Spiderman Name Plaque

I made this for my Grandson Dustin, he is gonna love it.  Originally I had planned on making him one with Pooh Bear because I just found the Pooh and Friends Cartridge at Jo-Ann's for $18.99 a couple of weeks ago and couldn't pass it up.  I will have to use it soon for something else.  So after painting the plaque blue all I could think of was how cool a red and black spidey face would look on it and Spiderman is his favorite character.  I thought I would do a quick search for a svg and see what it came up with...wow I found the perfect file over at Everyday Little Things, this is exactly what I wanted.  If you use cut files, you will find some great ones on her site.

I took the spiderman face svg into my Sure cuts Alot 2 and sized it on my mat to the size I needed.  I then copied and pasted a second face onto my mat so I could break apart the image and move the pieces I wanted onto other sections of my mat for the different colors I needed.  I cut the first full svg out in black vinyl, the eyes in white cardstock and the outline of the face in red paper all on my Pink Cricut Expression.  Super easy and super cool result.  I used my Pink Xyron 1.5 inch X sticker maker for the eyes to easily stick.  I layed the black vinyl cut with backing still on over the red backing, once lined up good I placed each sticky backed white eye into place and then the hardest part...removed the backing from the vinyl.  Once removed I carefully lined it up on the red backing piece using the eyes to help line it up and voila...Spidy was created.  I found some black letter stickers to add on his name and Room.  after affixing the letters in place I mod podged the spidey face in place and then went over the entire plaque to seal everthing in with mod podge.  I use the gloss Lustre & Love It.  I am looking forward to seeing his face when I give it to him.  He saw it over the weekend but it was just a plain blue plaque at that point and I told him I was going to put pooh Bear on it and his name.  I know he will be much happier with Spiderman.  Thanks again Christy from Everyday Little Things for such an awesome free svg file, I am sure I will be using much more of your awesome svg's in the future.

Ordered my new Cricut Expression 2...so excited

I already have the Pink Expression but the new enhancements they have made to this new edition are awesome.  I did the free shipping thing so I have a long wait until May 16 to get it, but it will be awesome and well worth the wait I am sure.  I also recently bought some new cartridges on sale.  I should be recieving those any day now...lets see I have 4 of them on the way that I found for $19.99 each...awesome deal.  I bought Just Because Cards, Cindy Loo, Everyday Paper Dolls & the Country Life cartridges.  I am super excited to use them all...lol.  Looking forward to sharing some new Creations very soon.  Have a great day & Happy Crafting to you all.

Masculine Birthday Card for a guy

I made the card on black card stock.  I took a soda can, washed it dryed it and cut the ends off.  Once I had a nice flat piece of aluminum I ran it through my cuttlebug with the Diamond plate folder.  I used a rectangle piece of patterned paper to layer on the bottom.  The pattrened paper and the red I used for the frame is from My Mind's Eye - Bohemia paper stack.  Next I took some red ribbon from OTC and ran it through my Xzron machine and turned it into a sticky backed ribbon and placed it along the seam of the two layers.  I cut a frame out of the red paper using my Cricut and quick shapes on sure cuts alot.  finally I took a route 66 svg I got from MissVickieDOTnet, here is the link
http://cuttingcrazy.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/free-svg-file-customizable-interstate-highway-signs/ 
and I removed the outer edge.  once I had the sign in place in SCAL I made a copy and pasted it on top, I checked the box keep proportions, then I made it a little larger around the first one.  I sent that cut file to a second page in the exact same place and deleted it from my 1st page.  I typed in the word Happy Birthday with the Bradley Font.  I loaded white card stock into my Cricut and changed out the blade to my new Cri-kits black gel pen.  I made sure to adjust my settings to pressure 3 and speed 2.  I chose cut and let my Cricut draw in the details.  after it finished I hit load paper on my Cricut and changed to page 2 of my SCAL.  I now had the outline to my sign only showing, I changed out the gel pen  back to my cutting blade, adjusted my settings and hit cut in SCAL.  I chose to make the sign white and black lettering like the old route 66 sign.  It was too cool to first draw the details and then cut around it to make my own sign embellishment.  I added some cute brads that look like a screw from OTC and popped the sign up on popdots and that finished of this simple masculine card front.  Now for the inside...

So here is the inside of the card...I used the inside cut of red paper from the frame that I used for the front of the card and on top of that I layered a sentiment I created in Craft Artist.  I used some tool embellishments and a screw frame from a digital kit called Oh Boy from Linda Lou to create this and then printed out on my printer and cut out.  I also made an envelope and a liner to match using my Martha Stewart Score board.  I think I will try out making a video soon on how to use this awesome tool, it is very handy indeed and I will never need to buy envelopes again.

