Effer Dare 167 - Current

Last night as I scrolled through the blogs and searched for everything and nothing I stopped on the Effer Dares site and for the first time felt compelled to take their dare so here is my page for dare 167- Current.


Because it's about ME this is the first dare, challenge, project that I felt no pressure or anxiety about making it the most beautiful thing ever. The patterned strips have been sitting on that beautiful DCWV green cardstock for a while waiting to be used together. I don't know why I like them like that so much, but I do so there they are - together.


The clouds were cut with the Papertrey Ink dies I got in the mail yesterday. I couldn't spell 'optimistic' for the life of me but I like the way the patch makes that word pop out. The sun was made with the smallest of the large pinking circle dies from spellbinders with my own smiley face drawing.

Hope you like it, but even if you don't, I do and on a personal page like this that's really all that matters.

Make your own currents page and share it on the Effer Dares site.

Happy crafting
Katie

AND YET ANOTHER SILHOUETTE GIVEAWAY

OVER AT UNDER THE TABLE AND DREAMING BY STEPHANIE LYNN IS ALSO GIVING AWAY A SILHOUETTE. Check out the Silhouette blog, love the tattoo on the face - tattoo paper looks like a big bunch of birthday fun.

BTW, How to do I get to be on the list of "givers" instead of on the list of "wishers to get"?

Go here too. and Wish me luck.

Katie

ANOTHER SILHOUETTE GIVEAWAY

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Over at Kara's Party Ideas there is another Silhouette Giveaway. All the same crafty goodness. Every time I see the name Silhouette I get a bit greener with jealousy and a bit bluer because I don't have one. I've brightened considerably at the prospect of winning one. Yes I am now a lovely aquamarine.

Go show Kara how much you want to share in the Silhouette joy.

Happy Crafting,
Katie

Giving away a Silhouette Die Cutting Machine

What a great give away over at Grosgrain — a Silhouette Die Cutting Machine. I have wanted one of these for a long time. To see what it can do and for some inspiration go to the Flickr group: Silhouette Machine: theCREATIVEplace

With this machine I could cut out things I've created on the computer or scanned into the computer, like the images I just uploaded to my Flickr FYAO gallery. How cool would it be to have the image of this mayflower cut out for me to place on a scrapbook page about my love of chamomile tea as a craft friendly drink.




This image is in my FYAO gallery, which are images For Your Art Only. Use whatever you like in anyway you like - as long as you are not selling the images online, in a CD collection or in a printed collection. If you have any questions about using my images please email me.
This image, as well as all the images from my FYAO gallery, are available in the Flickr group Collage Images (NOT FOR POSTING ART)

Go to Grosgrain and enter. And wish me luck too.

Happy Crafting,

Katie

Summer of 1896

Figure 105 - Swimming
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

15 more images have been uploaded to my flickr site in the FYAO (For Your Art Only) Set. Most are of medicinal plants this time but these images illustrate the benefits of exercise. I love the swimming 'costumes' here. And the flexed muscles on that arm just scream beach to me, ala Charles Atlas.

These are from The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser © 1896. These images are for your personal use only. NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE. You may not sell them online, in CD collections or in printed collections of vintage images.

More creations coming this week. Stay tuned.

Happy Crafting
Katie

Etsy Feed

Well it's open. Katemade Designs has items for sale! Woo Hoo.

Did you know you can subscribe to an Etsy shop via Google reader? I didn't either. I was at my Etsy shop, Katemade Designs, and accidentally hit the subscribe button on my bookmarks bar. Then my Google Reader said, "you're not subscribed to this feed, do you want to be?" I said, "Why Yes, Yes I would," just to see what would happen. So now I am subscribed to my own shop.

If anyone adds items to my shop I will know about it right away. I should probably get on that just so that feed has something to do. You can also click on the subscribe button on the shop's pages but I don't know if that goes to a reader or email or what.

Of course you can also subscribe to and/or follow this blog. If you like seeing my little creations and reading the goofiness I post then please help me reach the modest goal of 20 followers/subscribers to this blog.

Happy Crafting
Katie

Make Your Art Look Like Crap

I went to one of my favorite places the other day - the library - and found the book Crumble. Crackle. Burn. by Von Glitschka. It's fabulous. It features "120 stunning textures for design and illustration." It's a bunch of textures and a sample of how they were used in artwork. What makes it fabulous is that it includes all the textures on a DVD that you can use to enhance your own artwork.

