Is There Such a Thing as Cheating in Art??????

Yippie!!!!  I got to play with my new toy!!  I ordered an Embossing Kit for my Cricut Expression!  I was hopeful that it would work well on the Ten Seconds Studio metal..... I am NOT disappointed!!! :)  I think it turned out great!  I feel like I'm cheating!! LOL!! :)

I ordered it here:  Chomas Creations

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I know there are those out there that say you can emboss by turning your blade upside down.  But, because I plan on embossing metal A LOT, I wanted a dedicated tool for that purpose.  To me, this is worth the money!  The embossing cartridge is very sturdy and the mat worked great!! 

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Here is my first attempt and I'm very pleased!!!!

I wanted to make a card for my daughter's friend who just had to put her doggie down yesterday.  She was very attached to the poor poochie, so I hope this will remind her that "All Dogs go to Heaven".  (I'll post my final card when I get it done)

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First, I found this cute image online:

Then I converted the image in Inkscape to a file to import into SCAL to cut with my Expression. 

(SCAL is a third party software program you can use with your Cricut to cut out shapes.  You are not longer restricted to images on the cartridges)

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I set the program to Multi-Cut 3 times.  I think 2 would have been enough, but 3 certainly did not hurt anything!! :)

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Here is a close up of the back of the metal after the machine got done embossing.

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Here is what the front looked like after I took it out of the machine.

Notice the roller marks on the image.  These are very superficial and I was able to easily erase them. 

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Here is the image after I refined it.  Terrible pic, but you can see that the roller marks are no where to be seen! :)  

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Here is the image trimmed and sanded.  I think it turned out cute, don't you??!!  :)

Tellin' ya, loving this gizmo!!!!  I really think I'll be using it A LOT!!

For all you Metal Heads out there, come join our new Yahoo Group!  TenSecondsStudio Yahoo Group

Come play and learn with us!!!!!

C Ya Soon!

Come Join the new Yahoo Group!!! TenSecondsStudio

You like metal??  You love metal embossing??  Are you a fan of Ten Seconds Studio and Taco Tuesday???  Come join the new Yahoo Group!!!  Come share your techniques, experiments,  and projects or just lurk and learn!!

See ya there!:

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TenSecondsStudio/

Last Teacher Gift 3rd Grade - Lemons to Lemonade!!

Whew!  Talk about ducking under the wire!  I just found out yesterday that Miss R.'s last day is THIS FRIDAY!!  (Miss R is the student teacher in my son's 3rd grade classroom)  She is fabulous and will make an awesome teacher!!  The kids love her!  I found out that she is a licensed pilot. (Wow!)  So, Amelia Earhart was my inspiration for my final teacher gift of this year. 

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I designed my layout and then went to embossing some Ten Second Studios metal (this time Brrrrrrrrrrrr Blue....  I thought it was a good "flying" color)  I traced the bird and did all of the lettering freehand.  The subtle backgrounds are 2 Sizzix texture plates that I have in my stash. :)  I really do love this quote and I think it translates well to both a teacher and a pilot! :) :)

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So here is my lemon story.  When I was done embossing, refining, sanding and basically all of the time consuming work, I cut out the design to fit the plaque. 

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AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

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  I could not believe it!  I was so totally OFF it was not funny!  I was close to tears!!!  It looked terrible!  "Suck it up, Susan!!"  Ok.  Regroup.  Deeeeeeeeeep breath. (where did I put that Jack Daniels??....... wait, that won't help [ok, it might have made the cut look straight after a while])  I know!!  Curvy!!  Curvy is good!.  So, enter the "curvy" left-hand side distressed with some acrylic paint.  Whew! 

Lemonade is served!!!!!!!!!!!

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Hope you like it Miss R!!!!!

(click on image for a closer look!)

This piece is sealed with PYMII to protect the paint from being worn or scratched off!  Great stuff!!!!!!

Another Teacher Gift! :) I love METAL!!

Ok.  Why can't my son have one teacher like normal kids??  Noooooo........ he has to have 2 teachers and a student teacher in his class!!  So, here is Teacher Gift number 2!!  (this is for his "Friday" teacher)  Mrs. "L." job shares and comes in on Fridays.  She is the "fun" teacher!  LOL!!!  She covers art/science/poetry/current events, etc.  She is a great gal and the kids LOVE her!  (as well as their M-Th. teacher, Mrs. Brown)  She has a thing for shoes and quotes.  So, here is the gift that I made for her.  I figured a Dr. Seuss quote would be appropriate for a 3rd grade teacher.

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I used the FABBY new metal color "Peacock" from Ten Second Studios.  It is a beautiful color.  It reminds me of Hawaii and tropical flowers.  I found the flip flop image and the poem online.  I designed my layout and then embossed away! :)  I used the TSS flower mold for the background and the flip flops have a Sizzix plate design on them.  I did puff the straps of the flip flops, so I spackled the back.  Note to self:  let spackle dry BEFORE you try and adhere double sided tape.

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Thanks for a great year, Mrs. L!  Hope you like it!

This piece is sealed with PYMII to protect the paint from being worn or scratched off! Great stuff!!!!!!

Metal Flowers: C.R.A.P.

Well, I have been inspired! :)  I was watching the Taco Tuesday over at Ten Second Studios this week.  They had an awesome tutorial on making metal flowers.  You can see it here:  http://www.tensecondsstudio.com/videos/050410.html

I really liked the flowers made in the tut, but wanted to try something a little different.  Then I saw another great tutorial on a blog:  Crafting in Croatia on how to make rosettes from paper spirals. 

I decided to combine the two and I came up with my version of a metal flower. 

I dub thee:  C.R.A.P.!   California Rosettes and Peonies  (LOL  ok, a stretch, but I had to make the acronym work!  hee hee)

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I cut a piece of square metal, embossed a quickie pattern on it with one of my Ten Second pattern molds, sanded the metal, cut a freehand spiral with patterned scissors, and rolled it up like in the Nina B Designs blog tutorial.  I worked the metal quite a bit after it was rolled..... bending and squishing and "fine tuning" the flowers.  I added a little bling in the middle .........and........... voila!

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Whattya think???????
(click photo to see more detail)