Thankful Banner

Hi everyone! It's Maria from Stamp, Cut, Create! sharing a banner I made for Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but I feel that between Halloween and Christmas,  Thanksgiving gets kind of left out when it comes to decorating for holidays. Personally, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days. I love cooking and visiting with family and friends and I think it's wonderful to have one day that we remember to be thankful for all the good things in our lives. Also, as my daughter once said, it's great because it's a whole day dedicated to eating!

For today's project, I used kraft paper to cut a scalloped tag  at 5.5" from the Birthday Bash cartridge. I then added a  rounded rectangle cut from Sugar and Spice that was cut with a printed paper from DCWV Harvest Gathering at 4.75".  The letters, the basic font from CM Cheerful Seasons, were cut in the shadow and regular cut at 2.66" and then adhered to the mat with Scotch Foam tape.  I then wrapped a piece of ribbon, from American Crafts, around the bottom portion of the tag.
I cut leaves from Designer's Calendar at 3.5" in different fall colors, them embossed them with a variety of embossing folders. They were then inked with Galaxy Gold Dew Drop ink by Tsukineko. The leaves were placed on the tags so that they would overlap when hung.

The tags were attached to a piece of jute twine with some cute little clothespins that I've had in my stash for several  years. I was so happy to find a way to use them!
Thanks so much for joining us today and I hope you enjoyed my entry for the Cricut Fanatics blog. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!
Maria

Christmas Reindeer Treat Holders

Hey everyone! It's Angela from Angie's Paper Passion with a post to help you jump start your Christmas crafting! They are cute, easy to put together and I’ll show you different ways to use them this Christmas.

I saw something like these several years ago made with punches and I had always wanted to make some but never got around to it. Now that I have my Cricut, I am always trying to make life a little easier by recreating projects from years ago using my Expression along with either my Gypsy or more than ever now with Cricut CraftRoom. For this project I used December 25th cart by Teresa Collins and Cricut Craft Room Basics. I love putting most (if not all) of my cardstock for a project on my cutting mat and making just one pass through my Cricut at one time. So even though there are eight different colors to make a reindeer, I only had to do two passes with my Expression.

 

 I used the Sweet Treat Cups from Stampin’ Up! for the reindeer noses. You get 12 cups for less than $3!

In one nose I placed red Skittles. You can use Red Hots, red M&M’s, or anything that you’d like to use. In the other nose I used red glitter that I adhered with Glossy Accents and after it dried, I placed oats in the cup. These are to be used on Christmas Eve as “Reindeer Food”. (Note – you may want to use red colored sugar crystals instead of glitter so as not to harm birds or other little critters)

I did the “Reindeer Food” with my kids when they were little and they loved it! There is also a little poem that goes with it that I’ll share at the end of this post. After cutting out all of the parts of the reindeer, I inked all of the edges, added red Stickles to the holly and one of the ornaments, Glossy Accents to another ornament, popped the eyes and eyelids up with pop dots, and added the highlights to the eyes with a white gel pen.

 

Can you guess what I used for the antlers???

The antlers from the deer on the December 25th cart! I cut out two with one flipped and that gave me two sets of symmetrical antlers. I just cut them off by hand. Everything is then glued to the base (the one without the hole in it) and a piece of ribbon was attached to the tops with my Tiny Attacher (love this tool!).

Then you attach the cup with your treats (or the reindeer’s treats) inside and adhere it to the base. The cups already come with adhesive on them. Next, just place the face on top, attach the eyes and holly, and draw his mouth (I can not draw so excuse his lopsided mouth!).

After I put them all together, I found these plastic Christmas lights in my stash and used these instead of the ornaments that I had cut out. I just tied them on with some SU twine.

Here is the poem that I will use (these are not mine, I have just been using them for many years so I do not know where I found them):

Magic Reindeer Food -

Sprinkle this reindeer food outside on Christmas Eve night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam

This magical food will guide them to your home.

Or I may even use one of these:

I wanted the perfect gift for you-
But couldn’t decide just what to do.
I almost sent you a dozen roses-
Instead here’s a bag of…
reindeer noses!

I woke up with such a scare when I heard Santa call...
"Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"
I ran to the lawn, and in the snowy white drifts,
those nasty reindeer had left "little gifts".

I got an old shovel and started to scoop
Neat little piles of "reindeer poop."
but to throw them away seemed such a waste,
So I saved them, thinking you might like a taste!

As I finished my task, which took quite a while,
Old Santa passed by and he sheepishly smiled.
And I heard him exclaim as he rose to the sky~~~
"Well, they're not potty trained, but at least they can fly!"

