Capadia Designs

Something Funny for Saturday...

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this in a shop window when I was in town doing errands before my trip. It made me laugh and I thought I'd share it with you.

The "Wee Forest Folk" are collectible figures that are made by a family in the neighboring town of Carlisle, Massachusetts. They have been making these figures since the early 1970's. You can see their website HERE.

The mice are holding an "Occupy Walden Street" protest. The signs say things like "more cheese" and "no more fat cats." It made me smile and I hope it makes you smile too.

By now we should know our way around Frankfurt pretty well. In addition to the trade show, I'd like to do some sightseeing and shopping around town. We'll have to see how much time we have (the show looks like it is very large!).

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Easy Valentine's Day Wreath

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today will be my first full day in Germany. Before I left, I changed the wreath on the front door. It will be February 1st when I get back with only a couple of weeks left to show some love for Valentine's Day!

Quite a few years ago, I bought a round wreath of pink hydrangeas at a store like Home Goods or Marshall's. When I brought it home, I simply bent the base into the shape of a heart. This is the underside of the wreath so you can see the shape - it isn't perfect but close enough!

You just need to adjust the flowers on the top side to try to get the heart shape to show clearly.

From a distance, the heart shape is pretty easy to see. I like the way the pink looks on our blue door. It is a nice fresh change from the evergreen, ivy and gold that we have up during the Christmas holidays.

Our entry is recessed (in the very practical New England style) so I don't have to worry about the wreath getting wet. This sort of wreath is usually inexpensive - maybe around $10 (I don't remember exactly what I paid since it has been quite a few years).

Here is another wreath that is easy to make. It is just a coat hanger shaped into a heart with strips of red and white fabrics knotted around the frame. The fabric is cut with a pinked edge and the patterns are alternated. I made this in a crafting group I belonged to when we lived in England and I don't have the exact details but it would be easy to duplicate.

There are a couple of tiny wooden hearts that are painted red and tied with ribbons to dangle in the center of the wreath. An extra bow with several loops is tied to the point of the heart. The fabric strips are about five inches long and an inch wide for this wreath of about eight inches. You would just adjust the sizes to suit the finished size you would like for your wreath.

Do you do a lot of decorating for Valentine's Day? I am definitely going to check out the German decorations. I can't remember exactly what the did for Valentine's Day - I know that Easter decorations were very elaborate (at least in the town where we lived).

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On my way to Germany

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'll be flying to Germany today - and arriving very early on Friday (on an overnight flight). I hope to be able to make some quick posts while I am away but I am not sure how easy it will be to get to the blog. We will probably have very full days with three trade shows to attend!

I have scheduled some posts that should appear regularly while I am away. I am not taking a computer with me but I will have my phone and should be able to check email when I have wifi available. I will try to post some photos during the week on Facebook. I am not sure how much we will be allowed to photograph at the trade show but I'll do my best to share any interesting "finds" with you all.

If you are a Facebook friend or a "fan" of the Capadia Designs Facebook Page, you might see some photos there (I know that not everyone uses Facebook but it may be easier to post that way while I am away). I'll definitely fill you in on all of the things we see when I get back. I'll be returning to the US on February 1st - my fourth Blogoversary - and there will be a fun celebration the first week I am back!

The photo above is from when we lived in Germany (from 1992-1995). Three generations on the balcony outside our house in the tiny village of Aidlingen-Deufringen. The little one in lederhosen is now a college graduate!

LAST CHANCE FOR SALE: I want to remind you that the Creative Memories 20% off album sale ends today, Thursday, January 26th at 11:59 Central Time. If you like these albums (I think they are the best available), this is a good time to stock up on pages, protectors and coversets. If you don't have a Creative Memories consultant that you work with, I'd be glad to help you. You can click HERE to go to my Creative Memories personal website.

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Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Foam Pads

2012-01-25T18:00:00.000-05:00

After reading Monday's post about organization, a few people asked for photos of the way I attach the foam pads to my Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads. So I quickly took a few photos - I hope they help make it easier to see how simple it is to do this.

You can buy hook and loop fastener (Velcro) at a sewing store. Some is sold in dots or tabs and it also comes in long strips. I had some strips left over from another project. You only need the "hook" side (but of course, I saved the "loop" side - it may come in handy for something!).

Just cut the strip of the hook side into small rectangles - about 1/2 inch or so in length.

I use the 1/2 inch wide Scor-Tape to adhere the loops to the stamp pad base. It is a strong adhesive and should stay put if you are careful when you remove the pad from the base.

You can add the loops anywhere on the back - I tend to put it to one side but it doesn't really matter.

The foam pad that you have used for this color will always be handy and you can quickly put it on the wooden handle to work on your project.

I have just a few handles, enough for now and I can add a few more from time to time so I can keep the colors I use the most ready to go. I don't think I'll ever have a handle for every color - they take up a lot of space and I'd rather save the money for another crafty purchase!

I hope the photos helped - it is quick and easy to set up this system. I still have to redo the rack for holding the ink pads. I'll post that when I finish it.

I am busy packing and trying to make sure I don't forget anything - less than 24 hours until I fly to Germany!

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Catching Up - Simple Treat Holder

2012-01-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

I had a rather crazy day, lots of errands, a follow up appointment for my hand surgery that took much longer than expected (everything is fine - they were just really backed up...) and lots of other last minute things to do before I leave for Germany on Thursday.

I had planned to post something new that I just designed. I didn't get a chance to do the test cut so I thought I'd give a link back to a simple and cute treat holder I made for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago. You will find the full post with the directions and file for making the treat holder HERE.

In the same post you'll find the file and directions for making these heart lanterns...

...and a card you can make with the "leftovers."

It's hard to believe how quickly January has flown by. It really doesn't feel like winter this year - the temperature was in the mid 50's today and nearly all of the snow is gone again.

I hope to get a little crafting time in on Wednesday - but the packing has to be done first!

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Getting Organized - Ranger Stickles and Inks

2012-01-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

I have been adding more Distress Inks to my supplies. I like experimenting with various techniques and the colors are so beautiful. I also have a pretty good size collection of Stickles that I have built up over the years. I decided it was time to tackle the organization of these items. For the most part, I have been keeping them in JetMax cubes and that works fine. The difficulty comes in remembering the shades of the colors - some of them are only slightly different and the names can be confusing.

I started out labeling the distress ink pads with my Dymo Labelmaker. The tapes for this gadget are fairly pricey and I wanted to be able to label all four sides to make it easier to put them away. This would take quite a bit of tape so I looked for an alternative.

I discovered that there are a series of charts and labels available to download from the Ranger Ink site. Just click HERE to go the the page on the site where you can find lots of free label sheet PDFs that work with Avery brand 5267 labels for your ink pads. These labels are 1/2 inch by 1 3/4 inch and there are 80 labels on a sheet so another brand might work if you can't find Avery labels.

There are also color charts for lots of other Ranger products. You can print these and add the colors you own for a handy reference when working on a project or shopping.

When I was at CHA last year, I had a chance to make a few of these charts. Tim Holtz actually autographed the Distress Stain chart at the top right. It's very handy to grab the chart and check colors. For the stain, we did samples on sticky back canvas as well as directly on the cardstock.

I have done my Liquid Pearls and Stickles so far. I have a Stickles color called "gunmetal" that wasn't on the chart so I added it at the top. I am also not sure if "midnight blue" (on the chart) and "dark blue" (on my bottle) are the same color but it was the only spot left so I put it there.

You can see the effect of the liquid pearls very clearly on the chart.

When you fill up the chart be sure to go in order from top to bottom so you hand won't bump into wet Stickles! All of the clear colors are across the bottom row.

I did a post a couple of years ago that shows the differences between the various clear colors - if you missed that post you can find it HERE.

One more tip for using the Distress Ink pads. If you have the room and the funds, you could buy a handle for each color and keep the foam pad on it for easy use. I only have a few handles and I just keep the foam pieces tucked under each ink pad (the base is recessed just the right amount). You can add a small velcro dot (the loopy side) to keep the foam pads attached to the correct ink pad.

Thanks to the Ranger Company for providing these easy charts and labels - it helps all of us to get (and we hope - stay!) organized. It also shows you which colors you still need - I think I'll have to go find the Liquid Pearl and Stickle colors that I am missing!

(did you hear the latest news - they are adding Distress Markers to the line - see HERE - one more thing to organize!)

A couple of notes...

I want to remind you that the Creative Memories 20% off album sale will be ending on Thursday, January 26th. If you like these albums (I think they are the best available), this is a good time to stock up on pages, protectors and coversets. If you don't have a Creative Memories consultant that you work with, I'd be glad to help you. You can click HERE to go to my Creative Memories personal website.

Thanks to those of you who ordered through me on the surprise five day sale earlier this month. I know there were issues with the servers being overloaded and I was happy to help those of you who contacted me get your orders through. The shipping is taking longer than usual due to the huge volume of sales - thanks for being patient. I have a couple of orders from the 15th that don't show shipping information yet but I know that everyone is pitching in at CM to get the orders out as quickly as possible!

Also, Blitsy keeps adding interesting items for sale each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today they added the Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue line - I couldn't resist and ordered some of this adorable paper along with a variety of embellishments.

If you haven't joined this free membership shipping site, please use my link below to sign up

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

Once you have joined, you can get your own referral code and invite your friends and family. When someone you refers makes their first order of $10 or more, you will get a $10 credit to spend on the site. If you are a Facebook user, be sure to go "like" their page and then check in the left side column for a fan coupon code that will give you and extra 10% off on your first purchase.

Christmas is almost all back up in the attic - things are starting to look more normal around here!
Just a few days until I leave for the trade shows in Germany. I'll do my best to post while I am away but there may be some delays. I will definitely tell you all about it when I get back next week!

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Sunday in New England

2012-01-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for the lovely compliments on the photos I shared on Saturday. I am finally catching up with reviewing and editing the photos from our trip to Spain and I am happy to know that you enjoy seeing some of them. I am trying to get more of my personal projects finished this year.

When I was at church this morning I thought about the difference between our fairly typical small town New England church and the cathedral in Toledo. I know it is comparing apples to oranges but I thought I'd post a few photos to share with you all. Many of you have written to say that you also enjoy seeing photos of Concord, the historic town where we live in Massachusetts.

It was a glorious winter day with a brilliant blue sky. Our church is quite typical with a tall steeple and bell tower and a long side extension for the Sunday school classrooms and offices.

There are four tall arched windows on each side of the sanctuary. The glass is plain and allows plenty of light to enter. There are also simple sconces and chandeliers.

There is a balcony across the back of the church. When I was a child I loved to sit in the balcony of our church in Pennsylvania and look down over the congregation.

Through the door on the right is the Church Library and the Fellowship Hall is through the door on the left. There are usually simple flower arrangements on stands in the front and when there are new babies born to members of the Church and their families, a rose is placed on the altar table. Today there were two roses, including one for the first grandchild of our senior minister.

The walls are plain and the woodwork is very simple. It is painted a slightly rosy shade of white in contrast to the walls. The choir sings from this loft and the organist somehow manages to play and conduct with her back to the singers!

There are no fancy ceilings but this skylight is very pretty. Simple lines without much ornamentation - a very typical New England Protestant Church.

Just a quick reminder...

There are a few days left to take on the challenge I gave you in the beginning of the month. Thanks to Emily and Jules who have posted their links already. I have extended the date until February 1st when I return from Germany - I am sure that I'll be able to find a great prize while I am there.

You can find the original post with all of the details HERE. I'd love to see some more people take the challenge - maybe I gave you too long to do it (should I give a shorter deadline next time?).

For those of you on the email subscription - my timing is a bit off for the past few days. I will be posting a Monday organization idea later in the day and then will try to get back on the 6 a.m. release timing for the rest of the week and while I am away.

February 1st, the day I return from Germany, will be the fourth anniversary of my blog. I have a blogoversary celebration planned with some fun prizes for three lucky people. I am really excited to have a chance to thank all of you who take the time to read and comment on my blog and I hope you will join in the fun!

The photo at the top of this post is of our neighbor's fence. I love seeing the little "caps" of snow on the fence posts!

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Toledo Cathedral

2012-01-21T18:00:00.000-05:00

I hope you are having a good weekend. We had a decent amount of snowfall and it finally feels like winter around here! Today I have some photos from our trip to Spain last November to share. We spent part of one day visiting the city of Toledo.

We spent a lot of time in the Cathedral in Toledo. It was very beautiful with elaborate carvings, statues and paintings. Before we visited the city, we had lunch at a hotel on the opposite hill so we had a chance to get a great overview of the city. (The cathedral is a little left of center in this photo).

The weather was fine and we were lucky to have a bright blue sky - here is a closer view of the tower.

On of the first areas we visited was a treasure room. There were incredibly ornate medallions and crosses.

I think that the designs of these crosses would make interesting cutting files.

The amounts of gold and silver and the precious gemstones used for these items are overwhelming.

I think illuminated manuscripts are fascinating - this Bible was beautiful with lots of gold and great details.

The ceiling in this room was incredibly intricate.

It is tricky to get a good photo of a ceiling - I was leaning back so far that the Japanese tour group was very amused! You can also try putting the camera on the floor and shooting straight up.

