The New Girl

There is a new girl in the house and she is mean, nasty and CUTE!!! Behold.....Fluffers:

Basically, like all of our cats, she was a stray that I brought in and cleaned up. She was absolutely infested with ticks and fleas. So much so that you could part her fur in any part of her body and see 2 or 3 bugs and their eggs. She had two flea dips and a thorough comb through with a flea comb and tweezers and she is as good as new! Here she is checking out my cricut machine:

So this week I made a trip to Michaels and finally got something that my lazy butt should have had ages ago. A Cuttlebug! There was a good sale so I picked up some metallic acrylic paints, D'vine swirls cuttlebug folder, some paper stacks, new Recollections vines and glittered ginko leaves, K & Company alphabet stack and the 12" x 24" K & Company stack that was on clearance. Here is my awesome haul:

The stacks are K & Company Life's Journey and DCWV Travel cardstock stack. I prefer the colors in this stack for fall rather than the actual DCWV autumn stack. They are a little more natural.

This week I cranked out some projects that I am very happy with. The first was a card using the new French Manor Cricut Cartridge. At first I was wishing that there were more layers to the images on this cartridge but once I started working with it I realized that half the fun was laying glitter, jewels and color on. It allows for a lot more creative license than my lazy butt was originally planning on working with but here is what I came up with:

And the inside:

The card feature on the cartridge was perfect and the chandelier, lion, borders and frame were a blast to sparkle up. I'm loving this cartridge more and more. In fact, I also used it to make a page for my Aunt and Uncle's wedding gift album:

I used the border feature and layer from the Eiffel Tower page 68 of the booklet and cut it using the fit to page feature which calculated out to 5". I inked the edges of the piece and adhered it to the blackout piece using Elmer's Craft Bond spray glue which is my go-to for intricate large pieces. I Then matted the photo using the K & Co Ancestry mat pad and used the diamond pieces from the cut out to create a border on all four sides. The mat is also inked using chocolate brown chalk ink. The bling is from Recollections and the die cut metallic flowers are from K & Co Handmade collection. The paper is Moda for Daisy D's in Antique Parchment - Paisley and the cut outs where done using Basic Grey paper in Mandarin Slice from the Marrakesh collection. The smaller flowers are popped up on 3-d Zots as well as the little Butterfly.

Next week I will be having a furry house guest and will also be embarking on an adventure in San Francisco. Also can't wait to share more on the bigger project that I've been working on!

Later Gators!

Exploring the French Manor and California Foothills

cSo as many of my crafting colleagues know, the past couple weeks have marked the launch of the Cricut Circle community and the receipt of the elusive French Manor cartridge (formerly European Decor). Now it has been fairly consistent of Provocraft to adhere to two styles (excluding fonts): cute/fun/cartoony and ornate/vintage/classic.

Examples of cute/fun/cartoony cartridges are:

• Create a Critter
• Disney Licensed Cartridges
• Cricut Lite Meow
• Mini Monsters
• Once Upon a Princess
• Life is a Beach

Examples of ornate/vintage/classic cartridges are:

• Storybook
• Nursery Rhymes
• French Manor
• Cricut Lite Botanicals
• Summer in Paris
• Heritage

Of course there are more and there are also cartridges that bridge the gap (Wild Card, Serenade, Cindy Loo) but these are generally the two main styles that Cricut art generally fall into. The big trick is making both work for your style. Seeing as the new French Manor cartridge is a very specific style and is an exclusive cartridge to members of the circle, many members who have received the cartridge are lacking inspiration. So after much soul searching and creative manipulation in the deepest recesses of my imagination I have come up with the following projects featuring French Manor:

The first is a piece of wall art I made for my Mom to hang at work. She loves to decorate her workspace and I love to provide the means to do that so here is her new welcome sign:

My inspiration was Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. The blues, golds and creams of the castle coupled with the ornate detailing fit perfectly with the European feel of this cartridge and the gorgeous font of the "Wilkommen" cut. I used Recollections Precious Metals card stock in the bronze and pearl /to make the cuts and mounted them on a 12" x 12" piece of paper from the DCWV Old World premium stack. The border pieces are cut using the Fit to Page feature and are from page 49 of the cartridge booklet and . The screen piece (page 54) and layer were cut at approximately 4 inches. Then the text was cut from gold card stock at approximately 1 1/2".

