Thursday, December 29, 2011

My Christmas Traditions Christmas Card for Friends & Family

 

For about three years now, I have been making Christmas cards to send to friends and family.  This year, I did was all about Tim Holtz.  I always enjoy making the card and this year was no exception.

 

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The picture is one that I took of the boys on Thanksgiving day and I sized it so that it would fit in the die from Papertrey Ink. I then inked the edges with a little Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The background paper is all from the Christmas Kraft Resist paper pack from Tim Holtz.  I used Distress Stains to color the background and then spritzed it with some red Perfect Pearls spray.  The edges were distressed.  The sentiment (also from Papertrey Ink) was stamped on vellum using Archival Ink and then I heavily inked it with Old Paper Distress Ink and heat set it.  Then I tore the vellum into strips and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I slid the vellum strip into a memo pin that was stuck into the foam adhesive behind the picture.

 

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I will be sharing a few other Christmas Traditions tomorrow, see you then!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

My Christmas Traditions Food for Christmas Day

 

Christmas Day is always a very hectic day in our house. Of course Santa comes to visit, but I am also in charge of the Christmas Day dinner for my husband’s side of the family.  Here is the problem with that…our house is TOO small for this crowd of people.  This year we had 16.  My in-laws house is where we have the meal because they have the space for all these people.  My mother-in-law has fibromyalgia and physically cannot handle preparing such a large meal, so I do it.  Since I have young kids, I clearly don’t want to make a beeline for their house right away in the morning, I want to enjoy my kids and their cute little faces with all the smiles.  So what to do?  Well I think this year, I finally have it nailed, so it is perfect for me to share with all of you in case you are in a similar situation.

 

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

This is a great recipe that I have been using for about 5 years now because you make it the day before and then just pop it in the oven to cook.  This allows plenty of time to open presents.  My husband usually fries up some bacon to go with it and breakfast is served.  The kids love it.  Since there are only four of us, I usually halve the recipe and cook it in a loaf pan.  I make this with the Praline topping but skip the raspberry syrup because the kids and my husband don’t like it.  It is sweet enough for me that I don’t add any syrup to it at all.

 

STANDING RIB ROAST

This is a super easy way to get a WOW factor from your guests and with a roaster oven, it can easily be transported.  In the morning, while breakfast is cooking, I take this out of the fridge (I always season it the day before) and let it rest at room temperature and then pop it in the roaster oven.  When you turn the oven off, that is when it is OK to transport.  I also tape the lid onto the oven for two purposes, the first to make sure the lid doesn’t slide off in the car and the second to prevent any relatives from trying to sneak a taste…very common with the O’Connors.   Make sure you follow these instructions exactly!

STANDING RIB ROAST

Standing Rib Roast (any size…crazy I know, but I have done this with a 3 lb roast all the way up to a 15 lb. roast)

Seasoning – You can use any that you like, I use Paula Deen’s House Seasoning (1 cup salt, 1/4 cup pepper, 1/4 cup garlic powder)  Apply seasoning liberally, this will create a crust.

 

Season roast the day before and let sit in fridge overnight.  In the morning, let roast rest at room temperature for 1 1/2-2 hours.  Preheat roaster oven to 375 degrees.  Place roast in oven and cook for 1 hour and then turn oven off.  Do not remove the lid (or open door if in a regular oven) and let the roast rest in the oven for 3 hours.  Turn oven back on to 375 degrees and cook for 1 hour to reheat the roast.  After one hour, remove roast from oven and place on a cutting board and tent it with foil and let it rest for 30 minutes before carving.  This should give you a perfect blend of medium well on the very ends, to medium and then then medium rare in the middle.  This year, my husband rushed the resting after cooking and started carving a little too early and we had a few pieces in the middle that were more rare.  This is easy to fix because he just sliced that section and placed them on cookie sheets and put them in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes and then they were perfect.

