Patriotic Bug

Although I prefer to buy vinyl collectibles for children, recently the Cricut Circle Magazine announced a challenge to use Cricut cuts to dress up the little Cricut Collectibles.  That, and a sale at the Cricut website, was all it took for me to buy one for myself.  These are ordered with their identities unknown.  When mine arrived, I found that I had received a red Cricut Cake collectible!  That meant one thing to me:  I had to go with a holiday theme!  Since we are so far from Christmas and Valentines Day, I went patriotic!

I started with the gazebo because that was an element I really wanted in the background.  I cut two from Spring Cottage; one at 5-1/4" and one at 4-3/4".  I bent the larger one and put the two together to make a 3D form.

I decorated the gazebo for the holiday with flag bunting cut from Independence Day at 1" for the upper bunting and 3/4" for the lower ones.  I folded the bunting to follow the fold of the gazebo.  The smaller gazebo cut is adhered flat.  The larger, bent cut is attached only at the very top with a 3/4" pop dot.

I cut fireworks using the Stand and Salute cartridge, cutting at 2" and 1-1/2".  I ran the cuts through my Xyron and applied Martha Stewart fine glitter.

Next, I worked on the Bug's accessories.

His drink was cut from Cherry Limeade at 1".  Because the cut was so small, I used markers for color instead of some of the extra tiny layers.  I ended up trimming that straw a bit in the end. 

His hat was cut from Stand and Salute at 2".  I bent the brim up and curved the cut a bit to give it shape and dimension.  

His shirt and bow tie were cut from Formal Occasion (page 33).  The shirt was cut at 2" and I trimmed off the lower tip.  The bow tie was cut at 2-1/2".  

I cut his little flag from Stand and Salute at 2-1/4".

For the little scene, I cut grass from Paper Doll Dress Up at 1", trimming it down for the front pieces.

My cut summary (all were made on the Expression):

• Gazebo- Spring Cottage cut at 5-1/4" and 4-3/4".
• Bunting- Independence Day cut at 1" and 3/4".
• Fireworks- Stand and Salute cut at 2" and 1-1/2".
• Drink- Cherry Limeade cut at 1".
• Shirt and tie- Formal Occasion.  Shirt cut at 2" and bow tie cut at 2-1/2".
• Hat- Stand and Salute cut at 2".
• Flag- Stand and Salute cut at 2-1/4".
• Grass- Paper Doll Dress Up, cut at 1".

Thank you for reading my blog post today!  You can see many of my previous projects by visiting My Project Gallery.

Last Day of School!

Wow!  Today is the last day of school!  How did this happen so fast?

My daughter's school has a half-day today, flocked with events like Crazy Teacher Olympics (where the teachers do things like Egg Toss and other games intended to make them messy kid entertainment) and Hallway Sock Races (the one day they are allowed to run in the hall).  They do make it really fun and, this year, they have added Crazy Hair to the day... more about that later!

As always, I made little treats for the kids and I have a gift for her fantastic teacher, Mr. Workman!  I must have regressed last night, because I pulled a late-nighter getting these treats done... And for a little nostalgia, my husband yammered at me, asking why I waited until the last minute and "didn't you know for some time that this was the last day of school."  Mom would have been proud of his lecturing!

Despite that, I had a blast making these Book Worm treats!  

I got the idea from my Pinterest boards which lead me to the post on the Sweet Serendipity blog.  (Click here to see her version.)  I picked a 'book worm' theme because Piper's teacher has been stressing to the kids this past week to do summer reading!  I thought this was a fun tie-in.

As disgusting as I find gummy worms to be, I kind of liked these because they were rainbow-colored and smelled great!  I used four packages for 15 treat bags.  (These are from Walmart).

