A to Z Challenge - 2019 - T is for Tools

For the letter "T" in the 10th Annual A to Z Challenge I am talking about tools.  Every good craftsperson has their tools.  My husband was a mechanic and he has a garage full of tool boxes with multiple varieties of tools.  The neighbors come by asking for this size wrench or that type screwdriver and he has them all.

I have my tools too.  Of course I have the standard pens, markers, scissors, ink, stamps, all that stuff.  I showed them a little bit in my post for the letter "S" last year when I talked about the Scrapbooking section of Michaels.  These are a few of my more specialized tools. 

The first is my Slice machine.  Many (most) people have the Cricut, Sizzix or a version of them to make their die cuts and alphabet letters.  The Slice machine came out about 10 years ago or so and I was so excited to get one.  It is a portable machine whereas some of the others are not.  I can use the Slice to cut out lots of different letters and shapes for almost any theme.  It comes with a design card that plugs into the machine.

Design cards

 Once the card is inserted you have lots of options to choose from.  I used this guitar to make the guitar embellishment I talked about yesterday in the "Special Order" CD Music mini.

It goes from 2 to 4 inches.

 Each card comes with a booklet that shows all the designs you can make.

 These are two journal tags I made using elements from the Slice design cards and then stamped some lines on them for the writing.

Unfortunately the company that made the Slice went out of business and the Slice is no longer supported by anyone.  I will be sad if something happens to mine.

We R Memory Keepers is a company that makes a lot of punch boards that you can use to make things as well.  This one makes envelopes, bows and boxes.  On the inside it tells you what size paper to use for whatever size envelope, bow or box you want to make and then just by punching the paper at certain points and then scoring and folding, you have your finished product.  I haven't used the bow or box feature much yet but the envelopes I use a lot with my cards.

This one makes different sizes of frames for pictures or whatever. 

 This one makes party favor bags.  I made the orange one below.

 I have a lot of regular punches too.  Some are to punch things like flowers or leaves and some are border punches to use for making pretty borders on the page or edges on cards.

This one will take a 6 inch piece of paper and turn the edges into really detailed finishes.

This is another type of border maker from Creative Memories.  I am a consultant for them so of course I have to try out the product, right?  Next to it are two sticker makers.  You put small pictures or embellishments through them and they turn them into stickers.  

Sticker makers

Another tool I use a lot, mainly in my scrapbooking, is the stencils from Lea France.  Creative Memories just started making some too.  These stencils allow you to put a lot of pictures on one page.  I showed some examples of how I used them two years ago in the A to Z when I showcased my concert scrapbook album.  Check A for Adele.  I just got the one called "Cruise" and I'm looking forward to using that one!

 Of course there is the Fairy Tales castle!  How cool to use that for pictures of a Disneyland vacation!

The last example of tools I'll show are the templates from Paper Wishes that I used to make the gift card holders I talked about in the letter "G."  

This one made the Christmas holders

This one made the ice cream and mug holders

Those are some of my tools.  Do you use special tools in your work?  Is there a scrapbooking tool you think I NEED to try?  Lemme know.  

Quick aside, using the "tools" on WP I see I have at this moment 146 "followers" on my Word Press version of this blog and 23 on Blogger.  Can I get to 150 and 25 before the end of the A to Z?  Hope you come back tomorrow for the letter "U."

A to Z Challenge - 2019 - K is for Kits

I have to be absolutely honest.  I am a crafty person but sometimes I need a little kick start to get the creative juices flowing.  Occasionally I use kits to fuel the spark, like these from Paper Wishes.  The kits include the blank cards and the extra pieces to decorate it with.  Sometimes I follow the directions and then add or take off things to suit me.  This kit came with the metal stencil of the baby hands and feet that I can use over and over again.   

In the kit below there is a "jar" card to make for Christmas.  I found it as I was looking for jar examples for yesterday.  

I absolutely loved the colors in this tropical kit from Pinecone Press.  While there are directions to make cards on this one as well, they are not as detailed as the ones in the Paper Wishes kit and there are fewer embellishments.  

This gives the diagrams of how you can cut the papers to make the cards, but some of those papers are so pretty I'd like to use them for something else!  They also don't have any sentiments on them so I am able to make them into any kind of card I want, birthday, anniversary, friendship, etc. 

Same with these ones from Photoplay.  The basic card examples are there but there is a lot of room for interpretation.  

This is a kit for a wedding mini-album.  The form is there and there are some stickers and things to decorate it with but it is pretty easily adaptable to whatever I choose to make with it.  

