While we are no longer making active post of Cricut projects on this blog as of 8/1/2013, we invite you to use it for continued die cut inspiration as we will leave the blog up for viewing. Happy Cricuting !

Friday, June 28, 2013

Creative Cards Happy Birthday Card

Welcome to another project at Cricut Fanatics!  Diane here from the blog http://happyscrapperdiane.blogspot.com with a quick card project. I created a card using the new Creative Cards cartridge. I had to wait till I could put it in my Gypsy to use it. I customized  the card in Gypsy as well to be the size I needed.
I size the card base in the Gypsy at 10 x 7 inches.  This is the 9th card on the brochure instuctions.
I folded the card at the marks.  I did not add the layer piece so that I could use the white front.
I cut the flowers for the outside at 4.84 x 5.00 inches and the leaves at 5.21 x 5.00.  The flower for the inside is cut at 2.34 x 2.41 and the leaves at 2.51 x 2.41.  I put the flower on the front together with fabric plaid brad and used a jewel on the inside flower.
The black strip was cut at 7 inches to fit the front of the card and is one inch wide. I attached the flower
The banner on the card with the stamped Happy Birthday is from the 10th card and I cut them at 3.5 and 4 inches.  I am not sure what the stamp is, but had it in my stash. 
I added a strip on the bottom of the card to match the front and stamped a verse from some Close to My Heart stamps. The pattern paper was something in my stash and not sure what it is. The card stock is Michaels.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Best in Class Celebration

Good morning Cricut Fanatics! Hope you are enjoying your summer so far.

This is Rita from Rita's Paper Obsession. Every year my boss recognizes our work unit with a luncheon celebration.  She comes up with a theme and it's my job to create her vision.  This year's theme was "Best in Class".  She wanted to see our accomplishments recognized with blue ribbons.  Here's our accomplishments highlighted on our conference room wall.



The project had to be quick and simple as I had a limited amount of time so I made the rosettes for the banner and ribbons using strips cut from card stock. 



The banner and letters were cut from the Birthday Bash cart.


I cut the leaf wreath on the ribbon from the Sweathearts cart and the stars are from George and Basic Shapes from gold poster board.

Our celebrations must include party favors.  My boss wanted everyone to have a blue ribbon.



I found 1 1/2 inch blue lollipops at the party store and decided to attach a smaller version of the blue ribbon to them.  The "Best in Class" was a computer image that matched everything perfectly.

Thank you for stopping by today.  May you have a wonderful summer full of memories worthy of scrapping!

Designed by: Rita Poteat
Cricut Cartridges Used: Birthday Bash, George and Basic Shapes, Sweethearts
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression
Project type: Party decorations

Monday, June 24, 2013

Thanks Teacher



 





 
 
Hello this is Terri from www.scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com. Where oh where has the year gone. I can't believe it's JUNE already. I must admit I almost missed the post for today - as the month totally got away from me.
 

So we all know I love love love playing with vinyl. So a few months back before school was out for the summer I made these. My daughter went  2 years to the same preschool. While, I was a little nervous about her going 2 years ago my daughter's teachers put me at ease. They were simple the BEST. They genuinely loved kids. So I wanted to make these fun flower pots for them as a HUGE thank you gift.
 
I used pots I found from Michael's. They were 50% off when I bought them.  The one teacher likes purple and other green/blue. So I thought these were perfect.
 
I cut the words from white vinyl. I used billionaire and welded the words together. The words are just over 1.12".
 
The saying, "Thanks for helping me grow". The teachers loved them so much.
 
I know it's a super quick and easy project but the result and gift was fantastic.
 
I kiss cut the vinyl by turning my blade to 3, pressure to 3, and speed to 3 or medium.
 
I then used washi tape to transfer the words to the flower pots.
 
