Just a note

Since from tomorrow we will be having designer's designing almost everyday unless it is a Saturday - so I am going to post some personal posts - mostly my designs and photos on my other blog http://papillondigitaldesigns.com/ .
In case you want to check it out I just posted some pictures of our visit to Discovery Green - http://papillondigitaldesigns.com/2011/03/discovery-green-march-26th-2011.html.

Discovery Green - March 26th 2011

Last Saturday we went to Discovery Green in Houston. It has some lovely programs for kids

http://www.discoverygreen.com/families/

I decided to take my small point and shoot - Lumix z7 instead of my Nikon SLR as I was too tired after coming back from Dallas Stampede - a scrapbook event and did not want to lug my Nikon and keep changing lenses. So here are some pictures from there. After looking at my copyright I need to change the font and work on this a bit. I love the font but well it needs to be a bit bold. Well that's work for another day. Meanwhile..

They has some cool art bikes on display made by a society. They were really cool.

Then there was this cart which was made by a High School in Houston for a parade as a float and donated to the park. It was so lovely. It is a working cart

Close up. Look at all the details

Now here I want to give a shout out. We had gone to check out the writer's workshop. Here's a portion of the brochure. You can find further info in the link which I have given above.

My son enjoyed the class and while he was inside and we were waiting outside we found a cool program going on outside - The Teatro Alley. It is a program where people learn English by playing games. Since I was just sitting and was invited by them to join in I joined in. We played tossing the bean bag while saying a word from the category chosen. For eg first category was color and we had to throw it at anyone in the group calling out a color name.
If you are here around Houston and have kids check it out
So here are pictures of the rest of the group

And here are a couple of shots of my son from his creative writer's workshop

And after the class some fun time

And some rest before we go and grab lunch

Well that's some of my pictures on our visit to Discovery Green.

My views

With the new E2 being released soon and also the aftermath of MTC lawsuit and maybe the SCAL lawsuit - people I met have asked me my view on both.
So let me try to go for an unbiased civilized opinion (note: opinion - my opinion not a critique)
I kind of want to lay low on the 2nd one as frankly to me Cricut is a TOOL just like my nail cutter or iphone 4 etc though honestly regarding my iPhone lol except for the fact as to how I wish they had an external memory card slot I have almost no complaints about.
So let's go to new E2. About time they came with touchpad on Cricut. But would I be buying it at this time. Ahhh  looking at the track record - NO. Not only does the price of PC's recent  products drop down phenomenally after 6 months lately but their electronic gadgets with the exception of cricut do not work well out of the box and by the time we get it to work and I mean not work phenomenally just the basics -it's more than 6 months anyway. I am talking from my experience being  the owner of a Gypsy and Imagine and a Cake. Gypsy worked decently after about 6-8 months only after the Christmas update. But still cuts wonky with shapes especially the Gypsy Wanderings. In mine I cannot cut a square just a quadrilateral. George & Basic shapes is a little better and that's why I use it. And the speed control and multicut feature are pretty dicey and with latest updates you cannot move the image larger than the mat size (or even smaller size) if it protrudes on 2 side of the mat (I have shown this in video I think long ago).
Of course I like the G even though it is faulty but would prefer not to have to check each and every update for glitches . I love the G for the friends it brought me in MB.
But I cannot say the same about the Imagine. Me and it barely tolerate each other - Grrr.... Well I am kind of biased after the back problem I have with sending this 2 times because it conked. Let me tell you this is no featherweight to keep sending for fix!
Present one I am on - fingers crossed .
So coming to  the Imagine - - hmm - mine and I believe lots of others too (and I am on the 3rd and all the 3 behaved this way) do not cut well at all on the lower ends of mat how many ever times I calibrate & not to mention the Russian Roulette with updates both the G.
Still not welding with Imagine and there is lots of paper wasted. I have not tried linking the Imagine cartridges to G as I do not want to slow down the G and since I cannot weld anyway what's the point ? I know we can share files but right now that's not a big plus for me to link up cartridges. So I will wait a bit more. Oh by the time I wait they might come up with G2 :)
(Have I mentioned before I hate cricut sync and liked G sync much better? )
Well that about sums up the G & I. So No I will not be BUYING E2 anytime soon unless someone gifts me with it or I win it. (I would love to win an E2 - who wouldn't?)

