Freebie: Ornament + Embellish Circle Card

Posted on | October 18, 2009 | 12 Comments

Hey, hey, I’ve been BUSY and in a great way…crafting AND using my toys! Today I have a card using Ashley Newell’s challenge, #2, and it’s a circle card with the following colors: white, blue, green and brown. This is what I came up with ((All but the ribbon from PapertreyInk. Ribbon was found at an antique store, 20 yrds for $3 and still made in the USA)):

Pretty simple card and I used my Klik-N-Kut machine again. The ornament I made myself and again I am sharing the file (right click image and save as to save the jpeg file to your computer:

As I mentioned in the previous post, because it’s complimentary I am not going to save it to every die-cut extension. If you don’t see your format or your machine cannot import any of the files, download and install Inkscape and save as/export to the correct format yourself. I did try opening the DXF and KNK in my machine and they work.

Glad Ashley renewed the deadline so that I can play too. Had lots of fun doing this and it was also great to be able to use my machine AND create sharable files. Have a great one!

Freebie: Happy

Posted on | October 17, 2009 | 13 Comments

First of all, this note’s for Amy: You happy now? You kept nagging me about this {::SMILES}.

Second, this is a hybrid card with paper my Fee Jardine, Fly Little Birdie, at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I used some left over strips from this mini book that I’ve been working on (it’ll never get done it seems!). I did some sewing too and the sentiment is my handwriting. At least the “happy” part. The best part of this whole post… I am SHARING my handwriting with you!! See, Amy, I am doing something with my handwriting {::GRIN}. I can’t sell it… who’d buy it… but it’s a nice first try. It was fun doing it and I hope you all like it — especially Amy {::SMILES}.

I did the sentiment arranging in Microsoft Word. If you haven’t seen it, in my card/hybrid tutorial link above there’s a video on how to do this. If you noticed, my original file is a red “happy” but my printed one is black. Even though I did print it on a b/w printer in Word I changed the color to black. Word is capable of changing colors. If you have a digital stamp (btw, MFT has a free digi stamp this weekend), you can easily change the outline color to something else besides black. Try it out and if you can’t figure it out, let me know and I’ll make a video for you. The Mac version has this change color feature too!

So below is the file, just right click and save as. Below this image is the Word document where I placed the “happy birthday” on my paper. The “birthday” was typed in a textbox, this way I can easily float/layer it wherever I want. The “happy” I sent to the back. My video will clarify this. If you’re wondering why I’m only providing “happy?” It’s because the other part you can type yourself. When I did this in Word I just did an insert image, move “happy” where I want and then created the textbok so that I could write birthday on it. BUT, for you, instead of birthday it can be anniversary, new year, etc. etc. etc. You can also type the “birthday” for example seperately and then trim it to size and adhere it with dimensionals on top of the “y” tail. Lots of options!

Word (.DOC) Template

Well, have a great weekend!!! I have a few more handwriting stuff that I saved but I haven’t made any cards with them yet. So until then, they’ll just be on my computer… I also worked on two items for the die-cut machine but they’re still being tweaked. I’ll share soon!

Oh, let me know how my little “happy” prints out. It’s my first and I made it fairly quickly in Adobe Illustrator. I always assume if it works for me it’ll work for you too he he… A little tip… since it’s a digital image, you can resize it. I always resize my digital image in Word or in Photoshop where the paper size is 8.5×11 and I put a divider in the middle so that I can see how big my digital image is going to be compare to the paper. Also, when you print, unless your printer can do a bleed print (prints all the way to the edges), make sure you leave about a quarter inch from each side to prevent the image to be prematurely cut. I always suggest printing first on regular paper, fold it like how you would your card and see how you like it. Then print on the real deal once you’re happy with the output! Have fun and if you use the above happy I’d love to see your work!

2S4Y + Blog Candy

Posted on | March 23, 2009 | 44 Comments

Scroll down for the candy!!!

Here’s my card for 2Sketches4You. It’s Laura’s sketch #22 (very versatile sketch – LOVE it!!!). Our sponsor for this week is DeNami stamps and they’ve got a few goodies for this week’s winner. So go and check out 2S4Y to see all the prize details, what the other DTs did with the stamps they received and their take on the sketch!!

From DeNami and what’s posted on 2S4Y site:

DeNami Designs is also offering a special 10% coupon code exclusive to 2S4Y readers!

