Friday, November 30, 2012

Hark! the Herald Angels sing! Gift Card Holder


Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2 : 13, 14



Welcome to the last Digi Desserts Fridaze for this year in connection with My Paper Crafting   We, on the Design Team, were to create a project using a Digital File from the vast selection at MyPaperCrafting.com for today. 

For this week’s project, I decided to use the ‘Angels Sing ds 2’ and make a Gift Card Holder.  Melin is offering this digi file as today's FREEBIE!


Here is the card –  Instructions will follow -




*  I put the digi file into my Photoshop Elements 10 program and adjusted the color hue and saturation bar until I found the colors I desired.  I made the letters burgundy, deep purple and hunter green and the angel is mauve.
*  I printed it on the sage parchment cardstock from which I made the card.  I cut the digi circle out by hand.

  


I cut it from burgundy cardstock, using the frame part on the front of the card and the ‘negative’ piece on the inside of the card.


*  I cut a circle of hunter green cardstock to place behind the digi and frame.
*  I adhered Recollections gems in dark and light green to the frame and corners.
*  I cut two pieces of burgundy cardstock for the front ‘door’ pieces, I embossed them with my Cuttlebug and adhered them to the front ‘doors.’


*  I printed the verse (‘Christmas Card’ font) for the inside in hunter green ink on sage cardstock and matted it on burgundy cardstock.  


*  I adhered the ‘door’ piece to the main card on the sides and bottom only – leaving a slot in which to put a Gift Card.  (I happened to have an old one to use as an example – and it was burgundy color!)

One can adhere all 4 edges, omitting the Gift Card Holder aspect, and use this just as a card – for any occasion, by just changing the design and colors.  Making it as a Gift Card Holder just came to me as I was making the card…



*  The card can stand alone with the front digi section propped open on the ‘doors.’



If you have any questions, let me know -

Here is the link to the FREE digi-file for this week at My Paper Crafting.  Be sure to stop over there, if you haven’t already, see all of the other creative projects, get the file, make a project of your own using a digi-file from My Paper Crafting and then link it there so we can see it, too!


NOTE:  There has been a permanent change to the name of Melin’s blog and site.  Formerly known as ‘Cooking with Cricut,’ it is now ‘My Paper Crafting.’  Everything else is the same wonderfulness  – just a name change!   ;-]

Be sure and watch for our '25 Days of Christmas' - December 1 - 25 - with LOTS of ideas for the whole year!



REMEMBER!!   The ‘25 Days of Christmas’ event over at My Paper Crafting!  This will be our 3rd annual ‘25 Days’ event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays as well as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us – 

**********
ANOTHER NOTE:  Any of you who might have visited here in the past may notice that I have a different 'musical player' in the left column - and different music playing at this time...  I was MOST astonished to discover upon writing my post for this past Tuesday that 'MixPod.com' has just Disappeared, taking my music and Player with them!    8-[    The Note on their site, says they just Stopped...  No Warning to ME and I imagine to many others who have used their services!!!  So... I searched online, came up with something called, 'SnackTools.com' - spent a Long Time setting up a new Christmas music list - and then found that one can only have 5 songs on their Free version and the Player size is not to be smaller than this one - but 'it works' at this point!  I chose 5 songs by David Lanz, one of my favorite pianists, and I love his album, 'Christmas Eve.'  If any of you have better suggestions for a Player, let me know - or if you want to use this service, go to it!  ;-}  Music is Breath to me and, therefore, I have it here on my blog.  It can be turned down, should you chose to do so.  I hope you enjoy it!  ;-}
ADDENDUM!!:  In case you are interested, I just had my blog page open for longer than usual, as I was researching a problem I'm having with Blogger - and lo, and behold!!  The songs continued to play after the first 5 songs and on to the rest of the 19 I had chosen!  I was not able to pick and chose songs, but at least it will continue to play all that I chose...  Not that any of YOU will be on here that long!!  Just an FYI should you decide to use their services.  Also, there was a very short 'commercial' that played the first few times I'd come to my blog when I first signed up, but it doesn't play now...  ;-/  Enjoy!     

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Christmas Red and/or Green - JOY Card


The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for JOY, and with my song I praise him.
Psalm 28 : 7



Hello and Welcome to the Terrific Tuesday Challenge in conjunction with My Paper Crafting !  There are lots of wonderfully creative ideas on that blog, great Cutting and Digital files and links to the other Design Team members’ blogs.  I’m really enjoying my time there on the Design Team and am happy to have you visit my blog!

