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!

Simple Gifts

This layout was completed for a challenge which was a tic-tac-toe format. My three in a row was "use a cut of a sun shape", "use paper ribbon or something else to create a ruffle", and "any patterned paper must be printed from the imagine". Ribbon might just be one of my favorites and the pattern from Best Friends Imagine cartridge reminded me of B's coat so I was off and running with those elements.The rest was a bit harder, since the embellishments always throw me. Things never seem quite right and often just messy so my layouts tend to be pretty simple. I was glad to be able to print a few elements from my Imagine More cartridge to put a few bits on but otherwise...it's still basic, and the best part is the story.

One of my favorite parts of being a Mom is getting those tiny bouquets of flowers from little hands! One pretty day in April my girls and I were in the lawn just enjoying the day when B, not quiet two at the time, handed me her first ever gift of flowers. It was so lucky my camera was already out, so the moment she put the flowers in my hand was captured. I always try to cherish those moments, and it brings to mind one of my favorite Shaker hymns/poems called "Simple Gifts" I am grateful for my girls every day and grateful for daily reminders to remain so!

Me and My Helper...the photo shoot

This is her "funny face", thanks Dora! ;)

So, as a part of the Cricut's celebration of  National Scrapbooking Day, they wanted to see pictures of all us in our scrapbooking areas. This was actually one of the most difficult "challenges" so far. I don't like my picture taken. :(

So, you would think that since we actually had a whole week to submit photos I could A) dress up and put on some make-up, and generally look my best, B) Lose 5 lbs before the dreaded camera comes out, C) Have a quiet moment and give my best smile....well of course it was D) none of the above.

As always when I am in my scrapbooking room/office, everyone comes in to talk, etc. Which is great, but when the camera comes out as well, there is no way I am getting a picture of just me. :) I don't mind but some little three year olds don't hold still and smile, plus a  12 year old isn't the best photographer for flattering shots...and let's just add in me in my throw it on, run out the door clothes, no makeup, and half the day gone running around. :) It's just everyday me I smile the most when my girls are around anyway so it is what it is!. lol

B got bored and ran off...

But this isn't the best shot after all! :)

I have to admit, it wasn't as as painful as I thought it might be and talking about pictures with my girls was a real eye opener. My girls thinks I am pretty no matter what (although my oldest suggested lip gloss)  and after all it really shouldn't matter much beyond what my daughters think. I really need to get in the picture since I am in their memories after all. Don't forget to get into your pictures too!

Fast and Cute to boot!

OK so I wanted to try to get ahead of "Birthday Season" at our house and also create something for a challenge submission at the same time, so out comes my Imagine and a few cartridges for a super fast project. The pillow bow is cut just right sized for a gift card from an original cricut cart I believe, not sure which one but probably All Wrapped Up,  and flood filled with a pattern from Imagine More Cards as well as the sentiment from the cart and then a cupcake from Better Together. The hey cupcake didn't have as much "personality to me so I separated the layers to just use the sentiment and with a different cupcake with a smile. :) I love you the Imagine can mix and match! And it was so easy to tape the one edge, pop the sides in and then place pop dots under the sentiment, add ribbon and done! Sorry for the lack of sizes but it's super easy to figure them using the preview screen on the I and now even the Expression 2 has one! How cool is that!? Enjoy....

Teacher Appreciation Week, Part 3

Well the last few gifts are done and Teacher Appreciation week is almost over. Yesterdays take in for the teachers was "fruit", while the the days big treat was a take home dessert.

G took a small container of blueberries to her teacher since she found out they were her favorite color (again with the color lol) and I hope she likes them. I saw the tape holding the blueberry container closed and knew it would come in handy! I simply used a scrap piece of cardstock and a printout sentiment punched out with the sticker on it, and just a sharpie to ink the edges...fast and easy!

For the dessert, I made some Apple Caramel coffee cake and embellished with some printed cutouts from Kates Kitchen and my Imagine. I cut down the chef's head and put the dessert saying on instead. :) I put that and the 100% little label on with pop dots and taped it all down! Found an easy way to keep plastic wrap in place by accident! I put one plate under the food, wrapped it up, then put another under that to hold everything in place. Definitely gonna have to use that again!

