Exploring Cricut Challenge

The challenge over at Exploring Cricut for this week is to create a card, layout, or other papercraft using 2 cricut cuts and a monogram. So as a Close to my Heart Consultant I took the opportunity to use my new favorite cartridge Artiste to create a wreath.

To create my wreath I started with a styrofoam base from Michael's. I then created the rosettes using the image from page 50 from the Artiste cartridge. Each rosette is created using 2 cuts glued together. I then glued them onto a base so that they would keep their shape. To adhere the rosettes to the wreath I used stick pins through the center.

My second cuts were flowers from the Artiste cartridge. I chose 3 different flowers and once they were dry I glued them onto the rosettes. I added green buttons to the centers of the flowers and the rosettes.
I decided to add a paper ribbon instead of actual ribbon to the wreath. I used the ribbon on page 55 from the Artiste cartridge. Then glued a flower in the center. For the center of the flower I used a sparkle.
For my monogram I used the capital E from Opposites Attract. I glued it to the rosettes.
Thanks for taking the time to view my project. I hope you get to play along with us this week, but don't forget to link it to the Exploring Cricut blog!
Recipe:
pattern paper: Close To My Heart
Cardstock: Close To My Heart (Pear, Smoothie, Cotton Candy)
buttons: from stash
sparkles: Close To My Heart
Cricut Cuts:
Artiste:
rosettes (3D object-shift) page 50 (1.5")
flowers (Accent 1, Accent 1 - shift, Accent 2) page 54 (4")
ribbon (Accent 3) page 55 (1.82")
Opposites Attract:
E ( 4")

Daily Project: Sympathy

This summer has been a rough one for my family and several families I'm close to, and once again I proved my own saying "You never have a sympathy or birthday card made when you need one."

My daily project for this week over at Exploring Cricut is a sympathy card that I created for my friend and boss who lost her step-mother a week after I lost my dad. Both her step-mother and my dad had cancer and through her family I saw how blessed we truly were that Dad passed quickly.

I'm writing this post one month after my Dad passed, and this weekend has been extremely difficult eventhough I thought I was doing great. I do want to send a special S/O to the other design team members that sent cards, that was so unbelievably sweet and unexpected.

I try not to get preachy on my blog, so I'll make this real short so we can get to the card.

I've always believed that God always answers prayers, after all he's God and He's capable of all things and if he wanted to He could have spared my dad from dying. If we are to believe that God answers all prayers we have to be willing to accept that sometimes the answer is going to be "No", after all, as children we didn't get everything we asked our parents for, if we had we'd all be riding ponies! Through this though I learned that God can also answer prayers with a "but". It wasn't in His plan to save my dad from passing, but he saved him from suffering through a long and drawn out disease, He saved him from having to withstand chemotherapy, and He saved his family from having to watch a loved one suffer. This is truly a loving a merciful God. It is through this knowledge that I've been able to hold it together this month and help my mom move forward and find a "new normal". If I didn't have the belief that my dad was in a better place (we like to think he has a daily tee time with God) then this would be unbearable.

Now that my sermon is over; back to crafting. My card for today was created using the cartridge Indie Art. This is a cartridge I've had for years, but just never use. When I pulled it out I found it had some really cool designs on it. I especially loved the butterfly since to me butterflies are very peaceful.


I cut all pieces at 2.18 using my Gypsy. I used the butterfly - shadow, butterfly, and butterfly - shift. Once all pieces were cut I adhered them and then used diamond stickles on the wings and Close to My Heart sparkles on the antenea. I used a saying from the "4 my friend" stamp set also from Close to My Heart.

Pattern paper and cardstock are from my stash.

Recipe:

Indie Art: butterfly

diamond stickles

sparkles: CTMH

4 My Friend stamp set: CTMH

Mother's Day Challenge

Today's challenge over at Exploring Cricut is all about Mother's Day.  We were asked to create a layout, card or other paper craft about Mother's Day.  So here's my take on the day.

As most everyone knows I'm not a mother and will never be one (except to Ella), but I am an honorary member of the Commas,Christian Mommas. We get together once a month for Ladies night out so I decided to use this wonderful group of ladies as my inspiration for Mother's Day. (My Mom gets tired of having her picture taken).  I started out creating the candy bar favors for my group and for these I used the flowers under Banner 1 and Banner 6 on the Art Philosophy cartridges.  The tag came from the new Tags, Bags, and Boxes 2 cartridges under the takeout Box2.  I stamped Happy Mother's Day using a stamp set from CTMH and on the back I put "You're worth a 100 Grand".