Here are a few more ceiling shots - they had such beautiful patterns and designs.

These enormous cherub or angel heads along the arches were very interesting.

This was one of the most ornate cathedrals I have visited.

There were incredible carvings in the choir area depicting various castles and fortresses.

Some of the armrests were shaped as imaginary animals.

Here are some intricate inlaid patterns and carvings on the underside of a lectern.

Another lectern with an amazing bird.

I thought this star pattern in some floor tile was very striking.

These look like they could be painted but they are actually done with inlaid stone.

The floral swag border here is one of my favorites.

There are carvings and statues everywhere.

Many different Madonnas can be found in various chapels.

One of the most amazing areas was this section where the statues and painted figures rise to the ceiling and then are continued as painted images and frescoes.

It can be confusing to tell which images are painted and which are three dimensional. They seem to morph before your eyes.

I hope you can get a sense of this - the contrast in the light made it very difficult to get a photo that shows everything clearly. It might be easier to get a good photo on a cloudy day.

One more unusual feature was this enormous figure on one section of the wall. I don't think I have ever seen something on this scale.

This is just a small sampling of images from the cathedral. I hope you found them interesting. I am sure I could go again and find many more fantastic things to photograph.

Toledo is also known for marzipan.

We bought some delicious marzipan candy at this shop and they had a model of a city gate - made completely of marzipan in the window! (After showing gummy bears and a gingerbread house on the first two Saturdays, I had to sneak in a little candy here too!).

I am busy getting ready for my trip and also catching up on posting my Project 366 photos - I sure could use more hours per day! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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Successful Search and Hello Thursday

2012-01-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much to everyone who posted or emailed me with helpful suggestions about finding my missing receipt. I do appreciate all of you for looking out for me!

Good news - I found the receipt! Inside the folder for the camera was the original ad from the week I bought the camera. It showed a package deal with a "free" photo printer - free after you mailed in a rebate form. Then I remembered - I did get the printer and send in for the rebate - Aha! I looked and found another file for the photo printer and there were copies of all the rebate paperwork and the original camera receipt.

I still don't know if the repair will be covered under the warranty but it is worth a try. Apparently the plastic used in the mounting mechanism is known to get brittle. So now I have to wait and see - and I just have to use the small camera in the meanwhile.

I think it often doesn't matter which camera you use if you have good photo editing software and are comfortable with using it. Here is a quick example...

I took this photo of some of the Russian Santa figures that I have collected over the years. I wanted to photograph them all before putting them away so I can do a layout for my book of collections. There are in front of a window and I didn't want to use a flash - as you can see the lighting is terrible!

Here is the same photo after cropping, adjusting the light levels, sharpening, and adjusting the colors and contrast. I don't use Photoshop - I use the Creative Memories Memory Manager program to organize and edit my photos. I think it is much easier to learn and faster to use.

I am sure I could get a better photo with my D40 - but for now the Coolpix will have to do. If the repair is not covered by the warranty I will have to decide whether to buy a new lens. Please keep your fingers crossed that they fix it under warranty - a new lens would be several hundred dollars!

Hello Thursday

Yesterday was the third Thursday of the month - and the day when new cartridges are announced by ProvoCraft. There are ten new cartridges.

Full Cartridges:

Letter Envy (the exclusive Cricut Circle cartridge for the next quarter)
Elmo and Friends Holiday
Type Candy
Olé

Lite Cartridge:

Fun in the Sun

Project and Event Cartridges:

My Quiet Book
Baby Shower
Bridal Shower
Giant Flowers

Imagine Cartridge:

Greeting Cards Inside and Out

Click HERE to go to the Hello Thursday page on the Cricut.com site. You will see colorful boxes with the names of each cartridge on the shelves. Click on a cartridge box and a pop up window will show you the "look book" for that cartridge.

You can see some projects made with these cartridges on the Official Cricut Blog HERE.

Joy (Obsessed with Scrapbooking) and Melanie (Courtney Lane Designs) will be posting projects on their blogs over the next few days.

I haven't really had a chance to look carefully at this latest round of cartridges. At first glance there isn't anything I can't live without but I'll need to look more carefully. Are there any that you particularly like?

Travel Plans:

I am not going to the Winter CHA show in California. At this time next week I will have arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. I'll be meeting up with Mandy from Scrappy-go-Lucky in Australia and Enfys (Going Buggy) is coming from England. We will be attending several trade shows (PaperWorld, CreativeWorld, ChristmasWorld) and we'll be looking for the latest and greatest trends from Europe. I'll try to post some updates while I am there - there should be good internet availability.

It's snowing and accumulating - the most snow we've had this winter. Stay safe if you are in a snowy place.

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Something to think about...

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

I was searching for something on and off all day on Wednesday - and thinking about organization...

I called a photo repair shop and found out that Nikon has a five year warranty on their lenses. In order to send my broken lens in for repair, I need the original receipt and some other paperwork that came with the camera. No problem, I thought - I save everything (those of you who know me in real life know that this is true!).

I found all of the other paperwork, a neatly labelled file folder that says "Diane's New Nikon" (with the ad for the camera from 2007) but I still can't find that receipt. I have discovered through my searching that I have entirely too many outdated and useless bits of paper stashed around our house. In addition to reorganizing the craftroom, I need to do some serious purging all through the house. (Middle School newsletters when your youngest is a college graduate - it's time to let go!).

I will find that receipt. It must be here somewhere (though why it is not in the file or with the other papers is a mystery). The interesting thing is that I have come across all sorts of other things while I have been looking for that elusive receipt. Some are "priceless" and and some are ridiculous (the schedule of events at the public library from three years ago...). I'll keep looking until I find it and try to get rid of all of the outdated stuff that is just taking up space.

However...

This was the daily quote in the Boston Globe on Wednesday. When I first read it in the morning I hadn't started on my search for the receipt. I assumed it would be in the file and it would only take a few minutes to track it down.

What this quote made me think about was the state of my crafting island. You may have noticed that the photos of the trimmer storage were pretty tightly cropped. That's because the top of the island is usually covered (and I mean really fully covered!) with bits and pieces from recent projects, things I just purchased and haven't put away, notes with ideas I want to try - you name it - it lands on the island.

While it is very untidy, I often find that when I am putting together a card or another project, some little bit or piece on the island gives me a great idea and helps me to create something that is better than what I may have originally planned. So the "things in my way" do lead to some happy accidents.

So the question is - how do you find the balance between having everything neatly put away (so there is no chance of having a "happy accident") and total chaos with the risk that you will never find what you are looking for?

What do you think? (...has anyone seen my receipt?)

Please leave a comment - I'd love to hear what you think about creating and keeping the balance between order and chaos. If you just wanted to see something cute or pretty today - here is a card I made a couple of years ago - you'll find the original post HERE.

Have a great day!

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Fresh and Pretty Love You Card

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! I have been busy sorting and organizing around the house (and yes, I am still taking down Christmas!). We do finally have snow on the ground (not much) and it feels more like winter. I promised that today I'd give more details about the second card I made for the Creative Charms blog.

Here are all of the cardstock layers. The card is a vertical A2 card (4 1/4 x 11 inches folded in half). The printed paper was cut to center the design so it is a bit narrower than the usual cuts at 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. The white layer is 4 x 5 1/2 inches, the aqua layer is 3 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches.

The patterned paper is from the Enjoy the Seasons imagine cartridge. I printed a full sheet to use for several projects. The pink and aqua cardstock is from a Martha Stewart value pack - these colors were a great match for the Imagine printed paper.

I wanted to use the Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon as a border on the patterned paper so I added 1/8 inch Scor-Tape along the two long edges of the paper.

I peeled off the Scor-Tape on one edge and carefully lined up the edge so that one row of dots was showing. I also tried to make the scallops line up with the end of the cardstock.

If you look carefully at the patterned paper you can see that the vines come together to form some heart shapes - three are visible on the card front.

If your pieces are slightly off (a little movement while trimming can cause this) you can just neaten up the edge with a quick cut across all of the layers after assembly. I added the white cardstock layer to give a nice clean edge between the bright colors and to echo the white scallop of the ribbon.

Can you see the three full hearts formed by the vines?

I cut the sentiment from the same pink cardstock as the card base with the Cuttlebug Love Language die. The busy patterned paper makes it a little bit difficult to see the words.

There is no shadow option when using the dies so I just cut another set of the same words with white cardstock.

By offsetting the two sets of words, I was able to create a sort of "drop shadow" which helps to make the words more legible against the busy paper.

These Groovy Petals string flowers are a great match for the printed cardstock. I removed the brad from the larger flower and put the two sizes together with the pink brad from the smaller flower.

I used a small square of 1/2 inch Scor-Tape to adhere the flowers to the center of the card between the three hearts.

The finished card is cute and casual - perfect to brighten up a winter day!

There should be some new deals up later today on Blitsy. If you haven't joined this free membership bargain shopping site yet, please use my link to sign up.

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

Once you have joined, you can refer friends and family to earn credits that you can use to shop on the site. If you "like" Blitsy on Facebook, you can also get a fan code for a discount on your first purchase.

Are you working on any organization projects? Every magazine I see seems to have articles about getting your home into shape. I am hoping that I'll be able to put my hands on the receipt for my camera - it turns out there is a five year warranty on the lens so I may be able to get the lens repaired by Nikon. I found all of the other paperwork but the receipt wasn't there - it is here somewhere! Yet another reason to keep your files in good shape - I am sure I wouldn't have thrown the receipt away...but where is it...?

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Valentine Cards with Creative Charms

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is my day to post my projects for Creative Charms. The Design Team has been creating lots of great projects - if you haven't checked out the Creative Charms blog lately be sure to hop over to see what is new.

I made two cards that will be perfect for Valentine's Day. This is the more formal card with a medallion created with Spellbinder's dies. I'll give the details for this card to day and post more about the second card tomorrow.

I was able to pick up this set of dies with a 50% off coupon last week. There are four circle dies with heart details around the edges. The larger two dies cut tiny hearts on the edge of the circle and the two small dies emboss hearts on the edge of the circle.

I cut the circles using Core'dinations gemstone cardstock and found that the small pieces stayed lodged in the die. This might not happen with lighter weight cardstock.

The dies are made with holes that allow you to poke out the small shapes that are stuck after the cut. A pair of tweezers or another pointed tool will help you to quickly pop out these pieces.

If you pop out the outer ring of shapes first, you will have a nice little group of 20 tiny hearts to use for another project. You could also save the triangle shapes to use for confetti in a shaker card.

Here is one of the smaller circles with the hearts embossed (they are really too small to be done as cuts).

I added pink Gradient Pearl Stickers in alternating sizes to the outer ring of hearts on the largest circle.

The smaller ring is accented with the smallest clear Gradient Gem Stickers.

I used lots of foam dots to raise the large medallion from the card front.

The second circle is also raised with foam circles and a red Vintage Velvet Poppy is fastened in the center. I pierced a hole in the center with a sharp tool before inserting the brad of the flower.

The base card is white cardstock cut at 5 x 10 inches for a 5 x 5 inch square card. The red layer is cut at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches and the heart patterned paper (from K and Company) is cut at 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches.

You can add a verse or sentiment to the inside of the card and leave the front of the card as is - it could even be framed or used in a shadowbox after the holiday.

This is the second card I made - I'll post the measurements and directions tomorrow. Do you recognize the patterned paper?

It snowed again last night but the temperature should be in the 40's today so it won't last. In a little over a week I'll be getting on a plane to go to Germany. I hope all of the snow will stay away - there is nothing worse than being stuck in an airport with a weather delay!

Have you started on Valentine's Day cards yet? Do you make a lot or just a few for the very special people in your life?

Have a wonderful crafty day!

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Getting Organized - Trimmers and more

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope that those of you who have a holiday from work today for Martin Luther King Day are enjoying your long weekend. I decided to share something about how I organize my craft space each Monday. People always are interested to see how others put their work areas together (I love looking at other craft rooms!). Maybe some of the things I do will work for you or give you an idea to make your space function better so you can spend more time being creative.

My very handy husband built this wonderful crafting island for me a couple of years ago. It was quite a project and there are several posts showing the steps along the way. You can click HERE to go to the posts labeled P - Craft Island, just scroll to the bottom and work your way up to see it come together in the proper sequence. It has been filled up to overflowing - this photo was taken before the top was added and I started "moving in" to the cubbyholes. There are lots more details in the old posts but it is basically three Expedit bookcases from Ikea - two 2 x 4 and one 2 x 2 - arranged on a wheeled platform with a large top made from plywood (not in this photo). If you go back to the other posts you can see how it came together.

I do most of my crafting at this island - I usually stand when I work - and I take most of the photos for the blog here too (I'll show you what I use for that another day). I need to keep some basic tools very handy but out of my way. I had this office file holder around the house (you can buy similar ones at an office supply store) and one day I realized that it would be a great help to keep my trimmers, tape guns, cutting mats and scoring board handy and easy to reach. (I realized when uploading these photos that it is a little dusty - the flash shows off some dust I didn't see!).

