It's Inspiration Time at the Cutting Cafe: This week....Butterflies.

This week's inspiration theme at The Cutting Café was to use one of Regina's Butterfly sets.  I had a hard time with that one, let me tell you because I love ALL of her butterfly designs.  I decided to go with the latest which was the Butterfly Treat Box.  I often have little trinket gifts waiting for company when they come to stay with me and I thought this would look cute on the vanity with the little gift inside.   I left off the handle, but it also makes an adorable basket.

 

I printed the paper using JodiLee's Vintage prints that I got at the Jessica Sprague.com website. I picked up all of them for a $1 on one of her One Buck Wednesday deals  I then cut the SVG file using my Silhouette SD.  I inked the endges with Mahogany and Marmalade distress inks by Tim Holtz.  The overall box is about 3.5" square and now that I look at the picture I can see the butterfly wings offer lots of real estate for bling, sentiments, stamping and the like. Regina, you are genius.  I will probably make  a tag for my next guest but will wait until I see who comes next before making it. I have a lot of personalities in my life.  I punched up all the wings with pop dots, and then glued the body on top of the smaller wing.    The flowers were punched out of pink cardstock scraps and scattered across the body with a little bit of bling in the middle for a small glitzy touch.  I used the smaller Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch.  That was a good investment. I really use it a lot.  Head over the  Café to see all of the other girls' designs.  I am sure this one won't disappoint anyone given these are all great designs.

SOU Die Cut Challenge Reveal: Nifty 50's

A be bop ba lou la ya'll!  This week's challenge at Stuck On U Sketches is a Nifty 50's die cut theme.  I have been looking forward to this one as I have had this picture for almost three years now and have been waiting for inspiration to scrap it.  I pulled together a 1950's theme party for one of the User Group Meetings we held where I work.  We took this picture because we all had poodle skirts on.  The other two people in the picture had authentic skirts their Aunts had worn.  How cool is that?!

I had a lot of fun researching this project. I grabbed old black and white photos and images that portrayed the era as I have learned it.  The Woolworth's menu was special, because my mother said she and her friends went there after school to get malts and limeades. plus the pricing was a kick to highlight.  The dance class ad was cool to me, because I would have taken that class had I have been in that era.  I took classes during the late 70's when the disco era was going on. I placed journaling on the back of the cards to relay these sentiments.  The filmstrip was cut using my silhouette with black paper.  All of the other die cuts were cut from Cricut's Nifty 50's cartridge. (How appropriate for the challenge was that?...hint, hint.)  I kissed a white piece of paper because my Mother had kissed the back of a photo that I had found from the 50's.  I treasure that photo and wanted to offer the same to my future generations.  Though I didn't have red nor bright pink lipstick.  That color was as close as I could get...though the color does create the trilogy of gold tones from the dance class ad and upper right star burst that is in yellow.  The matting was cut from my silhouette using the rounded square option in two sizes.  One in black and the other in pink gingham.   The pink paper was from one of the digital papers I had purchased an imported into my Silhouette. I think it is either from Echo Park's Victoria Garden or Dear Lizzy's 5th and Frolic line. If you haven't learned how to do that, let me know and I will post a tutorial. It is saving me a ton of money doing things this way and it makes it easy to keep up with the latest papers.  The die cut frame is from Silhouette. I used the arrows to show how time is moving on.  Though it has moved on, I think this era is one to be remembered. They seemed to be happy and much simpler times that we should look back on and learn from.

So grab your old car and poodle die cuts, pink black and turquoise papers and pretty pastels to create your own memory page, then post it on our challenge.  We would love to see what this era meant to you. 

Cutting Cafe Files: Strawberry Treat Box

This was made from the Cutting Cafe's Strawberry Treat Box.  My daughter recently visited me from out of town and I had this little treat box waiting for her in her room.  It houses my strawberry jelly a little bag of snack food mixes and some bracelets I had made for her using a paper bead kit I picked up at JessicaSprague.com

I cut this out on my Silhouette, cheating a little bit.  I put the print on the strawberries on the box prior to cutting and selected do not cut, so they would just print on the box base of flowers.  The reason I did this, is because the print doesn't show anywhere but in the middle of the chocolate and leaf layers and it used less ink to not print them separately.  The project used various red and green pattern in my silhouette pattern stash. I cut the tag using Stampin' Ups word punch, and handwrote the sentiment to give it that handmade look.  However, if you type your sentiment, this punch works great for labels, sentiments and the like where you just want a little strip of something.

 

I Love U 3

For the first time in my life, I had my nieces and nephew all to myself for a day.  It was wonderful to
see them all at once and I really enjoyed our time together. The boys have not been to our house before and they brought their new guns to shoot. I took them up on the mountain and let them target
practice.  Even Amanda gave it a shot. (Pardon the pun).  I thought the picture was funny since I couldn't find the earplugs. We put napkins in our ears.

 

I made this with Photoshop using the new Maggie Holmes Digital line at AC Digitals.  I will probably print these pieces and make it a hybrid project.  I have such fun designing in PSE and then taking it to paper. Saves me a lot of time when actually scrapping. Plus. I just love the "undo" feature while playing around.

Cutting Cafe Files: Welcome Home

Hello to all!  The Cutting Café has a house shaped card for you to use that can be used for party invites, moving announcements, and housewarming cards.  I love the versatility of this set.  I can even see it being used for Christmas cards.  My niece is moving here soon, so I thought I would make this for her on moving day. 

