Photo Challenge Friday

Is that an inspiring photo or what? I guess it is my love of color and school supplies combined. I can roam for hours in an office supply store and love back to school shopping with the kids. Color always is my favorite design element and seems to mean the most to me.

As inspiring as this picture is I just now made my card to go along with it. Now mind you I have seen the picture a while ago it just wasn't the right time to make the card. Once I sat down the first scrap paper I grabbed was this. And poof there it was. This is amazing to me since I am the slowest crafter ever! Of course its a super simple card but I like it.

I knew that I wanted to use this phrase as soon as I saw the picture though. About 5 years ago someone at work would send out a quote or motivational saying every morning. It struck me as such a great message that I printed it out and stuck it in my idea binder. As I've come across it every now and again I have re-read it and enjoy it every time. I may have to use it as my signature line in my email.

We could learn a lot from Crayons:

some are sharp, some are pretty,

some are dull, some have weird

names and all are different colors

but they all have to learn to live

in the same box.

Hop on over to Scrappily Ever After and see what the inspiration team has to delight your eyes with. I especially like what Cheryl has done over at cafexprations. I just love turtles.

Have a great weekend folks and get ready to start next month off with a Birthday Bash at Operation Write Home.

Today is my DH birthday

Yes we just have birthday after birthday in August. Today is my dear husbands birthday. I won't post an old of him I'll just say that I love him.

Today I have a Christmas card that I used a super cute digi stamp from Beccy's Place. Beccy has lots of adorable quilted animals to offer, she is a fabulous artist. I used Copics for my coloring and K and Company for the paper.

Stop back tomorrow for another photo challenge from Scrappily Ever After. This one has lots of colors.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday and she is out of town. That means I have to do a blog shout out to tell her Happy Birthday and I love her. Check out these pictures, isn't she cute? My uncle and Grandpa are pretty cute too.

It's the last Wednesday in August which makes it the last 'back to school scrap challenge' at Scrappily Ever After. My pile of scraps is huge. This past weekend I pulled out all the scraps that were under my Pazzles, mostly cardstock. Cut them, sorted by color and filed then in a crate. Hopefully that will keep me from cutting a new piece when I have a half sheet that will work.

I already had a big file of patterned pieces so they just got dumped into the existing batch. I don't think I will sort that one unless it gets way out of hand. I've been enjoying just reaching in and using that as my jumping off point.

So today when I reached in looking for school themes I got this vintage playground scene. It reminded me of school days. I used the original piece for some of my mother in laws childhood pictures. It's a simple card but I like the nostalgic feel. Wound up making a second card with the scraps from the crackled paper too. The little epoxy stickers I think came from Big Lots, they were just the right size.

Scrapstreet 10000 plus suscribers

Check this out....

How awesome would it be to win that? It's for ScrapStreet.com Magazine topping the 10,000 subscriber mark. Well 10,001 now since I've signed up. I did also download an alpha set from their "cocktails anyone?" line. It's very stylish and looks shinny to me....I'm easily lead when I see something shinny. Anyway stop on over there. I'm off to read my new magazine. ;-)

A quick hello

Hi all,

Well you see I have been MIA for a while now. So I'm back and have a card for you. This is a tri-shutter card and the first one that I tried. I tried to make a Pazzles pattern but it really so easy to cut that it's not necessary.

I printed this digi image and I cannot for the life of me figure out whose it is. It was when I first started and didn't keep track of those things. So if anyone knows please let me know so I can give proper credit.

This card also fits with the photo inspiration at Scrappily Ever After which is a picture of blocks. I thought that this has a blocky look to it.

Photo Inspiration Books

It's time for another photo inspiration challenge at Scrappily Ever After. Melanie picked out great picture of a bunch of open books.

I have been waiting to use this type of technique. I bought a couple old books from the second hand store for scrapbooking a few years ago. I think I had to get over the fact that tearing up a book was OK. The rules are to NEVER write in a book or tear it apart and I guess that was ingrained in me. I had planned to make an altered book but somehow I've never done it. I'm not really the altered type I guess.