The file sorter has a heavy weighted base so it is very stable. It is about 12 inches wide and fits in one of the sections of the Expedit bookcase (from Ikea) with a little room to spare on each side.

I keep most of my small trimmers, two tape guns (with different adhesive), some extra self healing cutting mats (for using with an Exacto knife or the Creative Memories Custom Cutting System) and my Martha Stewart Score Board neatly stored and ready to grab in this section.

Here I have pulled the file holder out a little so you can see things a bit better. I don't use the Martha Stewart board as often as my Scor-Pal - the Scor-Pal stays in one corner on top of the island almost all of the time. Each of these four 12 inch trimmers has one thing that they do best - my dream is to find one that can do it all! The small Creative Memories Personal Trimmer (with the star) is great for trimming down photos or mats for cards.

Here you can see some of the surrounding cubes in the island base. I am reorganizing some of them but will share more photos of all of the things this island holds in future posts. There are some drawer units available for the Expedit and I have four sets of two drawers that help keep some smaller things handy (regular tape runners, glue dots, Scor-Tape, and some hand held tools like my Crop-A-Dile).

It may seem like a lot of space is used for just these tools but I find it very helpful to have them so close. I can grab the tool I need without even looking since they are always in the same order. As I look at these photos, I am realizing that I just might be able to put a shallow container below the file holder - I think there would still be room to easily grab the tools...(I will have to take another look at this tomorrow!).

Update on Creative Memories SALE

I had planned to take Sunday "off" but there were issues with the Creative Memories website and I posted late on Sunday to let you know that they have extended the sale prices until tonight (Monday the 16th) at 8 p.m. Central Time. There were a lot of problems with the servers and they had IT people working as quickly as they could to try to sort things out. So this is the absolute last chance to take advantage of the 25% off nearly everything sale. The exclusive CM Cricut cartridges are $41.25 at the sale price (instead of $55) - the best price ever for these cartridges.

There is more information about the cartridges in my first post about the sale, just click HERE to see that post.

If you were trying to order and couldn't get through, please click HERE to go to my Creative Memories personal website where you can place an order and have it shipped directly to your address. All of the cartridges are located on THIS PAGE of my personal website. The January sale on albums will continue until January 26th but the sale price will go back to 20% off instead of 25%. Some Picfolio Albums (the non-expandable type) will remain at 40% off until the 26th.

Thanks to everyone who has placed an order on my site. I appreciate your support and will be happy to help you with any questions or problems.

I have some of the prettiest pink and red goodies sitting on my table - part of the project for tomorrow's post...

If you are an email subscriber, there may be two posts in this email since I posted late in the day on Sunday - just keep scrolling down to see everything - thanks!

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Sunday Sale Update

2012-01-15T22:10:00.000-05:00

I decided that this year I would be little more relaxed about posting on my blog. After three years of not missing a single day, I thought it would be best to take it a bit slower - at least on the weekends. So I had planned to take Sunday "off." I am working on my page for the second week of Project 366 and may post it later today or tomorrow.

The main reason I am posting now is to let you know that there have been issues with the Creative Memories sites today and many people have not been able to place their orders. Earlier today, Creative Memories posted on Facebook that they have IT personnel working on solving the problems and that they will extend the sale to allow those of you who haven't been able to get an order to go through to take advantage of this great 25% off sale.

UPDATE - Here is the information that was just posted on Facebook:

The Creative Memories 25% off Celebration Sale has been extended on your Consultant's Personal Websites, creativememories.com and the Digital Center until 8:00 p.m. CST Monday Jan. 16. We apologize for any inconveniences you have experienced on our websites.

If you were trying to order and couldn't get through, please click HERE tomorrow to go to my Creative Memories personal website where you can place an order and have it shipped directly to your address. All of the cartridges are located on THIS PAGE of my personal website.

I hope you are having a nice weekend and that you enjoy the holiday Monday (if it is a holiday for you).

The image at the top of this post is a bit of ironwork from a door that we saw in Jaén, Spain. I am planning to turn it into a paper cutting file - remember, inspiration is everywhere!

Speaking of inspiration - I hope some more of you will take up the challenge to make something using the colors and shapes of my pin as inspiration. Click the image above or HERE to go to the post with the details and to link up your project. You don't need a blog to join in and there will be a small prize chosen by random draw for one of the people who try the challenge.

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An Amazing Gingerbread House

2012-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday and welcome to another post sharing something interesting that I have photographed. I hope you enjoy looking at this amazing creation and find some inspiration from the details of the design.

A local doctor does something incredible for the Concord Library each holiday season. Dr. Andrea Resceniti, a surgeon at Emerson Hospital, makes an enormous gingerbread house that is displayed in the front room of the library. She starts baking the gingerbread and assembling the house early in the fall. I don't know how she finds the time to make and donate these houses but the entire community gets so much enjoyment from her work. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of this creation until last week. It still has a delicious aroma - it is a real gingerbread house with incredible details.

These four photos show the full view of each side of the house:

The house is very large and there are so many details. I did some close up shots to give you a better look at the individual parts.

Santa and his sleigh...

Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer are around the corner on the roof.

One of several gumdrops trees. Even the edge of the board holding the house is beautifully trimmed.

A train circles around one side of the house.

A candy cane cage.

These candies look like Lego blocks!

There are lots of candy characters and animals placed around the "lawn."

A bride and groom with babies and snowmen.

The duck pond (or fountain) - so cute!

It's hard to see in the photos but the doors and windows are glazed with clear red candy glass.

Two turrets are made of "stone" with this pebble candy.

These candies really do look like little rocks.

There are so many patterns carefully made with candies.

Thanks to Dr. Andrea Resciniti for this incredible gift to the community.

I know that it is a long time until next Christmas but for something like this you might need to start now! You could also make a smaller Valentine's Day "cottage" - I think that would be fun!

Reminder: The Creative Memories 25% off nearly everything sale is ending tomorrow. Please click HERE to go to the post with more details about the sale. This is a great time to buy one or more of the Creative Memories exclusive Cricut cartridges for $41.25 instead of the regular price of $55. Click HERE to go to the Cricut cartridge page on my CM personal website. The sale ends on Sunday the 15th so don't miss the chance to save!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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My 12 on the 12th for January

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

How did you do with taking 12 photos on the 12th yesterday? I hope some of you were able to try it. I expected that it would be easy to decide which photos to take and use but I kept changing my mind. Next month, I might think ahead and make a plan (well...I probably won't...but it's nice to imagine I'll be that organized!).

I promised to share my photos so here goes! If you have posted your 12 on a blog and want to share the link to your post, you can use the inlinkz tool at the bottom of this post and then anyone who is interested can see what others chose to photograph.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I cling to the holiday season and decorations much longer than "normal" people. Last night, (which was actually very early this morning) the "rain turning to snow" had started and I noticed this reflection of the lights on the deck. I took this photo through a sliding glass door. We'll probably take down the back yard lights this weekend, the front yard decorations (except the wreath) came down last weekend.

Just as predicted, the rain turned into snow and we finally got the first snow of the winter. This was the first test of our new overhang that was added to help with the ice dam problems we had last year (those of you who live in warmer climates can just ignore this part - it won't make sense to you...).

The snow turned back into rain later in the day. The rain made an interesting texture on the screen outside the sun room window. This angel was made by my brother and often stays in the window long past the holiday season - by summer she'll be back in the attic.

I am still using the little "purse camera" since the plastic bits that hold the lens on my DSLR camera snapped when I dropped it and I haven't been able to get it fixed yet. One of my goals for this year is to continue to work on my photography and photo editing skills. I like the tight focus and the reflection in the silver ball. These are "crackled" glass ornaments that I bought the first year or second year we lived in this house.

The kitchen island attracts piles of papers - I never seem to be able to keep it empty for more than half a day. As soon as the mail arrives, things start to pile up. We have to complete this Town Census form every year. Sometimes I don't get it turned in within ten days - they haven't removed us from the voting rolls yet!

I was clearing off the island to make room to roll out a pie crust. Sometimes I make a "real" apple pie instead of the super easy and delicious Swedish apple pie. The peeling of the apples takes longer than you'd expect but the results are delicious. These were some of the last of the apples we had from last year's crop from the family apple farm.

I actually like to make pie crust and this trusty rolling pin has worked well for years. It isn't a solid piece of wood like the one my mother used to use but the handles have never come off. I had a few other rolling pins that fell apart before I found this one.

I miscalculated the amount of pie crust needed for this large pie plate (just wasn't paying attention I guess since I have made many pies in this dish). Usually I pinch the two crusts together but I had to just roll it and some juices bubbled out - still delicious! The best thing is that this recipe is actually totally vegan. The recipe for the crust uses canola oil so our son can still enjoy the pie.

After I made the pie, I noticed that we still have a bag of cranberries in the refrigerator. I should probably cook them up soon. At least the fridge is clean and has some healthy food in it - a relief after all of the holiday indulgences...like chocolate...

The Don Quixote magnet holds the first Christmas card from the newlyweds - I kept it up because this is such a nice photo. We finally got to talk to them in the evening for the first time after their long trip to Morocco and the Canary Islands.

My husband always notices interesting papers and printing that I might like and brings samples home for me. This is a very heavily embossed printing of wood bark that looks a lot like the real thing. I'll probably cut this up to use for a card or other project - watch for it! We had a laugh at the tag line, "Cougar - a force of nature."

I just started playing Words with Friends - I love word games but had never played any Facebook games. My first game ended in defeat - but only by 15 points. The rematch has already started.

So there really wasn't a theme to my photos - just some random things from my day. That's fine with me, I think it will be interesting to look back on these days of photos at the end of the year and see reminders of a few things that were happening in my life on a certain day.

Reminder: The Creative Memories 25% off nearly everything sale is on for just a few more days. Please click HERE to go to the post with more details about the sale. This is a great time to buy one or more of the Creative Memories exclusive Cricut cartridges. The sale ends on Sunday the 15th.

I hope you have some nice plans for the weekend - I am looking forward to some serious crafting time...

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12 on the 12th - Take 12 photos today!

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the 12th of January. So, if you are planning to do 12 on the 12th in 2012, this is the day you need to take 12 (or more) photos. Then you can choose the best twelve and make a two page layout with the photos. At the end of the year you'll have an interesting look back at your year (and at least one completed album!).

I thought about taking my twelve photos on Wednesday so I could post them early this morning but I decided that I'd rather do this project right along with any of you that have decided to try it. You could take the photos randomly throughout the day and capture a "Day in the Life" photo essay. Another option would be to focus on a certain aspect of your life such as a hobby, a particular room in your house, a color that shows up throughout your day - just get creative and see what catches your attention as you look around your world today.

It may help to spend a few minutes thinking up a list of likely photos and then being flexible enough to follow the list or adapt to new ideas as the day goes along. Once you finish taking the photos, don't stop there! Be sure to move them to your computer, edit them and get them printed (if you are making traditional pages) or start working on your digital layout.

So enjoy the challenge and see what you notice as you look carefully around you. Your photos don't have to be perfect - they just need to capture a thought or emotion that strikes you as you go through the day. I'll try to have my photos edited and ready to share tomorrow.

The photo at the top of this post is one that I took of our live Christmas tree when we took it down last weekend. I am planning to use it for a page background in a digital layout.

Someone asked to see the assembled heart handled bag - I used the offcut hearts and swirls from the top of this bag for the card I posted a few days ago. I cut this bag using one of the free files included with the purchase of the Silhouette Cameo. I think it will be great for Valentine's Day surprises!

A few more notes...

If you are looking for the information about the Creative Memories 25% off nearly everything sale, please click HERE to go to yesterday's post. This is a great time to buy one or more of the Creative Memories exclusive Cricut cartridges. The sale is only for five days and ends on Sunday the 15th.

Blitsy posted this notice on their Facebook page yesterday -

We apologize! Our vendors ran late in shipping our order last week and did not arrive in time for us to post today's items. Tracking shows them arriving here on Friday morning. So we will have to wait until then to post our next sale. Thank you for your understanding.

So - we'll have to wait until Friday to find out what is going to be for sale next!

We may actually get our first storm of the winter today - we've been spoiled with such a mild winter so far (but I have been enjoying the warm days!).

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Creative Memories 25% off cartridges and nearly everything else - five days only!

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Reminisce Accents

Today I have an assortment of sales to tell you about. I know, we shopped all through the holidays, but there are some great deals to be had for just a limited time and I wanted to make sure you didn't miss a chance to get some bargains.

Reminisce Accents

# 1 - Creative Memories 25% off Sale

Creative Memories has been having an album sale with 20% off most albums and StoryBooks and 40% off on select PicFolio albums (the slide-in page photo albums). This sale is running until the 26th of January. Yesterday afternoon I got an email announcing another special 5 day sale - 25% off nearly everything Creative Memories sells (digital artwork downloads are not included). This sale started this morning (January 11) and runs until Sunday, January 15th.

If you have been thinking about buying any of the Creative Memories Cricut cartridges, this is the best price ever offered for these cartridges. They normally sell for $55 and will be $41.25 in the sale. There is a minimum shipping fee of $8.50 so if you can order a few cartridges at once (maybe get together with a friend to order) you will save by spreading out the shipping fee.

