A VERY MERYY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

JUST WANTED TO WISH EACH AND EVERY ONE OF MY CRAFTY FRIENDS A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.
ENJOY YOUR DAY.
BIG HUGS
MELANIE.XXXX

TREE UP AT LAST.X

Good morning crafters
At last my tree is up and now it really feels like Christmas.
Thought I would share a picture with you all.
Feel free to share pics of your trees too.
Big Hugs
Melanie xxxxxxx

A requested list

Hello crafters
Today, during my scanncut shows many of you have requested a list of companies that have agreed to you using their products and also what they have agreed is fair for you to do.

Tattered Lace.  Dies can be bought, cut out manually and scanned in and saved to the machines memory.

My craft studio. CD's can be bought and templates, decoupage sheets can be scanned in and resized.

Debbie Moore. Products including templates can be bought and scanned in and re sized

Dreamees. Stamps can be purchased and scanned to direct cut but not saved.

Arty Farty templates can be scanned and saved to re- size.

Crafters Companion.  Stamps, including licences brands can be bought, stamped and scanned in using direct cut only.

Kanban have agreed that once you have bought and used the toppers they sell you can scan in the waste sheet to gain the correct sizes for mats and layers.

Inky Doodles allow you to purchase their stamps and scan to direct cut.

I will ask more companies as and when I see them and add to this list.

Also the sites that I use for cutting files are birdscards, misskatecuttables and my scrap chick.
If you purchase from these sites you MUST CHECK their usage policy if you wish to sell your finished items.

Happy cutting
Big hugs
Melanie xxx

How to calibrate my Brother Scanncut screen

Hello Crafty friends
Yesterday a lady asked how to calibrate the screen on the Scanncut as it wasn't cutting to the line....so I decided to do a qick post on how to.

First switch your machine on.

Next, using your finger, touch the screen and turn the machine off whilst still keeping your finger on the screen.

Then switch it back on.

You should now see this screen.

 Next, using your stylus tap the centre of each crosses in numerical order.

If you do this correctly then you will see a success message on your screen.

Please note that yo may have to do this several times as you need to have the X and Y reading 0.

A bit of a faff but worth it for a perfect cut!!!!!!!

HAPPY CUTTING.XXX

scan n cut pick of the week.... Revealed

as promised here are the revealed sneak peek pictures from earlier this week. Join us at 12 today to learn how to make these fantastic items.

Going crackers

As promised here are the instructions for making the cracker.

Noel Christmas Cracker.

Step by Step

 

1. Take a piece of 12” by 12” white cardstock. Score @ 2 ½”, 5”, 7 ½” and 10” then cut off at 11 ¼”. 

2. Turn the card so that the score lines are horizontal and score from the left hand side @1 ½”, 2 ¼” and 3”. Turn the card and repeat this from the other end.

3. Fold all the horizontal lines and crease well.

4. Fold the vertical line as follows….mountain, valley, mountain. Repeat on both ends.

5. Cut a piece of white 12” cardstock in to four 6” squares. Run through an embossing machine with a dotty, or any other design of embossing folder.

6. From these cut 4 x strips 5 5/8” wide by 2 1/8” deep. Then cut 8 x strips of 1 1/8” wide by 2 1/8” deep.

7. Cut 4 strips of silver mirri card 5 ¾” by 2 ¼” and glue the white dotty on to these. Then cut 8 strips of mirri 2 ¼” deep by 1 ¼” wide. Glue the smaller dotty white strips on to these.

8. Punch or die cut 2 silver snowflakes of your choice.

9. Punch or die cut 7 large and one smaller flower from white cardstock.

10. Punch 2 x 2” circles from the remaining white dotty card and 2 x 1 ½” silver circles.

11. Using the scanncut or and alphabet die set cut out NOEL twice. Once from white and once from silver.

12. Cut a 1 ¼” wide strip of silver mirri card and punch both ends with the circle punch.

13. Cut a tag from white card and a slightly larger one from silver mirri.

Once you have completed these steps you will have something which looks like this (each line is a score line.) fold over and decorate to suit your taste. :)

Scan 'N' Cut pick of the week sneak peek

Join me on Friday at 12pm for scan and cut pick of the week. Last chance to grab a bargain before Christmas. Here's a little something to wet your appetite. See the full thing on Friday.

My warehouse

One room of the mothers "warehouse". Imagine what the rest it like :)

It's a Cracker!

Haven't blogged for ages, Now i have somebody to run the blog for me in the shape of my son Matthew, So should now be able to get loads done.

Here's the sneak peek of the Christmas cracker , Step by step instructions will come next week for this i will either be taking photos or making a video to demonstrate it for you all, keep your eyes peeled!

