Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

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Archives for November 2007

Family Matte Frame

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Well Luckily the powdered sugar was from some doughnuts my little one found in the back of his section of the cupboard. Woohoo! That is much better then the other possibilities.


So today has been a creative day for me. Here are some of the things I have been working on… First I want to put together a coffee mug for my Dad (luckily he doesnt have internet so I can post this) So I have been putting together a collage of pictures and we found a lady who said she would send it out to us right away for next weekend. My sister-in-law called her and said she seemed awesome to work with. I will let you know how the order goes and post the link when I get it done.

Then I have been working on some new packaging for the store. and Some new ideas. I thought these frames could be great to putting around a picture. Here is my offer to you. I will take the first 5 requests of one word to replace the word family with and email you the file. I think this would be great for scrapbooking, but also for in an actual picture frame with a picture behind it. So EMAIL ME here. So send me your word and your file type needed and put Matte Frame in the subject. I probably won’t have them for you until after the 17th, but thought I would offer it to those who might be interested. I have my five. Thanks guys!

I just thought they looked nice so I thought I would post again for today!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Enjoy!
Chris

Powdered Sugar.

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Howdy and Hello!!
Well It’s Friday. Woohooo.. Made it another day. Just realized I need to head out and feed horses because the hubby didnt this morning when he left, but thought I would post a quick note.

-The poinsettia in a pot is up at the QMC
-I have everyone who has joined the QMC added, if you can’t get in let me know. The link is on the left of my blog.
-Lots of great emails about the Scrapping With Cancer/Brody so I am thinking we will make it through the holidays and then come up with a Cut-A-Thon of some type for the scrapbook kits he is putting together. Some of the designers have agreed to join in. Thank goooodness. So I will have to work out some details. Here is the link to Brody’s main website. http://www.freewebs.com/scrapingwithcancer/
-Still working on the Blessings Jumble. It just isn’t working for me yet.
-Added a few files to the store yesterday .. woohoo!!
So those are some updates.

This weekend I am cutting my son’s preschool classmates names on my KNK and also a stocking patten so they can glue them all together next week. My little one will miss school on Wednesday because Grandpa will be here. (I am so excited about this).
We got some lights up last night and if I can get them off the camera quick I am going to upload them here to see. they came out cute with the lights in the background. I have been playing with my camera features and having lots of fun.

Okay well gotta run my son just came up to me with a big powdered sugar smile… So now I need to investigate what was the cause.

So there should be more later………
Enjoy!
Chris

Yikes theres a trail… powdered sugar.ahhhhhhhhhhh

Inspirational…. & of course jumping on beds..

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Wednesday Wednesday… That means tomorrow is Thurs and I get to stay home with my bumpkin and work on pulling out decorations for the house. Woohooo!!.
I found this through an email newsletter. Some of you may have seen it. It really touched my heart because I am on a foundation for children with Traumatic Brain Injuries. So seeing something like this just makes me smile and wish this child the best.
A boy in Canada who has leukemia decided to put together scrapbooking kits for other children also with cancer. So they could document their experience as well. His Aunt gave him his first supplies and he was hooked. I have to say Wow! Here is the link to find out more about it. I have not decided how, but I think I am going to try and donate to this young man’s awesome idea. Maybe a cut-a-thon. Where we can all cut a bunch of the mini albums to send up to him so he can include them in the packages and save money on albums. Or a set of diecuts to be cut out and sent to him for in each of his projects. I don’t know. I am going to have to think on this. And I would give the cut-a-thon participants some door prizes or something. I will have to work this out for January and see who I can get involved because I am swamped right now in December. but put on your thinking hats and if you have any ideas. Please send them my way.
Also, because there are a few steps involved with getting a file in the store and I am just feeling lazy about getting the files ready for the store. I am going to post the poinsettia card file in the QMC. So look for it there if you want it… I think Ginny asked.. What Joanne did with the background. I am pretty sure she used foil behind the stencil cut out. It is fabulous. So check out the QMC and it will be there soon.
Also, for those questioning my trip to vegas in December. First I am going for a very close friends wedding. My hubby and I are the best man and maid of honor. And my son is going to. So I am sure he will decide he needs to walk down the aisle with us. Also, I am going for the National Finals Rodeo. This will be my 5th year going I think. And I start shopping at Cowboy Christmas and all the others as soon as my feet hit the pavement in vegas. Personally, I am not a gambler. So I cannot see anyother reason to go to Vegas other than or this event. Friends went last year and it was the woman’s first time and she said… so when do we do this shopping thing… And the general consensus between the men was as soon as Chris’s feet hit the ground in Vegas. I stay at the Mandalay Bay so I can be where one of the conventions are. I do not like to shop, but for this I do and I will shop for 3 days straight. My husband will go out and play cards with my Uncle and friends and my bumpkin and I will order in a movie, jump on the bed together, have pillow fights, order in room service with ice cream and giggle all night. My hubby can play cards as long as he wants since he usually comes back with a few hundred dollars more then he left with and thats good for shopping. And he can stay out as long as he knows I will be ready to go at 8 a.m. late night or not to shop. So for those adults justa rolling your eyes at the thought of Jumping on the bed… My rule is you can only jump on hotel room beds. not the one at home. And it’s fun. So why not? Whens the last time you jumped on a bed with your kids and heard them giggle?????? and with that….
Enjoy!!!
Chris
Man I can ramble…
Oh did I tell you I have an awesome lady who is selling my die cuts on her website. Not the digital files, but the cut files… Oh man I need to go work on dinner… more on that tomorrow. soooo excited… toodles