GLUING INTRICATE PIECES:
To adhere intricate pieces like the screen to the pearl backing I like to use Elmer's Craft Bond spray permanent adhesive. It is acid free and water resistant. I typically find an old box that I received a package in and spray in there in order to contain the mist of glue. Otherwise I might put it inside a garbage can with a new bag and spray there.

The next project I created is an addition to the wedding gift album for my Aunt and Uncle's upcoming wedding:

The paper is from K & Company and is in the Que Sera Sera 12" x 12" stack. I also used K & Company adhesive chipboard flowers from the Urban Rhapsody collection. The leaves are from the Prima Jewel Box Leaves collection in Faberge. And I used a large variety of stickles to embellish the cuts and the design of the paper, including the butterfly, berries and foliage. As for French Manor cuts I cut the peacock from pg 46 at 6" and the border to the photo is from pg 55 and was cut using the Fit to Length feature twice at 4" long and twice at 5" long.

ADHERING CHIPBOARD

I have found that chipboard that already has adhesive on the back tends to fall off pretty much immediately. So I always apply my own adhesive in addition to the factory applied adhesive. My go to glue is my ATG 1/4" which is what I used for the flowers above. Other than that, any glue runner or Scotch permanent double sided tape in the yellow package should work.

Other than racking my brain for ideas for the beautiful French Manor artwork I have also been continuing to love the Cindy Loo cartridge. I made the following double page layout but have not yet decided what photos to feature:

I have also embellished a little box that contained makeup brushes featuring the cut from Cindy Loo pg 59 at 4 3/4" on the lid and the cut on pg 60 at 4 3/4".

Also the flower in the box is handmade. I will look for the tutorial and share it in my next post.

In other life news I am currently working on some big things in terms of discovering what my new career will be, having ran like a bat out of hell from a career in accounting. It does involve design and embracing my creative side. I'll be sharing more in my next post. 

I have also been re-discovering the outdoors by hiking, swimming and kayaking by my home in the gorgeous, hot California foothills. My current favorite place to explore is Folsom Lake and have been absolutely loving and enjoying every bit of it. Here is a picture of me on a hike above the big, beautiful, blue lake. This is right after a hike and right before I went for a turn in the kayak's along the lake shore followed by a relaxing swim to cool down. Best part about it all? Losing weight and getting tan!

Talk to you all soon!

Summer Romance Projects

It is HOT!!! Boiling, nasty, scorching 100+ degree hot here in central California. And so needless to say, I am hiding inside. So that allows for some time to spend fiddling with paper. I recently got my hands on the gorgeous and romantic Botanicals Cricut Lite cartridge from Walmart and just love how gorgeous the intricate silhouettes are. Immediately inspired I set out cutting and came up with the following:

I used Gold shimmer and Black Recollections card stock and cut out the Snail image at 4" for a journaling spot. It will probably make a cameo in one of my upcoming projects. The bottom two pieces are a birthday card for my Aunt. The envelope is a standard brown A6 size envelope. I then cut the Vine9 image from Gold and brown card stock in order to fit the height of the envelope and attached it with my ATG gun so that the piece becomes the flap and is lifted to access the card inside. The Card was cut from Basic Grey Capella papers and the Flower4 Image on the front was cut from black and powder blue card stock at approximately 3 1/2". The double sided paper of the car is burgundy inside so I signed it with a gold gel pen and attached the creme colored ribbon like a bookmark using my ATG gun. She liked it.

The other project I have been working on was inspired by a project on the Prima webcasts that was taught by Julie Fey Fan Balzer. Rather than using prima though, I decided to use some more of the Basic Grey Capella papers. And here's what we got:

Basically it is a 12" x 12" piece of black card stock that is folded horizontally and vertically at 4" and 8" to create 9 - 4" x 4" squares. The corner squares are folded diagonally towards the center and the two squares in the center of the edges are folded into a triangle that goes from the center of the square to the two corners. It's probably easier to follow the picture than my description. The patterned papers where cut down 1/4" to allow the black card stock to peek out (3 3/4" x 3 3/4"). One unfolded center edge square has a piece of pattered paper that is 8" long in order to create the flap that secures the box closed. In the Prima project, there was a mini album in the center and the box folded up around it. I haven't decided what to put in the center but it's probably going to be something REALLY good. Like a winning lotto ticket to myself.

