Reinventing the Wheel...

Sometimes you learn how to do something....and then if you're like me you don't practice enough and *whoooooosh* that newfound knowledge escapes to some place unknown where all that newfound knowledge goes!

Several months back I bought a PixScan mat and googled and read and googled and read and googled and read how to do cut out stamped images with my Silhouette.  I thought..."what great technology"....I need that knowledge.  Well, I got the knowledge and then as I said previously....*whoosh*...it was gone. It might be laying around somewhere but it certainly couldn't be found in my brain!

So I had some time the other day to try to find the knowledge again (which I did) and I thought..."now how am I going to remember it?"  It certainly won't stay in my brain as there is no room to hold onto newfound knowledge.  My brain is already overflowing with more important things like "did I turn the coffee pot off", "is today trash day?", "where is my (fill in the blank)?", etc.

I thought to myself that if I wrote myself a tutorial on my very own blog I can access what worked for me in the future (and, of course 'future' means anytime after this particular second!

I know you all know what I'm talking about!

(Now, if you do not have a Silhouette or have absolutely NO interest in this technology you can just skip on down to the end and see a couple of cards I made.  And thanks for looking!)

Here is my tutorial:

1. Your Silhouette software must be calibrated to the source that captured your original image.  In my case, it is my iPhone and I have already done that.  But if it gets out of calibration then look HERE for how to calibrate. Once your phone is calibrated you shouldn't have to do it again.  Shouldn't have to....but then again, who knows?  Anyway, mine was still calibrated just fine after the previous attempt.

2. Stamp your images on your paper in whatever ink you desire to use, keeping in mind what you will use to color them (watercolor pencils or brushes, Copics, etc).  Of course, you can go ahead and color prior to cutting if you wish but I hate the idea of spending a lot of time coloring to have my cuts not be quite right.

3.  Then place your stamped images on your Pix Scan mat making sure that it is within the black outlined rectangle and take a picture "straight on" of the images.

By the way....these oh-so-cute images are from My Favorite Things "Things With Wings" stamp set.
4. Next you go to your handy dandy computer and pull up your Silhouette software (I use Designer Edition but any will do).
5. Go to File in the top left....click on it and then find Open PixScan Image and click on it.

6.  Over on the right of your screen you will see a window open up (the previous image you had imported will also show up but disregard that) and click on "Import Pixscan Image from File".

7. Find your image on you computer....I had mine in my Dropbox folder and click on it.

8. Then your little window on the right of your computer screen will looks something like this and you will see some blue and white lines in motion where it says "Loading Image".

....and the image you are importing will also show up.  Cool!

9. Then on the main part of the working surface of the software your image will show up....like this:

  10. OK....now you need to start telling Silhouette what you want to cut.  So the first thing is to go to your Trace window which is the square highlighted in the blue.  The Trace window will pop open with some options.  You will need to select your Trace Area so click on that and then go to your image and click on what you want to trace.

11.  I wanted to trace everything of course so highlighted the whole kit and caboodle!

Once you have your traced area the way you want it.  (There are tips to tracing but I will not go over them here.  Check this link out HERE if you want some basic info on tracing.)

12.  Select the part of the image you want to trace.  In my case I wanted the Trace Outer Edge option.

13. Now you will have cut lines right on the edges of your images.  I wanted to cut with a white edge so I needed to add in another step.  I think cutting with an offset is probably a little more forgiving but I will make a note to myself to try to cut on the image at some point!

14. So now I go back to the top of the screen and click on the Offset Window.

 The following window will open.  Make sure your images are selected and then click on "Offset".

( IMPORTANT!: One thing to remember at this point is that you still have cut lines on your image and at some point you will need to drag all of those off the cutting page. You most likely will not want to cut out the image with the offset and then on the image itself!)

16. You will then have red cut lines around your image.  You will need to use the slider bar or arrows above to increase or decrease the amount of the offset.  I found that for me 0.040 worked perfectly for me. 

 17. At this point you may need to clean up your image as some things may be identified for cut which you do not want cut.  For example....in the little bird above were some extra "cuts" inside the wings I didn't want cut.  I simply went to the top of my computer screen and clicked on Object and then Release Compound Path and then was able to delete those little bits of junk I didn't want cut.

17.  Here is my totally cleaned up image ready for cut (the original cut lines have been moved off the screen....you just can't see them here.)

 18. Then you simply load your mat and set your cut settings the way you want.  I used Neenah heavy cardstock so used coverstock as my choice and actually even engaged double cut.

19.  This is what I ended up with:

 

So what does one do after cutting out 427 pieces?  Why make 50 2 cards, of course!

Here is the first one colored with a variety of water color pencils.

This one was colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brushes.

I used Distress Inks to create the backgrounds and some stitched dies from Simon Says Stamp.