And I leave you with my love of this fun little project. Lots of people know I love my Blackhawks. My hubby is a true Chicagoan - me a transplant Chicagoan (I grew up down state IL). I love watching hockey. My MIL a few years ago bought my daughter this hockey Jersey and I had to make a photo layout with it. I used PKS face on the little hockey girl. The  girl was made from paper dolls and she is 3". As you can see this is from 2010 -- so with them winning the STANLEY CUP I guess I should make another layout of her w/ a 2013 cup....
 


Designed by Terri Szymanski
 
Gypsy and Expression used
 
Cartridge: Billionaire cut at 1.12"
 
Supplies: White Vinyl
 
 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

You're A Hoot!

Hi everyone! It's Colleen from Col's Creative Corner here today with a cute idea for home décor. I am going to be a Great Aunt in August and I am beyond thrilled about this baby. Even more exciting is that we will be welcoming a little girl into our family! This is a big deal because I have a son and my brother has 4 sons, so little girls are in short supply in our family. LOL!

The theme for the baby's nursery is forest animals, owls are the focus. I ordered the crib set and curtains that were on the baby's registry, but decided to make the wall art with my Cricut. There are many owls to choose from on the cartridges I own, but I wanted to make the art as close to the pictures from the registry as I could. The owls are from Taggies and this is what they look like.

They are very cute, but were expensive. That gave me the idea to fire up my Cricut and make my own version for the baby's room. I looked for a match to the background in the craft stores, but couldn't find any. A Circle member suggested that I use my Imagine to re-create the paper, and that is what I did. I actually used the CCR with my Imagine to make the paper. I used Creative Memories Holiday Tags and Frames for the circles and colored them with colors from Wrap It Up. It turned out great!
 
 
 
I chose the owl from Create A Critter for my owls. I wanted my owls to look as close to the Taggies owls, so I used the hide contour in the CCR and hid the markings on the owl's belly. I replaced them with flowers from Art Philosophy and Create A Critter. I also hid the sleepy eyes and replaced them with the flower from the Zebra layer on Create A Critter. I cut 2 extra white shadows of the owl and trimmed away most of the owl so that I would have white eyes. After I did that, I realized I could have just cut two pieces of white scrap paper and got the same result. LOL! I also cut an extra blue top layer and a pale green shadow layer. I cut away the body from the blue layer and the head from the pale green layer. Here is how the blue layer looked trimmed. In my haste to piece the owl together, I forgot to take a picture of the light green section.
 

I layered them over the bright pink shadow and added the eyes, feet and beak. Then I went to work on the branch. I found a branch I liked on Wall Décor and More. It comes from the owl cut on that cartridge. I cut the leaves away and added hearts that I cut from Doodlecharms. I inked the hearts and branches with Stampin' Up inks.

 
I got a couple of frames in Michaels to frame my owls. They are shadow box frames, but they give you an option of how far back you would like to place your art. Since the picture was flat, I used all three spacers that came with the frame. Here are my owls.
 
 
 
                                                                                 
The pictures didn't come out very good. I think I should have taken a couple before I framed them. Here are a couple of close ups of the owls.
 

 
I really hope that the baby enjoys the owls from Aunt Colleen. It was so much fun making all the baby things for the Baby Shower today. I will be posting more of my baby room décor that I created on my personal blog later this week. Stop on by and visit me!
 
Happy Crafting!
Colleen
 
Designed By: Colleen McCauley
Designed With CCR 
Machine Used: Cricut Expression AE2 and Imagine
Carts: Wall Décor and More, Doodlecharms, Art Philosophy, Create A Critter.
Imagine Carts: Wrap It Up for Circle Colors and Creative Memories Holiday Tags and Frames for Circles.
Extras: Stampin' Up Inks and Adhesives.
                                                                                       

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Happy 21st Birthday Card

Hi Everyone! Melody Lane here to share a card I made for a coworker. He went to a Casino on his Birthday so I thought this card would fit.

I used the Las Vegas CCR Exclusive to make the roulette wheel. The font is from Feeling Groovy, I welded everything together in Cricut Craft Room, I also made a CCR tutorial and show how I created this whole card on 4 videos. I used the Cuttlebug on the red paper and used a Martha Stewart corner punch in the corners.

