Pezza’s Way video with Pardo & House of Gilli!

hello everyone!

i had a FANTASTIC weekend i must say!  Saturday I was feeling down and hubby took pezza and sent me upstairs to lock myself away and take a shower and such in peace.  Then we went out and did some errands and took Pezza to eat at Cici’s Pizza – her very favorite place!  Then yesterday Hubby took pez ALL DAY so i could work in my studio and get stuff done so we can go out of town on Wednesday – a full, uninterrupted day of creativity in my studio – PURE BLISS!!!  almost never happens, especially with Pezza out of school now!  and i got ALOT done thank goodness!  Starting with some major clean up!  my mojo had been suffering a bit and the clean up and day long crafting really re-energized me.  But i still have more to do before i will be comfortable going out of town.  we are heading to my mom’s in south Louisiana for her annual crawfish boil – one of my favorite things i get to do in life!  pezza is beside herself with excitement because she gets to see her little buddy brett who lives next door.  my om is pushing for an arranged marriage HAHAHHAAH!  the scary part of this trip…we are driving.  yep…driving…with pez in the car…for 17 hours….why? it’s just so so much cheaper plus we can bring whatever we want to with us.  the best advantage – we have to drive right through my brother’s area and get to stop for a visit and i get to see his house for the first time YAY!!!!  he has an old craftsman style house and he has been doing loads of renovating and stuff.  can’t wait!

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The Design Team Call for Through the Craft Room Door is still open – you have until April 15th to submit!  This team is for the Challenge we will begin doing on the magazine website and it is open to everyone!

1.    MUST have an active blog that is OVER 1 year old

2.    MUST participate in each challenge (2 per month) as well as participate in chatter on the website and Facebook.

3. You *may* be called upon to contribute to the magazine from time to time but it is not a requirement

What do you have to do?

1. Submit 2 projects – a card and something OTHER than a card – to craftdoor@yahoo.com.  Your second project DOES NOT have to be a papercrafting item.
2. Include your name, address and a brief bio in your email
3. Give us the link to your blog as well as a list of what message boards and online crafting groups you participate in.

*There is no monetary compensation for this position.

**Anyone interested in sponsoring challenges please contact us!

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I have a SUPER project for you today!  i love it anyway!  i was asked recently to be a guest designer for my friend Anary over at the House of Gilli blog.  Not familiar with Gilli – oh you should be!  Gilli is an adorable little character created by Anary and the stamps are available at Stamping Scrapping (along with LOADS of other awesome things).  The current challenge over at The House of Gilli is ribbons and pearls SO i created this little Relaxation Gift Set:

I started with an embossed metal pail – part of a stash of them i got at Joann’s on clearance for SUPER CHEAP.  I took a plain white cloth napkin and stamped Florist Gilli using Tsukineko VersaCraft Black ink.  Then I colored it in with Tsukineko Fabricolor Markers.  These two products are AMAZINGLY permanent on fabric.  i first tested them over two years ago on some rags we use for Pezza clean ups – these rags are washed weekly in bleach and hot water and the stamping is STILL THERE!!!!  but use a LIGHT hand – the ink will bleed/soak into the napkin if you use too much or apply it to heavily.  Next I used Heat N Bond strip iron on adhesive to attach the ribbons followed by some pearls using Liquid Pearls.  Finally I stamped some random swirls on the outside thirds of the napkin using another VersaCraft ink pad.

I filled the pail with some scented lotion, a good book (Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper – a MUST READ), a pretty candle and a little card with a tea bag inside.

My candle started out as a plain white candle – not exciting.  Alcohol Inks to the rescue!  Very simple to change the color of your candle – simply choose 2-3 colors alcohol inks, put some of each color onto your felt applicator and dab randomly!  it is only flammable while still wet – not once it has dried.

Next I took the same ribbon as i used on the napkin and adhered it to the candle with Scor Tape.  I finished off with some Liquid Pearls and a cute little Pardo Clay embellishment i made.  At the end of this post you can watch a video where Pezza shows you how to make these!

I used Pardo Clay by Viva Decor and a Mold From Sakura on Etsy.  These molds are amazing!  and SO easy to use!  if you get some be sure and tell her i sent you!!!  I brushed it with pearl mica powder from luminarte before baking – any mica powder will work.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally here is my card.  Florist Gilli is colored with colored pencils – no blending solvents used.  If you want to learn how to get the most oout of YOUR colored pencils be sure to check out my Colored Pencil 1 class on Color Me Creative.

