With cover

More ribbon pix

Storing ribbon

I did this totally by accident too. I places the ribbon on the empty cd spindle on my desk and it fit perfectly. I am going to fill it up and then to keep them dust free i will put the spindle cover on it. Isnt that neat!! I hvent seen this before.

Card for a friend

Inside says "i've been tinking about you". I really miss my friend so im sending a card her way. I used patterned paper for the background but used shapes from imagine to cut. Tink is colored and cut with imagine. Tinks black background layer is black cardstock cut with imagine. I decorated wings and pom pom on shoes with stickles.

just saying hi

HI--this week on the 19th my youngest girl turned 5. Where do the years go? Seems like I just brought her home from the hospital yesterday. I had a bunch of family over for a party. This week is also vacation week from the schools. So I had a heck of a lot of kids here all week and I got no crafting done. Not true--I calibrated my imagine and I had to do the advanced calibration and it took a long time. I also ordered two more carts--JT and imagine more cards. I probably won't be buying anymore for a while since I'm supposed to be on a spending ban. I have been busy getting my machines to work right alone and together; my imagine and gypsy. I've spent some time asking questions on the messageboard. So far the only problem I still have is getting my gypsy to open an older imagine file. The new files I make will open just not the first ones I made. Oh well, no big deal. At least now my imagine will cut with the gypsy. It kept restarting and not cutting when I wanted to cut with my gypsy. After updating both machines it works now. By the way it was snowing today. I'm glad I got out and played yesterday while it was in the 60's. Happy Easter everyone!!

One more thing

Another great thing about imagine carts is that all the colors and papers are coordinating which i am aweful at myself. Now i have a coordinating genius machine....lol.

Goodnight!

Imagine stuff

I have to say that the imagine carts are so cool and beautiful. I didnt think i wanted or needed on when it first came out and wasnt impressed. The more i saw done with it and saw the art and patterns really started to perk my interest. Wow when that price dropped last week it was like a gift to myself almost. I sold my old espression for $150 and sold some other carts and they paid for the imagine!! I have been beta testing the cricut craftroom software and cant wait for the full cuttable version. If you havent had the chance to use it, you are going to love it. It blows design studio away!! They say its going to be free too. How cool is that. Especially with the money we spend on their products. They said in a press release that we r going to be able to use our own images--maybe svg!! Ive been collecting and creating svg so i hope this is the case. CCR starts up way faster than DSS! I love being a beta tester and i would love to do it for a job. I told my hubby that i think i found my calling to be a tester and technical help person. I love figuring out technical stuff and i love computers.

Last post today i promise
Goodnight everyone!
~heather

Imagine first time use

So i thought since i did the initial setup on the imagine that it was all updated and ready to work with my Gypsy--not. I needed to connect it to my computer and run cricut sync. This was a bit confusing and took some time to do. A few times it said to restart imagine on cricut sync but imagine wasnt off so i just left it alone and do its thing. This is a big part of the updates is just being patient and waiting. There is a point where u do need to power on the imagine. I think i even restarted my cricut sync. I wish i wrote this when it was fresh in my mind. There was a point where my computer asked to insert disk to install device driver. There is no disk to put in. I said to locate on internet. I dont think it foumd it online. But i think once everything ran it course the driver was installed automatically anyway i think when i restarted cricut sync. After that i made sure my gypsy was all up to date and it was. Then i connected my gypsy to the imagine to load my carts. Connect gypsy to imagine with cord. Open imagine app on gypsy. Click manage carts. Click add. Plug cart into imagine and wait for it to load images on imagine. Then click ok or next on the gypsy. It should then start the progress bar on G. It takes a few minutes or more to add cart. Complete process until all carts are added. I did a quick project to test it. I had to plug cart into imagine to cut and push go on imagine to print and cut. So as far as i can tell the imagine carts dont get permanently limked to gypsy like other cricut carts. I am not totally sure about this but nowhere says that they are permamently linked.i asked on the messageboard. I may have missed something but im pretty sure thats all the stuff i did.

Imagine mat tip

The mat that came with the machine wasnt sticky at all. I was really upset. It at least was sticky enough to calibrate and setup the machine. After i finished setting up the machine i called customer service. I love provocraft customer service. A few years ago i bought a bad mat and they replaced it. They really stand by their products. Okay so CS told me i needed to activate the adhesive on the mat. I soaked it in hot water for a few minutes and then let it air dry. Then I used my spatula to rough up the surface. He said to use scraper but i dont have one. Then i put it aside for day or so. When i used it tonight it worked like a dream. I am so happy!! Although i did order more mats in the meantime in case it didnt work. I guess i needed more mats anyway.

just got my imagine

My carts came too. I have a short video opening the BOXES of the imagine.