I used Recollections cardstock and raised the roulette wheel up on foam squares.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out my blog and Youtube Channel
Come back here tomorrow for more!

Cricut Info & Supplies Used
Designed By:  Melody Lane
Machine:  Cricut Expression2, Cricut Craft Room, Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridge:  Feeling Groovy, Las Vegas
Other Supplies Used:
Paper:Recollections
Punch:  Martha Stewart corner punch-star

Sketch Challenge #8

Welcome to our Sketch Challenge.  
This is Amy from Amy's Digi Scraps and welcome to the another Sketch Challenge! On the 20th of each month, I will post a sketch for you to enjoy!  I generally post a card sketch with a card that I create, but you can make it a layout as well.  Please visit the Sketch Challenge link for more information about our monthly Sketch Challenges.

Here is the sketch for today:



And here is the card I created for it:


This sketch was created as part of a class I will be teaching locally.  It is similar to what is known as a One Sheet Wonder, where you create several cards from one sheet of printed paper.  This class will allow the participants to create 17+ cards using very minimal supplies, adhesive, inks and stamps.  I will have the entire class and patterns available on my blog after the class has finished.  My purpose for these cards and the class is to encourage new card makers who want some creativity without having a lot of bulk or "extras" on their cards.  To show that simplicity can be beautiful.
 In addition, I am asking those who take the class to consider donating one or two of the cards they create in class to Operation Write Home (OWH).  This is a wonderful organization that sends blank cards overseas to our military so they have cards to send home to their loved ones.  Stationery supplies are not a priority there, so the cards really do fill a need.
I used paper that I bought in bulk from Tuesday Morning for both the printed paper and the solid color paper.  The stamps and ink are from Close To My Heart.
Now - what makes this class - and card - so fun for the Cricut Fanatics blog is that all the cuts are done by the Cricut Expression machine and George Cartridge!  Again, once the class is finished, I will share the information, but I drew out the cuts I wanted and then designed it on my Gypsy machine to cut with my Cricut.  The cricut doesn't cut all the way to the edges of the paper, but this is a simple cut with my scissors to finish separating and this saves a lot of time, measuring, and errors!!
If you've ever been in a class that requires a lot of cutting, you know how easy it is to get lost and make the wrong cuts, even with the diagram in front of you.  Having taught these classes before, I know how it can slow down the class, as well as create problems with paper waste.
By using my Cricut to cut these multiple, simple cuts, I am able to keep the class moving forward, plus promote the Cricut machine and Gypsy.
Some edge inking, a little bit of stamping, and glue everything down and presto! 17 different cards (or more) in under an hour.




We would love to see what you can do with this Sketch.  Please create a card or layout and upload the image to this post in the InLinkz!  Remember that you must use your Cricut in creating your project for the Sketch Challenge.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

My Favorite Layouts...Long Post

 
WARNING!!!  Making of the following layouts will result in "Bulky" Scrapbook Binders.....

I went to a crop a couple of months ago, crops are not really my favorite place to go to get work done because I like to "Social Butterfly" to see what everyone else is working on,.  but I go so my friend can have company.  I started cutting and putting together "Kits" in January so that I didn't have to drag much more than adhesives, bling and a basic tool kit.  Every piece/layer was totally embellished and just had to be attached to the layout.  I took 27 kits to assemble plus 5 or 6 of the 3D projects that I've posted on here earlier.  I got all the 3d projects completed and 18 of the kits put together that day.  I finished the other 9 kits the next day since hubby was out of town.  

Today I am going to show you the Cricut layouts that I put together there and a few that I have put together earlier and posted around here and there.  These layouts are a combination of freebies and purchased designs from Monique Griffith's  blog.  If you are interested in seeing her original designs, click the title and it will take you to the blog  page for that layout on her website.  I'm not selling anything or affiliated in any way, work and life keep me pretty busy and I just don't have time to sit around and guess what size to cut things at.  It's like buying a pattern for clothes...takes all the guess work out of it.

