Just a quick post

Well, I can't sleep again.  Here it is 4am and I'm wide awake.  I think I've been going into menopause for about 2 years now.  My body just isn't acting the same way anymore and I don't like it one bit.  This getting old thing really isn't my cup of tea.  I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I would get my fat ass out of this computer chair and do some exercise.  I usually didn't have a problem getting to sleep at night the last say 15 years, but these last couple years, I could stay awake all night.  Mind you I would sleep until noon the next day.  Like today.  I was up until 5 this morning and got up at 11:30.  You would think I'd be tired.  But I'm not.  And my husband is sawing logs, so I know he'll just keep me awake if I try to go to bed.

Anyway, this leads me to why I'm here.  To pass the time, I was playing around in the Silhouette Studio software testing out some of the upgraded features in the Designer Edition. Oh yeah, did I tell you I won a copy of the designer edition software.  I did!  From the Bargain Shopper Mom!  I made up a couple things I want to share with you.  They're not much really, but I thought they were kind of cute.

 First, here is a digi stamp I made with the software of, what else, but a cat. :)  I'll do up a tutorial after the New Year on how to create digi stamps with your Silhouette software (I have a new video capture software I want to try out courtesy of a recommendation from Bird on her new forum).  Here she is (just click on the picture to make it bigger and then save the image to your computer):

Second, I made a cutting file of some lamps.  I know its nothing spectacular, but I have a card in mind and didn't want to go hunting for a file on the internet.  I also want to become more self-sufficient and make more of my own stuff so I don't have to worry about credits and where I got stuff from, and whether I can use it to make stuff to sell or not, and so on.  So here is a picture of the lamp shapes:

They are .rar files and will open with winzip or you can download a trial version of winrar (it never expires, but just keeps popping up a reminder to purchase a full license version).  I've included the .studio file as well as an .svg file.  Please read my TOU that I've included too. These are for personal use only and may not be shared.  If you think someone might like to have the file, please send them to my blog to get it. Here's the link:  CatScrapFever Lamp cutting files  I should also mention that they are blank shapes.  I only filled in the shapes so I could show you what they would look like using patterend paper and cardstock.

I'm using MediaFire now for my downloads.  I don't have that many files that I've been giving out, but I want to change that in the new year.  I want to try to get back into designing and offering some free digi scrap stuff and digi stamps here and there as well as the occasional cutting file.  I'd also like to see how many times the files are being downloaded.  I wasn't able to do that with the other methods of delivery I was using, so I think this will be the way to go.

Well, I think I should try to get to bed now.  Its getting on towards 5am and I don't want to waste the day tomorrow sleeping. Hubby is on his days off, so I want to spend a little time with him and get some baking done.

Let me know if you use the files and I would really love to see anything you create with them. Just drop me a line using the contact form in the right sidebar.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Where do you go when you go off your diet??

Ok, so this totally not anything about crafting of any sort, but it is so funny I had to share it with you all.  My husband and I were shopping today.  First off, my husband NEVER, EVER, in a million years, goes shopping with me.  But today he did and even offered to go into the stores with me.  So I wanted to go to the dollar store because they sell the kind of hot chocolate he likes (Carnation) for only $2 a box where its about $3.50 a box at Walmart.  We're walking down the food aisle and he's looking at all the stuff commenting on how he didn't realize how much stuff they actually carried.  Then he spies this bottle of salad dressing, picks it up and starts laughing.  He's holds it out to me and says "Fuck it island!"  I'm like "What?? Watch what you're saying, there's kids in the store!".  Then he says "no look at the bottle!".  Well, there it is...  Here's a picture to prove it:

I bought it just so I had proof. :)  No wonder this product is at the dollar store with a name like that.  We're going to try it tomorrow with our salad for dinner.  I'll let you know how it tastes.

Talk to you later...

Cat

My Sweet Kinko

Hi everyone!  I have a layout that is special to me.  I made this a couple months ago for one of the layout tag challenges over at the Scraptures forum.  This one is of my sweet little baby, Kinko.  I got Kinko when she was just a tiny little fluff ball at only 4 months old.  She was so cute and cuddly.  She grew up to be a beautiful cat, albeit somewhat aloof until the last couple years.  Unfortuantely, she became ill very quickly and I had to make the choice to have her put to sleep in May of this year.  She was almost 17 years old.  I'm glad that I was able to give her her forever home.  I loved her as if she were my child and I really miss her. Here is the layout:

The cardstock base is SU, the patterned paper strips are scraps that I had in my stash. I can't remember the name of it off-hand (and I'm too lazy to look it up), but I also used a SU wheel stamp (unmounted of course) along the edge of the base. The black used for the picture mats is Recollections brand (Michaels house brand).  The flourishes, butterfly, and Title were cut using my Craft Robo on Wausau Exact Index 110lb scraps.  I don't recall if they're files I bought from the Silhouette store of if they're something I traced from an image I found. The paper flowers are from the dollar store & the brads are Recollections brand.

Isn't she pretty?  She had the most amazing green eyes and she would often just gaze up at me with such a dreamy look in her eye.

