Christmas Cricut Gifts

I have been so busy crafting this Christmas.   I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Will catch up on blogs, because finally done with the holiday business!  Haven't had time to post to show what I've been up too.  Here's a peak at a few of the projects I have been working non-stop on.  I made name frames for the kids teachers and friends/family.  I loved how they turned out, but man, they did take some time.  I used my Sure Cuts A Lot program, and cut out my favorite new font, Too Much Paper from Kevin and Amanda.  I simply fell in love with it, and was so happy with how my little projects turned out.  I found a tip on line somewhere, can't remember where to give credit, that used cereal boxes for chipboard.  I went and grabbed all my cereal boxes and cut out the letters first from them, and than modgepodged the pattern paper over the cereal boxes.  It worked out perfectly with the Cricut. 

 Another thing I did to add a little special touch was to frost the glass with family on it.  I cut out vinyl, used the negative image, adhered it to the glass, and put the etching cream over it.  I used the actual part for a two other frames, when I had run out time to cut more vinyl negative sections, and time to etch them.  So many steps in the projects, but I did love my finished work.  The Family was a soft effect, which was what I was after.  I thought I had more photos of the ones with the etched glass, but can't seem to locate them.  I will have to snap a photo of the one I made for my neighbors. 

Great thing about this gift was it was personalized for each person, inexpensive to make, since I had all the paper supplies on hand already, and they turned out so nicely.  I found the frames at Walmart.  They had a few different styles in that size frame.

Playing with vinyl.

I read Eat, Pray, Love last year, and fell in love with two sayings in Italian the author talked about in her book. One was the art of doing nothing, and the second was the art of making something from nothing. I had a vision to put the art of doing nothing above my bed, with shadow flowers behind it. I hadn't found a flower in sgv form or on a cricut cartridge that I loved yet, so the vision was stuck on my Sure Cuts A Lot mat. Than I found a set of vinyl art flowers at Target on clearance, for 3.24. Grabbed them, cuz at that price, I'm sure I'd find some place for them. Well, they matched the comforter nicely, I liked them, so that finally took care of that issue.

I was buying some strawberry plants today at Lowes, and went to peak at the molding they sold. Grabbed two 8 foot sections of a molding I liked, and cut it with my miter saw. Leveled it up on my wall, added the flowers, than attached the bottom leg of the frame to hide the edges from the vinyl flowers. Than I added the sentiment I designed. I used Brock Script font and cut it out with Sure Cuts A Lot, and the butterflies are from Lauren M's, Flutters and Flowers svg file. The frame measures 4 feet by 2.5 feet.

Looking at the photo, I need to lower the l, n, and other l in bel. I went cheap and didn't use transfere tape, and put them on like a sticker. It can be removed, so I can adjust the letters still. I think I'm most pleased that I did the whole project myself, from buying the molding, cutting it at the right angles/length, putting it on the wall using a level, and centering it above my bed.

Two More Pages Done!

Finished up two more pages for Gabi. This first one is from her ballet routine last summer. She was part of the Diamond's group. They had rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires. I have to admit, I was disappointed with her costume, because the year before, her ballet costume was also grey. I would have loved a different colored tutu. Lucky for me, she looks wonderful in grey. And if you noticed with her other scrapbook pages of her routines from last year, the majority of her costumes were all black and white. You can see them here, here For a person who loves color in her scrapbook pages, this was painful! For a girl who love hot pink, that killed Gabi. I had found a lovely K and Co pack of papers in the wedding section at Michaels, but I swear I've used them on just about every page from her routines last year.

This was Gabi's lyrical routine, and this costume was full of colors! Yea for me...and Gabi! I was pleased to scrapbook something from that year that was more than just black and white! I pulled out Mariposa DCWV stack, because the colors seemed to blend beautifully with her costume, and well that's a beautiful stack of papers.

I borrowed my friend's Wall's Decors and More Cricut cartridge to cut out my beautiful dancers, if you can see them in the photo. I've used this cartridge several times, I think I'm gonna have to buy it soon! LOL! I think it's been at my house more than hers lately!