 

BAKED POTATOES

Of course this is easy to do.  I usually have the potatoes all scrubbed and ready to go in the oven when we get to my in-laws.  Here is the method that I use to cook them.  Then I also bring butter, cheese, bacon, green onions, and sour cream so that everyone can pick their own toppings.

 

BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

This was a new addition this year and was a BIG HIT!!  Several people asked me to add it to the regular repertoire.  In years past, I had made the infamous Green Bean Casserole, and I decided to switch it out with this and no regrets.  I mixed up everything except for the Ritz crackers that go in the casserole as well as those that go on top.  I tripled this recipe and it fit nicely in a 9x13 pan and I cooked it longer (about 40 minutes or so) and it was perfect.  This recipe is from Paula Deen’s Lady & Sons cookbook

BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

1 (10 oz) frozen package of broccoli, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

4 TB butter

1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup crushed Ritz crackers

1/2 cup condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup mayonnaise

House Seasoning to taste (1 cup salt, 1/4 cup pepper, 1/4 cup garlic powder)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Steam broccoli until limp, about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain.  Saute onion in butter and add to broccoli.  Add all remaining ingredients; mix well.  Pour mixture into a casserole dish.  Add topping.

Topping

1/2 cup crushed Ritz crackers

1 TB butter, melted

Combine crackers and melted butter for topping; sprinkle on top of casserole.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

SALAD

Tom’s aunt brings a Caesar Salad which she just mixes up when Tom starts carving the roast.

 

BREAD

This year I heated up some frozen French Bread from Costco and serve it with butter and also Honey Butter from Land O Lakes (or you could make your own…here is a good recipe)

 

DESSERT

I like to try to keep dessert kind of light because the meal can be so filling.  Again, I serve the Oberweis Ice Cream that I mentioned yesterday and then a few Marie Callendar pies.  I also have Egg Nog and Hot Chocolate ready for anyone that wants it as well.  This gives plenty of variety for everyone to pick what they want.

 

Probably the biggest challenge to this meal is to make sure that I don’t forget anything at home.  Thank goodness, my husband always double checks me.  Without that I would forget at least one thing…it is a given.  Sure enough, this year, he found that I almost left the Broccoli Casserole at home.  He knows me so well!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

My Christmas Traditions Food for Christmas Eve

The food that we serve at Christmas always seems to become an integral part of the Christmas Tradition.  Back in November I shared with you some food gifts that you can give out to friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc.  Today I thought I would share with you the traditions that my family has for the food that we share with each other during the Christmas holiday.

When I was growing up, we had revolving Christmas Eve dinners until I was maybe 12.  My mom wanted to have a meal that she could serve us that would become a tradition and it took awhile for us to find that meal.  Since Christmas Eve at that time was just the four of us (mom, dad, me and little brother) it made sense that it be something special but also something easy to prepare as well.  We rarely had an additional guest for Christmas Eve, except for the occasional aunt or cousin.  Once we all decided on this menu, which is SO easy to prepare, it has become the traditional Christmas Eve dinner in our house.

BEEF FONDUE
Yes, I know what you might be thinking!!  Really fondue??  YES, it is a meal that we only have once a year.  It’s super simple to prepare.  You need a fondue pot and oil.  We also typically use a high quality steak for the meat, it really makes a difference!  The trick to making this something special is the array of dipping sauces.  We use barbeque sauce, teriyaki, horseradish, and just about anything else that we can find.  We also ALWAYS make mushroom sauce (my favorite!).  Fondue is quite versatile because you can also use chicken, fish, shrimp, or any other meat you have on hand.  For the vegetarians, there is always cheese fondue too which is super yummy!
FONDUE MUSHROOM SAUCE
3 oz. mushrooms, chopped
1 beef bouillon cube
2/3 cup boiling water
2 TB butter or margarine
2 TB flour
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Add bouillon to boiling water.  Stir until dissolved.  Melt butter and add flour.  Stir quickly.  Add water and bouillon.  Cook until thick.  Add sour cream and Worcestershire sauce.  Heat through.  (Note:  Can be made ahead of time and re-heated for your meal…so yummy!)

