Saturday, March 31, 2012

Christmas day


I was playing learing the Cameo to cut this font.. Don't remember the font... I used a Kerri Bradford storyboard for the pictures and a fiskers punch.

I played this afternoon learning how to weld and such. It will all take time. I did download that nativity image and am making a few xmas cards tonight.

Friday, March 30, 2012

WOW

So many images you can download for the silhouette.. Gonna try to stick with creating my own titles unless I have multiple uses for a download... ie an image to use on several cards. I am zeroing in on one with the nativity for a Christmas card.... I used a download for the title in the previous post for a quick try of the machine. I have a post for tomorrow where I just picked a random font and cut. Its a layout I started last night and finished tonight. Hope to learn welding this weekend.

silhoutte cameo is in the house


This layout isn't complete. It still needs a little embellishing and around the letters cleaned up with the gum eraser but I wanted to put up a picture of my first cut on the silhouette. The red swirls are so thin it is amazing. It did take me a few tries to get it right cause I just play and go and read minimal directions. LOL The cut was from the silhouette store for 99 cents. I need to learn the features. I know how I will be spending my weekend now.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Hump Day

I made 6 of these last night. I think sweet treats font and mostly papertrey ink paper. Swiss dots cuddlebug. I also picked 4 birthday cards from my stash. I am donating all of them for a raffle at work. We raffle off things every Wednesday to help raise money for an outdoor space we want to create to honor our dear friend Linda that was killed by a drunk driver.

Saw Hunger Games last night with my daughter and her friend. LOVED it. I am a big reader and I love series books!!!

Next bit of news. My credit card was compromised. When I was activating my new card the guy said you have lots of points. I don't really get what they are but it turns out I got 500 dollars put in my cking account(turns out using that card to put all my hotels and airfare when I go to NEA conferences has really banked up the points).. Well I consider that gift money so I ordered the silhouette... Yeah and I still have money to put in the bank.... I cleared a space for it last night. I suspect this software will have quite the learning curve but I am looking forward to the fonts.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sunday

So lucked out yesterday in NYC that we had no rain. (apparently we had rain at home) Busy day of workshops and a fun dinner in midtown with teacher friends. Isn't this tree pretty. It was in Riverside park which is right next to all the Columbia University buildings.

Celebrated my sons birthday today.. How can he possibly be 27 tomorrow?

My mind is whirling with card and layout ideas. Hope to get back to crafting tomorrow evening. Gonna watch a movie with my son tonight :-)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Not scrappin tonight


It is sooo hot here 80 something today and it just feels unnatural. Everybody is lovin it I think but me. Too hot too fast. My lawn needs to be cut and the annuals are growing before I can mulch!! Anyhow since its this hot I left work and got a pedicure.... Such a treat!!! Open toed shoes tomorrow!! My friend recommended this place last summer that gives the BEST foot and leg massages EVER... They never rush and you leave feeling so relaxed.

No scrappin tonight. Everyone is scattered with things to do and it is giving me a chance to catch up on some of the laundry. Normally I am a big weekend laundry person but with this upcoming weekend being so busy tonight it is a bonus to get a little ahead.

In between loads I worked on some cuts for my bulletin board. I think last year or the year before I made this welcome spring bulletin board that I am recycling.. I laminated the pieces cause they were tons of work. Well I tonight I cut a few new little things to add to it to give it a fresh look. I used the Paisley Cart and Bubblegum Stripes Imagine cart. I used regular solid color paper for the big cuts.. .the bugs are cut at 3" and the frog at 3.5. For the smaller cuts instead of loading all those little pieces of paper I thought I will print and cut. Then once I started I added a few patterns as well. Stickles added to a few of the cuts.

YES I finished all my homework last night. Took a couple of hours but got all 5 chapters read highlighted and flagged :-)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

b-day card


This is my son's birthday card from me. I used the Imagine Yummy cartridge. The inside you see here is popped up but had more stuff added unique to him that are private that's why not a finished project picture on that.

No crafting tonight. I had dental work done and my mouth not feeling that great plus I have 5 chapters to go read before our in-service day on Friday at school.

To be honest looking at my calendar not sure when I am going to craft again.... No scrapping tomorrow night, off to Columbia University in NYC Saturday and Sunday we celebrate my sons 27th birthday... Such is life.

