Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Craft It Forward!!
What a neat concept!!!
I was visiting a blog tonight ..... http://deedeescraftspot.blogspot.com/ and she was hosting a Craft It Forward, which I am now continuing on my blog!
What is a Craft It Forward you ask???
Well the first five people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me!
Here are the restrictions that come with this:
*There are no guarantees you will like what I make...although I sure hope you do!*
What I create will be just for you! ;o)
*You'll receive it this year (2009)*
The item will be a surprise to you and can be ANYTHING handmade*
In return, all you need to do is post this text into your blog, email me the link back to your Craft It Forward blog, your snail mail addy and make 5 things for 5 people.
My email address is: bbkraze@aol.com keep this going!
Please put CRAFT IT FORWARD in your email to me!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Placemat Purse Tote!
New project!!
What fun! I’m totally inept with the sewing machine (it really hates me) but this was a fun project! It’s a placemat trimmed with that fuzzy yarn ~ which I had to create (using another new to me tool that kind of crochet/knits the yarn) into a chain. I was hoping to pick up the flower colors with the different yarn colors and offset the green parts of the placemat. The handles just slip into the loops and can be easily swapped out but that just happens to be what was available at picture time.
This would be just the right size to toss a book in , wallet, car keys, and maybe sunglasses and head out for adventures! Now I need to find some more placemats ~ didn’t really think I’d be able to do this one. I was a little confused (ha ~ mention sewing and I go into spasms) on how to get the bottom to ‘box’ out instead of just a flat looking sack but once I got past that it has now become addictive .. go figure. Total cost of the project was less than $5!
What fun! I’m totally inept with the sewing machine (it really hates me) but this was a fun project! It’s a placemat trimmed with that fuzzy yarn ~ which I had to create (using another new to me tool that kind of crochet/knits the yarn) into a chain. I was hoping to pick up the flower colors with the different yarn colors and offset the green parts of the placemat. The handles just slip into the loops and can be easily swapped out but that just happens to be what was available at picture time.
This would be just the right size to toss a book in , wallet, car keys, and maybe sunglasses and head out for adventures! Now I need to find some more placemats ~ didn’t really think I’d be able to do this one. I was a little confused (ha ~ mention sewing and I go into spasms) on how to get the bottom to ‘box’ out instead of just a flat looking sack but once I got past that it has now become addictive .. go figure. Total cost of the project was less than $5!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Me and My Cricut!
Cricut Play Tonight!
Well fiddlesticks! Today went by so fast after getting home from work! Found a 12 x 12 tile in the garage (for what?) and was thinking about playing with the Cricut ~ cartridges are on sale at Michael’s .. if I play I might see that I NEED another one so play away!
For all the years that I can remember there was an embroidered saying on my Grandmother’s dining room wall – and it has always fascinated me. I don’t know how old it is but surely qualifies as ‘antique’ and I’m now the keeper of the saying. It was embroidered many moons ago, and it has a hint of a sparkle behind the embroidery material .. I always thought it was the light, the floss, magic .. something! Well, it is .. somewhere along the line there was a foil like paper behind the fabric that little bits of sparkle peek through!
The saying is so appropriate this time of year as Mother’s Day approaches ~ so even though I can’t possibly recreate the wonderful treasure I have from generations past .. I thought I’d take the saying and see if the Cricut, vinyl, and a piece of tile could come together somehow. Let me tell ya, the ‘weeding’ part of working with vinyl is harder than I thought .. picking out the itsy bitsy pieces to make the letters appear correctly! I can’t weed (won’t if I can help it) the lawn and here I’m choosing to weed sticky stuff!!
So .. after a couple disasters .. this is as far as I made it today .. to be continued ..
Well fiddlesticks! Today went by so fast after getting home from work! Found a 12 x 12 tile in the garage (for what?) and was thinking about playing with the Cricut ~ cartridges are on sale at Michael’s .. if I play I might see that I NEED another one so play away!
