How'd she do that?

I mentioned last week that we're having a CHA crop over at the Scraptiv!ty show and tell board. Today I'm posting a crop challenge with extra instructions right here on my blog. This is a specialized challenge for those who own a digital cutting machine (like the Silhouette or Cricut), and my directions are only for Silhouette owners, but don't let that discourage you. There are a lot of other great challenges going on on the board that are not so specialized. Now on to the directions!
Do you want to know how to do lettering like this on your Silhouette?
Here are some directions:
1. Open your ROBO Master cutting program and select your document size.
2. Choose the text option from the left hand column.
3. Type your phrase (here I will use "Birthday" for the demonstration) at the desired size and click OK.4. Now you should have the word Birthday on your cutting document.
5. Right click on "Birthday" and copy and paste the word. The copy and paste "Birthday" will appear directly over the original "Birthday". Do not move them apart.
6. Right click on "Birthday" again. This time choose "Offset Shapes"7. Choose your settings:The following options are available:

• Offset Value: The greater the number, the farther away the traced shadow or mat will be
• Direction of Offset: "Outside" should generally be selected. This traces your shadow or mat outward. "Inside" will give you a reverse mat and trace your image inward.
• Method of Join: This is the style of shadow or mat you wish to create.
  • Miter - This will provide sharp edges; There is an optional "Miter Limit Value" which will determine how sharply the traced edges bend
  • Round - This will provide smooth edges
  • Bevel - This will provide blocked edges

8. After choosing your settings click "OK". Your document should now look like this:
9. You can now separate your shadow from your word.
10. You can now cut your word and shadow.

Here's another example made for a previous Scraptiv!ty kit.
I can't wait to see what you make. Don't forget to post an image of your project using words that have a shadow in the gallery at http://www.scraptivity.com/show/showgallery.php?cat=584 by Friday, January 29, 2010 at midnight Pacific Time to enter the contest.

Inspiration Fun

Every Tuesday one of my favorite blogs, Moxie Fab World, does an inspiration challenge. They call it "Tuesday Trigger." This week's Tuesday Trigger is the following picture:When I saw this photo, I knew had to play along. I also thought I'd try my hand at the style called "clean and simple." I like to play around with different styles, but clean and simple is tough for me. I always see clean and simple cards and love them, but when it comes to creating them, I just want to add 1 more thing, and then another layer, and another pearl, and before you know it, it's neither clean nor simple! I think I nailed it today though. Here's my Tuesday Trigger Clean and Simple Card.
My papers are Stampin' Up!'s Kraft and Bermuda Bay. My white is Bazzill White. The texture on the white card stock gives the card a nice, soft feel. I cut the white pattern with my Silhouette. "for your shower" is part of SU!'s Teeny Tiny Wishes set. The turquoise ink is SU! Bermuda Bay.

Just a Little Info

Did you know I do a monthly card sketch over at Scraptiv!ty's blog? Well today's inspiration is over there. All you have to do is click here to check out this month's card sketch and card. If you missed December's sketch here's a link to that one too. If you enjoy playing along, I post a new sketch on the 20th of every month at www.scraptivity.com/blog.
Want some more fun and scrappy inspiration? Starting this Friday Scraptiv!ty's holding a week long on-line crop in honor of CHA. We figured if we can't be there to see all the scrappy goodies, at least we can scrap at home. The design team over at Scraptiv!ty has been coming up with great challenge ideas, and yours truly is hosting 2 challenges. 1 layout challenge that everyone can play along with, and one special Silhouette challenge for those of you who keep telling me that you should use your Sil more. Here's a direct link to the crop announcement, and here's a link to the Scraptiv!ty show and tell board. Anyone can browse around on the board, but you will need to create an account if you want to chat with us and upload your creations to the gallery. Feel free to send me a message or leave me a comment if you're having any trouble finding anything. Happy scrapping!

My Mind's Eye Challenge #7

Today I was able to combine 2 fun things. Fun thing #1: my boys got a dinosaur for Christmas from my parents. They love it. They can ride on it, feed it, it makes all sorts of noises, and it even plays dinosaur music. I just knew I needed to scrap pictures of my boys playing with Kota (the triceratops). I also knew I had to use My Mind's Eye Abby Road Stomp Collection to scrap it. Fun thing # 2: MME was kind enough to post a sketch challenge on their blog that was just perfect for my dino layout. First, here's the sketch:
Want to see my take on the sketch? It's such a great subject that I just had to turn it into a 2 page spread:
Here are a some close ups of the pages, and after that I'll talk you through a few of the details:Whew, that was a lot of photos, thanks for sticking with me! All of the paper, brads, chipboard stickers, and the journaling tag are from My Mind's Eye Abbey Road Stomp Collection. Sometimes I'm jealous of people who have little girls and get to use all those great flowers and rhinestone accents, but this line gave me so many choices, I wasn't jealous once! It's such a great line that I had almost no need for any of my other scrapping supplies. I did use my Silhouette to cut the title. The font I used is called "Rock It" and I downloaded it free from Dafont.com. If you have a Silhouette, or like to do computer journaling, Dafont is a great resource. They have thousands of fonts that you can download for free. Finally, if you'd like to play along with MME's Challenge #7, you have until Thursday. You can find all of the details here at MME's blog.