CHRISTMAS POTATOES
This is another family recipe that I have no idea where it came from.  It takes a bit of preparation, but you can prepare it ahead of time and then just store it in the refrigerator until it is time to bake.  These potatoes are SO good!  They are truly one of my favorite parts of this meal, my mouth waters just thinking of them!

CHRISTMAS POTATOES
6 large baking potatoes
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 cups sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
paprika

Peel baked potatoes and cut into cubes.  Combine all ingredients except paprika in greased casserole dish.  Cover and refrigerate overnight or for 3 hours.  When ready to heat sprinkle paprika and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes (Note: The original recipe calls for 30 minutes, but it always seems to take 45 minutes for us, so keep an eye on them the first time you make them)

SPECIAL SALAD
This is another family recipe that has been around so long that none of us know what it’s official name is anymore!  This salad is good for any special occasion!  It is one of those dishes that when we go to a pot luck, it is often requested by the hostess!

SPECIAL SALAD
Caramelized Almonds:
1/2 cup sliced blanched almonds
1/2 cup sugar
Dressing:
1 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
4 TB sugar
2 TB parsley
4 TB vinegar
1/2 cup salad oil
Dash hot pepper sauce
Salad:
1 head romaine
2 cups chopped celery
4 chopped green onions
1 can (15 oz.) mandarin oranges

To caramelize almonds, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until sugar melts and sticks to nuts.  Remove from heat and spread on foil to cool.  Break into pieces.  Combine all dressing ingredients and shake.  Chill.  Just before serving, assemble salad ingredients and toss with dressing and sprinkle almonds on top.

DESSERT
Dessert is super simple too….Oberweis Ice Cream!!!!  If you live in the Midwest, then you are probably already familiar with this truly sinful ice cream!  For those of you that live out of the area, they offer shipping on ice cream!  I have no idea how they do it, but can I say that it is probably worth it!!!  Their Egg Nog is also amazing!  In addition to the ice cream we also have Buckeye Balls which I shared with you last month.  Just a quick story about Buckeye Balls…I was going to bring some Buckeye Balls to Christmas Eve dinner, but my brother proclaimed that I didn’t have enough, so he made some for the meal this year!

This entire meal is filling, but not heavy which is just what we need to get a restful night for Christmas Day!

Monday, December 26, 2011

eCraft Monday Design Team Project

I hope all of you had a great Christmas!  Today, I am planning on sitting back and relaxing a little bit after all the hustle and bustle!  Even though Christmas is now behind us, it is a good time to start a little bit of planning for next year.  Typically I make a list of the things that I know I want to do again next year.  That way when the season comes around next year, I already have a list in hand.  This practice has helped me to institute a few family traditions. Today, I thought I would share one of the newest traditions in our house with all of you and it has to do with wrapping presents!

 

YES I know that we all do this, but I do things a little differently than most.  You see both of our children are young and Santa is alive and well in our house.  Santa always wraps his presents in traditional Christmas wrapping paper, so to help the kids distinguish a Santa present from a Mom & Dad present under the tree, I always wrap those presents in plain brown kraft paper.  YES it sounds boring, but that blank slate allows my creative mind to embellish to it’s hearts content!  Here is just one example for you!

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Believe it or not, this present only takes a little bit of extra time and it really makes an impact!  For this particular present, the shape of the box was odd (like most toys are) so I wanted to disguise it’s awkwardness as much as possible.  I decided to cut out the Perfect Poinsettia Cut Pieces from My Time Made Easy.  This is a great resource for files to embellish your packages.  Before adhering the layers that form the flower, I slightly bent each petal in half to give them a little more life and I also inked up the edges.  In between the layers, I added some 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives 3D Foam Squares (in regular height and thin to vary it up some) to add the dimension to it.  I then turned to my Year of Celebration eCraft SD Design Card to cut out the holly leaves which also got bent a little and inked up.

