I have a lot to tell you about………….

First of all, I finished my Pazzles Design Team Project and got in the email on Wednesday! I was anxious to play with my new software program for my Pazzles Inspiration that I received on Monday….it’s the new Funtime 2009 and I love it! Needless to say, I spent Thursday playing with it and then yesterday I pretty much spent the day designing cutter files and designing this Christmas card for my youngest son and his family.

The beautiful glittered snowflake is a design by Monica, aka/Silene at the UK Scrappers site! I designed the twig/branch file and the bells using my new software. I made the “holly” paper piecing file using clipart from the Graphics Factory. I just signed up with them for a year. You can download all kinds of neat clipart! The upper left twig was punched using my Martha Stewart punch, but the others were from my design and were cut using my Pazzles Inspiration. I used four layers of embossing powder on the snowflake. I used liquid appliqué for the red berries on the holly and then I used Glassy Accents to make them shiny. I used my computer and printer for the sentiment. This was another one of those cards that was very difficult to photograph. I used silver and gold mirror like card for the bells and that mirror card never photographs well!

Well, after being ill so much for the past two months, I now have my work cut out for me, as I’m way behind on making Christmas cards and don’t know if I will be able to catch up………but I’m going to try!!!
Finished Card Size: A2/4.25”x5.5”

Supplies

Papers: GA Pacific White CS, Bazzill, Gold Mirror CS, “Metallic Silver” Best
Occasions Metallic Paper Pack
Ink: Tsukineko “VersaMark Watermark”
Embossing Powders: “Winter Wonderland Opaque” and “Star Dust Transparent”
by Stamp-n-Stuff
Tools: Pazzles Inspiration, Cuttlebug, Ranger “Heat It”, Fiskars “Lace” Border Punch
Accessories: Cuttlebug “Leafy Branch” embossing folder, “CK Cursive” font, Martha
Stewart “Branch” punch, Scor-Pal, Marvy Uchida “Red Liquid Applique”. Inkssentials
“Glossy accents”

I received some VERY exciting news this evening!!!

I have been selected to be on the Design Team for Pazzles for 2008-2009!!! This will be the first time that I have done something like this and I'm very excited about it!

For those of you that are not familiar with Pazzles, they make digital cutters....similar to the Cricut, except you don't ever have to buy cartridges! I purchased my Pazzles, which is the Pazzles Inspiration, this past March and I absolutely love it!!! Here is a photo of it:

It cuts 12"x12" and you can even cut chipboard with it!!! It's a fantastic tool for cardmaking, scrapbooking and paper crafts in general. You can do wonders with vinyl also. It cuts any true type font that you have on your computer........any size you desire (up to 12")!!! And did I mention that there are tons of FREE files that you can download online? Here is a photo of an off the shoulder gown that I designed and made available for download for free:

This is just an example of files that you can find online to download and cut with your Pazzles that are free for personal use! At any rate..............can you tell that I am excited? Thanks for bearing with me!!!

Appreciation Card

Even though my husband is retired, he still does some consulting on a contract basis for the company he used to work for and last Wednesday evening the wife of the man that owns the company called me and asked me if I would make her an "appreciation card" and I told her I would, but it would be a first! She had to have it right away, so I really only had a few hours to come up with a design and produce it. Here it is:

Some time back I had designed this card base using my Pazzles Inspiration Studio (software for my Pazzles Inspiration digital cutter)....so at least I already had a pattern for the card base. I based my layout around the designer CS from the DCWV "Pocket full of Posies Stack" , so I cut my card base out of the yellow textured "Imagine that" CS. I then chose the lavender Ampad "Pastels Cardstock" to complete my paper selections. I then found some Target ribbon that would work with the paper selections and took off from there! I used my Nestabilities LG Petite Scalloped Ovals and LG Petite Ovals for the yellow oval and I used one of my Cuttlebug "Frills Set" border embossing folders to emboss down each side of the patterned paper and brushed my "Platinum Planet" ink pad over the embossed area to make it "pop"! The sentiment was done using my "EraserMate" pen with the Pazzles Pen Tool, which I then covered with the silver embossing powder and heat embossed. The font I used was a "Pazzles" font called "Complex. I punched the little flowers, inked them with VersaMark, covered them with the clear embossing powder and heat embossed. I used the "Paper Sculpting" technique to sculpt the flowers and then I used Stickles to make the centers of the flowers. I'm truly not all that happy with this card....but she liked it very much and I guess that's all that really matters!

Finished Card Size: A7/5"x7"

Papers: "Imagine that", DCWV "Pocket full of Posies Stack" & Ampad "Pastels Cardstock"
Inks: Tsukineko “VersaMark Watermark” & Tsukineko Brilliance “Platinum Planet”
Tools: Pazzles Inspiration, Cuttlebug, Ranger “Heat-It” Accessories: Nestabilities LG Petite Ovals & LG Petite Scalloped Ovals, EK Success Flower Punch (SM lavender flowers), Target Ribbon, "Crystal" Stickles, Stamp-n-Stuff "Detail Clear Transparent" and Old Town Crafts "Ultra Fine Silver" embossing powders, Cuttlebug "Frills Set" Borders Embossing Folder, PaperMate "EraserMate" Pen