I had to use these pictures for the layout of course since I didn't want to take a lot of pictures at the restaurant.  Now on to the layout!
The layout uses paper from the Lucy paper line from CTMH which is very femine.  It is one of my favorites, but I'm a pink and green girl.  I cut 2" circles using George and Basic Shapes out of Grey cardstock and one of the pattern papers to use as accents.  Also used as some accents are the "zip" strips that are included at the top of the pattern papers now.  The font used for Happy Mother's Day is the new Type Candy font and I can easily see this becoming one of my new favorites.

Next I added flowers to the gray circles.  I used flower 4 and flower 10 from Florals Embellished.  I used a jewel/sparkle in the center of the flower.  I thought the top corner seemed a little empty so I found some flower ribbon from my stash that I thought looked really similar to the design I was trying to come up with.

Thanks for taking the time to view my project for this week.  I hope you have fun playing along with us for this challenge, and for all you mothers out there.  Happy Mother's Day!!
Receipe:
Art Philosophy
Banner 1 (page 68) 4" using Font feature
Banner 6 (page 69) 4.25" and 5" using Font-shift feature
Tags Bags Boxes 2
Tkout Box2 (page 53) 3" using Tag feature
George and Basic Shapes
Q-shift (page 108) 2"
Type Candy Regular font 1.59"  "Happy Mother's Day" welded using Gypsy
Florals Embellished
Flower 10 (page 30) 2.04" all layers
Flower 4 (page 24) 1.89" all layers

April Card Workshop

I realized not too long ago that I forgot to post the cards for March's workshop. I didn't want to make the same mistake 2 months in a row so I tried to get a jump on it a little early. Mind you when I say I tried to start early, I started the post Thursday night before the workshop on class on Friday. The kits weren't even put together at that point, but I work better under pressure (I hope). This is one of the paper packs that I've been waiting to use cause I just love the colors, but then I really struggled coming up with cute ideas. Here are the five ideas that I came up with for this month's workshop. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for taking the time to view my post!

Recipes: 95% CTMH materials
Lucy pattern paper
Cardstock: Cotton Candy, Creme Brulee, Pear, Colonial White, Grey Wool
Ink: Cotton Candy, Blush, Creme Brulee, Pear, Sweet Leaf, Grey Wool
Ribbon
Opaques
Sparkles
button
Flower and Butterfly cut-outs are from Art Philosophy cartridge then stamped using the stamp set from the workshop on the go.

Till next month, Happy Scrappin'

It's a Box

Ok, this challenge was, well, a challenge. This weeks challenge was to make a project of a box, container or something with a box on it. I didn't read it real carefully at first or I would have realized this wasn't that hard. I'm blonde and have to make things difficult. I saw this idea in my catalog and thought it would be really cute for this project with some modifications. I loved the purse that was featured in the Close to my Heart Spring/Summer catalog, but their version was much smaller. This is my first attempt at this type of "purse" so I'm not sure it turned out exactly as I was hoping. I know there were some snags when I was putting it together, and even the "clasp" isn't the way I had planned for it to be.

Recipe:
Pink cardstock is from the Cricut 12x24 pastel set
pear CTMH: border and clasp
white daisy CTMH: border
rhinestone button
buttons
paper flowers
sparkles
bitty sparkles
leaves: A Garden (A 1119) CTMH

Cuts
Purse: 10.08" Art Philosophy (Have to use the 12x24 mat)
border: 1.47" Art Philosophy
latch: 1.94" Art Philosophy

Daily Project: Go Panthers

It's time again for my daily project. This one is one that's been done for a week. I teach at a very small school system, and we've got an awesome group of boys playing basketball this year. We were runners-up in our District Tournament this year and we were asked to decorate our door. Me, I didn't want to decorate my entire door becuase of the amount of time it would take, and I don't have a full class of students willing to do it like other people. Sorry my little dig, but it couldn't be helped. On to being positive and my project. (just a quick note, there is not a panther on any cartridge!!! what an outrage!!!)

For my project this week I started with a small poster. I know you are out there cheering that it isn't a card! I used the cartridge Makin' the Grade for the "Go" and "Beat". They were welded using the gypsy (except for the "at", they wouldn't weld for some reason). These were cut out in black (one of our school colors) at 4.52x2.43.
I then searched frantically for a panther (nada) and then I thought about using an ant, but I didn't have that either. So I did the next best thing and improvised. I used the tiger from the Animal Kingdom cartridge cut out at 4.79x6.65 using the gypsy. Also using the gypsy, it has a hide feature so I was able to go through and hide all of the cuts for the stripes (since panthers don't have stripes!) I added a pink nose and used a Honey marker for the eyes. To make him show up a little better I used a glitter pen on the detail cuts.