Our Challenge this week was to make a project using the colors Christmas Red and/or Green.  I did some experimenting and made a card using a cutting file from Melin’s site and some new techniques I tried.  Here is the Card – and explanations follow –




*  I used the ‘Ornament Flourished JOY Square cf’ and cut it from white cardstock. 
*  I then painted it lightly with MS Gesso to give it a good base. 
*  I then spritzed it with - 'Perfect Pearls Mist-Perfect Pearl' - which gave it an opalescent effect.   
*  I adhered it to green cardstock. 
*  I punched red cardstock for the two edges and then I ‘faux stitched’ the holes on the edge with my white pen. 
*  I adhered red, green and pearl gems to the design.



I printed the sentiment in WORD, using the ‘Santa’s Sleigh’ and ‘Christmas’ fonts in red and green.  I adhered the sentiment inside the card.

This is the cutting file I used –



Now YOU make a project with this Theme, link it at My Paper Crafting and share it with all of us!  You can get this week’s FREE file to use in your project if you’d like –  Wreath and Bow cf’ -



 Come again for our Digi Dessert Fridaze – on Fridays!


REMEMBER!!   The ’25 Days of Christmas’ event over at My Paper Crafting!  This will be our 3rd annual 25 Days event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays as well as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us –

Be sure to be a follower of her blog AND sign up for her newsletter.  We will be announcing our posts daily and leaving a comment every day when you pick up your free files will assure you a greater opportunity to win some of the prizes!   Let me know if you have any questions -

You can see a complete list of wonderful designers at My Paper Crafting!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Harvest of Blessings Card


The LORD will indeed give what is good,
 and our land will yield its HARVEST.
Psalm 85:12

All these BLESSINGS will come on you and accompany you
 if you obey the LORD your God:
Deuteronomy 28:2


Welcome to Digi Desserts Fridaze in connection with My Paper Crafting !    We, on the Design Team, were to create a project using a Digital File from the vast selection at MyPaperCrafting.com for today. 

For this week’s project, I decided to use the ‘Harvest of Blessings Cornucopia ds’ from My Paper Crafting.   At this time of year, we are reminded to think of the many blessings we have, no matter what our situation is.  We should ‘harvest’ them and ponder them in our hearts.  We should also make it a practice to be thankful DAILY for each and every Blessing that we have – even amidst the hardships we may be facing.  I have much for which to be thankful.  It’s been a busy and hard several weeks for me recently and I am so Very Thankful for the Special Family and Friends in my life.  They are God’s Blessings to me!

Here is the card I made to share with a Dear Friend –




Here is the original file I used -


I put the digi file into the Free program I’d mentioned that I had Downloaded a few weeks ago – Perfect Effects Free.  I changed the colors of the digi and added a slightly grungy frame to it using 2 of the Actions in the program.  I then put that file into my PSE 10 program, sized it to my chosen size for the card and printed it on light gray paper.


I then mounted the digi on cardstock in several of the colors found in the picture.  I folded the front of the dark gray card vertically in half and then backwards.  I adhered the matted digi to the folded back portion.  I have a Punch whose pattern mimicked the flourishes in the digi design (!!!), so I punched a black border to put on two edges of the card.  There is room for a personal note underneath the space that is ‘covered’ by the digi when the card is closed.


Here is the FREE digi-file for this week at My Paper Crafting.  Be sure to stop over there, if you haven’t already, see all of the other creative projects, get the file, make a project of your own using a digi-file from My Paper Crafting and then link it there so we can see it, too!



NOTE:  There has been a permanent change to the name of Melin’s blog and site.  Formerly known as ‘Cooking with Cricut,’ it is now ‘My Paper Crafting.’  Everything else is the same wonderfulness  – just a name change!   ;-]

Be sure and watch for our '25 Days of Christmas' - December 1 - 25 - with LOTS of ideas for the whole year!


REMEMBER!!   The ‘25 Days of Christmas’ event over at My Paper Crafting!  This will be our 3rd annual ‘25 Days’ event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays as well as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us –

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Sing...and Give Thanks! - Easel Card


…be filled with the Spirit,  speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,  always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5 : 18 - 20




Hello and Welcome to the Terrific Tuesday Challenge in conjunction with My Paper Crafting !  There are lots of wonderfully creative ideas on that blog, great Cutting and Digital files and links to the other Design Team members’ blogs.  I’m really enjoying my time there on the Design Team and am happy to have you visit my blog!

