Saturday, December 24, 2011

Daddy's Hands

Since the first time I saw these wonderful photos done by my daughter at the birth of my littlest grandson, I knew what I wanted to do with them. Here is a 16x20 Art Canvas that I did this year for my Son-in-law and his family for Christmas. The vocal photo is printed at 8x10 and the smaller one is 4x6. The canvas was colored with Twilight CTMH ink using direct to canvas technique for the background. The Chocolate mats were cut with the Art Philosphy Cricut Cartridge an then the center of the larger cut was used as the mat for the smaller picture. They were sanded to distress the edges. The words were cut from Chocolate cardstock using the Lyrical Letters cricut cartridge. The flowers were cut from some cardstock that I had, not sure of who they are from. We had our mini Christmas with the Richmond family yesterday, so I'm not spoiling the surprise by posting today.

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dry Erase Boards - so much fun

Wanted to share with you another easy and fun project to do for those on your shopping list. This year is all about a homemade Christmas for me. I have been trying to get different projects completed for the last few months. I love to craft, whether it be crocheting, stamping, sewing, making homemade goodies in the kitchen or using my wonderful embroidery machine. This idea was sparked by a very talented CTMH consultant, Tarina Holloway. She didn't list a blog address so I can't send you to see hers that made me pull out my prize
Felicity Collection papers and stamp set, which was a special offered awhile ago. These could easily be done with any papers and the Art Philosophy cartridge is great for cutting the mats like mine shown here.



 (click on any photo to see details)
These are 12 x 16 and are simple frames that I found at Michael's and Walmart for about $5. The artwork is all under the glass ( or acrylic would work too). You can buy Dry Erase pens at various locations and your picture frame becomes a dry erase board. The days of the week were stamped in chocolate using the Save The Date stamp set and the words Notes and To Do were from the stamp set which came with the Felicity papers, but any Alphabet stamp set would do.
So for under $10 you have a personal, useful and decorative gift for friends, family, co-workers, teachers any number of people on your list. I would love to know what you think.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

America

(click on image to see details)
Art Canvas for my Grandson's room. I wanted to do something that I have been thinking about for a long time. All the states are cut from retired CTMH papers using the 50 States Cricut cartridge, cut at 5". I took a 16x20 art canvas and swiped my Cranberry ink pad across it to make the stripes for the flag background. Star Spangled Blue dabbed to the upper corner symbolized the blue star background. The edges of the states were distressed with Chocolate ink before being glued to the art canvas with glue dots. The letters were cut from the Cheerful Seasons cricut cartridge at 1 3/4 inches in Chocolate.
This was a lot of fun to do, I was so happy the my daughter was able to be down for a visit to help me piece the puzzle together. I was going to leave it as just a canvas and hang it as such, but after completing this, she (the mom) feels that it needs to be under a glass or acrylic covering of some kind, so I'll be looking for a frame to put it into where I can have it under cover.

Christmas Gifts

I decided to do a basket of homemade goodies for my Hostess club Ladies to thank them for their friendship and loyalty. It started with the idea of cozy socks, packaged as cupcakes.I didn't like this wrapper that was what I had fashioned.  I had another wonderful consultant email a cut file she had done for the wrappers on Design Studio and so I decided to make the wrappers out of the Believe paper pack papers. I ran them thru my crimper to give them the ridges and threaded a fine silver ribbon thru the scalloped wrapper, packaged them with a cherry on top and a little tag that says peace on earth stamped from the Christmas Melodies stamp set.
(click on a picture to enlarge to see more details)
The jars in the front show my homemade Pomegranate Sugar Scrub to to pamper their skin against the dryness of winter and the bag holds some yummy Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix with mini chocolate chips. Just a few goodies to pamper them. They all got put in silver baskets that I found at the $ store and then bagged and a poinsettia and ribbon added to pretty them up. It was a lot of fun, and I hope they will enjoy the contents as much as I enjoyed making the gifts for them.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas Gifts for the Kindergarten Class

You all might remember my post earlier this year about the adorable toppers http://doingitwithink.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-cute-are-these.html  that Tracey designed over at  http://www.gr8scraps.blogspot.com. Well I fell in love with them and scaled down her sizes (she made hers for jumbo candy canes) to make for pencil toppers for Jackson's kindergarten class


