Stampin N Scrapin with Donna Lee

Cricut Artiste ~ Birthday Treat Bags

2019-04-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

An older project, but a good one worth sharing! Treat Bags are so easy to make using one of my favorite Close To My Heart Cricut cartridges. Join me as I create some fun birthday party treat bags!

Hello! I have another birthday project from one of my favorite Close To
My Heart Cricut cartridges, Artiste! This cartridge has fantastic images and 3D projects that are so easy to cut and assemble.

I chose one of the adorable little purse bags to make for the girls treat bags. This is another 3D project that requires no scoring and no adhesive!

The Artiste handbook tells you exactly how big to cut it for best results. You can go a little larger if it will fit on your mat, but I would not cut it any smaller. Simply fold along the score lines that are very obscure and use a bone folder to get good creases, on each fold. I also cut the the tag for the purse using the shift key of the 3D feature. My Gypsy comes in handy to be able to maximize my mat and get as many cuts as possible on one pass of the mat.

Now you are ready to assemble! If you want to stamp or do any embossing this is the time to get it done before you assemble.

Two simple folds and this adorable little purse is ready for its treats!

I decided to use the Birthday Girl cut on the same fantabulous Artiste cartridge and used my Gypsy to size it so that it fit on my tag.

I cut two of these as I plan to use one for a scrapbook page.

The cuts come out perfectly even on my very worn out mat. This is just one of the reasons I adore the Artise cartridge.

The birthday girls treat bag!

This post would not be complete without the our Tink at her birthday party.

I used some of the candies left over from her invitations to decorate the back of her bag and her BFF's bag too!

One little boy at this party needed a very special treat box. You can see the post about this here.

Blessings!

Cute As A Bug ~ Pinterest and Etsy Inspired

2019-04-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

Everyone who knows me very well knows that I have an affection for certain insects. Dragonfly's, Butterflies, and Ladybugs are some of my favorites.

I had a request to come up with a Ladybug card/invitation. I was sent a photo of something that she found on on Pinterest, but it didn't WOW me so I went searching in more detail on Google and found my way to Etsy where I found this This card has the wow factor and for me it's the little black button like features! The red gingham drives my eyes crazy, but its fun and dazzling for sure.

I lucked out and found the Ladybug on the Cricut Paisley cartridge on the button key!

The circles and scalloped circles are from Mini Monograms Cricut cartridge. I used the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the small scallop circle. This adds a lot of charm to the card.

I really liked the border that Terri added to her card and I have that punch from Stampin Up so I went with it. I think it would be cute with the heart punch border to, and I may play with that later on.

For the buttons and the flowers I went to my go to Close To My Heart Artiste cartridge. I cut the black buttons out of glitter paper from Hobby Lobby and they are .50 inch and super detailed but cut perfectly using the multi cut feature, blade set at 6, speed Medium, and pressure was set at high on my Cricut Expression.

All of my paper for this project is from Hobby Lobby and I can get 4 base cards out of a 12x12 piece of card stock. It's an economical card to make and would be easy to make a quick set of cards to give as a gift to someone.

Thanks for stopping by today! I

Blessings!

Mixed Media Cinderella Canvas

2019-04-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Hoping you are having a great day today. I am sharing my process and products used to make a small canvas for a table decoration for our Grand daughters 3rd birthday party. Princess' are always in style and appropriate for our girls.

I used Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, And Brocade Blue Watercolor Crayons from Stampin Up. I colored them on the canvas. I did not cover the canvas with the color, but added a good bit of color to the top, left side, and the bottom. I used a damp paint brush dipped in Gesso and painted the canvas. While I was using the Gesso I went ahead and painted my butterfly and scroll work that was cut out of chipboard from the Close To My Heart Artiste Cricut Cartridge. It left a good bit of texture on the canvas. I think next time I will gesso the canvas and then add the watercolor and paint using the gesso again.

You can see Cinderella here. She was printed onto adhesive backed fabric and cut out using my Silhouette. I placed her on the canvas so I knew where I needed to place my stars. I found this Dreamweaver Stencil Embossing Paste in my stash and used the Tim Holtz star stencil to make some dimensional stars.

I love this embossing paste! So I glad I went digging in my stash. I heat set these stars using my heat gun.

Cinderella must have her blue birds, so back to my Silohette I went to make a stencil for the little blue birds. I found an image on line, did a simple trace and used the high pass filter and then cut it out of some scrap Kodak photo paper. Out came the Creative Imaginations pearlescent modeling cream and a small amount of FolkArt acrylic paint to shade it.

I painted the little birds using some Folk Art Sky Mist, Brilliant Ultramarine Blue, and Blue Belle acrylic paints and a very skinny paint brush!

