For Jelo

Just a quick post today.  I had to make a quick birthday card for my DD's classmate so she can hand him the gift with the card today since she wouldn't be able to come to his birthday party on Saturday.  Yes, there are  Imagine cuts on here but NOPE, I haven't used my Imagine in a long time LOL!  I just dread updating and calibrating this machine because it takes a loooooong time!  I have a small box of test cuts (thank God!) I keep since I hate throwing anything away ;).  And it came in handy too since I didn't have to whip out my Gypsy to design, nor turn on my Cricuts to cut. 

Ohhhh this box is screaming to be decorated -

but that can wait for another project ;). 

Anyway, the card above is an A2 sized card.  The Imagine cut in the front is from the Blast Off cart, and the scalloped oval cut is actually a negative cut from one of the card features from the CC Exclusive Sophie cart.  I used the Swiss Dots CB folder to emboss the background. 

Here is a peek of the inside of the card and the envelope.  The flames image is another Imagine cut, from the JT cart.  For the envelope, I used my Cameo to cut the starburst images and the "For Jelo" is a Word font called Lucida Handwriting, also cut with the Cameo.  All supplies used were from my stash! 

And that's it for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

3D Paper Ornament ala Sophie

Happy Friday bloggers!  Today I am sharing a 3D paper ornament I made for the CC Blog November Magazine Challenge.  For this challenge we were asked to create "something fabulous for the upcoming holidays" using one of our latest Circle cartridge Sophie. 

Now if you are not new to my blog you already know how much I adore this cartridge and have even mentioned in previous posts that it is my favorite (so far) of all the exclusive Circle cartridges.  However, (big gasp!) Sophie does not really scream Christmas-y to me LOL so it was a real challenge to come up with something for the holidays using this cart....but I'm happy to say that I was able to come up with something. 

To create the 3D ornament base, I cut this flowery-looking "frame" called <Label6> on page 47 of the handbook at 7 inches; I cut out 6 of them in red cardstock. 

(LOL that dark brown fur to the left of the mat belongs to my 6 month old cockapoo Mojo)

Then I folded each in half (ignore the other cut on the left side of the pic below - it came from the negative cut of the frame/label and I have other plans for it).

Before glueing the pieces together, I stood them up roughly to see if I needed to add more cuts.  Since I wanted to insert something in the midde, I kept it at 6 pieces so the ornament would have 6 panels in all.  I glued the first 3 pieces together, then worked on the image that I wanted to hang in the middle before adhering the last 3 pieces together to close up the ornament. 

For the image in the middle of the ornament I used the Sophie <Heart1> image on page 29 cut at 3.5 inches using gold shimmery cardstock; I cut 4 of these for depth.  The cardstock was not shimmery enough for me so after glueing 2 back to back I took the other 2 and ran them through my Xyron 900 upside down so the glue is in the front.  Then I sprinkled some fine glitter on them before I adhered them to the other two using foam mounts. 

Oops almost forgot to mention that I inserted a strand of this clear plastic thread in between the first two layers of the heart, long enough so I can hang it in the middle of the ornament, and also be able to hang something at the end later.  (I don't know exactly what the plastic thread was used for but here's a pic of it below - I have had this thing for years and at 550 yards seemed a great price for just  $1.49!)

After the heart image is ready with the plastic thread, I attached  to the first 3 pieces of the base of the ornament before I went ahead and closed up the ornament with the last 3 pieces of the base.  I added a small gold faux pearl to hold the plastic thread in place on the top, and then another one on the bottom to hold a shorter plastic thread.  

For the snowflakes, I used the Sophie doily image <Snowflke> on page 55, cut 12x in white shimmery cardstock at 2 inches.  While the snowflakes were cutting in the E2, I went to work on the beads for the bottom of the ornament.

For added bling, I attached an irock gem to each snowflake before attaching them randomly to each of the 6 panels of the ornament base.  I used foam dots to attach 2 snowflakes back to back per panel. 

To finish off the ornament I cut the <Holly> and its layers from the Winter Woodland cart, cut at 2 inches, to dress up the heart image in the middle for the holidays.  I cut 2 of the Holly image, one for the front and the other for the back of the heart image.  I embossed the leaves with the Script CB folder. 

I just love those beads hanging on the bottom! 

View from the top with the ribbon to hold the ornament up.



And the best part is......this 3D ornament stores flat after the holidays so I can use it again next year!



Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend! 

Cousins 4ever Mini Album

Hello there again!  Today I'm sharing with you all a mini album I created to put pictures of my kids and my nieces and nephews.   The kids are all growing up so fast and 3 more cousins were born this year.  My kids don't always see their cousins as often as they'd want but this way this mini album can remind them how their cousins look like and a little something about each of them (I've included a place for each kid to write something about him/herself).  I am also linking this project to the Cricut Circle Blog challenge of the week: mini album. 

