25 Days of Christmas Day 22

Hello and welcome to Day 22 of the 2nd Annual 25 Days of Christmas celebration. There are stil some great prizes to win and some free files to grab, so head on over to Cooking With Cricut to check it out.

Day 22 is a Holiday theme, so I decided to create a Nutcracker gift bag. My niece is a ballerina and every year her studio does a performance of the nutcracker. I thought this would be the perfect bag to use for her gift this year.

The nutcracker and the background paper are from the Santa's Village Imagine cartridge. This cartridge is full of great stuff!

I did things a little differently this time and cut all the layers of the nutcracker and pop dotted them to give him some more dimension. This is a picture of the side view so you can see all the layers and dimension. I love that you can do things either way with the Imagine.

To make the bag a little fancier, I added some stickles to the nutcracker and added a bow and poinsettia to the handle. It's hard to see in this picture, but it's there. I am having some major lighting issues in my scrapbook room and I need to find a new place to take pictures.

I hope you have been enjoying our 25 Days celebration and don't forget to check back for the final 3 days!!! I would also like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

25 Days of Christmas Back to School Time

Good morning everyone and

welcome to the 16th day of our

2nd Annual 25 Days of Christmas and Crafting Fun Showcase.

EACH DAY:

* Different Designers will be showcasing their projects for your creative inspiration.

* Will have a different theme and the themes will not ALL be Christmas or Holiday related. So be sure to visit everyday for creative inspiration you can use through out the whole year!

* We will be giving away FREE Digital Stamps, FREE Electronic Die Cutting Files and Other Printable graphics. There will be something for everyone. Please note: The freebies will expire at the end of their 24 hours and new ones will be available. You won’t want to miss them!

* We will showcase projects using your Cricut and Cricut tools.

* We will showcase projects using your OTHER electronic cutters too! Tools such as our Pazzles, Silhouettes, Gazelles and other electronic cutters. Along with all types of crafting tools and essentials.

* You will want to leave a comment for your chance to win one of our weekly prizes as well as one of our GRAND PRIZES!!!

* You HAVE to be a follower of the Cooking With Cricut blog in order to win a prize, sorry no exceptions.

Day 16 focuses on Back To School. I have made a couple of different back to school projects. My first project is a door hanger. Back to school means the return of homework. I made this cute little door hanger that my daughter can hang on her door when she needs quiet to work on her homework.

The actual door hanger itself was cut on my Imagine using the Blast Off cartridge. The little bear image is a Paper Crafting World digital stamp I colored with my copic markers. Here is a close up of the bear image.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that it’s a good idea to bring an apple for your teacher on the first day of school, but how many apples does one teacher need? I decided to make an apple the teacher could actually use. I used this apple box cutting file from Paper Crafting World.

Now the teacher has an apple she can leave on her desk all year long without worrying about it turning brown. This box was so easy to put together. The score lines are actually perforated so they almost fold themselves. The little box part holds a lot. I filled it with pencils and pens but it would certainly hold candy or other treats.

I hope you are enjoying our 25 Days of Christmas projects as much as we have enjoyed making them. Don’t forget to grab the free files and leave some comments for a chance to win some of the great prizes!

Gift Tags

It's time for another Cooking With Cricut Challenge!!! This time our challenge is to create gifts, gift tags, or cards. I thought this would be a great time to use the Imagine so I could make a lot of tags in a short amount of time. Christmas Wish has a page full of tags and they are all cute. I cut the page at 10.6 inches and this is what I got.

All of the tags in the photo were on one sheet of cardstock. I even messed up 2 of them so there were more than this. The only thing not on the same sheet is the little box.

Here is a close up of the little box. It's perfect to fill with Christmas candy or treats.

Here are a few more of the tags. All I had to do is add some ribbon and some stickles.

This pink tag with the ornaments was a little big, but I thought it was perfect for a mini Christmas card.

I loved the patterns and the colors of this cartridge and it was really quick to make some great tags!

Deck the Halls

It's time for another Paper Crafting World Challenge! This time our theme is Deck the Halls and we were challenged to create an ornament. I saw a great post on one of the cricut blogs about using a mini pillow box as a little shadow box ornament and thought I would give it a try. I cut the pillow box from wrap it up at 7.5 inches and flood filled it with a fun pattern from Christmas Wish on my Imagine. I then cut an opening out of the front with a nestability. I colored these adorable little kitties in winter attire digital stamp with my copic markers. These little guys are just too cute!! I put the kitties on the back of the pillow box with some pop dots. I then added a poinsettia and a handle so I could hang it on the tree. If I had more time I would have made the inside of the box a different pattern so you could see the dimension more, but my Imagine mat was sticky and kept cutting my blue rectangle in half so this was the best solution I could come up with.

