Valentine Pop Holders

Provo Craft 457214 Cricut Imagine 12 in. x 12 in. Cutting Mat- (Google Affiliate Ad)

      Hello fellow crafters!!! I am so excited to share a fabulous project with you today. Erica @ My Cricut Craft Room has asked us on the Design Team  to make something from a cart that you would never think  of. That's what I love about WYEGW. I used the Imagine cart All Wrapped Up and Fabulous Finds to make a Valentine heart folder to hold a pop.Let's get started.

     These were so much fun to make. I started with the image on page 16 in the All Wrapped Up handbook. The amazing thing about the Imagine is the ability to change colors and patterns. I wanted a Valentine feel so I edited the pattern by separating the layers and used the papers on pages 38 and 39 after I had sized these @ 5.40". These measurements allow you to cut 4 on a 12x12 piece of card stock.  Now to figure out how to add a hole for the pop.

     After I scored the paper I just used a paper punch to make the hole on the back. It was easier to do this before putting the heart together with Tacky Tape. Next is to cover the heart cut out on the front of the holder.

     Here's to winking at you, lol! All I did was to cut a round circle of white card stock using a 1.5" paper punch then pulled out my Pink By Design Stamps set Laughy Taffy. (This is rapidly becoming my go to set.) I added some pink chalk for the cheeks and then glued it to the inside. Easy Peasey! Next up, I needed to have a tag to write on. Fabulous Finds to the rescue, again.

     After placing the pops in the "Holder" I cut a heart charm @2" from the image on page 92 using shadow plus shift. This is the perfect size for the "to" and "from" on the tag. What is so cute about these is the fact that they almost look like a Heart Flower. Here's how they look at a smaller version sized @ 5" and holding a Dum Dum pop:

     I made 24 for one of my grand daughters preschool class. The larger size holds a Tootsie Roll pop and I made 21 of them.
     I wanted to make a holder for a single pop (that's what I had in my head anyways, lol). However, it wasn't until I explored my Library of carts that I came up with this idea. It just goes to show you that with a handful of carts, you are limited only by your imagination!
     Be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room where you will always find more inspiration. I hope you have a fabulous week.

February 100 Cart Blog Hop And A Christmas Card Album

 

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

100 Cart Blog Hop   

      Welcome to another fabulous blog hop that Erica is kind enough to host.If you just came from Crafting Blog Events then you are in the right place. If not then you want to start in the beginning HERE  so you don't miss a thing.

     Each month the Design Team makes projects that showcase 100 Cricut cartridges. We hope to inspire you to pull out a cart you may not have fully explored or entice you to perhaps add to your library, hee hee! I can't believe it but it has been 1 year since I started on Erica's team. In case you don't already know what this is about let me fill you in. Each month we showcase 100 carts. We hope to inspire you to pull out those rarely used carts or to show you one you may not already own but give you a glimpse of what you can create. The carts I chose to use this month are:Mini Books,Frames Of Mind, Joys Of The Season, Seasonal Cake Art and the CCR exclusive cart Jewish Icons. Let's start with the Jewish Icons:

     The dove is cut @ 2.5" for the basic+shift+shadow. I used a glittered card stock for the dove layer. The "Shalom" was cut @ 1" for basic + shift. I love the softness of the background paper from DCWV. The flowers were some leftover ones I cut from Flower Shoppe and I believe they are @ 1.25". This would be a great card for Passover or Thinking Of You.
     Did you receive a lot of photo cards for Christmas?I always put them in a box with special Christmas cards I received and can't seem to part with.Well, after almost 40 years of marriage, 5 child, 8 grandchildren and many friends, I decided to do something I have always planned to do. I made a mini scrapbook to put them in. Let's take a look.

     First let's start with the cover. I used Mini Books for the cover and inner pages. I started with the image on page 14 . I cut 2 from chipboard and 4 from card stock. The Binding was cut @2.722 x 6.056".

     The frame is cut from Frames Of Mind and the image is on page 11 + @ 3.5".I cut a piece of red card stock to fit inside and embossed the sentiment with detail Gold embossing powder. I believe the sentiment is from Inkadinkado. The flower is a die cut I had leftover from another Christmas project.

     This label is on the inside of the cover. Its the star tag from Joys Of The Season on page 78 @ 2.5" including the layer.The numbers were cut from Seasonal Cake Art @ .75"and the "1" was cut at .65".
     Notice the snowflake back ground paper. Actually it is red card stock however, when I was gluing it on, I had a few glue spots that I didn't like. Rather than start over I had a brain storm, stamp it! Wow , what a way to save a project. I was so pleased with the result that I also did the same thing to the back inside cover. I'll have to remember this one, lol.

