Scrappin' Phlen

Disney Autograph Books

2010-03-30T20:17:00.001-07:00

One of my best friends and her husband are taking their two beautiful girls to Disneyland for the first time. I was so excited that I wanted to make them something special to take on their trip. I had seen lots of people on the Cricut boards make Disney Autograph books and I was itching to give them a whirl.

I made 8.5 x 4 inch books with chipboard covers and double layered cardstock pages. I used my Bind It All to do a 1" ring binding and decorated with ribbon. The chipboard covers are layered with cardstock and the names are layered with white vinyl. You can't tell it from this picture but the names are their own covered chipboard piece separate from the cover. I used some really fun fuzzy black vinyl for the cover titles.

The picture of the covers is a little bright from the flash reflection. As an afterthought, I opted to cut a piece of transparency film for the front and back of each book to rest over the covers and protect them from wear and tear damage at the park. I went ahead and bound the transparency pieces in with the rest of the book, but they can later be cut off and removed when they return home.

Faith is 12 and Lizzie is almost 4 and I wanted their books to be uniform but different. I chose to do full body cuts for Faith's book and portrait cuts for Lizzie's book. The only exception would be the Chipmunks as I only had one style of cut for them.

After looking up lots of tips and hints about these autograph books I decided to design pages for the most prominent core Disney characters as well as 2 of the more famous Princesses & Tinkerbell and then leave 3 blank layouts in the back for other characters they may see.

One tip suggested that photo mats are not ideal to lay down as you may get a signature with a character but not a photo. Another tip was that characters who have large gloves or costumes tend to make larger signatures due to the lack of dexterity so it's best to have a decent sized place for them to sign. From those tips, I decided to design each character's layout with a cut and a large white 'signing' space on the right and their character name and a large open space for a possible picture on the left. I opted not to do the photo mats so it wouldn't look odd if no photo was taken but has room for a picture if they are able to get one.

(I ended up using ALOT of vinyl on this project. The mickey heart and block name are covered in a sparkly red vinyl but it looks black because of the angle of the picture. It's really cute in person -- I wish I'd taken a close up picture hehe.)

These were SO much fun to make and I was really pleased with how they turned out. My friend picked them up tonight and I've been told the girls loved them. In fact, Faith already called to tell me how "awesome" they are. Hopefully they'll be able to get a few signatures. If not then they can stick some fun pictures from the trip in there and just have a fun little momento. Either way, I hope they enjoy them.

Again, these were just a blast to make! Thanks for looking!! ~Jenn

For Cricut Users:
The front cover titles were done with Mickey Font & Stone Script. The chipboard name pieces were done with Mickey Font. All character cuts and character names are from Mickey & Friends, Happily Ever After and Tinkerbell & Friends.

For the characters and names, I used textured black cardstock (without white core) and colored cardstock and vinyl for the layers. I'll be honest, vinyl was truly my best friend on this project because it makes nice clean cuts and makes the small pieces SO much easier to work with.

Gypsy Spot - Post It Paper Challenge

2010-02-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

This week we were challenged to use some fabulous Post It craft paper. I was given 2 different colors of green and a blue/purple color. I decided just to make a simple but fun card.

I have lots of detailed edge punches that I LOVE to use on crafting projects.... HOWEVER, adhereing them to the paper isn't always so fun. I've been using vinyl alot lately for detailed things because it's so easy to adhere but it's not at all forgiving on paper. Once it's down, its usually down. I was SO excited to use this Post It paper with my edge punches and it truly worked like a charm! I didn't have to worry about adhesive showing through the holes or making a mess and it made the punches SO easy to use. The Post It paper adheres nicely but also repositions just as easily. It was IDEAL when trying to line up multiple layers of the lace punched paper.

I love all of the fun words on the Gypsy cartridges so I just chose this "smile" cut to complete the card.

Happy scrapping and thanks for looking!

Gypsy Spot - Superbowl Challenge

2010-01-25T23:01:00.000-08:00

This week we were challenged to create something with a Super Bowl theme. I'm not a huge football fan and I don't have a real die-hard football family but we usually gather around to watch the Super Bowl game. My favorite thing to do is make yummy treats and food for everyone so I decided to make a Superbowl treat tray!

I don't have a cut file for you this week because I really just laid down single images on my Gypsy as I went.

After coming up with the idea to make a treat tray, I remembered that some time ago I had purchased a cheap pack of cookie sheets to make those decorative magnetic boards for the kitchen and I had a small one leftover from the pack. The cookie sheet shape was perfect for a football field and I had all the right colors of vinyl to do the job so I went right to work on it. (I'm not going to lie -- I had to Google an image of a football field to know just how many lines there were.)

I measured the inner portion of the cookie sheet and cut a piece of green vinyl to the correct size using a standard paper cutter. I then used my handy dandy little corner chomp to round the corner to match the cookie sheet. Next, I took a white piece of vinyl and cut it to the appropriate height of the "football field". Then I sliced off 1/8" strips to create the white lines.

