Hello Again! August Cartridge Challenge on Hold.

Hello all,

I have been absent from blogger since the very start of the month. I have been having alot of pain in my hands, feet, and knees. I also have been feeling a little lost when I get into my craft room lately. I am sure, not feeling well physically, has added to my lack of Mojo in the craft room.

I went to the doctor about the pain, suspecting arthritis, as my Sister has been diagnosed since she was 27. Not surprising, some of my tests came back abnormal, so I am now scheduled to see the Rheumatologist. She is one BUSY Doctor, the soonest appointment I could get isn't for 6 weeks. ..sigh.. That is such a long time when things are hurting.

Anyway, I've been told that with arthritis, you just have to learn to adjust and live with it and not let it stop you, so I am going to make an extra effort to pop into my craft room everyday, at least for a little while, and work on something.

As I haven't even started working on any of my August Cartridge Challenge projects, I am going to hold over those cartridge choices again for September, giving me extra time to use them up.

I am very happy with how my personal challenge is going, as I have used many of my cartridges since starting this challenge. I only have 30 more cartridges to go to use them all. (plus any carts I acquire along the way :) )

I do have a post almost ready, using some of my July challenge carts, so I will get that finshed up and post it a little later today.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

August Cartridge Challenge

Hi all! I am running a little behind in getting all my posts up. I wanted to pop in today and list the cartridges that I pulled from my jar, to use in August.

The cartridges are:

Opposites Attract
Imagine Pattern - Mystical Garden
Paper Doll Dress Up
Christmas Cards - seasonal
Once Upon a Princess
Home Decor - Solutions
Preserves
Tear Drop

I have a couple of projects to post still using up my July cartridges. One of them is a gift, so I am waiting until the I give it to my friend before posting. :)

I am really plugging away at my cartridge list. The best part, is when looking through the handbooks, I find more images that I want to use on future projects. I would really encourage anyone who is a cartridge collector to challenge yourself as well!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

July Cartride Challenge Picks

Hello All! I can't believe it is July 1st already! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

I have been plugging away at my cartridge challenge pretty, and am happy to say that I have so far, used 89 of my 137 cartridges in posts on my blog. I have 48 more carts to use in blog posts to complete my challenge. I feel pretty happy at my current progress, and I plan to keep plugging away at my challenge.

So, that being said...On to this Month's Picks:

Cricut Decals E2
Going Places
H20 - seasonal
Independence Day
Nursery Rhymes
Ornamental Iron
Printing Press
Very Merry Tags

I also plan to use my Imagine on at least one project.

It is easy to fall into the cartridge collector mode, so I encourage all my cricut friends to challenge yourself to use all your carts too!

i look forward to seeing all the great projects out there this month!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Beauty Layout

Hello All! Here I am, two days in a row with posts! Wow I am on a roll. Actually, I am trying to complete my cartridge challenge this month, and I have two cartridges, left to use and only a week to do it. So....Here I am sharing a layout I made using Disney Happily Ever After as well as Pagoda. When perusing the Happily Ever After handbook after I drew it for my challenge, I quickly decided NOT to try to cut any of the Princesses right now, as all my attempts in the past have been less that stellar. So, I chose to use a couple of Accessory cuts from the Mulan Section to showcase my Daughter's costume pictures from the anime convention.
The patterned paper used is from DCWV Far East Stack. I used Elegant Edges to cut the decorative edge to the blue paper. I then layered a 4 inch wide strip of the tan butterfly paper in the stack and then layer 1 inch strip of the rectangular patterned paper over the edge. All papers were inked using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

This cut is called MulFrm2. It is on page 76 in the handbook. I cut the base layer for the frame twice in brown. I then cut the flowers in a pale pinky-peach cardstock that was from my stash. I also cut the top layer from the green circular pattern from the stack. I took a small piece from the butterfly pattern and printed ACEN 2011 on it using Chinese Takeaway font.

Here is the tree from that same page in the handbook. I used the same pinky peach and brown cardstock as the frame.

I decided my layout needed a little more, so I cut a this bridge and shrine from the Pagoda cartridge. I pop-dotted the top layer of the shrine.