Love Birds

Hello. I hope you are all having a fun and restful weekend. I had lots of time to be crafty! I got together with some ladies my husband works with on Friday to scrap, Saturday I taught a card class at my LSS, and today I'm spending a little time working on a great dinosaur layout to show you later this week. For today's card I thought I'd show a little love for my Silhouette since it hasn't shown up here on my blog for a little bit. Every paper piece on this card was cut with my Silhouette. I just love that machine! The paper is Wild Asparagus from My Mind's Eye, and the rhinestones are from Kaisercraft. If your looking for something to do today, head on over to My Mind's Eye's website and check out their new winter CHA releases. The new lines are gorgeous and so very fun.

Hidaling...?

This month's kit technique over at Scraptiv!ty is called hidaling. Now, I'm pretty sure they made that word up, but it's a great word for the technique of hiding journaling on a scrapbook page. I thought this was a pretty cool idea, and even though it's my month off from designing with the kit, I still wanted to play along. My twist? I did a card with hidaling. Here it is with my "journaling" hidden:
And here it is with the "journaling" revealed:
What do you think? Did I nail it? I think I'm going to have to send this birthday card to a crafty friend who will know to pull the tag out of the envelope! Besides the hidaling, there are a few other techniques used on this card. The stitching was done by hand. The flowers and butterfly were stamped on patterned paper and then cut out. The butterfly was also covered in versamark ink, then sprinkled with heat and stick powder, heated up and sprinkled with glitter (okay, I know that sounds like a lot of work, but from start to finish all of that only took about 60 seconds). If you try your hand at hidaling I'd love to see it! Feel free to link it up in the comments.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: K & Company Amy Butler Lotus Mat Pad
Envelope and Tag: K & Company Studio K Meadow Pockets & Tags
Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Collage Elements I
Fiskars Happy Birthday
Glitter: Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds
Punch: Fiskars Apron Lace Punch
Ribbon: Stampin' Up! Old Olive Grosgrain
Rhinestones: Kaisercraft

Card Kit and Class!

I'm really excited. Next week I get to start a card class at A Walk Down Memory Lane that I've been wanting to teach forever! It's called Cards for a Year. Basically, each month there is a card class where you make 3 or 4 cards, and by the end of the year, you have 1 card for just about every holiday and occasion. What's especially cool, is that we're paring it with the Basic Grey monthly card kit, so not only do you get to make 4 cards at the class, you get to take home enough supplies and directions to make an additional 12 cards! On top of that we're throwing in a small month relevant stamp set from Basic Grey, too! All of this for only $20. If your local to AWDML you can head on over to the site here to sign up. If your not local, you can still get in on the action by ordering a Card of the Month Kit. Here's a little sneak peak of one of the class cards:
This month's kit features Basic Grey's Origins line. The class features stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. Cornish Heritage Farms Stamps are on sale for 25% off at A Walk Down Memory Lane all month!
Happy Stamping!

Best of Intentions

I intended to have this layout done months ago, but I completed it last week...I intended to post this layout last Friday, but the lighting just wasn't cooperating... Sometimes I have the best of intentions, but it just doesn't work out. Well, here it is, just a few days late, a fun layout with some pictures from this summer.My parents bought my boys a Gator, and they loved speeding around in it this summer. When I saw the Just Chillin' Boy line from Making Memories, I knew it was perfect for my gator pictures. I used just about every tool in my arsenal for this layout. Below is a close up of a brad I made using my new I-top tool (Imaginisce). The other brads in this picture are from Sassafrass. They were an add on to the December Scraptivity kit. The frame around the large 5x7 photo was cut using my Silhouette.I also used my Silhouette to cut the "GO GO GO" and the sign in the bottom right hand corner. To add to some of the rough quality of this paper, I sanded my card stock a bit and also tore the corners off of some of my layering pieces. Additionally, I inked the edge of the layout in brown ink. Finally, I added the tire tracks on the paper by inking up the wheels of my son's Hotwheels monster truck with brown ink and running it over the paper (my husband actually came up with that idea when I said I wished I had a tire tread stamp).