Layouts and leftovers

Ok not really leftovers but it was a catchy title don't ya think?

It's been a pretty busy week for me. I had to prepare for MOPS and get my responsibilities for that done. I had to work my 5 hours each day (which I still have time to make up - will do that after I post this) and had to gets things ready for Pete to leave today for his 2 weeks of school. Thank goodness this is his last session and won't have to go back anymore! Woot woot!

I'm kinda shocked that I got a layout done and some SVG files. I haven't been able to test cut them yet though. I will post them anyway with the disclaimer that there is the possibility they will not work and I'll have to fix them. They should work but I'm not making any promises.

Here is the layout I did. It is of my dad when he was around 12 (he's 78 now!) and his brother (who passed away in 2007). I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. And so proud of myself that I didn't use a sketch. Normally I can't scrap without at least starting with one but this one just kind of came together by itself.


And here are the SVG files that I have made.

Click on the picture to download the file. If you do happen to cut them please let me know if they work or not so I can fix them if I need to.

Have a great week!

More SVG's!

First of all I want to say thanks to everyone for the nice comments and just being so darn friendly. It really made my day to see that you all liked the cuts as much as I do.

I am currently working on some more cuts but it probably won't be until this weekend or so before I can get them posted. I did do a few today that I will post but I don't feel they are as cute as the first set I posted. Don't get me wrong, I like them and I think they'll look cute especially when used by a lot of you talented ladies, they just aren't as fancy I guess you'd say. I do have some more fancy ones in the works though.

So without further ado - since I know that's the real reason you are here

Again, just click on the picture to get the file. Oh a little note about the butterfly cut - it's not cutting the circles for the flowers too well, not sure if I know how to fix that yet. So in the mean time I just used a hole punch and it worked fine.

Enjoy!

SCAL Crazy!!

I've had a new addiction lately and that is seeing what images I can convert to SVG to cut with Sure Cuts A Lot and my cricut. I've had so much fun doing this and had a lot of people asking me how I did it and where I found the images, etc. Well I just did a google search for the type of thing I was looking for ie. flourish and then found the images I wanted. After that I used Inkscape (a free program that Sure Cuts A Lot recommends) and went to town. I had a lot of trial and error and some pictures just don't convert well. Especially the low resolution images you get off the net at times. I really enjoyed doing these and seeing what I could make. I still have a lot more that I haven't cut yet but I thought I'd be sweet and share the ones I have made so far.
If you'd like any of these cuts in these pictures just click on the picture and you will be able to download them yourself. I will be working on some more so hopefully I can have those up soon. Oh and I hear that SVG files are used for the silhouette so if you have that you can use these files too. Oh and I've included pictures of the cuts in the files too so you can see what they are. I only ask one favor if you download - please leave me a comment. I'd love to know who is downloading them. Also, I'd love to see your creations with them as well!

***ETA: some of these cuts are not 'perfect cuts'. They are still really pretty though and look great. However if you're looking for exact then you may not want to download them. I can only make them as good as the picture I can find.

Happy Crafting!

Lookie what I've been doing...

Recently I've joined a great new kit club called Swirlydoos and I'm lovin' it! (No I haven't replaced Simply Obsessed - I'm still with them and love them too!) I've learned a lot of new things from there and a few on my own. For one I have learned how to make 'faux' bling. You know the prima bling we all love to buy but is so darn expensive. Well here's my take on it:


I do need to practice a bit more but I think they are turning out pretty good. I bought some liquid pearls to do it with but found out in the long run puffy paint is cheaper and works better.

I've also recently purchased SCAL (sure cuts a lot) for the cricut and have had a blast finding images on line to make SVG files out of to cut. Here are a few of the things I've done with that:


I have to say I have fallen in love with this program. It is awesome. There are endless possibilities of what you can cut.

And oh yes I have made a new layout with the new kit I'm getting. I have another one in my head I'm going to do but I've gotten side tracked reading 'The Time Traveler's Wife' - I haven't gotten that far but just by what I've read so far I know I'm going to love the movie. Ok, sorry, back on topic. Here's the layout:



I used some of the 'faux' bling I made. I'm addicted to making these now for some reason. They are so fun and you can make them all sizes and colors.


In other news, I had my first MOPS meeting of the year last Friday. I believe it went pretty well. I'm terrible at getting up in front of people and talking but I did ok. Whew! Now I can sit in a group, even a large group and talk to everyone at one time, no problem. But get me up in front of the crowd - well let's just say it's not that pretty All in all though it was a fun morning and it went pretty smoothly.

That's about it that I can think of for now. I'm sure there's more but I'm tired and want to get back to my book!

Creative Techs

If you ever wanted to learn flash, dreamweaver, photoshop, lightroom or even more on digital photography then you NEED to check these guys out. They are offering all these courses for FREE! Yes I said FREE! And if you can't make it to the webinar when they hold them then you can watch the videos for a week after the class has been done. It's awesome. They are only into the second week of classes so you still have time. I signed up for photoshop, lightroom and the digital photography. I know it's a lot but like I said, I have a week to view the videos if I miss the class. I'm really excited about doing these. I can't wait to learn more.

And in case you are wondering, no I'm not getting anything out of blogging about this. They ask everyone to spread it by word of mouth to keep it a free service but I'm doing it not only for that but because I think it's so cool. Plus they are based out of Seattle!

Oh and there is also the option if you want to learn at your own pace you can buy the courses where you'll be able to download the videos to your computer and they have extras with that too.

Alrighty I'm done praising them for now. I'll keep you posted on how my classes are going.

Later!

Good News/Bad News

I'll start with the bad news-

I lost my Mac. It was scrapped. They said it would cost more to replace the part than to just give me a new computer. So I ended up losing everything. At least I backed up all my pictures but I can't say the same for the rest of my stuff. Not really that big of a deal, I just had a lot of digital scrap kits I wanted to keep and things like that. Oh well, I've learned my lesson and now have an Apple Time Capsule hooked up to all the computers here.

Good news -

The replacement I got rocks! Best Buy didn't have anything comparable to my other one in stock so I got an upgrade. I went from a 20 inch to a 24 inch monitor and double the hard drive. I even get a free upgrade to Snow Leopard (the new Mac operating system) when they get in stock (which I just learned tonight they have it so I will be going to pick it up tomorrow!) If your curious this is the one I got.

In other good news -

I'm on the steering team for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). I am in charge of Hospitality. I'm excited and overwhelmed at the same time. It's going to be a lot of work but it will be worth it. I love going to MOPS and so does Kaylie and now I get to be involved (more). The down side is that I won't be able to volunteer much in Tylers' class this year. He says he's ok with it though. I will still be on with the PTA and for special occasions. I don't think his teacher is the type that really likes parents to volunteer much either - at least that's the impression I got. We'll see after the school year gets going.

I had some other things I was going to write but I can't seem to remember what they were. I really have to start writing things down more. Hey at least I'm doing better with my blog! Go me!

Have a wonderful Labor Day!

First Day of School

So today was the first day of school for Tyler. Yes I took pictures. They turned out pretty cute too. Tyler had an awesome first day - his words too! Kaylie on the other hand had a hard time with her brother being gone. Thank goodness it was only a half day - not sure what she's going to do on the full days!




and Kaylie not wanting bubba to go to school



Now I know she's smiling here but she really wasn't happy after we dropped him off. All in all it was a really good day. Let's hope the rest of the week goes as well!