Saturday, May 31, 2014

Alice Party Samples, SALE, Recipe Card Tutorial, Linky Reminder and More!

Hi Everyone,

I have some fabulous samples to share today, sale info, plus a recipe card Tutorial and a reminder about our June Linky Party and Design Team Challege starting this Monday June 2/14 where we will have a Great Giveaway!

We were a sponsor for a inspiring event for online business women in California by Sharon Hughes of www.LaunchYourCreativity.com that took place April 25 - 26/14 and I donated our Alice Wonderland Tea Scraps for the goody bags and theme decorations. Lidy Baars from FrenchGardenHouse.com created all the great Alice decor as you can see in the photos below.

Look at this awesome magical Alice cake Lidy made - I just love it! It's just stacked round boxes but they look so cute decorated with the teacup perched whimsically on the top.

There was an amazing group of speakers including publisher and artist Jenny Doh, magazine stylist Sunday Henrickson, photographer Cynthia Shaffer and many more.

I like how Lidy tied the tickets off our Wonderland Scraps to her French Soaps which were gifts with matching ribbon.

One of the images with the Mad Hatter glued to an old book cover and little heart lollipops with tags.

A banner that spells out FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS and decorated with our Wonderland Scraps. It looks like it was a great event and I would love to attend next year.

Our Alice in Wonderland Tea Scraps are 18" long, fold in the middle and are double sided and on sale for just $1.95. Besides all of the samples above you can see more with the link.

With Fathers Day coming I've marked down all the rest of our Favorite Fella Stamp CLEAR Stamp Sets for $9.95 - which is a fantastic deal for this 22 piece Clear Stamp Set and we still have several left! You can see some awesome samples with the link. MORE SALE ITEMS WILL BE ADDED THIS MONDAY!

DT Leader Kathy Clement created this layered birthday card using a bunch of images from our Big Dog Digital Stamp Set and she has other photos and the inside on her blog. Look at the layers she added with the hat, balloons, badge and sentiment from the set. I love her 'newspaper' (we never thought of adding one). Papers are from our Paisley 99 cent Download.

DT Member Darlene Pavlick made this sweet gift tag using this cute image from our Birds and Blossoms Digital download with other supplies she had o0n hand.

DT Member Elizabeth Lincoln created this cool card with a bird from our Bird and Blossoms Digital Download and a stamp to decorate this watercolor card she made. You can see the details on Elizabeth's Blog.

DT Member Sheila Rumney has a great Recipe Card Tutorial showing how to add images and text to create custom recipe cards. She used the cherries and one of 3 recipe cards from our CD #1 Creating With Vintage Patterns. They would be great punched and added to a mini album or attached to a homemade edible gift.

Don't forget to come back this Monday for the start of our June Linky Party, Design Team Challenge and Giveaway! You can also enter any sample you've created with any Crafty Secrets product and receive a $6.00 Gift Card and 1 lucky randon.org winner will receive a $50.00 Gift Card!

Wishing you joy and creativity

Sandy Redburn

Owner

See Our BIG SALE at CraftyVintageGirl.com
Visit Our Facebook Page with 6780+ Fans!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

New 5 Card Printable Puppies Set, Tutorial and New Samples!

Hi Everyone, I have our New Puppy Cards Set plus some great samples to share and a little tutorial.

Our new printable Adorable Puppies 5 Card Set that includes 5 print and fold style cards and a page with 2 birthday and 2 general card sentiments you can print on the inside of the cards digitally or mat and glue them inside. It's a $3.50 download and the puppies are big and designed to print on half a piece of 8.5" x 11" card stock so you can simply fold it. You can re-size them at 200 dpi and each puppy will be 7" x 9" a great size to mat for a 8 x10 frame - which is what I made below but they would also be cute as mini charms.

Some parts of these cards look so #3D I knew I wanted to make a 3D paper pieced sample as a wall art picture for my dog loving nephew's room. So I cropped the Boston puppy and enlarged it by changing the dpi to 200 from 300. This makes the image over 7" x 9" and it prints great on a full page of regular card stock. Print 2 copies so you can cut out the sweater and hat.

NOTE: If you are worried about the cost of printer ink please consider using compatible ink from a reputable ink company like www.InkFarm.com We have been using their ink for a few years as well as most of the Design Team and it is far less money! Plus - they have a deal for Crafty Secrets customers with 15% off compatible printer ink and Free Shipping and it doesn't expire! Just use the code: craftyink

I also wanted to make a pom pom for the hat so I wound some red wool with sparkle fibers around a ruler, slipped it off and tied it in the middle and cut through the loops to make a fuzzy pom pom to add to the hat. I used the text tool to type my nephews name on the sweater in Photoshop Elements and used the arc tool to curve it slightly.

I need to buy a frame for it and maybe mat it on blue or leave it with the white background depending on the frame.

I showed a peek of this cute dog card last week by DT Leader Kathy Clement before she had even posted it and now it's on her blog with instructions. She used stamps from our Little Dogs Digital Stamp Set and I adore this sweet image of the girl and her doggie.

DT Member Elizabeth Lincoln also fell for this same image and created this sweet 'Thinking of You' dog card for her sister who loves dogs. Elizabeth has been going 'dog crazy' with both dog sets and also made a Hound Dog Birthday card and a fun British Bull Dog card.

Love this doggie layout by Victoria Warren Mears she created with her dog Pearl using our Big Dog Digital Stamp Set and papers and roses from CD #1. Dogs have such great faces and getting close of photos can really capture their personality. It's one reason digital cameras are so great , you don't need to be an amazing photographer as long as you set your camera to take the highest resolution photos and take several you can zoom in and crop photos to get the best shots. Just save any edited photos with a new name.

Lastly, I wanted to show you this pretty thank you card DT Member Vicki Chrisman created using one of the birdy images from our Birds & Blossoms Scraps - now a 4 page Digital Download, as well as papers from our Radiant Collection.

I actually lost my computer for a few days to have repairs and I'm so happy yo have it back. Sometimes they are soooo frustrating but impossible to live with out.

Wising you joy and creativity

Sandy Redburn

Owner

See Our BIG SALE at CraftyVintageGirl.com
Visit Our Facebook Page with 6560+ Fans!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Friday, May 23, 2014

Free Memorial Card, Fab Colored Cards, Gift Box, Garden Cards and Tutorial

Hi Everyone,

I have some fabulous samples to share today and I also re-posting this great Free Printable we had for July 4th back in 2012 after I realized it would also work great for a Memorial Day card. Left click on it with your mouse until it gets as large as possible and right click it to save to a picture file.

We had our long weekend last weekend and I also went on my annual Mother-Daughter Road Trip with my 3 daughters. This year they voted for Seattle and we had a fantastic time.

DT Member Elizabeth Lincoln is also Canadian and used our Big Dog Digital Set to pay tribute to her mother who was enlisted in the British Army during World War 2 with this fantastic Bulldog card she created. You can see the detail in the coloring is amazing and look how she added a little flag.

I also love this hound dog birthday card by Elizabeth, she also created using our Big Dog Digital Stamp set and how she used the party hat stamp on the set but made the hat 3D.

Graphic designer Cindy van Koll came by for a visit yesterday with her new little puppy her husband bought her. They named him Beau and look how freaking adorable he is!! I used the 'Best Little Dog' and 'Kisses' postmark stamps from our Little Dog Digital Stamp Set to make them this jumbo sized magnet card for their fridge. It's 7 x 11" so I probably need to shrink it!

I used the Paint Bucket tool in Photoshop Elements to digitally color the stamp blue and green. All of the pieces you want to color need to be closed or the 'paint will leak out'. If you look at the red arrow below you will see an opening. I made the pencil tool 2 pixels wide and drew a line to close the opening a few others and then dropped in the colors.

Check out this amazing Bird Gift Box by DT Leader Kathy Clement, she created using our Bird and Blossom Creative Digital Scraps - yep - the regular ones sold out so they are a 4 page download now and much more versatile.

DT Member Vicki Chrisman used her sewing machine to stitch this pretty seed pack card using an image and paper from CD 2 Creating with Vintage Illustrations. You can also see some wonderful wedding photos she took of her niece Neely's wedding.

Look at this beautiful pastel duck card by DT Member Michele Kovack she created with our Animal Party Clear Stamps on sale for $12.50 and colored using Copic markers and the faux rain drops she added.

Here's a pretty garden birthday card by DT Member Darlene Pavlick, that she created using images and paper from our Garden Download Set.

I missed this Digital Photo Tag Tutorial by DT Member Sheila Rumney last Friday and now she has a new Photoshop Friday Tutorial on creating a decorative checkbook cover. You can also check out our Tutorial Folder on Pintrest.

We have NEW adorable Puppy Printable Greeting Cards coming this Monday!

I hope you have a super fabulous weekend!

Sandy Redburn

Owner

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Calling all Dog Lovers, Wonderful Mix of Samples and...

If you love dogs our Little Dog Digital Set and Big Dog Digital Stamp Set are both uploaded and they turned out great with a variety of dog breeds and fun to sentimental phrases. I also have a great mix of samples by our Design Team like our first sample made with the Little Dog set by Kathy Clement.

Here's page 1 of Little Dogs. You can see the sizes of each stamp which are all saved as PNG 300 dpi/ppi files, so they are transparent, re0sizeable and you can layer them.

Here's Page 2 Preview of Little Dogs. You can size the dogs to fit on the chair or bed, print and color them and add pop dots for dimension. There is a sympathy stamp on both sets. Cindy, our graphic designer's little dog Princess sadly passed away while we were working on these so it felt important to make sure they both had nice Dog Sympathy stamps.

Yep, we got a little carried away and we still didn't get every breed

Here is our Big Dog Digital Set if you missed it. It has more large etchings of large dog breeds that have amazing detail

DT Leader Kathy Clement also created this pretty 3D layered birthday card using our Birds and Blossoms Digital Scraps and some of our Garden Papers. If any of you have stayed away from digital because you like getting inky, Kathy loves to get inky and use different mediums with our digital stamps and printables.

Look at this adorable card by DT Member Michele Kovack who created an everyday card with one of the ducks off our Feeling Yucky Digital Set which is only $4.95

Baby Card by DT Member Darlene Pavlick using some cool dies with a darling image from our Baby Memories card stock Vintage Cuts on sale for .75 cents.

I'm a sucker for this pink and blue combo on this pretty graduation card by DT Member Sheila Rumney below. The image and poem are from our Little Blessings Scraps on sale for $1.95 and look how she tied the lace so bow like a curtain and attached a tiny bit of rolled paper for a diploma.

Do any of you watch the TV Show Mr Selfridge? The 2nd season is addictive and my mom, Scott and I are hooked (just like we are with Downton Abbey) It's based on the true story of retail tycoon Harry Selfridge from the USA who opens a department store in 1909 on the wrong side of town in London. The decor, the fashionable outfits and the store are all so interesting - I want to go to the real Selfridges Dept Store which still has many of the old fixtures. His store was the first to offer 'ready to wear' clothes. Before that you were measured and tailors would whip up your outfit and often deliver it the next day.

Wow - how times have changed. I wish I could time travel and go the the Grand Opening Day shown below! We are going to have digital stamp sets in Ladies Fashions, a Vanity Set and a Millinery Hat set but there are a couple of other sets that need to be done first.

Wishing you joy and creativity

Sandy Redburn

Owner

Monday, May 12, 2014

Little Dog Digital Stamp Preview, Winner and Cherry's Pretty Post

Hi Everyone, Our New Little Dog Digital Stamp Set turned out dog-gone cute - pardon the pun but there are so many adorable images and fun mix and match phrases. Update: I'm having problems uploading them and need our webmaster's help. Like our Big Dog Digital Art Stamps, many of these images are also big so you will be able to create a variety of projects.

Also big congrats to our May Linky Party Winner, random.org picked # 8 Lindsey but all of the participants posted really fabulous samples! We didn't have nearly as many entries this month.

It seems like the Linky Party samples get buried from past posts so I'm going to add a bunch of the samples to our online store and Pintrest boards as there are so many inspiring and fun ideas and different products used. Many thanks to everyone who participated!

Design Team Member Cherry Nelson has a great post showing a variety of cards she created for Mother's Day but they could easily be made to work for a birthday or other celebrations, like this one using our Birds and Blossoms Scraps, now a digital download.

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who joined in and the facebook post I did on DT Member Michele Kovack's daughter Courtney's dream of becoming a model and how it's come true! It got over 425 Likes on facebook, small compared to the post on the Cerebral Family Network which got over 60,000 shares! It's an inspiring and beautiful story to read!

Wishing you joy and creativity
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

See Our BIG SALE at CraftyVintageGirl.com
Visit Our Facebook Page with 6560+ Fans!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Cheer This Girl On! , Daytimer Tutorial and Other News!

Hi Everyone, I was so moved by Michele Kovack's daughter Courtney and her story I wanted to tell you about it below. I also wanted to apologize about our May Linky Party which is fixed now but there are only 4 entries and there is a $6.00 gift card for each person and a $50.00 Random.org gift certificate winner. You can add a sample to our May Linky Party here - you have until 12 midnight Sunday.The odds are great!

