mod paperie

Can't LEAF without you!

2012-03-05T14:59:00.001-07:00

I have a quick card to share with you all today! I just got this Itty Bitty Unity stamp - 'Leaf Without You!' (Bella Blvd), and was inspired. I also was in need of a project that's 'something green' - whether it being color green (esp. St. Patrick's day) or being recycled decor item. There's a linky party that just started over at Paper Issues and of course, being on their creative team, I wanted to have something to link up! If you have any thing that you can link up, I'm sure that Paper Issues would LOVE to see!

I challenged myself to keep this as clean and simple as possible (CAS) and this is what I came up with.

So, I was really excited about this card, and I show my hubby what I had made last night... and he looked confused. Didn't he not like it? What was wrong with this card? After asking him why he reacted the way he did, he told me that he doesn't get it - why would I make a card like that? It turns out that he thought that the 'leaf' was in place of 'leave'... "I don't know how I'd leave without you!" LOL! My hubby must've been out of it. He's usually pretty clever and 'gets' things faster than I do!

Anyway, a couple more pics:

The leaves totally follows the 'style' of the stamp, right? I stamped the same image on various green patterned papers and cut each of the leaves out to add 'color' to the stamp. The actual cut out leaves were from here. I layered the leaves with dark brown paper on the backing and added dimension by having some adhered with foam tape.

Beautiful stamp, isn't it? That green button was custom made by me! (with my Epiphany Button Studio Round 20)

Okay, so that's it! Oh, and don't forget about the BIG SALE happening over at SVG Cuts! All of the files are 25% now through Thursday, March 8th. Use coupon: MOVING2012 to get your discount!

Happy crafting everyone! :)

the MAN...

2012-02-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back again with another card to share today! Let me just say that you're being spoiled as it's not very often I make a post 2 days in a row! LOL! (Okay, I'm editing this right now... wrote this part yesterday, and I had the best intention of posting this card, but ahhh, my camera had no battery and couldn't take pics! Yes, I learned my lesson.)

I've whipped up another card with Unity goodness. This time, I was inspired by one ippity set - the Man. This stamp set is just PERFECT for man cards - birthday, Father's day, etc...

I stamped the shirt images on various patterned papers (Crate Toybox collection) and paper pierced the ties. The shirt/tie combo looks cute on paper.. but really - if my man was wearing an orange shirt with a striped red/green tie - I'd die. He would look like he was wearing a clown costume!

I love the little labels that come with this stamp set - the man, stud, father, my dad, my guy. I really wanted to use them all, but my dad just wouldn't work with my guy... unless... EWWWW! Okay, that would be just too gross... Father still works as 'your guy' can be the 'father' to your kids. lol...
I accentuated the bottom by adding some Epiphany epoxy Round 14, a bottle cap and a button with twine.

The measurement tape and the felt border is from My Mind's Eye - Happy Day collection.

Anyway, kinda short post - but gotta go! Have a great day everyone!

Follow the light.

2012-02-26T16:25:00.002-07:00

Hey all! It's been a while!

I got back on Wednesday from the most amazing vacation ever, and have been really busy getting back into the mode of things. It's tough to go back to reality when you haven't cooked for a few weeks, there was really no "set" time you had to be here and there... and I also came down with this really stubborn cold while I was away, and I'm still fighting it. It's always hard for me to get crafty again after not having touched paper and scissors for a while. I don't know if my mind is going crazy with all sort of ideas, or as if I forgot how to craft. Not sure exactly, but I find that those moments, I sit and stare at my pretty papers and ribbons and end up surfing the net instead.

So... yes, some people thought it was hilarious, but really, I had to do a simpler project to 'warm' myself up. So I made a card last night. I actually like it. Anyone that can cut square and circles can make this card. (Although yeah, I cheated and used my Sizzix :) )

If you haven't noticed, I've been really loving Unity Stamps, and whipped this up using some of their stamps.

Stamps Used:

A Bit of Burlap - ippity
{...shine, shine, shine.}- ippity
brick wall - Christy Tomlinson

Basically, I just cut out a circle from a square cardstock and decreased the size of the circle by 0.4" every layer. Then I just put a foam sticker strip between them to create depth to mimic the 'tunnel' look.

I love this brick stamp - so artsy, and because it has a distressed look, you don't have to do a perfect stamping job of it and looks pretty.

And, of course, without this sentiment - the card just wouldn't work :)

Anyway, that's it! I'm working on another simple card, so hope to share that soon as well!

If you don't follow me on FB, you may have missed my announcement a couple of days ago... I am pleased to announce that I have been selected to be on the 2012 Epiphany Crafts Design Team! If you don't know what they are - they are the make your own epoxy and button tools, and they are just so neat! I'm so excited to play with them!

Oh, and one more thing - have you seen the latest release from SVG Cuts - Poplar Street Tulips SVG Kit? Isn't this so pretty? I'm trying to think of what I can do with these pretty egg containers.. :) Brainstorming ideas for my next project, but keep your eyes peeled - I still have one SVG Cuts' DT project to share! Should be up fairly soon!

Okie, dokie - gotta go - have a great rest of the weekend!

You COLOR my world!

2012-02-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello!!!

Just a quick post to share a card with you today - I've scheduled this post, so I'm not technically here!

So, you all have heard of Epiphany Shape Studio tools? They are just so fun and that's what inspired me to do this card. Basically, with this tool, you can customize your own epoxy stickers and buttons to coordinate with your project! It comes in various shapes and sizes (you should see the recent released ones - they are amazing!) and the possibility is endless!

Anyway, so, I also had this stamp - 'You COLOR my world!' from Pink by Design - Simply Everything for the longest time, and have been meaning to use this for something - this and Epiphany round epoxy tool was perfect!!

Here's the card that I made:

So perfect to use these tools, isn't it? I just took various colored cardstock and made some epoxy buttons and placed them on the paint palette (SVG from Crafty Mice SVG Collection) Look how pretty they are! I used solid colored cardstock to make these, but just imagine making them with patterned papers! So fun! and because you can see the paper placement, you can pick out the perfect spot on your paper to make them!

I wanted to add more texture to the card, so instead of using SVGs to make a paintbrush, I used a real one instead!

You notice the canvas and burlap here again? This has got to be my newest craze! I bought tons of it, so be prepared to see these elements over and over again! ... and here's the stamp that went perfectly with this card:

Okay, all - better get going, but wanted to say hi and that I'll be back in about a week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Go. See. Do.

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

So, yes, it's ONE day away from my DREAM vacation! I've always wanted to take the kids on a Disney Cruise and YES! That is what we're going to do! You know... just a little while ago - it hit me. My oldest kid is nine. He'll be ten soon. Basically what that means is that he's going to be in Junior high school before we know it, and it'll be hard to go on vacation during his school, and what's worse - he may not want to spend time with his parents anymore... :( (Hopefully not!) So, we've decided that it is important to go on these vacations, where we will be spending exclusive time with the family - no internet, and no crafting for me. (Which I can't complain if I get to go away!We NEED to make sure that when the kids grow up, we want them to think that we ARE COOL and really FUN to hang out with.... AND it is important to make sure that we build that kind of strong relationship now.

Tomorrow, we're off to sunny Los Angeles, where we will be spending our first two days in Disney. Then we'll be heading to Long Beach airport, to go on a Disney 7-day Mexican Riveira Cruise. I've never been on a cruise before, so this is really exciting for me. I'm sure that I'll be sharing some photos with you later. We'll be hitting Cos San Lobos, and Puerto Vallarta where we've booked city tours there. Then we'll be spending a couple of days in that port area after before coming home.

I've got one card that I made which I'll be sharing in a few days, and have one SVG Cuts project done - and hope that you'll get to see it before I'm back :) My mom tells me that it's her FAVORITE project that I've ever done, so that says a lot. She told me that when I did the Christmas Lantern Streetlamp, but she likes this one more! You'll see - hope that you'll like it, too!

So, I've got one little project to share with you today - it's an altered clipboard: travel document holder. It's perfect thing to hold your passport and your tickets - 'cause I know how disorganized I get when I start packing!

I've whipped this one up quick - I wanted some kind of travel project to share, so no SVGs this time! Instead, I used chipboard from October Afternoon Boarding Pass and used multi stamps from Unity Stamp Company to make this - it's pretty easy - you can do this in one hour!

Here's the project!

See??? Do you see my Disney Cruise luggage tag???I distressed the sides of the paper with the Distrezz-it-all, and then made some stitches with my sewing machine. I glued that down, and glued the burlap down on the top of the chipboard. Where it meets is not very pretty, so I covered it up with ribbons.

The focus of my project is: Go. See. Do. I'm gonna go see the world and experience it!

The Unity stamps that I've used here are: Go. See. Do. (Simple Stories Itty Bitty), Thoughts from the Past Ippity and year.o.graphy - banners from Simple Stories Itty Bitty.)

Hope that you enjoyed my project today - just wanted to make something travel related to share :) Well... I'm off! Catch up with you all in a couple of weeks! Happy Crafting everyone!

Sweetheart, can you see?

2012-02-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's less than a week away from my vacation and honestly, that's the only thing that's on my mind. Packing, cleaning, planning out iterinaries has been all too fun, and honestly, it's hard to get down to crafting right now. I touch and feel the papers, but all I can do is to think about how I'm going to be sitting underneath a bright warm sun next week :) (For those of you that missed where I was going - I"m going down to LA, doing the Disney thing, and then catching the Mexican Disney Cruise for a week)

Anyway, I did manage to get one card done, and thought that I'd share! I got this Technique Tuesday stamp not too long ago - I love you - Eyechart, and had to make something. Some little info about me - I used to work as a manager at an optometrist office for about 5 years before I had my first son, so I've always been drawn to any eyecharts because of that. But this - I saw it, fell in love with it and had to get it.

I used Echo Park Yours Truly papers to make this card, and so proud that I actually used some kit stickers for this, instead of using diecutting files! I have all sorts of stickers that comes with the kit and never get to use them!

So, here's the simple card that I personally was proud of today :)

I love how the Maraschino twine from The Twinery just added that 'umph' to my card without adding too much to it.

You like? I must say that I loved my idea of magnifying glass on the card. I made that file using shapes from the Basic Shapes folder in SCAL/eCAL. I stamped the image on a white paper, then I enlarged it by using a photocopying machine. I then just took the magnified portion and cut it and topped it with an acetate to make it look like a glass.

Hope that you liked my card :) I will try to get in one more little project done before I leave! Thanks for stopping by!

I've been Rockin' and Rollin'!

2012-01-29T13:09:00.002-07:00

Happy CHA weekend! I cannot wait to see all the neat tools, paper and embellishments that are going to be revealed this weekend! Well, maybe I can wait... The longer I stay away from looking at them, the healthier my bank account will be! lol.. But, do you know how envious of all the people that are there right now??? Many of my friends are there, and thus, it's been so quiet everywhere... and my hubby is gone on his annual conference right now, so yeah, I'm basically just talking to myself.

Anyway, so with this time that I had last night, this new kit from SVG Cuts was just calling out my name... What a perfect opportunity to play! Have you seen it? It's the 50's collection - Rockin and Rollin SVG Kit - and it has a 3D jukebox, stack of records box, those really cute Kate's silhouettes in 50's style with the poodle skirt... Sooo cute! Love!! I don't usually just make something the way it was meant to be (I love to alter files) but this, I just HAD to make!

...and guess what papers I used? That's right - it's the Happy Days from Echo Park! That just was made for this project!

I wanted to make it a Valentine-y jukebox (just feelin' the love), so here's what I put together :)

The jukebox is the original size as it comes in the kit, and stands almost 7" tall. You can put tealights or even little candies inside (from the back).

I just blinged it up a bit with the i-rock mirrors, and Stickles glitter. I used Twinery twine for the accent border, on girl's ponytail and on her skirt. Oh, and I had some patterned vellum paper (this one was dots) so I put it through the printer to give it some warm color :)

I was really excited to use this stamp from Unity Stamp Company - it was perfect! It's a stamp from the Love Bug set, and I also used 'xoxo' stamp on the panel area.

This is not the best pic, and couldn't find a tealight, so I stuck a flashlight in the back, but you can see how it looks when it lights up! The top vellum is supposed to show light, too, but it's not so good here.

Anyway, yeah, this file rocks - you've gotta play with it, too! Get it while it's free this week! :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a crafty weekend!

Sending my love - Unity Facebook Valentine Challenge.

2012-01-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday everyone!

So, last weekend, we had a family birthday party for my little girl, and she was ecstatic to find out that I've made her a party hat. (My little guy pulled his from his birthday and wore it as well!) It was so hard to get any good shots, but I'll share her pic with you! Doesn't she look happy? and mischievous? hehe... don't pay attention to all the food around her mouth!

Anyway, so today, I've got a little project that I made to enter in for the Unity Stamp Company's "Valentine" Facebook Challenge. I've been getting into these contests lately - it's a good motivator to use things I buy!

For this project, I decided to take the gorgeous flat heart box (Love Me Do SVG Kit) that Mary designed, and embellish it all kinds of goodies that I've been into lately - burlap, stitching, pennants, twine, buttons, clothespin,3D flowers... and oh, I've been loving the kraft papers as well! I found these beautiful papers from Canvas Corp and I just had to make one of these!

Here it is!

The challenge is to create any Valentine project using their stamps. For this project - I used stamps from 4 various sets. They are Itty Bitty Time & Seasons No. from Echo Park, Carnivale Alpha from Marah Johnson, Lovely Bits & Baubles from Lisa Hetrick, and lastly, but not least, I personalized my project using A Handmade Holiday from Webster's Pages.

I used the numbers to form the date... and strung it with twine from The Twinery.

I love this little tab that I made - I used a background heart stamp from Lovely Bits & Baubles set and folded in half!

The flower is from Crush on You Boxes SVG Kit - these flowers are so gorgeous and so simple to make!

Here's the look from the side - I took the alpha stamps to spell out LOVE :)

... and lastly but not least, I used my 'mod paperie' stamp that I made from Teresa Collins Stampmaker and personalized my project!

This challenge goes until February 14, and I guess that there will be top choices chosen from Unity and then all the Unity friends will get to vote on which one shall be the winner. So, JUST IN CASE, if I do miraculously get into the top choices, I will love you so much ( I love you anyway, but will love you more) if you can vote for me! I will be away on a cruise during this time, so I won't even have access to the internet!

Okie dokie! Time to go - but yes, be patient on that SVG Cuts new release - Leo has teased you all about it, but it is worth waiting for. It ALWAYS IS WORTH WAITING FOR. :)

Have a great day everyone!

I think that I'm in love... with stamps!

2012-01-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all! As I stated on FB, I find that things have been a little slow all around... my friends have all been quiet online (I know that some of you have been getting ready for CHA, some are away on a nice vacation, and some may be just plain ignoring me... which is totally okay, too! lol...:) ), and the weather is just too cold - we all refuse to go outside... So, other than taking my son to preschool and my NO CHOICE grocery shopping that I have to do - I'm staying put, right here. It's -30 degrees Celcius without the windchill in Calgary (it's -22 degrees Fahrenheit... Brrrrr!) and hear it's going to last for another few days... my hands are frozen and so cold, it refuses to craft! (Actually my kids have been getting into lots of trouble - and I'm busy cleaning up after them all day. They either play with water (fill up toy crates with water and let all the toys float) or write on the walls... I got upset at them yesterday, and told them there is no more of that, and today... I see them drawing... on their faces! lol...

Anyway, I got some new stamps in the mail yesterday, so I played with them last night... I just LOVE LOVE LOVE sentiment stamps - I find that any cards can be so beautiful if the sentiment stamps are pretty and has a deep meaning... (I think that I may be addicted...) I keep thinking that I have enough stamps, and with all the amazing ones too that I get from Punkin' Patch Stamps, but I can't stop looking at them, and keep on putting things into the cart!

These cards are not too fancy - (again, remember that I made three in like 2 hours) but I just wanted you to see how beautiful these stamps are!

The first is a 'love you' card - stamps from Technique Tuesday Love Always Wins.. I just stamped the same sentiments repeatedly, and stamped a different one at the bottom as the focus. I stitched all around the card as well :)

I also got some Stella & Rose papers on clearance the other day (these are BEAUTIFUL papers, and even though I already have the small stack at home, I had to get the big sheets)

So, with these, I used my Unity itty bitty On the Bright Side stamp and this is what I came up with:

I also used the same papers to make another simple one, using Unity itty bitty enjoy. explore. believe. stamp. I also used the Tim Holtz ideo.logy pins to dress the card up a bit.

So, that's it!

Hope that you enjoyed my cards, and yeah, if you happen to stumble to this blog post, don't ignore me... say hi! I love having company :)

Party hat for my cupcake princess :)

2012-01-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hello all!!! I've noticed that I've had a few new followers in the last little while, so in case I haven't officially "met" you, just wanted to say "Hi!" and glad that you're all here!

