Free yourself from cartridges once and for all! :-D



                                                                  
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Wow, Lettering Delights did it again! They never stop to amaze me!
This time they are bringing new types of files to LD, and to celebrate that they are offering a crazy bundle!
Let me explain. There are now a lot of different cutting machines on the market. The monopoly of ProvoCrap is over, we have other options! Now the tricky part is that not all of those machines use the same types of files. The most common files are SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and that's what LD was selling up until now. However they are adapting to the market fast and just released a collection of simples shapes (meaning single layer) in other types of files to be used with different types of cutters.

Below is their comparison chart for the different types of files and different cutting machines:



To celebrate Lettering Delights style, they are offering this bundle of shapes for $49 (instead of the retail $150) for the next 2 weeks only! (till Friday July 15th if I got it right, LOL).
Now if you have bought stuff from LD before (they also sell graphics, fonts, clip-arts, doodlebats...), you know that every time they send you your invoice by e-mail there is also a 25% off coupon attached for a future purchase... They even send it to you when you're only getting freebies, just as long as it goes through your cart and the checkout process...
Now I'm sure you are following... that means that this bundle, if you apply your 25% off coupon, only costs $36.75!  That is for 50 collections, 780 files alltogether!! I think you will be impressed by the diversity. I say it's time to lose the cartridges alltogether. :-)

You can check this bundle here.

My Thoughts Exactly sneak peek

My Thoughts Exactly 1st stamps release will be July 1st, but Alyssa gave me the green light to share my very first project with you as a little sneak peek...
When I won Echo Park paper "Country Drive" pad and saw the little birds in there I instantly thought about pairing them with "The birds and the bees" stamps set! :-)
I used tracing paper to make a copy of the bird sticker and made my own cardstock bird, and the birdhouse is an svg from Lettering Delights. (couldn't resist adding little birds at the openings... ;-))

The little window was cut out with a Nestabilities, and the sentiment stamped on the inside of the card.

I'm sending this to my daughter Naomi who left for France today with her grandparents. She is 10 and it's the 1st time she goes on vacation without us! :-S She will be gone for 4 weeks so I plan on sending her a few cards... :-)

(As always click on the pic for a bigger version)

Noah's Father's Day tie

Well it's Father's Day and thank you LD for saving people like me that always wait for the last minute... ;-)  (Oh and before I forget, Lettering Delights is currently having a sale: 50% off everything summer themed! :-D)

Here I used the "Dad is Tops cards and bag kit" and this was a cinch to put together. I asked my autistic son Noah to color some cardstock for me and I cut the tie from this one of a kind pattern. :-D
I used a lot of foam tape between layers but kept everything monochromatic to not take away from the tie.

We also printed the little coupon book (another great limited time freebie!) but I don't know where it is so I couldn't add it to the picture. :-) My cat however was adamant that he was not going to vacate the premises just for a silly picture, so there he is, hesitating to bite the card....

I couldn't resist and took a pic while he was yawning... Look at those teeths!! :-S

I hope you all had a great Father's day with the men in your lives. :-D

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team! :-D

Do you remember the Design Team call I was telling you about last week?
Well I'm happy to announce that I have been selected to be part of the My Thoughts Exactly design team!  :-D I am beyond thrilled and so excited!! :-D *happy dance*
Alyssa is awesome and her stamps are super cute and playful. Believe me when I tell you you'll love them as much as I do! :-D
The icing on the cake is that this team of amazing talented ladies, includes my dear friends Belinda (aka Bee, my evil twin... ;-)) and Thienly! :-D
And just so you can judge for yourself, here is the line up:

* Thienly Azim of Mod Paperie
* Lenae Gem of Sugar Gem
* Jessica Lattimer of Crafty Rocket Science
* Jennifer Rzasa of Our Change Of Art
* Belinda Brown of Bee's Hive O'Drama
* Me!! :-)

I am so looking forward to this! Thank you Alyssa for placing your trust in me! :-)

PS: If my fellow teammates stop by to say Hi, I tried to leave comments on your blogs but Blogger is still having issues and kicking me off as anonymous! >:-(

Nathan's first day of school...

