2 new sets added!

If you still have summer scrapbooking or aren't ready to give up on it being the end of summer yet, you will have fun working with this digital mermaid stamp just added to my shop...

http://www.mygrafico.com/digital-stamps/digital-stamp-singles/mermaid-single-digi-stamp/prod_3224.html

Or if you are ready to move on to Fall and autumn creations, you may enjoy using this new digital paper collection of earthy natural 12 x 12 papers in my new Feel of Fall collection...perfect for digital scrapbooking as well as use for printable backgrounds for cardmaking, paper crafts and more!

http://www.mygrafico.com/scrapbook/feel-of-fall-paper-collection/prod_3233.html

It's My Birthday...Come Celebrate & Save!

I want to celebrate my birthday with a one day DIGI SALE on everything in my Mygrafico Shop!

Prices like this are too good to resist. Stock up on all your favorites today!

A Growing Appreciation

Summer time, I love creating projects with flowers. This is a card/gift set I made before the end of the last school year for the school nurse who took such extra good care of Kylie. We were sad to see her retire. Hopefully, it is a cheerful reminder at home of the lives she touched with her nurturing.

The mini flowerpot was something I picked up at JoAnn's and added some accents of my own. And the card was made from a shared embellishment of floral punched patterned papers that my SU demonstrator friend, Ree, gave to me. I made an uneven bi-fold card and used Glue Art's adhesive squares on all of the 3-D accents on the card and flower pot. For the rest, I used my trusty companion, the Glue Glider™ Pro with perma tac adhesive.The beautiful butteflies were diecut using the Sizzlit Beautiful Wings die from Stampin’ Up!® and I also used the Floral Fusion die to create my own stacked flower which was added onto a Heidi Grace stick pin. The scallop border punch and verse used on the card are also from Stampin’ Up!. Try out using your favorite diecuts an punches with both solid and patterned papers for a bit of variety. And if you have a growing appreciation for someone in your life, I encourage you to create a simple car and gift set like this! All it takes is some ribbon, some paper, a few punches and your own creative touch!

Pain is temporary; Pride is Forever

If you got to experience the pain and suffering of a torturous 2009 volleyball season, then you could begin to appreciate the joy going into this season. It started with new coaching, a new training philosophy, summer camps and open gym followed by a new excitement for the program...something that Ashley has looked forward to for her senior year of volleyball.

Varsity tryouts were the first day of school. Both girls made it, but Kylie was given the choice to be part of the varsity team and sit out a bit more or be J.V. captain and give leadership and experience to the J.V. squad. She chose the latter and is making us proud by showing her enthusiasm for her team and desire to assist coach Dave with whatever is needed. I am team mom for J.V. which is something new. We are looking forward to a great season and doing some fun team bonding activities.

Ashley reassumed her spot on the varsity starting line up and was appointed team captain by the coach due to her experience and leadership abilities. We are so proud of her. What an honor for her last year playing volleyball for West Shore. And man, did she play her heart out at last night's scrimmage game! It is really great to see her playing so confidently and for all the coaching to fall into place for the team. They won big over Eau Gallie proving that West Shore girls are not only smart in the classroom, but also on the courts. Everyone played great. And wow, did her friend Lindsay have a wonderful first game experience blocking and hitting like a veteran player! You would never have known she was a rookie! All the girls served so well and did not let the taunting of fans interfere with their concentration. Lots to celebrate already!!!

I mentioned on my facebook page the slogan in my post...Pain is temporary; Pride is Forever. I saw it on a guys t-shirt while walking this Saturday with Bella. It stuck with me because the girls’ school is often thought of as where the smart kids go or the nerdy school, not really being known for their athleticism. The coaches so wanted to focus on executing the drills and instilling school pride, and it was so great to see all the pain, sweat and effort culminate into real results...a WIN! It unfortunately doesn’t count on the record books, but in the esteem department the pride of that victory will last well beyond the season!
Go Wildcats! Remember...Dig Deep! Play Smart! Win Big!

One Day Back-to-School Sale -40% OFF!

Wow! Well yesterday I shared with you my three latest sets. Tonight I get to share some Friday the 13th LUCKY news for you...a one day, 40% OFF everything in the shop sale at http://www.mygrafico.com.

Be sure to stock up on some red hot digi deals!

