A Cut Above class

I'm taking A Cut Above over at Online Card Classes.   It's on die cutting with manual die cut machines and electronic.  I've used both for many years, but am really interested because the second week in on the Silhouette and I don't have one, but am considering getting one.  I love these classes because they motivate me to create and Jennifer, Kristina and Nichol are fantastic.  It's not too late to sign up!
First assignment - create a card with a die cut (manual) embellishment.

{hi}

Here's another card I made with the paper I created using the Hip & Handsome Overlays. I also broke out my Cricut machine again to cut the tree. The trunk I freehanded with scissors. It was totally a coincidence that the angles of the paper lined up perfectly with the zig-zag trim. I love when that happens!

Did you know...

that you could win a Silhouette Cameo and Heat Transfer kit over at the Idea Room?

go leave a comment to enter!

diggin' digi downloads!

Hi there! I am having so much fun with digital downloads lately. Today's card features some patterned paper I created myself using a digital overlay. I have to say I struggled a bit trying to figure out how to manipulate the colors of the pre-designed overlay, but I got it and made the chevron paper! I also used the Stampin' Up! Wonderful Wings digital download for the butterfly. I love that I can scale it to whatever size I want. Then I just printed it, colored it up and hand cut it out - super easy.


Digital Elements - Stampin' Up Hip and Handsome Overlays, Wonderful Wings

Card Stock - SU Basic Gray and Pool Party

Ink: SU Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Gray

Stamps: SU Apothocary Art

Dies: SU Framelits, Label, Little Leaves

Ribbon: SU Lucky Limeade

Punch: SU Eyelet Border

hybrid card making

I've been experimenting with digital elements lately. I had done a bit of digital scrapbooking in the past, but never used digital elements for cards. Mostly, this is because I really don't like a flat printed card, unless it's for a mass mailing such as Christmas cards. What I have been doing is printing out papers and other digital elememts and using them traditionally (paper) and this has been eye opening for me. For one thing, I love the instantaneous delivery and no shipping costs - can't beat that. This totally offsets the cost of the printer ink in my book. And...I can print only the small amount that I need if I plan ahead - less waste!
So here are a couple of cards I made using digital patterned papers. These are part of the new Stampin' Up! Collection called Summer Smooches which is available for purchase (real and digital) in April as a preview for the next full catalog (June 2012-May 2013).

Reverse Wonky Rectangle

So I got this cool set of Spellbinders dies from the very talented Donna Mikasa and just had the chance to start playing with them today. She loves them for a quick card and she's right - they're perfect and a nice change from the traditional A2 cards I typically make. I can really see these in my future for gift tags and actually can see using this as a window in an A2 card. My wheels are really turning now.

I don't know why it looks wider at the top than the bottom, maybe due to the cell phone photo. I really need to get my light tent set up for my photos.

Stamps: Stampin' UP! - Up Up and Away
Card stock: Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake and Bashful Blue
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Punches: SU Heart to Heart and Build a Cupcake
Pen: Uniball Signo White (SU)

and More Creative Chemistry

Here's another one from day 9...
On this one I used the Kindness Matters and the Creative Elements sets from Stampin' Up with Black Stazon Ink over the Perfect Distress technique. I love those butterflies!
I wish the shimmer of the pearls showed up in the photos.

More Creative Chemistry

I've got more Creative Chemistry to share today. This is from day 9 of the class. I couldn't do the first technique because I don't have the distress reinkers so I just did two of the three for now. Today was good for me because I've had Perfect Pearls for a while and never opened them.
For this one I used one of my favorite stamps sets - French Foliage from Stampin' Up with the Distress Inks.

Creative Chemistry

I'm taking Creative Chemistry with Tim Holtz online over at Online Card Classes. I'm working a little of out order and part of it is because I don't have all the supplies. My local stores don't carry everything that's used in the class so I've got some on order and some I'll need to look around in my stash for some substitutes. Here are the first 3 techniques from Day 2 (Day 1 was more product chemistry information - no homework). Okay so we've got the Blended Spritz and Flick, Brushless Watercolor, and Wrinkle-Free Distress. I'm using my cell phone here, my light tent isn't quite finished yet.

Day 5 - I've only did one of the three homework assignments for day 5 so far. I need to find a subsitution for the picket fence distress stain in order to finish my homework :)
But here is the Craft Resist or is it Kraft Resist? Anyway, this uses the paper from a stack of pre-printed and pre-embossed paper from Tim Holtz. I was happy that I bought this paper to use a few weeks ago for a vintage style scrapbook that my son had to make for his school project on Thomas Edison. (I'll post more on that later).
I'm using scraps of paper rather than the tags for now.

Next up for me is day 7. Again, I only did one of the techniques for this lesson so far.

This one is called Nostalgic Batik - love that name!

I'm so excited!

Today I got a happy email from Paper Crafts Magazine that one of my cards was accepted from the recent submission call. I'm thrilled beyond belief! My card will be in the September/October issue.

...and these are the ones that didn't make it.

This was for the paper piecing call:


and this one was for one of the sketches:

Stampin' Up! - Your're My Type

I love this typewriter set!
Here's a simple one created with it. (apologies for the cell phone shot)

Quick Card

Just a quick share - I was playing around with some new Patterned Paper called Everyday Enchantment today. This is what I came up with.