Hi Card for Card Swap

I finished my first set of cards for the Card Swap I am in...Fun Fun Fun...The Papers I used for this card were from Prima - the Breathe Paper Collection.  I mostly used my paper trimmer for this card and my Crop-A-Dile corner chomper to round the corners.  On the Cricut, the only things I cut were the word HI & the layers for the top flower.  I used the 6 petal flower and cut in normal & again in Shadow Blackout.  The circle on top I just used simple shapes in Sure Cuts Alot.  Here is the link for the free 6 petal flower svg from Heather, you also get a 9 petal flower.
http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/6-and-9-petal-flower-svg-files/

I used 1 of my new Cri-Kits gel pens for the inside sentiment...

I used the Blue Glitter pen...omg!!!  So Awesome!!!

Makes me love my Cricut EVEN MORE!!!

The font I used for this sentiment was Angelina.  I wish the camera could show a better view of the glitter.  It is perfect and the little white skips you see is really the glitter...it did not skip at all.  I did 6 of them in a row for this sentiment using the same pen and not one skip.  Wow I am so impressed with my new Cri-kits Gel Pens!!! YAY!!!

My Cri-Kits Pen Holder

OK...so I made this little divided organizer for my new Cri-kits gel pens, and here it is all filled up.  Now I am ready to try them out...time to make a new card.  You should also make sure you store your gel pens upside down to keep the ink flowing evenly and always keep your caps on tight. 
For your Cricut machine settings when using your gel pens:  Pressure 3 & Speed 2

Yay!!! My New Cri-Kit Gel Pens are here

I am so excited...I finally broke down and ordered the Sure Cuts Alot 2 program...Wow, why did I ever wait sooo long?  It is so awesome!!!  So when I ordered I also chose the option of buying the whole set of Cri-Kits Gel pens to work in my Cricut for $24 more.  That is a great value because they are about $60 to buy all of the pens and holder by themselves. this is what I got, the Pen Kit Bundle (All 40 Pens -  10 Pastel, 10 Reg. & Neon, 10 glitter & 10 Metallic + 1 Pen Holder + 1 FREE pack of 2 swirl pens).  I am so excited to try these out.  now I can draw in the lines and only cut out the outline...woo hooo.  My project today is to make a little pen holder for these awesome new little mini-pens to be close at hand near my Cricut.  I will share the outcome later :)  here is the link if you want to check out this great deal on the bundle I bought.http://www.craftedge.com/purchase/purchase.html
or go to http://www.cri-kits.com/cricut/cricut_pen_kits.html for further info on the pens from the maker and many other products they have come up with for the Cricut.

My only complaint is that one of my pens...the pink glitter...grrrr my favorite!  was not capped tightly before shipping and it lost most of its ink, darn it.  All of the others are perfect though and I cannot wait to try them out later.  I am thinking of making a card and using the Cri-kits gel pens to add my sentiment inside the card.  Right after I make that holder for them.

Wild Card Cartridge - LOVE IT!!!

I have made several more cards lately and will be adding them over the next few days.  I recently purchased the Cricut cartridge Wild Card...I love it.  I will be sharing some of those cards very soon.  I want to make a card from each design on the cart...that will take some time since there are 50 cards on the cart...lol.  Card making seems to be my new passion right now.   Oh and my upcoming Family Reunion of course.

Get Well Soon Pocket Card

I Love this card and was fun to make.  I got the pocket from http://cafexpressions.blogspot.com/2011/03/pocket-full-of-fun-free-svg.html

I just wanted a pocket for the front of my card to stick a tissue out of and this one was perfect...Thank you Cheryl Ann.  I used my Cricut Cartridge - Wild Card to make the envelope and liner to match the card.  I used another free svg for the get well soon, cut with a shadow layer as well from svg cuts.  Here is the link for that http://www.svgcuts.com/blog/2009/07/30/free-svg-sure-cuts-a-lot-073009-get-well-soon-caption/

I made the band Aid in Sure Cuts Alot 2 from the quick shapes and then I ran each piece through my cuttlebug with the Swiss dots folder and then layered them together.  I dont yet know how to add my svg files but I will work on that.  The flowers are just from my clear stamp collection.  They were in a set I got from my CardMaker kit of the Month club.  I pasted some small orange circles to bring in the bandaid colors and used some gold glitter glue from the dollar store to the center of each flower.  The cute square brads came in a kit from OTC and I used my white Opaque Stix, it is a water based pigment marker for the stitches around the pocket.  Hope you like it  :)

Purple Birthday Card

I made this card for my Step Daughter's Birthday.  I used my new swirly flourish rubber stamps that I found on sale at Michaels, some silver brads and some cute purple polkadot ribbon from OTC.

January Birthday Card

I made this card for my Grand Daughter who was turning 4.  I can't find the one I made for her Brother, grrr.