     Oh Shea is so cute peeking out at you! I cut the inside pages also from Mini Books and also on page 14. I used insert @ 8" x 5.25". I cut 6 of these since I had 12 photos to preserve. The snowflake embellishments are from Seasonal Cake Art page 44 and cut 1 of each @ .75", 1" and 1.25"

     Aren't these snowflakes just beautiful? These were cut from Joys Of The Season and can be found on page61 and layers @ 1.75".I also used some stickers throughout the album since it has been so long since I used any. You can find other versions on how to alter your page style, format and size with this cart. Be sure to check it out. The possibilities are endless!
 Cricut Mini Books. There you have it. I hope you will try this as it really is a great way to store those pics Now it is time to hop over to the adorable  Bella's and see what she has to show you.
     Here is the line up in case you get lost along the way:.

Start http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
Tami's project http://scrappinrabbitdesigns.blogspot.com
Crafting Blog Events- http://craftingblogevents.blogspot.com
Mary's Projects http://Mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com
Bella http://BellaandBaileysblog.blogspot.com
Robin http://cutonedesignsbyrobin.blogspot.com
Erica's Projects http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com
Sara http://itswhatkeepsmesane.blogspot.com/
Blog Candy- http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com
Owl About Kids- http://OwlAboutKids.blogspot.com
   


    

For Your Eyes Only

     Happy Wednesday my favorite peeps! I hope you are all doing well. I took a break from my craft room make over and did some crafting (surprise!!!). Today @ My Cricut Craft Room Erica the Design Team to make something with a hidden element. I decided to make a card with the flower closure from the cart CTMH Artiste.

     First I started with the cut on page 35 and used the card feature @ 3.5" high.This gave me enough room to make 3 cute note cards from a 12" x 12" piece of card stock. My back ground paper is from DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Girl. I wanted to dress it up as well as use some of my scraps so I added a cream card stock to layer a piece of music paper. All the layers as well as the flower were inked with the following Distress Inks: Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose and Gathered Twigs.

     I love having an interactive element which means, you have to slide the flower open in order to get at peek at the inside. It is hard to see in this picture, but, I painted the flower with some Rangers Distress Stickles to add a touch of sparkle. These Stickles can be heated with a heat gun, unlike the regular Stickles.

Are you ready to see the inside?

     TaDa!!! I usually use a stamped image on the outside but this time added it to the inside! I am not quite sure who the stamp is by but I can tell you it has been on my craft table screaming to be colored for a lond time. The markers I used were by Sakura and are the Gold Shadow Gelly Rolls. These are so neat since they leave a soft gold ting to the marker color. It is so pretty in person. I also used their Glaze pens on this image.

     I can see a whole set of these note cards in my future! I hope I have inspired you somewhat today. Do you make notecards to keep on hand? I'd love to know that I am not alone. Now be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what's "for your eyes only".

     

Vinyl Friends And Family Glass Block

   
  Welcome to WYEGW @ My Cricut Craft Room. In case you didn't know what the letters stand for let me enlighten you. It is Would You Ever Guess Wednesday. This day we get to follow a theme and show you what you can do with certain features on your cartridges. Today Erica asked us to use various fonts on our projects. For my project I created a glass block with fonts from three different carts and a fourth cart for my "border".

     I only have the one picture today since I wanted to really focus on the fonts and to give the measurements I used. Here are the sizes I used and the carts for the fonts:
 Label: Paper Lace 5.19 x 4.76 for the background
 "Enter as" Winter Wonderland @ 1.25"
 "friends" Calligraphy Collection" @ .98" high
 "leave as" Winter Wonderland @ 1.25" and finally
 "family" from Home Accents @ 3.23" x 1"
     You want to make sure your glass is clean before you adhere the vinyl to the glass block. I used rubbing alcohol to clean the outside of it with just a piece of paper towel and the alcohol. The vinyl I used was from Provo Craft which is wonderful to work with and comes in so many colors.You need to set your blade @ 6 and your pressure @ 2. This gives you a kiss cut which means it cuts the vinyl yet leaves the backing intact. I made several of these for Christmas gifts some were out of vinyl yet I also made some with etching cream using the vinyl as my stencil.
     I hope you will try using these fonts on other projects since they are so much fun to create whether they are on a glass block, piece of canvas, wood and even fabric.
     Thank you so much for stopping by today and be sure to head back over to MCCR and see what the rest of the Design Team has to share with you.