Holiday pics and ramblings.

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Tuesday night… I am working on files and decided to take a quick break. I just had my last slice of white bread. I made it from a mix by Orgran (sp?). It was quick simple painless and I got to eat a few ham and cheese and tomato sandwiches. Yum yum. It didn’t last long tho’. Small loaf and my hubby thought it was good to. Luckily my son didn’t know we weren’t feeding him the special bread. I am into baking right now for some reason. Was at the store today and picked up another gluten free mix by another company to see how it turns out. I don’t own a bread machine so not sure if this would help and not sure if I want the counter space taken up when I might lose this baking bug at any time. We shall see how it plays out.

So for Thanksgiving we did the After Dinner Chores Cards. My aunt put the little cards from my Treat for Trickers file underneath everyones plate. And when dinner was done everyone picked up their plate and there was the chore for after dinner. Let me tell ya dishes were done much quicker. There were at least 7 people in the kitchen at all times helping out. So it was nice to see everyone getting involved. It worked out pretty well. I am curious if anyone else used them and if they worked out. If you don’t know what I am talking about it is in the QMC and in my past posts here on my blog. It was right after Halloween that I posted it. The pictures on the left are of all the hardworkers and my brother with his that said empty trash. Which he kept in his pocket so that no one else would say he should do dishes. He also become the drink getter. So he got really good at grabbing beer for the dishwashers. Everyone had good spirit about it. So that was nice and there wasn’t any major pouting.

The pictures below are my son getting to put the angel on the Christmas Tree at Grandma’s house this year. Okay I have to get back to it.
Enjoy!
Chris

PS the first picture was just me playing with my camera with the lights from the trees.I thought it looked fun so I shared.

Monday Morning and Freezing!!

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Woohoo!! It is Monday.. really early Monday was when I wrote this and I am just now getting it uploaded. wew!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. I am so ready to get back to creating. I took some time off to get a breakand hang out with family. To refresh. And it worked. My mind is just a going. I was prepping the Potted Poinsettia to cut and didn’t get a chance so Joanne test cut it for me and what a beautiful job she did. I will do my best to get this into the store this week. I am readyto create create and create. Below is Joanne’s card beautiful. Thank you for test cutting for me and thank you for sending the final piece to me. Fantastic!