We would love for you to play along with us at www.cookingwithcricut.com and don't forget to check out our 25 days of Christmas celebration with new posts every day in December!

Candles, wreaths, and pine cones

It's time for another a9oking With Cricut challenge. This week the challenge is to create a project with candles, a wreath, or pine cones. I decided to create a wreath. I started with a cheap foam circle I picked up at the dollar store and wrapped it with some Christmas ribbon.

I cut some images from the Santa's Village Imagine cart and added them to the wreath. I finished the wreath off with a poinsettia also from the dollar store and I have a quick simple holiday decoration. Please join us at cooking with cricut to see what the rest of the design team has cooked up.

Holidays with Papercrafting World

I hope all of you are recovering from the long Thanksgiving weekend. I tend to get caught up in a shopping frenzy on Black Friday and it takes a while to recover. I'm thankful for some design team projects to keep me busy and out of the stores. Our current papercraftng world challenge is to make a holiday themed project.

I used the cutting file Puppy in present to create this holiday card. I switched it up a little bit and added the bow to the puppy's head instead of on top of the present. I finished it off with some ribbon and poinsettia. I think this may be a little foreshadowing of what is going to happen at my house this Christmas with our new puppy.

Please stop by our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com and enter your holiday project for a chance towin!

Holidays with Papercrafting World

I hope all of you are recovering from the long Thanksgiving weekend. I tend to get caught up in a shopping frenzy on Black Friday and it takes a while to recover. I'm thankful for some design team projects to keep me busy and out of the stores. Our current papercraftng world challenge is to make a holiday themed project.

I used the cutting file Puppy in present to create this holiday card. I switched it up a little bit and added the bow to the puppy's head instead of on top of the present. I finished it off with some ribbon and poinsettia. I think this may be a little foreshadowing of what is going to happen at my house this Christmas with our new puppy.

Please stop by our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com and enter your holiday project for a chance towin!

Giving Thanks Blog Hop

Welcome to Scrappy and Piggy and the CookingWithCricut.com “Giving Thanks” Blog Hop! If you've come from visiting Holly at http://ribbonsandglue.blogspot.com you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to hop along with us, you can go to CookingWithCricut.com and start at the beginning.

Today’s hop is all about Thanksgiving decorations – for your home and table. I made this crazy looking Turkey Treat Box using the Sweet Treats Boxes cartridge.

I saw a woman that used this box to make the birds from Angry Birds (they looked awesome) and I thought well if you can use it to make birds, you can use it to make a turkey. This box is actually the ice cream cone/cupcake box. I just cut the 2 top pieces and I cut them at 10.5 inches. This is my first time to use this cartridge and the scoring can be a little tricky. Scotch tape came in really handy! After I had my turkey body put together, I cut the feather layer from Create A Critter. I trimmed off the feet and attached them to the bottom of the box, then I kind of folded the feathers around the back of the box. For the face I punched some black circles and added some large wiggly eyes. I cut the beak and the turkey wobbly thingy from Animal Kingdom. I hope you have enjoyed my turkey box.

Now it's your turn! Link up your Thanksgiving project at CookingWithCricut.com. Here are a few guidelines:

Must follow the challenge topic and use one of the free files provided at CWC.
Must be a NEW project for this challenge. No back dated posts please.
Must have a link back to this post on your blog.
Must link your project post through Inlinkz and not just your blog.
Must use your Cricut in some capacity.
Must HAVE FUN!
You may gladly combine challenges . . . we love to pile it on TOO!

The Design Team will pick their three favorites and one lucky person will be chosen randomly to win one of the prizes being offered in this hop. There is also a prize for just leaving us a comment on the CWC blog. One catch, those leaving comments MUST be a CWC follower. Each prize winner will receive a $10 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com.

Now head on over to visit Larelyn at http://handmadefromtheheart-designsbylarelyn.blogspot.com to see what they’ve cooked up for you!
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's Talk Turkey

The current Cooking With Cricut challenge is Let's Talk Turkey. I have another turkey card to share with you.

For this one I used the Create a Critter cartridge I wanted to make a turkey shaped card this time instead of just another card with a turkey on it. I tried welding 2 of the turkey shapes together on my gypsy but it just didn't work. It was too small, so I came up with another idea. I cut 2 of the turkey shadows the size I wanted them and then cut all the layers. I scored the top of the hat about 1/2 and inch down and then glued it to the back. I have a couple of cartridges with turkeys on them but I have to say I think this create a critter turkey is the cutest one!