Supplies: Prima, Prima pearls, stickles, cricut, reflections bling, SU ink, Martha punch,

Thanks for stopping by!

Perfection in frames!

Okay, don't ya just love it when something turns out just like how you picture it? Sometimes turns out even cuter than your expecting?! I had this idea in my head, and gotta say, I'm so happy with how it turned out. I want to go drag it around to my neighbors to show it off!

My Grandma was a painter. She painted cells for Disney's Snow White when it came out waaayyyy back in the day. In her house, she had several pieces of art she'd painted. Some of the more cherished paintings included my Grandfather in his Officer's Navy uniform, my sister as a little girl, she even kept her bangs crooked much to my mom's dismay, Stone Mountain, which was a place we visited often when we came to Atlanta, and other places she loved visiting in the mountains.

My personal favorite was of these darling little southern bell paintings that hung in bathroom. They wore blue southern bell big dresses, hats, little umbrellas, sitting on a rock type of thing. There were two of these plaques that she'd created. I loved looking at them when we'd go visit with her. I was just talking to my mom and sister about them when I visited them at Christmas time. They were a treasured part of my Grandma's artwork. I'm sure all of her granddaughters think of those little paintings fondly.

After getting the Forever Young cartridge for my cricut a few weeks back, I pictured doing something similar with the girls and different pattern papers. I cut out different models, as they're called on the cartridge, and dressed them up in Basic Grey Green At Heart paper pack. I hadn't known where I wanted to put them yet, but thought they were so cute when I was done with my first batch. Than I found a great steal at Target. They had a pack of five frames with the mats in the frames on clearance for 6 bucks. Good deal, right? I snatched them up without thinking what I'd put in the frames. When I got home, I thought the girls I'd cut out would go perfectly in the frames. I had cut my first batch at 4 inches, and the frames had spots for two larger models. I spent today cutting out models and the other clothing articles for the bigger frame. Look at those undies? How stinking cute are they?

Such a fun cartridge. I can it being used for darling wedding invitations, or teen birthday party invites. It even has little purses you can cut out for party favors or little thank you's that you can fill with candies.

I think this was such a fun, darling project! My girls are topped with some gems, and stickles. I've layered up where the cartridge had items to layer. I'm saying I love that machine. I've mastered the layering, and found that as long as you know your size, you can layer perfectly. So, with the girls that were 4 inches, I tell the gypsy to keep the shape the same, and change the part being layered to four inches, and the cricut does it perfectly to be layered. Amazes me how that machine works. For those working on the gypsy, just make sure you have that little chain link in yellow, and it'll keep your proportions correct and enlarge the shapes correctly.

There are tutorials on Provo Craft's website, if you've recently received these products and are confused by what I'm talking about! I was against the gypsy for the longest time when my friend kept talking about it. Now, I'm so glad I have it.

Pretty Princess.

I love this new Sweet November princess stamp at All That's Scraps. I adore the way Amy at A Thousand Sheets Of Papers lets her images pop off the papers. I have a hard time with that, I have to mount them on a center focal point. I seem to lose my images on the papers, where as her images still grab center stage. Scroll thru her blog if you've never visited it before, you'll see what I'm talking about.

I got a fun email yesterday from my sweet friend, Debbie, stating she'd just gotten a Cricut! I was delighted to hear that, I love my cricut! I can't wait to see what she creates with it! I was playing with it and cut out the mirror with my Disney Princess Dreams Do Come True cartridge. I need to use it more with my card making. This one is Belle's mirror. The sentiment is computer generated thanks to some great tips from Tammi.

I found the small 4.5 by 6.5 DCWV stack of Once Upon A Time stack at AC Moore ages ago. I love that paper, but have barely touched the 12x12 stack I have. I hoard paper. It's so pretty, I can't bring myself to cut it. Figured if I had the smaller size, I'd use it....yea, I hoarded it too! But it goes perfectly with this princess! I have one of the other princess too, so I'm gonna have to break out of my keep it in tact mode, and made a card with it too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Minihaha Waterfall

I was doing a bit of scrapping last night. We went on a hike in the GA mountains over the summer with the kids grandparents. We saw some wonderful sites. This waterfall was one of them. I'll be working on more pages of another place we went to that day in the next few days...hopefully! LOL! I used my Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge to cut out the title, and shapes. Fun to layer things up in crazy colors! My sketch is from Jeanette Lynton's book "Cherish".

