HOW TO HAUNT YOUR HOUSE BOOKS 1-3

HOW TO HAUNT YOUR HOUSE BOOKS 1

Check out my new post on http://salemdarkhallow.blogspot.com

Dark Hallow for Halloween books how to haunt your house and see what wonderful creepy things you can create on a budget. The project in these books will have you feeling like a Hollywood prop expert in no time!

Remember

Have Fun Doing What You Love

            and 

Love What You Are Doing!!

Free C.U Digital Scrapbook Goodies

Today I have been working  in Photoshop designing.Taking a break letting my other custom order dry ( sorting hat ) .I always have a need for free c.u (commercial use )  digital images. So as I searched I decided to share with others that may be looking  to save money in these hard times. There are some sweet people that love sharing their talent free.So lets get started

This site has lots of great things.It's in French but you can translate it to English with Google. Just click the  link below and explore their gorgeous  freebies.

http://cajoline-scrap.blogspot.fr/2011/07/13-doodles-without-shadows-png-300-dpi.html


these are great free cu brads .The only draw back being 4 share requires you to sign up to download ,but it is free and with so many using it signing up isn't bad .Click link below and check it out
http://starsunflowerstudio.blogspot.com/2010/11/free-cu4cu-brads-for-scrapbook-designs.html



ALLOT  and  I mean allot of free cu here  .
This site requires a cup of coffee and maybe a cookie,Relax and explore.


http://cu-freebies.blogspot.com/search/label/papers


an Easter freebie
http://vivayne.com/2009/04/14/new-cu-and-another-easter-freebie-digital-scrapbooking-qp/


Lots of c.u. freebies of all kinds here just go to site and click freebies.

http://scrapbookingez.blogspot.com/2011/08/free-thank-you-cards.html


this site has free cu to but limits so read the tou carefully so you can be sure of legal use

http://free-digital-scrapbooking-freebies.blogspot.com/2009/11/haunted-halloween-free-digital.htmlu

this site has some cute freebies for c.u as well click on freebies and it will take you to all their free images
http://lowcountryscrapper.com/blog/freebies/holiday-freebies/snow-globe-template-freebie/\




some cute cu freebies here

http://mizzkitten.blogspot.com/search/label/Commercial%20Use





http://sweetlyscrapped.deviantart.com/art/Scrapbook-Paper-Leopard-Rose-284057604


look in her gallery for more freebies
http://starsunflowerstudio.deviantart.com/art/Free-Doodle-Patterns-291931417

well that's it .My eyes are crossing and I need to break from my break!I hope you could find something useful and fun.

REMEMBER
Have fun doing what you love
and
Love what you are doing1

HARRY POTTER AND TWILIGHT INSPIRED

Been working on some new things this last 2 weeks and 2 of those are apple and the sorting hat .I relay enjoyed making the hat and it was a challenge but  I am very pleased with how it came out. Now all I have to do is make more lol.These were turned into ornaments for a Christmas tree and I think they look good with the sparkling lights.Both are made out of clay then I used printed color paper with phrases from the books on them.Ripped the paper then burned the edges.I used Mod  Podge  to glue paper on let dry completely.To hang then I fixed a wire loop on top of each and voila  one of a kind Christmas ornaments!

Remember

Love What You Are Doing

and

Do What You Love

Free Wallet Pattern

my personal wallet front

flower hand made

back

closure 

open view outside

open view inside

Have you ever looked at wallets and just didn't like them? Wanted one that just screamed your name ?Just so you? Well now you can have one that expresses your personality as well as the pride in saying I made that.
They also would make great gifts and the number of styles are only limited by your imagination! I used a tut ,but changed the material combination a little.I bought this fabric  before Christmas ,I just loved it.And the pattern didn't call for a lot of material.I used scraps for the pink-orngish and green strips.i also cut my strip material on a slops that gave it a climbing effect leading up to my flower i sewed on the front flap. I just loved the flower and the colors went great with this pattern.I love the finished wallet .

So if you have some Favorite material some scraps and time  give this a try and make a wallet that just screams at you . 

Below is the links to the wallet and flower tutorial I used to create my wallet and thanks to the ladies that share all these wonderful talents  with us everyday

 http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c72ee53ef00e55219846f8833

 http://darnkat.wordpress.com/quilted-fabric-wallet-tutorial/

And as always 

Remember

Love What You Are Doing

and

Do What You Love

Repurpose Glass Jars, To Vintage or Not

I love finding new uses for things that are usually  trashed.I have saved jars,plastic containers with lids  and boxes.The list goes on and on.i am not a pack rat by any means ,the things I save have a clear purpose in my mind.If they do not get used at some point I do trash them.The net has been a source of great inspiration to me.I use it like a library and feed my mind of new things everyday.

Now that being said lets move on to what I have always wanted to do.... make my own vintage looking jars without paying an arm and leg for them.

