Craft artist professional on ebay

I've got 3 Craft artist professional discs for sale on ebay - starting price £10, Buy it Now for £15.   If you are interested go look for Georgiegirl2012 or go via the links in the previous post.

Such Wickedness - so selling Cricut and Bigshot

Grab a cuppa and a biscuit and settle down for a read about my bad behaviour

I am a wicked wicked woman who will never be able to darken the door of Martin's Money Saving website ever again.  Why? I hear you ask (or is that just the voices in my head)  Well, I've only gone and spent some money.  And not just "some" money - rather a lot of money in fact.

Firstly, after watching Mel Heaton on C&C  I dug out my Cricut and decided it was indeed rather fabulous, and after playing for a little while came to the conclusion that I wanted more functionality.  Now, I had a bit of a browse, and rather liked the look of the Cricut Expression which cuts up to size 12" x 24", as indeed does the Cricut Imagine, but having read various forums it seems there have been some issues with it.

And then there are all those other marvellous electronic cutting machines - the Sizzix eClips, the Silhouette Cameo, the Black cat machines, the Pazzles machines, the eCraft - so many choices, how does one possible decide?   My understanding of the above is that the majority of them have to be connected to a computer for them to work, but you do have the freedom of designing your own images or buying idividual images.   The eClips can be used with cartridges in a similar way to a cricut but can be used with eSCAL software as well.     It used to be the case that Cricut machines could be used with SCAL software, but for some reason Provocraft (manufacturers of Cricut and cuttlebugs to name but two) did not like this, so took legal action and the software is no longer available but, if one still has SCAL software it does work with some of the Cricut machines.

Now, I'm not entirely irresponsible, and thought that maybe shelling out hundreds of pounds for a fancy electronic machine might not be completely sensible, so eventually I decided to stick with the machine I had.

and then I changed my mind and ordered the Cricut Create, which produces the same size images as the original Cricut Personal electronic cutter but has the added functionality I wanted.   And it's arrived, and it's lovely and it's fabulous, so I am going to sell my original Cricut.   fortunately it's free listing weekend on ebay, so that's where it is.  LOOK HERE

And then yesterday lunchtime I went for a bit of a wander round town, and found that my local craft shop has some special offers on.  And one of them is for the Cricut Gypsy  (£99).  How dare they tempt me like that.   Fortunately I am strong, and I resisted temptation.  But not for long, I had a bit of a "chat" with a "friend" who agreed with me that it would be a crime to leave it there and given that it is my birthday in less that a fortnight then he would purchase it for me for my birthday.   BUT IT'S NOT MY BIRTHDAY FOR NEARLY A FORTNIGHT.    So I went back today with my credit card.

Just as well I'm selling my Sizzix Big Shot Express (a manual die cutter, but with a motor instead of a handle) Yes I'm putting a link to that as well HERE

I'll leave off telling you about the new laptop (QVC TSV) because I'm not sure you could cope with it. But what's a girl to do when it has free crafting software with it.

And the TV has died, but who's got time to watch TV when there's crafting to do.

FOR SALE BIG SHOT EXPRESS

I'll post photos tomorrow, but I am looking to sell my barely used Sizzix Big Shot Express, with 10 Bigz dies and a selection of about a dozen cuttlebug dies.  Hoping for about £100 but open to offers.  Have not checked how much it will cost for postage/shipping yet.

Playing Cricut

I probably posted about a year ago how lucky I am to have a sister such as mine who upgraded her original Cricut Personal cutter to a Cricut Expression and cast off her first machine in my direction.  And yes, it was/is a lovely birthday present, however given that it's less than 3 weeks until my next birthday it has occurred to me that I've barely used it.  And having watched the marvellous Melanie Heaton on Create and Craft on more than one occasion during the past 12 months I have decided it's time I take part in her 2012 mission to get people using their Cricuts.   If you are not familiar with her and/or her work, check out her blog Paper Dreams.

I have registered on the Cricut.com website and community so that I can read hints and tips and the like and there is indeed some very useful info (and, as with all forums, a bit of wingeing in this case about Provocraft - the manufacturer of the Cricut machines)

I have discovered, via this forum that there is a website which tells you what image is on what cartridge, which I think is great.  One of the things I'd like to do with my cricut is cut out paper hexagons templates for patchwork.  Yes I know that a cricut is capable of so much more, but cutting out paper templates by hand is a little tiresome, and they are not always as accurate as they should be.   There are companies that have discovered this and so will sell you packets of precut templates.  Ha - have you seen the price of them.