I hope that you enjoyed my Christmas Reindeer! I have the cut sizes on my blog Angie's Paper Passion.

Have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Cricut Info and Supplies Used:

Designed by: Angela Cromwell

Cricut Machine Used: Expression. Cricut Craft Room

Cricut Cartridges Used: Cricut Craft Room Basics, December 25th

Project Type: 3-D Treat Holder

Project Theme: Christmas

Other Supplies Used: Cardstock (AC), Stickles, Ribbons. Sweet Treat Cups (SU), twine (SU), white gel pen, Glossy Accents, Distress Ink, glitter, pop dots

Hello all...it's Maura aka Happy Granny here today to share a project with you. The past month has been unusually busy and I have no had the time to create anything new so I thought I would share a scrapbook page I did previously of my first Granddaughter's newborn pictures.

 

I cut the poodle from "Summer in Paris" at 4" and added glitter, ribbon and a little faux pearl

for the eye.

 

For her name I cut the O from "Elegant Cakes" at 2" and added  Gemstones to girl it up. The rest of her name was cut from "Opposites Attract" at 1" and I used my gypsy to weld them together.

 

I then cut the border from "Elegant Cakes" at 2" added little gemstone hearts for the centers and popped the flowers up off the page. Matted and added my pictures And it was done.

 

May everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving !

Cricut Info and Supplies Used:

Designed by: Maura aka Happy Granny

Cricut Machine Used: Expression. Gypsy

Cricut Cartridges Used: Summer in Paris, Elegant Cakes, Opposites Attract

Other Supplies Used: Patterned Paper, cardstock, pearl embellishments, glitter

 

 

Every Day Pop Up Cards

Hi Everyone!  This is Erika from EKittyscraps.blogspot.com.  Today I would like to share two cards I made using Every Day Pop Up Cards.  I have always liked pop up cards and was very excited when the cartridge was released.  So on to the cards.  The first card I made for my DH's birthday and the other card was for my MIL's birthday. 

Here is the front of the card with Cricut driving the birthday cake.  The truck was cut at 5 inches and cricut and 1".  Here is the pop-up:

I used the frosting background paper and cut the pop-up of the cake at 4 inches.  I used Bazzil cornmeal paper for the cake and this paper has raised dots on it for texture. This was a very simple pop up-two slits in the middle of the paper folded out.

The next card was a more complicated pop up and took me awhile to figure out.

My MIL loves elephants so here is her card.  I cut out the elephant at 3 inches nnd used the Marth Stewart punch for the Happy Birthday.  I added some silver bling to the Happy Birthday and the elephants ear.  Now for the popup.

  The elephant was cut a 3 inches.  The pop up took a while to get the folds correct on the base.  I did use two light blue brads to secure the sides of the base since the glue was not holding very well.  The brads worked out great.  The ears and tusks were folded out to add dimension. There are four cuts through the pink paper to secure the base.to the paper underneath. I added some Martha Stewart flowers for fun.
I hope you enjoyed these projects and would love to see more pop up cards. 
                                                                  Happy Crafting!  Erika

Supplies Used:
Cricut Machine: Expression
Cartridges:  Everyday Pop Up Cards and Cricut Everyday
Solid Papers are all Bazzill and Happy Birthday and Frosting paper purchased at Joann's.
Martha Stewart flowers and Happy Birthday Punch.
Birthday ribbon from Joann's
silver bling and red ribbon

     . 

Fall Leaves Lay Out

Hi-Meg here from PeacockPaperie.blogspot.com I didn't have a lot of time to work on my project for this month so I just focussed all my energies onto this lay out from our stay at this particular ranch. I love the added oomph that the Cricut elements give this layout. I cut the border elements with Kiwi Lane templates and then kicked them up another notch with the Cricut embellies. I cut the leaves from Pooh and Friends and did my lettering with the wood style font on Old West.

The patterned papers all coordinated easily because they were all from the same Recollections stack!

MouseTraps/ Asian Altered Frame Share

Hello everyone . . . so wonderful to see you here again on the simply fabulous CricutFANatics Blog! It's Melody(aka as kauaimelody on the cricut boards, and CricutMelody on my blog) and as always, I can not wait to share my super fun project with you today.  It is all about mouse traps and a share to show how I used them to embellish an Asian Frame. It is meant to inspire you to try something different. One word of caution, the mouse trap can snap you if you are not awake or vigilent.  But that is what makes it so exciting, it's crafting on the edge, and being a crafting ninja, I love a little challenge. Seriously, I have not gotten nipped once, so jump right in and be the fearless crafter that I know you can be. It is a great little project that can be used in a myriad of ways (as wall decor, stationary, note holder,  or anything you can think of). It is so simple and unique.

