Click here for the 2013 ATC Swap Calendar!

There’s an adorable little boy, named Jack, who is turning four this month. This year, Jack’s passion is trucks. BIG trucks. BIG YELLOW trucks! In fact, Jack loves everything to do with construction. When his grandma asked me to make his birthday card again, this year, I was delighted. This was my first big-yellow-truck-card experience!

I wanted to make this card really special, so that Jack would love it as much as his presents. My first thought was of my Cameo. I love having an excuse to slip into the Silhouette America library of images. Within seconds I had found a set of four construction vehicles. Just what I was looking for–and four, for the price of one. Yayyy!!! Best of all, I had a brand new blade in my Cameo!!

I chose the dump truck for the front of the card, and added a sign that says, “Jack’s Construction Company.”

I used Stampin’ Up’s Whisper White card stock for the trucks and coloured them with my Copic markers. I used two or three shades of deep yellow to add some texture. Next, I used a brown ink pad to add some “dirt” to my construction trucks. The hub caps are plastic discs that I found in my stash of craft supplies.

I cut “glass” windows out of the cello packaging from one of my tape rollers and added some big presents in the back of the truck to make it more festive. The ground is made from torn brow paper that I ran through my Big Shot. A bit of brown glitter glue gave the sand just the right amount of sparkle.

I really wanted Jack to be surprised when he looked inside his card, so I used all four of the construction vehicles! The birthday wish says, “Have truckloads of fun on your birthday!”

Here are some close-ups of the inside panels. I added dimension by popping up all of the trucks and clouds with pop dots. I love pop dots!

The dump truck is filled with “sand,” that I made using torn pieces of brown card stock,  covered with brown glitter glue.

I added a little yellow envelope on the back with a folded card inside–just perfect for grandma and grandpa to write a special birthday message for Jack. I attached the front and back panels with  “ rusty hinges,” in keeping with the construction theme.

I had a lot of fun making Jack’s card, this year. And, now, just for old-time’s sake, here’s a flashback to the card I made last year for Jack’s third birthday when he was a “fireman.”

I’d call him a cool dude!

Well, this cool senior citizen’s best friends (a lovely couple from Ontario) wanted to give him a special card for his 65th birthday. They wanted the card to be reflective of his love of rock and roll and his passion for golf. When I was offered the challenge, I accepted, gladly!

I decided to create  a card in that looked like a record album–you can see it in this photo. The birthday boy’s name is Damian, so that’s what I named the record label. Check out the close-up, below. It’s not the greatest photo, but you’ll get the idea.

After completing my design in CorelDraw, I exported the image to .jpg format and then imported into my Silhouette Studio library and cut it out on my Cameo,

On the flip side of the record, I wrote a birthday verse:

Happy 65th Birthday
to our good friend, Damian,
the coolest
music-loving,
iPod-carrying,
golf-club swinging
senior citizen
on the planet.

I was happy with the record, but I really wanted it to look like vinyl. So, off I went to Staples to have it laminated. For the small cost of $3, I got the record laminated in 10 mil vinyl–that’s strong enough so that it doesn’t flop around, and feels about as sturdy as a real record.

I had to trim around the outside of the record, because laminating sheets are square. But, I think it turned out pretty good.

Here is the laminated record. I took this photo right on the counter at Staples and then headed off to the post office.

In the background, you can see the album cover. I designed it entirely on my computer using CorelDraw. I did a search on “album covers” and then sized them to 2.5″ each.

Right in the middle, I added a photo of the album so that Damian would see right away that this was a special creation, just for him.

Here’s a better photo of the front of the album cover.

On the back of the album cover, I created a collage of vintage concert tickets and, in keeping with Damian’s passion for golf, I included tags from the four big golf tournaments–the U.S. Open, the PGA, the Masters and the British Open. I used the tags for 2013 to mark the year of Damian’s 65th birthday.

Damian’s big celebration is next week, and I really hope he loves his unique hand-crafted card.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any creative card ideas that you would like to share with other card-makers, let me know and I will feature you and your card in an upcoming post.

If you are not deeply in love with your Cameo because it doesn’t always give you clean cuts, have a look inside your blade housing and tell me what you see. If it looks like the one in the photo below, then it’s time to give it a cleaning.