Well, that's all I wanted to share with you today.  I'll be back again soon with something else to show you. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Breast Cancer Awareness Cards

Hello again.  I'm back today to show you some cards I made for Breast Cancer Awareness month - which is October. I wanted to send these cards to the women that are important in my life and give them a gentle reminder that we need to take care of ourselves and that early detection is the key to surviving this ugly disease.

Here are my cards:

The images are digital stamps from Bugaboo stamps that I coloured with pencil crayons and oms and cut out with my Craft Robo using the print & cut feature. I also put some stickles on the images. All the cardstock and patterned paper is Recollections brand and the ribbon and rhinestones are from the dollar store.  The corner punch I used on the image mat is also from the dollar store. I used my Craft Robo to print & cut the tags with the sentiments. The inside sentiment says: "Have you felt yourself up lately? October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Give yourself a breast exam. Just do it!"

Other than that, I have been in a Christmas card making mood.  I'll post them after Christmas though 'cause I don't want the recipients to see them just yet. :)  I do have a little surprise for you.  I was fooling around making some digital papers, so I thought I would share them with you. They are 300dpi letter size papers, so they are perfect for printing and using just as you would any other patterned paper for your Christmas cards. Here is a preview:

I hope you can use them.  I had already picked out all my supplies for my cards, so I didn't get to use these papers.  Maybe for next years' cards, but more than likely I will have designed a whole bunch more papers to use. You can download them from here: CatScrapFever Christmas 2012 Papers.  Please leave a comment if you download them.  I would also really love to see any projects you make with them.  You can leave a link in a comment or contact me through the contact form on the right-hand side.

That's it for tonight.  Talk to you later...

Cat

A Scrapbook Page...

Hi all!  I'm back again to show you a scrapbook page I did a while ago for a layout tag challenge at Scraptures.ca.  I hadn't done a scrapbook page in a very long time.  I really like these challenges because they only happen once a month so I'm not under the gun to do a whole bunch of pages and they give me a theme or template to follow.  It works for me because then I don't have to think.  Life is better when I don't have to think. :)

So here is my layout:

Actually, in this photo the pictures are photoshopped in because just as I went to print my photos, my printer decided it was going to go kaput. The final version has these exact pictures and I added the date & place on the journaling spot, so it looks just like this photo.  I did finally get my printer working.  I thought it was the print head, so I ordered a new one that cost me $60.  Waited the 10 days for it to arrive only to find out it wasn't my print head.  The continuous ink supply system I have failed.  So I thought it was the resettable chips on the cartridges and ordered a new set of self-resetting chips.  Nope, not those either.  Its the actual ink tanks themselves that aren't working.  I don't know how that is, but I refilled an old set of ink tanks and reset the chips and it printed like new again.  Well, at least I have a back-up print head and a new set of self-resetting chips.  I need to find some new low volume tanks to fix the CISS.  If you have ever used a CISS and then had to go back to manually refilling your ink tanks, then you know what a pain in the ass it is.

I don't know what company makes the patterned paper I used on this layout since they were scraps I had left over from other projects.  The base cardstock is SU (don't know what colour), and the dark blue and white are Recollections from Michaels.  The embellishments are from the dollar store.  I used an EK Success punch to punch out the little crab and the pennants are just triangles cut from scraps.  I used a marker on plain white kitchen twine to make the twine the pennant is attached to.  I did use my Craft Robo to cut the wave shapes for the border along the bottom.

So that's all I have for today.  I have more projects I'll be showing you over the next little while - some cards and a few more scrapbook projects.  I hope you drop by again to see what I've been up to. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

A Couple Cards...

Hello all!  Well, its 2am and I can't sleep.  So I thought I'd stay up so that I could turn the clocks back.  I also wanted to share a couple cards I made recently.  They were for a One on One swap over on the Scraptures.ca board.  I was quite pleased with this first card.

I used an 8x8 paper pack I got at Michaels, created the rosette, used one of my roses I made with my Penny Duncan cut file and cut the tags with my Craft Robo.  Heck, I even pulled out the little sewing machine for this card.  I made a nice little box for it so it wouldn't get crushed in the mail - it even has an acetate window so you can see the card.  My husband thought the card was a real work of art, although he says that about most of my cards.  They have to be really ugly before he'll say anything negative about them.  He's sweet that way.  But all in all I thought the card turned out nice.  So I hurry off to the post office to get it in the mail so its not late for the swap, and was I ever hit in the face with reality.  Canada Post wanted almost $16 to send the card.  I was flabbergasted.  Well, I wasn't going to pay that much to send a card through the mail so I had to go home and re-think my design.  Of course I had left everything to the last minute.  So in order to get a design banged out quickly so the card could get to the recipient before the deadline, I turned to Pinterest.  Within 2 hours I had this next card:

I think its a cute card and it was easy to make.  I was just really ticked off that Canada Post wanted so much money to send the first card.  I guess, unless I am hand delivering or sending the card in a parcel, I will be making flat cards from now on.  I'll be damned it Canada Post is going to extort that much money from me to send a card.  No wonder they're crying about losing business.  I don't even send parcels anymore that often. The last one I sent was for my niece's birthday.  It cost me about $30 for the present and $25 to mail it. Ridiculous! I'll be using my bank's e-transfer and emailing money to my mom & sister for Christmas.  Its instant & free.  I'll probably send my niece something, but that's it.  I can't continue to pay as much, or more, than what the gifts are worth just to send them through the mail.

