Monday, May 13, 2013

Bleeding Hearts Mother's Day + Free Download



All the women in my family family love bleeding heart flowers. It is sort of a tradition in our gardens. The plants are all derived from one plant, which came from Germany if the facts were passed down correctly. I know my plant came from my Great Grandmothers plant, as my mother received it from her.  My daughter's plant came from her Grandmother, as will my plant be given to my grandsons' wives.  

I designed the Silhouette Cut file myself, and will be sharing this with all of you.  I also designed the medallion that is used as the front sentiment.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for the border, and used Vintage Linen Distress Ink by Tim Holtz to distress everything including the sentiment layers, hearts Stem and flowers. I also used Gold Brilliance on the label and card, and I'm sad to say that my scanner and scanner just doesn't pick that up. It is really shiny and so pretty. The ribbon is also gold metallic, but I think it is reflecting my outfit, and making it black and less shiny.  I need to get my daughter here to give me an education on taking pictures like this.

To assemble the flowers I used really small glue dots to raise up the branch in a couple of places, and used Scotch Quick Dry to glue the rest. I left the flower stems loose until I put the flowers on.  I used a large stylus from McGill to shape the hearts, and make sure they were rounded.  I glued the white bottom portion to the red heart shape, and placed a larger foam dot in the hollow of the heart.  To place the flowers I lifted the stem, placed the heart under it so some of the stem hung over the groove of the heart, and then glued the stem to the heart.  I assembled the label in layers and glued the ribbon on the back. I used a foam dot to raise it up.

The inside sentiment is from Gina K, as is the dragonfly.  They are from the Whimsical Wishes stamp set.  I included a scan of the inside of the card.

Interior of card

Here are the links for the Silhouette Studio files.  They are free, but I would hope that if you use them on the internet that you give me credit for them.

Here is the Bleeding Heart Flower
Here is the sentiment label

I hope you enjoy the files. I hope all mothers had a wonderful and blessed Mother's Day.

Namaste


Links to More Silhouette Stuff from the Silhouette Challenge


Monday, April 8, 2013

Mother's Day Celebration



It's the time of year to celebrate your mother. I know some of you are going, "Wait a minute, those aren't Silhouette Images!" You are correct they aren't. Now the rest of the story. We are having another Sihouette Challenge Blog Hop, I have the links below.  Thanks for stopping by.

This card was designed using graphics and papers that were printed on the Cricut Imagine, and cut on the Silhouette Cameo. My Imagine has never calibrated correctly, and it just does not cut the items that it prints correctly. They look like crap.

I decided, that since I spent 599.00 for that sucker when they first came out, I have the right to use the patterns printed from it to cut on my Cameo.  I love the images and patterns from the Imagine, but they just would not line up and cut properly. I spent several 3 hour sessions with Cricut, and they couldn't even make it work properly.  We'd get it lined up to cut one image, and the next one would be all out of whack. They were sorry, but there just wasn't anything they could do. I know what I wanted to do, but that probably would have been trouble for me. So this is what I am doing.

I cut the layers for the bird, and used some thin dimensional tape to pop up each layer. I popped up the sentiment with slightly thinker foam dots. I printed the inside sentiment, and cut it with the Silhouette Cameo.  All of the images are from the Cricut Lori's Garden cartridge.  I use an Anna Griffin Embossing folder, for one background and printed a page of the music sheet paper from the Imagine, and cut the background from the Lori's Garden for the other card.

The mother sentiment on the outside of the card is from the Silhouette Store, but I changed the colors to match my card.  I used some Smooch white to highlight the bird and flower. I just love the way you can manipulate their images, to make them work with other things.  I designed the medallion image with the mother's day sentiment using the silhouette, and a swatch I created from the Imagine paper collection on Lori's Garden Cartridge. These were perfect images to fill a very bare space. I used some ribbon from my stash that is so old the names were rubbed off.

I used an Anna Griffin Embossing Folder, that I borrowed from a friend, on the back panel on the front of the card. I used Antique Linen Distress Ink Pad by Ranger Tim Holtz directly on the background. I lightly rubbed the pad directly to the paper, and highlighted the embossed image. I then used Tea Stain on the edges.  I used the Antique Line on all images in the card.

I normally give my papers, and cut files that I use for the cards away free here, but I don't have the rights to do so with these images.  Next set will be free giveaways. I'm working on some flowers, and so far I have made a Dogwood, Bachelor Button and Marigold. I am just finishing some things on a Bleeding Heart cut.  I'm fairly certain you will like them. I expect them to be up in a couple of days, but it may take me a week as I have lots going on next week.

Thanks for stopping by.
Namaste


Blog Hop Connections

D.I.Y. Canvas Date Art - The House on Hillbrook
Paint Chip Spring Ornaments - Coley's Corner






Monday, March 11, 2013

Steampunk Lime Fog plus Free Stuff


Welcome to the blog crawl, I hope you enjoy the visit. See the links to the other participants at the bottom of my post.

