NSBR - a little give-away

1/31/11 IS LAST DAY TO ENTER

Been doing a little housecleaning today and discovered some small Vera Bradley items that I have left from an outlet sale I attended. They are duplicates of things I already own so I thought I would do a little give away!

The pieces that I am offering are all brand new, with tags and are RETIRED patterns. Here's what I'm giving away:

Sherry Handbag in Caffe Lattte

Purse Cosmetic in Kensington

Purse Cosmetic in Yellow Bird

If you would like to play along, just leave a comment with the item that you would like. On February 1, I will conduct 3 random drawings - one for each item - and post the winners here. Winners will have one week to send me mailing information.

Embellished Heart Card

Thought you might like to see what I made of the card I created yesterday - kept it very simple with a second layer of flowers behind the opening, a few pearls, some penwork and a simple bow. I kinda like it!

Valentine Card & Some Instructions

Happy Saturday everyone!

I saw a post on both the svgcuts and craft edge forums this morning - requesting help creating (in SCAL) a card with a cut out heart filled with flowers. Now, I normally design in Inkscape so I had to go play around in SCAL and see if this could be done. I just upgraded from v2.013 to v.2.038 and hadn't played around with the new features too much.

I have to tell you- I think I will be doing a lot more designing in SCAL now - there are still some things you can't do but there is so much you can. Before I go over the steps, let me show you the card (I haven't embellished it or anything at this point):



And, here are the steps I followed to make this:

• Place your rectangle on mat
• Position heart in desired location
• Select both objects and then go to PATH and select EXCLUDE. You should now only see one object on your mat - the card base with a heart shaped opening.
• At this point, I locked this layer so that it would be easier to position and move things around.
• Position your flowers where you want them - be sure they overlap each other and also onto the card base itself.
• Select all of your flowers and WELD
• Unlock the base layer and SELECT ALL and then WELD
• That's it! Check the preview and it should be ready to cut!

I could upload the cut file to 4shared but maybe you want to try it yourself? If you want the file, let me know and I'll get it loaded and provide a link.

And then, I have been doing a lot of blog hopping and even though I've seen it before, I never think to do this myself - I actually broke out the sewing machine for a card last night! I sewed the solid cardstock piece to the patterned background and then I pleated and sewed the ribbon to the card as well. It's still a simple card but I think it is pretty.


Thanks so much for stopping by - I'd love it if you'd leave a note to let me know you were here!

Some Random Cards

Been playing around trying to use up stuff out of my scrap bin - you wouldn't believe how much is there and how many cards I can make!

These are just random cards to have on hand:


The wedding card is the only one that uses a cut file - I downloaded this pretty cut from HeatherM's blog.


Ok, I was wrong - this has a cut file too - the scalloped medallion. It's from svgcuts.com but I can't remember which collection it was in.


Nothing too exciting but thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

By Request.....My Knitting Collection

NOTICE: Please go to the SVG tab at the top of my blog for important information regarding SVG downloads. 

I had a request from the Craft Edge forum for a repost of my knitting collection of a couple of years ago. So, with my new practice of only posting what I have cut, I did some test cuts, tweaked some files, recut them and then added a couple new ones. The pictures below show the results:

Note in the picture below the needles have been taken out of the "packaging" and inserted into the ball of yarn.

In the next picture, you will see the needles separate from both the packaging and the yarn. And, assembled with a brad, the scissors will open and close. (Oops - didn't notice until now that one of the needles is turned upside down - sorry!)

Heart "Cobweb" Valentine

NOTICE: Please go to the SVG tab at the top of my blog for important information regarding SVG downloads. 

Someone on the svgcuts forum was looking for a file to cut this project from the Martha Stewart website (clicking on the link will take you to the website for instructions on finishing the project):


There is a template for printing and handcutting on the website but it's much simpler and quicker to just cut it using SCAL and your Cricut!

Here's the one that I cut this morning - no embellishments or anything - just the heart cut included in the file download.

Wk4 jingle belles card challenge

The challenge at Jingle Belles this week is Pretty in Pink....and green.


Here's my attempt at this one:


I have to say, that I actually like this one! The colors look better IRL - someday I'll figure out the lighting in this room so I can better pictures.

Here's the details of what I did: I started with a 5x5 card made from Core'dinations cardstock. I inked the edges with the same color green ink. I topped the card base with a 4.5 square of a scrap of pink patterned cardstock - I think it is Basic Grey - edges inked with pink ink. Then I had fun! I cut the Holly Jolly from the Rockin Around the Christmas Tree collection at SVGCUTS.com. (I omitted the arrow layer). In Inkscape, I broke apart an svgcuts.com freebie to create the large holly leaves and berries. I added a slit to the center of the leaf to nestle the word Christmas (stamped on a scrap of the same pink patterned cardstock with green ink) into. I embossed the leaves with a cuttlebug embossing folder. Inked them with green ink, sprinkled with clear EP and heat embossed them. I used versamark ink and clear EP on the holly berries (the shine causes them to look almost red in the picture but they are the same dark pink cardstock used to make the Holly Jolly embellishment). The finishing touch was adding the light green Basic Grey opaline pearls to the corners.

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Have a great weekend!