Customizing my Cameo

Wow, so the craziness of the holidays has finally past. The house is empty. All the guests have come and gone. My Christmas presents have been opened, set up or put away. I finally have time to do go back to my craft room and, yet, strangely today I just could not find my crafting mojo. I watched videos, tried to order a new cutting mat for my Cameo (but they are all sold out), read a few blogs, watched some chick flicks on Netflix, but could not seem to start the stack of thank you cards I need to finish up. But when I was reading Sandra's 365 Days of Cricut blog about her first Cameo project, I found the link to Monica Flores' blog Simply Cricuting. Now I've played with my Cameo for about two weeks now making etched glasses for co-workers and cutting out animals and other things for the nieces and nephew, but I haven't really had a lot of time to explore all it can do yet. So I love when others have tips, tricks and tutorials they can share and this one from Monica about personalizing the control panel on the Cameo really caught my attention. Even in my crafting funk, I just couldn't help but print and cut a panel to add some pizazz to my machine. What a great fun project. Maybe tomorrow I'll find more mojo to do some crafting. That is, after I've done my workout so I don't let down my team at work and eat the black-eyed peas that Lauren prepared for me so I would have good luck in 2012. I certainly hope it's better than 2011. So to all of you out there in the blogosphere, happy New Year!

My second cut...

Also did not go so well due to human error, but boy was I excited with what I learned. I knew I was not going to be happy with just cutting out what Silhouette has available in their library. Sure they have a lot of fun looking designs and I know I'll enjoy using those, but since I have had Sure Cuts a Lot with my Cricut for a long time now, I've gotten used to being able to cut out whatever I can dream of (as long as it wasn't a perfect circle - Cricut just could not cut that). Lately, that's mostly been cutting out around stamps of the stamp sets I have so I don't have to fussy cut anymore. I have almost all of them scanned into my computer, which is nice for organization and knowing what I have, but also meant that they were handy to play with. I opened up my favorite stamp set (Meow Meow from Recollections) and found my favorite stamp: the one that looks like Chewie. I erased all the other stamps, traced the outline of Chewie, then printed it and cut it with the Cameo. Only problem: I somehow ended up with a stray cut line that decapitated the paper Chewie. Oops... You can see the extra cut just above the collar where I taped it together: On my second try, it came out much better. I colored it a little with my colored pencils and added a little rhinestone and now it's perfect for... well for something. I'll figure out what later, but boy am I loving this new machine.

My first cut...

Well, not really, more like my third, but let me start at the beginning. Believe it or not, I've had my Silhouette Cameo for an entire week, but didn't take it out of the box until today. I forced myself to finish up a few projects and Christmas tasks I was working on before I would let myself get it out of the box because I knew once I had it set up, I would want to play. But now the big tasks are done. The wrapping is done. The meat is bought and Matt's already "test smoked" a bird. The cards are all mailed. A few have even come back - if you didn't get yours, here it is (Although the picture doesn't do it justice because the white is hand flocked paper to look like the fur on the suit, the black is shiny to look like patent leather and the the gold is shiny like a real gold buckle. The holly has texture, the stickles add that special bling and the sentiment is hand-stamped and hand colored.): But now that I'm ready for the holiday but for a little cooking and cleaning (neither of which I can do right now - there's no sense cleaning this house with the cats until the last minute), it was time to open the box. I barely had it out of the box and the cats were playing... with the box that is...

