What I'm Working On (Crafty)

 Hey Y'all!

Here's last months blog:

http://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2022/12/what-im-working-on.html

This month I did a lot of work in Design Space, for that ongoing blog series. I also added new listings to all my online platforms, and have been consistent in posting on TikTok. I also did a mini cleanup/organize of the craft room, and filmed a tour (on YouTube).

The biggest project this month was probably the bathroom. I scrubbed it from top to bottom, then hubby & I repainted:

BEFORE~

Progress~

The floor is so shiny!

Cleaning the countertop.

First coat!

Second coat!

After~

Put back together.

Finished paint in more natural light.

I'd say in person it's a bit darker than this, but more blue than the above picture.

Here's a look at a few of the items I've created this month:

Both of these were for a contest on Facebook.

New listings:

 Want to see more? Check out my tiktok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@craftinwife

What are you currently working on? Share in the comments below!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife

Goals Update/Monthly Check In

 Hey Y'all!

Here's a reminder of the goals I've set this year:

http://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2023/01/new-years-goals.html

Yearly Goals, How am I doing?

Health: Stay Healthy.

1) 2,500 steps per day!

Not up to 2500 daily, but making great progress. I'm around 1500-2000!

- Walk outdoors, WATP videos, add in Yoga

2) 5 Servings of fruit/veg per day!

Doing better, but still need to add in that morning smoothie. Most days are at least 3, which is an improvement.

- Buy more fresh, smoothies in the AM, side dish w/ lunch

3) Daily Vitamins & Water!

I seem to forget most Saturdays, but moving it to the first thing in the AM has helped.

- Make it a habit to take first thing in AM.

Personal/Misc: Stay Happy.

1) Read 2 books per month min!

So far it's averaging more like one, so room for improvement.

- Schedule time for it, I have a library of unread books

2) Less screen time! (TV, TikTok)

If I could do better here I would have more time for other things. The daily plan is made, just needs implemented.

- Make a daily schedule, plan for it

3) Maintain a clean & organized home!

This is going really well, the plan of a room per day really helps.

- Plan! "Room of the day!"

Business: Stay Growing.

1) Continue M,W,F Blogs, Tu, Th, Sa TikTok posts!

Check!

- Plan ahead, work on blogs earlier than day of, new schedule

2) Post new items to FB & goimagine twice monthly!

More than this month, I'm trying to get to my plans limit (25) by the end of February.

- Schedule for those posts: 1st & 15th, following Monday if a Sunday.

3) Put myself "out there" more!

Hasn't happened yet, but I've also not taken the initiative beyond posting my card on community bulletin boards.

- Social network with other businesses, post consistently, hand out cards, etc

4) Utilize YouTube & other social media more!

So far, I'm doing well with this goal. I am up "followers" on every platform!

- In addition to blog post & TikTok, 1 YT video per month, and 1 additional Instagram post

January Goals:

1) Health: Fix dinner at home 5 x per week!

- Include; fruit or veg, protein

2) Misc: Deep Clean Bathroom!

- Remove everything, scrub down, paint.

3) Business: Work on FB & GI shops!

- revamp, new items, remove old. Goal for month- 20 listings

Full success! We're eating at home more, therefore more healthy (and saving gas, and money). I got the bathroom cleaned, and hubby & I  painted last weekend . Currently the goimagine is at 19 listings, I'll get it to 25 by end of Feb. Some listings are a bit Valentine's specific and will come down, and be replaced. Facebook is a bit behind, but will be to 20 by next week.

I also added some craft specific goals, not listed in the original blog:

Goals for this year are-

1) Start using what I have, shop less for new. (Seriously, I could probably stock a 16ft section with vinyl alone, and easily a 4 ft section each of paper, stamps, the list goes on...)

2) Create at least 2x a week.

3) Maintain an organized craft room by putting away materials as that part of the projects is finished.

4) Declutter books shelves, Donate. (There are 2 very full bookshelves in my craft room. I love to read, but don't need to keep them all.)

5) Come up with a better plan for scraps of vinyl. (I hate to throw them away, but I currently have WAY TOO MANY scraps. They take over 2 drawers, a file folder x2, and a basket. I do search them first when crafting, but there are still too many.)

So far (3wks in) I'm making progress with the goals, especially 2 & 3. I plan to get to #4 after March, the basement needs to come first. 1 is a work in progress, I'm doing better- but I know there's more progress to be made. Goal 5... I still don't know. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments below!

FEBRUARY GOALS:

1) Health: Morning Smoothie, 4x weekly!

~ I already have everything I need to make this possible.

2) Misc: BASEMENT!!! (This is a 2mo goal- Feb & March)

~ Use the bins to separate Outland's Resale, listed and nots. Shelve our personal belongings. Clean. Paint finished side. 

3) Business: Network 2x with others outside of social media.

~I have a few ideas of what/where & plan to start there.

How are your goals/resolutions progressing? Share in the comments below!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife

February Everyday Makeup Shelf, January Mini Review

 Hey Y'all!

It's a bit early this month, but it's where/when this blog fit.

Just a reminder, January's Shelf:

http://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2022/12/january-everyday-shelf-december-mini.html

As for February, I continued with the less is more theme from January, and got a new (thrifted) section for lipsticks. This allows me to see everything I've pulled easier.