Thank you also to everyone who participated in the presales and the sale for the weekend.I am not sure when the next will be. December plans to be a super busy month. My Dad is coming to the desert to visit, we are going to vegas for the nfr, and it is my Hubbies bday, Anniversary for my parents, nieces birthday, oh and of course… tadaa…. christmas. Can we please pack some thing else into the monthof December. Actually forget I said that or it will happen. Wowser!
But this past weekend was my anniversary. 6 years and counting. Love my Guy. We went out to dinner Saturday night at the place he proposed to me. It was fun. My punkin got to visit with his Aunt and Uncle and had a great time. I got to visit with my hubby and just relax. Afterwards we were going to go dancingtry to party like a rock star and stay out late like we used to. HAHAHA. We were ready to go get the kiddohead home and just hang out. Although… we did shut the Lowe’s down on the way home. Woohoo!! Wewere out late enought to make it to last call at Lowe’s. Of course we were getting paint and itemsto work on the fort which is just awesome that my hubby has been working on. Super romantical.. not for some.. but fun for me. Just that time together. Mahvelous.
And Sunday… I went through my little ones room. I got rid of 5 bags of things, some to goodwill,some to the trash, some to the ebay pile. My ebay pile is huge. I need to get on it.Took some explainingto my son that when gifts come there needs to be room for them. I took the time to organize the toys weput back and spread those toys out so he can get to them more. An area for the toy tools, the cars, the puzzles, the books. Etc. When we were all done. he was super excited to be in his room. It was refreshing and I am ready to work on each room of the house for my Dad to come visit and clean things up so next weekend we can put up the decorations.
Well I have to run my fingers are freezing. Jan.. one of the designers at Paperthreads.. she livesaround the corner from me just recently she moved here from a much colder client. Well she has beenpraying for cool weather. And it has beeeeeen cold. Cold for me anyways. My hubby went and pulled the portableheater out of the RV and brought it in the house this morning. It was 55 in here. Not chilly for some, but chillyfor this desert lady. We need to light the pilot light for the heater, but it is nice to actually havea few chilly evenings. sleeping under blankets instead of just a sheet. wewwweeee. But I am fully goingto blame it on Jan cause I know she has been praying for some colder weather and it’s here.
Also, if you have a second my friend Lori at Paperthreads needs some positive thoughtsand prayers as she hits surgery this week. We are all praying for a quick return to thecomputer designing desk because some of her new files are just soooo cute. And also I love her witand can’t wait for her to be back in the swing of things.
Seriously my fingers are gonna fall off they are frozen. I am off to find some hot cocoa. Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris
Thank you to those who sent me Thanksgiving emails and cards. It was very touching. I was very worried after I didn’t get a chance to respond to so many emails when my grandfather passed away I would burn some people. Thanks for standing by me when I am swamped and your thoughts are awesome. I am off to finish up the Blessings Jumble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hellllo to everyone and Happy Thanksgiving. I am planning on little computer time this weekend. So hopefully everyone won’t have to many questions, but give me a bit to respond if you do. My goal will to be to try to keep on top of my email so that my box doesnt fill up, but I probably will put them in the queue to be followed up on Monday.

Well I am off to watch the video of my son in his first school performance. They said dress cowboy. So he did. He insisted on his Professional Bull Riders shirt, jeans, boots, hat, chaps and stick horse. So I video taped it for the family to see. Totally made me smile! I will post one of the pics here after the weekend.

So I am thankful for everyone here!!! If I get some energy I will post more later. I am working on the Blessings Jumble still and am not happy yet with the end result. So it will be coming. Don’t forget the sale! Lori is jumping in on it and a bunch of the designers at Paperthreads.

Enjoy!
Chris

Gratitude, Home, Heart and Soul… what awesome Blessings!

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Wow what a weekend. We spent Saturday at the house and worked on the fort. It is one serious fort. The gator and other rideon toys fit underneath it as a perfect garage. The stars are on it and the green indoor/outdoor carpet. Now we are working out the walls or rails as they will probably more be. Then we went up to the inlaws for a delicious breakfast and chatted for a few hours on Sunday and then came home by way of the local home improvement store and I picked up a few flowers for the front porch. Supposed to be 90 today and then 65 by Thanksgiving. This is why we all get sick here so much. 90 during the day, but it was 45 at our house when we woke up. Wow. Lots of Layers. All in all a great weekend.

This coming weekend is Thanksgiving, decorating on Friday for my MIL, Saturday my anniversary and Sunday hopefully Sunday will be a day of rest. What will be most important for everyone here is it is the SALE. all my files will be on sale and I am getting as many holiday ones done as I can. Wanda sent me this awesome picture of her card using the Silent Night file. Love it. It is beautiful and simple and clean. Love it! Wanda wrote that she used vellum for the inside of the card which I think gave the snow some of its feel. Thank for you sharing Wanda!

Below are some of the files I am working on . They all can’t get posted in the QMC because it is supposed to be 20 files or a little more and I am already at 8 or 9 and the QMC for this quarter goes til March. Wew! But I keep reminding myself that December will be crazy and I won’t be able to post many. But I think those members already joined will be way ahead of 20 files for this inagural membership.