Ok rant over.

So that's it for today.  I have a few more projects that I've made in the last few weeks that I'll come back to show you.  Just need to take the time to edit the photos.

Well, talk to you later...

Cat

How to "Export" Silhouette Studio Files to SVG files

Update 06/02/2014:  Wow!  I posted this 1.5 yrs ago and its still my most popular post.  I also still get a lot of questions about "exporting" your files.  If you would like an answer to your question, please, please use the contact form on the right hand side of this blog.  I can put answers in the comments section, but usually people don't come back to check for the answer.

Back to our regular scheduled program...


Hello again!  What a shocker eh?  Two posts in as many days.  I'm tellin' ya, I'm on a roll. :) Well, I promised that I would be back today with a tutorial on how to get your Silhouette Studio files into svg format. I'll show you the process, but also note here that, programs like MTC or SCAL can import jpg and png file, so you may not need to go all the way to the end of the process.  I'm not completely familiar with MTC, and even less familiar with SCAL, so I'm not certain at this point if there is an advantage to importing the svg rather than just a jpg.  My only observation right now is that, at least, with a svg file, the tracing is already done for you and ready to put into different layers (if you choose).  Not sure how much of a time saver that is...

So, I think I mentioned that I am going to buy a new KNK Zing cutter early next year. The reason I want to export my Studio files is so I can cut them using the Zing. The Zing come with MTC, which is totally a different file type and can't import the proprietary Silhouette Studio files. Silhouette Studio will allow you to export their files as svg files, but only if you have an older version (v1.9 or v2.0) of their Designer Edition software. I'm a cheap ass and don't want to spend the $50 just so I can export when I can get free programs to do it for me. May be a few more steps, but it works.

Ok, so to begin, there are a couple programs you need.  All of them free.  You need to have Inkscape and Bullzip PDF printer installed.  Here are the links for these:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape/files/
click on: Looking for the latest version? Download Inkscape-0.48.2-1-win32.exe (35.7 MB)

http://www.bullzip.com/download.php
click on: PDF Printer    4.5 MB    Free    Freeware (up to 10 users)    Download | Donate

Of course, I'm assuming you have Silhouette Studio installed, otherwise why would you want to do this tutorial??  Ok, let's start.  Here's what I do:

1.  Open up Silhouette Studio and open up the file you want to "export".  In this case I opened the balloon file that comes with SS:

2. Use Ctrl A to select all images. You could put more than one file on the page, but I wouldn't do too many - maybe 3 or 4 at a time.  Just remember if you do more than 1, they will all be part of one file and you will need to save the final converted files separately, and manually.

3. Right click and select ungroup:

4. Select the inner shapes that are cut out.  Go to the Fill screen and fill these shapes with white:

5. Now select all the outer shapes and fill these shapes with black:

I chose to use black & white since this will give a really good contrast and make it easier for find the edges of the image.  You can choose any colours you want, but I think b&w is probably the best.  Also, if your entire image turns black when you fill the outside shapes, you need to "move it to the back" so that the inside shapes are on top and visible.

6. Go to the Lines setup and make sure that the "print cut lines" checkbox is NOT checked:

This is so that when we "export" the image, you won't have the red cutting lines showing (or whatever your default colour is).

7. Now go into your preferences, and then to the output preferences and change the output dpi to whatever you prefer and click the "ok" button.  I chose 600 just so I could have a good quality image.  I think 300 is probably good enough (that's what most digital scrapbookers use and it gives good resolution for printing, plus your file size will be smaller and load quicker).

8. Now go to File -> Print:

9.  Select BullZip PDF Printer and click print (don't worry its not going to actually print a hard copy to your printer):

10.  A screen will pop up where you can set the output options for the file.  Choose either png or jpeg from the drop down list.  I prefer png because they can have a transparent background, but either will work.

11. Click on the Image tab on the pop up window.  Here you can change the dpi of the output image.  I changed mine to 600, but again, 300 would probably be sufficient.  You will change both horizontal and vertical to the same number.

12. Click the Save button and navigate to the folder where you want to save your file.

13. Start Inkscape and open the file you just created.

14.  Use Ctrl A to select all your image.  Little black arrows will show up around the image.  Then go to Path -> Trace Bitmap.

15.  A pop up window will open.  In the window, change the brightness cutoff setting to 0.500 and then click the ok button.  Close the window by clicking the red x in the top right hand corner.

16. Go File -> Save As:

17.  Select Inkscape SVG in the drop down list below the name field and then, go to the folder you want to save your svg in and type in the name you want to give the file.

That's all there is to convert your Studio file to svg.  The next steps I'm showing are for importing the svg into MTC since that is what I will be using when I get my new Zing. :)

19.  Start MTC and go File -> Import -> SVG/SVGZ file

20.  Navigate to the folder where you saved your svg file and click on the file.  A preview will show up in the preview window if all went well with the export process.  Click the open button.

