Pet Sympathy Card - cat

Sadly, another friend lost her long time companion recently.....

All supplies used on this project are from Stampin'Up! although some are now retired.
Meow Meow stamp set
Whisper White card stock
Silver Metallic card stock
Silver Metallic Encore ink
Going Gray and Pink Pirouette inks
heart eyelet
hearts border embossing folder strip

The pink "tree" in the background is another one of my projects, made and entered into a contest earlier this year. Click here if you'd like to see how to make my Pets Memory Tree - Tree Of Love. I designed it to display photos of my pets and was happy with how it turned out. To see a few more projects I've made in memory of my pets that have passed on, click on these links:

Memory Box - Cassie
    Spring
    Summer
     Fall
    Winter
Memory Box- Mulligan
Memory Box- Ringo
      Winter
      Spring
      Summer
      Fall
Framed 12x12 Scrapbook Page - all the pets
Memory Frame - Printers Tray, all the pets







I used a border embossing folder to make the heart background piece, but I had to make some adjustments to get it to work. I don't have a full heart background embossing folder, so I made do with what I had. It worked well enough.

Lay the embossed piece face down on the recessed

side of the embossing folder. Line it up and gently push 

the hearts back out into the recessed areas of the embossing folder.

Here is another way to make several strips of embossing -

without smashing down any of the previously embossed designs.

Make strips of chipboard to just cover the embossing images

on the folder, top and bottom.

Depending on your machine, you may need to add extra shims.

"Sandwich" for my machine.

oops, I forgot to type in EMBOSSING FOLDER

on the image above ! The card stock would be 

sandwiched between the two sides of the folder

with your homemade chipboard shims on either

side of that. 

Thanks for looking =) 

OWH Midweek Throwdown - Spring Flowers

I created these two cards to donate to Operation Write Home and used their Midweek Throwdown Challenge Theme, Spring Flowers.  I've actually made two dozen cards the past few days to donate, several of which have flowers on them. I'll be sharing all of them over the next couple of weeks. I *hope* to get more cards made (and use up more scraps) to mail in for the Race you To The Mailbox drive they are having this month. Send in your boxes of hand stamped cards (following a few simple rules) by January 27th for a chance to win a prize  - and to provide beautiful cards for our troops to write home to their loved ones on.

I finally got around to using an old leftover piece from a "One Sheet Wonder / Double Time" stamped piece of card stock for this project  !

I have created two of my own One Sheet Wonder patterns and shared them here on the blog if you are interested:

http://craftysahmiam.blogspot.com/2012/11/christmas-cards-one-sheet-wonder-pattern.html


http://craftysahmiam.blogspot.com/2012/10/one-sheet-wonder-card-set-part-1.html



All suppplies used, except the wire, beads and ribbon, were from Stampin' Up!
The stamp sets, Petal Prints and French Script, are now retired.

Thanks for looking =)

My Top 12 Projects of 2012

Pretty tough to do, but here goes: my top 12 favorite non card projects and my top 12 card projects that I created and shared in 2012, in no particular order.

Non Card Crafty Projects:

Ringos Memory Box - this page shows all four sides, each side has it's own blog post with a tutorial shared over the next few consecutive days after this post.  I have made two other boxes for Mulligan and Cassie using paper mache box bases. This particular box base was made from scratch, see the post to see patterns and dimensions.

Pet Photos Printer Tray Project - tutorial

Tree Of Love - tutorial

Two Cute Bats Halloween Banner Display - tutorial
this particular project won recognition at a challenge blog

Repurposed Plastic Easter Egg Bunny - tutorial

Dahlia Fold Christmas Tree - tutorial
This project was chosen as a favorite from 2012
by a member at Splitcoaststampers

Barn Star Wreath - tutorial

This project was pinned to the
My Memories Suite gallery pinterest board, wow!

Grandparents Day Album In A Tin/Card - tutorial

Baby Shower Gift basket -

stamped onesie, digital designed image inside of repurposed frame I made,

stamped brag book (each has different posts).

Homemade Digital Glitter paper -

 I decided topick one of them as a favorite, 

but it was tough to choose.

I decided to go with this one since I made my own glitter paper

and scanned in old designer papers not available digitally to

make my digital scrapbook page.