NOTE: she sells directions for cutting and assembling these projects for $5.  There are some posts with free directions for layouts (Home for the Holidays and Music to my Ears have directions posted for cutting sizes on the blog-just click their titles to go there), take a look around.  These are just some of the projects she offers.


This is the first layout I made using the free directions on the website.  The patterned papers were printed from the Christmas Wish Imagine Cartridge. The cuts are from the Winter Woodland and Everyday Paper Dolls Cartridged.  You might have seen this posted on my old blog or the cricut messageboards.  It was, and still is, my all time favorite layout.



I will never forget our miniature collie "Naboo" singing along every time my daughter practiced the flute.  (I got  Naboo the week that the Star Wars 1 was released, I had seen trailers for the movie and wanted to name her Jar Jar Binks soooo bad, but my family rebelled...Her official registered name wound up being Queen Amidala of Naboo).  This layout was perfect to record this memory as Naboo has left us.  I still have to finish the journalling in the ticket, one of these days........This layout was done using Mickey & Friends and the Quarter Note Cartridge and is Free also.





This layout was done using the A Child's Year Cartridge.  I just love all the details and vintage look to this page.  I substituted flowers from the Artiste cartridge for this layout, Monique made her flowers by hand cutting a spiral design in a circle.  I love the leaves at the bottom of the page, even though they were a pain.  I cut them,  misted them with water and perfect pearls, wadded them up in a paper towel, then opened the paper towel and let the dry, it was a nice day so I took them outside to dry in the sun.....from out of nowhere a quick breeze sprung up and blew them all over my yard,  my dogs thought I was playing a game and were so helpful in picking them up...lol



I used the Yummy Imagine Cartridge to print all the background papers.  I couldn't find anything I liked in my stash so I designed the diamond background and teal/black border piece in the Craft room and printed it.  The Diecuts were made using the Nifty Fifties Cartridge.

The old "Merc" in the photo's was our graduation gift to our son in 2002.  That's Dad, Grandpa and family friend "Uncle Harry" taking it for a cruise around the MIS raceway in Brooklyn, Michigan.  The guys really enjoyed that, as soon as I saw this layout I knew I had found the perfect layout for this memory.  The guys haven't said anything about the pink stuff in it, but I think they like it in spite of the pink.



 
The rest of the layouts were ones I worked on at the crop.  sorry for the funkiness in some of the pictures, I couldn't get the lighting to cooperate, of course it would help if I wasn't up in the middle of the night trying to take pictures with a glaring fluorescent light!
 

Used a tan and blue color scheme to make my version of this layout.


 
I love this color scheme, when I printed out my daughter's pictures in sepia tone they looked way to yellow so I did some research and found a "Bronzing" action for Photoshop.  It's hard to tell here because the lighting made the pictures look wonky, but that bronze color tone matches the background paper perfectly.
 
My grandson is a Lego Maniac, these are pictures from his birthday last year, he got enough money to buy the Millenium Falcon,.  It has more than 1,000 pieces to put it together.  


Originally designed for the Cricut Stampede, I changed the title to use for my grandson's pony birthday party...

I changed this layout around quite a bit.  Swapped out a lamp post for the signpost called for in the directions, still need to put a wreath on it though.  The light colored paper at the bottom was supposed to be at the top, didn't even notice it until I had the "hill" by the door glued down-no way to fix it so it was put together with an up-side-down background.
My grandson loves to play with that cork gun "Uncle Harry" bought him at Cabelas.  For this particular play session Connor, Dad and Papa all donned hats of some sort and had weapons, there we so many cute pictures that I wanted to include so I designed a mini flip book on the right page using zutter 4x6 photo pages.

 I trimmed the pictures down to size then trimmed the photo pages.  Next I tied ribbons in the rectangular openings to cover the binding holes.

When this page is inserted in the album, I have cut out an opening in the page protecrtor so that the album pages can be viewed without taking the page out of the protector...

