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

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

Everyday Criciut Blog is hosting a Ustream on Monday and giving away lots of goodies!

Everyday Cricut is having a Big Giveaway during their live Ustream for the Cricut E2 Launch. I am really excited about it. I really would like and E2, but its just not in the budget right now. :(

Anyway....Hop on over to their site here and see all the goodies they are giving away plus all the things you can do to enter.

Good Luck all

Jan

Little Easter Baskets

Hi All! Hope everyone is doing well. There was a post about a week ago on the Circle Blog where the designer had a little chocolate bunny in a cupcake wrapper at each place setting. I thought that was so cute, I decided to make something like that. Instead of using a cupcake wrapper, I cut the basket from Easter -seasonal. I cut it at 6". I then used my gypsy and sized the pointed doily from the cart so it would fit on the front of the basket. It's about .89". I then cut the bunny and its layer at 1.8"
The Handle has a flower and leaves as part of it, but there is no layer to it, so I created one. I used Mother's Day - seasonal cart and cut the flower on the 5th button. I used my Gypsy to hide the center of the flower and then I cut it 2.06". I had sized it up to fit over the flower on the handle. I then cut it in white and again in a green. I hand-trimmed the flower and leaves apart and glued them onto the handle. The tiny flower in the center is from a mini punch I have.


I bought Little chocolate bunnies to put in the baskets as well as the colored egg that my daughter's made for everyone.

I hope everyone has a Great Easter!
(and maybe some Crafty time too!)

Jan

Vertical Spring Banner- Weekly Circle Blog Challenge #29

Weekly Challenge #29: Handmade Flower Challenge!
The Challenge: Handcraft a flower using your Cricut and/or Cuttlebug machine and use it on your project.

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. You can create any type of project you wish (scrapbook page, card, altered item, home decor, etc.), but your project must be newly created for this challenge and include at least 2 Cricut Image Cuts.

Well here is my entry into this weeks blog challenge. I made a Spring banner using quite a few cartridges: Birthday Bash, Designer's Calendar, Easter -seasonal, Gypsy Font, and Simply charmed. The printed papers all come from DCWV Flower Shower Spring Stack. The Solid cardstock is DCWV Adhesive backed textured cardstock.


I cut the banner base and its layer from Birthday Bash. Its cut at 6". The letters are cut from Gypsy Font, Monogram Shift and its shadow. They are cut at 2.76".
For the S page I used my Gypsy to line up the top banner layer to cut around the cloud and umbrella on the printed paper. I then cut a second umbrella layer out and pop-dotted it on top of the first. I cut the April showers box from a sheet in the stack.
The butterflies and colored flowers were cut from Designer's Calendar. I cut two layers for each butterfly and the flowers I cut 7 times in each color in varying heights from 1.82 down to 1.12. The butterflies have a line of gems for their bodies. The white flowers were cuts from Mother's Day bouquet that I layered with the colored layers. I had spent a day just cutting random sizes and shapes from the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge, so I am sorry I do not have the measurements on those.
The little bunny was cut from the Easter seasonal cartridge. He and his layer were cut at 1.59". the eggs were cut from Designer's Calendar at 1.94 and 1.59". I then cut them a second time in white to give it a bottom layer. I used my Gypsy to hide some of the cuts on the white egg layers. I cut a second banner layer in green and then trimmed off some for the bottom. I then used my new Martha Stewart Fringe scissors to make the grass. Boy those scissors are FUN!
For this one I cut the little bird from Simply Charmed. He is cut at 2.18"
For this last one I used a few more flowers and another butterfly. The printed paper already had such a nice design I didn't want to cover too much of it up.

All the flowers and butterflies had some coordinating Tim Holtz distress inks used on them, as well as a spritz of pearl Glimmer Mist. I finished off the flowers with some bling.

Finally, I used some ribbon from the stash my Mom just gave me! :)

I am quite pleased with how well this banner turned out, as it is alot easier for me to find a place to hang a vertical banner, rather than a horizontal one. I may be making more banners in this fashion.

This project also used one of my monthly challenge cartridges. I am happy to be plugging away at that challenge. It feels good to use all my cartridges.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!
Jan

Chocolate Bunny Card

Hi All! I just wanted to share a silly little card I made last year around Easter. It is from an older cartoon, I think maybe from Gary Larsen.



I used the Easter Seasonal cartridge, as well as Wild Card. I cut two chocolate bunnies at 3.66". I used a small oval and welded it onto the ears of one of the bunnies to fill in that bite mark.

I then used a scalloped circle punch to simulate the larger bite marks on the two bunnies.

Other cuts from the Easter cartridge are bow @ 1.09", Grass @ 1.35" cut twice as well as the Happy Easter @ 1.83 for the inside of the card.

I cut the thought bubbles from Wild card @ 1.87". I used small rub-ons to put the words in the thought bubbles.

All the cardstock was from my stash, possibly Bazzil. I finished the card by inking the edges of the card and base layer.

Hope you enjoyed my silly little card.
I hope you all have a fantastic Easter Weekend!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

My Mom Rocks!

Hi Everyone. I hope you all are having a good week. I just wanted to pop in and share some goodies my Mom gave me. My parents used to have a crafting business and my Mom brought me some of her leftover supplies for my dd, Alex and I to use in our crafting.

