Monday, February 28, 2011

Wild Birthday Card


Wild Card: card and envelope, Lacy Labels: Zebra print backround,
Alphalicious: lettering, Designer's calendar: envelope heart
I just made this fun birthday card for a coworker of mine. She loves zebra print (even her lunch bag is zebra print) so when I remembered that I had a sheet of zebra cardstock the rest of the card fell into place.  It is super simple, but I love that about this card. I love the round cards and everytime I make one people seem to comment about how cute they are.  I got to use Lacy Labels which always has great cuts to use for layering and the results were just what I wanted. Thask for stopping by!


Sunday, February 27, 2011

Glitter Play

A while back I got a great deal at Michaels on a Martha Stewart glitter set: 24 tubes of glitter plus glue stick.  I bought it (half off!!!) but did not know what I was going to do with it as I had never really used glitter with my scrpabooking before and I only recently started making cards. I tried it out on a few cuts, but the glue was messy and so I sort of gave up on the whole thing. 

These cuts (Happy Birthday and Crown)
are both from Once Upon A Princess
Later I went to the Cricut Circle message board and asked what people used to put glitter on things.  A few people mentioned using a sticker maker, like the Xyron so I stored that information away until I could use it.  I found a reason!

I am happy with the results of my new glitter experiements. The Xyron worked great and the glitter seems to have stuck on pretty good.  I am not saying it wasn't a mess of glitter all over the table, but much better than the first glue I tried and now the pages are stored away in page protectors! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Couldn't BEE Happier card (with video)

I recently go some amazing news from my sister. That news is not totally out in the whole world yet so I will not say what it is...BUT I am guessing you can guess if you think about it.

I am super excited about this upcoming event and wanted to make a card to send to her as a little celebration.  My favorite cartridge right now is Create A Critter so I went looking for some inspiration and decided to make a card using the adorable bee cut.  When I sat down to create I wasn't sure how I wanted the card to look so I looked at the cartridge booklet for some more ideas. When I saw the beehive cut I got my idea. Over at Jitterbuggin' Challenge this week the challenge is to make a shape card. I have not made very many shape cards and when I have made them it was from precut cards on the cartridges, like my first Hello Kitty Card. Rather than use one of these precut shape cards, I decided to play with the good old Gypsy and see what I  could do. 

I made the card base using the newly discovered way to get rid of lines from within a cut. That way I would have a solid card without any other lines in it. The Hide/Contour button on the advanced screen of your Gypsy allows you to select lines to hide or show when you make your cut. This feature is not in the user manuel online and I did not know what it did until today when I pushed it just to see. I am guessing most Gypsy users know about this button, but I did not and I maybe newer Gypsy owners do not know what it does either. So, I have made a little video (a first for me) so you can see what this awesome button does. Please be (or should I say Bee?) kind as it is my very first video!

I cut the beehive overlay with the doorway 2 times, once in yellow and once in pink so I could cut the yellow heart off the top and have a pink one instead! I added my handwritten words in the little doorway! I hope you like my card and video. Happy Saturday to all.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Life Before Cricut, Part 4

Many of us got our start in scrapbooking because of a Creative Memories scrapbook party.  We saw what we could create and were hooked.  We bought many many many items from the consultant (to help our friends earn free product or because we felt we had to when we attended the party) and set a goal to get started. I really think without CM I would not be scrapbooking today. I love Creative Memories still today, but have not really bought anything in a long time.  What I really liked about their products was that everything coordinated so you did not have to look around for color matches when creating pages and they had precut shapes that you could put on your pages.  They also had very clear goals: Make it as simple or as decorative as you want but get it done.  I have a feeling many of us have some pages very similar to the ones I am posting here!!  I love this layout because it was so simple to put together and I  got to use my favorite tool: Corner Rounder!!  That is one I will never get rid of even if it is a part of my Life Before Cricut!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award


Okay I am super super excited. I just received my very first blog award!! Liza at Hoo's Crafty awarded this fun award to me just today!  I have seen so many people get this award so I was super excited to have it passed onto me. Thanks so much Liza, you made my day!

