Nuts For Stampin'

Valentine Card for My Honey

Whew! I'm finally feeling better after nearly 3 weeks of fighting the worst chest/head cold that I can remember ever having. I hate being sick 'cause my creativity gets congested too. The first thing I chose to make is a card for my husband since tomorrow is Valentine's day - especially since our 14th anniversary was Jan. 29th and I wasn't able to create anything for him for that.

  Here's a scan the card front. I've also uploaded several other shots of the card - opened and some details -  into my Cricut Projects and my Stampin' Up! projects albums. The (retired) "cherish" rub-on  and all of the papers are Stampin' Up!: Textured Riding Hood Red and textured Chocolate Chip, Candy Lane and Riding Hood Red designer series papers. I also used the Stampin' Up! Eyelet Border punch and the Heart to Heart punch. I used my Cricut with George/Basic Shapes cartridge to cut all of the other hearts. I could have used the Full Heart Punch for all of the medium sized hearts (striped center front heart and inside), but I used the Cricut so I could shadow them using Chocolate Chip. This card was a lot of fun to make and my husband lovesit. I have to mention though that I got the general design from the latest Cricut Chirp newsletter. (In case you belong to the Cricut Community, here's the link to the card that was my inspiration.) I put my own spin on the card. Oh, the stamp I used inside I bought probably 12 years ago and I have no clue who it's by or where I got it.

OK, that's it for now. Happy stampin' and paper crafting, Michelle

Cricut Christmas Card

Just a quick share of the Christmas card I made during the JoAnn's open house recently. It was very simple to create using the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and the DCWV Christmas patterned and textured paper pack. I used the Stampin' Up! Scalloped Border punch 3 times, twice on the outside and once on the inside. The design of the card was inspired by one of those holiday card catalogs you get in the mail. They are great for getting ideas for cards using the Crciut, the Cuddlebug and my Stampin' Up! Holiday mini-catalog stamp sets. I'll share more holiday cards, also inspired by the junk mail catalog, once I get a chance to snap and edit photos of them.

Questions? Contact me anytime!

Cricut "REJOICE" Mini-Box Banner

Well, I still haven't gotten to work on my Christmas cards, but I did get my sample made for submitting to Cricut. I've applied to be the Cricut trainer for my area and one of the things they are requiring is a sample of my work. I created a cute little banner to send them. Here's a sneak peek of it.  It's simple, but I think it's more important to show quality work than something more complicated and fussy. We'll see if my theory is right.

My inspiration for the project is on page 49 of the current Stampin' Up! Fall/Winter Idea Book/Catalog. I chose to use papers I wasn't going to use for my home or my classes since I won't be getting my project back from Cricut. Click on the picture to see more pictures of the banner. My thinking was it would be cute in a baby boy's room for the holidays hung from a evergreen garland. I'll be hanging from my living room mantel, on an evergreen garland, a similar mini-box banner in more traditional colors with bigger boxes and letters. I'll post that as soon as I get it made. This was a really fun project and I can see doing something like it for all sorts of occasions. 

I used DCWV papers, Stampin' Up! grosgrain and ribbon and the cartridges I used were Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, Christmas Cheer and George. I used the Design Studio to be able to fit 2 boxes on one piece of 12 x 12 as large as possible. I think they ended up being 6.5 ", which would not fit 2 of without the DS program. Each side of the boxes are just under 2". I used Sticky Strip to hold the boxes closed. The boxes are strung on the grosgrain through the slots cut by the machine on 2 opposing sides of the box. In a couple pictures of the banner you can see how I used mounting tape for dimension. All the stars and the letters I backed each with a lightweight chipboard for additional dimension.

QUESTIONS? Contact me anytime.  

Cricut Carrying Case

Well, if you own a Cricut and have searched the Cricut website, you know they do not yet offer a wheeled carrying case for the Cricut Expression. Not that I've seen anyway. All I have seen is the wheeled storage tote, which fits the original Cricut machine, but it does not fit the Cricut Expression (CE). The other tote they offer that does fit the CE, but it's just a "shoulder tote" that looks more like a gym bag. I don't know about you, but I don't want to put that kind of weight - the machine(s), multiple cartridges in their boxes, the tool kit, card stock, adhesive and other items for my current projects - all over my shoulder. I'm a paper crafter not a beast of burden.

However, I do have a terrific looking option for you. This designer inspired, wheeled with pull-out handle travel case can carry both the Cricut Expression and the Original Cricut, bunches of cartridges, etc. and probably even your Big Shot all at once! Oh! And I'd bet it will also carry yourCuttlebug at the same time too! The travel case is lightweight, but heavy duty enough for the back seat or trunk of your car. I wouldn't try carrying it or checking it on an airplane though. Not much is sturdy enough to carry your precious machines on an airplane or be tossed around the the airport gorilla's (referencing the age old American Tourister advertisement from when I was a kid).

Here's a sneak peek of the beautiful case. To see one other picture click on this picture to get to the catalog page. I'll post better pictures in a couple of days.Right now I'm in the middle of getting my travel case packed for an open house at JoAnn's Saturday/tomorrow afternoon. FYI, the design of this case was inspired by Brighton, the well known designer of luggage, briefcases, purses and wallets. I only have my own on hand right now, but I can have one shipped to you within only a couple of days depending on where you are in the USA. Please read the "This and That" segment on my right sidebar of my "It's In the Bag" blog. I also offer a really nice quality and variety of designer inspired handbags, wallets, etc. The full catalog is on that site as well as this blog in the right sidebar.

Need more info or ready to order your beautiful Brighton style travel case, contact me anytime!