I used the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge for the patterned panel – this is the Book creative feature.  If you cannot find this cart near you – just head over to see my buddy Terri at Stampsalive and you can get one there for a great price!

The little pink embellishment is the same as the one on the candle.

 

 

 

Inside is a little tea bag holder made using the Fabulous Finds Cricut Cartridge – it is actually a library pocket but works perfectly for this!  I placed a piece of clear acrylic on the window portion – i cut it from the plastic one of my cricut cartridges came in – i always save them.  i used Scor Tape to put it all together – that way i know it will hold up!

while i was making the clay embellishments Pezza had to get in on the act OF COURSE.  then she asked if she could do a video for folks and we had not done one in so loooooong!  so i set her up and she went to town as she usually does – check it out below!!!

 

 

 

what do you think????  easy peasy right?!

and now i am off to the post office.  i hope you all have a fabulous day!

hugs

 

 

 

Imagine This Friday: LOADS of Eggs!

hi everyone!

yay for fridays yes?  not sure what is on my agenda for today.  i was going to get together with a stamping buddy driving down from up north but i have not gotten an update so i don’t know yet if she will make it down.  i do so hope she does tho!  it’s always fun to get together with people who are just as crazed about this hobby as i am!  i also have some cake prep to do today for the 1st Birthday Train cake i am making for my next door neighbor’s little boy.  i have the idea worked out in my head – i just have to get it onto a cake 😛

but for now we are going to play with the Cricut Imagine again YAY!  anyone who has been following my blog for awhile now knows my mom throws a family reunion/easter egg hunt/crawfish boil every year the weekend before easter.  AND you also know she has me make the invitations for it.  AND you know she usually has crazy requests but i always find a way.  this year is no different.  she has requested a basket of easter eggs with a crawfish claw reaching out.  of course i can!  i have a cricut!

what do you think???  now to make 26 more…….

quite a task right?  well the Imagine is very helpful, especially with a few settings i will show you today.  For those who love and have been requesting the video version here it is:

and for those who prefer the written one:

I used the Blossom Imagine cartridge for the patterned papers and Doodlecharms for the basket and eggs.  I found that when i did the eggs and the baskets all together i ended up with alot of wasted paper.

So i did all of the egg pieces at once and then the baskets.  as you can see above – I have four eggs – each a different pattern PLUS their four matching shadow layers.  The shadow colors are just the darkest version of each color i found in the color palette on the cartridge.  Size is set at 3.5 on the REL side.  For additional info on these steps see previous ITF tutorials.

Now, I need 27 of EACH of the eight eggs above.  i can just choose the same eggs again, re-size them, and add the pattern/colors until I fill the page.  but that is tedious since each one has to be done one at a time.  Instead i am using the two settings circled in red above.  The one on the left is project quantity and the one on the right is art quantity.  Both of these are only 1 digit so 9 is as high as you can go.  So i can’t pick 27 on either one.  However, i can use them together.  So i upped my art quantity to 3 – this gave me three of each egg without doing each one individually.  this fills up my 8.5 x 11 paper.  Next I chose 9 for my project quantity – so i will print & cut 9 of these pages.  Now if i chose  7 for my art quantity i would have ended up with 2 pages for my project.  then when i upped my project quantity it would include ALL pages in my project.  so now i put my paper in, it prints and cuts all of my eggs, sends it back out and i put it the next one until it tells me it is done.  this is nice because i don’t have to keep track of what i have already cut – especially since i have constant interruptions – i cut these 9 pages and the 9 pages of the baskets over the course of 3 days!  YEP it’s that bad 😛

Now to get out the glue….ACK!

time to design a train cake…..i hope you all have a fun weekend planned!!!!

Imagine This Friday (finally)

hi all!

WOW i had one computer issue after another it seems.  i finally got the power cord problem worked out and then i ran out of memory!  thank goodness for the HUGE external drive hubby had gotten for me – i just had to sit down and take the time to dump everything onto it!  i kept saying i was going to sort through it as i went but well…..not gonna happen right now!

i had a great day though – went and did Cici’s pizza with hubby and pezza – it’s her MOST fave place to go.  then came home and she fell asleep!!!!  so i spent some time dumping my too full memory and making a few cards to submit to PaperCrafts – there are 84 sketches to choose from!!!!!!  i am doing them using the cricut which doesn’t usually get published but i always like to give it a shot!  i am hoping to fit a few more into my busy schedule tomorrow morning – the deadline is Monday!