In order to accept this award, I need to link back to the person who awarded it to me, share 8 things about myself,  pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I love visiting, and contact those bloggers and let them know I have given them the Stylish Blogger award also.

So 8 things about me:
  • I have the most amazing husband who treats me like a queen!
  • I love Chai Tea Lattes (have one almost everyday)!
  • I am directing Alice in Wonderland at the school I work at.
  • I am nervous that my little girl is getting ready to enter Kindergarten.
  • I wish I could play with my Cricut machines all day long.
  • I love all things Shakespeare!
  • I have been a teacher for 11 years.
  • My daughter makes me laugh & smile more than anyone else I know!

I am passing this award along to the following awesome blogs that I love to visit. I hope you will check them out as well. Many of these inspire me to create things on a regular basis


Hello Kitty Greetings Card #1

I got home last night to find my Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge had arrived (I always forget about holiday postal hours when I order things and have to wait longer) and I was so ready to use it.  After dinner, I skipped Glee (thank you DVR) and went right up to my craft space to make a simple card. I am not used to all these layer effects my cartridges have to offer and would like to get better with them. One day I hope to be able to make a Disney Princess without wanting to cry over the layers. BUT..the ones on Hello Kitty Greetings are actually just my speed.  I still need to play with them a little bit and figure out just how to work all the layers out, but overall as my first attempt I am satisfied with the results. Hope you like it as well. Please leave me some love. I am hoping to reach 50 followers soon and may even have a little prize for when I do reach  it. Check back tomorrow for Life Before Cricut!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Scrappy Moms Terrfic Tuesday Challenge

I was up early today, but am not going into work until later. Today is a big day in our house as we are going to Kindergarten Registration today. I am still having a hard time believing my baby is going to be five so soon. 

I was hoping to get something created this morning before we left and I started the day checking out some wonderful blogs.  As you may know I have fallen in love with my Create A Critter Cartridge and low and behold the challenge today at Scrappy Mom Stamps is all about using this amazing cartridge. I was happy to make a fun little card using this cartridge. I also decided to use a cute stamp I picked up last weekend.  It is from the Friendly Advice set by Inkadinkado. The whole set are quotes from kids. I am still very new to stamps but I really like the way this turned out.
Create A Critter gator, bushes and frame for stamp
Confession: I had to do a quick fix on this card.  I don't know about you, but when I finish projects I sometimes look at them and think they need something else.  I often find that when i add that extra thing I have ruined the project or made it look wrong.  I did that today trying to add an edge to my card.  I got lucky and was able to cut the yucky edge off and re back the card without totally destroying the rest.  Everyone makes mistakes.

Monday, February 21, 2011

President's Day Challenge - Check In Time

Today I set a challenge for myself and whoever else wanted to try it as well. My goal was to use 5 cartridges that I had never used before. I am trying very hard to use all my cartridges more so that I can justify the fact that I seem to be buying them left and right. I made a list of the carts that I had never used and than began the process of picking out the pictures for layouts and gathering of ideas for cards and other projects. I am happy to report....

I DID IT! I used 5 cartridges that I have never used before today! I hope you enjoy what I have done and get inspired to try ones of these cartridges yourself or try using a cartridge that has been sitting on your shelf waiting to be used for the first time. Have a wonderful week.
The first thing I completed was a layout for daughter's dance recital (last May!). When we first got the costume I wasn't so sure about the colors: pink & brown, but they all looked so cute up on the stage dancing so it was hard not to love in the end and I decided I would use those colors on the page as well.  I used Quarter Note for the fun music note letters at the top and Twinkle Toes to make the spotlights on either side of  the page.

Next it was onto something a little more current: FOOTBALL. We are always playing outside with our neighbor and this fall we did a lot of playing catch with the football.  I never thought that one of my favorite pages would involve football but sure enough it does.  I really love this page.  I used Boys Will Be Boys for everything on the page: letters and footballs in circles. I decided that I better make these footballs a little ore authentic so i used my Cuttlebug to emboss dots all over them and the letters.  I also used some adhesive dot to make the balls stick out a little more.  I ended up with a page I know I will always enjoy. (I am adding this one to the Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge: No pattern paper!!)

