It's Been A While.......

 I've been MIA lately.  Without going into the details, life has been a little nuts lately.  Summer, family, work, etc. etc.   I know that is not a excuse, but that is what has been happening. 

One of the fun things I got to do lately was work with this fun digital scrapbook kit called Party Pants from Peppermint Creative.    I really love the fun colors in this set.  The balloons, the cake, presents....just so much fun party stuff.  

 

Here are a couple of hybrid crafts that I made with this kit and my Silhouette Cameo.  The first one is one of my favorite cards.  It is made with the balloons and the Celebration word art.

 

 

I made a card base 4 x 5 and enlarged the balloons to where they were "off" the sides of the card.  I also printed an extra copy and cut around some of the balloons and layered them to add dimension.  I used black twine and tied it around a few of the balloons.

 

Here is another card using the birthday cake.

 

 

One of my favorite things to do with my Cameo is Print and Cuts. 

For this print and cut, I cut out several extra pieces and adhered to the base of the card with pop dots

 to give dimension. 

 

And last but not least, is a cute little box that I made with the paper from the Party Pants kit.

 

 

Hope that these hybrid projects inspire you to take out your favorite digital kit and make something fun. 

 

Have a GREAT week!

♥, Tanya

 

4th of July Party Treats

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer.  It's been okay here so far. It's not as bad as it has been in the past for Oklahoma weather and I am SOOOOO THANKFUL!

I can't believe it's already here.....JULY!  Omg...that means I need to get on the ball and get some things done.  One of those things I finally finished tonight.  I made these cute tags to tie around my candy treats.  I think everyone that comes to the celebration will love them.

.

 

I used these little tubes that I purchased from Overstock.com

 

The digital scrapbook kit that I used was from Peppermint Creative and it's called

Summer Sparklers Kit

 

 

 

 

These are a few of the other tags I made to wrap around my candy tubes.

 

 



 

I really enjoyed making these cute treat tags for our party tomorrow night.  I hope everyone likes them as much as I do.  I hope they still have M&M's in them when I hand them out....LOL!

 

Below are some brief instructions on the cutting steps.   Before you can  print, there are a few steps that you need to do so that the cut part will work properly.

 

 First chose the size paper you will be using, I work with 8.5x11.  I'm guessing that is what most use.

 

 

 Next, you will need to make sure that the "Show Reg Marks" are checked.  This is so that the machine can scan the marks and know where to cut out your images.

 (You will need to have those cut lines on ~See Below)

 

 

To open the cut style options, you will click on the scissors at the top of your screen.  Here you can see there are several options.  See where the "let's celebrate" is circled in black?  If you look over to the right you can see that "No Cut" is chosen for that image.  Now look at the rest of the images.  See how the have a red line around them?  This is because the cut lines have been picked. 

 

This is also where you double check to see if everything you want to cut has the red around them and anything you don't want to cut doesn't have the red around them.  Here I missed picking the cut line.  Not a huge deal, it's simple enough to cut out with scissors.  Where this makes a huge difference is if you have a saying on top of an image that you don't want cut, but you do want the outer edge of the tag, card to be cut.  You would need to select the saying and click "No Cut" and the reselect the whole image and pick the "cut edge"

 

 

 

Finally, we can print and cut.  Make sure everything is on the page correctly and not overlapping anything.  To find this menu, click on the pencil at the top right of the page.  This will open "Cut Settings" Here is where you choose the media you are using.  For this project, I used white cardstock, so I chose "cardstock" in the media box.  Once you do this, it will automatically change everything to the appropriate settings.  There may be times that you have to do some manual adjusting in the program.

 

Finally, before you hit the cut button, make sure that you have your blade in your machine changed to the correct settings.  This will save you time and money.  I don't know how many times that I forgot to do that and how much paper and vinyl I have wasting by forgetting this step.  You will also need to put your media (cardstock) on your cutting mat and load it into your cameo.   Now hit the "CUT" button and watch it do it's magic.

 

I would love to hear what you think about this project and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to message me.  I would love to help.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

HAVE A HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

Be safe!

