Zebra Butterflies?!

It is my granddaughter's birthday on Halloween Day!  She will be 5 years old!  Wow, all my grandbabies are growing so quickly!  She loves anything animal.  I was told that she loves zebras and butterflies so I decided to mix them and make a wall canvas for her!  I tried applying vinyl zebra strips to the canvas but they would not stick.  I even followed suggestions I found on line about painting the canvas a couple of times first.  I did that and it still didn't stick.  Then about applying Mod Podge.  I did that.  It still didn't stick.  So I went the really easy route and bought fabric!  Doesn't that look nice!?  She has a lot of hot pink in her room so I decided to use hot pink vinyl to make the butterflies.  When I went to buy the hot pink, I found the "Pink Fizz" color at JoAnn's.  It sparkles!  That was enough for me!  I layered a few of the butterflies with the Pink Fizz and made the canvas sparkle a bit!  I got the butterfly file from someone on the MTC forum.  I can't tell you who as I got this shortly after I bought MTC and didn't label my files as to who made them!  I know, dumb me!  Anyway, I do thank whomever made the file so that I could make this beautiful canvas for my granddaughter.  I used MTC to duplicate the butterfly and make various sizes.  Then I cut them out with my Black Cat Lynx.  Such a nice combination to work with!  When I put the single-layer butterflies on the canvas, the zebra stripes showed through just a bit so it makes it look like the butterflies are pink zebra striped!  I didn't plan that, but it is a nice touch!  I hope she likes it!

It was hard to get a good photo without having the glitter vinyl shine.  I tried with a flash (top) and without a flash (bottom).  On some of the butterflies the vinyl looks orange!  I PROMISE it is hot pink!  Thank you for stopping by my blog today and I hope you have a wonderful week!  Just as a side note - today is my 23rd anniversary!  Happy Anniversary to me!  (and my husband!)

Been Busy.....

I found a couple of patterns on the internet that I liked, pixel-traced them into MTC, did shadow layers, cut them with my Black Cat Lynx and made these cute pictures.  I placed the leaves and pumpkins on a burlap backing, then used different colors of Stickles to make the vines.  A simple project with nice results.  I needed something for fall, not just Halloween.  These are perfect!

Next I wanted to do some simple Christmas decorations.  I adore the word "Joy" so decided to make a couple of frame sets.  I think they both turned out wonderfully!  I really like the wreath for the "o" in the top picture and LOVE the glitter vinyl in the second photo.  All the letters, wreath and snowflake are done in vinyl.  I just used Christmas scrapbook paper for the backgrounds.  All made with MTC and cut on my Lynx!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!  There will be more projects coming soon!

Love Frame......

I saw this idea on Pinterest, which led me here:  http://simplystoked.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-heart-art.html.  It is such a lovely, simple project.  I changed it up a bit but like it just as much!  I used a different saying and instead of cutting all of the hearts the same size, I cut two of three different sizes.  I used my trusty MTC to design and print the saying.  We have two of the same book of poetry in our library and I used the one that looked the worst and cut out the hearts.  I chose love poems from which to cut the words for the hearts.  Then I just glued the center of each one to the other and glued the entire stack to the picture.  I folded up the edges slightly so they would fan out a bit.  Very easy.  Very pretty.

I hope you enjoyed my post today!  Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

There is Music on my Wall.....

Back in May Tami from http://thisandthatfromtami.blogspot.com posted a tutorial on a music wreath that she made.  I fell in extreme like!  I decided I just had to make one of those.  It has taken me until now to do so!  Her tutorial can be found here:  http://thisandthatfromtami.blogspot.com/2012/05/page-wreath-tutorial.html
I decided that I wanted one that was much larger to fit above my piano.  Instead of using hymn book-sized sheets of music, I used ones that were almost 9 x 12.  For the back layer I tore them in half lengthwise, then rolled them.  Try as I might, I COULD NOT get my ends to look like Tami's, so I just went with what they turned out like.  I think it looks just fine.  For the shorter layer, I used one quarter size of my 9 x 12 page.  My mirror is a 9-inch mirror.  I liked her black scallop behind the mirror so made one of my own with MTC and cut it out on my Black Cat Lynx.  The total width of my wreath is a whopping 29 inches!  Now I just have to figure out how to hang it.  I need some way to do it that will have enough strength to hold it.  I can't exactly use nails to put hangers on the back!  :)

Isn't it amazing how you can follow directions to the letter that someone else has posted and have a completely different result?  I still like Tami's resulting ends from rolling better than mine, but I do love how mine turned out.  Thank you so much Tami for the tutorial and the inspiration!  And thank you to all of you for stopping by to have a peek!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Edited:  I FINALLY got this hung up above my piano!  I love it!  My husband loves it!  My son loves it!  We ALL love it!  I am just so tickled with how it looks!

Wedding Card and Tile

My friend is getting married Saturday and I made this card and tile for her and her new husband.