My last cut for this layout was also from the Pagoda Cartridge. It is the Kanji word "Beauty" from page 25 in the handbook.

Well glad that is over with...I really do not like those Princess carts too much, I am really hoping that as the Cricut Craft Room Program evolves, that cutting those Princesses will get easier.

Anyway...Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

White Monotone Card

Hello All, I wanted to share with you today, a tone on tone card I made. The finished card size is about 5x5". I used Cordinations papers: Gemstone in Pearl, Canvas Texture in Bright White, and this new Glitter one named Opulent Opal.


I used the Lovely Floral Cartridge. The Card base, and three flowers use the glittered paper. The lace base cut uses the Canvas textured paper, and the border and 4 flowers use the Gemstones paper.


I pop-dotted the lace layer and the flowers layers. I used tiny gems for the centers of the flowers.


I finished the inside of the card with a three more glittered flowers layered on a small strip of the Gemstone paper.

It's a fairly simple card, but I really love how sparkly it is. I just don't think my picture does this card justice.

I am working on another card using this cartridge, as I am really enjoying it. The cuts on this cartridge have intricate cuts with a cute and whimsical feel to them. I encourage you to take a closer look at this Lite Cartridge.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Yudu Tshirts using Hannah Montana Cartridge

Hi All! I have been working hard on projects to share with you. I am trying to keep up with my own cartridge challenge, and I am happy to post something using one of those cartridges today.

I made a couple of t-shirts for my dd's using the YUDU and the Hannah Montana Cartridge.

I have been using outdoor vinyl on my YUDU screen instead of Emulsion. I still need to practice more, as I am not always getting as crisp of an image as I want, but overall I am pleased with how these shirts came out.

The white ink I used was Versatex. I thought the Ink was very thick, so on the first shirt I watered it down some..it bled through the shirt more and bled under the vinyl too. SO for the second shirt I used it straight from the pot, without diluting it. I got a better image, but still not perfect, and it also still bled through the fabric, although not as much.


The Sparkly Ink is YUDU Gunmetal bronze. I LOVE this color. It turned out so sparkly and it hardly bled through the fabric, so I may just stick to YUDU ink in the future.

The Heart image was cut at 10.81 inches., and the Fonts were cut at 1.28 and 1.86 inches.



Well I am happy to have used both my YUDU and a cartridge that was on my challenge list.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

June Cartridge Challenge

Well here we are in June, and I didn't have enough time to complete my May challenge. Therefore I am reusing some of the picks from May that I have not yet used. Hopefully this month I will find more time to craft than I did in May!

June's Picks are:

Camping Critters
Summer Vacation - Seasonal
Freshly Picked
Hannah Montana
Happily Ever After
Life's A Beach
Lovely Floral - Lite
Playtime -Lite

May Monthly Cartridge Challenge

It's a new month, and with that I pick a new set of Cartridges to use during the month. This is my 10th Month doing this challenge, and I am pretty darn excited that I have hung in there and kept plugging away at it. I hope others are challenging themselves to use the carts they buy too!

May's Picks are:

Cake Basics
Cricut Classic Font
Cuttin' Up
Freshly Picked
George and Basic Shapes
Hannah Montana
Happily Ever After
Life's A Beach

Also want to use my Imagine more, so I am challenging myself to use that at least once in every month too.

Playground title page

Hiya! I hope everyone is having a good week. I have been busy trying to get all my projects for my monthly cartridge challenge done before the month ends. Tossing in a few Easter projects into the mix this month has put me a tad behind schedule.

So a little background info on this project: I live in Tinley Park, IL. One of its two claims to fame is that we have been awarded the title: "The Best Place in America to Raise a Family." (Big whoop! LOL) Anyway, with that being said, we have A LOT of parks in town. The powers that be gotta keep improving the town so we can maintain our title. XD

My Family has a goal to play in every playground in Tinley Park. (We estimate there to be at least 50!) We have already played at quite a few. I have taken pictures at each one so far, so we can make a scrapbook about our quest. This is the title page for that book.

This project also uses TWO carts from my Monthly challenge: My Community and Cupcake-Lite. WooHoo! I love two for one projects!

