Cartridge Challenge - Week 5

Hi All,
Here are the Cartridges pulled for this week:
I have used both of these cartridges in the past.

Smiley Cards

Smiley Cards I have only used once for the martini glass cut, but I think it will be easier to cut some things now that I have a PDF of the handbook. I use my handbooks quite a bit, and was frustrated when I first received the Smiley Cards download. It was difficult to figure out what exactly I was looking at on my Gypsy screen with regards to the layers. A GREAT BIG THANKS to ProvoCraft first for giving us this great cartridge as a free download, but then also making up a PDF handbook just like the other cartridges have

Songbird
Songbird has a wonderful cursive font that welds together nicely, and the Birdhouse Font is really cute.

Better Together Candles

I made these candles a couple of weeks ago for some friends. I forgot to post it, so when I drew this cartridge for the week 4 challenge, I thought, terrific, I already had a project done!

The top candle was my first attempt at this tissue technique. The second candle is one I made for my Bff for a gift.

First step in this project is putting a regualr sheet of cardstock on the Imagine Mat, and then taping a piece of tissue on top of it. That way the tissue doesn't stick to the mat. I thought it might be too fragile to remove from the mat without ripping.
Then I printed the image without cutting it out. Earlier attempts at sutting the tissue with the Imagine, ripped the tissue, so I settled for hand cutting the image out.

The next step is to place your image on top of your candle and use a heat gut to melt the candle underneath the image. The wax seeps through the image and adhears it to the candle.
This is tricky, take your time so you dont' overheat the area around your image. I did get a few spots onteh candle where drips were showing. I tried to heat and smooth them out the best I could. I think next time I will heat them much slower to keep the area around the image looking neater.

I added twine to the first candle and some flowers and ribbon to the second one.



It was a fun little project and I would definately try it again. However, I am not sure how burning a candle with the tissue on it works, so if you choose to do so, be careful.

Cartridge Challenge - Week 4

Hi all! I am a little behind schedule here. I was supposed to post this on Sunday, and for any of those following along with me on this challenge, I apologize. It has been a little hectic around our house lately, and time just seems to be flying by! I can't believe it is already nearing the end of January.

On to this weeks challenge cartridges:
Better Together for the Imagine

and French Manor Circle Exclusive Cartridge.

Have a great week and Good Luck with this weeks challenge!

Fall Hiking Layout

I finally finished this layout using the Speaking of Fall cartridge for the Week 3 Cartridge Challenge.

I had a difficult time picking out what cut on this cartridge to use for this challenge so I went for an easy one, spelling Fall using the "leaves letters" and a few leaf cuts.

I won this cartridge in a contest, and honestly I wouldn't have bought it, and after seeing how limited the images are, I probably won't buy any of the other "Speaking of..." cartridges either. These are Classroom cartridges and I can see for bulletin boards, this may be great, but for non-educational purposes, I really don't see it as being all that useful. There are many other cartridges out there with better fall images on it.

The rest of the layout was completed using stickers, papers, and ribbon from my stash. Well at least I can say I used it once. LOL

Have a great day.

10 Things... Gate fold card

Here is one of my projects for week three of my Cartidge Challenge.

I needed to use Graphically Speaking on a project and I chose to make a Valentine's Day Card for my DH.
I absolutely LOVE this cartridge. It is my go-to cartridge when I am not sure what I want to do on a project. Sometimes just looking through the handbook gets my creative juices flowing, even if I don't end up using this cartridge on the project. I am not sure exactly what it is about this cartridge that speaks to me, but it is one of my favorites.


This is my first time making a gate fold card. I chose to make the card 6 x 6 to keep the measurments easy. I used brown cardstock for the base. All the patterned paper as well as two stickers on the inside of the card were from an older Creative Memories paper kit called Cherish. The Graphically Speaking cuts were: Top Ten, The List, as well as the numbers on the inside. "Things" and "about" as well as the I and the U were cut from Cricut Classic Font. For the I and U I cut several layers and glued them together to make a faux chipboard monogram. I then inked the edges. The heart and its layer were cut from Doodlecharms, with the top layer embossed with swiss dots.



The prima flowers on the outside and inside of the card were sprayed with Glimmer Mist in Coffee Shop, Black Chery, Pearl, and tattered Rose.



The bling I used, both the mini flowers and round gems were colored using Sharpie Markers. I LOVE this technique. All I buy now are clear gems and color them myself.

Have a great day!

Week Three: Cartridge Challenge

Hello all! It is the start of a new week and I have drawn the cartridges for this weeks challenge.

The cartridges are:



This is another good challenge as I have never used the Speaking of Fall Cartridge. The challenging part about this is, when this title was pulled from the jar my first reaction was, "I don't WANT to use this one now!" So I guess its going to truly be a challenge this time.

The other cartridge, Graphically Speaking should be quite easy, I LOVE this cartridge and have used it many, many times. I love the more unique images and phrases on it.

Good Luck this week to all of those who are following along with me on this challenge.

Winter Banner

I am doing double duty again with this project. It fufills two challenges, one for the Cricut Circle Blog, and my cartridge challenge: Using Sugar and Spice.
For the Circle Blog Challenge we were asked to scrap-lift an idea from the blog, and I chose to make a banner.

The other requirements were to use at least two cuts and items from two of the blog sponsors.

The two sponsor products I chose were snowflake paper from American Crafts, and Pearl Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels.






I cut the tag from Sugar and Spice in the American Crafts Snowflake paper. I also cut it again in a thin chipboard to give the tag some weight. I then used the Tattered Angels Glimmer mist in Pearl to give it a little sparkle. I also cut the shift layer for the tag, but I used my gypsy to hide the center cut so I ended up with a top note shape. I cut this in Coredinations whitewash Barn Siding color. I sanded the edges to bring out some more of the red.

