Wild About You Wall Decor

Sometimes it's great to scrap something that you can display on the wall and include all sorts of bulky embellishments and goodies! I just finished up this page which I
will hang on the wall and had a lot of fun with it!
I started by making my rolled roses. Both roses were made with paper printed on my Cricut Imagine. The large rose was cut with the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge and the small rose with My Favorite things mini rolled rose die. I made another mini rolled rose with the same die out of felt in hot pink and inked the edges in red to give it some depth.
The base page is The Robin's Nest Lobster paper. I actually wanted a Valentine's day paper and thought that the lobsters look like lips! On that I added The Robin's Nest Animal stripe paper. I used the Martha Stewart Loop Border punch on The Robin's Nest Red Paisley paper to make a border stripe at the bottom of the zebra mat. I also used the Robin's Nest Velvet Ribbon at the top of the white stripe at the bottom. And can you see the quote? It says, "There's no place I'd rather be, than with you." Isn't it perfect for a Valentine's day page or card?! It's from the Robin's Nest Time Flies Rubon. v
I also used the small swirl by the small rose from this rubon set. For the large rubon, I used The Robin's Nest Viva la France rubon.The leaves near the large rose are Creative Memories punch and near the small rose the EK Success Dahlia Border punch was used. I added some of The Robin's Nest Dew Drops after Still and in the center of my roses. I am just crazy for the Fairy Dust Dew drops. The pearlized silver ones are so fab!

Supply List
The Robin's Nest Lobster paper (black and glitter red background)
The Robin's Nest Glitter Animal Stripe
The Robin's Nest Fairy Dust Dew Drops (after Still)
The Robin's Nest Primary Dew Drops (center of flowers)
The Robin's Nest Time Flies Rubon
The Robin's Nest Viva la France Rubon
The Robin's Nest Ribbon Velvet Ribbon
The Robin's Nest Red Paisley paper (at the bottom of the zebra stripe mat)
Felt
My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Rose die
Martha Stewart Loop Border punch (under Zebra mat)
EK Success Dahlia Border Punch (leaves for small rose)
Cricut Imagine and Imagine More Cartridge (patterned paper on Rose)
Cricut, Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cartridge (Large Rolled rose)
Close To My Heart Chipboard Alphas (S)
Anna Griffin Peyton Collection Chipboard Letters (black letters)
White Heart Doily Target
Making Memories Sheer Frame Flower Black
White Card Stock
Red Card Stock
Black Card Stock
K & Company Glitter Letters (Wild)
Creative Memories Leaf punch

Guest Designer at Exploring the Cricut: Snowflake Ballerinas

I'm the guest designer today at Exploring the Cricut. Check out this wonderful blog for great Cricut projects and links to blogs of other Cricut lovers! For today's project, I came across a blog by a woman named Lola possibly from Russia or the Ukraine with the most beautiful snowflake ballerinas! She hand cut them using a template but I had to try them with my Cricut! So, I got out my Gypsy and searched and found the Wall Decor has a ballerina. I then chose snowflakes from several carts including CTMH: Art Philosophy, Christmas, Joys of the Season, and Graphically speaking and created a Gypsy file. I am sharing the file HERE. Wouldn't these be perfect for a little girls birthday party!?

Once the items were cut, I used the McGill big ball stylus to give them some shape and carefully cut a slit in the middle of the snowflake. I folded the ballerinas arms in and carefully threaded her through the slits.
If the slit was too long to stay in place on her waist, I added a little tape on the underside. I tied some white thread around the snowflake and hung them from a chandelier. So, pretty!These ballerinas would also be wonderful made with Cricut flowers wouldn't they?!

Kiss Me Card

I am making a second entry for the Cricut Craftroom Blog welding challenge. I wasn't entirely happy with my first entry and wanted another. I am feeling very Valentine's Day inspired and made this with Indy Art and Graphically Speaking. I cut the lips with pink glitter card stock from DCWV and then inked it to give it some dimension. The pattern on the "me" is from the Audrey Imagine Cartridge.
As a long time Cricut Design Studio user, I find the flip and group functions in CCR to be much better and easier to work with. I just created the lips blackout and added the me. I then grouped the two objects, rotated it, copied it and flipped it, then welded and cut. What a fun card!

