Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

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Archives for August 2010

Todays post is gonna be an update of sorts…

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Okay time to do some updating.

First off the newsletter went out on Monday. you can still see it here for a limited time.

When you are looking at the newsletter take a peak at the grab bag. Decide if you need it for your school pictures and gaming pictures especially with the holidays coming and grab it while you can. Now that you have the grab bag you can participate in the Weekly Challenge and get entered to WIN next month’s grab bag. Which I have seen and is oh so so cute! Also, don’t forget to check the designers blogs that where in the grab bag. I have heard rumors that there will be bonuese and perks for those who participate in the challenge. woohoo! Love those.

and next… did you see these I am offering them on sale in the store.. for 3.99 each…
The Halloween Collection and the School Collection #1

And now I must run to finish up some files!! Don’t forget to read through all the awesome goodies in the newsletter. Enjoy! Chris

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

The Rocket Book!!!

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This is my Rocket Book I gave to my sister. I embellished some but not alot so she could fill it with her own tastes and desires. She is having her second child so I didn’t want to give her something she already has so I decided to make a simple book with some items in it to get her started. I think she really liked it.
I hope you do to. Enjoy! Chris

So my son decided he needed his picture taken with the book since he helped. So here is the picture.
And this was the front page.
My son kept trying to squish the front page flat I had to show him I put some of the pieces on with op dots so it wouldn’t be flat. OHHHHH is what I was told. ha!

This is kinda the title page. Originally I was going to write on the outside edge of the cut outs “Arrived” Weight” Time” Date” etc with arrows pointing to the centers of the stars and rockets, but I wasn’t sure my Sister would want it that way so I left it blank. And yes this is the “waste” from cutting all those rockets for the shower and stars. I couldn’t get rid of it.

This files is in the QMC already 1st snuggles. Yeah I cut it to big. So had to run it off the page. I only glued the center portion so she can slip the pictures underneath the edges.
This page above was my son contribution. I thought He balanced it quite well. Then he started digging in my bag and tada… glitter pen. So he had to add “shootings” to the stars to make them “shooting starts” very cute. He was most impressed my sister pulled it out and found his page right away. he was very excited and said he needs to do a few more for other family members. He used my Cricut to cut the Love and the rockets and stars were already cut. So it is ready for a picture.
And this page I just cut the 1st snuggles file with rockets in the window so i could get mroe pieces to create this page. It has a few spots for pictures.
And this was one of a few extra pages that I put minimal embellishment on it so my Sis could fill it with her own things.  We can’t wait for the new baby chase to show. 🙂
So now she has his first memory book started. Woohoo!

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

Baby Party Decorations

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Here they are those baby party decorations we made with the Rocket Cuts now in the QMC. This was fun to help my sister’s friend plan. I cut lots of rockets to hang and the new baby’s name to decorate. I cut little rockets and glued them doublesided on to toothpicks. I love it all. Came out awesome. i hope you like the pictures.

My sister’s friend and I debated left and right cupcake or cake. My sister wanted cake with butter cream icing and raspberry jam in the inside. Apparently we are a small member of people who put this in the middle of their cakes. So so yum. I tried to make the butter icing once for one of my own cakes and just screwed it up, but will have to try again. Butter and Powdered Sugar how hard can it be?
And this is the top of the cake with my little Rocket Cuts file on toothpicks. first we had them on the cupcakes but then moved them. I loved it.
And this is my sister’s fireplace. More rockets and stars and baby names.
We hung these on fishing line so they floated. and my Mom attached stars to the bottom of the green streamers to weigh them down. (I had the streamers in a bag from my sons 1st or 2nd birthday party. the theme was John Deere. I am a packrat for sure, but they matched perfectly. )
This is my cutey patootey niece and son under the crib. They love the new rocket room. Which i will debut when my sister sends me pictures. She emailed and said she thought it was worthy of my blog. hahah. I can’t wait to share the pics with you.

And then we had to share our blue tongues from the icing. My cousin in her stylish blue tongue.
and wew I didn’t get the green tongue from the lady behind you to show.
And then my hubbies blue tongue. he knows fulll well this is going on the blog.
and then Spoiled Sport Uncle Mark.. Decided to not share his blue tongue. That’s all right I’ll get you on the blog some other time. just you wait. You probably will wish you had shown your blue tongue! haha.
I am going to show the pics of my prego sister with her room she is so proud of! Enjoy! Chris

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

Just beautiful….

