My 2012 Breast Cancer Butterfly

Hi Everyone,
My daughter Sam works in an Oncology office.  Cancer is their life! They spend their days (and many times nights) assisting folks who are involved in their own private war.  Each and everyday the staff of this office leaves their own problems in their cars and walks through the door with smiles and eyes filled with hope for all of the people they will be seeing during the course of their day.  These girls are all special, no matter what their specific job is they all are an important aspect to the well being of the patients.  They are all very aware of all the effects cancer has on the life of their patients.  The office gets involved in all sorts of charity work to help keep cancer research going.  They participate in walks and make donations to charity events. They try to assist, teach and create a community support system. In October (breast cancer awareness month) they get together and have an office luncheon where they all cook or bake something.  These little breaks from the normal day helps to keep them together as group. A little bit of lightness in a stressful situation so to speak.  Last year Sam was on cupcakes and we made really nice toppers for the cupcake display (of course I didn't get a picture).  This year I got a jump on the graphic and I really like the way it looks.  Here is a .png of the graphic. I hope you like it too.

 Can't you just see this on a toothpick coming out of pink and white frosted cupcakes!  I think the girls will love them.  I just hope I didn't make a spelling mistake.  If you catch one please let me know so I can fix it before I go to print!  Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend,
Lysa
EDITED ON 10-11-2012:
Please see this blog post for a link to download the .pdf file of the butterfly.
http://www.lysaandhueyink.blogspot.com/2012/10/breast-cancer-donation-basket-is-done.html

Another Halloween Ornament or Two!

Hi Everyone,
I am clearly obsessed with the Stampin' Up holiday ornament. I rushed home from work each day this week so I could work on them. I have made a total of five so far and am hoping to make more. Many more! On Monday I ran to Joann's for some colored tulle.  All I had was black and I thought some orange would be cool to have around. It was cheap enough at $1.97 per yard so I got some lime green too.  I also picked up some white thinking I might be able to give it a dye job.  We will see how the nylon takes the dye.  I wanted some bright purple but it was not available so I thought my purple Stazon ink might just do the trick. Maybe even a Sharpie marker, that's the fun of crafting - just playing with all the supplies. I have decided on my three themes (bats, pumpkins and skulls) Here is a picture of the second skully:

Sadly, I only had one awesome metal skull for the first one.  If I get to the store I will look in the bead dept. for more because I really liked how the different center piece looks.
Here is a picture of the pumpkin themed one:

Oh I love the traditional black, green and orange. but again, here I want to change out the center piece.  The paper on these two are Stampin' Up digi files from their "Cast a Spell" line. I am so glad I purchased it because I use it over and over.  The bonus is that you can make coordinating embellishments as I did here.  I use DSA2 but any photo editing software will do.  I have had so much fun with this project that I just want to keep going and going and going . . .! I hope you all give these a try and if Halloween isn't your thing Christmas is on the way. Don't you think a Birthday themed one would be awesome? Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting,
Lysa

Halloween, Already!

Hi Everyone,
Its August 4th! Summer is winding down for us here at the homestead. I know school does not start for another 5 weeks.  Truth be told Rory's new lunch box and backpack are sitting in the kitchen ready to go.  How scary is that? So that scary leads me to . . .  Halloween! yeah my favorite crafty holiday! I have started to see a few things popping up here and there on the blogs and boards I follow.  I have been thinking on a few things for this years treats.  I try to come up with a treat for Rory to take to school and something for Sam and I to take to work. I also try for a little home decor piece to add to my vast collection.  So it seems simple enough when I get started but there is so much crafty goodness floating around that I keep re-focusing on something else.  So this year I am going to simplify! So the first thing is I am NOT going to buy more themed paper. Sitting on my work table is pad after pad, sheet after sheet of Halloween themed paper. True I love it all, and I even saw more that I loved via this years CHA summer previews.  But I am taking a stand.  I will NOT buy anymore Halloween paper no matter how much I love it!! One can clearly see I have issues with Halloween themed paper. Here is a picture of my Halloween stash.