 Finally, I made a card for one of my daughter's teachers who is leaving this week to have her baby.  This is her second child and tomorrow will be her last day at work. I made the card using the envelope cut from Walk in My Garden and added the scalloped square from Lacy Labels. Then I cut the letters with Jubilee and the little pregnant lady and circle with Going Places.

I ended up using 5 new cartridges and made 3 special projects that I really like. Have a great week everyone. Please leave me some of your thoughts as they make me smile even more.

President's Day Challenge

Okay I am giving myself and anyone else who cares to attempt a Challenge for the day!  I have the day off from work (in honor of Washington and Lincoln!) and I am going to do some crafting!!  To spice it up a little I am challenging myself to use at least 5 carts I have NEVER used. I have over 100 carts and have been keeping track of the ones I have used since August. I have about 30 left to use out of all of them, but I know for a fact that I have never used the following carts in my collection:
50 States
Songbird
Twinkle Toes
Shall We Dance
Boys Will be Boys
Classic Disney
Cupcake
Destinations
Going Places
Jasmine
Jubliee
Quarter Note
Playtime
I am not sure which ones I  am going to use today, but I am on a mission. Check back later in the day to see how I  do.  Maybe create your own mini-challenge!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

My Scrap Notebook

All cuts are from the Circle cartridge Cricut Everyday
Back in August I challenged myself to use all of my cartridges more.  I wanted to make sure that if I was buying them I was using them. I started keeping track of when and how I used them just to see which ones were my go to carts and which ones I was neglecting to use at all. I have a little over 30 left to use at least once since August!

When I got my Cricut Everyday cartridge in the mail last week, I knew what I wanted to use it for. My notebook was pretty to begin with, but boring and so I had to cricutize my notebook. I picked my one of my favorite phrase cuts from the cartridge, "Live, Laugh, Scrap" and then added mini carts and the Circle logo to finish the project. This is the first notebook I scrapped and it was fun.
The back of the notebook!


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Monkey Birthday BAG!!!

Okay I am officially obsessed with Create A Critter!!! I made a fun monkey card for a two-year-old's birthday party and was so happy with the results (as seen in my first post today!) I was itching to use the cart some more, not necessarily with the monkey again, but I knew I wanted to use it.

We went and picked up some wonderful books for the birthday boy and than we made our rounds of the three large craft stores in town (I wish I could get everything I need at one, but I have found that they do not all carry everything I want so I often visit all three every week.). At Michael's I saw the plain gift bags staring at me when I walked in and I knew what I had to do!!

Monkeys and Vines from Create A Critter, Happy Birthday is from Birthday Bash
I think I love this bag more than I love the card!!  I am so entering it in the Circle Blog Weekly Challenge (animals!!). This is the first time I have ever done this with bags before, but I have a feeling I am 100% hooked. I have to say I took a picture of it before I put the gift together and that did not do it justice.  The different shades of green tissue just make it even better (also bought at Michael's!!)  Hope you enjoy it!!

Monkey Birthday

I have become totally obsessed with the Create A Critter cartridge lately.  I did not even own this cart until a few days ago, but this past month it seems like everywhere I looked people were using this cart to make such adorable, wonderful creations.  I had to have it so off to eBay I went and it arrived on Wednesday. I did not even open it right away like I had planned because by the time I arrived home on Wednesday I was ready to get in bed and be dead to the world. A cold took over and I was out of work for two days (when I left on Wed. one of my students told me to go home, get in bed and not come back until I felt better). 

Walk In My Garden (card), Create A Critter (Monday & vine),
Birthday Bash (all wording)
I had all these ideas but, I was stuck in bed and was not totally sure what I needed to get done. Lucky  for me..I felt better last night and we have a close friend with a son turning 2 this week.  The party is this afternoon and when I asked his father what his favorite animal was he said, monkey!!! I had seen a card on Scrappinnavywife and wanted to try it myself. She used an envelope cut on Walk In My Garden to make the actual card. I thought that was a perfect idea.  Now I have a fun card for Logan's birthday and I used my new cartridge!! 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Life Before Cricut, Part 3 - The Thursday Book


Creative Memories 7x7 album cover

I think this project is my favorite project of all times and it was completed without an Expression, Gypsy, Imagine, Cuttlebug...well you get the point.  I can picture what it would look like if I had all those tools back when I did this, but the amount of love would be the same.