For all the years that I can remember there was an embroidered saying on my Grandmother’s dining room wall – and it has always fascinated me. I don’t know how old it is but surely qualifies as ‘antique’ and I’m now the keeper of the saying. It was embroidered many moons ago, and it has a hint of a sparkle behind the embroidery material .. I always thought it was the light, the floss, magic .. something! Well, it is .. somewhere along the line there was a foil like paper behind the fabric that little bits of sparkle peek through!
The saying is so appropriate this time of year as Mother’s Day approaches ~ so even though I can’t possibly recreate the wonderful treasure I have from generations past .. I thought I’d take the saying and see if the Cricut, vinyl, and a piece of tile could come together somehow. Let me tell ya, the ‘weeding’ part of working with vinyl is harder than I thought .. picking out the itsy bitsy pieces to make the letters appear correctly! I can’t weed (won’t if I can help it) the lawn and here I’m choosing to weed sticky stuff!!
So .. after a couple disasters .. this is as far as I made it today .. to be continued ..
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Beau turns 2 tomorrow!
Our littlest munchkin turns 2 tomorrow! Wow! Unbelievable how fast the time goes by ~ and this little man just keeps growing like a weed! Playing Peek A Boo with me (Grandma) I just wanna grab him and squeeze the stuffin' out of him! Always ready to go bye-bye but don't turn your attention away for a second ~ he's off to do some kind of adventure! Love this little peanut! Happy Happy day tomorrow and many more to come!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Yikes ~ what'll I say today!?!?
Oops! Where did today go?!?!
Beautiful day today! Sunny, 60ish, day off .. and no crafting at all! Great deal at Maggie Moo’s! Free scoop of ice cream to ward off the income tax blues .. LOL .. who cares by the time today arrives .. either we did the darn things or we didn’t but who in their right mind would turn down a free ice cream cone! Not me!!
Making up for my craft ‘fix’ now! Thank goodness for YouTube! This video I’m watching is more like a commercial for paint brushes .. but there is so much talent and I’m thinking .. gee .. if I cut out something on the Cricut .. put on a shirt .. can I do this?
Neat to watch ~ Fabric Painting ~ and now I’m going to watch some more! Is it really as simplistic as it looks? Hmmmm .. guess I”ll have to find out!
Picture share today ~ these geese are near my work every year .. and do they ever OWN the streets, sidewalk, grassy areas .. and quite often we have to totally stop our car as they go from this spot .. strut right across the street and we assume they are either attending the church there, or maybe just out for a stroll!
Beautiful day today! Sunny, 60ish, day off .. and no crafting at all! Great deal at Maggie Moo’s! Free scoop of ice cream to ward off the income tax blues .. LOL .. who cares by the time today arrives .. either we did the darn things or we didn’t but who in their right mind would turn down a free ice cream cone! Not me!!
Making up for my craft ‘fix’ now! Thank goodness for YouTube! This video I’m watching is more like a commercial for paint brushes .. but there is so much talent and I’m thinking .. gee .. if I cut out something on the Cricut .. put on a shirt .. can I do this?
Neat to watch ~ Fabric Painting ~ and now I’m going to watch some more! Is it really as simplistic as it looks? Hmmmm .. guess I”ll have to find out!
Picture share today ~ these geese are near my work every year .. and do they ever OWN the streets, sidewalk, grassy areas .. and quite often we have to totally stop our car as they go from this spot .. strut right across the street and we assume they are either attending the church there, or maybe just out for a stroll!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Gorgeous Rose!
Gorgeous Rose!
Thanks to DeeDee (ddsdoubles) at PcCrafter I was able to play with this gorgeous rose photo she posted today ~ !
Starting with her original picture:
(isn't it purty!!)
And Using PSP8 (Paint Shop Pro 8) Thanks to Laurie at Creative Adventures!!
I took the original picture and opened it in PSP8.