Supplies: DCWV Summer stack-10, Cricut, Cindy Loo, stickles, SU Pacific Point Ink pad.

NOEL Chargers

I've been playing with my Cricut again! Love that tool! Anyhow, Target has these chargers, in packs of four. They have four colors, silver, red, green and gold. I thought it would be fun to cover them with the vinyl in Christmas themes. I used my Winter Woodlands cartridge to make the letters. I cut each of them to 6 inches. I used a snowflake instead of an O for the o in noel. I cut out different snowflakes from a few different cartridges, Christmas, Joys Of The Season, and Winter Woodland. Naturally, you need a little bling, so I added gems to the snowflakes, and sequins. Now, I just need to decide if I want to hang them off my curtain in the kitchen, or on the wall with ribbon.

My neighbor made some too, but used sentiments in the center of her chargers, which looked great too. Can we say cool easy Christmas gifts?!

Thsoe pretty snowflakes are also adorning a room in my house. I cut out a bunch of snowflakes in larger sizes and put them on my bay window in my dining room, and on my front door. Fun and easy decorating. I'm thinking they would look neat looking like a snow flurry on a wall by a entrance way.

Digging the Cricut.

I talked awhile back about going on a dolphin tour with my neighbors. I had so much fun putting this page together. I used Life's A Beach cartridge. I had a blast layering the dolphins. Do you see the one jumping thru the O? How adorable is that?! I loved how the page turned out so much, I had to go show it to my neighbor as soon as I finished. I said she had to love it because her kid was in it! Her cutie pie is the little blond haning out with Trey. It's a fun, bright page, if I do say so myself!

My camera cut off the corner of the page. Was too lazy to take another photo of it! But I promise, I didn't chop Gabi off! It was really cool because the lady working on the boat came and gave the kids a personal little speech about the dolphins. Than I love the shot of Eleanor and Trey under the front of the boat. The papers are from DCWV Summer stack.

Another thing I'm having a blast with is cutting vinyl with it. I added this butterfly sentiment to my bedroom. It's takes about 2 feet or so above my dresser. I had a great time picking the fonts, and butterflies. If you notice one of the butterflies is the butterfly from My Time Made Easy. I purchased it from her, and was able to send it to Sure Cuts A Lot, and cut them out. Super cool! I love what that machine can do! I know I'm just touching the tip of it, but have really enjoyed playing with it and designing things. I used both the Sure Cuts A Lot and the Design Studio for that project. The swirly butterflies were from Home Accents, and the font from the 'utterflies' is from the calligraphy cartridge. I really like the welding aspects of the software's. I use that feature all the time to make words instead of just letters.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed both of the projects today!

American Girl Style.

Gabi loves her American Girl Dolls! My ILS live in Atlanta, and there's a store near them in a local mall, and the Bistro. For her 10th birthday, she got to go have lunch, and pick out a doll. Her Grandma, Greatgrandma, and me went with her to celebrate. I saved the guys from having to go join the world of dolls! It was also the Sat after Thanksgiving, so you can image how busy the mall was! Gabi had a blast! The food was super yummy! If you ever go, get the pretzel!

It was darling how they had chairs for the dolls. They even had little place settings, and muffins for them to dine on. She took her first doll with her, Nikki. Than while she was there she picked out Elizabeth, Felicity's best friend. Both sat at the table with her. Very expensive birthday, but I guess they only turn 10 once, right?

Naturally, Gabi loves this page. Not only is it pink, it's got bling on it! The title is cut by the Cricut. Told ya I'm using it a lot! The paper is Blossoms and Butterflies from DCWV. I got the stickers from Michaels. The sketch is from Jeanette Lynton's Image book.