Recycle/Use your Stash

Hello and welcome to the Papercrafting World Recyle/Use your stash challenge. I have to say this was a hard one for me. I'm not good at using what I have. Half the fun of papercrafting is buying the supplies, but I dug deep inside myself to find some willpower and used some supplies I already had to make this cute little card.

This little turkey stared out as an Easter Chick. You can see the cutting file here. All I had to do to turn him into a turkey was to cut another foot to use as his turkey waggle thingy (not sure of technical name for that). To keep in the spirit of using what I have in my stash, I used some artificial leaves I bought a few years ago for his feathers. To finish the card off I used some fall striped paper I have had in my stash forever. I bought a whole pack of it at a discount store and it's going to take a while before I run out.

If I have inspired you to recycle something you already have or to just use what you have in your stash, please join our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com

Honeypop Cards

Honeypop paper is one of my favorite new products. I love pop up cards and this stuff makes some great ones. Honeypop paper is honeycomb tissue paper. There are stamps that are made to coordinate with the honeypop paper and they are adorable. For my first card I chose the stamp set Cupcake Birdy.

The paper for this card is from the Echo Park. I stamped the little bird with the cherry in its mouth and colored it with my copic markers. The Happy Birthday sentiment is also from the Cupcake Birdy set. Here is a picture of the inside of the card.

When you open the card, the cupcake spreads out. The stamp set also comes with a stamp of half a cupcake to stamp on the honeypop paper. The paper has a black arrow on it to show you which direction to stamp your image. You need to make sure the arrows on your stamp are going the same direction as the arrow on the paper. You also need to leave a 1/8 of an inch channel for the honeypop paper to fit into. Since I made a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card, I scored mine at the 1/8 of inch mark just to the left and right of the 4 1/4 mark. So find you center point and then score 1/8 on either side of that. The directions said to score at 4 3/16 and 4 5/16 but my scoring boards don't do 16ths so this is the solution I came up with.

I love this technique so much, I wanted to try a Christmas card with it. For the background paper on this card I printed one of the paper patterns from the Santa’s Village imagine cartridge on some kraft cardstock. This gives it a vintage feel which is perfect for the images on this cartridge. I added a poinsettia and an image of Santa checking his list.

I had a pack of green honeypop paper and thought I would try to make my own Christmas tree. I drew half a Christmas tree on the paper and cut it out. It worked!

I had so much fun with these projects. The best tip I have for using the honeypop paper is to have some good scissors. The paper is pretty thick.

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Honeypop clear stamps

Honeypop paper

Echo Park Paper

cricut Imagine

Something to Celebrate

Hi, it's my turn to host the Cooking With Cricut cartridge showcase. I have chosen to showcase the cartridge Something to Celebrate. This is a newer cartridge and it is adorable. It has a little something for all sorts of events like birthdays, baby showers, graduations and more. The cartridge has several features -- there are shaped cards, a font, font shaped cards, and decor items.

My first project is this adorable cupcake shaped card. I cut the card at 5 1/2 inches and then cut the actual cupcake and it's layers at the same size. This worked great and the card base served as a shadow for the layered image. I finished the card with some googly eyes which are perfect for this cartridge because most of the images have faces on them. If you are not a fan of the faces, you could definitely hide them with your Gypsy, Design Studio or in the Cricut Craft Room.

For my next project I used one of the images by itself. I chose this piece of pie and decided to make it look like pumpkin pie. This makes a great Thanksgiving card. Once again I used googly eyes on the piece of pie and added the image to the card with an action wobble to give it some movement.

Next I decided to make two of the decor items from the cartridge. The hot pink pillow box is the decor item from the pennant cut on page 45. I cut it at "fit to page" which ended up being 5 3/4 inches -- a really nice size. You could fill this box with some candy and a gift card and give it to someone for their birthday. That would be much more exciting than just putting the gift card in an envelope. I decorated my box with a birthday cake, but you could easily change the cake to the graduation cap or the stork and use it for whatever you need.

The other decor item I made is this little pink polka dotted favor box. This is the decor cut from the streamers image on page 40. I also cut this at "fit to page" and it ended up being 2 1/2 inches. This is the perfect size to use as a little candy favor box to put on the table at a shower or birthday party. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg with this cartridge. As I mentioned before it also has a font letters and number with and without a little flame on the top. You can also make a shaped card out of the numbers and letters. The number shaped cards would be perfect for a child's birthday. I hope I have inspired you to take a look at the Something to Celebrate cartridge and see what you can make with it.