In life news, the student is now teaching the masters and my parents have decided to get on the faux farm bandwagon. When I say faux farm I mean having all the charms of a farm (animals, some produce, open space) with minimal work and hardly any of the dependence. We're animal lovers and so we get a real kick out of calling chickens by their first names and chatting with goats about how they slept. Pathetic really but I love my life. Anyways, their faux farm is 3 x the size of mine and has a pond. So after closing escrow two weeks ago we all went over, did some cleaning up and passed congratulations all around. Here is my mom in front of her new faux farm pond:

Stay cool (literally and figuratively)!

Rainbow Bright!

Even though Summer is having some sort of identity crisis here in California, I'm still thirsty for bright colors all around. So lately I've been working some color into my makeup, projects and garden.  I have a lazy girls garden with plenty of perennials and drought resistant plants. Some of my favorites are lavender and lantanas. The best thing about lantanas is that butterflies LOVE them and, just like a female power singer, you can't keep them down. So there has been an abundance of flowers all around while I pick my nose.

My sister and I made appointments at MAC to get our makeup done recently and had a blast with all the crazy colors those girls expertly laid on. My sister got sea blue and champagne eyes and soft pink lips. I got lime green eyes and spiced red lips. Totally out of character for both of us but fun, nonetheless. Behold, the looks:

The one thing I made out with from the makeover was some MAC lustre drops. It looks like a bottle of stickles glitter glue but has a soft pink liquid inside. You squeeze out just a drop and either mix it in with your foundation or apply directly to the tops of your cheeks and right underneath your brows for a gorgeous natural sheen on your skin that looks healthy and refreshed. I've been wearing it every day!

As for working color into my projects I've been having a ball breaking out of my mold on my Aunt and Uncle's wedding gift album. The first set of pages is from their trips to Hawaii. With sunsets, ocean and jungle in mind I created the following 2-page layout:

I used the Life's A Beach Cricut cartridge to cut the bamboo and birds of paradise and inked the edges with red chalk ink. I also incorporated a postcard that I obtained on my own trip to Hawaii.

Now my Aunt and Uncle have the two biggest, cutest orange Garfield cats. These two kitties regularly get haircuts so that they sport a lion's many, leg warmers, and a tufted lion tail. Long story short, it's the cutest thing on the planet. I also managed to get my hands on some of the new Cricut Lite cartridges from my local Walmart and snapped up the Meow cartridge featuring tons of cute kitties. So I had to have them make a cameo somewhere in the album. Hence the following orange cats that have nothing to do with the picture:

The 12 x 12 paper and greet matt are glittered as are the K & Company 3-d flowers.

The last page isn't a far cry from my usual style but I can do what I want! Just kidding. I really wanted to use the Mariposa papers by DCWV and this paper was perfect for this gorgeous picture of my Aunt.

I used some butterfly die cuts from K & Company Blossomwood collection and attached them with pop dots. The dress form is from Webster's Pages Postcards From Paris collection. The light blue pearls are by Prima, and the photo border is a Martha Stewart punch.

There's a few more projects that I will be sharing later and will be using the Cindy Loo cartridge and the Botanicals cartridge. I've been trying my hand a making little boxes lately so stay tuned!

All in the Family

In the past couple weeks since the concert I have been taking it nice and easy in preparation for some doctor visits (nothing serious but I might have some good news coming soon!) and have been trying to complete a couple of projects. My darling Uncle Bill will be getting married this October to a wonderful lady named Ying. She is an amazing chef and overall wonderful person who I am proud and excited to call my Aunt. They definitely don't need any of the typical nonsense wedding gifts and I can't afford to write them any sort of check that I feel they deserve so I decided to make them an album for their wedding and to really let loose. I am trying different styles and techniques that I've never used before. I'm even daring to go simple. They have such cool, eclectic, urban, traveled style that I wanted to really move away from the total glitter explosion that I'm used to.  I will be sharing my progress as soon as I can take some pictures. In the meantime I wanted to catch up on my most recent projects and highlight some techniques I used.

