Getting crafty with the Cricut

Greetings-Christel AKA the scrapworm here of Scrapworm Blog ! Very delighted to be part of this incredible blog. I have several projects to share with you today but first I would like to tell you a little about myself. I live in western Kentucky. I am employed a school teacher. I teach history and special education. I have a wonderful husband and four children(two girls and two boys). My children's ages range from 18 to 14. To top it off, we have two dogs(a havanese and mountain cur) and two cats(shorthair and longhair). One of the kids,Allee, graduated this year and she is now enrolled studying to be a nurse while working fulltime as a CNA. She had a full ride to play softball but decided to stay home and go to school. Katee who is a junior runs cross country and track. Brett and Bryce both play football. My husband and I are constantly on the run shuffling kids to practice, meets or games. Well more than enough about me. Let's get onto crafting!

Using the cricut to make a ruffled spirit scarf: First project I would like to show you today is what I call a spirit scarf. I saw this on Pinterest and decided it would make a great accessory to where to games to try and spiff up wearing blue jeans and a tee. I used my cricut to try and make one. Here are the steps to make a ruffled scraf.

1. You will need Flower Shoppe cartridge, two XL tees, fabric glue or sewing machine and flower embellishment (if you choose to put a flower on the scarf).And of course, your cricut expression.

2. Cut of sleeves, neckline and bottom seam. Next, cut the sides.

3.Cut 12 ten inch squares.

4. Place one square on the cricut mat. Put in the Flower Shoppe cartridge. Using the Fun1 image cut a 9 inch segment. Note: I used the heavy cutting blade instead of regular. I put my settings on medium cutting each image twice. You may want to play around to see how your cricut reacts to fabric.

5. Once you have cut out all twelve pieces, take each piece and stretch it. Do not be timid. This stretching allows the fabric to curl inwards. Hence, no sewing for the strands. Then, hold one piece by the end and run your hand down the fabric. Kinda like milking a cow! Do this for each piece.

6.Taking two strands, place them end to end. Join them together with fabric glue or sewing. Do this until you have no more fabric. You should have six strands all together. If you glue them, allow ample time to dry before going on to the next step. 7. Gather strands together grasping in the center, place around neck. With a scrap from the tees tie the strands together in front about in the middle. 8. Take a flower embellishment and pin to the scrap. Now, you are ready for the game!

Note-I have an alternate version. Instead of using Flower Shoppe, use Cricut Basics circle. Once you have cut 12 circles, cut about two inches into the circle making a swirl. Do not worry about being precise, the stretching and pulling will take care of minor impurities. Follow the rest of the directions. Another option is to cut four "fun1" images and 8 circles. Just have fun with it.

Using mulberry paper for dimension When using my Create a Critter or Camping Critters, I like to use mulberry paper to add depth to my scrapbook pages or cards. Another thing I like to do is tell a story using several pages. Materials needed are the Camping Critters cartridge, Zombies from CCR. Mulberry paper, 12 by 12 paper of your choice, glue, leaves, glue, ink and chalk. Last but not least your cricut expression.

For the first two scrapbook pages, I used the Camping Critters cartridge. I cut out the raccoon and bigfoot images. I used mulberry paper on the outer layer to give the images dimension. The raccoon was cut at four inches. Big Foot was cut at six inches. Also, on the raccoon, I chalked the mask. I used leaves and an evergreen branch (which was secured down with a glue gun)to give the pages a more wilderness feeling. The pictures I added were from this summer which commerate my first mountain biking experience. Look how happy my daughter and I are. An 11 mile trail should have took about an hour and half took us over four hours.

The final image was cut using the CCR exclusive file called Zombies. I used the girly skull and nuclear symbol. The skull was cut at five inches. I dropped ink on the notebook paper where the word zombie is. This page is the final of our mountain bike narrative. Katee contracted some funky mess in the woods. Hence, the zombie title. I said she had zombie bumps because all of the crazy news stories about zombies. She had to get a steriod shot and passed out in the doctor's office which landed her in the hospital.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day! God Bless and craft often!

Cricut Info and Supplies Used:

Designed by:  Christel

Cricut Cartridges Used: Campin Critter, Flower Shoppe, Zombies

Cricut Machine Used: Expression

Other Supplies Used: t-hsirts, fabric glue, sewing machine, mulberry paper, cardstock, patterened paper, ink, chalk, artificial foliage

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED TO WIN OUR WEEKLY DRAWING IN SEPTEMBER.