Sale of all Sales

Oh my goodness.  I just found out Scrappy Dew has decided to put their whole scrap factory on sale.  If you don't know what this is, it is a program that allows you to put all of the expansion packs into it...then you get to choose from those pieces, what you want it to make.  So you choose which body, which outfit, which accessories then it makes the svg for you.  It is just a super easy way to mix and match your files.  You don't have to worry about resizing if you want to use the hair from one file, the outfit from another and the body of another...it puts them all together and sizes them for you.  This sale includes the program AND all of the expansion packs...they just released 2 new ones, including peanuts...which makes 27 expansion packs...27!  Some of these packs are loaded, they come with a ton of pieces.  I love scrap factory, you can see a lot of my work has used them.  Even if you have the program already and only a couple of expansion packs, it is an awesome price to get all of the expansion packs! Here is the link, you should check it out!  http://www.dash12.com/scrapfactory/special/index.php 

minions

My boys love the minions.  In fact we had to make minion birthday cakes twice because they love them so much.  The second time we did the purple minion just so they didn't end up being the same.  The first time, my son was turning 3, so I decided to make 3 minion cakes.  We also made some minion twinkies.  I did this layout before I printed the pictures out, but I had to add the pictures so you could see how perfectly the file went with the pictures...however when I went to add them I found that I had done the photo mats vertical and all the pictures seem to be horizontal.  I will have to go back and rearrange a few things, but for this it worked out okay...but that is why the picture doesn't fit quite right.  So I used Scrappy Dew Minions http://www.scrappydew.com/products/minions/?aff=4 and let me be honest...I actually have a few different minion files already, however they have a lot of little pieces to them.  I chose this file because it looks just right and it is so easy to put together!

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Another Challenge

After I finished my items for my design team, I found myself with some extra time so that's why I ended up participating in a few different sketch challenges.  I usually try to do the ones for Little Scraps of Heaven anyway, but I'm not always able to.  I saw the sketch and thought right away what I wanted to do with it.  After I actually made it and laid it out, I realized it didn't exactly follow the sketch after all, but it was still my inspiration and it was close enough.  I used the Little Einstein file and used the chalkboard as the background they had placed.  I left the mustache off Einstein and made him blonde instead of gray, so that he looked more like my son.

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Last Designer Post

Well I got my final 2 files from Marjorie Ann Designs but I called one of them Boys at play because that is the title, but the file is really called Building Buddies...I got the Boys will be boys file instead, which I already have so I guess that makes this my last post.  This is the Night before Christmas filehttp://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1544 and I thought it would be cute to do pictures of the quiet night before.  I always take pictures of the presents around the tree and one of each of my sleeping boys.  I decided to do print and cut with these pieces and I still haven't figured out how to get the nice cuts like other people do.  I saw someone else that was even able to cut between items within the image (like the banister).  I traced this as the outside and it traced things in the middle like the eyeballs to cut so I traced again and tried to get it to cut the banister but it did a pretty sloppy job.  It may be my cheap paper or I may need to play with settings.  I had to go back to the silhouette mat for this because it cuts way off with the cricut mat.  I thought with the registration marks, you could put the paper wherever you wanted and it would cut within those marks, so it shouldn't matter which mat I use...but apparently it still goes of the edge of the mat...there has to be a different way for that...maybe I am setting the cut up wrong....anyway off with the tangent.  I thought it was cute that the file has mice as the characters, to go along with the story...usually I don't do too many with mice.  This is not all the way finished...I still need to make a title and finalize placement but you get the idea.

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Tweetheart

There is so much cuteness in the fuzzy loves fall set http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1531  I knew I had to have it.  The piece that jumped out to me first was the one holding the little bird...It looks like he is holding a baby so that is how I decided to use it.  My cousin just had a little boy and I thought it would make a cute baby card so I played on the word sweetheart to match the bird.  I tried to put a border under them but everything seemed too busy or too plain I decided to leave it as is.  Looking back now I think a nice pile or border of leaves would have worked perfectly.  I used a versamarker for the eyebrows and I tried to use chalk for the muzzle line, wondering if the versamarker would have been enough or leave it blank?  The card is from Craft Smith and then I threw on the cute washi tape for the top.   I decided to pop them up and put the greeting flat.  I love the way the eyes look on this!