My little guy went to school for the 1st time today. He is only 28 months old, and it broke my heart to have to let go of my baby so early. After 3 miscarriages and 3 C-sections my body is done having babies, so every little step is a last one for us, since this is our last baby!... ;-)
But no matter how much I enjoy my little Nathan's company it would be selfish to keep him home, especially since he is all over the place, throwing things in the toilets several times a day, or washing his feet in the cat's water bowl, and so forth... ;-)
Nathan seems to be a bit of a late bloomer and because his brother is autistic he has been especially on our radar. We had him evaluated, which didn't bring a definite answer, and it was highly recommended that we put him in school a little bit so that he could interact and play with kids his age.
That's basically why he is starting school this early, to socialize.
But no matter the reason, it was an emotional day for me... :-( When I came to pick him up he was sitting on the floor next to the door, sucking his thumb and with a big tear on his cheek, watching the door... The minute he saw me he got up and started crying!! And he was only there for 2 hours! LOL ;-)

Anyways, to make the transition easier, and because he seems to be quite visual, I made him a little booklet with pictures I took yesterday at his school. We looked at it yesterday night, and this morning again before going to school so that he would, hopefully, know a little better what to expect...

I used SVGCuts files to decorate the cover and a basic font in SCAL.

Inside I put pictures of the playground, the classroom, his teachers, the bathroom...

The toys, the alphabet on the wall (he is obsessed with letters and numbers!... ;-))... everything that could make this space more familiar for him, (and more loveable! ;-))

And I finished it off with numbers on the back cover (from the same SVGCuts file), just for his pleasure... :-)

I laminated everything (which is why the pictures look so weird ;-)), punched holes with my Crop-a-dile, and attached little rings and ribbons.
I think he likes it so far! (the booklet, not going to school, LOL ;-))

Purple Birthday...

No you are not dreaming, finally a card on my blog!! LOL Well, what can I say, life is crazy! I'm sure most of you can relate... ;-)
This card I made for my friend Bee's birthday is a huge card actually, since it's made of a whole 8.5X11 sheet of ivory cardstock as the base. I really like the DP I used and wanted a big background to really showcase it!  (If you want it big too, just click on the pic... ;-))
I cut-out the wings of some of the butterflies right from the paper to give them a little lift... and added one made with a die cut. I played around with transfer paper a little bit to see if it could stand up for vellum at a fraction of the cost and I have to say, it's not bad! :-)
I used a mail themed stamps set from PTI to decorate my paper further and make a mini stamp for the corner. I used as much purple as possible since it's her favorite color... ;-)

For a little bit of a surprise inside I made those buttons with a die, using one layer of DP and one layer of cardstock (cereal box! ;-)). I glued them together with my mini Xyron, perfect for that kind of project when you want glue on all the surface but don't want to use liquid glue which will make the paper warp... The colors of my pic are horrendous, I swear they're not as ugly in real life (but I cannot take another pic since I mailed them today, LOL)!.. ;-)

School project: sorting worksheets

I know my blog has been very quiet in the creativity department lately.... but it's the end of the school year and I have lots of odds and ends to take care of... >.< I am looking forward to crafting just for pleasure again soon, but right now it's just not happening, especially with a sick toddler in my hair!!... ;-)
One of the things on my to-do list was to finish my volunteer hours for my son's school. I finally got to it and made those sorting worksheets using my Cricut cartridges Everyday dolls and Dress Up Dolls.
I've made those before for a previous classroom and they are fun to make, however they are time consuming since everything has to be laminated then cut again, then velcro added on every piece.
This time to make things a little easier I cut everything out of white cardstock and then colored the pieces with my Prismacolor markers (alcohol based markers).

It's hard to see on the pics for the categories, I did: In the kitchen/in the bathroom, for the beach/when it's raining, musical instruments/transportation, toys/food.