For the card, I cut a back panel and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink "black soot".  I then glued that to the card base.  Then I used the basic shapes in MTC and made a lot of circles of different sizes.  I cut them with my Black Cat Lynx cutter.  Next I embossed each circle with a different embossing folder.  I glued the circles in place at random, putting them where I thought they might look good!  For the center circle I printed the words, inked the edge with Memento "Lilac Posies" ink, glued on a rhinestone for the "ring" and drew little small lines with a marker.  Inside a put a personal verse for the couple.

For this tile I used Oracal 631 vinyl.  I designed the saying in MTC, cut with my Black Cat Lynx, and put the vinyl on the tile.  I really like doing vinyl work.  It is so easy!

I hope you like my little projects for today.  I am so glad that you took some time to stop by my blog and have a peek.  Have a wonderful week!

Tri-fold Stencil Edge Butterfly Card

This was from homework that was assigned on the Make-the-Cut forum a while back and I am just getting around to doing it!  I know, I am slow!  However, the assignment was to make a stencil edge card.  I put a little bit of a different twist on it and made a tri-fold card also.  Since it is near the Fourth of July, I decided to make it red, white and blue.  What butterflies have to do with the Fourth of July, I do not know!  I just thought it was a neat idea!  LOL!

I found the butterfly stencils by doing a Google search for......you got it, butterfly stencils!  :)  I chose three that I liked, brought them into MTC and traced them.  Then I followed a wonderful tutorial by Julie from the MTC Forum and found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MTC_Tuts/files/03_Intermediate_Lessons/.  You have to be a member to view this tutorial, but it is free to join.  She is an amazing lady that teaches us so many wonderful things!  Next, I made my file with the MTC program and cut it all out with the help of Shadow, my Black Cat Lynx.  What I would do without her I do not know!  She makes my crafting life SO MUCH easier and I just have so much fun!

It was a lot of fun learning how to do the stencil cards and I think I will be making many more of these as they can be funny or they can be stunning!  They can be used for any occasion and will be a hit no matter what you put on them!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Father's Day Card

This is the card I made for my husband and father of our children for Father's Day!  I feel pretty comfortable putting it on my blog because I am pretty sure that he doesn't visit here too often!  Like once every new moon or there about!  :)

I always have tried to make something really fancy for him, and this year I just wanted it to be simple but to the point!  I just made a tie from basic shapes in MTC, cut it out, printed the inside sentiment, used glitter vinyl to make the "tie tack", added some blingy bling around it, cut the "D" for Dad out of cardstock and glued it in place.

Not a lot of work, but very effective if you ask me!  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at what I do from time to time.  Have a wonderful week!

Be"leaf"

Here is a card I made for a friend.  It is a tent card.  I got the idea for the tent card from a challenge on the MTC forum.  There are many tutorials on the web that can be found to make these cards also.  Mine is very simple.  I just found an image of a leaf that I liked, brought it into MTC, traced and cut it out of the yellow cardstock.  Then I cut the same-sized leaf out of the patterned paper and taped that to the yellow cardstock.  Then I cut a smaller image of the same leaf out of the brown cardstock and taped that to the back of the yellow cardstock.  Next I cut I very small leaf out of orange vellum and hung it from a brad at the top of the leaf.  I attached two orange sparkly brads at the top corners.  The font I used was Chopin Script.  As always, thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful week!

Basketball Birthday Card

My son's birthday is coming up next week.  He is super in to sports of all kinds, but right now are the basketball championships so I thought I would make him a card to go with his favorite thing.  I don't dare do anything that is too busy as he doesn't like that kind of thing.  He is very artistic, but loves everything simple.  The colors are horrible in these photos, but the card really turned out quite nicely.  I found a coloring page of a backboard, pixel traced it in MTC and cut it out with my wonderful Lynx cutter.  Then I repeated the process with the hoop and basket.  I did a print and cut for the basketball because I wanted it to look real.  I attached the hoop, basket and basketball with pop dots so it would stand out from the card.  It really looks like a basket is being made!  I made the front letters from the All Star font and attached them using my Xyron machine.  I just love the inside sentiment!  It fits him totally!   All in all, I think it turned out well.  I hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you so much for stopping by!

Easter Bunny Cards

I had fun making these little cards for family.  I got the bunny file from a wonderful member of the Make-the-Cut forum who goes by "Berryone".  It is actually a bunny silhouette file and I just cut out the bunny with my sleek Shadow (Black Cat Lynx), saved the outside and put it on the card, and put the cut out of the bunny on the inside!  Waste not want not is what I always say!

I glued fabric to the backside of the bunny cutout.  I taped that to the outside of the card using my ATG tape runner.  I then outlined the bunny with Stickles and put little adhesive brads on the corners.  For the inside bunny, I inked the edges, glued it in and wrote my sentiment.  I think these will be great for the grandkids!  Here are a couple more I did.