But first I had to figure where I was going to put it. Last night I found the inspiration. I cleaned out a cubby that held layout sketch books, kits and new frames and put my Expression in there so that I could have the prime spot for the Cameo. Only problem: the cord for the Cameo isn't that long and wouldn't reach my computer. So I flipped them and put the E back into it's old place and that worked perfectly (don't you love my kitty cover for the E? I'll have to design something for the Cameo to match): (Yes I am just a little too "label maker" happy. If it isn't used up immediately, it gets a label)... I loaded the software, watched the little video, read a bit of the manual and decided to try the "print and cut" feature first. It's one of the things that most intrigued me about the Cameo. I picked a stock butterfly picture already loaded in the software, printed it out my computer, loaded the Cameo and cut it out. Well, it went through the cut motions, but it didn't cut. Hmm... I checked a few things and tried it again. Still didn't cut. Finally I realized I didn't have the blade inserted all the way. Well duh... Third time was the charm. It cut beautifully, even on my cheap copier paper. The mat was a dream to work with compared to the pain in the @$$ ones from Cricut. At first I was worried because I didn't think about it being a new mat. I would never use thin copier paper with a new Cricut mat. I know I would get a ripped up mess that wasn't very usable and would be a pain in the rear to clean off the mat. But even the thin copier paper released like a charm off the Cameo mat (well except for the fact that I'm not very good with a spatula and used a little too much pressure since I'm used to fighting with the Cricut mats). I am absolutely stunned but how easy the mat was to work with and how nicely it released the image. Now I'm just curious to see how long the mat lasts. But, I am soooooo excited. I can't wait to learn more.

But first, I have to do some more reading on how to use it.

How I Found the Christmas Spirit

We interrupt this regularly scheduled hiatus from blogging (while I try to maintain my sanity with all the craziness at work and the long, long list of to-do's for the holidays) to share with you how I found the Christmas spirit. I love Christmas, I really do, but let's all admit what every woman knows already... It's a whole lot of freakin' WORK. Add to that this is the busiest time of year for me at work, and you get one tired girl. The result of which is that I haven't really found the holiday spirit yet. Sure the lights up outside, but I haven't even wanted to put up the tree, but this afternoon I found the spirit.

You see, I took the day off work t0day to spend with my family in part to celebrate my Dad's birthday (yesterday - Happy Birthday again Dad!), even though we had a nice family dinner last night and all we did to spend time "together" was go to the casino where we all seem to go off to our own adventure. But, back to the point, so we get home from the casino and I have about two hours before the hubby will get home and a long list of errands to run: Michaels for some Armour Etch for some wine glasses for Lauren for Christmas, JoAnns for some Beacon's 3-in-1 glue for a project for a gift for someone to remain nameless, Petco for some kitty spray and shampoo for Zoey... Well you get the picture. I was planning to finish off at Kohl's.

Now I'm not a big Kohl's shopper, but I was flipping through the mail the other day (mostly junk) and found this coupon card for $10 off my purchase. I usually toss these, but then I remember Kohl's has toys. We have a toy drive at work and I thought $10 would go a long way toward a nice toy. So I pulled the coupon off and tucked it my purse. So that was where I planned to end up, but, honestly, when I was done with all the errands, I was really tired and running out of time, so I thought I would skip it. But then it seemed someone else had a different idea about how my evening would end. Turns out the traffic to the bridge was just awful so it seemed easier to go into downtown (where Kohl's is) to get on to the bridge. So I thought, well, since I have to go that way, I'll see if there's a good parking spot. If so, I'll stop. If not, I'll skip it and get on the bridge. Sure enough, the perfect spot in front of the door opened up. I pulled right in. That was my sign I was supposed to use the coupon.

I headed into the store and found the toy section. Holy moley, they had a bit sale and an additional percent off because it was a certain time of day. I picked up this remote control car at first and carried it around for the longest time, but it take 5 (5!) AAA batteries. Well, if you are hurting for money, batteries might be a bit of luxury, so I thought I better try to find something that doesn't require future contributions to continue to work.

There it was: a Barbie gift set. It was perfect for some little girl. I picked it up and walked to cash register. When all was said and done, the gift with $32.99 price (not that I would ever pay that), cost a mere $4.44. I was so excited to get such a great gift for so little money. Now my toy drive money will stretch so much farther this year. If the traffic hadn't been horrible, if the spot hadn't opened up, if I hadn't go that card in mail, none of this would have happened and some little girl wouldn't get the Barbie doll set (which I heard on the news is the most requested toy of this season by toy drives) she's been wishing for. If, if, if... That's when I realized that God was working through me today. I just paid attention to where He was pointing me to go even when I had already abandoned that path in my own mind. What a marvelous feeling.

S0 next time you go through your junk mail, don't toss the Kohl's coupon (thank you Kohls!). Maybe with a few extra dollars, you too will be able to make some child very happy on Christmas and find the spirit in yourself too.