The font used was from Country Life. There isn't a shadow feature for this font so I improvised. The blue mini snowflake paper is from My Minds Eye and it was cut at 1.5 inches. I then cut Salmon colored carstock at slightly larger than 1.5. I layered then slightly off so you can see the red underneath. I added three mini star gems to each letter tag.


The 3D snowflakes were cut from Winter Lace. I cut those at 2.25 inches using Coredinations Crown Jewel in Pearl. I slid the pieces together then taped it down to the tag. I added some blue glittery gems to the ends of the snowflakes.

The Banner was finished with some Make it Christmas Snowflake buttons and red ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

I really enjoyed making this banner. I may make one for every seasonthis year.

Brrr! Card - Week 2 Cartridge Challenge

Here is a card I made for both the Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge, AND my own personal challenge of using the cartridges I drew from my jar. I am glad to be able to combine these challenges into one project.

For the Circle Blog Challenge we needed to use metal, white paint, and a snowflake cut.

My metal was a small piece of a self adhesive sheet made by Quickkutz. I embossed it using the cuttlebug snowflake folder.

I used white paint on the edge of the silver cardstock. Its a little difficult to see in the photo. I used Making Memories Scrapbook colors. Spotlight is the name of the paint color.

My snowflake cut comes from the Holiday Cakes cartridge. I just LOVE this cut! I may use it again in a scrapbook page. I cut it at 3 inches, and some of the details on the smaller snowflakes are hard to see, but overall, I am pretty pleased with how well it cut at that small size.

The Brr! is from Winter Frolic. I cut that at 1"

The silver cardstock is some older Creative Memories cardstock. The light and medium blues are both smooth cardstock from my stash of scraps so I am not exactly sure what brand they are.

I finished my card off with some plain white ribbon from the dollar store and some clear gems.

Cartridge Challenge Week 2

This is the start of the 2nd week of my Challenge to use all my Cricut Cartridges.

I have drawn two more cartridges from my jar.

This week's choices are:

Holiday Cakes

Sugar snd Spice Lite


I am really glad I decided to do this challenge, as I have never even opened the Holiday Cakes Handbook. LOL I only opened the box and linked the cartridge to my Gypsy.

As I was perusing the handbook, I was very excited to see so many great cuts on this cardtridge. Lots of border choices, as well as really nice seasonal cuts.
I think this week is going to be easier than last week.

Autumn Fun - Week 1 Challenge

Here is my second project for my Cartridge Challenge. This time I needed to use Stretch your Imagination.

I looked through this handbook and struggled with trying to find a cut I wanted to use. Honestly I remember when this cartridge first came out I just HAD to have it, and while I was trying to figure out what I was going to make using this cartridge I kept asking myself exactly why did I need this cartridge so bad??

After much deliberation I decided on the Autumn title cut. I used the "stretched version" on page 42 of the handbook. It was cut at 7". The Fun was cut from Gypsy Font. I used my Gypsy to size the font to match the Autumn word, then I welded together the u and n.

The two leaf borders were cut from Gypsy Wanderings at 1".

All paper used was from My Minds Eye Simply Delightful stack. I just love this stack. The colors and patterns are so..delightful. LOL

I inked the edges of a few of the papers and around my photos with Colobox Chalk in Chestnut Roan.

I finished off the page with a few buttons, twine, and a giggle stamp from a set I bought at Archiver's.

I am glad this one is done. I hope next week's choices aren't so difficult to utilize.

Kitchen Wall Hanging - Week #1 Challenge: Celebrate With a Flourish

Here is my first project in my Cartridge Challenge using Celebrate with a Flourish
Cartridges used in this project:
Celebrate with a Flourish for the Wine Bottle/glasses
Lacy Labels for the base shape
Calligraphy for the Gratitude Font

I recycled a large gift box for the chipboard base for the project. I cut it three times at height of 11 inches. Two cuts in the chipboard, and one in Black Glitter paper from DCWV. This size gave it a width of almost 13 inches, so I used my 12x24 mat and paper.

I then stapled a ribbon to the inside layer of chipboard. I glued all three pieces together and inked the edges.


I cut the Cement colored cardstock twice at 10.5 inches and 10.25 and then inked the edges and layered the pieces. I placed small black gems in the corners.


The wine bottle and glasses layers were cut at 8.5". I cut the base layer once and the bottle and glass layers two times each. I layered the pieces with foam tape between them to give added dimension.
The font was cut a 1.63" I love this calligraphy font, but those pieces are skinny and a little fragile.

I am really pleased with how this project turned out. I am looking forward to completing more projects in this challenge.

My 2011 Cartridge Challenge. - Week #1

I have set myself a goal for 2011 to use every cartridge I own at least once.

So to keep my moving forward on this challenge I have put the name of all my cartridges in a jar and each Sunday I am going to pull out the names of two cartridges and use them that week.

This weeks Cartridges are:

Celebrate with a Flourish
Stretch your Imagination

I will post the projects I make and link them to my Cartridge Challenge page.

Celebrate Card

Here is a card I made for the Circle Blog Weekly Challenge

The card was made using Bazzil Card Stock and My Minds Eye Patterned Paper from the Simply Delightful Stack

I cut the Card Base from Birthday Bash along with the Celebrate that goes with it.
The Bottle and glass were from Simply Charmed. I used my Gypsy to hide the faces from those cuts.
I also used my gypsy and sized an oval from George to fit onto the from of the card.
The tag is a cuttlebug die, stamped with black StazOn ink.
I used some gems for the bubbles and confetti over the bottle.
I also used some Sparkle Shimmer Spritz on the phrase, bottle and glass.