Having Fun with Cards, Vinyl and Kids

I've had a busy week, so decided I'd post what I had going on so far for the Sassy Cheryl's SMT challenge. If you're not familiar with it, it's your opportunity to be nosy and it be an approved activity. You get to check out what others have going on in their lives.

Saturday I spent the day finishing up blank greeting cards for my OWH box. These are the sets of cards I made then. With the exception of the doodle embossing on the first one, everything was print and cut using my Cameo.

Yesterday, my neighbor's DD came down so that I could help her with a project for her brothers and her father's birthday. This family is one of my favorites. Between Mom and Dad, there are also 7 children ranging in age from 16 to 6 months. If you ever needed a reason to smile, this family would give it to you. The children are wonderfully happy and social. They know how to entertain themselves. If they're not being schooled, you will find them outdoors involved in some imaginative activity. In fact they remind me of my childhood, where we entertained ourselves riding our bikes, putting on shows, playing kick the can, and chasing lightning bugs. Some of you remember those days when TV was a rarity and our handheld devices were books and slingshots.

The older boys have a lawn care business. There father works with them, not just supervising. I think of the great lessons he's teaching these boys - responsibility, reliability,  along with instilling a great work ethic.

The boys have been wanting some kind of professional looking shirts to wear when engaged in their business endeavors. The oldest sister decided that T-shirts for their birthdays would be the perfect gift(it doesn't hurt that the three of them have birthdays really close together). She has been playing around with the Silhouette Software for a while, and she had worked up a great design with curved text. The only thing I had to do was to find some clip art and trace it for her and add it to the shirt. I did the cutting, and she did almost all of the weeding(a blessing since her eyes are a lot younger than mine). Here she is weeding her heart out.

Weeding

For the front, one brother wanted an oval of barb wire. Believe it or not, I Googled it and found one. The amazing part of the Cameo, is that it cut this as small as it did. Thank goodness for young eyes, because there were some almost infinitesimal specks of vinyl to weed. She also let me operate the heat press, but I did give her the opportunity.

Don't you think she did a fabulous job? I know the boys are going to proud to wear these shirts.

Yesterday was my kind of day, getting to help a young person. We had a great time, and hope we get to do a repeat of crafting again soon.

Lots of Cards for SMT

It's time for a Show Me Thursday Post on Sassy Cheryl's blog. Time to show you what I've been working on for the last week and a half, and for once I actually have some cards to show you instead of vacuum tracks in the carpet.

First off I had to get the invites out for our Annual 'Round about the 4th of July Shrimp Boil. Coming up with something different is a challenge after doing this for so many years. I would love to do a little more assembly, but when you're having to produce 90 of these invitations, speed counts. I used the state of Mississippi image from the Silhouette store and filled it with the stars and stripes digital paper from the Liberty Paper pack by Just So Scrappy 2. I punched the star and added the red metal nailhead and placed it on our location on the map. Simply created the text in the Silhouette software, added it to the image, did a offset of the state and cut and print.

The next series of cards are for our enlisted men to write a note in and send home and are going in a box to Operation Write Home. Pinterest was the source of the ideas. I have 48 cards to go in the box so far. Hopefully next week's post will have another 48 cards to had to the box, before mailing.

Doodle It Up

Well, I'm back for two challenges in a row on the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog. The theme for this challenge is doodle it up. I AM NOT a public doodler, so this one is definitely outside my comfort zone.

For my image I chose Day Dream Believin from the Sassy Cheryl's Stamp Store. I have colored her with Prisma Color and Faber-Castell pencils.

I used the sketch from this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge, which Sassy Cheryl just happens to be sponsoring this week. With my luck, I won't get this post finished in time to get it entered. Oh well, I liked the sketch.

Papers are from a digital pack by Coreen Silke called Afternoon Fiesta from ComputerScrapbook.Com.

My doodling definitely leaves a lot to be desired, but I did free hand it instead of letting the Cameo do it ( and I could have easily done that).

Thanks for stopping by. There's still time to get an entry in before Monday at 5p.m. EST.

Finally A Challenge Card

I know! I know! It's been forever since I submitted a challenge card to the Sassy Cheryl's ChallengeBlog. My intentions have been excellent, but my follow through hasn't been. I actually completed everything, but the die cut part of the challenge last week. Now with time running out, I got out to TM to find just the right die cut.

The challenge is Two dies and a Touch of Purple. I got carried away with both. Hopefully I won't get kicked out of the challenge.

