Big Foot is real!

And I have proof...

My DH loves to joke about aliens and Sasquatch...I am not entirely sure what he believes, but when I saw the "Big Foot" on the Campin Critters cartridge, it was a must have (even without the 3-D backpack). I was so happy to make this with a great bit of direction from my girls...of course it was nice to have a challenge sketch from the CIrcle Blog and a contest. ;)

The circle is sprayed with some glittery gold smooch from Stampin-up. I can't believe I waited so long to use it. The over spray looked amazing on the black scrap paper and it has the wheels in my head turning! Next the sign was created from the same cartridge with the bottom edge of the saying trimmed off. The top portion was stamped with a "wood grain" background stamp from Close To My Heart. The bottom portion of the sign is the Designers Calender cut for "Dad's Day". Up on tiny tiny bits of dimensional tape! Phew, that was tricky but I love the tape from CTMH in a roll so you can use the exact size needed.  A wonderful friend sent me some bakers twine and some buttons finished it off. Once the colors were decided, it was a pretty quick card all in all.

Thanks for dropping in. :)

A "Fancy" Party

My newly turned 8 daughter wanted a "fancy fashion" sleepover. She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting, covered in white and pink fondant. Then she wanted some black damask decorations. I managed to scrounge up some patterned paper and use my digital kit from Echo Park to pull a few things together.

A start with her birthday card on her birthday...

Then, smack dab in the middle of preparations, I saw tons of inspiration from the Cricut Circle Magazine and sorely wished I had the damask decor cartridge as well as the two new Teresa Collins cartridges! First off, I changed up the cake a bit when I saw the one featured, it was perfect! Next, I made do with some very simple things I had on hand. I was running out of steam and definitely out of time but managed some basics. The cake shapes and G were cut from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cakes cartridge.This one will get a lot of use.

The goody bags were ones I always have on hand with just two squares of paper. I replaced odd assortment of colored handles with matching ribbon and called them done! Next I put some "fancy" cookies in a ziplock bag with a scalloped trim and strip of paper topped off with a simple bow, and done! The rest of the goodie bag was filled with dress up items for the fashion show, and ring pops. Thet are 8 after all. LOL.

Scavenger hunt clues all ready and labeled. So easy even DH was able put them in place for me. :)

 The party included a scavenger hunt, and as usual I was running low on time. So, a quick search of the internet found a great resource...a software called "Riddle Me" was the perfect solution. You can go get yours from their site, here.  After entering an inventory of possible locations inside and out, you can customize a scavenger hunt, edit, and print it all out complete with cheat sheet and clues ready to paste in place. Best yet, the software allows you to import your own graphic to place as a background, matching the party theme. The Echo Park digital kit of elements had a postcard which was a good fit. The lines didn't match perfectly but no biggie! Done! With more to come...

Finally the banner..the piece de resistance...It took me forever to make the rosettes behind the lettering but G was thrilled to see it in place. The shape was from Elegant Edges cartridge though many other similar ones are available. It seemed to take forever to decide which shape and size to use. I settled on this and simply layered it with the rosettes and scalloped circles then punched holes on the edges for ribbon. The ribbon and paper coordinated so well, even though I didn't have it with me to match in the store.  I used the same ribbon throughout and luckily I had ordered a huge roll from PaperMart.com. The font is the same on the cake, from Martha Stewarts Elegant Cakes.

Thanks for dropping in. ;)

Memory Book for a great teacher!

Sorry for the worst picture ever! Colors are all off and lots of detail missing!

Hmmm another bad picture but this is a general idea! Colors are basically similar to "ruled notebook paper"

I will be so sad at the end of this school year...you see my G has had simply the best teacher, ever! G was lucky to have Mrs. Daniels for two years as she looped from first grade, to second with her whole class. It just won't be the same without her. :(

Once in a while the right teacher comes along and really connects with your child and teaches them so much. Mrs. Daniels is just that kind of teacher. I am sure every child felt like her favorite in her class. That's why the room Mom and I put our heads together and made a memory book with a page from each child and some extra pages for pictures inside. We called out the kids one by one, took a picture and prompted them to fill in a page with their own memories.

I am sorry to say this is possibly the worst project photo ever and a lot of detail was lost. If it gives you any idea, the top paper under the school etc. is the same "wide ruled paper" I printed from the printer but you can't see any of it! There is also faux stitching all around in several colors and yellow dodling around the lettering on the top right.

The school house is from the Wrap It Up cartridge and the people from Car Decals. I wanted them to stay looking thin and simple so I cut out the images several times and used the insides and extras in different colors. (I really like those cute people and can't wait to use them on another project! They are definitely going on our van!!!)

The road is from two images welded from Everyday Paper Dolls and then cut out in white so I could use the white lines...One trick I used to trim it off just right was to lay a box over the road and not weld it. I used the Plantin Schoolbook to the size I wanted to fit on the cover. I welded the road together and then moved the images within the "box" so that when I cut it out, the extra road on the outside of the space would be cut through since it was not welded. This made custom edges lined up just right...

