Just Sew!

Give Them Something From the Heart This Valentine's Day - Buy a Cricut!

  
      Happy Valentines' Day and  welcome to another fun Theme Day@ My Cricut Craft Room! Today Erica asked us to use the theme "Just Do It" so I decided to showcase a craft I love and have the opportunity to pass on to my grand daughters: Sewing!!! For Christmas I bought my oldest 2 GD's their very own sewing machines so we spent some quality time learning how to use it. I decided to make a layout to capture this major milestone. (I think so anyways, lol).

Mia, Cecilia and Alexis

Just Do It!!!

     The above picture shows Mia with her machine and she was just too excited to learn. To make this lay out I started by making my own background paper by using the Imagine Cart Heirloom. This paper pattern can be found on page 10. I flood filled it but decided to trim all edges by 1/2" on all sides and adhered it to a solid background paper. What a fun paper to work with! Let me break down the elements I added.

     This frame is on the Imagine More cart on page 12. I print and cut @ 2.5" however I also separated the layers so I could use the spools of thread. The spools had to be resized to 3.5" since I wanted to use them separately and not just to layer on the frame.I also wrapped some thread around the spool to give it a realistic look. I also layered this on a chevron paper for the background. Just a word about the journaling, I always write it in pencil first and then go over with ink so I don't have to worry about making a mistake. After the ink is dry I just erase the pencil marks.

     These are the extra threads I added to fill some white space. The buttons are a Tim Holtz embellishment as well as the card with hooks.I love to add dimension to my projects so I added some satin braid and I-Rock studs to the corset.

     In order to balance out this page, I took some of the pics I had taken and used them as "buttons" to fill the top "white" space. I lovehow this looks and plan to use this on more future LO's. By the way, this is the sewing machine I bought my GD's. It's by Michey and is the perfect size and model for these girls. They are 6 and 8 years old and this is perfect for them!

      I thought this would be perfect for this page. The graphic is from Word Collage but I used the color palette from Heirloom so I knew it would match. The graphic was cut and printed @ 3".

     I never realized there were so many images to choose from on my Cricut carts, lol. This phrase is from Nursery Rhymes and I cut it @ 2.5" then added some Distress Inks. I also pulled out some of my button brads. How can you possibly sew without scissors?

     Oh look, there were some on Cricut Everyday cart!!! I cut all the layers with different colors and added a brad for the "screw" on the scissors. I think I cut these at 1.75".
    Well there you have it , I just immortalized my cuties with their first step into sewing!!! Cecilia is the youngest one but it looks like she was really taking it all in. What did they make you ask? Pants for their American Girl dolls of course and they did a fabulous job for the first time!
     That's all for my project for today. Be sure to hop back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what other surprises we have for you. By the way: Happy Love Day!!!!!!
     You can see the machine they are using Michley LSS-505 Desktop Sewing Machine (Google Affiliate Ad)

    

Altered Card Box

     Good Morning on this beautiful Memorial Day! I hope you all are enjoying beautiful weather and are not too stuffed from all the cookouts, lol. Today the Erica's  DT has some beautiful projects to share with you so I hope you will take a moment to see what we have been working on.

     I have been exploring the CCR and had just purchased the Banners digital download so I thought I would show you what I came up with. Of course I also used my Imagine!!

     I found these plain boxes @ Michaels' and thought they would be perfect to hold some handmade cards of mine. The boxes are about the size of a cigar box and are ready to paint, decoupage, stamp etc. I didn't take pictures as I went along so let's just jump into the details.

      First I painted the edges with a gold dauber and then used gel medium to decoupage my paper on the box. The sides and bottom have a faux wood looking paper. This gave me the idea to make the banner wood looking also. I started by making the banner at 5" long out of a cream card stock in the CCR. By adding another mat in the CCR, I was able to add the "Cards" font by using Divine Wedding cart at .75". I used the separate layers feature to print the font first and then cut the banner.
     I cut 3 banners and then adhered them together before I inked the edges. Once the ink was dry I applied some paper glaze to give it a little protection. Would you like to see the finished project?

     I told you you could paint, stamp and decoupage these boxes so I did all three, lol. I even added a braided ribbon and some Tim Holtz adornments to the corners. I'll show you a few more pics of the details.

     I used some Zing copper embossing powder and some Imaginisce bling for the top and bottom right hand corners.

     I have so many left over beads that I made a hanging charm to peek out of a corner of the flowers.

     Speaking of flowers I love how these turned out. I used distress inks and found I had some that even matched my paper. I even love how the leaves turned out.
   Erica is so generous with her DT that she sends us some really neat stuff to try for our projects. In one of my orders she had sent me some cuttlebug dies that had these great leaf dies. They are 2 pieces sort of like a blackout and the top part of the leaf. They look beautiful with a chalk glimmer. You can find all sort of supplies at Erica's Store and she has fabulous prices as well.
     I hope this project inspires you just a little. Please check out my team members projects back at Erica's Blog and see what else they have to help your mojo.Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who gave their lives to keep us safe.