And this does not even show my Halloween scraps!
The second stand I am taking is I will NOT buy any Halloween themed embellies! Nope I am done there too! No more brads, punches, scullys, stamps or stickers.  Here is a picture of my Halloween embellie draw. Which I must tell you does not include my Halloween fabric bin or my Halloween rubber stamps. Yup, this picture does not even show my magnet board that is filled with containers of plastic spiders and brads etc.

 People, you do realize I can duplicate these 2 pictures for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Baby, Wedding, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthday . . . The list goes on and on. I think I need a crafting intervention!  Is there shelving in padded rooms?
OK, back on topic, So this year I thought to simplify I would use 1 color scheme to cross the 3 projects I want to make. So looking at the stash I notice I have a good supply of green (Stampin' up Lucky Limeaid) black and white.  I see a lot of black and white stripes again this year so I am thinking this will be my colors for Halloween 2012. For the work favors I will use Ghirardelli chocolates. Last year Rory and I did pencils for her class.  There were simple, cute and candy free.  I loved them and I am thinking of using them again this year because the kids just get so much candy when they "trick or treat".  So this week end I hope to clear the "cobwebs" and get started on design my work favors.  Last years theme was bats. The tag line was "It's Halloween, Let's all go a little batty" Here a picture from last years post:

I am working on this years.  I had seen the phase "You say wicked like it's a bad thing" I liked it so much I wrote it down in my Halloween Smash book. I think I am headed in that direction.
So off I go to get started and here is a .png of a digi paper I made using my DSA2.  My inspiration came from the new Carta Bella paper line.  I figured since I have committed to not buy any paper I might as well make my own. The image is a Stampin' Up spider from their dark and dreary stamp set. Hope you like it.

Have a great week end everyone!
Lysa

Fourth of July Favors 2012

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick little treat for the work peeps! I had something else in mind for these cute AVON hand creams, but you know the best laid plans . . . !  So I settled for a quick tag and a bit of ribbon. I think they look adorable and who wouldn't want to come into work and find this little baby next to their keyboard? AVON always has a little 99 cent something in almost every book and I like to try to dress them up just a bit. I used my favorite DSA2 for the tag and printed then out on photo paper, punched them out with a Stampin' up punch, tied the tags on and called it a day.  Easy peasy for sure!
Here they are happily on my sideboard until I take them to work.

  Have a great holiday and thanks for stopping by.
Lysa

Kristen's Shower Favors! Done!!

Hi Everyone,
Wow, I haven't posted in weeks!  I have been busy, busy, busy! Work (busy), Household (busy), and my favorite of all CRAFTY BUSY!!  Yet, I am still behind on everything. So the shower favors for Kristen are done and that completes my contribution to this wedding.  I am honored that I was able to help a friend and be part of a young couple's wedding. I showed you all the buttons and the shower invitations, here are the favors that will be given out at the shower. First let me tell you the theme is Mickey's kitchen and cookies.  The couple both work for Disney at the Orlando resort.  They love their MOUSE. and cookies are a large part of this family.  My friend Donna is a baker extraordinaire.  Donna always has that yum, yum recipe that you need in a pinch. So this shower theme makes perfect sense if you know the family. The centerpieces are cookie jars of Mickey.  The table linen is all red, white and black.  I am sure the room will look awesome.  The favor box will hold 3 cookies that are made with the included recipe. The cookies are cut with a Mickey logo cookie cutter, one of which is tied to the top of the box.  They look fantastic! Here are some pics I took along the way.  I of course have to tell you some crafty info as well.  Here is a picture of the box blanks.  I cut them with my ZING. I made the file in my KnK studio software (still a fav of mine) and easily copied and pasted the file in to my MTC software for cutting.  Donna bought me awesome cardstock from LCI paper in Massachusetts.  It is the same paper used for the invitations. Here is the first picture:

 That is 40 boxes ready to go.  This cardstock was so thick. Cut beautifully, but scoring was a bit hard on the hand. No worry, it got done.
 Here is a picture with the added belly band.  I used my DSA2 to create the printed strip.  Just like I did with the invitations.  The key here for me is to create a bounding box that is 1/4 inch larger on the four sides. I line that line up with the 1/4 inch mark on the right side of the blade, that is the line I use to cut with my fiskars trimmer.  Makes easy work of cutting all those strips

 This picture shows the tag parts along with the clear plastic box tops.  My best tip here is if you need clear plastic for windows, boxes or box tops - go to staples and buy clear report covers.  They work great. They cut and score like butter.

