This not 1960 and I am not Donna Reed.

Last week I asked my husband if he had thought about what he might get me for valentine's day. He said "yes". I said, "please do not get me chocolate or flowers". He said "I was thinking jewelry, I want to get you pearls". Very thoughtful, yes, but, really? 20 years ago I would have loved Mikimoto's but today? I wear sweats, Jammie's, shorts... You find me either in my workshop playing crafts or in the kitchen chopping up my next gourmet creation. Granted, Donna Reed prepared dinner in pearls, but this is not 1960, and I am not Donna Reed. So he asked me to think about what I did want.....

By the end of the day, I had come up with a better idea. I wanted a toy I could play with... I asked for a Silhouette Cameo, electronic die cutter. He had no idea what it was, but told me to go ahead and order it. So I did. Amazon Prime.. 2 days later it came to the doorstep. I believe I saved big bucks opting for the toy instead of pearls, not only because the equipment was much less expensive, but it also will render significant savings long term since I won't need to buy wafer thin dies.

I made 5 cards during the last few days using my new machine. I got 51 free dies with the software plus a $10 download credit. Additionally the software provides design options with shapes and lines and import options. I have a lot to learn and need to practice with all the bells and whistles.

On the down side, the machine only does the cutting, all the work is done on the computer. It doesn't work with an IPAD. So I had to confiscate John's laptop. I used to have my own, but it died in January 2012 and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one. My IPAD does everything I need... Til now. I'm not sure when he'll realize his purchase may have been his loss. This is the first card (right) I did with a homemade Hello. I like the contrast with black and white. I used wink of Stella and glossy accents on the rainbow colors.

I am loving what I can do with this new cutter, not only do I create the die cuts, but the stencil too. The butterflies (left) is a multi media card. I started by using a butterfly stencil (I made) and inked with my daubers. The next layer are all my Inkadinkado butterflies stamped in black. I also stamped the sentiment in black on velum and finished with 3 mini butterflies cut on my big kick and glued on. I love this card. The first card below was done with the leaves die, floral die and the text option to create "Thanks". I used green and gold card stock in the cutter and thought it would show off best on the navy blue card base. The second card was done with my ferro special effects paste on a honeycomb stencil. Once dry, I ran the same leaves die on white cardstock, stamped and colored the bees and added an embossed greeting on black. The second navy blue card used the other green leaves with my favorite bird and a flower die. The greeting was embossed with Zing green. I love all my new toys!

 

 

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