A Cup of Love

Hey y'all,

I have enjoyed crafting and finding time to write on my blog again. I was quite busy for a while much more than I care to be. I am very much a one thing at a time person. LOL

I wanted to make a card for our pastor's mom. I understand she is having quite the birthday party. I wanted it to be our gift to them for his mom. I had decided I would make the very cute tea cup box card from Garden Party Box Cards SVG Kit by svgcuts.com  but then thought maybe I should ask if she drank tea. The answer was no but she would drink coffee from a cup and saucer. I thought the tea cup box card would work.

I started on the card but nothing was working, I just wasn't happy with it. I tried to make what I had do but I still wasn't happy with it. I told Mark this a.m. that I needed to start over and that is just what I did.

I cut the body of the card out using Blackbird Bazzill card stock. I used paper from Graphic 45 Bohemian paper collection for the accents and back piece. I edged the accent pieces with a black Copic marker and adhered them after writing Happy Birthday on the back and attaching the steam piece I made first.  I took my time writing first in pencil then going over the top with a memento Ink black marker, erasing the pencil afterwards.

 I wanted this card to be as if he had purchased the card himself to give to his mom. With that thought in mind, I chose not personalize the card with mom or her name.  I added few flowers with enamel dots for the centers.

I began to add all the flowers but I really wanted the cup to look like a coffee cup instead of a tea cup. As I stared at the bottom accent piece on my virtual mat it came to me to make a swirl of steam using the saucer accent piece. I added a another smaller narrow one to the center cutting the tap off and deleting nodes to make sure it looked correct. Once I got it the shape I wanted I welded the two pieces together and did a test cut. It needed a bit more tweaking. I adjusted the tabs to look like the ones Mary has so often used on her files. and kept the score line in the same area.  I adhered the fold of the cardstock vellum steam swirl over back top of the card. Make the accent piece for the back slightly larger and adhere the accent piece over the fold to hide it.  I took a photo of the writing because it turned out so pretty. I may not be able to make anything look that pretty again. If you look closely at the photo you can see how I hid the vellum tab with the back.  The swirl I cut for the inside of the card was a silhouette file cut from Stampin up Card Stock Vellum as was the steam swirl I created. I am sure Mary has something in her files either for free or purchased that would have worked as well, I just didn't take the time to look for one.

I cut the envelope and  inserted the card. I  look forward to showing  our sweet friend and pastor how to open the card for his mom. I hope she is blessed by this handmade gift.
Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me. Many blessings my dear friends and Happy Crafting Y'all!
Blessings, Sharalyn

Garden Party Box Cards SVG Kit

Supplies
Bazzill Card Stock-Blackbird
Graphic 45- Bohemian Collection
Card Stock Vellum- Stampin' Up
Copic Marker-Black
Enamel Dots
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive (tacky glue)
Silhouette Business Addition
Silhouette Cameo

Autumn's First Pumpkin Cottage

Afternoon Y'all,
Hooray!!! It is the first day of Autumn and my Very Favorite time of year!!!!!! After a long hot summer I enjoy the crispness of the air and yes the wind. My Husband Mark hates the wind as it messes up his yards.  He is very blessed to make yards look amazing, so please don't tell him I enjoy the wind as well. It is very fitting that I should share  on this first day of Autumn,  my design of the Pumpkin Cottage SVG Kit. Lets get to it then.

I started with choosing my accent papers from my Silhouette digital papers I had purchased. I wanted to try out my new continuous ink system. The cost of it at start up was expensive but I am grateful I can now print without worrying how much ink I am using. This will be a learning process for me and I will share along the way how things are going. So far the print to cut feature is being a mite picky but I will learn how to use it. Upon the advice of Deb Maurer and Jeannie Lassey whom have these systems I chose pigment ink by Cobra Ink Systems. No I do not get a commission by adding the name.
I printed on white card stock but the color didn't "pop" to my liking so I tried American Craft carrot card stock but still not to my liking.  After thinking about it a while I chose lemon Yellow to print it on.  I got the affect I  was hoping for but the machine said it would not read the registration lines so it would not cut it out for me. I decided that was ok with me and cut it out with my Tim Holtz Snips. They are only 5 inches long but I like the handles and the seriated edges they blades have. It was much easier to "fussy cut" with them.  I purchased them in a small craft store in Big Bear but I have checked and Amazon has them as well.