21.  This will bring the svg into MTC, but it will be a very, very large image.  You will probably have to lower the zoom all the way down to 10% to see it.  At this point, you can shrink down the image so that it fits onto your page.

That's it.  You can now manipulate the file as you please.

I hope it all made sense and you were able to follow along.  As I mentioned earlier, actually converting the file to svg isn't absolutely necessary for MTC or SCAL, so this may be over kill, and you can just use the jpg/png file you created from SS.  If you notice any errors, or something doesn't seem right, please contact me using the contact form on the right-hand side of my blog.  I'll get back to you with an answer as quickly as I can.

Well, I think I'll try and take some pictures of a few scrapbook pages I made over the last couple months and show them to you in a day or so.  I had gotten to the point where I wasn't enjoying blogging for a quite a while, but I've enjoyed doing these last two, so maybe I'll be able to keep it up for a little while.  We'll see. I do have a few things I want to show.

That's all for today.  See you soon...

Cat

12/21/12:  Nicole posted a comment and a question.  Nicole, I don't have any way to contact you, so hopefully you see this reply:

You are obviously using the designer edition of Silhouette Studio.  You can go into the View menu and turn off the grid so that it doesn't show when you print to pdf.

03/08/14:  I've had some questions about the grid marks showing up even though they have been turned off in Silhouette Studio.  I've tried to re-create this and can't seem to do it.  I'm not sure if its happening with the free version or the DE version since I'm now working in the DE version.  I haven't had time to install the free version on a different computer to see if it happening there.  The only thing I can tell you at this point is to check to make sure the grid lines are turned off.  When I get time to install all the programs on a different computer, I'll report back to let you know if I've been able to duplicate the problem and if I've been able to find a solution.

Cat

How to Compensate for Silhouette Print & Cut Inaccuracey

Hello!  I have some exciting news for Silhouette Studio users that have been pulling their hair out, like me, and can't get the print & cut to work properly. Silhouette Studio's calibration doesn't work worth beans. For almost a year now, I haven't been able to use my Craft Robo for print & cut because the cut never lines up with the printed image. See here in this image (click images to see them full size):

As the cut gets deeper into the page, the cuts get further away from the printed image in the length, but is fine in the width.  I tried using the software's calibration tool, but it didn't solve the issue.  So, seeing that the scale is off, I developed this method to compensate and I now get almost perfect cut & prints.  I've prepared this tutorial for you so you can get your print & cuts to line up too.  I will note that I'm not going to go into detail about where things are in the program.  I am assuming you know how to use the Silhouette Studio software and I won't be giving you the path or button locations to activate the various functions we'll be using.  Also, I am using 8.5" x 11" paper for those of you trying to follow with a Cameo.  My cutter only takes up to an 8.5" wide paper. I also suggest you use regular copy paper and print in draft mode.  You don't want to waste cardstock or ink.

The first step is to find out what percentage your cut image is out compared to the actual printed image.

1. Open a new blank document in SS with the registration marks showing.
2. Go into your preferences, then to measurements, and select  "dimensions on".
3. Make a 2"x2" square and fill it in with a colour (your choice - I used grey). Use the Scale setup to get your square exactly 2"x2".

4. Go to the line style setup and make sure that the print cut lines is not checked (at the bottom).

5. Use the fill page to duplicate the squares and fill up the page (for some reason mine doesn't show up on the screen, but its at the very bottom of the Replicate setup screen).  You must do this so you can get a better measurement of how much you need to shrink/stretch your print image.

5.  This is now your "cut file".  Use file -> save as and save it in a folder you'll be able to find easily and put "cut file" at the end of the file name (eg. SS calibration - cut file).  This will make it easier to differentiate this file from the next one we're going to create.

6. Now use Ctrl A to select all the shapes and group them together. If your page is in portrait (like mine) write down the height of the shapes (along the left side).  If your page is in landscape, write down the width (along the bottom).

7. Send this to your cutter using the print & cut and follow the prompts on the screen. Don't take it off the mat when its finished cutting.

8. Once cut, take a ruler and measure the actual cut length of the images.  I actually measured mine in millimeters because I could get a more precise measurement that way and just converted it back to inches (to 3 decimal places).  SS said my image was 9.315" tall but when I cut it, the final cut was 9.251" tall.

9. Now, we're going to calculate, what I call the "shrink factor".  Here's the formula:
           actual cut height divided by SS image height.
           So mine is 9.251 divided by 9.315 = .994***

*** keep this number handy - I have it on a sticky on my monitor.  This is the only time you'll have to calculate this number***

10. With your all your squares still grouped, go into the Move screen and write down the W & H numbers under "Move corner to". (You may have to either close your cut file and re-open it or shut down SS and restart it at this point.  For some reason, mine just had a big blue square over where the numbers were, but it worked on other files I tested).

Once you have your cut height measured, you can take your paper off your cutting mat.