So, way back last year, I made a party hat for my little boy for his birthday... (for his hat and other things that I made for him, see this link) He loved it and he still wears it from time to time. So.... with my girl's 3rd birthday coming up, she personally requested to have a party hat made for her :)

Last Hallowe'en, she wore a cupcake fairy costume... (when you ask her right now what she wore, she'll reply back with "pancake princess." I don't know how the cupcake fairy turned into a pancake princess... but I think that it's cute! Anyway, I came across some cupcakes stickers on the Little Girl collection by Echo Park paper, and thought that it would be really cute to make a hat out of these papers.

I used the party hat SVG from SVG Cuts freebies (this file is awesome!) and kept it really simple by not using too much SVGs this time, but using all the cute stickers that came with the kit. I really need to do this more often... I use up the papers but have all the stickers from every single paper collection that I buy! and it's seriously super cute!

I secretly whipped these up while she was napping the other day and then today, I had to take some pics while she was again sleeping. Can't wait to show them to her!

To make the beautiful rosettes, I used Threaded Rosettes SVG from this collection. It's super simple and adds so much to a project!

I even made a matching wand for her :)

Anyway, it's a short post, but just wanted to share!

Have a crafty day everyone!

All-in-one Valentine's - SVG Cuts DT project.

2012-01-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm excited to be able to share with you my latest project for SVG Cuts today!!!!

Aren't you excited, or is it just me? lol... Well, now that you're here, you may as well stick around and see what I've got in the store for ya! Sounds good? (I wrote the first part of this post earlier today, so yeah, I'm sure most will have seen it by now! lol...)

So, any one of you lookin' for some good gift ideas to give to your special someone on Valentine's day? Do any of you think a month ahead? Hehe... well, I thought that I should get myself organized and get this posted, because what good would it do to see this project idea a day or two before the big heart day?

For those that know me, I always like putting twists on things. I don't know why, but I feed the need to make things a bit different in order to satisfy my creativity. You know what I mean? or is it just me? Anyway, this time, I took the Antique Book Matchbox file from Spirits of Christmas Past SVG Kit... and instead... of just a matchbox portion that slides out from the book, I made it actually into a book! and with a window inside that you can look into the compartment!

Well, maybe it's faster to show you my project! Here it is!

So, this is the cover! Isn't it pretty? I am so loving the roses from Crush on You Boxes SVG Kit! You see the 'xoxo' stamp here?? Well, that is one of the stamps from the beautiful Valentine stamp set from Punkin' Patch Stamps - All You Need is Love, by amazing Mary Rudakas! (She's the mastermind behind all those fantastic files at SVG Cuts) It's pre-order right now, but it'll be shipped out mid-next week, so hurry! Get your order in! It's so pretty! The pen tip nib is from Tim Holtz Ideo.logy collection.

All the sentiments that you see here, except for the coupons which you shall see in a bit, all comes from the same stamp set.

Then you untie the ribbon at the side... (Well, you're technically supposed to 'unlock' the padlock with the key...) and it opens up into a card!

Happy Valentine's Day!

... and wouldn't it be so sweet to give your sweetheart some truffles? Yummy! (Duh! It's paper!) Anyway, these truffles are mounted with foam tape onto a 3D rectangle pop-out - so it does jump out to the recipient!

Then you turn the page... (yup, there's more!)...

It opens up into a 'coupon' gift page! Here are the coupons upclose:

You can personalize the coupons and make it even more romantic! (I don't wanna know what you're gonna write!)

And... lastly, but not least, is yummy sweets box!

You can even pull out the compartment (which is supposed to serve as the 'pages' portion of the book) and filled them with jelly beans!

So, that's my project! Hope you liked it!

Again, if you want to get more scoop on how to make this project in detail, please visit SVG Cuts' blog! or go visit them anyway, and leave me some love there! Let Leo and Mary know how much you love me! Hehe.

If you LOVED the stamps, then I say that you order them now, in time for you to make your Valentine projects!

All You Need is Love stamp set

I think that's it for now - hope to be back again sooner than later! Ciao!

Smile! It's another beautiful day! - Itty Bitty Challenge.

2012-01-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday!

My kids are back in school today, and things finally seem to be settling down... Been a little more back into my craft self, and made another card to enter for the Unity Itty Bitty Challenge on FB.

For this card, I used 3 different stamps and combined them to make a card. I think that these stamps go so perfectly together, like it should've been made together as a set! Didn't use a cutting machine for this - just a straight forward stamp, cutting with my hands and gluing on some embellishments - and so happy with the way this turned out!

Ta-da! Here's the card!

I used papers from For the Record by Echo Park (which I LOVE!)

This sentiment stamp comes from Bitty Echo Park Smile!

This is Snapshots Itty Bitty from Simple Stories. The art on these stamps are amazing! Love the distressed, antique look to them!

...and to complete the card, I just had to use the Film Strip Ribbon from Ideology by Tim Holtz. Just been loving his embellishments, and I'm always looking for places to used them!

The background calendar stamp that you see on the back is from year.o.graphy - best day Itty Bitty from Simple Stories.

So, that's it! Hope that I've inspired you today! Wish me luck everyone and promise... SVG Cuts DT project post coming real soon!

In the direction of your heart. - Itty Bitty Challenge.

2012-01-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the loong absence in my projects, and glad that you're back here again! Thanks for not forgetting about me!

Today, just wanted to share a simple card with you all, using a quote that should be my 'motto' for this year. "Go in the direction of your heart." Isn't that simply beautiful? Love this stamp from Unity Stamp Company, and had to make a card to submit for the Unity Itty Bitty Facebook Challenge.

I've been loving the Unity Stamps recently, because of the beautiful quotes and art that is available as stamps. Not only that, they have challenges on their blog and the FB page, with great prizes, so have been joining in on the fun!

Here's the card:

Yeah, I know this is not going to fit into the envelope, but I commonly see elements off the page, and I just love this look! I had to try it! So yeah, whomever that wants this card - I'm not sending it, so come pick it up :)

The banner and pennant strip that you see here is from My Mind's Eye kraft Fun Day collection. The twine, too, also comes from that collection. LOVE the natural colors! I machine stitched the pennant borders onto the card.

I'm loving this balloon! and decided to stamp them onto various Yours Truly papers from Echo Park and paper pierce them onto the original stamped image. It's adhered onto the card using foam tape so that it pops out. This is the Absolutely Priceless Itty Bitty by Simple Stories :) I also added a few clouds, too!

... and this compass comes from the Direction of Your Heart Itty Bitty by Unity, and mounted this onto the perfect compass base file from SVG Cuts. I topped it with a game spinner from Tim Holtz Ideology.

This sentiment comes with the above Itty Bitty and love how it has a distressed look.

Anyway, I'm off to finish my write up for my DT project for SVG Cuts... will finish that off, so look for it soon! I'm featuring stamps from their new Punkin' Patch Stamps All You Need is Love, too! Can't wait to share!

Until then... wish me luck for this challenge!

Happy New Year! I've got a gift for you all!

2012-01-02T16:19:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. I sure did, and although it was hectic, I also got a chance to relax and have fun at the same time.

However, it's now the 2nd, and time to get back into crafty mode! My blog has been feeling pretty lonely recently and hope to create a few things in the next week...

For now, to help myself and YOU get organized, I have put together PDF sheets of all the past SVG Cuts freebie downloads. They are NOT in the correct order, but everything is there, and it should make it MUCH easier for you to see what wonderful free files there are from SVG Cuts!

In one sheet, I have 35 freebies on it, with the exception of the two sheets - I just got too excited and wanted to print those off right away! It is pretty much up-to-date, except for the latest ID Tags that is missing, which will be on the next sheet.

If you would like to download the SVG file, you can go to the SVG Cuts blog, and in the search bar (bottom right of the page), type the name of the file and should pull it up for you!

PDF 11 is the newest, but for those that is new here, I've put up the download online so everyone can feel free and download. I have rescanned the past ones, which were faint, so the resolution should be better as well.

Enjoy! and I would appreciate it if you can leave a quick comment here letting me know that you've downloaded it! Just lets me know how many of you come visit here <3 and you know I LOVE comments!

SVG Cuts Freebie Download sheets

PDF 1
PDF 2
PDF 3
PDF 4
PDF 5
PDF 6
PDF 7
PDF 8
PDF 9
PDF 10
PDF 11

Please let me know if you have any problems! Thanks and have a great day!

Walking in the Winter Wonderland.... (our house covered in snowflakes, and sharing our annual Christmas card)

2011-12-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all! It's been pretty quite online, and I myself have been busy as well! Since I got just a bit of free time, I thought that I'd share some of my 'personal' side with all of ya today! (Oh, how lucky you are!)

First of all, I've been busy planning out for two parties that I'm hosting this week. One was yesterday and that was the BIG one (for my hubby's staff Christmas party), so I'm now pretty much stress free! There was about 35 people that my mom and I had to cook up for! Still don't know how I did it, but everyone had a good time! My hubby dressed up as Santa, and we managed to get gifts for all the kids (17 kids!) and they were ecstatic to see "Santa". The other one I'm hosting is for tomorrow night, where I host my family for a cozy, warm Christmas celebration.

So - I decided to make my house "Winter Wonderland" and cut tons of snowflakes and hang them up all over the main floor. I put my machines to work and managed to cut about 150 snowflakes. I really wanted to cut more and totally go all out - and decorate like that toy department from the movie 'Elf.' However, it's still really pretty and I love looking at all the snowflakes!

I'll share some pics with you!

Isn't it pretty??? and here's our tree!

I didn't do anything to these snowflakes - just cut them out and hung it with fishing line. So easy but so beautiful!

Here's my little gallery of my Christmas projects!

Oh, and as I was decorating with these snowflakes, my dad just took a scissor and several pieces of paper, and whipped these up!

Isn't he talented? If I had his cutting talents, I wouldn't need a cutting machine! lol...

Second of all - I thought that I'd share our annual Christmas card with ya all!

For those that know me, I usually make about 120 cards every Christmas. It's a big project in its own, and I stay up until 2am every night trying to get them done. I really wanted to cut back the time and effort, so I tried to cut the number of people I'd send them to... and I did, but then I ended up adding some more, which in the end, worked out to pretty much the same number. Then, since I got the Silhouette SD this year, thought I'd save time and do print and cut cards! I guess it must've... but still having to print and cut 120 sheets was quite the task....

I've always wanted to have our family photos inside the windows of the house and somehow be able to open the card or slide the card, and what not... but again, without the Silhouette SD, it was impossible to do! There was no way to cut all the windows or to paste all our family pics inside each window!

This year - I found the exactly what I was looking for - it's a Card kit House from Lori Whitlock over at the Silhouette Digital Online Store.

Then, I've been just loving Miss Tiina's graphics and papers, so I thought that I'd pick her Merry Little Holiday collection to create this card. You can see the sets that I've used in my card - isn't it cute???

I also got shots of each one of us, edited in Adobe, and brought them over to the Silhouette Studio.

After all this - my card looked like this on the virtual mat:

...and when it's cut and assembled, it looks like this:

You can open the door, to reveal "The Azim's"

... and then you slide open the card to see our family!

Here's the back:

We also put together our annual Christmas letter that my hubby wrote... yes, he has his very own style, and friends and family actually think it's funny - so if you're up to reading it - here it is! (You can REALLY get to know my family, too!)

It is once again time for me to perform my melancholy duty of detailing the mundane events of our lives. This letter is completely unremarkable. Actually, it is painfully uninteresting. You can still save yourself: Put down the letter and read no further! That meant stop back there. You are still reading. This is your last chance. Do you have a problem with authority? Fine then, be that way. You only have yourself to blame.

Amélie will turn 3 in January and is quite happy to hug and kiss anyone who will give her attention. However, she is also a very loud and opinionated 2 year old who justifies every stance with “because.” When that doesn’t work, she points her entire arm at me in dramatic fashion and says, “Daddy BAD!” (We don’t even use the word ‘bad’ at home, so where did she learn it?). For Halloween she had a cupcake fairy costume, but she always says she was a “Princess…. paaancake.” Oh well, close enough, until I imagined the cupcake on her head as a pancake instead, then I couldn’t hide my smile any longer. Her current interests include fire safety (setting off fire alarms in restaurants, etc) and interior decorating (drawing on furniture and walls). When asked, Amélie’s future aspiration is to have a bubble bath with Santa.

This brings me to Amélie’s 4 year old partner in crime, Kai. Kai’s lifetime goal is to have a bubble bath while wearing shoes. Kai and Amélie make a little gruesome twosome whenever Adly is not home. They will play, fight, boss each other around, but will always stay in the same room together. Kai has a very caring side and he tries to cheer his sister up when she is upset (which is bound to happen when you are loud and opinionated), or whisper the right answer to her when Thienly or I are upset with her. Kai’s interests include modern dance with extensive bum-wiggling coupled with silly faces, and building surprisingly complex train tracks.

Both Kai and Amélie enjoy playing with Adly when he gets home from school. Adly loves facilitating greater levels of troublemaking. First he trained them to walk like zombies that make groaning sounds and come to eat you (rather embarrassing in public, but if anyone stops to stare, I just start doing it too),then he got them jumping all over the furniture pretending to be angry birds. Adly told me this spring he wanted an iPad –when I told him it was too expensive, he told me, “I just need some technology!” When I asked Adly what hew ould describe as his goal in life, he said it was to read this letter (Definite future problem with authority). Well, he is still only 9, I have some time before he decides to take the family minivan on a joyride (woohoo!).

Meanwhile Thienly, (still) 29, continues to stay at home with the kids. It’s more manageable this year now that all the kids play together and keep each other busy, and Amélie is potty trained. She (still) spends every spare moment on paper-crafting as a member of design teams and managing her blog, Mod Paperie. We went on two vacations this year, one to LA and one to Seattle, and both times she met up with followers of her blog – she’s a celebrity!

These letters get easier to write the further you go, because everyone knows no one bothers to read an entire Christmas letter. By now I ought to be able to write whatever I want! The page looks full, so I think I can stop here. No matter what type of year you’ve had, remember you cannot control the Christmas cards you receive – you can only choose not to read them. Take time to tell yourself how lucky you are. We wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best in 2012.

Love,

Adrian,Thienly, Adly, Kai, and Amélie

So... did you actually read the whole letter? Do you have a problem with authority? (Obviously, you need to read the letter to understand this)

Alright - gotta get going, and start prepping again...

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you get to spend quality time with family and friends :)

Oh, and I hope that you all get everything you want! ;)

But as long as you love me so... - My Thoughts Exactly project (and my annoucement...)

2011-12-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

The weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go -
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oh, I just love Christmas tunes - makes me feel so warm and cheerful inside! I just can't believe that Christmas is next weekend! Eek! Are you all done your shopping yet? If not, maybe you should be out shopping rather than reading this??? Oh, alright - you're online shopping - that's my kinda style!

Anyway, today is my project day for My Thoughts Exactly... AND... I have an announcement to make... this is going to be my LAST post as a part of the design team... Yes, I know it's kinda crazy. Why leave this wonderful team, right? Awesome stamps, fantastic gals, and even fun stuff planned out for 2012. It was a VERY difficult decision, but I guess somehow, I wanted to free up myself and be on the lookout for trying out something new... and I don't know what that 'something new' is... maybe I'll enter some challenges, maybe I'll apply for different DTs, or maybe I'll do nothing! lol... Anyway, yes, I'm leaving - and that means that there's ONE more extra spot on the new DT team... Good news for you, right?

Anyway, onto my project for today!

So, you've got that "Let it snow" music going through your head?

Here's the last verse:

The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still goodbye-ing,
But as long as you love me so -
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I thought that this was kind of fitting with my last project as a DT member and with their stamps - and decided to create a snowglobe.

You likey? I got the file from here and decided to embellish a little more to it. The clear dome part that you see is "Clear Craft Plastic" sheets that I found at Michaels, and was cut through my Silhouette.

I added some trees, snowflakes from Holly Jolly Tags stamps, some crinkle ribbon, Caribbean twine from The Twinery for the scarf and tags, and snowlayer for the ground. I even made the snowman hold a heart - to kinda go with the lyrics :)

Isn't this a cute stamp? (and no, it's not "As long as you love me so..." that's my handwriting! lol...) It's from the Holly Jolly Phrases stamp set!

This file was really easy to put together - once you figured out which piece goes where! It's so cute - my kids love it!

Here's the look from the top - you can see how the pieces fit with one another.

If you wanna see these stamp sets, upclose - here it is:

Holly Jolly Tags:

Holly Jolly Phrases:

These are $15 each, but you can buy as a bundle, too - for $25!

Make sure that you go visit my fellow DT member - SugarGem for more inspiration with these stamps today!

