Kerri Bradford Studio

Of course I am a huge fan of Kerri and her classes, designs, etc... but today her blog post is ectra special... because my card was posted in it!  I thought I mentioned how this was made, but guess I never got to it.
Well, Kerri's blog can be found here - and yep - that's my card -

How totally exciting!  The card was a quick show off of how simple techniques can add elegance to a card.  I used Kerri's "just because" from her Designer Edition Class,  first I used the silhouette to print a gradient (also taught in a KBS class) and then cut my card.   I added an external offset to the "just because" and used the silver metallic pen tool to draw the outside offset around the letters.  I had to adjust a few points of the text to allow the machine to cut it w/o losing the inside of the letter (see the "b" and the loop in the j").  I cut that out - wrapped a simple ribbon around the top - all done!

I totally recommend Kerri's classes - she is amazing!!

Suzy Q Scraps - Pumpkin Patch LO

I have the honor of being chosen to represent Suzy Q Scraps on her design team! - i am super excited! I love her kits - they are fun and very versatile, and the more I have been digi scrapping, the more of her kits I was purchasing and using!  I waited for a design team call and applied.  Bit my nails down to stubs for a few weeks waiting for the announcement - and wallah!

Suzy's latest kit is called Pumpkin Patch (found here) & I paired that up with her Simple Story Grids #10 (templates found here) to create the double page LO of our trip to Soergels.  Aren't those pumpkins adorable?  One thing I like to do with any kit is update things to match my pages.  Little things make a big difference.  For instance - if you look closely at the raffia tie around Sammy's photo (1st LO bottom left).  The kit comes with a yellow flower attached to the raffia.  I wanted to use the plaid pattern.  I simply duplicated the layer in PSE, used my magic wand tool to select only the flower, then inversed the selection and deleted all the other stuff, just leaving the flower.  I grabbed the plaid paper, reduced the size and clipped it to the single yellow flower, and added a brad - easy breezy!

I am on her team for a year - and I hope I can do her justice!

Monday Night Nerd - Using Excel Filters

I am a bit of a nerd at heart.  It's my dad's fault from my first VIC-20 and Commodore-64 I loved technology. And a well written spreadsheet makes my heart sing!  I use them for everything, just ask my kids.  I was a past president for a few school athletic clubs (2 at one point in time) and by having my spreadsheets organized, my job was all that much easier.  I want to share a tip using filters, hopefully if this is new to you, you might feel a little pitter-patter next time you open Excel....

I built a quick gift list for my four kids.  I included sizes of a few common items that I keep up to date, and made up a few other items to build the sheet for this purpose.  It's relatively small and on one page for example sake.  but picture this as my master holiday list, all family members included & 4 children's wish lists -oh! how many rows I need each year, the chaos can be overwhelming. Let's introduce Filters.

To enable your filter, highlight your "header" row. Click on your "Sort & Filter" button and then click on  "Filter" (highlighted below with arrows). (or use quick key shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+U) when your filters are on, you will notice the drop down arrows on your header row titles.

 
Below is a list of what you get when you click on those drop down arrows.  As long as you have all of your column titles being filtered, you can manipulate what you see w/o messing up the integrity of your data in your rows. (I didnt mention the text filter, I will save that for another Monday)

Now, let's say I was headed to Dick's Sporting Goods.  I filtered by the location column, and then sort A-Z on the item column. So as I head through each department I can quickly see what I want to buy, and all the other rows of data are no longer distracting me.

easy-peasy right?    Organize groups of people, filter by grade, team, birthday months, etc.... The possibilities are endless.

If you have any questions using filters, feel free to email me :) dlw068@gmail.com. Check back next week for another Monday Night Nerd post.

New Room LO

I spent a wonderful week with Kerri Bradford (not really personally) but taking her new Design Secrets Class (found here).  I bought my Silhouette a few weeks ago and didn't open it for 2 weeks - I was terribly intimidated.  Not sure why - I have mastered my Cricut - but this new machine scared me.

