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.

Christmas in July

So after a really awful, horrible, no good day at work today with people who just were not rational (I swear there must be a full moon lurking out there because all the lunatics called me today), I came home to find that a one-hour challenge was starting on Creating Keepsakes blog. Well, actually had started about 10 minutes before, but what the heck. The challenge was to make two Christmas cards using twine (don't have), buttons or stitching on each. Well so I knew I didn't have much to work with considering I'm a really crappy seamstress. However, I love one hour challenges, but I had a dilemma. I really had a craving for french bread, which required trip to the store. So one hour challenge or french bread? Hmmm....

So my dear, sweet husband who's very worried about my stress level hears me say that I have this craving for french bread and took off for the grocery store. He came home with flowers for me, red meat for him, and the freshest french bread I think I've had in years. Yes, a few dollar trip to the store was really, really expensive (Matt + meat counter = budget disaster), but oh so worth it.

In the meantime, I fought with the sewing machine requiring that I re-do the major part of one card, dug through my embellishments to find a star and some gift buttons, whipped together two (well, really two and three-quarters) cards in the one hour and uploaded them right at the buzzer.

What's really amazing about the whole thing is that it never would have happened if I hadn't spent the whole weekend (well the whole weekend minus raspberry picking on Saturday and a Harry Potter matinee on Sunday) to clean and re-organize my craft room. So when I started the challenge, I had a clean slate to work with, knew what I had and right where it would be. For instance, the lovely striped Christmas paper was in my scraps storage container in the "multi" drawer (the storage unit right under the desk in the bottom left corner of the picture below) and was able to use scraps for every single portion of these two cards. Of course, in the one hour I made a huge mess of my room again. Why is it that I can't craft neatly? But what I love is that my whole room went back together in less than 10 minutes. Wow, I am just loving the new organization. Oh, by the way Dad, your lottery ticket in sticking up in my carousel just behind Matt's picture. I hope it's the big winner!