"Make Your Art Look Like Crap" is one of the subheads on Von Glitschka's website the Vonsterbooks.com but I think stuff with an added texture looks so cool. It's like the kissing technique in stamping where you press a textured stamp to a solid stamp to get a pattern in your solid area. I always liked that technique. This idea is so cool that I took a couple of pictures while on a walk in the city Monday just for the textures.

You can use textures on illustrations. I drew a simple flower in Adobe Illustrator and then imported it into Photoshop to add color and texture. My guess is that more crafters have Photoshop Elements but I'm pretty sure the process is the same. The flowers are all PNG files and you are welcome to all versions here.

the original.


the colored version.


the texturized version.



I used the same dried mud texture for both stems and petals but I used them at different sizes. The process is really easy.

1. Open your image and your texture in separate documents.
2. Create a new layer in your image document.
3. Copy your texture and paste into the new layer of your image document.
   If you only want to change a small portion of a file, say just the leaves or petals above, you will need to select that area before you add your texture. The magic wand tool is great for this: select on the layer that has the image, then highlight the new layer before adding your texture or you will be adding it to your image and will not be able to play with the effects.
   
4. Change your layer settings on the texture layer until you like what you see. The image below has the dried mud texture as a 20 percent Overlay on a picture taken on the same city walk mentioned above.

Here is the texture. It's 12x12 at 72 dpi.


If you download the texture I'd love to see what you do with it. Please follow me if you download the texture.

Happy Crafting,
Katie

New Cards and more from the Urge to Purge

The other day I sold an owl card that I featured here. I sent it with a larger package of cards that my girlfriend purchased from me. Her enthusiasm for owls was the inspiration for this card. I've had the little blue owl in my pre-stamped stash for a while and decided it was time to use him.

The patterned paper and stamps are all from Stampin' Up! The owl is from the retired Goody Goody Gumdrops, the branches and leaves are from Season of Friendship.

I created the "Hoo Loves You" badge in Adobe InDesign. I used the ASE file I created of all the SU! colors so it would match the paper it's mounted on. If you want the ASE file please contact me.

I created the count your blessings card with a unmounted wheel called "Take A Number". The sentiment is from the long retired Stem Silhouette. I have always loved putting numerals with the sentiment, "blessings brighten when we count them."

The flower is from a large stash of silk flowers. I've got some left over from bouquets I've made but I also collect them when I go to Micheal's or Joann Fabrics. As a mom I tend to pick random stuff up off of store floor so carts don't get stopped by them and little kids don't insert them in their mouth and then take them to the check out. Generally cashiers reach for the garbage can, I always say "I'll take the flower tops". I would never deadhead a silk flower but I'll clean up a mess on the floor.





Because it's been a few days since I posted. Lots happening here but I can't really discuss it yet. I am posting more of the Urge to Purge/Use Your Stash cards. These are cards that the image was already stamped and all I needed to do was be inspired to pair them with patterned paper and/or other items.

I have had this gumball machine from the long retired Treat Yourself stamp set (© 2005) for eons. I saved it from an awful card and put it away. I used the Papertrey Ink large scallop die on the blue paper (also from SU!) and it seemed perfect as a table cloth.

This whale is from the Stampin' Up! Pun Fun set. He's been sitting in the pre-stamped drawer for a long time as well.

I got a new pack of watercolor paper recently and wanted to see how the watercolor pencils would work on it. I used the large scallop die from Papertrey Ink again on the watercolor paper and then sponged some ink that matched the paper on the waves.

I kind of CASEd myself with this card. The watercolor is like the Bloops I Forgot card from last week.

Happy Crafting,

Katie

I feel like celebrating

The site meter there on the right tells me I am almost to my favorite number 6665. Why is that my favorite number you ask. It's my birthday, yes I am that old or young depending on your perspective, and I am in the mood to celebrate. What could be a better way to celebrate than to give gifts, goody bags, treats to my friends.

Here's what I'm going to do. If you become a follower of this blog AND leave a comment on this post I will enter your name in a drawing for a prize pack that includes a Stampin' Up! stamp set, some stickers and embellishments plus a couple of handmade items too.

I will contact the first 20 people who comment and each of you will get a snail mail thank you gift.

I will give you one more way to win the stash. I will enter you name in the drawing a second time if you refer someone to this blog. That means if someone comments saying, "[insert your name here] told me I should follow the Katemade Designs blog so here I am," you will get a second chance to win.

Easy peasy huh.

-----------------

Now on to today's card.

