Thanks.

Just now I made a pretty cool image on my Silhouette and thought I should share! I think they turned out pretty dang cool!

It's a print and cut file, because just cutting it just doesn't work. I tried it :) You can change the color of the leaf to whatever your heart desires. I made three different cut sizes, ranging from a far/thick offset, to medium, to a thin/small offset, meaning the thinner the offset, the closer the cut will be to the actual shape.  

Click on the image or right here 
to download the free .studio file! 

Camera.

My really good friend, Tanya, had a birthday the same day as my brother, November 8th. I made her a card with my Silhouette and a free cut file that I found on the interwebs:

A camera!

Backstory: Tanya is a hoarder at heart. She admits this. She doesn't present her symptoms in the traditional sense. Let’s just say Tanya loves her pictures. She has thousands upon thousands of photographs from just the last three years. She doesn't print all of them, only the ones that she really likes, and then someday she’ll actually get around to scrapbooking them when she comes over to craft. Recently she’s been sewing when she comes over. Last week she came over and we made ADORABLE invitations for her daughter’s three year old daughter’s birthday party in a few weeks. Which I accidentally posted yesterday instead of scheduling it for tomorrow...

I digress. I wanted to make 1,000 camera cards as a joke, but I didn't. I made one huge one instead. I think she liked it!

Clouds.

I'm trying to catch up posting a few cards that I made months ago before I go onto the awesome Halloween pictures.

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted these yet. If I have, oh well. DOUBLE FEATURE!

These cards were made a loooong time ago, probably even a year ago. I was on a cloud and sun kick because of some cloud dies that I bought. I should never spend that much on a product, especially something so simple and with such little product return. But I did, and I loved them.  Now I have a million free cut files for my Silhouette and I hope to never purchase another die cut again.  I've pretty much paid for my silhouette ten times over by not buying any more die cuts!

Some of these clouds are cut out of the blue card stock, and the others are adhered with foam adhesive for that lovely 3D effect that I’m addicted to.

This card was actually not made from the die cuts, but rather from a really old stamp set that I ordered years ago for my friend, Erin, for some baby shower invitations that we made. Also I stitched the edge of the card. I believe this card was one of the very first card that I tried my sewing machine on. Dang, it is SO hard to stitch a straight line, ESPECIALLY on paper! 

These clouds are a negative of what I cut out, so then I took the blue paper and adhered it to the base with foam adhesive for the ever beloved 3D effect.

The only 3D effect here is the sun. 

Aaaaand that's it. I still love my clouds and suns. They all feel to be about the same, but that was kind of my point. Same elements, same colors, different cards. I like the way they all turned out!

Leila.

My friend, Tanya, and I made some invitations for her daughter's third birthday party the other day. This is how they turned out:

Can you tell the theme is Chip and Dale?

Adam came up with the pun. Tanya wanted something totally punny that had to do with Chip and Dale or acorns or leaves. Once he came up with that, I printed and cut the words on my Silhouette, along with 18 card faces with the leaf cutout.  The leaf is one of the free shapes that Silhouette gives you with your Silhouette! It was exactly what Tanya was looking for.

We made really easy shaker cards with silver stars as the confetti.  I can't find the tutorial that I used, but they're really popular. Just Google "shaker card" or visit this link for a bunch of cute cards! 

Legoman.

I have an AWFULLY photographed card for you today. I don't know why I could get these primary colors to look like primary colors. Probably because I used my iPod and I don't have a better camera. With failed attempts at properly editing the pictures, I decided to add an "effect" and purposefully change with (what I think) is called a filter.

I made this card for my brother, Drew, who is actually two years older than me: 29. He's not still into Legos, but when I think of a Lego, I think of him. He loved them as a kid. The cut file came from this link which I obtained through Pinterest. All I have is that link to the 4shared account - not a blog or anything!

No picture filter - pretty close to the actual color

I had a lot of fun with this card! I cut everything out on my silhouette via print and cut, and I adhered each circle of the base individually with foam adhesive for dimension. It didn't take as long as it seems!

You wanna know something amazing? I drew on the face parts ALL.BY.MYSELF. That's saying something. Sometimes I can't even draw a rectangle. Joking. But the smile was hard! I'm proud of that accomplishment LOL!

DAD.