Spring break is coming and then it is clean the yard, mulch and get my bedroom painted. (hopefully)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Blog candy

Ck out anaRy's Blog candy below..... I actually met her when she hosted Suzanne Dean Copic class in Delaware last September (I'm sure she doesn't remember me but she made an amazing chocolate candy display).. ... I was a newbie. I just took the beginner class. In hindsight I should have said can I pay to stay for class 2 since I'm here. Funny I am a considered a very tell it like it is person, but out of my comfort zone I am a mush. I remember calling my son when I got in the car and him saying stay for the 2nd class mom.. Go back in and ask if you can pay for the 2nd class and learn what you can... I didn't. Ughh All I can say is I remember it was like the weekend after school started and my brain was not functioning well. Let me tell you Suzanne is amazing. Visit her:
http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/

http://anaryatelie.blogspot.com/2012/03/candy-candy-candy.html


2nd of 2-page layout

Here is the 2nd page of my 2-page xmas layout I made last Wednesday and Thursday.

Today was run, run, run and I see no light at the end of the tunnel for the rest of the week. Haven't done any paper crafting since Thursday. I did manage to finally get all of the storyboards printed from Christmas after running out of ink on Saturday and hitting 2 different targets for the color ink. Why oh why does staples only sell this ink in sets of black and color together when I only NEED the color...

In between everything else I had a viewing today for my cousins 26 year old daughter and one tomorrow for my good friends father-in-law. Part of me thinks all these recent losses are my age but then my kids commented on how MANY we have had and they are young so maybe not just my age after all.

On a good note yesterday was my play day with my 90 year old mom at the local theatre. We saw Noises Off. Gots to tell you I never heard of it, but it was very funny. 1st and 2nd act funnier than the 3rd to me... After we picked up my kids and we all went out for dinner together. That was nice. I am soooo grateful both my kiddies have jobs but we are all running now and rarely eat together as my daughter works night shift at the hospital and my son works sales support for the west coast at his job so works 12:30 PM to 9:00 PM EST. It actually makes his long commute much easier with this odd schedule and as a youngin he loves to sleep in later. (Means I usually only see him on Saturday or Sunday even though we live in the same house. LOL)


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Christmas Eve Day

I worked on this layout Wednesday and Thursday night. It has a another page I will post tomorrow. The papers are mostly from a My Minds Eye Holiday stack I got at CKC last summer. I used simply sweet for the font, the red border from ribbons and rosettes and the green vine border was from I think Winter Frolic. I have to tell you love the way the colors worked on this one. :-)

I haven't crafted since Thursday but I did work on editing and making storyboards to finish up my Christmas pictures to scrap yesterday.

Unseasonably warm here and everyone is loving it but me! I still have the lingering cough from my bad bout with asthma/bronchitis and now the tree pollen is coming out early... To be honest I just want to get all the way better once and for all.

Coming up on the third week of the month and that is my week to be out every night for something. Not a fan of that much running.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

B-day card

My son really liked the cards that I made a few weeks back using this design so I made another one with his favorite colors brown and blue for my mom to give him for his birthday. I think the pattern paper is a creative memories and the stamp and frame are papertrey ink.


Thursday, March 15, 2012

chipboard book cover

I made this as a place to save my handmade cards I can't part with. I punch a hole in the corner of the card and add it between the covers. I actually have a bigger ring on it now that I went and got some at staples. I just played around with this... inking ,using a gold glimmer mist to the paper and adding some glossy accents here and there. I think I cut the title from the Don Juan cart. I also added the flower eyelet to give the hole where the ring goes through nice finished look. The paper is from my stack.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sunday Layout



First off lots of sighs in the last post... LOL..

I worked on this layout on Sunday. I have to tell you I fussed a lot when making it. Walking away and coming back to it. The papers and stickers are all left over from when I did a whole beach album. They were called Sea Glass. The cuts were mostly from Life's a Beach card.

I used several kinds and colors of chalks and inks plus stickles.