I know that many of you probably have friends or relatives who are Creative Memories consultants. I don't want to interfere with any existing relationship you have with a consultant. However, if you don't know anyone local to you who sells Creative Memories, I would be very happy to help you with any questions. If you live in the US, you can order these cartridges from my Creative Memories personal website and have them shipped directly to your address. If you are in another location, I may be able to refer you to someone who can help you in your location so send me an email and I'll see if I can get you a referral. All of the cartridges are located on THIS PAGE of my personal website.

The six Creative Memories cartridges are: Reminisce Accents, Cheerful Seasons, Stork's Delivery, Traveler, 'Tis the Season and This & That (new this month).

You can see the books for Reminisce Accents, Cheerful Seasons and Stork's Delivery in the Cricut cartridge library (just click on the names to go to the booklets). I posted photos of the book for the Traveler cartridge HERE and for the 'Tis the Season cartridge HERE. The book for This and That is available to view HERE.

In the description for each cartridge there is a link to click to view the full look book - it may take a short while to load.

I have added some images of projects that I have made using the Creative Memories cartridges. You can find projects on my blog by using the search box at the top left corner of the page or looking at the labels in the right side column.

'Tis the Season

Reminisce Accents and Cheerful Seasons

Here are some more - you should be able to click each image to go to the full post about each project.

#2 - Blitsy is Back

After an extended sale of all of the deals since the site began, Blitsy had a few hiccups in starting up again but they are back with lots of new items. Recent additions include Colorbox ink pads and reinkers, Annie's Attic Books, a large assortment of books from Design Originals about Zentangles, stamps from Teresa Collins, Jenni Bowlin and 7gypsies, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam and Glaze and more!

Blitsy offers new items for sale three times a week. Each sale lasts for one week and new items are posted around 10 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am excited to see what will be added today!

Here is my referral link that you can use to join the site. http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

The site is a private membership site and membership is free. Once you are a member, you can get your own special code to refer your friends and family. When they make their first order, you will get a $10 credit to spend on one of your orders. If you are on Facebook, you can also become a "fan" of the Blitsy page and you will get a code for 10% off your first order.

Thanks for using my LINK to join. I think you will like the items they offer. I have ordered several times and the orders all arrived quickly and were packed well.

#3 - Lettering Delights Dollar Days end Thursday

The Lettering Delights dollar days sale ends tomorrow. Most items are just $1 (Graphic sets, fonts, alphabets, clip art, paper packs, doodlebats, candy wraps, etc.) and the Cut-its and SVGs are 50% off (these can be used with many die cutting machines but not the Cricut unless you have third party software purchased before the lawsuit settlements).

If you are a fan of the Create A Critter cartridge, you will love these cute holiday versions of some of the animals by the same designer, Nancy Kubo. There are also a lot of sets by Sheri Berry Designs that are similar to the Snow Angel Imagine cartridge that she designed. These were offered in a bundle but with the sale they are less expensive to buy individually.

I use a lot of the Lettering Delights graphics with my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software (this is also on sale for 25% off until the 15th). I can also cut the cuttable files with my Silhouette machine. To get an additional discount, you can "buy" the monthly freebie first and when your confirmation email arrives there will be a code for 25% off your next order.

Whew! If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed checking out some of the projects I linked - you may have missed them the first time around...

Have a great Wednesday!

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Punched Border Valentine Card

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

After sorting and reorganizing my punches, I was ready to actually use one for a card. I pulled out one of the most recent additions, the Daisy Lace deep edge punch.

These deep edge punches are some of my favorites. They add so much detail to a card and are quick and easy to use. I could design a similar border for one of my die cutting machines but it would take a while for it to cut so many small details.

I had the leftover hearts and swirls from this gift bag sitting on my table, just waiting to be added to a card or some other project. (This bag is one of the free cuts that came with my new Silhouette Cameo machine).

This is a standard A2 card (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 folded to make a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card). I cut the card base from Bazzill textured cardstock in a rosy red. The top layer is 4 x 5 1/4 inches, also from the red Bazzill cardstock, punched along one long edge. It is important to center the punch to get a nice symmetrical look for the card. The white layer is 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches. The punched top layer is adhered in the solid section but the lace part is not stuck down on the white layer.

These little bits were left from the punch. I noticed the flower petal teardrop shapes and thought they would make a nice addition to the border so I pulled out five of them.

I added the pink heart cut and the thin swirls along the sides. The heart is cut from Core'dinations gemstone cardstock and is textured with a pearly shine.

I used Creative Memories Precision Point adhesive for the swirls and the tiny teardrops. I let it dry to clear and then it is sticky but won't ooze out from behind the tiny pieces when they are placed on the card.

The extra little teardrops make the border a bit more dramatic and fill the space nicely.

I added foam squares to lift the oval sentiment tag. This is one of the Craftwork Cards sentiments that my friend Enfys gave me. They are so handy and work well for quick cards.

The sentiment is printed in metallic silver on a pearlized white card. All that was missing now was a bit of bling. The fine points at the bottom of the swirls tended to pop up a bit so I decided to add a few gems to keep them in place and add sparkle (every card needs sparkle, right?)

Three tiny clear gem stickers from Creative Charms are just right to finish the base of the heart and the swirls.

This card is quick and easy to make. If you don't have this particular wide border punch, there are lots of others that would also be pretty along the lower edge. I think it is important to always look at the scraps and leftovers from one cut to see if they can be used for another purpose.

I am doing a bit of experimenting with the timing of my posts - and wondering if those of you who subscribe prefer the early morning emails or just check out the posts whenever you read your email. I thought I'd mix it up a bit - let me know if it matters to you...

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Getting Organized - Punches

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

January and September are the months when many people think about fresh starts and getting organized. I am determined to make my crafting space less chaotic. I thought I'd share the projects I am doing to create a more orderly work space. Maybe you will be able to use some of the storage and organization ideas that I share for your supplies.

Today I'll show you how I store my Martha Stewart punches. If you have read my blog for a while you know that I can't resist these punches even though I have several die cutting machines. Punches are quick and easy and will cut very tiny shapes in a blink of an eye. I have been buying these for years - mostly with coupons for 50% off. At the end of each holiday season you can often find them marked down even further - I have some that were 90% off. These punches eventually make their way to stores like Marshall's and TJ Maxx and I have found some great deals there. Of course, I have also fallen under the hypnotic spell of HSN and bought a few sets at regular prices (next time I think of doing that I need to just go look at the shelf - how could I possibly need more?!).

I had organized these punches a while ago, but I outgrew the space allotted for them. These are "Billy" bookcases from Ikea. They are great basic bookcases and we first bought some when we lived in Germany many years ago. We have used them for kid's bedrooms and general storage and I have adopted some for my craft space. The bookcase on the left is a size that is no longer available. Here you can see the shelves on the left cleared and ready for reorganizing.

I use a system of "risers" to store many punches on one shelf. My very handy husband cut me some lengths of 2 x 4 to fit exactly within the space. He painted them with white primer so they "disappear" on the white shelves. One 2 x 4 is placed on the narrow edge and one is flat.

Here you can see them in place at the back of the shelf. The lighting is a little odd and my good camera is still in need of repair so these photos are not quite as well lit as I'd like but you can get the idea.

I have labeled all of the punches with my Dymo label maker. You could also hand write the labels on stickers but this label maker makes me feel more organized (a little Martha influence though I think she uses the P-touch labeler). Many of the names are similar and this makes it easier for me to give the right name if I post a project that uses a punch. If I don't post the name, I usually get a lot of emails asking which punch I used so I try to give as many details as I can.

I grouped the punches more or less by theme. The top shelf here has Halloween and Valentine's Day and the bottom shelf is for Winter and Christmas sets.

The wider shelves have the more general use punches and sets. I have just a few of the green punches (I think those were made for Walmart but I have found them in other places). They stand out a little but I have managed to ignore the difference! (In an ideal world they would all be the same color but if that is my biggest problem....).

Here is another view, taken with a flash and from a higher angle. You can see how the punches fit nicely on their "stadium seating." I can see at least part of the design and quickly locate the punch I want to use.

I particularly like some of the deep edge punches and have most of these on the top row of the lower shelf. To save space, I keep the Punch Around the Page sets together and open one of the wings of the border punch to "hug" the corner punch which sits just a bit in front of the wing. You'd be surprised how this will make more fit in a row. The older border punches that don't fold up are a little trickier to fit in a row so I alternate them with folding ones to keep at least a part of the design visible.

I admit, I do have a "punch problem" - and these are just the Martha Stewart punches! I'll show you how I store some of the other punches another day.

I hope you have a great day - now go organize something!

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Project 366 - First Week

2012-01-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

A few people have asked about how I am doing my Project 366. I know it will be a challenge to complete the entire year but I am off to a good start (it's only seven days so far but I am thinking positively!). I did set up a separate blog for the daily photos. If you want to check it from time to time and help keep me accountable here is the link

http://capadiadailyphoto.blogspot.com/

It is a bare bones blog with just the photos and a few sentences of description for each photo. I am using the Blogger "dynamic views" which allows the reader to change the way they look at the blog. The options are Classic, Flipcard, Magazine, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot and Timeslide. I set it on Classic and I also like Flipcard and Snapshot. Anyone reading the blog can choose the option they prefer. It's an interesting way to look at the posts but I don't see how to add any widgets so you can't have an index or side column links, followers, etc. You can leave a comment if you want to.

I thought it would be simplest to file the photos there and then do the weekly layouts and share them here. I am still debating the style I want to use for the project but since I am doing it digitally I will be able to change things around if I want to.

I started off with a very graphic and modern look. As I edit my photos each day I add a few sentences about the day in the "Tell the Story" section in my Creative Memories Memory Manager program. These are the same sentences I add to the blog for each day. For this week, I simply took all of the "blurbs" and added them to a text box on my page.

I added a number to each photo to match it with the description. It looks a little odd to have the numbers so I may go back and make these a bit smaller and less obtrusive. It might also be helpful to make the numbers in the description block bold and the same color as the numbers on the photos. Once again, since this is digital, I can tweak it as I go along.

I will probably have this printed as a book at the end of the year. In the StoryBook Creator program, I am able to use the "gutter" view to make sure that the words and pictures won't be cut off by the binding of the book. This screenshot shows the trimmed version of the page with the gutter on the left side.

Are any of you trying to do the Project 365 (366 this year)? Are you going to make traditional pages or digital pages? Fancy or clean and simple? Don't forget - if every day seems like too big a commitment, you can also try the 12 on the 12th in 2012. I will be doing the 12 pages as well (in case I give up on the daily photos).

We had incredibly warm weather here again - nearly 60 degrees in January! I will be traveling again later this month - to an overseas destination. I hope the snow doesn't decide to arrive just when I need to get on an airplane.

Have a lovely Sunday - I hope the weather is mild where you are (unless you are trying to go skiing!).

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Gummy Bears and El Oso (something different for Saturday)

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

I had the idea to start a new series of posts on Saturdays that would be a surprise look at something a bit different. I suppose my daily blog topics have always been rather unpredictable, so it really isn't anything new! I take many photos of things that catch my eye. These are fun to share and can be a great source of inspiration.

This is a gummy bear made up of gummy bears. We saw it in a candy shop window in Madrid. When we lived in Germany and England, gummy bears were a popular treat for our boys. I think they are readily available in the US now - back then they were a special treat.

I enjoy looking at the shops in other countries. Some seem very similar to the the stores at home while others are quite unique. Shop window displays can be a great source of inspiration.

I noticed the sign above the bears and translated it (roughly). It says that these bears are photographed more than the Bear and the Strawberry Tree.

El Oso y el Madroño (the Bear and the Strawberry Tree) are part of the coat of arms of the City of Madrid. This rendition of the coat of arms was inlaid in the sidewalk.

There is a large statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree in the Puerta del Sol, in the center of Madrid. In this photo you can also see the huge Christmas tree structure that was beautiful when lit up at night but rather odd looking in the daytime (if you missed the night time photos see THIS POST) .

Here is one of the tile signs for the Puerta del Sol - I like to take photos of signs to use as titles for scrapbook pages.

The statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree was put up in 1967. It is about four meters tall and weighs twenty tons (made of stone and bronze).

The sign in the store was correct - I did take more photos of the gummy bear bears than I did of the statue!

Thanks to everyone who wrote or left a comment about the significance of the girl in the "O" - I realize that I wasn't particularly clear in my writing. I do know what a cameo is - I have several that I wear from time to time. I understand the play on words the company used in naming the larger machine.

I was trying to say that using the girly profile with the ponytail protruding from the edge of the circle formed by the "O" was not a choice I would have made. For one thing, I wonder how male crafters feel about the image. Most of the graphics used by the Silhouette company have a streamlined and simple feel and the Barbie profile just looks odd to me. It's not a big deal - they could put flying purple people eaters on the machine and box. As long as the machines continue to work as well as they have so farI really don't care that much what it looks like!

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Silhouette Cameo - First Impressions

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, I took my new Cameo out of the box and started to make some cuts.

I wonder why they added the girl with the pony tail to the "O"? It seems odd when the rest of the design choices are so clean and simple.