I then added a cardinal from the cartridge 50 States. (Our next game was against the Clark Co. Cardinals of course). This was a little easier since I could actually find this bird. I cut the bird out on 3.18x4.53 in black, then used a red for the layer. to get the legs and beak I cut another full image in Honey and cut what I needed. The large "A"s were very simple, cut from Alphalicious at 3.13x5.0.
The fun part was the cheerleaders. The cheerleaders were cut from Everyday paper dolls at 5". Each layer was also cut at the same size. Since it has gotten close to impossible to find a good match for skin color the cheerleaders were cut out using a white paper that comes from StampTV and then colored using copic markers. The colors that were used were:

Skin color: E00, E11, E13, R20

Hair: 1. E25, E31, E50; 2. E35, E31, YR20

Uniform: C7, C6, YR14, YR15, YR16

the same colors used for the uniforms were also used for the pon poms and shoes. I outlined her lips using E04 (natural lipstick) and just grabed a blue and blue/green to do their eyes. .
As a final touch I used bitty sparkles to set off their ponytails. Since the cheerleaders didn't really show up very well (because of the light colors) I decided to take a black marker and trace around the edges. This really helped them to pop off the page.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my daily project for this round. I hope everyone has an awesome day and Happy Scrappin'

Emily

Exploring Cricut: Movie challenge

Welcome to the last challenge of February! This was a very tricky challenge for me and I flip-floped many times before settling on the project I submitted.

The challenge for this week was to create a layout, card, or other paper craft on the theme of show business. Wow! Diane is really making us think out of the box on this one. Considering everyone I've shown the project to has needed an explanation I guess I either went too far out of the box, or I wasn't successful in making a connection to the theme. I like to think I just went too far out of the box, but I'll let you decide. Explanation will be at the bottom. Now to the project. Once again I decided to do a card (I know you all are surprised).

Base is white daisy 5x7 (CTMH)
Cardstock: Twilight 5x7 (CTMH)
Arch: desert sand, white daisy, new england ivy (CTMH)Bloom Arch:4.65x4.53, flowers 3.48x4.53
You're Invited:White Daisy, Alphalicious 1"
Ranger Stickles: Pink

Sparkles (CTMH)

OK: Now for my explanation. I am a big Twilight fan so I decided to do my "show business" with that movie series. The inspiration for the card of course came from Edward and Bella's wedding from Breaking Dawn, the quote is from Edward's toast to Bella at their reception, and of course the color of cardstock for the background: Twilight. The last part was an afterthought after I determined the rest of the card. The only thing I can say in my defense is I couldn't help myself, I'm addicted to these characters! Go Team Edward!!!

Breaking Dawn: Twilight, Gypsy font 1"

Movie Night: Twilight, Gypsy font 1"

Turquois Stickles: Ranger

Daily Project: Thanks

Welcome to the Exploring Cricut daily project for today. For today's project I decided to make a card (I know you're surprised). You can never have too many thank you cards so I decided to make one for my stash! This one is pretty straight forward although there is some cutting. I started with a card base that was 5.5 x 4.25, for this card the base is bamboo. I then cut a piece of honey patterned paper that was 5.25 x 4 and wrapped it with a scrap piece of ribbon from my stash. Once I had adhered this to the card base I was ready for the Cricut. I cut the butterfly using Create a Critter. I made the following cuts
Butterfly W= 5.02, H= 3.47 (I actually made this cut twice using 2 different pattern papers)
outline 5.02x3.47 (smoothie cardstock)
body 5.02x3.47 (olive cardstock)

The two pattern papers that the butterfly was cut from, I cut the wings off and using the outline as my guide I trimmed enough for the wings.

Once everything was put together I stamped "thanks" in chocolate ink using the Thank You set, put pink sparkles on the antenna, and two opaques for the eyes.

Recipe:
cardstock: bamboo, smoothie, olive (CTMH)
pattern paper: all from Mayberry (CTMH)
ribbon: from stash
sparkles, opaques (CTMH)
Thank you stamp set (CTMH)
ink: Chocolate (CTMH)

That's it for my super simple card. Hope you enjoy this project, thanks for stopping by, and have a stupendous Saturday!

Challenge by the numbers

The challenge for this week was to create a card, layout, or paper craft in any theme using 1 ribbon, 2 cricut cuts, and 3 embellishments. I decided to make this birthday card using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge and Sweet Treats cartridge.
I started with a white card base that is 5.5x4.25. Then using smoothie cardstock I cut a circle from George and Basic Shapes at a height of 3.8" (as measured using the Gypsy. The circle is then cut in fourths. I then add a length of ribbon from my stash around a 3.5" square of Pear cardstock and then adhere this piece to the base on top of the circle quarters.

