Welcome to the first ever Fantabulous Cricut Crawl!

Welcome to my scrappy portion of the "Fantabulous Cricut Crawl"...our version of a progressive blog hop!

If you've come from visiting Angie at Cokie Pop Paper Boutique, you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to play along with our Fantabulous Cricut Crawl, start here.

For our Fantabulous Cricut Crawl, each Design Team member will be featuring a specific technique or idea for using your Cricut. There are some really cool ideas being featured, so you won't want to miss any of the blogs along the way! There are prizes to be won on individual blogs, AND there is a grand prize for the participant that incorporates the most featured elements on ONE project!!!

Do you love all the cute journaling boxes that the paper manufacturers are featuring with their lines now? I love the idea of coordinating journaling boxes, but sometimes the premade ones just aren't the right size or shape for my page (and they can be a bit expensive!) Not to worry, though, you can make your own journaling boxes easily with your Cricut! I'll show you a few ideas here.

The shapes that work best for journaling boxes are ones with frames or shadows. Almost every cartridge has at least one image that could be used for a journaling box, but some of my favorites are Stretch Your Imagination, Accent Essentials, Stamping, Ashlyn's Alphabet, Wild Card, and Just Because Cards.

If you're like me and need lines on your paper to keep my handwriting straight, try cutting your journaling blocks from index cards or striped paper. You can also stamp lines on your block after its cut (there are lots of stamps available now with journaling lines). When I want computer generated journaling, I cut my image first, then size my journaling to fit using Microsoft Word. I print my journaling, then adhere my diecut image overtop of the journaling and run it through the printer again so the journaling is now on the diecut image. If you use this method, just make sure your image is adhered well on the top, so it doesn't come loose as it goes through your printer. I run a line of adhesive from a tape runner or ATG gun on the back of the diecut at the top.

The first journaling block was cut from an index card, patterned paper, and cardstock, using the scallop circle from Mini Monograms - cut at 3", using the "shadow" and "framed" options. One nice things about using images with frames is that you can cut the image twice and have both a journaling block and a coordinating embellishment!











This next journaling block was cut from striped paper, coordinating paper, and cardstock. The stripes make automatic journaling lines. This image is from Storybook, cut at 2.5" and then again @ 2.75" from cardstock using the accent blackout feature.










This journaling block was an experiment to see if I could cut plain old notebook paper with the Cricut. It worked, but only with fairly simple images and with pressure set to low and the blade depth set to 3. You might have different results with your machine. This image is from the Stamping cartridge, cut at 3.25", once from notebook paper and once from black cardstock.
















On this example, I stamped the lines on the image after it was diecut, and then handwrote my journaling. The image is from Ashlyn's Alphabet, cut at 2.25" using the icon and icon shadow options.











This last example uses computer journaling, and the apple frame from Stretch Your Imagination, cut at 4".















You can add extra elements to your finished journaling blocks, like stitching, penwork, flowers, brads, etc. I hope you're inspired to try making your own journaling blocks on your next project! To help inspire you, I'm offering a $15 gift certificate to my favorite online scrappy store - ScrapAttackScrapbooking.com. All you need to do is create a project using journaling blocks you created with your Cricut, and post a link on this post, and also on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog. I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!

Your next stop is Candace's blog, Scrap-A-Doodle-Dee. Candace always has great ideas so I'm sure you'll love her project!

Don't forget about the grand prize....just create a project using as many of the DT ideas as you can, and link it to the Fantabulous Cricut blog. Happy scrapping!