The image is an older image from the Sassy Cheryls Store and is called Sassy Sally Takes A Bath. It's been forever since I colored, and looks like I need to find some time to practice. She's colored with my PrismaColor pencils.

The papers are from a digital kit from Just So Scrappy 2 called Big Top. The die is from Sissix and is called Scribble Swirl.

Now I'm off to meet the neighborhood ladies for our monthly Prairie Women Lunch. Hope you have some fun plans for today. I promise to try harder to get here for the challenges, but the next month is going to be very visit with a 3 week visit from MonkeyMoo.

Another Busy Week, But Less to Show For It

I'm back for another entry in Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday post and challenge. Last week was busy, and I had lots of things to show for the business. That isn't true this week.

Last Friday night was one of the great nephew's graduation from High School and a birthday party afterwards for him. Lots of folks but no camera and no pictures.

Saturday night, DBIL brought crawfish up from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and we had us a good old fashioned Crawfish Boil. Again, lots of folks and no camera.

Yesterday I decided my house couldn't go another day without a good cleaning. In this picture you can see the tracks of the vacuum cleaner. There is absolutely nothing exciting or fun about cleaning house.

Today is my DH's birthday and tomorrow he's having some surgery. He's busy trying to get food plots in for wildlife, so for his birthday, I mowed the yard, which includes front and back yard and the area to the right in front and behind the barn.

Now I'm off to cut some vinyl and try my hand at layering it onto canvas. Guess you'll see the results on next week's post.

The Challenge is running 3 weeks, so you still have time to get your entry entered. Everyone wants a Sassy Cheryl's image.

A Very Busy Week

This has been a very busy week here at the Swoope house. Monday was filled with lots of exercise(I'm not posting any pictures from that). Tuesday, the church's Happy Hearts(Seniors Group) came out to Tazmania for a look see and a demo of my tools. I think they had a good time. I know I did. I had the camera out here all ready for picture taking and then forgot to take a picture. At any rate think 11 seniors plus the senior me.

MM(Monkey Moo, my grandson) will be finishing 1st grade next week.  I wanted him to give his teacher, who he has loved, a special end of year gift. She loves sock monkeys, so using heat transfer vinyl, I made this insulated tote for him to give her. Lots of layers in those monkeys. The monkeys are called Whatever Monkeys and came from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs. I think this is the perfect gift from Monkey Moo, don't you?

Youngest DD's boss is retiring, and her employees wanted to give her some etched glasses as a gift. DD found some glasses for $6, but the etching was going to cost $356. Needless to say, she was looking for Plan B. She called to see if I could do them, and of course, I can, so she had a box of 12 glasses shipped to me and sent what they wanted on the glasses. I corrected grammar on some that I shouldn't have and ended up having to remake a few. I used my air eraser purchased from Harbor Freight to do the etching. You definitely need to do this outside and with protective eye wear.

This is a picture of the finished glasses, and I know that there are MAJOR grammar errors. I'm thinking they did it because they are as much a pet peeve to the boss as they are to me. If she's anything like me, she'll toss it in the trash rather than have it bug her.

Finally tonight we have a great nephew graduating from High School. He's a sweetheart, and I wanted to make him a card to go with his gift. I had pulled up the Sketch Saturday earlier in the week.

I knew it was exactly how I could use it to make a graduation card.

The graduation cap file was purchased from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs. The diploma is a Silhouette file that I added the sentiment to and then did a print and cut. The paper was some digital that I got from I don't know where, but it's called Graduation Paper Pack. 

Now I'm off to start working on a vinyl cutout for a t-shirt I'm going to surprise a friend with. I'll post it when I'm done. I've used my Silhouette Cameo with each of these projects, so it's no wonder it's my favorite tool.

You still have time to enter the Show Me Thursday challenge on Sassy Cheryls blog. Winners get a free image and are randomly selected.

Home Again Home Again Show Me Thursday

For the past two weeks, I've been visiting a couple of my Sassy Cheryl friends in Washington state. The trip started with a lunch outing with Judy, Anna and me to the neatest cafe inside a greenhouse. The tables were set up like little rooms and the food was delicious. Here are some shots inside and outside the Greenhouse Cafe.

Besides doing some sightseeing we also did some crafting. I won't show what the others made, but have to tell you about one of neatest things we did. Anna's sweet husband signed she and I up to take a glass class making a paperweight. Here we are at the class and then my finished paperweight. Talk about hot work.