    

A Doll Of a Pocketbook

     Good Monday morning all you crazy crafters! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We had my grandson's First Communion. What a special week end for all of us. I'll be posting pics of all my projects for this special occasion in a few days. (Hint: I am gradually conquering the Cricut Cake Machine, yeah me!!!) Enough about me I can't wait to show you today's project. My youngest grand daughter is almost 2 1/2 and she is so crazy! Although she tends to be a little independent tom boy, she loves (some) girlie things. One thing she loves is to carry a "pockagook". Most of us call it a pocketbook, lol. I decided to make one just her size.

     Isn't this cute? I had purchased a package of these cute little canvas bags @ Michaels' and thought they were the perfect size of little girls. First thing I did was to pull out All Wrapped Up and decided to use the doll from page 12. I sized it at 3.5". Next I used Jacquard Injet fabric which I also got at Michaels. I used the best quality print setting and cut @ 2x, blade 5, speed5 and pressure 5.
     After it had dried for a few minutes I used an iron fusible web for the back of the image and heat set the front by placing paper on top of the image. I hand sewed a cross stitch around the outer edge with some embroidery thread. Since I know the ink is not waterproof I used some Liquid Laminate by Beacon to really saturate the image and cross stitching. This way it SHOULD be able to be hand washed.

     The laminate coating really helped to brighten these colors. Since I love dimension, I had to add some bling with my i-rock. If you haven't used this yet then I strongly suggest you do. A year ago I made t-shirts for the grandkids and used the i-rock to add bling and they have been washed repeatedly and these things will not come off! Now would be a good time to stock up since Erica has a great sale going on in her store. You can find all the details Here. I also used some liquid pearls for her cherry red lips!

     I needed to add a little something more so I decided to rummage through my stash and came across some fabric flowers I had left over from another project. You can use any flower pattern from a number of your carts but I wanted to tell you how I stiffened my flowers. After I cut them on my Imagine, then sprayed them with a product called Stiffen Stuff which is also by Beacon. You spray it on til it is really saturated and then scrunch it up just like you do with Glimmer Mist flowers. Then unwrap them and let dry. To finish them off I just added some stickles and a bow.
     That's my project for today. Now it's time to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room to see what other projects the Design Team has to share with you.

A Very Special Birthday Card

     Aloha My Friends. I am so happy you decide to stop by today. Yup, I am still in Hawaii. I'll let you all know how things are going when I get back home over the week end.
     Well it is Monday so that means another day with the wonderful Imagine machine. I think by now you know how much I love this machine by Provo Craft, lol. I also am getting so much more comfortable with the Cricut Craft Room (CCR).  Last week I showed you the wonderful Vintage Box I made for my friend so I just had to make a card to match.

     First I chose the three paneled window card from Imagine More Cards on page 14. I sized this @ 5.5" and kept the colors the same. Next I used the image found on page 31 for the roses and cut them @ 1.5". I cut out 4 of these, 2 to position on the card and 2 to embellish and pop up. For the bling I used Diamond Glaze and Donna Salassar's Pixie Dust. This is such a sparkly glitter I just love it!
     Now it was time to use the CCR. I wanted to print the Happy Birthday sentiment from Martha Stewarts' Elegant Cakes because this Font is so pretty. I also wanted to add a butterfly for a little something to compliment the card as well as the greeting.

     First I started by placing the card image on my mat. I copied, pasted and then flipped the design. This was so that the oval would be on the right side of the mat for me to print my saying. I wanted to show you what I meant so after taking this pic I deleted the top image and slid my image to the top.

     Now it was time to ungroup the images and move them apart.( I cut the third panel). After choosing my HB greeting on page 47 in Elegant Cakes@ 1" I added the butterfly @ .5" from page 48 and welded the 2 together. I love how easy it is to weld in the CCR compared to the Cricut Design Studio. Now comes the tricky part. I placed the 2 panels side by side making note of where the + was on the panels and placing them on the same line. This was after I had placed my HB where I wanted it to fall on the oval. I did it this way because I wanted to just cut the solid panel and not cut out the oval. The oval is where I wanted to just print.

     When you go to work with your images you want to be sure you saved them on different mats. This way I was able to chose to work on each layer separately. The layer was printed first with the Birthday on velum and then I cut the solid panel by itself. (I used velum but wanted to show you the single layer I cut. I hope this is clearer than mud!!

     Here you can see all the mats I used, lol.

     I used some liquid Pearls to accentuate the oval and colored the butterfly wings with Spica glitter pens.

     You can see the dimension by popping up the flowers. I used the velum to cover the window since I wanted the beautiful printed paper on this card to show through.

     There you have it, a beautiful card for my friend. I also want to wish our top Leader Erica a very Happy Birthday tomorrow. Thanks Erica for allowing me to share my project with all of you. Now check out what the rest of the Team has to share with you over at http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/. I'll be back in MA by Sunday. Until then, happy crafting!~Mary

Vintage Looking Box

    Aloha and Happy Monday! You read that right I am here in Hawaii while my daughter has some surgery done. Hopefully all goes well today.

I hope you all had a chance to hop along with Erica's Team over the weekend. Oh such talented ladies! If not, be sure to check out the 100 Cart Blog Hop on her blog: http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

     Today the Design Team was asked to show you projects using the Imagine, E2 or CCR, I chose to use the Imagine and the Imagine More Cards cartridge.

