Still loving my Cricut...especially when I am busy!

I wanted to share a few fun Cricut projects I have been doing.  I have been so busy with work and church and other commitments, but always have little things that come up and my Cricuts really do make it so much easier to get those projects done!  Here are a few...

Today is "Crazy Day" at my daughter's school.  I had pinned some crazy hairstyles on my Pinterest boards to get a few ideas... This is one I found from Bee in Our Bonnet blog.  (Click here to see that post!)  This was my attempt and sweet Piper's flower garden hairdo...

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I put her hair in a ballet bun, using gel to smooth her hair to her head and a hairnet to secure the bun.  The flowers were some from my craft stash and are attached with bobby pins.  The picket fence was cut from Paper Doll Dress Up at 2" on the Expression.

I was asked to do a board at the Religious Education building at our church.  The First Sunday of Lent included a reading about Noah.  That sparked a whole inquiry among some of my Bible study friends on the connection between that Old Testament story and Lent.  This is the board I did using Noah's ABC Animals. 

The challenge was not only the size (I am used to small projects!), but also the fact that I had to use the existing background paper and the church's borders!  I hand-cut the boat due to the size--much too large for even the 12x24 mat, but all the animals were cut from the cart.  The clouds are from Serenade.  The cross over the scripture is from the New Testament cartridge.  I hand-cut the worried Noah.  The wave and splashes are from Noah's ABC Animals.  The door, window facings, roofs, and the cross were cut with kraft paper that I embossed with a wood grain folder from The Paper Studio on my Cuttlebug.  That brand of embossing folder tends to be extra deep and can tear the paper as it is being embossed so I back the papers with tape before embossing.

And just a hint, in case you are curious, the story of Noah's Ark and the observance of Lent are connected in the idea of 40 days and 40 nights (Jesus in the desert and Noah on the ark), water to renew (as in Jesus' baptism to take our sins and the flood to remove sin from the earth), a covenant between man and God, and the idea that all sin was not removed with Noah (since eight people were spared) thus creating the need for Jesus to take away sin.  There are also scriptures which connect Jesus with Noah, as in 1 Peter 3:18-22.   That is what we discovered-- if you have other insights, please share them with me!

Back to the projects... This is birthday season among Piper's friends.  These are packages I decorated for twins who shared a birthday...

For Katharine's package, the monkeys were cut from Noah's ABC Animals at 4" and 3" on the Expression.  The letters are from the same cartridge, cut at 1".  For Elizabeth's package, the rainbow is from Hello Kitty Greetings, cut at 6" on the Expression.  The letters are from Birthday Bash, cut at 1".  Piper gave them doll clothes from the Perfectly Piper Studio (our new Etsy shop for American Girl dolls). 

I have been using my Cricut for photographing the doll clothes I have been making.  This is one of the Juliana Michaels' flowers she showed us with her instructional video:

I have been making and selling (and giving away!) doll clothes for fun.  My Expression and Imagine machines have been so handy for that!  This is my necklace card that I use for packaging, featuring the Hopscotch print:

Lastly, these are some of the St. Patrick's Day projects I have featured on my blog that I wanted to share again with you...

Lollipop treats in a picket fence basket!  Click here for how-tos and more pictures on this blog!

St. Patrick's Day card with an altered Rock Princess!  Click here for how-tos and more pictures on this blog!

Happy shamrock doll t-shirt.  This was made for my Etsy store using Liberty Jane patterns for the t-shirt and jeans, and my Yudu and Yudu Cardshop for the silk screening!  Find more info about this outfit by clicking here.  The shamrock icon is from Spring Holidays cartridge!  Cricut has an angel policy for their carts that don't have 3rd party licensing that allows for the limited selling of finished products with their cartridge artwork!  You can read about that here.

Thank you for checking out my blog post today!  You can see all of my paper crafts by checking out my Project Gallery!  For doll clothes, you are invited to visit my doll blog! 

I hope you have a fun St. Patrick's Day planned for tomorrow!  We have a very busy day planned with family coming over (plus gynastics class in the morning and an afternoon child's birthday party).  My husband is doing one if his famous Leprechaun appearances and has a party planned for our family for the evening!  I hope you are enjoying spring as much as we are!  Happy crafting!