Howdy to all….
It has been a crazy week with the holiday right in the middle and just getting back from Vacation. I am working away on catching up. I think I have about 200 emails still to reply to. If I missed you, please just email again. I apologize. Hoping I got most of them replied to. Our 4th was adventurous with a Vet visit at 6 a.m. for our puppy Border Collie who got bit by a rattlesnake. because he is young he is in good spirits already and hopefully will bounce back with little repercussion. Of course now we are on the hunt to find the rattlesnake because of the other dogs and horses and our own toes. So annoying to have to put on real shoes at dusk instead of slip on my flip flops when running out to the studio. But a snake bit alternative is just NOT worth it. Did you know horses cannot breathe through their mouth? And usually get tagged on the nose causing the nose to swell from a rattlesnake bit to the point of closure and then they die from asphyxiation.. of course you know how I know. We had a horse tagged years ago on the nose and we had to put those heavy duty drinking straws that whistle up his nose so he could breathe somewhat. We would have done hose, but the swelling was already to bad by the time we found him. And his every breathe was a whistle. He made it. Thank goodness, but the shots of penicillin we had to give were unbelieveably huge. I digress. Our puppy is home and now we just hope his leg nerves etc don’t suffer any damage. He is not happy about “limited exercise” from the vet. not happy about it at all! but he’ll get over it as he is treated like a king.

We are on countdown to school. And this year I wanted to start creating digiscrap kits for digital scrapbooking. So it’s July… wow I am almost there. haha. Actually I have a freebie for you today that is the paper for a set I am working on. I call it “back to school”.  These are large zip files. so please download them with patience. Please download the zip and save to your computer. I will leave this file up til I have the next part of the kit to offer.

When you download you are acknowledging that you plan to use for your Personal use only or to participate in the Quick Page Club for this kit if you so desire to participate. (more info below).

This file can be downloaded in two parts because they are huge zips together. I bundled it in two. Download one and two. If this link does not work then it has been taken down. This set will not be loaded to the “Perks” section for the QMC which is mostly for dig-cutter files. It will be loaded to the store after the parts have been offered for free download. 

I am thinking about running a Quick Page Club for this kit. That means you download the kit as I offer it. (or purchase from the store after it is loaded) When the last section is done you send in a Quick Page including only the items in the kit. A quick page is something folks can insert their photos into easily and be done “Quick” with a layout. I will take all of those QPs created and bundle them up in a zip and send out to the participants. The layout needs to be a 12×12 and if you wish to do a 4×6 I will send any of matching sizes to those who participated.

I like 4×6 QPs because I can make little gifts for my nieces out of them with their friends photos and bind them with my bind-it-all. Easy Peasy. So if you are interested in the Quick Page Club kit please comment on my blog post or in the forum. So I have an idea of how many might want to participate. You will know when I have posted new pieces of the kit by following my blog, visiting the forum or it posts to my facebook page.

When I have all the bundles done and sent out I will load to the store and sell in order to donate part of the proceeds as a donation to some of the organizations I participate in. (Most know this is Scouts, Lego, School, Equine related, etc etc)   So if you send me a Quick Page you are acknowledging that I will be reselling them in a bundle. And that your work will also be sent out to anyone who is participating in the QP club for that kit. Hope that all makes sense.

When I post the last part of the kit, I will list the deadline for the QPClub and ask for them to be sent in. At 300 dpi at 12×12 or 4×6 inches. Using only the items offered in the kit. File format to be a flattened jpg or png. If it is not flattened I will do so in Photoshop when I get it. Your name/email will be added to the list of folks receiving the bundle back in whole when I get your entry. 

So here was go on a new adventure as I hope to create digi-scrap kits right along side my digi-cut files. What a great combination. So many are already using my digi-cut files for the scrapping end.

Have a wonderful weekend! 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!

I used Chris’s cutter file to make this quick little blank card to send to a friend. I used different colors of glitter glue to add some sparkly to the centers of some of the flowers and the bee’s wings. You can find the cutter files here – it includes all 26 letters.

Thanks for looking!
Sussann

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

One of my favorite things to create are these tile plaques. I have done alot of Monogram ones, but recently had the opportunity to make some orders for other occasions.

These were for our Cub Scout Pack. Plaques for outgoing leaders moving on to Boy Scouts. Leaders in Cub Scouts are volunteer and it takes alot of time. This is a personal friend of mine and I made a few plaques for the family camp, but this is the one I wanted to throw “bling” on and really add some splash, but I thought I’d better be as reserved as our khaki brown shirts. But I think she loved it as it was.