Butterfly Birthday Card

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the Moxie Fab Word Die Cut Challenge, a butterfly birthday card. For me this was different way to use die cuts, because it is one of my every first projects with the Cricut Imagine and the Cricut Craftroom software. I used Paper Lace and filled it with a pattern from Imagine More cards for the background mesh, the butterflies are some Indie Art Hannah Montana, and a Creative Memories Punch and the multi colored butterfly is an image from the Cricut Imagine More Cards Cartridge. The banner is made with the Art Philosophy Cartridge and matching stamp set by Close to My Heart. I wove a strip of glittered card stock embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss dot folder into the lace background and tied on a bit of ribbon.
Below is one of the Moxie Fab inspiration photos. Don't you love butterflies?!

Organizing my Cricut Carts

I am in the process of re-organizing my Cricut cartridges and thought I would share my system. Maybe you have one you'd like to share in my comments! I used the Jetmax cubes three drawer box, bought on sale at Michaels. I cut plastic needlepoint canvas to hold the cartridges only. I've run out of canvas and will have to make run, but it is snowing heavily here and I am in need of a post if I'm gonna keep up on my goal to post more. You get the idea. Somethings I am doing a little different are: I store my Imagine carts in the same drawer, can you see them in the back? And I have quite a few regular Cricut Cartridges and get frustrated when I have to shift over 30 cartridges after making a purchase. So, I am leaving the column on the far right open for new purchases in 2012. And yes, you can see that I have already purchased two. I get the round tags at my local hardware store and put them on the spine of my books. I am not sure how I will handle this on the newer books with no wire spine yet.
And speaking of purchasing new cartridges, you might be wondering how do I do it? I am frequently sharing how I try to save money and crafting can be expensive. So, here are some of my tips:
1) Coupons, you probably know this if you craft, but if you don't get them in your paper, did you know that you can get them online and print them out at home? Just try to google the store name and coupons.
2) Gift card promotions. My local grocery store and Target often offer gift cards if you fill prescriptions with their pharmacy. When I need something filled I use the gift card to purchase another gift card for Ebay and shop there for my carts.
3) Win them! Some of the places I find contests listings are: Facebook, and the Cricut Message board.
And since were talking about winning, I have an extra Imagine More Art Cartridge. When my Imagine broke and was still under warranty, PC sent me a new one with the new machine. So, if you'd like to win it just comment below and leave a way to contact you in a safe manner, ie cjsmith at hotmail dot com is safer then cjsmith@hotmail.com. I will draw a winner with random.org on February 2, 2012.

Another February Birthday Card for SASL Challenge

So, yesterday I entered my project in She's a Sassy's Lady's challenge after Sheila so graciously told me about the challenge. And today, I wanted to give the challenge my full attention and make up a birthday card for another February birthday card I need. I used my Cricut Imagine and the Imagine More Cards to print the text background. The red and white handkerchief fabric print is from my stash. On top of the text print I used the Heritage car and "Daddy" to make the black portion. I just dragged Daddy on top of the car and hid the last two letters. I then printed this ONLY. Next, I swapped out Heritage for Martha Stewart Elegant Cake and filled it with Red and using the Print ONLY mode printed again on top of the rest of the card. It is very trendy right now to print an image or sentiment on top of text. I tied a ribbon on the front and my card is done.

Work the Stash Wednesday for Two Challenges

Yesterday I came across a challenge via the Cricut Message board that is being hosted by the Cricut Craft Room Blog. The challenge is to use the welding feature while working in the Cricut Craft Room software. I love the prize: a Sophie cartridge! So, I'm using this challenge to get ahead start on my February birthday cards and work my stash! I'm also going to enter this in the challenge at She's a Sassy Lady to make a birthday card.
I started with some scraps of red and white card stock. I used Graphically Speaking and welded the card shape at the top to make a shaped card. I also used the Hide Select Contour to hide the insides of the car to make the back of the card. I used Close to My Heart stamps for the sentiments and a Stampin' Up stamp for the background of the car grill. I added some buttons for my headlights and highlighted the cut with a glitter gel pen. For the tires, I used my Imagine and Audrey with the Graphically Speaking cartridge. I loved the look of the Audrey print for the distressed tires. I was able to print and cut this all at once because I used CCR! To print and cut these items, I put a piece of red card stock on the card side of my mat and a white piece on the tire side of the mat.