I cut the base of the  Pumpkin Cottage SVG Kit out of Pumpkin Patch Bazzill card stock. Appropriately named eh? lol.  I had purchased digital papers from Snap Click.com for the step and door. The door was a Carta Bella paper collection called Hello Fall and the Step was a Bo Bunny Collection called Forever Fall. I printed those on white American Craft smooth Card Stock. I think I prefer the textured but my printer doesn't always love that so we shall see what I purchase more of to print on. I cut off the back of a brad I had in my stash and added a tiny glue dot to adhere it to the door.  I forgot to turn off the cut lines off the step when I was printing so I had black cut lines. I did my best to hide them  with a dark brown distress ink.
Those cut out just fine. You can use the actually collections if you have them but I did not so I used the digital versions.
I cut the base and other brown elements using a favorite of mine Bazzill Mud Pie. The window frames and roof were cut using Bazzill Mocha Divine. The roof accents were embossed with cuttlebug Argyle emboss folder then inked with Archival Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink. I try to purchase the re-inker when I buy a new ink pad as you never know when they will discontinue that ink and it is cost effective to re-ink your pads rather than continually purchase new pads. Occasionally I have to purchase new dew drop pads of the copper as they fall apart after a while from my use of them, particularly in the Fall.
The flowers in the window box were inked with Stamping up real red, only orange and rich razzleberry inks. I believe these can still be purchased on ebay though they are older inks.
enamel dots were added to the centers. I have quite the collection of them so I use whatever I feel matches.

I used a dark brown pen and added diagonal lines to the widow boxes as well as edging all sides with the pen. I cut the vellum for the windows using Stampin Up cardstock vellum and setting them on some scratch paper, I used a smooth leaf stamp from Basic Grey I dropped drops of yellow orange and red onto a baby wipe. Use the baby wipe as your stamp pad and the smooth leaf stamp to the colors onto your vellum. Let them dry and adhere to the back of the pumpkin Cottage window body with the stamped image facing the outside. This keeps the ink from smearing. You could use any smooth stamp but  I like having the shape as well as the colors.
Looking through my stash I found some sunflower buttons I cut the shank off of and hot glued into place on the vines. I also found a scarecrow sticker that fit in well and the rake that was added next to the pile of leaves was in my stash as well. Almost all of my buttons come from Buttons Galore and More.

The leaves are from my stash and are from a SVG collection called Autumn Elements SVG Collection . I measured them and they are sized at less than an 1/2 inch long. If you keep your measurements locked you should be able to type in .50 in the length and it should give you a width as well. Set your machine to cut at a slower rate so it does not tear your design. Also make sure you turn on the overcut markings to help with this. This is if you have a silhouette machine as that is what I design and cut with. I used a little hot glue to get the piled look.
The kitty in the widow effect was added to one of the extra vellums I cut for the two other windows. This was done with a silhouette shape of a cat and then print and cut feature on my silhouette.  Part of the nice thing about my silhouette is that I can change the size of a print or the direction to fit the piece I am wanting to put it on.
The welcome mat on the step was a half cloud shaped sticker with a woodgrain print on it from Carta Bella The story of fall paper Collection I had in my stash. I simply wrote welcome on it with a pen.

