Saturday 7 April 2012

Out Of Commission For A Bit

Morning Chicks!

Just a quick note to let you know that I won't be making cards for a week or two.  I have arthritis and over the past two weeks my wrists and ankles have gotten to the point that I can barely use them.  I am just waiting to see if this will be a quickie thing or whether this will be long term before heading back to the doc to be checked out. 

Stamping and colouring is really hard to do right now.  I will, however, be visiting blogs in the evenings.  If I am able to type I will leave a comment!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Weekend and work week ahead.

Hugs,
Sheree

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Mother's Day - Hero Arts


Good Morning Chicks!

Just a quick post this morning.

I've seen a few challenges out there for either Mother's Day, Spring or Pastels.  This, is my entry for all of them!

The main image stamp is from Hero Arts #S5033 Silhouette.  I stamped it in Versa Color Old Rose and embossed it with Hero Arts clear embossing powder.  The sentiment stamp is from Stampin' Up! and it is embossed as well.

I can't remember where the paper is from... my stash!  I made the bow with ribbon from WalMart and the butterfly is from a sticker package called Bride's Own from WalMart as well.

Hope you all have a wonderful work week!

Hugs,
Sheree 

Challenges...

The Outlawz - Greeting Card Challenge - Pastels

Sunday 1 April 2012

Craft A Scene - Silhouettes






Good Morning Chicks!

Well, it's the first Sunday in April and that means that it's a new challenge over at Craft A Scene!

The Design Team were given digi kits consisting of images from Caroline's Creative Stamps to come up with a silhouette card!  The card above is my creation and I'm really happy with it!  That fairy, along with the others in the digi package are so adorable!!  I love the fiery orange/yellow background and how you can do so much with all the digital elements!

Caroline has been designing stamps for over twenty years and has a wide range of designs.  These digital elements are sooo kewl to work with and I'm planning on heading back to pick up another couple of sets soon.  I couldn't believe how many individual pieces were included.  Loads of backgrounds and then a large assortment of different elements that you can layer to create an endless number of cards, scrapbooking pages or whatever you like!  This fairy set I chose will be fabulous for cards for BC Children's Hospital!

Now... How did I get the design I did?  I'm a real newbie when it comes to digital.  Caroline suggested that I download the CraftArtist Compact  program.  This is a neat free program that you can upgrade so it will do so much more.  For me... the Compact is just fine for now.

I started up the program and proceeded to try and figure it out.  There are many tutorial videos on the site but my speakers don't work because my 'Stamp Eater' thought they tasted great when she was a puppy.  This left me only one way to get'er done!  Yep.. fumbling along  on my own doing the trial and error thing.  After playing around for a couple of hours and a whole lot of frustration.... I thought I would try the copy and paste function that every computer has.  What a surprise!!  It worked!  Brilliant!!

Finally I was able to start applying the layers.  First problem... I didn't know how to undo what I had done so the first night I ended up with a card with everything in an oval pattern to fit the card size.  Actually...it looked kind of neat.  But, not at all what I was striving for!  Oh well... I printed off what I had done and found that only one or two of the colour cartridges on my computer were good so the whole thing printed in purple.  And once again.. it kind of looked neat!...But not the look I was after!  haha!  I did save it on the computer but the file is somewhere in the 'Abys'.  When I stumble upon it I will add the image here.

Life got in the way for a few days so I came home from work today and opened up the program and had my first design done within a matter of minutes!  Yay!  I'm not the dense turnip I thought I was and things are still able to stick in my brain!  This is going to be so easy now!  Woo Hoo!  Many would differ and state that I did fall off the turnip truck years ago.....

I will be adding the files I got from Caroline to different projects in hopes of creating something beautiful.  What I can hardly wait to try is using her background papers, circular paper images and others with Stampscapes stamps.  Hmmm... may be on to something here!

Well, I had better get crackin'!!  There's so much to do around the house on my only day off!  If you're still with me and want to hear about my funny and embarrassing day the other day... keep reading!

Have a wonderful work week!
Hugs,
Sheree

p.s.  Sometimes I wonder if I have size 15 feet and a size 20 mouth!!  Or visa versa!

I went out to do the banking for the store on Wednesday which was fine. 

Before I tell you what happened next you need to know that fuel, or petrol, or gasoline, goes bad after 30 days.  The smell can be kind of 'off'.  When fuel is a LOT older than that... it smells horrid, rank, disgusting or putrid.. pick your adjective. We sell and repair machines that use fuel!

When I walked in the front door of the store I didn't bother to look around first and just blurted out... I smell bad gas!  As I looked up I noticed that right in front of me was a big burly logger bent over the parts counter going over his chainsaw with my daughter Erica. 

Awesome!!  The customer turns around and looks at me... I start to laugh hysterically with my face turning red and kept moving into the parts room.  Gawd!!  How could I be so dense??!!  Note to self.. look up before talking!!

It turns out that he has been in our shop before.  Whew!!  He has a dry sense of humour and with a plain face started giving me a bad time.  Great!  I'm okay.... but not for long!

He wasn't sure about what size bar to buy for his chainsaw so Erica grabbed a few from the wall and brought them over.  I was right by the saw so picked up one that was close to the size he was looking for.  Now it gets good....

As I held the bar up beside his smaller bar that was already on the saw... I fudged it into place and said.. .. Lord Have Mercy On ME...  There's your nuts...I've got your nuts.  I meant the bar nuts that hold the bars on to the chainsaw!  Erica started to laugh and then I realized what I had said.  Now I couldn't stop laughing and our customer didn't laugh and started making more comments to me before he cracked up too.  Oh my... I'm sure the guys will have a good chuckle over me in camp!

Thank goodness I'm getting older!!!  Not that my mouth and shoe size will decrease but that I'm approaching the age where I can get away with a whole lot more!  Whew!!  That along with senior's discount on Tuesdays... I'll have it made soon!