Crystal and Cookies

Just one more day and so much to do!  Today we finally got the dining room tree decorated.  Our town was very busy as we did lots of errands and picked up a few last minute gifts.  Tonight was filled with cookie making, so this is definitely a "holiday" post and not a "crafting" post.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that we lived overseas for eight years - first in Germany and then in England.  Our younger son remembered the "lebkuchen" cookies we had in Germany and decided to try making some with his girlfriend.  They do a lot of cooking and baking.  Our older son has a radio show about chefs, music and food.   I am not sure where the "foodie" genes came from but it keeps things interesting around here!

The recipe was a bit complicated and involved boiling molasses and honey together.  They found the recipe online - here is a LINK to the site.

The dough turned out to be a bit sticky but they used plenty of flour and managed to cut out lots of little cookies.

The tiny hearts were really cute and very tasty too - we recommend trying this recipe if you like lebkuchen.

When we lived in Germany I used to go on two shopping trips a year with my "English Morning Tea" group.  This was a group that met every Wednesday morning.  It was organized through the community education in our small town and was for Germans who had taken all of the English language classes and wanted to keep up with their language skills and ex-pats who were struggling to communicate in German and appreciated a chance to have some native speakers help them out.  We took an overnight trip to the area where a lot of crystal and china were manufactured and shopped at the factories.  We had a lot of fun!

Each time we went on these trips, I would buy a few more crystal ornaments.  The company that made them also makes the crystal sold as Gorham in the US.  I have some of the boxes with their German labels and every year I have a little "refresher course" in German when I have to put them away (of course - I have to get them in the right boxes or it would bother me all year!).  These two are for a reindeer and cat.

The Tree in the dining room is actually meant to be an outdoor tree.  It is white wire with downswept branches.  A few years ago, I was in CVS and they had marked down the remaining trees to 90% off so it was inevitable that I would go home with it!  This tree only has crystal and silver ornaments but this year I added a few blue glass balls as well.





My favorite thing about this tree is the way it is reflected in the mirror on the opposite side of the room.  The effect is so pretty when you walk into the room from the hall.

Here are a few more close ups of some of the crystal figures.  I wish I could really capture the magical sparkle of this tree in a photo.  The outdoor tree has worked out just fine inside - it is a little unexpected but visitors nearly always comment on how nice it looks in the room.

There is so much to do tomorrow - good luck to all of you with your last minute preparations!

I realized that I didn't give a time zone when I said that 11:59 p.m. today was the deadline to comment for the DVD giveaway so, to be fair, I will end the eligibility at 11:59 Pacific time which is 2:59 a.m. for me.  I am a night owl, but I do need to get some sleep, so I will do the drawing as soon as I can tomorrow morning and post the name of the person who will be receiving a free copy of Megan's Above Rubies Studio Cricut A-Z DVD.

New Heritage Cartridge (and last chance for DVD giveaway)

One of my favorite things about using Design Studio is that it gives me the ability to preview every image on a cartridge and try out design ideas before I purchase the cartridge.  One of the new cartridges announced last week is called "Heritage" and as soon as I heard the name I thought it would be on my wish list. Once I updated my software and started looking through the images I was certain that I would want to add this cartridge to my library.

If you haven't updated your Design Studio to add the new cartridges, here is a LINK - you will need to log in to the Cricut.com site before you can download the font pack.  Be sure to save the download to you desktop and then run the update - you should see the new cartridges the next time you open Design Studio.

I do not have this cartridge yet and I am not sure how soon I will be able to get it but there is no reason not to start making files so I will be ready to do some cuts when I eventually have it in my possession.  I will do a full review eventually, but today I am just sharing an idea that I had for a Valentine's Day card (I hope to have the cartridge before February!).

I saw this framed scroll design as I browsed through the contents of the cartridge.  You know I have a weakness for swirls and flourishes - that is one of the reasons I use the Storybook cartridge so often.