Back before I was even married to my husband I was in a scrapbook store and overheard a women, full of excitement about a project she had just completed. She called it her "Monday Book". I could not help but ask her about it because she was so excited. What she showed me stuck with me and a few years later (yes years) I got to make my very own version.
First pages of the "Thursday Book"

The "Thursday Book" has a page for each of the first Thursdays in my daughter's life, starting with the day she was born. The women in the store year's before explained to me that her own mother had told her to take as many photos of her daughter as possible because as a baby they just change so much so quickly. The women decided that she would make sure she did just that and came up with the plan to take at least one a week the first year. 

My book follows this same idea.  My daughter, Sophie,was born on a Thursday in May.  I took many pictures of her (a lot more than just on Thursdays) every week and I put them in this great Creative Memories album that was a hostess gift when I was a consultant. I only missed 1 Thursday.  It was the week of Christmas and we had been on the road between Chicago and Minnesota on Thursday...BUT  I look at this miss as very lucky because I got pictures every other day that week and with people who love my daughter greatly.

I tried to get pictures of her with all the important people in her life and show things that would be considered "firsts" for her life. They really do change so fast that first year.  My daughter is now 4 years old (wait 4 1/2..she would be very angry if I said just 4) and she always asks me to look at the book with her and I must say the same things every time we look at it because she will often tell me those stores as well look at the pages together. 
The week I missed Thursday, but got so much more!












I am guessing you can tell why this is one of my favorite projects ever.  I look at it and know that it will always be special for me and my daughter and it is the best representation of my scrapbooking Life Before Cricut.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sophie Ballerina Page

I love working with the Everyday Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Dress-Up Cartridges.  Maybe it is because I have a little girl so everything she does seems to go well with a paper doll, but I find myself creating projects with these two carts all the time. One of my favorite things about these two carts is that you can mix and match and create different looks every time you use them.  I especially love all the different hairstyles.  

This is one of the first layouts I ever created with the cartridges soon after I got them.  I love it so much and thought I would share it with you. I am almost positive that the title was made using Lyrical Letters (after playing around with Design Studio to stretch it), but if you think otherwise let me know because I could not fully tell looking at  the book to compare it with and I made this before I starting keeping track of how I used my cartridges.

Look for the third installment of my Life Before Cricut series tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting!

Monday, February 14, 2011

All I Want Is You Card

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

My husband and I are not really into Valentine's Day and usually do not exchange gifts or cards, but seeing as I started making my own cards this year I decided that making him a card would be fun and I knew he would like it. It took me awhile to decide what I wanted to do for him because I did not want  it to be too cute or over the top romantic. After seeing what other people had done for the Circut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge (to make a love note basically) I hit on inspiration.

Our favorite band is U2 and we have been to see them several times..even traveled to Hawaii once to see them.  When we first started dating the song we sort of picked as our own was "All I Want Is You". I pulled up the lyrics and from there came my card. The song starts like this...
"You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
But all the promises we make from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you"


I think you can see where my thought process for the card came from. I used Billionaire for the words and the money on the front. I created the "do not" signs using George and Basic Shapes on the Gypsy because  I do not have the Street Signs cart with this on it. The flowers are from Cindy Loo and the diamond is on the Hannah Montana cartridge. I Hope everyone has a wonderful day. Please leave me a note if you stopped by to see my card.  I love hearing  from people!!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

My Treat Bags!!

