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

Crop Goodies- Notebook and Charm

Hi all! I am so excited, because today I am going to an All Day Crop! Its from 9 am to 9 pm, and I am looking forward to hanging out with my friends as well meeting new friends.

There are going to be some circle sisters at this crop, so I made some little goodies for them.

I found this fun pom-pom pen in hot pink, so I searched for a little notebook that was hot pink too. I found this gem at Staples. Its a pretty chunky little notebook with blank pages inside.

I cut the title in vinyl from Cricut Everyday Cartridge which was a Circle Exclusive. The felt flower was from my stash.

I made this charm using my Imagine and Imagine More Cards and InkJet Shrinky Dinks. I printed the image at 2.5 inches, punched a small hole in the corner and baked it in the oven. After is shrank, I covered the top with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and stuck it back into the oven to melt. I got this tip from Nadia over at With Glittering Eyes. It gives an awesome smooth and shiny finish to the charm. I then made a few bead strand with beads from my stash and attached it to a Cell phone charm holder.
I cut the Cricut Circle Logo from Cricut Everyday as well. Its hard to see in the picture, but I used lime green glitter paper.

I haven't had much time to craft this month, but I am hoping to get some things done at the crop, besides just chatting ;). Maybe I'll have some things to post later this week.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Ohio Circle Meet-up Magnet

Hello all! I am back again with my second post for today. One of the activities for the Cricut Circle meet-up is a Magnet Swap. The theme of the meet-up is RoadTrip From CHA. My magnet isn't about driving, its about celebrating your arrival!



I used the Pineapple drink from Life's a Beach cartridge. I then used my Gypsy and welded a Cricut Circle Logo to the top layer of the orange, and I used green paper, and some glitter paper to make it a lime. :)

I folded the pineapple on the score lines and inked them so then stood out some more. Because the cut is so small, its only about 2.5 inches tall, I used markers to color the umbrella stick. For the umbrella top, I flood filled a rectangle at the 8.5 x 11 ratio on the Imagine using the Better Together Cartridge. I, once again, took the printed piece to my E2 to cut the layer out. I am quite pleased, as those umbrella tops are SMALL and the pattern is just the right size.

I cut the straw off of the bottom layer and glued on a small wire candy cane that I had straightened out..Instant straw! I used my stash of those, so I am glad the craft stores are getting out the xmas stuff already. I will be picking up a bag or two of those again!

I also cut a small flower from Life's a Beach. I sized it down to fit onto my pineapple, and then used stickles to color in the layers, rather than trying to cut those pieces that small.

I finished off my pineapple with a bow made from Hemp, and added my magnet to the back.

Well I am off to finish packing and get ready for my Road-Trip Buddies to arrive!

Hope to see you in Ohio!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

My Money Bag - Cricut Circle Monthly Blog Challenge

Hi All! I am posting today to show my entry into the Cricut Circle Monthly Blog Challenge. Here are the requirements:

In honor of Earth Day (April 22nd) we would like you to recycle, reuse or repurpose 3 items on your project. For example, cut a shape from junk mail found in your trash can. Reuse something found in a junk drawer, or whatever! Use your creativity! Create a layout, card, altered project, etc. The choice is yours! This month entrants will be playing for their chance to win a Cricut Mini Cake Machine, Martha Stewart All Occasions Cake Art Cartridge, AND $50 worth of credit to Cricut.com.

Well I have been wanting to make a little box or something to hold all my loose change in. When it gets full, then I can cash it in for some more scrapping supplies..as if I needed more. LOL

Here is what I came up with:

I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More and cut the purse as big as would fit on my cereal box. It ended up being 11.53 inches. I then cut the same out of DCWV Adhesive backed 12x24 paper. I will say that this paper is not very good for box making as it cracks on the edges where its folded. I had to really ink up all the edges to hide the white core.

And the backside:
The large top note shape I printed on my Imagine and used Seeing Spots Cuttlebug folder on it. There is a smaller one on the front too, but it is mostly hidden by the embellishments.

I cut the phrase from the Cricut Everyday cartridge. I cut it at 1.53" and I used vinyl as the letters are really thin and they kept tearing when I used cardstock. The vinyl cut much better, but was a little tricky to work with as it was pretty small.

