Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A Sad Update


I have been in Pennsylvania with my Dad for the past two weeks.   I went to help with his move to a new building in his retirement community.  When I arrived, I found that his health had declined dramatically since his hospitalization for the flu.  He entered hospice care and I was able to be with him for his final days.  This has been a very difficult time and my full attention was with my Dad and family.  We are all so sad to lose him but we have many wonderful memories. 

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch wondering where I was.  I will be back to blogging when I am able.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

Super Quick Silhouette Software Tip


Did you ever have an experience where you were talking to someone and you both thought you were talking about the same thing and then it suddenly became clear that you were talking about something completely different?

I was helping a friend with a question about the print and cut process with the Silhouette Studio software.  I kept telling her to click on the scissors icon in the top bar to open the Cut Style window so she could turn off one of the cut lines.  She kept telling me that when she clicked on the scissors, the design would completely disappear.  I was having a hard time figuring out how that could be happening.  Her software was up to date and nothing else seemed to be acting oddly...

Then we had an "aha" moment.  She was clicking on the scissors at the top left side of the screen and I meant that she should use the scissors on the top right side of the screen.  I always use the right click of my mouse to do "cut," "copy," or "paste."  I had never even noticed that there were icons on the top left side that you can use for these functions.

Here is a screen shot to show you how we got so mixed up...just click on the image to make it bigger and you will see the two sets of scissors.


So - we both were clicking on scissors.  We just had a "failure to communicate." 

I have had a lot of people asking me why I haven't made videos for a long time.  This experience convinced me that it might be a good idea to start doing some short videos again.  Please let me know in a comment if you would find this helpful for the Silhouette Studio program or any of the other programs that I use.

Just remember...

don't use these scissors...

don't use these scissors...

use these scissors to open the window to set the cut lines!


use these scissors to open the window to set the cut lines!

Video would have stopped this miscommunication before it could even begin...

I'll be driving south today so I won't be online very much.  The weather here has been abnormally mild so I won't have to worry about snow on the trip.  We actually got the outdoor decorations down today -in January!  (usually it is too cold and snowy to take them down).  The big ornaments from the front tree had to dry off for a while and I thought they were pretty sitting on the front steps.

Thanks for all of the good wishes for my Dad - I am eager to see him in person since it can be difficult to have more than a short conversation on the phone these days.

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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Cookies, 12 on the 12th and some shopping


We are nearly half way through the first month of the new year - and today is the twelfth of the month.  If you want to do the "12 on the 12" project again this year, it's time to take your photos.  I may make another attempt - I fizzled pretty quickly last year...

We are just about a month away from Valentine's Day and while transferring files to my new computer I came across some of my information about making special Valentine's Day cookies.  I thought I'd share a LINK back to the original post.  I used stencils cut from Martha Stewart Crafts Cricut Cake cartridges (the cake cartridges work on all machines and the Martha Stewart designs are wonderful).


The designs are drawn with special food color markers. They may not be available at a local shop so this will give you time to order online if you'd like to try doing these.  When I made the cookies I paid over $20 for the markers but you can find them on Amazon for much less.


Here is a link to the Amazon listings - Ateco Marker Style Food Color Kit

If you have a Silhouette machine, don't forget to pick up this week's free shape.  It is a card that has lots of pieces you can use to make other projects.  There is also a special sale on starting today on the Silhouette America site.  In celebration of CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association Winter Trade Show is happening now) they are offering a 40% discount on most items in the store.  Machines, download cards, gift cards, subscriptions and downloads are excluded from the sale.  There are a lot of codes that you can use to get the discount (they are affiliate codes from different sites) try JESSICA - it was working last night.  The sale runs until Thursday, January 17th.  The code is good for the Designer Edition of the Silhouette software if you are interested in upgrading from the free version.


Remember, Creative Memories has all sorts of albums on sale until January 21st.  Albums only go on sale a few times a year so this is a great chance to pick up what you need at a great savings.