Here is a close up of the trees. I cut the base layer twice and then hand cut the tree tops out and embossed them using Swiss Dots, and Vintage Wallpaper Folders

Recipe for layout:

My Community Cartridge: Playground cut at 7.75"
Cupcake - Lite: Font and Shadow layer, cut at sizes ranging from .88" - 1.59"
Patterned papers/small punchouts: Over the Rainbow by We R Memory Keepers
Solid Cardstock: Bazzil smooth and The Paper Company smooth.
All Inking was done using Tim Holtz Distress Inks in various colors (my new obsession)
Divine Twine
Cuttle Bug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Vintage Wallpaper Sizzix Stampin'Up Embossing Folder

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Teen Boy Birthday Card

Hi All, I am sharing a card I made for my nephew's birthday.
Making a card for a teen aged boy was a little bit of a challenge for me, but I am happy with how it turned out.
I used Summer Vacation for the Jeep cut. This is a Seasonal cartridge so there are no extra features on it, so in order to make the "shadow" layer I used my Gypsy to hide all the interior cuts on the jeep and then sized it slightly larger than the main cut. It is not a perfect shadow but I think it works just fine.

All other cuts were made using the Birthday Cakes cartridge. I really liked how this gears greeting matched the wheels on the jeep. I pop-dotted the greeting on the front of the card to give some depth. The patterned paper was from Beach Fun by American Traditional Designs. The solid cardstock was from my stash of older Creative Memories Paper.


Not a super fancy card, but I am glad with how it turned out. And the best part was how much my Nephew liked it.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

What bugs me..Circle blog Weekly Challnge #28

Hi all! Todays's post is a layout I made to enter into the weekly challenge over on the Cricut Circle Blog.

Weekly Challenge #28: Creepy Crawlies Challenge!
The Challenge: Create a scrapbook page about the things that bug you. Use a bug somewhere on your project.

Well, what really bugs me is dirty dishes left in the sink. Bleech! I don't consider myself to be very OCD or anything, I just don't get leaving a big stack of yucky dishes in the sink. That is what the dishwasher is for. Actually it was very hard to leave the dishes in the sink long enough to take the picture! LOL


This is another double duty project, as it uses another one of my monthly challenge cartridges, Paisley. I cut the Bee and the little lady bugs from the Paisley Cart. The Bee was cut at 4 in. I added some stickles to her wings and antennae ends. I then free cut some "hands" for her to hold her dish and dishrag. Her Dish is just a couple of circles using some punches I have. Her dishrag is a scrap of ribbon. The apron is from the Nifty Fifties cartridge. I used my Gypsy to size the apron to fit the bee better. It was cut at 2 in. I then trimmed off the top of the apron by hand. I added some stickles to the apron as well.


The little ladybugs were cut at about .75 in. I used my gypsy to hide the contours on the ladybugs wings because the cuts were going to be so small. I just used some stickles to make her dots instead.

I cut the sink and dishes from the Chore Chart cartridge. The sink is cut at 3.71 in. I left off the extra top layer of the sink as I really like the little blue dotted paper. I did add some stickles over the "water flow". The dishes I sized to fit in the sink.
The title was cut from Cuttin' Up. The lower case letters are cut at 1 in. The word BUGS is sized at 1.25 in. I used my cuttlebug embossing folder, Swiss Dots, on them.

I pop-dottd the word Bugs as well as the sink itself and the apron on Ms. Bee.

All the patterned paper is from DCWV Flower Shower Sring Stack from last year. The solid cardstock is from my stash, I think it is Bazzil textured. Finishing touches included inking most edges with Colorbox chalk in Charcoal and some Divine Twine in Green Apple.

It was alot of fun to plan a layout on a subject I wouldn't normally consider scrapbooking in the first place. It makes me want to do more "out of the box" scrapbooking inthe future.

Thanks for visiting.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Cricut Circle Blog Challenge- Kids Artwork Books

Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge #27: Make a Game Plan.

Basically it is to draw and use a Sketch in a project. I have been wanting to try making my own covers for books using the YourStory Machine. So I drew a sketch of how I wanted to layout the cover and then I designed it on my Gypsy.


First of all I made my cover using thicker cardstock. I made the binder edge 2.5 x 12 inches long, and the front and back covers are 9 x 12.