11. Now go to the Scale screen and under "specify dimensions" type in your cut length in the field beside "H" (height) and click the "apply" button.  This will shift your image slightly on the screen.  Leave everything still grouped.

12. Go into the Move screen again, and type in the W & H numbers you wrote down in step 10 and then click the "apply" button.

13. Go File -> save as and save this file with the changes in the same folder you saved the previous folder and put "print file" at the end (eg. SS calibration - print file).

Ok now we are going to check to make sure our measurements and calculations are right and see if our cut lines up with our printed image.

14. Send the "print file" to the printer using the print button (or File -> print) and NOT the send to cutter button.  Once its printed, close the file and put your paper on your cutting mat.

15. Open up the "cut file" and send it to your cutter.  Skip printing and continue with the screen prompts for the rest of the print & cut.

If everything went well your cut should look like this:

Its pretty much dead on.

So now, if you want to print & cut images other than these squares :), you just follow these steps:

1. Open the file(s) you want to print & cut
2. Arrange on the page making sure they all fit within the cut area
3. Group all the images together & make a note of what SS says the height is.
4. Make a note of the "move to corner" H & W measurements.
5. Save this file as your "cut file"
7. Multiply your SS height by your "shrink factor"
8. Go into scale and change the height to your new calculated number
9. Go into move and change the H number back to the number your noted down in step 4.
10. (optional) File -> save as your "print file"
11. Print it with the print button (not send to cutter).
12. Close the print file, open the "cut file", load your print out, and send it to your cutter, skipping the print part.

You could copy and paste the images/cut lines onto another open document, but personally, I find it easier to keep track of what page I'm on by saving the files with the "cut file" & "print file" in the names because this shows up on the tabs of the open screens.  That way I'm less likely to get the files mixed up and cut the print file and print the cut file - know what I mean?? :)

Well, I hope you were able to follow along with this tutorial.  I know I'm delighted with the results I'm getting now that I know what my "shrink factor" is and won't be wasting anymore cardstock & ink or going bald from pulling my hair out.

If you come back tomorrow, I'll have another tutorial on how to "export" your Studio files to svg files so that you can use them in other software, like Make The Cut or Sure Cuts A Lot.  I will be buying a Zing cutter (yay!) early next year and it uses MTC, so I want to still be able to use my Silhouette files to cut out of the heavier materials the Zing is capable of handling.

So that's all for today.  Let me know what you think of the tutorial.  And if you notice or find any glitches, please use the contact me form on the right-hand side of my blog to let me know.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Testing a New Craft Technique

Hello!  Well, I keep saying this, but long time no see.  I don't know what gives, but I just can't seem to get myself motivated enough to sit in my craft room and get something done.  I've made a couple little things here and there, but just really haven't had the mojo to put them up on my blog.  But today is different.  I was looking at a couple things I saw on Pinterest and saw this post on Yvette's blog, Abernathy Crafts, for a white cup decorated with Sharpie markers.  Now I had tried to make something similar a couple years ago and coated my image with a clear ceramic sealer by Delta called Air Dry PermaEnamel.  Well, it didn't work.  Everything came off in the dishwasher.  I was so disappointed with the product.  Another $8 down the drain.  Being the hard-head that I am, I bought another ceramic paint called Vitrea 160 by Pebeo about 6 months ago, but hadn't used it - until the other day.  While my results weren't perfect, I think that I may have to try a full scale project now that I've seen the results of my test.  Here's what I did:

I used a Sharpie marker and drew on the bottom of a white cup (I didn't want to ruin the whole cup in case it didn't work).  I let the ink dry (probably about 30 min just to be sure) then I painted over the image with Vitrea 160 Gloss Medium.  It smeared the ink a little, but that might be eliminated by setting the ink by baking it (20min @ 350F).  I followed the directions on the bottle for the Vitrea 160 and let it air dry for 24 hrs., then I baked it for 40min @ 325F.  I noticed that the ink colour had changed when I took the cup out of the oven.  The black ink was now a dark purply-bluish colour, but its kind of pretty.  I let the cup cool and stuck it in the dishwasher and washed a load of dishes (one way to get me to load the dishwasher).  I was very surprised, and pleased, when I took the cup out of the dishwasher.  The image was still there.  The last thing that kind of didn't turn out is that there are those brown marks on the cup.  Trust me, they weren't there when I started - this is a brand new, never used before cup.  I think the water/detergent and heat from the dishwasher kind of turned the coating brown at the edges or where it was thin.

All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with my test results, so I think I will make the cup project I had planned on doing a couple years ago.  I will post pictures of the finished project when its done.

So that's all for now.  I'll try to come back sooner than later.

Talk to you later....

Cat

P.S. I just did another test on the cup and used one of those plastic pot scrubber thingies on it and it didn't scratch any of the ink off.  That's promising for those of you hand washing your dishes.  It did scrub off some of the brown marks (which is what I was really trying to do).  Just thought I'd let you know...

See ya...

Long Time No See!!

