The Cutting Cafe

I have a giveaway today from Regina Easter, designer and owner of The Cutting Cafe which is your one stop shop for fantastic cutting files - you don't have to own a die cutting machine either, all the cards shown below were done by printing out the patterns and cutting out with scissors. Of course, if you do want SVG files, you can cut right out on your machines as well. Regina is offering three sets of your choice to the winner - thanks Regina. Just leave a comment under this post to enter your name in the draw, and be sure to pop over to The Cutting Cafe and sign up for emails and visit the blog - there is some fabulous inspiration on there...

Now back in the day, when Provocraft had just introduced the Cricut onto the market, there was a very lively and active message board. Regina started a challenge blog called Bitten by the Bug (very enterprising of her, as challenge blogs were practically unheard of then). I was a huge fan (still am) of her work, in fact she was a real crafting goddess in my eyes, so imagine my delight when she asked me to join the Bitten by the Bug team. After a couple of years, Regina left the team to set up her Cutting Cafe company, and I followed her over there as a member of her first design team.

We have never met, she lives in California, but although I left the team as I got busier with magazine commissions, we still keep in touch, and care about each other....

I learnt so much from that girl - not least, my abiding passion for black and white ribbon, what she can do with a ribbon bow has to be seen to be believed! So if you are new to The Cutting Cafe, I really urge you to pop over and wander around, I promise you will be inspired

Here are a few of the designs that I came up with - it all seems a while ago now, most of these were taken in 2009. This first one is a folder that I made to Regina's pattern, filled with matching notecards...






This next one was for Mother's day, I seem to have been a big fan of Prima flowers back in those days, hardly ever use them now, funny how we change...



St Patrick's Day...



I remember loving this next one when I made it, the curved sentiment (you're the apple of my eye) curves perfectly around the apple....



and this beautiful shaped card set got a lot of use. See the black dots on the border? I printed the file onto the pink marbled paper and the dots were part of the file, just gorgeous...




and here is the same card, this time printed onto kraft card and turned onto it's side, I used to to cover the top of an oblong box which I tied with gingham ribbon (what else!)...



So another wander into the past for me. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying digging back into the furthest reaches of my blog and rediscovering old posts, I've been reading the posts too, it's really stirred up some memories and smiles, especially when I find posts about the children and some of the funny things they said that I have forgotten about. Happy smiles..

Please leave a comment under this post to enter todays giveaway, and if you missed yesterday, scroll back to enter for a Craftwork Cards prize. Wiiners will be drawn on the 22nd September, and announced on the 23rd. I'll be back tomorrow with another look-back post x