Well as to my opinion on boycott cricut.
I think I have invested too much in PC's products and it would not be a wise move  to boycott. I do like the cricut and G with all their flaws and some cartridges are way too cute especially some of the recent ones. But personally SCAL and MTC not being used was a blow to me. I have not used them as when I got the cricut which was not that too long ago within 2 to 3 months I got the G so I do not even use the CDS as my scraproom is upstairs and I have my laptop downstairs and easier carrying the G upstairs.
But since I have started making layouts and have learned how to make my own digital elements - yes it is a blow for that was one of the reasons I got the cricut then instead of other die cutting machine. Best of both worlds and such. I will not go into if PC is justified in making lawsuit etc etc as frankly I do not KNOW as I do not have all the facts  though there is a pang in my heart for compared to CDS these programs are way awesome as far as I have seen and even though I have not cut with them same way I have not cut with new Craftroom too their programs are much better and seem easier and friendlier to users.
So even though I will not comment on the lawsuit itself without all facts as an end user it affects me like this -  "Oh Shucks! Now I have to go and buy another machine to be able to cut my own designs."
As I said before to me these are all just inanimate tools and a tools worth is how far it is useful to me (Ha ha I think that is so true to both animate and inanimate objects too isn't it?)
For now that Sassy has made me love making layouts frankly there are not much paper options or image options (considering my ethnic background lol) to scrap most of my photos. Only paper I have seen till now is Taj Mahal by DCWV. But unfortunately the Gazelle or Cougar or whatever comes new has to wait for a long time (maybe next year or 6 or more months down the line)  as my budget this year for scrapbook items is zilch! My camera takes priority for a while. I need lenses and flashes for the baby . By baby here I am referring to the camera - the way I handle that camera and make all that noise my son says I love the camera more than him and since he is the model for most of pictures I sort of make a vague protest  :) ( wink ).
So that's what my views are!

Oh and I wanted to say before I forget - The Bug Bytes is in for a change in April - we have designers designing almost everyday throughout the month and boy are they talented! Just a bunch of everyday friendly neighbourhood scrappers who love to share their passion for Papercrafting & Altered art and inspire us with their talent!
So do drop by and check out daily and leave comments . Comments are always treasured and mean so much!

Thought for the day - March 31st 2011

"Your vision will become clear when you look into your heart." - Carl Jung

Thought for the day - March 30th 2011

"The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise." - Robert Frost

Glittery Hello Birdie

Hello everyone!!  Magoo here, it's been quite some time since I've shared anything on Tuesday Treats.  It's nice to be back - I missed everybody :)  Today is a fluke, for you see I'm also scheduled to do a post over at She's a Sassy Lady today.  Seeing as I was really pressed for time due to family commitments, and I wanted to post something here too, this is a cross post of my project on SASL.

Now on with the show....I'm not sure why - but for some reason birds came to my mind while I was thinking of what to make for this post.  Don't be alarmed - Chester was not harmed or used in the making of this tutorial.

And this is what we'll be making today:

Cart info:
To start with this card gets all of it's interest from the use of many layers.  I used cuts mainly from Cindy Loo and used Plantin Schoolbook for a circle that was used.

Size Info: the overall size of the card is 5" in diameter - but this doesn't include the leaves that extend on the right side.  So it's just a tad wider than 5".

Where to begin?  Well I'll start with a screen shot of page 1 on my gypsy.  Since that is what I started cutting first I will show you how I laid it all out on the first layer:

As you can see I have quite a bit going on here, but it's not so bad.  I know that the leaves on the left side are what I'm planning to layer on TOP of the leaves on the right.  Why the circle attached to the leaves?  The tree branch image (bottom left) leaves quite a bit of negative space underneath and I wanted it to be white, so by welding leaves onto a circle not only does it give me a white background (no matter what colour I choose for the base of my card), but it also gives my 2nd layer of leaves a sturdier base when I glue them on.  I have hello welded together 5 times as I plan to glue them all together to give it a 'chipboard' effect when I attach it to the card.

