Butterfly Journal

Hi all!

I have a little project to share today. I made a journal to track all my progress on getting healthy this year. I want to lose weight and exercise more to help with my arthritis, and general well being.

This book has very little decoration on it, Just some patterned paper I received in a crop goody bag, some rick rack from my stash, a few stamped images, and an old butterfly fabric applique I had in my stash. The notebook is from the target dollar bins. (I LOVE those bins..so many great finds there!)

I also have this little stash of cards from a sheet of Archiver's Simple Stories 100 days of summer set, to add to the journal.

A project without using my Cricut..gasp! LOL I am sure its a fluke. LOL

anyway..that's all for now.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Butterfly Charms

Hi all,

Today I am sharing a few more Shrinky Dink charms I made using my Imagine machine.

I used Ink Jet Shrinky Dinks and printed the butterflies using the Imagine and a Imagine More Cards Cartridge and the Black and White pattern Cartridge. Both charms were baked in my oven at 275 degrees and then I added a layer of UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) on top and baked them until the UTEE was clear.

For this charm, I used a stock image from the Imagine and flood filled it using the Black and White Pattern Cartridge. I was so excited to finally add this cart to my library! In my opinion, it is one of the more versatile of the Imagine Pattern cartridges.
This image is one of the bonus icons on the Imagine More Cards Cartridge.
I really have been enjoying my Imagine lately. I really enjoy using the pattern cartridges the most, and I have a few more on my want list. :)

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Charm Swap- Shrinky Dinks

Hi all!

I participated in a charm swap on the Cricut Circle Message board. We were to make any type of charm. I decided to make mine out of Shrinky Dinks. I signed up for two separate swaps, and the second swap I have two slots, so when this is all said and done, I am going to have quite a few new charms! LOL

Anyway I chose a summery theme for my charms.

Here is the charm i made for the first swap:

I decided to make some sunglasses from the Paisley Cartridge. I cut them at 1.35" and colored them with a light green sharpie marker. I then colored in the lens part with a black pencil. I Shrunk them in a 325 deg oven. I sit and watch my SD's to make sure they are shrinking good. If they do not uncurl enough or are not flat enough I have a nice big wooded spatula that I stick in the oven and press them down with.

After the glasses were shrunk down I put a tiny Cricut Circle Logo on the lens area cut from Vinyl. I then covered that side with UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) and popped them back into the oven until the UTEE was melted. After that I covered the lens area on the reverse side with a layer of black glitter. (I forgot to take a pic of that side of the charm. :) )

Here is the set of charms I made for the second group. I continued with my summery theme:

Both images were cut from the Life's a Beach cartridge. The chair at 2", the Drink at 2.3" I hand colored the chair with a white pencil, and stamped the word relax on it in StazOn ink. The pineapple was colored with some sharpies as well as a few Gelly Roll Star glitter pens. I also added a little sparkle to the beach chair with a Gelly Roll Clear star pen. Both of these charms also had the layer of UTEE put on after the initial shrinking to seal in the colors and give them a smooth glossy finish on both sides.

The waves were cut from Life's a Beach also.

I used my Stampin' Up slot and a hole punch to make the area where the charms attach to the cards.

I printed a tag for the back side that had my blog address and contact information on it.

Here are the charms I received from the swap:

There are so many beautiful charms! I am going to make a couple of bracelets with them!

Thanks for visiting today!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Spring Placemats

Hi all,

Today I am sharing the placemats we made for March. This time we chose a more general spring theme, rather that a specific holiday like St. Patty's Day, as we have some fabric shamrock print placemats my Mom made for us.

The girls really enjoy picking out the papers we use for the mats every month.

This months papers are from the DCWV Flower Shower Spring stack from last year. I have used this stack quite a bit, and still have plenty of papers left. That is what is so nice about those 180 pages stacks of paper. The cardstock stacks are not as big.

The font we used this time is from Robotz.

Maddie noticed that a tiny piece of "schmootz" ,as she called it, was inside the lamination when we fed it through the Your Story. (she was quite annoyed it was there, but I swear, its the size of a pin head.- Sheesh!)