Ready for spring?

This is my youngest daughter...of six. I don't know why but she loves rain boots and rain coat. She loves playing in the the rain with her umbrella. She wears the boots all year long. I will definitely have to make a layout about this. We r totally ready for spring here in southern maine. We still have 3 feet of snow in our yard in some places....uggghhh! Talk about a long ass winter. We are supposed to get 6-12 inches of more snow on friday. Im hoping its an April fools forecast.

spending ban

After all the purchases I've been making lately, I am on a spending ban for an indefinite amount of time. That means more creative time!! I posted my two canvas pictures on etsy. My etsy name is, of course, geminipapercrafts. I used the circle exclusive french manor images on them. Have a great day everyone!

Imagine carts

I ordered from cricut.com. I don't usually order from them as their prices are usually very high. I checked a bunch of sites and compared them to cricut.com and they were very close in prices. When I went to checkout I got free shipping automatically no code or anything. I am not sure if there is a special going on or not but I thought it was way cool. I also got my circle discount. I ordered blossom, yummy, lori's garden, and nursery tails. I am totally broke and not buying anything for myself for a long time. My birthday is in May so this all is my early birthday gift to myself. Yay ME!!!

Imagine is on it's way and family update

So my awesome hubby let me charge the imagine on his credit card. It should be here by friday the latest. Maybe I will share a video of me opening and testing it. I would like to try out my new tripod for my camera. I have all my cricut circle cartridges listed on ebay. I sold one and the others are being watched so I am pretty sure they will sell.

My oldest son is, again, cancer free. Or so they say "remission".  He will forever be disabled though due to the surgery he had on his jaw. The muscle and nerves to his left arm were cut and damaged during surgery. Now he is in pain constantly and cannot move his arm a lot. He went through help getting his mobility back in his arm, but it didn't improve. He is young and I'm sure he will adapt. He is in good spirits and is almost back to normal healthwise and putting on some weight. We spent some time together today posting all his old collectible shirts on ebay after I posted my stuff. It was great to have some quality time just the two of us. I taught him a thing or two on ebay and photobucket. I am also a web designer so I have tricks up my sleeve to avoid ebay fees. I think he really enjoyed spending time with me.

Good evening everyone,

Heather

Selling cartridge

I am selling cricut circle exclusive cartridge pop-up neighborhood on ebay. My ebay username is geminihg77. I am going to be selling some mini handmade albums soon too. I am trying to get money to buy the cricut imagine. Now that it works with the gypsy I am ready to buy it. I am also selling my Expression to my friend. I also have other cricut circle carts I would like to sell to, but they have already been linked to my gypsy. Let me know if you are interested in any of them. I will sell one for $40. I have been completely busy the past two months working on projects. My mini albums took up a lot of time. I didn't realize they were going to take so much time to make. It makes me so sad to sell them so cheaply for all the work that goes into them, but its got to be done.

Paper flower

I was making paper roses with scalloped circles cut from mini monograms and i got an idea for a different flower with the circles. I put like five circles together and punched hole in center with big bite and put brad in center to hold it all together. Then i snipped at each petal. Then i used tweezers to roll each petal to center. Then on the next layer i rolled until i came to first rolled layer. I repeated process until the last layer was only a small curl. I adhered leaves from serenade cart. I will put ink and stickles on it to finish it up. Underneath the flower is my new box of 24 pitt markers..im so excited i just love them!

hydrangea flower

gypsy file using carts different from kathy's http://www.mediafire.com/?y2yf6dse8u7a5zc

4 petal flower file for mini roses

I went to Kathy Orta's class last night and it was all about flowers. Well my favorite flower was made using the Paisley cartridge which  I don't have. It was made using a 4-petal flower which I couldn't find in any other cartridge. I made one using 2 hearts and spent a long long time last night recreating Kathy's files with one's I made. Well I ended up deleting all my work. So sad. So anyway I decided to take advantage of sure cuts a lot and Inkscape to make this flower. I opened up the paisley cartridge in design studio on my computer and located the flower. I copy and pasted it into Paint program and cropped the flower. I copy and pasted it into inkscape where it can now be saved as a .svg file which I then opened into SCAL. This took me no time at all. No where's near the time it took me last night to make it with hearts. So anyway I have the file here free for all to use as you would like. http://www.mediafire.com/?0uyu47c6op3zr4w I hope this works. Let me know if there are any problems with the file. You can find Kathy's gypsy file at paperphenomenon.blogspot.com and her ustream video is at paperphenomenon just search it at ustream.com. I will be including more flower files as I create them. The hydrangea will be the next one I do.

I am so mad!!