For my stars I did a little light glazing using the Sky Mist paint and some water. I heat dried this and then pulled out my H20 Twinkling Lights in Stargazer and Icicles. I think next time I will stick to just the H20's.

I wanted to add some additional layers so I pulled out a Tim Holtz mini mask and used a sponge with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I took a wet paint brush that had been dipped in acrylic paint mixed witha good bit of water and flecked it onto my canvas for a water drop effect.

I used some Decopage to adhere my butterfly and scroll chipboard to my canvas and then added some Elegant Eggplant to the butterfly and painted it on using a smaller and flatter damp paint brush with gesso to water color it. I love the look of using the gesso with water colors.

After using the acrylic paints and some water mixed in to paint my scroll chipboard piece, I decided to add a lot of texture to my butterfly! I cut this stencil on my Cricut out of chipboard. It's an overlay from the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge. I added the embossing paste with a pallet knife and heat dried it.

I decided I needed a few more stars for balance so I went ahead and added them and then painted them with the acrylic paints and once they were dry, I rubbed them some of these metallic rub ons. Do you all remember these? Again, I went digging in my stash and decided these would be great for this project. It's adds perfect shimmer with a little taste of color. You see I've added some bling and beads near and on the scroll work piece. I used some gold/yellow on the embossed area of my butterfly.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Please be sure to check out my You Tube channel for new crafting projects and tutorials.

Blessings,

Donna

12 Tags 2014 - Equals Two Masculine Cards

2019-04-09T06:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Fellow Crafters,

A week ago I gave my oldest son one of these cards and though I would share the post of where the inspiration came from. Hope you enjoy!

I came across the link to Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 on Facebook and decided to see what I could create using Tim's technique.

My grandson was in my Stampin Studio playing with my second sons Lego's so I had some time to stamp! I can always use some masculine cards, so I went with one of my favorite Stampin' Up! stamp sets, Classic Pickups and the tree line is from another favorite, Noble Deer. I used a favorite paper pack from Cosmo Cricket, Wanted Collection that I still have in my paper stash. I pulled two of the Distress Inks (Vintage Photo and Old Paper) and a few markers.

I cut my tags from some vanilla card stock using the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

I created two tags just like Tim did, using the second generation stamp method for the 2nd one. Above is the first stamped tag that I've used as the focal point on my A2 sized card (4.5"X5.5"). I hand colord the tree line stamp using my markers. The enjoy the ride sentiment is from Close To My Heart, but no longer available. I added some string and two brads and one of the coordinating elements from the Wanted Collection. I also distressed the edges of my tag using a distressing tool.

Above the 2nd generation stamped tag. I added a little chalk using a blender pen to add some additional texture to the tag. I switched up my papers for the card front and inked the edges of the papers and the base of my card.

I always do a test stamp before I stamp on my project and on my work island was a piece of tissue paper. So I stamped my pickup on it. I liked the way it looked, so I fussy cut it and used it inside my card with a little vellum adhesive.Using this stamp on some tissue paper for a gift is a great idea! I do love this stamp set and being that I live in a house full of men, it's very appropriate even years later!

Thanks Tim for the inspiration and the technique! Anytime I can get a two for one is always a good deal!

I appreciate your stopping by my blog today and hope you found something to inspire your creative spirit. Have a fantastic week!

Blessings!

Donna Lee

Cinderella Birthday Invitation

2019-04-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone!

Donna Lee from StampinNScrapinWith DonnaLee.

Today I am sharing my Granddaughter's 3rd birthday party invitations. Here's a short video of the quick assembly after getting all my card stock cut, embossed, printed and cut using my Silhouette and the wonderful print and cut feature!

I was thrilled to find a picture of Cinderella online that worked out perfectly for the size I needed for these invitations. I printed them on some glossy photo paper (Kodak) and then cut them using the Silhouette. While I enjoy my Cricut(s) and Gypsy so very much, I am learning what a whole new world the Silhouette offers as well. It's a great addition to my StampinNScrapin studio.

Below are a few pictures of my process of making all the elements and some of them put together.

Blessings,

Donna Lee

Shower Invitations - Tea Party

2019-03-21T08:57:00.000-04:00

This is an old design but a good one in my opinion. One of my BFF's daughters got married and several of us BFF's are gave her a shower. After visiting Charleston's Tea Plantation on a girls trip our group decided we would have an after noon tea as our shower theme. We are all tea drinkers and so is the bride to be so we went with it.

I love using my Silhouette for making my invitations. It makes printing and cutting a breeze! I searched the internet for 'teapot' invitations and came across this link. I loved it and its such a good deal at $0.99 in the Silhouette store!