. They are not allowed by the school to bring candy, so I figured a couple of packs of $tree pencils would be perfect. Then I added an eyelet and stung some gold thread to make a hanger, so that the kids can remove the pencils and still have an ornament for their tree. I block of white styrefoam makes a good base to stick the pencils in and will be fairly easy to carry into the school the day of the party. The pencils have a glue dot and a small band of cardstock holding them on the back, easy to remove and not damage the toppers/ornaments. These were all cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and CTMH cardstock. It was so easy to do when my cricut did all the cutting.
I'd love to know what you think? I have several Christmas gifts I'm working on for friends and family and will be posting them as I complete them.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I am convinced that I am truly in my second childhood. A couple of years ago, I finally gave in and bought a fake tree. I have to tell you as a real tree advocate, it was a big concession, but as the kids left the nest it was just one more way to minimize all the work hubby has to do to help me around the house and tree shopping and decorating and clean up were one of the issues he had with decorating for Christmas. Thank goodness that the kids have managed to get home for a least a portion of the holidays, or there would be no Christmas decorations to be found  here if Dad had anything to do with it. Well while the fake tree was pretty once set up, and yeah it was easier not to have to string lights and pick up pine needles, I just couldn't "love" it. So this year I saw this neat idea that someone pasted to facebook, and knew that this would be my new tree love. My theory is if I'm going to put up a fake tree, than don't hide the fact that it's fake, shout it from the tree tops. (click on any picture to get a closer look)
Isn't he fun? It makes me smile every time I see it. We searched high and low for just the right tree, but it was at second hand stores (I know over the years, I've seen a million and wondered why someone would buy a white tree), and at discount places like Big Lots. We tried KMart, and Target no luck, then we tried a little old fashioned box store called Roses and there it was for $25. We added a few strands of new lights with white cords, I elected to buy the one without the lights already attached, cause it was fuller and I don't mind stringing lights. Snowman's head was found at Big Lots ($6),

 the super dark blue glass bulbs at KMart for his buttons,

some really pretty garland to add to the fullness and make it shimmer like a fiber optic tree that really gives life to the branches.

I also found some really neat snowflakes at the dollar tree (6 to a card). A blue scarf that was gifted to us, and some pine branches from the yard for arms. So here you have him, I love him so much I may leave him up all winter. I would love to know what you think. Second childhood or just revolting against the green fake tree?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Christmas Countdown

 As I was refilling this Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar  that I did a few years ago, I decided to post
it here for any that hasn't seen it. Made with a cookie sheet from the dollar store, the little 3D cardstock Trees hold little surprises for each day of the Christmas countdown. Spakling pipecleaners hold the textured trees together. A small magnetic on the back of each lets it stick to the board and makes for firm hold, but easy removal. It hangs from ribbon which is attached to sticky picture hooks adhered to the back.

Monday, November 21, 2011

First time using Design Studio and first Shape/Word book

Well I've been a cricut owner for a number of years, a cricut occasional user for some time and now with the addition of CTMH Art Philosophy I started using my cricut almost everyday for almost everything I create. I got a great deal on an Expression a few months ago, which opened up still another level of creativity with the cricut and I have discovered more of the AP cartridge potential with the large flowers, frame mats, and all the rest of the nearly 700 images available. A couple of days ago I finally got my Design studio software up and working (computer incapability issues) and found word (shape) books on youtube. Well here is my first attempt at using my Design Studio, along with the Base Camp cartridge and some CTMH cardstock. I haven't finished decorating this for JOSHUA yet, but couldn't wait to show you my first, but I can tell you, not my last Shape/Word book. I hope you love it, by the way don't tell Joshua about it (it's a present).
These could get addictive.

Chistmas Album 9x9

We had the most fun last week at my hostess club. My wonderful friends had seen the album that I put together after seeing the wonderful one Tracey did http://gr8scraps.blogspot.com/2011/11/9x9-dimensional-christmas-album.html,  and wanted to make one too.  I copied hers with some modifications mostly adding my poinsettia to the front raher than to a band to go around. This is a 9x9 memory album just perfect for those holiday photos. How about taking all those great photo cards you get at Christmas showing how the friends kids have grown, that we all love, and putting them in their own little album to look at and watch them grow.
The album folds out and has the cutest little pop out rolling white winter hills, with sparkling glitter glistening like snow. The trees are also covered in glitter and the christmas trees have red glitter balls. Sorry that the glitter is not showing up real well, but if you click on the pic, you should be able to see some of the detail.

Fully opened you can see both pages of pop out. I did not cover the back of the two middle pages, but you could for more pictures or leave it white to add your journaling or your pictures or your stories about this Christmas. The back cover of the album is te same olive cardstock with the red plaid. For the pop outs I found that the CTMH White 12" x 12" TRUE FIT™ FOLIOS https://janeo.myctmh.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=2901&CatalogID=171 works wonderful. They are a great weight and long enough to span the album pages and are truly white, so the trees cut in white daisy look terrific. I did find some lightweight poster board which I cut for my hostess club to use, since I didn't have enough folios for all the hills.
Again thank to Tracey Sanders for her ideas.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