Here are some of the files I have been working on…
And I am working on the Blessings Word Jumble which I will post here and in the QMC. Lots of great words and stories behind them. This was one of my favorites. I hope everyone feels as blessed as I do this year. It may have been a rough one, but we are still enjoying our moments in life.
” When my first son was born (he’s now 4), I looked right at him and knew, he is my heart. When I was pregnant with my second son (now 22 months), I thought..how could I love another child like I do my first? He is my heart. Then my youngest was born, and I looked at him and knew he was my soul. My boys, my blessings, are my heart and soul. And that’s what I’m sharing with you. Heart and Soul.”

and this was another one sent to me that just warmed my soul…
Good morning from Tennessee, Chris. I’m on your Yahoo group and will be joining your QMC shortly – just haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. I have so many blessings it’s difficult to share just one or two. But this morning, I’m particularly grateful for gratitude itself. My father, an 85-year-old WWII veteran, suffers from severe PTSD and has never been able to get past the anger and hurt to see his blessings or be grateful for life’s small miracles. I’ve witnessed his bitterness and sadness for years and it has been particularly bad lately as his physical health falters. The lack of gratitude in his soul robs him of the joy and wonder of life; and watching him daily turn this lack of gratitude for small things into rage and bitterness makes me particularly grateful that I am able to thank God each and every day for the small blessings I am privileged to share.

I am also grateful for my home. The safety and warmth of home (not just my house, but all the things that make it a home) is precious to me.”

Gratitude and Home
Heart and Soul
What an awesome set of words
Thank you to everyone who sent them. If you still have one to include it might not be to late. I am going to publish these all this week because I find them inspirational and hope they are for others. Email me if you’d like.
Enjoy!
Chris

Presale Coupons & Dates and the Soccer Signup Peter Piper Story

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Well lots and lots of things. I should definitely make up for the post yesterday.
Here are my presale files and the dates they will be available with the coupon.
I am sending the coupon out to the yahoo group. There are a limited number of these coupons available, but I think I should have enough for everyone who wants one. So if you want it get it. And you will have it right in your email box for plenty of shopping.
Thanksgiving Presale Files

Monday, November 19th
Basics Bundle
Retails $4.99 with Coupon $2.29

Wednesday, November 21st
A Day at the Zoo Super Pack
Retail: $9.99 With Coupon: $3.99

Thanksgiving Sale
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday for 30% off all my files.
The discounts on the Presale items are much larger then 30% and they are only offered for one day. So don’t miss that day!
On to life…
So my little boy seems to be on the road to recovery. So that is good. Not coughing nearly as much and his motivated moving self is back in full form. We signed him up for soccer for the Jan-March season. He is very excited about this. He loves to play soccer and kick the ball. He has a net and two soccer balls. Well make that one… My hubby drove over one when he was leaving for work one day. Woops. We both jumped out of our skin when it popped. But luckily there was a backup.
We had signups at the local Peter Piper Pizza. So my hubby takes our son off to play some video games while I waited in line. When I was done I went over to the games and watched for a few and then said well we better get a few tickets so he can pick out a small prize. So we are playing all the different games and end up at this game where you put in your token and it goes down the shoot into the back of some dump trucks and you get tickets. My punkin is lovin the ticket thing. They spit them out. He grabs them and gives them to me in pure delight and smiles. So we have played this a bit and our son gets a token from his Dad and puts one in, well he hits the 600. all of a sudden the machine is going tink tink tink tink. Okay so we grab the tickets that are coming out. but wait there is more.. wait more… wait more… (I say to my hubby.. go get the lady.. I think it’s broken. She comes over and says. You hit 600 you’ll get 600 tickets and walks away.)… wait more.. My son looks at me and says “to much, there is to much” .. wait more… My son leaves for more things to do then watch this machine spit tickets.. wait more tickets are spitting.. more .. more.. now I have lost my husband his parting words were I’ll watch him, your going to stand here right?
As I stand there I have given up holding these things and have let them just spit on the floor in one continuous ticket snake. I have gotten look after look. Some from kids with their mouths dropped.. are those yours? My sons I politely respond. Some looks from adults … HELLO AREN’T YOU TO OLD TO NEED TICKETS.. and one Dad actually came up and said Wow. How did you hit the big one.. By now I am wishing this thing would either spit them out quicker or will the motor burn out so it won’t work anymore… Wew they are all out. It has quit. so I ravel them up in some fashion and my hubby looks at me. I say you get to count them.. He starts analzying them and counting. He looks up and there is a Ticket Taker. He asks this pint size little girl how it works. She explains (of course looking at us like we are older then the hills) and sooo I stuff the tickets at him. He gets to stand there and wait for them to zoom into this machine so we can get our paper ticket counter receipt. So now we have the receipt. 683 total tickets. My son is playing on some riding game and just loving it and giggling and laughing. I start eyeing the prize counter. Couldn’t there just be 600 tickets for one item. Nope they are all varying counts. This explains the Game Girl’s calculator. So we round up my son and say now you get to pick a prize. so we start out with a few big items. then break it down for bunch of little trinkets. So we leave with trinketty junk and my son is beaming. It was fun. A little silly and always adventurous. The moral of the story.. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR. “just a few tickets so he can get a prize” BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR. It will come back to you. So if your going to ask for something make sure it’s what you want and I did. A smiling little boy and a proud hubby. His kid hit the “big one”.