Onto to layer 2-
As you can see I've welded 2 of the same image together to make the base of my card.  Before I welded anything together I used my Hide Contour feature (found on the the advanced tab) to hide every single cut on the inside of the image.  Then I simply copied and pasted it, then grouped and welded them together.  I did this so that my image I want to layer on top will line up perfectly with the scallops on the base (the image on the top right side).

This button with the two little gray arrows is the HIDE CONTOUR button.  Have your image selected then touch on this button.

It will then take you to this screen where you can use the metal button on the left to 'scroll' through all the cuts on that image.  The cut you are currently on is highlighted in red on the screen, when you want to hide it, simply touch the hide button and it will be grayed out.

Here is an example of the great purpose of HIDE CONTOUR.  Instead of wasting a lot of paper just to cut out the BIRD, I used hide contour and hid most of the cuts.  Instead of using 5" of paper, I used closer to 2" cool isn't it?

 Now that I have my card and all of it's many layers all figured out and laid out on my Gypsy, I've gotten my mats ready with paper for cutting.  I always make sure to check which way my arrow is facing!! very important.  I've wasted a lot of paper putting the mat in the wrong way.

On the left is the paper for the base of my card, the top right will be for the top layer, the gray square is for my little birdie I want to layer on top of the patterned paper for more dimension.

Here you can see my circle with the leaves attached (this is to go underneath the patterned paper circle).  The top right is my leaves that I will use to layer on top of the white base.  And all of my hello's.

The birdie needed a little bit of trimming - no problem get your x-acto knife out and make a few tiny cuts and the bird is free!

 

Next I glued all of the Hellos together.  You can use a xyron machine or just plain glue - I used Scotch quick dry for this and it worked great.  However, when applying glitter to the top layer I swear by my xyron machine for glitter.  Remember - FACE DOWN!!  through your purple sticker maker.  Peel it away and pour your glitter all over.  Give it a tap and set it aside.

I moved on to the birdie since I had my xyron machine out.  I ran it through the machine and then dumped a whole lot of micro beads onto a lid and put my birdie sticky side down into the beads.

Martha Stewart mircro beads in 'sterling'

Again because my xyron was out and I knew I wanted to glitter my leaves I ran my leaves through the xyron as well. I had originally planned to glitter them green - but it just wasn't going with the paper.  So I dug out a colour of glitter called Hemattie (MS).  I peeled off the xyron wrappers and poured glitter over top, then I took a plain piece of paper and pushed it down on top squishing the glitter down onto the cut. Tap off the excess and set the leaves aside.

glittering the leaves, so pretty :)

 I dug out my cuttlebug and ran my white layer through it just to give it some interest beneath the pattern paper layer.  I purposely left the leaves out of the folder so they would remain flat, this would make gluing me glitter leaves on so much easier.

Using my ATG I stuck this layer onto my card base.  Then using cats eye ink I inked the edges of the card in a dark blue.

Then it was time to stick those pretty glitter leaves down, I swiped some atg glue on the 'base leaves' and I gently stuck my glittered ones on top.

Once I had those positioned correctly it was time to put my pattern paper cut out on.  Before I actually stuck this cut onto the base of my card I took this time to put my birdie on.  I used Scotch quick dry again and that stuff really does dry fast!

Now for this layer I really wanted it to stick out so I used a whole bunch of pop dots...... here, there, everywhere :)  Then peel off the backings and turn it over and carefully line it up with the scallops and gently push it down.

Then I grabbed my glittered blue 'hello' which I forgot to take a pic of for some reason :( and found a place where I liked it best stuck it onto the top of the card. Like so....

I still found the card a bit blah, can you believe that even with all the glitter?  So I dug out my dollar store gem stone stash and found some gems that matched my colour scheme and alternated the colours around the scallops.  The blue gem for the birds eye is an I-rock gem and I used my I-rock to set that one on all the micro beads.  It's still holding up great :)

And this is what all that hard work and layering accomplished:

I hope you enjoyed my Hello Birdie card and tutorial today :)
If you would like to see more projects made using my gypsy click on the image below to take you directly to my blog.

See you soon!!!

xoxoxoxo  Magoo