A Quick Note of Thanks

This card answers two challenges from Two Peas in a Bucket. The design is based on a Finally Friday sketch and it is an Autumn/Gratitude themed card for this month's A Year in Cards - both videos by Kristina Werner. http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/
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Since I don't have a tag punch, I cut the tag with my Cricut and the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge I just got in on Friday. The rest was all easy stamping mostly in Stampin' Up! In Colors. The faux stitching lines were done with a journaling pen. I did 4 of these and they went really quick.

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Ingredients: Stamps: Summer Leaves by Stampendous, Make it Count for greeting by Stampin' Up!

Ink all by SU!: Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, More Mustard and Dusty Durango, Basic Brown journaling pen

Ribbon by Paper Studio

Paper: Kraft and Very Vanilla cardstock by SU!

A Purple Holiday

As I'm working on this year's holiday cards, I've been pulling out some from previous years. Some of the trends I've spotted: I love snowflakes - maybe because we so seldom get the real thing. I love using shades of purple and lavendar on cards.

Last Christmas I made several of this card by printing the greeting on ivory paper and then stamping the snowflakes in various shades mostly from the Soft Subtles family of inks from Stampin' Up! The purple background paper is stamped in Versamark with a swirly snowflake holiday design from Indakindado to add a little depth to the card.

I also love to use sheer florist ribbon. If you use wire ribbon, be sure to trim after you tie your bow to get those little wires that stick out of the ends. This type of ribbon is inexpensive and adds a subtle layer to a card.

Ingredients: Stamps: snowflakes from Stampin' Up!, Winter Trails from Inkadindado

Ink: Stampin' Up! and Versamark

Paper and ribbon: sources unknown.

New Gadgets

There are three new gadgets on my blog. On the right side of the screen you will find new lists called: Places to Learn, Places to Shop and Blogs I read. I've kept the lists discerning for now. There are more of these I visit and I'll probably add to the lists over time.

Places to Shop is pretty self-explanatory. While I often learn from bloggers, Places to Learn is mostly sites who have on-line training as a big part of what they offer.

Blogs I read is just some of the places I go regularly. Some of the best stuff can be found by going to your favorite blogs and seeing what each blogger likes. I always mean to do more of it myself.

This weekend I'm going to pick one blog I like, follow a link from it to another, from that to another and so on for about 20 links and see where I end up. Give it a try and see where in the world (literally) that you land.

TIPsy Tuesday - Cricut Resources

It's already been an adventuresome week around here and it is only Tuesday! So today's tip will be references to other people's great tips. Cheating, I know but I hope it helps you as much as it did me when considering a cutting system.

I decided to purchase the Cricut Expression over other cutting systems because of the size of the cutting area (up to 12x24"), the ability to resize letters and shapes from 1/4" to 11 1/2", the ability to cut thin chipboard. Ideally I would have liked to cut heavier chipboard but the other advantages were more important to me.

Another strong factor in the Cricut's favor was the 3rd party software - Sure Cuts A Lot or SCAL from Craft Edge. You can (and I am) of course using cartridges to cut designs on the Cricut. However, I didn't want to have to purchase so many font cartridges to get a variety of fonts for my scrapbook pages. With SCAL, I can use any TrueType font on my computer including Dingbats and cut letters, even welded words on my Cricut. Dingbats are fonts like Wingdings, Webdings and countless other ones you can download from the internet that contain shapes. These shapes can be enlarged using SCAL and then sent to cut on the Cricut. I can also draw images in a drawing program like Photoshop Elements and have SCAL trace the image and cut it with my Cricut. I can arrange multiple images and cut them together. Between some basic cartridges and SCAL, I have a HUGE array of items I can customize and cut!

In the layout here, I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that came with the Cricut to cut the tag and the letters "Riverbend." This is called Endcaps. I also cut Park with this cartridge. For the other letters and the @ symbol, I used Sure Cuts a Lot and the font Andy. All the paper here is Stampin' Up! cardstock. I have my speed, pressure and cutting depth at 4.

Before purchasing my Cricut, I watched several videos on the use of SCAL and the basics of the Cricut. These helped not only with the purcasing decision but in getting me up and running - Fast! I truly went from a boxed Cricut to making my first cut with a cartridge in 15 minutes! (I had a hairstylist appointment and had to rush :-)

Here are the resources I used:

For learning the basics of the Cricut: http://www.cricut.com/ under Education, Videos, Intro. This is a long video that can't be fast forwarded so have about an hour free when you watch it.

robynstamps channel on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/robynstamps#g/a

Numerous videos from the basics to specific projects. Her basics start at Episode 72.

