Gator in the Grass Published in February 2012 Cricut Magazine

Somehow I never posted this BUT, this is card was published in the February 2012 Cricut magazine under the Cute Critters section.   I cut the Gator at 2 1/2" from the Birthday Bash cartridge, with the layers which are a bit tedious but, super cute when it's done.  The, I decided, before I added the layers, to emboss him with the snakeskin folder from cuttlebug.   As you can see though, he's about 9" long and the folder is only 5".   So, I did half and then flipped it and did the other half and you couldn't even tell where the two met!  I added the layers and some google eyes and wallah!  

So, then I had to decide on a mat paper for my card.   I ended with this embossed sheet from the DCWV Letterpress stack.  It's a cross hatch pattern in green and light blue.   I added the cut grass across the top that I cut using Martha Stewart fringe scissors and then hacked at it so it looked uneven and you could see that it was grass.   I added a piece of Martha Stewart ribbon and there you have it.  It's a winner!!! 

Damask Bedroom Collage

As you can see, today I have a project that I made for our new bedroom!   I had been planning on doing this project in some capacity ever since I got the Damask Decor cartridge so, here it is!   I purchased some 11x14 frames on sale at Michael's right before Christmas.   I also bought six sheets of Recollections shiney silver 12x12 cardstock and Recollections dark purple 12x12 cardstock.

Using Damask Decor cartridge, I cut Damask 14, 15, 20, 37 and 33 at 7 3/4" and Damask 36 at 7 1/4".

I mounted the purple Damask cuts to the silver cardstock using ATG tape and Scotch Quick Dry Glue and then inserted each one in a frame.

Teacher Appreciation Card

This is my last post for Teacher stuff.   The school year is now over.  :(  This was my greeting card that I gave to my son's teacher with a small gift card, on the last day of teacher appreciation week.  

I used the same DCWV Stack 6 paper that I had used in making the drink carrier and then some number border tape from Vintage Street Market, taped onto a solid red strip and added vertically.   The books and apple are one cut from the Hello Kitty Greetings and Salutations cartridge, cut at 3 1/2" , with the layers.

I hand cut the frame that I stamped with a sentiment form Stamps Happen 'School Days' set.

On the inside, I added more Vintage Street Market border tape and an Inkadinkado sentiment.

Teacher Thanks!

Not only is it the end of the school year but, my son's FABULOUS 1st Grade Teacher is retiring and we wanted to give her a great send off.   I was able to collect her class photos from the past 35 years and scan them all and make an 8x11 Hardback Shutterfly book for her.   We also did a collection and got her a fabulous gift basket that included four gift cards.   With that said, you can guess that this is the card that we all signed.  

Our colors are black and red and our mascot is a Panther so I used the EK Success border punch to create my own 'punch around the page' for the red mat.   Then, I topped it with a sheet from the DCWV Grade School stack that is this cute argyle.   

The Thanks A Bunch was cut from the new Wild Card 2 cartridge (Mother's Day present), the phrase from the bananas cut at 3" and then I used the Cuttlebug Argyle folder to emboss the phrase to match the paper.

On the inside, I used a larger, paw punch from Fiskar's to punch each corner and then added a sentiment from Studio G.   She will be greatly missed by the entire school but, best of luck to her in a wonderful retirement!!!

Teacher Appreciation Drinks

I never got around to posting my Teacher Appreciation Gifts earlier in May but, I took in a 'gift' every day to my son's 1st Grade teacher.   This was on Tuesday, her favorite drink, Diet Coke.  I took it Tuesday since the carrier had room for 4 drinks....if she wanted to have one each day for the rest of the week.

The carrier is from Dairy Queen, which my husband is addicted to.   When we go, we usually go through the drive through and they give us these carriers so, I have been saving them.   This turned out to be perfect!  I used some school alphabet paper from the DCWV The Stack 6 to cover each side and the handle part of the top.  I cut the crayon from A Child's Year cartridge at 2 1/4" and wrote her name on it.   Then I cut a smaller one at 1 3/4" and stamped 'World's Greatest Teacher' on it, from a Stamps Happen stamp set.

I added a couple of other stamped items to it from the Stamps Happen set as well and then tied ribbon around the pop bottles to hold them in place.   NOTE:   Because these are heavy, I also used some tape to reinforce the bottom of the carrier and then I used glue dots to hold the bottles in place.  