The storyboard picture templates are Kerri Bradford.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Working on layouts

Okay so I am trying to work on some Christmas Eve layouts and I am making this way to hard for myself.... I think that the block is trying to use the Kerri Bradford story templates to incorporate more pictures but not make every layout look exactly the same.... Sigh.. wish I could say that I recognized my own style but I don't. Been scrapping for what 4 or 5 years now and it is always a learning process and I can't say this is my style. I so have to say that I am still coveting the silhouette cameo.... I just feel like I want the font capabilities of that machine for my layouts. Sigh.. at this point I kinda figure I will get one... just a matter of the weak moment to give in. Not there yet with some looming home improvements needed.

Still adjusting to the time change.. Sigh I am such a creature of habit and routine. Still recovering with a chronic cough.. If it doesn't improve 100% I have to face the fact that there was a new addition to our family late last spring.. I love the bugger...but maybe Mickey... My cockatiel friend who came on board has contributed to my health issues.... BIG sigh not ready to got there yet.


Pink By Design Inspired Card

I was inspired to make this card after seeing something similar on Pink By Design by one of her design team. I used Martha Stewart paper, some stickers, MCT stamp set and MCT flower and stitched circle die set.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Complaining post no crafting.

I just have to say that I hate springing forward on the clocks!...The children come in tired off schedule and are not themselves. On top of that with my years of teaching experience the time change is the beginning of the downfall for the kids. They stay outside later playing... spring sports start. The reality is their bedtimes get pushed later and later and then I get poor tired puppies during the day that are not well rested and ready to learn. The worst part is I do believe they need all that hearty playing, and sports to build rounded kids.... Its just so hard when there are standards you have to push for. I have been around long enough to see the pendulum swing back and forth so many times. I wish just once it would stop in the middle.

Happy Monday.. No crafting tonight .. I had a 30% off coupon for Kohls so my daughter and I hit there after my ck up at the docs... I am turning the tide with the asthma/bronchitis thing...( she woke today finally recovered from what she had) I hope this time is the ticket. I got some spring shirts for work and my daughter bought a keurig for the house that was on sale with my 30% off. She will pay me back ( I have to put on my charge for the discount) as I have a working coffee maker and I don't buy new till the old breaks. She wants the convenience so she will pay for it. I did buy the adapter to use my regular ground coffee in it. I love my coffee I buy and it is cheaper to use the adapter....:-)

more Christmas cards


I made these Joy cards last week when I was sick. I have to tell ya that I took the picture and thought... missing something. ( see picture with and without stickles) So I went back and played with adding stickles to the red, tried some crystal on the white dots and decided to just go with the red stickles. Just that little was enough. I think I made 8 of these.... I believe the cut was from the winter woodland cart.

We are still recovering here so I pretty much spent Sunday after church in the craft room yesterday. working on a layout and editing Christmas pictures for scrapping. Ugh still got lots to edit.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Pinterest inspired card



I saw this card in the tan on pinterest and knew I wanted to try it. Another project when I was sick. ( I can't see to link back far enough to figure out who originally designed this card but to whoever ... the credit is yours.) After I made it I thought, maybe in blue.... Problems started when I realized that I have no white ink that would show up on the card. grr. I then thought okay embossing... grr ... no that didn't work either so I cut the white strip for the sentiment. I like the original one the best. So now I have to find a good white ink that shows up well on dark paper.

I used all papertrey ink paper and ribbon and the cuddlebug snowflake embossing folder.The snowflake brad is old from my stash. The lace border is from a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is from a MSE stamp set I got at ACMoore when all the stamp sets were 5 dollars. The snowflake was cut on the cricut and then run through the xyron upside down and then glittered with Martha Stewart glitter.

My asthma/bronchitis is slowly improving. Friday am my daughter came home from work sick as a dog. This morning is the first time she woke up with no fever. Gotta tell you.. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned yesterday. Scrubbed bathrooms, kitchen, everything trying to kill the bugs in this house. With that said, there was no crafting yesterday but the house smells darn good!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

xmas card


When I was sick I started making some xmas cards. This first card really didn't photograph well. The pattern paper has beautiful metallic stripes that really didn't show up. I kept it so simple because I loved the striped paper.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

thanksgiving layout


Okay this layout still needs a little something... like some buttons or something but I don't have to right colors... so I will add it later when I see and feel whats right.