Returned home Sunday morning to jump in the car and head 250 miles to a college graduation. I don't have a picture from that trip. Today we have a wedding for a neighbor's son, so I spent the morning personalizing a wedding gift for them. I bought a casserole carrier with dish. I did heat transfer vinyl on the cover of the carrying case, and etched the glass of the casserole dish. I have leaves on one side and their names on the other.

So that's a little of what I've been working on. Let me see what you've been up to while I've been away playing with friends. You might not make it into this week's SMT post on Sassy Cheryl's blog, but there's plenty of time for the next one.

Let Us See Your Layers

Are you sitting down or did you fall down when you actually saw I had done two posts in less than a week? I have been terribly bad about participating in any challenges or posting on my blog. I wish I could tell you I'm going to be better in the coming weeks, but I can't. How I ever found time to work is beyond me.

I have finally made a card to enter in the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge blog for this week. The theme was lots of layers, and I think I've complied with that request.

I saw a card on Pinterest using trapezoid layers. I started in that direction designing in my Silhouette software, but then I wanted a sentiment that had something to do with angles. When I found this sentiment, I changed my layers from trapezoids to triangles(sorry girls it's the mathematician in me). I even created the triangle edged border with my Silhouette software.

The papers are from Lily Bimble's digital kit called Fiesta. I used photoshop to match the colors in the paper in order to create some solid colored cardstock. I found the sentiment by Googling angle quotes. I guess they figured I couldn't spell, because I got a lot more results for angel quotes than angle ones.

This image from the Sassy Cheryls Stamp Store is called Just so Be Yourself.

There's still time to join the challenge, so come on get busy.

A Show Me Thursday Post

Here it is the end of March, and I've done exactly two blog posts this year. It doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything, just the opposite, doing way too much.

Most of my doings have to do with using my Silhouette Cameo(have I told you lately how much I love my Cameo?). I use it for making just about everything. The software is so versatile especially with the Print and Cut feature.

One of the neighbors has a daughter graduating from the Mississippi School of the Arts. She only gets 6 invitations, so I made announcements to send out.  Along with the announcements I also created some thank you cards that matched the announcements.

My latest toy is a heat press machine. My Weigh Watcher buddies are doing our 10 Anniversary Camp Taz next week. We're making new T-shirts, and this time I'm making them rather than paying to have them made. Everyone is bringing their shirts and those not coming mailed me theirs. I cut the design out of vinyl, and used my heat press to firmly affix  it to the shirt.

Finally, it's April and time for my walking buddy's annual Spring neighborhood get together. Here are the invitations I created along with the envelopes. Hopefully she got them in the mail today.

So that's what I've been up to so far this week. Now to get myself back into card making.

Now let's see what you're working on and post it on the Sassy Cheryls Blog for Show Me Thursday. You have until Wednesday, April 2 at 5 p.m. EST to get your entry in for a free Sassy Cheryls image.

Having Fun With Vinyl

Well I've been anything but regular with posting recently. Hopefully, once our vacation is over, I'll be able to get back into a regular routine.

For this week's SMT post, I wanted to show the fun I've been havingn with vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo.

First off, I got a new keyboard case for my Kindle Fire HDX, so that I won't have to take my laptop with me. I'll be able to type my post rather than swipe.

I purchased a new toiletries bag, since my old one was showing some major signs of wear. It even came with bottles and since they all looked alike, I decided I needed to label them as well as personalize my bag. I love the way it all turned out.

It's only week one of the challenge, so you've got plenty of time to get a couple of entries in to the Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday two week challenge. Looking forward to seeing what you're all up to this week.

Anything Goes with an OWH Thank You

I'm killing two birds with one stone today. This week's challenge over on the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog is Anything Goes. That works perfectly with my latest project. My BFF who heads up Happy Hearts,  the Seniors Group(of which I'm old enough to be a member) at our church. This month is National Thank You month, so she asked me to do the program with Any Hero Thank You cards. You know I'm never going to pass up an opportunity to get folks to thank our servicemen. It does however mean that I also have to come up with some cards for them to write in.

I decided Drumming Noah would be perfect for a card to thank one of Our Heroes in the military.  I haven't colored in so long, that I think I better do some practicing. I have 3 more of these to color so that will be a good thing.

The background paper is called Freedom Subway Art. I wish I could tell you where I got it, but I can't read the copyright, and didn't save it with the name. The sketch I used is this week's Sketch Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by. I better get out to TM and start working on some more Any Hero thank you cards. I only have a week until Happy Hearts meets.