"Big Bear Camping" 2-Page Layout

Here's a sneak peek of one of my favorite details from my latest scrapbooking endeavor.  I got the idea last Saturday as I was demonstrating the Cricut Expressions at JoAnn's to promote my classes. I decided to make a few pine trees in various sizes with Christmas Cheer. That was the cartridge in the machine when a prospective class member's husband approached my table and wanted to see the machine in action. His wife and I had been talking about Big Bear while she'd been waiting for him to come give her a ride home. Since Big Bear is a place my husband and I have enjoyed visiting and I even have pictures from a vacation there, I decided to make a 2-page layout using the pine trees I'd demo'd for the couple. I need to find my Big Bear pictures and maybe add some more embellishments, but for now this is done. 

• All the cardstock is DCWV. I did some layering to give dimension on the pine boughs, grass, trees and title. 
• Also for dimension I used Stampin' Up! classic ink in Chocolate Chip and Garden Green to shade the pinecones and trees.
• Lastly for dimension, I used mounting tape to the trees and pinecones.The grass is from Plantin Schoolbook.
• Title lettering cut with Printing 101.
• The pinecone stamp is ancient and is by Carmen's Veranda.

To see the full 2-pages and more detail close-up pics, visit my Cricut Projects photo album.

QUESTIONS? Feel free to contact me anytime.

Happy paper crafting, Michelle

Snowman Layout Page 2

I'm still having loads of fun with my Cricut Expressions in preparation for my Scrapbooking 201 class next week. I've created page 2, aka the right page, to go with my Snowman page posted Oct 28th. Details of which cartridges I used are in that post. Here's a sneak peek of page 2. It's just a tiny detail, but I wanted to share how it was done. I cut the snowflakes out with my Cricut and used most of them on page 1. Since I wanted to repeat the snowflake element on page 2 (the basic design principle of repetition) and didn't want to cut more snowflakes, I used my SU! 1 3/8" circle punch to punch out the negative space of the snowflake and the dark blue circle to back the snowflake. To give it dimension, I used bits of Scotch Brand mounting tape off a huge roll I've had for years (and it still works!). To see the full view of page 2 and the 2-page LO, visit my Cricut Projects photo album. I decided to keep page 2 simple, IE no more snow people or titles, so that page 1 would remain the focus for my class next week. Also, I like the pictures to be the main focus of my pages. Oops! No pics on this page. Don't have any for this layout since I got the first picture from an internet photo search. :-)

BTW, can you believe the detail picked up by my camera? Technology just amazes me! I'm getting better at using it, but have a way to go to be really good with my Nikon D40. Having fun learning though.

QUESTIONS about this page or anything else in my blog? Contact me anytime. 

Have fun paper crafting! Michelle

Crazy Fun With My Cricut

Since my Scrapbooking 201 class featuring the Cricut is coming up early November, I figured I ought to get the sample made to display at Jo-Ann's. As usual I had a syllabus to follow making it super easy to create this adorable page. Here's a sneak peek of it. Isn't this snowman cute?! Because of the scale of the paper shapes I needed to use the Cricut Expressions, but all of the cut pieces could be made using the original Cricut, just scaled down. What a great Christmas card it would make.

Just to give you an idea of how quickly the page went together, the scalloped background (visible in the full page view) took less than a minute to cut. Try that by hand with a pair of scissors. Ha! Not! I got the picture of the family playing in the snow from the internet (source forgotten) since I don't have any of my family or friends in the snow. I was so tickled to see that the colors in the picture ended up coordinating with the paper colors I'd chosen from my DCWV cardstock supplies on hand before I even found the picture. Cool, huh! Of course the same page would look great in all Stampin' Up! cardstock, textured or smooth. I just have to use materials available at Jo-Ann's for my classes there.

To see the full page and another detail shot visit my "Cricut Projects" photo album. I had so much fun creating this page, that I decided to create a right side page to coordinate with it. In class we may only have time to create the left page, but I want to show how a 2-page layout could look. If there's time, we can at least cut the parts for the right page to assemble at home. I'm also creating another 2-page layout using a similar template from the SB201 class syllabus. I'll post the photos of the 3 additional pages ASAP.

Cartridges used: Accent Essentials (scalloped bkgd), Christmas Cheer (snowman and snowflakes), Cursive 101 (part of title) and Printing 101 (part of title).

The class is scheduled for November 6th at 6:30 or November 7th at 10:00. It's a 2 hour class and is only $20. Please pre-register right away.

Questions? Feel free to contact me anytime.

Welcome Home Dad

Because I own the Cricut and am on the Cricut.com mailing list, I got an e-message that they are looking for people to do some in-store training. If I get the position I'd be demonstrating to customers in various locations, in addition to my actual classes at JoAnns, where the products are sold. I have already completed their online survey and I just downloaded a sample to their website. Below is what I posted to their online "message board".

"I've been thinking about all our military folks and how it must be such a wonderful time when they get to come home to their families, whether they have been in the country at "boot camp" or out of the country in active service. With those giving folks in mind I decided to make a patriotic welcome home card.

I used the Design Studio to plan it out and to "Weld" some of the words. I wanted chunky letters so I used the "Shadow" mode. To get a shadow on some of the words instead of a full outline, I simply made the same word a bit bigger and offset it when adhering the layers together. The cartridges used are "Opposites Attract" and "Plantin SchoolBook". The card looks simple, but it took a fair amount of fiddling to get everything the size I wanted. The papers I used mostly are some heavy watercolor paper I had on hand. The bright blue is SU! Brilliant Blue. The ribbon I had on hand - found item. I used some dimensionals to pop up some of the stars and "Dad".
Enjoy!"