The Brick Project ... Done!

Hi Everyone,
My brick project is done! I had so much fun exploring new craft supplies with this project. I played with supplies I already owned and bought a few things along the way too.  First and foremost the best part of this project was the reading and research involved.  I happen to own 3 books about Woodbridge so it was fun to get them out and really look through them.  I learned a lot about Woodbridge history and that as you know, is a good thing.  I also went online and found out that my local library is part of a network of archives that has uploaded all kinds of media in regard to their local area.  That was awesome.  I was able to download the actual program for the celebration of the dedication for the Memorial Municipal Building from 1924! This little program booklet even had pictures of the floor plan of the building.  I was amazed by looking through all the media that my local library had available online.  It was wonderful.  So I chose my picture for the key-chain and as you know I had to figure a way to embed my little sliver of brick.  I had tried the UTEE embossing but its yellow cast was just not clear enough for me.  I am told the longer you melt it the more it will take on that yellow tone. So I will save the rest of my 2 jars of UTEE for bottle cap projects.  Next I tried cold cure epoxy.  I must say that it is a fun resin to work with but 12 hours later in my dusty craftspace, I was simply annoyed.  You know I cut paper and paper has a lot of fiber, when you add that to having a cat walking across your work table . . .  well . . . . let's just say I could not get a clear cast to save my life. Plus the mixing and pouring and waiting . . .  there was just no instant gratification.  So then I moved onto UV cure resin.  HELLO . . . love at first try (well, love at about try 10).  I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a bottle of Lisa Pavelka's magic gloss.  Now you need to know I already own a UV lamp. That would be my Teresa Collins Stampmaker. OK, so I bought it, used it once, and true to form it sits on a shelf (laughing at me) Well wait a minute . . . It did get me through that ping pong ball project from 2011! but I haven't used it since.  So I knew I had like 36 watts of UV power just sitting on the shelf. I did some research and found in the big box craft stores there are 2 brands of UV cure resin. Judikins (Gel du Soleil) and Lisa Pavelka (Magic Gloss).  I chose the Lisa Pavelka not because we share a name (only she spells it kinda funny, hehehe) but because that is the brand Hobby Lobby had. $9.95 for an ounce.  It's OK because I had a 40% coupon that took off $4.00.  Then I chose some bezel pieces from the jewelry section.  $1.99 each.  I didn't know what I was going to do so I picked an oval, a rectangle, and a square (2 each).  Well, the rectangle won and the rest of them will happily live in my craft stash (most likely for 10 years or so)  Cha Ching . . .  that's $8.00 that won't see the light of day for awhile.  Ok, now I am onto the graphic, I got all these cool supplies, I know the size of the bezel piece, I am ready to design.  I open up my CA2, I get the shape on my mat, I got the graphic I am jones'n! Oh, I like it! Perfect I say to myself. But wait, what kind  of paper?  Let's try photo paper. Wow it looked great! Yes, it looked great right up until I poured the Magic gloss on it, then I watched the ink spread in to a big blurry mess.  Oh well . . . back online for more research, and sure enough you need to seal the image so that there is no reaction between the resin and the ink.  I read lots of ways to seal the image and I settled on using packing tape.  If you do this make sure when you lay the tape on the image you have no air bubbles or fuzzies caught on the tape or the image. Once I got a handle on that it was smooth sailing, yup as smooth as a boat on dry land.  Because the next issue is bubbles.  So here is the deal with that.  Once you pour the resin you absolutely have to pass either your embossing heat gun or a mini butane torch over the piece to remove all the bubbles.  You just can't pop them with a pin. The heat will draw them to the surface and they pop.  It is the same with the cold cure resin.  It's all about the bubbles. In Champagne, bubbles are good . . . in resin, not so much! I get all that worked out and then I decide I want to dome the back side of the key-chain as well.  Sure enough every time I got a good front, I would mess up the back or vise-verse. If I had a  good back the front was messed up.  I tore the darn key-chain apart about 8 times before I finally got a hand for what I was doing.  I found it easy to use a Dremmel tool to break apart the resin without to much damage to the bezel blank.  Still with all the issues I fell in love with Lisa Pavelka Magic Gloss and I actually went back to Hobby Lobby to get another bottle of it. Here are a few more pictures:

