ARTFULLY AVOIDING THE LANDFILL (& driving my husband crazy) ONE PIECE OF JUNK AT A TIME

1/23/12

Purple Cows & Birthday Treats

It's been a busy weekend around here.  Good thing I have lots of helps and helpers to get everything done!  My new cutting/trimming board arrived a couple of weeks ago and I was just itching to make something.  It is a Purple Cows brand and in my book it's the Crow's Toes.  Cuts, trims, perforates... perfect every time.


My first official project was making some labels for Ethan's birthday treat bags.  He's SEVEN now and very interested in helping.  He's especially helpful in the kitchen and doesn't even mind when Chandler steps in to lend a helping (but usually short-lived) hand.

 
Ethan was more than happy to help bake a cake to top off the spaghetti & garlic toast meal.  His favorite part was the frosting.


I'm pretty sure it was his Daddy's favorite part too... and Macy was amazed that licking the bowl was not only allowed but encouraged!


When supper was done it was time to package up the birthday treats.


And with a little help from Ethan, they were finished in no time at all.


All 24 of them!


Thanks to Purple Cows and Ethan, making birthday treats just a little more special was fun and easy!

1/11/12

Love

Love is in the air and what better source for knowing what it means than those who know children?


1/10/12

The new products have arrived!  "Memory Mixer" and Crafty Secrets' "Creating with Vintage Patterns" and "Illustrations"  I'm having fun with the new stuff - but true to form for me... I like some features in one program and others in another.  End result... combine them!   


Christmas is over, of course, but you have to put the pictures together after they're taken, right?  Not to worry, I still have Valentine's Day on my mind.



I'm sure having fun!

1/1/12

Dinking With Digital Design

I just ordered another software program to dink around with.  I'm tired of the 100,000+ graphics I already have.  Seems I always use the same ones over and over and I'm truly bored out of my gourd with them.  Of course it will take a few days for the new program to arrive, so I played around with what I have.  And what do you know... I figured out how to tweak some of those same old - same old graphics!


For a change, I'm ahead of the season.  I have Valentine's Day on my mind already.

I like the looks of the old fashioned, Victorian, Retro - or whatever you want to call it designs.


There's just something about the old-fashionedness that I adore.  I also finally figured out how to format them so they can be used in a variety of ways... pictures, stationery, greeting cards, collages, etc. and so on.  That was quite exciting in and of itself!


Are you kind of getting the idea of what the rest of my house looks like since I've been playing around with this fun stuff all day?


While I love the old stuff, the new attracts me as well, especially when I can incorporate my little cutie-patooties in the design.  This one worked really well because the picture had a white background.  I'll have to scratch my head a little and figure out how to get the other 7 grandkids worked into something cool :)


I think I feel some Valentine Blocks in my future.