Happy Valentines' Day!

     Happy Monday! You know what that means, it's time to use either your Imagine, E2 or the Cricut Craft Room. Well, since my husband gave me a HUGE Valentines' Day project to do, I used both my Imagine and the CCR.
     My husband is a tool salesman and is in and out of garages all day long. He wanted to offer a package his customers could give their wives, mothers or girl friends for Luv Day. All I had to do was make a simple card and tag to package them up with. No problem I say until he told me he needed 50 of them! Are you serious, 50, in less than a week? I'm a floral designer, my busiest day. How on earth am I going to pull this off you say?
     Easy, with a little help from my Imagine and the CCR.

     He wanted something very simple, nothing cutesy so we decided on Kraft card stock for the base. I used Art Philosophy and the card feature on page 69 @ 5.50". I used a 12x12" sheet of paper so I was able to cut 2 cards on the same page. Then I cut the solid heart out of red @ 2.75 and the layer in cream @ 2.5. They were so easy to put together since I just traced the open heart with a pencil and adhered the heart in place. I used the score marks on the card to lace some ribbon through and tie in a bow.
     I thought it would be too time consuming to use a stamp on all those tags so I turned to the CCR. I first chose the V-Day sentiment from MS Seasonal Cake Art and placed it on the screen. I added a second mat layer to place a tag from Fabulous Finds. This made it easy to size the sentiment in just the right place on the mat. After some copy and pasting, I was able to fit 18 tags on an 8 1/2 x 11" pieces of red card stock.

     I am so glad I used separate layers. You can combine them on the same page however, I discovered that by using them separate I could chose whether to cut, print or both. The first time I chose cut and it was not too successful since it cut everything. The red sentiment was usable but since I did not weld the tag was not.

     Above you see where I used one mat and printed out the sentiment.

     After they were printed I went back and chose the label mat I had made and so I was able to just cut the label. This was helpful so I could also cut more labels to glue my cut sentiments to. (Waste not want not, lol).

     This is the printed label. I just went back and added some faux stitching with a white pen.

     I also cut a 3" heart tag on the same page on Art Philosophy. One cut was with the heart and the red base on solid card stock. Added just a cute heart charm and they were done! I actually wound up doing 60! Bet you would love to see what is inside:

   That's right ladies: pink socks, folding scissors and a chocolate rose pop! Don't laugh, the socks are really comfortable. They got 1 pair each of the low, crew and mid calf socks. I would have loved to make a frilly card but these guys are down to earth and really didn't want to spend a fortune on flowers. They are really practical guys!!!
     I really hope you will try the Cricut Craft Room (CCR). I was intimidated at first but found it a real time saver to finish this project. Now please go back to http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ and see what the rest of the design Team has to show you.

Family Cookbook

     This looks like such a great idea. You create an online cookbook that you can share with family and friends. I know how invaluable this can be with the way families are spread all over the world today. For example I have a son in Florida, daughter in Hawaii, sister in Illinois, nephews in Texas and one in Scotland.

     Over the holidays I saw numerous posts of family members looking for particular recipes from their childhood. The nice part is that they can add in their recipes as well. I think I am going to give this a try since this special only lasts a few more weeks a it would make a great Mothers' Day or, if you are like me, get a jump start on Birthday or (dare I say it) Christmas present. This is one idea I had wanted to do for presents this past year but I ran out of time. Maybe if I start now with this I could possibly get a jump start. We'll see, lol. If you are interested in this book all you have to do is click the picture above for the details. Hope you find this a fun project to do. 

Ben's Spoon

     Today I had a visit from 6 of my grandchildren. They range in age from almost 8years to 21 months. We had a lot of projects to do. Mainly Ben had a project to do for his pre school (he's 5).He was given a wooden spoon which he had to decorate with a picture of him either as he is today or what he wants to be when he grows up. Ben wants to be a policeman. I had a great idea right away.
     Since all the kids are fascinated with my Cricut, we pulled out Paper Dolls Everyday and got to work. This is what we came up with:

     Isn't he cute! We started by cutting the paper doll blackout @ 9". All the layers were cut @ relative size. The policeman outfit is located on page 59. I did use the CCR to weld the hat to the body shape and cut that out twice in black to have a sturdy background. After taking a picture of Ben I must admit that the hardest part of this project was getting the right size face to match the body,lol. I eventually wound up printing it at 25% view after cropping the face. I had to cut of the excess of the Paper Doll outline to match Ben's portrait. 