At CHA I purchased the Little Loveasaurus stamp set from My Favorite Things. Apparently I got the last one because it's not listed on their website and I took the last one off the hook at the show so I am even more stoked that I got it. I have wanted to try MFT stamps for a while. I love what Mel M. M. McCarthy did with this stamp on her blog, Mel Stampz. Why didn't I just get it back when? I've never seen MFT stamps in local stores and I don't buy much online. Old fashioned I know (see birthdate above).

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the strong chemical smell. These are different than other acrylic stamps I've used. When I inked it up and pressed it down I saw just how different they are. What a beautiful impression. There are small dots of detail and they were beautifully clear on the paper. There will be a lot more RAWR coming because I love this little guy.

I colored him in with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits (remember that technique?) and I couldn't resist adding the googly eyes. Instead of letting him sit I made a card immediately, I'm trying hard not to let the stash of pre-stamped items get out of hand.
Of course now the stash of cards is growing so the Etsy shop needs to be stocked.

Happy Crafty and don't forget to follow and comment to enter the drawing.

Katie

Do you have a purpose?

Do you stamp images with no idea when or where you will use them? Do you have a stash of pre-stamped images waiting to become part of something grander?

Well I do. The sky on this card and the owl were stamped and stashed waiting to be married up at some point. I didn't know when they were stamped that they would end up together but there they are looking pretty good together.
The cloud (Hero Arts) image had a blank spot in the middle when it was stamped so I stowed it. In an Urge to Purge moment I found it and decided to "see what would happen" if I stamped the tops of trees on it using SU!'s Branch Out set (currently dormant). Looked good but still needed something. I found the owl and then got busy making a tree with a scrap of brown and the wood grain background stamp from All Night Media. I punched the leaves and put the whole thing together.
Love when things fall in place like that.


Do you have embellishments you've forgotten about or haven't used it ages?

I have too many to mention. But I am starting to rediscover these gems.

I found the plastic bubbles on this card in the clearance aisle of Micheal's years ago when the dew drops were really popular. They are not dew drops they were originally created to be used in the bottom of aquariums but they work great cards. I purchased 3 large bags for $1 each. I have purples, yellows and blues. Of course blue is the one that gets used most because they are perfect for underwater scenes. The light blue water area is a simple ink wash on watercolor paper. The fish is from a long retired SU! set called Very Puny, and is covered in Crystal Effects for shine.

For the sentiment I just added the "BL" to the front of an "Oops I forgot" stamp and felt quite brilliant.





Do you have a stash of patterned paper that's too big to toss but too small to cover a card front?

I do. In my urge to purge state I found these bits and decided to put them together to create this card.

It was also the perfect opportunity to use the eyelet lace border I created with the Papertrey Ink die I purchased
while I was at CHA last week.

The card needed a focal point so I inked up the Imaginisce stamp "A is for Apple" that I got in the clearance bin at Michael's. I was looking for this image at the end of school thinking that I had purchased it but NO. So when I saw it recently I grabbed it.

New Images
More new cards and images from the People's Common Sense Medical Adviser are now on my Flickr site. The medical book images have also been uploaded to the collage images group. There are even images of Abraham Lincoln and US Grant too - in a medical book no less.

I have decided to post 12 images each week on Wednesday from this book so check back next week for an image of Prof. George Bush. Wonder if there is any relation to the presidents Bush.

Speaking of medical, my son has responded very well to the antibiotics the doctor prescribed and is even eating and drinking again.

Happy Crafting,
Katie

No Cards today

Since pushing the button to put yesterday's post up I've been cleaning up puke. Not non-stop mind you but several (6) times. My son has strep and he's miserable. If you are the praying type say a quick prayer that my son eats and drinks a bit tomorrow. He is terrified to ingest anything and today I'm not pushing it. But he needs to get some fluids in him at least.

I didn't want to run the vacuum while he napped because I didn't want to wake him (or clean) so
I crafted and looked for work online. The best light for photographing is between 7:45 and 9am and because there was nothing created by then so there are no pictures. Hopefully tomorrow he will just rest and the light will be with me for photos.

Stay well, 'cause sick SUCKS, and happy crafting,
Katie

Cricut Imagine

This is Chris Dodge. He is a Quality & Compliance Engineer at Provo Craft. I met him at the CHA Super Craft Show this past Friday. He's a smart guy, he know all about the Cricut Imagine.

Chris is also the marketing materials Provo Craft had at the show about the forthcoming Cricut Imagine. There were no brochures, no flyers, just Chris doing a wonderful job of demonstrating and answering crafter's questions.

