A Mystery Box...

I found this box at a second hand/antique store.  Can you guess what was inside it?

 I thought it looked like a box for a handkerchief - and I was right.  I did find some other surprises inside.

 It turned out that there were two handkerchiefs, a rose sachet and a sweet little illustration and poem.

 At the top of the box you can see a little bit of the fabric-like tissue paper that lined the box originally.  The box itself is also covered in fabric.

The sachet does not smell like roses now - I wonder how old it is?

 Here is the sweet little friendship poem.  The illustration appears to be hand colored.

Something about this little box and the contents just made me "need" it - the style of the label on the bottom of the box was very appealing.

Here is the question - do you have any idea what I paid for this nostalgic package?  It was purchased in Massachusetts in a town about an hour from Boston.  I am curious to see what you think it is worth...

I already have plans for the contents and the graphics - so keep your eyes sharp to see when they appear on the blog again.

We are driving home today - a short visit is better than no visit and we'll try to get back in another month or so.  Tomorrow I'll be putting up the Christmas tree at the museum with my neighbor.  I hope we like the final result once it is in place!  Photos to follow...

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Fireworks ATCs

The November theme for my Artist Trading Card swap group was "Fireworks."  It may seem an odd theme for this month.  One of the members of the group is from England and we chose it in connection with Guy Fawkes Night which is celebrated on the 5th of November.  This Wikipedia article will give you lots of information about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.  In 1605, Guy Fawkes was part of a plot to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords.  The plot was foiled and he was arrested and the event is commemorated with bonfires and fireworks on November 5th.

There is a well-known poem about Guy Fawkes Day - here is the first verse

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

I started with some photographs of fireworks that I took when our town had the 375th birthday celebration last year. You can see the photos in this post.

I chose three of my photos and layered them together in the Creative Memories StoryBook Creator program. Then I added some text (the first line of the poem) and a border of blue with the color sampled from the blue of the fireworks.

Then I softened the edges of the image and added a glitter effect to the blue border. I had set the size at 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches (the only requirement for an ATC is that it must be this size) and I could print eight on a sheet of letter sized matte photo paper.

I adhered the photo paper to dark blue cardstock. On the back of the card, I added a firework cut from the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge cut in the Dazzle cardstock from DCWV (I am still enjoying this incredibly sparkly paper).

We were a very small group this month so I only needed to create five cards.

I haven't forgotten about the proposal to do a "virtual" ATC swap here on the blog. I'll be posting the details for the swap after Thanksgiving.

I hope you are having a nice weekend - we are enjoying our visit with Dad and admiring the cards that some of you sent him - thanks again for that!

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Digital Cartridges and Hello Thursday

Yesterday was "Hello Thursday" - the day when Provocraft announces new cartridges.  There were only two announced - Snow Days and Cricut Font and Basic Shapes.  Snow Days is a seasonal Mini and Cricut Font and Basic Shapes is a digital cartridge that is free with the purchase of the new Cricut Mini machine.  You can check them out on the Hello Thursday page HERE.  Click on the cartridge boxes on the top left shelf to see the "look book" for each cartridge.  Two cartridges may seem like a small number for a Hello Thursday release, however, the new Mini was launched on Monday and there were just twenty digital cartridges released as Craft Room exclusives. 

You can see the Craft Room Exclusives HERE.  The images on the Craft Room Exclusives include some of the often requested categories (such as Greek Letters).  I think the price is high - some sets include only five or six images for $9.99.  However, if there is an image set that you find appealing, it might be a reasonable price to pay.  I used to be happy to pay $10 (with a coupon) for a set of four sizzlits dies which would only cut in one size and did not have layers.

When I checked the Cricut.com site I counted 275 cartridges that are now available as digital cartridges.  You can see them HERE.  This may be good news if you have been trying to find an older or discontinued cartridge, however the prices are full retail prices.  As I understand it, digital cartridges are available to you in the Craft Room and will transfer to your Gypsy for use without a computer or internet access.  The digital cartridges will be added to the Gypsy the next time you run Cricut Sync.  If the images are very new, you might have to wait for an update to add the cartridge to the Gypsy.