I scored the strip at 1" and 1.5". Then I folded it to make a flat book back edge. Hindsight...Next one I will add a score line at .5" for the book to open at.

I filled the inside of black strip between the two score lines with a generous amount of hot glue. I then let it cool.

Then I glued on my covers. They were cut at 9" x 12". I used regular glue NOT hot glue to attach the covers to the binding.- Hindsight...Next time I will make the entire cover out of one sheet of cardstock and then cover the "binding" with a contrasting piece of paper.


Then I pulled out my YourStory and warmed it up. I carefully lined up some of my daughter's artwork and placed it into my homemade cover.

I then stuck it into the YourStory and hit the bind button.

After the YourStory did its stuff, I pulled it out and let it cool, then I was ready to decorate it.

I used Locker Talk for the icons and Cuttin' Up for the font.
The Kindergarten was cut at 3.24". The Glue, Scissors, and Crayon are all 1.82"
The Letters are cut at 1.24"

Most paper used was DCWV Adhesive Backed Stack as well as using up my scraps for the smaller layers.


I hand cut the glue spill and added glossy accents to it to give it some shine and look like real spilled glue.

I love having double duty for projects. Here this is going to be my entry into the blog challenge and it also uses one of the cartridges I chose for my own personal April Challenge. One down..seven to go! :)

I feel really glad about finally getting this project done. Now I only have to make these for my other girls...

Well off to craft some more.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

April Cartridge Challenge Picks

Okay...Back again for my third post of today, and then I am all caught up!

I picked the CArtridges I am going to use for my Cartridge Challenge for the month of April:

Here are the lucky picks!

Birthday Cakes
Cupcake -Lite
Designer's Calendar
Hello Kitty Greetings
Locker Talk
My Community -Classmate
Paisley
Summer Vacation -Seasonal

I have also added that I want to use my Imagine more, so I am including using my Imagine at least once during the month as well.

I hope all of you are challengeing yourself as well. I have to admit, I am using cartridges that I don't always want to, and sometimes it is a struggle to find a use for some of them, but I am happy to be working on my goal of using all my cartridges at least once.

Good luck to all in meeting all your challenges.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Birthday Princess Placemat

Here is todays second post...A placemat I made for my niece's upcoming 2nd birthday Party. I made teh mat 6 x 12 as it is going on her high chair.

I used twinkle toes for the "Princess" as well as her crown. I tried to make her as thin as possible as I am laminating this and too many layers buckles up the laminate.

I did add some tulle for a skirt to make her fanicier. Hopefully that will lameniate ok. All papers used were scraps from my stash. Probably Bazzil or Recollections cardstock. The patterned background paper, I think came from a Target dollar bin pack from last year or so.

Birthday Princess was cut from Birthday Cakes.

For the sparkle I used Turquoise Stickles. Let me say, that I have a love-hate relationship with my Stickles. Today it seemed like I had to stick a pin in the bottle after every little spot I put on the letters. I was cursing the stickles when I was done. LOL


I store them upside down, as it is...If anyone has a secret to keeping your Stickles from clogging up...please let me know!

Thanks and have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Chore Cards and why I love my Gypsy

Well I am finally back after being really sick with a rotten bug. I have never been so tired in my life. Glad that its past me now. I fell behind in my projects while I was laying on the couch groaning...so today I am going to have three posts.

First off..Chore Cards. I specifically bought this cartridge to make some signs for around our house to remind my youngest daughter of some bathroom etiquette.


After I made a few bathroom signs, I decided to cut out some of the chore symbols that we use in our house frequently. These cuts are so cute, but I confess that if I don't have the trifold right in front of me when I am assembling the cuts, I am at a loss.

For instance: the toy box card..I had NO IDEA what that toy was other than the ball. I had to whip out my magnifying glass and look at the trifold just to determine that it was in fact a toy car. SHEESH..Getting older stinks. LOL
Anyway...I really like the cuts on this cartridge so I think I may cut out some more.