This keypad screen shot shows you where to find this image.  Some of the keypads have teeny tiny icons.  There is sometimes a way to fix this but I haven't tried it yet on this latest update.  I'll let you know if it works and give you the directions once I have a chance to check it.

I decided to rotate the image so that the "heart" shape that I could see would be more obvious.  After I rotated the image 180 degrees (two clicks on the "Turn" button) I also resized the image to 5.5 x 4.25 inches - standard A2 card size - using the Shape Properties Box to enter the width and height.

I decided to flip the image so the heart would "read" better from left to right.  I grabbed a square from the George cartridge, adjusted it to 5.5 x 4.35 (a bit wider than the front to create a clean weld) and positioned it at 1.75 on the X axis and .3 on the Y axis.  Then I checked weld for both of the images.  (For color preview purposes I also have a page in the file with the weld box deselected and another page with a "filler" rectangle).

The Heritage cartridge has all sorts of "old fashioned " images, as well as a font (a sort of wavery old style handwriting font) with a shadow option and some lovely frames and charms.  There are also pre-welded words in a plain and a fancy style.  The words are for all of the family members, relationships and occasions that would typically be included in a family history album.

The images on the keypad are too small for you to see most of them in this screen shot.  This set of words has a leafy swirl at the start of each word.  I decided to try the "fancy" version of the word "Love" on the card.

It may be too swirly - but I can keep "auditioning" cuts until I am satisfied with my design (another way that using Design Studio helps you save paper and time).  So go ahead and start designing and choosing your favorites of the new cartridges - then when you are ready to purchase you will have a head start!

So now for the great news - both of our sons are home safe and sound!  The extra days in San Francisco  were put to good use by our older son and the plane trip today was uneventful (but the airport was crowded when we picked him up late in the evening).  Here they are by the Santa tree in our front hall.  The colorful lights in the garlands are a new addition this year - we decided to branch out from plain white twinkle lights by adding some new LEDs.  We still need to add the ornaments to the garlands - a project for tomorrow.

Finally - this is the last day to leave a comment for a chance to receive a copy of the Cricut A to Z instructional DVD.  You need to go back to Sunday's post - here is a LINK - and leave a comment on that post to be included in the drawing.  Thanks again to Megan of Above Rubies Studio for donating this DVD.

Simple Vintage Card with digital images

Yesterday I told you about the Twisted Papers site and promised I'd show you how to use one of the images for a project.  Much to my surprise, I had a nice comment from Russell & Stan, the owners of the site, and they said it would be fine to post one of the images, so I have edited yesterday's post.  I am so impressed at the quality of the images - very sharp and clear and I was able to enlarge them quite a bit.

I made this simple card using one of the images and my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software (here is a LINK for more information about this program).  I downloaded the jpeg image from the Twisted Papers site and saved it in a file on my desktop.  Then I opened a new project in StoryBook and imported the image.

The next step was to resize the image to fit perfectly on an A2 card.  The original image is on the right and the slightly altered on on the left.  I sized it at 3 3/4 inches x 5 inches so I could have a mat layer on the card.

Once I had resized the image, I copied and pasted to set up four images on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I used the properties box to get the alignment and sizing perfect.

 Next I added a plain black rectangle to fill the entire sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 page and moved it behind the images.

Then I filled the black rectangle with the tan color by sampling the background color from one of the images - I do this so there won't be a harsh contrast if my trimming of the image is a bit off.

I selected all of the images and grouped them - here you can see the individual selection boxes around each image.

After grouping, there is just one box.  I could now copy and paste these images to another page and keep the perfect spacing between images.

I printed the full sheet on letter size matte photo paper.  Here you can see the page before I trimmed the images.  I cut green mats at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and cut 8 1/2 x 11 white cardstock in half for the card bases.

I did not ink any edges - I liked the crisp look and contrast from white to green to the tan of the image background.  I did add some Stickles - you know I can't resist that bit of sparkle!