The toppers were cut to 4"x4".  (I sized them for 9"x4" pleated treat bags).   I printed the sentiment on my printer using Microsoft Coaster at 20 point for the top text and Calibri at 16 for the lower text.  I figured out a little trick for lining up the toppers:  I printed off the text onto white paper, lining up the first topper with my light box.  Then I marked the top and top corners.  All the remaining toppers were simply placed on the sheet using the marks and taped in place.  I saved a lot of time and they all matched exactly!

The caterpillar was cut from Create-A-Critter at 3" on my Expression.   For the books, I hand-cut little 7/8" x 5/8" rectangles and folded them into book shapes.  The books were applied with a 1/16" pop dot; the caterpillars were applied with 1/4" Terrifically Tacky Tape for a strong hold!

Yesterday,  I worked on a gift card box for a teacher gift.  

You can see my tutorial on making these by clicking here!  (Cart, cut, and plastic embossing details are all on that post!)  This one was made by embossing on the Cuttlebug with a Sizzix folder and cutting the box from high-gloss card stock.  The apple and ribbon are from Makin the Grade; the scalloped circle in between the apple and ribbon is from Mini Monograms.  I popped up each layer with an 1/8" pop dot and adhered to the box with E6000 glue.

I created a little card to go inside to hold the gift card.  My daughter wrote a sweet little message of appreciation inside to her teacher.

And lastly.... what almost made us late for this last day of school... a quick, crazy hair-do featuring blue hair spray and some surfers from Fun In the Sun (the girl was cut at 2-1/4"; the boy was 1-3/4").  Luckily, these cuts layered pretty fast this morning!  

Dropping her off this morning, I saw a rainbow of kid hair flooding into the school.  Woohoo!  We made it on time and... another summer is just beginning!  

Thank you for checking out my blog post today!  Happy Last Day of School!

To see last year's End of School S'mores Kits, click here.  

To see last year's Teacher Appreciation gift set, click here.  

To see the flower garden Crazy Hair we did earlier in the year, click here.

To see many of my previous projects, click here  for My Project Gallery.

A Gift from Sis Patterson ..plus Crafty Piper

My daughter had her First Communion this spring. She was lovely!  As a former life-long Methodist until a year or so ago, I had a lot to learn as an "RE" parent, such as how expensive a little girl's First Communion is after the dress, headpiece, shoes, professional photos, and gifts are purchased!  Truth be told, this is a hard concept to "get" so being excited that eight-year-olds understand and accept the Eucharist is understandable!  ...And the fuss, attention, gifts, and dressing up just makes it fun for them.

What has astounded me is the positive, encouraging support that Piper has received, especially by non-Catholic family and friends!  I think it is a true testament to their compassion and understanding!

Made by Sis Patterson for my daughter, Piper!

One of the most beautiful gifts that Piper received is a card that was created by Sis Patterson. (That's "Ms. Patterson" to Piper!)  When I became Catholic, Sis introduced me to her gracious and generous talent with her gift of a St. Francis card to me.  (You can see my blog post of that project by clicking here.)  Her card to Piper was just as beautiful and creative!

I love the little girl she created and the way she incorporated a window, stamped with a sentiment.  The cross is beautiful, and as always, Sis creates projects that physically feel substantial due to her selection of materials.  I love the subtle coloring on this card.  It is particularly impressive that she has created the feel of a monochromatic card while using many colors, even dark color in the case of the cross.  So clever!

Sis' blog, Paper, Craft, and Scissors, is beautiful and filled with her over-the-edge creative paper-crafting projects.  She is one of my favorite Cricut and Silhouette die cut users and you can always find a link to her blog on my sidebar under "Inspiration."  You can find all of her crafty details regarding the First Communion card she made by clicking here to go to her blog post!  Her photography skills are so much better than mine so I highly recommend going to her site if you are planning to "pin" this card to Pinterest for the best picture!

As a person who struggles sending dimensional cards with delicate 3D elements, I was tickled to see the box that Sis sent this card in!  It is a Silhouette file, she told me, but the secret is an inner liner, similar to the exact cut of the box but just a tiny bit smaller to nest inside.  The card was delivered uncrushed, unharmed, perfect!  (My mission is to figure this out on a Cricut!)

