that Ali Edwards is so smart.

I don't know about you but when I see great information online, sometimes even if I don't need it at the moment - I file it away in my brain to go back to later OR I save it in my favorites because I think, "Oh THIS is GOOD."

Well, way back on December 4th last year, the fantabulous Ali Edwards posted a tutorial video on her blog about how to take her digital brushes and turn them into a file that can be cut with the Silhouette Cameo. I was fascinated and in awe of her computerie skills but since I had no Silhouette to speak of, I filed it in my memory bank for later.

Fast forward to yesterday when I was thinking fondly of my new Cameo and how delightful it is and from out of the blue (strange, I know), I remembered Ali's advice and thanks to the handy-dandy search function on her blog, I quickly found the link, watched the video and presto-zesto, like magic - I had cut a digital brush! Woo-hoo! I literally did the happy dance.

I have a set of brushes by Kristina Werner that I have used a few times for card sentiments. Her handwritten brushes are truly some of my favorite things in life. I used the one that says thank you....

When you watch Ali's video, you'll see that it's as easy as just opening the .png file and tracing around it and then you can cut. It needs to be a rather thick word so I'm not sure if the first two phrases above would cut clearly but "thank you" did well and I think "God cares" would also.

Here's what it looked like on my screen after I removed the "for blessing my life."

And here's what it looked like after I cut it on some tan cardstock in my stash...

Rock on!! I love, love, love it!!

So now I think I am going to be obsessed with buying digital brushes and elements to cut. Here's a link to Ali's blog post which contains the video. I told her on Facebook how tickled I was that she shared her smarts. Click here: Ali's Blog Post

As I've been learning more about my Silhouette, I've garnered quite the collection of words I've cut just to practice so I'm storing them stuck on a piece of cardstock, in my scanner, since it's flat and nothing else lives in there anyway. I don't know how I lived without my lovely Silhouette for so long!!! (Sorry this is hard to see!)

In other news....I found a fun new way to store something. I always keep a generous supply of kraft card bases and envelopes on hand. I get them at Hobby Lobby, preferably 50% off (which is about once a month) and right now, I have a new pack of white AND cream. I have about 125 cards and envelopes stocked up, waiting to be used. Well there was really nowhere to put them so I wrangled this basket I was using for large ribbon rolls (which I mainly only use at Christmas) and stacked them in there purty. I LOVE IT. I love how it calls to me to make a card. It's kind of like a fresh stack of blank paper on the first day of school. Just knowing I can make it into anything makes me want to be crafty. I plan to keep these on hand, just like this just because I like to see them handy!

So now I just need to put my freshly cut titles on one of these card bases, add some patterned paper and I will have cards all ready to go.

Have you been crafty lately? I'd love to hear what you're working on!

Back tomorrow with more crafty goodness. I have a fun, new book to tell you about!