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. 

two birthday cards using Chris Durnan’s cutter file

By

 I used Chris’s Never Let Age Tame You file (here) to make these two birthday cards. The first one I cut only the animal print frame and the greeting. I put two pieces of ribbon around the greeting to complete.

The second card I used the entire file. I love the effect of the frame around the Never Let Age Tame You collage. I put the greeting inside the card.

The animal print frame would also be great around a picture of your favorite animal or trip to the zoo.

Thanks for looking,

Sussann

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

Vinyl Organizer in the KNK corner

By

Organization is the Bingo Theme this month and I decided to get some organization together in my craft room one corner at a time. I hate to have my vinyl laying down where it gets creased or standing on end where the edges get mucked up. So here is my project to try and lay it, but not get it creased. Especially that treasure Heat Transfer Vinyl. We do not want creases there. 

As promised, here is the brown vinyl organizer made from those great tubes the vinyl comes in. I have hung it in my corner by the KNKmaxx. This corner is busy, but I have everything right in hand.  My “command center” as a I call it. Is a horseshoe of desk height countertops.

Here is a photo with markers on it 
The vinyl holder on top. The touchscreen my hubby came home with one day for my KNKmaxx. I use this machine soley for the the KNK and I don’t have a keyboard on it. I create on my laptop and when cutting the KNK lags it down so I can’t do anything else. This is why I love having it’s own “terminal”. Nice to have a handsome hubby in the techy world to find these cool techy toys for me and that also rides a horse on the weekends. 
The tool holder is a toothbrush holder that I put my folding bone, and two different spatulas in it for getting items off my mat after cutting. You will see in the corner is my blue painters tape, some stickles. and I love that tulip Ott lite. so wonderful I can pull it and shine it on anything I need. It was a gloomy day when I took these pics. So I shined the light on the vinyl organizer and snapped some shots. 

Hidden behind the KNK Maxx and touchscreen is a three tier blade holder. I was always struggling with where to have multiples blades easy at hand to grab because I cut every day and am constantly switching out. I found this little tray at Walmart in December after Christmas. It fits perfectly and holds those blades perfectly. I am uber happy with this.

And those green paint tape stickers on my machine.. say “top of MTC” or “Side of KNK” it is my reference point. I get so upset when I think it is gonna go the other direction and the machine ruins a nice sheet of paper because of my confusion. 🙂

Do you have any interesting organizing tips for next to your machines? Something that works perfect for you? Something out of the ordinary you repurposed? Would love to see or hear about it. … Now on to the next corner… this could be an all year long adventure cleaning out this craft room.

Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

2 recipe tries, friends, smores, great weekend.

By

So how was your weekend? ready for the week? I am busy busy. I was not overly productive this past weekend but I did try a few recipes. and Most of the laundry got done. Woohoo. Until next week of course. Laundry is a vicious cycle.

So first up… This was the conversation about recipe number one…

Love my kid and his willing to try….

D: what are you making? 
Me:butternut squash and chicken stew… Oh it has quinoa.
D: oh hmm. Sounds good what does quinoa taste like? 
Me: i dont know first time I’ve had it. 
D: cool sounds good. 

So I tried this recipe listed on Cookin’ Canuck. The photo is beautiful. I did not take a photo because mine was not as beautiful. Not sure what happened, but just know my Saturday night guests were willing to try it out.

The Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash and Quinoa… 

First: How do you pronounce Quinoa? My friend pronounces it differently then I. So I am trying to remember the correct pronounciation.

Thoughts on cooking mine.. It needed more liquid. Ended up more like a goolash then a stew. Also, I wouldn’t put the Kalamato olives in. I would set them aside for those who want to top it. It made a few step back and not try it. Olives are a very specialized taste. And I forgot the flat leaf parsley. hmmm.. It will probably end up frozen for the compost or the earthworms because I am not sure what to do with it. We shall see. So try it if you are cold. It was yummy and warm and hearty.

