Practice and a Sincere heart

Happy Sunday Y'all!
Our Pastor was working in his yard late in the week this past week and tweaked his back something fierce. I had tried to make a box card yesterday but It didn't turn out so well. I won't fold but it was still cute. I can't show you a photo of it as today was the gals birthday so I gave it to her. I wanted to show our pastor we were thinking and praying for him and I wanted to give that card box another crack. I bought this file from the Silhouette online store but wanted to give it a more personal touch. So here it is.


I brought the file onto my mat and decided that I wanted it to refer to James 5:14-15 from the Bible. About anyone sick among you etc. Since we had done just that and prayed for him even thought he was not able to attend church. I loved the owl but giving him one with a medical cross on the hat seemed a bit out of line. After all I am not his wife or his nurse. So I changed the nodes to  extend it to a cross of Christ. I cut the owl body three times to glue the pieces together as Mary does on so many of her wonderful projects for strength.  To accentuate that we were praying for him I made a duplicate of the owl and cut off the arms on one. Then I added an oval to the cut off piece and sized it till it fit perfectly and welded those together. Glue the hands together as if they are praying then bend them at a "wrist".  The saying on the back was done using my text tool and print and cut on my Silhouette. Then I took out the dots for the eyes and drew in eyelashes to represent closed eyes.  The rest was as the file was designed. Nothing special on this one, just a sincere heart to say we care and we are praying for him to be well and out of pain.

 Mary is working on a new set of these and if they are anything like the sneak peak we saw yesterday this will be a wonderful and well used file. Stay tuned Y'all! Blessings on all of you this wonderful Sunday and Happy Craftin!
Blessings Sharalyn
Silhouette Online Store
Design # 56778

Supplies used:
American Craft Card Stock, Caramel, Pool,Blush, Crimson,White,Tangerine
My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart- Be Amazing Collection
Black Pen
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Come Play Seaside!

Evenin' Y'all,

I love the new Seaside SVG Kit from svg cuts don't you? I could hardly wait to get my hands on it as I wanted to make one for my mom and dad. They live a mile from the ocean and can see the ocean through their front window. When Mark and I visited them a couple of summers ago, they took us to a lighthouse in Bandon where they live. I will post a picture of the next lighthouse for mom and dad after I get it made. Here is my first version of the lighthouse and keepers house that Mary designed, for the new Seaside SVG Kit.

I cut both the lighthouse and the keepers house at the size they import. Mary had used blue Vellum on her windows and I thought that looked really cool. I made a greenish blue vellum by starting with  a bit of Tim Holtz Iced Spruce ink onto the vellum. That looked a bit to green for me and I had only made a few strokes of the pad when I realized that. I then got my peacock feathers and smeared a bit of that, but the color looked to strong to me so I got a sponge and blended the two. I liked that and I dried it first with my heat gun on low. I have a Stampin up heat gun that has a setting for drying ink. After it was dry,  I wanted the windows to look like they had sea spray on them so I used my Versa Mark ink and a Stampin Wheel called Splatter. I used Hero Arts superfine Clear embossing powder on it to finish the look. I put the vellum sheet ink side UP on my mat and cut it afterward.

The paper I used is from My Minds Eye Sweetest Thing Collection. I have been holding onto it for quite a while. I believe these collections came out sometime last year and I just love them. I would very much like to see something similar this year. I may have to search around the web and collect some more of that before it is all gone. I used American Craft Card Stock in Seafoam green, Vanilla, and Denim, Pool. I used the Pool Card Stock for the base as it gave my keeper house a little pop to it. I decorated it with Pinkpaislee Nantucket Collection, Wood shapes I had in my stash.  Around both the light house and the keepers house I used Twine from My Minds Eye, Follow your Hear Collection.

