Downloading frustration.

No I didn't need more frustration so I found some to download.

I have this winter card in my mind but it requires just the right snowman. I finally found him but I can't get him to download. All I get is his arm. REALLY? what good is just an arm? I guess I'll just have to wing it. It shouldn't be impossible since he's mostly just circles. But he wears a cute hat that maybe I can find somewhere else. And he has cute offspring, a penguin and a robin. SO this is me off to recreate the file of someone who actually knows how to make files.

You can see the ADORABLE originals here and learn why I can't use just any snowman.

http://inmy-craftroom.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-card-cut-files-mtc-svg.html

Card game 2.1

How did card game #2 go? Did you get all scraps into useful little cardmaking bundles? No? me neither. But I got some of them, mostly plain cardstock. I kept getting sidetracked by making cards out of the scraps I was supposed to be bundling. I suppose that's really the goal anyway so it's ok.

Card game #2.1 goes like this: Go through your little bundles of patterned paper. Find your most wintery paper (not Christmas) and make a card. You can add whatever plain cardstock or embellishments you want. The only rule is to make a winter card from your scraps. Pretty easy rules.

When I did it I found I only had ONE scrap of winter paper. It was a BoBunny paper from 2007 called Jack Frost crystals. Super perdy. I combined it with some purpley plain because I didn't want my cards to be just blue; I wanted to use some pinky metal dots I had that coordinated with the purpley. Anyway, turns out I didn't use the dots at all because it made the cards too busy. Best laid plans and all that.  :-P

The vertical card on the right was created from this sketch   http://ispysketches.blogspot.ca/2012/09/issc32-with-marie-alice.html  posted on I Spy Sketches 7 Sept 2012. 

WMD - Don't try this at home

I missed WMD last week, but I had a very good reason. You see... the girl child made me do it. A friend recommended she watch the previous seasons of Vampire Diaries. That sounds like a show that I could enjoy so I watched it with her. We watched 2 seasons last week. We couldn't help it....we just got SUCKED in!!! Bwahahah! see how I did that? Vampires...sucked in!

Yeah I know...go work on cards.

I'm astonished and a little embarrassed at how often my computer keyboard becomes my crafting workspace. I guess that's because I love svg's but I also like to look at what I'm building after I get the bits cut out. I'm absolutely positive that one day I'm going to be really, REALLY sorry I do this. Once again, another project for another day: make room on my desk for my computer AND my crafts.

I got this adorable free SVG Reindeer from DieCutGirl.blogspot.com posted April 1, 2012. The original doesn't look as angry as mine. It has to do with the placement of the eyebrows. In spite of the reindeer wearing his angry eyes, I think the cards turned out adorable.

OWH progress

Hey all you lovely card makers!

I'm just checking in with progress on our OWH box. Our goal was 350 cards by the end of this month as I recall. I have over a hundred fabulous cards sitting on my desk waiting to be "stamp and tucked". I'd love to take credit for making all of them but many of them have been donated. So, thanks everyone for that.

I'd love it if you'd post how many you have ready. And if you want to donate you can bring them to my house or Juleen's house (don't you love how I volunteer her for stuff like that?) and we'll get them in the box. And if you can't donate cards...I'd be happy to accept dollars toward shipping.  :-)

The shipping date for these to be in Washington to be sorted and mailed overseas is early October. So I thought it might be fun to have a stamp and tuck party at the end of September. Don't know what "stamp and tuck" means? Every card needs to have the words "Operation Write Home" on the back and be tucked into an envelope in a specific way. I've ordered a stamp with the OWH logo that should be here in a couple days, and I made labels for any cards that a stamp won't show up on. I also ordered 1000 envelopes that should be here next week. So if you have cards to donate that don't have envelopes, we got yer back.

These are today's fare. I made 6 of them. I know I've made gobs of cards of this same pattern. But I love it because it is quick, easy, creates nearly no waste and I think they are super cute.

Rotate Picture!

I learned to rotate a picture in Blogger! Thanks to this helpful post  http://www.linesacross.com/2011/08/how-to-rotate-pictures-in-blogger.html and I linked it! GO ME! This whole blog thing thought it could get the better of me. But, here I am blogging, rotating and linking.You just wait...someday, someone is actually going to VISIT my silly slime spot.

Card Worksop Part 2

 Once again I apologize for the pic being sideways. One day I'll figure out how to fix that, but apparently not today.

Anyway... here is the second set of the CTMH Just Because card workshop. I thought they turned out nice.

I learned quite a bit along the way. First thing I learned is, while I enjoyed doing this workshop on my own, I would NEVER, EVER recommend doing it as an actual workshop. You would have to do all the cutting, which would take weeks, or schedule several hours on several days to have "them" do it. It would take forever and someone would cut theirs wrong and you would end up redesigning cards to fit the pieces. UGH!

The other thing I learned is, for the OWH project I'm working on it would have been MUCH more energy efficient to have made 20 cards all alike of each design and it probably wouldn't have used any more paper per card.

The patterned paper I used was from the BoBunny Father Christmas collection. LOVE IT! I wish you could see it better. Maybe when I learn how to rotate the pic I'll retake it too (insert rolling eyes here). Stamps are CTMH.

Just Because Card Workshop

I've been working on the CTMH Just Because card workshop published in the CTMH Wishes book. The idea is to make 20 cards (2 each of 10 designs) from 6 sheets of cardstock + bases. This is my analysis:

It took a couple days to cut all the bits but I did it on the first try. Go me! I had to use a magnifying glass to see the measurements. I tried to enlarge it on a copier but they didn't copy well enough to read. I blame the old eyes, not the new copier.

I don't know what brand the white paper is that I'm using but it does not stamp well. It doesn't absorb the ink so it kind of runs and can smear if you don't let it dry for a few minutes. That slows the process down. The cards are turning out nice. I'm only half done but here is a view of the first 5 designs.