Our Challenge this week was to make a project using a turkey in some way!  I imagined making one using several different files in a unique way.  Easy, in theory, but it did take longer than I imagined.  What doesn’t??!  I enjoyed the ‘creative process’ – and learned a few things to do differently should I make another one sometime.  Here is the completed card – with assembly information following.




*  I used cream cardstock for the card.  I stamped the front with brown ink on my ‘Sheet Music’ stamp at various angles.  I also inked the edges of the card front and inside.  I scored and folded it at about 2/3 up from the bottom edge.
*  I cut the background from rust cardstock, using the ‘Scallop Circle Frame cf’ (outside edge.)
*  I cut the turkey tail from dark brown cardstock, using one of the ‘Doily 14 pt. Scallop cf’ patterns.  I cut a section of the completed circle to make a ‘fan shape’ for the ‘back feathers.’
*  I used the circle cut from that for the body of the turkey.  It was glued to a piece of cardboard to raise it up.  I made some ‘ribbon feathers’ and adhered it to the back of this.  I punched a scallop circle and cut it to make 2 wings, adhered with PopDots.
*  From the ‘Acorn’n’ Flourish cf,’ I cut one acorn bottom for the turkey head and one flourish – in medium brown – using 2 little branches for the turkey feet.  The head was attached with a Pop Dot.
*  I cut a wattle from red ribbon and added ‘googly eyes’ to the head for a bit of whimsy.



*  I cut 2 olive green flourishes for the bottom and added brown gems to the buds.
*  I adhered the turkey to the rust background piece and then the bottom half of it to the card front.


*  For the inside ‘prop,’ I typed the verse in WORD, printed it, cut it and inked the edges lightly.  I cut a dark brown mat and used my corner-rounder on both pieces.  I adhered it with PopDots to raise it up.  I added some punched music notes.



Here are the cutting files I used –




Now YOU make a project with this Theme, link it at My Paper Crafting and share it with all of us!  You can get this week’s FREE file to use in your project if you’d like –  ‘Thanksgiving’ -



 Come again for our Digi Dessert Fridaze – on Fridays!



REMEMBER!!   The ’25 Days of Christmas’ event over at My Paper Crafting!  This will be our 3rd annual 25 Days event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays AS WELL as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us –

Be sure to be a follower of her blog AND sign up for her newsletter.  We will be announcing our posts daily and leaving a comment every day when you pick up your free files will assure you a greater opportunity to win some of the prizes!   Let me know if you have any questions -

You can see a complete list of wonderful designers at My Paper Crafting!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Champagne/Wine Glass Shade & Vase


You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into LIGHT.
2 Samuel 22 : 29


Welcome to another Smorgasbord Saturday in connection with My Paper Crafting !  We on the Design Team are challenged to create something with Melin’s cutting or digital files that is more unusual than the mere cards and layouts that we do so well – something out of the ordinary – ‘out of the box,’ as is currently an oft-used term.

My offering for today is ‘out of the box’ – and ‘into the glass’ – so to speak!   I used the ‘Celebrate Sophisticate cf’ – to re-purpose a broken Champagne Glass, an empty nut container and parchment paper into a Tea Light Centerpiece!  This would be a lovely addition to an Autumn table or mantle display and would be a great, quick gift for someone special or as a Thank You gift.

Front side - unlit

Front side - lit

This is the cutting file I used –


I had gone ‘dumpster diving’ with a work associate last year in the ‘high-end neighborhood’ where we worked.  I was fortunate to find several useful items that were being tossed out by someone there and have had fun re-purposing many of them.  In one box, there were 2 Champagne glasses.  One of them fell over on my counter one day and the base broke off.  I just knew there would be something useful I could make with it some day and today was the day! 


I put the broken glass into floral foam, put that into the empty nut container and added some $$Store flowers in coordinating colors from my ‘stash.’

I had a Shade pattern that I’d obtained quite a while ago when I first got my Cricut.  I have several different pattern sizes and used the one that fit this smaller glass.  I cut it and a band to cover the empty nut container from sage green parchment paper.  I also cut 2 small and 2 large (sized to fit each item) ‘Celebrate Sophisticate’ motifs from the same paper.  I inked the edges of each motif with sage green ink and adhered one to the front and one to the back of the shade and the container.   