 

Now, you may have noticed that little gem in the middle…well of course I used my Peachy Keen Stamps for that adorable little snowman face.  This is what makes the project as far as I am concerned because this present was going to a kid, I felt I needed to make this present more appealing to a kid.  The snowman is perfect for this!  I stamped him in Archival Ink and colored him in and then added an epoxy sticker on top of it.  I was really surprised to see that some of my color spread out when I put the epoxy sticker on.  Not sure why this happened, but I decided that I liked the look of it.  I then added him to a flattened bottlecap that I colored red with some Red Pepper alcohol ink from Ranger. 

 

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The tulle is from Hobby Lobby and I just tied it around the middle and tied it in a knot.  The red wired garland was purchased at Target and I just threaded a piece of it into the knot. On the tag,  I used the Winter Seasonal Distress Ink Pads from Tim Holtz (Festive Berries, Iced Spruce, and Evergreen Bough) to color the tag.  To do this I just swiped some of each color directly onto my non-stick craft sheet and spritzed with water and then dragged the tag through the colors and dried them in between layers until I got the look I wanted.  All I did then was use a White Paint Pen from Michaels to write in my To and From.  I used some bakers twine to tie the tag to that wire garland.  The whole flower with the leaves is then added to my present using some more 3D Foam Squares (love these, can you tell?) and I put it slightly off center so that the petals would cover the knot.

 

I probably only spent an additional 5-10 minutes on wrapping this present as compared to a present using traditional Christmas wrapping paper.  I had my eCraft cut up all the petals and the leaves while I wrapped the box in the brown paper, so it really can be done quickly.  This week on my blog, I will be sharing some more of my Christmas traditions with you, so I hope you will join me and maybe get an idea or two for next year and I would love to hear about the traditions in your home and how you eCraft your way through the holidays!

Monday, December 19, 2011

eCraft Monday Design Team Project

 

Less than one week until Christmas!  But, we cannot forget that New Year’s is shortly after Christmas!  This week, the Design Team was assigned with the task of making a New Year’s project using our wonderful Peachy Keen Stamps and 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives! With so much going on, I opted again to make a quick and easy project that anyone can duplicate in a short amount of time!  Oh, and I also have a free SVG file for you too designed specifically to use with our eCraft machines!

 

A friend of mine is going through a rather nasty divorce, and this will be her first New Years without her husband, so knowing how the holidays can make people feel kind of down, I decided to try to perk her up a bit!  It involves a bottle of this wine…hey it’s New Years, wine has to be the guest of honor!

 

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I just loved the name of this wine!  So perfect for my friend!  Of course, I have to dress it up a bit!  So here is what I did.

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The first thing that I did was cut out my Wine Bottle Tag using Glossy Cardstock from Ranger.  Because I have set up this file to have a score mark that is being drawn by the pen, I cut this with the glossy side down so that the pen drew the score mark on the back of my tag.  You can download this Wine Bottle Tag SVG right HERE!

 

I also cut out the snowflake from some regular white cardstock.  This snowflake is from the Year of Celebration SD eCraft Design Card.  I used the eCraftshop Pro software to cut this so that I could also cut out a circle that fits in the center of it.

 

Next to add in my color…I got my tag and some alcohol inks together in various shades of blue.  The colors that I used were Stonewashed, Juniper, Pool, Aqua, Cloudy Blue, and Sail Boat Blue.  Using my Ink Blending Tool and a felt pad, I added a dot of each color onto the felt.  I also added a little Snow Cap Mixative onto the felt.  Then I just dabbed away filling up my entire tag with some color.

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I decided after doing this step that I wanted the colors to be a little more blended, so I added some Alcohol Blending Solution onto the same felt pad and went over it again.  This is the results of that Alcohol Blending Solution.  Love this look!