If you click on the white shelves in the center of the Hello Thursday page you will see some cartridges that are retiring - however, with the digital cartridge option I am not sure that it matters anymore...

You can see more images and some projects made with the Snow Days and Cricut Font and Basic Shapes cartridges on the Official Cricut Blog. 

(if you are curious about the cut at the top of this post...I'll tell you more about it in a few days)

My hand is healing and we are on our way to Pennsylvania today - I'll try to catch up with email now that I can type a bit better but it may take me a few more days so please be patient.  I do try to answer all emails- if you haven't heard back and it has been a week or more please feel free to send another message - sometimes things get lost in the shuffle!

Have a great weekend!

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Give Thanks (digital paper)

Thanksgiving is just a week away and today I am thankful that my Dad is celebrating his 87th birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad!  Thanks to everyone who offered to send him a card.  I'll be going to Pennsylvania this weekend to celebrate with him.

Since I have limited us of my left hand right now, I thought I'd share a digital project - done mostly with my right hand using the computer mouse!  I took photos of a lot of colorful leaves last year.  I placed them on a plain background with the idea that I could turn the photos into digital elements with my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software.  I used the 3.0 version of the program when I made this paper, the latest version is 4.0.

After I had turned the leaves into individual .png files, I arranged them on a 12 x 12 green textured background.  The leaves above are direct from my photos and the colors are a little muted - so I decided to perk them up a bit.

I experimented with the adjustments on the color tab until I had a result I liked.  The dotted line shows the actual square of the 12 x 12 page.

I applied a surface effect (wrinkles2 in the program) to make the leaves a little more interesting and to tone down the brightness.

Finally, I created a text box and typed the words "Give Thanks" over and over in the Edwardian Script font.

This is the final version of the paper that I created.  I  can use this a a background for a scrapbook page or print it at a smaller size to use for a card or another project.

I'd like to share this paper with you - you can click on the bold link below to download the high quality jpeg image (the image above is just a screen shot and won't enlarge nicely to a 12 x 12 size).  If you use the paper, I'd love to see what you make.

Give Thanks Leaf Paper

For all of you who wrote to ask about my left hand...no I wasn't literally putting out a fire (!)

I had a little raised freckle spot on the back of my hand near the base of my ring finger.  While the doctors thought it was "probably nothing to be worried about" they decided it should be removed.  I didn't realize that to do this they would actually make quite a long incision (you can't remove just the circular spot and pull the skin into a lump so they made a long diamond shaped cut).  I have lots of stitches in my hand and it is swollen and sore.  It should heal fairly quickly but it is really slowing me down right now.  I thought it wouldn't be a big problem since I am right-handed... It is amazing how much you do that requires the use of both of your hands - like opening jars and lifting things.  So I'll do what I can but the next week or so might be a little different than usual here on the blog.  Most of you are probably busy with family and the holidays now - I hope you have a wonderful time and that you can be with your loved ones.


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An Elegant Wreath

I had quite a day on Tuesday - lots of fires to put out and some unexpected complications.  I have a left hand wrapped in bandages right now so it is hard to type and I definitely can't do much with the hand for a few days.

With all of the fanfare about the new Cricut Mini and the Craft Room, I thought I'd share something to remind you to look carefully at the cartridges you own - you never know where you might find an unexpected treasure.  Using Design Studio, the Gypsy or now the online Craft Room can greatly expand the usefulness of your cartridges.  Of course, you do still have to work with the images available on the cartridges that you own. 

This wreath works beautifully to frame a page.  You can read all about it at THIS POST from a couple of years ago and adapt the idea to one of your projects.  Without peeking at the labels, can you tell me which cartridge this wreath is from?  My file is also available to download if you want to see how it was done.

I hope to be able to use my hand more tomorrow - sorry for the super short post today.  I had a minor surgery that turned out to be more involved than I expected but everything is fine.  How are your Thanksgiving preparations going? 


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