I wanted to make the card as a flat card with layers instead of a folding card so I used the software that came with my Silhouette Portrait to create a cut line in the center of the folding card. A few clicks and it was sized perfectly to fit in an A2 envelope.

Here are a few pictures of all the different ones I made using some of my favorite paper from Stampin Up that is long since been retired. I buy up several packages when I like something and then I have it for projects years later.

I created a text block and chose a font from my PC. After typing the text I sized the block so that it was centered to fit my shape. I turned on my registration marks and sent it to my printer!

You can see I used a variety of colors of card stock to match my paper from Stampin Up.

I made two of these unique from the others for the bride and mother of the bride memory books.

These little flowers were made using shimmery card stock and die cut that I have. It would have been easy enough to cut them but I was in a hurry so I used what was quickly accessible in my studio!

I picked up some bling at Hobby Lobby when I was picking up the shimmery papers and with some help from my friend we had these invitations ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by today!

ICAD - Birds Of The Air

2014-09-06T09:23:00.001-04:00

ICAD stands for Index Card A Day and there is a group who post on Google+ if you want to know more and see how people are using it. Basically it's a creative way to try new techniques (just like art journaling) but it's the size of a index card and will fit into a file box. These can be future card fronts, or elements for your scrapbook or mixed media projects or tags! I am going to try and spend 30 minutes max for these as I have a lot of other projects in my studio that need finishing!

Today's ICAD began with mixed media paper from Hobby Lobby cut at 4.75 by 5.75 and I started my background using my Faber Castell Gelato's.

These Gelatos apply like Chapstick! I really enjoy using them.

After applying them I dipped my index finger into my water well and just blending them. Super easy and fast. You can use a baby wipe, paint brush or water pen to. I love the vibrant color so I kept the water to a minimum and blended and added kore color where I wanted it.

I use my hair dryer on a cool setting to dry it. You can use a heat gun to.

Now for some texture! I used a stencil, white gesso and a MS dauber. I dried it again.

The verse I am memorizing is about birds so I went to this fab stamp set!

So I used Momento ink and supposedly it's permanent after it's dried. This is not true! It smudged, but I kept on going!

In retrospect I wish I had embossed this image in fine black embossing powder for more texture.

I used the gold metallic gelato to stamp this sunburst stamp. Applied it directly to the stamp and them misted it water.

I dried it using the cool setting of my hair dryer as I did not want to melt the Gelato so it would be even more texture. Then I took it outside and sealed it with an acrylic sealant. This allows me to add more mediums to it without the colors running.

I added the Distress White Marker to my bird and let it dry and repeated the process about 3 times. Also added some around the branch to highlight it. I wrote my verse using my black Sharpie. Than for a little bling I used my Wink Of Stella pen. I dried it again and will add another coat of acrylic sealant.

This is one of my go to verses when I need to encourage myself from the act of worrying. The truth of Gods Word are His promises to those who choose to exercise faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Exercising faith means reminding myself of His promises and then being obedient to his instructions.

The Cure For Anxiety Matthew 6:25-27

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Have a blessed day!

Donna Lee

Gelli Print Die Cut Card

2014-07-12T23:15:00.001-04:00

Hello Crafters!

Today's post is a copy of my designer post over at She's A Sassy. During the summer months we are keeping it simple as it's a busy time of year for most of us. I wanted to make a few cards using some die cuts that I really like and some of my favorite embossing folders.

My card is an A2 size. I took an 8.5X11 piece of whisper white card stock and cut it in half. After scoring it and folding it cut a 1/4 inch off the front right edge. I added a piece of double sided paper that was cut at 4.25X5.5 inches. I used a border punch from my stash to give it some delicate detail. It's adhered to inside of the front of my card.

Next I cut a piece of white card stock to 4X5.25 inches and embossed it with my Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I mounted it using foam squares to give it some extra dimension. I love the look.

I love making gelli prints using my Gelli Plate and this project is a great way to use some of my favorite prints. Here are some of the gelli prints I have in my stash.

It's easy to use these prints in your favorite die cutting machine or with your Cricut or Silohouette.

I love Irises! This is one of my favorite images and I love the way it turned out using a gelli print! Next I had to cut my sentiment so off I went to my Silohouette and cut it from the gelli print. I used a font that is on my computer. You can use your Cricut or a die cut that you have.

I used the weld feature to weld my I to the H.

It cut perfectly from the gelli print. I do make sure to adjust my glad setting with each cut as that helps to avoid wasting paper. Next we are ready to assemble.

My two way glue pen came in handy for the delicate cuts and my silhouette tool was key in getting the sentiment off the mat.

I love the pop of the color on these gelli prints cuts and the Swiss dots embossing is a favorite look of mine.

