My One And Only Craft Show This Year

Just wanted to show you where I have been for the last few weeks.  I have been BUSY!!!  I found out about a craft show that lets you just drop everything off  today, Wednesday, and pick it up Saturday.  Gotta love that!  No sitting there watching folks study everything you do for the ideas and not buying a thing!  No sitting there at all.  I LOVE THAT!  But, I had no clue how things would be set up... and managed with no one there to explain things so I spent as much time on the packaging and the "look" as I did on the product!  Now, looking at this picture I'm wishing I had spent more time on the actual set up!  SHOOT!

But, I am happy to announce that, I had almost every single thing here at the house, both for the display, and for the product!  The ONLY things I bought were the little frames you see on the upper levels and two boxes (striped in last photo)...  I didn't get those because I needed them, I just really, really liked them!  The frames were $1 each and the boxes were $1.25 each.  OH!  and I did have to buy some black spray paint for all the polka dot boxes...and for the frames, they only came in white.  So I spent a total of  about $10 for all you see!  YAY ME!!!  We won't talk about the 2nd mortgage I had to take out to collect all the other parts over the last few years!

All the polka dot boxes were made from all kinds of empty boxes I had around the house....from shipping boxes to cracker and cereal boxes.  There is even a box that I brought home from the grocery store that held tuna fish.  I tend to be a pack rat for good display boxes.  Anyway, I spray painted them with $1 black spray paint and cut out tons of vinyl polka dots on my vinyl cutter, stuck them down....  DONE!

The things I made were:

Cards, and Bottles of Faith Capsules,  I actually had these already... I have loaded each capsule with a healing faith scripture and one has a mustard seed.  I'm selling these for $5+ each if anyone wants some.  They were a TON of work but I love them!

Key chains, lace angels and tissue Covers

Door KnobPillows

Refillable butter tubes, and burlap bags with a removable holly pin

And refillable foaming soap bottles

I think of everything I made, I like my boxes and signs the best.

Autumn in Atlanta...AMAZING!

I am originally from Louisiana where there are two colors...green and brown.  Period.  I had never seen autumn colors like there are here in Atlanta....and even though I have been here almost 30 years I am still awestruck by the color.  

My yellow trees are almost bare now, they don't last long!  But I had to go to Smyrna today, which is about 8 miles down the road towards Atlanta and rounded a corner to see this row of trees!!!  I wish you could see the real deal, photos just don't do it justice.  It was like they were lit up!  I ALMOST got hit because I threw on my breaks in the middle of the road and tried to get my camera out to take a picture!  CRAZY!!  So, I figured I'd better get out of the way and come back on the way home and have the camera ready instead of having to dig it out of the box it was in!  Well, after several u-turns, and a couple honking cars, required to get myself in just the right spot ... I stop in the center of the road again to take this!  I know, I know, you folks from other parts of the country are probably use to it but  I'm not.  And quite honestly, I always think that photos of the Fall colors have been "photoshopped" to get those colors.  Well, I can promise you this... this picture is straight from the camera to the blog with no software in between!

My House My Trees

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I love Fall!

My house is surrounded by trees...mostly those tall pines you see, but we (my ex and I) planted the maples next to the road just to have some fall colors.  They usually turn all the shades from red-red to yellow but I don't think they are going to last long enough to go red, they have already begun to fall.

Printing Your Directories

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Have you ever wanted to print out a list of files in a directory on your PC?  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!!  I don't know why Windows doesn't allow for it but if you try you will not get the list, but every single file will print!  OUCH!  


Well, I have wanted to do this in the past and did a search on the Web, because there is ALWAYS someone out there that has seen the need before you and worked out the solution.  And this time Karen did it.  Karen has quite a few "Power Tools" that she offers online for free.  Of course, my most favorite is "Directory Printer".  It will let you send straight to the printer, or to a text file that can be pulled into EXCEL for better sorting.  My plan is to try and find all the "same" files on my hard drive and clean them up a bit.


Disclaimer... I didn't get a virus when I downloaded some of her things, but it is always a good idea to make sure you are protected from that with a virus checker.

Later in the day.....


I have been playing with it throughout the day and another cool thing you can do is set your own searches so that it will print out all of a certain kind of file.  Like all photos, or I did a custom one to search all of my embroidery stitch files.  It happens WAAAAY faster than trying to search with Windows!

WHY??!

Scribbler Too

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Just discovered a new toy to play with...yet another way to doodle.   Have you guys found Scribbler Too yet?  It is a free online software package that does some really cool stuff.  I'm not too certain how to describe it.  It adds connecting lines between two drawn lines...resulting in some really weird/cool looking stuff.  It takes a while to figure out what happens when you draw but it is a fun thing to play with.  The bummer thing is, you only get one "undo" so you either have to start all over or know what needs fixing as you go.... Here is what I came up with

Then I did this one... it should have three flowers but I figured I'd better stop while I was ahead!

Once you are done you can save it as a .png and modify it somewhere else.... I wanted to keep what I had done without changing it so I didn't change anything...as tempting as it was especially with these guys....  