In the spotlight: Under a Cherry Tree

Since I removed the blogs list from my margin, I have been trying to bring your attention to the blogs and sites that really get me excited. Under a Cherry tree is one of those...
Jin is one of those people with incredible talent and creativity, that bring inspiration and fun in your papercrafting world. :-)
Her blog is about svg files and Make the Cut software, but even if you don't use those you can still visit for eye candy!... ;-)

Lettering Delights: May is "customer appreciation" month

Lettering Delights is dubbing may as customer appreciation's month! :-)
To kick off the celebration, you can grab American Pride Super Bundle for FREE here! (a $50 value set including clip-arts, svgs, fonts, doodlebats...)

And while you are visiting, why not take advantage of this special coupon: $5 off your order of $10 or more. Use code FiveForYou at checkout...

 

May I suggest the new adorable Something Fishy SVG collection?... :-)

Father's day

I made this card for my Dad, inspired by Stamp TV's video of this week (Gina was making background paper using paper scraps and her sewing machine). I didn't use scraps but beautiful japanese paper that I cut in various width instead. I created a medallion out of balsa wood (cut and embossed with a Nestability). That inspiration came from Dawn who recently die-cut balsa with her PTI dies on her blog "my favorite things". :-D I then stamped the wood with a text background and my sentiment (both PTI).

I really love this card, the different texture of the wood is really interesting in real life. :-D

Mother's day

I made this card for my Mom using my leftover blooms from the SVGCuts challenge (I had cut extra on purpose ;-)). The background paper is japanese paper, and the flowers match perfectly (both have that cute little indentation I like so much). I like this card but there's something bugging me, I can't quite put my finger on it... I think it is probably the lack of contrast between the blooms and the background paper (although it's not as bad in real life since there is a texture difference between the 2), and maybe the fact that the dark brown branch is the only thing really contrasting? Also I think I could lose the embossed white band at the bottom, but then it would be even more monochromatic... Or maybe it's because I don't like the color combo pink + purple?...
I'm pretty sure however, that my Mom won't mind and that she will be less critical!... ;-)

Carnet de Voyage

Naomi is turning 10 next week... and the lucky girl will go to France this summer as her gift. She will spend almost 4 weeks at her grandparents, in the suburbs of Paris. She'll go visit Paris and other parts of France, maybe even the French Riviera where she was born right before we moved back to the States... She'll get to walk to the bakery for a fresh baked baguette and eat all kind of cheeses, or go to the farmer's market and choose from an array of fresh produces. She'll get to spend time with family, meet her distant cousins... and just have a wonderful time! :-)
I am so jealous! >.<  But because I am a nice mom still, I made her a little "Travel diary" to take with her so she can write things from her trip that she wants to remember, and write her thoughts when she is homesick too... ;-)
It was the 1st time I used my Cinch and let's say I ran into a few problems... I used svg files from the SVGCuts collection "Cherry Blossom" and the freebie branch, and the Eiffel Tower is from their "Amelie's Accessories" collection. I handcut the leaves and the tag is made with a Papertrey die. I kept everything super flat, the opposite of if this was a card, so that hopefully the decorations will stay on the notebook all summer long, even with this being put in and out of a bag. I still have my doubts, but we shall see!... :-s

Gift cards SVGCuts' style...

First let me apologize about the crappy picture but those are on their way to school first thing tomorrow morning so I had to take my pic at dusk which is never really successful for me... ;-)

Next week is teacher's appreciation week and Naomi's room Mom wanted to present the teacher with a different giftcard everyday (ambitious project!), so I made little giftcard holders for her. I have no clue what giftcards she got, except one for a massage so I just used a little bit of everything.... ;-)
All files are from SVGCuts. The ladybug was a freebie (because yes, they're cool like that and give a lot of freebies away... ;-)) and the rest is from the "Give a gift card" collection.

My little guy has croup right now so time was of the essence and I kept them rather simple (of course I forgot to run my ladybug in the Cuttlebug before assembly...) but they can obviously be spruced up.
As usual Mary paid attention to the little details, and these are a cinch to put together! :-)

Dare to bee Creative on Facebook.