I hope you enjoyed this simple and elegant card that is great for most occasions. Thanks for coming by my blog today!

Happy crafting peeps!

Blessings!

Donna Lee

Fall 12X12 Scrapbook Layout

2014-06-19T08:19:00.001-04:00

Hello!

Hope you all are having a very blessed and thankful Thursday.

Today I wanted to share a very simple Fall scrapbook layout I recently made for my Grand Daughters scrapbook. She was 7 months in this photo.

Using scraps that I had of burlap (love it) and some gorgeous fall ribbon I was able to quickly put this page together.

I had these silk white flowers that I sprayed using some homemade ink sprays. Using a lot of Glue Dots I adhered them to my page and each other. I love this little metal clock. Again more Glue Dots to keep on the page.

I found these little flowers in my stash of embellishments! Oh I love this ribbon!

A little $1 bling from an Expo shopping trip a few years ago added some bling! My sweet girl loves her bling!

No title yet... But I am enjoying looking at it as I ponder this final step. Always open to ideas so feel free to share with your comment.

Thanks for coming by! Have a terrific Thursday and hoping you get some craft time!

Blessings To All!

Donna Lee

Hello - Mixed Media A2 Card

2014-06-08T21:50:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to share a mixed media A2 card I made last night.

I started out with some heavy weight water color paper cut at 4X5.25 and my Grumbacher watercolors.

I added my scalloped border and out lined flowers with permanent markers.

I used a home made stencil for the ink splat with some white Gesso and then went over it again with some white acrylic paint. The gesso covered up the orange watercolor.

After my project was completely dry I fussy cut around the scalloped border and allowed it to sit under a few heavy books to make it flat again.

I found this Hello stamp in my stash (retired Stampin Up) and stamped it in the middle of my ink splat using some brilliant blue dye ink.

Thanks for coming by today! Have a blessed and crafty day!

Blessings,

Donna Lee

Wisdom Makes A Hard Choice Now Knowing It's Benefit Will Come - Art Journal 1:12

2014-06-03T23:40:00.001-04:00

Life is full of choices to make. They are in front of each of us all through out our day.

We reap what we sow. If you want pretty flowers you must work the earth to make it ready to receive the seeds you'll plant. You must take care of the garden, giving it water and keeping the weeds out.

It's hard work, but the future is coming and you will reap the benefits of having made the hard choices in the days and years to come.

I adore butterflies and so my hubby planted a butterfly bush for me. It's huge now and every summer and early Fall I get to sit in my yard and see Gods creation in such wonderful colors. It was a lot of work digging the ground up and taking care of it when it was a young plant, but 13 years later it brings me joy and beauty every year. My pups love to nap under it and so many birds nest in it as well. Many of our hard choices and hard work will benefit others as well as ourselves! It's an investment in you and others!

Diet, exercise, relationships, and citizenship all take discipline and wisdom. Think about what you want in your tomorrow's and let wisdom make the hard codices now so you can reap the benefits in your tomorrow's!

I do love playing with my Grumbacher Opaque water colors! I added some detail with a Heidi Swapp stencil & a few permanent markers and white paint pen.

My Art Journal is a place of exercising my creative nature and allowing myself permission to just BE me and paint, alter, or stencil whatever is flowing in my mind. This particular page was inspired by Tracy Weinzapfel. She inspires me to just let go and enjoy where ever my creative juices take me in that moment. I love that she uses bold colors too! The therapy is in the creative moment of doing but not having a plan and knowing your going to love what you come out of this short time with!

Enjoy the process and let go of your preconceived ideas or plan once in a while and just BE you and allow your creative nature to come out and play! You'll be glad you did!

Blessings,

Donna Lee

Eight Weeks - Our First Glimpse Of Grand Baby #3! - We R Bessed

2014-05-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Our youngest son and his girl friend are expecting our 3rd grand child in early December! Proverb 17:6 says that Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. We are blessed with two already and are looking forward to spoiling yet another one!

Today's post is for our little 'Baby Bean' first page in its scrapbook. Naturally we don't know the sex of it at this time so I went with some Graphic 45 Once Upon A Springtime Collection and a few scraps from my scrap stack that I've yet to file away.

I used my Gypsy and two of my favorite Cricut cartridges from Close To My Heart. The scallop circles were cut from Art Philosophy and the frame was cut from Artbooking.

I had just one sheet of the K&Company Neopolitan Chocolate Dots paper and my Cricut did not cut it perfectly. I am one to use what I have and make it work for my layout so I inked up the edges and placed on my embossed Bazzil card stock.

The smaller scallop was cut from Graphic 45 Once Upon A Springtime Collection Fairy Folk and it cut perfectly as its a little thicker card stock. I inked it with a Color Box Chalk ink pad as well.

