Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

Join My E-letter List!
For Fun Files & News!

This is an email list with general updates used from to time. If you want an email every time I post, please enter your email on my Subscribe to my Blog form on the lower left or at the bottom of every post. 

Archives for August 2011

Sale & CT Special Projects Answers

By

Creative Team Special Projects Questions
These are the questions I have received regarding my short team of Creative Holiday Cards

1) Yes I will give you the files to work with. and they can be multiples in one project.
2) Yes you can do just one card.
3) Yes I will email you the agreement before you look for a file. just email me. Easy peasy.
4) Yes I will have future Special Projects Teams, but the more you participate in, the more I am likely to choose you in the future.
5) No, you do not have to use holiday files. You can use a piece of any file to create a Holiday Card.
6) No, I am not sure how many will be on the team, but really would like to send out some files by the end of the weekend. I have already accepted on person’s request to join.
7) all finished projects from CT Special Project Team Members are due by october 15th.
8) yes, if a file is missing the SVG in the listing I can convert and send it to you as well. I am in the process of adding SVG to all of them. but with over 800 files it can take some time. 🙂

Thank you for considering!

Also, for those who just want to create this weekend. I have set all my digital cutter files for sale for 30% off this weekend. More details here.

Have fun! Enjoy! Chris

By



I needed a retirement card for a co-worker. I knew immediately that I had to make this card with Chris’s retirement file. You can find it here. It cut like a dream! And my co-worker loved it. Thanks, Chris!

Sussann

Digi-Cutter Files offered in SCUT, GSD, KNK, WPC & AI (SVG) at www.visualdesignsbychris.com

http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com/3014/

CT Special Projects – Holiday Cards

By

cdurnan

Hello Creative People!

I am looking for a Special Projects Creative team. This is for holiday themed cards. And by Holiday I mean any holiday within December.

If you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or just like to make fun beautiful winter cards, I am open to many ideas. See the information below and if you are interested,

please contact me. Thank you. And if this is not one for you, I will have a few more special projects CT that will be coming up in the future. If you want notice of these join my yahoo group, Visual Designs by Chris or my facebook page for notices.

Enjoy!

Chris

CT Special Projects – Holiday Cards

Subject – Holiday Cards

Requirement – Hasn’t been posted anywhere before, includes one of my digital cutter files ( I will send you the file of your choice), has to be a card representing the Holidays.

Can be religious in nature, can be silly and fun, or thought provoking and meaningful, Must agree to “Agreement for Special Projects Creative Team” (which I can send on request or will after your application. It just says basically you plan to complete your commitment to this Special Projects Team
and that I can use the photos of the projects to promote my digital cutter files.)

Time Frame/Due Date – Due by Oct. 15th

Needs: Photo of Project (high resolution) and list of Method & Supplies used emailed to Chris Durnan.

Special notes: You may post the project on your blog, website, galleries after they have been posted to the Visual Designs by Chris blog.
This is to help me to showcase some of my files for holiday card making. The photos may be used in other materials or locations throughout the web. And credit will always be given to the creative team member.

Application: Please send:

Two photos of card projects you are most proud of you have done in the past

and one choice of a file you would like to have sent to you to work with from the store of Chris Durnan’s files

Also, please include your email address to reply or send files to,

your user name at the VDBC forum (if you have one),

and your blog or website (if you have one)

And please send me the number of projects you think you can commit to before October 15th.

(This give me an idea of how many spots to limit the Special Projects team to.)

Number of CT spots: Limited.

Applications due as soon as possible as I will start sending files as soon as I find the creativity I am looking for for this project. And I am looking for a few different styles to showcase.

End of Creative team Special Project: October 15th, 2011

Thank you for your interest. Any questions let me know.

Please list CT Special Projects in the subject line of your email to ME.

I (heart) jars

By

So is it canning or is it the jars? I saw a post recently about a Mason Jar Lunch. It inspired me. I tried to find the original and it was just over and over and over repeats of the same thing. So whoever originally posted it. Can I say thank you! I love Jars they make me hum a happy tune. I love to can and I get the urge to can. I love to read canning books. I know what I am eating and what’s in it. But…. A new twist for me..

 

Here is my Jar lunch today. We had a little bit of grilled chicken left and some of the fixings from a salad. So I through them in a jar for lunch today and put it in the fridge. The unexpected treat was to eat it out of a cold glass jar instead of plastic. Yum so yum. I did this a few weeks ago. We went to the auction and it was warm and hot and they were serving hot burgers. Probably not a gluten free establishment. And sometimes I hazard a try and have one of those burgers. This time I brought a jar and a side of dressing to go with. After being in the heat all day, grabbing that jar out of the cooler that was cold and my veggies were all crisp and cold. Yum. I was totally fulfilled and it was yummy! Perfect. I had two ladies ask me where I got it. I said from the cooler. They smiled and looked a little not so thrilled as they chose between a hot burger or a hot hot dog.