Hi everyone! I think I forgot to mention that if any of you who follow my blog (and even the ones that don't! ;-)) have a Facebook account you can also find me there now! :-)
I recently created a page: Dare to bee creative , and my blog will now appear on it thanks to Networked blog's app. The old stuff isn't on there but the new one will.
I did post a full album of pics of my "craft corner" there, but didn't get a chance to post it here yet, I will soon for the people that are not into FB... ;-)

(There is also a FB link-button in my right margin)
Thanks for visiting me, I hope to see you soon!... :-D

Smell the roses...

Here is my project for the "Cherry Blossom Challenge" on SVGCuts.com's forum.

I LOVE everything cherry blossom, I have fond memories of the huge cherry tree that was in my garden when I was a child... So when the challenge got posted my creative wheel started turning right away... the problem is, my mind was going in all kind of (very) different directions at the same time, and I couldn't decide on one option!...

It quickly became clear I wanted something a little different, so I thought this paper would work well with big colorful blooms. Now if you know me, you know that black & white isn't really a combo I use a lot in papercrafting. I find it too cold and strict. I tried to soften it up here by using a lot of patterns that ressemble old french wallpaper.

I made a little sheet music with stamps, and used the page of an old novel because I like text background a lot... (It cracked me up that the title was "Late Bloomer" so I just had to use it! ;-))

I tried using novel pages in my cricut to cut SVG's but it didn't go well at all! The paper got torn, even on a lower speed... :-(

I made my 3D blooms using the Sakura flower from the cherry blossom collection. I am so glad Mary included this simple flower in the collection as I really really love the little indentation on the end of the petal... It's my favorite one. :-)  They remind me of peonies this way, and peonies are my favorite flowers (with lilac blooms and cherry blossoms... ;-)) It's hard to see in the picture but I also cut the foliage twice and added leaves on pop-dots here and there to give it more dimension.

I finished it off with a little tag with a sentiment, and little pearls on the opposite corner, and hung it on the wall next to my crafting desk. Initially it was going to be a card, but as I was adding things on it it got bigger (it's 6X6), and the blooms are so full that they would be an issue to mail, so I glued it on a cereal box chipboard and made a little hanging sign instead... :-)

I love the end result and I had fun playing out of my "color comfort zone"... ;-)

ETA: My entry was 3rd in the challenge! :-D

Birthday cupcake

Another birthday card for a niece... No, I'm not losing it, I just have 2 nieces and 1 nephew who have their birthdays 3 days apart... ;-)For this one I used Lettering Delights files (Sweet Nothings SVG collection). The card folds up in a sort of frame. I held it closed with a ribbon and little medallion.

When you slide the ribbon that's the 1st layer. For the following layers I added little tags to write my sentiments and make it a little more fun...



The last layer is a little cupcake...

...complete with cherry button, felt mint leaf, and swirly Stickles frosting... Yum! :-)

My hubby thinks it's not very child friendly... I admit I have troubles with children cards, I often make them too "babyish" or too grown-up, but I think this one is fun enough for a child because of all the layers to open... ;-)

In the spotlight: Make Something Splendid

Envelope Book by Liz Kartchner

I'm sure all of you already know Elizabeth Kartchner! :-D But you might not know that she has a new website called "Make something splendid" where you can purchase video tutorials (with or without kits to complete the projects).
I am tempted by the (soon to come) felt cupcakes!... :-P And that little Glassine Envelopes Book she made for her baby Lola is just adorable... <3
Check it out!... :-D

Strawberry waterfall

Since I'm on waterfall mode, I made this card for my niece, using again SVGCuts' files.
Instead of the flowers cut-out from the original file, I used a strawberry (from Strawberry Lane) to match my paper.

For the following panels I stamped my sentiments and little strawberries...

I'm sorry about the color of my last pics, they came out really weird and my editor just wouldn't let me fix them the right way! >:-( (It might be time to invest in Photoshop elements...)