 The sea shells are ones I have had for more than 35 yrs and they have a story all their own. I will try to make it short. When Mark and I dated we went to Bolsa Chica beach a lot. One such visit early in our courtship he took me to this beach. As we went out in the early afternoon to play in the water we noticed that the tide went back really far and in a little groove all up and down the beach there were all these beautiful shells. We walked up and down the beach collecting shells every time the tide went back. When we were tired we lounged on the blanket and pulled out the shells, marveling at each one and how beautiful they were. Someone else cared as much as I did about nature and how special it is. I think that was the first time I realized I was falling in love with him. I sure didn't want to fall in love, but oh boy was I ever! Back to the Kit! I picked out a few and hot glued them on. The "door knob" is one of my K& Company textured brass nails. A little hint look in the mark down stuff as there is always something that you can use at a later date. That is where I found those nails.

 I did have and issue with cutting the kit on my Silhouette cameo as I had the newest designer addition and had not yet seen Leo's video  about using the newest program. Do yourself and any other cameo owner a favor, share the video with them. Anyone that read my post of SVG Cuts page knows the score lines moved on one of my pages. I didn't know that I had to group it first to simply move it in a better position on my mat. So I did cut it about 4 times before I got it right. Make it a point to watch it as Leo has other useful information in it.

The kit is simply beautiful, the Whole kit! You'll love playing down by the sea with this kit. There are three beautiful cards and I am looking forward to making those as well. If you would like to visit the ocean but can't go physically, go get this kit and take a walk by a lighthouse!

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting me and Happy Craftin' Y'all!
 Blessings, Sharalyn

SVG Kits Used:
Seaside SVG Kit

Supplies Used:
My Minds Eye Card Stock,Sweetest Thing Collection
American Craft Card Stock, Vanilla, Seafoam,Pool, Denim
My Minds Eye Twine, Follow Your Heart Collection
Pinkpaislee Wood Cuts, Nantucket Collection
Stampin Up, Vellum Card Stock
Hero Arts, Superfine Clear Emboss Powder
Tim Hotlz Distress Ink, Iced Spruce, Peacock Feathers
K& Company Brass Adhesive Nail
Sea Shells from Beach
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

Note: Tea Lights are from Amazon and are color changing lights. 

Spring is Calling Daffodil Telephone Contest Entry

Hey y'all!!!,
Happy Pre- Resurrection Day!!!!!
I told y'all I would share my instructions to the Daffodil phone as soon as the contest was over and I am keeping my promise to Y'all!
So I was designing the pieces for another phone I had been working on and I heard in my head ( spring is calling). OK now I know that sounds weird but let me say I always pray before I make something for someone and I always ask God should I enter the contest and what should I make. If that is weird then OK I AM WEIRD! Call me a Jesus freak to my face and you'll get a huge grin, that's me. That said, I smiled and said OK then kept designing and I heard again Spring is calling... OK OK God I get it I said. I  saved the file I was working on and went to work designing the daffodil phone, smiling to myself as I just think God is  to funny.

Start with the dress form from the Dress Shop SVG Kit. I used the stand and also used Deb's idea for weighting it from Deb's Crafty Side blog. She told how she made and extra piece with a whole in the bottom for her finger to hold it but you'll have to go to her blog to read it  because you need to visit her blog anyway. She is an awesome gal and has many great ideas. Anyhoo. I did as she did but I have trouble cutting with scissors because of tendonitis.  :P  So I made it a tiny bit smaller put the hole in the center and cut it out of chipboard on my Silhouette.  (I used the cardboard that the American Craft paper comes in when you buy a mulit pack) I cut two of those and glued them together. I didn't have the same stones Deb had from the Dollar tree but I had the pretty ones. Same price  so I used those. I glued them into place with Tim Holtz Glossy Accents. I have a huge  bottle of that stuff and LOVE IT! It is great for gluing things you just aren't sure will hold with regular glue.  Do as Deb suggests and glue the flaps onto the bottom then cover up the piece with your extra piece.