The Album Sale includes:

12x12 Coversets
8x8 Album Sets
Pages, Page Protectors and Side-Loading Sleeves
PicFolio® Albums
Hardcover StoryBooks
Hardcover StoryBook product credits
Custom Albums
Custom Album product credits

If you do not have a relationship with a Creative Memories consultant to order with, I'd be happy to help you - just click HERE to go to the album sale page on my Creative Memories Personal Web Site.

click on the smiley face to find out how to get 28 pages done in one month and have a ton of fun doing it!

I recently mentioned that I have been taking some classes with Lain Ehmann.  I am really excited about the month long Layout a Day program that will be starting February 1st.  The theme for LOAD 213 is Scrap Happier and you can get more information HERE.  The group is almost full so don't miss the chance if you have been thinking about signing up.


Lain also offers free monthly "scrapinars" that cover a wide variety of interesting topics.  If you can't make the live class, you can watch the replay for a short time after the session (but only if you have preregistered).  These classes are so full of great information that Lain also makes the archives available for a low price.  You can read about all of the different classes HERE.

Right now she has a special deal to purchase individual classes for $7 each and a super special deal for all 9 classes for just $37 (just a bit over $4 each!). Some of the topics of the scrapinars include:

Take Amazing Project Photos with Nichol Magouirk
Get You Color On: Copic Coloring with Cara Miller 
Washi Tape Wahoo with Monica Bradford
Getting Organized for Project Life with Jennifer Woodbury
plus five more classes...

Click here to view more details    This deal is good until January 31, 2013.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend and that you are staying healthy.  My Dad has been discharged from the hospital and is back in the skilled nursing area of his retirement community.  I'll be heading south to spend some time with him next week.  I hope to have time to do some projects this weekend - it's fine to just leave the Christmas things up a while longer, right?!

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Friday, January 11, 2013

Birthday Cards for Men


Many cardmakers find that making cards for men is more difficult than making "female" cards.  There are so many beautiful floral papers, lace trims and ribbons, fancy die cut shapes and other blingy things that appeal to women but don't really "work" for many men.


My husband has two brothers with January birthdays and the colors for their cards were inspired by the national-home-improvement-store-with-the-orange-logo gift cards that will be inside the cards (hint, hint...).  I  was feeling a bit lazy and a bit guilty about the number of Cricut cartridges I own that I haven't used so I went to the "Birthday Bash" cartridge to find a sentiment.


This is another one of the "cute" cartridges and it contains lots of whimsical animals celebrating birthdays.  I was just looking for a quick sentiment and settled on "Happy Happy Birthday" on page 41.


 I have taken to using the Cricut machines primarily for plug and play cutting of images - I rarely use any of the Cricut Design tools these days.  I have found that other software programs give me much more freedom to create what I want but if I just want to cut out something quickly, I can usually find a cut that will work in my (too large) collection of cartridges. 

This phrase was meant to be used on the flag so I had to think about the sizing.  I was making a regular A2 card so I used "fit to length" and set the dial for 4 1/4 inches.  I had to make it longer to compensate for the flag pole being part of the image on that key.  The machine calculated a size of 5 3/4 inches for the cut.


I cut two mat layers for the card.  The base layer is orange cardstock and the top layer is a lighter gray.  I recently bought this embossing folder with the hexagon pattern.  I thought it would be suitably "hardware-like" since the shapes reminded me of nuts and bolts.


Whenever you use an embossing folder, you "emboss" one side (raise up the pattern) and "deboss" the other (press the pattern down into the cardstock).  The look can be very different.  In this case the debossed side (on the left) looked more like hardware nuts to me so I chose to place that side up one the card.


One problem with the sentiment I chose was the lack of a shadow layer.  In the Silhouette software I can add a shadow or offset of any shape or group of shapes with a quick click.  Despite years of requests, this is not possible with the Cricut software.  If there is not a true shadow, you can cut the same image twice and glue the two cuts together slightly off center to give a "sun shadow" effect.


You can see the dark gray shadow layer on the orange word cuts here.  I wanted the card to be more rugged and grungy so I used some Pumice Stone Distress Ink to ink the sentiment edges and the embossed hexagon layer.