The pink box is the one it arrived in!

(This isn't the first kindness that Sis has expressed to Piper.  Twice, on fantastic international excursions, she has sent messages to Piper through a Flat-Stanley-type of exchange where "Awesome Emily" told Piper about people and places she encountered-- and sent her souvenirs from all the countries she visited!)  

Thank you so much, Ms. Patterson!  This card will be a treasured keepsake forever!

Piper is so fortunate to have had many kindnesses gifted to her for her First Communion.  Last night, she finally finished all the thank-you notes and decorated her cards.  She was so serious in building up color layers.  (The Studio G ink pads at Walmart are highly recommended if you have a kid that likes to dabble in color!  At under a $1 each, you can allow them to thoroughly cross-saturate the hues and not give it a moment's thought!  Of course, they are now hers!)

For fun, I helped her create her own little stamp for artsy ownership of her efforts!

"Made by Piper" is on the back of her thank you cards. 

I have lots of pictures to scrap of her First Communion, but I am still awaiting the ones from the professional photographer!  I hope to have actual scrapbook layouts to share with you soon -- I am making a memory book for Piper with pictures, cards, keepsakes, and the DVD from the church.

Thank you for checking my blog post! Be sure to visit Sis Patterson's blog to witness all of her crafty genius first-hand:  Paper, Craft, and Scissors.  

As always, you can see many of my previous projects by visiting My Project Gallery.

Happy Mother's Day Gift Card Holders

I have been creating and picking up little Mother's Day gifts for the moms in my life, including making a pyramid box filled with bath products from Lush (click here to see my post featuring that project), but my mom and my mother-in-law love to shop, so I always include gift cards with the gifts my husband and I give them on Mother's Day.

These are so quick to put together, and to make two, you only need two sheets of 12x12 paper and the discarded clamshell packaging from a Cricut cartridge!

I started by cutting the boxes at 5-1/2" on Wildcard (the old one, not Wildcard 2) from page 80.  I cut this on my Expression, and as I have mentioned before, the Expression, Expression2, and Imagine cut at slightly different sizes so please make a mock up if you are using these measurements on a machine other than the Expression!

I kept the rectangular-shaped waste (negative space from the cut to use on the card).

I cut the card that I placed inside the box which holds the gift card by hand at 4-3/8" x 6-1/2".  I scored it in half to fold it down to 4-3/8" x 3-1/4".  My paper trimmer has a smudge guard that holds paper in place separately from the blade rail.  For scoring, I used the smudge guard to hold paper that I lined up.  I use an X-acto knife to do the scoring, lightly cutting.  I used this same method to score the box lines.  Because of the actual cutting, this type of scoring hides the tick marks that will show when using a scoring board and bone folder!

I folded the card along the score line and adhered the rectangular piece reserved earlier from the box cut to make a mat inside the card to create a base for the gift card.

After I taped it in place with an ATG, I realized that I could have formed a little pocket for the validation receipt if I had kept the top open-- definitely doing that next time!  (Love my little arrow-- that's just for you, not for mom!)  Instead, I folded them and taped to the back of the gift cards.  The gift cards were attached to the mats with 1/16" pop dots.

The fun thing about this design is that the gift card could go on top of the card, to show through the window or inside the card, allowing the front of the card to show through the window instead!  I decided inside was better this time because I wanted to emboss the packaging that I was using in the box window.

As soon as I get a cartridge, I cut off the sides of the clamshell packages, keeping only the flat tops and bottoms, making them easy to store!

I cut the one of these down to 4-1/8" x 3-1/8".  The hardest part was picking an embossing folder!

This material embosses perfectly!  I used 1/4" Terrifically Tacky Tape to adhere the embossed material to the inside of the box before the box is assembled.