I framed our first ultra sound picture of Baby Bean with a frame from the Artbooking Cricut Collection. The photo is backed with a scrap of celery card stock.

I have these two heart stamps in my supplies. They are from Hero Arts and A Muse Artstamp. I stamped them on more coordinating card stock scraps using a dark chocolate ink and fussy cut them.

A friend of mine blessed me with this stamp and its un-mounted so I am not at all sure who made it, but its cute and I though it was fitting for this layout.

I found this chatterbox ribbon in my supplies and think it adds a feminine touch to the layout.

For my title I went to my Silhouette Studio and cut my title out using AR CHRISTY font on my computer. I cut it from a piece of Baja Blue card stock from Stampin Up!

My title was added using some dimensional adhesive and I added a few metal baby accessories to the layout from my supplies.

Thanks for coming by today! I already have a new ultrasound picture, so I'll be back with another baby themed layout next month. I'll try to squeeze a photo in of the parents to be on that one too!

Blessing and His Peace,

Donna Lee

Bumblebee - 12X12 Scrapbook Layout Altered Flowers Using Faber Castell Gelato's

2014-04-17T07:30:00.000-04:00

Hi Fellow Crafters!

It's been a very busy and eventful 2014 so far so I am pretty far behind in my Scrapbooking. Today I am sharing a 12X12 layout of our grand daughter on this past Halloween. She is the most adorable Bumblebee ever. I love this age and her sweet innocence and a wee bit of attitude sometimes. She make us smile, laugh, and keeps us on the move when she and her big brother are here at our house.

Don't sweat, this 12X12 layout is super simple and ever so easy to make using Close To My Hearts Artbooking and Art Philosophy cartridges. My font came from my PC and I used my Silhouette to weld and cut it.

I started out with this adorable photo I captured Halloween night at our church festival. I printed it out as a 5X7 and matted it on some black card stock. I added this little heart (bling) that I picked up at a scrapbook convention last summer.

I cut my honeycomb overlay to use as my backdrop on the bright yellow card stock from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge at 11 inches from some basic black cardstock. I adore this Artbooking cartridge simply for the overlays! It has a wealth of other items on it too, so be sure to check it out if you do not own it yet.

These great little flowers were cut from Close To My Heart Art Phlosophy Cricut cartridge at 1.5 inches from a glossy textured card stock. They are so easy to alter and add bling to using Faber Castell Gelato's.

I added a little Gelato in yellow to the outside edges of my flowers and then barely wet my paint brush and moved the watercolor paint around the edge of each petal.

I inked the edges of each petal using my favorite chalk ink. A little liquid glue in the center and then add your bling. I am using some glass glitter from Stampin Up that I've had a few years, so I am not sure its still available. So easy to make and so CUTE! I adhered them to my layout with several glue dots after allowing them to dry overnight.

I wanted t pick up on the orange color of the title and its also in my grandsons Optimus Prime costume so I made two more flowers using yellow and orange gelato's and on one of them I added the white gelato to make it a little more distressed. I like how they both turned out.

These two flowers need some bling too, so I went looking for some micro beads in my closet and added them using the same glue and allowing them to dry overnight. I love being able to use up some of my stash.

I printed this photo of my son and his sweet family from Halloween night. It's rare that I get them all together and have my camera ready so I was happy, happy, happy to get this picture.

I added my thoughts around the edge of my overlay using a fine tip black marker and this layout was complete! With the right tools, a little basic paper, and some bling you can have your pictures scrapped for future generations to enjoy for a very long time.

Thanks for coming by today and have a great Easter and time with your family and friends! Don't forget the camera and some extra batteries too!

Blessings,
Donna Lee

Princess Shopping And Card Making

2014-02-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

Good Day Everyone!

Hope you are having a great day and getting inspired to create. Recently I was up at dark thirty and was waiting for my local Target store to open while enjoying a cup of Krispy Kreme Dark Roast coffee and a couple of HOT delicious donuts.

This same day is also our great nieces 3rd birthday party. Happy Birthday to our very sweet KK (Kennedy)! Her birthday is all about Sofia The First. So off to Target I travelled to see what I could find. I found a lot of options and finally settled on some Sofia accessories. A Princess needs a lot of accessories and Target had some great options today at a good price.

No gift is complete until you have the right card and in this case it needed to be a Sofia card. Well I looked in the party section and in the cards to no avail. What is up with that? They have invites, thank you notes, but no cards? Hmmm maybe they were just out do to the recent ice/snow storm we had here in NE Georgia.

I came home and did some Google image searching and found this image.

I opened it up using my Silhouette Designer software and traced the image.