The cover image colors are a deeper hue of the ones on the inside pages and on the ruled paper...blues and reds with some yellow thrown in. The grass is actually green and a bit textured. The inside pages were made with a set from Lettering Delights.com using Photoshop. I used a few more pages at the end printed to look like "ruled notebook paper." The entire book was 8X8, and the ribbon just held it together since I included some extra photos and mats for her own memories.... The most important thing was seeing Mrs. Daniels read each and every page and then give me a big hug! So glad she liked it. We are really going to miss her. Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday!

This is an EchoPark Hybid elements pack and papers...no cicut believe it or not! :)

This is all PNG files from the Something Fishy image set at Lettering Delights.

It's Birthday Season at our house! Worthy of the capital letters, and crazy making, we have four birthdays in a row starting in June and going into July. So I have dabbled in some photshop and shopped at JessicaSprague.com and LetteringDelights.com for digital downloads, to come up with two invites for my girls...No Cricut believe it or not!!! Lot's of Cricut cuts coming up next though so stay tuned.

The first invitation is "fancy" for my G's fashion sleepover party. I printed out the black damask, the pink print and the sentiment all using Photoshop. Here's where I admit that I am basically using it as a glorified "word" document and printing it out. I did use a digital image and erase the insides to insert my own information. You can see it peeking out from the edge....I was very proud of myself even though the next time it should take muuuuch less time! ;) the sentiment is simply punched out with two Stampin up punches and put over a "pleated" ribbon...

My other invite was complete with lettering on top with my daughters name and for this invitation I was able to play with layers in order to keep some elements on top. There is also a coordinating Alphabet I used or the inside as well as a salutation on top. Lettering Delights makes it so easy to use from an online library or by using your own computer files. I am glad this whole process will be getting much easier and faster since I hope to do some digital and hybrid scrapping too!

Thanks for dropping by!

Better Together

As part of another Challenge for the Cricut Circle Blog, we were tasked to create something using inspiration from the Magazine. It was full of amazing projects which made it tough to decide which one inspired me the most, but this project found me....My oldest just turned 13 and wanted a address/memory book for the last few days of school. I loved this projects since it was simple and yet gave me an opportunity to create something together with my daughter...precious times now that she is officially a teen! 

Crafting is even better together and I used the Imagine "Better Together" cartridge for this entire project. The cover was created with scraps (from another album for my younger daughter's teacher which I will add next week). It was a 4X8 scrap so it was easy to use one of the pre-programmed shapes on the Imagine. I used the rectangle with the aspect ratio of 1:2, and then flood fill it with the pattern I wanted. It was a perfect fit.

In order to use the internal shapes, simply navigate from the start up menu by selecting the "print and cut icon" in the upper left, then look on the very lower left corner of the screen...you'll see three icons in a row which represent the standard cartridge, then in the center the internal shapes, and next the imagine cartridge. Selecting the center icon will show a selection of shapes that you can cut or print and cut....if you want to fill it with a pattern, select to edit it then scroll through the patterns of any Imagine cartridge inserted. Or you can just cut it without printing.

I cheated and used my Epson printer to create some fake notebook paper and just trimmed it to fit within the book.  Then, it was ready to embellish.

After filling a 12X12 sheet and then another half sheet full of images with the Beta program of Cricut Craft Room, I printed and cut. Then, my daughter and I simply embellished the inside page by page. Some glue and a few punches with my Cropadile III- big bite, and some binding rings finished it all off...but then of course it needed just a bit of ribbon! :)

If you have an Imagine, you'll love the Cricut Craft Room software when it's released! One thing it can do is break apart an image and then reassemble it for you before you cut! I wanted everything flat since it was going in and out of  my daughters backpack all day, and the CCR was just the thing to make a few edits!

A Whole mat full of cuts from my Imagine!

As you can see on the lower right I have an image from "Better Together" which normally has a spoon and some wording. Instead, after dragging it to the mat, it was easy to select the "edit group" icon that appears with the image. After this, the other images become faded and you only work with the selected image. At the top right you can select to toggle between combine and separate. This comes in handy if you only want a portion of the image (like I did with the red phone)...or even if you'd like to make a change to a layer.

Layers can be deleted and even changed by flood filling a portion. You can select the different elements of the image and either delete or change them. Then after you make any changes you can re-assemble the image by selecting combine. The new image will remain with the changes made.

The final important step is to select "exit" which is at the top left in green so you can move on to editing and adding things to the entire mat....If my flip ever decides to let me download my videos I'd very gladly demonstrate. I can't wait to see if I can change a dress on a figure or something I've wanted to do in the past...looks likely and I am very impressed with the new software, even though it is in Beta mode. It is very promising!!

Thanks for visiting!