I've been creating, just not posting, sorry

This has been a really crazy month for me. I went to visit my DD's family over Halloween, We had a great time, with the weather turning crisp and the leaves changing into a burst of autumn glory. She lives in a area that is totally natural and in the summer it is hard to find the sunshine, but oh how glorious it is in the fall. Had fun helping with Halloween costumes, attended both school and neighborhood festivials and did some shopping.
What I also did was come home with a nasty cold which flared up my COPD and my chronic broncities and landed me in bed for over a week when I got home.
So now to show you some of the projects that I've done with my crafting ladies that meet here once a month.
Love the easel cards and using Art Philosophy for all the cuts is so simple and easy. I told you I love red plaid and poinsettia, so you will see a theme to my Christmas creations this year. The Believe paper pack is just perfect and of course this is my favorite one in the pack.
Gold embossing the words, just as a pop of glam, don't you think?

Used my silver metallic cardstock and some outdoor denim cardstock and of course my favorite cartridge, AP fir te cuts. Then embossed some of the same silver cardstock with a cuttlebug folder that looked like swirly snow to complete the outside. I've got more to post and will try and get to them later today to try and get caught up. I've just started playing with my design studio software that I was unable to use due to computer conflict and I've been having a great time. Hope you all are having as much fun as I am.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Masterpieces

Spent the week with my daughter Shannon, her hubby and my two beautiful grandboys. We had fun craving pumpkins, attending fall festivals with the 2 year old, going to the movies with the 5 year old to see Dolphin Tales (which was terrific) and working on some projects.
We found this idea at Oh So ShAbBy By Debbie Reynolds and just had to give it a try. We cut the letters out of Oh my crafts Vinyl using the cricut expression at 6 inches. Then made a trip to Home Depot for some 1x3 cut to length, some black paint and some epoxy glue. Walmarts had the clips that we needed to epoxy on the painted lumber for our gallery.
Then Shannon added a few pieces of artwork, the Masterpieces of a 2 and 5 year old, now with their own space to exhibit those special pieces. It was fun, inexpensive, and fairly quick (watching paint dry). It adds a special touch to their new home. Now the boys have a whole wall to display their Masterpieces.

Special Thanks

It has been a busy couple of weeks. A special thanks to all who helped make our Walk to cure Diabetes a huge success. Here we are on walk day.
It was a beautiful day, the weather couldn't have been nicer and the walk along the boardwalk with the ocean waves was great fun. It was so nice to see so many friends sporting Joshua's Rock Stars t-shirts and he won the best t-shirt contest. Shannon and Brian's goal was to raise $2,000 and to date they have raised over $3800 with the final totals not in yet. So wonderful job and thanks to all of you, dear friends and family. The two that will benefit from a cure in our family are Brian and Joshua and I hope that day is tomorrow. If you would like to learn more about Type I Diabetes and how you can help in the fight to find a cure, just email me and I'll be happy to send you some very good links. November is Diabetes Awareness Month and November 14 is World Diabetes Day, please wear Blue to show you care.
Craft wise, I made some thank you cards for Shannon to send out to those that attended the walk, sent a donation and helped with so many things, but I'll wait to post a picture until she has a chance to send them out. I did do a Christmas Album which I'll post to raffle off at a crop she was holding later that same day with all the profit from the raffle tickets going towards the walk fund.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Nature's Gift


I wish the pictures showed the shine that this card has in person. I used a silver metalic paper that I found at the office supply store. White Daisy pigment ink was applied to the bottom using a sponge in a wavy swipe from right to left. I then used Indian Corn blue the same way to do the sky. The silver shows thru in places giving a special shine. I also stippled on some White Daisy lightly and when completely dry, just barely added some petal for a touch of color. Stamped the tree, sentiment and bear in black. Outlined lightly the tree and the ground swirl with a puffy paint, let dry then heat set to puff up. Glitter glue was also added for extra dimension. The glitter glue even though it is clear, picks up the green color in the black ink and appears green in places.
Mounted on black and then on paper from Wonderland paper pack.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Believe Paper Pack and AP Poinsettias


I just love the red plaid in the Believe paper pack and wanted to try a different card fold for this card. Cut a white 4 1/4"x 11 1/2 " piece of paper. Score at 2" from one end and 3 1/2" from other end. To make the poinsettia, I cut 2@ 3" Star Flowers from the AP cricut cardridge found on page 39 of the AP booklet, 1@ 1 1/2 "  in cranbery cardstock and 1@ 3/4" in olive.Turn the flowers over and score each petal  like a leaf. Turn back over the top and lightly sand exposing the veins in the petals. Highlight with cranberry ink. Stack the flowers on top of each other to form the flower, cut 2 leaves out of olive. I went around the edges with glitter glue to add some sparkle. The borders were cut with a Martha Stewart border punch using New England Ivy cardstock. I used 2  Shape2  on page 36 of the cricut booklet cut at 1 1/2 " for the sentiment on the outside and the inside lower flap. The inside center was cut in white using the Oval 5 cut @ 3 1/2. The words for the inside of the card come from one of the stamp sets that come in the Art Philosophy Cartridge bundle. If you haven't gotten yours yet, you can order one here.  I hope you enjoy this card, it was fun to make. Inspiration for this card design comes from Joanie http://craftingwithjoanie.blogspot.com/ make sure you visit her blog, you will not be disappointed.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Halloween mask- batman to fox