The cupcakes were cut from Sweet Treats cartrige at a height of 2.06" (as measured using the Gypsey) the base of the cupcakes were cut using Petal cardstock, the cupcake wrapper was cut from Pear cardstock and the heart on top was cut using Smoothie cardstock. I then added jewels as the embellishments on the cupcakes. The saying on the card is stamped on using Chocolate ink and Card Chatter: Birthday set from Close to My Heart.

Exploring Cricut Daily Project: O Christmas Tree!

For my project this week I decided to try my luck with a design I had seen on another card by Jen Rubio. She created a Christmas tree out of 4 hearts. It looked complicated so I wasn't sure it would turn out, but here it is and I'm pretty pleased overall. Still a few kinks to work out before it's sendable.

I started with a base of 5.5 x 4.25, then layered topiary cardstock and the plaid from the Believe line (both CTMH). I then cut 3 hearts from the Art Philosophy cartridge (now my all time fav) at 2"and 1 heart at 1". I stamped each with a stamp from the set "Mad About You" (CTMH) with topiary ink (I think it makes the perfect Christmas green). I cut a small brown (chocolate - CTMH) piece for the trunk, added some sparkles, a little puffy snow on the edges of the tree and almost finished.

To finish it off and give it an outdoorsy feel I cut 1 circle at 2.25" and cut it in half and 1 circle at 1.5" and cut it in half also and then layered to make snowdrifts. These circles are also from the Art Philosophy cartridge.

What I thought was going to be a complicated card turn out to be not so hard after all.
Happy Crafting All!!!

Exploring Cricut Daily Project: Card Box

Today for my Exploring Cricut project I decided to do a card box. For this project I used Storybook cartridge for the font, and Christmas cartridge for the snowflakes.

The box is 6x6

Measurements for the paper:

cardstock base: 5.75 x 4

pattern paper: 5.25 x 3.5

cardstock layer: 4.75 x 3.5, then rip off about a .25 to .5 in

border layer: 5.75 x 2.5

I cut the word cards at 2.5 inches with the base shadow.

The snowflakes were cut using the Christmas cartridge and I cut them at 2". I used 2 large snowflakes and one snowflake on each side and in the center of each snowflake I put a sparkle.

Materials used:

cardstock: topiary, holiday red, sweet leaf, white daisy, and colonial white (CTMH)

pattern paper: Believe (CTMH)

Embellishment: sparkles (CTMH)

Daily Project: Mischievious Elf

Hi everyone! I'm so excited about my project for today. I'm normally a card girl so in the spirit of creating out of the box I decided to try something new. This is not the project I started out to complete for today, but I'm so glad I switched gears. I'm a teacher so normally I threaten anyone who wakes me up before 10:00 on Saturday. Kinda hard to threaten yourself. I woke up at 8:00 with an idea running through my head and was so excited, I couldn't go back to sleep. Guess I work better under pressure, but I won't share that with my boss. So after working on this picture for 2 days and a great deal of tweaking, here is my creation for the week! Happy Scrappin'

This project is definately easy enough for anyone. I started with a piece of White Daisy cardstock (CTMH), cut to 8x10. I created my own "SmootchSpritz" using spray pen, White Daisy reinker, and pearl paint (CTMH). While this was drying I set off to start making all the cuts.

The sleigh was cut at 2 in from the Winter Woodland cartridge. I used Grey Flannel, White Daisy, Topiary cardstock (CTMH), C1, Y17, and Y15(copics) along with 3 red sparkles.

Inside the sleigh is the head of an elf cut from Jolly Holiday cartridge and 1.5 inches. I used White Daisy and Sweet Leaf cardstock (CTMH) and E00, E11, E13, R20(copics). I also used Fun Flock in Cotton Ball White (Stampendous) on the Elf's hat.

The Reindeer is from the stamp set I Believe (CTMH) and is stamped with Chocolate ink (CTMH) and I used 1 red sparkles for his nose. The gold thread that is connecting the sleigh and reindeer is from my stash, not sure of the company.

The house was cut at 2 inches from the Jolly Holiday cartridge. I used Holiday red, White Daisy, and Black cardstock(CTMH). I also used the Fun Flock in Cotton Ball White on the snow.

Yes, that's Santa on the roof. He was cut from the Jolly Holiday cartridge at .75 inch. I used the Holiday red, White Daisy, and Black cardstock (CTMH)

The frame is from Wal-Mart.