Lippies-

Overview of everything-

I decided to keep the Subculture palette around another month, since I didn't get into it much.

Eye Palettes-

Face palette, and Super Shock Shadows-

Stuff & things-

The only item that's "new" this month is the Wander Beauty Lip & Cheek tint from my sister's declutter. I've yet to try it, so we'll see.

The CoverGirl would be empty if I'd been wearing it.

Other stuff-

The Flower Beauty is about to the "cut it to get the rest out" stage. I tried to get the component open/the brush off, but that seems impossible.

Overview, with lights on-

How do you think I did? Pull too much? Not enough? Let me know in the comments below.

January Review:

I only used the Subculture palette twice, but I did like the formula. The colors are so rich I get a bit lost with it, but plan to use it more this month.

The Laura Mercier Mascara is preforming fine, but starting to get older, I plan to replace it (with something else) in March.

I've worn these everyday since my niece gave them to me after her declutter (mid January):

I really enjoy that taupe Essence palette! I've put them away for this month... Seriously, y'all will see in the January Looks upcoming blog. I used them a lot.

Are all these Essence palettes this good? I may need more, let me know!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife

How To: Cricut Design Space on PC and Android Part 3- Upload an Image

 Hey y'all!

As a refresher here are parts one & two:

In part one we went over the home screen and all it's functions, and in part two we went over the canvas operations.

https://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2022/12/how-to-cricut-design-space-on-pc-android.html

https://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2023/01/how-to-cricut-design-space-on-pc-part.html

https://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2023/01/how-to-cricut-design-space-on-android.html

Admittedly, now that I'm an access member I rarely search for SVG's elsewhere. When I do I really like:

designbundles.net 

https://store.caluyadesign.com/collections/newly-added-free-svg

https://www.creativefabrica.com/

https://lovesvg.com/ref/CraftinWIfe/  (affiliate link)

*If you plan to sell your creations be sure to check the commercial licenses, and policies from each vendor/site/seller, also know the licensing laws for characters/shows/movies, etc.*

DS on PC-

Let's start from the beginning, and do a quick download of an SVG:

This SVG is free for personal use, and can be found at caluya design, linked above.

Continue through the checkout process, then this will pop up:

Click to download.

My files go right into my downloads folder on my PC.

Right click to bring up the menu, then click extract:

The extracted files will then appear, you'll click on this folder from DS to access the images in the folder.

Now let's get that design into Design Space and onto our canvas:

From the canvas, click on Upload-

This screen will appear, with all your previously uploaded images. The Upload button is on the left.

Here you can either drag & drop, or browse for the file you want:

Once we click on that folder, and it opens up we double click the image (SVG with the symbol on the bottom right) and it's imported to Design Space.

Some files may need cleaned up, or the background removed, that would be done here.  All those tools are to the left.

For example, I used this picture from a previous blog already on my PC. I also use this process in the Android section below.

This is a poor image to attempt this with, but you can see the editing options, and if I did nothing to it the cut option is just a rectangle.

This is also where some images will give you either a CUT or PRINT option, you'll see a small preview like you do here:

One we click the upload button our image is available and we can add it to our canvas:

That's it! We're ready to create with this image.

There are a lot of possibilities with quality files/images/SVGs. 

In the Android portion I show cleaning an image up, and it's hard to see in the small photos, but this google searched image just isn't cutting it. The lines are jagged, and the image just wouldn't be a nice/clean cut. I knew that going in, it's just an image from a clipart search, and I deleted it after the How-To. It works for our intended purpose though.

Image Types (Supported by Cricut DS):

SVG images are the most common type of cut file to use with Cricut Design Space. SVG stands for “scalable vector graphic”. That means you can make the SVG image as large or small as you want, without it looking pixelated or blurry.

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. It’s a raster image file type. This means that all PNG images and graphics are made up of pixels. Therefore they can’t be scaled to any size as vector graphics can.

JPEG is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography.

DXF is short for Drawing Exchange Format or Drawing Interchange Format and is a type of vector file. Engineers, designers and architects often use the DXF.

You can upload your very own original art to Cricut Design Space too! Whether you've drawn something on a piece of paper or digitally, save it as either a JPG, PNG or SVG file an import it in the same way as you would a downloaded image.

Android:

As previously stated I hardly ever work from my phone, and really wouldn't suggest it if you have another option.

Again from the canvas-

Upload is at the bottom, toward the middle.

Far less options here:

Our googled image:

Using the remove tool (very first tool at the bottom of the screen) we'll click on/remove all the white bits. If we didn't we'd end up with a square block like in the example above (in the PC section).

Still clicking...

Once that's finished we'll chose our operation type, cut. Then we need to name the file before it will save.

Now we have it in our available uploaded images.

Add to canvas:

Zooming in I started to really notice all the flaws, this is why any old pic of the internet isn't an option, or compatible with DS.

How To: Delete an Image-

(Works very similar on PC) 

Click the images menu (the 3 dots at the top right).

Then click delete:

Poof, gone!

Any questions so far? Ask in the comments below and I'll answer there ASAP, and add them to Part 5!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife