A busy life and random cards

You know how life gets really busy for a while then seems to settle into a nice rhythm and you get routines for daily living down pat. Me neither. I seem to always be running even when there is no where to run to.

Each month at work we have a week and a half of crazy busy leading up to our publication date. I create ads for a monthly direct mail magazine. This last week was the week and tomorrow (or today depending on what time you are reading this) starts the really crazy half week. So I have been busy with work.

I am working on updating some furniture and our house looks like the prequel to Hoarders, "Hoarders - How it all begins." The dining room cabinets have been cleaned out completely and their contents are all over my living room. I will be posting on these projects later. If you want a clue as to what some of the changes will be you can look at my Pinterest board For the Home.

I have also been busy with Cub Scouts taking my son to his meeting one day and returning the next with the neighbors kids for their meetings. 

Today (or yesterday - again depends on when you are reading this) I started a new volunteer position. I am a catechist at church teaching 6th graders. This is my first year but I am teaching with a woman who has several years experience and I am looking forward to both teaching and learning in this class. The other teacher's goal is for the kids to shock their parents with what they have learned. I took the challenge. We are studying the Old Testament and today I taught the kids a mnemonic device to help them remember the books of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) in order.

God's               Genesis

Everlasting      Exodus

Love                Leviticus

Never               Numbers

Dies                 Deuteronomy

I do have a few random cards to show you today.

A thinking about you card,

Stamps: SU Branch Out. Interior sentiment: "When life throws you a curve swing"
Inks: stamped and color washed with SU inks. Edges blended with Distress ink.
Doily and card front spritzed with Mister Huey.
Paper: Watercolor focal point, Dollar store heart doily and SU card stock.

a here for you card,

Stamps: SU Friends 24/7. Inks: Stamped background and sentiment SU inks.
Flower stamped with Momento Ink and colored with Copic Markers

 and a congrats on the new job card.

Stamps: tie from SU More Monkey Accessories Sentiment from Unity Stamps.
Ink: Momento and colored with Copic Markers

 Like I said Random.

Happy Crafting,

Enjoy the Ride

I love making tags. They are like therapy. 

 

There is no pressure to make them archival like scrapbook pages. They don't have to tell an accurate story to my (hopefully someday) grandchildren and great -grandchildren. Tags don't have to be send-able or sell-able like cards.

I made the background on this tag when I was playing around making Tim Holtz style tags. It's blueness sat on my desk for days waiting for a purpose. I decided to stamp a few trikes on it using Distress ink. I stamped the first one and them just stamped off the ink for the other images. 

I had made the Enjoy the Ride flag a while ago for a different project and just pulled one out of the precut/prestamped drawer of my scrap storage. 

I thought it looked a little odd just sitting there so I decided to stitch it on the tag. I used embroidery floss and in retrospect I should not have used so many strands. The red was lonely so I stitched the 3 x's at the bottom of the tag. To complete the triangle I added the red ribbon.

I placed the tag on a kraft card and thought it was too plain so I added white polka dots. It's a simple card but I like it.

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Happy Crafting,

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I made my own washi tape

There are several kinds of trends in paper crafting.   

• Images -  bikes, silhouettes, owls, pennants, or hot air balloons.  
• Shapes - chevrons and hexagons. 
• Tools - Distress inks, stains and markers, misting inks, templates, vinyl, die cutting machines (electric and otherwise).
• Materials - shipping tags, twine, crocheted flowers, wooden die cuts and washi tape.

Back when the trendy material was ribbon I purchased a lot of ribbon. A LOT of ribbon. But I was never great at tying pretty bows so I didn't use it much. I have boxes of ribbon that just sit on the shelf waiting for a design that requires their assistance.

The trend I am currently loving is washi tape. I don't have much but it is so easy to use, no tying required. But washi can be expensive for a cheapskate. Because I am always looking for ways to create crafts for less I have turned to other types of  tape to see if I could make my own washi.







