The inside and the outside...........

..............Well I made these 2, as a means of showing FG what could be done with an electronic  Cutting machine.
These were made on my Craft-Robo SD 330-20, using a design from the Silhouette store, on 250 GSM cardstock.
The difference between the Craft Robo/Silhouette and the E-craft is the fact that the E-craft doesnt use a matt, and can cut anything up to 1mm in depth.
Silhouette/Craft Robo matts are a problem for me, either they are too sticky and tear the project, or they don't stick enough and the project shifts on the matt and tears.
The E-craft can have a similar problem with slipping, and I have found that firstly loading from the back can help with that for some reason, and if loading from the front I use one of the cheap, thin cutting matts designed for Kitchen use (you know the very thin ones, that can be rolled up), to stabilise the project, or an alternative is actually to use a coated card stock as a stabilising sheet, as the coat tends to grip the project slightly. When I have used a coated card stock, I was very surprised to find absolutely no marks on the base sheet!
Anyway, to the cards, and you will see why I labeled this "the inside and the outside".

 Here is the inside of one card sheet and the outside of another!
Both are a pearlised base Card, embossed with the Crafts Concept Funky Poinsettia embossing folder after cutting, and mounted onto a heavy weight Green Card base. A few Gems and some glittery ribbon from my local market finish it off.

Again the inside of one and the outside the other, same as the one above, but this time with the addition of a bit of red Glitter in the stars.

Right that's it for me, hope you like them, I have to finish getting stuff organised in here, and stuff taken to the charity shops, so I have some room to play, and I can get on with my DT work!

I am entering these cards in the following:
  Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #19 Emboss It
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #145 Anything goes
Fun With Shapes and more Challenge #115 Split negative challenge
The Poodles Parlour lets see those Die Cuts



Hugs to all,

Lou

Easter Card

Well my camera has given up the ghost and died on me, as eldest son has not bought the charger home for 3 weeks, so now the cards are going to pile up on me again....... Okay Okay, I know I havent blogged for a few days and they were starting to pile up anyway, but I can still blame him cant I?

oooh, look at Blogger being fancy!!
This is from the CD I won from Debbees CDs Blog for my January entry to her competition. Its really easy to enter, as Debbee provides you with all the papers, and you just make a card from it, easy peasy, so pop over and have a go, you never know, you could be lucky and win one of her lovely CD's.
So I took the 26 Crosses CD, which is such a wonderful resource, for all occasions, but particularly those sympathy ones, and found a couple of Easter ones. This one I think is particularly lovely, greens and silvery white. I did one last week in a similar style from one of Debbees CD's and I like the effect it creates, and I have enough left to do a Waterfall card with as well. The backing paper is already Kaleidoscoped for you, you dont have to do anything other than click and print with these, and it was just a case of matting and layering the images onto some white card, which I edged with my new Fresh Meadow Promarker. I coloured some white organza ribbon with the same pen, and then crossed it in the bottom Left corner of the card.
I used the same pen to colour some supersmooth paper, before putting it into my Craft Robo, and cutting the fern leaves from it. I added a touch of Bundled Sage distress ink with a stippling brush for a bit of definition.
I made an Organza rose, Sue Wilson style, from a creamy white stripped satin/organza ribbon, and I like the whole composition.
One for church I think, and its not that far away either, Shrove Tuesday is next week, so only 42 days until the kids across the land are either off their heads on sugar rush, or throwing up from eating too much chocolate, Thank goodness I only have 2 left at home now-a-days!!!
But I think that means that I will have to get a shift on with making some cards for church..............