Back side
I’d initially thought I’d add some gems to the motifs, but I decided to leave them all fairly simple and understated.  I popped in a tea light and there it is!  These could be done in any color and for any décor or holiday.  Vellum works nicely, also, but I decided to use the parchment for this.

Shade

Vase


Here are the FREE files for this week at My Paper Crafting.  Be sure to stop over there, if you haven’t already, see all of the other creative projects, get the file, make a project of your own using a file from My Paper Crafting and then link it there so we can see it, too!




Now it’s Your turn to create something unusual with any one of Melin’s files – then link it over there at My Paper Crafting so we all can see!  Be sure to get the FREE file that Melin also offers this week – a cutting file and a digital file – on her site. Let me know if you have any questions for me – I look forward to seeing Your creativity! 
 

NOTE:  There has been a permanent change to the name of Melin’s blog and site.  Formerly known as ‘Cooking with Cricut,’ it is now ‘My Paper Crafting.’  Everything else is the same wonderfulness  – just a name change!   ;-]

Be sure and watch for our '25 Days of Christmas' - December 1 - 25 - with LOTS of ideas for the whole year!


This will be our 3rd annual 25 Days event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays, as well as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us –

Friday, November 16, 2012

Squirrel/Football Birthday Card !


…If it be so now, do this: take of the choice fruits of the land in your vessels,
 and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey,
 spicery and myrrh, NUTS, and almonds…
Genesis 43 : 11



Welcome to Digi Desserts Fridaze in connection with My Paper Crafting !    We, on the Design Team, were to create a project using a Digital File from the vast selection at MyPaperCrafting.com for today. 

I have a Precious Grandson who is having his 8th birthday this weekend and I heard that he wanted to watch football on TV and have Pizza for his celebration with his family.  I’m not able to be there, as I live far from them, so I decided to make a card to include with his Gift Box that I sent.  It’s Autumn/Football/Nature/Young-themed and I used several files to complete it.

Here it is – An Easel Card –




I used these files –




I cut the main card from cream cardstock using the largest element of the 'Scalloped Circle Frame cf', which I welded to make a folding card, and a single section to match as the background of the front of the card.  This I inked with Copper ink on the edges – in keeping with this week’s ‘Challenge Theme.’  I folded the front section of the card at just about the halfway mark.  I cut another element section slightly smaller from dark brown cardstock and adhered it to the cream element.

I printed a Football Frame digi element that I’ve had for a long time, sizing it to fit around the ‘Squirrel ’n’ Nuts 4 You ds,’ which I had printed and cut out form cream cardstock.  I adhered the Squirrel with PopDots to raise it a bit.  I added 'googly eyes' to the squirrel.  I adhered these sections to the bottom half of the front of the card.


I wanted to tie the inside of the card to the outside with the theme.  I was running out of time to complete the card and decided to experiment with something!  For the inside sentiment/prop, I actually put the .eps file from the ‘Acorn ‘n’ Flourish cf’ into my PSE 10 program, sized it, added the sentiment and printed it on cream cardstock.  I scored it and a piece of dark brown cardstock to back it.  I adhered them together and then onto the card base with PopDots to raise it up as the prop.



Here is the FREE digi-file for this week at My Paper Crafting.  Be sure to stop over there, if you haven’t already, see all of the other creative projects, get the file, make a project of your own using a digi-file from My Paper Crafting and then link it there so we can see it, too!



NOTE:  There has been a permanent change to the name of Melin’s blog and site.  Formerly known as ‘Cooking with Cricut,’ it is now ‘My Paper Crafting.’  Everything else is the same wonderfulness  – just a name change!   ;-]

Be sure and watch for our '25 Days of Christmas' - December 1 - 25 - with LOTS of ideas for the whole year!


REMEMBER!!   The ’25 Days of Christmas’ event over at My Paper Crafting!  This will be our 3rd annual 25 Days event.   We are excited and the designers have begun to work on their creations!  It is so exciting to see the photos start rolling in.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about their creative work!

For those unfamiliar with our event, we showcase projects every day starting on December 1st (Day 1) and going each and every day through December 25th.   Every day we will be offering a FREE Die Cut file, a FREE Digital Stamp and/or graphic.   Each week we will be offering prizes to those who are our followers and leave comments.   In short, it is a spectacular event that will give you creative inspiration for the holidays AS WELL as ideas and inspiration for crafting through out the whole year!   You definitely don’t want to miss it!  Be sure to join us –