I went to michaels today for a special they were having on their canvas. The advertised item i wanted was the 10-pack 8x10 artists loft super value pack canvas frames for 14.99. Come to find out my M's doesnt carry it. I wish i could order it from M's website but they dont sell things there. Just thought i would vent. Thanks for listening i know some of u understand my pain.

Finished booklet cover

I used shapes and phrase from once upon a princess. Yellow words are psychedelic font cut with scal. Dress, key, and butterfly circles were also cut with scal. Gear and circles are from indie art. I used a white gel pen and my pitt brush markers for pen work. I love the pitt markers they dry so fast and dont smudge. I am left handed and smudging is a big problem for me. Im glad i found a good marker. I just cant say enough good things about them.

Another booklet cover

Its not yet finished but i wanted to show what i have created so far. This is for my little girl which is why i went with a funky color scheme. I used watercolor paper for the base. I used my watercolor pencils to draw the funky swirls of color. Then i used a waterbrush to blend them in. I took my new diamond background stamp. Then i used tim holtz antique linen on the edges.

~Heather

Scal

I finally got sure cuts a lot. Here are some of the cuts i made just testing it out. I also wanted to let u all know that u can cut paper with the cricut cake. I used the cake blade too and it cut cardstock awesome! So i have the cake hooked to my computer upstairs and i have the expression downstairs in my scrap area. I am so happy to be expanding my scrap possibilities!

~happy scrapping!

Altered notebook cover

My son asked me to make him a sketch book. I jumped at the opportunity!! I used indie art for the cuts: skull, gears, parental advisory, hardcore. I used heavy glossy gel medium to adhere everything and covered entire cover when complete. I had to make it durable for my teenager. I used my new crackle stamp for the edge. I used plain really old dictionary paper on the top with self torn edges. I figured the grungier, the better. I used patterned paper for the rest.

~Heather

Unfinished mini album

Here is a mini album i made tonight in about two hours or more...time flies when you r playing. I assembled it and put the cover on it. I will post another when its done. This is a great album for using your scraps of paper. One of my goals this year is to use my scraps. I have so many great scraps too. I think it will be easy for the ones i want to make a bunch of these as gifts. I learned this book from kathy orta's youtube and really detailed instructions on her ustream channel i think its paper phenomenon. She's also got a blog. If you want me to post my instructions just leave me a comment requesting it. I have written down instructions on how i did it and any changes I made from what kathy did.

~Heather

my daughter making clay hearts

She loves to craft with me. She also likes to sing while crafting and I caught her on video singing about crafting with her mom--me! We made a bunch of clay items last night to use for scrapbooking and other projects. Last week I made the clay leaves for a project and now I'm obsessed with making clay objects for my projects. I made a bunch of clay stuff last night and my youngest daughter helped. I think that crafting is awesome because it is something I can do alone and something to do with others too. It's great family therapy.

Pitt pen picture

New favorite marker

FABER-CASTELL PITT ARTIST PEN (BRUSH TIP)

I have tried lots of pens and markers for journaling, stamping, coloring stamps etc. I came across these at michaels and decided to give them a try. They don't bleed through the paper and are waterproof and fade resistant and most importantly: acid free/ph neutral. They are pigmented drawing ink. I researched them vs. the copic markers and these were better than the copics when others compared them. I havent tried copics myself i just couldnt bring myself to spend that much money. These markers are a bit more than i wanted to spend but i could get them locally and it turns out that i love them and i thought i would share it with you. One big problem i have with markers is that they would smudge on photos. I tried these on photo paper and they didnt smudge. They took little to no time to dry. They dry fast which is another reason i love them. They are called Faber-Castell PITT artist pen ( i have the brush tip ones). I found some online for under $2 a marker. I have six right now and i will buy some more when i get more familiar with them. I can also use a coupon at the stores to buy them which is even better!!

Pictures on my wall

Disregard the ugly cord. These are hung in my entry way.

Canvas shadowbox video

I am not good at video recording and reading at the same time...lol..these are so much more beautiful than the pictures and video shows.

Canvas 2 picture

Canvas shadowbox 2

I will post video of them. I spent a few days on them. I am so happy how they turned out. I will explain how i did them in the video. I got the canvas frame idea by watching roxyfur youtube video about mixed media canvas.

Shadowbox canvas frame

Inspired from roxyfur and yolibean.

Finished leaves

More leaves

I painted the ink onto the clay. It took a long time just painting them.