I just had to throw in this picture of the tag fronts coming off of the xyron.  I mostly use tombow or sctoch glue but I ran out and wanted to finish the front of the tags. My tip here is if you are using your xyron anything make sure you give a good rub down to avoid the pesky glue balls (keep a glue eraser hand too)!

and here at last is the finished favor. I love the bakery string which I must tell you was donated by our favorite local bakery. The red tissue is food safe Wilton brand tissue. The finished box is 41/4 inch square. See the cookie cutter?  How cute are they?

Donna's friend KG will be baking up a storm to fill these boxes with her wonderful cookies just prior to the shower.  Everyone will be joining together the evening before to fill and tie the boxes.  A family celebrating a wedding is a blessing and I feel better than good that I was able to contribute.  I wish Adam and Kristen a long happy, love filled journey. I have been married for 28 years and to be honest another 28 wouldn't be enough! That is what I wish for this young couple. Love you Donna! Many blessings to your family!!!
A shout out of thanks to Donna, Kristen, Adam(for allowing me to share in your joy), KG (for your delicious cookie sample) my ZING, DS2, Tombow, Fiskars, Xyron, my HP Printer, Vodka (anyone who knows me, understands)(inside joke), my MICKEY martini glasses(a gift from Adam & Kristen) and the Hubs (for my awesome craftspace)
Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa

Red, White & Blue! A Friend So True!

 Hi Everyone,
So my friend Karen Allen ... No, not that Karen Allen ... the "real" Karen Allen ... The one I see everyday! was in need of some little flags. Little 2 inch flags. I knew the perfect way to make them. I just printed them on inkjet fabric using my DSA2.  Awesome, look at me I am a flag maker!

And then she took them and made us all this little somethi'n, somethi'n to brighten our day!

Look how cute this little flower arrangement is.  I don't know which I love more, my flowers or my friend Karen! Silly Rabbit, my friend KAREN of course!
Thanks Karen, Your awesome crafty goodness made my day!!

A Sign Of Things To Come ...

Hey All,
So for Mom's Day (like most other Mom's) I asked for a large format printer. Well I didn't ask (that would just be rude) I hinted! and sure enough the hubs(best dude alive) shows up with not just the printer but with an after market ink system! Gotta love the guy, he is right on with my crafty mojo! So I have been happily printing away with all kinds of digi fun stuff.  I have been playing with all kinds of downloads and even trying to create my own goodies.  Along with all of this we have gotten the ole' homestead ready for summer fun. Away went Easter and out came Summer (yeah, the pool is OPEN!) All the red, white and blue stuff is all over the house.  While browsing all the catalogs I kept seeing all these great wooden beachy crabby signs.  Gee I just love them.  After all we eat shellfish all summer long.  I just wanted a sign for the side board in the dining room.  So I found a picture in one of catalogs for a crab shack and made it my own. (OK, not really I copied it, for the most part)  I think maybe I could have spent a bit more time on it but for now I am happy with it.  I saw a 4th of July sign that I loved too and I think I will try to put my own spin on that one.  I just love this digi interpretation of these wood signs and I hope to do more of them because it helps me to learn a new technique.  That's all I am really after as I travel down this crafty road.  For this sign I pretty much copied a picture I saw and I designed it and printed through DSA2.  I used a sanding block and stampin up chocolate chip ink to distress it.  All I did was print and mount it to some chipboard.  I just attacked it with the sanding block and the ink.  I would like to make more signs like this so that I can refine my hand for it. But you know what?  If I do I do and if I don't I don't!  This is what I like about crafts ... Maybe I will start to paint on tin or maybe I will never make another sign.  Who knows,  Crafting is just all about playing with the resources that live in your craftspace.  I hope you like my sign and I hope you try something new and share it too!
Thanks for visiting, Lysa