I have to tell you all that I did have to enlist the hubby dude to cut the brick.  Hard as I tried I just could not cut as nice of a sliver as he could.  For some reason he was able to maintain that long thin brick like appearance. I kept breaking it while trying to get it as thin as needed. It is only about 2 mm thick and 10 mm long. So here is my "shout out" to the hubs . . . Thanks Paul!  I am so happy with the way this brick project played out, because I learned some things, bought some new crafty good supplies,  used a tool that I already owned that was gathering dust but mostly because I got to use the brick in a way I can share with some of the people around me. I am so happy that I am still inspired by an old piece of clay as that tells me I have not yet hit my crafty wall. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you check back soon.
Lysa 

The Brick Project!

Hi Everyone,
Check out my really cool brick! Ok, So to you all it is a normal run of the mill brick. To me though it is so much more.  I have a whole long winded back story to that little brick.  Let me start at the beginning. I live here in New Jersey in a very large "small" town called Woodbridge.  I wasn't raised here but I like to think of myself as one of those die hard Woodbridgeians. After all I have lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else, so to me I qualify as a native. This town is very old and we have wonderful history.  Chartered in 1669, the town has grown to become a hub for central Jersey.  I could go on and on with historical facts and such but what I really want to tell you about is that brick.  The brick is from the towns original Memorial Municipal Building that was dedicated on June 14, 1924. The building was dedicated and named for our serviceman.  We carry that on to this day. We truly honor and appreciate all who have served and currently serve.  That brick is almost 90 years old!  The day the building was dedicated the whole town came out to celebrate and honor our deceased servicemen as well as those who returned. The thing is the building was demolished in 1994 to make way for our new modern and safer Memorial Municipal Building.  When the building was demolished all these awesome bricks were left in a pile waiting to be hauled away for recycling or trash.  Many people as they passed by picked up a brick.  Lots of people saw them as a keepsake or a souvenir. Maybe they just saw them as a memory of a building that they loved.  Really, when you think about it what are you going to do with just 1 brick other than look at it every now and again.  Yet, all over the place I would see these bricks. I mean, I would see them in peoples houses just sitting on a shelf.  I see them in peoples cubicles at work, just kinda laying around.  Well, the more I saw them, the more I wanted one. I mean like, I really wanted one.  I actually started asking people if they would part with their precious brick but I was always met with a firm "NO"!  How is it I never picked one up?  I lived here in 1994 when the building came down.  I guess it didn't hit me back then that it was a pretty cool brick.  Well as the saying goes "good things come to those who wait" (and I have been waiting since 1999) and sure enough back in December a friend (Hi Mary C.) tells me there are some bricks up for grabs from someone down at the Chamber of Commerce who is getting rid of some things.  YES!!! I could not respond quick enough.  "I'll take 2, thank you very much!" (as I type this I can hear my inner voice screaming SCORE!) So there you have it, I am now the happy (and crafty) owner of not 1 but 2 bricks! Then I started to think of what am I going to do with the bricks.  Oh please .... Its always scary around here when I start thinking.  So I get it in my head that everyone and his brother is going to want a little keepsake.  Something more than an old brick laying around or just propped up on a shelf. (here comes the part where I start to drift off and I hear music faintly in the back of my brain) Yes, I remember I was in Donna's car driving to a Christmas luncheon . . . her ignition keys were swaying back and forth, kinda clanking together . . . and that's when it hit me.  I turned to all in the vehicle (Hello Joanne, Hi Nadine, Hey there Donna) and I said "I know what I am going to do with my brick!, I am going to shave little pieces of it off and embed it in acrylic and make a key-chain out of it!"  Oh yeah! doing the happy dance in the seat of the car! and wait, "I know . . .  I am going to give the first one to the Mayor! He will love it!" Than I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief because I knew I had an idea. Once I returned from lala land and looked up I noticed all in the car were giggling and laughing at my crazy idea. Really people, laughing! It's an awesome idea.(oh please, all the greats are laughed at)   I can't believe you 3 can't see the key-chain dream. "Don't like key-chains, well how about a refrigerator magnet"? (insert more laughter here) and so it goes. . .  Here I am a crafter with a key-chain dream.  Now, just like any awesome crafty good project, research is involved  and as you know from my UTEE post burnt fingers were involved as well. Plus there would be research for the perfect graphic too. So with out boring you even more for today I will leave you with this picture of "old" Town Hall. It's clear to see this building not only did its utilitarian job as it stood proudly in the center of our town, it captured the heart of our community so much so that people felt the need to pick up a brick and save it.