 Christmas Swag

Although i am now a massive fan of the Brother Scan 'N' Cut Machine i Still run Cricut retreats Four times every year, Below is our most recent project.

Feel free to follow my step by step instructions below and get your house into the holiday spirits.

Products required

Anna Griffin Winter Wonderland cartridge

Theresa Collins 25th of December cartridge

Dark, Kiwi and Dotty green card.

Kraft Card

Turquoise card

Red card

Bright pink Dot card

Light pink dot card.

Silver card

Tilda Christmas play paper pad

Woodware Metal Hearts

White and Shabby Blue Frantage.

Red Crinkle edged ribbon

Red/Cream Grosgrain Ribbon

Brown gingham ribbon

Pink ric rac Ribbon.

Hemp

White Rope

Step by Steps

•        Do a test cut for your pressure and blade depth and insert the Anna Griffin cartridge and the Universal overlay.

•        Place the dark green card on your mat, texture side up. Load mat. Turn to page 35 in the book. Set the dial size to 5 1/2”.  Press 18, four times. IF YOU ARE USING A SMALL CRICUT YOU WILL PRESS TWO AND CUT THEM AND THEN CUT TWO MORE ON THE OTHER PIECE OF CARD. Press cut. Unload mat.    If you have a flip facility on your machine then activate it. Load another piece of dark green card on to the mat. Load mat, press repeat last and cut. Unload mat.

If you DON’T HAVE a FLIP facility the place your card on the mat texture side down. Press repeat last and cut.   All together you should have 4 green holly sprigs going one way and four going the other way….

•        Repeat the number 2 instruction using the green dotty card.

•        Next you need the KIWI Green card on your mat. For those of you with smaller cricuts you need to trim the card down to 6” wide. Put the card on the mat aligning it to the bottom left hand corner of the mat. Load the mat. Using the directional arrow buttons around the cut button move the blade to the top right hand corner of the card and press set cut area.

You need 8 number 18’s. These wont all fit on one sheet so use as many as you need. Because the Kiwi card is smooth on both sides you don’t need to use the flip facility ;)

•        Put the red card on your mat. Leaving the size dial as it is, Press F1. Press 18, 16 times. Unload mat.

•        Put the bright pink dotty card on the mat, press 18, four times and cut. Either use the flip function or turn the card over and repeat last. Cut. Unload mat.

The red berries go with the dark green and the dotty green holly sprigs and the pink ones with the plain kiwi card. Remove F1.

•        Put the Kraft card on the mat. Load mat. Turn to page 23. Set the dial size to 3 ½”. Press 12, four times and cut. Depending on your machine you may have to do this more than once to get four.

•        Change the dial size to 2 ½”. Press 12 four times and cut. So you should now have 4 large and 4 small number 12’s. Cut them in half.

•        Still using Kraft card, turn to page 7. Set the dial size to 4”. Press shift lock, F1 and 4, three times. Press cut. Unload mat. Change for more Kraft card if necessary. Load mat. Turn to page 11. Set the dial size to 3”. Make sure shift lock and F1 are still engaged. Press 6, three times. Cut. Unload mat. Remove F1

•        Put the turquoise card on the mat. Load mat. Turn to page 7. Press 4, three times and cut. Unload mat.

•        Put the Kiwi card on the mat. Load mat. Press shift lock and 4, three times. Cut. Unload mat. Remove shift lock.

•        Put the red card on the mat. Set the size dial to 3”. Turn to page 11. Press 6, three times and cut. Unload mat.

Put the bright pink dotty card on the mat. Load mat. Press F1 and 6, three times and cut. Unload mat.

•        Turn to page 15. Put the Kiwi card on the mat. Set the dial size to 4”. Press 8, three times. Cut. Put the pale pink dot card on the mat. Load mat. Press shift lock and 8, three times. Unload mat. Remove shift lock.

•        Change the cartridge to the 25^th of December. Put the turquoise card on the mat. Load mat. Set the dial size to 2”. Turn to the back page of the shape leaflet and press Snwflk3, eight times. Cut. Unload mat.

•        Change the size dial to 1 ½”. Put the silver card on the mat. Load mat. Tur to the inside of the leaflet and find snowflake layer. The button for  this is the last one on the second row. Press this ten times and cut.

•        Unload mat. If you own all mixed up the cut CHRISTMAS from one of the Tilda papers 1” in size. Then put the shadow feature on and repeat last from Kraft card.

•        Everything else for the project is either cut by the scan ’n’ cut or punches or by hand so you can now put your Cricuts away…….now the real work begins;)

You Will Need 21, 6 petal flowers from a red paper. 12 from a cream paper.

Zentangle Inspiration

Thought I would share some Zentangle inspiration with you from recent shows on Create & Craft.