Lastly, our cards. Today, my DD and I sent in "notes" for the teacher. My G was very adamant  about the look of the card and wanted to do an A+ card she saw in the April Cricut Circle  Magazine, but she needed much more space to write, so she allowed some design changes. LOL! She picked out the papers and allowed me to put it together...She used every bit of the 8.5X5.5 space. G loves her teacher who she's had for two years now. This teacher is possibly one of the few lovely ladies who loves my G back nearly as much as I do. G is a bit of a character (think Ramona, Junie B Jones) and it takes a special teacher! We will miss her a ton!

So, finally my card to her teacher. Sad to say but after making 5 gallons of lemonade and running to the store at 5AM for ice, etc for the luncheon, I didn't leave enough time for her card. So I found this pretty flower partially made and just winged it. I cut the background, the butterfly and the sentiment out quickly not judging the sizes well apparently. :) Throw a few pop dots under the elements and Viola! SO this is what I came up with....not really any worse than one I would have slaved over and torn my hair out for, so this might be my new modus operandi!

Best of all it left time for my handwritten note. I put one of my favorite quotes inside. "We can do no great things, only small things with great love" by Mother Teresa. I surely know that when my daughter's teacher came into school each and every day, with very small actions but with great love of teaching and children, she had a great big impact on my daughter and me too. Thanks to all of you teachers out there who truly make a difference each and every day!!

PS  Look at how proud my teachers would be, using French, Latin and my lemonade escapade required lots of serial conversion and math!! :) Um, but please don't check my punctuation and grammar. Enjoy your day everyone!

Teacher Appreciation Week, Part 2

This was filled with Dove Chocolates!

This was for "school supplies" day

 Every year I work with the PTA to provide a week of appreciation for out Elementary teachers...but in the past that meant I would only give my daughter's teachers a note and a small token at the end of the week. This year I wanted my daughter to be able to take something in each day!

Our PTA sends home a note to parents giving them a suggestion for a small gift for each day. Monday was cut flowers(no picture sorry). Tuesday was sweet treats, Wednesday is "school supplies. Since I never seem to post until after the holiday I wanted to show what I've made so far...

Monday was a mad dash for my G to go out and cut five red tulips from around "her" tree. A tree we planted just for her, so she was excited to do it. I simply wrapped them in white tissue paper and tied it up with some pretty red satin ribbon. A friend had posted a link to a blog that supplied me with a PDF of tags. Of course she made some fabulous cupcakes you can see here at LivingLocurto.com. But I just printed the page on card stock and cheated by using my Stampin-up scalloped punch for the circular tag and stuck it on top of the ribbon LOL.

The next day was a box from Wrap-it-up cartridge cut at the max, 11.25 inches I believe. It was so easy to just put the red and green behind the apple cut out, and then I decided my project needed a bit more so I added ribbon and some faux stitching. Not so neatly, and after I saw the pic I noticed I missed one side! Opps! So the teacher was thrilled and G was thrilled, since my G did a bit of sleuthing to find out her teachers favorite color was that blue. :)

So Tuesday is "school supplies" day. Originally I wanted to do some very different projects but a sick kiddo necessitated some quick re-planning. It's OK, I had plenty of time to think while I lay awake with a three year old in bed with me. ;)

Just another view to show the sides....

 I did make the schoolhouse box I wanted from Wrap it Up again at fit to page...but I had to make a quick run to the grocery store of all places for some school supplies. I was thinking box mark, fancy paperclips, a clothespin magnet I saw someone else do. Alas, I had shrinky dinks and some odds and ends from the 24 hour grocery store at 5AM. I did find some magnet clips and paperclips and highlighters and post-its. Oh, and staples, which went unembellished.

The box needs very little tape and stand about 4 inches tall.

OK, so the box. It was a bit tricky to figure the layers. I wasn't too thrilled after all my planning to see the top portion had green showing through. :( Well the other layers I was able to fit and figure using design software, but it wasn't too easy.

