Month: August 2010

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Posted on by debbrooner

 

Wahoo! I just got a Silhouette SD for my (early) birthday!   So far  I love it.

Perhaps a little explanation is in order for those who aren’t familiar with the Silhouette.  It is an electronic die-cutting machine that hooks up to your computer.  You pick a pattern or letters, size it to you specifications, and send the info to the cutter, and just like that you have your design. 

I knew that it worked well for large formats but wanted to see if it could do a good job on inchie-sized projects. The answer is definitely yes. I was very pleased that most of the patterns I picked cut beautifully at the 1″ size. On the top row the leaf, the dragonfly, and the bird were all cut using the Silhouette.  The bottom row shows the sparkle, the heart, and the flying bird.  The heart looked like like it needed something else so I just poked holes in each iof the scallops and added embroidery thread.

On this ATC I used the Sil on the leaf (the same one as the one above) and the letters . One of the biggest reasons I wanted this machine was to cut letters and phrases to my specifications.

“Imagine” was a design that was available to download from the Silhouette Store.  The store has hundreds of designs to choose from. They are quite inexpensive and once downoaded, are yours forever.  There are other sites on the web that offer free designs as well.

For more info, go here.

Now who wants to come to my house and play????

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Tangled ATC’s

Posted on by debbrooner

 

How many of you had school notebooks, church bulletins, and grocery lists with all sorts of doodles in the margins? You didn’t know you were making art, did you?  Well there is a not-so- new kid in town, Zentangle, that takes doodling (though they don’t like that word) to new heights.  The difference between doodling and Zentangle is that the lines made in Zentangle are very deliberate rather than haphazard.  There are gobs of tangle patterns on the web and books as well, so if you are interested here are some resources: the official Zentangle site,  Tangle patterns, and a blog with lots of great links and patterns.  While I do not agree with some of the philosophy behind Zentangles (I do not use it as meditation), it is a fun way to relax and create something at the same time.

Usually tangling is done on a white background with black pens, but while I was cruising through the new Corel X5 clipart I came across all sorts of new backgrounds that just begged to be tangled on.

I have shown the backgrounds that I used to the right of the tangled pieces.

I wasn’t sure that the last three backgrounds I picked would work out, but I ended up being fairly satisfied with them as well.

I hope there ae not too many out there gnashing their teeth as they view these ATC’s!

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by, and please leave a comment.

B&R (Black & Red)

Posted on by debbrooner

I can’t help it, but black and red is my all-time favorite color combo. This is a journal of my color journey from the very beginning of my cardmaking days to the present.  I hope you enjoy it and learn a thing or two.

Made in 1998, this card was one that I assembled into kits (75 of them) and took to Haiti for a class I taught there.  It was crude, but I was new at this card making thing.  It used the newest toy at the time- a  crimper (how far we have come)!

 

In 2001 I acquired some shadow stamps, so I used them on this card.  Seeing some mesh background over-stamp on scratch paper gave me the idea of first stamping a mesh background and then stamping and embossing red flowers on top.

 I learned a bunch about PearlEx in 2003 .  PE brushed on an image inked with Versamark gave a lovely shimmer, and polymer clay and PE were made for each other.  Combining PE and embossing powder greatly extended my color repertoire.  The flowers above used this embossing powder.  Finding out that I could make watercolors out of the stuff really cranked my tractor!  I ended up making little pots of all the colors of PE there were.  I used black PE watercolor to fill in the centrs of the flowers.  

My 2005 “Black and White Series” included this red floral one as well black/green, black/yellow, black/purple and black/green cards.

In De3cember of 2009 I submitted an artricle in Polymer Cafe showcasing my cards that contained  polymer clay embellishments.  I decided not to put this one in the article, but I did love all the textures.

I just finished  this ATC for a Black White and Red challenge.  The card had to be mostly black &  white and the red had to fit in with the theme of the card.  Somehow a sunburned zebra seemed to fit the bill and the caption reminded me of a Far Side cartoon.

The card at the top of the page is my most recent endeavor, made for the MOJO Monday  challenge. I love the papers I used.  The black and white print which has a plastic covering was acquired from Paper Source .  I don’t remember  where I got the black paper with the shiny dots, which is a shame because there in not much of it left.

The winners of the Blog Candy from last week are Kim Machrer and Nicole Ewing.  Congrats, and have fun with them!