I used Crystal Stickles on the snow on the tops of the bells for both cards.  For the card on the left, I also dotted Christmas Red Stickles on all of the holly berries.  I hope you can see the sparkle if you click on the photos of the cards to enlarge them.

This is a fast and easy way to make a card - you are adding some personal touches but you can easily create a lot of cards in a hurry!

I haven't had a lot of time to use my Creative Memories software lately - I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with images for card projects in addition to the digital scrapbooking I usually do with the software.

This angel is also one of the images that Stan & Russell are sharing.  I added background paper, a flourish, a title, used a corner punch on the image and added shadows and glows to the elements.

Here is one more little experiment I made using one of the filters that creates a mosaic effect.  The mosaic seems to make the Santa even more twinkly!

So, if you want a change of pace - try doing some digital/hybrid projects.  They are lots of fun and a bit less messy.  I will definitely be buying a month subscription to Twisted Papers so I can download lots more of their great images - I will just need to wait until after all of the holiday festivities so I can spend time choosing my 500 images!

Sorry, no Cricut today but don't forget about the chance to win a free copy of the Cricut A to Z instructional DVD.  You need to go back to yesterday's post - here is a LINK - and leave a comment on that post to be included in the drawing.  Thanks again to Megan of Above Rubies Studio for donating this DVD.

We are watching the weather news very carefully again - tomorrow, if all goes well and there are no more airport closings and flight cancellations, our older son will arrive in Boston.  We can't wait to see him!

Too Much Snow!

Three out of four of us are home - our older son is stuck in San Francisco for a couple more days.  He should have arrived tonight, but the flight was canceled because of the storm and he has been rerouted through Texas on Tuesday.  We wish he had been able to get on a flight today, but at least he can relax at home and isn't stuck on an airport bench somewhere!  Keep your fingers crossed that there are no more storms.

We went to a holiday party this afternoon and saw this lovely view on the way.  I snapped the photo of the beautiful sunset with my little "purse camera" out of the car window.  I wish you could get the full effect of the amazing pinky purple sky - it was just beautiful!  

Here are a few more photos - there really wasn't that much snow for us, but there is a ripple effect from the larger snowfalls in the mid-Atlantic that really paralyzed some areas.

I didn't get quite as much done today as I had planned but it was good to relax after all of the driving I have done in the past two weeks - over 1,000 miles!  It is late and I am tired but there are a couple of things I wanted to share with you that may be of interest.

There is a site called Twisted Papers.com where you can find terrific high quality digital images - lots of great vintage ephemera and all sorts of things that will make you smile.  They offer CDs and downloadable images - individually or by a monthly subscription that allows you to download up to 500 images.  Tim Holtz used some of their images in his Day 11 of the Twelve Tags of Christmas.

Right now they are offering some free images as they countdown to Christmas - a new one each day but they are all still available to download.  I am not sure if it is OK for me to just post one of the images here, so please click on the link to see what they have to offer.  The download is direct and ad free.  I will use one of the images in a project and try to have that posted tomorrow.

Edited to add a sample image from the free Christmas downloads from Twisted Papers - thanks Russell & Stan!

I also wanted to let you know that Megan of AboveRubies Studio has sent me a copy of her new DVD - Cricut A - Z.  A few of my projects are included in the inspiration gallery on the DVD.  Megan gives step by step directions on how to use the Cricut - this is a great help for beginners and will also benefit more experienced users.   She goes through all of the functions and creative features that the Cricut will perform and also demonstrates cutting of various materials with the Cricut.

***So here is a nice surprise***   Megan will send a FREE copy of the DVD to one of my blog readers.  All you need to do is leave a comment on this post between now and 11:59 p.m. on December 23rd.   I will draw a name using random.org and announce the winner on my blog on December 24th - an extra Christmas gift for someone!  Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if your name is chosen and one comment only per person please!