 Here is a closer view of the "shadow" layer and the inking.


I didn't want to pretty up the card with ribbon but I remembered that there was an interesting trim in my last Webster's Pages warehouse sale box (the one at the top of this card of trims).


I cut a short length of the trim to fit the card front and clipped one row to make a three row stripe.  This width fit in the hexagon pattern more neatly and odd numbers are always better, right?


I had saved the dot for the exclamation point but I decided to cut just one shiny "rivet" from the extra trim and use it to make a more noticeable dot.


I needed a pocket to hold the gift card inside so I cut a strip of the orange cardstock at 2 x 5 inches and punched one edge with a deep edge punch.


The punch I used is from the Martha Stewart line and it is called "Triple Chain."  I think it looks like a chain link fence.  I am not sure if this is in stores yet, I fell for the HSN sales pitch and bought it as part of a multi shipment plan (as if I needed any more punches...)!


I used Scor-Tape on the bottom and sides of the pocket to hold the card securely.  On the top edges of the punched area I used a glue pen to hold the corners flat.


I keep this cardboard credit card from a mailing on my craft island so it is handy to test sizing for any gift card holders I want to put inside my cards.


I inked up the edges of the pocket with the same Pumice Stone distress ink.


I don't usually make two of the same card but since the birthdays are less than a week apart and the same gift was going to be inside each card it seemed like a good plan to make duplicates.  One card has a little extra decoration inside to mark a "milestone" birthday.

I was motivated to try to use a Cricut cartridge that I hadn't tried before but, in hindsight, I think I might have preferred to make my own sentiment using a stencil font from my computer and cutting it with the Cameo to get a better match for the "look" of the national-home-improvement-store-with-the orange-logo...  yup, totally wishing I had done it that way now(!)


Do you find it difficult to make cards for men?  What are some of your tips and tricks for keeping the cards from getting too frilly?


Thank you all so much for the kind words and prayers for my Dad.  He has improved considerably and we are hoping for a full recovery.  Please be careful and try to avoid catching this flu.  There are a lot of people affected and the germs can last for more than a day on surfaces so be sure to wipe things down and use hand sanitizer!

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

CHA Sneak Peeks


The Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Winter Show is earlier than usual this year - in fact it starts this Friday!  I wasn't at CHA last year because it was at exactly the same time as the PaperWorld Show in Germany which I attended with Mandy and Enfys (you'll find posts about that show in the archive for last February - click on February 2012 in the "Blog Archive" in the left side column and look closer to the beginning of the month).


Trade shows are great fun (and a lot of work).  You have the chance to meet up with all sorts of people in the industry, take classes and learn about the new products.  In Germany last year, I tried lots of new things and even did this oil painting!  (click HERE to read about that experience - I'll try anything once!).

Most of the manufacturers and designers have been revealing their new lines and products online already but I am sure there will be some fun surprises at the show.  Tim Holtz (who generates rock star excitement wherever he goes at the show and is amazingly patient and nice to everyone) has lots of goodies coming including new Distress Paints.  Check his blog HERE for the reveals he has done so far.

If you check lots of blogs you can piece together information about the new and interesting products but there are several places that will help you with shortcuts and links all in one place.  Scrapbook.com has a great page HERE with links to over 60 sites.  On Nancy Nally's Scrapbook Update site you can find the sneak peeks HERE.

Charity Wings is doing another Live from CHA event  - you can see all of the details on their blog HERE.  There will be three days of live streaming interviews and product showcases.  Kendra Wiggins has been making the most amazing angel wings for Elena to wear at CHA - there is a photo on her blog HERE and I have seen progress photos on Facebook showing the incredible beaded details.