Not thrill with the end result and I had to use my glue gun!

I like these apples. :)

My apple paper clips in a leftover bag and a topper.

 Before handwritten sentiment.

I was pretty happy with the magnetic clips but it took four tries to get the two of them finished And I had to break out my glue gun. Not my favorite tool. We just don't get along. As for the shrinky dinks, the white opauqe stuff just does not work well in the Imagine, but I found the "rough n ready" style which is roughed up on one side and looks slightly frosted is fabulous!

The apple is printed and cut from Kate's Kitchen on my Imagine. The apples on the white for the magnet clips are 4 inches while the clear ones on the paper clips are 4 and 3. I printed with best quality and both Matte and glossy finish settings and i didn't see too much difference in the finished product. It cut really well with a very sticky mat, on highest blade depth and highest pressure on 2 multicut. Honestly it may have cut through on one pass! The thing that made the biggest difference was creating an offset that was fairly wide to make the stem more secure. Some are cut closer to the apple and some with more of a border.

I also lowered the temp to 315 degrees instead of 325 as the package calls for since I was running back and forth to the Imagine and oven. I placed them on parchment paper and then placed another piece n top to keep curling at a minimum. I got these suggestions from the Cricut Circle blog and I think it really worked better than chasing the shrinky dinks around with the heat gun. :) It's much easier to time it right in the oven too. In the past I've found that overcooking them causes them to lose their shine, but they otherwise come out fine.

The paperclip apples I simply punched with a regular circle hole punch offset on the side, and then used a toothpick to push a small ribbon through after shrinking. It wasn't too difficult to tie a small knot then place them in a little leftover embellishment bag with a topper. I was most happy with this element of the project.

The two clips I got done are simply clipped onto the sides while the bag of apple paper clip/bookmarks are fit inside with the other supplies and tied together with a ribbon. Hope you enjoyed my projects!

Teacher Appreciation Week...Part 1

One of my springtime activities is the Teacher Appreciation crafted gifts from the PTA each year. There's a group of ladies who willingly help and craft about anything I throw at them! Together we assemble three gifts to place in the mailboxes on Mon/Tue/Wed. Then we put together a presentation for a gift card at the end of the year.

This year was a bit hectic but we managed to put together 84 of each gift! There is a set of three cards, a "pencil" made with a Hershey's Kiss, and a wrapped candy bar(not shown)...sorry for the poor pictures but they had to get out the door! :)

Fore the cards I used CTMH Fanfare collection papers and mixed it up with some stamps I've had. The basic blue with the stars is simply a cut from Stand and Salute cartridge and  some ribbon. The Sentiment and the red edges are cut the same size from Lacy Labels and then the red cut and offset. The final card has a CTMH sentiment and some of the leftover strips from the other projects. I was happy to be able to minimize the paper used and use almost every bit!

The pencil was a rectangle of yellow rolled around a mentos and a Hershey's kiss. I had seen some done with Rollos but the committee wanted to use a less expensive candy. It really was necessary to put a strip of tape onto the candy to hold it in, plus another bit to hold onto the kiss. I suggest using Rollos. LOL. Once we had it rolled up I put a strip of double sided scotch tape around it a bit from the end. That way i could place the pink on half of the tape and then the grey fit right under it. Just a bit of my favorite Sookwang tape held the edge of the strips of paper on the ends and along the last side of the yellow. These were probably the most challenging of the crafts.

The gift card holder is a 5 inch circle with the edges folded in. I scored them at 1.25 on three sides then secured it with a bit of tape and some ribbon. There is also a printed sentiment card in it with a stamped "picnic cloth." from a CTMH set. We had five teachers out on leave so they got a little "gift bag."

I think my favorite thing of all was working with some beautiful ribbon. It is from PaperMart  and you would never believe the price. I love to get some basic colors in bulk from them.The double sided satin was really soft and very pretty. I used a red and a white wide ribbon and then the striped for some fun...

Next my personal gifts to the teachers....