The card comes in a size that is made for the Cricut or Cameo. You need the full 12 inches to make the folding card.  I got creative and added the top to the roof where the card folds, using my knife tool in the Designer Edition of the Silhouette Studio software.  I used the cut for a stand up card instead.  I used the Cafe's There is no place like home background print and put it on a blue background.  I cut the flowers using the Martha Stewart Hydrangea Punch. I edged the Housework sentiment with Tim Holtz Distressing Ink and glued it on a scrap left over from the card  cut.  The house was made using the Lucky Charm Digital Paper that I added to my Patterns in the Silhouette Studio.  I embossed each of the boards so they would stand out more. I also embossed the roof with simple straight lines in scattered rows.  I used the knife tool to create the edging on the roof to go over the scalloped strip that comes with the set to give the house more of a gingerbread look and feel. I used the white brick pattern that comes with the Silhouette software to make the chimney.

 

SOU Die Cut Challenge Reveal: Sun

Hi all!  This week Stuck on U Sketches has a die cut challenge.  The theme is something to do with the sun. I have had this picture since Labor Day last year from the End of Summer Party my Sister in Law had.  Dawn, the subject in the photo is an absolute hoot.  She always hams it up for my pictures.  She gave me a big Whoop! for this pic.

The subject matter called for warm colors. Even though the picture had pink and blue, which are cool colors, I opted to surround dawn with the warmth of the sun with splashes of blue and pink in the elements and title to tie it all together.  I have loved the sunburst die cuts for a while and was thrilled that I had a subject matter to use with them.  I cut two to provide balance. One bursting from Dawn, who is pretty vibrant, and the other from the title so it wasn't just words.  The sun was an Echo Park die cut they have in the Silhouette shop, as are the sunshine and smile cards.  The bottom needed something so I selected the trendy arrows to give the page a little action and movement. I think the photo looks pretty active, so I wanted to mirror that in the elements.  I cut two of each button and stacked them to give them more of a chipboard look. I used plain string to tie in each one.  I placed them in a triangle around the page being sure to emphasize Dawn and not  the pool or her daughter.  These trendy new looks intimidated me at first for the elements were so small. But I am finding they are actually easier to work with than bigger elements.  They actually give the page dimension and are a fabulous tool for placing emphasis where you want it to relay the overall look and feel of a page.

So head over to Stuck on U Sketches and read the details of the challenge, put on your sunglasses  then go and  get a little sun on your pages.  Summer is almost here!  Please be sure to share it with us.  We would love to see your ideas.

Cutting Cafe Fathers Day File

Hey all! This week's Inspiration Series at the Cutting Café is to be a Father's Day Card using the Shirt and Tie or Cruising collections.  I have always loved a man in a tie, so I made this card for my FIL.

I used Silhouette Patterned Papers and cut the SVG file the Cutting Café file provides.  It went together smooth and easy.

All Boys (right now)

There is an interesting sketch reveal at Stuck on U Sketches today.  I found this sketch to be really challenging for I am not used to working with two sides of the paper while still unifying the page.  However, there are others on the team who did a fabulous job with it.  Check it out on the site.

 I just loved these pictures of our grandsons and knew I wanted these three on a page, so this sketch gave me the inspiration to finally do it.  Thank goodness they are interesting enough to keep the viewer looking at the page. because up close and personal, the details are not that bad. 

 

I have been dying to play with the new When I Was a Kid cartridge by Cricut.  I used one of the shapes on the cart to create the two halves of the page.  I am not sure if you can tell, but it looks like a lime, and I backed each hole with different papers.  That detail got lost behind the photos on the left.  I used stamps from My Minds Eye and Teresa Collins to tie in the black backing on the photos.  Papers from the Hopscotch line by Pink Paisley I used weren't making the photos stand out enough.  So I printed off some Circa 1921 paper I got at Jessica Sprague a few years a go.  (Another reason to buy digital papers....they help when in a crunch.

 

Paper Beads

I found a class on Jessica Sprague this past week on making paper beads.  I later got a file from The Cutting Café to make them more uniform in size for future projects, but this was  my first attempt at making beads with paper.  All in all I think they make cheery Summer bracelets.  Hmmm...what else can I do with these beads?

 

I printed off the papers that came with the class then cut them into narrow triangular strips.  I then wrapped the strips around a skewer, gluing the underside of them prior to rolling.  Once the skewer was full, I then painted them with Sparkle Modge-Podge and then gave them a coat of clear nail polish once the Modge-Podge dried.  I stuck the skewers in Styrofoam until they were all dried.  I got the spacers on sale at Michaels and put one between each bead.  They were strung on elastic thread I got a while ago at Walmart.  I am seeing all sorts of possibilities for making these with painted papers, and even holiday themes going forward.  I can see me using these on gift wrapping, scrapbook pages, charms and more.  This is a very handy skill to obtain in one's craft set.

The Cutting Cafe Diaper Card

The Cutting Café recently released a Diaper Card, that is cuter than cute. You can get it in a boy's version or a Girls version with ruffles.  I had a lot of fun making this one.

 

 

I used the Echo Park Victoria's Garden collection to print the papers. I bought the digital file for the patterns at Jessica Sprague.com.  To keep the pattern intact, I created another base card and cut off the flap pieces using the knife tool in the Silhouette Designer Studio Software.  That is a handy little gizmo.