This card was made with washi from K & Company (EK Success) for use with their Smash books. The rest of the materials on this card are from my scrap drawer. The paper is also K& Company. The sentiment is from the dollar bin at Micheal's it originally read "cutie pie" with an image of a slice of pie. The doily is from the dollar store. The ducky has been in my collection for nine years.  I purchased it for my son's first birthday party invitations, but that's a different story for a different time.

The image on this card is from the Recollections set Zoo-licious. I was just playing with this image. I colored the spots with a white crayon and made a mask for the head, tail and legs and spritzed. Then I masked the shell as well and spritzed again. Then I scrapped off the crayon and shaded the legs, head and tail with Copics.

The card sat for a couple of days before I decided to add the tapes. It just looked undone, too plain. Now it looks done.

The same washi I used on the first card was laid down first. I then laid down a tape I created with cloth medical tape and stamped with the flower from the Papertrey Ink Up, Up and Away stamp set. The cloth tape takes dye and alcohol  inks well. The leaves were made but just touching a Copic marker to the tape, it automatically bleeds just enough to look like a leaf. 

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 The next card uses the same tape with a different stamp. This time it's Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Farm set. I stamped the fence on the tape that was stuck on my craft mat. I wish I had stamped it on the card itself because when I stuck it down the fence kind of took a western slant.

The images are colored with Copic markers. The white coloring comes from a paint marker on the cow and a gel pen on the barn. The cow bell is colored with a silver pen.

Given the success of using cloth medical tape I decided to give the paper version a try. I didn't stamp on this one I kind of like the tonal difference. This card was also made with stuff from my scrap drawer. Next time I'll be stamping on the paper tape to see how that looks.

This weekend I purchased a few more rolls of washi at Archivers. They had designs that will work well on Christmas cards.

Happy Crafting,

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

The Weekly Pinterest Roundup

Please do not pin from this page. Click on the link name under the image and see all the details that go with it from the source.

The Katemade Designs Pinterest policy

I do not like to repin things. Even though about 80% of pins on the site are repins I try not to go there. I prefer to go to the source and see what the creator of the project, product, or idea has to say about it. I "like" a lot of things on Pinterest but until I have time to go to the source it will not be repinned. I make exceptions for quotes and things I tag for others. I don't necessarily need to see the original if I just want to tell a friend about a cool idea I saw on someone's pin board.

Now that you know here are this week's most popular pins.

Source: starlitstudio.typepad.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: shufflehits.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: papersmooches.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Katie on Pinterest

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Raster Vs Vector Graphics

The Tuesday Tutorial, one day late.

RASTER GRAPHICS

Raster graphics, also known as bitmap graphics, are made from points of color called pixels.

Raster graphics are resolution dependent – this means it cannot be scaled larger without losing quality.

The standard resolution of a screen image, the images you see on the Internet, is 72 pixels per inch or ppi. Meaning there are 72 individual points of color in each inch of your image.

The standard printing resolution is 300 dots per inch or dpi. PPI and DPI are the same thing because a pixel is the electronic version of a printed dot. I will always default to dpi because I work in the print world.

If you tried to get 72 points of color to make the same image as 300 points of color you wouldn’t get too far. The image would be blurry or pixelated, which means the images is jagged because can see each individual point of color instead of a smooth line. In the print world 72 dpi is considered low resolution or low rez and 300 dpi is considered high resolution or hi rez.

VECTOR GRAPHICS

There is no resolution in vector graphics because they do not use pixels, they use the dreaded MATH. Computer software that creates vector graphics, like Adobe Illustrator or Silhouette Studio, relies on a mathematical formula to create lines. A single vector is a line, either straight or arced between two points.

Vector images can be scaled without losing quality so vector based programs like Adobe Illustrator are used to create logos. They can be scaled down for business cards and blown up for billboards.