Yummy Bunnies

Funny how one thing leads to another and suddenly I am now creating fun food for my kids. :) Thanks to the fun blog community and my friends who alert me to many great new things, I have seen versions of bunnies everywhere.

Now, true to my nature I decided to look for a way I could make some treats with minimal skill or effort required. Ta Da...bunnies from mini donuts. I already had a few colors of gel frosting for writing on cakes so I used it with some pink Easter M&M's. I found out right away that gel icing does not like to stick to powdered sugar donuts but after a few attempts, easy!

On a side note. I made these today since my daughters each had friends sleep over. The 3 and 7 year olds were immediately excited but the 12-13 year olds were sorta cool about it. But, when they came for seconds...they requested bunnies too. Made me feel good they still have a bit more little girl in them! :)

Tumbling Bunnies

This bunny and grass is all from Zooballo. Cut from Stampin up CS.

When I saw this craft at FamilyFun I knew I had to make them and had to do it with my Cricut. It was a pretty simple project to create with Plantin School Book which I will recreate with Goerge and try to post a file...

These bunnies will flip and tumble down after getting a bit of a head start and work best on a pillow propped up on the sofa. A few other tips for making these: Be sure to not forget the TWO marbles. ;). And be sure to use a fairly sturdy CS for the base.

It worked! Here is a link to 4Shared for the base cut file with Plantin Schoolbook... TumbleBunniesPS

Have Fun!!
Check out my Christmas version for other file types including an SVG file...
HERE

I use a ruler on top of my paper to line it up more easily. This actually helps a lot when scoring other 3D items with scoring at angles.

I used Sookwang tape which is similar to Scor tape or the Stampin up red tape. After lining up the edges with the sides,  simply press it down gently before adding marbles. The ends need to follow the curve so it can be tricky.

This cute little thing will briefly balance on end before flipping over.

Not exactly new...

I was recently chatting with a friend who wanted to make some cool accessories for parties like she sees in Etsy, which reminded me of our Valentines this year. G wanted to make her own, so we worked together to find just what she wanted. We came up with some cute tag pocket "cards" with a gift certificate for an ice cream cone, and an easy topper for her to glue on. It was so seriously easy, my three year old joined in to make some for her friends too. Amazingly I didn't blog them, but since it's a handy idea for all occasions I wanted to share anyway.

Instead of learning Photoshop which is an amazing tool that I don't have and have no idea how to use, I found some awesome clipart from Lettering Delights . G  picked out the images she was interested in then I set up a cut file in DS. The packet tag is from Tags Bags Boxes and More and the topper is Just Because Cards.

*edited to make this more understandable...hopefully

After I cut one set of the shape from Just Because Cards on a plain sheet of cardstock, I measured where the cuts ended up on the page.

Then I set up a MSWord document with a table, using the ruler on the side to help line up the borders of the table by adjusting the size of the rows and colums as well as the margins settings.

Then I place the clip art within the box of the table and play around with placement until I get the images right. You can play around with justification and use the space bar to move the clipart around. Be sure to set the tables rows and columns to exact size or it will adjust the size as you add elements.

A table allows you to copy and paste the whole clip art set and keep the spacing of the clipart consistent as you copy it to the next "box." This helps each set of images remain within the fixed border, and it will stay within the cut shape. You can use the leftover piece of cardstock to compare with a printed sheet before cutting to be sure you've aligned everything properly. Place the two pieces of cardstock together and be sure you can see your images wholly within the space left by the cut shape. Then you can place your printed paper on the mat to cut the shape around your printed images.

There is a bit of trial and error, and be sure to select "no borders" before you print!  After you have achieved the placement you'd like, you can print and cut a boatload! I made some of these in green and some pink for my two daughters as well as the Girl Scout troop and also a few neighbors(about 40). Happy Crafting!

Coco and the Nuts!

Hello, this is my last minute down to the wire submission and I promise details of this layout tomorrow! :)

*Update: So, I wish I had more time to work on this since there are definitely things I would add to this layout. But it's done, and that's the best thing of all! I tried to embellish more on this project and challenged myself to try some new things. There is real machine stitching on the edges which you'll see below in my better picture! And some ribbon stapled to my little journaling strips.