This is my blade. I was working on a card for a customer last night and all of a sudden, my Cameo started misbehaving and tearing up my paper–my good paper! I took the blade out of the machine and this is what it looked like: lots of paper debris clogging the opening where the blade lives. Of course, it can’t make clean cuts–it can’t even get close enough to the surface of the paper with all that debris stuck in it.

The blade definitely needed to be cleaned before I could go any further with my project. So, I pulled my trusty needle off my bulletin board, inserted it gently into the blade housing, and ran it around the opening several times. Chunks of debris began to fall out. I kept poking at it until I had removed as much as possible.

The photo on the left shows some of the debris that came out of that tiny opening. Of course, this is an enlarged view, but believe me, it was enough to completely clog the blade housing.

This is what it looked like when I finished cleaning it. You can still see some little bits on the lower edge, but they were not visible to my naked eye.

I made several more clean cuts after that cleaning and then pulled the blade out to have another look. It was all clogged up, again!

So, the bottom line is that if you want clean cuts, you must have a clean blade.

Take care of  your Cameo and it will give you the most glorious, intricate and clean cuts of any die-cutting machine on the market!

I was going to wait until my craft studio was perfect before posting any photos on my blogs. But, since that’s never going to happen, I thought I’d show you what I’ve done, so far. This studio is a lot bigger than the one at our old house, which makes it a lot easier to organize my ever-growing inventory of craft supplies. But, alas, it’s still a work in progress.

Here’s what the room looked like when we moved in. We have no idea what the former owners had in mind when they split the clothes closet into two and added the funny little doors. Whatever they had in mind, it wasn’t working for me!

Peter and I ripped out the doors and other paraphernalia, painted the room and added a warm and cozy carpet. We placed my Ikea shelving units in the closet and I added some awesome storage bins that fit perfectly–brand new item at IKEA ($6.99 each). I labeled each bin with pretty scalloped circles that I cut out on my Cameo.

The storage bins are perfect for organizing my craft supplies, as are the striped boxes on the top shelf. Here’s a closer look at my cute labels.

Having my own studio kind of makes me feel like a teenager, again. All my cool stuff is in one room!!

As we round the corner from my storage bins, you can see the tall shelf that stores my sheet music and the “My Stuff” sign that I got at Winners for $3 because all the pegs had fallen off. I glued some sparkly jewels on over the peg holes and it’s better than new. The jewels were from a pair of sandals that fell apart–I saved the jewels because I knew I would find a use for them.

This is my digital piano that my husband bought me for Christmas about eight years ago. It was such a fantastic surprise! The pretty curtains really soften the light in the room and give it a cozy ambiance. The curtains were super-long, with a lovely scalloped border on the bottom–where it would never been seen. So, I turned the top over to make a valance and hung them upside-down. As you can see, they are still long enough and they look like they were made that way!

On the third wall, is my side desk, which holds my Silhouette Cameo (die-cutting machine), my printer, my embossing machine and a storage cube for some of my small designer card stock. On the wall are some of my favourite pieces–each one has a story and I love having them all in sight to inspire me.

These handy wall shelves from Michael’s keep all of my glitter, glue, bling, buttons and other crafting supplies out in the open, where I can see them.

This is the wall in front of my work space–another inspiration wall, that continues to evolve.

There is lots more to come. This room evolves almost daily, as I add, subtract and relocate my “stuff.” I hope you enjoyed this short tour and I hope you will come back, soon, to see what’s new in Globug’s studio.

Happy Easter…and Happy Spring!

Number of participants: we’ll start with a small group of 12 participants. That means you need to make 12 ATCs –11 to trade and one to keep for yourself.

On the back of each ATC include:

• the name of the swap (Example: Globug Ideas ATC Swap #1, Summer Fun!)
• the date
• your name, city and country
• card number (for example, if we have eight participants, you would number your ATCs 1 of 8, 2 of 8, and so on).
• your signature

Mailing: place your ATCs in a baggie or us plastic wrap to protect them from getting wet in the mail. Include a self-addressed envelope, with your name and the swap name on the back. Please include the equivalent of one Canadian dollar to help me pay for the return postage. If it costs me more than a dollar, I will cover the balance.

