Forgot To Tell You About Cutter Glide!

First let me explain why my last posts were so short...I have been very tired from work with the extra paperwork I have had this week and since I was short on time and I figured no one really reads what I write *okie thinks if they did they wouldn't ask her questions that are already answered in the descriptions of the projects* it didn't matter a hill of beans what I wrote. A few people think I am depressed, some think I am angry and then there are those who have been with me long enough to know their appropriate response should have been to laugh and they did! *okie loves it when folks get her sense of humor when she gets all creative and shit*

Now about the Cutter Glide! I ordered some back a few months ago when I had to order the new strip for my Pazzles and I took pictures and all that jazz and then never posted about the stuff...remember my squirrel problem! I think I tossed it in my cart when I was ordering the strip to make the shipping charges worth the price and I had been curious about the product. What I ordered came with the Cutter Glide Blade Treatment and the bottle of EZ Tool Cleaner and the price was $10.00, it is available on Amazon and Joann.com as well and the price seems to be comparable, especially when you look at shipping.

I had read that it is suppose to make your blades last longer and if you cut as much stinkin paper as I do you would love to have your blades last longer. I hear some folks say "oh I only change my blade once a year" or "I've never changed my blade since I got my machine" and it really makes me wonder if they even use the dang thangs! But then I have to remember that when I am cutting I am generally cutting in multiples of 6 when I make cards and even when I make altered objects I rarely make just one so my cutting tends to be something more along the lines of mass production and maybe that is why my blades don't last as long *okie knows she has said all that to just be polite because she still totally believes those beeches are just not using their machines*.

I knew it would be hard for me to test blades and see if the Cutter Glide really helped, especially since I don't have the patience for all the research techniques it would take for me to have an accurate report so the next best thing was to test it on my punches!  I barely had the patience to wait and test it on them so you can imagine what a horrible, miserable failure my research would be for the blades.

Okay look at this picture, and yes you can ooohh and ahhh at the maroon vinyl and yes it is more gorgeous in person than in the picture. The strip on the far right is how my Stampin Up Scallop Edge punch was punching paper *okie knows someone is going to send her a message and say 'okie you know you can sharpen those by punch foil' like okie is some dumbass that doesn't know things*. The middle picture was not long after I applied the Cutter Glide, and before I read the directions where it says something about letting dry for a few hours or possible overnight, and it is definitely an improvement. The picture on the left is when I punched a strip of paper the next day. As you can see there is most certainly improvement!

Now have I noticed a difference in my blades I treated? Well to be honest I don't know because I have all these dang blades in a drawer and I forgot which ones I treated and which ones I didn't! I guess I need to just get down all 24,872 blades I have up on the shelf *okie hopes people know she exaggerates at times* and treat them all at once.

I will say I have defintealy noticed a difference in my scissors! I use mounting foam for my pop dots and that stuff sticks to scissors like crazy. I am too lazy to clean my scissors each time and I generally end up with 4 pairs of scissors that covered in super sticky adhesive and clean them all at once. Since I applied the Cutter Glide I have only been using one pair of scissors for cutting my mounting foam and I think don't believe I have used the Undu on them but I do think I used the cleaner that came with the stuff maybe once.

The bottom line is that I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product!

Chipboard Album - Family

This is the last mini-album I did, at least for awhile.

I like this one because of the pretty flowers on the front. I made the flowers with punches. The leaves were left over, like the album before. The album gets worse from here.

These pages are kinda plain but will look better with some pictures where the white space is, or at least I hope so.









Click the picture to make it bigger and see more detail. I'm too tired to describe it all and you can see with your own eyes.

Fabric ticket, paper leaves, dew drops, ribbon and bling are used on these two pages.



I have some cards I could post for the next few days but that probably ain't gonna happen. I am swamped at work with intakes and treatment plans and they are sucking the life blood out of me right now. Not even sure if there will be a post for tomorrow, completely depends on how tired I am when I get home from work this evening.