All Background Papers were printed using the Yummy Imagine Cartridge.  I Changed this up a bit because the layout would have been over busy if I used all the items called for in the directions.


My grandson's 2nd visit to a zoo, this time with his daddy...



These photo's were taken for my Photography class for various techniques

 

The Monsters, Inc. movie helped my grandson get over his fears about monsters under the bed and such.  He now knows that only the "Tickle" monster lives at Grandma's, all the other monsters are scared of our big dog.

The bottom background page was preprinted cardstock I bought at the fall crop in September. It fit perfectly with the theme and colors that were chosen for making this layout.
 
Grandson's first visit to the zoo with Grandma & Papa.  I love these pictures.  This was such a special day, it was the first time we took him on an outing.

***********
 
Love At First Sight


This layout is one I did at the crop and can share here because it has a Cricut cut on it.  The original came from the Close to my Heart Spring Summer 2013 catalog pg. 49.  I used some left over pieces of the Later Sk8r paper packages I had used to make his baseball and basketball layouts from.  I searched for the word Love and created at 1st sight with various fonts then manipulated the files in the Craft Room to weld together.  Since there wasn't a shadow for the words I had created, I used a trick Monique taught me about cutting a set in the color you want your shadow and offsetting them to create the appearance of a shadow.


It was Love at 1st Sight when Connor got to see his gift for his 2nd birthday (to stay at grandma's-mom & nana don't like dogs).  Grandma thinks all kids should have a pet to teach them kindness and responsibility and that is what he asked for as his gift. This is Snoopy the Rat Terrier who was only 3 weeks old when she traveled from Kentucky to Michigan to become Connor's best friend.  They have both grown over the last 6 years, Snoopy still loves Connor, but  wants to sleep after an hour of playing.  We got a big German Shepherd also that Connor can lay on  and play tug with, they both follow him around when he visits then stare out the window waiting for him to return when he leaves.  They are so adorable together.


Well, that's not all of them, but that's all I can share here.  I'll work on posting more on my blog over the next few months, so be sure to visit and subscribe to see what else I've come up with.  My crafting is expanding in a different direction that can't be shared here.  I've become obsessed with the Mixed Media Canvas stuff and have gotten quite a few "non" Cricut toys to play with.   I still use Cricuts, but am working with my other toys more because I've just been dabbling, but I really need to spend some time playing with it and learning to design my own projects.  

Unfortunately, next month's posting will be my final regular posting.  You're welcome to stop by my blog and see some of the new things I'm doing and learning.  I'll send postings to Deb occasionally when they are appropriate for this forum because I've got to many Cricut's just to let them sit idle. 

Freda
canncreatedesigns.blogspot.com

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Happy Campers!

Greetings all!

This is Michele from Scrap-n-Dance.blogspot.com. :)

I have a two page layout today, that I designed as a kit for some friends of mine. It's summer time, and some of us like to CAMP!  The simple patterns of Simple Stories' "Take a Hike" line of papers were an excellent background for the pages. And of course I found plenty of Cricut images to cut! I used my Gypsy to design the layout so all the images of sized on my gypsy, but you can always cut them at the nearest 1/4 inch!

"Happy Campers" is from Outdoor Man, and cut at 2.70 inches.
The sleeping bag is also from Outdoor Man and cut at 1.5 inches.
The camp fire is from Outdoor Man and cut at 2.5 inches.
The tent is from Camp Out and cut at 3.5 inches.

The squares across the top were hand cut from the sheet of paper that was all squares of camp and park signs. After cutting them I glued them to squares of brown cardstock to mat them. They fit perfectly across the top.

Thanks for stopping to visit and happy cricuting!

Designed by Michele Donner-Ramsey
Cricut Info and Supplies Used:
Machines used: Cricut Expression, Gypsy
Cartridges used:  Outdoor Man, Camp Out
Other Supplies:  Simple Stories Take a Hike papers, Cardstock, adhesive