Birthday Dino

I made this Dino waterfall card for my nephew, using Mary's cool files (Waterfall Cards from SVGCuts. com). These files are a breeze to work with!... :-)

This is the inside of the mouth, where I stamped my birthday wishes... :-)
I hope at 7 he isn't too old for dinosaurs!... ;-)

(speaking of which, you can barely see in the pic but a big lizard was sunbathing on my window ledge when I was taking the pic, I thought it was funny so I included him... It's the tiny little black thing at the bottom right corner. LOL)

Got SVGs?

Just a little reminder that Dollar Days are still on at Lettering Delights! SVGs are $2, graphics and papers are $1... New collections have been released and they are included in the sale...
If you haven't fallen head over heels for their designs already, now is the time! :-D

Oh and also, don't forget that LD has a contest going on right now, all you have to do is create something with their svg files and you could win a Silhouette. Check it out!... :-)

Because my friends are awesome... (Paper heart and leaves card)

Can I just say this card makes me happy?... I think it's the colors...
In my previous post I was talking about Bargello, this card uses a tiny bit of the leftover strips from the Bargello background (love those patterns and colors so much, I couldn't throw them away! ;-)) and then I added some of my favorite patterns of the moments (scripture, gingham...), and more of my "Que Sera Sera" paper (for the heart and leaves)... Nope, I am never gonna get sick of it... you might soon though... ;-)

This card is for my evil twin Bee from California, just because she is made of awesome and has a heart of gold and cracks me up. :-D She is my "evil twin" because we have the same nickname and same initials (B.B), and we have a lot in common in the way we see things, but she is the naughty one and I am the sweet one... LOL ;-D (She is so getting back at me for that one...;-))
We often chat on google chat too, even if just for a few minutes here and there, and she always makes me laugh... :-) Plus she is really good at explaining technical things to me (like how to open the LD layers in SCAL) and believe me this is a task that requires lots of patience (and hair...)... ;-)  So there, she gets a card just because she totally deserves one!... :-D

Leafy "Bargello"

After seeing this technique, called "Bargello", posted on one of Splitcoast Stampers' tutorial (you can find it here! :-)) I had to try it for my background on this card. I really love the colorful result of mixing up patterns... (yes, I used some of my beloved "Que Sera Sera" papers...;-))
(You can click on the pic if you want a better view of the detail of the pattern).

Oh and thanks to Wikipedia for enlightening me! :-)  :"Bargello is a type of needlepoint embroidery consisting of upright flat stitches laid in a mathematical pattern to create motifs. The name originates from a series of chairs found in the Bargello palace in Florence, which have a "flame stitch" pattern."

I made this card for my great friend Thienly. Not only does she wow me with all her crafty creations, but she is also the sweetest person ever. <3 She has a great outlook on life and is always so cheery and nice... Just the kind of people we all need in our life, the ones that always put a smile on your face. :-D I feel lucky to "know" her and really hope to meet her (and all her awesome little family) for real one day! :-D In the meantime, thanks to google chat and the time difference between Canada and Florida, we often chat a little bit at night! Isn't internet incredible?!... I would never have thought growing up that one day I could be in touch with people all over the world thanks to a computer... :-)
But I miss getting cards and letters in the mail... so I am trying to send more cards too, just because... Now if only there were 36 hours in a day!... :-D *sigh*

Birthday Party Favors

I made those little party favors for my son's class, to bring tomorrow along with some brownies, since his birthday will be Saturday.

I kept my design ultra simple since those are 7 or 8 years old autistic kids we are talking about, and this will likely be ripped open before you can say "happy birthday Noah"!... ;-)

I used the "Treat boxes" file from Lettering Delights, and combined it with a little present cut-out on the sides from "3-D Birthday Cards" file from SVGCuts... (What can I say, I love combining LD and SVGCuts together... :-))

I filled those with stickers, a bouncy ball, a gross stretchy lizard and candy... :-)

Birthday Polar Bear

I made this card for my son's 8th birthday (coming up next Saturday), using SVGCuts files. I know it looks more like a card for a 4 years old kid, but my son is autistic so I need to adapt...  :-S He loves polar bears and we are going to Seaworld this week-end to celebrate, so I thought this would be appropriate... I have made cards in the past that he barely looked at, so I am trying to grab his attention with this one... ;-)