Chipboard Album - Cherish

I keep forgetting to go in and add my content until it is late at night and then I am tired and I don't feel like typing so this is short and sweet like yesterdays and tomorrow's probably won't be much better. Ya might be better off just lookin at the pictures and ignoring any words in this post.

This is another album. Used paper and embellies from a Webster's Pages Warehouse Box that either I got or that my friend Carmen sent to me. She sends me a bunch of shit and expects me to create fabulous stuff.

Little blue roses are something I had left over from another project, as are the leaves. Thought I better use that crap up so I did.

Used a fabric ticket embellishment. Punched some butterflies and glued their ass to the page.







 

Punched out another butterfly. Decided to punch out a bird and a branch for the other page. Hate the bird, he doesn't show up well.

Fake flowers and a little tag with a ribbon adorn these pages.

That's all I got to say about this album.

Chipboard Album - Forever Memories

This is a mini album.

I used a 6x6 mini chipboard album that my friend Carmen sent me. She sent me quite a few. I covered it with some paper and shit to decorate it.

This is a picture of pages of the mini-album. I used some damn ribbon on these pages.

There are some fake ass flowers on one of the pages here, both pages have some decorative paper put on them.

Here is the last picture of the mini album. I got all creative and shit and used some cord for the kite string.



That is the end of this mini-album.

How Did I Get...

So behind with my stamp organization! What started out to just put a few stamps away turned into me finally getting a bunch of stamps organized in my STAMP ORGANIZATION system that I have and evidently I haven't done it in probably over a year and a half *okie hangs head in shame*.

I can't believe I let things get that out of control. I know how it happened actually. I went to a few stamp sales and bought stamps, found some online in Facebook groups that were a great price, a friend sent me some and I the stamps I have ordered over the last year were all waiting for me to do something with them....and waiting...and waiting....and waiting, until this weekend and POOF I just ended up doing it.

One of the things I did was put my stamp sets that have framelits or dies, such as the few Sizzix I have and my Chalk Talk set I just ordered, in cases with their coordinating stamps.

Originally I had the dies in bags but then I remembered I had bought some magnetic sheets that were actually sold as vent covers at Dollar Tree back in the fall, or it could have been summer, and thought I might try those. They cut down easy with my guillotine trimmer and I used some Terrifically Tacky Tape to adhere the magnet sheet to the case.

I also needed to relabel all my cases since the paper stickers I had used originally were peeling up. During Black Friday I got this really cool label maker at Staples for $10 and thought this was the perfect time to fire this baby up! I had to order the power cord separately and it is worth it since the thing seems to really drain batteries. I wrote down the settings I used for when I have to make more labels and I can have them look the same. I also did print off a few extra letters for future use.

You might need to click the picture and make it bigger to see the labels at the bottom of the spine on the CD cases, but if you can't just take my word that they are looking rather nice and neat.

I am taking a solemn oath that I will never again let my stamp organization get behind to the extent I did! At least now I can look at that shelf area and not feel a panic attack coming on.

Taking the Day Off!

Since posting almost every day since January 1st of this year I have decided to take the day off. Yep, that's right...no project posted today!

I was telling my friend Carmen a few days ago "I don't think a lot of folks understand how much time it takes to keep up a website". It would be nice if I could just think about what I want on the screen and it was there but alas, that isn't how it works. Let me tell ya the little process I have to go through for every post.

1. Figure out what I want in a post, whether it be commentary or a project. For this example we will say project.
2. Make the project.
3. Figure out if I need to take pictures while completing the project, in case there are steps to include.
4. Set up my picture taking stuff *white backgrounds*, find prop stands if needed.
5. Take several pictures.
6. Choose the pictures that I think are best.
7. Edit the pictures.
8. Watermark the pictures
9. Save the pictures.
10. Write the post.
11. Upload the pictures.
12. Preview and make any edits needed.
13. Schedule the post.

So only 13 steps to the process but a few of those steps, especially making the project can be quite time consuming. The whole picture process can take quite a bit of time as well. I can't really give you pinpoint amount of time it takes because it really depends on the depth of the project and post. But I can tell you I spend anywhere from 3-5 hours a week minimum just getting posts ready for a week, that doesn't include anytime for making projects.