If you have any suggestions for the path I will take next year with this blog, please add that to your comment.  I have nearly completed my year of daily blogging and I am sorting out where I will go from here.  All suggestions are appreciated.  I do have a few new projects in the works, but I'd love to hear what you like, what you don't like and what you want to see more of.

I hope that those of you in snowy places are safe and warm and that all of your loved ones make it home for the holidays!

Music box (layered vinyl)

While I was at my sister's in New Jersey on Thursday and Friday,  I helped her decorate this clear plastic box full of musical toys for her grandsons (my great-nephews).  We used the Hannah Montana cartridge for this project - it's not just for girls!

 

I set up some mats in Design Studio before I went to New Jersey, but I waited until I was with my sister to actually cut the vinyl.  I put an extra base layer of the "ready to rock" on a second page to see how the colors would look when layered.  It's great to have the smaller Cricut to take along for trips and little projects like this.

We used blue and yellow Wall-Pops vinyl.  This photo shows the mat after "weeding" the cuts.  The Wall-Pops vinyl is easy to work with and seems to hold up very well - I have had some on my car for well over a year. 

To get the top layer adhered to the base as neatly as possible we used some transfer tape.  I cut a piece of about the right size and burnished it down on the weeded cut.

Then my sister carefully peeled the transfer tape with the top layer of vinyl off the backing paper.

 

We aligned the layers and burnished the tape with the top layer to the base layer on the backing paper. We were the tiniest bit off at the right edge but we decided it was close enough!

We lifted the layered pieces and transferred the cut to one end of the plastic storage box, burnished the layered vinyl down to the box and peeled off the transfer tape.

Here you can see the final result.  The label will show if the box is placed on the shelf like a shoebox.

 

I had also prepared a cut for the side of the box using the music feature.  Remember, for this to work properly you simply move the letters together but do not apply kerning or check weld (click this LINK for an earlier post with a bit more about this feature).

 

The music staff cut out nicely - here is the weeded cut ready to transfer.

This time we didn't use transfer tape (which may or may not have been a good idea).  By bending back the backing paper and starting on the left at the correct position to center the cut, we carefully pulled back the backing, adhering the cut as we went along (definitely a two person job).

This was tricky and the lines may have gotten a bit out of parallel but we decided not to worry about it - the little guys won't be too critical of our work! It is more difficult to put the vinyl on a three dimensional object like the box since there are some slight curves to the shape.

 We used the rest of the notes and the "G" clef on the opposite end and side of the box.

I think the boys will have a lot of fun with all of the shakers and cymbals and tambourines inside the box - I hope their mother and father enjoy the concert!

The storm was a bit slower than predicted so we made it home safely - thanks for all the encouraging words!  Now we just need our older son's flight to be on schedule tomorrow and then we will all be home for Christmas!

Racing the snowstorm....

There is a big storm coming up the East Coast. Because of this I had a crazy day!  Plan "A" was to pick up our son at college, drive to Pennsylvania and spend the night and return to Boston tomorrow.  After tracking the storm on the internet, we moved to Plan "B,"  driving to PA to have dinner with Dad and then returning to my sister's home in New Jersey to keep ahead of the storm.  We'll leave first thing tomorrow and, if all goes well, will get back home before any serious snow starts falling - wish us luck!

So most of my day was spent driving, packing, driving, visiting and driving again.   There was terrible traffic on each trip on the New Jersey turnpike - and there isn't even any snow yet!

We had a nice visit with Dad even though it was not the overnight we had planned.  This tree is in the lounge area in his retirement community and all of the residents added ornaments to decorate it.  The John Deere tractor in the first photo is my Dad's.  He farmed for many years and then sold farm equipment for many more and he has quite a collection of John Deere tractor models (I guess those collecting instincts of mine are inherited!).