Hot New Releases of Cheri Wenger’s Digital Designs

Pocket Full of Shells

If you have ever wallked the beach and picked up shells along the way, this set will bring back fond memories. It includes a bonus set of png files with white shell backgrounds for making your own shell collages or groupings. Use chalks and markers to color the digital printouts and create!

Garden Swirls

Flourishes are fun to use on any card or layout. These bold, flowy swirls work well by themselves or paired with the other images in this set. Add some floral flair to your next creative project with my Garden Swirls set.

Forever in Love Flourishes

This set evolved from another set with a wedding theme in mind. These delicate flourishes add a touch of class to any project you choose to use them on. The images are all provided in large 6" size and can be scaled as shown.

Play Dates aren’t just for kids!

I love how stamping has connected me with so many people, some of which have turned out to be my very best friends. One of these is my super talented friend, Ree Nathan, who credits me for getting her addicted to stamping. LOL! She is now my wonderfully talented and creative SU demonstrator and I am her customer...what a fun role reversal! And we always enjoy our little stamping play dates together. Who else would get so excited over a UPS box showing up with new products in it the way we do! It is so nice to have that friend to share cool tips, borrow each others goodies and inspire one another to try new things. There is nothing like a stamping buddy! 

I don’t mean to leave out any of my other stamping buddies, but today I share this creation I made at a stamp night with Ree. It was shortly after my aunt’s funeral and I was still a bit emotional and low in spirits. I stamped, I weeped, We shared and I left feeling a whole lot better than when I arrived! Above is one of the cards I made titled Tropicalflora Thanks. It features some older SU designer series papers, but I couldn't resist using them since the colors were just perfect! For the background, I used the NEW embossing folder called Elegant Lines. (Had to order that one right away since I fell in love with it, and it has so many great possibilities!) I embossed the cardstock then used my chalks in accent colors to bring out the texture and the Razzleberry Lemondade DSP (designer series papers) were diecut with my NEW Island Floral BigZ die. The verse is an OLD Thank You which is one of my favorites over the years. You can easily substitute any phrase or designer papers to remake this card for any occasion. Most importantly, plan a play date with a stampin’ friend to recharge your creativity and your spirits!

2-2-2!

Do you know that my favorite number is 2. It is my birth date and I have just always loved that number. When I logged on to do a new post for today, I saw that I had 222 posts as of August 2nd. Pretty amazing, isn’t it!?? So I am now looking forward to hitting post 2,222...have some work cut out for me!

I am going to catch you up on some hybrid card inspirations using some of my digi desgins sold on MyGrafico.com. One of my favorite illustrative sets is the Hip & Happy set. I use this cross all the time. Most crosses have a rigid, stiffness to them, which reminds me nothing of the Jesus I know and love —
a compassionate and loving God that gave his own life for me. He surrounds me with his love and guidance so I tried to achieve that in my artistic interpretation of the cross. On this first example, I used it to create a sympathy card for our friends who just lost their father/grandfather just a few days after my aunt passed away. I typeset the verse and printed out the cross in b&w. I added a touch of soft pink on the swirls and heart as a soft accent. For the background, I used a flower and design element in black to create the hand stamped background. It is from one of my favorite new stamp sets called Que Sera Sera by K&Company. It is an eclectic mix of designs and verses. I used the same stamp to handcut a lavender floral accent that I raised up with a rhinestone accent.

Working with the same color combination of pink and black I also created this hybrid card for my cousin’s daughter’s Baptism. I just love digital brushes & Photoshop. I used my Mod Twist Garden brushes to create the background, which nicely complimented the lines in the cross illustration. This card was 90% digi, cut out and mounted onto card stock layers. Pretty easy. See below for another modified version of this same card art. That is the cool thing with using digital stamps, art and brushes, you can set up the art, print & experiment with lots of variations of the same design so no cards have to be the same!

I called this version Hip & Girly Baptism Card. The gold, pink and black made it just a bit fancier, yet it still has that girly style to it. You can also dress up hybrid cards by adding brads, ribbons, diecut borders, etc. For this, I kept it simple and classic.

A Layout Appearing at CHA

This is a design team project I created for Glue Arts using canvas creatively with their new Extreme adhesive products launched at Summer CHA. It is presently on display at the show!