Til next time,

Oh and dont forget there's a Blog hop over at Addicted to Stamps, with loads of goodies up for grabs, xxx

Lou

Blog post part 2

Recently I got introduced to the concept of Skype, by FG. I was not at all sure about this, but as I have recently spent 3 hrs giving her a phone lesson on how to use a graphics program, I thought it might be a good way to reduce the phone bill! and stop having to send her pics over the internet as she can then shout at me in real time........erm hold on.............maybe it wasnt such a good idea after all!!
Anyway. I digress as per usual. I have spoken to her at length about an electronic cutting machine, as I have the Craft Robo 330-20 and it does come out to play sometimes. I have been considering getting an e-crafter to run alongside the CR, instead of upgrading to the cameo. The reason being, I have the version which has the SD card slot, the print and cut feature, and since the upgrades recently is cutting slightly heavier card stock. If I upgraded to the Cameo, all I would gain is 4 inches of cutting area, so spending £300 seems a bit daft for only 4 Inches! However, if I got an e-crafter instead to work alongside, I would gain the heavier weight card stock, stackability of media, mattless cutting and a 12x12 inch cutting surface, and it uses the same files that the CR does, SVG's. Which seems more of the sensible option.
Oh and just for any WOYWW'ers popping in, see I do clean my desk, just not on the day you all come to play!! See a clean top, my Photo box, my ATG and some inserts for some slider cards I plan to make later, if I ever finish blogging today, and you can just see the mats I was making as an example, part of the reason for this post so continue reading once you've had a good nosey around.

See!!! So I had this Skype thing on and was explaining to FG the difference between a die cutting machine, and an electronic cutting machine, as I had managed to find, fit and install a Usb web cam and a mic! So I had various projects on the go, showing the noise and delicacy of the machine, in real time.
I cut the mats you can see resting on my portable mat supports, (okay okay empty video boxes are just the right height!) and then made a little basket, in real time, with Butterflies on it.........

Pretty isnt it, would be better bigger and on a heavier weight card stock, but it was just an example. And then I proceeded to cut out some ..................Vellum. Hmmn, this does actually show how good the Silhouette/ Craft Robo is, I turned the settings right down, and cut out 5 double layered butterflies from Vellum, in different sizes. I probably shouldn't have turned it down to such a low pressure (5), as there were a couple of areas that hadn't cut properly, but they were easily released with a knife, and no damage to the butterflies. Which brings me FINALLY to the reason for this post........

5 Double layered Butterfiles, the top layer is filigree, and you can see the sizes, of the 5, as they are on an A5 card.
I tore a remaining strip of the K&Co paper I had used as the base for the Mats, but I had to trim it from 12x12 to A4 to fit in the CR, and stuck it to some Pearlised peach card stock, leaving the fibres showing, to tie the colour of the parchment in better. then I layered the butterflies up with some silicon, and added some purple gems to each to highlight the body, and tie in with the pinky purple of the pattern on the parchment. I used the remains of the layered matt I had cut, the inside bits and roughly added some purple ink to the edges of the mats, as they have sharp pointy bits on them, which catch on everything, and stamped Get well in purple ink, and embossed it with some purple detail powder.
Back to the question of the e-crafter, I am waiting for a response from Crafters companion, as to wether it will be able to utilize the 1000+ SVG files hidden in my system within the Silhouette program, which I have paid for from the silhouette online store. This has been a while, as Leann was in the States at the show, and is now at the Trafford centre, so I will have to wait a week or so more before anyone can give me an answer. If anyone does know how to access the SVG files on my PC I would appreciate knowing, as having so many in the library does slow the program down, and I would like to put them somewhere else on my pc!!! Please dont suggest saving each one elsewhere, as that will take forever and has to be done individually, and it only saves them as .studio files, which I doubt will work with the e-crafter!! And no you cant browse direct to the library of files, as I suspect its written in the DOS program, and I am NOT messing with my directories thank you!!!

WOYWW

Hi all,


well I am back nearly to normal having had a bit of a disaster with my back, hence I didn't manage to post at all for about 10 days! Sorry this is a bit photo heavy, as I haven't posted for a while.
So Whats on my Work desk? ( if you have no idea what I am on about, then please hop along to Julias Page, Here and all will become as clear as muck lol)

I have finally managed to pluck up enough courage to attack my Hunky Dory collection! That's what! Boy did that take some doing!!! So on display are all Hunky Dory... Rockin Snow globes, now I have found the domes I can finish these, and umpteen Toppers and card ribbons just waiting to be made into cards. I did the easy ones first, lol, now I am having to get creative, yippee!! I did have a very large green toy box full of Hunky Dory Christmas,

now all that is left is the Foiled card stock, and the backing papers!! And a couple of Packs I am saving as emergency stash, just in case I need to produce a Christmas card toot suite!