Thanks for visiting and if you want to see what happens to the brick check back in a week or so.
Lysa

Lindt Bunnies - I Love 'Um!

Hi and Happy March Everyone,
Oh my gosh, I am so happy that it is March!! This is the month that I start thinking of all that nice weather that is coming down the pike.  Oh yeah, spring, St. Pat's parade day, open windows, Easter and oh those little Lindt bunnies that I love so much. By far these little guys are the most perfect chocolate bunny to give to children and adults alike.  It's the size, they are tiny.  A little 2 bite of Easter Bunny love!  Now I have used these little guys for years.  I just love to re-package them.  If you click on my Bunnies or Easter label you will see them all.  So this year I wanted them in a clear package.  Last year was a basket.  I have so many plastic report covers that if I don't start using them they will take over.  I had used a regular pillow box back at Christmas and I wanted to change it up a bit.  I kept seeing these standing pillow boxes that were made with a Sizzix die.  Well sure enough in my research I come to find out that they no longer make the die.  That then led to looking for a picture of one.  It took a long time to find one.  If I can see it, I can draw it.  Once I got the shape and the score lines worked out it was easy to size it perfectly for the little bunny.  I left just enough room for a bit of green paper grass.  Here is a picture of the first group.

 

Don't they look happy sitting in their little plastic box! The plastic covers cut perfectly with my ZING. I left the score lines because it was easier than hand scoring.  I am so happy with how easy and quick they went together.  Now to make more!

Here is a picture of the file if you would like to give it a try:

If you would like the .pdf file you can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?q9y69bp7nxvkbxq
The .MTC file is located here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?08m1cscbfpsx1ha
The fold may look a bit confusing but once you have it cut and in your hands you will see how easy it folds together. If you have any problems, just leave me a message and I will do my best to assist.
Here is one more picture of how happy they look!

I hope you like this file as much as I do.  Feel free to resize and alter to your needs.  If you like it as much as I do, won't you take a moment to leave me a message and some bloggie love.  It really is all I need to keep me sharing files.
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Next up on my craft table is an odd project that isn't paper, this time it's brick!
Lysa

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

Valentine's For Work Peeps 2013

Hi Everyone,
Here I go again with a rambling blog post.  I am so in L-O-V-E with my 2013 Valentine's that I my brain is moving faster than my typing fingers.  This was just one of those projects that just makes me shout the phrase "Awesome Crafty Goodness!"  This was one of those projects where I bought little and produce something I really liked.  That picture above . . . was a date stamp that was in the garbage at work.  I knew I had to rescue it.  It was just waiting for me to cut it apart for some reason.  All I did was run a bit of adhesive across the block and there you have it, my little Valentine tag.  Those little tags were cut with MTC and my ZING.  I used MTC to modify my Stampin 'Up word window and modern label punch and reduced them to those little cuties. There you have it the first two parts of these little Valentines that I am love'n.  But wait, there is more, here is a picture of the graphic I used for the body of the Valentine:

Why am I so excited you ask. Well, I bought that digi download of Echo Park's "Yours Truly" last year from Jessica Sprauge and I just loved the papers from the start.  I used my CraftArtist 2 to split and flip the graphic at the right point so that the word LOVE is right side up on both the front and back of the Valentine. Other than me who would notice but hey it makes me happy. Gee, I just can't say enough how much I love my CA2!  See the black outlines.  They are there because on my Fiskars cutter the blade is exactly 1/4 inch away from the index line on the right side.  That is how they get cut so quickly and perfectly to fit.  Between CA2 and Fiskars, template making is easy peasy good! But wait, there's more! Xyron!! I love Xyron . . . check out this picture:

That's a lot of stickers! when you need an edge to edge adhesive Xyron is the go to machine.  I bought my 850 in the late 1990's and I still use it today.  It is one of my tried and true tools.  I forgot to mention I used my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper to round those corners. Need I mention that I just ordered their envelope board from Scrapbook.com.  I can't wait to get it.  Now you might think the next picture would be the finished product but no. I have to show the parts of the whole because that is my favorite thing.  I love when all the parts are prepared and waiting to become the whole. Here is the picture:

OMG! Just look at all that crafty goodness! See the little AVON lip gloss, how cute are they? and the  XO tags that I printed on some old 3 column journal paper, love them!. Those odd looking bases were designed in my KnK studio software and cut with MTC.  My Valentine's came out great and if you come back and visit on Friday, I will be posting the end result and the file share. I don't mean to be a tease, it's just that I want to finish a few more and get a pic.  Thanks for visiting and check back because I think you are going to love this file as much as I do.
Lysa

Happy Valentines Day 2013

Hi Everyone,
I have an oldie but goodie from years ago to share with you today. I am sure you have some version of it in your file stash already, but as you know we file collectors need it all!  Back in 2008 or so I had made a cute little Valentine "purse".  I made so many of them I could make them in my sleep.  I was so proud of the cut out I even uploaded it to the SCAL forum.  People liked it and it is still there today. You can find it at that forum just by searching "Rorysnonna".  So I never had made the file for MTC (which is what I use today along with my ZING) I thought I will just convert it and share it with you all.  Please, I never even added score lines back in the day. And the file was really off, meaning it wasn't quite straight or even.  It just wasn't worth sharing it without bumping it up and fixing it a bit.  I completely remade the file using MTC and the best part was mapping the score lines.  This little bag has a wider bottom, the top narrows just a bit.  Well, thanks to MTC basic shapes I was able to add a trapezoid shape, fit it into position, cut off the top, convert the rest of lines to dashed lines and there you have it, perfect score lines that you can use.  Geee, I love my MTC!!!  Here is a picture of the file:

 

I have uploaded this file to my mediafire account and if you want the PDF you can find it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?c31jf7kgqgi4x7q

And for the MTC peeps (my favorite peeps, ever!!) the link is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?i8p0lqegjdeaedi

I hope you all have use for this file.  Please feel free to re-size it to your needs. I hope you all find a bit of time in your weekend to get crafty as Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Enjoy your weekend,

Lysa

EDITED 1/20/13 at 11:30 am

Hi Everyone,

I just saw a line in the .pdf file that was incorrect.  I have made the change and reposted the file.  Thanks so much for understanding when I make an error.

Lysa

A Valentine Quickie!