Well, I haven't been around for a really long time.  I was working a job that I didn't like and it sort of took any life I had out of me.  So, now I'm off and looking for something else.  In the meantime, I'm going to try and keep up with my blog and post on a regular basis.  Hopefully, you missed me. :)  I don't have a paper craft project to show you, but I want to show you what I did do last night.  I've been spending some time on Pinterest (too much according to my husband) and saw a picture of some pretty manicures.  It inspired me to dust off the old cosmetics case and pull out some of my nail polishes. Ombre is really the thing right now, so I thought I would give it a go and do something with that on my nails.  Here is how they turned out:

I first applied 2 coats of base coat. My favourite colour is blue, so I used two different shades of blue and then faded into a green applied in stripes on a cosmetic sponge, then dabbed onto the nail.  I put a glitter polish over the entire nail after, with a second coat at the bed of the nail.  Its all finished with a top coat.  I really like the way it turned out.

Here are the products I used:

I love the Pro-FX base coat and top coat.  My nails are the healthiest they have ever been since using the base coat.  I never thought it would make a difference, but it does.  And my nails don't stain when removing the polish as much. The nailpolish colours are:  Pier 17 (dark blue, NYC), Blue Me Away (medium blue, Sally Hansen). High Line Green (green, NYC). I bought all the products at WalMart.

Well, thats all for today.  I will be back this weekend with a couple paper craft projects to show you. :)

See you then...

Cat

Another Nail Art pic

While I haven't had much creativity for anything to do with paper lately,  I've been under the weather the last few days, so I decided to treat myself and give myself a manicure.  I was pretty sick Friday night with a fever, but I sat up anyway and painted my nails.  Here's a picture of how they turned out.  I think this would be a good one to do for the Christmas holidays.  I have an idea on how to do my nails for halloween, so when I do them for that I'll post another picture.

 

The gold was more like sparkles so I put a couple coats of yellow on first, then a couple coats of the gold.  Let that dry completely (I have a spray that accelerates drying).  The I cut masking tape in large circles and taped off the bottom half of the nails, then painted the top half with red.  Let that dry and then used my embossing stylus and dipped the tip into the nailpolish to make the dots.  It was fairly easy to do.

So that's all I have for today.  Once I get over this cold I want to do some cards.  I've bought so many new stamps that I haven't even looked at for a long time.  Plus this new job is taking up waaaayyyy too much of my time.  I've only been there a month and already I've had to stay late 2 or 3 nights each week.  I'm not impressed.

Anyway, talk to you later, and have a great weekend!

Cat

ATC Card Swap

Hello!  Well, I've been very negligent in keeping this blog up over the last 4 months or so.  It seemed that when my back problems started I lost my umph!  Well, I haven't gotten it back totally, but I did make something a while ago that I thought turned out really pretty.  I've been involved in  the Stampin' Canada online community for a few years now. They are a great bunch of people and very fun to hang out with.  I hosted the first ATC swap on SC a few months back and it was a lot of fun and turned out to be a nice success.  It really gave us all a chance to work well outside our comfort zones.  Wendy decided to host this next ATC swap and the theme is "the nature of things".  It took me a while to come up with an idea, but one finally gelled in my mind.  Here is a picture of how it turned out:

The picture really isn't that great and doesn't show the detail very well.  I was quite pleased with the results, especially since I haven't had the inspiration to create much lately.

Well, that's all I have for today.  I have a craft date with my niece today over Skype.  That should be fun.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Disappointed and a bit of a rant...

Rob and I went to a restaurant Friday night to celebrate my new job.  It use to be (emphasis on "use to be") my favourite restaurant.  The last time we were there was about a year ago.  My husband's meal at that time was not good.  He usually orders the mussels in tomato sauce as an appetizer and he had so many dead ones and lots of broken shells in the sauce that he almost chipped a tooth on one.  As his main course, he ordered the special (which sounded really good). It was mixed seafood in a phyllo pastry.  Well, the seafood was so over cooked and it was way too salty.  He ate about half of the entree because he really hungry because we had to wait about 45 minutes for our meal, but that's all he could stomach.  He mentioned it to the owner's wife when we were leaving and the waitress was like "well, he ate half of it" thinking we were trying to get the meal for free.  We ate at that restaurant at least once a month and it seemed every time we went, the food quality dropped each time. For my husband, that was the last time he wanted to go.  On the flip side, I hadn't had a bad meal there at all. Up until Friday.  I'm so disappointed.  I loved the stuffed Calamari in champagne mustard sauce.  I loved it so much, that rather than order it in the appetizer size, I decided to get the full entree size this time.  Well, it was so over cooked, it was like trying to eat a rubber band.  And the sauce didn't have any mustard taste at all - and I highly doubt they used champagne in it too.  All I could taste was pepper.  The stuffing was originally made with ground chicken, pinenuts, and leeks.  There were hardly any pinenuts and no leeks at all.  As an appetizer I had the dolmades.  It had a sauce (I can't remember the name) that was a creamy lemon.  It was good.  But, my soup was a greek chicken & rice, which is usually a cream soup with lemon.  Well, it tasted like they used the sauce from the dolmades as the soup base and just threw in some chopped chicken and rice and watered it down a bit.  Rob ordered the mussels in tomato sauce again, and of course, he had a whole bunch of dead ones and 3 or 4 pieces of broken shell - AGAIN.  Even after we told the waitress what had happened the last time. His meal was ok (mousaka), but again, they changed the recipe and it wasn't as good as the original.