First Holy Communion

I have to start by saying I am sorry for this picture.   I made the card at the last minute and then I was running out the door and remembered that I needed a picture so, I took this one with my phone. 

The cross was cut from the Easter 2010 cartridge at 3 3/4" using pinkini Bazzill paper and a shine pearl paper that I always love using.   The card base is Core'Dinations whitewash paper so, it's a dark teal on one side and a whitewashed teal on the other.  

The is the whitewash paper and a printed sheet from My Mind's Eye - Lost and Found 'Breeze' mini-stack.   I border punched both sheets with an EK Success scallop punch and them mounted them onto a Bazzill Pinkini sheet.   The sentiment on the outside and inside was printed. 

Birthday Style

Today's birthday card is for my fashionista friend!   The mat paper is from DCWV All About Girls stack.   I added a strip of paper down the center and then embossed with a plaid embossing folder.

I cut the dress at 5 1/4" using the Everyday Pop Up Cards, with the layers.   The stamp on the front is from Fiskars and the sentiment inside if from Scrappy Cat.

Lego Cake

My last lego post here is the lego cakes and cupcakes made by my sister.   The cupcakes with the legoman head were chocolate and the bricks were white.   They were a huge hit!!!

Lego Man and Lego Girl T Shirts

Lego Man and Lego Girl T-shirts!!!  So, I got the idea to make my son a LegoMan T shirt for the party fromOver the Big Moon Blog   I couldn't stop there though.   I went on the hunt for some cheap T shirts and I was able to find some so, I took the file that is on the blog and I added a bow to the legoman, to make a lego girl!!  I wanted to know that the girls would wear the shirts later.   So, 15 shirts later, this was the outcome.   Each kid got one as a prize for games.

Lego Party Extras

We're nearing the end of the Lego Party posts. This post is for the 'extras' that I put together for the party, NOT using the Cricut. This is the first thing that I made for the party.   I bought juice boxes and wrapped them in colored duct tape.   Two tips here.   #1, remove the straws before wrapping.  #2 use a strong hole punch to punch a hole in the duct tape that goes across the top of the juice box and line up the hole in the duck tape with the hole for the straw.

After you've wrapped the juice boxes, you can reattach the straws with some ATG tape and then use some foam pop dots to add paper circles on the front of them.   Now you have lego drinks!

  The idea of these paper cones also came from Pinterest.  They were black and white superhero cones.   These are color copies of the Lego instructions, filled with Cheetos.

I used my cupcake 'trees' to hold the cones.   As you can see, I hung plastic table covers on the walls and added the same color paper plates, to look like large legos.   I also wrapped many boxes an stacked them and added circles to the tops.

The food table included a white lego man border that was the backing for another project that I will show you tomorrow.   I just taped them in line to the table cover.   I also took some DUPLO lego blocks (the larger ones) and holders for the silverware and napkins.   One of the foods on the menu were sub sandwiches, that I displayed the cardboard tray (to the left) that I wrapped in solid blue wrapping paper and then covered with the 'lego' logos that I saved from my son's boxes of lego's that he got for Christmas and Easter.

As you can see, I hung some honeycomb balls form the ceiling and used more of the wrapped boxes for the table centerpieces and well as some wall sized legos'.  

Lego Birthday Card

Today I have my lego birthday card that I made for my son's birthday.   The paper is the same paper used on the invitation, from Creative Imaginations.   I used a large green piece as the 'plate' and then cut smaller pieces for the boarder and layered them using pop dots so they were raised as if lego's were being stacked.

The lego man head was a another story!  I used a layer from the Robotz cartridge that was half of the shape of the legoman head.  The cut was the Robot39 font cut, using Design Studio at 3".   I stretched it a little for more of a square shape and then copy and pasted the same shape onto itself but, rotated the top shape, turning it upside down. I welded the two shapes together and this is what I got.   I did have to trim the top and bottom down so that the lego 'knobs' weren't too long.

