Sunday, October 30, 2011

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. 

ornaments 1 [1280x768]

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

ornaments 2 [1280x768]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. 

ornaments 3 [1280x768]

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. 

ornaments 4 [1280x768]

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

Friday, October 21, 2011

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.

snooki layout [1280x768]

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

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

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. 

 

pumpkin carving

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.

pumpkin carving2

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. 

pumpkin lamp 001 [1280x768]

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. 

pumpkin lamp 004 [1280x768]

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. 

hello kitty wreath

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. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

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.

pk tut 1_edited-1 [1280x768] 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.

pk tut 2

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. 

peachy keen faces 007_edited-1

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. 

pk tut 4 [1280x768]

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. 

pk tut 5 [1280x768]

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. 

pk tut 6 [1280x768]

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!!!!