February 22, 2010

Sunshine Award


I am so blessed receive this award from a lady that I truly admire for her talent and her gentle spirit and her willingness to share that talent! Thank you Sandy from Details By Sandy it means so very much that you shared this Sunshine Award with me! I am so blessed to have blogging friend like you! You are an inspiration and an encouragement to me. Thank you.

The rules for this award....
Place the award in your post or within your blog
Pass this award to six of your followers
Link the nominees to your post
Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blog
Share the love and link to the person you received the award from.
So here are my six:
Pam....my friend who is an unlimited source of information on the MB to all that ask. Everyone on Gypsy Chat has heard of TheBugBytes! She continually comes to the aide of someone in need of help. She is a constant encourager to me and puts a smile on my face daily!
Crystal....When it comes to designing she has the wow factor that we all strive for. She sees beauty in materials our eyes pass over and then creates a thing of beauty with it. She always has time to help another and a willingness to pass on that talent to others. Just take a look at her site; Design, Create, Inspire!
Beatritz.... who has an unending supply of ideas and energy… everyday there is something happening over at Amazing Grace.
Carol....one of the first ladies that showed kindness and patience with a new Cricut owner! Carol has a talent for making beautiful cards and shares them on her site Little Creation Corner. But what I enjoy most is her comment to all, her little stories and continual words of encouragement to all she is around. I must say Carol I am sorry I didn’t win the Golden Cricut… but really Carol you can come and visit anyway! I would paint my expression gold if that would make you happy!
Enfys...WOW – WOW what a talented lady when it comes to cards! She is new to me, as I just started making pretty cards and you can’t help but be drawn to her talent!!! You can see her cards on Going Buggy. She also shares wonderful stories about her grandchildren.
Michele... she has such wonderful designs and does share her creations with others…. And I just love that about her. You can find Michele at Scrap-n-Dance.
Put your fingers in motion and check out the ladies above… you will be delighted with their talent.
signature

February 20, 2010

Creating Butterfly and Dragonfly Embellishments

I just have to share this with you... My blog friend Sandy from Details With Sandy created these BEAUTIFUL butterflies and dragonflies and of course my eyes went tilt. You know I needed them so I filed the idea in the back of my head for when I had the opportunity to purchase transparancies...
Sunday hubby and I stopped at some overstock store they opened up in town and they had heavy duty plastic or clear vinyl 8 1/2x14 inch sheet protectors, a whole box for only $4 and the first thing I thought of was Sandy's butterflies! So I bought them and went to Sandy's blog! All I could find was photos of them (I couldn't remember when she ran the tutorial), so I proceeded to try to figure this out on my own. I could spend hours on her blog.... she is such a talented lady so if you have the time..... go visit her, her creations are just amazing.
First I cut the holes off and trimed away all the edges so it would fit on my cricut. Made a few different butterflies and dragonflies on my Gypsy Woman and cut. I set my Cricut on 6, pressure 4 and slow speed and it cut like butter.... soooo smooth. I pulled them off the mat and what a mess trying to get clear pieces off the mat when your tired and the eyes just don't see as well late at night as they do earlier in the day...
I then started outlining with my Sharpie...

I picked the first 6 bottles of paint out of my craft box in the garage as I figured this was an experiment anyway.... and proceded to paint the backs of each one.


I waited for them to dry and started decorating..... I then ran into trouble. When my stickles dried I bent the wings of my first butterfly and the stickles popped off! I was devasted because I JUST LOVE THE WAY THEY LOOK!
I shot an email to Sandy, forgeting she has been sick and then emailed my friend Pam at TheBugBytes.com for her advise as she paints. She advised me to coat the material in soap  like a shampoo first and then after it dries to then paint and stickle or use an acrylic paint as acrylic sticks to acrylic, or even a diamond glaze can be used.  (NOTE: I put nothing on mine... changing to a light coat rather than a heavy coat of stickles solved my problem).
She said Sandy's sucess lies in that the transparancy has a sticky side that is easy to adhere too.... Remember I didn't use the transparency and am not known for having any patience so know I kept experimenting and discovered that it works!!! YEAH! The success is using a very light coat of skittles as seen below...
I also found that the silver and gold looks like you have a lot more on than you do, so I started using a little more of them. I am still working on these as the first page netted 18 butterflies and 8 dragonflies!!! I can't wait to use these embelishments on my layouts..... And I haven't done this yet but can't you just see a little caterpillar in grass made with this material? I already have a brown Sharpie just ready to start working!
I hope you enjoyed learning about my little butterfiles and dragonflies and you too start looking at the material all around you that can be made into wonderful embellishments for your craft projects..... be sure to share them with me!

