A Banner for ??????

Hello Everyone!
First a quick update on the life. Gypsy is adjusting well to having one eye. She went for her follow up and is doing great. Courtney and I are now the ones with issues. This past week we were driving home from the rehearsal and Courtney was doing everything right when she was rear ended. We both have whiplash and are really hurting. They gave both of us muscle relaxers and that is kind of funny when I take mine. I have never taken muscle relaxers before, so when I take them I can't see the computer screen very well. It makes me feel all funky. Anyway, we are on our way to healing, but it just takes time for the soreness to fade. I feel better this morning than I have so far, so things are looking up today.

Now for the yummy goodness you are waiting to hear about. I am in a couple of swaps over on the Cricut message board. The swaps are my favorite. It gets me crafting outside my element in a style I think the recipient will enjoy. Anyway, I can't say who this is headed to, because a couple of the swaps are SS style swaps and I don't want to ruin the surprise if it is one of them.

I love stretching my supplies and pushing things past their normal use. I have the "Be Mine" collection from Echo Park. We all know I love Echo Park papers. I love the way they cut, the way they ink, the way they coordinate without being too matchy matchy. Obviously from the title of the collection it is a Valentine's collection and that holiday has already passed. I wanted to make something that could be for spring or anytime. Well there has been a lot of yuck going on in my world lately, but I refuse to give up on HOPE. I know things will eventually get better. To me Spring is all about HOPE, so a HOPE banner seemed to fit. I also thought it could be used in October for breast cancer awareness. It has plenty of pink and the right message. What do you think? I love comments, so let me know your thoughts. If you would like me to take you step by step on making a banner let me know. The cricut makes banners super simple and the shapes and possibilities are endless.

Pull out your punches!

It has been said by a friend of mine, that I hold on to things I don't need. That may be true of some things, but not about the item in question... paper punches. Her feeling was that since I have a cricut and more that a few carts I have no need for punches. As she says, "You can just cut it out on the cricut." We I really started thinking about it and looking at my punches and this is what I came up with.

first let me post a few pictures of what looking at my punches inspired. I played a little with three of them.

I started off playing with two edge punches. It was fun to make the rosettes on their own and then I spotted a photo sitting there and whipped up a layout.

Then I had some rosettes cut, but not assembled. Now I love my Tim Holtz mini rosette die, but it just looked plain. I decided it needed to be dressed up. I decided to cut different color centers with the cricut and for some reason my circles weren't coming out perfectly round. Well some were, but not all of them, so I grabbed the circle punch and it was quicker than getting out a cart, finding the image, selecting the size, speed, and pressure, loading the mat, and cutting. They also came out perfectly round. I hope you can see the difference in these pictures.

Then I started putting the rosettes together. It just looked too plain. I grabbed a snowflake punch and cut it so it lookes like leaves or a branch sticking out. I thought that showing them side by side would show the difference, but before I glued it down I moved the embellished center to the plain one and that is the bottom picture.

Anyway, I know I am cheap and won't spend money on a lot of things, but good tools make scrapbooking so much easier. I say buy all the tools you can afford and have space to house. I personally have room for both my cricut and my punches. I will continue to buy punches as my budget allows and as I find ones that I think I can use in more than one way. Hope you have fun playing with your punches.

And the winner is...

Sorry for the delay in picking the winner of the giftcode to Viva Las Vegas stamps. It was a crazy week, and I just now drew a name from the hat. Actually, my helper also know as my darling son drew for me. Before I announce the winner, I want to say thanks for stopping by during the hop and thanks for all your kind comments. Our winner is Kitty G. Kitty please email me your full name and email address so I can have the giftcode sent to you. My email address is skrappindiva29 at hotmail dot com. Congrats!

Update on the Steampunk Puppy

Valentine's Day was a sad day around our house. Gypsy went in for her follow up and the eye was ulcerating. They had to remove her eye. It was pretty traumatic for Courtney. She reminds me of a parent in denial. Gypsy is doing fine now and looks like she is winking all the time. Hopefully that means life is getting back to normal and you will see lots of posts in the next few weeks.

Steampunk Valentine Hop

Welcome to my stop on the hop. I had really big plans for the hop. I have slowly been falling in love with all things steampunk and planned to whip out an absolutely stunning steampunk creation. I wanted to make a steampunk necklace for my darling daughter. Unfortuantely, I forgot I am not a jewelry maker. I ended up with an altered domino that hints at steampunk, but is no where near what I had imagined. It was a pain to photograph because of the mottled alcohol inks. It just didn't want to focus, but here is a peek.

When that didn't seem to come together, I decide I was going to make a steampunk inspired card. I found the perfect stamps on ebay and ordered them. Silly me, I forgot I am not much of a card maker and the stamps didn't show up on time. I should have ordered from Viva Las Vegas stamps. They have positively yummy steampunk stamps and they would have gotten here on time. So, there is no card to show a picture of at this time. For those of you who don't know two weeks ago today Gypsy (my daughter's rat terrier) had a run in with the lab and her eye popped out. She had to have surgery on her eye and she became our steampunk puppy. With the victorian collar and the tubing stitched around her eye she looks like something steampunk. I decided to share our poor steampunk puppy's story. I thought a scrapbook page with "We Love Our Steampunk Puppy" as the title would be perfect. I started creating and had this vision of a big steampunk heart. What do you think? It is so now steampunk wonderful. It looks way to cutesy. At least the dog isn't way too cutesy. Maybe she looks a little more steampunk...

I decided I have a long way to go before I become a master steampunk artist. With a bunch of work maybe I can pull off something wonderfully steampunk. Oh, I almost forgot the best part of a blog hop... blog candy. Since I wasn't smart enough to order from Viva las Vegas stamps, I think I will give away a $10 gift card to order some of their awesome stamps. All you have to do is leave me a comment. Tell me what I need to do to master this steampunk genre. You don't have to become a follower, but I sure would be glad if you did.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you soon.

Unscripted Sketches #144

Once again I am behind on the blog. My life has been rather hectic lately, but I was able to whip up a quick card with this week's sketch. Hope you decide to head over to www.unscriptedsketches.com and play along.