Thursday, December 15, 2011

My Cricut Craft Room Design Team Theme Day: FLOWERS!

Hi everyone! Today I a sharing a project for Erica's My Cricut Craft Room, and today's theme is Flowers!

I have been making a few new projects that you will get to see soon, but I have been very busy with my ornaments.  Have you seen them yet?  Check them out here in my Etsy Shop!

I made a whole bunch of these this summer and I thought it would be fun to share something a little out of the box with you today.

I used Mother's Day Bouquet to make the fabric cuts for this, but you could use any scalloped circle cut that you have.




I didn't take pictures of the process, but it's pretty simple to do.

The first step is to prepare your fabric for cutting.  Most people suggest you do so by using Wonder-Under to stiffen up the fabric before cutting.  It also keeps the fabric in place while its being cut on your mat.  I cut four in one size (toy with the sizes that you like best but know that the largest one you make will be about the size of your overall flower), then three in a slightly smaller size.

I cut a small piect of circular felt and hot glued the pieces fown after folding each piece in half twice.  For the larger pieces you are recreating the circular shape.  Do the same with the smaller pieces, but you are doing this just to fill it in more.

Finish it in the center and voila!  In the polka dot one, I chose to make an extra 1-size smaller cut (smaller than the second layer) to make my center... didn't fold it, just kind of bunched it before hot gluing it down.

I hope you enjoyed today's project and I hopoe to see you back soon!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

25 DAYS OF CHISTMAS! THEME: ORNAMENTS


Welcome to Erica's Craft Room 25 Days of Christmas, with 25 Cricut projects a day.
Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today and EVERY day in December.

Today I am sharing with you actual ornaments I've made.  No tutorial here, just lots of pictures.  I have these for sale on my Etsy page, so reach out to me if you are interested.  I highly suggest if you choose to make them on your own that you have a supply pf glitter and glossy vinyl on hand.  The matte indoor vinyk does not seem to work well with curved objects.

Here they are:
Plantin Schoolbook

Tie the Knot







Songbird


As always, thank you for taking the tume to stop and check things out to day!  Make sure that you heat back to Erica's page and see what the rest of my DT sisters were up to today!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Bella's Birthday Blog Hop





I hope you are enjoying today's hop!  You should have come here from Jenny's blog.  If not, please start at the begining at My Cricut Craft Room so that you don't miss out on any of the fun!

I've been in serious ornament mode lately!  I used Life's a Party and Ashlyn's Alpabet on Cricut Craft Room to merge the two cartridges together and create this ornament!

Happy Birthday Bella!!

I had to add some bling... in honor of Bella of course!

I will be giving this ornament to my niece Ashley for Christmas.
Thank you, as always, for making my day by stopping by today!!  The next stop on the hop is BELLA'S MOMMY!!!  Now you KNOW that stop's gonna be good!!!


In case you get lost, here is the line up:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

25 DAYS OF CHISTMAS! THEME: ANIMALS

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room 25 Days of Christmas, with 25 Cricut projects a day.
Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today and EVERY day in December.

I'll be sharing two projects with you.  Our theme today was "Animals".  I have a really cute page from a scrapbook album I wanted to share with you.  I'm sure that you'll be seeing a lot of Create a Critter today, but I wanted to highlight these two pups along side a tree from Heritage.  The idea is that the tree will include names of the family and the dogs will also be represented as members of the family too.  The paper is DCWV.
Above view, without leaves, on my messy table....

The Family name leaves.

A Close Up of the Pups..
 My second project to show you today is one I have been wanting to try for a while... Long before my three year old mastered the game, I developed a slight addiction to the game Angry Birds.  I'm the type of "gamer" though, that once I beat all of the levels I'm done with the game.  My sone, however, plays it constantly.  He loves "Ang-y Birds".  His Haloween pumpkin was an "Ang-y" Bird, and I searched like mad to find toddler sized Angry Bird apparel (they don't make it...  I had to have one custom done..!)  Anyway, as I began to make ornaments using my Cricut this year an awesome idea popped in my head.  Their design is simple, and I'd bet I can make it out of George.  Well (forgive me for this one....)  BY GEORGE I CAN!