So ya see, this is why I am taking the day off! *okie wonders since this turn out to be longer than she thought if it really is a day off*.

A New Machine I Want!

It seems there are a plethora of cutting machines on the market and new improved models come out every few years, this year being no exception. Of course I think everyone has heard about the Cricut Explore, and to be honest if it does everything it is promised to do *okie smirks thinking about how ProvoCraft aalllwaaayyssss keeps their promises* it will be a fantastic machine. However, with all the bad taste they have left in the mouths of many consumers it might be a hard sell to get some of their customer base back into the fold. With that said I do want a new machine! But not the Cricut Explore...

I recently got an email from Pazzles and they are coming out with the Pazzles Inspiration Vue! One of the features on the new machine is that it has the cut and print feature which has been intriguing me for quite sometime! The new Cricut Explore is promising the same feature...sometime in the near future *okie scratches head and wonders how long near future really is*. Another selling point for me is the sliding out tray extention. My machine sits on the top of my cardstock paper shelving and I sometimes have to hold the mat so it doesn't bend down so the tray would be awesome for me. And the last selling point for me is "new colors", okay a selling point if one of the colors is red *okie closes her eyes, holds her hands together in prayer and says a little prayer "God please let one of the colors be red"*. So you think it is trivial to pray for a red machine? Well I love red! Don't judge....

• Precision print and cut with new optical eye
• Slide out tray extension
• Shorter waiting time for large projects
• Tray tabs for improved mat feeding
• Mac compatible software
• Compatibility with existing Inspiration tools, mats and accessories
• New colors
• New lower price

I have found out they will have several methods of payment on the machines, much like they do now, where you can pay part of the cost for the machine and then either make a 1 year or 2 year commitment to the Pazzles Craftroom website and get the machine or you can pay out right for it.

Before I saw this machine I was convinced my next machine would be a Zing but since I know how to work a Pazzles and I have gotten use to the settings I am thinking this will be the right step for me!

There will be one breaking point from me getting this machine, other than money that is...If it doesn't work with Make The Cut then it will be a NO GO!

If anyone wants to get this machine for me I am more than willing to accept the generosity and you can just click that little donate button in the right hand column and donate away! *okie falls out chair laughing*.

Gift Bag - Zebra

Okay yesterday I said zebra print is hot and since it is hot I had to do a Zebra Bag!

I always think that pink seems to go the best with zebra print, it's gotta be because of the color combo of white, black and pink. I knew I had some nice pink wire ribbon that I could use with the zebra print but I did have to go to another one of my stacks for the pink paper since there wasn't any in the Recollections stack of animal prints.  

After I got the bag done it looked a little plain and it seemed to need just a little something else. I cut a nice size flourish for the bottom and POW, that was it!

The stamp I used is from Stampin Up's Happiest Birthday Wishes, a set I got sometimes ago, and I love this particular stamp because you can stamp it several times and then punch out the parts and then layer. I can't remember the particular sizes but I think it was the 1" circle, 1 3/8" circle, 1 3/4" scallop circle and then 2 3/8" scallop circle. I pop dotted the top layer for dimension.

I think out of all my gift bags this one is my favorite!

Gift Bag - Wild Birthday Wishes

Why are animal prints so fun? I know Zebra print is hot and has been for a bit now but before that it seems everything was leopard print. Now I think just about any animal print goes. 

I do believe red goes nicely with leopard print and that is why I chose to accent the bag with the birthday in red and the red ribbon. I thought about decorating a little more with some red paper but then I remembered "it's a giftbag, it's likely gonna get tossed in the trash" so I refrained and kept it more simple. 

I thought a fun sentiment on this one would be nice, I can't remember what font I used for the Wild and Wishes but I do know I used the "Sister" or "Sister Frisky" font for the Birthday. It looked a little plain so I decided to add the green vine to jungle it up a bit. I think the printed paper at the bottom might be a giraffe print, at least that is what it looks like to me, whatever it may be it goes good with the leopard print and that is why it was used. 

