Fantabulous Cricut #11

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is to use at least three flowers on a project. I picked up these little paper mache flip flop boxes @ Michael's last week, and knew they'd work perfectly for this project. Here's what the boxes looked like originally.



I traced the box lids onto pp for the tops, and cut a 5/8" wide strip of pp for the sides. I painted the box bottoms, and coated everything with a layer of sparkle Mod Podge. The flowers for the flip flops were cut from George, at 1.5", 1.25", and 1", then layered with a gem brad center.










Next time you're in your local Hobby Lobby, Michael's, AC Moore, Walmart or Target, try looking for unfinished wood or paper mache pieces that you can use your Cricut to alter. It's an inexpensive way to make some cool home decor or seasonal decoration items. Looking forward to seeing all your floral creations this week!

Time for a winner!

It's Wednesday, and that means the winners from the Fantabulous Cricut blog crawl will be posted over at Fantabulous Cricut today! The individual winners from each DT blog challenge will be posted today, too.

I used the random number generator to pick the winner from my blog challenge on creating journaling blocks with your Cricut. The winner of the $15 gift certificate to Scrap Attack Scrapbooking is Mary Jean! You can see her layout here. Mary Jean - I'll email you the code for your gift certificate.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenges - all the work submitted for the blog crawl was just amazing! Guess we'll have to do this again!

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #10

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is to make a 3-D project (bag, box, etc) using black somewhere on the project.

I made this little gift bag for DH's birthday next month, using Tags, Bags, Boxes & More for the bag itself, and Going Places for the motorcycle on the tag. The bag was cut using the "fit to page" option, which ended up being 7". I cut the bag twice - once from white cardstock and once from the Harley patterned vellum. This was the first time I had cut vellum with my Cricut - I just lowered the pressure to medium and the blade depth to 3 and got nice clean cuts. I scored each piece, then adhered them with spray adhesive so glue wouldn't show through the vellum.

For the motorcycle, I used the "square" option on Going Places, cutting it at 3". I removed the square portion, and then applied the motorcycle image to this premade tag. The tag is attached to the bag with bead chain.





Hope you join in the challenge this week - we'd love to see your 3D projects!

Sassy Lil Sketches - 5/14 card sketch

It's the 14th and that means it's time for another Sassy Lil card sketch! Here is the card sketch for this month.






Here's my take on the sketch. I rotated it since I was working with a vertical image. The image is a digital stamp from Provo Craft, colored with Copics and Bic MarkIts. I used the Martha Stewart eyelet border punch for the strip across the center and finished it off with some Queen & Co. pearls (love those things!)






Hope you'll find some time to make a card or two with this sketch. If you do, please post it over on the Sassy Lil Sketches blog, so we can see your work!

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!

May 7th Sassy Lil Sketch

This week's sketch at Sassy Lil Sketches is a great one for showcasing a special photo with room for lots of journaling. If you use the sketch, be sure to post a link over at SLS, so we can see your project!

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #8

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut was to make a project for a teacher, using an apple somewhere on the project.


For this post-it note holder, you'll heed a 4x6 acrylic frame, some post-it notes and pp or cardstock. I picked up this acrylic frame for $1.50 @ Michael's. (You could also use a larger frame and larger post-it notes if you want.)

The pp is from October Afternoon. I cut a 4x6 piece, and then cut the apple at 9" from Just Because Cards. Since the sizing on this cartridge is based on the size of the actual card, cutting at 9" actually gave me an apple image that was about 3.75" high. Once the image was adhered to the pp, I just slid it into the frame, peeled the backing off the post-it note stack, and applied the notes to the front of the frame. I added the little clip to the front, just for decoration.

Hop on over to Fantabulous Cricut for more ideas - the DT has created some great gifts for teachers!