It also took about 10 photos to get one where his tongue stayed in his mouth! 

     I just added some real buttons to the shirt front and cuffs.

         They had to clearly mark their name to the back of the spoon so I used a sharpie. The whole "policeman" was adhered to the spoon using glue dots and ribbon.

     Now he has a serious policeman face! He was so happy with the outcome. The children will have these displayed as art projects for their schools spaghetti supper. The hardest part is that he cannot show this to the other students until then.

     Now just in case you want to know what my daughters did with the youngest ones while I was working on the project:

     They were giving them a bath! Cecilia and Charlie, what a pair!!! Hope you enjoyed Ben and my project

don't be afraid to leave a comment. 'Til next time, Mary

Shrinky Dink Heart Checkers

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

       Welcome all my new followers! For Imagination Monday the design team must use either an Imagine, CCR or the Expression 2. I love to use my Imagine to choose my background papers as well as the Imagine More cart. Last week I showed you how to make a card for a guy using the Vintage Papers cart and to make chess pieces. This week I went a step further and used the same cart but chose the checker board paper and shrinky dink material!

     First I started with a basic shape from Imagine More cart and then edited to add the checker board background cut @ 3.75". I also cut a solid piece of charcoal card stock @ 4". I inked all the edges with Black soot distress ink and adhered to a 4.25" base for my easel card.

     Now for the hearts. You can use any heart shape that you have on your carts. I measured the square to see what size I needed to end up with. When using shrinky Dink material you need to cut it 3x bigger than you need since it shrinks down 2/3 of what you need. I cut my hearts @ .75" so I ended up about .25". They fit perfect! This is the settings I used however depending on which machine you use, you may have to make some adjustments: Deep cut blade @ 6, speed 3, pressure 5 and multicut x 2. I did use my E2 and was very pleased with how smooth it cut.

     The black hearts are cut from black material and the "white" were cut from cream color and then inked with Festive Berries distress ink. All I had left to do was add a sentiment with a Hero Arts stamp.

     I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Day. Now by sure to pop back over to Erica's @

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/ to see what the rest of the team has to show you.

Erica's Craft Room 100 Cricut Cartridge

You should have started at http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/  if not please start at the 

beginning

Be sure to visit Erica's Blog http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com tomorrow for over  

50 projects that you did not see today....

Also make sure to follow Erica's blog so you will know when she has contests, prizes,

challenges, swaps & special online coupons.

Currently she is running a  Scrapbook & Card challenge over on her challenge blog and you can win

a gift certificate to her web store! http://ericascraftroomchallenges.blogspot.com/ 

This Friday she will announce February's Scrapbook swap.... She has a swap each week and you

have two weeks to make your project each month. There will be a card, scrapbook, tag, swap  die cut 

and embellishment each month! http://ericascraftroomswaps.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to comment along the way on all of the blogs today and yesterday to be entered to win 

the Cricut cartridge or K. Andrew Its Valentine stamp set that Erica is giving away today.

Winners will be announced on her blog on Tuesday!

If you get a chance please visit Erica's Webstore and 

enjoy 15% your total purchase this weekend.

Enter the code 15 during the third step of check out to see the discount.

She has everything crafty.... Cricut cartridges, adhesive, papers, 

stamps and so much more....

www.shop.ericascraftroom.com

If you are coming from  Christina's http://cema1cema.blogspot.com then you are right on track.  
If you just came  across my blog and would like to hop along, you should be starting     at http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

If you haven't guessed yet, this 2 day hop is showing off 100 Cricut cartridges.  

Yesterday was the first set of fabulous ladies from Erica's Craft Rooms' DT and today is the next set 

of talented members.  

For this month, I went with 4 cartridges...

Imagine More Cards
Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art
Cricut Alphabet
Disney's Happily Ever After

 Today I am going to show you what you can do with: Imagine More Cards, M S Seasonal Cake Art ,
with Cricut Alphabet that comes the E2 and Disney's Happily Ever After. I will also show you how to
make embellishments and the CCR to incorporate into a mixed media wall plaque.