So, yeah, this is it. I hope that all the My Thoughts Exactly fans still come and visit me! Thanks to Alyssa and Brian for having me as a part of your team. Good luck to you in 2012 and good luck to all those that has applied to their design team. You're gonna have lots of fun.

Every girl's bestfriend.

2011-12-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

So, I'm finally finished my Christmas cards!!!! Yay! I will be sharing that later in another post.

For today - thought that I would make a quick card with this adorable doll from last week's SVG Cuts' Christmas Morning collection. I've always been a fan of doll die cuts, but when I saw this one, I fell in love, and had to play with it!

I also had a chance to plug in my Sizzix Eclips yesterday and cut this out with its SVG software, eCAL. This machine is just so amazing - it sucked in my mat into the machine crazy fast and the cut is so smooth and clean! I've really only cut this one thing out, so I cannot tell you any more right now, but I'll definitely be using this from now on! I'm really happy with everything - I so recommend the Sizzix Eclips! Thanks so much Leo and Mary!

Anyway, with this particular doll, I thought that it would be really cute to make 'hair' with twine! I put tacky tape on the base and adhered twine on it! I love how it turned out! The twine is from The Twinery - Lemondrop Yellow.

Okay, gonna keep this post short, so here's the card:

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink - Signature Series: Cupcake. (Please don't look at my stitching... realized the bobbin wasn't inserted correctly - but this was the last piece of this paper, so couldn't chuck it :( The papers are from Crate Paper - Emma Shoppe for doll's dress, and background is from Neighborhood Collection)

It's really cute, isn't it?

Okay, that's it. I've got a project to make for this Thursday for My Thoughts Exactly - so I'll catch ya later!

Santa Sleigh - Unity Stamp Co. Challenge.

2011-12-05T22:22:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone!

I've totally working away (still... ) on my Christmas cards, but couldn't help but to take a break here and there to create something when I saw these challenges. They are both from Unity Stamp Company (which I've ordered tons of stamps in the last little while!) and one is on their blog and one of them is right on their Facebook wall. The prizes are just so amazing, and it also gave me a reason to play with their stamps a bit. If you've got Unity stamps, you've got to take a look... I'm sure you'd want to enter... actually don't take a look... it's taking away my chances of winning! lol... No, really, you should look - very generous prizes!

One was to create a Christmas project and the other was to create anything with snowflakes/snow using their stamps, so I thought that my project would be eligible for both!

I created a Santa Sleigh using the cuts from Santa's Visit SVG kit and Santa from Christmas Morning SVG Collection, and creating a little treat gift with it.

I've used the new Cosmo Cricket Dear Mr.Claus collection for this project - loving these papers! So classic and pretty!

This stamp was from Ornamental Season itty bitty.

Here's Santa waving "hello!" to you!

...and here's the focus of my project - aren't these ticket stamps just adorable? I colored them with my Copics :) They are from Ticket to Christmas itty bitty stamps. I embellished with wooden buttons, red hemp rope cord and burlap from Canvas Corp.

Inside sits a canvas draw string bag (canvas also from Canvas Corp) which I made! I filled it up with Lindt chocolate balls :) The tag is from Tis the Season for Joy (jillibean soup) set.

...and lastly but not least, I stamped the canvas bag with snowflakes with stamps from Snowflakes Fall from Heaven (jillibean soup) set.

I personally think that it's cute and goes really well with my streetlamp which sits in the background :)

Oh, I made a quick card with Ornamental Season stamps as well:

It's pretty simple, but I wanted the clean look for this. I colored the ornaments with Copics, but also stamped another same image onto the vellum and placed it on top of it :) I also jazzed it up with some rhinestones and crinkled ribbon as well..

Anyway, here's my two Unity Stamp Company submissions... wish me luck :)

Oh, and SVG Cuts is holding their first ever Winter challenge right on their FB wall, so hope that you go and join in on that one! I guess I could go and enter this project there as well! (jk!)

Alrighty - better get back to my card making!

Christmas Lantern Streetlamp - SVG Cuts DT project!

2011-12-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all! It's been a while!

It's now December (eek! I'm so excited about this month!) and I'm underway making our annual Christmas cards. I decided to not go all out this year... and put on embellishments and such... However, I am still using my cutting machine and my print and cut ability to do something unique... I've not seen anyone do this before, so can't wait to show you! I'll definitely share when it's done! So, that is why I've been pretty much absent... as I work away in a Santa workshop trying to get the cards done (I'm making over 100 of them!) :)

However, while I was letting everything print out and getting it cut, I still had some time to work away on my next SVG Cuts project and I get to share it with you today! I'm so excited by the way this turned out - it's simple, but so magical and makes a pretty decor. It's my mom's fave project of mine - she says!

Anyway, this project was actually inspired by Mary's idea to take the lantern from Crisp Days of Fall SVG Kit and turn it into a 'Christmas Carol'-like version... So, the first thing that I did was to watch the movie trailer like 10 times, and picked out objects/styles that I can use for my project...

I was so tempted to cut out and make a whole scene - cut out little shops and all... but then I realized that it would take away from the project to have it too busy (and more like, I'll never get that done!), so I kept it simple, yet enough details to look at...

Anyway, I know that you've been waiting patiently, so now, I'll show you finally! Here it is!!!

You like? Does it scream 'Christmas Carol' out to you?? I'm totally enjoying having this sit on top of a fireplace right now... so fun to look at!

I changed the flourish window on the original lantern and replaced it with the snowy windows from Spirits of Christmas Past SVG Kit. I printed the vellum yellow to add warmth :)

I used an empty roll (parchment roll) and used it as a post. I made an opening into the lantern and the base box (from Santa's Visit SVG Kit). I also used a wooden dowel through the empty roll so I can hang a sign using the stamp from Gingerbread Kisses.

The wreath is really easy - I just cut out some hollies? holly? and glued them onto the twig wreath I got from Michaels. I put a little bow at the bottom and voila - makes a pretty wreath in no time!

At the bottom of the post, I embellished it with a bike from Spirits of Christmas Past SVG Kit... and you're gonna love my last touch to my project!

I took a crate from Caramel Apple Pie SVG Kit and made a miniature one with it to hold Christmas parcels and letters. It cut really well for me, and I was surprised to see how sturdy it was.

I added the rest of the embellishments and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! I hope that you're inspired to make this for your Christmas dinner :)

If you are interested in full details of my project, go take a look at the SVG Cuts blog - it'll have all the files and dimensions there!.. and you can also leave me some love there, too! You know that I'd like that!

Oh, and one more thing - I have a winner from my last post... it is katknit!!! Congratulations - please contact me so I can get the gift card out to ya!

Oh, and another thing - don't forget to enter in for your daily chance to win the Sizzix Eclips - announced this Sunday - click here! and for you to enter in to win ALL stamp sets from Punkin' Patch Stamps - click here!

Alright - that's it for today! Have a crafty day - and thanks for stoppin' by!

Holly Jolly Season is here! My Thoughts Exactly December Stamp Release!

2011-11-28T00:40:00.000-07:00

Season's greetings everyone! Are you starting to get excited for Christmas??? I'm gonna put up my tree finally this week, and can't wait to see the kids' faces covered with excitement!

Today, you guys get a treat, 'cause it's normally on the first of every month that you see the new My Thoughts Exactly stamps - BUT I know how you've been anxiously waiting to see the newest release and also knowing that these stamps may make your life easier in all your holiday crafting projects, we decided to be super nice and release it out a few days early! (Don't expect this every month! lol...)

So, with this month's release, you are going to be seeing TWO sets - one being NON-SENTIMENT stamps! You're gonna love these! ANNND... although each set is $15 each, if you get two - it's $25 for the bundle! How can you resist???

The first one is the mix and match Holly Jolly Phrases - and again, Alyssa uses her magic into working these stamp set into a fun and practical set! Look at all the phrases here and various fonts in this set - isn't it fun? (This set is just in the works of getting them done, so it'll be a pre-order, but will be shipping out in 3~4 days!)

The second one is the Holly Jolly Tags - and comes with 5 fun tags that you can stamp away and personalize all your gifts! Even better - get BOTH sets, and use the sentiments from the first set on the tags! Belinda, from SVGs by Bee, is working on matching SVGs to go with these stamps, so all you have to do is to cut the tags out on your cutting machine and stamp them!

So, anyway, I'm sure you're wondering what I've whipped up this time around...

I used the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly (there's a matching paper pack, too here) and did print and cut with my Silhouette to create a cute little gift bag!

You like? This is actually really easy as long as you have Silhouette or any other cutting machine that has the print and cut capability. If you've been wanting to do this for the longest time - it's the perfect time to ask Santa :) This bag that I used is from Vintage Halloween Party Bags SVG Kit and this is always a easy go-to bag whenever you're looking for a simple cute bag!

Some close ups:

So, the tag that you see here is from the Holly Jolly Tags set. I stamped them onto two cardstock, and then cut out the white oval to place them onto the stamped blue cardstock. The rosettes are also from Vintage Halloween Party Bags SVG Kit.

Here's the skates on twine upclose:

... and snowman having a solitude party!

... and that's not it! I've done the sides and the back! (sorry my photos are not crisp... had a hard time with this photo shoot... :( )

Lastly, here's the back:

... and the tag upclose:

I used the same technique to this - stamped them on three separate cardstock, cut out the area wanted in that color and assembled it together. The scallop circle is from SVGs by Bee's file, but she's madly working away at getting the proper sizing to make sure that it's no fuss for you to use! But for now, you get to see what it will look like with her SVG together with stamp! For all the customers that buys the tag set, you will be e-mailed with a downloadable SVG file for these tags shortly ;)

Anyway, here it is!

Now for the fun part! Alyssa, from My Thoughts Exactly, is giving away $5 gift card from each of our blogs! Make sure that you are a follower of my blog and hers, and comment here on this post to win! I'll be picking the winner this Thursday!

And... one last thing! If you LOVE these stamps - maybe you should consider applying for their design team position right now! Don't waste time, because the deadline is November 30th! It's a growing company and it's going to be exciting, especially with a new PRODUCT being announced in 2011! See this post to apply!

Hope you liked it and make sure that you go visit the other girl's blogs to see some inspiration done with these awesome stamp sets!

Have a crafty day everyone!

3D Chair Wedding favors - My Thoughts Exactly DT Project.

2011-11-17T00:47:00.000-07:00

Helloo!!! It's my DT project day for My Thoughts Exactly!!! and you get to see more goodness from the Many Thanks Stamp set!

I just can't tell you how clever it is to make these sets all mix and match phrases! It's so fun to be able to put different sentiments together, and you get so much more out from one set by having the ability just use what you want. I haven't tried yet - but I think that I've got enough sets that I can make pretty cool phrases using various sets!

Anyway, I've been wanting to make these cute little 3D chairs for the longest time, and this project happened to be the perfect time to use it! The chairs are from My Grafico 3D Chair Favour Box Templates. I didn't really do anything to them - just cut them out the way they were. For just one of them with vertical slats, I actually took my hole punch and my handy scissors and cut them out myself. There was another chair in the file, which was the 'elegant' chair, but just didn't fit with my style for what I wanted to accomplish here :)

I spiced up these chairs with crinkled ribbons, charm from Making Memories AND I actually used my sewing machine to make cushions for these little chairs! I think that this is my first EVER real sewing other than doing it on paper! I was so proud of myself! (hehehe.. okay, all those seamstresses - don't laugh at me! This was a big step for me!) and I made a 'lace' border using Martha Stewart punch.

Anyway, here it is!

Pretty, isn't it?

The back of them...

My awesome chair cushions :)

See how perfect these stamps go with my project! Thesse cute envelopes that I used to stamp my sentiments onto are from SVG Cuts My Big Day SVG Collection. There are three different envelope SVG, and oh, so cute!

Oh, I even added on the cone on to the side of the chair (I meant to put a little bouquet of flowers, but couldn't find anything in my house that would work) I just rolled up one of those doilies that you can purchase from the baking section, and made it into a cone!

...and the chair even opens up where you can put little goodies in for the guests! Aren't these the cutest thing? I've come across so much cute and creative stuff for personalizing your own weddings - I would love to get married again! (well, to the same person, of course!)

Oh, and did you notice my good ol' flower topiary in the back of these pictures???

Anyway, that's it for today! Be sure to visit Lenae's blog, SugarGem, for more inspiration with these stamp sets!

Merry Advent Calendar - SVG Cuts DT Project.

2011-11-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all! It's been a LLOOONG time again!

It's been pretty hectic lately, and I've been hardly home during the day EVERYDAY! I'm at a point I actually just want a day at home so I can catch up on my laundry! I know it has only started and it's just gonna get busier for a little while... So, please just get used to the idea of seeing a new blog post once a week until Christmas... I'm sure you're also busy - so I'm being nice. The more posts I make, I'm taking your time away from all the things you need to get done. Right? Me always thinking of others :)

Anyway, it's another SVG Cuts DT project day!!!! and I was soo excited to share this one. I have always wanted to make 3D Letters - I see so many of you making them, but I had never made them before. As well, I had such a blast making my last Halloween Advent Calendar, so I HAD to make one for Christmas. So... why not combine these two files and make a 3D Letters calendar???

Okay, honestly, I wasn't too sure how it was going to work out... Having never made these letters before, I didn't know if the compartments would fit. The depth of the calendar and the 3D letters are different - how would I go about that? All in all... after some serious thinking, it all came to me! I maximized the letters big enough to be able to cut on a 12x12 mat and I broke apart the doors, and brought them over to the letters. IT FIT! Barely, but it worked! I also changed the height of the compartments to match the depth of the letters! It worked like a charm!

So... here's my project!!! Yes, finally you get to see it!

Okay, I don't want to brag about this, but I think that this turned out pretty darn cute. It was so fun to make - this definitely is one of my favorite projects that I've EVER done in my mod paperie life :)

Don't you just love the paper? It's the Season's Greetings Collection from Echo Park - LOVE their papers - I must get EVERY LINE that they make! The numbers that I used the dates are from the stickers from Christmas Dots & Stripes collection - the dates went up to day 25, so it was just PERFECT!

Okay, you are so lucky today - you're gonna be able to see LOTS of pics from me and get all the fine details that I've put into my project!

Letter M

Love the 3D poinsettia - from the 3D Wintergreens SVG Kit :)

Arent' the stamps cute? It's from the Holiday Traditions set from Punkin' Patch Stamps - and I also used the matching Stampables to create the exact cut around the stamps! Neato!

Letter E

Holly, again from 3D Wintergreens SVG Kit.

This stamp is from Holiday Traditions, too! Such cute stamps!

Letter R

Okay, I think that this stamp usage is my favorite one - on an airmail package! You can get the file from the Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree SVG Collection. I just love how it brings out the stamp from the Gingerbread Kisses set.

Second Letter R

I added the icicles and the snowflakes on this one to make it all frosty!

Letter Y

This Santa Sleigh was the VERY last element that I added to the project. I wanted something to finish off the project, but didn't want a heavy looking embellishment - it would look unbalanced. Then, it hit me - Christmas Eve... SANTA! and it's the last letter! AND, better yet - there was a simple Santa sleigh SVG file from Christmas in the Village SVG Collection!

...and beautiful pinecones to finish off the last letter! from 3D Wintergreens SVG Kit. I used Sno Writer and made nice white puffy surface on the tips of the pinecones.

So, here's how I did it! For more info on the sizes and exact files used, please go visit SVG Cuts blog.

Here's the quick run down - to make this project possible - you need TWO collections from SVG Cuts. They are 3D Letters SVG Kit and Classic Advent Calendar SVG Kit.

You resize, break apart, paste and such and each of the letters before cutting out should look like this:

You also need to adjust the compartment height from the Advent Calendar to fit the letters.

These compartments will be deeper than the regular advent, so it will give you more space to fill up with goodies :)

Then comes assembly - when assembling, because you are adding in such a tight space, you WILL NEED to cut off parts of the tabs. Then add some heavy weight material (I used rice), in order to make the letters stable to stand :)

Anyway, don't get overwhelmed - it's actually pretty fun to make, and once you make one letter, you'll get a hang of it! You don't have to embellish like mine - you can do whatever you want with it!

That's it folks! and leave me some love if you like my project! (Only if you like my project! LOL!)

Here's the last peek at it:

Ohhh, did you hear the latest in my exciting news??? Leo and Mary from SVG Cuts have given us the whole DT team a Sizzix Eclips and eCAL software as a Christmas bonus!!! We were so shocked when we found out!!! This is the machine that they recommend as the BEST - so I can't wait!! I am not braggin' here... I just want to express my thanks to Leo and Mary and let you all know how generous these two are, and how well they treat us :) I must say that I am very lucky to be working for a such great company! Stay tuned for my posts on Sizzix Eclips!

Have a great crafty day!

My two things that I made today!

2011-11-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

Just thought that I'd share two cool things that I've made today!