I used the Don Juan cartridge to create the numbers for the yard lines. The goal posts are from Everyday Paper Dolls and the helmets and football are from Sports Mania. I used generic colors for the helmets but you could use colors that matched the 2 teams that will be playing.

I laid all the yard lines, goal posts and numbers onto the green vinyl before placing it on the actual cookie sheet. I thought it would be difficult to place the numbers so close to the edge if the green was already placed inside the cookie sheet because of the edges.

I can't say enough about vinyl these days. I'm just using it on everything and I find it SO easy to work with. I whipped this cute little thing together in no time and it turned out even better than I'd planned.

Obviously this sheet could not be placed into an oven or anything like that but it would make a cute tray for cookies, treats, a bowl of salsa with chips around the sides, etc. You CAN clean the vinyl with a damp cloth or a baby wipe so it could be re-used if it was handled gently. EVEN if you only had it for a one-time use for a party though, it was still very inexpensive to make. This could also be a cute gift to give to someone hosting a Super Bowl party OR a great way to take your treats to a party you are going to.

As always thanks for looking and feel free to leave a comment!

Gypsy Spot Black & Gold Challenge

2010-01-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late posting. Another one of those crazy weeks!

This week we had a color challenge using black and gold. I had recently received my Spring mini cartridges and was really excited to play with the Love Struck cartridge so I knew immediately I wanted to make a Valentine card in these non-traditional colors.

Click here to download the .gypsy file used.

For the base I used a heart card from the Wild Card cartridge. I welded the cupid from Love Struck to the side and welded one of the decorative heart cuts from Love Struck in the center of the card to create an elegant look. The gold detail layer of the cupid is done in gold vinyl.

I wanted to play with the MS micro beads I bought on sale on Black Friday and thought this would be a fun item to use them on. I really wanted the card to look elegant so I thought the gold beads would add a really nice touch. I didn't really know how to go about adhereing them to the card so I decided to get creative with my gold vinyl. I cut a solid heart out of gold vinyl and placed it on the inside of the front of the card which effectively left the 'sticky' side of the vinyl exposed through the cuts on the front. I then sprinkled the micro beads on the sticky part of the vinyl and pressed them down to be sure they were on there pretty good.

The unfortunate side effect of doing the beading this way was that the top side of the vinyl on the inside of the card was all lumpy and bumpy and I didn't care for it at all. I knew I wanted to put a sentiment inside the card on the other side so I chose to cut 2 more solid hearts and place them over the gold vinyl to have a space for a personal note in the card. I wasn't quite satisfied with it until I cut out an additional little decorative piece from the Home Accent cartridge. In this picture the gold layer is the vinyl, the black and cream are cardstock (inking on the cream piece) and the little black piece is vinyl as well.

On the other inside piece of the card I placed a welded a sentiment made with the Lyrical Letters cartridge (if you know me at all, you know this is my FAVORITE font cartridge for the Cricut). I used gold vinyl once again and even added some hearts from the Simply Sweet cartridge to complete the look of the sentiment.

As always thank you for looking and feel free to leave a comment. ~Jenn

Vinyl Tiles Make Great Gifts

2009-12-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well I'm finally getting around to posting all the Vinyl tiles I made for Christmas gifts this year. Was the Christmas Holiday a wild whirlwind for anyone else? Sheesh! Anyhow, I'm posting all the designs with quick info and downloadable .gypsy files for those who are interested. (REMEMBER! If you are a CDS user you can convert these .gypsy files to .cut files.) Thank you so much for looking and please leave your comments. I love to read them! :)

Here's a picture of all of the tiles I created on their picture stands:

AWFUL BEAUTIFUL LIFE:

This tile was for a friend of mine. It's main line to the chorus of Darryl Worley's song "Awful Beautiful Life". If you're not familiar, the line goes "I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful life."

On this particular tile I placed the saying a little high but it was too late to fix it. The high placement is luckily not as noticable when it's on its stand.
Cartridges used: Lyrical Letters, Mickey Font, Old West, Opposites Attract, Printing 101 & Simply Sweet.

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

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FAITH

Cartridges used: Cursive 101, Home Accents, Lyrical Letters & Pagoda

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

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FAMILY HEARTSTRINGS

Cartridges used: Jasmine, Simply Sweet & Sweethearts

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

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A HOUSE IS - A HOME IS

Cartridges used: Home Decor, My Community & Simply Sweet

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

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LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE

I ended up placing the saying a little too low on this one. In hindsight I would have started the Live, Laugh, Love set of letters higher so that the "much" didn't end up so low. It cuts in front of that word when on the stand so it's not ideal. When cutting this one, I just opened the first page and deleted the LLL part and cut the small words, then reopened the file, deleted the small words and cut the big ones. That way I could use 2 different colors of vinyl but keep the spacing. Again, this is a tight fit and be sure to hold your letters over the tile and perfect the placement before laying it down (or simply resize the saying if you prefer).

Cartridges used: Opposites Attract & Serenade

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

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STAND TALL

This one I made special for my Sister-in-law and her 3 kids. I knew she would appreciate one that had a message/saying that spoke to her children and I found this fabulous silouette with 2 girls and a boy (her children exactly) so I had to use it!

