Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Crazy Lady Returns

IMG_1033 Hello friends!  I’ve been absent for a while from the blog.  We’ve been crazy busy around here (that seems to be my life, doesn’t it?) again… Last Thursday I did a video at the Inky Smiles Craft Lounge and then it was crazy day after crazy day and I didn’t have a chance to post the pics of the book or anything else crafty fun.  

Friday I had a bunch of errands to run and ppl to meet and 54 lbs of purpley grape goodness to pick from a generous neighbor’s fence line of grape vines… which we steamed and bottled that evening until 2:30 Sat am. 

Saturday morning I got my hair cut and colored and then we ran family errands and did some major grocery shopping and started canning 30 lbs of chicken which lasted well into the 2 am hours Sun morning.

Sunday we slept in until 11 am and then finished canning the chicken, chicken soup, chicken broth and beef chunks. 

Monday I worked all day and had things going on in the evening.

Tuesday I worked all day and had MORE things going on in the evening.

Wednesday I went shopping at Ikea with my friend, Valerie, did lunch and then hit the Rings n Things road show in Salt Lake City and tried to start getting the kitchen cleaned up.

Today I slept in a little and then ran errands and thought about cleaning my kitchen.  It’s still dirty.  Tonight I get to go take photos of some young friends who are headed on a group date for a fall dance at the high school.

And tonight I hope to get the mummy makeover book posted and shared here on the blog.

~Inky Smiles!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Cutting Fabric with Your Cricut & New Video

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around Big Lots while waiting for Brent to meet me at the ortho dr  for a knee check up and saw this FABULOUS beaded and satin fabric frame that just needed to come home with me.  {Seriously, it JUMPED into my card} So $5 and some tax later I was rolling all sorts of ideas around in my head for it. 

I wanted some cute letters cut out to spell “Fall” but didn’t necessarily want to just cut and glue some paper.  When I was sitting at my desk staring at various sheets of paper I caught a glimpse of my pumpkin scraps out the corner of my office… Hrmmm..

I’ve been wanting to cut fabric with my Cricut Expression for quite some time now.  I asked around and Googled it and decided on a method that works pretty well!  I cut out some fabric letters and adhered them to a piece of linen textured chocolate brown cardstock and placed it behind the glass.

Here’s my finished project:

IMG_0901web

It’s PERFECT nestled amongst my pumpkins and fall foliage on the hutch/buffet in my living room. 

IMG_0902web
You might be able to see the texture in this photo.  The Cricut really did cut out the letters a lot more cleanly than I thought they would.  How fun would this be to cut out a cute phrase or image and applique to some baby onesies or a tshirt of your own?

And here’s a silly and short video @ The Inky Smiles Craft Lounge (sorry, it got cut into two pieces while recording on Ustream and I haven’t figured out how to splice it and re-upload it yet) of me showing you how I cut fabric on my Cricut Expression.  Be sure to watch part 2 as well!  Each link opens in a new window.

Fall For Fabric Cut On Your Cricut {Part 1}


Fall For Fabric Cut On Your Cricut {Part 2}

~Inky Smiles

Friday, October 15, 2010

Exciting News

For about a month now I have been keeping a little creative secret.  I've been bursting at the seams to share.  So now that Tresa Black has announced it on the official student website I can share my little joyful news!

I am going to be a teacher for one of the mega classes at Creative University in February! This is my second year (first as a teacher) and there are going to be nearly 60 attendees this year!  I am SO incredibly excited (and nervous, lol) to get to have this fun opportunity.   I have the prototype made for the class but am working out some details which should be done in December. YAY!  I will share when I am able to.

Here's a preview of how fabulous and fun Creative University is:




See you in Idaho in February! Woot! :)

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Pumpkin Winner - I did not forget!

Hey friends! I did not forget.. .lol! And my phone alarm kept screamin at me all day and all night.

We got home after 10 pm last night from work and clothes shopping for my man.  He was in "desperate" need of new work clothes.  I've been working on training him in the fine art of clothes shopping and buying clothes more than once per year, but... we must have gotten sidetracked somewhere, lol! Anyway.. we enjoyed a delightful dinner at PF Chang's and then hit the stores.   I managed to sneak in a stop to Tai Pan (home decor schtuff) and picked up a glittery black tin star and glittery orange BOO to hang in my front door wreath for Halloween. :)

Anyway.. without further adieu... (or whatever).... the winner of the random drawing from the comments is:

#7 is Carolyn Sharkas!!!
Carolyn - just pop me an email (click on the link) and I will pop this pumpkin in the mail to ya!

Friday, October 8, 2010

UStream Fall Pumpkin Video Tutorial

Hey friends!  Sorry I haven’t been around much this week… I didn’t get more owls sewn or even clean my studio up because I worked a couple extra days this week and have been learning the ins and outs of the Ustream broadcasting process.  I also went to the dr again for my knee pain and had a lovely “little” cortisone shot in my knee.  Let me just tell you… that was a whole new adventure in pain. LOL!  It seems to be calming my knee down and I’m able to do a little more again, yay!  However, it does look like I will need to schedule a scope surgery on the knee in the next couple of months. (I’m trying to work up the courage to just go get it done.)

Anyway.. I did have a successful broadcast last night! It was good to see some of you there in the chat room! :) I didn’t have too many technical difficulties and it seemed to go pretty smoothly.  I was nervous as heck but now I think I can handle doing more videos like that. It was actually pretty fun and I only had one of my supplies “jump ship” on me during the broadcast.. one of my leaves decided to FALL (buwahaha) off the desk but thankfully my handy and handsome assistant  (Brent, of course) was nearby to retrieve said fallen leaf. I lurve him.  Oh and my hair cooperated! WOOT!

I’m going to work on the sound and not yelling into the microphone and causing it to go bonk on me. LOL!  Don’t have your sound up too loud or it will be a little “scratchy/screetchy” in places.  I’ve got can lights/recessed lights in my studio ceiling so they shine right down on the desk (hence the circles you see in the reflection).  Gonna work on that, too.

I’m going to be doing another broadcast in a couple of weeks, too!  Watch the video and see what we’re gonna be making!

Here’s the link to my Ustream channel:  Inky Smiles Craft Lounge

And here’s last night’s video! (I apologize for the commercial in front of it… I wish I could take it off.. but the ads help us have a free broadcast.)

 

Enjoy!  I will be giving one pumpkin away to a random commenter… leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name on Tuesday evening, October 12th.  (And I won’t forget cuz I’m putting it on the calendar in my phone.. aka brain… tee hee!)

~Inky Smiles!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Pumpkin clarification & Ustream class/tutorial

I just wanted to clarify... I know that I said they were completely handstitched but they are MOSTLY handstitched.. lol!  The pumpkins are sewn by machine to make the round and all the details are added in by hand stitching (instead of gluing).   I will show you how it's done when I do the UStream video next week.  The "pattern" for this came from Fiskars online.

My Ustream channel will be located here:



I am shooting for Thursday, October 7th @ 7:30 pm Mountain Time. (This is 6:30 West Coast, 8:30 Central and 9:30 East Coast) I am going to check it out and try to work out the technical details with Brent and get it together :)

~Inky Smiles!