Using SHIFT + D I made a copy of the original (so I didn't ruin original)
Once I had the copy, I just closed out the original and the copy is my working version to play with.
On the layer pallete, right side of my screen, I right-clicked where it said background and chose the option to "Promote Background Layer"
Then on left side of my screen is my toolbar for tool selections .. and I wanted the Freehand Selection tool and my preference is the following:
Type: Smart Edge
Mode: Add
Feather: 60
Range: Blank
Smoothing: 0
AntiAlias: Checked
Ok ..with me so far? Now using the tool, go to the part of the image you want to 'mist' .. this means clicking around the pretty part (for me the rose itself) til you have what you want selected .. when the 'ends' of the line meet, you just click the right mouse button to join them. You should see a shape of 'marching ants' around the selected area.
Go to the top of screen, and choose Selections, then choose Invert
All of a sudden you will see a much smaller area of your photo with the little ants .. that's ok, that's what you want!
Now, go to your layers pallets and make sure you don't have any colors selected in the Background/Fill properties box (the lower right box) .. you just have to click the little icon thingy to deselect the color and make it transparent.
Now hit your "delete' key one time .. you will see a significant difference in your photo! Continue to delete until you like what you have .. if you don't like just go to file/undo at the top of the page.
When ready, go to top of screen and choose Select / None .. the ants go away and you are left with your misted image.
You can now create a 'tube' if you want, or continue by adding a layer and a background to finalize your project. I had fun! Course I'm easily entertained . . . this is my finished 'mist'
and once again ~ thanks to DeeDee and Laurie! ;o)
Thanks to DeeDee (ddsdoubles) at PcCrafter I was able to play with this gorgeous rose photo she posted today ~ !
Starting with her original picture:
(isn't it purty!!)And Using PSP8 (Paint Shop Pro 8) Thanks to Laurie at Creative Adventures!!
I took the original picture and opened it in PSP8.
Using SHIFT + D I made a copy of the original (so I didn't ruin original)
Once I had the copy, I just closed out the original and the copy is my working version to play with.
On the layer pallete, right side of my screen, I right-clicked where it said background and chose the option to "Promote Background Layer"
Then on left side of my screen is my toolbar for tool selections .. and I wanted the Freehand Selection tool and my preference is the following:
Type: Smart Edge
Mode: Add
Feather: 60
Range: Blank
Smoothing: 0
AntiAlias: Checked
Ok ..with me so far? Now using the tool, go to the part of the image you want to 'mist' .. this means clicking around the pretty part (for me the rose itself) til you have what you want selected .. when the 'ends' of the line meet, you just click the right mouse button to join them. You should see a shape of 'marching ants' around the selected area.
Go to the top of screen, and choose Selections, then choose Invert
All of a sudden you will see a much smaller area of your photo with the little ants .. that's ok, that's what you want!
Now, go to your layers pallets and make sure you don't have any colors selected in the Background/Fill properties box (the lower right box) .. you just have to click the little icon thingy to deselect the color and make it transparent.
Now hit your "delete' key one time .. you will see a significant difference in your photo! Continue to delete until you like what you have .. if you don't like just go to file/undo at the top of the page.
When ready, go to top of screen and choose Select / None .. the ants go away and you are left with your misted image.
You can now create a 'tube' if you want, or continue by adding a layer and a background to finalize your project. I had fun! Course I'm easily entertained . . . this is my finished 'mist'
and once again ~ thanks to DeeDee and Laurie! ;o)Monday, April 13, 2009
Blurfing .. OMG .. it's for real!!
Blurfing = Blog Surfing Bliary = Blog Diary
WoooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooo! Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? Thanks to Lisa at Happy Happy Everything I now know how to surf for blogs that interest me! I don’t even know if “blurf” is a real word, and I know I just made up the “bliary” cause it seems to me that if I can Blurf then I can call my blogging a diary .. thus Bliary. NO, No, no, I’m not from another planet .. this is really neat stuff to know!