And this was for a friends Mom as a gift.

So fun! I love to be creative. 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!

Recently this project was in the Disney family fun magazine. Usually each month I give the magazine to my son and say Pick something. He breezes right over the hairclips and pretty things to the boy items. Once they had some star wars thing you could make out of egg cartons or something an A-T A-T Walker? does that sound right? We know my son is a Star Wars fan. Even wrote George Lucas a letter at the age of 4. Needless to say. he likes the projects in this magazine because there are always some “boy projects”. I highly recommend it when you have a son and he is not interested in butterflies and hairclips.

So this time around I said… it’s Father’s Day. Find something to make for Father’s Day. He perused the magazine and laughed and laughed when he saw the “for a fungi”.  He asked me more then once “do you get it?” I said “yes”. and prepared for our plan for Father’s Day.

I had some jars that held food that were about the right size and had been sitting on my jar shelf. so I got those out and put in baking soda to soak up any smells. These sat on the counter for a few days my husband didn’t even ask. Haha. He has learned that I usually have a reason. It may be warped, but there is a reason there are jars with white powder sitting on the counter.

I bought some white clay (from my grocery store that has a craft aisle! so awesome) I could have my son form and bake  and then we could use my Bic Mark-Its. I love them. ( Thank goodness school is coming again so I can refresh my supply for cheap. I use these for Den meetings, home use, kiddo use, and they just look pretty in a tin with all the colors. Yes I am in love!) I chose white so I could buy one package for this one time package and not many packages for different colors.

So we formed them and then I baked them at 225 for about 45 minutes. Cleaned out any clay that ended up on the inside of the cap. Colored them and then Glued on the white dots to form the Mushroom top.

I created a cutter file for the tag and gave it away last week. My son decided he liked his picture better. One thing I have learned in life when it comes to crafts with my son.. It’s okay and more important that he do it and it be “perfect” for him then I do it and make it “frustratingly perfect” for him. And it was reinforced in my mind when my hubby took the card with the hand drawing up to show his Dad for Father’s Day. Who knows maybe next year my FIL will end up with some “Fungi” jars. But they didn’t come out just like the family fun magazine photo, but my son was so proud. He kept opening the jars and looking at them. the best!

Also, the contents.. we thought about candy, but we are on a health kick here at the Durnan house. My son has been riding his bike regularly with my husband about 2 miles or so while my husband runs. I am considering a new mountain bike with my birthday savings. And so we decided on things to put in the jars that would mean something…  after much discussion we had the earplugs for when they practice shooting and building and make loud noises. And the Mechanical pens and erasers for when they draw all their plans up on what they are going to build… and erase and change and draw. And then my son said.. I’m gonna make a jar-o-fun for those days when it seems like there isn’t alot of fun going on. So I gave him paper and pen and he wrote them all out. I did not see what he wrote, I just know he sure thought hard about what he wrote. So perfect.

It was a great project in that it really didn’t take a lot of time and used up some of these jars I have collected over time. And both my guys were very happy with the outcome.

So the items I used were: White Clay bakeable, Bic Mark-its, Family Fun Magazine, Gorilla glue, Cookie Sheet, Tinfoil for baking, some random jars and my sons creative mind.

It was a great project. Love my life.
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!

For Father’s Day I searched and searched for something to make that was different. On Saturday I saw a post on fbook mentioning a deep dish blueberry pancake. Perfect. I just got a case of blueberries from Bountiful Baskets to freeze for use throughout the year. (I love frozen blueberries in smoothies, replacing an ice cream fix, etc etc. ) So I made this recipe  for Deep Dish Blueberry Pancakes on the Temp-tations website. I converted it by replacing the flour with Pamela’s baking mix. all the same ingredients but that one switcheroo so I could have some. This is always a risk sometimes it doesn’t work out. However, Pamela’s is my best choice when trying it.

So here is the final in my not so deep dish because gluten free flour never seems to rise as much. I got these lovely baking dishes from my MIL for Christmas. There are three. They are so pretty and clean up easy. So here it is baked out of the oven.

Here it is on the plate with eggs. And powdered sugar on top.

My personal thoughts don’t count really because I am not a pancake eating fan anyways. I ate the edges of my piece where it was more cakey then battery. My husband said it kinda was like a souffle. This was his first deep dish pancake. The description said fluffy and eggy… yep.. I think that was a good description. All in all the guys were happy… this means I was happy.

Hope you tried something new this week! I’d love to hear about any new recipes you think were worth repeating.

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!