The base of the pages of this mini album is an image from the Elegant Edges cart, cut at 5.62 inches, perfect to cut 4 of them in one 12x12 mat.  I used double-sided cardstock from various stacks I already have.  I  was able to use my Cinch binder (love how easy to use this tool is!) to bind the pages before I personalized each page. I also tucked in a long piece of grossgrain ribbon I have had on hand forever before I bound the pages together.  Inside, you may notice that the frames were glued only on one side - this is to allow me to add pictures later. 

The cover page has the following cuts and details:  heart doily (Sophie), "2011" (Gypsy Font), "Cousins 4ever" (Life Is A Beach), white irock gems to embellish.


For pages 1 & 2:

flowers (Luau), frame (Fancy Frames), "JULIA" (Cindy Loo), irock gems, journal stamp



For pages 3 & 4:

frame (Fancy Frames), fish (Luau), waves (An Ocean of Words),

"DYLAN" (Robotz), journal stamp, Tiny Bubbles and D'vine Swirls CB folders

For pages 5 & 6:

frame (Fancy Frames), "CHRISTIAN" (Gypsy Font),

kid on bike (Dude!), journal stamp

For pages 7 & 8:

martial arts image (Sports Mania), tree (Pagoda), frame (Elegant Edges)

"RYAN" (A Child's Year), journal stamp, Forest Branches CB folder

For pages 9 & 10:

frame (Elegant Edges), "MYA" (Stone Script), butterflies

(Everyday Pop-Up Cards), flower (Picturesque),

journal stamp, irock gems, flower brad

For pages 11 & 12:

basket with backboard (Sports Mania), basketball (Sports Mania),

frame (Elegant Edges), "ETHAN" (CM Reminisce Accents),

Tiny Bubbles CB folder, journal stamp

For pages 13 & 14:

magic lamp and frame (Disney Princesses Dreams Come True),

"smoke" (actually a swirl image from Wall Decor and More),

"EMMA" (Quarter Note), irock gems, stamp frame

For pages 15 & 16:

frame (Fancy Frames), "PARIS" (Lyrical Letters), girl (Rock Princess),

journal stamp, Plum Blossoms CB folder, Peachy Keen face stamp

For pages 17 & 18:

shoe (Gypsy Wanderings), swirl (Stamping), frame (Cindy Loo),

"MILAN" (Nursery Rhyme), journal stamp, irock gems, Swiss Dots CB folder

For pages 18 & 20:

frame (Elegant Edges), "XIAN" (MS Seasonal Cake Art),

musical notes (Gypsy Wanderings), earphone (Rock Princess),

journal stamp

For pages 21 & 22:

ice cream sundae (Kate's ABCs), spoon (Savory),

frame (Fancy Frames), "NAIA" (MS Birthday Cake Art), journal stamp

For pages 23 & 24:

frame (Disney Mickey Font and George and Basic Shapes),

hands (Disney Mickey and Friends), "TONY" (MS Birthday Cake Art),

journal stamp, Swiss Dots CB folder

For pages 25 & 26:

frames (Cindy Loo and Fancy Frames), "MARINA" & "EDUARDO" (Elegant Cakes)

For pages 27 & 28:

frame (Elegant Edges), "KRISTINA" (Elegant Cakes),

rattle (Stamping), journal stamp, Plum Blossoms CB folder

Phew!  That was exhausting to write down the details - thank God for my Gypsy!  Hope you enjoyed looking at the pages as much as I enjoyed creating them. 

All supplies used were from my stash too!  Yey!  Project #17 for Using My Stash pledge at the CC MB. 



Happy Birthday card ala Sophie

Happy Monday everyone!  I made this card for my DD's friend who turned 6 this weekend.  The base of the card is an old double sided K&Company cardstock I have had for months, cut into an A2 size card using Sophie cart.  I again used a border image from the MS Birthday Cake Art cart for the holes to thread the ribbon through.  The ribbon I believe was from the $1 bin from Michaels.  The sentiment and the frame are two separate stamps from TCP Studio and Inkadinkado, respectively.  The rosette is made from my stash of printed cardstock using MS doily puncher and then scored using MS scoreboard.  The sunglasses and pair of roller blades charms are actually buttons so I threaded them together with a jute twine before I attached the sunglasses one onto the rosette.  The pink buttons are from my stash. 

Here is a closeup of the charm buttons:

Since I used a double sided cardstock, I adhered a cream colored cardstock inside for my DD to write her own sentiment to her friend.  I just added another piece of green cardstock on the bottom after punching the strip with an MS puncher. 

This is project #13 for Using My Stash pledge at the CC MB. 

Hope you like!  Thanks for stopping by!





Sew Ribbon Envy - still in a thankful mood ;)

Hello bloggers!  One of the crafting retailers I subscribe to (yikes I forgot which one and I have already deleted the email!) sent an email notice over the weekend about a set of We R Memory Keepers ribbon punchers available for purchase.  They apparently debuted in CHA (I think it stands for Craft and Hobby Association) this past summer.  Here is a link for a youtube video highlighting it - it looks very cool!  Well my crafting budget is tapped out at the moment so I know I can't possibly afford these punchers -  so I decided to see if I could create something similar using my Gypsy and my Cricut. 