Here is a screen shot of what the cuts look like on CCR:

In order: White, Black, Yellow

 The larger circle was supposed to be his underbelly.  I was using scraps.  Up until now, I had been using glossy outdoor vinyl.  This was the first WHITE Cricut brand indoor vinyl I had used on an ornament.  It did not work well.  The contour of an ornament needs plyability which you get with the ourdoor glossy stuff.  Not so much so with the matte indoor.

Anyway....  the final product:



He he he!  I can't wait to get more ornaments at the store and try to make the pig tomorrow!  I'll be sure to share if I do!

Thanks, as always for stopping by!  Have a happy crafty day!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Home Decor Project - "Days Until" Chalkboard Countdown

As part of Erica's Cricut Craft Room Design Team, I was asked to share a Home Decor project today.  If you haven't caught on to the craze that is Pinterest - be forewarned.  It is the equivalent of internet crack.  Especially for crafters and DIY'ers... so I'm just saying.  You've been warned.

Anyway - I saw both parts of this Pinterest.com and I'm excited to share it with you!  So, you know those Christmas coundown calendars?  Well this one, allows you to change the event to anything... vacation, birthday, concert - whatever! 

So first thing's first.... chalkboard paint.. you have a few options...chalkboard spray paint, pre-made chalkboard paint in a variety of colors at yor local craft store, or you can do what I did and MAKE YOUR OWN!!!  All you need is a little bit of Non Sanded Grout from your local hardware store.  A decent sized can only cost me $3 and the ratio is 1.5 tsp powder to 1/4 cup paint.  Thats it.  Mix and paint.  The KEY is priming your chalkboard after the paint is dry.  Take some chalk and run it all over the board.... give it a good coat and then wipe it all off.  Then voila!  Chalkboard!

Next step is the vinyl. I designed "Days Until" using Songbird on Cricut Craft Room, welding the letters together and then cut them out on a beige colored vinyl.  Adhere to the board, then decorate with chalk : )

  I hotglued a picture hanger to the back, but I also found a small easle will also work well for this.

Here is an alternate version:




I also have this listed on my Etsy site - if you are interested in purchasing one, please click here.

As always - thanks for looking!  Have a great day today and make sure you stop back at Erica's page to see what the rest of my DT Sisters are up to today!!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

25 DAYS OF CHISTMAS! THEME: SPORTS


Welcome to the 25 days of Christmas from Erica's Craft Room and Design Team!  As many as 25 projects everyday in December!!!!  Once you are done here, make sure that you head back to check out all of the fabulousness happening back at her blog!

I wanted to share pictures of a room design I put together using the Soccer Cartridge and Sophisticated Cartridge.  I was asked by a friend to design something for her daughter's bedroom - she had looked everywhere for a girly soccer design and couldn't find anything, let alone something with the name "Julianna".  Pictures below are what we put together.  Simplu cut from large pieces of vinyl - no alterations here.  Thanks for stopping by today!!!


 The transfer tape allows you to stick the images up on the wall to try them out without committing them to their spot until you are ready - you can see we tried a few different things before we decided on a final version.




The soccer ball was cut twice, once from white, once in black and layered.  It comes from Life's a Party.

 


And I can't beleive I didn't take a picture of it, but I cut a matching "J" from t-shirt vinyl and adhered it to a pillow case to tie in her bed with a personalized touch.

As always - thank you for stopping by!

Saturday, December 3, 2011


Welcome to the 100 Cartridge Blog Hop, hosted my My Cricut Craft Room!  You should have been sent to my page by the fabulous and talented Jenny R's Blog.  If you didn't, please see the blog line up at the bottom of this page and start from the beginning.  There are TWO days and over 100 cartridges featured!  You won't want to miss a thing!

Today I will be showing you projects made using Tie the Knot, Songbird, and Create a Critter.

