Positive note of the day: My dry creek bed is half-done and it is looking good!
Friday, July 31, 2009
I crafted tonight...
...but my card sucks. See ya on the flipside with hopefully something blog-worthy!
Positive note of the day: My dry creek bed is half-done and it is looking good!
Positive note of the day: My dry creek bed is half-done and it is looking good!
Friday Fun Find
A cool site to view vintage advertising: Found in Mom's Basement. Look at the tagline on the very first post (July 31)..."Stacked for Your Convenience"...jeebus.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thumbelina!
Elected to use the Dirty sketch for my card tonight. This image is a dingbat (again) entitled Fairytale Doodles. (Lots of cute images with this one!)
Positive note of the day: I set out the border for my dry river bed. Can't wait to see the end product!
Ave's Stats
At her six month check-up (even though she is seven months!), here are her numbers:
Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz.
Height: 27.5"
(Length = between percentile 90 and 95; Weight = between percentile 10 and 25. That is one tall, skinny girl...maybe she takes after her dad.)
Vaccination next Friday (August 7).
Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz.
Height: 27.5"
(Length = between percentile 90 and 95; Weight = between percentile 10 and 25. That is one tall, skinny girl...maybe she takes after her dad.)
Vaccination next Friday (August 7).
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saw the Splitcoast Newsletter Today...
...and I had to make a tri-shutter card! Love that Beate's doing videos now too (made it even simpler!).
I had some bits of Sugared paper left over (love that one!) so I decided to use it here with LPS' {Butterflies} and my MS punch. Pretty easy (little fussy with the paper though) but will make quite a wow (esp. for the non-stampers in your life. But why would anyone not stamp?)
Positive note of the day: Found the Lee Valley store today...so much gardening goodness!
I had some bits of Sugared paper left over (love that one!) so I decided to use it here with LPS' {Butterflies} and my MS punch. Pretty easy (little fussy with the paper though) but will make quite a wow (esp. for the non-stampers in your life. But why would anyone not stamp?)
Positive note of the day: Found the Lee Valley store today...so much gardening goodness!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
SC239 - Christmas Sketch
Blah, blah, blah. Ain't got much to say. Going to take a nap (at 11:45?) so I can get some more work done. Don't need an alarm clock with my three neither!
Positive note of the day: Free lily bulbs from a neighbour. So pretty and you can't beat the price!
Positive note of the day: Free lily bulbs from a neighbour. So pretty and you can't beat the price!
Monday, July 27, 2009
I ain't gonna lie...
...I just hated this week's LPS Monday challenge. I am sure the rest of the LPS team could hear me cursing throughout the whole of North America trying to figure out what I was going to do with these colors! Just look at them!
To deal with this scary color combo, I went clean and simple (e.g., a focus on the neutral!). Here's my end product:
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Went Garden Hopping!
Paula and I went on a tour of city gardens put on by the Calgary Horticultural Society. If you have an interest, give the pics a peek. (Note: These tend to be pics of garden features and plant types that we like [e.g., natural, drought-resistant perennials and waterfalls/dry beds].)
Some Questions Answered (I Hope!)
Working with Fonts:
1.) When you download a font, more often than not, it will come in a zipped file. Double-click the zipped file and extract the font (which usually ends with a TTF or OTF extension) to your desktop.
2.) Open your fonts folder (which on on most computers is found here: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts.
3.) Open up Microsoft Word and then use the font (particularly a dingbat font) as you so choose.
Working with Google Reader:
As a suggestion to a query I had, here is a quick way to review your Google Reader items (IMHO):
(Note: If necessary, click the image below to see it in "true-size".)
1. To review all your items, click All Items in the left hand panel.
2. You may then decide to sort the items by clicking the View Settings drop-down menu (either by newest, oldest or auto).
3. When all the items display, you can do one of the following to scroll quickly through the posts (which will also save some carpal tunnel issues too!):
a. Use your Spacebar to scroll the page or,
b. Click the buttons Previous Item or Next Item.
P.S. You can see that I haven't touched my Reader in forevah! Argh...no time!
Any other questions, please let me know!
1.) When you download a font, more often than not, it will come in a zipped file. Double-click the zipped file and extract the font (which usually ends with a TTF or OTF extension) to your desktop.
2.) Open your fonts folder (which on on most computers is found here: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts.