Sandy and Pam, I can't thank you enough for how you stretch me... you are two very talented ladies and I value your friendships!  Sandy so graciously contacted me and felt that the best thing to use for the project is the transparancy so that is what I will use in the future.... and just think you can make these without a cricut just by running them through your printer or copy machine and cutting them out with a scissors.

Oh my little bargain will not go to waste as I will use that for windows in cookie boxes, pillow boxes etc. You can be sure you will see this material used again! Besides, I have 26 new embellies to use on my pages! How exciting is that!
MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected
Thats it for todays project. Thanks for your comments, I enjoy hearing from you and I am encouraged by your words.
signature

February 16, 2010

Shopping With Sass!

TuesdayTreats – Puts A Little Sass In Your Shopping Bag!
These are the lovely bags from TBBM, below are the same bags filled With Gifts - I Used Tags From Page 32 of our instruction booklet.
And for those that would like a little something to carry into the office that has plenty of Sass, try this alligator inspired bag, coupled with matching tags, this will make a great gift all by itself.


Hello everyone today I was the Guest Designer for TuesdayTreats featuring TBBM!

We are so fortunate as Gypsy owners to have Crystal and Pam (aka MyaMagoo and TheBugsBytes) host TuesdayTreats.com it is an inspiring blog. It is designed to share, teach and guide us into getting all we can out of our Gypsy. I was soooo excited to have the opportunity to contribute just a little to such a WONDERFUL blog!

I really am honored to do this guest appearance knowing just how creative and talented Pam and Crystal are, but I have to admit my knees are still shaking because when I look at the calendar of guest designers I am humbled by the talent…

I was asked to make the bag on page 114. It is a simple little shopping bag. Yet, after spending days wondering why they wanted this little bag I emailed MyaMagoo. ‘These bags are soooo little, why would anyone want such a small bag?’
I made the bag as large as I could on a 12x12 sheet and decided it was still too small. After all, what could you use a little bag like this for? Ladies, it’s a shopping bag and if you’re anything like me you want it BIG to fit all your goodies in it! So I enlarged the shopping bag. When you place this cut on your Gypsy it will measure 11.85wx6.17h when it is enlarged. I took it a step further by enlarging the height only to a 7.33h adding a full inch to the bag! 

Now we have a bag ready for a little SASS because I won't carry anything that looks like a plain ol' shopping bag!

This big little bag is a great gift by itself, but you can place many things in it. I chose to make gift tags from TBBM, as for many ladies, that in itself is a wonderful gift. I used the leftover space above the bag and placed a tag within the purse and enlarged it until it fit. The dimensions are 3.97wx4.16h. Look at my Gypsy Woman, she is such a diva, showing her dimensions and everything! I then duplicated the tag until I had 3 and lined them up accordingly.

I highlighted 1 tag, tapped the plus sign on upper left corner of screen, then moved to page 2 on my Gypsy Woman, and hit the duplicate button. Resize the tag to fit within the 1st tag 3.63wx3.84h, duplicated until I had 3, and lined them up on the screen. I chose the blackout feature as the holes will not line up properly when making 2 separate sizes. I chose artwork to fit within the tag from GW that I like. Because I was making 4 shopping bags, I chose an additional set of artwork. (Note: I did not use the flower cut that I planned too).

Here is the material for each bag. All I used was 1 -12x12 sheet of colored paper for the purse and 3 matching tag backs, 2 other sheets or scraps to make tags, ribbon, feathers for the edge and red tape to adhere, pop dots, zip dry glue, buttons or whatever you want to use to embellish, 2 charms (the cat was found on the sidewalk), and lots of rhinestones and skittles.
On the next purse, I used a beaded fiber to Sass up the bag. This is my favorite!
For the faux crocodile/leather bag, again, all I used is 1 - 12x12 sheet or paper, some ribbon, Primas and red tape to adhere.

Cutting was simple as my first page was all the same color. I did however use a very heavy stock designer paper requiring multiple cuts. I set the blade on 4, pressure med, speed slow and set # of cuts to 3. The cut still didn’t penetrate so I changed blade to 5 and cut 2 more times. Rechecked the paper and then unloaded the mat. Glitter is very hard to cut through so please check before unloading the mat.

On the second page, I used the accent color for the tags and another for the artwork. Again 1 cut. I repeated the cutting steps for 4 purses. After cutting the tags, I decided that I needed to place an actual layer up against the back to cover the back of the decorator paper as it had a peel back look to it. I went back to the 1st page, highlighted the tags, hit the plus and then duplicate button on page 3, allowing for an exact match to the tag. As I made 3 pink purses at the same time, I hit duplicate again, allowing 6 tags to cut at one time.

