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

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

Camper Decorations and Backyard campouts- Pic heavy

Hi All! School's out and we are thoroughly enjoying our summer Vacation already! We are avid campers here, but alas, with the rising gas prices, we will not be dragging our camper too far from home many times this year.

But, we are not discouraged at all..We have decided to have quite a few "backyard campouts". We have a fire pit in the backyard and the trailer is parked on a pad right next to the house, so we will be enjoying our camper in our own yard. Here are a couple of pics from our first backyard campout. My SIL and DD's enjoying the fire pit.

DH and DD's being silly by the fire. There is our camper in the background.

I thought I would share the inside of my camper with you today. I have made many decorations using my cricut and a few different cartridges.

Here are some of the cabinet doors decorated with various camping/outdoor themed icons. The tree is from Give a Hoot:

Give a Hoot: Tree Hugger icon and words Give a Hoot:
Give a Hoot: DD's closet
Campin' Critters:
Cabinets over our bed: Give a Hoot Cartridge
Here is my DH's side of the bed. I used a couple of cuts from Wildlife Lite Cartridge. I HAD to put a turkey up there! LOL
Here is a closer view of the Stag Head from Wildlife Lite. I did ink this one to give it some more definition.
Here is my closet.
And of course, I had to have a Mermaid on my side too! She is from Life's a Beach.
Campin' Critters Skunk for the Bathroom door! LOL!
Here is a menu card holder I made for the door of the fridge. I used Campout to and Pooh Font to make it. The silverware is chipboard stickers from Cosmo Cricket,
I love this little phrase from Give a Hoot:
Give a Hoot animals over our sofa:
And Finally...some rainy day campout crafts: Origami Cranes we made on a campout. We strung them up on the curtains.
I have a few more decs planned. I was thinking of getting some outdoor vinyl and making a few things for the outside of the camper too!

Hope you enjoyed the little visit inside our camper.

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.

Dallas Stampede Calling Card

Happy Friday to All! I am on my way to Dallas for the Stampede. HOORAY! So I thought I would share with you the Calling Cards I made for the Stampede.



The Cactus images is From the Hero Arts Howdy Stamp set.

The Mermaid is compiled from cuts from several different cartridges. I used my gypsy to get the sizing right on the cuts. For the top half of the Mermaid, I cut the girl from Rock Princess pg. 34. I cut off her legs (eek!) and removed the guitar from her hands. I also cut her shirt, face, arms, and hair.

Her tail was cut from Dreams Come True pg. 32. I used glimmer mist in Key Lime Pie on both pieces of her tail.

The scarf is from Old West pg. 35. I flipped the image and used my hide contour feature to remove some of the cuts, as I was cutting that image VERY small.

Finally her hat and its band was cut from Once Upon a Princess pg.41. I used Glimmer Mist in Pearl on the Hat pieces.

The seahorse is from Life's a Beach, Pg. 69. I only cut the base layer for the seahorse, as most of it would be hidden. I Inked the edges of the seahorse with Colorbox Ink in Cyan. I also used Sea Glass Glimmer Mist on it, and used a gem for the eye that I colored myself with my Bic Mark-its.

I made her little Lasso with Hemp.

Hope you enjoyed my Calling Card. I hope to swap these out and recieve tons of cards from my fellow Circlets in Dallas! Hope to see you there!

Have a Great and Crafty Week!