Okay my last giftbag for awhile will be posting tomorrow and then it's on to the mini albums!

Is anyone getting tired of my crafty posts yet? I am beginning to think I might be crafted out soon.

Gift Bag Series - Sunflower

I don't know what it is about sunflower images that I love but there is certainly something! I think it is the bright happy yellow colors contrasted with the warm comforting brown tones that are set against the refreshing greens *okie thinks she sounded a little artsy fartsy with her description*. 

At any rate, I saw this sunflower paper in the stack of the K & Co. pad I was using, remember I mentioned it had like 5 or 6 different collections in it, and I knew I had to do a gift bag with it! The striped paper on the left and the bottom patterned paper were also included in the collection.

The colors between the patterned paper of sunflowers and the sunflower I cut actually look better in person than the picture. But as we all know most things always look better in person than they do pictures. Well except when we take pictures of ourselves and airbrush off the wrinkles and zits, then we probably do look better in a picture than in person. 

I made the sunflower file quite sometime ago using an image trace, and have been dying to use it and this was the perfect opportunity to cut that sucker and see how it turned out, which I think it turned out rather lovely...don't you?

A Cool Little Thing I Did - MTC and SVG Available

I use Stampin Up cardstock almost exclusively for my card bases. I like the weight of it and with all the colors they offer I can usually find a color to match any of the paper I am using. I also like to see the colors in Make The Cut when I am designing a card. Even if I am not cutting anything I still design in MTC so I can get the measurements right the first time and not have to guess at waste paper.

On Saturday I decided I needed an easy way to be able to reference colors without having to look up the RGB codes each time I wanted to use a color. After wondering what would be the best way I came up with this method. I made 1 inch squares in Make The Cut and then typed the names of all the current colors and all the retired colors that I have in ink or paper and then put them in the squares and did a join so the name will stay with the appropriate block. After I posted about this in the Make The Cut forum one of the members told me about a really cool gadget called COLOR COP and I did download it and I am sure I will be using it a lot in the future as well. If you decide to download make sure you look in the left hand side menu and click that download button. If you do the one on the right it is going to give you some weird program you likely don't want.

Maybe I need to explain how I use the colors a little better. I often use the MY CREATE INK website to find coordinating colors for cards and now I can get my group of colors figured out there and then open this file and slide the colors I want to use in a group to the side and copy and paste those blocks to a new project. Once that is done I can either resize my blocks how I need them if I am using a polygon shape or I can click on it and have the color menu come up, add to custom color and then go back and change the color of the image I am wanting to use. I hope that makes sense because it does in my head...but we all know my head can be a scary place sometimes.

Here is an example of a card I made this past weekend where I used the colors. If the paper is patterned then I just try to use a color that is close to one of the colors in the paper. For instance, on this card the background paper was mostly red, the long ivory strip was a white background with colored dots and the blue was mostly blue and the little flowers were stamped in blue. I know this might be a lot of work but like I said I like being able to know exactly what measurements I need to cut so I don't waste paper. The actual colors were Rose Red, Bashful Blue, So Saffron and since I didn't have Certainly Celery cardstock I used Pear Pizzazz.

I am offering the file in SVG as well because a dear friend of mine, whose name rhymes with cinnamon, wished she had it in SVG and sometimes I am nice to my dear friends who don't use MTC and convert files. Since there are so many Stampin Up users out there I thought I would take the time to convert this one.



I still have 3 more giftbags to show you guys but wanted to interrupt and share this with you first. After the giftbags I have some mini-albums I will be posting.

Gift Bag - Western Happy Trails

I'm sober today! HA HA HA This is a larger giftbag than the one that was posted yesterday, you might be able to tell from the pictures, and required a little more paper but as luck would have it I have plenty of paper...I know hard to believe but it's true!

Again the papers are from the Recollections pack and the western is also from what I ordered a few years ago from Dollar Scrapbooking. I really like this larger one, the smaller one was okay but I think I like the papers on this one better.