Below you will see what your score lines look like after cutting. Use these as guides to fold the flaps and adhere your edges on the bag. Because my paper was so thick I scored very lightly on the front and then again on the back of the paper. This allowed for a nice clean fold.
Putting the bag together was very easy. First score at all score lines as shown except for the bottom flap. This gives you a real close look where you will score. See the lines by the bone folder? That is where you will fold your paper.
This is the first purse I scored, and as you can see it is perfectly lined up with the lines they provided. Here is where I am going to change the directions..... Remember I altered the design, yet I did not adjust the score line guides so at this point you need to take out your ruler and score exactly 1" from the base of the purse, which in the photo below would be the line in the center or from the flap score marks. Notice my final flap is larger than the side flap due to the adjustment. You can adjust the sizing, just remember to measure the side score marks and match to that.
After scoring, adhere red tape to your flaps so that it will attach to the inside of the bag. If you are adding decorations use red tape to secure. Make sure that in cutting, you allow enough to tuck ever so slightly into the fold of the bag, being careful that it does not add bulk. Don't you just love the feathers?
Be sure to tuck flap under while matching the side of the bag. Press firmly without crushing. Voilà, you have a bag with plenty of SASS!
You will need to fold the edges as shown. Note, I didn't pull the red tape off and adhere it until after the photo was taken as you will need both hands to make sure your edges are straight. After my bag was put together, I took a very small scissor and cleaned my edges, as the paper I chose left little fuzz balls on the paper that I didn't like.

After completing all 4 bags, I then turned to the tags. After cutting, leave the matching tag to bag as is. The accent tags I ran through the Cuttlebug using my favorite, the paisley folder. Then I put them together using my Glue Glider Pro. Same size to same, back to back, then with the smaller size I positioned a short strip of ribbon and taped it to the back. I then glued the smaller tag onto the larger tag. 
Then I decorated my cuts with rhinestones and skittles and used dimensionals to adhere. Needing more goodies on the tags, I used a set of old letter buttons to decorate the first set and liked it so much I went to pick up more just like them. Of course I couldn't remember where I bought them and had already thrown out the tag, and could not find anymore. So I used brads. As you know, I had already put them together so I cut the back of the brad off with wire cutters and used the large glue dots to adhere. As I was making 4 sets I kept them separate by using Ziploc bags and kept them with me to work on whenever I had the chance.

A word of caution on adhesives, if you are using designer paper or ribbon you must at least use the red tape. However, in the brown purse even that would not hold the purse or the ribbon. I stopped at our local scrap store for the first time and met the owner, India at Scrapbook Mania, and she told me about Zip Dry glue. It worked wonders and the brown purse is solid now!
Skittles need to be placed on 1 at a time. Notice though the excess glue from the glue dot. I then used my fingernail to push the excess up against the skittle to give the tag a nice clean look.
After deciding how much ribbon you need, measure and cut enough for all the tags you are making.
Adhere the ribbon with tape on the back then use your glue gun to adhere to the tag.
I used left over rhinestones and some that I got on sale (wish) for only 39 cents. I again used the tweezers and applied one at a time. By the time I got to the third set I was using their rows applying 1 strip at a time!
I think the rhinestones add a little Sass! After I embelished the tags I punched a hole in the top and added matching ribbon.
MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected
Thank you for leaving a comment! I love hearing from you and am encouraged by them!

February 15, 2010

Quick Simple Zoo Layout

Don't you just love the total simplicity? This layout is all about the paper.... and guess what I didn't even layer this paper. This awesome paper is from DCWV's Animal Crackers stack, you have to love it if you have a child or a grandchild! And it is loaded with sparkly glitter!
And for the letters....
Don't they go great together? All I did is grab 2 tiny pieces of scrap paper for the lion's main, tail, and face and I was good to go. SO QUICK! I needed that after the last couple of complicated layouts!
After cutting it was just a matter of putting things together:
I embossed the lions mane with little circles...
See how cool it looks? I used this as I was afraid the swirls were just a little too far apart.
I used my handy tape as my letters were flimsy and hard to keep straigt even though My Gypsy woman did a great job of welding them together. I placed glue on the back fliped over and positioned perfectly on my paper. I glued on the mane, face, nose and tail to the lion and it looked great. But you know me.... STICKLES just really brought out the mane, don't you think?
Here are the parts to my layout:
And all together...
I hope you enjoyed my quick layout.... only 15 minutes on My Gypsy Woman and an hour to choose paper, cut and layout. It doesn't get easier than that does it?
MyFreeCopyright.com Registered & Protected
Thanks for your comments, I just love hearing from you and am encouraged by what you say...