Exploring Cricut: Back to School Challenge

The challenge this week over at Exploring Cricut is to create a card, layout, or paper craft with a school theme using primary colors. I decided to create a two page layout for a favorite little man of mine who started Kindergarted this year.


Recipe:
Patterned Paper: American Traditional Designs, School Works
Cardstock: black, yellow, red, green, white, brown (from stash)
Jolee's Boutique dimensional stickers (Little Crayon repeats)
Cricut cuts:
Cuttin' Up: Kindergarten at 2.18 "
Give A Hoot: Apple at 3.94"
Art Philosophy: Star at 2.65"
Simply Charmed: crayon at 6.76"
Create A Critter: milk bottle at 4.41"
Peachy Keen Stamps (face for apple)
A Typeface stamp set (CTMH)

page 2 printed sideways

Daily Project: Let the Good Times Roll

Today for my daily project for Exploring Cricut I decided to create this 2 page layout. As chairman of the Christian Ed committee at my church I helped to create a group called TNT which stands for toddlers to teens. Its our take on a youth group. We couldn't get our middle schoolers and high schoolers to commit to youth group so we decided to start working with a group of younger children where we could build those relationships at a young age so it would be a natural progression to youth group as they get older. We plan an activity once a month and a different parent is in charge of the activity. This layout was March's activity and we took the kids bowling. Most of the kids that participate are younger, but we do have one that will come occassionally and bring a friend or two.

For my Cricut cuts I used Nifty Fifties and Alphalicious.
Nifty Fifties:
Bowling pins cut at 1.15 and 3.30
Title cut using Alphalicious at 2"
Other supplies used are stickles by Ranger and pearls

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