That’s it, that’s all! I am looking forward to seeing your miniature works of art!

What’s behind door #1. . .

I am still happily creating ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). These “miniature works of art,” as they are known are just 2.5″ x 3.5″ in size. We typically swap three at a time. Sometimes, we have to make three completely different ATCs or, as in the case of this “Doors” swap, I made them all the same.

This swap was a little different because we had to create an ATC with a door on it. It could be a door to a house, a garage door, a cage door, a dutch door, saloon doors, whatever!

I decided to go with just a regular door, with a welcome sign on it. This was my oh so subtle way of saying, “Welcome Spring.”

The door opens to reveal a gift of spring flowers and a friendly, “Hello.” We weren’t required to draw this one, so I used one of my favourite flower stamps and spent loads of time hand-colouring each image with my Copic markers. A few touches of glitter glue and sparkle gel pens and, voila, spring has sprung!

Check out ATCs for All. You just might find something that will spark your creativity.

The challenge of this swap was to make three cards depicting three different  authors or poets. I always make an extra one for the swap organizer as way of thanking her for her initiative. To make the challenge a little more difficult, we had to draw or paint the images. Yikes! I’m no artist, but I do love a challenge. Here are my “mini works of art”…

Maya Angelou: Maya is a world renowned poet, author and political activist. This ATC depicts two of her books: Heart of a Woman and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her autobiography is written in six (or is it seven) volumes, each one as fascinating as the next. Maya is a brilliant writer, whose autobiography reads like a novel. Her life story must be read, to be believed.

Jeannette Walls: In Half-broke Horses, Jeannette tells the true story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith,a feisty frontier teacher, a rancher, a rodeo rider, a poker player, and bootlegger. Lily survives droughts, tornadoes, floods, poverty, and whatever else fate can throw against her. Another fantastic book by Jeannette  Walls. But you can’t stop here…

 In Jeannette’s first book, The Glass Castle, (which should, logically, should follow Half-broke Horses) she tells the true story of growing up in a highly dysfunctional family. She and her three siblings live with their nomadic parents, moving wherever the wind took them. Her father was a brilliant man who lived life fearlessly, never establishing roots for his family. Her mom, a gifted artist, painted while her children sat by frustrated and hungry. Jeannette’s story is riveting, so don’t start reading on a night when you have to get up early the next morning!

Maurice Sendak: The funny little creature I’ve drawn on this ATC is from Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. This beautifully illustrated children’s book was recently made into a full-length movie.

Maurice also wrote Really Rosie, One was Johnnie, Chicken Soup with Rice, Alligators All Around and a host of other joyful children’s poems which were set to music by none other than Carol King.

Dr. Seuss: Probably the world’s best known and loved children’s author. His quotes are both brilliant and insightful. On this ATC I have drawn the famous hat from The Cat in the Hat. The quote I’ve chosen is quote is one of my favourites. You’re never too old for Dr. Seuss!

On the back of every ATC, we must include the name of the ATC Swap, the date, our name and the ATC number (e.g., 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc.). In this case, we are trading three cards with three different people plus an extra for the wonderful lady who organized the swap. It’s so much fun, and the theme changes with every swap!

Check out ATCs for All, I know you will find a swap that will be just right for you!

I am sending a BIG apology to all of you wonderful readers who have sent me questions over the past month or so about your Silhouette Cameos and other topics. Something weird happened with my e-mail program and I haven’t been receiving notifications of comments. So, all this time I thought you had all forgotten about me (or every Cameo problem in the world had been solved), but you were out there waiting for me to respond.  I feel TERRIBLE about this. I always respond to questions quickly, personally and to the best of my knowledge.

It seems all notifications were going to my JUNK folder! Argh#@$!!  Thanks goodness for my husband, Peter, who is brilliant with technology. As soon as I told him I hadn’t been receiving any questions or comments for the past while, he knew there was a problem. If only I had mentioned it to him, sooner! Anyway, he fixed everything and I am going to respond to each and every one of your questions as quickly as possible.

If you have already found the answer to your questions or solved your problems, that’s great! But, I’m going to respond to every single one of you, anyway, just to be sure.

Again, my apologies. My e-mail is back on track and Globug is back in action! Yay!

Thank you so much for your patience.

Gloria