     My daughter needed a gift for a baby shower and wanted to give a wall plaque with the baby's name.
I started with a blank 11' x 14" canvas. The background paper is all scraps that I use beacon's laminate 
to glue and topcoat with.  After spritzing with Perfect Pearls white, I was now ready to have some fun.

     The tree is from the Disney cart cut @ 10.50". You will find this image under icons on the second row.
I cut 2 of the images in the same size and adhered them together.I shaded the outline with Antique Linen  
distrezz ink and then misted with tattered Angels Chandelier. Once it was dry I just added a few Stickles
  in Eucalyptus to the leaves.

     I cut the grass from Martha Stewarts' Seasonal Cake art using the cake key feature. I used the 1'x6' border and 
cut both the regular  image and the shadow. Again, I used scrap paper and inked the edges.

     The name PENELOPE was cut from the Cricut Alphabet cart however there isn't a blackout feature, only a shadow.
So (I am getting brave) I ventured into the CCR and used the shadow key but also was able to use the hide contour key 
and voila I  have a perfect black out image! I really love this font that comes with the E2. The scalloped circle is from
Cricut Essentials, a cart that is also built into the E2.

     How cute is this!!! Do you want to see the embellishments? Here we go!

     All the embellishments were made using Imagine More Cards yet all can be customized by using a variety of products to enhance the different looks you can achieve. For example, this plain, yet beautiful image comes to life with stickles, liquid embossing, spica glitter pens and, yes, even Fun Flock! Let me show you where I start.

     I started with the Cricut Class Room and selected my images. You will notice I flipped some of the birds. 

     Here's why. I wanted the birds to be dimensional ( I love depth on my projects) I just glued the 2 images together back to back and then inked the edges and added a Gradient Gem for the eyes. I went back and cut one more single large and small bird facing to the right So I could then curl the wings up.

     I found it easy to place my dimensional bird once the single layer was glued on the canvas.

     I used the owl image from Imagine More cards but this guy was sitting on top of a scalloped circle. A wonderful feature on the Imagine is the editor. When you tap on the image a pencil comes up to edit. For this image I selected 3.25" howeverIi separated the images and chose to white out all the layers so all I was left with was this cute owl. As with the birds, I flipped one so I would have a firm embellishment with 2 layers. Some inked edges, brads and whooo doesn't love this little guy!

      Finally I used the lady bugs from the Imagine cart and left the wider border so they would really stand out on the canvas. Check your manual under settings if you want to custom size the border you have with the Imagine. I use this ALL the time. I finished the lady bugs with some Smooch and sealed it with Diamond Glaze. You can use glossy accents, liquid embossing or any dimensional glaze you have on hand. I added some bakers' twine and metal flowers to finish the look. I also love to finish my edges so I added a ribbon and spaced some white upholstery tacks around the outside edge.

     I hope you liked my project today. Be sure to leave a comment as I would love to hear what you think.

     Now be sure to hop on over to see Erica's Projects http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com  and see the amazing project she has to share with you. 
     Just in case you get lost, here is the order so you don't miss a thing!  

  My Cricut Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

                       Amber http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/ 

                       Connie  http://conniecancrop.blogspot.com/

                       Jenn lorist http://jennspapercrafts.blogspot.com

                       Sheila  http://2pawprints.blogspotspot.com

                        Marji  http://fstampaholic.blogspot.com/ 

                        Tonya  http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com/ 

                        Kathy http://3spoileddogs.blogspot.com/

                       Sabrina http://sabrinabellabeautiful.blogspot.com/ 

                        Dana http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/ 

                        Christina http://cema1cema.blogspot.com/ 

                       Mary http://mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com/ 

                        Erica’s Projects http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com

                       Vicki O   http://luvmygypsy.blogspot.com/ 

                       Claire http://www.ThreeWatersCreations.com

                       Cori www.createdbycori.blogspot.com

                       Vicki’s http://stayathomemomof2inohio.blogspot.com/

                       Teresa  http://createenjoyshare.blogspot.com/ 

                       Gloria C  http://craftnthings.blogspot.com/ 

                     Tiffany http://angel4everthecraftyteacher.blogspot.com/ 

                       Miranda   http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/ 

                       Jessica K  http://homespunelegance.blogspot.com/ 

                       Heather m http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

                      Blog Candy http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com