Also, the tree and hedgie are larger than most of my diecuts which sees to be the trend. How cute is that hedgie from Create A Critter cricut cartridge? She's cut at 1.6 and the tree from Country Life is cut at 8.6...it's meant to hang more off the page but since the title (also from Country Life) cut larger than I thought....opps :) My original plan was for a few more critters but the cute paper from Imaginesce was already covered more than I liked so there you go...

Masquerade Masks

I have to admit that the glue gun and I typically don't get along well but we seemingly made our peace luckily for one day. My daughters and I designed masks and attended a special Mother and Daughter Masquerade ball! We had fun making these together and even my littlest made her own special mask! Ours were in the black and red theme since we were able to scrounge up all matching red and black dresses on clearance no less!

My middle one had her own ideas too!

My mask, made with leftovers. :)

My pinkie girl B! Made hers all by herself!

A little something for some special kids...

Recently our girl scout troop made goodie bags for a birthday party. It was the 99th birthday of Girl Scouts the week of March 12th. But we made goodie bags for a special charity called "A Birthday Anywhere" that puts together parties for local homeless children. I was so happy to include a simple banner for them as well to help the organizers make things a bit more cheery and special! I plan on doing much more for this group so stay tuned!

B's missing her Daddy.....

I heard that a lot during my DH's last deployment, and my same B is missing her Daddy again. This time she doesn't quite understand it won't be a long trip, so I made this little hanging for her to put a sticker on for each passing day. Sorry for the poor picture but it was taken at the end of the day. :)

Difficult to see but, the days of the week, sun and butterfly are all on pop dots..

I used my cricut Designers Calender cartridge for the lettering at 1.3 on the Imagine, plus the base calender cut at "fit to page." I flipped the circles from the base calendar and used the darker back side for the days of the week and "stickers". They were cut at 1.3 from the same cartridge. The sun is from Simply Charmed cut at 1.8 I believe, the butterfly from Designers calendar again at .7 and the arrow is Don Juan cut at 2.0.

I used my CTMH stamp sets with chocolate ink.for the border and the numbers... The numbers were from "Token Alphabet" and I had to create 10-14 by inking parts of the stamp at a time. The Border is "Togetherness" Thanks for visiting!

*edited to correct the size of the circular calendar and the name of the stitched stamps, sorry! Plus add another calender for my G, and a stamping tip!

If you are using a clear stamp set, you can lay them in place, then pick them up with your block for stamping...this can make stamping faster andhelp when you want to make a word block etc...

Storage and Organization Encore....

Hello everyone, after I posted about my new craft space "organization, I have been asked about my cartridge storage. Plus there is a challenge on the circle blog to show how you've organized your craft items. Well, I have only a few things I have actually sort of organized and this happens to be my cartridges and books, and my Cuttlebug folders. It's all still a work in progress but I hope to share something that I've found to make my life a bit easier.

I love to use the artbin storage drawers for my cartridges and photo storage boxes for my cart books and overlays. Since I have downloaded the cart books to my computer and my iPad it isn't necessary to use them much. I also  hope that the Cricut Craft Room online design program makes things even easier!

It's still not completely organized and almost full, but hey, I can stack another one on top!

These photo boxes are just the right size and much more compact than the original boxes. I have four and they are nearly full too.

I made dividers out of cereal boxes to test this out and plan on nicer ones later...there's a whole 'nother row in the back so each drawer will hold 16 regular carts.

 My Cuttlebug folders are all in a binder using plastic sheets from Staples. I found that the photo sheets for 4X6's and the baseball card storage ones work well for the various smaller sized folders...

These are made for Baseball cards

These are made for 4X6 photos, the top sticks out a bit but two folders will fit in each pocket.

Hope this will help someone out there! I have a few more projects to post soon and I am working on my Imagine video. For some reason it doesn't want to come out of my Flip. :( Stay tuned!

Welcome Spring!