Using the trace window I clicked on Trace Image. Then I drew a box around my PNG image. Deselected the High Pass filter. Increased the threshold to 93%. Click on trace and detach.

I clicked on my image and moved her over on the mat and then moved her silhouette off the mat. I save these for use as stencils on my mixed media projects. Just a simple cut and we have a perfect stencil for Sofia. Now I need to resize Sofia to fit in an A2 size envelope. Click on Sofia and go to the Scale feature. Use the Lock Aspect Ratio and change her height to 5.5"

Now I am ready to add the cut line to my image. I selected my image and clicked on the CUT LINE (scissors) icon. Then I have to select the type of cut line and I choose the CUT EDGE option as I want it to cut the outline and not the details. You see it puts the RED cut line around the outer edge of my image. I will have a perfect cut!

Now I am going to open the REPLICATE menu. Select my image again by clicking on it. I chose the Mirror Right option and then used my directional keys to move the new image to the left until its attached where I want it. Holding down the shift key and clicking on the left image now I have both images selected and to make sure they are welded together I am going to click on the CUT LINE (scissors icon) again and choose the CUT EDGE.

Simple and easy! Now I'm ready to print the image but I need to use the Silhouette Registration Marks so I get the perfect cut card. I click on the Registrations Marks Settings Window and then select the Show Registrations Marks box. I click on File --> Print and send this to my printer that is loaded with the cardstock or photo paper I want to use.

Once printed I load it on my cutting mat and send the file to my Silhouette. I tell it to automatically detect the registration marks and it does its little detection. Then I get to tell it what kind of paper I am cutting and I can adjust my blade setting and speed setting based on its recommendations and click on the CUT button. Once cut I used my ScorPal to score it and used a soft lavender marker to write in it.

Here's a quick shot of the finished card! I could have made 10 cards in the time it took to write this tutorial, but alas I will not do so! LOL

So easy and very convenient when you need the perfect card or accessory for your gift. I could add some small pearls to this card, but KK is three so we are not going to do that on this card. Maybe on a scrapbook page, but not her card that she will be touching.

Thank you for stopping by today and happy crafting! Have a blessed day!

Donna Lee

Optimus Prime Scrapbook Layout With Mixed Media

2014-02-15T15:00:00.001-05:00

Hello Crafters!

Today I want to share a scrapbook layout that I created using a piece of mixed media I created. I've been dabbling with acrylic paints, water colors, and some sprays and stencils over the last few weeks and I decided I would share this piece with you all.

Our grandson was Optimus Prime this past Halloween. He is all about the Rescue Bots these days so I had to create a page with the picture of him being Optimus Prime. I pulled my color choices from his Optimus Prime costume.

So let me share quickly the basics of this mixed media piece. I started with a 5X7 piece of watercolor paper (good quality) and some acrylic paints in yellow, orange, blue and some red ink spray. The watercolor paper was prepped with some gesso. I used a homemade stencil and some modeling paste on the canvas. It's hard to see here, but it adds some texture. I used a small dab of yellow paint and my water spray bottle and a fan paint brush. I fanned the yellow paint/water mixture from the center of my canvas out. I used the same method with the orange paint but used a little less water (to get the bright orange I wanted) and fanned it out using the paint brush.

Next I prepared the blue paint/water mixture (this was thicker for texture) and a stencil I created using my Silhouette of Optimus Prime, left over from his Birthday card last December. I used a sea sponge and dabbed the paint on. Carefully doing so not to get paint under the two loose pieces on my stencil.

I used a Tim Holtz stamp with some white acrylic paint and just a squirt of water on the canvas. The sentiment is from the same stamp set that was inked with Momento Black ink and stamped onto the canvas. I let my canvas dry overnight and then did some shading with a charcoal pencil around Optimus Prime. I blended it with my finger. I did some research on Optimus Prime and see that his core belief is "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." I wrote this with a fine white sharpie marker.

My grandson has the voice of Optimus Prime down to a T and often says "I am Optimus Prime" thus where my title comes in. I cut my title using a font on my laptop (sorry I did not save the file) that most closely matches the font used on the Rescue Bots toys and media advertising.

I plan to do some extra journaling on the layout before placing it in a frame for his room. Once he is tired of it I will have a place saved for it in his 3rd scrapbook. I am pleased with how this project came out. I wish I had added some gears and some arrows but I am sure I will be doing other projects on his Rescue Bot Birthday layouts, so I will get to use those elements cut from my Cricut! I am ready to practice adding more layers and some others media's already!

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you've found some inspiration today.

