making frames with the cameo

Well Ive had a busy week with 3 hospital trips for my treatment and one for my son who is still poorly but much better than he has been. They took more blood from him this week and gave him more pills...So today I was really tired but wanted to do something creative so I compromised and decided to do the design challenge for this month in the silhouette plus forum.

The challenge for the design this time was to make yourself a frame from a file that you already had on your pc. So I thought about it and tried to make one and went wrong...so off to youtube I went where I found this lovely tutorial from KraftingKelly, a member of the silhouette plus forum! I should have just looked on hers or doodling debbies blogs to start but hey..life is about finding and learning..

Here is Kellys tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIKUYCQmTUo

The tutorial is very easy to follow and I had the same layer that Kelly was using in her video so I used that for my first

It was a flourish mat that I have made into a frame and I think this could be very useful for cardmaking. Unfortunately as it was a file from the silhouette store the resulting frame still comes under their rules and so therefore I can not share this file but I will tell you that once youve done one or two then you realise just how easy it is to change the files you have into  something you want..

I played for a few hours and here is another I made from a silhouette file. This one is made from a flower that came free as the free50 with my cameo. I took the flower and resized, then made a mat layer by duplicating the same flower and welding them together. thus Ihad a mat to use....

I liked this one too and think it would also make a great layer for a card.

I have always liked designing but I havent done nearly enough with my cameo and alas with the hospital and my sons illness it has been lead silent just waiting for me for weeks! Now that I did this and enjoyed doing so maybe it will give me the spirt I needed.

Thank you for looking, hopefully I will have inspired someone else to try for themselves , you never know you just might be the Jasper Conran of siolhouette files!!

Love debby xx

A Valentines..........

The Silhouette online store was having a Valentines sale and for just about a week all the Love cut files were reduced! So being a savvy crafter I went loaded with my monthly subscription and bought every heart and swirl and love file I thought I may ever need, because afterall a heart and a swirl can high light any card any time of the year...I was very reserved and only bought 30 but I could have gone for an awful lot more if I had the inclination!!

One of the files I bought was a card file, and I thought I would make it up for hubby! In the store they show it black and purple and I loved that combination! but I just had to do my own interpretation and this is the file...Design ID #15779
1/24/2011 it is a file designed by Jennifer Wambach...

I had bought a pack of card from Lidl. It is german card and it is 270gsm, and it was cheap really cheap...it was 25 sheets for £1.79 and it cuts perfectly on my cameo and embosses so beautifully with my cuttlebug that Im so glad I bought a box when I saw it!! I chose shades of brown and caramel for this card...

I cut the base from a rich chocolate brown, and the layer out of caramel. To add interest I used my Cosmic Shimmer micra powders. I used copper, gold and brown..and although Im not a good photographer you can just about see parts of the shimmer on the card.

 

 

 

 

I stuck the intricate layer on with stick and stay (the red one) from crafters companion, something I dont always do, as I usually use my xyron machine for intricate pieces but seem to be having trouble replacing the  glue roll for it. As my arms are not very good at the moment I needed an easy replacement and stick and stay worked for me.As the card was for my husband I got the good stuff out and used my swarovski chrystals so although you cant see it because I took this card outside to shoot because it is a dark cloudy day here, the card is actually very shiney and bright. The ribbon was in my stash and I bought it from a nice little old lady at a card boot last year.

 

Thank you for looking

love debby xx

Feb is here

Well its now a new month and still I havent anything to share with you yet....

I really havent done anything worth showing this last month because between the hospital treatments and my sons illness I just havent had the time or when Ive had the time Ive been unwell...I have my Valentines to make yet and my mothersday card (its mothersday March here in the UK} and dont even mention Easter!! I am hoping to actually get down to some crafting tomorrow and make a start., at least without crafting for so long I have some inspiration floating around and I think I will be a very busy bee...

Although I havent made anything I have been doing craft related works...I reorganised my desk and shelves. I like to do this regularly as its surprising what you will re-find! and if ever Im having a block I find a rummage through my crafting drawers bringing Inspiration.