And, or course I had to make something so I could incorporate my MFH Polly-Wolly Doodle Font!

Fun stuff!

Embroidery Doodle

Last week I did this doodle

Today I did a test with it.  

I made it into an embroidery pattern.  I stitched it out and then tested coloring it.

I'm not too sure how long the color will last.  That's part of the test.  I just used regular markers so they are TOTALLY water soluble hence the color bleed on 4.  I did that on purpose to give it a watercolor feel... I actually like it, but it needs more, I just wanted to wait until it dried to see what was needed where.  The only thing I believe would be color safe is to paint it with acrylic paint....but that would be an entirely different look.


OH!  and, yes, of course I could have stitched the filling with colored thread but I thought it might be kinda neat to offer something like this so people could color using any color they like....to match their room, or whatever.  Kind of a neat multimedia kind of thing :-) Whatcha think?

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Inspiration...

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Sorry, I'm putting another doodle here.  I have been so neglectful of this blog I need to put something of what I have been doing lately!  I have been so busy with helping folks with garage sales, card making, and wedding planning that the only "me" thing I've done in weeks is doodle (since I love doing it because I don't have to think to do it)

Here ya go...yet another example of starting without a plan and being surprised with what I end with.    
This is the simi-final product... I did it in color and don't like it so this is all I'm willing to show you.  I have decided that I like drawing ... and not so much the coloring.  

I know it is kinda hard to read... It says "Let the Princess In You Rule" (I LOVE THAT!...not original)

It all started with this graphic that I got from the Graphics Fairy.  I just love it and I wanted to see if I could copy it....

My version:

Can I just say that that is one of the hardest things I've drawn so far!?!  I don't know why, it really should be simple! but I kept having to turn the paper around to try and get the jagged sides of the leaves to be jagged in the right direction!  WEIRD!!  Anyway, that one is going to have to take some practice!  I love the look of it so I'm willing to practice.

As I was drawing the above I thought how much it looks like the filigree on decorated cakes like this one:...Isn't it pretty?  I love everything about it except it is covered in fondant. UGH! UGH! UGH!  So now I'm in search of pretty cakes and pinning them in my "Doodles" folder...which I'm sure is confusing to most folks! :-)

So that led to this: 

I started practicing with the top scroll and thought now what?

That led to the sides 

and the princess was the natural progression since I didn't have any words to put in such a fancy frame!  BUT I really like it so I'm pretty certain you'll be seeing it again!

How to Make Faux Embroidery with a PC!

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Don't you just LOVE TO DISCOVER!!!  I sure do.  I sit here at my PC most of the day and just try things to see what they will do and this is what I came up with today...  I think it looks like machine lace embroidery, all done on the PC.

I started with this in CorelDraw:

• 1. Typed the name (I'm sure you recognize my MFC Polly-Wolly Doodle Font, since I try to do something different with it every other week!)
• 2. I then drew a hand frame around the name and filled that shape with white... IMPORTANT, it has to be a single fillable area in order to block out the patterned background behind it.
• 3. I then put two filled rectangles behind the above.   (I actually thought about print it out and hand drawing a zentangle type filler but you know I'm all about speed and I didn't want to wait that long to see how the finished product would look.)

In PSE:

• 4. I copied the above and pasted it into PSE
• 5. Erased out all the white to make that transparent
• 6. Made all the black white
• 7. Used one of the emboss tools on that layer
• 8  Added the background layer
• 9 DONE!

After I had played around with it for a long time and figured out the process I was able to do this design in about 15 minutes.  The freehand outline took most of the time because it wasn't all connected so I was unable to fill it until I got it connected.



















I know that a lot of folks like this font, because they have pinned in on pinterest in order to try and hand draw it themselves later...but this is a prime example of why having the TTF version of it is nice....makes for quick work!  I can now do any name in about 15 minutes... it would take FOREVER to hand draw each letter every time you wanted to create something like this!  OU!  I feel a Merry Christmas coming up! (hee hee)


OK!  WOW!  I just did it again and chose a different embossing tool and now it looks more like plastic...hummmmm  So you have to play with it, I don't know how to tell you which I use for which!

And here it is again, with a whole different look!  I chose the gold embossed looking button and then embossed it again to get this.  ... 

OK, this is really cool to play with!

Today I Saved $500+ Each Year in Insurance!

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And all it took was one 10 minute phone call!

I got my car insurance bill in the mail today and wanted to cry at the cost!  COME ON PEOPLE!!!  And it suddenly occurred to me that I needed to call my insurance guy and try and see if there wasn't something that could be done.

I remembered that every time you get car insurance they ask how far you drive on average to work.  Well, I haven't worked in almost two years so I bet I haven't put 1500 miles on my car total this last two years!  Sure enough, they changed my car to "recreational" saving me about $130 a year. (about 10%)  My agent seemed pretty happy about that but I wasn't so I kept after him to find something else.  And here is the secret... "I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!" tidbit he told me..... If you take a defensive driving class and get certified you get a discount!  Mine will be $88 less a year...not huge but over time.... It is only good for three years then you have to do it again but easy enough, because you can do it ONLINE...its a SIX HOUR CLASS!!!  Yes, it costs about $35 but not a bad investment to save $88x3 ($264)!  So, now I have saved over $200 a year.