Anyway...These are the last two Your Story 12x12 Laminating pouches I have. Seems like my Hobby Lobby isn't going to carry that product anymore. I picked up some Purple Cow ones there, but I have never used those in the Your Story machine. I think they are close enough to not matter much. I will be posting on that when we make the next set of Placemats.

Well off to craft some more!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Reconditioning my Mats

Hi all!

I have a large stash of mats that are not so sticky anymore. I decided to recondition a few of them.
My first step is removing lint and most adhesive from the mat using Goo Gone. I just put it on, spread it around with a scraper and then start scraping off. It takes some elbow grease to get the mat clean, but it works pretty well.
As you can see the left side of the mat is pretty clean. I know there are sprays out there that would probably so the same thing without so much scraping, but Goo Gone is definitely cheaper and more readily available. After I scrap the mats with the Goo Gone, I then wash them with dish soap and let them dry, just to make sure I get the Goo Gone off.

Now on to the resticking:

I used Aleene's Tack it Over and Over repositionable glue. I watered it down, and then spread it out on the mat using a sponge brush.
After you have brushed a coat of glue over the cutting surface, let it dry until clear. Then it is ready to go.

I didn't measure the water/glue ratio, I just winged it. It was a fairly thin consistency. I like this method as you don't' have to tape off the edges of your mat, like you do when using a spray. Brushing gives you more control.

My mats were a tad too sticky at first. I just patted them against my Tshirt a few times, and I didn't press my paper down too hard to the mats. After a few cuts, the mats are perfect now!

I also date all my mats with a sharpie so I can see how long they last. A few of those mats weren't that old. The "better adhesive" on the Imagine mats is a pretty big fail on Provo Craft's part if you ask me.

At least I know I can get a good sticky mat on my own. ;)

Give it a try!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

The Grey tag

Hi all!

Today I am still playing catch up on the 52 Tags in 2012. This tag is from the week 7 theme: "What is the last movie you saw?"

I went with my BFF it see The Grey. I knew it was a survival movie, I just wasn't expecting the level of gruesome that there was. I'm not a particularly squeamish person, but I cringed quite a bit during this movie. Also, I was FREEZING during the entire movie. I don't know if it was psychological because you watch the character battle the elements in Alaska or if the movie theater actually turned the heat down to add to the effect. LOL You want to know the WORST part about that evening?? It was the sticker-shock! $10.00 for the ticket and another 19.00 getting popcorn and a drink! YIKES!!

Anyway...Here is my tag:

The wolf is from Old West, the Moon is a SVG Cuts file, and the font is from Cricut American Alphabet, which came pre-loaded on my Expression 2 Anniversary edition. Provo Craft finally released an update that allows linking of the E2 cartridges to your Gypsy!! Hooray!

Here is the back side of the tag:

This time I decorated the back side as well. I just loved this movie reel from SVG Cuts, from the Summer Blockbuster set. I added the movie ticket stubs and a little bit of journaling.

I have been crafting like a crazy woman lately! It feels good to have some mojo back and I am really enjoying crafting. I think its the change in the weather that has raised my spirits up.

Well off to craft some more!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Lucky Girl Necklace

Hi all!

Popping in a second time today for a quick post on my entry into the Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge. This weeks challenge was to make something to wear for St. Patty's Day and that had green on it.

I made these necklaces for my two younger daughters to wear to school tomorrow.

Its very glittery! The large shamrock is from Designer's Calendar. The lucky Girl is from Once Upon a Princess and the little clovers are from Celebrate with a Flourish.

The Light green paper is Adhesive backed glitter paper from DCWV. I cut the large shamrock twice (one time was the reverse image) so I could layer them back to back. The other paper is from my stash and I just glittered the cuts using my Xyron.

I punched a small hole near the top and attached a jump ring to the cut. The ribbon is from my stash

Have a Great and Crafty Day, and a wonderful St. Patty's Day!

Jan