For this project I've created more Thank You cards to build up my stash as I stated in my previous post below this one.  The base of the card is again from Sophie (did I say I LOVE this cart enough times?) and is sized A2.  To create the holes for the ribbon I borrowed border images from Elegant Edges cart and the MS Birthday Cake Art cart; I supposed you could use other border images as long as they have holes big enough for the width of the ribbon you want to use, or use basic shapes and line them up where you'd want to thread the ribbon.  For my cards I lined up the border image vertically along the front side of the card.  I stretched the border image to fit the height of the card, allowing for EVEN number of holes.  The border images I chose had odd numbers of holes so I just hid the extra ones using the hide contour on my G.  You would also need to hide the outline of the border, leaving only the even number of holes. 

Here's the image using the MS Birthday Cake Art border:

Using hide contour, hide the outline of the border and one of the holes:



Here are pics of the cards after I cut with the Cricut (the first one is using a border from the Elegant Edges cart and the one below is using a border from the MS Birthday Cake Art cart):

I then threaded ribbon.

After cutting the excess ribbon I tucked in the edges inside the card using ATG, attached a piece of green printed cardstock behind the bird "window", then covered it all up with a cream cardstock .  Then with the same green cardstock, I cut a strip the same height as the cream cardstock and punched one side using an MS doily puncher before I attached it on the inside. 

The sentiment is a stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped on a circle from George and Basic Shapes cart,  I used a scalloped doily from Elegant Edges cart to layer the sentiment and put them on a rosette.  To finish off the cards, I used purple strip of cardstock and punched both sides using the same MS doily puncher to adorn the sides of the cards - the strip wrapped around the back of the cards as pictured below. 



And there you go!  This satisfies my Sew Ribbon Envy for the moment  :).  Someday I'd experiment using other shapes on my G to recreate the other shapes of the Sew Ribbon punchers - or I'll cave in and buy those suckers using 40% off coupons if and when they hit the local Michaels or Joann's.

Oh, almost forgot, this is Project #12 for Using My Stash pledge at the CC MB.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Thank you! Thank you!

Seeing doubles?  LOL sorry failed attempt at humor.  Well my SIL depleted me of Thank You cards recently because she wanted to send some cards to the nurses at the hospital where her twins were born.  I am honored she thought I make good enough cards ;). 

So to build up my stash of cards again I thought I'd play with my Sophie cart because this cartridge is one amazing and very versatile cart - my favorite of all the Cricut Circle exclusive carts!  All the bases for the cards were from the Sophie cart. The cards are all size A2.  "Thank you" sentiments were from the Princess Party project cart and Thanksgiving solutions cart. 

A peek at the insides of the cards

I used double sided cardstocks for the base and then just adhered a plain cream cardstock on the insides where the sentiments are glued.  Only embellishments I used were some buttons, irock gems and faux stitching using gel pens.  Really loving the window features of these cards - I could see myself using stamps instead of cutting sentiments from cartridges. Or using the card bases for other ocassions besides thank you cards.   

All supplies used were from my stash again.  Project #11 for Using My Stash pledge at the CC MB. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

CC Blogiversary Challenge #1

Happy Blogiversary Cricut Circle Blog!  Wow it has been a year since I joined Cricut Circle!  In honor of their one year anniversary, the CC Blog is celebrating in a big way by hosting challenges for Circle members all week with fun giveaways!  This is my entry for the first challenge of the week.  We were asked to create something using cuts from one or all of our exclusive Circle cartridges.

I opted to create a quick and simple card for my niece who is now in her freshman year in HS.  She called me yesterday which is really sweet of her cuz I haven't seen her in a while.  I used the Sophie cart as the base of my card.  The butterfly cut and layer is also from the same cart.  I embossed the bottom layer of the butterfly with the D'Vine swirls CB folder for added texture and adhered the layers together and onto the card using only foam tapes in the middle. I like the way the butterfly just seems to want to take off any minute ;)

For the inside of the card, I cut "missing you" from the Stamping cartridge.  I added faux stitching with gel pens and then 2 half pearls for the butterfly. 

And best yet, I used only my stash so this makes project #5 for me for Using My Stash pledge at the CC MB.  (yeah, yeah, I did have a bit of a not-so-secret craft spending indiscretion lately as I openly admitted in the CC MB, but I do promise to use those supplies soon).

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day! 

Thanks - my first Sophie card

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Today I thought I'd better use my Sophie cart - have had it for almost a month now and have not really used it.  This is an A2 size card.  The base is from Sophie cart and so are the butterfly layers (I hid the middle cuts off the butterflies on my G before cutting because they were not cutting right on the expression; I may have to change my blade).  The sentiment "thanks!" is from the Phrases cart, double layered using foam mounts and the top layer embossed with the D'vine Swirls CB folder and doodled with white Sakura gel pen.

The butterfly layers were also embellished with irock gems and foam mounted only in the middle.  The top border strip is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.  I also attached a cream colored cardstock inside for writing personal sentiments, decorated that piece with Martha Stewart corner punch.  Excuse the ugly bow :( - I have the darndest time with bows! 

Anyway, thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!