Saturday, December 12, 2009

"Grouping" in Design Studio - Snowflakes in Circles



The decorations are coming down from the attic fast and furious now - I want to get most of them up before I go to pick up our younger son for his Winter Break next week.  This stained glass Santa was a gift from my brother many years ago and always hangs in the kitchen window.



The next tree to go up is the "upside down" tree.  It has a base and two sections and it takes two of us to put it together.  This is the tree for all of the delicate glass ornaments - lots of room to dangle and out of reach for the smaller visitors!



I usually try to keep the lights on the top section and then rearrange them when the tree is assembled but this year I took them all off and started right from the top.  For the next few days we will enjoy the tree with lights only and then I will start adding the ornaments - it takes a couple of days to finish!

I did make a quick video showing how to make the snowflakes in circles.  These are what I call "adjustable" designs.  You can do some grouping in Design Studio but you need to plan and have the patience to do a lot of nudging!


 I hope you find this video helpful - I will try to make another one showing a more complicated grouped design soon.  I am limited to five minutes on a video so I may need to do this in parts.  I'd like to purchase some software that will make it possible for me to make longer videos but it is very expensive so that will have to wait a bit longer.

We have a lot of family plans for tomorrow but I want to try to get more holiday decorating done later in the day.  I hope you don't mind me posting the stages of decorating our house - it helps to motivate me to get things finished.  I know that many people put things up right after Thanksgiving, but we have always done it in gradual stages and then leave everything up well into January (the days are short, dark and cold and the lights just make things more cheery in the dead of winter).

I wonder how many of you are still decorating...

15 comments:

  1. Love checking out your Christmas decorations. It looks great. Normally I decorate and decorate but I have to carry everything up from downstairs and then try to pack it away downstairs and I just don't have the ----- to do it this year so I haven't even started. I'm sure I will do something -- just not sure what but bet I'll be doing something today.
    Merry Christmas!
    Nana Jo
    mmlmn@polarcomm.com

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  2. As I had said before, you & your brother are so talented!! The stain glass Santa is gorgeous!!!! I tried to watch your video, but I keep getting error, could be on my side, never know with my server :).

    As for decorating, just a few lights fixes outside (raining a bit here in GA), and basically we are finishing up our ornaments, cards, and starting with the baking.

    Hope your Sunday is wonderful Diane, thanks for sharing!!!

    Lisa

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  3. OMG that is SO clever :) I'll have to remember this and try it out on some things.
    But I really really do hope that PC will eventually give us the group option!!

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  4. Hi Diane! I am not done with my Christmas decorations either. When we thought we had the front yard done, some of the decorations had sections of lights that were not working. When I went to purchase more decorations (that I needed And I LIKED) they were all gone!!! I hope that today my sons put back in the storage the huge empty (decorations) plastic boxes that have been sitting around the whole house. I have to get my baking started by mid-week! Have a wonderful day!!! Martha Caballero

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  5. Hi Diane,
    Yes, I'm finished with the decorations. We live in Florida so outside decorating is easy (no snow). Every other year I do a "Snowman" theme and a "Tropical" theme. This year is snowmen. I have snowmen EVERYWHERE. What fun!
    I loved your video. Have been fooling around in Design Studio, but I'm not very creative with it yet. Your tutorials and video are sooooooooooooo helpful. Thank you and Merry Christmas!!

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  6. Very good video. I learn something every time I view your video. Thank you so much.

    Your stained glass Santa is beautiful! I just love it.

    Betsy

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  7. Not only did I enjoy your starting point of decorating your home, I certainly appreciate your video for making grouping snowflakes and anything else I want to do with grouping in the Design Studio.
    Merry Christmas and enjoy the festive season with your family and friends.
    Sincerely,
    Sher

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  8. Oh what beautiful decorations Diane. I can't hear you on the video. :-(

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  9. Ok I'm seriously loving your tree!!! and that stained glass santa is gorgeous! I am still working on all my decorations, I thought I was the last to get them up. I still have to get my cards done as well, Christmas is coming so soon and I have so much to do, yikes!!! TFS your beautiful decorations with us!

    Off to watch your video! :-)

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  10. Thanks for the great video - I always learn something new from you!

    I love your upside down tree! My SIL has one, but hers hangs. It's cool to see one with a stand. Love to watch as you decorate too.

    thanks again,
    BugHappy from cmb

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  11. Thanks so much for the video! I had been trying to figure that one out for a while now. By the way, can you please tell me the setting for cutting a mesh design? I deeply appreciate all you do for us Cricuteers out here!

    shortscrapper

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  12. Hi shortscrapper,

    The settings to cut the mesh designs would depend on the paper you were using for the design. I generally try to use a cardstock with a "hard" finish to cut an intricate mesh - sometimes the cheaper paper cuts better. I would avoid highly textured or thin paper so your blade will be less likely to snag.

    I generally have the pressure at high and the blade at 5 or 6 but you will need to experiment a bit with the specific paper. Be sure you have a nice sharp blade.

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  13. Thanks so much for the video. It is always interesting to learn something new and you make it easy to learn.

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  14. Hi Diane....THANK you so much for this video, I have been working on designs now for 3 hours for Valentines Day cards. You made this so easy for the rest of us!!!!Thanks again!! I'll be checking back to see what else you discover.

    denise

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  15. Thanks so much for this video. I created a few punches and couldn't adjust the card size as each element was separate. But now, I can adjsut to get whatever card size I need! Thanks again.

    Danielle

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