3.) Open up Microsoft Word and then use the font (particularly a dingbat font) as you so choose.
Working with Google Reader:
As a suggestion to a query I had, here is a quick way to review your Google Reader items (IMHO):
(Note: If necessary, click the image below to see it in "true-size".)
1. To review all your items, click All Items in the left hand panel.
2. You may then decide to sort the items by clicking the View Settings drop-down menu (either by newest, oldest or auto).
3. When all the items display, you can do one of the following to scroll quickly through the posts (which will also save some carpal tunnel issues too!):
a. Use your Spacebar to scroll the page or,
b. Click the buttons Previous Item or Next Item.
P.S. You can see that I haven't touched my Reader in forevah! Argh...no time!
Any other questions, please let me know!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
FTL52
I 
made a quickie card tonight (so tired from taking the two older WJs and my nephew to the Lethbridge air show...long drive, hot weather and flat prairie makes me sleepy!) using Tashers' FTL52. I decided to create a masculine card that would play well with my recent purchase of chipboard shapes from Bisous.biz (fun stuff here!).
made a quickie card tonight (so tired from taking the two older WJs and my nephew to the Lethbridge air show...long drive, hot weather and flat prairie makes me sleepy!) using Tashers' FTL52. I decided to create a masculine card that would play well with my recent purchase of chipboard shapes from Bisous.biz (fun stuff here!).
Neat Idea!
If you haven't heard of the Royal Blog Tour, it starts tomorrow, goes for three days and you can enter for lots of blog candy along the way! Go see!
Challenges - A List
ETA: I am bumping this to the top since I have made a number of edits since I first published it. If you have any info/corrections vis-a-vis these challenge blogs (especially the day of the week they are issued), I would love a comment here so I can amend the post. Thanks!
Monday:
Monday:
- 2 Sketches for You
- BITTEN by the BUG2
- Cupcake Craft
- Cuttlebug Spot
- Die cut Dreams Challenge blog
- Double Dutch
- Forever Friends
- House Mouse Monday Challenge
- Incy Wincy Designs
- Kaboodle Doodles
- KJ's Stamp Pad - Color Chef
- Kortskissen
- KS Crew Challenge Monday
- Little Paper Shop Blog Challenge
- Mixed Media Monday
- Mojo Mondays
- Oooh-la-la
- Paper Playtime
- Pollycraft
- Pretty Paper Hearts
- SCS - Clean and Simple Cards
- SCS - Technique Lover's Challenge
- Sketch and Stash
- Stampavie Challenge
- Stamping Vacation
- SPCC
- Squigglefly
- Techno Stampers (Monday Lunch Time Challenge)
- The Pink Elephant
- There's Magic In The Air
- Think Monday - Think ATC
- A Spoon Full of Sugar
- Creative Card Challenge
- Digistamps4Joy
- Digital Tuesday Challenge
- Everybody-Art-Challenge
- Flourishes' Timeless Tuesdays
- High Hopes Stamps
- Inspirational Card Sketches
- Mercy's Tuesday Sketch
- Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge
- My Time to Craft
- Paperminutes
- Papertake Weekly Challenge
- Project Tuesday
- Promarker
- SCS - Color Combinations
- Shirley's 2 Girls
- Tag Tuesday
- TCP Tuesday
- Teapot Tuesday
- Tuesday Morning Sketches
- Tuesday Taggers
- ABC Challenge
- Belli Challenge
- Color Dare
- ColourQ
- Color Throwdown
- Delightful Sketches
- Diva Coffee Break Designs
- Flutterby Wednesdays
- Inktegrity Design Team Challenges
- Passionately Artistic
- Penny's Challenges
- The Play Date Cafe
- SCS - Card Sketches
- Simon Says
- Stamp with Stampavie
- Sweet Sketch Wednesdays
- Tanda Teasers
- Truly Scrumptious
- WednesdayChallenge
- Wednesday Stamper
- Whiff of Joy
- CCEE Stampers
- Charisma Cardz
- Colour Create
- Cute Card Thursday
- Divine Divas
- Don't Waste Your Thursdays!
- Dutch Dare
- Eat, Sleep, Stamp
- Karma scrap (Card sketch; monthly sketches for various scrapbook layouts.)