Oh Dear! You can see the state of my carpet! All those little white backing squares from the foam pads, the backing from the double sided sticky tape, and various slivers of off cuts! What a mess!! In my defence the larger bits are from my non recycle-able bin, which my Rottwieller pup likes to raid for bits to chew on, little blighter!!
So what was in the green box, is slowly becoming stuff like this:



 This is possibly, a new style of card, as I haven't seen it anywhere else. It just came to me as I was making the card up, this is the front cover....
And this is the inside, or card proper. I apologise for the glare, but its the new light. This is just one of the kits from Hunky Dory Christmas Contemporary selection.

 This is from their traditional range.

And this next one has cheap wired silver ribbon, promarkered with Indigo Blue. And I used the Large Spellbinders Lace Doily motif die on the Hunky Dory Blue foiled card stock to create the mat.

 All of these are using the matching Toppers and Backing papers card stock from Hunky Dory. The card stock from hunky Dory tends to be in the region of 350gsm, and the papers are generally 180gsm, so good weights for working with.




This one is a full A4 sized backing paper, backed onto some 300 gsm Silk Art Card. And very heavy on Yellow Gem Stars from my stash, nearly ran out!!

This one is using the Classic Bracket edgebilities Die from Spell Binders with the Hunky Dory Backing paper, and some green card stock from my stash.                                                                                      

And this one used the Go Kreate frame Frilly 10 XXL die, and my faithful Papermania snowfall embossing folder

 Hunky Dorys Acetate cards on their snowfall foiled acetate.

And finally one of the Small Toppers on their pre cut card base.












But as I was playing with the edegebilities on my Happy Cut today, and making a right mess of it I must say, my youngest asked if I would help him make a card for a friend of his who is ill. So he decided that Flowers, mums thrown away piece of card, a 6x6 backing paper, some cream ribbon, and some butterflies, were what he wanted to use, but how to get it all together? The problem is that at the moment I have Christmas stock only out to play with, so his choices were limited.
In the end this is what I managed to concoct for him using his selections.

Mums thrown away Pearlised 350 gsm card, where she messed up with the edgebilities, some flowers just arrived from the Glitter Girls Flower keepsake assorted and Ruby Crush boxes, Some My Craft Studio Crystal Illusions Butterflies, 3 cheap ball headed pins (3 wheels for £1 from Poundland), and some paper and ribbon from my stash. Yes I know the Butterfly Topper is wonky, but that's the way he wanted it lol.
But while I have been lying down, getting very bored I haven't been entirely lazy, heres the 3 remaining paper folded decorations, unfortunately the Rottie pup ran off with one while I wasn't paying attention!!

They all have 2 things in common............. 1. They are all from squares of paper folded into well squares obviously, using 16 smaller squares to reduce the size by half, so a 12x12 becomes a 6x6 when its finished. as demonstrated by Mel Heaton, on C&C. and 2. They all use some of the Glittered Letters that were in  my goody bag from Samuel Taylors.
The first one, has small pictures from the Classic Christmas CD's by My Craft Studio, the second, is using some 6x6 papers from my stash, with the Iron Works star die, and the Snowflake pendant dies, from Spell Binders, and some die cuts from my stash, also some lettering and shadow mats cut on the Craft Robo/Silhouette SD, ( Mines a weird one as it was manufactured during the re-branding, so its the Silhouette SD machine, but has the Craft Robo logo, lol) and the third using the Large Lace doily motif die and the Large Holly Motif die.
The one the Rottie ran off with was Peace, which isn't what he got when I found out what he was chewing on!!!


Right off to see if I can get on the list early this time lol


Happy WOYWW everyone,

Well I have been quiet for a couple of days..........
I know unusual for me, those who know me will say, but I have been busy playing.
I am waiting for some alcohol ink dabbers to arrive from Joanna Sheen, so I cant finish the snowflake boxes just yet.