Cartridges used: A Child's Year, Gypsy Font & Lyrical Letters

Click here to download the .gypsy file used

Gypsy Spot Challenge Week #5 -- Christmas Bags & Boxes

2009-12-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge was to create a Christmas bag or box. I chose to create something VERY simple as I intend to use them for friend and neighbor gifts and if they are too detailed they become somewhat impractical since I need to make alot of them.

Click here to download the Gypsy cut file used.

I used the popcorn box from TBBM and dressed it up with a sweet little panda cut from the new Pagoda cartridge. I tried a few different santa hats on the panda but didn't like them so I decided to go with a sweet little holly embellishment instead. The holly is cut from Winter Woodland and dressed up with red stickles.

I wrapped homemade caramel corn in cellophane, turned it upside down and then strung a ribbon through the side cuts and tied on top. I also inked the edges of the box and the holly for a little touch. Again, this is a SUPER simple box, but sometimes simple is good right? Haha. I'll keep telling myself that.

I'm linking the caramel corn recipe for anyone who is interested.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramel-Popcorn/Detail.aspx
This caramel corn tastes amazing and is SO cheap and easy to make. I use www.allrecipes.com for all of my recipe searches because it's fabulous and there are so many helpful reviews. I chose to try this one because it had over 1000 reviews and was still 5 stars so I thought it was a good bet. I was right, it turned out fab!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Spot Challenge Week #4 -- Snow Time

2009-12-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge was anything that incorporated snowmen or snowflakes. I chose to use both. I had seen this super cute quotation about snowmen on a greeting card made by a member of the cricut messageboards. I LOVED the saying when I saw it and then when I found out this week's challenge I knew I had to use it. I also wanted to try my hand at vinyl tiles because I want to make some for Christmas gifts this year.

I originally designed it on my Gypsy but had to move it to Design Studio for cutting because Gypsy decided she didn't want to work for a little while so I am providing BOTH cut files.

Click here to download the Gypsy cut file.

Click here to download the Design Studio cut file.

I used two different styles of font from the Lyrical Letters cartridge and welded them together on my Gypsy. Lyrical Letters is my FAVORITE font cartridge by FAR! Then I used When It's Cold Outside (seasonal mini cart) for the snowflakes and Snow Friends (seasonal mini cart) for the snowman.

This was SUPER easy to make and turned out just like I'd hoped. On my original cricut expression, I usually use a blade depth, speed and pressure of 2 when cutting vinyl but I recently purchased one of the new colored expressions from walmart and noticed that I had to use 3's all around instead. I believe this is due the the fact that the blade housing on the newer one is plastic as opposed to metal and it seemed to require a bit more pressure. I could be wrong, it's possible that it was just the vinyl I was working with but nevertheless, I ended up using a blade depth of 3, speed 3, pressure 3 for this one in particular. You may have to test your vinyl before hand on a simple shape and a few letters to get familiar with what settings will be best for you. The ultimate goal is to achieve a "kiss cut" meaning that you cut the vinyl cleanly without cutting deep enough to pierce through and cut the backing.

Once your vinyl items are cut you will need to "weed" your vinyl. Weeding is just the process of removing the unwanted portions of the vinyl (for example the holes in the middle of the letters, etc). Some people weed their vinyl before putting it on transfer paper and some do it after. I prefer to weed mine before. Once I've weeded the vinyl, I rub transfer paper over the top and peel away the backing slowly. Be sure to check your vinyl as you peel ESPECIALLY when working with delicate letters. If the vinyl is lifting and not adhering to the transfer paper, rub it down a little more and continue to peel.

Once your vinyl expression and/or shapes are on the transfer paper, simply press them to your tile, rub down thoroughly and peel away transfer paper. Vinyl adheres quite nicely to tile so you won't need much effort to get it to stick.

I purchased this glossy black tile block (12x12) at Lowe's and it is resting on a black wooden picture frame holder from Walmart.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to email me. Enjoy! And thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Spot Challenge Week #3 -- Shape Cards

2009-11-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

This week we took on shape cards. I have to admit I don't do alot of these. I was tempted to weld 2 copies of a shape together and fold it into a card but decided to go a different route by making a sleigh card using the 'flower pot' technique.

Click here to download the Gypsy cut file used.
*Note that this file has 2 pages.

I quickly discovered that all of the sleigh cuts from the cricut cartridges were much too shallow to hold a decent sized note card inside. I decided to use the Gypsy's ability to stretch and manipulate images to make a much deeper sleigh.

I started with the shadow blackout sleigh from Winter Woodland. I determined the width I wanted and then stretched the height until I was satisfied. I glued 2 copies of this together, leaving the top open to be able to insert the card note card piece. I then used some basic rectangles from Plantin Schoolbook and dressed them up with poinsettia cuts from Winter Woodland as well as present and penguin cuts from Christmas Cheer. I used white glitter embossing powder on the blades of the sleigh and white flock on the trim piece. My good camera has a dead battery and I've yet to find the charger so the pictures didn't turn out real great but anyway, you get the idea.