One - is a quick card for the SVG Cuts newest collection - Merry and Bright SVG Kit! It was actually hard to pick which I should attempt as they are all so pretty! The collection features NINE cards that are already presized to what you need to cut, so it's really simple! This is the free gift of the week if you spend $9.98 or over with coupon: FREEGIFT!!!

I chose the Snow Houses card. I used My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas paper (I love this line - so cute!) and made a whimsical cheerful holiday card out of it! I used the Snow Writer and The Twinery twine to embellish the card. The hills were adhered using the foam tape to give dimension to each of the layers.

and don't you just love the stamp? It's from the Holiday Traditions stamp set - my favorite!

Okay, and the second thing that I made today was my own 'mod paperie' stamp using my Teresa Collins Stampmaker. It's been a while since I've touched this machine, and this is actually the reason that I got it in the first place! I finally got the hang of it, and this time, my letter images were nice and crisp! Take a look!

Now that I have this, I can stamp onto all my cards at the back :) Pretty cool, I think!

Anyway, that's it folks! Just a quick little post in case you've been missing me! (Yes, my SVG Cuts project should be coming out real soon... )

My Thoughts Exactly - November Stamp Release!

2011-11-01T00:32:00.004-06:00

Happy November!!! Ack - it's hard to believe that next month is already Christmas!!! Gotta starting thinking about my annual Christmas cards... stressful, but how exciting!

Did ya all have a great Halloween? We sure did! I took the kids out to the farm for a hayride and a pumpkin pickin' and decorating in the morning. The kids had so much fun and it would've been so nice to have pictures from that but silly me - took my camera, only to realize that I had forgotten to reinsert my battery which I freshly charged up at home! Then we had friends over in the evening and went Trick-or-treating together - and my kids were well behaved and only had ONE candy before going to bed! Oh, we also do this tradition where the kids put aside a portion of the candy that they get for the 'Halloween witch' and in return, they get something instead... yes, only if the kids would realize that this witch is ME! Muahahaha... (hope none of your kids are reading this)

Anyway, back to my post... The day has come. I'm sure you've all been wondering what the next stamp set was going to be... This one is NOT holiday related, so you can use this ALL year round... and so versatile to use, because they've done it again! (Well, it's so fitting as Thanksgiving is coming up in the States :) ) It's a Thank you set, but it has a sentiment for pretty much any 'thank you' you can even think of! How clever is that? My Thoughts Exactly Stamps rock!

So... you ready to see this set? Of course you are!

Here it is!!!! Many Thanks stamp set!

Isn't it cute? Well, I actually found more appreciation for these stamps when I started playing with them and made some cards. They are so fun and easy to put together a simple card!

For my project, I made 3 cards to share with you today!

Here's my first one:

I went with the retro feel with this card using the Cosmo Cricket Odds and Ends digital packs. Oh, I just love these vintage images!

See how pretty it is to use these stamps on this card?

I used Crackle Accents on the pen nib - love the look that it adds!

Okay, for my next two cards, I went super simple, but loved how both turned out!

This is using the images from Back to School Elements pack. I print and cut the memo books and stamped these sentiments onto them making it look like it was written on a note. I added the box in front of each of the sentiments and checked off each one.

It kind of makes sense right? These stamp sets are made to mix and match, so why not take the advantage of this feature and make a card out of it?

The last card is actually my fave - I cut out a heart on a cardstock, covered with an acetate sheet, used foam tape to bring it out from the card and placed various thank you stamped sentiments inside.

The main sentiment just ties it all together... on a ribbon strip (cut by hand)... get it? All the 'thanks' images are on the bottom of the acetate heart?

So, here it is!!! You like these stamps? Sure you do! Head on over to My Thoughts Exactly - and be one of the first ones to have these cool stamps in your hands!

Make sure that you go and visit all my fellow DT members to get some inspiration with this amazing release!

Belinda (Bee's Hive O'Drama)
Bee (Dare to bee creative)
Jessica (Crafty Rocket Science)
Jennifer (Our Change of Art)
Lenae (Sugar Gem)

Thanks for stopping by - have a crafty day everyone!

I'm a guest designer over at Jillian Vance today!

2011-10-27T09:27:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! It seems like I've been gone forever! I haven't forgotten about my blog - but I think that I did go through a few days where I didn't even look at my own blog! It's been crazzzyyy over here, and I'm still recovering from this stubborn cold that I had a week ago.

Anyway, I'm proud to be a guest designer over at The Princess & The Paper today. This is a stamp company owned by Jillian Vance, and the most interesting thing about it is that she's only 11 years old! Can you believe that??? She started her own business last year and has designed many sets of wonderful clear photopolymer stamps.

I had the pleasure of 'meeting' her and her mom when Tamara and I owned the Paper Dolls blog. We featured them as artists, as well as they became our guest designer for one of our challenges and even generously sponsored our final challenge.

Anyway, so just to show you all how special they are and their wonderful stamps that they make, I made a card using one of Jillian Vance Design Stamps - More Stitches set.

This set is so cute – with various stitches in two widths as well as some cute sentiments to go with it! Jillian is so talented – I can’t believe she’s designing all these amazing stamps at her age!

Okay, here’s my card:

You like??? I went with something simple, but I think that I personally think that it bring out these beautiful stamps this way :)

To make this card, I just cut out 9 square pieces (1 3/4” x 1 3/4”) of various patterned paper, and I stamped the edges of them. I adhered them on the 5 ½” x 5 ½” card.

I stamped the sentiment onto another paper and adhered onto the card using a foam tape to give dimension. I embellished the rest with rose ribbon, natural twine and Chocolate Truffle (Annie's Paper Boutique) twine, buttons, mini spool, and crinkled ribbons (Scrapinkris).

Anyway, I hope that you go over and leave some love on their blog for having me there :)

Oh, one more thing... did ya all check out this new collection that is going to be coming out from SVG Cuts??? This is amazing (Mary has done it again!) - and I just can't wait to play with it! I LOVE gingerbread houses!!!! You've got to watch this - here is the link to the teaser video!

...and I'm working on several different projects at once, so I'll probably be seeing you next Tuesday with My Thoughts Exactly Stamp Release! This is a cute set - you don't want to miss! and it's so versatile and can use it all year round! That's the only hint you're gonna get!

Thanks! and Have a crafty day!

You Take the Cake!

2011-10-20T06:00:00.001-06:00

Hey you crafty gals! What's new? Any exciting things going on with ya?

Well, I've been given this awesome 'gift' from my kids this week... one brought it home from school last week and ever since, this 'gift' has been going around... and I really didn't want it, and I tried so hard to not get it, but somehow the biggest 'gift' ended with me... Yes, it's that icky word - COLD, and I don't get sick that often, but this time, it's taken a toll on my body and I've been achy, sneezing, coughing, wiping my nose.. you name it, I have it.

So, this week, I've actually been laying on my bed for longer than I have been sitting at my crafting chair... That says a lot - coming from someone that rather craft than sleep.

Anyway, today is My Thoughts Exactly DT Thursday and due to above, I don't have a whole lot of things to share today, but I made a pretty card that I'm gonna share!

It's actually perfect as it's my mom-in-law's birthday this weekend, and I was able to make a card for her AHEAD of time, instead of my usual night before crisis.

I just love this paper line - it's the 5 & Dime collection from October Afternoon. So pretty!

I also stitched around the edges of the cardstock, distressed it and inked it to give it a little vintage look.

I finally even got to use the Papertrey Ink's Banner Builder Collection dies that I've had sitting in my drawer for the past year! It's so cute - and I must use this more often! You like the bow? The bow is from My Grafico Ribbon Bow Template collection.

I stamped my sentiment 'sweet birthday wishes' from Sweet Thoughts onto a Canvas Corp canvas, and then I zig-zag sewed it and put an eyelet into it.

The buttons are always cute and adds so much! LOVE buttons!

... and added one more sentiment at the bottom of the card 'you take the cake', which is also from the same stamp set, Sweet Thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by, and make sure that you go check out Lenae's blog, Sugar Gem for more inspiration projects with My Thoughts Exactly stamps!

Letterpressed holiday cards.

2011-10-16T21:31:00.002-06:00

I pulled out my Letterpress out again yesterday... Yes, it's a big deal. I don't pull this thing out that much, mainly because it's a pain to clean up and all, but really, everytime, I make something out of it, I love how my cards turn out. It's somehow just the look of the letterpressed stationery is so classy and elegant... So, I keep telling myself that I should pull it out more often, but before I know it, a few months passes again...

Anyway, for the past few times, when I have been doing the Letterpress, I have been trying to focus on using their templates as the focus. This time, I tried to use the templates as a "background" or not the only thing on my project, and use SVGs and stamps to spice up the card. I think that it turned out really cute!

Here are the cards:

Love the leaves and acorn in this one! and the swirl border at the bottom! This is from the Thicket Printing Plate.

It's hard to see it in pictures, but all the letterpressed areas are debossed with ink in that area... it's really pretty! I tried to mix in different colors to give the 4 objects a different color... and then I used the glitter glue to bling it up a bit :)

Cute stamps, isn't it??? ('leaves are falling' and 'autumn') This stamp set is from Heirloom Traditions (Punkin' Patch Stamps) The backing cardstock of the stamps is the Jillibean Soup Core Impressions. I love these cardstock - they are already embossed, and you just take a sandpaper and distress it a bit and the core lighter layer gets exposed.

I also am into the burlap and the twine and the canvas thing... this burlap ribbon that I used in this card was something mom brought back for me from Japan, but am lovin' them! I'm gonna see if I can pick some different ones up on Etsy!

Okay, I'm going to jump ahead by a few months and the next two cards are Christmas cards...

I think that this is my favorite out of the three cards that I've done here... the silver dotted background and the red striped lines are both letterpressed (Wintertide Printing Plate), so it's actually really sharp to look at in person. I stuck to the minimal colors, but added in a candy cane (Santa's North Pole Workshop SVG Collection) and a peppermint (Christmas Cookie Party SVG Collection), along with some presents to embellish the card up a bit.

The stamp is from the Holiday Traditions set (Punkin' Patch Stamps) and I have to say that is my current favorite set right now! SO SO Cute and you'll be seeing a lot of my projects using those stamps!

... and my last card (same Letterpress templates)...

The gingerbread man is from Holiday Treats SVG Collection and this cute gingerbread house is from the Christmas Cookie Party SVG Collection.

I just LOVE these dew drops - I got mine on eBay a couple of years ago, but adds the perfect amount of color and cuteness to your projects!

This last stamp is from Gingerbread Kisses (Punkin' Patch Stamps) and I took a red pen to accent in the candy cane :) The red hearts are not so perfect, but they are done with Red Ranger Pearls.

I'm workin on a few more right now, but I've got some other projects that I need to do, so thought that I'd share these for now!

Thanks for comin' by, and have a crafty one!

OH, and until October 23rd - you get FREE SHIPPING on Punkin' Patch Stamps with coupon code: HALLOWEEN2011SHIP

Creepy Halloween Treat Cart.

2011-10-12T16:33:00.003-06:00

Hey all! Here's a project that I had made a while ago, that I thought it would be really cute to put Halloween Treats in, but just never got around to sharing. So here it is!

Isn't it fun? My kids love it! Who wouldn't like to get a cree-pyyy gift like this? It makes a great Halloween decor, too!

All the files are from SVG Attic (Happy Haunt Halloween Party Kit, Stop and Shop SVG Kit and Fun Favors SVG Kit), and used Echo Park Apothecary papers, and Dream Loft Haunted Apothecary labels. Isn't that big "Happy Halloween" stamp awesome? That was from the $1 bin from Jo-ann's when I went down to the US.

I altered some of the files to make them longer so that it would sit better inside a cart. Of course, I inked all the edges to give it a creepy look :)

I cut little boxes and filled them up with spooky treats!

The purple liquid is grape juice!

Anyway, sorry about my quick post - (I'm still trying to get my hubby's Gala tickets done!) I hope you liked my project!

See ya until next time!

FANG-tastic Blog Hop Giveaway Winners and my 500 Followers Giveaway!

2011-10-11T22:24:00.001-06:00

Good evening everyone! Thanks so much for all the love :) It's always so much fun getting comments! Many of my projects takes a while time to make, but it's so worth it, when people love what I made! It just makes my day!

So.... ready for the FANG-tastic blog hop winners??? (and yes, I've included the two that couldn't comment on my blog into my count :) )

$15 SVG Cuts gift card goes to this lucky person... :)

smyiow, who said...

Amazing! All these projects are amazing. 100% perfection! I love them all!!
my-o-scrappin.blogspot.com

smmyiow@gmail.com

The lucky recipient of Trick or Treat Punkin' Patch Stamp set is....

Charity Adams, who said...

The DVD box is too cool. Love your work.
Charity
http://adamsacres.com/

October 7, 2011 2:07 PM

Charity - please send me your mailing address :)

The Digi Bistro $12 gift card for CUTE CUTE files is given to...

Julie, who said...

This is so awesome! Will have to use some of these for our daughters' Halloween party this year. You have an amazing talent!
October 9, 2011 5:58 PM

The amazing Halloween twine from Trendy Twine goes to:

Lisa R. said...

Wow, you've been a busy bee! Fabulous set! Did all of the requests, following everything. TFS joy4umetoo at hotmail dot com
October 7, 2011 9:38 PM

Lisa, please send me your mailing address!

I will be contacting you shortly, but you can always feel free to contact me first - that would make my life really easy! My e-mail is thienly dot azim at gmail dot com.
Thank you again for all my wonderful sponsors... my hop wouldn't have been the same without you.

One more exciting news... there are more chances of winning prizes for following me (on Facebook). (Sorry for all the non-Facebooker's...) I have hit 500 followers today and I thought that it would be fun if you could celebrate it with me!

I am having 3 days of giveaway and it starts tomorrow!! Details here:

So, I will be making a post on FB wall on Days 1 and 2, and you MUST comment under that post in ordered to win.

For Day 3, I will be giving away a prize to whomever that has sent the most followers my way. This is in effect already, so start sending people to Mod Paperie page, and let them know that you sent them!

Congratulations to all the winners and Good luck everyone for the next set of giveaways!

Ghastly Ghouls - Halloween Gift Box Challenge

2011-10-10T22:08:00.000-06:00

Hey there, you ghouls! Getting ready for Halloween yet? In need for spooky ideas for gift boxes??

As you may know, my awesome uber talented friend Tamara (Happy Life, Crafty Wife) has teamed up with one of my favorite designers, Lori Whitlock. She's the one that has designed the whimsical and modern papers for Echo Park - which I pretty much have purchased every single one of them! She also has a FB page, so if you haven't been there yet, go say hello!

Anyway, they are holding their first ever challenge ever together on Tamara's blog, and of course, I wanted to show my support as she's been a great friend of mine. (Well, their prize is quite appealing as well.. :) )

I was supposed to work on my hubby's store's Holiday Gala tickets today...  I always make it for him twice a year - tickets, bag stuffers, store posters.... but had to put that aside for a little bit, 'cause this project was my priority! LOL!

For the challenge, you have a choice of either a Spider or a Ghost Window Box, and you should've seen what Tamara made as an inspiration project! These projects are WOW - you've just gotta go see them!  So... after contemplating on which one I should tackle on, I chose a ghost one. You can download the files here.

I wanted to do something cute and I was so inspired by Tamara's Christmas Ornaments that she did, I had to use this technique to do a 3D ghost!  I used Echo Paper Apothecary Papers, and used lace (I inked it) and crinkled ribbons to embellish it. I also used various stamps sitting around my area, so please don't ask me which set these are from... The only one that I know is the "Ghastly Ghouls" is from the Inkadinkado stamps from Michaels this year.

So, you wanna see my box?

You like??? Here's my little 3D ghost:

I stamped a little "BOoo" sentiment and attached it with an inked clothespin.

I love this 'stamp' stamp, but ahhh! can't remember which company makes this! I also have a burlap ribbon underneath it.

I stamped this sentiment onto two papers, cut out "ghouls" from one and used foam tape to adhere to the original - it added dimension, which is always good!

Ready to see the inside??? Yes, I also did something to it!

You open up the box... and there's treats! I added 'eyes' to the marshmallows for a treat! Don't cha think it's cute???

...and just for the fun of it, I attached the other half of the ghost to the back of the lid, to make it look like it's coming out through the box.... oooohhh.... spookyyy!

Anyway, here's my entry - wish me luck!

For anyone that's interested - the deadline is the end of this Wednesday! Good luck everyone!

FANG-tastic blog hop: Fright Night Movie Night

2011-10-07T00:53:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the last stop of the wonderful blog hop! Hope that you enjoyed this as much as I did - and got some good inspiration for Halloween projects!

So, yes, if you happened to just stumble across my blog, you are technically in the place where I want you to be, but it's not fair is it to keep you all to myself! Muwahahaha!!! There's lots of talented girls in this hop, so please go back to Alyssa's blog - My Thoughts Exactly, and start your little haunted journey from there.