I decided to create a wall hanging scrapbook layout for my office of my niece Lauren. Since she has on a leopard print bathing suit, I wanted to play on lots of texture and use earthy shades like teal, green and brown with the white contrast. To make the texture on my canvas sheet, I used Stampin’ Up!’s new embossing folder that I tried out at my demo friend Ree’s house during one of our stamping “play dates”. I loved how it accentuated the texture of the canvas. See the detail, here..

Next, I applied pigment inks to bring out the embossing and used some of my smaller Cuttlebug Fancy Corner embossing folders for the smaller canvas tiles.  I also rubbed some of the brown ink over the textured Core’dinations cardstock used in the background. Check out Glue Arts’ website for the step-by-step instructions!

2 years, 220 Posts, 1 Great Experience!

I just looked back to see how long it is has been since I started blogging. It was 2 years in June, and my how that time has flown by! In my years as a graphic designer I have seen changes in computers, technology, software, trends and it has been such an amazing journey. When I started my own design biz, I was simply thrilled to have a little Mac Plus computer that I could do my own typesetting on. Yes, that was in the days of paste up, where every add, logo and brochure had to be pasted up...mechanically. Each title cut out and glued onto a mechanical board and the colors had to be all cut out of rubylith or amberlith with an Xacto knife by hand!

Then came all the software and possibilites with Adobe leading the way. Designers could actually see how the designs would look using certain colors. This opened up the windows to new creativity. We could see the designs before they were printed! But then, suddenly software got all technical, and I suddenly went from being a creative type to having to know how to do pre-press art and set up. Thank God those days are gone...not fun, let me tell you! Laptops showed up giving me design capabilities on the go! The internet lent a wealth of resources, too!

Now the digital revolution has appeared on the horizon and technology continues to advance along with the software posing a need for more RAM and storage space...internal and external hard drives. Photoshop and phtooshop brushes add new life to images and art. Sites like Picnik offer special effects at your fingertips. Uploading, downloading, social media and networking are necessary parts of a designer’s life.

Today, I share with you a scrapbook layout that I did totally digital. It is a faux magazine cover featuring a few photos of Kylie from this summer. Dan commented on how the one picture looked like it could be on a magazine cover...and so the inspiration was born! You see in our house, you have to be careful what you SAY and what you DO. It may just end up on a scrapbook page! LOL

Class Kit Projects for CHA Summer 2010

I won’t be at the Summer CHA show, but I created some project samples for a Class Kit offered by Glue Arts, Cosmo Cricket and Core’dinations to store owners. I created some pocket note pads and gift card holders using the fabulous products and adhesives from these manufacturers. Be sure to email me if you want a complete supply list. I just adore Cosmo’s DeLovely collection’s yummy colors...vibrant jewel tones mixed with some summer brights...and the chipboard designs are so adorable. You will want this collection, trust me! Pairing them with Core'dinations textured cardstocks was very fun, especially using sanding blocks to add some distressing to bring out the texture and patterns. I have a template for the gift card envelope and measurements for the holder, which can be used with Glue Arts’ Glue Glider™ Pro and repositionable adhesive to create your own post it note pad or paired with high tac adhesive and patterned cardstock to create a custom gift card holder for gift giving. Here are some pictures. Leave me a comment and your email if you would like to receive the template/instructions.

Here are individual photos of the projects. I used gold cording with buttons and adhesive squares as closures for the holders. I also used Glue Arts new Raise N’s to give dimensionality to some of the chipboard layered elements. You can even cover a standard pen with some adhesive lines and cardstock to create a matching pen and notepad set. These tiny size holders can be glued to the inside of a standard greeting card or tucked neatly into a putse or backpack for school or shopping.

More New Designs to Share!!!

Before my Sun-Sational Summer Sale ended, I wanted to add some new sets to my shop so you can take advantage of the sale price. Inspired by the Fluidity collection, this Fluid Cross set features and outline and solid version of this cross made of decorative flourishes, flowing lines and hearts. Perfect for use for religious themes and occasions.

Versatile and bright, my new Spotsy Dotsy Floral Collection blends just the right amount of fun items in this clip art collection which is also perfect for embroidery or scrapbook purposes. This set included 4 designer 12" x 12" digital papers, 3 coordinating borders and 15 embellishments that work well separately or together for crafting cards, scrapbook pages and other creative projects. Try these out on a Military, Patriotic, 4th of July or Memorial Day project or liven up the baby and toddler pages of your scrapbook. Great for picnic, back to school and spring/summer themes. A fun mix of red, blue and yellow colored designs, borders and papers.