3 Positives: 5 cups of berries harvested yesterday – one more small picking I think. one more owl assembled. It’s growing on me the more I look at it. quiet time
My Journey Notes: I think I broke the little to no sleep cycle last night. Fingers crossed for another good sleep tonight. I’m not finding a correlation between foods, moon, meds or such as I look back through my notes and such. Stress levels are still a bit on the high side, but being able to “let go” a bit more is working.
First days of the month now and time to bring out that “list” to get things checked off by the weekend since I didn’t get it started yesterday.
This was a fun project — with just a few tweaks to the original files, this box was a lot of fun to put together.
I used two files from Simply Crafty SVGs. The Easter Egg Gift Box for the body of the owl and the Hovering Witch Hat for the hat. Both files were reduced and can be cut using 8.5 x 11 cardstock. I found a pattern image on Pixabay (the swirls) that I used as a pattern fill on the panel pieces for the body. The dotted pattern on the hat was created in Procreate and used as a pattern fill for the hat panels as well. These pieces were printed, then cut using the Skycut and SCAL software. All pieces were inked for a little more depth and to blend the edges to the base papers that were used. The eyes, nose and wings were created using basic shapes found in the library. I did choose to glue the hat in place and since this is just going to be a decor piece, I also glued the top to the bottom and added a few glass half marbles for a little weight, though it wasn’t essential for balance. This ideas was inspired by some clipart I found on Pinterest. I have a few more ideas kicking around for some additional “birds.” We’ll see how that goes.
Hoping you’ve built in some time in your creative space for the month of October! Have fun and explore a few new ideas and make them come to life…
How about this version? Different colorway. Solar paste and stencils and using an embossing folder. He kind of grew on me…
3 Positives: the Primary program at church yesterday an idea coming to “life” at midnight peace in knowing the process of change in leadership at church
3 Positives: a little play time in the studio is a good thing read a little checked off a few things on the longer to-do list
My Journey Notes: Last week’s eye surprise for T means additional changes in how things move forward. We rolled out the first of the changes last week and those will continue at least until after the first of the year. He did get a nice walk in yesterday and nearly completed his goal of steps for the day. I have a feeling some of our long term plans are also about to change — so trying to figure out how to adapt to those as well as keep things moving in as positive a way as we can. The lists just got a little longer!
3 Positives: There’s help for T’s eyes – surgeries scheduled for November and December. Recovery time is short, but healing will take up to 6 to 8 weeks. 20 pints of salsa on the counter dinner out – and the gift certificate we had covered all 3 meals.
How quickly September has flown by. The leaves are beginning to turn colors and fall has officially arrived. We’ve enjoyed cool mornings and pleasant afternoons and evenings.
It’s also been fun to create cards using old and new techniques that will be delivered the first part of the month. This first card is the October ministering card. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest — but put my own twist on it using Procreate to “paint” the image using some of the techniques I’ve learned in a couple of online classes. The leaves are a brush from Sandra Createinspain. There were lots to choose from in a recent online offering. The sentiment stamp was found in a collection from Fun Stampers Journey (retired). Using my stamp jig made it very easy to add the sentiment on each card front after printing the main image.
We have two birthdays at the beginning of the month. Mother and daughter. I had a difficult time choosing the designs, but I think ultimately, these will work just fine for them this year. The first card is print to cut — I used Impact font, filling each of the letters with a patterned paper from Creative Fabrica. Each letter is backed with a cut in black paper set slightly to one side to create a shadow. Birthday script is done in Edwardian Script and all pieces are printed using the SCAL software’s Print 2 Cut process. The dry embossed piece is distressed and adhered to a regular A2 card base. The embossing folder is from Fun Stampers Journey (retired). I love using some of my older products! It can be used either vertically or horizontally as used in this card.
Maybe in next iterations, I’ll add some additional inking for a little more texture and depth.
The last card for this post was designed in SCAL 6 – using basic shapes from the library. The flowers and leaves are printed in a base color with additional depth and details added using colored pencils and an embossing tool. The label was created using basic shapes — a rectangle and oval and then using the Mirror Symmetry command under the Effects tab to create the shape – I added some additional details using a Winsor Newton .01 gray pen, a background stamp (Stampin’ Up! retired), and inking the edges after some distressing using an emory board to achieve the desired look. The Happy Birthday banner has been shaped a bit and glued in place before adhering the piece to the panel that was embossed using a Provo Craft embossing folder — another item from the cupboard. I really enjoyed seeing this one come to life — adding additional color to each flower and leaf was a great way to add som more depth and the embossing tool added the texture that made a lot of difference in how the light impacts the design.
As always, the Skycut performed well and each print 2 cut design was spot on! I’ve had the machine for over 4 years and haven’t had to make any additional adjustments to the calibration after the initial set up for my machine!
I saw something similar a few weeks ago on Pinterest and thought I would try my hand at doing something like it for my final tag in this challenge.
I drew and colored the bat in Procreate. After saving it as a png, I was able to do a little final editing in Photopea (an online photo editing program-free) before importing into SCAL. I did hand cut the white portion of the eyes so I could put a small piece of vellum behind that now open space with the goal of adding lights* to the tag.
For the remaining pieces of this tag, I used basic shapes from the SCAL library and added some fun papers using the Pattern command option. It’s so much fun to play with. The papers are from Echo Park (I Love Halloween Mega Collection). Everything in this matting was set to print 2 cut and the easy step by step process works magically each and every time! I added some inking to add a little more interest and texture before putting the tag together.
*The light is from Pear Blossom Press. I used the EZ-Light version. It’s an all in one unit with 3 lights each and the packaging also includes the batteries. The word PRESS is a stamp from TLC Designs. They’re perfect for interactive cards as well as indicating where the ‘button’ is on a light up card or tag.
These tags and several others can be found on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/eclipsecal We have some amazing artists on the page and since I’m writing this a little early — my hopes are that we’ll have several of them participating again this year!
Greatitudes 