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Piles of Fun

We kind of missed out on playing in the leaves this year.  We usually drive up the canyon when the leaves change and take pictures.  We also go to the park and play in the millions of leaves but the seasons were so mixed this year that the leaves barely changed at all and once they fell it was all the sudden over and done with, and now it's winter.  I have enjoyed having some actual fall weather though, it usually is too hot then only 1 or 2 weeks of fall then winter.  Anyway...I have these really cute pictures of my oldest two boys playing in the leaves.  I saw this file at Scrappy Dew http://www.scrappydew.com/products/piles-of-smiles/?aff=4 and I thought it was so cute...but I held off getting it for a while because I just thought there was going to be a million tiny pieces to put together.  Finally I decided it was cute enough to be worth it...and I was pleasantly surprised.  There really aren't that many pieces, they made this very well so that it looks full but isn't too difficult.  The only problem I had with it is I think I lost a couple or few leaves but I didn't even remake them, I just made it work with a few less leaves and it is still adorable. (The file is currently on sale this week)  I used the Dew Drop Facial expressions on the faces.  I am still having some slight issues with stamping so if anyone has any tips on what the best way to cover it is I would love to hear them.  I am getting better but not consistent in getting a clean image.  I was using a colorbox ink and it didn't seem to hit everywhere or go on dark enough.  I switched to Stazon and that stuff is sticky.  It dries fast and is very permanent, I don't really like it so I'm still looking for a good dark, easy to use ink for these.

Here are the pages laid together.  I think they turned out really cute!  

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Rainy Days

I remembered about this Rainy Day friends file http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1281 and thought it was so cute and so many different uses for it.  When I got the file I kind of had a brain freeze and all those possibilities disappeared.  I couldn't think of any sayings that would work with a card or why would they have such and such animal with them.  So I spent a few days and decided they would be cute on a layout of my boys playing in puddles.  So that is how I will eventually use them.  I changed the file a bit because they weren't actually playing with critters in the rain, just the puddles so I thought it fit better this way.  I like the way it turned out too!  I thought the stamp was fun, because what kid doesn't try to catch raindrops on their tongue?  Both faces are from Peachy Keen.

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Turkey Time

I love these lazy little turkeys.  They are from the I'm stuffed file. http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1600 I had originally planned to put him on a card but decided he was just so cute and would go great with a family picture.  Well I got a little mixed up going back and forth.  First a card layout, then a layout with one large photo, I mixed things around a few times and now looking at this layout I'm not sure that everything that ended up together goes well together, I may have to go back and change one of the papers.  I also would have made him a little bigger if I knew he would be on a layout alone.  What I do love about this though, is I was finally able to experiment with using patterned papers with my file.  I never remember or dare to use patterns instead of solids, but I did for his feathers, and I love it!  On his shirt I thought the letters were too tiny so I just wrote them on.  I also just drew on the eyebrows (Versamarker) and the beak dots.

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Patriotic mouse

Cuddly Cute designs put a sketch challenge up on their site.  I mostly just have titles from them so I wasn't sure I would be able to participate but I found a file that would work.  I used the 4th of July Mouse and this layout actually came together pretty easily because of the paper that I happened to have.  Most of my paper is pretty cheap and I try to find it that way and get the majority from yard sales.  However, my friend sells her stash occasionally and she always has very nice papers, I'm sure this paper came from her.  Some of it is a little crooked because I hadn't glued it down yet and I must have bumped it.  (Most of my layouts I take the picture before I glue everything down, so I can do little adjustments when I add the photos)

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Another Sketch

I was just planning out what to do for the current Little Scraps of Heaven sketch challenge and realized I never even posted my last entry.  My boys love building forts or obstacle courses or military bases or whatever they want to call it.  So I made a layout of a fun little fort.  I threw a couple extra pillows and a blanket around the page, but my husband said you can't tell what they are.  I also made my own title.  I like doing sketches because I don't have to think about how to arrange everything but it's hard for me to do pages in advance.  I print out all 4x6 sized photos so I usually have to pick my photos and then try and plan my layout around what sizes they are...I have a hard time cutting items out of photos or cropping it to just a small part of the photo so usually I try to cram as many 4x6 photos on to a page as I can, or slightly smaller than 4x6.  I have just found out about interactive layouts and I am excited to try those....eventually.  I do really like how this page turned out.

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Candy Freaks

Hello everyone!  Did you survive Halloween?  How about the sugar rush afterward?  My kids had a great time trick or treating.  It was a little rough for me since I recently sprained my ankle, but I made it and I love watching their excitement.  As I mentioned before one of my kids has told me that candy is his life (oddly he was the one that was the most willing to share ALL of his candy) but I thought these crazy bats would make a great layout to display some of their Halloween pictures...I never remember to take a picture of the loot.  But I would much rather see their cute faces anyway.  The file is from Marjorie Ann Designs and can be found here http://marjorieanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164_192&products_id=1567  I decided that these bats were really cute and they didn't need the crazy eyes to give the full effect.   There isn't really anything else to explain...I did have to cut a couple of the fangs myself since they didn't cut right with my machine, they are tiny!

Sorry this post is a little late, I couldn't get BlogSpot to open the picture window.  I finally tried it in a new browser and it worked.  Thanks for the idea Debbie.

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