Well, there's nothing like a barking dog running towards you that gets you up a 14% grade hill ASAP on your bike. Dogs and bikes are not a good combination and it's hard finding a rural road that doesn't have a large dog protecting their home. I wish I had a safe place to ride.
Last weekend I got a flat tire 7 miles from the car. The one time I don't have my patch kit is the day this happens. I called up hubby to let him know I'll be a lot later than I planned due to a flat tire. When he asked where I was, I told him towards Nebraska City and heading back to Peru. After I hung up (always have a cell phone when riding) I realized I was 2 miles north of road "R" and he could pick me up. The Steamboat Trace trail is practically desolate with about 3 intersecting roads along a 25 mile stretch so I got lucky. I called hubby back up and said he could pick me up and gave him directions. Thankfully I only had to walk 2 miles. I'm SO glad it was a Saturday or I would have been stuck walking back the entire way. Hubby has banned me from riding the trail now so I need to find a route that works closer to home.
I made it 11 miles today so I'm feeling good after healing up from two popped ribs. I'm wondering if reaching 100 miles this year is out of range and need to settle for something smaller like 50 miles.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Graphic 45 "By The Sea" Mini Album
I ended up putting the "Couture" album away for now. It's giving me a headache because I'm so picky. I need to learn to relax. It doesn't help I hit boredom about 3/4 way through a project. The joys of no attention span..was that a bird?
The mini album tutorial is from SoMuchScrap. Check out her Etsy store as she has some amazing mini albums. The "Couture" album is from her as well. The tutorials are easy to read and put together.
These are some of the pages I've made. I don't glue anything down until I know what I want. There's nothing worse than realizing you did something wrong and can't change it. I have to order the paper and it's not cheap or easy to find so if you mess up, good luck. Graphic 45 doesn't make enough paper and it gets frustrating when every online store is sold out.
She used Spellbinders Label 21 to make the edges. I couldn't find it in any store and Amazon wanted 20-25 dollars. I hate how much Spellbinders charges for their stuff and 5 dollars per metal die is insane. Even if you find them on sale, they are still overpriced. So… I went looking for SVG sets that had a similar design and found one from Bird's Cards that was perfect. I went back to the Spellbinders site and wrote down the measurements. I work better in MTC for SVG files as you can put fractions in for sizes. I then saved it as an SVG file and imported it into Design Space. I thought MTC has a nesting function but couldn't find it.
Cricut Design Space is still goofy to work with and I forgot it doesn't import anything true to size. Grrr. I managed to use the largest design and get it close enough to the original numbers from Spellbinders and scaled it to size. I used my Explore to cut out the templates.
My only gripe with So Much Scrap's tutorials is that her pages run to the 1/8 size like 7 5/8 and then has you center the die. Good luck finding 3 11/16 as center point if you OCD as you have to center the Graphic 45 papers as well. Next time I do one of her albums, I'm using normal numbers that fit nicely.
I can't wait for the rest of my stuff to come as Amazon finally got some more paper in and ordered it.
The mini album tutorial is from SoMuchScrap. Check out her Etsy store as she has some amazing mini albums. The "Couture" album is from her as well. The tutorials are easy to read and put together.
These are some of the pages I've made. I don't glue anything down until I know what I want. There's nothing worse than realizing you did something wrong and can't change it. I have to order the paper and it's not cheap or easy to find so if you mess up, good luck. Graphic 45 doesn't make enough paper and it gets frustrating when every online store is sold out.
She used Spellbinders Label 21 to make the edges. I couldn't find it in any store and Amazon wanted 20-25 dollars. I hate how much Spellbinders charges for their stuff and 5 dollars per metal die is insane. Even if you find them on sale, they are still overpriced. So… I went looking for SVG sets that had a similar design and found one from Bird's Cards that was perfect. I went back to the Spellbinders site and wrote down the measurements. I work better in MTC for SVG files as you can put fractions in for sizes. I then saved it as an SVG file and imported it into Design Space. I thought MTC has a nesting function but couldn't find it.
Cricut Design Space is still goofy to work with and I forgot it doesn't import anything true to size. Grrr. I managed to use the largest design and get it close enough to the original numbers from Spellbinders and scaled it to size. I used my Explore to cut out the templates.
My only gripe with So Much Scrap's tutorials is that her pages run to the 1/8 size like 7 5/8 and then has you center the die. Good luck finding 3 11/16 as center point if you OCD as you have to center the Graphic 45 papers as well. Next time I do one of her albums, I'm using normal numbers that fit nicely.
I can't wait for the rest of my stuff to come as Amazon finally got some more paper in and ordered it.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Graphic 45 "Botanical Tea" Mini Album
I've also been working on this mini album. The pages fold out and you can use them as a card file as well. This has taken forever because of all the paper cutting and having to find the pages where everything is. I finally had to just do my own thing as nothing was easy to find.
Front cover: I changed the front cover by using my Explore to cut the frame and fussy cut the roses. I just didn't like the front and ran out of the paper she had used. Cricut has some nice frames to choose from and it was great not having to design my own.
Inside page: My Explore cut the pink rose tag out.
Fold out page: I loved all the roses in this paper and had to use them.
Insid fold out page:
Back page of 1st section and start of section 2: The flower pages open up into another page
Inside page
Inside page of section 2:
Start of fold out page:
Inside of section two. I used the Explore to cut out the cages and the filigrees using designs from their software. Silhouette studio designs for bird cages were minimal and pretty sub standard. I apologize for it being turned wrong. I love this page.
Back page of section two/front page of section three:
Front cover: I changed the front cover by using my Explore to cut the frame and fussy cut the roses. I just didn't like the front and ran out of the paper she had used. Cricut has some nice frames to choose from and it was great not having to design my own.
Inside page: My Explore cut the pink rose tag out.
Fold out page: I loved all the roses in this paper and had to use them.
Insid fold out page:
Back page of 1st section and start of section 2: The flower pages open up into another page
Inside page
Inside page of section 2:
Start of fold out page:
Inside of section two. I used the Explore to cut out the cages and the filigrees using designs from their software. Silhouette studio designs for bird cages were minimal and pretty sub standard. I apologize for it being turned wrong. I love this page.
Back page of section two/front page of section three:
Those pages opened up:
Inside pages:
Section 3:
Inside pages of section 3. They aren't finished yet as the paper she used I can't find or is already cut up.
I'm hoping to get this finished soon. It's a lovely album and the paper is gorgeous.
Graphic 45 "Couture" mini album
Been working on this for some time and finally have most of it put together. I really loved the tutorial I bought and the extra details I've added in make it look that much better. This is page one:
Inside page of page one:
Page 2:
Inside of page 2:
Page 3:
Inside of page 3:
Page 3 folded up:
Page 4:
Inside of page 4:
Page 5:
Inside page 5:
Page 5 folded up:
Page 6:
Inside of page 6:
Page 6 opened up:
Page 7:
Inside of page 7:
Page 7 folded:
Page 8:
Inside of page 8:
More of page 8:
Page 9:
Inside of page 9:
Page 9 opened:
I still have work to do on it and finish gluing everything down. Fussy cutting has taken some time but I like doing it.
Inside page of page one:
Page 3:
Inside of page 3:
Page 3 folded up:
Page 4:
Inside of page 4:
Page 5:
Inside page 5:
Page 5 folded up:
Page 6:
Inside of page 6:
Page 6 opened up:
Page 7:
Page 8:
Page 9:
I still have work to do on it and finish gluing everything down. Fussy cutting has taken some time but I like doing it.
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