Festivities!

Hi Crafters,

Just checking in with a few project updates.

I made this banner using the mini monograms and a Child's Year font.  The letters are embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder.  I attached the scalloped circles together with little brads.

The next part is a wedding gift.  I used vinyl to decorate a cake carrier.  I used the Gypsy Wonderings font and the gypsy to weld the letters together.  I believe the side accents are from Lyrical Letters.

Are you tired of seeing this bird yet? I sure do like this little bird.  I think she's just too pretty. She is from Give a Hoot.  I put it on the top of the cake carrier in the same color vinyl.

This is the shower gift that I made for the bride.  I used clear cellophane from Michael's to wrap it up and protect it.  I also put a cake dow through the center to keep it stable.

Well, that's all I have for now!

Happy Crafting,

Spring and Summer Cards

Hi Crafters

I was able to have a scrap day with my friend from Crafting with my Girls on Friday.  I made a bunch of cards.  I challenged myself that day to use up some of my MANY scraps.  I was proud of myself and only cut into 1 (count it ONE) sheet of paper for the base of a card.  

I also challenged myself to use Walk in My Garden as I had purchased it a few weeks ago on clearance from Michael's for $20.00.

This hydrangea was inspired from my mom.  She has some incredible hydrangea bushes in front of their house.  I was able to find 3 coordinating lavenders to give it the perfect coloring.

Daffodils are my some of my favorite spring flowers.  I found this strip of green polka dot and knew it had to go on this card some where.  I used the boarder feature on Walk in my Garden for this bunch of flowers.

They had a Life's a Beach cartridge exploration challenge over on the cricut message boards.  I made this card for one of my Youth Group girls who will be a counselor at camp this summer.  The darker blue coor'dinations looks great with the tearing method here.

This card came from a pile of scraps that had been rejected from some of my other cards.  I saw them sitting together and was inspired by the color combination.  I used several cuttlebug folders and some core'dinations paper here.  I found this stamp and thought it tied everything together nicely.

It is wedding season!  One of my friends from college is getting married next weekend. I think this cuttlebug folder is very pretty and wedding like.  This card is perfect for this couple.  I'm looking forward to seeing them!!

It's time for me to go spend some time with my dad for Father's Day.  I hope you all have a great weekend and get to spend some time with the special dads in your life!

Happy Crafting,

Baby Blue

She's here and she's beautiful!! SQUEEEEEEE!

My blue limited edition cricut expression arrived from Cricutmachine.com they provided EXCELLENT customer service over the past week.  I contacted them several times with questions and heard back within hours on that business day.  She is being updated by my gypsy as I type.  She even lights up blue in the buttons!

Happy crafting,

Let the Summer Festivities Begin

Hi Crafters,

This will be my last weekend crafting with only my create machine.  CricutMachine.com was having a great sale on the holiday blue expression, they had it for $170!  I can't wait to get her in.  She should arrive sometime this week.
Meanwhile we had our last day with the students on Friday which means my summer crafting schedule is officially kicked off!  I started it out with a bang and did a variety of projects.  This included breaking in my bind-it-all that my husband got me for my birthday.

I need to practice more needless to say.  I did learn a lot during this first round as I think one does with everything the first time you try it.  I made this little notebook to keep in my purse.  I always find I need a quick piece of paper.  This will do the trick.  The paisley cut is from Stretch Your Imagination and the scalloped circle is from Mini Monograms.

I made this for my brother in law who will be starting his freshman year of college this fall.  I really wanted to go all out with the vinyl and customize a dry erase board and more containers for him, but was afraid it would be too girly.  I toned it down with this and figured he could keep it in a drawer if he hated it.

I made this card for a friend who I know will have a hard week this week.  It's hard to tell but I used some glitter on the bird.  I ran it through the xyron machine and some of the glue webbed around the delicate swirls so when I applied the glitter it had an interesting effect.

This card is cut from Camp Out.  The inside will say "We hope you have a beary special Father's Day".  This is for my father-in-law.  I can't believe Father's Day is next weekend!

This is my last project for the day (I told you I was busy today)!  I apologize for the poor picture quality but it is difficult photographing glass and this is a round dish which made it an even bigger challenge.  I used contact paper to cut out the name then using the negative of the paper placed it on the glass.  I used the armor etch glass etching cream you can find at your local craft store.  I left the etching solution on for about 30 minutes and it left a great etching.  I did check on it and re-apply it to places that looked thin through out the 30 minutes.

More projects next week!

Happy Crafting,

Perfect Day

My birthday was yesterday so I got to take some time in the morning to work on some of the projects that I have had going on before spending time with my family (the perfect way to spend a birthday in my opinion).

My Pink Stamper is giving away a cricut expression at the beginning of the week.  Her challenge was to create a Father's Day project.  I came up with this card for my dad.  The owl is from Give a Hoot and the scalloped square and stitched square are from Mini Monograms.  The embossed pieces are done the swiss dots folder and spots and dots folder.  I must admit I'm a bit corny with some of my projects and couldn't resist a little humor here.  The text reads, "Hoooos the best Dad?"  The inside reads, "You are.  Happy Father's Day!"

While I had a few other things going on I used my Gypsy and Lyrical Letters to create letters for a t-shirt.  Our Youth Group at church led worship in honor of the 2010 graduates. We tie-dyed shirts a few weeks ago and I decided to take mine just a step further.  I used my Gypsy to curve and lay out the letters then using freezer paper (depth, pressure, and speed all set at 3) I cut out what I needed.  You can see my picture tutorial on freezer paper t's by clicking here.

We had a great worship service and everyone looked fantastic in their tie-dye!

Happy Memorial Day.  Special thanks and many blessings to the men and women (and their family members) who have served and are serving in our military.

Happy Crafting,

Waiting on paint to dry

Hi Crafters,

I just finished painting a freezer paper t-shirt for tomorrow and thought I'd post a quick update.

For those gypsy users they did post an update for the gypsy software and firmware. Can I just say it's AMAZING?!
Click here for update download

A few features they have included with this update

• Keypad feature labels (now you can see the names of the creative features for the cartridges)
• Hide Contour (this is a fix if you don't want to cut the whole image, especially handy for layers)
• Numbered Rulers around the mats
• Photo feature (I'm not quite sure I want to load it up with pictures and take up memory but we'll see how this feature progresses)
• Ease of switching files from DS to Gypsy and vice-versa
• Faster load time

I'm sure I've forgotten something but I've been playing with it all morning and been enjoying the new features!

Happy Crafting,

Gypsy 101

Hi crafters,

I made this quick little gypsy video for you all.  A lot of people on the Gypsy message board have just purchased this fantastic crafting tool.  I hope this answers all your questions about all the cords.

Happy crafting,