What I've been working on.

Hi!

Book, Fabric & Floss

I've been doing a lot of stitching.  I need to clear out a project or two so I can finish this project.  It's a reproduction of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  When I saw the finished piece and saw that I could purchase the pattern it was a major "I have to do this."  For several reasons, the first reason is my faith, it just calls me.  The second reason is that I was there, DH and I were in Italy and toured the Sistine Chapel back in 1984 and that was before it was "cleaned" and it was amazing.  The third reason, I've never done anything this big or fabulous, and it'll be the last big piece I ever do.  So that's what's up with this piece. 

I started in the center of the piece,

 

this is the beginning of "The Creation of Eve"

Progress to-date

Thanksgiving 2010 Card

Hi!
   It's that busy time of year, lots of stuff going on to get ready for the holidays.

This is the Thanksgiving card going out in tomorrow's mail.  I made 6 of them.  I used the Cricut Create-A-Critter cartridge.  I added dimension with 3 Cuttlebug embossing folders, Swiss Dots, Argyle and Herringbone.

I used my Gypsy to weld the shadow feature to make a shaped card.  I used scraps of orange and red paper for the feathers, beak and waddle.  Two shades of brown were used for his body.  I had to add wiggly eyes and a bit of bling to the hat band, which is just thin orange ribbon.


Happy Thanksgiving

Cricut Happy Hauntings Haunted House

Wow, it's done, it's rather cute, it's a bit of work, and yes, I'll do it again.


This is the Haunted House from the Happy Haunting Cricut Cartridge.

I have heard different times some of it days, some many house and some hours.  Well, I started cutting out around 7 pm last night (while the Giants and Braves game was on), and I stopped working on this at 10:30, I did not work straight through, I stopped and made ice cream.  I have one of those ice cream makers from Costco, it's the Cusinart machine, through in the ingredients and it runs for 30 minutes and you end up with 4 cups of fabulous ice cream.

I did exactly what each page did, one page at a time. It's why it takes so long, I went slow and just did what they marked. The dotted white lines are score lines, the tabs slip fairly easily into the slots. I'd dry fit before gluing, but it worked really well. Patience is the key. I did take a white gel pen and labeled the back side of each piece before cutting the next set of pieces, 1 for the house, 2 for the house, 8 for the porch, etc. This helped me keep them all organized. Don't mark the porch or the window balcony because the fold puts the back on the front and you can see the number, oops. The window cuts are weird, but they work. All the pieces on the first cut go on the first house, the cuts from the second part of the house go on the second part of the house and all the roof pieces. You'll figure it out it's easier than it sounds.

During that time I got all the pieces cut out, and picked out all the little black cut aways from the windows and the fences.  I cut all the pieces at 7", I glued the vellum to the windows, let it dry (started the first batch of ice cream).  For the entire project I used the Scotch Scrapbooker's two way glue, it's clear and it's a wet glue.  Then I went and did all the scoring, put in the second batch of ice cream.

Then I went back and did all the small piece assembly.  That was it for the night, I put the pieces on a tray and left them on the dryer overnight, in the garage, I have 3 curious kitty's who would have had to check out the little pieces.

Got up this morning and it took me an hour to assemble.  It's a bit fussy, the designers did a good job with the building, but they got a little sloppy with the roof, and it works, but that was the struggle.  I finally just held the pieces a little at a time until the glue set before moving to the next part of the roof.

I think I'm going to go back and add little witches and goblins around the doors, balconies, porches, etc.  Just a little more would be nice.  It's being lit by one of those Costco 3" battery candles, the candle is 5" tall and runs on double A batteries.

Any questions just ask.  Thanks for looking.

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This is just an estimate.

All pieces were cut at 7"

To cut out, maybe 30 minutes. There are 8 12x12 pages to cut out. I used my Expression, 12x24 mat, 6 - 12x12 black cardstock, 65lb weight, and 2 vellum (I only had 8-1/2 x 11" vellum so I had to do 2 pieces of vellum. Otherwise, it would have all fit on one page). I laid the 7" pieces out on my Gypsy so I could get the least amount of paper. Some pieces take an entire page, others can be put together.

I'd guess 30 minutes to cut out.

30 - 45 minutes to score all the pieces

30-45 minutes to glue, let set long enough to let go of the pieces.

I let the glued pieces dry overnight.

An hour to do the assembly in the morning.

I was doing lots of other Mom and wife stuff while cutting so I didn't time myself. I basically started when the Giants/Brave game started Friday night, and was done at the end of overtime. I was doing stuff between steps.

Just go slow, follow the pages, they make sense if you don't look ahead. Just do each page just like it says.
 

Cupboard, many thanks to the designer

Hi!
  I found two layouts a long way back done by one person on the Cricut Message board.  She made a cupboard out of the desk on the Sentimentals cartridge, pieces from other cartridges, welded and shaped into an adorable cupboard.  One layout featured Baby stuff, the other was Kitchen stuff.  I finally got the Sentimentals cartridge and I've been looking for her to give her credit for days now.  With the move to the new message board I can't find her, Please, if you're reading this say who you are so you can get credit.  When I find out I will post her info.

This is my poor imitation of your cupboard and I just love the idea.  Thank you.

New toy, all dressed up

Hi!
    I purchased one of those Scotch ATG, Pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.  Today I was able to "Bling" it up.  I really do like this tape gun, so nice and it lasts a lot longer than the little tape runners.

Greetings - Continued

Hi!
    So after 3 visits to the court house, I was released from Jury Duty, until January of 2012.  Now it's time to get back to crafting and High School Football Season is here, we're going to our first game tomorrow night.  Granted our son doesn't play High School Football anymore, but we still love going to the local games.   I teach my first SDU class one week for tonight so I need to get some studying done too.

Greetings

Nothing fun or interesting to post.  With school starting I went back to work on the 11th, lots to do to get ready for a new school year.  Then the kids started today, Aug. 16th.  I had to report for Jury Duty today and I will have to return one day next week for the actual process to see if I get excused or picked for the trial.  Jury Duty is always an interesting process.  So once school becomes more routine and the Jury Duty stuff is done, I'll get back to posting pictures.