I want to put some acetate behind the apertures, but I want to use my alcohol inks  on it first for some colour. I could have sworn I bought some dabber pads from the NEC, but I cant find them , knowing my luck they will appear just as the package from Joanna arrives. They are a lovely download from Silhouette online, and as I am re-enforcing them with acetate, I have only cut them on 200gsm on the old Craft Robo/ Silhouette SD.
The little sets of drawers were other downloads from Silhouette online, and the smaller one is a 250gsm patterned card stock from my stash, while the other one is using the fill feature on the Silhouette program.
The deer on the sides of the larger box is another download from Silhouette online, and I created a shadow with the design, and again filled it using the program design elements.


I am so very glad I bought the Goody Bag from Samuel Taylors at the NEC! What a bargain!! It was only when I actually opened the sealed pack of 12x12's and had a proper look, that I discovered sheets and sheets of little gift boxes and decorations!!

I had to stand on my stool to actually fit all the boxes on my camera! My work desk is actually a large Garden table to seat 6 very comfortably, so its very deep! try counting the bits you can see, I gave up at 50!


So I have spent the past couple of days building them all up, and now I am decorating them!

 Crafters Companion Silver glitter spray is getting a bit of a beating at the moment as a base glitter, then ribbon, double sided tape and glitter, Versa mark ink pads, and MCS ultra thick embossing powder, with a touch of mica is as far as I have got so far!!
I have taken my first box of cards to one of our parish churches, just the other one to do next weekend(We have two parish Churches, due to a shortage of priests, and we are lucky to keep both open, instead of loosing one of them). Which means I have time to do the inserts lol. Then I have to concentrate on providing special Family Christmas cards for 2 churches for the Parish Christmas fayres in December, which could be fun, as its also the Lincoln Christmas fair that weekend, as well, which is a family tradition, as my dad lives there and its our Christmas visit for youngest to decorate Dads tree!
Right I had better get a move on with myself!!

Productive!!

Well, I have been a busy bee today, not only did I finish off the last of the Pilkington Christmas series and post it, but I also managed some creation as well, 


Well not creation really yet, just playtime, and I quite like this little set!

This is from My Craft Studio Advanced Encylopedia, CD 4. A Lovely little Paper-crafted tea service, complete with Tea bag and sugar cubes. I adjusted the colour as I wanted a more purple design, as opposed to the Delph blue on the template, and I have used a versa mark ink pad, and clear embossing powder to create a glaze on the pottery and spoon. The sugar cubes were glittered with Crafters Companion Spray and Sparkle silver, for more realism. Apologies for the picture quality, but as I have said before I really need a proper camera and tripod, as taking pictures isnt my forte.
This is going to be a gift for some one..........hint: Crafternoon!


I thought I'd also post a couple of my old commissions, which I found on my phone lol

This was a commission from  a lady at church to celebrate the 40 th priesthood anniversary of one of the old parish priests, now a Monsignor, back in June.
I used a design from Uk Scrappers, one of the free designs for the Craft Robo/ Silhouette for the filigree crosses, and embossed the top Cross with a Crafts Too embossing folder. Unfortunatley I dont have the full picture of the finished project....but I used 350gsm Pearlised Black card for the cover, 350gsm Pearlised Gold card for the liner. I embossed, then used embossing powder for the spine of the "Book" and the inside was parchment with praying hands embossed onto it.

The next one....... was very hard to do!!!!


All I had was the Name Katie, and the fact that she was 21, and the niece of our lovely parish priest!!! What to do? Couldn't do anything funny, might not be appreciated, had to be suitable........oh dear yes it caused me some problems!!!


In the end Me to You came to the rescue! Luckily I had just received the Docrafts Digital designer package, so I was able to use one of the Tatty Teddy designs, as you can see. I created the whole layers, and plaque on Docrafts Digital designer, added some Fluffy Stuff for the froth on the Champagne, and foiled the greeting on the plaque. Father Billy did have a good gwarf when he realised what the picture said!! hehehehe, who said Catholic priests don't have a sense of humour?