So going to Mycutsearch and typing in hexagon you get the following result   How fab is that?  so if my finances only stretch to one cartridge, I can now choose from the ones which have my hexagon and by looking at the other images on the cartridge I can see which will work out most useful.   And I can see more infomation about all cartridges in the library

There is a poster on the forums called Scrapalette who also posted the following information so I thank her for this

Here's the 411 on carts:

The regular Cricut carts contain 6 full Creative Features and can hold up to 700 images. These carts come in the storage box and have a spiral bound handbook showing all the images.

Lite carts have one Creative Feature key for layers and have 50 base images, some with additional layer options using other keys. These carts come in a plastic storage box and have a tri-fold pamphlet showing the images.

There are also:
Solution carts contain 2 Feature keys (usually a Shadow and a Blackout), one layer option and hold 50 images (not counting shadow, blackout or layers). These carts (initially) had no storage box and all the images are shown of the cardboard packing.
Seasonal carts have no Creative Features but some images have layers or shadows that are on the Character keys and hold 30 images and are usually a limited edition and centered around a theme. These carts have no storage box and all the images are shown on the cardboard packaging.
Project and Event carts have fewer images than full carts, images centered around a theme but these not limited edition releases. These carts have a plastic storage box and a modified (because there aren't as many images), non-spiral bound handbook.

Cake carts are really full carts just with images geared toward cake decorating but they can also be used with papercrafting.

Then, there are the two categories of Imagine carts: one that is images and patterns (Art) or just patterns/colors (Colors and Patterns).

And now, there are digital carts for use with CCR or a Gypsy.

I have a lot to learn and a lot to playing to do.   I think Mel has her work cut out (ha ha) in order to accomplish her mission

Later folks
xxx

ps - just discovered the cartridge I want was sold exclusively with the Expression machine - hmmmmmm - praise the lord for ebay

too tired to type

good evening

I didn't sleep very well last night and today I've spent quite a bit of time painting.   So no words, just pictures. And only 2 of those

Later folks

Much later

xxx

I won I won I won

Hurrah - I won one of the signed Spectrum Noir DVDs

Thank you Marianne Fisher

Now - painting or sewing or cricutting or colouring.   Or reading, or knitting, or crocheting, or cleaning the kitchen.

Decisions Decisions

Later folks
xxx

my first fuschia

And here's the first fuschia

G'night folks

xxx

Some fusioneering and another chance to win

Evening my lovelies.

Firstly - another chance to win the amazing colouring DVD by Leann Chivers and Crafters Companion from a member of the design team - Lis

Next - I've had a play with Sheena Douglass' new paint fusion stamps (they are not Sheena's they are mine).  My first attempt was not (to my mind) overly successful, but you decide for yourself

It's not dreadful, but not how I wanted.  My main mistake was to stamp the flower image before looking at the tutorial on Youtube so when I tried to put the leaves in I couldn't comprehend quite how to do it.

So for my next attempt I worked out the composition first

I decided I wanted a little something extra in there, so added a fairy from the Fairyopolis range, and coloured her in with flexmarkers.   The background was too white so I coloured that with the linen flexmarker, but not so much so that it was a solid block of colour.   I then stamped in a sentiment (which is not exactly a sentiment but can't think of anything else to call it).

I might attempt the fuschia whilst I've got my  paints out

Later folks

xxx



Crafter's Companion Giveaway

hello people

Those wonderful folks at Crafters Companion are giving away a copy of their new "Colouring with the Spectrum Noir System" DVD.   I imagine that many of the hints and tips will be equally applicable for whatever alcohol pen system you use.  And as they say, you have to be in it to win it.   So if you want to be in it - go HERE

And if you don't want to be in with a chance, then don't go there

Simples

Later folks
xxx

Bibble bobble

Evening folks

Since my crochet escapade with the birdie decoration, which some of you eagle eyed viewers (see what I did there) may have seen on Create and Craft's "knit and natter" with Hayley West and Loen Love, I have done a bit of knitting before having a bit more of a practice with crochet.