I used an MS punch to make one corner of the note card fancy but later regretted it. In the future I would have left it unaltered to allow for more writing space. Despite the manipulation of the sleigh, the nature of this shape card is still very limited in writing space and the corner punch only furthered that.

Thank you for looking. Enjoy!

LYRICAL LETTERS WINNER!

2009-11-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

CONGRATULATIONS TO MISTY for winning the Christmas in November Cartridge Giveaway!

Misty said...
WOWOOOOOO My eyes BULGED at all that! Congrats to you! I think its awesome that you are sharing the gift! Tis the season... I would LOVE to win this cart as well! I think it is awesome, and its on my list for the hubby and kids to get me!

November 11, 2009 5:11 AM

Please pm me on the cricut messageboards with your mailing address so I can send this cartridge to you first thing in the morning!

Wow 201 entries in the drawing! Thank you so much to everyone who participated and for all the kind words you shared! Thank you for those of you who are now following my blog and I hope to bring you lots of great projects as well as more fantastic giveaways!

Happy Thursday & Happy Scrappin! ~Jenn

Christmas in November

2009-11-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!

It was truly Christmas in November last night when I opened up the box of cartridges I received from the Gypsy Challenge. I was as giddy as a kid on any Christmas morning and bouncing off the walls! (My poor husband.)

In the spirit of this fun and exciting time, I'm giving away one of the duplicate cartridges I received. I picked this particular cartridge to give away because it is one of my FAVORITES and I think it's a little under-acknowledged as one of the best font cartridges PC has ever released.

So I'm giving away Lyrical Letters, still in the packaging to one lucky winner. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. I will be drawing the winner on Thursday morning! Good luck!

Oh and feel free to become a follower if you'd like to!!! ~Jenn

Gypsy Spot Challenge Week #2 - Thanksgiving Recipe Card Gift Box

2009-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

For this week's welding challenge I used a simple notecard box from the Wild Card cartridge and welded the word "Thanks" from Gypsy Wanderings in the center. I also used little pilgrim cuts form PDDU to dress it up. These notecard boxes could be given to your Thanksgiving dinner guests, containing recipe cards for the dishes you made. A simple but cute little favor.

Click here to download the gypsy cut file used.

Cut file also includes a frame from Wild Card that I cut out and used to back the opening of the box.

**Please note that when you weld a cut that normally includes scoring marks with another cut, the scoring marks disappear. For me, I prefer it that way, as I think scoring marks tend to stick out funny and make the project look less finished. If you're a person who needs the scoring marks, you may not want to use this file. I used my new Martha Stewart scoring board to do this box and I referenced my Wild Card manual to see where the scoring lines should occur.

Feel free to comment or email me with any questions you may have. Thanks for looking!

Gypsy Spot Challenge Week #1 - "Owl My Love" Card

2009-11-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Today is the FIRST challenge for the Gypsy Spot blog and I am so excited to be a designer! This week we were asked to use a cut from Gypsy Font or Gypsy Wanderings. I chose to use both as BOTH of these cartridges are just LOADED with great artwork! Gypsy Font and Gypsy Wanderings are the two on board cartridges that come pre-loaded on each and every Gypsy. Each cartridge features beautiful, whimsical artwork and great creative features as well!

I decided to go with the owl as the central cut on this card. I just LOVE owls! I cut the owl from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge both in regular and in shadow. I then cut the "O" from Gypsy Font using the "Monogram" & "Monogram Shadow" features. I really like the Monogram style on the G Font cart because it reminds me so much of the way that classic fairytales would start with those big huge swirly fancy letters.

The 'my love' is cut from the standard Gypsy font and welded together. I used prima flowers, ribbon, buttons and glitter to finish it all off.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to become a follower both on this blog AND at The Gypsy Spot! Happy crafting!

Gratitude

2009-11-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

I got extremely good news on Friday when I learned that I had won my category for the Gypsy Challenge. I want to thank each and every one of you who voted for me and encouraged me! I will be receiving 50 free cartridges and I cannot WAIT! I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to have participated in this contest.

SO many incredible projects were submitted and if you have not had a chance to look at them, I would encourage you to do so here. So many entries were crafted from a LONG day of labor and love and they certainly deserve loads of attention and praise.

I am honored to be surrounded by so many incredible men and women and their creative skills and passions! Thank you SO much for all that you have taught me and continue to teach me.

~Jenn

Gypsy Contest

2009-10-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

So I did it!! I BARELY made it in time but I DID get to submit my entry for the 24 hour Gyspsy contest.

CLICK HERE to vote for my project!!!
Or simply copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.cricut.com/gypsy/designchallenge/entries.aspx?did=280

This link will take you straight to my entry and all you do is click the "vote" button. You may only vote one time per computer and voting will close at midnight on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL THIS LINK TO ANY FRIENDS OR FAMILY WHO MIGHT BE WILLING TO GIVE ME A "CLICK" AND FEEL FREE TO POST THIS LINK TO YOUR FACEBOOOK, TWITTER OR ANY OTHER SOCIAL NETWORK.