 I  had these tubes from the glow sticks you can buy from the dollar tree. Apparently the glow sticks are or were inside these tubes and I had bought some for my grand-kids for the 4th last year.  My daughter saw them and had everyone save them for me.(lol love that kid)  It was perfect for the center tube or stem. I put that down the center to stabilize the stem as I knew I was going to put weight on the top. I hot glued that to inside of the tube on the Telephone. I separated the base pieces so I cannot tell you the size to make the whole thing but your base Octagon should be W 3.168 . If your octagon is that size then the rest of the pieces for that should fit. I inked the whole thing with Old Olive Ink from Stampin up.

 The piece around the bottom that is scalloped is super easy to make. Here is how.
 Make a rectangle that is W 2.187 and about an inch high then make ten or less small circles and arrange them across the top. I use Silhouette designer addition to design in so it is super easy to duplicate and then align them evenly but, eyeball it if you don't have that.  I UN-welded and re-welded several times till I got it the way I wanted. Now if you have a crimp-er

or the Note book embossing folder that will make the lines down the sides of the stem.  I don't have either so I used my score board.  I used my forest branches embossing folder for the rest of the embossing on the stem, leaves, and head of the phone. Glue the small rectangle piece around the bottom of the stem or tube. I felt this gave the bottom more stability and covered up the bottom so it looked like part of the flower bed.

Cut the base bottom again this time the octagon should measure W. 2.230  If the octagon is this size the rest of the pieces should fit as well. When you glue this one together DO NOT glue the long end pieces together. Not sure this is clear but I mean the piece that the tube would fit into. You will hot glue those onto the front first then wrap the other pieces around the back of the top of the tube. To sort of cover that up, you will use a curly vine from Pick A Pumpkin and wrap that around the pieces you just hot glued onto the tube hot gluing those wherever needed. Use another curly vine and carefully emboss it then glue on the edges of the base. You don't have to but that is what I did and yes it did fall apart after I embossed it but I used it anyway.  I should mention that I have a fine tip hot glue gun I bought on Amazon that is for detail work. Love this as it allows a tiny bit of glue and not a huge glob.

Now make the Daffodil from the 3d flowers 1 SVG Kit. I cut two petals and glued them together for extra thickness. Cut the petals at W3.422 If you import the centers at the same time you can get the correct size for the whole Daffodil. I inked the edges of the daffodil with Daffodil Delight ink from Stampin up and made short quick link strokes with the pen in that color as well on the yellow petals. As the two petal layers are drying when you glue them together give the paper a curve. If you try to do that after it dries flat it will come unglued or not curve well at all. There is a small glossy accents glob on one of the petals for a dew drop. The stamens of the flower was doted with an Rust  maker. I inked the edges of the orange center part of the daffodil with Only Orange ink as well. I used my flower shaping tools on the center and on the pansies to help break the fibers a bit so the flower can have more curve to it. Put the daffodil together and attach leaves which are cut at W3.407. I also used the Forest Branches embossing folder on the leaves as well as inking them with Old Olive Ink from Stampin up. Cut several curly vines and curl around a pencil then hot glue in place. Glue one as if it is coming out the back of the phone and the other behind the top back I will add photos of how I did that. I used three leaves glued together then attached it with a brad and hot glue into the tube for the ear piece holder. I poked a whole then squirted hot glue into it then stuck the leaves and brad on that. I glued the long straight leaf to the stem and tucked the tip of the leaf into the scalloped edge around the base. Bend your leaves over so they can hold the ear piece. You will glue the leaves to the ear piece to hold it in place later.
Tired yet???? Now onto the ear piece. Cut the Lilly cup cake holder from Spring cup cake holders SVG Kit at W 6.50 and cut the knob from the Victorian Tea pot from Honeybee Tea SVG Kit at W 4.545. Put the knob together and then glue the Lilly cup cake holder to the outside of the knob. To make fit a bit better I sniped the edges of the knob up a bit so that the flaps from it would fit the Lilly cup cake holder better. Ink the edges of the white Lilly with a lime green colored ink. Wrap a thin curly vine around the top of the cupcake holder to cover that part of it. The stamens of the flowers were cut with AC card stock Dandelion color at H 3.603 W0.346I made dots on the stamen tips as if it were pollen.