Mojo Joy

My friend, Tammi, recently sent me this lovely image from Whiff of Joy. I hadn't gotten this kit, and was so excited to see those images in the happy mail she sent. We are having Spring Break here in VA, and the weather has been lovely. It's a perfect day for a Spring card!

Today's card has a few challenges on it.

It's the Mojo Monday sketch,

Whiff of Joy Recipe challenge,

Pink Elephant's Nature challenge, and

Cupcake Craft challenge to make your own flowers.

I had grabbed some of the fine flower soft from 7Kids, and really like it. It's a lot finer, and I really liked the look of it on the flowers on here. I saw she had sand colored, gonna have to try that on a beach scene.

Supplies: PTI cardstock, SU So saffron cardstock, ink, nesties, Martha punch, glimmer mist, stickles, copics, Basic Grey Green at Heart, flower soft, PTI buttons.

I also managed to finish up a scrapbook page I started awhile back. Got all to the way to embellishments and the title. I cut the title out with my Cricut. Love that gadget! Discovered those huge brads in my stash. I had totally forgotten I had gotten them from Queen and Co awhile back. They were the perfect touch on the page. This sucker is very bright, but I do love bright pages for the kids. I used a TAC stamp set for the gingerbread house. I can see that stamp set being handy for the next few years. The kids love making those gingerbread kits. It was pretty exciting last year finding the train set at Target. Trey liked that better than house kits.

Finally a post!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and New Year. I hope the New Year brings boundless blessings to you and your family! I've been busy with the kids, as they got out of school over two weeks ago! I'm ready for them to go back to school tomorrow! Except for the getting up at 7 AM part! I had cut out the title a few weeks back with the Cricut, and just made my page yesterday. So, figured it meant I had something to show off! LOL!

I found these papers at my local scrapbook store. They were so cute, I had to grab each sheet I saw. They had stickers that matched too, so had to get them! I love how the Cricut cuts out the letters, and allows you to layer them. Love using the papers to add some more color to the page in a fun, but useful way.

If you can't tell, I simply love this dog. He's a crazy chap still, but he makes me smile.

Than this other page I made forever ago, and didn't show it off. I saw it when I was putting Maxwell pages in the family scrapbook. I thought it was a good one to put up, because it shows stamping and scrapping together so nicely.

I love TAC's sets that are geared towards scrapbooking. They have three sets that I really love for adding little sentiments to a page, one is about family, one for boys, and one for girls. I have all three, but just recently added the family one to my set. The other stamps on here are from two other TAC sets. I thought the tree went perfectly with my page. It's called Love Blooms. The other sentiment is from a set called Forever Family.

I think sometimes little sentiment likes that add perfect touches on a page, without me having to journal a ton on the page. I'm not big on writing a lot, don't like my handwriting, so, those little sentiments add thoughts on there for me.

First Cricut Page.

Man, I love this tool! I am so impressed with how well that thing cuts! I did this page last week, waiting for my Cricut to arrive. I than cut out my title, the trees, stocking and the ornaments. I was working on another title for a different page when I lost power last night. But I just love how this page turned out! I was amazed watching it cut each letter, and stuff. Love how it'll layer things. I barely touched what this machine can do, and will have fun learning more things on it. So, here's my first work of art with it! The trees are layered with the polka dotted pattern paper. And the cutting out of the ornaments is so detailed!

Side topic, we had a nice Nor'easter come thru yesterday. Kids were off school yesterday and today. Paul was in GA at Home Office, and got trapped there, because the weather was so bad. The bridge outside my neck of the woods is flooded, so we can't cross to the peninsula from there. Paul has now made it back to our area, but has to take the long way home, because of the bridge. We lost power about 8 last night, and it kicked back on around 2 this afternoon. We have a generator, but it hadn't been used, and not something I knew how to operate. So, my neighbors came and set it up for me, so I could plug back up the fridge and freezer. Than I put on the tv to give the kids something to do, other than fight!

Other supplies: DCWV cardstock, pattern paper, TAC stamp, SU garden green ink, stickles, nesties, Queen and Co brads.