There you have it a lengthy explanation of my Pumpkin Cottage SVG Kit .  I enjoyed this kit very much and am looking forward to making a Christmas version of some kind. Again it will be hard to choose papers as seemed to be the thing that took me the most time but isn't that the way it is with us creative people. Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my blog. Many blessing to you on all this first day of Autumn and Happy Crafting Y'all!!! Blessings, Sharalyn

Pumpkin Cottage SVG Kit

Bazzill Card Stock
Pumpkin Patch
Rainforest
Mocha Divine
Mud Pie
Leaves American Craft
Apricot, pomegranate, sunflower
Mc Gill Flower Shaping Tools
Buttons Galore and More
Stampin up Ink Pads, Markers
Hot Glue
Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
Silhouette Cameo
Silhouette Business Addition
If you have any questions feel free to contact me on my facebook page Shara's Paper Creations and I will answer. Opie Kitty says Nite all.

Past Midnite.... Honey Bee Fairy House turns into a pumpkin!

Hey Y'all,
It is my favorite time of year again... Fall!
Here in Joshua Tree it is not usually getting cold till Halloween but today I put pants on because I was cold. Granted I don't have as much fat anymore but even our tortoises are telling us fall is on the way.

I have a lot of followers for which I am very grateful for but one in particular blesses my heart because she has made a lot of the things I have made with my instructions. It was my desire when I started my blog to help encourage others that you can make the things I make.  Nicole Austin has done that several times over with her recreations of my creations. Thank you Nicole. This blog post was written with you in mind to keep your creativity going and because you have blessed my heart by showing me your finished creations.

Lets get started...
I cut the Honey Bee Fairy House SVG base using Bazzill pumpkin cardstock and used Carta Bella Autumn paper pack for my accents.
My thought all along was to make this look like a pumpkin and Mary Rudakas -Bonk, made a pumpkin  last year with a wonderful stem that I used on this fairy house. That Kit with the pumpkin is called Harvest Sunset SVG Kit. You will need to size the stem down, I did have the exact measurements but cannot find them now.    The pumpkin leaves are from the same kit in the extras file, they were sized to W. 1.42 X 1.375 H. I used Tim Holtz mowed lawn distress ink to add shade to the leaves. The curly vines were cut on my paper trimmer but you could also use the vines from Pick a Pumpkin SVG Kit . Trim the ends at an angle to give it more of a pointed look. The curly step was one of the vines from Gourds Galore SVG Collection.
Assemble the fairy house following Leo's instructions. Do not add the flower or the bees.
I glued the stem of the pumpkin from  Harvest Sunset SVG Kit to the top of the fairy house. I added ink to the stem as well then using the pumpkin leaves I camouflaged  the stem with the leaves and vines because the fit was not perfect. The  green and pomegranate colored flower on the side was the small flower in the Honey Bee Fairy House SVG  and a flower from the  ABC Flowers SVG Bundle.
I glued the small pomegranate flower to the green flower and using a stamen center from Amazon I glued that to the center of the flower.
The "doorbell" was another small flower with a tiny bell from the Christmas section of Michael's. The "light" above the house was glued to the flower and was a plastic Christmas light from the same section in Michaels.  I added gold rhinestones above and below the windows and one in the center of the flowers on the front and back.
An added benefit was that I already had the cute little sunflower scarecrow boy and girls. I purchased them a few years ago from Walgreens and have seen them almost every year since. They made the photo that much cuter.

That is how I made this cute little fairy pumpkin house. Nothing special really and easy peasy.
I hope you enjoyed my little pumpkin house. I have another blog post I need to get written up for you and will start working on that one tomorrow. I apologize for it taking me so long today. I had internet issues and had to make 5 phone calls to get it cleared up. Tomorrow after the mail comes I hope to get my Continuous ink System up and running, the goal is to be able to print just what I need and cut down on the load my paper shelf is under. Wish me luck I will need it. I have a very stubborn printer. If all goes well the blog post will be up sometime on Sunday after church.
Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Have a wonderful evening and Happy Craftin' Y'all!!! Blessings, Sharalyn

Supplies:
Bazzill Pumpkin card stock
American Craft Pomegranate  Card Stock
Carta Bella Autumn Paper Collection
Tim Holtz Distress Ink- Mowed Lawn
Yellow Stamen
Tiny Bell
Small Plastic Christmas Light.
Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Silhouette Business Addition
Silhouette Cameo

Not Just your Ordinary Garden Party Box Cards

Evening everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying your Memorial weekend. This is my write up for the 3 cards shown on my Facebook page.

