A boy and his dog

*Silhouette bragging Alert*

So, I did it again, I used my silhouette for a card. Surprised much? I cannot begin to explain to you the ease with which you can put great projects together with this machine. I will never regret the purchase and if you've been on the fence about buying one or not, I suggest you go for it.

I made this one from a silhouette image of a boy, walking with his dog. I needed a card for hubby's birthday...last month. I struggle with male oriented cards in general and when I saw this image in the silhouette store, I knew I had to have it for my very own.

I cut the image onto some scrap black paper and layered it over a scrap piece of gingham paper. Oh My, but I do love my scraps :) I just wish that they would come to an end so I wouldn't feel guilty about cutting a new piece of paper every now and again :)

{P.S. Don't forget to vote in my poll in the side bar to the right}

Silhouette Image used:
- boy and dog silhouette

Challenges !
- The Crafty Pad: Use an Animal
- Fussy and Fancy: Anything Goes
- The the Craft room Door - Anything Goes
- Make it Monday: #112

xoxo

a tiny bit of musing and a 13 Arts Giveaway {Frosted Life}

For those who don't know, I am still in the process of studying for my second Bachelors degree, it takes a lot time and effort, and ultimately eats into my craft time. I am writing exams in early November, so while the craft posts are few and far between I thought I would enter a couple of blog candy's and share them with you as and when I enter :) Apologies in advance for all the solicitation you may see on my blog over the next two weeks :) But who doesn't like a little something for free, right? I do have a couple of projects that I've photographed and not yet posted though, so all is not lost yet!

Oh, And I've added a new addition to my side bar (see the top right hand side). I will be running a monthly poll, just to add a bit of spice to all our lives. I'll post the official results when the poll closes! I am also thinking of adding a bit of blog candy that relates to the polls, but I'm not sure how this would work. I may have to add an official post on the day I start each new Poll, with a Mr. Linky for those who vote to add their link? I could then do a draw of the numbers and send the candy to the winning number? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section of this post?

For now, I'll leave the first poll as is, just for fun :) So tell me, what time of day do you most prefer to craft?

On to the Blog candy I'm entering for:

You can win an entire pack of the new 'Frosted Life' collection.

It's a great mix of textured papers as well as muted designs.

 

1. Go to the 13 Arts blog HERE & add your name to the linky list!

2. Create a post showing an image of the new 'Frosted Life'

and talk about it like I have done here.

3. Sign up to become a follower of the 13 Arts blog.

4. LIKE 13 Arts on Facebook!

You have until midnight EST on the 3rd November to enter.

 

For every 40 entries there will be ONE winner.

 

xoxo

Scrap Addict Giveaway

There's a lot of stuff up for grabs here. Tons of chipboard, from Scrap FX and various other manufacturers. Pink Paislee & Maya Road mistables & stickers, Studio Calico rub-ons, printed glitter die-cuts & beautiful Prima butterfly embellishments.

Head on over to Helen Tilbury's blog HERE for more details!

 

 

xoxo

Magnetised Cards

We all love trying something new with our crafting every now and again. It makes us feel liberated from the same old boring things that we do day in and day out... or is that only me? Nevertheless, I really do feel this way about my crafting, and although I like to play it safe a lot of the time, sometimes I like to break out of my comfort zone and try a new technique.

The technique in question is the use of magnets on my card. And not just to make an actual magnet, but to make a paper doll :) I use to love playing with my Princess Diana paper doll back in the day, the kit came out with a ton of dresses for the deceased princess and I think I remember changing the clothes around so much that I wore off the tabs that actually held the clothes in place! hahaha!

The paper doll I made was compliments of Mo's Digital Pencil, Images I used in particular were a freebie set called Trudy's dress. A set downloaded long ago, so I cannot even tell you where to find it for your yourself unless you go hunting on Mo's site (that's Mo Manning for those who don't know).

The pictures tell the story, I stuck a strip of magnetic tape to the back of Trudy's party dress, as well as to the back of Trudy's image. I made sure the two strips aligned before I adhered, I also made sure that the magnetic sides facing each other were opposites (very important, else the dress will not 'stick').

 

The entire Image was coloured with a mixture of  watercolour artist's pencils and plain colour pencils. All paper came our of my scrap heap, as did the very short piece of ribbon for Trudy's dress bow (see! hoarding helps!)

The card went to my friend Rachel, see how I cleverly inserted her name on the gift tag behind Trudy? Clever me! LOL!

xoxo

Orange you so pretty?

I never used to be one that gravitated towards very 'bright'colours in my crafting, but within the last year or two I have started to change in this regard. I must add though that I still prefer an understated tone palette for my scrapbooks and that the bright colours are mainly linked to card making.

Orange is one of my favourite 'brights'. It always looks like it has smile on it's face and wants to stick it's cheeky tongue out at me. This is probably the only reason why I chose to make this card orange, I wanted needed to use the gorgeously delicious orange ribbon that stuck it's tongue out at me from my ribbon collection....

A lot of scraps were harmed in the making of this card, just saying* A pity I am still left with half a ton of the stuff, at least it makes for a few good ooh's and aah's over full pieces long gone.

xoxo

Thought I might add a couple of challenges today:
tammyscrapincorner - Anything Goes
challenges4everybody - Anything Goes
houseofgilli - Anything Goes
eclecticellapu - Anything Goes
craftymesschallengeblog - Anything Goes
deepoceanchallengeblog - Anything Goes

A light at the end of the tunnel

My craft desk is in a really cosy part of our house. It's situated in the libray cum study cum place where everything gets dumped... catch my drift? And despite the clutter it makes for a great creative space. One thing I have always lacked though is proper lighting. There is an overhead light in the ceiling which shines down, but I have the problem of seeing my projects underneath my lovely shadow. Not very nice when it's evening I can tell you.

To remedy the situation I purchased a lamp, but not just any lamp, a lamp that clips on to a work station! yes! someone thought of a crafter! I am finally seeing the light at the end of my craft tunnel :) Don't you think it's just too clever?

 

xoxo

Me and my....Cameo

So, me and my Cameo have been getting better acquainted in the last few weeks, and albeit not as much craft time as I would like I have definitely had some fun. I've downloaded more files than I think I will ever use, and I am already starting to rethink that monthly subscription... but you know, what's a crafter to do if she can't hoard a little?

I am in love with the fast paced and efficient way I am able to get cards and scrapbook pages done, especially when I get to use shapes which I would have had to hand cut or punch (please note that I only have two border punches) before.

I made a batch of note cards a while back, to keep in my stash for when the need arises, I utilised one particular shape in my silhouette program and cut a multitude of pieces of paper with my industrial paper trimmer (thanks hubby! still using this gift to within an inch of its life!). Although I could have cut the paper pieces with the silhouette as well, it was just uneconomical for me to waste my cutting mat, blade and time, constantly changing out pieces of paper to be trimmed down. I was cutting squares you see and nothing too fancy.

A couple of trusty stamps (mostly Angel company and Kaiserkraft branded) from my stash and a LOT of scrap paper later, I have quite a few pretties to place into my stash box. Thanks Silhouette! and trusty paper trimmer (of course)

 

xoxo