The machine is well protected with these bulky styrofoam packing pieces. These can be hard to recycle and I would have liked to see the more eco-friendly molded paper pulp packing (just the tree hugger in me talking there!).

The mat is clear and thinner than the Cricut mats. The protective sheet only covers the adhesive area so it can be a little tricky to get it back on perfectly. I had read so much about people having problems with ultra sticky mats that I was a little worried. I just "conditioned" the mat as I do with the Cricut mats by placing my hands on the adhesive and patting it all over. This takes less than a minute but makes the "ultra-hold" stickiness go away. I do like the adhesive - it seems smoother and more even than the adhesive on the Cricut mats. It is more like the adhesive on the Cricut Imagine mats - but stickier. I did not have the problem of little bumps of adhesive coming up on the back of the papers.

The blade is already in the "click holder" which is numbered from 1 to 10. You have to use the tool built in on the machine or the plastic tube (on the right) that is packaged with the blade to adjust the setting. You can't change the number without removing the blade holder from the carriage but it is pretty quick and easy to do. I was planning to use Core'dinations Gemstone cardstock which is textured and fairly thick so I tried 5 for the blade setting (the manual said from 4 - 6 for heavy cardstock).

For my first cuts, I tried a couple of the free shapes included in the software. I was able to fit four scalloped hearts across the top of the mat and a cute gift bag on the rest of the paper. The Cameo will cut to the edge of the 12 x 12 area (there isn't a "no cut zone" like there is with the Cricut). This will be helpful for doing true full page lace cuts.

The blade setting turned out to be perfect. My images cut cleanly and the blade did not damage the mat. You could see the outline of the cut in the adhesive but the mat was not cut.

When the cuts are finished, the blade carriage returns to the top left corner. I was able to check the cut before I unloaded the mat. (The Cricut stops at the end of the cut so I usually press "Load Mat" and check the cut before unloading). You can see how nicely the heart lifted and all but one or two of the tiny cutouts stayed on the mat.

I saved the little bits to use as confetti for a shaker box (if I ever make one!). I was able to flip two hearts in the software and align them to make four hearts fit comfortably along the top of the mat.

The delicate handles of the gift bag were nicely cut - even with the tiny swirls. The offcut hearts and swirls can be used for a card or tag. I will show you the assembled bag in another post.

I did try cutting another snowflake that I had designed in the software. You can see that the circles in the design cut as true circles even thought they are quite tiny.

Here is a closer view of the circles in the snowflake design.

I tried to cut the intricate frame that I designed (I posted the screen shot at the top of yesterday's post) but the machine just stopped at the third diamond on the bottom row. I tried pressing "cut" again but the machine started at the center of the bottom of the page. I need to do some reading to find out what made this happen. I did simplify the nodes before cutting. I will try a few other things tomorrow to see if it was a fluke or if I made an error in the design somehow.

I had little or no learning curve since I have been using a Silhouette SD (the smaller machine that is now discontinued) since last spring. The main difference was the blade with the numbered settings instead of caps and the larger mat and cutting area. Now that I have this machine, I will probably try to do the advent calendar boxes. They are designed to work for the smaller mat but I think I can revise the design to take advantage of the larger cutting area and simplify the assembly.

The machine makes all sorts of funny noises as it cuts. It hums and squeals a bit (just like the SD does). I don't mind the sounds but some people think it is too noisy. It probably would be quieter if I put the lid down while cutting but I like to watch the cuts being made. So far, I am very happy with the clean cuts and easy weeding. I do need to find out what the problem might be with the file that stopped cutting...I'll let you know when I figure that out.

Right now, I am just going to admire those tiny circles!

Have a wonderful Friday - sometimes the "short weeks" seem longer than the regular weeks so it's nice to know the weekend is almost here.

I hope that some of you will be taking on the Color and Pattern Inspiration Challenge I posted a few days ago. I am working on my project and will post it soon to help motivate you. There will also be a small prize for one project that is submitted - details will be added to the original post soon.

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New Design Possibilities

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

I bought the Silhouette SD last spring and used it extensively to make many of the paper items for our son's rehearsal dinner and wedding. The print and cut capabilities were amazing. The size of the Silhouette (9 inch width) was a challenge after years of working with the Cricut Expression (12 inch width). At CHA last summer, I was able to see the new and larger machine, the Cameo, which became available last fall.

When I first tried the Silhouette software I was thrilled to find out that I could do many of the things that had never been possible with the Cricut Design Studio, the Gypsy or even with the new Craft Room online design tool. I'll go into much more detail about the differences in the capabilities of these programs in future posts. The ease of using the Silhouette Studio program made it hard to resist buying the new and larger machine. I thought I would wait for any problems with the new machine to be resolved, however, in reading various forums and message boards, I didn't see very many negative posts.

The main issues that people seem to have with the Cameo have to do with the blade and the stickiness of the mats. I felt confident that these problems would be relatively easy to work out and I had read that the customer support for the Cameo is excellent so I took the plunge and ordered the Cameo.

The machine arrived Tuesday. I had a busy day yesterday and couldn't take the time to get it out and do some test cuts. I am planning to spend part of my day today trying out at least a few of the many cuts I have been designing in the software. I have been "doodling" with the software for months and I have hundreds of files waiting to be tested!

I decided to create a file that would take advantage of the full 12 x 12 size and also be a challenge to give the new machine a good test. The screen shot at the top of this post shows a frame that I created and I am eager to see what happens when I try to cut it (and hoping that my machine isn't one of the ones that shipped with a bad blade).

The day I started this blog, I posted seven items. The most complicated by far was this doily that I designed using just the George cartridge and the original version of Design Studio. I was trying to test the limits of what could be accomplished and I have continued to experiment as the DS program was updated and as newer tools came along.

I know some of you have also started using a variety of machines and software programs in addition to the Cricut. There are a lot more options available now than there were when I got my first Cricut in 2007. Many of you have asked me for advice about these new options. I am not going to "abandon" my Cricuts - like many people, I have quite a large investment in cartridges and machines. There are some things that are much quicker and easier to do with the Cricut system such as the very detailed multi-layered images of licensed characters.

I will continue to write about my projects made with all sorts of tools and machines. My interests have broadened considerably and I am always excited to try out new products. I happen to be a person who enjoys working on the computer so some of the things I prefer to do will not be as interesting to someone who does not want much computer use involved in their craft time.

I hope you will enjoy exploring some new possibilities with me.

On a completely different note...

I went to Staples today to replace an ink cartridge and discovered a huge new section of Martha Stewart/Avery products. Is there anything Martha doesn't get involved in?

There were all sorts of organizing boxes in typical "Martha colors" - very pretty. The inclination to reorganize is always strong at the beginning of the calendar year and the beginning of the school year.

Lots of lovely designs for notebooks and journals in various sizes...I have to confess that one of the small ones ended up in my shopping basket.

There was quite an assortment of tags and labels - some of these would be great for scrapbooking as well as organization. You may want to check your nearest Staples store to see if they have added this section.

Have a great Thursday!

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Some More Little Houses

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who sent Anniversary wishes - we had a nice celebration last night. The day was busy with a lot of errands and special preparations for dinner. I had a bit of a break and went with my neighbor to our local craft store. We thought that they would be ready to have the little decorated houses taken away, but they decided to keep them for a few more weeks. I am glad that I went back and had a chance to see some more of the houses and I thought I'd share the photos I took (the best I could do with my small "purse"camera). If you missed the first post about these houses, you can find it HERE.

This house was covered with fondant - very elegant in white and gold.

The trees were covered in sugar crystals and there was a little sugar mouse and some pearly mushrooms along the side.

The nativity scene at the base of this house was charming and the glitter coating and the angel in the star gave it an old-fashioned feel.

This house had snow coming from the chimney, wreaths on the windows (a common sight in New England) and lots of little figures playing in the snow.

This little scene shows Snoopy and his decorated dog house. There is even a plane for the "World War One Flying Ace."

A simple, elegant and totally "blinged out" house with pearls and diamonds carefully arranged (don't you love the pearl sidewalk?).

Another church with a stained glass window and some carolers, beautifully hand painted.

The toys, sled and bicycle are nice accessories for this clapboard house with alternating colors of roof shingles.

The papers and trim on this one really appeal to me. The little red bird perched on the roof is a nice touch.

This house (or rather, the creator of this house) has a sense of fun with Santa's legs sticking out of the chimney.

This miniature version of the store, with caricatures of the owners and staff, looks very much like the real shop.

The houses I found most fascinating were this set of three houses that were decorated using Zentangle® techniques.

The patterns are so interesting to look at with many variations. They are really just doodles that have some sort of structure to contain them.

The tiny wreaths on each house add a splash of color.

I don't know much about Zentangles, so I looked up the site. I found out that the Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. You can learn more at zentangle.com.

I hope you find some inspiration from these little houses. They don't have to be something that is just for Christmas, in fact, I am planning on making a Valentine cottage!

Two quick notes,

The Creative Memories January Album Sale is on now and runs until the 26th of January at 11:59 p.m. Central Time. Most of the albums are on sale for 20% off. If you need albums, this is a good time to stock up. You can find the sale page HERE on my CM personal website.

New Blitsy Sales...

After a long second-chance round of sales on all of the remaining items from the first weeks of the Blitsy private sale site, there will be new sales posted today. If you haven't joined this site yet you may be missing out on some great deals. Here is my link that you can use to join.

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

Once you join, you can get your own link and refer friends. You can earn a $10 credit when they make their first purchase of $10 or more. If you are on Facebook, be sure to become a "fan" of their page so you can get a code for 10% off your first order.

I hope you have a very Happy Wednesday!

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Color and Pattern Inspiration Challenge

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! Today is "back to normal" day for many people. The holidays are over, school starts up again and regular work hours resume. While not officially a holiday, it is still a special day for my husband and me because today is our 31st Wedding Anniversary!

We were married on a snowy January night but fortunately it was "regular snow" and not blizzard conditions. The three children in this photo are all married now and two of them have children of their own.

We were so much younger and skinnier then! If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember that I had planned to make a proper wedding album in time for our 30th anniversary. It isn't finished yet (insert red face here...) however, it is on my list for this year and my plan is to post some pages in progress each month until our next anniversary!

One of my ideas to keep the blog interesting and more interactive this year is to post some inspiration images and challenge you to make something inspired by the item and the colors. I'll add the InLinkz tool to each inspiration post so you can upload your project. There will be at least one each month and they will be open for several weeks to give you time to make something to share. You do not have to have a blog to join in - there are directions for uploading your image directly.

Here is the first inspiration image. My husband has given me lovely gifts of fine jewelry over the years, however, one of my favorite gifts was this rather battered pin that he found at an "antique" (secondhand) shop when we lived in England. Our son helped to choose the pin, which makes it even more special. You can download the image above to have a handy reference to work from.

If you look carefully at the design you will see that it is based on fives (large five petal shape with five leaves and five five-petal flowers) with the one exception of the six petal flower in the center. The paint is well worn down but the little "diamonds" are all still there - that's something of a miracle in itself! The filigree behind each of the flowers reminds me of paper lace.

Here is another photo against a white background - you can certainly see that the pin had been "well-loved" before it joined my collection. I think the base is brass with enamel paint for the colors - shades of blue, light green and periwinkle.

You can make a card, a flower, an element for a scrapbook page - whatever this shabby pin inspires you to create... I can't wait to see what you come up with! If you have any questions, please leave a comment. If you leave a comment, instead of emailing me directly, others will be able to see the question and answer which will save everyone time - thanks!

Edited to add the following helpful information!

If you don't have a blog - you can still play along. Just put my blog address (or any other url) in the blank and fill in your name and email. Then you can click to go to the next page.

When you get to the second page, you will see options to add the direct image URL (from a photo storage site like Flickr or Photobucket) or to upload directly from your computer.

I am expecting a special package to arrive today - it's taken a while to get here and it is a nice coincidence that it will arrive on our anniversary...any guesses? (remember, I have very low will power when it comes to crafting tools...)

Today is the last day for the second chance sale on Blitsy - new sales will be posted on Wednesday, the 4th.

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one-two-one-two (1-2-12) and Cookies

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great day yesterday to start off a wonderful year. We had another day of incredibly mild weather but they say the cold will arrive soon, so my husband put out the "snow sticks" to mark our drive and path before it's too late!

As you may know if you are a regular reader, I am fascinated by numbers and patterns and I couldn't resist pointing out that today's date is 1-2-12 or "one-two-one-two." If you say that out loud and use a sort of Lawrence Welk intonation "a one and a two and a one and a two" it definitely seems like the sound of a new beginning. (If you are too young to know who Lawrence Welk was, other than the Fred Armisen - Saturday Night Live version, here is a LINK to the Wikipedia article about him).

The photo at the top of this post is my first for "Project 365" (it just occurred to me that this is leap year so I suppose that should be "Project 366!"). Our son and his girlfriend made gingerbread cookies and decorated them using the food markers that I wrote about last year in THIS POST.

I decorated heart shaped cookies after learning about the food coloring markers from a friend. I used Cricut cuts as stencils for most of the designs.

This is what happens when two recent college graduates let their imaginations take over the cookie decorating - no stencils here!