I used Garden Party Box Cards SVG Kit from svgcuts.com to make these cards and thought it would be great to use this or the birdhouse card from this kit as my Christmas card for this coming season Or change the tea cup to be a cocoa cup adding a little cheer to your holiday. So many great ways to used this wonderful kit.

Lets get stared on the first card. I cut the body of the card using Truffle colored card stock from Bazzill. The insert for the inside of the lantern was cut from an Echo Park 6x6 paper pack called The Great Outdoors.

The cool thing about this card I cut out is I use a Silhouette Cameo and cut solid score lines with it for the first time. I love the clean look it gave the card. I will tell you all about how I did it further down in this post.

I cut the inserts out and embossed them with a star emboss folder from Darcy, then inked the edges of it with an illuminate Ink pad from Stampin up.
To give the lantern a glow around the opening I used a gold smooch ink pen.
The moths are from a kit called Camp S'more SVG Kit. The moths are taken from the cool camping lantern but made smaller as not to overpower the card. I added some Diamond Stickles to the body portion of the moths and a tiny black pearl for the head. They were adhered with some glue.  Diamond stickles were also added to the insert of this card before gluing into place. Add some twine and a personal note to the recipient and you have a pretty awesome card.

I did go a little crazy with my ideas using this wonderful card as I made two more cards using the same body. This next one I used Vanilla American Craft cardstock and Graphic 45 By the Sea Collection for my insert and panels.   In particular, the portion with the light house as the recipient lives by the sea. I added a starfish and sea shell "charm" from Wet and Wild SVG Kit.

I also added a anchor as well from
High Skies SVG Kit . I used a little coral ink pad on the shell and starfish and to get that texture I used an embossing folder that was for Christmas. It worked well as it is really to make it look like snow.
Because it was a lantern card I added one tiny moth as well but left off the glitter glue and head.

Last but not least is the card I made for my grandson. He is growing up so fast and soon like his brothers, will be taller than myself. I am a whopping 5.3 1/2 so I shouldn't take very long.


I cut the body of the card using Turquoise Mist Bazzill card stock.
Because I knew Wyatt would love lots of moths on his card there are quite a few of them for him.  I used Echo Park Great Outdoors Collection for the panels and added a piece with a map for the insert.

I should add that I had started cutting Wyatt's card first with the new Silhouette 4.0 and was still finding my way around this new software and it's look. I had not yet used the solid score line feature as I had not found it yet. When I found it though I tried cutting the brown lantern and as I posted on one of the Facebook pages, I was more than a little  excited.
Currently I am only able to cut solid score lines with the kits that Mary Rudakus has added to the newer kits in the extras file. It is a new feature she has added and one I am truly grateful and can appreciative now that I have that capability.
There is a slight bug I am hoping Silhouette will fix soon that would allow me to change the score lines of the older kits with the just changing cut line feature. For now it "shows" it is changing them but that is all.
To Remedy that I change the current score lines color to another color such as blue then add straight score over the top of the current ones making that color black. You will need to cut by line so when you cut them uncheck the current score line color and check the solid score lines you added.  If you click on the drop down arrow next to your blade you can change that line to score. Make sure you check the depth it will cut as it may be to deep for some lighter cardstocks. IE it will cut straight thought.
I hope you all enjoyed my cards and more, I hope the recipient's will enjoy them as well. Thank you for visiting my blog and be sure to check out the memorial day sale Mary has going on right now. You can use code HONOR2017 to receive 20% off your total order. Have a safe and wonderful Memorial weekend and remember to thank our fallen hero's and the living as well for your freedom. They do appreciate your acknowledgement. Thanks again and Happy Craftin' Y'all!
Blessings, Sharalyn

Another Way to use your Talents

Hey all,
 So Leo misses our blogs and blog posts and I thought I would share with you another way to use your paper crafting.  This is what has kept me so busy these last few months and the main  reason I stepped down from the design team.  I felt a call on my heart to decorate the church using my gifts, IE paper crafting. I still paper craft just more for the church now.

