April SMBiGblog hop

Hello & welcome to our April #SMBiGblog hop! Each month we feature one of our favorite companies, and host a blog hop of inspiration, showing off the products and our designers, as well as a guest from the company. THIS month, we were lucky enough to have the entire Chic Tags team join us for a BLOGAPALOOZA-- over 20 projects to inspire you to get those Road Trip goodies out & start creating! Travel along with us, starting at the Chic Tags blog, here. There are almost 30 different bloggers so here is a list of who is before me and who is after me along with the two main sites. if you go to the SMB Blog you will find a list with links to all of the blog participants. 

• Chic Tags blog **GRAND prize
• CT Kasia **prize
• ME YOU ARE HERE
• Caz  ***prize
• SMB blog

Along the way there are plenty of prizes and freebies --- Diecuts, printables and chances to win some of your favorite Road Trip paper goods, and one GRAND prize winner of the Road Trip, Everyday Life II & Birthday Wishes collections ! ! ! ! ! ! Good Luck, and have fun hopping! If you would like to purchase some of these adorable products, head on over to the Chic Tags website !

Ok, here is my contribution to this hop. 

I created a tutorial using the Chic Tags cut files, and how to use the trace function in the Silhouette Studio to create a layered tag that can be used for multiple projects. I hope you enjoy and find this tutorial helpful. 

Once you have added the cut file to to your library open it into a new file. 

Using the trace function select the area to trace. Un-click the "High-Pass-Filter" and increase the threshold to 100%. Click trace. 

Now you can delete the original image and keep working the next steps with the traced image. 

Now you are going to retrace the image. Un-click the "High-Pass-Filter" and increase the threshold to 100%. This time click Trace Outline, and only the outside will be cut. 

Now you have to separate sets of 6 circles to cut. 

From the drop down file menu select the "Save to my library" function and then is will ask you to name your file. I named it Chic Tags Circles with offset.

Next I cut them from 2 different colors of cardstock and once the were cut I layered them to create these tags.

I made a few of these and they are now ready for layouts.

Here is a closeup of the detail. I really like these files. 

For these next tags I increased the size of the image by 200% and they turned out to be the perfect size for luggage tags. 

Because of the way the tags cut you need to cut them out of two different colors so I ended up with this one also. I will be taking them to be laminated today after I write the contact information on the back. 

Here you can see how much bigger the luggage tag is from the page tag. 

It's Friday

I think that is is anything goes day today. It is such a beautiful day here in the south and I am sitting outside ipad in my lap enjoying the breeze and the sunshine. The weatherman said that today would be the last pretty day for a week so I am determined to enjoy it outside. This week has been a crazy full week. A friend of mine lost her father, and the southern hospitality cook inside me took over and I cooked. Because I was in such a cooking mode the girls talked me into trying some Pioneer Woman recipes. They tasted good but in no way looked as good as the ones on her blog.

This one looked halfway edible. I only made 2 that were "sunny side up" the rest were scrambled with cheese.

This one turn out like someone's science experiment gone wrong. Lol

Our boys are growing so much and eating grain now. So not much longer on the two bottles a day.

Anastasia decided she wanted to help me cut the grass. She was such a big help, but we let Dad finish the rest.

Paper Flowers With Silhouette Tutorial

These are roses that I have been creating for a spring wreath. The flowers were created out of a JPEG download that I found online and turned into a cut file.

This is an easy way of turning any pattern into a cut file.

Here are the steps:

1. Open the JPEG image in Photoshop
2. Use the background eraser to erase all the white from around and inside the shapes.
3. Save as a PNG file
4. Open the Silhouette Studio and add this file to your library
5. All the image to the page that opens
6. Use the Trace Function and trace the image
7. You will now have a cut design that you can save to you library and use again and again.

If you would like this cut file, I will gladly send it to you for no charge. All you need to do is email me. 

The Silhouette Promotion is still going on today and tomorrow. If you would like to take advantage of this promotion you can use Promo Code "RAMBLINGS"

Silhouette Tuesday

I decided to try to make some packaging with my Silhouette for last weekend's festival. I played around with brackets and tags to create the perfect shape.



This is the finished tag after I added the bookmarks.

Here you can see the cut that is made in the center of the tag. I also added a whole at the top for hanging either on a hook or adding a ribbon to it.

On the back I added a stamp with my company information and it is ready to go.

This shape is set to cut 4 on and 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of Cardstock.

I used Kraft Paper Cardstock and I set my blade to 7 and speed to 2 just to make sure that the fine tip did not get messed up as it was cut.