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I then turned my attention to my snowflake.  I wanted to add a little color to the snowflake, but wanted to keep some of the white in there as well.  What I did was swiped my ink pads (Distress Weathered Wood and Tumbled Glass) onto my non stick craft mat and spritzed it with some water.  I then dragged my snowflake through the watered down ink and dried it with my heat tool in between layers until I was happy with the look.

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Now for the face…using the largest size stamp in the Winter Wonderland Assortment from Peachy Keen Stamps, I stamped my face onto my circle using Black Archival Ink (important to use a waterproof ink for this step) and then colored in the mouth and added a touch of pink chalk on the cheeks and set everything with a heat tool just to make sure that it was completely dry.  I then applied a thick layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I let this all dry naturally, but you can speed it up with a heat tool once you see some of the crackle appear.  Once it was all dry, I used my Ink Blending Tool with a little Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to highlight the crackles.  And then I used Weathered Wood to ink up the edges.  Then I added some Melissa Frances Tinsel Ribbon with Crafty Power Tape from 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives onto the back of the face.  I adhered the snowflakes with 3L’s My Stik onto the tag leaving some places not glued down so to add a little dimension.  3L’s 3D Foam Squares are perfect to add the face onto the snowflake!

 

All in all, this tag went together really quick and would be very easy to mass produce if needed!  I will be back next Monday to share with you a little crafty Christmas tradition in our house!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

eCraft Videos Now for eCraftshop Pro

 

This is my second post of the day, so scroll down to see the Make the Cut video.

 

For my eCraftshop Pro video today, I thought I would show you all how to cut a banner from the eCraftshop Pro software.  I used the eCraft vinyl from Craftwell and used the roller end caps and everything for this video.  I hope this helps out some of you that have had questions about this!

 

eCraft Videos–First off Make the Cut

 

Hi everybody!  As promised, I have two videos to share with you today.  The first is my Make the Cut video.  In this video, I show you some tips on how to create your own rhinestone patterns in Make the Cut.  So much fun to do!

 

Here are some rhinestone videos that I did for the eCraft Design Team showing you how to do the entire process from cutting the rhinestone rubber, applying the rhinestones, etc.  In these videos I used a rhinestone patterns from eCraftCentral.com.  They have some really great patterns in case you don’t want to make them yourself! 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Where are the Videos?

Hi everybody,

I know that I am WAY behind on getting a new Make the Cut video out there for all of you…what can I say this time of year has me running in so many directions!  I am going to do my best to get the video to you in the next few days (and I am probably going to do my eCraftshop Pro video at the same time to save me a little time closer to Christmas) so that means that you will have 2 videos in the next few days.

 

Also, I wanted to let you know that due to some technical issues with my e-mail (should all be resolved now), there may be some of you that sent me an e-mail and is still waiting for a reply from me.  If you are one of those people, please e-mail me again.  I promise that I will respond as soon as humanly possible and I am very sorry if you have been missed as a result of this technical hiccup!

 

Thanks everyone!

Monday, December 12, 2011

eCraft Monday Design Team Project

 

The countdown is on!  13 days and counting…ladies, sharpen your scissors, ink up your stamps and get your eCraft roaring to go!  There is Christmas crafting to be done!  Today I am going to show a quick and easy eCraft project that is just perfect for when you feel like you don’t have enough time to get everything done!

 

My son is going to be let out from school soon for Christmas break, and as the self-labeled “Crafty Mom” for his class, I have to make sure that he has a little something to give to all of his classmates for Christmas!  These cutie little bag toppers went together in a jiffy.  For detailed instructions and supplies go HERE! While you are there, make sure you sign up to follow the eCraft by Craftwell blog

 

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Monday, December 5, 2011

eCraft Monday Design Team Project

 

Hi everybody!  Less than 3 weeks until Christmas!!!  Are you ready?  This time of year always seems to go by in a blink of an eye!  Every year, I try to accomplish my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List” and one of the items on my list is a gift for the teacher!  A few years ago when my son started attending pre-school, I asked a friend of mine who is a teacher what makes for a good teacher gift.  Her recommendations were…No Ornaments…No Coffee Mugs…Gift Cards…YES!  In our area, the teachers don’t have as much funding as they once did for classroom supplies.  Often, the teachers will send home a request to the parents to send in supplies.  The problem is that there are families that cannot afford to send in the supplies.  These teachers tend to provide the missing supplies out of their own pocket because they don’t want these children to be left out.  So, because of this, I always give a gift card to an office supply store.  However…my crafty nature, just won’t let that be it!

