Cricut Christmas at the Office

As with everything else this year we had a very small budget to decorate my office. (I'm talking less than $20 here.) So I broke out the Cricut and the cheap paper. I even used some bent up file folders that we were throwing out (they were used multiple times and were in bad condition, but I cut them up to get to the good spots.) I used a bunch of cartridges for this one, which was easy because I have a Gypsy!





The penguins and polar bears are from Joys of the Season. The igloo is from Create a Critter. For the snow I drew a template using my coffee cup and freehand connected it. Then I cut it out and transferred it to a role of white craft paper. We had to hand cut it out from there. More that 50' of hand cut snow border!


The font is from Winter Woodlands. It's hard to see in this picture but I cut the green shadow letters also, and there are cutouts in each of the red letters that make it look fancy. I made the candy cane poles by wrapping the pole with white paper and then winding red ribbon around it.



And what is the North Pole without Santa? This is also from Joys of the Season. We made some modifications to the pieces and used yellow yarn for the reins.



This tree is also from Winter Woodlands. I had the ornament confetti from my Christmas cards, so I recruited a co-worker or two to help me hot glue each piece to the trees. I then punched little stars out of a sheet of Best Creations Gold Glitter Cardstock. There are 20 trees in all.




The banner flags are from Tie the Knot. I had them left over from another project, so I threw them in. One says NOEL (I know its hard to see in this picture, but it looks better in person) and the other is JOY.

Make your own 3D flowers

It's the holidays, and like most of you (I hope I'm not alone) I've spent all my money on presents. So I'm finding ways to reuse some of my scrap booking supplies for new ideas. I have a bunch of one layer flowers left over from other projects, and I found out that I can make them into 3D flowers.




With some Scotch Quick-Dry glue and a pair of scissors I turn these old flowers into pretty, rose look alike flowers.







First select the flowers you want to use, then put a good dot of glue in each one. The flowers I used I got from Prima a few years back. They have holes in the center so I kept a wet nap near by in case I got glue all over my fingers.



I found it best to wait a little while so the glue gets nice and tacky. Pinch the first flower together and hold it till it sticks.



Then snip the pointy end off the bud you just created. You don't have to do this step, but it makes your flowers a little flatter and easier to put together. Be careful not to snip too much or your flower may fall apart.




Wrap the next flower around the first and hold it together till it sticks. You can adjust your petals till you like them before the glue dries. If you go past 4 flowers I recommend using progressively bigger flowers.


When you get to the size flower you want use a green flower on the bottom to look like leaves.


You can probably also do this with paper punched flowers too, but I haven't tried those. Hope this helps you stretch your scrapping dollars!

Swimming with the Dolphins Layout

I finally started scrapbooking pictures from my honeymoon in Jamaica. We went swimming with the dolphins, which was so great. They take professional photos of you in the pool and I bought every one of them.




In these photos the dolphins swim up behind you and push your feet so you are flying in the water.




Everything on this layout was cut from the Life's a Beach Cricut cart, include the font. The Cricut carts that have fonts included in them are so great. It's like a little bonus for me and love to buy them. I love this cartridge and will use it for all of my Hawaii vacation photos too.



This is a border that I removed several little detailed cuts from. I wanted it to be a little more simple. I drew eyes on the dolphins with a pen.



The bubbles are glittered with Stickles, although you can't tell in the photos it looks really good in person.

Christmas Card Crazy

I have finished with Christmas Cards, and I wanted a lot of options this year. Everyone will get something a little different! These are all easy cards to make because I didn't have that much time. Also why they are going up in all one post. All of the pattern paper is from one of my older DCWV Christmas stacks. I would have loved to buy new paper this year, but I just have too much already. (I know, you can never have too much, but I'm trying to cut back!)



This one is my favorite. I call it "Holly Jolly". Of course they are all from the Cricut. The shield is cut from the Storybook cart, each one is 1/2" smaller than the previous one to give it some definition. I had a big bag of buttons (say that three time fast) that I got for $2 at a craft fair to use for the holly berries. The leaves are from the Winter Woodlands cart. I put Glossy Accents from Ranger Inc on the leave to make them shinny.




I call this my "Blue Christmas" card. This card is also from Winter Woodlands. I punched the bottom of the card with a Fiskars border punch to give it a lace look. The circle medallion is a 2" circle punch. I printed out Merry Christmas on white card stock from my computer, and stamped the other side with a snowflake. Then I used the stamp pad to ink the edges on both sides.