Donna Lee

Masculine Cards - Birch Tree And Deer Silohouette

2014-01-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Nature is one of my favorite places to go to pray, meditate, and work out. At work we received a Christmas card from a vendor that had a couple of deer and a Forrest of birch trees. I love it and wanted to try and make some general note cards with that idea. These are great for men or women, but I always need men cards!

I was able to get a Silhouette Portrait over the recent holidays and while I was waiting for it to arrive I watched quite a few videos You Tube tutorials and on the Silhouette America website. I saw many videos where they found images on Google and were able to use the trace feature to make a stamp or to simply cut the image. I made some basic notes on 3X5 index cards to use when my machine showed up.

Once I received the Portrait and got it set up, I made a quick birthday card for my Grandson using the trace feature and some simple images of Autobots and Rescue Bots that I found using Google Image search for his party that falls on Christmas Eve. He loves the Rescue Bots cartoons and I knew he would recognize this emblem of the Autobot. It was easy to trace and reassemble on his card.

Here is the inside of his card with the Optimus Prime image I located using Google image search and was able to trace and cut. You can size it perfect to your card or project and I love that! I also appreciate that its a free image and I will only use it for my personal use.

After having played with several images and using different features on the trace window for practice, I was ready to tackle something with a little more detail.

I went out to Google and searched for birch tree deer and then clicked on images. This is the image that most closely matched my inspiration card.

It took me about 10 minutes to get this traced to my satisfaction and then I was ready to cut my layers using two different colors of 80# card stock.

I used just one side of the cut from my cocoa card stock to mount on a turquoise piece of card stock. The colors are not right in these photos so I apologize. It looks good with the kraft card base that is an A2 size and the turquoise mat is cut at 4X5.25. I am going to do this cut again using a silver foil paper on top of a brilliant blue mat and I think the contrast will be even better.

I love the look of using silohouette images on cards that are based on nature. Heres a look at my cuts for my 2nd card.

You can see I used some very narrow pieces of 3D foam tape to create that extra dimension on the card.

I layered the lighter natural colored card stock cut just off set about 1/16th of an inch to create a shadow. I also used some chalk ink to distress the trees and a red marker to color the bird.

Making the frame was really easy on the Silohouette. Again, I used 3D Foam Tape from Close To My Heart to pop it up to meet the height of my trees and deer. The tape comes with two widths in the pack which is really nice for those thinner cuts.

It's easy to group and ungroup an image on the Silhouette so that you only cut what you need. To be honest I was worried about learning the ins and outs of a new machine, but I love it and have been able to figure most things out pretty quickly.

I am working on cutting a stencil of another image of birch trees and birds, so I will share that in the near future. I want to do a little more mixed media, so stencils are something I need to be able to make.

Thank you for stopping by my Stampin N Scrapin studio today! Check back again soon for more projects!

Blessings and Peace!

Donna Lee

Masculine Winter Note Card -Silhouette Studio

2014-01-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I have a 5X7 card to share using the Silhouette Designer Studio and an image I found using Google. I am in the learning phase of using this software and the Silhouette so its not as perfect as I'd like for it to be, but its usable so I opted to share it with you all.

I adore being able to use images that are on the internet to create items for my personal use. Naturally in the conversion process of taking the jpeg file and tracing it and then adding a frame you lose some of the original image and I opted to remove some of the design on this cut. I will add some back in for other cuts and projects in the future.

My card base is cut from Kraft 80# card stock at 10X5. The mat is cut 1/4 inch smaller from a blue 80# card stock. I cut the image from 80# natural colored card stock. I used the recommended blade setting and speed that SD recommends for 80# textured card stock and it cut perfectly. I love that it does this with the heavier card stock. AWESOME!!

I used some Cocoa Chalk Ink and a red marker on my die cut image. I inked and shaded the other side of this cut first, but did not like the way it turned out, so I flipped the image over and used the other side.

Imagine some foil cardstock on this for next Christmas! I am really enjoying the learning the process and the unlimited possibilities for making cards and scrapbook embellishments for my personal use, using some images that can easily be found online and the SDS and a Silhouette. I can say that this little machine cuts wonderfully the majority of the time.

Here are a few videos I suggest you watch when trying to create an image or words within a frame using SDS.

http://youtu.be/nybl4jws8Lw

http://youtu.be/24nH9Sv0vKs

Hoping you all are having a blessed week and getting some crafting done while this wet and cold weather is passing through. You'll see more of this image in a few other projects coming up.

Blessings!

Donna Lee

One More Christmas Card Featuring Joys Of The Season Cricut Cartridge and Artbooking

2013-12-19T04:43:00.000-05:00

Hello Crafty Friends! This is a copy and paste from my post over at She's A Sassy Lady today. Enjoy!

I am Donna Lee from Stampin N Scrapin With Donna Lee.