I then asked him about my home owners and found out that if I went to $1000 deductible instead of $500 I would save $280 a year!  You make the difference up in 2 years!  Hellooooo....I haven't filed a claim in 12 years!  I sure could have used that $3360!

So, by the end of the 10 minute call I had saved over $500 a year AND I have a check coming for $280 since it was just paid by my escrow.  Hee Hee!

Take that defensive drivers class!

How to Create Your Own Color Swatches From Photos

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I can not tell you how long I have wanted to be able to create those pretty swatches from photos that I see lots of folks do out on the web. I don't know why I like them, I just do.  

 

I have asked lots of folks and couldn't get an answer... OH! A friend did recommend a couple of sites that automatically generates them, but one didn't let you save the .jpg and the other chooses the colors for display, you can't do a thing to control it. URGH!

WELL!  Today I had a SUDDENLY!  You know I get those all the time and each time I go "WELL DUH! Why is that JUST coming to me?!"

All I needed to do is create a PSE template!  You know, the kind that people create for sale on Two Peas for Digital Scrapbooking?  


 And then began the TOTALLY worthless search for "How to Create A Template in PSE"!!!  Good luck finding that!  Everyone wants to tell you how to use one, but no one teaches how to create one.  And I may as well admit here and now that I am NOT a lover of PSE!  I have used CorelDraw and CorelPaint for about 20 years and I can pretty much make it do what I want, but PSE is a MAJOR PAIN!  Nothing is intuitive!  You can do anything as long as you know the 4 keys to hold down and which foot to stand on!  I just spent 11 hours yesterday trying to get a friend comfortable enough with it to be able to create Christmas cards from photos and I left there every bit as confused as she was because we worked on TWO of her PCs and PSE works TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY on both of hers and mine...they are all different!  HORRIBLE!

OK! OK!  Sorry, just had to get that off my chest!

But, I say all that to say, if I try to give any instructions on "How To" here, they may be completely worthless on a different PC! so there is very little point!  I will try and show you what I came up with and hopefully you are more PSE savvy  and can figure out HOW to do it!

Here is my pitiful shot at it:

1.  I put the blocks (or drawn rectangles) where I wanted them, each on a separate layer.  (I saved this on my desktop for future use)

GET THE PICTURE YOU WANT TO USE.

2. Open then Drag your picture into the screen (it will be on its own layer)  

3. Drag that picture layer above the "Photo" layer

4. While it is still active go to Layer/Create Clipping Mask (this will put your picture "inside the frame" where you can resize it, or move it around to where you want it. You can see in the picture below that the actual picture is much larger than the block I want it in)  .... IT TOOK ME ALL DAY to figure this step out!!! 

CHOOSING AND ADDING THE COLOR BLOCKS


5. Use your eyedrop tool to select the color you want ....that will put in the "fill" box...bottom left corner. (circled below)
6. Activate the first block you want to fill and using the paint bucket fill that block with color. (repeat for all color blocks)

ADDING THE COLOR NUMBER

If you decide you want to include the number for each color like I did below... 

7. Click on the "fill block" in the lower left corner it will pull up this screen and you will see the color's number...select that and copy it

8. Paste the number over the color it represents.

9. DONE!!!   HALLELUJAH!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!  

OH!  One last step, export it as a .jpg. :-)

Now that I know how, I wonder if I will ever do it again?! :-)

You are more than welcome to use my pitiful attempt if you want... Download it  HERE

PS... if there is an easier way, PLEASE SHARE!

Auto Tunes

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This is a video I just found on my Facebook.  He is the pastor of the church I served at for 10 years, a while back.  He actually does sing, and write songs but honestly, I like this better than anything I've ever heard him do!  I just love it!  Someone in the media department took phrases from some of his sermons and used Auto Tunes to create this "rap" song.   SO CLEVER!  Not something I will ever use, but I'm impressed at its usage!  Kudos to the media guys!

New Font Super Charged!

Monday I made this True Type Font:

But, like every font on the market, you can only change the color of the "BLACK" areas...anything white stays white.  You have to print and color by hand...not a bad thing, but I like to mass produce so I need QUICK!


Tuesday (last night, ALL NIGHT) I played around to see if I could do something that I wish I could do with every font...have more than one fill color + an outline color.  So, I started with this... now I can make the A a color, OR a colored fill pattern

Because all the letters in this font are UPPERCASE, I decided to use the lowercase to color the dots... so now if I type the 'A' in one color UPPERCASE and the lowercase 'a' in another color I get this! everything is automatically lined up, no adjusting necessary!

Then, because the frame is the same on every letter, I decided to use the { left bracket to fill the the background and got this...

And here I used a pattern filled/color background 

More Play....

Now I can cut them apart and make note cards/tags,whatever,out of them...I can even make embroidery and vinyl patterns out of them!

A New True Type Font:

• What I did today.... made a new font.

ONLY $5 HERE

and then I played....it is SOOOO MUCH easier when you don't have to start with a blank page!