Working on the Halloween masks for my daughter Sara and her husband Rob. I still need to figure out how I'm going to do the nose, not sure whether it will end up being molding foam or Styrofoam. Also need to add whiskers probably with broom straws painted black. I love making costumes and have just as much fun with the adults as I do with the kids.
(no animals were harmed in the creation of these masks)
I've got the first one almost done as you can see, I think my little fox turned out cute, so glad I found "Batman" to be the base, then it was just buying fake fur in white and a red brown and a really good glue that hubby had (Quick Grip) to secure the fur to the plastic.Started with the white fur mouth area then cut a piece of reddish brown to start at the nose and go up the face between the ears, Trimmed the fur fabric ( always cut just the fabric from the back so you get natural lay to the fur) around the eyes, With the black plastic it worked out beautifully to give a black rim to the eyes and still keep the fur from around the eye for safety and comfort. Next made a rough paper pattern for the face sides, letting the fabric extend past the mask on the sides for about an inch., Then I cut out of a cardboard cereal box some larger shaped fox ears and glued them to the bat ears. A small section of white was then added and layers of reddish brown covering the front edges and back of ears, so they look real from the back too. A black broad tip Sharpie was used to darken the fur around the ears and for eyebrows.
So I decided on using a modeling foam and painted them with shiny black paint and broom straws painted black as well. Now my next challenge is to get them packed up and safely sent to Sara. I'm hoping that the whiskers will not get destroyed.
  I can't wait to see the pictures from their Halloween party when they dress up as Mr and Mrs. Fox.
 What do you think? Do you do costumes or decorations for Halloween?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Details on Poinsettias

I have had a couple of questions about my poinsettia cards, yes they are cut from Art Philosophy the star flower on page 39 . I cut 2 and on studying some images of poinsettias, one of the characteristics is the vines on the individual lines of each petal, kind of like a leaf, so I turned the cut image over and used a stylus on my piercing mat to score lines like a leaf so they would be raised on the front.

wrong side
right side
 Then I used a sponge dauber with cranberry ink over the raised vines to really make them pop.


 I layered 2 flowers on top of each other off setting them, but on the top flower I also used a stylus on the opposite side to not only add the vines but went around the edge of each petal following the shape of the petal

 (It's hard to take a picture and hold the camera too, sorry it so blurry.)
and then when I flipped it over I used an exacto knife to cut the cut shape in the middle of each petal and popped it up a little.

 a very small star flower in green was cut for the center and I used my stylus around and round in the very center to cup up the center and filled it with the homemade yellow flowersoft. The leaves were the same star flower cut apart from New England Ivy same size and scored the same way, I sanded the right side lightly to bring the veining out and let the light core show thru.



Hope that helps, you can email me anytime if you need more help. ( Don't mind the red fingers, now you know why this blog is called "Doing it with Ink" , I seem to have ink on my fingers all the time). Have a great day

Monday, September 26, 2011

A Couple More Simple Christmas cards

Got this idea in my head for using the Art Philosophy cartridge to make some poinsettia flowers. Nothing says Christmas to me more than bright red poinsettias and I love red with bright white, like the white you get when you use our White Daisy cardstock, so here are a couple I came up with today to share with you.
The poinsettia was cut at 2 1/2" with the star flower in cranberry cardstock and I used the same flower for the leaves, simply cutting off the petals, and used New England Ivy. I used a stylus to score the lines for the leaves, then lightly sanded for definition. A stylus was used on the petals of the flowers to give some texture and top flower has a small petal shape cut in the center of each petal that is raised slightly. A small 3/4" star flower was cut in New England Ivy and a dot of glue holds down some homemade flowersoft, made by rolling a piece of non ctmh yellow cardstock and grating it with a very fine grater. The sentiment is a cuttlebug embossing folder and I scored a rectangle with 3 straight lines all around with a scor pal. These were both pop dotted and then adhered to a cuttlebug folder embossed card front.

Used cuttlebug embossing folders to do the top and bottom borders and the main image. Same poinsettia as the first one cut just a touch smaller at 2 1/4". Click on the pictures to enlarge and see detail closer. Let me know what you think of my poinsettias?