Featured Artist-Judy (Wedding Card)

This elegant Wedding card was made with the new Cuttlebug folders, Embossing Plus Blooming Bouquet and the 12" Butterfly border folder.

I used white pearlescent cardstock to create the 4 ½” x 6 ½” card. Both folders were embossed with white vellum. The Blooming Bouquet embossed image will be a smidge smaller than the card front. I applied Diamond Stickles to the slightly raised dots on the "Bouquet" card front. Using vellum adhesive, I glued the entire embossed image to the card front.

Next, I cut out two butterflies from the embossed Border image. Using Diamond Stickles again, I stickled the raised edge of the "lacy" butterfly. I attached the lacy butterfly to the top of the solid butterfly with pop dots. Once the Stickles were dry, I added the butterfly layers to the "Bouquet" image with pop dots.

The sentiment was computer generated and printed on green vellum. Both layers are held together with white organza ribbon.

The small "x" punch outs allow the pearlescent paper to shine through, and I added green rhinestones for more shimmer, since the bride's wedding color is green.

My inspiration came from my sister, Sandee. She also made this card and used pearls for her centers. That too was simply beautiful. The beauty of this card is all because of this wonderful new Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Cricut Imagine, Me, & A Special Little Girl by Kim B

I am one lucky Cricut Circle Member, as at CHA Summer 2010, I was gifted an Imagine by Provo Craft. I have had it for about two weeks now and have completed my first layout using my Imagine. My subject was my new grand baby girl, Jadelyn. I think she is so stinking cute and am going to love scrapping all her photos. I have a large stack and I really need to get cracking, as babies grow up so very fast! Trust me, as a Mom I am still in awe that my children are all grown up and gone and just miss them so much!

Featured Artist-Deanna M (Holiday Card)

Here is a Christmas card I made using the Ultra Soft Flower Soft. I started with a 5 1/2" X 5 1/2 card base made from Kraft card stock. I added a red mat cut at 5 1/4" X 5 1/4" and a piece of patterned paper cut at 5" X 5". I rounded the lower corners of the card base and each of the mat layers. The wreath was cut from the Cricut Christmas solutions at 3 1/2". The base layer of the wreath was cut from dark green card stock. I ran it through my Xyron upside down so the adhesive was on the top of my cut, and covered it with the Pine Ultra Soft Flower Soft. The lighter colored leaves were cut from some light olive green paper, again run upside down in my Xyron and covered with the Sage colored Ultra Soft Flower Soft. I used the Flower soft adhesive to adhere the Sage colored leave to the wreath. I added some drops of the Flower Soft adhesive and covered them with the Strawberry Ultra Soft Flower soft. I wanted them to look like Holly Berries. I just sprinkle the glue with the Flower Soft and left it to dry then tapped off the excess. I also covered the Ribbon cut with the Strawberry Ultra Soft Flower Soft. I adhered the wreath to the card front with some foam tape. The sheer ivory ribbon is from my stash. For the sentiment, I stamped it on a small scrap of kraft card stock and rounded the ends and added a mat of red. I used my Crop-a-dile to punch a hole in each end of the tag and added a gold colored brad. I adhered the tag to the front of the card with foam tape.

Halloween Layouts with Mandi

Today I wanted to share two layouts that I created using my Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge! This is one of my all time favorites for several reasons. First, it has some really fun characters on it. Second, I LOVE the haunted house you can build. Third, it has TWO great fonts! And finally, it has some really fun word art!

For this first layout, Halloween 2008, I used the Spooky Font on the Happy HauntingsCartridge to cut the letters from some glitter card stock. Sadly (especially for my Cricut mat) I didn't have any of the fantastic American Crafts Glitter Cardstock. The "Trick or Treat" Phrase has two layers and for this title I cut it at 3" tall. I just love the spider in the "o"!

So, if you're one of those crafters who has a Cricut machine that's stuck in it's box, remember, you don't have to be an expert to create fun titles for your layouts! Some of the cartridges have some great ones built in!

Graphic 45 Birthday Card by Chris

I love this particular image from Graphic 45 and decided to use it for my DH’s birthday card. Alone it was too plain for me so I decided to teach myself how to make a small waterfall element that would use some of the smaller images from the Graphic 45 pack and allow me to write the sentiment on the back. I used SCAL to cut the pieces and have attached the scut below for your use; but if you don’t have SCAL, I put my final measurements below also—know that you can adjust it to any size you need for your project.