Lots of work, but I love the end result. 

look under My Memories Suite

or

My Digital Studio

tabs here on my blog for more ideas.

Milk Can Redo 

This is shared as a favorite for sentimental reasons -

it was a foot rest my grandmother made many, many

years ago. I refinished it and recovered it so my

cat had a step up to get on the couch. 

Cards:

Ford F150 Shaped Card - tutorial

this is all hand made, hand drawn and hand cut

It's A Winner Card

Round Easel Card - tutorial

Trifold Punch Art Bunny and Easter Eggs Card -  tutorial

Pop Up Bouquet Card - tutorial

this is the inside of the card, surprise !

Suspended Spinning Heart Card - tutorial

Woven Heart Card - tutorial

Happy Fourth Shaped Card - tutorial

One Sheet Wonder Fall Cards - for the World Card Making Day Blog Hop , PaperCrafts magazine.
More information including a diagram I created were shared in two additional posts after this one

Punch Art New House Card

Thanks, Coach card

Swing Card

Thanks so much for looking !

I hope there is a project or two I've shared that inspires you =) 

Favorite Cards I Made for OWH

Although these were not sent to Operation Write Home, I wanted to share them:

95 Honor Flight Cards I made and donated

Holiday Mail For Heroes Cards  - I made and donated

20 cards to our local Red Cross chapter

Operation Write Home Cards:

Pop Up Christmas Tree WCMD OWH Blog Hop Project - tutorial

Altered Notecards Set 1

Faux Black and White Photo Cards - tutorial

 Tractor Time Card Set

\

 Watercolored Country Image Cards 

Love Cards Set 1

 Spectrum Sample Cards

Kids Cards

I'm currently working on cards to send in to Operation Write Home by January 27th for the "Race You To The Mailbox" card drive. If you didn't know, postage rates are going up again !

I don't make resolutions, but if I did, one would be: I would like to take part in more challenges at OWH this year =)

My Memories Suite Tutorial - Computer Wallpaper

This is a computer wallpaper calendar I created with the My Memories Suite V4 software and an add on kit I bought from the My Memories online store. All items used (except for the branch and calendar image) were included in the 4 Seasons Winter kit by Scraps N Pieces.

I *think* if you click on the image above and save it as a jpeg, it should work on your computer too if your resolution is set to 1440 x 900, the size this was created for.

If you'd like to know how I made it and learn a couple of tips, read on.

Start off with a CUSTOM canvas size, choose PIXELS and type in the size that your computer screen is (this particular one is set to 1440 x 900). I found mine by right clicking on the background then choosing Personalize then Display Settings to see what this computer monitor was set at. I am using Windows Vista so it it could be different on your computer system.

The background was made by inserting a rectangle "Shape" then adjusting to fit the background canvas size. I wanted to do it this way rather than just Paper Fill the Background in case I needed to adjust to image (which I did since it was the rows of snowman paper and I wanted a small uncluttered area for my program shortcuts to sit on for the computer wallpaper).

Choose "Paper" to fill the shape with a background paper. I used the "snowman" paper from the 4 Seasons Winter kit. Once it is inserted, double click (left mouse button) on it to bring up the "Shapes Image Editor" box. In this box you have some options to change how your paper looks in the shape: reducing or enlarging the image, rotating the image or even replacing the image (you can even add your own photos to the shape to make a background!). I moved the paper slightly to position the snowman where I wanted.

I then created my calendar using the basic "Calendars" creator function in the MMS V4 software to make my calendar grid. It too is found on the right side of the main design screen. It is pretty easy to create this basic style of calendar. I changed the fonts and the colors (I used the color picker and chose a dark brown from the snowmen arms) with the Edit button under the Calendars section.

The background to the calendar was made in a couple of steps. I wanted to use a paper in the 4 Seasons Winter kit, but there weren't any light enough for my liking. This is what I did to make it work: insert a shape (square, stretched to fit the frame embellishment) and "Color Change" fill with French Vanilla. Copy and paste in place the same shape, this time change the color by making sure that it is highlighted with the little gray boxes around it so you can edit it, then choosing "Paper". I used the "green light" paper from the 4 Seasons Winter kit then reduced the opacity. Since I wanted the light green to be slightly lighter than the paper in the kit and the snowman background would have shown through with the reduced opacity, I layered the Vanilla square behind it to hide the snowmen !