Get 25% OFF all digital cartridges! Dec. 25th - Jan. 1stProvo Craft 2001186 Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine- (Google Affiliate Ad)

Update On Snowflakes

     Hello fellow crafters! Today Erica has asked the Design Team to use the theme Cold Hands Warm Heart so I decided to jump in here an give you an update on my Snowflakes project that I did a few weeks back.                   Do you remember these?

                                                               Well, how about these?

                                                  What about that empty terrarium? 

     Well I thought this might fit with the theme today since I have the snowflakes to make your hands cold but, my collection of Snowbabies from Dept. 56 just might warm your heart!

     I love how my snowflakes just added to the fun these figures are having. Since the snowflakes all hang at different levels, it really does give the illusion of snow falling!!!!

This is the night time view. So peaceful don't you think?

     Since we have little fingers that love to get into Mema's things, I started to display my ornaments where the grand children could be really appreciate my collection. They love to pull up a chair and just look at all the different snow babies and what they are doing. I run a strip of  blue and gold lights in the bottom of the case and then cover the wires with fluff. I finish it off by sprinkling some "snow" on top. When things get crazy around the Holidays I am  amazed to see how each person takes a moment to just gaze at these little 

guys.

     All the snowflakes were cut using the Cricut cartridge "When It's Cold Outside!" to make some 3D snowflakes. I cut them @ 1 1/4" and 1 1/2". I love how this came out and the snowflakes added the perfect touch.

     I hope you have enjoyed my update. Now be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what the rest of the team has to share with you.

Save money this Holiday Season with Today's Deals! Ends Dec. 31st Get 20% off ALL Holiday items! Ends Dec. 31st

A Banner Christmas Tree

     I have another great project for you today using the Cricut Craft Room! I really love using this program offered by Provo Craft. One of the great Craft Room Exclusives is Banners. I have used this for tags on layouts and now I made a Christmas card with banners on my Christmas Tree! The entire card was made in the CCR. Here's what I designed:

     Sorry the lighting was not so good when I photographed this but I was so excited to share,lol. First I started with the Christmas tree in the CCR Basics. This is free in the Cricut Craft Room and has many great shapes to choose from, especially if you want to make a quick card. I added this to my mat @ 4" and then opened my Banners cart. I was able to rotate, move and size the 2 banners to where I would place them on my tree and then welded them together. This made it easy for my to know exactly where I would place my additional banners that I was going to ink. Once I knew the exact size of the banners, I copied and pasted them to another area on my mat.

     I just have to say something about a wonderful feature of the CCR. If you place everything on the same mat, when you hit GO Cut, you will notice on the left hand side of the mat you can choose to print, cut or print and cut. This is so versatile especially since I have the Imagine and sometimes want to only print and sometimes only cut. You can also decide if you want to cut all the images on the mat at the same time or separately. Since I knew I would do this all at once I placed my images accordingly.

     I inked the edges of the banner with Brilliance Galaxy Gold while it was still on the mat and also stamped the sentiments with Colorbox Chalk: Lipstick Red. Now all I had to do was add some liquid pearls in Ruby Red and also some stickles in Christmas Red.How do you like my star behind the tree? I had used a piece of scrap paper that had this design on it so, I went with the flow and added some icicle stickles to add a little sparkle! I also added some Candi "brads" in the corners.This was probably the quickest card I have ever done!

     Now I have a surprise for you. Here it is TaDa........

FREE Cricut Craft Room Help Guide!

This is the 78 Page Cricut Craft Room Help Guide.....

When you open Cricut Craft Room now there is a GREAT video that pops up and welcomes you to Craft Room. If you have ever been intimidated by the idea of Craft Room…. NOW is your chance. There is a 4 minute video that welcomes you to Craft Room and will help you get aquainted and NOT intimidated by Craft Room!
It really is great, no matter what your computer skill level is. Please take the first step and try Craft Room if you have not taken that step yet. I have done a few Ustream tutorials to help with Craft Room, but no one can do it better than Provo-Craft themselves! Here is the welcome screen now when you go to Cricut Craft Room.
Here is the link to ALL of the Craft Room tutorials that Cricut has made! *Erica
This guide came from www.cricut.com and was assembled by
Erica’s Craft Room™ My Cricut Craft Room™
and Affordable Crafting Concepts™ Copyright 2009-2012

Visit the blog for 6-10 Cricut made projects each weekday.
http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

     This is a fantastic way to jump into the CCR. I hope you will give it a try. You will amaze yourself at all you can create. Happy Crafting, Mary.

Baby Girl Chinese Characters

     Today we are creating projects exclusive to Cricut Craft Room Exclusive carts. I am going to show you a baby card using the Chinese Characters and Craft Room Basics so lets get started!