I used coffee colored AC Card Stock for the base accents and my tiny bubbles embossing folder. I used a dark brown ink pad and blotted it a bit on the accents then took my gold ink pad and tapped it in a few places as well. The pansies are cut at W 1.206  leaves are cut at the same size. I did the short quick lines on the petals of the lavender AC card stock on the pansies, three lines on each petal. I cut the centers with the Dandelion color again and glued them together. The Dark purple paper is from is Stampin up and is called Egg plant.Glue the flowers and leaves together then hot glue to the base.

Ok I am tired of writing are you tired of reading? When your doing this you don't realize how much you actually did.  The caterpillar is made using the curly vines a well. Curled and hot glued in place. I started with the black, glued it into place and though you can't see it there are centers from the wildflower underneath the caterpillar feet. You can leave them out if you want as most people didn't even notice.  if you want to cut legs they are cut at W 0.738.  Once you have the black in place then curl the white and the orange and thread them around and through the black. Hot glue those where ever needed. I found two black buttons that are often used as eyes for stuff animals in my stash and hot glued those in the ends for the head and backside of the caterpillar. A round or half round black or white button will work as well.  The inteni on the back of the caterpillar are the stamens from the daffodil cut extremely small!  REALLY!!! W 0.458  I used the scotch quick dry glue for to attach those. Put small dots of glue on that and lay each stamen into the glue glob. You will have to cut them apart. I used tweezers to hold them  as I cut them apart.
The Butterfly is from Breezy Meadow Butterflies SVG Collection and it is the top of the #2 butterfly. I cut two of those  at W 2.662 and then put four small glue globs onto the black and used Art Glitter's Sapphire glitter to make the blue dots. The yellow is actually yellow tissue paper that is mod podge into place and then the other black piece glued to the back. Set it aside and let it dry first before adding the rest pieces of butterfly.  Make one black curly vine for the body of the butterfly and hot glue that onto the underside, take two of the centers of the daffodils you cut easier to make the inteni for the butterfly. The legs are curly vine as well cut very thin H. 0.172 Glue those onto the body of the butterfly then bend the legs so they look like butterfly legs and glue onto the flower so it looks like the butterfly is trying to speak into the receiver.  I had the pleasure of watching a new butterfly as it moved its tongue out and back to bring the two straight pieces together. It was quite interesting and at the same time I noticed how their legs were bent at a knee and then at an ankle. There is a tongue on this guy as well,  just use another thin curly vine and glue to the underside of the butterfly by the head.

We are in the home stretch now. The dial is from Bicycle Built for Two SVG Collection and is cut  at W 1.533.  I had to group the numbers to the dial to make them cut out of the one middle dial. I used a dark color under the middle piece to make them show up and glued all the layers together then ran them through my big shot using the tiny bubbles embossing folder to smash all the layers together. I think I did run it through the machine about 4 to 6 times. This was to make it look like a stepping stone from a garden. Now the brad with the bee I had from MME Charmed collection. I remember when I got it that I though what am I going to do with that???? Little did I know I would be making this.

That is it as I look at this blog post I think Wow I really did a lot to make this. But after the first one, the second went together very fast. Even though I had to invent the bee on Tammy's as I didn't  have another brad with a bee. LOL OK, AS ALWAYS if you have ANY questions on what I did ask me. I have no problem telling you. Thank you all for understanding and waiting for these instructions.  I would love to see your versions of this Dandelion Telephone so please post on my shara's paper creations Facebook page or on SVG cuts Facebook page.
So many of my crafty friends have been under sooooo much snow and cold weather that it only made sense at this point to have the butterfly call for spring to come to Y'all. I will list all the kits, collections and supplies at the bottom of this post but do yourself a favor and get up and stretch. Lol You have earned it! Thanks so very much for stopping by and reading my blog/book and  Happy Craftin' Y'all! Blessings Sharalyn