I added a few mini ribbon roses that came from in the stash from my Mom! The love was printed off the Imagine too, from Imagine more cards.

These are the three things I recycled in order to make my bag: A cereal box, some play money we bought for my girls, and some packaging from K&Company.

I thought it would be fun to make a rosette out of the play money, since it is really large.

For the big rosette I cut the bill in half and then used my Martha Stewart Scoreboard to score at every half inch to make the rosette. It is easier to see the money face that way. On the smaller rosettes, I scores them at every 1/4 inch to get a tighter rosette. I also cut that bill into fourths. the centers were made using some plastic coins that came with a toy cash register. I used some alcohol inks on them to give a more realistic look.
For the roses: I used Sweet Treats and cut the shadow layer form the flower on page 50. I then used an technique that my Friend Janice from Craft place taught me. You can see all her beautiful creations here. I cut three layers all the same size for each flower I made. I made a 2", 2@ 1.4". and 2@ 1". Then I trimmed and rolled them into roses. There are many tutorials on this technique on Youtube. I sprayed each one with Glimmer Mist in Candy Apple Red. They all have a golden sparkle to the. I stuck pearls in a few of then centers.

I gathered some black satin ribbon on a thread to make a ribbon flower, and then added a stick pin I made from a corsage pin and a couple of beads. I also added a short strand of pearls and a bow made from Black Satin ribbon.
The tags were stamped using Inkadoo stamps onto the inside of the K&Company packaging. I then distress the edges with my distressing tool from Stampin' Up.

Other tidbits: I used Colorbox Chalk in Charcoal for the edges, and a magnetic disc closure from Basic Grey to keep the purse shut.

All in all, I am so happy with how this turned out.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Stampede Wooden Boot

A Dallas Stampede Swag Bag goodie was a wooden cut out of the boot from the Old West Cartridge. I thought I would share with you all my decorated boot.

I cut the boot from Old West at 8 inches, but I hid most of the cuts on my Gypsy. I used some Cowgirl themed pattern paper I found at Michaels as well as a sheet I bought at the Stampede in one of the stores.

I cut the toe and strap layers from Bazzil Bling.

I also cut the Dallas and its shadow at .92 inches and Stampede was cut at .73 inches. Both were cut from Old West, in brown smooth card stock and the top layer of Dallas was also cut in Bazzil Bling.

The Date was cut smaller than Stampede, but I forgot to write down the exact measurement.
I inked all the edges of the boot cuts as well as the words using Chestnut Roan Chalk ink.

The Circle Logo was cut from Cricut Everyday at 3.2 inches. It was also cut in Bazzil Bling. I sized down a Picture of Missie and I in our hats and stuck it inside the circle logo. I then pop-dotted it up.

Here is a picture of the back side.


I plan on printing out a couple more photos from the Stampede and putting them on the back side. I am waiting to see if some of my roomies have a picture of all of us together, as I neglected to take one! LOL

Thanks for stopping by...

Have a Great ans Crafty Day!

Jan

Retractable Gypsy Stylus holder

Hello all! I just wanted to share my idea for keeping track of my Gypsy stylus. I am constantly setting it down and then it gets buried on my craft table, or I just plain forget where I put it. I have tried to use bracelets and wrist straps with my stylus, but I find that having a stylus dangling from my wrist while I am trying to craft is just a tad annoying.


Here it is:



My husband had one of these retractable ID reels for his work ID, and I thought it would be great to use for my stylus.
I picked up this package of reels from Staples office supply.


I used some pliers to open up the V-ring that was attached to the ID badge holder.


I added a jump ring to my stylus, hooked it through the V-ring, and then reattached it to the badge reel.


Here it is all attached


I decorated it using a 1" circle of Bazzil Bling paper, and a 1" Font 1 Shift J on page 47 from my new Cricut Everyday cartridge. I used some Shimmer Mist to give my Monogram some sparkle, and then finished off my reel with some mini gems and ribbon.


Here is a close up of the back. It has a clip on it. I just hook it to my collar or pocket.

Here is a picture of it pulled out some. The reel has a 33-inch cord, plenty of line to comfortably reach my Gypsy. I just have to remember not to let it fly back into place, or I may be hitting myself in the face with my stylus! LOL

Have a Great and Crafty Day!