♥, Tanya

 

 

 

Summertime!

What does Summer mean to you?  Vacations, beaches, swimming pools, shorts, flip flops, etc.  For some it's about baseball games, sunflower seeds and concession stands.   I miss those days, some of which included multiple games, heat, dirt.....well maybe I don't miss all of it. 

Now that my son isn't playing baseball anymore, which saddens me at times, I do have friends with little ones starting the adventure of traveling teams and school ball.  From my experience (from a mom's viewpoint) I enjoyed traveling baseball so much more than school ball. 

When my sons played ball, I didn't own a silhouette machine.  If I had, I would have so made these for myself.  Maybe if we catch a Red Hawk's game or a New York Yankee game sometime.  These were made for my sweet friend/co-worker, Chrissy.  Her little guy started his first traveling team and is keeping them very busy.  I included some for her toes and her son's number and one with the team name. 

 

Isn't this awesome?  You could make a cute package (with your silhouette of course) to put the nail art in and give them as a gift to a baseball mom.  Wouldn't all the team moms love these?

 

 

(Click on image to download)

 

 

I used the Silhouette brand red vinyl. 

The cut settings are blade 2, speed 8, thickness 9 or choose vinyl under your cut settings. 

The squares around the stitching are for easy weeding.

You may need to resize them or simply clip them to fit your nails. 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great and safe summer!!

 

 

My Baby is Graduating

I'm having such a hard time digesting the fact that my youngest is graduating high school.   This school year has just flown by.  When he turned 18 a couple of months ago, that was hard, but for some reason, this is even harder.  I know this is what is suppose to happen, but the "Empty Nest" syndrome is taking over!!!

His Dad and I are so very proud of him.  He's a very determined, straight forward young man.  He is also sweet and caring.  I know that he will succeed at anything he puts his mind to.  Oh and a hard worker, he's isn't afraid to get dirty to get something done.

 

These announcements were designed in Photoshop 10 and printed on my home printer.  We sat down one day (well more like 5 min.) and picked something he liked by surfing on line.  Oh and I also took his pictures...that was so much fun!  Well not exactly, he didn't want to "pose" for me because he wasn't a "model"! 

This is the announcement we sent out.  I had a few issues with my copier (reason I'm shopping for a new one) Overall I think that they came out really nice.  I even took his pictures.  I was hoping he would let me take them.  I know I'm not a professional, but It does make me happy that I was able to take both of my boys graduations cards and announcements.

 

 

Here is what I put in the card insert.  I wasn't  going to do them this way, but what I thought were envelopes ended up being cards, so I put them to use.  They look really nice this way.  Oh and I made the Vellum Insert was created in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and cut out with my Cameo.

 

 

Here is the finished the project.  I also used my Silhouette Cameo to design and cut out circle labels

 to put on the back of the envelope.  The envelope was addressed using a white gel pen.

 

Below is a few more pictures that I took.  I still have a few more that I would like to edit.

 

 

And of course I have to throw in a couple of his Senior Prom pictures!!

 

 

Aren't they so cute together.  His beautiful girlfriend is gorgeous!! 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

♥X♥X♥

 

 

"Egg"stra special Easter Basket Tutorial

Hopefully this weekend will go better than the last.  I still can't believe I finally got to the point of shopping and running errands and I got sick...really sick.  Thanks goodness I'm better now and after work tomorrow, I will attempt to do that shopping once again. 

I have a tutorial I'd like to share with you.  I made it for Peppermint Creative.  And...right now if you go there you can get this Silhouette file and/or a printable file for FREE.   I know it's cutting it close, but it truly takes very little time to put it together. 



Supplies Used:

• Cardstock
• Scissors or Cutting Machine (Silhouette)
• Double-Sided Tape
• Easter Grass
• Printer
• Candy
• Free Template

How to:

Easter is such a fun holiday for crafting. I couldn’t resist creating a cute egg shaped basket using my Silhouette machine and my favorite Easter themed digital scrapbooking kit Speckled Egg: Brights and I’m so excited to share my template with you. If you don’t have a Silhouette Cameo, don’t feel left out – I’ve also included instructions and a template to create this cute basket easily by hand with a pair of scissors as well.