Then, onto the face.  I cut the mount and eyebrows using the Twinkle Toes cartridge, Dancer5 layer shift at 6" for the mouth and 3" for the eye brows.   The eyes were hole punched.   I printed the sentiment and framed it. 

the inside was framed with each color lego paper and then a few random, falling blocks.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Lego Sign

This certainly isn't an extremely close up picture but, pretty good.   Each letter is cut from the Birthday Bash cartridge, at 4" EXCEPT the 'I', 'Y', 'P' and 'N' that we cut at 3" because they cut larger than the 'H' for example.  They are mounted onto lego blocks in each primary color.   The blocks were made just like the blocks for the invitations, only a little larger.   I used the rectangle and cylinders from George and Basic Shapes and welded them together in Design Studio, to make them look like a lego brick.   The total size of each 'brick' was 5 3/4".  

I used my Crop-a-dile to add grommets to each 'brick' and then I roped red, yellow, blue and green curling ribbon into each letter to hang them.  

Lego Game Container

 Obviously more lego paper used on this project...the band around the front, the band around the lid and the tent card on the top with the game question. 

For the legoman head, I used a layer from the Robotz cartridge that was half of the shape of the legoman head. The cut was the Robot39 font cut, using Design Studio at 6". I stretched it a little for more of a square shape and then copy and pasted the same shape onto itself but, rotated the top shape, turning it upside down. I welded the two shapes together and this is what I got. I did have to trim the top and bottom down so that the lego 'knobs' weren't too long.

For the face. I cut the mount and eyebrows using the Twinkle Toes cartridge, Dancer5 layer shift at 6" for the mouth and 3" for the eye brows. The eyes were hole punched.

Lego Party Favors

This is just a quick post with the party favors from our lego party.   The containers are from the Target dollar bins and they were 3/$1 and have holes all over them.   I filled them with a lego birthday man, lego builder card, lego tips and tricks (these all come in the sets from lego.com and I got them on sale for $20/box).   I also added some lego man crayons that I made using the lego.com silcone mold and I added a rice krispy treat that I put mini marshmallows on and covered with green melting chocolate.   Those turned out a little messy but the point got across.  

The tags that I made for the favors were using the Creative Imaginations paper and just mounting a solid yellow rectangle and then the child's name printed onto red paper.   I pop dotted on some individual cut out blocks, to look like the building process. 

Lego Man Crayons

These were the crayons that I made for the lego party.   I bought the silicone mold at lego.com and then collected up all the worn down and broken crayons in the house.   I slit a line down each crayon with paper and then peeled the paper off.   I broke all the crayons into small pieces and then put them in the mold to bake for about 15 minutes on 250.

TIPS:  my first batch didn't go so well because I wasn't using enough crayon.   You want to almost fill the mold so that you can push the crayon out from the backside.  When you take them out of the oven, put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then you can get them out of the mold easier...without snapping their heads off.  Also, the darker color crayons are OK if you only use one with lighter colors.   If you use several darker colors together, they pretty much melt together and look black when they are re-hardened into new crayons. 

Lego Birthday Invite

My son just turned 7 and the theme for his party was Lego's.   He's completely addicted and actually got about 15 different sets that he worked on for a day and a half until he got them all completed.   Now he wants more!  Oh gosh!

So, to kick things off, this was the invite.   As you can probably guess, this is not the correct information.   I changed it for the purpose of this posting.  

I used Cricut Design Studio and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge to create the lego block.   I chose the rectangle and the cylinders on the George cartridge and widened the rectangle a little to make 4 cylinders fit.   I welded them together and then cut.   The block itself is a little smaller than 4x6.

The paper was the Lego paper from Creative Imaginations.   It says 'lego' on every little knob and they are raised.   Now, here's a little tip.   When cutting this paper, because all of those knobs are raised and are not stuck to the mat, you will get tearing if you don't use a good mat and a new blade!

I cut a solid blue piece as well and glued them together so that the back of the invite wasn't just the white of the lego paper, and then I inked the edges.

Stay tuned for the rest of my lego creations for this party!

Lil Dancer

I have a few little dancers that I know and although my daughter isn't yet, she could be!  This card was for my son's friend, who is a little dancer.   The mat paper is from Cosmo Cricket 2wentythr3e collection.  The ribbon is velvet laser cut adhesive from Oriental Trading. 
The dancer is from the Twinkle Toes cartridge, dancer9 at 4", with the layers and gems in her hair bows.   The sentiment on the front is from fiskars and the inside is from Scrappy Cat.