We did actually do a quick little project in the few hours we were there.  I brought along my baby bug (Personal Cricut) and used it to cut some of the When It's Cold Outside snowflakes.  (If you missed my earlier post about this great mini cartridge here is a LINK).  We used white vinyl and quickly realized that it was a good idea to do the less intricate flakes and the shadow versions.  The others cut well but it is really messy trying to get all of the little detail bits separated when you are using sticky vinyl!  We put them on the mirrored "window" by the door to his apartment.

The idea was to make it look like they were blowing down from the top right corner.  This photo was taken with a flash and it is interesting to see the deep shadow effect produced in the mirror.  There are also some odd reflections - my son does not have splotches on his face in real life!  He does have a new and super short haircut.  If you look closely, you can see Santa driving a John Deere tractor on the table.

Sorry for the quick post - I hope all your holiday preparations are going well!

One more week....

So much to do - and not much time left until Christmas.  I didn't post my file for the wreath that I shared yesterday - I had hoped to do a quick video explaining how I did a few things in the file but there wasn't a chance to do that today.  Here is a LINK to the original post.

Since I have had several people asking for the file, I will try to explain quickly what you need to do and then add a video in a few days when I get home.  You actually cut the wreath from the first page of the file.  On the second page, you can cut the stars to layer on the wreath - I found these on another key and resized them to fit - I also used "hide selected contour" to make good use of the glitter paper and eliminate the star that is too large.

The rest of the pages all have to do with adding a greeting to the center.  The two alternatives are the Christmas or Blackletter solutions cartridges.  You can use something else or just make the wreath without a greeting.  The third page has the Christmas solutions cartridge version set up to preview (positioned in the center of the wreath).  On the fourth page, the same words are set up to cut efficiently from a 4 x 8 piece of paper placed with the top left corner at 0 on the X axis and 2 on the Y axis (if that is confusing just look at the virtual mat and you can see where to put the paper!).

The fifth page show the Blackletter alternative for preview only.  I created and welded the phrase but I left it unwelded on this page to get the color to show in preview and make it easier to visualize the final result.  If you cut from this page the letters will not be welded!

The cutting page for the Blackletter version is on page six.  There is a little complication that I will explain here.  I wanted to add an apostrophe for "Season's" and there isn't one on the Blackletter cartridge so I used the semicolon.  You should hide the top dot when you open the file - since there is only one item hidden, it does not stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened .  When there are three or more contours to work with I have a way to make just one stay hidden (here is a LINK to an old post explaining how to do this).  Since there are only two contours, I can't do that in this case so you will need to do it each time the file is opened.

I also wanted the dot on the "i" to be attached to the "i" and I used the semicolon again.  You will need to hide the dot from the original "i" and the comma from the semicolon.  You can see the hidden contours in the second screen shot above.  I hope that you understand this - it will be a bit easier to show you when I make the video.  If it is too confusing - just use something else or skip adding a sentiment all together!

Here is the download link for the file - you will need the Expression to cut this.

Wreath from 50 States

The angel in the photo at the top of this post is another of my brother's stained glass pieces and was a gift many years ago.  If you are interested in seeing more stained glass art, here is a LINK to the Century Studios blog and here is a LINK to the store.

ONE MORE NOTE - today was "Hello Thursday" and new cartridges were announced.  You should update the font pack on your Design Studio - here is a LINK to the update page (you will have to log in first if you are not already logged in on the Cricut.com site).  The new cartridges are the three Spring mini cartridges (Love Struck, Easter and Mother's Day), Songbird, Heritage, Tie the Knot, Forever Young and Sentimentals.  Lots to see! (I'll have more to say about these later).

I am back in New Jersey.  Our younger son finished his exams yesterday.  He has only three semester of college left now!  Since he is a musician and has a lot of equipment and instruments that need to come home for the long break he needs Mom and the minivan to get home. We are keeping an eye on the weather and hope to sneak down to Pennsylvania on Friday to see my Dad for a day before heading up to Boston - there is talk of a storm so we will have to see how it develops...