I am still recuperating from this flu - so I guess it's a good thing that I hadn't planned on making the trip to California this time.  We had good news today - our son and daughter-in-law arrived back in San Francisco safely from their trip to India for a wedding.  We also had some sad news - my Dad has been admitted to the hospital in Pennsylvania with flu and pneumonia.  I don't know what the next few days will bring - we'll have to take it one day at a time.  The evening news led with a story about the flu epidemic last night - it's bad and may get worse as we are still early in the season.  At least he is in a room at the hospital not in the hallway or a tent. All of your thoughts and prayers are most gratefully accepted.

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Ready to Scrapbook?


Happy Monday!  

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but I have been missing in action.  On New Year's Eve I started sneezing shortly before midnight and by New Year's Day I had a full blown cold/flu - the kind that makes it difficult to move, breath or think!  I slept through most of last week and with the help of lots of orange juice, tea and medicine I am finally on the mend.  I hope that none of you have this bug - it is a particularly nasty one!  If you do catch it, try to get as much rest as possible and I hope you will feel better soon.

There are just a couple of things I want to let you know about this morning because they both are time sensitive - with special savings deadlines today!

click on the smiley face to find out how to get 28 pages done in one month and have a ton of fun doing it!

I know that a lot of you are like me and find that other craft projects have pushed scrapbooking to the side.  You may find that you are a great accumulator of supplies but you spend more time reorganizing your "stuff" than you spend using it to make pages.  The whole idea of scrapbooking may have become overwhelming because you have spent so much of your time looking at "professional" layouts and that makes you worry that your pages are not good enough.  It's time to put the fun back into scrapbooking and actually get your photos and your stories onto pages and into albums.

If one of your 2013 goals is to do more scrapbook pages you should definitely consider signing up for the Layout a Day program originated and led by Lain Ehmann.  This takes place for the entire month of February and by the end of the month you could have 28 completed pages - and also learn some things about being happy since the theme of the February 2013 Layout a Day Challenge is "Scrap Happier."   There are daily video prompts with short lessons, sample pages, a private message board and gallery where you can share your pages with fellow class members, and random prizes and surprises!

I have taken a couple of courses with Lain and she is energetic, inspiring and just fun to watch and listen to.  February can be a dark and dull month and I am sure that this class will change your attitude and help you to be both productive and happy.  Rather than listen to me go on and on, you should click HERE to listen to watch a short video where Lain explains the class and read the information about how it works.  The time sensitive part that I mentioned earlier is that if you sign up by midnight today (Monday, January 7, 2013) and use the code "FUN" you will get $10 off - a 20% savings.  I'll be taking the class and I hope to see some of you there too (there is an online gallery and message board where we will share our pages).

click on the smiley face to find out how to get 28 pages done in one month and have a ton of fun doing it!

Once you make all of those pages - you'll need albums to put them in...


...and Creative Memories has all sorts of albums on sale until January 21st.  Albums only go on sale a few times a year so this is a great chance to pick up what you need at a great savings.

The Album Sale includes:

12x12 Coversets
8x8 Album Sets
Pages, Page Protectors and Side-Loading Sleeves
PicFolio® Albums
Hardcover StoryBooks
Hardcover StoryBook product credits
Custom Albums
Custom Album product credits

If you want to make a digital book or a custom album cover but don't have your project finished, you can order a product credit now and order it as soon as you finish - product credits are good for 180 days and can not be extended so be sure that you can have the project finished in time.

All of these albums are 20% off until January 21st but if you order today (before 10 p.m. Central) you will get an additional 10%  off.

The Album Sale 10% bonus ends Monday January 7 at 10:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.

If you do not have a relationship with a Creative Memories consultant to order with, I'd be happy to help you - just click HERE to go to the album sale page on my Creative Memories Personal Web Site.


This is the custom album I had made using a favorite photo from our son's wedding (the original post about this album with a few more photos is HERE).  You can use a full bleed photo (like this), drag and drop photos into premade templates in the Digital Center or create your own personalized cover using scrapbook papers and elements in the StoryBook Creator 4.0 program.

I haven't been on my computer for days so please give me a chance to catch up with all of the email - I should be able to answer everything by the end of today...

Stay healthy!

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013 - A New Year!


I want to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year - Happy 2013!


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