For those of you who may not be familiar, the Gypsy is a handheld device that you pair with a Cricut Personal Diecutting machine in order to design and create paper crafting items, quilting designs, cake stencils and so on and so forth. The Gypsy is a new machine and Provo Craft (makers of Gypsy and Cricut) teamed up with Michaels crafts to host a 24 hour Gypsy challenge. We were given 24 hours to create a crafting item (within given contest guidelines) and post it under one of the given categories. I chose DIY wedding for my category. I love making paper flower arrangements and I wanted to show that you could make beautiful centerpieces that are still budget friendly.

I didn't get as much free time in the 24 hour window as I had hoped and it didn't turn out QUITE as I'd imagined but I was pleased to have participated and still have my fingers crossed for the outcome!

Directions are listed in my entry. Feel free to comment or email me if you have any questions or would like any tips on how to create your own paper flower arrangement.

3D Pumpkin Card

2009-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently created a miniature 3D pumpkin and I fell in love with the concept right away. She mentioned finding it on the cricut message boards and after doing a little checking, I believe the original idea post came from this blog: http://happileighscrappin.blogspot.com/2009/09/fall-fun.html.

I was thinking of making these to use as placecard holders for a family dinner coming up in October but I really wanted to play around and see what else I could use them for. I decided to create them only halfway, leaving a flat surface to attach to a beautiful fall card and this was the result.

For Cricut users: I used the scalloped oval cut from the Storybook cart ("W" button using the Accent/Blackout feature). These are cut at 1 1/2 inches. The leafy cuts are from Storybook as well ("3" button using the Fancy Corner feature)and are also cut at 1 1/2". You simply ink the edges, fold the ovals in half (long ways for the tall pumpkin and short for the shorter one) and attach them to each other. I used 7 ovals each on these pumpkins. For the stems I just folded small scraps of brown paper together.

The sentiment was welded in CDS and is cut at 1 1/2 inches using the 'Loop Dee Loo' feature from Lyrical letters.

Bouquet Gift

2009-08-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is just a little arrangement I made. My mom wanted a gift for a friend who just accomplished a big goal so this is what I came up with for her.

I didn't want to do the flowers on both sides so I just black backed them so you didn't see the big glops of hot glue on the backs.

Black & White Pooh Series

2009-08-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to make some cards using the Pooh & Friends cartridge that had a little different look to them than usual. I liked how they turned out.

My First Diaper Cake - Lil Prince

2009-08-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

So this summer I ventured into the fun and fabulous world of Diaper Cakes! I've seen people make these so many times and I finally had not one, but TWO excuses to try them out! I looked up lots of pictures and directions from others and then braved the baby section of walmart for supplies. (Having no children of my own I can confidently say that picking out the diapers was BY FAR the hardest part of this creation -- the sheer volume of options made me dizzy.)

My first diaper cake was for my friend and neighbor April who was having a boy. I really didn't want to do the traditional blue colors so I copied a great idea from the cricut messageboards to do a "little prince" theme using frogs. Green is a great color and it ended up working beautifully on the cake. (I even found green baby wash and matching lotion for the center -- I think it was like a cucumber melon flavor or something like that.)

I used white hair bands to hold the rolled diapers. Most directions called for rubber bands but that seemed 'icky' to me so I ditched that idea.

For cricut users: I used NA for the stork, baby and frogs. Letters are from Pooh Font, the crowns on the frogs are from PD and the grass around the base is from Zoobaloo.

Baby Pooh Diaper Cake - Phases

2009-08-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

So this is the 2nd diaper cake I made. It was for a friend of mine having her 2nd girl. I didn't want to do the traditional colors (once again) so I decided to do a Baby Winnie The Pooh theme with yellow and brown. It turned out pretty cute.

On this one, I took pictures of each phase of the cake. When I first went to make a diaper cake, I found lots of pictures of finished cakes and lots of explanations but I'm such a visual person and wished I could have seen it in phases so I knew if I was doing it right.

On the base I attached flower cuts that were folded in half to sort of imitate the frosting edge look of a normal cake. These diaper cakes were both SO much fun to make and SO easy.

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!!

This year I decided to keep it simple for Mother's Day. My mom is so hard to shop for so I just made her a little customized present. I bought a simple vase from Hobby Lobby and etched Bee images all over it. She likes bees as a symbol and I thought it was cute for something you tend to put flowers in. :) I used the bread tag cut of a bee from Walk In My Garden and etching cream per the instructions on the bottle. It turned out quite nicely.

I made her card with a cute little fairy cut from Hello Kitty Font and a sentiment from Wild Card.

In lieu of a bow, I dressed up her present with paper roses. I got the paper rose idea from the Cricut messageboards (surprise!) and I just LOVE them! These are my interpretation of Susan's design here: http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-make-paper-roses.html. I used the cut seen below from Accent Essentials and incorporated the same method's used on Susan's website.

I made three different sizes and hot glued them together on the top of the package. I also used a few dots of hot glue to keep her card in place with the roses. She loved them.