But onto why you came here!  I have another Imagine This Friday segment for you – this time we are working on the Borders of your images.  here are the two cards again:

If you look closely you will notice a slight difference – the card on the bottom has all of the images outlined in a thin brown border and the card on top does not:

This is how the images are printed originally.  the border is only visible around the balloons and it is light blue like the sky.

And this is them after i added a thin brown border.  neat huh?  first up, the video for folks who prefer them:

and for those that don’t here is a step-by-step for ya!

I am using the Best friends cartridge.  As you can see here i have placed my image in the que and broke it into layers.

Tap the next button to go into your Project Preview screen.  Then tap the Settings button.

The Settings screen will open.  In the top right corner is your Border Preferences.  You can see it is set on default and the other settings are grayed out so you can’t get to them.

Tap the triangle to make the menu drop down and choose Custom.  Now you can see the border options are no longer grayed out and you can access them to make changes.  Tap the Define Colors option and your Color screen will come up.

This screen will look familiar from our last lesson where we worked with RGB codes and selecting our own colors.  This is the same thing.  You can either choose to input a specific RGB code OR you can touch your stylus to the little cross hairs in the color wheel and drag it around until you have a color you are happy with.  Remember the black and white slider on the right hand side will darken or lighten your color – which is shown in the custom color box.

Last you can adjust the size or width of your border.  Mine was originally set at .04 and i decided to make it thinner so i went to .02.  you can also make it wider.  once you are satisfied with your changes tap Apply.

Now you can see all of my images have a brown border around them!

You can really see the difference here!

so what do you think????

Leave me a comment and let me know.  If you have an Imagine let me know if there is another topic you have questions about or want me to cover in a future lesson!  up for grabs this week is a 12×12 pad (36 sheets) of REALLY FUN paper:

I will draw a name on TUESDAY morning!!!

have a fabulous weekend my friends!

Imagine This Friday! RGB codes

hi everyone!

my week FLEW by – not sure WHERE it went!  i am always glad to see friday but WOW!  we spent a good bit of yesterday having little friends over and catching up with the mommas 🙂    We had our monthly MOMS Club Dinner Divas exchange first and then my neighbor came over for awhile with her two.  i am hoping pezza spends some time outside this afternoon and wears herself out while she can before the weather goes back to cold.  i think the next break we have in temperature we are going to head to the zoo!

now let’s get this show moving!  i have our 4th Cricut Imagine lesson for ya today – using RGB codes to custom match your Die Cuts with your papers.  I made a little set of notecards for this one to experiment with several colors:

i used the Mother’s Day Bouquet cartridge to make a variety if layered flowers.  For those who prefer a video:

and for those who don’t:

I started with a collection of patterned papers and print outs of the RGB codes for Papertrey Ink, Stampin’ Up!, and Close To My Heart.  RGB stands for Red Green & Blue – many of you have likely already played with these on your computer to print off matching sentiments or journaling.  I matched up my colors and wrote the codes down on a sticky note to refer to as i went.

You can see i have 4 flowers up in my image que.  i have made each one a different size for layering and want them to alternate in color – i am using PTI Pure Poppy and Sweet Blush for this set.  I have already colored my first two.  To get to your RGB screen tap your image and then tap the pencil to go to your edit screen.

You will see your colors (patterns too if you happen to have an Imagine cartridge in your machine) in the strip along the bottom of your screen.  Drag it across with your stylus until you see the rainbow choice as the arrow is pointing to above.  Tap the triangle to select that one.

This brings up your custom color screen where you can control your RGB codes.  The arrow above is pointing to them – simply adjust them to match your color choice from the Code charts.  As you adjust the little bullseye in the colored circle will move around.

See this first square above?  That shows you the color you are making.  here it is Pure Poppy.

You can also adjust the lightness/darkness of your color with the sliding bar adjuster to the right of the screen (see above).  Notice how the color swatch square changes when that slider is moved up and down.  you can also just play with it by dragging that little bulls eye around the circle with your stylus.  when you are satisfied with your color tap Apply at the bottom right.

Here is my flower – now Pure Poppy colored!  Tap Apply again and move on to your next image.  now just print and assemble.

I played around a bit with my layers and i WILL warn you that the ink from your Imagine WILL RUN – it is not liked colored cardstock!  So keep this in mind if using products such as stickles and mists.  All of my centers are Glittered Skittles.