Hi Everyone,
Valentine's Day is upon us, I know this because I walked into Walgreen's today and just about everything was red and pink. O.K. so my Christmas tree is still glowing in the living room.  It's all good though because this weekend I am going to do nothing but put Christmas away.  So I thought if I got my blog post done tonight I could spend the next 3 days cleaning! So this is a quick post to send this cute little Tic Tac holder for Valentine's Day file your way.  This little box will hold a Tic Tac container perfectly. You could even use it for some fun size candy bars as well.  Here is a picture of the file:

This is a quick and easy file because if you use a digital cutter you don't have to hand score.  You can download the .pdf file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?7xmxqk9i9u061px
And for MTC peeps the link is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cv0ws612n012g05
I hope you like this little quickie, feel free to alter the file to suit your need.  I am sure with little effort you can remove the heart and add any shape topper you would need for any occasion.  Thanks for stopping by and please check back soon as I ordered these adorable mini Avon lip glosses that I plan to give to the work peeps for Valentine's Day.  I can't wait to get them so I can see the size and start to plan the package.
Have a great weekend (you know I will be cleaning!)
Lysa

The First Crafty Goodness Of 2013!

Hi Everyone,
I wish I could tell you that all the holiday decorations were happily living back up in the attic, but I haven't even started to take them down.  Everyday I make a plan and everyday I get sidetracked in another direction.  Of course the Hubs already got the big giant wreath and all the outside lights down and put away.  He really is the Energizer Bunny!  I, on the other hand had to do a quick project for someone at work who is having a huge "Alice in Wonderland" themed party.  She asked if I could make her 120 "Drink Me" tags for the wine glasses.  The theme is from the newer Tim Burton Alice and she has purchased these awesome life size cutouts of the characters from the movie.  I am sure her party is going to be a blast just based on the decorations alone.   I didn't have to ribbon them for her so it was a quick and easy project for me.  I just can't imagine tying all these tags on to the glasses.  Here is a picture of the tags:  I put them on a ring with a red spacer at every 60 tags to help keep them organized.  I believe that they will be tied with turquoise ribbon to match Alice's dress.

I like how they came out.  I made the tag in CraftArtist2 and hand punched them with my Stampin 'Up modern label punch.  The black shadow was cut with MTC.  I just love a project that uses my favorite things.  I hope to get my house in order this week so that I can get started on a Valentine's Day craft. Enjoy what is left of the first 2013 weekend and thanks so much for stopping by.
Lysa 

A Happy New Year To All!

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick shout out to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year!  It was a crafty good 2012 and I can't wait to see and play with all the new crafty good toys that will be shown at CHA Winter.  I bet there will be some awesome new things that will get our MOJO going.  I have been so busy this Christmas season and surly wish I had posted more through out the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So much to do when you work full time out of the home.  I must say with the help of the family I was able to stay one step ahead of things.  I have been planning a Valentine's Day favor and will share it here sometime soon.  Thanks to you all for visiting I look forward to many crafty shares in 2013.  Blessings to you and yours.
Lysa

Digi Christmas

Hi Everyone,
Wow! Here we are at the end of 2012! The year just flew by a bit to quick for me.  I just wanted to check in as the year comes to close.  We had a wonderful Christmas here at our home this year.  Great family time, great food and a lot of laughs.  We got a few pictures and I already made a digi page for my Mother in Law. I love how it came out. 

Just look how happy Mom is singing with her grand daughter Amanda (my niece) and Rory, her great grand daughter (my grand daughter). I made this page in CA2 using Stampin 'Up digital art.  I just love my CA2!  I still am hooked on 8 1/2 X 11 pages.  This software is amazing.  I used the palette creator and pulled all the colors from the strip of holly paper in the background.  I also used the cutout studio to create the holly leaves embellishments. The shadow tool is awesome too!  There is a free download of this software available at the DaisyTrail website. You can find it here at this link:
http://www.daisytrail.com/freestuff.html
It doesn't have all the full features but once you play with it I know you will want the full version.  The interface is easy to use.
New Years Eve is here at our house so I won't have much more time to play today.  As soon as I get a handle on putting away all the Holiday things I am going to make an album for sure.
I just want to send wishes to you all for a Happy and Healthy New Year! Thanks for visiting and I will see you in 2013!
Lysa 