Make sure that you come back though - as I've got 4 PRIZES that I'm giving away! Will discuss the details later!

Alyssa - My Thoughts Exactly
Becki - The Happy Card Factory
Bee - Dare to bee Creative
BeeLinda - Bee's Hive O' Drama
Cher - Cher's Studio
Jennifer - Our Change of Art
Jessica - Crafty Rocket Science
Kim - Kimberly's Craft Spot
Lenae - Sugar Gem

Okay, let's get to my spooky project for today. I've decided to take a little break from my favorite Echo Park Apothecary papers, and decided to play with K&Co Ghostly Greetings. These papers are soo cute, and just caught my eye when I walked into Michaels, along with million other items!

For my project, I've decided to take the SVG Cuts Summer Blockbuster SVG Kit and make it into a Halloween Fright Night Movie Night. You've got everything that you need in this one collection - from popcorn boxes, to a treat tub, to a DVD/Blu-ray case to the invites. There's even those movie clappers that you can make and customize to your theme! (... and there's other fun embellishments, too!)

Summer Blockbuster SVG Kit

Pretty cool kit, isn't it?

So along with this cool kit, I decided to collaborate my project with another great online SVG store, The Digi Bistro. I used Pick Your Poison and Halloween Town to embellish my kit.

Pick Your Poison SVG Collection

Halloween Town SVG Collection

Total cuteness, right here!

Along with these great sets, I also used several stamp sets to bring out my project!

Punkin' Patch Stamps - Trick or Treat

Punkin' Patch Stamps - The Witching Hour

My Thoughts Exactly Stamps - Fright Night Phrases

My Thoughts Exactly Stamps - Ghostly Greetings

...and to tie in all my elements together was the great Halloween Twine from Trendy Twine (Annie's Paper Boutique)! It added soo much to my project! Twine is so fun - it's easy to add it anywhere, and there's so much that you can do with them!

...also, I was just a little tight on time this week, so I had a help from my already made embellishments - K&Co Glitter word art stickers and some matching embellishments to go with paper.

So... putting this all together - here is my project!

So fun, right? My kids were so excited to see this! All the containers are filled with brain bits, that actually resemble somewhat close to popcorn... (is what my hubby wanted me to write!) To take my pic - I had to pop 3 bags of popcorn, so we were eating popcorn all night! (and this is after I stuffed the boxes with containers, so I wouldn't have to make as much!) It's a fun party size, but for a smaller movie night, maybe resizing it a tad smaller may save you some popcorn!

Here's a movie clapper to set the right tone for the party:

The clapper arm actually moves up and down and I twisted some Halloween Twine around it.

I also made a DVD box for the movie! (I actually have this movie, and in my mind, I was SURE that I had the DVD for it, but it was actually VHS! Shows how ancient I am! LOL! So, this image that you see inside the box was actually an image that I just printed off from the internet!)

Here are LOTS of pictures of the popcorn boxes:

I just love the touch of eyeballs in this cauldron!

... and lastly, but not least, is the big tub!

(This is about the extent of my Copics right now - just coloring in space! I actually was trying to learn it the other day, spent a little while coloring in stamps, but realized that I needed more colors to be able to blend like what I had imagined...)

Okay, so you've seen enough pics. Now we can get onto what you're interested in... the GIVEAWAY!

I've got 4 great sponsors to give away products that I've used in my project!

Leo & Mary from SVG Cuts/Punkin' Patch Stamps have generously offered me 2 prizes!!!

The first prize is for $15 gift card to SVG Cuts. Who doesn't like SVG Cuts? I think that anyone would be excited to get this! This amount would get you 2 collections and a free gift - which is the newest released collection of the week! (Hey - did you see the newest Caramel Apple Pie SVG Kit? Sooo cute! I so wanna try making that crate!) Here's their FB page - I'm sure you all are followers by now!

The 2nd prize is for the Trick or Treat Stamp set from Punkin' Patch Stamps! You liked the stamps that I used in my project? Well, I used most of the stamps from this set in the pictures that you saw above! It's a great set of Halloween stamps that you can use on cards, layouts, or any 3D projects! If you haven't become a part of the FB group, here's the link - and let Leo know I sent you!

For the 3rd winner, Cher from The Digi Bistro has generously donated $12 gift card to her store - that is enough to purchase the two Halloween collections that I used in my project! (or, you can get something else, if that's what your heart desires!) She's got a FB page, and if you haven't joined there yet, what are you waiting for??? Let her know I sent you!

... and lastly but not least, what would I do without twine? My project wouldn't have been the same! Lesley from Trendy Twine has donated 50 yds of this amazing Halloween Twine to the 4th winner! In order to win her twine, please go and 'like' her on FB if you haven't yet (and tell her I sent ya)!

That's right - there's 4 WINNERS from my hop this time! Make sure that you leave me some love here for your chance to win! You have until Monday, Oct 10th 11:00PM PST. I will be announcing the winners on Wednesday.

Make sure that you have left comments on other blogs, as there are other fantastic sponsors in this hop: My Thoughts Exactly, SVGs by Bee and Pumpkin Spice online craft store.

I hope that you enjoyed this hop, and have fun craftin'!

...and the winner of the My Thoughts Exactly Oct Stamp Release is...

2011-10-05T10:21:00.000-06:00

Thanks to everyone for joining me celebrate the October release! It is always so much fun to be able to share projects using newly launched products!

Here is the winner of the $5 gift card to My Thoughts Exactly!

Congratulations, nurturedheartgal, who said,

Thienly, I'm loving this! Even my DIL is excited about your adaptation! As soon as I get home, I get to make two of them and ship one of them back to her - she's looking forward to hers as much as I'm looking forward to mine! It'll be my gift to her - and I'll add a couple of owls since she loves them - one of those little things she shared during a conversation yesterday.

Please contact me at thienly dot azim at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

I'm working away on several projects right now, which one being a project for the hop coming up this Friday - it's the FANG-tastic blog hop! See the button on the right? ------>

There will be 4 prizes from SVGCuts, Punkin' Patch Stamps, The Digi Bistro and Trendy Twine - so be sure to join me back here this Friday!

Advent Calendar with My Thoughts Exactly - October Stamp Release!

2011-10-01T06:00:00.001-06:00

I am soo excited to finally share my project with you all - and welcome to the My Thoughts Exactly stamp release partaaay! Well, don't know if others are partying, but I sure feel like it - I LOVE LOVE LOVE these stamps, and I love the way my project turned out and just couldn't wait to share it!

So, as I briefly mentioned about them before when I used them for my Halloween Doorhangers project, the two new sets that were release this month was the following:

Fright Night Phrases

Ghostly Greetings

Aren't they the best stamps ever?!?!?! I love how you can mix and match and you can pretty much come up with any Halloween saying with these two sets. You can get them for $15 each or can purchase the bundle for $25! What a great deal! (and yes, taxes and shipping both included!)

Okay, so I wanted to get as much stamping as possible in this project - and so decided to create a Halloween advent calendar. I have seen many different ways of doing the calendar, but so far, I've only seen one with the doors that open and is in a box, like the ones you open up the chocolate calendars for Christmas. This file I'm referring to is from SVGCuts' Classic Christmas Advent Calendar SVG Kit. If you know which file I'm talking about, the only problem with this is that this is a Christmas calendar, so it only counts down 25 days... Hmmm.. that is a problem. I contemplated on various things that I can do, including adding an extra box at the side, but then I had this A HA! moment! I could break apart/ungroup the doors on the original file, rearrange it (replace smaller doors in the place of a bigger door) - and I was able to fit in 31 days!!!

Here's the advent calendar - isn't it gorgeous?

So, I'll show ya what I'm talking about - Here's the original file:

...and after manipulating the doors, this is what I ended up with.

(the numbers correspond to the dates on the original file)

So, in order to assemble this box, you would have to change the compartment boxes too and use the ones corresponding to the right doors you've replaced with.

Okay, so... after doing all this.... Here's my completed advent calendar project!

You like??? I used the ever so popular Echo Park Paper Apothecary papers to do this project. This paper is just so beautiful and it worked really well with the style that I was trying to accomplish. You'll notice that some patterns and embellishments are not from this collection, and finally came across this digital collection from Jessica Sprague called the Haunted, which has the similar feel to it.

For the stamps, instead of just stamping it right on a plain cardstock, I printed these digital papers and stamped the sentiments on it - I think that this really helped to bring the project together.

For example, see the tag that I used for day 2? That was a digital file!

I used various embellishments to make each box unique. I used the black/white twine from Twisted Sugar Twine, black/orange twine from Trendy Twine, crinkled ribbons from Scrapinkris, and some fibre yarns that I had sitting in my drawer for years.

I also used Epiphany Shape Studio to make some epoxy sticker embellishments, and use of foam dots/tape helped to bring out the dimension of each compartment - which makes each of them so fun to look at.

See the skull that I created with the shape tool? Isn't that awesome?

OH.... and I made a little surprise inside the 31st! Wanna see! Be scared! Open with caution!

BOO! The word pops up! I used the Premium Pop Up Cards SVG Kit to do this!

That's pretty much about it. I didn't plan what I was going to do in each of the boxes prior to - I just went with my inspiration, and what embellishments I had! It was really fun! The only cut files were to make the advent calendar, so everything else went really quick! Of course I inked all the embellishments and the box to give it the spooky feel :)

I hope that you liked my project but I'm sure you're sick of my pics now, so you may want to go check out what all the other DTs have made with these amazing stamps!

Sooo... Alyssa from My Thoughts Exactly has sponsored all of our DT blogs to give away $5 gift cards for her store. Please leave me some love and I'll pick the one with the loveliest comment! (Did ya actually believe that? Of course I wouldn't do that! LOL! I'll pick a random winner :)

Alyssa: My Thoughts Exactly
Belinda: Bee's Hive O' Drama
Bee: Dare to bee creative
Lenae: Sugar Gem
Jessica: Crafty Rocket Science
Jennifer: Our Change of Art

Have a crafty weekend everyone!

My first SVGCuts DT project - Sinister Candelabra Decor

2011-09-30T13:54:00.001-06:00

I am sooo excited to share my project with y'all today! This is my first project (well, technically not really my first...) but it is my first one since going back to SVGCuts. Since I was outta loop from SVGCuts for a few months, I have lots of files that I need to catch up on and create something with!

Anyway, my first project actually has nothing to do with new files! LOL! I decided to create something new by welding some files together to make......a candelabra! I've been always fascinated with chandeliers and candelabras... they are not really my style, as I'm "mod" - love modern looking stuff, but something about these objects really capture my heart. They are beautiful, so magical, and often, mysterious.... So, I decided to make a Halloween themed candelabra!

Now, you may be wondering... where the heck is the Punkin' Patch Stamps? Well, I haven't received them yet, so I wasn't able to incorporate them into my project this time around... next time for sure :) It's the US-Canada shipping again... everything takes time :( and I can't wait to play!

Okay, back to the candelabra - pretty, huh?

Sorry for the big space above... blogger is acting up, and can't seem to fix it!

It's actually quite sturdy - and yes, it has been tested by my kids... lol... It seems a little intimidating, maybe? but it's actually simple, the whole concept is the same as my Christmas tree DT project that I did last Christmas. You cut 6 of the same welded piece out and assemble them together... Still sounds confusing? That's okay! I've got the full detailed instructions up on SVGCuts blog!

The only headache I had from this was that I bought the wrong paper to do this with! It would've been soo much easier if it was a sealed glitter cardstock.. but no, I went with the loose one, and it literally glitterifies (yes, I know that's not a word!) everything! My blade, my mat, my fingers, my hair... and I swear, it must've been in the dinners that I made! Nonetheless, I did use the Clear Acrylic spray from Mod Podge and that seemed to do it. No more glitter coming off! It's safe!

All you need to make this decor are these collections: Gothic Flourishes SVG Collection, French Quarter Ironwork SVG Collection, Rockin Around the Christmas Tree SVG Collection and the Birthday Elements SVG Collection... and PLUS the candlestick that Mary designed for me, which can be downloaded "Under SVG Collections used" over the SVGCuts blog.

I went through my SVGCuts bible (I have 3 binders full of it now...!) and pretty much went through every possible shape to design my 2D candelabra.

... and when you weld them together, it looks like this:

Whoa!!! Neat, huh?? I thought so!

It was so fun to go shopping for these beads! I never realized the variety of stuff that are there at Michaels, other than my usual "scrapbooking" section that I go to. I found that especially the beading section, there's a LOT of potential papercrafting embellishments that you can get, and it's much cheaper to get it in that section! Figures! It's not like we're richer than the bead-ers... why charge us more!?!? So, would bead-ers find some good potential stuff from the scrapbooking section, I wonder???

So, here's a little diagram that I did showing how I strung the beads:

Anyway, back to my project - here's more pics. LOTS and LOTS of pics - I got carried away and figured that I may as well take lots of pics after decorating it nicely :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these crinkled ribbons right now. These beautiful colors are from Kris over at Scrapinkris on Etsy. I used the Wraith and the Haunted colors for this. She makes some beautiful color combinations - it's a must have in my opinion :)

... and to complete this project, I HAD to add a spider hanging from it...

So... you like? Feeling inspired? I hope so!

Here's a link to the SVGCuts blog for detailed instructions :)

Have a crafty day everyone!

Oh, and come back tomorrow for another big Halloween project that I've been working on, for My Thoughts Exactly Stamp Release!

Eeek! My first Christmas card - and it's still September!!!

2011-09-28T16:23:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness! It's a beautiful sunny day outside, it's still September, and guess what I was doing this afternoon... yes, making a Christmas card! Okay, this is kinda crazy... but blame it on the cute cut files from the new online store, iDiecut.com. If you haven't gone to check it out, check it out now. There's matching files to go with your Echo Park papers, Copper Top, Lifestyle Crafts and The Creativity Room products.

They have a Facebook contest going on on their page, and all you needed to do was to create a project using at least one of their diecut files. The winner receives a $20 gift card to that store... and I believe it's random. So - I decided to create something :)

As soon as I saw this little reindeer from the Holly Jolly Christmas Echo Park Collection, I fell in LOVE :) Soo cute! I had all sorts of ideas on what to do with this little guy, but since I have to post something by TONIGHT, I didn't have a choice. So - I made a shaped card!

I just wanted to give it my special touch to the "ordinary" shaped cards, so decided to add on some embossing...

glitter... (yes, finally pulled out my Martha Stewart glitter... and I've had it for 2 years now?!?!)

twine.. (this is my favorite part of this project! - I used vibrant colors from The Twinery and wrapped various colors around it!)

and lights. The sentiment is also from the same collection - Holiday Cheer, but just print and cut it.

Anyway, this is a quick post - hope you liked my card!

Come back Saturday to see my spooky Halloween project using My Thoughts Exactly stamps!

Twisted Sugar Twine project - Halloween Hair pins

2011-09-22T08:52:00.000-06:00

Yippee! It's another Twisted Sugar Twine project day for me, and today, I'm all about Halloween. Actually I've been working on FOUR Halloween projects at once (never have I ever worked on more than 2 projects at once, so this is all new to me!) Surprisingly enough - I feel quite organized doing it this way, and I don't feel like I need to stress out about my next project because it has already been started.

Anyway, for my project - I thought that I'd go totally simple, yet cute, and useable! I made Halloween hair pins for my daughter! And, I'm sure anyone can make these - no skill required!

Aren't they cute???

All you need are these items, plus some charms for your pins - which I didn't take a picture of...

...then you take the baker's twine and wrap them around the adhesive foam strip, round and round.... until you complete the strip.

Once that's done, you put a strip of hot glue on the back of the twine and adhere to the bobby pin. Cut off the extras (actually from this strip, I was able to make 2 pins) and dab a little bit of hot glue on the ends to prevent unraveling.

The base is done, and all you need to do is to add some charms! For mine, I cut out some files from SVGCuts Dreadful Halloween Cupcake Wrappers Kit (RIP, pumpkin, spider, haunted house), Haunted Hemlock Cards SVG kit (ghost) and Monster Mash SVG Collection (candy corn) and applied Paper Mod Podge and Glossy Accents on it. It's totally waterproof, so it's safe to wear it in the rain! Hot glue them on to the pins and Ta-da! It's done! Now, wasn't that easy???

Here's more pics:

These make great trick-or-non-treats for little girls! My daughter had one of these pins in her hair and loved it! (It was the RIP one...lol...) You can use the same idea and wrap it around a bigger foam strip to put them on snap clips!

Hope that I've inspired you to give it a try - it's really fun to make!

Leave me some love if you liked it :) and even if you didn't like it - still leave me a comment, cause I LOVE to hear from you!

Punkin' Patch Stamps Grand Opening!

