Mojo Monday ... and BIG News!!

Big announcement today!!!!

I've waited for 13 days to tell all of you about this .... For the months of August, September, and October, I will be a member of the Clear Dollar Clearly Crafty Crew!!!




I will be designing projects using Clear Dollar Stamps' new releases for the months in my term. The fun begins on July 28th when the new release preview starts.

I'm so excited to be a part of this wonderfully talented group and to showcase more CDS stamps here (I think you've figured out that I really love their stamps!!).

So ... my mojo for the weekend? Basically, it's been Clear Dollar Stamps. Here's one of the cards I created with CDS in mind.









Stamps - CDS Farm Critters, SU background
Paper - SU (orange, turquoise, caramel, pink), GP white
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark
Accessories/Tools - Copics, SCAL (circles, ovals, and splat), Cricut, white gel pen, linen ribbon (colored with Copic marker), pop dots



I hope you found your mojo this weekend!!

Have a wonderful Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!



~*Shell*~

Free File Friday

Did you see this card? Would you like to create a card with the cute, tropical leaf border and tropical leaf accents? The card is specifically created to go with the Monkey Madness stamp set from Clear Dollar Stamps. You will notice that the tropical leaf matches the cut leaf perfectly.





Here's the .jpg of the card ...










Here's the .jpg of the leaf layer (size, resize, stretch, and skew as you wish!).







To use the files, simply click on the image, right click on it, and click 'save as.' Save it in an easy to remember place on your computer so that you can get to it when you want to use it. To get the file in SCAL, use the Trace feature. Click Trace, click browse, find the file, preview the cut, and import it into SCAL. All free .jpgs or .gifs offered on this blog have been previously cut on my machine.



Please let me know if you download and/or use these files. I'd love to know what files are being used and what you think of them!


Have an awesome Friday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.



~*Shell*~

Use Those Thingies Thursday Challenge

Last week, I mentioned that I recently participated in a 6x6 recipe swap. Today, I want to challenge YOU to make a recipe page ... or two .... or 10!

For our swap, each of us made 3 recipe pages to send to 5 other people. For my pages, I used some of my favorite things .... the Cricut, SCAL, and Copics.



The first one is pretty simple. The recipe is for Cream Cheese and Olives, an old family favorite for us. The olives were cut using SCAL and the Cricut and placed randomly around the page.












The second - Nacho Pie - was a little more involved with jalepeno pepper and tortilla chip cuts. The chips were also embossed using the Cuddlbug, and a blacked out background was cut for the jalepeno pepper cut.













The third page, for Peanut Butter Dough, was the most involved because it includes a colored, stamped image, as well as embossing on the peanut cuts.












Stamps - SU
Paper - SU, GP (white)
Ink - SU basic brown (distressing on Nacho Pie page), Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories - Cuttlebug, pop dots, computer (printing recipes), Cricut, SCAL, Xyron


Grab a piece of 6x6 paper and 'scrap' your favorite recipe. Even if you are a card maker - try it!!! This swap was such a great experience for me. I ended up with a great number of wonderful recipes on super adorable pages. I can't wait to make a special book for them all.



Please post a link of your page!! I wanna see!!


Have a great Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.



~*Shell*~

Mojo Monday

What can Vacation Bible School do for you?? Wear you out, provide you with a HUGE number of smiles, work you to death, bring about amazing memories and moments ... and give you some mojo? Yep. Mojo.


Our VBS this year had a western theme - Saddle Ridge Ranch. Several weeks ago, I created a 'brand' that I planned to use for my room and for some of the decorations. The brand was simple, but conveyed the message - 3 year olds ....




As we were leaving church on Sunday evening last week, my hubby was admiring the brand and the way I was able to create it in PSP and import it into SCAL to cut. Then, he said "It would really be neat if you could use that and cut a stamp of it ..." Ummmmm....... WHY didn't *I* think of that?! Gracious!!! I think my brain was overload from working on the VBS room all day.


So .... I was off to Hobby Lobby to get stamp material (Provo Craft makes it for the Cricut) because I couldn't quickly put my hands on what I had in the Haven.

The .jpg file of the stamp was imported into SCAL and sized. Then, I put the stamp material on the mat and cut.





The result?

















I wanted to do something fun with the stamp, so I made a card with it. I believe that I'm going to make several more and send them to the wonderful people that helped me during the week.







Stamps - Cricut cut 3 brand
Paper - SU Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip, GP white
Ink - SU Basic Brown
Accessories - Cricut, SCAL, silver brads, pop dots
Techniques - distressing (creamy caramel layer)








It's great fun to be able to create my own stamp just for an occasion like this. Obviously, I can't make really detailed or etched stamps, but this can work well for special projects.


Have an awesome Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!

~*Shell*~

Free File Friday

Today, I'm offering up a scalloped heart bordered card. The .jpg is below. Simply import the image into SCAL using the Trace feature. Size the card to what you wish, cut, and score in the middle.

Please let me know what you think of the free files, and let me know what you do with it!





Have a great Friday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!! :)


~*Shell*~