Some are embossed, Some are inked on the edges, some are misted with Perfect Pearls mists, some are stamped on….

what do y’all think???  Super duper easy right?!!

now want something cool?  How about the full collection of Mr & Mrs by Teresa Collins?

Just leave me a comment – i will pick on monday!

have a FANTASTIC weekend!

Imagine This Friday Lesson 3

Happy friday y’all!!!

yay friday!!!!!  mostly for my poor hubby’s sake – rough week.  the weekend is going to come just in time me thinks.  i have NO idea what’s on our agenda for the weekend.i do know it is supposed to be above 50 degrees sunday so we will all be runnin’ around here like it’s summer!  the temp as i write this is 13.  pretty lame….!  Pezza and i planted seeds in some egg cartons to see if we can make some things grow to transfer to our garden when spring hits.  i need to get a grow bulb from home depot though – cross your fingers for us.  she has one full of flowers, one full of herbs and we will do one more this weekend for vegies.

I also hope to spend some more time working on my colored pencil classes.  I am having quite alot of fun with them – to me the pencils are more soothing than copics – maybe because i have worked with them for a decade so it is familiar!   Here is an image i was playing with last night in front of the tv.  This technique does not use oderless mineral spirits for blending….

The image is one of my own images – Princess Pria.  She is 1 of 3 International Princesses (maybe one day i will get the rest of the line done!)

Now on to our focus for today!  Lesson 3 in the Imagine This Friday Cricut Imagine tutorials.  If you missed the first two lessons you can see them HERE and HERE.  This lesson assumes knowledge from the previous lessons so i don’t go over steps i have already covered there.

This week we are going to take a look at the other type of cartridge available for your Cricut Imagine – Colors & Patterns Cartridges.  Once again we will use our Imagine to make EVERYTHING for our card except our card base.

My card pictured here uses the Blossom Colors & Patterns cartridge coupled with the Cake Basics traditional cartridge.  Again all of my papers and images were done on the Imagine using the same cartridge so I have perfectly coordinated look.  The ability to use your traditional cartridges along with your Imagine cartridges really opens up your creative options and enables you to make full use of all Cricut has to offer!

You will still be working with layers as you would when cutting the images on a regular Cricut so you don’t lose any of the depth we are all used to.  Now let’s get started!  you can click on the video or scroll down for the written tutorial:

Begin by turning on your Imagine Machine.  Then load your cartridges – the Imagine carts fit into the slot on the right and the traditional carts fit in the slot in the left.

I clicked on the icon shaped like the old cricut carts on the left side of the Content Source Icon (you can see it is brown in this picture showing it is selected) and then chose my images as shown in the image que along the top.  (These are things we went over in Lesson 1 & 2 in case you missed those.)

For this card I have the bird – 2 layers plus the shadow – and the border piece which is also 2 layers plus a shadow.  I chose to do 2 each of the border pieces so I would have a border long enough for the front of my card.

Now it’s time to customize each shape using your Colors & Patterns cartridge.

Tap each shape one at a time and tap the pencil to get to the edit screen.  In the edit screen you will be able to see all of your pattern and color choices along the bottom.  Use your stylus to drag the patterns across the bottom so you can scroll through and see all of your options.  At the end you will find all of your coordinating solid color options.  Simply tap the one you want with your stylus and it will fill your shape.  Also adjust your size – be sure to use the REL size (on the right of the numbers) so your layers will fit together correctly.  My bird was done at 2” and border was done at 1”.  When you are satisfied with the shape tap “Apply” at the bottom and move on to your next shape.

Here you can see all of my layers have colors or patterns added to them.  In addition I clicked on the center icon in the Content Source Icon tray so I could get to the basic shapes pre-loaded on the Imagine machine.  I chose 3 squares, sized them to 5 ½” and added patterns to 2 of them and one of the darker color solids to the other.

Now it is time to cut.  Having this many items will require more than one sheet of paper so once the first one is done the machine will prompt you for the second one and so on.

Here are all of the pieces cut out.  In addition I have the piece of cardstock I used for the base of my card – PTI’s Spring Moss goes perfectly with the colors on the Blossom cartridge.

Now you have everything you need to create a perfect card!

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GIVEAWAY

Up for grabs – A zig glue pen (for glueing all of your small pieces) and an assortment of BNIB foam adhesive squares and glue dots!  just leave me a comment!  I will have a winner on Monday!

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Thank you so much for joining me for Lesson 3 and I am looking forward to sharing Lesson 4 with you!!!

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!