2011-09-20T09:46:00.000-06:00

Whoo-hoo!!! Yesterday was the grand opening of the Punkin' Patch Stamps (owned by Leo and Mary from SVGCuts), and I'm so excited! I'm sure you are, too! ... and... soon... I'm going to be designing with these stamps! Yes, that's right - in case you missed my last post - I'm back on the Autumn Creative team -but now, it's not only SVGCuts, but I'll be incorporating these stamps that you'll see in many of my projects!

They are photopolymer, high-quality stamps - the ones that makes your image nice and crisp, and takes the ink well, and all the sets are $14.99!

They are the clings, so you mount them on an acrylic block and use them :)

FOR A LIMITED TIME - Use coupon code FALL2011 to save 10% on your entire order through Sunday!

They have released NINE sets - and I thought that I'd show you them!

Trick-or-Treat

The Witching Hour

Little Monsters

Heirloom Traditions

Harvest Gathering

Autumn Air

O Holy Night

Gingerbread Kisses

Holiday Traditions

Aren't these amazing? What's your favorite??? Well, I like all of them, but I have to say Trick-or-Treat or Holiday Traditions are my favorites :) I already have many projects planned out with these! Love the fonts - they are so unique! ... and, if you know about the amazing customer service that you get from SVGCuts, you're bound to get the same personal and quick service here :)

As well, just imagine getting some SVGs to go with these stamps??? Well, I know Mary has that in her mind, so can't wait to see what she comes up with!
Anyway, head on over to the store to shart shopping! Go "like" their FB Page, too!

Have a great day, everyone!

Launch of the Punkin' Patch Stamps and my exciting news!

2011-09-17T20:31:00.005-06:00

Okay, so I assume that most of you know of SVGCuts.... AND, if you have known me for long enough, you know that I was on their design team... Then... I left - did the Paper Dolls blog with my friend Tamara (Happy Life, Crafty Wife) for a while and in the meantime, joined the My Thoughts Exactly and Twisted Sugar Twine Design Team.

Anyway, so back to SVGCuts... I am sure that most of you are aware of Leo and Mary - the mastermind behind this company - and they are branching out into stamps! How amazing is this!

The store, Punkin' Patch Stamps, is opening within the next 48 hours with fabulous NINE sets for the launch! Go check out their store now, and see how fun these stamps are!

Anyway, so here's my exciting news!

I have decided to be a part of this exciting company and re-join their team! I will not only be designing with SVGCuts stuff, but also with their new stamps! I have some projects that I'm planning out, so be on the lookout soon!

Tamara Tripodi (Happy Life, Crafty Wife) and Cely Smith (Creating in Carolina) are two other members joining the team as well! Please go check out their blogs! You can see all the Design Team members on SVGCuts blog!

I will still continue to work with all OTHER companies' files as well, so you all get the best of two worlds from me!

Anyway, just wanted to share my exciting news, and if you haven't yet, please go join SVGCuts and Punkin' Patch Facebook pages, and tell them that I sent ya (and how happy you are to see me over on their team!)

Sneak Peek Project for My Thoughts Exactly October Stamps!

2011-09-15T00:49:00.000-06:00

Oh, my! You are gonna love the My Thoughts Exactly new release October stamps! I was sooo excited when I saw them - there's sooo much that you can do with them! It's like the ones that you've seen in the past releases - you can mix and match and come up with all sorts of phrases with it!.. and better yet - there's going to be TWO sets that's going to focus on the same theme - so you can interchangeably use some from one set, and some from another. Okay, I'll give you a hint here - in case you haven't figured it out - the stamps are going to be Halloween themed! I know, I know, that's not much of a hint... oh well, you're lucky you even got a hint :)

Anyway, I was just too excited that I could not wait until October 1st Stamp Release to do my first project with these. I don't actually have the stamp set in my hands, so what you see here is all digital images of the sets that will be released - but you can see how fun this is going to be! Can't you tell I'm excited????

For this project, I wanted to make something for my kids, and SVGCuts December Doorhangers SVG Collection came to my mind. How fun would it be to hang it up on their door and surprise them with treats inside! Yes, these doorhanger files from SVGCuts have a little box on the front where you can open them and slip a bar of chocolate or two!

Okay, so you're probably dying to see what these stamps look like and my project - so I will no longer bore you and get on to my pictures.

Pretty cute, huh? My kids were soo excited to see these!

I will show you all the close up pics of them - and yet again, let the picture overload begin!

Spider Doorhanger

Spooky stamp, isn't it? I used the rosettes from Vintage Halloween Party Bags SVG Kit and embellished with Making Memories Pebbles Clips, and ribbons all crinkled up. Of course, I inked all the items with either black or silver ink. Inking is soo important to make it look spooky!

Here's another stamp - so fun! I used my Epiphany Shape Studio to create a matching embellishment, and blinged the tag with i-Rock :) Oh, and I wrapped twine all around the box (black from Twisted Sugar Twine, and orange that you see below is from The Twinery)

Here's a cute little spider from Halloween Cuddly Friends SVG Collection (the cute bat and the skeleton that you'll be seeing is also from this collection - a MUST HAVE!), and embossed with Cuttlebug Forest Branches.

...and a spider (from Spooky Silhouettes SVG Collection) crawling through the doorhanger, with yarn fibres running across it.

Bat Doorhanger

I used Cuttlebug Seeing Spots and Sizzix Diamonds embossing folders here.

Skeleton Doorhanger

Lastly, but not least, skull and bones are hanging out on the doorhanger :) from the Bella's Halloween Strips SVG Collection.

So, now you saw some of these stamps! Are they amazing? I bet that you're gonna want them even more when you actually see the whole set! Be back on Oct 1st to see the rest!

This was my first official Halloween project that you just saw and I have several in the works right now! Can't wait to share all of them with you!

Happy Crafting everyone!

Twisted Sugar Twine project - Weaving with Twine.

2011-09-08T10:01:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! How is it going with you??? It seems like it's been forever since I posted! (and maybe it has! lol...) Hope you missed me!

Today - I want to take my last twine project, String Art with Twine one step further and decided to weave them this time! It's the up-down, up-down pattern, and the next row is down-up, down-up technique. Simple!

I have two projects to share with you today - both using the same technique, but one is on a paper, and the other is on a wooden dowel rods.

Here it is!

You like? It's amazing what you can do with twine, isn't it?

Here is the card upclose:

The holes are exactly the same holes as the cards I used in making the String Art Cards. I took Cola Red and threaded them all horizontally. Then I took Lemonade Pink and weaved it through the Cola Red. These cards are always so cute when embellished with buttons, stamps, beads, you name it!

The twine trivet is my favorite - it can be a little frustrating to begin, but once you've got a few rows down, then it gets much easier!

See how pretty this looks! What a great handmade gift idea! You can even mix and match colors - like the Limeade and the Cola Red for Christmas! Here, I took Licorice Twist and Grey Macaron twine and weaved it together! Every two rows, I took those twine and tied it together.

This may look intimidating, but it's easy and looks so beautiful and so functional!

Give it a try! We'd love to see your projects - post them on to the Twisted Sugar Twine Facebook Page!

Oh, I've got this same post over at the Twisted Sugar Twine Blog - I'd love ya (well, I already do love ya, so I'll love you even more!) if you can leave me some love over there!

Okay, that's it! See ya later, everyone!

Bzzzz...... is that a bee that you hear??? SVGs by Bee has been launched!

2011-09-01T11:46:00.001-06:00

So many SVG shops have been opening up recently online, but this shop is really special to me. This store - SVGs by Bee is owned/designed by my great friend, Belinda Brown. I don't know if you remember me blogging back in February about how I met her at California Adventure Disney Park while I was on my vacation down in LA.

I met her last year when she started stalking my blog. She would literally leave a comment on every single blog post that I did, and because I just started blogging, she really made my day especially all I got was 1 or 2 comments. We started corresponding, and in no time, we became really good friends.

So - yes, this girl, who I've only met online - dragged her whole family (took her kids out of school) and dragged her hubby to drive for over 2 hours each way to come see me! Really - isn't that amazing? If I came into your city - would you drive for 4 hours so you can see me??? You don't even know what I'm like, if I really look like the girl you see on FB - I could be this really old woman, or perverted guy! Well, I'd like to hear, "Of course!" - but I don't think that most people would! But wow - we (not just her and I - but our hubbies, our kids, and even my parents!) totally clicked and spent the whole day together. Ever since - it's been a very, very special friendship.

Anyway - this friend, which she goes by Bee - decided to learn Inkscape (I have NO idea how to even work that program) and design SVGs herself. How awesome is that? I'm so happy for her, and just a couple of weeks ago - her online store just launched!

Instead of just blogging and letting you know about her, I wanted to use her file so you can see how cute it is!

I used The Fuzzy Bee file to make a simple, yet cute shaped card. Here it is!

Isn't this cute??? This file is only a dollar!

I made a shadow layer on MTC and cut two of them out, glued them together to make a card. Each of the layers have foam stickers to give dimension. The beehive paper is from Country Drive collection from Echo Park, the twine is from Twisted Sugar Twine, and the stamp is from My Thoughts Exactly's The Birds and the Bees. The wings have a vellum on the back layer, and the black body has been embossed with Seeing Spots Cuttlebug folder.

Oh, and while I was blogging the Paper Dolls, she designed SVGs for one of our weekly challenges! She made a really cute set of files for us:

This file is also sold in her store right now - The house was Framed by a Heart & and a Button!

With this file, I made embellishment for these 3D shoes (the shoes file is from MyGrafico).

It really brings out these shoes, don't they?

As I said, she's just starting out, so stay tuned for more cute and orignal files in her store!

Please help me support my friend and go join her FB page, and let her know that I sent ya :) I want to give her all the love I can to wish her much success in her store.

Thanks girls!

Have a great day!

I'm in LOVE with print and cut!

2011-08-29T16:06:00.001-06:00

I am just sooo glad that Silhouette came when it did. I can't imagine not having this little baby right now. I seriously love this new arrival soo much!!! It has made my card making much more fun and easier.

With having the Silhouette, it's not just the die-cutting that I'm enjoying - it's actually the print and cut feature that I'm in love with. It's so amazing how simple it is to use and how precise it cuts. However, this feeds more of my shopping addiction - now I can't stop buying files online! I seriously have a binder full of graphics that I have purchased in the last several months... and this is a 2" binder I'm talking about... (I try to tell my hubby that many of these are free... but he stares at me and the printer when it's printing all night long!)

So... the card that I'll be sharing today is from Jessica Sprague graphics - the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness Candy Candy line.

Isnt' this adorable??? It even has matching paper packs and other embellishment packs to match this! Cuteness!

I hate wasting paper... so I organized my thoughts in my head and on screen and print and cut-ted (???) enough graphics for making two cards. I just hate wasting my photo paper!

Here's what my screen looked like:

So, I used most of these graphics, along with the coordinating paper packs, and made two cards!

Aren't they cute??? I think that it's the graphics that are cute, so anything that I'd do with it would probably look really cute!

Okay, I'm gonna overload you again with lots of photos... (this is a VERY long blog post by the way)

How adorable are these little buddies??

I put a matching colored twine on the bottom portion of a cotton lace, pulled and tied it together to make my own lace flower embellishment. I topped it with a yellow flower button.

Do you see??? Yes, that is my Sew Easy! I used it for the second time! Oh, and I used my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio for the flower button. Love how it adds some gloss to my card.

Here's the other card:

I always love cards with kites! Something about it makes me feel so free and cheerful.

Here`s my third attempt at my Sew Easy! Love how you can do so many different stitches with them!

...and the wooden spool (got from Paper Issues) and the twine (Trendy Twine) matched perfectly with the colors of the card.

Hope that you liked them!
...

Okay, you thought that this blog post was over, didn`t you???? I was going to end it right here, but thought that I'd post other cards that I've been posting on the FB wall for those that don't do FB...

I'll make it really quick.

The last blog post was my Twisted Sugar Twine DT project... Do you remember that circle string art that I did with red twine? It was a little too simple for me, so added some embellishments to it. Much better, right?

This next one is from Miss Tiina Circus graphics and papers:

The stamp is from Papertrey Ink, and the twine is from Twisted Sugar Twine.

Here's another dose Miss Tiina for you - it's pencil crayon graphics and Unity stamp for a simple back to school card.

And... lastly but not least is the dessert party graphics from MyGrafico...

I love how festive this is! So fun! The twine is from Twisted Sugar Twine and the background paper is from Echo Park Springtime, and already came with this edging! The stamp is from Unity Stamp Co.

Okay, that's it girls!!!

Really, for good this time!

I'm off!
Have a great day everyone!

String Art with Twine.

2011-08-25T11:42:00.000-06:00

Hello!
It's another DT day for me over at Twisted Sugar Twine!

Today, I wanted to share with you a project that was inspired from a classic toy. I am sure that most of you have played with this one time or another - it's the spirograph! Do you remember sticking your pencil in one of the holes of the gear and you let this gear go round and round with your pencil within a bigger circle stencil, while drawing a curved, geometric path. I loved the look of it, and always made me feel so artistic, although I had nothing to do with it.

So, I thought that it would be neat to create this pattern using twine. Since there is no way that I can glue down every part of twine in a geometric curved shape, I decided to "sew" this pattern onto the paper.

The holes were created using my cutting machine (you can use rhinestone option - on SCAL and MTC - to create holes for you!), but you can always just use a punch or a piercer.

Here are the cards that I made! You could even make them into a wall art, too!

Here's the instructions:

You can pretty much pick a corner and one hole on the opposite side or the adjoining side and start "sewing" like above. Keep following this pattern until complete. It really doesn't matter what holes you choose, it'll work out in the end, and the holes that you choose will determine how big the pattern is, and what the pattern will be.

You can get creative and do this on the circle shown below:

Changing colors half way will create some interesting effects, or you can even add beads in the twine.
Experiment with different shapes, and different patterns. I've shown you the basics, now be creative!

Have fun!

Diaper Shirts with an Attitude Cards with My Thoughts Exactly Stamps.

2011-08-18T06:00:00.004-06:00

It's another DT project day for me over at My Thoughts Exactly, and today, I thought that it would be really fun to create something using all four stamp sets released so far. In case you haven't seen their stamps, you can see it here! As you can see, their stamps are mix and match, so you can create endless possibilities of different sayings. If you get really creative, you can even mix and match from different sets!

This is a really really simple project, as I've been busy with back-to-school stuff and spending as much time with the kids before the fun, summer days are up! We also got back to cleaning up the basement (I don't know if you all remember, but we had our house reno'd last summer, and there were still things that we haven't cleaned up yet! We're not lazy - it just wasn't our priority! lol...)

I decided to take some fun sayings from the stamps, and make some diaper shirt cards with it. The diaper shirts are from Peek-a-Boo LD SVG set, and I used my sewing machine (if you notice, I'm really lazy with sewing machines... now, you see white stitching, and you probably have seen white stitching for my last few projects and will still see white stitching until my bobbin is done with white thread. I started with my brown thread last summer, and used that up, before I changed into white!) to sew up all the hems... This was very hard, as I'm not a seamstress, and sewing them in curves was itself a challenge to me.

Anyway, here's the project! Ta-da!!!!

Pretty simple, huh? It's really easy, but I think that it's cute!

Here are some close ups!

Who gives a HOOT?

The stamps are from the Birds and Bees stamp set. This owl is from Give a Hoot collection over at SVG Attic. I think that it's a perfectly innocent owl for this shirt!

See? I sewed it!

Stayin' cool by the POOL:

This diaper shirt is using the Grillin' n Chillin' stamp set. The kiddie pool (which I fell in love when I saw it - and this SVG was hard to find! and found it over at the Silhouette store under Kiddie Pool.)

If you notice, I put on Glossy Accents on the water to make it look more like water. Love using these - adds so much!

Feeling CRAB-ulous!

The stamps here are from Under the Sea stamp set and the crab is from LD ... Now, is being CRAB-ulous supposed to be a feeling fabulous or crabby? I thought that was for fabulous, but my hubby says that you're not in a good mood, when it's CRAB-ulous... and he thinks that the crab looks too cheerful! lol... it's just a craft project!

Cute as a CUPCAKE:

Here, the stamps are from Sweet Thoughts stamp set and the cupcake is from LD Cloud Nine SVG Set.

I hung those diaper shirts on a hanger - which I found in the Chores LD Cut It Simple Shapes, and attached eyelets at the bottom to look like snaps. I added tiny foam adhesive to hold the shirt closed, and you can easily open and close it.
Here's the last look together, in case you feel like you haven't seen enough pics from me!

So, head on over to Lenae's blog and Jessica's blog - 'cause I know they also have some cool projects to show you with these stamps!

Have a great day everyone!

Using new Cut It Tiles from Lettering Delights to do Print and Cut.

2011-08-16T16:05:00.001-06:00

Have you all seen the new Cut It Tiles from Lettering Delights that was just released this week? (last Friday) Well, I admit, when I first saw this, my first reaction was "wow" and "Oh my! This looks really confusing!". However, it's not. I watched the video and tried it myself and it was super easy! It's so fun to be able to change the pattern/color of your file on Make the Cut!