There was a sale I found on another blog that led me to KBS and a discount on her classes.  I signed up for 3 classes and sat on my butt for a full weekend.  Come Sunday night, I was off and running on the Silhouette.  Kerri makes things very easy to understand, walks you through the Silhouette step-by-step, and you get some great freebies too!  This class was no different, I found it extremely helpful, and by the end of the class day 1 I created this little baby to scrap my daughter's room makeover.

I think it will be perfect too to scrap my older daughters college apt.room - why not? - I sized it 3x4 so I could add it to project life. (you can copy the jpeg and bring it into SCAL or Silhouette Studio).  I hope you can find a cool use for it too.

Here is my LO - also created in Silhouette Studio - how cool! (Kerri's class will provide the template and walk you through how this is done) then I have my entire Lo ready to cut - pics are all sized to fit my page, and I have a game plan ready to go - OH! and my journal card gets printed and cut - easy peasy.

what have you been up to lately?

I have been busy lately with life - older 2 kids going off to college, sammy's foot surgery & dealing with her life in a boot... We are still trucking along - trying to stay busy and fit in crafting time.  The latest is Sammy's new room - not bad for a labor day project (I needed that extra day to recouperate!).

The paint colors were picked out by Sammy:

• Pink
• Blue
• Purple

Then I topped off the pink with Disney Sequin paint (wal mart $29/gallon - and for the upper half of her room - 4 walls I used 1/2 gallon of it.  It is a clear overlay ... use after color paint is dry, I only applied 1 coat - and it is super cool - perfect for girly-girls of any age!)

Her dresser drawers have chalkboard paint o them (I am still looking for the handles I want to use for the pulls)

Her mirror I also painted chalboard paint around.

The saying above I cut from the silhouette - and I will try to attach the cut file as soon as I figure out how to do that :)  - and I don't have a pic of the tinkerbell sitting on her light switch - also silhouette cut-out - I pulled the image from this pinterest post into silhouette and traced and cut it at 3" high - it looks super cute!

Post link: http://pinterest.com/pin/76701999876662993/


The room inspired me to create a   cute cut out file, for her scrapbook page about t - again - once I get this blogging thing down - i will be more than happy to share the files!

Moving

I started a new blog at this location, I have just posted a great new Hybrid Craft project to kick it off - hope you can join me over here:

http://steelcitydigi.blogspot.com/2013/01/kick-off-with-hybrid-craft.html

Hello Again - "You 52"

Hello out there!
Hard to believe it has taken me this long to get my laptop fixed and everything back up and running - so much has happened!
 I also owe a huge apology to Charity at Adams Acres - I sorta went MIA when I  lost my laptop - no way to cut SVG's and no photoshop to adjust and send - It was a a very dark few months.  Since I lost so many digital  & svg files, pictures, etc... when my laptop crashed, I am taking things much slower this time and refreshing and organizing, OH! - and backing up as I go. :)

So in my quest for organizing and getting back on track of all the things I have missed - I realized I enjoy my blog - and have learned so much in the past few months - that I want to incorporate some of that into my "New 52" annual projet.  What is this?  well, with Jan 1st comming around there are projects galore out there - some I have tried in the past and never finished, and others that just, well, scare me... I dont want to feel obligated to scrap, I just want to scrap, on  my terms.  I also realize that I am more of a hybrid scrappr - I use what is convenient for me at the time - I love paper - cutting, stamping, punching, etc... but sometimes the speed of digi is so convenient - so I am tired of beating myself up - I am not committing to one or the other, and I will do what I want to do - when I want to do it - right?  there are no rules in scrapping - why do I get so stressed?  (ok - off soapbox).

My plan of "You 52" is a layout or 2 a week - I am getting a 8.5x11 book (binder type) where I can insert digi or paper pages whatever suits my whim - I will send out my weekly prompt, some journaling and picture taking ideas, some paper or digi finds, and share some sights and ideas I have along the way.  I have lots of ideas brewing - so if you care to "free-whilly-nilly" it with me in 2012 - please come and share your "care-free scrapping" pages and plans along with me.

See ya in January!