    One mouse trap was used as a three dimensional base for the blinged up key.  It was stripped of all it's hardware and covered in designer paper. The key was adhered to the mouse trap with two part Epoxy.

 The second mouse trap is holding the stamp,  and adds a little unexpected pizazz to the overall design of the Altered Frame .  The pics show close ups of the top and bottom. (Don't look too close, I don't want you to see any glue mishaps).

 

I placed the base mousetrap at the base of the Altered Frame.

And here is the full view of the Asian Altered Frame, adorned with the two mouse traps. The Expression2 was used to cut out the pagoda from The Pagoda Cartridge.

Have you ever altered a mouse trap before, or taken one apart, all the way or partially? Well here is a brief description  so you know where to start, and hopefully you will jump on the Mouse Trap Band Wagon and try one or more  yourself.  It gives you one more skill set for your crafty bag of tricks and techniques. REMEMBER TO HOP OVER TO YOU TUBE TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS.  (Preparing the mouse trap  to alter is as simple as removing staples!!!)

  I like to use an ATG gun on the paper and then press into place on the trap. I remove the staples with small plyers. This is where watching a youtube is especially helpful.You can find the technique that most appeals to you. Have fun and add embellies, or leave as is, if you are a minimalist.   You can ommit the paper, and just paint it, distress it, bling it, twine it, stickle and glitter it,write on it, or ???  This is where you can really express yourself and add your personal touch.

I love the fact that you can use the '"snapper" as a holder for sentiments,photos, momentos etc. I am mindful that the snapper could display my fingers as well, so I  do count them frequently to make sure they are all there while creating -  just kidding!!

You know you want to try this.      :)


Joyful Crafting Always,

Melody


Designer:  Melody
Project:     Mouse Traps/Asian Altered Frame
Machine:  Expression2
Cartridge: Pagoda
Materials: Mouse Traps, Frame, Designer Paper
Tools:       ATG Gun, plyers, Embellishments of Choice

Thankful for Layout

Hello!  Michele here from MicheleGreen.com.  I can't believe how fast the months are flying by!  Do you know this is the third month of our Cricut FANatics blog already?!  Wow!

Today I am going to share a layout with you.  I created this based off of one of the layouts in the Scrapbooking with Cricut book. It came together really quickly.  I would definitely recommend it :)

 The papers are from a Fall Stack I received in a swap. It's hard to tell but the base dark red one is printed with leaves so it adds an extra touch of fall.  The tiny stickers are from Archiver's.  The embellishment pieces are from K&Co.  The red polka dot was an oval cut with Plantin Schoolbook at 11.5", trimmed to 8".  The font was from Kate's ABCs at 1.5".

So you know how sometimes you pay too much for paper but you want the quality stuff?  I got this tan sheet from Archiver's.  So that's $0.69 for one piece!  I double dipped a little bit by using my rotary cutter to cut out the matting for my photo right out of the center of the sheet.

I did the same for the red leaf piece.  When they are put together it looks like this:

But then you put the front pieces on and you would never know!  Tricky, huh?

I hope you enjoyed my layout today and I wish you a happy fall!  Fall always makes me feel home-y and want to snuggle in.  My family is the absolute best thing in my life!  What are you thankful for?

Cricut Info & Supplies Used:
Designed By: Michele Green

Cricut Machine Used: Cricut Expression

Cricut Cartridges Used: Plantin Schoolbook, Kate's ABCs
Other Supplies Used: Cardstock, brads, K&Co fall embellishments 

Cricut Crafty Challenge #3- Fall Inspiration

Hi Everyone
It's Becka here from Creations With Becka. Today is the 3rd Cricut Crafty Challenge and this month we are doing a Fall Inspiration theme.  I absolutely love this time of year. I love the changing colors of the trees, the bright oranges, and deep maroons, the cooler temperatures, the smalls of yummy pies baking and Thanksgiving.  I just love Fall in general.
So, are you ready for your challenge??
The challenge this month is to make a project using the photo below as inspiration.

Here are the guidelines that must be followed:
1. Use the picture above as guidence for you project
2. Your project must include the colors orange
3. Your project must include at least one Cricut cut
4. Your porject can be anything you choose, card, layout, home decor etc...
5. You must link your project by November 25th at midnight. If you are linking from your blog please link the exact post not just a link to your blog in general.

Here is the project I made for this. I have been trying some new crafts this year and I have never made ATC card before so I thought I would try my hade and see what I could come up with.