Current events commentary and some semi-self portrait cookies...

Teeny tiny ants (!)...

Tributes to some favorite artists (Warhol, Magritte, Mondrian)...

Cookies with QR codes?...

The rabbit with the handlebar mustache is made from the legs of a gingerbread girl that fell apart in the baking stage. The hummingbird and the heart in a star are a couple of my favorites...

...but this one really says it all!

So - we had some fun on New Year's Day and spent a lovely evening with our neighbors making homemade pizza and indulging in Christmas candy!

Back to the 1-2-12... A lot of people have said that they think the Project 365 (or 6) concept sounds great but it is just too overwhelming. Another idea that I have seen may be more manageable. It is the 12-12-12 project. Take twelve photos on the twelfth of each month in 2012 and make 12 double page layouts with the photos for an annual album. Anyone want to try that one instead?

I am still planning to try to do the daily photos and I think I'll set up a separate blog just for the photos. I'll post the layouts I do with the photos both here and on that blog.

Today we have to take down the tree at the museum - the exhibit is over. Our trees here at home will stay up a while longer (the live one will go out this weekend). Do you let Christmas linger or are you a "put it all away by the New Year" person?

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Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2012 is the best year yet!

A year filled with good health and happiness for everyone.

Here are a few photos of designs we saw at the Alhambra.

I hope they give you some inspiration.

Have a wonderful day!

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A New Year is nearly here...Thank You

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today I will have completed three years of daily posting on my blog. It is quite a challenge to keep up with posting every single day. I made a New Year's resolution to post daily in 2009. By the time I finished the first year, I was in the habit of daily posting and I was a bit too stubborn to stop and break the record in 2010 and 2011!

I actually started this blog almost four years ago and I have plans for a special "blogoversary" celebration at the beginning of February. I have learned a lot and shared a lot over the years. It has been so much fun to get to know many people through comments and questions and I have been very lucky to have had the chance to meet quite a few of my "virtual" friends in person.

I have decided that it may be time to change the way I post. I need to give myself more time to work on projects that won't always be things that I can share on the blog. Many of you write and tell me that you look forward to reading my posts with your morning coffee and I don't want to let you down. I need to make some of my posts much shorter and sometimes post just a photo or a quote for inspiration.

I am planning to do more posts that encourage you to participate and try new things. I'll be starting with the "virtual ATC swap" that we talked about last month. I am also thinking about doing a "simple scrapbook pages" series for those of you who want to make your photos and stories the stars of your pages (and who don't want to spend hours or days on a single page). This could be the year to finally tackle the "backlog" and make some sense of it all!

I have been asked to do some more giveaways for companies and I will take on a few of these, however, I don't want this to become a "giveaway blog". I would like people to come here because they find inspiration, honest and fair information about products, and help and instruction for learning how to use their crafting tools and technology.

Today I want to say thanks to all of you who continue to read and comment on my blog. I have collected some favorite Thank You cards from the past years - you may or may not remember these. You should be able to click on each photo to go to the original post. Many of these posts included detailed directions with screenshots and files. Please let me know if you have any trouble with the links.

I have some other plans in the works for this year and I will share them as soon as I can. This could be a very exciting year if everything comes together the way I hope it will!

Something funny...

My son pointed out that I have now a Gypsy and a Vagabond - we wonder what will come next, a "Hobo" or a "Scoundrel"?

A few more "enabling" notes...

Northridge Publishing is holding a giveaway for a new Silhouette Cameo - you must enter by January 4th and you can get all of the details on their blog HERE. Just leaving a comment on their post gets you in the contest and there are additional ways to get multiple entries listed.

If you have any Cricut Lite or Cricut Projects and Events cartridges that you haven't entered for the rewards program be sure to do it TODAY to get double rewards points (must be entered between 12/1/11 and 12/31/11 to qualify). You can find the Cricut Rewards site HERE.

The Creative Memories Year End sale was extended to January 1st. They will be having an album sale from January 2-26th. 20% off on many colors and styles. Digital StoryBooks printed at the CM Digital Center are also included in the album sale. The new Cricut cartridge "This and That" will be available in January.

The second chance sale at Blitsy runs until January 3. Quite a few items have been "blitsed" (sold out) but there are some nice items (Spellbinders, Tim Holtz, Ranger, Stickles, La Blanche stamps, 7Gypsies, etc.) still available. On Wednesday, January 4th, they'll be posting new sales and will start following the Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule again.

Lettering Delights dollar days sale is continuing. Most items are just $1 (Graphic sets, fonts, alphabets, clip art, paper packs, doodlebats, candy wraps, etc.) and the Cut-its and SVGs are 50% off. If you spend $50 you can take $20 off with the code newyear20. If you don't want to spend that much, you can "buy" the monthly freebie and when your confirmation email arrives there will be a code for 25% off your next order.

(clicking on the red words will take you to the sites mentioned).

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve Celebration!!!

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Crafty Goals and Plans

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the next to the last day of 2011 - New Year's Eve Eve! I have already started working on some of my goals for the coming year. Some exciting travel plans are in the works - my fingers are crossed for everything to work out and then I'll be able to tell you about where I am going. The things you see when you travel (like this cathedral ceiling in Spain) are such great sources of inspiration for projects. I have also decided to tackle one messy area or "hot spot" in the house each day to try to get things better organized. Yesterday I started with the overflowing ironing basket and it is now empty!

It's a lot easier to iron if you bring the equipment to a spot where you can watch an old movie while you work. I watched "Bells Are Ringing," a musical about an answering service. It takes place before people had answering machines, voice mail, or text messages - if the phone was ringing and you missed it, you just didn't get the message unless you hired an answering service to pick up the call and relay the information. The movie made me realize how much we all rely on the devices available to us today to keep in touch and make our lives easier.

You may wonder why I have a photo of an Advent Calendar box here - Christmas is over and Advent started almost a month ago... This isn't even my calendar, it is one that I helped a friend make because she doesn't have a Silhouette machine so she couldn't cut out the drawers. I have two of the same calendars to make - and I am planning to start them as soon as I can in January to avoid last minute crafting pressure. In fact, another goal of mine is to do a much better job of scheduling my crafting time to be sure that I finish the things I really want to make and don't get sidetracked when I see or hear about other projects that seem like fun things to try.

What are your crafting goals for the coming year? Are there any particular types of projects or new techniques you'd like to learn? Do you have tools that you may not be using to their fullest potential? Do you want to learn more about technology and how it can help you craft more easily? Are you interested in trying to "catch up" with your scrapbooks (a goal that many have and few complete!)? I'd be interested to know if there are areas you'd like me to write about in the coming year. I have some plans but also appreciate feedback so I can keep things interesting for everyone who reads my blog.

Do you recognize the items in this photo? These are some empty reels from my ATG refills. Much to my husband's dismay, I have a habit of saving things that I think have crafty potential and I wanted to tell you to hang on to any of these that you might usually throw away...I think they will be perfect for a project I'll be trying soon.

I do have to say that my husband is very patient with my crafty hoarding and sometimes he even encourages it. He brought home some empty decorative boxes from a "tower of treats" that was delivered to his office for the holidays. They are cute just as they are or could be altered for a fun project. I told him he was lucky to have a wife who loved empty boxes - just think about how much money he can save when the boxes don't need to be filled with anything and I am still happy!

I am also thinking about trying to do Project 365 this year. If you aren't familiar with this, the idea is that you take a picture every single day of the year and put them together into an album that represents your real life - not just special events and holidays. I already take pictures almost every day and I think I may try doing this project digitally to make it easier to keep up on a daily basis.

There are variations on the idea including doing a weekly or monthly page if a daily commitment seems too overwhelming. Some people also start a separate blog for their daily photos. Well, I have another day or two to think it over!

On more thing I want to mention...

The Creative Memories Year End Savings Sale has been extended through January 1, 2012. You can see the items on sale on my CM personal website by clicking HERE. There will also be a sale on albums in January.

I hope you have a great Friday!

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Winter Decorations with Creative Charms

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is my day to post on the Creative Charms blog. I decided to do a Winter project and avoid the overload of red and green that many of us are feeling by now. Of course, I love blue and white so it was easy to talk myself into this theme!

I started with the small solo shadowbox tray by 7Gypsies - I just got this in my last order from Blitsy (they have sold out of these now but the regular price is $10 so it's not too expensive even if you have to pay full price at another store).

For the backing paper in each compartment I used this stack by DCWV. I cut the word Winter from the Cheerful Seasons Cricut cartridge in blue Dazzle cardstock, also from DCWV.

For the large top section, I added a piece of Core'dinations Core Couture glitter cardstock in white along the bottom. I hand cut a curve to look something like a snowbank.

The rosette in the center section along the bottom was cut with the Tim Holtz rosette die with paper that I printed on the Imagine from the Heirloom cartridge.

I like the effect you get by layering gem stickers on top of other embellishments like these snowflakes. used some snowflakes from the Winter Seasonal Medley and the Winter Seasonal Sparkles and then added Gradient Gem stickers to the centers for additional dimension and color.

Here are a few tips for working with these trays.

1. Be sure to measure the inside dimensions of each section that you plan to "wallpaper" with some background paper. They are usually just a bit smaller than the nominal size. This box is supposed to have a 4 x 6 compartment and three 2 x 2 compartments. I actually cut the paper at 5 7/8 x 3 7/8 for the large section and 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 for the small squares.

2. The depth is nearly 3/4 of an inch so you can add lots of small dimensional items and place tiny figures or shapes on the ledges of the box. I am going to start a box with anything I find that has the potential to fit in one of these trays. I also used adhesive foam squares to raise some of the items within the box.

3. You can change out the sections inside the box for different seasons if you use repositionable tape or magnets to hold the piece of paper in place.

4. I "fussy cut" the small sections for the bottom row to make sure that a full key and the entire medallion would fit into these positions.

5. Tweezers are very helpful when working with the papers and trying to get them out of the compartments when you are ready to stick everything down.

This sort of project is fairly quick and easy to do if you gather all of your coordinating papers and embellishments together and just start trying various placements and combinations of elements. This would make a great little gift for a friend or just a nice decoration to tuck in an empty spot on a table or shelf.

Lettering Delights Dollar Days sale is continuing. Most items are just $1 (Graphic sets, fonts, alphabets, clip art, paper packs, doodlebats, candy wraps, etc.) and the Cut-its and SVGs are 50% off. You can get an additional savings of $20 off on an order of $50 or more by using the code newyear20.

We went to see the movie "Hugo" in 3D last night - it was amazing! Do you go to the movies during the holiday season? It has become a tradition in our family to try to see at least one movie in the theater over the holidays.

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Christmas Presents and Sales

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

The first few days after Christmas are exciting when you have new gifts to try out. Our son got a special electric tea kettle and did an impromptu tea tasting for some of the family at our party on Monday. New clothes are usually worn right away and all of the tasty treats must be sampled. As a child, it was always a great feeling to have school vacation and free time to enjoy the gifts we received.

Yesterday I had planned to do a lot of projects around the house but things didn't go according to plan. I have to admit that I got sidetracked by the new books that I got for Christmas, started reading and finished one of them. I love to read but don't seem to find the time often enough - maybe I will add planned reading time to my list of things to do next year.

I did get my new Vagabond out of the box and cut a few trial projects. First I used some Sizzix dies for a three dimensional five point star and a globe made of circles scored and folded to make a triangular shape with flaps. I used 140 pound watercolor paper and it cut and scored beautifully.

I have always been fascinated by these globes and have tried cutting circles with the Cricut and scoring them around a triangle template but the die makes it so much easier and faster. I know I could make a file for the Silhouette with perforated lines for the scoring but the smooth creases created by the die make a nicer looking finished project. The right tool for the job can make a big difference and I love to collect the tools - that is why my craftroom is overflowing with "stuff" (and desperately in need of a good cleaning and organizing session!).

I had heard that the Vagabond was great with the thin dies, like this "English Tea Party" doily from Cheery Lynn, and it's true. I found it so much easier to cut the doily with the electric motor doing all of the work. I did send it back and forth a few times just to be sure that all of the details would be cleanly cut. When I used these dies in my Cuttlebug, it was hard work to crank them through.

I'll be posting more detailed information about my impressions of the Vagabond after I get to do some more trial cuts. It is very heavy compared to the Cuttlebug or the Big Shot and the motor is quieter than I expected (a nice plus). The machine is expensive (retail price $249.99) but it has been out for a while now and prices have dropped. Blitsy had it for $164.95 but it is sold out now. I saw it on Oh My Crafts for $189.99 (with a $10 Oh My Crafts Gift card).

Someone had a question about where to find the Memory Box dies I have been using lately. I have purchased mine at a local store. If you go to the Memory Box site you can use the store locator and choose your state to see if there is a seller near you. They are also available at a number of online retailers - click "Web Stores" at the top of the store locator list to see where you can buy the dies.

The Creative Memories Year End sale is on with savings from 20 - 50% on select items. The sale lasts only two days (December 28 and 29) and you can see all of the details on my CM website HERE.