The Silhouette studio operates at a resolution of 72 dpi. If you import something that is hi res into a low res environment or document it will come in HUGE, 417% larger than you expected to be exact, because there are so many pixels. On the other hand a low res images that is added into a high res document will be a tiny 24% of its original size because there are so few pixels.

The Silhouette Studio software uses vector graphics because just like you can’t cut a dot, the Silhouette can’t cut a pixel. If you import an image into the Silhouette Studio software for a print and cut you will need to use the trace tool to create cut lines.

So what have we learned today? 

Pixels are points of color that can be printed but not cut. High resolution images are for printing, low resolution images are for the web. Vector images use the dreaded MATH to create lines that can be printed on a printer and cut with the Silhouette. Vector images can be scaled up or down without losing quality.

Hopefully you have a better understand of the difference between raster and vector images and when and how they are used. If you have any questions post them on the blog or on YouTube. I will respond to them not only on the blog or YouTube but also in your email box if it’s included because I don’t like to have to go back and look for the answers to my questions and I doubt you do either.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Tim Holtz Style Tags

I recently watched the video Tim Holtz did for Simon Says Stamps Stamptember Celebration. I learned a lot and gave the new techniques a test run. I didn't have all the stamps Tim used but found similar images at Micheal's from Hampton Arts. They are smaller but the price was right and the results work for me.

Tim's set featured an eye - I had one in my collection. Tim's set included an eye chart, and a hand. The new set had those images. I used Distress Inks and Momento dye ink, even though it's water soluble. I just made sure I stamped those bits. last.

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In the video Tim introduced new Metallic Distress Stains. The shimmer was so cool putting these stains on my wish list — the short list.  This tag was my attempt to use metallics. Of courses without these news stains I had to improvise. I used Adirondacks Metal Mixatives. It's not as shimmery but it's still kind of cool. The skeleton is from a new Halloween set. The ruler is from the Hampton Arts set. The film strip is new washi tape.

The skeleton on this card is from the new Halloween set. The film strip washi tape is on this one as well.  The upside down B is attached with Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher

To see larger images just click on the images.







Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

The Weekly Pinterest Roundup

Source: bluevelvetchair.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

I am trying to put together a workable weekly (not weakly) blogging schedule. Some days I am too busy to post anything. Work and Cub Scout meetings and standing appointments make a thoughtful, useful Thursday blog post nearly impossible.

SO

In an effort to be a more regular blogger, I have decided to let my Pinterest followers/repinners decide what goes up on Thursdays. I've decided not to post images of items from my wish list because it makes this post longer than it needs to be and I would rather promote projects than products here. If however a company would like to send free products and/or cash my way to promote or review products I will not stop them and will gladly make repeated mentions of their fabulous (if that is the case) products. 

wink. wink. nudge. nudge. 

Yes I have been listening to a Dave Barry audio book, why do you ask?

Please do not pin from this page. Click on the link name under the image and see all the details that go with it from the source.

Source: ohthelovelythings.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: hellohydrangea.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: katemadedesigns.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

One of my own projects, really? Cool.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Removing broken glass without cutting yourself

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I brought home pictures my dad had on display at his house that my sister didn't want. "I know what I look like, I would prefer to display pictures of other people," she said, and who could argue with logic like that.

One of these pictures was of my sister and her husband on their wedding day. I never got a copy of this picture and was happy to bring it home and display it in my living room. Unfortunately in transit the glass broke.


The break was like rays of light emanating from my brother in law's arm. Weird but beautiful.

If you ever have a broken bit of glass DO NOT touch the center of the break. I got a nasty glass splinter and no one wants that. I needed to get rid of that glass and save the picture.

LIGHT BULB!

Duct Tape to the rescue. I taped up the entire glass front.  Then opened the back and took the glass and tape out. 

Sadly the picture couldn't be saved because some kind of liquid got between the glass and the photo and the emulsion was stuck like glue to the broken glass.

I lost the photo and the glass but I still have a frame so it wasn't a total loss I guess.

Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.