The April promotion is still going on you can click on the image below if you would like more information. Use the coupon code "RAMBLINGS" at checkout to receive this great price.

You can click here to access the promotion and use the code " RAMBLINGS " when you check out.

More #Silhouette Fun

I have really been having fun with my Silhouette this week. I really have been making a lot of things for my festival this weekend. I want to share with you today a few more ideas of what you can do with a Silhouette and the vinyl that comes with this month's promotion. ( Silhouette sent me a roll of vinyl for doing this blog post but I only share things that I really enjoy using)

This was made using a glass from the Dollar Tree and two colors of vinyl to create a great gift item for your favorite person to show a little team spirit.

I added a saying to a plate also from the Dollar Tree to create another great gift. This would make a nice housewarming gift.

This is a plate just like the first one and I decided to create a little more stylized design on this one and I really like the way it turned out. I would have loved to have had better pictures but nighttime doesn't help with that.

If you would like more information on the April promotion all you need to do is click here. Use the coupon code "RAMBLINGS" to purchase the promotions at the sale price.

 

Lettering Monday

Today is the first of a series of post that I am planning about how I work with hand lettering.

This is a simple font to draw as all you have to do is thicken the vertical lines. I fill in the thickened area with a zig zag line to create texture and depth without filling with a solid color.

Here is a quote that I created using this hand drawn font. This was a practice quote that I did when I was designing this font.

Here is another verse that is created with this font. You will notice on the "w" and the "o"s that I thickened them as well. I felt that this added to the cohesive look of the quote.

My Spoonflower #Shop

As you may have noted from the banner above, I now have a Spoonflower shop. You can purchase my designs on fabrics, wallpaper, decals and gift wrap. Here there are 5 designs that you can purchase now.

Book Club Thursday

Welcome to week two of Book Club Thursday. Each week I am picking a book off my shelf to let you know what I think about them. They may be a new book or they may be a book that has been around for a while that I think you might find useful.
This week I am reviewing the book Blogging for Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal: A Guide for Crafters, Artists & Creatives of all Kinds.
I really am trying to work my way through this and glean tips to make my blog a place for your to find inspiration and be able to connect with a broader community of people through it.

Here is the book description from Amazon:

Today’s crafting community is online, connected, and blissfully blogging about their work and ideas. Blogging is hot in this highly creative world—and here is the only how-to book aimed directly at them. Everyone from knitters and beaders to scrapbookers and altered artists will find the practical information and visual inspiration they need to create an artful online journal.

Thanks to hundreds of gorgeous screen grabs from the very best blogs, a thorough introduction to the tools of the trade, and instructions that virtually take you by the hand, even beginners will swiftly go from blank screen to colorful, enticing pages. Those who already have a blog, but want to enhance their presence on the Web, will learn how to add banners and graphics, take the perfect shots, crop and size photos, establish links, and attract an audience of eager readers.

Best of all, readers will meet some of the Web’s most popular creative bloggers, including Alicia Paulson (Posie Gets Cozy), Gabreial Wyatt (Vintage Indie), Emily Martin (Inside A Black Apple), Lidy Baars (Little French Garden House), Heather Bullard (Vintage Inspired Living), and Serena Thompson and Teri Edwards (The Farm Chicks).

I found that this book is full of tips for the beginner blogger as well as the seasoned blogger looking to improve the blog that they already have. I love reading each of the interviews from the various bloggers. I found myself drawn to the art bloggers more because this is where I feel like I fit. I have found some great ideas for updating the design of my blog and I really wish I had this book when I started blogging years ago. It would have really helped me to start off right from the start. If you want to start a blog this is the book for you. If you have a blog and just want to give it a little freshening up then this book is for you too. I hope you take the time to read Blogging for Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal: A Guide for Crafters, Artists & Creatives of all Kinds .

If you would like to link up your book club post please feel free to do so here. I would love for you to use the button above to let everyone know where they can join in the party.

A Trip To Andersonville

A trip to Andersonville and the National Prisoner of War Museum. We have visited here before, but my husband did't get to come with us on that trip so when we had the chance to pass it this past weekend I convicted him to stop.

There is so many things to see here that it would take you all day to see and read everything in the museum, but you don't have to take that much time. If you can spend and hour in the museum and another hour on the grounds it would be well worth the trip.

This statue stands at the entrance of the cemetery that is located in the compound and there is a headstone for each of the prisoners that died at the Andersonville Civil War Prison. There is also a large monument for each of the states that the men were from.

it was such a beautiful day and the wind was blowing and the flags were waving. It was such a beautiful experience

This is the old town train depot in the very small town of Andersonville. The town is about 1/2 mile away from the museum.