Mini-Vacation, More Cards and FREE Silhouette Cutting Files!

 

My sweet Mr pried me away from my crafting for a few days, the same day my sister Nina left to go home – a good thing because I am sure I would have been melancholy otherwise.  We had reservations at Deception Pass State Park in Washington, right on the ocean.  We stayed three days and it was blissful.  The weather was fabulous, I even soaked up sun there too.  Very restful and yet we did do a 5 hour hike one day, over the bigggggg bridges while mist boiled around us.  I heard tell this is fairly common with the warmth from the land confronting the cool breezes off of the ocean.  Very beautiful!

Because this was a small trip I savoured every single moment as if each thing that I saw became the first line of a story eg: as we were heading down a trail we had to pause while a boy took a photo of an older man, in my mind I began a story like this.

“I remember the summer I spent with my Granddad.  It was the  year after Grandma had passed away and my folks thought it would be good for both me and Granddad to spend some time together.  I like my Granddad but I thought it was just a good way for my parents to save some money on a babysitter, and besides, I had made plans with my friends Richard and Lou.”

Those sorts of stories, taking people, smells, sounds, sights and then casting them in little side vignettes.  One day when I’ve had my fill of crafting for a while I may just try to write a bit too. 

Here’s a little slideshow of our time away:

Barb and Miles Vacation 2011 Deception Pass

And so now on to a few cards that I did not have a chance to post before we left and one I’ve made since and a couple of free cutting files as well!  (I will put the studio files under the tab up top of the blog)

The first card was a challenge, I believe from Simply Stamping but I can’t find the exact link for that.  I created this while my sister Nina was here, you may want to check her blog out for I know she made a lovely rendition of a summer card too. 

 

I’m not sure on the supplies, but the background paper was a mini kit, summer themed with adhesive on the back.  I found the pattern for the flower/sunshine in a Scrapbooks Etc magazine.  I embellished it with a button and then a gem in the middle. 

I created the cloud myself, I will be placing this cutting file up for grabs under the Free Silhouette Files tab. 

My next card was the Day 167 – Super Sketchy Sunday at 365 cards Here is the sketch given:

 

And here is what I made of it:

My sister Nina tackled this one too!   I used The Little Yellow Bicycle’s Twig paper which has a “wordy” pattern on the front and then the blue on the other side.  Love double sided papers!   Ah yeah, I realized later that I had the wordy paper upside down in the background but I claim that as artistic licence *snort* 

I cut the hollow “ribbons” from matching cardstock colors.  I designed the ribbons myself and the studio cutting files are available under the top tab too. 

Lastly, I tackled Mojo Monday # 204 as well today (after spending 1/2 the morning on support with Silhouette this morning trying to sort out a cutting issue I’m having.  I must say the support is wonderful!  Real live people and very very supportive and helpful) I must say I make my machine jump through hoops because I like to design a ton of stuff myself. 

This was the sketch for 204, and here’s my version of it.

I worked so hard on this it only just occurred to me to that I forgot the ribbon.  As it is my Mr says his personal opinion is that the card is already too busy so perhaps its best I forgot that.  My niece Samantha certainly did not forget – her cards are wonderful and include the ribbon.  She even made two cards!  Wow.

Once again, I’m including the cut files for both the “icing” and the cupcake wrapper.  I used a paper by Recollections called Cupcake … something?  I cut it off – ooops!  I layered several sections using cardstock which coordinates with the colors in the cupcake paper.  I embossed the blue cardstock using a Fiskars embossing plate.  I used a piece of crochet cotton for the bow.  I made the icing by cutting out and glittering with a Be Creative adhesive sheet.   I cut out the cupcake wrapper and then ran it through a Fiskars crimper. 

The last touch was the little teardrop, one I picked up at Jo-Ann’s in Bellingham – Studio 112 Adhesive gems.  I also cut the three stars, I’ve since changed them to blue ones cut out of the blue cardstock, but I’m not going to take another photo as the sun has gone down.

Hope you have a terrific weekend (if I don’t get to blog again, but suspect I might!)