SIDE NOTE:

...I almost exclusively use my Gypsy when cutting anything out with My Expression. Even if I am only cutting a simple shape. I love that you can place your image anywhere on the mat. I save so much more paper than using the material saver button on the E. I place all my images and then use pieces of paper cut down to a size just big enough to cut the image. Here is a picture of one of my mats going into the E for 4 of the cards I made today....
I set it all up, place all my paper and then only have to load the mat once and cut all the images I need. This is how I do most of my projects. I feel that I may spend a few extra minutes getting a cut set up, but then I have all the cuts done for an image all at once. (Unless the image is too big to fit on one page) I feel its more efficient in my time and certainly in my materials.

Well off to craft some more..I have lots of catching up to do! :)

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Calling Cards Lunch Box

A fellow Circle member, Scrapalette, decorated a cute lunch box to hold her calling cards for the Stampede. I loved it, so I had to make one for myself!

I purchased my lunchbox from JoAnn's for about 5 dollars.


I printed the background papers for both sides using my Imagine and Imagine More Cards Art Cartridge, which is one of my Cartridge Challenge Picks. The Pink spotted background I then embossed using my Circle Logo Embossing Folder.

The Phone image is from Imagine More Cards. I printed the entire image flat, and then printed an additional phone and dial layers, and then I pop dotted them for some more dimension. I printed "Jan's Calling Cards" on my computer using Sparklyfont from Font Diner.

I cut a Circle Logo at 2" in Bazzil Bling paper and adhered it over one of the embossed images.

For the other side I also used Imagine More Cards for the Background paper.

I used the Imagine More Art Cartridge to cut the Cow, and his head layers. I printed him on Bling paper to give hime some extra sparkle. It worked great! He is cut at about 4". The city scene is from Planin Schoolbook. I cut it out of Coredinations Black Glitter paper.


The top sign is a stamp I had, the Dallas and Pasture signs I printed from my computer. I just used my pinking shears for the sides of the signs.

The fantastic charms hanging from the handle were made by my friend Missie.

I just LOVE THEM! You can check out her Blog Created by Missie for more of her awesome projects.

Stampede Layout

Hi Ya'll! I am back from the Stampede. I had so much fun. I hope to upload a few pics from our festivites soon.

Today I am sharing a layout I made using one of my cartridge challenge picks: 50 States.



Cartridges used:
50 States - State shape cut at fit to page for the shadow layer. Texas title was cut at 1".
Old West - Cactus, Rock and Mini Cactus cut at 4.47", Wagon Wheel 1.94", Boots 2.65", and Hat 1.82"
Jubilee - Dallas Stampede title cut using Runt Font at 1.71"




Here is a close-up of my title. I used my Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz to give some "stitching" to my title. I just LOVE this little tool!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the other elements in the layout.



Background paper is from Basic Grey - Blush pack.
Striped paper is from My Minds Eye- Simply Delightful.

Finishing touches using gems, Pink Ribbon from Martha Stewart, as well as my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.

I hope to get caught up on my posting. I was planning on posting from the hotel, but there wasn't internet service inside the crop room.

Have a Great and Crafty Week!

Crazy Birthday Centerpiece

Hello all! While I am away at the Dallas Stampede, I thought I would share with you a crazy centerpiece I made for my friend who will turning 30 this week. I made this springy bouquet using Accent Essentials for all the flowers. Mark another cartridge off of this month's challenge! HOORAY!


First Thing I did was paint a 3.5" square block of wood black, and then I covered it with Martha Stewart Glitter in Black Onyx. I LOVE MS Glitter!!! While the glitter was drying I spent some time twisting various colors of Jewelry wire into springs and bendy stems.

I cut 5 different shapes from Accent Essentials. I cut each base twice (once flipped on my Gypsy so I can layer them back to back) and one of the top layers. I cut one of each of the five layers in six different colors of Bazzil Bling paper. The base layers I cut in Black Glitter paper from Target.

The 30's were cut from Birthday Bash. They were also cut in the same colors of Bazzil Bling. The Happy Birthday on the base of the cube was cut from Cricut Classic Font in glitter paper, also from Target. I finished each flower with a sparkly tulle bow in matching colors.

Here are some close-up's of some of the flowers.




I made 30 flowers of course, and then I drilled quite a few holes on the top of the block. The flowers just sit in the holes, they are not glued. I wanted to make transport of this to Dallas as easy as possible.

Have a Great and Crafty Week!