Thankful Hearts Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Thankful Hearts blog hop. If you have come here from Evelyn's blog then you are in the right place. If you have ended up here by accident, you can head back to Cooking With Cricut and start from the beginning. Be sure to hit all the blogs along the way, because we all have a free file to give away!

+69For my project, I have used the adorable digital stamp, Bear and Turkey Buddies. I love how they have their arms (or arm and wing) around each other. It reminds be that Thanksgiving should be being thankful for the people you love. I colored the image with my copic markers (I had to blow the dust off them it's been a while LOL) I matted the image and added some fall papers for the background.

The free file I have to give away is called Pumpkin Flourish to receive this file click on the button that says add to cart.

http://www.page-kits.com/item_689/Pumpkin-Flourish-11011-Cutting-File.htm

If the free file link has expired, you can use the direct link above to purchase the file.

Melin- http://www.cookingwithcricut.com

Yolie - http://www.justyolie.com

Celeste - http://www.touchedbyabutterfly.com

Evelyn - http://mylittlecraftblog.wordpress.com/

Mindy http://www.scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com

Karen~ http://kaleidoscopicsparkles.blogspot.com

Christel- http://www.OneScrappinSista.blogspot.com

Glittery Christmas Ornaments

Last year I went a little crazy making glittery Christmas ornaments out of the clear glass balls you can get at craft stores.  This year I wanted to try something a little bit different. I wanted to find  a way to use my Cricut Imagine to print some holiday images on vinyl and add them to the ornaments.  I found these square shaped ornaments and they were perfect.  This is what I came up with using the Snow Angel cartridge. 

To start this project, you need clear glass ornaments which you can find at most any craft store, some floor polish, and glitter.  The floor polish I used for this project is

Pledge Future Shine.  You won’t use a lot of it, so one bottle will last you quite a while.  Pour some of the floor polish into the ornament and carefully swirl it around to coat the inside of the ornament.  I cover the opening with a baby wipe.  Try not to shake it or you will get bubbles which can be harder to get rid of.  Pour the remaining floor polish back into the bottle. Let it dry a little bit and pour your glitter in. Shake the glitter all around making sure the entire ornament is covered.  The great thing about these ornaments is that all the messy glitter is on the inside of the ornaments you don’t have to worry about it rubbing off. 

Next, I cut come of the adorable designs from Snow Angel on some printable vinyl in my Imagine and then stuck them to the front of the ornament.   A little bit of ribbon is the perfect finishing touch. 

For this cute little snowman ornament I used green glitter to match the green in her hat.  I added a little bit of polar white flower soft to make it look like she’s really sitting in the snow. 

I thought this Happy Holidays image would be perfect with some blue glitter.  I finished this one off by adding some diamond stickles to the snow on the ground and on the house. 

I hope I have inspired you to grab some floor polish and get creating.  It’s much more fun than using it to polish the floor!!!!

 

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Cricut Imagine Snow Angel cartridge

Polar White Flower Soft

Diamond Stickles

Adopt a Shelter Pet Blog Hop

Welcome to Scrappy and Piggy and the CookingWithCricut.com “Adopt A Shelter Pet” Hop! October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, but we wanted to honor and celebrate all of our furry friends! If you've come from visiting Melin at the Cooking With Cricut blog, you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to hop along with us, you can go to CookingWithCricut.com and start at the beginning.

We recently adopted a new puppy. She is a little mutt, but we love her. I have used my cricut to make this layout and display some of her adorable baby pictures.

For this project I used two different cricut cartridges. For the little Snooki dog I used Paper Pups. I have to say this little dog looks a lot like her. For the rest of the layout, I used the Cricut Imagine cartridge Baby Boutique. This cartridge has some great elements. I printed and cut the frame with the crown and the title. The background paper which is kind of hard to see in the picture was also printed on the Imagine as well as the giraffe print border on the bottom. I added some bling to the crown and the title because you can never have enough bling!

I do have a small blog candy package to give away to one person who leaves a comment on this post.

Now it's your turn! Link up your purr-fectly wonderful pet-themed project at CookingWithCricut.com. Here are a few guidelines:

Must follow the challenge topic.
Must be a NEW project for this challenge. No back dated posts please.
Must have a link back to this post on your blog.
Must link your project post through Inlinkz and not just your blog.
Must use your Cricut in some capacity.
Must HAVE FUN!
You may gladly combine challenges . . . we love to pile it on TOO!

The Design Team will pick their three favorites and one lucky person will be chosen randomly to win one of the prize packages being offered in this hop. There is also a prize package for just leaving us some love (a comment) on the CWC blog. One catch, those leaving comments MUST be a CWC follower. Each prize winner will receive a $20 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com. The Design Team’s top three will each receive $5.00 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com.