Now, it is your turn, please link your project below for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate from What's Scrappin. This is my online store and Ispecialize in trying to find great deals for my customers.  Please check it out and start making your list of what you would like to buy with your $25 gift certificate. But don't forget you can't win if you don't play.

Happy Fall card

Hello everyone, this is Trinity from http://trinityscraftingcreation.blogspot.com/. I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and that everyone that was in the path of Sandy is safe and are on their way to getting their lives back in order and we are all still sending prayers your way. Today I have a  fall card that I have made for ya'll. I used my cricut cartridge Simply Charmed for the scarecrows (ain't they just the cutest) and the phrase happy fall. I cut the card base out to make a 5x7 card and then just cut down the layer 1/4 inch at 6 3/4" by 4 3/4 and not sure where the dotted paper is from I found it hiding in the bottom of my stash and I think it went perfect with the scarecrow. I orange layer is cut out at 5x4 and is embossed with the swirls cuttle bug folder and I also tied some twin around it. The boy and girl scarecrow are both cut out at 3.5" and found them on page 57.  For their checks I took the little circles and dusted them with some pale pink chalk and added some bling to the girls flower hat and on her dress for the buttons.  I also took my white pen and stitched along their cloths and on their shoes. I cut Happy Fall out at 2" and that was also on page 57. I used a burnt orange for the bottom layer and used the yellow that I had also used for the scarecrows hair and hands and again I stitched along the words. I pop-dotted both the boy and girl and the phrase. Thank you very much for stoping by and hope everyone has a wonderfull day.

Designed By- Trinity Wallace

Cricut Machines Used- Anv. Expression 2

Cricut Cartridges Used- Simply Charmed

Other Supplies Used- swirl cuttlebug folder, twine, pink and clear bling, pop-dots, white gel pen, pale pink chalk, craft cardstock, orange cardstock, random patterned paper found in stash

A Quick Project

I made this album cover for dd1's basketball photos. (I just knew she would want to play basketball -- oops I forgot to ask her.  She's throwing the shot-put instead.)   The cover is 8 1/2 by 11 landscape I used 3 Birds on Parade for the icons and Ashlyn's Alphabet for the lettering.  The basketball player is cut at 5.5 inches.  The letters are cut at 2 inches and welded together.  I used random papers from my stash with a emphasis on red and blue, her school colors. 

A Thanksgiving Celebration!

Hello, everyone!  It’s Lori from The Singing Shell and I am so happy to bring you a Thanksgiving project I have been working on.  I am happy because I know how blessed I have been these past couple of days in the aftermath of Sandy.  My family and I have a lot to be thankful for – we have our home, we are safe, but, most of all, we have each other.  An event like this really puts things into perceptive for me.  When you have a chance, hug a loved one.  To those that have suffered any losses, my thoughts and prayers go out to you.  I hope that relief comes soon.

 

I have the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year.  Because of limited time, I needed to make something that I could mass produce without a lot of hassle.  I wanted to try something clean and simple, too.  Let me tell ya:  It is hard to leave white space alone!  I kept wanted to stick something in those areas – a diecut, a stamp, a rhinestone, a ribbon, a photo corner, anything.  It is amazing the amount of embellishments one can use.  I had to chant to myself:  Leave it alone! Leave it alone!  Eventually, I was okay with it… eventually.

 

I have been playing around with the notion of making my own embossing folder when I came across a great site: Paper, Scissors, and Ink.  She tells you how to make your images to emboss without the folder!  How cool is that?  I used to the idea to deboss my images instead, though.  I like that look, too, because I think it is elegant..

 

1.  I cut the leaves image (page 35) in Art Philosophy eight times using regular card stock.  It took less that 2 minutes. If you use thicker cardstock you can cut less images.

 

Take four of the 8 and paste.

2. I pasted four images together to get  two thick leaves diecuts.

 

3.  I arranged them on my paper and used a rubber mat on top.  I used a rubber mat from Papertrey Ink, but you can use any brand.  In fact, plumbers red rubber gasket sheets from the hardware store work just as well and are cheaper!

 

4.  The sandwich I used was A – B – rubber mat + paper – B.  No shim needed.  You may need to play around with your sandwich depending on the paper and rubber mat you use.

 

5.  Voila! A debossed image from my Cricut instead of a folder.  A lot more possibilities for the future, too!

 

 

6.  I added some Perfect Pearls to the sunken image.  Because the Perfect Pearls is so light, it is very forgiving and I was able to go over the leaves very quickly and it took no time at all to do this step.

 

First, I added a white shimmer.

Then, I added the gold shimmer.

7.  I added my Thanksgiving Celebration sentiment welded on the Gypsy using a font from Quarter Note.  That font is so pretty! 