My daughter arranges the artificial flowers as I really can't do that, not to the degree she can. That is one of her gifts. We have these baskets up front on the "stage" I call it that for lack of a better term but it is where our pastor and our praise team/choir stands. Elizabeth kept getting this idea and drew it out for me. Another one of her many talents. It included our baskets and some paper flowers. This is were I come in lol. I made the "black eyed Susan's" and a few other "fantasy flowers that will help make this look inviting to our guests. The Black eyed Susan's were our nod of thanks to our vets and the ones who didn't come home. May is the celebration of Memorial Day as well as Mother's Day and both are important to say thank you to.  The idea included the green fairy lights that were to represent "lightin' bugs" which I used the dragonfly I designed inspired by Summer Night and Flights SVG Bundle cut from cardstock weight vellum and adhered to the lights with a mini glue dot. This was to cut down a bit on the brightness of the lights.
The flowers with the  stem  hanging down were cut using the Hydrangea Tray SVG . Just fold the stem in half put the loop through the hole and use a floral wire to make a loop and attach the loop. I did have to do a one tie knot as the hole was just a tad to big. That is an easy fix though just ungroup and release compound path make the center hole smaller and then using the align tool center it in the center of your flower then make a compound path again and cut. You will need to draw a box around the flower and your new circle first before you align it.

The last flower I used was a daisy from svgcuts.com it is from the 3dflowers II. To make my daisies with the different color in the center you make the same outer petal but a tad smaller. I added puff balls to the center of these to expedite the making of them.

The final touch will be to add alternating red, white and blue ribbons to the baskets. There are four baskets so the last one will be a yellow ribbon for the soldiers that don't come home. God Bless each one of them.

So that is what I have been up to and I will try to continue to keep y'all in the loop of what I am making but they will depend on how rushed I am to get it done. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. I hope this helps Mr. Leo Kowal, and cheers you just a little. We do still blog we are just mega busy... Many blessings to you all, Sharalyn

Fresh as a Daisy

Hi everyone!

I have had this idea in my head since I first saw the Zinnia Compote from the Give Thanks Bundle Dreaming Tree put out last fall. I originally had an idea with pine bows and pine cones but that is for another time. I knew I wanted to do a spring one but when I received the drawing from my daughter for church decor, my brain took off from there. In fact the rest of the flowers and such were just a work in progress all the way.

I love the compote vase but wanted to add hearts because I am that kind of person. Using my silhouette designer addition I released compound path and ungroup the design for the compote vase and removed them. I did the same with the designs from the Hydrangea tray to use in the compote. I really moved things around till I found the way I liked it then inserted it and cut. The heart had to be red of course but I had to make a duplicate of the heart in order to cut it a different color. The whole vase is inked with brilliant copper ink. Glue floral foam to the inside of your compote vase.

I cut ferny greens from 3D Wintergreens SVG Kit . I cut olive green and a light green for new growth look. I really wanted ferns so I contacted Leo and put that and Ivy on a wish list for Ron to design. These would be good fillers for displays like this. About that time Dreaming Tree came out with the Paper Sculptures Bundle, one of the freebies with this was what I decided would for perfect for my ferns I had wanted. I cut those out of the same olive green and using my McGill flower shaping tools I shaped them the way I wanted them to look as I adhered them into the floral arrangement.