Well as usual, spring here has been swinging from warm(ish) sunny days to cold rainy ones.This year, in addition to vinyl bunnies that hop along the pillars and walls at my house I made this fun "welcome spring" project.  I was inspired by the recent Cricut Circle Blog Challenge to create this banner, and even though I didn't make the deadline but it was fun!  I saw a ribbon flower similar to this in the recent Scrapbook Trends project book and wanted to incorporate it on this project. Hope fully I can keep this for next spring as well!

 The banner was created with a cut from Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge and layered with a letter in frame cut from A Child's Year Cartridge. I  added a few flourishes and flowers cut from the Elegant Cakes cartridge, of all things, and used a few papers on hand from a creative basics kit from Close to my Heart. I love those kits since they give you a good amount of a 2 double sided patterned papers and ribbon to work with for a bigger project. I added some solid card stock, some sandylion Kelli Pannaci stickers, and some Target dollar section brads form my stash for finishing touches! Of course the blue bunnies! :) They were originally supposed to be green so they would hop from right to left but I liked the blue better for an accent. :) Hope your Spring is a great one!!

Imagine- Rub-ons!

Both cut pieces together for a finished rub-on.

A clear card with the owl on the front...

 I was daydreaming of Imagine projects a bit when I remembered a Grafix rub-on kit I purchased a while ago. I had been disappointed with my result using stamps and never dared to try it in the printer, but I thought it perfect for the I. And it was!

The set comes with two sheets of material. One to stamp or print on, and the other a thin adhesive sheet. In order to make the rub-on You create an image on a thin film, then place it onto the adhesive sheet. There is a lot of trimming involved and stamping can be tricky so my results were iffy, and lets face it, If I had any skill with scissors I wouldn't have a Cricut. lol

For the owl image, I flipped the image for printing and then print and cut it from the thin film sheet supplied. Next I cut the same image from the adhesive sheet. You could load two mats and use the same image, just reset with with no color and not flipped, but I put it all on one with a space between.

Front elements are rub-ons with paper background frame...inside is a white cut out for personalizing.

Box cut at max size-6.7, Card elements at 2.7 The green frame is the rub-on applied to the back of the card.

For my second project I created a small box for a gift card and then tried out another set of rub-ons. For this set I discovered that it's a good idea to create a wider offset for rub-ons...especially if it's a phrase like this thank you...also the film can be repaired somewhat if it tears by putting it back together and placing it on the adhesive sheet....I'll be happy to give some more details (and even possibly a video tutorial if I can figure that out) if you leave a request in the comments..Thanks for your interest. :)

Three Month's Projects! Cards, handwarmers, a new craft space, and some Imagine projects!

*Note: There will be a re-write of my original post which got accidentally deleted.So check back within a few days...still wanted to share this with my readers.

Cake project with Brownies...

Cake cutting with the  Gypsy is so much easier since you can line up the cuts after you place the gumpaste!

Aren't these too cute?! The detail is surprising!

I know Halloween is over but I had to post these few last projects since they turned out so well. I made these for Halloween/Juliette Low's Birthday for my Girl Scout troop(Brownies). I am finally getting the hang of my cake and I can't wait to do more. First off I used my Gypsy so it was so simple to load the mat for my cuts. Also having more experience I rolled my gumpaste even thinner than before and had really good results! A third factor was placing the mat with the gumpaste in the fridge for just a few minutes while I moved the pumpkins around on the G :) Then to remove them from the mat I placed them in the fridge for a few more minutes...not too long but just to make them cooler. I used a toothpick to remove the eyes, nose and mouth while they were still on the mat. I am wondering if we'll be able to load our imagine cartridges onto our G then cut those shapes with our Cake. Wheels are turning!

The second project was some cute little cupcakes made with battery tea lights. I can't remember where I saw this idea but it wasn't mine...I used the SU scalloped circle with just a strip of paper from the Halloween glitter stack that was already out! lol. I used my favorite sookwang tape for the side paper again and the girls loved them. These would be cute party favors or table decorations for a party as well!! Or, maybe some fall colors for Thanksgiving buffets or Christmas papers to decorate each place setting?