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.