You can see how nicely the PixScan technology worked!

Birthdays, Birthdays!

This is a week for birthdays for us. Tomorrow my sweet little, adorable and a little goofy granddaughter turns 4.  These last 4 years have gone by so quickly...scary how the time flies!
I made her this little card with a Penny Black stamp set called "Mimi in Paris".  Taylor loves animals so I thought she'd like this little one with a puppy on it.

I stamped the images on white cardstock and then masked them so that I could use some distress inks to make the background. I also punched some clouds out with masking tape and used those on my sky.

I used mostly my new Chameleon pens to color with a little Copic coloring thrown in.  I find the Copics challenging to get nice blending like the pros but the Chameleons which are supposed to be much easier to use were not for me! LOL! I need lots of practice.  But I don't think Taylor will notice my less than perfect coloring.
And then I used some liquid applique for the puffy stuff on the little poodle.  I finished off with some clear Wink of Stella to add a little fun and glittery sheen.

Happy Birthday, Taylor!
And Happy Crafting!

Oh, and I entered this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge which you can read about HERE.

Beyond the Sea....

I have been oh-so-lucky to spend part of my winter at the beach for the last three years.  I have a wonderful friend who has a house in Laguna Beach, FL just west of Panama City Beach. Oh, how I love the white sands and emerald green water of the Gulf. It is truly a happy place for me and I love being down there in the winter. It's not tropical in the Florida Panhandle in the winter...it's not sunning yourself on the beach kind of weather but I love the cool crisp air and the sound of the waves. And the winter sunsets are so spectacular! Happy. Place.

Anyway, I always make a few cards for my friend as a little additional thank you and they are done with a beachy or ocean theme.  This is what I came up with for this year:

I made several different versions before setting on this one....I tried different backgrounds...different ways to do the little sea turtle...etc.  But was pretty happy with this fun and cheerful card when it all came together.
I used Lawn Fawn's Critters Under the Sea for the turtle and coral. They were colored with Copics and cut out to adhere to the little water scene which was done with Ranger Distress Inks and blending tools.  I used a die from Paper Smooches called Stitched Flourishes to do the little flourish behind the turtle...I thought it made it look like there was movement and of course, there is...the turtle is swimming! LOL! And the little turtle was popped up on some foam tape to give a tad of dimension.  Since these will be mailed, I presume, I didn't want too much bulk.
I used some circle dies from Lifestyle Crafts and cut the scalloped circle from a Spellbinder die onto some orange paper which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder called "Tiny Bubbles".
I used a sentiment from an old stamp set that a friend gave me.  There is no name on the set so I don't know who the manufacturer is and Google did not help me! I set the stamp up on my friend, MISTI which made stamping the image in the very same place (since I made multiple cards!) very easy!

I brushed some clear Wink of Stella glitter shimmer over the turtle and the coral and added some glossy accents for "bubbles".
I think my friend will like them.  I would love to receive one of these! :)
They make me want to head south and back to the beach!

And that is it for today...it is wet and gloomy here in Atlanta. We have had so much rain recently but it certainly has helped with all of the pollen!

Happy Crafting!

You've Got This!

I made another card with the very cute little Tiny Heroes set by Mama Elephant for a special young lady.  She's a blond so I made this one with lighter hair with my Copics.  My friend, Cyndi, told me my coloring was getting better and I told her that's only because these images are so teeny! HAHA!

I also used the frame die from Sew Fancy...also by Mama Elephant.  The paper is From Lawn Fawn and to make the blue sky...well, I simple used some Distress Ink on one of those little round blender thingies. 
I just love this set for and that it has both little super heroes that are girls as well as boys!

Kristina Werner shared a video last week where she watercolored some custom envelopes.  I loved what she did so much that I thought it would be fun to try.  I don't have my WRM punch board with me (the easiest way to make envelopes of just about any size!) so I used my Silhouette to cut some out (the second easiest way to make envelopes!).  I used standard 80 lb watercolor paper. Kristina's method is to use frisket masking fluid or resist fluid to write the name.  Then you let it dry...watercolor over it (done with Distress Inks) and then remove the dried masking fluid.  I made several but I wrote the address on the others before I remembered to take pictures so I don't want to share those here.  I love the custom look and I think the recipients will get  a kick out of seeing their names on the envelopes in a more artsy way.

This was the first one I did....and I think I got a little better with the masking fluid and the watercoloring for the others but you won't get to see those! Sorry...!
 The idea is simple to follow and no two will ever be the same...

Happy Crafting!

A New Love Affair!

I have had a very open love affair with Hero Arts for many years now.  It began when I went to a CKU (Creating Keepsakes University) Convention many years ago...like 10? I had signed up for a class taught by Jennifer McGuire...had no idea who she was...and she used Hero Arts stamps and we learned kiss stamping.  It was so much fun and I began a wild affair with HA!