I understand trying to cut costs, but really, if it means that you're providing lesser quality, is that really what a restaurant wants to do.  I don't think this restaurant is going to last much longer. The clientelle was slowly building, and the time before last when we were there, they had a full house.  Friday night - not so much. They had three tables (including us) and 5 wait staff.  It irritates me a little, since we would talk to the owner's wife all the time when we were there and let her know that we weren't complaining and wanted to just give them some feedback so they could make it better and that we actually really liked the food for the most part.  Just seemed the last few times, all she had was excuses each time we mentioned something that was a little off. The only reason Rob agreed to go was because the first restaurant we went to had too long of a wait time to get a table and because I really liked the food at the greek place. Well, unfortunately, I didn't enjoy my meal this time and I won't be going back and they've lost a couple of patrons.

That's it for today.

Cat

So, I haven't had any crafting juice lately....

I just haven't felt like doing anything with my paper and stamps lately.  What I have been doing is reading a few blogs and websites about sustainable living and making/growing your own food.  I got the bug last year in the fall when I decided to try my hand and canning some jellies made from fruit grown in my neighbourhood.  It was a blast.  Over the winter, I've learned to make bread.  Its really easy and now my bread turns out every time.  I've also been reading on how to try and cut my food costs.  Some of you might know that I'm not working right now.  I've been unemployed since early last spring so anything that I can do to reduce my household costs is something I need to look at closely right now.  One thing I've been exploring is cheaper cuts of meat.  The methods I've learned are so easy.  Most of the time its either marinating or long, slow cooking, so this has become a way to prepare tasty meals with the less expensive, and usually tougher, cuts of meat. I happened to be watching the food network this afternoon while taking a little break from my cheese making (that will be another post in the near future), and watched two different programs.  The first program was Michael Smith's Chef At Home.  He made a stew that look so good with a chuck roast.  The one ingredient that was highlighted in the stew was beer.  Then I watched another show right after that called Glutton For Punishment (can't remember the host's name) and they were highlighting Hawaiian coffee.  They showed a recipe for braised short ribs using coffee and cocoa.  It looked so good. Well, to make a long story short, I had a huge blade steak in the freezer that I was wondering what to do with.  So I decided to make a stew incorporating the ideas from the two shows.  How did it all turn out you ask?  It was delicious.  I  paired it with the dark rye bread I made today.  The dark flavour from the rye bread matched the stew perfectly.  Here's a little picture to get your taste buds going:

Too bad you can't smell it because it made the house smell so good.  My husband was super impressed with the meal.  Here's the recipe for the stew:

Cat's Beef Stew
1 large blade steak or two small (about 1.5 - 2.0 lbs meat) cubed into about 1" chunks and patted dry (you can use whatever cut of meat you have on hand - I just happened to have blade steaks)
2 large carrots cut into bite size chunks
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large potato, peeled and grated
2 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 Tbsp canola oil (for searing the meat)
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup beer (dark beer or stout is best, but I just used a lager that I had in the fridge)
2 cups beef broth/stock (mine had salt so I omitted adding any more salt)
1 cup cold left over coffee (make an extra cup in the morning and use it for the stew)
1-2 bay leafs
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 can tomato paste or 1/2 cup leftover tomato/spaghetti sauce (which is what I used)

In a heavy bottom 4qt pot, heat 2 or 3 Tbsp oil on medium high heat.  Add the beef to the pot making sure it is only a single layer.  Brown all sides of the meat cubes.  Do the meat in batches if necessary, making sure the pan stays at medium to high heat to sear and brown the meat. You want the meat juices to caramelize and leave those little brown bits in the bottom of the pan.  Keep the meat aside in a separate bowl once browned. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium.  Sweat the onions so that it picks up all the brown from the pan.  Add the garlic, tomato paste, carrots, and celery and cook for a minute or two to cook the garlic.  Add the meat back to the pot along with the shredded potato, the liquids, and your spices.  The shredded potato will cook down and sort of dissolve into the stew and thicken the liquid.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally as the ingredients will sink to the bottom of the pot.  Once it has simmered for about an hour, stir 2 Tbsp of oil into 2 Tbsp of flour and slowly pour this into the stew while stirring so that you don't get any lumps.  This will thicken the stew if the potato hasn't thickened it enough. Cook another 15 minutes to make sure the flour is cooked and serve.

I think this is such an easy and versatile recipe since you can use whatever cut of beef you have on hand; you can switch up the herbs & spices; and you use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.  I was going to add some kale (collard greens), but I forgot.  I think next time I make it I'm going to add a little worchestshire sauce and maybe a little dijon mustard just to see how that tastes.

I really hope you try this stew.  It was so delicious.  And if you do, let me know how you liked it. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

In a slump...