I am also including a link to Deb's Crafty Side so you can read how she made the weighted bottom for the dress form. Very clever really! Deb's Crafty Side 

Kits and Collections used:
 Dress Shop SVG Kit
3D Flowers SVG Kit l
3D Flowers SVG Kit ll
Pick A Pumpkin SVG Kit

Spring Cupcake Wrappers SVG Kit
Breezy Meadow Butterflies SVG Collection
Honeybee Tea SVG Kit
Bicycle Built for Two SVG Collection

Supplies Used:
American Craft Card Stock: Pine, Dandelion, Lemon, Carrot, Black, White, Coffee, Carmel, Graphite, Chocolate, Ash, Evergreen (leaves for pansies), Lavender
Two half round black buttons
One Brad from My Minds Eye Charmed Collection: Bee
One small Green Brad
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
Stampin up Ink Pads and Pen: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Marigold, Lucky Limeade, Dusty Durango Pen, Daffodil Delight Pen and Wisteria Wonder Pen.
Cuttlebug Embossing Folders: Tiny Bubbles, Forest Branches.
Martha Stewart Scoring Board.
Mc Gill Flower Shaping Tools
Surebonder Detail Mini High Temperature glue gun
 Hot Glue

While writing this up I realized all my links on a several of my last posts did not lead you to the product page. I apologize for this. It has been fixed on this blog but I will have to go back to previous posts and fix them. So Sorry!

Vintage Victorian Time!

Hey Y'all,

So I didn't get 5 likes before I started writing this but I figured there were 2 and one very nice comment about how I am not boring y'all, so here goes. Try not to fall asleep OK?

So I was putting together the vintage hat and suitcase I designed.  As I was looking through my Ladies Diary paper from Graphic 45, I started to choose this paper for the suitcase and realized no I wanted this for the Victorian Tea Pot from the Honeybee Tea SVG Kit. Now the suitcase was my altered version of the hat box and the vintage hat and hat stand were my own creation using SVG cuts files. Anyhoo, I cut this tea pot at the size it imports and I tried using the new Silhouette Designer Version and I don't think I really understand how to work layers yet. I did take a class in layers and photoshop 15 yrs ago but really without using it I think I have forgotten all I learned. Anyway I wasn't really impressed at all with using it and SVG cut files. So I switched to the Sure Cuts a Lot as it was just easier.

I also had a bit of trouble putting together the Tea pot as my hands are not large at all. Todd in  choir teased me a couple of weeks ago and said I had baby hands. Well yes yes I do lol. To give you an idea my hand measures from the wrist to the tip of my middle finger 6 1/4 inches long. So trying to hold these big pieces together while they dried was hard for these baby hands. LOL Actually I have heard that I have little hands before and that I sound like a little girl on the phone and in person. Doesn't bother me at all I am how God made me.

I added lace I bought from Walmart to the bottom and a couple of roses I cut off of a ribbon. I used the Hexagon Epiphany Crafts to add a flowered piece to the top. I used the oval Charm and epoxy to add a Victorian lady in all her style to the front. I also added a cream colored pearl to the bottom of the Charm to complete the stylish look these gals had. The roses I used around the handle were from Stampin Up and come on a long ribbon. I used 4 Pearl  Heart brads to attach the handle then I cut up a Off White pearl decoration to add to the lid. Really that was all I did. This is a super cute style Tea Pot and I really liked the way this one came out. So this is a short post and nothing really special about it. I had started it last night and I finished it tonight. 