Can't Get Enough of DSA2

So I ran home from work today to start to play with the kids Florida pictures.  Maybe this is not the best digi scrapbook page but I am learning this software and boy is it ever fun to use.  I practiced bending text and adding decorative edges to the photos.  So much fun.  Check out the Sarif website 'cause there is free (yes FREE) download version of this software and the vids on youtube are the bomb! LOVE IT!!!!! Thanks tonight go to Melinda for the vids and to ducky designs for her oh so cool graphics.  Thanks to you both for sharing, I'd be no kinda crafter without you all.  Have a great night!
Lysa

Halloween - 2010 Treats, DONE!

Hi All,
I am so excited that I have a handle on this years Halloween crafty goodies.  Each year I try for three items to make as a little give away to family and friends.  Now that I know what I am making it is easy to start really pushing out a large quantity.  I started with the pad cover (which I love!). Next was the Ghirardelli box to hold three Ghirardelli chocolates. I love the sides of the box that say "TRICKS" & "TREATS".  Last, was the little pouch to hold two Ghirardelli's. Yum....I just love all three.  I ended up using DSA2 for all the graphics.  The boxes were all cut on the cricut using SCAL.  The paper on the candy holders is from My Mind's Eye spider web collection that I ran through my HP printer.  The pad cover paper is Martha Stewart. And of course (what I consider my) signature spider is everywhere.(He is a fav of mine!!)  The only thing missing is that there is no Hersey nuggets.  Last night I placed my Stampin up paper order for the fall holiday season, so maybe, just maybe when I get my hands on the new wicked paper I will have to add a nugget project into the mix.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting.
Lysa

A Second Look

I had some time to take another look at the Halloween graphic I made yesterday.  I left it posted even though I saw things that I wanted to change. First off I had printed it on photo paper and had tried to add some marker ink.  The photo paper didn't take the marker as well as I hoped. I also needed to work on centering the parts and adding some shadows.  I also felt the entire graphic was way to large and needed to be smaller.  I took out the background and this time I printed it on some Martha Stewart card stock.  I like it much more with no color added to it.  I think this would make a great bookmark to go along with a scary paperback non edible treat for Halloween. Ummm, I could see it now! Thanks for visiting,
Lysa

 

Halloween Is Kind Of Crazy!

I had so much fun today playing with DSA2.  I learned so much from videos on youtube and I knew this would be a great graphic for some note pads that I bought at A.C. Moore at the end of Halloween last year.  Sorry for oh so sad pictures I take!  I am really starting to feel the Halloween Mojo now!

Have a great evening and thanks for visiting,
Lysa

A Shout Out To Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist and Denise Too!

Hi All,
Happy Weekend To Everyone!!  I have been falling behind on so many things lately, one of which is all of my pictures. Last winter I had made a commitment to myself that I would keep up on the 2010 year of pictures.  After all it was the start of a new decade.  Well, true to form I don't think I printed one picture this year and here we are in August.  I got bit by some inspiration from Denise (Hi Denise) over at Purple Paper Paradise when she started to get going with her digital pages.  They are awesome!  Denise is doing hybird pages combining digi with the traditional layout style. AWESOME!!! So inspired by her blog I put down the Halloween paper and went back to my friend Huey.  I had bought DSA2 back in I think February.  I have been using it to make bookmarks and coasters.  Melinda over at the yahoo Funtime group has made some great youtube videos.  Please check out this software.  I think it is fantastic.  I think the company is in England but I am not sure.  They even have a free version available.  I have been enjoying playing around with the software and only wish I had hours and hours to spend learning everything it can do.  I think the next page I make I will try Denise's technique and and add some traditional embellishments to my page. Thanks Denise and thanks to DSA2 also.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting.
Lysa