Michele Kovack has been on our Design Team - like forever - since 2008 and I, as many of you, have watched her 2 kids grow up. Her daughter Courtney has Cerebral Palsy and I was honestly moved to tears to see her post about Courtney being offered modeling jobs and I was so inspired I wanted to post about it in hope she will get the support and cheer her and other teens and families on in similar situations! Here's is the earliest photo I could find of Courtney and her family back in 2008 when she was just a little kid.

Here is Courtney in 2014 with the hope of modeling for other disabled teens. I'm so happy for her and Michele and inspired by the way they are empowering other teens with disabilities to go for it! This girl has lived in a wheelchair all her life and can still smile and see the positive in life. I hope she becomes a super model!

Also, DT Member Sheila Rumney has a wonderful Tutorial on creating a bookmark for Daytimers or a book her on her Blog using an image from our Creating With Illustrations CD 2 with a sentiment from our Angel Blessings Digtal stamp set.

I hope you are having a fantastic weekend and Happy Mother's Day to any of you Moms!

If you still need to make a Mothers Day Card see all the Freebie links on this post:

Thank you so much for your support and feedback, it's truly appreciated!
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

See Our BIG SALE at CraftyVintageGirl.com
Visit Our Facebook Page with 6560+ Fans!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Monday, May 5, 2014

Welcome to our May Linky Party, DT Challenge, 20% Off Sale and Big Dog Preview!

Hi and thank you for coming by to visit our May Linky Party and Design Team Challenge! We are also still running our 20% Off Sale and I've extended it until tomorrow 12 midnight May 7. See Linky Party Details at end.

First you have to check out what our Design Team ladies have created - because these ladies have created some amazing projects and tutorials this month that I know will inspire you! Simply click on each link below to see each of the projects

Kathy Clement Team Leader

Here's a peek preview of our fun NEW Big Dog Digital Stamp Set that are ready but I need our web host company to fix a glitch so I'm extending the sale (20 % off all items at checkout time) until 12 midnight tomorrow night!
We are also working on a Little Dog Set and sadly graphic designer Cindy's sweet little dog Princess just passed away a few days ago so you can bet there will be Pet Sympathy sentiments on both the Big and Little Dog Sets.

I'm starting a Garden Journal for my Mom as she lives downstairs and we went and bought our bedding plants this weekend and got a bunch of vegetables to start a garden. I want my niece and nephew (who she daycares) to learn the joys of eating the garden fresh. I started a page using our Garden Memories Digital Stamp Set and the pattern paper is from our Garden Papers.

I used the very first frame page you can see on the preview sheet below and printed it on some aged vintage paper that will be in a Digital Shabby Textured Papers Kit we are working on that will be available next week. Many of the frames and designs in this kit are larger than card size so you can use them in Garden Journals and bigger garden art projects - but they can be resized for cards, tags, small labels, etc.

You can print and create hybrid and layered 3D projects - not just digital. The frames, big lined pages, the planting record and chores list can be printed on paper or card stock and added to a 3 ring binder or album.

After I placed the Garden Memories Frame on the beige paper I added it to a floral paper from our Garden Papers Kit. I wanted to add a bird from the set to my photo but he faced the wrong way. No problem, I flipped it around by clicking on it and then the drop down menu 'Flip Horizontal'. Then I copied the bird and pasted it larger on the top left side.

Then I reduced a 12 x 12" paper to fit a small photo of my niece and nephew for the bottom left corner. You can take your mouse and push the edge of the frame to adjust the size and use the curved arrows that appear on the corner to tilt it. I also tilted the Text Box when I journaled beside it afterwards and used the eye dropper tool to make my text brown.

UPDATE: I'm so embarrased - my subscription expired and our Linky Party stopped working but it's fixed now. You can enter our Linky Party and post any sample you have created using any Crafty Secrets product(s) and receive a $6.00 coupon. You can enter up to 4 samples to increase your chance to win the $50 gift card but only one $6.00 coupon can be sent. Don't be shy, it's fun, you just have to add a link to a blog, gallery, somewhere we it can be seen larger and it would be great if you say what you used. Just click the next link.

Thank you so much for your support and feedback,
it's truly appreciated!

Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

See Our BIG SALE at CraftyVintageGirl.com
Visit Our Facebook Page with 6560+ Fans!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230