It's been a great 10 plus years and although I have an new love...I will remain loyal to HA, as well.  There is plenty of room in my heart for HA and my new love.

What or who is my new love?  Mama Elephant!  Oh my gosh...how I love those stamps and dies!  So darned cute and it is taking great restraint to NOT buy out the whole store! 
Check out a card I made with Mama Elephant's Tiny Heroes Set:

Is this not the cutest little card?  I just love that tiny super hero...and the super hero doggie!
Here is the stamp set:

and the coordinating dies:

and lastly, a set of some miscellaneous dies called Sew Fancy that can be used for matting or borders, etc.:

The little x's on the card base above are actually little debossed x's from the die.  Too cute!

I am away from home right now so my supplies here are limited...I used Salty Ocean Distress Ink to make my background and ink up a messy sky and clouds.  I colored the little girl and the dog in with my Copics. I had no foam tape on hand so I used a couple of stacked glue dots.  They didn't work great but did add a tad of dimension.

I'm in love...I think Mama Elephant has a winner on her hands!

Happy Crafting!

MIA!

Well...my goodness...I've been MIA.  Missing. In. Action.
Like many of you I've had lots of things going on! All good...all good but they've kept me away from posting.
I am at the beach for my "annual winter sabbatical".  This is the third year I've headed south to be near the water during the month of February...I love being here this time of year.

I love a winter sunset....and one over the water is just spectacular to me.

I've been here two weeks but just a couple of days after getting here my daughter and grandkids came down for a nice long stay.  It was so much fun (and so busy and noisy) having them here and we enjoyed some nice days with moderate temperatures and some fun on the beach.  You can see 2 of the kids in the photo above.

I did bring a few cardmaking things to work on and managed to get a few cards done.  Before coming here I went through my old Simon Says Stamp cardkits and picked a few to "finish out".  What I mean by "finish out" is that I try to use up as many supplies as I can that were included in the kits.

 The cards above were inspired by a card from Kathy Racoosin.  I love the fun shelves and books on them.  And I love the little parts like the file boxes and alarm clock and apple that can be used to build the scene.  I used Ranger distress inks and Hero Arts inks for my cards.
Here is another card with the same set:

Again, it is was great fun to build my little scene!  This card was inspired by one created by Nichol Maguourk.

Fun set!

Happy Crafting!

Hello...Thinking of You...Best Weekend Ever!

I just got back from central Florida where I had the BEST WEEKEND EVER!  I met up with some ladies I went through the fabulous Florida State University Speech Pathology program with a few (ok, more than a few) years ago.  We all started the undergraduate speech path program together and went straight through and got our master's degrees.  3 of the ladies still work in the schools doing speech pathology/therapy, one works in the business world...and one plays semi professional tennis (me)...well, at least semi professional in my wildest dreams!  One will be retiring after the upcoming school year and the others are also looking at retirement in the not too distant future.
Anyway, we had not seen each other in 7 years and we met up at a friend's condo on Lake Weir near Ocala.  We had the BEST time.  Lots of reminiscing, sharing...lots of laughing, teasing...eating, drinking, boating, and just hanging around with the best group of ladies.  We have known each other for 39 years and when we get together you wouldn't think we'd ever missed a day of seeing each other.
Great friends are like that.  I. AM. LUCKY.
Here we are all together (standing...Linda and Jan and sitting from left to right...me, Teri and Margaret).

Here we are being a bit silly because that is always important, too....

Here are 4 of the ladies when we went out to dinner one night:

We seriously love each other so much.  I know I {heart} them...

So fun...I had to come home and rest.  Fun wears me out!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd share where I'd been.  :)

Back to card making...another card idea I was inspired by stole from Laura Bassen...love her style of cards and if you are interested in checking out her blog it's Doublestick Heaven.  I learn so much from her and get so inspired by her beautiful creations.  And let's face it...why reinvent the wheel when you can borrow steal such wonderful ideas???

Here is the card I made....I used 6 different Distress Inks with my blending tool to make the rainbow colored effect that was adhered below the cut out "hello".

So simple...and I love the way it looked!

I did a card like this with watercolors a few years back which my daughter kept and has hanging in her guest room.  Love that idea....  OK, well, let me explain that...her card does not have a big whopping "hello" on it....it was a die cut flower and I did watercolor behind it.  OK?  And it looks pretty hanging in her guest room (well, in the bathroom).  :)

Here it is:

The puffy little sticker on the bottom is from Pink Paislee.

Here is a bit of a closeup:

The hello die which many of you probably are familiar with is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive die and is one "toy" I have played with again and again!