Conversation Hearts from Love Struck 2010
I have been looking at a lot of blogs lately.  I try to look at a few everyday and they provide me with so much inspiration that I think I have ideas for everyday of the week (if only I had time to craft everyday of the week)! One of the things I have really enjoyed seeing this Valentine's season is all the ideas for treat bags, candy wrappers and fun boxes. 
XOXO cut with Cuttlebug Love Language
I decided that I wanted to make some Valentine treats as well. I had seen awesome treat bags and figured I could make those as well. GreenGirl Scraps had adorable rainbow ones and My Pink Stamper made a great video of the bags she made. I watched  it and was inspired to try this as well. I made 87 bags, in the end, and I had so much fun doing it.  It took me most of the day and I am pretty sure I will not be getting 2 pages done for my 2-A-Week Challenge this week, but they are all set and ready to bring to work tomorrow for my co-workers (I had  planned to make 6-10 bags, but once I got started I just could not seem to stop). 
Gypsy Wandering Hearts
I explored my Cricut cartridges for hearts and picked the ones I liked best and I used my Cuttlebug a lot for these. I wanted each bag to look special and embossing really adds that extra touch to a project. I also used some Cuttlebug cuts for these bags. I feel like I finally have a sense of what my Cuttlebug can do after making all these bags.  I also played with sand paper to bring out the white core on some of my card stock (something I had never done before). It has been such great crafting therapy for me.
Alphalicious Letters on Designer's Calendar hearts.
The background frame is from Lacy Labels
I plan on submitting a few of the designs into different challenges I have seen this week so wish me luck that I get to be the winner of some type of treat. I have so much fun seeing all  the projects people submit to the challenges and I am happy most blogs use a random selection to pick a winner because I love what people create. Have a wonderful week and Happy Valentines Day to all!!

The XOXO is from Sentimentals.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Imagine More Mini-Book & a Surprise at my door!

I finished it!  I did not think I would be able to post  this project until tomorrow, but I was too excited this morning about working on the book so...it is done. I have been wanting to work with my Imagine machine more and I had a stack of chipboard and a new deep cut blade that I also wished to use so I decided to make a mini-album and work with it all. All the photos I used for this project were leftover from other layouts I did in the past and had not used or had doubles of.

Last night I cut the book pieces and a bunch of paper and images from the Imagine More cartridge (see my first post today). Other than the Imagine More cartridge I used a few flowers from Plantin Schoolbook, filled with Imagine More prints and George and Basic Shapes to cut the chipboard and paper that was placed on top. NOTE: I am pleased that I figured out right away that in order to cover the backsides of the chipboard  I had to place my paper design down so that when it cut it was the right way to paste onto the chipboard.

I am very please with the final results and even though it is a large amount of pictures I really wanted to share the whole thing with you. I loved how it stood up when I first put the chipboard together, so I made sure that no matter what side you are looking at the photos are right side up.  I am going to put this on my desk at work and flip the pages when I am ready to look at a new image.  








One final little thing to add to this post.  We ran out to get a few things after I finished the book.  When we got home a wonderful surprise was waiting for me on the front steps.  A green and white box...


Imagine More Mini-Book: Set-up

I have been wanting to explore more and get used to using my Imagine. I have had it since the HSN launch and done very  little with it. At the same time I recently got a deep cut blade and wanted to try making a mini-book with it.  I decided that I would combine the two things and create a project. My goal was to use almost exclusively Imagine cuts (with the exception of the actually book as the Imagine does not cut chipboard).

Last night the first thing I cut was the book.  I do not know where this chipboard came from, as my father owned his own print shop for most of my life and he had this stack left over from something, but it cut really well when I used a sticky mat. At cricut.com they said to use Depth: 6, Speed: 3, Pressure: 4, and Multi-cut: 4.  I did this the first run and it was too much. In the end, I used only 3 Multi-cuts, but the inside circles only took 2.  The square and circles were both cut using George and Basic Shapes.

Once I had successfully cut 5 pages for the book I decided to use the Imagine More cartridge for the whole project. I spent the rest of my night cutting out shapes and paper to use on the project. I love love love (LOVE!!!) the update on the Imagine that asks if you want to print a full sheet of paper. I choose to turn the overspray option off because my paper still gets totally covered and I only have to wash the edges of my mat. I have been pleased that washing the mat has not made the stickiness go away. 

Cuts and patterns are all from the Imagine
More Cartridge

Today I plan on cutting the large sheets of paper on my Expression to fit the chipboard and than I will put the book together. I have a stack of pictures that I printed and did not end up using in layouts that I am going to use for this mini-album. I hope you will check back tomorrow to see my final results.