I can still see my Grandmother Cason's cook house with it's cement floor and long bench tables that we all sat around on family gatherings.She was a mother of 15 children and I forget how many grand and great grandchildren.  When I was growing up there was never a lack of playmates.The cook house was large  and hot in summer and cold in winter.I can remember looking inside the shelves   and finding coffee cups that had filters right inside the cup to strain the coffee grains(no coffeemaker just steep and strain) .

The depression coffee cups and the colored jars. Depression

 glass was given out free at many store even movie theaters.Some was included in food package like toys was in cereal and crackerjack boxes.This was to entice the buyer to purchase the product .After all during the Depression  times was hard and the poor people had no money to wast on pretty dinner ware.The pretty colors and etching on the depression ware gave them pretty dinner ware to use. If you would like to know more about the subject I have included some links.You might be surprised at the things you can learn about that time period just by looking at the products that were used .

Copyright © 2008 by National Depression Glass Association 

http://www.ndga.net/articles/whatisdg.php

Copyright© 2006 - 2012 - SuzieMax.com
http://www.suziemax.com/Depression-Glass.html

Hazel Marie Weatherman, copyright 1974.

http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/dg.html  Now mason jars  were colored blue and a few other colors  because it was said that the darker the jar’s color is, the longer the food lasts. Today the jars are used not only for food but as a decorated accent for the home.Had we only known that the things from our past would be the treasures of our future we each could have carried a link to our family roots that could be shared with our children.

 Hazel Marie Weatherman, copyright 1974.

http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/dg.html

 Now mason jars  were colored blue and a few other colors  because it was said that the darker the jar’s color is, the longer the food lasts. Today the jars are used not only for food but as a decorated accent for the home.Had we only known that the things from our past would be the treasures of our future we each could have carried a link to our family roots that could be shared with our children. 

Copyright © 2012  The Inglenook Decor. 

Now I will share the links I found on how to color your own jars below.Remember you don't have to limit yourself to mason jars.I save pickle ,mayo,fruit,and just about any other jar that catches my eye.

Lets begin exploring the diy  art of jar color !

 First thing to remember is that these methods are NOT intended for food use.If you want color jars for food use you will need to purchase color jars.

If you know of a way to color jars that are safe for food use ,please share with us .I always love learning something new.

1. HispanicallyEverAfter has a great tut for coloring jars .Nice pictures and clear directions.

http://hispanicallyeverafter.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/diy-color-tint-glass-jar/

2. Chicken in the Road is  another tut.In this one she goes in great detail of the failures and successes of dying the jars. I found this tut of great help in information .If you never look at another tut I would recommend  this one be on the must read.

She has a very nice imagery of the process and as a visual person this was right up my alley.

Do read the full post and not skip right to the tut.It has very good information .

http://chickensintheroad.com/house/crafts/coloring-mason-jars/

3. DIY: Tinted Mason Jars in Rainbow

By 

Liz Stanley

Another nice image  tut 

http://www.momtastic.com/diy/168908-diy-tinted-mason-jars-in-rainbow

4 Craftaholice Anonmos 

has a tut on creating permanent dyed jars basically the same as the others except she uses Crystal Gloss Enamels  to color the jars.

COPYRIGHT © 2012 CRAFTAHOLICS ANONYMOUS

5.Last but not least is creative little daisy blog site.Another great image tut .I love the little jars!So cute

.http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2010/06/have-you-priced-vintage-blue-canning-jars-lately-wanna-make-your-own-really-cheap-.html

there you have it.Several sites to get you started on creating those vintage jars at a fraction of the price.Even if it is not the actual ware from my childhood it still brings back those fond memories of my childhood that are long past.Families grow and move on,mothers ,daughters ,sons and farthers all have families of there own and if we don't hold to our past we lose a little bit of our future.So tell the stories and save that scrap of past to hand down to your children and most importantly make those memories .Sometimes memories are all we are left with,save the good and lose the bad.

Remember

Love What You Are Doing 

and 

Do What You Love!

Pumpkins,Trees,Apples, Teeth and Dogs ? Oh My

Poor little Dove b4surgery  

Dove AFTER surgery 

I haven't posted in several month.Things here kind of got crazy. Not sure what happened first.I think it was my best friend Valery's dog Dove.Now mind you she lives across the road from me and at one time we shared a dog named Froggy (yes I named him that ,it's another story for another day ).Well he ended up living with me and she pays the vet bills .Then we got Ranna (I KNOW ,I KNOW means frog) Now she is my dog and her brother Dove is Valerey's. Dove seems to think he is Superman main dog.Meaning he sails off things with out a care.He is a dachshund and  his little back just can't take it.So far he has has 2 surgeries on his back ( her 2 mini car payments she likes to say) and on this last one we came to an agreement that he stay with me while she works out of town on the weekend to better watch the supper dog complex (Dove)