 

I suggest you pack heavy on the bottom and lighter on the top. I eat salads without lettuce. I find the lettuce gets stuck in my throat. Yeah I am weird, but hey really lettuce is just a holder for all the yummy veggies. I plan to make more of these mason jar lunches in our travels. And will probably sideline to some fresh fruit as well. I wonder how whip cream in the bottom of a jar would hold up with strawberries on top. Oh yes yum. Okay I am hungry. Gotta run.

 

Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy!

Chris

 

 

 

Calendar Swap

By

Already the holiday prep is buzzing.  A really cute gift is the Calendar Swap at the forum. It is a fantastic gift. I have given these away for the last two years and they are the “where is mine?” gift I always get asked for. Some use the Calendar page to cover with pictures of friends and more. Others use it for a calendar. It is perfect and so crafty. If you want to sign up. Visit here. I actually saved two of mine from last year and plan to fill them with pictures for Christmas gifts this year. Fantastic!

Back to my weekend plans. Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy!

Chris

Today…

By

Another pic from vacation. My kiddo and my Nan at a restaurant at the the Ferry on Coronado Island. Candelas. Oh yum. So good food. I didn’t take any food pics because I swallowed the whole thing before I thought about it. Very nice food!

 

Today I have to sew patches on my Wolf Den Leader shirt. Yikes. I have everything out. We shall see how I do. Just a tad nervous that I get it right and not crooked. J Good thing I have a stitch ripper.  Comes in handy with my abilities with thread and needle.  My Mom made my Wedding Dress and has sewing talent galore. I can remember her making  wedding dresses for others when we were little. (One time we as kids freaked out as Kenny Rogers was at our door to pickup his daughters wedding dress. Years later we figured out it was a lookalike. We were in pure awe.) I can remember hearing the sewing machine run and run and run. What a great talent and skill to have. I guess I never picked up the sewing talent or maybe I just need some good old fashioned practice, but after so many years I am still attached to my digital cutters! Hard to get some practice in with anything else.

 

I am also working on some new ideas to shake up the QMC. Next one is my to-do. I am excited about the ideas. (Thank you Lori for giving me the break!) I have been working on getting it together and can’t wait to announce the new stuff for it.

 

Just now I saw on GMA some folks singing and dancing. I am time warped. Did they just fall out of an 80’s time machine? Wow.

 

I have been working hard on cleaning out my studio. I started in one corner and am working my way around. I want it emptied out and cleaned up before I start the holiday projects. So I have committed some time each day to work through boxes and drawers and things that are stuffed every where in my studio.  I know have an in progress table where I am working on items I can place them. Before I just shuffled them back and forth while I try to get all the pieces together. No with a certain spot. I am happppy about it! Fun Fun. (And yes my fakery cupcakes are there as I plan to take them to a friend to decorate the tops. So I haven’t skipped sending you pics. )

 

And now I am off to battle the shirt and the patches.

 

Have a fantastic day!!!

Enjoy!

Chris

 

 

A bee, the date, Scouts, pics.. yes I am random today.

By

I have a bee in my studio. He keeps buzzing in the window. For some reason I just keep staring at him. Why does he keep trying to get out the window when the glass window part is open 2 inches away. And is a “he”? must be because isn’t there a queen bee which would be a “her” hmm. Yes my mind is odd and rambles and goes on these crazy loss of track thought processes. But hey it works for me.

This is the third Mondy in August of the year 2011. Doesn’t that sound official? Hmm.. kinda but also bizarre as the date is posted at the top of this heading. This is just one of those days where odd things strike me as interesting.
In my queue of things today, (Netflix has a queue why shouldn’t I?) I have some Scout items to work on being the Wolf Den Leader this year. I have been reading all the den meeting plans and coming up with things to keep the guys engaged. I have some fun ideas to wrap around the to-do’s and some of the den meetings I will be begging the parents to help us out. It should be a great year of activities. My kiddo loves Scouts it really thrills him to put on that uniform. I should be proud to wear the uniform, but I fear I will look frumpy and dumpy in mine. I wish I could bling out the eyes on the wolf badge with some jolee crystals, but something tells me this is not “uniform protocol”. I also am sure I will find a pair of pants I think go well with the shirt and not make me look to frumpy and they will be relegated as the Scouts pants. Hmmm wonder if I can bling those out. Hmm… I wonder. Again probably not uniform protocol… that’s okay I’ll figure it out. I have been told I should Velcro the den leader badge on because I will need to change it out for next years den. YIKES I haven’t made it past this years plan of den meetings lets not talk about next!!! All kidding aside. I am quite excited and hope I have come up with some ideas to make the meetings fun for the Scouts. And I hope I don’t embarrass my kiddo to much being dorky. It’s just how I roll. My hubby knows this so he will hopefully explain it to my son. Haha. So yes… I will be hitting folks up for Popcorn sales coming soon. So if you are interested in Popcorn, please consider us! But we’ll save the rest of that pitch for later.
In the meantime, I just hope the boys in our Den are happy and I do a good job.
And now that my mind has rambled and wondered a bit.. Here are some pics from our California adventure. It was a quick trip. And I think I am just going to do the adventure backwards. Especially since I posted food pics from our last stop of the trip already. Here is Sunday morning. My son decided on Friday he was going to build a “huge” sand castle. He wanted a shovel. I only brought a little bucket and a small yellow plastic shovel (which I think the seagulls may have flown off with). So Sunday morning we were the sole family out on the beach before we had to leave. We were there at 9 a.m. in the morning. Honestly it was perfect. There was no one there, but us and those being healthy in their lifestyle running by. My son was in and out of the water and digging and building. A little later in the morning we ended up with a few other moms and their kids on the beach. And we ended up with one blonde invader in our castle with the cutest little pig tails eating cheetos. Too funny and cute as she obviously was used to the seagulls. My Nan and I thought she looked like the coppertone baby. To funny. It was a wonderful few days and lots of great time spent with my Nan.