One of the books that I bought was a small dictionary. I've wanted to tear out a page and attach it to a card or lay out. It would have really been best to scan it and use the original page but keep the scan in case I wanted to make multiples or use it somewhere else. That thought just occurred

to me so maybe next time.

I tore out the page with school on it and used Mod Podge to seal it down. I attached the buttons and ribbon with a bit of glue and there it is. Next time I would use a bit less Mod Podge since the card warped a little but nothing that a little bending wouldn't straighten out. The Mod Podge did tint the card some but not very noticeable once dry.

Thanks for checking in today. I hope you will stop by for some Christmas cards that I did last month and didn't get posted.

Converting SVG files to WPC

I was looking for what seemed like forever to figure out how to convert SVGs to WPC. The WPC is what Pazzle files are which is what I have. There are so many cute files out there I just had to learn how to do this. One of the people who has great files is Carolina Girl.

I'm a member of The Craft Room which is well worth the money if anyone has a Pazzles. I found this post on the forum there and asked Amanda if I could share it. I followed these instructions and wow is it easy to convert now!

Re: SVG to WPC help

by amanda » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:21 pm

"I decided to do some investigating on how to convert SVG's to WPC's. Inkscape is a nice program and free which makes it even better. Unfortunately in it's current version, the DXF file export doesn't work. Hopefully when they release Inkscape 0.48 it will be fixed but until then, I discovered a fix for Inkscape 0.47 to make it work. Here's my method for converting SVG's.

First download and install Inkscape from http://www.inkscape.org. There is a link in the top right corner of the page for you to download.

Then go to this website http://tim.cexx.org/?p=590 and about two thirds of the way down the page is a link that says "Better Better DXF Output". Download this file.

Extract the files and then copy and paste them to Inkscape>share>extensions folder. Your Inkscape folder is likely under your C drive and the folder "Program Files". You will get a warning saying that some of the files are duplicates, tell your computer to overwrite the existing files with the new ones.

If you have Inkscape open, close it and restart it.

Open your SVG file in Inkscape and then select "Save As" and choose "Better Better DXF Output (DXF)".

Open your Inspiration Studio and select Import>DXF. Your DXF will import quite large so make sure to shrink it down and then resave as a WPC.

Once you have Inkscape and the DXF export fix installed, converting SVG to WPC is super easy.

Hopefully in the future I can make a video tutorial on this, but for now i hope this helps!"

So I do hope that maybe useful to others out there.

Back to School Scrap Challenge

Today is Wednesday and that means the scraps challenge over at Scrappily Ever After. Of course this is "Back to School" month there so here is another view of a similar card. This is 1,2,3 vs the ABC and the pattern is reversed. The stem is on the left because I got a grease mark on one side and it needed to be covered. *grin

I did line the inside in white cardstock for better writing ability. The stitching is faux done with a paper piercer and a white gel pen. I made a number of these because they were so simple for OWH. Next time I might change the pattern some at the top where the fold is for more stability. It is only attached on one piece of the top stem. I got the pattern from The Craft Room. Once I start getting good enough I might be able to create some patterns on my own. For now I've got tons of good material.

Tune in tomorrow for an explanation of how to convert SVG files to WPC. I could not find this information on the web so that is why I really wanted to share it. It also came from The Craft Room.

Thanks for checking in.

My baby

I added a couple pictures on FB of my son and his friends who left last week for a mission trip to Germany. This was taken with my phone at the Charlotte airport so it's not the best quality. This isn't the greatest photo of me either but since I'm not in a lot of pictures I figured I would share here too. Yes, I'm a typical scrapbook mom, you know, no pictures of me. *grin* Although I have to say since my mom scrapbooks too we try to get more well rounded shots. We figure that our descendants should know what the two women in the family looked like.

Anyway I digress. This is my son Quin. He is 14 and I'm really starting to miss him. I know he is having a great time. I really hope that I get some pictures to scrapbook when he comes home! He refused to take a camera but a couple other young people have them and I made Quin's guardian promise to get me some. Now that is strange, saying Quin's guardian, not to mention he is only 21. He's a wonderful, responsible young man and I'm trusting God to see that they are safe. So on that thought I will say good bye and hope to see ya soon!