I've been trying to think of something crafty to do, but just haven't had any inspiration come to me lately.  My back has been well enough for over a week for me to get back into my craft room and do something, but all that seems to happen is that I end up surfing the web for some ideas.  So I figured I'd take a look at all my digital supplies to see if that would spark any ideas.  Not really, but I did find a pretty scrapbook kit that I haven't used yet.  I decided to use it to do a page about my dad.  He'll be gone 10 years this coming September and I miss him a lot.  Its not a very fancy page, but its a start.  I have a bunch of pictures that I scanned from an old photo album my Mom has.  Mostly pictures of us kids when we were little.  But there were also some of my dad's retirement party.  That's where this picture was taken and it was 18 years ago that my father retired.

 The kit is called La Creme from 300dpi.com.  The font I used to do the journaling is Juice ITC.  The picture frame was created using stock frames in PSPX and then adding borders, and then finally bevelling the outside border.  The little curlicues on the frame are elements from the kit. I used a stock filter to change the photo to a sepia tone picture to match the kit.

So thats all I have for now.

See you later...

Cat

Just the cutest dog in the whole world!

I was going through some pictures on one of my sd cards and I came across this picture of my little girl Mitzy. She is soooooo cute.  Here she is sitting on my lap while I was doing something on the computer.  I just had to share this picture.

Just look at that face!  That's love with fur!

Cat

Another Nail Art attempt...

I've been having problems sleeping the last couple nights, so I've been watching you-tube videos on nail art.  I tried out one of the tutorials because it looked so pretty  and I had the basic colours and embellishements. Here's a picture of how it turned out.

The base blue needs to be lighter, but this is what I had already.  Basically, you put on your base coat colour, then with a little darker colour (purple in this case) sponge on some colour about 1/2 way down the nail, then with the darkest colour (cobalt blue) just sponge the tip.  This gives a nice gradient effect.  I let my nails dry, then I put glitter polish over it, concentrating the glitter near the tip of the nail at the darkest colour and let that dry.  I dug out some sequins I have and used the little centres for glitter and some of my tiny rhinestones.  To attach the little sequins, I used a wooden skewer tip dipped in a little top coat then touched the sequin/rhinestone and placed it on my nail.  I guess I should mention, I put a top coat on and was putting the sequins & rhinestones on while it was still wet.  Once I got everything in place and the way I liked it, I put on another layer of the top coat to seal the sequins and rhinestone.

There are thousands of you-tube videos on nail art and I'm finding it fun to have pretty nails again.  Its been so long since I've grown my nails out.  My old nail polish is getting used again. :)

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be posting up a few past projects this weekend, so come by again and take a peek.  I think I might actually get into my craft room this weekend and try do a couple scrapbook pages.  I have a couple ideas floating around and there's a couple sketches I want to give a try.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Not exactly a paper craft...

But I had a little bit of time to kill today so I decided to give myself a manicure.  I usually have my nails cut short, but since I haven't been doing to much because of my back/hip problems, my nails have grown quite a bit in the last month.  I wanted something a little funky and out of the box for what I usually do (plain colours usually in the pink/red range or a french manicure).  This is what I came up with:

I bought some Wet&Wild nail polish the other day when I was at Walmart just because its so cheap.  I thought that if I didn't like the way it looked, at least I didn't waste a bunch on money on nail polish I would never wear again.  I like the way this turned out.  Now, I'm wondering if there are nail stencils out there.  I just may let my nails grow a bit.  But they're such a pain to type with... :)

Well, that's as far as I got for creativity for now.  I've been sketching out a new project that I want to get into. I have some photos of projects I completed before my back issues that I want to edit and post later (hopefully tomorrow or Wed).

That's all for now.  Talk to you later...

Cat

Back Issues Update

I'm still recuperating from my back issues.  What happened was that, basically, I sprained my sacroiliac joint. That's the joint that joins the hip to the spine.  The inflammation and the pain in the joint has gone, but I'm still having some minor issues with the muscles in the rest of my back seizing up just because they had to work so hard to support my body.  As a result also, I now have some pain in one of my knees just because of the way I had to twist my body and use my legs to get myself standing.  If I had any inkling that I had to go the bathroom, I started to head there early because it was taking about 5 minutes to get up, walk to the bathroom, and then get seated again.  What a chore! :)  I don't wish this kind of torture on anyone.

So, needless to say, I haven't really been in the crafty mood for the last 3 weeks.  I'm starting to get the urge to be in my room, but under doctor's orders, I'm not suppose to sit for long periods of time.  So, I'll have to wait another week or two until I'm completely healed before I can really get some crafting time in.

Well, thanks for dropping by.  I'll be back - hopefully in the not too distant future.

Take care...

Cat

Getting better...

I finally had a relatively pain-free day today.  I was even able to take the dog for a short walk around the block this afternoon.  Poor thing has been having to wait until hubby got home from work to go for her walk.  Its been very draining fighting the pain and using my arms and legs to do everything.  My arms & shoulders especially are so tired.  I've been going to the chiropractor and massage and that has helped tremendously.  Without that, I don't think I would have been able to walk at all these last couple weeks.  I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to sit for more than a few minutes at a time and get back in my craft room.  But, for now I'm just glad to rest and get better.

I'll be back soon...

Cat