Clay leaves

I am working on a super project and i wanted to share this with you before i finish the project. I needed some leaves and i was going to use paper leaves but instead i am going to use these. My kids have the day off today and i babysit three kids as well. They wanted to play with play doh so i decided to use clay and cut out the leaf shapes. After i baked them and then i inked them with colorbok cats eye ink both green and brown to give some definition. I am going to adhere these to my project using a gel medium. The clay i used is polymer which needs to be baked for it to be hard.
~Heather

My pink stamper blog hop project

I completed the hop. I decided to make this because of the hop assignment. It really pushed me into action. I made this chain for valentines since it right around the corner. I cut the pink hearts from wedding cartridge and layered it. I then cut two squares from george. I inked it with pink and stamped and embossed both papers. There are hearts all along the chain. I will add more as we get closer to V day. I just wanted to at least get a start for the pink stamper blog hop.

Ribbon necklace for daughter

I love ribbon and i found these cool end cap things that worked perfect with this ribbon. I strung on a pendant and a key and a love charm. I let her pick out the pieces she wanted on the necklace.

Pendant/charm video

This pretty much just shows the products i use to make these. I don't have a hands free camera yet to show hands on how to make them.

Updated scrapspace

I also have some repurposed items. I am so shy when it comes to making videos. I hate how i sound and i am so critical of myself. I hope to overcome this and make more videos.

Completed turtle pendant necklace

I added chunky glitter to the glaze to make it look like waves. I'm not sure how i feel about it. I think i like the look better without the glitter. Jewelry making is my new interest and hobby and i am having so much fun making these necklaces for my family.

Completed scrabble tile necklace

My niece's initials. Mettalic painted tiles. Diamond glazed tiles.

Hello!

It's another Monday. I have been babysitting my friend's little one since October just to have a little extra money for my IPHONE and my scrapbooking. She is just the best little girl ever. I also have my 4 year old girl home too. They get along so well with each other. The baby loves my beagle pup too. He loves her too cause she's always dropping snacks for him. I have been spending most of my craft time making pendants. My sister has my Gypsy so I haven't been using my cricut. I hate dealing with carts and I won't use my cricut without my G. My sister was reluctant to use my Gypsy but I have converted her to a G user. I am looking out for an inexpensive G (under $100) to get her for her birthday cause she will not buy anything for herself. She has three kids and always buys stuff for them and never for herself. I heard M's had a G for $50 but I have yet to make my way there yet. I have till march to find one for her. As soon as I get my G back from her I want to cut out a turtle and make a pendant with it. My niece love turtles and wants a turtle pendant. Maybe I will make a video tutorial of how I make them. They aren't as easy as you might think. The bubbles are terrible and ruin the project. So you gotta chase the dreaded bubbles away.

Peace and Love,

Heather

My custom photo pendant

Happy new year

Happy new year! I survived the holidays! I have been focused on my new hobby lately--pendant making. I have been making glass and scrabble tile pendants. I have been having so much fun making these. I use photos and embellished scrapbook paper and stickers for them. I put diamond glaze and crystal lacquer on them to make it looked encased in the glass. I will post a picture of one. I made a lot of them with my grandparents picture. My family lost both of them this summer one month apart and it was a big loss for the family. I made the pendant necklaces for xmas presents.

Pie with cricut cake

My son made the pie and i made the top. I rolled out pie crust on cricut cake mat covered in shortening. I put in freezer for 15 minutes. I made design on gypsy which is better cause you can work fast while the dough is cold and firm. After i cut it i put it back in the freezer for a few minutes. I brushed egg wash on crust and then put pieces on it and brushed egg on that. The pie says marcs apple pie and has apple shapes on it. The cricut cake cut it out awesome!!

New Carts

I got my carts from cricutmachine.com yesterday: birthday bash, wrap it up, holiday cakes, elegant cakes, and birthday cakes!!! I am bugging people to let me make them a cake for their occasion just so I can play and learn. I put my cake business on facebook: Creative Cakes by Heather. Now I need to put an ad in the local paper. There is only one other cake person in the paper around here.

New carts

I ordered four or five carts yesterday from cricutmachine.com at super prices! I filled out the cricut cake promotion for a free apron and two carts i just pay shipping wich was like $12. The carts i chose were wedding and serenade!!! I am so excited!

Heather Dumond

Sent from my iPhone

Glitter it

I had plain clear glass ornament. Poured in some glitter it by beacon adhesives and swirled it around inside covering entire inside surface. Poured extra back in container. Used a funnel to put glitter inside the glass ball and swirled it around covering all of the inside. Poured excess on paper and used it for the next ball. I am going to put first initial of each child in family with vinyl or alcohol ink using vinyl stencil. I got the glitter it at a c moore right at the front of the store in all the xmas crafts. Happy crafting!!!

A project for a friend

My friends dog died today so I made a remembrance page and put it in a frame. Her dog was 16 years old so she was very special to a lot of people. I used a kit to make this page. The paper, photo corners, tags and letters were part of the kit. I copy and pasted the rainbow bridge poem and a pic of the dog int word and printed on photo paper. I also made my own button threaded with ribbon to match layout.