So, the trick is:
Go to Google: Google
On the top row where it says Web / Images / Etc go to the far right and choose MORE
Then a drop down menu appears ~ choose Blog
Voila!!!!! The magic begins!
Search away! It even lets you get email alerts, you can narrow by dates, time periods etc.!
Thank you Lisa! I have another playground and can see going cross eyed (ok ok MORE crosseyed) in my immediate future!
Gotta love it!
WoooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooo! Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? Thanks to Lisa at Happy Happy Everything I now know how to surf for blogs that interest me! I don’t even know if “blurf” is a real word, and I know I just made up the “bliary” cause it seems to me that if I can Blurf then I can call my blogging a diary .. thus Bliary. NO, No, no, I’m not from another planet .. this is really neat stuff to know!
So, the trick is:
Go to Google: Google
On the top row where it says Web / Images / Etc go to the far right and choose MORE
Then a drop down menu appears ~ choose Blog
Voila!!!!! The magic begins!
Search away! It even lets you get email alerts, you can narrow by dates, time periods etc.!
Thank you Lisa! I have another playground and can see going cross eyed (ok ok MORE crosseyed) in my immediate future!
Gotta love it!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!!
Thank goodness the rain held off and it was not the rainy, icky day predicted! Go figure anyway .. it’s never right when they forecast it so why would it be today? Now if only the thundershowers hold off we’ll be ok. Found all kinds of neat craft stuff in the garage that I forgot I even had .. but still can’t find my car keys .. gotta keep searching.
Thinking of the kids today – we got to see them last year at Easter but this year all of them are in different states! Hopefully they all got to have fun at an Easter Egg Hunt somewhere! Talked to Chris last night and Doug today so I’m a happy camper!
Next project up tonight – try to get contact paper to cut out on the Cricut! ;o)
Off I go ~
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Cottage Capers ~ An Idea in Progress!
Welcome! It's incredible to me that I'm doing the 'blog' thing! Seems like 'everybody' has to have one so here I go ~ jumping on the bandwagon! Quite a while back, my friend and I said let's do crafts . . let's make things! You know .. get us a little cottage somewhere and create!
Well, that didn’t happen but we go back a LONG way and usually what one of us can’t figure out how to do ~ the other one can. So blogging is our latest adventure .. let’s see who can get one going and then what in the world will we do with it!
As I got started, I thought I’d lose what’s left of my mind ~ why am I doing this! All the neighbors are out mowing their lawns, planting flowers, cleaning garages .. and here I am thinking I don’t have anything to ‘blog’ about! How in the world did I get started on this .. where will it lead to .. and will it motivate me to create so I can share things? I sure hope so!
For me, in the latest craze I’m in, creating means Cricut! I had to have this machine, the Cricut Expression, and yikes! I get so wound up in all the blogs ~ and will have to add them to this too ~ that I snag this, and try that ~ to the extent I seem to have little ‘bugs’ running around thinking of ideas all the time!
With luck, I’ll figure this out and get a project on here once in a while ~ until then ~
Well, that didn’t happen but we go back a LONG way and usually what one of us can’t figure out how to do ~ the other one can. So blogging is our latest adventure .. let’s see who can get one going and then what in the world will we do with it!
As I got started, I thought I’d lose what’s left of my mind ~ why am I doing this! All the neighbors are out mowing their lawns, planting flowers, cleaning garages .. and here I am thinking I don’t have anything to ‘blog’ about! How in the world did I get started on this .. where will it lead to .. and will it motivate me to create so I can share things? I sure hope so!
For me, in the latest craze I’m in, creating means Cricut! I had to have this machine, the Cricut Expression, and yikes! I get so wound up in all the blogs ~ and will have to add them to this too ~ that I snag this, and try that ~ to the extent I seem to have little ‘bugs’ running around thinking of ideas all the time!
With luck, I’ll figure this out and get a project on here once in a while ~ until then ~
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