So, this is nothing spectacular, but here's what I made!

The cupcake is from LD Cloud Nine SVG, and I changed the cupcake icing and the wrappers to make three different ones

All the tiles I used here are from Matryoshka Cut It Tiles. Here, I made each of the portions separate (like how I would cut in a regular SVG - I personally like it separate as you can work around with dimension) but you could also put them together and save one one file to create a graphic.

I thought that I would show you step by step of how I did this, and hope that this would clarify somethings for you!

So, open up an SVG file that you would like to work with. Break apart the file.

You select one and right-click. It would bring up a menu, and click on "change texture".

Then, you click on "choose texture from file" and find a tile that you would like to work with.

Now, you have the option to play with this tile. You can change the size of the pattern, spacing, rotate, adjust color... you play around with it! It's so fun - it's amazing what all you can do!

Once you like what you've got, click "ok"

Now, it`s time to save the file so you can print and cut with it!

Click on Export and save the image the way you want it.

Here, I saved the portions separately, but you could bring the layers together and save as one file, too!

I brought up what I made on Silhouette Studio (I`m just used to doing Print and Cut here, but you can do on MTC as well!) and saved 3 cupcakes in layer formats, and as one image.

Lettering Delights is having a little contest over on Facebook for a random draw for $15 LD gift certificate. One winner will be chosen from all that posts their projects on their wall - so I`m posting this one :) Hope that you all give it a try! It`s really fun!

Have a great day everyone!

My first Twisted Sugar Twine DC project - usine twine in a book-binding.

2011-08-11T13:58:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!

In case you never saw my previous post, I have been asked to join over at the Twisted Sugar Twine as one of their Design Coordinators, which I'll write DC for short. (It's pretty much the same as DT, but sounds more sophisticated!) I've always loved the look of twine, and you've probably noticed that I've been using a lot of twine recently in my projects.

My first post is published over at the Twisted Sugar Twine blog, too, today! If you could leave me some love there, I would really appreciated it!

I got my twine pack just 2 days ago and I needed to create something in one day to have my post ready for today! That's usually my story with me living in Canada... takes about 3 times as long for me to get anyting here compared to most of you living in US.. so I'm used to it :)

So, I decided to keep it simple and create a little book using twine in a book-binding. I've also used twine in 3 other areas of the project, so make a note of that as well :)

Here it is!

Simple, but pretty, don't you think?

I found this cut file (album with half round tabs) through the Silhouette online store, and thought that this would be such a fun way to create a book, rather than just using regular rectangle pages. The size of the album is 5.575" wide for the cover page.

Since there were only 3 holes on the side in the original file, I had to add more holes throughout (you can use the spacing and aligning functions on the Silhouette to make sure the holes are evenly spaced out!)

I didn't have time to work on the inside pages, but I've always wanted to make a little book and paste in all my pics of all the people, places, food - anything that I love.

When I thought about "love" - I was able to narrow down the colors of the twines that I wanted to use. (although I never used red - it still was an inspiration color to me)

I then decided that I would color coordinate my book with my twine and decided on 4 colors: pink, grey, red and black from Echo Park Dots and Stripes Paper collection.

...and here are the instructions on how to bind your book with spine. Sounds confusing, but when you actually have the book and the twine in your hands, it all does make sense. Trust me :) It's really small, but when you click on the picture, you should be able to see the writing.

I used double twine - black and grey - in the binding.

I also used twine in several other places in this project:

For embellishing the side of the front cover - I just looped pink twine around it 3 times and tied it together. Do you like the font I used here? It's called Pass the Chex font.

I also used grey twine to string through some little charms (the charms are from Sweet Love kit by Miss Tiina - I want to link it but it's in her confectionery club, and can't link it) I cut out on a Silhouette and tied it to the above pink twine.

The heart which I found in the Silhouette library (comes when you purchase the machine) is weaved through with grey twine. The size of this was 1.85" wide.

... and here is a pic of the pages from the side.

So here was my first twine project! It was sooo hard to keep it simple and having to keep the twine as the focus of the project. I'm so used to embellishing with all sorts of SVGs, but then it takes away from the the twine. Hope that this project showed you how powerful twine is as an embellishment!

Meeting Jin from Under a Cherry Tree... :)

2011-08-07T22:47:00.000-06:00

Here is the post everyone has been waiting for!!!

In case you haven't heard of Jin (Under a Cherry Tree), she is one of the most incredible person you'll ever meet! She's awesomely talented, super friendly and a fantastic host! Yes, I was the LUCKY one and I got to meet her on my trip down to Seattle last week. Yes, that's right! I MET HER!!!

I thought that I would share my outing with all of you... it's not fair that I got to enjoy her company, right? I want everyone to feel like they were part of my experience!

Just a background - I found her blog last May and I just fell in love with her writing style, her projects and her clean and fresh look of her blog.   Who knew that I would get to meet this person! I started corresponding with her a little bit and became better friends over time. Then a month ago, I told her that my family was taking a vacation down to Seattle and she was sooo excited to meet me! Yes, we were so excited for this past month!

Okay, so the Thursday of the week I was in Seattle,  she had her hubby put her kids to bed, and I had asked my hubby to do the same so we can go out. She picked me up at the hotel, and she had moustache props made for us to take some silly photos. Here are the pics:

Can't you tell that we already got along just fine the first minute we met?

She took me to check out Big Lot (we don't have this in Canada, so she thought that I should at least go check it out) and to Joann's. In the past few months, I have been on a shopping spree, so I didn't feel the need to crazy like my last trip. Nonetheless, Jin, my enabler, helped me pick out some paper packs and Hallowe'en stamps.

She then took me to a bubble tea place (it's an Asian drink where you can order pretty much any tea, coffee or juice that you can ever think of and in it, is tapioca bubbles - if you haven't tried one of these, try them next time you see it - they are absolutely YUMMY!) Then we sat and talked and talked about crafting, online friends, families.. until the night was done.

This was not it! I got to meet her again - 2 days later!!! This time with her hubby and her 3 kids! They took us (my whole family including my parents) out for delicious dim sum. I think that this was one of the best ever dim sum I had in my whole life!  Her hubby was so genuine, supportive for Jin's crafting, and totally got along with my husband.  Jin's kids are so cute - and very well behaved.

After that, she took me to Impress Rubber Stamps store in Tukwila. I initially told her that we can't go - I can't possibly take my whole family there, when we were supposed to be going to the zoo.  This stamp store, is not that close to the zoo either. There were two other Impress stores which was closer, but she INSISTED that I'd go to this one. She told me that she's not being a great host if I don't end up going to this store while I'm here. So, we went....

Here's a pic of us in front of the store.

Okay, I walked in and fell in love with this place right away. I immediately forgot that I had refused to come here initially, I forgot that my hubby and my kids were waiting in the car.. and just fell in love with this place. Yes, this was probably the quickest hour that I've ever spent. AND, I could've been there all day!

The store is very posh and modern and just stocked with all sorts of goodies to capture my heart. It was sooo fun to look at each shelf and see cute demo cards layed out. I was very inspired.

I got a little basket and in no time, it was full. I really wanted to pick up some stamps, but there were sooo much selection, I could not narrow it down. So here are the goodies I picked up (Really, this is not that much... it just looks like A LOT cause I broke it down in to several pics):

I love the colors of the felts they carried, and they were only $2.50 for a pretty big piece. The white one is glitter, and thought it would be cute to use it as a snow.

Love paper straws!

I was so inspired by this honeycomb paper. You can cut half of the image out using your scissors (making sure one side is straight) and when you open up, ta-da! You can see some wonders you can create on the back of the packaging! I picked up light blue and white.

Odds and ends of things... I was intrigued by the Quickie glue pen! I've ofen wondered how people put glitters on one spot so cleanly! This was it! I'm so excited to use it! I picked up some card stands, little calendars to use on my New Year's projects (Jin told me about these how she picks them up every year) and party flag dies for straws!

...and lastly, but not least, I fell in love with their pigment ink colors and had to pick some up. When I came home, I realized that I forgot to pick up my favorite color - muted pink.. :(

Just to let you know - Jin, on her blog, is having a giveaway for these stamps! All 24 of them! Click here to enter!

After all that shopping (which turned out to be my highlight of my trip in the shopping category), our families headed to the zoo. It was a beautiful day, and was a nice stroll to take the kids out to where they enjoy. The Seattle Woodland Zoo was just gorgeous - full of mature trees everywhere and any path you take, you feel like you're in a secluded place. Even though it was sooo hot, these trees created a perfect shade for us.

Here's the last pic of Jin and I:

Here, we were lucky enought to see this elephant go to the bathroom... Yikes!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post, as much as I had fun recapping my moments with Jin. She's a sweetheart and I'm still so overwhelmed that she wanted to spend some time with me! Thanks so much Jin for wonderful memories!

AUGUST MY GRAFICO Challenge - boxes, bags and baskets!

2011-08-06T15:45:00.002-06:00

Hello once again!

I have been soo excited to be hosting another challenge on my Facebook page!

(I must state this clear - my intention is not to promote my Facebook page or force you to be a part of Facebook. I am sorry if this may offend some people who are against using Facebook but this is the only way I can hold a challenge without having to pay for extra service like inlinkz for my blog :) If you would want to enter the challenge and you don't have an account, please send me your entry to thienly dot azim at gmail dot com, and I'll be able to post your entry on to my Facebook wall for you, and I can keep it anonymous if you would prefer that!)

This time, it's up to you to pick out a file you would like to use from the wonderful My Grafico online store, as long as it's a box, a bag or a basket!

In order to qualify for the challenge:

1. You MUST use a box, a bag or a basket file from My Grafico. It can be of ANY SVG file, as long as it fits in this category. AND!!! Until tomorrow, Aug 7th, all the files over at My Grafico is 40% off! So, it's a great time to purchase your files and start thinking about your project!

Some of my fave files that would work this challenge are:

Basket Bonanza: (I used the picnic basket from this set for my last project!)

Pretty Packaging:

Box Bonanza:

2. You MUST post your pics on the Mod Paperie Facebook wall. (I am sorry for those non-Facebookers... I actually thought about doing it here, but I don't have the inlinkz subscription to be able to do it... :( )

3. Limit of 2 entries per person.

4. You can do whatever you like to it - can combine with any other SVGs, cartridges, ribbons, buttons.. anything else that you think it may work.. get creative with it! There is no minimum number of lanterns that you need to make.

5. Your picture MUST be uploaded on to my wall by midnight PST AUGUST 21, 2011. On your entry picture, please let me know what file you used from My Grafico. Make sure you let me know your blog link, too, if you have one!

Now, on to the prize... :)

My Grafico has again generously donated me the prize for my challenge! Go over to their Facebook page, 'like' them if you haven't yet, and tell them thanks!

One random winner will receive up to $10 to Mygrafico store. (The $10.00 worth of products only redeemed when store is not on sale and it could be combination of at the most 2 products.)

I will be announcing the winner on August 24th.

I hope that the rules are clear - if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Happy crafting and hope to see many projects submitted on my wall :)

FOR ANY OF YOU THAT DOESN'T HAVE SCAL 3 YET - MY GRAFICO IS HAVING AN AWESOME SALE - it's 50% off!!!! (Downloadable version is only $29.98! That is way cheaper than what I paid!) Great time to get this software so you can cut SVGs! (Note: this will NOT work on a Cricut) Click here!

I'm proud to announce...

2011-08-06T14:54:00.004-06:00

I'm back! The vacation was awesome - I have so much pictures and details that I would love to share, and will do that in the upcoming posts, but for now, time to get back into business!

I'm proud to announce that I'm on a design team of a new twine company! The company is called Twisted Sugar Twine, and they've debuted with 6 wonderful colors - Cola Red, Blue Sugar, Grey Macaron, Licorice Twist, Limeade and Lemonade Pink! Cute colors, don't you think???

...and until tomorrow, Sunday, Aug 7th, these are on sale!
240 Yard Spool Only $10.99 original price $12.99
160 Yard Spool Only $7.25 original price $9.25

I am anxiously waiting for my twine to arrive - then watch for my projects using these fabulous twine!

They also have a Facebook page, too - Twisted Sugar Twine - go support me by "liking" their page, and let them know that I sent you!

Okay, bye for now!

My Thoughts Exactly - August Stamp Release

2011-08-01T06:00:00.039-06:00

Hey everyone! It's hard to believe it's August already! I'm still on my vacation (yes, this was a scheduled post) and if you are wondering where I am, I'm in Vancouver enjoying my outing with my sister! I was so excited for this day because the two new sets from My Thoughts Exactly stamps are amazing!

It follows the mix and match style using puns once again, and this time, the theme is SWEETS and BBQ/PICNIC!

Sweet Thoughts

Grillin n Chillin

Fun, isn't it? You should've seen all of the design team trying to come up with all sorts of sentiments from the Grillin n Chillin set... you can get quite creative and can get quite naughty with this one! We had way too much fun! I would love to see what you girls can come up with from this set!

Anyway, I was in charge of creating something with the BBQ/picnic set... but decided to keep it clean :) I thought that it would be fun to create little shaped cards and put that all in a picnic basket.

...and the cards fit into a picnic basket!

With the "stamps" that I used in my project - it's actualy a digital graphic. I needed to create this before I left, so had the digital file sent over to me. I tried to size it to match what the actual stamp size would be, but having never seen it, it was hard.

So, I found the picnic basket over at MyGrafico Basket Bonanza. It's a really cute file and so easy to make. I really wanted to get a paper that had a wicker look and even went to a pretty good scrapbook store looking for it, but no such luck... So... I decided to do it with a wood grain paper, but after I make it, my son says to me, "it looks like a zebra!" Oh, whatever, I think it's cute, anyway.

I embellished the outside of the basket with ants crawling around it and a stamp "life's a picnic" decorated with lace and twine. I also added a butterfly making it look like it just landed there from LD Butterflies Simple Shapes. The basket file actually doesn't have a slit in the middle, but I decided to cut it making it look more realistic like what all picnic baskets do :)

Inside, I filled it with items that you may find in the basket - mustard bottle, hamburger, hotdog, well... likely ants, and no, not this one, but a BBQ grill. I made each of these into a shaped card and put together a sentiment from the stamp set that would be perfect for it. I embossed and put twine around each of them to make it a little more fun! All of the files comes from Lettering Delights Backyard Fun SVGs.

For the mustard bottle, "some like it HOT".

For the hamburger - "How have you bun?" Love this one!

For the hotdog - "you're a real HOT dog!"

Here's the BBQ grill - "GRILL-in n' chillin'"

and the ant... "it wouldn't be a PICNIC without some ANTS" Icky, but true...

Aren't the stamps so cute? Of course, there's WAY more combinations that you can make with the set... If you would like to purchase, please click here and will take you back to the store.

Here's the last look of my project... yeah, I know you've seen enough :)

I hope that you enjoyed this project:) If you are interested in purchasing any of the stamp sets, please click here! There is a gift with purchase - a special cutting file created by Lenae for the Sweet Thoughts stamp set, and a file created by Belinda for the Grillin n Chillin stamp set :)

Go visit the rest of the team to see their amazing projects using these stamps!

1. Alyssa: mythoughtsexactly.co
2. Bee: dare2beecreative.blogspot.com
3. Bee (Belinda): beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com
4. Jennifer: ourchangeofart.blogspot.com
5. Jessica: craftyrktsci.blogspot.com
6. Lenae: sugargemscrafts.blogspot.com
OH, and I am planning on having another challenge on my Facebook page, so stay tuned! It'll be sometime in mid-August!

Okay, everyone - I'm off (well, I'm already gone! lol...) and catch ya all later when I get back!

Last Paper Dolls Challenge... Swirl flowers project - Altered Clipboard.

2011-07-25T06:00:00.011-06:00

This post is going to be a little emotional one for me... It was only a couple of months ago that my friend Tamara (Happy Life, Crafty Wife) and I have decided to open this new challenge blog together. We were sooo excited and had tremendous interest and support. However, as you have probably seen on the Paper Dolls blog announcement, we have decided to shut down this blog as of this Friday. There are still going to be two featured artists, so please still go check them out this week! Sorry about the sudden announcement, but little did we know how managing two blogs and each of us having 3 kids would be soo much on us. So, therefore, this is the final challenge...

(Also, I have left on a vacation this morning - I'm probably on a road somewhere between Calgary and Spokane as you read this... we are headed to Seattle and Vancouver, so I'll be gone til Aug 5th!)

Well, I'm excited to that I was able to work on another pretty flower project - but this time with swirl flowers! The files were provided by Cindy from Creative Pointe, and honestly, I have never made a swirl flowers so I was anxious to try them out!

