Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Digiscrap's Gingerbread

I've been a paper piecing fool today. I've sat at my desk for 8 hours hunched over with my tweezers and my paper cuttings, and now I have a backache~lol. Ouch....but I've had lot's of fun and wanted to show you one  of the projects I completed.
I got this pattern from Trina Clark's Digiscrap store and couldn't resist piecing him together.
I know it's way too early to think winter or gingerbread but I like to work on something off season and I need to work on stuff for my Fall craft show.
I liked him well enough, but felt he needed a smile, so I added a cute little mouth. Much better now :D
Check out Trina's site for more cute graphics, digital stamps and cutting files. Most sell for right around a dollar. Can't beat that price!
Thanks for dropping by to take a look.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Treasure Box Designs new digital kits

Treasure Box Designs has ventured into Digital Scrapbooking!! How cool to be able to combine Dina's adorable images with your software to create tons of printable and digital projects.
This is Treasure Box Designs new Zoo Scrapkit. It has the most adorable images and I have lots of idea's using this kit for making all sorts of projects. Here is a sample of one project I created using just a few of the images in the kit.
I just love these cute bookmarks! I had way too much fun designing them. These were created digitally, but can be printed out on your printer and used as actual bookmarks.
This next project is a baby door hanger that can also be printed out and used to hang on a nursery door.
Isn't it too cute? The images in this kit are clear and crisp and print out very well. Just print them using a good quality card stock and on the best printer setting for optimum results.

The other new scrap kit just released is Sea Babies. It too has wonderful images to work with.
I used some of the elements from this kit to create other matching pieces by using my Photoshop software. I created flowers, a ribbon, and more background paper to create this cute digital frame. It will be perfect to slip in a photo of baby in the pool or a summer at the beach photo.
My next project is a digital sea globe. It will make the perfect embellishment for a digital layout. Remember you can click on any photo to enlarge for a better view.
I created the globe using Paintshop Pro plugins. The ribbon was created using a Photoshop action plugin. (sorry, I can't remember the person to credit the action to) and the flowers were also created in Photoshop.
It's amazing how many different ways you can use these digital kits. Watch for future kits on Treasure Box Designs website and also more projects here using the kits.
Thanks for dropping by.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Bumble Bears and Monkey Shines......

Having just returned from a weeks vacation, I had to scramble to get my projects done for this weeks newsletter. I missed my card making but had a wonderful relaxing time. But now it's time for me to get back to work!
I have a sweet great nephew with a birthday coming up and needed a bug themed card, so this cute little bumble bear pattern from Treasure Box Designs, really fit my needs.
 He's the peeking bear from their Unbeelieveable You pattern set. That set is one of my favorites! It's actually a Valentine's kit, but goes to show you how versatile this set is!
I cut out the red background paper using a cutting file I designed for my Silhouette machine and layered the gold card stock on top. I then adhered the paper piecing to the top layer with pop dots to give it some dimension.
I think he turned out cute and makes the perfect birthday card for a little boy.


Next up I have a cute monkey birthday card I made for my Mother's 86th birthday last month.
It was created using the monkey from the Treasure Box Pals pattern kit. I took the palm tree from another pattern I already had. I  drew my own sand pattern and added the computer generated greeting. (The inside says...and almost forgot your birthday!)
I think he turned out so cute and Mom loved the card!
Stop by Treasure Box Designs and see all of the new patterns that Dina has listed. She has some adorable new ones. I can't wait to work with them!  And her face stamps are currently on sale right now! If you're not good with making the faces, these are perfect and take all the guesswork out of placing the pieces on straight. I have both sets and love them! Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Who did it....?

Ok, who gave me the first head cold I've had in over 12 years? I don't know which one of you it was, but... Thanks A Lot......NOT! I pride myself on staying healthy and taking all of my vitamins, but this time it didn't help. Someone broke my record of not being sick with a cold and I'm not happy about it! ....lol.....It hasn't helped my creativity in the least!

I did manage to get a project done using Treasure Box Designs, Lets Go Tubing pattern. I love the cute little bears Dina designs and this one was so much fun to work with.
I love how the bears little rump sticks up out of the tube!
I added some orange copic marker dots to the tube and to the title to make them a little more fun.
I will be doing this fun pattern at an upcoming class for Scrapbook 101, so if you are in my area, keep a watch for the dates and details.
The waves you see here are NOT included in the pattern. They are from the Silhouette America store. There are more patterns in the kit. I just chose to use two. You can check out the rest of the kit by clicking here.
This project was designed to fit into an 8 x 10 photo frame. I like doing  photo frame project's like this.  You can display your beach photo's during the summer, and then remove and replace with a new photo page as the seasons change.
Thanks for stopping by *U*   Karel

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Watermelon Summer & Busy Beavers

The weather here in Michigan has been up and down. For the last 2 days it was hot and humid, and I longed for my air conditioning. Getting it tuned up and ready is now on the top of my 'to do' list. Today is a beautiful sunshiny day though and it makes me happy to just be outside!
I did get to spend some time in my craft room working on some layouts and cards that I'd like to share with you. This first card is a  cutting file kit from Trina Clark at Digiscrapkits and I'm thinking it would make a cute future class for the store.
I did some changing of the files to make it easier to assemble. First I changed the flower petals to cut as solid shapes rather than individual petals. I think cutting and gluing each little petal is time consuming. And the overall effect is still maintained. I did the same with the stems and leaves. And I also made my own summer word. The one in the file kit didn't cut well for me. After 3 attempts I just created a new one.
I shaded the flower petals and used my micron pen to make the dotted lines. I added white dots to the flower tops with a gel pen.

I popped everything up with dimensionals and then added it to my card front. Makes a great summer card or layout project.

My next project is a mini scrap page layout. I don't scrapbook and don't own any scrapbook albums. So when I do sample layouts I always do them in an 8 X 10 size format. That way they will fit inside of a page protector and I can add them to a notebook binder.
This layout was created using the 'Billy Beaver' from the Treasure Box Pals pattern from Treasure Box Designs.

I just love their cute little 'bucky beaver' teeth! (remember you can click on each photo for a closeup view)
I used cardstock from Colorbok and added the doodles on the tail and body for more interest. I used a white gel pen for the highlighted lines.
I used a little mini paper bag from Canvas Home Basics to stick this little guy into, and made him some cute computer generated signs to finish off the page.
I thought this would be really cute to add a favorite photo and slip it into an 8x10 photo frame for a gift, as an alternative to a scrapbook.~
These adorable guys are also for an upcoming store class project too! So if you are local to my area, be sure and keep checking with Scrapbook 101 for class details.
And be sure to visit Treasure Box Designs for the cutest paper piecing patterns too.