Cards Honoring Our Beloved Pets

I want to post some beautiful cards that help in easing our pain when we lose a family pet. These are in honor of Missy.

These wonderfully poignant cards were created by Sandra Rose Designs, DogBreedz, and Flying Horse Design.

Remembering Missy

Yesterday our beloved calico-kitty, Missy, passed away. She was almost 17 years old and ill, but she held on until our daughter could make the 4 hour drive home and be with her. She was an extraordinary kitty who brought so much beauty and love into our lives.

She will be missed more than words can express.

Chris' "Throwdown" Dance Move

Chris Matthews really got grooving in this ROTF-hee-LAR-ious video from 2008 when he was doin' the Ellen DeGeneres show. You may have already seen this, but if you haven't you WILL laugh your butt off (unless you have absolutely NO sense of humor).

The first video is the day of his visit with Ellen. It's about 10 minutes or so long, but you don't need to watch the whole thing. Just the dance part at the beginning (including the "throwdown" move) and some of the discussion with Ellen that followed. Then the next video is the one that really hits it out of the park with Ellen explaining exactly what happened.

Chris Matthews does Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres does Chris Matthews

The reason I've strayed from posting helpful Inkscape tutorial links or terrific greeting cards is because I sometimes have rough days (dealing with all my physical hurdles) and coming out of those kinds of days I just want to laugh. These two videos never cease to succeed in making that happen. :D

Using Gradients in Inkscape

Here is an excellent basic tutorial from LittleWebHut on using gradients very effectively in Inkscape. Then, after you've mastered the basics of gradients, he has another tutorial that teaches how to make a super shiney "8" ball.

More Father's Day Cards

While I'm on the topic of Father's Day (see the 'funner' stuff below), I'd like to share three more cards that humor (I mean honor) the 'Man of the House.' Father’s Day (for me) evokes wonderful summertime memories when my husband and I used to take our two kids (before they grew into adults) to Cedar Point for some rockin’ roller-coaster riding. We’d go on Father’s Day because--since it’s fairly early in the summer--it wouldn’t be too crowded. Plus, we could usually call it our kids’ gift to their dad and not have to go shopping for ties. ;-)


These fun Father's Day cards were fondly created by Chuck Ingwersen, Pattiann Malynn, and Candy Palmer

Some Real 'Funners'

As promised, here are the 'funners' that I mentioned in my last post. These are some doozies...and they all celebrate Father's Day! Makes me feel like I wouldn't mind being a father for a day, myself, because it looks like it would be hilarious. LOL! Other than that, don't fault me for choosing these slightly "off-color" humorous cards. They were determined to not let me pass them by (can't you hear them? "Cindy, pick me! pick me!"). ;-D

The starving (for attention, obviously) artists who created these 'funners' are Tom Rent, Mary Kay Mickiewicz and Lilly Fluger. :)

P.S. I'm not sure what it says about {me} that I find those to be among the most funniest cards at Greeting Card Universe...but I'm sure it says SOMEthing. (eyes rolling)

Some Real Stunners

Yes, I've been over at GCU again, looking for more inspiration... and I found some! (no surprise there)  :)  Here are three cards that I consider to be "stunningly" inspiring and I want to share them with you; but this is just a tiny drop in the bucket.  There are SO many amazingly stunning cards at GCU, I wish I could post them all (sigh).

These three that I found today are by Evie's Artful Card Shoppe, Robin's Coloring Book, and Dakota Winds Photography.

Enjoy 'em for now, the next three that I post will be what I consider "funners" (ha ha, you can probably guess what that means, LOL!)

Inkscape Interpolation Tutorial

Getting back to posting useful arts/crafts tutorials, I want to share an advanced Inkscape technique I learned about recently. I used it to make one of my greeting card backgrounds. You need to be very comfortable using Inkscape, and if you are--this is a very versatile tool to add to your creative treasure trove:
Awesome Lines and Interpolation in Inkscape (video tutorial).

If you aren't as comfortable with Inkscape as you'd like to be, then you should choose some of the earlier basic tutorials at Learn Digital Design.

Another video that shows how to use interpolation to make cutting files is this wonderful video by Carolyn of Inkscape Cutting Design.

Cards, Cards, and More Cards!

Ok, when I'm not working on my own cards, I'm over at GCU getting ideas and inspiration.  :)

I want to add three more cards from artists whose work I really admire. And right now, in honor of our courageous men and women in the U.S. Military, I can't think of more appropriate cards to showcase than these that support our troops by Christie Black, Christine Quimby, and Valarie Wade:

Obama gets Osama!