I wanted to keep them simple.  The insides are meant to make it look like the bunnies are hopping...just in case you were wondering!:)  I am sorry the photos are so awful.  Some day (I hope) I may learn how to take good photos.   Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Name Picture

I made this for my cute little grandson.  He is only one but his parents assured me that he is very into sports!  LOL!  I created the name is Make-the-Cut and did a shadow layer to create the white letters.  I found images of the different sports balls on the internet and did a print and cut.  I cut everything out with Shadow, my Black Cat Lynx cutter.  I then arranged  everything the way I thought would look nice.  I always seem to like having letters all over the place instead of just straight in a row.  Makes it easier to do because I don't have to worry about having all the letters perfectly aligned!  I adhered all the pieces with my ATG.  I found the frame at Michael's. I couldn't get a very good picture because of the glare.  This was the best I could do with the small glare on the bottom on the football.

 Little Jackson lives in Iowa with his parents and sister so I sure hope he likes this (as well as his parents!)!  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to have a peek!

He Is Risen

So, I believe that I should put all my projects on here, whether they turn out well or not!  LOL!  This was one that I tried to do for a challenge on the Make-the-Cut forum.  It was a vinyl challenge.  We were to make something that had to do with Easter and it had to have vinyl in the making.  Well, I found this coloring page image of the Savior on line and brought it into my Make-the-Cut software, made a file.  I cut the Savior, the clouds and the saying "He is Risen" out of vinyl using Shadow (my Black Cat Lynx!).  Then I used some Perfect Pearls Sunflower Sparkle to get the gold behind the Savior.  I used Perfect Pearls Turquoise to put blue around the clouds.  It is very sparkly!  It is a 16 x 20 frame so my photo is far away so I could get it all in.  I had a hard time getting a good shot because the light was reflecting on the glass.  I am almost certain I have mentioned that I am not a good photographer!  Not my best results on something, but hey, I tried!

I really like the vinyl used on the saying.  It is a very shiny gold, but has the effect that someone scrunched it up and then tried to flatten it out again.  You know, like when you crinkle Reynolds Wrap foil!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great day!  I hope my next project will look a bit better than this one but I have to say, I learned a lot!  Thanks for stopping by!

Re-purposed Tray to Menu Board

On a different trip to Deseret Industries I found this metal tray.  I liked the edge, but not the mod podged paper insides.  I removed all of that using water to get the last of the mod podge off.  My daughter was saying she wanted to have a chore board and I thought this would make a cute one.  However, when I showed it to her, she said it would be an adorable Menu Board for her kitchen.  So now it is!

Her kitchen is red, white and black.  I used my Make-the-Cut software and designed the circles with the day of the week.  I then printed them on the red and white polka dot paper.  Then I cut them with the Print n' Cut feature in Make-the-Cut.  Next I used E-6000 to glue the circles to the flat glass marbles.  I waited 24 hours and added the large magnets on the back, also using E-6000.  I did need to trim the paper circles to fit the magnets better because, as you can see, they are not perfectly round so my circles hung over in a few spots.

I painted the inside of the tray with chalkboard paint and put the magnets on it and now she has a Menu Board she can re-use every week!  I threaded red ribbon through the top holes so she can hang it in her kitchen.  I think it turned out just great!  Thanks so much for taking a peek and have a wonderful day!

Grandson's 1st Birthday Card

My only grandson's 1st birthday is coming up so I made this card for him.  I found this cute Number 1 candle coloring page on line and brought it into Make-the-Cut, cut it out with my wonderful Black Cat Lynx cutting machine and glued it to the front of the card.  The actual card paper is from Nana's Kids paper stack.  This particular little tidbit of information is amazing because usually I have no idea where my paper was from or what kind it is!  Maybe I am making some kind of progress!  The sentiment inside says "How amazing.  You're already one.  What a precious, perfect little grandson!"  I am not one for coming up with catchy little verses or rhymes.  Kind of cheesy, but it's the best I can do!  :)  Thanks for stopping by and having a peek.

Advent Calendar #2

This advent calendar is for my 4-year-old granddaughter.  She will have so much fun filling in Santa's beard each day!  I found the idea on line but changed it up a bit to make it my own.  I re-worded the poem also.  Now it is just perfect for her!  These are so fun to make.  I found a cute Santa coloring page on line and used MTC to help cut out the image with print and cut.  I used Penny Duncan's file for the layers on the bottom.  Thanks for stopping by to take a look.  Have a wonderful day!

I was perusing the Make-the-Cut forum the other day and noticed they were having a "Nutcrackers in November" crop.  There was a charge plate challenge and I have always liked putting vinyl on plates, so I decided to make one and include it as an entry in the challenge.  Here it is!  I found this pattern on line about a year ago so I don't know who to give credit to for this amazing design!  Doing little projects like this gets me closer to being in the Christmas spirit, however, I want to thoroughly enjoy the Thanksgiving season to its fullest!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!