I Love UTEE, and Love Hurts!

Hi Everyone,
This is a blog post that would require an alternative title! Let's give that a try ....
"Always follow manufactures instructions" or
"Don't do this" or
Mom said " If you play with fire, you will get burned"
Then I thought I might make a list of the craft supplies that my hubs has taken away because of minor side trips to the ER like the scroll saw, the power stapler, the nail gun, the toaster oven, the Bunsen burner, the Xacto knife etc. . . . (easy to see why I am a papercrafter now!)
So anyway I have a project that involves a brick and I am looking for a way to preserve a little sliver of this brick into a key chain bezel. (you will understand at some point when I get to that project). Well I start doing some artsy research so that I can decide if I want to use air dry (cold cure) resin, UV cure resin or some sort of acrylic.  I remembered in my craft supplies I had UTEE. You know that Ultra-Thick-Embossing-Enamel. Guess what?  I had 2 (not 1) but 2 un-opened jars just sitting waiting for me to play with.  Yup . .  here is a picture:

OK, so how funny is that, I didn't even open the first jar and I felt the need to buy a second. That is just so Lysa!  Stop it now because you and I both know you are just like me!!  I bet I used a coupon on both so hey it was like 2 for the price of one. I also have a large collection of bottle caps.  Who doesn't like to use them for a quick embellishment on card and such.  I even save the real ones from parties.  I also had a lot of left over graphics from the kids Valentine favors so I thought a great experiment would be to make a little bottle cap magnet for Rory. Oh! but wait I don't have a melt pot, Ummmmm let me think, oh I do have a coffee mug warmer (here is the first warning Don't and by that I mean DON'T do this) I'll just see if that will melt the UTEE and hey I am good as gold! but wait (brain cells in full motion) I am not only going to embed the graphic into the UTEE, I am going to embed the magnet too! Who wants to glue a magnet to the back of this cool bottle cap. Wow, I love being crafty!  Here are some pictures of the set up.

Looks good, right? Yeah No! See the little neo magnet? Well, it stuck to the platten of the warmer so tight and when you couple that with picking it up to soon you get this:

OUCH!!!!!!!! (and you should see it a week later!ughhhhh!)
People, do not do this! It hurt. Pouring melted plastic across your fingers is . . . well . . . just not awesome crafty goodness!
(here comes the goodness)
After jumping around the room, along with a cold water rinse, lots of words that I won't say here I got right back on the "horse" and made Rory this magnet (which, by the way she loves!).

In conclusion, UTEE, is awesome crafty goodness and it is only user error that creates a problem.  If you want to use this great product take the time to learn and purchase the right supplies.  With proper care you will have no crazy accidents.
Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to start showing you my "brick" project.
Lysa

Saint Patrick Day Is Coming!

Hi Everyone,
With Valentine's Day behind us and a very cold 3 day weekend, I took a moment to take down my little ode to Saint Valentine and bring in Saint Patrick.  It was easy because I only do a small display on one side of the living room.  While I was doing that, Rory was busy putting up Easter everywhere else!  I must say it is nice to see some signs of spring.  With that said I had time today to get going with a bit of St. Pat's magic and created my little favor for the work peeps and anyone who stops by here at the house on parade day. (parade day is very big here where we live)  It really is one of my most favorite days of the year. We can only leave the house on foot as we are blocked in due to the parade. In my "younger" days I was out there right on the parade route cheering and acting up . . . now I just hunker down and make the corned beef, cabbage and fixen's for a great dinner at the end of the day.  I thought I would share this little file with you all.  I just love how cute they look hanging on my Hallmark tree. You could mount the Pot O' Gold to the front of a card.  As you can see I used my favorite tag that is a stamp from SU. I really need to make a new graphic as I use it all the time. Here is a picture of the file so that you can see how easy peasy it is to make.