Nice features include:

• being able to change colors and patterns of predesigned elements and papers that are on the familiar cartridges.
• no more keyboard covers and flipping through a book to figure out which button to push to get what you want - it's all stylus now baby.
  
• being able to cut out entire elements or cut things out separately so you can layer them on your projects.
• Being able to print out full 12x12 sheets of patterned paper, no more wasting money on patterned paper (I thought this was kind of funny - I don't know if Chris is a scrapbooker but there will always be a need to purchase patterned paper - at least for my scrap group).
  

I asked about the footprint - it looks huge but it has a lot of stuff going on in there. The machine itself is about 2.5' across and little over 12" deep. BUT you need at least 3' in depth for it to work properly because the 12" cutting mat goes through the machine (on top of the rollers) gets printed on by the HP printer, sticks out about 12" in the back, then automatically goes back into the machine to let the Cricut do the cutting. It uses a different cutting mat than the original Cricut. There are black lines on the cutting mat that the machine reads to be sure the printed material and cutting function are lined up properly. (See the lines circled in red in the photo to the left.) It's so cool to watch it work.

This machine, which Chris demonstrated so well, will be available in the fall. Hopefully by then they will figure out a way to hook it up to your computer so you can print all your digital pages out and so you can design your own elements, these things are not yet available. The website dedicated to this machine is a bit lacking in details so I will share the press release about it.

7/31/2010 - Provo Craft Introduces Cricut Imagine

The World’s First Automated Printing and Cutting Machine Featuring Inkjet Technology by HP Unveiled at Craft & Hobby Association Tradeshow

Chicago– July 27, 2010 –Provo Craft today unveiled Cricut® Imagine™, the world’s first tool that precisely prints and cuts with the touch of a button without requiring a computer or software. Cricut Imagine offers an easy-to-use, electronic print-and-cut system that adds a whole new level of texture, detail and dimension to a wide variety of creative projects. Cricut Imagine is the first in the line-up to feature printing as well as cutting, and features inkjet technology by HP. The new product is currently on display at the Craft & Hobby Association Summer Convention and Tradeshow in Chicago.

Cricut Imagine saves you time since you no longer have to use three different tools to get designs, print, and then cut projects. The new machine helps you add more personalization and creativity to projects with a new library of content including shapes, patterns, and color. In addition, Cricut Imagine is easy to use and is built upon award-winning cutting and printing technology from Provo Craft and HP.

Cricut Imagine gives new life to all your original Cricut cartridges! Now you can add colors and patterns when pairing the original cartridges with NEW Cricut Imagine Colors and Patterns cartridges.

“Cricut Imagine is not only unique to the crafting industry, but to the world of technology. There is not another device that incorporates printing and cutting the way this machine does,” said Jim Thornton, CEO of Provo Craft. “The pairing of print and cut technology could only be done by the leaders in each category—HP and Provo Craft. We’re eager to see what our customers can now do with a simple sheet of white paper and Cricut Imagine print and cut technology.”

“HP is always expanding its personal publishing portfolio with new products and services that inspire and enable creativity among individuals and families,” said Kathy Tobin, Vice President and General Manager, Specialty Printing Systems Division, HP. “Cricut customers can benefit from high-quality Original HP ink to achieve unique and professional results.”

Cricut Imagine features include:

- Cricut Imagine cartridges are enhanced by Cricut Pattern and Cricut Color cartridges to add dimension and layering
- Cricut Imagine is fully compatible with all original Cricut cartridges.
- Compatible with Gypsy by Cricut handheld design studio
- Easy-to-use LCD touch-screen navigation so that all information is right at your fingertips
- New detachable accents to be able to personalize your machine with colors and textures
- Access to a vast new library of content and artwork: Over 150 original Cricut cartridges (with several new cartridges introduced each month), 12 new Cricut Imagine Art cartridges specifically for this new machine, plus 12 new Cricut Imagine Colors & Patterns cartridges
- On-board color and pattern selector - choose your own colors, sizes, and much more
- Works with paper sizes up to 12” x 12” and make cuts from .25” to 11.5”, making large-format print and cutting possible
- Retractable paper tray
- No computer necessary
- Uses same blades and blade housing as current Cricut products
- Uses a separate mat than original Cricut machines
Suggested retail for Cricut Imagine is $599.99. To learn more about this unique machine visit http://www.cricutimagine.com. For more information on Provo Craft visit: www.provocraft.com or follow us on Twitter!

Well back to work and wishing I had the money and space for this beauty.

Happy Crafting,

Katie