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I just had to share these with you today. I was planning to post party
decorations from last weekend, but these flowers make me smile everytime I
walk in the house. Almost all are from my Mother's Day gift. We went to a
nursery and bought lots of flowers and my guys and I planted them. They did
all the hard heavy dirty lifting, but it was the BEST. And here in August
they still make me smile.

Enjoy!
Chris

Card using CD00286 Fancy Swirl Accents

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Created a quick card while I was home for a few days using the CD00286 file.  This made for a quick card with a little bling, a scrap of polka dot paper and some flowers.  The pearl brad and swirl accents are from Hobby Lobby… my summer home.  *smile*   Added a little lady bug sticker as an accent.  Very quick.  That’s what I love about Chris’ files.  I can make something so easy that looks like it took me longer than it did.  *smile* 

~Angie~
~I am blessed!!~

Visual Designs by Chris Creative Team Member
http://www.visualdesignsbychris.com
(all images are cut using the Blue Wishblade)

A few things to update …

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First… A weekly challenge is posted. Your goal is to post anything you have cut from a current member of VDBC and the More Team. That’s it. It can just be a cut, a finished project. Anything that you have cut last from our wonderful designs. And you can get an extra entry by mentioning it on my fan page. HERE.

 

 

Second…  The 2011 Planner Swap  has been posted in the forum. A great swap. I participated in this last year and the recipients loved their gifts. I was bummed I didn’t sign up for more to keep one of my own. It’s a great way to get help finishing up some gifts and is due in a few months so plenty of time to work on it.  Here is last years swap thread where you can see some of the finished pieces. Love love love it.

 

Third .. I posted another QMC file 1st Snuggles to the QMC Membership. The membership is still open for members. If you’d like to join.

 

Fourth.. the grab bag is awesome filled with school and games files. Don’t forget to grab it up. J

 

Fifth… Happy Tuesday to you!!!

Enjoy!

Chris

 

 

Green Cauliflower?

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Bountiful Baskets moment. For those who are tired of the raving idea about veggies and fruits this post is not for you. so here we go..

Have you ever had Green Cauliflower? Yeah me neither until last week. I must admit we held onto this vegetable to the end of our bbasket week. Wasn’t really sure how was it gonna be. for some reason I kept thinking of died green carnations on St. Patrick’s Day. So we tried it. I knew my son would not go for just cauliflower.

He is a total anti-broccoli fan. But my goal was to woo him over. So how do you do this with my kid? well you coat it with Cheese. So I thought about how my Mom used to ofen make a cheese sauce for on top of cauliflower. Now that I think about it. I am pretty sure she was wooing us. I must admit it has been a long time since I have had cauliflower, green or not.

So I found a recipe on the web that was basically butter, flour, milk and shredded cheese. So because I am an annoying cook. pinch of this, dash of that. I read the recipe on my laptop and headed to the kitchen two hours later with a plan. I melted about 2 tablespoons of butter, added about 2 tablespoons of Pamela’s gluten free baking mix and mixed this together. Then I added some Bay’s Seasoning (my grandma used to use this lots I saw it in the store and grabbed it up to try.) So I shook a little in. Then poured in some milk (probably cup and a half) and let it warm stirring it pretty frequently until it was pretty warm and started thickening. I have no idea how long I was putting away dishes. So it is thickened so I threw in the 2 cups of shredded cheese and stirred while it melted. My son just eyed me cautiously for any dropped pieces of cheese. Have a mentioned he is a total cheese head. And proclaimed he could eat sauce with that much cheese on ANYTHING. We poured it over the green cauliflower. It came out quite good. My son ate the cauliflower. and I did to. I am almost considering purchase some white cauliflower to see what the difference is. Maybe do it blindfold taste test. Remember those Pepsi/Coke Challenges. Over Cauliflower? something tells me I would get the eye roll from the guys if I tried it. So it was good and a new adventure. I love having things to try that are veggies that I would never have tried before. Pretty awesome. And I gotta think isn’t there a diet of some kind that makes “mashed potatoes” out of cauliflower. Well folks you can do Green cauliflower instead of for St. Pat’s Day. although I am not sure it would pass the muster in Ireland for potatoes. haha.

On to new adventures and new tries.I am off to dig through the basket remains and look for another new recipe to try! What’s a new recipe you have tried lately?

Enjoy!

Chris
Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

Sundays Rambling…

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Okay so it is Sunday. Clean up and get ready for the week. I feel like I need five wrist watches on Sundays. I’d like to set one for the next dryer load. One for the next washer load. One for the next dishwasher load. One for 5 oclock so my kiddo gets scrubbed up and clean before his favorite America’s Funniest Videos show.