 

For the past three years or so, I have also given the teachers a set of handmade tags for their Christmas gifts, and they love them.  This year however, my son has the same teacher that he did last year.  On top of that, last year, for the last 3 days of school, he had a substitute teacher because her family all came down with a horrible flu.  Because of this, she did not get any of her Christmas gifts until after the New Year when the kids returned from Christmas break.  So, I know that she still has the tags that I made her last year, so I wanted to come up with a new gift for her this year.

 

Hello Pinterest!  I got incredibly inspired by the melt art pictures that I saw here.  Here are some of the ones that inspired my gift.

Source: cmybacon.com via K on Pinterest

 

So, I set about to create some Melt Art for the teacher.  I did want to personalize it for her, so that is where my eCraft helped me out!

 

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I used the eCraftshop Pro software to cut out the N from the Lettering Delights LD Mon Cherie font and cut it out of a piece of chipboard from an old gift box.  Yes, I recycle those too!  I used this because it was white one side and I wanted that for the monogram.  After cutting out the N, I swiped the edges of it with some white pigment ink so that you would not see the kraft colored edges.  I then covered the entire N in embossing ink and used Clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and melted it with my heat gun.  My heat gun got a work out with this project!  The UTEE gave the N a glossy appearance and just added that little something that it needed.

 

(BTW, my hubby doesn’t normally come into my craft space, but he did one day and saw this sitting on my desk.  He loved it!  When I told him that I was giving it to the teacher, he insisted that I make some for our kids.  That will wait until after Christmas, but I just love getting the feedback especially from him!  Thanks honey!)

 

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This project is not complete without a card to go with it!  After all, I need to put that gift card somewhere!  I decided to make a Thank You card instead of a Christmas card for the teacher because I really wanted to express to her how much we appreciate all of her hard work.  I decided to create this cutie little boy from the Lettering Delights Dress Up Paper Dolls Set.  Since, this little guy is small, it only makes sense to eliminate the cut face parts and use my Peachy Keen Stamps!

 

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I used the Winter Wonderland Faces for this.  I just love that this set is not only for winter images, the boy and girl faces are perfect for this type of image too and fit in with what I wanted to do! I picked which size to use by lining it up before inking.

After stamping, it is time to color the face. Even though I used a flesh colored piece of cardstock, that white in the eyes makes a big difference!  I used my Signo Uniball pen for this.  I also used a marker to color in the mouth and some Inkadinkadoo chalks from Michaels to highlight the cheeks.

 

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I also used the wonderful Adhesive Sheets from 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives to assemble this little guy!  This is great for adhering those little pieces!  Some of 3L’s Foam Squares also added dimension!  I love their foam squares because they aren’t too thick!  They work great for layering and they now have “Thin” foam squares so you can stack layered images with these and they won’t stick out too far from the card and make it difficult to fit in an envelope! I will show you how those work really soon!

 

The sentiment label is from eCraftCentral.com and you can get it HERE.  I am loving this shape lately!  It is one of my new favorites!  It can also be found on the Jen Allyson Designs SD card. The sentiment is actually handwritten by me, something that I don’t do very often, but I thought it would make it more personal.