I may have mentioned before that I am a huge fan of charity shops.  Whilst I was having a browse during my "can I leave the house for more than an hour without needing to sleep all of the following day" expedition last week I found 3 balls of pom pom yarn for 99p.   So I decided to knit something with it.  A cushion, thought I.  And not being sure how many stitches to cast on, or how big it would end up or how far the yarn would go, I cast on about 30 stitches (16 pompoms) and carried on in garter stitch (knitting - as opposed to purling, each row).   It took 2 balls before the sample was about 12" square.   And looked the same from either side.Which left me with a very small cushion front and and only one ball left.

So I had a bit of a think, and whilst watching Jonathan Ross on Saturday evening, I knitted the other ball into a scarf.  Nearly.  Made a mistake whilst casting off and the whole thing got a ladder right down the middle.   So I unrun/unran it, and started again.    and then changed my mind and decided I'd try making a cushion back but obviously I couldn't do it exactly the same as the front as I only had one ball of yarn.     So I did it on bigger needles and did stocking stitch, so rather than be the same on both sides it's a lot looser and flat on the back.

But I couldn't get a cushion pad small enough so bought a cheap 18" one and just shoved it in.  So the cushion is stuffed to overflowing.  But looks reasonable enough.

It's actually supposed to be the other way round, but I though it looked better like this.

I would like to have another go, but until I get round to buying some more of the pompom yarn, I am continuing with crochet practice.    I am just doing rows, and rows, and rows, of treble crochet (which for our US cousins I believe is double crochet) until I reach the end of the 100g ball of aran.   I'm hoping it will be long enough to form into some sort of cowl type thing.   but I don't think it will be so I might have to put some sort of experimental border on it and maybe some flowers and turn it into something pretty.

Or maybe a corset!


Later folks
xxx

Another attempt at crochet

evening folks
One of my work pals goes to a craft group on a Tuesday evening and every so often she will show me what she's been up to.  They are currently crocheting.   My pal is even more of a learner at crochet than me, so when she asked for my help in doing a circle I tried my best, but have to admit I wasn't much use.   The lunch that we discussed crochet over was nice though.

Apparently her crochet mentor had thought that she would be best off trying a circle as she didn'st seem to be able to get her head round working crochet in rows.  And to encourage her she told her about a rather fabulous blog, which was new to me but apparently very well renowned in crochet blogging circles.  And I can see why.  It's called Attic24 and written by a Mum called Lucy.  Not only does she produce inspiring work, she is a very good blogger as well.   The project my pal is working on is called "Birdie Decoration" and I think it's absolutely adorable.

The same day as our lunch I thought I'd give a circle a go.  Never done one, but how hard could it be?????   Well.  I have to admit that it wasn't as easy as it looked, but I'm a knitter not a crocheter.  I can make up a dishcloth by doing some sort of design that may or may not be an official crochet stitch but ended up kinda square.  But following a pattern when I don't know what the stitches are is a different thing altogether.

Anyway, I did a circle (albeit not completely circular) and left it at that, thinking I'd help my pal out the next time I saw her.  Unfortunately, my cold developed into acute sinusitis, and have not yet returned to work.   And then she asked me if I wanted to go to her Crafty group, just to get me out of the house for an hour or so.  So I went.  And I took my spectacular circular effort.

And she made me finish it -  so here is the finished birdie.  not as great as Lucy's but her's is rather marvellous.

Methinks I need a bit more practise. 

To aid me in this endeavour I have ordered myself some crochet hooks (bog standard ordinary ones).  And whilst I was at it I ordered myself some sock needles (Symfonie ones at that)

Later folks

xxx

Don't make me shout

Well here I am, been home from work sick for nearly 2 weeks.  The second time sick since Christmas, and in fact, if you include my Christmas leave I've only been in work for about 3 weeks since November.  And my 2 hit cold has developed into acute sinusitis, so I now have antibiotics and a nasal spray, to go with my paracetamol, antidepressants and anticonvulsants.  Yes, I am a walking pharmacy.

And it's as much as I can do to stay awake all day, but on Sunday I did manage to have a bit of a play, having been inspired by the marvellous Barbara Gray of Clarity stamps on create and craft.  If you haven't seen her work, or if you haven't seen her new website, go have a look. 

I copied a card she did on the show, and although I forgot to add a bit, I'm very pleased with the result.

I used the Clarity flower frame stamp and the mini pansy.  I used flexmarkers to colour them in.

later folks

xxx

FREE PROMARKERS

Well, not quite, but an opportunity to win some.   You need to follow this link to find out how.   And what's more they are the new limited edition ones.   So go on, you know you want to.   But if you don't want to, then it gives me more of an opportunity

Later folks

xxx