My uber knowledgeable friend Heidi told me Quinoa is the only grain that is the perfect protein. Cool. On to try new and interesting things.

The other recipe I tried off of Pinterest this past weekend was an overnight crockpot oatmeal apples dish. I have been craving oatmeal. After tasting it… maybe I was craving oatmeal cookies really and not a breakfast dish. my hubby said it was yum. My son ate it and said the brown sugar was yum and needed more apples. haha. My husband ate the leftovers the next day. I ate about half a cup and thought hmmmm… I really don’t like oatmeal for breakfast. in a mushy weird state that makes me want to gag. So that must just mean these Gluten Free Bob’s red mill oatmeal is gonna make some awesome cookies!!! hahah.

Other then that… hubby built a chicken tractor. I got called a chicken wrangler. Dehydrated some strawberries.  My son raced in the pinewood derby. Friends came over and we had s’mores. I will post photos the rest of the week.

Have a wonderful wonderful week!
Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Get Well Soon Card

By

When you have those friends and family, you want to get better quick quick. We send them a speeding train. to get them better faster. Here is a card I am posting on Card A Day Blog. Also, this is a file from last quarter. One with a speeding get well verse and also a speedy happy birthday for the man in your life who loves trains. This file is on sale today for $1.59  in the VDBC store if you are interested. It can be found here.

And here is the inside cut.

Here is the VDBC card. I used papers from a “pad of paper” I had for the brown. A random “Thinking of You” stamp I found in my stash and the blue train and green sentiment. Which I shoulda done in blue in retrospect is from Colormates. I love that paper. thank you to my awesome friend Lori for always hooking me up when she orders for business.

If you are a QMC member, I uploaded this file yesterday with a Challenge. if you want to jump on it. Visit the forum here. If you need to still join you can do so here. The wishlist for the QMC is filling up. 🙂 QMC files are all new and offered in AI, SVG, GSD, DXF, KNK, WPC and MTC.

Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Earthworm class

By


So I had an awesome partner in my gardening class on Monday. It was all about Earthworms. So much fun. My son came prepared with his books and sketch pad to keep busy.

But the earthworms grabbed his attention. The lady directing the class with the Tucson Community Food Bank was happy to see my son jump in and make his own earthworm bin. I didn’t think he was paying much attention, but on the way home we talked all about their environment. How to keep them cool in our hot summers. How to feed them and more. Well they like dark places and need to be kept cool. Already our sun is back to pounding the earth with warmth. It was 20 at the beginning of last week. Today it is in the upper 70’s. Our 4 days of winter have passed and those Arizonites are much happier it has passed, I believe. 

So this picture below was all fuzzy and wouldn’t focus so I realized there was a finger print on the phone lense. yes I am shopping for a new camera. Looking at the sony cybershot. It needs to be quick to take, fit in my pocket and take smashing photos. So this one below is not smashing. Well why is he kneeling down by the side of the RV with our worm bins… 
Until we get some straw to insulate them and put a cover over it. The quickest place I could come up with for dark, no kittens digging, staying cool. Was under the RV and they fit perfectly. And it doesn’t get driven often. My son kinda gave me the “ahh. okay” and then he got all smiley and happy that his worms would be cool. His is the green bin. Mine is the gray. Here we go on our quest for gardening this year. 
Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Mystery Painting Project…

By

So these little brown tubes are going to hang on my wall horizontally and hold the random color cuts of vinyl I have. I love those tubes from the Sign Supply place. So I painted them and glue them to a board and plan to put Heat Transfer Vinyl and other random cuts in there. When I get it hung. Which will require my hubby as I seem to not hang things well and they fall down. I will take another picture and post it. I hope it works well because it will mean I saved those cool tubes for a good purpose.

Bingo in the forum is all about organization. I hope you are getting organized as well.

Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Painting…

By

The painting table is FULLLL today!  Projects getting some color. Except the brown one. It’s color but a blah one. Any guesses on what the brown one is???

Enjoy!- Chris

Minecraft HTV shirt and card

By

I made this shirt for my friend’s son. Who is all my son’s friend. My son was pretty excited and thought of this in December, but we waited for his birthday in January to give it to him. I cut this with MTC on my KNKMaxx and used Heat Transfer Vinyl. I ironed it on and dreamed of a heat press again as I worried about how it was connecting to the tshirt. I made one for my son as well and he was uber excited as well. He loves the game of Minecraft. Also, I made a little card with Minecraft in mind to go with his Birthday Present. One of my past weekend Projects.  Lots of fun! When I can make something for others and they like it.

That is all for today!
Enjoy!
Chris
I have uploaded the card in the forum for your use. It is a pdf printable file. You can download it here. 
Things I need to say about freebies. 
This file can be downloaded HERE. 
When you enter the password it says I agree TOU. it means that you agree to my terms of use that this is a personal use. In order for me to keep creating freebies. Please send folks here to my blog. Another good place to find me is on my facebook page for quick updates. 
Answers to Questions..
Folks ask my why am I loading to the forum and why the password. Well my other option is a site perhaps like 4shared etc. So you would follow the same steps only instead you go to the forum on the VDBC site and download. I am trying to centralize my work and time on the net so I can create create create. (I am having success with this goal as I have been creating like crazy.) So once you have registered at the forum you can continue to download the freebies by using the passwords. They change once a month rather then every time. So sometimes the forum may not even ask you for a password if you already entered it that month. 🙂 And that is the blah blah blah of today’s post.

Goal 3 .. get fit

By

Every year I look at the “lose weight” goals and try for a week.

This time I am going with get fit.
Get fit being I can walk a mile, chase after my son and make him giggle, shoot some hoops with my son, ride horseback with my hubby, go on a cruise and see the sites, also boogy all night long with my hubby 2 steppin on the dance floor.

So today was my first Aqua fit class. Usually I go to the gym, walk the treadmill and work through the machines that my hubby has shown me. which is mostly arms. and then I am done. Today I went and hit the Aqua Fit class to make a step into the classes. They have yoga also which I want to do, but this week aqua fit. Some really nice ladies. I started moving ehh. not so bad. I can do this. I am going. I go to look at the clock. ahhh. what? Hasn’t it been a half an hour? only 15 minutes. Wew. So then I put myself into it. I have never felt my muscles shake in the pool with these awkward yellow water wing dumb bell lookin things. So woohoo. Happy I did it and took the time. 9 out of 10 if one of my guys have something to do I will stand back and say let’s do yours. But I gotta get in the rhythm of doing for me to for “get fit” reasons. And to keep up with the guys.

So off we go to goal 3. And yes I am posting these I take them on. We shall see where these fit in the many months ahead. 🙂

As for now… I am working away on some files for the QMC, Derby cars and a really cute tile order.

Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris

This is my “Pin”-Spiration for the day. Which I pinned from HERE.  All look like good reasons to me.

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

Kitten moment

By

Good Morning! Sharing a kitten moment. And trying to catch up from the weekend.

So yeah. I am working away in the craft room trying to work on this file and up pops this little head to watch what I am doing. I think watching the clicking on the mousing on the screen was just to fun. I then put him down because he decided to start batting my hand to keep doing it. ha!

Then I started reading a document and I was pretty into it. So reading and kept putting the kitten down. Because he was intent on what I was doing and kept coming back and back.  and then I realized when I was finished. I had stop putting the kitten down and was holding him as he slept. hah. I got suckered apparently. 
It has been freezing here so I hope it warms up soon. We are on lockdown at night with all the animals to try and keep them warm. Yes it is not as cold as the rest of the country, but we are used to 110 not 14. So the animals have a different temperature index. Hope you are warm!
Enjoy!
Chris