Graduation Bouquet

2009-05-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

My Sister-In-Law graduated from University 2 days ago and I wanted to make her a special little congratulations gift. The flowers were done with Accent Essentials, Kitty Grad from Hello Kitty Greetings & sentiment from Teardrop. She seemed to really like it and I was pleased with how it turned out.

Birthday Bouquet

2009-05-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

My Grandma celebrated her 81st birthday on the 30th of April and we had a special surprise party for her. I created this bouquet as a centerpiece for the food buffet and for her to take home afterward.

It was SO much fun to create and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Accent Essentials was used for the flowers, Walk In My Garden for the butterfly, Home Accents for the bird and Zoobaloo for the sentiment. The mixed greenery was from both HA and AE as well. I did the flowers 3D on both sides and blackout backed the non dimensional images so they looked pleasing from all sides.

Back to Scrappin'

2009-03-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so I've been on a bit of sabbatical with my scrapping projects. I think I've been in sort of a winter fog/funk and the sunshine and somewhat Spring-like weather has given me energy and made me want to get back to it!

So here are a few projects I've done recently & I hope to be posting many more in the weeks to come!

VERY SIMPLE SPRING BOUQUETS:
(This is a little project I posted on the Cricut message boards & it became a featured post in the Chirp Newsletter! 15k hits! Wow that's never happened to me, it was so much fun!)

Here is the info from my message board post in early March:

My husband's immediate family gets together every month to have dinner together and celebrate any birthdays, anniversaries etc for the month. Buying birthday gifts for all the adults is just too expensive (there's only 4 kids so that's still manageable) so I decided this year that I was just going to start dressing up candy to give away. It's the thought and effort that counts imo anyway. So I wanted to do some quick candy bouquets but didn't have time to get valentine themed items for February before they were all gone. By the time I went to the store they only had Easter stuff so I went with a springy look.

It's a little early but they loved them so oh well haha. I used m&m's in these little .97 vases from walmart and hershey kisses in the centers of the flowers. I had to put these together on the fly so I didn't get to do alot of details.

I used the Accent Essentials cartridge for the flowers. AE is my 'go to' cartridge and my most used, hands down. I used the shadow feature for the bottom layer of the flower (what appears to be the outline) and then made the same cut again, in a different color of paper, using the same size selection, but without the "shadow" feature being selected. I believe that I cut the bigger flowers at 4 inches and the smaller at 3.... but I can't remember for sure. I put the inner layers of all the flowers through my cuttlebug, using the swiss dots folder and it gave them a nice little touch.

I just used wooden skewers from the grocery store for the stems. I have seen other bouquets using straws or paper wrapped wire stems from the floral department, but I personally felt like skewers would stand up the strongest in the m&m's. I used hot glue to adhere the flowers to the skewers (I prefer hot glue as other adhesives don't always stand the test of time + gravity with the weight of the kisses). After the hot glue had cooled, I adhered the kisses to the fronts of the flowers with large, flat, glue dots. I cut the stems down to accomplish the different heights and arranged the flowers in my m&m's.

These are genuinely very simple and easy to make. I made these four in about 30 mins.

ALTERED NOTEBOOKS:

(This was another little project that I posted on the message boards. Here is all the info from that post.)

I was given these altered post-it notes by a friend:

I loved the concept of the velcro dots and decided to take to a slightly bigger level. My mom needed some cute altered notebooks to give to some colleagues at a conference so this is what I came up with. I bought miniature legal pads at Walmart (3 to a pack for a little under $3).

I made a larger pattern for the cover. For the center, I cut out a chipboard shape, then covered with paper and stamping/inking and attached with pop dots on one side a velcro dot on the other.

ALTERED COOKIE SHEET:

I recently learned about altering cooking sheets to use as magnetic boards in the kitchen. This is the first one I did. It was fun and insanely easy. I bought a 3 pack of cookie sheets from Walmart for only $3. I based the colors off of the cute brown and pink ribbon that I found and it took off from there. I bought simple round magnets and decorated those up to match. These are SO fun and make GREAT inexpensive gifts!

Summer "You Pick" Swap Challenge #1

2008-07-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

I joined a swap on the Cricut message boards for the Summer. You pick a partner from the message boards and you each complete challenges issued by the host and then send them to each other.

Challenge #1 was four Summer themed cards with 3 elements and 3 papers each.

Here are the four I created. TFL!

Dream Books

2008-06-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the front of one of the 17 "Dream" wordbooks I made at the end of the May/beginning of June. I was SO mad at myself for not taking a picture of them all together but I finished them at 5 am after staying up all night and then wrapped them in boxes before I thought to take a pic. I was recently able to retrieve one temporarily and get a pic so I thought I would post it.

I was paid to make 17 of these for my mom to give as gifts to some people in her business. They all loved them and I have to say that they all turned out lovely. All the covers were very decorative and the books were done in pinks, blues and purples. The insides were decorated very simply to give the recipients lots of options for what they wanted to ultimately put in them.

I used the Mickey Font Cart for this particular book.

Click here for the cut file.