The StoryBook Creator 4.0 software that I use is on sale for $51.95 (download or disc) and there are great prices on a couple of Disney items (a punch and mini paper album). Please let me know if you have any questions about the items on sale.

Remember, Blitsy is also having a second chance sale with all of the items they have offered since they opened listed again and available (while supplies last) until January 3, 2012. I checked yesterday and while some items have been "blitsed" (sold out), there are still lots of great items available. If you aren't a member yet, you can use my link to sign up http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/ and then get your own link to refer your friends and family - when they make their first order of $10 or more you will get a $10 credit to spend on the site.

We had stormy weather last night but it was rain and not snow - that's a good thing! I hope you are getting a chance to have a break for the holidays. What are you doing New Year's Eve?

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Just a few things...

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

We had a jam-packed day on Monday, getting ready for company, cooking and visiting, celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary and cleaning up after everyone went home. I did not get a chance to do anything in the craft room or even open up some of my new things...maybe today!

Blogger is acting up and won't allow me to upload new photos and I am very tired so I just have a few things to share and then I will be off to get some rest!

Someone asked what machine I used to cut the Memory Box "Flowering Christmas Tree" die. I used a Cuttlebug but you could use any machine that accepts the flat metal dies. The "sandwich" of cutting pads and shims would change depending on your machine. I am excited to try out one of my new machines (hint - it looks like a suitcase and starts with a "V") to see how these intricate dies work with the powerful motor and even feeding. I have heard that the intricate Cheery Lynn dies cut very well in the Vagabond (oops! I told you my first new "big crafty holiday item").

Several people have asked about the file for the Peace card. I have not posted the file and it seems to have gone missing from my projects folder. I have saved thousands of files and changed computers several times since I designed that card in 2008. If I remember correctly, I used the Joys of the Season cartridge for the bird and the Opposites Attract font for the letters. The stars may have been from Joys of the Season or George...it's hard to remember after three years! I'll keep looking for the file and will try to post some directions on making similar designs.

The Creative Memories year end sale starts Wednesday - it will last just two days, December 28th and 29th. I'll post links to the sale page tomorrow - there are some great items included in the sale!

Are you planning on making any Resolutions for the New Year? I am setting up a list of goals with very specific time frames. I hope this will help me get some things done that are in the "I'll do that in my spare time" category because I really don't seem to have a lot of "spare time" to spare! I will post at least some of the resolutions to help me stay accountable and push myself to complete the items. A lot of the items on the list have to do with organization of both my physical and digital "stuff"!

There are also some non-crafty things on the list, such as, get back to a regular walking schedule and get more sleep! Have a wonderful Tuesday - are you checking out all of the sales?

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Family Time (and something interesting...)

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

I hope you had a great day yesterday. We will be continuing our festivities today with a couple of dozen family members gathering at our house. My husband's parents will celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Most of the family will be here later this afternoon for a "day early" anniversary party so we have a lot to do to get ready for the meal. I will need to clear off my "extra crafting work surface" (also known as the pool table) so our nieces and nephews can have some fun downstairs.

I was lucky to receive some great gifts and I'll tell you more about them in a day or two. I just wanted to share this amazing chocolate box that our nephew brought home from Switzerland. It was a gift for the entire family from his mother-in-law. This is not a printed design - it was actually cut in black paper layered over the white box top.

I can't even imagine how long it would take to cut this out by hand. A long time ago I cut some much less detailed Scherenschnitte pictures with an X-acto knife on a mat and it took hours to do. Apparently these used to be done by hand but now are produced by a machine (probably a laser cut).

Inside the box were some very delicious chocolates - two of my favorite things (paper cutting and chocolates) combined!

We'll have a very busy day - but maybe I'll get a chance to try one of my new crafty items and make something to share tomorrow...or the next day! I hope you have a chance to relax and perhaps try out some of your gifts today - have fun (and if you have some new crafty toys I'd love to hear about them!).

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Christmas Day

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's very early on Christmas morning and the luminaries are still burning on our street. It is a wonderful and peaceful sight. I hope you all can be with your family and friends and enjoy a wonderful day!

I made this card back in 2008 and it is still one of my favorites. Since I can't send a card to everyone that reads my blog I am sending this "virtual" card to all of you. Thanks for your support - I am looking forward to the new year and some new and exciting adventures that I'll be sharing with you!

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Christmas Eve Tree Trimming

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

When I was a child we would put up our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. My Dad would get the tree in the stand and put the lights on and then the kids took over. I think we started out with a string of multicolor lights and then my Mom bought blue replacement bulbs and eventually, the entire tree had blue lights with just one white light at the top. We had a star made from some sort of plastic that went between the bulb and the socket and that had to be placed strategically at the top of the tree.

In our family, we have continued with the Christmas Eve tree trimming tradition for the live tree even though we put up quite a few other trees in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. In Germany, the gifts are traditionally opened on Christmas Eve. We have changed this to opening only one gift on Christmas Eve - everyone gets to choose a package when we get home from the midnight church service. When our kids were small, we managed to have the packages that they opened always be the one with new pajamas so they would look cute for the photos on Christmas morning (and yes, they were matching pajamas but they survived unscathed to adulthood!).

I'd love to hear about some of your traditions if you have time to leave a comment. I know that it is a very busy time so you could certainly stop back another day to add your story. I do have a card to share with you today. It was made with another Memory Box die - I am enjoying all of the delicate designs they offer.

This is the envelope with the Flowering Christmas Tree die - I like this packaging system which protects the die and also gives a visual reference for the image. I just noticed that the dies can be used on shrink plastic - I think that would be beautiful for an ornament (maybe I can find a few minutes to try this today...).

This is the die - there are tiny holes that you can use to push out any bits that might get stuck inside.

In this close view you can see just how thin the lines are. While some machine might be capable of cutting a design like this, it would take a long time to cut and it would probably be difficult to lift from a mat. Sometimes a die is the best choice for a design.

Adhesive for a delicate design like this can be a challenge. I used the LetraTac adhesive. I have written about this several times - here is a LINK to the posts showing how I used this product. You place the item on the sheet with lots of tiny dots of adhesive and then put the top sheet over the images and burnish with this tool to transfer the adhesive to the cut.

In this photo you can see that the image is so thin that even the tiny dots from the LetraTac extend beyond the edges. These are not difficult to deal with if you have a gum eraser.

You can use the eraser to pick up the stray bits of adhesive. The eraser might get a bit gummy and you can just snip off the edges to get a new clean surface. These are inexpensive and can be found at an art supply store. Creative Memories also sells them as "pick up squares."

When I was looking at the tree cut and thinking about a sentiment, I realized that the "Merry Christmas" from my new Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Christmas Mini Holidays 3 set would make a nice base for the tree.

I used the super fine detail embossing powder in gold to heat emboss the sentiment.

This powder was fantastic and produced a lovely embossed image - some of these lines are incredibly fine.

I added some small red gradient gem stickers from Creative Charms to the center of each flower.

I used the stardust clear gel pen to add more sparkle to the tree.

Stars and dots and lines on the leaves make the tree sparkle.

I added some gold "peel-offs" to anchor the base of the card with a double row to add interest to the right side.

The cardstock I used is Ripe Avocado from Papertrey Ink.

Just a few more things...

Blitsy is having a second chance sale! They put all of the still available items that they have offered since they opened on Black Friday back up on their site. The sale will run until January 3rd but some items are very limited in supply so will likely run out (or be "blitsed") sooner. Here is my link again if you haven't already signed up...

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

Once you join the site (membership is free) you can go to the "my account" tab and click "invites" at the bottom of the column to get your own code to give to your friends. When someone you refer makes a purchase of $10 or more you will get a $10 credit to spend in the store - now that's a great deal! I got the super fine gold embossing powder from Blitsy - it is in the Ranger Ink category for just $2.49.

Finally - I want to say Happy Birthday to my brother Bill. This photo was taken at the Philadelphia Zoo when he was five or six years old. As a Christmas Eve baby, he had to share the holiday but we were careful to wrap his birthday presents in "regular" paper and we always had a birthday cake on Christmas Eve.

I hope you have a wonderful day - we'll be putting out the luminaries later this afternoon. No sign of snow so far...

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The Eve of Christmas Eve

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

I hope that all of your holiday preparations are coming together nicely. I still feel like I am playing catch-up after our trip last month but I will get it all done!

Sales, Sales, Sales...

Just when we have so many extra things to do it seems that all of the stores are having pre-Christmas sales. I used to enjoy shopping after Christmas for bargains on holiday items but I think there probably won't be any left - many places have already marked them down 50, 60 and even 70%.

Even if you don't have time to get out to the stores you can do some shopping online - so here is a bit of enabling...

Blitsy offers new items for sale three times a week. So far they have had a great assortment of quality craft items at good prices. (Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, LaBlanche stamps, 7 Gypsies, Tattered Angels, Xyron, 3M adhesive tape and pink tape gun, Zutter (Bind-it-All, DreamKutz), Sizzix dies, Smooch, Ranger Ink products (including Stickles and Liquid Pearls), Little Yellow Bicycle kits - you just never know what you will find). Each sale lasts for one week and new items are posted around 10 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Here is my referral link that you can use to join the site. http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/

The site is a private membership site and membership is free. Once you are a member, you can get your own special code to refer your friends and family. When they make their first order, you will get a $10 credit to spend on one of your orders. If you are on Facebook, you can also become a "fan" of the Blitsy page and you will get a code for 10% off your first order.

Thanks for using my LINK to join. I think you will like the items they offer. I have ordered several times and the orders all arrived quickly and were packed well.

Lettering Delights just announced a dollar days sale. Most items are just $1 (Graphic sets, fonts, alphabets, clip art, paper packs, doodlebats, candy wraps, etc.) and the Cut-its and SVGs are 50% off (these can be used with many die cutting machines but not the Cricut unless you have third party software purchased before the lawsuit settlements).

If you are a fan of the Create A Critter cartridge, you will love these cute holiday versions of some of the animals by the same designer, Nancy Kubo. There are lots of new items and some that are particularly nice for the holidays. There are also a lot of sets by Sheri Berry Designs that are similar to the Snow Angel Imagine cartridge that she designed. These were offered in a bundle but with the sale they are less expensive to buy individually.

I use a lot of the Lettering Delights graphics with my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software. I can also cut the cuttable files with my Silhouette machine. I didn't see an end date for the sale listed but the email did say that they won't be having dollar days in 2012 so this might be a good time to pick up the sets that you want. To get an additional discount, you can "buy" the monthly freebie and when your confirmation email arrives there will be a code for 25% off your next order.

Finally, I want to let you know that Creative Memories will have be having a year end sale on December 28 and 29th. There will also be an album sale in January. I'll update with the details after Christmas.

The design at the top of this post is a screen shot of a file I created with the Silhouette software. I haven't had a chance to try cutting it yet. I am wondering how many of you have a Silhouette or the new Cameo machine and would be interested in the files I have been designing...

It's raining here but still no sign of snow...it will be funny if we have a year with a White Halloween and a Green Christmas!

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First Day of Winter

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happy First Day of Winter! Our temperature today is predicted to be around 52 degrees - not your typical Boston-in-December by far! In honor of the season, I thought I'd post some links to snowflake projects today. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love snowflakes and often use them for projects. I tend to favor cartridges that have snowflakes and also have designed lots of snowflakes from Cricut shapes. More recently, I have been drawing my own snowflakes using the Silhouette Studio software. Here are a few images of past projects - you should be able to click the photos and go directly to the original posts.

These projects were all made with the images on a single key on the "A Child's Year" cartridge (except for the sentiment which is from another key). This cartridge is still a favorite of mine - it is so full of great images and was very well planned to make good use of the available space on a cartridge.

This snowflake card is another favorite. If you click this image, you should be taken to the post with some tips on designing snowflakes. This one is made from a fleur-de-lis element from the Cupcake Wrappers cartridge.

This is a snowflake (more like a snowball!) that I designed in the Silhouette Studio software and cut with my Silhouette SD. Designs like this are easy to make with some of the extra tools that are available in this software.

This is another, simpler, Silhouette Studio design. The paper on the card front was printed with the Imagine and is from the Heirloom cartridge.

This amazing snowflake is from the Cheerful Seasons cartridge. If you click the image to see more about the cut you will need to scroll down to the second half of the post.

Here is a full page size snowflake made up from some frames and other elements from Reminisce Accents. There is an explanation of how I made it at THIS POST.

Elaborate lace shapes are great for making lace snowflakes - this one uses more Reminisce Accents shapes. Working with shapes on a cartridge can save you time in creating but it is also fun to draw your own images using other software.

These are some of the first snowflakes I ever created in Design Studio - back in 2008 using the Fabulous Finds cartridge. Technically, they aren't snowflakes since they have eight points - but they looked better with eight pieces when I put them together.

If you are one of the people who has everything done ahead of time - good for you! Maybe you can take the time to try some of these snowflake ideas. There are more - just search for "snowflakes" with the search box at the top left of the page. (There may be a few links for files that are old and broken - please let me know if you find one that doesn't work...)

I have a large collection of new files that I have designed that need to be test cut - maybe in January I'll get a chance to do that!