Hmm… just not feasible as I don’t even where one water. And I don’t have a pocket to bring my blackberry with me to set the alarms. Although this is something I may have to ponder. …

So how about you? Did you get a cut posted in the forum for the weekly challenge??? My goal is to get the studio cleaned up for another week of test cuts. My lovely hubby is working on boosting my signal out in the studio for internet. Hard to upload files when things are dragging.

 

Basically we plan to spend the day at home. I love Sundays at home. My son does so much better at school on Monday when his Sunday is freeflowing and at home. He knows this to so when we have plans on Sundays he begs to stay home. Begs begs.

 

One of my tasks today is to figure out how to eat up all the bountiful basket. So we have green bell peppers about 6 of them so I plan to do stuffed bell peppers and my hubby doesn’t know this yet, but I think I will make the stuffing ahead of time, stuff the peppers and then wrap them in tinfoil and throw it on the grill to bake. Lot better then heating up the house. So past that I have… strawberries, blackberries, pears, bananas (those I am not worried about the fruit will be gone… but if you have any recipes for these. I have jalapenos, Anaheim chiles, yellow onion, celelery, romaine, tomatoes (yum I could eat those today they are big beef steaks) Mexican gray squash, cantaloupe,  oh I know I am missing something. And on Friday because I didn’t want to grocery shop this weekend. I bought chicken breast, chicken tenders (not the coated kind, just thin slices of chicken frozen, raw shrimp, canned tomatos, and a few other things. So if you have some mahvelous recipe idea with any of those send it my way. I will be planning meals at the end of the day. I wish there was some other way to eat the romaine then a salad. We get it every time. I love it. And have done all kids of different salads. But it’s probably the purpose of it since it is the main ingredient of salad.  Oh and the celery. We never eat it. I should have just offered it up at the pickup spot for someone else. And pears. I am trying to think of some fancy fun desert I could make with pears. Seems to me I saw pears with a raspberry sauce somewhere. I think it had goat cheese. Why my mind was wondering I started thinking I wonder how much of a pain it is to have a goat and milk it. Well let’s say after this last few weeks with animals we are full up to the limit so I won’t even entertain the idea. My hubbies horse has the huge “hole” in her chest for lack of a better word. I would post a picture but it makes me nauseous looking at it. And I try to be a stomach friendly site.

 

Well that’s it for my Sunday Ramblings. More tomorrow on my sister’s awesome Baby party and how much fun it was. For now I am off to check the washer and see if I can flip it.

 

 

Enjoy your Sunday!!!

Chris

New QMC Files

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I added a few files to the QMC yesterday. If you haven’t joined and like these two files. You can join here.

These are uploaded to the forum and the 4shared site. Thank you to the members! You make my creating files so enjoyable.

Also running a challenge in the forum… Post your last cut from one of the “more team” designers or one of my files in the forum. for more details. head HERE.

Enjoy!
Chris

First is the Never give Up file. These file is a jumble of words with the word Never and the ribbon and the ever strong “Never Give Up” . You can use these together on a tshirt or a card. Or you can use them seperately without the ribbon and showcasing the marathon runner of your life, or the high school student who has pushed his limits. All test cut and ready for you to just use!

And then we have a set of Rocket cuts. I am working on an album for my soon to be nephew. Well it’s for his Mom and his New Baby To Come Party is themed Rockets. So I have lots of pieces I have created for it and am sharing it with you. This would be great for a boys card, a boys room decor, or your favorite astronaut and space inspired enthusiast.

These files come GSD KNK WPC AI & SVG

All test cut and checked node by node. Absolutely ENJOY your Digital Cutter!
Chris

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com Files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

Hubby Bragging. Leatherwork

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Well I am gonna brag for a bit. My hubby has wowed my again. We have a friend who my husband has known for a very long time. So he decided to work on some leather for him.So he drew out some new patterns and created the leatherwork and put it in a frame for him. Just makes me happy to see him create things.

I firmly believe that handmade gifts are so much nicer. And many of our friends/family have everything they could ever possibly need. so to come up with something new and creative then can use is fun. I think our friend really liked it.

Well i thought I would share the pictures with you. I think he is getting a little better every time.
Have a fantastic weeekend!!! Enjoy! Chris

Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!


My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on….. Enjoy!


And our cutter file “freebies” are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.