This card is for those friends who don't celebrate Christmas. I like the paper and I think that the sentiment is very neutral. Not exciting but east to put together. The snowflakes are from the Joys of the Season cart and the scalloped circle is from Storybook.



This Santa is from the Doodlecharms cart. I had these smaller green and red cards lying around so I made use of them. I cut him at 4" which worked out perfectly. I used my Gypsy for this card because these cuts have multiple parts to them. Otherwise I would have to have cut several pieces in red that I would have to have thrown away just to get Santa's red nose.



Last is my little "Chu Chu" card. I was in a blue mood that day. The punch is from Marth Steward and the ornament is from the Joys of the Season cart.

Cute as a bug layout

Boy, have I been busy. The hubby and I have been working on projects all over the house and I'm using muscles I forgot about! But I still had to take a little time to use my Cricut and make a gift for my co-worker's baby shower.


This one was pretty simple. I used paper from the Nanna's Nursery paper stack by DCWV for the background. The paper has glitter so it gives the layout a little sparkle. The ladybug is from the Create a Critter cart.



I only used 3 colors, not the four that are used in the handbook. I put scraps of white behind the eyes and drew in pupils so that the eyes and mouth were different colors. I think it looks a little more friendly that way. The photo mat is punched with Martha Stewart's ladybug Punch Around the Page set, which I just had to buy the first time I saw it. I know it is not as versatile as most of the other punches but I love it. I have to be careful not to lose those instructions that tell you what size to cut the mat before you punch the edges. Otherwise my punches will never line up with the edge!




Last but not least is the flower from the Stretch Your Imagination cart. I used it because it matched a flower on the crib quilt from her registry. Now all I have to do is find a nice frame. I hope she likes it.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Ok, today was not a successful craft project. I tried to make these cupcakes I saw in a magazine with fondant ghosts on the top, but the ghosts were so heavy they just fell over and destroyed the cupcake! So I though I'd show this instead.




I made this card last year for Halloween. I was inspired by an challenge I saw on the Bitten By the Bug blog. The dress is from one of the Disney Princess Cricut carts (I can't remember which character, maybe Sleeping Beauty?)I used stickles on the cauldron to make it look bubbling.



The cauldron and the frog are from Paper Dolls Dress Up. You can't see it well in this picture but there is a witches hat in the upper left corner. That orange ribbon is on the hat.




I used the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch to decorate the envelope. A little ribbon and it's good to go. Hopefully my next baking project is more successful!

Fangtastic Halloween

My Halloween card! I love this Changito Vamp stamps from Stampendous. Changito is just so cute. I got these two last year on clearance and I have been waiting a long time to use them. I bought them in wood block stamps even though I prefer the cling mounted ones. The sentiment stamp is also from Stampendous, one of my favorite companies. They make Fluffles the Cat stamps, which I LOVE. The paper is from Pinecone Press. It s called Jack-o-lantern, and it's double sided. I used both sides! The punch is Martha Stewart's Drippy Goo, and I think I used it on last year's Halloween Card too. I can't wait to get my decorations up! Happy Halloween all.

Dia de Los Muertos Birthday card!

This isn't a very good picture, but I love this card. My good friend Patty loves all things skulls and twisted. I used the Twisted Tea digital stamp from The Greeting Farm and some of last year's Halloween Paper (Lollipop Lizzy from the Hallowhimsy line by Imaginise) and my good ol' Copic markers, and viola! The perfect twisted birthday card. I cut the orange matting from the Storybook cartridge on my Cricut machine and punched it with a rectangle punch to run the ribbon through. I cheated a little because the bottom "ribbon" is a scrap of green paper left over from using a boarder punch on another project, but the purple ribbon on top is actually ribbon. (As you can tell by the bow.)

Berry shaped card

I made this card using the Hello Kitty Cartridge on my Cricut. It's very simple, the cartridge has a card feature on it. On the Expressions machine I used the fit to length button to get the most out of my paper. I used some old glitter I had from a school project years ago on the stem, and a flower from Prima. I think it came out pretty good.

Get well soon

My first attempt at a get well card. I made this for a friend in Colorado who broke her arm. The stamp is from The Greeting Farm and I used Copic Markers to color it. (I need to take some classes so I can put those markers to better use.) The raindrop paper is from Piggy Tails. I used my Cricut to cut a scalloped circle from Accent Essentials.