     This is a really quick and easy card to make. I started with a piece of  8.5" x 11" purple card stock that was cut in half lengthwise for a top fold. The onesie is in the Craft Room Basics and was cut @ 4.0". I love this paper from s.e.i. I used a variety of scraps to create my back ground including the pink that I edged with a Martha Stewart border punch and some ribbon I had laying around.

     The Chinese Character for "Love" was cut @ 1" for both the shadow and the main characters. An easy way to adhere the smaller pieces is to do the following: after cutting the characters, weed out the background like you would do vinyl. I then apply transfer tape while it is still on the mat. This tape is great since it does not lift the paper. After it is transferred, flip it over and apply your adhesive. I used quickie glue since it was great for the small pieces. Then you just position it on your shadow and, voila, perfect placement every time!

     I found a Studio G stamp that I had to add the "love" English sentiment and finished decorating with some Imaginesce rhinestones. I also found some rub-ons that I had from My Sentiments Exactly that went perfectly with this card. Since I love dimension, I had to raise the onesie with pop dots.

     Be sure to check out the Cricut Craft Room. It is easy to use and makes it easy to layout your projects.You can find it Here

FREE Cricut Craft Room Help Guide!

This is the 78 Page Cricut Craft Room Help Guide.....

When you open Cricut Craft Room now there is a GREAT video that pops up and 

welcomes you to Craft Room. If you have ever been intimidated by the idea of 

Craft Room…. NOW is your chance. There is a 4 minute video that welcomes you to

 Craft Room and will help you get aquainted and NOT intimidated by Craft Room!
It really is great, no matter what your computer skill level is. Please take the first step 

and try Craft Room if you have not taken that step yet. I have done a few Ustream 

tutorials to help with Craft Room, but no one can do it better than Provo-Craft 

themselves! Here is the welcome screen now when you go to Cricut Craft Room.
Here is the link to ALL of the Craft Room tutorials that Cricut has made! *Erica

This guide came from www.cricut.com and was assembled by
Erica’s Craft Room™ My Cricut Craft Room™
and Affordable Crafting Concepts™ Copyright 2009-2012

Visit the blog for 6-10 Cricut made projects each weekday.
http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

   

Gift Tags

     Hello Hump Day! Boy is this year just whizzing by! Today Erica gave us the choice to use rosettes or make 3 tags using the feature key. I made 3 tags using 4 different cartridges: Winter Frolic, Sweethearts and Enjoy The Seasons and Snapshot Everyday Imagine cartridges. If you follow me regularly then you know I like to go over the top sometimes however, there are times when I like to tone it down a bit. I also love to use up my scraps and tags are a perfect way to do this. So let's get started.

     A while back I made a cute card with this same monkey image. I loved it so much (and had some of the printed paper left, that I decided to make some tags.You can find this image on the Sweetheart carton page 43 using the tag feature.I believe I cut it @ 2.5". What I really wanted to show you was what you can do if you don't feel like cutting layers whether for a card or a tag and how just a few minor embellishments can make a world of difference.

     First I cut the top layer and taped some twine to the back for the vine the monkey is swinging from. I also added some Liquid pearls for the mouth and black enamel for the eyes. I wanted a warm brown for the bottom layer so this is what I did:

     I laid the shadow tag right beside my top layer with the monkey and made a small pencil mark for where the monkey is. Then I traced the small heart onto the bottom layer. I just smudged some distress ink in the area of the monkey and filled the heart with stickles and outlined it with a gel pen. Now all I had to do was adhere them together. I also used a white gel pen to add faux stitching around the edges. I REALLY love this gel pen that Erica sent me!

    You should really check out Erica's Store. She carries all of the supplies I used here and so much more with great prices too!

     My next tag is from Winter Frolic and Snapshot:Everyday an Imagine cartridge. I recently signed on to sell  a wonderful chocolate fondue at home parties (I'll share more about this in an upcoming post). I wanted to do something special for those who order from me so I thought I'd create a special Thank You tag to package their orders with.

     This tag is on page 46 and I used the tag and tabs. The red base is from my scraps but, since I am in the business of chocolate I thought I'd fill my tag with chocolates!!!!I cut these @ 2.2" which gives you a 3.2" x 2" tag. The companies' logo is in brown and red so these look great to attach to the bags. I needed to add some dimension so I used satin ribbon to make a bow. Incidentally, I love making bows with a fork. You heard that right, a fork!!! Just Google how to make a bow with a fork. There are several U tube videos out there.

     My last tag is made using Winter Frolic and Enjoy The Season. The tree tag is on pg. 48 of the Frolic cart and the background paper is is on the Imagine cart on pg. 41. I didn't do anything special to this tag because I don't want to take away from the gift it is on top of. You don't have to always "dress" it up. Here's why:

     It is for a Christmas ornament! I am doing these for a local store for them to market so I didn't want to take away from the gift but wanted to give it a professional look.

