MY NEW TOY - Silhouette Cameo

My  new toy and I so love it.  I am glad I waited since this one just came on the market in the last month but it was showcased at CHA a few months ago.  It was an awesome choice.  I use it for fonts.  It is fairly quiet and very easy to use.  I just have to figure out the print and cut.  It does 12x12 and the Silhouette store has thousands of images and font sets and designs.  Plus on Tuesdays there is a free design to download.  The images cost 99 cents and very few a more than that but it is all reasonable.  I do wish there were more videos but maybe I will try my hand at making videos.  I must get back to playing.  I will upload my projects that I have been working on this past week.

Man...Dog...Exhausion?

Well as my awesome husband pointed out to me...I misspelled "exhausion" in the title but spelled it correctly in the journaling.  I was going to fix it but I normally am a terrible speller so this page is "truly" me....I got a new toy...its the Silhouette Cameo to use for titles and this entire page was created using the Cameo.  I got a good deal on "black friday" and I am so glad I waited.  It does 12x12 pages and I got a free $10 gift card and it was half priced digital images so the machine comes with 50 and I bought 10 more and still have $5 on my account.  I watched several videos where they had a cricut and a silhouette SD.  They do work beautifully together.  I find myself using it for the text and to cut intricate backgrounds.

Itms used:

12x12 shiny grey brazzill

letters DCWV beige

recollections paws and bones

tim holtzs embossed kraft paper

gold leafing pen

flocked paper from michaels

Christmas Cards/Gifts

I made these for my co-workers.  This was the first time I did something on this level.  I usually give out cards.  So this year I still gave out cards but added some chocolate goodness.  Plain M&Ms are my favorite and you get "more bang for your buck" with plain than with peanuts.  Plus they had cool christmas colors which made it even better.  I used up all the bling in my stash and some paper I bought off of the .25 cent rack at Micheal's.  I also used washi tape as border.  I used a 1 inch fiskars punch and Stamps of Life for the wreath.  I made a total of 16 and since the bottles are plasic, the guyys at work can use them for paper clips or anything small in the office.  The total project took an hour and a half and 5 bags of M&Ms.  I kept it simple and easy since this was a starter project.  My nmext craft project will be an "Advent calendar".  I will post step-by-step when I start.  Some of my friends commented on the skull and cross bones on the back of the paper.  I made a reference to the fact that chocolate and sometimes be your best frien or your worse enemy....LoL

Christmas Cards Part 2

This was another favorite of mine.  I am really enjoying using the cricut craftroom (CCR) with my imagine.  It still will not allow me to link my carts since the library will not load.  I even did a restore and it did not work.  So for now I just place the cart in the Imagine.  I love the Authentique 6x6 paper pack.  I used it on all of the cards.  I went to Micheals on Thanksgiving and bought 3 carts and got "jubilee" free.  One of the ones I bought was "Winter frolic".  Lots of layers on this cart.  Many more than I had imagined.  I used the ornament 1 on page 64.  All items were cut at 2.5 x 3.7.  I also used the phrase as well and cut it at 2.75 x 2.5. I also used the Marth Stewart christmas sticker borders.  Still used the micheals kraft pre-scored cards.  It was easier that way...no cutting or scoring.  The paper is a mixture of Recollections and Bazzill cardstock.  The ornament is popped up on the shadow with foam dots.

Christmas cards galore Part 1

Its has been a very busy weekend.  First I want to post how thankful I am for this past year.  Family, friends and work.  I get to spend some of my weekends doing a hobby I love which sometimes it feels more of a relief and less of a hobby.  I did not brave the stores but I did brave the internet and i am now 85% to 90% complete for our girls with christmas.  I broke down and bought a new tool but I will save that for another post since it will be here on Monday.  The first series of cards were the one's listed below.  I used cricut cartridge "create a critter" page 73.  main image reindeer, layer 1 cut at 2.8 x 3.7.  I used the peachy keen "wide-eyed and bushy tail sizw 1 3/8; martha stewart christmas sticker borders, micheals recollections kraft cards (4.25 x 6.25), authentique 6x6 "wonder" paper pack.  The "joy" phrase cut at 2.8 x 1.5using bazzill green and micheal's black paper.

Embossed and inked metal

This card I tried something a little different. I used Tim Holtzs alcohol inks (3 different kinds), cuttle bug embossing folder, hero arts treasure the moments stamps, micheals $1 ribbon and bazzil cardstock cut at 4.25x11. I used the embossing folder to emboss the ranger metal. I also inked the inside of the embossing folder to to play up the de-bossed image and used the alcohol inks to play up the embossed image. Used a stampin up roller stamp for the border. I really like those and they work rerally well when you use a ruler and go real slow. Hard to ink up well. I recommend buying the ink cart attachments to make it easier. I also used memento cat eye inks. The solvent ink dries quickly so there is no smearing on the image.

HALLOWEEN 2011

Halloween 2011

This was a fun layout.  I used bazzil deep red 8.5x11 cardstock, martha stewart vinyl spider, martha stewart dippy dew, picket fence and bat punches.  Used the gypsy and cricut cartridge simply charmed pages 58 and 59 for the "R.I.P, bat and tree" and used the gypsy font for "halloween".  I kept it simple so the whole layout took about an hour to the cuts correct.  I used stamps of life for the "R.I.P". 

A weekend of cards

The cards are just a few that I am making to send out for christmas. Nothing fancy. I did not want tp create the same card. I want to make them different and unique. The circle cards I got out of the Michael's $1.00 bin. They are not very thick so I added a little gerth to them to make them stronger. I used the 6x6 My Mind's eye christmas paper. I so love their paper and that size. I can use them on layouts and cards. Plus I use the plain for the backgrounds and use either 8x8 or 6x6. I rarely use the 12x12 size unless I am going to use it on my imagine. I find myself using white 8.5x11 or 12x12 and using the print/cut feature. I find it a little harder to paper piece. I still have the original cricut but it only cuts 6x12. Really think of getting an expression but im not sure. Still on the fence...plus I can get really cheap now.  Any way.  The gingerbread people are peachy keen stamps...love these.  The trees I used cricut craft room and christmas.  I cut it out 8 times and place two on each card using foam dots.  I alsi used some recollections bling and some gold dazzle stickers as well as Martha Stewart christmas borders, stamps of life and inkakdinkado clear stamps.

CRICUT CRAFTROOM - AMAZING

Well I just used the cricut craft room and made a card for my sister-in-law using the Imagine More Cards.  It was sooo AWESOME!!!!!!  I love how you can link your imagine cartridges something you can not do with the Gypsy (I still love my gypsy).  Even though it was hard to figure out how to link the cart's.  I love how you can place your items on the virtual mat and see placement.  I am so sold.  I love how you can see the entire provo cricut cartridge library and be able to play with the Imagine cart's in color.  I made the card for my sister-in-law but as I discovered I need to make it a little larger but I wanted to show the items cut.

UPDATE TO WHAT IS HAPPENING

Well I have been working on making Christmas tags (will post later) and cards to go along with some homemade gifts I am making for my fellow coworkers.  My goal is to try and do weekly updates.  To post what I do as well as to give myself an outlet to my thoughts and some creativity.  But I wanted to keep you posted on my happenings so stay tuned.

Missing In Action.......

Well it has been a while since I have posted to my blog or entered a blog challenge.  I created some Thanksgiving cards for the parents.  Below I used

Tim Holtz sizzix embossing folder
Cricut cartridge Birds on Parade cut at 5 inches
Marths Stewart glitter
Recollections pearls

 Card2

Card2(inside)

 CARD3

CARD3(inside)
paperwishes dazzles
jelly roll pens