 

8.  Lastly,  I adhered the cream cardstock onto the pattern card stock and added the invitation information in the back!

 

You can use the pieces over and over again.  Here is a modified version I made for my parents in Spanish.  I used the label from from Folk Art Festival on page 69 for the sentiment.

 

So there you have it! A clean and simple invitation using an image I wanted instead of an image I had to use from my collection of embossing folders.  I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.  Don’t forget to hug those loved ones!

Cricut Info & Supplies Used:
Designed By: Lori Sjogren

Cricut Machine Used: Cricut Create
Cricut Cartridges Used: Art Philosophy, Quarter Note
Other Supplies Used: SEI - Patterned paper; Bazille - Plain cardstock, Cuttlebug, Ranger - White and Gold Perfect Pearls

Calling Card Organization

Hello friends. Cindy here from scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com. I can't believe we're in November already! Time is flying by. I have a pretty simple project for you today. I've been lucky enough to go to a few Cricut Circle events and have received some beautiful calling cards. I've been trying to come up with a way to store the cards so that they would be organized and visible. I think I finally found what works for me.

My husband (my biggest enabler) brought home this old computer disc holder because he thought I could use it for something. I think they were called floppy discs? Well, whatever they were called doesn't matter. The important thing to know is that it's the perfect size for our calling cards.

I used solid cardstock squares cut an inch bigger than the calling cards. I then used my label maker to add the Circlets name on the top for easy alphabetizing. The calling card is attached to the cardstock and on the back I wrote the event where we met.

To dress it up a little I added some vinyl that was cut from the Cricut Everyday cartridge.  The green Circle head was cut at 3" from page 21. The Proud Cricut Circle Member was cut at 2" and was also from page 21.  That's it. Easy peasy.

My calling cards now sit very proudly on my desk where I can look through them and remember the fun we had.  I hope you like todays project and that it gives you inspiration to find something old and make it new again.

Go somewhere...

We are will into fall and beginning the holiday season. As I look at the past summer, I really enjoy organizing my photos and reminiscing. I picked out a few of my favorite photos for today's layout. I played around with Heidi Swapp's color shine papers and spray(gold lame, mint and turquoise). Also, I used stickles, staples, twine and an old clock face. The Cricut cartridge I used was the craftroom room basic and Gypsy font. I created old fashion Poloroid frames from squares. I welded the somewhere together and cut out the other words.
I hope you enjoy the layout. God bless and keep crafting!

Happy November 1st Everyone !  It's Debbie from Debs Electic Thoughts Blog.  Another month has come around and we have so much to be thankful for particularly during November. The crisp fall air, the lovely colors of the changing leaves before winter sets in and the anticipation of gathering at the end of the month for Thanksgiving with family and friends. I just LOVE fall holidays, don't you?

 

This month on Cricut FANatics are designers may be sharing anything related to the upcoming holidays...cards, gifts, table decor, home decor to help inspire you to get your Cricut chirping while you create some fun holiday items for your family and friends.

I wanted to share these special Thanksgiving candles I made last year for our holiday table.  These were super easy to make and the family loved them.  We will be using them again this year and probably for several years to come. I love to make decor we can use year after year.

I purchased large glass jar candles from Michaels in yummy pumpkin spice scent. The color and sent are perfect for fall table but pick what ever sent you prefer. Hint: They put these on sale during the holidays and I waited until they were 3 for only $10...what a steal !

 

I then  cut a 3 1/4" X 12 " strip of fall scrapbook paper and wrapped it around the middle of the candle. I adhered it using a tape runner.  You could also use ScoreTape.  Where the paper doesn't meet up, I cut a strip of 3 1/4" X 1 1/4 " and adhered there. Tip: You should measure your jar candle and adjust the measurement to fit the size of your jar.

 

 

Using the Cricut Lite Lacy Labels cartridge, I cut out a label using cardstock at 2 3/4 ".  I then used the Cricut Seasonal Thanksgiving cartridge and cut various phrases at 1 1/2" and the leaves on a vine  at 2" and then adhered to the labels. I hung each completed label from around the top of the candle jar using fall fibers. Tip: I added a pop dot to the back of each label to keep them at the right angle to read them on the candle. 

We added a few pilgrims and indians figurines and some fall foliage scattered around the table and we had lovely Thanksgiving table decor to enjoy during our meal.  

 

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving !

 

Cricut Info & Supplies Used:

Designed By:  Debbie O'Neal

Cricut Machine Used:  Cricut Expression

Cricut Cartridges Used: Lacy Labels, Thanksgiving

Other Supplies Used: Patterned paper, cardstock, fiber, jar candle