I cut the "happy trails" and the little horseshoe with my Pazzles. They might be hard to see but I added two little copper brads on the Happy Trails image and it seemed to make it look a little nicer.

Instead of adding some ribbon for embellishment I used some jute since it looked more like rope and would make this a nice giftbag to use for a male or female. I untwisted the little bit on the tag to make it a little fuller.

Gift Bag Series - Western Concho

Okay for those who saw this post before I ran in here to edit must have been thinking "OMG okie really did take up drinking as hobby!". The truth is, well I load photos after I get the projects done and then go back and do the content of the post and I guess I forgot to check my dates to see what content needed to be entered and edited *okie hangs head in shame*.

So about this nice little western gift bag...I like it! The lower print came from a pack of Recollections paper from Michaels, where the other animal type prints have come from lately and I think there are a few more I have used it on. The upper paper was from Dollar Scrapbooking that I got a few years ago. Since I am from Oklahoma I do try to keep some western theme on hand...it only makes sense!

I cut the tag and the cute little concho with my Pazzles. The tie on the concho is some more of the Maya Road cording. The little star on the tag is from a punch and it added a little more interest to the tag.

I'll try not to do anymore drunk blogging *okie cracks up laughing* but there can't be any guarantees about that!

Gift Bag Series - Peacock

Growing up I remember people having bouquets of peacock feathers as decor and I always felt those eyes on the feathers were looking at me. I'm not sure if I was mesmerized or scared shitless. I always wanted to touch them because of their gorgeous iridescent color but was always afraid of what would happen, more of my mom who would have beat my butt than the feathers getting me.

Now that I'm grown I won't have peacock feathers as decor but I do like to decorate cards and bags with peacocks. This paper was in that same K & Co. pad and I loved how it looked but wasn't sure what to use to go with it until I figured just an image of a peacock might be nice. I added some blue tulle with the brown for these bags and I think it turned out nice.

The peacock got a little lost in all the patterns of the paper so I went back and cut a white outline to go around it and I think it worked well in making the image stand out a little more. I used my white gel pen to add some accents to the bird as well and it seemed to really pop then.

Someone on Facebook asked what I do with all these bags I make and I guess I never thought to say what I do with them so I thought I might tell y'all...I use them as prizes at my Christmas party! When I first did this I thought my guests would think they were stupid prizes but turns out they love them!

Gift Bag Series - Maya Road Cord

Did anyone else get the Maya Road Cord when they had it on some kinda flash buy a few months ago? It's a lot thicker than I thought it was going to be but I do love it and wanted to use some on giftbags.

I loved the colors and patterns of this set of giftbags and I think the wording paper is a great addition on the bags. I could see these being use as graduation giftbags or other life events of accomplishment.

I tried to use the color of cording that went the best with the colors in the chipboard shapes. I think I ended up getting 6 different colors of the cord.

I cut a few tags on my Pazzles since I wanted a larger tag than what my punches make. I added a few  strips of scrap paper for decoration and then a little one of the Michaels Bridal Flower Confetti flowers.

Gift Bag Series - Stampin Up Pansy Punch

Are y'all getting tired of seeing the Stampin Up Pansy punch yet? I am sure not tired of using it and the coordinating Flower Shoppe stamp set!

In the K&Co. collections there are always some pages where the design takes up a whole page and I find hard to use most of the time, but this time was different! I cropped the paper down to use the whole image as the base design and then just added some coordinating strips to the base image.

I used one of the stamps from the Flower Shoppe set to stamp brown on the Purple cardstock and then also on some yellow. I punched the flower out using the Pansy Punch and then used a 1" circle *okie wonders if it was the 3/4" punch instead* to punch out the center and lined it up on the flower.  I used a bone folder to curl the petals up just a bit.

I think these turned out to be a little elegant looking and will be great for older adults.

Gift Bag Series - Stampin Up Punch Flowers

I found a nice big collection of K&Co in the thinner papers at Joann's one day when Linda and I were in Norman. I told her I really wanted it since it had 6 different collections and I knew it would make some great bags. I can't remember the price we paid but I am thinking it was about 50% off.