- Lili of the Valley
- Limelight Papercrafts
- Moving Along With The Times
- PaperPlay Challenges
- Rainbow Lady's Challenge
- SCS - Ways to Use It
- S2G Challenges
- Stampin' Bees
- Sugar Bowl Blog
- Theme Thursday
- Tiffany's Doodles
- BELLARIFIC CHALLENGES
- Let's Capture These Sketches
- clean & simple sketches
- Curtain Call Color Challenge
- Daring Cardmakers
- Inky Impressions Challenges
- Friday Sketchers
- If the Shoe Fits
- Just Magnolia
- Paper Makeup Stamps
- Pattie's Creations Design Challenge
- Polka Doodle
- The Res-Q-Challenge
- SCS - Limited Supplies
- SCS - Scrapbooking
- Stamp Simply
- Stamp Something
- Stamping For the Weekend
- Taylored Expressions
- Totally Gorjuss
- Viva la Verve! (on SCS)
- Winter Wonderland
- Allsorts Challenge Blog
- Anyone For Anya?
- Art on the Darkside
- Basic Grey
- Bee Crafty
- CardPatterns
- Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge
- Crazy 4 Challenges
- Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog
- Designed to Inspire your Creativity!
- Etsy Inspired Challenge
- I Heart 2 Stamp
- Lots to Do
- One Stop Craft Challenge
- Our Creative Corner
- Penny Black Saturday Challenge
- Queen Kat Designs
- SCS - Inspiration
- Saturday Challenge
- Sketch Saturday
- Stamping 411
- The Sweet Stop
- Unscripted Sketches
- 365 Cards
- Card Positioning Systems
- Crafts 4 Eternity
- The Crafty Pad
- Cutie Sunday
- Getting Creative with Ann
- Magnolia Down Under Challenge
- Pencil Lines
- pile it on
- SCS - Featured Stamper
- Sketchy Colors
- Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenges
- Stamptacular Sunday Challenge
- Sunday Postcard Art
- Sunday Sketch and Stamp
- Sweet Sunday Sketch
- Tag You're It!
- Triple the Scraps Scripture Challenge
- Caardvarks (5th and 20th of Each Month)
- Bizzy Becs - Creatalicious Challenges (15th of the Month)
- Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog (Posted Every Three Weeks)
- Copic Creations (1st and 15th of Each Month)
- Scrap the Boys (Monthly)
- Christmas Cards All Year 'Round (Monthly)
- Get Funky! (Monthly)
- Page|Maps (Monthly)
- Scrap-It-Lah (Monthly)
- Scrap{a}Tale
- Kraft it Up! (Monthly)
- Whoopsi Daisy Challenge (Monthly)
Friday, July 24, 2009
I call it a "Paula Card"
I made a card for my brother and my SIL Paula as a thank-you for my birthday present (a gift card to the LSS!). Since my brother will not care one whit about this card, I decided to make it with Paula in mind.
This "Paula card" is what I think she might make (or at least appreciate) and is so different from a typical "Allison card". I used a couple of different "shabby" papers as my background along with some twill ribbon. I then stamped this hydrangea (from Paper Inspirations' Brushed Botanicals) and then overstamped it with my ol' French Script background stamp. I sponged with some Dogwood ink (think River Rock) over the image which smudged things a bit but I liked the end result). Finally I added some dew drops. Easy right? Not really but at least I went outside my comfort zone!
This "Paula card" is what I think she might make (or at least appreciate) and is so different from a typical "Allison card". I used a couple of different "shabby" papers as my background along with some twill ribbon. I then stamped this hydrangea (from Paper Inspirations' Brushed Botanicals) and then overstamped it with my ol' French Script background stamp. I sponged with some Dogwood ink (think River Rock) over the image which smudged things a bit but I liked the end result). Finally I added some dew drops. Easy right? Not really but at least I went outside my comfort zone!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
It's Ryan's Birthday Today!
It's my brother's birthday...he's 36 today (old!). He's the oldest of my four younger brothers (36, 26, 24 and 18!). I used this week's CPS sketch to make a quick card for him using some of last year's Old Guys Rule Creative Imaginations DP and a matching sticker.Remember my "Vintage Wood" card from last year? I just love saying Vintage Wood to an old guy...heh heh!
For Jess...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
SC238 - Dingbat Penguins
Gotta go give a girl covered in prunes a bath so this will be another quick one! 