Our Choir Director Jeff gave me his Light box and I thought I would try it out. Now to be fair he told me to buy florescent daylight bulbs and I hadn't gone to the store yet to get any. He also told me to put a light at the top as well and I hadn't moved one over before so I just used two lights. I am also taking pictures with a point and shoot camera. I think this one turned out pretty great despite that.  I didn't do anything to the photo but crop it.   Thanks so much for stopping buy and reading my blog. I am so glad I am not boring Y'all. Have a super fantastic night and day tomorrow and Happy Craftin' Y'all! Blessings Sharalyn

SVG Kits Used:
Honeybee Tea SVG Kit
Supplies Used:
American Craft Card Stock, Vanilla
Graphic 45 Ladies Diary Collection
Recollection Cream colored pears and decoration
Cotton Crochet lace from Walmart
Cream colored Satin Ribbon
Epiphany Crafts, Hexagon, Oval epoxy and Oval Charm
Stampin up Rose Ribbon
Heart Pear Brads Recollections Collection.
Roses cut off from a ribbon Walmart
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive

A Little Gutiar for my Room

Hey y'all,

My hands and fore arms have recovered some from all the work I have been doing but not completely. Such is the life with tendonitis so I have been taking it kind of easy.
 Speaking of Easy......

I made the guitar from Vintage Valentines SVG Kit from Svg Cuts the other night.  I was right, Mary's new method of putting those things on like that works awesome as long as you haven't  altered her design. I did with the suitcase I made and since that was actually my first time doing the bottoms that way it was a little tough to say the least. But doing it the way Mary designed was much simpler and I might even try another letter again. ( insert smiley face)
That being said I wanted to share my guitar with you.

 I used Simple Stores Vintage Collection paper which I just love and some of my new Sea Foam Green paper from American Crafts. I like American Craft solid card stock  very much and find that in most cases it cuts very well. I do have a thing about their black paper though. It seems to have a different texture than the others and well maybe it just doesn't like me. If I need the project to be sturdy I use the black American Craft paper if not then I use the Recollection Black paper from Michaels. I cut the guitar out at the shape it imports and put it together as Mary instructs on the tutorial video except I didn't run out of ribbon. (so cute she is totally taken by surprise that she is out) I kept looking at it because it didn't look right to me, so I added the enamel dots from MME Lost and Found Record it  Antique collection to the neck. I had been working on some anniversary cards and had thin strips of silver glitter paper on my desk.  I was going to put  them away but picked up one and laid it across the top of the neck and then I decided to use it for the fret bars.   I set the guitar aside for half and day and enjoyed some time at church. While I was at church I noticed the guitar on the stage had some knobs at the bottom and top of the guitar. That afternoon I added those to my guitar and decided I still wanted the pick guard so I found it in the extras file and cut it out of a piece of Seafoam card stock. Then added some heat and stick to it and coated it with Art Glitter ultra fine Sea Shell transparent glitter.

There are two things I like about using Stampin up heat and stick and the transparent glitter from Art Glitter. I can add glitter to any color paper I want and the transparent glitter especially Sea Shell and Crystal pick up the pigment in the paper color your using and augments it so nicely.
To use Heat and Stick you used Versa Mark pad on the paper you want to add the heat and stick to. Then  you add the heat and stick, heat it up till it is just a bit shiny and  add the glitter or whatever to it,  heat it up again for it to set. The results are fabulous!!!! I always have the glitter on me for a couple of days. Mark tell me when I do but I tell him it is to make me pretty. To which he smiles. God love my husband for putting up with me. LOL

The "Silver Ribbon" I used was actually silver elastic thread used for beading. I had purchased it several years ago for something I needed to fix. I really can't say whether or not I fixed it but I still had the silver elastic.  So there you have it the guitar from Vintage Valentines. Thank you to all you who come and read my posts your encouragement keeps me creating and keeps me writing.  Thanks again and Happy Craftin Y'all!  Blessings Sharalyn
SVG Kits Used:

Vintage Valentines SVG Kit

Supplies Used:
Simple Stories Vintage Collection Paper
American Crafts Seafoam Green Solid Card Stock
Stampin Up Heat and Stick
Art Glitter  Ultra Fine Transparent Sea Shell Glitter
My Minds Eye Lost and Found Record it Collection Antique Enamel Dots
My Minds Eye The Sweetest Thing Collection Enamel Dots 
Rhinestones from Recollections Collections (Michaels)
Recollections Silver Glitter Card Stock
Create A Craft Elastic Thread