Fiskars Circle Border Punch Review

2008-06-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Some ladies on the Cricut message boards were inquiring about these punches so I decided to play with the ones I bought last weekend and see what I thought about them.

This is a link to the 6 circle border punches that are sold by Fiskars: http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tools/s_circle-border-punch.aspx

I personally purchased the "Antique Elegance" and "Heart of Hearts" punches.

Like all punches, the circle punch has it's limitations. It only punches properly with circles that are 4 inches or 6 inches. Each punch comes with a template like this. The inner circle is the 4 inch template and the outer circle is the 6.

Instead of using the template, I cut circles from the "All Mixed Up" cartridge on my cricut. I was surprised to find that the sizes did not match up. It only occurred to me afterward that they may have matched up if I had used "real dial size" but I'm not sure because I didn't try that. So, without using "real dial size", a 6 inch circle on the Cricut, equalled the 4 inch template, while a 9 inch circle on the Cricut equalled the 6 inch template. I know that doesn't seem to make sense but it's true. I also found a use for a 4 inch circle on the Cricut which I will show you further down.

On the punches, you turn one direction for the small circle and one direction for the large. I found that the small circle was EASY while the large circle was more tricky. Here is a picture of the two punches. You can see the guidelines and directions for punching on the listed on the punch itself.

The only difficulty I had with the small circle was keeping it in place to line up the punch properly. To aid this, I just put a few swipes of removable dotto adhesive in the center of the circle so that once I had it lined up, it stuck to the punch base and didn't move while I punched it. The small circle was SUPER simple and lined up beautifully.

I did NOT need the removable adhesive to assist with the large circle but no matter how I tried, could not get it to make a perfectly perfect circle in the end. There was always a tiny little overlap that didn't allow the design to complete itself fully. Now, you honestly wouldn't know if you weren't looking for it so it doesn't bother me that much but it IS imperfect and I know that this might really bother those with detail-oriented personalities. :)

Here are pictures of 3 cards using the small and large circles I punched:(Please note that I was doing this quickly just to play with it so my work is a little sloppy)

This last card, I cut a 4 inch circle on the Cricut, folded it in half and punched it. I kinda liked what it created so I decided to use it. One note of caution though -- these punches cannot really handle doubled cardstock very well so you should only use this method with paper or VERY thin cardstock.

Overall, I am very happy with the Antique Elegance punch but not as fond of the Heart to Hearts. I may try to return it for a different one. I found it harder to use and line up with the large circle than the AE punch. I like the idea of these punches and I think I will find lots more uses for them as I go along. They certainly provide a simple way to make a card VERY elegant!

I hope this helps you make your decision! Happy scrappin' everyone!

A Candy Cake for Dad

2008-06-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

I did it! Yes!! I set out to do something really new and different for my dad's Father's Day/Birthday cake this year and I was able to do exactly what I had envisioned!! You know when you have a vision of something and it just doesn't come out like you'd planned? That happens to me alot but this was a pleasant exception!

My dad's birthday is on June 20th so we always celebrate it on Father's Day. This year is his 50th so I wanted to make a very special cake for him. I'm a great cook but not so much in the bakery department so I decided to get creative. I've seen a few candy bar cakes created on the Cricut message boards so I decided to search the internet to expand on the ideas I had seen.

I was inspired by this woman's creations http://www.pamcake.com/ and after browsing her website for about 20 mins, I decided I could imitate some of what she did and spin it to work for my occassion.

I wanted a LARGE cake. This became an instant problem when I went to buy styrofoam for the inside. I can't BELIEVE the price of styrofoam! After perusing my local Michael's, I decided to head to an old craft store that I haven't been to in over 10 years. It's a run down lil' old place but wouldn't you know it, they had exactly what I needed! I decided to go with 3 different sizes of round paper mache boxes. They are 13 inches, 9 inches and 5 inches in diameter. The cost was half what it would have been to create the same sized cake with a styrofoam center.

The next challenge was the candy. I wanted to decorate the cake solely with my dad's favorites and still keep some color coordination (color coordination was the only thing I found lacking in the cakes from the site listed above -- they were a little too ..... confetti for me). I eyeballed what I thought would fill up the boxes nicely and purchased ALL of my candy at WALMART (I later had to run to my local grocery to grab one more package of fun sized snickers and they were almost $1.00 more per package -- sheesh).

This is the candy I settled on. My original plan was to make a band of licorice at the top of each layer almost like an icing/border thing but I found that licorice is too waxy to adhere with hot glue so I ditched that right off. Anyone want a 2 lb bag of licorice?

~Insert V8 bop to the forehead here~

I also didn't end up using the cinnamon bears and later added some reeses singles cups to the bottom layer. And I can't account for the peanut butter twix -- they were an impulse buy, near the register...... I thought I might use them but now I'll have to eat them -- oh darn.

I used hot glue for the entire project and to offset the effect of hot glue on chocolate, I put everything in the freezer for about an hour before I started. I also glued the lids upside-down to the bottoms of the boxes to separate the layers nicely. I covered the sides of the lids in a brown satin ribbon from Michael's.