Sure Cuts a Lot software can be purchased via their website at http://www.craftedge.com/. You can download a trial version which is recommended to be sure the software works with the firmware (preloaded software that makes your Cricut work) before you purchase. It is very simple software to learn. I've only had one question and tech support responded in less than an hour to my e-mail. There are also Youtube videos on this software as well to give you an idea of how it works.

The one other thing I did was read various opinions on message boards such as Splitcoaststampers forum and at Two Peas in a Bucket. I was looking for how happy people were with the Cricut versus the Silhouette or the Big Shot.

Hope all this helps anyone considering the purchase of a Cricut. It is an investment but so far, I'm really happy with mine.

Happy Halloween Card

Attention blog readers! This will probably be your only chance to see a Halloween card here. I'm not a Halloween person. Although I used to love to get dressed up when I worked in an office and we were allowed to do that. At home, we have only had trick or treaters once in over 20 years. My step-grandchildren live far too far away for us to have fun on Halloween with them so I'll just be a scrooge for this holiday and move on to my favorite - Christmas!

I am sending this off to a special little trick-0r-treater. I knew I wanted to make at least one card using the birds. When I got the Cricut as an early Christmas (again, favorite holiday!) gift, I added the landscape cutout from the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge. (It is made with the grass button.) To get the moon's glow, I used Stampin' Up! pastels in white.

For all of you who do love Halloween, hope you get lots of treats! (Just don't come to my house because I've long ago stopped buying candy.)

Ingredients: Stamps: Birds Galore by Inkadinkado, All Holidays by Stampin' Up! for greeting

Cardstock: Whisper white, the rest is unknown sources

Ink: Basic Black and Whisper White to color the chipboard by SU!

Ribbon: Dusty Durango by SU!

Brad: Oriental Trading

Cricut Round Bag

This round bag is courtesy of the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge that came with my Cricut. It is a terrific cartridge and not just because of the good all purpose font. There are a couple of tags, envelopes, some bags and a few basic shapes. Also there is a cool design I'm trying on a Halloween card today. So hopefully I'll have it to show tomorrow.

Here is a view of the cut out design before assembly. It looks daunting but is really easy. There are score marks for folding the tabs in. A little snail adhesive and it was put together in about 5 minutes.

I've never been a big fan of making cute, little bags in papercrafting. The key word here is 'little.' If the item comes out too small, I can't figure out what to use it for. For this bag, I used a 12x12 piece of designer paper from Bo Bunny. It is double sided so the back of the handles and inside look nice but you could use something with a solid white, too. The bag finishes off at 5" not including the handles. It would make a good hostess gift size for candy, fancy soaps, or a few homemade cookies. The Cricut cut the tags out of scraps for me to use when I have a recipient for this. I cut the flower out of a coordinating paper by hand.

I wish I'd had this last Saturday for a birthday party. Oh well, next time I'll be prepared.

LWR Quilts

Every time I finish one of these 60" x 80" quilts and fold it up, I hold it close to me and feel good. I feel good because I've made something that will go to someone who really needs it.

Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has been collecting quilts and sending them to people in need all over the world for many years. These quilts often end up with men, women and children who have lost everything due to war or natural causes. Many didn't have anything to use for warmth or shelter to begin with. The church I used to attend makes and collects quilts. I'm embarrased to say, this year I only made 2. A couple of years ago I made 15! It depends on the fabric I have available and time of course. I used fabric donated by a friend to make the ones this year and still have a few pieces left. I've just run out of time before collection.

These are easy to make. The instructions and info on their distribution are available at this site --> http://www.lwr.org/beinvolved/quilts.asp

So right now I'm committing myself to make at least 6 next year. I'd better start looking for fabric sales. There are also some more fabrics in my own stash that I really don't need. There are definitely people who need them more than I do.

Santa arrived!

Christmas came early this year! Lenny gave me my Cricut! It arrived yesterday and thanks to many great on-line videos I'd been watching, it was up and running in 15 minutes!

Today I did my first project, this anniversary card. The swirl is made of two cuts from the Accents Essential cartridge that came with the machine.

I'm really pleased with the cutting quality. The printed paper is a lightweight designer paper from Paper Studio. The dark red paper is a heavy textured cardstock. I adjusted the speed, pressure and cutting depth and got great results!

Can't wait to do more projects with the Cricut.