New digital stuff/Digital paper freebie

Well, I got a Bamboo Fun tablet for my early birthday present and I have been having TOO much fun with it. It came with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 and I have been having some fun exploring the options I have with that over the 2.0 that I've been using for all of this time. There are a few things (like the quick selection brush) that I am just drooling over (this is how I'm making most of my fun new elements for digiscrapping now), and all in all it's turning out really well!

Here's a page I made that I am so proud of. All of the digital elements were made by me. I am doing so much with sequins lately. Sequins, sequins, sequins... Everything I'm making seems to have sequins all over it. I'm especially having fun creating little digital elements with sequins because it's a lot easier than using tweezers and glue. ^_~


And, just because I feel like it, here's a freebie. It's a .jpeg image, sized at 12x12 at 300 dpi for you to use in your own digiscrapping. Please respect the source, as in, don't claim it as your own, and if you use it in something and post it somewhere, please credit me (Kathy Canuel) as a designer. I wish I could figure out how to upload .png images somewhere for downloading because then I'd share some of my other fun elements.

Basically, click on this image and then right click on it when it opens up in the new window. Click "save picture as" and save it to your computer. I think it's about 7 megabytes.


Happy scrapping! ^_^

Good find for digiscrappers... or not??? Also... newest digiscrapping site discovery!

I just got back from one of the most torturous shopping expeditions of my life. Excuse my vent there. 3 stores with a 3 year old doesn't seem to be a very good idea AND I didn't get one of the main things I went out for because they didn't have it! Urgh!

Again, again, pardon the vent...

Anyway, I found some Dover electronic clip art books at Barnes and Noble. Apparently you just put this CD-ROM in your drive and you can use the images from there in your favorite software program. I'm going to try and use some of these images to create a nice paper for digital scrapping.

I got the "Authentic Art Nouveau Designs" CD-ROM and book. It was $16.95, but with my member discount and the recent 15% off coupon Barnes and Noble just sent to their subscribers, it was cheaper. Barnes and Noble is one of those ones you can subscribe to and it will actually do you some good sometimes. ^_^

My new site for digiscrapping elements that I LOVE is www.peppermintcreative.com. I thought I'd never find one I love as much as www.shabbyprincess.com, but I think they're about equal in my esteem now. They have me so desiring to get my Bamboo tablet and create my own designs!

New contact paper project!

So I promised to post pics when I did something in my house using the contact paper instead of Cricut Vinyl. Here is the wall behind my kitchen table before:


And here it is after:


Here is a clearer shot of the wall art, straight on. I saw this mug in my Graphically Speaking cartridge and KNEW I had to put it on my wall somewhere. I'm not one of those people who loves coffee or loves tea exclusively--I love them BOTH, and they're really a big part of my life. The quote comes from an old song, I'm sure most of you can hum it.


Cartridges used: Graphically Speaking (mine) and Opposites Attract (borrowed from my very generous neighbor--thank you!)

-I cut the letters at 3 3/4", using the upright option on the Opposites Attract Cartridge.
-I did a fit to page on a 12x12" sheet of the contact paper for the mug and it came out at 8 1/2", I believe. The steam was 5 1/2". The "delicious" jumble was cut at 4".

The mug was, by far, the most ridiculous part of this entire thing. I tried to do the very bottom first and then stuck the rest on very, very slowly. You can reposition the contact paper as needed.

I did a lot of measuring and drawing on the wall with my pencil before putting the letters up. I had everything laid out before starting (you can see this a bit on the table in the first picture), and I took measurements of how wide the phrase was, then centered everything and marked the edges of the phrase where it should go. I worked from the outside in, placing "coffee" first along the line I drew, then "me", then "&" on either side, etc.

All in all, this took way longer than I thought it would. (Probably because I'm using the contact paper and therefore didn't have the ability to just wipe all of the pieces onto the wall at the same time like you can with the Cricut vinyl when you use the stabilizer paper stuff they sell.) But I think it was still WAY worth the extra time. (I screwed up an entire sheet of cutouts and didn't have to cry about it, lol.)

So, hopefully your imaginations are getting fueled! And thanks to Nicole for Tweeting my last post! LoL. Maybe I'll get some more followers and start to look important. ^_~

Alternative to Cricut Vinyl--Contact Paper!

So I have to admit to some envy over here as I have salivated at the mouth and had pretty intense chest palpitations over the sheer gorgeousness of things created with the Cricut vinyl. I mean, I have a Cricut Expressions, but I never got around to making anything with the vinyl for several reasons, some of which I will list:

1. Cricut vinyl is way expensive. ($9.99 for a package containing two 12x24" sheets)
a. It never goes on sale.
b. You can't EVER use coupons on it. (All craft store coupons exempt Cricut products.)
2. You actually ALSO need to buy stabilizer in addition to the vinyl in order to do good wall layouts. I think this is so that you can apply the entire piece as one sticker, which helps with your layout.
3. I could never come up with an idea for using the vinyl. (Probably primarily due to concern number 1)

Enter the glorious online community, which came to my rescue. I wish I could remember who it was and where in the Cricut forum I saw a person who said she just used contact paper for her wall art. I wish I could credit her and douse her with kisses but, alas, I cannot. All I can do is share the tip!

Instead of using the Cricut vinyl for your wall art, I recommend contact paper! I got a roll of beautiful black faux leather contact paper at my local Home Depot for about $7.00. It's 18" wide and 15' long. I think it's a good investment!

The other cool thing I was unaware of is the fact that the back of the contact paper is marked with 1/2" grid lines so you can easily cut yourself a piece of 12x12" (or 6x12" or 12x24", depending on your mat size) to work with on your machine.

Using Contact Paper instead of Cricut Vinyl with your Machine

Supplies:
Contact paper (shown in the picture below)
Cricut Machine
Cricut Cartridge of choice
Cutting mat
Ideas


1. Cut your contact paper to the desired size. Don't pull it away from the release paper. Stick it to your mat contact paper side down. You should be staring at the grid marks after sticking the piece to your mat.

2. Make sure your FLIP option is selected. Any text you cut MUST be flipped or it will come out backwards on your wall. Proceed to cut your shapes and text, always making sure you have the flip option on. If you're desiring to cut, say, a flower that's facing left in the cartridge book, and you want it facing right on your wall, cut it without the flip option on.

3. Peel off the individual shapes once everything is cut. Follow the directions you got with your paper for adhering it to things. (Mainly make sure your surface is clean before peeling the backs away and adhering the cut pieces.) Here are the names I did for my sons on their bedroom doors. I should have cleaned the bottoms of the doors before taking a picture. Funny how you only notice these things after you show a ton of people how dirty your house is.


4. I obviously didn't get them as straight as I could. (This is probably where that Cricut vinyl stabilizer stuff comes in handy.) If you were maybe NOT in a rush like I was to see if this would work, I'd recommend lightly penciling a line across where you'll be putting text or images. Make some sort of markings to get yourself centered and straight. (These letters were cut at 5.5", by the way.)


5. You could also cut small images. The letters above were cut with my Storybook Cartridge using the Tall option. They're 1.5". The swirlies you see were also cut using the Storybook Cartridge (shift 7), at 2.5".

As soon as I get more fun wall art finished, I'll be posting pics of it. ^_^ Hopefully someone out there can use this idea and have some fun! I can't wait to get some new colors, actually, so that I can do some layered designs.