Here is a pic of the some of the goodies she brought: On the right is a bag of lace scraps she brought. OOH I can't wait to play with these! The bin in the back is full of ribbon scraps. The two drawers in front are full of buttons. The front button bin is especially important as these were buttons from my Grandma's stash.


Look at these GREAT vintage buttons! I am so excited about these!


She also brought me this parts sorter full of all sorts of doo-dads. Jewelery making parts, Charms, beads, googily eyes, and jewels!


Here is the bin full of little charms in all sorts of shapes and themes.


My mom also brought me a bin with sequins, confetti shapes, and beads in it, as well as some other little seasonal charms and items and some cake decorating items.

A GREAT BIG Thank You to MOM for giving me all these new goodies to play with!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Elmo Cupcake toppers and Gift bag.

Hi All! Today's projects are for my niece's birthday party tomorrow. I made some little Elmo cupcake toppers as well as a personalized gift bag for her.

Here are the toppers:

I made 24 toppers, six of each design. They are all cut from Sesame Street Friends at 2.25" using smooth card stock from my stash. I also cut an extra blackout layer for the reverse side.
I cut a bamboo skewer into thirds and sandwiched it between the layered Elmo and the blackout layer, using a glue dot for the skewer and then pop-dots to keep the layers level.

Here is the gift bag:

I cut a large Elmo from Sesame Street Friends. He was cut this time at 11.29". All the other cuts were from Birthday Bash. The Balloons were cut at 7.06". I cut the Happy Happy Birthday twice, once in blue and once in green. I then trimmed off the part of the green that I didn't want ans adhered it to the top of the blue. It was cut at 11.0" The letters and corresponding shadow layers were all cut a t 1.5"
Here is the gift tag:
Earlier this year we bought Savannah an Elmo balloon that just had his face on it. I used that as inspiration for the gift tag. I cut the same large Elmo that I used on the bag a second time and just trimmed around the eyes, nose and mouth to get the cuts I wanted. I tied a narrow black ribbon to the tail.
I had cut the Happy Birthday for the gift bag originally at 6.06" and decided that it was not large enough for the bag, so I decided to use it on the reverse side of the tag.

Another reason why I LOVE my Gypsy:
I like to squeeze as much onto a sheet as possible. I cut the large Elmo, all the letters, as well as 20 of the 24 Elmo toppers on one sheet of 12x12 paper. I can save SO much more paper that way rather than using the paper saver button or the auto fill buttons.

Thanks for visiting today.
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

My new Yudu, and my first not-so perfect shirts.

Hello All!

Last August, I went to the Circle meet-up in Wisconsin. At the meet-up we used the YUDU machine and made shirts and tote bags there with the Circle Logo on it. I was immediately smitten and I had flashes of all the fantastic things I could make with the YUDU. This was the beginning of my obsession with getting a YUDU. It took a while to convince my hubby that I needed this machine. He wasn't really buying it, but when I found out that Michaels was having a special on the YUDU for 100 bucks...well he finally gave in. Yipee!

So I parked my booty outside Michael's a full 30 minutes before they opened on Thursday, just to be sure that I got one! I laughed all the way home from the store on the super high you only get when you know you scored a great deal on a toy you really wanted!

Well fast forward 36 hours after coming home with my new treasure and some of my euphoria has worn off. Sigh..

Well I watched the entire DVD that came with the machine as well as numerous videos on YouTube. I felt like I could attempt a project. I was scared of using the emulsion sheets because they are pretty pricey, so I tried to use vinyl.

WELL...that didn't go so well. My vinyl's adhesive wasn't strong enough to stand up to the ink.

OK..Second attempt with a different vinyl...NOPE...

Okay, for my third attempt I used one of the emulsion sheets....ummmm... NOPE, and let em tell you..THAT HURT! Wasting an entire $10.00 sheet of emulsion because I didn't have the screen wet enough. I figured out that I didn't have it adhered to the screen well enough, so it just washed right off. I have since learned that my screen needed to be much wetter than I had it the first time so....

Attempt #4...Second and last sheet of emulsion. It appears that I correctly adhered the emulsion and burned my image on it OK. At least mostly OK.

I attempted to pull a screen onto some scrap material I had and the ink bled all over. I think the material was not absorbent enough for the ink to stick to it to well. When I tried to pull another screen on the back of a old tshirt, the image came out better, but there was some haloing effect in certain areas that had bled in the first attempt. I think, now that the screen had extra ink on the material side from the first attempt, so I washed offthe screen and re-dried it in the machine.

Well over an hour later, and I again tried to make a shirt. The same thing happened, but to a lesser degree. I have come to the conclusion that my emulsion wasn't perfect and some of the edges are loose. I pulled a few shirts as a trial and I am only getting a small halo effect in the loose areas. Luckily these were meant to be sleep shirts anyway, so the girls don't really care, but I obviously need to practice some more.



My friend, Missie, over at Created By Missie, also just got a YUDU and she used an outdoor vinyl to make her screen, and it worked perfectly, so I have ordered some GT5 Vinyl and as soon as it arrives I will be trying that technique.

Also as I was washing the ink off of my screen for the second time, some of the Emulsion was starting to peel up, so it really cinfirmed that the emulsion wasn't on that great.

I will say, my first attempt was very much a let down, but I am certainly not giving up on screen-printing just yet.

I welcome any tips or techniques anyone has to offer, as I am beginner, but I really want to make the most of the YUDU.

Thanks

Have a Great and Crafty Day

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

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

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