Exploring Cricut Challenge: Winter Scene

Happy New Year everyone! I'm not usually one for making resolutions because I ultimately break them, but this year I am going to resolve to try to use cartridges that are collecting dust on my shelf. I feel, afterall, at one point there was something about each and every cartridge that made it a must have. So to start the year off right I used this thinking for this project. I won't say I've never used these cartridges, but it's been awhile and even then I only used one or two images. So, as the song says...." Let's get this party started!"


The challenge for this week is to create a page, card, or paper craft that depicts a winter scene or sport. For my project this week I decided to use the cartridges Animal Kingdom, Very Merry Tags, and Winter Frolic.

I started out with a picture frame that was purchased at our local Wal-Mart store (not an endorsment by any means). The frame was 8x10 so I cut my snowflake pattern paper to that size. I thought the blue and snowflakes made a perfectly peaceful evening sky. I then took a piece of White Daisy cardstock and cut a gentle wave using a CM trimmer. I layered these three pieces so that they resembled rolling hills or snow drifts. I only adhered the bottom edge so that I could slide my images that I cut between the layers. I then cut the Christmas trees using the Very Merry Tag cartridge at 4.65" (width according to the Gypsy). I cut 3 based using White Daisy (shadow) and the image using Topiary. I then cut 2 deer using the Animal Kingdom cartridge at 3" and 2.88" (width according to the Gypsy). The "female" deer is actually from a layer button so it didn't have the hooves and antlers. Once you layer it in the "snow drifts" you can't tell that the "female" doesn't have hooves. I used markers to color in the antlers, eyes, nose, and other shading. For the finishing touches on the deer, a little fun flock in white was added to their tails. The title came from the Winter Frolic cartridge. Silent Night was cut at 1.82" (width according to Gypsy) using White Daisy cardstock, then layered onto black cardstock and trimmed.
Thanks for viewing my project, and may you have a Happy New Year!!!

Materials used:
frame (Wal-mart), cardtock: White Daisy, topiary, Desert sand, black (CTMH), patterned paper: Woodland blue with snowflakes (CTMH), Markers: blush, chocolate, black (CTMH), Fun Flock: white (Stampendous), CM trimmer

Tree Challenge

Today's challenge at Exploring Cricut was to create a card, layout, or paper craft using a tree from any cartridge. I decided to create a Christmas layout (single page for a frame). My tree came from the Art Philosophy cartridge as well as the font.

For this project I used the Believe paper, and the Holiday Wishes stamp set.

The upper portion of the layout has 6 strips of paper alternating between the plaid and the stripe. These are cut at 1.5x3. I then cut out "Merry Christmas" using the font on Art Philosophy. The size was 2".

The bottom portion of this layout has a plaid piece that is cut at 5.5x11; the stripe piece is cut at 6x11.5. The photo is 5x7. After cutting the tree using the Art Philosophy cartridge I stamped it using the Holiday Wishes stamp set with topiary ink. I used Diamond stickles for the green leaves and Candy Cane stickles for the red birds.

This was a very simply stated layout and very easy to complete.

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 challenge #4

This week's challenge at Exploring Cricut is to create a card, layout, or other paper project using a sled or sleigh from any cartridge. For my project I used a little boy sledding down a hill from the Winter Frolic cartridge.

I cut the image at 5" along with all the layers. The card base is 5x7, and the white part of the base is cut free hand.

Recipe:
cardstock: royal blue (company unknown), white daisy, holiday red, topiary, desert sand, grey flannel, archival black (ctmh)
Markers: face (copic E00, E11, E13), eyes: moonlight, mouth: blush (ctmh)
Stamp set: Snow Flurries (ctmh)
inks: colonial white, brown bag (ctmh)
cartridge: Winter Frolic

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)

November Card Workshop

I recently had the November card workshop where we made 6 Christmas cards. I have to admit, Christmas is my all time favorite time of year. I love the smells, the sights, and the music. In the hustle and bustle of this season it's so easy to lose the true meaning of Christmas. So before everything starts going haywire, let me be the first to say Merry Christmas. I hope I don't offend anyone with the word Christmas, but that's what the season is truely about so I refuse to be politically correct with this holiday.

For the cards we used the Believe line of pattern paper and the Christmas Love (D1492) set.

This first card is my absolute favorite. I started with a white card base then layered on Topiary cardstock that I had dry embossed earlier, then holiday red cardstock that was prepunched with a Martha Stewart snowflake punch. a Piece of ribbon(not sure of the manufacturer) and a bow of the same ribbon. Chocolate and white cardstock were layered with one of the stamped sayings from the set and a topiary button to complete the card!

This card starts with a holiday red base, then add a scalloped square using the striped paper and a fancy square (both images were cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge). The Christmas tree image was stamped on using topiary ink and holiday red ink, some sparkles were added along with a white stamped Joy!

This card starts with a white base, then layers 4 strips of pattern paper. I aheared the ribbon to the chocolate piece before attatching it to the card. The oval was cut using George and Basic Shapes cartridge and a stocking was stamped on the oval and a gift on a canvas badge button.

For this card I started with a holiday red card base. layered the pattern paper, added a piece of jute, a couple pieces of ribbon and the banner pieces cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge.

This is probably my next favorite card for this month. It starts with a sky base, layer the pattern paper in 3 different sizes to resemble gifts, add a piece of ribbon and a rhinestone brad for a bow on top. This card is supper easy, but I love it!!
This card also starts with a white card base although you can't see the base. I cut about an inch off the outside edge before adding the cardstock. I put the chocolate cardstock flush to the folded edge then added the holiday red and topiary. I stamped the saying with vanilla creme ink and added a pretty gingham ribbon.

Advent Box

I decided to try something a little different this year. I added a special project to my workshop dates. My card group got together this past Friday to create Advent Boxes and I have to confess I thought they turned out super cute!!!

The box itself was super easy to create. We started with a white box and covered all sides with pattern paper from the Believe line (CTMH). For added dazzle we put pom pom ribbon and red sparkles on the front of the box. These were also from CTMH.

For the inside of the box (we had 24 cards to decorate). We covered each card with a 3x3 piece of pattern paper, added a 2x2 piece of cardstock (sky, holiday red, sweet leaf, or topiary). We cut 24 big circles and 24 smaller circles and stamped them with numbers 1-24. then before adding the circles to our cards we added a paper "ribbon" which came from the zip edge of the pattern paper. Then for the finishing touch each person added their own traditional advent projects for each day to the cards. Super cute!!!!