cut" lines. It will also allow me to "weld" my words together as one piece. I know. . .why can't things be simple? Anyway. . .no problem, it'll all work out in the end. For now, I'm limited to what I can do which by the way is still FABULOUS.

If you look at the Big Bloom flower. . .the largest flower was cut from the CR. It was the exact shape as one of the flowers from the "Big Bloom" set. . .that's the reason why the flower looks so big. . .it's not the stamped image but a die-cut! I then layered the flower to give it a super-duper 3D appearance.

The sentiment "Smile" was cut from the CR. Although it looks "welded" together, it's actually separate alphabets in a True Type Script Font. I downloaded a whole bunch of free True Type Fonts to use with my CR. I mean there are literally thousands of TTF that you can use and they are all FREE! Forget buying one font style for $80. No not me. . .I'm too cheap for that!!!

Anyway, as I figure out the CR, I'll post new projects with it. By the way, I downloaded a free Diorama type of template and I had the CR cut it and it's awesome. . .no more having to create it myself!!!!

Oh. . .before I forget. . .did you know my husband had Adobe Photoshop all this time and never shared it with me. All this time I've had to manually type my stupid watermarks!!! That's totally not cool. Anyway, he installed the software and now, I'm able to embed my waterworks without having to type it for every picture! I'm still learning to use it so my watermark came out a little too small. That's okay. It's FABULOUS that I now have the program on my computer.

Currently, I'm reading (more like listening) the book "the Secret". I'm on chapter one and I'm going to listen to it everyday. We'll see if "the Secret" will work for me. . .:) Let me rephrase that. . ."I will follow the Secret and it WILL work for me"!!!!

I'm Back!!

Hi Everyone. . .I've been away for a couple of days because I was busy re-organizing my stamp room. What a pain but it had to be done. I didn't do any major revamping but what I did do is bring a bunch of stuff out of the closet and drawers and placed them on open shelves. I also organized some of things and put them in medium sized containers and placed them under my desk so they'll be easily accessible.

My biggest problem is when I buy a bunch of stuff, the first thing I do is place them in a drawer or stuff them in the closet. I was more concerned about "aesthetics" than I was about functionality. What resulted was I never use the stuff I buy because well as the saying goes "out of sight, out of mind".

I'm also getting ready for my Craft Robo to arrive. My husband was sweet enough to surprise me and buy me the Craft Robo. What the heck is a Craft Robo? Well, it's an electronic die-cut machine. . .actually, the Wishblade and Craft Robo are the exact machine. Xyron purchased the rights to design the Craft Robo to be sold in the US. The Craft Robo, albeit the same machine, is about $50 cheaper than the Wishblade. Go figure. Furthermore, Craft Robo comes with the software and Wishblade sells it separately.

I'm sure you're still confused as to what a Craft Robo is. Most of you are familiar with the Cricut machine. The difference between these two machines is that the Cricut requires purchases of additional cartridges which run about $60 to $89 a crack. The machines are the same price but the Craft Robo is connected to your computer and it works with any true font, shape, graphics, boxes, whatever that is on your computer. There's group sites on Yahoo that share shape, fonts, whatever so the possibilities are endless. You can cut at any size that fits the platform, I believe it's 8 x 39 inches.

Anyway. . .the only drawback is it can't cut chipboard. . .whaaa!! I think it can cut a very light chipboard but not a regular chipboard. It can cut through vellum, shrink plastic, thin foam, transparency sheets, etc. It's also not portable because it needs to be attached to your computer but if you have a laptop, then you'll be able to transport it around.

I'll update you folks on its performance and whether it was worth buying.

Random Card - Nice & Easy Notes

Just a quickie card I made about 1/2 an hour ago. "Nice & Easy Notes" is retiring by the way. This is an old set, it's time it retires.

The designer paper is by Autumn Leaves. Why do I use other brands of designer paper rather than the ones that Stampin Up sells? Ummmm. . .primarily because I already have a ton of designer paper that I have to use up. . .secondly, I hate to say this but SU designer paper is shhhhh. .. ..too expensive. Ignore what I just said if you're a customer. Honestly, I would have difficulties cutting them up knowing how much I spent for them. Yeah. . .that's the way I color my world.

Did you know that I have a hard time cutting up pretty designer papers? I'll go for the "not so pretty ones" first and find a way to design the card so it looks better. I don't know what my problem is about cutting up designer papers. I'm serious. . .I have a problem cutting them up. It literally hurts to cut up what I consider a piece of art. It's worse if they're expensive and double sided like the ones SU sells. I would probably buy them and never use them. If I could frame these beautiful designer papers and hang them in my house, I probably would but well, it would be ridiculous to hang up scrapbook paper. Am I the only one with this problem? Probably. . .I can be a bit quirky at times.

The Process of Creating A Project

How do I come up with projects? Well. . .I'll look at a material or tool, envision what I can make with it, then draw it on paper. I don't make it while I'm thinking about it because it may not come out as I envisioned and I'll end up wasting material which I absolutely hate doing.

The other night, I was thinking about making a box for a set of cards I wanted to make. I took what experience I had in creating boxes and drew up a plan as shown above. It's not very original nor complicated but it fit the amount of cards I wanted to store. After measuring and adding up the measurements (you need a little bit of math skills to create projects), I tried it out and it actually came out as I envisioned. The tutorial of this box is posted on my Card Inspired Blog Site so check it out if interested.

The two project layouts below are stuff I thought up and drew on paper but still need to create. I don't create everything I sketch. . .but it's good to have them for future reference. I think the process is similar to what fashion designers do. They envision a dress in their head, sketch the design on paper, then attempt to make it. Well. . .card design and projects work in the same way.

I'm inspired first and foremost by a material, image, color, or tool, then envision what can be created with these items whether it's actually possible or not. In order to preserve the idea, I draw it out, and if I'm in the mood, I'll try to create it as I drew it. 75% of the time, it actually comes together as I envisioned, 15% needs a bit of modification, and 10% are impossible or impractical. I have a whole bunch of these sketches and I've only created 25% of them. I only create tutorials that I know I can create quickly - the worst thing is to have a tutorial that requires so many steps that it becomes confusing.

Anyway. . .try out this process and see if you can come up with your own unique projects.

Guest Stamper - Tonilea

Look at what Tonilea created! Whoohoo! She did a wonderful job on the CD Envelope Shaker Card! I love the flowers and the beads! It's very pretty! It's wonderful she decided to try it out and I appreciate that she emailed me a picture of her card.

If interested in creating this project. . .Click Here for the Tutorial!! Thank you Tonilea! You did a wonderful job!

I also want to add that I posted a tutorial on Card Inspired. It's a tutorial on how to create a SUPER DUPER easy "Handmade Card Box". This box fits 4 to 5 handmade cards and envelopes. What I suggest is create a theme for the box and create 4 to 5 coordinating handmade cards. I think it's a a nice gift to give to a friend or family member. I used to buy card boxes which by the way is sometimes more expensive than all the cards I created for the box. I mean. . .that's ridiculous!! Anyway, check it out!!

Until later. . .