The Code:

March2S4Y

The expiration is 3/30/09

the discount is good for anything on the website

My weekend was productive and relaxing. Not a lot of crafting but got the house cleaned and we even visited with a friend and her little man. Laundry is still going but hey, that part of our chore never seems to end, right? Sometimes my laundry pile makes me want to join a nudist colony ha ha ha…

The blog candy… I have put together a few stuff which you can see below. I’m very bad at these types of things. I totally missed my one year blog anniversary and plus I have no idea when it was exactly since I started this blog early last year and didn’t actually do anything to it until months later. I just saw that I’ve passed the 100k mark a long time ago and just checked my Feedburner and I have 320+ subscribers (WOW, very amazed!!!).

So, as a little thank you for subscribing, visiting, and/or leaving comments, I have the following to give to one winner: American Craft alphas + flower/swirly stickers and “Party” pattern paper, a little bit of Amy Butler and Three Bugs in A Rug paper, brads from Doodle Bug and Stammina, and the Jan.’09 Scrapbook Trends magazine. One of my digi layout and tutorial is featured in there and lots and lots of scrappy and a few card inspiration – very fun magazine!!

What you need to do is simple… just leave a comment with a suggestion of an awesome book (or two or more) that I can read at the hospital while I’m waiting for #2 and after she’s born — when she’s asleep and I have nothing else to do at the hospital (the hospital was so relaxing compare to the first few months at home – are you with me, moms?). Reading takes my mind off things (e.g. pain) and of course it’s always more enjoyable when it’s a good book. I love non-fiction (although Harry Potter, Gone with the Wind, and Emma’s awesome too) and my latest read was Jen Lancaster and Three Cups of Tea – which I love. I really enjoy stories about Americans in France, like Almost French or Norton the Cat: The Cat Who Went to Paris (deep inside I wish to live in France). It’s ok if you haven’t read it yourself. If you heard it’s good, let me know! Good luck! I’ll close the blog candy Sunday the 29th at noon CST and it’s open to anybody in any part of the world.

Happy (belated) Chinese New Year!

Posted on | January 27, 2009 | 8 Comments

Wow! I am a bad person. I totally forgot!! I think the only Chinese thing in me is the fact that I LOVE Chinese food. I think it was my great-great-great grandparents (although I wouldn’t be surprised if there needs to be another “great” added on to the above) who left China and being Indonesian-Chinese during colonial time in Indonesia my family’s more Dutch than Chinese. But, even so, we’ve always celebrated Chinese new year. In the U.S. I am far from any relative. The closest is in Chicago and we’ve never met but we love to email each other and hope to one day meet up. So my Chinese-ness has gone south. Either way, Gong Xi Fat Chai!

I have nothing Chinese new year to share today. Just a sassy page of Miss. M. I created this page based on the Creative Type’s challenge for this week: Retro. Check it out, submit something, a page/card/anything, with them to win an awesome prize. For this page, I used a kit by Jofia (currently at Shabby Pickle). I haven’t used her work in a while.

To get your started, I have a few links to share, free Retro fonts/clip-art:

Have a great one!

Freebie: Paw Die-Cut + Keeping Up with My Goals

Posted on | January 26, 2009 | 31 Comments

Before I start… if you have an electronic die-cut machine, scroll down. I have a freebie.

If you stopped by a few weeks ago, I mentioned my 2009 goals and one is to do at least two challenges a week. Since then I’ve been pretty dang good! I have also met my “get two things published this year.” I have a Jan. Scrapbook Trends page published (it’s under the Showcase section) and I have another one this Feb. for an online publication called Bella Scraps. Both have been by accident so yes I’ve met my goal but it’s not like I was trying. Do they still count?

So here’s my second challenge for this week, a card created using a 2Sketches4You sketch and also inspired by Caardvarks: polka dots. For the paper I used SU card stock, KI and Damask (the b/w flourishes that I trimmed out of a whole paper) pattern paper, and Sassafrass stamp. The sentiment I think is CTMH. It was a freebie from a scrapbook expo. The ribbons were garage store finds and I used my Nestabilities for the circle and scallop circle behind the owl.

I am home sick today. Just not feeling too hot. Between soreness from being preggo (I had nerve issues with M too) and trying to fight a cold I decided to stay home. The good thing out of it… after a nice nap and some tea, I could whip up a card {::SMILES}.

The freebie… a while back I made this paw print for this layout. To download, just right click and “save as.”

Just FYI, I only have a KnK but from what I read, those with other machines (Wishblade, CraftRobo, Cricut Expression with proper software) will be able to import either the SVG, DXF, or PDF file. For the JPEG images, just click on the paw images to download them.

Alrighty, have a great one. I think I’ll nap some more!