I used skewers, Accent Essentials, Paper Pups and Celebrations for the top. My dad has a Great Dane and a Standard Poodle -- hence the dog cuts. I'm going to add 'googly' eyes to them tomorrow to make them extra cute and silly. I used a generic sentiment since it's for both his Birthday and Father's Day. The flowers have rolos candy in the centers and they are all embossed with CB swiss dots, though you cannot see the detail from this picture.

This was loads of fun and turned out fabulous! The cake stands 2.5 feet tall with skewers and all. I'm so excited to see his reaction tomorrow. TFL!

Mother's Day Gift

2008-06-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm behind on my scrap blogging so I'm trying to catch up. This is a clock I made for my mom to go in her Mother's Day basket. She loved it. "Dream Big" is kind of her motto so I like to put it on things I make for her. I used a basic clock kit from Hobby Lobby and just decorated it with cardstock and cuts from the Alphalicious, Jasmine & Home Accents.

More Cards

2008-06-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

Patriotic Centerpiece

2008-06-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

This was inspired by an idea from the Cricut messageboard. The original creator's name is "Freddie" and this is a link to the post on her project: http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=1448357&mpage=1&key=&#1448357

I put my own spin on it to make it appropriate for the occassion. I used this as our table centerpiece for homecoming family gathering for my brother-in-law; then I gave it to his wife as a gift at the end.

This was made using Accent Essentials. Starting at 3 inches on each flower, I dialed down 1/4 inch for each cut. If you have the Expression, push your quantity button and set it to "1". This will hold the design so you don't have to push "repeat last" each time. I used the shift lock to avoid any details or holes being cut into the flowers. In the case of the double sided flowers, I simply made them twice and stuck them together back to back.

All the flowers are put together with 1/4 double sided adhesive foam squares. DO NOT USE SCOTCH BRAND. I found that they did not work very well as they are soft instead of firm like most foam squares. For the stems, I used red, white and blue straws because they worked with the colors but you could use popsicle sticks, sucker sticks, skewers, etc. I attached the flowers to the straws with big thick glue dots.

I filled the bucket halfway with white decorative sand and stuck the straws in that. I cut some stem-like accents and stuck in as filler. Again, all of this was pulled from Freddie's post on the Cricut messageboard -- this is NOT my original idea, it is simply my take on it.

Thanks for looking!

Welcome Home Wordbook

2008-06-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

This is a wordbook that I made back in May for my brother-in-law, Josh & his wife, Stephanie. Josh had just returned from Iraq after a year of service for our country. He is a proud Marine and we were so happy to have him back home again.

I made this book for them to put in the pictures of when he first arrived, etc. They liked the book and I was happy with how it turned out.

Click here for the cut file.

Congrats Card for My Niece

2008-04-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

My cute little Niece made it to the State competition for Elementary School debate (she's in fifth grade). This is a card I made her for the occassion.

I used Alphalicious for the "Congratulations" and PDDU for the girl inside the card. The flowers were done with Accent Essentials and the centers are done with acrylic beads aka: "skittles".

Grams Wordbook

2008-04-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is a wordbook I made for my Grandma for her 80th birthday. I took pictures at the party to put in the wordbook later. This was a simple layout, 8x8 square to accomodate more pictures. It was made with Mickey Font & Accent Essentials.

My First Word Book - Dream BIG

2008-04-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

This is my very first word book. It was an absolute BLAST to make and I had so much fun and SO many ideas that came to mind as I was making it that I cannot WAIT to make more!

This was done on the Expression but could also be done on the lil' Bug. I used Plantin Schoolbook on CDS for the design (cut file below pics). I used .22 chipboard at a blade depth of 5, full speed, full pressure and multi-cut on 3. Heavy cardstocks on both sides of each chipboard page and patterned pieces are just standard scrapbook paper. Be sure to reset blade depth to 4 and lighten pressure when cutting standard paper to avoid tearing.

Click here for the cut file but note this disclaimer: Because this was my first word book, I didn't realize that manipulating the width of the letters would render the shadow function less "functional" which is to say, the overlay letters do not fit perfectly within the chipboard cuts. I didn't realize this until I had already cut the chipboard portion of the project and I wasn't inclined to fix it.

My First 7 Cards

2008-04-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of my first 7 cards. Since I'm fairly inexperienced with card making, I started by using simple white prepackaged 5x7 cards and envelopes purchased a Walmart. This tends to give them all a rather simple look since there's no color variation in the back but I'll branch out as I get better, I'm sure. Here are the pictures, along with details on cartridges used.

The bees were done with WIMG and words with MTG. I used gold Stickles on the wings.

Embossing was done with the CBF: D'vine Swirl. Flowers were done in varying sizes using Accent Essentials. Green Stickles dotted in corners.

Happy Day 4 inch with shadowed background from MTG. Pink stickle dots.

Cuts from Celebrations. Red Stickles outlining balloons.

Cuts from Paper Pups.

Smile cut using GP -- shadowed and embossed with CBF: Swiss Dots.

Present cut from Celebrations & embossed with the CBF: D'vine Swirl. Thank you cut from Alphalicious.