Here are some pics I hope you enjoy!

Chris

The plan is made.
The castle building begins.
In the water early early. yeesh. freezing
and they were working hard. See no one on the beach.
Dad helped a ton. If it weren’t for Dad, I think the castle wouldn’t have been.
Sorry flip your head to see this one.
Me and my Nan. Enjoying the morning, beach and watching my guys in the water.
Love my guy. He was loving the boogey Board.

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!

My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!

And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

Busy Week .. more pics to come..

By

It has been a very busy week with lots of things to do.  Returning from vacation is always busy busy. I am looking through all the pictures to post some on my blog. An easy one to post is this one from the Restaurant on top of the Fish market. Absolutely yum. And they made the Panzanella Salad without croutons for me and it was so yum. I love tomatoes. So yum. And the sea bass so good. Just the whole thing was yum. It was a last minute stop before we headed back to the desert. And an excellent find. My husband and I walked into the Fish Market and I promptly jumped in line at this busy bustling restaurant with oyster bar. My husband sees these stairs and runs up them with our kiddo in tow. A few  minutes later my little one sticks his head around the corner and says “Come on” I head on up and wow. Beautiful view. Lots of light as we looked out on the bay and watched the boats passing by. My son was very pleased with his fish shaped Cheese pizza. (CAN I ROLL MY EYES?) He loves Salmon and they actually had it on the kid’s menu. He was hungry and chowed the whole “fish shaped pizza” and my hubbies oyster crackers and tons of rolls. He was starving. And we walked over to Seaport Village to grab some fudge and check out a few shops before our long drive home. Wonderful afternoon. And the morning was spent with  my hubby and son building sand castles and sitting with my Nan on the beach and chatting. It was wonderful. I have pictures to post and will do so.

 

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy every moment!

Chris

Home Sweet Home

By

I am back from California and a wonderful few days on the beach with my handsome guys. I am back into working mode and am downloading pictures to post and see my crazy son and our great adventure. But first I wanted to send this out to my family in Arizona who read my blog and are not on facebook. Many have been interested in our “home grown beef” tales. For an alternate to feeding your own,  Zaycon is offering Peaches and Ground Beef Super Lean in bulk for pickup here in Arizona. You can go here. Register and login and see the events. This is a very good price for the type of meat offered. Especially since the price of beef seems to go up and up and up.

 

And I shall be posting all the projects in progress and pictures soon!

Enjoy!

Chris

Shadow Box using VDBC #CD00807

By

I am a board member for a Dental Coalition in the county where I reside.  We are trying to develop resources for adults who cannot afford dental care because improper dental care can lead to so many other health concerns.  I made this shadow box for a silent auction for the Dental Coalition. I used a Visual Designs by Chris file #CD00807 Tending My Garden.  However, I totally cut up the file for the hearts.  *smile*  I cut them out of white cardstock and used my Copic markers to color them.  I used some old stash of Heidi Swapp photo corners so whoever wins it can interchange the photos as they desire.  FAMILY are chipboard letters that I’d had forever as well.  The flowers are a mix of Prima and a silk flower arrangement from Hobby Lobby.  The butterfly is a Sizzix die and embossing set.  I added a Tim Holtz safety pin for the body and a little chalk to the body for texture.  Some bling for the flight pattern.  All of the patterned papers were from a DCWV (I think) pack from Michaels.  K&Co. Fabric brads and HL jeweled brads.  I stamped LOVE LOVE LOVE on the hearts and used stickers for THIS LIFE on some banners created with a Stampin’ Up punch.  A little ribbon and a string of pearls and I’m calling this done.  The shadow box itself was from Hobby Lobby (great use of a 40% off coupon!)

~Angie~ (Missouri)
~I am blessed!!~

Visual Designs by Chris Creative Team Member
http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com
(cutters: Blue Wishblade and Cricut Expression)