This page is a part of my on-going Disney album and features one of those Disney trips that we saved coins in coffee cans for. We had cashed in bottles and cans, got a coupon motel from the truck stop penny saver, ate packed snacks rather than park food and milked that trip for all it was worth. The one highlight was the splurge on my princess cone hat and my little sister's Daisy Duck hat with a bill that squeaked. Something I wanted to try out was using a simple 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper as a background. I also utilized some DCWV glitter paper to cut out the "Wishes" title with my cricut. This layout is true to my heavily glittered style but I really loved the pops of bright color. The pink tasseled border is by far my favorite piece in the layout and is part of the new gorgeous line of Jolee's Boutique embellishments and borders at Michael's.

This page is actually slightly older as can be told by the papers I used. They are from Webster's Pages and are absolutely beautiful. One thing I love about Webster's Pages is that they are so great to detail cut with a pen knife. For this layout I took two different 12 x 12 designs and used my x-acto knife to cut out the intricate pieces that frame the page and then layered one piece on top of the other using pop dots. I then tucked the Prima butterfly vine behind the top layer and secured it with some glue. I used K & Company Que Serra Serra grand adhesion butterfly stickers to add more dimension and then accented parts of it with Stickles (note the dark spots on the raspberries). The lettering is also from Webster's Pages. The photo matt is a scrap I had with punched corners.

This next page is another example of my Webster's pages hand cut and layering technique. I used a lot of die cut pieces from K & Company Que Sera Sera and a Prima bouquet. I love the Art Deco images of the flappers for this one and the peeks of gilt.  While not scrapping, I have been reading The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. Now I LOVE historical fiction and I LOVED The Other Boleyn Girl (also by Philippa Gregory) but I'm getting sick of every woman in historical fiction having some sort of magic powers, sight, or some other witchy qualities. Philippa Gregory is amazing with making history breathe and pulse but as soon as the heroine starts touting her descendence from a French water goddess, it ventures into tacky land. However, I am so excited that she is taking on the women of the War of the Roses and am looking forward to learning much from her in the upcoming books in this series. Her books are also fairly spicy without being raunchy.  I am only halfway through and am dragging through the magic spell this and that portions. But if that doesn't bore you then this is a worthwhile read. 

Well, until next time!

Ukranian Gospel, Shopping, and a Birthday

Well this was a really busy extended weekend. First and foremost my Dad sang in a reunion concert with all his friends that have been singing Ukrainian Gospel music for about 40 years.  It was really neat to finally meet all these people and to get to know their kids who are not kids at all, they're my age. The concert was beautiful and everyone sounded great. This is a picture of my dad in the orange shirt practicing

Here are some of the singers and their families:

Overall, it was an amazing experience to get in touch with my culture and make a ton of great friends.

Now, being from a Slavic background, it is entirely likely that we'll stay latched onto a bottle for a majority of our natural lives. And I'm not talking baby formula here. My younger sister, who is much more introverted than I am, turned 21 yesterday and we have yet to see if this is going to be the beginning of a downward spiral but so far so good. Per her request, we chowed down on Italian (our Mom's heritage). And after much prodding she agreed to order a token 21st birthday cocktail which she ended up splitting with the whole table. Not a very promising drunk. I got her a bunch of gorgeous Stila and MAC makeup, shoes, a dress, a jacket, and jewelry. She deserves it. She also made out with some Juicy Couture perfume from her boyfriend. And it wouldn't have been a family dinner if the evening didn't involve us causing a scene with our loud blabber, lame jokes with the server (who ordered the check? hardy har!), and failed attempts at constructive criticism all around. Happy Birthday Jenny!

AND I received a challenge: A zip-a-dee-do-da (splash mountain) banner for my Mom's Disney themed desk at work. In the meantime I am continuing my work on my Venice Album:

I used the new elegant cakes cartridge to highlight this photo of me in front of the Rialto bridge in Venice. I attacked the cut pieces with platinum stickles and glimmer misted the layout with some Tattered Angels Coffee Shop glimmer mist. Unfortunately I forgot to block the photo when I sprayed it so I have a speckled face now. I used my ATG gun to adhere the ribbon which I found in the dollar bin at Michael's. I folded the ribbon over and adhered the underside in order to create the pleated effect. The photo matt is from DCWV Happily Ever After matt stack. I feel like I was able to achieve my usual fussy look without all the fussy materials (prima flowers, bling, layers of distressed paper, etc.). Probably due to the intricacy of the Elegant Cakes cartridge shape. Hope to feature more projects on that soon!

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

This made me laugh so hard and went perfectly with my enjoyment of Gone With the Wind that I described in my last post so I had to share. Enjoy!