     Isn't this a beautiful box? The image is in the Bonus Content section on page 28. I chose to make this at fit to page and used the colors just as the are. I did use my crop a dile to make a hole and finished with an eyelet to string my ribbon through. Now the fun begins. I took a scrap piece of lace and used a running stitch to gather the lace into a "flower". I had a small fabric rose left over from some project so I thought this went really well with the colors in this box and added it to the center of my "flower".

     I had a rather odd "pearl" so I added that to the flap for a little extra bling. Of course I couldn't stop there!  I have so many beads from different projects that I thought I'd try my hand at a stick pin. Oh I love how this looks! I had to use some glue dots to adhere it.

     I even had a small charm that says "Made With Love". I really love how this came out. My best friends' birthday is in the middle of March so I made this with her in mind. I just have to figure out what to put in it, lol.

     Be sure to checkout what the rest of the Design Team has to show you today. You can find them here:

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

Thank You Card

     Good morning ladies. I hope you all had a wonderful and productive weekend, I know I did. Mondays at My Cricut Craft Room the Design Team shows you projects made with either The Imagine, E2 or CCR. This week I used the CCR and my Imagine to create this simple Thank You card.

     I used the new Greeting Cards Inside Out cartridge for the Imagine. The base is from My Minds Eye "Out & About" premade cards. I bought this pack several years ago and hadn't found a project to use them on until now.

     I used the image on page 25 and opened it in the CCR. I chose the ribbon @ 5.25 wide so it would automatically fit on my 5.5" base and sized the circle Thanks @ 2"" high. This way I was able to center the image where I wanted it on the "ribbon" and then welded the two together.Let me show you how I did this:

     The top image is the preset with the Thank you circle on the end. When I selected this one I clicked on the edit group and at the top chose to not weld. This separated my two images. Now I was able to change the size of the ribbon and circle as well as the color. I was then able to place the circle where I wanted it. You could also rotate the circle  180 degrees if you wanted to place the image vertically rather than horizontally.

Once I had my 2 images centered where I wanted them I just welded them together.

     Now I just grabbed a doily I had hanging around but thought the new image was rather lost so I used the scalloped circle on the Image and filled with the same color but sized it @ 2.5". After a little inking I just glued everything together and tried out some Candi bling I just got in. These little gems are awesome! Believe it or not they are made of paper which makes them really light so easier on the postage but they truly are beautiful. You can purchase them through Erica @ http://www.shop.ericascraftroom.com/

     Well that's it for today. Be sure to checkout what the rest of the Design Team has to show you over at: 

 http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/. I hope you have a great week.

Time Heals

        Even though I posted this a few days ago I thought I'd share this with the folks at Pink Cricut since I was so pleased with how it turned out. Please bear with me since there is a story behind this card (isn't there always,lol):
      I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the New Year. I know I am! Unfortunately some people start off with all the bad luck right in the beginning. What astounds me is the way people accept the circumstances. Either they look at the glass half empty or accept things for the way they are and look at it half full.

     By now you are probably thinking what the heck is she talking about, lol. Before I show you the card I made let me explain the reason behind it. I live in a very small town and, like most small towns, there is the go to coffee hangout. It is owned by a wonderful couple couple who have added a deli and ice cream shop. It is so friendly and everyone cares about each other (for the most part!). Anyways the store was closed New Years day and the owners were preparing to watch the Patriots football game. They were making fondue to nibble on when he took the cover off the pot and it burst into flames catching his shirt on fire. As if that wasn't bad enough he tried to rush the pot out the kitchen door when he dropped the pot of burning peanut oil and it splashed on the floor and the flames raced up his shirt and burnt his face and burnt his arms and chest again! He suffered second and third degree burns.
     Now I bet you are asking yourself what does the glass half full/half empty have to do with this? When I finally saw his wife I was obviously concerned particularly about his eyes. She said the eye appointment went extremely well and that there would be no permanent damage to his eyesight. When I asked about his arms she said it was too early to tell if he would need skin grafts but "you know Mary, we can deal with anything. we thank God it wasn't any worse and are so thankful his eyesight is going to be okay. It will be a long haul 'til he is back at work but that's ok. I have a new appreciation for the work he puts in, now that I have to help fill in his time slot as well. It's been an eye opener for me as well."

     I made this card as soon as I found out about the accident and left it for him before I had a chance to speak with his wife. So, under the circumstances, what can you say in a card? How about Time Heals?

Simply, Get well soon

The outside of the envelope.

      I am using a lot of different supplies lately with my Imagine projects and I am just loving the more sophisticated look I am getting! For example I love adding these metal embellishments particularly with masculine cards. I also love using Tim Holtz folders with my cuttlebug. It all came together so well with the Imagine clock paper from The Heirloom cartridge as well as the solid green paper. The litte tag also was cut with the cuttlebug from the tag dies.Except for the sentiment, this would be a great design for a male birthday card. Thanks for listening to my long winded post. Do you have a tendency to look at that glass half full or half empty?