We made more progress in decorating and wrapping yesterday - today I want to do some cooking to get some dishes ready ahead of time for our family get together on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). The freezer is a big help when you are getting ready for a crowd!

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Ten Tiny Tags

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

On Monday I had a nice surprise. Linda, from Ink About It , called to tell me that I was one of the winners of a gift certificate to the store. This is the local store that hosted the chipboard holiday house challenge (click HERE to go to the post where I showed some of the houses). Three winners were chosen by a random draw from all of the people who brought in a house.

I like to try to visit the store on Tuesdays when they have something set up on the "art bar" so I made a trip up to the store yesterday. I did some shopping (more about that later...) and made some tags at the art bar. They had some white tags (the sort that you can find at the office supply store) and stamps, markers and ribbons set out. If you are in a last minute rush - cute little tags like this don't take very long to make. You can easily cut some tags from white cardstock so you don't even need to make a trip to buy tags.

I did four mitten tags with some pen stitching around the edges...

...four polar bear tags, and two wreath tags.

I decided to make the cuffs and the mittens different colors.

I tried a couple of different shades of green on the wreaths. After I got home, I realized that the stamp was a little low and the name for the "from" would probably have to go up the side of the tag - oops!

The images were all colored with Copic Spica Glitter pens. Using sparkly pens or shiny papers is an easy way to make something look festive and special.

For accents, I used these pens. I think I have some around the house already but I bought another set to be sure I could use them right away. (Do you ever buy extras of something that you know you probably have tucked away somewhere?...it's a good thing that they are an inexpensive treat!).

I dotted the spots on the mittens and, if you look carefully at the wreath (you may have to click to enlarge the photo) you can see the added sparkle from the stardust pen.

A short piece of ribbon, folded in half and stapled to the top, finishes the tag off nicely.

I used the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to add the ribbon. This is a hand held stapler that uses extra small staples - about 1/4 inch.

For a few of the tags, I used some nontraditional blue and green ribbon.

For the rest I chose the standard red and white. If you look below each polar bear, you can see the tiny bit of sparkly snow I added with the stardust pen. I also drew some stars in the sky for each polar bear to look at!

The names will go on the back of these tags. I'll probably use these three for the triplets.

These were quick, simple and fun to make and a great little break in a hectic week. I really enjoy knowing that there is a shop not too far away that I can visit to see lots of new products in person. It's also fun to do a quick and simple project that someone else has set up for you.

Of course, I spent the gift certificate and more and I got some very nice treats - here is a little sneak peek that shows a few of the things I bought in use on another project.

My camera is "sort of" working. I have to hold it in just the right way to keep the lens connected properly. I think I need to pull out the manual and see if there is a piece missing from the fall. This is the first time I can ever remember dropping a camera - very bad timing but I do have my "purse camera" to fall back on.

I hope that you are nearly finished with your to do lists - mine are slowly but surely getting shorter. Have a great day!

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Pillow Boxes for Gift Cards and Cash

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

There are just a few more days until Christmas and Hanukkah begins tonight. Everyone is trying to finish their list of things that must be done before the holiday. I did a lot of wrapping yesterday and now I am just waiting for a few more packages to arrive. This year most of our gifts are things that come in boxes but there are a few gifts cards too. These usually come with some sort of folder but I think they deserve to be wrapped in style.

A couple of years ago, I showed these little boxes that I made to hold some gift cards and cash. There are pillow boxes on several cartridges - these happen to be from the Wedding cartridge. You can see more details about them at THIS POST (there is also a yummy recipe for roasted vegetables in that post!)

I cut the same pillow box shape that I used for the blue boxes, however, I hid all of the lines except the curved lines at the ends that help to form the pillow box shape. I don't like the cuts, but it is tricky to score smooth curves for folding, especially with this heavy glittered cardstock.

I assembled the box with 1/4 inch Scor-Tape. This is a very aggressive adhesive and it works well even with the glittered cardstock. When you fold in the ends of a pillow box, be sure to fold down the ends with the thumbnail cut first. This makes it easier to open the second flap and also allows the solid flap to show when the box is closed. You can see the white edges that are exposed by the curved cuts - you could ink these if they are too distracting.

I put together a few poinsettias from Prima and added a pearl brad from Creative Charms. I colored the brad and pearl red with a ProMarker. These pearl brads come in the Vintage Velvet Poppies and I often change them and add a different center brad so I have lots of extras sitting around.

The flowers have slits cut to insert the brad but I had to add my own slits to the leaves.

There were also some little embossed ornaments in the Prima tin so I added one of them to the flower cluster. I tied a gold ribbon around the entire box and attached the flowers with a large glue dot.

I thought I'd like the ends of the ribbon to stay loose, however, in the end I decided to tuck them under for a rounder shape.

If you have a lot of "small, flat and folding" (as in cash) gifts to share, you could put all of the boxes on a tree and let the recipients search for the box that was personalized for them. I put this one on the front hall Santa tree to take photos.

The traditional colors blend in nicely with the tree. If you like the way the boxes look on a tree, you could even create a group of them to use as ornaments each year.

I had another gift box to share with you but, unfortunately, I dropped my camera while I was taking these photos and I am having trouble getting it to work properly. The lens came off when the camera fell and now it is not consistently recognizing that the lens is on the camera. This camera has been my constant companion for over four years and I hope I can get it sorted out to work as it normally does.

Hanukkah begins at sunset today so I want to say Happy Hanukkah to all of you who will be celebrating for the next eight days.

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Christmas Lights in Madrid

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

When we went to visit our son and daughter-in-law after Thanksgiving, we spent the first couple of days in Madrid. They live in a smaller city south of Madrid and came up on the train to meet us. The holiday lights were up and there were some displays that were different than the lights I have typically seen here in the US. I thought I'd share some of my photos so you could get a look at the unusual displays.

Each of the streets leading up to the main plaza had a different style of lighted decorations. These colorful balls of light were interesting. I wondered why the third one was half red and half green instead of solid green...

The scale of the decorations was very large. In the day time you could see how they were constructed.

At night the structures disappear and all you see is an amazing light show. The streets were very crowded at about ten o'clock at night - it was dinner time!

The snowflakes on the large department store building moved in interesting patterns.

When we walked to the plaza in the daytime, this tree looked rather odd. It was extremely tall and had a path below that you could walk through.

At night, the plaza was full of people and the lighted tree was a big attraction, with long lines of people waiting to go through the tree.

Along the main street near our hotel there were cityscapes repeated every half block or so. They continued down the street as far as we could see.

This starry blue sky was very twinkly. It was in an area a little bit away from the main lights - I think it was on some sort of government building like a library.

The most unusual display was the "ceiling" of lights over another plaza where there was a Christmas market going on. In this daytime shot you can see the wires and cables that suspend the lights. They are round discs in different colors and patterns and they are hovering over the plaza like flying saucers!

It's hard to describe the feeling that we had walking under this ceiling of light. The effect was magical and a bit surreal. In the photo directly above you can get a feel of the size of the plaza. (just click on any photo to see it larger) There were so many of the lighted discs. It must have been quite an engineering puzzle to get them suspended so they could float above the crowds.

This was yet another type of light along one of the streets that led to the plaza. I thought it was interesting that they had so many different designs. I wonder if there was a competition or challenge given to some designers to come up with unique patterns for each street.

The tall Christmas tree was an interesting combination of green circles in various sizes and red stars and hearts.

When we came back through the plaza after our dinner the crowds were mostly gone and we were able to walk right in to the tree. I tried to get a shot straight up the center of the tree. The effect was very interesting as you could see all of the segments tapering to the tip of the tree.

This was my favorite photo of the evening - the newlyweds with one of the hearts behind them!

I hope you enjoyed the lights. It is interesting to see how different cities and countries decorate for the holidays. I liked the bold graphic designs which were very different than the typical New England window candles and white twinkly lights. The designs are also great inspiration for some card or page layouts - I hope to be able to create a few items inspired by the lights.

We're in the final countdown now - I am determined to have everything wrapped before Christmas Eve! I did see the questions about the dimensions of the lollipop tree and I will try to empty it to take a photo and also take the measurements and post them tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions on where to get the tootsie pops. I could always change to a different type of lollipop. I have seen bags of the tootsie pops but I was hoping to find the huge boxes I used to get at Costco.

Have a great day and don't forget to check to see what new crafty items are added to Blitsy later this morning.

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Candy at Christmas - Lollipop Tree

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

During the Christmas season, there tends to be a lot of candy around our house. When I was young, we had a gumdrop tree. There were three pieces (two interlocking tree sections and a base) and it was made of clear plastic. One of my favorite things to do was to fill the tree with gumdrops - the branches were sharp and the gumdrops would stick to the points. This was a good job for me since I didn't like gumdrops and my mother could be fairly sure that the tree would end up full.

I am not sure where the tree we had ended up but I did eventually find a similar one in a catalog and ordered it for our family. Some years we would set it up at Christmas. There was just one problem - no one really liked the gum drops and they would just sit there. I may still have that tree in the attic and thinking about it now makes me want to give it another try this year...we'll see...

The candy tree that we do keep filled year round is this one. When we lived in England, I had the chance to go with some friend to the Paris flea markets. I came across this heavy wooden cone with lots of holes drilled at an angle and had no idea what it was for. The stall holder told me it was from a candy shop and was used to display "lollies" to sell. It holds more than 100 and is very pretty when it is totally filled.

I had been buying these large boxes of Tootsie Roll Pops at Costco - the candy aisles there are a little overwhelming with so many choices! The last time the tree was looking empty, I took out the new box I had on the shelf and our son and his girlfriend filled it up. Notice the color pattern (I don't know where he gets that orderly instinct!).

Well, they ran out of lollipops before they ran out of tree and I planned to get more on my next trip to Costco. I discovered that they no longer carry Tootsie Roll Pops - they weren't a big seller. So now I have to find a new source for candy to fill the tree.

I have been thinking about putting together a small album with photos of some of the objects we have in our house that have a story that I want to record. I think it would be fun to be able to look through and remember the "back story" to special items. I may end up making some background paper for the page about the lollipop tree with one of these close up photos.

The other album I keep thinking about making would be one to record the stories behind some of our Christmas tree ornaments. When we were first married I took photos of the ornaments we added each year. Over 30 years we have accumulated hundreds of ornaments. I did take some photos last year but that is where the project stalled.

Most people scrapbook photos of people, events and places - have you ever done a book to "catalog" some of your special possessions? I'd love to hear about it if you have.

We made a lot of progress on the gift purchasing today - I think we are nearly finished. Now I need to get the rest of the trees decorated. I hope you are having a lovely weekend - good luck with all of your preparations!

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Snowmen Artist Trading Cards

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

The theme for December in my Artist Trading Card group was "snowmen." I always think that ATCs should be, well, sort of "arty" rather than cute but mine don't always turn out that way. There are so many cute snowmen cuts that I decided to just go with a lighthearted take on the subject.

This little fellow is from the 'Tis the Season cartridge. Since ATCs are only 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, I cut him at 2 inches. This size worked out nicely for my card.

The snowman image is on the bottom row, fourth from the left and you use the regular and shift of the base and the layer1 keys.

There are four simple layers to assemble. This image has the "reverse" style of layering so you don't have a lot of tiny eyes and buttons to glue to the snowman.

I put together one card and then did the rest assembly line style. There were only six in the swap this month so it was pretty quick and easy to assemble the figures. The only small pieces are the scart (which is still large enough to handle easily) and the nose.

I wasn't sure about having a hot pink scarf and nose but it ended up looking rather cute. The nose and scarf were cut from the DCWV Dazzle cardstock, the two snowman layers are Core'dinations regular color core in dark green and gemstone for the white, snow layer.

The card base is a Martha Stewart heavyweight cardstock and the layers are Christmas papers from K and Company. The "snow" border was punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

Here are the punches that I used. I punched the edge of the 1 1/4 inch strip at the bottom of the card with the punch on the right and then trimmed the edges to fit the width of the layer.

I used the little snowman punch for the back of the ATC. I often do the backs digitally, however, with only six in the group it didn't take too long to hand write the required information.

When I assembled the cards, I did not put adhesive along the top of the border punched strip. This made a little spot to nestle the snowman in between the two snowflakes.

Here are all of the cards ready for mailing.

I turned the cards sideways to add all of the details on the back. The little punched snowmen make it a bit less boring!

This little snowman is very cute but there are lots of snowmen that would work if you don't have this cartridge. The 'Tis the Season cartridge does have a lot of great images and word art for the holidays. If you are interested in this cartridge and you don't already have a CM consultant, I'd be happy to help you with your order. You can place an order at any time on my CM personal website HERE.

We have several events to attend this weekend - and still more decorating, shopping, wrapping, etc. etc. to do. The live tree is here but not yet up in the stand in the sunroom. I hope that by the end of the weekend most of the holiday transformation of the house will be done. I also have some new items that I ordered that I am eager to try - maybe I can squeeze in a bit of crafty time too!

If you all are still interested, I will post the ATC "virtual swap" in a couple of days and you will be able to start making and uploading your ATCs on inlinkz soon. For the first round do you want a theme or a "free for all" where you make anything you like? Let me know and I'll get things set up next week.

Have a great weekend!

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