Gray Bicycle Birthday Card
Dressform and Gentlemans Perspective with Butterfly

This is the Steampunk Lime Fog
This is the inside sentiment. The frames match the color scheme of the card.
I did several renditions of this theme. I had some interesting colors come out of the combinations that I chose for this steampunk escapade. The first card I did had such unusual colors for the scalloped border, and flowers that I almost threw it out. The my daughter, who is taking Graphic Design at university, said she loved the color because it was so eye catching. I have to admit, it is Loud. I decided to share it here with the two that I liked.


I have created the papers, color swatches, and some of the cut files for this masculine birthday card. I had such a great time with the Steampunk Bizarre Brushes by Hogret that I found here.  I cut the flowers from the Silhouette Store on my Cameo.  The leaves and borders I created in my Silhouette Cameo Designer Edition software and cut with my Cameo, here are the links to the cut files: Leaves and Border. I also used a chipboard butterfly that I sprayed with Lindy Stamp Gang Starburst Spray in Yellow Rose of Texas which you can find here.

The inside sentiment is made by my using Some Weatz Swashes which I got here. I used a frame/label from the Silhouette Store, which I adapted heavily to meet my needs. I colored the frame using the swatch that matched the card front.

I am linking one of the posts that used on how to add patterns to your Silhouette, for both the designer edition and the regular edition.  It is really quite simple once you know the trick. Here it is.

I used my Photoshop to print the Digi Paper that I have as the background to the card.  I used the print and cut feature of the Silhouette Cameo to cut the scalloped border, leaves and greeting. What is interesting is that you can fit all the embellishment for one card on one piece of 8.5x11 cardstock. I use the Copic Express It card stock (CS), which I buy at Amazon when it is on sale, find it here. The X-Press It Paper is really high quality, but isn't too thick. It is between 70-80#, which makes it ideal for manipulating the rolled glowers, but sturdy enough to make a great card in a pinch. The printed colors on this stay really sharp and bright, which does not happen with cheap CS. I've tried some cheaper cover papers, and those have very limited capability as they are generally 65# or less.  The could not be a good quality card base.

The Digi Patterns can be used on the silhouette per the instructions in the linked video.  These are 300 pixels per inch, and can be printed for paper also. See my paper choice above.

If you have any questions please let me know. Comments make my day. Enjoy.

Namaste

Steampunk Yello n Lime Pattern and here it is free










Steampunk Gray n Yello Pilot Pattern and here it is free

Steampunk Lime Swatch and here it is free










Steampunk Yello Swatch and here it is free
Steampunk Graybull Swatch and here it is free



















Monday, February 11, 2013

Easter Tweety & Peter RabbityTooT Sweet-Free Background Silhouette Download




These were created using the Silhouette Cameo.  The Tweetys and Peter Rabbit are from the Silhouette Store the background and sentiments I designed.  I have the Easter Egg Background and Frame as a free download.  I used white paper and sprayed them with Lindy Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays on the background and frames.  The edges were distressed with Tim Holtz Vintage Paper Distress Ink.  I used gems for the sentiment frame, and I can remembers whose they are.  Get the background Cut File here.  You can get the Frame Cut File here.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Steampunk Debutante Girl

I love steampunk anything.  When Graphic 45 came out with this particular series of paper I bought all the things I could.  This includes some Tim Holtz metal tags, and his rosettes for his dies.  The gears are from spellbiners.  The lace is from May Arts.  Everything else is cut from the G45 paper.  This is a 6 x 6 card that I created for a challenge, and missed the time by one hour.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Implemented Approvals for ALL Comments

I've had an attack of the over zealous robot ad.  I have implemented approval of all comments, and a security check to eliminate this nuisance.  I apologize for the extra step, but it is necessary to save my sanity.

Namaste

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Stripes 'n Flowers Valentine--Free Printable Paper


This is a card that I made for a Shabby Tea Room challenge I thought I would try.  It had to have stripes and flowers.  I discovered that I didn't have any striped paper, so I decided to make it myself.  While I was at it I make two other patterns that would match the stripes perfectly.  I used Photoshop for this, and a brush set called Meldir Script Set which you can get  here.  I altered the color of the Grey Mist Script paper for the leaves by using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Bundled Sage to keep with the tones.  I used white card stock to print the patterns.  The leaves and flowers I bought from Silhouette.  The heart comes (from Bird Cards), and I designed the scalloped border myself on the silhouette and you can get it here.

There is a tutorial here that shows how to use the patterned papers to fill in the scalloped shape, and you can make a 4" wide x 3.5" high rectangle in the print, and the stripe for the scallop.  This is for a standard A2 card.

I distressed everything with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Lace, including those colored leaves.  I stamped the sentiments from Hot Off the Press Tiny Words & Images onto Sticky Backed Canvas. I punched the sentiments out with the Stampin' Up large oval punch and distressed them.  I used a GinaK Pure Luxury Heavy Base Weight white card stock for the card base.

I will have the paper available below.  Just right click on it, and save it on your computer.  There are several tutorials on how to use the papers with the silhouette.  It is really neat in the Print and Cut Feature.  The one I liked best is here.





I hope you enjoy.
Namaste