Well, I think my 'studio' may be calling me today....
My SSS August kit came in.  Yay!...time to get creative!

Life is a Beach!

I love the beach.  Going to the beach is probably my most favorite place in the spectrum of  "naturey" kinds of things.  I love art, history and architecture and am happy wandering around Europe and seeing all it has to offer but if I have to choose a spot of nature I'll choose the beach over a lake or the mountains or a canyon or a river any day.  In fact, I have nothing against those other places and enjoy visiting them, too.  Well, I do have a problem with the mountains.  Getting there is a problem.  Winding roads and me just do not get along.  Even if I drive.  Blech. 

Back to the beach.  We are fortunate to take a family vacation for a week to the beach each year.  We all love it and look forward to this getaway each year.  I've been to a lot of beaches in my life....Cape Cod, Southern CA (San Diego and LA), Atlantic City, Long Island (New York), Virginia Beach...most of the east coast of Florida, and even beaches in Hawaii, Italy, Spain and Greece (ok, I did love the Mediterranean and the beach there off of Crete) but my favorite go to beaches are on the Gulf of Mexico.  The water is so pretty to me and I love, love, love the white sand.  You just don't see that at many beaches. 

Sigh......wish I were there instead of metro Atlanta suburbia right now.  LOL!

A friend of mine commissioned me to make some cards for her recently.  She has some beach property and has need of cards to send to renters.

This is what I came up with using some Hero Arts stamps I've had.  (Note to self...time to get more beachy stamp sets!)

I inked the blue background with a variety of Distress Inks and then spattered it with some water to react with the ink.  That is so much fun and I love watching the color of the Distress inks move away.  (It takes little to impress me sometimes!)  I stamped the fish and crab in black ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I used some ink daubers and colored them in with additional Distress Inks and then colored in some of the scales and other areas with some Distress pens.

 

The "sand" was done with some kraft paper torn and inked.  And finally the sentiment came from the Girlfriends set by Art Impressions.
And lastly I used some Wink of Stella clear glitter over the little critters.

I think she will like then!

Happy Crafting and Keep Creating!

And a Thank You to You!

I made a couple of thank you cards to send to some dear friends who had showered me with some wonderful gifts and well wishes on my birthday last month.
One is a blue lover and one likes pink so that's why I chose the colors I did! :)
For the first one I laid down a sort of wash of water color with Distress Inks and then spritzed it with a bit of water. The water reacts with the distress inks and moves the color away.  So fun!  I used a Simon Says Stamp die cut that I inlaid with some black cardstock.

Here is the blue version...without the splotches of water resist:

Simple cards...flat to mail...lots of fun to make!  And thanks to my friends for being so sweet to me!

Happy Crafting!!!

Stencils!

I have stencils from at least several hundred years ago when I first started scrapbooking.  I had tons of those letter stencils that I would painstakingly trace and then cut out by hand for titles and sentiments on both cards and scrapbook layouts.  Fast forward a couple of centuries and I couldn't tell you the last time I hand cut letters out with any regularity!  I have the fabulous Silhouette Cameo who does all that hard work for me and I also have some letter dies, as well.

But stencils have made a resurgence in the paper crafting field (at least to me) and it isn't about lettering so much...they are being used in so many other ways.

In the August Simon Says Stamp Card Kit shown below a stencil was included.  It is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive stencil and has that Moroccan look to it.

I got out my Ranger Distress Inks and just splotched here and there...and blended a bit.  It was very fun and quite easy to make the background.

 Kind of reminds me of a winter sunset at the beach...
I used some Sizzix framelits to cut out the circles and create the black circle frame.  I mounted with some popdots and added the flair and thought "how fun!".  I was happy. 
Here is another picture of the flair without out the glare....Flair with no GLARE!  I'm a poet! ;)

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 27

I am now "officially" into the second half of the year.  Can you imagine?!  It's hard to believe half a year is gone.

I met up with my friend, Kim of Basement Stamper yesterday and we spent a day at Archiver's working on our Project Lifes...or is it Project Lives or could it be Projects Life?  :)  She got several pages done.  I got one 2 page layout in about 4 hours but I had so much fun!

Here we are....2 scrapbooking cuties.

And I shopped...

LOL!

Here is the left side:

In honor of Independence Day I used papers from a "free" vintage USA paper kit I had (probably had to spend $38,700.00 to get it for "free") from My Mind's Eye.  Interestingly they aren't papers I'd ordinarily choose but they worked great for PL and I'm happy with the result!

Here is my week card and I used some cork letter stickers I had in my stash.

I made the journaling card below with a Becky Higgins card and just some stuff from the kit as well as a Hero Arts arrow stamp and some Distress Ink.

And here is the right side:

Nothing much ado about the journaling cards....just cut and pasted and glued stuff. 

Happy Crafting!