All of the fabulous elements were in the 4 Seasons Winter kit, but I did need to reduce the size and rotate them all to my liking. The only thing that was not from the kit is the branch. Be sure to add drop shadows to your embellishments to give them more dimension.

I found the branch element by typing in "branch" in the search box that pops up when you click on the Embellishments > Add box on the right side panel of the program. The search box is underneath the preview box. It will search all of the items you have installed in your MMS V4 software then show you a preview of the images. This particular branch is from another kit, I don't know the name of it, but it does have the designers name next to the image, Valcrea.

This is the first time I've made my own custom computer wallpaper background - and a calendar at that ! It was lots fun and fairly simple to do with the My Memories Suite V4 software. 

If you don't already own My Memories Suite V4 software, you can buy it at mymemories.com. Use my affiliate code STMMMS23251 to get $10 off of your purchase and a coupon code for $10 worth of digital content from the store ! You can also get a 6x6 photobook for a small shipping fee. The store has thousands and thousands of different styles and types of digital download content plus there are always sales, soooooooo many awesome digital goodies to choose from it is honestly a bit overwhelming ! 

Thanks for looking =) 

A Few Clearance Finds

Each of the card kits with rubber stamps was 4.98 , the mini punches were 3.98, the card kit was 3.98.
The sets with stamps are made by Hero Arts, the card kit is from American Crafts and the punches are from EK Success. They were found at Target.

The above card is the American Crafts kit. 

All of the pieces were precut and preglittered,

I only needed to supply glue.

There were no envelopes with this set though.

One of the Hero Arts kits.

There are small rhinestones included, but I didn't stick them on.

I was disappointed, the box said "foldover card" 

- and I was wondering how it could be a card that opened with this tree shape-

but the only "foldover" is the small foldout base. 

It will be fine to send to family/friends.

My original plan was to send them to 

Operation Write Home

or Holiday Mail for Heroes next year,

but I may not since there isn't much room to write in them.

The other Hero Arts kit.

All I had to supply was the glue and ink

for the rubber stamp. 

Both Hero Arts sets did include envelopes.

BBQ Chicken Pizza - recipe

I took my teenage son to the grocery store with me the other day to pick out soft foods he would like to eat while recuperating from having his wisdom teeth removed.

I went to a store that I don't go to regularly. I do know that they offer samples at times, but I never take one.

However on this particular shopping trip, since I had a hungry son with me, we tried the samples they offered that day - and he was glad he did, he really liked the BBQ chicken (and ohhhhhh so sinful triple chocolate brownies!) so much so that I had to buy all the ingredients to make them for dinner that night.

They turned out great, so I thought I'd share. Of course these exact recipes are not posted online at their site, so here is a photo of the recipe card.

Happy New Year - Facebook Cover My Memories Suite Tutorial

I put this Happy New Year facebook timeline cover photo together with the My Memories Suite V4 software.

To make a facebook timeline cover, start with a custom sized landscape album page, 851 x 315 PIXELS. If you use this custom size, it will fit perfectly when you upload it to your timeline. I haven't yet figured out the exact spacing for the profile photo area, so I just guess at where the timeline cover photo I create should have an empty space.

The background paper (Stripe Black) comes from the pie box craftable kit, Sweet Sensation.

I used the Word Art feature, Boulder font, normal beveled edge with my own digital glitter paper I inserted to create the 2013.

Insert three separate text boxes with Honey Script (Burgundy color; happy   year)  and  Bergamo Xbold (Cinnamon color; new), both with black drop shadows at 90% .

The red brads on the corners are from a kit, not sure exactly which one since I used the search function under Embellishments to find all brads then chose this style, reduced in size. It was from a designer kit by "jsscrap".

If you don't already own My Memories Suite V4 software, you can buy it at mymemories.com. Remember to use my affiliate code STMMMS23251 to get $10 off of your purchase and a coupon code for $10 worth of digital content from the store ! The store has thousands and thousands of different styles and types of digital download content plus there are always sales.


Thanks for looking and have a Happy, Crafty New Year =)