The pattern paper is from a cloud 9 Specialty paper back I got last summer from CKC.. It had fall, Halloween and Christmas assorted papers in it.

The photo template is from Terri Bradford.

Had a good day at work... tried to get caught up on as much as I could.. still more to do.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Halloween layout

Super simple Halloween layout. The paper is from K& Company... I can't remember the cart the ghost came from because I searched it on my gypsy and sometimes when I do that I look at the images and don't think about the cart its is coming from. Fun glitter paper for the ghost and I popped him up to give some dimension. I added stickles to the Happy Halloween also.

Coughing less, energy returning so its back to work tomorrow. Got lots to catch up on with my school kiddies :-)

flowers


Last spring my friend Linda and I cut and assembled a whole bunch of these table centerpieces for a retirement party. We used the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge. Linda really did all the arranging. Well we are having a teacher of the year breakfast at work to honor our special teacher the end of this month. They asked me to make some kind of corsage using creams and maroon. I took a little liberty with the colors. I used the Flower Shoppe cart my kids got me for Christmas. I sprayed the flowers with opal glimmer mist. Here is what I know. I am not an arranger and it was bringing back memories of Linda that made me sad now that she is gone so I called on a fellow co-worker. Her daughter is a florist so I am turning all the flowers over to her to whip up into something beautiful. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I will post pictures of the finished project. This was my Sunday night project after having slept all day trying to make my sick self feel better.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Last Easter Card

I again used a My Creative Time with Emma stamp, spellbinders nestabilies die, copics, and some bling. The pattern paper I had from a huge year long stack that is several years old that I tore apart and filed by season so have no clue who it is by.. BTW that is what I do with stacks that are more that one season. I tear them apart. All my pattern paper that is seasonal are filed in a box by season. Some boxes are even sub-divided.. Like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So easy to grab a box for a holiday and all the papers are right there.

Bad news I just had to make the decision to stay home one more day... My fever went up to 99 tonight so it means one more day home... Ughhh I will say I have been working on layouts and cards yesterday and today since I cough less sitting up and I am not a TV watcher. I tried reading but I like to lay and I just end up coughing. I can not remember when I last missed 3 days of work for illness!!! Surgery yes, illness no!! I do believe it is from the mild winter. None of the bad bugs got killed off and yes I got a flu shot because as an asthmatic I get one every year. Sigh..I know my kids will be fine but will we will have ground to make up when I get back. My real kid.. My daughter the nurse hounded me till I called out tonight!

another Easter card

I used a My Creative Time with Emma stamp, copies, stickler, spellbinders nestabilities die, swiss dots embossing folder and some bling.

I am home again today but my fever finally broke late last night after starting medication. Lets hope the 3rd time to the doctor in 6 weeks for the same asthma/bronchitis issues is the charm and that I finally get completely better once and for all this time. As long as the fever stays down all day I can go back to work tomorrow :-) I love listening to my 90 year old mom lecture me that I have never gotten better because I never slow down enough to heal. Well I did this time so I want healing.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Easter Card

I used My Creative Time with Emma stamps, copics, spellbinders die, swiss dots embossing and papertrey ink ribbons.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

pinterest inspired wreath

I saw something like this a few weeks ago on Pinterest. I had the hardest time finding the right foam ring to make it. It's to hang on my classroom door this spring.

I crafted most of the weekend as I am sick yet again and tried to take it easy. I have been off the meds a little over 7 days.. I have had a fever all day which means I can't go to work tomorrow. So I am going back to the doctor. I suspect that I have a bad sinus infection that they haven't knocked out yet. The post nasal drip triggers my asthma coughing and I sound like a fog horn.... this will be my third trip to the doctor in 5 weeks!!!! I really have too much to do to miss work and sit home doing nothing.

Friday, March 2, 2012

high school reunion



I went to my high school reunion in October. The first one since my marriage fell apart 13 years ago. (I skipped the last one) I made the kids take my picture before I left. I love my clenched hand in the one. Shows how nervous I was. Had a great time seeing old fiends. For once I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures. Here are only a few of the friends I managed to snap. I used a Terri Bradford collage template. The letters are cut using the Don Juan cart and the mat on the one page and the black border are cut using elegant edges. The papers are mostly from the alpha stack DCWV.

more smashing fun stuff