Today I want to share just one more Christmas card that is easy to make using the Joys Of The Season Cricut cartridge. I've cut the Rocking Horse card on the page below at 5.37 inches using my Gypsy.

I set the width of my card to 8.5 inches and the Gypsy set the height for me. Cricut Craft Room will do the same.

Using my Gypsy, I was able to size my rocking horse to fit perfectly over the cut out on the front on my card. My rocking horse and it's layers are all cut at 1.75 inches. I cut the blackout, shadow, and the layers. On the layers I used the hide contour feature to hide different pieces so that I could cut the tail and mane in a different color. Below is a picture of all my layers.

I use a Scor Pal to score my card base.

I used a piece of DCWV glitter card stock behind the window. This gets covered up on the inside of the card.

Now it's time to adhere the layers of the rocking horse. For these small pieces I prefer to use my glue pen or Tombow Liquid Mono Adhesive.

The brown shadow has dimensional adhesive on it to pop it up just a little bit. I used Stampin Dimensionsals from Stampin Up as it's the perfect height.

His saddle, bridle, mane,tail and the accent piece are next. They are cut from DCWV card stock. I was able to use my scraps for all of this card, except for the card base.

For my sentiment I went to Close To My Heart Artbooking Cricut Collection. It's cut at 4.25 inches. I did not use real dial size. It's cut using scraps of Recollections Foil paper from Michaels.

A good glue pen is best way to adhere this.

Thank you for stopping by She's A Sassy Lady today! I wish you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Christmas Gift Tag 2013

2013-11-21T05:30:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends!

Donna Lee here from StampinNScrapinWithDonnaLee.Thanks Sheila for allowing me to share today here at She's A Sassy Lady!

Thanksgiving Day is almost here and shopping is soon to be started or I hope for many of you completed! Soon the gift wraping begins! I love to have some special gift tags to use on gifts. This year Pam from The BugBytes hosted the 2013 Christmas Tag Swap for some of the designers at She's A Sassy Lady and The BugBytes. Thanks Pam for all the hard work and the gorgeous tag and Christmas card too!

I've made a short video showing you how easy the assembly was of my 2013 Christmas Tag. You can view it HERE.

Let's get to the details!

Tag - Art Philosophy 6"
Merry Christmas - Wild Card 2.18"
Reindeer - Gypsy Wanderings 3.25" (Hide Contour)
Poinsettia's - Winter Woodland 1"
25 - A Childs Year 1.45" (Welded)

You can see all of the wonderful and creative tags in this swap at my POST.

Thanks for coming by my StampinNScrapin studio! I hope you have a blessed and crafty day!

Blessings,

Donna Lee

Christmas Tag Swap 2013 Video

2013-11-20T06:05:00.001-05:00

Take a look at my other blog to see the video I made of the 2013 Tag Swap I was fortunate to be a part of.

http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/christmas-gift-tag-swap-2013-video/

Here is the link to my video on my You Tube Channel

http://youtu.be/yGKiVb7oTmw

I'm having camera issues so it cuts off abruptly.

The blog I'm able to update using my iPad and iPhone is: http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com

Christmas Cardinal Card Featuring To You and Yours by Close To My Heart - Video Tutorial

2013-11-15T20:41:00.001-05:00

Hello Crafty Friends,

I have another blog that is a lot easier to update on my iPhone and iPad. Here is a link to today's post and video tutorials.

http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/christmas-cardinal-card-featuring-to-you-and-yours-stamp-close-to-my-heart/

Have a blessed and crafty day!

Donna Lee

Coordinating The Close To My Heart Cricut Collections

2013-11-14T06:22:00.001-05:00

Hello!

I have another blog that is more iPad and iPhone friendly that I update more often. Here is a link to yesterday's post.

http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/close-to-my-heart-cricut-collections-work-well-together/

10x10 Travel Mini Album - Artbooking Cricut Collection

2013-09-19T07:33:00.001-04:00

http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/10x10-travel-mini-album-artbooking-cricut-collection-part-6/

10X10 Travel Mini Album - Artbooking Cricut Collection

2013-09-09T07:51:00.001-04:00

Here is a post on my other blog.

http://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/10x10-travel-mini-artbooking-cricut-collection-part-4/

10X10 Travel Mini Album Part 2 - Artbooking Cricut Collection

2013-09-06T06:13:00.001-04:00

Here is a link to Part 2 of 10X10 Travel Mini Album.

I'm not able to keep this blog updated as easily as I can Wordpress but as soon as I figure it out I'll be past to posting more than just links.

https://stampinnscrapinwithdonnalee.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/10x10-travel-mini-part-2-artbooking-cricut-collection/