My! How time has flown by the last couple months with hardly a moment to drop and blog. Need to remedy that for sure. I miss it.
Update on the remodel -- still in the throes of it. Just a small portion of the hardwood needs to be replaced. However, it seems that I never have quite enough energy to "get er done." Hopefully before the end of the month. I will be nice to have everything back together -- knowing full well, that there's another project following it! ;)
March brought some crafting time -- and oh, it felt so good despite the cold snap! April warmed up and brought a few storms. Thankfully, nothing serious as we anxiously watched the skies for a couple of days. We weren't sure if Spring would make a comeback there for a while - but when it did, those weeds nearly took over everything!
It's May and the garden is planted, the lawn's been mowed and trimmed again. We have wood stocked up for next winter and we're seriously thinking about draining the pool and converting it to a garden/greenhouse and seeing how things fare over the winter. The way things are going, it'll be winter before we take the "plunge" though.
We've been blessed with relatively good health. The kids are all doing well -- knock on woods, it continues to be that way. Hubby has signed his contract to teach again next year and is looking forward to starting his cross country coaching gig in just a few weeks. But first, he has a couple of classes to take -- sorry, all math related for next year's curriculum.
On the crafting side -- some more ups and downs. My external hard drive crashed - leaving me without most of my files to work with and years of photographs and sadly we're not able to retrieve anything from the drive. I've been able to retrieve a few files from some of the vendors, but a few others, not so lucky. Leo and Mary at SVGCuts have been awesome and gave me total access to all the files that were lost on the drive. So glad I still have some of the photos stored elsewhere, but not all.
Earlier this month, it seems that both of my eclips machines decided to take an extended vacation and had to be sent back to Sizzix. I dreaded making the call. However, I was excited to learn they would replace them both. I can only say, that once again, the customer service has been awesome! Thank heavens they stand behind their warranties. Since the replacement machines have returned, I'm really appreciating what they can do, the quantity of work they do and the new software updates has some cool stuff in it too. Needless to say, I've been "playing" a lot and enjoying the crafting time and some of the creative stuff I've been encouraged to do in the last couple of weeks.
So, whether you're ready or not.... here come the pictures.
Made a few of these for St Patrick's day. They are fun and easy and all the cutting was done on the eclips. The printing done using Print Shop. Easy to mass produce in just a matter of minutes. Cut the stock to the correct size and adhere to the background paper. After mounting, I put the card fronts on a white card base.
This card front is printed using some of the elements from Fleurette's online store. The bird is my favorite. I used Word Art in Photo Shop as well. Added some fiber to the card for a little extra
MyScrapChick is now offering a few ME files! I love the bright colors and how the machine does nearly all the cutting for this particular card. The doily in the background is a Spellbinder's die. Oh, I'm glad I've held onto those.... they come in handy when the power goes out! LOL
3DCuts offers this file for cutting. They are quick and easy to cut and put together! So excited about their latest file -- STARS! Just in time for the 4th of July!
We made a bunch of these for Mother's Day, personalized them and sent them to their new homes. -- hoping that the girls all got theirs in good shape - and not too battered.
This was a fun card from one of the more recent files created by Mary Rudakas at SVGCuts.com I've had this stack of papers for nearly 5 years and it's finally seeing the light of day! I love shape cards and albums. This design would suit a garden albums well!
This card has the look of stained glass. The vellum is "painted" with markers and really glows in the light. The cut file is from Bird's Cards. It's a freebie -- we all love those! She has lots to choose from. Easy to extremely delicate cuts.
I think the idea of this card was in a magazine... but don't hold me to it... Pinterest may have been the guide.
We have a couple of boys who had birthdays earlier this month and this was my selection for them. They also got baseball caps with a goodie in them from their sister. I hear those were a hit too.
Back to basics with this card -- no electronic cutting! Score board, stamp and dies and a border embossing folder and colored pencils. I used Staz-On ink to insure that there wouldn't be any bleeding once the blending began. Stampin Up! stamp, Sizzix Fall leaves embossing folder; Spellbinder's oval die.
This is a design sketch made with the Print 2 Print/Cut feature on the Sizzix eclips. It was lots of fun and we used this for a challenge on our Facebook page, Sizzix Eclips and eCal Users. Even if your calibration is off just a tad, there is a way to get a "no fail" cut!
Papers from Echo park and a free find on the web. This challenge used basic shapes for the sketch.
Here's another card. Same sketch. Accomplished by just cutting some coordinating papers using the cut file. Stamp by Stampin' Up! Colored with markers and a bit of Crystal Effects for a little more dimension. Paper is from Olivia's Sweet Shoppe (Hobby Lobby).
I used a photo for the front of this card. I was excited that the colors really came through after taking that shot from the back yard after one of the rain storms we have had in recent days. Would really love to see some more rain! And another rainbow wouldn't hurt either!
This is the inside of the same card as above. I used a pop-up slider feature for some fun. The paper is one from a long ago purchase. The sentiment from one of my collections and the buttons are from Stampin' Up! The leaves from a leftover cut from the bird punch
The mechanism is easy and there's lots of diversity in how it can be used. I may use this more often.
And here's another version of the inside of the same type of card. All of the printing for both cards is done on the eclips with the pen tool. The hardest part about the printing is choosing the font! I love to use dingbats too... so this card features a couple of dingbat flourishes.
Well, hopefully, you're not too bored at this point. There's more, but I think I'll hold on to them for a little while longer. Have an awesome JUNE!
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