 

The background is a page from an old book that I tore up and then inked up with some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.  On the inside of the card, I wrote out a note that expressed our appreciation and warm wishes to her and her family.  Now, that I have checked that off my list, I can move on to the next thing on my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List”.  Come back next Monday to see my next project on my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List”.  Also, don’t forget to come back each day this week to see more projects by the rest of our Design Team!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

eCraft Design Team Call!

 

Love your eCraft?  Then apply to become an eCraft Design Team Member!!!  There is now an open call.  You have until December 12th to get your submission in!  Being on the eCraft Design Team is a BLAST!

 

GO HERE for more information or to the eCraft by Craftwell Facebook page!

Friday, December 2, 2011

eCraft Videos–SCAL 3 Path Menu

 

This is my 2nd post (and 2nd video) for today.  So if you missed my Fun Foam video, be sure to scroll down.

 

This month’s SCAL 3 Video is on the features in the Path Menu.  These features are crucial to modifying your files so that you can get exactly the cut that you want.  Enjoy!

 

eCraft Design Team Video Tutorial!!!

 

Are you ready for some fun foam?!?!?!?!?!  I am SO excited about today’s video because I have been wanting to cut some fun foam with my eCraft for awhile now.  I have had trouble with it and could not get it right.  Then I got a wonderful e-mail from Tracy about how she was able to do it.  Here is the e-mail that she sent to me.

 

Hi Denise,

First, I want to say that your blog has been pivotal in my enjoyment of my ecraft - thanks soooooo much for all you do!  I wanted to add a new setting for your chart - I've had excellent luck cutting foam (Darice sticky-back foam, which I found at Joann individually and in value packages) on a pressure of 8 with blade cap ON, and the pen removed.  This has given me a perfect kiss-cut.  A few notes:

-the blade will cut a little into the foam just while moving the cutting head to position it- I found it's better to position the head, pull it up, load the foam, then put the head back down. 

-the kiss-cut seems essential, that is, attempting to cut all the way through both the foam and the backing will probably jam the foam in the rollers. 

-don't try to load the foam through the front rollers - it won't roll smoothly and will jam.  Position and load the foam only into the large rollers behind the blade.

Thanks again,

Tracy

Now, I will admit that I never tried this sticky back foam before, so I ran over to Joann’s and got some.  This product is 2mm thick and our eCrafts are really only designed to cut products up to 1 mm thick so I was a bit skeptical about it.  I was able to get it to cut.  The only problem that I had was that the cut was a bit jagged, so I decided to do another internet search to see if I could find someone that sells 1mm fun foam….and to my surprise I did!  WOOHOO!!  Wandy-foam is an eBay seller and I ordered some 1mm fun foam (12 sheets of 12x18 for $8 plus shipping).  It works great and leaves a much cleaner edge.  When I went back to Wandy-foam’s eBay store, I found that they had listed some 1mm fun foam with the sticky back, so I have that ordered.  I will report the results of that product once I have it all tested out.

 

Tracy was so nice to let me make a video of her discovery with the 2mm foam (and I also demonstrate the 1 mm in this video), so THANK YOU TRACY!!!

 

Oh and in case you are wondering, I used my fun foam to make some stamps!  So much fun!  Here is what I made!

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Background frame stamp created with the 2mm fun foam which I texturized to give it a vintage look (LOVE THIS!) and I show you in the video how to do this.  The holly is made from the 1mm fun foam and stamped with paint.  My cutie gingerbread man is cut from my eCraft with some Core’dinations cardstock at a pressure of 5 1/2 and embellished with the WONDERFUL Peachy Keen Stamp set Winter Wonderland Faces and some hand drawn chevrons with my Signo Uniball white pen and adorned with some pretty red buttons.  I used 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives’ 3D Foam Squares to pop up him up!  Oh, and in the video you will also see me use the Adhesive Sheets from 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives.  These are great for when you need to add adhesive to any die cuts (especially small pieces)!

 

Now enough with my yapping….on with the video!

 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We are planning on a Christmas movie night, and I am also going to attempt to make a Gingerbread House with the boys…should be interesting!

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