Once all the pieces are cut and distress inked (Black Soot), mountain-fold on the scor lines. Then glue down the image on the first section (1 3/8 inch). Adhere this image completely. Then put strips of glue (I used my ATG) right along but under the next two score lines and align the next two squares with the first picture. Glue down just their top edges. Be sure to stay off the score lines or the waterfall won’t work. Glue the smallest strip of paper behind the first square and fold the long strip back and over this little strip. The back of the strip should be a bit longer to use as a pull-tab for the waterfall element. I added an image and ribbon to accent it and wrote on the back before I mounted it on the card. To do the word Birthday, I used embossing ink and Detail Black embossing powder. I adhered the smaller strip to the card using brads. Make sure that you do not put the brads too close to the strip because you want enough room for the waterfall to slid through. To hide the back of the brads I mounted the full image on a piece of cardstock 11.5 x 8.5 and scored it down the middle. Of course, I had to add some stickles, so I put a dab of orange peel stickles on the top of the waterfall element. To finish the card on the inside I added a Halloween border a friend made and a Disney image that I colored with my copics. The finished card is 5.75 x 8.5 inches.

Measurements:
3 Squares @ 1 3/8 inches
1 strip of paper @ 6.25 x 1.1 inches (score @ 1 3/8 inches, 2 1/8 inches, and 2 7/8 inches)
Smaller strip @ 3 x .6 inches.

SCAL: Note the long rectangle and score lines are grouped in SCAL and you may need to ungroup in order to cut.

Copics:
Rabbit: C1, C2, C3, C7
Clothes: B69, B63
Sign: G82, G99, YG 63
Horn: Y26, Y21

Resources from Cutters Creek:
Copics
Graphic 45 Halloween Wonderland
ATG
Black Detail Embossing Powder
Distress Embossing Ink
Distress Ink: Black Soot
SCAL
Orange Peel Stickles

Featured Artist-Doreen & Toy Story

*NOTE* From Kim B-Owner of Cutters Creek:

When I spied this project from Doreen on one of my groups, all I could think was WOW, WOW, WOW! What a labor of love for her grand daughter and oh how just stinking cute! I hope you love this as much as I do, as there was a TON of work but into this project! Check out this wonderful home decor project and please leave Doreen a comment and show her some love!!

My grand daughter Gabrielle loves Toy Story so I decided to buy the cartridge and create the characters for her 9th birthday party decorations. After the party she will put them on the walls in her bedroom. This is my gift to her in addition to her birthday mini book. I must admit laying all of the pieces out on the Gypsy, arranging the colors of paper in the proper place on the mat, then gluing it all together took so much more time than I thought it would. Now that it’s done and the party is over………it was worth every minute!

I used the Cricut Expression with the Gypsy and a 12x24 mat. Using the Gypsy was the only way I could cut Buzz, Woody and Jesse at 22 ½ “ tall. I tried without it and it would not work so I bought a Gypsy.

I used black cardstock for the background layer for each character. When I needed more than 12” in length I taped two 12x12 pieces together then put it on the mat as a 12x24 piece of paper. All of the small parts were created mostly from my scrap file J using a lot of Stampin Up cardstock. The white cardstock used on all of the characters is from the 40 sheet pack sold at Walmart………cuts like a dream on the E and the Imagine.

For all of the cuts the blade was set at #3, pressure set at high, speed regulated by Gypsy (on my expression it is set to one bar below fastest) Some of the brown cardstock I used (bazzil) was really thick and needed the blade at #4.

I used ridged plastic packaging for Buzz’s helmet. And real twine for Jesse’s rope.

I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to glue everything together…..love that stuff!

After putting the characters together I wanted them to be a bit more sturdy so I glued coffee stirrers (flat, skinny wood sticks) to the backs where any of them seemed to need support. To hang them on the wall I attached poster putty in various places on the back of each character.

Other crafters are suggesting Post It paper with the adhesive already on it but it is very thin and I think it would rip easily on these big items. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it for cards or scrapbook pages though. These characters could be cut from Vinyl for the wall and would look awesome!

You probably noticed I couldn’t resist giving Mrs. Potato Head some bling, suits her.
I also made the decorations for the cake. Gabrielle wanted the good guys VS the bad guys and she chose an Over The Hill cake from Costco because it reminded her of the hills in the Great Valley (she is a dinosaur nut.

For today’s project I created this fun treat box for my daughter’s teacher using the Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge! I will have to say this is one of my favorite cartridges! For this box I cut the Coffin Box at 10 ¾” for both the lid and bottom from black cardstock. Then I cut the stand also at 10 ¾” from grey cardstock. Once I realized it was a stand for the coffin to sit on I actually cut it again to make it a little sturdier. Then I cut the red zig-zag layer (which I think is technically for the other coffin box but I wanted more pop) and adhered that to the base. Next I grabbed a scrap of the red and embossed it with the Forest Branches Cuttlebug Folder to make the drape over the coffin. I adhered everything together using my favorite Scor-Tape! Last I cut the RIP at 2” with the phrase feature on Happy Hauntings and then added a little bling! When you subtract the messing around time I’m thinking I could now duplicate this for the other two teachers in about a ½ hour!

Shopping List:

Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge
Forest Branches Cuttlebug Folder
Scor-Tape!