My son is on the mend now, and is so much better, he has to have another blood test on Monday but hes almost normal now haha! Thank You to all that sent him their Love x

Thank You for looking

Love Debby xx

Januarys nearly done!!

Well I havent really done any crafting this month and I think I am getting withdraw symptoms!! I am 3 weeks into my hospital treatment and I have a possible 15 weeks to go, which feels a little bit daunting at the moment and am hoping that my body heals quickly so that I only have to do a 6 week course (we can dream cant we?) but the indications at the moment area that my body doesnt like the treatment.....

I have no inspiration at the moment to do any crafting but I went to the craft shop today and picked up some decoupage sheets in the sale and hope to at least do some cards with those but Im not holding my breathe as my calcification of the muscles is giving me gip at the moment and I cant move my left arm at all and seeing how Im left handed this presents a slight problem....guess hubby will be helping me whether he likes it or not!!

Thank you for reading my ramblings today

Love debby xx

Steam Punk

I have never made a Steam Punk card before but have looked at loads over the last year or two as they have been very popular. I think the craze went so well because it is a perfectly respectful card to give to a gentleman, and a little bit more progressive than the boat on the sea type card that many a gentleman recieved in the past.

I went to the craft store this week and they had a Docraft Goody bag. In amongst the items there was some from there Chronology range, including the stamp that I have used on the following card..

 The background paper was the same burgundy one that I had used in the last project, my Oriental card, I had just enough to make the background for this card. I then used My Cameo to cut a cog overlay out that I obtained from the Silhouette store. I cut it in mirri card.
I used Neenah Card 180gsm to stamp the image that I had chosen from my goodie bag and used Staz on Black Ink.
I cut a couple more cogs out again from the silhouette store and some clock hands from the silhouette store. I used just a generic white card for those and one of the cogs I enamelled up using the black enamel powder from the Debbi Moore range. The other cog and clock hands I inked up with an old ink pad from amongst my collection.
The Heart was a die cut that I found in my stash and could have come from anywhere, and because I was doing my first steam punk I felt the heart needed bling and so it has some aurora borealis gems on from Meiflowers.

So there you have it my first Steam Punk not quite as frothy as some but I think just enough to get away with

Thank tou for looking and leaving me a hello

Love debby xx

Oriental Card

The January Challenge for the Silhouette Plus Forum this month was a colour Palette. Myoriah chose a photograph of a burgundy, green blue and gold rug. That was the inspiration this month and you could use one or more of the colours.

Well for christmas this year I recieved a kit by Debbi Moore for enamelling for cardmaking,. I have been wanting to experiment with this since I opened it!! The following card enabled me to play whilst using Myoriahs colour Palette...

The black tile is actually a  piece of white card, that I put the enamel powder onto and heated,. I did that 3 times to make a thick layer and whilst it was still hot I inked up a stamp that came in the kit with a white ink and pushed it into the hot enamel. I left it to cool for a minute or so then pulled it out . A quick tidy up of the edges with my scissors and the piece of white card was no more...

The background paper, frames,girl and flowers were all done in Craft Artist 2 I made sure I put shadows to make it look 3d even though it is just a flat card! I love that you can get this effect for your cards without the bulkiness of real card when the postage rates are going up all the time.

Thank you for looking
Love Debby xx

Fonts

The design challenge for this month at the http://s15.zetaboards.com/Silhouette_Plus/index/ silhouette plus forum was to make either a title, card or whatever but that you must use at least 2 different fonts.

So me being me felt I just had to try this one out as it sounded fun!! Here is the results of my little play with fonts

I chose the word Valentine for no other reason than thats the next big date for me as a card maker, and it had a few letters lol. Once I chose a font I typed one letter in it then I typed the name of the font under the letter for other peoples reference. just about every font I have used on this montage I have obtained from the internet for free.

Doing this opened my eyes to just how many fonts I actually have loaded and some really pretty and useful ones. yet I still mostly use adorable and ale and wrenches!! I have them loaded now is the time to use them and experiment more....so not a useless exercise but one that wakes you up to what already you have at your fingertips....

And yes I did go to the hospital today and started my treatment so if Im a little hit and miss with my blog I know you will understand why...(it went better than I expected!!)

Thank you for looking
Love debby xx