I used some brown tulle to make a large bow for the top of this bag. I kept wanting to add more decoration to the bag but I kept telling myself "self don't do it because it is probably going to end up in the trash anyway" so I did refrain from adding more embellishment.

The flowers are made with the Stampin Up Blossom punch, Pansy Punch and Spring Bouquet punch . I think punched 3 layers of the Blossom and Pansy for the flowers. I added the Candi dots for the centers and those work wonderfully and are a lot cheaper than using big brads and prettier than just a small circle.

Gift Bag Series - Glitter Chipboard

One of my favorite things to alter is giftbags *okie thinks if she were completely honest she would have to say she likes to alter anything that can be taped and glued*. Linda and I were at Goodwill last year after Christmas and they had a big laundry basket of Christmas giftbags that were either 50¢ for $1 but the kicker was they were like 75% off, at least I think that is what they were. Any rate, I got the majority of them and did allow Linda a few for her own stash. For the next few days I am going to be sharing the giftbags I altered recently.

I prefer to use thinner paper for giftbags so they aren't as expensive and usually get the paper pads at either Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

To get my paper cut the right sizes I make a template in Make The Cut and figure out how big to cut pieces from there.

I added a little tag that I made with my Stampin Up Tag Punches and used some twine to attach it to the handle. I found some glitter chipboard pieces in my stash of embellies and thought I would try some of those to add to some bags. I think they worked out great! I did use Terrifically Tacky Tape or Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to attach them to the bags because I wanted to make sure they would stay put.

Oh The Pain - Graphic45 Journaling Book

I got an email the other day with instructions for a Graphic45 Journaling Book and how they were going to have a contest by participants sending in a picture of their creation. I have file folders and I have quite a bit of Graphic45 papers in my collection of gorgeous papers so I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a go". After I got my folders cut apart and started adding papers I was like "OMG this is the ugliest thing I have ever made!" but I was too far gone into the project to stop and figured I would finish and toss it in the trash when I was done if I didn't like it. I am glad I kept at it as it turned out a lot better than I expected! I'll let the pictures do the talking!

I am going to try and remember what all Graphic45 collections were used:
Boardwalk
Olde Curiosity Shoppe
Steampunk Debutante
Birdsong (stickers)
Proper Gentleman
Curtain Call

I only had one stamp that I could use for journaling so I had to try and line it up on some spots, which wasn't perfect in many places but I think it added to the overall character of the book.

I really did like the tag page, in the middle of the picture, and I had to make my own out of leftovers of the file folders. I decorated it up a little at the top and since I couldn't find my Cropodile Big Bite *okie still has no idea where that dang thing is* I had to make my own little slit in the top and add the ribbon.

There were two pocket pages in the cuts and those will be nice for loose pictures or mementos. I did find a few little tags and chipboard pieces in my collection of embellishments to add to the book.






I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to add staples to the tickets for a bit of interest. I also stamped some images on some areas.

I got my pages out of order somewhere but I guess it doesn't really matter too much but I was trying to keep like papers away from each other but I guess it still worked out okay. I hand cut different images out of the different collections to use in the book. 

All the square black mats are 3x3 which will make it easy to crop pictures to add and not have to keep measuring different squares. I made the "File Folder Label" using one of my punches. These two pages open up.

This is with the left page is open.








And here is the right page open.

There was one page in their example that was just decorated. I opted to add a little jouraling space and different images from different collections. I made the flower using some of the punches I have. I spritzed them with water and wadded them up. I let them sit a little while and then I carefully opened them up and kept them scrunched while drying. Once dry I just put the layers together.

The page on the left is the only one with a larger picture area and that mat is 3x6 inches, of course you could always add larger pictures in the pocket page which is on the right.


 

Finally here is the last of the book! I could have added another picture mat to the back page but just decided to decorate it a little and leave it at that. 




I used my Cinch to punch my holes, being careful to line up the pages that were a little off from all the rest and then used 3/4" Bind It All coils to put it all together. I have no idea what I will do with this book but I am thinking it will make a nice prize at my Christmas party this year!