I do have to say that with every card or album I make, I always add something or change the design a little so that I feel comfortable selling them as one of my creations.  I give credit to the company that I got the kit from as well.  I mean, anyone can get a kit and make the cards so I have to make them my own in some way.   

Now you know my secret.  Hope it hasn't tarnished my image as a creator but I have to be truthful in my business.  I wouldn't feel right if I wasn't.   

We are rapidly moving through the alphabet!  Hope you are enjoying this year's series.  Please go visit some of the other participants in the 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge.  

A to Z Challenge - 2019 - I is for Ideas

"But Janet, where do you get all your ideas for these cards and things you make?" you may (or may not) ask.

Let me tell you! 

Some of them come from books and magazines.  I have one book that is called "A Card A Day" and I've been thinking about giving that a try, just like I did my 365 pictures. 

Most of the magazines I buy come with extras, usually stamps.  This one has some great things I can use for Father's Day cards with the motorcycle and the golf clubs.  Inside are examples of cards that they made using the stamps but usually I do my own thing. 

I liked this one because of the woman in the tub.  Lots of ideas for Mother's Day here. 

Here is a card I made using the table and chairs and the word "Relax" for the front.  The table and chairs and the Relax message are on foam tape so it adds dimension to the card.    

and on the inside I used the fishing gnome to make a retirement card.  

Some of the magazines come with inserts that have pictures you can cut out and papers that match.  If I hadn't been so busy getting the A to Z ready and moving into the studio, I would have tried to make some Easter cards with a few of these, especially the bunnies and flowers.

I also collect CDs that have pieces I can print out and make into cards or use in albums.  Some have sentiments to put inside.  Debbi Moore is one of the companies that I get them from and Paper Wishes is another.  Each one of the CD's has hundreds of designs and elements that can be adjusted to fit whatever I need.  I just got the Rock and Roll one and I'm thinking I can use some of the things in my concert album.      

So many ideas, so little time!  What inspires your creativity?   

Visit some of the other A to Z participants in this 10th Anniversary round!  You can also find them on Facebook  See you tomorrow with "J"

April 2017 - #Atozchallenge - Continuing with C

One of the artists that has been around awhile but whom we'd never seen was Cher.  She said she was making a final tour in 2002 and then seems to continue to tour every few years.  When I saw she was going to be at SAP Center in San Jose, I was determined to see her.  Once again, our seats were not the up close and personal that I like to get, but we were able to see her and the monitors so I managed to get some good pictures.  Cyndi Lauper was her opening act, so she gets showcased as well for the letter C.

Once again, I started with a search for papers that would complement the photos.

This paper is also from Paper Wishes and is called Mirage Double-Sided paper.  I thought the name of the paper matched as well, since Cher changed her outfit with almost every song and had a lot of circus-type stuff going on behind her during the show.

I used another template from Lea France, this time the "Say Cheese!" stencil.  In addition I used it twice, turning it sideways for one page, thereby creating a totally different look for each page.  On the first page, the one of Cyndi Lauper, I backed the pictures with a large black sheet, cut in the main shape of a camera.

On the Cher page, I left the background alone and just added some stickers.  That's what makes these templates so useful.  You can do many different things with them.  If you look closely, you can tell that I switched paper from the picture above to the final one below.  That's another part of the process.  Once the pictures are placed, I don't always like my first choice of background paper.

Sometimes when I have small things that I want to attach to a page, I use this Xyron sticker maker.  It's like magic.

Here are the finished pages.  I managed another 10 for this concert!

 It was kind of funny because Cyndi Lauper stopped one of her songs in the middle to take a camera away from somebody in the front row.  She asked him if he was video taping her and she told him to stop looking through the camera and live in the moment!  At that point I was glad I wasn't sitting closer!

As I said, Cher changed outfits with almost every song and had a whole circus going on behind her, including acrobats flying above and sword swallowers!

She even had a trojan horse!

She did a lot of chatting with the audience too, commenting on how old she was and yet how she cold still get into her "If I Could Turn Back Time" outfit ("Take that Katy Perry!" she said).  She did look pretty darn good for 68!

She said she couldn't do a concert without mentioning Sonny and did a virtual duet with him, showing footage of them from their early years.  It was quite touching.  For the final number she got up on this little platform that was attached to pulleys and glided her way around the arena, singing and waving to her fans.  I'm so glad we got to see her.


And there we have C for Cher (and Cyndi Lauper).  Hope you enjoyed the show :)  Feel free to leave me a comment.  I love them!  Also, click on one of my "follow" links so you don't miss any of the alphabet!



You can click over to the main A to Z Challenge page to see what other participants have come up with for this letter, and come back to see what D has for us!