Elizabeth( not Kowal but my daughter) and I had talked about Delphiniums and since there was no design for those I used the impatiens petals from 3D Flowers SVG Kit ll. I altered them but upon designing the hanging flowers with the stamens I realized I could have used it without having to alter at all. Just use the flower petals from Love You Mom SVG Bundle. Cut the petals keeping the hole in the center of the flower and fold your stamen in half put the loop of the stamen onto a looped floral wire and close the loop insert that into your floral foam you clued to the inside of your compote vase.
Be sure to shape and  ink before putting the stamen through. For the white flowers like this I made three lines with a marker on each side first.  for the Delphiniums I cut the flowers using sapphire blue card stock. Shape the flowers then hot glue each flower to a 1/4 inch dowel that was painted green first. The black centers were #15 from 3D Flowers SVG Kit ll the yellow on them were scribbled on with a bible highlighter. It is a waxy yellow pencil that will not bleed through to the next page when you highlight in your bible.

The daisies are from the 3D Flowers SVG Kit ll as well using white cardstock and a lime green pen or pink pen was used the add the lines. Cut the yellow centers and add yellow lines and dots to them before gluing into place. The back of the daisies were cut from olive green cardstock using the # 8 file of this same kit. I cut 3 for each flower then glued one onto the other and using a 3/16 hole punch I punched a hole, inserted the floral wire made a loop and bent it flat then glued into place with glossy accents by Ranger. Glue your flower onto that and shape your stem to insert into floral foam.
The pink and white daisies are the same flower just make the pink or whatever color you like a smaller size. Cup and shape it into a tight round shape and glue into place. I used tweezers to hold the centers when I glued them into place.

The lantern is the favor box from Orchid Events SVG Bundle. What a fantastic bundle this is! Really outstanding and I love all of it! When I saw the favor box though I knew I was going to make it into a tiny lantern. It took a speed of 1 and a deep cut to get this perfect. I also have a crazy machine that acts up every time it needs a update so I had to do that as well. As soon as I did all was fine. The wire was again floral wire I bent into a loop to hold it into the arrangement. Add vellum to the inside panels of your box and then make a "s" loop with the wire.

Finally the "lighting" bugs are the same dragonflies I designed looking at the dragon fly lantern over a year ago. Cut from cardstock Vellum and adhered with a mini glue dot to green fairy lights I got from Amazon. The pink yellow and purple tiny flowers are something that was in my wonderful "cuts" box I keep but you can be pretty sure they came from something Mary designed a while a go as it was before 3d svg was around.
I covered the foam with moss from the dollar tree and wove the light string around the flowers and then our friends the "lighting bugs" were added. I am aware they are not tree lighting bugs. I have seen the photo of the real thing and lets just say I think mine are much cuter.

Many thanks for visiting my blog, I will be in and out but have never stopped crafting totally just using my "gift" for decorating our church. That is truly a blessing and joy for me. Much love to you all and Happy Craftin' Y'all. Blessings Sharalyn

Since I am not on anyone's design team the sizes, color names and such are not added. Files I used are so you can recreate if you so desire. Nite all, don't let the lightin bugs bite.

Sending You Love...

Hey Y'all,

 I have been told y'all miss me. Well I miss y'all too. I have been super busy getting kitchens done and taking care of my health. I am happy to say I have lost 41.5 lbs so far and feeling lots better. My hands still bother me when I overdo  but for the most part I am well. I have been trying very hard to get something done to let you all know paper crafting is still a passion of mine. I am so close to getting all the elements of my design done and then I can do the fun part for me, which is putting it all together. I will share as soon as I am done and it is all together.

I have shown Leo elements of it and he has given me the impression he is excited about it. You would have to ask him, I know he enjoys my crazy ideas as much as you all and I am sure he is excited to see the end result. I am excited as well but making the elements, is what takes the longest. I had to design a few things as what I had in my mind wasn't available but for the most part you should be able to use designs from SVG Cuts and 3dsvg.com.  I will include suggestions for the elements I designed.

Until I finish I have included a few pictures I have had the pleasure of taking recently.. Hang in there please know I am thinking of you all as well and wishing you all Blessings from God..
Blessings Sharalyn
The Doggie in the photo is our baby Peaches, she and Opie are bother and Sister and have also kept us quite busy. Much Love Sharalyn