Now head on over Adrian’s blog at byadrain4u to see what they’ve cooked up for you!

“Adopt A Pet” Blog Hop Participants:
Melin-CWC http://www.CookingWithCricut.com
Mindy - http://scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com
Adrian - http://www.byadrian4u.blogspot.com
Charlotte - http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com
Madison - http://funkycards.blogspot.com
Nita - http://www.niftynitanotes.blogspot.com
Jill - http://www.jaihartjustlovelydesigns.blogspot.com
Holly - http://ribbonsandglue.blogspot.com
Maria Elena - http://mariaelenaworld.blogspot.com
Linda - http://www.lindascreativity.blogspot.com
Heather http://www.heather-p.blogspot.com
Felicia - http://scrapperinthemaking.blogspot.com
Court - http://courtscraftcorner.blogspot.com
Elizabeth - http://ejoym.blogspot.com
Debbie - http://workinscrappinmomof4.blogspot.com
Dalis - http://stampergirl.com
Jen - http://gator-4-life.blogspot.com

Holiday Crafts

This month we are focusing on die cutting machines.  My favorite die cutting machines are my cricuts.   I thought I would take a little time to show you how your cricut can help you make some Holiday Décor items.  Since Halloween is right around the corner,  I have a couple of Halloween projects to share with you.  These projects were made using the Pumpkin Carving seasonal cartridge.This cartridge has some great designs to help you create the perfect Jack-O-Lantern.  First, we picked our design and cut it out on the cricut with vinyl. 

 

We placed the vinyl design on the pumpkin and traced around it.  Then we carved it out and Voila- a very scary jack-o-lantern.

If you don’t feel like carving an actual pumpkin, there are other ways to use this cartridge.  I used some orange vinyl this time to create a jack-o-lantern out of a glass block. 

I cut the design out of vinyl on my cricut and placed it on the front of the glass block.  I put an led tealight candle in the bottom and wrapped some tulle around it. Here is what it looks like in the dark. 

This would also me a great project to do for Christmas with a snowflake or another Christmas element on the block.  Speaking of Christmas, I have one Christmas project to share with you. 

I made this wreath with my Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge. 

When it’s time to decorate your house for the holidays, don’t forget about your cricut, it can help you make some great décor items. 

A Peachy Keen Tutorial Tuesday

For this Tutorial Tuesday, I wanted to show you how easy it is to your Peachy Keen face stamps with your cricut die cuts.  How many times have you struggled with the little tiny pieces your cricut cuts for the eyes, nose, and mouth of your die cuts?  With Peachy Keen face stamps,you don’t have to worry about that anymore.   Peachy Keen makes some stamp sets that are designed to coordinate with certain cricut cartridges.

For this project I have chosen the Monster Mash face assortment.  I love the assortment packs because they give you a variety of sizes to use with different sized die cuts.  This set is perfect for the Mini Monsters and Bump in the Night cricut cartridges. To make it easier to use the stamps, you need to either cut your base layer in blackout or hide the cuts it wants to cut for the face.  You can do this with Design Studio, the Gypsy, or the new cricut craft room.  I did this on my gypsy.  Here is a picture of the button you need to do this.

When using the gypsy, the hide contour button is on the advanced menu and looks like 2 right angles.  Here is a picture of the Dracula cut when I have told it to hide the face cuts.

It has greyed out the cuts it would make for the eyes and mouth and will not cut them.  This gives me enough space to cleanly stamp my face.

With Halloween on the way, I know I will need some treat bags, so I decided to use my Mini Monsters on some goody bags. 

For my first little goody bag, I used this little round monster.  The paper is a mixture of Echo Park dots and stripes and some random cardstock.  The bag is cut from the Spring Holiday cards seasonal cartridge.  I outlined the monster with some purple stickles to give her some bling. 

For this next box I used a box from the Imagine cartridge All Wrapped Up.  This time I cut it on my cricut Expressions 2 since I only wanted to use plain cardstock.  I cut the box at 8 inches and it is a really nice size. The box also has a scalloped rectangle you can use for the top.  I placed my sea monster on top of that. 

For my final goody bag I used the vampire cut I showed you earlier in the tutorial.  Once again this box is from Spring Holiday Cards.  I ran some orange cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Spots and Dots folder and then sanded the embossing. 

Dracula’s shirt is from Echo Park and I added some more stickles to his bow tie.

Remember, the next time you think you can’t cut paper dolls and animals on your cricut because the facial features cut just too small grab your Peachy Keen stamps and use them.  They’re easy and super cute!!!!