Apple Thank You's

I've been trying to get ahead in my crafting so that I am not scrambling when I want to make something.   I'm doing pretty good and I actually got to make these Thank you cards for my son's teacher.   She always sends them so, I figure it is a very useful gift. 

This set was made using Apple 1 from Preserves cartridge at 3 1/2", with the layers.  When assembling the apples, I used some black glossy paper under the layers, for the seeds.  The mat paper and the paper used to make the apple are from the Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety stack.  The solid cream paper under the apple was border punched with a Martha Stewart punch and then embossed with the Swiss Dots folder and inked the edges in red.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado. 

And, although I didn't get a picture of it, I took the negative cut 'seeds' from the layers and I colored them black with a sharpie and glued them on the inside at the bottom. 

Finding Birthday Wishes

Today's card is a birthday card for a male friend, which are always challenging for me.  The mat paper is from the DCWV Tradewinds stack.  I slowly tore the edges of the card and then slightly inked them to give the card an aged map look.

  The compass was cut from Wall Decor and More at 3 1/2" and an American Crafts brad added to the center.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and the inside sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo.

Birthday Calli Lillies

I'm still still loving the Art Nouveau cartridge as you can see.  The Calla Lillies were cut at 4" and I used white opal liquid pearls on the top layer of the lillies to make them stand out.  The printed paper is from the DCWV Serenity stack on the top and a white pearl underneath.   I used a Martha Stewart Punch around the page for both sheets.

I finished off the front of the card with a slider tag I made using a Paper Studio Punch and an Inkadinkado stamped sentiment.   The ribbon holding the slider is from American Crafts.

With this view of the card, you can see that it wasn't an even fold.   I cut the front and inch shorter than the back so that you could see the inside piece of pearl that I border punched along with a little strip of the printed paper.

Need a Squeeze? Or Two? Published in Jan 2012 Cricut Magazine

This is the last post of the cards that were published in Cricut Magazine's January 2012 issue.   I made two variations of the same card and the second one, below, is the one that was published.  The lemon was cut from Just Because Cards.  I did a reverse embossing on the lemon using the swiss dots folder and I inked the leaf a little and then popped the lemon on the paper.  The mat paper is is from the K&Co. Citrus stack.   The strip of orange paper is core'dinations and the sentiment is printed from my computer.  I framed it and added some yellow gems.

So, the second version I like more.   I used two smaller lemons and different mat paper but, still K&Co.  I didn't add the gems but, I punched the edges of the frame and ran a ribbon through it. 

Bird's Nest Themed Cake

And, finally, although, not paper related at all, it is the finalle of the shower!!  My sister made the cake for us, which included the nest and egg on the top.   But, most importantly, the inside of the top layer was white cake that was dyed blue for a reveal of the babies sex!!!  It was a hit!!

Grow in More than Just Inches

So, I finally added a color!!  Yes, it's going to be a boy and by the time they get to opening my card, all of the guests will know it's going to be a boy! 

I used the Songbird cartridge for this frame.   The cut is Frame2 - Bird - shift at 3 1/2" and then the Frame2 shift at 3 1/4".

The 'Grow in More than Inches' was cut at 2" from Straight from the Nest.   It's the flourish3 phrase with all the layers at 2".   I added some brown pearls to the frame and for the bird's eye.

This sentiment in the inside is from Fiskars.

Altered Nest Gift Bag

My coordinating gift bag was created from a store bought gift bag.   The bag had bright purple ribbon handles that I removed and replaced with this striped brown, cream and green ribbon.

I also added the three birds in the nest, cut at 7 1/2" from Wall Decor and More.

Nest Favors

My nest themed favors were No Bake Cookies with Reese Pieces eggs.   I only got about 10-12 nests per batch because I dropped big scoops of the cookie mixture on wax paper and let them sit for about 10 minutes and then took a melon baller and pushed the round end down on the center of the cookie to create the nest and then I added the Reese Pieces egg so that it would stay in the nest.
I bagged each of them up and tied them close with three pieces of ribbon, brown, cream and shiny gold.   The tags were made using the Robin cut on the Storybook cartridge at 3", including the shadow.  The sentiment is a blend of Studio G and Fiskars.