Ding-dong, Bin Laden's dead!!!  Our President got the job done!  I know this doesn't have anything to do with crafting and creating greeting cards (things I generally post about) but this is HUGE and I felt it deserved a post.  :)  Here's a slideshow of Americans rejoicing.

Thank you to President Obama and our courageous U.S. Military (especially the Navy Seals).

A Fabulous New Blog

There's a new blog on the block that's going to knock your socks off!  :)  It's kind of an extension of the Greeting Card Universe (which I shared with you in my last post).  This new blog: GCUCommunity is an online newsletter created by Corrie Kuipers which supplements GCU in a lot of wonderful ways, but my favorite way is how it summarizes the absolutely best topics/talents/news from GCU into very nice, reader-friendly morsels.  We (the GCU artists) are kept up-to-date by Corrie on everything we need to know to succeed with our work at GCU.

Furthermore, through the GCUCommunity, we are inspired and encouraged to learn new tips and techniques for making high-quality greeting cards, and to share the love with our fellow artists.  :)

So with that, I'd like to extend my first "share the love" posting and link to three especially impressive cards and their respective artists.  The first is a Happy Mother's Day card by John H Johnson (he was my first blog follower, so he gets this special shout out. :)  Hey John!).  The second is from Tanya at Moonlake Designs (who happened to be my second blog follower). Oh, and when you visit Tanya's blog, notice her excellent choice in blog background designs (at the time of this writing, it's the same as mine - lol!).  I've never met Tanya, but I feel like I'm in really good company when I find that the blog design I selected (many months ago) is identical to that of someone who has as much talent as Tanya does (air fistbump, Tanya!).  :)  Anyhow, last (but definitely not least) is a lovely card by Rycky Creations (the GCU Community's current Design Spotlight Artist).  As an 11+ year cancer survivor myself, I'm honored and humbled to highlight this one:

So enjoy their cards and check back often, because I'll share other gems in the future.

Greeting Cards Galore

In addition to switching to a Silhouette cutting machine (as I mentioned in my last post), I'm also focusing more on the ins and outs of making greeting cards.  And even more to the point, I'll be focusing less on die-cutting techniques/tips and more on finding tutorials that help with creating artwork in Inkscape (an excellent free, open source art program).  I use Inkscape for the designs in many of my greeting cards.  And a couple of weeks ago I discovered Greeting Card Universe (GCU)--a wonderful avenue for artists of all ranges of talents to build their own online greeting card stores.  For example, here's mine: ilovecuttables greeting cards.  I only have a few cards (as of today) that have made it through the approval process (a "thinking of you" card, a "Mother's Day" card, a "thank you" card and a "Get Well" (from all of us) card).  It takes time, but more are on the way.  :)

In the meantime, check 'em out.  The cards are printed on high quality cardstock in matte or glossy finish and they are out of this world (but still within the Greeting Card Universe - lol!)!

Silhouette

I haven't posted lately because I've been preoccupied with my (temporary & seasonal) job in the tax preparation service.  But I'm back now.  :)  Alas, with some not-so-great news.

ProvoCraft (maker of the Cricut) has filed a lawsuit against my two favorite cutting programs: Make-the-Cut & Sure-Cuts-A-Lot.  The lawsuit with MtC was settled, but unsatisfactorily for most of us MtC users.

After following Jin's wonderful blogging (Underacherrytree) detailing her experiences with (and a review of) a new Silhouette, I've decided to get one.  And I won't be posting Cricut-related topics anymore.

C'est la vie.

It's All About Words

Recently I was looking for a good title to cut out for a scrapbook page and I realized I didn't have a post here with links to the sort of websites that might be useful in such a dilemma...

So here now, is that post: with links to sites that help when you're stumped for just the right words.

• Quote Garden  - In my opinion, this is the best place to find all kinds of quotes and things for any occasion.

• Scrapbook.com's Quotes and Phrases - Scrapbook.com lists categories full of quotes and phrases.

• Scrapbook.com's Titles - And here is Scrapbook.com's list of categories full of titles.

• ScrapSayings - This site offers a lot to enjoy, including links to some famous speeches as well as lyrics to some good songs.

• The Perfect Title - Obviously, this one offers Scrapbook Page titles, and I like how you can choose a category on the left side and then you'll see a whole list of different titles without have to click further.

Cuttingtime Blog

I decided to take it up a notch and dive back into making cuttable SVG files with Inkscape; and in the process, I found (and fell in love with) Carolyn's blog, Cuttingtime.blogspot.com.   She has some of the best Inkscape tutorials I've seen on the net; plus, she has such a lovely voice to listen to.  Go see (and hear) for yourself.  You will be quite impressed.  :)

Update:  Carolyn has ceased posting to her blog and she can now be found at Inkscape Cutting Design.