Ranna and her enemy Lucy protesting  together
over Dove

 Now my other dogs are just getting used to having my oldest daughter 's  dog Lucy ( who is leaving with her in 30 years when she moves out)in the house all the time .then Dove started staying and they are still trying to figure out what the heck we were thinking . So basically I have been nursing   Dove and now he is better just babysitting him.So far so good except the marking my house war! That is finally under control( can you say doggy diaper? Yes you can)

Froggy  taking Dove spot

Erica left Jordan right

Next came the special order I got from a haunted house attraction company for fake teeth .Crunch time they wanted 100 by  2 weeks! But I did it and sent that off ,whew doing all that with jealous dogs  was not easy .They spent a lot of time with my daughters and outside lol. next came special orders for clay apples with music, twilight and harry potter quotes, That one took awhile,burning ,pasting drying ....But it all came together very nicely!


 Lastly my youngest graduated this past week and all the pick her up go  get her and drop her off was hair pulling .Mostly my oldest did that as I do not have a car (laughs evilly) And the where are you at? game we play when trying to find her.Very busy.

Erica right Jordan left 

Froggy hunting flies

 So now I am sitting back writing a post finally  while boling chicken for soup.thinking and taking time to watch Halloween movies ( I am in Halloween mode ALL year  .I love it) while sculpting spooky trees that my daughter ,husband,and sometime fly hunting Froggy ( see name fits but there is more to that story ...okok later) break off limbs every chance they get. All in all it has been tiring but satisfying past months.I can't wait to see what happens next  hmmm maybe I can.

visit my Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ARaysCreation

Remember
Do What You Love
and
 Love What You Are Doing!

Photoshop Free Commercial Brushes, Download and Save

brush examples

While in the process of making domino and scrabble tile art I ran across some interesting commercial free Photoshop brushes. That's right, I said FREE COMMERCIAL USE. It always excites me to see people sharing their talent for free. While I do understand the effort and time it takes to craft something and the need for money it is always nice to see the willingness to share with those just starting out/limited resources.

That's why I decided to share while it was fresh in my mind.

Today I will show you where I found and how I store my free brushes for easy access.

It's important to make sure that the brushes are free for commercial or personal use and even if the site says they are does not necessary mean that they are. It is a bit tricky. Usually if I find free brushes I will send an email asking for permission before using the brushes. Just explain what you are going to do with them and if you are using them for commercial or personal use. Usually they will say yes, but have some terms of use. Simple and safe. I also save the email they send in 2 file naming them Permission for commercial use and Permission for personal use.

(all images are clickable to enlarge for better view)

Google search 

Another way is to search Google (use different search engines for more findings) for free Photoshop commercial brushes. Then chose a site to visit and make sure to read the terms and the post to see if they are just hosting links to these free resources. 

Hosting site

hosting site
Hosting free brushes does not give them the right to the brushes. They are just providing you with brush links they found online. Still good resources but no rights for you. Most times clicking the brush link will take you to the owner's site once there you can search the terms or contact them to get permission.Then there are those that have their own site that states free commercial and personal use right on the page for you to easily see.

free commercial; clearly stated
click for larger view

What I like to do is go to the terms of use page and read it. Then I use snagit

(A screen capture program http://www.techsmith.com/snagit-features.html) To capture the terms of use. 

snagit program

If you don't have this kind of program you can use your print screen on your computer. After I get the image I crop it and save it with the sites name in a folder I created on my desktop named Permission for commercial use. 

terms of use

Never combine personal and commercial use folder. The reason being I want to know fast if I can freely use commercial brush and don't want to waste time re-finding that information.

That done it is time to now save the actual brush itself. Click on the download link in the site, it may be a zip or a abr. file.

zip or download opt
click to make bigger

If offered these choices choose the one you want to use, I like zips because I can store them to a disk . That way if I crash my computer I have a back up of these brushes in zip format. I will leave that for another day another blog lol.

Now you have chosen what methods to download these brushes you want to save them in the commercial use folder you created on your desk top (or where ever you want the folder to be) changing the name to the brush tittle

saving and changing name of file
Once you have it saved I go one more step . I like to capture an image of the brush then crop and save it with the brush exact title. 

saving and renaming image jpeg

I do this because I want to be able to know what the brush looks

 like .That way I am not loading every brush until I find the one I wanted. Loading a lot of brushes slow my PS down a lot .So this way saves my space and my mind lol.

That's it. I now have a folder with my free commercial brushes that store the terms of use (covers you for the use of these brushes) as well as easily finding the right brush for the project.

I hope this helped someone and sorry for the large visual but as you know I learn better with visual so I blog visual!

Now go on and find those brushes and organize them! Then create something you love!

 

Remember

Do what you Love

And

Love what you are Doing!