Instructions by hand (without using a Cutting Machine): 
Print the template on fairly sturdy cardstock and cut it out.


Next fold along the dashed lines.

Add double sided tape and tape the box together.

Apply the egg to the top of the box with double sided tape. To finish the box, you can add the handle, or leave it off.

Now for the fun stuff. Add the Easter grass.

And the delicious candy and voila – you’re finished! It’s that easy.

Instructions for Silhouette SD/Cameo Users:
We will be using the Silhouette Cameo and the “Print and Cut” feature.
Print the basket with or without the egg already on it.  Make sure that you turn on the registration marks so that you will be able to cut it out after it is printed.

 
You will find an 8.5×11” document with 2 eggs on it which you can use if you’d like to print the sheet and have the silhouette cut them out or you can add the included .PNG egg to your template and print and cut just once. If you are cutting the box and then the images, you will simply add a piece of white card stock to your mat and cut the box out.


Next you will cut the egg image out.  You can see that I added other images from the kit on the paper so that I wouldn’t waste any paper.

Now on to the assembling. Fold at the dashed lines.

Next add the double-sided tape and tape the box together.
 
Apply the egg to both sides of the box. If you printed it with the egg already on the box, you will skip this step.

To finish your Easter “Egg” basket, You can either apply the handle or leave it off.
Now add the grass and the candy as shown above and you’re done.

To Get the FREE file go here!

I used the digital kit, Speckled Egg - Brights, from Peppermint Creative to make the basket.

 

I hope that EVERYONE has a HAPPY EASTER!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tanya

Well....It happened.....

I can't believe it did, but it did.  I had so many things planned out.  Shopping (which I don't care for), planting, and of course crafting.  Not one of those things got done.  I ended up with the stomach bug and was out of commission for 3 whole days.  What a total bummer.   With out all the ugly details, I was in so much pain and was so weak that I could not even get in or out of the shower myself.  I was really wiped me out. 

There was a good thing that happened.  My lovely husband build this really nice desk to put in my craft room.  I ordered it off  Overstock.com.  Oh and didn't pay shipping!!!  Here is a picture of it and when I get in all like I want it, I will take some pics. 

 

I can't wait to find the write baskets to put on the shelves and the stuff for the walls.
 

This desk is VERY sturdy and made well.

 

 

 

Be back soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

♥ Tanya

  

It's Almost Here

Friday, yep it's almost here.  Work has been a little stressful these days, so I'm really looking forward to my weekend OFF!!  I'm ready to do some gardening and working on  my flower beds.  I'm ready for some COLOR!  I'm so tired of looking at all the dead brown colors.   That's what I really want to do, it's the plan, but we all know plans don't all work out!  Hoping it will this time!

Another thing I would like to do is to work on some crafting projects.  And in case you would like to do the same, I'm sharing some projects I've worked on this past week. 

Here they are, these cute little boxes that I made with my Silhouette Cameo and this adorable new kit in the Hello Collection Series....Hello Giggles from Peppermint Creative.

 

I love making gift boxes and with Graduation quickly approaching, I thought this would be perfect.

 

 

 

Aren't these papers from Peppermint Creative soooo stinkin' cute!?!  I absolutely love all the colors....so bright and cheery!!

 

 Here is a close up of the flower that I purchased from the Silhouette on-line store.  I used the color picker in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition to make sure the color matched exactly to the paper. 

 

 

The color picker is on the right side of your page.  You can pick a color out of the pallet or if you want the shade to really match, you can pick a color from your project you are working on.

 

 

 

To pick a color from your project, just click on the picker on the right and hover over the color you want from the project you are working on. 

 

 

 

Here is another made with the papers from the Hello: Giggles series!  These would be perfect for "Thank You's" at a wedding, bridal showers, birthdays and more.  I have a wedding invite in the making (one of my plans for this weekend)  I'll have pictures posted soon (If my plans don't fall through).

 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a GREAT and WONDERFUL weekend!!