Gel Pens & your Cricut!!!!

I finally had a chance to play with my get pens again.  They are fabulous!!!  I have been wanting to do a layout of this photo.  It's my 2 daughters and my neice.  Aren't they gorgeous?!!!  I love the clean lines and detail the gel pens give on intricate designs.  You can draw much finer than you can cut.  I got my pen holder from Chomas Creations.  It is designed so well.  The holder installs much easier than my blade assembly.  I draw first, then cut a shadow layer around the drawing.  The possibilities are endless.  If only there were more hours in the day!!!!

Name Tile & Card

I made this for a baby shower I am attending this weekend.  The nursery theme is jungle.  I saw a picture frame similar to this on the cricut MB, and thought it would look good as a tile.  It is a 12 x 12 tile.  I used vinyl and paper for this as I didn't have all the vinyl colors I needed.  It worked.  I finished the back of the tile by glueing a picture hanger on the back and covering the tile with heavy cardstock.  I cut narrow strips fo brown vinyl to cover the raw tile edges.  As a finishing touch I added some rhinestones to the name.

Does anyone know why blogger keeps rotating my pictures??!!!!  It is driving me nuts!!!

College Mom T-Shirt

We take my daughter to college tomorrow, so I will need a shirt to wear while she is gone.  This was done with heat transfer vinyl.  I love the stuff-so quick and easy.  She is the second child to leave home this summer-my son got married in June.  I have one left home, and she is just a high school freshmen, thank goodness!

Glass Block Night Light

I made this for a baby shower.  A group of us went together to purchase the crib bedding.  I just happened to have a digital paper pack that matched the bedding, so of course I had to make something.   I printed my design on vellum, sprayed it with clear acrylic spray to protect the design,(it gave it a nice finish too) and used spray adhesive to adhere it to the block.  I really like how it turned out, and how quick and easy it was.  I will be using vellum again!

I added little silicone dots for "feet".  It made it sit nicely on a table.

Vinyl Frame

sorry for the glare!

I saw a picture of this posted on the cricut message board.  It was perfect for a friend of mine so I went looking for a file.  I searched all of the vinyl websites I am familiar with, but couldn't find a boot I like.  So I took the picture from the message board and attempted to convert it in inkscape.  I am a novice inkscape user, though, and didn't get the result I wanted. A BIG THANK YOU to Mary (Mardenz on the mb)-in a matter of minutes she had a great file for me.  Thank you Mary!!!!!!  If you are not familiar with her blog (http://www.mardenz.blogspot.com/)  you need to check it out.  She does fabulous work and very generously shares her files

Vinyl Tile & Frame

So much for posting more frequently...

Anyway, here are a couple of vinyl projects I did recently for a friend.  I am also including pictures of the backs in case anyone wants ideas for how to "finish" the projects. For the tile I use 1/4 sticky tape around the edges of the tile and adhere ribbon to it.  The back is covered with a heavy piece of textured cardstock.  For the floating frame I use 2 pieces of glass so the vinyl is covered.  Then I use my glue gun along the back to  hold the glass in place.

25th Anniversary card

This is a card I made for a 25th anniversary party we recently attended.

  I used metallic and pearlescent papers.

CD Envelopes

     I needed cd envelopes for some picture cd's I made for 3 of my friends.  In July the 4 of us flew from western NY to Denver, then spent a few days in Colorado Springs.  We had an absolute blast!!!!  It was our first "girls get-a-way".  It wont be our last!
    We flew standby and all went well on the way out.  On the way home however, we got stuck in Baltimore.  The 3 remaining flights to Buffalo were all over booked and there were 25 people on the standby list.  Long story short, we ended up getting a rental car and hitching a ride home with a fireman from Phoenix, AZ!!!!!  (He was trying to get to a funeral)  The long version is quite a story, believe me!

Graduation Cards

I don't know about you, but we have had a lot of grad parties to attend this year!  We have one more this weekend, then I think we are done.  Here are a couple of quick cards.

I'm alive and well!!!!

I want to thank all of you for your concern about my absence!!!!  I am fine.  Life has just been too busy to keep up with my blog.  I was out of town on vacation, then when I got home an opportunity to do some freelance design for a new company fell in my lap.  I just had to give that a try!!!!!  It has been a great experience and a chance to earn some money doing something I love.  Unfortunately I cannot share any details about it at this time!  I have been crafting too, and hope to get back to posting on a more regular basis.  Once again, thanks for the concern and kind words!!!!!

Prom Picture Display Board

This is the dispaly board of my daughters prom.  We used it at our church graduation banquet and her graduation party.  All of the white cuts are vinyl.

Wedding Favors

Here are the favors from my son's wedding.  We made chocolate covered pretzels to put in them.  We covered the pretzels with milk chocolate almond bark, then drizzled white chocolate over them.  We placed them in clear cello bags and tied them with curling ribbon, then placed them in the boxes.  We added a tag to the back of the box that said "we tied the knot", and tied a satin ribbon around the box.  The box only needs one strip of adhesive.  We made 200 of these!!!  They were a huge hit-there wasn't a pretzel left after the wedding.  People were actually looking for any "extra" boxes!

Creative Inspirations Paints

Our challenge this week was to make a project using "beachy" colors.  I printed a colored beach scene, then went over the colors with matching paints.  I used autumn wheat, winter frost, aquamarine, onyx, and my favorite, fairy dust!  Check out the other designer's projects at Creative Inspirations Paints!

Wedding Car Vinyl

This is the vinyl decal I made for my son's wedding. 

I just used white contact paper since it was temporary.  It worked great!