How simple does that look! I plan on making about 30 or so.  I used my ZING and MTC to cut this file and as always it was a dream.  For those who want the PDF file you can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?zcifyz5wactqdy5
and MTC fans the file is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4uf974504946kxm
Here is a close up of this cute little holder:

I hope you give this little cutie a try, it is quick and easy also keep Halloween in mind because I am so seeing a witches cauldron too!
Have a great night and thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Rory's School Valentines - Monster High!

Hi Everyone,
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Rory and I finished her Valentines for school with only a day to spare. Wow, we were going in so many directions that I am amazed that they finally came together. I was at Walgreens a few weeks back and had spotted heart shaped bubbles, YoYos and kaleidoscopes in pink and red. I bought them when I saw them so that I was sure to have them when I needed them. When it came time to make up the Valentines I asked Rory if there was a particular theme she had in mind. When all was said and done it was decided that Monster High was the way to go. So then the hunt began for graphics and ideas. Keep in mind we are not allowed to send in candy of any kind. The only food treat we can use is pretzels. Once we decided to wrap the pretzels with paper (I used a modified version of the file I made for my lip glosses)I needed to find the right paper or make the right paper. But time was running out. A google search led me to an awesome paper pack on etsy that was made by Denise at JustMeandMyDesigns. You can find Denise's Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JustMeandMyDesigns Using Denise's paper instead of taking time to find or create a background paper allowed me some time to rework those bubbles, YoYos and kaleidoscopes so that they closer matched the theme. Here are some pics of how I relabeled the little toys.

 It was easy to remove the labels and replace them with free graphics I found via google images.  I printed them on sticker paper. Here is a picture of Rory working on them.  She is my crafty good buddy.

Rory wraped all the pretzel boxes and organized and bagged the toys.  I tied the bag to the box and added the custom name tag.  Here is a couple of pictures of how they came out.

Pink for the girls and blue for the boys.  I just love how they came out.  We made 33 of them and I sure am glad they are done!  I absolutely love the digi paper pack I bought from Denise, she did an awesome job creating it. Wishing everyone a Happy Happy Valentine's Day! Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

OMG! I Made A Video!

Hi Everyone,
I love my 2013 Valentines so much that I made a video of how to make them. Think you might want to watch it? Ok, you can watch it as long as you can put up with my scratchy voice and poor editing technique! I hope you like it and I really hope you give this quick Valentine a try.  I mentioned in the video that I saw a envelope like this from a die and I could not remember which company it was. I retraced my steps and the picture I saw was from lifestyle crafts.  Once I see a picture it is easy to create the digi cut for it. I used my MTC to weld hearts to a trapezoid to a rectangle to create the shape.  Adding the score lines is easy with MTC. Here is the Video.

 Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for stopping by, Lysa

Valentine File Share

Hi Everyone,
As promised, here are my Valentines that I am making for my work peeps.  I just can't wait to give them out!  This file was made for a little card insert (which I included in the file share) I am filling them with small AVON lip glosses that are just adorable and I know the girls will love them.  I have some guys on my list as well and don't you know they hold a Ghirardelli chocolate perfectly. Yeah, a multipurpose Valentine.  Here is a picture of a completed one:

 I had so much fun with these. You can leave them plain or add a strip of paper to decorate them.  If you need to make them really quick just use a Valentine themed pattern paper.  However you make them I know they will come out adorable.  Here is a picture of the file:

I have included the score lines but I scored by hand.  There are only 3 score lines, the 2 side lines are easy to see and the middle line is just 4 inches from the top.  Simply fold the bottom to the top, fold the hearts in to the center and use the slits in the hearts to lock in place. I just love this little cutie! For those of you who want to grab the .pdf you can find the file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?f6bbw5u9dom0kit
The MTC file is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?aya7990f28k616f
I hope you all like this file as much as I do. I think I would like to change out the heart for other shapes like a butterfly (for this years cancer walk) or maybe even a bunny.  Let me know if you have any questions or problems.  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Lysa