I wanted to do something different this time - and decided to try an altered project! I decided to make a clipboard with a calendar where you can mark important dates. I took a chipboard clipboard and decorated with her swirl flowers, and embellished it with cut out butterflies, pearl heart pin, doilies, lace and a butterfly button. The background paper is Portrait Collection from Crate Paper, and I used Distrezz-it-all to distress the edges to make it a vintage look. I inked some edges too.

What do you think?

Anyway, it's not really a hard project, but I've never done this sort of thing and was a little anxious to see how it was going to turnout, but I think that it turned out pretty and I may actually use it!

Back to the Distrezz-it-all... no pressure, but this is one amazing machine! It can distress in a matter of seconds to give it a vintage look. It's a little scary - make sure you tuck them away when not in use - but definitely a worthwhile tool to have!

So... head on back to the Paper Dolls blog (actually - the challenge will be hosted by Happy Life, Crafty Wife), download your free challenge freebie and get busy :) I would LOVE to see a great turnout for the last challenge, and there's 4 prizes to be given away! The prizes for this week are FABULOUS! It's worth it to do well!

Happy crafting everyone! Bye!

Featured Artist Friday - Cindy from The Creative Pointe!

2011-07-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

Hello Everyone! It's another Featured Artist Friday over at the Paper Dolls and I'm excited to be holding it right here on my blog!!! As you have seen in our last post, we are shutting down our Paper Dolls blog next weekend, and we cancelled our subscription to Typepad for August. The month of July has been paid for, but for some reason, the blog subscription has been cancelled immediately and now it looks all wonky and not so pretty anymore! I miss that look already!

Today, we're going to introduce you to someone that has been crafting all their life, but just recently started her endeavor with selling her SVGs. She mixes different media in her work, and the result is amazing - so artistic!

Please welcome our special guest today - Cindy from the Creative Pointe!

Welcome - it's great to have you here! Please introduce yourself!

My name is Cindy Pointe and I've been crafting & painting under the "Creative Pointe" label for over 25 years. My "nine-to-five" job is in advertising, which allows me to be somewhat creative during the day, but I feel like there is never enough time for my own artistic endeavors. I live "Up In Northern Michigan" on a beautiful lake in the woods with my hubby of over 28 years and my bulldog Millie (I recently lost my other bulldog, Louie).

What got you into crafting/how did you start your business?

I've crafted my whole life. About 25 years ago I took a stained glass class. The instructor was doing a craft show and asked me to put in some pieces to sell. I was hooked and a business was born. A few years after that, I took a decorative painting class and found a true passion. I got involved in papercrafting when my sister, who was a Stampin' Up demonstrator, paid off a loan in stamps! My first creations were cards, then scrapbooks for the dogs, and now I'm doing multi-media pieces combining my paints and papers. Almost three years ago, I purchased a Cricut and discovered SVGs. This January, I started a blog to share my SVG files and other creative ideas. In May, I joined up with a brand new site, Diecut Designer (http://www.diecutdesigner.com/), and started selling my SVGs. My files are also available at http://www.tkoscraps.com/ and on my blog, http://www.creativepointe.blogspot/.

What inspires you?

I'm inspired by so many things...nature, other artwork, a song. I love to see what other people are creating and then thinking of how I could interpret it.

When do you get to craft and design? Tell us know your other hobbies/interests?

Like just about everyone else, I don't get to create as much as I'd like. I try to get in the studio for a few hours each weekend for some major mess making with paint, paper, etc. During the week, I can work on SVG designs a little bit at a time...while I'm cooking or waiting for a load of laundry. Every spring I host a "Creative Chaos" weekend where I turn my house into a scrapping retreat for five to six girlfriends. In the summer, my sister comes for a week and we craft daily.
My other interests include my dog(s)...my studio is decorated in "bulldog"...reading, shopping, and spending time outdoors.

What cutter do you use? and prefer? and besides the cutter and software, what is the one MUST HAVE crafting tool?

I have the same Cricut I started with almost three years ago. When it dies, it will not be replaced (as I would not be able to use Sure Cuts A Lot). I'll wait until I need one to research the next cutter...who knows what they will come out with by then.
My "must have" craft item lately has been my "Splat Mat". I love how I can use it with my distress inks and glues. I'm a messy crafter, so I need all the help I can get!

Now, let's take a look at some of her fabulous files!

Teacup Shaped Card

Happy Father's Day Card

Princess Border Set

Thank you so much, Cindy! You can go to the Diecut Designer website and see all her collections! Join us next Monday for a new challenge as she's created something pretty for a challenge file!

Don't forget - the Christmas in July Challenge is still going on, with a fun file from Melissa over at KaDoodle Bug Designs. Create something for your chance to win one of two prizes!

~ The Dolls (Tamara & Thienly)

I finally played with my Sew Easy!

2011-07-21T23:21:00.000-06:00

... and I love it! Yes, I love it, and I wondered why I waited for long! No, I didn't wait... I didn't have time.

I just made a really simple card today, just so I can say that I've USED it! Nothing extravagant, so don't get excited.

I've used the Scallop stitch piercer and decided to create a "streamer" feel and make it into a birthday card. I did three lines across the top of the card and used two colors of floss alternating through each scalloped holes to create this look. I think it's cute the way it turned out.

This cute little beaver is from the Birthday Bash cartidge :)

So, a few tips...
1. Make sure that you're holding upright - none of the corners of the piercer plastic is resting on the paper.
2. Don't attempt this tool without the mat! You need the mat to make nice holes... perhaps a foam mouse pad would work, though :)
2. It helps to have a faint line on your paper where you want the piercer to roll.... I didn't do this, and that's why it's a little crooked.
3. Have consistent pressure and press down quite a bit... the bigger holes it makes, the easier it is to stitch.

So, as I was doing this, my mom looks at me and tells me that it's a neat little gadget, but seems so ancient compared to all the diecutters and embossing machines that I've been using.. yeah, I guess it is back to the old-fashioned style.. It's kinda relaxing to lace through each hole (reminds me of those preschool lacing toys) but I must agree, an electronic piercer, even a machine that would do this for me would make it so much easier. I can't imagine but wonder if that would be one of the next cool gadgets that would come out in the upcoming CHAs. Just imagine - you would be working on a computer with a software, and you can program it to make holes in any stitch style you like (can even download new ones!) and line up the holes perfectly so that it starts and ends in the spot you want it to... can make different sized stitching holes... can detect a drawing and create holes around the graphic (to make the lacing toy!)... oh, the possibilities are endless!

Regardless, this is a fun little gadget - not too expensive, unless you go all out and get all the floss and piercers available on the market, and adds something different to your everyday projects. I have lots of ideas in my head how I would want to use this, so yes, you will see me using more of this tool...

So, onto another thing... I made a really simple card, but I think it's pretty and elegant. This card only uses one graphic Elegant Party Table from Jessica Weible graphics, and did a print and cut on the card. What makes this stand out is that this graphic was printed twice, one serving as the base of the card, and the other, was put through the Silhouette to just cut some of the hanging ball decorations. The table was handcut manually. You can adjust what you want to cut by adjusting the "high pass" button and "threshold" lever.
I added foam dots to the back of them and brought the pieces out, added some bling to it and a ribbon, with a "congratulations" stamp - and voila! In 10 min, I have made a wedding card!

Here's a digital scrapbook layout I did with Miss Tiina's graphics! I used Vector Backyard Play for most graphics, and Vector Full of Beans for the grass.

Okay, that's it!
Good bye for now!

My Thoughts Exactly DT project day - featuring July release.

2011-07-14T07:24:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! Today is My Thoughts Exactly Design Team project day! I have few little things I'm going to be sharing with ya all! So, who's all bought their stamps??? If you haven't seen them, please check them out here. If you have purchased it, aren't they fun? Such fun mix and match sayings that you can do, and the August release is going to be just as fun, so stay tuned!

Anyway, for today's project - I decided to take the Under the Sea stamps "fish-ing you a great day" saying and make a little fish bowl bag with it. The bag is actually a round basket from the Fun Favors SVG Templates Kit. I sized it to the maximum size that I can cut on a 12 X 12 Cricut mat (ahhhh! I'm looking for the sheet with my dimensions, and I cannot find it! It was on a little duckie sheet.. and I actually seem to recall my 2 yr old having that in her hands the other day...) and I measured the dimensions (width and height) and used to size my fish bowl from Create-a-Critter cartridge (yes, this is a CRICUT cartridge - it's been a while since I pulled one of these out! I do miss them though.. it is really cute!) I cut my background layer (in tan) and my front layer of my fish bowl in acetate (it does give it the glass bowl look - it's a little hard to see in pics though :( )

I embellished my little basket/bag with fishies from Something Fishy Graphic Set and used my Silhouette to do Print and Cut, and I used glossy accents on the bubble and fishes to give a "wet" look. The handle of this is actually from Rosie's Ribbon Strips (used strip 10, but made it narrower).

Anyway, you're probably wondering where is this awesome stamp??? Well, it's on the back! I wrapped it around with twine, too!

Here's a few more different angles, just because!

Here, you can kind of see this acetate and how the bubbles have the glossy accents on them.

You can fill this little bag with goodies to brighten up someone's day. Here, I filled them up with the goldfish crackers... (You wouldn't believe how hard of a time I had trying to get some of these crackers in my pictures... I place them, and by the time I go behind the camera, they have swam into my daughter's mouth...)

Anyway, here's another two really quick and easy Print and Cut cards using the stamps.

"OWL always love you" "You're TWEET" Awww... The stamps are from The Birds and the Bees set - see, you can even put together conversation with these awesome stamps!

Aren't the graphics cute? This is from Miss Tiina Endless Summer vectors. I LOVE her graphics - it's way too cute and I want them all! I inked the edges, and I placed them using foam adhesives to bring out dimension to the card. The speech bubbles are from all free download (they are graphics, but cut them out on Silhouette).

Here's a side view:

My last card is REALLY simple, but I LOVE these colors and it's such a fun and cheerful card.

See, I told ya it was easy! I immediately fell in love with this graphic set, and had to purchase them! It's Kids and Pool by BabyStarDesign. I did do a little bit of work though... lol... the fin is actually another graphic, so I cut them out, used my Crop-a-dile to make a hole to slip their feet into the fins. This has got to cheer up/encourage someone! The sentiments are from Under the Sea set.

Another view:

The strip is actually a punch from EK Success, and all the twine that I've used in this post is from The Twinery.

Hope that you liked them! My other My Thoughts Exactly DT members also have some projects to share with you all, so please go visit the blog, and from there, you can link to everyone's blogs!

Have a good day, everyone!

Oh, and before I let you go - My Grafico is having a 40% off ENTIRE STORE today only!!! I've been using a LOT of files from there - there's so many cute graphics, versatile SVGs (my lantern, my shoes, my beach pail, my fish bag above... all are from here!), as well as cute digital papers and stamps! It's definitely a great time to stock up!

Paper Dolls inspiration project - 3D flowers.

2011-07-11T07:19:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone!

It's another Monday and hard to believe it's already the middle of July! We haven't had too much great weather to really enjoy the summer weather here, but we have been all relaxing and enjoying not having a regular schedule.

We have decided to go on a little family vacation getaway at the end of July to the first week of August, so we are very excited! (Thus, you will not be seeing too much of me then!) We're driving this time (I live in Calgary, AB Canada) and heading south - crossing the border and hitting Spokane, Seattle and coming up to Vancouver, BC Canada and heading back home. Oh, and my FB fans will probably have seen my exciting news... but I'm meeting Jin and family (Under a Cherry Tree) in Seattle! I can't wait! She has been one of my role models and can't believe I get to actually meet her! (Will definitely have to share some pics with you!)

Anyway, Monday means that there's another new challenge over at Paper Dolls. This weeks challenge freebie file was given to us from Jani at Paper Compulsions. She made some lovely 3D flowers for us (go over to the Paper Dolls blog to download the flowers)

I was wondering how I could use these flowers - really - the flowers are so beautiful by itself, you don't really need anything. BUT I wanted to try something new, and found a stamp that would go if I made a project to go with some garden theme. That's it - I'll do the watering can!

There is a beautiful watering can file over at My Time Mady Easy - so I had to get that. It took me a little bit to figure out the file, but I loved the way it turned out. It would've been even better if I had a double-sided paper for the watering can, so it wouldn't be white inside... but you needed two same papers to make a can, and I didn't have TWO double sided papers that would be appropriate for the look that I was trying to achieve.

Anyway, then I embellished this watering can with Jani's flowers, made a little tag with a sentiment, and added a butterfly.

It's simple, but I think it's pretty!

Here's the tag - sorry about the damage to the flowers and you'll see other places that are kinda "roughed" up... (it's my daughter that tried to grab this thing away from me, and this was the result...) I don't know if you think it's weird, but the location of the tag... I'm not sure I would've placed it where it is, but I had to, because she took a red marker and drew on my can! Arghhhh!! so the tag ended up there - no choice.

Here are the flowers upclose... and the leaves even comes with the file! The flower files are so beautifully made!

Here's the spout - I punched little circles on a paper, backed it with a darker paper to make it look like a "faux" spout...

And... here's the beautiful and simple butterfly! This file is from Lettering Delights Simple Shapes Butterflies.

I also inked the edges and added some lace and ribbons to it to make it more pretty!

I hope that you liked my project, if not, too bad - thanks for visiting me anyway! :) Go back over to the Paper Dolls blog - download your file and get going on a project for the challenge! Two winners will be chosen!

Oh, and by the way, if you haven't picked up the Simple Shapes Super Bundle - you have no more time to waste! The sale is ending TODAY!!! It's regular price is $150 and it's for $49! (and you can use a coupon from your past purchases to even get another 25% off!) You'll be seeing a lot of my project use a file here and there from this bundle - it's so versatile!

Alright - have a great day everyone!

My new baby Silhouette makes her first card so easily!

2011-07-09T11:43:00.000-06:00

For those of you that don't follow me on Facebook - I just recently got myself a Silhouette. I couldn't resist... People are talking about how clean it cuts, how easy to do the print and cut... and it's so much smaller...how cool it is to have one... so, I guess you can say that I was peer pressured... lol...

Anyway, because I live in Canada, I shipped it to my neighbor's cabin in US and had her bring it back for me. It was exactly a month from the day that I ordered until I had it in my hands. I can't believe I was able to wait that long, knowing how awesome this baby is now..

The day I received it, I made an announcement card....

So, yes, she's my new baby :)

It took me a few days until I was able to fully play with her... and on my third day, I interacted with her and she made some cuts for me that helped me easily make a card!

Funny - it was the print and cut feature that I really wanted, I guess, because I didn't even do a test cut and went straight into this! Looking at eveyone's videos seemed so complicated, but once you are actually doing it, it was really easy!

I was so impressed with how accurate it was able to cut and so fast. The cuts are very clean, too! I fell in love with my baby immediately when I saw what she was able to do! (Hope Brother Cricut won't get jealous...)

Anyway, here's my first card I made!

I used the Backyard Fun Graphic Set (burger, ketchup, mustard) but if you like these graphics, but would rather have the SVGs, they have it, too - Backyard Fun SVG. I used the Balloon Festival Graphic for the clouds and the sun (this collection is equivalent to Balloon Craze SVG), and for all the rest, I used the Fruity Picnic Graphic Set. The grass is the only SVG that I cut.

So, when I brought these files to be printed on the Silhouette, all you need to do is to lay it on the mat:

Then, you select the objects, and trace around the edges, so the Silhouette will know where to cut it. When you do the preview button, it'll show cutting lines like this:

You then print on your printer WITH registration marks, and then all you need to do is to feed it into Silhouette to cut. The Silhouette will know exactly where to cut by optical sensing (is that a word??) the corner marks. How clever is she???

And, you get to see close up pics of my card! Lucky you! hehe...

I love it! I love this feature. You are definitely going to be seeing more print and cut from me! Okie, dokie - that's it for now! Have a great weekend!

Oh, and my fave company MyGrafico (they sell the lanterns, shoes, the beach pail that I made!) has started an affiliate program! Click here to sign up as an affiliate!

.... and the winner of My Thoughts Exactly Stamps Relase Blog Hop giveaway is...

2011-07-05T21:41:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! What a crazy and fun weekend it was!

Thanks for all the comments on my My Thoughts Exactly Blog Hop project!

I'll make this short and quick - so here is the winner!

Before I get on with announcing the name of the winner, I had to repick my winner two times!! One was for Bee's Hive, and the other was for Jessica L who both belong on the same DT and I know they have these files! So this was my third try...

...and it's funny - there's only one person that asked my on my FB page, if she had missed her drawing... and the random.org had picked her. I had to count my comments twice!

Nope, she's the one! How coincidental! and the winner is...

Donna said...
Wow! Another cute project. You are amazing!

July 1, 2011 5:00 PM

Congratulations, Donna! Please contact me at thienly.azim@gmail.com to claim the prize!