     That's it for today guys. Hope you enjoyed my projects now, get going and use up those scraps! I'd love it if you would tell me what you think. Be sure to head back over to http:.mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Cranky Old Man

     Welcome to Theme Day Thursday! Today Erica's Team is focusing on Fall Foliage.I just love the fall. I love the warmth of the sun and the cool crisp air. Fall and Spring are my most favorite times of year. So naturally I had to sign up to do this theme. I really didn't want to do the usual wreath , so when I saw this poem posted on FB by a fellow DT member (Thanks Ray for posting this)I knew I had to do something with this. This was from an elderly man in Australia who jotted down his feelings concerning his life and I found it so powerful I just had to frame it.

     The title is "Cranky Old Man" and I thought using wise old oak leaves would be so appropriate for this. The cartridge I used was Celebrate With Flourish. It has some really nice die cuts on it. All of the cuts are from Fall2 and @ 1.5". 

     First I printed the poem on parchment paper in brown ink then trimmed it to 8"x10". I wanted to fill the white space around the saying so I decided to do some stamping. I used Inkadinkado V.2 and Autumn Leaves flourishes. The green flourishes were stamped with Perfect Medium and then Perfect Pearls patina was applied. I really wanted a subtle background. After that dried I used the Autumn leaves flourishes and Archival Brilliance ink in Coffee Bean for a more dramatic effect.

     I used all sorts of scraps in burgundy, orange, brown and green to cut my dies. Before removing them from the mat, I inked all the pieces. I even stamped some gold and silver inks on the leaves to add a touch of brilliance.The caps on the acorns are from a scrap piece of distress paper that I sanded for a more natural look.

     After all the cuts were glued in place, I used some (OK a lot) of Liquid Pearls to add some dimension to the leaves and background. The colors I used were: hot cocoa, avocado,platinum pearl, copper pearl and onyx pearl. You can find all these products in Ericas Store.

     I placed this is a wooden frame and photographed without the glass to cut down on the glare. I will look at this often as a reminder to be thankful for all the roads I have already crossed and the wonderful journey each day brings.

     Please head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what my Design Team Sisters have to share with you. Hope you have a wonderful week end planned.

Elmo And Friends

     Whoot whoot!!! It's the last Friday of the Summer and time for some fun @ My Cricut Craft Room (we always have fun,lol). I was so excited when Erica asked the Design Team to create a lay out using a character. While on our huge family vacation we visited Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA where they have a Sesame Street section. Our youngest grand child just loves Elmo so he was super excited to meet him in person. Here is the lay out I made to capture the memory using Elmo's Party.

     Where to begin? I usually add more than one picture on my LO but today I decided to use just the one that we bought at the park. Charlie was not happy to have to look at the camera rather than his friend Elmo, lol. Most of the cousins were there (we are missing two). I thought the title says it all "Elmo And Friends". I cut all the letters at 1" for the font and the font shadow.

     After cutting the letters I used some Stickles on the letters for some pizzazz. It seems I am using the CCR for a lot of my projects and this one is no exception.I wanted to use a banner and include the kids names. This is so easy to do when you have the Imagine. I used the banners CCR exclusive digital cut and the same Elmo Font for their names. You use 2 separate mat layers. On the first mat I place my banners @ 1". On the second mat I made my names and then placed them over the banners. Now when you go to use the Imagine, I printed the mat layer with the names and then went back and cut only the banners.Voila, done. I didn't ink the banners because I wanted the pic and all the other embellishments to be more prominent.

     I had cut a lot of flower shapes a long time ago so whenever I needed some they would be ready to ink and use on any project that needed them. I just used some Cherry glimmer mist and added a brad for the centers. I wanted my flowers to be "grounded" so I drew in some stems and leaves. I really wanted a playful look. Speaking of playful, how about Elmo? This image is on page 31 and I cut it @ 3". I used some enamel accents in black to bring out his eyes more.

     Would you believe the background paper is My Mind's eye Sweet Dream Holiday Avenue. Yup, it's a Christmas stack! Although I have the Imagine and many pattern carts, I still want to use up some of the paper packs I have and this was perfect. The red roping and pennant banner were from my stash of K&Company banner packs.

     If you are looking for some crafting bargains then you should check out Erica's Store. She is having a fabulous moving sale that you won't want to miss. You can find it HERE.

     Hope you have something wonderful planned for this week end but be safe. Now please head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what my Design Team Sisters have to show you.