I can't believe he'll be 8 already, it is so hard for me to grasp because his bevahior is so not the behavior of a 8 years old, but he is so tall that he looks almost like a 10 years old and his handicap is only getting more noticeable as he gets older... :-( When he was diagnosed (the day after his 2nd birthday) I thought things would get better over time... Some things have gotten better, and I still have high hopes for the future, but at the time I didn't realized (or refused to see) that new challenges would arise as he got older. This past year has been difficult. He managed to escape the house, without us noticing it, to go play by the lake behind our house... He has absolutely no notion of danger and is a constant worry for us. He is also a beautiful and sweet little 8 years old boy that I love to pieces. I wish I could tell you that he is happy and that it's all that counts, unfortunately life is full of frustrations for him and it is heartbreaking to watch him struggle for everything. :-(
I'm sure he will have a good time this week-end with the dolphins, killer whales and polar bears and penguins, and in the hotel pool (I swear he must have been a dolphin in a previous life!! :-)) and in the meantime I hope he enjoys my happy little polar bear card... :-)

Lace rainbow

Since I was on a rainbow and lace kick I decided to try another style with somewhat the same concept...
I think it's a little overkill, but maybe that's why I like it... ;-) I used one of my felt butterfly (remember that post?...) for a bit of texture and a little pop of color, and I had fun inking the edges of my medallion in a rainbow pattern. One of those little details that you can't really see on pics unless you enlarge the pic by clicking on it, LOL). I tried to keep the design as simple as possible since the lace was so overpowering.
I think the end result is fun, I hope my sister-in-law will like it, it's her birthday tomorrow, and as usual my card is late... LOL

OK I promise the next card will not have lace or rainbow on it... I have to make one for my son Noah's birthday, and he already had a rainbow last year... ;-)

A rainbow of thanks

A simple rainbow card made with the strips that come at the base of the colorbok paperpads before your tear up the page. (I love this kind of recycling!... I think Myrna will approve! ;-))... :-)
The punch is Martha stewart and I LOVE it! <3 I added tiny rhinestones in the middle of the "flowers"...
This card just makes me happy, but then again (in case you didn't know) I am obsessed with rainbows and clouds... ;-)

Our family Birdhouse

I finally finished my project for SVGCuts Spring challenge. It took me forever, between spring break and sick kids, but I'm finally done!... Phew! :-)
I started with a wooden frame found at Michael's for $1, the minute I saw it I knew what my project would be... So the frame became my little birhouse... I "mod-podged" some Que Sera Sera paper on the frame.

I then decorated it using files from Spring Birdhouses for the birds and greenery, and Robin's return for the gorgeous lace border. I added Prima flowers, and a little felt to keep my birdies warm and cozy... :-)

 
The stamp I used is from PaperTrey Ink.

Of course it was only when I was finished sewing the button on the bow that I noticed it was off center... LOL I decided to leave it like that and argue that it looks more homemade this way... ;-)

For now, this hangs above my desk, I like to look at it and think about my crazy little family of 5!... :-D

ETA: My entry got 4th place in the challenge! :-D

Papillon birthday card

So I made this card for a friend of mine yesterday, and it might not show at first sight, but it was an "out-of-MY-box" adventure. ;-)
I think sometimes I tend to stick to the same kind of cards' layouts, because that's what I'm comfortable with. I really really like this paper so I decided to approach that card like a scrapbooking page instead, namely putting on embellishments and scraps and whatnots all over it and moving them around and figuring out what I like and what I don't... I used the sewing machine to make a little border around, but it barely shows, and I added some Stickles to the butterfly's wings because who doesn't like sparkle??... :-)
It was fun and the result was a little unexpected for me, busier than usual I think. Although when I look at it now I like it and it doesn't seem so "weird" anymore, LOL. :-)
I do still feel like straightening that mat a little bit though.... ;-)

P.S: I felt like the name should be a little different too... Papillon means butterfly in french... ;-)