I love my Pops to death. His birthday was in September and I made him a really special gift. I'm really proud of it and he says he loves it :)

I found a free SVG cut file from KLDezign for this mini album, and I used this tutorial to cut the album out of a cereal box.

I won't do much talking because there isn't much to say. I suppose if you have questions, you can ask :)

Cover:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4:

Oh, the awkward years...

Page 5:

Back:

A "barcode" font attempt... it doesn't work so well on acrylic painted cereal box material.

I spent a long time on it, and he ended up getting it a week or so late because of it. He didn't care!  I'd love to do one for my mom, but she was always the one TAKING pictures, so I have like 2 photos of just her and I.

52.

My mother's birthday was on the 1st of November and I still haven't gotten to the post office to mail her gift. Now I've decided I might as well wait until my niece's gift arrives that I ordered for her birthday, so I can ship both gifts at the same time to save myself a trip. Because, you know, going to the post office is SUCH a bother. ....

Even though she may read this (chances are low), I didn't want to wait any longer to share the gift I made her.

I'm sure you've seen this; it's been all over Pinterest since Pinterest existed. Even though it's almost cliche now, I don't care. I had a ton of fun making it, failing at it, and then completely surprised and how awesome it turned out.

Behold: 52 Reasons I Love You (and then some):

Even though I could've purchased this awesome deck of cards:

Vintage Series 1800 Bicycle Playing Cards

I feel a gift is special when I make it; when I put my personal signature on it. If I purchased this (awesome) deck of cards, it still would've been neat, and maybe it would've been cooler looking, but I would've wondered what I could've made myself. Could I do it? Would I try a few techniques and fail and give up?

I don't have to ask myself that. I made it. I had some major fails, some errors, and I even had to purchase another set of cards to replace some ruined ones, but I did it. I had fun! AND I like the end result :)

Rule number one: never follow internet instructions regarding how to age playing cards because none of them are good and every one of them completely ruined the cards. Most of the cards got completely stripped of all color and some backs got separated from the front. I should've taken a few pictures and submitted it to Pintrosity.

Through trial and error, I found a great method, which consisted of an arduous 7-step process of aging the cards, and then a 5-step process in aging and typing and adhering the reasons. It seemed like it was going to be a fast and easy project, but I made it much more time consuming than it probably should've been!

I am so funny :)


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UPDATE: March 4, 2014

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My husband and I are adopting (!!!), and we are doing anything and everything to raise the $14(ish) grand.
In said effort, I am offering to make you a deck of cards, with the promise that every penny you give me will go directly to the adoption agency.

Note that I am not trying to *steal* Ms. McNabb's idea. I'm just doing whatever I can to get a baby in my arms!  I give full props to Lowri for her creativity. I didn't use Lowri's template which she sells on her website. Everything here I did myself, with the inspiration from the lovely Lowri McNabb. 

If you would like to take a gander at the many other styles and decks that I've done for others,
and to see about helping me out yourself by letting me make you a deck,
please visit our "Rathsack Adoption Option" blog
and/or my Etsy shop!

Sneak Peek:

So many deck colors and options, it's ridiculous.

Star Wars!!!

Book binding!

Love, puppies, kittens, and babies,
T

Siding.

You know you're a homeowner if.....

You get stupid excited new siding on your home.  Because there's not a whole lot to say, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

NOTE: The siding is dark grey, not blue in any way, shape or form. My iPod, the lighting, the fact that the house faces north, are all factors that go into the poor photos. I would try to edit them, but I'm no good at that.

Before:

After:

AHHHHHH! We love it. LOVE it. Not much more I can say about that. 

Not only is the ugly brown and white gone, but the faux stone around the sliding glass doors is gone! You can also see the raised bed in front of the porch that my father in law gave us and helped Adam install this summer. 

The branches on the right are for Halloween. You'll see what I mean in a later post. 

Construction and transformation pictures:

nearly done!

And another look at the what it looks like now:

It took five days to complete it, then several more days for them to keep coming back after I had to nag, nag, nag them about things they forgot, things they left, or things they flat out ignored.

We really don't like our contractors. I'd go into the problems we've had, but I don't have the energy, and besides, talking about it just makes me upset. It's just a constant battle with them. I hope to not have to use them again. We want to side the garage next summer if there's any money left over from the insurance proceeds.