Here is today's sketch challenge featuring a dingbat font called Chill Out from scrapNfonts...only two bucks and so cute! (DP is from Paper Salon...a 6 x 6 pack is only a buck at the Dollar Giant...who is the cheapest gal around? Me!)
Here is today's sketch challenge featuring a dingbat font called Chill Out from scrapNfonts...only two bucks and so cute! (DP is from Paper Salon...a 6 x 6 pack is only a buck at the Dollar Giant...who is the cheapest gal around? Me!)
Tutorial - Using Dingbat Frames
Remember my scrap page of sleeping Charlotte about a week back? For my journalling, I used a dingbat frame with a text box since I just detest my own handwriting.
Since it is not generally intuitive on how to include a text box in a dingbat frame, I thought a tutorial was in order so you too might use it as part of your hybrid paper crafting.
(Note: Click on any of the following screenshots to make the image larger for easier viewing.)
1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. From the drop-down font menu (shown in the following screenshot), choose your dingbat font. (In this case, I have used the free frame font Doodle Frames from The Scrapping Cop.)
(Tip: Did you know that if you place your cursor in the font menu and enter a letter(s), Microsoft Word will scroll the menu to that letter? This makes finding your font choice a lot faster [especially if your system has a ton of fonts like mine!].)
3. From the drop-down font size menu (shown in the following screenshot), choose your font size. (In this example, I inputted 200. To do this, simply place your cursor in the font size field, enter the number of your choosing and press Enter.)
4. Now type your letter (in this example, the letter is J).
(Tip: When you download a font, typically a preview is offered which shows you which characters/cases were used. In the free frame font Doodle Frames, only upper case letters were used. Use these previews as a quick guide to choose the frame of your liking.)
5. Using your Drawing toolbar (typically displayed on the bottom of your screen), click the Text Box icon (as shown in the following screenshot).
(Note: If necessary, click View > Toolbars > Drawing to display the toolbar.)
6. Using your cursor (which should now look like a crosshatch instead of an arrow), draw a box inside your frame (as shown in the following screenshot).
7. Unfortunately for our purposes, Microsoft Word will include a line around the text box by default. Since we don't want that there, right-click the text box.
8. When the menu displays (as shown in the following screenshot), click Format Text Box.
9. When the Format Text Box window displays (as shown in the following screenshot), under the Line field, from the Color drop-down menu, select No Line. Click OK.
10. As shown in the following screenshot, enter some text (using a font and size appropriate for your journalling/sentiment).
Voila! Your finished product. A terrific addition to your paper crafts especially if your skills are lacking in the doodling/handwriting department!
Any questions? Leave me a comment and I will edit the post if necessary.
ETA: You can (typically) find your fonts stored here: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. If you double-click any of your font icons, a character map will display:
Since it is not generally intuitive on how to include a text box in a dingbat frame, I thought a tutorial was in order so you too might use it as part of your hybrid paper crafting.
(Note: Click on any of the following screenshots to make the image larger for easier viewing.)
1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. From the drop-down font menu (shown in the following screenshot), choose your dingbat font. (In this case, I have used the free frame font Doodle Frames from The Scrapping Cop.)
(Tip: Did you know that if you place your cursor in the font menu and enter a letter(s), Microsoft Word will scroll the menu to that letter? This makes finding your font choice a lot faster [especially if your system has a ton of fonts like mine!].)
3. From the drop-down font size menu (shown in the following screenshot), choose your font size. (In this example, I inputted 200. To do this, simply place your cursor in the font size field, enter the number of your choosing and press Enter.)
4. Now type your letter (in this example, the letter is J).
(Tip: When you download a font, typically a preview is offered which shows you which characters/cases were used. In the free frame font Doodle Frames, only upper case letters were used. Use these previews as a quick guide to choose the frame of your liking.)
5. Using your Drawing toolbar (typically displayed on the bottom of your screen), click the Text Box icon (as shown in the following screenshot).
(Note: If necessary, click View > Toolbars > Drawing to display the toolbar.)
6. Using your cursor (which should now look like a crosshatch instead of an arrow), draw a box inside your frame (as shown in the following screenshot).
8. When the menu displays (as shown in the following screenshot), click Format Text Box.
ETA: You can (typically) find your fonts stored here: C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. If you double-click any of your font icons, a character map will display:
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