Love my life.

Enjoy!

Chris

Update… I forgot to note a few things… First off the newsletter went out.. wohooo! Lots of great feedback. Second, Michelle has offered a coupon for the Craft Robos. She has a few more in stock. And is offering $10.00 off the price and free shipping. If you are looking for something for the holidays send Santa to the store at Paperthreads to get one and make sure to put in the comments “I heard about it from Chris”. She loves me when I do this {Big Grin} The coupon Code is… CRcmas_1107cdsw5 and you get a collection of files to go with it. So you can cut as soon as you get it out of the box. Here is the link if you are interested. Enjoy!

An Interesting day..

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Today should prove to be interesting.. Off to get the cookie dough from the Pre-School fundraiser and get some of it delivered, working on a few special projects, and trying to get the pre-sale codes together. So this note is short unless I can get back to it this afternoon and add another one. It is a windy crazy day out here! Enjoy!
Chris

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Good Morning to everyone! I am trying to fit a post in right now early this morning in case today ends up like yesterday. My bambino has an ear infection in his other ear now. So my hubby mentioned tubes because there was a lot of that in his youth. It is probably jumping the gun since he has only ever had two ear infections and only one in each year. The doc I am sure was oh so thrilled to see us and my little boy loves to tell the doc what ails him. I think he had to look at every possible scrape or boo boo my little one put a bandaid on this week. But when asked what was wrong he said… My ear it hurts and it goes POP POP POP.. like rice krispies. He had this rendition down because he told the nurse it earlier and she asked him to tell two other nurses cause he thought he was cute. I noticed on the corner of the page of my sons chart it says… “animated child” hahaha. I am not sure if this is good or bad, but ya know we will go with it. So today he hangs out with me because of the medicine he has to have. Want to make sure he doesnt come down with hives or a reaction because it isn’t penicillin but similar to I have been told. So today will be a trip to the office and my son taking over office computer while I chat with the accountant. woohooo… I would rather play on the pc. 🙂 Our accountant is awesome, but ugh. I am not the numbers type person….

Speaking of numbers… So they are coming… The dirt cheap presale codes… I got the Fall Huge Bundle into the uploads for the store and it will be one of the presales for next week.

Also, if you got the newsletter you know that ALLLL my files will be on sale over Thanksgiving Weekend. And for those who got the Paperthreads newsletter.. What did you think about my article on metal and the KNK? I will repost it here in a few days for those who haven’t read it, but if you missed it make sure to sign up for that newsletter. I am head of organization for it. So you may hear me mention it here and there.
And for the question… are your files only in the QMC now?? Nope. They are also at the store. So you can buy them indivdually as well. For those in QMC all the versions to silent night and downhill sledding were uploaded last night.

This was sent to me by Karen using a piece from the Thanksgiving Traditions. Beautiful layout. I love the Gold Paper. Thank you Karen for Sharing It. I so wish my hair was that long.
My hair adventure started Saturday a.m. I just don’t think I explain things to hair stylists right. I just wanted some curl along the back. loose even some might call it a body wave. Well I have curl. I have curl all over in a lions mane of twist and tumbles. But hey it’s hair it will grow out and when I see family they will either smile, cringe or go what’s different about you in clear observation, but trying to ignore. My hubby thinks it is cute and is glad I didn’t cut any off. So I am going with it. I almost feel like I could party with this hair it is kinda fun and not so serious and boring as my very straight here of 13 years. (since my last perm) So I was ready for a change and to try it.
Well I gotta run and feed the horses and get moving! Have a wonderful wonderful day!!
Thanks for stopping by and of course…
Enjoy!
Chris
PS Congrats to Margaret for winning Shirley’s blog contest over what is Chris’s quote… One word… and I post it all the time…. “Enjoy!” This made me giggle! Thank you Shirley for the nod!
PSS So if you saw the newsletter that was my first Blinkie and I did Lori’s too. They came out all right, but I need to do some work on them. Lori has a bunch of files hitting the store. I can’t wait to see them!!!

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