Reindeer Food 2012

Hi Everyone,
Oh my!, Christmas is upon us all, I am still forging forward toward the day when I can sit down with my family, take a breath, and thank the Lord for all I have.  I have hit the holiday wall!  Have you?  I just long to be finished and to able to enjoy the season, but the mad dash is on!  It's all good though because we are pulling as a team here. Baking and Reindeer Food is now done.  Shopping is done too!  I am so lucky to have the Hubs, my Daughter and Grand Daughter here to help with all the prep for the big day!! This past weekend, Rory and I (between baking with her Mom) were able to complete our annual Reindeer Food! Here is a pic of the "big bowl":

See all that oatmeal goodness.  Please notice no GLITTER!  I beg each year that all my crafty good friends use no glitter in the Reindeer Food.  Not only is it not "GREEN" it hurts all our wildlife friends.  There is just no need for it when sugar, oats, cinnamon, and candy will do the trick!  As always Rory had a blast mixing up broken candy canes and all kinds of sugary goodness to create the magic.  You can see she was really into it, worried about just the right ratio of oats to sugar!

 Then the awesome mix was poured into tubes and decorated, and place into the perfect spot for all her friends to grab when they leave the house after a play date.  Here is how they look sitting by the door:

We created the tags in CraftArtist2 and quickly punched them with a Stampin 'Up tag punch. On the back of the tag is our standard Reindeer Food poem.  You know it. It goes
Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa's Reindeer fly and roam
This food will quide them
To your home.
What a quick and easy craft we completed while we waited for cookies to cool so that they could be decorated.
I hope everyone of you is organized and moving forward to the point of a wonderful and joyous Christmas. I am almost there!  Thanks for visiting.
Lysa

Luv, This Tree Is 4 U!

Christmas Tags Done!

Hi Everyone,
I am so happy to say I have my Christmas wrap together.  I just love to shop at Joann's for my Christmas bags because they have kraft paper bags every year. This year I went with the pine tree/cardinal bag.  I bought many of them in the 3 available sizes that they had.  The one you see above was 29 cents.  I dressed it up with a tag I made using a Just Rite stamp image.  Oh I am in love!!! I just can't wait to start filling them up with goodies to give.  I have to tell you I am a bit nutty about tags.  I just love to make them.  I have this image as a digi so I made larger ones for each of the 3 sizes of the bags.   You can see I didn't take to much time coloring them. I used Sharpie ultra fine point markers for all but the white.  The white a Uniball Signo gel pen. They went super fast and I made 30 of them so far.  I used my Stampin 'Up
1 3/4 circle punch to punch out the tag and my ZING along with my MTC software provided the scallop circle.  The back of the tag has a basic "To/From" saying on a kraft paper circle as well. The tag and the bag are sprayed with with Stampin 'Up champagne mist.  Here is a close up of the tag:

Most of the white dots that you see on the tag is really gold mist.  The camera just picked it up as white. I wish you could see how they shine.  I am excited about giving these because I really didn't make to many handmade gifts this year. So at least my gift wrap has a bit of a handmade touch.  Tomorrow is my big shopping day.  I will not come home until I have completed my gift list!  Once that is done, I will be wrapping and I must tell you wrap day is one of my most favorite days!  I hope all of you are enjoying the season and are spending time with family and friends.  Our house is filled with wonderful decorations, scents of baking and filled with excitement. I am almost to the point where I can take a breath, step back and remember to be thankful for all that is around me.  Thanks for visiting,
Lysa

Teal & Mustard Are Not Christmas Colors!

****Alternative Title: Avon, What Were You Thinking!***
Hi Everyone,
As I sit down to type I realize that I am not going to have an easy go of it.  I wanted to post a lovely picture of the favors I made for the work peeps and I am still sitting here looking at them. I made 20 and I was not on board from the get go.  The "get go" would be when my adorable Avon Lady Donna L.(love her!) delivered them to me.  Now first off I love, love love Avon for that little somethin' somethin' that they have in almost every catalog.  I always buy a quantity of  either lip balms or nail files that I use for favors.  Avon even has great hand sanitizers that work great for favor making. So this year I bought a 69 cent lip balm that I knew just how to package up. O.K., so I thought I knew.  My problem was the colors.  They are teal and mustard! and they have a red Santa on them.  Really, its Christmas!  How about ... let's say ... ummm .... I don't know, maybe red and green or white, silver or gold.  Here is a picture:

Now I am not sure which is worse, the fact that Avon chose those colors or the fact that I had the perfect matching paper. Apparently I must like this color scheme because if you look closely at the picture you will see a stack of Post it Notes in the background and there are the same darn colors. Well with all that said I wanted to make a clear snowflake embossed box for these lip balms. So I gave it a try.  I made the little mini pillow box, I embossed it with a snowflake folder from Darice. I stuffed the little balm into the box with a bit of white shreds and a white bow.  It almost looked o.k. and then I made the snowflake tag using the teal and mustard. Ughhhhhh! I thought, Wow there should never ever be a mustard yellow snowflake! I know you know what I was thinking. Remember that song "Don't eat yellow snow"!  I didn't even take a picture.  So then I took the bow and tag off and tried a red bow and a white snowflake. No it wasn't a winner either. I spent way to much time switching out the paper shreds and bows. Trying tag after tag nothing was working but I had to use them.  I have 20 of them. So to save you the story of the screaming sounds that were coming from my craftspace (really, it was bad . . . but on the upside I now know how to get the family to turn tail and run) Here is a couple of pictures of how they turned out:

I still don't really love them but I at least feel o.k. about using them as favors. After all those who receive them know my heart was in the right place.  I hope you all have your crafty mojo going as there is a mere 16 days till Christmas. I still have shopping to do so it is really time to get organized.  Have a great week ahead and thanks for stopping by.
Lysa

First Of The Christmas Favors

Hi Everyone,
Whew, I have been on a bit of a holiday marathon.  It started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and here it is December 1st. This past week was so busy with work and trying to get organized.  With all family hands on deck, we have arrived at Christmas 2012!  I am so happy to say the outside lights are up along with the big giant wreath and window candles.  The tree is glowing in the living room and I must say as I pulled into the driveway last night after work I paused and took a breath.  I was just so happy to be home so I could enjoy all the efforts we had made decorating.  Our annual "family tree day" was so much fun this year and my favorite memory is that my 9 year old grand daughter can now reach higher branches than I can.  Really, its true.  She was able to hang ornaments higher than I could.  I'll tell you this, the next time we paint she can do the ceiling! Another great memory is that this was the first year she stuck stead fast to the "No Clumping Rule"! So funny, she did an awesome job and it was so much fun for us all.  I also was able to get some favors done this week too.  I needed 20 favors for a holiday dinner that I am attending next week.  I used the single Rocher holder with the window cut out that I had posted back at Halloween.  You can view the original post and grab the file here:
http://www.lysaandhueyink.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-halloween-crafty-goodness.html
When I made it back during Halloween I knew it would be perfect Christmas treat holder as well.  Here is a picture of how they came out:

I just love how they worked out.  All the boxes, tags, and die cuts were cut using MTC and my Zing. I used plain kraft cardstock that I stamped with Stampin 'Up Crumb Cake ink and a small inkadoo clear stamp.  Don't you just love the tone on tone. You can barely see the holly leaves.  The belly strip is some old provocraft paper called holly argyle.  My favorite part is the die cut. Funny thing, I saw that exact cutout on a Teresa Collins Cricut cartridge.  But then when I was looking a Google images of holly branches I saw the exact one as clipart from Zazzles.  So who copied who?  Makes no difference to me as the Zazzles image traced perfectly in my MTC software. The die cut is less than 1.5" and it cut beautifully with my Zing. I used a multi toned piece of green paper from K&Co. and just added a bit of marker accents. I hope you like them as much as I do.  I am off to start working on the lip balms I bought from Avon.  They will be the favors for my work peeps.  It will be a simple fold over of some sort. Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Lysa