Eva's Family Clock

This is my absolute Favorite thing I have ever made.  I made this originally as a digital scrapbook page to look like a clock and then my Brother suggested turning it into a real clock.  This will be an awesome prize for the raffle at the Family Reunion, I of course am making and keeping one for myself.

Paper Frames

More items for the upcoming Family Reunion.  These paper frames are from a Martha Stewart kit that I picked up on sale.  I chose not to use the glitter and glue and instead inked all of the edges and added some nice Family quotes to each one.  My thought is that whoever wins these can place a group Family photo taken at the Reunion in each one and have a nice little keepsake of the Reunion.

Puzzle Piece Card

I adore the puzzle pieces on this card.  I will add a link to where I got this awesome free svg file to cut a nine piece puzzle from svg cuts.  I used my cuttlebug folder D'Vine Swirls also and some white tule that I inked to purple and tied around one of the puzzle pieces.  I made a liner for my envelope to match the puzzle pieces.  I chose to grunge mine up using Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Walnut stain on both the card and envelope. 

http://www.svgcuts.com/blog/2011/01/24/puzzle-svg-file/

Easter Egg Box

I made these cute little egg boxes that I put the Carrot cones and some candy filled eggs in for each of the kids.  I got this idea and the svg from Denise's Scrapbooking Room.  These are the photo's of mine and how they turned out.
Go check out the original with the free cutting file from Denise. http://dscrapbookingroom.blogspot.com/2011/02/easter-favor-box-with-egg-on-top.html

Easter Carrot Treat Cone

These are the ones I made, I filled them with mini chocolate eggs and Jelly Beans.  I also made some cute little Easter Egg Boxes to put them in for each child.  I will post that one next.  I saw this adorable idea over at Paper, Scissors, Ink and just had to make these for the Kiddos for Easter.  I also got the free svg file there to cut with my Cricut.  These are so cute...I love them.  She also has a video tutorial to make these cute little carrots on her website so hop on over there and check it out at http://www.paperscissorsinc.com/2011/03/easter-carrot-treat-cone-svg-and.html

Hairbow Name Plaque

I made this little wooden name plaque for my Grand Daughter to hang in her room.  The Ribbons are for her to attach her hairbows to so she can keep them organized.  I painted the wooden plaque pink and purple and the decoupaged a cute flower patterned paper to the front.  I used my Cricut to cut the letters for her name in pink and a shadow layer behind in purple.  I just attached the ribbon to the back with my staple gun.I also used the decoupage glue to attach the metal flower under her name which I purchased from OTC.  The other light pink flowers and dots are some flocked stickers.  I hope to see her and give this to her soon.  That means I better get in gear and make one for her Brother too...just the name plaque in blue and red maybe...no ribbons and bows, lol.

Candle Decorating

I turned this plain Vanilla candle into a cheerful spring candle with some pretty printed tissue paper and my Embossing heat tool.  Such a cool technique and so so easy too.

Monogrammed Etched Beer Mug

I Etched this Beer Mug with the Family Name Monogram to place in the raffle as a prize at our upcoming Family Reunion.  I used my Cricut Expression to cut a vinyl monogram and then used the Armour Etching Cream to creat this awesome mug.  This was so easy for a lasting keepsake. Sorry for the glare in photo :)

Homemade Recipe Box & Cards

I made this recipe box with dividers and Recipe cards to go in the Raffle at my upcoming Family Reunion.  I am trying to get everyone to send me the recipe for whatever they are bringing to the potluck so I can put them on the handmade recipe cards I created to go inside the recipe box.

This is a great way to share some family recipes.  What a fun prize this will be.

Family Reunion Memory Plate

Another item for the Raffle I made.  It didn't come out as good as I hoped but will still be a nice little keepsake for whoever wins it.

Paper Award Ribbons for my Family Reunion

I made these cute little Award Ribbons with my Cricut using the Plantin SchoolBook Cartridge. These will be fun little awards to hand out at the Reunion.

Family Reunion Raffle

My Sister thought up the idea of holding a raffle at our event to help with the costs...I have been creating items for the raffle including this soap bucket I decorated to hold all of the tickets that are sold and then can be drawn from at the raffle.

Family Reunion

I am the youngest of 15 kids...So Our Family is having our first ever Family Reunion next Month...I am so excited.  I have been so busy creating items for this event.  Here is the first of many projects I have been making to share with my big huge Family.

This was soooo much work but well worth the effort.  I started with a large paper vase but there were too many of us to fit so I made a box instead.  My Family Garden Box.

My first Blog

Well here is my first official blog post.  I hope to add to and improve my blog as days go on but I am very new to all of this so please bear with me.  :)  I am going to be adding some photos of my new creations for now.  Maybe one day I will get good enough to post some card making videos and some free svg's that I create.  I so love my Cricut and all of the other wonderful tools that I continue to add to my ever growing collection of paper crafting tools.