Did you know about the fabulous Monogram font that comes with Tie the Knot?  Well, I used Cricut Craft Room (CCR) to create a monogram ornament for a friend.  I like the look of script much better when writing out a name or using just one letter, so I chose the Songbird font for some of the other ornaments.  I cut them from different colors of adhesive vinyl which I purchased on ebay, and I also cut several small circles - to save time later I cut about 30 small circles out of red, green, white, black, and metalic pink vinyl so that I would have them on hand for other ornaments.

Here is how they turned out after some robbon embelishments:
Using Tie The Knot


Using Songbird


The other project I would like to show to you today is using a modified own on Create a critter - that owl is so cute but her eyes are closed!  I had a friend ask if I could make her owl themed birthday invitations for her daughter's birthday.  This is the design I came up with:

I chose to forgo Layer 1, and used CCR to "steal" the eye shape to cut out of white, and I glued down blue rhinestones for the eyes.  I'd show you the back, but I don't have a picture of a genericinvite without the family's personal information and I'd like to respect their privacy.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my projects today!

Next stop on the hop is LAURA!!!   If her post is not ready, please jump on over to Lisa's Blog and check out Laura's page a little later today!

In case you get lost, here is the entire lineup for today:

My Cricut Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/
Melissa http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com/ - santas villiage, trim the tree, gingerbread, VERY MERRY TAGS
Jen L
http://mybusycraftylife.blogspot.com/ - Mickey and Friends , Mickey and Friends Font , My community , Christmas Noel
Jenny R
http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com/ - Art Philosophy, Hello Kitty Greetings and Kate's Kitchen
Heather S
http://operationcricutdesign.blogspot.com/ - Songbird and Tie the Knot, Create a Critter
Laura
http://laurascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/ - Groovy Times, Christmas, Joys of the Season
Lisa
www.allmadebylisa.blogspot.com Word Collage & Quarter Note
Karey
http://www.creativecraftcorner.com/ Handy Man Cricut Lite Cartridge, Just Because Cards and Freshly Picked
Suzy's Crafts
http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com/ - Sophie, Fancy Frames, Sophisticated, Sweethearts
Yvette
http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/ - Snow Angel and Storybook

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pirate Themed Door Sign using Life's a Party

I wanted to do something a little different for today's post and Erica's Cricut Craft Room's Would You Ever Guess Wednesday.  Before I get into my project, please make sure that after you check it out you head back to Erica's page to see the other fantastic projects my DT sisters have been up to... and in December its going to be CRAZY with as many as 25 Christmas Projects A DAY!

The project that I wanted to share involves an alteration of an intended design from Life's a Party, and how I took this....


To this....


First, it involves Cricut Craft Room (CCR) - if you haven't started playing with this new and FABULOUS and FREE tool from Provo Craft, you are seriously missing out (that is if you aren't already addicted to your DS or Gypsy *wink*).  It allows you to design, redesign, alter, and combine cartridge images to get JUST the look you are going after.  I wanted to make a door sign to match the other party decor I had created (more to share later)l, and when I saw the map I knew that it was my pefect "backdrop". 

Using CCR I altered the size of the map to make sure I gave myself the maximum amount of space to include my writing.  I didn't want to alter too much and mmake it unrelative or things would begin to distor a bit on the edges I thought, so I kept it simple and adjusted it to an overall 11" height which maximized my paper space. 

The top layer of the map is the one with all of the map-like cut outs.  They needed to go.  Simple!  I clicked the "Hide Contour" button and when you move your mouse over the images they turn red.  whatever is red, if you click on it, that is what will be removed.


I just removed all of the little dots and marks that made up the map to clear my space for writing.

Then I used George to write up the sign.  I wanted to make it easy on myself, so instead of cutting out the letters and gluing each to the sign, I cut them OUT of the top layer.


Once cut, I had to glue in the negative spaces of the o's r's b's, etc, but that was a lot less work then having to perfectly line up and glue down all of these letters.

So, in the end you have the finished project shown at the top.  I finished it off with some Walnut ink to age it and accented it with the matching image from the cupcake toppers and banners.




As always - thanks for stopping by - I'll be back soon!