I found that the box goes together more 'square' when I use my ATG to apply tape to the bottom and right side of the back flap and fold all the sides in as shown before pressing the back flap in place, making sure to tuck in the top behind the side so it can be opened and closed once the box is glued in place.

Once assembled, I added a piece of 10-3/8" ribbon, notched.  I wanted to be sure Mom could easily open the box so I wrapped the ribbon around the box instead of going over the top!

I used a separate piece of ribbon to tie the bow and attached it with E6000 adhesive so that it would remain adhered on the plastic material.

Crafty cuts:

• Box - Wild Card cut at 5-1/2"
• Card-  Hand-cut 4-3/8" x 6-1/2" folded down to 4-3/8" x 3-1/4"
• Acetate for box insert-  Hand-cut 4-1/8" x 3-1/8"
• Ribbon-  Cut at 10-3/8" plus length for the bow

These were so fast and easy-- and so much prettier than the envelopes they came in!  I loved the idea of embossing the acetate for other kinds of occasions too and had to try out my new Cloud embossing folder.  It is raining here this morning, so I guess that is why a raining gift card box made sense!

Well, I guess I have goofed off enough today... now it's time to be wined and dined by my husband... and gifted by my kiddo.... ahhh, the life!

Happy Mother's Day!  

Owl tell you this...Art Inspiration Challenge Card

You may have noticed that I am having a little obsession with critter couture...   This card is my entry for the Cricut Circle NSD Crop Art Inspiration Challenge!

Inside:  Your gift was a hoot!  Thank you so much!

 For this challenge, we were given a print from which to take inspiration to make any kind of project as long as we used a minimum of three Cricut cuts.  

I used the rose image, the three blue butterflies, the blue background, and the color palette for my card.  

For the crafty details:

• I started with the owl from Noah's ABC Animals, cutting at 3.2" on the Imagine.  I put the top layer and face layer through the Cuttlebug for a little texture (using Swiss Dots and Chevron).   I cut an extra layer for his suit and shirt "fabrics." I put the blue cuts through the Cuttlebug to give it some stripes.  The paper for the suit is a pattern from Hey Diddle Diddle; the shirt is a solid from that cart as well.  I inked him in black and added details with a Micron pen and white gel ink pen. I hand-cut the bow tie, lapels, and little pants.  Brads made the shirt buttons and belt buckle.  The owl is popped up 1/4".

• I cut the garden arch and fence from Spring Cottage on the Expression at 8-3/4".  I manually cut off the inside gate pieces.  I inked this in black and popped it up 1/16".  

• I used the Martha Stewart branch punch for the greenery in three different papers.
• I created the micro roses using a fantastic tutorial on Scrapalette's blog!  Click here to see her tutorial!  (You can also find this link on my sidebar under "Inspirations".)  Per her instructions, I cut the scalloped rings from Elegant Edges (page 23) at 1.3" on my Imagine.  I flood-filled them with the peach from Hey Diddle Diddle that I used on the owl's shirt and hand-colored the back of them with a pink Sharpie marker.  I liked way the ink bled through, creating a muddled surface!  Some of the blooms have been touched with a stamp pad for extra color.  I glued them on so that some would be facing straight up and others would be on their sides.  I added one for a boutonniere.

• The background is a 6-1/2" rounded square (built-in on the Imagine) and flood-filled with a print from Floral Emporium.
• The ribbon banner was cut from Enjoy the Seasons at 5.2".  I added text from my computer (Americana BT at 16 point).  The banner is popped up 1/4".

• The butterflies were cut using a Martha Stewart punch and detailed with a Micron pen.
• I cut a smaller card and attached it to the back of the owl scene.  The inside of the card has more text with the same font at 26 point:  Your gift was a hoot.  Thank you so much!

Thank you for checking my blog today.  I think I have finally finished all of the Circle Blog NSD challenges that I can do.  They have been so much fun!    As always, you can see most of my previous projects by going to My Project Gallery.



Edited May 11, 2012 to add:  This project was featured on the Cricut Circle Blog Project of the Day!